(PvE) which are the tankiest classes?

[reikken.4961]

Not really. when someone says "good survivability" instead of "tanky", I think of avoiding damage through dodging and such. Then thief and mesmer, sure. They are all about avoiding hits rather than just tanking them. But a class like tempest can get tanky through sheer damage reduction. Tempest has improved protection and can stack that with frost aura for 50% damage reduction, and then earth gives it another 10% damage reduction for a total of 55%, and also gives it a little more armor makes it immune to critical hits in earth, so it can face tank like a champ in between water attunement heals. Then it can also conjure an earth shield for even more armor and health, and gives it some barrier (which has a very armor/health feel) and blocks. Yeah tempest is a mage class, but it uses that magic to armor itself. It is very much "tank".

[FASTCAR.7831]

> @"Nimon.7840" said:

> No. Just no!!!!

>

> Dont take necro as a high tanky class. Ok. Lets separate:

>

> Witout gear:

> Its probably warrior the tankiest

> Mesmer and guard following

> Then ingi, necro, ele, ranger, rev, thief

>

> With gear:

> Tankiest: guard, mesmer, ele, rev, warrior

> Followed by ranger, necro, ingi, thief

>

> You can build all classes tanky as f....

>

> There are always good builds for sustain for every class. And for every class sustain is gathered different

 

Way way off

[ysnake.3619]

Most of these posts got it right.

 

You must differentiate between "potentially" tanky and "naturally" tank. For example, a good Thief is amazingly tanky (as they are very good at avoiding damage) - but you MUST actively avoid it, otherwise, you'll be practicing those Downed skills in no time. While Necromancer is "naturally" tanky - namely, they can take a beating or two from Open World mobs and are generally not prone to being downed by regular enemies you will encounter.

 

If you want **Active Tankiness** - classes are: Elementalist, Thief, Guardian, Engineer. These professions can avoid or mitigate damage through various means - but you MUST use those abilities/amount of dodges you have, meaning that you are actively participating in your "tankiness"

 

If you want **Passive Tankiness** - classes are: Warrior, Necromancer, Mesmer, Revenant, Ranger. These professions can also avoid damage, some are not so good at mitigating it - but you can take a hit or two before you are spamming that Dodge button.

 

Key note is that you can make ANY class exceptionally tanky. But, I don't think that there's a lot of people who want to spend several minutes defeating a random aggroed enemy.

 

Most of these are for Open World stuff. For Fractals and Raids, you must bring your own skillset to the "tankiness" of the class - not the class itself.

[Knox.8962]

I've played around with what is the tankiest character multiple times. As of yet, I have not been able to find anything that can take more abuse than [this Scrapper thing.](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASncoClchVWBGpC0ehFLjKs6+quS8YCgxjutf76G-jFyGQBbVVlyt/A50BQP1KAwDAIZXAACq8biKBDAkAMTzUAYmmpZammpZqyn8Jfyn8Jfy0MNTzUpAyclG-w)

It applies barriers to self every 3s, has a little over 50% damage reduction all the time, and can spike up to 67% reduction almost 50% of the time with the bulwark gyro. It sheds conditions, has tons of blocks available, and multiple passive regen sources. It would provide nearly no other value than being the tankiest thing imaginable, but it does seem to be the best tool for that job if ever it was needed.

[Eekasqueak.7850]

Well herald gets pretty tanky with stuff like infuse light, crystal hibernation, etc

[DeceiverX.8361]

As mentioned, passive vs active is a big deal. I don't understand why nobody has asked about context, either.

 

Is this raids or open world? Trash farming with lots of enemies or soloing champs 1v1? Does holding aggro matter? These things make a big difference.

 

Because it's absolutely hands-down the ranger in a solo environment. Druid building nomad's with bear or something is basically immortal because it's got both asinine amounts of passive and active negation, aggro maintenance, and healing.

[Uden Reavstone.3426]

To all of you who say that ele is not a good tank, my bunker ele says hi.

[SunTzu.4513]

For me Mesmer and Guardian are the most tanky one. If you get into the class mechaniks you easylie come out on every fight with near full live. Necro is also tanky but if your shroud is gone and your two dodges too you are an easy victim to the whole aoe carpets from bosses.

[SunTzu.4513]

For me Mesmer and Guardian are the most tanky one. If you get into the class mechaniks you easylie come out on every fight with near full live. Necro is also tanky but if your shroud is gone and your two dodges too you are an easy victim to the whole aoe carpets from bosses.

[Zin Dau.1749]

Mirage. Endless streams of dodge, evade, teleport, stealth, CC, heal, and of course, clones for taking aggro and misdirection. And Mirage kills hella fast on top of avoiding getting hit, because every action simultaneously does both offense and defense. Oh yea, in full offensive gear.

 

I'd say tanking is staying in melee range for extended periods, or even entire boss fight, without dying. Sure you can have high toughness, health, and damage-mitigation shields, but how long do they last and how often can you get them up? Are they one trick ponies?

 

[Aetatis.5418]

> @"Uden Reavstone.3426" said:

> To all of you who say that ele is not a good tank, my bunker ele says hi.

 

it has been mentioned a couple of times.

context (!)

 

you can build around being tanky af on all professions.

but i think most people think of builds that are competitive to some degree.

 

e.g. in pve you want to do as much dmg as possible and be "naturally" tanky. ele isnt - low health pool, few defenses/movement skill **that fit into dps builds**.

compare it to guard, a full dps on a dragonhunter is so much more tanky. you dont lose thousands of dps just for using the focus on your second weapon-set. but it comes with a block-skill and a blind. also onehand sword, got blinds and projectile absorb. f3 is a free fat block, f2 is an emergency heal/escape. there is even an offensive-based heal so you dont lose time to do dps.

 

[ugrakarma.9416]

> @"TwilightSoul.9048" said:

> I have recently tried creating the [tankiest build possible](http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNApdSlsAhahYrQwRIwPEH8DVuCzwN8WubQIgDgZ4PB-j1xGQB56JAQRlg+Y/hfp87V6DAwpAIWq/EAAB4oNaje0AH9oH9oH9o1oH9oH9oH9oH9oHtUAMpSD-w "tankiest build possible") across all Classes (just for fun - not trying to imply it is good in any way other than surviving) and have settled with Guardian. Both Aegis and Protection uptime make him very durable while the amount of self heal available to him is pretty insane as well. On top of that he has an Elite which makes him Invulnerable for a while and a healing Skill that Blocks incoming damage.

> (If someone has any ideas how he could be even tankier, please do tell me :D )

>

> But on a more serious note, usually you don't want to be _just_ tanky, you'll likely want to contribute something as well, either damage or boons or healing so Druid, Chronomancer, Reaper, Firebrand or PS Warrior are probably not quite as tanky as my Guardian Build but they all contribute a million times as much to a fight.

 

same, i tested full nomad gear around some specs on wvw, and guardian still the best.

[ugrakarma.9416]

about most tankness depende wich type u want.

 

the 'natural' tankness is warrior, since u can safely using any zerk gear type.

 

guardian have most tank traits and skill, but dont have "natural" high HP pool like warrior, in a full zerk u will have only near 11k HP, ... warrior have like 24 or 28k hp.