Field Guide

The survival tree: Defense that converts into attack through Jagged Spikes, shields, reflects, and Revenge.

It opens with Jagged Spikes or Rapid Regeneration. The whole pathway costs 75 Mastery Points including its APEX, Revenge. Past the APEX comes the free APEX+ pick (Improved Jagged Spikes or Impeccable Defense) at character level 300, and past Cross Mastery the Pinnacle pick (Merciless Revenge or Stored Wrath) at 100 points.

Defense now grants Physical Attack too: 10 Physical Attack per point of Defense.

The node that makes the Defense pathway a damage tree rather than a wall. It turns Defense — a stat you were raising to survive — into attack, so a Defense build improves both halves with every point.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Jagged Spikes sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 1.
• Cost: 5 Mastery Points, learned whole. It has 5 levels and one press buys all of them.
• Requirements: none. It is a root, so it unlocks as soon as the tree is open to you.

Gains bonus Stamina. +25 Stamina.

The other Defense root, and pure Stamina. Stamina is HP and HP Regen, so this is the node that lets you stay in fights long enough for the reflects further down to add up.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Rapid Regeneration sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 1.
• Cost: 5 Mastery Points, learned whole. It has 5 levels and one press buys all of them.
• Requirements: none. It is a root, so it unlocks as soon as the tree is open to you.

Rapid Regeneration is a flat grant: +25 Stamina once learned, written into your Mastery column on the Character page.

Launch an attack using your shield. Deals 50% of Physical Attack on a 10 turn cooldown.

The pathway's only real attack skill, and the trigger for Bulwark below it. Its damage is not the point; the cadence is, because everything the tree hangs off Shield Charge fires when Shield Charge does.

• ACTIVE: it casts during a fight, under the casting rules, on its own cooldown.
• Shield Charge sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 2.
• Cost: 1 Mastery Point, learned whole.
• Requirements: needs Jagged Spikes at Lv. 1 and Rapid Regeneration at Lv. 1.

Each Shield Charge cast also raises your Defense by 25% of its Base for 5 turns.

A window, not a passive: every Shield Charge raises your Defense for a few turns. With Jagged Spikes held that window raises your attack too, so the same cast makes you harder to kill and harder to survive.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Bulwark sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 3.
• Cost: 5 Mastery Points, learned whole. It has 5 levels and one press buys all of them.
• Requirements: needs Shield Charge at Lv. 1.

Improves Shield Charge's damage by another 50% of Physical Attack, taking Shield Charge to 100%.

The damage half of finishing Shield Charge. Worth taking mostly because Shield Charge is already on cooldown constantly.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Brutal Shield sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 4.
• Cost: 5 Mastery Points, learned whole. It has 5 levels and one press buys all of them.
• Requirements: needs Bulwark at Lv. 3.

Reduces Shield Charge's base cooldown by 5 turns, taking it from 10 to 5.

The cadence half of finishing Shield Charge, and the more valuable of the pair for a Bulwark build — a shorter cooldown means the Defense window is up more of the time.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Relentless Shield sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 4.
• Cost: 5 Mastery Points, learned whole. It has 5 levels and one press buys all of them.
• Requirements: needs Bulwark at Lv. 5.

Drains 100% of your Base + Item Malice and splits it 50/50 into Strength and Stamina.

A trade: it empties Malice into Strength and Stamina. That is a clear gain for a Defense build, which has no use for Defense Ignore, and a clear loss for anyone who was counting on Malice.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Survivor's Guilt sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 5.
• Cost: 5 Mastery Points, learned whole. It has 5 levels and one press buys all of them.
• Requirements: needs Brutal Shield at Lv. 3 and Relentless Shield at Lv. 3.

Survivor's Guilt is a LIVE derivation: it is recomputed every time your stats are read, so it keeps tracking the stat it reads as you spend attribute points.

Equip a second Off Hand weapon in your Main Hand slot. You can no longer equip a Main Hand.

The mirror of Titan's Strength — two Off Hands and no Main Hand. It suits a build whose damage comes from Jagged Spikes rather than from a weapon, since the weapon slot is what you are giving up.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Ultimate Coward sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 6.
• Cost: 3 Mastery Points, learned whole.
• Requirements: needs Survivor's Guilt at Lv. 5.

Passively reflects 100% of Physical Attack as damage whenever you are hit.

Damage you deal by being hit, which is the pathway's whole idea. It scales off Physical Attack, so Jagged Spikes feeds it: more Defense, more attack, bigger reflect.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Spiked Carapace sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 7.
• Cost: 3 Mastery Points, learned whole.
• Requirements: needs Ultimate Coward at Lv. 1.

Increases Spiked Carapace’s reflect by another 50% of Physical Attack, taking the reflect to 150%.

