2nd best all around Tanking Build

[raiderpb]

Prolog

I have been running with this build since I made 50 in 1.1. This was originally posted by Ciderhelm on his site that no longer exists. I have found it to be the best tanking build for me. The only build that I can say might be better is a Voidwalker build due to slightly better damage mitigation but less threat generation. I never really got the hang of the pacts so it never worked for me.

This build is entirely based on damage mitigation

Build
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0c....Vzqdh.E0Rh.-7
There are some slight modifications from the original due to some changes in the souls that increased damage mitigation for incoming spells. This required removing some of the raid buffs - Aid Command and Rallying Command, that can be applied by other classes during raids.

Buffs
Crest of the Abyss
Binding of Atrophy
Shield of the Hero
Battlefield Awareness
Battlefield Distraction
Aspect of the Fallen Hero

Macros

Range Pull
#show Soul Sickness
cast @mark 5 Intercept
cast Plague Bringer
cast Soul Sickness
cast Blood Fever
cast Necrotic Wounds

Single Target Builder
#show Ravaging Strike
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mark 5 Intercept
cast Retaliation
cast Aggressive Block
cast Ravaging Strike

AOE Builder
#show Vicious Cleave
suppressmacrofailures
cast @mark 5 Intercept
cast Retaliation
cast Aggressive Block
cast Sweeping Strike
cast Promise of Steel
cast Vicious Cleave

Finisher 1
#show Call to Battle
cast @mark 5 Intercept
cast Retaliation
cast Call to Battle
cast Spotter's Order

Finisher 2
#show Call to Entrench
cast @mark 5 Intercept
cast Retaliation
cast Call to Entrench
cast Spotter's Order

Taunts
Sergeant's Order
Cracking Skulls

Interupt
Face Slam

Snare
Pin Target
Weakening Essence

Saving abilities
Touch of Life

Burn Buff (Archons and Bards have the same ability.)
Assault Command

Rotation
Use the Ranged pull for all engagements and build it to 3 points. This is also a self heal and should be rotated in as a builder. Finish with Finisher 2. Use either the Single Target or AOE builder and finish with Finisher 1. Again build to 3 points and Finish with Finisher 1 again. Rinse and repeat.

Finisher 1 and 2 are interchangeable depending on when each was used last and is still on cool down or the situation.

Aside from keeping the ranged mobs in close with Sergeant's Order you should never have any issues with threat if you have hit the mobs at least once or twice and never after a call.

[Asteldian]

Hoorah!! Someone posting on the forums!!
I don't want to scare of posters but figured I would leave some feedback. Firstly, the build is one I am not a fan of but to be fair, even in its hayday I never liked it despite its effectiveness. This is partly due to being dated and therefore being far lower on the defensive foodchain than it once was. The other reason I dislike it is because of how many points are spent in Warlord. For tanking the Warlord is the weakest soul, mainly used if its limited raid buffs are of use, otherwise, 16 points is all you need for the best defense ability (Call to Entrench along with Warlord HK crystal) with 20 points being spent to get the Cutting Distraction ability.

Now, with that said, forgetting about alternative builds for now because if you have a build you like and want to stick with it, I am a believer in maximising its potential rather than telling people to do something else, so, a bit of feedback regarding the build set up:

For your main single target macro you use Ravaging Strike, however the Armour Debuff this causes will be overwritten by a Ranger. I would suggest either Pacifying Strike be used (as the only classes where this will be overwritten are not necessarilly commonly used in Raid) or, Empowered Strike which is an Armour buff for you which I believe stacks with everything. (whichever you do not put in the macro should be used periodically to keep debuff/buff up). I keep Empowered Strike in macro, then manually apply Pacifying Strike, which means when a Druid or Sab is in the team I simply don't worry about using it.

For the AOE macro, I personally prefer to have Aggressive Block after sweeping strike as on initial pull of a fight I like to ensure I lock aggro down in case of trigger happy DPSers - because DoTs won't keep the mobs at bay for long and using the first GCD for single target attack is risky business.

