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Ive got 5 powers left to take; I will be taking both minerals and seismic smash, but have no idea what else would be a good idea and would like to hear from other stone tanks. Also, slotting for mud pots Ive currently got 3 dam / 1 end red but Im thinking of dropping in a taunt enhancer instead of damage
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Tremor and Fault are great for keeping massed groups constantly falling over.
Leave the damage in you will have more slots than you know what to do with and you can put some Taunts in them.
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As for the tanking itself, I primarily faced Nemesis and Devoured Earth on teams of 4-5. The teams consisted of tankers, scrappers and blasters only for the most part; I was able to hold aggro on L41 and L43 Nemesis mobs without too much difficulty, although damaging them was another matter. I havent had the need to turn on Earths Embrace all weekend. I also had my first experience with sappers, who will be the death of me by the looks of things. I havent gone against psi yet either.
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Root and TP to the Sapper, Rooted can take a few shots, plenty of time to splat the Sapper.
The drop in GA is more noticeable as the villians get tougher. Rularuu, carnival with Psi villians mixed in can wear you down.
The -recharge is the real killer but now we have slots for recharges. 2 per power to counter it.
I would look at taking Fault and Build Up, both have worked out very useful for me. Fault is a great control power, Build Up gives you a significant edge with Damage and Accuracy - especially with lower slotting for damage.
Since Rooted got endurance drain protection, I like to leave Sappers alone for the lightshow - they are of zero concern to a Stone Tank...but they might bother someone else on a team ;>
I have taken Rooted and think it really sucks, especially when i have combat jumping. How could i make Rooted an useful power? I thought i could root and taunt but whenever i taunt enemies prefer to shoot me instead of meleeing. 
BTW, i havent noticed any increase on the hit points regeneration rate.
Vic, you haven't said what level you are, but I am guessing you are still approx around lvl 10 (apologies if wrong). I had the same vision as you when I started my stone tank (now lvl 20), was gonna go for a complete defence build inluding combat jumping etc, and was miffed when I found out combat jumping could not be used with rooted.
However I think you will find that once you get to facing more enemies that can stun/immobilise/knockback etc, etc, you will find that rooted becomes far more important than the small amount of extra defence that combat jumping gives you (I tried for 2 levels and was so glad when I got the I6 respec, I can play my tank without a tray full of break free's now)!!
Taunted enemies will attack you as they see fit, they will melee attack you if you are close, if they are far away they will use their ranged weapons, so if you want them to melee attack, you've got to get in close. Rooted will slow your speed down, so sprint from the fitness pool is always a good plan (especially if you are going for stamina and health as well), TP as a travel power is often used by stone tanks as they can then TP straight into mobs, and kinetics defenders with their speed boosts are you best friend!!
Rooted is one of the powers in the set you can never be without. In combat I never take it off. More and more things will mez you as you progress, which is probably why it doesnt seem so good to you right now.
I did much the same as you as well, took combat flight for the extra defence and only ever used rooted when facing enemies that held me (like madness mages). Then I found out how good rooted was. The regen is 100% increased, so instead of getting back to full health in 240 seconds, you do it in 120. Still a long time, which is probably why you don't really notice and increase but it is significant.
Most melee attacks are actually stronger than the ranged attack of a mob so you get a bit of a benefit if they attack at range. If you want to draw them into melee, hide behind something. With stone it is often much easier to pick your spot (ie the middle of the group) and just jump in to save you having to move after.
Faultys tip of the day - if you are running and turn on rooted you actually carry on at normal speed for a couple of seconds before the slow hits. With a bit of practice you can start running towards a group, turn it on just before you get there and end up in the middle of them with it on. Usefull if you don't have tp and I still use this tactic. Get the timing right tho as I have on occasion turned it on a tad too late and ended up stunned in the middle of them. 
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R
I did much the same as you as well, took combat flight for the extra defence and only ever used rooted when facing enemies that held me (like madness mages). Then I found out how good rooted was. The regen is 100% increased, so instead of getting back to full health in 240 seconds, you do it in 120. Still a long time, which is probably why you don't really notice and increase but it is significant.
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HI, i am level 19 and my powers at the moment are:
Shadow Punch
Smite
Shadow Maul
Siphon Life
Taunt
ROck Armor
Stone SKin
Earths Embrace
Rooted
COmbat Jumping
Super Jump
I think I could take Accrobatics instead of rooted to prevent knockbacking, and i have said i cant see any increased hit rate healing. And i have tested, 27 hp/tick rooted or without rooted.
