Tanker Discussion

Hello Tankers of all servers! I would like to start a tanker opinions thread to get a glimpse of different play styles. So if any tankers want to post what build they enjoy running with and why, go ahead here. I want to see what you guys have to say about different builds and what they have to offer so even if you are not a tanker expert, please share your experiences.

Tankers are just taunt bots for me. I play one of my Scrappers when I want to do DPS.

I'm not saying you can't set a Tanker up to farm, or do some decent damage, but a Scrapper will farm faster. A Scrapper can survive almost as well as a Tanker with the right setup and IO sets, in most situations. Shield Scrappers, if played right, can hold aggro for a team as effectively as a Tanker.

I really only play my Tanker when I need extreme survivability. My Tanker is Dark with soft-capped defenses, by the way.

Gotta say I more or less agree with Syntax. If the team is actually well set up a tanker becomes much less useful than pretty much any other AT. The difference in survivability just doesn't have a big enough effect on the way an efficient team plays. Gauntlet was a step in the right direction though. Maybe it'll be different with the incarnate content, but I haven't gotten a chance to try any of it, unfortunately.

The bright spot, though, is most teams are not well set up, so there are lots of times being a tanker is great fun as you save people from themselves.

As for strats, if I'm using a single target set like EM or KM I hit a boss 3 or 4 times, then hit another boss 3 or 4 times, and use taunt on any minions that aren't in my taunt aura.

With a strong AoE tanker I generally spam the AoEs and almost never use taunt except against AVs and bosses.

I think that in so far as team play style goes, it all boils down to one question. How much tanking do these guys need?

This is something that teams will differ on. Is this a master run of some kind? Do I mind if one of the scrappers gets in over their head? We have three controllers / three defenders / three blasters: this makes a difference. Are we fighting stuff that my defensive set does not work well on? Malta? Devouring Earth? Rogue Vanguards?

If your team needs tanking, you set the pace, and you set a cautious pace. You con mobs and look for hidden mobs. You pull and you corner pull. You expect buffs. You are ready to die.

If your team does not need tanking, you hang back with the low hit point people and make sure nothing annoys them, and then go DPS as you are able. This too is a worthwhile job, even if you aren't leading the charge.

<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison

well i have probably two of most exspensive builds in the game i would imagine on my main which was also my first toon ever made. a fire/fire tank since dec 04

my first build is my farm build. purples and pvp i.o's and every awesome uniunqes you can think of.total solo build.(all built for recharge,acc and recovery.)

my 2nd build is a defensive build i made where ive got 43% melee defense and 41% s/l defense. he might not be soft capped but hes a beast!. hes my taunt team tank and hami tank.


whats funny is friday i was so bored.i went over to boomtown for a tip mish and thought about babbage.went over and found him..using just my rwz heavy and a snowbeast..i was able to solo him using my farm build and you might ask yourself why would you do it?..cause ive heard we couldnt.thats why!



i was so happy i actually went over to d.a. and found adamaster and solod him as well.using this time just a rwz heavy.yes i know using a pet isnt soloing a gm for some. but even with..it wasnt easy!




so when people say tanks just dont have it.i just dont believe it.

I'm no Tanker expert, but have really enjoyed playing characters where I don't watch their helath bars.

I really enjoyed my Fire/SS, my first tank. I picked this combo with an eye to rage-fuelled Blazing Aura, and it worked a treat. Good AoE and good Burst damage in KO Blow, better than many of my Blasters in fact in that I could one shot a minion with it. (I needed snipes to do that on Blasters, usually with a pre-buff too). I stopped a few levels short of Footstomp, so never got to feel the full power.

My one 50 has been Dark/Energy Melee. Stacking stuns makes me a melee Controller, often having a couple of bosses staggering around me. The immunity to Psi damage and End Drain is great in the late game. My main weakness, energy damage, was shored up with set bonuses for E/NE defence. The damage aura helps out with Energy Melee's rubbish AoE damage.

Willpower/SS was less spectacular. I felt the lack of damage aura quite strongly. Once again, never quite reached Footstomp, which would boost my play experience heaps, I'm sure.

