Use Tank wisely

[Lord Dak]

It can screw you over if you go the whole fight with it. I've done some experiments and one of the things i found that worked well was tanking when my endurance was really low or if i'm facing another war tank that started tanking before me, i set tank for "my endurance is less than my opponent's". If they tanked first, when you both reach 0 i always won and they passed out. Don't know if it's just a spiel in the system but it works for me. I've obviously changed a few thing here and there otherwise i wouldn't be posting these tips. Keep in mind my stable has only fought bout 125 fights (only 12 of them losses) so i'm pretty green compared to some of the other more experienced stable Masters. This is just one strategy i've found that works wel for MY level of competition. The situation may vary depending on the bracket and level of your fighter. Hope this helps a bit guys. Fell free to add on to it.

[Dainoji]

When tank was introduced early on in the game, Nate was pretty clear that is was meant to be more of a Tank n' Spank sort of thing which is why if you stay in tank too long the crowd and Enforcer get angry with you. Moral of the story, give the crowd what they want before they get bored!

[Lunarion199]

Maybe there should be an increasing chance of getting a critical hit by the crowd if they get more and more bored. This might just keep a check on using tank all the time. Presently a tank almost always wins against an average non-tank even after getting hit by crowd or the enforcer.

[Arkham]

You must be joking. Rage OWNS tank. A simple bleed from a Theatric owns tank. Tank is a 'hail Mary' that may work in 1-20 but not past that. No one complains that Thorgrim the Wall is too tough to beat.. But General Kain, now there is a name that inspired fear.


Maybe there should be an increasing chance of getting a critical hit by the crowd if they get more and more bored. This might just keep a check on using tank all the time. Presently a tank almost always wins against an average non-tank even after getting hit by crowd or the enforcer.

[Lord Dak]

Yeah because that explains why every rage i've fought has passed out and has looked stupid fumbling around with their weapons as I parry them left and right and watch them fall over and go to sleep.


You must be joking. Rage OWNS tank. A simple bleed from a Theatric owns tank. Tank is a 'hail Mary' that may work in 1-20 but not past that. No one complains that Thorgrim the Wall is too tough to beat.. But General Kain, now there is a name that inspired fear.

[Dainoji]

Arkham is saying the higher level you get the harder it is to tank, right now you might be successful and that is great, but once you start fighting champs instead of chumps that is going to change. I still think Tank can work in the upper levels if done correctly and you are geared and spec'd properly.

[Dainoji]

You must be joking. Rage OWNS tank. A simple bleed from a Theatric owns tank. Tank is a 'hail Mary' that may work in 1-20 but not past that. No one complains that Thorgrim the Wall is too tough to beat.. But General Kain, now there is a name that inspired fear.

Don't tank a skilled rage gladiator, you will lose. Ask yourself if you would want to stand there and let a hulking, berserking beast tee off on you with impunity for 30 seconds...I suppose if you have some serious health and defense you might be able to pull it off but you'd have to be pretty high level for that I bet. Any tanks out there doing this now?

[Arkham]

Abomination had at his peak Over +300 defense and a fat collection of health, and tank was just getting him dead. Usually in the first few rounds. Honestly, I have not managed to get defense to work well with him. I would regear him, but it is hella pricey. He is going back to green.


Arkham is saying the higher level you get the harder it is to tank, right now you might be successful and that is great, but once you start fighting champs instead of chumps that is going to change. I still think Tank can work in the upper levels if done correctly and you are geared and spec'd properly.

[Dainoji]

So I checked out Abomination and unless you've changed his gear around, he is pretty underpowered to try and tank at the top levels. Most of his gear is 10-15+ levels too low and you're sporting light and medium in the mix, not to mention greens and some blues. You're health is also too low, doesn't look like you are using your achievements or you haven't gotten the +250 health and +100 health yet. Many of your key skills are also too low, you don't have a single 10 and your only 9 is in your weapons (good place for them though). I'd get your weapons to 10, create distance to 10, hamstring to 10, battle hardened to 10 and unlearn athleticism and maybe death from above to get the extra points. Barreling attack is nice because it will put the guy on the ground and slow him down (but you won't be using it in tank since you won't really be attacking), hamstring will be a double whammy slowing him down further. Your 10 in weapon and brute force mixed with some feint should deal some decent damage and allow you to outlast many of your opponents when you do attack or switch to an offense strategy. I don't think equal defense to an opponent's offense is good enough for a defensive build, you have to have more to make up for the fact that you are going to get beaten on for awhile so a combination of defense plus reducing the number of attacks of your opponent is key. Your strategy matters a lot too, you can't just stand around tanking the whole fight, you will need to go on the offense at various times to land your hamstrings and barreling attacks and what not. In the early levels you can probably get away with just standing around a lot more since the quality of the competition is much lower. If you really want to tank, I bet for the price of a movie ticket and popcorn you could outfit him pretty nice and get him a lot more competitive with that build. I played around with defensive builds in the beta and while much has changed, much is still the same. I've got a new gladiator Pharaoh, who I plan to make into a defensive War build and see how it goes.

Oh, I should probably add, you'll have a lot less success tanking a rage gladiator as I mentioned above, so I'd set my triggers up accordingly. :)

[Lord Dak]

Exactly. you can't tank the whole fight on any level in my opinion. I recommend always having endurance level triggers to start up tank. Works for me.

[Arkham]

Abom is past his prime. Purple gear is crazy expensive, and the green gear has not caught up to old purple gear :) That one odd piece of light armor is a test this week to see how being at 25% affects initiative.

In the end, Abom will be in all greens again, and never at the top of the charts. I can sometimes give a bit for a weapon here and there, but at ~45 trophies a purple, I wont be suiting up the slaves in their Sunday best.

I've been slowly re-skilling him. My 'next generation' is much better off. Eternal is a killing machine.

[Dainoji]

Pretty sure purples max out at 35, I haven't seen anything higher at least.

[aldowyn]

I just set up a strategy to trigger tank when I'm at low endurance. Seems to be working pretty well, since I'm usually at high enough health that when the crowd and enforcer start banging on me I can deal with it until my opponent passes out.

[Prinny]

I just set up a strategy to trigger tank when I'm at low endurance. Seems to be working pretty well, since I'm usually at high enough health that when the crowd and enforcer start banging on me I can deal with it until my opponent passes out.

That works in alot of cases but experience showed me it doesn't always work out in your glads favor