A Tank to leave all other Tanks completly... dead in their Tracks!

Hi, what do you think of this Ultimate TANK BUILD

Firstly, go warrior/ele (yes, ele)

2ndly, equipment, you'll want an uber shield, so that means use either sword or axe (we're about tanking, not damage)

couple the shiled (hopefull with a -3 damage recieve on it) with uber armor, you only need 1 piece of the knights to get th e -2 damage (i sujjext the gloves, as you are % chance to be hit there is very low) and the rest of armor is plate mail or whatever the total highest is atm. Then slap a Superior absorption rune on there. So you'll recieve a total of -5 (yes it stacks) soak and with a shield, you'll have more armor.

DID YOU KNOW: damage taken in the back does not count your shields armor


OK, then you'll want the spell: ARMOR OF EARTH.

You can add a total of +40 or more armor to yourself.

Then use alot of armor pumping warrior skills, and you'll be nigh on impossible to kill, with armor over 150 at times, and a great soak.

Oh, try to slap on a superior vigor rune.

The ultimate?"
Yes.

Armor of earth makes an ele into a uber tank, imagine a tank with that fantastic gear, running hot with a high earth skill and armor of earth.

TANKNESS!

I think a primary Elementalist with Armor of Earth and some ward spells is a better tank...

Someone mentioned that in another thread.

My W/M uses Mark of protection and Watch yourself for a 160AL defence and a large health regen.
Yes it's nice.
Yes you can soak a lot of damage.
Your still toast if your over confident.
Your still toast if your enemy tries to kill you another way, other than hitting you with sticks!
Nothing is Uber in this game, except a good player!

I think Earth defenses on a Warrior are pretty obvious, and removing enchantments is also pretty obvious.

Illusionary Weaponry comes to mind, and that's without thinking too hard about it.

Yep...if everything else fails, a mesmer will own it.

you'll be like tessai from ninja scroll.
mesmers are soft targets :P

How about w/mo +Protection prayers, mark f protection, shielding hands and vital blessing make a good combo

oh another thing, i do believe you ment to post this in The Campfire

To cut it short, I'll just leave it at this:
Not all damage takes AL into account.

Whether it's the Elementalist's Obsidian Flame/Crystal Wave, a Mesmer's Chaos damage spells, a Necromancer's Life Steals or Shadow damage spells, a Monk's Holy damage spells, or Degeneration, the result is the same: Buff your armor all you like, it won't help one bit.

Another possibility for an excellent tank is stringing together the 75% block stances. There is a much more limited skill base that removes stances, so the chances of an enemy having a skill that removes them is slim compared to the chances of an enemy having a skill that removes enchantments.

You can string together Disciplined Stance, Gladiator's Defense, Shield Stance, and Bonetti's Defense to keep up an almost constant 75% block. It's not completely impervious obviously, nothing in this game is. And I don't know if these block attack spells? Perhaps someone could enlighten me with the answer to that.

Of course building an uber-tank Warrior for PvP is a flawed concept in of itself. Unless you're facing a totally inept opponent, the Warrior is going to be the last target after all the monks and casters, so, if all your Allies are dead, all the blocking in the world won't save you.

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Heh, the only thing this will be good for is in PVE. Other teams in PVP will ignore you till last once they realize you can't do crap for dmg. You will be labeled as minimal threat and they will beat down your monk and softer targets and save your slaying for last. There is no way to force another team to fight you first, so to be a meatshield in GW, you would have to be an elementalist with earth skills maxed. Then you would be a target and they would swarm you.

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Have they fixed the buggy knight's armor? Last I heard the pieces do not stack, and nor did absorption runes stack with it. Did they fix this in the last update?

Judge's Insight does not give attacks holy armor-ignoring damage, right? It just ignores the "+ to physical resistance" armor bonus and gives a 20% armor penetration? That could cut through your armor easier. Although, as stated already, warriors, especially ones with earth buffs, get targetted last thus making you pretty much a paperweight in PvP with that reduced speed.

Now an ele with Ward vs. Melee, Obsidian Flesh, Armor of Earth, and maybe Kinetic Armor, mmmm...now that is untouchable. (although it still somewhat suffers from being a paperweight)

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...whatever floats your boat.

If thats the case and it hasn't been then what Anet intended to do was make the knight's armor not function at all. Since I'm pretty sure at one point it did not stack with superior absorption runes. This made it absolutely and totally unnecessary. Why would you want this -2 when you can have -3 and more energy by using the gladiator's armor and a superior rune?

Do not use Armor of Earth. Use armor of mist. That way, you won't be a paperweight, in fact you'll be running at +33% and have a similar armor bonus. Also use kinetic armor which refreshes everytime you cast a spell.

