Rage tanking TSWE

Discussion in 'War Room (Powers, Artifacts, & Builds)' started by xxHELLSTROKExx, May 3, 2022.

  1. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    Paging Pale Rage, paging Dr Pale Rage…

    Or anyone. Switched from ice to rage 2 days ago on my 1st alt. I was rage a few years ago with him, didn’t really tank elites but did a few. Ice was getting pummeled on the 3 bosses so decided to go back. Specs just because:

    200 mystic, manacles, and clarion (fed my circes) 160 EoG, 160 scrap and 160 tetra are at his disposal. Maxed dom head and body, 580ish sp. All purple gear atm. Maxed health, 200 into dom, 10 into power. One handed and brawling.

    Ok, so I’ve beaten this raid enough to be full renown on my main from healing and dps, halfway on this toon just by tanking, and one raid as a troll. So I get it. Beaten completely, not just half runs or anything. I’ve tanked both ways, meaning doing the AoE side or the st side. St sure is easier obviously. But I’ve got some general rage questions and need some advice.

    I’m way too reliant on healers. Like I know by the 1st set of adds if they’re going to keep up when I get in an lfg group. My crew is more than capable which is where my completions have come from. When I was healing, same story. The tanks are aware it’s the healers keeping them up. But I still feel like I can make their job easier and I can of all goes “right”. So here’s my issue. E chain canceling is tough to pull off. Especially on the 3 bosses for the 1st 2 fights. I’ve started using ire but my lord I’m being torn up trying to keep aggro, trying to pop a shield before or after, jumping, rolling, blah blah. So more than a few times, I have crashed. Always embarrassing haha. But almost always a wipe causing issue. So I’m here to get some help/ maybe think of something different.

    Has anyone been using reducers vs canceling? I’ve been thinking about trying some, primarily puking on the floor and then hitting remorseless halfway-ish thru severe. Pop redirected (since it’s basically always available despite cc stuff) exactly at the end of the heartbeat to absorb the rest of the crash/ have a shield up till severe is back. Do reducers stack? Like would 2 reductions equal a cancel or is that one of those things we just don’t know? This would be for the 3 boss side.

    ST side, proma. Is anyone doing their own lunges? My issue has been that I HAVE to use ire before e chain basically every time. Which means I have no break out to get the lunge myself/ timing of my canceling has also prevented me from lunging. I have trinket equipped but the cd doesn’t line up so it’s rarely useful. In my crew, no issues really since they’ll help. LFGs, they all want to just pew pew and let me deal with it. Or had anyone found a guaranteed way to survive that blast? I’ve made it thru a few times but because of healers and button mashing luck/ rolling away.

    Next question: what is with vindictive? Pretty sure that’s the low cost super with the + shield symbol. Tried that with EoG. Think it does help with the rage cancel but I’m not sure it does anything else. It also doesn’t shut off so I can either pop it at 10k or 1k. Also, even if my bar is near empty and I pop it, EoG triggers. Thought EoG only pops for 2500 min?

    That’s about all I can think of for now. I’ve tried many loadouts and right now it’s:

    AoE: severe/redirected/HL/ragebringer/ire/e chain
    St is same except replace ragebringer with lasso.

    They’re working well but one stun from Red death or an add and poof, done. Thinking I should have gone fire and made life easy haha
  2. Rejchadar Inquisitor


    What is your movement mode? I would advise... acrobatics, and use perfect poise instead of HLS (it can be used during control, it removes control, give immunity to control,it is a stronger shield, and it gives a speed boost while moving, and with EoG also healing).
    This will greatly simplify your interaction with the CC from the NPC.
    Reducers don't stack.
    Vindictive uses 1000 SC every second while it's active, rage crash doesn't deal damage in time vhen vindictive are active, by clicking on the vindictive again you can stop it.... if you want to use supercharge then use perfect poise.
    • Like x 1
  3. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    Dang, it’s my only SS toon. Ring won’t help that. I was using dash attack for a min but really didn’t like it. But I definitely couldn’t seem to stop vindictive. Only bonus was that it triggers every time it’s off cd no matter how little is in my bar since my EoG was refilling it while it was emptying and head mod was in.
  4. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    First, your artifacts seem fine. I have used everyman in place of Clarion before, when tanking (that extra defense makes a difference).

    As suggested above, perfect poise will work great.

    Don't forget, with Clarion, you "want" restoration as well, so max health first, 100 resto, the rest into dominance. You could get rid of weapon combo mastery, and just use 1h weapon combo to get fast hits to get your counter high, and maintain it for the boosts.

    Loadout I would suggest, and this includes the central City breakout trinket to break out before a crash to use cancelling, poise also in the rotation for emergency breakout.

