Building the Ultimate Tank!

[Toddrick]

First, my intention with this thread is to gather the thoughts and experiences of fellow warrior tanks in order to combine our knowledge to help each other build "the ultimate tank". Please feel free to disagree with any of my statements for I do not have unlimited bankroll to respec a gazillion times to test out every possible build.

After playing a tank in WoW for some years now, whenever I play a game now I always look for that "meat shield" class to play and master. At first, the warrior was the weakest of the three classes due to it's inability to fill it's dedicated role as tank. After a much needed buff, warriors can now take on large groups of mobs without fear of faceplanting after two hits.

Let's take a look of skills that seem to be tailor made for a tank:
1.) Stomp - I hate knockbacks in most games. They make tanking difficult and I want to punch a dps in the face whenever I see them use a kb effect. In PL, this is different. Stomp is decent by itself. It provide mitigation in the fact that of no melée mobs are near you, they obviously can't attack you. Also, the newly added stun helps push ranged away and stops them for a few seconds. "But, Toddrick, don't you want the mobs to be on you if you are tanking?" Yes, you do, but stomp provides decent threat and you can kb enemies away from where your dps/healers are standing if they pull threat. Lastly, Stomp provides a great combination (no, not one of those COMBOS that light up your screen) with another skill you get later down the road.

2.) Taunt - This skill seems like it may need some tweaking. Currently it taunts mobs to attack you for about 2 seconds until you dps rains death upon them and pulls them off you. The dodge buff is nice and I currently use this as my opener when running into a group.

3.) Restore - Have not tested this due to reading that it's terrible and that chugging a health pot yields better results. Has anyone used this with great success?

4.) Iron Blood - Pop this skill and you can sit there for 10 seconds and pretty much not worry about taking damage. Great mitigation and supposedly adds threat now accord to patch notes.

5.) Hell Scream - The description is a little misleading. It says something about screaming at enemies and lowering their will to fight. Continue reading and it says target enemy does -x damage. I guess this is useful for bosses but I am still insure if I will be keeping it after a respec.

6.) Evade - Some people swear this over taunt. Some swear taunt over this. Some say that this isn't even worth it at all anymore. I may test this in a future build but was looking for any insight from those who have tested this.

7.) Beckon - Whenever is use this all I can think of is Scorpion from Mortal Combat. "Get over here!" This skill does two things. One, it pulls surrounding mobs to you. Two, it has a chance to stun the mobs. This is the second piece to our tanking combo which I will explain next.

Stomp + Beckon: Stunned mobs are good mitigation.
Run up to a group of mobs and stomp them away. You take minimal damage. A few of those mobs should be stunned. Personally, I try to target any casters/ranged and auto attack so I can create and even bigger gap between me and some of the melée I sent flying. Beckon everything back to you AFTER stomp's stun wears off. Now a portion of the mobs are stunned again. Wait until beckon's stun wears off and LOOK! Stomp is now off cooldown also. Rinse, repeat, enjoy.

The Build:
5/5 Stomp
5/5 Iron Blood
5/5 Hell Scream
5/5 Beckon

This leaves 9 free skill points. In am considering doing 5/5 Evade 4/5 Taunt and forgetting about restore and using all that extra gold to buy health pots.

Stats:
Str - Meet the str requirement for your gear (I believe 93 is required at lvl 25)
Dex - Everything else. Dex gives you hit, crit, dodge and armor which makes it really good. Getting your str gear capped will give you a decent health pool and regen.
Int - Zilch, nada, zero, goose egg. Drink a mana pot and then break the empty flask over a mob's face.

Thanks for reading and replying with any suggestions.

[EddyBumba]

Nice post Tod, well written.
I run with pretty much the same set up except i left out Taunt as it never 'feels' like it's doing much over the other skills, would love the devs to look at it again so I put my points in one of the slashes cause I like to big hit now and again
Now....

Evade, love it to bits, you can pop that bad boy and see nothing above your head but 'Dodge, Dodge, Dodge' while you axe their face. That couple with Iron Blood and IF they manage to hit you it maaay crit for 7 or something. Good times.

[EddyBumba]

Ps gaining and keeping threat seems to be a bit of a prob unless you're pumping skills (maybe just me?).
Be interested in anyone's views tied in with responces to this thread, esp the old WoW crew.

[FeralDruid]

I've been using Restore for farming purposes, currently 4/5. The cooldown is pretty low, and if you've got at least 2m/s on your gear, you can pop it during a pull, and immediately after. I liken it to Frenzy Regen for Druids in WoW, although its HoT is less than desirable at 4/5. I'd say it restores about a Pot's worth of HP over its duration, with half of that instantly.

