Fundamentals of Tanking (ver 1.1)
Hi everyone, here's my updated, reposted and renamed Enforcer Tanking Guide. The purpose of this guide is to outline the broad principles of effective tanking, as well as to explain the usage of aggro tools in various situations. (No specific levelling, twinking or weapon/armor info yet).
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Tanking for Dummies :p
So you have an Enforcer eh? Good for you! You now hold the potential to becoming the premium tank toon in the AO Universe. What makes a good tank you say? Let's start with some definitions:
Tank: Google's Definition of a Tank :o
Ok let's try that again:
A Good Tank: A character that specialises in holding mobs' attention (aggro) such that they only attack him/her/it and allows healers to focus on keeping one character in the team alive.
An Excellent Tank: A character who is a 'Good Tank', but does it so well that even big damage dealers (especially Shades, MA's, Agents) to use their specials without fear of stealing aggro. (Under controlled circumstances and timing, of course.)
Ok, so you're wondering now, What makes a tank good? It's very simple actually:
1) A good tank can take a beating without taxing the healers beyond their capability to keep them alive for a given situation.
2) A good tank generates enough aggro to keep all mobs solely attacking himself/herself/itself. He/She/It should also be able to regain aggro quickly should aggro be lost (Aimed Shots/Full Auto's too early, certain Boss behaviours)
3) A good tank hugs reclaim for his/her/its team to ensure that they have the best chance of escaping a hairy situation (NT Kites, ToTW Trains, multiple respawns, etc).
Remember, it's easy to be a tank, but it takes work to be a good tank. To be an excellent tank, you will need to lead by example, understand other professions, and earn their respect (so that they will follow the aggro/damage patterns that are safe for the whole team in the given situation).
In the next few sections, I will detail how to be a good tank using the following topics:
1) Taking a beating... While smiling at your foe.
2) Aggro aggro aggro!
Taking a beating... While smiling at your foe. :D
Ok now to the boring stuff. I mean who likes getting beat up by 10 mobs while everyone's running around getting 15k AS and 10k FA hits on your favourite mob? And which dumb trox Enforcer wants to hear a boring lecture on how combat works in AO? :confused:
Perservere on, young Enforcer. You will never be uber unless you understand the basics. ;-)
Ok enough rambling from my Troxian numbskull. So what allows an Enforcer (or any other character for that matter...) to take a beating well? Let's see these basic requirements:
1) High HP and Healdelta
2) High Armour Class
3) Evades and your AggDef Slider
4) Absorb Shields
5) Having good coordination and faith in your Doctor buddy and your teammates
6) Nano Resistance
7) Loads of NCU
Health
How does a high HP bar help me in tanking? Well it's common sense actually:
i) High HP allows you to take more hits before dying. This allows healers more breathing space to heal you sufficiently, especially during laggy fights.
ii) Higher HP also allows you to last longer in the absence of healing (should trouble come and you want to let others escape safely) :mad:
In order to get more health, you could try the following:
1) Max your Body Development :P
2) Get the best Mongo, Damage Shield and Essence nanos you can
3) Get buffed up by your friendly Doctor buddy
4) Get 'affordable'/'campable' items like this
5) Perk yourself into Colossal Health or Enhance Health (Colossal Health is much better :p )
Healdelta? What's that? If your healdelta is X, you regenerate X HP every 'time interval' (known as a 'tick') as long as your character is alive. How fast a 'tick' is depends on your stamina. To have the best 'tick' of 2 seconds, you need to raise your Stamina to either 810 or 811 (still hotly but inconsequentially debated) :p.
To improve your healdelta, you should:
i) Max your Body Development
ii) Invest in the appropriate Symbiants or Jobe Clustered Implants
iii) Max the perkline 'Form of Troll'
iv) Get buffed up (This,Doc buffs, etc.)
It should be noted that sitting down will roughly double your health-regeneration rate, but will not affect your nano-recovery rate.
Effectively, high level can have a natural standing healing rate of 200hp per 2 seconds with the proper equipment (which is much better than even Fixer HoTs. And stacks with all HoTs too! :D thanks Deng!)
NB. NanoDelta works similarly, except that the cap for NanoDelta ticks is reached at 780 Psychic.
Armor Class
Armor Class is very simple. For every 10 AC, you reduce the damage from the affliated damage type by 1 point.
Example using maximum critical damage:
Rollerat Queen hits Emidoc (100 melee AC) for 430 melee damage! Critical Hit!
Rollerat Queen hits Emigadget (1100 melee AC) for 330 melee damage! Critical Hit!
Rollerat Queen hits Emislicer (2100 melee AC) for 230 melee damage! Critical Hit!
(It should be noted that damage would not go below the mob's minimum damage)
Other than armor and items, there is a lifesaving perk action called Troll Form which is gained as a perk action with Form of Troll 3 trained and adds 6000 ACs, but -800 Runspeed for 40s and has a 80s recharge time.
