Intro & Background
First off a little about me. At the time of this writing (Issue 16) I am a four year vet, with a total of 28 non pled 50s.These characters cover all the archetypes except for dominators and epics which are in progress. I am badly addicted to the inventions system. I have not pvped in quite a while, but I have played through pretty much all the other content this game has both blue and red side. I also have an abiding addiction for tanks (duh!).
Around the end of 2008 I decided to try and get every tanker powerset to 50, both primary and secondary. In part because I wanted to see how the "feel" differed between sets, partly because I wanted to put certain forum legends to the test for myself. About a year later, I have achieved my goal and I want to pass on a few things I have learned. Hopefully this guide will help you see what tanker will best suit your playstyle, what tank will do best at the content you want to play, and how to get past some of the more common hurdles that might discourage a prospective tanker.
The first section will be a quick rundown of the powersets themselves. My impressions. The pros and cons. The possibilities. This will be entirely subjective based on my impressions, hard data and math are well covered in other sources and are readily available.
The second section will cover some basic build approaches. Here I will cover main hybrids, setting up synergies, and some of the IO build approaches you might find helpful.
The third section will cover playstyle variations. How these might affect your build choices, and skills you may need as a result of your playstyle choice.
The fourth section will address the game content itself. How to choose a tank that will flourish in the environment you want to play him/her in.
Finally I will cover some of the more persistent issues that crop up for tank players both ingame and in these forums.
Section 1: The powersets.
1A:the primaries.- Dark Armor. This set is basically a combo of mez and resists with one of the strongest heals in the game to patch up the damage that gets through.On the plus side it really does not have a damage type it is weak to, it enjoys the aforementioned massive heal, a wide variety of usable IO sets, and it can hold aggro quite easily. On the minus side it can potentially carry a heavy end cost, and unlike other tank primaries it cannot ignore any of the damage types via capped resists or defenses. It also has knockback issues which many find annoying. Overall I found this set to be a little squishy for straight tanking, particularly when big game hunting. I enjoy its utility as a tanktroller and how well it functions in the earlier levels.
- Electric Armor. The set uses a combo of resists and healing to keep you alive. Pros of the set include decent resists to most damage and exceptional survival versus psy and energy damage. It is also spectacular for allowing you to ignore your blue bar to focus on other things. The cons are weakness to fire and negative dmg which you face frequently and incomplete knockback protection. I really loved this tank in the late game and I enjoyed his endurance management throughout his career.
- Fire Armor. This is another resist/healing set. Most folks, myself included, choose it more for its damage output than its survivability. The good points of the set are its damage boosting, a fast recharging heal, and the ability to ignore fire damage completely. It is also a fairly efficient set endurance wise though its difficult to notice for aggresive players. Cons include no knockback protection whatsoever, and fairly low resists. I actually ran this powerset to 50 twice on tanks and enjoyed both runs. Large spawns and EB/AVs may require some advance planning but the sets pays you back with very respectable damage.
- Ice Armor. This is a defense/healing set. On the plus side this set is an absolute monster at holding aggro, and its endurance management is so good you can skip stamina with a little forethought. The only real downside is a psi hole, you won't really notice this until late game and then only versus certain enemies but then you will really notice it. I played this set to 50 once and the second run is about 35. Its a great set overall, probably in the top three in term of pure survival. Personally I missed having any damage boosting in the primary but the end management made it worth the sacrifice.
- Invulnerability. This set is kind of a hybrid, a little resist, a little defense, a little healing. Versus some foes you can go make lunch without worrying, other foes will beat you up for your lunch money in mere seconds. For my money this tank really needed some IOs to do what I wanted of it. Once I was done it was very very durable but this tank frustrated me a bit in the early and mid game.
- Stone Armor. This set has no real weakness. like invulnerability it is a hybrid but seemed to me to be a lot more durable. For most people the tier 9 defines the set while rendering the other power obsolete. On the plus side it is easily one of the toughest sets. On the minus it suffers from some fairly severe movement penalties and other debuffs. Out of the box survivability with only SO slotting was a real winner for me. The damage debuffing and movement penalties drove me nuts until I spent the money to overcome them. If you die after level 33 or so you probably did something very stupid.
