Most likely Dark, considering it's nothing but toggles and clicks. Basically, the less auto powers it has the better, and Dark's probably your best bet.
If you were willing to get all of the toggles, stone armor might be your best choice. Most of the toggles will do some layering over your costume so you'll see plenty of colors. Minerals will show a few bits floating around your head, so it doesn't layer like the others, and stone skin doesn't have any visible effect. Mud pots is also tintable, so that might add to your concept.
Once you do get to Granite all bets are off as Granite currently isn't customizable. Although BAB's has asked questions about making it so we can customize, we've heard no definitive word on if and or when this might happen.
Power wise, ELM, Fire and Dark all have some level of customization available. I'd spend a bit of time in the character creator seeing which one works best for your idea.
Throwing darts at the board to see if something sticks.....
Come show your resolve and fight my brute!
Tanks: Gauntlet, the streak breaker and you!
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
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Dark Armor really does have a lot of toggles, and you'll be running five or six of them at any time (your three basic resist toggles including mez resist, plus damage aura, plus mezzing aura of choice, plus possibly Cloak of Darkness if you are stacking defenses in your build). Your character will basically be constantly rolling in colors. You probably want to select the "No Fade or Pulse" option in the color customization, though--that'll keep Cloak of Darkness into turning your character into a fluffball where you can't see their costume (on the other hand, if you want to be a Fluffy, you can just use regular Color Tintable).
As for melee set, it really depends on your tastes. Dark Melee has decent synergy (fear stacking, endurance recovery, and such) and matching visuals with Dark Armor and will transfer the power colors onto the enemy because of its debuffs. Stone Melee can be colorful and allows for marvelous stun stacking but is endurance hungry. Energy Melee is pretty and stunning but tends to have long animations which can mean reacting too slowly to hit your heal. Electrical Melee is very flashy (colorful lightning flying EVERYWHERE) and AoE-machine, though all the AoEs can use a fair bit of endurance. Fiery Melee is superb damage but offers zero mitigation (though with the right build you apparently don't really need it that much). Any of those will likely work though you might have to work around their individual caveats.
Personally, I love my Dark/Stone, but I do have to be careful about her blue bar. I have sort of a green/purple blend that looks pretty good, and I'm sure you could do a lot more in terms of colors. Heh, now I just might have to experiment with a slot just to see how much I can get in terms of colorfulness. Just out of curiosity.
Really, it's up to you. Dark and Stone Armor hands down have the most potential colorfulness, and you aren't shooting yourself in the arm by running most of Dark's toggles the way you would be if you were running Stone's other toggles rather than Granite. For the melee set, though, there're several pretty valid options. You can probably get away with just picking the one whose visuals you prefer. Try playing with them in the costume editor and see what you prefer?
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I'd consider Dark/Energy Melee. I know for a fact that Dark can make some interesting color effects; I have a Dark tanker whose armors are all colored bright pink and orange. Energy Melee is probably the brightest attack set. And there is some synergy between the two if you want to concentrate on stun. |
Originally Posted by seebs
Okay, I bet this one's new.
So far as I can tell, just about any tanker build can be viable. So what I want to know is: What build will let me spam the most brightly-colored effects? |
Fire and Electric are also worth a try as primaries. For secondaries your options are somewhat more limited, although Dark and Stone are options.
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Stone's colors often show up in ways that don't work with the costume, so it looks like dark is a big contender. Fire or elec might fit better thematically, and also have a fair amount of colorable shiny. I slightly dislike fire and stone melee for the conjured-weapon aspects -- I'd rather either have a weapon or not rather than having one appear and disappear. So I think elec, energy and dark are the big contenders there.
Dark/dark certainly has a fair bit of synergy, as does elec/elec. Both have tons of options for ludicrous brightness.
If you can wait for GR to come out, maybe a Willpower/Kinetic Melee might work, just color all of the toggles differently, and all of the melee attacks differently, and it should be one heck of a rainbow.
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~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus
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Might make sense. I'd sorta glossed over WP because it didn't have very many colorable effects, but maybe I should revisit it.
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Originally Posted by Aett_Thorn
If you can wait for GR to come out, maybe a Willpower/Kinetic Melee might work, just color all of the toggles differently, and all of the melee attacks differently, and it should be one heck of a rainbow.
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Didn't people used to call invulnerability some sort of disco inspired powerset? I bet that could be colorful.
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don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
I refused to use Invuln for years due to the 'Rainbow Bright' color scheme it's toggles all use.
Now that we can alter or turn off the sparkly I've rolled a few up.
