The Guardian: Impenetrable Support Tank

First and foremost, I would like to give thanks and credit to @Precaria since this build is based from his Infinite Mana Tank


The Guardian
The Guardian is a tank build that provides impressive Support and Tanking Capabilities. This build utilizes the Guardian skill to promptly Steal and Hold Aggro with little effort even against 2H spammers, while giving the party decent Buffs at the same time.

Stats:
VIT is the primary stat. It Increases your Max HP, Sanctuary will be more effective the higher your HP is
MTL will be added after maxing out VIT. It increases your resistance
AGI endgame stats will utilize AGI for increased dodge and ASPD

Skills:

Skills in red will be maxed out first
Skills in blue are optional skills

Martial
Smash 5
Bash 5
Shell Break 10
Heavy Smash 1
Sonic Wave 5
Earthbind 1

Shot
Shot Mastery 5
Long Range 5
Quick Draw 10

Shield
Shield Mastery 5
Shield Bash 5
Force Shield 1-10
Magical Shield 1-10
Shield Cannon 10
Protection 10
Aegis 10
Guardian 10

Refrain from adding Guard Strike. There is a bug with this skill
that makes Save and Consec fail to work when it activates

Support
Mini Heal 5
Recovery 5
Sanctuary 10

Guard
Heavy Armor Mastery 10

You can choose Light Armor Mastery if you prefer Evading
than Guarding. It really depends on your playstyle

Knight
Assault Attack 5
Parry 1
Provoke 1-10

Provoke is optional. You will rarely or never even use this
since the Guardian skill will always take hold of the Aggro

Priest
Holy Fist 1


Combos:

Aggro Holder Combo (Combo 1)
Sonic Wave > Guardian (save) > Assault Attack (swift) > Sanctuary (swift) > Shield Bash (swift)
100 MP

Sonic Wave Tumbles the target giving you time to cast Guardian at a safe distance, reposition yourself and initiate Assault Attack and cast Sanctuary
Switch Sonic Wave with Holy Fist and Shield Bash with Earthbind for delicate bosses

Stun + Resistance Buff Combo (Combo 2)
Assault Attack > Shell Break (save) > Shield Cannon (swift) > Protection/Aegis (swift)
100 MP

if the Boss mainly deals Physical Damage set it to Protection, if it does Magical Damage set it to Aegis.
If it deals both type of Damage activate both buffs
Level 10 Protection gives you +50% Physical Resistance And -25% Magical Resistance
Level 10 Aegis gives you +50% Magical Resistance and -25% Physical Resistance
Activating Both skills gives you +25% Physical and Magical Resistance and cancels the debuff

Aggro Stealer + Lethargy Debuff Combo (Combo 3)
Smash > Heavy Smash (save) > Shell Break (swift) > Sonic Wave (swift)
100 MP

Use this combo after the Aggro Holder Combo in situations that you were not able to take hold of the aggro (e.g. party members attacked the boss first)
Switch Smash with Earthbind and Sonic Wave with Assault Attack for delicate bosses
Lethargy reduces the enemy's damage by 25%

Alternate between the three combos. My usual playstyle is
Combo 1 > Combo 2 > move away from boss > Combo 1 > Combo 3


Gear:

Main Weapon:
Drills - Excavated Golem (for increased Guard Rate)

Sub Weapon:
Black Shield of Delusion +E (for increased Guard Rate)
Marble Shield +E - Boss Drop (for increased Aggro)

Armor:
Player Crafted Arm + E ; VIT +7%,VIT +7%, MaxHP +7%, VIT +10/Aggro +10% - Arcoiris
Brigandine + E for Non-Light/Dark Type Bosses

Additional Gear:
Nurethoth Mask +E - Minotaur (for increased HP) / BB Gob (for increased Aggro)

Special Gear:
Magician's Ring - Stone Mercenary (for increased Guard Rate)


Buffs and Potions:
Ginko Nut Rice (event item): Physical and Magical Resistance +25% for 15 min
Shock Absorbing Cream: Guard Rate +7%, Guard Power +7% & VIT +7 for 30 min
Stab-Proof Sheet: Physical Resistance +5% for 30 min
Magic Barrier Wand: Magic Resistance +5% for 30 min
Vita Plus III: MaxHP +1500 for 30 min
Giga Speed Potion: ASPD +750 for 30 min

Video:
Coming Soon
​

 

Theres something wrong on the stat info.

Agi increased Dodge/Flee & NOT Evasion. Dodge/Flee is different on evasion.

Dodge - If u hit by an attack a red text will pop out and say "Miss".

Evasion - If u hit by an attack u will do a side/backward dash animation.

 

thanks for the correction, I honestly thought agi affects evasion as well . so I guess the only way to increase evasion is through light armor mastery only?

