There's also a Psi Defence temporary power available through Vanguard - 150 Vanguard Merits for 30 minutes charge that provides 15% Psi Defence when activated.
Combined with the -To Hit from Dark melee it will provide some of the Psi protection lacking in your base powers.
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Don't forget electric.
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Too late! I totally forgot about it.
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Truthfully the situations where Psi resistance might be useful are really rare in the game; I haven't ever run across anything that my Inv/Stone Melee tanker can't handle. For the very few missions, and I can only think of maybe 7-8 in the whole blueside game offhand all in the 40's, where psi predominates you can rely on your team, your inspiration tray and Dull Pain.|
Originally Posted by SlewofScorpions
Thank you everyone very much for all of the responses. Very interesting stuff and a lot to consider. In response to the one comment. I have been away from the game for 4-5 years. Played some near the start of the game and then took a break for quite awhile. I am on a new account and just pretty much started over. Thank you for the welcome though!
I went ahead and went with a Dark melee/ Invuln tank. The only thing that bugs me is no psy resistance. Is there any secondary set or any way to add psy resistance at all?? I also might try a willpower tank in the future as I originally had a kinetic melee/ willpower tank and liked the willpower . The kinetic definitely did not work well though with it. So now I am on the Dark Melee/ Invuln! |
A high level Invuln tanker built to the defense soft cap will also possess over 20% defense to ranged/aoe attacks as a byproduct and that applies to all but a tiny portion of psi attacks.
With an Invuln/Dark tanker you'll also have siphon life as an attack with a decent heal attached so you'll have even fewer issues.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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With only a couple of purples in the tray, my inv/ss tank can handle any psi av for as long as it takes for the team to melt her. |
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
Truthfully the situations where Psi resistance might be useful are really rare in the game; I haven't ever run across anything that my Inv/Stone Melee tanker can't handle. For the very few missions, and I can only think of maybe 7-8 in the whole blueside game offhand all in the 40's, where psi predominates you can rely on your team, your inspiration tray and Dull Pain.
A high level Invuln tanker built to the defense soft cap will also possess over 20% defense to ranged/aoe attacks as a byproduct and that applies to all but a tiny portion of psi attacks. With an Invuln/Dark tanker you'll also have siphon life as an attack with a decent heal attached so you'll have even fewer issues. |
pop purple, point and laugh, purple fades, take damage, pop dull pain, point some more, take damage, and by that time most teams have them on the ground.
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I have a good number of 50s a number of which are of the tanker role (im including my brutes in this because i build brutes to tank as well).
Currently i have level 50 tanks as follows:
Invuln/SS
Elec/SS
WP/WM
Currently I have level 50 brutes as follows:
DM/Stone
SS/WP
SS/SR
Ene/Fire
As well as numerous side projects some of them in the high 30s. You ll notice a preference to SS. I dont think its the be all and end all melee set I just personally enjoy it. All of those tank just fine with the exception of the SS SR. That one is a bit touchy to play but if there is a thermal or sonic on the team it becomes amazing.
The DM/Stone brute is far and away the best tank though as far as surviveability. Damage out put is terrible though, even on a brute. Would be nigh unkillable as a tank though the damage would not even be worth mentioning. Warning, leveling this will be painfull even if you choose the brute route. The self heal attack in the DM set is great. Also pairs well with invuln (i have a side project with that build that I quite like) so for a melee set for a defensive based tank/brute I highly recomend it. You sacrafice some aoe damage but you gain alot in surviveabilty due to the to hit debuff all your attacks give out and the self heal you gain.
The Invuln SS tank comes in second and because of its mobility is the better overall tank. (the stoner being tied to the ground, you either have to be good with tp or rely on a kin for mobility, you can IO it for movement but i recomend tp practice i would rather io for other things other than movement.)
After this I recomend the Elec/SS. Any secondary would really do well its the Elec that I think shines on a tank. Alot of people recomend willpower but for whatever reason I prefer elec. Great end management, damage and fully resistance based once you get a feel for the kind of alpha you can take you know exactly what to expect everytime you run in and can pop inspirations accordingly. With hybrids like invuln and willpower there is allways that chance for bad luck with the defence aspect. Its absolutely terrible on my SS SR brute. Ill wade into a ridiculous fight and never get touched. Then run into something relativly easy and get faceplanted because of lucky rolls for the npcs.
Anyway thats my two cents. Sorry for the bad grammar and rambling but I hope you found it informative.
