You only need about 110/120 str (con food to get 150) and dump the rest in con. Everyone here that’s saying you need something insane like 200 str+dex.
First things first:
Blocking attacks generates threat.
Buffing yourself generates threat.
Lastly doing damage - of course - generates threat (lets just assume carnelian)
Awesome - that’s out of the way.
I generally run 16-17k HP in end game content - with the exception where I’m out soloing where I run 160 STR instead.
Skills for SS is reverse stab - shield rush - def stance
RS for the cooldown reset
SR for the armor trait that gives 20% fortify per target hit
DS for the taunt and/or 50% fortify
Passives are in the defender tree - most are pretty self explanatory
Ill either run Hatchet/Hammer/Great Axe depending on the dungeon and more often than not I switch weapons based on the upcoming packs of mobs or boss.
Threat gen is incredibly easy to maintain in this game. The core to my threat gen is blocking the heaviest attacks and/or blocking a quick series of light attacks followed up by heavy attacks to maintain empower and smack away. If I know the boss won’t be doing anything big, I switch to my secondary to pump out some damage - and with the carnelian gem, you wont be losing threat anytime soon.
As far as holding off OMERGALELBIGPUMPERS - I’ve never had an issue. In aoe fights, def stance, shield rush reverse stab reset and cycle. you will never lose threat when tanking 3 or more mobs.
Single target - already mentioned it. Block quick succession abilities, use grit to ignore a stagger and attack away.
Anyone who says you need 200 str/50dex for tanking to maintain THREAT have no idea what they’re doing.
On the other hand - if you’re comfortable with being able to tank and want to help dps some more - get 200con (about 12k hp with %hp mod) and dump the rest in dps attributes. If you’re doing this - I assume you know what abilities will nearly one shot you and have some idea how to avoid/block that damage.
Also - there are some abilities that you need to dodge (last boss in gen for example does a heavy attack that depletes stamina and staggers) but for the most part… if you’re dodging, you’re not generating threat or doing damage. Stack shield rush fortify, block fort, healer fort and whatever else you may have and just face tank those abilities while dumping out light/heavy attacks.
For example, mangled heights I can solo the packs of 6+ legless dudes jsut by stacking fortify and resetting my cooldowns. On top of which - I can also pull the entire road (24ish mobs) hold aggro on all of them and rarely have to block due to having def stance + 60% shield rush fort and 10% block fort. And in a group settings, those mobs will never peel off of me due to having a perma def stance taunt up.
Another example - the commander bosses in myrkgard. I only ever have time to light/heavy attack once or twice. All my threat comes from blocking and soaking specific attacks with grit+fort buffs. I’ve had - essentially a raid of 20+ never pull aggro off of me unless some dumbass tank taunts and drags the commander through the raid (RIP light armor players when that happens).
You can go ahead and test this out yourself with a group of friends.
For a commanders basic 4 hit combo (3 lights 1 heavy) I will soak the first 2 hits and block the last 2 to prevent block stagger. During the 2nd or two for stam recovery, I will shield rush for the 20% fort and tank the next hit (or hits if he’s repeating the pattern) before blocking to allow for a full stamina bar recovery. If I have low stam and def stance+rush available - I will take the heavy attack using reverse stab (grit).
Same applies for the portal guardian (the buffed up commander).
I can’t see anyone stacking strength/dex to 200/50 being capable of tanking these commanders outside of having close to 600GS with corruption ward on all armor while maintaining threat from the dps pumpers.
Anywho - that’s my 2 cents OP
