Guide to Solo Tanking BS

[BluIzLucky]

Having a hard time finding a tank? Tired of waiting or paying vaste sums of gold for subpar tanks?
Then try this easy, never before seen, 30 quick steps guide, off-tanks will hate you!

*This guide assumes you already know all mechanics, and will just go over the differences between solo and duo tanking.
**Solo tanking BS is not newb or PUG friendly, and should for aforementioned only be done for fun/the challenge or in case you can only find one tank (a lot of people will help out for 50-300g, an option you might consider before soloing ).
***an off tank will add a lot of stability, without necessarily much dps loss, and so a wipe or two caused by the absence of a tank, would quickly equalise any gains from an extra dps.

Team composition & Stats:

Spoiler:

1 tank
2 healers
1-3 MDPS (2 recommend)
0-2 RDPS
0-2 hybrid healers

Recommended Tank stats
+10k HP
0% Chance to be crit
+70% avoidance (this can be from a mix of block and parry or just parry if 2H)
+4k armor

Recommend MDPS stats
+8k hp
0% Chance to be crit
Max Reflexes

LEFT WING

Spoiler:

1st Boss
No change.
(Pull boss and place in corner. AoE + challenge to get adds.)

2nd Boss
Rdps takes dog, detaunting it through the fight and stands near door on outside so he can dps boss.

3rd Boss
No change.

4th Boss
Tank use Menace, mdps use Confusing Movements
Guard rdps if they are not lowest aggro and you have highest aggro.
If tank gets pulled mdps with boss aggro needs to detaunt and M1 as needed, until they get guarded.
Tank save morale for bellow/m4, try to challenge boss if you get pulled or dogs if someone else gets.
Dogs can do a lot dmg, so pop regen potion and defensive abilities.
This one can get messy, but you can take it slow and not dps while tank rebuilds aggro, at leadt do so if rdps is next to take boss.

RIGHT WING

Spoiler:

1st Boss
Tank stand in middle, swap guard to dps with highest aggro. Dps detaunt/m1 as needed.

2nd Boss
No change.
(1 dps on each item. Tank demo strike when all are down. Should die before items respawn)

3rd Boss
Mdps on main boss against fire. Tank on dog. Run menace. Tank guard mdps with boss. Save challenge and morales for spawns.
This one can get messy, if aggro swap takes too long and armor debuff gets too big.
Healer can reset on wipe by going to other end of room near giant.

4th Boss
No change.
(All stand on purple. Quick guard swaps and challenge when you don't have aggro.)

MID WING

Spoiler:

1st Boss
No change.
(Guard highest aggro. Rdps kill statues. Challenge when you lose aggro.)

2nd Boss
Tank both and rotate debuffs/attacks to keep aggro.

3rd Boss
Healer on skulls, drop after/on 2nd fire puddle.
Guard highest dps until 2nd fire, then remove guard. All offensive morales.

4th Boss
No change.

5th Boss
Equip menace. Tank and rdps in front. Mdps in back. Guard best mdps in back, then once you've been punted mdps with aggro use detaunts and m1 if needed. Try to challenge / bellow / m4 on your way out.
This is possibly the hardest boss as without extra mitigation from 2nd tank, there's less room for error.

[nebelwerfer]

awesome, thank you

[tristess]

I have solo-tanked BS on my black orc a few times. It's definitely doable and I agree with your recommendations. It all depends on the dps being fast on the detaunt though, so a good team is recommended. I actually like BS more with one tank since it's faster. Most bosses are not very entertaining.

[space44]

why does this exist, i just thought tanking was naturally easy to play. i actually wondered who a really needed this guide.

[BluIzLucky]

This guide in the beginner's section is probably not for very high level chosens in BIS with other high level tanks, who solos BS in premades with ease before coffee...

I made it for fun and since until Tristess post, I hadn't heard of anyone else even thinking it was possible after +25 runs.

And unlike all other dungeons you can solo basically without ever losing aggro this is not the case in BS, your DPS also need to be ready and capable of directly tanking boss without guard.

[Fenris78]

Right wing is very easy to mono-tank, left wing you can but basically if Taringn'an grab your tank you can be screwed (the healers have to be ready).

Middle wing is very hard on 2 bosses : the one that use napalm (on third napalm you are dead as a tank, even with crossguard it's very hard if timing is not perfect), and last boss can nuke your unguarded dps pretty fast. As a tank, the best way could be avoid getting aggro (you let your guarded dps tank while guarded), stay on his back to not being bumped, and switch guard to the second dps when first is bumped.

[Omegus]

why does this exist, i just thought tanking was naturally easy to play. i actually wondered who a really needed this guide.

Because "officially" Bastion Stair has mechanics designed around 2 tanks.

For the guide:

3rd boss mid wing: if you do the mechanic properly the damage is fine. The boss has an increasing damage buff which can be seen on his list of buffs. Usually a safe point to use a skull is at 80-100%. That will reset the damage buff. With 3 DPS he should be dead before reaching that point again.

5th boss mid wing: For destro, Marauders make excellent emergency off-tanks. If they get aggro then switch to monstrosity to shrug off armour penetration. Combined with good parry it makes the very survivable. The damage from that boss isn't too high as it's more an endurance fight/coordination fight anyway (the spikes come from people attacking when they shouldn't).

[Pkunk]

Was in a group with a chosen, many month ago, that solo tanked bs. We only had a hard time at last boss mid and then only because choppas like to hit boss when they should not. We made it.

[BluIzLucky]

Right wing is very easy to mono-tank, left wing you can but basically if Taringn'an grab your tank you can be screwed (the healers have to be ready).

Middle wing is very hard on 2 bosses : the one that use napalm (on third napalm you are dead as a tank, even with crossguard it's very hard if timing is not perfect), and last boss can nuke your unguarded dps pretty fast. As a tank, the best way could be avoid getting aggro (you let your guarded dps tank while guarded), stay on his back to not being bumped, and switch guard to the second dps when first is bumped.

Last boss left wing, 3rd boss right (dog+chosen) and last boss mid are the only ones that are harder if the dps don't know what to do when there's just one tank.
But all are fine following the guide.

3rd boss mid (beserker) is much easier as, as Zomega, said you just need one skull reset since he dies so fast and you don't need to take any guard dmg.

On last boss I have tried standing on side and just guarding, but it's just messy as you end up aggro swapping a lot.
Doing standard method with the dps detaunting while not attacking, etc. is enough to cover while tank runs back.