Fire_Minded

Iv currently re-rolled all my Brutes into Tankers.As for which side ill be taking them to?Im not sure at this point.

Tankers are not always the weak damage dealing meat shields people belive them to be.

All my Tankers have good to unstoppable survivability in a fight, and can dish out enough numbers to take the entire 8 man team fight to them selves with minimal to moderate effort and squash the mob, or in many cases, take on multipul mobs and crush them at a decently fast rate.

I run with Fire/Fire, Elec/Elec, SD/Axe, and a Ice/Ice set of Tankers.With the exception of the Ice Tank I do alot of damage and can wipe the floor with baddies like they are jokes.

My Fire/Fire can herd up a large mob, use BU and FE then Unload Fire Breath after properly pulling the mob to him around a corner.Then trigger Combustion, then move in and slap them all with Fire Sword Circle while Blazing Aura is hitting them as well.It can easly handle a 8 man team on its own with proper tactics and playing.

My Elec/Elec Tank can do virtually the same as my Fire Tank, just with diffrent powers, and a couple of these powers have KD for midigation to incomming damage, so it as well can handle a 8 man mission when played properly.

My Ice/Ice Tank.....Yeh, the Damage aint all that impressive right now, but his survivability is up there with Tanker Gods.This Tanker is a extreem late bloomer because its better damage potential will be aided by the Ice Epic Pool later on.After that, I suspect it will do rather decent Damage while holding mutlipul mobs.Making it a decent solo killer at a 8 man difficulty.

Then finally, my SD/Axe Tanker.This thing is a juggernaught in its self.Not only can it handle 2-3 Mobs at once in a 8 man mission, it can drop them fast.It matches my Fire Tankers damage all around, but instead of heavy DoT melting the mob the Damage comes all at once in huge bursts.This is my first Brute remake into a Tank and im not dissapointed.I was however dissapointed with the Brute version of this build.This Tanker doesnt dissapoint.

So honestly, I dont see a Tanker being phased out at all.Anyone silly enough to re-roll a Tanker into a Brute, especially if its a High level Tanker will be feeling the sting from it.

Now if a player re-rolled a Brute into a Scrapper, then I could see where there wouldnt be a huge transition issue.

Tankers are for the player that understand patience, in that it takes longer to gain Offensive power, but by no means will that make a Tanker a slouch in combat vs other Melee classes.

Iv heard the argument for how Willpower and Super Strength, as well as many other sets being numerically superior to the rest.I will heavly have to dissagree with this.These sets are Single Target Oriented, and provide very little in the way of holding Taunt, nore do they have the over all AoE capability and damage to be very useful at damage or holding Agro in general.They are numbers to keep that Tanker alive and thats about it.

I cant tell you how many times iv teamed with a Invln/SS or a WP/SS Build in a team that cant hold agro.My Fire/Fire Tanker can hold almost complete agro without having to buy the Taunt power from its secondary, while the WP or Invln build hold hardly any agro with me around, and IM the Scranker?

Im going to state that Tankers are the all around BEST Melee Class in the game.Brutes and Scrappers cannot handle the abuse like Tanker can, which offsets its lower damage.

In the long run, the Tanker can handle more, and dish out more damage over time then these to classes without ANY IO investment at all.If you need IOs to be a a complete power house, then your on the wrong Melee Class.

Wow.....

I am currently sitting at level 39, and dish out some of the ugliest damage iv ever seen on a Tanker.The only tanker iv got that can trump its damage over time would be my Fire/Fire Tanker, but it cant beat my SD/Axe's Burst Damage.

Iv got Ninja Run, so I skipped my Travel pool and took every Armor Power on the Primary except for Grant Cover.Not sure ill need it, and I took every melee power in my Axe Secondary.

The only additional Pool iv taken has been the Fittness Pool.Swift, Health, Stamina.Iv yet to feel the need to take the fighting pool at all for Tough or Weave.The 2-3 Mobs I can handle at a time right now are constantly on there butts, so those additional defenses just dont seem needed.

I acctually took the nerds approach to the Stamina issue Axe creates for the build.I Slapped 1-2 Endurance Reducers in every Axe Attack power.It massivly helps the end drain, and because I have so many attacks, Hasten isnt needed, nore is the need to any Recharge Enhancers for the attacks.I am constantly swinging.So there would be no point.

My Armor Toggles have 1 end reducer in them, and draw hardly any End as it is.I have the optimal 3 Defense SO's in my defense toggles, and in Phalanx Fighting as well.I have the optimal 3 Damage SOs in all of my attacks.

