Wayfarers of Veeshan

As you guys start to play with mobs like Construct of Nightmares, Xanamech, Prototypes, then probably Grummus and Terris Thule, these are basically the beginner flag bosses of PoP. With enough healing I think a non defensive hybrid could tank them, especially the ones that slow easily. I prefer hybrids in xp groups because they basically never lose agro, whether its to heals, slows, debuffs or nukes, in a raid setting you should use that to your advantage. I think alot of the raids I'm going to now would be better off with a hybrid tank, Xanamech comes to mind because of the AE slow, I believe the glass dragon in PoV is MT'ed with a hybrid alot because of his slow. AA's and equipment can make a really big difference, group composition, mob positioning and push control do as well. I know there are some really nice droppable items from Velious, Luclin and PoP as well as some tradeskilled items and adventure loot and rewards but skipping over high end Velious, pretty much all of Luclin and into PoP raids, especially Tier1 gods is going to be tough to do as a guild. Take a look at the loot tables in NToV and see how many items you think would not be an upgrade for someone at your raid if they dropped. How about with SS or Kael quest armor? Farming HoT, NToV, some of the named in Kael, and then even some of the smaller bosses in Luclin can give alot of melee upgrades and would just make the PoP encounters or Luclin farming more manageable. Not sure how the tower lords in BoT would tank compare to something like Xana or Grummus but from what I've seen I'd say they are close to if not easier and there is a nice balanced loot table on those 4 lords as well. You have dps items for all melee, ornate chest pcs and FT items. Even the mini's and lesser named in BoT can give some pretty nice ornate patterns. If you looking to do more with less Luclin is where alot of clerics get their FT items build up from, working thru Ssra and into VT is alot of hard work (aka boring key and shard camping). Theres a reason they make it so hard, I think VT has over 20 different FT items that drop there up to FT5. Clerics and wizards with max FT is a good thing. I know at one point Farstorm decided to skip VT and move into upper level PoP stuff, they should have been fairly well equipped in Velious and Luclin equipment, after trying it not so successfully for a while they decided to go back and do VT so they would have an easier time with the PoP encounters. I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm just saying its harder to skip out of progression.

Sensei Notnilc
-Blue Cloak