Shining Slash: Guest week, a plea to the masses

Long time no blog! I'm here to break the silence with a little post from Minsc, a Templar in my Legion. Every Tank you've run with has wanted to say this at some point, so take it on board, seriously.

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Your Guide to "What The Hell Is The Tank Doing" (1-35)

So you're in a group, and that Templar (Or Gladiator) is strutting around like he owns the planet, despite being able to do less damage than Tutty on a bad day. You think to yourself "Heh, but this guy can't hold agro either". Doesn't he have taunt?

Odds are, from a Tank point of view - you're a liability because you probably don't understand how Templar threat works. Tanking in Aion isn't like most other games. Also note: "Agro/Threat" in Aion is referred to as "Enmity".

Note: This is a guide only up to level 35 or so. Things do change after this
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The Tools Of The Trade

A Templar (as at Level 35) have two basic Enmity generating moves.
> Provoke: medium range non-damaging Enmity ability. Cool down 12 sec.
> Provoking Slash: melee attack with extra Enmity. Cool down 12 sec.

They have access to two subjective Enmity generators.
> Provoking Shield Counter: Shield "bash", only usable immediately after successful block. Does NOT stun enemy. Cool down 24 seconds.
> Divine Chastisement: DP ability. Costs 2000 DP.

They have access to three Stigma stones which are Enmity generators.
> Inescapable Judgment: Ranged "pull" ability bringing enemy directly to you. Also reduces their movement speed for 10 seconds. Cool down 30 seconds.
> Provoking Roar: 10m PBAoE which generates some threat on up to five monsters. Cool down 30 sec.
> Incite Rage: 15m 1 minute CD Provoke clone with a mana cost added.
> (Remember they may not have one or both of these.)

More come as levels progress, but I don't know my way around the full list yet. There are more Stigmas out there, but for now we'll stick to the level range we know well, and the level range of what we are seeing day-to-day.
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Things to know:

First, none of these are a "top of the stack" enmity/threat/agro generator.
They generate a set amount, period. If you've pulled agro, and you're a DPSer... STOP. There is nothing a tank can do if you're still going berserk on a creature that is attacking you. You'll stay ahead of him/her for a lot longer. If you're a healer, all you can do is try to heal through it as best you can and hope the tank can pull agro back off you.

Secondly, a Templar relies on blocking attacks to generate a lot of threat.
He has three abilities at his disposal on a successful block - (a) a shield bash stun, (b) the aforementioned Enmity generator, and (c) a retributive strike (which is their highest damage dealer). If you pull agro, you are going to take away roughly half of his bag of tricks that he can use to keep agro on himself, and some of his damage mitigation to boot. So if he's not got agro on himself, his ability to get it back is depleted, and he'll start to fall behind the healers - and that's wipe territory.

Thirdly, a Templar is not a Gladiator.
He does not have an appreciable ongoing "multitanking" capacity like a Gladiator - he traded it in for mitigation. If there is more than one creature out there, he will be switching between them and spreading his basic Enmity generators around, which means the DPS troops have to scale back their output so they don't pull agro. Healers have to "suck it up buttercup", and hope the chainmail will stop any errant hits if one gets away briefly.
This goes double for if there are crowd-controlled creatures. If one is 'slept', a good tank will switch to that target every time Provoke cool down is up and throw it at that creature (from out of melee range so he doesn't break CC). This prevents the creature from running after the CCer or a healer if it breaks/resists CC. So, if one creature is slept, be sure not to still go absolutely gangbusters on the one you're DPSing at first - give it a grace period of 20 seconds or so (enough for two rounds of the 12 sec cool down taunts) of light DPS after the tank finally has the creature in melee range before you start really unloading with the pointy stuff.

Lastly, a Tank may have to go "Defensive".
One thing a Templar can do is go into "Shield Defence/Steel Wall Defence". This puts his mitigation up quite a fair bit, but he cannot use any abilities while in this mode - this includes any Enmity generators. It gives the healers a chance to catch up if he's dropping below, but in turn stops his Enmity output. So if you see or hear of the Tank going into 'Block Mode' or 'Going Defensive' or 'Putting Up A Wall' or any such thing for any length of time to let healers catch up - dial back the juice or you'll wind up with the bad guy cleaning your clock for you, and it'll give new meaning to "Spray 'n' Wipe + Mr. Muscle".

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So to recap:
If a Templar loses agro, wind back the DPS, even if it's not you the guy is coming after. The longer the Tank doesn't have agro, the more he falls behind.
If there is more than one bad guy, give the Tank some time to really get rolling, he'll be behind for a while. Ease the DPS for 10-20 secs at the start.
If a Templar is going all defensive mode, lay off. He's not generating as much threat.

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I hope this clears up tanking. Without a specific "automatic Top-Of-The-Stack" agro/taunt skill, Tanks have a lot harder time actually regaining agro, so take care when you're out there. If you pull agro, you put the whole group at risk here, not like several other MMO's where the tank has an "Oh Shit" button. Some tanks are very good at their job, and can honestly just output threat like it's nobody's business, and a lot of the previous stuff may not apply as much, but these basics ought to give everyone a rough understanding of what is going on.

Cheers!

~ Minsc and Boo.
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Thanks, Minsc!

Watch this space for upcoming posts delving deep into the Stigma system (for Templars, of course!) and a look over of the Templar DP abilities we'll have lined up for level 50 content.