This definitely needs another video. I would love to see full dungeons runs posted just to chill and watch while I'm working on the side during the day
Builds like this is what made me love ascension. Always wanted a caster tank. I loved an old video you made with a fire tank. Absolutely love those very hight fantasy. Deledrael - Al'ar
Came down here to comment the same thing and seen this comment. I see most running around with a shield because I think dodge/parry/armor is calculated first and the remaining damage done to you hits the mana forged barrier.
There's the RE mind over matter which is basically for this tank. So you can build for straight mana and not worry about other mitagation. But you still want a shield for the armor and defense stat
@@Doolz51 If you use mind over matter you actually can turn your back. You cant dodge or parry anymore, but have a high chance to be missed, which even works from behind.
Feraenaturae- Alar - BBQ chicken build Forsaken - Victory for Sylvanas ! - Thank you for you content it has been a lot of fun to watch and has helped me transition from free build to draft which i am super addicted to now and i have even started pvp’ing. Thanks !
If you aren't going to go for an avoidance I would run the RE "Mind over Matter" Which converts your int into defense rating which will help make you crit immune. Also your best defensive cooldown is probably dispersion, reduces damage and restores mana.
I recently did a mana-forged build, but with templar of flame. I went hard on defensive, 30% parry with ghostly strike and 15%+ dodge. I'm using innervate, judgement of the wise and spiritual attunement to keep my mana up
This was my first tank build on ascension and I gotta say you built it very well. Though I decided to go for a dagger and shield for threat generation plus I used the rare RE to increase threat generated through arcane damage by 30%. I also used some different talents with more dodge, parry, and block. Another video of this build would be amazing! Tyralon - Al'ar
McDubs, I was checking out your build in discord, @32:30 when you started having trouble with aggro, if you had Pyromaniac in the mage fire tree, the capstone reduces your threat by 20% !! That's probably your issue.
I ran a similar build back on area52 when bc was introduced but instead of arcane spells, i went shadow with some aoe dots, the shadowburn heal legendary and i had the unbounded drain soul with that talent that gives back 20% of your mana when a target dies while on the effect of drain soul and it worked really good, never oom on aoe pulls, but on bosses it can be a little hard without evocation or any other mana returning spells.
magic defender RE for dodge and block made a HUGE difference in my end game content with this build. also having invocation and evocation both are effective defensives. its a lot of fun love the build envenem
It's a great change. I've been brewing Stormborn and Stormhammer. Both 2 handed tanks because that's fun. Planning on throwing Thorns and Lightning Shield on with thunderclap spam.
I love that they made caster tank, it is just something completely new to try out... One thing which you might consider (eventhough not sure how it works on Ascension) is to get Blade of Eternal darkness. It restores your mana and deals damange when you land a spell... considering you are spamming AE on multiple mobs, it should keep your mana really high... Also, not sure if viable, but stacking spirit could also improve mana reg (if you struggle with it)... also, arcane meditation does not return 25% mana of your spellcast, it just allows your mana to regen, cause while casting your mana regen is reduced... which considering you are doing instant cast AE, and utilizing barrage to have fast Arcane Missiles, is useless talent :) Mcdgw Al'Ar...
I based a build off this, except i'm using hemorrhage, a dagger, shield, and meditate. So far you really can't die, especially since i've got honor among thieves. it opened me up for other LRE possibilities
I like my caster tank with the Templar of Flame re for instant flamestrikes and 8% damage reduction use blaze to spread immolates, use judgement as the mana regen, and searing pain for single target aggro. Btw the capstone on arcane fortitude hasn't worked for months so going plate is good. Prplebubl
Spirit based. Unbounded Deathbringer. Defensive Magic. Shield & fast 1H (like a 1.40 dagger). Blessing of Sanctuary. Seal of Wisdom. Massive AOE like Hellfire. AOE+Heal like Holy Nova. Insta-cast single-target spell or something like Multi-shot. Cloth Armor with Green-numbered armor or plate. Max out block. Get stamina as high as you can. Pile on Spirit and Int. Then you can tweak the build as you like. Do this and you can solo normal dungeons. Heroics are a joke in a party, Mythics become easy. Git-r-dun. :D
Thank you for making these vids. Btw if you have trouble downloading your vids in not higher than 720 p you can try copying the video link and adding SS on the link of the vid. Then paste it on your browser. Also I'm now thinking of making a mama forge barrier tank with fok
Looks like fun, maybe int tank will be the way to go for me. So annoying that the parry talents and REs are limited to single 2h rather than no shield, then you could do DW tanks and even get swashbuckler tanks (which I was trying to make but... yeah, its too limiting.) - Matsuri, Al'ar Edit: do your auto attacks do anything? You don't attack while casting so seems a little weird to spec for it I think? Edit2: Do you not use the epic that allows you to dodge/block/parry while casting? or the one that increases defense by 100% but cant mitigate? they might increases your survivability a bit more.
