THIS POST GETS LONG, THERE IS A TL;DR AT THE BOTTOM FOR A GENERAL GUIDELINE ON SKILLS!
IF ANYTHING IS WRONG IN WHAT I'VE SAID PLEASE CORRECT ME! FOR THE SAKE OF NEWBS AND NOOBS EVERYWHERE!
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There are several different ways to build your tank as of now.
In terms of stats the most popular stat builds I can think of are.
Dex/vit/int
Dex/vit/mnt
Dex/vit
And full vit.
The reason most tanks use Dex is due to the hit rate and damage you obtain from using the stat. In some builds, Dex is also used for cast time. The most important part for most builds is tge hit rate so you can hold aggro.
Do note that the skill Provoke will never miss and does not need hit rate to hit. Magic such as Wall, also does not miss as of yet and can hit for 1 dmg even with negative values of magic attack.
Other builds that aren't advertised as much are builds that include Str as a damage stat or mix dex/str. These builds are more versatile in the weapons available. This is due to Staffs, Swords, and 2hs getting damage from all of them in equal or greater value than dex.
Special staffs such as the Morning Star make very good use of the str stat and are still very viable with the new swords that are out.
Swords generally fit as a filler weapon to most tanks as of now.
2hs are viable if you're willing to learn hard hit and use Martial Art skills. These builds sacrifice a shield and are not as sturdy as a one handed weapon and shield build. They are still very durable when built currently though.
On skills, the rule of thumb right now is.
Survival Skill Tree
-Hp Rest - lvl 5 (pre-req for hp boost)
-HP Boost - lvl 10 (hp +1100 or so at lvl 10)
Knight Tree
-Provoke - lvl 5 ~ 10
Lvl 1 ~ 7 = 400 mp
Lvl 8 ~ 9 = 300 mp
Lvl 10 = 200 mp
I personally prefer Provoke at lvl 10 myself.
-Rage Blade lvl 5 ~ 10
This skill is your damage skill and a aggro generation skill. The aggro is not better than Provokes but it serves as a way to keep aggro and deal damage for Tanks. Builds that have invested in damaging stats will find tgemselves hitting hard with it. You'll still hit hard as a pure vit build as well. Albeit only about half as hard as damage invested tanks.
Keep in mind though, this skill only works with Swords.
-Assault
This skill is debatably useful or useless. At lvl it's almost useless but is much better and extremely advantageous at lvl 10. The skill causes you to teleport to the target and cause knockback with a chance to also cause the slow status. This skill is great for positioning on bosses and makes good use of Wall for some builds that choose to combo the skills together. This skill is not very damaging and is mostly for reposition/effect inflicting.
This skill works with all weapons.
-Parry
This skill acts like the Guard you have when using shields. It does not activate on shield procs however and only initiates for physical damage. Parry has no animation except for a white flash and does not cause your character to go into a guard animation that roots your character. It also does not work on magic attacks and is likely calculated into activating after guard does not. This skill does not replace guard but it does buffer you incase guards do not happen, it also works with all weapons.
Shield Skills
-Shield Mastery
Lvl 5 or max. All on you to decide on that. Some people don't mind the aspd decay, others do, but you need lvl 5 for Shield Bash.
Bottom Shield Tree Aura
-Protection and Aegis
These two skills are party buffs.
Protection provides def and reduces magic def and Aegis serves as the reverse of Protection.
These are your only form of support ability and are currently the only party buff outside of the support trees regenerative healing skills.
I have no idea how much of an increase either of these skills give or if they can be stacked at the same time. Or if stacking them negates the effect of the other. If you can find some that can explain just how much defense this gives overall, i'd love to find out.
As is though, they are your only party support outside on tanking so it's your choice on getting them for actual use or for pre reqs at lvl 50. General consensus is to get them at least lvl 5 as a safety net for future patches. I'm going to skip it and leave it for support characters to get myself.
-Shield Bash
Plz get lvl 10
I highly recommend getting Shield Bash lvl 10 from the Shield Tree when available. As the stun by itself reduces a ton of potential damage and saves time by keeping your target immobile for a lengthy period of time. I feel it's 5 seconds but i've never timed it. If you can't afford it in your build, find a way. It does no damage but I guarantee you won't regret it.
-Force Shield
Increase hp by a static (skill lvl * 50) formula with some defense tacked in when using a shield. It's a nice general boost, but I feel that 5 points is enough for the skill as a pre req for the future. Reason being that 250 hp and some def that is unmodified by vit isn't going to hinder you much now or in the future. Others will disagree and will swear by the skill. I recommend at least planning to get it in your build at some time though. Simply because it doesn't hurt your build.
Magic Tree
-Charge
I still find this skill more harm then good in most occassions but others swear by it for it's boss farm potential. I recommend you get it since i'm a black sheep in that regard.
Lvl 0 ~ 10
Note that this skill has reduced cast speed with staffs and magic tools. It is at it's slowest when not using a staff or magic tool. The cast speed is also unreducable.
There are brackets between the skill levels that reduce cast time of the skill. The level of the skill also increases how much mp will be gained.
I believe the formula is (200 + (skill lvl * 10)) to get you 300 mp at lvl 10 and 210 mp at lvl 1.
I haven't tried to look at the skill level by level in awhile though
After those your skill points are free to save or use in about any place you can think of. Other users may be able to give a better idea of what to do from here.
Tl;Dr
Skills
Hp rest - lvl 5
Hp Boost - lvl 10
Provoke - lvl 5 ~ 10
Rage Blade - Lvl 5 ~ 10
Shield Bash - lvl 10
Force Shield - lvl 5 ~ 10
Aegis - lvl 0 ~ 10
Protection - lvl 0 ~ 10
Charge - lvl 0 ~ lvl 10 (prefered lvl 1)