Fencer Archive

Howdy fellow Fencers,

Wanted to ask for your guidance.

As a Master Fencer/Master Doctor, I've always been a pretty solo kinda guy, but now with the CU I find it necessary to do a lot more grouping. (This is fine because I'm in a great Gorath guild, Broken Allegiance, BA), but I have relatively little experience tanking. Would someone mind explaining the proper role of a tanker and how Fencers generally fare in the role?

I'm hoping my few past experiences aren't indicative of future results. That is, when I've tried to draw a relatively high level NPC into combat with my group and to stand my ground, I've typically been killed by the creature in a relatively short time. I have a full set of battle armor, can deal fair damage with swords or batons, and can heal myself, but still seem to take damage quickly and die as a result.

Any tips or guidance you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Tanks all,
Casesan

from what ive discoverd with the new hate system in the cu its nigh on impossible to tank m8
this is mainly due to the fact that the mob hits aggros the hardest hitting target and that usually isint a melee char
hope they fix this soon

Taunt my friend, Taunt. use it to effectivly pull targets away from the weaker, and ranged players. keep COB on that will swave your life and apply blind and dizzy (if you have it)

taunt u gotta be joking i have stod there spaming area and single taunt (on a single target)one after the other constently i held the mobs attention for all of 1 second each time i taunted after the 1 seconf the mob went straight for the hardest hitting player the only profession we can really tank for is a tka and proberlly a pistoler
the hate system is a bit of a joke at the moment tho they are planning on fixing it i believe the other thing thats a big prob for all melee prof at the moment is the graphics lag on mobs what i mean is your standing next to the creature and getting the out of range message right now i cant see myself playing a melee prof which is a crying shame cause i love melee so much

Message Edited by evil_gnome on 05-11-2005 11:12 PM

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DoctorRoswell wrote:
Howdy fellow Fencers,

Would someone mind explaining the proper role of a tanker and how Fencers generally fare in the role?

Any tips or guidance you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Tanks all,
Casesan

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Here is the role of the fencer as I and my guild have used him. We used this scenario over and over again during the double xp week and it worked 98% of the time. I was able to achieve Master Fencer during this time.

We only took level 78 - 82 rebel missions against IMPs. (guess you could reverse for the same strategy if your an IMP) You really only need one ranged master (lvl 80) and a fencer, although with only 2 people it takes longer. Normally we would have 3 or 4 ranged riflemen with at least one being a master, and 2 fencers (master level fencersmade life easier for the ranged guys)

It doesn't matter who initiates combat first (i.e. the ranged or the fencer) the key is "normally" only one IMP will attack unless there is a "scout" in the IMP group. For the fencer the first attack is a KD (lunge) this knocks down the IMP and he can't attack the ranged guys. (In fact for the most part the IMP will only fire at the ranged players and not the melee ones) So the idea is to keep hindering the IMP with "blind", "bind", "Snare", "bleeds" and KD's. This for the most part protects your ranged players. The most wounds I have ever recieved using this strategy is "1", and I wear NO armor.

When there is a group of IMPs "merged" together, there is usually a "scout" in the pack. The pack can consists of anywhere between 5 - 12 IMPs. You need to kill the scout first (if there is one). How do you know there is a scout in the pack? Attack one, then runand they all come after you firing at you...that's when YOU get incapped and/or slain.

So the strategy is for the Fencer to be able to pick out the scout and initiate combat first with a KD (knock down) lunge attack. This gives the ranged guys a single target (the IMP scout on the ground). Once the scout is down it is easy pickings. KD the next guy, the ranged guys see him on the ground and wail into him.

Another option which we have used is to shoot into the pack, they will all run after the ranged guys, then they turn around and "retreat" and fall back into the "pack". The idea is for the fencer to KD the last IMP running back to the pack in order to isolate him.

That is how our strategy worked.

P.S. I don't know really what the term "Tank" means.