Having a high maximum health is not only good to survive some damage spike as a tank, but gives also extra base statistics with Vital Force . Health regen is added to make DaVinci's Courage more effective, but if other means of healing are available feel free to swap for mana or defense.
The Plate of the Field General and the Sabatons of the Field General give an extra 150 of heavy attack. The phantom wolf set items provide extra 18 bonus damage, but if the Phantom Wolf Mask is too expensive, the Divine Justiciar Mask will suffice. Bracers of the Primal King provide another 13 of bonus damage.
Change evasion / endurance freely, the build isn't based on either.
Stun chance is added for some basic PvP viability and extra safety in using stunning blow in crucial situations, but feel free to swap with extra defense, cooldown or buff/debuff duration.
Main target of the build is to activate Spectrum of Agony as much as possible, spreading damage between nearby mobs and applying bonus damage to each hit of devastating tornado and Spectrum of Agony.. Additionally, get heavy attacks on Valliant Brawl and Guilliottine Blade to make them AoE.
The skills are orientated to:
Passive vital force uses the high health for increased damage. Raging Frenzy help burn down mobs. Resilient Mind and Victor Morale helps sustaining the high demands for mana of this build and provide additional healing. The defense skill from S&S is the primary healing source, with Da Vinci Morale and health regen being the secondary (but feel free to swap with great sword's if the run is easy).
If more protection is necessary, swap Stunning Blow with Immortal Pride for additional survivability (exp before boss fights or difficult mob sections).
Combo for mob groups 3+.
Provoking Roar applies Spectrum of Agony . From now on, every damage to a mob will spread 72% + 32 + bonus damage to all nearby mobs.
Willbreaker is useful to reduce dungeon mob resistances, and keeps provoking roar active.
Add Counter Barrier for survivability and counterattack. Any counter attack will also trigger Spectrum of Agony (and will have added bonus damage to itself and the spread attack).
Insert optionally a stunning blow to activate extra heavy hit chance from the great sword and extra skill damage from cold warrior. The extra skill damage lasts not for one hit, but for all the next skill (multiple hits).
Start devastating tornado until mobs have 10 stacks of ice.
If anything survives (unlikely), apply Gaia Crash for an extra 1000% + damage.
High numbers of directs and indirect hits in this combo (counter barrier counts) generates lots of health recovery and offsets the high consumption of mana from devastating tornado with mana regen provided by Victor's Morale .
For boss and small groups of mobs.
Open with shield strike to reduce resistances.
Valliant brawl and stunning blow to damage and buff the Guillotine blade.
Continue with shield strike and valliant brawl until CD clear.
Note: As shield strike has some AoE, and stunning blow + Guillotine Blade will be AoE on heavy hits, this is viable also for small mob groups.
Usual sequence to attack bosses.
Start with Chain Hook and/or Strategic Rush to use natural aggro generating skills and position on boss.
Continue with Provoking Roar aggro and debuf.
Willbreaker for debuff.
Counter Barrier for defense (at this point the boss will have noticed you).
Stunning Blow and Guillotine Blade for peak DPS.
Shield strike and and valliant brawl to sustain / clear CD and extra aggro.
Reapply provoking roar if necessary.
Optional Sustain damage with Devastating Tornado and Gaia Crash to reset Stunning Blow and Guillotine Blade CD.
Note: Tornado is notoriously low damage, but paired with provoking roar + spectrum of agony + good bonus damage it is has actually good sustain DpS, and helps with health regen. It may use too much mana if Victor Morale is not high enough to offset it, though.
Remember to keep up provoking roar and willbreaker to increase the party DPS.
As this tank build is unbalanced towards offence more than defence, the extra 400 defence of this guardian are useful to offset the lack of the 2 main tank protective skills (Stalwart Bastion and Immortal Pride).
This build is based on the concept "Offence is the best defence". Hitting hard while being able to take a reasonable amount of punishment rather than hitting soft but being un-killable.
Heavy attacks and Bonus damage are crucial to this build: Heavy attack is important to activate the AoE damage of valliant brawl and guilliottine blade, while the bonus damage multiplies the damage generated by provoking roar's passive (spectrum of agony) when spread by defensive barrier and devastating tornado.
While missing some of the utilities usually offered by usual tanks in a party, it offsets this lack by offering a noticeable increase to the damage output in both mobs and boss sections, while still providing enough survivability and aggro for a competent tank to perform its main job of taking the damage away from the main DDs.
On the other hand, both in solo farming and in mob-heavy dungeons, this build melts mobs with the same speed as many high hitting DDs, while offering higher survivability and tankiness.