When u think about it though, +40AC is not much to someone wearing dragons/plate armor. It helps, but it's not the end-all-be-all. Use ward vs meele, magnetic aura, and blurred vision to block and evade most blows. Ward and Blurred are AoEs, so your fellow tanks will thank u.

It is not about getting hit for less, it's about not getting hit at all.

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I guess you could probably do pretty well with say

Defensive Stance
Watch Yourself
Ward Against Melee
Armor of Earth

Tsunamii Starshine

Absorption Runes and Knight's armor do not stack, to the best of my knowledge.

I'm definitely a proponent of the Warrior Tank in PVE, but not for PVP. The two things a PVP warrior needs are Damage and Mobility (the third probably being a snare, because mobility often isn't enough). Armor of Earth is a terrific spell, but not for a PVP warrior.

All too often I see people claiming "skill x is the bestest!", but sweeping generalizations like those don't tell the reader anything informative.
Some skills are utter trash, rarely usable in any situation. Ether Lord is an example of a truly worthless skill.
Most skills have some uses, some are very effective in just about any situation, and others are better in very narrow circumstances.

Here's a quick comparison of two popular monk spells:
Healing Hands vs Word of Healing

Both are elite, and both have rabid supporters. At one time Healing Hands was not an elite, and you could pretty much guarantee that anyone invested in healing prayers had healing hands on their skillbar. It became so prevalent that the developers made it an elite skill to try and restrict it's usefulness.

Word of Healing, per point of energy spent, is one of the best heals available in the game. On top of that, it's spammable and it gives you an extra boost when you need it most- the closer your ally is to death, the more it heals.

Situational Comparison:
Solo Monk, traveling in Ascalon.
Assume for the moment his only choice is bringing Healing Hands or Word of Healing. This should be a no brainer. Word of Healing, while powerful, can only heal other allies, it cannot be cast on yourself. Healing Hands, on the other hand, is a great way for 1 person to not just negate the damage being done to them from multiple enemies, but often times they'll be fully healed in the process. This situation is meant to highlight the use of HH, since WOH is useless here.

Situation #2:
GvG battle. Your guild of 8 is matched against another guild of 8. You know there will be large damage spikes being thrown at your teammates, often directed at you.
Which skill is more effective? It's not as cut and dry as before, but as a primary monk you are responsible for everyone's health. Word of Healing will be available far more often than Healing Hands during the course of the fight, allowing you to save multiple people with greater frequency than healing hands.
In addition, when you are fighting a GvG battle, the other team (not AI mobs) will often (usually, I hope) recognize when a character has a powerful enchantment like Healing Hands up. A well prepared guild will either remove the enchantment immediately, or switch targets, and the effect from healing hands is wasted. True, you could probably use it to save yourself sometimes, but it's a relatively simple spell for a human player to counter.

Other counters to healing hands include: Hitting for large spikes of damage and outdoing the benefit healing hands gives, or hitting with non-physical damage. (Healing Hands, while similar to Mark of Protection in it's function, works very differently. With mark of protection, any time to take damage it's reduced to 0, AND you gain X health. With Healing Hands, you still take the damage, but you gain X health every time you are hit with a physical attack. That means if someone hits you for 2 damage and your HH gives +18 health, you will net 16 health each time. With Mark of Protection, you take 0 damage from every attack AND spells, and you are always healed the same amount.)

The point? Word of Healing is generally the more powerful elite.
However, in a limited set of circumstances, Healing Hand will be more useful. (Namely when you can count on a lot people hitting the target with frequent, weak hits. Slower, harder hitting monsters like ettins, giants, etc...will circumvent a lot of the benefit from healing hands).

So let's stop with the "this is the BEST" strat/skill/profession generalizations.

If you are posting builds and you like a particular skill, please include an example of where the skill really shines, and where it fails.

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well, this is stupid, why tank with a warrior? you're not going to be focussed unless you run out too far...

Since the patch, Ensign has confirmed runes of absorption DO stack with knights/platemail.

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earth magic makes a better tank. Wards, and armor of earth, as well as supporting heals will keep monks alive. A war should be specced only to do damage, self heals and defensive moves are wastes. By the time you need them, the rest of your party is dead, and you're only delaying the inevitable.

protective spirit+healing hands+healing seed so they only take 10%of thier max hp per hit max and every time they get hit they heal for like 48 leave life bond of them and they will over heal every hit DoT can hurt it so can someone removing the enchantments but if noone removes em they cant be hurt

well erm...in that case...

arcane echo/mist form
arcane echo/obsidian flesh

constant 100% protection against melee/spells respectively >.>

The best tank in the game, save Monk, is a Ranger.

Greater Conflaguration + Winter + Mantra of Frost maxed + Fur armor = 50% damage absorption, with the other 50% reduced by +45 added elemental armor. Throw in a few evasive stances like Whirling Defense, add a +9 Troll Inguent and you are virtually unkillable.

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