Tanks are one of the four archetypes in Warhammer Online. They will play a close combat support role. Though they are slow, they are able to sustain high amounts of damage. This makes tanks ideal in RvR for protecting allies and taking on multiple amounts of enemies. A tank can still spec for damage here, but in most cases, it's not the best thing to do in RvR, unless you like to go out solo or has plenty other tanks and too few DPSs in his usual group/warband.

For offensive tanks this doesn't mean that they are useless or don't have a role. But they are normally less useful to their realm mates as a whole, and probably better suited for solo play.

Warhammer online tanks normally have an offensive mastery path for soloing, which is the one on the left of the mastery menu and a defensive mastery path in the middle and an hybrid/utility mastery path on the right.

Personally, I think the best way to setup a defensive tank for RvR is with a mix of the defensive and the hybrid mastery paths. The defensive mastery path is a no-brainer, you're a defensive tank, and it gives you the most survivability. The hybrid/utility mastery path gives you that bit of damage you need, and still includes some great abilities to integrate defense, some of the best CC abilities and others (like silences, or disables) that will allow you to protect your mates better and harrass the enemy squishies.

If you want to mix up the two masteries, it cannot be successful at one hundred percent. And favoring the defense one over the hybrid one isn't always the best option. The best way to decide what adapts to your playstile the best is to experiment by yourself mixing the two rightmost masteries and see what you prefer. For instance many defensive swordmasters favor Hoeth because of the silence that comes with Whispering wind, while others prefer the shorter but more flexible knockdown coming with Chrashing Wave and end up favoring Vaul, depending if they prefer to defend their realm mates more against melee DPS or casters.

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