The SuperTank! Inv/SS/Fly Build (I6)
By
AmericanSpirit,
Posted on: 2005-12-28 07:06 in Player Guides
I. Invulnerability
This Tanker Primary set provides a mix of Damage Resistance and Defense, as well as a boost to Hit Points. Its main weakness is Psionic attacks, it gives no defense against that damage type.
Level 1 - Resist Physical Damage: This is a passive power, meaning it is always on and costs no Endurance. It provides a base Damage Resistance of 7.5% versus Smashing and Lethal damage, meaning attacks of those types will do 7.5% less damage against you than someone without this power. Doesn't sound like much, but it adds up.
Level 1 - Temp Invulnerability: This is a toggle power, meaning it must be turned on and off and costs Endurance to run, which provides a base of 30% Damage Resistance against Smashing and Lethal damage. I consider this a must-have power in the set, due to its high Resist value.
Level 2 - Dull Pain: This is a click power, meaning once activated it runs for a certain amount of time before running out. Dull Pain increases your maximum Hit Points by 40%, as well as healing you by that amount if you are at less than full health. Dull Pain lasts two minutes and has a base six minute recharge time. I also consider this a must-have power.
Level 6 - Resist Elements: This is a passive power that provides a base of 7.5% Resistance to Fire, Cold and Toxic damage.
Level 8 - Unyielding: This is a toggle power that provides Damage Resistance to all damage types except Psionic, but more importantly provides resistance to Knockback, Holds, Sleep, Immobilization and Disorientation. This resistance increases in effectiveness as you increase in level. Unyielding provides 5% Damage Resistance against Smashing and Lethal damage, and 10% against Heat, Cold, Energy, Negative Energy and Toxic damage. However, your defiant stance makes you easier to hit- when running this power, your Defense is lowered 5%. Still, this is a must-have power for its resistance to status effects.
Level 12 - Resist Energies: This is a passive power which provides 7.5% Damage Resistance against Energy and Negative Energy attacks.
Level 18 - Invincibility: This is a toggle power which increases your fighting ability against groups of enemies. When running, you get a boost to your Defense against all attacks types except Psionic (less of a boost against Ranged attacks), as well as a boost to your Accuracy. This boost is increased depending on the number of enemies surrounding you, maxing out at ten enemies. The exact numbers for this power are in question because they are hard to calculate, but they are good enough to make this a must-have power, it is invaluable when tanking for a team.
Level 26 - Tough Hide: This is a passive power which provides a base Defense increase of 5% against all attack types except Psionic. Defense differs from Resistance in that it decreases the chance of you being hit, not the amount of damage you take when you do get hit. Many people like to take this power simply to offset the Defense DeBuff that comes with Unyielding running.
Level 32 - Unstoppable: This is a click power that lets you become a powerhouse for a little while, but with a big downside. When activated, you gain 70% Damage Resistance to all damage except Psionic, as well as a powerful boost to your Endurance Recovery and virtual immunity to status effects (Knockback, Holds, etc.) This lasts three minutes, then you crash back to Earth, losing all your Endurance (and thus any toggles you had running), and drop to 10% Health! Despite this harsh penalty, Unstoppable can be a powerful tool once you've become accustomed to it. I won't call it a must-have, but I highly recommend it.
II. Super Strength
This Tanker Secondary provides decent damage combined with good crowd control abilities. I've given attacks a Damage Rating, and for comparison's sake, Brawl has a rating of 1.
Level 1 - Jab: (Damage Rating: 2) This is a quick, low damage attack which has a chance at Disorienting your target. As the first power in your Secondary, you are forced to take it, but that's okay, it's an underrated power.
Level 2 - Punch: (Damage Rating: 3) This is a decent attack which has a chance at knocking down your target.
Level 4 - Taunt: This power provokes your target, and those near him, to attack you. It is a powerful tool for the team Tank, it pulls enemies off of teammates and directs their attacks against you. Note that the Tanker Inherent Power Gauntlet provides a Taunt effect with each successful attack you make, so it can make up for not having Taunt. However, I still highly recommend Taunt because it's Ranged and Auto-Hit (Gauntlet doesn't help much against higher level foes you have difficulty hitting.)
Level 10 - Haymaker: (Damage Rating: 5) This is a two-handed smash that can knock down your target. Its higher damage is offset by a longer recharge and higher Endurance cost.
Level 16 - Handclap: With this power you slam your hands together, creating a shockwave that can knockback and disorient nearby enemies. It is PBAoE (Point-Blank, Area of Effect), meaning it effects everyone near you, whether front, back or to your side. It does no damage, but can be a handy attack when you're in a tight spot.
