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[pmb] Araanahns holy tank build
Hello fellow Paladins!
My character is Araanahn a kanian crusader. Im in the guild Warsong (Tensess). Ive played for two years starting at the NA server.
Paladin have been my main character all the time. At first, while lvling he was phys dps build, but since lvl 51 ive mostly used my holy tank build. At first my character was a complete mess, but later I got the hang of holy tank and have finetuned quite a bit. Ive also played other classes during my time with allods and have 3 reincarnations at lvl 55+ - a healer, a psi and a summy. Ive found that I enjoy the pally-tank the most.
Ive enjoyed it even during the times where paladins were not so powerfull compared to other classes.
The things I like about Pally-tank are:
1) Our survivability – The paladin tank have the best survivability of all classes, especially against the huge hard hitting bosses.
2) The responsibility of being tank – if you die most likely the party gets wiped out, and if you don’t keep agro, someone else will likely die.
3) The complexity of tanking – you need to keep track of many things and act accordingly – your barriers (timing your use of talents with those heavy hits so you feel the effect of as few heavy hits as possible), all the opponents youre fighting (what are they doing and where are they, keeping agro of as many as possible or at least the important ones), and assist in dealing damage.
The latest patch brought a few changes to paladins: nerf of wrath, new ruby tree and new statsystem.
The change of wrath was not a big deal. I still use it a lot. I have however reduced it to rank 2 where it was previously at rank 3.
The change of the ruby tree brought minor changes to the builds – most pally builds now spend 1 ruby on a blank ruby, and combat inspiration are not always brought to rank 3.
The change of the statsystem had a big impact on every class, but maybe biggest impact on tanks. Previously tanks mostly speculated in how they should distribute their stats between offensive stats. Now tanks spend several statpoints on defensive stats (mostly on tenacity). This may change a bit when we get better geared.
I have personally always put statpoints into defensive stats, but with the new statsystem it’s a bigger percentage of my stats. And Im surprised how much I need to put in tenacity for tanking several mobs or harder mobs.
The new statsystem also brought in willpower for mobs. That have changed my playstyle a bit, since mobs once in a while get immunity to cc’s for a small amount of time. Then I have to wait with using my cc’s until the immunity have passed.
Also the patch brought an increase in lvl cap with an increase in equipment lvl. This meant scrapping most of my previous fully upgraded set of equipment and replacing it with first a set mixed of quest items, npc items and crafted items, and later it will be new astral items on all equipment slots.
Finally the patch brought a huge change to upgrading items. Now I need to go astral to obtain treasure chests with astral items inside, and then I need to go to wildlands to get refractors of high enough quality to get the most of my chests with astral items. A two stepped “get your item upgraders” process. And besides that the upgrading of glyphs took a turn, so its now easier to upgrade them, though it costs a really big amount of gold.
Basic idea of tanking
Before I put in my build id like to mention the basics of tanking.
Basically a tank have 2 primary objectives:
1) Stay alive! The basic of this is selfexplantory, but making it happen can be a chalenge.
2) Get agro! That means getting the attention of the opponent, so that he hits you rather than your friends.
Damagedealing is a secondary objective for the tank, but if you have an easy time with the primary objectives, then you can adjust your build for more damage.
1) Stay alive!
Staying alive involves managing your holy barriers, using your own cc’s, getting help from partymembers cc’s, having enough resistance based on equipment, and adjusting to the environment.
a. Holy barriers
Holy barriers are the hardest special ability to understand at first. And is at the same time the most important ability for staying alive as a pally.
Every pally have 1 barrier from the beginning and can have up to 3 barriers. For tanking 3 barriers is a must. A barrier stores damage from a hit for 10 seconds. When the 10 seconds have passed the barrier will break and you will receive the stored damage (or a % of it). The first 3 hits goes directly to the 3 barriers. When you’ve receive the fourth hit, it will either affect you directly – this is if its less damage then the 3 hits already stored in the barriers – or it will go to a barrier replacing the stored hit with the lowest amount of damage. A barrier cannot hold more damage than 50 % of the paladins current maximum health (you may have higher amount of max health because of buffs like fervor or seal of health).
The damage that exceeds that amount will affect the pally directly. So, if a pally have 1500000 hp, and receive a hit of 2M, then the first 750000 goes to a barrier and the 1250000 affects the pally directly (leaving him in pretty bad shape).
The paladin have several talents and rubies that helps managing the barriers by either breaking the barrier (and dealing the stored damage to the pally or a smaller % of the stored damage), refreshing the barriers timer and move it to last spot in the que, remove the damage stored in the barrier, or reflect part of the stored damage to the enemy and the rest to the paladin.
