Yep, still would like to know how valuable dex is to tanks.
Yeah, unfortunately guardian gives evasion, so I was thinking maybe DEX would be a good stat for tanks…
If you put some dex and take fencer, you will receive a good amount of evasion when using its skills. Which is also good in my opinion(since magic damage can punish you pretty hard) xD
You can’t evade magic though. 
I guess single target ones you can o.o. Can’t you?
Try Pelt 3 for max Swashbuckle and Cata 3 for max kiting. Super easy way to reduce the damage taken is just to not take any.
Some thoughts about Slithering. Ability to evade magic attacks, wich now granted by Slithering skill looks like a bug, because current description on that skill sound like “Increases evasion against enemy attacks”. How we know, magic attacks cannot be evaded. If it is bug - it will be fixed, and then rodelero will be a total waste for pve tanking, because hoplite+dragoon will be much more viable option in terms of tanking (finestra) and not be a total whiny while solo (stab, spear lunge, dragoon skills).
Fencer tank a viable too, but a think it’s more dps that hoplite+dragoon (fencer must take highlander C2 for crosscut-skyliner combo and good skill synergy between fencer and highlander damage dealing skills) and will have less hp and more evasion due to it need invest some stats to dex to utilize lunge and guardian ability boosts to evasion.
For myself i prefer a Peltasta C2-Hoplite C3-Dragoon like that, because i believe that tank must be tanky in oldfashion way 
So, what about stat destribution? I want answer for that question too!
If you want to have a good stat allocation …
Con 3: Dex 1
Why do i think that even fenser needs that or should go that?
At level 280, you have 336ish dex (without equip and stuff). (full dex)
And a Evasion of 643 (without buffs).
Nearly half of that comes from your level alone …
If you add in evasion gems (for around 40ish evasion per) you can easily get 80~100 evasion on that level range.
With the evasion buffs, you should be able to get a really good dogerate.
But do you need 1000+ Evasion on that level?
Enemys have 300~400 accuracy (pve) when you do the calculation (which is not 100% tested out yet) what type of dogerate do you expect?^^
Hoplite focuses mainly on giving you damage, and Dragoon as well, and Peltasta C2 uses High Guard, which reduces your damage by 50%. Are you sure that’s a good idea? I think for off-tanks Pelt C1 is better.
Highguard is something people tend to underestimate…
This was taken from my other thead: (Credit to Derael of course)
…of course this is only if they are frozen/petrified/staggered. The stagger however should be pretty easy due to the +block from the skill itself.
Basically this means it could actually increase your DPS.
Which surprised me as I originally made the thread thinking that all of their skills (except swash buckling) were awful
Since I was kind of summoned, I will also reply on this topic)
Actually swordsman C3 has more CC in PvP (and easier to land). That’s why Swordsman C3 Cata C3 Dragoon is now the single viable for PvP swordsman class in a game.
Rodelero is a decent PvE tank, exactly because of slithering. In Korea as I’ve heard Pelt2Rod2Fen2 is a very popular tank build. I am planning to go Pelt2Rod3Fen1 as a tank myself. RodFencer is especially good tank because it has both magic immunity because of slithering(I’m pretty sure it’s not a bug, because it’s pretty hard to fail so hard in coding) and physical immunity through evasion. Also it has a good damage and access to every type of damage (lots of strike and slash attacks from rodelero and peltasta and pierce attacks from fencer).
Usually tanks don’t benefit from DEX too much, unless they have some abilities to increase DEX (I think guardian +18% is quite overrated by itself, but combined with something else it’s good). So most tanks don’t need DEX that much.
People are talking about pelt 2 hop 3 dragoon tanks. It’s a decent choice for a tank as well, and it can also be played solo (just as fencer). I’d suggest getting quite a lot of DEX for Hoplite, to compensate Finestra Eva loss and get to a decent crit chance (around 30% at least). The other variant is avoid DEX at all, but I won’t suggest it, because you risk to waste a finestra crit rate bonus if enemy crit def will be higer then your crit rate. That’s why it’s usually better to somewhat focus on crit or drop it completely.
For a tank I would suggest something like 1:4:2 STR:CON:DEX. Or maybe even 2:2:3 if you feel like you have enough HP to be safe. You won’t need more DEX then this before lvl 280. For an offtank Hoplite (like Pel1 Hop3 Dop1 Drag1) I’d suggest 3:2:2 or 4:2:1 or even 4:1:2, because Dop has a good synergy with STR. And if you won’t be a main party tank then you will rarely be in danger.
