[Ironbreaker] Question

[Aebel]

Hi there! New player here. I've noticed that Order has a massive lack of tanks and healers, at least in T1, and I'm trying to decide on a class to play. My question is twofold; out of healers and tanks which does Order need more of, and how are Ironbreakers currently stacking up against KotBS and Swordmasters?

[GodlessCrom]

Honestly we need more competent melee dps in tier 4 than anything, though more healers is never bad. Order definitely has more tanks than it used to, and they are generally decent. In particular, we have some stellar Sword masters and Ironbreakers that I have seen recently. We do have more 2h tanks that I have seen recently as well, but order 2h tanks are generally more viable than their destro counterparts, though still less viable than snb tanks, except for SM whom are decent as both.

So if you're super committed to filling a gap, then roll a rune priest or slayer.

As to viability of IB versus knight and SM, that depends on your goals. Knights are mandatory in all groups, at least one of them anyways, and so they are always wanted. Their mechanic is the easiest (afk auras) and so they are the easiest to play and also the easiest to play well.

Sword masters do far and away the best damage out of any tank in the game, and they play directly into the proc meta that we supposedly live in right now. They can also be reasonably tanky, and their utility again comes through aoe procs which require little oversight from the player. Whispering Winds build is a little more reliant on running with an organized group, but both that and the ether dance build are generally desirable for both group and pug play.

Ironbreakers a bit of the odd dwarf out, as it were, since our damage isn't at sword master levels, and our buffs are not aoe, and are often covered by knight buffs. Where IB excel IMO is solo roaming or duo play. Your buffs affect one other person besides yourself, but they are potentially very powerful, and while our damage isn't SM tier, let alone even close to a real mdps, we can put out some decent burst and we are still quite survivable even as 2h.

So IB is probably not as meta as the other two tanks right now. But honestly, few players/groups run exactly optimized meta builds anyways. If you solo/duo a lot like me, then IB is one of the best melee classes in the game imo, and certainly among the most fun. If you can switch guard without being asked and assist a melee train while maintaining your buffs and using your CC WHEN APPROPRIATE (ie don't punt away nearly dead targets, don't aoe root a while group right off the bat, etc), then you ahouldnt have any trouble. I can do all the above, usually, and as a 2h IB I have no trouble finding groups when I want them and making a noticable impact.

Hope that helped, and hopefully I spent say anything terribly wrong. I'm a fairly casual player, so hopefully some of the bettter IB like Volgo or Phantom show up

[eks]

I can only speak from my own experience (and my time zone, California time) but I find I am the only healer grouped with 5 dps pretty often. I think order needs more SnB tanks who can guard mdps more than anything.

[GodlessCrom]

Hm well I keep odd hours so my experience is probably skewed. I often find the only people I have to guard are my fellow tanks, or some grace spec WPs. I see an absolute ton of rdps but few mdps. And often the mdps go hareing off into the middle of an enemy group, out of range of the healers, and while I might live, even with the guard damage, they often die :p.

That said, no one will ever say no to a good Snb tank I think.

[Aebel]

Thank you for the quick and thorough answer! I have noticed a lack of mdps running around so I will take that into consideration. Are Slayers considered better than White Lions?

[GodlessCrom]

I haven't played any mdps much in t4 besides marauder and even that one im inexperienced on. From what I know, both are viable, but Slayer is the squishier of the two and more reliant on a group. All mdps are squishy however. White Lion does more front loaded burst, but has to contend with having part of its dps tied up in a pet, which can be buggy and frustrating. This isn't to imply tha slayers dont do burst damage: they do. Just that WL are more known for their burst.

I advocate Slayer, if only because Mohawk hobo looks cooler than some pansy elf wearing a rug :p

[anarchypark]

lacking class is constantly change
when u play tank there is no healer, when you play healer there is no tank
sometimes there is no dps

just pick the role what you want to be
i see tank/healer as a backbone of army
and dps act upon thier support
without support they die a lot

[Rebuke]

IB is meta when one of your dps is a Wrath WP and the other is a slayer since you bring armor debuff ability and armor debuff morale (thus they stack). IB is by far the tank with the highest skill ceiling in this game and aside from Volvograd and Barundin (who doesnt play anymore) I have not seen a single skilled IB on this server.

I also do not get why people think Slayer is squishier than WL. Slap that armor tactic on and drop your rage when getting focused and you are a medium armor dps +700 armor from tactic (around 3100 armor with current merc gear?).

As soon as IB buffs no longer get covered by Knight aura' s they will pretty much be equal with teh SM regarding group viability.

[GodlessCrom]

IB is meta when one of your dps is a Wrath WP and the other is a slayer since you bring armor debuff ability and armor debuff morale (thus they stack). IB is by far the tank with the highest skill ceiling in this game and aside from Volvograd and Barundin (who doesnt play anymore) I have not seen a single skilled IB on this server.

I also do not get why people think Slayer is squishier than WL. Slap that armor tactic on and drop your rage when getting focused and you are a medium armor dps +700 armor from tactic (around 3100 armor with current merc gear?).

As soon as IB buffs no longer get covered by Knight aura' s they will pretty much be equal with teh SM regarding group viability.

Agreed on IB being highest skill ceiling tank. As to good IBs: Pusigava is good, or at least he seems on point whenever I see him. So is Basher. I don't know if either of them post on the forums though. Volgo is definitely the best going right now though.

[TenTonHammer]

I think we will see a resurgence of IB viability later in the game when the power SM's dot tactics fall off and subsequently their DPS weakens