Guide: How to tank

Feel free to repost my guides anywhere you want. I would suggest including a link somewhere back to this post though (shortlink: https://redd.it/6obo4h), as patches may modify the contents and I will generally only be updating this post.

 

^(Disclaimer: I try to verify the accuracy of things in my guides, but am also frequently wrong and have bouts of insanity, so feel free to post or message any corrections.)

#Patch Updates

Patch 2.0.3 - Added Infernal Cache weapons, added expected elite 5+ mechanics and dungeon drops.

Patch 2.0.2 - Guide creation.

#Key Concepts

##Effective HP

Effective HP is directly influenced by 2 things: Health and Mitigation. Health is exactly as it sounds, the health of the tank and how much damage they can take. Mitigation expands that health by reducing the amount of damage that is dealt in various ways. In SWL, Tanks have access to the following forms of mitigation:

• Protection rating - the main tanking stat which reduces most incoming damage. Note some damage may ignore this stat. This scales diminishingly following the formula:

    Damage Reduction = (Protection Rating * 100) / (Protection Rating + 24538)
  

• Defense rating - a glyph stat which reduces damage by 70% if you glance the incoming attack. This scales linearly following the formula:

    Glance Chance = Defense Rating / 102
  

• Evade rating - a glyph stat which reduces damage by 100% if you evade the incoming attack. This scales linearly following the formula:

    Evade Chance = Evade Rating / 145
  

• Flat reduction - provided by abilities. Works like protection rating by providing direct damage reduction. This is added multiplicatively to your current damage reduction.

• Barriers - provided by abilities. damage taken is subtracted from the barrier before being subtracted from health. Reflect barriers will further reduce the damage by 50%.

• Debilitate - provided by abilities. a status effect on enemies which reduces their damage by 20%.

##Hatred

The aggro mechanic.

• 1 point of damage generates 1 hate.
• 1 point of healing/barrier generates 0.5 hate. Overhealing generates no hate, but does add to the hate table. (Facepulling with a HoT on you will make the boss target the healer). Barriers will always generate hate on application.
• "High amount of hate" abilities generate 10x the normal hate.
• Aggro naturally switches at 110% hate.

##Positioning

Generally speaking, face the boss away from your team. This deals with any sort of cleave mechanic and gives you a small bit of time to react while the boss is turning if you lose aggro.

Do not stand in fire. Or filth. Or telegraphs. Basically don't stand in things that hurt. You'd think this is fairly obvious, but in SWL it's not always obvious that you are standing in something and that those constant ticks to your health are from that and not a DoT or the boss hitting you.

##Interrupts

Due to high incoming damage in later content, we may see a shift in this role to DPS so tanks can bring another mitigation ability.

Note that enemies build immunity to CC with each CC ability used. From some brief testing, this works like so:

1. Any form of CC adds one counter that lasts for 10 seconds. This counter is independent from other counters and will always expire after 10 seconds.
2. Each counter reduces the effectiveness of CCs by 33%
3. At 3 or more counters, the enemy is CC immune until they drop back down below 3 counters.

This mechanic may be disabled in lower elites, but is present in story zones and at least starting from Elite 5. I have personally confirmed that it is disabled in Elite 1 HR1, but is functioning as described in Elite 5 HR1 as well as on normal enemies in Shadowy Forest.

Spells with a glowing cast bar cannot be interrupted by abilities, but may still be prevented by other mechanics such as line of sight (LOS) or range.

• For example, the Haugbui Jarl (first boss of Polaris) casts "Deep Calling" which places a pulsing ground AoE on the target. The cast itself cannot be interrupted, but if the boss cannot see the person he targeted with the cast when the cast finishes, the cast will not complete.
• The same boss also casts "Charged Hack" which will deal heavy damage to the target. This ability can be interrupted via normal means, but will also not complete if the target is out of melee range when the cast completes.

For the most part, casts bars which are not glowing can be interrupted. Whether they should be leads to...

##Knowledge

A tank MUST know the fight. There are many mechanics in SWL which will instantly kill you or your team if not properly dealt with, and because tanks are responsible for positioning, the bulk of the responsibility in dealing with these mechanics will fall to the tank. I have some quick notes on important mechanics down below, but they are by no means all-inclusive.

