TERA Online Lancer Tanking Guide

TERA Online Lancer Tanking Guide by Avuja

This is a post about my experience playing as a Lancer in the first closed US Tera test.
I will go over what I learned and what play style and methodologies I used during my brief time tanking in Bastion.

Things to remember:
– When your shield is up people behind you get the same bonus
– You’re not a DPS, you job is aggro/MP management
– If you have a Zerker in your group they can handle themselves if need be
– As tempting as it is to Rush Attack and begin spamming skills on bosses/mobs, opening with Shout is more effective
– Your self heal is helpful but MP draining, use it only when under 60% HP or @ full MP

— The Pull —
– Get within range of your aggro shout ability
– Start battle with shout first
– Position mobs (DPS won’t pull off of you right away)
– Begin Attacks / Defends

— The Battle —
– Focus mostly on positioning
– Doing damage isn’t very important, save your MP
– Shout every chance you get
– Only block for large pulls or during mob enrage/power attacks
(Different tactic with the 2 berzerker mob pulls, block every attack)
– ALWAYS keep your eye on the healer

*Note: I say to only do basic attacks here so you’ll always have MP. I say also to rarely block unless you begin seeing mobs during/flashing red because your effective health should be your buffer.. regular mobs are no threat to you unless someone else pulls a ton of them.

— Large Pulls (small mobs) —
*Tactic dependent on group / healer not aggroing until you’re ready
– Run through a crowd without stopping
– Turn around and shield up until ALL of the mobs are in front of you
(You will not take much damage/MP loss even from 50+ small mobs attacks)
– Shield Slam then [Charging Attack] combo
*Watch out for being knocked down here (no jumping!)
– Shout when you can

*Note: If a healer heals during this time they will get aggro on everything and will likely die since you’ll be blocked by so many mobs in the way, be sure they know you won’t be hurt during this and to hold off on healing.

— Bosses —
– Start combat with Shout
– Block at every animation change, learn the bosses attacks
– Shout every chance you get
– Use only basic attacks to gain MP

A trend you may notice here is shout shout shout. I found every ability I had was lacking in aggro gain other than the one skill I had that was literally for it.
The shout is a relatively low MP cost and short CD.

Thanks for reading, see you in the dungeons!

– Jaff