??s from a returning vet

Started a Dark/Energy tanker because I love toggles but hate life.

Couple of questions:

What are my options for plugging the knockback hole? Acrobatics of course... what about hover? Any other ideas?

Is a presence / cloak of fear feartastic experience plausible? How does fear work now? Last I remember feared opponents took one shot at you and then cowered unless you did damage to them. That still the same?

Related question: if you taunt a disoriented mob do they still walk toward you as they used to?

There's a new, and IMO, better option for KB protection now, invention origin enhancements that each give mag 4 KB protection. (The normal tanker KB protection is mag 10, so two or three IOs is recommended.) There are also a lot of new ways you can increase endurance recovery using IOs, which as you can imagine is a big help for DA.

You'll want to read up on IO sets, here's a good place to start:

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Inventio...hancement_Sets

You should also download Mid's Hero Designer, which can be found here:

http://www.cohplanner.com/

Personally, I think you'd be better off not going the Fear route; CoF and the Presence pool would add even more end-hungry toggles, and with EM as your secondary taking advantage of the stacking stuns with Op Gloom is a natural. There are some end game foes that are very resistant to stuns, and CoF is useful for those situations, but I don't think adding the Presence pool is either necessary or particularly helpful.

Stunned mobs don't SS/SJ away the way the did at one time, but otherwise they act the same in terms stumbling away then running back.

Karma or Steadfast IO for KB. Hover won't be too bad if you have the patience.

Fear is the same. They'll attack you if you attack them. I wouldn't bother with presence pool at all myself.

I always thought the disorientated walked anywhere.

Yes, Mace is a much more playable set now, and as a stun focused set works better with Dark Armor than Energy Melee does. Then again, with nine other sets to work with, there's no reason to choose Energy Melee now.

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"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

You have the good advice on the KB hole already.

I did a dark/ tank and went the fear route for many levels, presence and all, just for kicks. Its fun and has a unique feel if you want to do it. There is mitigation there, and it helps. On the other hand, when I finally respec'd away from it to a more 'normal' build approach my survivability went way up.

So, it'll work, and its kinda fun, but you won't feel tank-y enough.

If you are really thinking of going a Fear tank, why not do a Dark / Dark? With the Cloak of Fear running, you can use Touch of Fear to nail Bosses, and have everyone quivering and shaking.

While I have never used my Dark/Dark on a TF (so I can't speak too intelligently there) I have tanked, and feared, some AVs with my 50 Dark/Dark. Nothing quite as nice as watching an AV cower before you.

And yes, your Death Shroud does interfere with the Fear effect, but it always seemed to me (NOTE!! this is my impression and I have no actual numbers to back it up) that when I was running both Cloak of Fear and Death Shroud, that the mobs still attacked less than they did without the Cloak of Fear. I always meant to test it more carefully, but I think its from the cower animation kicking in between any of their attacks.

That said, if you want the Stun tank, Dark / EM isn't bad for stuns alone, running Oppressive Gloom and hitting with the EM attacks. Should work OK. But yes, EM is generally considered sub-par these days... by almost everyone.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a 10-second fear duration period after they are attacked/counter attack? So if your damage aura hits them, they can attack or run, but after that they can't do anything but cower for 10 seconds, even if they are damaged again. (Provided the fear effect is still active.) Is this incorrect?

Oh, and to the /EM stinks thing: Overreaction. It's what it always was: a damage mediating heaving hitting single target set. My main brute is EM/dark, and still works fine. Recent changes have slowed down the set, and made total focus need stacking to stun bosses, but it's still fine. Energy tranfer is now slow as all get out, but it's still good for doing a spike of really high damage in conjunction with buildup. Also, the energy component is still a nice bonus when fighting a lot of armored enemies.

To add to the secondary discussion, Mace also had the cone size changed on shatter, it's now 45 degrees instead of 20, limited to 5 targets. Crowd control can now hit up to 10 targets with it's 180 degree arc. Shatter and Crowd Control were both changed to knockdown instead of knockback, which is just... awesome.

A little more info on -KB IOs:

You can use
Steadfast in powers that take resistance enhancements;
Karma in powers that take defense enhancements; and
Blessing of the Zephyr in powers that take travel and universal travel enhancements.

Karmas and Steadfasts can be gotten for about 10 million off the market or by rolling level 10-15 bronze rolls with tickets from AE. Since the bronze rolls at that level are only worth 60 tickets, you can usually get one after running a couple of AE missions if you just keep rolling.

The Zephyr piece is a gold roll with tickets or merits or 240 merits to buy outright and can go for 100 million or more on the market since it is rarer.

If I were rolling up a Dark Armor tanker I'd probably look to Stone Melee as my first choice for a secondary; /SM has a ton of mitigation in the knockdown of both hammers, Fault & Tremor... and the MAG 4 hold of Seismic to top it all off. Fault's stun is just gravy.

Dark Armor is a set that really benefits from a secondary with strong mitigation; Stone Melee also couples that mitigation with solid damage.