[WIP] Tarkel's Full Tank Build - Physical Kickadin

Since none of the builds listed here fitted me, I decided at lvl41 to buy a skill reset, reset my skills and follow my heart. This is what I've used until lvl50: http://dn.duowan.com/2zmnq/?wV0f4Wy1BVpf7OfR2upw2Yv|207$258$45&ifr=guardian.html
Very nice build for levelling, and it gave me quite a few satisfactions along the way (coupled with 45b life equips).
Sadly, lv50 arrived, and with it all the new mess that makes the tank far less tank that it was before (until most of the LM dungeons you can basically be invincibile 100% of the time by rotating the skills), so I had to adapt.
This is what I've started building now:
http://dn.duowan.com/2zmnq/?8myD4YJs7SRNT0uW2rlRBIP|131$278$50&ifr=guardian.html




Shield blow: very good damage growth and low cd. At lvl15 it was critting for 18k clean.
Block: maxed in the previous build, but kept at 7 for the moment, since I still have to understand how much I actually need it for endgame nests tanking.
Kicks: maxed in the previous build (since the damage growth is acceptable, plus kicks are the spammed attack, so the damage increase over time becomes significant. each holy kick was critting for 12-13k clean when maxed [6-7k at minimum]), kept at minimum here, since I still don't have enough information.
Sliding Step: maxed. No explanation needed.
Sliding Knee Kick: dropped in the new build, since most of the bosses and mobs can't be juggled anymore, so it's not that useful in pve anymore.
Heal: maxed. Saves my ass and the ass of my party members quite often.
Aerial evasion: maxed in both builds, since I need it quite often, and the lower cd is critical for me.
Damage reduction: maxed. The less damage the paladin takes the more useful he is.
Max HP: More health = more survivability, which is the main point of being a tank.
Max MP: maxed before (since I always run out of MP) now kept at minimum, since I don't know the requiements for SDN, and in bishop the mana used wasn't that high (especially since I kept being hit and my mana hat kept replenish my mana).
Mana Regen: critical. Maxed.
Healing boost: taken it, since it's 0SP, but it's mostly useless, or so it seemed to me when I used it.


Provoke: maxed (+crest). No explanation needed. This is the skill a paladin should spam the most.
Armor Break: maxed, for debuff and good damage.
Shield Charge: 1 lvl, since the growth is low, and it's mostly useful for covering big distances fast and for aggro.
Autoblock: lvl8. Minimum necessary for Autoblock EX. No point going higher.
Stance of Faith: godlike skill, IMHO. Was maxed in the previous build because it was able to stop all attacks from both mobs and bosses (except for freezing effect and sometimes for electrical shock effect). In the new abyss dungeons and in endgame nests seems to be far less useful, since the bosses simply pierce through it or ignore it, so the paladin is forced to avoid and stay mobile, sadly. So for the moment it's on minimum. Gonna see if there is need to bring it a little higher later, since I love it.
Air Block: Useless. Upgraded only for the next skill.
Divine Punishment: Maxed. Damaging the bosses with their own attacks has no price!
Iron Will: damage reduction is now capped at 80%, so no real point in maxing, especially since it's not possible to reach Divine Punishment's cooldown, so I just kept it at minimum.
Avatar: aka Godmode. Amazing skill. Needless to say it's sadly becoming less and less useful against bosses, since both Serpenta and Bishop can clear it (silence&breath) or pierce through it (that damn light attack). In any case useful in a lot of situations. With duration crest.
Auras: more or less useless while levelling, but critical for SDN and Bishop. Maxed, since they will be needed to keep myself and the party alive, and to buff the DPSers dealing light-property damage.

Autoblock EX: name is pure troll, since it's not an improvement of autoblock, but a completely another skill. Still, the buffs are quite useful, and they stack with avatar, for more damage (yes they stack with saint's buffs too).
Guardian Force: maxed, to have more damage absorb from the bubble. Useful, but depends heavily on when and where used. 16k damage can be taken in a single shot from some bosses, so pay attention to it.
Guardian Crash: amazing dps skill. High cooldown, but very nice damage. With skill ring.

Generally, what I've done here was drop the magic tree entirely and go full physical spending all the points I could in my defensive skills (dropping the magical tree until smite gives 80+ SP to spend in more useful stuff), so I could be a full tank. Everything went pretty well and smoothly until I had to do the heavy stuff, and my nose got crashed by the attacks that ignore paladin's defensive skills, forcing him to stop tanking and start avoiding like other classes...
But I still don't wanna drop my defensive skills for DPS. I'm a tank at heart and I'm gonna find a way to be able to tank the most stuff I can and laugh in bosses' face.

Enhancement crests: vit,maxhp,def,mdef,str,atk,mpregen,crit, all with crit third stat (phys atk on the crit one)
Skill crests: epic kicks' crests, blue crests for godmode and provoke.
Gear: still working on it.

Props to Goat and trunet for their builds, from which I've taken some things (like the non-maxed block and the non-maxed autoblock), and props to Fox, Kaziziz and trunet again for their patience in answering my questions. Thanks, guys.

P.S: It's HEAVILY Work In Progress, so it will be changed a lot, probably.
P.P.S: This is just how I see the paladin. If you like my ideas follow them, but not blindly. Think with your own head.

