[Guide] spuds miniguide to melee tank building (incomplete)

this guide was made as a response to another users topic. i went a little overboard and decided it would be put to better use in this forum than in a topic that would die in a day or so.



ahh! melee tanking! something i know a bit about!

first off, a short summary of prayer and its leveling. if you use prayer in combat against a melee pure, they will call you a noob. that is not a possiblity, it is a fact. prayer levels your combat interestingly... from level 1 it takes 4 prayer levels to advance a combat level, then 8 from there on out. so the scale looks like this:

prayer level	cmb level increase
1	0
5	1
13	2
21	3
29	4
37	5
45	6
53	7
61	8
69	9
77	10
85	11
93	12

so to minimize cmb level and maximize prayer, raise it to 1 under the cmb increase point. so levels 4, 12, 20, 28, 36, 44, 52, 60, 68, 76, 84, and 92 get you the most bang for your buck. this will come in handy when deciding where to raise your prayer level.

its almost impossible to get up to tanking defense levels without raising your other combat skills. and as a melee tank, your main combat style will be melee. from here you can chose one of a few roles. you can be strength oriented low accuracy, accuracy oriented low strength, or strength-accuracy balanced. no matter what, as a tank, you should at least have 70 defense, if not 80. remember, part of being a tank is that your defense is typically the highest stat you have.

attack: delicate balance. do you want barrows/whip? or just dragon weapons? attack is either or. not in the middle.

strength: is hitting all that high really important to you? thats why you are a tank right... you don't care. go with at least 50 to beat legends to use the d sq in staking. the higher you get, the higher you must raise your defense proportionally, or else you'll lose tank status. must be at most 5 levels under your def level.

defense: the whole reason you're here. make it or break it. if you're sticking with dragon and low str, you can get away with just 70, but if you go for barrows and whip, you need to get at least 80.

prayer: as discussed earlier, prayer could make or break your fight. its totally optional. for prayer, do one of the following:
1 prayer: not a prayer user
28 prayer: protect item for pking
36 prayer: use of all 3rd level melee booster prayers
44 prayer: protect from melee prayer
52 prayer: smite your opponents
60 prayer: long lasting use of all prayers. you can pray your hidden prayers the whole fight.
(some levels raised to the point of maximum efficiency

magic: what? magic? but i'm a melee based tank! RONG!!! as a tank, it's your duty to block all attacks. with 70 defense you can block ranged and melee, but magic beats you to a pulp. your magic level should equal your defense level to provide equal protection from magics, wherever you may find them

ranging: you can do whatever you want here... it wont help you, it'll just raise your combat level higher than you need it due to the hp gain. unless you cannon all the way... otherwise ranged is useless to a melee tank. if you really want to, get 70 and no higher. just enough to wear black d hide to look intimidating.

so, put it all together, and it looks like this.

hit: 63
atk: 60
ste: 50
def: 70
rng: 1
pry: 1
mg: 70
total combat level for a skeleton tank: 69

whereas if you put up at the max for everything we covered.

hit: 77
atk: 70
ste: 75
def: 80
rng: 70
pry: 60
mg: 80
total combat level for a fully loaded tank: 93

as you can see there is quite a bit of difference in levels... the lower you are, the closer to an actual pure you appear to be. so a skeletal tank would probably work best. notice the hp levels as well. these are at the highest they will be if you raise your stats through pure combat, so quest experience, pest control, and other factors have not been taken into account. thus, the hp level may be higher or lower depending on circumstances.

now, for equipment...tanks do 1 of 2 things. differentiate, ore assimilate.

differentiation, is wearing the best defensive gear you can. in the duel arena, that would be:

torag's helm

obsidian cape

amulet of fury

torag's platebody

new crystal shield/ dragon square shield

torag's platelegs

barrows gloves

rune boots

fremenik ring of your choice

differentiation shows everyone that you ARE a tank and not to take you lightly. you're showing off that you use a different strategy for melee combat. this is the more common of the options.

the second choice is assimilation, which is basically the opposite of differentiation. you wear the best offensive gear around. max strength bonus, accuracy bonus, etc. the armor for that is as follows:

berserker helm/ warriors helm

lol, good luck getting the fire cape =P

amulet of fury

pennance torso

rune defender

any legs that req 40 defense or less

barrows gloves

runeboots

warriors ring or berserker ring

assimilation's goal is to blend in with the crowd. you want people to think you are a rune pure, and not a tank. if you're at the arena, you may keep the helm of nietiznot and dragon/barrows legs in your inventory, just don't let anyone see you in them while you are seeking an opponent. remember. nietiznot screams that you have 55 defense, and barrows screams 70.

note that if you assimilate, you will hit much higher and more often than if you differentiate.

THE MIDDLE PATH: of course, you most likely wont form a tank to the exact specifications above, so here are some options that the rich kids use to tank, and rather effectively i might add...

BY POPULAR DEMAND BY THE OFFENSE OBSESSED GOONS WHO ALL USE PURES THEMSELVES AND NOT TANKS...

