i just dont wont to go rod 3 … so the alternative will be what? shinobi?
Shinobi’s Bunshin will make you take too much damage as a tank…plus Shinobi’s skills are all pierce damage and won’t go well together with Pelt/Rod/Murmillo skills, which are all Strike damage.
For rank 7, the best choices are Squire 1 or Rodelero 3. Other than that, maybe Doppel 1 if you don’t use DOV.
thanks guys, i will go pelt3>rod3>murmillo full tank, i think shinobi dont worth
but i need some points in dex or full con?
rod 3 and shinobi work well together, bunshin clones copy shooting star
As i said above, bunshin makes u take too much damage. As a main tank i pull 20-30 monsters at once, if i use bushin i will die on the spot.
Quick question, why only one point in high kick ?
You only need high kick for the debuff not the damage. The cooldown is too high to be a useful damaging skill. So most put 1 point for its utility debuff.
Hey guys I’m trying to make a tank build and I’d like to go pelt3>rod3>murmillo.
That’s the skill tree I’ve made with help of other people on forum:
Tbh in the rod circle I don’t know if I want to keep high kick at level 5 and havin shield push, should be better havin only 1 point in high kick and put the 7 points ( plus the 4 remaining points from the high kick) from shield push to shield shoving?
Also for the stats I’d like to go 1 STR: 1 CON or maybe 3 STR : 3 CON : 1 DEX. Can you check the skill tree and tell me if it’s good and help me choosing stats? Pleaseee >-<
@GoldenCross As usual, good insights. Like I said in my previous replies in some posts, gonna think of going with the “less-optimized” DPS-tank Dopple>Murmillo combo to see the results if dopple can be an effective “DPS solution” for the lvl280 tanking for re-rolling sucks. Let’s do this! 
Swordsman - get at least lv 3 Bash for the knockdown attribute, 3 knockdowns with 6 sec cooldown is very useful.
Peltasta - Lv 1 Umbro Thrust is enough. After that, the remaining points you can choose between High Guard or Guardian to help with tanking.
Rodelero - Lv 1 High Kick is enough. Remaining points should go into Shield Shoving, the damage is decent after the buff, at least it’s a better skill than shield push.
Stats determine whether you are a tank or not. If you want to tank you need at least 200 in CON to have a big enough HP pool. It really depends on what your goal is - are you trying to be an actual tank, or a half tank half DPS?
@bback24 Thanks, but just keep in mind that Doppel’s Cyclone is slash, which is not boosted by Slithering/High Kick/ Murmillo’s Headbutt.
I just want to share my experience and tips on tanking. OP somehow missed some points. Hope these helps.
1."TO MAINTAIN AGGRO EFFECTIVELY AS A TANK PAST LEVEL 280, YOU MUST BE ABLE TO DO SOME DAMAGE AS WELL."
where did you get this? I didn’t even need to spam my skills to hold aggro. with level 10 provoke, i just hold the attack button on monsters and it sticks to me forever. you are right that tankers do need damage (everybody do), but you don’t need it to hold aggro. JUST POKE THE AGGRO MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE TO HOLD IT.
2. Why you need to pump up on CON? It doesn’t give you physical defense nor magic. good set of 4 piece plate, level15 aspersio buff (and it only costs 1k silver), “fixed” guardian buff, and high guard, all at max attribute. these are the only basic and easy to get skills that you need to pump up physical defense. I might as well go for a more DEX, slight CON build rather than pure ones. This way, I have 3 type of defense mechanism: Dodge, Defense and Block. One good thing to note is, if your HP is too high, let’s say like 50k. If it doesn’t fall below 25k while tanking with a healer, it could mean that there is something wrong with your build. that wasted CON on too much HP could have been distributed to STR or DEX.
3. So how about magic? Well, this is when you put your tanking knowledge and skills to the test.
- you don’t always stick with your 4 piece plate while tanking and put on 4 piece cloth too! (mastery at max also). Put your plates and cloths on shortcut keys and just a slide of a finger on the keyboard could alter both sets quickly.
- you got that cool slithering move to avoid magic, use it well and on perfect timing.
