I haven't played a tanker, but I've played several of their powersets on brutes, and know my way around Sherksilver's planner, and I can anticipate the answer will be:
- Fiery Melee, for best area damage (single target DPS is good too)
- Energy Melee, for best single-target burst damage (area damage is rubbish), but only from L35+ (ET & TF)
- Super Strength, for best low-to-mid level single-target DPS (Rage, gets KO Blow early) with nice enough area damage too, but at higher levels its pure smashing damage is more heavily resisted
Admittedly I do play all 3 powersets on brutes 
, but I did pick them for a very good reason - I love damage, and LOTS of it! 
Battle Axe may be comparable to Super Strength (without Rage anyway), but Lethal damage is just as heavily resisted as Smashing at higher levels. Ice Melee and War Mace are supposed to be more control-based sets (Ice especially) so are lower damage. Stone Melee hits hard and has some control options, but is slow, and has the same smashing-only problems as Super Strength at high levels.
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Hey peeps was wondering about a build, im taking stone as my primary coz lets face it when u get granite ur a god. From what I have seen they are always last to fall if they fall at all
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Don't take that as gospel. The job of the Tanker is twofold, they need primarily to take aggro away from the team, and as a side effect of the aggro they need to survive a large amount of damage.
In granite, your ability to grab and hold aggro is severely compromised. Yes, you can do it, but you'll never be doing it as well as a non-granite tanker. You'll be waiting for taunt to recharge as you notice a stray lieutenant pounding on the disoriented blaster, and you can't get to him in time because of the -speed, can't taunt because it's not recharged.
CoH battles are fluid, dynamic systems, and the best tankers are able to constantly reassess and react to the changing environment - granite tanks are that little bit worse off than any other tanker and why I always feel like I'm taking my life in my hands when teaming with granite.
Remember your main job isn't to take as much damage as humanly possible - it's to stop that damage getting to the aggro-drawing squishies around you. Never lose sight of your purpose.
Having said all that, fire is good for the three ranged powers (Fire sword circle, small aoe, combustion, big aoe, breath of fire, decent range cone) - stone melee is also useful, having a few ranged options. Remember, with your mobility limited by rooted and/or granite, you will need to be able to operate at a distance from time to time.
Mind, a lot of the people of the mindset that "granite can survive the most damage, so is the bestest" are also of the mindset that want to see big orange numbers. In that case, go with energy melee, although remember it won't help you much with aggro grabbing, which is where you may well need help.
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
Stone tanks make the worst recovery tanks, but a team can play so that recoveries need never happen with a good stonetank which makes stonetanks just as adequate as anyother if only the team would play to suit the tank.
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.
Granite is far from a God...
As others have posted being the last to fall is the last thing a team wants. A team wants you to be the first to fall, or nobody to fall. If you are the last to fall you are, quite frankly, a complete failure, particularly as a Granite tank who does absolutely pitiful damage and is only there to protect the team. I can tell you Id be rather quick with the boot if you were consistently the last to fall, and Im pretty laid back... and I dont think Im alone in that regard. I get quite tetchy about tanks who are there to soak up xp and debt dodge while the rest of the team face plant.
You will have the worst damage output of any tank - its equivilent to about 1/5 of other tanks if you factor in recharge penalty.
But more importantly, you are the worst possible aggro grabber, being so slow, and having taunt and other attacks recharge at -70%.
With the AV changes, it appears taunt is now a necessity to keep AV's off the squishies. And even then its no joke. Im not sure a Granite could do it without heavy heavy slotting of taunt (3xrech, 3xtaunt) - has anyone tried this recently?
Personally, Id rather stone tanks kept Granite as an "oh sh.." button when they start getting pounded too fast. They used to be great vs AV's but with the taunt changes im not so sure...
Flavour of the Month seems Ice tanks if you really want to min/max.
PvP id say Fire tanks but not really my thing.
From his post I kinda got the impression that the OP is looking for a "scranker" more than a tanker. Not sure he sounds that bothered about tanking, just being hard to kill and being able to do the best damage possible despite granite's hefty penalties. Yep that would be very slow for soloing (or duo/small team) unless he has a Kinetic/ on tap, and useless to a full team who needed an actual Tanker, but each to his own.
If he does want a fairly solid scranker then Ice/Energy or Ice/Fire would probably be more his speed... or Fire/Fire if he cares most about damage... or ideally a scrapper/brute instead 
I guess we need him to re-post and say exactly what he wants/needs, and how he'll be playing it, before we advise further.
If you want to play scranker at high levels go invul/em. If patience is not your best virtue, go invul/SS. Granite would prevent you to do dmg at all, and be a human wall to protect your team mates. If you still plan to go for granite, get fire as a secondary, and make sure u take both taunt powers from presence pool (plus the one from your primary) and slot them heavily
For solo scranking? Fire/SS, all the way.
