Rogue Tank Builds

[Asteldian]

Hi all,
This area of the forums was looking a bit sad and lonely, so I thought I would try and give it a little life (I assume anyone can freely post here, if not I guess it can just be deleted!). Before I force upon you a long and probably tedious post about Rogue Tank builds, I'd like to make some things clear:

1) These are NOT my builds, I do not have the analytical mindset to calculate the best combination of souls down to the last point and have no intention of pretending I can. I have simply taken what I believe to be some of the more popular builds floating around. The closest thing you get for originality from me is stupid names for builds.

2) This guide is one of many I have written about various builds and have on my Guild Forums - It is long winded (actually this is one of the shorter ones!) and the purpose of it is to try to explain why a build is rated so highly, this is because a number of my guildies are not particularly MMO savvy and I like to try and get them to understand their class rather than simply handing them a build and macros and say 'use it'

3) I use colours because long winded posts are etra dull without them

4) For anyone who actually is not familiar with the builds, and don't fancy reading my waffle, you can skip past this first post and go straight to the macro post below.

So, with the understanding that the builds are not original and the post is likely full of detail that is of no use to you as a pro player of many MMO's, it is probably a good time to leave the thread
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41 Riftstalker/17 Bladedancer/8 Ranger
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0M....xMdV00M.xh.-0

With this forum looking rather desolate, I figured I would post a guide on Rogue tanks to get it started. Our build for the day is the Riftdancer. This is build is designed to tank all content, though if undergeared it may struggle against the tougher content (Master and Raids)

The first thing to discuss is the shocking and controversial fact that this build is not 51 Riftstalker – outrageous I know. There are other builds that take the more traditional build of 51 RS and I will be posting them too, but this build explores the alternative.

Ultimately what you lose from missing 10 points in Riftstalker is:
10% Endurance, so hp loss.
AOE taunt summon
Temporary hp buff for group
Temporary immunity from death

However, what you have gained from this is:

More AOE attacks and an AOE Finisher (Helpful for aggro)
10% damage reduction from Turn The Tide
5% Dodge from False Blade Finisher
5% Dodge from Talent
15% Dex (Handy post 1.6 since Dex gives Rogues Deflection which works like Block)

So, you lose raw hp but gain good damage reduction and avoidance and rock solid AOE aggro. So, with good gear the loss of hp will be a worthy sacrifice, in poor gear that hp loss may be painful

The Strengths of this build are:

Best AOE aggro for Rogue tanks (Rift Disturbance + Spam AOE attack + AOE Finisher)
Highest DPS for Rogue tanks (Not important but I love DPS Tanks)
Highest damage Mitigation/Avoidance of Rogue tanks (Moreso post 1.6)
An extra cooldown via Bladedancer (50% Dodge for 15s)
Off GCD attack for extra DPS and aggro
Extra damage and aggro via Strike Back (When you Dodge you hit mob)

The Weaknesses of this build are:

Significantly less hp than the trusty 51 RS/7 Bard/8 Ranger
Loss of AOE pull in taunt (easily overcome by all the planeshifting you can do)
An extra Finisher buff to try keep up.

Despite its loss of HP, this build as well as having very high aggro management in terms of consistent DPS via spammable AOE attack and an AOE Finisher (This builds aggro is far superior to the high HP Bard/Ranger variation), actually has the highest overall mitigation thanks to what the Bladedancer provides. As a fresh face lvl 50 with lesser gear, the loss of hp from this build can be too much to deal with and as a result it may be better going with one of the other tank builds that I will briefly mention in the next post.

[Asteldian]

Talking of the next post, here it is:

The single target aggro macro is:

#show Phantom Blow
Suppressmacrofailures
Cast phantom blow
Cast planar strike
Cast reprisal

It’s worth noting that you may like to have Planar Strike separate due to Phantom Blow being 10s cooldown but a 20s buff and Planar Strike causes more Threat, so you are casting Phantom Blow twice as often as required. I personally don’t as I have enough buttons to keep track of and to be entirely honest I really don’t need the extra aggro, but if you do struggle with aggro it may be worth considering.

For Finishing moves you are looking at getting Guarded Steel up and also Rift Guard then once these are running you want to use False Blade. Planeshifting puts up the Barrier which helps with aggro and helps buy you time to get your Guarded Steel up. You may find it beneficial to put Guarded Steel up with only a couple of combo points then get 5 combo for Rift Guard and then go back to getting 5 combo for the Guarded Steel – this is because combo points only effect the duration of Guarded Steel so getting it on quick can be worthwhile

An alternative Single target macro for when you are confident in aggro lock down is:

#show phantom blow
Suppressmacrofailures
Cast phantom blow
Cast precision strike
Cast quick strike
Cast keen strike
Cast reprisal

This is a higher DPS macro, obviously in tank mode your damage is reduced, but if you have aggro sorted then why not maximise what you can?

