26 réponses à ce sujet

[swk3000]

I'm going to be using Alistair as my Tank on my current play-through (gasps of shock and surprise at this completely unexpected development [/sarcasm]), and I'm trying to get his equipment figured out. I'm going to be building him as a DEX Tank, but I'd like to complement his stats with the proper equipment. However, I'm having some trouble actually doing so. Here's what I've got so far:

Weapon: Starfang Longsword (+3 DEX)
Shield: Champion's Shield, then Howe's Shield (+12 Defense, then +18 Defense)
Helm:
Gloves:
Body:
Feet: Cailan's Greaves (+20% chance to dodge attacks)
Belt: Buckle of the Winds
Amulet: The Spellward (+10% chance to dodge attacks)
Ring 1: Ring of the Warrior (+2 DEX)
Ring 2: Keeper's Ring (+1 DEX)

Other than that, I'm probably going to go with the full set of Cailan's Armor, for lack of anything better.

My question is: Is there anything better I could be giving him? I plan on using the following set myself, just so everyone knows what's off-limits to him.

Weapon: Maul (eventually the Chasind Great Maul)
Helm: Helm of Honnleath
Gloves: Wade's Superior Dragonscale Gloves
Body: Evon the Great's Mail
Feet: Wade's Superior Dragonscale Boots
Belt: Andruil's Blessing
Amulet: Faulty Amulet
Ring 1: Key to the City
Ring 2: Harvest Festival Ring

I'm also willing to listen to equipment advice for my PC's setup. If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it.

[Eragondragonrider]

Life giver is a good tank ring, a great tanking chest piece is the knight commander piece you get from the person outside of orza, for helmet Corruption is good but thats in the last part of the game, either duty which is plus 2 constitution, executioner helm +25 stam or the helm you get off the broodmother its +25% physical res. For gloves juggernaut or effort's are good.

[knownastherat]

I am not sure +3 defence on the buckle makes much difference, + 4 attack or 10% fire resist + 10% healing could be an option.

For ring, Seal of Rat Red, +10 mental/physical resist, perhaps.

Massive armor set or Templar armor with Ancient Elven gloves, +4% spell resist + 2 armor, and Boots of Diligence, + 6 defense + 2 amor, for example should do. On the head, well, say Conspirator's Foil +20 mental resitance to complement his Templar, but I guess he would look odd, so if he lacks stamina the ironic Executioners Helm or the one giving +25 Physical resistance?

Modifié par knownastherat, 18 janvier 2010 - 05:56 .

[Ingahootz]

Why are you using Evon the Great's Mail on a 2H Warrior over your tank? That's a little bit silly. Why not wear the Warden's set on your main character? If it's for the fatigue reduction, Warden's armor comes with that too.

Oh about your helm on Alistair. Use Bregen's Honor, it's probably the best all purpose tank helm.

Modifié par Ingahootz, 18 janvier 2010 - 05:59 .

[swk3000]

My equipment was all chosen for it's boosts to the Defense, on the grounds that he's less likely to get hit, and will therefore survive longer.

[swk3000]

Ingahootz wrote...

Why are you using Evon the Great's Mail on a 2H Warrior over your tank? That's a little bit silly. Why not wear the Warden's set on your main character? If it's for the fatigue reduction, Warden's armor comes with that too.

Not on the 360.

[Ingahootz]

swk3000 wrote...

Ingahootz wrote...

Why are you using Evon the Great's Mail on a 2H Warrior over your tank? That's a little bit silly. Why not wear the Warden's set on your main character? If it's for the fatigue reduction, Warden's armor comes with that too.

Not on the 360.

There's no fatigue set bonus on the 360 version?

[swk3000]

There's no item set bonus on the 360 for the Warden Commander Armor.

[Ingahootz]

swk3000 wrote...

There's no item set bonus on the 360 for the Warden Commander Armor.

Just asked a buddy of mine about that. He said he got the set bonus when he sold it to a vendor and bought them back (after it got upgraded).

Can't really confirm that for you right now. Might want to try it.

[swk3000]

I'll give it a try, but I'm not holding my breath. The 360 is notoriously buggy.

[Ingahootz]

Well if you can't use Evon's on Alistair I'd use Bregen's Honor for your helm, Gloves of Diligence (highest armor gloves in the game I believe), and probably the Blood Dragon Plate armor.

[Random70]

swk3000 wrote...

I'm going to be using Alistair as my Tank on my current play-through (gasps of shock and surprise at this completely unexpected development [/sarcasm]), and I'm trying to get his equipment figured out. I'm going to be building him as a DEX Tank, but I'd like to complement his stats with the proper equipment. However, I'm having some trouble actually doing so. Here's what I've got so far:

Weapon: Starfang Longsword (+3 DEX)
Shield: Champion's Shield, then Howe's Shield (+12 Defense, then +18 Defense)
Helm:
Gloves:
Body:
Feet: Cailan's Greaves (+20% chance to dodge attacks)
Belt: Buckle of the Winds
Amulet: The Spellward (+10% chance to dodge attacks)
Ring 1: Ring of the Warrior (+2 DEX)
Ring 2: Keeper's Ring (+1 DEX)

Other than that, I'm probably going to go with the full set of Cailan's Armor, for lack of anything better.

