Tree of Savior Forum

Some advices for a tank

Class and Rank Swordsman
#1

Hi there,

I just started playing the game and i would like to play a tank for pve only. I will play this character with friend so i wont bash alone at all. I have read both huge topics about classes and the fencer tank looks realy cool.

I would like to know if rodelero is realy usefull? Some people say that it’s pvp oriented or underpowered and others say that it’s pretty good. Is pelta 3 / corsair a good thing if i choose to skip rodelero?

I’m a bit lost about stats too. I started with 3CON / 2DEX to try balancing damages / defences. I didn’t put points in STR as i do not have skills who scale with it (Or maybe i missunderstood how skills works) and DEX give me both with crits and evade. If i have to get some STR, i should put all of them early to benefit the most of 10% / rank, right?

Finaly, here is my build i plan to do http://www.tosbase.com/tools/skill-simulator/build/qtk2vzig9d/ .

Thanks for reading me and sorry for my english mistakes =).

#2

Con, con and more Con.

I will not point you in the same direciton I am goign as I have not tested it out fully. however you need LOTs of HP tot ank, magic will kill you even with best setup if you don’t have lots of HP.

#3

Hello Azyrash,
If you want to make a fencer, I suggest you to build your stats with
2 : 1
DEX : STR
Which will give you quite high critical rate, evasion and decent damage. Remember by being a fencer, your main way to tank is by dodging everything and not by receiving damage with your large amount of HP.
Without CON, your HP would be high enough naturally as a swordsman and your evasion but if you really want to tank, you should add your CON to whatever you feel is necessary, so you won’t get killed as easily by magical bosses or mobs. (Magic can’t be evaded)
And yes, if you want to take it you should take STR first until early mid game.

STR doesn’t necessarily scale with skill damage, but your physical damage, which you obtain through your weapon and STR does.
Here’s the link if you want to know more:

I don’t really know much about rodelero, unfortunately.

Peltasta 3 is unnecessary, as the main reason you’re going to peltasta is swashbuckling, which at level 5 will taunt 11 enemies. That’s good enough to be a tank, imo. Of course if you want to go Peltasta 3 that’s fine too.

About Corsair, circle 1 is fine too but it reaches it’s usefulness at circle 2 where it gets Hexen Dropper and Double Weapon Assault.

Regarding your build :
Swordsman

  1. You should max Gung Ho. It will really help your damage from early to mid game, provided you maxed its attribute. (no, the defense reduction isn’t that much of a big deal and while it is true you can’t use it with Guardian, you will probably use this more.)
  2. If you only want to play pve, I wouldn’t recommend that much point in Pain Barrier. Level 1 gives you 15 sec buff, while level 5 gives you 19. That 4 points can be given to other skill which can actually help you.
  3. Bash is not a damaging skill. If you want to take bash, I suggest you take it only to level 3 which will give access to it’s knockdown attribute.
  4. You don’t really need thrust because you have access to Piercing attacks by going fencer, but you can take 1 level if you want more skills at early game.

Peltasta

  1. Circle 1 is fine
  2. I suggest that you take at least 1 level in Shield Lob. I know it’s damage is not that good and the physical defense penalty is quite risky, but it will help you deal with multiple enemies at the same time.

Rodelero
I don’t know much about this class so I won’t comment

Fencer

  1. You might want to take at least 1 level of Attaque Composee. Yes, you have Flanconnade already as 0 cooldown skill, but Flanconnade gives Slash damage while Attaque Composee gives Piercing damage. This will give you more options in battlefield.
  2. Preparation - The scaling on the increase of block is not that good, so I suggest only take 1 level of it. You have Lunge and Flanconnade to evade and block anyways. It is quite useful to maximize your pierce damage.
  3. Every level in Attaque Coquille adds 1 sec to the debuff. At level 4 it gives you 8 sec debuff, meaning it will have 100% uptime. That might be something to consider. Personally I only level it to 1 because 5 sec is enough for me as I mostly use Flanconnade which is Slash damage.

You might want to read this for more info I couldn’t provide

Reminder : I’m suggesting all of this based on my playing style. If what I’m suggesting doesn’t fit well with yours, feel free to ignore them. I’m not going to judge. Don’t let my opinion shackle your freedom. Do whatever you want.

