Posts by Zyrex

    So developers can create class which need special gear to tank and after half year can totally change required gear?

    I created the best (in my mind) tank gear for r/k, that is 3xsta/sta + 3xsta/dex, after half year Byte change this and support said me "we don't help you with your crap gear, that was irracional decision"?

    That's why I never build a gear that only matches one single class ^^ You should have mixed tank gear with your dps gear, the result should be equal I guess. But I don't think, the new WlK can effectively be played with cloth gear no matter how statted, but we will see.

    This is actually pretty cool, I think I see some similarities to my concept (LINK) but also some differences, but that doesn't matter, since you really brought us a magical tank with this! <3


    I think, overall this class should be a ton of fun to play, I definitely gonna test this out and maybe play it. But I still miss some decent things which should matter a lot I guess.


    1) How should one be able to actually "tank" without plate armor? With just a shield, you need to build a very specific gear (cloth with defensive stats) for this, that can't be used for any other class (maybe K/M), which isn't worth it to me.


    2) "Heresy" changes Holy Strike, so it looses aggro multipliers?


    3) "Dark Knight" should also enable to use plate armor additionally and somehow transform physical crit into magical (and physical attack into magical).


    4) "Hatred" with 12s duration and 30s cd seems a bit situative, maybe the duration could match the cooldown, like the knight's Hatred skill, so that it can be used more often, for a constant aggro rate.


    5) "Dreadful Sleep" seems to be the only AoE aggro skill, which sounds pretty good as it is, but cd is way too high for using it more than only once in a pull. Also 100 range isn't that much, maybe you could add another smaller AoE aggro skill with a lower cooldown additionally? There are only 3 active skills, rest are passives, maybe some effects could be combines to get another slot for such a thing?

    Scout

    • Reduced Ranged Weapon Mastery damage gain to 38% from 43.2%.

    This will affect magical scout s/wrl. Right now in my experience i don't think he need such nerf so please reconsider this change and exclude s/wrl from it. After latest patches he became less attractive to play and also his dmg in my opinion shouldn't be considered as too high.

    Agree on that, the S/Wl is quite fine as it is atm. A nerf would kill him I guess.


    Also agree on the M/S issue with Shot. From my perspective, shot is always used, even in burst and gives the class its very own sustain damage in offburst.


    Another thing about Thunderstorm: Would it make sense to change the ground target to single target with splash damage on targets around in a specific range? In my rotation a ground target isn't performing as good as a targeting skill. :/

    I was just thinking about Mage/Warrior, but the required buff gear would be too expensive, since M/W is an average mage class I think, not the best at all, but not bad as well. But I'm not motivated enough to build an entire new gear for 1 single class. So maybe some passive of M/W could be changed to enable wearing Chain Gear? Then we could just build a viable chain gear that could also be used for physical chain classes, but also for M/W for buffing as well. :/

    Dwarven Valentine's Day


    Since I'm a dwarf, I care a lot about special days. Also for a dwarf the relationship to one's family is very important. So it came that I found a wife a while ago. Of course I found her on the battlefield, there is no other place for a dwarf to find the one person one want to share the own life with. And there, right at the point of death, I found her. I saw her just in front of me, fighting with the beavers from hell, burning them with dark magic and banishing their souls with her dark purgatory fire.


    I remembered my very own apprenticeship as a dark magician of the dwarven kingdom of Yrvandis, even if that was so many years ago. In the meantime I changed my profession and became a Champion, a guardian and protector of my folk and learned the holy combat of humans, which leaded me to become a Knight and Champion in a combined mastery. But however, the fighting of that female elf reminded me of my own very past. This elegance and grace, how that elf threw the dark magic on the creatures of doom, it was that special moment, my little dwarven heart fell in love. I swore to myself to commit my entire being to that relationship and to be there for her whenever she needs me.


