Engage - Shield Skill is it Worth it ?

[Diddyman]

Hi,

As a 2H user, I was thinking investing a small amount of points in Shield to get the Engage Skill.

My understanding is that when you use Engage you Block about 90% of attacks.

Is this RANGED attacks or general MELEE ?

For example lets say we had a 1fg vs 1fg fight, and lets say I was being beaten up badly, as all my group members were busy killing the enemy, if I used Engage could I then block 90% of incomming attacks to buy me some time until I received assistance from my group ?

Thanks
Diddy

 

[CliffyG]

I was under the impression that engage was sort of like a taunt ability, it allows you to gain attention of the mob. You will block it more than usual but in return won't hit as much. It is quite likely that i am wrong though.

 

[Gabrial]

You wont hit AT ALL if you use engage. As soon as someone whacks the mob it will come for them instead though. Also I dont think you can use engage on a mob that has already been hit.

It can be used against ranged attacks and melee but it also drains END (I think)

 

[Yussef]

Engage works on melee/ranged, high weaponskill/dual wielders can bypass it more often. Seems 90%+ chance to block, cant attack back whilst actively maintaining it, although you can engage/attack, but this allows you to be attacked back for a bit, if someone else attacks who you're engaging, it will fail.

 

[old.Hardbein]

ENGAGE
Engage raises your block percentage to 85% chance to block. However, when you engage, you cannot do normal attacks. And once a mob has been under attack, you can't engage it. So when do you use it? Well, it is highly effective against archers. You block the arrows shot at you.

How do I know it is working? You get the message "You concentrate on blocking the blow"

Uses of engage: Suppose you pull some mobs, and you don't have someone to mez or stun the mob that is just that one too many to handle right now. Person with Engage skill takes up the add, hits it once or twice UNTIL HE HAS AGGRO, then switches over to Engage. The rest of the group kills the rest of the mobs, and finishes the engaged one later. For a tank, either solo or in a group, Engage is a nice way to start your fight. You block the first hit, and can immediately follow it up then with styles that require
block as an opening. It just gives you that extra edge.

Mythic has recently patched the game to make Engage a bit easier to use. Allot of people though it was broken, but that was because of a small flaw. Before the patch, you had to be in combat mode to engage a monster. If you can imagine, how can you target a monster, then enter combat mode, and THEN hit the Engage skill before you swing at or attack the monster? You would always smack the monster once before you engaged it, and because of this, the monster would get a round or two of free attacks on you, and then people would think it was broken and then just start attacking it. If you had just waited a bit longer, and if no one was messing with the creature, you would eventually start blocking attacks. This has since been fixed. Now, you don't have to be in combat mode to engage an enemy. You can simply target it, and then hit engage. Furthermore, you can either attack, or chose a combat style, and it will take you out of engage mode, and put you back into normal combat mode. This is also the same patch that made shields con correctly, and also extended the range of the guard skill.

Some skilled players use engage to force a "block", following up with "block" dependent styles i.e with mid/hammer styles u get a stunn-combo chain triggered with block.

 

[old.Isos]

Its kind of hard to get engage to stick. you cant engage someone that has recently been hit, so you need to time it between attacks. and it kind of takes end, but thats where endchant comes in =)

engage is about the best thing ever given to a tank =)

 

[old.Hardbein]

We (Onslaught) did an experiment on the über-guards at Castle Myrddin the other day with a few Warriors (sheild speced) where we tried to engage em. Giving the warriors endregen and pbt.......we were able to hold (engage) the guard for prox 2 mins....then the uber guard just gave up an returned to the keep ....without hitting the warrior once Engage is soooo underestimated!!11

*guess this is the wrong forum-section to post such, but nm*

/salute to Bodond/Winky for beeing "Crash Test Dummies", u guys rock...ehhhh I mean block...whateva

 

[SilverHood]

I remember one time, at AMG in emain

3 scouts we're popping arrows into me...
I just cycled engage on them.... block on, engage on the next one... eventually they gave up.

