ss or em?...i believe ss will fit you well
also invul is great now with the buff to it a while back..
cant go wrong with a invul/ss...i have one an hes on of fun.
you could also try a wp/ss as well... the combo is awesome for brutes as well and if you want a scranker type..then try that.
for AoE scranking i would go with SD/SS or Fire and Fire/Fire or SS. For Single Target scranking i would use Fire/SS, Fire/EM, Inv/EM and WP/EM.
Fire/Dark is also spectacularly scranky. Two self heals, two end recovery powers, a damage aura, a ST fear, and some good damage.
They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!
@Starflier
I like Energy Melee over SS for two reasons.. one is the defense crash if not stacked and the other is the damage "debuff".
Energy melee is much more fun for me as a scranker.
Invul is great IMO.
Ah thankya for the suggestions, I think I may try willpower/energy melee, I was trying to avoid SS because my friend is the exact same combo. And I have a complex about playing the same class as someone I know lol.
I don't recommend Willpower/Energy Melee at all.
Energy Melee tankers are essentially a closed set now; the Tier I attack you are forced to take now has a recharge of six seconds. That's close to intolerable when you don't have many other attacks to use. The set is extremely inefficient until you get the level 35 and 38 attacks. You will struggle to put together a fluid attack chain; you will be sucking wind because your lower tier attacks do so little.
The stun in the set creates issues for Willpower in a team situation.
Finally, the set suffers from horrible animation lag. This is a bigger problem for sets that rely on self-heals; but there will be stretches of several seconds when inspirations, Strength of Will, and other powers are simply unavailable to you while you watch the too long animations play.
Stay as far away from Energy Melee as you can. A set that's had what happened to Energy Melee done to it probably ought to be simply removed from the list of options when you create a new character.
<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
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Fire/Dark is also spectacularly scranky. Two self heals, two end recovery powers, a damage aura, a ST fear, and some good damage.
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I'd echo this, fire/dark is great fun solo/small team.
I wouldn't recommend EM with anything other than DA where the stuns to stack with oppressive gloom make it a good combination.
It's true. This game is NOT rocket surgery. - BillZBubba
If your playstyle prefers to just keep going, then I would recommend WP/DM. QR and Dark Consumption will keep you going from mob to mob without any worries on end. Also, DM has become quite a terror with the buffs it was given. the minor heal in Siphon Life compliments WP's lack of a heal, while dealing out some serious damage. And Soul Drain will make you foam at the mouth.
It's not the only combo that would work for you, but it would be a very fun one.
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
If you are looking for an offensive playstyle I offer two suggestions...
Willpower/Fire or Shield/SS..
Fire has a lot of AoE and Willpower with QR and Stamina running will counter the End issues from Fire's End Heavy AoE attacks..
Shield/SS once you get to level 38 gives you the combo of Against All Odds. Rage, Shield CHarge and Foot Stomp.. which can do tremendous damage...
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
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Ah thankya for the suggestions, I think I may try willpower/energy melee, I was trying to avoid SS because my friend is the exact same combo. And I have a complex about playing the same class as someone I know lol.
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WP/EM is a great build especially on 6 man teams. It will be much better than ur friends single target damage but it'll lack AoE damage.
Your problem has nothing to do with fiery melee. It's a very good scranky set, and has options for ST or AoE that are both very effective, and it even has some (minor) range thrown in for good measure. Basically, you can pick what you want to do offensively and fiery melee can do it.
The reason it seems slow is because there are so many powers in the stone armor set that slow your kill speed down in return for great defense. Basically, any set other than stone can feel nice and scranky if teamed with the right secondary.
If you go with stone melee, you are a Tanker. That's it, that's what you do. If you want something with good offensive capabilities, anything that isn't stone can work. I'm personally a huge fan of willpower, since it doesn't slow anything down, has quick recovery, and offers you great no-hassle defense so you can focus on killing rather than staying alive.
Inv's great if you can afford to slot it >.>
Combat Kangaroos, Justice Server. First 50's
Jirra Roo Plant/Storm/Stone/Musculature Controller
Combat Kangaroo Rifle/Energy/Mace/Spiritual Blaster
Kung Fu Kangaroo Martial Arts/Reflexes/Body/Spiritual Scrapper
Tribal Arc Shield/Elec/Mu/Spiritual Tanker
I suggest WP/DM...the self heal in DM fills the only real hole in WP. With QR and Stamina you never stop scranking and it is wonderful!
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Inv's FREAKING AWESOME if you can afford the BILLIONS necessary to slot it >.>
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I fixed your post for you.
Raid Leader of Task Force Vendetta "Steel 70", who defeated the first nine Drop Ships in the Second Rikti War.
70 Heroes, 9 Drop Ships, 7 Minutes. The Aliens never knew what hit them.
Now soloing: GM-Class enemy Adamaster, with a Tanker!
You're doing it wrong if it costs you "billions". Both in building it and playing the market.
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
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You're doing it wrong if it costs you "billions". Both in building it and playing the market.
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My purpled-out build says otherwise.
Besides, some of us prefer crushing enemies to manipulating the economy. 
Raid Leader of Task Force Vendetta "Steel 70", who defeated the first nine Drop Ships in the Second Rikti War.
70 Heroes, 9 Drop Ships, 7 Minutes. The Aliens never knew what hit them.
Now soloing: GM-Class enemy Adamaster, with a Tanker!
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I don't recommend Willpower/Energy Melee at all.
