when I first IO'd my stone/fire tank, I went for recharge and movement bonus.
seems I could compensate for the granite -run, but not rooted.
dont worry about set bonuses for granite armor itself. if you 3 slot it (e.g. aegis/lotg) make sure they are 50's or 49 at the latest. dont be the gimp granite with 56% resistance cause he filled it with red fortune *sigh*
Now, what are you looking for?
1. defensive build - go tough/weave. weave with the 3% def IO will nearly softcap you on defense (sans psi). plus, I love tough for out of granite (yes, I do play out of granite, esp solo).
2. offensive build - recharge and endurance recovery, though your still fighting the -70% recharge of granite. once your attacking at full speed, your endurance will go down.
3. I use granite+rooted (for the regen), all my +run speed bonuses dont mean poop. imho, forget about them.
remember, you do have dual builds. you can make one for solo use, one for team use.
question is, how do you envision your granite?
are you tough enough, and want more recharge? Get hasten.
do you want to be tougher and solo easier? get fighting pool, softcap defense, and be tough sans granite.
do you want to be different and scary? get presence pool.
go with IO's to match that. presence pool loves recharge and +rec (its a bit heavy on endurance).
leadership is a good pool, but the benifts are very small compared to the endurance use on a tank. I'd drop that.
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
Ahh .... thanks Gashes ... I want him to be unstoppable (defense) and a taunt-ing machine. I'll play in a team at all times and I've been using the teleport macro a friend gave me (shift+click) so the +run seems unnecessary to me.
The main problem I have now is waiting for powers to be ready again ... particulary the taunts. I'm thinking a LotG will help with that though ...
Got any further tips? Also, in the presence pool is a invoke panic. I took this power but it seems to be basically worthless. Is it worth taking this pool just for the challange and provoke? Again he's the team stone (not meat) shield and I'd be happy if his green bar never fell and he was constantly taunting... or teleporting ...
EDIT: I also took Pyre just becuase I like the melt armor so much. I'll take Fire ball next I think ...
I'm assuming you've a fair handle on the powers you want; you're looking for IO suggestions?
One thing you'll want to make sure of is you don't gimp Granite's res or def... I usually stay pretty vanilla here sticking to ED cap res and ED cap def. Typically that means some frankenslotting of Res sets and Def sets.
Rock armor has a few options... 5 Red Fortune will give you a 5% recharge bonus and shouldn't be TOO expensive; if you're just rolling in inf you can always toss in the Luck of the Gambler recharge IO.
For your single target attacks the Crushing Impact is probably the best bet... 5 gives another 5% recharge bonus. Toss Doctored Wounds into Earth's Embrace for another 5% recharge. You'll need to keep the "rule of 5" in mind though... you can only have the same bonus 5 times so with Red Fortune, Stone Fist, Heavy Mallet, Earth's Embrace and Stone Mallet you've hit the limit on that particular bonus.
Fault does well with the Stupefy set for a 7.5% recharge bonus and Taunt can give another 7.5% recharge with the Mocking Beratement set. Unfortunately that pretty well takes care of your easy recharge bonuses... giving you 35% recharge... just enough to offset Granite's debuff.
Now you may want to think about runspeed... the easiest solution is the Gift of the Ancients 7.5% runspeed enhancement... you can toss one into every defensive power you have and last I looked they weren't too terribly expensive. You've probably got Rock Armor, Granite and Minerals... all can use the IO giving you 22.5% more runspeed. Frankly I didn't worry about runspeed on my Stone/Fire tanker.
That's a few ideas for you to chew on, play around with Mids a bit and you may well come up with other ideas.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
I agree with most of what you say (crushing impact, doctored wounds are easy %5% recharge each, and great sets).
Mostly, dont screw up granite trying to get some extra bonuses.
If $$$ isnt an issue, save the defense slot for 7.5% lotg.
But there are a host of other IO's that can be used, +to hit kismet is nice.
I took out my +run speed, it doesnt help with granite+rooted (it does for only granite, not for rooted, the debuff is too great). Tp self is your friend.
EDIT:
FYI, to add to CMA idea of the 7.5% recharge bonus, know that the lotg 7.5% recharge and other IO set bonus 7.5% dont stack together. The rule of 5 applies to each (not total).
thus, you can have 4 lotg 7.5% recharge, and 2 7.5% set IO bonus, and you will have all 6 count.
