Warrior Tanking 123 with explanations
WARNING: The guide below are a series of my personal experience. You have been warned that the content is very wordy but IF you truely wants to know about Tank warrior, this would be the most concise guide for it. Please note certain important facts are replied under other player's Quotes which are not included in this first post. It would be good to read finish this whole thread to get your knowledge to the fullest. Enjoy!
I think it is better for me to create a personal thread rather than posting onto other player's post.
I had tried several types of warrior tanking builds during the past 2 weeks and i would say at current level cap of 16, warrior tanking is pretty much easily achieveable at the moment.
There is no right or wrong builds on tanking but rather on individual player's skill preference.
Who knows, in future we would probably need more threat aggros compared to now to achieve the highest taunt level against classes like Rogue who specialized in DPS.
After a series of trial & test with the help of a warrior friend, we deduced that there is more advantage on using Windmill over Skyward Smash for threat aggro tanking under normal scenario without the mp regen buff by mage.
Windmill is able to proc multiple hits consistently up to 3 targets or a single target. Although the cooldown is longer than Skyward Smash, under the skill rotation wise, it is more feasible to use Windmill for tanking since multiple hits on single target is actually adding on multiple threat counters.
Skyward Smash is still feasible provided that there is no mana issue and consistent mp regen buff by the mage in party to allow the Warrior to spam the skill.
*** Latest update: 06/01/2013
Under multiple respec, trial & error, i created my Elite Boss Tank Build that uses cheap gears.
More details under this link:
http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...l=1#post918629
Previous update: 11/12/2012
I just tried to respec this time round with:
Juggernaut
Horn of Renew
Windmill
Vengeful Blood.
Apparently, i lost the aggro easily compared to my previous build.
My tested conclusion is:
Chest Splitter has the highest attributes to Warrior's threat counter among all the skills despite the damage isn't that promising.
The most likely reason for this would be the 4th skill that counters Bosses windup skill.
This action will generate a very high amount of threat aggro for your side and thus able to maintain and hold the boss under your tanking position.
My FINAL conclusion after 11 respecs for the highest threat counter output:
Vengeful blood
Horn of Renew
Windmill / Skyward Smash
Chest splitter
Please take note.
This build is all about threat output and not damage output.
For dps warriors, this thread & guide is of a different genre.
Thank you.
Topics covered:
1.) Why Tanking ?
2.) What is aggro? How does it work?
3.) Various Tanking Builds
4.) Tanking situation under Lv16 cap
5.) Tanking pets selection
6.) Gears selection
7.) Passive skills
1.) Why Tanking ?
Why would i want to play a Tanking character ? Why Tanking ?
Tankers are getting popular in most MMORPGs (Mass multiplayers online role playing game) nowadays.
Their purpose in-game served as a resistant fighter who initiate fights against boss or opponents while the rogues & mages takes them down from flanking or rear line in this case.
Their damage are mediocre compared to Rogue fighters who specializes in high DPS (Damage per second).
Some players would try to flair their damage against us but when comes to serious fights, tanker will be an inevitable party member in a team.
Tankers have better survivability when playing under PVM (Player versus Monster), doing quests & boss fights in Elite maps.
Death rate would be much lower compared to normal dps warrior.
Tanker are sort of a supportive role in party. But they saves the most cost in terms of using potions in battles.
I would say i had chosen to play a tank because i am a budget player.
Indeed, the returns reaped me handsome rewards in long run.
I farmed elite maps and got several high-end pink items. Sold them for 6-digit amount of golds.
Started my own guild, unlocked 21 pets from maps and unlocked Flap Jack, Ribbit & Malison using the free plats from app offers.
I do not keep the best warrior gears for myself but instead i went trading and save up my gold.
$ is King and new level cap is coming. It is better to invest $$$ onto the new gears instead.
2.) What is Taunt/Aggro? How does it work?
In Arcane Legends, Taunt acts as a 'threat/aggro damage' counter compared to a Damage build Warrior or Rogue which deals pure damage.
An enemy will get taunted or aggro-ed when getting hit by a player.
The enemy will lay their focus onto the player with the highest threat stacking in priority.
Let's take a look under a scenario.
A Rogue is the first initiator to hit Jarl.
Taking an example say a damage of 500 had been dished out to him during the first 5 seconds.
Then, a Warrior executes Taunt effect from a charged Horn of Renew.
The Taunt might be equivalent to a worth of 1000 'damage' counter. (i do not have exact figures. this is just an example)
Thus, in this case, Jarl began to switch his target to the Warrior instead since his threat stacking counter is higher than the Rogue.
