I’d like to share my personal M3 tank build, which has proven to be highly effective in Mutator expeditions. Here’s the breakdown of the build:
Gear:
Enchanted Ward
Physical Aversion
Thrust Slash Blunt Condition
Gems:
I use a combination of full Diamond and Onyx gems. The choice of gems can vary depending on the specific mutation you’re facing. You might consider mixing gems to counter different types of physical damage, such as Jasper for thrust, Moonstone for slash defense, and so on. For elemental defense, you can rely on your amulet and elemental gems.
Accessories:
Elemental Amulet
Hated Earrings (providing 0.52% health restore per second)
Blooddrinker Ring (-25% damage taken, while gaining 32.1% life steal, with a bonus perk extending bleeding by +33% time).
Weapons:
The Butcher with a taunt gem slot
Greatsword with refreshing move and the perks Hated and Keenly Jagged Bleeding.
Kite Shield with refreshing move and a perk granting +30% damage empowerment for 5 seconds (stackable up to 5 times), along with a -10% cooldown reduction on kill with a 1-second cooldown.
Why does this build work well?
You allocate your attribute points into 300 Strength and 300 Constitution since most of your damage output comes from Whirling Blades and bleeding effects.
Thanks to The Butcher, you can inflict 7-10 bleeding stacks, dealing 120-200 damage per tick initially, and with a 350-450 damage per tick when you stack your shield’s perk, granting a 150% damage increase for 5 seconds. Refreshing Move on your shield and a skill tree perk make Whirling Blade available every 2-3 seconds, dealing a constant stream of damage.
For aggro control and damage blocking, you utilize the Greatsword, occasionally using taunts. The bleeding and Whirling Blade damage significantly delay any potential threat to your aggro.
Various absorption effects provide substantial percent-based defenses against different damage types. Additionally, the Blooddrinker accessory keeps you alive as it can heal you nearly as effectively as an M3 healer, depending on the number of enemies.
If you wish to focus more on damage output, you can consider the following modifications:
Blooddrinker accessory along with a +7.2% Slash damage perk.
Runeglass artifact, providing armor and +2% physical damage reduction, and an additional +1% melee damage.This adjustment reduces your damage mitigation from -25% to -12.8%.
Artifacts:
Dark Void Chest Plate
Blooddrinker
The Butcher
Skills:
Shield and Sword:
Whirling Blades
Taunt
Backstab (-25% cooldown on all active skills on hit)Greatsword:
Slam Sword in Ground (taunt)
Shield (taunt)
The skill that removes buffs and applies Rend.
This build offers a versatile approach for tanking and dealing damage in M3 Mutator expeditions. It maximizes your potential to hold aggro, dish out substantial damage over time through bleeds, and stay resilient with various defenses and life steal. If you also want to get M3 Tank Build, please prepare enough New World gold and equipment. MMOexp.com can help you.