For Pelt3 Squire3 you can just go full con or 2:5 STR:CON, because it’s kind of idle type of tank, and you don’t expect to crit with his abilities. But some STR might be nice to slightly quicken the process (just use skills when they will deal maximum damage).
Also I’ve got an idea to use CryoWarlock as a tank: just pull mobs with Mastema and use Subzero shield to freeze them all) For this build I would suggest getting Thaum as well so you can go full INT and just use swell brain+transpose when you want to tank. This way you will have much more CON then any swordsman can possibly have.
For the best use I’d suggest pairing with ClericC2 Priest C3 for his Stone Skin buff and Divine might, and investing in a good shield. This way you will block almost every enemy attack and freeze the enemy with 65% chance for 5.5 seconds.
And since heals are mostly % based you can get healed to full with 1 use of heal and max heal (87% max HP + flat amount). With high level transpose you will only need to “recharge” once in every 3 minutes. You will have 80k+ HP this way without any buffs AND almost guaranteed freeze on enemies. So for those who want to play unconventional tank, here it is.
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Hold on hold on, Fencer uses shield?
Sure it does. If you have a passive for increased damage with no shield it doesn’t mean you can’t use shield)
It’s like, Cryomancers get ice property buff with rods, but you won’t lose too much if you use Staff.
Sure Fencer buff is very good but as a tank you’d benefit more from using shield. Also you can always swap weapon set for rapier dagger, if you want, or just use shield rob to throw off your shield (though CD is looooooong).
Say, since your pretty knowledgeable about the game, do you know if Slithering’s bonus strike damage stacks with High Kick’s?
And couldn’t you apply that to High-Guard specialty and Umbo Blow’s staggered bonus damage? Plus the defense decrease of Shield Push?
I’d imagine even without stacking on Slithering and High Kick it would be a pretty ridiculous modifier… but I’m still curious.
here is the link for the topic with most existing modifiers, if you wish, you can read it yourself to better understand how it works.
Though I’m not sure about slithering damage, it might be just additional damage or the same debuff as from high kick.
It will work with Umbro Blow/Rim blow bonus damage from high guard. Though I think it will work slightly differently. And it seems I’ve miscalculated on the previous thread about 500% part, because Umbro Blow and High Guard modifiers seems to be the same type so they will add up.
While Rim Blow and High guard are most likely different types, so they will multiply.
Multiplier from high kick will most likely add up to multiplier to frozen targets from Rim Blow and then it will be multiplied by High Guard bonus damage. Anyway the damage will be really good but maybe slightly lower then you expect (Yet around 500% or more).
I will test in iOBT to be sure.
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Thats not offtank build, i have some friends play with, and my role is main tank. Hoplite have finestra, wich very good for blocking. Having peltasta and hoplite i can rotate High Guard + Shield Bash/Rim and Finestra + Spear Lunge + Stab/Pierce/Spear Throw. Acting like that i will have good block boost all time and still be able dish out some damage, especialy with finestra part.
Peltasta C3 is quite doubtfull, on C2 it already make available both defense boosting skills peltasta have (guardian on C1 and High Guard on C2). Geting High Guard lvl 10 looks doubtfull, because it’s scaling poorly - +10 block over lvl 1 (240 at lvl 10 compare to 150 on lvl 1). So i can’t see any good reasons to have a peltasta 3.
Looking at that Pelt 2, Hop 3, Dragon 1 Tank…is that really more desirable then Pet 1, Hope 3, Dopp 1, Dragon 1?
While High Guard grants +150~190 block and increases Umbo & Rim Blow’s damage, it doesnt really seem to be able to compare to Cyclone 5 and possibly DOV & DPE. Or is 150~190 block much more valuable then it appears?
As a main tank pel 2 is probably more desirable simply because you can pull more monsters at the same time =>grind faster. Also some more protection helps as well.
But Hop3Dop1Drag1 build is very popular as well, but mainly as solo build, it’s not that good as main tank for a party (since tank’s role is tanking and pulling mobs, first of all).
Quick question here is it worth to max Gung ho (as a tank) if you are going to have guardian?
It’s simply the only skill worth maxing at sw C1. You can opt for max pain barrier as well, or just use Gung Ho when you feel safe and guardian vs strong enemies. Overall it’s good to have Gung Ho at least at level 3, since armor doesn’t matter right now.