PyroDFB

The movementspeed floor is -90%, but yes. For handling higher conning foes, you may wish to slot up the slow.

Be aware, this will make Warwolves and Carnie Strongmen *super annoying*. They have massive resists to movement speed debuffing, and tend to speed-stagger.

It'd help if you provided a bit more in terms of your requirements.

Would you like just a plain SO build? IOs? Are you looking to just solo, or would you like to be able to tank for teams as well?

Either way, WP/Dark should be a pretty strong combo. Dark can output some fairly nice damage with high recharge, and also adds quite a bit to your survivability.

That seems to have sorted it.

Many thanks!

Okay, so. I started up my computer this morning, only to discover that apparently Firefox wasn't accepting any certificates, and had lost all of my cookies due to their having 'expired'. A bit of further investigation revealed that this was because my Windows Date/Time had apparently set itself to April, 2033.

I set it to the correct date in Windows, but I suspected the battery might be dying, so I rebooted it, checked the system time in the BIOS. Nope. Still showing 01/08. Okay. At this point I began to suspect a virus or something. So I ran a full scan with Kaspersky and another with Spybot. Showed up a couple Flash and Winamp vulnerabilities, which I remedied, but no virus activity. Okay.

Spent a bit more time futzing around with the Start Menu, which had unsorted itself and was steadfastly refusing to Sort By Name properly. Eventually managed to resolve that, more or less. And then decided it was time to get back to the DXP Grind.

Flashed up the updater, no problems, clicked through the Nexts. Computer attempted to start up the client, aaaand...

Microsoft Visual C++ Debug Library

Boxing isn't a terrible attack. You do have better attacks in /Fire though. Adding three endred in Tough doesn't provide as much end drain reduction as one endred each in Tough and your Fire/Plasma Shields though.

I'd probably say drop the four extra slots from Boxing for one endred each in Tough/Fire Shield/Plasma Shield.

Blazing Aura also really needs the endredux. Since we only have one spare slot from Boxing left, I would say Acc/End/End/Dam/Dam.

I'll throw mine into the ring.

Master of the Nether Realms!
ArcID: 1440

It's designed for 1-14 players, uses pretty much all stock mobs, and should be soloable by most characters, although Damned bosses are actually quite nasty.

It's designed to be a fairly short story focused arc for low level characters. I haven't cranked things up for the 'Challenge' type players.

It also contains the fruits of my odd sense of humour. You Have Been Warned.

I am laughing and laughing.

Well played, Devs.

