The Half-Track: a Self-healing DEX-based Tank

[geoffhanna]

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The Half-Track: a Self-healing DEX-based Tank

Halfing Wizard 17/Rogue 3

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Unlike most of my builds, this one has a single purpose: tanking. All of the other stuff is there to promote the ability to dive into a batch of bad guys and hold their agro, with or without a healer.

Tradeoff discussion

• Being a Halfling means losing the DPS advantages of a Strength build, but in return the build gets greater AC, excellent reflex saves, and the Dragonmark of Healing.
• Having Evasion means giving up on heavy armor's PRR but it more than pays off in elemental damage avoidance.
• Being a 17th-level wizard means less hitpoints but in return you will always be Hasted, Raged, Blurred, Displaced and Fireshielded, and you will be fighting in a cloud of Acid Rain or Ice Storm. The Eldritch Knight enhancements make for one badass wizard.
• Damage was so minor, even when in a crowd, that I could keep myself up just using the Halfling dragonmarks. I could even get rid of my own Negative levels! I have an endless mug of rum too but often forget to use it; the dragonmarks are usually enough.

Epic Discussion

I feel like this character's best main destiny would be Unyielding Sentinel. Then probably Legendary Dreadnaught. The normal wizard destiny Magister doesn't have much for this build beyond spell points. The normal rogue destiny Shadowdancer seems meh too, maybe because this is not a normal rogue. Twisting Healing Spring and Rejuvenation Cocoon on this character should apply more than enough additional self-healing to stay up through the Epic levels.

Stats as of level 20:

This was not a well-geared character, she just grabbed whatever was available in her completionist TR bank. Some of it is nice (+8 CON and DEX) but others not so much, for instance I don't think she had anything on her head at all. She has 10 past lives, and those certainly help, but most of these stats are pretty raw and will only get better as one applies the right equipment.

But even so, they (the stats, not the equipment) are pretty good for level 20:

STR    10/22
DEX    22/44
CON    16/32
INT    16/26
WIS    10/15
CHA     8/13

HP       471
BAB       20
DblStrike  5

Fort      31
Reflex    39
Will      27

AC        73
PRR       22
Dodge      0 
Max Dodge 12

SP      1555
Pos	 139 
Neg       61
Force    113
Repair    57
Sonic     44
Other     83

Skills

Balance        6/51
Concentration 23/55
Heal           5/17 
Spellcraft    23/39
UMD           23/32 **

* I put 18 ranks into Search which was a mistake. They should have gone into Heal, meaning the Positive spellpower would be higher too.

** I am torn between pumping up UMD as I did, versus Intimidate which I did not, and often missed having on this character. If you are going to be tanking a lot, take Intimidate. If you are going to be backup healing a lot, take UMD.

Feats

Combat Expertise
Empower
Enlarge ***
Extend
Improved Critical Pierce
Improved Mental Toughness
Least Dragonmark of Healing
Maximize
Mental Toughness
Weapon Finesse ***

*** Enlarge was used but only rarely. Weapon Finesse needed to apply DEX damage mod to rapiers. Other combinations to consider: Dodge + Mobility for dodging percent, or Shield Proficiency + Shield Mastery for PRR

Halfling Enhancements

Halfling Luck (x3)
Dexterity (x2)
Jorasco Dragonmark Focus (X3)
Lesser Dragonmark of Healing
Break Out the Leaches
Greater Dragonmark of Healing

Assassin Enhancements

Knife in the Darkness
Dagger in the Back
Shiv (x3)
Poison Strikes (Ice Chill)

Eldritch Knight Enhancements

Eldritch Strike
Spellsword (acid)
Spellsword (flame)
Spellsword (shock)
Toughness (x3)
Battlemage (x3)
Improved Mage Armor (x3)
Improved Shield (x3)
Light Armor Proficiency
Arcane Barrier (x3)
Dexterity (tier 3 & tier 4)
Critical Accuracy
Critical Damage
Medium Armor Proficiency ****
Shield Striking (x3)
Tensor's Transformation
Eldritch Shield
Still Spell (x1)
Doublestrike (x3)
Eldritch Tempest (x3)

**** Not sure how this got here since an Evasion build is never going to wear medium armor. I may have had to take it to satisfy a point-send requirement? Or maybe I just screwed up and should have put these two points elsewhere.

