what is your favorite tanker build? and why?

Not sure if you were replying to me or not (don't think I've ever mentioned Ice/Ice) but ....

Ice/Ice never really interested me but its a decent tanking combo (the secondary complimenting the primary well). Ice Melee is just too scarce on damage for me to want to place it in a non-damaging primary (i.e. Fire/Ice does well).

I don't know if I'd recommend EM right now ... it's sort of an annoying secondary currently (long animations). If you're determined to go Ice, Ice/SS is a strong combo (EA nullifying Rage and Hasten crashes nicely). Also Ice/WM and Ice/Axe are fairly good builds. Ice/Stone is also a good one although I'm not as high on Stone lately (lack of AOEs).

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So far my Invy/Stone has been my favorite. He is a good all around tanker that can easily switch from team tanker to solo damage dealer with ease. Just the right mix of toughness, power and SMASH! to make all 50 levels a hell of alot of fun!

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"I am a Tank. I am your first choice, I am your last hope." -- Rune Bull

"Durability is the quintessential super-power. " -- Sailboat

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Not sure if you were replying to me or not (don't think I've ever mentioned Ice/Ice) but ....

I don't know if I'd recommend EM right now ... it's sort of an annoying secondary currently (long animations). If you're determined to go Ice, Ice/SS is a strong combo (EA nullifying Rage and Hasten crashes nicely). Also Ice/WM and Ice/Axe are fairly good builds. Ice/Stone is also a good one although I'm not as high on Stone lately (lack of AOEs).

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How does ice/fire work? I'd assume it has fairly high damage ...much more than /ice at least..

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Not sure if you were replying to me or not (don't think I've ever mentioned Ice/Ice) but ....

I don't know if I'd recommend EM right now ... it's sort of an annoying secondary currently (long animations). If you're determined to go Ice, Ice/SS is a strong combo (EA nullifying Rage and Hasten crashes nicely). Also Ice/WM and Ice/Axe are fairly good builds. Ice/Stone is also a good one although I'm not as high on Stone lately (lack of AOEs).

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How does ice/fire work? I'd assume it has fairly high damage ...much more than /ice at least..

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You would think but the problem isn't the damage, it's that */Fire has no mitigation at all, which the Ice primary could use. Fire/Ice works because Ice Patch works well with Burn, and also give Fire Armor the mitigation it needs.

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For me personally,im a Fire tanker player.

Id have to say its a toss up between fire/fire,and fire/SS.Both of them are alot tougher then most avid Tanker players care to admit,and it takes a extreem amount of punishment before it goes down due to its Healing Flames power.Alot of people that are inexperianced with FA/ dont 6 slot this power for max heal and max recharge,big mistake.

If you want very nasty offensive power by higher levels,id go with a fire/fire tanker.Mine can rip a mob apart built for a 8 man team thats +3 over my own level,and survive just fine.

I find invuln rather lacking,even after the current improvments to the power.It offers what i must admit,a great max teir power that pretty much makes you invinsible,however,its got a nasty crash,and if your not paying attention to it,in pve,or pvp,your DEAD!

FA/ from my experiance is the easier tanker set to use,and by far,the easiest to stay alive with.Granted,Granite armor hangs 100% in the lead for tankers,it has just way to many draw backs.Such as speed, - recharge of your powers,and - damage on all of your attacks,and lets not forget that your ROOTED to the ground.

Now personally,i did like SD/ for a tanker,but,for some reason,even though i liked it,it didnt grow on me at all,so i erased that tanker at the mid 20s.

The one thing i can say about FA/ for tankers,is that it takes alot more thinking and diffrent playing style to be able to use it properly.Most players have it in there head,that a tanker shouldnt have to do anything more then jump into a mob,and if they cant handle it,then they need that healer to save them.Which i belive is becuase these same people come from other games that pretty much require that the tanking character have a healer there at all times.

My self,and im sure atleast a small portion of the players in this game,tend to build for self reliance,and thats exactly what FA/ is made for.

Solo or in a team,if you play your FA/ tanker right,your golden.

No other set offers what FA/ does.You need health?Boom,Healing Flames.You need more damage?Boom,Fiery Embrace.

Alot of people will argue that FA/ is a terrible set to play,becuase it has no knock down resistance.This is true,it doesnt.However,its easly fixed in a number of ways.

