Tanking guide: advanced strategies, AoE and raids

Parts 2 and 3 of LordGlav's guide

The second and third parts of the tanking guide by LordGlav of the Sieghardt server: advanced aggro-holding tactics, AoE leveling and raid boss tanking. The guide was written in the Chronicle 4 (Scions of Destiny) era. The tank classes themselves are covered in part one, and general party roles in Party leveling.

Advanced strategies

Hate is relatively weak, and teammates' critical hits easily pull aggro, so tanks often lose a monster's attention quickly (depending on the party). So always land the first few hits yourself together with Hate: even if the monster switches to someone else, it will deal part of its damage to you and part to the other person, saving the healer's mana.

Hate on a social monster affects all monsters social with it. If two social monsters stand together, cast Hate on one and attack the other: both will aggro, but more strongly the one with Hate. Here is how it works: Hate on a single social target causes half aggression in all social monsters in the area.

Option 1: you attack the monster with Hate on it. The whole party starts attacking it, generating aggression from all the monsters attacking you. Someone crosses the half-aggression threshold you created, which signals all social monsters to attack whoever crossed it.
Option 2: you attack the other monster, which has no Hate on it. Now you turn against yourself the monster that only has the half aggression from Hate. Your party's DD can now draw the Hated monster onto themselves while the other monsters stay on you.

When to use AoE Hate

If two non-social monsters stand together, do not use AoE Hate!
If three monsters stand together and two of them are not social with each other but both are social with the third, attack a non-social monster first - then two will attack you rather than three. Then attack the doubly-social monster before the others: hitting the monster that is social with the rest will send the last monster you have not hit yet toward you. The author is not sure whether "social hate" works here - you can try it yourself.
Save AoE Hate for dangerous situations when three or more monsters are already attacking you. But in that position, one stray monster caught in the radius and you are dead.

You do not have to Hate every monster

This is the first mistake many tanks make. Even just running into a monster's aggro radius generates some aggression toward you. If you do this about two seconds before the monster your party is fighting dies, you can even put a few hits into the new monster, turning it against you even more. In the catacombs, in a party, you can stand in the middle of a room and pull monsters with Hate, cutting running time and speeding up kills.

Always have a monster on you

While you move, wait, switch targets and otherwise are not attacking a monster, you lose time you could spend gaining experience. Use aggression buildup to your advantage: when a monster is almost dead, switch to another, raise its aggression (with a quick Hate, or a step aside and a hit), then finish the first. A good tank can increase the party's experience rate more effectively than any other class in the game.

Class and skill tips

Shillien Knights: Hex is your best friend. It casts only slightly slower than Hate, generates a decent amount of aggression and also lowers P. Def. If you have a strong melee party, a healer/buffer with Vampiric Rage helps HP regeneration a lot. At high levels Lightning Strike can paralyze a monster for two minutes - very useful when many enemies are around.
Human tanks in 90% of cases do not use Shield Stun on the monster they are currently fighting. Learn to use your stun to take monsters out of the fight for 8 seconds. It is very useful against monsters resistant to magic, Sleep or Hold: usually this is enough time to kill the current monster, and the number of monsters to fight goes down.
Save Ultimate Defense for truly terrible situations. Even 4 or 5 monsters are no problem for a tank with a good shield-blocking position. But if a hostile or careless player runs past with a room or two of monsters that switch to you, you will surely want Ultimate Defense.
Never underestimate Vampiric Rage combined with soulshots. The health a tank recovers with Vampiric Rage can even cover the damage it takes, especially with full support behind it. Besides, the tank's shield block negates a large part of the damage, so always use it!
Other melee classes. The class that pulls aggro fastest is usually the archer: even a single plain critical can pull all the aggro off the tank, while a crit or two from a Gladiator usually does not. Melee parties can make full use of Vampiric Rage and never need to rest for MP, which makes them some of the most efficient parties in the game.

Additions from other players

Ellyrion Fiallathandriel (Reckless_Knight on the official forums) of Kain: talk to your party's crowd controllers (CC). They may not understand these tactics and may sleep or root monsters, assuming that the tank should take care of the CC. Talking to your party is the first step to successful tanking. Every group has its own understanding based on experience with the tanks it has played with, so until you have a permanent clan party you will have to spend some time talking with the people you tank for. Remember that the most obvious thing the party sees is your gear, and they will judge mostly by it, knowing nothing about your real level or your experience with the class.

Lorak: when tanking, if you are not the one picking targets (most people just double-click to assist the tank), try to persuade the party not to change targets until the current one dies.

