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Questions about tanking
WhySoShort
Member Posts: 315
in Rift
...for someone who has played the game for a while. What, exactly, is the difference between the major tanking classes? How does tanking work in this game? Can you still tank even if you are using only one tanking soul? I spent so much time in the free trial trying all of the classes that I never got past level 11, but I am really interested in the game. Basically, what is the Rift tanking experience?
Comments
I play as a tank (havnt hit lvl 50 yet iam 46 atm) and have tanked a few dungeons.. Pretty much tanks need the paladin tree then they can sub into whatever else they might like.. Paladin + Warlord + BM for buff's.. Or if you're like me and want def + good aggro dmg then paladin/reaver.. Pretty much it's all about holding aggro over the rest of the group, because a lot of classes are aggro heavy and i can't even count how many times rogues or w/e have stolen aggro for me.. Luckily paladin has a lot of instant aggro skills for that..
The bosses pretty much involve the usual tactics of tank and spanking.. Grab aggro on a boss, turn him away from the group of players, and try you're best to survive.. All and all i'am finding the paladin tree to be essential for pve and pvp.. You get an instant heal, also get a nifty skill that'll block all incoming dmg for 30secs for you and you're raid, you get lots of block, and for each block you do dmg/heal you're self..
Btw usually i play a healer but i found warriors to be one of the more faster paced characters in Rift.
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Tanking gets more complex as you level. While you are lower level and leveling up, I highly recommend you go into the Paladin tree up until the 2nd row (at least) to get the improved threat talent, and also put 8+ points into reaver to give you a huge help to AoE tanking.
When you hit 50, most things change and a lot of people have been using Voidknight/Reaver/Paladin builds. I myself have grown to love two variations of a Paladin/Reaver/Warlord build.
To answer your question about only having 1 tank tree - you should be using 3 trees for tanking in your tank role. Thats why they give you multiple (now 5) roles to switch between. Once you get a few points into each tank tree you start getting a passive HP boost for each point spent in the tree, so when you choose to invest in non-tanking souls your HP will suffer.
A lot of fights are tank and spank, but a lot of them are not. I think the learning curve for tanks is well placed in the game, as you get higher you are expected to have a higher level of movement and awareness to manage what's going on.
I find it funny that the only calling anyone has mentioned is warrior for tanking. While I believe you can't beat a very good warrior tank, you can tank effectively with a cleric and a rogue. You can run experts with cleric and rogue tanks, and you'll do fine. Clerics make use of the Justicar soul, which is a pretty nice tank with passive and activated heals through building up points by doing life damage. They have a single target taunt and an aoe taunt, as well as a buff that dramatically increases their life and threat. Rogues are somewhat effective tanks as well, although I don't have much experience with them. Mages can tank early on throughout the game, but I haven't seen a mage tank an instance in experts yet. It's no different than a game like WoW, you just have more options when it comes to class variety.
Completely agreed with this, and I feel kind of stupid for not thinking about that.
We did a Greenscale raid last night where we had Warrior and Rogue tanks, and I've done other raids that have used Cleric tanks as well.
Justicar (Cleric Tank) - Lowest magic mitigation (flat 18% not counting resists from gear) and between Warrior and Riftstalker in physical mitigation. Outputs a good amount of healing on raids while tanking (typically as a Justicar tank I do about 400-600hps on AoE heavy fights - roughly half a healer). Poorest threat generation especially with AoEs, but overtime actually builds a lot of threat on AoE heavy fights. Good anti-burst, but not on nearly the level of a Riftstalker. Could probably use a buff to magic mitigation overall (slightly, as they are already very strong tanks), but for 5 man instance running and smaller raid environments I highly recommend them due to the healing output they put in a group rendering some AoE heavy fights trivial.
Warrior Tank (in general) - Strong threat generation (with proper use of intercept), good magic mitigation, and the best physical damage reduction. Very strong pick for a tank for doing just about anything. Pulls from Warlord allow rogue casters to be moved to AoE packs and control really well. Outputs a good amount of damage while tanking compared to the Justicar or Riftstalker.
Riftstalker (Rogue Tank) - Considered the best tank for raiding. Extremely high magic mitigation (way above a warrior and especially a Justicar) makes them ideal for most endgame boss encounters. They have good steady threat generation and great mobility. Their short term anti-burst mitigation moves are far superior to a Warrior or Justicar allowing them to soak up huge AoEs that would otherwise kill a tank such as Greenscale and Herald breaths, Boulders from Gaurluth, and Storm of Force from Uruuluuk on top of their high magic mitigation. Their overall physical mitigation is lower than a Warrior's and Justicar's though.
Thanks for the thoughtful and intelligent answers, everyone. I'm glad to see that Rift at least has a helpful community and I hope to join it soon.
I have an incredible tanking spec on my rogue. (I just like PVPing with the toon more) Lvl 50
I still also have a warrior that I do most of my PVE'ing. (lvl 50)
I have 3 dedicated roles for tanking, AoE tanking, High mitigation multi target, and single target high mitigation.
Void Knight and Paladin are very good for melle and spell mitigation. Warlord has a nifty pull ability, call to arms, and the reaver has awesome aoe aggro abilities.
As far as experience, its not as bad as I thought it would be. Still have boss's where mechanics play some part in your strat.
My tank has been sitting at 50 for less then 2 weeks though. I assume once i get more gear from T2 the T1's will become a walk in the park. I still enjoy the dungeon crawl that rift has to offer.