Setzer wrote on 2013-01-13 22:31
So you may be wondering, How do I become a beastly tank? What is involved in this?
Why is Windguard so OP, why can't I tank like that? WELL GUESS WHAT, YOU CAN WITH
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="5"]SETZER'S EXTREME TANKING GUIDE[/SIZE][/FONT]
We'll go through this step by step, one at a time, to maximize your Hp, Defence, and Protection.
By the Time we're done mana shield will be a thing of the past!
PART ONE: SKILLS
We'll start off with the basics; All those low ap skills that you can get right off the bat.
Defence! It is the essential skill for Good tanking.
Sitting at a Moderate 173 AP For Humans and giants, and 121 AP for elves, It's a good first step!
Ranking Defence to 1 Will gives Humans and giants 41 HP and 15 Defence. Elves Only Get 10 Defence, but it's still a great skill
THE SCORE
HUMANS: 41 Hitpoints, 15 Defence, 0 Protection, 173 AP Spent
ELVES: 41 Hitpoints, 10 Defence, 0 Protection, 121 AP Spent
GIANTS: 41 Hitpoints, 15 Defence, 0 Protection, 173 AP Spent
Next Up Is another handy skill.
You guessed it! Combat mastery
Comming in at 198 AP for Humans and Giants and 129 for elves, ranking combat mastery gives a
WHOPPING 150 HITPOINTS!
All stats will now Be abbreviated.
THE SCORE
HUMANS: 191 HP, 15 DEF, 0 Prot, 373 AP
ELVES: 191 HP, 10 DEF, 0 Prot, 250 AP
Giants: 191 HP, 15 DEF, 0 Prot, 373 AP
REST
This easy to rank skill gives you nice boosts in HP, however eats alot of AP! You even get a new pose!
Ranking it to 7 will cost you 90 AP, however will net you 50 HP!
THE SCORE
HUMANS: 241 HP, 15 DEF, 0 Prot, 463 AP
ELVES: 241 HP, 10 DEF, 0 Prot, 340 AP
GIANTS: 241 HP, 15 DEF, 0 Prot, 463 AP
FIRST AID
This Low cost AP skill will give you 40 HP at Rank 6, while only costing 68 AP!
On a side note, ranks 7 and 6 can be rather hard to achieve.
THE SCORE:
HUMANS:281 HP, 15 DEF, 0 Prot, 531 AP
ELVES:281 HP, 10 DEF, 0 Prot, 408 AP
GIANTS:281 HP, 15 DEF, 0 Prot, 531 AP
Now that you have some basic skills down, we'll skip through a few things. Your Tanking has only just begun!
Next Up, we need to get a couple key alchemy skills. These are barrier spikes, and life drain.
The barrier spikes mastery title will give net 12 protection, and lifedrain gives you 45 HP
Barrier Spikes runs in at 153 AP, and life drain at 328, For a total of 481 AP. It's getting harder now.
Both these will take time to do.
THE SCORE
HUMANS: 326 HP, 15 DEF, 12 Prot, 1012 AP
ELVES: 326 HP, 10 DEF, 12 Prot, 882 AP
GIANTS: 326 HP, 15 DEF, 12 Prot, 1012 AP
WINDGUARD
As you may know, All races have a few skills that no other race can have.
Here we will go over the one that matters most for a giant, Windguard!
Wind Guard will give you a very nice 56 HP at R1, However that is not the best part. Upon activation it will increase your defence by 10 and your protection by a MASSIVE 50! WOW!
Anyways it's 416 AP. Have fun giants. Windguard effects will be in parenthesis
THE SCORE:
HUMANS: 326 HP, 15 DEF, 12 Prot, 1012 AP
ELVES: 326 HP, 10 DEF, 12 Prot, 882 AP
GIANTS:382 HP, 15(25) Def, 12(62) Prot, 1428 AP
[FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="5"]More skills for all Races[/SIZE][/FONT]
While these skills give much less of a boost, They still do add on additional HP!
Spinning Uppercut(Fighter, 10 HP, 180 AP)
Respite(Fighter, 15 HP, 285 AP)
Drop Kick(Fighter, 10 HP, 270 AP)
Dischord(Bard, 22 HP, 120 AP)
Act 9: Invigorating Encore (Puppet, 20 HP, 286 AP)
Colossus Marionette (Puppet, 5 HP, 22 AP Needed to get the max hp boost at r9)
Pierrot Marionette(Puppet, 5 HP, 22 AP. Same as colossus.)
[SIZE="3"]TRANSFORMATION MASTERY[/SIZE]
This skill. Oh, this skill.
I have no idea how it works. I haven't touched it yet.
What I do know is that with an arch lich transformation, you get extra protection. If anyone could explain this properly for me, I would be grateful
Anyways this skill costs 385 AP, Gives you bonus (Base 40) HP When transformed, and gives you 57 HP at rank 1.