But at any point of time, if the Warrior does not executes his next Taunt effect skill during his skills cycle or does not dish out consistent damage to excel over the Rogue's DPS, Jarl will switch his focus back to the Rogue.
***Latest update 12/12/12
Under my most recent term, i named Aggro as Threat stacking.
Threat stacking works in a way where accumulated damage or threat based skills stack together to reach a value or position to cause a boss/enemy to focus attack on.
However, taunt is a total different genre when comes to Threat stacking.
Taunt is an IMMEDIATE attention seeking skill that resets any threat stacking player's threat.
Let's say there are 2 Tank warriors in a party.
Tanker A is one that uses Axe throw with charged HOR spamming,
while Tanker B is just using HOR as tanking.
Tanker A will be dominating the overall tanking compare to Tanker B.
This is because Tanker A has 2 taunt skills whereas Tanker B has only 1.
In conclusion, under Boss tanking, we will only require Axe throw since its a single target skill.
No other Taunting skills will be required.
However, under group Taunting, HOR will be a more useful taunt skill compared to Juggernaut since it has shorter cooldown and much better healing power. Unless server reduces the cooldown for Juggernaut, else my preference would be to give this skill a miss as of now.
3.) Various Tanking Builds
All builds are based on Lv16 with total 15 skill points.
Tank build #1
This would be the generic cookie-cutter skill mentioned by some of the pioneers for new warriors.
There are some personal changes on the sub-tree skills which i feel useful as personal preference.
I would suggest to learn all 4 sub-tree skills in Vengeful Blood to maximise the effectiveness.
Reason why i prefer to use Skyward Smash is because of it's fast 4 second cooldown and there is no limit of enemies as long as they are around you, compared to Windmill's 3 enemy targets.
Some players might give up Skyward Smash and go for Windmill instead for mana conserving and consistent skills cycle. But under threat counter for tanking, it is recommended to use Windmill instead.
Vengeful Blood - 31 mana cost, 30 sec cooldown, 71-89 mp regen every 2 secs for 10secs.
> Acute Strike - While active, increase critical chance by 10%, or by 25% with a charged cast.
> Savage Strike - While active, increase damage by 10%, or by 25% with charged cast.
> Focused Rage - Increase duration of VB by 25% (which is 7.5sec).
> Adrenaline Surge - Temporary increase Strength by 25, or by 50 with charged cast.
Horn of Renew - 30.4 mana cost, 15 sec cd, 6m range, heals allies for 119-149 damage every 1.5sec for 6secs.
> Increased Duration - Increase buff duration by 25%.
> Challenge - Charging HOR will taunt all enemies within 8 meters of you.
> Protective Shield - Charging HOR puts a shield on allies that prevents all damage for 2 secs.
Chest Splitter - 35 mana cost, 3 sec cooldown, 4.5m range, 88-110 damage + increased damage on a critical.
> Staggering Blow - Hits will interrupt an enemy's attack windups, as well as provide a 20% chance to disorient them.
Windmill - 45.6 mana cost, 10 sec cd, 4m range, 82-103 damage up to 3 targets within 4m.
>Increased Radius - Increase range of Windmill attack to 6 meters.
>Blender - Damage increased by 15% for every strike from Windmill.
>Prolonged Spin - Increases the duration of Windmill by 25%.
OR
Skyward Smash - 40 mana, 4 sec cooldown, 12m range, 97-122 damage + increased damage on a critical.
> Seismic Slam - Range of damage is increased to 6 meters with a charged Skyward Smash.
> Thundering Hammer - Skyward smash attacks will now do an additional 10% damage.
> Quaking Earth - When crashing down with your Skyward Smash, enemies receiving damage will have 25% chance of being stunned in a place.
Tank build #2
This build was recently discussed by players.
This build strictly requires the pet Flap Jack or a supportive pet that gives mana regen like Blight, Horton & Loki. Anything lower than 4MP regen in my opinion isn't efficient.
After testing out myself, i chosen to give up on a sub-tree skill point under Chest Splitter and invested onto Concussion in Axe Throw.
Axe Throw - 35 mana cost, 7 sec cooldown, 16m range, 72-90 damage + increased damage on a critical
> Denting Blow - Enemies that are hit by your thrown weapon will receive a 10% reduction in armor.
> Concussion - Your throwing axe has a 25% chance of stunning an opponent it hits.
> Blacksmith's Touch - Enemies will receive a 15% additional damage when hit by your thrown weapon.
> Chained Bait - Once weapon is attached to enemy, they will be pulled to melee range.
Windmill - 45.6 mana cost, 10 sec cd, 4m range, 82-103 damage up to 3 targets within 4m.
>Increased Radius - Increase range of Windmill attack to 6 meters.
