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Snail From Hell

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What is the "Stance Tank" build?

^title

12/30/05 23:00

Nihil Zarathustra

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RE: What is the

well the idea behind it is to max out your healing and tactics and equip only healing breeze or mending and alot of stances that allow you to dodge attacks and then use them one after the other so the enemy misses or does little dmg when they hit. then if you can pick up an aggro item and let them surround you and keep using these dodge stances until the enemy is killed by the rest of the team. Now alot of people will tell you that self heals are bad as a stance tank but i feel that if you die as soon as the monk dies then you aren't really a good tank since a ranger can be used as a stance tank if they are 100% dependant on the monk. but that's just my 2 cents on that topic.

The Official Self Proclaimed Unofficial Cynic of Gameamp

12/30/05 23:03

Snail From Hell

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RE: What is the

Hmm +cred for you. Thats the basic idea of it then. Now I need to know what skills work best. I'm thinking glad defense and bonettis are included.

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12/30/05 23:09

Mann

Posts: 5
Joined: 10/04/2005
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RE: What is the

It all depends on you. Stance tanks range from being warrior/rangers to warrior/eles to warrior/monks.

If you are going to use energy a lot, sure, go ahead and use bonetti's. But make sure you know what to use. The only reason why I would not go Gladiator's Defense is because it's not every time that there are going to be melee attacking you. I would rather cycle that with Healing Hands.

Lots of people will cycle through bonetti's, defensive stance,shield stance...

I would also suggest using Dolyak Signet and Watch Yourself. More armor for you, and some for your friends.

12/30/05 23:23

Nihil Zarathustra

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RE: What is the

but SELF HEAL. can't stress that enough. with the new update they might not always go for you and they might charge the monk and the monk might die. so always bring some form of self heal.

The Official Self Proclaimed Unofficial Cynic of Gameamp

12/30/05 23:29

Mann

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RE: What is the

I didn't understand that. If they go to the monk, you heal yourself.

I think you mean when the monk can not heal you, yes? That is why I said put in Healing Hands. Obviously, not limited to that. Some 'stance tanks' I know still use the ol' vigorous spirit and Live Vicariously. If a monk, using a 20% enchantment pommel can be a life saver.

As something I do not like suggesting, but others do like like, warrior's endurance. More HP, more time for the monk to heal.

12/30/05 23:32

2_fingers

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Joined: 12/31/2005
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RE: What is the

Really depends on what you want to do.

For me, a stance tank means 0 in weapons, max out str+tactics. Face it your dmg would not really contribute much to killing a mob. While blocking and stopping opponnets from charging to the monk would prevent that weak monk from getting killed in 2 sec flat.

My build for a stance tank that works even in the difficult areas:

Droylk Sig (the most IMPORTANT skill imo)
Healing sig
Sheild's up/Sheild Stance (use SS if you are not holding anything)
Watch yourself
Glad Def
Dicipline Stance
Defensive Stance
Rebirth

14 in tactics
13 in str

Learn to body block - that is stop running mobs by using ur body to block them. This skill tends to be heavily used in PVP but almost never used in pve. Which is y i only trust warriors that are in my guild or myself :)

Once u mastered bodyblocking, u realise that u seriously only need 1-2 warriors in any mission. Even those RoF missions only require 1 warrior provided that he is a stance tank and knows how to aggro and keep himself alive while waiting for the mobs to surround him and stop the opponents from taking other targets.

Eqiptment.
Recommended armour = glad armour + 1 knight boots.
Runes recommended = Sup Vigor + absorbtion, use major / minor if u cant afford them or find them. Tactics/str minor would be helpful too.

In addition, stance tanks need a longbow/flat bow to aggro mobs if neccessary.

Shield: Stance shield. At this time i cant remember if the collector's shield is a stance shield. I think it is though. The grognar shield i believe is also another sheild that is decent. The idea is to get a shield that gives u -2 dmg when in stance.