Pre Issue 16 I would've said Ivuln/Fire
Now I'd say.... Ivuln/Fire
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Capt. Biohazrd - PCSAR
Talsor Tech - Talsorian Guard
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I may go have a look at that. I did a dark/dark, and he's level 5, but I'll probably reroll because I made a poor color choice or two. Plays okay, runs out of blue really easily though. I'll review the invulnerability stuff; I seem to recall people saying invulnerability wasn't awesome, but honestly, everything in this game seems to be at least livable.
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Slot end reduc in the attacks.
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Originally Posted by seebs
Plays okay, runs out of blue really easily though.
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Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
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Not as relevant at level 4 as it might be at 22. |
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Slot end reduc in the attacks.
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I will at least look at invuln, but apart from that, I was liking dark/dark. I could run up to a crowd of minions a level below me and just leave the toon there while doing something else, and I'd end up with money and xp.
If your only reason for rerolling the Dark is one or two color choices your not happy with don't.
Just go to the tailor and change it. Even at level 5 you should be able to access the tailor inside the RWZ building in Atlas.
Granted, I've got so many free costume tokens I stopped thinking about costs years ago so might not be an option if the changes are expensive.
Maestro Mavius - Infinity
Capt. Biohazrd - PCSAR
Talsor Tech - Talsorian Guard
Keep Calm & Chive On!
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The what?|
Originally Posted by MaestroMavius
If your only reason for rerolling the Dark is one or two color choices your not happy with don't.
Just go to the tailor and change it. Even at level 5 you should be able to access the tailor inside the RWZ building in Atlas. |
I thought you couldn't tailor until 20.
Anyway, I will consider that -- if I look at the others and they aren't astoundingly better, dark/dark works thematically for the character, although in his case it's actually "light manipulation".
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Originally Posted by seebs
Not as relevant at level 4 as it might be at 22.
I will at least look at invuln, but apart from that, I was liking dark/dark. I could run up to a crowd of minions a level below me and just leave the toon there while doing something else, and I'd end up with money and xp. |
Dark/Dark is a fun combination. I really enjoy playing my lvl 50 Dark/Dark tank.
If I get a chance to move my Inv/Dark over to the test server I'll see how it plays with different color choices on the individual powers.
Throwing darts at the board to see if something sticks.....
Come show your resolve and fight my brute!
Tanks: Gauntlet, the streak breaker and you!
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
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You don't get your second cosume slot until 20, but you can tailor from level 1. It'll just apply to your only costume. And it can be a little hard to get a level 1 to an Icon store without eating some pavement.
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Originally Posted by seebs
The what?
I thought you couldn't tailor until 20. Anyway, I will consider that -- if I look at the others and they aren't astoundingly better, dark/dark works thematically for the character, although in his case it's actually "light manipulation". |
You can get a second slot right of the bat by turning in the Halloween salvage.
You may want to consider toning down your primary auras on whatever power set you use as spamming lots of colors there might end up making the colors muddled, or toned differently then you'd expected.
Throwing darts at the board to see if something sticks.....
Come show your resolve and fight my brute!
Tanks: Gauntlet, the streak breaker and you!
Quote:
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
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I was totally sure that I went to Icon before 20 and they wouldn't let me tailor. Maybe I talked to the wrong person -- I mighta talked to Serge rather than a tailor.
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Originally Posted by AnElfCalledMack
You don't get your second cosume slot until 20, but you can tailor from level 1. It'll just apply to your only costume. And it can be a little hard to get a level 1 to an Icon store without eating some pavement.
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BTW, the huuuuge splash of the AoE minor damage effect is a big win for my purposes, because it makes the character even more obnoxiously bright. (His name is Captain Chroma, and he's in about the most highly-saturated rainbow power armor I was able to rarange in the game.)
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Not anymore u can get to the ICON person in RWZ at lvl 1. Now as far as the color thing I like FIRE/FIRE. My lvl 50 FIRE/FIRE tank can be colorful if I wanted to. As far as the end issue any new toon will have end issue till you can get higher lvl. Inv tanks do not have that many toggles, nor dose WP. I would go for either Fire or like said already Dark primary secondary that u want AoE I would go for either Fire, or Dark.
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Originally Posted by AnElfCalledMack
You don't get your second cosume slot until 20, but you can tailor from level 1. It'll just apply to your only costume. And it can be a little hard to get a level 1 to an Icon store without eating some pavement.
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Okay, I am basically happy with dark/dark, but... totally stumped on how to build an effective tanker. In particular, I can't tell which powers I really need and which just sound good on paper.
