So, before you think about reading this guide, ask yourself, "Do I really want to be tank?" The Tank class is a very underused class, and is almost useless in the current dungeon meta. If you are still here, then lets carry on with tank guide. Now before we go in, I will only really mention offensive tank sets. Tanks that have high ehp, but deal no damage are pretty much useless, so I will not be including sets like Heavy armor, or Super heavy. Fierce Heavy/Fierce Super Heavy will sill suffice for some of the lower level floors, but I do not recommend this setup.
Entrance - This part of dungeons is extremely easy. Assuming you are catacombs 0, you should use a damage set for this floor. For this floor, Strong armor and AOTD are all you need as a tank. If you're rich, you can use Superior dragon armor and a damage sword. Once you hit catacombs 1, you can switch to 5 star Fierce Rotten armor, or 5 star Fierce Skeleton Grunt armor and stick with AOTD or use a Warped AOTE. For a pet, you can just use a damage pet, like tiger or for rich players, ender dragon.
Floor 1 - Now this is where things get a bit harder. Here you can stick with Strong dragon armor, or you can use 5 star Fierce Rotten armor and 5 star Fierce Skeleton Grunt armor. Once you complete this floor, you should grab a Fierce Bonzo Mask. The ability on the Bonzo mask is pretty overpowered. When you die it revives you and gives you full hp + 3 seconds of immunity. For a weapon I would recommend grabbing a Zombie Soldier Cutlass. Now the stats don't look amazing, but the attack speed is insane. With the 100% attack speed, you can easily obliterate any enemies in front of you. I would recommend getting the spicy reforge, or if you are really rich, fabled. Dirty is also a good reforge to put on this sword. For a pet, a regular damage pet works, or tank pets like blue whale, turtle, or bee pet. I would grind this floor till you get to catacombs 9-12.
Floor 2 - Here we get some access to some new items as tanks. Now dragon armor is definitely not as useful as 5 starred gear by now, so if you are still using dragon gear, I would do away with it and get 5 starred gear. A good set to run here would be Fierce Bonzo mask + 3/4 Fierce Zombie Soldier. You should still stick with a Zombie Soldier Cutlass. A good utility weapon is the Adaptive Blade. It allows you to right click and use your Seismic Smash which does a good amount of damage, and holding the sword gives you more defense. For a pet, a rare blue whale is quite nice to have for the extra bonus to ehp. If you don't want to use blue whale, an epic turtle pet and a legendary bee pet are also good tank pets. Here I would grind till your catacombs 12.
Floor 3 - Now when you get a completion here, you get to use an amazing tank set. For before you get a completion, just run the same set you used in Floor 2. Once you get a completion, get yourself a fierce adaptive set. The adaptive set is amazing for tanks, because it gives a lot of ehp. When the class you have selected is tank, you get bonus defense + true defense for dealing with true damage mobs. For a reforge, I would recommend all Fierce, but if you notice you are dying a lot, 2/4 Fierce and 2/4 Reinforced or Titanic works as well. Now here, you should get a floor 3 quality Zombie Soldier Cutlass. Now you see here, weapons have qualities. You can check a weapons quality by installing mods that show you the quality and what floor it comes from, or you can use SkyCrypt to check the quality of items in your inventory. Better quality weapons have better stats, and a f3 Zombie Soldier Cutlass is much better than a f2 or f1 Zombie Soldier Cutlass. As always, you should have adaptive blade for utility. Blue whale is a good pet to have here, but turtle and bee pet are also useful. I would grind this floor until you are catacombs 15-17.
Floor 4 - On this floor, we get two new amazing weapons for tanks. Here a Spirit Sword for main use should be gotten instead of a Zombie Soldier Cutlass, and an Earth Shard can be used to replace the Adaptive Blade. The Earth Shard gives even more defense than the Adaptive Blade, and has the same right-click ability. You should use the same set that you used for f3, and you should be fine here. If you want to do more damage, you can switch to a Reinforced Zombie Knight set, and if you hit catacombs 16, wear a mender fedora for extra healing for yourself. For pets, blue whale, turtle, and bee pet are all good. I would grind this floor till you are catacombs 18-20.
Floor 5 - Ok here is where things actually get hard. You might want to switch back to Adaptive armor with full reinforced, or 3/4 Reinforced + 1/4 Fierce. If you are fine without Adaptive, then the set you used on floor 5 will probably still be useful. On this floor, you gain access to an amazing set, Shadow Assassin Armor. If you cannot afford the chestplate, Zombie Knight CP is a good substitute. Now once you get a completion, you gain access to an amazing weapon, the Livid Dagger. It is an amazing weapon, and is basically the Zombie Soldier Cutlass but on steroids. You get 100% attack speed, and 100% critical chance. The only stat the Livid dagger is lacking in, is strength. For reforges, I would recommend Spicy or Dirty, and for my rich players, Fabled. For a pet, as always epic/legendary blue whale, epic/legendary turtle, and legendary bee pet are all amazing tank pets to have. I would grind this floor till you are around catacombs 20-25.