    *Rage bringer or the ST taunt (depending on circumstance).
    *Redirected rage (with cool down mod), use right after cancelling a crash, and let it break before going severe again.
    *Perfect poise: use to avoid crash in emergency breakout, but let it break before you use severe punishment again.
    *Severe punishment: you already know the benefit.

    The last two slots can be adjusted for play style. You could use e chain to cancel crash, not combo, because the second hit can be broken, or combo and clip shield. Remorseless recovery can be used in place to reduce (which makes a big difference) crash, and help with self healing through weapon attacks.

    If you're cancelling crash, ire is great while poise is cooling, alternate between them and your trinket to never be stunned for crash. If you're not cancelling crash, HL shield makes a good spot filler. Also, the weapon buff could be placed here, clipped with remorseless, to increase your healing from Clarion with weapon attacks, which also adds another shield, making HL shield not really important.

    Clarion shield will not break redirected rage, they'll stack, along with the shield from weapon mod.

    If you can afford the points, increase critical healing will also benefit the Clarion.

    Regenerative shielding in hands can be helpful (if it's working right), running redirected, poise, Clarion, weapon mod shield, gives you 4 chances to have a little extra healing in.

    Another option I've used, that requires you to be very mobile, is a full shield setup.
    Remorseless recover, perfect poise, rejected rage, HL shield, deflection, and a pull/taunt.
    In place of deflection, you may want to use weapon buff to get the full benefit from the Clarion. With this setup, you have no crash mechanic, and you rely on the artifact to be your mechanic for big hits. You cycle through shields, weapon attacks running full tilt, and you'll need to roll, dodge, etc to be avoiding your shield getting smashed too soon (but the self healing helps cover you.

    Rage takes a bit of getting used to, but once you have it down, you'll have it handling like a dream.
    • Like x 1
  5. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    That full shield build sounds like a pretty good setup for at least the 1st fight with the bosses and adds side. Tho shields seem to last about a millisecond lol. It’s just been a few times that I just couldn’t get the chain out but instadeath every time. I did multiple runs without ever canceling and just using reducers/ shield stacks and it was fine in my own groups and didn’t matter if AoE or st. LFGs, not even a chance. Sounds like I’ll be trying acro out. I’m kinda happy about that, I despise SS. Acro doesn’t seem to bother me, using the ring on my troll atm and not really missing flight. I’ll respec and can have 100 into resto and 100 into dom while still having max health. Kinda wanted to anyway cuz 200 into dom just seems worthless after the 10%.
  6. Deathmike Devoted Player

    When rage tanking, I never leave home without remorseless recovery. Apart from being a dampener (all dampeners cut crash damage in half, and no, they don't stack) it's also a damn good heal. Since you already have Clarion, you could use Bloodlust instead I guess, I have no idea how effective that would be.

    You can cast any dampener just as you enter rage mode (or even slightly before) and it's guaranteed to work for that rage mode cycle (except lacerate which you need to cast after severe punishment).

    Another thing to consider is that not all crashes all created equal. The less damage you take while in rage mode, the less the (hopefully dampened) rage crash damage will be. So avoiding damage can be important even while in rage mode. This includes countering and CC-ing (when there are a lot of adds on you, CC-ing can greatly reduce the damage you're taking; Without Mercy is a very solid CC move, and the heal from it is a nice bonus too).

    Deathmike out.
    • Like x 3
  7. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    One more question, about remorseless. If using that after severe to reduce instead of cancel, when would I be popping it? Halfway of severe or still around the 8 o’clock area? Or does it last longer than severe so clip the 2?
  8. Rejchadar Inquisitor


    Many advise SS for a tank... but if you use Acrobatics correctly, it will not give way in speed... well, perfect poise is much better than dash attacks...

    Pale Rage voiced the main points .... I can only add a couple of tips on trinkets and allies to this ... Sidekick (heals a little, restores power a little, has a taunt, and imposes a weak shield), Bloosom spore heals the whole group, Dampening field ... well, or the traditional Supple Drop ... to choose from ...
    Allies: Nubia (Nubia will heal you when activated by 40% health and your allies by 20% ....) or DMB as an active ally (will hang a debuff for about 5 seconds), if you use Clarion artefact and Weapon Buff then Flash Point Batman as a passive ally ( healing after the weapon buff (10% every 12 seconds)), the third one to choose from (Cyborg if there are problems with the power, Calculator for additional passive healing every 20 sec-10%), well, or BWL for a random buff) .
    • Like x 1
  9. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    I hear ya. I absolutely love remorseless and can do almost any fight without E chain while using it. I normally do severe, wait till it’s halfway and hit remorseless and a shield and alternate between redirected and HL. Almost never fails but just taking soooo much damage from the AoE side that it’s more than the combo can disperse it seems. Honestly, I can do the “usual” cancel style mostly fine on the 1st set of bosses. It’s the 2nd set while cyborg and red death are out that’s been a problem for me more often. No one in lfg land understands how much of a hassle red death is since he doesn’t really hurt. I’m guessing they’ve never rage tanked. But my normal LO has always had remorseless so I hate replacing it with ire
  10. Deathmike Devoted Player

    You can clip the two in either order and it will work.

