Tank Questions

[Xorp]

Hi everyone,
I have just come back to the game after playing at its debut. I started playing a WH and moved to a KOTBS when it came out. I had to stop playing after a couple of months and later on played SWTOR for a couple of years also as a tank. I love the guard system in pvp !
Back to this game for pvp and guess what ? I’m going to play a tank
I would like to know the difference between all tanks :
- what are they best at ?
- what are there weaknesses ?
- what are there differences with there mirror class ?
- why go snb or 2h on each tank ?
- etc.
Help me decide what tank i would like to play !!!
I would like to make my choice by gathering a maximum of information.
Thanks for your help

[Caleb]

Welcome back, since you mentioned you played Order I'll list a tldr for Order Tanks only :

- Knight gives 3 Party-wide constant auras that are extremely powerful. You enable them and that is it, nothing else to do - which makes them so valuable for zero effort. They are also very tanky but they have the lowest damage. Because of the auras, you always want 1 KOTBS every party. Kotbs also have a 2H Spec but it isn't doing more damage - it is for debuffing the enemy to have less Health and increased chance to critically hit them!

- Swordmasters are the DPS Tanks if you decide to go with their 2H Spec, which is strong because they do Spirit Damage, not Physical. Their Warband spec is though to use Shields, where they provide powerful Healing - Barriers and a buff called Whispering Winds that reduces cooldown times by 5 seconds. They are also very valued since lots of classes benefit from Winds - but it can get tiring to be considered a Winds Bot. Additionally, they have other useful tools like AoE Interrupt or Damage reduction on enemies to help your healers. I would say their weaknesss is not having a good single-target knockback which is a vital tool for Tanks in RoR.

- Ironbreakers are considered the best small-scale tank due to their special mechanic Oathfriend, where you can give buffs to yourself and your selected Oathbuddy of various effects that are very potent. Oathbreakers are probably the tankiest Order Tanks - and are a great match for the current Slayer Meta as they can make the already powerful Slayers, even more powerful. Ironbreakers also have an undefendable AoE Stagger that can be very useful in Warband fights!

Keep in mind, every single Tank has access to Guard, Challenge,Knockdown or Knockback as a mechanic and tanks are considered the hardest and most important role in the game by many. They control the flow of fights in most cases and no matter which tank you choose you will be valuable to any team in the game - but like mentioned in the case of Swordmaster, missing a GOOD single target Knockback can be very frustrating in small-scale where you have to knock back enemy tanks from guarding their squishies, but they are working on fixing it.

That's a quick summary from my part - I'll let others go into more details if you are interested in more ^^



I also recommend reading this extremely good guide from Uchoo that is going to give you far more information that anyone can give you here : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KyC ... s4yzh21q7e

[Scottx125]

Spoiler:

Welcome back, since you mentioned you played Order I'll list a tldr for Order Tanks only :

- Knight gives 3 Party-wide constant auras that are extremely powerful. You enable them and that is it, nothing else to do - which makes them so valuable for zero effort. They are also very tanky but they have the lowest damage. Because of the auras, you always want 1 KOTBS every party. Kotbs also have a 2H Spec but it isn't doing more damage - it is for debuffing the enemy to have less Health and increased chance to critically hit them!

- Swordmasters are the DPS Tanks if you decide to go with their 2H Spec, which is strong because they do Spirit Damage, not Physical. Their Warband spec is though to use Shields, where they provide powerful Healing - Barriers and a buff called Whispering Winds that reduces cooldown times by 5 seconds. They are also very valued since lots of classes benefit from Winds - but it can get tiring to be considered a Winds Bot. Additionally, they have other useful tools like AoE Interrupt or Damage reduction on enemies to help your healers. I would say their weaknesss is not having a good single-target knockback which is a vital tool for Tanks in RoR.

- Ironbreakers are considered the best small-scale tank due to their special mechanic Oathfriend, where you can give buffs to yourself and your selected Oathbuddy of various effects that are very potent. Oathbreakers are probably the tankiest Order Tanks - and are a great match for the current Slayer Meta as they can make the already powerful Slayers, even more powerful. Ironbreakers also have an undefendable AoE Stagger that can be very useful in Warband fights!

