Fundamentals of Tanking (ver 1.1)

[Emi]

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

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

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.

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?

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)

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 )

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) .

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! 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"

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.

[Emi]

Taking a beating... While smiling at your foe. Continued....

4) Absorb Shields, Layers and Other Lifesavers.

Get your hands on these nice items/abilities:
1) Assault-class Tank Armor (drops off Bodyguards in Biomare/Foreman's)
2) Biococoon (from your SL Perkline Bioshielding)
3) Withered Flesh or even better, Corrupted Flesh (drops from ToTW and Inner Sanctum respectively)
4) Enforcers' Layers Nanoprograms

Do note that BioCocoon overwrites Layers, so the strategy to maximise your tankablitiy will be (assuming you've a doc healing you while you tank a VERY TOUGH boss):
a) Layer yourself (and your doc if you're nice) before combat
b) Tank until layers drop, and till you're down to ~50% life :blink:
c) Scream "Cocoon UP!", activate Biococoon, and let doc heal you back to full health.
d) Once Cocoon drops, cast layers, as necessary, on yourself again between weapon swings
e) Cast layers on yourself as often as your nanopoints permit to lessen the load on the doc.
f) Keep refreshing layers on self until mob is dead
g) If mob is still alive after 2 minutes, scream "Cocoon Ready!", then repeat from Step b)
h) Clap dance and sing once VERY TOUGH boss becomes a pile of stagnant pixels.
--> Withered/Corrupted Flesh and Assault-class Tank Armor have very long refresh times (like our favourite Dimach special attack), so save them for REAL emergencies.

Moral of the story? Docs love smart tanks, and smart tanks love Docs.

5) Having good coordination and faith in your Doctor and your teammates.
REMEMBER THIS: Tanks put their life on the line, and together with the healer, are most directly responsible for the success of the hunt/raid they undertake with their team.
As such, it is essential that you have an understanding with your Doc. Tell him/her/it your Cocoon usage patterns, lest a CH-aggro mess gets the doc and the whole team killed. If you're a slow typer, write scripts to say: "Cocoon ready!" "Cocoon UP!" "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! NOW!" and other useful phrases for coordination purposes.
With regards to your DD (i.e. Damage Dealer) teammates, it always pays to analyse their damage capabilities. Assuming that you're not slacking, kindly ask the MA/Shade to lower their AggDef settings or the Shade/Soldier/Keeper/Agent from using special/perk attacks until you've built up sufficient aggro.
If your teammates are recalcitrant, let them tank for 1 round and ask the doc or team leader if those teammates are worth keeping/healing.

Moral of the story? Don't tank if you're gimp, establish a good rapport with your doc, and deal with 'bad' teammates without losing your cool.

6) Nano Resistance
While not the highest priority in PvM, Nano Resistance (NR) is essential in PvP combat. In tanking for PvM, NR comes in handy when tanking mobs that have nukes and drains, especially mobs in endgame SL.

Moral of the story? Max NR for PvM if you've the IP to spare once you're past TL5. You can never have enough NR for endgame tanking or soloing.

7) Having Loads of NCU
So you got your hands on the best nano programs? Found a bunch of buddies to buff you up? Well, what good is gasoline if your car has no fuel tank?

For starters, every toon should at least aim to have at least 5 of these babies by the time they hit TL5. These are rollable using Clicksaver. It takes some time to roll, but it's always worth the wait. They are also available on the open market for about 2mil creds each. (It's also a decent way of earning creds by blitzing them and selling for cash, but no Org ever has enough. )

While buffing up, remember that Enforcers have combat-specific nanos that they should reserve NCU space for: Mongo, Challenger, Rage and Layers. Read on till the end and you can decide for yourself if these are worth using for your own playstyle.

As Enforcers invariably consume loads of nanos during a tanking session, there are certain NCU items that reduce your nanocost by a certain percentage. These allow the tank to maintain a high mongo/taunt rate along with a good Nanodelta and (if necessary) the 'Regain Nano' perkaction from the 'Genius 2' perk.
The most common of these items is the Hardcore CPU Upgrade. The very poor can try a Enhanced NCU Chip with Recompiling Core and the very might can try getting their hands on a Sagittarius's Hearty Spirit Helper (Thanks Djurmamman!)

Still with me? Good! Onward to Aggro Management!

