Tank (build)

Combat Skills

Core

Front Row - Keeping focus off your teammates should be a tank's core priority.

• • Profession Skill Intimidation gives a toggle that massively increases your threat, Attention Grab

Important

Durability - Greatly increases your ability to withstand hits and gives you a great boost to resists.

Avoidance - Greatly increases your ability to withstand hits and gives you a great boost to defense.

Health - Greatly increases your ability to soak punishment with more health.

Outnumbered - Makes you exceptionally resillient against multiple targets.

Readiness - Increases the amount of gear you can carry, important for that extra bit of equipment.

Situational

Damage - Who doesn't like more damage and threat?

Healing - For those crucial moments where you need to take matters into your own hands.

Rage - Greatly increased damage while tanking for great threat.

Reactive - Damage reflect.

Taunting Strikes - Taunts the enemy on your attacks. Marginally useful when some DPSers may outthreat you, but otherwise rare scenario.

Tar Baby- Delays the next attack of enemy mobs. Very useful for mobs with a large hit that you may require time to recover. (I.E sharpshooting primes)

Roll with It - Reduces the cooldown of your abilities when struck. Works well in conjunction with a big, long CD heal like Milk Chug. Or a lifesteal skill like Drain Vitae.

Vampiric - Steal health on attacks means more health.

Mutant Powers

Core

Threatening Presence - Helps you to absorb damage from your friends in a big AoE and increases your aggro generation.

Juggernaut/Myriad Armor - Really solid toggle that boosts your defenses.

Any Defensive Adaption slot power - Usefulness of Smooth Hide is questionable, but all the other hides have an upgrade or two that helps you tank.

Panic Button - A panic button is any mutant power that can be used in times of dire need. Examples would be Milk Chug (Emergency heal), Drain Vitae (Lifestealing hit), Stonewall (Great burst of resists)

Thick Hide/Thick Shell/Icy Hide/Reinforced Skeleton - Really lovely for tanks, each have their own disadvantages though so be careful.

AoE threat pickup - Grab a damaging toggle! Electric Field, Quill Wag are great examples.

AoE threat - Wild Swing is a beautiful power to fill this category. Scythe Sweep, Prism Storm both do wonderfully as well.

Notable

Conductive/Solid Frame - These toggles increase your resists to make you more durable.

Feline Agility/Skitter - These toggles can be upgraded to increase your defense greatly.

Enveloping Pain - Threat and party heal!

Frenzy - Massive threat boost and damage boost for the tank.

Guarding Stance Toggleable Cover & hpBuffer for your allies.

General Playstyle

Stats

Core

                    Damageresist/PhysicalDamageresist/EnergyDamageresist - Directly reduces damage taken, scales well with [Durability]]
                    Defense - Increases chance to evade taking damage, scales well with Avoidance
                    MaxHP - More health!
                    Aggro - Increases threat
                    Cover (On Allies) - Allows you to block damage for your allies directly.
                    Regen - Recover health each round
                    HPBuffer - Blocks an exact amount of damage.

Important

                    Energybreak - Reduces energy use, very needed since toggles are heavily used.
                    Healgain - Increases healing received.
                    Damagereturn - Reflects damage.
                    Debuffclear - Removes debuffs.
                    Laserdamage|15|2|10hostileproc - So lightweight on a module since magnitude is irrelevant, worth getting for bonus aggro.

Luxury

                    Damagebuff - More damage, more aggro.
                    Haste - Reduces charge times, can be life saving on heals.
                    Recharge - Faster cooldown on core tank abilities.
                    Attack - More damage.
                    Healing - More healing done.
                    Accuracy - Aggro disregards deflected damage from low accuracy, hence is just a damage boost.
                    Vampiric - Too hard to get in useful amounts.

Dedications

Optimum

                    Fenrir Wolf - Lifestealing big threat attack, defensive toggle.
                    Weapon Master - Big threat attack, defensive toggle, access to Spear of Judgement, a really high threat weapon that is also team support.
                    Anubis Servant - Revive upon Death.
                    Flame Bearer - Strongest cover of all tanks in the game, has a big support toggle.
                    Kaiju - Strong defensive passive, High hp, big threat attack.
              

Great

                    Nanite Adept - A big heal!
                    Nekomata - Powerful debuffclear, and a very jack of all trades passive.
                    Survivalist Leader - Has a team defensive toggle.

Crafted Gear of Interest (Non exhaustive, generic.)

                    Spear of Judgement - Woaaah. Stats are self explanatory. Big threat, team support, light weight!
                    Physical Armor/Light Energy Armor/Generic Armor/Heavy Armor or Lifegiving Armor - Increases your resists greatly!
                    Shield - Provides Defense
                    Flexible/Amplifying module - Increased defense
                    Stiffened/Hardened/Protective module - Increased resist
                    Insulating module - Passive HPBuffer
                    Training - Assertiveness - Bonus threat.
                    Void Totem - Free recharge at a light weight.
                    Earrings - Energybreak bonus.
                    Superconducting Magnet - Helps absorb damage for teammates.

Strategies

Solo: After your first few levels, you are nigh unkillable with your roles. Grab Lactaid early on, but no toggles as your energy regen will be very low. If possible, ask someone to funnel you Sharpshooter or Drain Vitae for easy single target kills. Grab passives asap. Then after, grab a few more attacks for threat and damage sake, and then after 35, start building up your toggle collection.

Group: Hold threat for teammates. Keep self alive.