That's a quick summary from my part - I'll let others go into more details if you are interested in more ^^

I also recommend reading this extremely good guide from Uchoo that is going to give you far more information that anyone can give you here : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KyC ... s4yzh21q7e

Pretty much spot on. I wouldn't worry about which is needed more as tanks are needed in general. Too many damned RDPS on Order...

However in regard to the OP's question on weaknesses. KOTBS is squishy for a tank, SM plays in stances so it's somewhat complex to play (made easier with addons) and has no punt (soon to be changed), IB is very complex to play as you have tons of buffs etc to apply (and to play an IB well by swapping oath friend mid fight to give out all the buff that are needed is extremely difficult).

Only positive of the tanks I can think to mention is KOTBS's are easy to play well while doing your job as a tank (controlling the fight, guard swapping, interrupting etc) and is a great starting point for any tank.

[Xorp]

Thank you for the information !
Are 2h tanks viable in warbands ? What is the best class for this and i’m not talking dps wise but for tanking / group utility ?

[Caleb]

Thank you for the information !
Are 2h tanks viable in warbands ? What is the best class for this and i’m not talking dps wise but for tanking / group utility ?

Viable is subjective to how serious / meta a warband wants to be.

If you speak strictly pros / cons. 2H Tanks don't bring any pros to a Warband, with the exception of 1 KOTBS or Black Guard per Warband as they bring Debuffs for the enemy Warband such as reducing Wounds / Increasing Crit Chance against them / AoE Slow.

The bonus offense a 2H Tank brings to a Warband is miniscule compared to the lost DPS of your guarded ally if you die early. One could make an exception for more frequent Knockbacks/Punts but most fights are full of Immunities and you can't make use of it.

In every other scenario, you want a shield so that you die slower, and you can guard your DPS for longer time. You can also Hold the Line only with a shield which increases anyones defences against Ranged behind you. The longer a Tank lives, the more damage you can reduce from the enemy team through Guard / Challenge / Morale 3 Bellows.

Despite that you will still see a large majority of tanks use 2H simply because they find that more fun, but that is also a large reason why most pug warbands fold against any more organized groups.

[tazdingo]

the main reason to go 2H in wb vs wb is for 2H restricted abilities like knight's arcing swing and BGs crimson death. a shield makes little difference to your survivability in most cases it just enables htl and snb restricted stuff like morale pumps

typically the more organized a wb is the better it can incorporate some 2h tanks for those powerful aoe debuffs whereas in pubs it's usually better to just spam htl

[Uchoo]

Tanks are all more or less rated in value by the utility they provide.

check the guide in my Signature for more details, every Order Tank is covered as of now.

Warbands consist of 4 groups of 6, typically 2 tanks, 2 healers and 2 DPS.

Order:

Knight - Brings strong buffs such as 15% increased healing, passive AP recovery and a permanent resist buff to their group; easy to use and non-conditional CC. Considered a staple in every group and is very easy to play as far as tanks are concerned.

SM - Powerful buffer/debuffer. Provides bubbles; small healing; steals every stat but Wounds; large AoE spirit debuff; can debuff every resistance; can reduce their groups cooldowns; can AoE interrupt and Reduce Damage dealt in an AoE. Typically the next-best tank to have alongside a Knight.

IB - Can AoE slow, provide some AP, and provides a few useful single-target buffs and debuffs such as 25% Parry, 10% Crit, 50% outgoing healing, Armor debuff. Typically paired with a melee DPS.

Destro:

Chosen - Mirror to the Knight, has a lot of the same passive power with Auras but cannot provide the powerful 15% healing to the group. Has a morale pump with a Shield which is very powerful; easy to use and non-conditional CC; AoE Wounds debuff; Considered a staple and is easy to play.

Black Orc - Mirror to SM and provides similar function such as bubbles; stat steal; potentially AoE Corporeal debuff; not as strong as SM in the base kit but with a shield has a morale pump, which is very strong.

Blackguard - Mirror to IB, provides some powerful single target buffs/debuffs such as guaranteed parry and disrupt against a few attacks, outgoing heal debuff, reduced chance to be crit, armor debuff; AoE slow; Can much more easily be played as 2H in large-scale compared to other tanks and in doing so brings some powerful utility such as a large Wounds debuff and AoE Crit chance.