Ironbreaker Defense Build

[Mangala]

Linkage

Looking at this build for major PQ/Scenario work - damn helpful to my survivability, with some of the good stuff from the Brotherhood tree chucked in to aid my group and my Oathfriend. Obviously I'll end up tweaking it over time, but for a start it looks ok. (Still getting a handle on the skills just from the descriptions.)

As for the slotted Tactics. There's loads to choose from, so I went with the best for my build - excepting the one from the Tome group, all of them seem very PVEish, but if I can interchange them once I have them unlocked I'll be happy enough

[Goatboy]

Would anyone mind doing a breakdown or posting a link to an explanation of what we're seeing?

I understand there's 3 trees. Each tree comes with a couple of basic abilities you get which get stronger the more points you put in that tree. The more points in the tree, the more abilities from that tree you can get as well.

But then there's the stuff in the bottom left and bottom right to make it all go woozy in my head.

[Mangala]

3 Trees ala wow.

In an Ironbreakers case from left to right its:

Solo, Tank, Survivability of Group

(To put it bluntly).

The Tactics are like special unlockable abilities from both Renown (PVP/RVR) and Tome of Knowledge (TF2 style Achievement-ish) that give extra in-combat behaviour or even exp/reknown/gold buffs.  The Morale abilities I havent yet figured out. But I do believe they are usable skills of some sort.

[Keggi]

cant remember exactly but the morale thing i think you get 4 containers on the rightside of your ui you unlock them as you go along and lvl.

you can fill them how you want out of all the abilities you have they fill up in combat the more you fight/heal the more of them become available in the fight.

e.g fight for 2 mins morale container 1 becomes available fight for 3 mins 2nd morale container becomes available and so on.

not a very good description but you have to see it to understand.

another e.g as a archmage i put a group heal in one of the morale slots and in another i put a snare to slow enemies down its that kind of thing enhancements to your other abilities.

[Keggi]

on the left side of your ui you get 4 tactic slots and 1 tome slot but during closed beta i never got anything for the tome slot.

also the 3 tree thing you get points per lvl to spend in whichever tree you want just see your trainer you will find trainers at all the quest hubs.

you also gain renown ranks 1-80 each lvl you get points to spend you can spend them on such things as +stam and things like that.

there are three sections to the renown points tree first section you can spend 20 points which unlocks the second section,spend 40 points in the second section and this unlocks the third section.

renown trainers can be found in keeps located in RvR areas and i think capitol cities, renown gear can also be bought in these locations.

[Gunnarr]

So far I've been investing in the defensive path. Oddly enough, the bonuses this gives (except for the extra abilities you get every 3 levels or so) are mostly a damage bonus to your defensive abilities. Which I guess is still okay, as it'll get you noticed in PvP a bit quicker and it'll build more threat in PvE, but some bonuses to defensive stats would be nice.
Edit: there is one defensive bonus actually, the toughness bonus for vengeful strike increases.