Guide to PVE Tanking and Group Leadership
(For New Tanks and Group Leaders)
Updated April, 2006

A little background: I am, as of this writing a level 60 Guardian on the Everfrost server.  I have also played every other class up to at least level 20,
some to level 50+ and some into their 30’s.

By writing this guide, I hope to share what I have learned about successfully leading a group in a player versus environment game as a main tank.  Any
suggestions or comments you have that would make this better or more informational please send them along.

This guide is targeted specifically at players’ level 30 and below as the tactics change quite a bit at higher levels.

This does not apply to raiding as raids are a horse of a different color entirely.

In my opinion, playing as a main tank and leading groups into combat are inherently linked at the lower levels of the game.  It is the main tank as combat leader that
should decide what mob(s) to pull, when to pull them and where to pull them.   However, bear in mind that if your tank is brand new to the game and some other group member has a lot of experience, the most experienced player should be the leader.


Archetypes in Everquest II:

The ideal group in Everquest II contains one of each of the four archetype classes: Fighter, Scout, Priest, and Mage.  It is rare to find a group
containing all four of these archetypes.  Most of the time you will find three of the archetypes in a single group and many times only two of the archetypes.

The various roles as defined by Sony appear to be as follows:

Fighter Archetype: Primary tanking class with good to excellent mitigation, low to medium damage per second, good agro holding abilities.

Mage Archetype: Primary damage dealing class with very low mitigation.

Priest  Archetype:  Primary healing and buffing class with low to average mitigation.

Scout Archetype: Primary utility class with above average damage per second and low to medium mitigation.

What The Terms Mean:

What exactly is mitigation anyway? Mitigation is the ability of the character to “mitigate” damage. Translated into plain speaking, if your mitigation is 52% and
you take a melee hit of 100 points of damage, it should lower the actual damage to your hit points by 52%, meaning that a hit of 100 effectively lowers your
health by 48 points if the mob is even to you.  Mitigation scales based on the level difference between you and the mob.

Avoidance is the ability to avoid any damage from a mob.  If your avoidance is 50%, you should have a 50/50 chance of dodging, evading, parrying or riposting
the blow from a mob even to you.

Damage per second or DPS as it is often referred to in OOC (out of character) shouts in the zone refers to the ability of the character to deal damage to an
opponent.  The higher the DPS, the more damage a character can deal over time.

How these are actually calculated in real time during combat is obviously Sony’s little secret, but the explanations above still apply.

Agro: Term describing whether or not a monster will attack you on site.  Also refers to the amount of hate generated by the monster toward a player in an
encounter.

Mob(s): Mob is actually an acronym for Mobile Objects, but in general use means monsters or unfriendly non-player characters.

Tank Classes in General:

Using the term “tank” to describe warrior classes became popular, to my knowledge, in Everquest I.  I do not know where it originated and may have been
in use prior to my hearing it used in Everquest.  The term refers to the warrior’s job to be the armor for the group, acting as a human tank absorbing
damage from the mobs in the encounter.

Tanks come in many shapes and sizes, classes and sub-classes.  In Everquest II, they are supposed to all be able to “tank” equally well.  In theory this may be
true, but in practice, there are many variables that make it the exception rather than the rule.

Like any class, tanks must be played well to be effective.  Playing a tank well means many things, but at the minimum, you must understand not only your
strengths, but also the weaknesses inherent in your sub-class.

It also means that you must always be working toward keeping your armor and
combat arts as high as possible for your level.

 

Playing the role of the MAIN TANK means you must have combat awareness of the situation developing as you engage mobs, the status of mobs in the immediate area, the position of the mob in relation to your group and the current agro status of the moobs you have engaged.

 

How do you do all those things?  You cannot just focus on the one mob you have engaged.  You have to be constantly scanning the immediate encounter area for adds (additonal mobs wandering toward your group), and if you are the only tank in the group, you must be ready to swtich to them if they engage, taunt them to yourself and then switch back to the primary mob again.

 

Having good targeting skills is a must for a main tank.  You cannot rely of TAB  to switch targets to pick adds, you must be able to get the mob targeted quickly with your mouse, tuant tant return to your original focus.

 

The Fighter Archetype in Theory and Practice:

You don’t play a fighter class in Everquest II so that you can deal the big damage. 

Your primary job is to hold agro, your secondary job is to mitigate damage and your third job is to hold agro.

Holding Agro or How Hate is generated in an Encounter:

Holding agro is a function of your generating as much hate for you as you can from the mob(s) in the encounter while preventing, if possible, your group
members from generating more hate than you.