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
The old Fire/Ice burn tank is once again a viable way to go for survivability plus damage. Now Fiery Embrace and buildup both buff burn the damage is very nice, and the ice patch keeps them in the flames. It works on teams or solo, and you get a bit of control in the secondary from the hold and the slow effects as well as the patch. Also, once you get to epics you can go for fire, giving you a second hold to stack on bosses and (eventualy) a firey embrace boosted fireball. Which is nice.
It used to be THE power leveling build, then it got nerfed, then it got buffed again. It only really comes together after SOs though (lvl22+), and you need a very specific (i.e. cookie cutter) build to make it work, with tough, combat jumping, acrobatics and stamina all being essential and hasten being advisable. So your pools pretty much pick themselves.
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From his post I kinda got the impression that the OP is looking for a "scranker" more than a tanker.
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I think your not alone there hence it had over 51 views before someone bothered with a reply.
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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I think your not alone there hence it had over 51 views before someone bothered with a reply.
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Yeah, it's the main reason I decided to reply, even though I'm a brute player and probably don't belong here 
Sure a scranker might only be a brute-lite, but better the OP got some powerset-based advice from a brute-player trying to be helpful, than any anti-scranker snobbery from a tanker-player
/flee
right on valkryst! couldnt have said it better if i tried!
@ExtraGonk
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I think your not alone there hence it had over 51 views before someone bothered with a reply.
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Yeah, it's the main reason I decided to reply, even though I'm a brute player and probably don't belong here
Sure a scranker might only be a brute-lite, but better the OP got some powerset-based advice from a brute-player trying to be helpful, than any anti-scranker snobbery from a tanker-player
/flee
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tankers need to have a mindset to TANK! get back to the brute section and stay there
be gone!
im kiddin really. If i am a tanker snob it suits me.
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.
I'd have to say if you're looking for high damage stone is not the way to go - the -recharge from both rooted and granite will cripple your sustainable damage - unless you can be sure of teaming with a kin all the time in which case your tanking abilities improve vastly as does the fun level for the whole team - have you ever seen a tank running rooted and granite charging around at speed cap from 3 kins spamming SB on him.
OTOH I have sometimes accidently turned rooted off when I forgot I was speed boosted and tried to turn it on. (granite at least is a bit more noticible)
Mind of Gaia lvl 50 Defiant's first Mind/Storm 'troller.
Deadly Doc 50 Dark/Dark Corr
and lots more on Pinnacle,Union and Defiant
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tankers need to have a mindset to TANK! get back to the brute section and stay there
be gone!
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I've got two words for you...
BRUTE SMASH!
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With the AV changes, it appears taunt is now a necessity to keep AV's off the squishies. And even then its no joke. Im not sure a Granite could do it without heavy heavy slotting of taunt (3xrech, 3xtaunt) - has anyone tried this recently?
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My Granite tank can hold AV aggro quite comfortably. But then I've always been a heavy user of Provoke as well as Taunt (both well slotted).
IMO what a GA tank needs above all else (in order to act as a recovery tank) are as many means of grabbing aggro at range as possible to make up for the lack of mobility and the -Recharge. In my case these are mostly Taunt, Provoke and Ice Blast from the Epic. Stone Melee and SS offer some options here too.
By my 50s shall ye know me:
Tundra, DVM, The Late, Neutrino Ghost, Sir Clanksalot, End Of Days, Prof. Migraine
Howler Monkey
Oh dear, ok first off I do want to be able to tank to keep others alive but im thinking I may go solo on this char for quite a while, all I asked for was what would go well with stone armour for good over all damage output, I didnt relize it would turn into a mass debate about how annoying I am coz I want to be hard and do good damage, if I had known there was a rule against it I would have kept quiet lol. So anyhow im playing as a stone/SS and it seems to be working out quite well so far but ill see when I get to level 10 coz at the moment im up to level 6. I know that stone has -recharge but ill try to combat that with Hasten and good slotting and as for being slow I have a Kin friend who I can drag around with me if needed and also Ill be taking Tp to speed things up a bit. Thank you to all thoses that gave me good advice and thoses that think im scum well what can ya do I just made up a good new archtype Scranker away lol :P
p.s can anyone list a good build guide for stone/ss please without ripping my head off lol
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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