My current Tanker is Kinetic/Invulnerability. I really felt the age of Invulnerability fighting +4 Maltas the other day - little or no End drain protection and the Zeus Titans fire patches were eating me alive. Against less exotic enemies though I can fall asleep at the keyboard. Its not a great combo that I'd recommend to anyone else, just fitted my concept. I like the range of Repulsion torrent (I'm good with KB) and I'm looking forwards to Focussed Burst though. Power Siphon is just an oddity.

All of them had Tough, by the way, and benefitted greatly from it.

I like the feel of a tanker, I like to jump into a bunch of mobs on either of my level 50 Ice Tankers, watch that cloud of snow from CE debuff them. I tend to want to be up front, pounding on lots of things at once all the time.

For comparasion, my other 2 50's, BS/Regen scrapper and Rad/Sonic defender, I ended up taking out all their IO sets because I couldn't justify sinking billion or two inf into each one to make them playable for me, BS/Regen was just weak without any real defences, it made a lovely concept toon but that was about it, Rad/Sonic just feels slow in anything except a superteam, its all great sleeping everyone and killing one target a time, but not quite for me.

Everything I can do on my scrapper, I do for longer, easier, and safer on my tankers. Why worry about getting hit a few times and then having to use long-recharge powers, when I can just get hit once and wait 2 seconds for my 40-50hp/s regen to put me back to full? My ice tankers can't handle Lord Recluse in STF (Although fine outside of that.) without trays full of Resistance insps, and I'm sure if I had a soft-capped high recharge build on my BS/Regen under the same conditions he might be able to handle it, but if LR's two-hit combo of chaingun and meele attack removes 4200 hp off my tankers who sit somewhere between 2500 hp and 3500 hp depending on if Hoarfrost is up, then I seriously doubt a /Regen scrapper could handle that.

I play my Tankers like Brutes, sure. I jump into the middle of a group, I hit everything I can, and if the team can handle it I normally leave before the last mob is dead and head into the next group, the majority of the time the first group will follow me and die quickly in my first attack wave of group 2, this playstyle comes from how my Ice/Ice/Arctic is built offensively, and requires 10 targets in EA to be soft-capped, while my defensive Ice/Kin/Soul requires 10 targets to be soft-capped for N/E only, and is at the soft-cap of S/L anyway, but lacks the aggressive damage levels of the other.

The only thing my tankers can't do is hold a big group of mobs, but as a tanker I don't really have any need for that, soft-control is more fun regardless.

I am by no measure a Tanker expert. I happened to do fairly well with my DA/Fire tank, but I have little to no experience with any other primary.

What I love about my tank: He is absolutely invaluable on a sub-par team. With a bunch of poorly built, low budget characters or simply bad players, it generally doesn't matter. With my tank, I can lock down aggro and assure that my bumbling teammates are not in danger, then turn everything into a war of attrition that I won't lose. The enemies will not kill me, and my team will eventually overcome them.

What I hate about my tank: On a top end team (read: heavy on defenders/masterminds/corruptors/controllers), my tank is absolutely worthless. I feel like I'm not contributing at all. The best teams share aggro and turn AVs into trivial minions with a lot of hit points. In this scenario, my aggro control is not needed, and my damage output pales in comparison to the rest of the team. Simply put, I offer nothing to this kind of team.

I'll echo what Heraclea and Dechs Kaison indicated...

For the record, I play several different AT's. Primarily melee characters, but a smattering of Blasters and Defenders as well.

I wind up getting pulled back into Tanking over and over again because of, quite frankly, poor Tanks I see in pick-up-groups and teams. A poorly played Tank (like any archetype) is at best ineffectual, at worst it's a real liability to a team. Everyone is out there to have fun and feel like they are participating. What a good Tank does for a team that's a hodge-podge mix of players is that it provides a much lower-risk environment for the group. Locking down aggro and gathering opponents in one tightly packed group does wonders for a team.

