Jad's All Around Tankin Build

[Jadhug]

This is my everything tank build. I use it for Raiding (DH, GP, and GSB) and 5 mans, the only time I change is for heavy magic mitigation fights. I've used and experimented with almost every build out there. I get bored with reaver specs and 51 VK builds I think are waste if you are a true tank. This is the build I recommend for all my new tanks and it has been by far the most fun I've had tanking in any MMO I've played, and I've tanked em all.

DISCLAIMER: I wrote this for my new tanks in my guild, so it has everything explained the best I could. I also despise 51 vk due to aggro concerns and I ain't got no charge(honestly how can you be a tank without a charge) 51 VK is great Physical mitigation but I haven't found a raid boss yet that I can't handle with this build unless it's a magic damage heavy fight in which I use my reaver build posted at the bottom of this post.


I'm in mostly T1 Raid gear, but I used this build in T2 dungeon gear and I have guild tanks that use it at T1 dungeon gear. For new tanks I still will recommend a reaver build to help out your healers due to alittle increased healing, but the physical mitigation is very close to the same.

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Here's the build I like the most:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0cghE.gc0aszVz.E0Rh0oV.xVzVoz
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Now this build is a workhorse. It has 5/5 Devourer, 5/5 Unyielding Defense and all the block and armor increases you can ask for. On top of that, it has Sergeant's Order(TAUNT), Rift Summon(GET OVER HERE!!), Shield Throw(TAUNT), and a Shield Charge all rapped up into one.

The main difference in this build than the 32 pally is there is no Light's Decree or Paladin's Reprisal. Guess what, no big deal. In this build you use warlord's Call to Entrench/Call to Battle and Spotter's Order (count em 3 aoe aggro grabbers) for your AOE goodness, along with Tempest(Paladin's Reprisal) for the gather em all up shot to the face. This build has the best single target and aoe target aggro generation than any other build I have used, and I've used a bunch.

My thoughts on Insatiable Hunger and Blood from a Stone: Why the hell not?? My co-tank questioned these two talents until he actually used them. I don't lose pacts EVER. And before you knock it or claim it is for noobs, if you are spending more time concentrating on pact management then paying attention to everything around you, eventually someone is gonna die while you stare at your pacts. I know for some of you young folks, pact control makes you feel more ALIVE or in COntrol, but the difference between me and you is I'm old, and I don't like squinting to see if I have all my pacts up. The one and only reason I use pact conversion now is between fights or before boss fights to build pacts up with ragestorm. And look at what you are losing. Surge? Really? You know when I use tempest? When I get really bored and just want to hit another button on my keyboard. I don't lose aggro with this build so doing more damage with surge might be useful if you are a dps tank? Discharge I will only use if one of my 2 taunts are on cooldown and for some reason a mob dropped from Mars and landed on my healer's face, otherwise everything is already on me. But that's just my opinion, to each his own

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Here are my macros:
Credit to Ciderhelm for the idea of the Mark 8 and the macros, always mark your highest threat person or healer with an 8 (I really like warden healers, preload me like crazy )
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AOE, main spam

#show Leader's Mark
suppressmacrofailures
cast Ragestorm
cast Aggressive Block
cast Sweeping Strike
cast Disarming Counterblow
cast Leader's Mark
cast Retaliation
cast @mark 8 Intercept

Single Target

#show Pacifying Strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast Aggressive Block
cast Disarming Counterblow
cast Pacifying Strike
cast Retaliation
cast @mark 8 Intercept

Dual purpose Finisher (Hits Call to Entrench/Battle when not up, and hits Spotter's Order otherwise)

#show Call to Entrench
suppressmacrofailures
cast Call to Entrench
cast Spotter's Order
cast Retaliation

#show Call to Battle
suppressmacrofailures
cast Call to Battle
cast Spotter's Order
cast Retaliation

AOE taunt (if needed for emergencies)

