Minor feedback, you rather had made a difference between pre-granite and post-granite builds. The difference (and its respec) is realy big, making choice of powers strongly different.
And rooted has a major advantage.. the 100% base health regen boost.
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As stone tanks get the choice of going perma-granite or instead using all the other armours, this is not so much the ultimate guide rather it's one of the possible types of stone tank you could have. 
A few points...
Rock armour is defence rather than resistance. Very few stone tanks ever drop it even after granite.
Earths Embrace is not just a heal, it boosts your maximum HP too.
Stone tanks are regeners, rooted gives a 200% boost to regen (when slotted).
Minerals won't stack with Granite.
Finally Fault is probably the best power you can get to help tanking. AoE, fast recharge, stuns and knocks down. I love it
Oh, tp should be the first choice of most stone tanks as a travel power.
thankyou guys as I said it wasnt actually my tanker it was someone elses. The feedback is good and I just want to say thankyou for actually taking the time to read it and hope you liked it really. I kinda didn't mention the respec thing afterwards. What I would do is respec rock armour out of the way and then get everything else and don't worry about crystal or brimstone armour but it really depends on what you wanna do. Thanks for the positive feedback. 
the "ultimate" stone/stone tanker?
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
oh and you forgot the slotting of powers, quite important for most powers. My stoney has the whole earth-epic set, great for agro control (the aoe sleep power gives great agro). Same for swift, imho slot it with 3 runspeed SO's is a very good thing, once GA/rooted and you're near to unmovable.
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crystal for debuff defence in PvP and if you need to use it you need to drop out of granite, if you are up agaist a team of villians they will be using alsorts of damage agaist you including maybe just maybe fire and cold, i ain't got a high lvl stone tank yet he is still in the making but my housemate has a lvl 50 stone/stone, granite atrmor for everything unless he comes up agaist big debuffs or psi, then its a rock armor, minerals, crystal, brimstone combo so he really can protect agaist everything even when coming under psi or debuff attck.
So do you think that a tanker should have all 9 armour moves? I didn't think it was needed.
No, they aren't all needed. Some tanks don't much like the downsides of Granite armour and prefer to tank using all the others instead tho. I'm one and don't often use GA at all.
It's difficult to write about something that you haven't played yet, although you seem very keen on the build so maybe you should start one? ;>
I would take a look at the stuff that has been already written in guides for Stone:
Guides
Yeh I have started the tanker and I believe that I have a pretty good idea of what I could do. Thnakyou for the guides they were usful!
Nah, you don't need all 9 Stone Armour powers....Brimstone = useless and i dont think a taunt aura is 100% necessary as a tank...punchvoke ftw!!11! don't care what anyone says a good tank doesn't need a damage aura, just taunt + AoEs will do. Lasy tanks 4 teh lose 
@Rooks
"You should come inside the box... Then you'll know what I mean."
Poo damaging perma granite tankers are psuedo lazy they do less damage contribution in a team than non perma granite and the mudpots can keep the enemies in one place for everyones aoe goodness. A good tank can play so that no one elses health bar moves with proper team co-operation
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
TO my mind, the skill of playing a stone tank is the aggro management. If you want to team then no matter how hard / tough your tank is, if the rest of the team are getting clobbered, you are failing big time.
I am always nervous around stone tanks because of their relatively poor aggro management. Taunt is a necessity
[ QUOTE ]
I am always nervous around stone tanks because of their relatively poor aggro management. Taunt is a necessity
[/ QUOTE ]
Eake your pick:
Some stone tankers dont slot taunt with enough recharges to overcome the -recharge in granite and to get a 2nd recharged taunt there just as the duration of the 1st taunt runs out.
Some dont give taunt enough duration slots to make taunt last between recharges.
Some dont have taunt.
Some dont slot mudpots for enough taunt duration to cover the autohit taunt pulse. They may slot for damage offering enough gauntlet duration but the damage component isnt autohit.
Some dont have mudpots.
Some dont have mudpots or taunt.
Some have more damage slots in their attacks than recharges and therefore gauntlet less which is a bit more of a problem if there is no mudpots or taunt for the team. Gauntlet only lasts a couple of seconds.
Some stonetankers through feeling immortal trying to aggro the whole room not realising they can most likely only keep 10 taunted which is why the team does battle and gets mullered by the other 30 enemies.
Some stonetankers have enough of everything but dont ask the team to allow them to consolidate aggro first.
Some teamplayers dont care about or dont know the limitations of a stonetanker and can play to make aggro consolidation practically impossible.
