Most urgent skills for a Tank type of build

[azziane]

I realize I can max everything up eventually but it still seems like experience bars are filling up more slowly as I level up my fighting tree. So I have come to the decision that I should stop just testing every single skill and focus on what will benefit me the most, until i have points to spare in less usefull skills.

I would like to tank primarily.I work up my magic only to have enough points to get the Metabolism and Constitution skills off of the Magic trainer instead of spending Fight SPs.

So... I would like to know what skills I should get in order of importance.

So I have this figured out :

1)COnstitutio for HPs. MAxed up (skill lvl 10 I think)
2)Strength for Stamina (and I guess to be allowed better weapons? not sure).MAxed up (10)
3)Metabolism for HP regen. (maxed up 10)
4)+dmg attack (forgot name), These aren't hard to level up since they only appear once in a while at the trainer. (maxed up 4)

I have those 4 maxed up at all times. You might also need to know that I am using heavy armor. So dodge based skills are probably not too useful. So I have a few questions:

1)What do you think would go into positions 5 to 10?

2)Are the auras any good for a tank? I understand what they do, but not how well they do it. I find myself lacking stamina quite a bit, for example. But the lvl 1 aura is not helping me much. It looks like it would be good in teams but useless when soloing.

3)Should I max up Balance as a priority? I realize it regens Sta faster, and I said I lack Sta all the time. But it does not seem to regen it that much faster. Would a self Sta heal be better? Or an aura? My Strength is already maxed up so it is all about finding the one Stamina healing skill that works the best (aura, self direct heal or regular Balance regen).

4)Bleed/Attack after Crit/Attack after dodge/Attack after parry. Are these any good? I took a level 1 of bleed to try it. It seems to be ok. Hard to tell without putting more points in. But i can only afford one of those. And enemies seem to die way to fast for a bleed to work itself out...

5)Accuracy. I liked that at first. But I just cannot use my damage skil AND accuracy during a fight. It sucks down my stamina too fast. Do you think this is a priority?

I think I have 7 billion more questions but if you could answer these 5 I would be grateful already.

[blaah]

4)Bleed/Attack after Crit/Attack after dodge/Attack after parry. Are these any good? I took a level 1 of bleed to try it. It seems to be ok. Hard to tell without putting more points in. But i can only afford one of those. And enemies seem to die way to fast for a bleed to work itself out...

bleed is mostly useless. attack after parry/dodge is useful so you have little more credits to make heavier (max inc.dmg and acc.attack for example) action.

5)Accuracy. I liked that at first. But I just cannot use my damage skil AND accuracy during a fight. It sucks down my stamina too fast.

accuracy is a must when you hitting mobs over you melee level. but it needs to be matched agains your weapon and skill (same as inc.damage). in here, highest is not better.

basically you want max acc.attack, then some inc.damage in your melee action (inc.damage depends how much credits you want/can use)

auras (hp/stam regen ones) are useless imho, dont waste your points on them (early on at least).
self heal hp/stam is better choice (btw, you can use hp and stam self heal together in one action if you have credits to match).

hp/stam regens should be maxed when you have sp's.

basicly take any skill that helps you do more damage to higher mobs and reducing your downtime and increasing your changes to be alive after battle.

[rushin]

MPA (melee protection aura) is extremely useful. you can still fight while its active. I'd recommend the attack after skills as well, as blaah mentioned they give credits so you can put lots more in the actions and have some of the cost taken away.

when you find you sp building up think about speed and invul. Sometimes is necessary to run

as far as bleed/slow/ignore armor think now about what type of weapon you are going to be using and then get the relevant stanza's, they are expensive though, the best is ignore armor, other two are luxuries imo.

If you are solo fighting then you might get some use out of hp/stam aura's - it's perfectly possible to fight with no down time if you find the right mobs and dont over power actions.. but your time would probably be better spent finding a team

[andypur1]

MPA (melee protection aura) is extremely useful. you can still fight while its active. I'd recommend the attack after skills as well, as blaah mentioned they give credits so you can put lots more in the actions and have some of the cost taken away.

when you find you sp building up think about speed and invul. Sometimes is necessary to run

as far as bleed/slow/ignore armor think now about what type of weapon you are going to be using and then get the relevant stanza's, they are expensive though, the best is ignore armor, other two are luxuries imo.

If you are solo fighting then you might get some use out of hp/stam aura's - it's perfectly possible to fight with no down time if you find the right mobs and dont over power actions.. but your time would probably be better spent finding a team

I agree that the MPA and 'attack after' stanzas are very useful, followed by invul and speed.

I will put in the defense for bleed though. Bleed is very nice for mobs which have a lot of hp, each time you successfully attack the mob, the bleed adds up (e.g. 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, ...) for a while, so 'mob loses 8hp' is not much use, but 'mob loses 100hp' is not to be sniffed at There is also the chance with bleed that the mob 'bleeds massively' and loses a big chunk of its hp.
These features makes it very useful when hunting bosses and the 'chunky' herbivores like ploderous, but it is not much use when hunting 'easy' mobs which die in 3-4 hits.

My primary melee skill is mace and I've never used slow

[ghyselsj]

I guess I'll put up the defense for slow then.

