I haven't tried one yet, but I agree with you that a Fiery Aura/Dark Melee Tanker looks like it has some nice potential.
1. Healing Flames + Siphon Life
2. Consume + Dark Consumption
3. Fiery Embrace + Soul Drain
Oh, and you don't have to take Acrobatics if you slot a Steadfast Protection: Knockback Protection IO.
Winteriel Ice/Fire/Soul Tanker | @TBoxer Global | City of Heroes R.I.P. (2004-2012)
Thanks for the reply TBoxer.
The problem I have with the Steadfast Protection Knockback IO is that I have been unable to use Wentworth's for several months now. My computer is the knuckle-dragging neanderthal of pc's. Everytime I try to access the Wentworth's salesman it locks up...and I have to reboot. I've tried deleting all my cookies....manipulating my graphics and frame rate and other settings and nothing seems to help. About one try in ten I can actually make a connection. After all that I just decided it wasn't worth the headache....so my builds operate without IO enhancements.
Regards, Shuckins
Wow, that definitely sounds like a PITA. What server is your Tanker on? If you happen to be on Freedom, I'll give you a KB Protection IO.
Winteriel Ice/Fire/Soul Tanker | @TBoxer Global | City of Heroes R.I.P. (2004-2012)
Thanks for the offer. I am, indeed, on Freedom. The toon is named Darck Fyre. I'm usually on after 4:00 p.m. during the weekdays, and at irregular hours on the weekend. Look me up if you don't mind.
Thanks again,
Regards, Shuckins
Dark/fire is fun but fragile, it plays as a heavy scrapper type but enjoyably.
Just a suggestion.
Create a few scrappers, level them to 4. Level them 4-10 in AE. At 10, bronze roll the resulting tickets. I've done this with 4 toons and have 4 or 5 -KBs, so shouldn't take long. If you store salvage in your base you probably have the necessary to make it.
It's true. This game is NOT rocket surgery. - BillZBubba
Thanks Minotaur....I think I'll try your suggestion. I haven't sold much of my salvage, so maybe I'll get lucky.
Regards,
Shuckins
Thanks to TBoxer for his gift of a Steadfast Protection knockback IO. It's working perfectly.
The build is now at level 16, and I just picked up Health. Rep still at +0 and equivalent to 3 allies. Chewing through mobs quite nicely. I can take one mob with a couple of lieutenants or three in it, hit Healing Flames when my health bar drops by about a third, finish the mob off and hit Healing Flames again, jump into the middle of another mob, hit a lieutenant in the teeth a couple of times to draw aggro and then hit Consume. The action rolls along pretty fast. Consume may not be Quick Recovery, but it helps a low-level fire tank tremendously.
I'm running Tough with an endurance reduction enhancement, one damage resistance enhancement, and the Steadfast Knockback protection enhancement. My attacks consist of the first attack available (What the heck IS its name?), Shadow Maul, and Sands of Mu. Have to jump around a bit to get the full benefit of those last two, but that's part of the fun. Have no trouble tagging at least three to five enemies if they're grouped just right.
This build kills quickly.
If you're free Wednesday night, you should come join the fun. It should be pretty good xp for Darck Fyre.
Winteriel Ice/Fire/Soul Tanker | @TBoxer Global | City of Heroes R.I.P. (2004-2012)
I've been a fan of Dark Melee for some time now, for a number of reasons. While the damage isn't eye-popping dark energy is largely unresisted and this set has the capability of hitting multiple targets at once. Thus it is energy efficient. It also has a small self-heal in Siphon Life which, when fully slotted is of some usefulness to tanker builds whose primary power sets lack a self-heal....such as WP.
However, Dark Melee lacks a strong AoE attack, which means that it pairs best, at least to my mind, with a tanker primary that has a damage aura of some type.
This brings me to the Fire primary, which I've played around with some in the past, and have enjoyed, but have never taken beyond level 20. Why, you ask? Because of it's lack of any real protection against knockback. Sure, I know, I could compensate or it by picking up the leaping pool and getting Acrobatics....but to do so I'd have to take at least one and possibly two powers that I might not want in the build. That's three power picks I'm required to take in order to get ONE type of status protection. I've always found that to be rediculous, especially since every other tanker primary set has it as a selection within the primary powers themselves.
Well, the developers aren't going to change that just to keep ME happy....so I've decided to bite the bullet and just do it.
To get to the point, I was playing around with a Fire/Dual blades build the other night, and enjoying the dynamics of that combination. However, the damage of DB at the lower levels was lackluster at best. So I got to thinking about the possible benefits of combining the Fire Primary with Dark Melee: Fiery Aura for its damage aura, the -accuracy effects of Dark Melee, the energy efficiency of the attacks, the availability of Consume for energy recovery and a small AoE attack, the availability of Siphon Life for an extra heal, Soul Transfer at higher levels....etc.
So I started a new build. It's almost at level 12 now, and is proving to be better than the sum of its parts. Consume helps to keep me rolling, which is especially useful when I'm soloing, Fiery Aura softens up the minions while I'm tackling lieutenants and bosses, and Healing Flames keeps me from having my head handed to me by large groups. My rep is currently set at +0 enemies and +3 allies. The defenses are still a bit soft at this level, and I may go ahead and bite the bullet and pick up Tough at level 14 to run when it is needed.
Anyway, I really like the dynamic synergy of this pairing. Has anyone else tried the Fire/Dark Melee combo and have any suggestions to make?
Thanks in advance for your advice.