Guild Wars 2

I carry 3 sets for various occasions. For “tanking” I use a set of Pow/Tgh/Heal with a few Prec/Vit/Heal thrown in. I keep my crit at around 15-20% which I have found to be plenty to keep Vigor up the majority of the time (with the new adjustment to duration from trait), in conjunction with Superior Sigils of Energy. My tanking revolves around dodging, as not only do I evade the damage incoming but also heal any that I’ve taken. This build also gives me more than enough damage to “hold agro” for the most part (as much as GW2 mechanics allow), or perhaps I should say “be the main but not exclusive focus” of xyz mob.

Note that I’ve also found that when you’re with a melee heavy group, you can trade out some pow/tgh/heal for prec/heal/vit, enough to get around 35% crit, allowing you a little more vigor uptime, however I’ve found this lowers your “threat” which is good in this case. The reason is you’re not so much tanking as you’re AoE healing (and if you’re not taking hits all the better so you can stay in longer). I’ve calculated that when using a mace + traits + dodging (in this build I’m able to dodge about every 3 seconds)I’m putting out over 1k heals/sec, which my melee buddies love. This allows them to melt face longer and in many cases never have to back off except really hard hitting bosses. Though this isn’t tanking per se it does play into the “how do I mitigate damage from teammates” goal.

GL