Sorcery tank??

Discussion in 'War Room (Powers, Artifacts, & Builds)' started by Sentiency, Oct 4, 2021.

  1. Sentiency Well-Known Player

    Okay so I've been playing around with guardian, and actually kind of like the idea of using him in certain areas when I don't have a tank. Is he viable at all? If so, is there a good build for him that still allows you to heal? I was kind of thinking along the lines of offering and soul bolt spam (to try and keep him alive)? But I don't know how that would go and if anyone has tested a decent build that allows him to be usable in even something like FRe (where I'm often having to heal with no tank and it's miserable during the boss fights lol).

    Any feedback is appreciated :)
  2. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    There isn’t anything you can do to have guardian replace a tank. Even if you compare it to its counterpart in brick. When an earth player uses fortify, brick gains a shield that can give the healer in the group a second or 2 to heal up brick. Brick also self heals for a good amount. Guardian doesn’t do either. It doesn’t get a shield even thou it looks like it does and it also doesn’t self heal. All giving him power does is makes it draw aggro. If you can heal fast enough than it can simulate brick. But that’s using a lot of power. If you want to focus a lot of energy into guardian than you need soul well and circle of protection to have him have decent HoT. Then shard of life.

    The other issue that comes up now is that they are powered by an AI. A bad one at that. Neither brick or guardian do a tanks job well. If the target moves than they go flying and chasing the target. Adds end up everywhere and they have limited range. So even if they taunt there’s no guarantee that they will taunt the ones you need them to taunt.

    Even in runs with a tank. Some sorc players use guardian because they say that they protect them from adds that spawn behind them. Unfortunately that’s rare. Normally guardian will be in the middle by the tank since it’s AI makes them fight anything that’s already up. So if they are by the tank and an add spawns behind you, there’s no guarantee that brick will charge it in time to save you. And even if guardian isn’t in combat and an add spawns behind you, it take a second for it to taunt the target.



    Now don’t get me wrong. That doesn’t mean it’s not useful. It can definitely help. It tank dies and you use a well timed offering to get it to taunt. You can give a split second to allow a pick up. You can even combine it with Wonder Woman ally to extend the taunt window. And I’ve even used it to solo the elite duo at 322 on one of my baby toons. For lower level content like solos, duos, and even alerts it can be great.
    • Like x 1
  3. Sentiency Well-Known Player

    I know you can't fully replace a tank, but that's why I brought up FR- it's one of the easiest elites, and its an alert. Obviously in a raid there's nothing you can do. I'm a bit confused on the part where you mentioned it doesn't get a shield? I'm 99% sure I've seen the shield go up and the damage it takes stop until the shield is popped? Is the shield just really weak?
  4. Hunted2468 Well-Known Player

    The answer you're looking for is no. There is no build for a Sorcery Tank. Thats not me trying to be short or anything, its just theres no grey area here, its black and white and as such its just a straight no. The only Sorcery pet that can be healed solo is Watcher, and thats because the other 2 are designed to die and be recast. Think of it like Legends Dr Fates 2 summons. At best Guardian is meant to lighten your load while doing good dmg, but less than Fury. Its meant to help you in Solo/Duo's to split up adds or give you a breather and then eventually die.

    If you wanted to look into a Sorcery Tank then the build would either have no pets, or Watcher, but the Tank would be you. You'd be concentrating on self heals and shields. Even this would fail though as without the Tank Role aggro, while you may have aggro for the 1st min or 2, eventually a dps would do enough dmg to pull aggro.

    As of right now theres no Power in the game that does what you're looking for. No Power allows you to set up a pet as the Tank because, honestly, that'd be boring. You'd be the Support Role for a Support Role. Earth's pet is closest but that shares dmg taken, it doesn't Tank for you nor does it mitigate 100% dmg.

