Do people use shield tanks?

[Lampros]

And if you do, how many and for what fights?

[Malarky Enthusiast]

Did someone buy Lampros' account? I've seen him on these forums for years, theres no way he doesn't know what shield tanks are good for.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Offal Devourer:

Did someone buy Lampros' account? I've seen him on these forums for years, theres no way he doesn't know what shield tanks are good for.

It's still me; but I haven't played in a while. And I see formation guides like this that are cropping up that uses no shield tanks:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2286245005

[UnluckyNoob]

If you start game with lvl 30 bros with 9 stars wearing famed equipment all you need is 12 2H builds. Otherwise you'll have to use tanks.

Shields at least doubles your bros survivability, so it is good idea to take most hits with shielded bros.

Tanks number scales with fight difficulty. For example you do not need any to fight brigands.
I usually use 2, but I also have 2-5 shield bros with daggers or hammers who may both deal and tank damage.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by UnluckyNoob:

If you start game with lvl 30 bros with 9 stars wearing famed equipment all you need is 12 2H builds. Otherwise you'll have to use tanks.

Shields at least doubles your bros survivability, so it is good idea to take most hits with shielded bros.

Tanks number scales with fight difficulty. For example you do not need any to fight brigands.
I usually use 2, but I also have 2-5 shield bros with daggers or hammers who may both deal and tank damage.

I used to take 4 to every battle, but I think retrospect it is too inefficient. So I am thinking of switching to 3 every battle. Where do you position the 2? Flanks? Middle? I plan on doing 2 with spears on the flanks and 1 in the middle (the main tank).

[NM9G]

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that tanks don’t have a place in a refined company, as while you won’t need them for every fight they are especially good at holding off champions, plethora of big beasts, chosen, and just generally lowering the chance to be hit to 5% for a lot of scary foes.

As for creative weapons that cost no investment perks wise, besides the spear utility, you can use 3-h flail for locking people in your zone of control better, or even use a fencing sword as a psuedo aggressive footwork.

[UnluckyNoob]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Originally posted by UnluckyNoob:

If you start game with lvl 30 bros with 9 stars wearing famed equipment all you need is 12 2H builds. Otherwise you'll have to use tanks.

Shields at least doubles your bros survivability, so it is good idea to take most hits with shielded bros.

Tanks number scales with fight difficulty. For example you do not need any to fight brigands.
I usually use 2, but I also have 2-5 shield bros with daggers or hammers who may both deal and tank damage.

I used to take 4 to every battle, but I think retrospect it is too inefficient. So I am thinking of switching to 3 every battle. Where do you position the 2? Flanks? Middle? I plan on doing 2 with spears on the flanks and 1 in the middle (the main tank).

I use 2 on flanks and focus middle enemies so I don't need dedicated tank there. But in the case of hard enemies I don't mind using shieldwall on my offensive shield bros for a couple turns.

[Heartlessly]

Yes. 1-3 tanks in most loadouts

Their job is to spam indom recover. Great to tie down high-threat enemies

[turtle225]

I have 2-3 in my end game companies and will field them against Barbs, Orcs, and some other encounters.

Specifically, having 3 tanks spaced T__T__T with everyone else hiding behind them works very well against Chosen and Orcs, provided that your tanks are leveled and capable of maintaining Indom as often as possible.

[DarrkPhoenix]

I like to keep 3-4 shield tanks in my company, although the number I actually field in a battle depends on the enemy being faced. I find them most useful in fights against dangerous barbarian groups (chosen and unholds), lindwurms, groups with many orc warriors/warlords- basically fights where I need to lock down hard-hitting enemies for several turns while the rest of the company clears things out. Formation is generally tanks on the flanks, then spread evenly through the front line if I'm fielding more than 2 tanks for the battle.

[w.f.schepel]

Running with 8 dedicated tanks. Works like a treat. Especially late game with very large groups of opponents that I just can't blitz. Bit of an accident, kept getting excellent tank recruits, but now that I have them: I love them.

[Melmak]

You need tanks in the biggest ork and barb camps and monolith and lindwurms so like 2-3 tanks its good to have. Its also good idea to use shields erly so you dont lose valuable bros randomly before they reach their potential.

[raphoux69]

Tanks are very useful for things like unholds, necros or just big fights in general. The only downside is that you remove DPS for durability which isn't always a nice idea.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by turtle225:

Specifically, having 3 tanks spaced T__T__T with everyone else hiding behind them works very well against Chosen and Orcs, provided that your tanks are leveled and capable of maintaining Indom as often as possible.

I was thinking of something very close to this formation. I used to run 4 with 2 in the middle and 2 in the flanks, but I felt damage was a bit lacking in large grind-fests that way.

Originally posted by w.f.schepel:

Running with 8 dedicated tanks. Works like a treat. Especially late game with very large groups of opponents that I just can't blitz. Bit of an accident, kept getting excellent tank recruits, but now that I have them: I love them.

8?! Who does damage then? ;)

Originally posted by Melmak:

You need tanks in the biggest ork and barb camps and monolith and lindwurms so like 2-3 tanks its good to have. Its also good idea to use shields erly so you dont lose valuable bros randomly before they reach their potential.

Is this 2-3 number for the whole roster or in the field of 12?

[Glorious Comrade]

3 shield nimble tanks and 3 2hander, on the front line. basically each 2hander gets a tank to soak damage while they do the killing.

My tanks are all nimble, dagger and shield mastery, overwhelm and recover, I only level up Melee defense, health and initiative or fatigue. They spam shield wall and do not attack to tank against multiple regular enemy. or spam dagger attack 3 time against 1 single tough enemy to stack overwhelm. overwhelm is amazing against things like linwurm, Chosen, swordmaster, orc warrior. all the hard hitting single enemies.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Glorious Comrade:

3 shield nimble tanks and 3 2hander, on the front line. basically each 2hander gets a tank to soak damage while they do the killing.

My tanks are all nimble, dagger and shield mastery, overwhelm and recover, I only level up Melee defense, health and initiative or fatigue. They spam shield wall and do not attack to tank against multiple regular enemy. or spam dagger attack 3 time against 1 single tough enemy to stack overwhelm. overwhelm is amazing against things like linwurm, Chosen, swordmaster, orc warrior. all the hard hitting single enemies.

Hmm, I thought Nimble tanks were generally less efficient in the end-game dungeons? For the record, I've never tried to use them in nearly 3k hours, but I may give them a try this run.