AOC - Guardian

[Bubba Grizz]

Are there any other people playing Guardians besides me?

[Funkmasterr]

I see what you are doing here and I don't like it.

[Bubba Grizz]

Very distinct questions that I don't want to get lost in the huge thread.

[Spang]

We better stop discussing AoC, it's upsetting Funkmasterr.

By the way, I'm not playing a guardian, yet.

[Aardor]

I see what you are doing here and I don't like it.

Deal with it, I plan to make individual threads for Assassins, leveling guides, lore, pvp guides, and quests =). I might even put a new thread in the console forums about AoC coming to the xbox360, just for you.

[Aardor]

Are there any other people playing Guardians besides me?

I am not, but a very good friend of mine is. If you have any questions, I can direct them to him, he had an 80 Guardian in beta, and has pvped and pveed extensively with the guardian.

Also, F your plate wearing ass that can 2 shot people wearing a shield, while taking 0 damage!

[noel]

Funk, I'll prune out your posts into a big Funkmasterr whines thread if they become a problem.

Bubba, I have a conq, a barb and now a dark templar, but no guardian as yet. That said, I'll be interested to read about this class if you have any good info.

I think for all of my classes, I'm kind of selecting feats and assigning skill points without a very high degree of confidence that I'm making the best choices.

[Funkmasterr]

Funk, I'll prune out your posts into a big Funkmasterr whines thread if they become a problem.

Bubba, I have a conq, a barb and now a dark templar, but no guardian as yet. That said, I'll be interested to read about this class if you have any good info.

I think for all of my classes, I'm kind of selecting feats and assigning skill points without a very high degree of confidence that I'm making the best choices.

Funny that a whiney pussy like you is pointing out my whining, when I'm just joking Go ahead and abuse those mod privileges though, won't bother me any!

[noel]

Glad you're joking.

I have no desire to moderate at all, but it's not fair for 1 person to ruin the conversations of others.

[Truant]

Funk, I'll prune out your posts into a big Funkmasterr whines thread if they become a problem.

Bubba, I have a conq, a barb and now a dark templar, but no guardian as yet. That said, I'll be interested to read about this class if you have any good info.

I think for all of my classes, I'm kind of selecting feats and assigning skill points without a very high degree of confidence that I'm making the best choices.

Funny that a whiney pussy like you is pointing out my whining, when I'm just joking Go ahead and abuse those mod privileges though, won't bother me any!

I'm pretty sure you'd cry harder than you've ever cried before (and we can see you've cried REALLY hard by looking through your post history), but I know you're trying to play internet tough guy...so uhh carry on or whatever.

[Bubba Grizz]

Here is a guide to tanking as a guardian. He's level 80.

This guide is my experience at level 80. Feel free to augment and/or add feedback and I will try and update this with new information regularly. The following is my opinion on the most efficient and effective way to generate aggro as the main tank of your group.

Ok, this is for the Guardians out there who seem to have trouble tanking or finding a good tanking spec for endgame or just in general.

This is also a good read for Non-Guardians because it is you who must cooperate with the Guardians' somewhat radical style of gaining aggro and AoC's odd group dynamics.

Firstly are some specs which are meant for tanking but have different augmentations to make them more useful in different situations:

A Group PvP/Tanking Hybrid spec (my personal fav):
http://feats.goonheim.com/guardian#t...f5g5h3i3k3m1o3
Utilizes Improved Overreach and Stand Your Ground/Drive Them Back group knockback effects which makes it a viable group PvP spec although it can tank very well and the group knocback is very effective in certain situations like minion zergs which need AoE.

A PvE focused spec (submitted by Vicarcine):
http://www.aocdps.com/feat/guardian/...15533030103000
Purely specced to absorb as much damage as possible for survivability.

A Raid Focused spec (submitted by Mysteltin):
http://www.aocdps.com/feat/guardian/...15003300113111
Specced for utility and specifically the raiding aspect which may involve juggling the mob between two Guardians. Assumes the Goad ability will be fixed.

