What's a powerset to use with Stone Armor?


Berzerker_NA

 

Posted

I've been playing a stone/axe so far up to level 20, and I'm starting to run into a serious problem that I hadn't considered when coming up with the build: knock back + Rooted = big hassle trying to kill enemies. I can only imagine this problem will get worse when I finally get up to granite.

So, looking into the other possibilities, the only other one that looks interesting to me is /electricity, since it has no knock back, and the last power is a teleport power, to save me having to slowly lumber up to my enemies sometimes.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Berzerker_NA View Post
I've been playing a stone/axe so far up to level 20, and I'm starting to run into a serious problem that I hadn't considered when coming up with the build: knock back + Rooted = big hassle trying to kill enemies. I can only imagine this problem will get worse when I finally get up to granite.

So, looking into the other possibilities, the only other one that looks interesting to me is /electricity, since it has no knock back, and the last power is a teleport power, to save me having to slowly lumber up to my enemies sometimes.
well. general rule of thumb with stone armor: take pool power teleport.

Also, Electricity does have knockback in Thunderstrike, Lightning Clap, and Lightning Rod.

Now, as to which power-set... well, depends on what you want to do.

Speaking for myself I've taken stone's to 50 with the mace and dark power-sets. So I can speak for both of those being good options. Mace has a to-hit bonus and some good mob damage. Dark is lower on the mob damage, but can wrack up the damage boost through Soul-Drain.

I know other players who run with Fire Mele for the damage over time and two circular pbaoe powers. Other players take Super Strength and count on Rage to counter granite's damage debuff.

If you only are going to be spending Single Origin or common IO enhancements on your build, Super-Strength is probably your best option.

If you are going for a heavy IO build, well, anything will do.


 

Posted

I've got a lvl 50 stone/stone melee tank and the Knockdown /Knock up of most of the Stone Melee powers make for fun "smashing". If you go this route don't slot for +kb as it will turn the KD into KB. Hurl is the only power that has inherent knock back and is nice to use on a runner.

There are still mobs out there that are weak to kb, like clockwork, that will still get knocked back. It also seems to be a bit endurance heavy to me, but nothing that can't be worked around.


Throwing darts at the board to see if something sticks.....

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Quote:
Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.

 

Posted

Mids' is not correct about all powers it lists with a Knockback. Some powers only knock enemies down. Read the power descriptions to see which ones do that.

Don't expect to do any serious damage as a Stone Tanker. Once you get Granite Armor, its extreme survivability comes at the cost of you moving slow, having slow recharge, and doing less damage. All of that is worth it, if you want to be the toughest meat shield in the game. If you can't stand those penalties, make something else.

As a Granite Tanker, you are mostly a taunt-bot. Keep enemies attacking you by taunting and using various attacks. It doesn't matter what set you use, as long as it doesn't knock back. I prefer Fiery Melee for the largest radius PBAOE melee attack in the game. It works great if you are trying to taunt a spread-out group.


 

Posted

I found that the Stone/Fire combination worked very well; it of course lacks any mitigation in the secondary but once a stone tanker matures it has all the durability it'll need so you really don't need mitigation from the secondary.

I'll definitely second the suggestion for TP... it's almost mandatory for a stone tanker to have mobility in combat without toggling off the mez protection. I personally really don't like TP as a travel, but I still have it on my Stone tanks for combat mobility. It's either take TP, build for massive runspeed IO bonuses or always team with a kinetic for speed boost.

By the way, Stone Melee doesn't have knockback, it has knockDOWN instead. Look at Mids, any power that lists knockback of MAG 0.67 will not KB even level foes unless they're weak to KB like Clockwork. Looking over the Axe set I don't see any knockback powers there either; everything's either knockdown or knockup (which will send mobs straight up, then straight down at your feet). You'll only get knockBACK if you're fighting lower level mobs or a very few specifically weak to KB.


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Posted

I took a stone/axe all the way to 50. I can tell you that you don't really notice it that often. Most of the enemies just fall down at your feet due to the knock down/up. I also took TP to be able to move around when I needed to. If you find yourself knocking back too many enemies for whatever reason, you can either take a ranged attack from the ancillary/PPPs or you can just taunt them so they will (eventually) run back to you. I really enjoy using /axe though.