AoE tanking

AoE parties are challenging and risky, and rewarded with experience for it. The basic idea is the lure: usually a fast, heavily armored character gathers several monsters at once, and then the party kills them all quickly. There are two main ways: polearm tanking and Hate tanking. Only pure tanks can Hate-tank, but polearms can be used (with less effect) by anyone.

AoE tanking has three phases: set up, lure and kill.

Set up

The simplest part, but often skipped.

Decide how you will lure: with Hate or a polearm. Dwarves, Destroyers and Warlords are best for polearm luring thanks to their polearm skills. If a pure tank lures, use Hate luring.
The party should include at least one healer and classes with effective AoE damage skills - ideally nukers and polearm users. Overlords are useful too.
Good positioning is very important: a corner or another terrain feature helps keep the monsters at a good angle for blocking.
The main tank is often also the lure, but not necessarily. Sometimes a fast DD - an archer, a dagger, a Tyrant or a player in heavy armor - lures for the tank. This has advantages: the tank has full health when the train arrives, and a fast lure gathers more monsters in less time.

Lure

The second most dangerous part of AoE hunting. The lure must gather monsters for the party to kill without getting killed.

In C4 a skill damages up to 20 monsters at once, so the lure should not gather more than that.
The lure often, but not always, uses potions such as Healing Potions, Greater Healing Potions or, as a last resort, Quick Healing Potions to stay alive.
Gathering as many monsters as the party can kill without dying is crucial. Watch what the monsters are about to do: with bad luck, a slow, stun, sleep or paralysis from a monster can end the gathering and set your heart racing.
The most dangerous moment is the lure's return to the party. Once the lure stops moving, it takes huge damage from all the monsters it caught and may die. The healers must catch this moment and decide whether the lure needs one or two heals to survive. Most of the time it will be fine, because the tank takes the monsters at that point. Timing is critical here: the tank must quickly pull the aggro (or, if the tank is the lure, raise the aggression level), and then the healers can heal safely without being attacked by the train.

Kill

The train has arrived and all the monsters are on the tank. Time to kill them. In a polearm party everyone usually starts hitting right away: this raises the monsters' aggression and, combined with Vampiric Rage, helps restore health. In a Hate-tanking party, when the tank pulls aggro with AoE Hate, the Sorcerer or Spellsinger casts an AoE sleep on the monsters, giving the healers time to restore the tank. From there it is simple: hit them all and kill them fast! Loot and repeat.

Advantages of AoE leveling

Fast. If your party is good at luring, it kills more monsters in less time than traditional one-monster-at-a-time leveling.
Cheap. Nukers are usually inefficient in big parties because of their high mana cost per hit, but AoE nukers are best suited for killing three or more monsters at once: the more monsters an AoE skill hits, the more efficient it is. The cost of Soulshots and Spiritshots is covered by killing many monsters at once, improving the cost-per-hit ratio and saving the whole party money.
Thrill. The biggest intangible advantage is controlled risk, which really lifts the mood: your heart races from the adrenaline run with huge, angry, dangerous creatures and from wiping them out as one team.

Drawbacks of AoE leveling

There are three big risks: monsters, buffs and players.

Monsters. If the tank does not hold aggro strongly enough, the healers start healing too early, or someone else does something wrong, a key party member dies - and then the whole party. The best solution is making sure everyone knows their place.
Buffs. Losing buffs can be the worst thing that happens to an AoE party. The risk is reduced in C4 thanks to buff timers (you always know when to rebuff), but it is still very important. A Cancel at the wrong moment or buffs running out often contribute to the death of one or more party members.
Players. Lineage II is a PvP game, and that applies at all times. Players can break an AoE party faster than anything else: Silence or Cancel on the healer during a clan war, a PK tank or some DD can doom the whole party. AoE parties have to use AoE skills often, and hostile players can exploit this: a flagged hostile player steps into the kill zone, the AoE party gets flagged by its own AoE skills and is forced into PvP. Players often kill one or two key members and leave the rest to die to the monsters, hoping for gear drops. Most AoE parties regard this tactic with contempt, but their enemies can use these huge advantages.

AoE parties remain a fast, fun but risky way to gain experience. Even with the 20-monster limit introduced in C4 it pays off: the tank gets to do what it does best, and healers and AoE classes get a chance to shine.

