Have Tank Ideas, But Need Some Help

First, look at my post count and don't leave. I'm not some moron asking for advice on how to build a tank that will never die because I'm tired of squishy level 20 tanks. I don't start a tank unless I commit to it and really want to see it all the way through. I'm also not here to say "How can I make my tank do as much damage as a scrapper?" which I, for some reason, hear a lot. The only toon I have at 50 is a tanker, so it's the one that I know the best out of all the ATs, and the one that I've spent the most time in Mids' with. I'm looking for general advice and specific help rather than general questions about tanking.

Now, onto the matter at hand... I got an idea for a Stamina-less tank, and then doubled the idea. It's an idea to use the fact that using a combo of Fire/Dark and Ice/Dark will both have dual saps. With just SOs, you can sap once a mob as your blue bar falls a little low. It should be relatively easy to keep your endurance from hitting rock bottom, especially with Ice because of the really quick recharge.

Also, with the combinations here, you won't have Health either, so in theory, you might have problems managing the green bar a bit too, so I'm already looking directly at the Medicine pool as a direct replacement in order to pick up a self-heal. This comes in really handy with Fire/DM, because then you'll have Healing Flames, Siphon Life, and Aid Self to just stop your green bar from dropping too low. Even with Ice, they'll rarely hit you because of soft-capped defense, and a serious hit-point buff, so if they do, just top yourself off with an Aid Self, which is also a lot better in the Ice build because if they're missing you, they won't interrupt your heal.

So, it seems like I have it all figured out, eh? Far from that. One: I don't know much about the Ice and Fire primaries, so I don't know what's skippable and what's not. I'm also not sure on slotting in order to get the proper set bonuses. Speaking of set bonuses, I'm not sure what's most important. Regen and Recovery make sense right off the bat, so I'd obviously aim straight for Miracle and Numina's procs, easy enough to achieve with either making money or merits, but recharge is important in order to perma-hoarfrost, get your saps up as often as possible, and get things like healing flames or aid self up more often.

As of now, if I were to roll a new tank, I'd go straight for the Ice/DM because it'd play similarly to my Shield/DM that I've played to 50 and IO'd. My direct problem with Ice is again the same I've faced with Shield... Defense is great until the RNG decides to eff with you. When you've got 15 Cimerorans on you, and 1 of them randomly hits you once, your defense gets debuffed back down under the soft-cap, and with a lack of resistances, you're looking at a swift death. With Fire, you've got a big self-heal, good resistances, and you also get an extra damage boost, which, when stacked with Soul Drain, can put you close to the damage cap. Unfortunately, the complete and utter lack of AoE in dark makes that virtually useless to take down anything in the mobs besides Bosses, which I guess isn't a bad thing, per se.

To sum it all up, I'm looking for advice on build options, slotting priorities, and ways to make it more survivable. The pools I'm looking at directly are Jumping for Combat/Super Jump, Speed for Hasten, Medicine for Aid Self, and fighting for Tough if fire, or Tough and Weave if Ice. Anything you guys can throw out there to help me out is great, but if you happen to have specific builds lying around for me to take a peek at, I'd truly appreciate it. If anyone would like, I can post the two that I just threw together in my spare time without even bothering with sets, just so you can see what I'm aiming for. I thank any and all of you who offer your assistance

I like Ice/Dark combo, myself. You don't have to go outside your set or waste slots on KB or Immob protection. Dark's to-hit debuffs work nicely with softcapped defenses. You get +Perception and Hibernate.

The downsides are a lack of AOE damage and the look of Ice. If you can get past those, you're in good shape. I like the whole Ice set, but some builds skip Permafrost.

Kinetic Combat will be a good single-target melee set for an Ice/Dark. With four pieces, you get +3.75% defense to smashing and lethal. A couple of those and you're well on the way to softcapped S/L.

