How many Defenders Tank?

Hi there, im curious how many Defenders out there acctually Tank, or do more then mash healing buttons?

Iv found it possible to Tank with all my Defenders, and each one of them deals decent to high damage for a Defender, and not 1 of them have a heal.Well, unless you consider Triage a heal anyhow.

Each one of my Defenders has, or will have anywhere from 4 to 5 AoE/Cone attacks, on top of there ST Blasts, and a boat load of debuffs.

Iv recently learned how to Tank with my Storm/Elec Defender, which I found surprising to say the least.You can hit a Mob with Freezing Rain, then ancor a Snow Storm on a Boss, and jump in, and wack the mob with a Lightning Clap.It stuns the Minions, and drops alot of incomming damage.Then I continue the assault with my AoEs and eat the Endurance of the mob, so if they survive long enough, the mob is powerless, and without Endurance, making it easy on the team as well.

My Cold/Ice with increased Range from jumping back the moment I trigger Sleet, allowing me to easly Alpha a mob, and put them on there butts, so my self, and the entire team can rush in and kill it all.Talk about tanking from a Distance, this Defender can do it rather easly, and dish out the damage, while staying out of the mobs ranged attacks radius.

Iv discovered that with my Sonic/Sonic Also has a hidden way to Tank in its Play.Using Siren's Call as a Alpha, then following up with a AoE Knockback Shock Wave (I think thats the name, I rarly look), that most skip, because they belive it to not be team friendly.It allows you to hit a Mob with Alpha, giving the Team the upper hand to take out the mob while they are down.Yes, the -res on your blasts matter that much to a team while playing this build.It is easier to fudge this Alpha up a bit easier then you can with the previously mentioned 2 Defenders.

Then my Traps/Rad, You can easly Alpha a Mob and tank for a team, simply by using Seeker Drones on a mob before moving in.Anyone whos ever played Traps, should know how powerful these little boogers are.Allowing you to jump in, and set up a Kill Zone for the team that follows you.

Then my Dark/Dark.If any of you have seen a D3, you know exactly what that Defender can do.

Theres soo many Combonations I could play with Defenders, and they can all shine in a team setting, and most of them, in a solo setting as well.

How many of you can step up and Alpha a team without a Tanker leading the way?

Id like future Defender Players to know whats possible with a Defender, so please, dont be shy.Step on up and tell us how you do what you do, and do so well.

Very minor nitpick: tanking usually involves holding aggro for a sustained period of time, not simply taking the alpha. Did you take provoke on your defender to keep the aggro away from the squishies?

It's actually easier to tank on a corruptor due to their access of scorpion shield, which offers a large amount of S/L/E defense. Stacked with IO's, you can get similar survivability to melee defense sets in most situations. I wish defenders got an epic that had defense.

However, you are absolutely right: this game is great at offering us a myriad of playstyles. We don't need some standard group to play the game. You can take enemies completely out of the game with controllers. Two ice defenders could make a blaster 'tank' for the team. This is what is so great about this game. You can team with any combination of ATs and powers and be successful.

Not all my defenders can tank, but my storms and darks can grab the aggro entire groups and not let go through continual debuff or controllerish powers.

While the point about true tanking is well-made, I've fulfilled a general 'tanking' role on my Defenders many times in teams. By this I mean that I've taken over the duty of aggroing new mobs, managing alpha strikes, and keeping the aggro managed and contained once acquired.

Now, I don't maintain the aggro on me in the same way that I do on my Tankers (generally I use a combination of controls and debufs to keep mobs clustered and nerfed into harmlessness), but I nevertheless fulfill a general tanking function in the absence of a true Tanker in that I manage the aggro for the team.

So in answer to the OP, yes.

My FF/Sonic Defender had 38% vs Melee and 45% vs Ranged, AoE and Psi, and could take alpha strikes with the best of them, barring enemies with harsh +To hit buffs or Def Debuffs.
It wasn't traditional tanking, in that I didn't draw aggro from teammates, but made them as invulnerable as me instead. Sometimes teams got it, sometimes they didnt, but I often lead the charge and always survived, even against +5s.

My Kin/Elec Defender couldn't tank, and loved nothing better than a Tanker or Scrapper to take the hits for me.

My Sonic/Energy couldn't tank particularly well, but pretty much any teammate of mine could, so I never needed to.

I made a TA/A duo, and found myself on a squishy team one time. I reasoned that dual Manouvers and Flash Arrow, compounded with Fortitude on both of me would allow me to tank. I was wrong (partly because the Empath didn't keep up the Fort, partly because Freakshow dont keep any To Hit debuffs when they rez), and it was a very humiliating experience in trying to prove how cool Defenders can be.

My Empathy/Energy duo could withstand anything due to insane +Regen, high Def and double Healing Aura, and would often tank when I ran on a team. Once again, all my teammates would be incredibly tough as well.

