Tanking guide: tanks by class

The first part of the tanking guide by LordGlav of the Sieghardt server: an overview of the four tank classes - Temple Knight, Paladin, Dark Avenger and Shillien Knight. It collects players' general conclusions about these classes while skipping "common truths" (such as elves having lots of self-buffs): the author tried to stay neutral, summarizing recurring opinions from forum posts about tanking in Lineage II and adding his own experience. The guide was written in the Chronicle 4 (Scions of Destiny) era and also mentions level 76+ skills. Continued in advanced strategies, AoE and raids.

Common to all tanks at high levels

At high levels all four tanks get:

• Ultimate Defense with effect 3, which forces players to switch targets to the tank;
• passive resistances to poison, bleeding, Sleep and Root;
• and, most importantly, a skill that greatly increases resistance to stun and paralysis.

Temple Knight

The Temple Knight (TK) is the most "PvE" (Player vs Environment) of all the tanks.

In PvE it is the best AoE tank: it has a 360-degree shield block, a high block and evasion chance thanks to DEX, and high speed to run away from trouble.

• HP is between the Shillien Knight and the Human tanks: not bad, but not great. Some prefer an HP weapon for it, but many choose a sword with Focus.
• The healing cubic keeps you alive a bit longer and slightly reduces the party's mana use, but most of the time it is not very useful.
• Its undead-tanking skills cost very little mana, but they are really useful only in PvE.
• Guard Stance - a skill with constant MP drain that gives a ton of P. Def - was often the main reason to become a TK. However, once the Shillien Knight got it too, it stopped being unique.
• In small parties, the ability to cure very high-level bleeding and poison on itself has always been handy.

In PvP the TK seems limited at first glance. But its high speed and M. Def let it catch and destroy lightly armored classes such as nukers: its HP and healers keep it alive while it takes down the mage in front of it. Speed is its friend: the TK can land a few quick hits and run, and even slowed it runs fast.

• Two cubics: Healing Cubic and Storm Cubic. The Healing Cubic is usually considered useless because it never heals you when you really need it. It was improved in earlier chronicles (for example, it began healing party members), but it remains rather weak. The Storm Cubic is not considered strong either, but now and then it adds a shot.
• Being able to carry 3 cubics while only able to summon 2 was always a sore point for the TK. This changed in C4 when summoners gained "mass summoning" of cubics onto their party. Ordinary tanks and players can carry only 1 cubic, while a TK can carry several. A party of various summoners and several TKs (now with THREE nuking cubics, or two attack cubics and one debuffing cubic) fights much more effectively.
• Entangle - the bane of all archers and nukers and one of the TK's most effective tools. A slowed enemy is a dead enemy. A TK who forgets this skill seriously lowers the PvP chances of both himself and his side.

At high levels (76+) the TK gets:

• Shield Bash - interrupts a player's current skill and disarms them;
• Touch of Life - the ultimate healing skill: at the cost of 1,621 HP it restores a large part of HP, grants protection from Cancel and debuffs, and increases the power of HP-restoring magic;
• Magic Mirror - a self-buff that reflects 100% of magic debuffs back onto the caster. It helps high-level TKs earn the title of "mage hunter" in C4.

Paladin

The Paladin is a hybrid of healer and tank: mainly a tank, partly a healer. A Paladin can heal friends (or monsters...) as strongly as a Bishop, or even more, but cannot sustain it: four or five heals drain all its mana.

• Sacrifice - a unique skill that sacrifices your own health to heal another player for a somewhat smaller amount.
• Shield Stun - the Human tanks' skill, the only non-damaging stun in the game and the one with the highest success rate of all stuns. In PvE the stun lasts about 5 hits (by anyone) before it breaks; in PvP you can count on only about 1-3 hits.
• Majesty - a unique Human tank self-buff: it raises P. Def like Shield 3 but costs 8 Evasion. Even a low level 52 dagger will be able to hit you, so be ready.

