how to build a tank in enshrouded

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Block with your face.

If you’re less of a spellcaster and more of a swing-first, ask-questions-later kinda player, then here’s an Enshrouded tank build that should be up your street. It maximizes survivability and resilience, excelling in absorbing damage, holding enemy attention, and sustaining itself in the heat of battle.

How to Build a Tank Character in Enshrouded

This Tank Build in Enshrouded harnesses the strength of both high-endurance armor and versatile weaponry to create a character that can withstand big punishment in combat. Using gear like Guard of the North Set provides critical boosts in health and stamina, while shields and other gear add more layers of defense.

The choice of weapons, The Wailing Blade and the Misfortune Mace, ensures that the tank is not just a passive damage absorber but also contributes effectively to the team’s offensive output. Skill selections, make our tank not just a defensive stronghold but also a strategic player in controlling the flow of battle.

Overall, the build’s combination of high survivability, effective damage mitigation, and versatile offense makes it a formidable choice for players who can lead the charge.

Your attributes should be focused as such:

  • Constitution: Directly increases health, which is crucial for a tank’s ability to absorb and withstand damage. High constitution is essential for survival in frontline combat, and it synergizes well with skills like Battle Heal that depend on a large health pool for effective healing.
  • Strength: Still important, especially considering skills like Merciless Attack and Swift Blades. Strength will enhance melee damage output, ensuring the tank can maintain aggro and contribute effectively to combat. A higher strength score means more impactful hits with melee weapons.
  • Intelligence: Not for spell damage but enhancing the effectiveness of healing spells and skills like Water Aura and Waters of Life. Intelligence plays a dual role in both increasing the tank’s self-sustain through better healing and enhancing any magical attacks or utility spells used.
  • Stamina-Related Attributes: Skills like Double Jump, Evasion Attack, and Blink imply a more dynamic combat style, which will consume more stamina. Therefore, any attributes or gear that enhance stamina regeneration or capacity would be beneficial to maintain constant mobility and the ability to execute combat maneuvers without frequently running out of stamina.

Skills

For a Tank Build in Enshrouded, focusing mainly on melee combat and survivability, here are the recommended skills:

  • Merciless Attack: Enhances damage output following a successful parry or stagger, crucial for maintaining enemy attention.
  • Power Parry: Improves your ability to counter enemy attacks effectively, creating opportunities for counterattacks.
  • Evasion Attack: A skill that allows for an attack immediately following a dodge, adding an offensive edge to defensive maneuvers.
  • Battle Heal: Grants health regeneration on successful critical strikes, contributing to sustainability in combat.
  • Double Jump: Increases mobility, crucial for positioning and avoiding attacks.
  • Absorb: A skill that offers mana generation upon taking magical damage, useful for integrating occasional spell use in combat.
  • Blink: Replaces the standard dodge with a short-range teleport, enhancing mobility and allowing for quick repositioning.
  • Emergency Blink: Enables teleportation even when stunned, providing an additional escape mechanism.
  • Healer and Healer 2: These skills increase health gained from healing spells, enhancing survivability.
  • Intelligence: Boosts the effectiveness of healing spells and potentially increases spell damage.
  • Water Aura and Waters of Life: These skills provide passive health regeneration, crucial for a tank’s endurance in battle.
  • Swift Blades: Increases the speed of melee attacks, beneficial for a tank who needs to deal consistent damage.
  • Veteran: Boosts critical strike chance, enhancing the effectiveness of the Battle Heal skill.
  • Endurance, Runner, and Wanderlust: These skills enhance stamina and travel efficiency, important for sustained combat and world traversal.
  • Counter Strike and Quick Charge: Useful for reflecting damage and reducing spell charge time, respectively, enhancing both defensive and offensive capabilities.

Armor

  • Helmet:
    • Melee Crit Chance and Crit Strike Helmet: This helmet enhances critical hit potential, which synergizes with the Battle Heal skill for health regeneration on critical strikes.
    • Alternatives: Look for helmets that offer a good balance between physical and magical resistance, or ones that provide bonuses to health or mana, depending on your playstyle needs.
  • Chest Armor:
    • Magician’s Chest: Offers high magic resistance, additional health, and mana. It’s a good choice if you’re planning to use magic spells frequently.
    • Soldier Variant Chest: Highly recommended for its superior physical resistance, crucial for tanking in melee combat. It also provides a significant health bonus, which is vital for a tank.
    • Warden Chest Plate: Another excellent option with additional physical armor and health. It’s a bit of a middle ground between the Magician and Soldier chests.
  • Gloves:
    • Guard of the North Gloves: Ideal for boosting both magic and melee damage. They are versatile and support the hybrid nature of the build.
    • Soldier Gloves: If focusing more on melee and physical defense, these would be a suitable alternative.
  • Pants:
    • Eagle Eye Trousers: These pants offer a balanced resistance to both physical and magical attacks. They also provide stamina bonuses, which are essential for a tank’s mobility.
    • Alternatives: Look for pants that complement your chest armor choice, focusing on balancing your physical and magical resistances.
  • Boots:
    • Spellbinder Boots: Provide health and stamina regeneration, crucial for sustaining in prolonged battles.
    • Warlock Boots/Soldier Boots: Choose based on whether you need more health regeneration (Warlock) or physical resistance (Soldier).
  • Rings:
    • Commander Ring: Offers a significant boost to mana and health. If available, a ring that provides a boost to all attributes would be ideal.
  • Shield:
    • Highest Block Parry and Durability Shield: The shield choice should prioritize high block and parry values for effective damage mitigation.
    • Shield of Light/Furrial Plane Ward: These are good choices for their added benefits, like shroud resistance in the latter.

