Return of Reckoning

Hey all! I just got into RoR and am very excited to explore this game again. I played primarily Zealot back in the day and wanted to explore tanking this time around. Landed on Black Orc as I love Greenskins.

Was planning on going Path of the Toughest with a few points into Path of the Boss by endgame. Admittedly it is difficult to find current builds for this game so I am not sure if I am headed in the right direction or if I even chose a decent class that is valuable to groups.

Any info or tips for Black Orc appreciated!

Bo is a fun class to play, lacking a bit of utility with no useful ST punt, but as a tank it does its job. For levelling I would recommend going Boss first to get the party absorb first, and then KD "Down Ya GO", and then deciding where to go next.

If you are not gonna be joining any halfway decent groups/guilds that care about party setups, if you're primarily going to be solo queuing scenarios and cities and joining pug wbs only then pick whichever class you like.

If you plan on getting into groups/guilds,
1)playing in warbands for largescale RvR, then pick chosen.
2)playing in small groups, ranged party setups, 6man style then pick chosen or blackguard.

Currently BO is very underpowered compared to its Order counterpart.

Black Orc got a nerf a few years back in the last balance patch which left them without a role that a Chosen or Black Guard can't do better. We can stack really high block, but Order's best dps (slayers) ignore this most of the time with the ability that shall not be named so even that doesn't add much.

That being said, play whichever you enjoy the most. I have a blast on the Black Orc despite it not being meta. When the ability rework is finally done the top meta classes will probably change anyway so a class you pick now because it's meta may not be in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

For a 40/40 build I would go with this.
https://builder.returnofreckoning.com/career/black-orc

Go for Rock 'ard first as it's a useful opener. Then go path of the toughest up to Not in Da face! don't bother going beyond that as We'z bigger is a trash ability. Then you want to put everything else into path of the boss to get Down ya go and eventually WAAAAAGH!

For SnB at 80, i run this alot:
RoR.builders - Black Orc
I like the arm breaka and the not in the face to harass my target (which is usually whomever my guard is attacking)
If I'm in a group with casters that can benefit from it, then I would go with Waagh instead of arm breaka. cant have both so have to decide on who will benefit most from your support.
84 rr Ork

bo is great fun in pubs due to being the best all round fighter in the game but their utility is nonexistant right now so des prems tend to prefer chosen and bg. that said tanks can be hard to find at times so bos get picked up anyway

There is one utility piece blork has and that is possibility of speccing all the way in the left tree and having 120 stat steal without being too squishy thanks to you wot. Due to how initiative works it gets you quite a lot even with the marauder version existing already, and you can also take the weak slow on big swing. That being said, chosen is mandatory in every party and bg has AoE slow, which makes blork too much of an opportunity cost in 6 man (you will get kited badly) and leaves you with 2 reasonably blork friendly slots in 24 man. Now remember chosen had identical morale pump and having one double chosen group lets one of them run healdebuff aura, in addition to wanting two bgs for better slow uptime, and you are left with only one blork friendly spot for an orvr warband. And in most cases even there you are interchangeable with a chosen.
Regarding city groups it's even worse cause you run 2 ST groups there, but it's also where you might benefit the most from blork stat steal and meta is much less decided there too.

might as well just play a choppa cos all BO do now is dpsing why not play a true dps.

100% level a chosen. You will not regret it. 7/8 tank slots in any organized WB.. Easily slotted in small man and ranked play. You can literally fit in to any group and shine.

The BO mechanic is clunky and underwhelming. The lack of a good ST punt is a deal breaker.. The BO literally doesn't bring anything unique to the table. An earlier post mentioned their insane block rate being useless vs. Slayers.. It is..

Trust me and take my advice I played a BO pre nerf and quite a bit post nerf because I couldn't bring myself to reroll. I regret that decision often as Im BiS 2H and BiS SnB and RR83. I spend a lot of time trying to theory craft a new meta or some way to make the BO shine.

I often top Prot boards and am likely one of the top tanks in the game, but the BO doesn't enhance my play at all. Instead it holds me back from ranked and 6man city group play..

What a shame . I would like to play a BO .