- Willpower. This set is a regen/resist/defense hybrid set. It performs quite well versus almost everything. Pros of the set include extra recovery, and a thick layer of regen that allows you to really last out the longer fights. On the down side it does nothing to help your damage and large damage spikes can be your undoing. It should be noted that the taunt aura in this set is somewhat less effective than other primaries. For me this tank was perfectly functional but a little boring. Kind of vanilla when I was in the mood for Rocky Road.
There is no disputing the fact that it gets the job done, and it is a good pick if you don't want your toggles to outshine your costume design.
- Shield Defense. This is the newest set and really benefits from the lessons learned over the last five years. It is basically a straight defense set with a whopping dollop of damage boosting. Pros include the damage buffing and a ranged aoe nuke! Cons include a weakness to enemies with to-hit buffing and a lack of the mitigation layering many other sets enjoy. While this is mainly a defense set be aware that it has some resists and the combination of passive and tier 9 allows you to get very close the the HP cap. I enjoyed this set so much I took it to 50 three times. Twice on tanks and once on a scrapper. You need to keep an eye on your green bar incase the random number generator decides not to like you, but the ability to one shot obliterate entire spawns on your own makes it a great package overall.
1B. The Secondaries.- Battle Axe. This set is mostly lethal damage with a fair amount of knockup. This set has a lot of really solid attacks, some really cool custom weapons and a fair amount of aoe. The juggle side effect also helps you shore up a slightly squishy primary. The only real drawback is the damage type, the foes that resist it, REALLY resist it. Overall I enjoyed the feel of this set, it really felt like I was was opening a can on my foes.
- Dark Melee. This set is smashing, negative damage. High points are tons of utility, damage buffing, and a nice little heal. Low points include a lack of attacks overall and a particular lack of aoe. I've run this set to 50 three times as a tank, scrapper, and brute. When you have a primary with a hole to fill this will often be the first set that comes to mind. I also enjoyed this set when I was fighting low numbers of tough foes like Bosses,EBs, and AVs. When fighting large spawns of minions and lts I felt the lack of aoe.
- Dual Blades. This is a lethal dmg set. It is also the only set in the game so far to make use of a combo system. The weapons and animations look awesome, there is some interesting potential in the combos. The only real drawback I noticed was adjusting your timing to make the combos work. I found it difficult to keep an eye on combo while managing the team's aggro. My experience was less than pleasant with this set, not because its is a bad set, but because I paired it poorly. Dark armor's heal does not play nicely with some of dual blade's animation times. I will probably play it again though. The combos can be very effective, and Blinding Feint can be stacked to produce some serious damage on a tank.
- Electric Melee. This set is smashing/energy with some juggling and some draining.This set is one of the better choices for aoes and has (IMHO)the best tanker attack in the game, Lightning Rod. This set is great for fighting spawns and maintaining aggro. It does suffer a bit when you're hunting big game. There are only two ST attacks in the set and neither is really a heavy hitter.
My run with this set was my fastest tank to 50, it is simply brutal at obliterating entire spawns. It also allows for some interesting IO tricks which will be covered later.
- Energy Melee. This is a energy/smashing set with lots of stuns. It's been through a few changes over the years. In its current incarnation it is a somewhat slow heavy hitting set. It's not much for aoe but it's probably one of the better single target sets out there. I've run this set to 50 twice and have a third in the mid 30s. It gets the job done versus individual foes and the stuns are a nice layer of mitigation. The only thing you need to be aware of as a tank is the self dmg portion of Energy Transfer. Normally you will have more than enough hp to easily afford it, but in a long fight where your down into the orange or even the red you may need to remind yourself to drop it from your chain until your health recovers.
- Fire Melee. This set is fire/lethal and like most fire based sets in the game a lot of the attacks have a DOT. This set is great for dealing pain. Unlike most other sets the aoes come early and the better st attacks come later when you need them more.
The set does not have a weakness per se. The only thing to keep in mind, is that it has no mitigation barring actually defeating the foes. As long as your primary does not need shoring up, this is likely one of your best all around choices. I ran this with stone armor to offset the -dmg and it worked great. On a tank without the debuff it should really shine.