Alternatively, you could just run the full Guard of the North set, as it’s arguably the best armor in the game for physical resistance. Here’s the set and where to find it:

  • Guard of the North Boots:
    • Located in a tower with a green banner south of the Shanty Shacks area and the Huger Square. Use the grappler hook to reach the top of the tower, where you’ll find a silver chest containing the boots.
  • Guard of the North Gloves:
    • Found near the Shroud Route northeast of the Heckler Square. After defeating nearby enemies, walk towards the gate to discover a golden chest that holds the gloves.
  • Guard of the North Chest Plate:
    • Hidden in a small tomb area accessible from a triangular-shaped roof house in the Imperial Gardens. Descend the stairs inside to open a grave that reveals the chest plate.
  • Guard of the North Pants:
    • Located in a lava bath area filled with critters, north-east of the Pikes Port text on the map. Inside a chest in this area, you’ll find the pants.
  • Guard of the North Helmet:
    • Found in a chest right at the first tower when gliding towards the Pikes Fortress or Citadel. This chest contains the helmet, completing the set.

To effectively farm these set pieces, especially if you wish to obtain multiple sets for friends on your server, consider placing a quick travel point close to the Royal Capital. This enables rapid access to the city, allowing you to revisit each location and collect all parts with relative ease. Remember, the loot in Enshrouded can respawn, enabling you to gather this armor set multiple times by exiting to the main menu and reloading your progress or by restarting the server if you’re playing in a single-player or are the server host.

Weapons

For a Tank Build in Enshrouded that emphasizes melee combat effectiveness, high damage output, strength, and endurance, here are the recommended weapons:

  • Primary Melee Weapon:
    • The Wailing Blade: This one-handed sword is highly effective due to its ability to deal all three types of base damage (cutting, piercing, and blunt), making it adaptable against various enemy types. Its versatility in damage types ensures effectiveness in different combat scenarios.
    • Misfortune Mace: As an alternative, this two-handed melee weapon offers high base piercing and blunt damage. It’s particularly potent when fully upgraded and can be a difference-maker in early game combat.
  • Elemental Weapons (Optional):
    • Ice Blade: Offers ice damage, useful against specific enemy types or environmental challenges.
    • Light Forged Axe: Provides additional fire damage, which can be advantageous against certain enemies.
    • Hair Splitter: Delivers shroud damage, effective against specific magical enemies or in certain areas of the game.
  • Casting Weapon (For Utility):
    • Shroud Weaver: This is a strong option if you decide to integrate spell-casting into your tank build. It has excellent damage potential, especially with fire damage, and can be scaled up significantly through upgrades.
  • Shield:
    • High Block and Parry Shield: Choose a shield that offers maximum block and parry power, as well as high durability. This is essential for a tank build to withstand heavy enemy attacks and maintain a strong defense.
    • Furrial Plane Ward: Offers good parry power and shroud resistance, which can be beneficial against specific enemy types or magical attacks.

Gameplay Strategy

As a tank, your role is to be the first into battle, drawing enemy attention and absorbing hits. Use your heavy armor and shield to mitigate incoming damage and control enemy mobs. Your Wailing Blade or Misfortune Mace will be crucial in dealing damage and maintaining enemy aggro. Utilize Power Parry to counter enemy blows and create opportunities for your allies to strike.

Maintain awareness of your health and stamina levels. The Guard of the North Set, along with food buffs and potions, should prove useful to sustain you. Use the Riptide Shield not just for blocking but also for its poison resistance, as poison can quickly whittle down a tank’s health.

So there you have it. Building a successful tank in Enshrouded requires a blend of strong defensive gear, strategic skill selection, and an understanding of enemy behaviors. If you like this style, check out our Paladin build, which has a stronger focus on magic but also incorporates plenty of head-first melee action! Or if you’re more stealthy, an archer build may be the way forward.