Help with guardian off tank

[wrathofkhan]

I would appreciated a little help as I have made a guardian & whilst I would love to be a full blown tank I do not have experience & dont want to be ridiculed for that. Other toons are sage & shadow.

 

An Off tank would be more better i feel but I am confused as to what to have as offhand, do I choose Focus or Shield or change as appropriate.

 

If you can further help with a good hybrid build my thanks.

[Mahariel]

Hi,

 

I think being an off-tank is a great idea to get some good experience. But there are some boss fights in ops Ops where Offtanks actually have it harder than main tanks.

 

For gear i would highly recommend using a shield , incase the main tank dies you will need to tank and then the shield will be invaluable

 

Here is the spec i use for PVE tanking . Please note that PvP tanking is very different

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500GMGzudMdfzZZcGM.2

[wrathofkhan]

Thanks for that.

Would I just use shield {for off hand} all the time or would I change back to focus when not tanking?

[Mahariel]

Im not sure you understand what being an off tank means.

 

Here is a brief rundown.

 

Flashpoints : Here you will be the only tank as there is only 1 tank, you will tank everything

Operations : Here there will be 2 tanks and the main tank and off tank will both tank certain mobs in the group. When it comes to bosses it will vary based on mechanics and the gear of the guild/group you run with . Assuming you are all new to operations without much gear then you and the main tank will both have tanking responsibilities . If the main tank is completely decked out then he will ( when the mechanics of the fight permit ) tank the whole encounter

 

I personally would recommend you run with a new fresh group . Its more fun

 

EDIT : Use a shield generator the entire time unless your absolutely sure the main tank will not die under any circumstances

Edited July 2, 2012 by Mahariel

[Aetou]

 

I personally would recommend you run with a new fresh group . Its more fun

 

EDIT : Use a shield generator the entire time unless your absolutely sure the main tank will not die under any circumstances

 

Nah. I offtank Annihilator, Gharj and Soa in full DPS gear AND Vigilance spec in Hardmode Eternity Vault. For HM Karagga's things are a bit more intense and so I swap to Defense and then run Gharj, Crusher and Karagga in almost full DPS gear (swapping stances when needed, with a decent stack of Defense.) On Crusher I even tank the odd Frenzy with that setup, just as long as you have your CDs available you'll be fine (and two CDs plus a relic and/or Adrenal means you can comfortably tank for long enough for the tank to be revived. With weaker healers I might be more cautious, but really offtanks should generally wear a blend of gear to fit the encounter (so you need full DPS and Tank sets really.)

[Aikon]

Hi,

 

I think being an off-tank is a great idea to get some good experience. But there are some boss fights in ops Ops where Offtanks actually have it harder than main tanks.

 

For gear i would highly recommend using a shield , incase the main tank dies you will need to tank and then the shield will be invaluable

 

Here is the spec i use for PVE tanking . Please note that PvP tanking is very different

 

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500GMGzudMdfzZZcGM.2

 

 

I actually use the same spec for tanking, PvE and PvP. I'm honestly just too lazy to switch, but it is possible to tank both PvE and PvP with one spec as I have been doing since January. Of course, there are disadvantages and advantages to doing this.

[dufox]

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500RMG0zZMZfGM0rhdzG.2

 

have main tanked "lost island" in this spec. im not a pve man but im pretty sure that is the most challenging 4 man, or was close to it.

 

i have main tanked and off tanked EV and karagaa's palace in this spec.

 

and most importantly its a great (if not the best) vigilance spec u can have for pvp.

 

besides having to switch around skill tree changes in patches i have not ever had to change my spec for a special occasion.

[GarfieldJL]

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#500MMZuMZcGMRMuddRR.2

 

Is a viable off tank set up too, in all honesty the situation depends on how much of an offtank you want to be. Normally I function a DPS, however I have the ability to offtank in an emergency without switching gear. If I wanted to seriously be more of a tank I would change some points out.

 

Thing you must remember is that we are more dependent on gear for tanking than the skill tree.

 

As far as gear, you're going to want a balance between DPS and Tank stats, if you want to be able to operate as both. It will take some trial and error on your part but at level 50 you'll want:

Defense at 13-15% (while in shien stance)

Shield Rate at 11.5-14% (this is while you are in shien stance)

Critical should be about 20-26% without the scoundrel buff.

Surge should be giving you at least a crit damage of 60%.

Accuracy should be 100-105%

Then you should get as much power as you can.

 

Your armor and hilt mods should be the best might and hilt mods you can get (you can get a superior guardian mod like let's say a purple 50 guardian armor mod vs. a blue 48 might armor mod, go with the guardian armor mod).

 

From my standpoint, I'm not a true tank, but I can buy time for the other DPS to finish off a boss and/or the healer can get the real tank recovered enough for that tank to pull aggie from me and then healer heals me back up while I switch back to shien from sorseu. Also you'll want augmented orange gear whenever possible, yank mods, armor, enhancement, etc. out of any gear set you get (this allows you to maximize the customization of the gear, cause there really isn't any offtank gear out there for you to be a DPS with emergency tanking ability).

 

The stats I've given work in normal ops (untested in Denova), and most hardmode FPs (untested in Kaon HM, Lost Island), untested in HM OPs (I don't have everything augmented to the point yet where I want to try a hardmode OP).