"The Shield Maester"
Armes Maester Tank build

Beta build for Patch 1.0.7/0

The tank is by far the least appealing of the "Holy Trinity" roles present in most RPGs (DPS, tank, and healer, if someone, somehow, didn't already know). This happens for a few reasons, main of them being: 1. A lot of responsibility rests on the Tank; if a group wipes, there is a good chance that the tank will get most of the blame. 2. Tank gameplay is, on average, much more complicated and often less rewarding than DPS gameplay. Luckily, the situation seems to be a bit different in Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, where gameplay dynamics are much more appealing from the tanking perspective. CC and defensive abilities feel very impactful there, a well-built tank can steel dish out a respectable amount of damage, and cooperating with teammates is fun, even for a tank. This is why we have decided to create our own Tank build for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem. 

You can check all the best Wolcen builds made by our team here: Best Wolcen Builds by Odealo

Important note: This is a beta version of our "Shield Maester"  Arms Maester Build that we have just recently started working on. It features unparalleled survivability, great utility and surprisingly decent damage (at least for a Tank Build). As mentioned earlier, we have just started this "project" so we are still far away from determining the perfect mix of passive and active skills (it is possible that we will swap some of them around in the foreseeable future, especially if another hotfix, that turns everything on its head, comes around again). Despite being in the early stages of development, the build shows great promise and performs at a very high level in the group environment, but struggles when played solo (this is to be expected from such a setup, however). As it stands, this is one of the most durable and supportive builds you can currently run while in a group. 

1. Gameplay

The first thing to remember when choosing this build is: remember that it is designed for a party play and it will be much less effective when playing solo (however, with some Passives and Modifiers swaps, it is very possible to turn it into a solo build). As a Tank, you will be in the spearhead of your team's advances. You will be the one engaging enemies and you will be the one taking the most of the punishment associated with it. To make your main job satisfying and easily-executable, we have chosen a range of specially Modified skills. Wings of Ishmir will allow you to easily engage and group up bands of enemies so that they can all be affected by your AoE abilities. Sovereign Shout will work as an Area of Effect taunt paired with a solid debuff, that will make enemies less likely to overcome you. With Tracker's Reach, you will easily keep all nearby enemies in your melee range, which will help your teammates eliminate them with their abilities. The Bladestorm will enable you to deal solid AoE damage to all the gathered enemies yourself, and Juggernaut will greatly increase your survivability and, thanks to the Equalizor mod, you will be able to cast it on your allies, often saving them from certain death. If the above-mentioned description sounds fun for you, feel free to try our Tank build with a group of friends! 

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Attributes

For this Tank build, you want to focus on Ferocity for increased offensive capabilities, but you also can't forget about your main role, which means that you should balance the Ferocity with a good amount of Toughness. If you feel comfortable and have good enough defensive gear, you can allocate more of your points into Ferocity. Toughness should be treated as compensation for lackluster gear and more points should be allocated there if needed. As for Wisdom and Agility, any points allocated to them are a waste, and you should avoid doing that. 

4. Passives

Below you will find the recommended Passives for our "Shield Maester" Arms Maester build. It primarily utilizes Defensive Passives, but also ventures into the Warlock Archetype to grab "Duty to Exterminate", which synergizes with the Warmonger's Manic Slaughter. Build's Passives are allocated in a way that increases Survivability, Block, Resource Generation/Savings, and of course Life Leech, but they also provide some much-needed Damage (despite being a designated Tank, the character that uses this Build should be able to pull his weight on the offense). 

5. Skills

[PRIMARY DPS] Bladestorm
	Bladestorm is your main offensive ability. It makes you spin around and deal AoE damage to all enemies within range.
	Lethal Momentum increases the Rage generated by killing enemies with Bladestorm, allowing you to sustain it with high Rage. This also allows you to benefit more from the Maniac Slaughter Passive.
	Unfettered Determination allows you to hold down the button to channel the skill for a longer duration, which increases your damage output and synergizes the High Velocity Rotation
	High Velocity Rotation increases the attack speed of your allies, inside the Area of Effect, and yourself. This adds a nice group utility to your main DPS skill, which is very convenient to use.
	Cascading Rhythms is the most important offensive Passive for Bladestorm, which increases it's hit frequency after you Critically Strike an enemy. This will considerably boost your DPS.

