earth tank help

Discussion in 'War Room (Powers, Artifacts, & Builds)' started by Heroikz, Apr 27, 2020.

  1. Heroikz New Player

    so i recently came back to the game, its been maybe 2 years since ive played.

    im having trouble tanking as of late, specifically in elite raids, i take massive hits of damage.
    i used to always tank perfectly fine without taking too much damage, am i doing something wrong? or do artifacts make that much of a difference?
    i only ever aftershock tank, is brick tanking more viable?

    thanks in advance :confused:
  2. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    Brick does have some nice changes, might be worth looking into.

    Artifacts "can" make a "huge" difference.

    I know when I returned, tanking was more of a 'kite style', which I didn't like at all. I preferred to be all up in their face taking a beating, while smiling because they couldn't drop me. Proper skill point allocation is something to study up on, as it changed drastically for my style of tanking.

    Massive hits are more common, see the skull=be prepared.
    • Like x 1
  3. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    First things first. Welcome back.

    Now as for tanking. Since 2 years ago a few things have changed. Yes the artifacts can make a sizable difference. However if you put in work to relearn your power and learn the raid mechanics than you can do them just fine without maxed artifacts or even 120. The major thing to keep in mind is that most mechanics are now leaning towards one shots. While before you had to do a mother of things to avoid the group wiping, now it has been very simplified to if you don’t block at a certain point you die. And if someone else doesn’t do something than you can die too. You just have to learn the raids you are attempting. If it’s your first time than let them now ahead of time so both parties are on the same page. If not than you can end up getting kicked and not even knowing why. And most importantly, and I can’t stress this enough, get into a league that’s willing to help you catch up. If you’re in a good understanding league than you could very well end up having people who will show you what to do and what not to do, and do all that patiently.
    • Like x 2
  4. Heroikz New Player

    i noticed you do have to do more kiting, which i dont mind and actually have a lot more fun doing but i did enjoy taking big hits when that was a thing.
    i was looking at the few updated earth tanking videos i could find on youtube, not many and i think a majority of them favored brick

    i also opted to spec into dom and resto for shields, should i maybe put them elsewhere?
    • Like x 1
  5. Heroikz New Player

    thank you for this, i noticed i would take massive hits in a lot of alerts as well as the newish raids, i thought it was just me being trash

    i havent found any league that is willing to help yet, ive just been queuing up for content and hoping for the best. i had to leave my last league cause no one was really interested in helping when i returned, even though they were active
  6. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    It depends really on how many skill points you have. Critical heals are important, in my opinion, with tank spec. Gear gives you a respectable amount of Dom, plus augments increase stats. You "could" use Dom and resto augments to increase those further.

    For SP, my suggestion would be critical heals, 100 points (minimum) to health (for the 10% boost). Each 10th point up to 100 gives you a 1% boost to that stat. Thus, calculate your sp with that in mind, and if you've got enough sp, you can get 10% bonus from more than a couple trees.
  7. L T Devoted Player

    Brick Tanking is really good. But Aftershock tanking can be viable.

    If you want to Aftershock, I'd suggest focusing on Dominance. At high levels, and with artifacts adding % bonuses, the high defense that you get from lots of Dom trumps what you get from investing in Health. As an Earth tank, you don't really benefit from restoration or critical heals.

    Also if you want to Aftershock, Hard Light Shield is your friend.

    Artifacts are key to tanking. Each artifact probably adds 10-15% to your tanking performance once you get them leveled. For Elite Raids at end game, I would suggest that you absolutely, positively have to have 3 tank artifacts at 120 or higher, and you're at a big disadvantage if any of them are under 160.

    Also, your augments take the place of your old equipment mods. max them out if you can.
    • Like x 1
  8. Melusine Midnight Rainbow Phoenix

    LT's whole post is gold. Just want to add that Episode Augments, specifically, give you in-content bonuses that can't be gained from any other source. For example having 2 maxed augments in the current DLC reduces the damage from one of Lex's attacks in F&B (including Elite) by 33%, as a tank especially, that's huge.
    • Like x 1
  9. Black Jaq Devoted Player

    Brick tanking and Aftershock are both fine in regular content. Elite Content you should go with Aftershocks and don't use Gemstone as a full shield. Having a shield or heal SC is extremely useful. My Artifacts are Manacles, Mystic Symbol and Eye of Gemini.