Get Acrobat from the Jumping pool,or simply save a power and buy 2 powers from the flying pool and youv got your resitance and travel power.Hover and Fly.You cant be knocked down while flying or hovering in pve,and only if someone has a -fly power can you be taken to the ground in pvp,but,at the same time,it lasts about 2-3 seconds in pvp as it is.

The last one,is simple,put a knock down resist in your Temprature Protection power.And belive me,this power is acctually worth it.alot of people skip this power,and they suffer in pve missions that contain Crey,CoT,and many many more.Thats another reason why people gripe about FA/.they dont pick or slot the powers properly,they are sloppy,and most other tanker sets,you can acctually be sloppy when it comes to powers and slots and be decent.Thats why alot of people skip FA/.

However,my all time favorite tanker build,im going to have to go with FA/SS.No other sets have shined more to me then these 2 combo'd together.

When i active rage,and hit Fiery Embrace,and charge into a mob and foot stomp for 200+ damage to the entire group,and my Blazing Aura hits them 3-4 times before they get back up,mob wide,for 35-40 damage a hit (some mobs are weaker to fire then others),iv already cuased around 360ish damage on my own.Then if i want to add insult to injury,ill hit Burn right after Foot Stomp,for even more damage before they get up.so your looking at atleast 500 damage by the time the mob gets up.Granted that Burn might not hit the entire mob,its definatly effective.

Yes,people will complain that theres no Immob protection for a FA/ Tanker,WRONG!thats what Burn is for,thats 1 of the specifics of that power.

Iv had scrappers call my FA/FM,and my FA/SS Tankers Scrankers.Which is kinda funny,especially when one of them speaks up and complains that im a tanker and im not supposed to be able to do damage.Then they attack my ability to tank,and bad mouth that im not a good tanker.This also,is the same type of person that came from a game to where everyone has a specific role,and they cannot deviate.Which is simply not to true in CoX.

FA/ doesnt need a boost at all,in fact,id say its perfection.You cant be half way with this set,you have to go all the way.Treat this set good,and itll treat you good.

I know im not the only person who feels this way about FA/,and many other power sets in all the ATs of the game.

Fire Armor takes acctual skill,and proper maintnance to play.Thats why most lazy people got for invln,and or willpower,amd then rock armor.They dont want to be self reliant.they require baby sitters,and it doesnt matter what kind,a Invuln does great on solo missions,in full teams,they need a damage dealer,or a healer,and half the time,both,or they simply will not survive,even with there max teir power.

Not saying its impossible,but,the crash is a pain,and if your paraniod enough to wait for it to wear off,to prove people like me wrong,and reactivate it.Then good for you.Keep in mind,if you ever die in a mission and you have the unstoppable power,and you blame the other players on the team,like the healer for not getting to you fast enough,or the blasters from not killing everything fast enough,your a terrible tanker.If you cant atleast keep up with the scrappers in the group when it comes to damage,your a even worse tanker.Theres no excuse.

I find most sets in the tanker power list to be totally worthless tot he team.yeh,you harder to kill,you can do decent ST damage,otherwise,you contribute far less to the team with these powers.

When a Invln/BA Tanker runs up,and taunts the mob,and does its BU (if it even took that power),it might do about 100 Damage to the mob on its whirling axe attack.Then what?the entire team has to pick up your slack.

Iv watched as Granite,Invln,and Willpower Tankers take a back seat and let me take the lead.Especially on my fire/fire tanker.When you charge up,run into the mob,and almost wipe it in 2-3 attacks,people tend to hang back,especially other tankers with ST power sets.

I call Invln a ST power set,becuase it offers no additional damage at all,and unless the tanker knows his or her tuant button use,they only protect them selves.Other sets like FA/,IA,DA/,add a great deal of holding the mob completly on them,FA/ does additional damage,and DA/ does additional damage and debuffs,and id have to say that Ice Armor is by far,the best agro grabbing set in the entire game when it comes to tankers.It has additional damage delt mob wide from icicles,and a debuffs that not only slow mobs,but gives them - recharge to there attacks.

The only Invln or Willpower Tankers iv ever seen pull there weight in a team,have been Fire Melee,Ice Melee,or Rock Melee.Becuase they have the ability to cuase mob wide mischief,or damage.

Having a tanker with ST attacks,and ST resistances/dodge bonuses,is like having a defender that wont attack when theres a chance to do so,or simply doesnt have any attacks other then there level 1 attack,thats completely unslotted or enhanced.Its a waste.

