Been thinking about starting a Thane during the revamp - I've heard they're kind of last to be picked for RvR, and especially now that they've lost Det - but how are they with tanking PvE? Seems like they'd hold better AoE threat than a Warrior unless I'm being naive.

I had a 46 Thane on Uth 1.0 and it seemed great for threat but never experienced lvl 50 content with him - any of you old vets have some thoughts?

Tanking in PVE you'd still prefer a Warrior for anything serious because more skill points you can invest into parry/shield.
Probably higher HP table too. And your thane spells will mostly be resisted or do little to no damage on epic mobs like the dragon.

For epic encounters, like Legion, Dragon, Summoners Hall, Worm a thane used to be the best main tank during Uth 1.0.
This was simply because of how WoC2/3 worked. It generated aggro so good that he could easily hold aggro a lot better than any warrior.
WoC to that degree will no longer be possible, so a warrior will probably be preferred for those kind of encounters with the settings we will end up with.
For massive low level aggro a thane can probably pull aggro better than a warrior, think Yar, and only having medium shield might not be such a big deal if the support are able to keep him alive.

A thane have its perks, but I doubt many people are capable to understand them, so they would just take any warrior instead.

Warcast wrote:Been thinking about starting a Thane during the revamp - I've heard they're kind of last to be picked for RvR, and especially now that they've lost Det - but how are they with tanking PvE? Seems like they'd hold better AoE threat than a Warrior unless I'm being naive.

I had a 46 Thane on Uth 1.0 and it seemed great for threat but never experienced lvl 50 content with him - any of you old vets have some thoughts?

Thanes are alright, there is a lot of prejudice towards them because bad/inexperienecd players like to spam AOE spells on CC'ed targets. The way to play them in group is to apply ranged spells to the assist target and interupting with the insta nuke whilst staying on the back row and guard switching between the healers and casters whilst slapping hammer spec back snare styles on pursuers.

In PvE they also do alright, although a warrior is going to have less trouble holding agro and will take less hits.

assist target and interupting with the insta nuke whilst staying on the back row and guard switching between the healers and casters whilst slapping hammer spec back snare styles on pursuers.

This seems right, and I imagine it can be done well by a good player. I can't recall how difficult it would be to temp a Thane for this role at this patch.

BullMoose wrote:This seems right, and I imagine it can be done well by a good player. I can't recall how difficult it would be to temp a Thane for this role at this patch.

You can pretty much forgo quickness in your template; Thanes don't get evade and you can make up for slow swing speed by using only the fastest one-hand hammers.

The best spec for this playstyle is:
50 Stormcalling
42 Shields
39 Hammer
6 Parry

As a bonus, you'll get the best str/con buff with 50 Stormcalling, so you'll save your Shaman some concentration points.

I always liked playing a 2h Thane,
50 SC
50 weapon
27 parry
leftovers in shield

She had a slow swing with an axe but absolutely could hold the agro in most all PVE situations. She was GREAT fun to play pve, PVP that 2 handed axe would get me killed to several stealthers, seemed a lone thane had a big target on her back, one on one I did ok but the stigma of bad Thane players kept me from getting many groups and of course my shammy was needed a lot more.

adjuchas_brokk wrote:

BullMoose wrote:This seems right, and I imagine it can be done well by a good player. I can't recall how difficult it would be to temp a Thane for this role at this patch.

You can pretty much forgo quickness in your template; Thanes don't get evade and you can make up for slow swing speed by using only the fastest one-hand hammers.

The best spec for this playstyle is:
50 Stormcalling
42 Shields
39 Hammer
6 Parry

As a bonus, you'll get the best str/con buff with 50 Stormcalling, so you'll save your Shaman some concentration points.

Next to strength, quickness is the most important stat in tank templates. And no, thane is not a good group char. With no determination and 30 minute purge, you're useless. If you get nearsighted(and you will), it's over. Hybrid damage table, slow casting speed, not a huge amount of dmg on your nukes etc.