Build Basics

Difficulty: Normal
Hometown: Medieval Germany
Stat Order: Dexterity, Constitution, Strength, Perception, Mind, Spirit

You choose Medieval Germany because that is the only hometown to get the Bastion skill.
You choose Dexterity before Constitution because the majority of +HP and +Mitigation equipment also gives +Constitution.

Target Stats

• 65+ strength
  • You need 65 in all fighting stats (str/dex/con) to use innate defense
• 27 mind
  • You can get away with 25 mind but getting idiocied will make you lose important skills
  • 27 mind will protect you from being idiocied, as you lose 10% of your mind, which will keep you above 25
• 100 Dexterity
  • You ideally want 100 dexterity, but only 90 is required for battle training benefits
  • Having 100 will give you lower AC and higher tumble/dodge/parry chance
  • Having 100 will also give you more attacks with dex weapons
• 100 Constitution
  • You ideally want 100 constitution, but only 90 is required for battle training benefits
  • Having 100 will give you more HP and some free mitigation points
  • Having 100 will also give you more attacks with con weapons
• 30 Perception
  • 30 Perception is a minimum requirement for a few skills shared by many builds
• 30 Spirit
  • 30 Spirit is a minimum requirement for a few skills shared by many builds

Build Goals

• Having max (30) mitigation
• Having high dexterity and the benefits that come from it
  • High AC
  • High Dodge/Tumble/Parry changes
• Using innate defense to avoid even more damage
• Using Iosa to heal approx. 12 damage per round

Required Skills

• Battle Training
• Innate Defense
• Bastion
• Rescue
• Heroic Rescue
• Balance
• Tumble
• Dodge
• Iron Will
• Advanced Parry

Build Description

This build works really well because low AC, high mitigation, and innate defense combined result in you taking very little damage. Wielding the Iosa gives you a cure light almost every round healing you for about 12 damage. This combo lets you take a very small amount of damage. Equipping gear for parry chance does not give as much of a benefit because not every mob attack can be parried.

Typically, you will not want to rage against enemies that tend to do a decent amount of damage to you. The rage skill will cause your AC to be limited to -100 while active. For easier mobs, raging will make the fight go faster and you will not take much more damage in return.

In groups, you will probably never want to rage, as you will be tanking against much harder mobs. Your job as the tank in a group is to make sure that you are the target of enemies. You can do this in a number of ways. First, you want to make your that you're the most aggressive member of the group, typically agg 3 (HELP AGG). Sometimes, even when you're more aggressive than others, the enemy will target another member of the group. You can fix this by rescuing that member, either with the rescue or heroic rescue skill. Bastion is also a good skill for maintaining enemy aggro, as it has a chance of preventing enemy re-targeting.