    So on this special day of the year, I wanted to celebrate the day on my own dwarven way. So I travelled to my dear friends, the dwarves of the fireboot kingdom on the continent Zandorya. Of course I took my wife with me to share the day with her. I showed her the way of life, the work in the mines - we stayed there for several hours - and the blacksmith art of the fireboots dwarves. After a good day of work, I took her to my favorite tavern to drink with my buddies. We drank together, danced on the tables, battled with thrown food, combatted with each other with real weapons, just for the joy of battle. Even if she didn't really seem to enjoy the dwarven black beer, I'm sure, she will never forget our very special day anyways. So I'm looking forward to take her to my roots, to the kingdom of Yrvandis, next time. I wanna show her the old traditions of my own folk and especially the much stronger black beer, which is definitely much better than this fireboots wine beer. I'm pretty sure, she will enjoy this journey too.


    f4cb5f6f9ea533f63cee0bef9454b563.png


    Characters: Salamandra (left), Zyrex (right)

    Quote from Planned Change Log
    Changed Kaleks’ Crystal to increase physical defense by 100% instead of 2000.Changed Stable Herugrim Fluid to increase magical defense by 100% instead of 2000.Changed Mayvel’s Jumbled Thoughts to increase cast speed upon use instead of with chance while casting a spell.Changed Hlethfir’s Spike to increase magical attack upon use instead of with chance while casting a spell.Changed Dreamland Guardian’s Energy Crystal to increase physical critical hit rate by 3000 instead of 200, changed it to be activated upon use instead of with chance while attacking.Changed Atollop’s Fang to increase physical attack upon use instead of with chance while attacking.Changed Nightmare Blade Fragment to have a chance to gain stack with used offensive skills too.

    This is actually a pretty cool planned change! I'm already using some dreamland amulets with my mdps sometimes, but using some with other classes seems really good to me. Appreciate that change very much :thumbup:

    regarding latest patch:

    Lute does not provide castspeed and Guitar does not provide physical attack speed.

    I just tested the normal ones and they seem to be buggy as well. Only the primary bonus was applied to me and the partymembers, not the additional one. :S


    But wouldn't it be even better to separate their cooldown instead of mixing up buffs? I mean, where is the point of not still playing both? The missing 5% matter a lot from my perspective, especially for the new cast-per-second classes, so we would still use both lute and guitar :/

    Not a single Knight combination has to rely on secondary-class specific skills to build and hold aggro. The default Knight skills (and iss) are more than enough.

    Yes!!! That's my point, so the aggro of Shock Strike doen't affect the overall aggro, but it's CC utility is the core mechanic of this class, but has to stay on 3s to enable this ability of CC how it is. The aggro of Shock Strike does only matter, if you use it in specific situations, but then it does.

    and then saying no knight have aggro issues

    Then this might be a misunderstanding. I meant that Shock Strike aggro matters in trashes if you want to hold aggro over some range. Then a 500% surely is not enough, today we had this issue in rofl as well, a mage pulled something by mistake, i threw a Shock Strike over to him, got the mob quite with a little advance in aggro. Reducing its aggro would make the skill as a range aggro skill useless for exactly those situations.


    And the thing about "knight doesn't need subclasses to hold aggro" means, that it doesn't matter how big your aggro lead to other players is.

    If I compare this mechanic to the Ch/Wl, it is kinda OP because the CH/Wl cannot reset his CD

    Well, there are other classes that also are able to stun everything in any big pull. The CD reset afterwards isn't really necessary, because most mobs are dead after such a pull. Also I think, it requires at least a minimum of skill (and coordination, movement, raid setup...) to actually "do" big pulls, not to die oneself or taking aggro of everything, so it's fine I guess, but what do I know... :rolleyes:


    Another thing, if you have enough support with you, you don't even need to stun the mobs in the big pulls, because the dmg input is minimized, I think you know what I mean, if you even can tank as scout or rogue. So in my eyes it's just a utility, not op or necessary at all.

    And not being able to AoE stun all the time does not make this class less viable.

    Well 1s each 3s isn't really like "all the time". And as I said, for Knight nothing is necessary, but utility means that you have something that is nice to have and enables some kind of bonus for the raid that other classes don't have. The stun that you mention as an ability to become literally immortal is more an interrupt in rofl than anything else and you can't deny interrupts are not required in rofl, so yes, I think it is required having such a low cooldown to be viable under all the other tanks, especially K/D or K/R, but also K/W.

    Originally I was considering to suggest an increase of Shock Strikes CD on Knight/Champ as well to 6sec, as it normally is/was.

