Polearm Tank: Is it possible?

[Invino]

.. cry of havoc or hatefull strikes to get agro in polespec.
(i could be wrong, and that you do have them) but those are essential

They are essential. Also Tempest does have the feat points for them without sacrificing anything useful.

[Pimmz]

since s/s guard has agro ability's as their main agro, lacking a shield is not crucial ^^
but if you want gear for polearm tank, i suggest you pick LL helm + pants and tiger chest. or fort helm

[Bladestryke]

i think its quite normal not to get the agro you want with the polearm. depending on your accesories, you want dps/crits for polespec. the t2/t3 guard gear is not known for its dps:P, it is known for his high amount of mitigation

That is why I have chosen to save my T3 tokens for Black Dragon gear. You lose some +hate and constitution but pick up a lot more crit and crit dmg rating. Not to mention the extra combat rating and looks great too!

[kalston]

Ye, BD hands and head (for magical/hybrid bosses) are very good for poletanking, Combined with tiger chest, LL hate legs, LL hate head/Ardashir one (if you don't need prot) as has been said before.

[KullOfValusia]

Don't get khitai stuff for a guard.critigation is so overrated I honestly don't feel any difference whatsoever in my full khitai LL hate purps and my full tier 3... in fact I prefer my full tier 3.

[Ruhenous]

Don't get khitai stuff for a guard.critigation is so overrated I honestly don't feel any difference whatsoever in my full khitai LL hate purps and my full tier 3... in fact I prefer my full tier 3.

Tank Imp in full t3 and see if you notice a difference. Or the golems in Emp.

[DivochLubo]

I'll just throw in my experience.

I recently started tanking with pole, after a long time of SS tanking.
- gear: guard t4 small, guard t4 chestpiece, fort helm, LL hate legs.
T4 sword+vengeance(t2quest)(yes lol,luck has not been on the shield department)+t4 pole.
- perks: elusive nature + pressing (i never use sta)

I think i realy maxed out the s/s agro from the guard.
spamming the agro ability's with with the good dmg crit burst afterwards. which results ~400dps and holding agro for 30 seconds while the maniac dt(tank) is critting like hell and then loose it to him for eternity if he doesn't stop. which is in my experience, compared to the other guards quite an extensive amount of time of holding agro.

switching to polespec (which i only use for armor mitigation fights)
- in stat of t4 guard hands ill use the sepulcher hands.
- The featbuild is semi dps based with cry of havoc and hatefull strikes.
the initial agro burst from ability's is a bit lower, and will the loose the agro for a second to the dt, but that is only for a second. Once i start dpsing i will get the agro back.
starting with SS+reckning > guard > disable > flashing arc8.
Then soon, I need to stop, becouse i find myself suddenly low on health with the dt's quite a bit behind on the agro.
i only have 10% crit rating, but once i get my dt t4 bigpieces my crit and also agro will skyrocket(expectation)
my build results in about 750dps.

in conclusion: at this point i've already "broken the limits" of the agro of the s/s guard and the pole gives me more control of my agro.

i do advice lower geared guards to go s/s. it will have more agro and defensive features compared to the pole. especially if you are a beginner. with the right build, you will hold agro off everyone.
(everyone who is not fully khitai epic geared yet)

Pimmz

What build are you using for pole tanking?

[KullOfValusia]

Only works on full khit purps with a crafted t3 pole and above, anything below...and s&s affords better miti and aggro.

[Invino]

Don't get khitai stuff for a guard.critigation is so overrated I honestly don't feel any difference whatsoever in my full khitai LL hate purps and my full tier 3... in fact I prefer my full tier 3.

Are you talking about tanking Khitai dungeons - and specifically Den of Crowmen and Paikang? If not ... then you are right and Khitai gear is pointless for Guards.

Only works on full khit purps with a crafted t3 pole and above, anything below...and s&s affords better miti and aggro.

I use T1 chest and Polearm (smalls T3, rest t2) and tanked T3 last night with uber geared mega tanks ... and had ZERO problems getting or keeping aggro or survival for that matter. + I play my Guard so rarely now, really ought to suck at it.

[Misiuggah]

Just checked the pics I've made for Black Dragons progress and on all T3,5+ bosses we killed (Archfiend, Zaal, Sheng, Basilisk and Imp) the main tank was poleguard.