Hi fellow brute. You've posted in the Tanker forum. Lets smash them a bit before going back to our 
I hope that rooted isn't bugged in CoV, though... How can we test rooted life regen in a reliable way ?
Edit: Ok, just found it by myself (aaaaaaaaaaaaall byyyyyyyyyyyy myyyyyyyyyyyyseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelf !!! 
). Fall from high enough to be at 1 life point and time the regen with and without rooted on.
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Hi fellow brute. You've posted in the Tanker forum. Lets smash them a bit before going back to our
I hope that rooted isn't bugged in CoV, though... How can we test rooted life regen in a reliable way ?
Edit: Ok, just found it by myself (aaaaaaaaaaaaall byyyyyyyyyyyy myyyyyyyyyyyyseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelf !!! ). Fall from high enough to be at 1 life point and time the regen with and without rooted on.
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LOL sorry, i messed my thoughts. Yeah, i am brute but this is the only topic about stone i found. I just tested life regen watching how much it healed each tick. ANd it was 27 hp with or without rooted, but dont know the time in seconds.
I *think* that rooted increase the rate at which you regenerate, not the amount of life regenerated each tick. And from what I saw, turning on rooted makes a real difference. I will do the fall test as soon as possible, just to check the rooted value for the Brute.
BTW, I asked you why you don't seem to like your dark/stone brute on the brute forum
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I *think* that rooted increase the rate at which you regenerate, not the amount of life regenerated each tick. And from what I saw, turning on rooted makes a real difference. I will do the fall test as soon as possible, just to check the rooted value for the Brute.
BTW, I asked you why you don't seem to like your dark/stone brute on the brute forum
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That is correct. Normally ticks are every 12 seconds and it takes 20 ticks to get back to full health (I think). Things that increase your regen rate drop the amount of time between ticks, not the HP gained for each tick. With rooted on, this means a tick every 6 seconds.
Of course I suspect rooted for a Brute offers less than 100% regen boost - 75% I would imagine? I don't really know to be honest tho.
Oh, rooted will also offer knockback protection and protection from being stunned/held etc. Much better than acrobatics by a long shot.
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Of course I suspect rooted for a Brute offers less than 100% regen boost - 75% I would imagine? I don't really know to be honest tho
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From what we've seen with tanker and scrapper values, only resistance and defense values are affected by going from primary to secondary. So I suspect rooted to offer 100% regen for a brute. I will test it as soon as possible, hopefully tonight.
KK this is about a stone stone... just started, have some ideas, not fussed about slotting yet, looked at it on the build though and it seems fairly common sense.
01 : Stone Fist Empty(01)
01 : Rock Armor
02 : Earth's Embrace
04 : Taunt
06 : Mud Pots
08 : Rooted
10 : Swift
12 : Brimstone Armor
14 : Health
16 : Build Up
18 : Crystal Armor
20 : Stamina
22 : Fault
24 : Teleport Foe
26 : Mineral Armor
28 : Hurl Boulder
30 : Teleport
32 : Granite Armor
35 : Tremor
38 : Seismic Smash
41 : Heavy Mallet
44 : Heal Other
47 : Heal Self
49 : Teleport Friend
Just wondering if my basic choice of powers is sensible/usable and I'm not gimping myself... only thought is whether I need stone skin?
Stone armour is not quite as straight forward as it seems.
Most stoners go for a perma-granite build when they hit level 33. This is because the normal armours are very poor and granite is godlike. The only downside is you have -recharge -spd and -dmg in GA. It takes about 2 recharge slots in each power to offset the -recharge in granite (I think). With no hasten in your build, you will struggle to hold aggro when using GA (but you'll more or less never die). Perma-GA people will drop most of the other armours.
Stone Skin will let you hit the S/L res cap whilst in Granite if you take it.
If you are planning on using all the other armours and only switching to granite in emergencies, what you have will probably not be enough. Stone Skin and Tough are needed too. I have a thread round here somewhere about tanking without using granite if thats the route you want to take.
my stone tank is quite new (lvl 15) and i seem to do ok with my build so far.. i can easily herd even lvls mobs and stand there takin a beatin.
with your build is it worth takin build up so soon? simple reason i have yet to take it is that i only have 2 attacks, stone fist and brawl, which will be the same as you.
are you really goin to cope without a travel power until lvl 30? also on my build i dont yet feel the need for stamina.. i only run out when i solo but with only 2 attacks i dont/u wont be soloin that often. i've also heard that crystal armour is a bit pants (anyone know if there is any truth in this?). also i'm still undecided if the fightin pool is worth gettin or not.
