Favorite Tank Builds

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Hey guys, 

 

So, after talking with various people on these here forums, I've decided that I want to roll a tanky character for my MC. I have a few reasons for why I want to do this.

 

A: I felt kind of removed from the action when playing DPS. I'd send Eder and Pallegina in to engage the enemies, and then just kind of run around hitting the squishies while they dealt with the big boss. I like the idea of 'setting' the encounter, as someone here described it. Being the person who grabs the boss's attention, putting pressure on it while my party rallies. 

 

B: I've almost always played "Glass Cannon" melee or ranged DPS in these sorts of games, so tanking presents a new sort of opportunity, I think. 

 

C: I like wearing heavier armor, and I like the idea of a pirate tank. This would be my pro-Principi main, and I like the idea of a heavy armored pirate just cutting swathes across both decks in ship to ship combat. 

 

Now, my first question is... what are some of your favorite tanking builds? The one I've been thinking about using can be found here:

 

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/104853-character-build-holy-slayer-the-iron-reaver-of-dunnage-heavy-rp-principi-character-for-potd-rough-draft-feedback-welcome/ 

 

It's a rough draft, but it's my take on a Bleak Walker/Trickster Holy Slayer. I feel like it's pretty versatile and offers a lot of solid melee damage in addition to the Paladin and Trickster's excellent defensive options, but I worry that it might lack the engagements to make a Riposte build worth it in a party context. 

 

I've also heard that Unbroken/Trickster is really good - it has engagements to spare, but I also worry that it might get a little dull. People have also recommended Arcane Knight - it essentially gives all of the Illusion spells that Trickster gets but lacks a lot of the bonus damage from the Rogue. 

 

 

[pi2repsion]

Since you want it to be pirate themed, have you considered a streetfighter swashbuckler tank? An Unbroken/Streetfighter, who'll swap to sword and board only in extreme need, but dual wield most of the time? It suffers more damage than "ultimate tank" builds but tanks quite nicely for all of that.

 

The idea is to 1) get as many engagements as possible via fighter+rogue skills and equipment and use of the rogue's Persistent Distraction to make everybody engaged distracted and, hence, flanked, 2) punish disengaging enemies exceedingly through high penetration attacks that additionally are likely to crit, and 3) attack frequently due to the swashbuckler himself being flanked most of the time (and occasionally bloodied), 4) convert misses, grazes, hits up to next better tier

 

Weapons to aim for:

 

MH: Kapana Taga  - gives +1 engagement (+2 upgraded) and scaling damage based on number engaged

OH: Stalker's Patience - spear modal gives +1 engagement; increased damage to flanked targets scaling with stealth, or alternatively the spear Mohora Tanga scaling damage and penetration with survival

 

OH a shield (activating the +1AR from Unbroken) when you feel the need to be as tanky as possible. Alternatively if you want to get the +1 AR bonus from unbroken all the time do so and take the shield ability rather than dual wield.

 

The only real problem with this tank is that there are so very many fighter and rogue passives that support that tanking style, that it is easy to end up starved for active abilities.

Edited August 11, 2018 by pi2repsion

[Teclis23]

One thing that is really important to consider for tanks is be wary of picking classes with abilities that have long cast times to activate. You will get interrupted pretty much most of the time if you want to use those abilities.

 

Go for instant or quick cast times and you will be fine

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Since you want it to be pirate themed, have you considered a streetfighter swashbuckler tank? An Unbroken/Streetfighter, who'll swap to sword and board only in extreme need, but dual wield most of the time? It suffers more damage than "ultimate tank" builds but tanks quite nicely for all of that.

 

The idea is to 1) get as many engagements as possible via fighter+rogue skills and equipment and use of the rogue's Persistent Distraction to make everybody engaged distracted and, hence, flanked, 2) punish disengaging enemies exceedingly through high penetration attacks that additionally are likely to crit, and 3) attack frequently due to the swashbuckler himself being flanked most of the time (and occasionally bloodied), 4) convert misses, grazes, hits up to next better tier

 

Weapons to aim for:

 

MH: Kapana Taga  - gives +1 engagement (+2 upgraded) and scaling damage based on number engaged

OH: Stalker's Patience - spear modal gives +1 engagement; increased damage to flanked targets scaling with stealth, or alternatively the spear Mohora Tanga scaling damage and penetration with survival

 

OH a shield (activating the +1AR from Unbroken) when you feel the need to be as tanky as possible. Alternatively if you want to get the +1 AR bonus from unbroken all the time do so and take the shield ability rather than dual wield.

