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I want to say cleric, because it has some nice defensive abilities like Gleaming Shield and Aura of Resistance as well as being able to wear Platemail and can use all healing spells. Not only that it has some abilities to protect your allies like Protectorate and Defend Other. Now I know other classes as some nice masterables and I have been working towards them as well, the purpose of this thread, was trying to get a second opinion on what class would be the best a main for a tank?
Tank is a very...wide word, in the world of istaria. :P
Cleric, while nice and the only class that can wear platemail and also cast the "prestige" augmentation/life spells (minor through to major health and the enhance stats), yes, is a very weak class and has awful abilties since it's kinda...meant to be a base class - supposed to be leveled so to make other classes better, that is.
Crossbowman, Chaos Warrior, Knight of Creation, Reaver, Paladin, Cleric, Battlemage and Warrior can wear platemail, the best of the armours.
Amongst thouse, cleric and warrior are base schools so aren't really ideal. Crossbowman is...nearly pointless too and outranked by really, all of the listed classes (heck, i think even cleric would be stronger...lol).
I don't have much experience with the other classes but i've hunted with all except knight of creation for epic hunts, and they're all pretty good.
I'd personally go with battlemage, but then, i'm a user of arcane classes so i'm biased towards favouring the only one that can cast all of the arcane spells too ;) Battlemage gives mages a sword and platemail, essentially, so you have access to all the arcane spells (flame, ice, energy and summoning spells!) and the swords and armour and melee abilities of a warrior!
Though, reaver is my favourite actual 100% melee class, since it combines the abilties of a spiritist with melee. So you get a bunch of health saps with it.
(well..more like 70% melee since it gets access to all of the spirit spells...but still!)
I'm pretty sure paladin has the most tanky abilities in terms of defenses and such? It's the only prestige class that wears plate that can heal others (via school gained abilties and apart from revitalise) as far as i know.
Reaver would do better at healing self only since it has access to spells which sap health from the enemy and give it to you instead but can't heal others too well.
For tankiness, I'd go with Cleric. Armor, heals, and so forth. However, I'd say bloodmage is better than Cleric for general mob stuff...better damage/saps and stuff. However, Bloodmage has a lot less armor than Cleric, and so isn't as good for the harder hitting mobs (reklar and so on). Bloodmage does have its Foresight and Blood Shield, and yes you could time those well and be quite tanky, but it's difficult, plus you can't really visually tell when Reklar's GR is coming, so you have to guess.
Battlemage is great and gives good masterables, but lacks the massive healing Cleric or Bloodmage could give.
Healer is also a possible competitor with Cleric. Not as much armor as Cleric, but it has a couple healing abilities with min or so cooldowns that are really good - Full Heal. Aura of Health is also amazing.
Over the years I always liked Cleric. I can hold my own with it against almost any mob. I learned to hone my skills with Cleric. I just recently leveled Healer to 100 and am doing great with it. I find I can take on a larger group when fighting if I am careful. Maybe in a week I may be able to tell which is better imo between Cleric and Healer.
Note: I have not joined a group to test my healing skills with my Healer yet.
Cheers
As already mentioned, "tank" is a bit of a tricky term to define in the context of Istaria and how the agro works. Normally, a tank is there to soak up damage, in which case, any class which gets 10 armor use per level and can wear Platemail would typically fit this description. Cleric being the most common suggestion thus far due to their healing capabilities, BUT they don't get 10 armor use per level, so you'd still have to level another school to be able to wear the T5 platemail.
So, if you were looking for your first class and wanted to be a tank, then Warrior would be the only one that gets 10 armor use per level and can wear platemail.
If you're trying to plan your schools and want a diverse "tank", then I'd imagine most people would suggest Cleric. Schools which would support Cleric are Warrior (armor use, strength, weapon skills, some masterables), Druid and Spiritist (for some excellent magic synergies i.e. AoE and life steal), and Healer will boost your healing capabilities (Life skill and Focus increases). This is by no means a definitive list, and it may not work well for your play-style.
I've always been thoroughly impressed with what a high rating Cleric can manage, but for me, Druid has ALWAYS been my go-to ;) It's a hell of a trade-off between a multi-classed Cleric to Druid, with considerably less armor just for Cloak of Thorns. Paladin can certainly work well, but they only have access to the two revitalize spells, so you take a significant hit to your healing capabilities and the increase in damage is not always a suitable trade-off.
Anyway, just some more food for thought.