A very good balance of power and defense, is the verac's barrows set. since you wont be hitting too high under most tank circumstances, the veracs set special ability provides you with a decent chance of ignoring your opponents defense bonuses for a turn. this essentially is like swapping out your opponents defending capabilities to that of a goblin. the end result, is that you hit closer to your max much more of the time, and hopefully speed up your rate of damage distribution.

a handy item to have is the dragon battle axe. with a quick click of the special button, you're stats will alter from a tank's to more of the balanced players stats. ie, if you had 70 attack, 60 strength and 80 defense, you'd lose 15% of attack and defense, and gain 20% strength, making you 60 attack, 72 strength, and 68 defense. if you prefer to hit higher, and don't have the potions to do it, the dragon battle axe is your friend.

a new friend to the tanking world, is the berserker neclace. this neclace is a very dangerous item to both the user and the target...

to the disadvantage of the wielder, this neclace reduces all accuracy bonuses by 10, and all defense bonuses by 20. to pures and balanced players, that accuracy and defense loss can be a major hurt, but the defense loss doesn't really hurt a tank all that much. to the disadvantage of the enemy, this neclace gives the wielder a +7 strength bonus, and gives a 20% hidden strength bonus while wielding an obsidian melee weapon. piled with the dragon battleaxe special ability, and the obsidian weapons already having better stats when compared to dragon weaponry, this combination can prove very deadly. on a tank, the only major flaw is that accuracy is still pretty low. thanks to the magic of max hit calculators, and a little deduction, i'll list the max hits with this weapon at various strength levels. this chart shows the max hit range at each listed strength level, assuming you have drunk a sip of super strength potion, or used the dragon battle axe special attack, and are using the ultimate strength prayer. damage range is based on having just the weapon and the neclace, and having the max str gear in combination with weapon and neclace.

Obsidian split sword
strength	50	55	60	65	70	75
max hit	19-24	20-25	21-27	24-30	25-32	26-33

Obsidian knife
strength	50	55	60	65	70	75
max hit	16-21	18-24	20-26	21-27	22-30	24-32

Obsidian mace
strength	50	55	60	65	70	75
max hit	19-25	21-26	22-28	25-31	26-33	27-36

Obsidian maul
strength	50	55	60	65	70	75
max hit	N/A	N/A	27-33	30-36	32-38	34-40

Note: i strongly advise not fighting a pure under their terms like this... even with a high defense level, if you wear no armour and have -20 to all def stats, you WILL be killed by 3 or less DDS special attacks. this method is for fighting people who let you wear all your armour. i also advise that you use a rune defender over a toktz ket xil. while a xil will more than negate the defense loss from the aulet and increase your strength, the defender will negate the necklace's defense drain, and increase your accuracy, which is precious to you with such high power behind your hits... the last thing you want is to hit 5s and 6s due to low accuracy.

HEY! DID YOU NOTICE? for those who ask "why don't you talk about pking? you only say what to use at the duel arena!" my answer is "because i suck at pking" im a nervous wreck in the wilderness. i shake more than the women of "bay-watch" do... so for pking you'll have to strategize on your own.

lastly, you may ask, "how do you know about tanks mr. spud?"
the answer: I am one...

	hits	attack	strength	defense	ranged	prayer	magic
current	75	70	70	81	65	56	67
end goals	85	70	70	90	70	70	90

lucky me, i started being a tank way too late. so my format is a little screwed up. but i have a nice little guy who'll make a fine skeleton tank in the works. I hope this miniguide helps all of my brothers and sisters on their way to annihilating... DEFENSE NOOB STYLE.


Note: this guide is not meant to completely cover all aspects of melee tanking. there is much much more out there i have yet to describe that all comes from character customization. please don't complain that something is missing. if you have a suggestion, pm me and i may add it in, with acknowledgments to you, if i believe it is worthwhile to add in the guide. also, any major typos or blunders i any have made, pm me about that too.

"differentiation, is wearing the best defensive gear you can. in the duel arena, that would be:"

WRONG. In staking, you're better off wearing full veracs for the ability to penetrate defence.

Actually he's right, with 70 50 80 let's say, you won't be hitting any harder than many normal people your level. Therefore, it's obvious you have to hit more often. That leaves with 2 options, raising atk and therefore, your combat, and according to you, your def level too, OR you can use Verac's special and you can hit more often than if you were whipping with a d sq.

True, torag's armor gives more defence bonus, but the difference is very insignificant and I think only appears in the helmet. It's better to just sacrifice that minimal amound of defence bonus and hit much more often than to just dds and whip.

You say it's open for suggestion yet when a suggestion was made, you say that you aren't making a real guide? Sorry, but that seems strange to me.

I think what Kill3rz and I are trying to say is that Torags is not the ideal option for a melee tank, and that you should (not must) make some changes.

if its meant to be a dueler, stay 1 prayer

well i'm glad someone appreciates me, at least a little... Humus, have a cookie.

EDIT: sorry folks, i caved... added an offensive strat section. includes a brief section of verac's, a sentence or 2 on the usefullness and effects of the dragon battle axe special for a tank, and a rather large description of the obsidian weapons under the influence of the berserker necklace.

i hope that appeases the pures and str as highest stat players out there that don't' believe defense can do it on its own. although i gave in this time, if in the future, anyone wants something added, PLEASE! PLEASE JUST PM IT TO ME! i fyou actually do as i request, i'll acknowledge you as the contributor, instead of make a frustrated snap toward you.

I don't think Obsidian weapons would pose much a threat. They're weak, except the maul, which apparently is slow.

But seriously, nobody stakes with prayer on, potions on, unless again, you're referring to fun-duels, which is not worth spending super pots on nor letting your barrow items corrode in unneeded battles.

The only time you'd use something else than Verac in duels, is when shields/helms are off.

Considering how most Verac stakers have 70 45 70, I have totally no idea why you regard it as an offensive style. Unless you mean being a tank is all about recieving 0s and dealing 0s as well. Which is pointless. Seriously.

"BY POPULAR DEMAND BY THE OFFENSE OBSESSED GOONS WHO ALL USE PURES THEMSELVES AND NOT TANKS..."

Hello, Mr. Flamebait.