Neverwinter GF Tank Build Guide

Neverwinter GF Tank Build Guide by jrdaddyttro

This is the new build, gear enchantments and all, that I now use to tank endgame. The major changes are for the following reasons: Firstly, the sheer amount of damage dealt by all the mobs in malabog, especially if you have a group with less than stellar dps, is quite impressive, and far outstrips anything else encountered in the game, except maybe moments of being stunned in spellplague and dread vault. For this reason, and the nerf to its AP generation, I removed Knight Valor from my rotation and replaced it with frontline surge. I also removed both my chest enchantment, bloodtheft, and my weapon enchantment, lifedrinker, and replaced them with enchants to reduce the amount of damage i take overall. For armor this is the new Barkshield enchantment, currently i’m wearing a lesser, and for weapon this is a feytouched enchantment, currently i’m wearing a regular. The feytouched only goes off on encounter powers, so by using my frontline surge once every 20 seconds i ensure the maximum uptime of my feytouched on up to 3 enemies.

Gear:

My gear remains pretty consistent, I finally got an ioun stone, so i have more stats room to play around with, which is nice.

I did however replace one of my defense slots with a greater tranquil enchantment. Many people say they don’t work, i’ve seen it appear in my log quite a few times, so i like them haha.

Feats:

3/3 strength focus
2/3 toughness

3/3 shielded resurgence (New addition to my tree- heals even when you block the CC)
5/5 Distracting shield
3/3 Armor Specialization

3/3 potent challenge
1/3 grit

0 points in the last tier of heroic feats.

5/5 armor of bahamut ( new addition to my tree- was always a good talent, now i have room from dropping KV’s enhancement feat)
5/5 Plate agility

5/5 shield defense

5/5 shield master

5/5 balanced shield fighter
5/5 overwhelming impact

1/1 iron guard

Powers:

3/3 cleave
3/3 tide of iron(right click at will)
3/3 lunging strike

1/3 villian’s menace
3/3 shield talent (first passive)

3/3 enforced threat
3/3 griffons wrath

3/3 fighter’s recovery
3/3 terrifying impact(second daily- new addition to the rotation- good for interrupting large groups of enemies in MC- still use supremacy of steel more often)

3/3 enhanced mark(second passive)
3/3 guarded assault

3/3 crushing surge (took it just to try it out- still pretty bad)

3/3 anvil of doom
3/3 frontline surge (my middle encounter, very useful for peeling agro off healer, and for applying feytouched and getting a few enemies off your back)

3/3 threatening rush (left click at will)
3/3 into the fray (my right encounter)

3/3 supremacy of steel (first daily)

3/3 iron warrior (left encounter)
3/3 knights valor (still use it in lower level instances)

3/3 bull charge
3/3 indomitable strength

Rotation:

I use Into the fray while running into combat, use threatning rush to close the distance and apply marks, then use frontline surge to apply feytouched and put the more threatening enemies prone. continue to threatening rush and shield stab to gain agro- when agro is established used into the fray again and iron warrior to maintain shield and just keep stabbing and shield bashing. Use supremacy of steel to apply debuff to large group of enemies, or terrifying impact to apply debuff to enemies in a line and knock them prone to interupt attacks and make it easier to ensure agro.

Thats it for the major changes in this build!

Thanks a lot- the old build is below for reference purposes.

Below I’m going to lay out my endgame tanking build, i’ll explain if i believe something is an integral part of the build. Anything that i haven’t gone into specifically therefore can be changed to whatever fits your playstyle best. By no means follow this build directly, every player is different and what makes me my best tank will not necessarily be true for you.

Gear:

I use both the indomitable champion set (for bosses that i need to kite) and the grand regent set (for everything else)
both are slotted with recovery/deflection gems

my enchants are lifedrinker and bloodtheft. I play without a taunt, as will be described below, and these two help to ensure i have a constant aoe threat going.

I use the ancient main-hand and off-hand. As its downright the best, and its set bonus stacks well with grand regents set bonus.

I have 2 sets of rings and necks, one for normal tanking situations, i use ancient brawler necklace and ancient priests rings, and one for kiting situations, i use the hrimnir set.

Feats:

3/3 strength focus: obvious choice- increases guard bar
3/3 toughness: obvious again

5/5 distracting shield: part of staying alive is making sure your shield stays up- this helps with that a lot.
3/3 armor specialization: obvious again

1/3 grit: clerics get a bonus % added to their heals if their target has temporary hp- it doesn’t matter the amount. I put 1 in this to simply give the cleric that buff more often, but don’t waste more than 1 point in it.
3/3 potent challenge: I play without a taunt- so this helps a lot with my aoe threat.

2/5 ubiquitous shield: a 10% reduction is enough to help mitigate any accidental, or necessary, hits from behind. But the other 3 points are better used elsewhere.

Protector Feats:

5/5 plate agility: obvious

5/5 shield defense: obvious

5/5 shield master: as i said above, part of the key to staying alive in the brutal endgame tanking situations is making sure you have your shield when you need it- this again helps a ton.
5/5 Brawling warrior: this increases the utility of a core ability of my rotation adding mitigation to my 2 other skills that mitigate while i’m blocking- allowing me to use knights valor to block incredible amounts of damage. the buff to enforced threat is a side benefit for me- since i usually don’t play with it. However, if i’m kiting i do have it on my bar, and this buff makes holding agro in kiting situations just a little easier which is nice.

5/5 balanced shield fighter: useful for adding threat with your blocking at-wills when you have a chance- also good for 1 on 1 tanking
5/5 overwhelming impact: I use supremacy of steel constantly- it is essentially the taunt for my build. I’ll explain more below.
1/1 iron guard: helps keep the damage down, to keep your shields up.

Powers:

3/3 cleave
3/3 tide of iron (my right click at will)
3/3 lunging strike

3/3 villians menace
3/3 shield talent (my first passive)

3/3 enforced threat (use it in kiting situations)
3/3 griffons wrath

3/3 fighter’s recovery (use it only with bad healers)

1/3 knee breaker
3/3 enhanced mark (my second passive)
3/3 guarded assault

3/3 knights challenge

3/3 frontline surge
3/3 ferocious reaction

3/3 threatening rush (my left click at will)
3/3 into the fray (in my final rotation- its my r)

3/3 supremacy of steel (my first daily)

3/3 iron warrior (in my final rotation- its my q)
3/3 knights valor (in my final rotation- its my e)

3/3 bull charge (use it to push in applicable situations- replaces iron warrior in those situations)
3/3 Indomitable strength (use it to push in applicable situations- my second daily)

Rotation:

I blow Into The Fray as i’m running up to enemies, i Threatening Rush repeatedly as soon as i’m in range to get as many enemies marked as quickly as possible. i then use Supremacy of Steel, immediately followed by Knight’s Valor and Iron Warrior. As soon as Knight’s Valor’s buff countdown reaches 3 or 2 i use sepremacy of steel again- to get the double wave of blades hitting all enemies around me, and blow into the fray again. At this point your daily should come back up and be ready for the entire rotation again as soon as knights valor is back off cooldown.

That’s basically everything! Hope ya like it.