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So, what did I miss? There's always something that can be tweaked to make the build better. Thoughts? Comments?

[WanderingGrump]

It would be interesting to see what your end game saves were geared out but I suspect they would be far lower than you would really want for a tank. I suspect that Wizard build will end up with between 700 and at most in the low 900s as far as HP goes but what would be worry some to me would be what your final saves would end up. If you managed to get them in to 50s I would be surprised and it's amazing just how much damage migration you can get over a lousy 5-10 points on your saving throws. I do know a few people running Dex based tanks and they tend to be either Monks or Thief Acrobats (12 Rogue/6 Monk/2 Paladin or 8 Rogue/6 Monk/6 Paladin). Going that route lets you not waste a feat on Weapon Finesse as you can get there with Enhancements, plus you get access to the Shintao ability Ki-Shout which is a concentration to intimidate mechanism.

I have a Wisdom based Monk that has far more Dex than Strength and in Unyielding Sentinel I top out at 1050HP moderately geared and my saves are in the upper 50s to upper 60s with Reflex hitting 64. That's enough to easily tank the Reaver in FoT and the toon generally keeps healed with just Rejuvenation Cocoon and the odd self heal scroll (it's a H-elf with the cleric dillie).

A guild mate is running a Dex based Thief Acrobat that hits between 1100-1200HP with saves in the upper to mid 70s and finds that more than an adequate to tanking.

Also if your going to make a 3 level splash why not go Monk and light path for self buffing Align the Heavens and the bonuses to saves over Rogue. You would still get evasion and the ability as well to give yourself Grasp of the Earth Dragon's Anti-stun effect isn't something to sneeze at either for tanking bosses. You'd loose the rogue skills but gain far more I think given your stated goal of tanking.

Some things to ponder.

[PrimalConcreteSledge]

I have made myself some strange tank builds but i have to say, nothing i see here screams tank... Nothing at all.

Your hp, prr, saves, dodge, hate amp. are all on the low side. You use positive self healing so no wraith form for incorporability. Self healing is nice, but halfling dragonmarks are expandable and on this build you will have very little use out of lessers and leasts. You will see results from your ac in EH content, tho you will never be able to compete with defenders. In EE your ac "might" get you 15-20% miss chance with considerable investment, don't expect more.

Displacement is one of the best overal defences atm yes, but relying on it as only real defence is not something a tank should do. There are mobs with true seeing and most if not all raid bosses have it as well.

Your hate generation seams like the biggest problem. Consider an army of earth stance dps monks you need to deal with. It's not easy to maintain agro with 0 hate amp. It has been working for me on my gaxe toon by cycling insult+adrenaline, intollerant blows, furry epic moment all the time. It works ok but relaying on clickies interupts your attack sequence a bit frequently. And still i managed to loose agro in a few occasions which was not a problem since i have >90 intim. Without intim... i could have found myself in an awkward situation.

And now i hear they are about to nerf intolerant blows, if you are going s&b don't count on beeing able to keep agro.

You can invest in intim, but on a cha dumped toon, you might have a hard time getting it high enough.

I'm not saying it can't work, but bladeforged and monk would make it twice as good there is no doubt about it.

[Teh_Troll]

What is this think meant to tank?

[geoffhanna]

The numbers are low because this is a level 20 character with a random assortment of gear. The build gives up some things because it is Halfling but none of them are AC or saves. Dodge and PRR will require gear. PRR will not match that which can be achieved with Defender stances but ought to be able to match anything else. And the shield helps too, I did not include blocking PRR but there is some.

I have some ideas for a pure rogue Halfling DEX tank (or rogue/monk) but I wanted to try the Eldritch Knight first. I am hoping to generate hate with persistent AoE spells, it has worked brilliantly through the Heroic levels, but I will not know how effective it is in Epics until I try it. I am sure I will still lose agro to super-DPS builds (although I think every tank does if the DPS is super enough).

What I am really looking for here is ideas on how to make this build better.

p.s. She also looks cool

[Teh_Troll]

What I am really looking for here is ideas on how to make this build better.

Don't pretend to be a tank.

[PrimalConcreteSledge]

I need to agree with the troll...