Level 20 - KO Blow: (Damage Rating: 10) This is a devestating attack that you will want to take as soon as you can. Not only does it do very high damage, it will knock your target into the air and has a high chance of stunning them. It has a long Recharge and high Endurance cost, but it worth it. Must-have!
Level 28 - Rage: This is a click power that pumps up your attacks for two minutes, increasing their base damage by 80%! However, once Rage wears off you lose a lot of Endurance (20 or 25, I believe) and are unable to effect anyone else for 10 seconds, no attacking, not even Taunt. This is a must-have for soloing, but it should be used with caution when on a team, a lot can go wrong during that 10 second downtime, and you don't want to be caught unable to help.
Level 35 - Hurl: (Damage Rating: 5) This is an interesting but ultimately poor attack in which you pull a boulder out of the ground and throw it at your target. Interesting because it gives you that "Super Strength" feel, but poor because the long animation time quickly gets on your nerves, plus you must be on the ground to perform this attack. Still, it has medium Range and -Fly component (meaning it knocks Flyers down and grounds them for a few seconds), so some might enjoy it. I recommend trying it out on the Test Server first, though.
Level 38 - Footstomp (Damage Rating: 4, AoE) This is a PBAoE attack in which you stomp your foot on the ground, damaging and knocking down enemies all around you. This is a must-have power- your only Area of Effect damage attack, as well as awesome crowd control. Plus, it has a great "Super Strength" feel. (Note: You must be on the ground to perform Footstomp.)
III. Build Guide
Here is my SuperTank Inv/SS/Flight build template, using the Joe Chott's Hero Planner version 1.5C. I've only gone up to level 40, by that point you shouldn't need any of my help. Also, note that the Enhancements indicated aren't necessarily the ones you will be using at any given level. For example, at low levels you will probably focus on Accuracy and Reduced Endurance, not Damage.
I only use two Power Pools: Flight and Fitness. Flight because it's the coolest travel power ( 
) and comes with the best Power Pool attack: Air Superiority. AS does the same damage as Punch with a much better chance to knockdown targets (actually, knockUP), and knocks down Flyers. The Fitness Pool simply adds to your hero's effectiveness too much to not take.
http://joechott.com/coh
Archetype: Tanker
Primary Powers: Invulnerability
Secondary Powers: Super Strength
01 : Jab acc(01) dam(5) dam(5) dam(17) endred(31)
01 : Temp Invulnerability endred(01) damres(9) damres(11) damres(11)
02 : Punch acc(02) dam(3) dam(3) dam(15) endred(31)
04 : Dull Pain recred(04) recred(13) recred(13) hel(37) hel(37) hel(37)
06 : Air Superiority acc(06) dam(7) dam(7) dam(15) endred(31)
08 : Unyielding endred(08) damres(9) damres(21) damres(27)
10 : Taunt tntdur(10)
12 : Swift runspd(12)
14 : Fly endred(14) fltspd(17) fltspd(27) fltspd(36)
16 : Health hel(16) hel(36) hel(36)
18 : Invincibility endred(18) defbuf(19) defbuf(19) defbuf(21)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(34) endrec(34)
22 : Knockout Blow acc(22) dam(23) dam(23) dam(25) endred(25) recred(34)
24 : Resist Energies damres(24)
26 : Resist Elements damres(26)
28 : Rage recred(28) recred(29) recred(29) thtbuf(33)
30 : Hand Clap acc(30) disdur(40)
32 : Unstoppable recred(32) recred(33) recred(33)
35 : Resist Physical Damage damres(35)
38 : Foot Stomp acc(38) dam(39) dam(39) dam(39) endred(40) recred(40)
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At level 40, with even level Single-Origin Enhancements, you will have about 65% Resistance against Smashing and Lethal damage, and 25% Resistance against everything else except Psionic. For the times this isn't enough, there's Unstoppable. 
A few of my choices that may raise questions:
No Haymaker: I chose to focus on three fairly quick attacks for the early levels- Jab, Punch and Air Superiority. There's really not much need for Haymaker. Also, it has the same animation as Air Superiority, and that bugs me. 
No Tough Hide: This was a tough decision for me, and some may say that mathematically it's more effective than the other three passives combined, but I prefer the Resist powers over Tough Hide because Damage Resistance scales better against higher level foes than Defense. But feel free to disagree.