Storm/Ice and Dark/Rad would both tank reasonably well. I managed to duo groups of level 54 Rikti with them in the RWZ come to think of it, so they were survivable if not really tanking since they split the aggro.

So that's what?

5 who could, 4 who couldn't.

Having said all that, my Tankers Tank better. It's good to think both inside and outside the box.

See above for the standard disclaimer on taking the alpha vs. tanking. That said, of my Defenders... My FF/Dark, Dark/Elec, and Traps/Dark can take alphas with the best of them. My Storm/Elec, Storm/Archery, and Rad/Dark all do pretty decently at it if the spawns aren't too big or mez-filled (especially indoor for the stormies). Only my TA/Archery and Cold/Ice aren't that great at it, and even the TA/Archery can do pretty well on a few mobs in a pinch.

I would imagine that a large proportion of defenders can initiate fights - most of the debuff or control heavy sets can do it, at a minimum. Holding aggro, less so, but if you've got a team of solely blasters/defenders/controllers such that the defender actually has to initiate the fight, you're not likely to actually *need* to manage aggro as everything will be defeated or incapacitated in short order.

For me, personally, my FF/nrg is quite good at taking alphas and initiating combat. With softcapped ranged defense and a goodly amount of S/L resistance on top of that, he's remarkably hardy as long as the enemies don't close to melee. He can also cage a problem foe, or even take the first salvo from within PFF if warranted. His mez protection also means that he won't be shut down by a single lucky shot. Toss in repulsion bomb to knock the whole spawn on their rear as the rest of the team rushes in, and he can initiate fights quite easily.

My dark/psi is also perfectly capable of it, despite only being 30. Hell, he could do it from level 12, simply because fearsome stare really is that amazing. There simply is no alpha when that power is used, even bosses miss more often than not. Toss in any of his other mitigative abilities, and the mobs have no chance.

My storm/dark is ok at it, but not as much so as the rest of them. Freezing rain blunts return fire, but it doesn't completely negate it. To really do that, I have to get in close, immob them, and start pushing them around with hurricane. Teams don't always like that, though. He's not bad at it, but I'd rather let a meleer go in first.

I let my traps tank for me, does that count?

Seekers can eat the alpha better than any player, then poison gas bomb does all the rest of the work Having non IO'd 24%Def and mez protect is also useful

My Trick Arrow/Dark can tank by op standards, but without true mez protection and without taunt in my attacks I think its not useful replacement for the worst tanks.

I guess I could take Provoke and have a lot of breakfrees and still never be as good as the worst tank.

My mistake, I was under the impression that Hitting a mob making them forfit there Alpha was Tanking, atleast on a Defender.

Maybe one of these days ill learn to be politically correct with my terms, especially when a single word can cause a holocost of posts jumping me for it, when its trivial to use a word wrong in the first place.*shrugs*

I reckon you're probably getting some of the negative reaction because your opening post has an accusatory tone to it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fire_Minded Hi there, im curious how many Defenders out there acctually Tank, or do more then mash healing buttons? Iv found it possible to Tank with all my Defenders, and each one of them deals decent to high damage for a Defender, and not 1 of them have a heal.Well, unless you consider Triage a heal anyhow.

I like your main point, that Defenders can be a lot tougher than many people give them credit for. But why do you need to rag on healing here?

Both the bits I've bolded are totally unnecessary and besides the point here, but get the reader's back up because it sounds like you're telling them, or maybe someone else, they're doing something wrong. Take them out and the post reads a lot better.

Defenders can do way more than take alphas or mash healing buttons, so phrasing it like an either/or in your first sentence is going to rub people the wrong way, isn't it?

I only ever ask two questions of defenders no matter there power set combo.

1- Do you have veng?
and
2- Do you have a rez? or should i hold on to my awaken's.

And to be honest no matter the anwser it doesn't stop me from rushing in like a madman at every spawn anyway

I also have a FF/sonic who likes to try his luck at taking the alpha every now and then

I agree that Defenders and Corrupters can do some great things that normally they would not be expected of. They definately do a lot more than heal. I think you didnt quite understand what a tank does. When you have a good Tank on your team they do a lot more than just take the Alpha, the keep the aggro. On smaller teams this may not be as big a deal, but *** teams get bigger and the threats get bigger holding the aggro is just as important as taking the Alpha. Holding aggro lets squishier toons use AoE effects without worrying that five or more baddies dont gank them.

Tanks can be of the most importance in the middle levels where toons dont have their own defenses setup or slotted. They go on to be a godsend whenever you try to fight difficult mobs. Taunt and Guantlet do a great job at what they do, and those powers are difficult to emmulate.

Defenders can't "tank" in the sense of holding all or nearly all of the agro away from the rest of the team, but defenders can absolutely do other things that can make tanking unnecessary.