[IB] How to build the most defensive tank

[hellcore]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to design a living inamovible wall. I like this kind of character and I know that I could be more helpful but I must play the way I like

So, at the moment I am using armor talismans and spending renown points in dodge and disrutp %, and parry %. I feel toughtness mitigates low damage. But once I reach lvl 31 I would like to test a block build with Shield Mastery and Seasoned Veteran (block % and damage reduction seem a good combo to spend points)

Can you share your thoughts? Which would be the best way to make the mosty defensive pure tank?

Thank you everyone,

Regards,

[tazdingo]

IB is not the best class to do it with (i would say BG), but it's not the worst either (lol SM), BUT if you're determined to be a dawi, here's what i've learned about tanking entire WBs in order of importance

CHANCE TO BE CRIT: the one thing everybody ignores when trying to do this. if you are getting crit every other hit, you will die very fast regardless of all other factors. init is not a dump stat!

AVOIDANCE: block, deft defender, reflexes. really obvious. parry is the "worst" investment for pure selfish survivability, but it makes you a much better guardbot

TOUGHNESS: the beauty of toughness is that it negates all the little hits you're gonna take whilst you're mincing around at the front pretending to know what you're doing (and acting like you know what you're doing is a pub tanks most important skill.) that's why it's only really good for tanks, it does little against burst but it just absorbs flak. soft cap it

WOUNDS: a contentious topic but i really like wounds. after crit resistance and avoidance, it's the next best thing against burst. the talis are also really good - as a percentage of the base stat vs other talis, you can really push wounds. ONLY worth it if you already have a very high toughness though

ARMOUR: just use a pot like everybody else. fine at middling ranks cause you're not near capping and armour talis are so damn cheap (i tend to just throw them on every sub30 character), but won't be part of your end build. tanks push the cap by default with pots and buffs

other random stuff i've learned:

- hold the line is so good it's almost broken, and seen as you're an IB with practically infinite AP, there is no reason not to spam the hell out of it! remember dodge/disrupt is 360, the animation can be offputting but it works when running away too

- in SCs your job is guardbotting and heal debuffing. find room for punishing knock - i know, it's a tactic that doesn't fit the turtle thing, but you have to bring SOMETHING. your dmg may be 0 but you can wade into the enemy lines with impunity and give them 50% healing output for the entire SC. juggle healers. outside of that all you can offer your team is a giant health pool, so learn to switch guard. guarding an ally under focus and then getting in range of them (much closer than you think) is more important than actually hitting anything as a turtle, especially if you have your own melee train pushing their backline

- on that note positioning is relentlessly important as a turtle. nothing worse than having a BW parry your KD, and you will not hit a def tank from the front with ANYTHING


hope that helps. not talking about builds or gear cause there's a ton of different ways that will work as long as you follow the above fundamentals

[hellcore]

IB is not the best class to do it with (i would say BG), but it's not the worst either (lol SM), BUT if you're determined to be a dawi, here's what i've learned about tanking entire WBs in order of importance

CHANCE TO BE CRIT: the one thing everybody ignores when trying to do this. if you are getting crit every other hit, you will die very fast regardless of all other factors. init is not a dump stat!

AVOIDANCE: block, deft defender, reflexes. really obvious. parry is the "worst" investment for pure selfish survivability, but it makes you a much better guardbot

TOUGHNESS: the beauty of toughness is that it negates all the little hits you're gonna take whilst you're mincing around at the front pretending to know what you're doing (and acting like you know what you're doing is a pub tanks most important skill.) that's why it's only really good for tanks, it does little against burst but it just absorbs flak. soft cap it

WOUNDS: a contentious topic but i really like wounds. after crit resistance and avoidance, it's the next best thing against burst. the talis are also really good - as a percentage of the base stat vs other talis, you can really push wounds. ONLY worth it if you already have a very high toughness though

ARMOUR: just use a pot like everybody else. fine at middling ranks cause you're not near capping and armour talis are so damn cheap (i tend to just throw them on every sub30 character), but won't be part of your end build. tanks push the cap by default with pots and buffs

other random stuff i've learned:

- hold the line is so good it's almost broken, and seen as you're an IB with practically infinite AP, there is no reason not to spam the hell out of it! remember dodge/disrupt is 360, the animation can be offputting but it works when running away too