Arc Name: Master of the Nether Realms![/b]
Arc ID: 1440
Creator: @PyroICFFII
Difficulty Level: Easy. No EBs/AVs. No Custom Enemies.
Level Range: 1-14
Description: In which the Hellions attempt some serious black magic, and have to deal with unfortunate consequences.
Featuring a full cast of Hellions, Thorns, Summoned Creatures and More!
Alignment: Heroic
Length: Three Missions. 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Given that you can't feasibly fit everything, this is probably what I would recommend going with for someone new to the sets. In playstyle it's probably closer to a heavy assault scrapper than a true tank, but the mitigation from Stone will let you happily tank eight man groups of anything that isn't Romans, and you can cheerfully out-burst some scrappers. For a tankier feel, I suggest dropping FE/BU/Burn, moving Hasten up, and picking up Tough at 32.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.4006
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Fire/Stone Scranker: Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Secondary Power Set: Stone Melee
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fire Shield -- ImpSkn-ResDam/EndRdx:30(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:30(5), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:30(11), ResDam-I:30(15)
Level 1: Stone Fist -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:30(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:30(11), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(23), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(34), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(46)
Level 2: Stone Mallet -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:30(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:30(9), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(19), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(34), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(46)
Level 4: Heavy Mallet -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:30(5), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:30(9), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(17), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(34), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(46)
Level 6: Healing Flames -- Tr'ge-Heal/Rchg:30(A), RgnTis-Heal/Rchg:30(7), H'zdH-Heal/Rchg:30(7), H'zdH-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:30(17), Tr'ge-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:30(31)
Level 8: Hurdle -- Jump-I:30(A), Jump-I:30(50)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- Jump-I:30(A)
Level 12: Plasma Shield -- ImpSkn-ResDam/EndRdx:30(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:30(13), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:30(13), ResDam-I:30(15)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I:30(A)
Level 16: Health -- Heal-I:30(A), Heal-I:30(43), Heal-I:30(48)
Level 18: Build Up -- RechRdx-I:30(A), RechRdx-I:30(19), RechRdx-I:30(40)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:30(A), EndMod-I:30(21), EndMod-I:30(21)
Level 22: Acrobatics -- EndRdx-I:30(A), EndRdx-I:30(23)
Level 24: Fault -- Stgr-Acc/Stun/Rchg:30(A), RzDz-Acc/Stun/Rchg:30(25), Rope-Acc/Stun/Rchg:30(25), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:30(27), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun:30(29), Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:30(31)
Level 26: Blazing Aura -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:30(27), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:30(31), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(37), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:30(43), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:30(43)
Level 28: Fiery Embrace -- RechRdx-I:30(A), RechRdx-I:30(29), RechRdx-I:30(42)
Level 30: Taunt -- RechRdx-I:30(A), Taunt-I:30(50)
Level 32: Burn -- C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg:30(A), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:30(33), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:30(33), Dmg-I:30(33), RechRdx-I:30(45)
Level 35: Tremor -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:30(36), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg:30(36), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg:30(36), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(37), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:30(37)
Level 38: Seismic Smash -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:40(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:40(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:40(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:40(39), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:40(40), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:40(40)
Level 41: Consume -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg:40(A), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:40(42), Mocking-Acc/Rchg:40(42), Mocking-Rchg:40(50)
Level 44: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I:40(A), RechRdx-I:40(45), RechRdx-I:40(45)
Level 47: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:40(A), RechRdx-I:40(48), RechRdx-I:40(48)
Level 49: Rise of the Phoenix -- RechRdx-I:40(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]1% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]1% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]1% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]1% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]1% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]1% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]1% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]1% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]1.25% Defense(Energy)[*]1.8% Max End[*]28% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]20% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]119.5 HP (6.38%) HitPoints[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 8.8%[*]MezResist(Sleep) 1.65%[*]6% (0.1 End/sec) Recovery[*]24% (1.88 HP/sec) Regeneration[/list]


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Perhaps wise. I don't have a current mid-range build file handy though, just what I'm currently running on my own tank, who is somewhat more tricked out than the plan here. I'll throw something together in mids.

Punching People with Rocks While On Fire for Fun and Profit, But Mostly Fun
[u]Being A Short Guide to Fire/Stone Tanks
[u]Including a Description of the Powers in These Most Excellent Sets
[u]And Additional Appendices concerning Pool Powers which May Prove Beneficial[u]

(Current to I12. I may or may not fix it for I13 at some unspecified later date)

Power Pools
A brief overview, in rough order of positive synergy/importance/whatever. I'm not going to do a full rundown of every power, there are other guides which do that better than I could. I will, however, point out places where pools interact with Stone/Fire in a notable fashion.

Fitness
Stamina is a must for tanks of any variety (excepting, possibly, Willpower), so you will want to work towards it as soon as is possible.

I would suggest taking Hurdle and Health, although Swift and Health also works fine. Hurdle will improve your mobility with Combat Jumping. Health works well with your large HP pool and resists to reduce downtime and keep you standing. Stamina, of course, is good for your endurance.

Recommended slottings; Swift: One Runspeed, Hurdle: One Jump, Health: Three Heal, Stamina: Three Endmod

Leaping
The Leaping pool tends to be the travel power of choice for Fire Tanks, because of CJ's Immob protection and Acrobatics' Knockback protection (this is vital for a tank).