[Kierran]

mm ++++

[Emi]

Aggro Aggro Aggro!

Ok so you want to learn about Aggro. What's that, you ask?
Emi's definitions of Aggro:
i) Aggro (v) - To turn your attention onto someone's toon and attempt to kill it. e.g. The Heckler aggro'd Emidoc and sent her to reclaim in 2 hits.
ii) Aggro (n) - The amount of 'Hate' the mob has for a particular toon. In a fight, every action taken against the mob will build up a certain number of 'Hate Points'. Most mobs are programmed to attack only the toon it hates the most. (Note that certain nanos not directed at the mob, e.g. Heals, can also build aggro.)
iii) To (re)gain Aggro - To entice the mob, using various aggro tools, to (re)focus its attention on you instead of the poor defenceless <insert profession here>.

Aggro Basics
So how exactly is Aggro dealt? There are 3 simple methods that any profession can use (and Enforcers dominate everything but the Damage part).
A) Deal loads of damage to the mob
B) Execute Nanoprograms that annoy the mob
C) Taunt the mob into attacking you
It should also be noted that increasing the distance from yourself to the mob reduces the amount of aggro built up. (Out of sight, out of mind?)

The Relationship Between Damage Dealt and Aggro
Let's talk about Dealing Damage first. There are 3 ways that an enforcer deal damage to the mob he/she/it is tanking:

1) Weapon Damage
The most basic way to annoy anyone is to poke em in the ribs with a pointy stick. Take your biggest weapon, swing it as fast as you can and annoy the mob to no end. It is best if you choose weapons with Specials like Brawl, Fast Attack, Sneak Attack and Dimach if you can afford the IP expenditure and weapon cost.
--> Practical Steps:
To hit harder and more often:
i) Max your main weapon skill. (Perklines help too)
ii) Ensure that you hit your specials immediately once they recharge
iii) Get +Dmg items like these or Arul Saba Bracelets. Various professions also give nice +Dmg buffs)
iv) Get your best SL Element nanos. These not only give you an +dmg boost, but allow you to customise your damage type against specific mobs.
(For detailed, hard-core information on damage-type choices, look here)
v) Get your best Challenger nanos. Caution: use them if you're sure you won't lose aggro in the next 24s cos you can't Mongo! anymore due to the Nano Recharge timing.

--> Practical Steps:
To swing faster:
i) Max your Melee Init
ii) Set your AggDef slider to optimal levels using the AggDef Calculator
iii) Get your best Rage nano and use them CAREFULLY (not in SL unless you got uber healers)

(see this page for detailed explanation on how inits work)

There are 2 peculiarities about Damage-based Aggro that should be noted.
a) Dealing more damage per hit creates more aggro: e.g. Enforcer hits Rollerat Queen 20 times over 1 minute for 50 dmg = 1000 dmg. Then an Agent outside of combat Aimshots for 800 dmg, and will gain aggro immediately.
b) The first hit on the mob gains a lot more aggro than all subsequent hits: e.g. The puller hits mob for 50 dmg, gains aggro and runs away. Enforcer hits mob for 100 dmg but still requires another few hits to regain aggro.
--> Practical Steps:
i) If you're tank, volunteer to be puller to ensure that you get the 'First Hit' aggro
ii) Convince the squishy agents and annoying soldiers to allow you time to build aggro before they Aimshot/FullAuto

2) Perk Attacks
Perk Attacks in both the 1HB's Blunt Mastery and 2HE's Reaver perkline do massive damage and have other aggro building abilities as well. Generally, 1HB holds aggro better due to tauntprocs, but 2HE are uber in PvP.

3) Damage Shields
An often overlooked component of the Enforcer's aggro arsenal is their Damage Shields. These nanos not only give you a nice HP boost, but also inflict damage on the mob each time it hits you.

Sidenote: Don't be confused between the Enfo/Engi/Adv Damage Shields (DS) and the Engi's Reflect Shields (RS). Here's how they work:
1) Enfo with 20point DS: Mob hits Enfo for 100 dmg, DS hits mob for 20 dmg
2) Engi with 20point RS: Mob hits Engi for 100 dmg, RS reduces damage taken to 80dmg, RS deals 20 dmg to mob.
3) Enfo with 20point DS + 20 point RS: Mob hits Enfo for 100dmg, DS hits mob for 20dmg, RS reduces damage taken to 80dmg, and RS deals 20 dmg to mob. (Total reduction of 20 dmg and extra 40 dmg per mob hit :lol: )
Point to note: All dmg from the RS and DS are attributed to you, the 'buff-wearer', not the 'buff-caster'. Thus these shields help you build aggro by 'damaging' the mob while you tank.

