Ugg's Pure Elite Tank Build

[Reggin]

So many warriors out there don't know how to best use the class, so I wanted to share my build and how to use it. I have all classes capped, so I wanted to share that no matter what you do a warrior will never come close to doing the DPS of a rogue or mage. As a result, I'd built my warrior to be a pure tank.

The entire purpose is to maintain aggro and keep the party safe while they slaughter stuff quickly. This build is entirely focused on end game elite tanking.

Skills:

Chest Splitter, Staggering Blow
This is the bread and butter skill. It interrupts wind up attacks and taunts. Draw the boss to the wall and spam away while alternating auto attacks.

Axe Throw, Denting Blow, Concussion, Chained Bait
Use this for pulling and reducing armor. Reduce the urge to spam it, as it's best to always have it available in case the boss pulls aggro. As soon as the boss faces someone else, use it!

Juggernaut, Ignore Pain, Second Wind, Bring It On
Wonderful panic button that also taunts several times all mobs around you. Great to use right before walking into a pack so rogues can pick off individual mobs. Try to use it only in emergencies or pulls.

Horn of Renew, Maxed
The bread and butter of staying alive and keeping the team safe. You all know how it works, so just be smart in using it. If a boss has a wind up aoe attack, time it to make your whole party take no damage.

Gear:
Go for the best gear you can afford. Prioritize armor and health. Don't worry about damage! You don't do much no matter what you do and all of your that generation comes from having 4 taunt skills. I personally use the sword and shield for this very reason. It swings fast, allowing you to quickly build new aggro after your taunt catches you up in threat.

Pure tank gear is actually really cheap oddly, since so many warriors try to do damage (and fail to be close to the damage of a rogue or mage who spends 10% of what the warrior pays for gear).

Tanking:
This is what separates the men from the boys. If you've never played with a real tank, you're in for a treat the first time you do. Pull mobs to the walls do their backs are out in the open and the party can do damage without getting hit. This makes it easy to tell when it turns around so you can axe throw for instant aggro.

Positioning for the fight is amazing for clearing elite areas quickly. Don't be afraid to turn around to run out and renew to protect your damage dealers. Time spent walking back is time the dps isn't killing stuff. The whole point of an efficient tank is to help clear things quickly and easily.

Pets:
The big drawback of this build is the lack of space for Vengeful Blood, so mana could be an issue. To solve this, I alternate between three pets (never feeding any of them). Nexus, Flap Jack, and Snaggletooth all give mana regen. Nexus' arcane will eliminate the need for mana pots. The others will lessen the need. If you run with a mage who has the mana heal, also a non issue.

Final Thoughts:
Some may find the build boring and ultimately try to change things up. While this may be true sometimes, resist the urge. When you have aggro, do NOTHING other than spam auto attack, interrupt wind up attacks, and shield your party. You want all your taunts available if a rogue goes on a crazy crit streak.

Your damage is garbage anyway, so don't worry about trying to deal any. Focus on keeping aggro and keeping everyone safe. You'll notice the runs go so much faster by focusing on positioning.

Also, this is old school MMO tanking basics, but when clearing trash and it's almost dead, leave the dps to clean up and go grab the next pack to position and grab aggro.

Most importantly... COMMUNICATE! Many STS players are new to the MMO world and are very casual players. When doing a hard elite area with a PUG, tell them what to do and what to expect! They'll appreciate it! Many have never seen a tank to anything other than charge in and skill spam. Communication allowed me to tank elite Bael with a PUG at 15 with 0 deaths.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. My warrior's IGN is "Ugg".

[Reggin]

Reserved.

[ShadowGunX]

FYI horn of renew skill is dmg dependent. more ur dmg more is ur healing. i hav around 100dmg nd my horn heals 300hp roughly per 1.5sec. also using CS u can pull aggro evry 3sec. incase if u want armour debuffing choose guapo as it can debuff 20%armour to boss.
i hav tried this build nd found myself eating potions like popcorn lol.