    I play K/Ch only, since 1 week after it came out. I think talking about aggro potential as a knight is useless since all knight combos can hold aggro without any problem. So it's just a matter of utility and K/Ch has a lot of this, which is the core functionality of this class.
    You don't just tank and do your own stuff, but you support your entire raid by a huge CC mechanic. The stacking, stunning, interrupting mechanics make this class unique, also the 3s are required for some specific parts in rofl. Increasing the cd would fail the purpose of the class imo. It's not that tanky as others and you always need to keep your stacks at 10 not to loose your def. Also the cone AoE requires some movement on many situation, even in our greater pulls.


    However, talking about knight tank balancing seems to be a waste of time imho, because as mentioned, you can even play without any sec class to hold aggro, it doesn't matter if you have 100kk aggro after burst or 150kk. And every tank subclass has its own playstyle, that's why I'm playing this class and not a Ch/K. And if it comes to the topic which knight subclasses are too strong, the K/Ch wouldn't be on the first 2 or 3 places (but that could be a discussion for itself I guess). :/ Also seeing few tanks not playing K/R is a good thing in my opinion ;)

    Quote from Patchnotes

    Knight/Champion

    • Changed Mighty Strike to do not reduce cooldown of Shock Strike anymore.

    2 questions about this adaption:


    1) The cooldown for K/Ch of Shok Strike will remain on 3s, since its cd is generally reduced to 3s, correct?

    2) Will the aggro multiplier of Shok Strike for K/Ch also be reduced? In that case please don't, this skill deals the perfect amount of aggro to use it on range in our runs, reducing it would make it kinda useless in my eyes.

    I have a suggestion that could help mages a lot: Remove the global cooldown of Electric Compression18454590df857a48a3368411e0837c45.png (ID: 491171). Then the static field-state could be triggered faster, which would help a lot in trashes or sustain dps of some combos. At the moment the gcd of it blocks my trash rota a lot, since it has to be reused every 20 seconds. The usage of plasma arrow is difficult enough for most use cases, at least I had some problems to hit a single cast of it in trashes in our runs. The gcd after it is just annoying to me.

    If you want to jump straight into the action, WL/M is always a welcome addition in parties as a support class.

    Maybe you could add the new combo Champ/Druid or the Scout/Priest. Both are due to the latest changes more or less playable as full-support classes. Even Ch/D can be used as offtank in some setups or situations that can be quite helpful and doesn't even require good gear. :/ Also Rogue/Champ could be used as such, but it's a bit too weak with starter gear I guess.

    Hi,


    this ISS is a taunt btw. So it is not as useless as you think ;)

    From my experience it just hit and increased my aggro, but did not actually taunt the target like other skills did. I've used this for a long time until I realized the mob turned to me when hit, but immediately turned back afterwards.


    *few minutes later*


    So now I just tested this a bit and seems you're right. I could tank without any weapon, maybe using it in rofl feels a bit squishy sometimes :/ Gonna remove the part from the guide :thumbup:


    EDIT: @Mods: Just realized I can't edit it, since the cap of 10k letters is even reached without the entire paragraph. So that should be your job I guess :P<3

    Thanks for the kind words! melodic

    One correction though: Shackles of Light do not stun for general Knights, they only root. This makes a major difference.

    Thanks, just corrected this.


    ISS will follow tomorrow (if I have enough letters left in the post, i almost had to split it into 3 pieces :huh:) :thumbup: I also wanted to create another special guide for Knight/Champ and Knight/Druid, which are the two "new" tank combos and those I like most overall. So if I don't have enough space left in this guide, I gonna shift that topic to the new guide and link it or something :/

    Why additional wisdom? Wisdom for a knight is like dex. You don't need it. You will only regenerate more mana with more wisdom by Holy Power Explosion, because it will regenerate 3% mana. But the main mana regeneration will come from healers which are healing you while you have Holy Power Explosion active.

    Yep, that's correct, but if you decide weather to go for useless strength/dex pet or wisdom/int, I would say, the magical Aurora is better just through the fact, wisdom is a little bit more useful. That's all, but as mentioned, both are viable, doesn't really matter. I'm also using a physical one, so as I said, it's just a tiny advantage.


    Having 2 Endurance on each item on your full gear with the runes you listed is waste if you do this for the physical attack on the Endurance. The physical attack is still so low (I am only speaking for highest instances. On lower instances it might be pushing your aggro), that your aggro is the same like with full protector build.