Engage is an archer killer, even with just 7 shield.

With +50 shield, Archers need to get lucky to get past me if I'm not using engage (test with a hunter, 1/3 got through, she was buffed, I wasn't), with engage, she gave up after 8 blocked shots

 

[Roalith]

Everything you could ever want to know about Engage

Taken from a guide I posted for my guildmates.


Okay, not many people know or use the Engage skill much. It's a very powerful tool that tanks possess, and is really very underused.

I'll describe what can be done with it here, but if anyone wants a quick workout with it, give me a /send and we'll go play with Cornish Giants, or something.

Engage can only be used provided NO-ONE else is hitting your target. If a mob that is engaged gets hit, it knocks your Engage off, and the mob starts beating on you again.

The standard useage for engage is, as everyone knows it:
Use it on a mob that's hitting you, and hasn't been hit recently. You will then block 95% of it's hits, nearing 100% with higher shield spec.

Things that people don't often know:

If you taunt a mob onto you, then engage it, it will hit you 2-3 times, then Engage will kick in again, and you'll start blocking it once more.

Engage also works through your guard skill. You can engage an opponent that is hitting the person you are guarding - provided, of course, noone else hits it. For example, picking on Wibbler as an example:
Myself and Wibbler pick up aggro, he gets a Succubus and I get a Mahr. We are guarding each other. I engage the Succubus, Wibbler starts hitting the Mahr. 45 seconds or so later (adjust for the eons it takes twisting pallies to solo things ), the Mahr lies dead on the floor, and I'm still blocking every hit the Succubus is throwing at Wibbler. We both then turn on the Succubus, and kill it.
This is the one that people don't often know about - if the above isn't clear, I'll happily demonstrate for you sometime. This tactic can be a lifesaver in certain situations - just now, with Laird, Terraa and a few other people, we were doing Cthonic Knights at the entrance to Legion's area. The 50 pally obviously took a lot of aggro, with his heal chant - so I placed guard on him, picked one of the knights that came at us, engaged it, then told the group which mob I was engaging. Provided noone hit the mob I was engaging, I would negate every swing it took at the paladin with my own shield.

Other things with engage... took a brief jaunt into Emain earlier. A level 50 Lurikeen Ranger took a shot at me, which hit me as I obviously didn't see it coming. I did /face, Engaged him, and blocked every other arrow he chucked at me. Sprinted up, slammed him, got a polearm style (and a miss) in before the stun wore off... then he turned tail and legged it - I couldn't catch him as I was out of endurance. This would have given me the chance to escape if I had wanted to, however I wanted to nail the lil bugger and rested a bit to get some endurance back. 2 minutes later, another arrow... 10 minutes of cat and mouse before I ran out of hit points. Normally time for the zerg to arrive, unfortunately it was 2am and noone was around.

Last note: Engage DOES use endurance, for each hit you block you use about 2% of your endurance bar. That's still circa 50 blows you'll block before things start getting worrying.

 

[Gimly]

Re: Everything you could ever want to know about Engage

Originally posted by Roalith

Last note: Engage DOES use endurance, for each hit you block you use about 2% of your endurance bar. That's still circa 50 blows you'll block before things start getting worrying.

I found its more like 15/20 hits you can block before you run out of end.. but it has been awhile since i tried.

 

[Fightersuntzu]

Worth the 7 shield spec, definitely, you'll lose 1 high level point somewhere else(or not, if you're an autotrainer).

Use. Enjoy. Be happy.

 

[old.willowywicca]

Re: Everything you could ever want to know about Engage

Originally posted by Roalith
10 minutes of cat and mouse before I ran out of hit points. Normally time for the zerg to arrive, unfortunately it was 2am and noone was around.

 

[Barek_Pureblade]

i was gonna dreg Roa's post out but he's done it already

Does lvl matter? my paladin is lvl40 and when i duel high lvl's my engage doesnt always work, they sometimes get attacks through my shield.