Will It Work? Barb12 Ftr4 Rog4

[BiggerTrolls]

I'm tapped out on another round of arcane pulse wiz. I really enjoy goober tank builds. My thought process here:
Defensive roll
30+ dodge
Good HP
Barb damage reduction
Lots of threat generation
Questionable intim number

Action point breakdown is subject to sanity check(s)!

0(16) Tabaxi, few goodies, defensive roll
34 Occult Slayer, quality 10% HP, barb damage reduction, crit threat/multi
23 Thief Acrobat improves tabaxi defensive roll to kick in at 50% HP
13 Stalwart, defensive stance, 780% melee threat gen, +6 con, low hanging fruit etc
70 action points

Lots of ways to spend points, possibly drop +6 con in stalwart, but that's likely a requirement for higher reaper questing. 75 points to spend on destinies, open to different load outs. A second sentient weapon would be pretty ideal here, lots of different options mrr cap, dodge, ac, melee power, etc.

I have more than a few attuned dino weapons and a dino buckler which makes the dino 5 piece set very comfy to achieve. I will probably go 3 piece vecna set with %HP bonus. With goggles, trinket, a ring(or 2), neck, and another slot open for gear. I could probably fit in 10% missile deflect from fey and another 2 piece set very comfortably. I should be able to fit in a good spell absorb swap spot too. Sorry if that's confusing.

I would like to be able to tank r1 raids, and obviously hard raids, along with r6-8 quests at cap. Any thoughts on the idea?

 

[handofgood]

Stalwart doesnt work with rages so i'd drop that .

If you intend on using a buckler maybe consider getting deflect arrows CD reduction to 2 sec from vanguard thats pretty neat for questing .

Another low hanging fruit is +3 con while raging from raveger and maybe " i like pain" temp hp addition

 

[BiggerTrolls]

Stalwart doesnt work with rages so i'd drop that .

If you intend on using a buckler maybe consider getting deflect arrows CD reduction to 2 sec from vanguard thats pretty neat for questing .

Another low hanging fruit is +3 con while raging from raveger and maybe " i like pain" temp hp addition

I assumed my threat would be much worse off with rage. Was not planning on rage. I think the build might go bear even if rage is in the cards.

 

[Bjond]

Take a look at the Droll Sticky Catmonk I posted. It might give you ideas. I have some extra commentary beyond that on barb+droll+swash.

My current raid tank runs 12 rogue 5 barb 3 swash. When I made it, I had visions of 15x5 haxen from T5 FB, but that was not to be. I tried all kinds of T5 mixes in Heroic and ED trees. What I found was that T5 TA is just flat out far superior to any other mix. The extra 5 Dodge made so much difference in raids. Raid EDs are T5 US (classics + guard-up strike) T4 FotW (rage+scream heal, no adrenaline) T2 SD (for MDB).

I also tried a much heavier Barb>Rogue>Swash like you're describing. On paper it *should* perform similar or better than 12 Rogue, but it kept failing my R1 KT solo test while the 12 Rogue version just sailed through easily. That could mean there's just some calc I missed and it's a worse tank, but it could also mean I didn't play it as well.

When questing, I could definitely get away with T5 FB T4 TA and T5 FotW without any US. Still had to use Kukri and a Guardbreaking buckler for R10 quests, though. Salt + Daze on Crit makes a big difference when you're so dependent on NOT being hit.

 

[BiggerTrolls]

Take a look at the Droll Sticky Catmonk I posted. It might give you ideas. I have some extra commentary beyond that on barb+droll+swash.

My current raid tank runs 12 rogue 5 barb 3 swash. When I made it, I had visions of 15x5 haxen from T5 FB, but that was not to be. I tried all kinds of T5 mixes in Heroic and ED trees. What I found was that T5 TA is just flat out far superior to any other mix. The extra 5 Dodge made so much difference in raids. Raid EDs are T5 US (classics + guard-up strike) T4 FotW (rage+scream heal, no adrenaline) T2 SD (for MDB).