BUT this build is very important for warrior
who always party up with high dmg rogue nd mage. which only few ppl does atm.

[Reggin]

I very rarely pot with proper timing of renew. I don't particularly care about the healing aspect of renew anyway, as I mainly use it for the taunt and shield aspect. The healing is just a bonus. I prefer to run with guild members so there is always a rogue and mage willing to run.

It's definitely dependent on grouping, but warriors suck solo in anything worth farming. Rogues and mages can solo jarl quickly, warriors can't. I can solo him, but it takes ages. My renew doesn't suck anyway though, as it's only a minor improvement since I'm still pure strength.

[Enisceloz]

I very rarely pot with proper timing of renew. I don't particularly care about the healing aspect of renew anyway, as I mainly use it for the taunt and shield aspect. The healing is just a bonus. I prefer to run with guild members so there is always a rogue and mage willing to run.

It's definitely dependent on grouping, but warriors suck solo in anything worth farming. Rogues and mages can solo jarl quickly, warriors can't. I can solo him, but it takes ages. My renew doesn't suck anyway though, as it's only a minor improvement since I'm still pure strength.

Except if your're farming kills lol ; )

[Motherless]

I find this passive defensive build to be rather ineffecient in terms of both personal rewards and time. I have tried the path of pure tanking, that is, applying the most amount of armor and using the most supportive and "aggro-enticing" skills a warrior possess. From my experiences, I can soundly conclude that even with 1000+ armor, being a pure tank you will not be able to support yourself or your team mates very well, especially because with high armor you sacrifice your bonus damage, the one key that allows for HoR to be most effective. Also, the cooldown for Jugg and HoR is too slow, and will make a pure tank ineffective if your build revolves around those two support skills. As for CS and AT, those skills are decent, but I would rather have mob clearing skills like windmill or S.Smash. Because lets be honest, warriors might not be so great at 1v1 dps, but in terms of mobbing, we are the best. And in many elite maps, it is absolutely crucial that you clear mobs before taking on the boss.

For a tank to be useful, they need to be fully active by dealing a decent amount of damage to mobs, and to bosses, and because of that, there is a need for warriors to focus on their damage as well. Do not disregard a warriors aggro skill when he is experienced in terms of timing certain attacks and using specific pets.

[Reggin]

Spidah... very true... useless for farming kills, hence the whole elite tank part. I certainly didn't level with this build.

Motherless... You must not understand the concept of taking or have a grasp of how taunt mechanics work. I'm not trying to do damage, nor do I need to do damage. I maintain aggro with this low damage build better than 99% of warriors with much better gear. This build can duo elite jarl with a full dps rogue without the rogue getting hit by more than 1-2 random swipes, and 0 charged hits.

I'll gladly put my build to the test against anyone when it comes to allowing a group of dps mages and/or rogues to kill stuff quick without getting killed. Have the same group run with a damage build warrior and with me and my "passive" build. It isn't passive, it's pure. Look at any real mmo out there, and the best tanks do exactly what this build is designed to do.

The heal from renew and bonus damage isn't relevant... the tank should be soaking the damage and not having to heal the dps. The use of renew in this build is to shield the whole party from big aoe attacks and to taunt... my armor, dodge, and the fact that things hit me instead of the group make the slightly weaker healing not a big deal.

This isn't a rush everything in a big pack build... the tank either pulls or walks the mobs into position then the dps comes in and kills it efficiently. Not to mention, this build saves everyone a ton of pots, both health and mana since Nexus is the main pet and he gives mana to everyone.

[Reggin]

And I don't care how skilled the warrior is... they can't defy pure math. When two rogues are going pure dps with a colton mage boosting their crit, you aren't keeping aggro with damage skills. Properly timed taunts, shields, and stuns is the only possible way.

[Enisceloz]

Spidah... very true... useless for farming kills, hence the whole elite tank part. I certainly didn't level with this build.