 

wha? i thought agi affected both evasion and dodge.

 

agi affects only dodge
on mob normal attacks dodge activates and on mob red zones, eva activates

 

This is an interesting build but I have some questions.
For your stats wouldn't it be more beneficial to add to int rather than agi? As a tank you want to be able to survive. Def is important with vit but there are bosses like empress, jade, etc where you would need to build some mdef.

Why use nure mask? Yes this gives you a big amount of hp but with the -30 ailment resistance this counters the stats you put into mtl. And will also mean every time you will be burned, poisoned, stun. A better option might be to go with brigan helm as this offers resistance increasing both def and mdef plus has 12% aggro. You don't need huge amounts of hp to tank well.

Provoke optional? I know with the new guardian skill aggro is held a lot easier but this should be lvl 10 and ready as a backup. It will only cost 200 mp at 10. I find that while I don't use this as often it's good to have for some bosses like roga and jade where you can't always cast guardian right away because bosses will interrupt first move. It should still be a primary just in case.

Aggro combo seems a bit long. I know you haven't posted a video yet but doesn't having both guardian and sanctuary in one combo make it a bit too long? Even with sanctuary swifted it still takes time to cast where you are stuck in one spot for too long taking hits you could be dodging. As a tank you're always moving a lot to avoid unnecessary damage and I don't know about the rest of the tankers but quite a bit of the time I don't even get to guardian because bosses are constantly attacking me. Maybe put guardian and sanctuary in 2 separate combos?

 

On mob normal attacks both dodge & evasion can activate.

Btw athena had a good points on her post.

 

Guardian is the coming of jesus for tanks
From what i have experienced its actually 100% aggro stealer, regardless of the other party members aggro.
I tried this at jade because it moves so much/interrupts it kept targeting other players during, after i used guardian, it didnt target me immediately, But still i got aggro when i had gone 5m near it even tho i didnt use any skill at all lol.
Though this makes me kinda nervous as aggro gears will not be as useful anymore
.
.
.
Your brawler tank build is very good too, though i personally would prefer low hp and high resistance rather than high hp and depending on sanctuary, the stationary sanctuary makes it a disadvantage for bosses that move too much, also nure mask is bad for tankers you will get poison,burn,guard break,weaken much more which in turn you will take more dmg. The combos too all of them are interrupt combos which are not good while tanking nure/jade/pg. if you really wanted to interrupt they should have been lvl10 for 100% proc rate zzz
Tho its just my personal playstyle, you can have your own playstyle nothing wrong in that.
I main as a brawler tank so for me i need to learn dps moves too to be able to stay relevant

 

Aggro gears will still be useful especially in those moments you need to use provoke. It depends on the boss but sometimes I can't cast guardian right away because boss keeps interrupting.

 

Thats not a big problem tbh, i havent experienced anyone dying because they took the aggro for like the first 4-5 seconds of battle, also provokes 2mp cost is danger for me after casting both aegis and protection if i use provoke i am left with only 2mp lol (my max mp just 600 )
If both those tries are get interrupted i am left with no mp.. And will have to wait for ampr/mp charge.
Also i believe provoke does fixed amount of aggro regardless of the aggro gears? Lets summon aggro mistress and see what she has to share (if she is still active ) @Caskadia

 

How did you calculate it?

 

It’s because Def/Mdef doesn’t give that much of a damage reduction compared to resistance. I believe that the computation for the damage reduction made by def/mdef is (Enemy Damage – total def/mdef)(e.g. If an enemy deals 10k magical damage and you have 1k Mdef, the total damage dealt to you would be 9k) that damage is low compared to the damage reduction of resistance which is [Enemy Damage – (%resistance X Enemy Damage)](e.g. if an enemy deals 10k magical damage and you have 50% magical resistance, the total damage dealt to you would be 5k. so that’s why I don’t think int will be that very beneficial . I’ll consider adding Int when the level 3 Priest skills come out and see if the buff for bless will be worth investing for.

Yes, i have also considered using Brigan helm because of its boost in resistance. I'm still testing which gears are better suited since you need to have very high HP in order for sanctuary to be effective. So its like choosing the lesser of two evils, a gear that greatly improves your HP but reduces your motion speed and ailment resistance, or a gear that gives a decent boost in resistance but doesn't increase your HP whatsoever.

I don't see the need for provoke atm since I still have no problem in holding the aggro with guardian. Even if the other members take the aggro from me, I can use guardian while the boss' attention is on them then spam the hell out of Combo 3 and the boss' aggro will return to you.

that's why I distance myself from the boss before initiating the combo. The duration for tumble is more than enough time to cast guardian and reposition yourself before the boss makes its next attack.

 

Yes i had a problem pinning down nure in one place. i also think its better opting for +resistance gears for mobile bosses