A Brief Introduction To Rifstalker Tanking

By: Willrei

This is a brief introduction to RS tanking. For a more comprehensive guide, please read the second part of this series.

I will avoid the usual bravado many of us read at the beginning of guides such as this and admit that I do not know the first thing about WoW or much about other MMOs. However, in the few short weeks that I have played Rift, I've come to learn just a little about the rogue tank and thought I might share some of what I've learned.

What is the RS Tank?

RS tanks wear leather just like all other rogues and melee with dual weapons. Our durability comes from a number of shields and buffs at our disposal and not from plate armor or sword/shield. It's often assumed that RS tanks are 'avoidance' tanks but as you read this guide, I hope you'll begin to see that isn't the case.

Riftstalker Tanking Builds

Bard (5) / Riftstalker (51) / Bladedancer (10)

Bard (8) / Riftstalker (51) / Bladedancer (7)

Bard (0) / Riftstalker (51) / Bladedancer (15)

How Does a RS Tank Work?

For players who have spent time tanking in other MMOs, the RS can be a bit confusing. We cannot spam 'taunt' and simply duck behind our insanely large shield in the hopes that 90% of incoming attacks will be blocked. The RS is a more hands on tank.

All rogues operate through a 'combat point' (CP) system. We have skills that are 'builders' and then we have skills that are 'finishers'.

Builders give us CP while finishers spend CP. A finisher cannot be cast unless we have CP. The more CP we have, the more effective our finisher will be.

Why Choose an RS Tank?

With the 1.5 patch, there's never been a better time to be a rogue! Better yet, RS got some decent changes too. Thanks to Planar Vortex, we're now on top of the world when it comes to AoE threat generation. We still get to shift all over the place and rescue our healer in the blink of an eye. We are the best LoS pullers in the game. Being an RS tank is never boring. Did I mention we get to teleport? Yeah? Great!