The defensive guardian is a needed asset in any group. A guardian built for defense is not the most adept at dealing damage, but they can take a beating like no other. Defensive guardians make great main tanks for groups, raids, and are difficult to bring down in PvP and PvP mini games. Building that defensive guardian can be a tricky process but once done right you will have one hard to kill juggernaut.

JUGGERNAUT TREE



NAME




LEVEL


POINTS SPENT




DESCRIPTION


 

 

Toughness

 

 

10

 

 

5

Toughness is a required component to the Juggernaut tree. It does however provide a useful amount of invulnerability and natural health regeneration.

 

Weapon Master

 

 

 

 

 

15

 

 

5

Weapon Master will increase your one-handed weapon damage. This is useful for both soloing and aiding in keeping aggro on enemies in a group.

 

Savage Counterstrike

 

 

3

This feat will add an increase to your retaliatory damage when successfully executing the Counterstrike combo. As a defensive guardian your damage output is low so this can aid in adding to your damage output for the group.

 

Battle Cry

 

 

 

20

 

3

Battle Cry is a useful skill for the guardian and his group. Using this in a group will add a short burst of stamina regeneration to all group members within range.

 

Ardent Battle Cry

 

3

This feat is built onto the guardians Battle Cry. Investing 3 points will add a buff to the Battle Cry that will increase all group members physical and magical damage by 5%. While not highly useful for the guardian himself, this skill will allow your damage classes to increase their damage output by a fair amount for a short time.

 

Readiness

 

 

 

30

 

1

This feat is very useful to the guardian as it decreases the cooldown time on several key skills.

 

Stunning Charge

 

1

This is a great skill and one any guardian using a shield should invest in. This modified version of the charge skill enables the guardian to charge and stun an opponent making this skill useful in not only PvE, but PvP as well.

 

Improved Shield Bash

 

30

 

2

This skill can aid a guardian in both PvE and PvP. Once invested this feat will add a snare effect to the Shield Bash skill. This is not a necessity skill and the points can be invested here or in the guardian general tree skill of Stone Skin.

 

 

Stand Your Ground

 

 

 

 

 

40

 

 

 

1

This feat is a prerequisite for a more useful line. The effect of this feat skill can be put to good use until you acquire the rest of the line by providing increased resistance to knockback for your group. The drawback is that it reduces their movement speed until you invest in the next skill "Forced March."

 

Forced March

 

1

This is the next feat after "Stand Your Ground" and it removes the movement speed penalty. This skill is also the prerequisite to the last skill in this line called "Drive Them Back."

 

Drive Them Back

 

50

 

2

This skill is useful for a group in both PvE and PvP. Using this skill will add knockback resistance to all group members while also adding the possibility for all group members to knockback their opponents.

 

Improved Dulling Blow

 

40

 

5

This feat will augment your "Dulling Blow" combo with an extra chance to evade enemy attacks. A very useful item for any defensive guardian to have as it increases survivability.

 

Intervene

 

50

 

5

This is a great nd needed skill for a guardian wanting to play the main tank role. Intervene will give the guardian a skill that can generate more hate and cause the enemy to consider the guardian more of a threat. This feat is also a prerequisite to the guardian skill that will make you a defensive monster known as "Juggernaut."

 

 

Combo - Strike and Guard

 

 

60

 

 

5

This feat is the last prerequisite to be met before the guardian can obtain the "Juggernaut" feat. This combo also adds an excellent weapon to the guardians arsenal. "Strike and Guard" not only increases the guardians defense for a short time, but it also stuns the target. This makes this skill useful in both PvP and PvE.

 

 

Juggernaut

 

 

70

 

 

1

This feat turns the guardian into a defensive monster as it adds 8% Invulnerability to all melee defense, 4% Invulnerability to all magical defense and increases melee and magical damage by 30%. It lasts for 30 seconds and has a two minute cooldown. Juggernaut is a useful skill for tanking in groups, on raids, and even in PvP.

 

SOLDIER GENERAL TREE



NAME



LEVEL

POINT SPENT



DESCRIPTION

 

Recovery

 

10

 

5

This is the first required feat to advance the soldier general tree and adds an increased health regeneration.

 

Iron Skin

 

 

15

 

5

This feat will increase the guardian melee invulnerability by 5% with 5 invested points. Any guardian going for the defensive build should invest in this.
Improved Defensive Stance

 

5

A defensive guardian will want to max this feat out as it also adds an increase to the guardian's invulnerability ratings.

 

Goad

 

 

15

 

1

Goad is a skill any group seeking guardian will need to acquire. This is pretty much a single target taunt that will put the guardian at the top of a single target's hate list.

 

Hateful Strikes

 

3

This feat will grant the guardian a skill that when used will temporarily increase the hate generated by their attacks. A very useful skill for holding aggro.

 

 

Stone Skin

 

 

15

 

 

2

This feat increases the guardians magical invulnerabilities by 1% per point spent. Due to other items in my current build I only spent 2 points in this feat, but as you work on your build you may find a way to squeeze in more points to this feat. Even if you sacrifice other feats this feat can pay off big.

 

 

Surging Health

 

 

 

20

 

 

3

When the prerequisite of 5 points spent in Iron Skin and all three points are invested in this feat the guardian will gain a 6% chance of having a "Surging Health" proc when struck by a melee attack. This makes for a great survivability tool and can save the guardian in a pinch.

 

Counterstrike Stance

 

3

This feat will add a damage shield to the guardian's defensive stance. This feat is also the prerequisite for the "Anticipation" feat.

 

Sustained Rage

 

20

 

3

This feat increases the guardians physical damage. It will aid in damage and holding aggro, but it is also a prerequisite feat for "Cunning Deflection" making this feat worth the investment.

 

Cunning Deflection

 

25

 

1

This feat gives the guardian a skill that will decrease the damage received on the next attack when used. It will also have a chance at deflecting 50% of the damage from an attacker back at them.

 

Anticipation

 

25

 

1

This feat augments the guardian defensive stance with the ability to automatically have a chance at retaliating against an enemy attacker when struck.

 

 

Lifesaver

 

 

25

 

 

3

This feat adds natural health regeneration to the guardian's defensive stance. This is an increased survivability option for the guardian and one any defensive build should consider heavily. The more points invested (maximum of 3) the more natural regeneration added.

 

Goad Mob

 

 

30

 

 

1

This feat will grant the guardian an AoE taunt ability called "Goad Mob." When used this ability will taunt all enemies near the guardian making them more likely to attack him.

 

Improved Goad Mob

This feat increases the range of the "Goad Mob" feat skill increasing the range at which a guardian can taunt a group of enemies.

 


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Stacy "Martuk" Jones was a long-time news editor and community manager for many of our previous game sites, such as Age of Conan. Stacy has since moved on to become a masked super hero, battling demons in another dimension.

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