Guidance needed with gearing for Osgiliath T2C Instances

[exx2000]

Hello all,

Although I enjoy playing caster classes every now and then I end up having to play my guardian to fill in the spot of a tank for the kin runs. So ive tried my best from my understanding to gear up my guardian to a respectful level. But it seems no matter what I do I've been told Im much harder to heal than other tanks that the group has grouped with. Would appreciate if anyone could tell me what I could change to gear up better .

Here are my stats that I have with no buffs.

Morale : 39860
Power : 5222
Critical rating : 3365 ( 7.8% )
Finesse : 2450 ( 5.8%)
Physical Mastery : 30124 ( 80.4% )
Tactical Mastery : 29946 ( 79.9% )
Resistance : 9087 ( 18.6% )
Critical Defence : 19156 ( 65.7% )
Incoming Heal : ( 17.5% )

Avoidance : Rating ( Percentage / Partial Percentage / Amount Damage reduced )
Block : 13812 ( 24.4% / 11.9% / 37.5% )
Parry : 11658 ( 22.3% / 8.1% / 55% )
Evade : 6037 ( 13.2% / 4.3 % / 33.2%)

Physical Mitigation : 32597 ( 60% and OC and FW 58.5% )
Tactical Mitigation : 19215 ( 60% )

Traited Blue Line with Some Yellow and Some Red .


Gear while Tanking


Parses from the Lumithil Fight
Here are two parses . The first the group died and the second I died got rezzed and then recovered from the fight.


In the second part I switched my tactical mitigation piece to another piece with 3 morale and one critical defence. Although since the fight went on for that duration I'm not sure if that's the solution or if the damage just averaged out over the duration and Im missing some mechanics.

Our usual group is 1 guardian and 2 rune-keepers (one healing and one is traited fire) . If it isn't the gear then I'm obviously missing something in mechanics and would appreciate any advice.

Thanks in advance.

[mattspencer]

Can you post your Legendary Items and relics? I think there might be a solution there. I think you may be able to drop a Phys Mit essence for something else, incoming healing maybe? What about virtues? Other than that, nothing jumps out at me for your survivability. Finesse seems low but you aren't complaining about not holding agro.

[exx2000]

Thanks for your response . Heres a picture of what I use while tanking stuff in blue line.



Virtues

Zeal , Valour , Loyalty , Honour , Fidelity

These are two of the areas I know for a fact that my guardian can improve on and Im still working on it. My traits range from value of 6-14 . Although I,m sure I can get to work on some of them and finish them quickly if a profound difference can be found. For the Legendary items the crafted relics arent in there because of the cooldown involved on my crafter. Once its up Ill probably make the crafted relics "Westemnet Device of Protection" (Critical defence , Physical and Tactical Mitigation) for both of them.

Initially in the first 1 - 2 runs I had a huge problem with taunts getting resisted I believe or alot of the attacks getting evaded and was planning on putting in some finesse somewhere once I found out what I could sacrifice a bit. The existing finesse I have is from the cloak and the Mumaks bow which I somehow forgot to link in the screenshot.

Edit : Incoming healing is 3232 and it does 17.5% increased healing. (With % increase from yellow line)

[RJFerret]

Caveat, my guard is lower levels, but I run Osg T2s on minstrel.

I'd like to see more resistance (closer to 30%), this helps immensely stopping the wound in RC. Are you aware of the hidden T2 mitigation ratings for heavy armour? Crit defense seems excessive, I'd be happy with much lower. Finesse obviously could be higher.

[exx2000]

I usually play on a minstrel too and hence do not have many parses which can reliably assess which stat it is I need to concentrate further on. I can definitely slot one or two resistance if needed by sacrificing something else. After thinking about it , I could have used Resistance food. I'll craft some of that too and slot one or two resistance traits or essences. I'm hesitant to use a bracelet ( agility 3 slotted piece from the instance ) because it would force me to lose the BB jewelry bonus of 20% Critical defense which I thought would help if in any case that was what I was lacking.

Also I read about the hidden penetration factor involved and stacked mitigation in such a way that Orc craft and Fell wrought are at 58.5% at the moment. Should I be stacking mitigation to over-cap the value displayed in Physical Mitigation or the value shown in orc Craft and Fell Wrought Damage Mitigation.

[SpicyMacHaggis]

Gear/traits aint perfect but solid enough for RC. It shouldnt be a prob at all to keep you up. Did you get multiple debuffs maybe (RK's standing to close)? If not i'd say the healer was slacking.

For example, when i first completed RC on guard he only had 34k morale (admittedly, this puts a lot more stress on the healer).

Also for RC you can ditch the tac mit piece and slot more morale instead (or crit/finesse).

I'd also like to point out that traiting thrill of danger from red isnt very effective with the low crit chance you have. In your current build i'd rather go for the extra war chant targets.
For me it depends on the situation, without heals i sometimes trait thrill for some self heals (although not having war chant extra targets is a trade-off).
One of my tanking pieces has 2 crit and 2 finesse essences, which makes thrill of danger a lot more effective.

