how do I tank?

thefiresidecat

I have a fairly new GF (it's at about 2650 right now) that I tried to take into CN yesterday. I died pretty much instantly the first couple times I went in. (boss battle) I ended up bowing out because I was making an A#$ of myself and didn't want to waste anyone's time.

so the question is how the heck do you stay alive? Even shield up I was dead instantly. we had no healer. I don't know if that is the big difference or if I just am terribad (I'm leaning towards the second since I have no experience tanking).. So can anyone give me advice to help me be not so bad?

indylol

Fighters Recovery + KV + Guarded Assault make a good core of skills to keep you alive. If you are talking specifically about surviving orcus, hes kinda a HAMSTER boss because of how quickly he can 1 shot every member of your party if KV goes down. Try running with a HR for foxs cunning as it gives everyone a second shot at surviving a 1 hit.

Also if you're tactician, try protector until you become more comfortable with your self sustain.

boromir

The first hit from Orcus is a huge aoe. It hits everyone, especially overzealous GWF's that want to run up as soon as the boss fight begins. Keep your shield up and if you are a Sword Master......use 'steel defense' as your other passive skill. Get a daily, drop your shield, pop fighters recovery then a fray and raise your shield again. If you are having issues with stamina, always be shield bashing with your shield up. Always throw in a tide of iron and an enforced threat while steel defense is active. And always always always only pop fighters recovery as your daily. The animation is faster than any other....you'll be less apt to get one shot.

And of course, everything Indy said too.

thefiresidecat

sadly steel defense wasn't a thing I put points into. wondering if I should respec. what guide is best for a gf. I used fat mushrooms guide.

I'm thinking i need to practice in t1s with this toon before trying anything difficult. LOL. thanks for the tips. there is a lot more to this than I thought. the pally was very easy to use. LOL.

zman81420

Watch your positioning with KV on as your huge hits on your health will be dps not knowing to stay out of your shadow. Practice every encounter as you intitalizing the combat advantage.

thefiresidecat

I've actually given up on my GF. I'm just playing my hr now and my dc.. the gf requires too much fuss and I have a hard enough time with my HR. I don't want to screw up the work I've put into playing my main if you know what I mean. IOW it's at odds with the muscle memory for the hr. lol. the pally was easy.. the GF takes coordination and what not. i was expecting it to be plug and play but it's really not.

zman81420

Don't give up yet man its far more simplistic than your are thinking. Positioning is your #1 priority, watch how I separate the battlefield. You can always pm me, I'd be happy to help you.
https://youtu.be/YRY7BmlrMLM

djionicsxb1

PMSL zman trying to show how to tank with a pre-made group. REALLY showing NO skill there m8. No go pug with say one friend (IE your buff cleric or a dps'er) and then pug CN and show the video at the end. Im sorry but you are not showing anything in that video. TBH it show what pre-made teams using all the DPS multipliers can do making any dungeon easy. And possibly why they are taking the ITF down so much.

sulajpl

Well, if Your Cleric is polite enough, she can put the Astral Shields under Your feet. This might save You and won't reduce overall team boss melting capabilities, i think.

jaime4312

Imho, suggesting something who's asking for advice on tanking to use steel defense is a bad idea as that class feature is similar to the bubble in the sense that makes people lazy and oblivious about their own class aka get crushed when sd is not available.

In order to get better at tanking you need to do it the hard way so you can truly understand fight mechanics from both normal enemies and bosses, learn from your mistakes and always aim to improve, test different encounters and passive powers to see which ones suit your playstyle better and in a way that benefits your team.

oneblueeyethree

I suggest not giving up on the GF just yet. Orcus can be a tough fight!

Don't pay any attention to that video, either. Any GF can survive a very short Orcus fight like that. It's the ones that take 10 minutes that are tough.

My suggestion is to run ETOS. For me it was a good training ground. The end boss forces you to pay attention to positioning, without dishing out one shots for every mistake. She also has a lot of HP, so it forces you to learn to fight long battles.

For me success relies less on gear score and more on positioning and timing. Let me know if I can help.

oliboyph

oneblueeyethree#6279 said:

I suggest not giving up on the GF just yet. Orcus can be a tough fight!



Don't pay any attention to that video, either. Any GF can survive a very short Orcus fight like that. It's the ones that take 10 minutes that are tough.



My suggestion is to run ETOS. For me it was a good training ground. The end boss forces you to pay attention to positioning, without dishing out one shots for every mistake. She also has a lot of HP, so it forces you to learn to fight long battles.



For me success relies less on gear score and more on positioning and timing. Let me know if I can help.

ETOS is actually quite stable and easy. I would suggest you use ECC for practice. It's requires more map awareness and if you doze off you'll probably get wiped. The idea in sustaining a long Orcus fight is to continued understanding of what is going on around you while keeping an eye on the boss, ECC is perfect for this.

urabask

oneblueeyethree#6279 said:

I suggest not giving up on the GF just yet. Orcus can be a tough fight!



Don't pay any attention to that video, either. Any GF can survive a very short Orcus fight like that. It's the ones that take 10 minutes that are tough.



My suggestion is to run ETOS. For me it was a good training ground. The end boss forces you to pay attention to positioning, without dishing out one shots for every mistake. She also has a lot of HP, so it forces you to learn to fight long battles.



For me success relies less on gear score and more on positioning and timing. Let me know if I can help.

Honestly if you're taking ten minutes to finish Orcus you're better off just running elol.

thefiresidecat

I'm not on xbox any more even. LOL. I"m on ps4 now and I"m not touching the tank again. I"m not naturally good at it. but I hope this thread might help someone else who is having problems with the class. but as far as orcus vs elol.. elol has no where near as good a payout as cn. for the most part on ps4 though cn is impossible to get thru for almost everyone still. premade or not.

namelesshero347

Don't give up. I have a tact IV GF. I find tanking orcus is pretty simple now. Block and wait for his hit. Then do one, and only one, thing that has short activation, like FR, lunging strike, shield bash, and ITF. If you try to do two things after a hit, you will probably get hit before you can get your block back up. You can do FR first. Then if you need some heals after the hit, do lunging strike which heals you a bit with FR and increases you DR for the next hit.

I do the exact same thing when orcus is focused on a second tank or tank pets. This way I don't need to worry about orcus suddenly spinning around and hitting me. My block will be up when he hits.

I can tank orcus forever doing this. My main problem is the green balls. You need to face them with block if one comes your way. Try not to expose your backside to orcus. Get three balls and chances are its a wipe. That is why I prefer to see average DPS of 3K iLvl, or 2.7K with a good buffing DC. I want to done in a few minutes.

Mark is short enough activation to use to get aggro. Enforced threat also if your mark is not enough to keep aggro.

sulajpl

If I DID respec'd for IV...
Do I even Orcus now?
Or It wouldn't at all because of SD's 3,5 sec duration?

oliboyph

sulajpl said:

If I DID respec'd for IV...
Do I even Orcus now?
Or It wouldn't at all because of SD's 3,5 sec duration?

You can still tank Orcus with either path. You shouldn't really depend on SD. Read Orcus' timings, it's actually quite easy to do encounters while blocking all of his hits, the only problem is the green orbs, which you can all back away, since he won't go after you.