These barrier management skills will be applied to the first barrier (the one with lowest time left on the 10 s countdown).
The holy barriers and the barrier managing skills are very important parts of staying alive.
b. Your own shorttimed cc's (crowd control)
An opponent that dont hit you makes surviving easier. For that reason I like to have some cc's in my arsenal. Strike of Justice knocks the opponent down, and the opponent cant hit you while lying on the floor. Shining sword blinds the opponent for a few seconds (4, 5 or 6 seconds depending on rank). Autodafe prevents opponent to use abilities for 3, 4 or 5 sec.
This is usefull in PVE and PVP. With new patch monsters and players have willpower though, and this prevents use of cc's from time to time.
c. Resistances from equipment
This is self explanatory. Better equipment give more defense and more resistance. So to survive better you should get better gear. Resistance is the main reason for exchanging my previous mythical gear with current rare or epic gear.
d. cc's from your partymembers
Exactly like mentioned for your own cc’s, your teammates cc’s can help a lot. There are a number of cc’s some short timed like a pallys but also others with longer duration, like the mages icy grave that lasts for about 30 seconds. These come in handy when facing a group of hard mobs. Some of those cc’s break if you start hitting the cc’ed mob. So make sure you agree with your partymembers which cc’s will be attempted
on which mobs, and which ones you will try to kill first, so you get the full effect of those cc’s.
e. adjusting to the environment
There are a lot of adjusting to be made and Im not gonna address them all. But 2 basic situations should be mentioned: kiting and stepping out of AOEs. Well, many of you already know how tanking works, so you might just skip this – its pretty obvious too.
Some bosses hit really hard, but can be partly avoided if you keep moving. This is called kiting. Always be prepared to kite, but make sure you don’t move away from your party members so you wont get heals and the opponent don’t get hit by the party, and make sure you don’t drag the mob, so its AOEs or curses hits the other partymembers.
Some AOE (Area Of Effect) are stationary for a bit – like a poison pool or a lightning storm. Step out of that area to receive less damage.
2) Get agro!
Most mobs will be aggressive to the player that deals most damage or heals the most.
A pally tank will not be the one that gets agro that way – well, it is possible, but then youre probably just helping out some lesser geared friends.
Pallies have 2 skills that help getting agro anyways: Taunt and Righteous Word.
a. Taunt
will force the opponent to target you instead of current target and will keep it that way for 10 s. This is the most effective way of taking agro. It has a long cooldown and requires a canon of light, so its not possible to use so often.
b. Righteous word
is less effective immediately, but has low cooldown and will get help from other damage you deal, to keep agro. And it can be improved in effectiveness with the “guilty conscience” rubies.
I usually use Righteous word to keep agro most of the time, and save taunt to take over agro, when that is needed. This could be, if a squishy partymember have gained agro of a mob and is low on health, or if an attempt to use longer timed cc on a mob fails – taunt don’t do any damage, so you can keep agro while the psi (or whoever) tries the cc again.
Araanahn - Kanian Crusader - Warsong guild
This post has been edited 2 times, last edit by "azalin71" (May 9th 2014, 9:53pm)
My build
Oki, my build … Im a tank … a holy tank … with focus on survival and cc. Im blessed with a lot of talents and rubies because Ive completed the world mysteries and have up to the epic scrolls from cashshop sales.
Getting the build that suits you is hard. Almost all talents and rubies are nice to have, and if I had more rubies or talentpoints I would have no problems using them. I don’t however, and that means every skill ive taken is a tradeoff for something else.
My current build is this: http://eu.allodswiki.ru/calc/#!7!113.1.3…sehvfcn/IYQJSWB
Holy barriers
As you can see, ive got rank 3 of overcome – that is my main barrier clearing skills. Its at rank 3 because it will reduce damage taken the most.
Ive got rank 2 tenacity, this is up for debate, since there isn’t much difference between rank 1 and 2. This is used to juggle the hits around, so I can clear the heavy hits with overcome or deliverance.
Ive got rank 3 deliverance – This is the best barrier clearing skill, because it removes all the damage. It has a long cooldown however and It also requires a canon of light, so it might not be ready so often.
In my build these 3 skills are supported by rank 3 of the vitality ruby, which means I can use them very often.
Cc’s
As you can see,ive put in a lot of talentpoints and 1 ruby for extra cc’s.
Strike of Justice at rank 1, this is the skill I often use to get to the mob, and it also knocks the mob down. Rank 1 is sufficient, since further ranks don’t affect the cc, and the damage it deals is really not important in my build.
Shining sword rank 3 – that lovely 6 seconds of not receiving damage – couldn’t resist it.
