New to PoE. Looking for Tank build feedback

Fredrick, thank you for pointing that out. Think I could put those towards the block tree by Golem's Blood.

Seoinage, I do like your build alot. You did exactly what you said I should do; 56% more life, 10% more block and a little more regen (+7points). However, I took Resolute Technique so I could stack less stats and still be effective offensively.

Furthermore, you have more hp but you'll be taking more dmg. You have 30% amor + 80% Shield Defences vs. my 113% + 40% Evasion. I view the +Evasion as a Godly stat to have on tank gear, although I have no idea if its abundant on the really heavy tanking armor.

It'd actually be very interesting to see how these two builds fare in endgame content

Since you have Unwavering Stance you can't dodge. So Evasion is useless.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQEBANTk5gGWWiYBzjiLAmUqhgbmyYEHa5TVCz7rgA70lhEPSLviEiGPIxcVF9Yg_v6OIrX6zST7DmIphsCPKrptXivGvMkxk0n3NDa1ajTfSzw3lwhEN8Qjfz0kALU9Kr74PsBFu0Et8PRDPcasU09swlt5wZdhimooYZrfSnfO0OzVjIP08G7nL4mDkyS3otBqygGufff0myiodrQ9u6_foI-IEVnNsSBX0TQ918vVF8_TP_B71IvEq9YrD7iqSAHzyXoP-ooXE5uz9dY3rrrb4bK8OvyJG-3c6jtuP6gveomvmKCOlcA-Ud6gr00QwpUzL30aSQWSIXob_kiXlIM7nrnWRGGqQzF8CmXZTkddgsJUeecA9YnDzQ==

So I switched resolute technique with iron reflexes, to take advantage of this drawback. I also took Versatility to not only give some Accuracity, but also some Int, since you only have the basic 14 which makes it hard to use certain gems early on (you could refund that one later, if you have enough +Int on your Gear).

If you always help Kraytan you will get enough Resistance (8 to all Elements per Difficulty), if you kill all 3 Bandits you would lack some Resistances.

If you lack damage, you could use Frenzy-Charges and it might be worth increasing their number.

Actually your weapon isn't limited (well it should be One-Handed), so you could use every weapon avaible. I would start with a claw for the first few levels (the Life on Hit is awesome) and switch to something else later, since most Str-Skills will not work with Claws.

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Emphasy wrote:

Since you have Unwavering Stance you can't dodge. So Evasion is useless.

Ummmmm....no?? Neither Seoinage or myself spec'd into Unwavering Stance. I plan on stacking evasion as a matter of fact. Since I don't need accuracy I can stack defensive stats like that and make my build even more viable

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Whambulance911 wrote:

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Emphasy wrote:

Since you have Unwavering Stance you can't dodge. So Evasion is useless.

Ummmmm....no?? Neither Seoinage or myself spec'd into Unwavering Stance. I plan on stacking evasion as a matter of fact. Since I don't need accuracy I can stack defensive stats like that and make my build even more viable

Actually I thought you picked unwavering stance, since you moved past it^^

In this case you ignore berserking and reach the duellist-corner by crossing beneath the large axe-section next to blood-magic.

This will save you 5 Points, which I guess Berserking isn't worth it. But since you actually are there you could also just pick Unwavering Stance and Iron Reflexes.

The biggest pro for Iron Reflexes is the fact, that the choice of avaible Equipment will increase tremendously, since it does not matter if you are wearing evasion, armor or mixed things. Well actually the evasion-armor also has a lower movespeed penalty.

If you are definitly not going for iron reflexes you could think about getting Ice Bite, for 30% more Weapon Cold-Damage and Combine it with a Hatred Aura. Although it is not directly a tanky Stat, Freezing or Chilling enemies clearly reduces damage.



But I still think Iron Reflexes is a good pick. The problem with so many avoids is that the more you dodge, the weaker your block gets.

Actually I'm not sure what is checked first, I guess it is dodge. So if you have 50% Block-Chance and 30% Dodge-Chance you would Dodge 30% of the attacks and than might block half of the remaining 70%. So your Dodge reduces your Blockchance by 15%.

So I guess stacking evasion alone suffers from diminishing returns (the more evasion-rating you have the harder it is to increase the chance to invade) and combined with blocking this increases to avoid getting 100% Block+Dodge.

Something you should also look into, is dropping the two 0,5% Life-Reg Nodes behind Golem-Blood. Could be used to get Diamond-Skin and Heart of the Gladiator (I guess you need to drop another node).

But it could look like this:



But I guess both methods are viable, but the funny part of Iron Reflex is the Grace Aura which will add a lot of armor and is cheap to maintain.

I have a few more questions now:

Isn't accuracy fairly low for end-game tanks? And wouldn't 100% accuracy rate be invalueable for such a tank? I have a feeling the devs will eventually add some heavy threat abilities once end game begins to really explode. Accuracy = higher dps = higher tps

I've read several conflicting posts regarding elemental resists. I've come to the conclusion that lots of end-game gear contains resists and spending passive points on them is useless. Is that innaccurate?

Does end-game heavy armor frequently contain evasion rating? i.e. would a rare Glorious Plate chest piece, that has a base armor of 456, ever have evasion rating?

Your example on Evasion vs. Block is fairly accuarate, but a one-sided arguement. You mentioned 30% evasion was cutting the block chance by 15%. In this specific scenario only 35% of all attacks will land unmitigated, after reduction from armor. Say we remove evasion from the equation. Then my block will absorb all 50% of incoming damage, and then I will be hit by another 50% of unmitigated attacks.

Now if there was a passive talent that said increase avoidance by 15%, I'm pretty sure most tanks will blow their load all over that node.

As I'm writing this I'm assuming Blocks do not absorb the entire blow...which is another question I have. Right?