#Gear Requirements

Tank gearing should be composed of a full set of health talismans and a mix of hit, glance, and evade glyphs. Between glance and evade, glyphing all glance or all evade are your best options, but a mix of both isn't bad either. The ideal split at end game will be:

• 1 Accurate (hit) glyph - Glanced hits do 70% less damage (generating less hate) and do not cause their effects (such as interrupting).
• 7 Stalwart (defense), 7 Elusive (evade), or 4 Stalwart /3 Elusive when using Kneecapper - Due to the linear returns on glyph stats, stacking one stat is more efficient than splitting stats. Kneecapper has split stats due to the Kneecapper buff granting +49% glance chance, in which any defense glyph over 4 would be wasted as it would go above 100%.

Note that enemies later on may have hit rating to counter defense rating, in which case glyph stats will need to be revisited.

Also note that in general, glyphs and effects on weapons only apply to your character while that weapon is active.

##Elite 1

Elite dungeons are the first content in SWL progression which requires roles. According to the developers, elite 1 is tuned to a character who has finished the story mission and has all superior (blue) items with 1 epic (purple) item.

1. Aim for at least 6k natural health and a full set of unglyphed superior (blue) tank talismans.
2. Glyphs are useful, but not necessary at this difficulty. Glyph priority is as follows:

• 5% glance reduction from hit
• Glance/Evade if you can afford to get it.

##Lairs

Lairs are the next step in SWL progression after elite 1 in order to obtain signets. According to the developers, lairs are tuned to a character in full epic (purple) gear.

1. Aim for at least 9k natural health and a full set of superior (blue) glyphed epic (purple) talismans.
2. Glyphs are more important at this difficulty. Glyph priority is as follows:

• 18% glance reduction from hit
• Glance/Evade on everything else. As there are no stat caps on glance and evade, there is no specific value to aim for. Each glance/evade glyph will simply help you take less damage.

##Regionals

Regionals are the "final boss" of lairs, and are the hardest content in the game at the moment (excluding scaling elite dungeons). I don't believe there has been developer commentary on regional boss tuning, but from what I've seen it's tuned to a character in fully leveled epic (purple) gear.

1. Aim for at least 14k natural health and a full set of epic (purple) glyphed fully leveled epic (purple) talismans.
2. Glyphs are extremely important at this difficulty. Glyph priority is as follows:

• Around 31% glance reduction from hit
• Glance/Evade on everything else. The Solomon Island and Transylvania regional bosses hit like trucks (~30-40k base damage), so you will be relying on chaining cooldowns in order to even survive one hit. Being able to glance/evade more often will help your healers top you off before the next hit.

##Elite 5

Starting from Elite 5 difficulty, dungeons reintroduce the old TSW nightmare mechanics as well as significantly scaling up the health and damage of bosses. I don't believe there has been developer commentary on elite 5 tuning, but from what I've seen it's tuned to a character in full mythic (yellow) gear.

1. Aim for at least 14k natural health and a full set of epic (purple) glyphed fully leveled epic (purple) talismans.

• To reach 450 Item Level, you will need a fully leveled set of epic talismans/glyphs/signets in each slot at the minimum, with possibly 1 mythic to compensate for the lack of wrist signets.

2. Glyphs are extremely important at this difficulty. Glyph priority is as follows:

• 22% glance reduction from hit
• Glance/Evade on everything else. Everything hits hard, so you will be relying on chaining cooldowns in order to even survive one hit. Being able to glance/evade more often will help your healers top you off before the next hit.

#Gear

##Weapons

Flame-Wreathed weapons add about 5% damage mitigation on a 5 second cycle. Anima-Touched weapons add a small amount of sustain and threat generation.

Hammer

• Hell-Forged War Hammer generates extra rage.
• Pneumatic Maul grants an extra enraged Pulverise on critical hits, triggering the healing passive. Although it requires a critical hit, and is limited to once every 9 seconds. However I've been told that this does not trigger with Pulverise at the moment.
• Flanged Mallet generates more hate. However I've been told that this does not affect Pulverise at the moment.
• Orochi Motivator adds about 5% damage mitigation.

Chaos

• Incalculable Abacus gives you about 10% damage mitigation if you can frequently generate paradoxes.
• Sov-Tech Paradox Generator gives you more chances to trigger your powerful Controlled Chaos effects.
• Otherworldly Artifact should increase your paradox generation rate, but the effect does not appear to be working at the moment.

