AOE Tank Build

[Memo]

Skill overview

Here is a list of my build and the pictures. The build maxes at level 60 and has no single target attack skills whatsoever. If you aren't tanking against people with scary meteors or balista's twice their character size, who also happen to be a higher level, you will never lose aggro on any mobs, even very large groups.

Impenetrable Shield
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5/5 Concentration Wicheryer
2/2 Sword Master
5/5 Focus
5/5 Shield Mastery
1/1 Party Concentration Wicheryer
2/2 Provoke
2/2 Threat
1/1 Party Focus
1/5 Strike Down
5/5 One-hand Sword Mastery
1/1 Wide Provoke
1/1 Heavy Crasher
5/5 Defense Mastery
5/5 Iron Skin
5/5 Bloody Trap
5/5 Starlight Slasher
5/5 Enhanced Iron Skin

Berserker
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5/5 Physical Training
5/5 Howl of Stamina
5/5 Dexterity Training
1/1 Party Howl of Stamina

Last Survivor
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5/5 Weak Point Analysis
2/2 Lesson
5/5 Strength Training
1/1 Rapid
5/5 Splinter Effect
1/1 Weakened Area
1/1 Splash Splinter
5/5 Grenade
5/5 Enhanced Strength
1/1 Sprint
2/2 Witcheryerful Splinter
2/2 Grenade Witcheryer Up
2/2 Sharp Splinter
2/2 Scorching Effect
1/1 Enhanced Party Strength

[Memo]

Explanation behind the build.
Ive had discussion with quite a few tanks when I started developing this build (my own breed). Questions arose as never being able to keep aggro when not having some attack skills or that the points spend in becoming a buff tank could viably be used much better, like Destroy Armor, or attack skills, etc.

Concerning the aggro issue, I've managed to prove them wrong. In the last 2 months (excluding my vacation), I've lived in Kaamlan, and a bit in FF. I've taken any chance I could get to get in to MF as well and even though I wasn't there often, I did quite a few runs. Whenever the group consisted of people all close to the same level (yeah, I'm defending myself here lol), I had no problem at all keeping aggro, even with mages foolishly spamming meteor. They gave me a bit of a workout from time to time, whether it was Kaamlan or MF. The only times I lost aggro was with targetsharing issues, and that was always easily solved with a quick Provoke. (and a lecture) The best thing about this build is that it's focused on all the monsters. That means I have aggro on all mobs and all skills work towards that goal. A common skill spam often consists of Grenade -> Weakened Area -> Bloody Trap -> Splinter. This almost always gives me full aggro. After a second Weakened Area and Grenade, (if it gets that far) the chance someone steals aggro on the group is very small.

Concerning the issue on my spent points, it's true that some skills may or may not seem logical. I spent 6 points just to provide the group of more health. I have every other party buff too and the bonuses between the party buff and the self buff aren't very high so I could easily safe another 3 points there.
But the point of my build is not to be able to solo well (I can still solo well, I'm just not as efficient with boss killing or fast single target killing), the point of my build is to always be in a party and bring out the full potential of that party.
I chose to be an AOE specialist so I can keep aggro on every mob, which is the style of play I prefer. As many know, I do not like to even have one mob to aggro someone else, since I feel it will have made me fail my job as tank. This comes from the idea of another game where I played tank too, but where one slip up could very well mean a party wipe. So I try to keep up the idea of having to protect the party against every single mob in the group and this build does that well.
I chose to get the party buffs because I believe a tank isn't the one killing the mobs. I'm the one taking the hits when others in my party are doing the real work of killing the monsters. This is also very clear when you compare my laughable damage to other people's (sometimes) breathtaking amounts of damage. If I can boost them to have 100% more strenght, 5% more crit rate and 5% more accuracy, than it is a given that the party will kill much much faster than without those buffs. And it doesn't matter who makes the kills or who does the most damage, the party gets their xp and drops regardless of that. So I'd rather work on improving my team and bring the most of them, instead of keeping the 100% strenght increase to myself and hit like a girl without AND with the added bonus.

On to the skill descriptions.
Many of them are obvious and I will only give a short explanation. Some of the skills are the most important skills in the build (Not the most important to get, they are all important to get, but the most important in fulfilling your job as tank, getting aggro, keeping it and not dying) and I'll mark them with a * and some are the least important and could be replaced. I'll mark those with a #.


