Raising a raider

[Smary]

Hi!

I need some advice on what to do while leveling if I plan to become a good raidtank in the future.
I don't need help with leveling, there are alot of guides for that and I can pretty much do that on my own.
I also realise that I should group alot, do the dungeons, learn my class etc. etc.

But what else should I be doing WHILE leveling?
Should I save all my planarite? Or should I spend it in mid-level stuff? Does it matter?
Should I PvP? Why/why not?
Spend some time raising my favor/notority (spelling?)
Farm gold?

I'm a veteran raider from other games and have learned I often need to go back to low level zones just to farm trivial stuff to be able to raid effectively, be it faction, items or some random currency.

I'm guildless at the moment and am in no rush to get to level 50. This is me, long-term planning.
Any good advice would be appreciated.

// Smary

[wayne62682]

I'm roughly in the same boat, just hit 50, in a casual guild, and starting to gear up for Experts and Raiding now. Experienced WoW tank.

I spent Planarite and sourcestones while leveling, until I hit the 40s in Iron Pine Peak/Shimmersand/Stillmoor at which point I saved them. From 45+ I did Instant Adventures to get huge amounts of ISS and Planarite which I immediately used to buy the high-end Planar gear in preparation for 50. I got most of my rep with the factions (mainly Order of Mathos, that seems to be the major one for tanks) by doing the quests in Stillmoor and doing Stillmoor IAs. I still need to do them and zone events to get my reputation with the planar orders for other gear.

My main advice is to level your professions as you go through the zones so you don't have to go back later and farm low level ore or whatever. RIFT seems a bit harder than other games to get your professions as high as you can, as you have to do dailies/weeklies for marks to buy the better recipes (kind of like WoW's Jewelcrafting dailies), but the items you have to make for the high-end marks require expensive or rare materials.

Also, I've noticed that it seems impossible for a tank to hit 50 and be Expert ready immediately without having either a ton of cash or having a crafter friend with the high-end gear; the gear you can readily buy from Planarite doesn't give you the 100 Toughness needed to tank an Expert dungeon - you end up about 40 points short (20 if you buy a Toughness rune) with no way other than wasting an Essence slot for a Toughness essence to get the required amount unless you drop a lot of cash buying expensive epic gear.

[Zadozex]

Don't worry too much about what to save while leveling. All the rewards/money you get at low levels pale in comparison to what you get at max level. That said, here's what I would recommend:

- Save all of your planarite as you level. As soon as you get to 7500 planarite, buy the 6 slot planar focus. This will last you forever. Don't waste planarite on the 3, 4 or 5 slot ones you'll come across while you're leveling or the gear that costs planarite at the various vendors..

- Save all of your money as you level. When you hit 50, one of the quickest ways to gear up is to get crafted armor. This is raid quality gear you get simply for having enough money to afford it. You'll get a Chest Piece, Shoulders, Ring, and Shield crafted. You'll be tempted to spend money on weapon upgrades and runes along the way, but honestly, when leveling, the dungeon/quest rewards give you good enough gear and you'll outlevel your gear so fast that spending money on it is a waste.

- Level a crafting profession as you go. This would save you money once you hit 50 because you'll be able to craft parts of your own set. The Chest/Shoulders require armorsmithing, the Shield requires Weaponsmithing, and the Ring requires artificer. I would recommend going Armorsmithing, Foraging, Mining for your 3 crafting professions. The 2 gathering professions would let you make the daily cooldown mats required to make your crafted gear and the armorsmithing would allow you to get 2 of the 4 recipes yourself if you want.

If you level crafting, particularly foraging/mining, as you go, it seems like a lot less of a grind. Saves you from having to run back through the lowbie areas later to get the low level mats requires to level the profession. If you don't like crafting at all and have no desire to do so, that's fine too. It's easy to find people who will craft the items for you for free or a small tip. You can buy all of the mats from the AH yourself, but they will be about double to triple the price of what it would cost for you to craft them yourself. The new ID crafting recipes just came out, so the prices are spiking.

- Once you get to 50, get all of the Greater Marks of Ascension that you can from T2 dailies, Master Modes, weekly quests, etc. Between the crafted gear and drops from expert dungeons, you'll be able to put together a set plenty good enough to tank in T1 raids. Once you start tanking those, between T1 raid drops and the Regular Marks of Ascension you get from bosses, you'll be able to put together a full T1 raid set easily.

Gearing really bogs down once you start trying for a T2 raid set, which is why you've been getting the Greater Marks every chance you can. This will pay dividends trying to get the T2 raid set. It may be tempting to aim low and get the regular marks from the quest rewards, but it'll just shoot you in the foot later.

