How many of you have used a tank build effectively in PvP?

A lot of people I see in PvP are fast moving, under 25% equip load. Just wondering if anyone has used a big, heavy armored tank build and made it work? Any tips? I've been toying with my first pure melee build, nothing but vitality, endurance, and the strength to wield big weapons like the Zwiehander. Adds a whole new dimension to the game when you can't cast or use a bow. Do you pretty much have to invest in healing miracles, or can you do without putting the points in these?

iGBxRated did a pretty cool video with a build like that recently.

I used a Smough cosplay quite eficiently .
I Dual Wielded his Hammer but it takes up like half of the Screen lol

I would just swing my Hammer and miss on purpose to appear vulnerable , then most of the time they would go for a Backstab just for me to turn around and smash a Hammer on top of their faces hitting for 700 .

I love Smough. He is underapreciated !

Tanks aren't that bad to play with, when you let go of that speed you gain what faster builds don't have, a ton of poise and the freedom to use whatever and however many weapons you want. The armor selection also moves your defenses from the mid to low 200s to around 400.

You could go without castings, but putting thirty in faith is probably a good idea, gives you access to weapon buffs, heals, and the increasingly devastating great magic barrier and vow of silence. Those last two miracles post patch are life savers, I'd hate to mid-roll or fat roll through a pursuers and dark bead combo.

And you could go for pure vitality and endurance and use elemental weapons. The new housewives are pretty much endurance builds.

While i guess they technically are, i don't consider builds that use heavy armor and dex weapons to be tanks. A tank to me is a build that uses heavy armor and strength weapons.

This is a good video of someone using a tank build effectively, and this was pre patch 1.06. So they were up against flipping tanks, while mid rolling. Not the best quality video, but good show of skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyIARvCVHb4

OP, moving this from General Discussion to PvP. You will get more participation on this with the PvP crowd.

I would actually say that my tank build is my favorite, and it's the one I've had the most success and fun with in FC. The key, at least for me, is to keep a veritable armory of weapons in my pocket so that I can menu swap to them to both keep my opponent on their toes and adapt to their playstyle.

http://mmdks.com/87i

i recently started fat rolling on my strentgh build, its fun. i use Havel helm/gloves/legs black Iron chest. Black kngioht shield/Cursed Atorias shield (for Dark magic tanking) DGM/Pyro glove. i win quite a bit

i have a very nice tank/strength build that i use many times, and i can tell you a few tips if you are planning something like this:
1. don't roll if you don't have to. very importment. the medioum roll is good for dodging spells, pyros and mircles, but don't relly on it too often. if you can, just block.
2. beware of BS fishers. try to dead-angle alot and use some of the fast strength weapons if you are dealing with a BS fisher (the hand axe is the best for this job).
3. use the R2 attacks alot. many of the strength weapons have an awsome strong attack (unlike most of the dexterety weapons). the large club one handed R2 and demon's greataxe one handed R2 are some of the most useful attacks in the game imo.
4. don't spam R1. NEVER. strength weapons are some of the easiest weapons in the game to parry, spamming attacks (unless your opponent in stunlocked) will be your death.
thats all i can think of right now. hope it helps

Watch tking's vids, his takes build is pretty awesome. I have a fake tarkus that uses the bkugs since it's one of my favourite weapons in the game.

RantFromRant wrote:Watch tking's vids, his takes build is pretty awesome. I have a fake tarkus that uses the bkugs since it's one of my favourite weapons in the game.

i had the idea that we should have a Fat roll only Fight club night, but then i realized all it would be is first parry/most life/most defense wins, since there really isn't any dodging.

Nice...thanks for all the tips (sorry about the misplaced topic)... I have a toon that is a Frankenstein's monster; started as a strength build, then morphed into a 50 Faith one because I got it in my head that Grant would be a good weapon. It's only level 135ish, so there is room to add some vit/end, but it seems like a waste of Faith. Have another that is mostly End and Vit, because I was trying Chaos weps. I like it, and it has 24 Fai already for the healing and magic barrier. Maybe I'll keep mucking with those.

Watching the guy in the vid in Havel's was pretty cool. but I couldn't help wondering what he'd do if he ran into a caster. Is this pretty much a roll of the dice? He draws a mage with pursuers, and he's screwed?

Back Lot Basher wrote:Watching the guy in the vid in Havel's was pretty cool. but I couldn't help wondering what he'd do if he ran into a caster. Is this pretty much a roll of the dice? He draws a mage with pursuers, and he's screwed?

use either Havel/Stone/Cleansing Atorias Shield and tank it. you can also fast menu swap your helm to Logan's big hat for that huge magic resistance boost.



havels is the best at 90% magic block, but requires 50 str to use.

Yeah tanks should always have a good shield. Also you're sacrificing dodging for poise, a good tank should always have 93 poise minimum if medium rolling. I would always go medium rolling though, I don't trust the fat roll walking speed, since it's easily backstabbed.

WyrmHero wrote:Yeah tanks should always have a good shield. Also you're sacrificing dodging for poise, a good tank should always have 93 poise minimum if medium rolling. I would always go medium rolling though, I don't trust the fat roll walking speed, since it's easily backstabbed.

after pvping for a night doing both medium and fat roll, i did better with fat roll for some reason. since i had much higher armor on i didn't roll much just Dead angled and baited poise set up parries.

I made a pretty good fatty. combonation of giants and smoughs with mom mask. I only used repleneshment as a casting and I used the server so I would get health back with every hit. I also had an avelyn because ranged attacks are good when your fat rolling.

I've seen that term used before... "dead angle"....what exactly is it?

You attack at a specific "Angle" while unlocked and basicly deal Damage while your Enemy is blocking which causes them to "Die" .

Its rather easy actually

Back Lot Basher wrote:I've seen that term used before... "dead angle"....what exactly is it?

Apparently shields work based not just on how directly you are facing an enemy, but how directly they are facing you. EX: The jumping attack of the halberd is a wide horizontal attack that can hit the shield and still hit the player because you aren't directly facing them.

It's not just when you're not directly facing them, that would imply an opponent 45º to your side can be dead angled. Specifically it's when you hit an opponent who is behind you, they must face away from you to block it. It's rather easy to test, simply stand against a wall, attack it, and turn between 91º and 180º in the direction of the swing just before it lands. If the attack can dead angle, it will create hit sparks on the wall. Some of the best examples of attacks that can dead angle would be the curved greatsword R1's, the two handed R2's of greatswords, halberds, scythes, straight swords, etc.

Me, I'm pretty lethal with my Zweihander wielding Giant, and more recently have been surprisingly successful with my Iron Knight Tarkus build, which uses no magic/miracles/pyromancies, Lightning/Fire/Poison buffs, or throwing consumables of any type, but does rely a little on the Green Blossom from time to time to help keep the stamina levels up.

What sword do you use?

I have, they're fun.