Stone melee is very end heavy, Fiery Aura is very end heavy, if you can get over those 2 hurdles it should work well together as fire needs some extra mitigation.
important points with fire are Healing flames needs to be taken and slotted asap, and you have no kb or immob protection, the jumping set can provide the answer for both of these (acrobatics and combat jumping).
As I lack experience with Fire Armor I am not the one most suited to advise you on it. As you typed that any responses were welcome I will make a few comments though you should remember I might not be the best source.
From what I have seen I would say that Fire Armor is really durable nowadays thanks to Healing Flames. The ones I have fought in PvP are almost impossible to put down one on one due to the fast recharge on that power (although I do play a Superstrength tank, so my damage is almost completely S/L). If you end up surrounded by mobs you might start having problems depending on what type of damage they deal.
For mitigation from your secondary Ice Melee might also be an option, largely due to Ice Patch. It might not be the best choice for high damage output though. There is a guide on Fire/Ice tanks in the Player Guides section that might be of interest if you want to go that route.
I saw Boston Firewall (Gonks fire/stone tank) and the combo looks like great fun and he sure seemed effective. Its one of those things I've been meaning to make for a while but I have an Inv/Stone too and........ well 3 accounts still doesn't give enough slots.
But yeah keeping them on their backs and in the burn patch looked good
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Well thank you so far for the responses and support my Fire/Stone melee tank is currently at lvl 11 
but playing about on the mids and developing different builds i actually only just realised how tight this build actually is... i was wondering what attacks i should pick up and what should come first tough or acrobatics? As a tanker orientated for team play i obviously want the strongest defences that the fire set has to offer but i must stress that i will be picking up fault and tremor as soon as they become available as that was the forefront of the idea behind this character... And also as the squishyest of the tanker sets when will i feel like i will be able to actually... well... Tank??
Again any responses are most welcome and appreciated
Two of my favourite toons use Firey Aura for their protection; namely a lvl 41 Stone / Fire brute and a level 50 Fire / Axe tank, and there are a couple of things that both these toons share in terms of their survivability.
6 slot Healing Flames as soon as you can.. I've used Doctored Wounds in both builds, both give a Recharge and Heal of around 95% and DW is one of the more affordable Healing IO sets.
Consume is also your best friend. Leap in to a mob and use Consume to not only replenish your End after the previous mob, but as a good opener to get their attention. Added bonus is that Efficiay Adapter has a recharge bonus to all powers; essential if you're going to use Stone as your secondary.
Acrobatics is optional. If you're going to be primarily PVE, then 2 KB prot IOs will be more than enough to protect you against knockback. Some take Temperature Protection (as I have with the Brute) as an "always on" method of KB protection.
Tough is a must have for a tank. It's quite heavy on end, but the extra S/L protection helps the survivability.
Burn is the understated hero of the set. No acc component so never misses.. particularly useful against high def fear immune enemies like Rikti Drones. As you're using Tremor and Fault to keep them on their backs or stunned (I've slotted Fault with Stupefy stun IOs for a little more recharge), Burn is doubly useful.
Tanking with a fire tank takes a lot more doing than our Stone or WP brethren, but for me there's that extra satisfaction when you're standing around a pile of bodies knowing that there were a number of times one of them could have been you, but that you came through anyway.
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat
I don't have tough but I do have leap pool. Lack of KB protection is a pain in the butt.
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.
And 2 IO KBs are enough to get around that. If you look at all the KB protection powers, they usually have a magnitude of 10; 2 KB IOs would give you a protection of 8 and seeing as the only things that give me real trouble with just 1 (ie a KB prot of mag 4) are some of the FF based or SS based AVs, 2 would seem to be adequate.
The big issue with Acrobatics is that, like tough, it's a big end hog. Given that FA is heavy on end, and so is SM, running Tough AND Acrobatics would prove frustrating at best. Personally I find I could do without acrobatics as I've described above, and although I'd imagine with appropriate IO'age, you could increase your survivability sufficiently to do without Tough, I'd say it was that "extra little bit helps" which could make the difference between your survival and your death.
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat
[ QUOTE ]
3 accounts still doesn't give enough slots.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have found the cure to that, it has 11 servers and less lag, and bigger populations on some of the servers in their quiet times than the EU has in the busy times.....but then again it'd mean less cash spent due to only needing one account I suppose, and they're all in English. Well nevermind, you pays your money and takes your chances 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
3 accounts still doesn't give enough slots.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have found the cure to that, it has 11 servers and less lag, and bigger populations on some of the servers in their quiet times than the EU has in the busy times.....but then again it'd mean less cash spent due to only needing one account I suppose, and they're all in English. Well nevermind, you pays your money and takes your chances
[/ QUOTE ]He's not using more than one server here, what makes you think he would over there? 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
3 accounts still doesn't give enough slots.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have found the cure to that, it has 11 servers and less lag, and bigger populations on some of the servers in their quiet times than the EU has in the busy times.....but then again it'd mean less cash spent due to only needing one account I suppose, and they're all in English. Well nevermind, you pays your money and takes your chances
[/ QUOTE ]He's not using more than one server here, what makes you think he would over there?