- The best piece of advice I can give you is learn to DPS as well. At most, most encounters require 3 tanks. Most only 1 or 2. Unless you are the absolute main tank of a guild, then odds are you will need to DPS when a 2nd or 3rd tank are not required. Also, being a DPS lets you learn the fights from a different perspective and even lets you learn the fights without the pressure of being the tank. People usually have a very short leash for bad tanking.

- Read the strats for all the fights before you do something and preferably go into a dungeon/raid as a DPS before you attempt to tank it. As I said above, people have a very short leash for tanks. Bad DPS you can work around, but a dead tank is a dead raid. Don't be the guy that joins and says "This is my first time here. I have no idea what I'm doing".

[Plavem]

Whats up guys. You both mentioned wanting to tank for your guild or any guild. That is a nice goal to have. There are a couple of ways to get there. But, I would like you to realize that being a main tank isn't like being a dps or a healer. You being the tank sets the momentum for the rest of the raid. You being the tank you need to have exceptional awareness, to avoid mechanics yourself, while also helping the raid to dodge mechanics. If you can do this then please I implore you to continue to read.

As you are leveling, I would suggest going armor smith, and mining. These 2 go hand in hand with each other. Once you hit 300 and hit 50 you will be able to craft a couple of pieces of toughness gear which will help you to get into Experts quicker.

You may also want to familiarize yourself with 2 specs ( there are others ) but in my opinion these are the best. You want to have a 38 reaver spec, as well as a 44 paladin spec, 22 warlord. The paladin spec is my favorite spec because you don't have to try at any aspect of the game its call cake. The reaver spec is about equally as good, but the agro is a little on the lower side. Nonetheless you can run either and you will do fine.

Now being fresh a fresh 50 and a crafter, you can craft a couple of pieces through token... however if you do the daily every day and the weekly you will be able to make the better items sooner. But, in the mean time you have a couple of options.

1) you could go back to Normal AP & Normal CC run it non-stop to work on getting toughness gear ( and also faction )

2) start farming rifts, invasions, & zone events for inscribed.

No matter the route you go this will get you running experts fairly quick.

Once you start running experts and get some loot from them, or purchase some T1 armor, you will be ready for Greensccales blight. Though you may not be able to tank greenscale, you will be able to offtank it so seize this chance. Most of the runs now days are on a gold bid system, however you still can find an open roll pug. With any luck you will get a few pieces of loot and work towards being ready for hammer kneel.

This is the route I would take. For the most part.

[tordana]

Whats up guys. You both mentioned wanting to tank for your guild or any guild. That is a nice goal to have. There are a couple of ways to get there. But, I would like you to realize that being a main tank isn't like being a dps or a healer. You being the tank sets the momentum for the rest of the raid. You being the tank you need to have exceptional awareness, to avoid mechanics yourself, while also helping the raid to dodge mechanics. If you can do this then please I implore you to continue to read.

As you are leveling, I would suggest going armor smith, and mining. These 2 go hand in hand with each other. Once you hit 300 and hit 50 you will be able to craft a couple of pieces of toughness gear which will help you to get into Experts quicker.

You may also want to familiarize yourself with 2 specs ( there are others ) but in my opinion these are the best. You want to have a 38 reaver spec, as well as a 44 paladin spec, 22 warlord. The paladin spec is my favorite spec because you don't have to try at any aspect of the game its call cake. The reaver spec is about equally as good, but the agro is a little on the lower side. Nonetheless you can run either and you will do fine.

Now being fresh a fresh 50 and a crafter, you can craft a couple of pieces through token... however if you do the daily every day and the weekly you will be able to make the better items sooner. But, in the mean time you have a couple of options.

1) you could go back to Normal AP & Normal CC run it non-stop to work on getting toughness gear ( and also faction )

2) start farming rifts, invasions, & zone events for inscribed.

No matter the route you go this will get you running experts fairly quick.

Once you start running experts and get some loot from them, or purchase some T1 armor, you will be ready for Greensccales blight. Though you may not be able to tank greenscale, you will be able to offtank it so seize this chance. Most of the runs now days are on a gold bid system, however you still can find an open roll pug. With any luck you will get a few pieces of loot and work towards being ready for hammer kneel.

This is the route I would take. For the most part.

This post is mostly correct, but please don't ever raid using 44 paladin/22 warlord. Your healers will hate you, and in later content it will be completely impossible. 38 reaver/20 warlord/8 paladin may be slightly trickier to use but it's much higher mitigation.

[iZemi]

This post is mostly correct, but please don't ever raid using 44 paladin/22 warlord. Your healers will hate you, and in later content it will be completely impossible. 38 reaver/20 warlord/8 paladin may be slightly trickier to use but it's much higher mitigation.