Will look it up, the thing that I want is a stone tank that I can PvE as a tank but also take into the PvP zones, thats why I've gone for all the armours as an option.
I'm thinking about putting all my attacks as mez/disorientate heavy with taunts, and have 3 range slots in my taunt...
I don't really PvP but I was drafted in last minute to one of the S4 matches. My experience with that was as soon as the bubble I'd been given wore out, my normal armours were not really up to the job. No one could put a dent in me when I switched to GA, but I may as well just have been a lump of rock for all the mobility you have in that form...
Apart from the tank on the other team who just kept taunting me, I was ignored for the rest of the match.
With TP foe you may be able to get someone within your grasp but remember that all your attacks will take forever to recharge.
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i've also heard that crystal armour is a bit pants (anyone know if there is any truth in this?).
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It has the same defence as rock and minerals - 26% with three SOs.
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From what we've seen with tanker and scrapper values, only resistance and defense values are affected by going from primary to secondary. So I suspect rooted to offer 100% regen for a brute. I will test it as soon as possible, hopefully tonight
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And I was right : rooted is 100% regen for Brute too.
What about Mudpots? Is that a must too?
mudpots is good for keepin ur agro under control because of the taunt factor. once thats down u can then use taunt to attract any stragglers
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What about Mudpots? Is that a must too?
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For a Brute I'm not sure. Its main purpose is allowing you to keep aggro on anything nearby so if you want to do that, definitely take it. With extra slots freed up because of ED, I've now been able to 3 slot it with damage as well. It's not great damage but if you pound away at a boss for a couple of mins you'll often find that most of the minions near him are dead/almost dead through mudpots damage by the time you finish with the boss.
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For a Brute I'm not sure.
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An aside about Mud Pots - it always used to be that the Slow it caused was -Speed only so it just kept things near you and immobilised minions. It's recently started claiming to also be -Recharge. If this is true (haven't tested it thoroughly, but I think it probably is) then it has become better for a Tank and worse for a Brute. Marginally so in each case, though, as the -Recharge will only be small.
By my 50s shall ye know me:
Tundra, DVM, The Late, Neutrino Ghost, Sir Clanksalot, End Of Days, Prof. Migraine
Howler Monkey
had anyone tried 4 slotting armours etc? obviosuly i know the ED effects would kick in but is the extra bonus earnt from that enhancement worth it?
With a base defence of 16% you get about 0.5% for the fourth slot I believe. Slightly more for brimstone as it's base is 25% resistance.
Just some observations from playing my L36 stone/stone tanker over the weekend Im not a number cruncher, so some of this may be a bit gimpy.
Seems to still work fine following the respec; I spend most of my time tanking in granite, and didnt notice a drop-off in performance slotting 3 def and 3 res SO enhancements and adding 3-slotted stone skin. With swift three-slotted, moving in granite was still OK, and with rooted teleport seemed to work well.
I kept hasten in the build, primarily because super speed is my preferred travel power, but also as a way to increase my DPS when needed. Stone/Stone is a real end hog, so having it permanent would be a bit pointless, but being able to crank it up a notch is handy from time to time.
Mistakes I made in the respec I took TP ally rather that TP foe, which is going to be a hindrance for PvP; I dont really need all three, so thats another respec mission to do. I added maneuvers to give me a boost to my def, but its really not helping that much with a respec Id probably lose this too.
So, at the moment my build stands as follows: -
Primary Rock Armour, Stone Skin, Earths Embrace, Mud Pots, Rooted, Granite Armour
Secondary: Stone Fist, Stone Mallet, Taunt, Large Mallet, Tremor
Fitness: Swift, Heath, Stamina
Leadership: Maneuvers
Speed: Hasten, Super Speed
Teleportation: Teleport Ally, Teleport Self
Ive got 5 powers left to take; I will be taking both minerals and seismic smash, but have no idea what else would be a good idea and would like to hear from other stone tanks. Also, slotting for mud pots Ive currently got 3 dam / 1 end red but Im thinking of dropping in a taunt enhancer instead of damage
As for the tanking itself, I primarily faced Nemesis and Devoured Earth on teams of 4-5. The teams consisted of tankers, scrappers and blasters only for the most part; I was able to hold aggro on L41 and L43 Nemesis mobs without too much difficulty, although damaging them was another matter. I havent had the need to turn on Earths Embrace all weekend. I also had my first experience with sappers, who will be the death of me by the looks of things. I havent gone against psi yet either.