- in SCs your job is guardbotting and heal debuffing. find room for punishing knock - i know, it's a tactic that doesn't fit the turtle thing, but you have to bring SOMETHING. your dmg may be 0 but you can wade into the enemy lines with impunity and give them 50% healing output for the entire SC. juggle healers. outside of that all you can offer your team is a giant health pool, so learn to switch guard. guarding an ally under focus and then getting in range of them (much closer than you think) is more important than actually hitting anything as a turtle, especially if you have your own melee train pushing their backline

- on that note positioning is relentlessly important as a turtle. nothing worse than having a BW parry your KD, and you will not hit a def tank from the front with ANYTHING


hope that helps. not talking about builds or gear cause there's a ton of different ways that will work as long as you follow the above fundamentals

Thank you for your wisedom.

Why is BG the best tank for this role?

[tazdingo]

IB is not the best class to do it with (i would say BG), but it's not the worst either (lol SM), BUT if you're determined to be a dawi, here's what i've learned about tanking entire WBs in order of importance

CHANCE TO BE CRIT: the one thing everybody ignores when trying to do this. if you are getting crit every other hit, you will die very fast regardless of all other factors. init is not a dump stat!

AVOIDANCE: block, deft defender, reflexes. really obvious. parry is the "worst" investment for pure selfish survivability, but it makes you a much better guardbot

TOUGHNESS: the beauty of toughness is that it negates all the little hits you're gonna take whilst you're mincing around at the front pretending to know what you're doing (and acting like you know what you're doing is a pub tanks most important skill.) that's why it's only really good for tanks, it does little against burst but it just absorbs flak. soft cap it

WOUNDS: a contentious topic but i really like wounds. after crit resistance and avoidance, it's the next best thing against burst. the talis are also really good - as a percentage of the base stat vs other talis, you can really push wounds. ONLY worth it if you already have a very high toughness though

ARMOUR: just use a pot like everybody else. fine at middling ranks cause you're not near capping and armour talis are so damn cheap (i tend to just throw them on every sub30 character), but won't be part of your end build. tanks push the cap by default with pots and buffs

other random stuff i've learned:

- hold the line is so good it's almost broken, and seen as you're an IB with practically infinite AP, there is no reason not to spam the hell out of it! remember dodge/disrupt is 360, the animation can be offputting but it works when running away too

- in SCs your job is guardbotting and heal debuffing. find room for punishing knock - i know, it's a tactic that doesn't fit the turtle thing, but you have to bring SOMETHING. your dmg may be 0 but you can wade into the enemy lines with impunity and give them 50% healing output for the entire SC. juggle healers. outside of that all you can offer your team is a giant health pool, so learn to switch guard. guarding an ally under focus and then getting in range of them (much closer than you think) is more important than actually hitting anything as a turtle, especially if you have your own melee train pushing their backline

- on that note positioning is relentlessly important as a turtle. nothing worse than having a BW parry your KD, and you will not hit a def tank from the front with ANYTHING


hope that helps. not talking about builds or gear cause there's a ton of different ways that will work as long as you follow the above fundamentals

Thank you for your wisedom.

Why is BG the best tank for this role?

+45% toughness
+30% disrupt
+30% parry

all with near 100% uptime cause you rarely spend hate as snb
all of these free up "space" which allows you to really specialize as a turtle. tough pump means you can drop many tough talis and parry means you don't need reflexes (you still want deft defender). this allows you to lower your crit chance and increase your wounds to silly levels

BG also has dark protector which is now wicked. shield (without tactic slot like IB), elite training and 45% lower crit chance can now be applied to protectee. it's like having a second, mini-guard. IB has better offensive buffs for his oath friend, but BG is better at keeping them alive

IB is still a fine choice though, probably best for order. people say kotbs is best turtle but it's really... passive in it's application and can't really adapt, it just "is." IB are more active in keeping themself alive, so are more versatile and dependent on player skill

[anarchypark]

it's good to see another def tank in order
i don't know much about IB.
but this is the build i would go as pure tank.
RoR.builders - Ironbreaker
looks boring but staying at front line is quite busy.
putting CC and changing guard/oathfriend while managing rotation.

about the block build.
it's good synergy but i don't think you can go over 50% block.
enemies tend to hit your back to avoid block/parry.

you might need to test Seen It All Before, Stoutness of Stone, Seasoned Veteran.
contact me if you need any help.