I am building a defence character, which are the best 2 masteries to go with?

[TBag]

Hi,

I have decided to make a character that can take on any ammount, and any strength monster and stand there and just takes the hits without the monsters doing much damage at all, whether i block, dodge, or defend.

I was just wondering if any of you guys with the infinite TQ knowlege you have, can direct me as to which 2 masteries i should be going for.

At the moment i obviously only have the demo (i do not hex it as it spoils alot of the fun for me) and i love the dodge skill i have in my Warfare mastery and i plan to max this. Now the other obviously route to go for would be defence as well, but i was wondering if there is any other mastery that will help me survive better than the Defence mastery will?

I know when the game comes out i can look for myself, but i thought i'd try and get prepared to make a decent defence character :)

Thanks.

PS If you wouldn't mind keeping the skills and descriptions to a minimum as i don't want to ruin the game for myself.

[yoshi74]

There are several classes which have good defensive abilities. When sitting behind a shield is yours than obvisiosly defense is your mastey. There of cource other ways of defense. Slowing auras, ways to cripple the fighting abilities of a foe or (as you already saw in demo) skills who give evasion and damage resitance in the warfare tree.

[TBag]

There are several classes which have good defensive abilities. When sitting behind a shield is yours than obvisiosly defense is your mastey. There of cource other ways of defense. Slowing auras, ways to cripple the fighting abilities of a foe or (as you already saw in demo) skills who give evasion and damage resitance in the warfare tree.


Ok thanks.

I think i'll be more looking to make a character which can take hits/dodge hits as my defence ability.

[RyanPaul]

You definitely want to take the defense mastery. They wouldn't have called it defense if there was a better class for tanking the damage. The other mastery? Maybe nature or something. A defense/nature build would maybe be pretty interesting, and unique! I don't think a lot of people have thought about that combo.

[Phyrex]

All classes have some a way to migrate incoming damage. Some direct, others indirect.

- Spirit with deathchill aura is very useful. It also has a talent that gives you HP when your health drops below a certain point.
- Nature has a buff that doubles (!) your HP.
- Even earth has a talent that gives you some more armor and fire resistance.
Etc...

The question is which is best and which combination is most fun (and how much you value this).

Personally I really like Rogue/Defence combination. Focus primarily on dexterity, only putting points in strength for requirements. (With defence talent you can also lower strength requirements by a lot) This means you’ll have a very high dodge and crit rate. Perhaps not the absolute best combination in defence capability but certainly the one with the highest damage output. And killing your enemies many seconds before others can is also a way to prevent damage.

The most cookie cutter build would be Warfare + Defence. You won’t need much from the warfare tree but Onslaught is simply godly. Defence doesn’t have an active skill for the left mouse button, get at least one in my opinion, either Onslaught or Calculated strike (rogue).

[Matheau]

Pretty much all the masteries in some way or another would benefit Defense in creating a tank character.

[TBag]

I think i'll go either Warfare and Defence, or Warfare and Nature.

[fragme11]

I think i'll go either Warfare and Defence, or Warfare and Nature.
I'd have to agree with Tbag. Warfare also has a dodge skill. I'd probably go that route.

[raduneo]

Even a modifier from the Onslought skill gives you resistance to regular and piercing damage. ;)

[Matheau]

Certainly, but Storm and Earth both have ways of helping stop damage. Spirit has life leech and decreases the damage which undead can do. Rogue and maybe Hunter (I think Hunter's main stat is Dexterity) is going to allow you to pump up your Dexterity stat (which relates to defense) higher than you could do with any other masteries, and you could then just focus on the Defense skills primarily instead of the more aggressive ones, plus both those masteries give a better left click attack, which doesn't hurt. Then Warfare has the dodge skill and Onslaught and a few other skills that can be helpful. Nature has healing and some other defensive inclined skills.

It is all a matter of how you want to do it. Some masters will help you take less damage. But taking more damage and leeching it back with life leech from Spirit can also work. Using another mastery to boost Dexterity as high as possible and focusing on Defense skills could work. You could argue pretty much anything short of single Defense class as having merit (you get a good amount of stats from leveling the mastery trees up).

[raduneo]

Spirit is more valuable than you guys think. There are many skills specializing in returning life. There is 1, if not 2 auras that give you life back! But in truth, there are many possibilities. Altough for a very durable character on the battlefield, I would personally suggest Defense+Nature or Defense+Spirit.

[fragme11]

Spirit is more valuable than you guys think. There are many skills specializing in returning life. There is 1, if not 2 auras that give you life back! But in truth, there are many possibilities. Altough for a very durable character on the battlefield, I would personally suggest Defense+Nature or Defense+Spirit.
One of those auras no longer has life leach (Deathchill Aura was changed in retail), and the other one has an active health cost. The only skill in Spirit that is really good for defense is Life Drain and the Skeleton line of skills.

[Phyrex]

Deathchill indeed lost the life leech. But that doesn't make it useless all of a sudden. It slows attackers by a lot (plus lots more nasty debuffs) which is very useful for any melee class.
It's a great addition for a defender. Don’t just think +dodge % and + psychical resistance % are important for a defender. +100% HP (nature aura) is basically just the same as 50% less damage.

And just because Dark Covenant has an active health cost doesn't render it obsolete... The cost is fixed while a defender will have loads of HP so eventually it's insignificant. Plus you will *easily* be able to leech the HP back and lots more with the massive bonus.

If you want to be primarily a melee/defender but also an offense spell (life drain) then Spirit is a very good choice.

[Ion Silverbolt]

How you intend to play your character will be a big impact as well. If you're tanking for other players, then you may get away with less offensive skills. However, i'm in the camp which believes the best defense is a good offense.

Personally I think Rogue/Defense will be great. You have great melee damaging skills from Rogue skills +poison and bleeding attacks which may be helpful if there are some monsters with high physical resistences. You also have the tactic of hit once and run when needed. Let the creature bleed and die of poison.

You also have a bit of range with poison gas bombs and traps. Traps may be a good thing to have when there's monsters all over the screen. Something else for monsters to hit.

[catbong]

also, don't forget about elemental damage.

That pretty shield and dodge bonus won't do you any good vs a bunch of casters. Be prepared to load up on resist items, or figure out some other way around it (that talent in the nature tree, forget the name atm).

[sMMk]

A bit off topic, but regarding the life leech from the spirit mastery, have you guys tried it on undead enemies? I think you take damage when you cast it on one, at least that's what it appears whenever i do it. If this is the case i find it very cool that they focus on details like this (unlike other games where you can poison zombies and "bleed" skeletons).