These days KB protection is available via (expensive) IOs, but Acrobatics is still the easiest and most effective way. Super Jump itself is a reasonably fast travel power, and offers good mobility on both the vertical and the horizontal. Combat Jumping offers good air control, and an effectively free toggle that takes defense sets if you're going for IO specials. Even Jump Kick isn't terrible anymore, although it's hardly brilliant.

Recommended slottings; Combat Jumping: One Jump (Or Defense Special IOs if you want them), Jump Kick: Standard Attack Slotting, Super Jump: One Jump, Acrobatics: Two Endredux

Speed
The Speed pool adds a fair amount of survivability to Fire/Stone due to one power: Hasten. This boosts your recharge, meaning that you can have Fault up more often, Seismic Smash up more often, Healing Flames up more often, Fault up more often, your KD juggling powers up more often, Fault up more often... well, you get the picture. Superspeed is, as a travel power, fairly fast, although it tends to be hurt by the way you need to run around tall things rather than just going over the top. Flurry and Whirlwind are... Not especially brilliant. The former doing poor damage for a long activation, and the latter being a fairly hungry toggle that knocks everything out of your chain-KD-stun-burnpatch-death clump.

Recommended slottings; Flurry: Standard Attack Slotting, Hasten: Three Recharge, Super Speed: One Runspeed, Whirlwind: Two Endredux

Fighting
The Fighting pool will offer you a noticeable survivability boost against two main things: Smashing/Lethal AVs and Romans. Both of these are effectively immune to your AoE-KDing chain-mezzing ways, and will generally be a major pain to fight, since they both tend to do more damage than Healing Flames can keep up with. Tough helps this by adding another 23% Smashing and Lethal resist to your Fire Shield, bringing you up to somewhere between 70% and 75%. Weave is not really worth it on a Fire/Stone, as it costs a fair amount, you have no defense to stack it with, and even if you did, you have no defense debuff resist. Boxing and Kick are both reasonable attacks, although nothing to write home about.

Recommended slottings; Boxing/Kick: Standard Attack Slotting, Tough: One Endredux, Three Resist or Three End/Res one Resist, Weave: One endredux, Three Defense or Three Def/End, One Def

Flight
Hover used to act as a form of Knockback protection, but this was changed lately, so it's less effective than it used to be. Since three of your main powers (Fault, Tremor, Burn, Fault) require you to have your feet on the ground, I can't recommend going this route on a Fire/Stone tank. Flight is the slowest travel power, but offers unparalleled vertical mobility and the ability to go make a sandwich while you're en route to the next mission. Air Superiority is an excellent attack, not for it's damage, which isn't particularly brilliant compared to your Stone Melee attacks, but for the fact that it's a guaranteed Knockdown and -fly, which is useful for keeping things on their backs when they might otherwise be stabbing you. Group Fly is basically Fly except moreso.

Recommended slottings; Air Sup: Standard Attack Slotting, Hover: Three Flyspeed, Fly: Two Flyspeed, Group Fly: One Endredux

Teleportation
This travel pool interacts with Fire/Stone in no significant way. It's pretty fast, but you need to pay attention when you're traveling. Teammates like Recall Friend, and you're a tank, so you shouldn't need TPFoe. Group Teleport teleports your group, except it's got a much shorter range than Teleport itself. The one thing of note this travel power offers you is a way of getting out of slow patches (caltrops/quicksand), which you would otherwise have issues with due to Fire Armour's lack of slow protect

Leadership
Doesn't offer particularly brilliant buffs for a tank, and the toggles are quite expensive. Your teammates will thank you for this though. Vengeance is also good for turning a potential teamwipe around.

Medicine
For if you really, really wanted to be a defender? Aid Other, Stimulant and Resuscitate are nice for your teammates, but you generally have other things to be taking. Aid Self is generally quite nice, but you have Healing Flames which is better.

Concealment
You're a tank. You stealth missions by just ignoring everything shooting at you as you run past until it gets bored and wanders back to its spawn.

