Boerewors

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but if anybody does hav the answer to my prayers a tank that can take almost as much dmg as a granite and move then tell me! but till then i'll stick with stoner lol

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Easy, use TP self, a LOT. Amazing tricks can be done with this power to keep aggro. As for not keeping aggro, get provoke as well, slot taunt and provoke for recharge and there is no way an ice tank can keep aggro more than you, AND you can shrug off damage.

Every week i stare at this post in envy, wishing i can come with. Finally next weekend i can make it. What is on the menu that i can join then?

I play a lot at 3am GMT to 5am GMT. I was wondering if there is anyone that does the same and would like to team up in these 2 hours?

I have a range of characters I can play:

21 ice Troller, 28 WS, 30 scrap, 35 emp troller, 47 stone tank. Can even start a lowbie to join you if you need.

I have never, ever come across a tank that can keep aggro off me as a WS with just attacks and auras, never. I dont play blasters but I routinely see tanks lose aggro on blasters nuking when they dont have taunt.

I just dont see how you can do it. Please invite me sometime to see this in action.

The only way I can see it happening is if you run into a spawn and whack away at them for at least 20 seconds before your team starts nuking.

The team didnt suffer that much, I did tho, since he couldnt keep aggro off me. It did mean some debt and then me holding back on the damage, which means gimp.

My point is: if they had taunt I could let go and blow the [censored] out of everything. Without taunt it took that much longer to kill stuff, since I and I am sure the blasters also had to.

So short answer is yes.

5 out of 5 teams on various chars this week and every time in each the tank doesnt have taunt. Is there a conspiracy on the go?

Do tanks now think that gauntlet is fine, they dont need taunt anymore?

My view on a perma granite tank: its the ultimate purist tank. There to do no damage and to keep aggro and keep the team safe. To me the granite tank is a controller.

To this end (much discussed on this board)the granite tank must take as many tools to maximise aggro holding, since survival is a given. I suggest the following tools for that:

hasten 3 rech slotted
all attacks 2 slots rech
taunt 3 rech, 3 taunt slotted (unless you want to pvp, then I would add acc)
provoke 2 rech, 2 acc, 2 taunt slotted (a must, really, the more tools you have to gain aggro, the better, remember that taunt is a cone and you can hit only 5.

Epic: body mastery: focussed Accuracy, since you most probably will be tanking +4-7

Teleport: now this is the interesting one, not only do you have this to move around, but there is a certain amount of skill involved. There are many little tricks with this power to gain aggro, to keep aggro etc. This is (to me) the defining difference between Granite tanks with the same build, how they use this little tool.

No surprise then that 3 of my heroes are controllers, 2 of my villains are doms...

I like controllers!

I guess it comes down to playstyle and your conceptualisation of a tanker. In my mind a good team tanker is at heart a controller.

Many times I just use taunt and provoke on mobs to keep them away from the team. Isnt this a type of controlling action? Removing the mobs from attacking the team?

Mostly, the only attack I use is footstomp, thats just to keep the mobs off their toes, another controlling action.

So think about it: a team tank is a controller, all your primaries are built around taking damage and your function is to direct damage to yourself and prevent others taking damage, so in effect you are taking all the damage/negative effects of the mobs and directing it to a big spunge in order to allow your team to kill them.

I must urge you to keep provoke. So many times a blaster or kheld would scatter enemies and taunt is only a cone "attack". With provoke I can taunt one group in one direction and click on a mob which is not in that taunt area and provoke them.

Really , provoke is a great tool. I have also found that even 3 taunt and 3 acc slotted, mud pots does not deliver the taunt quality it should. As I said, your attacks are really bad for holding aggro, the gauntlet factor is much reduced due to granite.

As for getting around, TP is a great tool and I have found really creative uses for it.

I would also slot rooted 3 for healing ASAP and 1 end red later.

I would suggest Provoke for sure, I would also go for body Epic set, focussed accuracy is a very useful set since you tank higher lvl mobs usually in Granite.

Taunt and provoke plus hasten is a must.

In granite you will notice all your powers stay little dots on your tray for quite some time.

Having both taunt and provoke will give you lots of tools to keep aggro. Hasten will make sure they are up often. Most of the time you will not even use your attacks, just taunt and provoke.

Also Rock Armour plus minerals is needed for rikti psi bosses and carnie bosses, not to mention psi clocks. Granite is so tissue paperish its not even there for those so no point using it.

apathetic is probably too knee jerk a reaction, but you must admit the signups are scarce compared. As for SG/Coalition run? All my alts must be in the wrong SGs then, never see one and they each in a different one almost.


BAH, I sound like a whiner. I will make signups from now on, you are right, better to be proactive rather than reactive.

Missed a synapse TF at 12, please please, if anyone is doing any TFs tonite 24 Feb that is for any of the following char lvls:

lvl 17 troller
lvl 18 scrap
lvl 26 WS
lvl 32 emp troller
lvl 46 stone tank

Post deleted by Boerewors

My scrap is 18 (grinning eidolon) and my ice troller (jayni) is 17, both will be there, maybe a lil late, but will try me best. Hopefully will be able to cover the family business before then. If I am not there by the time you want to start, fill me spot.

Ill park both at synapse.

Sadly due to real life pressures and changes in plans (having children truly makes you realise the strength of their inherent power, chaos) I cannot promise to be there, so I withdraw my application. I really cannot say for certain if I will make it or not, I will probably only know an hour before the time, not fair on you.