With All Our Basic Skills complete, Let's see our score!
§[SIZE="6"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]FINAL SCORE[/FONT][/SIZE]§
HUMANS: 470 HP, 15 DEF, 12 Prot, 2582 AP
ELVES: 470 HP, 10 DEF, 12 Prot, 2452
GIANTS: 526 HP, 15(25) DEF, 12(62) Prot, 2998 AP
ironwoman wrote on 2013-01-13 22:51
You're missing combat mastery, the most important skill for hp... also, transformation mastery gives good hp too.
You should also add enchants, like Stone, Oak Tree, Burgundy Bear, etc... not to mention which gears to get for def/prot (ex:phoenix earmuffs for 3/1)
Setzer wrote on 2013-01-13 22:59
Quote from Renzato;1013679:
It's pretty obvious this isn't complete. Give it some time.
This. I know already what is required to hit maximum. Im writing this to be user friendly, not just give a big list of what you need.
Also
W.I.P.
[SIZE="7"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]PART TWO[/FONT][/SIZE]
EQUIPMENT
This is where it gets tough. Maximizing your equipment for maximum defensive capability can be extremely costly and time intensive.
My recommended setup is not race exclusive, everyone can use the same set. However,
In order to maximize your defence, you have to be Male. It's a fact. Sorry. Females can replace their gear with appropriate counterparts, however they miss around 3 Defence and 2 protection. It isn't much but this is the 'Maximum Tank Guide'
There are 3 paths we can take. The auto defence route, the defence and protection route, and the health route.
First we'll Start off with our Helmet.
[SIZE="3"]HELMET[/SIZE]
1.For A helmet, we're going to be using the
Colossus helm. An altenative is the
Birnam helm.
at 3 def 1 prot, It's a good Start.
For enchants, Use
Burgundy Bear as a prefix. It adds on 1 defence and protection, and makes our helmet a little better. You'll need to get rank 5 wind blast to make use of the extra protection.
For suffix, we'll use
Restoring . It gives you 20 HP, and is a nice touch.
Healer Is a weaker alternative to this enchant.
This Helm will net Us 4 DEF, 2 Prot, And 20 HP.
2.Alternatively, you can use a
Life Tailcap acquired from rabbie dungeon. On it put the
Strong
Enchant for a total of 0 Def, 2 Prot, and 30 HP
Use this If you don't care about defence, or are building HP.
[SIZE="3"]Gauntlets[/SIZE]
1.For gauntlets, we're once again sticking with the colossus set. The
Colossus Gauntlets give us 3 defence and 2 protection. An alternative is the Valencia Greaves for both
giants and
humans.
For Prefixes, we're once again Getting our
Burgundy Bear Enchant.
For a Suffix, we're going with
Amplified.
These Gauntlets Will Net us 5 Defence, 3 Protection and 15 Hp.
2.For people More HpCentric, we can use the
Spaika Gauntlets.
While these only have 1 defence and protection, they can have a very powerful exclusive enchant,
Dark Cross.
Use
Burgundy Bear with these for a decent 2 Defence 2 Protection and a very nice 50 HP.
[SIZE="3"]Greaves[/SIZE]
BecomeMeguca wrote on 2013-01-13 23:14
Mana shield reforge gloves, r6 mana shield, -mp usage set, and massive amounts of mp 100s make the best tank.
Woundless and quick recovery. Protection is very good but Screw DEF
Fracture wrote on 2013-01-14 00:32
Quote from Setzer;1013687:
That isn't the point of this guide.
Stacking HP, Protection, Mana, and Mana Shield Efficiency is the best way to tank. Defense is effectively useless, as it'll never get high enough to put so much as a dent in high damage counts. It's also calculated before protection, making it basically useless.
With, for instance, 50 protection, let's say you take a hit for 2K. Not entirely unusual, late-game.
With 100 defense:
(2000-100)*(1-0.5) = 950 damage.
With 0 defense:
(2000-0)*(1-0.5) = 1000 damage.
As you can see, every point of protection is both more efficient at reducing damage, and also makes every point of defense less powerful. At 80% protection, for instance, only 20% of your defense actually does anything, and what it does do is negligible. It's pretty much only useful in the early game, late game it can effectively be ignored in favour of other tanking methods.
Mana Shield is also literally the strongest tanking tool in the game, now that we have reforges. A max-level reforge will grant you a base efficiency of 5.8% at r6 Mana Shield. That means every 5.8 damage you take will cost 1 mana. With Mana Usage Reduction, that becomes every 6.4 damage taking one mana.
Beyond that, Humans and Giants can get 40 Magic Attack from skill INT, while elves can get 41. Assuming you stay at lv1, this gives you a total efficiency calculated by:
([Magic Damage + Rank Efficiency] * .015) + Rank Efficiency + Healing Wand Bonus + Reforge Bonus
So if we plug our numbers in...