My question is: Is there anything better I could be giving him? I plan on using the following set myself, just so everyone knows what's off-limits to him.

Weapon: Maul (eventually the Chasind Great Maul)
Helm: Helm of Honnleath
Gloves: Wade's Superior Dragonscale Gloves
Body: Evon the Great's Mail
Feet: Wade's Superior Dragonscale Boots
Belt: Andruil's Blessing
Amulet: Faulty Amulet
Ring 1: Key to the City
Ring 2: Harvest Festival Ring

I'm also willing to listen to equipment advice for my PC's setup. If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it.

My preference would be to max defense vs dodge, thus:

Weapon: I'd go with a dagger for a dex build - Rose Thorn is obviously the best
Helm: Bergens Honor if you got it,  other wise Duty or BDA
Shield: You got it. Early on Eamons or Warden Commander if it actually drops
Gloves: Diligence
Body: BDA ver 1.0. Felon's could work here, too. Knight Commander for Mag Res.
Boots: Diligence
Belt: Buckle of Winds
Amulet: Magisters Shield or Mark of Vigilence
Ring: Lifegiver
Ring: Warrior or perhaps Seal of Red Rat early
Spec: Templar / Champion. Run Shield Wall and Rally constantly. Use War Cry a lot as -10 enemy attack makes you even harder to hit. Nice thing is it lasts for 20 sec - and has a 20 sec cooldown
Attributes: Enough STR to wear your armor, everything else into DEX

By the 2nd half of the game you will be very difficult to hit due to sky high defense. Hits that do get through have to go through your huge AC and enormous hit point pool. With high AC, hitpoints and health regen from Lifegiver and Rose Thorn you can laugh at spiders and wolves that try to overwhelm you. Incredible toughness. Use a Hale rune in your dagger. Have a backup dragonbone dagger stacked with Dweomer runes for Mag Res.

[swk3000]

Ingahootz wrote...

Well if you can't use Evon's on Alistair I'd use Bregen's Honor for your helm, Gloves of Diligence (highest armor gloves in the game I believe), and probably the Blood Dragon Plate armor.

I don't have the Collector's Edition, so I can't get Bergen's Honor.

[swk3000]

Random70 wrote...
My preference would be to max defense vs dodge, thus:

Weapon: I'd go with a dagger for a dex build - Rose Thorn is obviously the best
Helm: Bergens Honor if you got it,  other wise Duty or BDA
Shield: You got it. Early on Eamons or Warden Commander if it actually drops
Gloves: Diligence
Body: BDA ver 1.0. Felon's could work here, too. Knight Commander for Mag Res.
Boots: Diligence
Belt: Buckle of Winds
Amulet: Magisters Shield or Mark of Vigilance
Ring: Lifegiver
Ring: Warrior or perhaps Seal of Red Rat early
Spec: Templar / Champion. Run Shield Wall and Rally constantly. Use War Cry a lot as -10 enemy attack makes you even harder to hit. Nice thing is it lasts for 20 sec - and has a 20 sec cooldown
Attributes: Enough STR to wear your armor, everything else into DEX

I can't get the Boots of Diligence, as I'm going to be getting the Far Song for Leliana. It's impossible to get both.

[Ingahootz]

Ah might have to go with the Juggernaut Helmet then until you get Corruption end game.

[Ingahootz]

swk3000 wrote...

Random70 wrote...
My preference would be to max defense vs dodge, thus:

Weapon: I'd go with a dagger for a dex build - Rose Thorn is obviously the best
Helm: Bergens Honor if you got it,  other wise Duty or BDA
Shield: You got it. Early on Eamons or Warden Commander if it actually drops
Gloves: Diligence
Body: BDA ver 1.0. Felon's could work here, too. Knight Commander for Mag Res.
Boots: Diligence
Belt: Buckle of Winds
Amulet: Magisters Shield or Mark of Vigilance
Ring: Lifegiver
Ring: Warrior or perhaps Seal of Red Rat early
Spec: Templar / Champion. Run Shield Wall and Rally constantly. Use War Cry a lot as -10 enemy attack makes you even harder to hit. Nice thing is it lasts for 20 sec - and has a 20 sec cooldown
Attributes: Enough STR to wear your armor, everything else into DEX

I can't get the Boots of Diligence, as I'm going to be getting the Far Song for Leliana. It's impossible to get both.

Cailin's Greaves are better anyways

[Wozearly]

My experiments with DEX tanking were a bit so-so to be honest. At least through to the mid-game, focusing on CON is far more effective, as even at 30 DEX with a shield, enemies still thump you on a very regular basis.



