Returning Guard Questions

[DrenRawr]

Hey all!
I left AoC sometime shortly after Khitai came out. I never really got any of the Khitai gear.
When I quit I had full T2 guardian set, and an Ibis sword.

Back then, I could main tank, hold aggro like no other, and survive everything. Now...I cant even pull aggro from any guardians or dark templars in any group.
They all seem to have crazy legendary rings and more.

So, my question is..are there any tips on coming back on new specs, combo rotations, and where to continue gearing out?

I'm kinda lost which is a real mind blower because I used to know this game inside and out!

Thanks!

[magnum92]

Hey all!
I left AoC sometime shortly after Khitai came out. I never really got any of the Khitai gear.
When I quit I had full T2 guardian set, and an Ibis sword.

Back then, I could main tank, hold aggro like no other, and survive everything. Now...I cant even pull aggro from any guardians or dark templars in any group.
They all seem to have crazy legendary rings and more.

So, my question is..are there any tips on coming back on new specs, combo rotations, and where to continue gearing out?

I'm kinda lost which is a real mind blower because I used to know this game inside and out!

Thanks!

First of all, welcome back, it seems to be quite a number of returning players lately posting on the forums.
Tier 2 gear is not anywhere close to the caliber of the gear out these days. You can do raidfinder to get T4 gear, which is the only thing you need to do any content ingame. But I advice you not to, I would gear in Khitai first to explore and learn the game properly before I would set my foot in boring RF.

Im sure your rotation is not optimal after years of break, I have a video of my aggro-rotation on youtube, can dump the link here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs6nFKFrE6o

[DrenRawr]

First of all, welcome back, it seems to be quite a number of returning players lately posting on the forums.
Tier 2 gear is not anywhere close to the caliber of the gear out these days. You can do raidfinder to get T4 gear, which is the only thing you need to do any content ingame. But I advice you not to, I would gear in Khitai first to explore and learn the game properly before I would set my foot in boring RF.

Im sure your rotation is not optimal after years of break, I have a video of my aggro-rotation on my youtube, can dump the link here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs6nFKFrE6o

Thanks! I'll practice that rotation, but it isn't too far off from what I've been doing.
I'd like to think skill and practice can make up for anything, but I think the gear is just insane out there.

When you say Khitai gear, what specifically should I go for? So many different gear sets, blues, purples..and factions..i'm lost!

[Yawgmoth-VDN]

When you say Khitai gear, what specifically should I go for? So many different gear sets, blues, purples..and factions..i'm lost!

I'm not an expert tank, so I won't go into details about which piece is better, but generally speaking, you should go for a mix of Last Legion and Wolves of the Steppes sets.

For accessories, try to get the cloak from Vile Nativity.
Rings and necklaces... there are so many that I wouldn't even know where to start. I let more experienced tanks answer to this.

[redpooo]

As a guard you'll want to maximize your aggro prioritizing :

- Hate increase
- Critical Rating
- Hit Rating (very important until you get at least 15%, below that you'll miss often)

With that in mind, the Last Legion hate set is quite good, for Chest, Head, Legs, Shoulders, Wrists. The rest of the slots you can use either last legion or wolves of the steppes, whatever is easier for you (wolves being slightly better but it won't make a big difference). For protection fights, the T3 guard set is amazing.

Weapons : T3 shields are great if you can get them (otherwise just use the T2 shield), and in Kithai there's a very good 1HB : Blossoming Death from the yellow priests of yun.

Accessories : various kithai ring are decent, one worth mentioning is Death's Ward from the brittle blades. T3 accessories are the way to go for protection fights. Hate cloak drops in vile nativity. Hyrkanians have a decent physical necklace but it's not really worth grinding for that.

That seems like a lot but with RF you can get T3/T4 gear so you'll be able to skip some of the grind. Have fun running Kithai 6man instances, preferably with friends, in my opinion they're very enjoyable.

https://aoc.is-better-than.tv/armory.php

[magnum92]

As a guard you'll want to maximize your aggro prioritizing :

- Hate increase
- Critical Rating
- Hit Rating (very important until you get at least 15%, below that you'll miss often)

This is kinda true, but something to keep in mind is that you want a good balance between crit and hate, I would rather have 150hateinc 150crit then 300hateinc and 0 crit. So go for pieces that have both, dont stare at hateinc all the way. On my main guardian the legendary rings and t6 gear push me to around 27% hate and 22% crit, which is massive. But you're quite an aggrobeast already at 18% crit/hateinc.

Regarding hitrating, guardians is the class that requires least hitrating of all. From my own experience the innate hate from shieldslam goes trough even if your target parries the combofinisher. Could be tested pretty easily Just run with Pressing strikes and you should be fine, theres some nice faction-dps rings from khitai with good crit and hitrating.

Thanks! I'll practice that rotation, but it isn't too far off from what I've been doing.
I'd like to think skill and practice can make up for anything, but I think the gear is just insane out there.

When you say Khitai gear, what specifically should I go for? So many different gear sets, blues, purples..and factions..i'm lost!

