So i've seen a couple of posts asking about 2H Tanks but very few replies from people who have actually tried it, so I decided to now share mine! This is the build I was using all through my second playthrough on hard and it worked -very- well. A few things to keep in mind:
- The build is made for a hard playthrough so I don't know how well it would work on other difficulties.
- The build is intended for your main controlled character, not the AI.
So one common complaint about 2H is that their skill tree isn't very interesting, I kind off agree but that plays out in our favor when making a tanky build since we don't need to sink many points into the 2H tree. Also, this game isn't about raiding at max lvl or anything like that, pretty much your entire gaming time is going to be a leveling process therefor I will do my best to try and list things in the right order rather then just post a finished build, since that obviously makes a ton of difference. And as a final note, in order to successfully be a two-handed tank your main thing is going to be to try and counter your defensive weaknesses, so this build will not have a ton of DPS options, but I found that not really needed since your auto attacks area automatically AoE plus Mighty Blow is a pretty hard hitting cone attack, your damage will still be -alot- higher then sword and shield, thus making 2H Tanking actually viable rather then a "flair" thing. So on to the build:
1. First we rush both the taunts in the vanguard tree, without taunts you are not really a "tank" after all. Then in the sword and shield tree pick up shield wall and the passive that comes after which makes you immune to flanking, it's a must have since you will constantly be surrounded by hostiles, take shield wall off your hotbar - you can't use it, its an unfortunate point sink to get the flanking immunity.
2. Next pick up grappling chain in the battlemaster tree, this will be really usefull to pull things off your allies or pull down archers from elevation, or even grab those annoying despair demons that keep jumping away from you.
3. Next up grab Mighty Blow! This will be our main dps skill, we are 2 Handed after all. It will basically allow us to do double damage in a cone area serving as both a hard hitting single and AoE ability, and most importantly it will knock most things down which keeps us from taking damage, this makes it serve as a valuable tanking tool as well. Now some people might wonder why I didn't take Block & Slash instead, it does look like an essential 2H Tanking ability, well my reasoning for that is pretty simple - I hate toggle abilities, they simply don't fit my playstyle and I don't find them fun, and I made sure it would not really be needed here, but anyone else may feel free to experiment with it, it's not going to undermine the build! However I feel like it would potentially lower your dps by quite alot, since you won't be doing anything while standing there waiting to be hit, I prefer to stay in the action.
4. Up to now you might have been somewhat squishy still, so in this step we are going to hard counter that - Pick up every passive in the vanguard tree, as well as Unbowed and the upgrade for it. We will -not- be picking up charging bull or bodyguard.
5. Next up, pick the champion specialization and work your way down to Walking Fortress and it's upgrade. When you got it, pick the upgrade for your War Cry as well, then grab the rest of the passives in the Champion tree. By now your skill bar will be full and you'll have all of your main abilities!
6. Past this point, upgrade challenge, upgrade grappling chain, and then your core build is done!
7. Past this it's just about personal taste as I haven't really gotten to this stage myself yet, options would be to pick up some more passives from the sword and shield tree, although I don't like that so many of them protect you from the front only and you would have to get alot of abilities you don't need to do it. Other options are a combination of passives from the Battlemaster tree and 2H tree. Potentially you could pick up War Horn, the main reason I didn't is because there's no room for it on my hot bar, but if you are using a focus ability from one of your allies instead you could make some room, or potentially dump line in the sand since I dont find it very usefull to be honest.
As for playstyle your main goal is to keep the attention of everything, open with running into a good position and use war cry, use unbowed when your guard is dropping a bit, challenge is to keep the attention of bosses or any solo enemy that runs after your mages, if they have archers on elevation open with grappling chain - keep in mind it might bug sometimes and decide to chain your last target even if you turn around and select another enemy, so its best used as an opener or when your previous target has died. When everything is hitting you and your guard is strong, use might blow and auto attacks to knock things down and deal damage. Obviously use Walking Fortress whenever you are taking to much damage.
That's it! Hope you enjoy.
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It just has so much value, great for engaging, damage, guard, knockdown. Considering mighty blow gets shitloads of bonus damage against downed enemies it should really be a no-brainer for any two-handed build. It also has a very short cooldown meaning it gives you a lot of mobility.
every passive in 1 handed + shield tree.
