Taalias Tank Tips part 2
Author: Taalia (Rosmerta)
My build:
I've gone for vitality and health as a primary goal, but tried to balance this with defence as a secondary (gear that adds both is ideal). So I'm not a pure health tank, nor pure defence, but somewhere in between. Some tanks have 30-40k hp, but weaker defence, some 12k defence, but a smaller health pool. I am usually 25k health and 7k defence.
Author: Taalia (Rosmerta)
My build:
I've gone for vitality and health as a primary goal, but tried to balance this with defence as a secondary (gear that adds both is ideal). So I'm not a pure health tank, nor pure defence, but somewhere in between. Some tanks have 30-40k hp, but weaker defence, some 12k defence, but a smaller health pool. I am usually 25k health and 7k defence.
Skills:
Shield bash 42
Shield wall 50
Protective Stance 50
Defensive Formation 50
Taunt 50
Warcry 50
EDL armour (I only use my doch gloves when taking on phs and the like alone)
Shadow helm of champions
I'd rather have vit or dex than strength, but I wanted a defence helm.
Shadowice vitality spear
Causing damage is of little interest. Though it's important to be able to hit a target to get its attention. If I'm soloing something I use a voidfire focus spear and spear ring.
EDL shield (i use this on all bosses, but on non chaos bosses a gold lux shield can be effective)
If you don't have EDL the best general purpose shield is the grey fortitude one, which adds vit, while some situations call for the gold endurance one with higher elemental resists and evades.
Poacher amulet
Vitality 200
Armour 150
Health 1000
Temporary Defence boost skill
This is my favourite tank amulet, though stargem and trailblazer sets work for a balanced build, as do skain / gara ironroot or stonebark sets.
Chitin spider charm
Vitality 200
Shield wall +10
Protective stance +10
Imperial and godly chitin are probably the best tank charms, but after that skain charms are good, even standalone rather than as sets.
Imperial Aetheric Bracelet of the Strategist
Vitality 185
Defensive Formation +9
Shield wall +9
Melee Combat 550
Godly Bracelet of the Umbral Shield
Vitality 180
Dexterity 140
Defence 900
Bracelets are where you build up your stats. Vit, dex, health, defence. The Gele Bracelet gives melee combat which helps landing shield bashes, and more importantly, landing taunts and warcries, and means I don't have to hotswap skill rings which lets me focus on other things.
Huntsman Ring ( swap out when battling phs)
Defence +15% total
I like expensive jewellery. But the huntsman is also elegant. 15% makes a big uptick if you have high defence already.
Royal Symmetry Ring
Focus 145
Chaos resistance 300
Health 450
Energy 450
I wear this for the extra chaos resistance. It definitely helps, though another skain or proteus ring, or runic celerity ring could substitute for added defence. The extra focus doesn't hurt - I am spamming all 6 skills pretty constantly.
Skain Stormleaf Ring
Vitality 145
Defence 250
Skain Shrivewood Ring
Vitality 145
Defence 250
Now if you don't have access to skain rings, there are runic rings and proteus rings which give vit and skills. The ironroot ring adds health rather than defence, so it's a third choice of skain ring for tanks.
Giant Silver Warbear (goes by the name "Marmalade")
Strength 90
Vitality 90
Speed 109% (because positioning is *really* important)
Resilience skill
Giant tan boar (unnamed, will take suggestions)
Vitality 180
Feral protection skill
The dog pet is also extremely useful - the ranged attack is great to start a pull. See #taaliastips "a tank girls best friend"
*****
All of these are just toys.
When you're on your own in front of the boss, with all eyes on you,
1. Confidence
2. Communication
3. Positioning and Awareness.
We'll discuss those in part 3.
#taaliastips
Taalias Tank and Damage Tips Menu