Raid boss tanking

Tanks on raids

Temple Knight. Raid bosses call for an HP weapon, but a TK can choose to taste. It lacks the high CON of Human tanks, but it has Guard Stance and noticeably more CON than Dark Elf tanks. This combination makes the TK useful in most situations.
Paladin. Against undead raid bosses nobody is better: high HP and extra undead resistance are the decisive arguments for choosing a Paladin. Its 360-degree shield block makes it very useful against raid bosses with minions.
Dark Avenger. You will not go far wrong taking a DA to tank on a raid. It is the only tank without a 360-degree block, so it must rely on skills or luck to keep its shield between itself and the monsters. Damage Reflect is a self-buff that can add a significant amount of extra hate from the raid boss's strongest hits, but any tank can get the same buff from a nearby Sorcerer, Spellsinger or Warcryer.
Shillien Knight. With 11 points less base CON than Human tanks, SKs are usually used to cover for the alliance's other tanks or to plug holes in the defense. The key to keeping a raid safe is keeping the main tank alive - and that is not you. Low HP means the Bishop's all-important heal, Restore Life, works worst on you. When you have 6,000 HP, the raid boss hits for 500-1,000 per blow and mana is running out, you and your healers will sweat through this ordeal. The high P. Def from Guard Stance helps, but low HP and a permanent Guard Stance constantly drain mana from both the tank and the whole party. An HP weapon, a +CON tattoo and +HP/CON armor can soften this.

Tanking party makeup and teamwork

In a raid tanking party, the most important thing is to understand each other instantly. If you do not, no matter how many nukers you have, you will all die.

The author's favorite lineup: a tank, two Bishops, two Shillien Elders, two Elven Elders, a Swordsinger and a Warcryer.

This gives good MP regeneration for the Bishops (your main healers) and recharge for the tank. Plus you have two characters with a 30% heal and, in C4, Balance Life.
A raid boss deals 300-1,000 damage to the tank AFTER the shield block (depending on your level and the boss's), so 30% heals are very important. For the same reason, a tank with lots of HP is usually more useful than one with a slightly better armor set.
Optionally, you can replace one recharger with a Blade Dancer for Dance of Concentration, or swap one healer for a second tank. At least two Bishops and two rechargers on the healing side are recommended.
The Swordsinger is irreplaceable: Song of Earth, Song of Warding and (at high levels) Song of Vitality are mandatory.

Tank buffs. Even with Ultimate Defense and Swordsinger songs, the tank should carry at most about 17 buffs: many raid bosses desperately try to debuff everything around them, and if even one or two buffs on the tank run out, everyone is in trouble. Watch the buffs on the tank.

Give the tank only defensive buffs and Haste: if the monster flattens the tank, the raid has failed.
Keep the tank under 12 buffs before you start, because it will need 1 more slot for Ultimate Defense, 3-4 for songs and 1 for a dance.
Important buffs: Shield, Majesty, Magic Defense, Arrow Deflect (if the boss has archer minions), damage-reflecting buffs, Bless Shield, Advanced Block, Evasion (helps a little, especially on elves), Haste, Prayer (the higher the better), Body of Avatar/Bless the Body and Bless the Soul. Depending on the monster you may need Resist Stun, Resist Poison or Mental Shield.
The songs of Warding, Earth and Vitality are mandatory. Song of Revenge combined with damage reflection helps keep the raid boss's aggression high. Dance of Concentration helps the healers heal the party faster.
The author prefers a Warcryer as the tanking party's buffer: on raids where the boss has an AoE Cancel, everyone in the party gets their buffs back just three seconds after the cancel. Chant of Life is very useful against the poisons and bleeds the boss may put on the tank, giving healers a moment or two to remove debuffs.

During the raid

Do not touch the boss early. One of the biggest problems on raids is someone accidentally pulling the boss before the raid starts. If someone hits the boss, it will kill everyone in that party before it settles down again. Make sure nobody targets the boss before the right moment.
Buff simultaneously. Many high-level alliances always do this, but it is especially important on raids: every party rebuffs right before the start, so that no party starts losing buffs mid-fight and lowering its damage for a long time. Remember, sometimes it takes a Prophet as long to buff a party as it takes to kill the boss!
Starting the fight. The lead tank coordinates with the alliance leaders and the DD parties. The alliance leader runs the raid, but only the tank takes the hits from the very start. If a DD party is not ready, the raid can still be saved; if the tanking party is not ready, it is a disaster. The author uses the same commands for every boss: over voice chat he tells his party "Everyone watch my count" and slowly counts down from 5 to "Go".

Count	Action
5	everyone gets ready
4	Song of Vitality
3	Song of Earth
2	Song of Warding
1	the tank activates Ultimate Defense (as the situation calls for) and casts Hate to pull the boss
Go	everyone attacks

Advantages: you pull all the monsters onto yourself before anyone hits them, your Swordsinger knows which song to sing when, and only full control over the situation separates you from death or reward.

