Intro

Welcome Engineer tanks, i would like to share my build with you! If you are looking for an engy tanking build take a minute and check this out, maybe you will like it :).
English is not my native language, so i would ask every grammar nazis if you find any errors pls just note it and dont go full troll in the comment section :P. Especially as you can see i tried to explain everything with as much details as i can, so the build turned to be kinda long!
This build doesnt contain , with this build we generate our volatility from alternativ sources. I made some counting, what i will share with you at the "Math" chapter and realised that its better threat and better volatility gain going without than with it.

Usage/Rotation

As we dont have any volatility builder without cd in this build our main goal at pull to reach the 30+ volatility as fast as we can and keep ourselves above that 30 cap all the time. Why is it important? Because of the [color orange]Volatility Rising[/color] amp what is our main volatility source, this amp is simply awsome, it generates you 14 volatily every 3 sec while you between 30-70 volatily. At pull the easiest way to use your big CD, Mode : Provoke aka Exosuit what gives you dmg reduction and generate 100+ volatility, use it with a and you can start to spam your . I strongly recommend to use at pull too, it gives you a ton of threat and let your dmg dealers going crazy at pull immediately as they cannot pull aggro.

After pull use your and on cd to regenerate as many volatility u can, both skill has kinda big cd even with 15% cd reduce 12,75 sec and 10,2. While these are on cooldown u basicly spam your .
If you keep using these abilities on cd you will see it doesnt matter how hard you spam your you will stil overleap the 70 volatility cap, this is the time when you can use your what will drop you back to 30-40 volatility. Why is this important? gives you a 25 % deflect chanse for 11 second without any cd( it makes the debuff for 8 seconds but debuff is on the target for 3 more seconds, 3+8=11), the only problem with this skill is the huge volatility cost. I usually use my after what push me back immediately to 60+ volatility where i can continue my spam.
As long as we keep this rotation we shouldnt fall under 30 volatility.

Math

pro/contra : yes its way easier to play while u dont have to check your volatility bar as much and if u are not sure just spam an auto shoot as a filler, BUT is actualy makes kinda low tps and dmg + it has a very long 2.5 sec cast time, the only positiv thing about this ability is it generate volatility. Anyway lets do some math and count it!
Lets count with a 15 sec time range as every cd what generate volatily has lower cd than 15 sec. Spamming all the time without using any other skill(which means u will loose aggro....) for 15 second gives you 25*6=150 volatility, ofc this number is without [color orange]Volatility Rising[/color] amp.
Without build , if you can keep yourself in 30-70 range , just the [color orange]Volatility Rising[/color] amp gives you 7*10=70 volatility. Using tier 4 on cd 17/12,75*15=20 volatility. Using on cd 35/12,2*15=43 volatility( 12 sec cd with 15 % cd reduction is 10,2 sec but u stil have a 2 sec cast time so best in case u can get the effect in 10,2+2=12,2 sec). 30/8,5*15=52 volatility(if you tanking only 1 target!). It means on 15 second we made 70+20+43+52=185 volatility with 2-3 instant cast and a 2 sec cast so it means almost half of the time u can spam or any other CD's, interrupts.

Depending on the fight i usually use 1 interrupt but if u need more interrupt for a boss or u are on trash then feel free to swap one more interrupt with , this ability is kinda tricky to use because you have to put somewhere around you manualy and it will be there till you go and pick it up, or its timer goes and disappear, BUT at tier 4 its like a lil sister of your Exosuit (Mode:Provoke) , 45% dmg reduction for 5 sec and a big absorb bubble at the end.

The reason is why im using instead of is simple : this ability gives you 10 volatility after every beam what hits a target and it can hit 5 target so in best in case scenario it would give you 3*5*10=150 volatility with 1 simple 1,25 sec cast, ofc this is only happen if u are tanking multiple npcs, what happens kinda often. Another reason: we dont have any threat issue with this build, the + slowing is better for me than the endurance gain(like veteran siege of refuge slowing tank and the bomb carrier pod) and has similar cd with the debuff time so i can easily use those together. Ofc with simple 1 boss fights its only gives you 30 volatility, so if you like better then feel free to swap it, both ability is good for this build.

