Mr.intima Tank

[Aranticus]

I was talking about when someone asked what my Ac was going to be why I hadnt posted it...I do not mind helping people with a build but I am not going to use that planer and lay it all out for people...

To me the best part of this game is leveling up new toons, that I have created, not taking from someone elses forum postings. So by me posting up my intimadate you could say tha tI am helping people out by giving them PART of a build...as to the rest your on your own

uhm, actually there is really only a few ways to bump the AC up. there is nothing original about what you did. if you are already going for max AC, very likely there are hundreds out there with the same equip

[jmelanie7]

I am not sure which guild you are in or what server but in mine we do raids on elite...VoD,Hound,Abbot,shroud,etc...

you need a 72 Intimadate for VoD on elite and its a walk in the park with an intima tank.

As to me not poasting my AC, I know that I cant hit a 74+ in a raid setting and I do not post my stats and etc because I feel that each build should be different so I dont want someone copyin my builds cause they cant make their own...my opnion anyway.

My opinion is that it is spelled INTIMIDATE, not intimadate....just trying to be a smartass here....happens to me sometimes.

[Aranticus]

My opinion is that it is spelled INTIMIDATE, not intimadate....just trying to be a smartass here....happens to me sometimes.

dude, kargon-wannabe

[maddmatt70]

I am not sure which guild you are in or what server but in mine we do raids on elite...VoD,Hound,Abbot,shroud,etc...

you need a 72 Intimadate for VoD on elite and its a walk in the park with an intima tank.

As to me not poasting my AC, I know that I cant hit a 74+ in a raid setting and I do not post my stats and etc because I feel that each build should be different so I dont want someone copyin my builds cause they cant make their own...my opnion anyway.

What does an intimidate tank in vod really do - haha bunch of nothing.. It is pretty easy to get aggro and maintain aggro or to build up aggro if its a low dps character in order to maintain aggro on sulu. Grabbing aggro on orthons is easy for another melee or caster if they want to pull the orthon away from the pack of melee so what does an intimidate tank do push a friggin button - gimped.. Ac in vod elite is meaningless on sulu by the way 74 ac on sulu is meaningless heck an 83 ac on sulu is meaningless..

All the power gaming guilds on my server are not building s&b monstrosities that don't have a dps capability in other words the builds they make can do either twf or thf.

I love to hear your characterization of vod elite as a walk in the park by the way - I would love to hear more about that do tell..

[Junts]

having run vod both ways, matt, i got to say that nofail intim makes the raid significantly easier/faster, since you don't have to worry about the speed you're dealing damage for most of the raid

doing it elite with a dps tank is, however, quite possible.

to be honest htough, the 'the power gamers on my server' argument is terrible; a lot of power gamers are not innovators at all but following what has been shown to be the best at the moment (150 people did not invent monk rangers together). the fact is that there are a lot of situations where a great intimidate/ac toon makes things notably easier if people know how to work with the tactic; the thing is, there are also a lot of situations hwere its not that big a deal, which is why its important to diversify an intimitank to be effective in other areas as well - it isnt that intimitanking things is ineffective, its that you begin getting such marginal gains for your effort, when with a bit of diversity built in you can still be fantastic at intimitanking and have the ability to contribute in other ways when called for; in a quest where intimidate isnt that effective, when another intimitank is in the group, et cetera.

my complaint with this build isnt that its great at intimidate; its that being great at intimidate doesn't make a great character, all you need is one level of fighter/rogue and a lot of eq and a good cha stat to accomplish that goal. its too easy to be great at intimitanking and great at something else, why just be great at one of them?


the long/short answer:

drop str 1 point, take one more fighter str enhancement
drop int 1 point
bring dex to 14 (enough to take advantage of armor mastery with dt plate, and take advatnage of any future gains the fighter defensive prc brings)

+3 tome gets you the twf line, and +3 tomes will happen more in mod9, and it can easily replace some of the less-effective feats listed (like, say, the shield masteries, which i wouldnt take on my intimitank if i had the feat space for them, the small dr gain is simply neglible in the few situations where your shield blockdr is a big deal.)


then you have a toon capable of both great flexibility and still amazing intimidate - and in fact, all you did was use 6 more ap and an extra +2 tome.. if the maker wnats to play it as a pure intimitank, they can, or they can drop all those wasted feats in deneith line (which is horrid imo) and the associated ap, diversify their ap selection further, maximize their ac bonuses further, etc.

then you have a flexible template toon for a lot of people, and one that can both tank elite raids extremely well, or kick ass when that isn't called for.

[maddmatt70]

It sounds like a lot of people have not figured out that you build up aggro in vod. Whoever the designated main tank is - the less dps they have the longer they have to whack on sulu by themself in order to maintain aggro before the rest of the crew arrives. Did an elite vod a couple of weeks ago and had an s&b low dps wf fighter as the main tank we just had to wait a little longer before we brought in the rest of the crew.. The rest of the crew had plenty of dps, but since the main tank whacked on sulu for a decent while they couldn't steal aggro from him..