[/ QUOTE ]
That's true would only use one server over there. With the language barrier not even sure one would be viable
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
So both of you believe your getting total value for money, oh well nevermind, anyone with a mindset like that deserves to be fleeced and given a poorer service.
Just pointing out some of the inequalities i have noticed, and having 3 accounts seems a bit much to pay just to get what u want, when if you didnt restrict yourself to one server you could have 132 Slots from one account compared to 144 Slots from THREE accounts, and half of them requiring you to learn two differant languages to use properly.
Considering English is taught across europe because it is the language of commerce these days it just seems like the EU set up is a bit of a rip off compared to the US set up.
But if you want to reinforce those inequalities with knee jerk responses rather than try for something better far be it from me to disuade you.
[ QUOTE ]
So both of you believe your getting total value for money, oh well nevermind, anyone with a mindset like that deserves to be fleeced and given a poorer service.
[/ QUOTE ]Both of us? Certainly not, I know the US servers would be far better for me, but I'm most certainly not moving at this point.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So both of you believe your getting total value for money, oh well nevermind, anyone with a mindset like that deserves to be fleeced and given a poorer service.
[/ QUOTE ]Both of us? Certainly not, I know the US servers would be far better for me, but I'm most certainly not moving at this point.
[/ QUOTE ]
US servers would be much better value for money, but I get attached to characters and there is no transfer in place. If there was I'd be gone, as there isn't I try to make up silly excuses rather than to say I dont want to lose the time and care each character has received.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So both of you believe your getting total value for money, oh well nevermind, anyone with a mindset like that deserves to be fleeced and given a poorer service.
[/ QUOTE ]Both of us? Certainly not, I know the US servers would be far better for me, but I'm most certainly not moving at this point.
[/ QUOTE ]
US servers would be much better value for money, but I get attached to characters and there is no transfer in place. If there was I'd be gone, as there isn't I try to make up silly excuses rather than to say I dont want to lose the time and care each character has received.
[/ QUOTE ]
I know about the character transfer system being a bit useless, shame I couldn't move some of mine EU-->US, but since playing their it seems to have cured my altism, and due to being off work due to illness and recovering from surgery I have had 2 lvl 50's since 24th January. I still hanker for some of my EU alts, but having a nice new one to do every 3-4 weeks has diminished that somewhat.
US seems better value for you bucks (in numberous of aspects), if they ever would make a EU->US transfer i gues both union and defiant will drain empty 
Downside, i got too many characters here that i dont want to leave and restart all over on the US side. (although tempting, very tempting).
50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
(50)MaceX/(50)Encore
Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
Yes I know what you mean, I origionally thought the same myself, but it soon disappeared as I realise I had cured my altoholism and blasted 2 50's in less than 2 months, did nearly 3 yrs on EU and only had 5, so It came as a suprise.
Got a one man SG nearly functional with the help of some brits I found over their and have just started work on my villans now, need to get a villan to 50 their before i12 hits. But it really was fun starting over, and tbh I don't miss any of my EU alts at all.
Have fun
My fire/fire tank seems to do pretty well in just about all situations.
I took flight for travel...and have 2 slotted hover with speed (will be 3 by the time i hit 50)...2 SOs speed in hover make it close to normal run speed and solves the KB problem nicely.
Ok..so i get flipped end over end in mid air a lot...but it doesn't stop me using powers while I spin
Tough seems pretty essential for me....and so does stamina, consume is just plain wonderful...as I run 5 toggles usually in combat.
Taunt plus fiery aura with a taunt SO in it means that I hold aggro pretty effectively...then throw in a couple of nice PBAOEs and you have a nice tight group of nasties all ready to bake.
Fire/fire is fun/fun .... just be prepared to ignore your 2 final powers, Burn and Rise of the Phoenix as they are of very limited use...which is a real shame and the only down side to the whole thing.
It's all about playstyle but I would have to disagree with Dreamthief on acouple of points.
I would always advise Leaping pool for Fire/, melee characters need to bo mobile - hover doesn't cut it in my opinion.
Burn - i would take it with any Fire/ you cant always make best use of it (dependent of secondary) but it does give supplementary damage and also mitigates damage to you - while the mobs are running in and out of the patch they attack less. The main reason people look at it in a bad light is that doesn't do the damage that is used to - but think of it as a secondary damage aura that also negates damage to you and its great.
L50s: Tanks: Cryofission - Ice/EM - Dr Celsius - Fire/Ice - Saint George - SD/SS | Controllers: Psichosis - Ill/Kin - Major Chaos - Ill/Stm | Scrappers - Neutron Crusader - DM/SR
Currently Levelling: Angelic Blade - BS/WP Scrapper | Seeds of Destruction - Plant/Kin Controller
Oooh Dream, "Burn is of very limited use", ooh no most definitely not. To add to the points psi made, it also provides you with immob protection (think of it as your very own break free with a damage component), and as it has no accuracy component, it never misses. Very useful against high def opponents, and especially high def fear immune opponents like drones.