Where are my BOTS? Well i personaly dont like bots they stuck everywhere, sometimes they start to act on their own and ninja pull, and their AI is not so good. Lets check first it generates aggro to itself = useless to us, the interrupt is a taunt and it can turn the cleaving bosses to the party = dead or low health dps what we cannot allow + usually it does not survive the duration of taunt. The only good thing about it is the deflect bonus what it gives on tier 4. is a way better choise for us with it constant enormous shield regen and the fix 15 % shield mitigation at tier 4, i tried to use it for a long time but there are some bugs/facts what makes it worse and forced me to swap out, first of all u have to go very deep into the utility amp to get it, second when you use it to regain more shield it teleports on you and its not following you what means the first telegraph will kill or interrupt it, ofc you can play with the good timing but stil u can easily loose it and third a lot of time it stucks somewhere and the only option to free it when u dismiss it but with dismiss u get a 10+ sec cd, if it stucked and u use it to regain shield then it starts to regain shield for the bushes where it stucked....

Abilities

- As i already mentioned this one is very good to use with , but could be a working alternative for this one.

tier 8 - makes a lot threat and its cheaper on t4 and gives a very nice dps buff for your party at tier 8, your main ability in threat generating spam it all the time when u can.

- a little expensive but a must have skill to incrase your avoidance, 25% deflect + for 11 second. There is 1 little negative side of this ability, its very static. It is a ground effect/telegraph what is NOT following your target, if you set it down then it will stay there til it expires. It is a basicly big circle so even on those fights what require a lot of movements, you stil can use it with good timing but stil because of the expensive volatility cost you have to use it carefuly.

- 10 sec cd and shield + volatility regen + threat/dmg , the only bad thing is the 2 sec cast time with this ability, but in overall stil a good ability for us.

tier 4 - a taunt with low cd what incrase your threat generating and 17 volatility on every use ( + deflect chanse from amp)

- a taunt with huge cd BUT it transfer 25% threat from 2 allies to you. This ability if u use it at pull, allows your dmg dealer party members to go wild immediately. (+ deflect chanse from amp)

tier 4 - a life saving ability with 38 sec cd. This one can be swapped with another cc if u need , for example on trash way much easier to go with more interrupt/cc

tier 4 - stun what destroy 2 interrupt armor, very usefull, if u feel your party has enough/good interrupt even without you, then u can put these ability points to somewhere else but in my experiences this skill is very good for almost every fight / trash pack.

Second

As you already know wildstar is the game where you cant handle every fights/situations with one build, here is some abilities what could be usefull or could be good as alternatives for some abilities.

If there is a fight where you would need more interrupt, then this one is the solution, you can also use it at tier 4 if you and your party need an interrupt armor(for example Stormtalon first boss phase shift, Aoe disarm). 1 interrupt armor for the whole party is awsome!

This ability is a very nice threat and dmg the only problem with it u can only use it after a deflect , i was thinking to use this one at Tier 4 instead of Tier 4 but im not sure i would have enough deflect to use it on CD(in this case i would have to remove the [color orange]Dirty Trick[/color] amp too but this would also decrease my overal deflect chanse, but stil it could be a very good working build with even more volatility gain. Especially if u choose [color orange]Reckless Dash[/color] instead of [color orange]Dirty Tricks[/color]. -1 taunt and a little less deflect chanse but u get more volatility). If you deflect enough to use this one on CD, then it is better volatility source than

This one is tricky its a little bit better volatility generator on single target tanking than because of the lower cooldown timer and it gives you a minimal endurance regen and more threat too but in my experiences we are tanking multiple npcs most of the time where is simply better. If you have time and will to swap these abilities on bosses/trash packs all the time then feel free to do it ;)

This ability could be a good choise instead of , it gives 30 volatility with 8.5 sec cd. The only problem is the long cast time so i would suggest to use it on tier 4 but in this case you should remove some ability points from or what is more loss than win. [color red]One more thing , right now the tier 4 bonus is bugged sometimes, it doesnt really matter that you are in the 30-70 volatility range its starting to cast the 2 sec cast time , so u have to wait to cast it or u have to interrupt it to recast as an instant cast...kinda annoying.[/color] Fixed in the last patch.

I would rather suggest an interrupt armor than a CC break skill but if u think you will need it, its still better to remove a CC and fight than screw your interrupt armor via bad timing and gettin raped under CC. But stil there are some situations where it can be usefull, like in Stormtalon Lair at last boss where you get the moving telegraph thingy and your party members have to follow you , there you get a disorient what can be easily removed by this ability.

Amp

If you check my amp build then the first thing you can see that i didnt use [color orange]Support Power III[/color] there are 2 reasons of this first threat is not an issue on this level, second i have realativly few self-healing amps/abilities what scales with that. I would rather reach the deflect critical cap and boost my deflect than my support power, we can easily reach that amount of SP from gear what we need.


Assault
To reach the [color orange]Volatility Rising[/color] amp, we need to spent 3 amp points in tier 1 assault amps, i would say the bonus crit chanse is the best choise(more threat). I already mentioned why this amp is important, this is our best volatility source.