--> Practical Steps:
i) Always have your best DS on
ii) Befriend a reliable Engi for RS and promise him/her/it some Pie

Executing Nanos can Draw Aggro too!
Simply put, there are 3 ways Nanos draw aggro
1) Healing - Mobs don't like healers for some reason, and they hate it when healing nanos are used. In ascending order of 'Hatefulness', they are:
i) Single heals (yawn!)
ii) Team heals (mmmm...)
iii) Complete Healing in RK(grrr!)
iv) Complete Healing in SL (Once a Doctor chain-casts CH's to survive, even the best Enforcer will be hard-pressed to regain aggro)

2) Taunt Nanos
These are enforcer-only. Will be explained later in the 'Taunt Tools' section.

3) Nukes, Roots and other Nanos
Any nanos executed on a mob will build up hate. Most notable aggro builders are NT Nukes and Fixer Roots.

Next up: Taunt Tools

[Emi]

Taunt Tools

Let's talk about Taunts. A taunt is an action to provoke a mob (doesn't work on players, unfortunately ) 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.

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 ) 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. 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?

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.

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.
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.

============= E N D ===== o f ===== G U I D E =================

[Emi]

<Reserved for future updates>
Comments and constructive criticism still welcome!

[Emi]

mm ++++

Lol Post Count FTW!

[Fingathing]

Thank you very much for this guide, Emi I hope all new enforcers take their time to read it through as it contains basicly everything you need to know

[Zpok]

mm ++++

You're my hero! <3

[Akarah]

nice guide

[Tykahndriuss]

good stuff

[Silverado-]

Super awesome guide

[Hangface]

OOoooh, this is great stuff!!11++

Not only should every Tank-aspiring enfo read it, any player who ever plans sto get in a team should be lured to read this guide to understand how the enforcer does his thing!

There are still far too many who thinks the whole game is about hitting with all you got, screw the rest of the team (shamed to admit, in my early MA days I was one of them,but I have learnt my lesson..... (I think)....).

So to my fellow enforcers out there... promise the whole org some pie if they read this... pie is da thing! And you might save a trip or two to the reclaim for you or your teammates.

[Hollowchild]

.... 'let the shade die, **SHE** deserves it! '...
why's the shade a SHE?! there's male shades as well! and neuters.
heh one h*ll of a great post... nice to know people still care
was a few times when you said one thing, then said the opposite... nothing that matters though very nice post...

[Phione]

Armor Class
Armor Class is very simple. For every 10 AC, you reduce the damage from the affliated damage type by 1 point.

Apparently not that simple AC's reduce max damage by AC / 10, then a random number is rolled between min and max - AC / 10. This means each single hit is averagely reduced by AC / 20. (A min damage hit is reduced by 0 and a max damage hit by AC / 10.)

[The Validator]

Very Nice guide!

[kuznechik]

Apparently not that simple AC's reduce max damage by AC / 10, then a random number is rolled between min and max - AC / 10. This means each single hit is averagely reduced by AC / 5. (A min damage hit is reduced by 0 and a max damage hit by AC / 10.)

AC/20 actually.

And please add note about some mobs (zixes) that can't be taunted away from others other than them zoning/dieing. Be sure to ask teammates to run to shop in case they've got zixes on ground aliens. And to lift if on second+ floor of alien ship.

[Phione]

AC/20 actually.

And please add note about some mobs (zixes) that can't be taunted away from others other than them zoning/dieing. Be sure to ask teammates to run to shop in case they've got zixes on ground aliens. And to lift if on second+ floor of alien ship.

Yeah I meant 20 sorry, edited to avoid confusing :P

[dinamix]

Emislicer...you're a geek:P, good post btw

[Zdorovjak]

Nice work . . . especially for Ebayed pps ^^ if u lvling from 1-220 by your self u knows it all from game . . . But great work 2 collect all stuff bout it in one post .