Guild Wars 2

Tanks will be necessary for raids to hold aggro of the boss. Toughness seems to be the only deciding factor on who the boss targets.

I see two sides to being a tank. Warriors and Heralds seem to be the better choice for heavy armor tanks as they already have high health pools and decent mitigation while guardians have good mitigation and low health pools. The only trade off I see for taking a Guard over the others is that they have access to a generous amount of passive mitigation in the form of regen and protection. Before many of you make an argument for aegis, do know that there are many small instances of dmg that break aegis before it can be useful and the timing needed to make it useful is not always reliable.

I have also heard of reapers being fairly good tank/condi dmg and being able to rely on death/reaper shroud takes some pressure off the healer.

Gear

Disclaimer ( i am in now way a genious of build crafting, hence partly the reason for opening this topic)

With thoughness being the main stat, I’m assuming that it can be made up in food and trinkets. This would allow players to keep zerker or other high dmg gear with a toughness minor stat as to not lose too much dps from the raid group.

I’m looking at soldiers and possibly sentinel’s gear (if you take zerker trinkets) to be the main stat combos for tanks as they offer toughness and power. Knights gear is also a great choice to proc many on crit sigils and traits that cant be made up with consumables.

I have also heard that Dire gear is also very popular for tanks that run condi specs(reaper/necro/possibly mallyx/engi).

Commanders (power, precision, toughness, boon duration), one of the new stat combos also seems to look like it might be popular. It will offer less toughness, which could mean taking soldiers/knights trinkets, but still offer decent power. Alternatively condi tanks can run tank gear and trailblazer (toughness, condi dmg, vitality, condi duration) gear to help keep up attrition.

Runes/Sigils

As little as I have looked, Runes of the Scrapper seem to be the best choice to a tank with the 7% reduced dmg set bonus as well as giving you additional toughness and power.

Sigils seems to be much more personal choice as many of them don’t really interact with a tank unless your a condi tank allowing you to various condi uptime sigils. As for me I see: intelligence, energy and concentration sigils being good for mitigation, boons and on crit traits. Alternatively if you are playing a a tanky/healing hybrid sigils of renewal might be useful as well.

I don’t see too much value in sigils or runes that remove conditions as the raid encounter doesn’t seem to apply conditions to you or allies (at least from what I have seen).

As I see it, Warriors, Heralds, and Necros seem to be the best option for tanking as they have high health pools and can still pump out decent dmg.

Engies I have heard can tank, but I have little to no research or knowledge about them.

Guardians having a low health pool but good mitigation I can see being used to re-leave the pressure from the healer, but they offer far lower dps.

I would love to hear/see everyone’s opinions and builds for the new raids as I intend to try tanking for my guild in the future. This could be a helpful discussions for the community to better understand tanking as well. Post not only builds but also helpful tactics and advice.

Also if anyone knows about mallyx revs for tanking and condi dmg I would love to hear it. I think it would be a very cool tanking aspect but last I heard mallyx was nerfed pretty harshly (if only in pvp).

Berserker with 2 knight trinkets seemed to work well for one guardian I saw.

can a thief tank?

Keyang.3729:

can a thief tank?

DD tank would be better against bosses with higher damage and lower attack speed imo, you cant keep up the dodges forever.

You’ve failed to mention Elementalist, which is one of the best tanks, tbqh. Permanent 40% protection from earth and tempest traitlines, then you can do full burning/bleed condi.

I might try it with Dire armour and Sinister trinkets tonight.

It is sad that Guardian, which my opinion only class that is originally designed by ANet to be closest to be classic Tank from other MMOs does not getting a consideration for tanking in raids says a lot about the problems we have at GW2 and state of Guardian specially.

DH or kick, men I love this game, 1000s of build combinations from gear and traits, only one viable build, I guess that must be balancing.

Engineer/Scrapper is a good tank, with max condi stats and Druid heals him.
Everyone should focus on 1 druid, 3 condi (preff engineer), 2 Chrono with boon reaping to, 1 Herald, 1 Reaper Full Zerk DPS. These are 8 players, the rest 2 must be full zerk: (Options)
-you could choose 1 DH (King in CC, against green guardian is good; provides lots of blocking with F3, when soemeone is downed he heals—> puts out a shield what generates a knockback, so it’s verry usefull)
- you could choose another Reaper ( I’ve seen video with 20-28k dmg against vale guardian, sometimes 32k dmg )
- you could choose another Herald

Remember, these professions against Vale Guardian are very good, but 10 ppl need TS for coordination, or somehow you pull it out without it ..!?

