I normally play a tank in other MMOs, but going through some of the posts about the xp grind it makes it sound like spear/staff players (which I assume is the standard tank build because one has a taunt) don't do so well. Does that mean it's better to just go pure damage and not be a tank in this game?

You would need to have taunt and reinforce on a spear and you'd have to keep holding block. Taunt doesnt really hold aggro that long enough but its still good since taunt gets all the mobs together and spear skills hit everything that they touch.

Tanking isnt viable really, especially at higher level dungeons when everything will one or two hit you regardless if you have a full vitality build. You also do really bad dps compared to other classes and you'd have to rely on party members to carry you through most higher areas.

One thing that does work for me though is if you have a staff with the healing circle thing, you could just use that, taunt and sit in the circle getting healed while blocking all attacks. Allowing your party to kill everything. Defensive is okay but you'd be relying on parties all the time.

Don't bother tanking, just look some jp videos on youtube of high lvls. Pure dmg is op.

Spear is actually a pretty funny weapon, period. From a damage aspect it seems totally 100% useless, but it is good AoE melee without having to use SP to achieve that. Plus if you slip up, you're not dead. Combined with a full Mind support player things can get pretty interesting, especially with the defense buff.

TBH, Spear needs an ability that lasts like 30s after usage that improves Atk with spears by 25~45% of your P.Def (which is REALLY high on primarily-vit builds btw), and it could probably at -least- match dual swords damage-wise. Doubt it can ever match Swords/Axes, who seem to get an obscene amount of Atk per point, but still.

spear users are not damage dealers, I think we can sort them in the support categories along with healer. Useful with a party, useless if solo.

and when it's a supporting role, if u win, ppl will be like "hmm I did all the damages". And if u lose, they will blame u.

going full Vitality seems to be more of 'For players who suck at dodging' then 'meatshield'

Aister wrote:spear users are not damage dealers, I think we can sort them in the support categories along with healer. Useful with a party, useless if solo.

and when it's a supporting role, if u win, ppl will be like "hmm I did all the damages". And if u lose, they will blame u.

Yeah, pretty much.

I noticed I can do some damage if all the blows from umm...yeesh, forget the move name, it's one of the common slot 3 ones on Cedar Spear though, actually connect. But it's barely 75% of the effect a Swordsman gets from Crimson Slash or the like. 90~95 damage against 250%.

Also @Meatshield comment, I was doing pretty well keeping everything off of this Archer I was running Kishi with earlier, except Chief Daruma, but he doesn't really count due to AoE spammage. XD

Liselotte wrote:Don't bother tanking, just look some jp videos on youtube of high lvls. Pure dmg is op.

That seems a waste of weapon sets and unbalanced..

Doguso wrote:

Liselotte wrote:Don't bother tanking, just look some jp videos on youtube of high lvls. Pure dmg is op.

That seems a waste of weapon sets and unbalanced..

What Lise isn't telling you is, same videos, if they even get tapped they're down lol. Hope they have a lot of Soul Eggs.

Also there is no delay going into/coming out of Guard, so you can launch some skills after you've blocked a move, anywho.

With the exp rate the way it is, I don't think tanking is viable at all if you just get one shot or half your health taken off by mobs in the quests that are further down.

Generally speaking anyway, this game doesn't seem like you're supposed to be able to tank 50 hits unless you're in a dungeon way below your level. Although correct me if I'm wrong, since I don't play many MMORPGs nor have I actually heard and played this game until the closed beta.

Aister wrote:spear users are not damage dealers, I think we can sort them in the support categories along with healer. Useful with a party, useless if solo.

I don't know about that, this video suggests otherwise, and it is exactly what I do to solo dungeons on hell difficulty as a spear user.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcRO4WYMecQ