Focusing on tank builds (block, thorns ect), has no point.

Since some boss attacks cannot be blocked, and some system like honour exist, tanking build has zero point.

Why even block and shield exist?

I've been focusing on armor/evasion and some defense definitely works. I can tank most hits and evade the rest. I am planning to get leech later on and just straight up heal through most of the damage instead of relying on potions.

Tank builds just don't really exist. This build needs a massive buff or we do lot of roll dodge (like dark soul and not hack'n slash).

You can facetank pretty much every slam from every boss in the first 3 acts without armor by just getting life on gear. Being "tanky" works just fine, but you can't do it at the expense of being able to kill things. Thorns isn't a real "build", it's a way to deal with white mobs at most. Block is fine and it is good.

The only things that kill you are one-shots and poison/chaos.

Which means armor, evade, shield, block...doesn't matter really.

GGG was too lazy to do math so they just made it dodge or die

Remember they made a game THEY would want to play and so far I dont see one melee representative from the company and man it shows when you play warrior. Im sure warrior gets OP at End Game but man the early game is just painful and Ive played tank type characters for over 20 years... Im a fan of tanking and If I find its BAD then I can only imagine what a new player feels. I tested Witch and Merc and they have life easy its night and day.

Thorns absolutely have no place in this game beyond meme builds.

Tankiness is just something you throw on to avoid getting 1-2 shotted.

"

Hammerhorn_Oathsworn#4887 wrote:

Remember they made a game THEY would want to play and so far I dont see one melee representative from the company and man it shows when you play warrior. Im sure warrior gets OP at End Game but man the early game is just painful and Ive played tank type characters for over 20 years... Im a fan of tanking and If I find its BAD then I can only imagine what a new player feels. I tested Witch and Merc and they have life easy its night and day.

It is not an MMO. The game is about killing things, not tanking. Warriors are about blasting things with big aoe Mace attacks that stun everything, not having 90000 armor and standing around doing nothing. Armor is good but armor, again, does not kill enemies in a game about killing enemies.

Warrior is extremely strong right now and can trivialize most bosses by just stunning them and whacking them in the head with perfect strike.

I'm rolling with Resonating shield + demolisher + armour explosion + inspiration with a 380+ armour shield. Tanking mobs is great, slows down the pace a little but creates density. The armour explosion all too often creates stun primers on most enemies that survive, couple it with Boneshatter + Execute + Impact Shockwave + Heavy Swing with Herald of Ash, and you've got yourself a MASSIVE AoE damage combo. All the while sitting safely behind your shield.

This is of course absolutely useless when it comes to Ascending. Tank builds outside of mapping and the campaign are borderline useless. Sekhema trials make Thorns and Frontline tank builds utterly pointless. Wouldn't feel so bad if these weren't blocking power progression!

With passive trees like "Gain armour and attack speed when hit" sound great, only to realise you don't want to get hit in Sekhema trials makes me almost want to respec out of them. Then I think to myself, "No, the trials are fucking stupid." They're so Anti-PoE2 and everything the game has done to feel good. Bosses are fun to fight, maps are rewarding enough for all builds and playstyles and then these trials just come along and hit you with the realisation that this was a PoE1 mechanic, designed for screen clearing speed builds that wouldn't know what taking damage feels like in a game except not it's in a game where everything is much slower and taking a few hits isn't going to kill you outright, just end your run and burn your coin. No biggie right?

Rename Honour to Cheese and maybe people wouldn't feel so bad. "Oh your Cheese meter is running low? Better respec and adjust your abilities to make your build cheesier, you fucking rat." Seriously!?