Motherless... You must not understand the concept of taking or have a grasp of how taunt mechanics work. I'm not trying to do damage, nor do I need to do damage. I maintain aggro with this low damage build better than 99% of warriors with much better gear. This build can duo elite jarl with a full dps rogue without the rogue getting hit by more than 1-2 random swipes, and 0 charged hits.

I'll gladly put my build to the test against anyone when it comes to allowing a group of dps mages and/or rogues to kill stuff quick without getting killed. Have the same group run with a damage build warrior and with me and my "passive" build. It isn't passive, it's pure. Look at any real mmo out there, and the best tanks do exactly what this build is designed to do.

The heal from renew and bonus damage isn't relevant... the tank should be soaking the damage and not having to heal the dps. The use of renew in this build is to shield the whole party from big aoe attacks and to taunt... my armor, dodge, and the fact that things hit me instead of the group make the slightly weaker healing not a big deal.

This isn't a rush everything in a big pack build... the tank either pulls or walks the mobs into position then the dps comes in and kills it efficiently. Not to mention, this build saves everyone a ton of pots, both health and mana since Nexus is the main pet and he gives mana to everyone.

It's all based on taste bro. We don't need your build to Tank. However yours is a Pure Tank build very useful if your're with a group of very high Dmg/DPS Sorcerers or Rogues who want to spam their attack skills. With your timed Taunts you can continue taking aggro back from them while keeping them save. HOWEVER if you do have a group (Sorcerers and Rogues) who can time their attack skills (and don't steal your aggro), then all you would need is one or two skills with Taunts (I have one, HoR and I can tank successfully). The only advantage of your party will be that an Elite boss will get killed just a little bit faster seeing that Sorcerers and Rogue can spam their attack skills. But like you have agreed your build is pretty stale when it comes to doing everything else. Don't get me wrong is yet another build that is effective and you have explained it pretty well for anyone who is having trouble playing as a Warrior, to read and follow!

[Reggin]

Yeah... I do like your rush in and just attack everything style... it's definitely fun... but I can't imagine how much you spend on pots like that... plus, I like being different... and if only I had some friends who wanted to do some speed runs... I want on the leader board, but you can't get there solo...

[Enisceloz]

When I run with you guys I hardly spend pots. But I also do a lot of Watchers 4 with PUG's, I've had horrible groups where I spent atleast 100+ pots a run to keep myself from dying lol. Like I said it all depends on who's in your party and how they play, no matter what build you choose to go with.

[Reggin]

LOL... when you run with me you don't use pots cuz I'm the one soaking all the damage haha!

[Cronaldo777]

No offence but I trust Kenoon's tank build better.Go to tank123 explanations.

[Reggin]

LULz at any "tank" build with windmill... Great for damage warriors, but clearly no place in a pure tank build...

[Wizard_Mike]

No offence but I trust Kenoon's tank build better.Go to tank123 explanations.

What you should be doing is trying each build for yourself, rather than simply trusting one over the other without any personal testing.

I've tried several different builds, both before and after the level cap was raised, and I always came back to the four-taunt build. Mine is slightly different in point distribution, but the key is having a taunt on every skill button. Just remember that this build is strictly about holding aggro, not about speed killing. If your main goal is to hold aggro and keep your teammates safe, then give this build a try. You might be surprised.

[Reggin]

Exactly wizard! I sacrifice mediocre damage for poor damage so that I can hold the best possible aggro. This allows my party of dps (I'm the only warrior in the group 95% of the time) to go all out with their extremely high dps and kill stuff quickly. With a warrior that can't hold aggro with dps going all out, the dps has to scale back their damage in fear of getting aggro and dying. The added dps from 3 high damage characters going all out versus going 75% is far more than I could come close to putting out regardless of my build or gear.

[Kenoon]

Actually in my opinion, having Chest Splitter, Axe Throw & Horn of Renew is sufficient enough to do taunt skills rotation.

I did ever thought of using Chest Splitter, Axe Throw, Vengeful Blood & Horn of Renew since my personal playstyle would be the dual buff and regen. The downside is, we can't use it for training.
You won't be surprise that this setup allows you to maintain consistent aggro too.

