Need help building a typical Valkyrie Tank

[PillowWizard]

Hello, coming back to the game after a while being away. Just started again, decided I wanted to make as "heroic" a character as possible. In short, become a Valkyrie and let Lumia Soulbind my character. Already did that with Keros on a spellblade character. I was wondering how to build a character like that, since they seem to want as many stats as possible. Spellblade was Strength, Willpower, Agility and was a glass cannon. Tanky Valk seems trickier. Want Strength to deal respectable damage and help maintain damage. Want Willpower to make powers like Smite and Charge Blade hit as hard as possible and give it that 'paladin' feel. Want Agility so that I can go before my allies and properly draw aggro, as well as the accuracy and evasion bonuses. Want Cunning because Crit Chance and Power are always nice. Want Presence because it's just nice overall to give modest boosts to my companions.

Of course, I can't have it all. Not without severely gimping my character to a 'master of none' sort of thing. So I'm just wondering, how should I distribute stats? Build like Spellblade and slap armor on to hopefully not immediately die when something sneezes on me funny? Or is there a better way to build effective tanks?

 

[Lostname475]

I would go str/tgh/wil and use a sword and shield. Powers would be something like charge weapon/flamebrand/thunderbrand, cleave/whirlwind, group heal(?) for the paladin aspect, rime veil (or bring Ice Cait and have her cast it on you so any attacks against you deal damage to the attacker) and probably unbreakable as the ult? I would do this on warrior over white mage personally so you don't lose initiative from heavy armour.

this is probably not optimal but it should work decently enough?

 

[SeveringCrisis]

argent smite, shielding smite or celestial form (valkyrie soulbind power) would be better than group heal as you can just have a dedicated healer like etheryn for that and you can choose aurora of vigor(valkyrie soulbind power) over unbreakable if you're planning to soulbind to lumia, which has bonuses if you possess either guldring or dawnsword. Bull rush would be good for threat gen (and IIRC has alt text on use for those with wings)

 

[PillowWizard]

So, to clarify, I will be using Etheryn's healing specialization (Cait until I unlock it). Not sure who else to use. Maybe azzy's nuke tease set?

Str/Tgh/Wil, sacrificing Agility's acc enhancement and initiative bonus. Dawnsword and a Shield, Guldring. Starting as a Warrior to avoid the Heavy Armor Penalty that gets incurred for using Heavy Armor.

Skills being Aurora of Vigor (Ult), Argent Smite, Whirlwind for AOE, Charge Weapon?

Is this about right?

 

[Lostname475]

you can't get guldring and dawnsword at the same time but that looks pretty solid yeah. I'd take shielding smite over argent personally as the extra defense probably beats the small healing from argent? although argent deals holy and shielding fire so argent is definitely the better damage type. I'd say use Bull Rush or rime veil as your encounter , both are pretty good imo. Rime veil is probably better for tankiness but bull rush is very good for drawing aggro so either works. If you've got tanking covered and have a healer companion you probably want a dps companion, so I'd suggest spirit totem Arona? or Spellblade Cait maybe

 

[SeveringCrisis]

whirlwind's a level 8 power, so cleave before upgrading to whirlwind when you've reached it (unlocks from isadora in khor'minos I believe)

Azzy's nuke tease is fine but be aware that some enemies straight up ignore tease so azzy can circumstantially become useless. Spirit totem arona or hexblade
cait are indeed more reliable companions, though you'll have to pay attention to hexblade cait's weapon shifting damage type per day.

Once you reach level 8, war banner also becomes available so you may prefer that over other encounter powers. Combining that with max strength and mare's ring can get you around 30% heal over time during the encounter.

Cloak of the deeps as well, available from serena in khor'minos, there's also heart of oak, available from continuing main quest in khor'minos which is the highest armor increasing necklace in the game although you'll have to make specific decisions to obtain it.
Alternatively, Nina/Antonina's quest in wayfort can lead you to getting the best spellpower increasing necklace in game. (Need to find a ghost and bring her outside the wayfort during second quest)
Freeing Oma from her genie lamp (Once again obtained from khor'minos) also gives you the most general elemental resistance increasing necklace I think, although kiyoko's necklace obtained from completing den of foxes has higher stats in exchange for less resistances.