I’m sorry for the text wall and if l missed something please tell me :kissing_heart:

#4

The thing is if you’re playing a tank for PVE - full con is the best up in my opinion. that combined with petalsta + squire is the best set up.

I’m not sure about corsair but choosing to be a squire instead is more practical. I’ve tank for so many people now, I’m a C3 pelt lvl 120. one thing I learnt is that my armour constantly breaks during dungeon sessions. it’s absolutely annoying having to tank without an armour.

and these magical enemies are crazy with their damages even with ur armour on so bear that in mind.

#5

Oh, thanks, i didn’t know that STR is add to skill’s damages. I understand now how it works. Anyway, i’m a bit scary of playing a tank without CON , same about full CON. I think i will go for 50/50 CON / DEX and see how it works high lvl.

I’m wondering if barbarian couldn’t be a good classe to switch with rodelero. I mean, it seems rodelero is taking for CC and magic’s defence but barbarian got good CC too with seism and helm chopper. Plus he would have way more damages than rodelero.

About skills, i didn’t take gung ho as i play with guardian. I know about pain barrier isn’t worth 5 points but i didn’t know where i could put them.
I will edit my fencer’s skill like you said.

Thanks for your advices guys

#6

Hello,

I’m one of them scumbags that went Peltasta C3, and I am here to preach you the love of Peltasta C3!

While it is not necessary to go that far for a tank, the benefits of becoming Peltasta C3 are mostly for 2 reasons:
Swash Buckling 15: Taunts 21 enemies
Umbo Thrust: Applies armor break for 15 seconds, 2 charges, overheats and cooldowns for 25 seconds

Note that armor break can be applied to bosses as well as regular mobs and thus reducing their physical defense. This is great for a party consisting of Swordsman, Archer, Necromancer, and Monk/Chaplain DPS. Just make sure you apply the armor debuff every 15 seconds so the upkeep time is 30 seconds and down time is 25 seconds if done perfectly.

Here are the mechanics you should keep in mind:
Even though Swash Buckling taunts the enemies for 30 seconds, this does not mean you get to keep them for that long if you don’t actively attack them.

DPS can and will pull the mobs off you at higher level with faster rate. It is highly suggested to use all cooldowns before the pull except High Guard until you have used some AoE attacks on the mobs. You can then proceed to use high guard afterwards and block for physical mobs. Make sure you kite the magical mobs in circle and taunt whenever possible.

There are many builds out there that can go along with Peltasta C3, the popular ones are usually the following:
Rodelero C2: Slithering is great for dealing with magical mobs
Corsair: You can use Swash Buckling while dual wielding. The party buff will greatly benefit grinding parties provided the Corsair is the party leader.
Fencer: The class offers a lot of abilities with both defensive and offensive capabilities, it’s a great choice for tanks.

Other choices can be:
Hoplite: Finestra increases block chance by a certain %, and stacks with High Guard. At Hoplite C2 Finestra has no down time. Long Stride also offers a bit of mobility.
Squire: Peltasta by itself is already a good class to take, Squire as a utility class is a safe pick and will most likely remain useful in future patches.
Cataphract: You can either pick this class with Hoplite or Dragoon in order to use 1H-spears. It offers slight mobility boost and AoE dmg that will help hold mob aggro. It also has the best looking outfit out of all classes except Templar.

1 Like
#7

Indeed the mechanics looks pretty interesting, particulary the defuff one.

I would like to be a fencer for circle 6 - 7. I do not realy want to be a squire and be stuck with a “taunt and press c” gameplay. I’r rather be an offensive tank but i do not know what to take between pelt 2 (that’s what i’m atm) and fencer. The question is, should i pick rodelero 2 over pelt 3 / X 1?

#8

Here, this should save you some time from reading my wall of texts.

You can forsake Fencer C2 for Peltasta C3, though it’ll greatly reduce the evasion rate and I really think the trade off is too great just for armor break. I’d definitely keep Rode 2 since you’ve already gone that far. Your parties can have wizards that won’t benefit from armor break, afterall.

