Tanking Fundamentals

Every tank build on this site is built around the same few jobs. Learn them once and every class makes sense.

The tank's job

In a four-player dungeon or a twelve-player trial, the tank does four things, roughly in this order of importance:

01
Hold aggro
Keep the boss and dangerous adds attacking you, not your healers.
02
Stay alive
Block, shield and mitigate so healers can spend their time on the group.
03
Debuff enemies
Lower the boss's Armor and raise the damage it takes.
04
Buff the group
Use sets and skills that make everyone else stronger.

Holding aggro

A Taunt forces an enemy to attack you for 15 seconds. Every build slots at least one taunt, and most slot two: a melee taunt like Pierce Armor and a ranged one like Inner Rage or a scribed Shield Throw. Some classes have their own: the Dragonknight's Chains of Dominance and the Arcanist's Runic Sunder also pull or steal Armor.

Taunt immunity

Taunting a non-boss enemy too often gives it a short Taunt Immunity. Re-taunt bosses just before the 15 seconds run out, and taunt trash once and let it stay on you.

Staying alive

Tanks layer several kinds of mitigation. Learn which of your skills covers which layer, so you know what to press when a big hit is coming.

Layer	What it does	Examples
Blocking	Holding block cuts most incoming damage at the cost of Stamina.	Resolute Defense
Armor	Reduces damage taken. Tanks aim for the armour cap.	Major Resolve Minor Resolve
Damage reduction	Flat percentage cuts to damage taken.	Major Protection Minor Protection
Shields	Absorb damage before your Health is touched.	Earthshield Mantle Hardened Ward
Self-healing	Recover after big hits, scaling with Max Health.	Polar Wind Dark Cloak

Debuffing the boss

Most of a tank's value to group damage comes from debuffs on the boss. These are the ones to own, and where the builds on this site get them:

Debuff	Common sources
Major Breach	Pierce Armor Elemental Susceptibility Unnerving Boneyard
Major Vulnerability	Glacial Colossus Archdruid Devyric Turning Tide
Minor Breach	Deep Fissure Cruxweaver Armor
Minor Vulnerability	Unnerving Boneyard Rune of Uncanny Adoration
Major Maim	Void Bash Vibrant Shroud Solar Disturbance
Major Cowardice	Chains of Dominance Wield Soul

Good to know

Put a Crusher enchant on your front-bar weapon. It's free Armor shred on every hit.

Buffing the group

Tanks wear support sets and slot a few group buffs. The ones you'll see across these builds:

The core sets

Most builds wear the same core. Lucent Echoes on the body for group Critical Damage. Archdruid Devyric as the monster set for Major Vulnerability. War Machine or Powerful Assault on jewellery and the back-bar staff for group damage. Most also run Void Bash on the front-bar sword and shield. See Item Sets for the full list.

Pure class or subclass?

Pure class means using your own three class skill lines. Once all three reach rank 50, you unlock Class Mastery (added in Update 50): two extra passives such as Lead from the Front or Ink-Scribe's Verve.

Subclassing swaps up to two of your class lines for lines from other classes. It's flexible and very strong, but it disables Class Mastery and you have to level the borrowed lines. See the Subclass Tank for a worked example.