Need some help with my 1st Tank !

Hi Everyone,

I finally decided to try a Tanker for the first time after three years of playing CoH. I have been looking through the Tanker boards for counted hours. I have narrowed it down to two builds, SD/DM and Inv/SS. I ended choosing the Invulnerability/Super Strength Tanker as my first Tank. What I need help with is good leveling build with Taunt, Air Sup, and Fly. I also wanted help with an IO build if possible once I get to the point of respecting him? Finally, I had a couple of questions below that I need your opinions on. I appreciate any feedback, and have great night.

• Does the Air Sup, Fly route work well on a Invulnerability/Super Strength tank?
• Does an Invulnerability Tank need Tough and Weave?
• What are some of the weakness of the Invulnerability set, and how can IO’s help that cover that weakness?
• What are some of the powers to skip in Invulnerability and the Super Strength set?

Hello and welcome.

air sup/fly work well on a tank. CJ/SJ is nice, as CJ adds to your defense, but air sup can be superior in many ways. As a young tank, many bosses will want to kick your super hinney. Air sup is a knockdown (and -fly), and you can keep a boss on his back an entire fight (boss on his back == he cant attack). I have even alternated between 2 bosses. Not much use against minions, but you dont need to worry about minions. Air sup will be your best mitigation from Elite bosses/bosses, esp if your in the hollows (frostfire, for example).

Dont forget you can have 2 builds. I have my invul/ss take air sup/fly for a fun build, and cj/sj for a max defense build.

Do you need tough/weave? For regular missions, post lvl 22, no (post SO/IO slotting). For ITF/STF, I highly recommend them (at least tough). For some of the tougher AE missions, you may.

Weakness of invul/ss :
1) psi (which is rare pre 40). Ancients and impervium sets help greatly to psi defense/resistance.
2) endurance - rage (your new best friend) and /ss in general use a LOT of endurance. impervium and ancient sets will give you +end and +rec bonuses
3) elemental/energy - your resists to these are low, but your defense will be decent (esp with invincbility aura - more you have, the higher your defense). In general, MOST attacks are lethal/smashing with elemental/energy damage. A few attacks (e.g. flame throwers, rikti elite boss energy blasts) are pure, but most are are mixed. You can max out your SL defense with a few kinetic combat sets (now a bit rare), each giving 3.75% SL defense per set of 4.
4. Invul has some flavor powers (not necessary, but still good now): REL, REN. Unstoppable is skippable, though post 40's, I recommend it. /ss would be punch (air sup does the same damage, and gives MUCH better mitigation), hand clap (scatters and may stun), and hurl boulder (I love the animation, but the damage over activation time makes it a bit poor). I like hurl boulder for the concept myself, but its much more skippable than rage, ko blow, haymaker, and footstompl

- Yes, AS/Fly work well for an Inv/SS. Many people take AS instead of Punch as an attack, since it provides better mitigation.

- Need? No. However, Tough/Weave can vastly improve an Inv/SS tanker. Tough, along with TI and RPD will cap your S/L res (90%) making you damned tough. Weave can help to soft-cap your S/L defense and make you incredibly tough. Try this guide for info on that sort of thing.

- Weaknesses include weak resistance to the exotic damages, and no defense or resistance to Psi damage. Psi damage is overrated, and I wouldn't suggest trying to plug that hole. Since most exotic attacks come with a S/L component, capping S/L res and soft-capping S/L defense will make a big difference. SS also uses a goodly amount of endurance, and the combo lacks any end recovery outside of Unstoppable.

- Inv powers: Must haves - Temporary Invulnerability, Dull Pain, Unyielding, Invincibility. Recommend: Resist Physical Damage, Tough Hide. Nice to have, but not priority: REl, REn, Unstoppable.

- SS powers: Must haves: KOBlow, Rage, Footstomp, Jab. Recommend: Haymaker. Nice to have, but not priority: Hurl, Punch, Taunt. Skippable: Handclap.

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1) Does the Air Sup, Fly route work well on a Invulnerability/Super Strength tank?
2) Does an Invulnerability Tank need Tough and Weave?
3) What are some of the weakness of the Invulnerability set, and how can IO’s help that cover that weakness?
4) What are some of the powers to skip in Invulnerability and the Super Strength set?

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1) Works great. Most people skip Punch to take Air Superiority, but I prefer to skip Haymaker. Punch has half Haymaker's recharge time but more than half the damage, and (more annoyingly) Haymaker uses the same animation as Air Superiority.

2) Definitely not needed, though a lot of people like to take them anyway. For 95% of the game, they're overkill, and there's plenty of other ways to deal with that other 5%.

3) As mentioned, Impervium Armor helps deal with the lack of Psi defense, as well as some melee sets like Crushing Impact.

