Of you want to make a solo-able tank i would say fire / energy as it has the biggest damage output of any tank. I find battle axe a good single target basher aswell.
Unfortunately, but not suprisingly, just like any toon, the more solo-freindly you are, the less team freindly you will become.
Personally, if you want to play a tank, you should be prepared to work largely in teams.
Whatever you do, get taunt early and you should qualify as a team tank. IMO, and most players i team with, a tank without taunt is not a tank, end of. But I dont want to open that can of worms again *duck* 
Apart from defences tankers have a few aggro control tools that should not be ignored.
Taunt Aura ( Blazing Aura, Mud Pots, Chilling Embrace, Icicles or Invincibility ).
Taunt
A Damage Aura ( Blazing Aura, Mud Pots, Icicles ) and/or PBAoE ( Combustion, Whirling Hands, Foot Stomp, Whirling Axe etc ).
As far as soloable characters I would say most do well, Ice Secondary is a bad choice for solo but it is good for teams. Mace is generally considered a bit rubbish, the others are all okay.
Super Strength, Good single powerset, good control, good single target damage, AoE comes late. Has Rage that is a permable build up so ideal for use with Damage Auras. Knockup/down/back and stun as a secondary effect.
Stone, hit things with a big brown lollipop. good single target damage, slow but good control. Knockback/up/down based control.
Axe, Pitiful control, knockback/down/up, good single target damage.
Energy, amazing 35+ single target damage, average before that, but has stun as a secondary effect.
Fire, late blooming single target damage, AoE king. No control.
Most tanker secondaries get 1 big damage attack available at level 4, make sure you take it. This should probably be your only attack pick until level 22!
Many get a PbAoE too ( often at level 28 ), these are essential for soloing as it means you get to herd a couple of spawns and do damage to them too, with 2 single target attacks spawns die really slowly. Damage Auras also work for this too and do more damage per second and damage per endurance than PbAoEs.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
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Mace is generally considered a bit rubbish, the others are all okay.
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Dont dismiss it like that please. It's got great single target damage and 3 attacks do knockup or knockback. It has one cone and one pbaoe which does disorient so in that respect it's got good aoe and control potential too. It's also got a single target disorient.
In pvp I have kept people permenantly on the floor using mace attacks so it's far from rubbish.
In pve the disorient and knockup/down can reduce incoming damage nicely. Also, the knockup and back can keep a boss on his back too (especially if you take air superiority too as I did)
The thing that lets it down is that like axe, the damage is lethal so it's often resisted in the late game.
It's also not chosen very much as a powerset so if you want to be fairly unique in the world of coh, choose mace.
It's a much maligned set that might be less favourable to a power gamer but it's still damn usefl and I would place it above axe so please dont dismiss it like that.
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Mace is generally considered a bit rubbish, the others are all okay.
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Dont dismiss it like that please. It's got great single target damage and 3 attacks do knockup or knockback. It has one cone and one pbaoe which does disorient so in that respect it's got good aoe and control potential too. It's also got a single target disorient.
In pvp I have kept people permenantly on the floor using mace attacks so it's far from rubbish.
In pve the disorient and knockup/down can reduce incoming damage nicely. Also, the knockup and back can keep a boss on his back too (especially if you take air superiority too as I did)
The thing that lets it down is that like axe, the damage is lethal so it's often resisted in the late game.
It's also not chosen very much as a powerset so if you want to be fairly unique in the world of coh, choose mace.
It's a much maligned set that might be less favourable to a power gamer but it's still damn usefl and I would place it above axe so please dont dismiss it like that.
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Agreed. For a tanking tank, mace is just fine. For a scranking tank/damage dealing tank, mace is not as useful.
Defiant 50�s: Generalissimo, Righteous Bob, Splortch, Brutus Cayuga
Union 50's: Chimera Obscura, Diet Anthracite, Grim Proctologist, Puny Little Minion, Raging Bitumen
In Soviet Russia, mission farm you!