    Deathmike out.
    • Like x 1
  11. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    Yeah, Allie’s are an issue since he’s an alt. Main has been collecting them all, alts have the basic 3. I do use sidekick. My belt is breakout/ sidekick/ chronos/ personal damps. In league runs, I don’t even have to touch any of them. Think I’m spoiled now and making lfg groups a lot tougher to join. Used to an all OP team
  12. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    Should also add, clarion will get fed most likely into Everyman on the next double. I fed Everyman into circes when I went ice. Didn’t love it so threw that into clarion. Love it for most stuff but thinking I’ll go back to Everyman to open up a LO spot that isn’t weapon buff. I don’t hate it on rage and may just keep it around if I have enough nth. It’s amazing for healerless alerts. But maybe one of the above suggestions will feel comfortable. I’ve been going back and forth between it and EoG. And I seem to like bloom for a super the most but can easily replace that with poise.


    Orrrr I can do nothing and just not join lfg groups haha
  13. Rejchadar Inquisitor


    I don't know... I didn't make friends with Everyman on any tank (Fire, Earth, Rage, Ice (well, I didn't get friendship with the Atomic tank at all)...).
    It looks good on paper... but in practice, for me personally, any other tank artifact worked better than Everyman...
    Clarion+FPB+Weapon Buff=shield+10% healing every 12s+healing from normal attacks...to me it seems like more than Everyman+remorseless or HLS can give...
    • Like x 1
  14. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    Clip the two together, recovery lasts for 12 full seconds. Which also makes recovery a good 'counting' timer for shield rotations. Never hit severe again until recovery is ready. So 2 recovery is 24 seconds, so half way through recovery, your 30s shield/s will be ready every 3rd recovery, while redirected is ready every 1.5 recovery uses.

    Like Mike mentioned above, it's important to not take "too" much damage while severe is running, because even a %50 crash could kill you if the damage exceeds your health. So it's perfectly good to run a shield during severe to help mitigate damage. If you time them correctly, you'll have enough shield power to mitigate during severe, and cover you during the 4 seconds left of recovery cooling down.

    Not to mention, recovery and Clarion will be healing you at all times.
    • Like x 1
  15. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    Also, using everyman will help in place of Clarion, because it greatly can increase defense, which turns into massive damage mitigation, meaning less you have to recover.
  16. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    Ok, so next question. I’m just going to use random even numbers. If I’m in severe and I take 10k damage and then get healed by a healer or clarion for 5k, does that mean the rage crash would be 5k or would it still be 10? I’m assuming it would be 5k and that would mean the more healing I and the healer can do, the less the rage crash would be.
  17. Rejchadar Inquisitor


    Nop...you get 10k...
    10k if not cancelled, 5k if using reducers 0 if cancelled
    • Like x 1
  18. Rejchadar Inquisitor


    I will clarify one more thing, when the SP is active and you get 10k, then you heal 7.5k back, and then 7.5k will go to the rage crash if not chanced, 3.75 if redirected, and 0 if chanced
    • Like x 1
  19. xxHELLSTROKExx Loyal Player

    Well that was certainly an unexpected answer haha. Makes sense I suppose. Sort of makes me want to lean towards a non severe build since it’s technically just prolonging the inevitable. Without canceling obviously. No wonder I like ice so much. Too bad the shields are wet tissue in this raid
  20. Yaiba Committed Player

    I tank Proma few times and I think you only need manacle, the other artifacts can be damage artifact to speed up the fight (mine is grim and quislet). She is quite predictable and her attacks are not strong enough and all dodgeable with roll. For frost blast, I can lunge it by myself with group breakout / breakout trinket (pop after 1s of red skull), I also roll once if she gets immunity, or breakout abilities are on cooldown.

    I recommend staying mid range so you can react to her attacks: hammer throw (roll), lunge attack (block then roll), fake melee attacks into ranged attack (lunge after the 2nd hit), fake hammer throw (stay still), frost blast (either roll or lunge with breakout abilities), etc :D
    • Like x 1