Albion Online Tank Guide

Albion Online Tanking is quite a passive style of Tanking.

In general this MMO is quite simple to get into as a Tank, with players only having one weapon equipped, no classes or race and a maximum of 6 skills equipped at a single time it’s not overly complicated.

A large part of Tanking in Albion Online comes down to movement, aggroing enemies, stacking and clumping them up, crowd controlling and taunting, with large emphasis on crowd control and defensive buffing in the PvP environment.

Tanking requires you to have aggro of enemies and in Albion Online this is achieved with a number of methods including both taunt abilities but also threat generation.

You can avoid using the Taunt ability in most cases however and rely on threat generation instead which is when the enemy attacks you because you are the biggest threat to them.

The first step to having high threat on an enemy is to make sure you are the first person into combat and your group don’t attack adds until they are stacked and they don’t attack bosses until after you.

Doing damage, healing, shielding or using threat abilities are all ways of building threat to maintain aggro.

By using Heavy Armor you can select the passive buff of Protective Instinct which gives you increased threat generation by 300%. Another good way is by using a Mace along with the Threatening Smash ability because this increases threat towards all mobs that you hit and its an AoE.

Albion Online Tanking isn’t super complicated.

When dealing with add phases, typically you’ll try to pull 2-3 add pulls together which might be 8-10 enemies. You have to be careful of the range you are trying to pull things together because enemies don’t usually have a huge pull range and they will run off back to their spawn location. While doing this you have to rely on a healer to perform their role so you can do yours.

The Incubus Mace is a very strong Tank weapon because it makes add pulls easy, ideally you also want to use anything that can reduce your cooldowns faster so you can use abilities more often. This is especially useful if you are able to hit each stack of adds with something like Threatening Smash.

While doing add pulls you’ll need a bit of help from your healer but make sure to use things like the Block ability while stacking and Enfeeble Aura during big damage add pulls.

1. Run into all fights first, your group should not attack anything.
2. Hit the first adds with auto-attacks, run past and hit the second adds and then go to the 3rd if they are within range and hit those also.
3. Circle back around to where the 2nd adds were located.
4. Run in a circle around all of the adds which should be running towards you and hit them with an ability such as Air Compressor.
5. Once all the adds are pulled in and stacked you hit them with Shrinking Curse which reduces their max health and damage done.

Boss fights are even more simple in reality. Your focus is maintaining aggro and cooldowns. Survival is key in these combat situations so reducing bosses damage, reducing your incoming damage, interrupting boss attacks while playing any mechanics and moving out of Area of Effect’s that bosses use is what you’ll need to do.

How Item Power (IP) Works:

1. Calculation: IP is calculated based on the tier and quality (enchantment levels) of your equipment. Higher-tier and better-enchanted items contribute more IP.
2. Influence: IP affects your damage output, health, and other stats, which directly influences your performance in both PvP and PvE settings. The higher the IP, the stronger your character is relative to the content or opponents faced.
3. Visible and Hidden Bonuses: Some IP bonuses are visible directly through the stats on your gear, while others, like mastery bonuses, provide hidden increases to efficiency and effectiveness.

Levelling Different Item Types:

• Specialization and Mastery: Leveling up different types of maces (e.g., Heavy Mace, Incubus Mace, Morning Star) not only increases your proficiency with each specific weapon but also contributes to your overall mastery level in the broader mace category. This mastery provides a passive bonus to all maces and increases the IP of any mace you wield.
• Flexibility and Tactical Advantage: Different maces come with different abilities suited for various situations. For example, the Heavy Mace is excellent for crowd control in large groups (ZvZ), whereas the Incubus Mace is better for reducing the damage output of bosses in PvE. By leveling different maces, you gain the flexibility to switch weapons based on specific dungeon needs or PvP scenarios.
• Efficiency in Gearing: Higher levels in different mace subcategories reduce the energy cost and cooldowns of their respective abilities, making you more effective and versatile in combat situations.

As you progress in Albion Online by gaining Fame, improving your IP and advancing your Destiny Board, you’ll want to make some choices that will speed up and help to be battle ready for more situations and content as soon as possible, particularly PvP and endgame content.

Using a Mace is integral in all types of content for a Tank and gaining Mace Fighter 40 is an important milestone unlock one of the best skills Air Compressor which will prove to be very useful in both PvP and PvE. It’s important to get a mace equipped quickly to start levelling it up on the destiny board.

While it’s good to improve your Incubus Mace Combat Specialist, just remember that all mace types will give a passive benefit to IP so if you’ve reached a point where 1 level with a certain type of mace is taking a very long time, try switching it and getting 5-10 levels with one you haven’t yet such as the regular Mace and a Heavy Mace for a faster IP boost but also to give yourself some versatility for different situations where you might use a different mace.

Levelling Plate Armor is also crucial, and in the beginning you’ll need to use 3 pieces of Plate Armor on the Head, Chest and Feet just to survive. Once you reach Plate Armor Fighter on the Head and Chest you can switch your Feet slot to something else that will benefit you in the long term as you can survive in two T6 Plate pieces more comfortably.

For PvP focussed Tanking you would work on Hunter Shoes or for PvE Royal Shoes until you reach Leather Shoe Fighter 30 where T6 shoes become usable.