Similarly, with good players and/or people you play with often that know your playstyle, aggressive Tanking will allow your team to steamroll through missions at an astounding rate.

That said, on high-end teams with veteran players, I have experienced the phenomenon that Dechs mentions. If well-played teams are clicking and steamrolling on their own, you go into a semi-Scrapper mode and do what you can to help out. Although, even with those teams, there frequently are situations where a bad decision or someone AFK could lead to a teamwipe if not for some timely Tank intervention. Sure those moments don't come that often on those teams, but they do prove that having a Tank along has value. And hey, you get to pound stuff without worrying about the squishies for once...

One of the reasons I went with Elec/Fire is just so I don't feel completely out-classed on teams with lots of damage mitigation. Two good PBAoE's that recharge very often is nice indeed.

Like Dechs said, Tankers feel like they have to struggle to contribute on high-quality teams. Fortunately, Bruising was added to Tankers. Spam your level 1 attack on AVs and your team will do 20% more damage. I'm sure that counts for more damage than you being any other AT could possibly do. If you have a defense debuff power too, use an Achilles Heel proc for even more resistance debuff goodness. Any Tanker can get a defense debuff power with Laser Beam Eyes.

Mauk2's phrase "tactical anvil" describes my playstyle pretty well.

Rarely, though, I get to play herd 'em up on a team with a second tank or decent control. Grab a group (or two, or...) and drag em back to the 'kill zone'. Repeat until everything is dead or it's more efficient to pick a new spot for the kill zone. Pick a corner or a choke point and go to town. I realize it's not always the most efficient method, but it's a hoot to see 2-3 groups suffering under a full team's AOE's and controls, while the team lets loose in perfect safety.

If I'm feeling redundant, (i.e. the team is doing great without any particular attention to aggro control) I usually skip ahead a bit when the team has the aggro in hand and start bunching the next group into a nice tight pile, and wait for the team to catch up and unleash the next wave of AOE's.

Anyway, the main point is that my tactics depend a lot on the team's abilities. Flexibility and awareness are key. Experience to know which gambles will pay off helps, too.

Wow. I started this thread last night and all these responses came in. I honestly thought it would take longer but I guess I was wrong! Well I play a WP/Fire tanker as my main tanker and I love playing him. Yes the damage is not quite at a scrapper or brute level but it sure makes me feel good when I see them having to pop resist inspirations to handle what I can easily take on. My character has IOs and sets and such but the set up is very low level. A friend I made in-game was kind enough to make me a solid build for i19 that is going to be awesome.

WP/Fire is great though, Willpower has a lot of defense and resist which when IOed can become a LOT of defense/resistance. With Quick recovery and stamina together, endurance is not usually a problem. And, of course, with willpower the regeneration is so high that if any enemies do happen to dent your health, you regenerate it so fast it doesn't make a difference.

I was doing RV the other day with my tanker and all the stalkers were trying to Assassin's Strike me and then run away to do it again. When I noticed their attacks barely dented my health, I laughed right because when the stalker came back a couple seconds later to re-strike, my health was already full again. Then a dominator came up with ice attacks and my health really was in trouble so my cold resist/defense was low but anyways...

Fire contains excellent single target attacks like Greater Fire Sword and Incinerate, along with AoE abilities like Combustion and Fire Sword Circle which makes for a balanced offensive. I did think about Elec/Fire because my tanker has less than desirable recharge times on AoE abilities and with elec you get another AoE and recharge. By the way, tankers get a unique fire attack power set that is different than the one that Brutes and Scrappers share (They don't get combustion but get Cremate, a high damage single target attack).

Well, that was my life story, any people out there play a stone tanker? I guess with the new (To me) IO system there has been less of a need for Stone tankers? Is Shield Defense good and worth using on a Tanker? I see alot of scrappers use it but not many tankers for some reason.

I usually barrel ahead full steam, grab as much aggro with my aura, and taunt, then group them up at the nearest available corner even if it's further ahead, then I start pounding on the boss with ST attacks, with AoEs for Lts, and minions. If any bad guy even looks at one of my teammates, he gets a taunt, and/or a fist/axe/mace in the face.
When that group is almost defeated, I'm off again to gather the next group. Repeat until no enemy is standing. The End.