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Name: I Cant Scrank
Level: 50
Archetype: Tanker
Primary: Stone Armor
Secondary: Super Strength
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01) --> Rock Armor==> DefBuf(1) DefBuf(3) DefBuf(3)
01) --> Jab==> Acc(1) EndRdx(36) Rechg(37)
02) --> Stone Skin==> DmgRes(2) DmgRes(11) DmgRes(11)
04) --> Earth's Embrace==> Rechg(4) Rechg(5) Rechg(5) Heal(7) Heal(7) Heal(37)
06) --> Mud Pots==> Dmg(6) Dmg(9) Dmg(9) Acc(15) EndRdx(17) Taunt(23)
08) --> Rooted==> Heal(8) Heal(23) Heal(37)
10) --> Taunt==> Rechg(10) Rechg(15) Rechg(19) Taunt(19) Taunt(31) Taunt(34)
12) --> Swift==> Run(12) Run(13) Run(13)
14) --> Recall Friend==> IntRdx(14)
16) --> Teleport==> EndRdx(16) EndRdx(17)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18) Heal(46) Heal(46)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --> Brimstone Armor==> DmgRes(22)
24) --> Crystal Armor==> DefBuf(24) DefBuf(25) DefBuf(25)
26) --> Haymaker==> Acc(26) Dmg(27) Dmg(27) Rechg(43) Rechg(43) EndRdx(43)
28) --> Knockout Blow==> Acc(28) Dmg(29) Dmg(29) Rechg(40) Rechg(42) EndRdx(45)
30) --> Hasten==> Rechg(30) Rechg(31) Rechg(31)
32) --> Granite Armor==> DmgRes(32) DmgRes(33) DmgRes(33) DefBuf(33) DefBuf(34) DefBuf(34)
35) --> Mineral Armor==> DefBuf(35) DefBuf(36) DefBuf(36)
38) --> Foot Stomp==> Acc(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40) EndRdx(40)
41) --> Hurl==> Acc(41) EndRdx(42) Range(42)
44) --> Stone Prison==> Acc(44) EndRdx(45) Immob(45) Range(46)
47) --> Fossilize==> Acc(47) Acc(48) EndRdx(48) Rechg(48) Rechg(50)
49) --> Rage==> Rechg(49) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Gauntlet==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------
Done
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.
Just an idea Shannon, but wouldnt it be better to put 2 or 3 accuracys instead of damage in mudpots.. since twice the damage of poor is still just 'less' poor and mudpots is useless as a taunt aura if it -doesnt- hit..
(well, useless might be to strong a word, so lets call it -less useful- instead)
oh, and welcome to the tanker forum pol. (id prolly go for */fire tho, as it got lots of AoE that could help with aggro grabbing)
UNION
Officer Cuffz lvl 50 Inv/Nrg Tank
Badge lvl 50 dwarf/human Peacebringer
Dark Air lvl 50 Ice/Cold Corruptor
Ayre lvl 50 Storm/Elec Defender
Total Cat: @Officer Cuffz
"When I say interview, I mean engage in combat and defeat..." -Laura Brunetti, on how to deal with Warriors.
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since twice the damage of poor is still just 'less' poor and mudpots is useless as a taunt aura if it -doesnt- hit..
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My understanding is that the taunt aura aspect of Mudpots is auto-hit and it's only the damage part that has an accuracy check so slotting it for damage over accuracy has no impact on a tanker's ability to hold aggro.
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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since twice the damage of poor is still just 'less' poor and mudpots is useless as a taunt aura if it -doesnt- hit..
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My understanding is that the taunt aura aspect of Mudpots is auto-hit and it's only the damage part that has an accuracy check so slotting it for damage over accuracy has no impact on a tanker's ability to hold aggro.
[/ QUOTE ]Correct, the only tanker aura that needs ToHit to tant is BA. (And well, icicles, but ice has CE)
ok, guess I looked at it as just a damage aura which then used Gauntlet to achieve the taunt effect.
UNION
Officer Cuffz lvl 50 Inv/Nrg Tank
Badge lvl 50 dwarf/human Peacebringer
Dark Air lvl 50 Ice/Cold Corruptor
Ayre lvl 50 Storm/Elec Defender
Total Cat: @Officer Cuffz
"When I say interview, I mean engage in combat and defeat..." -Laura Brunetti, on how to deal with Warriors.
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ok, guess I looked at it as just a damage aura which then used Gauntlet to achieve the taunt effect.
[/ QUOTE ]Nah, it also has the debuff part, which is auto-hit, and the thing it uses to taunt.
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Just an idea Shannon, but wouldnt it be better to put 2 or 3 accuracys instead of damage in mudpots.. since twice the damage of poor is still just 'less' poor and mudpots is useless as a taunt aura if it -doesnt- hit..
(well, useless might be to strong a word, so lets call it -less useful- instead)
oh, and welcome to the tanker forum pol. (id prolly go for */fire tho, as it got lots of AoE that could help with aggro grabbing)
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if he wants more damage and potentially more aggro grabbing tools versus mobs then yes to fire however when i first made that build i had AVs in mind and all the things you can do to them to make them that much more impotent.
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.
Hey peeps was wondering about a build, im taking stone as my primary coz lets face it when u get granite ur a god. From what I have seen they are always last to fall if they fall at all :P
But one problem I have I dont know what to take as my attacking force. Which is the clear winner overall for most damage caused and that would go well with stone armour. I dont want peoples thoughts of why they think its best coz they have that build, I need to know cold hard facts which is the best :P so any hero planner build guides posted for what to take would be very nice thanks again
p.s Its for PvE