Warning... text wall may hurt your eyes
Defender skills:
First lets start with attack skills. Only some words, they all suck, only Onslaught gives some decent damage, but you need 12 skill points for that, in my opinion not worth it. If you want to have them anyways theres only 2 uses you can get from them:
1- Skill spam in possesion beast.
2- Vital Stab has a damage over time (DOT) so can be usefull to duel rogues, unless they are really good they cant kill us, but we cant kill them either, they just stealth again and rest (really anoying and endless duel)
Still wont advice to get them more that 1 lvl. We need our skill points for defence, heals and aggro.
Fighting Will: Completly useless, in my opinon accuracy is still broken, you miss with or without it. Still we need it to get Quick Attack, so a lvl 1 is needed for that and like that is usefull as a Soccer Kick filler.
Physical Blessing: Yay!! More useless skills!!! HP dont regenerate in battle, so theres no use for it. Still 1 lvl is needed for defence buffs, and as Fighting Will it Works fine as a Soccer Kick filler.
Taunt: 1 point needed for Tauntng Cry, the skill that make us what we are, a tank. Still i like to max it. It really helps me in JS and i can make more aggro with it in raids. Dont make it top priority to lvl it, but i can really help, just think of itâ?¦.
Quick Attack: In my opinión the best damage buff ever, example, you use a 1 handed (1h) sword, it attacks at 1.5s, with quick attack you can get it to 1.0 (nothing will hit faster) so its like 50% more dmg, make it with bludgeons (bluds) and its even more. Still get only the lvl you need to cap Speedy attack with the weapon of your choice. Any extra point is a waist. You dont need this to be a good tank, but it helps for solo, a lot.
Survival Instinct: Yes!! Finally!! A defence skill!!! And i like pasives even more!! And the only one that gives us long range defence!! ( you Shadow Runners and Rangers!!! :lol I have it maxed
Skin Of Stone: More defence is allways wellcome (well, almost allways, ill disscuss this later) Maxed this one too. Right now im thinking in actually remove this buff
since i get 4k defence, but just keep in mind youll need a min of 2.7-3k for pve, never go below that.
Taunting Cry: Finally!! We are a tank!!! Lets show mobs a finger and make them wanna kill us!!! This skill is a must for anyone that wants to tank. But if you think with a lvl 1 is enough think again, youll lose aggro like an early ejaculator loses.... well, you know what... (in case of forums sensitivity i removes ome words... ) I would advice any tank to max it. It affects 10 mobs.
Shield Strike: Great skill for pvp, 3 secs stunt its nice. Can help in pve too. I wouldnâ??t advive to max it, but its your call, its your char after all. At lvl 5 you get max time stunt (3 secs) and 70% chances of stunting, good enough I think.
Now Finally, you are a Protector, best tank in game. Lets see some skills:
Low Blow: Great dmg skilll, the only one that really hurts actually. And it has aggro too, nice. But what ive seen that if mobs are close enough for you to hit them with it you allready have aggro. So, even if it gives more aggro than taunt I use more taunt than low blow. Right now I only have it at lvl 1 ( I still have 12 skill points free, so that may chance in some time) I mostly use it when im questing alone, wich at high lvls is the less of the time. (whats not to love of endless grind?? Yes, sarcasm intented)
Restraint Recission: A pvp skill. Guess what, we are not pvp. Still lvl 1 is good enough for it, more lvls only reduce cooldown. It works in some places in pve, in some others not.
Now the Heals: Get them, love them, thatâ??s what make us survive more. I maxed all of them. All of them are heal over time (HOT), and you can have all of them at the same time, still the cooldowns are huge now, so I wont advice to do that. (Unless your rad is stunted of course...)
Restoration: Great heal, only can cast on self.
Sacred Hand: Another heal, â??bigâ? first heal, then lower tics. Itâ??s a single target heal.
Lesser Party Heal: I love this one!!! Itâ??s a whole party sacred hand!!!
Heals are over, lets move to:
Spiritual Intensfication: Its a party defence buff that gives huge defence. It makes you less squishy and all your party too. Great buff, i maxed this too as all defence buffs.
Block Skills
Shield Mastery: when you block, you block more dmg with this. Its a pasive. But i find that when i block i get 0 dmg, with or without any skill. Still 1 point needed. This help in raids, now that AA has been doubled i dont block AA for 0 dmg anymore there, so i maxed it for raids.
Aegis Of Protection: same as shield mastery but you can cast it in 1 targuet. Again 1 point needed. (Same not for raids as before)
Shield Fortress: Awesome skill!!!! I love it!!! It raises the chance for block, youll block more times with it and that means more 0 dmg!!!! Get it, love it.
