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

this bild works great until you run into a mesmer or necro and then its gg. Also in my opinion using only 3 skils i can tank more effectively. I bring dolyak sig, watch yourself, and melendrus resiliance (for overkill bring i wil survive). This way i have a lot for 4 attack skills and a res sig.

Well, good idea, bad output.

1) Great defence bad offence, A good defence is a great offence right, then this is a All Defence no offence. Example: Tank VS. Tank right? they both take 4-10 damage w/o skills. You may take little damage BUT SO WILL THE OTHER TANK, infact, the other tank might kill you if your adding health skills runs out. becuase the other tank is doing 20-40 damage with skills while your doing 4-10.
2) A tank is soppose to block the foes, well you will move very slow, the +75 armor helps, but not when it comes to mesmers. Mesmers haves you owned with this build
3) I hate this build, not a good damage output The "Lich" need to take a lot of damage, you will be worthless in that mission and some others. Heck a monk will own you (never ending fight) cause you can't do enough damage.
4) I love that you came up with this build, more ideas the better. Just not one of the good ones, good job thinking outside the box

Well, again, it is supposed to just tank. And I don't turn on Dolyak while I am body blocking, I turn it on when I am already in the battle.

Damage doesn't matter to me, it is simply a damage absorber.

The real problem with this build isn't that it's bad for tanking, it's that it is for tanking at all. Tanking is a dumb idea and there are far better uses for a warrior in PVE, namely killing stuff. Four warriors, a necro and a few monks will flatten anything in PVE faster than your tank backed up with eles will ever do.

It's far from unkillable. Don't label your builds on claims that are impossible to hold up, like being unkillable.

It is a tank's JOB in PvE to absorb and reduce damage so the the squishies don't have to. I run a similar build to the Ice Imp IDS solo, I modified it to be quite self sufficient. As it IS guild wars, there is always at least 1 class that can be custom made to kill you.

W/Mo tank:

Swordsmanship: 8+1
Strength: 10+1
Tactics:10+1+1
Healing Prayers: 8

Defy Pain {E}
Dolyak Signet
"Watch Yourself!"
[Utility skill]
Healing Signet
Vigorous Spirit
Live Vicariously
Restore Life

This PvE build I use as of recent, as there is a low energy requirement, and the self healing methods are solid. If you are in a mesmer heavy area, Live vicariously can be removed before aggro, and healing signet can do well as a self heal. If the mesmers are likely to use leech signets or cry of frustration to interrupt healing signet, Live Vicariously or Vigorous spirit can be uesd to "bait" the interrupt before using heal sig. On the other hand, when fighting things that use rust or other anti-signet skills, then Vigorous Spirit + Live Vicariously heal for 13+10 per hit (or +13 if you can't hit your target). Assuming you're using a sword/ax + shield, the healing output is 23 or 13 healing per 1.3 seconds, which is MUCH better than mending, and fairly comparable to healing breeze, WITHOUT actually using a healing breeze; this allows any regen spells from the party to be used without competing for regen space (or crappy warrior breeze versus excellent henchy breeze).

Things to watch out for: mesmers and necros, some rangers, few warriors. Mesmers can be custom fitted to kill any class, so best advice is to keep an eye out for the more dangerous of hexes. Necros are less of a threat to you even with SS, however you become a liability towards others if you continue to swing while you have SS on you, again hexes are nasty, but nothing is perfect. Rangers tend to riddle you with conditions and may even interrupt your heals, but most tend to be harmless in PvE. Warriors, the same, they can interrupt you (lousy cheating trolls with both mighty blow and disrupting chop), once again a rare nuissance, but managable.

This build works wonders to keep party damage to a minimum, It lacks punch, but tanks quite well with less stress for the healer, and allows the casters to do their thing as the typical tank+healer+nuker party frame was designed to do.

I hope this helps with people wanting to be a true tank, and not a damage dealer.

Enchatment Strips are too annoying for me. I realised that why bother trying to counter damage when you can just absorb it instead.

My skill bar looks like this.

Flurry
Quivering Blade {E}
Standing Slash
Silverwing Slash
Galrath Slash
"Watch Yourself!"
Dolyak Signet
Healing Signet
Strength 10 (9+1) Swordsmanship 13 (12+1) Tactics 12 (9+1+1)
Having a Zealous Sword for this is important. A +45 -2 while in stance shield is recommended since 95% of the time your in a stance with (Flurry). Every few seconds I am doing 50+ dmg from each attack and when fighting alot of melee based enemies they are do 0 dmg to you. I also pack a +5 armour on my sword meaning I get a total of 71 extra armour from my shield, sword and skills and -2 dmg. A further -5 dmg from my absorption rune and ascalon helm.

151 Armour during battle.
171 Armour v's melee fighters.

With this setup I can deal damage while also tank. Obviously any armour ignoring damage gets by this. Empathy and Spiteful Spirit are my personal hates. Good skills to shutdown any warrior or indeed kill any clueless warrior. Recommendation is to just tank without attacking when hexed up like this.

Try to use healing signet when both Watch Yourself and Dolyak Signet are active. The -40 armour from this skill really does show when your being attacked. Don't use when under heavy fire it will kill you rather than heal you.

I used to use a tanking build similar to that one to serve as the 100% defensive aspect of my PUGs:
Dolyak Signet
"Watch Yourself!"
Defy Pain
"Shields Up!"
Healing Signet
IWAY
Rush

IWAY is nice because if multiple party members die I can cast it and stay and hold aggro with 10-40 seconds of +7 health regen while the monks kite and Rebirth our dead party members. Or, if the entire party wipes, I can cast IWAY and Rush, run away, and Rebirth everybody myself.

I don't like Endure Pain because you can't keep it on throughout an entire battle like Defy Pain. Endure is a skill I only use for running.

Unfortunately, a dedicated tank has become a completely irrelevent member of most PUGs because of the fact that people simply don't know how to aggro correctly. The only times I've actually tanked are as a stance tank with a gear in Sorrow's Furnace (now nerfed) and with the above build in Ruins of Tombs (before people knew what a b/p ranger was.) In Factions, I noticed that most mobs would just run right past me and go straight for the backline, which just makes my job null and void.

Being a meat shield is nice because you are incredibly hard for the average PvE mob to kill, but your contribution to the average group will be pretty much insignificant. Unless you're partying with guildies or friends, stick to a high-damage build and bring a couple of shouts if you want to help defend your teammates.

I don't know if the problem is because of the title or if most people don't realize what a tank is supposed to do.

Is his build perfect? No! I can see a few things I would change myself but this is what works for him!

Claiming the build is unkillable is probably what is getting you the most flames. Which is just poor labelling in my opinion, you stated many times in your original post that the build of course isn't indestructable.

Also, most people (I said most if anyone is about to start a flame war) do not realize that a Tank is not meant to deal damage. Yes he has low attr in swords... yes, he has pretty much no attack skills... none of this matters at all. His job is to pull a mob, bring it closer and take the hints until the REST of the party takes it down. Not him... he just needs to be a meat shield, nothing more. I think his build does that.

I agree, it is weak against something like a Mesmer and definitely not for PVP (I thought that was really obvious to be honest) but seriously tell me a build that is GOOD against a Mesmer. Take a shield that is good against Hex and hope your Monk is useful.

For a place like SF farming, I think a build like this is pretty decent. Again, its not what I would run personally but if it works for you then awesome. Thanks for sharing.

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