Utility
I used 3 amp points to lower my cooldowns on [color orange]Cooldowns III[/color], 15% cd reduce for 3 amp points = must have. If you have problem with volatility gain on those fights where we have to move a lot, here is a very helpfull amp : [color orange]Reckless Dash[/color]. With every dash u get back 20 volatility (to get this amp without elder gems i would remove points from [color orange]Dirty Tricks[/color]). But just because you have this amp, dont "waste" your dash immediately on cd just to get back some volatility! As an engineer tank we dont have any abilities like charge, leap or blink what could save our lives to run out of telegraphs, so we need our dash up when we have to move! But still on those fights this amp also helps.


Hybrid S/U
To reach the tier 2 amps lets put 3 point on [color orange]Maximum Shield Capacity III[/color] what gives you 9% more shield.
[color orange]Helpin' Hand[/color] - 15% more healing recieved for all the time is a very great help for your healer. Must have.
[color orange]Dirty Tricks[/color] - Every taunt gives you 15% more deflect chanse for 5 seconds, as i am using 2 taunts in this build this amp is a good one for this build.


Support
[color orange]Deflect III[/color] - 3% deflect chanse easiest and best way to reach tier 2 amps.[color orange]Deflect Critical Hit III[/color] - This one is only needed til you dont reach the deflect crit cap what is 12 % for veterans as i heared (these informations are pretty clumsy as there arent any tanking webside where it is declared, i only found some forum thread about it).
[color orange]Enmity[/color] - Threat boosting amp, more threat we make = more shiny smile on our face when we check the threat meter ;).
[color orange]Reroute Power[/color] - When you take any dmg there is a 10% chanse we get some absorbe "bubble". The main reason i choosed this one because the other options to reach tier 3 amps are not so good. Lets check them one by one :
- [color orange]Rejuvenating Rain[/color] - gives you a small amount of heal at every deflect , that 10% is very low and to heal your buddies would be a good idea but its very rare when melee standing on you in a 5 meter range. Maybe for tanks and offtanks in a raid fight where they are stacking it is good but not for solo tanking.
- [color orange]Repeat Business[/color] - everytime when you hit a deflect , you get a deflect critical buff what is kinda pointless if you are already capped.
- [color orange]Quick Restart[/color] - this one could be good if from rune set bonuses and from every other sources we could reach a relativly small reboot time on our shield, as i know u cant reach less reboot time than 4 seconds and as we dont have enough deflect to use constant benifit from it, i wouldnt recomend this amp.
[color orange]Disruptive Module[/color] - already mentioned at the abilities chapter.
[color orange]Boosted Armor[/color] - Bonus 12,5% armor to improve our mitigation after every heal for 5 sec. Healrs can keep this buff on you all the time.


Hybrid A/S

Both amps, [color orange]Strikethrough[/color] and [color orange]Lifesteal[/color] are good for us i picked the first one to decrease my miss chanse and improve my threat but the lifesteal is a good one too (nice self healing). If you are deflect crit capped then you can place those amps here.

Addons

Threat Meter - no explanations needed here.

EntSpy - this one is incredible, it shows optionals, patrolling mini bosses, your weapon when u get disarm etc.

ActionSetProfiles - for faster ability swapping before/after bosses, pulls.

SCastBar - easier enemy cast tracking for interrupt.

BijiPlates - simply better nameplate than the original one.

These addons kinda must have for tanking, this is not a full list of every tanking addons, i just wrote down those, what is the minimum for tanking.

Some

On trash i usually use base tier instead of tier 4 for more interrupts what is the essence of almost every trash packs and you can buff up your to tier 5 for faster threat generating while engaging.

[color yellow]Stormtalon's Lair[/color]

- [color green]Blade-Wind the Invoker[/color] As a ranged tank this boss is kinda simple for us, you can go with 3 interrupt here too, if your party lacks those but i usually swap back to the basic build with for 1 more cd if needed. You should get interrupt armor from your healer for phase switches to avoid the disarm, but if u dont, then there is a little time range when you can taunt the boss before he disarm the whole party after phase 2, you can also use tier 4 if you want. Note it : There is an addon called Entspy it is showing you where is your weapon if u get disarm, kinda must have for pve.

- [color green]Aethros[/color] One interrupt should be enough here, so use the basic build. One tip : tank the adds near to the side of the room, so ppl whos getting the circle telegraphs can set it easier to the sides(so those wont be in way when you are running to the boss at chasing phase).