He should focus on 38rv/28vk to start off imo, its a more solid undergeared build

[Plavem]

He should focus on 38rv/28vk to start off imo, its a more solid undergeared build

I would disagree. 44/22 is great for learning the logistics behind tanking. Don't get me wrong 38 reaver is better, but 44/22 works just fine until ID then you have no choice but to run 38 reaver.

However it has been an extremely long time for me to not be over geared for the content.

[Plavem]

This post is mostly correct, but please don't ever raid using 44 paladin/22 warlord. Your healers will hate you, and in later content it will be completely impossible. 38 reaver/20 warlord/8 paladin may be slightly trickier to use but it's much higher mitigation.

Now im no guide writer or anything fancy like that. However I will say this reaver ( even with proper macros ) is a little harder to get initial threat with. If you are pugging with good dps who don't hold back right at the start you are going to kill alot of people unless you have the rotation timing and knowledge of the reaver spec.

However, if you use the 44/22 spec this will never be an issue. And as you get more and more comfortable with tanking dungeons and such then you can go to reaver.

Its better to hold agro in a pug then it is to mitigate a little more. Ask the healer its easier to heal one target getting hit like a truck than it is to heal multiple people from getting hit by a truck.

[iZemi]

I would disagree. 44/22 is great for learning the logistics behind tanking. Don't get me wrong 38 reaver is better, but 44/22 works just fine until ID then you have no choice but to run 38 reaver.

However it has been an extremely long time for me to not be over geared for the content.

38/28 is very easy, and much better, I'm not sure why you are concerned about threat in this. Cyclone Strike/Ragestorm/Tempest + surge if you want/need it. Its a threat power house. Not saying it cant be done in 44pl/22 wl, just saying 38/28 is definately the better option imo

[Techie Will]

38/28 is very easy, and much better, I'm not sure why you are concerned about threat in this. Cyclone Strike/Ragestorm/Tempest + surge if you want/need it. Its a threat power house. Not saying it cant be done in 44pl/22 wl, just saying 38/28 is definately the better option imo

In addition to the 360 cleaves for threat, don't forget Pact Conversion is this era of Rift's version of Spotters Order. I was able to tank some pulls in Expert DSM last night using only Pacifying Strike and Pact Conversion as a finisher, just for laughs.

38 Reaver/28 Void Knight for anything under 4-piece Hammerknell gear, hands down.

[Plavem]

I just simply disagree.

Either way OP, you have some good info here take it for what you will. Try it all out and go from there, with which you like best. Any of these builds will be viable in an Expert Dungeon. But if you are going to raid, run reaver until they buff our other specs.

[Rurlen]

As was mentioned, Mathos notoriety is a must-have. I would go for the quests at Reclaimer's Hold in Moonshade first (i.e. if you are leveling yet) to get the ghetto runes til Mathos is done. Dragonslayer in Shimmersand is good too.
Crafting and notoriety aside, I would run as many instances as you can, leveling. PuG groups tend to teach you to use all your skills, as there are plenty of people you can't rely on to play well with others. Despite some aggro for the experience, you'll be a better tank for it, plus it's good xp, decent cash, gear, and notoriety.
Do invasions of appropriate level. Save your planarite, and when you're able, Inscribed Sourcestones. Do dailies and weekly quests for level-appropriate zones. As mentioned, get the 7500 sigil when you can, use it to 50.

Good fortune to you.

[wayne62682]

I'm paying particular attention to the builds discussed... prior to a few days ago I had never seen anyone recommend 38 RV/28 VK, it was always the standard 38 RV/20 WL/8 PL for everything, from a fresh 50 to someone in a world first guild.

[tordana]

I'm paying particular attention to the builds discussed... prior to a few days ago I had never seen anyone recommend 38 RV/28 VK, it was always the standard 38 RV/20 WL/8 PL for everything, from a fresh 50 to someone in a world first guild.

I carry 38/28 around and use it for dungeons... having a purge and cleanse is useful when pugging. I believe math has been done that 38/28 is slightly higher mitigation than 38/20/8 until you have the HK 4-piece also.

[Carinae]

This post is mostly correct, but please don't ever raid using 44 paladin/22 warlord. Your healers will hate you, and in later content it will be completely impossible. 38 reaver/20 warlord/8 paladin may be slightly trickier to use but it's much higher mitigation.

Absolutely not true. 44/22 has equivalent physical mitigation to 38/20/8, a 44 pt CD, and Preservation which is a nice buff for other tanks. Just don't use it on a magic intensive fight, its that simple. 44/22 is by far the best CD spec, assuming you're not taking lots of magical damage. Basically, if >25% of the incoming damage is magical you should be using 38/20/8.

HK:
44/22 -- Murdantix, Sicarion, Zilas, Vladmal, Rune King (toss Preservation on the mage tank), Akylios
38/20/8 -- Matron, Grug, Estrode, Garau, Darktide