The cooldown is what keeps me using it, however I'm not sure if the HP recovered is equal to the HP mitigated with Iron Blood. I reckon using both at the same time should yield some pretty impressive durability for solo farmers like myself. I'm waiting to respec, I unfortunately dumped points into everything to try them out, but after the respec I'm definitely going 5/5 Restore/Iron Blood.

[Toddrick]

Edit: I misread Hell Scream. I guess in the flavor text it says "enemies" while in the ability text it says "targeted enemy". Not as good as I had hoped. Could be great for bosses.

I like taunt because it has a decently short cooldown and provides a dodge buff. I was originally going with rage as a threat builder (rage into a stomp) but that doesn't seem to work the way I wanted, lol. Idk. Some of the skills seem very lackluster. I may just respec into the NEEDED skills and save my points for future updates.

[nathanyc]

similar build, you could do 4/5 beckon and 5/5 taunt too.

little more dodge, 1 less mob for beckon

[SlipperyJim]

Hell Scream is very nice indeed. It's an AoE debuff, which is always good. Combine Hell Scream with Iron Blood, and you're basically immune to damage for a few critical seconds. More importantly (for team players), Hell Scream will decrease the mobs' ability to cut your chickens and elves into pieces. Y'know, because sometimes a mob will run right past the tank to target the glass cannons in the back of the party....

(OK, they do that all the time, actually.)

Lastly, Hell Scream now has a chance to stun all of the mobs around you. Extra coolness!

[SMELTN]

This is probably the build I will be running. Great advice thanks

[Toddrick]

Hell Scream is very nice indeed. It's an AoE debuff, which is always good. Combine Hell Scream with Iron Blood, and you're basically immune to damage for a few critical seconds. More importantly (for team players), Hell Scream will decrease the mobs' ability to cut your chickens and elves into pieces. Y'know, because sometimes a mob will run right past the tank to target the glass cannons in the back of the party....

(OK, they do that all the time, actually.)

Lastly, Hell Scream now has a chance to stun all of the mobs around you. Extra coolness!

I don't believe Hell Scream is AoE. After testing it out, I noticed that I would have a mob targeted, cast Hell Scream, and notice a ring around their feet. I assume this is Hell Scream's debuff and only the mob targeted before casting Hell Scream had this ring. I haven't noticed a stun though. I would love for this ability to be AoE with a possible threat mechanic added to it but probably not gonna happen.

[Balphus]

mind if i ask what gear you guys wear to tank? and where exactly get it? i got the conquerors chest and axe and idk if thee is something better thann that, also idk whats a good shield since there isnt any pink or purple.
this is my second characrter and i was wondering what gear u guys have cuz im a little confusedd haha

thank you

[Biggest]

Hi Toddrick,

Hell Scream seems like it was originally intended to lower all surrounding opponent's attack power (ala Demoralizing Roar/Shout) but that description is out of date. From my tests, a damage debuff wasn't detectable. Tanks aren't getting hit for much normal damage anyway, only crits affect us really so...

What it really does is a nice AoE stun. Coupled with the other stun effects of Stomp and Beckon, this leads to a continuous AoE stunlock method of tanking.

My 4 main buttons: Beckon, Stomp, Hell Scream, Taunt

With my build I focused on not necessarily holding agro in a traditional way, but just keeping everyone else from taking damage as best I can. Keeping enemies stunned is good crowd control, so only the mobs being damaged are attacking.

With AoE Enchantresses watch for their Combos, Taunt or Scream right after. With ranged dps, wait until they pull and let the mob go almost all the way to the dpser, then right before they get there, Beckon them right back to you.

Constant disruptive tactics keep mobs from getting any attacks in.

I also have the tanky buffs Iron Blood and Evade in my spellbook. I use one or the other for those blue trolls or anything that hits hard. For bosses I try to use both if my fingers can move fast enough, but alas having a finger ready for the healing potion is almost always a lifesaver over any skill.


One day we'll get some real info about what these skills are really doing, but until then I guess we'll have to figure it out ourselves!

[Azrael]

interesting biggest though not my style.

What i would like to know is if hell scream is a 100% stun? Beckon and Stomp dont always stun so i am assuming that hell scream only has a chance to stun as well?

Super-Mega slash always stuns, which is why i love it. Stuns just have to be reliable.

[Hurs]

Yeah, but SMS is only single target :P

[Biggest]

RE: Hell Scream stun chance

It's not 100% but it's high. In testing on a 4 mob pull (me not attacking) all 4 were stunned about half the times HS was used.

My question on SMS: It stuns: but then don't they awaken on damage? If it's my main target (and maybe the whole groups target) will it only be stunned a fraction of a second?

[Hurs]

Nope, SMS's stun doesn't break upon damage.

[Monqi]

Well, I support Azrael style.. althought SMS is only for single mob, but it could help if all r attacking one mob and keep away from the mob to rush toward your dps party. ofcoz, you can use backon to pull back, but don't forget the cool down which SMS may assist. (But it is only useful for melee mob) .. hellscream is good too, but dun waste mp when only 1 mob..

