The Cannon Fodder Tank, The Kensai/Stalwart Build

[jurzey]

I love this thread.

[Quikster]

from day 1 in this game the forums have always been 'ac is useless, ac is dead, blah blah'
so far that has been 100% wrong in all of my experiences playing an ac tank.

why would you come here and purposely troll this junk...this is a complete derail of the build thread, made to just antagonize people.
Sorry your ac build was horrid for you, good luck with your kensai.

I would disagree. When monks were released ac was king. Dex rangers with monk splashes could kill quickly with w/p and had decent enough dps wtih gs and alacrity that they were king

[Thrudh]

Hmm ... slightly confused by the push for high AC. If there is any lesson ive learned from epics its that AC no longer matters in endgame content. This ia definitely not to discount your ability to build toons :-) but ive found that my kensei tank generatez twice the dps he had as a defender, gets hit just as much in epics with a 40 AC as he did with a 80 AC, and still has enough intim to grab epic DQ on a 1. Not saying i dislike stalwart but im enjoying the ability to stomp epics and still be a viable tank. Again, no disrespect :-) just another perspective on toon building.

Epic isn't the whole game... In fact, few people even play epics...

I TR like Mr. Wizard... slow and I enjoy every quest... AC matters a LOT in the 1-19 game....

I have a few more TRs I want to do...

I have little desire to do any epic quests... I'm waiting to see how they "retool" epic.

If Mr. Wizard wants to do epics someday, respeccing from Stalwart to Kensai is very easy.

[Quikster]

Epic isn't the whole game... In fact, few people even play epics...

I TR like Mr. Wizard... slow and I enjoy every quest... AC matters a LOT in the 1-19 game....

I have a few more TRs I want to do...

I have little desire to do any epic quests... I'm waiting to see how they "retool" epic.

If Mr. Wizard wants to do epics someday, respeccing from Stalwart to Kensai is very easy.

He could but its not needed. SD does just fine in epic quests. Ive two and three manned tons of epic quests with mine. I have a bit more gear then cannon, but it really doesnt matter all that much. Knowing the game mechanincs, and how to work as a team, even a shortman team, is much more important than top dps. (Although he should drop ic pierce for PA lol )

[mixomatozis]

I would like to ask you how the Update 9 affected this tank.
Can you tank main raid bosses with the same ease?
I rolled similar build only dwarf... I tanked lvl 14 boss at lvl 7 with ease.
Id like to know if it is worthy to carry on with this tank...
Thank you for answer
Mixo

[dredre9987]

Bump

Looking for thoughts with the new defender pre changes and the new shield mastery stuffs from U9

[MrWizard]

Bump

Looking for thoughts with the new defender pre changes and the new shield mastery stuffs from U9

I still run this toon, when I play, and tank raid bosses...

the only real differences are

1- if you are the main tank, you have no choice but to fight away
2- intim grabs aggro pretty much permanently until somebody hits something. Makes it more useful in regular party play indeed, forces you to fight if you are the tank.

shield mastery is better for sure, at least it seems that way.

I think they made it better and more useful....and with the new stuff next mod, even more useful.

even better, most do not play them anymore, you stand out more.

[Tajuh]

Sorry for the necro, but is Mobility worth taking on this now with the new +2 to MDB? It's not too far out of the way, since Dodge is being taken.

[MrWizard]

okay, update.
Update 13 on the way....

What has changed on the build?


Nothing really.

1- with all the nerfs to crit weapon effects like banishing, I would not choose improved crit pierce unless I had some special epic weapons of some kind (I do not)

2- I have no epic items

3- have had no real problems at all, infact intim and ac and DR work even better than before.

Tanked new Lord of blades raid on norm, first time in there too, leader was flawless in explanations, had no problems tanking him at all.

Tanked Echrono, first time in on epic also, only problem was fire breath...this was solved with bracers of glacier from a different raid.


Pretty much still enjoy no problems with this build as is.
Do not know much about this new epic levels or if I will even go there. As is epic for me is not interesting.

The few runs on epic I will say I had to take off combat expertise unless I got some good buffs so I did not miss much. However, I do not have ship buffs, +3 tomes, or other neat stuff on him at this time. The only real problem in epic to hit was when tanking (which I seem to get a lot of requests for).


Point is, still a fun build. More gear than I have and you will be able to hang with the big guilds and still be respectable. Once you get your gear you should be able to tank all the raids and epics.

The only thing I would change is building healing amp into some gear now that intim has changed. I can only use my healing stick for self healing as I have to fight while intimming. Intim and fight means not able to hold healing stick. Need more healing amp just to be safe on lots of epic tanking.

[dredre9987]

Roll this guy out in the x-pac? Does his AC perform decently?

[Dunoky]

Nice build, thinking about rolling a fighter, can you give us an update on your weapons? Wanna make sure i build the right green steel, for both TWF and Sword And Board.
And another question, whats your UMD? Can you use heal scrolls just fine?

[AviationFan]

I played this build quite a while back and it was a blast - probably my favorite melee toon ever. It's been a very long time since I played a melee character and I was wondering if this was still a viable build. If so, what suggestions would people have (both for the character and end-game gear) in the post U19 world?

Thanks!

[Mahalko128]

I played this build quite a while back and it was a blast - probably my favorite melee toon ever. It's been a very long time since I played a melee character and I was wondering if this was still a viable build. If so, what suggestions would people have (both for the character and end-game gear) in the post U19 world?

Thanks!

Are you looking for an absolute mix of Kensai and Stalwart? Because with today's enhancement system, only one can obtain a tier 5 enhancement. So which tree are you looking to focus on? And what race are you?

[AviationFan]

Thank you for your reply, and I am sorry for the much delayed response, but deployments wait for no man! I'm back now and would like to try my melee again. The character is human and what I liked most about this build was the excellent mix of solid tanking with good DPS. I'd tried a pally tank and I was frustrated by the low damage output (I often solo). With Cannon Fodder, I took very little damage and could tank bosses, while moving through dungeons, dispatching mobs, at a good pace. It felt like playing an armored knight should feel!

So I'm not married to the Stalwart/Kensai mix of this build if it no longer provides the tanking/damage mix Cannon Fodder once did. What would be the best build now for getting as close as possible to that experience?

Thanks for your help!