Its also easier to keep a CON tank healed, as they're less susceptible to big 'spike' damage that takes a huge chunk of their health away in one hit. By making it take longer to kill them, you have more opportunities for them to use health potions and more time for healing spell cooldowns to wear off before being needed again.



Perhaps inevitably, the most dangerous threats to the tank amongst bosses are also the creatures with the highest attack scores, which DEX is least useful against - so you'll definitely want to consider making sure you have access to -attack/+defence abilities amongst your party.



I'll be interested to hear how you find it, though. I didn't go all out for the DEX build in the same way you plan to.

[Ingahootz]

Wozearly, there's pretty much no spike damage in this game. You can very easily keep your tanks HP very high without putting a single point into Con. Dex makes it so that you take very very little damage thanks to the bonuses it gives to defense.



Dex tanks are actually a LOT easier to heal than Con tanks are. Con tanks are a huge mana sink as far as healing is concerned.



When I ran my mage through nightmare as a main healer, I spent most of his mana pool DPSing and CCing rather than healing... because Alistair took next to no damage what so ever.

[swk3000]

I should probably also mention that the idea of having Alistair use a Dagger instead of a Longsword is...interesting. I see the merits, and I'm definitely leaning towards actually doing it.

[Random70]

swk3000 wrote...

I should probably also mention that the idea of having Alistair use a Dagger instead of a Longsword is...interesting. I see the merits, and I'm definitely leaning towards actually doing it.

With a high DEX build you actually do a lot more damage with a dagger plus Rose Thorn has health regen.

To your earlier reponse concerning Far Song:

It's absolutely a nice bow but I'd hate to trade the best tank boots in the game for it. Owen also has shielded dwarven armor (+4% mag res.) and, I believe a GM Hale rune. You can still use Marjoleine's Recurve for Lel.

[swk3000]

I could use Marjolaine's Recurve, but there's a part of me that actually wants to see the Far Song bow. I know about it, but none of my play-throughs have known about it, and when I didn know, I didn't need it.

[Wozearly]

Ingahootz - I've not extensively tested a DEX tank build, and given how the game mechanics work I'm absolutely certain that once you hit a certain level of DEX versus enemies of your level, the bonus to defence would outweigh having a lower CON.



From my own limited tests which, in fairness, did not include any +dex or +avoidance gear on the tank, I had assumed that this level was set too high to be worth trying to achieve as it didn't seem to be kicking in for me. I'm happy to be proved wrong on that count, as that would represent a much more effective tank spec than CON stacking could achieve, so I'll be properly testing it myself in any case!



In terms of spike damage, I agree that in general its not a concern, but mages and bosses have some nasty tricks up their sleeve - although I accept your experience seems to suggest that's not an issue for DEX tanks, which is the more important thing.



I did a run with a main healer on my first time through, and I completely agree with Alistair the CON tank being a whopping great mana sink, although in most fights during the second half of the game I found his CON was high enough that one or two heals was the most he'd really need, as the enemies would be dead long before he was in any danger of being killed. I was also focusing most of my mana on CC and DPS at that point.



...which suggests that both tank specs are probably viable in their own way (nice one Bioware!), albeit I'd be inclined to prefer the DEX one if its as good as you say.

[ajm317]

Since you're already giving him the Spellward, have you considered going for max spell resistance? He's already a templar, so he can equip the Knight Commander's Plate for another 40% spell resistance. This gives him 70% with the Spellward. Then you can stack Dweomer Runes on Starfang to get to 96%, and the Ancient Elven Gloves will get him to 100%.  Alternatively you can leave him at 96% and go with the Gloves of Diligence, since the extra armor is rather enticing.

Modifié par ajm317, 19 janvier 2010 - 07:36 .

[swk3000]

I did that on my last play-through, so I was looking to do something a little different this time around. Especially since Mage's are rather rare, all things considered. The game is swarming with Melee enemies, but most encounters have one or two Mage's to worry about, so the 100% Spell Resist is of very limited use. Especially with how easy it is to actually neutralize a Mage.

[ajm317]

swk3000 wrote...

I did that on my last play-through, so I was looking to do something a little different this time around. Especially since Mage's are rather rare, all things considered. The game is swarming with Melee enemies, but most encounters have one or two Mage's to worry about, so the 100% Spell Resist is of very limited use. Especially with how easy it is to actually neutralize a Mage.

Yeah but the thing is you're not giving up much to get it.  Knight Commanders Plate is nice armor to begin with, with good armor and a willpower bonus, and since you've already reserved Evon the Great's Mail for the PC, it's not like you're passing on that.  The big tradeoff is slotting Dweomer runes on Starfang, which just costs you some damage.  You're still free to equip any helmet you want and it's a relatively small trade off to get the best gloves.

Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Modifié par ajm317, 19 janvier 2010 - 07:56 .