Editing Venomancer Tanking (section)

== Tanking Yourself ==

No, this doesn't mean making sure that you survive your own attacks and attack no one except yourself.  That would be strange.

This means that sometimes, very rarely, you may actually be the best choice of tank - rather than your pet.

This is a very rare situation.  But worth knowing about.

I shall take Krixxix (an elite quest monster, outside of Orchid Temple) as my example.

Krixxix punches ''far'' above his weight in levels.  He does a lot of damage.  Huge amounts.  Earthshattering amounts.  Your pet is ''petfood'', amounts.

He also has both a physical attack and a ranged magical attack.  And this is where you step in.

As a Venomancer you can take magical hits reasonably well.  If you can keep him on you, then with potions (or a cleric) you can survive that.

So, in this situation (where a monster will hit you for magic, but absolutely cream your pet, it is actually better for ''you'' to tank.

How do you do it?  Just reverse the usual advice.  You need to out-damage your pet (and your group)

This is one of the few times that you can really stretch and unload your arsenal.  Ironwood as soon as it recharges, lucky as soon as it recharges, make sure that the enemy is poisoned and ''on fire'' at all times.  No need to heal your pet, no need to stop.  Don't forget your spark!

Well, some need to stop.  To stay alive you probably need to use your healing skills on top of potions (unless you have apothecary items or a cleric)

You also need to make sure that your pet doesn't out damage you.  You may need to turn off its aggro dealing skills for a while.  If you've got 'reduce magic defense' skills, use those, they're great.

:''(In case it isn't clear, by staying at range and using magic attacks, you cause Krixxix to use his magical attack in return.  Others, including your pet, can hit him at close range, but as long as you keep aggro, he will ignore them.  Be careful though, many bosses have an AoE and can hit you all at once...)''

Right.  Enjoyable as all that is? It's almost certainly a suboptimal (if not actively bad) idea.

First of all, a wizard is almost certainly better than you as a magic tank.  (They have element-specific buffs)
Secondly, a ranged pet can possibly do it better than you.
Thirdly, just go and get a group.  A barbarian and cleric will do the job, if they're high enough level.


But getting your revenge on Krixxix is ''sweet'', and deliberately pulling [[Aggro]] off of a [[Barbarian]] is ''fun''.  You don't get to do it very often, so enjoy the chance when it presents itself.

:(Accidentally pulling [[Aggro]] from a [[Barbarian]] is, of course, a bad idea that usually leads to your demise.)