What generates hate toward a player’s character?  In the case of fighters, hate is generated primarily by your taunts, secondarily by abilities that
specifically move you higher on the hate list and thirdly by the damage you deal to the mob.

As the main tank for a group, you should complete the first Heroic Opportunity (HO).  The reason for this is very simple:    By using your HO immediately after
you engage the mob, you not only get off your taunt, but you get off a damage hit that is 2 to 5 times higher than a normal strike with your weapon.  This
moves you up on the hate list a significant amount.

If you are in a group and you have a member that insists on casting or doing a positional strike or who insists on hijacking your first HO, they will
invariably steal agro from you.

If you are pulling a grouped mob, then you must use your group taunt in the first HO chain.

When a healer heals you, or a party member, they generate the same amount of hate for every point of healing, that they would if they did that much damage to
the mobs in the encounter.  This is why early heals are a no- no.  The same is true for group heals.  Groups heals should only be used out of combat or in a
last ditch effort to save the group in an encounter gone wrong.  Once a healer uses a group heal, they will almost always generate so much agro that you cannot
taunt a mob off of them fast enough to save them.  Make sure they have given you a Phoenix Feather or Spirit Guide so you can revive them. Providing of course
that you survive the encounter.

You must encourage your healers to use the smallest heals they can and still keep you alive.  Small heals cast more frequently generate the same amount of
hate, however the effect on the encounter is diluted by the other damage being done during that period of time.

You should ask casters in your group wait a minimum of 10 to 15 seconds after you engage before they start casting the big damage spells, to allow you to
build up some hate with the mob.

You would normally focus on the strongest mob in the encounter if you are pulling groups.  If the group pull contains all even mobs, it is still better to
focus on a single mob until it is dead rather than jumping around with your targeting.

The reason for this is that Everquest II has implied targeting, meaning that if a group member clicks on you, they are targeting the mob you are currently
targeting. If you jump around, damage will be dispersed among different mobs.   No one in your group outside of the healers should be using implied targeting unless you have a main assist assigned in your group.  More on this under the secondary tank heading below.

This is a problem because, when you pull a group of mobs: They are all focused on you and you are focused on one mob.  The extra mobs do not move others up the
hate list unless they are damaged by an area of effect spell or by over healing.

If it takes a long time to kill the first mob, your healer will probably get agro since heals generate a small amount of agro across all of the secondary
mobs. However, the chance that they will agro early in the encounter is much lower.

In that case, you would switch to the mob attacking your healer and attempt to taunt the mob back to you.  Once that is done, immediately switch back to the
primary mob until it is dead.

If you have a second or off-tank in your group, have them be the main assist.  There job is to keep the original target targeted until it is dead so that when
you switch mobs to get agro back, the casters and other DPS group members will still be on the correct target.

Learn to turn!!!

 

Many mobs in Everquest 2 have frontal attacks that can damage or stun any player in a 60 to 90 degree arc in front of them.  It is a good
habit to pull the mob(s) up to your group’s camp and them turn around and run back through the mob(s) away from your group to turn them.  This allows the
positional DPSers to attack the back of the mob, keeps healers, caster dumb fire pets and casters from getting stunned, damaged or killed by frontal barrages.  Turnign mobs should become a habit you don’t even have to think about.  You just do it every time.

As a tank you are a heroic character class, first to engage, last to run, ready to sacrifice yourself to save the group by holding agro while they escape if
needed.

Group Dynamics:

It is the group leader’s responsibility to be aware of and understand the overall make up of his or her group, taking into consideration not only the
levels in the group, but also the various classes in the group.

Leading a Group:

Some of what I write here is true in any group based, PvE game.  Some of it is specific to Everquest II.

First of all, someone has to be in charge.  That means that in the very beginning, before you ever pull the first mob or put up the first buff, the
leader for the group must be established and agreed upon.  In most cases, the main tank should be the combat leader, if not the group leader.  However, I will state here and in other places that the most experience player should be the group leader and or combat leader.

Why do I think it is preferred to have an experienced main tank act as the combat leader? : Because the combat lader  is the one that must make the decision on
what to pull.  As I delve into what makes successful groups work, I think you will see my logic.  However, an inexperienced main tank should not be the combat
leader.  You need to have the most experienced player either making the decisions on pulling and tactics or at least advising in this role.

Dynamics of Gaining Experience:

One of the most important concepts I have learned over the years of playing level based games is this:  The fasted way to level a character is to get the
maximum amount of NET experience over time.

What is NET experience over time?  Simply put you can figure is like a formula:

((Experience per kill divided by time to kill) divided by downtime) Less experience loss to death.

In Everquest II, the best experience comes from heroic con group mobs that are equal to your highest group member’s level,  because they factor into the
formula the best.