#show Airburst
suppressmacrofailures
cast Cracking Skulls
cast Airburst
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SELF CAST BUFFS:
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Shield of the Hero, Void, Battlefield Awareness, Aegis of Salvation, Battlefield Distraction or Cutting Distraction, Aspect of the Fallen Hero, Gravemaker Steak(Mathosian Rep)
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General Rotations:
On a trash mob pull of 10 or less mobs:
Shield Throw or Shield Charge(if you charge, make sure you backtrack a tad toward the group to pick up everything withing your 10 meters, I call this the roundup)toward the group, hit a one point Call to Entrench or Call to Battle Finisher macro. After that, spam the AOE Spam button using Call to Entrench when off cooldown for 3 point combo, and hitting the Call to Entrench finisher again for spotter's order after the next 3 point combo.

Should look like this:
Shield Throw/Shield Charge>>Call to Entrench(CoE)/Call to Battle(CoB) Finisher>>AOE Spam to 3 combo points>>CoE Finisher/CoB Finisher>>AOE Spam to 3 combo points>>CoE Finisher/CoB finisher for Spotter's Order. Wash Rinse and Repeat.

I also keep spotter's order on a separate hot key for burn down mobs where I need to get it up quick.
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THE ROUNDUP Explained for new tanks:
This is the process where you as the tank make sure everything on a multi target pull is on you when you pull. Sometimes you have to move in a circle through the group of mobs while using your 1 point finisher, aoe spam, button then your other 1 point finisher to finish up the pull to ensure you have everything on you. Also if one gets away mouse click(not tab) target that mob and hit sergeant's order to reel him back in or Shield Throw.
Use the abilities here also like Rift summon to get casters closer to your path of destruction. ALWAYS keep the mob pack turned away from you party/raid members, because more than likely something is gonna cleave. And also adjust yourself so you can group em up as tight as possible for DPS aoe luv.
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On Boss:
Same rotation, just alternate your AOE Spam and Single Target macro for Leader's Mark and Pacifying Strike debuffs.

NOTE: For both rotations, keep empowering strike on a seperate keybinding to toss it in once in awhile to get alittle extra armor.

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Other Spells to keep close by:
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Tempest: AOE Threat generator, good for initial aggro gain or for building additional threat on AOE mobs. I usually pop this after all my pacts are up and after everything is on me to build that little extra amount of threat. Bridges the gap on your Calls.

Touch of Light: HEALS YOU COMPLETELY, great for oh **** situations where the healer may be sleeping or after they die for T2's. A well placed ToL can save a wipe in T2's.

Pin Target: Great for last boss in DH and power pulling. Another words, pin the target for your dps and go grab the next bunch of trash.

Shield Charge: A charge of destruction, you better be using a Call right after you do it, or everything is gonna run away from you, considered face pulling.

Rift Summons: Great for gathering up mobs from afar, but remember this is not a taunt. A single strike on the mob will do great here.

Face Slam: Your most dependable interrupt.

Furious Rage: Also and interrupt, but I have had it resist so I switched to Face Slam.

Imposing: This can be popped if you are worried about AOE threat on a pull.

Disrupt: Increases casting time of mobs by 20% for 10 seconds, just another perk. Honestly hardly ever use it.

Soul Pillage: Siphon 633 of an enemy's mana. Never use it.
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TAUNTS:
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Shield Throw: 20 Meter range, single mob taunt. It is a slow taunt not instant, takes some time to reach the target.

Sergeant's Order: 20 Meter range, GET OVER HERE. Hop's the target over to you and taunts it. Some mobs are immune to the pull effect, but the taunt will still work.

Airburst: AOE taunt up to 10 mobs within 10 meters. Crutch. Use in emergencies or to grab anything your calls missed.
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SPELL SUNDER, SPELLBREAKER, and PALADIN's DEVOTION USES:
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Spell Sunder: Debuff every possible thing you can from trash mobs and bosses, this is great for damage shields and such but you should be hitting this always if you see a buff on a mob. Less buffs they have on em, less damage you take from their buffs.

