Temple Knights: For raid bosses, an HP weapon is needed, but the TK can handle it in general with gusto. They don’t have as high con as the human tanks, but have Guard Stance and significantly more CON than the Dark Elf tanks. That combination makes them very useful under most situations.

Paladins: For undead raid bosses, there are none better: high HP and extra resistance to undead give the Paladin the decided advantage as the tank of choice. They have a 360 degree shield blocking toggle, which makes them very useful at fighting raid bosses with minions.

Dark Avengers: In raids, you can’t really go wrong picking a DA to tank for your group. They’re the only pure tank that doesn’t get 360 degree shield blocking of any kind, so the DA must either rely on his skill or luck to keep his shield between him and the gobs of mobs. The Damage Reflect self buff can add a significant amount of extra hate from the high powered hits given by the raid boss, but any tank can get a similar buf from a Sorcerer, Spellsinger, or Warcryer nearby.

Shillien Knights: With an 11 point less base CON than human tanks, SKs usually need to either outlevel all other alliance tanks by a lot, or use your clout in the alliance to have a turn to tank. Generally, the raid party is a lot safer and much easier to keep alive if the main tank is …well, not you. Low HP means the all important Bishop heal--Restore Life--will be the weakest in your case. When you are at 6000 HP and the raid boss is doing 500-1000 a hit while mana draining you at the same time, you and the healers will be sweating for the entire ordeal. While the very high P. Def obtained from Guard Stance helps, the low HP and constant Guard Stance use is a considerable mana drain on the tank and the tank party. However, with a health weapon, +CON, and +HP/CON armor, you can mitigate this issue.

Raid Tank Group Setup

The raid tank group is the most important group to put together well. If it's not, no matter the number of nukers you have, you're all going to die. My personal favorite setup is a tank, two Bishops, two Shillien Elders, two Elven Elders, a Swordsinger, and a Warcryer. With this setup, you have plenty of MP regen for the Bishops (your main healer) and rechargers for the tank. Plus, you have two people with a 30% heal, and now in Chronicle 4, Balance Life. When the raid boss does 300-1000 damage a hit to a tank AFTER the shield block (damage depending on your level and level of the boss, of course) several 30% heals are very important. Alternatively, you could swap out one of the rechargers for a Bladedancer for Dance of Concentration. Alternatively, swap out one of the healers for another tank. At the very bare minimum, I would recommend two Bishops and two rechargers on the healer side. A Swordsinger is NOT optional: Song of Earth, Warding, and (at higher levels) Vitality are a must. Because the 30% heal is so important for raids, having a tank with the most HP is usually more useful than one with a slightly better armor set.

A tank, even with Ultimate Defense and Swordsinger buffs, should always max out at about 17 buffs. This is due to many raid boss' lovely desire to debuff everyone near it. If even one or two of the tank's buffs roll off, everyone is in trouble. Keeping three spots for safety pretty much guarantees the buffs won't roll off.

For tank buffs, give only defensive buffs and haste. If the tank has to be smacking on the mob, you've already failed the raid. Try to keep the tank at under 12 buffs before you start. Shield, Majesty, Magic Defense, Arrow Deflect (if the mob has archer minions), a damage-reflection buff, Bless Shield, Advanced Block, Evasion (every little bit helps, even more so on Elves), Haste, Prayer (the higher the better), Body of Avatar/Bless the Body, and Bless the Soul (for more hates, if you have room) are all very important. Alternatively, Resist Stun, Resist Poison, or Mental Shield could be added based on the mob. The low number of starting buffs is important because the tank is going to need 1 more spot for Ultimate Defense, three to four more for songs and 1 more for a dance, sometimes.

For songs and dances, the songs Warding, Earth, and Vitality should be at the top of your list. Song of Revenge, coupled with a reflect damage buff, helps immensely in maintaining aggro on the raid boss. Alternatively, Dance of Concentration helps your healer party recharge and cast their heals faster.

Personally, I like the Warcryer for my tank group buffer. This is because in raids where the raid boss has an AoE cancel, I can ensure that everyone in the tank party has buffs within about three seconds of the raid boss canceling, ensuring the raid’s survival. Their Chant of Life is immensely useful for countering poisons and bleeds the boss might put on the tank, and gives the healers a moment or two to cure the tank’s debuffs.

During The Raid

One of the biggest problems with raids is a person accidentally aggroing the raid boss before the raid starts. If someone accidentally hits the boss, the boss will kill every person in that party before it stops again. To ensure that doesn’t happen, make sure that no one targets the boss until it’s actually time to go.

Buffing should be done in unison. Many high level alliances do this anyway, but it’s extremely important for raids. Each party should rebuff right before the raid starts. That way, one party doesn’t start loosing buffs mid-fight, and reduce the raid overall damage output for too long--the time it takes a Prophet to rebuff a party can take about the same time a raid needs to kill a boss!