The Unkillable Warrior.

As you all know, a warrior's main job in most groups is to tank. And tanking involves not dying. Ovious. However, saying it and actually doing it is a whole different thing. Throughout my 13ish months of playing Guild Wars, my tank has had a whole lot of builds. From originally trying to be a MM tank (which, for ovious reasons, worked poorly) to being all stances, he has gone through a lot. The final build I have found for tanking, including most multi-man farming runs, is very hard to kill, and while it started as a basic stance tank, has had a bunch of modifications. So, now that I have had this boring foreword, I give you the Unkillable Warrior.

Class:
Warrior/Necro

Atributes:
Strength: 12+1+1
Tactics: 9+1
Swordsmanship: 9+1
Other Equipment/notes: Get a major vigor (superiors are really a waste of money for 9 more HP) and as good an absorbtion rune as you can get to put on the chest armor. I personally use Wyvern Armor for the extra absorbtion, but the build should work with any. Also, I usually pull with a longbow so I can get the first aggro, though that is probobly a given.

Skills:
Defy Pain {Elite}
Endure Pain
Sever Artery (another would work here, I use it simply for a minor DoT)
Plauge Touch
Dolyak Signet
Bonsetti's Defense
Healing Signet
Rez Signet

Strategy:
First off, make sure the monk knows you are using defy pain and endure pain, or you will be in a whole lot of hurt.

The point of this build is simply to not be killable. 90% of the time I am the first person to get attacked, and last one standing if we lose (other times are when the monk doesn't heal me through Defy/Endure Pain.) You use Endure pain early in the fight, and then defy pain when you have enough adrenaline. Use Dolyak Signet when you are surrounded or there are enemies without a couple steps from where you are. Sever artery should be used religously, on anyone within range, but remeber it stops Bonsetti's Defense when you use it, so make sure Bonsetti's has worn off first. Plauge Touch blindness/weakness/bleeding/whatever off of yourself to help you survive even longer. The combo of Endure/Defy Pain/Dolyak signet adds up to over 1000 HP and ~60 extra armor. With life bond on me when I was SF farming, I never got hit for more than 7 damage.

Thanks for reading, post any comments/flames/opinions. If this has been made by someone else already, I apologize, I had just never seen it before, and it worked well for me, and I thought I would share it.

So long as this isn't a pvp build, fine.

yes, dolyak in pvp would allow a gimp to crawl around you and not get hit

The only problem I see here is the fact that you called this the "Unkillable Warrior" but, by statements you made in the original post, hinted that it relied on a Monk to back you up (preferably a human since the henchie can't be told about your Defy/Endure).

This is a decent build for PvE; however the fact that you must rely on a Monk is not exactly comforting. The moment you find yourself missing a skill (due to interruption, real-life distraction, whatever), or surrounded by more enemies than you can tank without a Monk, this build becomes just as defeatable as any other. Then again, I suppose if you're going into an area like that, you'd want a Monk or two anyway, no matter what build you'd be running.

Personally I prefer Tactics over Strength, but I'll give this build a test drive a little later when I have some spare time. Looks interesting, to say the least.

Errr, for PvE? I don't see Endure and Defy as good choices... I'd personally recommend things like Watch Yourself, and maybe the Physical and Elemental resistances.

But if you want to keep Defy, you could run Defy, Watch Yourself, and Dolyak... That'll net you obscene amounts of armor. And you need something against Degen... maybe bring the aptly-named skill 'I Will Survive'?

Minion Master tank...interesting

I bet I could kill you . =O

Ummm....any mesmer can easily kill that build.
All they have to use is Diversion (For 6 seconds when you use a skill it takes X to recharge) and with Soothing images (For 8-18 seconds, target foe cannot gain adrenaline.) You can't use Defy pain,Bonneti's defence,Sever artery.You have no options to live and will die if they give you some serious degen.

The problem with this build is that it's far from unkillable but you certainly won't be killing anything with it.

you only have 1 attack skill. The amount of defence here is waay overkill imho.

A few things you must undestand:

This is not a pvp build. It is intended for pve, and would do poorly in pvp.

You don't NEED a monk. I have had some groups where the monk treated my normally, and we still did fine. It is just an advantage to have a monk who knows how to heal through those. There is a reason for healing signet, to heal yourself if the monk is busy, ect. And with Defy Pain/Dolyak signet, your armor is still higher than normal while using it. And I have used henchies with it before, and it usually works pretty well. However, they ususally have too low damage capabilities to be worth doing much with.

Edit: Also, I know it isn't truly unkillable, but I couldn't think up a better name. And played well, it will take a whole lot of time to kill.

Yes, there is only one attack skill, but this is supposed to take damage and keep enemies away from the casters, so damage really isn't important.

Plauge Signet is there to take care of most of the degens.

Thanks for all the advice, guys, I will look at your suggestions and see if they help the build. However, this is going for a balance for Armor and HP, so I don't know if I want Watch Yourself in there.

Merely for the sake of overkill, "Watch Yourself!"?

Watch Yourself and Dolyak are good enough for armour increasing and producing them 0's above your head in most battles. Defy Pain will help with the extra armour but tbh its maybe overkill and a waste of an elite slot. Certainly good though for more armour and extra health. However armour ignoring spells still pose a threat. You can't have everything I suppose.

Heh I still do not get why people must alwaya flip out if you do not specifie PvE or PvP build since there is a gladiator forum and sub forums in which you post PvP builds wouldnt you think unless specified that this is a PvE build? seriously....

The Campfire is now for PvE builds only; therefore any build posted here should be considered a PvE build.

A variation of this build has definitely been posted many times, and the true flaw in this build is the fact that Endure Pain and Defy Pain many times WILL wear off, which will leave you with zero health if your monk can't keep up the healing.

this looks like a modified verison of w/me farming build, not really meant for mission/quest based activities, just going solo

I dislike Defy Pain. Sure, it's often "spammable", but you don't really need an elite + armor when there's Dolyak and Watch Yourself, and Endure for + hp in tight spots. I'd prefer Gladiator's Defense for tanking, you've got Bonetti's as a stance to use while Glad's D is down, and the + armor skills mentioned earlier should make it so you take little damage while not in stance. Hell, since you're W/N, might even use Grenth's Balance for an elite, depending on how much you trust your monks. <3 GB.

Since the build isn't meant to kill, that much is obvious, I would consider replacing Defy Pain with Skull Crack, and Endure Pain for Watch Yourself (to replace the loss of -20 AL without Defy Pain). There won't be a situation where you'll be spiked in PvE, so the sudden burst of additional health is completely unnecessary. Also, if your group is smart enough to actually let the warrior take aggro and let all of those +AL skills go to use, odds are the monk(s) should easily be able to keep you up.

The addition of Skull Crack allows you to do more than simply "take damage and make them bleed every now and then". In areas where there are two monks for example, disabling one of them while the rest of your team tackles the other. Dolyak Signet + Watch Yourself! provides you enough defense as is to make most warrior and ranger mobs tickle at best. As such, 25 damage from Gladiator's (at your current spec) seems hardly worth it just to dish out some damage when clearly that is not your task (should you consider Gladiator's Defense).

Racthoh, you have just made my day. I have ALWAYS wanted a viable tanking build that I could actually use Skull Crack in, and you just gave me one.

Also, for my "tanking overkill" build, I use Defy Pain, Dolyak Signet, AND Watch Yourself. :P