2h tanks?

[Rebuke]

Politically correct answer: This is a game. You should play games to your liking. But as a tank you should atleast keep a shield in your inventory just in case

Facts: Running around as a 2-hander tank is fun but useless (sadly ). You do fluff damage even when slotted full strength (dat horrible butcher gear oh my lord), lose alot of survivability (remember that shields can block all "bolted" attacks) and instead of being an asset guard becomes a liability.

All of this for +25 points of damage for single target damage abilities? Not worth it.

[Joan]

I main a Blorc and I think 2h is not a good idea. A T nk is a Tank, not a MDPS attempt

With that being said, the only class I think would be somewhat "viable" 2h. is Blorc / Ibreaker. Even then
I wouldnt recommend using 2h. If you dont guard properly, your group will probably suffer the consequences

[CarlistRieekan]

I've used to play 2h Chosen on live servers and usually ended between top 3 damage contributors in scenario. Of course, being 2h tank is rather selfish (forget using Guard!), but if slotted properly you can be nightmare for the light-armored enemies due to your CC and relatively good surviability. Also higher DPS from 2h weapon contributes to the damage from the most of your abilities. The drawback is you're rather weak against armored targets (you don't do as much damage as pure MDPS and you usually have lower survivability), thus you have to choose targets correctly and be rather aware of your sorroundings in the combat since you can end being dead rather quickly.

I also suggest to carry alternative more tanky set and shield in your backpack in case your party needs some off-tank. It is not an ideal solution, but it can allow you to adjust your role according a party composition.

[Asvaldr]

When the "dps" show me they can target properly maybe id be more inclined to roll a SnB tank till then ill stick with my 2h

[K13R]

In the live game you could go 2h (with any tank) until tier 4 once the HPS got out scaled by the DPS you had to put on a shield. You can still use guard but you have to have chanellge up and only for MVP type class just don't go guard some random slayer going full retard it well kill you. But with the current meta S/S is the best to go with. With out renown trining you cant stack enough weapon skill for parry rates. FYI that high damage you think you did on the scoreboard why cause you lived the longest and the classes that do the REAL BURST tat you should have been gaurding spent to much time running back from the spawn point.

[TenTonHammer]

When the "dps" show me they can target properly maybe id be more inclined to roll a SnB tank till then ill stick with my 2h

you even right now, do crap damage as a 2h tank, with out HDEBUFF you can really cant do much vs healers who right now are the REAL tanks here being able to causally walk away while having like 3 people beat on them, while taking a sum total of 0 dmg and just making them waste their ap so they dont bother targeting them.

As an mdps its an exercise in frustration to do any thing vs healers, their not scared of you cause they having nothing to be sacred of

But i swear to god that soul killer, triple mind killer stack and choking fury will make them run with their tails between their legs

Its all a matter of reaching lvl 24

[lilsabin]

lol , to those saying , tanky character (black orc , iron breaker) should go fully tank (snb) then why the "primary" devs included an option to go 2 handed ? i am sorry , but actually i am having a lot of fun with my blackorc 2hander ( p.s. lets take in count that we are reviving a game wich mechanics was broke since the begining and they didnt have a lot of time to adjust , game was out for like 5 years and the last patch was 1.4.9 , if i recall correctly) we are behind a lot of mmorpg by far , lets just hope the current devs can fix everything to look exactly like 1.4. live ,then we can work on fixing thing again. AND YES , NOT GUARDING PEOPLE MIGHT BE SELFISH , BUT SOMETIME , I JUST WANT TO GET IN THE ACTION AND SMASH THINGS , plus there are too many retards in the game at this point... so u might end up wasting your guards . play what you like and not what the people need ( ask blizzard , lol)

[Penril]

lol , to those saying , tanky character (black orc , iron breaker) should go fully tank (snb) then why the "primary" devs included an option to go 2 handed ? i am sorry , but actually i am having a lot of fun with my blackorc 2hander ( p.s. lets take in count that we are reviving a game wich mechanics was broke since the begining and they didnt have a lot of time to adjust , game was out for like 5 years and the last patch was 1.4.9 , if i recall correctly) we are behind a lot of mmorpg by far , lets just hope the current devs can fix everything to look exactly like 1.4. live ,then we can work on fixing thing again. AND YES , NOT GUARDING PEOPLE MIGHT BE SELFISH , BUT SOMETIME , I JUST WANT TO GET IN THE ACTION AND SMASH THINGS , plus there are too many retards in the game at this point... so u might end up wasting your guards . play what you like and not what the people need ( ask blizzard , lol)

2 handed can definitely be fun. But i guess most people in this thread are arguing about its viability in a group. Now, keep in mind there are basically 2 kinds of opponents you will face:

1) Bads
2) Good

The bad players choose terrible targets to attack, like tanks or a guarded WP/DoK. They attack different targets at the same time (not assisting) and never protect their backlines. Tanks rarely guard and if they do, they don't stay close to their guarded target (and forget about them swapping guard).

The good players don't even need a premade most of the time; they choose the best targets and assist each other while helping their backlines if needed. Tanks swap guard and healers heal (and don't go dps).

Against bad players, you can spec whatever tactic you want and use any weapon you choose. First thing i did when i entered a SC was check who my enemies were. If I knew they were bad, i would go so far as to use FO.

Against good players however, 2H is simply not viable for pretty much all tanks (with IB as an exception due to Cave-In requiring a 2H, and possibly Chosen too). They will be assisting each other, so the damage on your guarded ally will be huge and, without a shield to block most of it, your health will be a problem. At this point your enemies will focus you and unless another tank guards you, it is very possible you will die (tanks don't have detaunt).

Some might say that a 2H BG is a good choice due to CW, but as many others have already pointed out, a 5-sec KD is simply too good to pass it. 2H KotBS can certainly be super tanky, but without a shield you are missing DT (10% group crit buff) which is much better than any extra damage you might do using a 2H over SnB.

BOs and SMs can do a lot of damage going SnB dps, while being much tankier than if going 2H.

Chosen is the one i'm not so sure; before stagger nerf, most spec'd the stagger, the KD and Crippling Strikes. However, after the nerf some Chosen decided to ignore Quake and just went RB, with the intention of applying CS on as many targets as they could. I guess this would be a good reason to go 2H, specially since 2H Chosen can be pretty tanky as well.




TL;DR: 2H tanks are awesome against bad players; not so much against good players.

[Penril]

lol , to those saying , tanky character (black orc , iron breaker) should go fully tank (snb)

Who said that SnB = fully tank? You would be surprised to see the damage of a good SnB BO/SM.

[Morf]

Pretty much what penril said. Also right now it is impossible to get enough parry to neglect what guard damage you are taking while using a 2h but when renown abilities work its more then viable especially(to which im surprised more ppl havent mentioned) for kotbs who slot runefang.