Tanking through Elite Nordr

[Eversor]

Tanking through Elite Nordr

Let me start off by saying that this is a guide on how I tank effectively in Elite Nordr. There are other strategies/builds that I’m sure work for others, but this is how I do it and it works great. A lot of the things mentioned in this guide can help you in other elite maps as well. I feel like there are many warriors in this game that really don’t know how to tank effectively. This is unfortunate, because a good warrior is probably the most important thing in an elite map. There are tons of threads that talk about skill builds and everyone posts differing opinions which can lead to confusion, not to mention the fact that your build is only part of tanking effectively. I wanted to make this to hopefully help more players understand how to tank effectively in elite maps. I will warn you, this is a rather lengthy guide, but if you are struggling to tank in elite maps I think it will help you quite a bit. Also, if you know something I don’t, and feel you can add something useful to this guide, please share. FYI: I will not be talking about anything that could be considered an exploit/glitch in this guide.

First thing’s first: You are going to use A LOT of potions when you tank elite maps, especially health potions. Don’t think you are doing it wrong if you are spamming health potions like crazy to stay alive. That’s just part of tanking elite maps. Make sure you stock up before you go. One quick tip about using health pots. When I know I’m going to be taking heavy damage I bring my left thumb over to use pots while I use my right for skills. I can even continue spamming pots while I’m charging skills this way. I do not know if this works on all devices, but it works very well for me on my iPad Mini.

You need to be primarily concerned with two things: keeping the attention (aggro) of your enemies focused on yourself to keep your party alive and keeping yourself alive. There are two ways for a warrior to gain aggro: the taunt effect of certain skills and by doing damage.

The Build:

I tinker with it from time to time but here are the things that I feel are very important to get:

Put all attribute points in Strength.

Chest Splitter with Staggering Blow upgrade – This skill will help you hold aggro on mobs and bosses alike with the taunt that it does and with the Staggering Blow upgrade you can keep bosses from scoring critical hits against your party with the feeble effect.

Windmill with Increased Radius upgrade – This skill is your best skill to hold the aggro of large mobs with the area of effect (aoe) taunt it provides. The taunt also works well on bosses.

Axe Throw with Denting Blow and Chained Bait upgrades – This skill is crucial for boss fights. It will taunt them to keep their attention on you and it will also apply the feeble effect on them to keep them from scoring critical hits against your party.


Horn of Renew with Increased Range, Challenge and Protective Shield upgrades – This skill has 3 great benefits. First it heals your party over time. Second it will taunt all enemies within range to keep them focused on you if you charge it. Finally it will put a shield of immunity to damage on your party members within range for 2 seconds. (Note: Always charge this skill)

Passive Might 5/5 points – Strength is a warriors greatest attribute. It helps you to survive and increases your damage (which also increases your threat/aggro).

You should still have several skill points left to distribute where you think you need it. If you are curious of my current full skill build, here it is:

Skyward Smash
All upgrades except Effortless Execution

Chest Splitter
Staggering Blow Upgrade

Windmill
All upgrades

Axe Throw
All upgrades

Horn of Renew
All upgrades except Increased Duration

Durable – 5/5

Might – 5/5

Note: I have 5 skills in this build. Obviously I can’t have them all mapped at the same time. I use skyward smash, chest splitter, windmill and horn of renew for tanking mobs. When I get to a boss I typically swap skyward smash out for axe throw.

Gear:

There is a lot to consider when choosing gear. I’m not going to get into much detail but say that I like gear with good health, armor, while keeping my damage at a reasonable level. I always prefer damage over dps with this build because I have a lot of attack skills and they will be more effective with a higher damage stat while dps will not necessarily affect them. DPS only relates to normal attacks and normal attacks are not a big part of this build. Dodge is nice too, but there doesn’t seem to be enough + dodge on most gear to make an enormous difference.

Pets:

There are many pets that will work just fine but my favorites would have to be Ribbit, Hazel,Wyatt, Snaggletooth, Malison or Loki. Some of these you can get really cheap.

Tanking the Mobs:

When I approach a mob of enemies I will typically use a charged Horn of Renew. It will taunt them to keep them on me, and keep me alive while I get into position. Positioning the mobs can be very important, particularly in Nordr. I always try to pull the mobs to a place where I can keep my back against a wall. I do this for a few reasons. First, I don’t want any mobs to push me back, particularly into an ice patch where I can’t do anything. Also, if a party member has a skill or weapon with a push/knockback effect, they can just push them into me and the wall rather than across the map, possibly aggroing additional mobs and making your job more difficult. Another point about position is that there are ranged mobs and melee mobs. I like to pull the melee mobs towards the ranged mobs, when I can, where I can better keep aggro on all of them. Once you get the aggro of all of the mobs, be ready to chug potions really fast. On a side note, if you have a good sorcerer with proper crowd control it can certainly minimize your pot consumption. When I am tanking groups of mobs I use skyward smash, windmill, (charged) horn of renew, and chest splitter. I prioritize the skills like this (Charged)Horn of Renew>Windmill>Chest Splitter>Skyward Smash. Using these skills you should be able to hold the aggro all day. I do try to keep an eye on the mobs though and if one wanders off it shouldn’t be a big deal but if a few wander off for some reason, I make it priority to get them back to the others. With a good sorcerer using proper crowd control techniques, I rarely have to worry about this.