([40 + 1.8] * .015) + 1.8 + 4.0
0.627 + 1.8 + 4.0
It comes out to 6.427 efficiency in total. Multiply that by 1.111 for mana usage reduction, and you have 7.14 or so efficiency. Every 7.14 damage will cost a single point of mana. That's equivalent to a whopping 86% protection. A single MP100 potion can let you tank 714 damage.
To go beyond that, humans have a total lv1 MP capacity of 731. Your full mana pool can take a blow of 5219 damage
without taking a single point of your HP. It can then be totally replenished with 3 MP300 potions, which aren't too difficult to make late-game. To conserve potions, you could also manually use 4 potions total-- 2 300s, a 100, and a 30. The pot poisoning from refilling it with MP300s would be almost negligible. With high-ranked meditation, the mana drain would be next to nothing as well, provided you accounted for the lack of stamina regen.
Also note that it's possible (I have yet to properly test it) that defense/protection are applied to the damage taken
before it even hits your mana shield. Any damage you take will be cut down first by your protection, then it will hit the ridiculous wall that is Mana Shield. 50% protection will fully double your MS efficiency to ~14.2. Apply that to the above calculations, and a human's lv1 mana pool could tank literally over 10,000 damage without so much as losing a single HP.
If this guide is for ultimate tanking, yes, you should be factoring in Mana Shield. It is the strongest tanking force in the game right now.
BecomeMeguca wrote on 2013-01-14 00:34
Even normal mana shield r6 with no int boost is 2 mana per point of dmg. It's basically 50% prot right there.
How I see it is, stack int, stack mp, rank up mana shield, get inventory full of potions. Then ditch the heavy armor for a mana reduction set (-10% usage aka +10% prot) enchanted for max dmg. Get two accessories enchanted for max dmg, with higher attack, the mobs will die quicker and have less chance of striking back. Even if they do, they will hit the wall known as mana shield.
The best defense is a good offense.
Setzer wrote on 2013-01-14 00:35
Quote from BecomeMeguca;1013713:
Isn't the point of the guide to tank as well as possible? Because mana shield is the ultimate woundless tanking skill.
Here's a guide to that, just for you
1. Get a bunch of MP, around 400 or so will do you fine
2. Reforge gloves until you get mana shield reduction
3. Buy mp pots.
The end. Didn't you learn alot from that?
I might implement mana shield, however I find it to be an independent thing.
Im doing a guide about things people normally overlook. Most people completely neglect their defensive capabilities and just use mana shield. Im going
deeper then that
BecomeMeguca wrote on 2013-01-14 00:43
Quote from Setzer;1013720:
Here's a guide to that, just for you
1. Get a bunch of MP, around 400 or so will do you fine
2. Reforge gloves until you get mana shield reduction
3. Buy mp pots.
The end. Didn't you learn alot from that?
I might implement mana shield, however I find it to be an independent thing.
Im doing a guide about things people normally overlook. Most people completely neglect their defensive capabilities and just use mana shield. Im going deeper then that
You're not getting the point. Defense is a useless stat by late game and lowers the effectiveness of protection. While collosus helm and all that is nice def, a broad brim feather hat, magic school uniform and karis wizard shoes will provide mana shield effiency, which is superior tanking despite the lack of "def stat". Percent based reduction is superior to linear damage reduction.
Furthermore, enchants used to enhance defense is essentially a waste of slot for enchants by late game. Pros don't forget about def, they know its not important compared to mp, int, protection, set bonus, reforges.
And yes, MP is worth a lot more than HP because:
1. hp causes more loss of hp when poisoned
2. If ur at above 50% hp, you can never get 1 hit koed. The higher ur base hp, the more pots it will take to reach the threshold. The "10 hp" build used to exist because as long as ur above 5 hp, u can't die.
3. 1 hp absorbs 1 dmg. 1 mp can absorb up to 11 dmg with the right enchants
4. dullahan's axe attack does ur current HP + 1 dmg. With 10 hp and 1000 mp, it would take 101 axes to kill you. With 1000 hp and 10 mp, it will take 2 axes to kill you.
5. hp takes wound, mp doesnt. wound is a huge pain!
We'll go through this step by step, one at a time, to maximize your Hp, Defence, and Protection.
By the Time we're done mana shield will be a thing of the past!
I was mainly trying to refute this statement, mana shield is the future, defense is the past. That statement alone will send many hapless souls in the wrong direction. I agree with protection but HP and Defence actually hurt tanking skills, sort of counterintutive but true.
EndlessDreams wrote on 2013-01-14 01:15
Don't forget that you can also carry a shield to further increase your strength/protection...
But mana shield is still the biggest way of improving one's tanking abilities.