Shotgun

• The Redeemer gives your group beneficial effects, either healing or extra damage, whenever you reload shells.
• Soviet TSAR-914 adds about 2% damage mitigation on emptying shells.
• Prototype-M402 adds about 3.5% damage mitigation when loading anima-infused shells.

##Weapon Affixes

In order of general usefulness:

• Efficiency will allow you to use your elite ability more often. Note that efficiency has diminishing returns when stacked with other CD reduction.
• Alacrity will increase your movement speed allowing for better positioning.
• Energy will allow you to use more abilities and generate more threat.
• Restoration will heal you for a small amount when you attack.
• The effects of Recovery and Warding are too small to seriously consider.

##Talismans

Listed below are the best in slot tanking talismans currently available in the game. The benefit from an extraordinary item compared to its non-extraordinary counterpart is minimal, so it is generally better to have a 3 pip normal talisman over a 2 pip extraordinary talisman. Note that currently available drops are only dungeon drops - when raids release, we are likely to see much more powerful effects.

Head - Cosmic Pigment. This slots triggers on being hit 5 time in succession.

• Cosmic Pigment generates more hate, which is generally worth more when compared to the small amount of mitigation that Pigment from Beyond provides.

Finger - Rurikid Knot. This slot triggers on purging or interrupting.

• Rurikid Knot gives about 2% damage mitigation on interrupt/purge. Although the healing from Cold Metal can be useful, it can also easily be wasted from overhealing whereas the protection rating will always be of use.

Neck - Medallion of Wadjet. This slot only triggers when losing health while already below 50% health.

• The barrier from Medallion of Wadjet scales with your stats and gives you a larger boost to your effective HP when you need it compared to the small amount of mitigation Fishbone Medallion provides. However, the barrier from Medallion of Wadjet does have a cooldown, while the Fishbone Medallion protection can have 100% uptime.

Wrist - Bracer of Forgotten Horrors. This slot triggers on being hit by an exposed or debilitated enemy.

• Bracer of Forgotten Horrors essentially generates 1/3 of a basic attack worth of hate every time you are attacked. Hate generation is much more useful compared to the small chance to extend debilitate duration that Bracer of Horus provides.

Luck - Golden Coin. This slot triggers on evaded/glanced attacks.

• Golden Coin essentially generates 1 basic attack worth of hate when you glance or evade an attack, which is generally worth more when compared to the small amount of mitigation that Obsidian Flakes provides.

Waist - Black Sash/Grounding Line. This slot triggers when attacking an enemy that is facing you.

• I'm not sure sure how much hate Black Sash actually generates, but any additional hate generation is good. Grounding Line provides additional movement speed, which is valuable as a tank.

Occult - Whalebone Rune. This slot triggers when an enemy is defeated.

• Whalebone Rune gives about 3% damage mitigation when an enemy is defeated. Although the healing from Alloy Heart can be useful, it can also easily be wasted from overhealing whereas the protection rating will always be of use.

##Signets

Head - Per weapon, with a choice between cooldown reduction and increased output. Tanks will always want cooldown reduction.

Neck/Finger - Per weapon.

Wrist - No wrist signets in game yet.

Luck - On crit effects, which don't happen very often as a tank so this slot is not too important. Tanks should choose between Cruel Delight/Thirst for more sustain, or Thorns/Sadism for more threat.

Waist - Modifies gadgets. Tanks should choose between cooldown reduction or increased healing.

Occult - Modifies active dodge. Tanks should choose between increased movement speed, breaking movement hinders, and reduced cooldown.

• Movement speed after an active dodge is incredibly useful as a tank, as it lets you quickly get back to the boss after dodging a telegraph, or lets you move the boss to a better position faster.
• Breaking movement hinders on demand becomes extremely useful and frequently mandatory in future content, although healers are now also more easily able to cleanse. Also, it removes filth stacks!
• The knockdown signet would be useful if it had a 100% chance, but as it is with the importance of interrupting things so they don't kill you, it's unfortunately mostly useless since a failed interrupt usually results in death.

##Gadgets

Gadget usage is not affected by the GCD, making them great for interrupting, but will trigger a GCD when used.