Whenever im starting a baby guard, it doesnt take alot of gear before i can compete with well geared conqs and guards, so you are right about that, you just need a decent weapon, redpoo wrote nice pieces to strive for.

something thats obvious to most, but maybe not for you as a rather new player, is to preload shieldslam if the situation allows. If someone is pulling the boss from far away you wanna start the finisher of shieldslam as soon as the boss is in your vicinity. It gives you stronger initialaggro and you will have it off cd sooner, which means you will be one shieldslam ahead of other guardians for the whole fight, makes a massive diffrence

[DrenRawr]

This is kinda true, but something to keep in mind is that you want a good balance between crit and hate, I would rather have 150hateinc 150crit then 300hateinc and 0 crit. So go for pieces that have both, dont stare at hateinc all the way. On my main guardian the legendary rings and t6 gear push me to around 27% hate and 22% crit, which is massive. But you're quite an aggrobeast already at 18% crit/hateinc.

Regarding hitrating, guardians is the class that requires least hitrating of all. From my own experience the innate hate from shieldslam goes trough even if your target parries the combofinisher. Could be tested pretty easily Just run with Pressing strikes and you should be fine, theres some nice faction-dps rings from khitai with good crit and hitrating.




Whenever im starting a baby guard, it doesnt take alot of gear before i can compete with well geared conqs and guards, so you are right about that, you just need a decent weapon, redpoo wrote nice pieces to strive for.

something thats obvious to most, but maybe not for you as a rather new player, is to preload shieldslam if the situation allows. If someone is pulling the boss from far away you wanna start the finisher of shieldslam as soon as the boss is in your vicinity. It gives you stronger initialaggro and you will have it off cd sooner, which means you will be one shieldslam ahead of other guardians for the whole fight, makes a massive diffrence

Thanks! All your info has helped a lot getting me back into the game. I feel like my groove is coming back.
Two big issues seem to pop up though.

1. DTs are insane right? Did Funcom buff them or what? They get high on the dps list, can tank forever, have a pet to swap with, and have insane healing. It feels OP to me.

2. The amount of gear out there is crazy. I find most raids I'm competing against people with T6 gear, atlantean rings, and more. So, I can often do well at the start of an encounter and hold my own, but as time goes on they build up so much hate and whatnot from their stats it just gets harder and harder to feel impactful.
Also, I'm not sure where the Last Legion set ties into progression. I have T2 with a few T3 pieces. T3 gives protection, Last Legion gives hate increase and critigation. It seems like they are equally good..just for different purposes?
Then there is T3.5 I don't even know about. So i'm struggling to figure out how to progress in a way that makes sense.

All in all, i'm having fun. I'm just second guessing my oldschool guard and wondering if I just need more gear, or if I should just roll a DT (I prefer guard).

[Unutterable]

Thanks! All your info has helped a lot getting me back into the game. I feel like my groove is coming back.
Two big issues seem to pop up though.

1. DTs are insane right? Did Funcom buff them or what? They get high on the dps list, can tank forever, have a pet to swap with, and have insane healing. It feels OP to me.

2. The amount of gear out there is crazy. I find most raids I'm competing against people with T6 gear, atlantean rings, and more. So, I can often do well at the start of an encounter and hold my own, but as time goes on they build up so much hate and whatnot from their stats it just gets harder and harder to feel impactful.
Also, I'm not sure where the Last Legion set ties into progression. I have T2 with a few T3 pieces. T3 gives protection, Last Legion gives hate increase and critigation. It seems like they are equally good..just for different purposes?
Then there is T3.5 I don't even know about. So i'm struggling to figure out how to progress in a way that makes sense.

All in all, i'm having fun. I'm just second guessing my oldschool guard and wondering if I just need more gear, or if I should just roll a DT (I prefer guard).

Here's a name I havent seen in a long time. Welcome back.
1. DTs are made insane by their Alternate advancement perk Void of Madness. It stacks several ridiculous buffs. They do get extremely high on the dps list, can tank forever only if they profoundly outgear the encounter, good dts will have have a pet spec and a non pet spec, and can heal themselves very well with the right spec. They're aren't as durable as guards in the long run, and aren't as versatile as conks.
2. I see fresh bought guards in shitty t3 gear do well in k6 hardmodes, and I see raidfinder-geared t4 guards unable to hold aggro. The playstyle and rotation is just as important as the gear. And all the k6 stuff diverges from tier progression at t3, since t3 has no critigation and not much +hit. Wolves plate and Legion plate sets are both comparable to t3, and t4 builds on this. T3 itself is a dead end, there is no progression past it that follows that itemization budget. Everything has a focus on fewer stats to tailor the gear sets to the encounters (like Legion having two sets, one with lots of protection, and one having lots of hate, and wolves having a ton of con)

[Texan615]

For gear I'd recommend T4 Fearless set. It will have protection on all the pieces, yet enough hate/con to measure up well enough with the Courageous set for those fights you don't need protection.

Once you have a full Fearless set, then worry about building a full Courageous set to be able to specialize a bit better.

[tekila1970]

Sorry but this means that the guardian class is not on equal terms compared to other classes in causing hate until it does not reach t1, t2, t3, and more ... ????
How do you get people to start developing the guardian from the beginning with these limitations ...
I do not even want to talk anymore if you want to tank with a polearm ...
Incompreferable these limitations in the class that should dominate the threat almost by default and thus understand their function in the group
It seems then only a decent class with level 80 and progress ????
This is to seduce the novice player with this class ?????
Dementia or relative error of development of a class that is eclipsed in its essence by being almost relieved of its functions by unfair competition