Edit: I for one wouldnt use resist essences, they give so few resist compared to virtues. I'm sitting at around 12k resist without any essences, which is more than enough imo.
Edit 2: Just ditch the BB set bonus, it doesnt help that much (only mitigates dev hits a bit more). Slotted bracelets are way more effective.

[Marxlne]

Your build is fine. If a healer can't outheal these TPS i can see in your screens, it's obvious he's undergeared for T2 Osg healing or his rotation is flawed.

But some things that may help:
1. Use Tome of Defence
2. Use Resistance food
3. Use the item that gives you extra +2% Inc. Healing for an hour
4. Make an additional gear peace with 4 Inc. Healing Essences (ditch Crit Defence and Tact. Mit. essences, you don't need them for Lumithil fight), which should increase your inc. healing up to 30%
5. Pop the Warrior's Heart at the start of the fight so you can get permanent buffs from it early
5. Keep your Guardian's Ward up all the time
6. Pop your Pledge and/or Juggernaut when adds spawn

[exx2000]

I'd also like to point out that traiting thrill of danger from red isnt very effective with the low crit chance you have. In your current build i'd rather go for the extra war chant targets.
For me it depends on the situation, without heals i sometimes trait thrill for some self heals (although not having war chant extra targets is a trade-off).
One of my tanking pieces has 2 crit and 2 finesse essences, which makes thrill of danger a lot more effective.

This does make sense. I think I could do with the Increase Targets in War Chant . I will definitely try this out.

Edit: I for one wouldnt use resist essences, they give so few resist compared to virtues. I'm sitting at around 12k resist without any essences, which is more than enough imo.

I have chosen to lose some morale and slotted these virtues at the moment .

Zeal , Charity , Loyalty , Honour , Confidence

Your build is fine. If a healer can't outheal these TPS i can see in your screens, it's obvious he's undergeared for T2 Osg healing or his rotation is flawed.

They have been running with another tank as well which I'm pretty sure is geared better than my guard is and uses a Tome of Defense each time for a run. Although I do have access to these I would prefer not having to run with these when doing an instance I have done more than once. I just want to be able to do the instances and hopefully content like Sunken Labyrinth and Dome of Stars . I know my gear might not be up to par for them now but maybe with some stuff changed it would change that.

1. Use Tome of Defence
2. Use Resistance food
3. Use the item that gives you extra +2% Inc. Healing for an hour
4. Make an additional gear peace with 4 Inc. Healing Essences (ditch Crit Defence and Tact. Mit. essences, you don't need them for Lumithil fight), which should increase your inc. healing up to 30%
5. Pop the Warrior's Heart at the start of the fight so you can get permanent buffs from it early
5. Keep your Guardian's Ward up all the time
6. Pop your Pledge and/or Juggernaut when adds spawn

Will definitely try these suggestions next time. I have access to all the stuff shown above so I should be able to use it for the next fight. In fact Ill use all of it and post the parse along with a video if possible.

[siipperi]

Your build is good enough for osgiliath runs, I would suggest drop some of physical mitigation, it's way too high. As others noted, it's flaw on healers end if you dont stay alive.
Also imbue your belt, extra avoidance rating on it is really good.

[Rhunar]

Hello,

here is my approach, which I found working quite well in Osgiliath t2 as a Guardian tank:

• Tank Jukotor and Lumithil in the blue trait line, roughly with the same traits as you shown in your screenshot. I personally don't use "thrill of danger" and have slotted the guardian essence for restoring power instead. But this is a personal point of view.
• Improve Resistance to >30%, better >35%. The wounds from Jukotor und Lumithil are tactical damage, that cannot be b/p/e'ed. It can only be resisted.
  Possible approaches: Virtues with resistance, some of the also adding tactical mitigation - see below; swichtable slotted jewelry with one golden resistance essence; exchange one slot in your essence armour (instead of morale) for resistance.
• Overcap tactical mitigation; the "normal" cap for heavy armour is 16658 (60%). Due to the hidden mitigation penetration in t2 (approx. 6750) the effective value
  in t2 instances is only 9908 (45%) at the cap. 22-23 k tactical mitigation already helps a lot. Physical mitigation instead can be reduced to a maximum of 23500.
  Maxing out orc / fell-wrought damage is not necessary for Osgiliath t2.
• Incoming healing should ideally be >20%. Substitute one moral essence either in armour or slottable jewelry with a golden incoming healing essence.
• Add handcrafted defensive relics to your weapon and belt. Even a lower crafting tier handcrafted relic helps.
• When the wound from Jukotor stacks up to the highest tier 3 on you or your fellows, use Litany of Defiance (-10% fellowship damage, additional tactical mitigation)
  The same can be done when the wound from Lumithil stacks up on you or critical situations develop (e.g. healer stunned, tank low on morale with wound).
• Build up your fortifications quickly (+10 % mitigation) by using shield skills.
• Use buff food (especially wound resistance buff food), scrolls of battle / warding lore and Edelharn token before the boss fights.

Using the tactics mentioned above, I need even less morale, 33 k is sufficient. Damage not taken just musn't be stacked a morale.
I'm perfectly fine with this approach, Ruined City t2c has become really easy for me with these tactics.

