Tank 101

Well, in that other topic I said I would make this, so here we go!

Welcome students to this class of Tank 101. I'm Forensena, a resident Asobimo Tank. I have experience Tanking as several hybrid classes from Iruna for around five years and as a few hybrid classes in Toram for around two years. Today we are going to go over the basics of how the job "Tank" works. We shall be going over just the basics in class today, so if you are looking for the more advanced techniques and mechanics, look forward to my Tank 201 class whenever it becomes available.

For now, let us get started on today's lecture!


What exactly is a "Tank"?

A Tank is a term used in MMORPGs for the member of the party who takes the focus of the enemies that the party is fighting, be it a regular mob or a boss. The Tank is a class built around survival, but not the survival you would normally think. They take the attacks for the party so that the DPS / support can focus on their jobs to ensure a clean victory. In classic RPGs, the tanks were usually classes such as Paladin, Knight, Warrior, Dark Knight, etc. But this isn't a classic RPG, this is Toram. We do not have classes such as those, we have weapon types, stats, and skills.

How can one be a "Tank"?

The most common misconception about tanks is that they are HIGH Hp HIGH Def / MDef characters. A Tank can literally be a person with high Evasion or Abs Evasion, so long as they don't get hit by those pesky magic skills. Now don't get me wrong, the classic Tank is always useful, but you do not have to have the absolute highest defense, hp or magic defense. As long as you know what you are doing and how to deal with the boss, even a DPS can turn into a "Tank" (What I like to call a Glass Tank).

Now since we have that out of the way, let us get into what things you need to look out for when you are Tanking.

The first thing to know about when you decide to Tank is your party. Just like in the video game Team Fortress 2, your party may not need that class. If you are fighting in a low-rank event with high-rank players, Tanking is not the choice to make in these cases. There are times to Tank and times to not. Know the difference, and things will go a lot smoother.

Now you decide to Tank, it is needed for the party. What do you do? First and foremost is KNOW THE ENEMY YOU ARE FIGHTING. On some bosses, you do not want to start the fight with the enemy until the party is ready or certain mechanics have been cleared. Now you get into the fight, up against the boss, do you know the way the boss fights? Find out how a boss attacks, what type of ailments it gives, what is the "Tank Busters" of said boss, and where is the best location for you to tank it. Going into a fight with a Lamborghini, I MEAN Knowledge, will help you and your party get that victory tone instead of defeat.

The second thing to know is POSITIONING. Positioning is not just where you are, but where your party is. Here are two examples of positioning, one is wrong and one is right.

Position 1: The Tank is in front of the boss, the DPS to the sides and back of the boss, the support is outside of the range of the boss.
Position 2: The Tank is in front of the boss, the DPS is in front of the boss, the support is outside of the range of the boss.

Can you figure out which position is wrong? Did you say 1? Well, that'd be incorrect. Position 2 is the wrong way to Position in a fight. If you ever come across this scenario when fighting a boss, move around the boss so that his / her / it / eldritch horror back turns to the DPS to ensure that any Line AoE does not hit them and will only go towards you. You are the Tank, you take the attacks, not the DPS or Support. (Unless they repeatedly move around to be in the way of the attacks, then go tell them to go **** their ******* with a ******* and ***** in heaven, but politely tell them that, don't need to become grouchy like the Healers)

The third thing that is important to Tanking is the Stats, Skills, and Gear needed for Tanking.

Your common, classic Tank build is VIT MTL. VIT gives you HP and Def while MTL gives you Ailment Resist. But this also depends on the weapon you are using. If you want a more accurate guide to what Stats Visibly give for each weapon, check out Reflecc's guide Here.
Your "Attack" Skills will mostly depend on what weapon you are using, but the general skill trees you will want to get are Knight, Shield, Survival, Guard, Support. We will take a closer look at these skill trees in Tank 201.

With the Gear, besides the weapon, you are looking at HP%+, Vit%+, Aggro%+ (Or Vit+, but try to stick away from that). Shields are generally the best way to go for Tanks since it opens up the use of certain skills that require a shield to be useful. With your Add Gear, there are a few choices to choose from. For me personally, I LOVE Nuretoth Mask, but a much better choice is Charm Belt since it gives 300 MP and 30% Aggro. Going from there, with the Spec Gear, you can go with Toughness Bangle, Dark Fighter Bangle, Knight's Talisman, Magician's Ring, Ring of Greed. Your Spec Gear is more for what you are lacking in your Tank. Are you lacking MP? Are you lacking Aggro? Pick what you need most.

With the weapon, if you are going 1H or Knuckle, you want to pick the Toy Hammer or Drill respectively. They do no damage to enemies, but you will hit 95% of the time (mechanics in this game can be evil at times) Otherwise you either go for the above-mentioned stats on the weapon or go for something that will fit into your Tank's build.

Now that about wraps up the Tank 101 lecture. If you have any questions or comments, please do feel free to reply here and feel free to message me on the forums if you want to learn more in-depth about Tanking and get hands-on experience.

When we come back for Tank 201 we shall go over the term "aggro", mechanics, in-depth look at skills, crystals, and things that we have not gone over here in Tank 101.

IF THIS WAS TL;DR, here is a quick summary of the topic

Spoiler

Don't Tank if you don't want to put the effort into Tanking. Or if you are just skipping through because you already know what Tank 101 is, then feel free to talk to me about things you'd like for me to talk about in the upcoming lessons for the new Tanks to learn.