    On bosses yes, Endurance is useless, but with some specific combo, you can have enough patt in trash mobs so that patt matters a bit more. Also it's just a beginner's guide, which can also be scaled down for lesser requirements, I think. I mean, from our perspective tanking is just easy and doesn't need any requirements, but if you're new to the game, some basic patt might matter in trashes, even if you buff for patt then... I guess :/

    III. Rotation

    If you buff your food and pots for bust (See VI. Boss and Trash Tanking for further information) you need to run through this rotation for the maximum of aggro you can get.

    O stands for "Opener" and R for "Rotation". The openers are used to open up the fight and the rotatiors are used sequently repeating in the given order.

    O1: Explosion015b4d973daee116ffffe2a2157414af.png - You need the %Aggro bonus and buff for Truth Shield Bash854977788aa11c9aa88651a4e7ffdf2a.png.

    O2: Holy Seal4e334faee5f880e9e96943b12a02e9f9.png - You need this to set 4 Seals on the boss for Threaten25d9e6c1874d16a8a8114edf0645e113.png.

    O3: Threaten25d9e6c1874d16a8a8114edf0645e113.png - as an opener to increase your aggro.

    O4: Truth Shield Bash854977788aa11c9aa88651a4e7ffdf2a.png

    O5: Whirlwind Shield4f79307134e96e53d27efd9b395ce0ae.png


    As an alternative you can also use the Holy Seal for the Truth Shield Bash:

    O1: Explosion015b4d973daee116ffffe2a2157414af.png

    O3: Threaten25d9e6c1874d16a8a8114edf0645e113.png

    O2: Holy Seal4e334faee5f880e9e96943b12a02e9f9.png

    O4: Truth Shield Bash854977788aa11c9aa88651a4e7ffdf2a.png

    O5: Whirlwind Shield4f79307134e96e53d27efd9b395ce0ae.png


    Now you don't debuff the boss for about 6-8 seconds which might be okay if you pull some more of your defensive cooldowns, e.g. elite skills or Shield of Disciplineaa0165369a437851a8d943a99777be94.png. Otherwise you will receive clean hits from the boss that are not debuffed by your Threaten25d9e6c1874d16a8a8114edf0645e113.png.

    Let's continue with the real rotation (R).


    R1: Holy Strikef85c7d0ba65e090b006a5453c0564404.png - You need to stack up to 4 Seals again for Threaten and use it as a filler while cooldown.

    R2: Threaten25d9e6c1874d16a8a8114edf0645e113.png - Increases aggro for Whirlwind Shield4f79307134e96e53d27efd9b395ce0ae.png and following Holy Strikesf85c7d0ba65e090b006a5453c0564404.png.

    R3: Whirlwind Shield4f79307134e96e53d27efd9b395ce0ae.png

    After R3 you need to spam your filler Holy Strike till Threaten is ready to use again. So you hold Threaten on cooldown and if you do so, Whirlwind Shield will always also be ready after Threaten because of its shorter cooldown time.

    It might be helpful to order the skills on the action bar like that Bild but other orders also work. I would recommend not to click Threaten by mouse because if your gear isn't that optimized, you need every second and feel every lost one in your and party members' aggro.


    IV. Gearing

    You only need plate armor. You do not need chain armor for Patt or Crit, but it's nice to have. Plate armor is more defensive and I would always recommend to max out the defensive ability over offensive ones. Means max Stamina, Defensive Power and Parry.


    I would always recommend to stat all your gear except your weapon. Tier your weapon crappy as high as possible. Only stat your weapon if you can effort it and handle a lesser burst aggro, which requires more skill, management and timing. I always tiered my weapon, never statted it, but do whatever you like to do. ;) I would always recomment to put aggro above endurance and a higher tiered weapon increases your aggro a lot. Also you are useless if you can't hold aggro with a statted low tiered weapon. Keep this in mind.


    1. Best in Slot Gear

    Main Set: ROFL (Red or Gold)

    Offset: ROFL (Red or Gold)

    Weapon: Golden 1h Sword or 1h Hammer* (if subclass is Champ)

    Shield: Aldo or new Worldboss? (not released yet)


    *Don't use an Axe (with warrior subclass) since your weapon level can't be high enough.


