PoN Taunt, upgrade Gear or Weapons?

[Lorre]

Heya folks

1st time back on the steelwarrior, use to use the old website.

Anyways, I was in PoN last night for the first time (just got PoP this week). We did ok as a group, but those mobs hit hard! I had a bit of trouble holding aggro against the Epic Monk and sometimes after a slow if my procs didnt go off. My question for you folks who have exp'ed in PoN is this. . .

Should I upgrade my gear or weapons? Im using a wavecrasher and frosty combo, with windblade deep into the battle. Was taking a look at the Greatstaff of Thunder, but my 2hb skill is kinda low. I got about 40k once I sell off some items I dont need. Thanks

[gulug]

Cant say ive ever had problems. I have that same combo myself. I wasnt using it that much but recently upgraded a bit of my gear so my dex is much higher and so now i tend to use the wc/frosty combo in the first 20-30 secs of the fight. if they proc early and before slow lands, mob tends to stick on me. once all settled i swop out to 2 hander.

they shouldnt be a problem against epiced monks but as far as i can recall most of the monks i group with these days never use their epics and prefer 2hbs instead.

if you can get a greatstaff go ahead, but dont upgrade just because of one incident. given that you have a windblade, which by all accounts holds aggro pretty well, i wouldnt think u need another 2 hander at this stage unless you wanted to sell one for the other.

i cant open magelo so hard to see what level you currently are which may also be a factor.

If you find this problem again - dont ever be shy about voicing out in group or tells to do something about it - e.g. ask them to FD, let you engage for a while first before doing so, swop out to a 2 hander etc etc.

some people just forget that its not a warriors job alone to maintain aggro.

[Cozlo]

IMO, your gear will last you easily until you can get into HoT and farm up a few replacement pieces. Your weapons are fine too.

I agree with the previous poster that maybe some communication is needed with your group, let them know when to back off for a sec if they aren't bright enough to figure it out on their own.

Out of curiousity, do you fire arrows at the mobs on INC? If not, you'd be surprised how much it helps.

[Sam3]

If you can find a greatstaff of thunder for a good price, i would say go ahead and buy it, muche better aggro than your 1h combo.

[Rodney]

I would sell the WC and FB and get the GST. I feel the GST is the best argo weapon you can buy for under 50k. You already have some very good armor. If you can get a GST for 40k get it, use it for MTing and the Windy for all other times. I had WC and Fb when pop opened and they just dont have what it takes for POP, dont make the rest of the group SLOW down to meet your dmage and argo. I could say more but I have the feeling you are already on the right track. You can use the GST for a long long time, but you are already at the end of the road for the WC and maybe for the FB, if nothing else sell the WC move the FB to main hand and get a good dps for your off hand.

Rodney
Overlord CT

[wandor]

If you can afford a GST, do it. You will not find a better agro weapon short of getting something with EB or some of the really high end NO DROP weapons.

Granted, if you have a regular group that plays well together agro is less of a problem, but if you are doing many pick up groups you have to take as much guess work out of the agro question because most people have no clue how to keep agro in check. A GST will help you a ton in this area. Great DPS and high proc rate. I often proc 6 or 8 times on a single mob. I don't remember ever going an entire mob fight without a proc. This thing has ESP I tell you - it will often proc on the first or second hit on a mezzed mob.

[Superchum]

Wubao + PoN = my own personal nightmare. It's the one zone I actually get a lot of groups in.

Heh.

So let me assuage your fears right now ...

Aggro is PING PONGY in there.

It just is.

I've pulled aggro off of BoC wielding warriors in there before. Quite by accident mind you, but it's happened.

Uh, things go remind your group about are:

1) Proximity Aggro. Sometimes the mobs are small (nettling wraiths or blood ravens come to mind) or their hit boxes are small (the crocs for instance). So you end up standing on the mob's toes and accidentally pulling aggro off of the tank. This is something that people somehow seemed to FORGET about between level 20 in Highpass and level 62+ and they tend to react like it's the tank's fault. It's funny too, because you never see people doing this in Temple of Veeshan, where it's almost second nature to stay at max melee range. But put them in PoN at the docks and pull a croc and suddenly there's people all up on the mob's HEAD trying to get inside the mob for some odd reason.