- at this current level cap, glass bracelets, high leveled necklace and sage wall (or zalia kite shield if you are not rich) could give you decent mdef. so what if the aggros are a mixture of magic and physical type? depending on the situation, study how many magic and physical monsters are present and switch your equipment accordingly.
- know how and when to retreat. this reflects your overall gameplay on tanking. Lastly, a good healer in party will be helpful as well.
- Here are some of gameplay tips:
- monsters doesn’t change target until their attack animation had finished, at this situation, even if it targeted a party member on long distance, it will still move to their target and attack them. you poke it some time before its attack animation started until it end, it will then face you like an angry bully.
- you should not be the one who provoke monsters then hold your shield like a tree. know when to hold up your shield and when to attack. study monster behavior and adapt to it. this way, high dps party members won’t intimidate aggro because of your pokes.
- when tanking, make sure aggro, particularly bosses, doesn’t face your fragile party members. show them it’s back! (rouges are happy about this).
- the video attached shows a monster with a ohko magic skill. why would anyone catch a ohko skill anyway? obviously, you stay away from it.
i dont know how to end a post so…
1 Like
1."TO MAINTAIN AGGRO EFFECTIVELY AS A TANK PAST LEVEL 280, YOU MUST BE ABLE TO DO SOME DAMAGE AS WELL."
where did you get this? I didn’t even need to spam my skills to hold aggro. with level 10 provoke, i just hold the attack button on monsters and it sticks to me forever. you are right that tankers do need damage (everybody do), but you don’t need it to hold aggro. JUST POKE THE AGGRO MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE TO HOLD IT.
When you get to high enough level this doesn’t work anymore. Some DPS classes do so much damage that poking with auto attacks won’t peel enemies away from those DPS teammates.
- Why you need to pump up on CON? It doesn’t give you physical defense nor magic. good set of 4 piece plate, level15 aspersio buff (and it only costs 1k silver), “fixed” guardian buff, and high guard, all at max attribute. these are the only basic and easy to get skills that you need to pump up physical defense. I might as well go for a more DEX, slight CON build rather than pure ones. This way, I have 3 type of defense mechanism: Dodge, Defense and Block. One good thing to note is, if your HP is too high, let’s say like 50k. If it doesn’t fall below 25k while tanking with a healer, it could mean that there is something wrong with your build. that wasted CON on too much HP could have been distributed to STR or DEX.
Because at high levels both magic monsters and physical monsters hurt, even if you pump up everything high. HP is your best way to tank magic. Evasion doesn’t really work well unless u pump huge amounts into it, but then you’ll have so little HP you’ll get destroyed by magic monsters.
- So how about magic? Well, this is when you put your tanking knowledge and skills to the test.
- you don’t always stick with your 4 piece plate while tanking and put on 4 piece cloth too! (mastery at max also). Put your plates and cloths on shortcut keys and just a slide of a finger on the keyboard could alter both sets quickly.
- you got that cool slithering move to avoid magic, use it well and on perfect timing.
- at this current level cap, glass bracelets, high leveled necklace and sage wall (or zalia kite shield if you are not rich) could give you decent mdef. so what if the aggros are a mixture of magic and physical type? depending on the situation, study how many magic and physical monsters are present and switch your equipment accordingly.
- know how and when to retreat. this reflects your overall gameplay on tanking. Lastly, a good healer in party will be helpful as well.
Often you’ll pull a room of half magic half physical enemies. No matter what armor set you switch into, it’s still gonna hurt. Agree about the timing and positioning though.
- Here are some of gameplay tips:
- monsters doesn’t change target until their attack animation had finished, at this situation, even if it targeted a party member on long distance, it will still move to their target and attack them. you poke it some time before its attack animation started until it end, it will then face you like an angry bully.
- you should not be the one who provoke monsters then hold your shield like a tree. know when to hold up your shield and when to attack. study monster behavior and adapt to it. this way, high dps party members won’t intimidate aggro because of your pokes.
- when tanking, make sure aggro, particularly bosses, doesn’t face your fragile party members. show them it’s back! (rouges are happy about this).
Common sense.