Finishes Spiked Carapace. A reflect only pays when something is hitting you, so this is strongest exactly where a Defense build wants to be — in a long fight against something that keeps swinging.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Improved Spikes sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 8.
• Cost: 5 Mastery Points, learned whole. It has 5 levels and one press buys all of them.
• Requirements: needs Spiked Carapace at Lv. 1.

2 hits at 100% of Physical Attack each. Heals you for 50% of the damage that lands (your own damage, before any pet share). 6 turn cooldown.

The pathway's heal, and the reason a Defense build can go without a healing skill. It heals from what actually lands, so it pays more against a target you are already hurting.

• ACTIVE: it casts during a fight, under the casting rules, on its own cooldown.
• Boomerang Shield sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 9.
• Cost: 3 Mastery Points, learned whole.
• Requirements: needs Improved Spikes at Lv. 1.

Drains 100% of your Base + Item Haste and adds it to Stamina.

Another trade, emptying Haste into Stamina. Haste is only initiative for most builds, so a tank usually loses nothing; an Elusive crossover that turned Haste into attack would lose a great deal.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Immovable Fortress sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 9.
• Cost: 5 Mastery Points, learned whole. It has 5 levels and one press buys all of them.
• Requirements: needs Improved Spikes at Lv. 1.

Immovable Fortress is a LIVE derivation: it is recomputed every time your stats are read, so it keeps tracking the stat it reads as you spend attribute points.

+200 Defense. Every point of Stamina grants 40 HP Regen instead of 25.

The pathway capstone: a large flat Defense grant, which Jagged Spikes then turns into attack, plus a permanent re-rate of what every point of Stamina is worth in regen. It rewards the two stats you have been stacking all the way down.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Defense is the Best Offense sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 10.
• Cost: 10 Mastery Points, learned whole.
• Requirements: needs every node above it in the Defense Pathway, each at full level

Defense is the Best Offense is a flat grant: +200 Defense once learned, written into your Mastery column on the Character page.

The next 5 attacks against you each reflect 350% of Physical Attack as damage. 15 turn cooldown.

The Defense APEX. It banks a handful of incoming attacks and answers each of them, so it is the node that punishes something fast and aggressive hardest — the more often it hits you, the sooner the charges are spent.

• ACTIVE: it casts during a fight, under the casting rules, on its own cooldown.
• Revenge sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 11.
• Cost: 15 Mastery Points, learned whole.
• Requirements: needs Defense is the Best Offense at Lv. 1.

Holding Revenge opens the Combat Mastery tree.

Any single hit is capped at (100 − your Damage Reduction %)% of your max HP. At 80% Damage Reduction that is 20% per hit.

The APEX+ pick for survival, and it gets better the more Damage Reduction you have — at high mitigation nothing can take more than a sliver of your HP in one blow. It is the answer to being one-shot, where Improved Jagged Spikes is the answer to killing slowly.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Impeccable Defense sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 12.
• Cost: FREE, no Mastery Points at all.
• Requirements: needs Revenge at Lv. 1.
• Needs character level 300.
• PICK ONE: learning it locks out Improved Jagged Spikes until you use RESET MP.

Holding Impeccable Defense opens Cross Mastery.

Jagged Spikes grants 15 Physical Attack per point of Defense instead of 10. No single hit can take more than 40% of your max HP.

The APEX+ pick for damage: it raises the rate at which Defense becomes attack. Take it when your Defense is already large enough that a better rate beats a cap on incoming hits.

• PASSIVE: it applies on its own, with nothing to cast.
• Improved Jagged Spikes sits in the Defense Pathway, at tier 12.
• Cost: FREE, no Mastery Points at all.
• Requirements: needs Revenge at Lv. 1.
• Needs character level 300.
• PICK ONE: learning it locks out Impeccable Defense until you use RESET MP.

Improved Jagged Spikes carries a flat per-hit cap: no single instance of damage may take more than 40% of your maximum HP. Only one node can grant this, since the three that do sit in pathways you cannot combine.

Holding Improved Jagged Spikes opens Cross Mastery.

A PICK ONE: take Improved Jagged Spikes or Impeccable Defense and the others are locked out until you use RESET MP. needs Revenge at Lv. 1.

• Improved Jagged Spikes — The APEX+ pick for damage: it raises the rate at which Defense becomes attack. Take it when your Defense is already large enough that a better rate beats a cap on incoming hits.
• Impeccable Defense — The APEX+ pick for survival, and it gets better the more Damage Reduction you have — at high mitigation nothing can take more than a sliver of your HP in one blow. It is the answer to being one-shot, where Improved Jagged Spikes is the answer to killing slowly.