    2. Budget Gear

    Main Set: ROFL Red

    Offset: ROFL Red

    Weapon: Gorge Sword or 1h Hammer from merchant inside custom instance, or Golden one

    Shield: Aldo


    If you can't effort a golden weapon, use the Gorge weapons from the merchants at the entrance of custom instances. However, a golden wespon is pretty cheap and t12 might be enough for the start.


    V. How to generate Aggro

    You generate aggro by using +X% Aggro buffs and skills with aggro multipliers and also damage increasing stuff. Knight has some different aggro multis around x10. You can calculate your dealt damage x aggro multi and the result is the generated aggro on the target. Of course there is something more behind damage calculation and such, but that's too deep at this point.


    1. Aggro Multipliers

    Some skills have in their description: "Each skill level adds to aggro." This means, they got some hidden aggro multipliers. If I remember correctly and nothing has changed here, Whirlwind Shield has a x10 multi. Truth Shield Bash has a x10 multi as well, but only while active Holy Power Explosion! Holy Seal and Holy Strike have a x2.5 Multi. All other skills have a x1 Multi (no multi exists if you multiply something by 1). The Seal's DoT has no multi afaik.


    2. Damage = Aggro

    Through your +X% aggro buffs as Threaten or Explosion you increase your aggro dealt with all of your skills. Also +X% damage or attack speed is (more or less) equal to +X% aggro. So if you increase your damage or attack speed, you also increase your aggro since you are a kind of a physical damage dealing class too with physical damage calculation.


    3. Sumarize

    So all your buff food and pots as Strong Simulant increase your aggro as well. That's why you need to get sure to use all bonuses on atkspeed, damage and aggro to incease your dealt aggro!


    VI. Boss and Trash Tanking

    1. Trash tanking

    This is your basic rotation. With a specific subclass, there might be some more skills you could use, but I will not mention those at this point.

    R1: Threaten25d9e6c1874d16a8a8114edf0645e113.png

    R2: Whirlwind Shield4f79307134e96e53d27efd9b395ce0ae.png

    R3: Holy Strikef85c7d0ba65e090b006a5453c0564404.png

    Always use Threaten first on any mob to trigger the aggro buff on yourself for a stronger aggro of the following skills, such as Whirlwind Shield. While Threaten and Whirlwind Shield is on cooldown use Holy Strike as a filler and tab though your targets while doing this to generate more aggro over all mobs. Never only use Whirlwind Shield without Threaten unless you can hold aggro whithout it.


    2. Boss tanking

    If you activate a countdown macro (or AU Countdown), you have some time to prepare yourself for battle. Use this time efficiently! You need to activate all necessary buffs, renew bufffood and such. Here is a recommendation for the buffs and cooldowns you gonna pull while cooldown ticks:

    1. Caviar Sandwich or Prime Rib Slice - increases Critrate and Crit Damage by 10/14%

    2. Hall of Dead Heroese103a2ae28e8cb781089ef32b07efdad.png - increases movement speed and decreases input damage (you need as much movement speed as you can get).

    3. Spellweaver Potion - increases movement speed as well.

    3. Strong Stimulant - increases atkspeed -> dmg -> aggro

    4. Potion of Annihilation or similar one - increases critrate

    5. Holy Strength - inc. light damage -> dmg -> aggro

    6. Shield of Discipline - decreases input dmg

    7. Defense Potion - inc. parry (maybe save this for specific situations)

    8. Start with Opener Rotation. Use Holy Power Explosion015b4d973daee116ffffe2a2157414af.png while running towards the boss. Be aware of its global cooldown!


    3. How to actually tank bosses?

    After the 8 steps above, your Rotation starts (See Chapter III again). You always need to run at a boss, don't use your Charge1e6d32b30748413b874264d26ed85bff.png since this triggers a global cooldown. By that you would loose 1 second of tanking and might loose your aggro against fast hitting range Dps classes. So just run and instantly start your rotation. But always keep and eye on your own health, use Potions if the healers can't hold the damage, use your utility cooldowns to decrease your damage input and to help the healers. Play events, but always check if your skills are ready to use and prioritize them as mentioned.


    VII. Buff-Food

    Just a quick overview, you might look in the auction house or itemshop for the stuff you need, or ask a crafter for equal food and potions.

    Egg Rice Dumplings: Max Def.

    Aged Realgar Wine: Some Patt - I mean, it doesn't matter if you use it, so just go for it, some patt might be ok in trash mobs.