A Defender has Medium Damage,and alot of players wont build one that has offensive power....heres a shocker...Tankers have Medium Damage too! (Heavy Pun Intended),and they can dish out damage if they so choose.

I know,i know,im gonna be flammed,and my spelling isnt that great,and im sure alot of these tankers go beyond just being lazy,and build them selves to be a team gimp,for astetic purposes,and becuase of the blah blah blah,<inscert BS here>.

Facts are facts,if your not a heavy hitter,and your armor set doesnt grant much vs a mob other then your personal protection,you,my friend,are dead weight.

Heres what i belive would give you a better fun factor for a tanker.

Choose 1 of the following for your armor set.

Fire Armor
Ice Armor
Dark Armor

Choose 1 of the following for your Melee Set.

Fire Melee
Ice Melee
Super Strength
Rock Melee

Keep in mind,Mob control,or Mob Damage,or maybe both,is the best way to build a tanker.Dont be a gimp.

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Daaaammmmnnnnn....

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I have not tried SS (heresy, I know)

But of the tanks I've played my Invul/ has been my favorite.
He is /EM, fwiw.

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Like my DA/ too. would like it a lot more if I hadn't picked /DB just to be different.

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Oh thank god you weren't replying to me

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my fire tank will always be #1..hes got the best build and the most money ever placed in him of all my toons..hes a damn beast and hes overkilled for my satisfaction.

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My invul/ss is the same (well almost, need to purple up her hold).

but the most fun tank I ever played was WP/stone.

little/no endurance woes, and stone melee has great heavy hitters and aoe attacks for extra fun.

love ice/, but my ice/em took forevah to level up.
stone/fire, was great fun post 32, before, ugh
dark/dark I still want to love her, but I didnt enjoy levelling her (at least stone was fun post 32)
invul/ss my main, favorite (concept), but if I remade her, wp/ss.
Still great fun.
fire/ice - pre burn nerf, she was the most amazing tank I had. She kept me in the game when the first I5 nerfs happened. Now, at 50, a bit squishie, but a tie with my main for favorite farming toon.
shield/mace - 2nd favorite toon to level so far (after wp/stone).
I'm having fun

the last invul/ buffs really brought up my like for invul/, but I noticed, for a heavy purple build, my wp/stone is more survivable than my invul/ss (I STILL run out of endurance in long fights). Out of the box (SO build), I slightly prefer my invul/ss tank, mostly because of rage (hitting things is fun).

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50 Tanks: Invul/ss, Fire/ice/fire, Ice/em, Stone/fire
WP/Stone, dark/dark, shld/mace

50 Other: WS, SS/dark/sc brute, BS/Regen/WM scrpr, fire/fire/force blaster, rad/kin corr, mind/rad ctrl, ill/storm cntrl

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Choose 1 of the following for your armor set.

Fire Armor
Ice Armor
Dark Armor

Choose 1 of the following for your Melee Set.

Fire Melee
Ice Melee
Super Strength
Rock Melee

Keep in mind,Mob control,or Mob Damage,or maybe both,is the best way to build a tanker.Dont be a gimp.

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You realize Stone Armor has Mud Pots, right?

You also realize that Shield Defense offers an AoE attack up every spawn or so, and also gives +Def, yes?

For the record, I love my Ice/Ice/Earth for keeping my teams safe and locking stuff down, even if I don't play her much these days due to a newfound love of controllers.

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53 Bots/FF/Mace Mastermind | 53 NRG/FF/Electricity Defender | 50 Time/Dual Pistols/Soul Defender | 50 Demons/FF/Mace Mastermind | 51 Necro/Dark/Soul Mastermind | 50 Thugs/Time/Mace Mastermind | 50 Ice/Ice/Arctic Tanker | 50 Plant/Rad/Earth Controller | 50 Illusion/Trick Arrow Controller | 50 Gravity/Force Field Controller
Yes, I like Force Fields.

Love my L50 Inv/EM, Capt Tremendous. Part cool, part cheese, tough as heck, hits like a truck, & is 100% fun.

I also have a L38 Stone/Stone that I enjoyed in the 20's, but I just can't bring myself to play anymore. She's about to be deleted and rerolled as an SD/Axe. That should be hella-fun.

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I belong to the "variety is the spice of life" school of thought.

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I hope you're not married!

SD/FM so far (yay for aoe) ...lets see how this SD/SS pans out.

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