In PvE Paladins are considered the best tanks against undead. Their high CON together with an HP weapon makes them great at soaking most hits. Unlike the TK, Paladins are slow. Their 360-degree shield block skill costs no mana but trades block strength for blocking all around. Nobody is better at hunting undead or monsters with Dark attacks: high HP and cheap skills that add Dark resistance and damage against undead give the Paladin a decisive edge as a tank against these targets. The Paladin has several other undead skills, including an attack that damages undead and an AoE debuff on undead P. Atk. But be careful: the debuff's success rate is rather low, which makes it effective only against many monsters at once.

In PvP, because of the Paladin's extremely defensive nature, some call it a "Combat Medic". Since CP was introduced, a Paladin can spend all its mana and all its HP and still have about 3,000 CP to fight on at high levels. Final Fortress, a passive tank skill that raises P. Def when HP is low (below 30%), especially helps protect the Paladin's CP after its HP is spent. A successful tank role lets Paladins stay among the very last targets in PvP, letting them throw an annoying stun or a final heal that tips the balance in their party's favor.

Builds:

• Most Paladins playing the combat medic lean toward -STR +CON, -STR +DEX, -INT +WIT to get the most blocks, HP and casting speed they can.
• A newer trend is Paladins dropping the healer role and going the DD route. They sacrifice CON for DEX and STR, pick Focus weapons and armor that boosts their DD abilities (Blue Wolf, Tallum or Majestic Heavy). Bows are also a favored weapon of DD Paladins. Enemies do not usually expect exceptional damage from a tank class, and a few critical hits from a Focus Damascus or a bow quickly change their minds: they thought you were a weak DD, and now they are close to defeat themselves.

At high levels the Paladin gets:

• Shield Slam - interrupts physical skills and disarms, helping the Paladin become a melee DD;
• Physical Mirror - a self-buff that works like Magic Mirror but reflects debuffs from physical attacks onto the caster;
• Touch of Life - like the TK's: at the cost of 1,621 HP it restores a large part of HP, grants protection from Cancel and debuffs, and increases the power of HP-restoring magic.

All this gives Human tanks a noticeable advantage over classes that rely on physical attacks.

Dark Avenger

The Dark Avenger (DA) is a summoner-tank hybrid: more tank, partly summoner.

• The DA's Drain has the same power as other magic skills. It has no passive M. Atk skills, which makes the drain rather weak, but it is used just as often.
• It keeps its level 35 self-heal, but even with BSpS this only makes the DA a magnet for arrows and nukes.
• The DA's main appeal is its summon, the Dark Panther. In an age of archers and nukers with SS and BSpS delivering huge attack speed, the panther proved unviable, but thanks to the C4 improvements to the summon system, summons are a real threat again.
• Shield Stun and Majesty - the same as the Paladin's (see above).
• Hamstring - the bane of all archers and nukers and one of the DA's most effective tools. A slowed enemy is a dead enemy. A DA who forgets this skill seriously lowers the PvP chances of both himself and his side.
• Life Drain will not deal more than a few hundred damage to players of your level because of their M. Def, but against targets with low M. Def, poor jewelry (rings, earrings, etc.) or a lower level the damage is much higher.

In PvE taking a DA into your party is no mistake. DAs are the only tanks without a 360-degree shield block, so a DA must always rely on skill or luck to keep the shield between itself and the monsters. They have tons of HP like Paladins, but no passive undead skills. Instead they have Corpse Plague and Corpse Drain, which, used properly, add some survivability to the party. Corpse Drain returns about 100 HP + 10 x skill level from each corpse for a small amount of mana - not enough to solo, but enough to help a small party. Corpse Plague is really good only at high levels: because of the DA's low M. Atk at low skill levels, it very rarely lands on monsters of your level.

In PvP the DA used to be the sole king. It still has decent power, but not like before. As a summoner-tank hybrid, in most PvP it acts as support for its own panther. The usual DA strategy is to stun the opponent, slow them with Hamstring and use drain while the panther deals most of the damage. HP weapons are common and, some say, the most preferable.

About the panther: the Dark Panther is dangerous to those who do not attack it and deadly to those who ignore it. Once targeted, it is just a regular monster: a ranged DD kills it in 3 to 6 hits, a melee DD in about a couple. It has high P. Atk, HP and base run speed, but low P. Def, M. Def and critical rate, even buffed. Despite these drawbacks, the panther can do real damage to an enemy (especially with pet soulshots). Some DAs abandon their HP heritage and build like DD Paladins, but this trend is less developed among DAs than among Paladins.