Presence
The Taunts in Presence aren't actually all that much better than the punchvoke you generate by just hitting things and they're certainly worse than Taunt itself. The Fears are potentially useful, but your taunt aura breaks them and you already have better AoE mezes in your secondary.


Ancillary Power Pools
Arctic Mastery
Block of Ice is a standard Tanker APP Single Target Hold, which is to say, Mag 3, recharges in thirty two seconds and lasts forteen seconds. This one also does DS 1 damage (45 at L50), and has a 24% slow and -recharge for eighteen seconds. Useful as a ranged mez for stopping runners, holding irritating Lts or Minions and very slightly slowing things.
Chilblain is a single target immobilise. It also does DS 1 damage (although over time, unlike BoI), but recharges in ten seconds and lasts for eighteen seconds. It also has a -24% slow and -recharge, as well as fifteen seconds of -fly.
Ice Blast is a single target blast. It, wait for it... Does DS 1 damage, although at six seconds it recharges faster than the other two powers. It has no mez effect, and it's slow and -recharge are -16% for ten seconds.
Ice Storm is a large placable AoE. The summoned pet is the blaster version, so it does the same damage as the Ice Blast version. Unlike the Ice Blast version, this version recharges in two minutes, instead of one. It does somewhere around 115 damage over fifteen seconds, and has 10% -recharge and 40% slow. Of note: This now inherits damage buffs.

Earth Mastery
Salt Crystals is a PBAoE sleep. You're constantly throwing out AoE Damage, Stun and KD. Not hugely useful.
Stone Prison is functionally identical to Chilblain, except it has -14% Defense for fifteen seconds instead of a slow. This is actually useful, as Burn isn't autohit and doesn't inherit accuracy buffs, so -defense is the only way of making it hit more
Fossilise is another Standard Tanker APP Single Target Hold. -14% Defense for twelve seconds instead of BoI's slow/-recharge.
Stalagmites is an AoE blast. It does DS 0.8 damage (40 at L50), recharges in sixty four seconds, has a small chance to stun, and -14% defense for twelve seconds

Energy Mastery
Conserve Power is a long recharging (ten minutes) power which grants the equivalent of four (pre-ED) Endurance reduction SOs in all of your powers for ninety seconds. This is pretty useful.
Focused Accuracy is a toggle that costs more than your entire primary toggles added together, yes, including Blazing Aura. It gives you +20% ToHit, some +Perception, and 86% resist to ToHit debuffs.
Laser Beam Eyes is a ranged blast. It does DS 1 damage, recharges in six seconds and does -14% defense.
Energy Torrent is a Cone blast. It does DS 1 damage, recharges in 24 seconds, has a range of 40 feet and an arc of 45 degrees. It is a guaranteed knockdown.

Pyre Mastery
Char is another Standard Tanker APP Single Target Hold. It differs from the other two in that it does almost no damage and has no secondary effect.
Ring of Fire is a ST Immobilise. It does slightly more damage than the other two, and also has no secondary effect.
Fire Blast is a single target blast. It does DS 1 damage, plus an 80% chance for a further four ticks of DS 0.1 damage. It recharges in six seconds.
Fireball is a ranged AoE blast. It does DS 0.9 damage, with an 80% chance for a further three ticks of DS 0.1, it recharges in thirty two seconds.

Stone Melee
General advice: I do not, under any circumstances, recommend skipping any of the Melee ST attacks in Stone Melee, as the comparatively slow recharges and small selection of attacks mean you frequently don't have attacks up otherwise. Time spent in melee where you are not hitting things is wasted time. With that in mind, on to the powers.

Stone Fist
Your First attack. You have to take this one, and as first attacks go, it's pretty good. It does DS 1 damage (45 damage at level 50), recharges in four seconds, and animates in just 0.83 seconds. It also has a 10% chance to inflict a mag 2 stun, which is minor, but nice. The endurance cost is five endurance.

It's lightning fast animation and fast recharge mean this power is nice for filling in your attack chain between heavier hits. It can get costly once you have high levels of recharge, but a little endredux will go a long way.

