So I'm thinking of making a Tanker....

[Malibu Sally]

Like the title says. I'm creating a new alt which will be sort of a semi-main for me. I am undecided about being a Scrapper or Tanker at the moment.(though I am leaning more in the tanker direction)

What I would like is a breakdown of the plusses and minuses of the tanker primaries. Especially Stone and Ice. I see Fire and Invulns all over the place so I want something different. From experimenting and from recommendations, I have pretty much determined to take Energy Melee for the secondary if I go ahead and make the character.

Thanks :)

[suburbanhell]

INV/SS Is my personal preference (Given who Major 0bvious is), but I hear INV/Fire is the FOTMAT.

[The Icy One]

I looked over Stone when helping Jugger pick out her powers, it's very unique to say the least. It's the only one with Psionic Resistance and it's only real downside seems to be reduced speed.. which really isn't that bad.. o.o

It's pluses are it's final power is pretty much a All-In-One.. the minus is you have to go through the 32 level before it with the same Endurance drain as any other Tanker set with all the toggles. It's not really to bad actually.. if I had room and Jugger wasn't already one I might look into making one myself.

[Xanatos]

INV/SS Is my personal preference (Given who Major 0bvious is), but I hear INV/Fire is the FOTMAT.

LoL no

Inv/NRG is FotM

[suburbanhell]

LoL no

Inv/NRG is FotM

Hmm...maybe it's just the people I hang around in game then who l0vvz0rs Inv/Fire, lol.

[Tsarmina]

I know Amoeba Man just got his stone tank to 12 or 13. I also know it sucked for him when the igneouses knocked off his toggles. Find Sword. He's the Tank mod.

[suburbanhell]

Major was originally a Stone/SS tank -- I couldn't handle it after getting Mud Pots and losing ALL my end midway through every battle. That and I can't stand anything that roots you, I need mobility.

[Amoeba Man]

LoL no

Inv/NRG is FotM
Dang! I hate it when my characters' sets become FotM. I made Yellow-Guy like 8 months ago and he's Inv/NRG. Back in the day when AM was Spines/Regen I had to here about how that was the uber build and I was being all 1337. I wasn't being 1337! I was trying to find a freakin' set of powers that even remotely could be explained as shapeshifting! :grr: [/rant]

[Impact]

Ice/EM seems to be becoming a more popular build honestly. When I first started Frosty I remember getting tells saying 'WOW another ice tank!' or 'I can't believe there's other ice tanks this high!'

I guess I can give you some pluses/minuses of Ice Armor then Astartus can come and give the rest (he does have more experience with it than I do afterall)

Pluses

- Ice Armor is only the defense based set of the tanker primaries if I remember right (which means it works a lot like FF defenders).

- Like you mentioned, there aren't many around so there's the 'oh i'm special' aspect. I think most of them are members of Cold Front or other AT/power specific SGs.

- Within the set you have the ability to become mobile caltrops so to speak with the chilling embrace + icicles combination (and icicles just looks cool too :cool: ).

- There are potentially two healing powers in the set. Hoarfrost (which is like dull pain and coincidentally offers toxic resistance now) and Hibernate (which can be useful depending on your playstyle since it allows you to basically rest and fully heal up).

- Energy Absorption. This power really makes the set if you can play until you get it (which a lot of people can't/don't). Before it was capped, diving into screen covering mobs was perfect because you drain end (the power can also be used to drain all the enemies end if you choose to slot it that way) and up your defense based on each enemy around you. Now with the new update/change it caps at 5 enemies per use, but of course with hasten and some recharge slots you can manuever your way around that.


Minuses

- 9/10 I usually run all three of my armors. They're all defense based and stack but this can be a good bit of an end drain in the pre-stamina levels.

- Like I said, it's defense based, so unless you dip into the fighting power pool for tough, when you get hit, you usually get hit HARD.

- A lot of people look down on ice tanks because, like you said there's not many. There've been plenty of times that I've had to prove to people how great a tank Frost is simply because he's not Invuln, Fire, or Stone. Of course, it's always a nice feeling when you jump in and save the cocky invuln/fire/stone tank along with the rest of the team ;)

- This isn't really a huge minus (I guess) but being an ice tank you don't really have the humongous amount of upper level players & guides to draw on, but since you're here @ CoH Guru you have Astartus & myself to ask if you need a hand. I know as I was playing a lot of things I kinda felt my way through the dark with because I felt weird asking Astartus since I didn't know him that well when I started out.

