Tanking Turn 4

[NavocSkjold]

Any tips for a tank stepping into Turn 4 tonight? ilvl 79.

[Traek]

If you are dread tank, save CDs for it. As a Paladin, Stoneskin yourself before each dread pickup. You can literally count 3 swings before each hard hit (rotoswipe), though sometimes the animation/timing gets messed up if you move them much (it'll auto attack on rotoswipe for double ouch). Never face a dread towards party. Learn the timing of dread drops for your group and try to have a comboed Halone ready for their drop.

When tanking spinner rooks, make sure to run through them when they cast pox.

Use shield oath? /trololol

Really the fight is largely about positioning, and some also depends on your group composition.

[Asdamine]

Will you be main tank or off tank?

P1 - aggro spiders and kill them off

P2 - aggro soilders/knights (OT stand at 2 o'clock; MT stand at 10 o'clock)

P3 - MT stand at 10 o'clock; rotate defensive cooldowns. OT switch to Sword Oath and dps dreadnaught, change to Shield Oath at around 40% HP

P4 - MT take one Spinner Rook ONLY; OT take one Spinner Rook and ALL the spiders. Dodge Pox from the Spinner Rook, just like Garuda's splipstream.

P5 - MT stand at 2 o'clock; OT stand at centre, aggro Soliders/knight, move to clear location so aoe won't hit the group/ or the group move away from you (common sense dictates how you will move)

P6 - MT stand at 2 o'clock; OT stand at centre, aggro Solider/knight+2spiders ONLY (Hallowed Ground, then rotate defensive cooldowns, run along the edge and kite them until only ONE dreadnaught remaining)

In summary - KEEP FLASHING AND RIOT BLADE!

[Maelwys]

P5 - MT stand at 2 o'clock; OT stand at centre, aggro Soliders/knight, move to clear location so aoe won't hit the group/ or the group move away from you (common sense dictates how you will move)

P6 - MT stand at 2 o'clock; OT stand at centre, aggro Solider/knight+2spiders ONLY (Hallowed Ground, then rotate defensive cooldowns, run along the edge and kite them until only ONE dreadnaught remaining)

IMO those are the two phases that make or break a T4 run.

For P5, picking up aggro is usually straightforward enough, RoH combo on the nearest knight/soldier, shield lob the second. Then rotate your aggro combo on them whilst moving a little SouthEast
If there are still spiders left do NOT keep flashing as the reflective stoneskin from the knight will cause your Flash to damage you.

P6 picking up aggro requires practice and a lot of people have their own method of doing it - it also depends on the P5 kill order.

Personally, usually I'll start by using a raw RoH on the first (MIDDLE) soldier/knight, then shield lob the one that spawns to the south, and immediately pop Tempered Will (to prevent Soldier/Knight pullbacks).
Finally I'll Shield Lob a spider (if we're not feeding them) and THEN I'll pop Hallowed ground and start Flashing whilst dragging everything South East.

I'll Hallowed Ground here for two reasons:
(i) so both Healers can focus on the Dreadnought Tank for ten seconds
(ii) so I can use flash to pick up aggro from everything without eating reflective damage from the Knight's Stoneskin.

(Also... If we're killing the P5 Dreadnought first and I still have an old Soldier/Knight from P5 on me, it's VERY handy to take no damage for a while here whilst trying to build aggro on stuff)

In order to grab the second spider (if we're not feeding them) I'll use Provoke --> Shield Lob after I've Hallowed Grounded and Flashed the soldier/knight/spider at least twice. The healers can put up with being hit by a single spider for a few GCDs, and I REALLY want to get solid aggro on the new Soldier/Knight and drag them out of PBAoE range of the rest of the party ASAP.

The P6 Spinner Rook is nearly always focussed and killed by a DPS, whether via kiting or via use of a limit break.

I'll usually not kite everything about after I've pulled it, because I'm a little overgeared and we usually have at least one melee on the team... but it's certainly possible for a tank to take a lot less damage via careful kiting. Just be wary of the Soldier/Knight "pullback" abilities.

Assuming the P6 pull goes well, it's usually a clear run.