 

The only real problem with this tank is that there are so very many fighter and rogue passives that support that tanking style, that it is easy to end up starved for active abilities.

 

I never really thought about Streetfighter/Unbroken - I guess I'd been in the mentality of stacking Deflection as high as possible with Trickster to use Riposte. The whole being starved for active abilities thing is a bit of a downside though. I also don't really like the idea of dual wielding a club and a spear - it seems kind of silly. 

[pi2repsion]

 

Since you want it to be pirate themed, have you considered a streetfighter swashbuckler tank? An Unbroken/Streetfighter, who'll swap to sword and board only in extreme need, but dual wield most of the time? It suffers more damage than "ultimate tank" builds but tanks quite nicely for all of that.

 

The idea is to 1) get as many engagements as possible via fighter+rogue skills and equipment and use of the rogue's Persistent Distraction to make everybody engaged distracted and, hence, flanked, 2) punish disengaging enemies exceedingly through high penetration attacks that additionally are likely to crit, and 3) attack frequently due to the swashbuckler himself being flanked most of the time (and occasionally bloodied), 4) convert misses, grazes, hits up to next better tier

 

Weapons to aim for:

 

MH: Kapana Taga  - gives +1 engagement (+2 upgraded) and scaling damage based on number engaged

OH: Stalker's Patience - spear modal gives +1 engagement; increased damage to flanked targets scaling with stealth, or alternatively the spear Mohora Tanga scaling damage and penetration with survival

 

OH a shield (activating the +1AR from Unbroken) when you feel the need to be as tanky as possible. Alternatively if you want to get the +1 AR bonus from unbroken all the time do so and take the shield ability rather than dual wield.

 

The only real problem with this tank is that there are so very many fighter and rogue passives that support that tanking style, that it is easy to end up starved for active abilities.

 

I never really thought about Streetfighter/Unbroken - I guess I'd been in the mentality of stacking Deflection as high as possible with Trickster to use Riposte. The whole being starved for active abilities thing is a bit of a downside though. I also don't really like the idea of dual wielding a club and a spear - it seems kind of silly. 

 

Ending up starved for active abilities is what the respect button is there for. If one wants more active abilities it is a question of making hard choices.

 

To be fair, that's also the case for the Unbroken/Trickster you mention in the first post: the issue is that the fighter class, by itself, has nearly enough useful passives in the first 7 tiers to use all skill points from leveling to 20 when building a tank (though admittedly that's including the +10 to individual defenses passives), and the rogue adds even more, so when using a fighter/rogue combination (of whatever subclasses) to build a tank there'll always be some hard choices to make because there are so very many good options, both in the split between active and passive abilities and in the choice of actives and passives.

 

E.g. absolute minimum:

Fighter actives: Disciplined Strikes (2pt), Guardian Stance (2pt), Refreshing Defense (2pt)

Rogue actives: Escape (1pt), a good full attack with +10 accuracy with upgrade (2pt)

 

This is the bread and butter.

 

But you'd really like Unbending, possibly upgraded, and though Escape allows repositioning Charge would be quite useful too... And as for rogue, there are lots of options if you want to go further.

Edited August 11, 2018 by pi2repsion

[Zenzen]

Just going to warn that if you're looking at builds from the build list for inspiration that a tank built for solo play is sometimes actually worse in a party. In solo, tank stats are everything, because all enemies are going to hit the same guy. Playing with a party though there's very little difference between say a 160 deflection tank and a 210 deflection tank; either way, given the opportunity enemies are going to avoid you and go after the squishy members. Engagement slots and smart positioning matter more in a party.

 

If you want to be a juggernaut pirate in heavy armor, you could play a tank with lots of stacking damage reduction/healing instead of high defenses. Fighter is really good because armored grace helps a lot with heavy armor. You could also dual wield with pukestabber to reduce the armor penalty even further, and stay in theme. Since you're probably going to spend most of your discipline on self buffs like unbending maybe the other part of the multiclass adds some consistent source of damage or utility. Barbarian, chanter, rogue, paladin, or monk are all great choices.

