Pretty much.
That is because there is conflict in the meaning of the word “tank” for new and old players in Tree of Savior:
- “New” players usually come from other games where “tanking” means being a meat-shield, face-tanking, using defensive spells, things like that.
- “Old” players who have experience with Tree of Savior know that this is a different game and the meaning of “tanking” is much different.
In essence “tanking” in Tree of Savior means holding aggro. That is it, nothing else, no face-tanking, no protective/defensive spells, no lots of defense, nothing like that.
The better you can hold aggro in Tree of Savior, the better of a tank you are. This means knowing how to move to group mobs properly into the AoEs of your party members, or making the boss face in a way in which his attacks don’t reach others.
Also, every Swordsman has up to 3 times the HP of other classes, making them naturally tanky and the only real requirement they have to hold aggro is dealing a good amount of damage with their Provoke attribute, as well as using Swash Buckling from Peltasta to lure a large amount of mobs.
So, with Peltasta C1~C3 you cover level 5~15 of Swash Buckling, which is your main tool to hold aggro and being a “tank” in Tree of Savior. After that, all you need to care about is dealing the most amount of damage you can to help bring down the boss or mobs down faster.
Besides holding aggro, you can’t really protect anyone as a Swordsman, you don’t have a single skill that offers any type of protection to anyone at all. The majority of those types of skills are on the Cleric tree and they are the ones in charge of protecting the party.
Now, if you look past Peltasta then you will find that there is nothing else in the entire Swordsman tree that makes you “tanky” and hence why you see such a wide arrange of different builds when it comes to people suggesting them for this role.
Rodelero C2 has Slithering which makes you immune to magical damage (it doesn’t stop CC), but outside of that it doesn’t offer you anything else. If you search for posts from people who are currently playing Rodelero you will find that mosts of your skills don’t work on bosses and they don’t offer any real CC to deal with mobs in dungeons.
The CC role comes from the Wizard tree, as they have some of the most potent CC skills in the entire game and nothing in the entire Swordsman tree even comes close to that. Seriously, not even one bit close to it.
So the question lies in how useful is Slithering in the game as a “tank”. Well, the answer is that it is not required at all. I mean, just look at the people recommending “full tank” or “full CON” builds, even for “end-game” and Earth Tower, they recommend stuff like Squire C3.
Why are they recommending Squire C3 and not Rodelero C2? Makes you wonder, right?
If Slithering was even remotely necessary in the game, you would see everyone recommending Rodelero C2 and Slithering for a tank build, but in reality you find just a bunch of different build that never agree on it.
Then you have people recommending Rodelero C3, which only adds damage. Why?
Why are they suggesting you to get more damage when you can get even MORE damage from picking something like Fencer? While at the same time Fencer gives you Evasion and Block from it’s skills.
Or even better, why not make your job easier at holding aggro from multiple mobs by picking the best AoE skill which is Cyclone. You have the highest level of Swash Buckling to lure as many mobs as possible, but nothing on your entire kit to take advantage of it.
Or providing more “tanking” utility with Jolly Roger from Corsair, as well as the extra drops on items/silver from it. Or a better way to get more EXP through Double Pay Earn?
Or finally, since this game is not about face-tanking but about being “smart” and knowing how to move outside of the attacks of the bosses (“dodge”), or block just at the right time, etc. Why not pick Cataphract which gives you one of the best tools to do this effectively? (high movement speed).
And well, like you said. Hoplite can give you up to 30%+ Block with Finestra, which is another viable option when building a tank.
In the end, it doesn’t matter.
You can take Peltasta C1 and anything else and you will be a tank. You can take Peltasta C2/C3 and anything else, and you will still be a tank.
Not even the people who advocate for “full CON” builds can agree on one particular build. And this is because the game gives you many tools to choose from to build your character and there is no one “true” way to build a “tank” character.
If you want my personal opinion, I believe this is one of the best Peltasta C3 build:
Which you could change to Doppel->Dragoon instead of Fencer too, if you want to use spears. And Squire can be used instead of Corsair for full PvE.
I also think that without Peltasta C3 (maybe even with), Cataphract C3 makes one of the best classes for tanking in this game.
While it is also possible to build a high CON Hoplite C3 with A LOT of block on it.
To be honest, you could be tanking with any of these builds and you wouldn’t feel any difference besides the skills that you have on your bar.
So tl;dr: Yes, they are all equally good, as long as you have Peltasta C1+ on your build.
people will laugh at you but their ignorance comes from reading threads half way through perhaps not even and simply being sheeps… Choose the class that you like most and enjoy it