I work 2 melee skills: 2H mace (202) and 1H mace (120). Why go for maces? Simple.

1) Maces do heaps of damage, just like axes. The smashing type is personal choice. Many mobs have some slash resist (i think usually around 20-30%). A few mobs have 50% smash resist, but a lot more mobs have none at all. This isn't that important, but it suits my style best... if I cant do full melee dmg, I switch to nuking anyway.

2) Slow. Yep. I actually prefer slow over IA and Bleed. Why? Well, first off, slow is always at maximum effectiveness.
-Ignore armor is really nice to use on pierce resistant mobs, but if they dont resist pierce, its useless.
-Bleed adds extra damage, and it stacks, but look at it this way... on a 270 boss, with 3 nukers pounding the living crap out of him, will a trickle of bleed damage be vital? Nope.
-Slow on the other hand, slows that same 270 boss enough for me to hit him twice in the time he hits me once. This means less incoming damage, less heals needed to keep the tank up, more heals for the nukers, so they can nuke without having to toss some crossheals (if you have 2 healers). This usually more than makes up for the bleed damage lost IMHO.

3) Electric maces. Nothing says "whack" like hitting your opponent in the face with a ball of static electricity

[andypur1]

I guess I'll put up the defense for slow then.

I work 2 melee skills: 2H mace (202) and 1H mace (120). Why go for maces? Simple.

1) Maces do heaps of damage, just like axes. The smashing type is personal choice. Many mobs have some slash resist (i think usually around 20-30%). A few mobs have 50% smash resist, but a lot more mobs have none at all. This isn't that important, but it suits my style best... if I cant do full melee dmg, I switch to nuking anyway.

2) Slow. Yep. I actually prefer slow over IA and Bleed. Why? Well, first off, slow is always at maximum effectiveness.
-Ignore armor is really nice to use on pierce resistant mobs, but if they dont resist pierce, its useless.
-Bleed adds extra damage, and it stacks, but look at it this way... on a 270 boss, with 3 nukers pounding the living crap out of him, will a trickle of bleed damage be vital? Nope.
-Slow on the other hand, slows that same 270 boss enough for me to hit him twice in the time he hits me once. This means less incoming damage, less heals needed to keep the tank up, more heals for the nukers, so they can nuke without having to toss some crossheals (if you have 2 healers). This usually more than makes up for the bleed damage lost IMHO.

3) Electric maces. Nothing says "whack" like hitting your opponent in the face with a ball of static electricity

Ahha, I'd better get busy with my sword and gain some extra skill points for slow then Even now, after over 18 months, I never seem to have enough, except for harvesting!

[azziane]

Thanks for the info.

I read everywhere that there is no "right build" since you can max everything up. But you gain skill points less and less frequently as your level in a skill goes up... And for a casual gamer, making the right choices is vital. You may not be able to gimp yourself when you look into the future when you will reach 250. But if you go about getting the wrong skills I think you will feel the pain all the way through the first 240 points.

I am not saying that spending 30 points on Bleed and Sta Aura gimped me. But there seems to be ways to do such a thing as a wrong build.

Anyway!

I was wondering... Should I pay attention to any MAGIC skills as a tank? I already realized I could buy Constitution and Metabolism there, which is great. I enjoy practicing my magic skills once in a while. I will keep my damage spells updated a little but that probably will be it for now.

So is there any important skill in the magic tree that, like Cons and Metab, would make me a better tank or melee fighter?

Are there such things as buff in the game? Or any kind of magic-based skill improving the efficiency of a melee fighter?

[mikadou]

Sap Gift Recharge your healer buddy, and they use Stam Gift on you.
No downtime then!

A pair that exchange Gifts like that can rip through a lot of beasties pretty fast.

[thurgond]

...But if you go about getting the wrong skills I think you will feel the pain all the way through the first 240 points.

I am not saying that spending 30 points on Bleed and Sta Aura gimped me. But there seems to be ways to do such a thing as a wrong build.

The "pain" will go away long before your skill reaches 240. If you persue multiple branches of the melee tree, you get the skill points for all of the skills you need and most of the skills you want. If you're using edged weapons, bleed is something you should have before skill level 50 or so. Sta Aura is nice for the solo tank or ranger.

Take up range or work on both 1hd and 2hd when the tree splits at 50, and you'll be fine.

I was wondering... Should I pay attention to any MAGIC skills as a tank? I already realized I could buy Constitution and Metabolism there, which is great. I enjoy practicing my magic skills once in a while. I will keep my damage spells updated a little but that probably will be it for now.

So is there any important skill in the magic tree that, like Cons and Metab, would make me a better tank or melee fighter?

Are there such things as buff in the game? Or any kind of magic-based skill improving the efficiency of a melee fighter?

The one skill all homin should have is the health heal. If you can't rez your teammates, it will gimp your experience while they release and make their way back to you. Sap and stamina heals are important as well, but you have to a teammate concious for them to help you. Waiting for an amp-wearing teammate to recover sap or hp, means you aren't getting melee exp.

[jamela]

Most urgent single skill for a Tank type - TAUNT

Noone mentioned this yet, probably because it's so second nature that we all forgot, but you may be berated by your teammates if you don't have the best Taunt skill available to you (guilty myself).