But if you really want Peltasta C3 and Fencer C2, I guess you can go for the following:
Corsair: Jolly Roger party buff!
Barbarian: Extra dps moves and 1 hard stun (2 charges)
Rodelero: Still got tons of CC even just for 1 circle
Swordsman: You can, but the above 3 is still suggested over this one

#9

Sorry, I’m too tired to give one of my typical wall of texts, but honestly you don’t even need it. Your current build looks remarkable. The only thing you want to do is swap the skill points in Sept Etoiles and Lunge. Sept Etoiles does a deceptive amount of damage. It’s the second highest bursting skill on the Swordsman tree, second only to Hexen Dropper.

I do understand that you are mostly going for a tank, and Lunge is, well an absolutely wonderful amount of evasion. It can be used, when timed correctly, to be very effective against bosses too. It isn’t a permanent buff, however, and most physical damage in this game is not that threatening. You can simply block it if need be. The real threat comes from mages, especially as a tank.That’s really your choice though between these two skills which you would get.

For stat points, you’re going to get different answers from different people. Personally, I believe that Fencer promotes the most balanced build possible.

The dexterity will help your evasion, which is obviously important. Rapiers , however, are fairly low in attack, so some strength is needed to offset this.

Con is tough. Con should mostly get you to the HP goal you want to have. Swordsman already has such a high base HP though, that you can get away without going full Con and still being beefy.

At level 280, the current cap, you will have roughly 16.5k HP naked with no buffs. If you are equipping armor, you’ll probably get 500-1000 HP, depending on your level and tier of gear. This puts you at 17k let’s say. Now you want to add in Plate Mastery, which is 1.7k HP when you level that attribute all the way. You can also get a little chunk of HP from collections as well. Let’s just call your HP 19k. Now, wearing 4 pieces of plate will increase your HP by 10%, and Swashbuckling, with the attribute, will increase it another 25%. Basically find the amount of HP you want, subtract 25%, and use Con to fill in the gaps.

If you’re sitting late game with 40,000 HP, you’re incredibly tanky. As a Swordsman this means you have to be sitting around 34,000 without Swashbuckling on. This means you basically need 160 Con from both gear and Stats, assuming you don’t get HP from your other gear as well. Even if you’re on the safe side of the HP marker, you can get away with only having around 150 Con from stat points, and still being very hard to kill. This leads you to having roughly 150 points leftover for other stats.

Overall, I’d recommend a build of perhaps 2 Con: 1 Dex: 1 Str or even 4 Con: 3 Str : 1 Dex, since accuracy is basically unimportant in PvE and you can’t evade magic mobs late game anyways.

No matter what you do, you seem to have a good grasp on how the game works, and what builds work overall. You’ll be just fine.

2 Likes
#10

I never heard of it, is it true?
I thought it decreases physical damage received by 15%

#11

If you wear plate type armor:
3 pieces - increases your maximum HP (it’s not written how much though) and physical damage taken is decreased by 5%.
4 pieces - your maximum stamina increases and physical damage taken is decreased by an additional 10%.

#12

As far as i know plate mastery increases 34 HP per level and gives 1700 HP at max lv 50, not in percentage like 10%.

#13

Well according to @Vanic if you use equipment you will have 17K HP on max level (280) without any buff; and he (or she, gender equality ftw) did say that max level Plate Mastery will give us 1.7K HP

And 1.7K is exactly 10% of 17K so… yea

#14

Well, i was asking myself about plate or leather. Plate looks a safer way than leather but leather can be a good with fencer as we stack DEX, right? Curantly i have put DEX / CON 1:1 and free points from statues / quest on STR (LVL 62 ATM).
I do like your build but why didn’t you take rim blow lvl 6 for attribute? I mean, is guardian that usefull to lvl up as it just increase duration and a ridiculous amount of Pdef.

#15

It also gives you +18% evasion, even with one point in it. The attribute is amazing.

#16

So if we have 50k HP, plate mastery will give 5k HP?

#17

Plate Mastery doesn’t give 10 % life.

Plate Mastery: Defense

  • 3 pieces give +34 HP per level (+1700 at level 50) and Physical damage taken decreases by 5%
  • 4 pieces give Stamina (+16 at level 50) and Physical damage taken decreases by an additional 10% (15% total)
#18

So Plate > Leather even with fencer tank build?

#19

You are correct. It seems the translation is…bad to say the least.

#20

Yeah, i was speaking about the difference between lvl 1 and lvl 5. Sure the attribute is realy good =).