    Hope this explanation helps
  5. Sentiency Well-Known Player

    After a few hours I’ve done some testing myself because I feel like my original post isn’t really being heard. I’m asking for situations where I don’t have a tank. I have to heal it anyways. In raids, obviously solo healing with no tank is not an option which is why I mentioned alerts such as FR, where id have to solo heal it regardless. What I’ve found is you can in fact use it and I’m going to start more often. Deity was right about the shield, but either way pulling that aggro helps tremendously even if I have to resummon it once it dies. Keeping my shield on cooldown helps me focus a little more on keeping guardian alive for a little while longer. I’m not trying to replace roles in majority of content I’m trying to create viable options with powers I have in situations where I have to solo heal without a tank, and wanted feedback from people that may have already tested that. Loadout I’m using now for that situation is shard, group, priority, shield, guardian, offering. I was thinking COP but then the group gets no heals. Only thing I’m stuck on now is whether to use shard for better bursts to team but less consistent heals to guardian with higher cooldown, or something like transmutation that crits a bit lower but has half the cooldown time. Or even soul bolt for the spam-able capabilities. Thanks for the feedback I guess, lol.
  6. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Yea that why I mentioned later in my post how it can be helpful in smaller tier content like solos, duo, and alerts. Raids are very few in between. Especially elite, even FFe. In FFe a stray add will just kill it in seconds. Same with it standing in the fire and so on. Raids have more mechanics like dots and are of effects that will shrewd guardian regardless. Only brick can do those things because fortify gives it an actual shield and he uses its power to self heal. Guardian on the other hand does neither of those things unfortunately. Yes it does look like it has a shield but it’s actually not. I think that’s the taunt.

    I even used guardian to solo open world bosses lol. I did it in flashpoint too. If you want a way to test how it would do with higher damaging things try looking for one of the princes in flashpoint. The one that charges. Guardian and brick have the easiest time doing that one.
    • Like x 1
  7. Sentiency Well-Known Player

    I appreciate that. I don’t know why I didn’t think of the princes for testing. I’ve been testing against whichever boss is in alternate Gotham in FRe and it’s harder to test and pay attention to the results when you have 3 other people relying on you to keep them alive lol. Thanks.
    • Like x 1
  8. CityboyInk New Player

    I understood what you were asking. And from my experience guardian can be a way to pull aggro of you if you don't have a tank.

    I pug for most of my time; and when it comes to alerts I sometimes get in a group that has no tank, so the first thing I check is if I need to swap guardian in my loadout. It for sure has its issues. It's slow, does not pull all the aggro, it's subject to getting cc'ed and team synergy is non existence. But I can't tell you how many times guardian has saved runs for me, especially in pug alerts where there are only dps in the group or people who are not that good with tanking or healing.

    I can't help you with a load out because I always dps when I use him in alerts. But form experience I find him more effective when fighting a boss. Because if his inability to pull al the aggro, a single target is where guardian performance is much better. You should also keep in mind of when he gets cc'ed, he does not do a good job of breaking out and it can cause it to drop aggro until it gets up again.

    I'm not saying it's perfect, but if done correctly I think guardian can provide the help that you need.
    • Like x 1
  9. BaelinFishman Well-Known Player

    Using Guardian as a 1/2 tank used to be viable, now its merely a slight distraction for whatever you're fighting. I remember not long after a revamp to Guardian around the time of WotL P1, my league at the time did what I call a "Superdox" or "Super EO" which even at the time during the WotL P1 was challenging for most pugs. We had 2 sorc heals, 1 troll and 5 DPS. Both guardians were tanking the bosses and never died, but not long after they were abused to all hell in PvP, the guardian saw a nerf again.
  10. Dogico Loyal Player

    My healer alt uses Guardian whenever there isn't a tank and so far he's helped. I run Shard of Life, Soul Well, Group Heal, Circle of Protection, Offering, Guardian. He can still die but for the most part he stays up.
    • Like x 2
  11. DeeOweEnn New Player


    Theres no aggro power for sorc, true. But.. and hear me out..... Mass Provocation Agent Consumable. Not saying it's a good idea but it's an idea none the less.
    • Like x 1
  12. lllStrichcodelll ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    The answer is no. Simply because the Guardian cant get Boss aggro. Unless a certain boss uses proximity aggro, like ares in tod, its impossible for the guardian to keep a boss' aggro.

    Its a major issue that completely makes him useless wich i was pointed out in a big thread but its not being heard.

    Everything that makes Sorcery special in terms of healing or mechanics is useless beacause it doesnt work or the devs dont want it to work in a useful way.

    Edit: found it Sorcery Tank Pet | DC Universe Online Forums (daybreakgames.com)