As usual, charged Vengeful Blood gives critical rate boost which increase your Damage output, increases Str to increase damage, damage bonus, health bonus and active mana regen. The advantage of this buff makes me reluctant to give up this skill though..

So at every level cap, i believe tank warriors would resort to respec their skill points again once they reach the the max character level in order to be effective in tanking. Leveling wise, we will just run the usual dps skills.

Juggernaut in my opinion is meant more for PVP. Most likely developer won't reduce it's cooldown or by alot since that will make Warrior class become overpowered in PVP.

[Wizard_Mike]

Juggernaut in my opinion is meant more for PVP. Most likely developer won't reduce it's cooldown or by alot since that will make Warrior class become overpowered in PVP.

Yeah, that taunt upgrade just screams PvP.

On a serious note, it can be useful for both. The upgrade that removes movement imparting effects definitely sounds like something meant for PvP, especially for capture the flag type games when your the flag carrier. Also, I don't know if this only removes movement impairing effects once, or if it keeps them off for the full 15 seconds of the buff. If it's just once, then this will be an absolutely horrible PvP skill for a 45 second cooldown. If it's the whole time, then yeah, it will be absolutely overpowered.

But with 4/5, it increases health, reduces damage taken, gives a chance to proc a heal if you drop to low, and taunts multiple times throughout the duration of the buff. If that isn't a clear PvE tank skill, I don't know what is. This is the skill you bust out when your team gets overly swarmed and you need to get all the monsters in the room to focus on you before they slaughter your team while giving you the defenses to handle it. It's an awesome tool for tanking. I just wish I could use it more often.

[Reggin]

Keen... How exactly does an AOE taunt have any use in PVP? If anything, juggernaut would be the first thing eliminated from my pvp build.

The 20% damage reduction is nice, but if you've played pvp in any sts games that isn't that huge of a deal considering how everything is so burst focused. Same deal with the 50% chance to heal below 25%. An aimed shot crit would likely kill you in one shot and not give it a chance to proc.

The whole value in a pve setting is that pve damage is extremely predictable. The only burst damage is a painfully obvious wind up attack.

In pvp, the shield from renew would be much better since it negates ALL damage. Time it to avoid the initial burst, and you may have a shot. In pvp, control and stuns are far more useful than an aoe taunt tank skill!

[Wizard_Mike]

Also, I think it's worth mentioning: transitioning to a four-taunt build is likely very difficult for players not used to it. Not only are you giving up damage (and mana regen, if you're replacing veng), but your gameplay style needs to change dramatically. If you go in to a boss and use your skills each time they are off cooldown like you do with other builds, then you'll likely get poor results. As stated by Reggin, you're basically just doing normal attacks (I always go with charged normal attacks) and saving those taunt skills for when the boss turns around to attack that rogue that just Crit for some huge amount.

Maintaining constant aggro is spotty right now, so what this setup does is bring four ways to taunt the boss back on to you. You simply hold on to those taunts for when the boss looks away, rather than trying to out-aggro the rest of your team.

If anyone ever played WoW (it's simply the most popular example) as a warrior tank, just think of how the Taunt ability worked. When you use it, the target is forced to focus on you for x amount of time. If the target is already focused on you then using Taunt does nothing. I'm not saying that this is how it works in Arcane Legends, but if you use them in that way it works great. Only use your skills when the boss tries to turn around. With four taunt skills and only using them when you need them, you'll always have one available.

There's no way the best geared warrior will ever out aggro the best geared rogue or sorcerer forever. They are going to get some lucky crits and cause that boss to turn around at some point. This build simply simply provides the tools to handle that, meaning with good positioning and proper use of skills, none of the DPS should never have to throttle their damage nor ever worry about being hit by the boss directly (they will need to pay attention to AoE/environment damage, of course).

It's a much different play style than other builds, so it would definitely take getting used to. But it's very effective at what it does and doesn't rely on things the tank can't really control (DPS throttling, lucky/unlucky crits, etc).