Now lets talk about DNA. Lets face it, our DNA sucks, well most of if it.
Fighting Will DNA: A useless skill has 2 useless DNAs, no more to say.
Physical Blessing DNA: Same here, useless skill, useless DNA.
Skin of Stone and Survival Instinct DNA: More defence!!! Yay?? What i found out is that defence is great, but till you get 3000 or something like that. Then you wont notice any diference. Youll get almost the same dmg with more defence. I spend 6 points in each and nothing more, just cos I feel I must as a tank. But really, that defence dont make any differece for us.
Vital Stab DNA: It make the dot of vital stab last longuer, a lot longuer. Great to fight rogues, nothing more.
Long Range Taunt DNA: 10 meters more range to taunt at max?? Yay!!! I love this one. Mix it with lvl 5 or more taunt and you got your self a 25m taunt!! Great for when you pull more than 10 mobs (yes, some times we have too) I would advice to get it. And no, doesnt affect taunting cry, only taunt.With new DNA changes i took some points out of this, i think i put 2 in it to get 19m range. It helps to get fast that anoying dogs in JS that are chasing our dearest healers I think now max would be 15m but i think 10 points here is a waist.
Shield Strike DNA: Gives you 10% more chances of stunt, can be nice....Im actually thinking in getting this one.
Strenghtened Restoration DNA: Great DNA, it reduce mp cost and gives you more heal power at the same time too. I love this one, but 1 point is nice enough
Shield Mastery DNA: again, I get 0 dmg when i block, with or wthout this exept in raids. Now im planing to remove some DNA for defence and take ths too lvl 6. I wanna block raids for 0 dmg again!!!
Shield Fortress DNAs: 1 is great, the one that makes you block even more. With max buff and max DNA you get +20% more chances to block, its huge!!! Well, it will be when we can get to lvl 97 anywaysâ?¦. The other one makes it last longer, nothing good since its spamable as it is.
And now equipment:
Weapons: right now i personally like more 1h swords, but bludgeons or axes could be fine too. Try to get weapons with hp, we need lots of it.I have no idea what gravity made with higher lvl bluds to be honest. I mean... MP??? Really?? WTF??
Shield: the BEST shield you can get for tank it is lvl 66 S1 rondelroot egis(my oppinion) If you cant get it, RH Shield is nice, rondelroot egis in lvl 65 may work untill you got RH. The lvl 72 and 75 may be better, but being carus is a pain in the ass to reinforce them. Better stay with rare.
Armor: anything that gives more hp, and more CON on reinfocement. I would chose Seamless Polar over FOC armor now. Now skill crit is not really important for prots, hots dont crit anymore. RH Armor is nice too. Lvl 75?? Is such a disappointment, its just crap. Ive heard lvl 72 is good for protectors, i still havent look at any piece of it.(i need to se them reinforced, at least +1)
Jewels: Secret Lab ID Set!!!! Best Choice in my opinión. Reinforce it and get huge CON and all other stats. Remember int gives you resistances so that will help too. Still very hard and expensive to get. If not go M-C secret lab set and get only huge CON. In fact youll get some more HP with M-C than ID.C-C can be a good choice too for some extra MP recovery. Mix them can also be nice. If you want you can do a set of reinforced physical jewels to solo, but youll still need HP jewels for tanking. Maybe some cheap ordinary ones are enough for this.
What to enchant??
We have more than enough defence, defence xeons make no difference for us. Get huge HP now. Enchant HP xeons in jewels and CON xeons in other stuff. You can enchant physical dmg in your weapon or resitances (maybe?), your choice there. The other thing once you get lvl 65 or something like that NEVER use the xeons that drops., your Armor will last forever now, or almost. Get the best ones you can get, Ion Mine xeons the minimum, better raid xeons, but youll need lots of them. If you have the luck to get the S1 lvl 66 Seamless Polar or the legendary lvl 70 Glorious Armor dont you ever think in use even Ion Mine, youll never change your Armor again, go for the best you can get. RH CON/MND xeons are great, or any other raid CON xeon. RH breathing?? Bahhhh, they make me cum when i see them 40 HP and 20 MP is great, to bad youll need like 50 for all your jewels. S1 30 Hp xeons, 40 HP xeons, 30HP/2CON, all of them great. Just save them for your final sets of jewells
Well, if i missed something just ask and dont expect a 1 minute answer
Any comments are wellcome, better if they come from other tanks, i like the feedback, i could get some nice ideas too.
Best of luck, Dess
Edited by Dess, 09 October 2010 - 12:26 PM.