The Choice of Armor, Weaponry and Shields
Before you even head into the battle, you will have to spend a few thoughts on your equipment. While it is true that any equipment is suitable for a tank, it is very important to know that good equipment will keep you alive quite a bit longer. Though also know, that none of this is really a requirement as the true art of tanking comes from skill and the use of the terrain, not from shiny
Items.
Nonetheless, we will have a look at weapons and your armor. The most important weapon a true tank warrior MUST have in his inventory is a... longbow. It doesn't matter how good or bad the longbow really is, you'll want to bring it for pulling enemy mobs not for doing damage, and as far as range is concerned - nothing beats a longbow.
Runes!
After you've chosen your armor, the next choice is runes. While I’m in no position to give you orders on which runes to buy and which not, i will give you pointers and small hints. First one is, buy an absorption rune. Dimmit. I've just given you an order. Well I’m sorry, don't think about it, and just buy one. And while you're at it, buy a vigor rune as well. The reason for this is that they don't come with a health penalty. You can only profit from having them. Keep in mind that damage reduction works globally and runes don't stack. You don't need more than one absorption or vigor rune.
Weapons!
The final part of equipment you might want to consider is your weapon. Yes, your weapon. While offense often is the best defense, this is not what i am talking about. Every weapon has mods which can increase your AL a small bit.
Advanced Tanking
Terrain Control
Congratulations warrior. If you've read, understood and trained the above you're a better tank than many others out there. Yes, it is that bad. But yet, still there is more for you to learn. The basic Tanking Tactics are far too vulnerable in many situations. And they're not effective to start with.
You've all ready guessed it by now, I will once again start with the basic part of the more advanced tanking tactics. That's the simple body block. No enemy can walk through you and for some reason even the flying ones can't fly over you. You're a wall. Quite simply massive damage dealing, hit taking wall. Once you've understood this basic concept you will see lots and lots of opportunities during a fight to completely prevent the enemy from passing, even if your lemming ranger broke the target lock. Furthermore, a blocked enemy will soon search for another target.
The enemy is as dumb as a brick. When he engages a target, he does it in the most basic way it can think of. Run towards it, straight and direct way. It will heed any terrain, but a single not too common obstacle will block his path and leave the enemy puzzled and confused, even more awaken his anger. You've guesses it right, a corner with a tank standing there is the natural enemy of the AI.
The next thing you need to know about the terrain is that one of the other classes (so far) gains damage when it is placed on higher ground. And this class is the ranger. So by moving yourself towards the lower ground, you're giving your ranger buddy the opportunity to deal more damage and even increase the range of his bow (so he no longer needs to be personal with that laughable Wood Stick, uhm Short bow).
Pulling and Patrols: Crowd Control
Remember that I told you to bring a longbow, no matter it's specs? Now is the time to put it to a good use. This is the very final chapter of how to be a good tank and master the art behind it. The only reason you're bringing the longbow is to separate one mob from another. Observe the enemy carefully and you will soon notice that he is moving in small packs, small teams. The other groups however are unaffected by this and you've now effectively separated one group from another. If your ranger insists on being the one to pull the enemies, tell him to grab a sword and shield and do your job. Really, pulling is the job of the tank though many rangers will disagree.
Pulling would not be pulling if you wouldn't actually pull the enemy back. You can lure an enemy out of mob but you can moreover avoid being surprised by patrols by simply walking back a bit. In Guild Wars, almost every team of enemies has a written patrol path. They will walk a certain route again and again and again. These routes are placed in a way that they will intersect with each other. So if there are two teams of enemies, you can be quite sure that their path will meet at one point. If you just agro the enemy you’re at a very high risk to be surprised by one of the patrols.
Related Articles