Edit: I am all about the end game and less about the beginning and mid game.. The end game intimidate is a tactic for sure, but building characters based on 1 button is blah..

[baddax]

The Sentinel Marks take 3 feats: Least Mark, Lesser Mark, and Greater Mark to be allowed to get a total of +4 intimidate for a cost of 3 feats. My point was you could take Bullheaded and Skill focus and get a total of +5 intimidate. As far as I know there isn't any base bonus to intimidate. If there is one I would like to know as I have a human intimi-tank too!

You could but then you would loose out on Shield of faith (ok), and Protect Energy (nice!!) So you canw atch your own protects go down and when you need a bump just hit your dragon mark and good to go. + 4 to intinidate. not bad imo.

[Sequell]

You could but then you would loose out on Shield of faith (ok), and Protect Energy (nice!!) So you canw atch your own protects go down and when you need a bump just hit your dragon mark and good to go. + 4 to intinidate. not bad imo.

If this is an Intimi-Tank every time you hit the dragon mark your CE is going to come off forcing that to toggle as well. And any self respecting tank is going to be wearing a Pro item of some sort and had better not need a self-cast or cleric cast SoF. But thats just my opinion.

[baddax]

Rebuffs could be applied in between "rounds" if you will, but could be cast while fighting if necessary. Yes it does turn off CE but its a nice option to have. As far as protect, why have an item when you dont need one? Until i got the enlightend vestments from Vod on my monk i used my shield of faith to Replace a protection item while soloing the vale.

[Sequell]

Rebuffs could be applied in between "rounds" if you will, but could be cast while fighting if necessary. Yes it does turn off CE but its a nce option to have. As far as protect, why have an item when you dont need one? Until i got the enlightend vestments from Vod on my monk i used my shield of faith to Replace a protection item while soloing the vale.

I totally agree, I was just making a statement that some people will find the toggling agrivating. If you look at my sig my main is a DPS Tempest / Intimi-Tank Hybrid with Dragon Marks that have been switched out since VoD armor was acquired. Guess its DT time now though lol.

[Blazer]

I am all about the end game and less about the beginning and mid game.. The end game intimidate is a tactic for sure, but building characters based on 1 button is blah..

This is really more the crux of the issue with intimidate for you, Matt, isn't it? I'm hoping that it's not that you really find intimidate *that* useless or boring, but rather that you don't care for the builds that only focus on it and can't bring anything else to the table (read: DPS when needed), right?

[Crarites]

It sounds like a lot of people have not figured out that you build up aggro in vod. Whoever the designated main tank is - the less dps they have the longer they have to whack on sulu by themself in order to maintain aggro before the rest of the crew arrives. Did an elite vod a couple of weeks ago and had an s&b low dps wf fighter as the main tank we just had to wait a little longer before we brought in the rest of the crew.. The rest of the crew had plenty of dps, but since the main tank whacked on sulu for a decent while they couldn't steal aggro from him..

Edit: I am all about the end game and less about the beginning and mid game.. The end game intimidate is a tactic for sure, but building characters based on 1 button is blah..

I think my favorite part of this post is that he derides the benefit of intimidate calling it "a one button mash" for a single person and is in favor of having 11 people standing around watching one person swing a sword for a decent while.

[Return_To_Forever]

I think my favorite part of this post is that he derides the benefit of intimidate calling it "a one button mash" for a single person and is in favor of having 11 people standing around watching one person swing a sword for a decent while.

OMG but they are swinging a sword! not bashing a button, oh..wait...hmmm...

Umm yeh, obviously, using an intima tank in vod is slower than waiting for someone to get and hold agro via dps, and if they lose that agro at anytime, having to wait again to regain it. I mean who wants to just start winning when we can wait? Obviously some people haven't figured it out!

[Junts]

OMG but they are swinging a sword! not bashing a button, oh..wait...hmmm...

Umm yeh, obviously, using an intima tank in vod is slower than waiting for someone to get and hold agro via dps, and if they lose that agro at anytime, having to wait again to regain it. I mean who wants to just start winning when we can wait? Obviously some people haven't figured it out!

dude waiting rocks, get your tank and lets go wait a vod

[OldTobey]

Matt has every right to his opinion...but...

I am curious as to why you feel the need to post in this thread at all? To remind everyone how an intimitank
is, in your opinion, of no value? To show what a forum tool looks like?

The truth is, every build is perfect in certain situations, and pure **** in others. There is no perfect build. You can trash every single build if you word your argument in a certain way.

On a side note I also love how people post 'the perfect build' and then list 6 +2/3 tomes to eat at level one and a hoard of artifact level loot you must wear before you can be 'the perfect build'.


As for intimitanks - yes they can really take the heat off the rest of the party, save caster sp, and allow rogue builds to slice n dice. As Matt so helpfully pointed out - all you need to do is hit a button.

[maddmatt70]

Matt has every right to his opinion...but...

I am curious as to why you feel the need to post in this thread at all? To remind everyone how an intimitank
is, in your opinion, of no value? To show what a forum tool looks like?

