Xaerre Tanking
Thanks to Dominique, Samaki, Scream and Dantes for unintentionally bringing this to my attention. We were starting a slow party and Dominique was tanking in Drakon. I had been soloing, so I had some basic armour on and I picked up a heavy jewel encrusted mace to bash (my top four skills were unarmed 94, club 76, Staff 59, Spear 47 at that point). I tanked a few kills and was hooked.
I'm not insane, really! It makes logical sense!
1. A tank doesn't take much damage if the bashers beat the npc into the ground fast.
2. The difference between a cleric tank and a xaerre tank is that a cleric can heal, while a xaerre does damage (fix prayer vs. claw). You can also use thrown weapons and your (hopefully high) weapon skill to do damage, in addition to claw.
3. The other very significant difference is that clerics can wear more armour. However, if you get the strangely patterned cloak or magic surcoat, golden amulet, one of Zarkan's rings, high leather boots and gloves (and stay away from the high-damage kills), you can do a reasonable job. This armour combination is approximately the same as or better than the traditional blackcrown/fine platemail/robe of turkey feathers/shield combination that most clerics prefer when they can't get unique armour.
4. Drakons rely on breath, dodging (for the elves among us) and natural armour to tank, but can't really do quite as significant damage.
5. Trees and Treants do very little damage, but have high natural armour and entangle.
Therefore, all you need is:
- a few good bashers
- a few uniques
- good/great weapon skill
- reasonable marksmanship
- reasonable thrown weapon ability
- heroic xaerre, and
- some good kills.