- the video attached shows a monster with a ohko magic skill. why would anyone catch a ohko skill anyway? obviously, you stay away from it.
If you can’t face tank it, u still gotta drag it around. A tank with 40k hp is about the only build that can survive a hit from that thing.
Thank you very much @GoldenCross , I adjusted the skill tree as you suggested. It seems better now 
. Btw I think at this point I’d put all 5 points on Bash, I don’t think havin just 2 points on Gung Ho would be good at all, or at least I think so. For pelt now that I’ve those 4 points from leaving Umbo Thrust at level 1 I think that without Gung Ho it’d be good takin Guardian. Atm I’ve 3 points on High Guard most likely for the attribute. Btw I think it’s good to put all the points either on High Guard or on Guardian, not too good havin 3 in one and 4 in another. Counting, as you’ve already said, that High Guard even if will get kind of a buff the duration is still bad so it would be better takin Guardian to level 7 instead of High Guard, not really sure about this tho. Any thoughts/advices about it?
I know you said it’s a personal choice, but I’d really like your advice.
Well, for the stats I’d like to be an actual tank so I’ll go for CON. Anyway by 200 CON you mean put straight 200 points on CON and then dedicate to STR or when I reach 200 CON on total stat I go for STR? If you’d give a STR : CON ratio or a determinate number of stat points to get on CON, I’d really appreciate it.
Oh and about the DEX I don’t think I’ll put any point there, due to many people tellin me that with decent pair of gauntlets and green gems I should be ok.
If I don’t bother you too much, can you help me with those doubts/questions >.<?
When you get to high enough level this doesn’t work anymore. Some DPS classes do so much damage that poking with auto attacks won’t peel enemies away from those DPS teammates.
I would like to test this. What I noticed is, damage doesn’t make aggros change target, unless there are 2 tankers in party with both provoke skill set to ON. It’s not like IMC changed AI behavior of aggros at level 280+ dungeons, or did they? If that’s the case, I won’t argue.
- Because at high levels both magic monsters and physical monsters hurt, even if you pump up everything high. HP is your best way to tank magic. Evasion doesn’t really work well unless u pump huge amounts into it, but then you’ll have so little HP you’ll get destroyed by magic monsters
- Often you’ll pull a room of half magic half physical enemies. No matter what armor set you switch into, it’s still gonna hurt. Agree about the timing and positioning though.
I started to feel the hurt at level 200 instanced full run. my level that time was also 200. Aggro damage are about 800 to 1k damage both phys and magic. Wearing 170 sets and my rodo is at 180 dex, I stuck with my cloth set while tanking and I was literally dodging physical attacks, while maintaining mdef, then telling my party to focus fire on magic aggros first. I survive with effort though, and still doing it. Hmm, I dont know about 280+ maps if monster damage and accuracy was largely increased and only a pure tanker CON build are party essential and will survive like you were saying, meh… that would be hell boring. By the way, I build my char as all-rounder PVE and PVP 1str:1con:3dex Rodo with Corsair C1 for hooking.
@OP at what are you with this build? are most of your skill reviews based on personal experience and thorough field tests?
Hello Op,
I know that I may not be in the right topic and I understand your focus on Murmillo as a rightful follow to the Pelt/Rod build (the links are as obvious than the attributes !) BUT it sounds that we can’t keep the aggro without using a 15 ranks Swashbuckling and get wrecked by magic attacks.
With the new card system (7 Nieule cards in ideal case (not mine 
)) and the new loots (Didel Tower Shield), it will be easier to survive boss magic attacks without further mandatory buffs (Pardonner’s one for example).
At the moment i’m playing a weird build as shown on the link bellow and could easily tank the “difficult” saalus mission (the one in the Tomb with tremendous magic damages) with a lvl difference of +12 without being in danger at any moment.
I use this stats distribution (
) : every point in CON besides bonus points (quests and potions) in STR.
Had a really low gear to do the mission (+3 geras spear, 2*+1 glass bracelet, +1 max petamion, white lvl 170 plate armor torso, legs and boots and 220 leather gloves). I didn’t buy any attribute besides Pelt blocks related ones and 10% stabbing.
