DPS Tank (Alternative Dungeon Farming Build) - The Stormblade (26VK/28RB/12PL)

[Asteldian]

Voidknight (26)/Riftblade (28)/Paladin (12)

This guide will take a look at a build close to my heart. Way back when they removed Strike Like Iron from the 2 point Paragon tree and ruined my old DPS Tank, I decided to remodel and make a new one. At the time I was proud of this creation as I considered it mine, of course, a while later I discover the build on the public forums being discussed and at that point realised there probably isn’t really such a thing as ‘an original build’ or a build you can claim is yours, as in reality, someone somewhere will have made the same thing. Nevertheless, this is a build I am fond of because at the time I naively thought it was mine and after the disappointment of seeing my other creation ruined by the patch, I was excited at how well this one worked. (Interestingly, when I first made the build I used Reaver rather than Paladin, this was to help with aggro as back then the AOE attacks we had were limited to 3 mobs and in front cone. As soon as our AOE attacks were updated, Paladin became an obvious choice.)
Anyway, I introduce to you the Stormblade. This build is certainly winning no awards for top mitigation, you wouldn’t want to use it in raids as a main tank and unless you trust your healer you may not want to use it in a Master Dungeon.

So, this build shares the same purpose as the Immortal Tank (23 RV/27 Pally/16 WL) which is Dungeon farming, he just approaches it in a different way. While the Immortal does typical Tank DPS and improves farming the dungeons by requiring no healer, this build requires a healer but tries to make up for it by dishing out the DPS. Afterall, why should everyone else have all the fun?

While I no longer run this build myself, it is a great alternative to the Immortal tank if you do not meet the specific gear requirements for it (the trinket and heal essences)

Strengths of this build are:

Good mitigation (38 points in tank souls, Ravenous Defense & Ravenous Strength, Aggressive Block, Shield of the Hero, 5% Block talent, Void Buff, Avatar of Water)

Great Aggro (2x10 mob threat generating attacks, Ragestorm, Surge and AOE Finishers and Pact conversion)
High AOE DPS (2000-3500) Decent single target (~600-1000 depending on gear set up)

Constant force taunt and pull in via Rift Summon

Planar Blade (which refreshes Rift Summon and Riftwalk on crit)

High manoeuvrability (Riftwalk always available for porting around)

Emergency Heal (Touch of Life)

No specific gear requirements

Utility (Being VK means you have Purge and Cleanse which can be handy in 5 man groups)

Weaknesses of this build are:

Less hp and mitigation than a 66 point tank

No Reaver DoTs for ranged aggro on pull

Decent gear required (while it does not have specific gear requirements, being a fresh faced lvl 50 running this spec would be a heck of a challenge for your healers)

Rotation and Tactics:

Very simple stuff with this build. On pull you can either throw spark or use Discharge to run in, Riftwalk to the mobs (my preferred method unless mobs are widely spread), Rift Summon a caster to you.

Once mobs are closed in you can either spam your AP Builder, or to be sure of aggro you can use Pact Conversion (which works similarly to the old Spotters Order thanks to Surge. Though using your DPS finisher should be a better choice, aggro really is not an issue with this build), Rinse and repeat until all dead. During the fight if any mobs are a small distance from you feel free to use Rift Summon. I had a lot of fun spamming that during an AOE fight when there was about 5 other mobs around not yet aggro’d – I summoned, hit AP Builder, summoned another, hit AP builder, summoned another - I am easily amused.

The macros for this build are easy, just two in fact.

AP Builder

#show aggressive block
Suppressmacrofailures
Cast sweeping strike
Cast aggressive block
Cast tempest
Cast ragestorm
Cast Pacifying Strike
Cast retaliation

Spam, spam, spam, spam. You can remove Aggressive Block form the macro and keep separate if you prefer. Against single target I also weave in Discharge whenever it is available


Finisher:

#show storm burst
Suppressmacrofailures
Cast storm burst
Cast earth burst
Cast fiery burst

Just use this whenever you have 3 Attack Points.
For single target you may also want to have Fiery Burst on your hotbar rather than using the Finisher macro.
Other abilities definitely worth having on hotbar:

Rift Summon
Riftwalk
Furious Bash
Pact Conversion
Discharge, Spark, Airburst
Spellbreaker
Spell Sunder

So that’s the build. Gear wise, start in full tank gear and start replacing bits as you feel more comfortable – I used DPS sigil, DPS 1h, DPS rings, neck and bow, whilst my armour remained tank stuff. If you are in HK raid gear, then making use of the 4 piece Champ Crystal for additional AOE DPS is definitely a winning choice. I haven’t tried that as I no longer have this build, but it should allow you to reach even better DPS levels.

[Crovack]

Build set to private.

[Riskybizniz]

could you set the build to Public please ?

[Asteldian]

Oops, that'll teach me for rushing the build and taking link before going to work. Should work now