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
[ QUOTE ]
FYI, to add to CMA idea of the 7.5% recharge bonus, know that the lotg 7.5% recharge and other IO set bonus 7.5% dont stack together. The rule of 5 applies to each (not total).
thus, you can have 4 lotg 7.5% recharge, and 2 7.5% set IO bonus, and you will have all 6 count.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, I didn't make that point clear. Of course, unless you're really rolling in Inf it's unlikely you'll be able to take advantage of it... last I looked the LotG 7.5% recharge IO was going for ~$70 million. Heck, I doubt I spent much more than that on my entire IO build for my Stone/Fire let alone on a single IO.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
I started last night and barely spent anything. I've got a lot of money and will probably throw in some LotGs....
Just to clarify, if I have 5 sets of LotGs and then try and use a 6th set in my build, then I wil not get another set bonus. Is that correct?
[ QUOTE ]
I took out my +run speed, it doesnt help with granite+rooted (it does for only granite, not for rooted, the debuff is too great). Tp self is your friend.
[/ QUOTE ]
Uh, there's a huge difference between being -160%, -90% and -20% run speed. And if you're using Rooted and Granite on a Stone Tank, I can't really see you needing to move around a whole lot.
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~
Presence is kind of wasted on a tank as taunt is far more effective than the aggro grabbing powers in presence. Pyre is fantastic for a stone tank though. Fireball is one of the best aggro magnet's around. I have it five slotted with a purple set and almost always use it as an opener. Teleport in, fireball, taunt and let the fun begin.
Heroes : Angrem (50 Stone tank), Exo Inferis (50 Fire blaster), Exo Proteus (50 ill/emp), IceVengance (50 cold defender)
Villains : AtomBomb (50 Rad/Kin corruptor), Aleks (50 SS/Inv brute), StoneLethal (50 EM/Stone brute), Davroz (50 Bots/Dark mastermind)
[ QUOTE ]
I took out my +run speed, it doesnt help with granite+rooted (it does for only granite, not for rooted, the debuff is too great). Tp self is your friend.
[/ QUOTE ]
I say keep the run speed bonuses and make a bind for Rooted, it's not like you need Rooted all the time with Granite on. The run bonuses make all the difference in my Stone Brute and I only toggle on Rooted when I need it (usually in the middle of a lot of mobs).
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I took out my +run speed, it doesnt help with granite+rooted (it does for only granite, not for rooted, the debuff is too great). Tp self is your friend.
[/ QUOTE ]
I say keep the run speed bonuses and make a bind for Rooted, it's not like you need Rooted all the time with Granite on. The run bonuses make all the difference in my Stone Brute and I only toggle on Rooted when I need it (usually in the middle of a lot of mobs).
[/ QUOTE ]
Why not just bind teleport and use that instead? Or are you talking about movement once you are inside the mob? Or are you herding more then one mob at a time?
[ QUOTE ]
Presence is kind of wasted on a tank as taunt is far more effective than the aggro grabbing powers in presence. Pyre is fantastic for a stone tank though. Fireball is one of the best aggro magnet's around. I have it five slotted with a purple set and almost always use it as an opener. Teleport in, fireball, taunt and let the fun begin.
[/ QUOTE ]
IMHO I'd disagree ... but I'm using a lvl46 tank right now so I dont have fireball. I've been using the extra taunt as a way to make up for slow recharge (which I am now removing via IO set bonuses). I still think I will keep it though ... which pools do you recommend I take?
PS. TY very much for your opinions!
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I took out my +run speed, it doesnt help with granite+rooted (it does for only granite, not for rooted, the debuff is too great). Tp self is your friend.
[/ QUOTE ]
I say keep the run speed bonuses and make a bind for Rooted, it's not like you need Rooted all the time with Granite on. The run bonuses make all the difference in my Stone Brute and I only toggle on Rooted when I need it (usually in the middle of a lot of mobs).
[/ QUOTE ]
Why not just bind teleport and use that instead? Or are you talking about movement once you are inside the mob? Or are you herding more then one mob at a time?
[/ QUOTE ]
Both herding and moving inside missions without having to toggle off granite to keep up. There are big maps as you already know. I just use a bind to toggle Rooted on and off when I want to run in a mission or herd more than one spawn. Rooted is not so essential to be used every battle giving you mobility. Hell my friend went through the entire ITF on Rock Armor+Rooted and never died, only used Granite in the final encounter.
BTW Taunt lasts for 41 secs unenhanced I have no idea why you need the presence pool. Once taunted you keep them with you using mud pots. You should get the fighting pool if you wanna make your Stoner almost unkillable.
