I use soldier armour with zerker weapons/trinkets for both roaming and zerging, changing my traits as necessary.
Depends if you just want to solo dive into the enemy to see how long you last / bait the pugs away from the main group, disrupt the zerg, or you’re playing in your own zerg.
But I would imagine something along these lines, tweaking as neccessary:
Ascended sentinel armour with either:
- Rune of Melandru for condition/stun reduction
- Rune of Svanir (Turns you into an invulnerable but immovable block of ice for 5 seconds when you reach 20% HP. Using a stun breaker allows you to move with the invulnerability)
- Rune of Vampirism (Mist form at 10% HP)
Ascended sentinel Greatsword / Sword-Shield with any of:
- Sigil of Energy
- Sigil of Momentum (Forgot about this PvE gem :p )
- Sigil of Renewal
- Sigil of Stamina
- Sigil of Conjuration/Sanctuary (But these are impossible to control, so meh)
Traits
30 points in Defense (Sure Footed, Last Stand, Defy Pain) (Dogged March instead of Sure Footed depending on what you’re trying to achieve)
20 points in Tactics (Mainly for the +200 vitality, Any + Shrug It Off)
20 points in Discipline (Warrior’s Sprint, Vigorous Focus)
Utilities
Heal: Defiant Stance (Chain it with your Endure Pains + Shield Stance + Runes of Svanir. Do not use this skill while any of the others are active)
1 – Endure Pain
2 & 3 – any of: Berserker Stance, Balanced Stance, Dolyak Signet or Bull’s Charge (For running from/baiting zerg)
Elite:
Take Root (Sylvari, 3 seconds of Invulnerability frames)
Become the Snow Leopard (Norn, able to hold down 4 to charge very far away)
Reaper of Grenth (Human, chill/poison the area around you, you can still use your weapon/utilities)
Signet of Rage (If nothing else)
Food, any of:
Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup (-40% condition duration, 70 vitality)
Loaf of Saffron Bread (-20% damage while CC’d, -20% condition duration)
Bowl of Roasted Lotus Root (-40% stun duration, 70 toughness)
Mango Pie (85 HP/sec, 70 vitality)
Loaf of Omnomberry Bread (100 vitality, 70 toughness)
Omnomberry Cookie (100 healing power, 70 vitality)
Dragonfish Candy / Plate of Lemongrass Poultry (6% of toughness = vitality, +200 power under 50% HP)
That’s probably as tanky as you’re going to get, though kiting can itself count as tanking, if you get the enemy zerg to chase you but they can’t reach, so tweak runes/utilities/food as necessary.
Though learning to play in more of a DPS spec, with support skills like warhorn cleanse and shout heals will help your allies out, while dealing good damage, you’ll be more useful to your server, but is definitely harder to play/master.
ALL IS VAIN.
PvP modes are the “endgame” in all MMOs.
Stop failing at PvE, and fix WvW/SPvP. Thank you.