Eradication is great for AOEs. A mere three pieces gets you +3.13% E/N. Go for the full six and you add on +1.56 F/C, plus a huge HP bump. You even get extra endurance from just a pair. The downside is that it caps at level 30, but you'll be great in most exemp situations.

Pacing of the Turtle in Chilling Embrace can add another +1.56% to E/N, plus global accuracy (the proc can be nasty, too). Tempered Readiness isn't quite as good on the defensive side (+0.94%), but adds global recharge, endurance and recovery.

A full set of Mocking Beratement in Taunt is very nice (+2.5% S/L, +3.13% F/C, +7.5% global recharge).

For Tough (and Permafrost if you go with it) Reactive Armor 4-piece sets are great, granting +1.25% to S/L and E/N. Cap one of those off with a Steadfast Res/Def unique and you've just added 3% more defense across the board.

That's it off the top of my head. I'm sure others will have more info. Good luck with this one, I think you'll like it.

Throw a build down. It's quicker to rehab it. I ain't verbose anyways.

Well, this is sort of what I came up with as far as set bonuses go. The highlights are 51.3% Smash/Lethal, 50% E/N, in order to still keep me alive if a defense debuff gets through. That also puts energy absorption at 60+ percent on both. Also, 34% Endurance recovery added in to make my blue bar hurt just a little bit less if I end up waiting on a recharge from one of my saps. Speaking of recharge, I was able to get 50% before hasten, though it'll take a lot of merits and/or money to get 4 LotG procs, but I know I can handle it. Assuming I can time my Hoarfrost/Hasten correctly, I should have near perma-hoarfrost, which, with accolades, can keep me HP capped for most battles.

The problem is that with tanks, I love taking the fire ancillary pool in order to pick up melt armor and fireball, which are virtually impossible to fit into the build. But anyways, here's what I have. Have at critiquing it

Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Ice Armor
Secondary Power Set: Dark Melee
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Medicine

| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1390;691;1382;HEX;|
|78DA9D93CB52134114867B921943924902C190100810EE101 9C9CECBC2B204158B5|
|4858BACD43884165260A02659E8CE07F0157C10CB27F0AE8F E165AD9602F19CF337|
|16963BA76AFEAFBBE7DCE67477E5D182ABD4932BCA72AFEDF 9AD566DDD6FEEEAC0A|
|9F8DB8DBA8A28A57258A92DE807BAD9D2DE525DD7AE060FF7 83ACF950D17B5A7B0B|
|7EB08B61CF52734707BAD9F64E0689EAFEFE9E77BDB1BDD36 E34B75D992D6BFF802|
|63199AC1D68BD05AB8ADE6AD41B4D9D5E3C68D4BD453F68EF D42A7EABAD83C739AA|
|6686DE9751128B5ED509AB2E1A4CA9900D0CD16259253316E 31BDBC9D3512A2F5F5|
|ED1920557C75A121FFB06705370E6165012F32EE03579854D C2709150505D40AC2C|
|06066FC8CE819D728AB264510B23A68648871ED547D3A8318 AA2D077E4178751388|
|EC0AE010227812CB9264CB0C4B42CFD24D794F9A1549530AA BA578055416E4D309E|
|0E73BC29B4E13D79F5981FEA4107D3E8601A1D9C4261614AD 80B3BBBB7DFE20867F|
|3C080203728982D0846C93C83FA4219B4AEEF2F0C9141D6FC 4056BAF1812AE95731|
|A9BF1F95E41DA0156297E28878164BA771485E0372043ACEC 0A710E71EFC0C7C118|
|C7C051063045EC394BD607A5558911F1C5A05D68075C1EC6D C1DC86E023E51A3635|
|0F23D051945B8AF4A3483F86F463483F86F4E3483F0EAF63F 29A40207B027B34891|
|D9BC4564D62ABCC1ED954EDB4A9763A26A5CCC4011748A0DA A4A08C1DFB4E494A48|
|E294EE4BBC733EB009D405735B92644E0B7E909767BCBC5F5 2FBF943E0083816943|
|BF2437430186FC96BDE9CE4F9AC9C8041FBD495930D5EFE67 A56A9BDB4B2B96ACCC|
|D87F2E7427DA4D77085FFFF779EE9E848BAEF2C95A67A9925 81B3CBAC37297A7F77|
|8E4F36893A52EC7F0857B5270EA02D77591E512CB65960CD5 A79EB26584AF6C9CC5|
|6549B02459522CDD2CBD2C7996672C9DDFDEDAF4D1|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