At my current level of 39.I can run in, BU up, let my AAO abosorb the presence of the baddies in the mob, hit Whirling Axe for around 140 damage, then Pendulum for 300 damage on the 5 targets it can hit, then if iv got it lined up good enough, I commonly hit 2-4 with Cleave for around 380 damage, and last but not least.....Shield Charge....BOOM!400-500 damage baby!

The best part of these attacks.Is that the mob falls down and has to get back up.Iv fought Bosses using only ST attacks when iv already cleared the rest of the mob like a Tank from the Freakshow.It would res, and id keep him KD the entire time and he would die without getting a attack off.Glorious!

I really do feel that Shields was ment for Tankers, and thats why it makes a Tanker a God when played right.

On a diffrent subject.I feel Dual Pistols was ment more for Corr's and Defenders then it was for Blasters.Think about it.Change Ammo would benifit the debuffing ability of a Corr and Defender very well.In the same way I belive Shields is really ment for Tankers, but they gave it to Brutres and Scrappers so they wouldnt Cry.

I constantly solo at a 8 man level with this tanker and have yet to need any outside help at all.I do however Dou with another Player at times, just because I get lonley.

On a full team setting.People abused the fact I could roll the mission easly on my own, and went nuts like I was a EMP.They decided to do there own tanking.I say thats great!Just dont exspect me to heal you or hand you a wakie when you rush ahead and get sailing back KO'd from that Alpha you just took.(Thats another issue about stupid and reckless players ill leave alone.)

Anyhow.This Tanker is nuts.Hail to the king baby!

Iv been leveling up my SD/Axe Tanker recently and Scrappers and other Tankers are stopping to ask me questions about my Tanker.

The following is not a stretch of the imagination, nore is it fluff and guff at all.

Iv been running at +0/8 w/bosses Solo for Radio missions and just recently dinged 31.Some times ill team, other times ill duo instead of solo.

When I jump into a mob like any Tanker should, and aborb up some +Damage from my aura.I trigger off Whirling Axe, which commonly does between 90 and 130 damage depending on the +damage saturation and what im fighting.No big deal there.

Then ill trigger Shield Charge and commonly hit the entire clumped mob for 300 to 350+ damage.Again these numbers depend on what im fighting and the saturation of my Aura.

Iv been capable of keeping up with some Blasters and Scrappers for damage.(not all of them though)

Other Tankers stop mid mission to tell me just how immpressed by the damage I do, and if SD/? would do what my Tanker does.A couple litterally told me they where logging out to make a SD Tanker just because they saw what I was capable of.

I shutter to think of the massive mayhem ill be causing when I reach the levels that Cleave and Pendulum are available to this Tanker.I almost wipe entire mobs in 2 attacks as it is.

Im estatic that iv found another Tanker build that matches my Fire/Fire.

Anyone else have a SD/ Tanker they are very happy with?

Welcome to the Dark Side my friend!Defenders Rule the WORLD!

Ehem...

Anyhow, now that im done with that moment of insanity.Iv watched a few Dual Pistol Blasters running around.Iv only seen 1 DP Defender running around though, so I cant comment for those at the moment.

I perfer to run Solo with my SD/Axe Tanker on Freedom at the difficulty of +1/8 w/Bosses.However I do add another player at times just to up the killing speed.Its helpful when I BU, use the +Dmg Aura, and Shield Charge a clumped mob and the player that I added takes whats left of the Minion and Lt Hit Points.

Im half a level off from Whirling Axe so SC is my only AoE at the moment.

They perform like any other blaster from what iv seen.The major diffrence is that DP seems to make a player want to sit back and fire off at range.Which isnt common with most blasters iv teamed with.

I think the animations are a bit funky and akward, but im willing to delete my Traps/Rad in favor of a Traps/DP simply because of the Change Ammo asspect of it.It'll go great with Acid Mortar.

Hmmm, this sounds like it'll be very fun for me.

A couple of my remakes from my old account have been set up to do Solo +4 Speed Runs.They commonly get to level 25-28 on day 1 of the speed runs.(Assumming I have the day off.)

Double XP weekend...yummy!

Well, I have been wanting to make a Energy Melee Tanker fro a while now.I just dont know what Armor Set to give it.

Every Armor set looks as if it'll compliment Energy Melee in one way or another.I just dont know what one to choose.

As always I aviod taking the same set twice.So the following Armor Sets are out of the question for this build.

Invln/
FA/
Rock/
Elec/
SD/
Ice/

A few Views would be helpful.

Well, Im starting up a Rock/Rock build tonight.Ill see if I like it enough to keep.

If I do like it.Ill give it some TLC and Pyre Epic when I reach that point.