Fire is considered to be a good secondary for a stoney. Personally mine was with Battleaxe and I had a ball with that combo. I should mention though I had a kin as a permanent playing partner so he took a lot of the sting out of the downsides to playing a stoney. 
Quote:
Fire's a very nice AoE-rich secondary to take.|
Originally Posted by KillfanB
I love tankers. Almost have every kind too. I don't like dieing.
I heard stone can be good. But what I don't know is what secondary? Fire? Stone? I want to be able to dish out damage and take a lot. So what secondary goes good with Stone Armor? |
You won't do "*WHAM!* HE'S DEAD JIM!" levels of damage. But you'll be something more akin to killing someone with a high speed belt sander.
A flaming belt sander.
Of doom!
Mud Pots (PBAoE)
Combustion (PBAoE, DoT)
Fire Breath (Cone, DoT)
Fire Sword Circle (PBAoE)
And if you take Pyre Mastery.
Fireball (Targeted AoE)
And, since you're pretty much unkillable once you get and slot Granite, you can just stand there and let Mud Pots just kill stuff off for you, interspersing it with your other AoiE attacks when you get bored or have the End to spare.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
What you want... and what Stone Delivers... are diametrically opposed. |
Originally Posted by KillfanB
I love tankers. Almost have every kind too. I don't like dieing.
I heard stone can be good. But what I don't know is what secondary? Fire? Stone? I want to be able to dish out damage and take a lot. So what secondary goes good with Stone Armor? |
Several years back the Stone Armor's Granite Set had a minus-accuracy component, the logic being that as you were encased in a giant rock, your ability to move would be difficult. However, in play, it was found that the accuracy debuff harmed a Stone Tank's ability to hold aggro as they couldn't build off gauntlet.
The debuff was thus changed, for practical reasons, into a damage debuff. Stone Tanks do less damage by carrying a 30% Damage Debuff while in Granite
Now, you can work around the Damage Debuff with various IO sets, but then you'll run into another issue. Granite armor also carries a 65% recharge debuff. With the available IO sets, while you can, in theory, cancel out the 30% damage debuff, you'll still have a massive recharge penalty. If you cancel out the recharge penalty, you'll have to skip most damage buff IO's.
***
Now, there is a different way to view the problem: http://zerias.blogspot.com/2009/08/c...ank-build.html
You can build a stone armor to work outside of granite. Case in point, outside of granite my own stone armor has 35% defense to smash / lethal, 49% to Psionic, 40% to energy / neg energy, and 12 to fire / cold. That in itself isn't really impressive... unless I'm fighting rularuu or rikti, then it's Ha Ha, Can't Touch Me!
However, with rooted on, right now, I'm pushing 46hp... per second. If I punch Earth's Embrace, I cap my hitpoints (3200), and regen... 65hp... per second.
Now, with only 35% defense to smash / lethal, when coupled with a 65hp per second regen rate... that's pretty hard to kill.
***
Now, I went with Mace as I already had an Ice / Mace tank and I was vaguely familiar what sets i could use with Mace to overcome the recharge rate with granite. Canceling out Granite's Recharge Debuff also put me pretty close to having perma-earth's-embrace outside of granite.
***
Which brings me to the big problem with my build. Endurance consumption. The stackable armors of the Stone Armor set have one of the highest endurance consumption amounts in the game. You'll be yanking down 1.8+ endurance per second unslotted. That's more than Ice Armor, and Ice get's an endurance recovery power (Energy Absorption)
But... there is another way..
Dark Melee.
Dark Melee's a bit light on the directed damage. However, with a self-heal, a self-endurance recovery, and a self damage boost... you can make up for some of the faults of the Stone set. Survivability outside of granite would be improved, and you'd be able to dish out mob damage on a regular basis.
I have to agree with J_S. I have a stone/dm at fifty and was comparing it to my inv/dm also 50 (both are *very* sturdy). The stone is build for flat-out survival, tho. I dont care a lick about damage. ~55hp/sec w/o EE and ~77hp/sec with - in granite. Then factor in SL and healself for 345ish and 750ish heals, also with CP, slotted PP from body mastery (yeah, I know thats the scrapper pool forgot the tank epic) and you have a hard to kill tank.
Inv is great, too, esp because the are no damage or rech penalties make the dm tools very good - for taking and giving damage I suggest this. (I also have a wp/stone - I like pairing wp with a knockdown/back set it is great for regen)
Miss Arc #147491: Rise of Bedlam
AKA Iron Smoke @Champion Server
The traditional strong point of Stone/ is that it can sacrifice offense for survival. This makes it a go-to choice for situations where someone needs to take hard hits, but it doesn't offer much benefit solo. If you want a set that is built entirely around keeping you alive, but doesn't require you to give up damage for its highest level of mitigation, consider Invuln or WP.
@SPTrashcan
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Why MA ratings should be changed from stars to "like" or "dislike"
A better algorithm for ordering MA arcs
Super-strength/Stone armor. Rage boosts damage by about 80% if I remember the numbers right, leaving a 50% damage boost after factoring in Granite's damage penalty. Of course there is the rage crash......
Quote:
I quite enjoy my Stone/SS Tanker. He can hold aggro and deal out a fair lick of damage too. Rage does help a lot however, unless you have a lot to throw at recharge bonuses, the -65% recharge debuff from Granite will make sure you can kiss goodbye to perma-rage. |
Originally Posted by Nericus
Super-strength/Stone armor. Rage boosts damage by about 80% if I remember the numbers right, leaving a 50% damage boost after factoring in Granite's damage penalty. Of course there is the rage crash......
|
Of course, you'll be waiting till 38 for any AoE damage but fortunately, the knockdown can give plenty of time to breathe and for your regen to tick over too. And don't forget, the -runspeed of Rooted is another thing that you might find annoying. I tend to do most of my fighting in the regular Stone Armours and I do pretty well. But I tend to think of Granite as my 'high level, big team, huge threat' mode.
Unfortunately, whatever you throw your inf at overcoming - Run Speed, Recharge or Damage, it's pretty hard to counter all of them unless you're absolutely loaded. But then that's the price for being one of the hardest things to kill in game.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
Quote:
My stone tanks and brutes have 90% run bonus, maxed armor, approx 75% global recharge and are super strength. Each has a melee power all slotted with Hecatomb and a damage proc in some other attacks for some extra punch. |
Originally Posted by Dante
I quite enjoy my Stone/SS Tanker. He can hold aggro and deal out a fair lick of damage too. Rage does help a lot however, unless you have a lot to throw at recharge bonuses, the -65% recharge debuff from Granite will make sure you can kiss goodbye to perma-rage.
Of course, you'll be waiting till 38 for any AoE damage but fortunately, the knockdown can give plenty of time to breathe and for your regen to tick over too. And don't forget, the -runspeed of Rooted is another thing that you might find annoying. I tend to do most of my fighting in the regular Stone Armours and I do pretty well. But I tend to think of Granite as my 'high level, big team, huge threat' mode. Unfortunately, whatever you throw your inf at overcoming - Run Speed, Recharge or Damage, it's pretty hard to counter all of them unless you're absolutely loaded. But then that's the price for being one of the hardest things to kill in game. |
Quite delightful........and expensive.
I love tankers. Almost have every kind too. I don't like dieing.
I heard stone can be good. But what I don't know is what secondary? Fire? Stone?
I want to be able to dish out damage and take a lot.
So what secondary goes good with Stone Armor?