[Kuwagami]

If there are still spiders left do NOT keep flashing as the reflective stoneskin from the knight will cause your Flash to damage you.

Wait.. What ? Never seen that happening, even when I was spamming flash on P2. Flash is a non-damaging ability, thus should not be affected by the miror effect

[Maelwys]

Wait.. What ? Never seen that happening, even when I was spamming flash on P2. Flash is a non-damaging ability, thus should not be affected by the miror effect

PLD version of flash inflicts Blind, and results in the PLD taking approx 700-800 damage from the Knight Stoneskin.

[Kuwagami]

PLD version of flash inflicts Blind, and results in the PLD taking approx 700-800 damage from the Knight Stoneskin.

urgh, good time to be a WAR

[Asdamine]

If there are still spiders left do NOT keep flashing as the reflective stoneskin from the knight will cause your Flash to damage you.

I have to admit, that is news to me. Thanks!

(You made me feel like a noob now... lol)

I'll usually not kite everything about after I've pulled it, because I'm a little overgeared and we usually have at least one melee on the team... but it's certainly possible for a tank to take a lot less damage via careful kiting. Just be wary of the Soldier/Knight "pullback" abilities.

I usually kite regardless how over gear the group (or myself) is. Mainly because I want to help lessen the burden on the healers.

There is a skill (for paladin) that makes you immune to pull-back/knock-back for a couple of seconds (forgot the name) and I always reserve that for P6 and use it frequently.

I usually stop kiting when I see P5 dread and P6 rook are dead, then it is pretty much GG at that point.

Edit: Ah, "Tempered Will", just re-read your post and saw it.

[Xandim]

Im having some trouble OTing turn 4 too. Just by standing on the centre and using Flash is enough to grab aggro (P5 and P6)? Or do I have to do some running around? Sometimes I can hold aggro on them but sometimes they go straight to a healer and that ends up killing him. My cover usually is on CD from P4 (I find it easy to just let the healer grab aggro on all mobs, cover then flash) so I can't rely much on that. Is this turn heavily tank dependant? Im the kind of ppl that will always assume its my fault if something goes wrong =\

Thanks in advance

PS: Sorry, English isnt my main language =P

[Traek]

Im having some trouble OTing turn 4 too. Just by standing on the centre and using Flash is enough to grab aggro (P5 and P6)? Or do I have to do some running around? Sometimes I can hold aggro on them but sometimes they go straight to a healer and that ends up killing him. My cover usually is on CD from P4 (I find it easy to just let the healer grab aggro on all mobs, cover then flash) so I can't rely much on that. Is this turn heavily tank dependant? Im the kind of ppl that will always assume its my fault if something goes wrong =\

As an OT you need to be on top of add spawns. Flash is best for initial pickup obviously, but you should be maxing aggroe on your Knight/Soldier through Halone combos and storing up MP for the next Knight/Soldier. Of course this partly depends on your group's method of doing T4. My group does single Dread strat, so we burn p5 dread before p6 drops, and OT Flash/kites x4 Soldier/Knights (usually Hallowed Grounds to just max threat) while DD burns Rook and moves into p5 Knight/Soldier > p6 Knight/Soldier.

In this scenario, picking up p5 Knight/Soldier is easily attainable with x2 Flash and starting into your Halone combos, as damage should be manageable with one healer per each tank. Make sure you are tanking Solider/Knights away from heals as their AoE will continue to hit heals hard if tanked near. Another thing you can do is ready a Halone for the middle spawn p5 add, and use as it drops. If big heals are going out at the time, provoke the far add drop as it runs over to heals, and Flash on it, or have a Savage Blade ready.

Honestly it sounds like you are having somewhat of a threat gen problem. You shouldn't *need* to use cover at all for p4. If you are at the drop location, your initial flash should pick up a majority of the adds, and if healers are gathered properly there, the next one will pick up the rest as they converge. MT should take the kill target Rook and OT just flashes while dodging pox on 2nd Rook (obviously can single target after threat is established).

On initial adds pickup possibly save a Circle of Scorn and maybe even Spirit's Within. While any extra DPS is nice to have, keeping your healers alive is far more important as a tank, so save them as needed.