Tanking A2

So on the last phase of A2: was just tanking along a DRK (am war myself) and for some reason the DRK kept dying. I had north adds and he had south so in the past phase he has both jagd dolls and a few other adds and I'm dpsing down the big walker. Every other run I've had the other tanks have been just fine with that set of adds but this tank kept crumbling and he blamed it on me saying I should be getting one of the dolls. So on our last attempt I tried to grab one off him and we still wiped. He was 180+ in STR gear, as am I, but for some reason he just couldn't handle the 2 dolls. Is it normal for the North tank to grab one doll? I mean I did it through DF 5 tomes afterwards to see if it was just him or me and my other tanks were doing okay. So I just wanna know if I have been tanking this wrong all along

Grabbing a doll would be ideal just for the sake of distrubuting dmg, but it's definitely not required nor should it be a necessity, just a bonus to allow your healers to dps a bit more.

The only thing I feel you could've done differently was you grab the adds and put him on the spider instead considering war has a bit more phys dmg defensive CDs, aside from that it was his fault not yours, he should be able to handle the adds himself but the fact he didnt means he prob has more issues that hopefully soon he becomes aware of.

Tl;dr just another DF bad who you shouldnt stress over

If you're tanking the north side you can grab the Hardwhatever and it'll make it significantly easier on the south side tank/healers. Usually if you're tanking south side you save big CDs for that phase since it's the hardest hitting one.

As Spooky said, on North adds you should grab the Hardhelm and Spider on last phase and South tank gets both dolls. Hardhelms apply heal down Debuff to the tank, coupled with the dolls hard hits it's generally easier on the healers if the spider tank (North tank) takes the Hardhelm leaving both dolls on the South tank.

When tanking North I generally do this, tanking South I'll generally leave the Hardhelm to see if the other tank picks it up ... if not I'll grab it anyway and cycle as many CDs as I have.

Its not *required* to do it this way .. but it is easier on the healers IMO.

Well I read what you guys said and went back Into a2. I wasn't grabbing the Hardhelm before and so when I was farming it during my first tank clear the Paladin I was with was surviving with all 3 adds and didn't tell me I could help out by grabbing the HH. So anyway I went back into a2 this time grabbing south adds and everytime it got to the last phase the dolls just kept fucking raping me. I saved every cd for those two and I was still dying through Vengeance, foresight, intuition + awareness, convalescence + thrill, berserk + blood bath and inner beast. I'm running full STR and am sitting around 16k HP at 182 and just getting wrecked. I don't wanna blame the healer or dps but idk what else I can do to survive these two dolls besides going with full VIT

Few pointers:

1. DF is usually full of people who have no idea what they're doing. If you don't mark a Jagd Doll for them to kill, they will typically run around with their heads on backwards. Once one Jagd Doll is dead you'll be taking significantly less damage, so if you can manage to get all the DPS to burn one Jagd Doll then you're solid.

2. My rotation for Jagd Doll x2 is basically Veng + Bloodbath + Unchained + IR + Berserk, then once Veng is about to drop I'll Thrill + Conv + Foresight + Awareness, at this point one of the Jagd Dolls is normally dead so I'll pop RI on the last Jagd Doll which lasts until it's killed (don't need to Awareness since no reason to get back attacked). I keep Eye up on the first Jagd Doll being killed and Path up on the other. This is the only wave that I tank in Defiance (if the other tank pulls the Hardhelm I'll switch to Deliverance once the first Jagd is dead), so use IB as frequently as possible on the first Jagd unless it's at ~10% in which case you're probably better off using Steel Cyclone.

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Originally Posted by Meow9000

He was 180+ in STR gear, as am I, but for some reason he just couldn't handle the 2 dolls.

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That's definitely part of the problem. DO NOT assume that the healers are good enough for you to tank in full str accessories. I made this mistake once, I'll never make it again. It also made me lose even more hope about DF.

Another thing is, was this WAR actually in Defiance? I've seen bad wars thinking they're badass tanking in DPS stance with full str accessories. Then I see their HP fluctuate like a damn seismograph during a large earthquake, IF they didn't melt within the first combined hits of the dolls on the last phase.

Seriously, play safe and just stick with a hybrid set during A2. HOPEFULLY that will lessen wipes.

Got to echo Flipside101 here.

For all the community focus on the importance of DPS as a tank, strength builds being optimal, and vitality being something you should only need a certain (smallish) amount of, this mindset is really only for when you're tanking in a group with people you're comfortable with and geared appropriately for.