Too many tankers are played like scrappers early on, till mid level 20's and sometimes 30's and i know some that even hit 50 like that. I dont know why they didnt just make a scrapper.
Tankers can play like tankers off the bat (well invulns could to some extent when taunt was at lvl 4 these types are who now can find out how short a duration and small an aoe gauntlet is using a single target attack). Pre aura and taunt you can be first in at least (even if its more of a blitz). The moment you can get an aura you can herd. The moment you get taunt you can pull of people (without leaving debuff areas) and fully tanking once taunt and aura are both taken. Of course the best shield, heal and status protection should be taken asap before level 10.
Tankers are a support toon there to keep as much of the heat of the rest of the team as possible "old news". You can build a tanking tank from the offset but many other people you are likely to find in PuGs dont also build better toons to portray their archetypes designed role from the start (and not only that "tactics" is a swear word).
For me the game is broken by the people that play it. But I still say set yourself apart from most people and tank straight away, if the team is really bad in supporting you find another one, as they dont deserve you. There are some good players about and you'd want to find them and be with them anyway.
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.
they changed mace damage to smashing
ah didnt know that. It's still resisted as much as lethal anyway I think 
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ah didnt know that. It's still resisted as much as lethal anyway I think
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Lethal is resisted a bit more than smashing I think, not much in it though. 
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It's a much maligned set that might be less favourable to a power gamer but it's still damn usefl and I would place it above axe so please dont dismiss it like that.
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Sorry. That was the general consensus I got from mace users on the forums. I have never played Mace so you are better off judging it. The OP did suggest soloing.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
DOnt know what the big fuss is about, TBH. A tanks job is to take it first, dish it out second. The most important power in your secondary will always be taunt.
Whilst I would agree that the secondaries need balancing and fine tuning, I dont think differences in them are THAT vital, compared to other much more serious inequeties (*nudge* regen, *nudge* trick arrow, *nudge* granite armour )
My only comment is that if you want to solo, you are looking at a high Single Target / AoE ration. Hence, battle axe comes out well, Fire poorly (cant recall the other sets to well). Ice is fantastic as a team tank (Ice slide will improve your survivability like nothing else on the secondary or even primary!), but has low damage so prob not solo friednly
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It's a much maligned set that might be less favourable to a power gamer but it's still damn usefl and I would place it above axe so please dont dismiss it like that.
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Sorry. That was the general consensus I got from mace users on the forums. I have never played Mace so you are better off judging it. The OP did suggest soloing.
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True, it's probably not a great solo powerset choice. It's also not as high damage as, say energy because oft he resists as I mentioned. But it does have disorient and two good aoes.
I just got all defensive because if you just dismiss it as being [censored] then it belittles my 50 levels :P
@Cuddles
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True, it's probably not a great solo powerset choice. It's also not as high damage as, say energy because oft he resists as I mentioned. But it does have disorient and two good aoes.
I just got all defensive because if you just dismiss it as being [censored] then it belittles my 50 levels :P
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If anything the opposite is true. If you had got 50 levels with an obviously overpowered secondary you would deserve less respect than with a less good one.
@Cognito
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My only comment is that if you want to solo, you are looking at a high Single Target / AoE ration. Hence, battle axe comes out well, Fire poorly (cant recall the other sets to well). Ice is fantastic as a team tank (Ice slide will improve your survivability like nothing else on the secondary or even primary!), but has low damage so prob not solo friednly
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Fire soloed far better than Battleaxe in my experience. I found the only way to clear missions quick as a tank is to herd a few enemies together and use AoEs. Battleaxe fared pretty poorly for me here, having to rely on stacking with a knockback/up set is just painful. However these were both Inv tanks so were missing damage auras.
If you get enough attacks early for soloing using single target attacks the chances are you may have messed up your build for teaming anyway with most primaries.
@Unthing ... Mostly on Union.
Energy Melee is undoubtedly the worst secondary pre L35.