- Ice Melee. This set is cold/smashing with a huge dose of controls. On the plus side it deals a fairly exotic dmg type that few foes seem to resist, and it does a lot of mitigation. On the flip side more controls means fewer attacks. For most purposes it does enough damage, if you want to push the envelope it may be a little light for your tastes. I ran this comboed with fire armor to abuse the dual patches. Since I had other options to boost my damage I was able to relax and enjoy all the mitigation it gave me to shore up my primary. It is not a low damage set, there are simply better options if damage is your primary concern.
- Stone Melee. This is a straight smashing dmg set with stuns and juggling. The upside is it hits like a brick, and does a lot of mitigation. The downside is that it's a little lacking in aoe, and it has an endurance cost to match its damage. I ran this with willpower and for the extra recovery, a choice I was glad I made down the road. For my money this is one of the best ST sets, assuming you figure out how to keep your blue bar intact.
- Super Strength. This is another smashing set with some stuns some juggling and a fairly unique self buff. The aforementioned dmg buff is really nice, as is the mitigation this set provides. Less nice is the fact it has basically two decent ST attacks and one AOE, all of which are a highly resisted dmg type. The buff also comes with a crash that takes away all your dmg for 10 seconds per cycle. I like the feel of the set, but now that I've played them all I like the other options better. KO Blow and Footstomp are probably about the third and fourth best tank attacks (after the TP nukes) in my opinion, but unless you can afford the recharge it takes to use only those two attacks you could probably do better with a different set.
- War Mace. Another smashing set with juggling and stuns to back it up. In many ways it is similar to Battle Axe. Similar benefits, similar drawbacks. That aside the set was reworked a few issues back and the tweaks make a huge difference.
The set is currently a nice mix of ST and AOE, and decent mitigation without the usual sacrifice to attacks that come with it.
I ran this set with Ice Armor for concept reasons and it performed quite well. It has a nice solid crunch to it, and it just plain looks good.
Section 2: Build approaches.
I'm not going to endorse any particular style here. A general well rounded tank will be the most versatile and will handle the widest variety of content. The hybrids below are far more specialized they will shine like a jewel for their particular task and will fail just as spectacularly in one of the other roles. I've tried them all, they are all valid playstyles with their own charms.
Try them all and see what you enjoy playing. With the current state of IOs it is possible to design a tank that can do it all,
IF you are willing to put in the time on the build and have the bankroll to assemble it.
- The Meatshield. Some folks play tanks so that they can sit there and soak up damage all day. If this is you, your probably going to want to take a long hard look at Stone, Ice, and Willpower. Stone has Granite, nuff said. Ice can self cap defense with just a few pool picks or IOs, Willpower has a nice thick layer of regen. The other sets can be just as tough but usually require a much larger investment. For secondaries look at Dark for it's heal, Ice for it's patch, and Stone for it's juggling and stuns. Pretty much any combination from those sets will be hard to kill. Now for the IOs. If either set has a self heal recharge can be a good way to go. But then again what build is not made better with more recharge. More HP means more hits before you drop, so more +hp is better. Just keep an eye on the cap so you don't go over the top. If you are resist based or already have a chunk of regen buffing, more regen goes a long way to keep you in the game longer. As a general rule you want to build a significant chunk of one type of bonus. It just works better than a little of this, and a little of that. Don't ignore pool powers either. Fighting with tough and weave adds a lot to many tanks, as does medicine with aidself.
- The Skranker. If you like arresting foes on your own, and not having to rely on teammates for damage, this hybrid is the one you want. This type of tank is all about bringing the pain. You probably want either Shield Armor (for AAO and Charge) or Fire Armor (for FE, Blazing, and Burn). The choice of secondary will be a little harder. Do you want to fight huge piles of minions and lts, or small piles of bosses, EBs, and AVs? If you're fighting large groups you will want Fire Melee, or Electric. If you're fighting small groups go for Dark or Stone. Again when you're picking IOs take a look at recharge, but that is not your only option. It is fairly easy to get 30-40% worth of global dmg buff from sets, when combined with a dmg buff from primary and secondary your foes start dropping really quickly. For pools take a peek at speed (for hasten), or leadership (for assault). A lot of folks gripe about leadership for tanks but when you add that 10.5% to all your other sources of +dmg it is worth it IMHO.
If you decide to go for recharge just remember to keep an eye on your end usage as attacking faster means draining faster.
I should also note that many folks will insist on Super Strength for a skranker. It's not a bad choice, I even tried this myself on my very first tank. It's just not the route I would take now unless I had a really substantial budget.