I post to give a measure of reality to these builds. The reality is people are not building s&b intimitanks. I can list the top guilds on Khyber, my server, and we can ask the players in these guilds is anybody in your guild even making a S&B much less one of these dinosauric all about the intimidate skill builds and you will get a resounding no. Even a few of the guilds that have more of a s&b intimidate tradition (see old aundair server guilds) are not. My guess is that the same thing is going on in other servers although I of course can't substantiate that claim, but I doubt the other servers are doing things tremendously differently.

Just because people are not building something does not necessarily mean something is gimped, but in this case it does. I know what a party full of dps characters can do I have seen it time and time again in a variety of settings. They roll through quests and still can perform all these defensive features that these S&B only builds hold up on pedestal.

I lead raids most of the time or if not me Mavnimo leads alot of the raids I run in although I pug in some other raid leaders from to time such as in the titan. I do not discriminate based on build or really on anything anymore I tend to take whatever after I started a group with friends.

I have run over 200 vods and led close to 180+ of those so I know what I am talking about. A tank has intimidated on perhaps 15 of those runs. The time it takes for a tank by swinging a melee weapon to get aggro on Sulu that can't be broken is almost never longer then 30 seconds. An intimidate tank is not needed as I have stated over and over regarding VOD.

I do have the intimidate skill on my high ac rogue and on my pally. I don't dispute that it can be useful - its just dps is far more useful. Sacrificing dps is not an option. When people don't give their character a dps option I shake my head and come to the conclusion they don't understand ddo especially when they act like they are trying to make a competitive build (a build for flavor or to be less optimum is different).

[Lonewolfe]

The forums crack me up. Everytime someone puts up a build idea or asks for questions to help (unless you are of the "elders" that are beyond reproach), all people do is pick them apart. Here is an idea....If someone posts a question or asks for help, either answer the question respectfully or move on. Opinions are like azzholes, everyone has one. It seems that all that is spoken on the forums is the optimal build for everything. Most of the items needed to build these "so called optimal" builds takes so many elite items that you are really speaking to about 10% of the game. My take, build what you want and take advice from the "forums" with a grain of salt. You may not be perfect, but what fun would that be anyway? How quickly would you get bored with no challenge at all. Oh I forgot, grinding for ingredients or runes is enough fun to last forever, right?

[Crarites]

I post to give a measure of reality to these builds. The reality is people are not building s&b intimitanks. I can list the top guilds on Khyber, my server, and we can ask the players in these guilds is anybody in your guild even making a S&B much less one of these dinosauric all about the intimidate skill builds and you will get a resounding no. Even a few of the guilds that have more of a s&b intimidate tradition (see old aundair server guilds) are not. My guess is that the same thing is going on in other servers although I of course can't substantiate that claim, but I doubt the other servers are doing things tremendously differently.

Just because people are not building something does not necessarily mean something is gimped, but in this case it does. I know what a party full of dps characters can do I have seen it time and time again in a variety of settings. They roll through quests and still can perform all these defensive features that these S&B only builds hold up on pedestal.

I lead raids most of the time or if not me Mavnimo leads alot of the raids I run in although I pug in some other raid leaders from to time such as in the titan. I do not discriminate based on build or really on anything anymore I tend to take whatever after I started a group with friends.

I have run over 200 vods and led close to 180+ of those so I know what I am talking about. A tank has intimidated on perhaps 15 of those runs. The time it takes for a tank by swinging a melee weapon to get aggro on Sulu that can't be broken is almost never longer then 30 seconds. An intimidate tank is not needed as I have stated over and over regarding VOD.

I do have the intimidate skill on my high ac rogue and on my pally. I don't dispute that it can be useful - its just dps is far more useful. Sacrificing dps is not an option. When people don't give their character a dps option I shake my head and come to the conclusion they don't understand ddo especially when they act like they are trying to make a competitive build (a build for flavor or to be less optimum is different).

The fact that you ran Vod poorly 180+ times does not lend weight to your theory concerning intimitank builds. Intimitanks make alot of quests cheaper and easier to run. That is all, no other magic required.

[nbhs275]

OMG but they are swinging a sword! not bashing a button, oh..wait...hmmm...

Umm yeh, obviously, using an intima tank in vod is slower than waiting for someone to get and hold agro via dps, and if they lose that agro at anytime, having to wait again to regain it. I mean who wants to just start winning when we can wait? Obviously some people haven't figured it out!

smart paladins get atleast double aggro when they are starting it. Which means when your already swinging for 60+ and smiting for 130+, which crit 500+, your building up aggro far faster then anyone else can catch up with. Of course, having both this and intimidate is also a good plan.

[Junts]

smart paladins get atleast double aggro when they are starting it. Which means when your already swinging for 60+ and smiting for 130+, which crit 500+, your building up aggro far faster then anyone else can catch up with. Of course, having both this and intimidate is also a good plan.

my paladin can do both, and to be honest I've always had better luck going straight intim and using levik's overpowered 25 blocking dr to reduce the damage/not be cursed and generally lower the healing burden immensely.