Spellbreaker: This is great for dispelling harmful debuffs on yourself, watch your raid frames, if you see something on you that doesn't look right then debuff yourself by hitting this button. Also, with fears and such, if you have your global cooldown going and hit this right before a fear, it will drop the fear for ya, if you miss it, that's what the next ability is for. This is also great for breaking some polymorph effects such as ones in Greenscale when the tank gets squirreled all the time on trash.

Paladin's Devotion: Use this if you don't catch a fear or other harmful effect with Spellbreaker. It's a fear breaker. If all your buttons are black, this one won't be, so hit it, and TADA all your buttons become active again.
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TIPS ON TANKING:
If you have to blow a taunt on every pull, imo you are doing something wrong. I save my AOE taunts for emergencies. I save shield throw for some pulls and emergencies. I save Sergeant's Order for emergencies. See a pattern here? My philosophy is: If you waste a taunt on a pull you won't have it when you need it most and one takes off at your healer. Otherwise, charge in(1 combo point), hit a call to entrench or call to battle macro, start spamming your AOE spam macro. For raiding, use ragestorm to build your pacts before pulling, otherwise use your first couple of full 3 combo builders for pact conversion.

This is the only build I use now unless I switch to the Reaver build for better magic mitigation on a couple of heavy magic fights such as Lord Greenscale and Uruulok in GP. It's linked below, I'll build an explanation for it when I have time.
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Great Magic and Physical damage mitigation:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0c...xzqthz.E0Rh00M

I use this for Magic Mitigation Fights, such as the second boss in DSM, last boss in GP, and Lord Greenscale (Unless I'm tanking plants in which I do a full support roll). If a boss is shooting some kind of ugly fiery green icky bolt of domination at you, use this one.

Good luck to all of you and have fun tanking, cause tanking as a warrior in this game can be extremely rewarding. Never stop experimenting. Please feel free to add the phrase "in bed" at the end of anything I type, and it will still apply.

Jadseraph
Fat Kids With Cake
Greenscale Shard

[Jadhug]

Reserved for future Reaver explanations, but cruise the forums, many good folks on here have the reaver build spotlighted.

[eek711]

This is literally the exact same build I use for random junk, specifically most of GSB/RoS, HK Trash and T2's. It's a nice, general build, but you will definitely notice a difference in damage taken in more extreme HK boss fights. It has less physical mitigation than 51 vk, less magic mitigation than Reaver/VK/Pally tri-brid. But, two pulls is useful for Alsbeth add tanking, and multiple AOE aggro tools for Herald tomb tanking.

EDIT:
Regarding Cutting Distraction, in loose testing, the amount of DPS increase it actually gives is fairly minimal. In a raid setting, it might be nice, but nothing you should bend over backwards for.

[Jadhug]

Yeah so far I've only tanked GSB and some ROS. I do expect hammerknell I will have to make some changes. Thanks for the reply.

I currently run 4 tank builds and one dps build, even though I hate 51 vk is one of them, this one, a plant handler heavy warlord build, and my reaver. This one I definately have the most fun with.

[TheGiftedMonkey]

A few suggestions about points you can move around:

Warlord -
Eek already mentioned Cutting Distraction being a minimal gain for the 2 points put in to get it. Imo 16 WL is a better option and shuffle those points over to VK or Pal. I've never personally found Imposing necessary, same with Dramatic Presence (In a low WL build). Moving those 5 points into an extra 5% dodge would be a juicier gain for mitigation rather than a few extra END. Call to Battle I'm not a fan of for Raids, but if you're using this build for 5-man dungeons as well, that makes it worth keeping.

Void Knight -
With the 8 second cooldown on Sergeant's Order I never found a need for a second grab move like Rift Summon. Playstyle choice right there I guess, 1 point isn't a huge deal. If anything is shaveable off of VK it would be that point.

Paladin -
Not much to change here, it's pretty straightforward. If you pull off points from other trees to put in here, go for Small Arms Spec. I actually dropped the points in Aggressive Guardian and put them elsewhere and haven't noticed a problem in keeping threat yet.