[Gavry]

As a fellow tank I though I'd throw in my 5c worth. I think I pretty much follow the standard path as most people have described. I'll start by outlining my skills and attributes and then go into a bit of detail about tactics.

It should be noted I'm now 40th so skills and attributes are reflected in that.

SKILLS

5 - Iron Blood (12 secs of zero damage, spam during fights and always fire it just before attacking a boss)
5 - Rage (20 secs of increased crits, not essential but helps to take down bosses)
5 - Hell Scream (reduces damage from bosses and lots of mobs by dropping their damage & hit%, spam during fights)
5 - Evade (20 secs of greatly increased dodge, essential for bosses & lots of mobs)
5 - Beckon (pull all towards you and possible stun, spam continually)
5 - Super Mega Slash (nice quick damage and good chance of stun, spam on bosses)
5 - Stomp (possible stun and clear troops, use VERY sparingly)
3 - Taunt (like beckon, but just calls enemies to attack you, little armor boost, spam continually)
1 - Restore (small heal and added regen, spam during fights)


ATTRIBUTES

STR: 139
DEX: 50
INT 16


NAKED STATS

Hit%: 99
Crit: 9
Dodge: 6
Health: 370
H/S: 3
Mana: 208
M/S: 1

Damage: 19-25 (14 dps)
Armor: 13


CURRENT EQUIPMENT

Mynas Helmet of Isis - 7% Dodge, 5 H/S, 11 Armour
Swamp Rat's Croc Tooth Sword - 45-49 Damage, 0.9 spd, 7 STR, 5% Dodge, 2% Crit
Zombie's Croc Scale Plate - 7% Dodge, 5 H/S, 49 Armour
Pharaohs Shield of Toth - 7 INT, 2% Crit, 5 M/S, 20 Armour

EQUIPED STATS

Hit%: 100
Crit: 14
Dodge: 24
Health: 373
H/S: 13
Mana: 208
M/S: 6

Damage: 63-67 (77 dps)
Armor: 94


OVERVIEW

Ok firstly I want to talk about dodge. I don't see people talk about this much. I have actively watched the encounter messages when I tank and the VAST majority of the time I dodge enemy attacks. I think this is essential for survivability. If they can't hit you they can't hurt you. The only time I really get hurt is boss crits. Can't really do anything about that however. My suggestion is to maximise your dodge while keeping good M/s, H/s & Armour. Damage & DPS is totally irrelevant for a tank. If you want DPS make a bird.

Secondly, my current tactic is sharply skewed by my Toth gear, either shield, helm or armor depending on my mood. With 6+ M/s I can spam all my skills during combat and NEVER use a mana pot. I spam the health pots when my Iron Blood and Evade drop however when tanking the big bosses. You need to be willing to keep drinking those postions if you want to stay alive and tank as your meant to. Supplementing the potions with Restore helps.


TACTICS

I personally don't really like Stomp at all. The only time I use it is soloing or when I have a boss against the side of a map and myself. Other than that, I think it is more trouble than its worth. The two main reason for this is firstly; it spreads the mobs away from area damage spells the enchantress is casting, and secondly; it inevitably pushes the boss past his point of maximum distance from starting point and give him a free trip home and a full heal. There is nothing worse than seeing a boss who is about to drop, saunter away from all characters ignoring all damage and then getting a full heal to boot. Stomp contributes to this too often.

By spamming Beckon & Taunt you should be drawing the mobs to you as often as you can and thus fulfilling your primary role, tanking. I also use Beckon as a way of pulling a boss back from the edge of his/her free trip home after he/she has been shot off by someone else's stop or repulse. I always keep an eye on this and try my hardest to keep the boss as safely close to his starting point as possible to minimise the chance of him getting a free full heal. Beckon is also great for Casting bosses who continually try to run away from the party. With this timed nicely you can keep them in maximum damage range.

When fighting bosses I spam Super Mega Slash. It deals a nice extra damage and has a high chance of stun. A stunned boss doesn't hurt anyone.

Spamming Iron Blood, Hell Scream & Evade and you should keep your dodge and armor to a maximum and their damage and hit% to a minimum and thus dramatically improve your ability to successfully tank.

Feedback, criticism, suggestions welcome.

[Away]

Nice guide
I'll probably be following this guide for my bear.

[maneut]

Hmm.. agree mostly except that with the new Thoth Gear, maybe the 15 points in INT should be spend on DEX? Great guide though, hehe.. now to level my Tankie Bear to 40

[ed anger]

stomp is the best tanking skill after iron blood and evade, just learn to control the direction you knockback the boss in and you're good. it has such a short cooldown you can spam it continually.