What was your greatest tanking moment?

[TheDrunkenDwarf]

So when was the moment that you really shined, or the one that got your heart racing? I'm sure that everyone who has played a tank has had those great moments...

For me, I was playing my warrior in EQ and my guild was raiding the plane of fire. We were killing general reparm and things started very badly... something happened with the CH chain and our first three tanks (the only ones specified in the lineup) went down within seconds. There was only me and a new recruit left.

I smacked my defensive discipline, hit taunt and my AE taunt, and the fun began. If you've ever tanked this guy, you know what I mean... basically he hit for up to 3k damage (4 attacks per round) and had a nasty proc (was a couple K damage, I forget now). When you're a fighter with only 9500 HPs... well, it gets exciting, even with the defensive disc cutting down on his normal attack damage.

With the AE taunt and a couple quick procs from my weapons, I got aggro locked and was watching the damage and heals flow in. It was just incredible. I slowly moved him into the right position and was watching his health start dropping (my own health was going up and down like a yo-yo). The other tanks in the guild were cheering me on in tank chat and I had so much adrenaline running through me that I probably could have picked up a VW bug

Reparm finally got me with a quad attack that landed all 4 swings and a proc on top of it, but for about 45 seconds it was one of the most intense gaming experiences I've ever had. Our last warrior stepped in after I dropped (Reparm was nearly dead by then) and held him for the remaining few seconds of the fight.

I don't know if it's really possible to describe the experience... but I remember it like it was yesterday. Fun stuff.

[Jabari Dreamchaser]

Awesome story Drunken. Unfortunately, I do not have any great tanking tales.

Then again... I do have high hopes of collecting quite a few stories during my stay in Telon. :wink:

[Eclipse]

Me and my good friend decided to re-roll on a completely new server to get away from drama.
I was a warrior, he was a shaman.
It was a match made in heaven.
I don't have one favorite or greatest tanking moment, I have many.
Over a couple months, the two of us completed content noone thought 2 players could accomplish. Time and time again, we thought to ourselves: "7 mobs are too much, we finally bit off more than we could chew!" But we went all out regardless of the fact we knew we were doomed. We completed quests and beat down bosses higher level than we were, that were supposed to need 4+ players to complete.
It was that month span where we threw caution to the wind and accomplished the impossible time and again that made me decide once and for all what job I would fulfill in Vanguard.

We recorded only a handful of deaths in a solid month of playing, and we loved every minute of it.

-Eclipse

[Jabari Dreamchaser]

When a group of players (two in Eclipse's case) can come together, everyone knows their role in the group and is remarkable at carrying out said role... that is what it is all about.

Well that and Uber L33T !!!!!!!!one11

[Eclipse]

The best feeling though when the group comes together is not only knowing your role, but redefining it.
My buddy was a shaman, but in reality, he was the all purpose "I can do everything" guy. He could off-tank very well, and I understood agro better than most I knew, so it was easy for us to get comfortable in our styles of play.
There is no better feeling than standing with 1 other friend over the corpse of a boss that needs 5 players above your lvl to kill...and then laughing about it.
I just hope he decides to come with me into Vanguard!

-Eclipse

[Zenya]

Great stories in this thread! Congrats guys 8).

Originally Posted by Jabari Dreamchaser

When a group of players (two in Eclipse's case) can come together, everyone knows their role in the group and is remarkable at carrying out said role... that is what it is all about.

Well that and Uber L33T !!!!!!!!one11

QFT.

I was in KPC in Sol B (for anyone who may not know: Kobold King-Priest-Champion area in a dungeon in EQ) once with a pickup group, and to our dismay our healer had to log out almost as soon as we reached our camp. The only other avatar in our group who had some sort of banana heals was my pally, a half-elf with a dismally low wisdom, and thereby a puny manapool. The only one LFG in the zone was an enchanter. After a brief discussion we decided to invite the enchanter and see if we could push the envelope with the classes we had. We ended up staying there for 6 hours straight without any wipes (iirc, we needed to replace people only twice).

That was probably the best teamwork I have ever experienced. We used every skill we had, every tactic we knew. We had every spawn spaced out and used a stopwatch to keep track of them. And everyone with a manapool kept saving every scrap of mana at every possible opening, casting as late as possible. It was utterly exhausting almost non-stop fighting, but it was incredible fun! The warrior of our group did an impeccable job at managing aggro. Kudos to him!

Conclusion: not all pick-up groups are evil and you never know who you are going to meet .

[Jabari Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by Zenya

Conclusion: not all pick-up groups are evil and you never know who you are going to meet .

Aye... I love a good community. And while you could end up with some not so satisfactory results with PUGs... the chance to make some new, long term friends is well worth it.

[Trackor]

Although I've played a warrior in EQ1, most of my playing time was on my ranger Trackor. It was with him that I had my greating tanking experience. Typically when I wasn't "/shout WTB Rez", I was bailing out my friend, the Drunken Dwarf, with my leet damage and skillz.

Anyway, the highpoint of my ranger tanking career took place one evening in Kael. The Staute was up and the guild was mobilized. After quickly dispatching the statue we progressed to the Avatar of War (AoW). I believe this was the second time our guild was trying him, so it wasn't trivial. During the fight we pushed him into the corner with only the tank facing him. At about 50% the tanks defensive skill wore off and the next tank took over pretty flawlessly. Well, except for a few rogues. Anyway everything was going fine done to about 10% when the warrior went down. Unfortunately the next tank couldn't grab agro and a few cleric bought it. After that is what is commonly known as "the wipe". A few people stand there and take it while the wizards tend to run it around a bit.

Well the rangers usually go after the rogues and clerics, but this time we seemed to be ready. Using weapon shield, each ranger added 15 seconds to their by tanking the AoW. Slowly but surely his hit points were dropping. When it was my turn, I faced him and hit weapon shield waiting for my death. I threw on a couple a resisted snares just to piss him off enough, so he wouldn't forget me. After my 15 seconds were up I noticed a few heals hit me. He was still at 3% and I thought there was no way I could hold on. One by one the wizards nuked him until he dropped.

I stood toe to toe with the AoW for about 45 seconds not counting my weapon shield time. Rangers rejoiced! Warriors said I was lucky. Oh well, it was my greating tank job.

[Zenya]

Awsome story Trackor, Pride of the Rangers 8). Great job!

[Jabari Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by Trackor

I stood toe to toe with the AoW for about 45 seconds not counting my weapon shield time. Rangers rejoiced! Warriors said I was lucky. Oh well, it was my greating tank job.

Woot! Well done Trackor. :wink: