Your best/favorite tank builds

[Veganleader1]

I'm looking to put together a collection of tank builds and need your help with ideas. It will be great to have a long thread with a large variety of tank specs to choose from viewable on the forum here. Please, if anyone is interested in contributing, post your best tank specs below explaining all necessary info on stats/feats/level-up/gearing that might be needed to understand how it works. If it relies on outside buffs, then mention those buffs. In general it would be great if your build is effective at all levels through the game. I've only played on normal mode and not past act 6 yet, so the insight will help me, and maybe your ideas will help a whole lot of other players create good tanks for the game. Variety is gold here, as long as the character can effectively tank.

Thanks to all those willing to offer substantial content.

[Arden]

Now give me the stat budget and character level for that build :D I can give you a 50 ac build at lvl 2 if I forget everything about the buy points and level requirements.

SS gains 1 int to ac per lvl so what you are going to have at lvl 2 realistically is around 27-28 with ring and amulet and you will have to fight defensively to get to 30 which means you will do 0 damage. So congratulations you just managed to kill a couple of wolves and disarm a few traps but not thanks to your char contribution to the party. After that you are still level 2 and facing monsters with 13-16 attack bonus. Which means you are totally and completely screwed. The best you can do is vivi1/SS which sits at around 30 without fighting defensively which is bearable but still less than the other builds and not quite good enough. Will require more healing/downtime for sure and will contribute less.

While on the other hand a simple vivi1/TSS1 will have 32 ac and vivi1/monk1 build with 20 dex/18 cha will have 34 ac at lvl 2 both without fighting defensively and a couple more ac at lvl 3. Both can tank everything act 1 throws at them like a walk in the park and dish out the damage so they don't feel like dead weights.

Serious theorycrafting is good. What is better is actually playing the game on unfair and seeing what works.

[haplok]

Here you go:
Character level 5.
Stats (Garuda-Blooded Aasimar):
Str: 16(+1)
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 16
Wis: 14
Cha: 7
Plus Cat's Grace, Owl's Wisdom and Fox Cunning.
Feel free not to include these buffs due to limited slots/pots/duration. Though you find the Cat wand very early. With Reduce you still reach 38 AC.

When you fight wolves on Unfair, you should already be at level 3. Easy enough without xp sharing at the start with the 4 person party and skill user gets xp.
You should know this, if you play on Unfair, like you claim to.

Let's see level 3:
Base: 10
Mage Armor: 4
Natural ammy: 1
Deflection Ring: 1
Shield spell: 4
Int: 3
Wis: 2
Dex: 3/4*
Defensive Fighting (with Mobility and Crane Style): 4
TOTAL: 32/33*
*depending on items

Where is the problem?

Good job wasting precious levels on a class like TSS, btw. Sure, it's good for defense. You plan the career of a roadblock?

[Arden]

Originally posted by haplok:

Here you go:
Character level 5.
Stats (Garuda-Blooded Aasimar):
Str: 16(+1)
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 16
Wis: 14
Cha: 7
Plus Cat's Grace, Owl's Wisdom and Fox Cunning.
Feel free not to include these buffs due to limited slots/pots/duration. Though you find the Cat wand very early. With Reduce you still reach 38 AC.

When you fight wolves on Unfair, you should already be at level 3. Easy enough without xp sharing at the start with the 4 person party and skill user gets xp.
You should know this, if you play on Unfair, like you claim to.

Let's see level 3:
Base: 10
Mage Armor: 4
Natural ammy: 1
Deflection Ring: 1
Shield spell: 4
Int: 3
Wis: 2
Dex: 3/4*
Defensive Fighting (with Mobility and Crane Style): 4
TOTAL: 32/33*
*depending on items

Where is the problem?

Good job wasting precious levels on a class like TSS, btw. Sure, it's good for defense. You plan the career of a roadblock?

The problem is defensive fighting which means 0 damage. While the other builds actually do damage and have 34-36 ac at lvl 3 and 38+ ac at lvl 4 without defensive fighting. If you fully buff them they sit at around 44-46 at lvl 5 which is act 2 btw. And act 2 requires 46 ac minimum to have a chance of survival on unfair. You would know that if you bothered to try that difficulty and managed to get there.

Also what is that 16 str? You are planning to stare at the mobs intensely and pray that they die? And why do you take crane style instead of attack and damage feats? The SS suffers in the ac department till around lvl 8 and by gimping his attack and damage for the sake of your argument you will not fix the underlying problem. Only extra levels will do it.

A well built vivi/TSS deals around 40 damage on normal hits at lvl 7-8 consistently at max bab. It's not as good as the vivi/monk/sorc build that deals more, attacks 5 times per round and has all the goodies but gets the job done just fine. Also it requires less buffs for max performance so it's good for low maintenance/micro auto-attack parties that just want to cruise through the game without the extra hassle.

SS works great on lower difficulties though so have fun with the build.

[haplok]

If the loss of 2 AB means 0 damage for you, I propose to re-evaluate your party composition and tactics.

Level 5 should be achieved about when you enter Stag Lord's Ford area. If you need to wait till Act 2 for level 5, again, you're doing it wrong.

