Creative Arden Build "Magic Tank Arden"

...You mean create a Mage-tank Arden? Not effectively. He has 16 resistance. I don't think there's any way to make him an effective mage tank.

just grab wary fighter and he can tank at least one hit from any mage that isn't bladed or proccing specials and thats really all you can do

Short answer, no

Long answer, sort of.
Build his hp to monster levels, which takes a lot of investment and supports and the like, give him noontime/sol, heavy blade, follow up ring, distant counter, etc. Basically you don't attempt to touch his res, and just attempt to wall out mages and heal with skill triggers.

It's not good, don't do it, but it can be done if you want to have him be able to take on the average red or green mage

TLDR - no

Put him on a team stacking armor wards, give him Brazen Def/Res or Fortress Res, and Wary Fighter to limit the first hit.

He could probably use something like Atk/Res Bond and the Fortress Res seal to get up to 26Res. 3 wards would get him to 38Res, but without DC I don't see a point in that much investment.

Yeah there totally is: but if you mean a res tank, then no. However, he can make an amazing tome tank that is very strong against mages who rely on high damage specials or nukes because he is going to tank with his high health and damage reductions, not only his res. This means his effectiveness scales up with the damage the target is doing. The only other things to note is that he won’t be running the set with Distant Counter, so it’s not in any way an optimal set (as it will require another turn or teammate to clinch the kill).

Weapon: Slaying Edge (+res)
Special: Aegis
A: Warding Breath
B: Shield Pulse
C: Panic Ploy
Seal: Deflect Magic 3

With this set, his Aegis will be ready to go on turn one due to Shield Pulse, and will thereafter be constantly up vs. an attacker’s initial blow thanks to Warding Breath. Also, with Deflect Magic, he’ll only be taking 20% from the second blow.

If you give him Summoner Support (which I would recommend doing, since this is a strange build pet-project thing), his res will be 22(28 if next to an armored ally with Ally Support and Ward Armor, which is again highly recommended) and hp 75. So a one-shot nuke would require an astronomical 216 dmg to kill him, and a double attack (which is likely given his low speed) would require 132 damage.

The major problem with this build (and with the concept of hp tanks in general) is that they have no sustain, so Arden would fall eventually. Let’s take a mage with 60 Attack. It would take him exactly 3 engagements to fell Arden. Once you account for specials, if would fall between 2 and 3 engagements. That means if facing a team with 2 or more powerful magic users with low CD specials, Arden will probably die. What’s more, you’re dedicating everything to defense(special, weapon, ABand Seal), so he won’t really be able to do much else.

But hey, it’ll definitely surprise.

*edit* my math is slightly off because I didn’t factor in the +res from the Slaying weapon and I’m too lazy to go back and check it. But it shouldn’t change anything.