Non-squishy, tanking capable classes apart from warrior/pala?

[Tomice]

Hi! No spoilers please, I'm only a few hours into the game.

 

My PC is a ranged rogue, I have met the first 2 companions and I feel like I need another character capable of tanking. but I don't feel like creating a soldier or a paladin (the obvious tanking classes).

 

Is there anything comparable to a cleric from D&D? A melee/tanking-capable caster? The clerics in this setting don't seem very viable for the first line...

 

I general, which classes can tank?

[Adhin]

Barbarian has the highest HP value of any of them and has a skill that can regenerate a large percentage (all of it for the first 3-4 lvls, 70-80% late). That is ultimately your biggest factor unless you like resting all the time. Cleric, for instance you could make into just as tanky as anyone else, but your going to be limited in there overall health total. You could still do it though, you ultimately need good armor, throw a shield on go defensive.

 

Clerics, since you mentioned em, have plenty of heal related skills. including an AoE heal over time. Chanter, for that matter also gets a group regeneration. Takes 2 talents, but it ends up being 2.8 endurance a second. Think Warrior is 2-3 base +1 or more with a talent point. Anyway, point is its similar but Fighters start with it and it's self only (and stacks with Chanters). And that's where you walk into the health issue again. Warriors will ware there health away in 1-2 battles and they have more base, more per lvl, and a higher multiplicative for there health total.

 

Some endurance/health examples at lvl 10

 

Fighter: 168 endurance x5 that for HP (840)

Chanter/Priest/Druid: 144 endurance x4 for HP (576)

 

Barbarian has a higher base then Fighter, and x6 for HP totals. But like I said you can make anyone survivable in melee and be a front line fighter - they just need the armor and maybe some constitution. Preferably with some reliable method to heal through some of the combat. But even with that, the middle/low end hp classes will ultimately not last as long through multiple encounters and might pitter out on a single encounter (actually had a fighter have that issue).

 

-edit-

Oh, one last thing I forgot. Wizards have the least amount of health, overall. But they get a T2 spell (which is... lvl 3?) that will give the Wizard +50 max Endurance/Health (as well as healing for that said amount). Wiki says it only lasts 15 seconds, but then it also says its +100 endurance which it's not... least not what it says in game, and I forget the duration in game.

 

Anyway, point is, you can make a Wizard a tank but it'll require good timing and paying attention. That spell can, ultimately, give a good chunk of health and endurance to prolong how long they last through out multiple fights since it's temporary totals. Plus they get a lot of other buffs for defenses and stuff that you can add to the mix.

Edited March 29, 2015 by Adhin

[Abtacha]

Barbarians have terrible Deflection, they are therefore terrible tanks

Chanter can work pretty well as a tank build with high Perception and Resolve plus some int to make buffs and debuffs last longer

[Adhin]

Ehh not sure I'd say they're terrible tanks. Mines doing better then my fighter does. Only thing the fighters doing better is keeping more things tied up which is, arguably more important. DR makes a bigger difference more often then a random chance though. Unless you can get that deflection so high it starts being the 5% chance of a 5% chance like in DnD anyway. Like I've said though, in the same situations my Barb survives about the same as a Fighter. Certain situations one does better then the other. But my Barb always, ALWAYS last longer through multiple fights. And that is what I was trying to get at ultimately. Other classes just lack the HP to keep up over multiple fights compared to the Warrior classes.

[Valtonis]

Monks.

if you build one correctly they are really OP

[ShadowTiger]

My custom party has 3 tanks: Chanter, Paladin, and Cleric. The paladin ends up being the best with the chanter slightly behind, and the cleric being a bit father behind. The cleric does a large amount of damage though, and the Interdiction ability is very nice. My cleric only has 10 Perception and Resolve though...

 

I also have a glass cannon barbarian which has really high Con so she can survive for a little while on the front line as long as she isn't swarmed.

 

So I think any character with heavy armor and 18+ resolve and perception will be a decent tank, I would worry more about having a good assortment of per-encounter abilities as well as crowd control, aoe damage, and being able to target a variety of defenses / damage types.

 

With this heavily melee focused arrangement combat flows pretty smoothly though I don't have enough ranged firepower to take down enemy ranged characters until the melee is over. This has just become an issue for me (party at level 5 right now) because my cypher and wizard keep getting sniped down. I still win the fights easily but I have to rest more often so I might end up just giving them heavy armor and sacrificing the damage potential.

Edited March 29, 2015 by ShadowTiger

[nwfantasy]

Since this forum has no easy search capability I will ask what might be a question already answered;  Druid.  Class looks interesting as a great support PC but how decent a class is it really?  I am playing a Chanter (very powerful class) but would like to try a more versatile spell caster.  And I play Hard+Expert if that makes any difference.

 

[LadyCrimson]

Since this forum has no easy search capability

The Search function is the white input bar at the very top right corner of the forum. The little gear-looking wheel to the side of that takes you to the Advanced Search area with all the options.

[Tomice]

What about ranger with bear companion? Would this be a viable tank?