You cant save people from moving where they like, people can get get themselves coned or aoe'd through poor positioning.
Some people dont like to wait, to be told where best to stand, they dont like to be helping you as a tanker to help them or told not to use a power that scatters foes from your tanker causing aggro to fall upon them and everyone else. Some people see debt as a step to a new badge and chaos fun.
I am having 2 taunts maybe 3 (presence pool) on my stonetanker. Its not just there to cover the people that dont cooperate by playing in the manner that doesnt suit my tanker. Its to help me with some ideas. There is enough in the primaries and secondaries to keep aggro if slotted well and if the team willingly plays to suit the limitations of the tanker after one has made certain requests ie "no caltrops at the tankers feet pls".
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Once you get into the Epic sets, i took earth, aggro management is fairly easy. I still help out teams with my 50 perma-granite, as long they let me do my job i can keep agro fairly good. Taunt i only use versus bosses and some lts, minions will be 'defeated' in seconds or they follow my aggro anyway.
I have a huge range of attacks, melee single target up to aoe powers all helping aggro. With a basic chain of attacks i can get all initial aggro, from there the team can run in and do their stuff.
Though i dissagree with the fact the rest of the team shouldnt get hit at all (only your hp bar should move). Though a tanker is a meatshield, doesnt mean he has to keep aggro of all mobs. A scrapper can easily do a 1vs2 fight, they have their resist also, the rest can get a few beatings once they get the shield of the Epics.
Although i try to keep aggro of all mobs, a defender still need to do his job and overal a granite tanker doesnt realy need any healing at all.
Easy said in those cases, that tanker sux.. just because he play 'different then the rest'?
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I merely said a good tanker "can" keep aggro of all mobs "with" the cooperation of the team. Thats the team allowing the tanker to herd into his aura, and then not using any scatter powers such as rain of fire, freezing rain etc and using attacks that wont cause the enemies to stray from the tanker. How you play most of the time can be acceptable for fun factor and still no team wipes.
Sometimes the spawn numbers means only 10 would stay in the aura anyway but another 5 could be taunted.
The more in the aura the better for me to allow everyone to use their aoes to arrest the group faster rather than each person single targetting mobs with a chance to be owned.
A defender either cant be everywhere at once and perhaps cant aid everyone at once and someone gets it.
I personally like to make the situation where people can debuff without aggro, attack without aggro, not have to be everywhere at once which is why i hate anyone pulling for me, or attacking prematurely and making me do recoveries, i dont see why recoveries ever have to be made (thats when i am in a bad team if i have to do so imho) and i dont like not tanking on my own terms.
Earth epics is gonna be my choice on my stone too.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
[ QUOTE ]
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I am always nervous around stone tanks because of their relatively poor aggro management. Taunt is a necessity
[/ QUOTE ]
Eake your pick:
...
<list of stone tank mistakes snipped>
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree. Those were the reasons why generally stone tanks make my squishies nervous.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
My main rule of my Granite, protect the squishy!
Few additionaly rules apply to those unprepared aoe fire blasters.. they can be a pain in the *oops*
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Must admit you seem very afective
Golden Crusader
www.paragoncrusaders.con
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erm dude, ur not going to need aid self, thats just pointless for a granite tanker
[ QUOTE ]
erm dude, ur not going to need aid self, thats just pointless for a granite tanker
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I used to think that too. Then someone showed me how usefull it can be. Stick 2 interupt reductions, 2 recharge and 2 heals and it adds to your resiliance. The defence boost from granite means you can usually be ok with a few seconds to fire it off.
How much more resilient does a stone tanker need to be? I mean fit it in where what you lose for it dont matter, but i quite like the idea of stonetankers adding presence pool alot more and possibly leaderships.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Leadership would realy nulify my endurance for sure 
I had aid self/other first, its usefull once in a while but most of the time EE/rooted heals you a bit faster. Only once i ever seen a group of mobs (CoT iirc) hit so many mez-effects on me that i dropped out of Granite (PvP happens alot). Doesnt Rooted/granite give you a Mag3/4 resist to most stuff? (knockback only from rooted).
I took groupfly now, helping hapless heroes in The Hollows to move around safely from mission to mission. So ended up having 2 travel powers and full sloted swift
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I have enough endurance problems as it is without leadership. The presence pool is very nice to increase your taunt-ability. However as I found out it can get to be useless at higher levels. With so many enemies hitting me with -acc and tohit debuffs I was very rarely hitting with the presence pool powers. So I respeced out of them. Heal other and stimulant are also good ones for the tanker to carry. Tankers tend to be the last ones held and with int reducers you can free the squishies from holds and sleep so they can run away.