Just as long as you enjoy the school, then you can't really go wrong :D
Well, I have bolts I can use for damage in Cleric, but I always did like Reaver, it's just limited in terms of heals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Azath
Cleric is a go getter for me since it has the most armor, and probably the most hurtful loss from healer might be the full heal, I can use a medi-bot to compensate for aura of health even though it only affects me. Also, bloodmage seems much more as damage dealer than a tank class.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alisto
While you can definitely hold your own as a Healer, I just rather mitigate as much damage as possible. Not bashing healer or nothing, it's an awesome class.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRock
Well, I have already done Warrior to compensate for the Armor Use problem lol. Probably should have made it apparent that I had a decently high leveled biped. I have done Bloodmage, Shaman, some of druid for some masterable, and others. There is of course more masterables that would benefit me like magus style from BattleMage which I had yet to do. Also, the reason I have no real interest in paladin and other similar classes, because I feel in this game Defense is way better Offense.Quote:
Originally Posted by hallucin8
A heavily multi-classed Cleric is pretty much going to be the "best" choice in that case; ticks all the boxes you're looking for I rekon. Guardian also has some strong abilities, both offence and defensive, but alas, you trade off the Major/Minor/Health spells, so you're healing capabilities take a significant hit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragonredux
As Cleric, you can pretty much wander into a swarm of anything, drop an Ethereal Parox (multi-cast it if you wish), then follow with Thunder and Lightning Storm (15sec recycle), then maybe a Whirlwind (Warrior), Energy Sabre (Battlemage) or Quake attack (Guardian), then back to the Nature spells, and pretty much everything will be dead. It's even faster if you use the Shield Scrolls.
Don't forget Guardian. Max out druid, spiritist, and healer to 100. Get a full set of nice nature and spirit spells. You can do the ethereal parox which if in a group can help keep aggro on you, and then use nature spells for stuns to minimize incoming damage. Gets several passives that reduce incoming damage like Skin of Thornwood. For more heals go healer or cleric. Arcane side has battlemage and knoc, but they aren't really tanky, more damage dealers in plate.
I was thinking Guardian as I read the OP too :) Those are good tactics for pretty much any mystic build. So if you are in healer, cleric, guardian, druid, reaver, paladin, the above strategy is how you play.Quote:
Originally Posted by hallucin8
Guardian has skin like thornwood (+164 armor, 5% chance to deal damage to attackers), passive +162 slash/crush/pierce resists, +150 strength passive, +148 1hc +152 2hc passive, morning dew (small hot, +168 magic evasion). Downside can't wear plate, no intercepts or aura's for the group. Can use the mystic damaging spells. Can be a good "solo tank".
Paladin has aura of command(group buff of +123 attack skill against everything) -or- aura of light (group buff 50% incoming damage vs undead. 125% outgoing damage vs undead)(doesn't stack with aura of command), healing touch (100% heal on group member, 5 min recycle), blessing of life (5% self heal every 20 seconds). Wears plate and gets the mystic damage spells. If you are hunting undead this is the best tank (the 50% incoming dmg from undead is group buff).
Healer gets illustrius stand, a group buff that lowers incoming attack skill from undead, or the aura of health group hot (group buff 5% heal every 5 seconds for up to 85% heal, once a minute), plus more heals/ability heals. Gets all heal spells and mystic damage spells. Even just wearing the chainmail, this is the class my ped is pretty much always in, and he can take on multiple blight hounds and live. It's possible to tank as healer. Use druid spells to stun mobs that go after group members.
Cleric has area dispirit, which slows incoming attacks from all mobs it lands on, Protectorate (85% chance to intercept attacks directed at the group member), and aura of resistance(group buff +104 slash/crush/pierce resistance). Wears plate. Can use all the heal spells and mystic damage spells. For a small group this is a good tank.
Warrior has the most tank-like abilities: Defend Other (30% intercept chance on group member, lasts 15 minutes), Interpose (100% intercept chance for 20 seconds), Distract III (45% intercept chance for 2 minutes), Shield stance (+20 block bonus). wears plate, but can't use mystic spells (for damage/stuns/lifetaps), only gets the revits for healing. So if you use this class to tank, you will need someone healing you. To effectively play this as a tank you need to know all the abilities inside and out.
Battlemage gets shimmer field (+20 block, +20 parry), defend magic (30% chance to intercept spells directed to the group member, 15 minutes), but no other damage intercepters and can only use revits. Wears plate and can use arcane spells like daunting mist (slows movement and attack speed), plus the arcane bombs and ice roots. Rounding up a group mobs, get them tight on you, slow them with daunting mist, run out, then flame,ice,energy bomb them and you just killed a bunch of mobs fast (can be good exp). Get a group member to throw heals on you. Good for group leveling hunts but the group members need to be on their toes. I leveled many levels this way when in arcane schools. It can be tricky but its fun.
Another import thing to consider for a tank build would be the race. Sslisk gets sslisk regen, a full heal over time. Dwarves get dwarven toughness (temporary full damage immunity). One of those 2 would be best for tanking.
And as far as tanking the epics goes, you'd want to be in plate for sure. Epics have abilites which counteract many of the class abilities, such as banish armor immunity, stun immunity, dispirit immunity, mezz immunity... So you want lots of armor and heals, and can pick the one that's right for the job.
Oops. that should read up to 45% heal for aura of health. Still pretty nice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Guaran
Hey Guaran free up some pm space so i can tell you an important Idea for dragons and bipeds as a whole.. *smacks a mailbox over his head* As for classes.. anything with a tower shield SOooo annoying!Quote:
Originally Posted by Guaran
Yeah the forum sent me an email so I cleaned it up a bit :)