I never had any problem with the aggro during the run, and didn’t fall below 15K hp left. My group was a Cleric (Priest/dieb/Oracle), a Ranger/Fletcher, a Quarrel/Swarzer and an ElemLock, they died quite a lot in the aoe and was standing firmly in frontline waiting for them to come back.
No doubt that this template is unoptimised (was hoping concentrate will scale on CON and not STR-DEX) but is enough to deal enough damage to keep easily aggro and survive.
The future Hoplite buffs, ie 3 hits on Throw spear want me to reallocate points in this manner and may be better with a potential change on Finestra Physical damage… The remaining point could be either in long stride or 8 in pierce (those skills scale pretty badly 
)
With the Rank 8 Dragoon, you gain powerful abilities as a tank:
A thunderclap effect on boss (lowering attack speed and movement speed) that deals tremendous damages with Dethrone and an attribute to DOUBLE your damage during your burst.
If you add the natural advantages coming with the spear build: bonus aoe ratio, permanent scaling block buff and slight crit buff, great damage synergies (Spear lunge and Gae Bulg) and range superiority, spear tanking builds will be well rounded to the job with a good burst potential and a reliable spammer to maintain an high TPS (you will need the SP pot train following you)
The change on guardian is really nice to complete this build with as a small defensive cooldown (+17% physical def and +18% evasion)
Maybe my point of view is biased because I’m not doing the ET (i’m not 280 yet) and some more optimisations are needed to complete it properly
can i give my comment? it’s a bit off topic. thanks.
Parmenion’s actual build (lvl 247) - Skill Simulator - Tree of Savior Fan Base
Build your favorite skill builds and share them.(Swordsman > Swordsman > Peltasta > Hoplite > Hoplite > Hoplite > Dragoon)
dragoon is DPS and use 2H spear to fully maximize the class. it’s a waste if you put on some pelta skills and less STR/DEX to it. the damage scaling on their skills are high enough to par with archers.
c3 hoplite is good with dragoon. finestra is self explanatory. long stride skill and throw spear to quickly close in your distance from enemies specially on pvp
@nikked81
With the changes in High Guard attack penalty you can use it for the Umbo Blow bonus if you want, it’s really up to you. As I said, as long as you have the important ones I listed, the rest doesn’t matter too much.
With stats, especially CON, set yourself a target HP eg. 35k, 40k. Rest goes into STR/DEX for damage/accuracy. I wouldn’t dismiss DEX entirely because we don’t know if monsters past lv 280 have a lot of evasion or not.
@polsi
amage definitely affects aggro and enemy’s target. That’s why strong DPS classes can pull enemies away from you.
Regarding armor sets, watch some Earth Tower videos in youtube. Some of those monsters there do 3000+ per hit and you sometimes tank 20+ of those at once. This is why tanks are currently not required in Earth Tower, because they still take too much damage and/or drain too much cleric heals. A cryo/chrono can keep a large group of enemies cc’ed without any tanks so you don’t have to absorb all the damage head on.
@tonyostark
Personal experience and testing. Played mainly tank since OBT.
@Parmenion
Murmillo is best suited for the tanking role at rank 8 due to the helmet reducing damage taken. Dragoon doesn’t really have any skills to reduce damage taken, which is a huge part of tanking. Murmillo can’t use spears or rapiers so doesn’t go well with Dragoon/Hoplite, which requires spears. If you want to build a tank outside of Murmillo at rank 8, it’s up to you but I wouldn’t recommend it to be honest.
@GoldenCross Thank you for clarifications on the skills.
Also for the stats as I could see you need to put straight 200 points on CON to reach 35-40k, so I think I’ll go so:
4 CON : 1 STR until I get 200 CON and 50 STR (maybe some more on STR), the rest goes to DEX; It seems good or at least for me.
Thank you very much for your huge help.
Keep up the nice work 
.
1 Like
I just started playing a week ago but I chose a tank class and found this guide first. I like the idea of going Squire 1 because as of now (low lvl junk) my stuff breaks after only grinding for 2 hours. Maybe less!
Am I losing a lot of dmg by not going Rod3?