Dark Avenger's Guide

Dark Avengeris a defensive melee warrior. He uses swords and blunts with shield and heavy armor. He can stun, summon a panther and use a mixed palette of other aggressive skills.

Like all pure tank classes, he has Aggression and Hate Aura to attract mobs to focus their attacks on him (instead of on other party members), and he has Shield Fortress and Ultimate Defense to increase his defense values, and Deflect Arrow to make bow attacks much less efficient on him. He also has the passive skills Final Fortress to increase p.def with falling hp, and Shield Mastery to improve the effectivity of shields.

Like the Paladin, he has Shield Stun and Majesty.

Like the Shillien Knight, he as Corpse Plague and Drain Health.

He can Summon Dark Panther, curse opponents with Hamstring, panic them with Horror, and can Reflect Damage.

Equipment
Naturally, the Paladin tries to get the best one-handed sword or blunt and shield of the level.

C-grade: Samurai Longsword / Yaksa Mace, B-Grade: Sword of Damascus / Art of Battle Axe / Deadman's Glory, A-Grade: Dark Legion's Edge / Elysian Axe.

On c-grade, the full plate armor gives another nice bonus to the shield skills. On b-grade, the Avadon and Doom Sets are even much better. The boni of the a-grade Dark Crystal set on shields is amusingly less good, but the improved p.def and good immunities make up for this.

Dark Avengers need the following spellbooks: Level 40: Life Scavenge, Reflect Damage, Summon Dark Panther; Level 43: Hamstring, Iron Will; Level 46: Corpse Plague, Horror.

PlayStyle
Tanks are obviously quite easy to solo. In the case of the Dark Avenger, he can even gain support from a summon.

Inside groups, they activate their Hate Aura and keep mobs attacking them instead of the damage dealers.

Best group for a tank is of course a mix of buffers, a large number of damage dealers and nukers, and maybe a healer. Best buffer for the tank himself is a Prophet who avoids buffing 'Berserker Spirit' to the tank, plus an Elven Elder - because of their Agility buff, but they can also give mana and healing and raise almost as good as a Bishop - and a Swordsinger. Of course the other party members will prefer other buffer classes which optimize offense instead of defense. Most anoying for the tank is probably an Overlord because they buff Berzerker Spirit - on everyone of the alliance, so you don't even have to be in party with the Overlord to receive this buff.