Role :
Melee blob guard, damage sponge, Hold the Line master.
Goal :
Provide good buffs/debuffs while being extremely tanky and protecting teamates vs range damage.
Stats :
Gear :
Helm : Sov Main
Shoulders : Sov Main
Body : Sov Main
Gloves : Sov Main
Belt : Sov Main
Boots : Sov Main
Cloak : Sov Main
Jewelry 1 : Genesis Everlasting Fragment
Jewelry 2 : Genesis Everlasting Aspect
Jewelry 3 : Rough Gunbad Diamond
Jewelry 4 : Invader (or Sov Main)
Main Hand : Sentry’s Cutta of Anathema
Off Hand : Fortress Chopstoppa
Talismans : 4 Toughness/1 Initiative/3 Wounds
Professor Cake :
I do not use any slot 3 ring in this build because I keep the one I have for scenarios, but feel free to do it with a +6% block or armor penetration reduction to be even stronger.
Jewelry 4 : Invader is the best in the vast majority of cases.
If you have read some of my other entries, you know that I think the speed boost is a “win more” perk, and concentrating on “winning” is better than on “winning more”.
Sov is good when you have to catch up to a tunnel vision DPS (99% of them yes, I know), but I don’t like itemizing to make up for somebody else’s mistakes, if you get punted away they should see it, back off for 2sec and everything is fine again.
If you are the MA best friend, and guarding him most of the time, you can equip full Sov because even 2sec of him backing off can hurt your wb effectiveness.
Fortress shield : As you can see (and read below) I choose to ignore parry that is irrelevant vs slayers, in favor of other forms of mitigation that do work vs them. In that case : the absorb proc.
Tactics :
1 – Youz see me blok’ dat’ ?!
2 – Rugged
3 – Good Wif Shield
4 – Stop Hittin Da Runts
Professor Cake :
Rugged : helps with survavibility. Many do not like Rugged, but 160 stats is the equivalent of 6.67 talismans which is MASSIVE, toughness works very well when stacked high enough, do not underestimate it.
To me morale on block is a no brainer.
+10% Block is amazing in oRvR, works for everything but Rampaged Slayers. Destro always complain about Rampage OP but when facing a zerg, out of the (random numbers) 100 enemies only 10 are Slayers and only 5 are in a position to actually hit you. This is a great defensive tactic.
For the last one I pick the AP “regen” one because it turns me into THE Hold the Line master, able to do it indefinitly and provide massive damage reduction vs all the Order rDPS.
Renown :
- Wounds :
There is no having too many hitpoints in a zerg fight, but 10k hp with the amount of tankiness this build provides is enough for me. - Avoidance : “No parry and no Dodge/Disrupt ?! Are you crazy?!”
I may be crazy, but this is my reasoning : - Dodge Disrupt :
This particular build uses Hold the Line most of the time, so stacking some more Dodge/Disrupt on top would make sense. It’s a personal decision and you cannot go wrong here. I do find that I’m good enough beetween Block and Hold the Line versus rDPS.
When your hitpoints tank, use Can’t Hit Me and with 41% base block +10% from sov proc and +50% on demand (doesn’t stack with the sov proc) you are already “immune” to ranged damage, and even when they do hit you, you have good armor (vs rSW/some Engis) AND you reduce damage by 15% with Hardy Concession. - Parry : As with every destruction tank, we have access to a lot of “free” avoidance. For BO it’s Can’t Hit Me!, +50% block chance while channeling the ability. This makes us almost unkillable on demand, and helps to relieve pressure from our healers anytime we want. The counter to this is Rampage, an ability pesky Slayers have that totally bypass all our avoidance.
If we stack too much avoidance, then this ability alone can be our demise.
On the other hand, block works vs any dps but rampaged Slayers.
Block is so good, it is still worth stacking. Parry on the other hand, does work vs guard damage which is a big plus, but doesn’t work vs range damage, nor rampaged Slayers.
I chose to ignore parry and focus on some other forms of damage mitigation, that will help more vs Slayers.
Versus any other dps (and guard damage), I can channel Can’t Hit Me! and ignore them anyways, the only threats are the Slayers. - Trivial Blows : To me, TB has one big upside, avoiding to be “one shotted”. Since as a very tough tank that should never happen to you, TB isn’t needed.
Masteries :
This gives you :
– a 990 armor buff for your party (not great but not useless)
– a 378 resists buff for your party
– the potential to Hold the Line indefinitly
– your CC, CDincreaser and good buffs for when the fight gets a bit more warband sized
– optional : spec Big Brawling tactic so you can adapt before each fight, use it for WBs fights, don’t use it for zerg fights
War Bellow :
This build only works with Da Greenest so there you go.
Cake’s Thoughts :
I’ve read countless times now that BO is the worst tank in the game. This build is (imo) the strongest zerg vs zerg tank build in the game, and that’s the majority of nowaday’s RvR fights.
It will also perform very good in cities and most scenarios when using Big Brawling.
All in all a VERY solid build and BO isn’t the worst tank in the game, at least in bigger fights.
Greenskins rejoice! WAAAAGH!!
Cake's Plan 