>Blender - Damage increased by 15% for every strike from Windmill.
>Prolonged Spin - Increases the duration of Windmill by 25%.
Chest Splitter - 35 mana cost, 3 sec cooldown, 4.5m range, 88-110 damage + increased damage on a critical.
> Staggering Blow - Hits will interrupt an enemy's attack windups, as well as provide a 20% chance to disorient them.
Horn of Renew - 30.4 mana cost, 15 sec cd, 6m range, heals allies for 119-149 damage every 1.5sec for 6secs.
> Increased Duration - Increase buff duration by 25%.
> Challenge - Charging HOR will taunt all enemies within 8 meters of you.
> Protective Shield - Charging HOR puts a shield on allies that prevents all damage for 2 secs.
Tank build #3 - In my opinion the best build which suits my gameplay style
There are some personal changes on the sub-tree skills which i feel useful as personal preference.
I would suggest to learn all 4 sub-tree skills in Vengeful Blood to maximise the effectiveness.
The bonuses from Vengeful Blood suits my style of tanking using normal melee attacks.
I am also open to many other types of Pets rather than sticking strictly to Flap Jack or Ribbit.
My warrior gains 25% critical hit, 25% boost to damage, 6 ticks of mana regen, strength +50 (which is also increased health in this case, similar to juggernaut) over a period of 12.5 seconds.
In almost another 15 seconds (17.5 secs to be exact...), I can have this buff again to maintain my DPS & Threat aggro. The downside for this setup is that it is purely a tanking build which isn't that user-friendly during the initial phase of clearing the mobs before Jarl.
A good sharing by Crystallite is that he replaces Horn of Renew with Windmill to counter the DPS problem. Although he needs to pot at times but his skills setup will shine effectively when he is in Jarl party with a mage. You may view his sharing below this post.
His skills setup should be the #1 highest threat output build for Warrior so far.
For my most current setup, i removed Axe throw in replacement with Windmill instead.
Reason is because the lack of damage when the new level cap releases and leveling will become an issue.
Windmill wise, i learnt 3 sub-tree skills except for Cripple.
Instead of using Axe throw to pull Jarl or boss, i use Charged Horn of Renew's effective Radius to taunt them.
I added in Windmill in my skill rotations without failed and my Taunt tanking has become much stronger. I believe this is currently the 2nd highest threat output cost saving build.
Chest Splitter - 35 mana cost, 3 sec cooldown, 4.5m range, 88-110 damage + increased damage on a critical.
> Staggering Blow - Hits will interrupt an enemy's attack windups, as well as provide a 20% chance to disorient them.
Windmill - 45.6 mana cost, 10 sec cd, 4m range, 82-103 damage up to 3 targets within 4m.
>Increased Radius - Increase range of Windmill attack to 6 meters.
>Blender - Damage increased by 15% for every strike from Windmill.
>Prolonged Spin - Increases the duration of Windmill by 25%.
OR
Skyward Smash - 40 mana, 4 sec cooldown, 12m range, 97-122 damage + increased damage on a critical.
> Seismic Slam - Range of damage is increased to 6 meters with a charged Skyward Smash.
> Thundering Hammer - Skyward smash attacks will now do an additional 10% damage.
> Quaking Earth - When crashing down with your Skyward Smash, enemies receiving damage will have 25% chance of being stunned in a place.
Vengeful Blood - 31 mana cost, 30 sec cooldown, 71-89 mp regen every 2 secs for 10secs.
> Acute Strike - While active, increase critical chance by 10%, or by 25% with a charged cast.
> Savage Strike - While active, increase damage by 10%, or by 25% with charged cast.
> Focused Rage - Increase duration of VB by 25% (which is 7.5sec).
> Adrenaline Surge - Temporary increase Strength by 25, or by 50 with charged cast.
Horn of Renew - 30.4 mana cost, 15 sec cd, 6m range, heals allies for 119-149 damage every 1.5sec for 6secs.
> Increased Duration - Increase buff duration by 25%.
> Challenge - Charging HOR will taunt all enemies within 8 meters of you.
> Protective Shield - Charging HOR puts a shield on allies that prevents all damage for 2 secs.
4.) Tanking situation under Lv16 cap
As of now, most of the time during boss tanking, we will only utilize 3 main skills namely,
Axe Throw to initiate the boss,
Charged Horn of Renew to execute the first Taunt effect,
Skyward Smash/Normal attack for DPS &
Chest Splitter to cancel bosses windup skill.
Commonly, we will be using Normal attacks unless there is a mage present who cast the mp buff for us.
That is when we can spam our Skyward Smash or Windmill skill.
In general for Elite tanking under Lv16 cap, we do not require Skyward Smash.