Alex2 is perfectly capable of being tanked in full strength, but most PUG healers will probably be more used to healing Vit tanks, or might be new to the encounter or a little undergeared themselves. Whilst all out strength is definitely the optimal thing for tanks to gear for, in PUG raids where DPS really isnt as important as just flat out not dying in 2 seconds, it's definitely a good idea to throw on more Vit gear just for security.

Or at the very least, warn PUG healers before a pull that you're going to be tanking in full strength so might need a little more babysitting on some of the tougher pulls. Two jagd dolls at once can smash the face in of any unprepared tank even in vit gear if a healer is a little sleepy.

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Originally Posted by Sapphidia

Alex2 is perfectly capable of being tanked in full strength, but most PUG healers will probably be more used to healing Vit tanks, or might be new to the encounter or a little undergeared themselves. Whilst all out strength is definitely the optimal thing for tanks to gear for, in PUG raids where DPS really isnt as important as just flat out not dying in 2 seconds, it's definitely a good idea to throw on more Vit gear just for security.

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I'm trying to not wonder why you're being overly polite and skipped the whole "unskilled" part, no amount of gear can fix "unskilled". lol

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Originally Posted by Phoenicia

I'm trying to not wonder why you're being overly polite and skipped the whole "unskilled" part, no amount of gear can fix "unskilled". lol

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I tend to worry I come across as too know-it-all or high-and-mighty in many of my long blurb posts here, so figured I'd leave the "well a lot of pug healers you meet are probably going to be complete trash" to be read between the lines and try and be more productive! ^^

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Originally Posted by Sapphidia

I tend to worry I come across as too know-it-all or high-and-mighty in many of my long blurb posts here, so figured I'd leave the "well a lot of pug healers you meet are probably going to be complete trash" to be read between the lines and try and be more productive! ^^

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Fair enough.

If the tank is dying here and using cool downs it is 100% a healer issue. Has very little to do with the tanks at that point and I've seen full str tanks use no cool downs what so ever under the same conditions and still make it thru fairly comfortably. As much as people like to blame tanks the amount of bad healers in this game has increased substantially and it is insanely obvious in Alexander and very much so in A4.

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Originally Posted by Meow9000

I went back into a2 this time grabbing south adds and everytime it got to the last phase the dolls just kept fucking raping me. I saved every cd for those two and I was still dying through Vengeance, foresight, intuition + awareness, convalescence + thrill, berserk + blood bath and inner beast. I'm running full STR and am sitting around 16k HP at 182 and just getting wrecked. I don't wanna blame the healer or dps but idk what else I can do to survive these two dolls besides going with full VIT

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As an option, you could have a melee DPS Limit Break a doll and kill it outright once you have established hate on it. Take it out of the equation and coast to victory. There's no reason to only use LB on the widow other than ending the fight faster.

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Originally Posted by ElanVelius

As an option, you could have a melee DPS Limit Break a doll and kill it outright once you have established hate on it. Take it out of the equation and coast to victory. There's no reason to only use LB on the widow other than ending the fight faster.

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I want to try that. :D That sounds like a great idea!

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Originally Posted by Dante_V

I've seen full str tanks use no cool downs what so ever under the same conditions and still make it thru fairly comfortably.

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Just the fact that a tank doesn't use any CDs in itself is a problem. Even a good healer can't save a bad tank that gets smashed for more than 4/5 of his/her hp in the time it takes to even get a cast a heal out. If the tank dies, he dies, and its his/her fault for not giving time for the healers to even press their oh-**** buttons.

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Originally Posted by Flipside101

Just the fact that a tank doesn't use any CDs in itself is a problem. Even a good healer can't save a bad tank that gets smashed for more than 4/5 of his/her hp in the time it takes to even get a cast a heal out. If the tank dies, he dies, and its his/her fault for not giving time for the healers to even press their oh-**** buttons.

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Agree, tanks need to use cooldowns, it helps out the healers so ya.

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Originally Posted by Flipside101

That's definitely part of the problem. DO NOT assume that the healers are good enough for you to tank in full str accessories.

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As a DRK Tank, I agree with this. My Left side is i200 Weapon, Body, Belt, i190 everything else, and I have 3 sets of gear for my accessories:

• "Maintank DRK" - 4 Fending, 1 Slaying, all i190, which I use when Pugging Alex.
• "Offtank DRK" - Full Slaying, mix of 180 and 190 accs, which I use when running Expert Roulette unless I end up with a really bad healer, and
• "Savage DRK" - 3 Fending, 2 Slaying, all i190, and designed to give me just enough accuracy for AS3 with Baked Pipira Pira (I use BTR on AS1, and will likely swap to BPP in AS2, tho I'll test with BTR first since I have 607 accuracy before food, and BTR is a lot cheaper).

--Erim Nelhah