I’m personally against Ranger, Thief, Med Guardian ( I was using Med Guard first time, it is good, but DH is way better here.. I’ve tried both ). I’ve seen what a Ranger and a Thief can do in a raid, but, at least my opinion, other professions are way better. (And yes, I will not play in raids with them.. I will simply leave the squad).
I don’t know about Warrior and Elementalist ( or their elite specialization, never played with them in a raid…)

The 3 condi players should focus every time on the green circle (lightning), so that the full DPS classes can kitten the vale guardian, not waste time ( you need min 4 players on green circle )..sometimes there is a lot of waste of time, yelling on TS that “green circle” and 8-9 ppl run to it, forgetting to kite the guardian…

Ascended armors are not a must, Ascended weapon/accessory/backpack/ring/amulet is a must…
TS and gear check is a must! ( On TS we were 8 ppl, the other 2 run in the game like what is happening, like a lost child. Gear check is a must, because lots of ppl lie, that’s the truth, lie about he is full condi, or full zerk)
Don’t forget, you have to beat the timer, you will not beat it if you have tank builds

(I’ve gotten to phase 3 in +1 hour with 8 ppl being on TS, almost got to phase 4)

I’ve found that Cleric Guardians have been working great, it has great self sustain and great aoe healing for the team. When I was tanking against the vale guardian I was the only “healer/tank” and my health pool was not dropping. Some DPS were dropping because they weren’t paying attention to sparks and what not but for the most part I seemed to be quite effective. You also get decent DPS with clerics because of the power stat so as long as your raid is keeping up 25 stacks of might and fury (in my opinion is a must) then you’ll be getting 5-8k crits with mighty blow(5sec CD)on the hammer and Protectors strike on the Mace, I was also doing a good amount of dps with my symbols and the hammer auto attack.

I really don’t put a whole lot of stock in stacking toughness. Sure, you’ll need to have more than anyone else, but I don’t think a full sentinels/soldier’s gear set is really ideal for tanks.

I think that the best direction for damage mitigation is through boons and talents. For example, a revenant with Jalis stance and Retribution traits has a lot of damage mitigation. Hammer guard also has 100% prot up time if they stick to autoattacks.

I agree that Aegis doesn’t seem to be that useful for raids, however. Not only is it often broken on small damage, but there’s also a lot of unblockable stuff.

^ we used a zerk herald with jalis and a few toughness trinkets, had enough toughness to take aggro and enough mitigation to deal with the hits in the first boss fight anyway

RobLnd.1074:

^ we used a zerk herald with jalis and a few toughness trinkets, had enough toughness to take aggro and enough mitigation to deal with the hits in the first boss fight anyway

Very cool. That’s pretty much what my group will be trying tonight.

posthumecaver.6473:

It is sad that Guardian, which my opinion only class that is originally designed by ANet to be closest to be classic Tank from other MMOs does not getting a consideration for tanking in raids says a lot about the problems we have at GW2 and state of Guardian specially.

DH or kick, men I love this game, 1000s of build combinations from gear and traits, only one viable build, I guess that must be balancing.

Guardian is much more of a healer in heavy armor than a tank.

If it was meant to be tanky, it wouldn’t have one of the lowest health pools in the game.

CadeRG.4508:

posthumecaver.6473:

It is sad that Guardian, which my opinion only class that is originally designed by ANet to be closest to be classic Tank from other MMOs does not getting a consideration for tanking in raids says a lot about the problems we have at GW2 and state of Guardian specially.

DH or kick, men I love this game, 1000s of build combinations from gear and traits, only one viable build, I guess that must be balancing.

Guardian is much more of a healer in heavy armor than a tank.

If it was meant to be tanky, it wouldn’t have one of the lowest health pools in the game.

It has the lowest hp because it’s one of the tankiest professions in the game. Guards have a ton of damage mitigation between aegis, blinds, blocks, and protection.

In raids, blinds are next to irrelevant and Aegis doesn’t seem to make a huge difference, but protection and blocks are still great tools to make guards a solid choice as a tank.

If Disney has taught me anything in the past 5 years:
“Anyone can cook tank, but only the fearless can be great!”