I've met a bunch of American friends thanks to ascension and your videos definitely play a part in keeping me interested in the server itself so thanks for that bud - bandanabob
How’s this build in the current state of the game? I was looking at meta but I’m new and acquiring the dark apotheosis sounds like a lot and I’m leaning into this now
What good is Mind Over Matter? Ton of defense but can't dodge/block/parry? I don't understand it. Also, is spirit/MP5 good for this build? I would think so.
That's a pretty sick build! I always liked the idea of a mage tank. I know that Rift had a neat version of one. Thanks for all the great videos! -Darcblaze
Awesome Video! At the moment im taking a break from tanking and went back to dps ( wanna try a CS Build). I dont know if its just me but it started to feel a bit stale and boring and besides the corrupted bear tank theres not alot of other stuff that sounds fun for tanking. I hope we will get New and fun tanking Re's in the future. Wrizzla-Alar
Are you using the alembic epic enchant? If you are i probably missed it. I had an arcane mana-barrier tank, but i used only spells so i got mana fiend LRE for extra int instead. Nice vid. -Mobiusdicken (A'lar)
Feriss-alar My tank alt USA mana tank. I'd highly recommend that you try out scorch or any other spell that can be changed to be castable while moving and the epic RE that turns int into defense. You spam cast filler spell to maximize power surge which stops you from avoiding damage so the re really helps. I use moveable consc prepull and arcane explosion on pull for snap threat then let power surge carry from there. Since I'm running perilous touch I also run the fire spell threat RE and the holy one too
Forgot to mention. If you run a Dagger that's faster than your filler you can weave autos between each cast, and I pair it with a shield for extra armor/def
I love your videos and I love watching you theory craft would love to see more healing builds -stompingmad (this character is leveling with thunder slam from watching your videos now he can be called stompingmad for a reason)
There's a ton of different ways to build MFB tank. Basically if you can think of a caster build, you can alter it to tank. This one is very remeniscent of mine from MalGanis era where it was arcane with arcane explosion, starfall, and starfire and moonfire as my single-target. However I've never gone for eldritch knight. I typically build fairly defensivly int stacking with Mind Over Matter epic and using mana cooldowns as my defensive CD's. So evocation, innervate, the like. A huge one I picked up at 70 here on alar though was Dispersion and shadowfiend. Even with the absolute worst boss to manaforge tank, that being Omor in HFR I can keep my mana up as long as the DPS can pump before I run out of cooldowns. And yeah, that Alembic Trinket is BiS. Had a healer say I shouldn't get it as a tank and all the DPS were like "bro he's manaforged though it's so good for him" -Yarkarano
I like the Holy 2h parry divine storm spam mana forge I tried out a lot better than the arcane stuff. Will of Light (I think) and the stagger buff/debuff makes divine storm proc like crazy, emanating light, heavy into judgements and holy damage. Took all the talents to buff INT that I could without gimping damage. Went whatever gave more INT. Ghostly strike, Judgement. Also the judge jury RE for the combo points from judgements and I rolled meditation, so more passive mana regen. It’s been fun spec for farming that’s for sure.
Another great video been watching for awhile never played Ascension till yesterday still confused with everything but hey is what it is - Drright -Al'ar
@@Mcdoubles true! It does look super interesting, never played a caster in any form so no clue how to get such a build going! Might try and copy paste yours for a first timer. Thank you for your inspiration.
