Hey there, im a new player to Grim Dawn, i always play a tank in any game type i play so i have looked into what i will be needing endgame.
Quick question… i have seen alot about markovian’s fortress set, where do i have to farm this set?
And in the meantime is there a tank set i need to work on until i can start farming that set?
I do group play not solo so im not too worried about damage output
thanks ^^
Nowhere specific, but you can also get them via the legendary blacksmith which you unlock in elite/ultimate. Note that you have to be at least lvl50 for him to produce legendary pieces (lvl58 for legendary rings/amulets), and I’m -fairly- sure that your character level has to meet the level requirement of the gear, so for Markovian’s Platemail, for example, you’ll need to be lvl75 for the blacksmith to craft it for you. It’s RNG too so the odds of getting that exact piece from the pool of all armor pieces is kinda low.
But you are playing with friends, so chances are someone sooner or later will get a Markovian’s set piece and trade to you.
Guardsman’s Raiment, Perdition, and The Praetorian are some of the lower level tanking sets. Although it’s more of stats than gears that you need for tanking, go for HP, resists, DA, block chance/recovery/damage, armor rating, and armor absorption.
You probably will be happier if you go 2H Warder rather than 1H+shield. Damage is totally inadequate with shield builds right now - to the point that the game is not fun. And devotions + Wendigo Totem let you get excellent tankiness on a high damage build.
If you can’t stand it and have to go the shield route then Witchblade is best right now. Curse of Frailty at least gives you some damage as well as helping out your team too.
I’d advise you against that. You won’t have enough damage solo and your presence in a party won’t be noticed as a tanking build. Others will just shred everything before you have any chance of acting like the party tank. 
I’ve played similar build before. Arcanist/Soldier with the hopes of making it into a melee elemental with a shield and heavy on the block, but the current items don’t provide much in terms of elemental damage on shields. I’ve switched to a retaliation build dealing damage mostly through ret and it got to the point where mobs kill themselves when they hit me on Ultimate difficulty, with very high hp and block, but the problem was all the ranged and caster enemies that don’t take retaliation damage which makes it cumbersome and slow at places. Melee bosses are easy, but anything that shoots something takes forever to kill. Very good survivability, but other melee builds also can build towards that and the end game isn’t as hard as it was before so it doesn’t warrant to focus that heavily on defense.
If you choose to go that route, look to the Dawnbreaker’s light set. that is going to be your bread and butter. And be sure to obtain The Final Stop around lvl 50.
Hey thanks for the info and advise guys, will definately think and rethink the options available. Level 35 right now on my very first play through (veteran difficulty) and realy enjoying it. Semi-pseudo tanking for my group with Blitz/War Cry openers, havnt chosen a secondary class yet, maybe something that can AoE snare/stun at point blank after my Blitz/War Cry? Give my group (both ranged) safety while they blast away. Any ideas on that?
This is simply not true. Physical damage shield builds do very good damage and are very durable.
Here are some videos of my shield build physical damage soldier with 1 point in occultist for maxed curse of frailty quickly face-tanking endgame content. The character in this video has the minimum physique to wear the Markovian set with the Tinker’s Ingenuity belt and maxed Veterancy as well as the minimum spirit for Markovian’s Distinction. Since he’s for solo play, the rest of the stat points are dumped into cunning to get offensive ability over 2000 and some bonus physical damage.
Moosilauke
Zantarin
Fabius
The Clones
Here he is beating Rashalga, the Mad Queen which has other melee builds howling in frustration: https://youtu.be/lPWvfG8nO4M
The character’s gear is self-found by running steps of torment in Elite to get good enough gear to enter Ultimate, then killing bosses in Ultimate that drop Blood of Ch’thon, Ancient Heart, or Tainted Brain Matter. The bosses have a chance to drop useful gear, such as the Markovian set, and the crafting mats can be used for more chances at Markovian set pieces through the smith in Tyrant’s Hold.
I stand by my statement that the damage is totally inadequate. 2 minute Fabius kill is the definition of “inadequate”.
With my 1H Witchblade I can get under a minute sometimes (I don’t have optimal gear). I don’t expect to do anything like the damage that a 2H or dual-wield character can do but it should be possible to do better than a 5th as much.