For AOE the macro is simple:

#show Rift Disturbance
Suppressmacrofailures
Cast Rift Disturbance
Cast Twin Strike
Cast Reprisal

For Finishers, obviously you still need to keep up Guarded Steel and False Blade, but you can now throw in Compound Attack for an AOE Finisher.

A final macro that’s useful is for regular Planeshifting.

#show shadow blitz
Suppressmacrofailures
Cast shadow blitz
Cast shadow assault
Cast shadow stalk
Cast shadow warp

This saves a lot of space on my bars. I tend to keep planeshifting even if I have Rift Guard up, this is because when Planeshifting you get a buff for 8s which helps with aggro which of course helps me get away with using my DPS macro rather than my aggro macro.

Rotation is pretty simple – Planeshift macro into combat, if single target then use Aggro macro to 5 combos then Guarded Steel (or just 2 combo points if you want it asap) then spam Aggro macro again, likely use planeshift macro just before getting 5th combo, then use False Blade. Aggro macro, planeshift again, spam Aggro macro then Finisher of your choice. That’s the basics, of course depending on aggro you may swap to DPS macro instead, though I would likely use the Aggro macro until Guarded Steel and False Blade is up, by then you should be locked down.
For AOE it is a similar story – Planeshift in, spam AOE macro, use Guarded Steel, spam AOE macro, planeshift, False Blade then the next finisher used will likely be Compound Attack.
------------------------

Right, with all that dealt with, we can look briefly at two other Tank builds:

51 RS/8 Ranger/7 Bard
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0M...dqkkR.xb.xh.-0

This is a fairly common tank build, one I personally am not a fan of. This build is all about maximising your HP, the Ranger talents give you 5% boost and 6% damage reduction, the Bard gives 10% HP. Its main use is to hide the fact your gear is of a low standard and so inflates your HP to try and make up for this. Once you are well geared, the only real purpose for this build is to stroke your epeen by admiring your HP total (totally understandable! Who doesn’t love admiring their big HP pool!). But the reality is this build offers you nothing compared to other tank builds. Tempting though the 10% HP boost from Bard is it’s a deadweight soul which could be replaced with far better. All in all, this build offers good mitigation but poor avoidance and the worst aggro. Get yourself geared and drop the Bard – while the HP is pretty, you are making your Healers work a lot harder than they should need to.


51 RS/7 Ranger/8 Bladedancer
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0M...qkkR.x0d.xb.-0

This build is probably one of the most often overlooked in preference of the Bard alternative above. This build actually competes with the 41 RS/17 BD/8 Rg when it comes to mitigation/avoidance whilst also providing a higher HP pool. Prior to being top end gear, this is the build I would recommend for any Rogue tank, and, even when fully geared this build is still a good choice. The extra HP by being 51 RS keeps you with a healthy total which is good for big hitting mobs, as well as offering you the extra cooldowns from high end RS. Meanwhile, the Bladedancer gives you high aggro thanks to spam AOE attack, as well as Strike Back which constantly builds more aggro, and Reprisal which is an off GCD attack which gives you a combo point – allowing you to use Finishers more rapidly. On the defensive side, it offers 5% Dodge from a talent, 5% more Dodge from a Finisher and a cooldown ability that gives 50% Dodge for 15 seconds! For all this, you have given up 2% damage reduction from Ranger and 10% HP from Bard. Hopefully you can see why I rate this build far more highly than the above.

[Caitnai]

That 41 Riftstalker/17 Bladedancer/8 Ranger build looks very interesting. I use the 51 RS/8 Ranger/7 Bladedancer currently, and I seem to occasionally struggle with AE aggro (lolnub i no rite), so this might be something to try! Also my armor ain't that shit anymore, so I might even survive?
However, this thread is old, as is the souls. I've never even heard about the "False Blade" Finisher. This raises the question, is the build still worth it even without the extra 5% dodge?
And the AE summon/taunt is just silly, as positioning is key, and the mobs rarely cooperate with my positioning.

-Anexine

[Asteldian]

THe build is a bit dated, however I think I have updated it in on the Guide section on the site. Flase Blade was replaced by the Meditate self healing skill.

The build is not as effective defensively as it was, however, for dungeon runs it should still be a good build to do the task.

However, AOE aggro should not really be an issue for you. As long as you ensure you use a Rift Warp ability every 10s, between that, Rift Disturbance and Twin Strikes you should be consistenly keeping aggro

[Dyercewheeddy]

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[Dyercewheeddy]

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[Dyercewheeddy]

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[sunniva]

Nice surprise about this shorter form. Can you tell us what it is you are talking/writing about?
Has any info. about this shorter form been posted before (and i just missed it)?