Another thing to remember about proximity aggro is these fights may take awhile or certain spells with knockback components may be involved. THUS, there's a lot of PUSH going on. Like say when I fight Fiendish Consorts ... the spider gets pushed around a lot. And so proximity aggro sometimes rears its head in the middle of a fight because the spider's been pushed up, then down the hill we're fighting it on.

2) Casters need horses. Sitting will get AGGRO ... a lot.

3) Clerics HAVE mana pools. Don't be afraid to use them. What I mean by that is, SLOW, if it lands too early will usually get aggro, and then you use mana healing the slower AND the tank. It's just easier to wait, fight the mob UNSLOWED longer and NOT have to heal two people. BUT, some clerics get wonky and complain about having to use TWO CH's instead of one. Or 3 CH's instead of two. They forget how much extra mana they're having to use keeping the monk, the rogue, the shaman AND the TANK upright.

People come here for EASY XP. And sometimes when they have to actually WORK for their XP they get all in a huff and blame the tank.

It's kind of funny to watch sometimes, but sad in a way too.

[Menacer]

Think I'll sell my FB, Snowchipper, CBoL, Widebladed and Axe of Dismay. and see if I can get a GoT, seems like all are giving it good reviews :) But..I'm flagged for BoT so hope to get a guild thing going and get a drop :)

[Nevian]

Well, i used the WC/Frosty combo, and bagged it in PoP, then sold it off for a windblade. Honestly i don't think your weapons are the problem, its PoN. PoN as a zone is just plain strange for aggro. I would dump your 1hers and use the windblade full time. Never used a GST but the flavor of the month people have been raving about it so who knows, windblade did me fine for a long time. Even with good groups in PoN i always had issues with aggro, with pick up groups its even worse. accept it, hate it, get your xp and get the hell out of that stupid ass zone is my real advice.

[Lorre]

OK I just got the Greatstaff of THunder. AMAZING!!!

I had a skill of 10 in 2hb and it worked better than the Wavecrasher/Frosty combo by far. This thing is a proc stick and it works so nicely. Cant wait to get my 2hb skill up. Thanks for the advice!

[Tsaotsao]

I'd get some experience in other zones before selling anything. I have a nice 37/32 2HP that holds taunt well in some zones, but poorly in others. In some of the old world zones dual wield still works better for me. But all that comes from doing it and seeing how things work.

I wouldn't make any equipment changes based on a few experiences in one or two zones.

That Windblade is a GREAT 2HS weapon. It's popular for a reason. I'd hold onto it until I could find a better 2HS, and there aren't many until you get into the higher tiers of PoP.

Good Luck!!!

Tsaotsao
L58 Warrior
Dalridian Knights
Terris Thule

[proteg]

Ya I had Frosty/FG for DW, and Windblade for 2hander. Got a GoT and sold em all the next day. I held aggro so much better that I then needed the extra hps.

Just be sure you have a KEI when you fight and your 2hb will go up real fast. If you have good dex and haste, which I assume you will want for procs and atks anyways, it will go up that much faster.

[Gnomb]

The wraiths in PoN seem to love proximity agro a lot.
But one main problem is that most of the camps people use are on walls.
I HATE fighting on walls.
Dont have too much exp in PoN on my warrior, i did most of my Tier one exp on my warrior (I was 60 with 17 AA when pop was released and went through trials at 61 with 23 AA) in PoD.
I had wavecrasher/frostbringer combo only for a short time (wavecrasher dropped while exp grinding and a week later my tracker found vaniki - for a willsapper - up).
It seemed to me that wavecrasher didnt proc that often and the ratio isnt that good.

[bugbok]

they shouldnt be a problem against epiced monks but as far as i can recall most of the monks i group with these days never use their epics and prefer 2hbs instead.

On off side, Monks epics are hand slot item that makes them attack faster its not weapons do can use both.