- The Tank-troller. Some folks want something a little different. A tank-troller can be just as tough as a meatshield, if you have the skill. With this setup your survival is not based on your defense or resists so much as it is on your knowledge of your foes and your ability to apply the right mez at the right time. For this type of tank your only really looking at one primary, Dark.
It gives you two choices. 1.Combine the fear aura with dark melee, and the tier 3&4 picks from the presence pool. or 2.Combine the stun aura with one of several secondaries that pack substantial stun. Earth is your best pick with Fault. Finally grab Stalagmites from the Earth Epic and all your foes will be permanently doing the drunk walk. Many secondaries have attacks with a hold portion that stacks quite nicely with one of the epic holds for some of the pesky single targets.
- The Oddballs. Some other effective combos I've seen that are hard to classify.
The Energizer Bunny (TM) Fire armor/Dark Melee. Forget stamina this build never runs out of green or blue thanks to dual heals and dual saps.
The Sapper Ice Armor or Electric/Elec Melee.
The Jumper Shield Armor/Electric Melee double your pleasure with two ranged TP nukes( a personal favorite of mine).
Patches, Fire Armor/Ice Melee. Leave little piles of flopping roasting foes wherever you go.
The Neener Neener. Ice Armor or Shield Armor/Dark Melee lots of defense and -tohit buffs have your foes swatting at flies instead of you.
Slow boat to China. Ice or Stone Armor/ Ice Melee and Quicksand from the Earth Epic have your enemies going nowhere fast.
Section 3: Playstyle
3a.Team Size/Difficulty Slider. Simply put big teams need you to be really tough, small teams need you to dish out a lot of damage. The new difficulty slider means that the spawns size may not be the same as the natural team size so take a peek at the mission settings if your not the star holder. If you prefer a certain type of team have that in mind when you create the toon. A stone/ice might be great for an 8 man team fighting +4s but it would be a snooze fest in a dedicated duo with a forcefield defender. On the other end of the spectrum a fire/fire/pyre solos like a dream but tanking an ITF for a big pug team is gonna cost a lot of inspirations or you will probably end up eating a lot of floor. You should also keep in mind that the larger or more aggressive a team is the harder you will work to maintain aggro.
3b. Herding. This is a viable playstyle that basically consists of telling the team hide behind this corner until I bring you 14 enemies to smite that will completely ignore you, rinse, repeat. It's fun for the tank, and some teammates, particularly blasters may like this. Most of your teammates will find it boring. It's just not very heroic to hide in the shadows and punch somebody in the back of the head. If you really want to hone your tanking skills I suggest you spend some time practicing this solo either in a big outdoor mission or in the AE. Not because there is a huge demand, but because it will go a long way to giving you a feel for your tanks aggro abilities, and your foes perception range. If your team gets into a rough spot where you exceed your aggro cap it will give you an instinct for when and where foes will peel off to smack around your squishier teammates. One slightly more useful twist on this technique is a "pull through". Ask the team to allow you a couple second headstart, piss off the first spawn, or maybe the first two if you can do this without aggro capping. Next dive out of line of sight. Just like a standard herd, the foes will bunch up tightly, and your team will be just as safe. The difference is your teamates will be moving steadily through the map and get to watch the baddies chase you instead of staring at an office wall for 20 straight minutes.
3c.Steamrolling. Teams with very high dps and/or lots of buffs can wipe out spawns in just a few seconds. The spawns this kind of team fights can do the same thing to a teamate who gets aggro before you can. Your priority on a team like this is getting into the spawn one or two seconds ahead of your team and eating the alpha. If you play on these kind of teams a lot you need to make sure you have good mobility. Generally I target a foe in the front of the spawn and taunt as I jump over his head trying to land in the back 2/3 of the spawn. I follow this up with a aoe. This means that the spawn is not only bunched tighter for my team, they are turned AWAY from my teammates. This keeps the aoes and cones aimed away from the squishies. You will also need to leave the fight early. As soon as everything is dead or dying you need to be on your way to the next spawn not watching them melt away(freaks being a large potential exception).
