Antu
Dragon of Your Desire
I've noticed there are no tank builds on here yet, and I've also noticed that I've often been the only tank around when people were looking. While I do enjoy the job security, I thought it might be helpful to post my current tanking build and theory for commentary. I do not claim it's perfect, but it's mine. It's worked so far.
This is a primarily Chaos build, which fits my personality just fine. For those who haven't played Chaos yet, it's mechanic is wonderfully simple and chaotic. Each time you hit, you have a chance to build between 2 and 4 Paradoxes. Usually it's based on doing damage divisible by 8, but there are a whole slew of other things that go into it. What is wonderful about Chaos so far is you don't really have to manage the mechanic so much as be the mechanic. This makes it useful for tanking where you don't have to think too much about the mechanic like on a lot of weapons. When you build 8 paradoxes, one of three effects will take place:
The Build
Turmoil - Basic PBAoE hate builder (0 Chaos Energy; Instant). I chose this one because snagging aggro with reticular targeting can be exciting sometimes, especially when the DPS hits the boss first. It's also useful to have on fights where you want to be able to check your back to make sure something horrible isn't coming.
Distortion - Single-target hate builder (3 Chaos Energy; Instant). You'll likely want to be spamming this for a bit early on to make sure you get the boss's attention. It also does more damage than Turmoil when you need to burn something down quickly (e.g., Polaris bomb adds).
Kill Blind - Interrupt/stun, weaken (2 Pistol Energy; 20 sec CD). You can swap this out with a pistol DPS ability (see below) in dungeons that don't require interrupts. This ability interrupts and stuns the mob (assuming the ability can be interrupted) as well as applying both Exposed and Debilitated, helping the DPS some.
Twist Fate - Defense Buff (2 Chaos Energy; 20 sec CD). This buff grants 20,300 protection for 7 seconds. With such comically high numbers, I don't know exactly the impact of that much protection, but I'm a fan of having "OH CRAP!" abilities in the tank build. Sometimes the healer gets distracted.
Immutable - Elite OH CRAP Ability (4 Chaos Energy; 20 sec CD). Pretty much everyone knows this buff. The other Chaos elites are stuns, but this one can save your bacon. For 5 seconds you generate more hate and cannot be killed by normal means. At the end of that 5 seconds, you get a heal for 40% of your maximum health.
Evulsion - Purge and snap taunt (2 Chaos Energy; 20 sec CD). I have mixed emotions about this one, because it's a bastardized version of the TSW ability Chaotic Pull. If the mob can be pulled by it, it's an interrupt. If not, it should at least purge 1 buff from the mob and force them to target you for 5 seconds. This is most useful when you lose aggro to that uppity DPSer.
Rotation
Since you're really only using one weapon for attack most of the time, I recommend starting with Distortion until you're below 10 energy and then alternating Distortion and Turmoil. If the fight is one where you are basically standing around waiting for the mob to spawn, just spamming Turmoil until it has appeared ought to be fine. The key is to get the boss in hand before you start to dance around to pick up the adds, which is often your job as well. If things start to get out of hand with your health, Twist Fate and/or Immutable are your friend. If the boss begins to cast an interruptible (no black border) ability, use Kill Blind. If the boss starts to go after someone else or if it needs purging, Evulsion.
Other Abilities
The build above was really built with Polaris in mind. If you're doing something like Darkness War, you may want to toss in Mass Evulsion as a passive instead of Aegis of Parallelism for when you need to yank some adds off someone squishy.
In the Ankh, you generally do not need interrupts, so replacing Kill Blind with Dual Shot or Unload will give the group a little extra firepower. In my case, using Unload added about 300 dps.
A Brief Word on Gearing
The current meta, as I understand it, is for tanks to go full hp with 3 Stalwart Glyphs, 3 Elusive Glyphs, and 3 Accurate Glyphs. If that much HP saddens you, remember that we're only in Elite 1 right now. My understanding is that bosses in later difficulties hit like angry Decepticons driven by drugged up war criminals. If you want a good example, ask anyone who has (tried to) tank(ed) lair bosses so far.
Two of the Accurate Glyphs will go on your weapons, which...really hurts if you're also using these weapons for DPS, which you will until you're rich. The suggested weapon suffix for tank weapons is of Restoration, but in Elite 1 I haven't had any issue with what I'm using.