Impenetrable Shield

Concentration Wicheryer - Needed to get Party Concentration Wicheryer and raises chance to hit with normal attacks, which you'll use a lot.
Sword Master - Raises chance to make any of your skills succeed. Very nice.
Focus - Needed to get Party Focus and raises your chance to do critical hits. Very nice indeed.
Shield Mastery - You are a tank, you have a shield. Learn how to block with it. Nuff Said.
Party Concentration Wicheryer - Now you can raise the party's chance to hit. You aren't called a party tank for nothing.
Provoke* - In cases you are messing up, facing up against stronger characters who generate more aggro or just have a idiot in your team, you will need and love provoke. Not only does it make the mob return instantly for x seconds, it also adds an amount to your build up aggro, so it might stay with you after the provoke on the monster wears out. A definite must have.
Threat* - Another must have. It raises the amount of aggro you put out with every single action.
Party Focus - Woot, now everyone can score 5% more criticals. See the pretty big numbers fly.
Strike Down# - Strike Down is only listed because of the nice synergy with Heavy Crasher. It can be replaced if wanted. The move combo's and play styles will be explained below.
One-hand Sword Mastery - Do more damage -> Get more aggro -> Be happy.
Wide Provoke* - Ultimate life and party safer. Don't use it without thinking because of the long cooldown. If it's down when you really need it, you'll be sorry. Beware though, it brings all mobs to you and even for a tank to suddenly go from not getting much damage to all damage, it WILL hurt a bit. And you'll only be using wide provoke when the entire party is in danger. So don't think the healers will understand from the first second that you have all aggro. USE POTS! Personally, I always type something along the lines of "ALL MINE" in chat the second I use wide provoke, to calm the party and alert the healers.
Heavy Crasher - A lifesafer. Not a must have, but very very convenient and will see a lot of play. If you are going down on HP fast and a healer is occupied or even when you are soloing and pots aren't cutting it, 6 seconds of stun is a gift from the Asda gods.
Defense Mastery - You are a tank. Thou shall not be squishy! Get it!
Iron Skin - Even more defense! Weeeee
Bloody Trap# - Personally, I find this very nice. It doesn't do major damage but is a nice add-on to Splinter. It also seems to still give me more aggro, which is always good. Some people only get 1 level of it, others skip it entirely. Feel free to do here whatever you like.
Starlight Slasher* - For being the only single target attack on this build and for being ridiculously strong, this skill deserves an *. It will help you in any situation, whether you are in a field map and want to quickly finish of a last mob of a group or a boss or are in an Elite map and want to do some serious damage on a general as well as gain some nice aggro, the chances to use this are many and the results are pretty (for a tank).
Enhanced Iron Skin* - HUGE addon in defense. I R HERCULES! Get it as highest priority.


Berserker

Physical Training - More HP is always good.
Howl of Stamina - Even more HP is always better.
Dexterity Training - The only 5 points that don't really do anything for the build, but needed to get the party Stamina buff. You are a party tank afterall. And it still raises your dodge rate, and who knows that one dodge might safe your life once.
Party Howl of Stamina - Give everyone more Stamina, including yourself. You are already giving them a double strenght score, at least make them feel comfortable with their added damage by giving them more HP.

