Blue Line Champion Martial Build

By Araphorn – Updated for Yondershire, U33

Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome, here you will find a build for Blue Champion, tuned for tanking. While there’s no specific content which requires a Blue Champion Tank, they are still perfectly viable to tank 3/6-man Instances and Raids up to and under T3 Difficulty.

This spec does have a steep learning curve to it (especially when tanking groups which have high DPS), so aggro management can be problematic for Blue Champ, this will be covered and explained more down below in the Rotation section.

Stat Goals

These goals are kept with Essence & Gear planning in mind, as to which Essences are to be prioritized over others. These goals can also be used when picking Virtues.

Tactical Mitigation > Physical Mitigation > Vitality

After Mits are capped or near capped, then Vitality essences can be used. Generally, only Tactical Mitigation essences will be needed, as Physical Mitigation gets capped with just cap-level Gear and Virtues. At the beginning of expansion, Essence slots are really limited, this gets easier as better items become available later down the line.

* Before planning Essences, slot the right Virtues (more on that down below). This way you can plan your setup better, and utilize Essences perfectly, and you can dump the remaining Essence slots in Vitality, Finesse, or other Stat of your choice after meeting Stat goals mentioned above.

Gear

With new Raid released, new gear for Tanking Champions is published in the tables down below. They will use all 7-pieces of the new Blue line set. There are 2 published Builds, one for Endgame and one for Starters.

* It is better to build for a 2-hander setup for Tanking, as it will allow you to Block, but in the case you still want to go with Dual-wield setup, an off-hand for it is provided down below.

End-game Build

Armour Pieces

Gear Slot Set Piece Location
Helm Hiddenhoard Raid
Chest Hiddenhoard Raid
Shoulders Hiddenhoard Raid
Gloves Hiddenhoard Raid
Legs Hiddenhoard Raid
Boots Hiddenhoard Raid
Cloak Hiddenhoard Raid
Off-hand Hiddenhoard Raid
Class Item Hiddenhoard Raid

Jewelry Pieces

Gear Slot Set Piece Location
Earring 1 Hiddenhoard Raid
Earring 2 Hiddenhoard Raid
Necklace Hiddenhoard Raid
Pocket Hiddenhoard Raid
Bracelet 1 Storvagun Winter Festival
Bracelet 2 Storvagun Winter Festival
Ring 1 Hiddenhoard Raid
Ring 2 Hiddenhoard Raid

Starter Build

The 140 Level Gear from this Build can be acquired by playing the 3 and 6 man instances, higher difficulty will award better loot. Having this gear will allow to progress level capped Raids. As for Essences, you can use the ones you get from Questing or Crafting (whichever Tier is fine), and try to follow the Stat Goals above and Slot the ones which are needed by your Class.

Armour Pieces

Gear Slot Set Piece Location
Helm Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Chest Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Shoulders Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Gloves Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Legs Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Boots Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Cloak Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Off-hand Embers Box
Barter
Class Item Embers Box
Barter

Jewelry Pieces

Gear Slot Set Piece Location
Earring 1 Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Earring 2 Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Necklace Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Pocket Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Bracelet 1 Storvagun Winter Festival
Bracelet 2 Storvagun Winter Festival
Ring 1 Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Ring 2 Gundabad 6-Man Instance

Essences

Essence Name Essence Note
Tactical
Mitigation
Use these to reach
Tactical Mitgation
cap, or near cap.
Vitality Use these to
fill Slots safter
Mits are capped.
Finesse Use some of
these if there’s room.
Tank Mitigation
Trigger 1
Use 1 of these
if there’s room.
Tank Mitigation
Trigger 2
Use 1 of these
if there’s room.

*Note: Finesse and Trigger Essences for Tanks are optional/situational. Use only if you have room for them, although the Tank Trigger essences can be quite nice for harder group content.

Trait Trees

This is the tree I use for Blue Champ. It gives me the best mix from all lines. I get the best stuff needed from Blue Line. 5% Crit and 10% attack duration (both necessary for aggro control) from Red Line, and AoE Targets, max Frenzy, and Might + Finesse rating from Yellow Line. Might rating helps with Physical Mitigation, Critical and extra Parry/Evade and Mastery. Finesse helps also as tank gear doesn’t give enough. I get almost 55k finesse from trait, which is a huge help, especially for interrupts.

Blue Tree

35 Trait Points Build for Legendary Servers

35 Points Build

60 Trait Points Build for Beginners

60 Points Build

Virtues

These are the virtues I use to reach the Stat Goals. I use these 5 virtues on all my tanks as I find these exact ones to be the best for tanks.

Virtues for Tanks

Here are the Virtues which go along with the Stat Goals:

  1. Loyalty (Great for Vitality)
  2. Fidelity (Great for Vitality + Tactical Mit)
  3. Charity (Gives great amount of Resistance, decent Vitality and Physical Mit)
  4. Tolerance (Gives great amount of Tactical Mit, decent Physical Mit and Resistance)
  5. Innocence (Gives great amount of Physical Mit, decent Tactical Mit Mit and Resistance)
    • If you are over Physical Mitigation cap, swap Innocence with Honour

If you don’t have these virtues, here are some alternatives:

  • Honour (Gives decent Tactical Mit, Morale and Critical Defence)
  • Fortitude (Gives decent Morale, Resistance and Critical Defence)
  • Compassion (Gives great Physical Mit, decent Tactical Mit and Armour Value)

Legendary Items

LIs for Blue Champs are pretty straight forward. You need an exclusive Blue Rune and a Blue 2-Hander Weapon, which has all the key Traceries needed for Blue Champ. A 2-Hander also allows a Champ to block in Blue Line, which it can’t in Dual-Wield.

