As crazy as it seems, I hear ice is the bestest tank up until 32, so maybe go with that!
IN MEMORIUM OF GAYBABY
CRUELY TAKEN FROM THIS WORLD WHILE SO YOUNG
really?
No i dont belive it i play an empat defender (lvl 24) and i heal ice tanks as much as SR scrappers and blasters.
he he he he he he he he he he he he he he....
no, really thats funny, try any of them they are all pritty simalar, though ice is mostly defence based and the others resistance based (stone has a good dose of both but gets speed and recharge debuffs too) i am biased towards Invulerablity my self, and it is fairly good from the blocks though againt anything other than Smashing/leathal damage they can be a bit weak, in the end it is the one you like the concept of the most.
[ QUOTE ]
As crazy as it seems, I hear ice is the bestest tank up until 32, so maybe go with that!
[/ QUOTE ]
Mathematically, Ice is the most surviveable primary Pre-32. In reality it's probably tied with Invulnerability. Post-32, stone rules all, as per usual.
Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes
My Characters
CoX Chatlog Parser
Last.fm Feed
Build-wise, regardless of what you decide on, make sure to pick up Toggled powers first. They grant a better bonus than passives. Granted, at the cost of endurance but you'll manage up until Stamina and End Reducing Enhanments that matter (DOs and then SOs).
Also, slot these (3 Def/3Res). There's been plenty of builds and research posted here and on the US Forums. Hit the Search on both, is my advice.
Attacks? Be moderate. A regular attack chain won't consist of maybe 3 "regular" attacks, and one big-hitter. Again, this depends on what set you pick. Energy for instance get two big-hitters and their early attacks are rather mediocre if you ask me.
As for personal preference, I enjoy my Inv/SS Tanker. Early levels aren't too bad, just make sure to pick Temporary Invulnerability first thing you do.
As for Super Strength for secondary, it's a catch-all kind of set. Damage is acctually pretty lousy, at least up front. But it's a quick recycling set, with high DPS and a lot of status effect. Chance to stun with jab, Knockdown with Punch (I would highly recommend to replace Punch with Air Superiority though, higher chance of knockdown) and Knockout Blow has a secondary effect that looks like a knock-up but is listed as a hold 
. So... uhm... a little of each acctually.
Regarding the other sets, being purely a tanker, I believe Stone Tankers to be the best. If all you do is Taunt, Provoke and take damage you can't fail really. Granite Armor is the winner of all the level 32 powers, when it comes to pure number crunching.
I'm discouraged to recommend Ice, it never seem to catch a break however, seeing how it was originally the worst set (no sleep res what-so-ever), then quite playable and then back to worst set it should only get better, after some patching that is.
And well, Fire works, but still not much of a Tanker set IMHO, it's good but it will always be a scrapper set with higher caps in my eyes.
So, I would probably recommend either Stone or Invulnerability.
And as for secondary, go for whatever you like. I recommend SS for it's "controllery" and yet high-damaging approach. But Energy and Fire are also sets which are pretty good.
Go for stone as a secondary if you want your sub to boom and feel like you really hit something. 
invul or stone primary, depending whether u want to be mobile while tanking, energy or fire secondary depending whether u want to do single target damage or aoe damage (largely whether u will spend a lot of time in pvp or pve)
Fire/Stone all the way really enjoying it
crazy as I might be, I love ice/ice. Ice can however be a tricky build to play and someone new to tanking can easily be faceplanting. Also if you go through hollows rather than the normal city zones, you will see the outcasts can be nasty if they got matches/scorchers seeing at the low lvls fire will kill you. However a good ice tank build has no problem tanking as enemies have a hard time hitting you, yet IF they hit you they hit you good.
If you dont mind being hit and just want to soak all that damage, be inv tank. No defense at the lower lvls, but the damage res makes sure you just take lower dmg for all the hits. So in other words, you gotta keep an eye on your health bar otherwise you'll be faceplanting at the low lvls.