Regarding Vicious Cleave, again, this maybe personal preference, but given its limit of 3 mobs and its directional limitation, I actually much prefer having Plague Bringer and Blood Fever instead as Blood Fever hits 6 and does not need you to be facing most of them. I also tend to have Soul Sickness in the macro too, but thats really not necessary.

For Finishers, I would start with removing Spotters Order from the macro. In raids the Bard and Archon provide a superior buff which won't stack, Spotters Order no longer activates Battlefield Awareness which means it offers ZERO aggro. That means using it is wasting a Global Cooldown on no additional damage and no aggro management so it is strictly a Dungeon use only ability nowadays.

I would also simplify the Finishers - there is no need for two macros, place Call to Battle and Call to Entrench in the same macro (put Entrench first). THe only reason Call to Battle exists is to help keep the Warlord Crystal and Battlefield Awareness buffs active at all times - Bard song and Call to Battle do not stack, so it is purely a self buffing tool. So, one Finisher something like:
#show call to Entrench
suppressmacrofailures
cast call to entrench
cast call to battle
cast Dire Blow

Would do nicely.
The final point regarding the macros, and this really is not too important, but worth mentioning is that I would put retalliation at the end of the macro. It is off cooldown therefore will activate whenever the macro is used during GCD so there is no need for it be at the top of the macro. Again, this is not essential but makes things a tiny bit more efficient.

Other than that, if wanting to stick with a 32 point Warlord build, I would certainly suggest removing the 3 points from the Talent that gives power on Block - since changes that have been made over time, you should not suffer from any power regen issues which means the points are better spent elsewhere.
Last but not least, in Reaver, remove the 5 points in the first Talent and shift them to ability that reduces damage by 30% when low on health - the extra Death Damage i offering nothing for survivabiliy and little for aggro.

Anyway, welcome to the boards and thanks for posting!! I am glad you have a build that works for you and oyu enjoy it and I hope any suggestions made simply enhance what you have without impacting its playstyle

[raiderpb]

Hoorah!! Someone posting on the forums!!
..., Spotters Order no longer activates Battlefield Awareness which means it offers ZERO aggro.

I have been away for a while so I missed some patch notes. Can you link the patch notes which back this up? Or if it was a stealth change are there any theory crafting sites that show this?
Thanks

[EternalBrown]

I have been away for a while so I missed some patch notes. Can you link the patch notes which back this up? Or if it was a stealth change are there any theory crafting sites that show this?
Thanks

This was back in 1.5 I think. It was clearly stated in the patch notes.

[Asteldian]

Patch 1.6:

http://forums.riftgame.com/official-...-11-11-eu.html

Under the Soul section it talks about changes to Warlord (pasted below, its first change to the soul in patch 1.6):

WARLORD
* Spotter's Orders is no longer a Call and no longer generates threat from Battlefield Awareness.
* Locked Down: Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.
* Dramatic Presence: Now increases the self-effects of all Calls and Commands.
* All Aspects have been increased to meet their previous numbers due to the change to Dramatic Presence.
* Killing Field: Threat generation has been significantly increased.
* Battlefield Awareness: Threat generation rebalanced to fit into an intended role as an ambient threat generator. New burst-threat generators have been added to other abilities. Increased Dodge amount.
* Promise of Steel: Shifted to more of a threat-generation role. Threat generated has been increased, number of affected targets increased to 10 in a 10 meter range, cooldown set to 5 seconds, damage slightly reduced, and no longer requires a target to be used.
* Fixed a bug allowing Promise of Steel to trigger Light's Decree.
* Call to Entrench: Self-buff bonuses have been rebalanced to work with the new 'Gift' ability enhancement.
* Rallying Command: Rebalanced the resistances on the self-buff component to work with the new 'Gift' ability enhancement.
* Powerful Countenance: Increased Armor buff.
* Imposing: Threat generation is now enhanced by Endurance. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.