Alpine's Tank Guide!

So you wanna be a tank eh? Well you're in the right place! Here is my guide for a PURE tanking barbarian!

How to spend your stat points:
Enough str for equips
Enough dex for equips
Dump the rest into vit

*This stat build is the recommended build for all barb tanks, as it make sure you can use the current equipment and have the maximum number of Hit Points possible*
(ill be adding a chart later with all the req's for equips)

The Goal of the tank is to keep the "aggro" of whatever you and your party is fighting, so the healer only has to focus on healing one person. Lucky for you the tank has a few very useful skills for doing so.

Skills to max ASAP:
Flesh Ream: THIS SKILL IS YOUR BREAD AND BUTTER. Great opening skill, spam it often. The DOT on it stacks upon itself! Really great for doing lots of dmg over time and its a MUST for holding aggro.

Devour: Lowers enemies Physical defence (good for you cause you have a reduced physical attack in tiger form) builds a bit of aggro.

Roar:(aka talk is cheap) Forces everything in a certain radius to attack you (ie. Aggro, but it doesnt have a super strong hold). Great for pulling mobs in close for a friends AOE, getting mobs of squishies. ect. (Dont worry about maxing it, lvl 1-3 is good for a while. If you happen to have xtra SP+coin go for it)

Alacrity of the Beast: Cancel's enemy's spell casting! Need i say more??!?! (ive heard that getting it to lvl 7 is good enough, cause you can use it as a timer on enemy casting... ill look into that more)

Shapeshifting Intensity: GREATLY increases P-deff. its a must! Max it!(DUH)

Beastial Rage: Builds chi, and since most of your aggro grabbin attacks cost CHI. You best be maxing it!

Buffs:
Beast King's Inspiration: Increases not only your max HP, but your party's max HP as well. Max it!

Strength of the Titans: You already have a low Phys attack as a tank. This increases your P-att, need i say more?! MAX IT

Blood Bath: Decreases HP, to raise accuracy. Higher lvls decrease HP less and increase ACC more. Use when you need more accuracy (especially useful when PvPing archers or HIGH dex classes!) Don't use during boss fights...The higher you go with it the more accuracy you get and the less HP you have to sacrafice, so work on maxing it when you can!

Poison Fang: Adds a percentage of wood dmg to your att, you need all the dmg output you can get. MAX IT


Other skills:
True Form: Increases Max health and movement speed but lowers P-att, Its your choice wether to max it or not. But since tanks arnt meant to DD im maxing it to be a better tank.

Axe and Hammer mastery: Increase your dmg while using ANY axe and Hammer type weapons. Since all your skills revolve around this type of weapon you'll be maxing it to increase that thing you pretend is a dmg output!

Feral Regen: If you dont think having an increased HP regen rate is good for a tank you should prolly go roll a new class. (max it when you can)

Tanking bosses;
The majority of bosses can be done with a normal well rounded party (Tank, Cleric, and the DDs (damage dealers)) Obviously you fill the role of the tank, and your job is to hold the Bosses attention (aka aggro). The easiest method of holding aggro is spamming flesh ream, but to do so you need chi. When im tanking a boss i usually follow this combo of attacks;

Flesh Ream > Beastial Rage (to build chi) > Surf Impact (filler) > Devour (lowers P-def of target, bit of aggro) > Flesh Ream > Flesh Ream > Beastial Rage > Repeat till it dies.

You have got to constantly be building chi, in case you need to grab aggro back really fast, another mob wanders into the fight and starts hitting the squishies for instance. Without chi in a situation like that the cleric could die, and you guys wipe. So you can come up with your own chain of attacks, but make sure when Beastial rage cools you cast it again :P

If your party has a veno, politely ask them to toss you a spark once ina while with their "chi donating skill" its rather helpful when trying to keep your chi built during LONG boss fights.

The AOE Bosses:
These are slightly tougher than a normal boss, because every once in a while they let loose a powerful Area of Effect attack. Anyone within that radius is hit, these are fairly devastating to the squishies in your party. As the tank you have a very special skill known as Alacrity of the Beast (which you should lvl to at least 7, timing gets better, cooldown too) If you can get really good with the timing of this skill and the little hints bosses sometimes give about when the AOE is comming you can cancel it outright! That's right... NO AOE. Keep in mind this is difficult to do, and you shouldn't bet on being able to do it 100% of the time. It's all about timing

*I'll add PvP notes later on*

ALSO I'd just like to say one thing about "PvP Barbs" please tell your party what build you are... please. IF you happen to be a PvP barbarian and your flesh ream is only lvl 1, ITS NOT ENOUGH. Trying to tank like that is the equivalent of a cleric trying to heal you with only lvl 1 Ironheart. Not only ARE you going to lose aggro, but you are going to look like a tard humping a doorknob trying to get it back. AND the only way its gonna work is if your DDs take it easy... and that makes the fight last a heck of alot longer... burning more of everyones everything (mana, health, charms, pots, apoth items, armor repairs) just think of all the extra cost... tisk tisk.

***THE RULES OF TANKING***
#1 DO NOT RUN AWAY. EVER. Not only will you die, your party will get wiped. (And they might not like you much anymore.)
#2 KEEP AGGRO. If you lose it, get it back.
#3 FLESH REAM. FLESH REAM. FLESH REAM. And when they least expect it. FLESH REAM!!!.
#4 You should ALWAYS be building CHI, without chi you might as well be a blademaster LOL. Make sure to cast Beastial Rage often.
#5 Have Fun! In my experience tanks are one of the funnest classes to play, you are always needed for something and you meet lots of people. Help others often, and im sure you'll find it returned when you need it.

*Please keep in mind this is all made from my personal experiences and personal playing style, dont like it? LEAVE. You can post this wherever, just please give me the credit I deserve.*

Ps. Ill be adding pictures, an equipment requisite chart (for stats) and a PvP section soon.

Take care,
AlpineFrost