 

Posted

I'm not sure if the "clarification" on Stone Melee and what is kd/kb was directed to me or not. If you read my post you'll see that I stated that for the most part SM is Knockdown/Knock Up; unless you slot the KD powers for MORE knockback, which will turn the KD into KB. Slotting knockback enhancements will take that .67 mag and make it stronger which WILL put it over the kd threshold to changing them to KB.

Again, Hurl Boulder does Kb as it's at least a mag 6 if not higher effect.

So, if it was directed at me, please re-read my original post. If it wasn't, ignore me.


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:
Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome View Post
I'll definitely second the suggestion for TP... it's almost mandatory for a stone tanker to have mobility in combat without toggling off the mez protection.
Once you get into Granite Armor, Rooted is only used for the extra regeneration it provides. Granite comes with all the mez protection you should need. Also, Rooted recharges very fast, so toggling it off to move won't kill you.

Definitely take Teleport on a Stone Tanker. It is useful because you can't jump at all.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rangle M. Down View Post
So, if it was directed at me, please re-read my original post. If it wasn't, ignore me.
The OP was looking at sets to take. I assumed he was only looking at the power short descriptions in Mids'.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rangle M. Down View Post
I'm not sure if the "clarification" on Stone Melee and what is kd/kb was directed to me or not. If you read my post you'll see that I stated that for the most part SM is Knockdown/Knock Up; unless you slot the KD powers for MORE knockback, which will turn the KD into KB. Slotting knockback enhancements will take that .67 mag and make it stronger which WILL put it over the kd threshold to changing them to KB.

Again, Hurl Boulder does Kb as it's at least a mag 6 if not higher effect.

So, if it was directed at me, please re-read my original post. If it wasn't, ignore me.
No, I was directing it at the OP. What I meant was that unless Mids is wrong about axe I didn't see anything there that would KB even level or above mobs unless they were weak to KB.


COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by je_saist View Post
well. general rule of thumb with stone armor: take pool power teleport.

Also, Electricity does have knockback in Thunderstrike, Lightning Clap, and Lightning Rod.
Thunderstrike and Lightning Rod do knockdown, not knockback.

Quote:
Originally Posted by je_saist View Post
Now, as to which power-set... well, depends on what you want to do.

Speaking for myself I've taken stone's to 50 with the mace and dark power-sets. So I can speak for both of those being good options. Mace has a to-hit bonus and some good mob damage. Dark is lower on the mob damage, but can wrack up the damage boost through Soul-Drain.
Dark also has a ToHit Debuff which will stack nicely with Granite's defense, especially up against big-bads like AV's. Mace, however, does not have a +ToHit component in any of it's attacks. What je_saist should have said is that Mace attacks have an inherent Accuracy bonus.


My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."

 

Posted

There really aren't any strong synergies between Stone Armor and the attack sets pro or con. The slows from Mud Pots may work together with Ice Melee.

The primary criterion would be that the low level attacks recharge quickly, which puts Energy Melee at a strong disadvantage, but then Energy Melee has no advantages, synergies, or purpose now. Almost any of the other sets would not be that bad with Stone.

I think it's safe to assume that the player who is willing to put up with Stone Armor wants to be a main tank for a team running difficult content. As such the power sets that make you even tougher (Dark Melee) or contain team friendly AoE powers to help with aggro and keep your team safe (Stone, Ice, Fire, Electricity) are worth a look.



<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Berzerker_NA View Post
So, looking into the other possibilities, the only other one that looks interesting to me is /electricity, since it has no knock back, and the last power is a teleport power, to save me having to slowly lumber up to my enemies sometimes.
My choice would be Fire Melee.

Does good damage out the box, both ST & AoE.

You don't need a lot of recharge to have a decent ST chain.

Has a more forgiving EPS cost than primaries like Stone Melee, SS, etc.

It provides no added mitigation, but Stone Armor Tankers should rarely (if ever) need any.


While electric is a decent choice for AoE, your ST damage will be completely abysmal due to the nature of the set (on the very low end of ST damage), Tanker melee damage scale and Granite's -damage component.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome View Post
No, I was directing it at the OP. What I meant was that unless Mids is wrong about axe I didn't see anything there that would KB even level or above mobs unless they were weak to KB.
WAIT! You were supposed to ignore me!


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:
Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.