You can't hit me! ...or the Action Point Spree

Yesterday i got some time to test my new skill Can't Hit Me! and it's damn powerful. But let me tell you more in detail about how i grind mobs: Before i got this, i was able to solo tank and take down approx. 5 mobs up to +4 levels of my own (ofc the lower the more), without any real danger to me. Everyone telling you Da'Toughest specced tanks can't solo mobs and are useless are wrong. The question is how you do it. If you take on one or two mobs after the other you'll take a longer time then some DPS specced player, as your DPS output is of course lower. You need to use your strengths, which is survivability! For me as a tank (with mainly toughness & wounds tank gear), it's no difference if its one or a few mobs banging my chest. So you need to calibrate your mob grinding in a way that you pick up just enough mobs you won't be in danger to die and that you're downtime is not increased. What i would do is, to gather up to five mobs... maybe use Challenge initially to gather them up nicely. Then i would use whatever skill rotation (for higher damage until now i used 'Ave Another One tactic) i see fit on a single mob of them while using Big Slash and Raze whenever available. The mobs would die one after the other but because i have a few on me (gather them nicely so they all get hit by cone attacks) i can make more use out of the multiple mob abilities. If you stack up on thorn potion like Brief Thorn Ointment this will speed up grinding multiple mobs even more. These potions are rather cheap and not hard to come by. Even for solo play i was able to keep up a very good pace and did not have the feeling others were plowing through the mobs while i was stuck banging on one.

Talking to some other classes, taking on five mobs higher level is already more then some can handle. Let's check on how Can't Hit Me! improves this... Using the above skills/potion i vary it a bit now: Gather all the mobs and maybe use some self-buff skills then switching to Can't Hit Me! when nearly at full Action Points (AP). While you channel the skill and your APs slowly drain all mobs hitting you will take damage. Depending on mitigation they will at least take 70-80 dmg if not more. Add the damage from the thorn potion to it and you have a nice and steady flow of damage on ALL mobs going. As soon as Raze is available, use it (because the cooldown needs some time to refresh). Then maybe use a few skills depending on the situation and go back to Can't Hit Me!. Rinse and repeat. You'll drain quite a lot of AP so you should use Get 'Em whenever it fits the rotation - this skill is best used when you're around 40%-50% AP as it will make sure you can get going. Using it when depleted of AP is not that good IMO. You can also use it before going into the channeling. With the above skill rotation I'm able to take down around 10 mobs at the same time with a good pace to it. Comparing that with other classes that's pretty good if you ask me. It should be noted that i use a shield with +block and also make use of the Good Wif Shield tactic. This gives me close to 100% block chance while channeling.

This will work best on melee mobs tho. If you face ranged/magic mobs it becomes a bit tricky to gather them. Should there only be a few just gather the melees on top of the ranged and you're good - of course the block damage will also affect ranged attackers standing away but with the current AI the mobs tend to run away when they're to low on health and if they run to far, they can reset and end up back to full health again. These scared mobs starting to flee are a bit borked if you ask me. Depending on the situation you might need to break of the channeling and kill the ones running away, should they not come back by themselves. Just use any other skill or the hotkey again to break off channeling.
As you realize, the above drains a lot of action points, a lot. I suggest you stock up on the +AP jewelry that you can get at rank 29. Each gives +3 AP regen and in addition i use the Grim Changehide that yields an additional +4 AP regen, so in total that gives me +16 AP regen and you can really feel the effect. Together with Get 'Em this keeps me going for a long time. Due to the AP regen I'm even able to solo hero mobs around three levels below me.

I did not really had the chance to test this in RvR yet, but while more situational i can see great potential when being focus fired and such. To close off this excursion, here is a bit about my experience while teaming up with others: I grouped with two guildies of mine (Zealot & Sorcerer) and we were doing PQs. I would run around and gather approx. 30 mobs and we would take them down *very quick*. We were owning the place and respawn could not be fast enough. I used the Menace tactic, run around and gather the mobs and we would just AoE them down. Important of course to let your group know you don't really generate any aggro while running around and gathering mobs, so they have to wait until you're stationary and had 2-3 secs to generate aggro to be safe. We went into Mount Gunbad yesterday night and i used a similar tactic to tank multiple mobs. The times when the Chosen would own you on multiple mob tanking are over. This really works like a breeze. Maybe I'll post more in detail about each wing of Mount Gunbad once we went back and cleared wing 3 again.

Addon Tip: Check out Mini World Map if you haven't yet. It will give you a small world map, which is very useful to find directions and also in those capture the flag scenarios to see where the flags are.

Orc, Orc, Orc!

The absolute best emote for my Black Orc so far is the /cheer - when the orc goes Yeehaw.. Oi, Oi, Oi! and raises his arms in the air. It's funny, i like it. Another good one (i wish i had as a real emote) is when you use the Deflect Oil ability, as you'll bang your shield for a short while. Have 3-4 Black Orcs standing in one line next to each other and use it, looks impressive. I realized i did not take much time to write about my Black Orc and what I'm doing with him, or how i play him. There is just so much stuff to talk about in WAR... always something looks more important or I'm asked some questions I feel others wants to know the answer to as well. Once i write it in my blog, i can just refer people to it when they ask me the same stuff already in here... hehehe. Talking ablout the blog i have to say the response from other players has been great so far. Beside the comments (always appreciated if you discuss with me here) i had many players on my server Karak-Azgal that talked to me in game, or you enter a scenario and in the time before it starts someone cheers for you and makes a compliment about the blog. The amount of hits this blogs generated in the short amount i started it is incredible as well, i daily expect some pictures to go down because of the traffic. ;) And people have been responsible as well when it came to asking me stuff ingame. So far i only had very polite and friendly questions, which i very much appreciate... as talking to people and explaining stuff of course takes away from your game time and sometimes you're in the middle of things and don't have time. So a cheers out there to all readers and especially those playing on Karak-Azgal.