[Crowd Control / AoE Utility] Tracker's Reach
	Tracker's Reach turns you into a Scorpion from Mortal Combat; Isn't that enough to know about this skill? It allows you to pull back enemies that are aggroed on your allies, which can save their lives. Tracker's Reach is also very satisfying to use (Get Over Here!).
	Arresting Claw causes the chain to apply Stasis Aliment on enemies that are pulled in. This improves the ability's CC potential even more and synergizes with the Unrelenting Hunt.
	Unrelenting Hunt causes your Tracker's Reach to pull in enemies from all directions, turning the skill into a very effective AoE Crowd Control ability.
	Preserving Momentum cuts some time from the ability's Cooldown.
	Ever Wakeful Justice reduces the ability's Cooldown allowing you to use it more often, which can be essential in back-to-the-wall situations.
	Restricting Chain also reduces the ability's Cooldown allowing you to use it more often.

[UTILITY] Sovereign Shout
	Sovereign Shout grants substantial buffs to both your defenses and DPS. It increases your Resistances and generates a lot of Threat if you choose the recommended modifiers for it.
	Hold the Line grants a buff to All Resistances per enemy hit by the shout. If you group enemies with Trucker's Reach before shouting, this will provide a very high Resistances bonus.
	Infectious Determination increased the duration of all buffs granted, making the skill much more efficient to use.
	Blade Eater causes your Sovereign Shout to generate more Threat. This converts this ability into an AoE Taunt, which is essential for a good Tank build.
	Belligerent Promises makes your shout generate even more Threat.
	Dawnbreaker makes your Sovereign Shout also apply Weakness to all enemies hit by its effect. This enables you to tank them more effectively by reducing their damage.

[UTILITY] Juggernaut
	Juggernaut a defensive Skill that gives you a protective shield that absorbs incoming damage. Upon receiving a set amount of damage, it will explode damaging nearby enemies. What makes this ability special is the fact that it is slightly overtuned and allows you to obliterate bosses with its Damage Reflection Modifier.
	Grudges Collected causes you to generate Rage when you receive damage while the Juggernaut is active. a very convenient Modifier that nicely synergizes with the build.
	Crushing Wall inflicts a portion of your character's Weapon Damage to all enemies attacking the shield. This minor retaliation effect ramps up Damage surprisingly quickly.
	Perpetual Osmosis which increases the maximum possible damage absorption at the cost of emptying the Fore Shield.
	Cold Steel reduces the cooldown, making the ability even more powerful.
	Equalizor allows you to cast Juggernaut on your allies, which can be life-saving. With this Modification, the ability turns into a powerful emergency cooldown that will let you keep your teammates alive after they make an otherwise grievous mistake.

[MOBILITY] Wings of Ishmir
	Wings of Ishmir allows you to perform offensive (and defensive) Leaps. It allows you to engage groups of unsuspecting enemies quickly and provides you with various powerful buffs. Moreover, it can be used to jump away from danger.
	Noble Bearing reduces the Skill's cooldown, for each enemy slain with this ability, allowing you to Leap again more quickly and benefit from the Skill's bonuses more often.
	Berzerker's Onslaught increases the amount of Rage generated by Wings of Ishmir. This Modifier synergizes with the build's passive setup, which makes it even better than usual.
	Twisting Harbinger makes your Wings of Ishmir pull all enemies in its Area of Effect to the place where you will land. This allows you to group up enemies in one place for your allies to eliminate quickly. It also improves your Crowd Control capabilities.
	Meritorious Crew which is the most important modifier for Wings of Ishmir, giving you (and your allies) a very high damage bonus after landing.

5. Recommended Gear

This section is still in "construction" as we don't have enough data to give you exact item proposals. We can't provide too detailed gear suggestions right now as there aren't many Unique and Legendaries revealed. However, below you can find the recommended Stat priority for items used in this build, which should help you get through the campaign. In the following days, we will try to update this section. 

Note: This build is based on a set of Melee skills and assumes that the player uses a Shield. We recommend Sword & Board setup, but Shield can possibly be switched for Catalyst, together with some of the Active Skills (if you go for Catalyst, you can switch Wings of Ishmir for Aether Jump, for example). 

If you have any other build requests please let us know in the comments section below. We are going to continue our work on Wolcen characters to fill up the list with all major build archetypes in the following weeks. Stay tuned. 

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Wolcen Studio.