Tree of Savior Forum

Fencer as a tanking class is questionable, here's why

Class and Rank Swordsman
#1

As a good tank in the higher levels, you would need to have high CON for the HP pool. I haven’t heard many success stories with a high DEX tank build simply due to the fact that you can’t evade magic attacks at all with DEX, so it’s not viable.

With that in mind, how does Fencer help a high CON build in terms of tanking? Fencer’s skills Lunge and Esquive Toucher add evasion for a small period of time, but your evasion isn’t high anyway because you had to throw the majority of your points in CON, plus evasion doesn’t work well against high level mobs. So how do these help in tanking?

At Fencer c2 you have Preparation, which adds a lot of block for the 8 second duration. This sounds fine, but the skill itself has a 35 sec cooldown with no overheat. So 8 seconds of high block and 27 second downtime doesn’t exactly help much when bosses are pounding away at you (not to mention block doesn’t work against magic attacks).

So, where are people getting this “Fencer = tank” idea from? Because I don’t see how it works.

Edit: Numbers

#2

Same way as how tanking as a warrior in TERA works.

Aggro the **** out of everything with swashbuckling with a squishy build and hope you live to tell the tale with evasion. Although it doesn’t work the same way since in TERA you can dodge magical attacks if done right oh well.

#3

from rodelero’s slithering i believe, though my fencer build is kinda off-tank with about 52 con currently (not yet fencer, corsair atm)

#4

I have not yet seen any success stories of CON tank on caster BOSS either~
If they took damage faster than healing CD, they all died eventually~

At least dodge tank can evade almost any form of physical attack, give them advantage in most of the case~

#5

But at least a CON tank can last way longer though.
What’s a 20k+ HP tank going to do at end game? Against magic mobs you’ll die even faster without CON.

@Lostac Rodelero =/= fencer, if you want to be a magic tank just go Rodelero then, why Fencer?

#6

High evasion as well as magic tank in one, its actually legit

#7

I said it over and over again though, with a high CON build you won’t have high evasion in the first place to benefit from Fencer buffs, which is the entire point of the thread.

#8

I believe I never said anything going full/high con, try out a con-dex build you’ll get a decent amount of evasion and hp, as well as slithering from rodel for the immunity. there are also several evasion gears that could reach up 500 evasion even without very high dex

#9

The thing is, you need to invest so heavily on evasion and in turn, none of that gets rewarded when fighting against magic mobs. Slithering gives you 10 seconds, then you need to survive for another 10 seconds before the cooldown is finished (assuming kTOS patch takes effect). Someone with higher CON and a bigger HP pool will be in a much better position to survive during this gap.
A full CON build with gear towards CON/HP has about 20k hp more than a 1:1 CON/DEX build with gear focused on evasion/DEX. This is significant and can be the difference between life and death in tanking.

Not to mention high CON = high block, which works well against physical attacks as well.

#10

if hp is your concern in the first place then just prioritize con over dex while having slithering, evasion and block. You would still end up having 500± evasion with low dex thanks to leather bonuses and gems on boots

#11

how about full CON fencer build with Lolopanther Leather Set + Leather Mastery Attribute? Should the evasion suffice plus the Fencer evasion buff skills?

#12

with lolopanther i think you’ll have more than enough, i’m just using standard stuff to calculate upto 500 evasion

#13

SwordsC1->PeltrastaC2->RodeleroC2->FencerC2
Full CON + Lolopanther Leather Set + Leather Mastery Attribute

Block/High HP/Evasion but low DPS

Would this probably be the best tanker right now?

#14

This game has no tanking end game.

Sorry but there isn’t any.

Tanking in the 240 instance (last one before ET) is basically you knowing which cluster of mobs is 100% physical and then holding C to block.

That’s it.

You can’t tank magical. At all. Even a paladin with barrier gets killed by magic.

You need diev’s silence totem to counter magic mobs.

No tank can do this job.

Sorry but this is an MMO of stupid design choices.

Rodelero is an entirely broken class and you will hate yourself if you ever pick a single circle of it.

#15
  1. CON doesn’t give you block.
  2. The difference in health can be even more if all plate armor passives and items are taken.
  3. Both build lack magical resist and be nailed by magic damage. Full damage to both.
  4. Leveling up full con tank is even more bothersome than con/dex.
  5. Magic penetrates evasion and block. Block penetration …eh, penetrates block. Even tho CON gives also Ph. Redution, you still get more survivabilty vs physical with evasion.
  6. Full CON is actually is like being a touhou fan and evade stuff like a boss.
  7. I heard people whinning that they can’t keep aggro as full damage dealers with swash buckling, so with CON you can just forget it. Cheerleadering if SB on cooldown.
#16

can’t you move out of the way of attacks?

#17

some magic attacks follow you even if you walked from end to end of a map

1 Like
#18

@celgaming @ravenk36
I see your points about tanking magic. I had planned (along with many others i’m sure) to take Rodelero for Slithering in the hopes of tanking magic mobs at end game. I realised that it’ll be impossible if magic bullets follow u if you try to kite them.

Which puts me in a dilemma right now.

One of my characters i was trying to go
Sword > Peltasta c2 > Rodelero c2 > (undecided).
It is now at Peltasta c2 now, if I’m not going Rodelero what should i get? Peltasta c3? I want to maintain 1H sword + shield in preparation for Murmillo in the future when it gets released. Any suggestions?

#19

Im leveling up 3 characters for now (full str swordsman c2 - hoplite c3 - dopel - dragoon, high str swordsman - highlander - barbarian c2 - corsair c2 - dopel and high dex swordsman - highlander c3 - corsair - fencer c2). In my opinion, the first one is going to be one of the best pve grind machines, the second one mostly pvp dps and the last one is going to be something like semi-tank and semi-dps in one. Im not sure if it usefull in high lvl dungeons since he cant even provoke (Jolly Roger taunt is useless). But Im pretty sure it have great potential in solo farming and in pvp. Cos he have enough accuracy to deal with any evasion-guy and enough dmg to burst with sept etoiles. Anyway Im confusedf with this build neither. I just wanted a guy with rapier :smiley:

#20

well its more like fencer is the better 1h option up there theres simply no tanking class to pick, its either that or squire or something.

im pelt c3 atm and im not sure what else i would build if i didnt go fencer, c3 corsair seems silly and squire seems like a gigantic drag.