Energy Melee tankers are essentially a closed set now; the Tier I attack you are forced to take now has a recharge of six seconds. That's close to intolerable when you don't have many other attacks to use. The set is extremely inefficient until you get the level 35 and 38 attacks. You will struggle to put together a fluid attack chain; you will be sucking wind because your lower tier attacks do so little.
The stun in the set creates issues for Willpower in a team situation.
Finally, the set suffers from horrible animation lag. This is a bigger problem for sets that rely on self-heals; but there will be stretches of several seconds when inspirations, Strength of Will, and other powers are simply unavailable to you while you watch the too long animations play.
Stay as far away from Energy Melee as you can. A set that's had what happened to Energy Melee done to it probably ought to be simply removed from the list of options when you create a new character.
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While I don't quite share Heraclea's view of Energy (I have an Ice/Eng Tanker that's pretty darn fun to play) I will agree on the points of the animations taking far too long in Energy now.
SS definitely trumps Energy in most categories imo.
Stone Melee is a surprisingly effective attack set, too.
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Stone Melee is a surprisingly effective attack set, too.
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Stone Melee is a great single target set (and I do mean great) and also has a great set of mitigation if you combine Tremor and Fault.
Unfortunately Stone is really lacking in AOEs (one damaging AOE) and in CoH, AOE is king (or so it seems).
The two main differences (to me) between SS and Stone is that I prefer Rage over Build Up (by a lot) and Footstomp has a nice fast animation while Tremor does not.
If I were in dire need of more mitigation out of my secondary however (as WP, DA, Shields, and Fire tend to), I would give Stone the edge (Tremor + Fault = dribbling mobs).
Im just the opposite. I cannot stand Rage. I still took it, I just don't like it. Its just not fun. Of all my 50 tanks, my /SS is my least favorite because of rage. I know, Im weird that way.
-Largo
Founder of A.G.O.N.Y. Supergroup on Victory
Member of Thought Sanctum VG on Victory
Member of St0rm Batallion SG on Guardian
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You're doing it wrong if it costs you "billions". Both in building it and playing the market.
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My purpled-out build says otherwise.
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Wow, you found room for purples?
I have just finished* painstakingly slotting out my Inv/SS Tanker for typed defense. (*Finished subject to the caveat that he's 48 so he has 1 power and 4 more slots [counting the default in that power] to go, and I also am still waiting on two bids to come in that will boost his +regen. The defense part's all done though.)
I feel like I had no room for purples, because purples don't have typed defense bonuses. Pretty much all my powers have sets for typed defense bonuses (and through careful planning, still pretty good enhancement values). My utility powers are either one-slotted or in the case of Dull Pain, can't be purpled.
I do have room for the Hecatomb proc in Jab, but I might stick another end reducer in there instead. that's just one IO though, not a set.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding -- are you purpling AND soft-capping? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm feeling like I must have missed something.
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
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Im just the opposite. I cannot stand Rage. I still took it, I just don't like it. Its just not fun. Of all my 50 tanks, my /SS is my least favorite because of rage. I know, Im weird that way.
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I can get behind that ... Rage takes some getting used to and even then it can be annoying as heck.
If you want overall dmg, go with Stone Melee. If you want speed with your dmg, go with EM. I have a invul/enrg and a Wp/Rock and both are fun, all pom pom's of doom jokes aside. Whirling hands is a great aoe which can be reduced to a eight second chariot of aggro. If you want straight power out the gate, go with EM or DM, obviously EM has more attacks and even for a tank my dps goes up very fast with Energy transfer and total focus. Don't listen to the naysayer's, for a tank, EM is very good.
DM requires you spam SM in corner mobs. The "pull here" tactic works best. But you will still miss some. Overall for all the buffs, its more of a survivalists set. Still very big dmg with SM. Midnight Grasp also does great DoT for what it is. Although pretty strong, you still have to wait for the full power feeling on DM.
Lastly, we have Stone melee. Anyone can tell you, its powerful. Slow and usually full of heart felt misses. But never the less, it shines when its accurate. Deadly in the higher levels, but Fault and Tremor always make me reconsider picking it, or at the very least, make me skip them. Either way, its a slow build up for Stone M.
In conclusion, go with EM, if you want speed and power out the gate (yes even low levels). Go with DM if you want high DoT. And go with Stone melee, if you wish to achieve maximum power within reasonable levels(later on).
"If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything"
"You're like Giraffe's, the way you look down on me, with your vegetarian scorn."
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Im just the opposite. I cannot stand Rage. I still took it, I just don't like it. Its just not fun. Of all my 50 tanks, my /SS is my least favorite because of rage. I know, Im weird that way
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I tried to understand, but I used some objectivity when reading. I have a Granite/SS and took rage for the -dmg of GA, I never have a problem popping Rage and going to work on enemies. The weaken debuff lasts for ten seconds. If you cant handle the wait then, tanking is not for you. Lets not forget you can perma Rage, which keeps me running Rage all mission long. Don't get confused, just because its not called Build up, it does the same thing for a longer period. Thats like saying you hate hitting hard for more than ten seconds. 
"If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything"
"You're like Giraffe's, the way you look down on me, with your vegetarian scorn."
I'm wanting to make a nice fun tanker/scranker ever since the disappointment of my granite/fire tank (He's wonderful and survives anything, he's just not fun for my go getter playstyle and kills even white LTs slow.)
So I ask, of the two, which would I enjoy more for offensive tanking? Super Strength or Energy Melee.
And how's invulnerability these days?