@mcdoubles At 13:00 you talk about wanting the fastest Attack Speed Caster Dagger. They're actually bugged though, the Mythic and Mythic+ ones are! They're all 1.8 Attack speed when they should be 1.5. That's a 20% difference, absolutely massive. It's a super simple fix I'd imagine, should just be updating a few values on the Devs side. I and many others have submitted bugs for it and they keep closing them without any response. This slower attack speed severely hurts many underplayed and unviable builds. There shouldn't be any harm in buffing those daggers I'd imagine. If there's some super OP spec I don't know of perhaps they should fix that one instead of hurting all the rest. Anyways it'd be cool if you could bring up that question at some point. Maybe the devs just need a louder voice to actually warrant a reply.
If you want to try another tank I've been having an absolute blast with Templar of Flame. Every build i saw at first was just bear druid with it, so lame.. but I did finally come across a build named The Malding Flame for a 2h tank version. Dude does a great job talking about possible skills to roll for.
Build was definitely interesting but idk if it appeals to me. Have you ever considered doing a mana fiend build w/ deconstruction? I gave it a try on Area 52 and it was enjoyable. Just a suggestion though IGN- Mackado
I've been using mana tank for prestige runs, super easy. Probably the easiest tank for lower levels if you get invocation and a bit of AoE. Keep up the vids. - Rira
last time you could play a caster tank was when they gave warlock the dark apotheosis glyph in MOP which made them a metamorphosis tank. then they took it away because it worked too well, and they they gave meta to demon hunters. the end.
armor actually should be really good, since more armor means less damage taken and less mana drained
This definitely needs another video. I would love to see full dungeons runs posted just to chill and watch while I'm working on the side during the day
Builds like this is what made me love ascension. Always wanted a caster tank. I loved an old video you made with a fire tank. Absolutely love those very hight fantasy. Deledrael - Al'ar
ya need dodge/parry even as a mana tank. anything to reduce/prevents dam before it even hits you (or in case of mana tank, draining mana)
Came down here to comment the same thing and seen this comment. I see most running around with a shield because I think dodge/parry/armor is calculated first and the remaining damage done to you hits the mana forged barrier.
There's the RE mind over matter which is basically for this tank. So you can build for straight mana and not worry about other mitagation. But you still want a shield for the armor and defense stat
Not to mention don’t face your back to mobs while tanking to take advantage of those things. He does that quite a bit 😂
@@TheShinyDunsparce I use mind over matter and i have 1093 defense. its like 23% for npcs to just miss in gen. 15k life with 21k mana.
@@Doolz51 If you use mind over matter you actually can turn your back. You cant dodge or parry anymore, but have a high chance to be missed, which even works from behind.
Your videos the reason I started playing ascension. Keep up the good work and keep help building the community like you do. Chozen
I would definitely take Defensive Magic ERE with this for the dodges, parrys and block and go with shield for this build
- Hoitsu, Alar
Feraenaturae- Alar - BBQ chicken build Forsaken - Victory for Sylvanas ! - Thank you for you content it has been a lot of fun to watch and has helped me transition from free build to draft which i am super addicted to now and i have even started pvp’ing. Thanks !
If you aren't going to go for an avoidance I would run the RE "Mind over Matter" Which converts your int into defense rating which will help make you crit immune. Also your best defensive cooldown is probably dispersion, reduces damage and restores mana.
Ahaha that look really fun! Hope I will be able to see this video about the transmog contest! Chrimo
Always looking forward for new videos. keep it up mcdoubles. best regards Corvinus
I hope we can see more tank builds, those are always fun to play/watch! - Ranex (Alar)
wow so cool :) im darthen in the intro
Looking good!
Love the build
Gnovaa
I recently did a mana-forged build, but with templar of flame. I went hard on defensive, 30% parry with ghostly strike and 15%+ dodge. I'm using innervate, judgement of the wise and spiritual attunement to keep my mana up
Aye! I've been waiting for you to try out this build and put your own creative spin on it. Nicely done and keep up the good work.
This was my first tank build on ascension and I gotta say you built it very well. Though I decided to go for a dagger and shield for threat generation plus I used the rare RE to increase threat generated through arcane damage by 30%. I also used some different talents with more dodge, parry, and block. Another video of this build would be amazing! Tyralon - Al'ar
I really enjoy your tank videos. I hope the mana tank arc continues.