As for Str, among other things, it allows me to skip Finesse and grace feats and focus on actually useful feats. Also a Vivi with Feral does attack and hit more often, but a Str Bastard SS will easily do 50% more damage per hit at early levels (still doesn't mean higher total damage, but quite solid) .

[InEffect]

if we are talking higher difficulties aka unfair you should not be in melee at least till the end of act 2. Summons, crossbows and true strikes galore so AC doesn't matter much

[haplok]

I'd say you can risk some melee, particularly once you get Mirror Image, if you're so inclined.

However yes, too heavy reliance on cheese tactics and being funneled into specific builds is the reason I don't really play Unfair in the first place.

[CHAO$$$]

I played most of the early game on unfair with 2 melees and no summons at all. (monk/viv+vanilla regongar)

Grease (no exploit - just 1 cast) + thundercall is pretty good. Has the sideeffect of giving massive bonuses for to-hit as well. Covers multiple options for saving throws + whatever the rank2 bard spell that targets will is called. Just focus their lowest throw.
Mirror image is broken. Carried the bald hilltop 1 for me - again without summons. Dat spider tho.

[Arden]

Yes, melee works just fine. As long as you get high enough ac and focus on damage to end the fights as quick as possible. Once you get the level 2 buffs and haste and displacement by level 6 tops it's gg time.

There are a few enemies that have obnoxious attack bonus and damage but you can kite those to death. So there is no reason to gimp your damage by going higher on the ac.

[Arden]

Originally posted by haplok:

If the loss of 2 AB means 0 damage for you, I propose to re-evaluate your party composition and tactics.

Level 5 should be achieved about when you enter Stag Lord's Ford area. If you need to wait till Act 2 for level 5, again, you're doing it wrong.

As for Str, among other things, it allows me to skip Finesse and grace feats and focus on actually useful feats. Also a Vivi with Feral does attack and hit more often, but a Str Bastard SS will easily do 50% more damage per hit at early levels (still doesn't mean higher total damage, but quite solid) .

Just play the game on unfair. You clearly have no idea of how the stats work on that difficulty.

[InEffect]

You don't need dex saint to go through unfair. Str SS is just about 3AC lower, but with more feats meaning the AC will equalize soon though feats and he'll get shatter faster.
The fact that SS doesn't need to go dex to reach 70AC to tank unfair helps that decision as well and you get about 50% more damage and free feats as a result.
I am not a fan of vital strikes on them as it's way too inconsistent and resource-heavy. Lions claw offers 15-20 x4 for 150-200 crits by midgame anyways.

[haplok]

Thank you.

In principle I agree the Vital Strike is probably not the best route from optimization point of view, but it works good enough, it's cool having not 1 but 2 nova modes and I'm a sucker for big numbers.

Also I don't have the 2nd DLC and Lions Claw is literally the only thing that's tempting me from it (that and Feral Wings, but I have already finished my Vivi playtrough).

Lastly falcatas look pathetic next to a Bastard Sword from style point of view.

[InEffect]

I don't like oversized weapons. I can barely tolerate paddle design of swords in general in this game. They should take some pointers from path of exile in that regard. some vanilla weapons look gorgeous there(MTX not so much).

[Schanez]

1. Magus Sword Sain 10/Duelist - max Dex and Int; you get double Int to AC
2. Paladin 19/Monk Scaled Fist 1 - max Cha for super saves, get Cha to AC, wear heaviest armor, interesting idea is to invest into a Power Attack + Cornugon Smash for free Intimidate
3. Barbarian 20 - guarded stance, protect vitals, incresead damage reduction
4. Alchemist Grenadier/Vivisectionist 20 - Max Int and Dex, use spells to buff AC, discoveries to remove Crit chance
5. Fighter 10/Stalwart Defender 10 - go for an Enlarge Person + Guarded Stance + Cleave build
6. Paladin 10/ Stalwart Defender 10 - as above, just grab Fatigue Mercy, also much better in damage due to smite and sustain due to lay on hands
7. Earth Kineticist Kinetic Knight 20 - damage reduction from shield, decent damage, some cool battle control with the elemental blast talents

Overall the best tank for higher difficulty levels would be Alchemist, thanks to the 75% chance to ignore critical hits, which are obnoxious. I really like the Paladin/Stalwart Defender although in raw AC the Sword Saint/Duelist will win. Paladin/Scaled Fist Monk is not far behind. Magus gets the bonus of having Blur and Mirror Image, which boosts survivability by a lot. Not to mention they do get to wear Medium Armor with a 10/10 build. Barbarian is the most basic of them all to build, but I would also say the weakest in terms of survivability.

Just my opinion. Also the order is not equal to best to worst list. It just came to mind in that way.

[InEffect]

nice story difficulty tank compilation

I also am interested how are you getting monk AC while wearing heaviest armor(or any armor for that matter).

[1ttffsse]

Probably not optimized for damage but last time I was playing on unfair shortly after game was released and end area was pretty buggy I had something like 8 seinsei/ 4 thug / 1 stalwart / rest viv, dex+wis build. ac was so high that enemies after a while gave up and some times ran for my other guys which is annoying. really high will saves and ignore traps due to high reflex.