Oh I think I can scrap DM. Has good utility but Fear and Tentacles are not AoE crowd control.
Stone Armor is capable of light tanking outside of Granite but you'll certainly want Granite for tough challenges and large teams. Probably about 40% of the time I'm tanking with one of my Stone tanks I'm running Rock Armor/Rooted/Stone Skin instead of Granite. Of course that sometimes leads to my downfall when I TP into a group that was just a little nastier than I'd expected and faceplant before I can swap to Granite
Secondaries for a Stoner... Stone Melee is the classic pairing but I'm not sure it's the ideal choice; it hits hard and has tons of soft control with all the Knockdown but it also has lengthy recharge on the attacks... something that's problematic with the -recharge debuff of Granite.
I've leveled two Stone tanks to 50, one a Stone/Energy Melee and the other Stone/Fire Melee. Based on those experiences let me recommend that you do NOT choose /Energy Melee... it was low damage with limited AOE prior to level 35 before the nerfs but Energy Transfer as a fast activating high damage attack redeemed it somewhat. Now, with the extremely slow animation on BOTH of the heavy hitter attacks it really doesn't have anything to recommend it anymore.
Stone/Fire on the other hand is a great combo; you have massive AOE damage AND very good single target damage at the expense of any control or damage mitigation. Since a mature Stone tank has no need of damage mitigation in the secondary this makes it an ideal pairing. As an added bonus Fire is also fairly light on endurance... much more so than Stone Melee or Energy Melee.
If you were referring to ELECTRIC Melee with EM, and I'm assuming you were since you mentioned AOE specifically, then that should also be a valid choice, similar in performance to Fire Melee. I haven't actually played one but from seeing what it can do as a Scrapper set it ought to be a good choice.
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Thanks for the response. That's what I was thinking. Stone has some neat other defences and I like adapting to specific situations etc.|
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
Stone Armor is capable of light tanking outside of Granite but you'll certainly want Granite for tough challenges and large teams. Probably about 40% of the time I'm tanking with one of my Stone tanks I'm running Rock Armor/Rooted/Stone Skin instead of Granite. Of course that sometimes leads to my downfall when I TP into a group that was just a little nastier than I'd expected and faceplant before I can swap to Granite
Secondaries for a Stoner... Stone Melee is the classic pairing but I'm not sure it's the ideal choice; it hits hard and has tons of soft control with all the Knockdown but it also has lengthy recharge on the attacks... something that's problematic with the -recharge debuff of Granite. I've leveled two Stone tanks to 50, one a Stone/Energy Melee and the other Stone/Fire Melee. Based on those experiences let me recommend that you do NOT choose /Energy Melee... it was low damage with limited AOE prior to level 35 before the nerfs but Energy Transfer as a fast activating high damage attack redeemed it somewhat. Now, with the extremely slow animation on BOTH of the heavy hitter attacks it really doesn't have anything to recommend it anymore. Stone/Fire on the other hand is a great combo; you have massive AOE damage AND very good single target damage at the expense of any control or damage mitigation. Since a mature Stone tank has no need of damage mitigation in the secondary this makes it an ideal pairing. As an added bonus Fire is also fairly light on endurance... much more so than Stone Melee or Energy Melee. If you were referring to ELECTRIC Melee with EM, and I'm assuming you were since you mentioned AOE specifically, then that should also be a valid choice, similar in performance to Fire Melee. I haven't actually played one but from seeing what it can do as a Scrapper set it ought to be a good choice. |
Yup sorry for the confusion I usually say NRG for Energy and EM for Electric Melee. I like EM because it has some sort of crowd control. Not sure about the recharge on the powers but from what I've seen on my stalker it seems okay. Any suggestions ?
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Stone does benefit from relatively quick recharging powers; a cursory glance at /Fire Melee vs /Electric Melee looks to favor Fire with slightly shorter recharge on several key powers. Never having played /Electric I can't really comment on the "feel" of the set; I've a friend who just leveled up an Electric/Shield scrapper that's a highly capable killing machine so it ought to work nicely.|
Originally Posted by Pixels_EU
Thanks for the response. That's what I was thinking. Stone has some neat other defences and I like adapting to specific situations etc.
Yup sorry for the confusion I usually say NRG for Energy and EM for Electric Melee. I like EM because it has some sort of crowd control. Not sure about the recharge on the powers but from what I've seen on my stalker it seems okay. Any suggestions ? |
I know the Stone/Fire combination works very well; even on straight SO enhancements it's up to any challenge the game can throw at you... I ran several STF's with him before I slotted my first IO. (He was rolled up in issue 6 and hit 50 long before IO's entered the game with issue 9)
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I have a stone/dm and I like him very much. The tools are great especially for tough AV and GM. Jump in taunt Soul Drain and you get lots of attention quick.
I would concentrate on what you think is actually fun to play.