Molemanmole
McDubs, I was checking out your build in discord, @32:30 when you started having trouble with aggro, if you had Pyromaniac in the mage fire tree, the capstone reduces your threat by 20% !! That's probably your issue.
I ran a similar build back on area52 when bc was introduced but instead of arcane spells, i went shadow with some aoe dots, the shadowburn heal legendary and i had the unbounded drain soul with that talent that gives back 20% of your mana when a target dies while on the effect of drain soul and it worked really good, never oom on aoe pulls, but on bosses it can be a little hard without evocation or any other mana returning spells.
the most recent actual caster tank was mop with demonology. frost armor would be interesting
if you can use it
So, as regards to the VOD of the stream, I'm assuming you use OBS, and you could have also recorded it locally.
So glad ur vids Brought me back, I love spirit caster atm or fire frozen chaos. Keep it up - chizzy al’ar
The reason why you didn't get pushed by the imps was because of the clutch aoe silence by the boomie.
I've tried doin a build like this for a long time but can never get the lucky rerolls you got. Keep up the amazing work bro - Twillipp
Is MFB available on Area 52? Because this looks so much fun.
Tanking Leo in SSC and Illidan on my Warlock in TBC was some of the most fun I have had in WoW. Alkri
magic defender RE for dodge and block made a HUGE difference in my end game content with this build. also having invocation and evocation both are effective defensives. its a lot of fun love the build
envenem
You didn't mention it, so don't know if you saw it: seems like they changed Righteous Fury to also give Spell Power based on Stamina.
It's a great change. I've been brewing Stormborn and Stormhammer. Both 2 handed tanks because that's fun. Planning on throwing Thorns and Lightning Shield on with thunderclap spam.
I look forward to your videos, even though I am new to ascension. I have learned a lot from the videos!
I love that they made caster tank, it is just something completely new to try out... One thing which you might consider (eventhough not sure how it works on Ascension) is to get Blade of Eternal darkness. It restores your mana and deals damange when you land a spell... considering you are spamming AE on multiple mobs, it should keep your mana really high... Also, not sure if viable, but stacking spirit could also improve mana reg (if you struggle with it)... also, arcane meditation does not return 25% mana of your spellcast, it just allows your mana to regen, cause while casting your mana regen is reduced... which considering you are doing instant cast AE, and utilizing barrage to have fast Arcane Missiles, is useless talent :) Mcdgw Al'Ar...
Relleona - Alar
Thanks for all the great content, been watching more and more
40:24 lul
I based a build off this, except i'm using hemorrhage, a dagger, shield, and meditate. So far you really can't die, especially since i've got honor among thieves. it opened me up for other LRE possibilities
That's a sweet purple judgement helm, dig the look. -Cromgore
whats the addon you use to check all the random enchants with "/re" ?
I like my caster tank with the Templar of Flame re for instant flamestrikes and 8% damage reduction use blaze to spread immolates, use judgement as the mana regen, and searing pain for single target aggro. Btw the capstone on arcane fortitude hasn't worked for months so going plate is good. Prplebubl
Could you do an arcane build? With those moonfires and missiles? I was trying to find one without the ranged weapon. - Korolyn
Spirit based. Unbounded Deathbringer. Defensive Magic. Shield & fast 1H (like a 1.40 dagger). Blessing of Sanctuary. Seal of Wisdom. Massive AOE like Hellfire. AOE+Heal like Holy Nova. Insta-cast single-target spell or something like Multi-shot. Cloth Armor with Green-numbered armor or plate. Max out block. Get stamina as high as you can. Pile on Spirit and Int. Then you can tweak the build as you like. Do this and you can solo normal dungeons. Heroics are a joke in a party, Mythics become easy.
Git-r-dun. :D
McDoubs rocking a new channel profile pic.
Looks awesome man.
💖🌟✨💖
:o
Thank you for making these vids. Btw if you have trouble downloading your vids in not higher than 720 p you can try copying the video link and adding SS on the link of the vid. Then paste it on your browser.
Also I'm now thinking of making a mama forge barrier tank with fok
Wondering if you've done a Fingers of Death build. I'm running it on my caster rn, but I feel like it has a lot of potential. Lemme know Darkfry
Looks like fun, maybe int tank will be the way to go for me. So annoying that the parry talents and REs are limited to single 2h rather than no shield, then you could do DW tanks and even get swashbuckler tanks (which I was trying to make but... yeah, its too limiting.) - Matsuri, Al'ar
Edit: do your auto attacks do anything? You don't attack while casting so seems a little weird to spec for it I think?
