Dual blades for a tanker?

1) How is DB for tanks?
2) How does the empower combo work? Does it add more +acc and +dam than blinding feint alone?
3) Does DB feel powerful against mobs at high levels considering the high resists to lethal and tanks low damage modifier?

Any advice would be great, thanks.

1) Fun. Excellent AoE damage, and good single target damage. I play an Inv/DB tanker and love it.

2) Yes, the combo adds more than BF alone, but not a lot more. The high-end damage chains for DB generally use BF but not Empower. I stopped using the combo once I had enough attacks for a decent attack chain.

3) I'm just getting into the high levels with my tanker, but so far the set is performing quite well. Yes, enemies with high lethal resists will be a pain, but there are other groups, like Carnies, that are weak to lethal. By the end game tankers are doing decent damage, not scrapper/blaster damage, but good nonetheless. With DB's impressive AoE capabilities, mowing through 8-man maps shouldn't be a problem. Just don't go fighting tons of robots or Rikti and you should be fine.

Overall, I really enjoy the set. It doesn't have the traditional 'SMASH' feeling of other tanker secondaries which throws some people off. For some good info on Dual Blades, I'd recommend perusing the scrapper forums, since the scrapper and tanker versions are largely the same, and there has been much more evaluation of the set on their forum than ours.

Hope that helps.

1) I've got a lv 50 ice/DB and shes quite fun, works quite well.

2) As the other poster said, yes it gives more then just BF alone. However I personally stopped using it as I got high enough level for other combos to become available that used some of empowers steps. By time I had the whole secondary slotted my attack chain was essentially BF->sweep combo->BF->Attack Vitals combo on repeat. Against single targets I will sometimes still use empower, but when AoEing I prefer to use the other combos.

3) Yes you will notice lethal resistant enemies, but honestly the set hits hard enough that even when fighting robots it's not all that bad. And against anything that isn't lethal resistant, you'll mow through them pretty fast.

A quick note on the damage. The damage feels a bit lower then it actually is if you look at the numbers floating up a lot. At least for me, seeing 5 20s float up doesn't feel as powerful as seeing a 100 even if they are numerically equal. DB has lots of (very quick) DoTs making up it's attacks, while the individual numbers may not be huge I've found they add up to be a good total damage.

As an added bonus, while it may not be top tier DB adds a decent amount of mitigation through KD once you get up in levels. Although you may come to hate that fact if you fight green conning enemies or psychic clockwork

What primary would you suggest? I was thinking WP for a concept of mine, but do those of you with experience as a /DB Tanker think a damage aura from another Primary is worth it?

I've been really enjoying my Elec/DB Tanker. It's only level 30, but it's definitely been fun.

1. Hell Yeah!! Very fun...oh, I forgot about the combos that bug me.
2. I forgot the question. Had something to do with numbers you can look up.
3. I see no reason not to think so.

Wth DB you have the choice of a) take all the powers for the combos or b) take the combos you are going to use. I have a 50 DB stalker, and a baby Ice/DB. For the stalkers I only use 2 or 3 combos per build. A ST build with Attack Vitals and Power Up, and a AOE with sweep and weaken (and PU of course)
For my tank he will be getting Weaken and Sweep. The idea of a 8ft foot stomp, AFTER a cone KD makes me smile, and a PBAoE that debuffs tohit rolls greater than Dark melee makes me giggle (Hint: HOs are cool)

enjoy your new tanker!

Good to see there are some DB tanks out there! I made a newbie Fire/DB.. I've played DB to 50 with a Scrapper and a Stalker, so I know the set fairly well.. and the idea of Sweep+Burn seems really sweet. I'm thinking I may just go with the Weaken and Sweep combo.. maybe Attack Vitals if I can squeeze it in...

I have a WP/DB at 50, and he was quite fun to play. It is technically a tighter build, but I still fitted in all of DB's attacks, Tough, Weave, and Aid Self, so it's possible and fun.

As with many Tanks, it works quite well, but you notice whenever you get another attack. I think 28, 35, and 38 had noticeable steps up in performance (firing off the AV combo alone is great... tons of orange numbers ticking off, adding to your other attacks that are firing off). Once you get all the AOEs, you're really a monster... you pretty much want to be taking on big mobs all the time, as it feels like a waste to fire off all that AOE on just a couple mobs.

Other people made the good point that DB is a lot of smaller numbers adding up quite well. If I switched to my Macer, he seemed like he was doing more damage just because the orange numbers were bigger. But then you remember that DB puts up a ton of small numbers, and is actually on par with it. If you want your Tanker to be a big "SMASH!" type, DB probably isn't for you, but it performs quite well just going by the numbers and play experience.

What are the recommended combos out of curiosity, and which are the least useful in general?

Well, there's only 4 combos. Weaken, Empower, Sweep, and Attack Vitals.

Weaken and Empower are the low-level combos. Attack Vitals and Sweep are the two that open up last.

Empower is like a little baby version of Blinding Feint. It's okay at low levels.

Weaken at least affects a crowd, which is nice; its effects will stack with your existing defense, which may be somewhat more useful to a defense-based character not yet at the soft cap. Otherwise (if you don't have defense or -to hit to stack with it) it's not very strong.

Attack Vitals is the mainstay combo most people use -- it's like a regular attack chain (add in Blinding Feint before you start!) but with bonus damage on top of the already good attack damage. Definitely use this combo all the time for chewing through enemies. The opening power debuffs defense, which is sometimes handy, since you want the rest of the powers to hit. The middle power does knockdown, although only to one target, but that can be handy on runners just starting to run. AV has some area ability with the finishing power, which is a cone. Note that the first and last powers in this combo are nice and fast. It can be tricky to line up the finishing cone without hesitating too long and letting the combo expire, so be decisive, and don't fret if you miss a guy or two.

Sweep has two area powers, and the first one knocks down, and the combo bonus knocks down again at the end, so you'll put lots of guys on their butts twice with the combo. Sweep is also the most beautiful combo IMHO, with flashy moves all around.

Some people prefer to concentrate solely on the AV combo for the bonus damage; I like the two area powers in the Sweep combo, they give you a lot of AoE potential (one in AV, 2 in Sweep) so I like keeping both combos. I find it takes too many powers to have all 4 combos, so my current DB character has 2 builds, a low-level build with the first 2 combos and a high-level build with the second two.

A source of endless confusion is that the power Sweeping Strike is in the AV combo...NOT the Sweep combo. Heh.

Blinding Feint is a small Build-Up, in itself, and Empower adds more Build-Up on top.

Because a Tanker cannot skip Nimble Slash, you may as well go all the way - there are no other attacks you can skip.

Be Well!
Fireheart

On my Inv/DB tanker I took all the attacks, except for Power Slice. When I run solo, a have a tray for Blinding Feint and the AV combo, and One Thousand Cuts. When I'm teamed, and generally surrounded by a lot of enemies, I have another tray that is Blinding Feint and all of the AoE attacks. Enemies go down pretty quick in teams, and I've found combos to be too much hassle for myself to be bothered with in those situations. It also keeps me from needing one solo build and one teaming build. It works out fairly well for me.