Tank - Leveling Build

Overview

Class: Tank

Designed for: Leveling

Focused on: Tank

Difficulty:

Easy

Strengths

• Good for Group Play
• Difficult to kill
• Good Utility

Weaknesses

• Low Range
• Low damage

Overview

With the Tank being the heart of any party in Ashes of Creation, this build focuses on tanking large groups of mobs and is much needed in all leveling parties. And while it might struggle with solo leveling and playing alone when compared to other classes, however, this build aims to make it so solo leveling isn't too difficult either. The Tank excels at group PVE content and that is the preferred method of leveling if you plan to play a Tank.

Skills

16

15

24

22

14

23

17

18

8

9

11

5

13

19

12

10

4

6

2

25

21

1

3

7

Equipment

Weapons

Sword

Longbow

Stamina

21

17

7

20

16

6

19

15

5

18

14

4

10

13

3

9

12

2

8

11

1

As a Tank, you rely a whole lot on your blocking and that for investing points into Sustained Guard is an obvious choices to reduce stamina drain while blocking (default key E). Adding Mental Fortification is also helpful, as it lowers the chance of being crowd-controlled (CC’d) while blocking, which can be situationally useful. However, the most important node you want to unlock as soon as possible remains the Empowered Guard as it greatly improves your blocking efficiency.

Once you've unlocked the right side of the Stamina tree, start unlocking the rest with Escape Velocity to boost your movement speed while sprinting in combat (default key C). This becomes especially important later in the game, allowing you to kite mobs while waiting for cooldowns or to escape dangerous situations entirely if needed.

Next, invest in Recuperation Training and Evasive Maneuver to improve your evasion rate while dodging. This also unlocks Springstep, which significantly enhances mobility by increasing the distance you can roll.

Rotations

Low Level AOE Burst Rotation ↴

• While the rotation is incredibly easy to pull off, you should make sure to pull a group of mobs using your auto-attacks or using your bow to lure mobs more efficiently before using Brutal Cleave and Whirlwind. You can do this in the early game just after making your character, making it easy to level to 4 by simply AOE grinding the mobs in the starting zone. Keep in mind that once you unlock Climactic Whirlwind, you will have to angle yourself in such a way that the final hit hits multiple targets.

Single Target Rotation ↴

• This is your bread and butter rotation for single target DPS when leveling solo. Start with Blitz to build up quick Combat Momentum before continuing with Rupture to apply a bleed dot before transitioning to Lunging Assault.

• Continue the rotation with a hit of Overpower and then use Wallop to maximize the damage it does based on the amount of Combat Momentum stacks you gained throughout the rotation. The last skill in the rotation is Lethal Blow as its used to finish off a target with its high damage and also reset Blitz cooldown by using Reinvigorating Lethal Blow. Once upgraded with Consuming Lethal Blow, Lethal Blow also returns some of your HP and mana.

Extended AOE PVE Rotation ↴

• Wait for the tank to pull mobs and stack them up before you start the rotation! Spend this time making sure that you are in Form Of Celerity before using Battle Cry to buff yourself and your allies followed by Brutal Cleave which will apply the Staggered thanks to Form Of Celerity.

• Continue the rotation using Cataclysm to deal high damage and and trip the targets. However, if you have a mage in your party, pay attention and wait for them to freeze the mobs so the damage done by Cataclysm is increased. Transition into Maim for extra damage before using Lunging Assault 2 times then finish the rotation with Leap Strike.