- [color green]Stormtalon[/color] In the phase when you have to follow your party member because everywhere are red telegraphs , the choosed member will get a disorient it can easily couse a wipe if you are running wrong directions or hesitating so i strongly recommend you to use to remove disorient. Also be ready for static charge and run! To avoid loosing threat in kiting phase use your taunts to maximize your threat at pulls and every time you can while you are not kiting.

[color yellow]Ruins of Kel Voreth[/color]

- [color green]Grond the Corpsemaker[/color] A very simple fight with basic build, burst your cooldowns if your healer kiting adds and out of range and EntSpy addon helps you at disarm if u get it.

- [color green]Slavemaster Drokk[/color] I would say this one is the hardest boss here, avoid every telegraph, help the kiter with stuns and slowing as much you can, when at the last phases drones spawn, you have to move the boss away from them(note it : when they spawn at the gate they check yours positions and those will move there to blow up, so you dont have to wait til they stop at you, when they spawn you just move and they will not be close to you and the party). Check your threat meter , it shows prety well when it reset your threat, and use your taunt there before it kills a dps!

- [color green]Forgemaster Trogun[/color] This one is not so hard as it looks like. At pull cast a fast to reach the +30 volatility and dash back to avoid the aoe what he makes. Ranged dps usually goes mad before you can touch the boss so when it engage start with a taunt. Interrupt as many Volcanic Strikes as you can and try to keep the boss in the middle of the room so when the fire orbs comes it will be easier to catch them all. We usually assigne ppl for each sides to pick up orbs. If fire orbs reached the boss try to save the party with your cooldowns and gather as much dmg mitigations as you can, but you shouldnt fail on orbs. If you cant interrupt a volcanic strike NEVER DASH TO SIDES that telegraph is following you BUT the boss cant move while he is casting it so DASH BACK to over range it and pull it out of the fire after the cast so melee can continue dps.

[color yellow]Skullcano[/color]

Use both interrupt on trash and rotate it, after first boss if u r done with the 8 lopp optional(if u get it..) then you can charge through on the trash til the 2. boss. Just jump down to the pit and the trash will evade. After the 2. Boss if u get the "Free 15 prisoners" optional then tank the adds away from the jailor so they wont die(actually this is kinda easy as a ranged tank). These trashpacks are kinda annoying, dont fail on interrupt or party members will die. After the 3. boss there will be bombs near the trash packs , shoot them while pulling, those will stun the trash.

[color green]Stew-Shaman Tugga[/color] Use both interrupt here, we usually interrupt Molten Rain in p1 and rotate the interrupt in p2. In p2 just run and eat every food you can and interrupt, ignore threat, u can taunt at phase shift. Tier 4 can be a good choise to avoid disarm at phase shift(if your healer is not giving you any).

[color green]Thunderfoot[/color] Easiest boss, let him jump on mushrooms, burst your cd when he is cleaving, and jump to avoid dmg.

[color green]Molten Cavern & Lava Field[/color] Neither of the ways requires a tank, just run through with your party. If you played enough Super Mario or Prince of Persia then this shouldnt be a problem ;)

[color green]Bosun Octog[/color] This is a little bit tricky, in p1 avoid telegraps and interrupt the monkey, in inkh phase i suggest you to use because you are blinded while you are running with the inkh telegraphs, after phase shift be ready to taunt and there will be some snails stil up, kite the boss away from them.

[color green]Mordechai Redmoon[/color] At running phase always try to stand in the middle so you will have enough time to choose which way you should run, you can jump through the circle lava telegraphs. One tip for the start, when you engage the boss then a little event will start, you will be in combat so feel free to use and to reach the +30 volatility. So when the real combat will start , then thanks for the [color orange]Volatility Rising[/color] amp, you will have more than 70 volatility (while you running both cd will gone so dont worry to "waste" those at engage immediately). When the boss comes, you should pull a little bit away from the pit and turn him facing to the pit, its important, because if u tank him near to the edge then the turret can easily push you down! Try to face the boss to the pit all the time, so he will get the stun from overcharge. Every dps and healer have to stay on the sides because the auto attack of the boss is a cone attack in front of him and behind him at the same time, be carefull while you jumping through the small laser beam, if you turn him too much then party members can get these cone attacks!
This is the only really hard boss fight in the instance and the graveyard is very far away from the boss, even with very good dps you cant allow more then 1-2 wipes, if you are going for silver.

[color yellow]Sanctuary of the Swordmaiden[/color]

On trash i usually stay with the 2 interrupt skillset but that part of the instance where you have to jump through the bubbles on the floating "platforms" i usually use tier 8, the reason is simple. If you wanna make silver runs then u will be in hurry and want to skip as many trash as you can. Most of the classes have leap/blink abilities what helps them to skip trash packs here by not using the offered way/bubbles, instead of it just jump through where you can to cut off the road without bubbles. As an engy it could be a dead end but with this ability you can jump a little bit longer. Use you sprint+double jump combo an while you are in the air turn back and use 3 times, this wont be as long as a blink but it can helps you.