[Cyrus_Blackfeather]

Just going to warn that if you're looking at builds from the build list for inspiration that a tank built for solo play is sometimes actually worse in a party. In solo, tank stats are everything, because all enemies are going to hit the same guy. Playing with a party though there's very little difference between say a 160 deflection tank and a 210 deflection tank; either way, given the opportunity enemies are going to avoid you and go after the squishy members. Engagement slots and smart positioning matter more in a party.

 

If you want to be a juggernaut pirate in heavy armor, you could play a tank with lots of stacking damage reduction/healing instead of high defenses. Fighter is really good because armored grace helps a lot with heavy armor. You could also dual wield with pukestabber to reduce the armor penalty even further, and stay in theme. Since you're probably going to spend most of your discipline on self buffs like unbending maybe the other part of the multiclass adds some consistent source of damage or utility. Barbarian, chanter, rogue, paladin, or monk are all great choices.

 

I was actually thinking about a Swashbuckler (Unbroken with Streetfighter) - nice damage bonuses from the Rogue, with some really good Full Attacks like Finishing Blow -> Devastating Blow as a coup de grace and Blinding Strike -> Confounding Blind as well as Crippling Strike. I'd also get Clear Out later on. 

[Mocker22]

 

 

Since you want it to be pirate themed, have you considered a streetfighter swashbuckler tank? An Unbroken/Streetfighter, who'll swap to sword and board only in extreme need, but dual wield most of the time? It suffers more damage than "ultimate tank" builds but tanks quite nicely for all of that.

 

The idea is to 1) get as many engagements as possible via fighter+rogue skills and equipment and use of the rogue's Persistent Distraction to make everybody engaged distracted and, hence, flanked, 2) punish disengaging enemies exceedingly through high penetration attacks that additionally are likely to crit, and 3) attack frequently due to the swashbuckler himself being flanked most of the time (and occasionally bloodied), 4) convert misses, grazes, hits up to next better tier

 

Weapons to aim for:

 

MH: Kapana Taga  - gives +1 engagement (+2 upgraded) and scaling damage based on number engaged

OH: Stalker's Patience - spear modal gives +1 engagement; increased damage to flanked targets scaling with stealth, or alternatively the spear Mohora Tanga scaling damage and penetration with survival

 

OH a shield (activating the +1AR from Unbroken) when you feel the need to be as tanky as possible. Alternatively if you want to get the +1 AR bonus from unbroken all the time do so and take the shield ability rather than dual wield.

 

The only real problem with this tank is that there are so very many fighter and rogue passives that support that tanking style, that it is easy to end up starved for active abilities.

 

I never really thought about Streetfighter/Unbroken - I guess I'd been in the mentality of stacking Deflection as high as possible with Trickster to use Riposte. The whole being starved for active abilities thing is a bit of a downside though. I also don't really like the idea of dual wielding a club and a spear - it seems kind of silly. 

 

Ending up starved for active abilities is what the respect button is there for. If one wants more active abilities it is a question of making hard choices.

 

To be fair, that's also the case for the Unbroken/Trickster you mention in the first post: the issue is that the fighter class, by itself, has nearly enough useful passives in the first 7 tiers to use all skill points from leveling to 20 when building a tank (though admittedly that's including the +10 to individual defenses passives), and the rogue adds even more, so when using a fighter/rogue combination (of whatever subclasses) to build a tank there'll always be some hard choices to make because there are so very many good options, both in the split between active and passive abilities and in the choice of actives and passives.

 

E.g. absolute minimum:

Fighter actives: Disciplined Strikes (2pt), Guardian Stance (2pt), Refreshing Defense (2pt)

Rogue actives: Escape (1pt), a good full attack with +10 accuracy with upgrade (2pt)

 

This is the bread and butter.

 

But you'd really like Unbending, possibly upgraded, and though Escape allows repositioning Charge would be quite useful too... And as for rogue, there are lots of options if you want to go further.

 

Remember that Escape breaks engagement, which is not desirable for a tank in most situations. This is more viable if you have a differnet main tank and just want to be an off-tank dps. Charge would be better for mobility imo, but as you pointed out, fighters can burn Discipline FAST.

 

You said you wanted to set up the fight, which to me means main tank. Just make sure you have a clear objective imo.

Edited August 12, 2018 by Mocker22

[Mocker22]

I've been working on a Unbroken/Trickster focused on Riposte and disengagement attacks. Theres been a lot said on the forums recently so I won't go into to much detail.