• The Osmium Configuration/Unification Susceptibility Module/Mnemonic Guardian - Orochi/Mnemonic Guardian - Tokyo Spectres - Defensive CD. Note the Unification Susceptibility Module is currently not working correctly and does not give more than 1 stack worth of protection.
• Electrogravitic Attractor/Improvised ECT Instrumentation - Interrupt
• Superluminal Bridging Device/Rapid Engagement Module - Movement
• Manticore X27 Agitator/Rapid Assistance Accessory - Taunt
• Purification Drone Model UW-0 - Cleanse
• Phoenician Support Stratagem - CC Break
• Electromagnetic Destabilizer - Purge

#Builds

Although highly dependent on gear, stats, and abilities, tanks are quite versatile in what they can do. Tank builds will generally follow the same format:

1. Hate generation basic attack
2. Hate generation primary power attack
3. Hate generation primary secondary attack/Elite
4. Defensive CD/Elite
5. Utility/Defensive CD/Elite
6. Utility/Defensive CD/Elite

Keep in mind that this is only a general template, and will change depending on the fight and your group. I will highlight the styles I've personally used and provide an example build, and then list the notable key tanking abilities by type.

##Tanking Styles There are 3 styles of tanking that I've personally used in SWL:

• Mitigation Tank - Focused on reducing incoming damage as much as possible, relying on a healer to keep you alive. Good for content you are undergeared for. I usually run Hammer/Shotgun or Hammer/Chaos for this.
• Sustain Tank - Eliminate the healer role by bringing skills which will allow the tank to keep itself alive. However, since the tank can only heal itself, it doesn't work that great in content with groupwide damage. Good for content you are overgeared for. I usually run Hammer/Chaos for this, with some dabbling in Rifle for content requiring group healing.
• Buff Tank - Sacrifices some survivability to bring additional damage to the team via buffs/debuffs such as Opening Shot, chaos enigmas, exposed, and ice beam+passive. Good for overgeared content or DPS race fights. I usually run either Chaos/Shotgun or Chaos/Elemental for this.

##Abilities

###Basic attack

• AoE with increased hate generation - The hatred multipler is 10x, and the AoE basic attack does 0.5x the damage of the single target attacks, meaning you will still be generating 5x the hate with the AoE basic attacks. The AoE basic attack is also usually enough to pick up and deal with adds that spawn.

###Power attacks

• Pulverise - Increases max health by 45%. The passive restores your health when refreshing the max health buff.
• Burning Wrath - The passive creates a ground AoE that hinders when enraged, great for add management.
• Rocket Pod - The only ranged hate generator. The passive grants 8580 protection (~10-15% damage reduction).

###Defensive Cooldowns

• Tough Skin - Gives armor and debilitates. The passive gives a barrier for 150% of your maximum health.
• Twist Fate - Gives armor. The passive gives an effective barrier of 110%+ of your maximum health.
  • Reflect barriers are unique in that they will straight up negate half of the damage by reflecting it regardless of how large the hit is compared to your barrier size. So if you take a 20k hit after mitigation with a 5k reflect barrier, 10k will be reflected to the attacker, the 5k barrier will disappear, and you will take 5k health damage.
• Pain Suppression - Heals you for a portion of incoming damage. The passive heals you for more than the incoming damage amount, basically giving you immortality to normal attacks for 8s as long as you don't get oneshot.
  • It's important to understand how Pain Suppression works to use it correctly. The heal comes BEFORE the damage, meaning if you are at full health and take damage, you will be overhealed and then lose the health from the damage.
  • Pain Suppression also does not work on most ground/persistent effects and some spells.
• Rewind - Heals you for any damage taken 3 seconds after activation. The passive changes this to a heal for damage taken in the 3 seconds before activation.
• Glutton for Punishment - Gives armor, taunts, and makes your attacks generates additional hate for it's duration. The passive heals you anytime you are glanced while the armor effect is active.
  • The heal from glancing comes after the damage is dealt.
  • The additional hate generation is somewhere in the range of 6%-12%.

###Utility

• Beatdown - The passive makes this pretty much the best interrupt.
• CQC - Another interrupt. The passive deals heavy damage in an area if a skill was interrupted.
• Reconstituting Shells - A group heal. The passive grants ~15% damage reduction to yourself and half of that to your group.
• Enter the Fray, Glutton for Punishment, and Evulsion are force taunts. They will make the target attack you for their duration, but then the target will follow their hate table again.
  • Evulsion does not work as an interrupt on bosses at the moment.