3d.Dedicated Teams/Friends/PUGs. To put it simply the better you know your teammates the more you can rely on them. On a dedicated team I can discuss builds in advance. I might skip odd powers to pick up something that benefits my friends trusting them to cover the holes I left in my own build. Running with friends on a non locked team, you need to make sure you cover all your bases. You won't need to do anything too extreme since you will still have a good feel for timing and playstyle. If you are pugging all bets are out the window. You might get buffs, you might not. Your teammates might take care of that exotic dmg boss that keep walloping you, they might ignore it and then ask why your dead. If your pugging you need to be totally self sufficient. That means covering the holes in your build as well as you can, working in a heal of your own, loading up on the right inspirations ahead of time or using a inspiration combination macro(I will try to get permission to post that gem from the creator), getting some of the more useful temps (like the Wedding Band or Combat Shield), and taking the self rez from your primary if there is one. Sometimes you find a great pug but don't count on it every time you log on.
3e.Being the other tank. There are couple ways to make yourself useful in this situation.
1.You might decide that one of you is simply better suited to tanking the foes you face in which case the tougher can assume the meatshield role and the squishier can slip into more of a skranker role mopping up loose aggro and helping take down priority targets.
2.Leapfrogging when tank A takes the aggro from the first spawn tank B slips by to the next spawn getting them all nicely bunched for the team a minute or so behind him.
3. The funnel, tank A tackles the spawn as normal, tank B goes and gets another spawn and trains them back to the team. While this sounds risky its really not as long as tank B keeps a good handle on his aggro.
4. The Split. If you have a lot of damage on the team and the map is suitable it can be easier for one tank to take a few teamates and go left while the other tank takes the remainder of the team to the right. As long as the teammates all understand what is going on and who to follow this can result in some of the fastest missions you are likely to ever see.
Section 4: The Content.
Some people prefer to design a character then pick content that suits it, others like certain content and select the toon accordingly. Either way it is helpful to have an idea what content you might face. Pretty much anything you do in this game will help you to progress except for PvP so its just a matter of finding something you enjoy.
4a.Radios. These are simple little missions with a named boss at the end. Unless the team is facing a particularly nasty enemy type or has the difficulty set very high they won't "need" a tank so much as having one will speed things up for them.
Just try to be familiar with the enemies you are facing suggesting a change if its your jelly spot. The maps tend to be on the small side, and repeat a lot. In short order you will have these maps down. Remember to save a few inspirations as every so many missions there will be a Safeguard and the Rogue Isles Villains can sometimes pack a nasty surprise, perhaps even spawning as AVs. Since there is seldom any real threats in these missions a more balanced or damage specced tank will likely be more useful.
4b. Story Arcs. These missions are the main content of the game. If you are the arc holder they have the added benefit of xp and merit bonus on completion. Their main drawback is they often require a lot of traveling for the team. Some of the signature missions in these arcs will be where your situational powers will come into play. Some arcs contain a substantial number of "defeat all missions" suggesting a damage focus, some missions contain very nasty enemies, ambushes, and EB/AVs suggesting a survival focus. Since the missions bounce back and forth this way either keep your build balanced or utilize the dual build feature. In addition, you may wish to take a reasonably fast travel power rather than temps since there is so much running around to do.
4c.Task Forces and Trials. These feature big stories, big missions, and big enemies. As a tank, you will get many requests to join these, and many chances to shine. The TFs are well documented on Red Tomax and ParagonWiki. If you plan to run them read it over in advance so you know what to expect. Since it is nearly impossible to solo this content and task forces nearly always contain huge rooms full of really nasty badies and AVs, give serious thought to a survivability focus. This is also a good level up avenue if you have a pricey build planned that you wish to finance.
4d.Street Sweeping. Not many folks go this route anymore but it is a good way to ensure a steady supply of large level appropriate spawns to smack around. Don't forget The Abandoned Sewers and other Hazard Zones. While you miss out on mission completion boni and merits this is one of the fastest way to level up. The tank I leveled up this way hit 50 in a blazing 60 hours. For this kind of content you seldom face anything higher than a boss so you want a very strong AOE focus on the build. Recall friend is also useful for getting teammates back into the fray quickly when the go to sell, train, or rez.
4e.AE Missions. The custom enemies folks create have a tendency to be a lot nastier than the enemies the devs create. They also tend to use powers you almost never see in game. Unless you have played the arc already go loaded for bear.
