We need more tanker primaries.

I would like to see Kinetic Armor.

Maybe give it some kind of toggle selection system which will change your density. Low density for positional defense with a movement/recharge bonus, high density for high resists and a movement/recharge debuff with a damage bonus, and extremely high density for a phase/hold power like Hibernate.

Well, if this is a comparison between how many Primary picks the various ATs have, Blasters, Corruptors and Defenders all have 10, while Dominators and Controllers each have 7. So while Tankers don't have the most choices at 8, they don't have the least, either.

That said, I'd like to see a Sonic or Radiation Melee/Defense combo, and there needs to be a Psi Melee to go with Willpower. When you start to go into new crazy ways of mitigating damage, though, well, other meleers could benefit from that as well.

My dream of kinetic armor was always more like Aikido-ish. I.E. you are able to redirect incoming attacks back to your enemies. The enemies that hit you harder power your attacks...like a dynamice build-up. I could see this playstyle being very fun. So the armor would be reasonable but survival would rely on dealing out the damage for surivival. Hope I explained that okay.

Also, to the OP- Ever tried Shield/Stone? It is the one tank I keep going back to lately now that I solved my endurance woes. I know others with this build exist but I never see them. Also, people are always curious about it b/c it is fairly uncommon. It does not play like any other tank I have and the mitigation is so fun and makes it a very "tanky" tank.

Looking at the design space in this game, they seem to be treating the defensive
sets as combinations of 'major' and 'minor' mechanics.

Invulnerability -- Major in Resistance, minor in defense.
Stone Armor -- Major in Resistance and Defense.
Dark Armor -- Major in Resistance, Mitigation, and Self-Healing.
Ice Armor -- Major in Defense and Mitigation.
Willpower -- Major in Self-healing, minor in defense and resistance.
Shield -- Major in Defense, minor in offensive boosts.
Fire Armor -- Major in Resistance, minor in offensive boosts.
Electric Armor -- Major in Resistance, minor in endurance management.

And let's include the wider possibilities of non-tank defense sets:

Regeneration -- Major in Self-healing, minor in resistance.
Super Reflexes -- Major in Defense, minor in resistance.
Energy Aura -- Major in Defense, minor in resistance and end management.

It looks like they chose the non-tank defenses to focus on one mechanic, and then tacked on some resistance to adjust their balance.

All of the sets except Super Reflexes also have some kind of healing mechanic (shield has a +health power), but only in the case of Regen, Willpower, and Dark Armor are they central to the usability of the powerset. (Ice and Stone tanks might disagree with me here.)

So what combinations are left unused?

Self-healing + offensive boosts; a Regen clone with self-buffs. Didn't someone post a 'Berserker' powerset? Probably not defensive enough for tankers, though.

Resistance + Mitigation with no self-healing? That might make a good 'Force Field' or 'Psi Armor' set.

Major in both Defense and Self-healing? Might be overpowered. Both of those mechanics are tricky to balance.

Self-Healing + Mitigation with no resistance or defense? I picture this as a good 'stretchy' powerset, with stuns and knockdowns. Probably not defensive enough for a tank.

...and that's about it. I don't see many combinations that wouldn't be duplicates of what we already have.

I like the idea posted above of an 'Ablative Armor' set, using the Mastermind mechanic of summoning some kind of minions to soak up damage for you. That's thinking out of the box. We need more ideas like that if we want to expand the options available to tankers.

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