Edit2: Do you not use the epic that allows you to dodge/block/parry while casting? or the one that increases defense by 100% but cant mitigate? they might increases your survivability a bit more.
Keep up the good work always look forward to seeing them! Dwarfaoe
Is this LRE a random drop? Can't seem to find it on the AH
I've met a bunch of American friends thanks to ascension and your videos definitely play a part in keeping me interested in the server itself so thanks for that bud - bandanabob
What resources are out there for searching builds?
Awesome video. I enjoy your theory crafts. Peezly on alar
How’s this build in the current state of the game? I was looking at meta but I’m new and acquiring the dark apotheosis sounds like a lot and I’m leaning into this now
what is the casting bar addon?
Really made me want to make a mana tank now haha. Great vid as always :D Ciphur - Al'ar
Thank you for showing the mana tank. Working on my own version with huge mana pool but your REs are probably better. - Jely
What good is Mind Over Matter? Ton of defense but can't dodge/block/parry? I don't understand it.
Also, is spirit/MP5 good for this build? I would think so.
This is What i love about ascension. That you Can do so many different builds and make Them work. -Tonyfab
isnt there an RE that lets you dodge/parry/block while u channel spells?
That's a pretty sick build! I always liked the idea of a mage tank. I know that Rift had a neat version of one. Thanks for all the great videos! -Darcblaze
Love the videos McDubs -Papermate
your vids are always fun. your joy when something goes right^^ Painstopper
Awesome Video! At the moment im taking a break from tanking and went back to dps ( wanna try a CS Build). I dont know if its just me but it started to feel a bit stale and boring and besides the corrupted bear tank theres not alot of other stuff that sounds fun for tanking. I hope we will get New and fun tanking Re's in the future.
Wrizzla-Alar
You really made me like this game again
Keep up the content man, been seeing loads of manaforged tanks recently ING Pawsmack
Love the vids, Koalabjorn.
Are you using the alembic epic enchant? If you are i probably missed it. I had an arcane mana-barrier tank, but i used only spells so i got mana fiend LRE for extra int instead. Nice vid. -Mobiusdicken (A'lar)
Feriss-alar
My tank alt USA mana tank. I'd highly recommend that you try out scorch or any other spell that can be changed to be castable while moving and the epic RE that turns int into defense. You spam cast filler spell to maximize power surge which stops you from avoiding damage so the re really helps. I use moveable consc prepull and arcane explosion on pull for snap threat then let power surge carry from there. Since I'm running perilous touch I also run the fire spell threat RE and the holy one too
Forgot to mention. If you run a Dagger that's faster than your filler you can weave autos between each cast, and I pair it with a shield for extra armor/def
There was warlock tanking for twin emps in AQ40 in classic.
Is there any chance for more of Shinobi story? XD
what addons do you have?
can we get a link for your ui?
What keybinds you use to move?? Isee your keybinds on presets for walking
I use my mouse and A and D
I love your videos and I love watching you theory craft would love to see more healing builds -stompingmad (this character is leveling with thunder slam from watching your videos now he can be called stompingmad for a reason)
Definitely trying this build next. Always seemed like a very unique way of tanking, haven't gotten around to trying it out myself.
Beware, Alar
There's a ton of different ways to build MFB tank. Basically if you can think of a caster build, you can alter it to tank.
This one is very remeniscent of mine from MalGanis era where it was arcane with arcane explosion, starfall, and starfire and moonfire as my single-target. However I've never gone for eldritch knight. I typically build fairly defensivly int stacking with Mind Over Matter epic and using mana cooldowns as my defensive CD's. So evocation, innervate, the like. A huge one I picked up at 70 here on alar though was Dispersion and shadowfiend. Even with the absolute worst boss to manaforge tank, that being Omor in HFR I can keep my mana up as long as the DPS can pump before I run out of cooldowns. And yeah, that Alembic Trinket is BiS. Had a healer say I shouldn't get it as a tank and all the DPS were like "bro he's manaforged though it's so good for him"
-Yarkarano
I've had a few MFB tanks in my 1-70's and they're always super dope. Awesome to see you try it and I may have to try it myself - IGN Frothed
man this build was cracked, can't wait to see what's next. - Thatmans
I like the Holy 2h parry divine storm spam mana forge I tried out a lot better than the arcane stuff. Will of Light (I think) and the stagger buff/debuff makes divine storm proc like crazy, emanating light, heavy into judgements and holy damage. Took all the talents to buff INT that I could without gimping damage. Went whatever gave more INT. Ghostly strike, Judgement. Also the judge jury RE for the combo points from judgements and I rolled meditation, so more passive mana regen. It’s been fun spec for farming that’s for sure.
