10 réponses à ce sujet

[Hellnhavoc]

Hi All,

 

I have not seen any focused discussion on tank builds (player character or AI), so I was hoping to start a discussion here.  Obviously feel free to give your thoughts on the merits of using any or none of the specializations.  I'll edit this post later with my own thoughts, but I wanted to get this up so others might contribute.  Also, I think it would be helpful to new people if you could give an idea of what you think the first few points should be spent on as it can be confusing. 

 

Of personal interest to me is trying to work in the horns from the battlemaster tree, and possibly deep reserves.

[brazen_nl]

Bring in everything that generates Guard and Challenge from Vanguard. Shield Block and the passives from the SnB tree. The rest is up to you. Both Templar and Champion have things going for them, although Champion is pure tanking. 8 seconds of invulnerability + guard generation is nothing to scoff at.

[Bruxae]

I just posted my 2H Tank build here: http://forum.bioware...th-some-damage/

[Zahnen]

I just posted my 2H Tank build here: http://forum.bioware...th-some-damage/

 

Takes this guys advice as long as your not playing on Nightmare.  Honestly if your playing on Normal you don't even need a tank.  If you on NM tho you can't tank without a shield.  Go with what Brazen said.

[Sarcen]

Weapon and Shield:

- Shield Bash for damage (amazing against guard) (and closing distance, if shieldbash doesnt hit anything you can keep spamming it to move really fast)

optionally Payback strike (good damage and some cc)

Vanguard:

- Charging Bull for guard (and closing distance)

- WarCry for taunting and guard

- Challenge for taunting and guard

optionally BodyGuard can be a little annoying because you need to stay in range of your companions to protect them

optionally Counterstrike (instead of Mark of the Rift, for more tanking)

Champion:

- Walking Fortress to become a indestructable badass

- To The Death for damage and guard generation (against big targets this thing is insane, yes it increases damage taken, but you do not really notice this because every hit you do generates guard with the upgrade, while this is active and you are hitting stuff you are basically immortal)

Inquisitor:

- Mark of the Rift for damage

[Sriep]

At level 9. For some reason Cass seems to get in a lot more trouble than the inquisitor. I usually leave the AI to play both of them, operating Sera, Viv and/or Solas myself.

 

The only differences between the builds are.

Cass has:
Warriors resolve
Sweet revenge
Lunge and slash
Challenge
Trust the steel

While the inquisitor has
War cry
Untouchable defence (which apparently does not work)
It'll cost you
Unbowed
Still standing.

While they both have most of the rest of the W&S tree in common. My guess is that either War cry is a lot better than Challenge. Or getting Unbowed is more important than another WS trick.

[brazen_nl]

While they both have most of the rest of the W&S tree in common. My guess is that either War cry is a lot better than Challenge. Or getting Unbowed is more important than another WS trick.

 

It has a different purpose.

 

Anyway, my advice is still what I said in the second post.

[SgtSteel91]

I've been thinking of going for weapon and shield, getting the damage skills and all the passives in the other trees to boost strength, choosing Champion, and being a kind of Warrior Duelist. Challenge a guy with the Champion taunt, block with Shield Wall to raise guard or just pop the invincibility skill in Champion, and use the skills in weapon and shield like payback strike, lunge slash, and shield bash to kill them. Upgrade to payback strike stuns taunted foes which will allow me to follow up with a detonator like lunge and slash or shield bash. Thoughts?

[brazen_nl]

Sounds like a plan. Make sure you use Shield Bash and Lunge and Slash to their fullest. That is, either for killing Guard or as a combo. Payback strike for when you get knocked down to minimize, well, down time.  Keep your stamina for your guard building abilities. After a while, you'll see that your guard hardly breaks.

[Solus Ronin]

I've been thinking of going for weapon and shield, getting the damage skills and all the passives in the other trees to boost strength, choosing Champion, and being a kind of Warrior Duelist. Challenge a guy with the Champion taunt, block with Shield Wall to raise guard or just pop the invincibility skill in Champion, and use the skills in weapon and shield like payback strike, lunge slash, and shield bash to kill them. Upgrade to payback strike stuns taunted foes which will allow me to follow up with a detonator like lunge and slash or shield bash. Thoughts?

I'm pretty much in this boat too, as I like using the vanilla W&S skills way more than the specialization skills. Well, Templar and Reaver are more or less directly about their specific skills, but Champion will lend better to allowing me to focus on the W&S tree. Basically, I picked all of the skills that allow me knockdown as much as possible.