I just would like to say thanks for posting such a TF on the boards, many of us never get to see a TF, you are providing a great opportunity.

Well lets see who we got on saturday and then we can decide which char you want most.

I dont care about the badge, just want fun. I have played so many chars and have had so few chances at TFs, people seem to avoid them for some reason.

I also have a 15 MA/Regen scrap and a 17 PB. Would prefer the troller or scrap, PB is just so boring.

Jayni: lvl 17 ice/rad troller

I find it mightily interesting that people prefer chaotic faceplants to flowing smooth xp, the non debt lumpy kind. Almost every PUG that I have ever been on with any of my characters did not like dying much.

I play my PB as a dual personality, which it is really, an alien cohabiting one body. In my case, an ancient intelligence cohabiting the body of a homeless girl abused by her Hellion pimp, the kheld freed the homeless girl from this bondage. The roleplaying from that, the feel of the character is quite diverse. I know my PB can never be the dmg dealer that a scrapper or blaster is, but I like the "feel" of playing a human and an alien at the same time, very thrilling. In human form shes a child in action and in what she says, in nova, she is quiet and wise.

No vanilla floating blaster platform spouting leet skillllz for me!

Well things have changed (yet again) now that my granite tank is lvl 43. I have both taunt and provoke (thanks freak for your lessons in tanking!!!) in my arsenal and my team comments have gone from verbose to one simple sentence: pulling to this corner. I dont consider this herding, since I always only bring one spawn (unless by team request they all feel the need to blow their novas and see who lives).
Last night I was running with a team that did 3 large missions on a crey arc (large as in 8 man team, huge mob spawns). After the first few pulls to a corner and people seeing how effective it was, we fell into a rythm. Blasters and scrappers and Khelds would wait till the mobs were all on top of me, tightly packed at the corner before killing them all. Soon they saw that it allowed me to taunt and provoke mobs running at them out of the mass since I could easily react quick enough before they took a hit.
On the 4th mission a ill/storm troller joins up and starts running ahead and trying to be mr invincible. After a few deaths while we all watched he stopped. Next up, he stayed close to the pulling action with his little army and as soon as the mobs came in range they would of course be intercepted by the see through army and scatter the tight pack before even getting to the corner. This obviously lead to some deaths and close deaths as reaction time on taunts and provokes was severly slowed down when people were fighting mobs all over the place. As creative as I think I am with TP and can bounce around a room like a travelling taunt show, it still is slow and one hit from a caped paragon protector means a dead squishy.
Next thing I asked nicely that he stand back and keep his army till the mobs were all on me. Of course this gets me the following comment: "Why dont you just TP into the middle of a spawn and tank them there? No need to group them close like you do."

Of course my answer was (while everyone waited patiently) most of the crey mobs were preferring ranged attacks, this meant that TPing into them would just make them scatter. I also told him that both my taunts were cones and taunting spread mobs was very difficult.

This didnt solve the problem, as he didnt seem to listen. He left after dying more than a few more times, he found out that pets aggroing incoming mobs made the mobs aggro him when the pets went down, something he didnt believe until it happened to him a few times.

So now the only irritating thing I say to a team is "pulling to corner", if people dont see how effective that is, then they end up being kicked by the team leader (not me) for causing others to die, or they leave because of their own deaths.

To also make another point: I believe that most stone tanks get a little bored with the power that is granite and the frustration that is the slowly growing taunt button. I find creative uses of TP a great reliever of this boredom. While my taunt and provoke buttons are still growing (especially when you walk on a carpet of Artemis caltrops), I port around the room, taunting with my mud pots. One interesting trick I learned from a friend (thanks Lucy Shine!) is that you can cue TP locations, 2 of them at least. This means that once you have clicked on a port location, you have some time before the animation finishes to click on your next location. This means that you can pull off seemingly impossible ports. Example, (using shift click bind), click in the middle of a mob, then click next to you behind the corner and sit back. BAMF (sorry marvel) you pop into the mob, your pots does some damage, BAMF you pop behind the corner, which is out of line of sight of your first port point. Now most people go: WOW, how did you do that? Technically it is impossible to see behind that corner from there you first appear. Now imagine the creative uses for this little trick. Room of death: pop into mob, pop under walkway and wait, Boxes: pop into mob, pop behind a box. Awesome fun! I hear it is possible to cue a taunt as you land and before you pop out again, my connection is 500ms and have rarely gotten this one right.

As you can see, I have had a good ride so far as a GA tank, listening to people and their suggestions, this has given me so much to use. I would never have gotten all these tricks if I was close minded and thought I was a granite god.

Thanks to all mentioned above for your awesome help!

Well I consistently tank +4-6 mobs now with ease in GA, using taunt and provoke. I have taunt 3 rech and 3 taunt slotted and provoke 2 acc/2rech/2 taunt. Even before I had provoke I could tank pretty well at those lvls with just taunt. Provoke makes such a difference to round it off now.

I also have TP slotted 3 end red, I bounce around the room picking up aggro where it slips. It is amazing what you can do with TP if you put your mind to it.

Tank without granite? Excuse the incredible ignorance but how do you do that? Do you take all the other armours such as brimstone and crystal?

My stoner is now 43 and still going strong. Thanks to Whitey ol pal ;-), I now have provoke and taunt 6 slotted and finally my aggro management and catching mobs intent on hurting the team is complete.

I am always tanking +4-7 mobs in teams with no SK. My question is this: how the heck do other people hold aggro at this lvl in an 8 man team without using both non stop?