P.P.P.S: Suggestions and critics are welcome!
EDIT: Temporarily using Ladder build atm: http://dn.duowan.com/2zmnq_unlock/?w11tZ2xAXHnqx2HFz0Ixn8T|140$325$45&ifr=guardian_unlock.html

I think you can get lv 1 Holy Bolt for disable purpose. It is quite useful in dungeons and nests.

Since you are going for full tanker build, there are not many attacking skills to use. You can consider to max Shield Blow since its cd is quite low (6s, lower than Armor Break) and the damage is not bad.

For the Stance of Faith, I think you can get lv4 to tank better although it is not used too often.

Brought Stance of Faith back to lvl6, because yesterday I needed it in Hell Bishop (since I was left soloing it...).
Hope it won't be a liability in SDN.

Hello! Great guide! I'm from DN SEA and currently we are under LVL40 Cap.

I'm planning to follow your Pure Physical Kick type Guardian. May I ask about your current update in this build? How is it going? Is there any changes?

Thanks alot!

ATM I'm using a build similar to this:
http://dn.duowan.com/2zmnq/?8mJ3f87Tr2DBbqycSd85DQT|147$313$50&ifr=guardian.html

The reasons are 2:
- Reflect was nerfed in the last update, so it's now perfectly useless
- I don't have any tanking role in GDN/SDN parties (too many paladins in guild ATM), so I preferred to go on a more ladder-oriented build, because I need to get the 50S ladder equip, which is absolutely perfect for tanks.

In the future, after I've gotten my equip and I'll have a role in any Nest group, I'll get back to my full tank build.
For SEA I don't know if reflect was capped at 100% atk yet, so you'll have to see yourself if it's worth maxing or not to reflect dive and blackhole.

From ur statement it seems like Guardian in later on patch will be useless?
Do you recommend me to change from Guardian path to Crusader path?

As bad as this might sound, it depends on your connections. If you have a sure party for GDN at lvl50 continue with guardian path, because iron will + guardian bubble are 2 more survival skills, and GDN is very tough.
If you don't, and at lvl50 SDN will the be the hardest dungeon you will do, go on the crusader path, and get on the guardian tree only up to stance of faith.
Albeit, in SEA everyone speaks english, so it shouldn't be as hard to find a good GDN party as it's in cDN when you don't know chinese.

Springwood has like the most pinoy in server.
I am still not in a guild but with a group of friend including me 4 of us.
I will wait for the 45 patch and then see if its worth going Guardian.
P:S I am sorry but can you explain in detail what sort of nerf they did to guardian block patch?

Finally reached 211k HP and 10k def/mdef:


Next target is 250k HP and 11k+ def/mdef.

eww... high INT there.. seems like you add INT for MDEF i guess..
are you planning to change to crusad? those stat are perfect for crusad i think :D

Haha, yes, I pump VIT and INT, so I get HP, MP (since I need to keep aura up at all times), DEF and MDEF, which are the important things for a tank.
Sadly no, those stats suck for a crusader, because crusader is mostly a DPS char, so he needs light atk %, final damage and, most important of all, crit. Thus, same as mages, you will see tons of crusaders pumping up AGI, instead of INT.
These stats are those of a tank, and I think I can get to 2k INT by simply repotting to INT+VIT+MAXHP all my armor pieces.
Sad that 50S codes are so pricey atm...

i like the build ! full guardian ha - i never see that kind of build
and tell me what suffix u use?(pots also)

Yeah, like I said above I'm using a ladder build now. xD
I'm using now stuff with vit+maxhp pots (vit only on the hat, since repotting the 50S would cost me 4k). The idea is to repot everything to int+vit+maxhp.

do you have a pvp build for a guardian? at DNsea, we currently at lvl 40 cap. is it advisable to max the autoblock skill or is it just a waste of skill points? thanks. tarkel.

Sadly no, haven't found any pvp builds for either guardians or crusaders.

Dunno about autoblock. Honestly I don't feel much the difference between maxed autoblock on Tarkel and lvl1 autoblock on the crusader, but that might just be me.

oic, hmm. i have both physcal and magical paladin, if i plan to to be a secondary tanker in sdn using my magical paladin, how much hp should i have? pdef and mdef also. is it alright if i go for thor hammer instead of divine avatar?

100k HP is bare minimum for tank.
From what chaose has told me, ~7500 def/mdef is the cap (85% damage reduction) for lvl40, so that should be your aim.
No, you NEED avatar, for survival and for minos.

what defense should i prioritize? def or mdef? what plate do you recommend to be a good tank? im planning to use 40A armors. dont know what + should be enough. hope i can reach 100k hp for my soon to be guardian :)

Mdef, absolutely. Most of the hardest attacks of bosses are mag-based.
And the physical ones (like serpenta's peck) can be easily dodged through.

VIT, HP, Def, Mdef, INT. Rest all crests with def/mdef third opt (prioritizing mdef until 7500~7600). If you manage to cap both def and mdef (doable after you start getting 40S and, later on, 40L) go with crests having VIT third opt.

Regarding +++, I don't know. You'll have to test it out yourself. I think that, if pots are perfect (int+vit+maxhp on everything), +10 40a should be enough to get 100k HP on a paladin.

thanks much tarkel, now it is clear to me what to aim now. :)

hm. about rings, is it ok for me to go for destruction ring for more damage?
also about necklace and earings. whats best for the tank? thanks again :)