While i see many Orcs running around with a big 2H weapon, Thulf has been through all of his 27 ranks a defensive specced Black Orc. Of course i keep a strength/weapon skill/2H set as well to quickly grind lower level trash mobs, but usually i go with my wounds/toughness/sword'n'board set-up. I'm becoming a bit upset with quest reward choices for tanks tho. Often you have the choice between eg. 2-3 different items, but all are DPS ones that differ only very little. You really have to search for great tank upgrades meanwhile. I invested all points into the Da’ Toughest tree so far and while i took Less Stabbin' Me and Ya Missed Me, now I'm working my way up to Can't Hit Me!, which will be the next skill i take in this tree (taking lower ones later) - as i think this will be a great one to have. Quick sidenote on Ya Missed Me: It's a reactive skill (after a block), which i don't find troublesome to use, that works great... the damage can't be defended and it lowers the damage of that target by 20% for 10 seconds. The tooltip of the debuff is wrong tho and says the damage is periodically, which my combat log says is not true. Also worth to mention, after the block you can use this skill on any target you want - does not have to be the one you blocked.

When i play in my tank set, i usually have zero downtime needed for healing and can easily play at the edge of chapters i can't use the rewards yet. If i stay longer in an area i might switch some items from the tank set to get more str and such. For solo play and RvR alike, my tactic set up atm is I'm Da Biggest! and 'Ave Another One. The latter really increases my damage done nicely (57+250 atm). I did use Wot armor? for these cases at first, but RvR tends to be so fast paced the effect from direct damage in a skirmish feels better. In scenarios i often do as much damage as some "DPS classes" which is rather astonishing given the fact i don't even go for DPS, but for annoying the heck out of people. In my tanking gear i can take quite a beating. Of course focused fire takes me down hard as well, but eg. in a Black Fire Basin scenario recently i had 5 tank/melee banging on me for ages while a team mate sneaked in and stole the flag in the back, hillarious. I see my task in RvR in protecting the healers (and maybe other squishies) and else i try to be as annoying and disturbing as i can. Sometimes charging around the mob of enemies and trying to take out a healer in the back and cause confusion. Sometimes it works and your group can open up the enemy front line to multiply the distraction between the enemies, sometimes it doesn't. Of course if you pull a stunt like that without backup chances are very high you die if enough enemies notice you and focus fire. Often enough I'm one of the top three renown points (RP) in scenarios, works well enough for me. If we go in with a team of guild mates, usually we come out on the top as a team. I've to say it's great how Mythic implemented a real tank being useful in RvR, i really enjoy it.

In RvR my usual skill rotation (with above tactics) is Follow 'me Lead as a starter. Then it depends on the situation. If the target could run away and is taking good damage, it's Trip 'Em Up (snare & good damage over time). Should my target hit someone else it's Right in Da Jibblies, should it be me it's either RidJ or Tuffer 'n Nails. If i (or others) need space or the enemy is standing on top of a wall or something (lets not talk about TA) i use Big Slash for the knockback. While KBs are fun, i hate how many players use them wrong and knock back a target that's nearly dead - therefore working against the team. The finisher skill is Savin' Me Hide ofc then, as it does more damage then Skull Thumper for my tree. You should watch your skills closely once you invest points into the mastery trees, as quickly some abilities tied to your tree become better then others due to invested points.

While fighting multiple enemies (RvR or PvE) use Challenge, and use it a lot. Some Orcs seem to forget this skill in RvR and use Taunt instead. You can still use Taunt, but use Challenge for the sake of your team as well please. Raze and Distracting Bellow are the fun morales to use for RvR so far. If you time them right, they got quite an impact. Raze is awesome for enemies standing close together or crowded into a doorway. Let me finish with mentioning two other skills: Save Da Runts - use this always on some squishy. It also helps to switch targets during battle if you see someone taking a beating and maybe you can prolong his life enough for a healer to get there. Hold The Line! is great to retreat yourself or to protect people standing close to you when the enemy is moving onwards our group. In addition: Bind your Lob Choppa to a key you can press while running, it does insane damage to a wounded foe running away from you. Shatter Enchantment can be of situational use as well and is often forgotten, but requires you to know the possible enchantments to look for.

Of course i know my approach will change with rank 40 and more skills to my disposal, but so far I'm doing very well with the ones i have/use right now. My next goal is to get my hands on some Action Point regeneration gear, I'm always at the limit and could really use more. Get 'Em is good to use when my AP are at 50%, but its cooldown is very long. I did not mention tanking much, as so far PvE tanking has not been a problem or very challenging at all. The first few levels as a tank in WAR suck for PvE as Squigs basicly are the better tanks/taunters, but after you gain access to taunt yourself it changes. When you gained challenge and at rank 25 the Menace tactic you're set anyway. If someone pulls aggro from you often, either let them die or use your guard on them to share threat. PvE tanking has not really posed a challenge yet, it's more about tricky crowd control and people using focus fire then about threat generation. I could go on and on, but the cards will be shuffled again at 40 and this post is much longer than i intended it to be anyway. If you got questions, leave a comment, else I'll talk about skills once a really good new one became available to me.