Lancer is your iconic MMO Tank built to absorb damage. The following Introduction is targeted at players new to the class.
Your primary job as the Tank is to maintain the bosses attention, most often referred to as “Aggro”.
The orange circle beneath your character indicates you have the bosses “Primary Aggro”. This means that outside of special attacks you can expect the boss to be attacking you exclusively.
Note: At the start of the fight it is generally a good idea to use Challenging Shout to generate a huge amount of Aggro, ensuring your DPS and Healers will not be targeted right away.
Aggro decays over time, so in order to maintain the bosses attention you will need to constantly attack the boss in between their attack patterns.
Note: If anyone in your party dies Aggro resets so you will need to use Challenging Shout to quickly take it back.
Once you have Aggro it is important to keep in mind your positioning relative to your party’s positioning. DPS need access to the back of the boss as it vastly increases their damage output.
Every boss has a unique attack and movement pattern, you’ll need to learn them in order to effectively position yourself.
Because a lot of bosses in the game tend to charge forward, pushing you around, most Lancers tend to “wall tank”, keeping their back to the wall of the arena so they are unable to be pushed.
In order to do your job of holding Aggro you have to be alive.
By default this is on Right Click, and while holding it down you will block all frontal attacks. MOST attacks in the game can be blocked so this is your primary method to stay alive.
Note: Some attacks cannot be blocked, requiring you to either dodge them or get out of range.
Backstep is Lancer’s dodge, allowing you to “I-Frame” MOST attacks in the game.
NOTE: Some bosses have special attacks or “Mechanics” requiring you to perform specific actions in order to survive their Unavoidable Attacks.