I love tank characters, I hate using consumable, I hate dying
So, I tried a lot of template, from full DSP with ‘Dying a lot’ mastery… to full tank, unable to kill any boss with LL or high regen (like the mad queen)
My best character by now is a Trickster, 2H frost damage and high life regen.
I tried the Hetzer, the Warden tank by Squib, it’s really safe, but killing ranged/caster enemies is a plague and if it’s a boss, it’s very long, and we need a second set with damage reflect.
So, I tried something else.
A retaliation tank is great to deal damage, but only if enemies hit you, and enemies don’t hit often or miss a lot with high DA, sooo, i tried Bloody Pox and Fevered rage, +150% total speed is great, they hit more often and come faster to me to take kicks. And with a tanking build, it help to mitigate the +50% OA the rage gave them.
The other good thing is that caster and archers tend to be less resistant to bleeding, or maybe it’s just because they have low health.
So this template is good for caster because of ranged bleed’s spells and good for melee with high retaliation damage.
The build :
It’s a Conjurer, Occultist+Shaman
Occultist, obviously for Bloody Pox
Shaman, for tanking and retaliation
I have 2 versions for the devotions
First one, with better tanking (dryad & scales of ulcama)
https://grimcalc.com/build/zTQRqnI
Second, with better Bleed damage
https://grimcalc.com/build/9fIRc6z
It’s hard to choose, because getting the big bleed damage cost a lot of points and remove a lot of funny tanking skills or retaliation.
But the core constellations are the same -> going to Messenger of war and Targo the builder.
I’m only at the beginning, L40, but I can see the potential. It’s very funny to see trash mobs going crazy and running on my shield to die.
Sometime it’s scary too when dead enemies continued to propagate the plague to an unwanted rare monster.
For leveling, going with Curse of frailty and devouring swarm is just too easy for act 1, when we achieve to get mogdrogen’s pact line and wendigo totem, we can start using bloody pox and Fevered rage.
Even at 40, my main DPS source is the Curse of Frailty, with Falcon swoop on it, and devouring swarm. I use bloody pox only on distant enemies or easy melee to get them down faster.
Hitting 40, I start to use the Perdition Set for a big retaliation up.
For other stuff, I use +%bleed or +retaliation, depending what I find, and if possible with on hit or on attack proc, to giving more DPS (my main attack suck)
Don’t forget some + Mana regen item, because the spells cost a lot for a tank character.
I don’t spend time to find what BIS items will be, but I’ll check that when (if) hitting Elite or Ultimate.
But mostly +life, +retaliation, +bleed damage, +resists.
If you have advice for the devotions, I’ll be grateful, because it’s a pain to get tanking+bleeding+retaliation
PS: Sorry if my English is bad, it’s not my native language