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If anything the opposite is true. If you had got 50 levels with an obviously overpowered secondary you would deserve less respect than with a less good one.
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Ok then I aggree with you
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Mace is generally considered a bit rubbish, the others are all okay.
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Dont dismiss it like that please. It's got great single target damage and 3 attacks do knockup or knockback. It has one cone and one pbaoe which does disorient so in that respect it's got good aoe and control potential too. It's also got a single target disorient.
In pvp I have kept people permenantly on the floor using mace attacks so it's far from rubbish.
In pve the disorient and knockup/down can reduce incoming damage nicely. Also, the knockup and back can keep a boss on his back too (especially if you take air superiority too as I did)
The thing that lets it down is that like axe, the damage is lethal so it's often resisted in the late game.
It's also not chosen very much as a powerset so if you want to be fairly unique in the world of coh, choose mace.
It's a much maligned set that might be less favourable to a power gamer but it's still damn usefl and I would place it above axe so please dont dismiss it like that.
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I encourage him to dismiss it like I do.
I don't agree with your post at all. (EDIT: apart from being unique if you choose mace..)
I agree too, mace is gimped only the finest players could get a mace tanker to level 50.
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I agree too, mace is gimped only the finest players could get a mace tanker to level 50.
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well.. my char is called MaceX and he's a lvl50 tanker 
So i got my 'mace' to the 50
50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
(50)MaceX/(50)Encore
Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
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I agree too, mace is gimped only the finest players could get a mace tanker to level 50.
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Despite good attempts to cheer me up I still feel depressed about my tank 
When i look at the figures on herobuilder for mace and compare it to all other sets i'd expect clobber to be an amazing disorient to make up for some lackings.
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.
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Energy Melee is undoubtedly the worst secondary pre L35.
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not true, with fast attacks and a high disorient chance on energy punch energy melee is able to switch targets and tackle groups using punchvoke very easily, might not do the damage but certainly can contain the aggro - slap whirling hands into the mix and its totally effective.
saying this is worse than that just leads to arguments and pigeon holeing of powers and AT's. A bad AT is made bad by the player playing it.
Hammer - you shouldnt feel depressed about hammer, he is still a good and perfectly viable tank, or at least he was last time we teamed, did you change something?
@ExtraGonk
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When i look at the figures on herobuilder for mace and compare it to all other sets i'd expect clobber to be an amazing disorient to make up for some lackings.
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It IS an amazing disorient. I took it while levelling my tank up to the mid-20's (solo for the most part) and it helped my survivability a lot. Stun the lt -> defeat the minion -> stun the lt again -> defeat the lt. I respecced it out at lvl 24 because by that time I didn't need to remove a bad guy from the fight in order to survive it.
Defiant 50�s: Generalissimo, Righteous Bob, Splortch, Brutus Cayuga
Union 50's: Chimera Obscura, Diet Anthracite, Grim Proctologist, Puny Little Minion, Raging Bitumen
In Soviet Russia, mission farm you!
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When i look at the figures on herobuilder for mace and compare it to all other sets i'd expect clobber to be an amazing disorient to make up for some lackings.
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It IS an amazing disorient. I took it while levelling my tank up to the mid-20's (solo for the most part) and it helped my survivability a lot. Stun the lt -> defeat the minion -> stun the lt again -> defeat the lt. I respecced it out at lvl 24 because by that time I didn't need to remove a bad guy from the fight in order to survive it.
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It is a decent disorient, its weakness is its slow recharge. Not worse than other AT/sets, but since its my only reliable mez apart from epics I'd need something more.. 20 second recharge makes it pretty worthless in pvp. Apart from few odd occasions in teams (solo pvp is out of the question)
Personally Id MUCH more like to have jawbreaker available earlier in place of clobber. Im propably respeccing it away next time.
Hi Golden Crusader here Scrapper hi im wondering about making a tanker so i can get better teams but want to make a good solo hero is this the Archetype for me?
Golden Crusader
www.paragoncrusaders.com