Recommended SO slotting: One Acc, Three Dam, One Recharge, One Endredux
Recommended IO Slotting: Acc/Dam, Dam/Rech, Dam/End, Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Acc/End/Rech (Crushing Impact is nice for this if you can get it)

Stone Mallet
The second single target melee attack in Stone Melee. Does DS 1.6 damage (73 at L50), recharges in eight seconds, activates in 1.6 seconds and costs 8.5 endurance. Has a 50% chance to knockdown the target.

Although not as fast as it used to be, this is still a very solid power. It does good damage, and the chance for Knockdown will chain well with Heavy Mallet and let you juggle bosses or dangerous targets prior to Seismic Smash.

Recommended SO slotting: One Acc, Three dam, One Recharge, One Endredux
Recommended IO slotting: Acc/Dam, Dam/Rech, Dam/End, Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Acc/End/Rech (again, Crushing Impact is nice here)

Heavy Mallet
The third ST melee attack. Does DS 2.28 damage (101 at L50), recharges in twelve seconds, activates in 1.6 and costs twelve endurance. Has a 75% chance for knockdown.

Another one that recently got it's activation time increased, Heavy Mallet will nonetheless be your heavy hitter from level 4 right through to level 38 when you get Seismic Smash. The Knockdown chance is good, and can be chained with Stone Mallet to provide a fair bit of mitigation against hard hitting targets. The damage is excellent.

Recommended SO slotting: One Acc, Three Dam, One Recharge, One Endredux
Recommended IO Slotting: Acc/Dam, Dam/Rech, Dam/End, Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Acc/End/Rech (Say it with me: Crushing Impact is your friend!)

Taunt
Taunt is Taunt. It's an autohit, ranged, five target taunt that does no damage. It recharges in ten seconds, and will taunt an evencon enemy for twenty five seconds when it opens, scaling up to forty seconds by level 50.

Debates still rage as to whether Taunt is necessary in a Tank build. I personally pushed it back quite late in my build, but it is a useful tool.

At risk of being controversial, I will recommend taking this power if you are a beginner to tanking. It's a useful tool for grabbing aggro if you aren't confident of your abilities to maintain it with punchvoke and your aura. I would not recommend taking this before you are level 22. You do not have sufficient mitigation to tank properly before SOs.

Recommended SO slotting: One Recharge. Optionally, one Taunt
Recommended IO slotting: One Recharge. Or Two Taunt/Recharge

Build Up
Provides an 80% Damage buff and a 20% ToHit buff for ten seconds. Recharges in 90 seconds.

Useful for taking out targets fast or making sure you hit something. I personally picked this up early, as I favour the mitigation-through-everything-being-dead school of tanking. I would not recommend skipping this even on a 'tankier' tank however, as the tohit buff is invaluable for making sure Fault hits, and Fault makes up a good deal of your mitigation.

Recommended SO slotting: Three Recharge. ToHit if you have spare slots (you probably won't until late)
Recommended IO slotting: Three Recharge. Alternatively, Two ToHit/Recharge, Two Recharge

Fault
A ranged AoE stun and knockdown. Recharges in twenty seconds, stuns at mag 2 (minions only) for ten seconds. Has a further 50% chance to stun an additional mag 1 for ten seconds, stunning Lts. Guaranteed knockdown. Costs 10 endurance. Has a -20% accuracy penalty for being an AoE mez. Has a range of twenty feet, and a 15 foot AoE radius.

Barring, possibly, Seeds of Confusion and Wormhole, this is the best AoE hard mez in the game. Take it. Six slot it. Love it. This is the reason you will not die after level 24. It will allow you to permanantly lock down entire spawns with Stun and KD and kill them at your leisure.

It is really, really good.

Recommended SO slotting: Two Acc, Two Recharge, Two Stun
Recommended IO slotting: Four Acc/Stun/Rech, One Acc/Rech, One Stun/End

Hurl Boulder
Hurl Boulder is a single target ranged attack. It has the same damage and recharge as Stone Mallet, costs slightly more, and casts in 2.5 seconds. It also has fifteen seconds of -fly.

