how to set up a melee only tank (in General)

ok, i'm planning a melee only 1 minion tank and want to know how to set it up.

should I use a ToA or ToE?

should I use a tattoo at all?

do I train 1/2 HP 1/2 STR max DX?

comments welcome

BoTH or morg?

Enough DX for triple hits, lots of ST, tons of HP
1/3 HP, 1/2 ST, 1/2 DX, rest in VA, AMF, HP etc.- that's how it'd look on the train page.

Don't use any tattoo, the TsA + MgS would be much more useful. I would use a Morg for maximum leech. Train around 1/2 exp into HP, and use your equipment to get your STR and DEX to stay around your HP's level. Make sure to train BL too.

Equip:
TsA
MgS
HoE
Tulkas
EBs
AoM
EC
Morg

you can do triple hits with only dex ;)

oops i mean cant*

Maybe take a look at Slayer's strat. It is a moderately successful mid levelish single tank.

I remember Shade started a NCB single tank a little after I started my NCB with this team. He had high HP, a morg, a TSA, high dex, and put on a MgS for protection. The *only* reason I started winning fights against him was I trained a base decay on my team. Before that I could not hope to match his damage output/regen/leech with my mini tank (back when the Space Knights was an RoS team).

He has 2 minions now, but that team was a tough single minion tank, with a good score/mpr ratio to boot.

Go with what Miandrital wrote.

Look at my tank if you want to learn from someone who tried with both Evasion and BL.

Only, train Evasion instead of BL. If you want to last against tanks, Evasion is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better than BL. If your Morg has a decent amount of +, train 1/3 HP, 1/3 ST, 1/6 DX, 1/6 Evasion until you reach 250K DX and Evasion. Then you can start pumping most of your XP into HP and ST.

If you decide to go with BL, then concentrate on killing mages because you will get owned by every tank with a ranged weapon out there. Also, find an EH to wear instead of a TSA until you train 1M HP. The EH will be more effective in helping you reach melee until the TSA can actually regenerate a decent amount of HP.

It should be noted that I didn't intend to have a ToE+no ranged tank, my ExBow and Adam+SC are too small to be worth equipping :)

If you want a single minion melee only tank I recommend only 1 strat:

25% hp, 25% evasion, 25% str, 25% dex.

AoF, TSA, MgS, EC, EBs, TGs, HoE, and take a pick of any weapon.

Oh and avoid decay =p

can someone explain to me the benifets of a one handed weapon

Less DX penalty when equipped with a shield compared to the morg. I believe most find it negligible. Use Help! for specific numbers and etc.

considering dex is almost useless... just get the morg :)

Well, well, it looks like Myclofig finally went and got himself a disciple.

Or just go for a sexy no tattoo tank like mine. ^_^ It is currently missing its BoTH and BoM, but you see how beautiful it is even without them...

EXP: 5,372,462
HP: 750,000/750,000
ST: 990,000/500,000
DX: 810,000/750,000
AC: 124
Bloodlust: 216,000/200,000 (0.60)

"considering dex is almost useless... just get the morg :)"

I thought that was true for a while there, but I realized DX can be very useful.

My tank trains some Evasion and <i><b>a lot</i></b> of DX. This means that even when EC drains most of my DX, tanks still can't hit me because my Evasion's defensive DX stays intact. When I reach the melee rounds, I usually still have close to 200% CTH because of my huge DX and with only a small amount of +'s on my BoTH.

So look at my tank and to see an example where DX is very useful.

Talion's Vampire HP: 1,121,939 ST: 1,537,005 DX: 1,548,089
somehow i dont see ALOT of dex lol... its about on par with your STR ;) just saying a small % would not hurt a lot

I am only at 1M MPR. Only one character has more trained DX in my current kingdom and I will already be in the top 10, if not top 5, for trained DX when I reach Gondor. My DX will be close to, if not over, 3M when I reach 2M MPR.

So 1.5M DX is A LOT of DX for a character at 1M MPR... in my humble opinion. ;)

It is indeed. I'm curious to know your trained/stats? ^_^

To find out what my HP/ST/DX are, just check out the Lórien attributes standings.

To find out how much Evasion/AMF/Protection I have trained, you will need to test or wait until I either sell the character or reach 2M MPR. ;)

It seems like it is a big waste not to have a tattoo. Part of your combat rewards are the tattoo rewards, so every fight without one is like getting only 80% of the total rewards. If this makes a single melee only tank not feasible, then I think that this is a problem with the tattoo design.

but Synge, without that extra PR, I'm getting higher rewards. Therefore a higher challenge bonus, and more experience. So I'm making back that tattoo EXP, though at a higher level where I couldn't earn Challenge Bonus that would be true...*shrugs* I don't care, I hate tattoos right now so it doesn't matter to me.

I am with OOB on this one. A tattoo boosts my PR too much.

If I had more than one minion, I would consider having one as essential. With only one minion, the extra armor is much better for me than what tattoos could offer.

I tried with a ToA but since I am using a crossbow instead of a bow, it didn't help me as much. A ToA would be essential if I was expecting to end the fights in ranged rounds.

If a regular tat is too much PR, then use a RoE. That's 20% more experience. Maybe you can make that back early on with a higher challenge bonus from having better gears, but I'm willing to bet it won't last.

Meh, I'm using both a RoE and my gears, depending on my mood. Fact is, it is a lot more fun to fight with gears than a RoE. =)

If you decide to watch your play-by-plays, be competitive, etc. Using a RoE limits you badly as a single melee only tank, since you are highly limited already in your opponents....it makes it even harder to find good opponents to beat when you don't have your TSA/BoM/EC or whatever combo you use on...*shrugs* Just depends on the player.

And I just don't have enough $ to boost pieces of gear high enough when I use a ToE. With the extra cloak, armor, and shield I equip without the RoE, I am much more lethal.

A fight list with only 4 or 5 opponents gets boring after a while.

An RoE on my team was bad enough, thats why I have haste and GS trained. Must be tough for a single minion to have to soak up all that extra damage and lose out on a nice str/dex boost.