The Bosses of Nordr:

When I get to a boss I typically swap skyward smash for axe throw.

Maneater:

This boss is less about the boss and more about the elite snaggletooths that spawn around him. These guys can take out the rest of your party quick, so make sure you are paying close attention to them. Since I’m more concerned about the mobs of elite snaggletooths I keep skyward smash on instead of swapping out for axe throw. Use your aoe taunts and attacks to keep the elite snags attacking you and not your teammates. His aoe attack will kill them, but you want to give your rogues a clean side to attack Maneater from without wasting their attacks on the snags. Manage the snags properly and your group should be able to kill Maneater without much trouble. To be honest a good sorcerer with proper crowd control can be extremely effective at keeping the snags down and out of the fight just about as much as a warrior can tank them.

Alpha Wolf:

This boss I typically pull down towards the top of the bridge. Be careful not to reset the boss though. Keep yourself positioned to where if he jumps at you he will hit a wall instead of jumping past his reset point. If you get him past about halfway down the bridge he will reset. There is a chokepoint towards the bottom of the map where a good sorcerer can keep the pack of other wolves at bay while your party takes out the boss. This also keeps you further away from their spawn point. Make sure you avoid the other wolves red cones or they can push you pretty far and do quite a bit of damage when they all hit you at once. The first half of the fight, the boss himself is pretty easy. Just use your chest splitter, axe throw, windmill and charged horn of renew to keep the boss and any other pesky wolves attacking you. When the boss gets to around half health you need to pay close attention. Do not use Windmill when the boss gets close to half health. Make sure you have the boss positioned to where the whole party can easily see the boss. You also want to make sure you have Horn of Renew ready to use. When you see the boss howl and blue swirls start to surround him, stop attacking and cast a charged horn of renew. The boss will throw up a reflective shield. If anyone attacks while the shield is up they will likely die. Your horn of renew will shield your party for a couple seconds to give them additional time to react and stop attacking. Once the shield drops use your windmill once and then continue to do damage and use your other skills. The timer on the wolf casting his shield seems to be exactly the same as your horn of renew cooldown, so you should know when it’s coming, stop attacking and you can use your horn to shield your party every time the shield goes up. It is possible for his timing to be thrown off but for the most part the timing is consistent. Rinse and repeat these steps until the boss is dead.

Frostir:

This boss is pretty straightforward. He has two charged attacks you need to worry about. One is a charge that does a fair amount of damage and can stun you. The other is an aoe attack that does a lot of damage. I like to tank this boss in a position where he is facing a nearby wall so that when he charges, he doesn’t go all the way across the room and I can continue to build more aggro on him. When he does his charge, the red cone is small and easy to get out of the way. When he is charging his aoe attack there are a few things you can do. If you hit him with chest splitter or axe throw just before he unleashes it, you will ensure he can’t land a critical hit. If you can get your charged horn of renew off in time, you can shield your whole party from the damage. Hitting him with chest splitter or axe throw is easier and more reliable. The timing the Horn of Renew has to be perfect. You have to do it very quickly. When he gets down to lower health he starts to glow and his damage will be buffed. If you continue to dodge his charge and use the techniques described above to deal with his aoe attack you should be able to survive just fine.

Frostbite:

Really there is only one thing that bugs me about this boss. That is the ice patches he throws down throughout the fight. If you step into one you will be unable to attack, move, or use any skills. He has three charged attacks. One is the ice patch, which has a small red cone indicator. The second is a vicious bite attack that also has a small red cone indicator. If you see a small red cone move back away from the boss. If you try to move to the side, sometimes the ice patch goes to the left or right of where it is indicated. His other charged attack has a large red cone indicator and he will pull a target in towards himself and do a bite for big damage. When he does either bite attacks I recommend hitting him with chest splitter or axe throw so he doesn’t score a critical hit. Make sure you use your taunts, and keep moving him around so that he isn’t surrounded by the ice patches. If he has an ice patch under him and pulls you in, you’re going to be stuck in an ice patch. If he starts attacking another party member while you are trying to get him out of his ice patches and he fires up a charged attack towards them, either hit him with an Axe Throw so the attack doesn’t score a critical hit or if the party member is in range, throw up a charged Horn of Renew to shield the blow. As long as you stay out of the ice patches so you can continue to build your threat against him, this fight can be pretty easy.

Grimnr:

This boss is fairly straightforward, but he does A LOT of damage with his different AoE attacks. Many of his attacks can one shot kill you or your party members from full health. Really the key on this boss is to mitigate the damage done to you and your party by either applying the feeble effect on him or using a charged horn of renew when he does his charged attacks. So when you see him charge an attack, use chest splitter, axe throw or a charged horn of renew so he doesn’t one shot kill someone even from full health. The first 2/3 of the fight isn’t too bad as his attacks don’t do as much damage and he doesn’t use the charged attacks quite as often. Once you knock two of his heads off though, things get wild. He will basically spam his charged attacks one right after the other and you need to use your feebles and charged horn of renews both wisely and quickly. He will also start glowing like Frostir and will do more damage with each attack at this point as well. With some well timed damage mitigation and a bit of luck you’ll make it through this guy with minimal trouble.

If you have any questions or need clarification on something, just let me know. Thanks for reading, and good luck tanking!