I also tried a much heavier Barb>Rogue>Swash like you're describing. On paper it *should* perform similar or better than 12 Rogue, but it kept failing my R1 KT solo test while the 12 Rogue version just sailed through easily. That could mean there's just some calc I missed and it's a worse tank, but it could also mean I didn't play it as well.

When questing, I could definitely get away with T5 FB T4 TA and T5 FotW without any US. Still had to use Kukri and a Guardbreaking buckler for R10 quests, though. Salt + Daze on Crit makes a big difference when you're so dependent on NOT being hit.

Amazing insights! If you can recall what were your numbers for defensive stats?

 

[Bjond]

Amazing insights! If you can recall what were your numbers for defensive stats?

Not on atm, but the tank has (from builder, ee/reaper):
42/44 Dodge 3600/4500 HP
242/263 PRR 100 MRR 4% DR (barb) 208 Hamp
59% Acid Cold Electri 51% Fire 41% Chaos 47% Evil 15% Force 23% Good 25% Negative 35% Sonic
98 Double (with VKF buff) 13d6+16 Sneak 210/231 MP 66 bypass

Those are with enhanced bloodrage, which (because you're tanking) pretty much has 100% uptime. More PRR would smooth things out. I have a gear rework for PRR+30 via profane set, but haven't been motivated to farm it. I mostly log on, raid, log off. Now and then I play more to rebuild a character.

Play is kinda funny. Cruises a bit without taking hits, then BAM down to 50% or less, then spends a fair bit of time low HP, but no more giant smacks due to DRoll. The nice thing about it is that it can spend so much time half-dead or worse. Gives peeps a looong time to notice you're low and maybe toss a heal (very useful questing, less so raiding when it's more usual to have real heals).

Caveat: if you're looking for the next best thing for push raiding, this is NOT it. Even on a max-completion character, I think it would get pasted past R4 raiding. I have primary/solo tanked most raids on R1 (some R2&3), but the build works FAR better as an off tank that can kinda/sorta pretend to DPS when off-tanking isn't needed; ie. fill in as swap tank for stacks to fade in LOB or Skele, round up parasite kittens in KT, hold KT during throne/shadows, split orthons in VOD, etc.. When there's zero need for an extra tank, I don't bring this character at all. I have real grade-A DPS chars to bring for that and a sunburster/disco for 2H2H -- I'm kinda like the missing link for our guild raids, can swap to whatever.

 

[PraetorPlato]

What's the advantage of that build over top tier DPS builds (assuming those are total comp stats)? Most of the top-end melee's I've seen hit around 4.2-4.4k hp/250-300 prr/30 dodge, so I guess the 14 or so dodge?

 

[Bjond]

What's the advantage of that build over top tier DPS builds (assuming those are total comp stats)? Most of the top-end melee's I've seen hit around 4.2-4.4k hp/250-300 prr/30 dodge, so I guess the 14 or so dodge?

I don't have completions for that much defense on a true DPS build. Also, the dodge and d.roll make a huge difference. I did try with 5 less dodge (T4 TA with FB T5) and it was a lot worse -- like can't pass my R1 KT solo test worse. I was sad there. I wanted a 15x5 Haxen tank with adrenaline.

 

[BiggerTrolls]

Those are interesting numbers. My first attempt at a 20 monk tank had 330~ prr 40ish dodge and 5k hp, with 120+ mrr, outside of reaper. I expected your numbers to be higher, the stats you laid out speak highly of the build style. Very impressive that you can get so much milage out of droll!

 

[Bjond]

Ah! I thought you were asking about my tank. The monk numbers are probably somewhere in the detail dump from builder on the catmonk post.

The above numbers are from a 12 rogue 5 barb 3 swash (closer to what you were talking about in the OP).

 

[BiggerTrolls]

I better level this dumb build up quickly. I need to post screen caps.

 

[PraetorPlato]

I don't have completions for that much defense on a true DPS build. Also, the dodge and d.roll make a huge difference. I did try with 5 less dodge (T4 TA with FB T5) and it was a lot worse -- like can't pass my R1 KT solo test worse. I was sad there. I wanted a 15x5 Haxen tank with adrenaline.

Ah ok, I thought these were max comp stats. If they’re not, that makes much more sense! That’s cool, thanks