My six primary skills are: 

Lunge & Slash - for damage and it's sweet (upgraded for damage)
Shield Bash - for knockdown and Guard demolishing (upgraded for dash / Guard dmg)
Payback Strike - for knockdown and recovery of being knocked down (upgraded for stun)
Shield Wall - for Guard generation
Warcry - for Guard generation (upgraded for armor bonus)
Charging Bull - for knockdown and Guard generation (upgraded for Stamina-free skill after charging)

The last three spots I'm reserving for Champion skills and Mark of the Rift. I'm also thinking about pulling Shield Wall out. It'd be nice if Combat Roll wasn't so far in Battlemaster, as I think it would mesh better with my stick & move playstyle. I'm constant barreling through enemies and knocking them around -- so visceral.

I'm playing on Hard right now and there's some parts that require extra micromanaging, but I'm getting through alright at the moment. It's not optimal, but it allows me to play the way I want. I slotted a Fade-touched item for the Hidden Blades proc on my armor. It's so awesome when Hidden Blades go off after running through someone with Charging Bull or landing the first hit of Lunge & Slash (it looks like Omnislash from FF7!). 

[Pi2r Epsilon]

The following is my Cassandra build. She acts as an almost fully autonomous tank - the only time I give her directions are the few times I use the tactical mode, where I select her to give her the target to focus on and then leave her alone.

 

I started out giving her all sorts of defensive abilities, only to notice that this wasn't needed at all. This is on hard mode and she is tanking for a rogue and two mages. I guess that more babysitting and a greater focus on defensive abilities would be needed on nightmare.

 

The following is her build by level 18. The core around which she has been built from the start is Challenge and War Cry from Vanguard and Payback Strike and Lunge and Slash from Weapon and Shield (with upgrades), followed up Spell Purge, Blessed Blades, and Rally as soon as she got her Templar specialization.

 

Her abilities on the hotbar are:

1. Challenge
2. War Cry
3. Payback Strike
4. Lunge and Slash
5. Spell Purge
6. Wrath of Heaven
7. Blessed Blades
8. Rally

All except Wrath of Heaven are upgraded, and that will get upgraded on next level up. She has Shield Wall that isn't on the hotbar that I keep in reserve if I ever need to switch it in for a boss fight, but as I found that the AI didn't use it a lot (or at all) and she had no problems surviving without it, it didn't justify being available for general use. I haven't needed it yet, but as I have not finished it yet, I guess there could be some boss in the few remaining areas it would be useful for. And I need it for access to Bear Mauls Wolves anyhow.

 

Rally is my "I hope I never have to use this, but if the **** hits the fan, Rally will give me time to get a battle under control" button. (In practice Rally ends up only being used in a few boss fights, but I'm fine with that. Better safe than sorry.)

 

AI Cassandra keeps up Blessed Blades, and while she's frequently the only one in range, it does mean that her Spell Purges are frequently available in fights where the AI sees a reason to use it.

 

Going with Wrath of Heaven rather than Shield Bash was hard - in most fights AI Cassandra gets good use out of Shield Bash, while Wrath of Heaven is seldom used - but she does use it in large fights against demons, which is where it matters the most. I'm still not quite sure about that choice from a pure min-max perspective, but in the end, she is a Seeker with Templar abilities. How could I justify NOT giving her Wrath of Heaven?

 

I have all the tactics enabled save Rally - there doesn't seem to be any need to set any to preferred.

 

Her passives are:

W&S: Bear Mauls Wolves, Turn the Bolt, Turn the Blade

Vanguard: Trust the Steel, Cutting Words

Templar: Maker's Will, There is no Darkness

 

Plans for development over the last few levels/power medallions in the game:

Templar: Wrath of Heaven (upgrade)

Templar: Champions of the Just (passive)

Vanguard: Untouchable Defense (passive)

Vanguard: It Will Cost You (passive)

 

...it is damn tempting to instead go for the three points invested in Battlemaster to pick up Deep Reserves, but let's face it - at this high level with all necessities covered, it is really a choice of which delicacy one prefers.

 

 

Her equipment is:

Best sword I can craft

Best plate I can craft

-- one of the two always has the "on hit gain 3 guard". So innocent looking that text, so great an effect.

Best hat I can craft

Shield with "heal 15% over 10s" from the moment I picked up the Wedge of Destiny.

--Note that this isn't as great as it sounds, as only the last source of damage is counted rather than stacking, but it is useful, particularly for an AI tank that is controlling its own potion use.

Enhanced Ring of Challenge

Enhanced Ring of War Cry

Best Stamina Amulet I've got

Best Guard Belt I've got