*readies fire extinguisher*
With all the talk about Shield in this thread, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Ice at all. Ice has all the defense Shield does, plus a 'reset combat' power in Hibernate. Ice trades away Shield's damage boosts for crowd control -- which helps survivability even more. An angry mob that attacks slower and with no endurance is a less dangerous mob.
I also don't like Shield because of its click toggle protection. That can lead to situations where a hold slips in, leading you to defeat where any other set would have survived easily.
But when it comes down to it, both Ice and Shield are tricky sets to play well. Invuln and Willpower (and Stone, after level 32) are easy powersets for someone new to tanks to play.
...
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Well, I haven't mentioned Ice simply because I haven't played one to significant level.|
Originally Posted by RemusShepherd
With all the talk about Shield in this thread, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Ice at all. Ice has all the defense Shield does, plus a 'reset combat' power in Hibernate. Ice trades away Shield's damage boosts for crowd control -- which helps survivability even more. An angry mob that attacks slower and with no endurance is a less dangerous mob.
I also don't like Shield because of its click toggle protection. That can lead to situations where a hold slips in, leading you to defeat where any other set would have survived easily. But when it comes down to it, both Ice and Shield are tricky sets to play well. Invuln and Willpower (and Stone, after level 32) are easy powersets for someone new to tanks to play. |
I do know that a couple friends of mine have leveled Ice tanks and found them to be somewhat squishy compared to Shield and certainly compared to Invuln however since I don't know exact builds and I have no personal experience with the set I didn't comment.
I do know that my Shield/Fire tanker at 45 is tougher than my buddie's 50 Ice tanker... I've teamed with him enough to know what his tank can take and what my Shield/Fire can take.
One thing Ice absolutely excels at is aggro control though; Chilling Embrace is incredibly effective at getting aggro instantly with it's 0.5 second tic rate and it holds it very well.
I agree that Shield's clickie mez protection doesn't thrill me; but the upside is that with some recharge you can double stack it increasing your debuff resistance by a substantial amount. The click nature of it is a problem before level 22 but once you get 2+ SO recharge into it it'll be perma.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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Dude... LOL|
Originally Posted by Vicar
(the stoner being tied to the ground, you either have to be good with tp or rely on a kin for mobility
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Anyways, I'm seriously considering rerolling my Inv/SS tanker (he's level 30) as an Inv/DM tanker for added to-hit debuffs. The only thing I'm scared about as far as the DM set is the lack of AoE. It has soul drain, but other than that, it doesn't have too much AoE, which leads me to believe it might have trouble keeping the to-hit debuffs on all the mobs. Is this true, or is keeping those on the mobs easier than I'm thinking?
Neither Soul Drain or Dark Consumption have a -to hit portion, if I recall correctly. For me I tend to shift my single target attacks around, or focus on my hardest hitting opponent, spreading the -to hit portion here and there.
That being said, Inv/DM is still a beast. Siphon Life's heals make Dull Pain less of a need, but still a nice fall back if the fecal material hits the rotary air movement device... 
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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It's probably because of alpha strike damage. If Ice has any weakness it's to the first volley of fire when a combat starts -- before its controls and debuffs can take hold and before Energy Absorption can fire. Shield has a significant advantage in durability against alpha strikes. After you survive the alpha, though, Ice becomes the better defense-based set IMHO.|
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
I do know that a couple friends of mine have leveled Ice tanks and found them to be somewhat squishy compared to Shield and certainly compared to Invuln however since I don't know exact builds and I have no personal experience with the set I didn't comment.
I do know that my Shield/Fire tanker at 45 is tougher than my buddie's 50 Ice tanker... I've teamed with him enough to know what his tank can take and what my Shield/Fire can take. |
Sadly, alpha strikes -- especially ones with defense debuffs -- are extremely common. That diminishes Ice's reputation.
...
New Webcomic -- Genocide Man
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I'd just concentrate on debuffing the -tohit of any bosses or other problem causing mobs in the spawn; the rest probably aren't going to be nearly as significant a threat, especially given that other mobs in melee range are increasing your defense as is.|
Originally Posted by Regulos
Anyways, I'm seriously considering rerolling my Inv/SS tanker (he's level 30) as an Inv/DM tanker for added to-hit debuffs. The only thing I'm scared about as far as the DM set is the lack of AoE. It has soul drain, but other than that, it doesn't have too much AoE, which leads me to believe it might have trouble keeping the to-hit debuffs on all the mobs. Is this true, or is keeping those on the mobs easier than I'm thinking?