[ QUOTE ]
BTW Taunt lasts for 41 secs unenhanced I have no idea why you need the presence pool. Once taunted you keep them with you using mud pots. You should get the fighting pool if you wanna make your Stoner almost unkillable.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have to disagree with the fighting pool... in my experience it's a nearly complete waste for a Stone tanker. First, with Granite and Stone Skin you're already at the S/L resistance cap so Tough does nothing for you. There's a few who say it's useful outside of Granite... and that's true to a point, but generally if the incoming damage is enough to make Tough useful you're probably about ready to go to Granite anyway. I can't see it being worth the cost of entry (usually 3 power pics, boxing-tough-weave)
Now let's look at Weave... it's helpful to soft cap your def in Granite, but it's also overkill since I can only think of one non-psi mob that's a threat to a well-slotted Granite tanker and that's Hamidon. Even Lord Recluse isn't that dangerous, just Granite, Stone Skin and Rooted slotted with SO enhancements is generally plenty for the STF. I didn't find anything in the game too tough for my Stone/Fire once I got to 34 and had Granite slotted up... and I leveled him to 50 before IO's even came into the game. Personally I don't see it being worth 3 power pics on a tank who's already nigh-unkillable.
I strongly agree that Presence is wasted on a tanker though, even with SO slotting Taunt recharges in 7 seconds in Granite. Add in a few recharge bonuses and Hasten and you're down in the sub-5 second range for Taunt... that's plenty fast enough to manage aggro. The base 41 second duration (enhanceable to 80 seconds at ED cap) means you'll have plenty of time on the clock, allowing you to rotate aggro and easily maintain a solid lock on the aggro cap of 17 mobs.
I'd build something like this.
From the Primary, and in roughly this order:
Rock Armor
Earth's Embrace
Rooted
Mud Pots
Stone Skin
Granite Armor
From the secondary, and likewise roughly in order:
Stone Fist
Heavy Mallet
Taunt
Fault
Stone Mallet
Tremor
Seismic Smash
Pool powers:
Swift, Health, Stamina
Recall Friend, TP
Hasten
Hover (makes TP much easier for zone travel; level 28-30 looks to be a likely spot for it)
That would be kind of my template for a Stone/Stone tanker; as I mentioned earlier I'd work for recharge bonuses first and foremost... survivability takes care of itself. My Stone/Fire had zero survivability issues post-granite and I didn't have the considerable amount of damage mitigation that Stone Melee offers.
Here's an unenhanced Mid's rough template for what I'm talking about:
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
The +run speed bonii are nice to have for sure as you rarely need both Granite and Rooted. They also offset the penalty of each power separately. I have 3 Gift of Ancients global and you move nicely with that.
As far as a sample build goes, Call_me_Awesome's is nice. While I personally wouldn't take Tremor and would instead take Minerals or BU, it has its uses 
I built my Stone/Fire for Regen/HP/Recharge in that order and haven't been disappointed (I also softcapped Psi def but I run quite a bit of Psi content).
Fighting is overkill to me and way too many selections (in powers and slots) to get a meaningful return. Same with Presence.
@Viper Kinji
Currently working on:
Turtle Snapper - SD/MA/Ice Tanker
[ QUOTE ]
I have to disagree with the fighting pool... in my experience it's a nearly complete waste for a Stone tanker. First, with Granite and Stone Skin you're already at the S/L resistance cap so Tough does nothing for you. There's a few who say it's useful outside of Granite... and that's true to a point, but generally if the incoming damage is enough to make Tough useful you're probably about ready to go to Granite anyway. I can't see it being worth the cost of entry (usually 3 power pics, boxing-tough-weave)
Now let's look at Weave... it's helpful to soft cap your def in Granite, but it's also overkill since I can only think of one non-psi mob that's a threat to a well-slotted Granite tanker and that's Hamidon. Even Lord Recluse isn't that dangerous, just Granite, Stone Skin and Rooted slotted with SO enhancements is generally plenty for the STF. I didn't find anything in the game too tough for my Stone/Fire once I got to 34 and had Granite slotted up... and I leveled him to 50 before IO's even came into the game. Personally I don't see it being worth 3 power pics on a tank who's already nigh-unkillable.
[/ QUOTE ]
less of an issue with dual builds (I added tough for solo action pre dual builds), but tough is useful on a stoner. some of us really, really really dislike the -recharge -damage and slow penalties. If I need to granite up, i'm staying granite. If I'm solo, tough makes the difference of toggling granite or not, its going to hurt my xp-infl/min rate (greatly)
But it is a cost (power wise) to consider.
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
So I've been playing a Stone/Stone tank and recently hit 45. I've been using SOs but no sets yet. I'm no good at using Mids but wanted to know what you thought were things I should watch for/use in this type of tank. I plan to fully IO him out once he dings 47.
I've taken the fitness, teleportation, leadership and presence pools but I'm going to freespec soon so that I can maximise my tank.
Thoughts?