Hi all,

 

New 55 Guardian tank, looking for a bit of advice. Now that I'm finally hitting the end game, I'm noticing that on a good number of AOE pulls, mobs will use stuns / mass knockbacks right off the bat, which completely screws up my opener and generally leads to a few moments of mob chaos before I am forced to blow a mass taunt to get aggro back.

 

Any tips for avoiding this? Am I stuck relying on my 1-minute-CDs (CC breaker / Saber Reflect)? Any tricks of the trade would be appreciated.

So, there aren't a lot of good things you can do if the mob is going to take away your ability to play in the first seconds of the fight. What I generally do is run in and hit them with a high threat AoE. They stun or knockback, I recover as best I can, and then I try again. I hold my AoE taunt until the mobs have scattered to the point where I can't hold it anymore, since delaying the taunt maximizes the threat it gives.

 

As a guardian, you can use Saber Reflect to largely avert this issue, at least with ranged mobs. Still sucks. The good news though is that nothing in endgame raid tanking is anywhere near as annoying as the Oricon trash.

Pyrogrenade + saber reflect + smash + crushing blow + sweeping slash

 

If your stunned your stunned, but pyrogrenade should help you holding aggro if your stunned.

Personally, I don't have too many issues with tanking with me getting stunned, especially on bosses. Let's take Core Meltdown Hardmode's Jungle Boss. the knockback with that boss is near null because of Battlefield Command, If you don't take Battlefield Command, you aren't a good guardian Tank... Trust me, there are DOZENS of situations where I will need multiple Force Leaps in a row, Force Push helps, but Battlefield Command is a passive that when you take damage your Force Leap CD is reduced. It's almost a must-have talent. for Stuns, well, the only thing I can say, is tell your healers to Cleanse you when you get CC'd with a Tech, Force (if a Sage healer), or mental effect. If it's none of those effects, CC break it ONLY if it gets in the way of your threat.

He doesnt mean bosses that stun & knockback but groups of mobs that stun & knockback. Btw. you can tank that boss against the cliffs so there is no knockback. Warmonger is also not the best skill but its situationial. I am currently not speccing it bc i took thrown gauntlet for styrak nm. Rules of two for example is great for kiting sunder or Tu'chuk. Why i wouldnt skill warmonger is bc force leap already has a short cd duration (15sec).