4) I think it's a good idea to take all of Invulnerability eventually, they're all useful powers. With Super Strength, Hand Clap and Hurl are fun powers but you can get by without them.

Here's my current "basic" build. It uses a few Acc/Dam IOs, but you can get them fairly cheaply (Bonesnap for level 25, Bruising Blow for level 30, Focused Smite for level 40, etc):

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Super Strength
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(9), ResDam-I(9), EndRdx-I(13)
Level 1: Jab -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), Acc-I(3), Dmg-I(3), Dmg-I(13), EndRdx-I(19), Zinger-Dam%(34)
Level 2: Punch -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), Acc-I(5), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(11), EndRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 4: Dull Pain -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(15), RechRdx-I(15), Heal-I(36), Heal-I(37), Heal-I(40)
Level 6: Air Superiority -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), Acc-I(7), Dmg-I(7), Dmg-I(11), EndRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 8: Unyielding -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(27), ResDam-I(27), EndRdx-I(31)
Level 10: Taunt -- Taunt-I(A)
Level 12: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(19), Flight-I(31)
Level 16: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(37), Heal-I(37)
Level 18: Invincibility -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(21), DefBuff-I(21), EndRdx-I(31)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(33), EndMod-I(33)
Level 22: Knockout Blow -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), Acc-I(23), Dmg-I(23), Dmg-I(25), EndRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(33)
Level 24: Resist Physical Damage -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(42), ResDam-I(42)
Level 26: Tough Hide -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(36), DefBuff-I(36)
Level 28: Rage -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(29), RechRdx-I(29), ToHit-I(46)
Level 30: Resist Energies -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(42), ResDam-I(43)
Level 32: Unstoppable -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 35: Resist Elements -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(43), ResDam-I(43)
Level 38: Foot Stomp -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), Acc-I(39), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(39), EndRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Laser Beam Eyes -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Acc-I(45), Dmg-I(45), Dmg-I(45), EndRdx-I(46), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 47: Hand Clap -- Acc-I(A), Zinger-Dam%(48)
Level 49: Hurl -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Acc-I(50), Dmg-I(50), EndRdx-I(50)

I like to thank all of you that responded. Thanks and have a nice night.

I'd like to throw my opinion in here backing up what everyone else has said, but going a bit further with my feelings about hand clap.

Hand clap is the worst, most counterproductive, most worthless P.O.S. power any tanker could get. It not only does no damage, making it not worthwhile offensively, it knocks guys back. Not down; back. This causes them to be scattered, which means you'll have a very hard time keeping them all taunted, endangering your teammates and making them much harder for you to take down on your own. Whatever damage the power mitigates is not even close to made up for by how much harder it makes your life.

Of course, if you're not interested in being a good tanker or being effective or if you just like making things harder on yourself, Hand clap is fine.

i havent used air superiority in years. i like this concept. i want a supergirl clone. she's a hotty, but i know that footstomp wont fire when hovering.

air sup over haymaker makes for a fantastic attack chain at low levels too - and it's pretty easy on the endurance.

Gashes, I have a quick question. You said that you have a second build in which you maxed out your defense with CJ and SJ. Do you mind listing your Mids IO Build for me? I just 28th and picked up Rage, and am having a blast on my Inv/SS Tank. Thanks and have a nice night.

Hi again, does anyone have a good Mids, Max Defense IO Build for my Inv/SS Tanker? Thanks and have a nice weekend.

Call_Me_Awesome has a guide on capping Defense with Invulnerability here.

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and (more annoyingly) Haymaker uses the same animation as Air Superiority.

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Hey, you could take Boxing as a prerequisite to Tough and Weave, then run an attack chain of Boxing, Jab, Air Superiority, and Haymaker -- you'd be endlessly cycling the same tow animations. :P That might work for a "mindless automaton" character concept.

hover can be fun in SS tanks! Especially in open maps where you can hover over mobs/ kill hover/ and drop into footstomp - very effective for aggro

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hover can be fun in SS tanks! Especially in open maps where you can hover over mobs/ kill hover/ and drop into footstomp - very effective for aggro

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Can't Footstomp or Hurl while Hovering (just an FYI) ... might find dropping out of Hover constantly a little annoying to employ either or both.

QR

Kruunch, I'm pretty sure 3mile meant using dropping out of hover when flying above mobs and footstomping right as he lands, which sounds pretty fun to me Presumably you'd turn hover back on for the def? but yeah I bet it'd be annoying toggling it on/off mid-battle.

Since I see this has gotten necroposted and the links in it are dead thanks to the forum change I thought I'd post to give anyone the correct links to my two Invuln guides.

• Invulnerability Tankers, the first 20 levels
• Invulnerability Tankers and the Defense soft cap