I am looking for a tanky class (primary criteria) with still reasonable damage (second criteria), I already have a pet conjurer so I wanted something different for a change.
So far I have considerd purifier, warder, commando and tactician, (battlemage is probably a candidate as well).
One might also consider that I do not have all the fancy gear yet, so classes that only work with very specific items are kinda off the table unless they work reasonably well without those, too.
Please don’t feel restricted by the classes I mentioned, I am open to everything, the more tanky the better.
Having a good skill for leveling up is also a plus, like word of pain from inquisitor is very convenient to say the least.
Would be cool if you could provide a short description of how the class/build would work (skills used, easily obtainable items used).
If you prefer some simpler questions, for me, it now basically burns down to:
commando or tactician?
Also I’d appreciate some advice on how to best lvl up a commando in case I insist on using 1h+shield instead of the simple 2h forcewave solution.
Both cadence and fire strike seem to be sub-par compared to a 2h forcewave for levelling…
Any ideas?
if you go with shield use shield scaling skills, otherwise you waste the shield
cadence/firestrike and soldier wps doesnt’ scale on shield so there is little benefit there
Blitz or 1h FW would be an option, or getting a stat stick/“caster” shield and use whatever skills it can then boost (blade arc or retal/CS+VF)
or alternatively you got 1h forcewave, since it wont be entirely the same as 2h spam, letting you mix in other CD skills or a different spam
Either way you should get some regen by break-pointing VF and getting some points into Veterancy
*you generally dont’ need Menhir’s Bulwark on softcore and can just take the OA from Oleron, you’ll get plenty regen without
I don’t think i’d recommend 1h blade arc levelling as mando, it’s doable but 2h blade arc is probably better for the dmg gains.
If you go retal you could technically use nado for rata, but tbh it’s gonna be minimal gain compared to just stacking regular grenado items.
Cadence and Firestrike is fine for levelling but takes some levels to get rolling, and i wouldn’t do it with 1h+shield in either case, atleast not as commando if/when you don’t have shield offensive for support (smash/smite), and AA focus with blitz weaved in will mean either your AA gets secondary focus or your blitz does, in which case you waste the shield offence one way or another
You could stack a bunch of dmg tweaking Ceno’s Blitz-krieg for commando, focusing on Blitz, with Cadence as secondary to get more flats from deadly momentum, combined with the flats on Flametouched it should be some decent blitz dmg even if cadence is slowed.
yea 1h forcewave is just so slow…
and spreading points thin on multiple skills does not feel good either,
I’d probably prefer fire strike over cadence for the AoE part anyways,
how about focusing points on the mortar trap and related skills?
edit: oh and what you mean by “Ceno’s Blitz-krieg for commando”? is that a popular build or something I should know?
edit2: and the bigger question still: what is more tanky, commando or tactician?
If you can tolerate placing mines with arming time, I can also vouch for Rune of Kalastor/Forcewave Tactician. Pretty unique playstile, fairly good physical caster.
As for which one is more tanky - both have soldier as baseline, so that’s already solid survivability.
Commando will give you flashbang that makes enemies miss you more, and blast shield which is a good, but temporary damage absorption buff.
Tactician will give you a heal and a protective seal with damage absorption. It has theoretical 100% uptime. The downside is, you need to place that seal manually and stand in it, so kiting becomes a pain. Inquisitors are universally clunky because of that.
yes, I am already considering the mobility aspect of the tactician…
I found laying runes with activation time rather not so much fun,
but levelling up anything with inquisitor is the best because of word of pain, so that’s covered,
and once that spell falls behind too much I’d go for FoI which has a easy to get MI with leech,
which goes well with the seal as you need to stand still for FoI as well.
One might also consider cadence with a ranged weapon and sprinkling points in all those abilities that can trigger on default attack, which inquisitor has even more than the soldier…
While commando has a variety of options, as I already said I might just go for mortar,
though going something with weapon damage does provide leech (devotion scales, items…) and will probably get me farther as long as I can find good weapons to use.
Anyways, I am still unsure what will be tankier, I’ll probably have to try both more and then decide.
Maybe the question is just not that simple,
I was kinda expecting people to say: clearly x is tankier than y because of this and that ability or synergy… guess I was wrong there.
But I’m still open for any tricks or advice considering those classes,
as I am fairly new to the game, there is likely still something that I have not considered yet.
Thank you for those suggestions,
would you mind explaining those a little?
I have already started a warder as well and I can see how that one has massive healing potential. Is it more tanky than commando/tactician?
But I did not have Archon on my plate yet,
and I wonder how oathkeeper can add anything relevant, his skills kinda look very weak for my inexperienced eyes, what’s the trick with that one?
Warder will definitely be more tanky than Tactician; commando it depends because both can be tanky if you go Regen route. But overall Warder edges it out.
Oathkeeper brings lots to the table: WPS (weapon pool skills), OA, flat absorb, RR (resistance reduction), flat physical, etc…Damage wise it’s better.
