The gear hump for a new tank... What do to?

[Shax84]

So I've noticed something when trying to get into K6 groups - If you're a soldier and you're not tanking, you're likely not doing the instance (because to dps you'd be taking a Rogue/Mage slot).
However, if you don't have enough gear, then you're not gonna be able to tank the Khitai stuff.

It feels like I need rares to get gear to get into the instances where I get the rares...

What's a new Soldier to do?

1) Put all important AA on timetraining if you dont have them. Decisive Strikes x5, Resolve, Void of Madness should all be trained before you think of joining a HM.

2) Build. Offtank or maintank? As off tank with low gear, go with a Desecration build with Armor, Goad, Improved Def stance and Cunning Deflection. As main tank you will not likely hold agro without dying until you get more dps (taps) or more gear (survivability). You will find the threshold while playing. You should always aim at having 50,1% armor mitigation at minimum while tanking physical encounters.

3) Gear. Helm, Hands, Chest, Legs, Rings and Weapons should *always* have the "Critical Rating" stat on them. Even if it means it is not heavy or full plate armor. Starting out, you should get Helm and Gloves of the Warmaster (crafted trader items). Energetic Bands or Dreamers Keepsake rings. Blue Iron Hammer and Talisman of Power or a **** shield and do KK until Essence of Courage and Entropy talisman drop. Chest and Legs, go with class epics from T1/2 until you farm enough rares / get lucky and get the good ones. Tamarin Tiger chest and Last Legion Battlements legs are the "best" Khitai items for DT in Chest and Legs slot.

4) Rare Trophy farming. A lot of it. I don't think I am overestimating when I say I have farmed between 2500-3000 Rare Trophies on Shaxtina.

Actually it's way better to farm faction blues than T1/T2 gear since it's totally crap for dt, only the weapons are useful until you get some khitai epic.

Actually not. You need to meet mitigation tresholds for Khitai 6-men instances. You most likely won't in blues. T2 chest and legs will boost mitigation so far up, you can wear magic damage / wisdom stuff and compensate for lost damage from blues and still be over 50,1% mitigation.

I was OT'ing Flame/Vortex/Palace like crazy when I wanted to gear up my DT.

Get a blue crafted set from the trader and put white gems in it for OT'ing Vortex and Palace.

FYI: At Palace you want to break line of sight on the spell cast by the healer. He will however run over to you and smack you with a physical hit before you can break line of sight again. Protection gear is a complete waste here, unless you plan on letting him cast spells on you while you dps boss. But you need at least 45-50% protection to not die and nice dps to be able to do that.

[Erock25]

Shax, where do you figure there is a minimum armor threshold in k6? I've only ever seen it mentioned by a dev for raids. I've tanked every k6 outside of dugout and tian with dread/tali build with 46-47.5% mitigation.

[Shax84]

Well, I have no proof. Sidar mentions it in his guide, and I "feel" I take more damage with under 50% than over. With gear and tali build you'll outweigh the mitigation penalty with the health taps anyway.

[Sarhal]

Mitigation treshold kinda myth imo, I tanked on mine dt whole t4 with 48,9%-49.5% armour without much troubles. Imo when u get moar armour u just getting closer between amount u outheal and amount of damage u get so it feels like u getting alot more miti. Besides FC use dynamic stats scaling and it should be taken in account, for example if u increase mitigation from 50% to 51% in fact u decrease incomming damage on u in comparison to previous states by 2%, so even getting 2%-3% of armour could be quite noticable.

[Sidar]

Its has been mentioned Since start of AOC and there was a Old post confirming a hidden mechanic in raid instances that penalized players with low tier gear, both in intake and out-take of dmg. Keep in mind that this is a post that dates to the release of BRC, It was cause at that time people weren't having a easy time surviving in BRC and stuff and that fact that the semi or full t1 players survived was a cause for conversation, good luck finding it. im not gonna try.

The mechanic might been dead since that time who knows. Its hard to confirm, I feel that having 50.1% mitigation and having 49.9% is alot more than 0.2% difference, but then again it might be just me.

[Sidar]

I tanked on mine dt whole t4 with 48,9%-49.5%

Surviving and kitting is not tanking sinõr Sarhal.

[Mellaus]

Mitigation threshold is only for raid encounters, nothing else.

[Sarhal]

Surviving and kitting is not tanking sinõr Sarhal.

It wasnt me who spent 40 minutes for killing Strom :P

[Sidar]

It wasnt me who spent 40 minutes for killing Strom :P

Yes you did, several times. some of them with me

[Sarhal]

Yes you did, several times. some of them with me

Mine longest Strom was about 15-16 mins in twelve men, when u was starting I was away, so I just heard about them from night crabs guys. So Nevah! :>