12/31/05 00:42

spartangod

Posts: 6
Joined: 12/03/2005
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RE: What is the

yea wat he said ^^
and the collectors shield i work with is the Crimson Carpace, wich is awesome or stancing, or a shadow shield with enchant mods if u bring a bonder.
only thing i would do is switch out healing sig for healing breeze and thats my build. good luck stancing.

EDIT: wow 2_fingers thats an awesome 1st post. +10 cred 4 u.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

*Retired from Guild Wars, working on getting NightFall*

12/31/05 01:13

samonshine

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RE: What is the

yeah 2_fingres great post, very helpful

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01/03/06 17:07

2_fingers

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RE: What is the

The best Stance tank would be a W/R though because of breeze costs 10 energy, and is shattered easily (think southern shiverpeaks n beyond). This is the same reason y mending doesnt work after a certain point in the game.

For example. If you want to do SF missions with stance tank and only one monk, then the stance tank should be a w/r with troll ungent - it costs 5 energy, is a SKILL and not and enchantment so cant be countered as easily as breeze. Simply cast troll and run to the mob, wait for them to surround u before calling the rest of the party in.

I'm not too sure about the exact attribute line but it should be something like

12 Str (Rune + Helm)
12 tactics (Rune)
Rest into Wilderness

The beauty of using the Glad Def, Dicipline and Defensive is that u can cycle them continously - u start off with Glad and move on and when u finish one set, ur glad should have been recharged. that gives u around 40 ++ sec of tanking time. Watchyourself + drok sig gives u good armour so ur dmg when they hit, would be reduced. Bottom line is i rather get a bored monk with nothing to do rather than one who is panicking and pinging is energy bar.

A w/r can tank a melee group + a few casters for a few secs more than a w/mo. Those few sec allows ur monks enough breathing space to put in a Word of Healing. But seriously, if u really want to learn how to play a stance tank, or a good tank don't ask me. Ask a seasoned monk. Most of the time they get the blame for mistakes in the tank's build or mistakes the tanks make.

The only 'failure' of this build is that it cannot really counter wild blow - the jades that use that do cause problems. That's where stuff like WatchYourself, Drok Signet and (quick recharge) bonnetti def comes into play.

01/04/06 01:55

Akhilleus

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Joined: 12/20/2005
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RE: What is the

the following is my tried and true FoW stance-tank build...it is one fo the most well-rounded and workable tank builds i have ever seen, though on paper it may look like it has problems.

skills:
dolyak signet
watch yourself
glads defense
endure pain
riposite
heal signet
gladiators defense/disciplined stance
bonettis defense

skill levels (base):
12 strength + superior rune
12 tactics + superior rune
helm with +1 in tactics

skill levels (with runes):
16 tactics
15 strength

no, why on earth would you want to drop your health by this much?
-380 base life with superior vigor, and carrying book/gear
-440 life with sup vigor and not carrying book/gear, assuming +30 always shield/sword

the life is minimal, yes, but the benifits of the runes more than compensates, and just in case, endure pain is there to help. also, with 16 tactics your healing signet should be a 130 point heal...not bad, eh?
with lvl 15 strength dolyak signets duration is equal to its cooldown, with a bonus of +40 defense, watch yourself gives you an additional +20, meaning 40+20+80=140 defense, or if you're using glads armor, 160 vs physical...pretty much permenantly.
the constant defensive bonus is very important, as it helps considerably with stances.
note that the 2 stances have their own purposes; neither one requires a shield to use, meaning they can be used with the gear/book
this stance-tank is unique in that it can actually deal CONSIDERABLE damage to melee enemies, so long as they are focuzing on you.
with lvl 16 tactics your glads defense is 11 secconds with +37 damage, and your riposite is 63 damage, with a 100% chance to block 1 melee hit. this means that on top of substancial tanking abilities, you can actually deal more damage than a non-stance tank warrior build in the fow. can you say elite?
you do, however, have to be careful around incendiary bombs form FoW eles, as the fire -degeneration can hurt you rather quickly.

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01/04/06 12:24

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