Stone Armor Questions

[Moon Jump]

Hey folks. I just started my new all rock tanker called "Mack Meaty" and I'd like to ask some questions about the stone armor.

So far he's level 12 and I have the first three things selected, Rock Armor, Stone Skin and Earth's Embrase. But I'm very angry about the other types of armor. I can't pick more then one at a time? So I was thinking of skipping, Brimstone and the Crystal armor and just thaught of adding Mud Pots and Rooted for extra defence with my Rock Armor. And Minerals sounds like a good choice too for the psy restiance, plus I can use it with Rock Armor.

The other question I have is about Granite Armor. How bad is the slow down when your in the armor? And is Self Teleporting a good idea when you get this armor? One of the first Tankers I ever played with used Self Teleporting and I thaught it was really cool.

Thanks for the help!

[Jade_Dragon]

I've never played a Stone Tanker, but using Teleport to get around the speed reduction is pretty common.

[Graphite]

So far he's level 12 and I have the first three things selected, Rock Armor, Stone Skin and Earth's Embrase. But I'm very angry about the other types of armor. I can't pick more then one at a time? So I was thinking of skipping, Brimstone and the Crystal armor and just thaught of adding Mud Pots and Rooted for extra defence with my Rock Armor. And Minerals sounds like a good choice too for the psy restiance, plus I can use it with Rock Armor.

Well, the good news is your already in nice shape. Smashing/Lethal is the most common damage type in the game. It won't be luntil ate into the game that you face any enemies that do not deal any smashing or lethal attacks on top of their other superpowers.

For your next power I would highly recommend Rooted. Rooted is your mez protection and has a small, but nice regen bonus especially if you slot it well with SOs. Now your only 12 so have some time to put it off. Mud Pots is a nice agro getter but crappy damage. It can also get you into trouble if you don't have the Damage Migation to back it up. As for the next Armor, you you'll want to decide what damage types you'll be seeing most often. Crystal is the next most Common as it is the Energy Defense, but Fire with the burn damage can really hurt. Mineral is nice and Rock is the only set that has at least some Psi damage protection. However, you really don't see it until the late game, even in the 30s only Rikti and Vampri have it in ones or twos for a large group.

Up until Granite Armor, Graphite didn't have any of the armors from the Set instead having stone skin, Earths Embrace, Rooted, Tough, Weave and for a while Menauvers. Definately a very squishy build and played more like a Scrapper but I had enough protection to do the job.

The other question I have is about Granite Armor. How bad is the slow down when your in the armor? And is Self Teleporting a good idea when you get this armor? One of the first Tankers I ever played with used Self Teleporting and I thaught it was really cool.

The next important Choice you need to make is what you want to do post 32. As I think you've realize you can ether A) Use your toggles or B) Focus on Granite. I went on the later and can comment heavly on how Granite works, the draw backs and its effectiveness into the mid 40s. Some thing you need to keep in mind is that Minerals does not stack with Granite Armor. Also, Granite Armor is not being nerfed in I5, which is good cause it has some hefty draw backs.

Granite works in twenty-fives: 25% penalty to damage after all other factors, 25% recharge reduction to all powers (including Hasten causing it impossible to perma), and I think 25% movement speed. No travel powers work with Granite, except for Teleport which is a click instant move design. Do you need Teleport? No, but if you want to move more than 25 feet, I'd highly recommend it. With Swift, I'd say Graph travels at the base movement speed (no sprint), maybe a little less. And yes, Tping around is alot of fun.

Any other questions you had about Granite?

[Sword]

Didn't Stone Armour get changed so you could use all the armours at once?

[Graphite]

Haven't tryed multiple Armors with I5. Shortly after I3 they allowed all the armors to stack with the exception of Granite Armor. Granite Armor is so powerful I certainly understand why it and rooted are the only two toggles your allowed to use. (You don't need Rooted by the way cause it has the same mez resist value already worked in). However, Granite has no psi defense or resist, So when I see anything greater than a Boss with Psi damage (like Babbage or the Hydra) I run like a little baby.

[Sword]

Heads up: Stone is tasting the nerf bat on test. We don't know how bad it is yet, but it (like all armour sets) is obviously being looked at.

[Randomus]

If you're fighting Sappers or Carnival of Shadows, it's a good idea to run both Granite and Rooted, as Sappers can cut through Granite's mez protection. Also, Rooted has a resistance to End Drain effects, so Sappers can't touch you.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

I am currently playing a stone/fire through the game. He is currently at lvl 34.

This is a team build and is focused on aggro mgmt, but I have taken, and it is my intention to take all armors in the set. I find unslotted crystal to be very helpful fighting vamps and CoT energy attacks. Brimstone is a 50% RESIST to fire/cold, which is very useful early on, no slots added. Rock is 6 slotted of course, stone skin has the base. I havent taken minerals yet, that is for 35. I use granite for initial herding/aggro mgmt, but switch out as soon as the team lowers the mob numbers to a reasonable number (say less than 30). Ive been very successful tanking without granite armor thus far, but the extra dimension it adds is invaluable for when things get hot and heavy, or when they go for the worse.