What goes good with Energy Melee?

Well, I have been wanting to make a Energy Melee Tanker fro a while now.I just dont know what Armor Set to give it.

Every Armor set looks as if it'll compliment Energy Melee in one way or another.I just dont know what one to choose.

As always I aviod taking the same set twice.So the following Armor Sets are out of the question for this build.

Invln/
FA/
Rock/
Elec/
SD/
Ice/

A few Views would be helpful.

You must have the record for being the person with the most new threads started and you haven't even been about long.

I'd probably say all of the above or none of the above. Just pick one that'll look coolest.

Dark Armor would be my vote as well. Much as the same reason that DA synergizes well with Martial Arts. STacking Oppressive Gloom with other stun effects is ALOT of mitigation. The only bad thing is the constant wandering of mobs in your aura.

As far as cool factor goes, I have played a Fire/Energy Tanker to some effect, and it was alot of fun. The graphic effects combined well. But there was no particular synergy, other than FA can use as much "extra" mitigation as it can get, in order to ease the stress on using your heals so much.

Well, as Heraclea mentioned, you've cut out 6 of the 8 existing tanker armor sets, so your only choices left are willpower and dark armor - neither are really what I'd choose to pair with EM, though.

Willpower has some synergy, mostly in the fact that the armorset is entirely passive - no clicks. While I'm not as down on energy melee as some, it does remain true that the long animations on ET and TF can get in the way if your armorset has important clicks. Willpower has no clicks at all apart from SoW and the rez, so it doesn't interfere in that way. However, whatever synergy lies there is completely overshadowed, in my opinion, by the one glaring anti-synergy of aggro. Willpower/energy is probably the single worst tank in the game at holding aggro. With an incredibly weak aggro aura and a near total lack of AoE powers to compensate, you'll have to be spreading around your single target attacks and taunting like a maniac to hold aggro on teams, and even then, it'll be difficult to hold aggro as well as other sets can manage with almost no effort. So for willpower, it's more or less a tradeoff between personal synergy and team-oriented anti-synergy. It'd be a pretty good solo tank I imagine, but certainly not what I'd choose to build for a team.

With three taunt auras, dark, on the other hand, doesn't have the aggro problems. It has other difficulties instead, mostly tied to the animation issue. Namely, an awfully large amount of dark's mitigation is tied up in its insanely strong self-heal - which is exactly the sort of protection that the long animations on your heavy hitters can interfere with. There are some advantages to possible stun stacking with oppressive gloom, but overall I'd rather pair dark armor with something quicker animating. It will be significantly better as a team tanker, and I think the negatives are less significant and easier to deal with than will/EM, but there'll still always be the worry when you hit ET or TF of 'will this get me killed by stopping me from hitting dark regen'?

Ice is decent: I have an Ice/EM I run with on Tanker Tuesdays. The stuns are nice when used with all the stuns and EM, and you have a bit of AOE contributed from your damage aura, too. I think having decent damage auras are a nice contribution to EM, just because they'll help your damage and AOE a bit.

But go for looks and what sounds fun. I'm much more keen on having a good character concept than being OP. I tend to delete or not play characters that don't have a good story and concept going for them.

Running a Ice Armor / Elec Melee Tanker, and just havin' a ball with it.

I have an Eng/Inv Tank and I love her she is freaking awesome... I know you have tried Inv, not sure what you combined it with but just because you used a */ or /* does not mean you will not find another experience when combined with another power set.

I played a Willpower/Energy to level 50 back before the massive nerfs (to both damage, as well as visual style/animation (in that I HATE the new animations)) and at the time I loved it, but now I hate the combo. Simply LOATHE Willpower/Energy Melee now. I definitely don't recommend that at ALL. But, I'm admitting my bias up front.

So, the only choice left would be Dark/Energy. The stacking stuns of Dark Armor's Oppressive Gloom with your Energy attacks would be kinda fun. As others have said, the only bad thing is that the stuns make foes wobble away from you sometimes. Still, I think it would be awesome.

Energy Mastery could go along with your secondary for theme purposes, and it'd be fun too!

Lewis

you ruled out so many. just flip an effin' coin.

what is curious to me is that you went with "these aren't options" and then made a long list rather than "between these two" and just wrote those.

I just realized that those weren't the options. Those were the ones Fire_Minded was skipping.

Hmm, making a stun-oriented tank seems interesting, especially when you add IOs into the picture. I threw some pounding slugfests into every melee attack for the stun proc. Here's what I came up with:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Mutation Tanker
Primary Power Set: Dark Armor
Secondary Power Set: Energy Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(7), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(34), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(34)
Level 1: Barrage -- P'ngS'Fest-Stun%(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(3), P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(3), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Mako-Acc/Dmg(31)
Level 2: Murky Cloud -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(7), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(34), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(37)
Level 4: Bone Smasher -- P'ngS'Fest-Stun%(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(5), P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(5), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(15), Mako-Acc/Dmg(31)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A)
Level 8: Dark Regeneration -- Theft-+End%(A), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(9), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(13), Nictus-%Dam(42)
Level 10: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 12: Obsidian Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(43), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(43), RctvArm-EndRdx(43)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 16: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(17), Numna-Heal/Rchg(17)
Level 18: Cloak of Darkness -- GftotA-Def(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(19), GftotA-Run+(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(40)
Level 22: Whirling Hands -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(23), Erad-Acc/Rchg(25), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(31)
Level 24: Taunt -- Mocking-Rchg(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(46)
Level 26: Oppressive Gloom -- Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(27), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(27), Rope-Acc/Stun(46)
Level 28: Build Up -- AdjTgt-Rchg(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(29), RechRdx-I(29)
Level 30: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(33), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(33), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 35: Energy Transfer -- P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(36), P'ngS'Fest-Stun%(36), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Mako-Acc/Dmg(37)
Level 38: Total Focus -- P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(39), P'ngS'Fest-Stun%(39), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Mako-Acc/Dmg(40)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(45), Numna-Heal/Rchg(45), P'Shift-End%(45), P'Shift-EndMod(46)
Level 47: Death Shroud -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(48), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(48)
Level 49: Cloak of Fear -- N'mare-Acc/Fear(A), N'mare-Acc/EndRdx(50), N'mare-EndRdx/Fear(50), Abys-Acc/EndRdx(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet

Actually, Inv/EM isn't the best possible combo. My thinking being (having played one to 50) that it's kind of annoying to stun all your foes, have them wander away, watch your defense #s drop, and then stuff starts hitting you. But if you can manage that minor issue, the sets actually work pretty well together.

I'd have suggested dark armor anyways, so good thing there. The stacking stuns are very nice, keeping multiple bosses at bay and most lts and all minnions. There is some fun synergy between cloak of darkness and your EM in that you can get invisible but only the glowing hand will show, its very cool looking.

Dark armor is also nicely paired as it gives some more aoe damage through death shroud for EM which its lacking somewhat.

When I was studying under a guru in India, he gave me some advice I'll never forget.

Always...no...Never make a /Energy tanker.

Vanilla ice cream lightly dusted with cayenne pepper.....


Seriously though, I've had heaps of fun with my WP/EM but it's a little off the beaten path since I have selected powers and slotting around the idea of creating a speedster rather than a tank.

I would think that Shield Defense would be a good choice since it will eventually help to shore up your damage numbers.


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