I love playing my Ice tank over my WP, Inv and deleted stone.
Agro hoarding is so easy, everything instantly want to treat you as a doormat but you're too slippery to stamp on. Since picking up EA life is much easier too. I like Ice
"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!"
Since "best" can only be a subjective opinion I say the best tanker primaries are ice and fire. (Based on my brute experience I think WP is also fine, but I still need to level my WP tanker.)
In the end fire and ice are both pretty f**king immortal, hold aggro like crazy and lend themselves very well to an active playstyle. I would choose one of those over a granite any day.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
I've had no (major) trouble with Invulnerability.
You can survive pretty much anything and with Unyielding toggled you don't even get affected by mezzes (well maybe the really powerfull ones) and knockback.
Psi-damage is ofcourse a problem but can be dealt with by IOs (Impervium armor for example)
Keeping aggro is really the only issue, albeit only at the low levels.
I've played my Inv/SS/EM tanker to lvl 50 and enjoyed every step of the journey. I even took Flight instead of Leaping or Fighting on him just for the sheer fun of it. He can still hold his own against pretty much anything.
But as Sitriel said... "best" is very subjective and each to their own play-style.
I couldn't fail to notice that only some people are allowed to have a subjective opinion whilst some seem to expect everyone to follow their own on the forums.
"How long is a piece of string?" is a stupid question but I think that maybe what the OP is asking for is what is the next toughest (as in sturdy) Tanker to play in peoples opinion although I could be wrong. I would like to know what order people put all of them in myself.
@Sitriel, Do all the Firetankers you know have tough or is that a stupid question? I heard some manage without it playing to a more challenging set of rules to survive by or enjoy every RotP on offer. I have a Fire/Axe.
When I'm playing a squishy I know that no other tank makes me feel as safe as an ice tank does
yeah what are you personal opinion listing of the 5, because i started playin a ice but i got told that they are rubbish, and rather not start playin a tank then realise he can do the job as good as others. i always thought that ice was nerfed and weak
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When I'm playing a squishy I know that no other tank makes me feel as safe as an ice tank does
[/ QUOTE ]
This is the truth.
And to London E's question below this post I'd go
Ice
WP
Inv
Fire
Stone
In my order of preference to play. My order to team with would be
Ice
Inv
Fire
WP
Stone (would be higher up the list if rooted didn't deny jumping. CJ FTW!)
So Obviously I'd rate Ice quite highly. My WP is my highest level tank though so maybe once my Inv is up higher parts of those lists could shift
"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!"
My list would be:
Ice
WP
Inv
Fire
Stone
[ QUOTE ]
yeah what are you personal opinion listing of the 5, because i started playin a ice but i got told that they are rubbish, and rather not start playin a tank then realise he can do the job as good as others. i always thought that ice was nerfed and weak
[/ QUOTE ]
When it comes to AVs they can all do the job of keeping the team safe as good as each other because no matter what primary you combine with what secondary : all Tankers have one power in common that they can all take that with knowledge and experience (and I can so tell that this varies but understandably so) you can have the flexibility of being slightly more resourceful with literally nigh on any mix of team. You can go to not caring what powersets are in the team with perhaps only a concern for how people play them. The concern (mainly personal) can also disappear depending on how you beef up a Tanker.
When it comes to typical missions Tanks vary across the level ranges and against different enemies. But for keeping aggro off of the squishies. I can quickly say that in the worst PuG imaginable generally the Ice has the greatest chance of making the best recoveries. With the other types of Tankers, the squishies can allow the enemies to get taunted to begin with and work to keep the enemies in the areas they can continue to be taunted. Thats not hard and no different to not using M30 when someone has used Oil slick or not using Frostbite when someone has everything repelled up in a corner or dead end. People seem to generally not care about or acknowledge stuff like that on/with other people; prefer the more fun caution-less pace and don't take into account things like other Tanks can be slowed and so Ice is preferred.
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.
Willpower can be incredibly survivable with a decent build. Needs a lot of support for a less defensive build (ie no tough/weave). However against +3 or higher foes it just can't hold aggro through the taunt aura, which unless the team is aware of can cause problems.
Ice helps the team more than any other tank by slowing enemies and reducing damage with the aura. Can be extremely survivable but needs the player to know the powerset and the limitations.
Fire can be squishy, though this reputation has been enhanced by people with no clue how to play tanks, they seem drawn to fire tanks. Lots of bad builds out there but when you see a decent fire tank in action it is still extremely survivable. Downside is that the Jumpnig pool can't really be avoided even with IOs as it provides both immob and KB protection.
Not really played stone or inv past 30 so can't comment. However a lot of the survivability of tanks comes from player knowledge and a decent build.
Ice all the way London, defence is always more fun than resistance!
[/color]<blockquote><font class="small">Antwort auf:[/color]<hr />
@Sitriel, Do all the Firetankers you know have tough or is that a stupid question? I heard some manage without it playing to a more challenging set of rules to survive by or enjoy every RotP on offer. I have a Fire/Axe.
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Yup. There are some fire tankers who manage without Tough, but generally Tough seems like a good idea for a fire tanker.
The one player I trust most when he plays a tanker has it on his fire tanker and he actually enjoys RotP very much, because he gets to use it so seldomly (and because it looks great 
).
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
[ QUOTE ]
My list would be:
Ice
WP
Inv
Fire
Stone
[/ QUOTE ]
It always freaks me out when you agree with me, do you do it on purpose?
"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!"
Gah, I must be doing something wrong, if it happens a lot 
So so many bad stone tanks out there; people who think they can just stick Granite on and wander around not dieing irrespective of whats happening to their team mates. The oft held common misconception that Tanking = Surviving large groups of enemies means when ever I see a stone tank, I'm always wary.