I think that granite gives about 3/4 mag mezz protection and rooted does the same. Granite also gives some knockback/down resistance, rooted gives knockback protection and a nice regen. I know I can fight things with knockdown attacks in just granite and stay on my feet. Others, like fake nemesis force bubble can knock me on my gravel butt.
Ok guys here it goes. This is my first guide and may not be that good. I have been playing the game for about 4 months now and have been playing along with my friend named Stoned Marine. He has a stone / stone tanker. I was looknig at the weaknesses and strengths of what he had got and it seemed pretty balanced. This is my guide:
Primary Powers:
OK so you would think you want all of these to be the ultimate tanker. WRONG! You only actually need 6 of the 9.
Rock Armour: This is what you should start off with and it has good resistence. It will be respeced out later on when you get granite armour. GET THIS POWER!
Stone Skin: Great move. Auto so no endurance loss. Good resistence may slot with 3 damage resistence.
Earth's Embrace: The only self heal power you get. This is a must have!
Mud Pots: A good taunt power also causing damage over time. This is a good early power to get.
Rooted: A very good pwoer to get early on. Resistence to hold, disorient, knockback, immobilisation, and sleep. May cost a bit f endurance at lower levels but will be sorted out later.
Brimstone Armour: This takes up endurance and gives you resistence to fire and cold damage. Not really worth getting. My friend did not get this and proved he did not need it.
Crystal Armour: Again takes up endurance. Do not bother getting this move. Only looks cool really
Mineral Armour: This is a must have as it gives resistence against Psionics which Granite Armour does not. GET THIS POWER!
Granite Armour: This is the power all stone tankers would die over. Gives resistence to all apart from Psionics, but minerals sorts that out. This power however cannot be used with other armour moves (Rock Brimstone and Crystal Armour).
Secondary Powers:
Ok then this is wear the damage comes in. These moves are very good and will need most of them.
Stone Fists: This is the power that you have to have gives good damage and has a moderate recharge. Great for low levels.
Stone Mallet: This is high damage and is also good for low levels. GET THIS POWER!
Taunt: This is obviously self explanitary. Taunts the enemy but do not need this power until higher levels.
Heavy Stone Mallet: Superior damage! Anything more to say??
Fault: This is basically a "foot stomp". Great way to start the battle and can disorient enemies.
Build Up: +damage and +accuracy good move to get only at higher levels though.
Hurl Boulder: Great move must have. Who doesn't like ripping boulders from the ground and chucking them at people??
Tremor: This is also like fault but much better and more effective. You will want this as soon as possible!
Seismic Smash: Melee attack and great damage another must have!
Those are all the powers that a stone / stone tanker can get but there is also the power pools.
Stamina is always a must have. Gives you nice endurance recovery and will keep you tanking for ages!
The travel power will really depend on what you want to do. You could get aything really, but what I recomend is Super Jump. You can get acrobatics at level 20 and gives you resistence to hold, disorient, immobilisation and sleep. It really depends on your style of play.
Epic Power Pools become available at level 41 and give your character a sense of uniqueness. Many characters choose not to have these and go for more power pools, but these can come in handy. I believe that tankers should all follow the Earth mastery path. It gives holds and sleeps which can aid a tanker to easily perform taunts and keep the enemy away from his team mates.
Here is what I believe should be the order in which you get the powers:
lvl 1 Rock Armour
lvl 1 Stone Fist
lvl 2 Stone Skin
lvl 4 Earth's Embrace
lvl 6 (travel power depends...)
lvl 8 Mud Pots
lvl 10 Rooted
lvl 12 (fitness power set) hurdle or swift
lvl 14 (the travel power)
lvl 16 (fitness power set) health
lvl 18 Stone Mallet
lvl 20 (fitness power set)stamina
lvl 22 Fault
lvl 24 Heavy Stone Mallet
lvl 26 Mineral Armour
lvl 28 Hurl Boulder
lvl 30 Taunt
lvl 32 Granite Armour
lvl 35 Tremor
lvl 38 Seismic Smash
lvl 41 (Stone Mastery Epic Power Pool) Stone Cages
lvl 44 Fossilize
lvl 47 (medicine power pool) Aid Other
lvl 50 (medicine power pool) Aid Self
Please send me feedback on whether or not you think this is a good guide. Many thanks to Stoned Marine for helping me make this guide and giving me advice on it.
Goodbye for now...