- [color green]Deadringer Shallaos[/color] This boss is the only boss what i found in the entire game (so far..) where the long range cast is not so good. There are floating chimes all around and every time you hit one it will give you one stack of Resonance buff. The boss will hit the party member with the most resonance stack so you have to communicate with the party members during the fight, i usually start with 2-3 and end up like 7-8 buffs. Each stack of resonance gives you +5% dmg taken so watch out where you shooting with your and dont stack too much buff if its not needed.

- [color green]Rayna Darkspeaker[/color] We dont need any interrupt here, so we can use to remove the tether and for boosting our defense. In last phase try to keep her at middle of the room , its much easier to react of the molten walls if you have more times.

- [color green]Moldwood Overlord Skash[/color] The essence of this fight is the positioning with the boss, fight him at middle but after the running phase pull it out to the edge of the room, there will spawn a lot of "eyes" what will dmg you and the whole party, run back to middle and you will be out of range for them, repeat this till the end and loot(ofc always choose another side of the room!)

- [color green]Event[/color] This event is one of the hardest part of the instance especially if you have low dps, you cannot fail on interrupts and use you cooldowns to save yourself. Dont hesitate to kite if needed.

[color green]Spiritmother Selene the Corrupted[/color] This one is kinda easy as a tank, keep threat, boss is not makes any special huge dmg, in the phase when Darkness Effigies are spawning stay with the group and help them to stun those. You can do it easily without CC break.

Elder

Ability points

If you really stick to the tier 4/8 bonuses then these optiones you have : in this case i would choose the tier 4 (for this you have to reduce your to tier 4!) 2 more second threat transfer and it is transfering 45% not only 25%.
But if you would like more defense than threat then the tier 8 or the tier 4 could be good options aswell. Even tier 4 could be nice, not for the CC resilence reduce but for the +5 % deflect chanse.

Without tier 4/8 bonuses i would use Tier 3 for +4 % deflect , tier 7 for the 60% dmg reduction and tier 3 for the 40 % threat transfer. Personally i prefer this one as there isnt much "very very good" tier4/8 bonuses in this build what we could reach with +7 ability points.

Amps

At amps there are more possible options what we can choose. Lets check the tier 3 amps first. With this build there are 3 tier 3 amps what we can reach :
- [color orange]Try and Hurt Me[/color] - a very nice self-healing amp on every 1,5 sec as long as we are in 30-70 volatility range and as we are always there its kinda nice one.
- [color orange]Survival Instincts[/color] - another very nice self-healing amp but its a hot and ploccing after deflects(note it this one not scales with support power but base health).
- [color orange]Protection by Deflection[/color] - after every deflect we get an interrupt armor, i would say this one is very unpredictable, you cant really relay on this one. Its very random, but maybe it couldbe a working amp with [color orange]Defense Protocol[/color] on bosses where are a lot of CC's.

At tier 2 amps i already mentioned why i wouldnt choose any other amps from the Support tier 2 amps, and at the Hybrid A/S there is only the [color orange]Forceful Impact[/color] what could be a good one. It is giving us 9,6% more support power every time when we hit deflects to the boss, but for only 3 seconds and i know as a tank we wont reach the hitcap but stil we need some strikethrough to keep the first place at threat-racing.
There are 2 more amps at the Utility, [color orange]Reckless Dash[/color] and [color orange]Deft Restoration[/color] both amps are good. These are giving you volatility and/or shield regen with every dash.

Every of these amps are good , i will probably use the [color orange]Try and Hurt Me[/color] and the [color orange]Survival Instincts[/color] (for this i will have to remove 2 points from [color orange]Strikethrough II[/color]) to check how much self-healing i can reach, there was some thread about [color orange]Lifesteal III[/color] but as i see on single target we dont really have a lot of dmg so i would choose these 2 instead of 6% lifesteal. Ofc with those amps if we are already deflect crit capped then we should choose the [color orange]Support Power III[/color] or the 6% lifesteal.

Ending

I hope you found this build/guide helpfull, i would like to hear your openion/suggestions about this build! I made this wall of text about my experiences and as i play with my fix 5 man group with friends where we can easily harmonize our builds like interrupt armors, interrupts, debuffs etc, it could be not the best choise for pugs! Share your thoughts at comment section!

Peace, Robeen - Ravenous EN PVP(ingame name)