Tanks, how do taunts work here?

I think people are misunderstanding something about AOE Threat. There is no such thing as good AOE threat or bad AOE threat on all tanks. Yes Knight and Warrior has AOE skills but neither AOE skill can come close to potion spam. Potion gives you threat from all the active monsters. At end game, one maestro potion heals you 2500+ That's 7500 threat off the bad. There is no AOE in this game that can generate that much threat. No matter the tank, they should ALL potion spam when it comes to mob management. Besides, both Brandish Blade and Grand Cross has huge animation lag. It is like 3 seconds on itself. So Beastmaster and Monk's 3 sec cool down isn't that big of a deal. It just that they can't hit more than 3 enemies. Nevertheless, that does matter if you potion spam. Even the cheap potion you by from NPC can give you enough threat to control all the mobs.

This thread is amazing. Thank you all for all the information. This will help me greatly in the future. I had no clue about potions. That will greatly help me.

I do have a question in regards to the early spoken "bug" on which a boss locks to attacking someone and will keep attacking even if the tank has the highest threat.

Also besides the occasional targeted spell at random players (like the mentioned "turn you into a poporing" spell in wolf cave) are there anything else that makes a boss keep attacking someone who isn't in the top of the threat?

Another question. In Izlude Cave. The 2nd boss. As a healer I usually die there. If I don't someone else dies. Not sure if its the boss or the ads. Or both. They two shot me. Should I just don't heal when they spawn? When they do I go into panic mode and spam heals to survive and keep everyone alive and use health pots... I guess thats probably the worst I can do lol.

This thread is amazing. Thank you all for all the information. This will help me greatly in the future. I had no clue about potions. That will greatly help me.

I do have a question in regards to the early spoken "bug" on which a boss locks to attacking someone and will keep attacking even if the tank has the highest threat.

Also besides the occasional targeted spell at random players (like the mentioned "turn you into a poporing" spell in wolf cave) are there anything else that makes a boss keep attacking someone who isn't in the top of the threat?

Another question. In Izlude Cave. The 2nd boss. As a healer I usually die there. If I don't someone else dies. Not sure if its the boss or the ads. Or both. They two shot me. Should I just don't heal when they spawn? When they do I go into panic mode and spam heals to survive and keep everyone alive and use health pots... I guess thats probably the worst I can do lol.

that's when the boss actually goes into rage ...when that happens the boss damages everybody, not only the healer. When that happens you have to kill the boss asap before it kills all of u.

great read.. am learning to tank and I'm taking notes from this discussion

that's when the boss actually goes into rage ...when that happens the boss damages everybody, not only the healer. When that happens you have to kill the boss asap before it kills all of u.

No he does it mid fight. I think its probably the ads. Someone say they can crit and thats what might be killing me in two shots. I hope not... enemy's criting is a awful idea since you can't do anything to avoid it....

No he does it mid fight. I think its probably the ads. Someone say they can crit and thats what might be killing me in two shots. I hope not... enemy's criting is a awful idea since you can't do anything to avoid it....

Anything can crit, in hard mode dungeon it's not rare to have a random party member get 1 hit koed by a random skill crit from the bosses, and yes some bosses will randomly ignore aggro and some even ignore aggro completly to not name a certain someone in Sandstorm..

Anything can crit, in hard mode dungeon it's not rare to have a random party member get 1 hit koed by a random skill crit from the bosses, and yes some bosses will randomly ignore aggro and some even ignore aggro completly to not name a certain someone in Sandstorm..

To be fair, I think the CMs said they were going to get Gravity to look at that as it makes things luck based as opposed to strategy based. High difficulty is one thing, random regular one shots that can't be prevented is another.

I hope they do. Randomly getting killed is really annoying and ads nothing to the game. Nothing good I mean. Only bad.

Thankfully as a healer that is the only fight I have any problems with up to poison. Maybe because its a fight for people around 25 and they don't have many important skills yet. I hope they change that fight. I'm ok with it. But I bet many people are not.

I actually don't mind random target change. It makes everyone pay attention and eliminate the mindless tank and spank. People needs to bring potion to dungeon. Period. No matter what class you are. It is everyone's responsibility to keep themselves alive.

I'm a major noob tank and this thread has taught me a lot. I have another question. I've asked my parties this during dungeons and have gotten mixed answers. When we are fighting a boss, should I try and pull aggro on the adds, or just focus on the boss and let the dps take care of the adds? Regular dungeons, I'm not anywhere close to raids yet.

Thanks.

Another question as it is only here in RO2 that I decided to be a tank (Beastmaster) Should I continuously spam pots or only at the beginning of the boss fight or when when mobs spawn or both?

Oh and a little off topic. How do I make myself more desirable for raids? I know that Beastmasters are pretty much unwanted in raids, but what would give me a better chance of being wanted? Would I be more useful as an offtank or a main tank? I'm still lvl 29 and I kind of what to know which build would make me more desirable.

Lv. 46 Knight here. I have been tanking since Lv. 1. Here are some lessons I learned. Not everything are related to Provoke but i thought people reading this thread would be interested to know as well.

• don't spam provoke. Use provoke only if someone is getting close to your threat level or you need to turn a mob immediately. Think provoke as an afterburner / booster for threat. A good DPS tank shouldn't need to use provoke too often;
• to attract group of mobs, most efficient approach I found would be to spam Grand Cross followed by use of potion. That would generate a good amount of threat right away. Once you get their attention, raise Aura Shield and Shield Fortress (as needed). This will give 10 precious seconds for your DPS to launch nuclear silos;
• Priests are Knights' best friends (and vice versa). A good Priest team up with a DPS Knight is a fairly efficient farming combo;
• Alchemist is probably the best job for tankers due to how effective potion gains threat;
• do not underestimate VIT. While the Max HP gains is neglitable, it amplifies both your HP regeneration rate and potion potency. Late game, however, I can see more and more appealing of an AGI / INT Knight, both for gaining threat and for PvP with Critical Hits;
• Shield Fortress and Aura Armor are the defining skills for Knights. Max them and learn the timing of Shield Fortress.

I don't know much about the other tank classes. But for the less popular classes (like Beastmaster), my recommendation would be to form a static with a Knight and a Priest. You organize the party for your static. This way, you pick the DPS not other people pick you as the DPS.

Edited by tabernacle, 18 May 2013 - 07:47 AM.

Great discussion, amongst the most helpful posts for tanking.

Just one question, doesn't tanking increase threat BY 300% instead of multiplying it by 3? If so a potion that heals you for 2.5k should give 10k threat, an aoe hit that does 20% damage should give 80% threat etc. Mainly asking because if the skills multiply your threat by 3 and not increase it by 300% then skills like grizzly form lvl 1 should decrease your threat to 60%, something that doesnt seem likely/logical.