Autodafe rank 3 – same as with shining sword mostly taken for the cc.
Binding curse rank 2 – used for kiting and have had its usefulness in dead city, and in pvp, but I might leave it at rank 1 if I respec.
Shield slam – yeah, its nice to have, but ill definitely not take it next time. It also uses 1 canon of light, and that means its often not available for me, when I wanna use it.
Agro holding
For this I have rank 3 righteous word, backed up with guilty conscience r3, martyrs gift r3, purifier r2 and righteous force r3 for most damage and most often useage. All very important skills, but you could consider a little less martyrs gift, purifier or righteous force if youre short on rubies.
All my damaging skills helps on this and backs up righteous word. But for holy paladin sacred word and condemnation means the most – and Interdiction means a lot too, when fighting a group of monsters, mostly because it spreads condemnation to nearby
mobs but also for AOE damage.
Sacred sunrise is used in combination with righteous word – casting sacred sunrise and then righteous word will then affect the opponent with damage from both at the same time.
Increased survival (passive skills)
Ive taken rank 3 combat inspiration, that’s a passive skill that improves my own survivability.
Ive also taken absolution rank 3 – reducing damage when barriers are broken.
And Justice that reduces damage when fighting 3 or more enemies (almost all the time), and as a bonus to me, it also gives a little boost to damage in those situations.
Tenacity stat
rubies – 9 points tenacity means you can take a lot more beating before your wound complexity goes up. In general, the stat rubies are in danger of getting skipped in my build after the new patch. But so far they’ve stayed in.
Increased survival (active skills)
Solemn prayer is a great heal skill that heals the whole party if they are within 20 yards. Ive maxed it to get highest heals and most often use. This is backed up by the rubies faith healing r1 and devoted plea r2 for better heals.
Particle of light creates a shield helping the partymember with lowest healt – which can often be the tank, but can also be a partymember that’s close to dying. Really helpful in both situations. Only drawback is that it uses a canon of light.
Oki, Ive mentioned canon of light a couple of times. Ill go more into canons later, but for now Ill mention, that Ive considered taking canon of light r3 rubies because Im using skills that require them often. But Ive chosen not to, so far, and instead taken Self Sacrifice for the tight spot, where more canons are needed. I must say, that having this requires a bit more activity and resourcefulness from me, where having the passive improved regeneration rate requires less of the tank.
For the less fortunate here is a more conservative build (with less rubies (53) and talents (66)): http://eu.allodswiki.ru/calc/#!7!113.1.3…oaqndcn/GLDCSWB
This build will get the job done.
On a side note, Ive heard, that vindication have improved greatly in this patch, because of the determination stat. Ive not tested it yet, so Ive yet to see it.
Araanahn - Kanian Crusader - Warsong guild
This post has been edited 2 times, last edit by "azalin71" (May 9th 2014, 9:53pm)
Canons
Ive mentioned canons a couple of times, so I better mention how they work.
At the start we gain three Canons of Light and three Canons of Purity. They will be used by some skills. When used they will regenerate over time, one after each 10 seconds. Having the
Canons of Light can be used to cast healing, protection, control and area-of-effect spells. Its most often
these, I run out of.
Canons of Purity can be used for special attacks. I usually have plenty of these.
Racial skills
Each race have a special skill. For paladins they are:
Exhaust Evil is the orc skill – deals good AOE damage and is useful in physical DPS build but not usefull for tanks.
Zealous Blow, the kanian skill, deals good damage plus damage every 2 seconds over 20 seconds. Useful in DPS build during
boss fights and in PvP, but not the best tank skill.
Pious Words, the elven skill, don’t do any damage, but decreases incoming healing for 20 seconds. Pretty useless.
Rousing Shout, the Xadaganian skill, decreases the amount of damage stored in all holy barriers, actually it often removes all damage from all 3 barriers. This is really good for tanks. My favorite! (and Ive bought a cashshop item that lets me use all racial skills, so Im using this one most often)
Reincarnations
A fully lvled Reincarnation can give you the use of one skill. You get to choose from 2 different skills related to the reincarnation class. Ive got 3 reincarnations that gives me skills to choose. Ive lvled them for that purpose (and because its fun). The psi I lvled to get to choose telekinetic pull, the summy I lvled to get fear (short timed cc), and the healer I lvled for bubble (which absorbs some damage).
My current reincarnation skill is fear (as mentioned above I like cc’s).
Rotations
Against a single target I usually start with condemnation, then strike of justice if it’s a cc’able mob (and skip SoJ if its not cc’able), then righteous word, sacred sunrise, righteous word, Interdiction, and then use a series of righteous word, sacred sunrise and interdiction whenever they are ready.