I'd like to see other peoples' tanking specs and have them added here.

Anyways, now that we have a tanking spec of our choosing:

Ok, on to the group basics. Make sure that Provoke Maneuver is on. The way that group dynamics seems to be working in this game is that the Guardian pulls the mob via ranged pull. You know all the whining in the forums on how the mobs go straight to the healers? That's because of body pull and the mobs fly by making it almost impossible to time a hit. If you range pull with a mediocre crossbow, even if you have HoT's on you, the mob will come straight into your arms and minimize the proximity aggro.

Now, immediately after firing off that ranged shot, start loading up a debuff combo, my personal favorite being Counterstrike because it gives the mob 2 debuffs which generates MASSIVE hate not including the massive DoT it deals.

The most important part, however, is that the group understands that this combo MUST be landed and the mob MUST attack you at least ONCE before DPS can start. So tell your group to look for the big shield above the mob before they start dps'ing if they don't want to die : ).

This part should only last for about 4 seconds.

Now, the rest is up to you, the Guardian. You can dish a helluva lot of damage with Overreach if the mob has small HP. Or you can generate even more hate with Dulling Blow and its Bleed debuff for the longer lasting fights.

They key to aggro generation is debuffing the mob with as much as possible.
Some key skills to do so (in order of my opinion of which gather most hate):

(This may be different for non level 80s as overreach is not as powerful)
Counterstrike -> gives mob 2 debuffs with high DPS(with bleed feat)
Overreach -> Massive Damage = Massive Hate
Dulling Blow -> 2 debuffs (with bleed feat)
Guard Destroyer -> 1 debuff

Usually all three won't be active because the abilities won't cool down fast enough even with the Readiness feat. Most of the time Guard Destroyer won't be used but it is an option for hate gathering for example on casters, in which Counterstrike is useless.

Also, don't be afraid to use Plexus Strike and Battle Cry as soon as they cool down; you can't hold aggro with out Stamina right?

Some things to avoid are knockbacks. Some are fine and unavoidable like the innate knockbacks rangers have, just make sure they know to stand BEHIND the mob so that the mob doesnt get knocked into other mobs.

The Guardian knockbacks should be used for emergencies like AoE pulls with Stand Your Ground and when you lose aggro of a mob. You can knock it down long enough to pull off a debuffing combo or an overreach would get it back too.

In the case of 2-pull or 3-pull mobs (consider an off tank or CC for 3-pulls, and if the mobs hit extra hard try and CC 2-pulls as well), tell the group to lay off all HoT's and DPS until you can get them into your cone effect area and can hit all 2 or 3 with your opening hate combo.

As someone brought up casters, what you would do is use Dulling Blow and Overreach to keep the aggro on just that one. The others, if ungrouped and out the AE of your attacks, the group must stunlock and try to burn it down ASAP. This might be a situation where Guard Destroyer comes in handy to try and squeeze out more hate gain. Two-caster pulls are incredibly difficult and seem to be rare thankfully.

Guardian, inform your group of how to adapt to this wacky style of tanking. And group, have patience and listen to your Guardian. This will be like instinct in no time.

Hope this helps all the new Guardians and groups out there who feel lost!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by Crion; Today at 01:41 AM.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

Nice!

[Avestan]

Just started a guadian. I will be Bubba's mentee.

[Avestan]

Finally had some time to play last night and got to level 15, having more fun as a guardian than I did as a priest or as an assassin so far.

[Bubba Grizz]

From my own experience, going Sword and Board is the way to go. Using the Counterstrikes makes life much easier. I have 3 counterstrikes and I use all of them or some of them depending on the fight. If it is just a single mob I'll just use one but maybe two if I need him dead faster. On big fights where I am solo against 7-8 mobs I use all three. I am constantly moving to get into position to get as many mobs in my cone as possible. I love this class though.