Hey, first off, great guide! You basically covered everything so congratulations!
However, I'd like to make a claim and question a 'fact' you put in here. First things first; I've successfully tanked mordris each and every time I've attempted to tank her. I have also dodged and blocked more damage than was done to me by auto attacks for long periods of time by Mordris through streaks of evasion. This includes a record of 5 dodge/blocks in a row on Mordris, the toughest boss ever taken down in CH (necro is still untouched). So when you say...
Finally, tough bosses hit incredibly high, sacrificing your total HP pool to boost defence slightly will make it more difficult for druids to keep you alive as your HP will decrease much quicker and you may die before your druids get a chance to re-cast their skills.
... I cringe. I've used dex/def since the day I tanked back in the catacombs before even Falgren posed a threat. And here I am still using dodge and block tactics to null any auto damage. Mordris hits me for about 1.5-2k damage per hit. I consistantly dodge 1-3 times in a row, avoiding up to ~6k damage multiple times per minute. If I wanted to max my hp pool, I could roughly add 3k-4k more health but that brings me to my
question for you...
How does having less hp make you lose more hp? I can honestly say I have less hp and yet take much less damage. Druids have a larger window of time to cast their heals and buffs because they can count on me to not take any damage at all. The rate at which I lose health is far lower than any tank I've seen who does not do what I do. It's no secret that I use defense/dex, I've been promoting it... So please answer my question; thanks.
Appreciate your reply Blaze. After reading through my guide again, i realised i didnt word it appropriately in some parts and wasnt too specific. It gives off the vibe that Defence is completely useless and should not be used. The point i was tryin to get across is that you need to try maximise your total HP then think about how you could crank up your armor and defence further. If you already have high enough HP you can start adding defence gear as long as it doesnt sacrifice your current HP. Ideally all gear you use should boost both HP and defence/armor so that you get the best of both builds. The other thing i didnt specify is that the massive dodge rates from high defence become less noticeable only on these tough raid bosses, for all other bosses it is invaluable.
Regarding the part about having less HP gives druids less time to heal you, i kind of explained in a previous post. Say you have 8K HP and high defence compared to 12k Hp and less defence. With the higher HP build if for whatever reason you lost 7k HP you still have 5K HP that will guarantee you 3-5 seconds to get a heal. No matter what happens, your always guaranteed an extra 5k worth of HP. Now if you had 8K hp and high defence, after losing 7k hp your almost dead and you are relying on probability to dodge the next few attacks to give your druids enough time to heal you back. You may dodge the next few attacks in a row and stay alive or you may get hit by the next few attacks and die. Or even worse, the boss might cast a skill which you cant evade with defence and you will die anyway. In other words its risky. But with the high HP build you wont die, because your guaranteed this extra HP buffer. Its like an extra abundance or energy shield.
Because these raid bosses have a tendency to hit you high very suddenly, you would rather rely on a guaranteed extra HP buffer over the possibility of an extra buffer through dodge with defence. I know your going to say with higher defence im less likely going to end up in a hypothetical situation like that, but again its all probability. You may get unlucky and get hit by 10 hits in a row dropping your HP down really low. The boss may cast a few skills and drop your HP pretty low. Druids may get attacked by mobs and not be able to heal instantly. Druids may get interrupted irl and not be able to heal you instantly. Many things can happen, would you rather rely on chance and hope you dodge enough attacks or rely on a guaranteed extra HP buffer?
Now dont get me wrong, my current build can still reach close to 2k defence without specifically choosing def only gear and this is easy to achieve at end game. I just wouldnt take the next step and try hit 3k+ defence if it meant i had to sacrifice a large amount of HP unless i already had extremely high HP.
Note: Wasting stat points on DEX is always a bad idea. The DEX-equivalent you gain from DEFENCE on gear is usually alot higher than the VIT-equivalent you get from HP Gear. So you should always have a full VIT build, and use gear to boost defence.
I will edit some parts in my guide a bit later to make all these points more clear. Thanks for all the replies so far
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Immortalius Lvl 215+ Warrior
Vyper Lvl 196 Ranger
Aeon
Taranis