Floor 6 - Here we get an amazing tank set, Necromancer Lord Armor. This set gives a crap ton of ehp, and you basically cannot die with it on. We also get access to the Giant reforge, which is the best reforge for ehp. F6 quality Earth Shard as a utility as always, and Livid dagger is one of the best tank weapons. Here we get access to another amazing weapon, FOT or Flower of Truth. If you aren't rich enough to afford the chestplate, Giant Zombie Soldier, Giant Perfect Chestplate also work. If you want a bit of extra damage, then Giant Zombie Knight Chestplate is also an amazing substitute. For this floor, it is recommend to use a Legendary Blue whale. Blue whale is the best pet for ehp, and if you want some extra damage you should put a cupcake on it. For this floor, we can finally branch out into Tank subclasses. The main Tank subclasses are Tank Mage, Tankzerker, or just regular Tank (don't play this). I would reccomend staying on this floor and grinding to catacombs 26.
Tankzerkers - The best set for it is Fierce/Ancient SA + Yeti pet with cupcake + FOT. Yeti pet turns your strength into defense, and this setup gives decent ehp, especially when you are holding your FOT. If you cannot afford the chestplate, Zombie Knight CP is a good substitute. You can also run 3/4 ancient SA and Giant Perfect CP/Giant Super Heavy CP/Giant Zombie Soldier CP/ Giant ZK CP + Legendary blue whale.
Another decent Tankzerker setup is 3/4 Giant NecroLord + Giant ZS CP/Giant ZK CP/Giant Super Heavy CP/Giant Perfect CP + Giant NecroLord CP, with all talisman reforges set to optimal damage, and using a Livid dagger. This set doesn't get a crazy amount of damage, but its really tanky, and you will never die. For this setup you can also grab a Sharp FOT for room clearing. You can also switch out some of Armor reforges for Fierce or Ancient. Blue whale with cupcake is reccomended for this setup.
Tank Mage - A good set for tank mage is 2/4 Necrotic NecroLord + Loving Tank CP + Necrotic shadow goggles + Legendary Sheep pet with textbook. For a weapon Heroic Midas Staff is recommended. For utility or main use if you cannot afford Midas Staff, a Heroic Spirit Scepter is also good.
Floor 7 - Now here is a floor where tank is semi-useful for lower cata parties. For this floor, you can choose to opt out NecroLord pieces for Goldor, but I would not recommend it as Goldor is a huge scam, and I was able to easily complete the floor using only NecroLord. Legendary Blue whale is a must-have for tanks on this floor, as you will die to Skeleton Masters if you don't have it as tank. On this floor you can run Giant NecroLord + Blue whale with cupcake/dwarf shelmet, or you can run 3/4 Giant NecroLord + Giant Perfect T10-T12 CP + Blue whale with Cupcake/dwarf shelmet. On this floor, you can get some new reforges and weapons. Good utility weapons are Wither Cloak Sword, and Astrea. As a main weapon, Livid dagger or FOT both still work, and if you are very rich Valkrye is a good weapon to grab. Now here is where you can really branch out as a Tank Subclass.
Tankzerker - For tankzerker you have a lot of options. You can run full Ancient Necron set + baby yeti with cupcake + Withered FOT/Wither Valk with Wither Impact. As a utility, Wither cloak sword is always a great option. This setup gives amazing damage, good lifesteal, and decent ehp.
Another Tankzerker build you can run if you don't have the cash for Necron is Frozen Blaze. Now you have to be cata 29 to use it, but it is a pretty good Tankzerker set if you cannot afford Necron. For this build you use Ancient 5 starred Frozen Blaze + Legendary Blaze pet + Withered Livid for minibosses and FOT for clearing rooms. For more damage and ehp, you can sub the Frozen Blaze helmet for a Golden Necron Head that is at least 1 starred. The damage on this set is pretty good, and the ehp is enough to tank and lifesteal off of Necron. I personally use this setup because I am broke and cannot afford Necron armor T-T. I'll link my SkyCrypt here so you guys can check it out. You can also DM me on discord to ask me any questions about tank or any class for that matter! Here's my discord uSaltyLmao#4354.
https://sky.shiiyu.moe/stats/uSaltyLmao/Watermelon
Tank Mage - For tank mages a good armor set is Giant/Necrotic Wither goggles + Giant/Necrotic 3/4 Storm + Sheep pet with textbook, or Blue whale with Shelmet. If you cannot afford a Storm Chestplate, a loving T10-T12 will suffice. For a main weapon, Midas staff and Yeti sword are both good options. Both should be reforged to Heroic. For utility, Heroic Spirit Scepter and Wither Cloak are both amazing items to have. Now for high cata and really rich players who for some reason still want to play tank mage, Hype is the best weapon to have. Heroic Hyperion + Wither Impact is insanely overpowered, and completes any Tank mage build.
Now I forgot to mention Zombie swords for healing. Get an Ornate or Florid, because it is so clutch for saving your life when you are in a pinch. The Heroic reforge should be applied for extra intelligence. As always AOTE is necessary for utility and its teleport ability is amazing to have. You can always DM me on Discord if you have any questions about any of these builds, and if some of them would still work if you substituted another item.