This used to be very, very slow activating. It's been sped up a bit lately, but is still hardly lightning fast. It is, however, still quite worthwhile as it gives you ranged damage. It's useful for taking down runners, knocking fliers out of the air, and can be used instead of Taunt to pull aggro to you at a range.

Recommended SO slotting: One Acc, Three Dam, One Recharge, One Endredux
Recommended IO slotting: Acc/Dam, Dam/End, Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/End/Rech (You can't slot Crushing Impact in this, so you'll have to use Thunderstrike, which is almost as good.)

Tremor
This is the only AoE damage power in Stone Melee. It does the same damage as Stone Fist to everything in a 15 foot radius, recharges in fourteen seconds, and costs thirteen endurance. The main downside is it's painfully sluggish 3.3 second animation. It also has an 80% chance to Knockdown.

This is slow. Really, really slow. It is, however, worth taking for two reasons. Firstly, it is the only AoE damage you get in the entire set, and if you are hitting ten things with it, it is doing better damage per activation than you can manage with any of your single target attacks. Secondly, it is not-quite-guaranteed AoE knockdown. The second power in Stone Melee to offer this. By chaining it with Fault, you can keep the majority of a spawn knocked down most of the time. You can either use this simply as mitigation or to allow your Burn patch to work to full effect.

It isn't hugely impressive on it's own, but by using it in conjunction with your other powers, it becomes usefull and desirable to have in a build.

Recommended SO slotting: One acc, three Damage, one recharge, one endredux
Recommended IO slotting: Acc/Dam, Dam/End, Dam/Rech, Acc/Rech, Acc/Dam, Dam/End/Rech

Seismic Smash
The hardest hitting single target attack in Stone Melee. Does DS 3.56 damage (160 at L50), recharges in twenty seconds, activates in 1.5 seconds, and costs eighteen endurance. Also has a guaranteed mag 4 (Boss grade) hold for ten seconds. Also has a 20% bonus to base accuracy.

This is an excellent power. It activates fast, will hold anything short of an elite boss or archvillain, and does a lot of damage. With slotting, you can make it permanantly hold bosses, although this requires higher level IOs than I'm working with in this build. Take it. Six slot it. Love it.

Worth noting: With Build Up, you'll be capable of oneshotting those pesky sappers, which are otherwise a pain to Fire Armour, lacking as it does any defense or endurance drain protect.

Recommended SO slotting: One Acc, Three Damage, One Recharge, One Endredux
Recommended IO slotting: Acc/Dam, Dam/Rech, Dam/End, Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/End, Acc/End/Rech (You know the drill by now. Crushing Impact FTW.)

Something I wrote a while back and have just now gotten around to posting on the official Guides board, which is why it isn't current to some of the changes for I13. Probably needs a bit of cleanup, but the core is there. I personally have found this a pretty awesome combo to play, both for PvE and (fairly casual) PvP. I hope you'll enjoy playing Fire/Stone as much as I have. Regardless, on with the guide.

Punching People with Rocks While On Fire for Fun and Profit, But Mostly Fun
Being A Short Guide to Fire/Stone Tanks
Including a Description of the Powers in These Most Excellent Sets
And Additional Appendices concerning Pool Powers which May Prove Beneficial

All Recommended IO slottings are for level 30 IOs, because level 27 is when I personally respec into an IO build. I assume that by the time you are level 50 and thinking about Purples and HOs you will be capable of making your own decisions on what to use. I suggest SO slots be added in the order they're written. The build tends to be a bit slot starved early on, but will open out later.


Fiery Aura
Blazing Aura
Your damage/taunt aura. This ticks for a small amount of damage every two seconds on anything up to ten targets. It also taunts each of those targets for thirteen seconds (at level 50). Costs 0.52 Endurance per second.

This is a bit of an endurance hog in the early levels, so I wouldn't recommend taking it until after you have Stamina.