Moral of Story: Get the best armor, perks and buffs you can possibly get to attain maximum AC against the mob you're facing.
Evades and your Aggdef Slider
Evades affect 2 things in combat:
i) Whether the mob hits or misses while attacking you.
ii) The percentage chance of a critical should you be hit by a mob.
(Do note that there are 3 types of evades: EvadeClose, DodgeRanged and DuckExplosions. As a generalisation, *Most* SL mobs check against EvCls, many RK mobs use both EvCls and DgRng, and *some* RK mobs use DuckExp)
Aggdef Slider thanks Deng!:
i) "Full Aggressive": The speed of your weapon/nanocast time will increase, but you are also more likely to be hit, recieve a critical hit or be debuffed/nuked by your opponent. :(
ii) "Full Defensive"The speed of your weapon/nanocast time will decrease, but it is also harder to hit, crit or land a nano on you":o
Moral of Story: Max your required Evades and Max your Melee Init so you can go FullDefensive while doing swing your weapon at maximum speed.
Next up: Absorbs and the rest.
Taunting is easy and fun!
Taunt Tools
Let's talk about Taunts. A taunt is an action to provoke a mob (doesn't work on players, unfortunately :D ) to attack you. Similar to damage and nano effects, they build hate, and usually have a refresh of 6s, and can be used in between weapon swings for maximum hate-building.
So what taunt tools does an Enforcer have at his/her/its disposal? Let's take a looksee:
1) Nanoprograms called Mongo!
These nanos have a wide AOE that builds aggro on any mob within it's effect radius. It has added usefulness as a health boost as well as a HoT that makes it very useful for tanks.
The pros and cons of using Mongo! nanos are:
i) Pro: You can hold aggro easily when you're swarmed by mobs
ii) Pro: You get a nice health boost and HoT that increases your survivability
iii) Con: Any 'dormant' (mezzed or unengaged) mobs within your AOE radius will attack you, creating unnecessary Adds sometimes.
Mongo! is your best friend in most tanking situations. And you can never build too much aggro on the mob you're tanking. If you can afford the nanopoints, Mongo! as often as you can. Thanks for the suggestion, Bgumble! If you don't have sufficient nanopoints to Mongo! enough to keep aggro, distribute Nanostims to your teammates and 'persuade' them to stim you till you turn blue. :D
2) Single Taunt Nanos
Nanos like Element of Malice and other nice nanos (from SL Garden) allow you to taunt single targets instead of risking getting Adds via Mongo! in a crowded room. It's a pity the best RK Single Taunt is pitiful in comparison (but still sometimes useful nonetheless).
3) Mutate Perkactions (AI Perkline) Thanks BGumble!
Arouse Anger is a useful single taunt supplement if you're L15+. This perkline also provides an extra source of taunt+damage if you can get AI Level 6 to use Cause of Anger
4) Enforcer's Taunt Proc Nanoprograms (SL only)
For non-fr00b Enforcers, we have the Taunt Proc Nanos, which give up to a 35% chance of inflicting additional taunt damage each weapon hit. (thanks defectorid!)
Taunt Procs are the reason 1HB (or even 1HE, if any :rolleyes: ) Enforcers are generally find it easier to hold aggro than an 'equivalent' 2HE/2HB Enforcer. Dual-wielders swing more often (around 24% more assuming 1s/1s weapons), which means more Taunt Procs land to irritate your favourite mob. ;)
5) Psychology-based Taunt Utilities:
(Aggression Enhancers/Multipliers, Library of Foul Language, Da Taunter, Jealousy)
These tools all lock Psychology for 6s, so you can only use one of them for any given situation.
Here are my recommendations:
For solo usage: Use the Library of Foul Language (aka LoFL).
- You'll need to raise BM anyway, and the additional damage helps speed up fights (esp against high AC mobs). A QL200 LoFL does 850 Taunt 'damage' and a marginal 50 Radiation damage. :D Otherwise, it doesn't matter what taunt tools to use while soloing.
For team usage (high performance):
- Use the QL200 Aggression Multiplier (Jealousy Augmented)
While this nifty tool takes considerable investment in Psychology, it offers the best taunt/time ratio (1800 'taunt damage'!) and is easily obtained even by frOObs.
Simply camp the mob 'Jealousy' in the Steps of Madness (dropped a Essence of Pure Jealousy for me after 50 kills) and combine it with a QL200 Aggression Multiplier, which is available randomly at superior shops "Tools Terminal" or rollable with Clicksaver. (This process requires some ME and WS, so grab your friendly tradeskiller!)
- Alternatively, for those who have the AI expansion, and don't have spare IP to invest in Psychology, the LoFL can be upgraded into a Codex of the Insulting Emerto. It does 1100 Taunt 'damage' and 20 Radiation damage.