[Fimconte]

Since this forum has no easy search capability I will ask what might be a question already answered;  Druid.  Class looks interesting as a great support PC but how decent a class is it really?  I am playing a Chanter (very powerful class) but would like to try a more versatile spell caster.  And I play Hard+Expert if that makes any difference.

Druid is okay, but I wouldn't bring one as a tank to hard+expert. 

Bear form is ok, with decent DR, but a Priest with Brigandine or any of the high DR armors is far superior as an offtank.

 

It's hard to beat Fighter though, their 'Defender' trait combined with hold the line allows for a single warrior to tank most packs. 

[isms]

Hi! No spoilers please, I'm only a few hours into the game.

 

My PC is a ranged rogue, I have met the first 2 companions and I feel like I need another character capable of tanking. but I don't feel like creating a soldier or a paladin (the obvious tanking classes).

 

Is there anything comparable to a cleric from D&D? A melee/tanking-capable caster? The clerics in this setting don't seem very viable for the first line...

 

I general, which classes can tank?

The obvious tanking class is actually fighter. Once you learn how the engagement system works, you realize it translates to aggro, and the fighter can hold up to 4 at once, others are limited to 2.

[Ohioastro]

Chanter actually makes a great tank.  Their songs are passive; and if you stack deflection (important, e.g. use a shield) and wear heavy armor (also important for durability) then you can be very hard to hit.

[Aqvamare]

Chanter get as tank the same level of defence stuff...they drow in low and mid level the phantom summon, which stuns on crit and have 60+ defence stats overall. it lacks only endurance (only 50).

 

On high level they have a dragon as pet, 260 endurance, 2 knock down, 1 aoe firebreath as off tank, it's defence value is around 45+....unfortunanly, lower than phantom.

 

They can buff and debuff...like the situation is needed, and have on level 12 a combat rezz for other tanks which died.

 

_________________________

 

more tricky, but possible, wizard tank...he is more a jake for special fights. if the basic stats are right, like for every tank, he can get the highest defensive values of all classes. (selfbuffed)

 

And even when you drop all might and int to 3 for a wizard, they get a level 6 cast which does 1200 RAW AOE damage (indepedent from might)... but be carfull about this cast, it can wipe your party in an instant.

 

 

----------------------------------------

 

in this game, tanking is less a question about class,

 

it is about basic stats and race....a tank has to avoid the nasty debuffs...and i have the feeling, that every class can be speeced into tank.

Edited March 29, 2015 by Aqvamare

[Adhin]

Chanter summons are pretty solid, if for no other reason then they can keep using them and it wont unsummon the previous lot. 2 Chanters can easily flood the field with cannon fodder. Back on my initial Path of the Damned, I had Kara spamming Skeletons to keep shadows occupied. Hell at one point it was just him and Durance, and they managed to finish off 1 mob via skeleton spamming + ranged combat. Just wedged a buncha skeletons between them and the big ass fire blight thing.

 

Current playthrough, chanter I made (as a 2nd char) is using the summon shadow, works pretty good. Though I got enough front lines that I tend to use the -5 DR cone debuff before I toss a summon out... kinda depends if the group im going for is to large or not.

 

Anyway one basic concept you have for tanking is the armor. Yeah skills matter, but armor is the biggest factor from tank to not tank. Heavy armor gives you a lot of DR which is a requirement but slows your attacks limiting your DPS. Light Armor is ok-ish but keeps your attack speed up. It's a pretty simple concept that lets you do whatever the balls you want with any class really. Not sure if armor DR carries over into Druid form but if it doesn't that... actually makes Druids crappy tanks in form.

 

Also you can make a Fighter a pretty good DPS. They weapon catagory talents that boost dmg like Weapon Specialization in DnD. Everyone gets the focus, the +accuracy, but they can up there weapon dmg by a solid amount for that. Could make a pretty mean light armor fighter who wrecks faces as long as hes not having to tank much. Just as an example of light armor allowing for that.

[DragonDai]

Monks and Chanters round out the Tanking 4-some in PoE. Paladins and Fighters are the obvious choice, but Chanters and Monks can be just as effective. Paladins, Fighters, and Chanters are best speced 8/8/8/18+/18/18+. A Monk, on the other hand, needs some Con because A.) He's probably not going to have quite as high of a Deflection Score since you'll likely want to run him without a shield and B.) He needs to take damage to use his abilities. So for a monk, I'd likely go 8/14+/8/18/14+/18. This stat line is probably totally acceptable for the other three tank classes as well (well, maybe not for Chanter...he REALLY benefits from the super high Int), but I think the pure 8/8/8/18/18/18 is probably better most of the time.

See, PoE just plays differently than other RPGs. In most RPGs, the tank stacks health. In PoE, because of the way Deflection works, if you make your character right and give him the right gear, you're tank is almost never going to get hit with normal attacks. He'll still take damage from time to time, but they'll be plenty of time for him to quaff a potion or get a heal from the Priest before he takes more, so having tons of HP just isn't really necessary. 
 

So yeah, if you want a non-Paladin, non-Fighter for a tank, my suggestion is try Chanter or Monk (I prefer Chanter).