Man At Arms tips

[Bobthehero]

Man At Arms are naturally tanky, but really benefit from either Paladin, or Blackguard, depending on alignment. More CHA makes their debuffs more likely to land, and so you can have a good panic button for more AC in the form of Divine Shield, or extra damage with Epic Divine Might. Blackguard, here, works better, in my opinion, their aura reduces saves further, and MaA can already get fear immunity, on top of needing one less level of BG to have both DS and EDM over paladin.


Straight up MaA with a lot of Con/Str can also work well for neutrals. Your AC will be at 60-61 with maxed out gear and Improved Combat Expertise, depending if you go full MaA or 25/26 MaA 5/4 Paladin/Blackguard.

In my experience, it's a class you generally want to invest many levels in. Oh, and you won't need Mithral plate armor or 16 dex, they get both Heavy Armor Optimisation and its Greater version, and so in normal full plate, you get as much AC in a Mithral one, which is nice enough.

[MrSmith]

I actually copied a MaA/Blackguard build Bobthehero posted some time ago from one of his retired players. Easy to play and very survivable.

I eventually paired MaA with Dwarven Defender with a dip in Fighter levels for more feats... I can toggle his AC to 62 and AB of 43 at the 27th level. His saves are in the low 30s for Fort and Will... and a Reflex save of 20.

It's very important that you can hold aggro... otherwise, your tank is merely a speed bump to softer targets. Here, I have found points in Taunt has been a great investment.

Cheers!

[Bobthehero]

Option one: MaA (26) BG (4) Decent charisma and strength to get EDM and Divine Shield with high AC. Low damage but high with EDM and maybe Improved Combat Expertise if you want to be a complete wall with challenges. This case a drow or aasimar would probably be the best option.

This is the build I rock on my MaA/BG. Damage with NH is in the mid 30's, with PA and the self buff shout active. Saves are meh, 25-20-25 (Can be bumped to 30). AC can go to 52 (PA, NH on) to 67 (DS, ICE and NH off). Very fun to play.

It's very important that you can hold aggro... otherwise, your tank is merely a speed bump to softer targets. Here, I have found points in Taunt has been a great investment.

MaA's have a built in taunt that actually holds aggro, on a bit of a longer cooldown, which are all shared with your other shouts, but very useful.

[Louvaine]

Biggest tip for MaA there is: think about what text you put in your 'taunts'. This is something you will use a lot. It very quickly floods the chat window, especially the one for Challenge. My advise is to even leave it blank.

[13:51] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:52] {cr22} Gnoll Hunter: [Talk] *Maniacal giggles*
[13:52] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:53] {cr23} Gnoll Bloodrager: [Talk] *Wruff*
[13:54] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:54] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:54] {cr22} Gnoll Hunter: [Talk] The dwarf hides!
[13:55] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:56] {cr22} Gnoll Warrior: [Talk] *Wruff*
[13:56] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:57] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:57] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:57] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:59] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey

This is 8 minute cut from a looooong escapade. The player might have been a great role-player, but MaA turns that stuff against you.

[Bobthehero]

Yeah. The only one I kept is the AoE one, which I don't use as much.

[MrSmith]

Biggest tip for MaA there is: think about what text you put in your 'taunts'. This is something you will use a lot. It very quickly floods the chat window, especially the one for Challenge. My advise is to even leave it blank.

[13:51] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:52] {cr22} Gnoll Hunter: [Talk] *Maniacal giggles*
[13:52] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:53] {cr23} Gnoll Bloodrager: [Talk] *Wruff*
[13:54] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:54] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:54] {cr22} Gnoll Hunter: [Talk] The dwarf hides!
[13:55] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:56] {cr22} Gnoll Warrior: [Talk] *Wruff*
[13:56] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:57] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:57] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:57] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey
[13:59] [player] character name: [Talk] Fight me, now! Her words calm, but firm, strict, as if commanding, urging foes to obey

This is 8 minute cut from a looooong escapade. The player might have been a great role-player, but MaA turns that stuff against you.

Lol. Leaving it blank is sage advice... The same logic drives me to always select "none" as my voice type during character creation.

[Louvaine]

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

[Bobthehero]

The shouts will lower the enemy AC, saves, and AB, if memory serves. Get an enemy affected by both debuffs, and they'll get feared.The other one is a self buff to bring your AB closer to a fighter's, while the last is an actual taunt that will force mobs to attack you. As in, they will use the attack action, time it well enough and you can interrupt casters that way.

[Bobthehero]

Take Luck of Heroes at level 1. Lose that Greater STR. I went with a human so I took Exotic Wpn Prof for Bswords for RP reasons. The rest is about feat-for-feat what I took, it's a good build.

Edit: If you really want to keep the 22 STR, then lose Armor Skin, Luck of Heroes will give you +1 AC and Saves.

[Hakken2]

Its so many way to build a tank. MaA is amazing tank class. I did go a very different way with my character but he’s a shield dwarf.
You choosed a solid build. But I would also lower strength a little bit and choose a epic feat worthy a warrior.

Best regards
Hakken2 aka Bhor Stonecutter