The Guardian Fighter: Tank & Spank

Neverwinter Tanking

So the Guardian Fighter is the last of the five classes currently available in Neverwinter.  At first look, this class is confusing.  A lot of the abilities are more damage oriented than defense oriented.  Though once you get the hang of the class it becomes more apparent how it works.  Neverwinter, as a whole only allows you a few things at any given time: Two At Wills, 3 Encounters, and at most 2 Dailies. The second daily doesn't open up until level 19.  You also get a tab and a shift ability that is unique to the class you are playing.  You have far more powers than fit in those slots.  So this is where the Guardian Fighter comes through shining.  The damaging abilities are nice at lower levels where where threat isn't as necessary as it is going to be all over the place with everyone going gonzo and many groups not even using a tank in skirmishes or Cloak Tower. However, if you are serious about tanking and damage mitigation, you have abilities for this around level 15-20.  So you swap things on your tool bar for when you need tanking stuff and when you are looking to be more damage oriented.  Once I got the hang of this feature, my tank became fun and easier.  

The Tab feature for the tank is Mark, which those who are familiar with 4th edition is essentially the tanks "taunt" feature that encourages things to attack them rather than the squishy dps with a death wish.  As you get stronger in levels, your Mark becomes more potent, and is more likely to keep the bad guy beating on your trusty plate mail rather than that crazy wizard in his bath robes.

The Shift feature for the tank is Guard. This essentially means lifting your shield up to hide behind it and block that nasty ogre's golf swing before you are permanently disfigured and your head is mounted on his pike.  Holding shift increases your chance to block that attack, and it also changes your two at wills to a new skill, much like the Channel Divinity in the Cleric mentioned previously.

Roric Saxon, sporting the spiffy level 20 blues available for 10s a piece.

When you are going to go dungeon delving, you just swap out your crazier attacks for extra defenses, and suddenly you are more study by a ton.  You also get more taunts that are good for snap threat.  This makes you feel more like a tank.  I ran a second Cloak Tower in the tank configuration, and the difference was palpable. Mind you, I went from top Damage dealer to last, but that's not my role, right?  However, I also needed no healing potions, and the cleric was able to dps his heart out rather than keep me and the squishies up.