Hopefully it helps you, too.

Kind regards

Rhunar

EDIT: The hint from siiperi is also quite valuable in my opinion. Imbue your belt. In my experience '- Cry resistance' just doesn't have any remarkable effects.
I use some more finesse from essences instead. My belt also has the 'Catch a breath morale heal' legacy. After imbuement, the legacy
"Warrior's Heart / Fortitude Morale Heal" becomes quite powerful if developed. Other legacies also improve.
My tank weapon however is not imbued. I would loose too much nice legacies like "Guardian Area Effect Melee Targets" upon imbuement.

[mattspencer]

I just wanted to mention that your LI's are missing crafted Relics, which will help a good deal. (I see you mention that in your reply, these will help out) Adding two of the Devices of Protection will let you drop Physical/Tactical Mitigation and Crit D elsewhere, giving you more Morale/Finesse/Resistance/Incoming Healing or whatever else you want. You could also add a 7th legacy for Might on your weapon to get better Block/Parry. Have you considered Swap LI's? That would free up a lot of your legacies for stats/other bonuses. Something like these will give you more morale/healing when you swap to them and have all the legacy skills that you don't really need all the time.

[siipperi]

The wounds from Jukotor und Lumithil are tactical damage, that cannot be b/p/e'ed. It can only be resisted.
Possible approaches: Virtues with resistance, some of the also adding tactical mitigation

- -

EDIT: The hint from siiperi is also quite valuable in my opinion. Imbue your belt. In my experience '- Cry resistance' just doesn't have any remarkable effects.
I use some more finesse from essences instead. My belt also has the 'Catch a breath morale heal' legacy. After imbuement, the legacy
"Warrior's Heart / Fortitude Morale Heal" becomes quite powerful if developed. Other legacies also improve.
My tank weapon however is not imbued. I would loose too much nice legacies like "Guardian Area Effect Melee Targets" upon imbuement.

I want to comment that it's actually common mitigated dot and not tactical damage.

I believe all forced taunts cant be resisted anymore, atleast challenge cant, so it works only on warcry and possible on litany, and since litany cant be blocked anymore either it's really not that important legacy. Guardian indeed want to have some finesse, imo 2k is absolutely minimum, would recommend atleast 5k.

[exx2000]

So after doing a bit of updating and changing stuff around I've hit these stats.




Stats with token and scrolls .


Resistance : 25.3 %
Critical Defence : 65%
Incoming Healing 22.5%

Avoidance Chance / Partial Avoidance Chance / Damage Reduction when partially avoided)
Block : 24% / 11.4 % / 37.5%
Parry : 24.2% / 7.9 % / 55 %
Evade : 14.8 % / 4.9 % / 34.8

Critical rating : 8.1%
Finesse : 13.5%

Tactical Mitigation : 60 + over capped 6750 and a bit extra
Physical Mitigation : 60 + over capped 6750 and a bit extra

Here is one of the parses after a Lumithil fight.



Healer actually said that it was much easier healing my guardian this time . Did 6 runs no wipes and no deaths. Started deeding and changed some of my virtues around. Here is what I have traited at the moment. I'm sure it can improve so Ill see what I can edit further

Tree Trait



Virtues

Honour , Charity , Loyalty , Confidence and Fidelity and everything is at 15 + now .

My legendary items have now turned out to be like this. Still working on getting them to a better level. Although I'm not sure what I want to substitute for the cry resist legacy . Was thinking shield damage perhaps ? more damage is always good. I'm hesitant to trait Catch a Breath cool down since I do usually have a healer but a small heal with a shorter cool down is good. Will definitely take a look at craafting a swap legacy too . Think I can manage switching LIs for stuff like Warriors heart and Pledge .



Thanks again for the help it has helped me a ton!

[Rhunar]

I want to comment that it's actually common mitigated dot and not tactical damage.

A good observation. Actually I had the experience, that the wound has both tactical and physical characteristics.
While it is "common damage" (in terms of damage type), this would imply that it is mitigated by physical mitigation. "Tactical damage" typically comprises fire, acid, frost, light, shadow and cry damage. I'm not sure if there are tactical attacks that generally produce the type common damage in the game.
On the other side the stacking of the wound can only be resisted, which applies to tactical damage. The damage type indeed suggests, that the damage amount is mitigated by physical mitigation. So maybe the wound has features of both tactical and physical damage.

I believe all forced taunts cant be resisted anymore, at least challenge cant, so it works only on warcry and possible on litany, and since litany can't be blocked anymore either it's really not that important legacy. Guardian indeed want to have some finesse, imo 2k is absolutely minimum, would recommend atleast 5k.

This is also my observation. While ist seems, that some mobs can b/p/e some debuffs from force taunts, they never b/p/e or resist the taunt itself.
Concerning finesse I have 7k as a blue tank. Works nice with e.g. shield attacks.

If all the contributions in this thread have helped the OP char to improve his Osgiliath t2 runs and character quality, the goal has been achieved imho :-)

Greetings

Rhunar