As to what to go for, it really depends what you're after. Pure survivability, I'd go for WP. If you're a herding maniac, go for ice. If you want a jack of all trades and that "classic" superhero theme, go for Inv. If you want a challenge and like living on the edge, but love that feeling of "Gawd dayam" when you think you're going to die, but manage to survive anyway (in true hero stylee) go for a Fire Tank. Fire has that added bonus of Burn, and watching the likes of Nem Jaegers and Rikti Drones just sitting in the flames and frying.
@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 ]
I couldn't fail to notice that only some people are allowed to have a subjective opinion whilst some seem to expect everyone to follow their own on the forums.
"How long is a piece of string?" is a stupid question but I think that maybe what the OP is asking for is what is the next toughest (as in sturdy) Tanker to play in peoples opinion although I could be wrong. I would like to know what order people put all of them in myself.
@Sitriel, Do all the Firetankers you know have tough or is that a stupid question? I heard some manage without it playing to a more challenging set of rules to survive by or enjoy every RotP on offer. I have a Fire/Axe.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have tough on my Fire / Axe tank and it generally means the difference between having just enough HP left so that you can fire off HF, or not having any and having to use RotP. Given that the recharge of the former is a whole lot faster than the latter, I know what position I'd rather be in 
@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 also have tough on my fire/fire tank. TBH the only thing that has given him real bother in recent times has been Lord Recluse.
Octavian Vanguard
@ohmsEU and @ohms 2
Badging character: Bimble on the Union server, Badgehunter.com and City Info Tracker.
I personally love my WP/ tank. Was on a team the other day doing Maria Jenkins arc. a few of the higher lvl ppl dropped (47/48s) and we were taking on 49/50 mob. My tank was lvl 45 at the time. So I said, ok, ile see if I can handle them without a lacky, and with a minimum of support, I was able to successfully tank for the team (did no damage but meh). Ive taken tough, and will be picked up weave at 47. I have health as well as fast healing, and my regen rate gets very tasty. Add a little support to this guy and he has no problems with pretty much anything. The only AV that hurt was anti-matter with all that nasty -def (i had -64% defence at once point). I managed to take on malaise and mother mayhem without barely batting an eyelid.
Ice tanks still appeal to me though, Ice/Dark tanker may well me in the future of my toons list. defence set + dark always works nicely for me.
Ice is definately one of the better and for me by far the most fun to play.
My WP tank is scarily surviable and is great as a scranker but the tauntaura is pretty bad so unless you get taunt and spam it like crazy I wouldnt recommend it as a "classic" tank.
EDIT:
[ QUOTE ]
yeah what are you personal opinion listing of the 5, because i started playin a ice but i got told that they are rubbish, and rather not start playin a tank then realise he can do the job as good as others. i always thought that ice was nerfed and weak
[/ QUOTE ]
Just wanted to add you should take this person out back...and stone him for his heresy!
SingStar:
"Extremists LOVE to fish to get us annoyed so we break the forum rules."
CRACK68:
"The origin of life wasn't planned either, should all life be declared a bug and wiped out?"
Lionsbane:
"You know me.Ever the realist"
I agree there, my WP is a constant struggle for agro but the blue and green bars take care of themselves
Ice gets the agro easy and is much more fun for me to play
"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!"
Ice is the most fun, for me coming from a AV tanking SR its not much of a personal challenge but its more fun to not have to worry about some player needlessly making life harder for everyone else as much because recoveries are just so much easier.
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 ]
yeah what are you personal opinion listing of the 5, because i started playin a ice but i got told that they are rubbish, and rather not start playin a tank then realise he can do the job as good as others. i always thought that ice was nerfed and weak
[/ QUOTE ]
Ice WAS a very gimped set, before scaling defence hit us.
TO compensate, they gave chilling embrace a -damage debuff.
Then they gave us scaling defence.
And they left the debuff in...
....
....
Ice Armour is the best Aggro grabber there is, and ive played em all.
Ice Armour is the only armour that actually protects your team from AoE attacks (due to its debuff)
On my Ice tank (lvl 38), who has weave and a +3% def IO, I hit 40% defence to smash/lethal/energy/negative. Which is equal to 80% damage mitigation. This is BEFORE I hit Energy Absorbtion, which puts me into the 90% bracket. I.e. as High as you can get.
My Ice resistance is capped.
The only things I fear are Fire damage (which i have about 20% resistance to and 10% defence too, plus the bonus from energy absorbtion), and Psi damage (which all tanks fear).
Throw in a AoE damage toggle and excellent endurance recovery for fun.
The Ice Man rocketh.
Your mates are probably laughing at the old spectre of Defence before it scaled properly.
[ QUOTE ]
and Psi damage (which all tanks fear).
[/ QUOTE ]
Except fire tanks. We're squishy to everything except CoT Behemoths. For us, Psi damage is just another way of killing us
@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 ]
and Psi damage (which all tanks fear)
[/ QUOTE ]
my WP/Em doesn't...only thing he fears is excessive debuffs (I'm looking at you Vanguard Renegades!!)
SingStar:
"Extremists LOVE to fish to get us annoyed so we break the forum rules."
CRACK68:
"The origin of life wasn't planned either, should all life be declared a bug and wiped out?"
Lionsbane:
"You know me.Ever the realist"
hey all
Ive got a 50 tank granite lol not a hard tank 2 play, and wanted the next best tanker but im wonderin what that is, ive heard so many diffrent things, and wonderd if any1 could back them up,
stone out of the question done that
inv not sure, i ave inv on brute but is inv any good on tanks
ice ive heard good things on but my mates telling me its pants
fire not my style of gameplay at all
willpower ive got a 20 with this i think its good but thats it not amazing
so can any1 help me with picking another tank cos thats seems like the thing i shine on :P keep u suckers alive lol