They are fairly quick to kill.
They do not drain resources so much that a lot of downtime is required to
recover from the encounter.
The chance of death is very low.

Obviously if your group is all the same level, DPS heavy with a good tank and two healers, you can do yellow or orange heroic  groups pretty fast.

Why Groups Die:

Lack of Communication
Failure by a group member to follow the rules of the group.
Random Pulling
Over Reaching

The First Rule of Group Leadership : Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.

You cannot be the strong silent type and lead a group.  They are depending on you as the leader to keep them alive, help them get some “phat lewts” and some
good experience.  In order to do this, you must communicate with your group constantly.  The worst group leaders in the game simply run off without telling
the group they are going to move to a new location.

I use macros to communicate what I will call squad commands for lack of a better term. They are:

Moving:  /g Moving now. Follow me please.

Together: /g Please stay close to me.  Do not run ahead.

Sow: /g All stop for Spirit of the Wolf and Rebuffs.

Run: /g RUN NOW!!! RUN NOW!!!

HO:  /g Heroic Opportunity is done!! Blast Away.

Incoming:  /g Incoming!! Bringing a %t!! Be ready.

Poke /e pokes %t in the eye. (Okay, so it’s not a squad command but I use it a
lot. 

I never move to a new location without using the macro to make sure my group is going to follow me.

If your group stops for more an a few seconds, tell them what is going on.  Inexperienced group members left alone will wander off, go AFK, harvest, etc.

If a group member does go AFK (Away from Keyboard), make absolutely sure that everyone is back and ready before you pull a mob or move the group.

Warning group members:

One of the hardest things to do is to kick a member from a group.  No one wants to be the bad guy or girl.  But, if you have a group
member that refuses to follow directions, they will get your group killed and waste your play time.   No doubt about it.  The famous last words of a caster
right before your group gets wiped out: “I can kill what I pull.”

A player who runs ahead of the group in hostile areas, wanders off, pulls without permission or refuses to follow group rules for the encounters should be
warned whatever number of times you can tolerate and then kicked from the group.

Now that there are no longer corpse runs, shared XP debt and a much lower debt penalty for dying, dying is mostly an aggravation rather than a real penalty.

Setting up Camp and Pulling:

The hard and fast rule in any group must be: There is only ONE PULLER. Nothing will get a group wiped out faster than people pulling while the tank is pulling.
Whether or not the tank is pulling, the tank or combat leader should say when to pull.  If you are pet pulling, scout pulling or something else, let the tank
say when he is ready for the pull.

Once you reach your hunting area, you want to observe the landscape to see where the mobs are positioned.  You also want to see if there are any mobs patrolling
the area and what the limit of their movement script is.  Then you will want to locate a spot where your group can safely stand with the least likely chance of
getting a random mob aggroed on them

Once you have set up camp, REMIND your group members to stay close in the area.  Casters and healers have a bad habit of backing out of the group area to cast,
putting them at risk of accidentally pulling random mobs.  It is your job as the group leader to ask them to move back in to the safe area if they wander about.
You have to be ever vigilant for the safety of your group.

Once you have your group positioned, get everyone to rebuff, set up wards etc.  Then scan the mobs in the area, assess the risk, tell your party members you are
going to pull to the safe area, then go and pull.  Use your incoming macro to alert them that you have engaged a mob and are pulling it to them.

Be wary of secondary tanks or anyone else that decides to follow you when you pull. This is a big problem.  Ask them to return to the safe area.  Make sure no
one went AFK and left themselves on auto-follow on you.

I find it is a good practice to pull what I think will be the easiest mob(s) for the first couple of pulls to get the kinks worked out and to make sure everyone
is following the rules, i.e. Don’t cast or heal till you see the main tank’s HO go off.

This will also give you a chance to see how your healer works and how well you are going to be able to mitigate damage and hold agro.

Once you think your group is working together properly, pull progressively more difficult mobs, keeping in mind the make up of the group you have with you.

Patience is a Virtue:

A key component to leading a group is having a lot of patience.  You must be patient in your pulling and not over tax your group’s abilities.   You must be
patient with the group’s members, watching over them to make sure they are moving when you move, that no one is falling behind, that people get breaks when
they need them to go AFK.  When you take on the role of group leader, you become responsible for the safety and well being of the group.

Leveraging Group Assets:

Another major part of your role as a group leader is to understand and leverage the assets in your group,.  By assets, I mean character classes.

Secondary Tanks:

If you have a secondary tank in your group, assign to them the role of main assist and explain what that means in case you have new players in your group.
The job of the main assist is to target the primary mob you want to kill and to stay on that target, independent of what the main tank is doing.