Handclap: This is a power that takes some getting used to, but I've come to really like it. It may seem counterintuitive to knock enemies away from you when you have Invincibility running, but sometimes you may be overwhelmed, or they may have toggles running that you want to knock off with the Disorient effect. This is especially true against enemies with Slow powers, I use Handclap on them all the time.
Feel free to add any other comments, questions or criticisms of my build!
IV. Leveling Guide
In this section I'll provide some general types to help you while leveling up, primarily in the early levels.
Gaining Influence: If you don't have any high-level Alts or friend to help you out, it can be tough buying the Dual-Origin and Single-Origin Enhancements you're going to want. A few suggestions for maximizing your Influence: <ul type="square">[*]Spend as little as possible, I don't spend any until level 12 when I buy DOs.[*]Always sell spare Enhancements, and at the appropriate Stores for maximum profit.[*]Spend some time as an Exemplar, you will gain Influence a lot faster (but no xp.)[/list]
Difficulty Level: I find it's best to stay at the basic "Heroic" difficulty level at least until 20, when you have both Invincibility and Stamina. Soloing at higher levels earlier than that can be frustrating due to your low Accuracy and damage. Difficulty can be increased throughout the 20s, and by level 32 you are ready for "Invincible".
Early Levels: The biggest issues early on are Accuracy and Endurance. By level six you have a decent attack chain of Jab, Punch and Air Superiority (I used Jab as every second attack), but combined with Temp Invulnerability and Unyielding you'll find your draining Endurance while swinging away at your enemies (and missing!) Some tips for this: <ul type="square">[*]Patience! [*]Know your enemy: In early levels, you usually don't need Unyielding running.[*]If you can afford Enhancements, focus on Accuracy and Reduce Endurance.[*]Don't be stingy with the Inspirations, use them![/list]
Team Tanking: This is a guide in itself, but a few general tips are: <ul type="square">[*]Be the first one in, last one out. If things are going bad, tell your team to run before running yourself.[*]Keep away from the non-melee heroes on your team, so the Area Effect attacks that hit you don't spread to them.[*]Once you have Invincibility, "pull" groups of enemies by Taunting them, then breaking line-of-sight. Hide around a corner or something, so they come to you.[*]Know your limits, especially in early levels. Don't aggro more than you can handle.[/list]
PvP: Player-versus-Player combat can be fun, but I really don't do it very often. Therefore I don't really have enough experience to give reliable tips in this area. Sorry.
BE A HERO!: As a SuperTank, try to be a good hero and help others, be polite and patient, and lead by example. It's a superhero game, be a superhero!
I'm sure there's much, much more I could add to this section, but I'll leave it to those interested to ask questions, and give comments and criticisms on my guide as a whole.
I hope you've enjoyed my guide and it's been of some help. Have fun with your SuperTank!!
invincbilites numbers is 1.5% per mob, more fore the first one/
but their a big causing it to self stack wich gave the inpresion it was 3.0 per
dont wory their "fixing" that bug.
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
I just finished creating my SuperTank! Thanks very much for posting this guide, it helped get my creative juices flowing and I made a character that I think I will really enjoy.
I myself skipped in fair of air superiority and skipped out on the resists for now. Punch is meh compared to air supriority and the resists are laughable. I may pick up boxing later if I need another attack. I myself solo alot and didnt pick up Taunt..though I did get tp foe which has quite a few uses. Solid build though but I hope they really do some work on the passives because Id hate to have to pick up another huge toggle like Tough.
Update:
Note that the Super Strength powerset (like all Tanker Secondaries) has been changed. Haymaker is now available at level 4, while Taunt has been moved to level 10.
Do you think you'll reconsider the Tough Hide vs. Resist Ele/Ene decision when defense scaling changes?
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Do you think you'll reconsider the Tough Hide vs. Resist Ele/Ene decision when defense scaling changes?
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I was thinking about that. I'll check it out once the changes hit Test.
I recently respected a lvl 32 ss/inv tank I hadn't used since the middle of i5 (Crimson Cricket, in fact) using your guide and I have nothing but good things to say. You've helped me dust off an old toon that I thought I would never play again.
Will you be posting a progression for levels 41-50?
Thanks, Crimson Cricket! And I'm glad you're enjoying your Tank!
As for levels 41 to 50, I figure by then players should have a good feel for their Tank and their own opinion would be better than mine. But for the record, I took Conserve Power, Laser Eye Beams, Hasten and Superspeed for my final four powers.
but I can't think for myself!
I just took hurl, and I LOVE it!! But I also have just went through 34 lvl's with a total of 5 (including brawl) damage attacks- I was stoked to get another one, and a ranged one at that!! But yeah, it does have a looooooonnnnnngggg animation time, but on the plus side - unlike most ranged attacks with long anmations times but this one is NOT inter-ruptable! Unless you die during the animation time, which bummer dude..........