- For endgame tanking, Perfectionists can aspire to owning the Scorpio's Aim of Anger, which is about 11% better than Jealousy at 2000 'taunt damage'. Zodiac bosses anyone? :p
Good Reading: Official Thread on Taunt Tools
Other Tips
Fear Nanos
A list of fear nanos can be found here. These are very useful for managing the number of hostile mobs in each fight. Since PM/BM are also used for your must-have Mongo! line, they are a 'IP cost-free' addition to your mob-management toolkit. Specific uses:
1) Removing ADDs that threaten your survival as a tank.
2) Scaring away mobs that is attacking your healer.
3) While soloing, scaring the mob away so you can sit down and heal/recharge.
4) Possibly used for blitzing missions without having to waste time fighting mobs.
Fear effects last up to 1 minute, and are breakable. After that the mob retains its hate-list and runs back into the fray to annoy you again. :D
Another 'Fearful' thing to note: There are some mobs that you can't seem to fear no matter how hard you try. If so, try using this oft-forgotten nano and you may succeed after that. Thanks Deng!
Should I Mongo!? Should I not? Good suggestion, jokzer!
Every Enforcer should be watchful before engaging any mob in any environment. He/She/It should also be extremely careful with the use of Mongo!, as it can make or break a team. Let me give you some examples:
Example #1:
Enforcer is in a crowded room inside IS fighting a well-pulled, single mob. He Mongo!s and draws 5 Adds and gets the whole party killed.
==> Learn your Mongo! radius and watch your minimaps for mob distances.
Example #2:
The team is overrun by 6 Hecklers trained onto them. Enforcer Chain-Mongos!, shields up and allows the tanking/healing machinery to get started. Meanwhile, teammates mezz the 5 'free' Hecklers and allows the Doc to heal fast enough after the tank's shields go down.
==> Well timed Chain-Mongos! can save the day.
Example #3a:
The team in Example #2 has killed 1 Heckler and is proceeding to kill off the others. Suddenly, the SLoobie Shade 'accidentally' attacks the wrong Heck and draws aggro. What should the Enforcer do?
i) Single taunt the Shade's Heck and hope you can steal aggro fast enough. (Usually doesn't succeed)
ii) Leave the Shade to die, since she deserves it.:p
iii) Mongo! to regain aggro, breaking the calms, knowing that the Doc is gonna CH to save the Shade and get killed in the process.
==> There is no correct answer here. Situational awareness, experience and an good understanding with your Doc will help you decide if it's worth breaking the Calms or not.
Moral of the Story: Mongo! is like fire. It can cook you a good XP supper, or throw your entire team into the supper pot.
How to use and time your Taunts
Dealing with aggro emergencies
Ok so you've been tanking well, but sometimes, things get hairy due to Pops, bad teammates, etc. And now your favourite Doc or your not-so-favourite Agent has somehow gained big-time aggro and is 2 hits away from dying. Here's what you can do to save the day:
First you run at the mob and unload all your Taunt Utils, FastAttack, Brawl and Dimach specials on the mob, then you do either of the following:
i) Chaincast Mongo! --> The most effective way as this cannot be resisted.
ii) Single Taunts --> A safer option if you've a bunch of mezzed mobs around you, also cannot be resisted. Slightly slower than Mongo but only affects a single target.
iii) Try to scare the mob away using your best Fear Nano. This is the best way if you're facing non-boss, lower level mobs, as it checks against 100% NR. Not useful if your teammate is fighting back cos it is Breakonattack
Achieving balance between taunt/damage
Ok time for some very technical stuff for tweaking your own tanking performance. If you've been using your aggro tools regularly (like you should be), you would notice that some actions cannot be performed concurrently, which makes you less efficient.
i) Clash between "Weapon Swing" and "Nano Execution"
Simply put, you cannot swing your weapon while casting nanos. Try casting a Composite Attribute Boost and you'll see what I mean.
Now notice that your fastest weapon speed attainable is 1s attack + 1s recharge. It is during the recharge time that you should cast your Mongo/Layer/Fear nanos.
And that is why Enforcers should max their Nanoinit as well as get one of these.
Moral of the Story: Hit your nano hotkey immediately after you swing (i.e. the moment the line "You hit Rollerrat Queen for 1352 radiation damage" appears)
ii) Clash between "Stim/Util Effect usage" and "Perk Usage"
The moment you activate your perk action, (e.g. "Regain Nano" from Genius2, "BioCocoon" from Bioshielding, etc) you will see a 'Special' timer bar on your top left hand corner, similar to your 'Nanoprogram' execution and recharge timer bars.
During the charging phase of your perks, you are able to use neither your FirstAid/Nano Stims nor your utilities like the LoFL or even your Withered Flesh shielding specials.
Moral of the Story: Hit your Stim/Utilities hotkey immediately (which is near instantaneous) before firing up your perk action(s).
MORAL of the Moral of the Story: These details may seem trivial on paper, but every half-second counts when you're facing overwhelming odds while tanking.
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