Fire Tanks - Are they really bad?

Active Defense only needs at most two recharges enhancements to make it permanent. With a duration of 120s and a recharge of 200s it doesn't take very high level DO's to make it happen. I think it can be done with low level TO's as well, but I don't recall. A soft-capped SD/SS rarely needs OwtS, so the amount of recharge in it shouldn't matter.

That being said, having a Lvl 50 Fire/Fire and a LvL 41 SD/SS tank I find them to be different "flavors of ice cream". Both are good, but really, it all depends on the flavor I'm in the mood for. Both do amazing damage. Fire's lack of defense can bite you in the toosh if you're not careful, same for SD's lack of included self heal. My Fire/Fire is still one of my favorite toons, but the SD/SS ain't so bad either... and my DA/DM or my SA/SM tanks.... er where were we?

Hello New Dark Age.
You seem to be suffering from a failed relationship with the unyielding Fiery Aura. Considering the vehemence in you're thread on the "Suggestions and Idea's" forum about what is wrong with the Fiery Aura and how it "should be changed" I suggest therapy. Long. Expensive Therapy.

Fiery Aura is considered by some to be the "redheaded stepchild" of the Tank/Scrapper/Brute defensive auras and like dating a redhead, Fiery Aura takes more work. Like some redheads Fiery Aura requires more attention then most, and Healing Flames and Consume help give it some of the attention it needs. I'm not sure why you're so down on the steamy drink of Consume as properly slotted 3 "sips" will fill your end bar to contentment.

Burn is another example of the attention this redhead needs. I know that when my redhead gets mad at me I get my "Immobilized" toosh off the couch and get moving, just like the sweet smolder of burn does for Fiery Aura. And I know most folks who are around a redhead when they're angry tend leave the room in fear instead of getting caught up in that storm. Having the area cleared certainly mitigates my damage.

Are you Tough enough to date this one? Fiery armor, like Darkness, does benefit greatly from having Tough as part of the arsenal, but it isn't required material. My Fire/Fire tank cruised to Level 50 without any issues and this was before I knew about proper builds. Adding in Tough and Weave made it stronger, but weren't required for me to get to 50. Some will tell you that Tough and Weave should be part of all tank's arsenals, so how different is Fiery aura from that?

If you want an easy time of it, go "date" a /Regen scrapper. Personally I find it more enjoyable to go out with this Hot Fiery "redheaded" Aura.

Yeah, there are pros and cons to all the Tanker Primaries. You note what those are and you work with them. That's a good thing, too. If they all played the same, what would be the point of having different sets (not to mention noting how much that would neuter much of the fun you can have with CoX).

I do think Burn could use some tweaking, Fiery Embrace should be of more help to all secondaries, and Consume has too long of a recharge for what it does. But those are very minor things to deal with compared to how it plays. It's quite solid when you play and take the pros and cons into account (just like you should with ANY tank set).

Hardly constant.

Unless you are herding vast numbers of mobs so that as you kill off some others come to fill the gaps you are only looking at peak performance of the power for 2-3 seconds per battle. The majority of your battle is probably at 20% boosting, on average. Fiery Embrace is a constant 80% (100% for fire primary) for a good 10 seconds with no reduction in effectiveness of the buff over the time.

Where I think shield pulls ahead is in the tools to leverage the buff (lets face it, Shield Charge is a wonderful power and will take full advantage of the buff killing minions with ease), and the lack of being a click power. With animation time factored in stacking Fiery Embrace and Build-Up causes you to miss some of the buffing. AAO does not have this problem. It is one of the reasons Fire pairs up so well with SS, no need to worry about timing the stacking buffs.

Shield and Elec are probably the biggest reminders that Burn has been overly nerfed. You don't have to worry about immoblizations or anything silly with those, you just use them. I'd rather Castle revamped Burn to work consistently and easily than leave Burn the way it is. It should have been tweaked better back when it received its nerf, and it's still sitting that way.

Fiery Embrace should just work at 20 seconds for everything. Then it'd be a nice option to choose instead of Build-up, or with it. Fiery Aura still has these powers hanging around from the start of the game that need tweaking, while Shields was really designed effectively all around.

But other than that, it really is a good set. I've pretty much given up on the idea of help with Immobilization and KB, even though those weaknesses still don't make sense. I'd love to free up some slots from having -kb IOs, but oh well. And Combat Jumping is useful on just about every tank anyway, so that's not THAT big a deal.

Steamrolling team you say?

SD/Fire better at Steamrolling then a Fire/Fire?

I call Shinanigans!

On a steamrolling team, a Fire/Fire will still win out.Why you ask? Simple, the Burn everyone hates so much does full, and massive damage when a Controller immobs the attacking mob that surrounds the Fire/Fire Tanker.

Hit Burn, and Burn hits a wider radius then people think it does.It hits more then 5 Targets.Burn aslo can out damage SC, as well as has a faster recharge timmer.

We all know that no Steamrolling team is without a Controller that can lock everything down.Well, atleast not the good ones.

I adore my pure Fire Tanker, but I think ill try a SD/** variation of a Tanker, just for some spice.Dout ill like the lack of heal, resistance, and FE, but, worth a shot.

Then he will see how much better and more offensive Shield is than Fire.

Shield/Ice is about 30% faster than a Fire/ice. Shield/Fire is even faster. Fire melee makes a big difference.

Ice Ember

Shield tanks dont have psi defense or resist.

They have positional defense which includes the majority of psi.

Neither my /SR Scrapper or Shield/ Tank have any issues with Psi damage.

Well, it does depend. There are some Psychic attacks that are typed only to psychic, so Shields can get hit by those easier. However, most of them do have a typed component, so it isn't TOO much of an issue. For the Carnies, another bonus is that your high defense helps you dodge their end drain on defeat that can make them annoying.

That's another reason adding defense to Fiery Aura is nice... you get to dodge annoying things like that more.