    And some old Elite content will still knock you out. Ultimate Soldier Elite is a good example. The bombs are still deadly.
    • Like x 1
  10. Heroikz New Player

    what about resto for shields? or is it different as a earth tank?
    in the stats tab, it says dom and resto affect shield abilities
  11. L T Devoted Player

    Yes-- Restoration helps your shields. But you have very few self-heals, and none of them are particularly worth much.

    Also for Earth Tanks, you get a defense boost based on Dominance-- that's what makes DOM so valuable for Earth even more than helping shields.
  12. Black Jaq Devoted Player

    Dominance scales better in shield calculations over Restoration. That means you will get greater benefit over every SP placed in Dominance over Restoration. You still will use Dominance origin augments.

    I'm sure LT has math that will show the differences between speccing health and resto.


    But if you plan on doing Elite content you will come to realize that shields will not last long at all. Some bosses like Barbatos and Hawkman in DM can't be countered so you can't receive damage immunity from them.
  13. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Something I’d like to add to this great point is that not o my do shields not last as long as they used to, but in recent dlcs there have been a growing number of mechanics that bypass shields all together.
    • Like x 1
  14. Heroikz New Player

    thank you, so if i spec all my sp into dom and have some left over, should i put them into resto? or is it better to invest into health?
    ive also seen some people spec into crit healing chance/magnitude, is that useful or should i stick to the crit attack?
  15. Heroikz New Player

    i noticed this, mostly in the Damage Control alert, is there anyway to not get damaged by those mechanics?
  16. DeitySupreme Steadfast Player

    Mechanical damage is unavoidable. However there are usually ways to end the damage faster. For example in the new bop alert last boss. When the windows are broken the group takes a good bit of damage. The way to avoid a wipe is for the dps go focus on the same turrets. When 2 turrets are destroyed superman will fix the window. This can be applied to a lot of instances. Listen for clues on ways to avoid damage from the instance and it should go smoother.
    • Like x 1
  17. L T Devoted Player

    Yeah that was the thrust of my first post. First Dom, then Health. Resto just doesn't help Earth all that much. Crit Heals are next to worthless. Crit Damage isn't worth much more. Whichever you choose there, buy the minimum (20 points total in chance and magnitude) that you need to unlock the other categories.
    • Like x 1
  18. Black Jaq Devoted Player


    Thanks for mentioning that!
  19. Black Jaq Devoted Player


    In Damage Control, you (and the group) have to do the mirrors when fighting Drowned in the first part. There is a feat for completing that twice because following mechanics does actually makes fights go better and they are now rewarding feats, as opposed to generally ignoring mechanics and getting feats.

    For the underwater phase, you need to avoid dark water.
  20. Juggurnaut Level 30

    I agree. First you should go with Dom. 65% of your Dom is converted to Defense. If you have more skill points after this I recommend putting 30 into resto and 30 into health. This gives you the biggest bang for your buck because you get a 5% bonus to each stat with 30 skill points. I personally spec the damage crit and magnitude (10 in each) because as LT says earth hardly has any self healing moves.

    I also recommend Brick tanking to get more familiar. Brick is easier with the new changes. I haven’t had a lot of luck with aftershock tanking in elite. Although I typically aftershock tank for everything else. Fortify golem works pretty well now and places the shield it’s supposed to on Brick as well as gives him a heal over time. I also like shields. For the new elites I run 3 shields. I run gemstone, hard light and acro’s perfect poise.

    For artifacts I would recommend Everyman, Manacles and Eye of Gemini. Eye helps heal Brick while you’re tanking. As they’ve stated it’s not imperative to get them maxed. But I would recommend getting them to 120. 160 offers pretty good bonuses. The % bonuses that you get also help increase dom and resto for better shield protection.
    • Like x 1