I found a couple of builds that looked interesting in this thread:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=142296
Grey Squirrel posted:
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This is an interesting build. What leaps out at me is that it omits dark embrace (which I would have thought was nigh-mandatory), and has two travel powers (fly and super jump), which I assume is there so they can carry multiple knockback protections. It ends up with a total of -16 knockback protection, which seems like quite a lot. It also has no Stamina, which surprises me in a dark/dark build, since the set seems to run out of blue quite quickly.| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1402;705;1410;HEX;| |78DAA593494F535114C7CFEB60695F472A2D534B2943A9C502AE1C16C6082626346| |994B850A079E2A5AD94525F6B223B3F802BC795D185F3173004FD22EACEF1133884| |A19EE182EC7D49FFBF7BDF3DE7FF4ECF3BAF706BDA0F70FB3418FEB335ABD92CCD5| |9F51565BB0B56B9BA142C58AAD6AAD856AA6857579507007AE4BC34AD9655BDA9F2| |D396BD523A63AFAED9717D525035A5EFF33272BE5E51B6AAB7F27B0B5F716DAD96B| |FD850EA5A8097E7AAE54AAB5A2F9BB2ABD1D6CFEB596535F0203AD3A82EE567EACA| |2EAF970A56B3A5ECF56EAC268BBFB75ED057DB0DDB0E8004B87618877619BE2DC41| |41C6E3352E024FC3C98B50C14D7514664C05F11AC00C525ABBC1BBACEF8855986CE| |322E23D2E0B8229867B816181D8B1CEE2B317E6396536739B7FF95360541292DBCC| |3E897D29252681ADBEDE687B5C19DE36236D1C863186CE40938C9281C6474860461| |466F44D0C930D048FE6D1BBC735CDF3BDC9BE2ED3093EC3D283822F0624E4007043| |E4AAD1FA48D9F187FD021A44D43529D893911B9654424382BC1313C896AB7A89C24| |C5745002E218D025A98E2E098849404C02DEE3E3E2E2E08E7FE616767F117C65A4B| |E09BE33323F185B98D5A3B37A3CDCDCFE0E46D62BF031C64D819FE1C462FA74E3FB| |8E710BB7BDDC48364A34A45F3718433663B829DD6B096E325C68342046C680F4755| |8B0837E6979918E748EA76F489A389C62EC62C0881E991119B45119B45119B45199| |B08CCC5B4606ED09163BA65FCA98F83DC55B39DD82DC33EEE5F84BC6D1E782D7825| |78C89178C370180BCCECADF7590F7C43DC17DC6D403C143C123CEDAC0A22775E326| |E96D25A0DFB5FF9901C8ECCD1EBC35C845165DFB9F1518527796A2C4EBBFAE0DFFD| |ED3BC177CA8732445924B24F3240B248B2416C955922592F6E67E76E838157482E4| |24C929923B14E431514C123F498024481222099344496224BD248F49DA7F019CB8F| |BC5| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
On the other hand, I don't really know that much about it.
So, any hints/tips? I'm currently just running around picking up whatever, so I have death shroud, dark embrace, and the first three attacks from Dark Melee, and it's at least livable for near-level stuff.
I know you pretty much made up your mind but I had a dm/elec brute once upon a time and power surge+ soul drain even on default colors is so bright it physically hurts to look at the screen.
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I'd never skip Dark Embrace. I would put off death shroud until about stamina. Get Dark Regen as soon as you can and slot in this priority order: Endurance, Accuracy, Recharge, Endurance (again). The best IO for this power is Theft of Essence: Chance for +end. You shouldn't need more than 12 points of KB protection. The only KB attacks over 12 are something on the order of 20+. If you want a build for reference, you can check my DA/Fire build.|
Originally Posted by seebs
So, any hints/tips? I'm currently just running around picking up whatever, so I have death shroud, dark embrace, and the first three attacks from Dark Melee, and it's at least livable for near-level stuff.
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Dark/Dark might be able to get away without stamina after it gets the endurance recovery tool. Otherwise it'll be rough.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
I've been loving death shroud. DM has sort of mediocre AoE (it's rare indeed for Shadow Maul to hit more than two targets for me), and in terms of DPE, death shroud utterly stomps any of my other powers when I'm fighting mobs. It does have a pretty noticeable cost, but the return is that I use fewer of my DM attacks to kill stuff.
Anyway, I was thinking that both stamina and dark embrace seemed pretty mandatory, which made me surprised to find a build that didn't have either.
Okay, I bet this one's new.
So far as I can tell, just about any tanker build can be viable. So what I want to know is: What build will let me spam the most brightly-colored effects? I will be customizing power displays, and I want to be able to have as many different colorable effects going on during fights as possible. I'm pretty sure just about everything allows decent survivability. Just about everything has decent damage output. So, while I'm certainly interested in things that give me better options there, the big thing is that I want to have a ton of flashy powers.
So ice armor, for instance, is right out -- it restricts color choices severely. Shield defense isn't customizable, so it's out. My guess is that my options will be dark, electric, or fiery armor. I can rule out ice melee, war mace, dual blades, and battle axe as secondaries.
Obviously, ways to do this without really sucking are a plus.