Tanking in WOSFollow

I had my 65 cleric alt (5k mana pool, 10FT, 13 or so AAs) in WOS this weekend and joined a pick-up group. We had one lower lvl warrior, and the rest DPS (mix of avg lvl 66 necro, wiz, rng, rog). So as you can see, no slower.

The warrior was around lvl 60, and I had to resort to spamming heals to keep him alive, and we ended up wiping on our first add. I chalked the wipe up to the fact that it was a pick-up group that didn't really know how to function as a team, but when a new tank (66 SK 200+AA) rotated into the group later in the night, the healing was much easier.

As my guildmates (very casual, family style guild) are leveling up and eyeballing WOS to start XPing, I realized we have very few (maybe no - need to check roster) slowers in the 60+ range, but plenty of tanks and DPS classes in the 60-65 range (most w/less than 40 AAs).

If we want to XP in WOS without a slower, does anyone have suggestions for minimum tanking to be able to handle the Bazu Destroyer camp with a 65 cleric healing?

Edit: two things, my regular xp group is mostly bazaar geared and correction, I was guessing at the tank's level (he was anon) based on comparison with heal % of tanks in I regularly xp with.

Edited, Mon Dec 12 12:39:26 2005 by traderelf

I've not been to WoS, but at 62 and moderately geared I have not advertised my warrior on LFG for a WoS group. It seems to me that if any classes can be very low compared to the mobs in a pick-up group, it shouldn't be the tank. If you are a caster that can land spells and know how to deal with aggro, then you should be safe in a zone levels above you and still be a valuable addition to a group. But I've always tried to avoid asking for zones like that in my situation because I don't want to slow the group down due to the healers constantly being OOM on my account.


Edited, Mon Dec 12 10:33:23 2005 by JoltinJoe

As a healing Druid, I can say that the number one thing I see as helping tanks in places like WoS is defensive AAs. A 67 Warrior with bazaar gear and 0 aas is going to be a LOT tougher to keep alive than a 63 War with bazaar gear and some good AAs(mostly Def (avoidance or mitigation)).

I would advise your tanks to stop xping and farm aa's every few levels. If you go to seventy w/o doing this the mobs they will be able to tank will be below level 65 and they will not get the 5 level aa bonus. It is a quicker path to success to stop and farm aa as a tank every 2 or 3 levels after level 60.

Minimum you want for an effective WoS tank is level 65 with 6k hp and 1400 ac UNBUFFED with the first 2 sets of avoidance done. You can go sooner then this but you Will probably lose the tank if slow gets resisted once or twice.

Remember also that if a tank doesnt raid WoS is pretty much the end of the line unles he has full don merchant/tier one (OoW faction) armor and about 140 aa. Also until another expansion comes out MPG will probably be as far as he can tank.

It is extremely difficult to find quality pickup tanks at that level. All teh good ones usually group almost exclusively in guild and they are probably in the raiding guilds.

Edited, Tue Dec 13 15:55:50 2005 by dracoboars

Edited, Tue Dec 13 15:56:32 2005 by dracoboars

I persoally don't think a level 60 Warrior should be tanking in WoS due to the fact every mob will be red to him. It seems red mobs manage to hit for close to max and more often which require chain healing. My 63 1500 AC, 7k+ hp, and about 75 AAs defencive skills SK fighting the 66 supplier and Armorer in Fortress of Zek needs 2 clerics on casting Pious Elixir (1170 Hot) and the second CH, 67 Mage 67 Nec and a 66 Sha. Fight would last 45-75 sec, cleric's would have to chain heal. Now my SK is a 66 and no added AAs Mob is even we can take him with Pious and maybe 1 CH. During fights Pious is always active. The 3 levels greatly decresed the amout of damage I was taking.