Against a group of opponents I usually use condemnation to start, charge in with strike of justice (which put me at the center of things and will gather the mobs on me), then I use interdiction to spread condemnation. Now having a dot on all mobs, I start by using taunt on first mob to keep it with me, tab for next target and use righteous word+sacred sunrise+righteous word, then tab again and repeat. When condemnation is about to run out, I use interdiction again. Then I continue tabbing and using righteous word+sacred sunrise+righteous word on every mob until they are dead.
In between these damage/agro holding spells I put taunt if a partymember gets close to taking over agro.
In between the agro rotation I also put short timed cc’s on mobs as I see fit – especially if a squishy member have agro on too much.
In between all of this I use my barrier managing skills: deliverance if first barrier hold a really big hit, overcome if first barrier hold a really big hit and deliverance is not ready, and tenacity to change the order of the barriers. When Im out of canons and a small hit is in a barrier, I juggle to that barrier and use self sacrifice to get canons.
Talents, rubies and stats
When you lvl up you gain talents, rubies and stats. You gain even more talents and rubies for completing certain quests, and you can gain even more talents, rubies and stats from items in cashshop - like the sale atm where you can get scrolls of the Sacrament, that gives 1, 2 or 3 more talentpoints.
Ive discussed my build already and covered talents and rubies, but ive not discussed stats a lot so far, so Ill go into that a lil bit next.
Stats
As I already mentioned the latest patch changed stats and the effect of it had a big impact on most classes.
The basic stats now are divided in vigor and stamina, where vigor determines how powerfull your attacks are, and stamina determines you hitpoints. These basic stats only come from equipment.
You also have secondary stats that adjust the outcome of the basic stats. 4 stats that improve your attacks and 4 stats that improve defensive qualities. These stats comes from equipment and from the adjustable stats you earn from lvling and from cashhop items. When i mention equipment or items later in this section, i will be pointing at astral (upgradeable) items.
The 4 offensive stats:
1) Proficiency: increases your damage - this is a basic adjustment and its linear in the progression. 10 proficiency adds 10% damagevalue. This is vaulable for every class and every build.
2) Brutality: increases your damage when target loses health - this is also usefull for every build and every class.
3) Determination: increases your damage when other enemies deal you damage, the more damage you recieve the more damage you deal. This is good for tanks (but can be usefull for every class when it comes to pvp)
4) Anger: This makes wound complexity build up over time. The more anger the quicker it builds up. Ive yet to see the usefullness of this, so Ive completely skipped it. In pvp it build up so slow, that i think its not worth it atm. This will probably change, when the quality of gear have improved in quality.
An indepth description of stats and the changes can be found on http://allodsoracle.com/
There youll also see, that for effectiveness a dps build should have an even mix of brutality and proficiency and no anger or determination, and a tank should have a fairly even mix of determination, proficiency and brutality.
So for a tank you should gather a set of gear that balances prof+brut+det and use your adjustable stats to balance it.
The 4 defensive stats:
-Vitality: increses your hit points (hp) - this is usefull for every character. As a tank you also want a good amount of hp, but when youre in a good group youll get a huge amount of hp from buffs (bards and rangers have a skill that adds a lot of hp to 1 character in the party for each partymember that is nearby, bards, mages and psi's have a skill that adds a % boost to all partymembers hp). So in a good group you dont rely only on hp from your stats.
-Bloodlust: heal you for a % of the damage and healing you deal - this is nice to have for everyone but certainly not a "need to have". I think this stat should not have priority for a PVE tank, but as mentioned stats comes in pairs on equipment, and this one comes with brutality, that you will have a fair amount of, so youll also have a decent amount of bloodlust.
-Willpower: For every second under control effects you receive x% resistance. When that reaches 100% you will receive immunity to control effects for y seconds. The higher the willpower, the more often youll get imunity. So far the cc's from pve have not been that bad, so i wouldnt put priority on this stat either, its way more usefull in PvP.
-Tenacity: Reduces the speed that you receive wound complexity. Allows you to receive 10*x% more damage where, x is the amount in the stat, before you receive a drop of wounds. This is a must have for tanks and you should put high priority on this. Luckily it comes on items that have determination, which is also a priority.
For a pve tank you should see what balance your set of equips give you, and adjust for more tenacity and vitality as needed.
A lot of tanks focus on putting stats on offensive stats only. For me that is not the way to do it. I have very high priority on staying alive, and for that i put more than half of my adjustable stats to defense (mostly to tenacity).
Araanahn - Kanian Crusader - Warsong guild
This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "azalin71" (May 9th 2014, 10:02pm)
Araanahn - Kanian Crusader - Warsong guild
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