Instead, we can add in another supportive skill like Juggernaut for stronger Taunting, Rally Cry for damage reduction or Vengeful blood for DPS buff.
In this case, Vengeful Blood wins over Juggernaut then after that Rally Cry.
This is why i created the 3rd Tanking build by myself to suit my gameplay.
5.) Tanking pets selection
As of now, the top 2 best warrior pets would be Ribbit for DPS and Flap Jack for Tanking.
Alternatively, if your warrior had learnt Vengeful Blood, Ribbit can be your loyal pet throughout the journey.
Malison can be a nice pet too for boosted stats but in overall still loses to Ribbit.
I tested by myself and i owned all 3 of these high-end warrior pets.
I personally am looking at the 250 Hauntlet coin pet turtle.
I believe he will make a difference should the new patch of Sword & Shield gears comes into play.
By then, we might get to see new warrior builds that stacks damage reduction percentage and uses Juggernaut skills.
6.) Gears selection
There's a discussion on the best amulet & rings under this thread: http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...ng-for-warrior
In my opinion, Tanking warriors should focus on 3 priority stats:
1.) Strength - For damage, health and bonus damage %
2.) Dexterity - Every additional stats to boost chance to dodge is accumulative.
3.) Armor - The more the merrier. More armor = more damage reduction.
4.) Dodge - Secondary additional bonus after Dexterity stat.
5.) Intelligence - Use this option only if the itemization does not have Dex stat. Normally this roll would be a budget gear for new tankers. Solves mana issue too.
If you have finance issue to buy Lv16 accessory, go for a Lv15. If still can't afford for it, go for Lv14.
7.) Passive skills
Under the most recent announcement by admin, there are seven different passive abilities you can spend your points into. You have to be level 20 or higher to be able to spend points past rank 4. Here are the different abilities as they are currently implemented (still subject to change before release):
Durable: Increase your armor value by 1% for each point spent
Critical Shot: Increase your critical hit chance by 1% for each point spent
Damage: Increase your damage value by 1% for each point spent
Agility: Increase your Dexterity Stat by +5 for each point spent
Knowledge: Increase your Intelligence Stat by +5 for each point spent
Quickness: Increase your movement speed by 1% for each point spent
Might: Increase your Strength Stat by +5 for each point spent
As of now, we would try our very best not to invest further skill points onto our main skills.
So estimating that our total extra skill points from Lv17 to 21, we should be looking at a surplus of 5 skill points.
The 2 most priority passive skills for us would be Durable & Might.
My personal opinion before the official release would be focusing mainly onto Might instead of Durable.
Based on current gears stats per level scaling, as long as we are wearing tanking type of gears, the armor point we have should be sufficient enough to tank regular elite bosses.
Depending on how strong the new map elite boss damage is, only then we can decide the finalised passive skill to learn. Durable would be a more effective passive skill in late game since our gears armor points by then would be way much higher to enjoy the armor % bonus.
5 surplus skill points would mean +5% more to armor points or +25 to str.
My personal choice would be towards Might passive skill which is +25 to str.
This gives me boosted 250 additional hp, damage and damage bonus.
With Vengeful blood buff, we would be looking more than 3200 health point for tanking.
On the otherhand, we might be going towards a new revolutionary stats distribution and gameplay of our tanking warrior. We can choose to use the most minimal required skill points for the tanking and the rest of points focusing towards Might priority.
Looking back on my current skill setup.
Vengeful blood is a compulsory 5 skill points for the amazing bonuses which is a must to learn.
Next would be Chest splitter with Staggering blow which is 2 skill points.
Horn of Renew to go 3 skill pts which will be increased duration & taunt, giving up the 2sec shield.
Windmill with increased ranged, damage and duration will cost 4 skill points.
IF we are able to sacrifice and give up windmill skill points and HOR's 2 sec invincible shield,
We will have a surplus of 5 more skill points.
So adding these 5 skill points on top of the surplus 5 skill points,
We will have a total of 10 skill points to focus onto Might passive skill, giving us +50 STR.
Basically, the tanking skill rotation would be changed.
Instead of having windmill, we will start to play Charged Normal attack & Charged Chest splitter under our skill rotations to cover up the abundance of skills cooldown time.
This is just an concept idea. Ultimately once the new patch comes into play, i will be doing various testings once again.
*** It seems that the usage of 10 skill points wasn't implemented as what the admin mentioned under their announcement.
As of latest patch, at level 21, passive skills are capped at maximum of 5 skill points.
That's all. I hope these basic informations which i learnt and shared would help every new warriors brothers to take up the love for tanking like i do in most games.
Happy Tanking!
Cheers & Peace out~!
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