Last Survivor

Weak Point Analysis - Even more chances to score criticals. Big numbers are pretty.
Lesson - I don't even know if this skill works. It is needed to get further in this tree though and the alternatives are even worse.
Strength Training - As a tank, you want ANY damage increase you can get, with those weak hits you always do.
Rapid - Is very nice for single target killing, espacially since you are doing lots of normal hits because of splinter already.
Splinter Effect* - A MUST MUST MUST have. By FAR the strongest skill in your arsenal. I've heard people say before that tanks without splinter aren't tanks. I'm finding a solution to that phrase but have not succeeded yet. It deals awesome damage and is most likely your no.1 source of both damage dealing and aggro generating. It's not coincidence there are at least 20 abbreviations going around in Asda all thought up the warn the party of Splinter deactivating.
Weakened Area* - Besides Splinter, this is the only skill that gives me very warm feelings. It often feels like a more spammable mini Wide Provoke, since it generates a very big bunch of aggro and in the process also debuffs the mobs, making them hit slower. In other words, you get less damage.
Splash Splinter - Makes Splinter output more damage. I won't mark it with a #, but there are quite a few tanks who do not add this one and stop at maxing the main splinter. It can save you a total of 4 points. On the other hand, of all attacks you'll be doing and all damage done to mobs, at LEAST 90% of it will be coming from normal splinter hits. It makes sense to increase the damage done by your most frequest form of damaging mobs.
Grenade* - Very pretty to see mobs go boom. Does good damage, espacially when fully upgraded and stuns too. I use it fully upgraded and give it a * since it fits the idea of this build. In other builds people would probably mark it with a # for the sheer fact they don't care as much about the damage and only put 1 point in the first grenade skill to gain the stun effect. For the sake of this build thought, being an AOE specialist build, it's by far one of your biggest outputs of damage, since a grenade can score up to 5-6 times a splinter hit and takes almost no time to throw. So it will outdamage splinter by far. And more damage is more aggro.
Enhanced Strength - Weeeee, even more strength to add.
Sprint# - I have a major hate for running slow. Without Windwalk, I feel like my grandmother would keep up with me and I don't like that. Sprint somewhat fixes that. And in instances, vehicles aren't allowed while Sprint is. It has it pros and cons to use and when you have any vehicle, the use of this skill could be very low.
Witcheryerful Splinter - A powerup on our splinter attack which already gets most attention in your playtime.
Grenade Witcheryer Up - Instead of a boom, this skill makes grenade go KABOOOM.
Sharp Splinter - Yes, let's make our beloved splinter even stronger by poisoning them.
Scorching Effect - And now you can even burn mobs to a fried crisp after making them go KABOOOM.
Enhanced Party Strength* - Of all buffs you can give to your party, this one is the king. Not only is this a party buff build and wouldn't that name make sense without the buffs, this buff totally pays for the 1 point. Giving your entire party 100% more strenght, the stat that influences their damage most, is huge and is probably almost as if there was a 7th person added to the party in terms of added damage.


Skills obviously missing which you might want to get if you skip another.

I will only note the skills that will fit this build. I could list a few single target attack skill, but you might as well chose another build altogether if you want that.

Charge - Very useful to get to a monster quick that might be hurting one of your party members. It also helps you in Dungeons where your party is moving from one group to another. Charge will get you there a second or two earlier than the others (which you'll easily survive on your own), which means you are a bit ahead in starting to accumelate aggro. Don't go running of too far though, or the healer might not be able to heal you anymore.
Catch Breath - Lowers the cooldown time on your skills by 2 seconds. That means that the important skills like Splinter and Weakened area are available quicker. I've read a lot about it and it might be worth and it might not be worth it. The only thing I can add is that it could theoretically work very nice with provoke. Provoke adds a buff to the mob for x amount of seconds in which it has to face you. The buff runs out faster than the cooldown, so if the monster is really stubborn, it will return to your teammates. Having 2 seconds shaved off Provoke might just mean that you can keep spamming provoke before the monster can even think about moving back to your teammates. (never tested this)
Master of Survival - Bla bla bla, read lots of discussions about it. Being immune is beautiful and the more positive minded people will say that ANY chance to be immune for 15 seconds for only 1 skill point is worth it. I say that 3% is freaking low number and feel it's thus not worth the 1 point I could spent on more secure skills with a lower payoff.
Life's Rest - Only writing it down to tell one simple thing. A beginners HP pot will heal more than this skill does. Nuff said.
Mad Charge - This is a questionable one. I don't think I know anyone who has this skill and I've never seen it in action too. A longer range Charge is very likely a fun thing to do and a free stun is pretty too. It's the "Aggresively attack the enemy like a rhino for 6 seconds" part from the skill description that worries me. If that's 6 seconds of only hitting one single mob, a period of time which would've allowed up to 10 hits with splinter, damaging all mobs, I worry about whether it's worth it or not. 6 Seconds is a lot of time and the "Aggresively attack the enemy like a rhino" should have to be a breathtaking lot of damage to convince me that it's actually worth it.
Inpenetrable Shield - Waitwut? NO IS? Yeah. I've read a few times now that people with the skill didn't see a noticable increase in blocks, while the skill description says 30%, which should be very noticable if you ask me. So I've never taken this skill up. However, this is one of the few skills I myself might even swap in later over one of my current skills.

[Memo]

Often used skills and skillbar locations.

Let me start by saying that how to put your skills on your hotbar is very personal and everyone has a different idea about it should look. I for one have Splinter on bar 2, when about everyone I know has it on the main bar, just to be able to see when the cooldown has ended. My mainbar consist only of skills I either use often, or are needed in emergency situations. I don't want to look for skill when either I or my party is almost dying. I also have both HP and MP pots on my main bar. By F2 bar consists of buffs only. My 3rd bar is misc, with stuff like scrolls, the shovel, my coco tube, etc.