Great Guide!! Thanx Vox!!!
"I'm not scared of anyone or anything Angie. Isn't that the way life should be?"
Jack Hawksmoor, The Authority.
Nothing like playing a super tank! It is the build I most prefer my tank! Too bad I respeced him into something stupid but is WAY too sad to explain...(I feel stupid enough as it is)
A couple of things here....I aactually prefered to drop Punch and Keep Haymaker...simply because it hit harder...but your reasons for dropping punch where understandable.
So your build answers a good question for me....it IS possible to survive without RRD for awhile.
I took both the resists AND Tough Hide Like it that way.
AS rocks...but hover has had its uses for me to. And with the extra slots you get in this build...6 slotting it with 3 flight speeds and 3 defense may be impractical...but fun.
Didn't take Hand Clap...with AS combined with the rest of the Super Strength attacks a lot of foes just stay on the ground anyway.
Forget the fury bar....RAGE rules.
Taking Hasten is golden especially after using Dull Pain. Ok so it isn't perma anymore...so? It still rocks.
In PvP? It will take 2 stalkers and a dom to take you down You won't need perception bonus...after a stalker hits you...rage and KO...poor squishie stalker
I was surprised that you only had 1 slot in Taunt. I usually run 4 slots (Acc, 2 x Taunt Duration, 1 x Rech). The 10 second downtime for Rage is nothing - during Respec #2, I could 'train' SEVERAL Freak Tanks back w/me to the bubble room, between Taunt, Invincibility and Foot Stomp. Punch-voke/Gauntlet is your friend... esp. if you're teaming!
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I just took hurl, and I LOVE it!! But I also have just went through 34 lvl's with a total of 5 (including brawl) damage attacks- I was stoked to get another one, and a ranged one at that!! But yeah, it does have a looooooonnnnnngggg animation time, but on the plus side - unlike most ranged attacks with long anmations times but this one is NOT inter-ruptable! Unless you die during the animation time, which bummer dude..........
Great Guide!! Thanx Vox!!!
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Personally I find Laser Eye Beams to have a much shorter animation, but if you want a range attack at earlier levels, go for it.
MisterPiggins!
Comics Shaven Forums
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I was surprised that you only had 1 slot in Taunt. I usually run 4 slots (Acc, 2 x Taunt Duration, 1 x Rech).
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Taunt is auto-hit, it doesn't need Accuracy. It accepted the Enhancement? If so, I think that's a bug.
May be left there from the "way, way, way back" epoch.
I'll double check.
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I was surprised that you only had 1 slot in Taunt. I usually run 4 slots (Acc, 2 x Taunt Duration, 1 x Rech).
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Taunt is auto-hit, it doesn't need Accuracy. It accepted the Enhancement? If so, I think that's a bug.
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actually its no longer auto hit...
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
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actually its no longer auto hit...
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It's not auto-hit in Player-versus-Player, true, but you still can't slot Accuracy Enhancement anyways.
PvE it's auto-hit.
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actually its no longer auto hit...
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It's not auto-hit in Player-versus-Player, true, but you still can't slot Accuracy Enhancement anyways.
PvE it's auto-hit.
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then its buggy i am lucky to get 3, let alne 5, since issue 5 went live
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
The radius is smaller than is used to be, since the targets were limited to 5.
Kinda funny though, your build is quite similar to what I'm working towards with my Invul/SS. I'm going the PvP route though, so I've been mulling over not taking Taunt and Invince. Course, I don't want to NOT have Invince for when I end up PvEing (I mean, does anyone JUST PvP?), but I definitely won't slot it much if I do take it. Is the +acc from Invince also something that scales with the mobs, and if so, how much per?
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In PvP? It will take 2 stalkers and a dom to take you down You won't need perception bonus...after a stalker hits you...rage and KO...poor squishie stalker
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You'll want to Footstomp first to break their Placate, then Rage/KO Blow for the win.
Welcome to my Issue 6, "Enhancement Diversification"-approved version of THE SUPERTANK!
The purpose of this guide is to help others create a fun, classic-style superhero who can both solo effectively and work well on a team. I will provide information on the Invulnerability and Super Strength powersets, as well as provide a build you can follow, or use as a template for your own.
Once you have your sharp costume and heroic name, you're ready to become... a SuperTank!
Sections:
I. Invulnerability
II. Super Strength
III. Build Guide
IV. Leveling Guide