For you Super Tanks....

SmellyUnlimited · January 2018

I come to you, Blood Spawn helm in hand....bestow upon us your wisdom.

I’ve been doing much more tanking lately. I’ve tanked all the Crag vet trials, 2HM’s, and just normal on the non-Crag’s. So I am by no means very experienced.

But to those of you who are:

-Are there particular trial fights where you switch gear? And if so, to what and at what spot?

I just tanked a VAA run, and our dps was pretty bad. I lost count at the end, but I was holding 8-9 axes. It was nuts, but thankfully had a really good healer.
I realized afterwards that I should have dropped Torugs and Ebon, and maybe have gone with Hist Bark and Pariah, or some other straight mitigation/phys resistance set. I believe it would have performed significantly better.

I was popping Magma Shell as often as it was up for resources, but I was hurting. Having to keep that many axes continuously was challenging. But I have a strong feeling some of you out there would have been totally fine there.

Bestow your secrets, oh ye of the broad shield!

BlazingDynamo · January 2018

Was it hardmode AA? If dps was that bad I would suggest having 2 tanks. Nothing you could have done, sounds like you held your own pretty well. But yeah Hist Bark would have been much more beneficial for yourself. You can drop the buff sets at that fight and be a little more selfish.

Liofa · January 2018

Mostly , no . I tank everything with Ebon/Alkosh . There are only a few fights where you better change to some tanky gear due to RNG but it is not really that important since it is really low chance of dying to RNG .

For your case , only thing you have to do is , stay close enough to make sure everyone gets the Ebon buff but not so close to make axes get hit by AOE from DDs . Have something to deal damage to axes to keep their aggro . You don't need to taunt them over and over again . Just taunt them once and that will be enough . Just make sure no one is dealing damage to axes .

Yes , Torug is useless in axes mostly , unless you use a destro staff on back bar , still not as reliable as Alkosh . Ask for Orbs , not shards as they deal damage , every 20 seconds and make sure you hit the boss with the Alkosh proc . There is nothing you can't tank with classic Ebon/Alkosh setup . Do not use sets that gives you Resistance bonuses . You should be very close to Resistance cap with normal tank setup if not at cap .

And please get in a proper raiding guild instead of pugs . 8-9 axes wtf ... Were your DDs punching the boss with their bare hands ? Damn .

Tremors · January 2018

Jesus, 9 axes...I get mad if I get 5

DoctorESO · January 2018

Tasear · January 2018

They should of just checking had an off tank. It's so silly you see people struggling but.. where was off tank. Also you should been on mage with torugs in such a situation.

Lastly you PC NA let me invite you to a guide

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SmellyUnlimited · January 2018

I’m on console, so wasn’t able to see folks parses after the fight, but it was the slowest ive ever seen in a trial.

I had no idea I didn’t have to keep taunting the axes though, that she VERY helpful to know. Just keeping them there and hitting choking talons will make that fight so much easier. Lol and it was just regular vet AA. I think if it was HM, I’d have long been completely disemboweled by the time it’d take to drop her down.

Asardes · January 2018

If you have difficulty tanking those I would suggest something that helps you build ultimate fast since you can recover stamina by casting it. Warhorn base cost is 250 so you'll get around 11.5K stamina from Battle Roar passive. Akaviri Dragonguard (15% ultimate cost reduction), Bloodspawn & Werewolf Hide (ultimate generation on hits) would be ideal for that. Also as @Liofa suggested you don't actually need to re-taunt the axes every 15s, just be sure to do damage to them. The ideal skill for that is Cinder Storm because it will last 12s and also refund a bit of stamina as well from the Helping Hands class passive. When you have an opening weave Heroic Slash with a heavy attack for yet more ultimate generation. You will be able to do Warhorn every 40s or so with that setup, so effectively around 550 stamina recovery every tick (2s). So you can almost perma-block even without any support granted your block cost is low enough. I would suggest getting it to around 400 or lower by using 3 shield play enchants, at least 4 sturdy armor pieces - ideally waist, hands, shoulders, feet since those only have 40% enchant value and you don't lose as much and 64 or more CP in shadow ward star.