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.)
"The gaping maw of your mind is filled with layered circles upon circles of bloody razors, I am finding."
- Twoflower
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.
"The gaping maw of your mind is filled with layered circles upon circles of bloody razors, I am finding."
- Twoflower
Good guide man. Thanks for the post. I have a lvl 32 fire/stone that might need some slight tweaking. This seems like a decent guide to follow.
I'd recommend tying it all together with a sample build at the end.
A lot of more experienced folks, or ones that know the Primary or Secondary, but not both, will want to look at a sample build and then will go back and re-read sections of the guide to understand power choices and slotting...
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.
"The gaping maw of your mind is filled with layered circles upon circles of bloody razors, I am finding."
- Twoflower
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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"The gaping maw of your mind is filled with layered circles upon circles of bloody razors, I am finding."
- Twoflower
Boy, I really wish I knew how to post a build from Mid's...
I have a lot of experience with Fire/Stone. My main, Nakoa, has been active since shortly after launch and he's experienced just about everything the game has to offer.
While your guide is very good, it misses the fatal flaw of the set: By being a jack-of-all-trades sort of tank, you are inherently unable to deal with the more extreme adventures in the game. You need Acrobatics to have -KB, a waste of a power slot, unless you buy very expensive IOs. PvPIOs help considerably with this as both Gladiator's Armor and Fury of the Gladiator -two sets that you can use multiple times- offer -KB. If you can substitute IOs for Acrobatics, DO IT! Acrobatics is a waste on a tank. It sticks you with Jumping as your movement which limits your options and make you take a power of limited usefulness. Also, your build has Fiery Embrace, 3-slotted no-less, and your only fire powers are Burn (which has limited utility) and Blazing Aura, which does minor damage anyway, a waste of a power and two slots.
My advice: a fun Fire/Stone has two builds, a defensive build and an offensive build. You need both, just for PvE.
Offensive Fire/Stone: Get Pyre Mastery and go AoE. Burn>Tremor>Fireball+Blazing Aura = instant death to minions. Add in Seismic Smash and you kill bosses and lts with ease. In slotting you need +recharge more than anything. You need Healing Flames to come up quickly and you need to blow through your attack chain quickly. You must have an LotG +recharge in Combat Jumping. Also, getting Char, Fireblast and Fire Ball makes Fiery Embrace well worth taking again.
Defensive Fire/Stone: Tough and Weave are non-negotiable. Fire tanks cannot really tank the big stuff without them. And if you really want to be tough, you will need bonuses from IO sets. There is no room for an epic power pool, beyond perhaps grabbing Conserve Power, if you need it. +Recharge is still handy, but you can now fit a LotG in two powers (Combat Jumping and Weave) so that helps considerably.
Work needs me... perhaps I'll post more soon.
Never argue with stupid people. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
@vanda1 and @nakoa2
I am leveling up a Fire/Stone at the moment. He's 32 as of now. I have most of his powers (except the shields, health, and stamina) frankenslotted with uncommon IOs to get the most mileage out of my slots and limited funds (non-twink here). I find that I can solo at +1/x4 while using inspirations here and there and my tanking is generally fine.
I am getting quite a lot of mitigation from the knockup of Fault and the Stone Hammers. I think this needs to be underscored in the guide. Whereas a Fire/Fire tanker has no mitigation (other than damage), a Fire/Stone has significantly less incoming melee damage to deal with.
I use Burn liberally and have it four-slotted (frankenslot) for damage, recharge, and a little endurance. I find Burn works best when activated before Fault. With good herding and /stone's knockup/disorient tools, you can reduce minions to 50% health with one Burn patch.
At the moment, I have skipped Temperature Protection, Fiery Embrace, and Rise of the Phoenix. I suppose the slow resistance of Temp Protection might be worth a look but it's hard to justify a power selection on it. On the /stone side I'm going to pass on Hurl Stone but take everything else. I have Stamina and Acrobatics and their prerequisites.
The current thinking is:
35: Tremor
38: Seismic Smash
41: Stone immobilize power
44: Quicksand
47: Stone disorient power
49: ?
I have a couple of questions for the OP or anyone else.
1. Since the OP, quicksand has been added to the Stone Mastery Epic pool. This seems custom-made for a Burn tanker. And the single-target immobilize (with a -fly component) is a reasonable choice for a prereq, especially since I'm skipping Hurl Stone anyway. And the AoE Disorient sounds like a great Burn helper too.
2. I understand the power of Hasten, but am concerned with the endurance burn and the end-of-hasten endurance cost ... and I already have most of my powers slotted for 40%+ end reduction via frankenslotting. What's the answer? Time it better with Consume?
3. I have a real problem with taking the Fighting Pool. I hate the idea of wasting a power pick on Boxing or Kick, and frankly the toggles are not that great, AND I already have endurance issues. Please convince me that this is really worth it when I'm getting plenty of mitigation already from Healing Flames and all my knockup attacks, not to mention the hold I'll get from Seismic Smash.
4. What (besides Rise of the Phoenix) would you take as the level 49 power in this set?
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.
"The gaping maw of your mind is filled with layered circles upon circles of bloody razors, I am finding."
- Twoflower