If you can bear with a tank till lvl 32 and want to be the overlord of damagetaking, roll a stone tank. No armor can beat granite in damagesoaking potential. However stone gets debuffs on your attacking ability.
Dont have much experience with fire post-ED so afraid I cant give much help with that.
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
[ QUOTE ]
If you dont mind being hit and just want to soak all that damage, be inv tank. No defense at the lower lvls, but the damage res makes sure you just take lower dmg for all the hits. So in other words, you gotta keep an eye on your health bar otherwise you'll be faceplanting at the low lvls.
[/ QUOTE ]
Acctually, I would rather place Invulnerability in the middle right now, it's as the Tanker sets should be. A mixture of Defense and Resistances.
Ice and Fire is both at the opposite end, either all Defense or All Resistances. Stone plays mostly as a Defense-based set at early levels (with resistance to certain powers).
Invulnerability plays as a middle set basicly, dealing with (quite situational though) defense when you need it the most (in the midst of a mob) and resistances in other cases.
With above mentioned, I don't really see Invulnerability as real damagesoaker, more a balanced set. Most tanks are pretty hard to kill, due to their HP, but my health drops rather fast when faced up against a bunch of flamethrowers. Not to critical level, but still has me slightly worried about having to worry about dying
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you dont mind being hit and just want to soak all that damage, be inv tank. No defense at the lower lvls, but the damage res makes sure you just take lower dmg for all the hits. So in other words, you gotta keep an eye on your health bar otherwise you'll be faceplanting at the low lvls.
[/ QUOTE ]
Acctually, I would rather place Invulnerability in the middle right now, it's as the Tanker sets should be. A mixture of Defense and Resistances.
Ice and Fire is both at the opposite end, either all Defense or All Resistances. Stone plays mostly as a Defense-based set at early levels (with resistance to certain powers).
Invulnerability plays as a middle set basicly, dealing with (quite situational though) defense when you need it the most (in the midst of a mob) and resistances in other cases.
With above mentioned, I don't really see Invulnerability as real damagesoaker, more a balanced set. Most tanks are pretty hard to kill, due to their HP, but my health drops rather fast when faced up against a bunch of flamethrowers. Not to critical level, but still has me slightly worried about having to worry about dying
[/ QUOTE ]
I basically consider Invuln to be a Smashing/Lethal Tanker these days, which is no bad thing since they're the most common (by far) damage types in the game. With the powers in the Primary and Tough slotted right, you'll hit the S/L cap (just) but be left with about 27% Resistance to Energies and Elements. So, you'll laugh at anything that does a lot of S/L damage, but feel the burn from higher level nasties with a lot of damage that is non-S/L.
Still, as I said before, the Tanker primaries are all pretty balanced right now. What we need is more options to choose from. Roll on Electricity and maybe Shield and Metal Tankers. 
State has just posted that Defence is being reworked to scale for bosses and higher lvl minions.
Ice Tanks are back in the game big time if this happens. Combined with the CE buff, they may well be next after stone in survivability, and given they can herd better than anyone, may become preferred for teams after lvl 32.
About time
Indeed. Looks like I'm gonna need another Tanker ...
Edit: although, going by States' wording, Invincibility is likely to receive the same buffing. Yay!
[ QUOTE ]
Indeed. Looks like I'm gonna need another Tanker ...
Edit: although, going by States' wording, Invincibility is likely to receive the same buffing. Yay!
[/ QUOTE ]
Fire will have to be buffed after this or it will literally be in a Conference League of its own when it comes to tanking.
Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes
My Characters
CoX Chatlog Parser
Last.fm Feed
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Indeed. Looks like I'm gonna need another Tanker ...
Edit: although, going by States' wording, Invincibility is likely to receive the same buffing. Yay!
[/ QUOTE ]
Fire will have to be buffed after this or it will literally be in a Conference League of its own when it comes to tanking.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm ... not sure about that. It is the most offensive set, so it would be balanced in a way.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Indeed. Looks like I'm gonna need another Tanker ...