See Rusty's Discussion for a bit more on elite dungeons, but I will borrow his rule of thumb to get your tank gear into the 100 Item Power area before queueing. In particular, you're hoping to have around 7k hp minimum, which you can supplement with pots.
Impairable Abilities
So far, these are the abilities I've found impairable abilities on:
Polaris
Conclusion
So that's it, cat. Exposition on a plate. I welcome any feedback others with more interest in theorycrafting might have. Except telling me to switch to Hammer/Shotgun. That's so...inelegant.
This is a primarily Chaos build, which fits my personality just fine. For those who haven't played Chaos yet, it's mechanic is wonderfully simple and chaotic. Each time you hit, you have a chance to build between 2 and 4 Paradoxes. Usually it's based on doing damage divisible by 8, but there are a whole slew of other things that go into it. What is wonderful about Chaos so far is you don't really have to manage the mechanic so much as be the mechanic. This makes it useful for tanking where you don't have to think too much about the mechanic like on a lot of weapons. When you build 8 paradoxes, one of three effects will take place:
- Enigmas - Enigmas are buffs that will appear on your target that you can purge to give the group a beneficial heal. If you have the Resonance Cascade passive (which, if you're running any Chaos build, you should have), you don't have to purge.
- Doppelgangers - MOAR ME! Clones of yourself appear to attack your enemies. These will confuse you early on in tanking when you suddenly see 'group members' running out into Arcane Halo for instance. Over time you get used to them.
- Singularities - Singularities are randomly placed circles that slowly fill and then explode, damaging and interrupting/stunning any mob standing in them. If you can move bosses into these, the effect works on many of them if I recall correctly.
The Build
Turmoil - Basic PBAoE hate builder (0 Chaos Energy; Instant). I chose this one because snagging aggro with reticular targeting can be exciting sometimes, especially when the DPS hits the boss first. It's also useful to have on fights where you want to be able to check your back to make sure something horrible isn't coming.
Distortion - Single-target hate builder (3 Chaos Energy; Instant). You'll likely want to be spamming this for a bit early on to make sure you get the boss's attention. It also does more damage than Turmoil when you need to burn something down quickly (e.g., Polaris bomb adds).
Veil of Deformity - This passive causes your Distortion to grant 2 stacks of a 950 Protection Buff. Each time you use Distortion, the buff stacks. Each time you are hit, your enemy takes a minor amount of damage and a stack is removed. You'll basically have at least one stack of this up at all times during a boss fight.
Kill Blind - Interrupt/stun, weaken (2 Pistol Energy; 20 sec CD). You can swap this out with a pistol DPS ability (see below) in dungeons that don't require interrupts. This ability interrupts and stuns the mob (assuming the ability can be interrupted) as well as applying both Exposed and Debilitated, helping the DPS some.
Twist Fate - Defense Buff (2 Chaos Energy; 20 sec CD). This buff grants 20,300 protection for 7 seconds. With such comically high numbers, I don't know exactly the impact of that much protection, but I'm a fan of having "OH CRAP!" abilities in the tank build. Sometimes the healer gets distracted.
Backlash - This passive gives Twist Fate a 50% reflect barrier that lasts either 6 seconds or until it has absorbed damage equal to 55% of your HP.
Immutable - Elite OH CRAP Ability (4 Chaos Energy; 20 sec CD). Pretty much everyone knows this buff. The other Chaos elites are stuns, but this one can save your bacon. For 5 seconds you generate more hate and cannot be killed by normal means. At the end of that 5 seconds, you get a heal for 40% of your maximum health.
Evulsion - Purge and snap taunt (2 Chaos Energy; 20 sec CD). I have mixed emotions about this one, because it's a bastardized version of the TSW ability Chaotic Pull. If the mob can be pulled by it, it's an interrupt. If not, it should at least purge 1 buff from the mob and force them to target you for 5 seconds. This is most useful when you lose aggro to that uppity DPSer.
Resonance Cascade - Pretty much the most important Chaos passive. Resonance Cascade removes the need to purge/kill the enemy to reap the benefits of the Enigma group buff. It also grants you an 18.5% chance to generate paradoxes while in combat. This passive has made Chaos a moderately popular secondary weapon.
Aegis of Parallelism - I confess I've wavered a great deal over my fifth passive because a lot of them seem like they might require trial and error to determine what's the most effective. Aegis of Parallelism grants you a 50% chance each time your paradoxes reset to gain 1350 protection for 4 seconds. I chose this one over Paradoxical Restoration because most of the healers I've seen have had things pretty under control. I would love feedback on other passives if anyone has tried any.