 

Noticed i made a mistake. Called the Charm Belt the Crystal Belt

 

Question:
1) Should i refine my shield up +B or higher (i m using dark general shield made my npc not from boss drop) ?
2) Can i spam more and more warcry and berserk ? or spam impact ( when all my party members are bow user) ?
3) What is the minimum or avg max hp % for tank ? (i m at 7k of hp now at lvl 120+)
4) For xtal should i go for hp pool or resistance xtal or aggro ?
5) Should i must turn my armor into a heavy version ?
6) Btw, impact or sonic wave . Which one is better for ohs ?
7) If i use rampage , does it will cause a problem during tanking the boss ? Can i perform the pdef at that time or passive guard activated or not ?
8) Should i cast aegis or protection at the beginning of the battle or just during the battle (when the situation seems a bit clumsy )
9) Should tank also focus on breaking parts or just take an aggro only ?
10) Should i ditch survival skills ?
Sorry for a long questions.

 

Some of the questions you asked are going to be discussed in Tank 201, ill be going in depth about those at that time.

But to answer some of them, getting S on shield does help, its not absolutely necessary though. Having higher hp is a good idea, but it depends on what kind of tank you are, Evasion tank or shield tank. Sonic Wave is useful, but i believe being a knuckle tank would work with it much more. Its always a good idea to help with breaking since some parts are difficult for the dps to get to safely. Survival skills are pretty much a must for any job since extra hp and extra mp. The armor depends on the type of tank again.

 

about shield i will do my best to refine it up to +B now. I see, i try to get hp pool too. I m ohs +shield tank. so i need to get rid of impact now and replace it to sonic wave ? I did tap but my break points always like 24 ~26 (I will rechecked back) . If i have extra sp i will try get hp boost. So for ohs tank, heavy armor is the best choice ?

 

Tanks are pretty bad at tap damage. You can still tap while performing a combo though, every little bit(even if it's just a tickle) helps. You don't have to go out of your way just to tap though, only when you're performing a combo. You can also help in breaking by turning(luring) the Boss around so the breakable parts end up facing your other party members.

+C vs +B shield. You'll get 1% damage reduction, 1 Guard Rate when using Guardian, 1% damage reduction for party mates connected to Guardian, 2% Aggro reduction for party mates connected to Guardian.

Yeah not much. If you're pressed for money then +C is enough.

 

1) +B is great, +C is enough, +S is a luxury
2) Yes you can, the other way around also works, spam physical-high-aggro skills when u have full mage party
3) 10k is the lower limit(my preference) as high-damage-non-fatal AOEs usually hits you around 6k per hit(not the fractional one), 15k is decent, 20k is optimum(as you can get max heal amount from p. Def)
4) gears and xtals are flexible, you can have multiple sets of gears based on your needs. Tanks equips are generally cheaper compared to other classes. I go with +aggro for starting gears as you can compensate other stuffs like HP and resists with your own skills( p. Def and techniques). If you lack aggro, you can't do anything about it without correct gears.
5) evasion and dodge type tanks arent that viable, though its possible. So yeah go with heavy armor as the extra guard rate will be useful
6) with sonic wave, you can do long range tumbling, but you'd have to learn extra skill tree for that. I prefer impact as you can also learn finale for combo stopper
7) there is a slight delay if you use p.def when guard triggered, but its mostly neglectable, rampage tho it does make p. Def hard to use. I do learn it as power wave canceller, so when you shukuchi you will leap straight in front of the mob, instead of stopping at the power wave range. But for the ampr? There are better alternatives for that
8) use either aegis or protection, or both of it, at the time window you feel like its save to cast it, the duration is long(at max level) so it shouldn't be a problem the sooner you cast it. Extra resist is always nice
9) you definitely need to time your interrupt skills to make it easy for others to tap it, other than that you don't really need to break it as tanks usually uses toy hammer/drills, which makes you completely useless on parts breaking as it has -150 cdmg. Keeping the aggro is obviously your priority
10) for mp boost, there is no need for that, you can get plenty of mp from your gears(eg. Lil empress garb gives you +500mp, charm belt +300/350 mp). Hp boost is optional. If you feel like you need it, its a good investment.

I'm not exactly an OG of tanks but I feel like I did my homework well enough. I hope this will be useful

 

Screw that twin headed dragon talisman, it doesn't make you immune to those ailments. It makes YOU unable to inflict tumble/flinch/stun to mobs

 

So true. When leveling at EMS, I used my ktn skills to take less or no dmg, while getting aggro with my setup combo. What a funny situation.

 

I never got to test the Twin Head since i like my toughness bangle too much, but seriously? Asobimo has got to fix it sinces it is worded otherwise

Just went and relooked at it, i now see the wording and understand what Asobimo was going for. Editting the post to have that removed. Thank you for the comment

 

Yea, it misleads many people I met. That stuff is too good for 700k only (at the time I sold it). And the price is too high for the actual utility(it is kinda rare though). I guess it got the benefit of misunderstanding

But its still useful for those who don't want to inflict the ailments to mobs, for example like DW and other melee classes with hard hit as opener, or uses impact

 

Thank you bloodytolist and Yunan , I will try my best to get +B refine on shield and i will use heavy version on the armor. I m on the right track and i will try to input all that been mentioned above. Thank you so much for the answer and the explanation.

I use scale armor (got it from the boss)

 

It again comes down to the build. There are definitely some armors dropped by bosses that are much much better, but this isn't a topic about being an Advanced Tank or Late Game Tanking. This is for people starting up or looking to start improving

 

It is way too situational for Base Tanking, so I'll be going over it when I talk about the Staggers: Dos and Don'ts in a later topic

 

For add, i use Fish Head (Candela2). That's +50% hp, +20% aggro and +600 aspd in one neat little package~