1) Dark needs the toggle resists, and dark regeneration. THe rest of the set is definatly worth having, but those are the "must haves". Don't know much about energy melee though.
2) Many people skip the final power from dark, and people tend to choose either the toggle for stun or cloak of fear, few take both.
3) For most tanks, any travel power will work just fine. For Dark, though, most like superjump to get acrobatics. Personally, I hate acro. It's a decent drain on the ol' blue bar, and dark is pretty mean on it in the first place.
4) The reason people take acro is because dark doesn't get any native knockback protection. Teleport has no mitigation for KB, there is hope, however. Get yourself a -KB IO enhancement. I believe the Steadfast Protection set has it for resist, and Karma has it for defence. They will typically cost 4mil or more to buy from the market. With a lucky drop or two and some patience, you can easily have some KB protection by the time you hit 25. Look at the market section for some better market advice.
Thanks for the reply, Khenal. 
So far I've been more or less following your advice, just by following common sense I've learned from past MMOs. It's good to know the same general rules apply here.
A couple more questions while I'm thinking of it:
1) How many attack powers is too many? Right now I have brawl, a fast attack and a slow attack, and taunt. blue bar has been an issue since I hit 10 or so, but I'm not comfortable standing around with nothing to do in the middle of huge fights.
2) Is there a general prescription to follow as far as enhancement slot allocation? Do I max out my defensive toggles? How much do I need on my attack powers?
Any travel power will do; Khenal is right that many choose the Jumping pool for Combat Jumping and Acrobatics, but the IOs offer a way around that. There's also an invention set, Kinetic Crash [not to be confused with the Kinetic Combat set!] that give knb resistance as a set bonus if you slot several pieces...you don't have any knockback-causing powers in your secondary to slot it in, but you could take Kick from the Fighting Pool.
Teleport will be slightly less intuitive for moving about the battlefield than leaping or flight, but it offers a nice synergy with your Oppressive Gloom toggle. You can port right into groups and hit them all at once with the stun, avoiding the alpha as you approach. So you might enjoy TP for that alone.
Speaking of the Fighting Pool, that's one of the pools many folks will recommend. You don't need it, but it'll make you a tougher Tanker. I'd recommend taking either Boxing or Kick to get to Tough; get Tough and slot it up. You don't have to get Weave; since you don't have other defense powers to stack it with, its advantage is diluted a bit, and it does cost a fair chunk of endurance. But Tough is good; it only helps against smashing or lethal damage, but that's very, very common in melee.
For attacks you'll probably want Whirling Hands for AoE (even if it's a mediocre AoE, it still is one!) and then the big two, Energy transfer and Total Focus, at the top end of your secondary. That (plus what you have already) would be a typical suite of attacks for a Tanker; 4-6 slotted-up attacks does it for most non-specialty builds.
For slotting -- short version is probably 3 into each defensive toggle ASAP, and 4 in each when you can; 6 into the main attacks and nothing (the default 1) into attacks you don't intend to six-slot (i.e., there's limited benefit and a high opportunity cost in sticking 2 or 3 slots into some low-level attacks and then running out of slots for the big guns). Long version -- http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Enhanc...versification. An exception is powers you slot only to hold a set, like putting 4 slots into Kick for the knockback resistance of Kinetic Crash.
But you don't have to worry about sets for a while -- they're more effective at higher levels anyway, you can afford them better then, and you'll have a better sense of the game. But more to the point, nobody needs sets at all; the game works fine with normal enhancements (SOs) and even the hardest content is routinely accomplished by characters without a single set invention.
Dark is a control-minded Tanker set with the game's best heal; learning to time your Dark Regeneration will be the key to your success. Energy is a very hard-hitting (at higher levels) single-target set. Be patient with it early.
Welcome to the game!
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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Early on is usually the worst time for endurance. There are a few things you can do to lessen the burden though. For now, running your smashing/lethal resist toggle only is usually a good option, though foes like outcasts will need your elements/energies toggle also. About the time you start fighting Tsoo, you'll want to use your status protection toggle all the time. Also, look into the fitness pool for stamina. It gives you better end recovery. For now, slot attacks with 2 acc at least, and sprinkle end redux enhancers liberally. Around lv 25 or so, I would look into IOs and build for +end and +recovery. Many sets also include a healthy ammount of end redux enhancement.
For attacks, I just pick up however many I feel I need to keep hitting things. Some people slot a lot of recharge to use the heavy hitters as often as possible, but that also tends to come with a heavy cost in endurance. My fire/mace has 5 attacks, which gives me a good cycle of attacks. I do know that energy melee has it's best attacks at the end of the set, so it's a decent time before you get the real showstoppers of Total Focus and Energy Transfer.
I'd be more than willing to help you with a build if you can answer some questions for me...
What do you intend on doing with this tanker? Farm or tf's?
Will you be running with a friend(s) regularly?
Do you have influence to buy IO's and gain set bonuses?
If you go for IO's here's what I can suggest...
Slot for smashing/lethal defense into your single target attacks and take Weave if you can fit it into your build. Combine Weave with Cloak of Darkness and whichever prerequisite you take for your travel power, be it hover or combat jumping. I would advise against taking teleport as a travel power as the prerequisite does not add to your mitigation, unlike hover or CJ which add defense to all. This sounds like a lot of toggles but will do nicely as you will also be slotting for +max endurance. DO NOT slot for +recovery. Slotting for +max end gives you more end AND recovery. Save up some merits and get the +recovery uniques so you can slot them in health. Getting and slotting the Regenerative Tissue unique is not necessary.
You can stack Oppressive Gloom and your attacks for enough magnitude on bosses and EB's (if they apply). The good thing is you don't have to slot OG heavily for it to work adequately. 1 or 2 slots will do.
Jebe, how can you use merits to buy the + recovery unique?
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Jebe, how can you use merits to buy the + recovery unique?
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You can buy any non-purple recipe from the merit vendor, just look thru the list and pick the IO you want. The two recovery uniques (miracle & numina) cost something like 220 merits each. I don't have the exact values in front of me but that's the ballpark anyway.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
270 (at least for the Numinas)
This is the route I usually go for the rares as well.
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270 (at least for the Numinas)
This is the route I usually go for the rares as well.
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Ditto.
Sorry for the long delay. It's been a busy few days.
Thanks a ton for the pointers everyone. I'm really starting to get my head around this.
New question: Is there an up-to-date power/enhancement calculator floating around out there on the web?
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Jebe, how can you use merits to buy the + recovery unique?
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Are you confusing merits with tickets?
There are several merit vendors located throughout Paragon. You can usually find one at each WW but there are a few locations that do not have a vendor IIRC.
New player here, came to join some friends.
My main is currently an 11 DA/EM tanker. I realize this is probably not an alpha build. But I enjoy it visually and in terms of character concept, so I'll be sticking with it at least for a while.
I love tanking, so I imagine I'll have at least one other tank. Here are my questions (feel free to simply drop me links to info elsewhere):
1)What are the must-have powers for each of those two sets?
2) Which powers should I avoid or leave until later level?
3) Which travel/etc pools are considered essential for tanking, and when should I aim to take them?
4) How gimped will I be with teleportation as my travel power?
Thanks a ton for any responses. I've looked around for guides, but nothing seemed to have the info I was looking for.