What is a tanks roll in NF?

[Crookshanks]

Having just finished a particularly frustrating battle at Surs - I'd like some advice for what I should be doing (as a tank) in keep offense/defense in NF.

As an (s/s) armsman, I accept that I'm never going to be "ubah" in an rvr sense, yet increasingly I am feeling a total rp leech in my group. Tonight, after 90 minutes of rvr, I can count the number of times I've successfully hit an opponent using the fingers on one hand - and thats not due to a lack of enemies. Even when I did hit, the damage was so pitiful I could almost hear the enemy laughing. Buffed I seem to hit a chain wearing middy for around 160-200 with my slow (4.0s) sword (and lowish quickness due to running out of imbue points in template ggrrrr), which means the amount of time it would take me to bring down a 2000hp healer for example gives them plenty of time to run to the safety of their colleagues, or through the oil-secured door of a keep. Even landing a slam (when the enemy actually doesn't manage to get "out of range" somehow) only gives 9s at best, which might permit me on a good day to hit them for around half their total health.

The evening culminated in a battle on the ramparts of castle Surs, where shadowblades were climbing the walls, attempting a PA, to which I'd reply with an (evaded) slam attempt. The SB would then proceed to jump of the battlements in complete safety (which must of the order of a 30m drop - gifv safefall irl imo), at which point I appeared to be "in view" of casters despite still being located behind block of rampart stone, and got hit by 2 to 3 blasts of magic (again despite me running back undercover). A similar magic problem occured when I tried to use a rampart siege crossbow. Hats off to the middies - they utilised effective tictacs despite inferior numbers. The alb zerg was eventually called in to dispatch them (it feels a bit like asking for an air strike in Red Alert "<crackle> /bg assitance needed Surs! <crackle>" vvroooooommmmm biff boff buff - dead attackers).

Which leads me to my question - what are the main tanks of the other realms doing (Heros and Warriors, blademasters/zerkers/savages to a lesser degree) to assist their groups? Surely its more (please tell me its more!) than guard bots against the hail of arrows which seems to rain down at every battlefield. Again - I appreciate that tanks are not exactly fotm in the current state of rvr, but I feel like I'd be better employed as a castle window cleaner than a tank right now.

 

[Derric]

Lotsa tanks on the screen makes it harder for casters to target eachother.

 

[Maeloch]

Carry 2 or 3 pults about, then ur grp will be leeching off you.

Mael, 50th ment.

 

[Gorryk]

50 Xbow spec!

 

[Invisibul]

aye, carry lots of siege, can never have enough catapults, rams, trebs etc, never know what situation ur gonna be in.

 

[Thugs]

Please stop it!

You got too much brain power to be a tank m8! Tanks are 'fodder' and always have been looked upon as such. You are expendable. You need to accept the fact you gonna be D - E - S -T - R - O - Y - E - D by all sorts so that they can get at their real prey.

Combat sux eh and always has done for grunts!

Me
My site

 

[protvanglad]

I can see your frustration my friend and I'm kinda feeling that way since I've always liked tanks in this game.
I would suggest that you could:

1. try and get dimunitive siege and carry 2-3 pieces with you and deploy them when needed - seriously thats what my merc usually does these days, and I really believe this helps the zerg a lot, I'm not being sarcastic.

2. respec crossbow to get range because that's what rvr is all about these days.

3. craft to enjoy yourself while casters nuke eatch other to death and leech rps.

4. roll a caster ( thats what I'm doing these days)

5. Move to WOW ( thats what I'll do on release)

 

[harm]

I rolled a runemaster and haven't had such great fun in a long time. Just abit sad with all the time spent on getting artifacts and masterlevels on the tank..

 

[Dorin]

Sadly with this nf shit you got the following choices (which helps your grp mostly)

1, guard/bg - stick to the caster that needs it
2, baiting for your archers, casturs
3, grapplespam shadowblades, slam anyone that gets close
4, siege warfare (rofl...)
5, afk at some random place of the keep

:-O

 

[anthon]

Took me a year (12 months) to get my hero to level 50. :eek2:
Made a lot of fun by leveling him, saw every place in Hib
It took me so long to use seige weapons? :S
My hero did become a PvE toon

 

[Majsan]

Or try rvr away from the keeps? you might even find it fun :wub:

 

[Minau]

Or try rvr away from the keeps? you might even find it fun :wub:

Yeah. u know u dont h-a-v-e to join the "alb zerg" and run around doing keep stuff. get a fg and do some old school roaming, 10 times more fun.

 

[Gahn]

Well

If u gonna exiliate yourselves inside a Keep or in the neverending "get that tower" race to annoy <insert random realm here> u got 2 chances:
A) Guard the caster who gonna provide u rps in Keep defences from Archers and Bolters.
B) Make a Fire macro and go mainly afk.
If u wanna get you some action, just get a group and roam, in open field battle (despite u gonna forget anyway to kill anything) u can have some more fun

 

[Tuorin]

My hero only goes out in open field rvr, I won't log him in for any keep stuff as its garbage.

 

[shorti]

1st if u plan to try to rvr respec ffs to pole/shield hybrid like every decent armsman or 2h !!! s/s is soooo gimped ffs ... no decent armsman hasnt been s/s since alooooooooot of time ><

2nd if u plan to pve remain s/s ;P

3rd roll a caster cause armsmen suck !