Edit: although, going by States' wording, Invincibility is likely to receive the same buffing. Yay!
[/ QUOTE ]
Fire will have to be buffed after this or it will literally be in a Conference League of its own when it comes to tanking.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm ... not sure about that. It is the most offensive set, so it would be balanced in a way.
[/ QUOTE ]
However has it got enough offensive to be balanced?
I think they have to think long and hard about the last three powers to make them balanced. Obviously they can't really change them too much. Rise of the Pheonix will always be a self rez, Burn will always be an 'attack' and Fiery embrace with be a Build Up but if they massage the numbers I'm sure they could balance it.
For instance they could make Fiery Embrace a normal Build Up power rather than a slow one. Or make it less effective but almost permable.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
I think they should swap Firey Aura and Dark Armour.
DA is a much more controlling armour set and FA is a much more offensive one. They would fit much better in each other's AT groups than where they are right now.
Of course, such a change would also probably require swapping Firey Melee and Dark Melee and break countless existing characters - but you could always introduce DM/DA for Tanks and FA/FM for Scrappers and simply switch off the ability to start new toons with the old powersets.
Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes
My Characters
CoX Chatlog Parser
Last.fm Feed
Indeed. After 40 lvls of DA Bruting, I'm in love with DA But, IMHO, its wasted on Scrappers. As you say, its a much more controlling set, and has obvious massive potential as a Tanker Primary. Hopefully, we'll see it as such soon(tm).
Nice thoughts regarding Fire Aura as a Scrapper Secondary too, though. Certainly interesting ...
[ QUOTE ]
For instance they could make Fiery Embrace a normal Build Up power rather than a slow one. Or make it less effective but almost permable.
[/ QUOTE ]
If (as would seem quite likely) Burn benefits from the 'Blizzard' changes being discussed in the other States thread it would be a pretty useful buff to the offensive side of Fire tanking - particularly for those with Fiery Embrace.
By my 50s shall ye know me:
Tundra, DVM, The Late, Neutrino Ghost, Sir Clanksalot, End Of Days, Prof. Migraine
Howler Monkey
A quick follow up to my own post, but it's now been confirmed here by Geko that Burn is amongst the powers which will now be boosted by any buffs their caster has at the time of use. Normal pets and traps won't be effected.
By my 50s shall ye know me:
Tundra, DVM, The Late, Neutrino Ghost, Sir Clanksalot, End Of Days, Prof. Migraine
Howler Monkey
[ QUOTE ]
I think they should swap Firey Aura and Dark Armour.
DA is a much more controlling armour set and FA is a much more offensive one. They would fit much better in each other's AT groups than where they are right now.
Of course, such a change would also probably require swapping Firey Melee and Dark Melee and break countless existing characters - but you could always introduce DM/DA for Tanks and FA/FM for Scrappers and simply switch off the ability to start new toons with the old powersets.
[/ QUOTE ]
im, not so sure about that, going with the ratio invulnerability gives in terms of scrapper/tanker defenses, 3 slotted Inv Tanker has approx. 1.35x the defenses of an Inv Scrapper, a Dark Armor tank would approx. look like:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Smashing: 47.8% RES
Lethal: 47.8% RES
Cold: 47.8% RES
Energy: 31.9% RES
Fire: 47.8% RES
Neg. Energy: 63.7% RES
Toxic: 31.9% RES
Psionic: 79.7% RES
</pre><hr />
Add to that CoF Acc debuff and Dark Regeneration.
Not going to happen, sorry, would have been nice
@Shift
Shift 50 DM/DA Scrapper ][ TTL 50 Kat/Reg Scrapper ][ Shabriel 50 Peacebringer ][ Ion Shift 46 Rad/Rad Corruptor ][ Thermal Shift 35 Fire/Fire Blaster
"A Scrapper is a lot like a chainsaw. Somewhat hard to handle, incredibly dangerous, and by far the most fun when wielded by the slightly insane."
Well yesi want to tank as early as possible and i dont know wich primary andsecondary to take. A build would be very welcome thanks.