I guess that's a semi-decent list IMO. I don't have a lot of other tank experience so I don't know how they stack up play wise. But yeah....I'm sure I left out some stuff (hopefully nothing big) so if I did feel free to chime in Astartus.

[Quakester]

A general issue with tanks is that they live or die by their toggles. What little I know of stone tanks is that they have the best Psi resistance of any of the tanks. Stone Tanks are the only ones that can survive the alpha strike from the psychic CK. However, their armors, like Ice, can be a bit of end drain.

[Sword]

Well, I'm not an expert of the other armour sets, but here's a general rundown:

Invuln: This is just good and great for heroes that want to just be tough without having a lot of graphics defining how they do it. It mixes great resistance with decent defense.

Stone: Best "pure tanker" set. It's great ressitance, defense and regen. On the downside, it slows you down and decreases your damage output. So, it's not a great set to mainly solo with. But for team-tanking, Stone is the best.

Fire: Uses, offense as defense. What to remember when considering building a Fire tank, is thta you won't get to budge the build much for character concept. It has no knockback or immob protection, which forces you to take Combat Jumping and Acrobatics to be able to really function as a tank. So, you use super jump or you're sub-par.

Ice: Decent set. It's protection is Defense and slow effects.It's problem is the same as Super Reflexes. It's all defense, so if you get hit, it hurts. Ice needs help. It's not horrible, but it's still the underdog compared to the other sets. (Except a fire tank that tries to use anything other than the recomended build perhaps)

[Extractor]

Good summaries so far.

I’d just like to add that Stone is the best tanking set post lvl 32 or so (Granite armor) and beats Invul mostly due to the psionic damage weakness of Invul; then again Invul is much better pre-level 32 and a close second after, plus it not quite as slot-intensive as Stone.

One of the coolest and best tankers I’ve ever teamed with was a Stone/Fire tanker! The Fire secondary seemed to go well with the slowness of Stone and Mud Potts because of the AoE’s. Also it was just a way cool combination of sets thematically. And since you already said, Sally, that you wanted to go with Energy melee, I’m not sure if Stone/Energy works thematically (ymmv) but the now popular Ice/Energy would be cool.

[Malibu Sally]

Alright. Since I am coming from a purely offensive AT, I want to minimize the "culture shock" as much as possible. So... I have chosen to make a Fire/EM tanker. I'll play her for a while and if things don't turn out just right, I'll try another combination.

Say hello to:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/MalibuSally/tstopsal.jpg

Now then... How about some builds? I'd like to see a couple of different variations(if possible) and I'll choose one I think matches my style. I have advanced her to level 5, though I have not yet seen a trainer so I still have my initial power choices only.(Fire Shield and Barrage) :)

[Quakester]

Bonesmasher is your friend! Avoid trying to pick up too many attacks. EM has only one AOE and that's whirling hands. Handy but a little weak.

[Sword]

Here's a decent Fire/EM build from a guide:

Archetype: Tanker
Primary Powers - Defense : Fiery Aura
Secondary Powers - Melee : Energy Melee
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Blazing Aura /EndRdx,EndRdx,Acc
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Barrage /Acc
Slot[03] Level 2 : Fire Shield /DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes
Slot[04] Level 4 : Taunt /Rchg
Slot[05] Level 6 : Boxing /Acc
Slot[06] Level 8 : Healing Flames /Heal,Heal,Heal,DamRes,Rchg,Rechg
Slot[07] Level 10 : Combat Jumping /DefBuf
Slot[08] Level 12 : Plasma Shield /EndRdx,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes
Slot[09] Level 14 : Super Jump /Jump
Slot[10] Level 16 : Hurdle /Jump
Slot[11] Level 18 : Burn(T) /Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[12] Level 20 : Health /Health
Slot[13] Level 22 : Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec
Slot[14] Level 24 : Tough /EndRdx,DamRes
Slot[15] Level 26 : Acrobatics /EndRdx
Slot[16] Level 28 : Weave /EndRdx,DefBuf,DefBuf,DefBuf,DefBuf,DefBuf
Slot[17] Level 30 : Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg
Slot[18] Level 32 : Consume(T) /Acc
Slot[19] Level 35 : Energy Transfer /Acc,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[20] Level 38 : Total Focus /
Slot[21] Level 41: Conserve Power ??
Slot[22] Level 44: Lazer beam eyeballs ??
Slot[23] Level 47: Build Up /Rchg
Slot[24] Level 49: Uknown at this time

[Quakester]

Say hello to:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/MalibuSally/tstopsal.jpg

:)

Oh and RAWR! ;)

[Extractor]

too funny!