Hate. On a single boss, a targeted Hate keeps the boss on you. Bosses with minions behave like groups of monsters: Hate on minions draws the leader, attacking the leader draws the minions. Start with a single-target Hate, and an AoE Hate will bring the monsters to you - after that you only need to hold them. AoE Hate draws monsters more strongly but costs much more mana: save it and experiment with the timing. Make sure ranged minions stay within Hate range: nothing causes as much trouble as an archer monster deciding your teammates are a better target than you.
Positioning is the foundation of raid tanking. DAs and all low-level tanks must keep the raid boss and its minions in front of them, or they cannot block. Use the terrain: press against a wall or stand in a corner. With the C4 buffs that raise critical chance and power from behind, make sure everyone on the raid hits the boss from behind for a good damage boost. Make sure all minions are under Hate and stay under it.
Ultimate Defense in a series of raids. If you are the only tank and doing several raids in a row, save Ultimate Defense for bosses with minions. A boss with minions has a weaker attack than a solo boss and makes up for it with frequent extra attacks. Alliance leaders should make sure the minions die first and only then go for the boss; with a decent raid party most minions die before Ultimate Defense wears off. If you are fighting a solo boss and rely on Ultimate Defense alone to survive, you have probably attacked a boss too high for your raid.
The tank's job. The tank does nothing but keep the boss on itself at all times. For that, the Elf and Dark Elf healers in its party must recharge it constantly. Finding the optimal interval between Hates and mana regeneration is one of the biggest challenges for an inexperienced tank: Hate too often and you run out of mana, too rarely and someone in the raid dies. Rechargers give the tank confidence in its mana. Even three or four seconds without MP are enough for your nuker to pull the monster and die.
The tank's HP. A properly buffed tank has 6,000 to 12,000 HP depending on tattoos, songs and set bonuses. Stay among the healers who will heal you. It is normal for a tank not to be at full health: holding 50-70% HP you have 4,500-7,000 in reserve. In a really risky situation you can even leave the tank at 30%, relying on Final Fortress raising a dying tank's P. Def. The tank should tell its healers how hard it is being hit, and the healers should know how much they need to heal. A high-level tank with good Elven Elder shield-block buffs will block every hit, taking 300 to 1,000 damage per hit from the raid boss or minions. In a long or small raid, success or failure depends on how well the healers conserve mana while healing.
Emergencies. Things happen: the boss lands a lucky hit, a healer disconnects, the nukers run out of mana, or the tank dies. If the tank dies, the obvious advice is to have a backup tank who starts pulling the boss; it may take frequent Hate, but if the tank is persistent, the boss will come back to it. If the tank has no mana for Hate, the boss will switch to other people very quickly - make sure there is mana, and let the nukers slow the boss so everyone can back off. If all DDs are out of mana and there is no hope of killing the boss, the tank can sacrifice itself for the raid: the tank (and possibly a healer) can stay alive long enough for everyone else to leave the fight and log out, dropping the boss's aggression. The tanking party must tell the raid leaders when the tank is low on mana or losing aggro. Knowing when to give up can save a huge amount of experience, time and possibly gear.

Armor

For Human tanks, raids depend more on HP and shield blocking than on how much damage you can absorb per hit.
For SKs and TKs, HP is also very important, but the extra P. Def from Guard Stance and the highest P. Def you can assemble are vital to make up for your low base CON.
For 52+ raids, the main tank armor set is the Doom Set with its +3 CON, HP bonus and shield block bonus. The extra 24% shield block chance combined with other buffs lets any tank block every hit. Shield blocking is critical in raid tanking, avoiding large chunks of damage.
The Dark Crystal and Nightmare sets are good, of course, but they will never give a good shield block chance or permanent HP bonuses.
Do not wear anything below B-grade for 55+ raid bosses. For lower bosses, the Full Plate set suits 40+ raids and the Brigandine set suits 20+ raids.

Which tank to choose

Two tanks stand next to you, each eager to attack the Big Nasty White Elpy King standing nearby. Whom do you choose?

Level. Every tank can handle most raid bosses if they are close in level and decently geared, but some are better suited to particular bosses. A higher-level tank will do better than a lower-level one in most situations.
Tattoos. A tank with +CON is more useful than one without a tattoo or (completely wrong) with -CON.
The boss. If the boss stuns, a Human tank with high base CON is a great fit. If the boss has many minions, a tank with a 360-degree shield block may be the best choice.
The people. The tank's profession is the hardest in Lineage II, and for many tanks, facing a raid boss head-on, or having the chance to sacrifice themselves while killing Antharas, is among the highest goals. Most of the time, if the tank matches the boss's level, you will be fine. If they have patiently gained experience watching other tanks, they are ready to face the danger - so let them!

Author of the original article: LordGlav