DPS Tanks - From best to worst

[Penril]

Help me, what kind of grp utility has a 1h SM? Is it about KD?

CH> SM because the CH deals spirit damage? Now it becomes absurd.

Not saying SM is good/bad. Just answering your question:

- Dragon's Talon is good against mdps.
- AoE punt is useful for when a melee train is on one of your groupmates.
- Spammable ST snare.
- Double spirit debuff (useful for DPS AMs, other SMs with different spec, WL's with Lionheart, DPS WPs).
- Stat steal.
- WoH (only tank with a Pounce), the snare stacks with other snares.

And of course WW and KD which have already been mentioned.

[Tklees]

BO, SM, IB/BG, CH, KOTBS
The first three while having the highest DPS potential tend to be super squish while doing thier dps. While IB, CH, Kotbs can go 2h and still offer some viable dps and utility. Kotbs looses DT but can still aoe snare, EA, super punt, and focus mend. Chosen can go CS spec, and IB as many have said is most likely the best 2h tank.

[Bignusty]

BO high basic dmg and more crit : SYF > DYG > THC target dead if you can do this rotation fast =)
SM Spirit dmg and debuff resist + 2 Absorb : Huge advantage
BG survivality Magic Dmg resist but less basic dmg
IB huge survivality lot ctrl and lot of buff : Huge advantage to
CH/Knight : Aura for buff debuff : Nice advantage when you dont have miror on both side but for me Knight is better than CH due to tactics

Im nit asking for who is number 1 2 3 4 but each tank can do well depend target and situation.

[Luftwaffle]

Let's get down to brass tax, given a healer isn't focus burst healing someone. who can BODY a person the fastest, and just chunk away health?

[th3gatekeeper]

See, I actually think Chosen wins this battle. Not because he can deal more damage than these other classes, but because of the fact that if he can crit on Rending, thats a 25% damage reduction to everyone crit by it for 10 seconds. I think its some of the biggest party utility from a 2h tank....

All the other ones (with exception of IB) dont provide some good "defensive" abilities like that - so the 2H tank is helping "tank" using his 2h and being in the fray.....

Just my 2 cents...

[ounkeo]

The SM is basically a pounce spec White Lion that's much harder to kill, does spirit damage, can double debuff his damage type and he can spin his 2hander around to act like a shield, giving him 50% to deflect, block, dodge etc... with tactic, his crit goes up 10% and 20% respectively from his dance. Plus, the absorbs. Those lovely absorbs.

VS a BO, the BO will almost always win over time due to his ability to heal in combat. That's the only reason. It's a long fight.

VS a BG, the 2hand SM will win. My live SM never lost to a BG solo, ever. I don't recall losing to a s/b BG either.

VS Chosen, the SM will almost always win unless the chosen is S/B, then it's close.

Any of the tank is actually DPS viable but if you want a tank that's really built around 2hander, it'll be the SM. Once you Wings of Heaven a clothie who thinks he's safe far behind the battle front, you might be hooked. An Ether Dance cycle will usually drop the healer/caster unless there's a second and third healer who can act fast enough to emergency heal the guy.

After dropping the support, activate wall of darting steel (where your 2hander acts like an active shield ability) and retreat to where your healers can reach you. If you try and do that with a 2hander on an IB or KOTBS, it's just not going to happen, much less how you're going to survive on retreat even if you manage to get behind to the enemy support. Your healers have to follow you in and expose themselves to range attacks. Not ideal.

An IB and a KOTBS are just generally better all around though.

[Penril]

I think OP asked for the best DPS tank, not the best 2H tank (2 very different things).

[Penril]

VS a BO, the BO will almost always win over time due to his ability to heal in combat. That's the only reason. It's a long fight.

Dueled SMs a LOT of times on my BO on live and they were really hard to beat. I had to change a few tactics just to face them (ran Dont bother me None and Da Greenest! to counter their spirit debuffs). Had to constantly shatter their absorbs. Also, BO needed WS to do decent damage against SM, while the later only needed Str to hurt the BO. Add to that Dragon's Talon (core -20% to damage, while the BO needs to spec his and it is only physical).

Anyway it was always a close fight that lasted for a while, which could favor the SM if he used Bladeshield in the right moment; 1 or 2 hits usually meant gg for the BO.

Imho, SM has the edge over BO in 1v1.

[Sulorie]

Help me, what kind of grp utility has a 1h SM? Is it about KD?

CH> SM because the CH deals spirit damage? Now it becomes absurd.

Not saying SM is good/bad. Just answering your question:

- Dragon's Talon is good against mdps.
- AoE punt is useful for when a melee train is on one of your groupmates.
- Spammable ST snare.
- Double spirit debuff (useful for DPS AMs, other SMs with different spec, WL's with Lionheart, DPS WPs).
- Stat steal.
- WoH (only tank with a Pounce), the snare stacks with other snares.

And of course WW and KD which have already been mentioned.

My question was more like what a 1h SM offers and a 2h SM not. Because he said that a 2h SM is bad and only 2h IB is viable. Ofc we don't have WoDS yet, so 2h lacks a lot defense.

[Penril]

The only thing would be Hold the Line. Crushing Advance if you want a second interrupt but i don't know many SMs that use it; specially now that it got moved to 14 points.