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat
The sheer number of damage ticks can give Burn the appearance of it being autohit but this is not the case. Whilst the fear component is autohit, the damage ticks can and do miss but there is no 'Miss' message.
Octavian Vanguard
@ohmsEU and @ohms 2
Badging character: Bimble on the Union server, Badgehunter.com and City Info Tracker.
Hmmm ok..I can see that burn could be useful...ok very useful sometimes
I will still stand by my 3 slotted hover for KB protection...it's plenty quick enough.
[ QUOTE ]
Well thank you so far for the responses and support my Fire/Stone melee tank is currently at lvl 11 but playing about on the mids and developing different builds i actually only just realised how tight this build actually is... i was wondering what attacks i should pick up and what should come first tough or acrobatics? As a tanker orientated for team play i obviously want the strongest defences that the fire set has to offer but i must stress that i will be picking up fault and tremor as soon as they become available as that was the forefront of the idea behind this character... And also as the squishyest of the tanker sets when will i feel like i will be able to actually... well... Tank??
Again any responses are most welcome and appreciated
[/ QUOTE ]
Squishy?!!!!! HOW DARE YOU!!!
My main is anything but squishy, he can tank an 8 man team like the best of them.
AND IF I EVER HEAR YOU CALL A FIRE TANK SQUISHY
, then you need some help.
As a fire/stone you can hold a large amount of damage and survive.
Your only real enemy in pve are slowers.
As for what powers you want to take that depends on a few things, is your build pvp, pve or a mix.
Some powers are mandatory some are optional some are [censored], what travel you want is another factor.
The jumping pool is favourite but by no means your only option.
As for powers not to take:
- temperature protection why bother there really is no need unless you real want the most cold resistance you can get, but in my experience not needed, now if it had some slow resistance I would take it in a heartbeat but as it is right now, no thanks.
- Hurl boulder (or something to that extend) slow as (bleep), does about as much damage as stone mallet and is imo not worth the powerslot.
- Stone fist: love it, its fast does good damage and stuns once every blue moon.
- Both hammers: adore them, your main attacks and although they are only smashing you will love their damage output.
Seismic Smash: have its babies, a mag 4 hold with extreme damage, seeing bosses swivel and stumble about while you pound the living daylights out of them and while you keep knocking them over with your mallets gives a great feeling of raw power.
Healing flames makes the set shine so what ever you take, take that power, but Im guessing you would not skip the heal.
I could ramble on all day with this post but if you have other questions you can always contact me in-game on @Slate.
Be warned the set drains end a lot. 
PS: Yes I have burn, yes I still love it, yes you can keep the mob around you in the patch but you have to time it right.
Slatecinder lvl 50 Fire/stone tank
Astrum Rangers/Seekers of Pandemonium
One hell of a favour. Arc ID: not published at this time
So im on my stone/elec brute this morning pounding away at barracuda the AV loving the feeling of chaining seismic smash and the mallets at high fury and spamming fault but then it hits me... I MISS THE FEELING OF BEING A HEROE. Sure in my opinion the arcatypes on COV are far more interesting and challenging but... i dont know... is it just me or is there a certain feeling to COH that you just dont get on COV maybe the team work,fair play or just exacting justice upon enemies.
So what do i do... i log off and immediately set about making a new tank i think to my self i've already done the stone tank thing my stone tanks currently sitting at level 39 not doing anything as i got bored of not being able to move and hold aggro as well as i'd hoped and the resistance plus def on it in my opinion being an over kill. i do have an intention to get him to 50 eventually but not at this moment. I dont really want to have anything to do with ice as defence annoys me. willpower was an option as i hadn't explored that set yet but i decided against it. invulnerabilty just seems a bit dull to be honest...
Wait! what does that leave oh yh FIRE and to me this just seems like the set i've been looking for. I don't really think the way they've tried to trade damage for survivabilty with this set really translated the way they thought it would but im confident that with a bit of help i can get this guy rolling. So i thought im loving stone melee on my brute? why not go for it thinking tremor and fault would be having most of the mobs on there backsides or stunned 80% of the time would help make up for my tanky squishyness atleast till i pick up tough and also the KD and stuns may also have good sinergy with Burn but im not really sure... i mean it all sounds quite good on paper but every1 i ask is just telling me to go willpower as its apparantly "the new way foward" and any veteran i ask just keeps saying "oh theres no point anymore back in the pre I4 days fire tanks were gods among men" and then either breaks in to tears or is moody for the remainder of the conversation... im not joking.
Anyway! that is my predicament what i am looking for is help in understanding the set and also if i am right in the assumption that stone melee would most probably be the best set to help for survivabilty. Just so that i can tank easily for an 8 man team and compete with the other sets about
Any replys at all much appreciated PLEASE HELP