Tank question

[Aebel]

Hey guys, new to RoR though i did play a bit back in live. I want to make a S&B tank and im wondering what the viable choices are for both Destro and Order.

[tazdingo]

BO is an awesome s&b tank, lots of crit burst, morale pump, aoe snare and an all around great fighter
chosen is always good because auras, morale pump and can be very tanky. mixed defenses makes him a great guardbot
BG is sorta clunky and specialized as s&b, with annoying block and hate requirements on everything, but has the only 5 sec kd and a superpunt. also really tanky

SM is alright, but is usually played 2H. defensive spec relies on self shields and absorbs that don't really stack well at high tiers
IB i haven't played s&b
knight is possibly the best group support tank in the game, with auras, speccable aoe snare, 5% crit for group, interrupts and being near unkillable. no dmg though

[Luuca]

There should be some changes to both the Chosen and the KotBS shortly after the development team has official client control. Currently, both Knight and Chosen are considered to have "too much good stuff" for very little skill and as such, will be undergoing changes to make the classes great again (and lessen their status as the go-to tanks for both sides allowing for other tanks to become more go-to).

If I were having to roll a tank now on a fresh account, I would either roll a Black Orc as I consider this class the strongest all around tank for survivability and damage or a swordmaster simply because they are irritatingly difficult to manage in rvr (have not played one but fought many *looks at Onesword and frowns*) The Chosen can become very survivable, but at a huge drop in damage output. The Knight is the same way. During the grind to rr80, this playstyle becomes very repetitive and boring. My hope is that, with client control and changes, these two classes gain some role specialization that evens things out and allows for more fun.

[Jaycub]

Roll BO for sure

BG is in balance hell
Chosen about to get changed
Knight is in the same boat as chosen and it's 2h spec is better now in most cases
IB is slightly better off than BG but still 3rd fiddle to SM/Knight
SM is literally twohander the tank

BO has no real difference between it's 2h and SnB spec except 1 tactic which is currently making the SnB spec better (morale pump). on top of HotL and being a bit tankier for free. BO lacks any weapon restriction on all its meta spec abilities.

[Luuca]

did I just agree with Jaycub.. I feel dirty.

[Aebel]

Wow! Black Orc it is! Thanks for the input, you guys =)

[tazdingo]

Knight is in the same boat as chosen and it's 2h spec is better now in most cases

why? i thought dirty tricks was invaluable. i have little experience of high level order

- nvm i forgot it got nerfed

but yeah, you really can't go wrong as a black orc. they're the best fighters in the game. 2h chosen can also be fun if you're not set on s&b, but is sort of a one trick pony

[Vraal]

Why is it that SM is so much worse than BO although they are mostly mirrors?
Just because of the Weapon Restriction?

[Jaycub]

Why is it that SM is so much worse than BO although they are mostly mirrors?
Just because of the Weapon Restriction?

Nothing wrong with SM, it's basically a MDPS with guard and much more survivable thanks to WoDS, parry buff, and high base armor etc...

SM also does a lot of spirit dmg and can debuff spirit resistance twice that's quite an advantage in a lot of cases. BO is probably better if you look at them in a vacuum until RR70 when SM gets both ether dance and whispering wind, then it would be very close.


BO having uncleanasable AoE snare/disrorient with 100% uptime, morale pump, and cooldown increaser is what's really putting them over the top atm imo. SM doesn't really have an answer to any of these unless im forgetting something until it can spec for WW, maybe you could count wings of heaven?

[Vraal]

I've also read that SM has a lot of bad tactics and things that don't scale well or at all with stats.