I'll only tell what I have on main bar, since every other remaining skill is automatically on my other bar.
From left to right (1-0), I have Strike Down, Grenade, Weakened Area, Provoke, Bloody Trap, Heavy Crasher, Starlight Slasher, HP pots, MP pots and Wide Provoke,
Heavy Crasher + Strike Down and Wide Provoke being emergency skills and the others my by far used skills. I have attack normally allocated to my ` button, which is next to the 1 key. Why they are at those respective places has nothing to do with order of importance, my hands lay down at the keyboard in such a way that pressing the 2-5 keys is most comfortable to me, and that I need to pick up my hand to reach the others (I'm a lazy bum).
All other skills are on the F2 bar of which I'll only name the first 2, since those are used all the time. Enhanced Iron Skin is on F2 - 1 and Splinter is on F2 - 2.

*Little note to the following story. I assume it's clear that when not doing any of these skills, I'm always doing normal hits with Splinter. Splinter isn't a much used skill in the sense that I'm constantly activating it. These are. Once splinter is activated, I use these skills the way I'll explain below. The rest of the time are normal hits with splinter*
Of these skills, I use Grenade and Weakened Area the most. I engage EVERY group with these two skills and it's highly unlikely that I miss out on it, unless the time between group 1 and 2 is fast, that they are still in cooldown. Also, when I see that a fight is running long and I feel like I could use a boost in my aggro just to be sure, I use them again, getting a free stun, a debuff on the mobs and more aggro. I love them.
After these, Bloody Trap sees the most usage, although less than these two. I only feel like using it when there is either a huge crowd of mobs so that the damage output is actually very reasonable, (Since activating the skill takes away time when you could've been hitting with splinter), or when I could use some more aggro. When there is a small group, or when there is a group that dies from a sneeze anyway, I do not really see the need for activating Bloody Trap.
Provoke is obiously more situational but has been placed at key no.4 (about the easiest key reachable when looking at how I place my hands) for the sheer fact that if I HAVE to use it, I don't want to take more than a fraction of a second to actually press the button. Provoke safes lifes. Have it at your side all the time. That one second is really important.
Strike Down is only used when either Splinter is off, to build more aggro, to have a chance at a stun, or in conjunction with Heavy Crasher as a last resort combo.
Last but not least, Starlight Slasher. It's really an awesome attack and the only one that does so much damage, that for a second, I feel a little bit like a actual damage dealer. Until I see the next normal hit again. Great for picking of single targets.

Skill combo's.

There actually arent many combo's in this build worth mentioning but I'll mention those that are worth it.
Heavy Crasher + Strike Down - My favourite combo in my build. Heavy Crasher gives you a 6 second stun on everything. A lot of people don't use Strike Down for this combo, but Weakened Area or Grenade. I have two objections for this. One is that both skills have a much longer cooldown than Strike Down. Heavy Crasher is my emergency skill and if I don't have any skill at that moment available that can let me stun the crowd, I might not be able to safe the party. My second objection is more something against Grenade. The mobs gets stunned for 6 seconds by the time the grenade hits the mob. If you see a grenade flying, you know what I'm talking about. It takes a bit before it arrives. Strike Down on the other hand is almost instant. It might not be a second difference, but close to a second. And again, a second can mean the difference between life and death. Besides, the stun chance on Grenade is pretty high and the duration is decent too, it almost feels like a waste to add the HC bonus to that. I can even make a HC + SD combo, wait for the stun to end, throw a grenade and stun them again. Which is a combo I often do, actually.
Rapid + Starlight Slasher (+ Provoke) - Not really a combo, but more of a simulation of feeling somewhat like a character with decent 1vs1 capabilities. This is about as good as you can get 1vs1 with this build. Versus bosses, it's indeed pretty decent. I added the provoke to the combo because it's are often the bosses who I use this combo against and it's often the bosses on which your party members go wild. Meaning their aggro output is much higher than when fighting a more normal group. So I often just start spamming provoke as a precaution, since it not only gets them back to you, it also adds to the amount of aggro you have on the mob. Beware a little bit with this though. If you just used Provoke and then someone steals the boss, you will have lost your only option to regain it quickly.

I hope you have had a good time reading this. If you have any questions about this build, feel free to ask them to me.