The 8 categories

VIP and Campfire

There is no choice here:

• VIP provides +1% Maximum Hit Points per Party Member (added to the CON multiplier)

• The campfire buff provides +1 to all ability scores for 15 minutes

Get both if you can.

Trinkets

There are currently 3 interesting trinkets available (only listed at highest rank):

• Chain of Scales (Omu - Chult): +3% Awareness and either 2% Power, 2% Defense, 2% Critical Avoidance, 2% Deflect Severity, 6% Stamina Regeneration or 2% Critical Severity

• Forger’s Box (Avernus): +3% Power and either 2% Critical Strike, 2% Accuracy, 2% Combat Advantage, 2% Critical Severity, 6% Ap Gain or 6% Recharge Speed.

• Spider Totem (Northdark): +2.5% Combat Advantage, +1% damage against Drows and either 2% Critical Strike + Stamina Regeneration, 2% Accuracy + Action Points, 2% Power + Recharge Speed.

Trinkets take a slot in one of the 3 slots in the Potion tray.

For survivability, the Chain of Scales is the clear winner with +3% Awareness.

Elixirs

There are 2 interesting elixirs for tanks (can be bought via invocation coins, AH):

• Elixir of Steadfast Devotion: 5% Awareness, 2000 Defense (The boss survivability elixir)

• Foehammer’s Favor Elixir: 5% Deflect Severity, 2000 Deflect (When Awareness is capped)

The Elixir of Steadfast Devotion. Deflect Severity / Deflect from Foehammer’s Favor Elixir can be used when Awareness is capped and it is only recommended when one cannot shift the 5% Awareness to other stats. Elixirs are easy and very cheap to get + provide many stats, thus one shall keep them in mind when building the toon. The target stat for Awareness from other sources is thus 85%.

Invocation Blessing

There are 4 different invocation blessings:

• Grace of Battle: 1302 Power and Defense

• Gift of Awareness: 1302 Accuracy and Awareness

• Righteous Boon: Critical Severity and Critical Avoidance

• Gambler’s Fortune: Critical Strike and Deflect

Invocation Blessings are used to fix the stats that are uncapped. Thus there is no clear recommendation for which to use. Talking about the most useful combination is however easy: Power and Defense provide the best stat combination. When Power and Defense are not capped, Grace of Battle is the way to go.

Event Food

There are 4 interesting Event Food Buffs available:

• Mochi: +5% Power and Hit Points (New Year Event)

• Caprese: +5% Deflect and Hit Points (Summer Event)

• Seed Bread: +5% Defense and Power (April Fools Event)

• Fizzy Brew: +5% Awareness and 10% Movement Speed (Wonders of Gond Event)

There are 4 viable Event Food Buffs for survivability: Mochi, Caprese, Fizzy Brew and Seed Bread. All of them are great choices when built around them.

Anniversary Ham Warning

The +25% maximum Block/Stamina Anniversary Ham (Summer Event) does indeed raises your Stamina by 25%. But the problem is that Blocking / 'Dig in' work percentage-wise! So you still only get 40% HP / 60% HP from a full Block Bar instead of the expected 50% / 75%! Anniversary Ham is thus like a direct Nerf to your Stamina Regeneration!

Additionally there are legacy versions of them floating around that provide 10% instead of 5%, but these are not anymore farmable, thus they are ignored here.

Potions

There are 10 long duration Potions available. Worth to note Potions are the following ones (Rank 2 and 1 versions are ignored):

• Potion of Defense: Rank 13 +1 - 5100 Defense, Rank 13 - 4500 Defense, Rank 4 +1 - 3600 Defense, Rank 4 - 3500 Defense, Rank 3 +1 - 2100 Defense, Rank 3 - 2000 Defense

• Potion of Deflect: Rank 13 +1 - 5100 Deflect, Rank 13 - 4500 Deflect, Rank 4 +1 - 3600 Deflect, Rank 4 - 3500 Deflect, Rank 3 +1 - 2100 Deflect, Rank 3 - 2000 Deflect

• Potion of Power: Rank 13 +1 - 5100 Power, Rank 13 - 4500 Power, Rank 4 +1 - 3600 Power, Rank 4 - 3500 Power, Rank 3 +1 - 2100 Power, Rank 3 - 2000 Power

• Flask of Potency: Rank 3+1: +550 Critical Strike, Accuracy and Power, +5% Critical Severity

• Potion of Unbreaking: 3250 Hit Points, 1500 Defense

• Potion of Dueling: 1500 Deflection, 1500 Critical Avoidance

Technically the Rank 13 +1 Potions are the best, however they are really expensive in comparison to Rank 3+1 Potions. Recommendable are the Potion of Deflect, because Deflect is often neglected on supportive and offensive builds, and the Flask of Potency, which is cheap to get and provides 5% Critical Severity.. Use them as they seem to fit.

Stronghold Food / Chult Food

There are 7 different Food choices (only those that provide the most stats are presented):

• Sambocade: 20000 Maximum Hit Points, +5% Movement Speed

• Honeyed Bread: 20000 Maximum Hit Points, +4000 Defense

• Chocolate: 20000 Maximum Hit Points, +4000 Awareness

• Prime Rib: 20000 Maximum Hit Points, +4000 Power

• Seared Tuna: 20000 Maximum Hit Points, +4000 Critical Strike

• Ratatouille: 20000 Maximum Hit Points, +4000 Accuracy

• Zurek: 20000 Maximum Hit Points, +4000 Outgoing Healing

Similar to the Invocation Blessings, these food buffs are used to fix uncapped stats. Sambocade, Honeyed Bread, Prime Rib and Chocolate are interesting.

Scrolls of Fate

Scrolls of Fate are from the Winter Festival and buyable in the AH. There are 11 different Scrolls available:

• ‘Scroll of Fate: Movement’: +15% Movement Speed

• ‘Scroll of Fate: Defense’: +1500 Defense

• ‘Scroll of Fate: Awareness: +1500 Awareness

• ‘Scroll of Fate: Critical Avoidance: +1500 Critical Avoidance

• ‘Scroll of Fate: Deflect: +1500 Deflect

• 6 other scrolls which increase either Accuracy, Critical Severity, Power, XP Bonus, Glory Bonus and Gold Bonus.

Only the Movement Scroll is interesting, as the others do not provide meaningful bonuses for their price.