Skyforge Paladin PvE Tank Guide

Skyforge Paladin PvE Tank Guide by Darkz

So I have seen a lot of controversy with the tank mechanic in this game. Now this was hardly a surprise. No healers?! How in the gods will I survive?!

Well I am here to tell you… Its going to be alright… I am a 23k Knight as of the July 29th reset and have zero problems tanking everything.

First off I want to make this clear. In NO mmo do you start with all your skills. All your abilities. All your power. You need to work up to that and Skyforge is no different. Skyforge differs in 1 major way. It lets you 5 man MUCH earlier then most mmo’s, for better or worse. This means 1 very clear thing. Early game tanking is HARD. You will die. A LOT. You need to earn those stripes and learn the ropes. This is a different game and should be treated as such.

Now with that said, on to the guide. I decided to start with Paladin since thats what most tanks use right now. I personally prefer Knight and that guide will be here soon enough.

Any and all tanks should be getting as much stamina as possible. This is achieved in a number of ways. The Atlas is the most obvious. Leveling temples gives you stamina and HP% increases. Also VERY vital for all tanks. Do these as soon as possible. I currently have mine at level 17. Finally, level your offhand as much as possible. I have mine at level 10 with the weapon and rings being at level 5. I am rocking 135k HP and loving it.

As I said before, you dont start with all your abilities and talents. So guess what you need to do first? Get them. I am going to be explaining the optimal build with the assumption that you have attained all of these skills and abilities and are ready to go. If you havent yet, I highly suggest you get them. Soloing the first boss of Port Noari and f-11 leaving right after is a great way to farm class sparks.

Paladin

http://na.portal.sf.my.com/calculator/avatarbuild…

The Paladin is the Shield King. He shields himself, then he shields himself, and when he is done shielding, the sona bish shields again. Your goal is to MAXIMIZE these shields and make sure they are taking all the damage. Not your rock hard abs. So how do we do this? WELL IM GLAD YOU ASKED!

The correct combination of talents and abilities. Thats how! Your most vital combo… Celestial Shield 2, Unwavering Faith, and Blame.

So lets do the math here… Shield 2 has a 12 second cooldown. It breaks automatically, activating Unwavering Faith. That makes it pop at 7 seconds dropping it to 4 seconds. It is active for 5 seconds. That is 4 seconds of downtime!

Blame buffs the 12% HP to about 20%. I have 135k. You know what 20% of that is?! 27k HP! Thats close to half of most people your level!

Now in 5 mans you will be spamming this, but these guys hurt. A lot. This simply wont be enough. Well we need…

Dash Shield is something everyone will get. But you need to maximize its effectiveness. If your main shield is strong enough, simply use this to fill in your 4 second gap. Otherwise, you will probably be spamming this as much as possible.

I also suggest every tank grab Impulse Barrier. This will give you a shield every time you use Impulse, which will be one of our main sources of damage and should be maximized.

All of these shields stack and should be used in combination if needed.

Now unfortunately, these shields simply wont be enough. So we will move into the second strong point of tanks. CC.

Crowd Control

This is just as vital to our survival and should be used to minimize the damage your shields need to absorb as well as enemies with special big hitting abilities.

Onslaught 2, Awe, Waves of Wrath, Waves of Holiness, Harsh Verdict.

These are your tools of lock-downery. Onslaught 2 + Awe will be your initiate most fights. You will dash into the group of enemies and dash away. This groups the enemies for your allies and keeps you safe for 2 seconds. As the enemies charge toward you, charge Waves of Wrath and back away again. At this point, I use Harsh Verdict on the most dangerous enemy. This will keep you safe for around 5 seconds and another 4 on the most dangerous enemy. Waves of Holiness should be used if you think at any time you are losing aggro.

It is important to learn which enemies can and cant be CC’d. The majority can. Some can only be CC’d during certain intervals. Do your homework and pay attention to what your abilities do!

At the end of the day, we cant avoid it all. We cant shield it all. So we have a few WTF! buttons and talents.

Aegis of Light, Luminance, Surge.

If you know you cant shield or dodge it or if your just too lazy to move, Aegis is your way to go. 4 seconds of pure unadulterated invincibility. On a 16 second CD. Thats 25% uptime on pure invincibility. If all else fails, an extra 40% HP is nice and 60% HP should be enough to finish anything up.

The final tool you will need for your arsenal of meat shields and tripping tricks.

PRACTICE!

This will always be the most helpful tool once your box is full. Learn how enemies react. What can be CC’d. What hits the hardest. What needs to be dodged. When to dash shield. When to aegis. Enemy telegraphs. Everything you can. Tanking is very different in this game then other MMO’s. No healer. More skill. More heartpounding 10% hp left dodging for your life while holding aggro moments. It is fun and intense. It isnt something you just pick up and do. It is something you master.

As a side note. I also highly suggest Unshakable Faith. More mana = less stress when managing that. Aegis and your CC all use mana. this will make life easier as well as obviously Holy Ground.

These are the basics to becoming a successful Paladin tank. I hope this will help clear things up and make your life easier. Tanks arent meant to tank with no tricks in their bag. Get what you need and set on your way. I hope you enjoyed this guide.