    Surprise Cake: Use this if your Def is lower or there are more %hits in an instance.

    Atlas Special Pie: Use this if your Def is high enough and there are less %hits.

    Jungle Dinosaur Leg: Max Dmg. Don't use Patt Food, since you need Dmg more than Patt.

    Hero Potion: Max Attributes.

    Transformation: Use something with Stamina, either Wisdom or Strength.

    Scarlet Love: Get this from your housemaiden, increases your Def.

    Wedding Food: Increases several attributes and dmg.

    And always keep up your Enhanced Armor for Max Def.


    VIII. Practice > Theory

    All that knowledge is just theory. How you manage tanking by yourself is up to you. A wise man once said: "I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it." So take your time, test your rotation and buffing while countdown is running, test on dummy or in pvp, run lower instances to test on bosses and argue yourself with your own class.


    If you have any questions, just let me know, also I'm always up to help other knights ingame and improve their gameplay. Just give me a wisper ingame. ;)


    IX. My Kitty / Macro

    DO - NOT - USE - KITTY or any other combat engine, because tanking as a knight is not only spamming a rota, it's more like pressing the right skills at the right time. And that timing is something you can never ever include in a macro/lua/kitty. Only an advanced and highly experienced tank could simplify his rota on that way, but in my over 10 years as a tank I never used a macro for my rotation or any buffs. And I would never recommend to use any.


    The point is, that there can always be fail pulls or situations you need a specific skill, but your macro can't know that and either your skill is not available by cooldown, or you need to execute many other skills before. Also the Holy Seal management needs timing and practice, no macro can ever know when to use which skill on your seals. These are decisions that can decide over wipes of the entire raid, as a good tank you know that and be aware of this. I mean, you can play however you want, but you will never learn the class by using macros. Never... any class.




    Addition: Item-Set Skills

    I'd say, there are many not very useful skills and only few that are really good. Unfortunately there are some skills that are deprecated by better versions from higher instances. So I decided to order them by quality: "Best in Slot" contains the skills you definitely want to use and "Budget" contains the cheaper ones or which are easier to farm. Yes, there are some more existing, but I just gonna list the viable ones for tanking.



    1. Best in Slot ISS

    Level Name Image Effect Comment
    104 Honorable Guard f8b37ee2b691631514f41509e8a72311.png Decreases incoming magical damage by 30% passive

    95 World Domination 3e841fceb63199cc9f6673b65ccd2b3b.png Increases Aggro and crit passive
    90 Howl from the Deep 56609b68c68fa31d53244d405bb1a21b.png AoE taunt with 30s cd can also be used on bosses to taunt them or increase your total aggro by 15%

    80 Tsunami b62ee6e672423c2755670a18bcdd756f.png Aggro AoE with 8s cd, similar to Whirlwind Shield, must-have for any tank
    65 Arching Chop 74b8adb418ccb8543df29bdf0f2b0f0d.png Non-Aggro AoE with 20s cd I really very rarely use it, but it shares no other cooldown, so it's nice to have if you need an additional aoe without aggro multiplier.


    2. Budget ISS alternatives

    Level Name Icon Effect Comment
    100 Heroic Spirit Guard 9f463af0ebbec10026b086c7df5956dd.png Decreases incoming magical damage by 20% deprecated through Honorable Guard f8b37ee2b691631514f41509e8a72311.png
    80 Protection of Twilight 541ae5ad8592bebfdd29743db158e4bc.png Decreases incoming magical damage by 15% deprecated through Heroic Spirit Guard 9f463af0ebbec10026b086c7df5956dd.png
    70 Wicked Backfire c9a51860ddb1490f83260b5341dc695e.png increases aggro and crit deprecated through World Domination 3e841fceb63199cc9f6673b65ccd2b3b.png
    67 Lanaik's Roar 3d23bd5685bfbf9632a31dc4d7653586.png AoE taunt with 2 min cd deprecated through Howl from the Deep 56609b68c68fa31d53244d405bb1a21b.png



    Conclusion

    Yeah I know, sorry about my long post again, but better having more and needing less than having less and needing more :/ Feel free to find all my (maybe) perfectly hidden typos and mistakes and to ask me ingame if you have further questions. :thumbup:


    Version: Patch 10.0.4.2014