The damage tends to add up very quickly once you have gotten to the point where you can survive taking on entire spawns, so don't neglect it. As Stone Melee, you get very poor AoE damage, so this will pick up the slack a fair bit.

Recommended SO slotting: One acc, two endredux, three dam. Alternatively, Two acc, two endredux, two dam.
Recommended IO Frankenslotting: Go for a good mix of accuracy, damage and endredux. Use the cheaper PBAoE sets if influence is a concern. Multistrike is good for this.

Fire Shield
Your Smashing/Lethal shield. This also provides significant resist to Fire and minimal resist to Cold, as well as your Stun protection. Take it at level one.

Costs 0.26 Endurance per second, 30% resist to S/L/F, 10% to Cold.

Recommended SO slotting: One End, Three DamRes
Recommended IO slotting: Three Damres/End, One Damres

Healing Flames
Your self heal. Recharges in 40 seconds and returns 25% of your health. Also gives 20% Toxic resist for sixty seconds (this is stackable).

This has been a set defining power for Fire since it got buffed. You'll want to take this fairly early and slot it up for heal and recharge. The endurance cost isn't huge, but endredux does not go amiss if you find you're using it a lot. Once you have Fault slotted up, you shouldn't need it as much.

Recommended SO slotting: Three Heal, Three Recharge
Recommended IO Frankenslotting: Three Heal/Recharge, one Heal, one Recharge (or two Heal/End/Recharges, if you can get them)

Temperature Protection
This is a passive which gives you 30% resist to Fire (which you are already at capped damage resist for) and 10% resist to Cold. That's all it does.

Just don't take it, it's useless. The only case I can see for taking this is if you need a mule for slotting various resist IOs such as the KB protection or the Mez resist. In which case it's probably easier to just find another slot for one of your armours.

Recommended SO slotting: One DamRes
Recommended IO Frankenslotting: Whatever Resist special IOs you took it to act as a mule for.

Consume
A 20 foot radius AoE that does minor damage and returns some endurance to you based on how many things it hit.

You might imagine that this power would somewhat mitigate the endurance hungriness of the rest of the build. You would be wrong. Despite having the potential to completely refill your endurance bar if you hit enough enemies, Consume is crippled by it's three minute recharge. Still useful for occasional top-ups or as a panic button if you get sapped. This can safely be pushed fairly far back in the build.

Recommended SO slotting: One(/Two) Acc, Three recharge. Optionally, one or two Endmods
Recommended IO Frankenslotting: Three Acc/Rech, One Rech

Plasma Shield
Your Energies shield. Also provides significant fire resist and your Hold and Sleep protection. Take this as soon as it opens up.

Costs 0.26 Endurance per second. 30% resist to Energy/Negative/Fire.

Recommended SO slotting: One End, Three DamRes
Recommended IO slotting: Three Damres/End, One Damres

Burn
Drops a Burn patch, which does significant AoE damage, but has the downside of causing enemies to run away. This also provides your only non-pool Immobilise protection.

The damage this power does is excellent, if you can make things stay in it for the full duration. As a Stone Melee tank, you have tools to help with this, most notably your AoE Knockdown.

It's worth noting that this power is not autohit, and it does not take accuracy. I don't think multi-aspect IOs with accuracy help with this, but if someone corrects me on this, then Acc/Recharges and Acc/Dams may be added to the frankenslotting for greater effectiveness.

Also worth noting is the fact that this power now inherits damage buffs, so Fiery Embrace and Build Up will increase it's damage noticeably.

Recommended SO slotting: Three Damage, Two/Three Recharge
Recommended IO slotting: Three Dam/Recharge, One Damage. Optionally, one Recharge

Fiery Embrace
Provides a 100% buff to Fire Damage for twenty seconds, and an 80% buff to all other damage types for ten seconds. Recharges in three minutes, twice as long as Build Up. Doesn't have a ToHit buff.