First of all, I think 50% without EA is overkill. The last 5% of defense won't even be used except in cases of defense debuffs, so you could save infl and/or slots by dialing that back a bit. I'd recommend that you aim for 45-47% S/L/E/NE def without EA and as much F/C def as you can fit in.

Your power order also needs work. Only two attacks before level 16, and neither of them slotted? Ugh, that won't be fun. I'd suggest that you push Boxing, Tough and Weave to the 20s or 30s and take Smite and Shadow Maul early in your build. Icicles would also be a good choice to delay, since it's so end heavy.

Personally, I wouldn't skip the Fitness pool, for a couple of reasons. For one, the Numina and Miracle uniques are wasted in click powers, since you'll only get the benefits for the first 2 minutes after they're clicked. Health would be the perfect place to slot them if you had it. Also, as it is, you won't have any recovery relief until level 26 and EA, which is a long time to wait considering you've got end-hungry powers like Icicles. Aid Self really isn't needed for an Ice tank, IMO, so I think you should consider dropping the Medicine pool and Permafrost to get Stamina.

If you do decide to skip Fitness, note that some of your attacks and toggles are underslotted for end reduction, which will be a problem when relying on click powers to renew your end supply.

Here's the sort of thing I'd do with your build, assuming that you do take Stamina. If you decide not to, just be sure that your attacks in particular are well-slotted for end reduction. I'd recommend at least 40% end reduction for your DM attacks, and at least 60% for Icicles.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Ice Armor
Secondary Power Set: Dark Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Frozen Armor -- GftotA-Def:40(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx:40(3), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(3), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(15)
Level 1: Shadow Punch -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:50(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:50(42), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:50(43), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(45), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(50)
Level 2: Hoarfrost -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:50(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(5), Dct'dW-Heal:50(7), Dct'dW-Rchg:50(7), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(9)
Level 4: Chilling Embrace -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 6: Wet Ice -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 8: Smite -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg:35(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx:35(9), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg:35(11), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(25), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg:30(42), P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg:30(46)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), Ksmt-ToHit+:30(11)
Level 12: Shadow Maul -- Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:50(13), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:50(13), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(15), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(46), Zinger-Dam%:50(50)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 16: Siphon Life -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg:35(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx:35(17), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg:35(17), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(25), Theft-+End%:30(37), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Heal:50(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(19), Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(19), Mrcl-Heal:40(40)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(21), P'Shift-End%:50(42)
Level 22: Glacial Armor -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx:40(A), GftotA-Def:40(23), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(23), LkGmblr-Def:50(43)
Level 24: Super Jump -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 26: Energy Absorption -- GftotA-Def:40(A), GftotA-Def/Rchg:40(27), GftotA-Def/EndRdx:40(27), P'Shift-EndMod:50(34), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(34), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(34)
Level 28: Soul Drain -- Erad-Acc/Rchg:30(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(29), Erad-Dmg/Rchg:30(29), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(33), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(33)
Level 30: Icicles -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg:50(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:50(31), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(31), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(43), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(46)
Level 32: Hibernate -- Heal-I:50(A)
Level 35: Dark Consumption -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(36), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:50(36), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:50(36), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(37), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(37)
Level 38: Midnight Grasp -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:35(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:35(39), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:35(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(40)
Level 41: Boxing -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 44: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:50(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(45), Aegis-ResDam:50(45)
Level 47: Weave -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx:40(A), GftotA-Def:40(48), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(48)
Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 6: Ninja Run
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 7.69% Defense(Smashing)
• 7.69% Defense(Lethal)
• 10.2% Defense(Fire)
• 10.2% Defense(Cold)
• 6.13% Defense(Energy)
• 6.13% Defense(Negative)
• 3% Defense(Psionic)
• 6.75% Defense(Melee)
• 4.56% Defense(Ranged)
• 12.7% Defense(AoE)
• 1.8% Max End
• 4% Enhancement(Heal)
• 37.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 32% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 10% FlySpeed
• 196.8 HP (10.5%) HitPoints
• 10% JumpHeight
• 10% JumpSpeed
• MezResist(Immobilize) 8.8%
• MezResist(Sleep) 3.3%
• MezResist(Stun) 1.65%
• MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%
• 13% (0.22 End/sec) Recovery
• 70% (5.48 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 4.71% Resistance(Fire)
• 2.21% Resistance(Cold)
• 6.25% Resistance(Negative)
• 15% RunSpeed

| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1391;710;1420;HEX;|
|78DA9D934953534110C7E765310B090984105621100C6109507A703958966009269|
|252E4A4864718218221BE17153CF9013CA9A5273F88E527702997AFE17255CB1263|
|77FF07AA2C6FBE4AFEBF999E9E9E9EE999E2CE6C44A907A7951539BB65BB6E79C9A|
|E6D6AC75FB4D7AB1515504A75C1529ED53774CDD5F9F98A2E9F716E6D3B293350D4|
|5B5AE7676D6713CDB6F9DA867674AD91DF6F444ADBDB5BF982B6EBD5DA3A3AE7AA8|
|D9A76DDA8E9AC6F3468282CBDCB75ADD7DAE7EAD54A7ECE761A1BE5A2ED36B4B3DB|
|45C9E4E8FF2A4462D15F35BD2A488DACF2F880046146B52605DFD84FBEA64FAD283|
|6E56CC1D8AA60A222985913BC26770B61FDD60589E02B0045C1A145A02408A608FD|
|EA0DCDF26296F2A625D05B32F98DC90FD3773205908A3F50200CA9605110BE28E85|
|A14E41614079D3C2FE8A4292104B242D853784F467E50BC1613AFE59E2C11D90176|
|05AD770593F7B143D7239953BCA8492C3A2A233F2950CC6C3A86C4E2482CFE57629|
|9762FAF9BBD29B30214A8CD54A0ED8A24D6BE0C2C4821B2F38220F9258C5FE291E4|
|D0F118782AC83D13BCA72C92C62F895276A2B09DA8E858872045F152D8B64A61031|
|F686AB7DC86A6BF1B737AFC0002A5B16E1AEBA69F087ED1AC5E33ABF79387B7D6F7|
|05F82C18FC0ADC9645061B827721B6E1B0FAEB623A0C87C30EE0E27AC17DF28EE02|
|3CD1A30490F64C4B417E233C5F243A8D430AA388C2A0EA38A19942F8340BF69D688|
|B9CF232B52962336B00A540459DC678B0E6BD4AC3BDA23262F99C671CE9EF16939D|
|289A3C031DC7472C89B42E4717E5338D42914620AD77088FCA611DB9A1EC71D03FA|
|7C078F8E7EF4A9C23F9692CFBC5FB25862C9F90E9E743314A7E783D1FFFD5E44F6C|
|3852E854997584A24D632B7AEB25CE3EE756ED9DC5A65A970B7F932B29F70EC38E7|
|7582E524CB299624E5A71EB267809F600B4B8425CAD2CA126389B324587A589EB33|
|4FF0070ABF0A2|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

While we're at this, consider Electric Armor, as well. It also has Heal/Recovery powers to stack with Dark Melee.

Be Well!
Fireheart