 

[Frozenheart]

I have a roll as a paladin in rvr ... carry siege, and lots of it <waves to snugglebot> also slam is funny as hell ... they go out of range? /stick ftw!!

then slam slam slam cuz u can guarantee some random alb (zerg) will come add and do the rest for ya

Love Frozen - fire wizzy!

 

[Jeriraa]

Tbh I LOVE tanks! They just never ever group with me.

Tanks are needed:

a) for guarding casters and archers (seen in every realm - archers easily stop any movement towards a tower or keep by just shooting anything that comes into range)

b) operateing close-range siege machines (such as field ballistas and catapults - been trying to operate a cat at surs and got pincushioned within seconds by assisting scouts)

c) mopping up inside towers and keeps

If you ask me the problem for tanks is not NF. The problem is TOA. The ridiculous dps that casters can achieve these days makes you go down like a green con to most casters even if you have 3k hp's and are resistbuffed.

 

[SkarIronfist]

I am not sure if you can do it in this version.

But bind to the lord grab a few other like minded "Bored" tanks, a couple of mezz classes and go out the back door of the keep and charge. You never know you get enough you may kill an annoying caster or 2.

 

[Thecure]

What is a tanks roll in NF?

pull albs in the shrooms

 

[chretien]

Well my main is a paladin and I have a lot of fun in Siege fights.
Firstly I'm a Warlord so have siegemaster, secondly I have enough crafting skill to make diminutive siege items, thirdly I have enough str +lifter to carry 3 at once unencumbered.

50 shield+MoB3 means that I am practically immune to archers from the front. I can sit and operate a catapult right under the noses of the rangers/hunters and there's nothing they can do about it. Put the cleric/fire wiz/theurgist next to me with my guard on him and he's also immune to arrows.

When the doors are down, we tanks spearhead the rush in. Plate armour + heavy tank hitpoints means we can take a few nukes on the chin. If you die quickly, you did remember to /recall to the tower captain right? You can get right back in there pretty much straight away. Even with my 29 weaponskill and paladin damage table, I manage to hit mids in chain for about 100 with my sword and 200-300 with a Brutalise.

People say that tanks have no place in NF. I disagree (armsmen still need love though).

 

[Saggy]

If you ask me the problem for tanks is not NF. The problem is TOA. The ridiculous dps that casters can achieve these days makes you go down like a green con to most casters even if you have 3k hp's and are resistbuffed.

Yes, but its not only tanks who have problems with ToA, playing a caster now is far more boring than ever. Said it before and will say it again: NF with better RA-system, minor tweaking and without ToA would rock for open field, keeps and soloing. Hard.

Unless Catacombs have items with immunity to ToA I see no future for Daoc

 

[Maddude]

You have to go look for other places, i try to avoid getting into a zerg so i solo or duo/trio allot, its very fun hanging around bridges or just roaming the enemie landscape a little.

Some RAs have made me allot better imo (hello charge!) so i find nf very fun for my zerker atm

 

[Jeriraa]

You have to go look for other places, i try to avoid getting into a zerg so i solo or duo/trio allot, its very fun hanging around bridges or just roaming the enemie landscape a little.

Yeah especially since sieging keeps became utter pointless when albs invented the reaver bomb. The work of dozens of people done in several hours can be destroyed by just 1 player at basicly any moment he likes. (He just needs some stealther info.)
Ofcourse they just use the tools available to them... but for me this is griefing at its finest and should be bannable. Just because Mythic made another game design mistake shouldnt mean that GOA cant take actions against it.

 

[Awarkle]

tanks guardinging against the /assist scout muppets on the top of towers is a must it allows your casters to get close to /assist them back

not enough shield heros. although it doesnt stop the "/assist choo choo rr10 whats target button sorcs /theugs / cabalist quick spam mezz yay i win monkeys"

spam mezz is your friend because you cant find any other sodding spell

 

[remi]

to reroll

 

[Aldrick]

Imo do like some ppl suggested, get into a group that roams instead of going to keeps, lots of fun to be had then for a tank imo.

 

[Bubble]

Reavers are useful tanks in NF, they will have no problem finding a group (specialy if you get some ML's(Banelord) and RR's)
Banelords mercs are handy too, Paladins are still usefull, Friars are really needed (and rare) if you can get one of them ToAed with ST3 etc, groups will love your resists and zerg killing abilities.

 

[Martok]

as you see in my sig i only ever leveled 3 charectors 2 melee and 1 PvE bot reason for this??

I LOVE MY MERC....... I run around in NF solo grouped or *(If desperate)* in the zerg lol!! but on keep warfar i userly carry lots of seige + i get reaver's + other mercs all with Banelord ready to BOMB the hell out of the enamy tbh!!!

we are very efficent at taking down doors and making the inicial charge against the caster's or defender's / attacker's with casters firing above our head's (thinks of ohmar beach) (i know spelt wrong ><) as surport

if the tanks charge enough we could lag em out and kill em all before they can all moc and wtf pwn us tbh

 

[Andrilyn]

I think to play a tank with a shield you have to be all defensive now (unless your a reaver).
Like people said use guard on casters and clerics and switch it when needed (that's something not alot of tanks do but the good ones do though) same goes for bodyguard.
And if siege is your thing take a few siege equiptment with you but watch your encumberance as you don't want to get str/con debuffed with 3 rams in your inventory
I personally like playing a shield tank since NF but that could be because I like playing support classes which they basically turned in to, I don't need to do insane damage to have fun but if that is your thing either respec to pole or reroll to a caster atleast thats my view about it.

 

[GimpStrole]

Random Newb Question - Do you get skills in X-Bow if you spec it?