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Touch of Fear is your main -tohit tool. It works even if a boss will not be feared by it in one hit; the magnitude is 3 if I am remembering right. The mob does not have to cower before the -tohit takes effect.
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Care to explain this. Im aware you can io for run speed and get decent mobility but in my opinion you sacrafice a great deal to get that run speed. Imo its not worth it when i can simply tp where I need to go or since most teams have a kin not even worry about that.
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Originally Posted by Regulos
Dude... LOL
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*readies fire extinguisher*
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Don't forget electric.
I think electric armor on tanks has...a LOT of potential. A lot. It may eclipse invuln soon. Heck, on anything outside of s/l, it already does, by rather a lot. The ability to ignore endurance drains is nice, and getting nicer quickly. |
Yea, what about Electric Armor?
I know it's a "relatively" new port over to tankers, but from the resistance numbers and buffs that it's recieved, it looks like it'd be one heckuva powerful primary, especially once IO's were taken into account...not to derail this thread...but any experiences here with Elec Armor? Does it just look good on paper for a Tanker?
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It is good in practice as well. You get high S/L/Psi resistance and capped Energy resistance, along with decent resistances to everything else, although Negative Energy resistance is a bit low. Full-spectrum mez coverage, although your KB protection is a little wonky.|
Originally Posted by DarkMaster
Yea, what about Electric Armor?
I know it's a "relatively" new port over to tankers, but from the resistance numbers and buffs that it's recieved, it looks like it'd be one heckuva powerful primary, especially once IO's were taken into account...not to derail this thread...but any experiences here with Elec Armor? Does it just look good on paper for a Tanker? |
The heal also doubles as Conserve Power, and with a massive recharge build can be made permanent to essentialy eliminate endurance woes. As if that were not enough in that department you also get Power Sink, which is both END refill and mitigation, since you can use it to drain most of a spawn's END which will make it hard for them to use their stronger attacks. Coupled with Lightning Field's small drain you can potentially bottom out the entire spawn for the duration of the fight. To best leverage this go Elec/Elec, since you will apply some added drain and -recovery from your attacks.
The fact the set has no native Defense means you will get hit a lot, however you get good protection against the nastier types of debuffs and it's not hard to cap against S/L/E/NE damage if you take Weave and CJ, which will stop a lot of the debuffs from hitting in the first place. It might cost a goodly bit, but it's not difficult to do.
I have an Elec/Elec Tank and am planning an Elec/Dark one, both of which are going to be built to be able to tank tower-buffed Lord Recluse unaided. I also have a Stone/Dark which will be built thusly (yes, I have way too much free time on my hands
). The Elec Armor builds will not be that expensive, either, since I will already have almost all the capped resistances I need. That said, I do have a number of Set IOs stored for since-deleted characters that I will be able to use in these builds, so for someone building 'from scratch' it will cost a bit more.
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It may not be hard, but it certainly is expensive, especially with that previously mentioned perma-conserve power.
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Originally Posted by General_Masters
it's not hard to cap against S/L/E/NE damage
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Originally Posted by Heraclea
Willpower is:
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1- THE most survivable tanker?
Stone-tanker, with Granite, hands-down. THere's no other option for THE most survivable.
The OP didn't ask for the most fun, most adaptable nor the most scrapperish nor the most damaging. He asked for THE most survivable and even though Granite-tankers disgust me, they are the toughest tankers out there.
2- WP being "Not the best choice for a full team main tanker".
Well, of course not, that's a Granite tanker since it is the most survivable tanker out there.
Now, I assume you mean that WP is not good enough for a full team.
I think you are wrong.
If you build a WP tanker and a INV tanker with roughly the equivalent amount of INF and Accolades and stuff, then WP is more survivable than the INV tanker, and it is more adaptable and less holes in its protection.
The supposed hole with WP - the theoretical weaker aggro aura - in practice doesn't make any real difference in actual gameplay.
There are set bonuses that can give you psi protection (but not enough to be worthwhile without weakening the other aspects of your build). The Elusive Mind accolade power gives you 60 seconds of basic protection, but it's on a 25-minute recharge. Other than that, your best bet for dealing with psi is teammate buffs: Maneuvers, Dispersion Bubble, Regeneration Aura, and so on.