At high levels the DA gets:

• Touch of Death - the "ultimate curse" granted by the class's dark nature: at the cost of 1,338 HP it greatly reduces the target's maximum CP for a short time, lowers its resistance to debuffs and reduces the effect of healing on it. It can only be used at less than 75% HP;
• Physical Mirror - a self-buff that reflects debuffs from physical attacks onto the caster.

Shillien Knight

The Shillien Knight (SK) was long called the worst tank, but the class has come a long way and its true power is now starting to show. Sometimes called the "mage tank", the SK is definitely the most offensive of all the tanks.

• Unlike other tanks, the SK can effectively use both regular and magic swords. SA choices are Focus and often Haste for melee swords, and Acumen or Magic Power for magic weapons.
• Magic power is what really helps the SK. Small weapon bonuses usually mean little to mages, but for a tank with no passive M. Atk skills a small amount makes a big difference in debuff success rate and magic damage.
• The SK's main weakness is low CON and HP: stuns land on it as easily as on mages, and unlike other tanks the SK has no M. Def self-buff.

In PvE and PvP the SK has many options. With the highest power of all the tanks and good damage, it can solo effectively. The DA has its panther and the Paladin is good against undead, but both are limited. At the highest levels the SK has four ranged nukes:

1. The Dark Elf racial Drain - returns 20% of the damage dealt as HP.
2. The racial Ice Bolt - a chance to slow, effect 2 (an effective power slowing attack).
3. A special SK nuke - deals half the damage of the racial Drain but returns 100% of the damage as HP and costs less mana.
4. Lightning Strike - perhaps the scariest: damage plus a chance of a 2-minute paralysis.

The SK also has the racial Poison, Bleed, Hex and Power Break skills at its disposal. Needless to say, it is now clear why many SKs use weapons with high M. Atk. And we must not forget the Guard Stance mentioned above, added to the SK's repertoire from the TK in C3, and the 360-degree shield block.

The SK's three cubics:

• Draining Cubic - deals direct damage and returns part of it to the SK as HP;
• a debuffing cubic - a chance to apply Hex, Power Break or Wind Shackle. This means that at best the SK can put 7 debuffs on an enemy. Against tanks, archers and other heavily buffed classes, even if a debuff does nothing, stripping some of their buffs is practically guaranteed;
• a cubic that poisons enemies.

The SK's weaknesses:

• Low CON makes it a stun magnet.
• Low HP shows in PvE: a Bishop cannot heal an SK as effectively as other tanks.
• The SK is not as fast as the TK, and it is the only tank without an M. Def self-buff.
• Many feel that even with all its defensive abilities the SK still cannot be a real tank and classify it as a "support tank". In that role the SK can be a lot of fun: instead of risky Hate you can use your debuffs, drains, nukes, bleeds and poisons - everything you could not normally afford if you spent your MP on Hate. Just hope you do not pull aggro and the healer does not forget about you.
• Mana use: Shield Fortress, Guard Stance, debuffs, nukes, cubics - it is all MP. Some see this as a gift, others as a curse.
• Cubics last only 15 minutes and disappear if you die. This can be rather expensive.

In C4 the SK, like the TK, Paladin and DA, got some weak skills and the next Ultimate Defense, but it also got some very interesting skills. Like the DA, it got a new, very strong dark attack that "casts a dark curse at the cost of the player's HP, removes enemy buffs and reduces maximum CP, debuff resistance and the healing the enemy receives; can be used when the player's HP is below 75%". At high levels the SK also gains a very mana-hungry shield stun and the Magic Mirror self-buff, which reflects 100% of magic debuffs back onto the caster - it helps the SK against magic-using classes.

At high levels (76+) the SK gets:

• Shield Bash - interrupts a player's current skill and disarms them;
• Touch of Death - at the cost of 1,338 HP it greatly reduces the target's maximum CP for a short time, lowers its resistance to debuffs and reduces the effect of healing on it; usable only at less than 75% HP.

Author of the original article: LordGlav