Fun video, definatly gonna give this a try! Thanks for showing us how fun ascention can be! much love! Kayora - Al'ar
You should make a pure shadow bolt spec. I was lighting people up yesterday.
Abiding Fel Energy build when? also thoughts on Debbie Downer(RE)? -Pendanser
Great video as always! Al'ar - Pizzanature
Another great video been watching for awhile never played Ascension till yesterday still confused with everything but hey is what it is - Drright -Al'ar
Only thing I haven’t seen is a ranged tank I could see it happen with like illusionary workings -Kiryama
Could argue that shaman tank in classic/vanilla was a magic tank.
Throw some lightbulbs and Schock people for burst threat. Was solid and much fun!
True I have videos of me trying to revitalize shaman tanking when classic WoW came out. But this is a whole different type of caster.
@@Mcdoubles true! It does look super interesting, never played a caster in any form so no clue how to get such a build going! Might try and copy paste yours for a first timer. Thank you for your inspiration.
I made a Thunderslam tank build and its been a blast - Narggles
Benelovent Crusader build PLZ !!!! i dont know if my theorycrafting forgot any synergies, so I wanna see what you will come up with - Sacratissima
@mcdoubles At 13:00 you talk about wanting the fastest Attack Speed Caster Dagger. They're actually bugged though, the Mythic and Mythic+ ones are! They're all 1.8 Attack speed when they should be 1.5. That's a 20% difference, absolutely massive.
It's a super simple fix I'd imagine, should just be updating a few values on the Devs side. I and many others have submitted bugs for it and they keep closing them without any response.
This slower attack speed severely hurts many underplayed and unviable builds. There shouldn't be any harm in buffing those daggers I'd imagine. If there's some super OP spec I don't know of perhaps they should fix that one instead of hurting all the rest.
Anyways it'd be cool if you could bring up that question at some point. Maybe the devs just need a louder voice to actually warrant a reply.
looks fun, Duriana on Al'ar
Have to try this build :) Jacksie
If you want to try another tank I've been having an absolute blast with Templar of Flame. Every build i saw at first was just bear druid with it, so lame.. but I did finally come across a build named The Malding Flame for a 2h tank version. Dude does a great job talking about possible skills to roll for.
Build was definitely interesting but idk if it appeals to me. Have you ever considered doing a mana fiend build w/ deconstruction? I gave it a try on Area 52 and it was enjoyable. Just a suggestion though IGN- Mackado
Love the tanking content ! Would also love to see some ascended raids some time!
Name: Lyner
Mana tank, the hunt for water shield ™️
-Velens
What are your addons
I've been using mana tank for prestige runs, super easy. Probably the easiest tank for lower levels if you get invocation and a bit of AoE. Keep up the vids. - Rira
I had this situation where activate card and my lucky card, so you need to choice then, but water shield would be better choice.
It's time for that BME- Big Mcdoubles Energy
This sounds interesting, I'll prob try it after I can afford another speck. Pinktales
Another Banger vid bro, -NottheBrave
Will you focus on pvp soon ? T_T -Whelz
I'd love to see a Deep Freeze focused DPS build sometime! -Poggsaron
Let the reroll commence!!
How much does it cost to get this server opened? I've been playing on Area 51 for awhile, but want to try this one.
Just swap over to A'lar and roll a character. It doesn't have to be unlocked!
@@Blaineeb when I try, it says I can't create a character
@@wecuyler Did you figure it out Wayne?
last time you could play a caster tank was when they gave warlock the dark apotheosis glyph in MOP which made them a metamorphosis tank. then they took it away because it worked too well, and they they gave meta to demon hunters. the end.