Miss Arc #147491: Rise of Bedlam
AKA Iron Smoke @Champion Server
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I don't like Fire so much. So it's either Stone or Elec. Though I'm not sure about it since in Granite I'll get -66% Recharge that means Lightning Rod will take 150~ seconds without Hasten with Hasten it will be prolly ~50 seconds. For Stone Melee I would pick Tremor and/or Fault for AoE crowd control though KB is always a bad thing when you're trying to herd mobs. I don't want to mess up a nice herd :3 So any suggestions ? Think I'm going for Elec unless someone says that it doesn't do well with Stone Armour.
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Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
Stone does benefit from relatively quick recharging powers; a cursory glance at /Fire Melee vs /Electric Melee looks to favor Fire with slightly shorter recharge on several key powers. Never having played /Electric I can't really comment on the "feel" of the set; I've a friend who just leveled up an Electric/Shield scrapper that's a highly capable killing machine so it ought to work nicely.
I know the Stone/Fire combination works very well; even on straight SO enhancements it's up to any challenge the game can throw at you... I ran several STF's with him before I slotted my first IO. (He was rolled up in issue 6 and hit 50 long before IO's entered the game with issue 9) |
Unless you plan on taking on -2 con baddies, the KB modifiers on those stone melee attacks are .67, which knockdown to -1 and above (so not knockBACK). If your thinking more along the lines of "how much can I mitigate for my comrads?" Stone melee is nice, as is ice melee for that.
Miss Arc #147491: Rise of Bedlam
AKA Iron Smoke @Champion Server
I'd second the recommendations for Stone/Fire. Stone/SS tends to be extremely popular too. I'd recommend AoEs unless you want to have the separate Taunt power.
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I hated my Stone until ~34, when I finally had Granite and had it slotted, because I never felt tough at all. With Granite, that changed radically, where I suddenly become really tough but slow as heck, and not at all "versatile".|
Originally Posted by Pixels_EU
If you ask me what type of tank I want to be I'll answer that I want to be tough and versatile. Stone seems to offer good defense and resistance pretty much against anything.
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Until Gift of the Ancients came along, my Stone tank probably got played the least because of just how slow it felt.
With modern IO slotting, it's not very hard to softcap Granite Def and have 70-90% Res against everything except Psi. You can also get enough +movement speed and +recharge to ease the pain of being in Granite. Now I love the toon
I only switch out of Granite when I'm facing Rikti, where Psi abounds and I'm softcapped to that, but my other Defs fall to 35% or below, and I need to rely upon EE
All of that said, I think strongest all-rounder right now is still WP.
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Whichever you choose will do the job. You do seem to have an incorrect idea on Fault & Tremor however... they will NOT knockback even level or above mobs, they're knockDOWN powers. They'll knock a spawn onto their butts, but unless you're facing mobs weak to KB (Clockwork mainly come to mind here) or you're facing -2 mobs you won't have to worry; they won't go flying.|
Originally Posted by Pixels_EU
I don't like Fire so much. So it's either Stone or Elec. Though I'm not sure about it since in Granite I'll get -66% Recharge that means Lightning Rod will take 150~ seconds without Hasten with Hasten it will be prolly ~50 seconds. For Stone Melee I would pick Tremor and/or Fault for AoE crowd control though KB is always a bad thing when you're trying to herd mobs. I don't want to mess up a nice herd :3 So any suggestions ? Think I'm going for Elec unless someone says that it doesn't do well with Stone Armour.
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That being said I'd probably choose /Electric myself over /Stone; mainly because I've already leveled a Stone/Fire... which is a fantastic combination. The only downer I can think of with Elec is that several of the attacks are cones... a Stone tanker is somewhat lacking in mobility to make maximum use of a cone attack. Still, it should make for a competent tanker.
The three Tanker secondaries I've played to 50 are Stone Melee (Inv/Stone), Fire Melee (Stone/Fire) & Energy Melee (Stone/EM)... of those Fire offers the best damage and AOE and Stone offers the best control. EM USED to be... adequate. It never was any better than mediocre; now I'd take any other secondary in preference.
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Something special about the concept of a Granite armor tank ripping the ground apart and tossing a piece of sidewalk. (Hurl) With a little creative slotting you could get rage perma. It would be an expensive build but capped resist (except psi) along with 30+ def.. you got something there for sure.
Hello there !
Thinking about making a stone tank. I have heard that I don't have to necessarly always be in granite to tank. Is that right ?
If it is - I'm thinking about picking SM,EM or DM as my secondary. I only consider DM as a secondary because it has an extra heal but it lacks AoE :/ . SM perfectly fits to my hero theme and EM well it could fit aswell and it has sweet AoE too.
If you ask me what type of tank I want to be I'll answer that I want to be tough and versatile. Stone seems to offer good defense and resistance pretty much against anything.
Thanks in advance for your help guys ! :3