Statesman TF

Was just wondering what the best build is for tanking the Statesman TF. I've heard Stone/, but is there a preference as far as Secondaries? Does it matter?...and has anyone had any success with any other Primary? I know that Elec/ is fairly new to tanks. Has anyone tried it out on the STF? Any advice would be appreciated.

Well stone seems to be the most popular, my own stone/stone has no issues with an STF. My SG has been doing MoSTF's and seeing which tank can handle Recluse (and the rest of the TF for that mater.) Obviously Stone passed with flying colours against the AV's with abit of help from a healer on Ghost Widow and Recluse.
Dark and Will Power held up pretty well against everything barring Recluse. Even with healers he still splattered them a couple of times. Fire didn't do terribly but died on Black Scorpion and then the Flyer... And then on Recluse.

Invun was a different story. My main toon which is an ubered out Invun/SS pretty much walked though the MoSTF and on Recluse I just hit Dull Pain to absorb the Alpha strike with the healer on standby just in case.... Ghost Widow was more of a problem with her Mag Ridiculous hold but with several Clear Minds and an attentive healer the tank shouldn't have a problem.

Out of all the tanks a good Invun build has just as good a chance as a stone... That's not saying the other types were bad but Invun proved to be the better alternative to a stone.

I've seen every kind of Tank take on Recluse and live to tell about it... the Key is inspiration use and good support.

Now granted, an IO'd out Invuln will fare much better than, say, Shields or Fire with -2 SOs. Basically, you have to be able to absorb/avoid about 5K points of energy damage twice in a row. This is where S/L and energy resist will save your skin if for some reason he bypasses your defense. Which is why, no matter what, i pop 2 Tier3 Orange and Purple inspirations before confronting Recluse, and i pop 1 of each per minute until the red tower is down. After that, any tank should be able to manage his attacks.

Also, use standard evasion procedures. Get into melee, let him hit you (or try), then back off. He'll keep trying to melee you, and while he does that, he won't think to fire off his ranged attacks. The only time i wouldn't suggest this is if you're on an Invuln, OR, if you only support is Dark or Kin. In that case, you want to stand next to a tower (preferably Green) to buff your aura and let your pocket helper have something to target and heal you with.

Thing is, Recluse was meant to be a team encounter. He's SUPPOSED to flatten a Tanker working all by themselves. So don't feel bad that a Fire or Shield tanker doesn't seem as survivable... just get more support. Sonic, FF, Empath, Kin... it'll be a snap.

With heavy IO abuse:
[ Stone <=> WP <=> Inv <=> Shield ] >= [ Electric <=> Dark <=> Ice <=> Fire ]

Without IOs:
[ Stone ] >= [ Invuln ] >= [ WP ] >= [ Shield <=> Ice <=> Electric <=> Fire ] >= [ Dark ]

This is just a measurement of the ease with which it is to make the character survive the encounter. Dark gets hit particularly hard because its key survival features are heavily wrecked in this situation (light/hard mezzes, a heal with a tohit check...yeesh). As you move further to the left, the requirements get lighter to get the same performance.

And do note, everything on there is always "=" to the objects on the right. You can get roughly the same performance out of every set but it can get harder and harder to pull it off. Shield sits in a special position because it can floor Recluse without any outside buffing with a very specialized build and a lot of quirky IO slotting. Without those IOs and build quirks however...it drops quite a bit due to the lack of a specialized secondary option.

My tanker of choice for STF is Invuln/Dark Melee. Never run it on my Stone tanker; got that one to 50 and lost interest.

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Thanks everyone for your comments

Every kind of Tank can be made able to take on Recluse and live to tell about it with practically any team mix, in some really seemingly harsh mixes, the results could be very surprisingly successful if you play to eachothers strengths.

One could be amazed at the amount of stuff that isn't common knowledge so keep experimenting.

I'd have success with all Primaries.

Does LR have an attack that does strictly energy damage...or is it all energy and smashing?

I ask because I'm wondering how a softcapped s/l defense Electric armor tank would do...given that electric armor is capped energy resistant.

My expectation is that an electric armor tank will do well against energy typed attacks because of capped energy resists. I aim to put that to a test when I eventually get my EA/EM tank to 50.

I build all my toons with the expectation of running MoSTFs especially my tankers so its my belief that an EA toon should be capable of handling primary tanking duties. But like others have said, team composition and good players can easily tip the scale so that a win is very likely especially in the department of buffs such as shields from ff, thermal, cold and sonics.

With the Red Tower, at 90% smash/lethal, Energy Smash (uppercut) hits for something like 780 damage. At 70%, he'll hit somewhere around 2400 damage (as a note, Tanks with capped HP have 3212.7--which you're not going to even touch on an Electric by yourself). Channelgun and the rest of his attacks also hit fairly hard.

And it's not that defense means nothing, it's just harder to get equivalent performance (I believe the bonus is +25% ToHit from the Blue Tower).