Aegis of Parallelism - I confess I've wavered a great deal over my fifth passive because a lot of them seem like they might require trial and error to determine what's the most effective. Aegis of Parallelism grants you a 50% chance each time your paradoxes reset to gain 1350 protection for 4 seconds. I chose this one over Paradoxical Restoration because most of the healers I've seen have had things pretty under control. I would love feedback on other passives if anyone has tried any.
Rotation
Since you're really only using one weapon for attack most of the time, I recommend starting with Distortion until you're below 10 energy and then alternating Distortion and Turmoil. If the fight is one where you are basically standing around waiting for the mob to spawn, just spamming Turmoil until it has appeared ought to be fine. The key is to get the boss in hand before you start to dance around to pick up the adds, which is often your job as well. If things start to get out of hand with your health, Twist Fate and/or Immutable are your friend. If the boss begins to cast an interruptible (no black border) ability, use Kill Blind. If the boss starts to go after someone else or if it needs purging, Evulsion.
Other Abilities
The build above was really built with Polaris in mind. If you're doing something like Darkness War, you may want to toss in Mass Evulsion as a passive instead of Aegis of Parallelism for when you need to yank some adds off someone squishy.
In the Ankh, you generally do not need interrupts, so replacing Kill Blind with Dual Shot or Unload will give the group a little extra firepower. In my case, using Unload added about 300 dps.
A Brief Word on Gearing
The current meta, as I understand it, is for tanks to go full hp with 3 Stalwart Glyphs, 3 Elusive Glyphs, and 3 Accurate Glyphs. If that much HP saddens you, remember that we're only in Elite 1 right now. My understanding is that bosses in later difficulties hit like angry Decepticons driven by drugged up war criminals. If you want a good example, ask anyone who has (tried to) tank(ed) lair bosses so far.
Two of the Accurate Glyphs will go on your weapons, which...really hurts if you're also using these weapons for DPS, which you will until you're rich. The suggested weapon suffix for tank weapons is of Restoration, but in Elite 1 I haven't had any issue with what I'm using.
See Rusty's Discussion for a bit more on elite dungeons, but I will borrow his rule of thumb to get your tank gear into the 100 Item Power area before queueing. In particular, you're hoping to have around 7k hp minimum, which you can supplement with pots.
Impairable Abilities
So far, these are the abilities I've found impairable abilities on:
Polaris
- Hagbui Jarl - Charged Hack. Actually every draug in Polaris uses Charged Hack, which can do some significant damage to you, and I think may also be an aggro wipe.
- The Varangian - Charged Hack. See what I mean?
- Hagbui Mother - Explosive Decompression. Ideally the bomb adds won't get to explode on you, but if the DPS doesn't burn them down fast enough, you have a chance to interrupt them!
- The Primordial Dweller - Synapse Spasm. This is a MUST IMPAIR. Synapse Spasm can one-shot you. This also means that during the Psychic Death Zones, you need to stop focusing on the adds at a certain point in order to make sure the boss doesn't get Synapse Spasm off while you're occupied.
- Ur-Draug - Cosmic Gaze. I don't honestly know what this does in Elites right now because it doesn't have the knocking you back effect it did in TSW. But it's impairable and the fight otherwise gets really boring as tank.
- Antimony Ministrix - Macroshock. Now that everything has protection on it and everyone's got a lot of HP through passives, this isn't as dire as protecting a 1970 hp DPS from getting one-shot. Nevertheless, it can save your healer some stress, and it makes me feel like I'm pissing the boss off, which makes me feel better.
- Hardwire Fleshtank - Searing Brand. This is another MUST IMPAIR. This ability can one-shot you. I recommend having both an ability impair and a gadget impair if you can just in case the CD makes you nervous.
- Recursia - Just kidding! Switch out Kill Blind for a DPS ability, because Recursia's boyfriends have gained speed since TSW. This is as far as I have gotten because it is such a DPS race.
- Wayeb-Xul - Exhale the Void. If you do not impair this, it will make your life soooooo much more difficult.
- Wayeb-Xul - Concuss. This can be impaired now! Save a life.
Conclusion
So that's it, cat. Exposition on a plate. I welcome any feedback others with more interest in theorycrafting might have. Except telling me to switch to Hammer/Shotgun. That's so...inelegant.
