Return of Reckoning

Layn, I agree with Gerv. If you want to survive more plus dps go with an IB. If you want to benefit your team the most plus do dps as a tank go with kotbs. Though in group play, I personally believe, the tank should tank, healers heal, and dps do what they do best (roll their face across the keyboard and brag about their kills )

Emissary wrote:Layn, I agree with Gerv. If you want to survive more plus dps go with an IB. If you want to benefit your team the most plus do dps as a tank go with kotbs. Though in group play, I personally believe, the tank should tank, healers heal, and dps do what they do best (roll their face across the keyboard and brag about their kills )

thanks

follow up question:

is my melee group of friends and me going to have a harder time on order since the faction is so heavy onranged and destruction full of tanks and melees ? Wed always be outnumbered in melee ?

You will be fine, just focus on cc and guard switch and bring a healer. Destro DPS is too busy smacking tanks to be much of a threat anyway.

Layn wrote:Heya,

I'm quite new to WAR and am looking to start a tank alt on order.
Id like to play something which can bring enough dps to be a threat while fulfilling the tank role for a team.

You can stop right there. The fact you just mentioned or even THOUGHT of "DPS" means Knight should NOT be on your radar.

Layn wrote: I am uncertain which way to turn to be honest. I would prefer to run 2 hand and punish people who dive onto my team with damage on top of the normal tank kit abilities.

This tells me you should run SM or IB.

Layn wrote: How do the 3 Tanks differ in application and approach ?
I generally understand the basics that SM has combos, IB build up time with grudges and KOTB apparently lower damage as a trade off for buffs, but how does this play out in practice exactly ?

SM has "stances" you constantly swap between. If you are (like me) an NA player with 100+ ping, this is going to feel frustrating. You will be spamming a "stance 1" ability to move to stance 2 and on your screen it will APPEAR as if you hit him (showing the animation) but it actually wont.

If your ping is good, it can be very rewarding. SM can be a great 2H tank due to Wall of Darting Steel - provides you with an "oh ****" button for a 2H and I think it has the highest DPS of the tanks, however it doesnt provide as much party utility unless you go WW which you are better doing this with SnB instead of 2H. I have an SM and it is fun to play.


IB on the other hand I have less experience with. It has some GREAT 2H stuff as well. The grudge system basically means you dont have "stances" to manage but you have another resource to manage (grudge) that builds up via abilities/tactics and mainly the person who you cast your ability on - if they take damage. Being an NA player, I wish I had started as an IB instead of a Knight who then tried SM. IB would be my personal choice right now. They are tanky, deal good damage, have good group benefits.


I dont think you will go wrong with IB or SM.

I would base it off "looks" as well as "play style" as both IB and SM are good 2H tanks.

Do you want to manage "stances" in which only some abilities can be used in some stances.

Or do you want another resources to manage (grudge).

Also, do you want to LOOK like an elf? Or do you want to be a Dwarf? That will have just as much "value" later in the game when your are bored and doing PQs for transmutes for gear.

Thats what I would base my decision on. I would NOT play a Knight, thats 100% sure. My days as a Knight was a 100% waste of my time (IMO).

I want to add to my post above, something I wish someone had told me (other than play an IB instead of a Knight).

Both the IB and the SM your #1 priority will be GUARD and then secondary stuff like CC/DPS.

If your PRIMARY "goal" is to deal damage and your secondary thought it "well I still wanna be kinda tanky too" then your are WAYY WAYY WAYYYYYYY better off rolling a White Lion.

If you do not make Guard your #1 priority as a tank, you are failing as a tank. Warhammer is not like other games where you just slap a 2H and some offensive gear on a tank and you basically have a "tanky DPS". Guard is too powerful and too much of a "deciding factor" in fights. You get a shitty comp that has 1 tank who is good at swapping guard, versus the "best" comp with some good players who are not using guard (Just an illustration, obviously if you dont use guard your bad) the shitty group will win.

Guard has a 30 foot range - which is VERY deceptive in WAR. Its much smaller than you think and you basically have to be "shadowing" whoever you are guarding. You cannot just guard a MDPS and "kinda" follow him around, you gotta be up on his ass 24/7 for it to work.

So as a 2H IB/SM your job is "guard first, dps second" so your entire job will be finding a MDPS to guard, stay on him, and create a /assist macro where you can target whoever they are targeting to kill them.

If this doesnt sound like what you want, and I repeat you want "to DPS but still be tanky" then go with a White Lion. If you are worried about it not being tanky... you CAN make them tanky.


So I would look at it this way.

Play a 2h tank IF:
- You are OK never being "top DPS"
- You are OK never focusing on DPS.
- You are OK being a "guard bitch" who assists everyone else to help them get kills.
- You are OK being a selfless player, rarely getting any recognition (especially as a 2H Tank).

If you are OK with those, then pick SM or IB based on appearance and play style.

If you are NOT OK with those, and you want to deal damage and focus on damage and just play the game without worrying about guarding and staying on someones ass all game.... Play a WL. You will thank me later.

great input gatekeeper, thank you man

All 3 tanks are good. The way that I see them is:

KOTBS: Utility support
Ironbreaker: Heal Debuffer / annoyance
Swordmaster: Brawler