Omuro and I did Haukke Manor with me as paladin, because my marauder is one level shy of opening that dungeon. I do love that dungeon. I did Tamtam as a conjurer on roulette, since it said it needed healers, made level 20 and did the level 20 quest. I did the roulette guildhest as lancer, because it said it needed DPS. First time I've seen it ask for DPS, but I did as it bid and lanced.
Got a couple of the daily crafting quests done, but I need to go out and farm more stuff. I now have Armorer to about 30; Goldsmith somewhere around 20; Mining around 25; and Carpentry and Botany below level 10, both of them. Not really much point in doing any of these jobs, since Kasul is far, far better at them all than I am, and I can just ask him for stuff. But, I like being able to do the daily crafting mostly on my own.
Anyway, I was finishing up the lv 20 Conjurer quest when Kasul logged in. It was Stone Vigil time.
I apologized to the unfortunate elders who drew me as their tank when we zoned in. Usually people are pretty cool with grouping with a newbie if they appear willing to learn. I always make it a point to talk to people at the start, especially if I'm new or they're new. (And I apologize to Omuro for not doing this in Haukke Manor; I thought you had been through all this stuff with another character). I also recap the strats as revealed to me in the wiki and walkthrough videos so that the elder players can comment on it. I never get a commendation as a newbie, but I imagine they appreciate me not barreling ahead like I already know everything. There's not been a dungeon that didn't surprise me, even after I did the research.
Stone Vigil was a heck of a dungeon. I overpulled early on, causing a wipe, but after that I was a bit more careful. Kasul kept me alive somehow, the elder deeps kept things dead somehow, and even the nasty character above didn't cause anyone many problems. I say that, but Kasul explained afterward about how often his healing was just on the edge, and how he had to deal with debuffs as best he could. The fact that I didn't even notice is testament to his skill.
One of the deeps — Azelia, the Machinist — had a turret gun pet which was pretty neat. Had no idea those things existed.
Anyway, with that done, the dungeon goes on rotation (theoretically; roulette has never given me anything beyond the first three dungeons). I do hope we get it again. Looks like it mostly drops weapons, which is good, but I could use better armor as well. Cutter's Cry seems to be the place to get some armor.
Marauder is level 28 now. I might as well get the job to 30 and check out Warrior, being so close. I just don't see a real difference in playstyles between marauder and paladin. Tanking is tanking.
There isn’t too much to differentiate the PLD from the Warrior until the 30’s, agreed. But after that… Warrior has a bigger HP pool and focuses on getting threat by dong more damage — the Maim damage buff skill is part of its rotation, where Fight or Flight for the PLD is used in the beginning of the fight, but it’s unlikely you’ll get to refesh it after it comes off cooldown. Warriors also get debuffs for the mobs that make melee do more damage (eventually) while the PLD focuses more on defensive cooldowns and their Shield Oath tanking stance gives the ma 20% mitigation buff so they take less damage than Warriors do too. PLD also has the mana pool used to do AE aggro, while the Warrior only uses its TP pool, so their juggling of skills to keep aggro is a little different to boot.
With all that said… I’m in complete agreement with you that tanking is tanking, and even though the 2 classes use different button combos and deal with tank-buster moves a bit differently, they keep aggro and everyone’s happy!
Right, I just feel — I can put in a significant amount of work into eventually ending up right where I am — as a tank.
Ideally, I’ll have jobs that will let me do whatever I feel like at the moment. Right now, healing is very stressful because I don’t have the cross-class skills to make it easier… and I’m always healing, it seems, those squishy dark knights. My lancer deeps job is absolutely unappreciated by groups, at least judging by the lack of commendations.
I’ve gotten three commendations from a group as a marauder. None as a lancer. I don’t remember if I’ve gotten one as a conjurer. Sometimes I remind the group to tip the healer if it’s Kasul and I doing a dungeon we know well (not lately!). Kasul says he hardly ever gets a commendation.
We did Stone Vigil for the first time not long ago and it was pretty brutal. We wiped a few times due to overpulling or certain boss mechanics. I was on Archer, the husband on Scholar and we had an elder who was new to tanking and another deeps. It was a great learning experience and patience was displayed by all involved so despite the step-up in challenge I wouldn’t mind going back there again.
I find sometimes the elders will just let me tank over in the corner while they do all the mechanics… this happened both in Qarn and Stone Vigil. And while I appreciate it, I worry I haven’t really learned anything. Wiping a couple of times makes me more careful!