2-Hander Weapon

Type Sockets
Heraldic Tracery Heraldry of the Ox
Word of Power Base Morale Multiplier
Word of Power Incoming Heal Bonus
Word of Mastery Battle Frenzy Cooldown
Word of Mastery Blade Wall Damage
Word of Mastery Horn of Gondor Damage
& Mitigation Debuff
Word of Mastery Riposte Damage
Word of Mastery Sprint Duration
& Evasion Chance
Word of Mastery Wild Attack Damage
Word of Craft Grand Willpower
Word of Craft Grand Willpower

Champion’s Rune (Class Item)

Type Sockets
Heraldic Tracery Heraldry of the Ox
Word of Power Area Effect Target Count
Word of Power Incoming Damage Reduction
(Physical)
Word of Power Incoming Damage Reduction
(Tactical)
Word of Mastery Adamant/Invincible Duration
Word of Mastery Bracing Attack Heal
Word of Mastery Dire Need Cooldown
& Power Cost
Word of Mastery Fear Nothing Cooldown
& Incoming Healing
Word of Mastery Swift Strike/Blade Damage
& Power Cost
Word of Mastery Sudden Defence Cooldown
& Bubble Magnitude
Word of Craft Grand Armour
Word of Craft Grand Armour

Rotation

Here is what I do on Blue Champ.

For AoE Aggro control:

  1. To begin with, you have to bunch all the mobs together. You cannot pick 1 mob, wait and go to next one, you have to run really fast and grab all your group is capable of, and hold them in 1 place.
  2. While you are running to grab the adds, make sure there are no hots on you from the healer (you can tell them not to heal you while you are grabbing adds). Your passive reflect from Blue Line will also help you a bit while you are running to grab mobs. You can also use Horn of Champions while running for a ranged skill taunt, if there are lots of mobs stacked together.
  3. Now that you have all the mobs stacked up in one place, stun them all from your Champ horn of Gondor and then use Battle Frenzy, then Raging Blades. Let your DPS people in your group get some nice hits on them. After you see your group has done some damage on them, (usually 2-3 seconds) – do Blade Wall.
  4. Now depending on your group’s DPS, some mobs maybe are on them, some not. You have to check that yourself, if lots of mobs are on your DPS guys, the only way you can get them off is from True Heroics, that’s your AoE taunt, but it has a large coolown, so use it wisely. If your Horn of Champions is available, use it also.
  5. Usually you can hold AoE aggro just from consistent Raging Blades – Blade Walls – Swift Blades, and well timed AoE horns, so you can get a nice burst of those AoE skills. But if your group’s AoE dps is too strong, then use True Heroics to grab all the mobs. This is why point 1 and 2 are important, try to grab all the mobs possible (to the capabilities of your group), bunch them up, and use Heroics when needed.

For single-target aggro control:

  1. This aggro control is generally easy, but with a strong DPSer in your group (such as Red Burg), it can get messy.
  2. You want to start the boss fight with Max Fervour (use Battle Frenzy pre-fight).
  3. Start with Brutal Strikes – Clobber – Swift Blade – Wild Attack – Champion Challenge (taunt) – Battle Frenzy – Raging Blades.
  4. ^ That’s your standard opening rotation for Bossses. Eventually you will lose aggro, so don’t forget to re-taunt when Champion Challenge comes off cooldown.
  5. If your group’s DPS is too strong, and you lose aggro after your 1st taunt goes off, use True Heroics.
  6. After 30s, when you see your aggro is set for the remainder of the fight, keep an eye for mechanics and use Cooldowns as necessary.
  7. Sudden Defence and Adamant are your biggest and most reliable cooldowns, use them as required, if you get big hits, use Sudden Defence first, and if you are still taking a beating after that and your healer can’t keep up, use Adamant.
  8. Always try to keep Bracing Attack on cooldown, it gives a nice buff of 15% incoming healing, which will help your healer.
  9. Dire Need and Fight On are not effective cooldowns, but you can use them if you have nothing else left.
  10. Try to keep Blade Wall and Horn of Champions as much as possible on cooldown also, it debuffs your target(s), which will help.
  11. As for Unbreakable (the capstone trait of Blue Line) is just oddly designed, I find no practical use for it. I mostly just use it as a pre-fight buffing skill and use it when I’m starting a fight, and after that, just use on Cooldown.
  12. Try to keep your Clobbers available for interrupts, we usually assign our tanks to be the first person to interrupt, for best practice.

Consumables

There are the consumables to use on Blue Champ:

  1. Crafted 10s Horn. These are invaluable for Instances/Raids, your group will always ask for these, so keep them with you. (You can only use ones which say ‘Most effective against targets of your level or lower.’)
  2. Fervour pots. These are great for the instant 5 Fervour and Dev Magnitude for big hits. I typically don’t use them very much while Tanking.

This is the Food to use:

Updated as of U33.

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