 

One idea that I'm aiming for is a lot of raw dmg bleeds. I figure this char will have poor single target dps, and Depp Wounds, Gouging Strike, and Ring the bell, will result in a lot of raw dmg over time, with relatively low resource cost. Could someone confirm that all 3 would stack?

 

Thanks.

[pi2repsion]

 

 

 

Since you want it to be pirate themed, have you considered a streetfighter swashbuckler tank? An Unbroken/Streetfighter, who'll swap to sword and board only in extreme need, but dual wield most of the time? It suffers more damage than "ultimate tank" builds but tanks quite nicely for all of that.

 

The idea is to 1) get as many engagements as possible via fighter+rogue skills and equipment and use of the rogue's Persistent Distraction to make everybody engaged distracted and, hence, flanked, 2) punish disengaging enemies exceedingly through high penetration attacks that additionally are likely to crit, and 3) attack frequently due to the swashbuckler himself being flanked most of the time (and occasionally bloodied), 4) convert misses, grazes, hits up to next better tier

 

Weapons to aim for:

 

MH: Kapana Taga  - gives +1 engagement (+2 upgraded) and scaling damage based on number engaged

OH: Stalker's Patience - spear modal gives +1 engagement; increased damage to flanked targets scaling with stealth, or alternatively the spear Mohora Tanga scaling damage and penetration with survival

 

OH a shield (activating the +1AR from Unbroken) when you feel the need to be as tanky as possible. Alternatively if you want to get the +1 AR bonus from unbroken all the time do so and take the shield ability rather than dual wield.

 

The only real problem with this tank is that there are so very many fighter and rogue passives that support that tanking style, that it is easy to end up starved for active abilities.

 

I never really thought about Streetfighter/Unbroken - I guess I'd been in the mentality of stacking Deflection as high as possible with Trickster to use Riposte. The whole being starved for active abilities thing is a bit of a downside though. I also don't really like the idea of dual wielding a club and a spear - it seems kind of silly. 

 

Ending up starved for active abilities is what the respect button is there for. If one wants more active abilities it is a question of making hard choices.

 

To be fair, that's also the case for the Unbroken/Trickster you mention in the first post: the issue is that the fighter class, by itself, has nearly enough useful passives in the first 7 tiers to use all skill points from leveling to 20 when building a tank (though admittedly that's including the +10 to individual defenses passives), and the rogue adds even more, so when using a fighter/rogue combination (of whatever subclasses) to build a tank there'll always be some hard choices to make because there are so very many good options, both in the split between active and passive abilities and in the choice of actives and passives.

 

E.g. absolute minimum:

Fighter actives: Disciplined Strikes (2pt), Guardian Stance (2pt), Refreshing Defense (2pt)

Rogue actives: Escape (1pt), a good full attack with +10 accuracy with upgrade (2pt)

 

This is the bread and butter.

 

But you'd really like Unbending, possibly upgraded, and though Escape allows repositioning Charge would be quite useful too... And as for rogue, there are lots of options if you want to go further.

 

Remember that Escape breaks engagement, which is not desirable for a tank in most situations. This is more viable if you have a differnet main tank and just want to be an off-tank dps. Charge would be better for mobility imo, but as you pointed out, fighters can burn Discipline FAST.

 

You said you wanted to set up the fight, which to me means main tank. Just make sure you have a clear objective imo.

 

My fighter/rogue tanks mainly stands still and only move around minimally once engaged.

 

I suggest Escape in the list of essentials because it is occasionally useful and available at the one time a fighter/rogue build is flush with points to spend, i.e.. levels 1, 2, and 3, where you only have access to T1 abilities and you have to spend them on something. As you say, Escape is undesirable in most situations, but it is a quick repositioning tool if you desperately need it, and one you can acquire without paying a high opportunity cost of foregoing another desirable ability.  In levels 1-3 you get 1 fighter, 1 rogue, and 2 fighter or rogue abilities; if you've got something better to use those four points for without picking up escape, do so. (During the early levels you'll want Crippling Strike until you get a +10 acc 2-pointer, but once you've got that Crippling Strike's value rapidly diminishes.)

 

Charge is obviously better, but a) costs an ability point at levels where you have many attractive competitors, and b) costs discipline. Pick it up if you find it worth it.