Gear Requirements to Tank Shadowfiends in ToD Part 2

[aristarchus1000]

Specifically for Palemasters.

I know it is possible, but I want to know, for those of you who successfully did it, what gear did you have, how many hitpoints, and what spells did you use?

My Palemaster has 510+ hitpoints, can obviously Fire Shield, Cold Resist, and Protect, and has a Tier 2 Cold Absorption item from Shroud (10+15). I suppose I can build an exceptional cold item and finish the 3rd tier, but would like to know if I need to.

Death Aura, Negative Burst, and Necrotic Bursts? Incendiary Clouds and Firewalls?

I'd like to get an idea before I subject my first raid group to an attempt. Thanks!

[TheDjinnFor]

Tank? You mean kite right? You don't need gear if you don't get hit. The reason why I'm asking is because I've honestly never heard of people 'tanking' the shadows in pt 2 of ToD.

Throw a firewall bellow the steps to nab any spawns that go after the group, hotkey protection from cold and cast it as a 'heal' whenever you get hit, buff yourself with resist energy, cold version of fireshield, haste; additional stuff is just gravy. Be sure to refresh the firewall(s) because of the duration nerf.

[aristarchus1000]

Tank? You mean kite right? You don't need gear if you don't get hit. The reason why I'm asking is because I've honestly never heard of people 'tanking' the shadows in pt 2 of ToD.

Throw a firewall bellow the steps to nab any spawns that go after the group, hotkey protection from cold and cast it as a 'heal' whenever you get hit, buff yourself with resist energy, cold version of fireshield, haste; additional stuff is just gravy. Be sure to refresh the firewall(s) because of the duration nerf.

I know about kiting. I'm bored of that. Tank and kill the shadowfiends. It's been done, I've seen it plenty of times. It is arguably safer and more consistent in laggy situations, once you are geared enough to do it.

[Meretrix]

'heal' whenever you get hit, buff yourself with resist energy, cold version of fireshield, haste; additional stuff is just gravy

Whatever you do, do NOT use the cold version of fireshield

[TheDjinnFor]

Whatever you do, do NOT use the cold version of fireshield

I herped when I should have derped.

[Osharan_Tregarth]

Whatever you do, do NOT use the cold version of fireshield

I also have to keep reminding myself that I need to take off my VoD bracers. Dunno if this is working as intended or not, but when my cold shield from them goes off, it overrides my fire shield.

[Illiain]

Tank? You mean kite right? You don't need gear if you don't get hit. The reason why I'm asking is because I've honestly never heard of people 'tanking' the shadows in pt 2 of ToD.

Throw a firewall bellow the steps to nab any spawns that go after the group, hotkey protection from cold and cast it as a 'heal' whenever you get hit, buff yourself with resist energy, cold version of fireshield, haste; additional stuff is just gravy. Be sure to refresh the firewall(s) because of the duration nerf.

With the lag everyone has been experiencing, it's all the rage now and a lot safer. I was in a group where a good kiter got killed because of a lag spike. So while we waited for the instance to reset, and people to get ship buffs, he hopped on a 70+ airship and crafted up a tier 3 GS 45% cold resists weapon, and the next run went as smooth as could be.

[Kahless_of_Cannith]

There's a thread floating around here somewhere listing the gear and spells used. The only thing I can think of is grabbing an item with a large guild augment slot and slotting the stacking resist in there. That gives 8 on top of everything else I believe.

[PresentTense]

People are scared of tanking the shadowfiends, and I'm not sure why. My wf wizzy has a hair over 400 hp (no GS hp item yet) and I always tank instead of kite. I simply load three repair spells so I don't have to worry about cooldowns, turn quicken on and sit there. When you're not moving, the damage is negligible - I only use cold resist and fire shield.