The only limit is your soul, guys!

No one appears to be considering a Druid tank, since they cant do any damage anyway.

Just stack Nomad’s gear and face tank the boss. You can heal through anything, and that opens up a slot to bring in another herald or PS warrior for might stacking and DPS

UnbentMars.9126:

No one appears to be considering a Druid tank, since they cant do any damage anyway.

Just stack Nomad’s gear and face tank the boss. You can heal through anything, and that opens up a slot to bring in another herald or PS warrior for might stacking and DPS

Yea, a druid is a viable option, but your back line will have a lot of trouble getting heals if they do. You’ll probably have to make up for the healing somewhere. You may just be able to do it with enough healing from stuff like healing turrets and water fields, but it sounds rough.

CadeRG.4508:

posthumecaver.6473:

It is sad that Guardian, which my opinion only class that is originally designed by ANet to be closest to be classic Tank from other MMOs does not getting a consideration for tanking in raids says a lot about the problems we have at GW2 and state of Guardian specially.

DH or kick, men I love this game, 1000s of build combinations from gear and traits, only one viable build, I guess that must be balancing.

Guardian is much more of a healer in heavy armor than a tank.

If it was meant to be tanky, it wouldn’t have one of the lowest health pools in the game.

So far DNT seem to go with a Celestial Warrior as a tank. Not the only option, but it seem to be the one that give the most DPS out of the tank. I see several advantage to that build.

- Toughness + Perma protection give him enough surviability for the fight, while keeping agro.
- Healing Power + Regen + Shelter give him enough sustain healing to be independant (Again mostly because perma protection). If needed AH will help.
- Access to a good amount of CC. Signet of Bane and Banish for the boss, Shield of Absorption and Rings of Warding for the Seekers.
- This tank can still give a good amount of DPS.

Like i said. It’s not by far the only option. Herald, Warrior and Scrapper are pretty great too. I don’t know much about druid yet, but probably.

Dahkeus.8243:

UnbentMars.9126:

No one appears to be considering a Druid tank, since they cant do any damage anyway.

Just stack Nomad’s gear and face tank the boss. You can heal through anything, and that opens up a slot to bring in another herald or PS warrior for might stacking and DPS

Yea, a druid is a viable option, but your back line will have a lot of trouble getting heals if they do. You’ll probably have to make up for the healing somewhere. You may just be able to do it with enough healing from stuff like healing turrets and water fields, but it sounds rough.

My guild went in to practice the boss with whoever was on so we didn’t have a healer or a dedicated tank. I went in on my mostly zerker Herald and we got the boss to 60% with just me pulsing regeneration and whatever personal heals people had.

I don’t mean to invalidate any struggles anyone had, but I think that the only true healing issue is the constant damage pulses that can be dramatically mitigated by constant regen, and the rest of the damage is a dodging and avoidance issue.

Personally, I think the best way to do that would be to have a Druid tank and just drop tons of heals on top of the boss to keep melee up with 2 heralds pulsing regen to the group. Let’s be real, if you are dying to the boss you are dying because people aren’t getting to the Green circles in time, not because of the constant damage the boss does to the raid.

roelvanesch.2817:

Keyang.3729:

can a thief tank?

DD tank would be better against bosses with higher damage and lower attack speed imo, you cant keep up the dodges forever.

Im not sure, but may be a daredevil with invigorating presition, signet of malice and 1 or 2 pieces of armor with thoughness everything else berserker could tank it without losing that much damage.

You dont need to stack defensive stats like toughness/vita/healing power to tank. The only reason to take one or two pieces of toughness gear is to make sure you pull boss aggro. It is in no way needed to survive. That said, any class with some form of innate sustain can tank while running full or almost full berserker/viper/sinister gear, such as reapers or chronomancers.