###Elites

• Kneecapper - Interrupts, generates hate, and provides good consistent damage mitigation. The passive improves the damage mitigation effect.
• Anomaly - Gives 20% evade, interrupts, and is great for paradox generation and add control.
• Immutable allows you to ignore some mechanics, makes your attacks generate additional hate, and heals for 40% of your health. The passive generates more paradoxes, but will not overflow.
  • The additional hate generation is about 10%.
• Raging Volcano is an AoE taunt and works very well for add management. The passive gives you a buff which reduces incoming damage.
  • The passive gives you up to 20 stacks of a buff which reduces damage by 1% each stack and lasts for 10 seconds. Each time you take damage over 2% of your maximum health, you lose 1 stack.
• Unstoppable Force is good for CC heavy fights. The passive makes it also reduce incoming damage.

###Non ability passives

• Die Hard gives you about 20% damage reduction when you are close to dying
• Resonance Cascade is pretty much required for any chaos build
• Long Term Chaos increases the duration of your Chaotic Enigma group buffs.
• Paradoxial Restoration is a very strong heal for a chaos tank
• Riot Shield gives 1500 protection (~5% damage reduction) with ~60% uptime

#Tanking quick notes:

##Elite Dungeons

Tanking in dungeons usually involves positioning and mitigating sustained incoming damage. Interrupting key abilities is often the role of the tank in dungeons due to the comparatively moderate amounts of incoming damage.

Based on testing in HR1 and Pol1, in Elite 5+ dungeons, bosses have innate CC resilience as described above. In Elite 1 difficulty, this appears to be turned off. I would assume this extends to Elite 1-4 and Elite 5-10.

For Elite 5+ mechanics, as they have not been fully confirmed, listed below are the expected mechanics based on Nightmare dungeons in TSW, designated with a *. These mechanics will be updated as they are confirmed.

###The Polaris

• Boss 1: Hangburl Jarl
  • Charged Hack can be interrupted, LOS'd, and ranged. Deals a high amount of damage.
  • Deep Calling places a persistent damaging AoE but can be LOS'd.
  • Don't stand in the water.
  • [Elite 5+] Interrupt Mjolnir's Echo which is a knockdown + aggro wipe.
• Boss 2: Balarbane Sorceress
  • The boss spawns adds.
  • Deathsquall places a persistent AoE that deals damage. lead your group around the circle to stay away from the Deathsquall area.
• Boss 3: The Varangian
  • Charged Hack can be interrupted, LOS'd, and ranged. Deals a high amount of damage.
  • Deep Blast is a PBAoE which deals heavy damage and knocks back.
  • It's possible to see where he will resurface in phase 1 by watching for ripples in the water.
    • His aggro is wiped when he resurfaces.
  • In phase 2, stand on the crates and watch for the crates to become electrified.
  • [Elite 5+] Interrupt Mjolnir's Echo which is a knockdown + aggro wipe.
• Boss 4: Haugbui Mother
  • Watch for the adds that spawn near the chest. They have a hinder+explode combo that will kill your team. CC immunity will prevent the damage.
  • Make sure to pick up the 3 sea horrors that spawn after Eversion
  • [Elite 5+] The adds will now also kill you if they explode on you.
• Boss 5: Primordial Dweller
  • Watch for the same adds as in the previous fight. They will stop spawning at 50% hp.
  • Psychic Death Zone places a Deathsquall on the crates and makes the boss invulnerable for a while. Tanks should focus on picking up adds during this time, but be ready to pick the boss up again as soon as the Deathsquall disappears as it is an aggro wipe.
  • [Elite 5+] Synapse Spasm chains and now deals considerable damage, so position yourself away from your team or interrupt it.
  • [Elite 5+] The boss now frequently casts Psychic Death Zone without the Deathsquall, invulnerable effect, or aggro wipe just to force players off the crate.
• Boss 6: Ur-Draug
  • Cleaves and deals a high amount of normal attack damage.
  • Rending the Veil (blue phase) is an aggro reset.
    • During this time, the boss will walk around and destroy pillars. If he is about to destroy the pillar your team is hiding behind, jump out to be seen and use a defensive CD to survive Cosmic Sundering in order to save the pillar.
  • When the boss is at low health, he will have a permanent Strength From Beyond buff which will reflect damage to attackers.
  • [Elite 5+] Extinction will root all players after the cast, so make sure someone has a cleanse handy.