If you intend to spend a significant portion of your career in this content, build your tank as tough as possible. On the plus side there is basically no point in working in a travel power as you will never wander further than the trainer, vendor and maybe Wentworths. There is also a handy inspiration salesperson right there by the portal.
4f.PVP. Frankly I have not pvped seriously in several issues now. There is also the fact that, what works or doesn't varies greatly from one issue to the next. I will leave any comments regarding tanks and pvp to those more experienced than myself.
4g.Farming. Opinions on this are varied and heated. I'll just say this. A damage specced, AOE focused, late game tanker is one of the better tractors in the game regardless of what kind of field you are plowing.
Section 5 Common Issues.
5a.My tank does crap for damage. Some do not do well here. This does not have to be the case though. Take a look over the pointers to building a skranker and apply them to the extent you can without gimping yourself in a critical area. Another route you can take is loading your low damage fast recharging fast casting attacks with dmg procs. They are not affected by resists and can help greatly vs some of your more troublesome enemies.
5b.My tank is always running out of endurance. There are several things you can do about this. I will leave the debate as to which is better to others.
- Avoid this issue via powerset choices. Its probably too late if your making this complaint, but choosing a set with a recovery power or a sap goes a long way to dealing with this.
- Avoid a high recharge build. Spamming powers burns end faster, simple as that.
- Slot sets or global IOs that grant a recovery bonus.
- Slot your attacks with a couple endurance cost reducers, this is made easier if you frankenslot those powers.
5c.To taunt or not. This is one of the longest standing and ugliest debates on the forums.Taking the power has the benefits of giving you a autohit (and damage proccable) power that costs zero endurance and allows complete control of aggro even at range. It also applies a substantial -range debuff mitigating incoming dmg and forcing the foes to bunch up closer. It has the drawback of costing one power choice from your build. I suppose you could say wounded pride is a drawback if you feel "forced" to take it. For my money you are unlikely to get more utility at a lower cost. If its a question by all means try it both ways and decide for yourself.
5d.My tank is too squishy. Most of this was covered under the meatshield section apply what you can without messing up needed powers. There are rechargable temps like the the Wedding Band or Combat Shield that work wonders for a tank.
Aid-Self also scales off your base hp last I checked, which makes it a potent power for a tanker. There is also a good chance you are facing foes which do dmg you do not counter well, or that you are scrapper locking and fighting in debuff patches. Knowing when to break line of sight, or move off of a debuff is a valuable skill that you would do well to learn. Take a good look at the accolades as well. More HP has a tendency to magnify whatever mitigation you are already sporting.
5e.Tier 9s. There is a big variety in flavors. Some like Shield or WP have a soft crash and a short recharge they are handy and should be used often, unless you have put a decent number of IOs into the build in which case they may well be redundant.
Some like Fire and Dark are self rez/nukes. Many people detest the thought of a tank power you need to be dead to use. The plain fact is that everyone dies sometimes and the rez nukes not only get you back on your feet but they buy your entire team breathing room in a nasty situation. There are also some foes that hit you with horrible debuffs like Dark Ring Mistresses. In these cases the nuke allows you to face plant, shed the debuff, and get back into the fight in a couple of seconds rather than trudge back rom the hospital. Some like Electric or Invulnerability give you a period of godmode but come with an almost certainly fatal crash. These are a matter of taste. Some folks swear by them, other folks swear at them. This comes under the try it yourself and see heading. If you don't like one power of this type odds are you will not like any of them.
5f. Financing. Build are not cheap, and the better the build the bigger the bill. Early in your career you can take a backwards approach to frankenslotting. Slot generic dmg IOs obtaining your acc/end/rech from taunt sets and sets tailored to the secondary effect of your attack. You will achieve SO slotting power levels by the mid to late teens for a very minimal outlay allowing you to save up for better equipment later in your career. Don't be shy about spending a little time learning how the market works. An hour spent learning the ropes can save you days when you get ready to shop for and finance your tank.
Conclusion.
Hopefully this guide has inspired you to try out a new tank, and given you a few clues to making the journey an enjoyable one.
I did not have the time or room to cover every possible wrinkle of tank play. Any section of this guide could easily be expanded into a guide of its own. If there is call for it I may write some expanded guides. If you have unanswered questions feel free to ask. I or some other friendly forumite will be more than happy to help.
Abnormal Joe
Tank Addict
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