Is this tanky enough for you?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQJAWinnNWNSyJrJRNl/ksoygS4U5QJIscrkFalg9duXN4YZtaLE-TRiRABNpEc0DBQhHBADV/Bg9HoU5njXAgcfAgOAc0EEA4A493T+5Ds8yLv8yL3yLv8yLvcpAYSrF-e

archmagus.7249:

Is this tanky enough for you?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQJAWinnNWNSyJrJRNl/ksoygS4U5QJIscrkFalg9duXN4YZtaLE-TRiRABNpEc0DBQhHBADV/Bg9HoU5njXAgcfAgOAc0EEA4A493T+5Ds8yLv8yL3yLv8yLvcpAYSrF-e

Sure it’s tanky, but you’ll do 500 damage to the boss if you are lucky. The raid isn’t about minmaxing a tank, it’s about tanking and surviving while still doing enough damage to burn through 22 million health in 8 minutes

Thaddeus.4891:

CadeRG.4508:

posthumecaver.6473:

It is sad that Guardian, which my opinion only class that is originally designed by ANet to be closest to be classic Tank from other MMOs does not getting a consideration for tanking in raids says a lot about the problems we have at GW2 and state of Guardian specially.

DH or kick, men I love this game, 1000s of build combinations from gear and traits, only one viable build, I guess that must be balancing.

Guardian is much more of a healer in heavy armor than a tank.

If it was meant to be tanky, it wouldn’t have one of the lowest health pools in the game.

So far DNT seem to go with a Celestial Warrior as a tank. Not the only option, but it seem to be the one that give the most DPS out of the tank. I see several advantage to that build.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQN9RvCjeoI

- Toughness + Perma protection give him enough surviability for the fight, while keeping agro.
- Healing Power + Regen + Shelter give him enough sustain healing to be independant (Again mostly because perma protection). If needed AH will help.
- Access to a good amount of CC. Signet of Bane and Banish for the boss, Shield of Absorption and Rings of Warding for the Seekers.
- This tank can still give a good amount of DPS.

Like i said. It’s not by far the only option. Herald, Warrior and Scrapper are pretty great too. I don’t know much about druid yet, but probably.

Druids do effectively 0 damage since they have very few attacks that hit a mob, so you don’t lose anything by having them in pure nomad’s gear. High toughness and high vitality make it a good choice for a tank, and healing power combined with frequent and high level personal/AoE direct heals mean that a druid could make a good damage sponge while still providing high levels of heals to the group.

Back them up with an ele/engineer or a herald to provide regen and protection, and they can potentially be the best tanks in the game if played right (best meaning unkillable, not necessarily highest toughness or damage reduction)

UnbentMars.9126:

archmagus.7249:

Is this tanky enough for you?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQJAWinnNWNSyJrJRNl/ksoygS4U5QJIscrkFalg9duXN4YZtaLE-TRiRABNpEc0DBQhHBADV/Bg9HoU5njXAgcfAgOAc0EEA4A493T+5Ds8yLv8yL3yLv8yLvcpAYSrF-e

Sure it’s tanky, but you’ll do 500 damage to the boss if you are lucky. The raid isn’t about minmaxing a tank, it’s about tanking and surviving while still doing enough damage to burn through 22 million health in 8 minutes

What about this?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBhQDxSugJ112aft4qYXcMCFAaArAA-TxRBABeqiDaKB7S5He6GA4iA8wTAgS1DIFQEDtA-e

People fail to realize the raid is a dps check. Having dedicated tanks and healers reduces your chance significantly of completing it. Tanking just means you have the most toughness in your raid. That is it. And a support spec need not be a cleric but a DPS with support skills.

Eponet.4829:

UnbentMars.9126:

archmagus.7249:

Is this tanky enough for you?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQJAWinnNWNSyJrJRNl/ksoygS4U5QJIscrkFalg9duXN4YZtaLE-TRiRABNpEc0DBQhHBADV/Bg9HoU5njXAgcfAgOAc0EEA4A493T+5Ds8yLv8yL3yLv8yLvcpAYSrF-e

Sure it’s tanky, but you’ll do 500 damage to the boss if you are lucky. The raid isn’t about minmaxing a tank, it’s about tanking and surviving while still doing enough damage to burn through 22 million health in 8 minutes

What about this?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBhQDxSugJ112aft4qYXcMCFAaArAA-TxRBABeqiDaKB7S5He6GA4iA8wTAgS1DIFQEDtA-e

You’ll definitely do more damage, even without any skills equipped

I made a few edits to increase tankyness but the gear seems fine (I improved the heals you’ll get and your shroud uptime)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBhQD7kZTobTs0Gw2GgeTssLYSZtrW9K+JeF3iQRtEQAA-TxRBABeqiDaKB7S5He6GA4iA8wTAgS1DIFQEDtA-e

Let me know your thoughts