This is pretty much the story of any of my tanks, from my main Pep Rally(lvl 50 Invul/SS) to my newest lvl 27 elec/elec tank, Machine Gal.

RE: Bounty_Assist- I have a lvl 48 Stone/Stone, and a lvl 50 Shield/Axe. Both are pretty kickass with IO's.

The stoner is pretty much unkillable while in Granite, but I prefer to not use it unless I need extreme survivability. I managed to get alot of S/L/nrg/Neg defense IO set bonuses so I'm soft capped to those, which makes even non-granite pretty tough. I also went for +run speed which negates Rooted's penalty pretty well. The only thing that bugs me is not being able to jump, so Teleport is pretty much mandatory.

My shield is an AoE monster. Although, being S/L based hurts damage output against mobs with those resists. Love Shield Charge. You can very easily soft cap, with or without Weave, and the base resists, and tier 9 resist/health boost make you extremely hard to kill. No heal, but you get +Health with a passive, and the tier 9.

Really, you can make any Tank Primary very effective, so I'd go with whatever you find most fun, or with what fits your concept. The only one I'd warn against is Stone because of not being able to jump.

My WP/DB tank is only lvl 40 atm and only SO set up(I am the definition of the ubercasual player). Toon's name is Relentless Warrior and most people who've seen it in action agree with the name and the fact I use the "undying" badge label. I don't kill fast, but I will sit in an aggro capped group and chew through everything and move on to the next and just not stop.

Even without stamina I finish a group and i've got less then a tenth of my end bar but I'll be up to a 1/4th-1/3rd at the next group and keep just constantly grinding away at things. I19 will speed the build up thanks to stamina getting added to it as well. But this toon just does not stop. Between whirling blades/taunt(rech only)/RttC(no duration added) it takes a lot to pull groups off me.

In groups its either 'I'm grabbing to the corner', or 'let them bunch around me before aoe' If I can give a group a tighter profile for their aoe's we all win.

I'm not as flashy as many tanks/melee can be, but I'm effective and having fun. And that last part is what matters most

I find my tanks tend to have two jobs, on strong teams they alpha soak (and I am very addicted to fire melee) and then become a walking PBAoE, on mish mash teams then I resort to pulls and herding, and then become a walking PBAoE.

Fire/Fire here. In contrast with the other posters, I always open with my AoEs - I tend to hit Build Up and/or Fiery Embrace while I'm waiting for the spawn to group up, and Fire's "mitigation through defeat" is an important part of my playstyle.

I take point. I do damage. Taunt is a tool for keeping the spawn clustered - an important tool, but just one. On control-heavy teams, this is a little harder, and I'll focus on damage - AoEs where there are clumps, ST chains for AVs, BU -> Scorch -> GFS for spiking a boss. On buff-heavy teams, I might not be needed for keeping anyone alive, but I'm sure they appreciate someone who can turn a spawn into a tight little ball for AoE destruction. And on weak, uncoordinated teams, I can corner pull, taunt heavily, and set up a lovely little "fight here!" beacon in Burn.

I'm also one of that rare breed of Fire tankers who truly love Rise of the Phoenix. I don't love having to use it, but the combination of self-rez, PBAoE damage, and long, high-mag stun is something I can really appreciate. I have a Stun IO in the default slot, for a 21-second Mag 10 stun. That means that after a team wipe, I can hit Rise, and everyone else can use a wakie in perfect safety, because all the mobs are doing the drunk walk, too.

Tankers are slow but low-risk and with a large margin of error.

They're are great on bad teams but utterly superfluous on decent ones.

*shrug* I'd say it comes down to what you personally want out of your character (damage/survivability wise) and the kind of people you most often team with.

Ahh but isn't that the zen of CoH. On any good team any archtype is superfluous? Yet you need characters to make a good team, but if all archtypes are superfluous what makes a good team...ohhhmmmmm ohmmmm...chanti chanti chanti