While this power is not as useful to a Stone Melee tank as it would be to a Fiery Melee tank, it can still be used as a second Build Up to augment your already impressive Single Target burst damage. If you are taking Burn, this power will boost it's damage significantly, and I heartily recommend taking it. If you are not it is something of a borderline case, and may be skipped in favour of something more vital with minimal pain.

Recommended SO slotting: Three Recharge
Recommended IO slotting: Three Recharge

Rise of the Phoenix
A self rez. Resurrects you at 50% Health and Endurance, does significant damage, knockback and stun to enemies within a large (25 foot) radius.

Many people don't like this, on the basis that as a tank, you should not be dying. Personally, I have kept this in my build because a) If you die, getting back up, stunning everything and preventing a teamwipe is better than walking back from the hospital b) It does significant amounts of damage, c) It looks awesome.

Recommended SO slotting: One Recharge. Optionally, damage and stun to taste.
Recommended IO slotting: Much the same.

I think we are all overlooking an important point here.

Do we get shattered glasses and scorch marks in the costume creator?

Because I want those.

Seismic Smash is single target. If you take Hasten and slot it like a hold (which is crazy, as it does Total Focus damage), you could maybe, maybe keep two targets perma held, so long as they are evencon.

While I'm not arguing that Ice is a better control set than Stone (because it isn't), your argument's kinda based on facts that are, not to put to fine a point on it, not factual.

Edit: It occurs to me that I know where you're getting the five targets from. City of Data, yes? That's just the punchvoke effect. If you check other tank ST attacks you'll see they have the same thing.

[ QUOTE ]
a hella-damage (at least compared to anything /ice) PBAoE hold with a 5 enemy cap and each on short enough timers to keep almost everything knocked or held for the entire fight

[/ QUOTE ]

Bwahuh?

Do you mean Fault? In which case you're wrong on, uh... just about every particular. It's a ranged AoE 10 target stun and KD, but no damage.

Aki pondered the question for a moment. "Yeah, sure. Sounds like a plan. Gimmie a shout if you find anything good in the kitchen. As for what I plan to do at the moment..."

She flopped backwards onto one of the beds and grinned at the ceiling. "I was planning on doing nothing, I think. It's not as easy as it looks."

(Five EST today on test, yes?)

(( And on that note: Doh!

... I don't suppose Kairaishi still needs a teammate? I think Vailo's been deleted. Or possibly rerolled. Either way. ^^; ))

(( Bah. Sorry I haven't been around much. Family stuff and such. I am, however, back now.

Unfortunately, my ability to write has completely deserted me, so ping me on @PyroICFF or @PyroICFFII iffen you wish to arrange teh RPx0rz. I'm on most days.

Also:

Team: [Insert Name Here]
Member: Blazing Angel Akiko - 50
Member: Jordan Norris - 50 ))

Akiko yawned and eyed the congregation below. There looked to be a fairly large collection of heroes and villains. From her vantage, perched atop one of the cranes used for loading ships, they was more or less impossible to tell apart. That thought made her grin quietly to herself. It didn't really matter where they came from anyway, so long as they were here to fight.

She idly kicked her feet out above the drop and pondered. There seemed to be no more than the usual number of concealed snipers, and the Malta operation operating out of the werehouse two blocks down had been working on intercepting Longbow transmissions, not preparing for a large meta capture operation. There looked to be enough firepower arrayed below to give anyone trying to spring a trap a seriously bad day, too.

All in all, everything seemed to be on the level.

"Ah well." she muttered. "If I sit here all day trying to work out if that means I just haven't spotted the trap yet, I'll never get anything done. Time to make my entrance, I think."

She checked that her backpack was securely closed, hefted it over one shoulder, and stepped over the edge.



((Yes, I am quite aware that I suck at writing. *hangs head in shame* ))

((Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, Aki, in both screenshotty and arty form: 1 2 3 (Because I am an artist, and am thus an angst-ridden emo attention-[censored] and LOOK! AN OBVIOUS DISTRACTION! *runs*)))