###Hell Raised

• Boss 1: Antimony Misinitrix
  • [Elite 5+] Macroshock chains and now deals considerable damage, so position yourself away from your team or interrupt it.
• Boss 2: Corroder
  • Cleaves
• Boss 3: Hardwired Fleshtank
  • Cleaves
  • Searing Brand can be interrupted, LOS'd, and ranged. Deals a high amount of damage.
  • Positioning is important, try to stand in places which give you the most options to move to when the fire waves appear (i.e. corners of the central platform).
• Boss 4: Traumadriver
  • Molten Metal is a PBAoE that does more damage the closer you are.
  • Engaging when 6-7 of the left side pillars are burning will give your team the most time in the fight.
  • [Elite 5+] This boss is a heavy DPS check, requiring a team DPS output of around 16.5k to clear before the enrage timer kills you.
• Boss 5: Recursia, Many-in-One
  • This boss is a heavy DPS check. Tanks can assist by using stuns and slows on the rakshasa.
  • [Elite 5+] Macroshock chains and now deals considerable damage, so position yourself away from your team or interrupt it.
  • [Elite 5+] Recursia drops golden pools on random players which grant reflect shields to any enemies including Recursia herself walking through them. Stand near the edges of the area to minimize the effect of the shield.
• Boss 6: Machine Tyrant
  • Immune to damage until he is walked into an anima fountain, which lets him be damaged for 30s. The next fountain will spawn ~20s after a fountain is used.
  • Demolish can be interrupted
  • [Elite 5+] The damage shield is now a reflect shield, so it's more imperative to keep it off so the DPS don't kill themselves.

###The Darkness Wars

Every boss here has adds.

• Boss 1: Batab Crusher
  • The boss creates suicide bombers out of the adds by casting Sacrificial Ceremony. Stay away from the exploding add.
• Boss 2: Xibalban Bloodhound
  • [*Elite 5+] Concuss is an aggro reset, best dealt with by interrupting or failing that, taunting right before the cast finishes.
• Boss 3: Dark House Sorcerer
  • [*Elite 5+] Itzama’s Wrath should be purged from the boss to reduce incoming damage.
  • [*Elite 5+] Sanguine Omens now appear on the ground during the blood in/blood out phases.
• Boss 5: Mayan Battle Mage
  • [*Elite 5+] Itzama’s Wrath should be purged from the boss to reduce incoming damage.
• Boss 6: Wayeb-Xul
  • Exhale the Void leaves persistent filth on the ground but is interruptible. Note that interrupting the cast too late may result in invisible filth on the ground.
  • Concuss deals group wide damage and is an aggro reset, best dealt with by interrupting or failing that, taunting right before the cast finishes.
  • [*Elite 5+] Concuss must be interrupted as the group wide damage will likely kill non tanks. Unfortunately, interrupting does not seem to be consistent with this boss.

###The Ankh

Watch out for the floating orbs which will lock ability activation for anyone they attach to, and eventually kill them if they aren't removed by damaging them.

• Boss 2: Doctor Klein
  • Wave of Mutation can be avoided with Flicker, the teleport gadget, and Immutable.
  • [*Elite 5+] Tanks must hold aggro on both Dr. Klein and the Dimensional Reaper that protects him. Pulling the reaper down using the pull gadget or evulsion makes this easier.
  • [*Elite 5+] Tanks should pop defensive cooldowns right before the Dreaming Shroud cast (predictable by an graphical effect over your character's head) to help their healer through the high amounts of damage.
• Boss 4: Dimensional Arachnid
  • The adds will buff the boss's damage until they are damaged
• Boss 5: The Colossus, Melothat
  • There is a very small range at which it is safe to melee. You can estimate this range by setting yourself as your defensive target (default F1), and making sure your green circle never touches the bosses red circle. If the boss reaches you he will perform a large cleave attack.
• Boss 6: The Colossus, Melothat and Doctor Klein
  • When Melothat goes to his knees, the tank should run upstairs to attack Doctor Klein 2-3 times to interrupt him and take his aggro before dropping back down to continue fighting Melothat.
    • This mechanic can be ignored if the tank is able to stay alive through Klein's buffing of Melothat. Melothat goes to his knees at specific HP thresholds, and it also clears any existing buffs from Klein. So this mechanic can also be skipped with high enough DPS.
  • [*Elite 5+] Melothat cleaves.
  • [*Elite 5+] At the end of the fight, tanks must hold aggro on both Dr. Klein and the 2 Dimensional Reaper that protects him. Pulling the reapers down using the pull gadget or evulsion makes this easier.

