New Player PvE Tricks - Tanking

So I read the manual, and the forums, the new user guild at Saga Units http://www.sagaunits.com/sagaguide/Guide.html, and even the www.freewebs.com/sagaironforge by Ironforge.

One thing they never discuss is how to proper tank mobs with your units at mid-levels.

Early level quests are easy. You field 2 units, they field 3, you attack.

Mid-Levels quests are you field 3 units they field 6. Then when you kill the first wave, they hit you again. This can make is so you burn your entire CP fighting off the waves.

Advanced players know about tanking. I'm not writing this for you. Every machine player I see that Coops with me rolls a couple Mech Giants and Iron Tanks. That's why everyone says Machine is good for PvE, they have a tank that naturally supports them. On the other hand Light always complains about not having a tank for PvE.

Anyway:

What is TANKING?

• Tanking is where you raise a units Defense Rating so high that the mobs fighting it miss alot.
• This allows you to stick archers behind the tank, then you take very little damage from the AI, while you farm them for troop and nation exp.
• The Tank wont live forever, as often you have a mix of ranged and melee hitting it. But it sure takes less damage then a regular damaging troop.
• Also if you have long ranged archery, you can do alot of damage to the AI as it runs to you, making your tank have to take very little damage before the AI units die.
  

Tricks on Tanking:

If you read many guides on Saga, most people will not recommend EVER buying anything from the Item store. Saga is pretty good about giving you upgrades from quest, you rarely need items for your troop units.

HOWEVER, when setting up a tank, this is the one time that you want to shop.

Why? Because the difference between 40DR and 70DR can be huge in mid-game leveling.

So in this screenshot you see that I found a tanking bow with 19% DR bonus and hitpoints.

I love that combination, DR and hitpoints is pretty much what you need for your tanks.

In this screenshot you can find another item I found, which I stuck a 80 shard enchant on. A 80 shard enchant also costs 5k gold, so more gold wasted on tanking.

How many tanks will I need?

The problem is leveling tanks is pretty hard unless you start early. You should think about using your tank in EVER mission that doesn't involve alot of running around. You need levels, every level for the tank is 5% more DR and hitpoints. By the time you need the tank, you will have it leveled to 7 or 8, which is perfect.

How do I use a tank?

Saga is pretty simple. Stick the tank or tanks between you and the melee enemy.

If there is alot of ranged stick it in ranged defense stance, alot of melee stick it in melee defense. Both? Stick it in normal stance.

If you have melee up from and ranged in the back, I like to tank the melee on my tank, and run Heavy Cav through the melee to circle around to the back of the ranged. This allows me to tank the ranged on my Heavy Cav and the melee up from on my tank.

Tanks are slow, so it takes forever to get them into position.

Can I heal the tank?

Not really, the heals in Saga are excellent for healing big troop units with 1CP or 2CP per unit, and bad at healing 20CP units. Too bad huh.

What tank should I use?

One of the highest base DR's in the game is the new Armored Behemoth. For a few more weeks I am sure you can still get one or more for cheap on the Market. It has a impressive 35 DR.

If not, check out your factional units, find any like the Cherbus that has a 34DR or higher. Starting base DR is important, as the item and level buffs are multiplicative. The higher the base DR, the more the bonuses add.