[ThunderMace]

I posted a coupla fire/** builds in this forum myself

[Greblaja]

Love the look and name. :)

That's a pretty solid build presented - certainly a good roadmap to get you started.

[Darknesse]

Here's a decent Fire/EM build from a guide:

Archetype: Tanker
Primary Powers - Defense : Fiery Aura
Secondary Powers - Melee : Energy Melee
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Blazing Aura /EndRdx,EndRdx,Acc
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Barrage /Acc
Slot[03] Level 2 : Fire Shield /DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes
Slot[04] Level 4 : Taunt /Rchg
Slot[05] Level 6 : Boxing /Acc
Slot[06] Level 8 : Healing Flames /Heal,Heal,Heal,DamRes,Rchg,Rechg
Slot[07] Level 10 : Combat Jumping /DefBuf
Slot[08] Level 12 : Plasma Shield /EndRdx,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes,DamRes
Slot[09] Level 14 : Super Jump /Jump
Slot[10] Level 16 : Hurdle /Jump
Slot[11] Level 18 : Burn(T) /Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[12] Level 20 : Health /Health
Slot[13] Level 22 : Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec
Slot[14] Level 24 : Tough /EndRdx,DamRes
Slot[15] Level 26 : Acrobatics /EndRdx
Slot[16] Level 28 : Weave /EndRdx,DefBuf,DefBuf,DefBuf,DefBuf,DefBuf
Slot[17] Level 30 : Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg
Slot[18] Level 32 : Consume(T) /Acc
Slot[19] Level 35 : Energy Transfer /Acc,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[20] Level 38 : Total Focus /
Slot[21] Level 41: Conserve Power ??
Slot[22] Level 44: Lazer beam eyeballs ??
Slot[23] Level 47: Build Up /Rchg
Slot[24] Level 49: Uknown at this time

BAH to that build. BAH I say.

Although I would LOVE to 7 slot energy transfer

[Sword]

Hm, yeah, 7-slotted powers must be nice :D

I'm no Fire tank builder, so I just copied the build from one of the guides on the official forums. It looked sufficiently ****ed up to be a good fire tank :chuckle:

[vyxzuw]

Well, with Hammy-Os, it kinda can be... :P

Don't suppose Krypto or Dark will post a Fire/EM build?

[Digital]

LoL no

Inv/NRG is FotM

Damn! I just made a Inv/NRG tank months ago so I wouldn't be another Inv/SS tank. But recently I just started playing him more. :mad:

That being said, Inv is really fun.

[Gollum_ARG]

Fire/Ice is the new FOTM. IMO :cool:

[Sword]

Nah, Fire/Ice was the FoTM, but got knocked down from there by the newst Burn/taunt changes. Inv/NRG seems to be more on the rise. People just don't seem to grasp the concept that NRG is pretty weak until high levels.

[Extractor]

Fire/Ice is the new FOTM. IMO

Fire/Ice is soooo last month! It's as stale as ninja's.....

[Malibu Sally]

Bah! I did not much care for the Fire/EM tanker so I deleted and re-rolled her. This time I am trying an Inv/Axe tanker(much to Darknesse's utter horror!) If this one dosen't pan out to my liking, then I'll delete/re-roll again.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/MalibuSally/tssally.jpg

[Randomus]

Man, I made a Fire/Fire tank ages ago, and then like right after Fire became "the powergamez0r" set so I felt kind of dirty.

Still fun as hell, though.

[Sword]

WOOO FOR INV/AXE TANKERS!

Heh, my main has been that all the way since beta.

It's a great combo with a very good early attack in Beheader (best DPS attack of the set). Just be aware that your endurnace will suffer. Axe does tons of damage and so costs tons of endurance (well, tanker version of tons of damage, if you know what I mean). Slot at least one endred in each power.

Other than that, just chop stuff. It's worked for me since day one :shinner:

[Malibu Sally]

I'm really liking the knockdowniness so far. Only level 9 at the moment so no real end problems yet.

Now if only some kind soul would make that axe mod for me......