###Hell Eternal

• Boss 1: Archaean Seismocratist
  • [Elite 5+] The cast Hot Iron will hinder and eventually kill if not cleansed.
• Boss 2: Lustrehunter
  • You can avoid the stun from Fallback if you LOS the boss.
  • [Elite 5+] Fallback will afflict players (usually the tank with aggro, but not always) with a Hot Iron effect which will hinder and eventually kill if not cleansed.
  • [Elite 5+] The Lustrehunter now pulses a PBAoE after using Fallback which will likely kill non-tanks and appears to have some sort of aggro reset mechanic, so it's safest for DPS to just not attack while the pulsing is active.
• Boss 3: Prime Maker
  • Has a damage reflect shield which is dispelled when he is brought to one of the 3 pools of water. Each wisp that touches him adds +10 heat, and the shield reforms at 100 heat.
  • [Elite 5+] The boss now gains heat naturally over time, and the wisps add bonus damage instead.
• Boss 4: Flagellatrix Superior
  • The boss will need to be moved around to avoid the patrolling machine tyrants.
  • [Elite 5+] The boss will summon adds which will make her invulnerable until they are killed.
• Boss 5: Hadean Guard
  • Watch for your teammates leaving a trail of Immolation Invocation right at your feet
  • Chirugy is a heal which can be impaired.
  • [Elite 5+] Brutus will cast Drink Deep which will fully heal him and should be impaired.
  • [Elite 5+] The cast Hot Iron will hinder and eventually kill if not cleansed.
  • [Elite 5+] Occluding Lens is now a reflect shield and cannot be purged.
• Boss 6: Eblis, Dominus Inferni in Profondis
  • Make sure there is not anyone between you and the boss at all times due to Dark Rush
  • Position Eblis near the edges of the area to reduce the number of Solar Collapse areas that appear in the area. Always try to tank Eblis away from the Solar Collapse areas.
    • Also tank Eblis away from the center, so Solar Collapse won't spawn in the center right before he pulls everyone in with Cast Out.
  • Interrupting Painwheel Overdrive while in Eblis' Cast Out dimension will save your group lots of positioning headaches
  • [Elite 5+] Drink Deep fully heals the boss and must be impaired.
  • [Elite 5+] The cast Hot Iron will hinder and eventually kill if not cleansed.
  • [Elite 5+] Occluding Lens is now a reflect shield and cannot be purged.
  • [Elite 5+] Solar Collapse will now spawn tracking targets which will kill you if they are touched.

##Lairs

Tanking in lairs consists of many add fights and mitigating much higher incoming damage than in the lower Elites. Consider bringing 2 defensive CDs and taunts. Bosses have many unique mechanics, but in general tanks can expect to be dealing with adds and dodging telegraphed attacks.

Based on testing, Lair bosses have innate CC resilience as described above. This is particularly relevant for the Scorched Desert boss Lives-On-Snakes.

##Regionals

• Aspect of the Long-Toothed - Tanking is composed of mitigating very high amounts of incoming damage (~40k base damage). The tank will need to always have a defensive cooldown active or risk being one shot.
• Aspect of the Many-Limbed - Tanking is composed of managing positioning. Although this boss does not move, she has a cleave with an infinite range approximately 180 degrees in front of her, and will need to be faced away from the raid. However, also directly behind her is a poison cloud which will instantly kill, which gives melee characters a very small area in which it is safe to melee her. She will need to be interrupted when she transitions between phases.
• Aspect of the Great Winged - Tanking is composed of mitigating high amounts of incoming damage (~30k base damage) as well as managing positioning. The tank will need to always have a defensive cooldown active or risk being one shot and position the boss so that the whirlwinds and filth which spawn will not kill your group as they try to damage the boss.