If you have a third tank, assign them specifically to “peeling”.  Their job is to watch for agro by mobs onto non-tanks in the group and to “peel” them off by
taunting, using HO’s etc.

Secondary Healers:

If you have more than one healer in a group, the highest level healer should be assigned to the main tank.

The secondary healer is assigned to all other group members.  The secondary healer should be watching to make sure that the primary healer can keep the main
tank alive and adding heals as needed, but primarily should be de-buffing, curing, and conserving power to back up the main healer.

Casters:

If you have an enchanter in the group, use them to help with crowd control.  If you are going to do this, you must explain to the group that the enchanter will
be attempting to mesmerize the mobs and to not use AoE spells that will break the mez.  This is another reason you do not jump around on your targeting and
should use a main assist, even if you do not have a secondary tank.  Assign the main assist role to a DPS player.

If you have a pet class in the group, you can use the pet to pull mobs in difficult areas since pets do not generate random agro.

If anyone has spells that can stun a mob, ask them to use it on the main mob.

Scouts:

Scouts are very valuable for pulling and require special group tactics as well.  For instance, what I did not include was the tactic of setting up a “kill box”.
In Dark Age of Camelot, every melee class has positional styles, unlike EQ2 where only scouts have positional arts.
The basic concept of a kill box is to set up the positional players, have the tank, pull the mob into the box and turn them as I explained in learn to turn
above, where the positional players have room to perform high damage positional styles.  I play with scouts quite a bit and love their damage output and adjust
my group tactics accordingly.  It is just another aspect of leveraging all of your group assets.

Non-Tank Pulling

Scouts are also effective pullers since they can pull without line of sight. The objective needs to be for the scout to pull with the least amount of agro
generation possible, get the mob in range of the tank and allow the tank to get agro. This tactic means that there is going to be an even longer period of time before
casters should cast since you are now using a 2-step pulling process.

Using the Stalk Pull is an excellent way to get mobs from a long range without drawing unwanted agro from other social mobs.

Since pets do not generate agro on their own, pet pulling is a good way to get mobs from areas that are crowded and difficult to navigate.  However, be aware
that the caster is going to get the agro and the tank may have a difficult time taunting the mob away to get control of it again. The best time to use pet pulling would be when you either have no tank at all, or the tank is several levels lower than the pet and in that case, the pet is
going to out tank the tank.  Then the tank is going to end up in a secondary role anyway.

These things should be explained to the group.  Never assume that people will do
this automatically.  Just start out by explaining that you want to best use their talents and would like to make sure everyone is cool with what you want to
accomplish as a group in the encounters.  Some people will take offense and accuse you of telling them how to play their class.  Chances are, these are the
people you don’t want in your group anyway.

Handling Named Mobs and Mixed Group Mobs:

With the last few updates, mobs in EQ 2 are much closer to player character classes than they have been in the past.  This means that you can normally
determine what class a mob is by observing it.

Mixed mob class groups should normally be killed in the following order: priest, mage, scout and then the tank.   This is because the priest mobs will try to
keep the other mobs healed during the fight.  Mage class mobs just do a lot of damage and need to be burned down fast.

If you are planning to take out a named mob group, then depending on the type and level of the named mob, you will probably want to have your main tank hold
the named while your secondary tank, which could be a pet class even, takes out the named mob’s support group.  This is true especially if the support group
contains priests or mages.

If you have a player in your group that can mesmerize mobs, then your tactic might be to mez the named or the support mobs while you burn down the
non-mesmerized mob(s).

Each situation is a little bit different, but focusing on understanding the threat make up of the target mob group is essential for tanks and group leaders
to understand and exploit.

A last bit of advice:

Being the group leader does not mean you should be a control freak. Tact is going to get you a lot further along than just bossing people around, etc. This
is a GAME and should be fun.  The entire purpose of grouping for me is to foster the social part of the game, not just to kill bigger mobs, etc.
I say, dying is part of the game and should be expected to happen, however stupid dying is just a waste of time and does not make for a fun evening of
play.

I love to teach and spend as much time as possible helping newer players learn the game and attempt to do so without sounding like I am trying to tell them how
to play their character. (Although sometimes you have to, like in the case of a cleric who does not know they can heal in combat. Eek!)

It is important to remember that level is not an indication of skill; it is just an indication of time invested.  You can never tell what a player’s skill level
is until you actually play with them.

Pick up groups are always a roll of the dice.

And don’t forget that sometimes you just have to stop the group for a minute and have a Dance Party!  /e “Brand dances with everyone.”

Happy Hunting!

Brand Cygian, Level 60 Guardian, Everfrost Server