Most current build. Used the extra points to grab 9% more block, 30% shield defences, 40% block recov, Ice Bite and then 2% LifeLeech. There are 2 flexible points that I could use to add 2 endurances charges, 22% armor, Flask life, or crit dmg reduction.

http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Block_Chance

So blocking is as good as evasion. There are unique shields that allow you to block spells as well (some of them, will let you only allow to block spells though).

Actually my marauder uses this weapon:



Which was a large upgrade over this:



This is the actual Skilltree of my marauder:

Skilltree

You might noticed that I got towards the center^^, this was because I wanted to pick Iron Grip for a bowrauder, but I found it quite funny to use melee-weapons so I sticked to them.

There is also a reason why I used claws. Up to level30 claws have the big advantage of giving you incredible amounts of live on hit. This new claw I use only give 1% of physical damage, which is a lot less 15 Life on Hit, the Claw I'm using now dropped about 2mins after a rare axe and was just the better weapon, otherwise I would have used the axe. I would prefer a sword over both axe and claw, but all the swords I find suck^^. But since this claw gives me twice the dps with Frenzy (about 250 without the bonus from charges, which seems to be enough). And I'm still able to use Viper-Strike (normally on tougher Enemies I Frenzy my Self put 4 Viperstacks onto the enemy and keep them up all the time, if I need life I still use Double-Strike, but keep frenzy-charges and Viperstacks up... well but most enemies don't stay long enough).

Instead of Flasks I used Double Strike to replenish my HP linked to a Life on Hit Gem. Double Strike always gave me about 60 HP since it hits two times.

And since I created a nice amulett with an Orb of Chance I had enough Int to use the claws



Unfortunatly I can't show you the stats my marauder has. I feel I lack armor (which mainly results out of me being bad equiped), but since I use a Ceremonial Kite Shield (24% Resistance to all Elements) I have all resistances at max after I kill Oak (since the Quest-Reward for Helping one of the thieves is 8% Elemental Resistance).

I will most likely go for Iron Reflexes, since Evasion always battles against enemies Hitchance and there are a lot of rares that "hit accuratly" I'm not sure if this means they always hit or if their chance of hitting you is just higher, but since armor triggers always I prefer relying on this.


Something that bothers me a bit is, that I rely more on Dexterity based skills than Strength based ones. I use Bloodrage, Frenzy, Viperstrike, Double Strike and Hatred and only Molten Armor to clear Groups of weak enemies. Actually Warlord's Mark and a lot of Life on Hit Gems^^

EDIT:



This just happened to my Marauder... so he is now a Dagger-using Marauder^^. Since it has a lot more physical damage the Hatred Aura provides more valuable now, even the pretty poor Double-Strike has 250 dps (I guess the number is wrong, since my normal attacks are said to have 300dps and double-strike definatly is the better choice, I think it forgets that it is a double-strike and only counts one^^).

Can you show me your other items because im interested in which item you are using and with what skill gema in it. I planned to built a cleave one hand marauder but i have problems to take oit a few skills :-)

Of course I can :P

Actually most of the items are crap^^ I just use what I get, since I don't want to waste a lot of Orbs now, and since I progress quite good, I don't see a need.



Warlord's Mark + Totem for some additional Life Leech.



Since the damage-skills for Claws, Daggers etc. are quite limited I still use Double-Strike in combination with Life on Hit and Fire Damage.



Viper-Strike is actually quite usefull in my opinion. I use it a lot to knock out tougher enemies, although it is quite useless against weak enemies (the hit alone will kill them, so no need for a poison :P).

Shield Charge is usefull to kill Archers etc. I just bash from one Archer to the next normally killing them directly.



Only Frenzy is actually used in my Boots. But I use it quite rarely. Might use a Fusing Orb here. The Skeletons are just for some distraction, but normally I don't use them, but since I have 5 Summon Skeleton-Gems I might also level one of them :P.



Molten Shell is usefull for large groups of weak melee-mobs, like Apes. I just use Molten Shell and wait till it explodes :P.



Finally the Dagger with Hatred. If I happen to get my hands on reduced Mana-Cost, it will get into the free blue slot.

Finally Rings and Belts are just some drops, but I still struggle to find better ones (well Onyx is quite nice).



But as you see, there is a lot of +Mana which is totally useless :P

My resistances are all at 75%, but Armor is still weak.


I still have evasion, since I have yet to reach Iron Reflexes.


So generally I use a Hatred Aura to reduce incoming damage and a combination of Double-Strike and Viper-Strike for killing various things. In Addition Frenzy is used to get charges. I will look into using Lightning Strike instead of Viper-Strike as a second damage-source, but actually there is no need for it. Elemental Hit might also be an alternative, but I have to level it a lot, since I don't have a High Level Gem for it.

To get a little back on topic

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Emphasy wrote:

http://en.pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Block_Chance

So blocking is as good as evasion. There are unique shields that allow you to block spells as well (some of them, will let you only allow to block spells though).

Straight from your Wiki link -

"The following Basic Passives affect Block Chance:
Block Recovery (50%)
Dual Wield Block Chance
Shield-Specific Block (1%,2%,3%)
Stun and Block Recovery (8%)
Weapon-Specific Block Chance"

This is kind of confusing for me. So stacking stats like block recovery will add to your overall block chance?? I understand that +recovery reduces your 350ms recovery time, but I don't understand why/ how it makes your block chance higher. Maybe I just don't understand the mechanic...

Also, evasion is still legit. I don't know why you're trying to get rid of it. Especially since there isn't a recovery time for evading/ dodging. Its just a free miss. And as a tank, its kind of a goal to take a little damage as possible. You can't beat 0 damage.

And I am still curious as to the Accuracy% most end game Non-ResTech "tanks' run with. As I still feel 100% hit chance is legit.