Going on the Offence
Going on the Offence
This part discusses the rhino's attacking capabilities.
Forgetting something? Remember to bring these
In the beginning, nothing beats the Punctually Forgotten Bow, which just needs 32 dex for ridiculous range and damage. You can of course opt for traditional melee, but no one hits hard enough at the low levels to require a tank.
At level 11 the Tentatively Forgotten Bow becomes available, with 35 dex required, and so on. These bows are good till level 30, when it is outclassed by the extremely cheap Frozen Longsword of the Bear, with Req: Lvl 30 and 94 Str; 137-172 damage, two handed, 5 str, 2 crit, 2 H/s, 1 armor. Conveniently, the need for strength comes just before your first elite dungeon, the Frozen Nightmares.
You'll need 68 dex for the Lvl 22 Cleverly Forgotten Bow and then quickly transition to 94 str for melee. After that, mobs hit for harder and harder, so it's time to do your proper tank job and equip one-handers with shield.
Immortal aliens
It was in Alien Oasis 3 when I first felt under-equipped. The problem was Alien Snipers, which shoot high while taking forever to die. Alien Sniper has two friends known as the Alien Lorekeeper (tank) and Alien Berserker (also tank, but high damage). Not only this, but 3 out of 5 boss Aliens are overpowered: Crush the keeper can pin u against a wall (forever), Gurghox will one-shot entire parties, and Galactic Overlord is invincible with Shield (and can AoE every second). I confess that during these levels I was a rhino ambulance which is still pretty useful because I had to revive often.
So I had a Limbchopper of Destiny (Req: Lvl 45, 100 Str; 105-125 damage, 0.9 speed, 8 str, 2 dodge, 4 hit, 2 crit, 2 H/s, 2 M/s, 3 Armor) and a shield. For damage I would recommend Plasma Axe of the Rift or Gurgox Hammer of the Rift.
Glyph Maces: The Return of Damage
Tanking responsibilities mean that rhinos will never two-hand again for many levels. Shields are also improving at each cap, your character will feel naked without it. They give dodge, crit, M/s, and tons of armor.
Once at Nuri's you should definitely get Strongman's Glyph Mace, or if you cannot afford it, the cheaper Glyph Mace of the Big Top. The ultra rare Demonic Glyph Mace is a crafted (and marginally improved) Strongman mace. There will be some scammers that try to tell you a Taming Club of the Big Top is "good for dps", but you should never listen to them. Monster armor at these levels are high enough to make quick weapons look like toys. You need slow but hard-hitting weapons to get skills such as Redemption and Holy Tempest through.
Strongman's Glyph Mace: Required Lvl 56 and 128 Str; 190-265 damage, 1.4 speed, 20 Str, 5 dodge, 5 H/s, 5 M/s, 9 armor. There are slightly improved copies at Lvl 58 and 60. (The Lvl 56 one is the most expensive because lower levels, and therefore more players, can wield.)
Skipping Humania and going Straight to Blacksmoke
Both Mount Fang and Humania don't give much, because both promote two-handers which are dead-on-arrival. Mobs in Mount Fang can zerg rush even a tank, while single yetis in Humania are known to wipe entire parties. To say nothing about Mount Fang bosses, which are the strongest in the entire game. You need your shield.
This means that your next and final melee weapon is Beastly Dragonscale Scythe, which can be crafted into Savage Dragon Master Scythe. For two hands I do not recommend melee at all, because dragons must be taken down from range. You should instead raise to 157 dex, to steal the bird's Flying Dragonscale Recurve Bow.
How Important is Crit?
Crit is a chance of dealing double damage. You'll of course want as much crit as possible, but mathematically speaking what does crit actually do?
You'll have to bear with me for some algebra. Suppose your Damage = D. When you crit, you deal twice as much, Crit = 2D.
Scenario 1: 0% Crit
D' = D (no chance of dealing double damage)
Scenario 2: 25% Crit
D' = (0.75 * D) + (0.25 * 2D)
D' = 1.25D
Scenario 3: 50% Crit
D' = (0.5 * D) + (0.5 * 2D)
D' = 1.5
Scenario 3: 75% Crit
D' = (0.25 * D) + (0.75 * 2D)
D' = 1.75D
Scenario 4: 100% Crit
D' = 2D (always deal double damage)
So Crit raises overall damage by the exact percentage of the Crit. If you have 25% crit, you will deal 25% more, and if 50%, you will deal 50% more. So this provides a simple way of comparing weapons. More crit is not always better, you have to multiply it with your (total) damage.
Damage vs DPS
I equipped two weapons, both Lvl 60, and these are my resultant character stats:
Glyph Mace of the Big Top: Damage 272-347, Speed 1.3 DPS 221
Reptilian Dagger of Obedience: Damage 180-183, Speed 0.4, DPS 454
On the surface, the dagger is twice the damage of the mace. To confirm this, bring a low-armor monster such as a LE blue troll. How long does it take to kill?
Glyph Mace: 16 seconds
Reptilian Dagger: 8 seconds
Matches predictions exactly. Now try high armor monster, the Humanian mini-yeti.
Glyph Mace: 15 seconds
Reptilian Dagger: 19 seconds
This proves that DPS is negated by armor at higher levels. The high speed daggers are only better in two circumstances, which are:
1) Low level farming
2) Elixir / Daily Blessing buffs
For everything else, the ultra slow mace is better.
Screw that, I still want dps
There you go.
Molten set gives the highest dps: crit rates superior to flying dragonscale, easy to assemble (non-pink). The downside is total disregard for armor and dodge. It can still work because of elixirs and daily blessings. Just let your bear tank for you while u move in like a sneaky rogue.
Note: You can avoid the problems of dagger's low base damage by equipping the molten set with Beastly Dragonscale Scythe.
How Important is Damage as a Tank?
If you ask me, damage is not important at all. I completed all the difficult maps at low levels being a healer/reviver/tank; piggybacking off the damage of other classes. I hit 100 while they pull out 1000's. This is the role of a rhino/paladin: we are supporters so that other characters can shine better.
With that said, you want enough damage to mop the lone straggler missed by other players. It's not a difficult job, so standard weapons will do. The rule of thumb is to find the most damaging one-handed melee; I mean base damage and not dps. And of course it is possible to build the rhino differently, perhaps with pure DEX or with pure INT. Those builds would be a serious compromise of dodge and armor; I think they only work at the lower levels.
Now, we can go the other extreme of full STR. Not recommended, because there are situations that can only be negotiated by bow. Also, when you are Lvl 76 and want to farm a lower lvl map (for whatever reason), it would be nice to drop all the STR armors and wear fully equipped DEX gear. Dex gives higher crit and higher base damage. There is no way those Plasma Pyramid aliens can harm you anyway.
The only noticeable benefit of full STR is 75-ish more health; you should be fine without it. Defence in Pocket Legends is actually dodge (to evade one hit kills), armor (to counter mob zerging), and stun. Let the bears have a big health pool; we are fine with blocking.
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