Your death auras and a quickened necrotic burst should be fine, especially if you have other bells and whistles like a cold absorption item. Since you can't alternate to another negative energy spell if you get hit hard and necrotic burst is on cooldown, have your finger ready over prot elements to eliminate the next 120 cold damage while the cooldown finishes. Just remember it's the opposite of kiting - don't move. You'll be hit more often if you do.

[fluffybunnywilson]

I've tanked it twice and I've seen it tanked about a dozen times. If you are ready to handle the shadows, then Tanking will be easier and safer for the person doing it and for the party as a whole.

You should be all set with what you have now. I have fewer HP than you and I didn't have significant problems. I'd suggest leaving off the Lich form if you are a robot so that you can heal yourself with both reconstruct scrolls and reconstruct spells at least on the first run that you do this because you'll want to get used to the pace of healing that you need on that character. Leaving the Undead form off will also let one of the raid healers help you out if things go south.

When you are tanking, you'll also have time to do other things, so you can zap the shadowmaster with DoTs and direct damage spells while you're letting the Shadows beat on you. They do have melee attacks, but those melee attacks are not scary at all. The cold aura is the only thing that you actually have to worry about.

Also, Protection from Cold is applied before the % reduction from Fire Shield and the Shroud weapon cold absorbtion, so repeated castings of Protection from Cold will not do nearly enough damage mitigation to keep you alive.

Final thought for anyone reading this thread:
Fire Shield 50%
Shroud cold absorbtion item 10%/15% or 10%/15%/20%
100% * 0.5 * 0.9 * 0.85 = 38.25% incoming damage from cold spells
100% * 0.5 * 0.9 * 0.85 * 0.8 = 30.6% incoming damage from cold spells.

[aurum1]

You should be fine to tank as is. A decent pool of HP, fireshield, and mass prot are all you really need. Additional cold absorb is nice.

Really once you go tank you will never go back to kiting. Much more reliable method imho.

[DragonMageT]

You should be fine to tank as is. A decent pool of HP, fireshield, and mass prot are all you really need. Additional cold absorb is nice.

Really once you go tank you will never go back to kiting. Much more reliable method imho.

^This.

You don't need cold absorption, I have never used it and won't.
There is a very detailed thread about tanking the shadows but I think it was titled kiting the shadows.

The only time I kite is on Elite, norm and hard are very easy and safer for the party to tank.
I even tank shadows on my FVS when called upon

[aristarchus1000]

ah good point on reconstruct and staying out of undead form. I can prep a few repair spells to spam during cooldown, and also benefit from emergency heals from the cleric.

btw, I found a recent thread here, but the responses here have been great, thank you and +1!

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=315091

[Gol]

Also, Frostbite potions from the Risia games help tremendously with 50% cold absorp. Whether it stacks with shroud gear, I don't know, but 50% is still huge.

[Thrudh]

And don't forget to turn on Quicken...

I forgot once.... once.

[samdsherman]

do shadowfiends trigger torc/conc opp? or is it all spell damage?

[protokon]

ive tanked it with a 300hp drow sorc, no cold absorption item, just fire shield. the initial ticks are what hurt the most, after that it is a pretty steady rythm of healing yourself.

you have more than what you need to keep yourself up.

[bradleyforrest]

I've been tanking for a while now. Cold Resist, Fire Shield, Cold Absorb weapon, 597 HP on my Drow Pale Master. probably don't need the cold absorb item anymore at this point, but I have it so I use it.

Tanking is much easier than kiting. As long as you can take the hits and can grab all the aggro, there's 0% chance of failure.

[aristarchus1000]

Continue to appreciate the input of all who have done it.

I had 10+ successful kites in a row before update 9, and since Update 9 I've been 1 for 3, almost entirely due to lag and shadowfiends rubber-banding like mad.

I decided I could practice kiting in lag, or I could seriously figure out if I can tank the fiends. The input here is very encouraging. I'll give it a shot. Thanks all!

[crazydamage]

FVS tanker makes more sense
Aura Archon BB. 3 reliable ways to get aggro.
Higher HP.
Better healing.