Albion Online - Guide to Being a Good Tank
In the realm of dungeon crawls and hardcore expeditions, as well as within the challenging Avalonian elite dungeons, the demand for tanks remains consistently high. This need is palpable in the game's chat, where players continuously seek out sturdy tanking partners.
Beyond the confines of PvE encounters, tanks prove indispensable in PvP scenarios. Here, they undertake pivotal offensive and defensive responsibilities, particularly in the grand scale Zerg vs Zerg (ZvZ) battles.
Albion Online offers a straightforward entry into tanking within the MMO landscape. With players only equipping one weapon, devoid of classes or race restrictions, and a maximum of six skills available at any given time, the mechanics remain refreshingly uncomplicated.
In this MMO, tanking predominantly revolves around adept movement, efficiently drawing enemy aggro, gathering and clustering adversaries, executing crowd control techniques, and employing effective taunts. Notably, the PvP environment places significant emphasis on crowd control tactics and defensive buffing, further solidifying the tank's pivotal role.
Tanking Mechanics
In Albion Online, maintaining aggro as a tank involves mastering the concepts of taunting, generating threat, and managing enemy aggression.
While taunt abilities are effective means of drawing enemy attention, threat generation offers an alternative method to achieve the same goal. Threat generation entails positioning yourself as the most significant threat in the eyes of your adversaries, compelling them to focus their attacks on you.
Securing high threat begins with initiating combat as the first point of contact and ensuring your group refrains from engaging additional enemies until they're strategically stacked. Prioritizing targets and refraining from attacking bosses until you've established control are crucial strategies.
Building threat can be achieved through various actions, including dealing damage, healing, shielding, or utilizing threat-generating abilities.
Players can optimize threat generation by equipping Heavy Armor and activating the Protective Instinct passive buff, which amplifies threat generation by 300%. Additionally, wielding a Mace paired with the Threatening Smash ability proves effective, as it boosts threat towards multiple enemies simultaneously due to its area-of-effect nature.
Basic Concepts
In Albion Online, navigating add phases effectively as a tank involves consolidating 2-3 pulls of enemies, typically totaling 8-10 adversaries. It's crucial to be mindful of the aggro range when pulling enemies together, as they may retreat to their spawn locations if drawn too far. During add phases, coordination with your healer is paramount to ensure smooth execution of your roles.
The Incubus Mace emerges as a formidable tank weapon, streamlining add pulls with ease. Prioritize equipment that accelerates cooldown reduction, allowing for more frequent ability usage. Abilities like Threatening Smash prove particularly beneficial when targeting each stack of adds efficiently.
During add pulls, collaboration with your healer is essential. Utilize defensive abilities such as Block while stacking, and activate Enfeeble Aura during intense damage phases.
Initiate all fights by leading the charge, ensuring your group refrains from premature attacks. Engage the first set of adds with auto-attacks, then proceed to subsequent sets within range. Employ circular movements to gather adds effectively, utilizing abilities like Air Compressor to control their movement.
Once all adds are gathered and stacked, unleash Shrinking Curse to reduce their maximum health and damage output.
Boss fights simplify matters further. Focus on maintaining aggro and managing cooldowns. Survival takes precedence, necessitating the reduction of boss damage and incoming damage, interruption of boss attacks, adherence to mechanics, and evading boss AoEs.
Mastering these tactics ensures effective tanking in any encounter.
Gear Progression
In Albion Online, progressing through the ranks entails accumulating Fame, enhancing your Item Power (IP), and advancing your Destiny Board. Making strategic choices along this journey can expedite your readiness for various situations and content, particularly in PvP and endgame scenarios.
Utilizing a Mace is fundamental for tanks across all content types. Achieving Mace Fighter 40 unlocks the coveted skill, Air Compressor, a valuable asset in both PvP and PvE encounters. It's imperative to equip a mace early on and prioritize leveling it on the Destiny Board.
While enhancing your proficiency with the Incubus Mace is beneficial, it's worth noting that all mace variants provide passive IP benefits. If progress with a specific mace type stagnates, consider switching to another type, such as the regular Mace or Heavy Mace, for a quicker IP boost and added versatility across different situations.
Progressing Plate Armor proficiency is equally vital. Initially, survival demands equipping Plate Armor on the Head, Chest, and Feet. Upon attaining Plate Armor Fighter status for the Head and Chest, consider transitioning the Feet slot to a more advantageous option for long-term benefits, enabling comfortable survival with two T6 Plate pieces.
For PvP-oriented tanking, focus on acquiring Hunter Shoes. Alternatively, for PvE endeavors, prioritize Royal Shoes until reaching Leather Shoe Fighter 30, at which point T6 shoes become viable options.
How Item Power (IP) Works
Item Power (IP) in Albion Online is determined by the tier and quality (enchantment levels) of your equipment. Higher-tier and better-enchanted items contribute more IP, resulting in a stronger character overall.
IP plays a pivotal role in determining your damage output, health, and other essential stats. As your IP increases, so does your character's effectiveness in both PvP and PvE encounters. This means that the higher your IP, the more formidable your character becomes relative to the content or opponents you face.
It's important to note that while some IP bonuses are visible directly through the stats displayed on your gear, such as increased damage or defense, others provide hidden bonuses. Mastery bonuses, for example, enhance your efficiency and effectiveness in using specific weapons or armor sets, contributing to your overall combat prowess beyond what is immediately apparent.