Well, I have to say it, but all three of those are going to do exactly what you're after. I'll do a quick pro-and-con rundown of each.
Fiery Melee: Great damage, both ST and AoE, but no mitigation. You need to play this quite offensively, and build for a little more survivability than the others. For the solo/farming build, this won't be too much of a problem, but it will be something you need to consider for TFs. I have a Fire/Fire, and she does just fine on the ITF, though she needs a little help on the Weakened Hamidon in the LGTF and I've yet to get into a Statesman. The only other thing I'd consider is that fighting doppelgangers on a Fire/Fire is less than fun - you most likely both have 90% resistance to each other's attacks, so be prepared for a long slog.
Stone Melee: Mitigation central. One thing I've noticed about FA is its tendency to find moment-to-moment survival the big challenge - it's very hard to outpace your healing over about two minutes, but a damage spike can make the ten seconds until Healing Flames comes back an eternity. Add knockdown to each of your attacks, and a big area stun in Fault, and you've got a character with a strong offense and plenty of defense. Your only problem is going to come on hard targets - you're not going to knock them down or stun them as much, so all that mitigation is just lost damage.
Super Strength: Two big issues here. Number one is the leveling experience. SS has only one worthwhile AoE, and it's the capstone. Lucky for you, you have Burn and Blazing Aura in FA, so that's mitigated a bit. Two is the real killer, though - the Rage crash. Rage is a fantastic boost to your damage - an easily permanent 80% damage boost. But when the crash comes, it hurts - a short period of doing negligible damage. If you can deal with the crash, it's a great set, with knockdown for mitigation, Rage for damage, and Foot Stomp as a truly awe-inspiring AoE. But some people just can't stand the feeling of a rage crash, and never really take to the set. If you've played SS before, you'll know if it's for you. If not, you might have to take a gamble.
I have a SS/Fire brute i farm with. Very fun. And with Burn + footstomp, its more fun than my elec/sd because the 2 aoes rech so much faster. 2 attacks per mob with no purples, just the Radial Alpha.
any of the 3 is a great choice .but a fire/fire is after all a classic! 6 aoe potential with f.e. and b.u. as buffs is just pure win! although you should also consider a fire/elec as well.i have a farmer brute that i use that does great and thought if i did nt already have 2 fire tanks ( one fire/fire and the other fire/ice) i would so do a fire/elec!
Super Strength's main feature is Rage. That isn't hard to get perma'd with just regular IOs and no global recharge. I have heard a lot about combining Super Strength with Fiery Embrace for some very high damage. It seems like nobody knows the exact numbers for Fiery Embrace, though.
I have a Fire/Electric tank and I absolutely love it.
I have him currently at 28 and he has been running +0x8 since 22.
The Electric attacks along with some of the VERY cheap IO sets for those powers are VERY good. I can slot the Sleep and Stun sets which give some really nice defense bonuses.
Electric does Knockdown or Knockback and stuns on several of its attacks and this really helps when you start taking too much damage. Some of the other sets are good but the mitigation of Electric is very good and works in a great synergy with Fire.
I'd go Fire/SS. You won't get the insane level of damage that a SS/Fire brute can bring to the table, but for a tanker you'll be dishing out a lot of hurt. Simply throwing in three Recharge IOs will make Rage permanent, though you'll still have crashes that lower your damage for a few seconds that should be watched for. That being said, I think that Rage also boosts the damage from your aura, which helps a whole lot before AND after grabbing Foot Stomp.
The only Tanker I can think of that might have a higher average DPS than a Fire/SS would be a Shield/SS, which maintains a steady high damage output with a combination of Rage and Against All Odds.
Too many alts to list.
Just for my 2 cents, I have a Fire/ Mace tank that I loved to play and level. Nothing like Mace for the crunch feeling. You still get your kb and kd effects like Stone melee, but all your mace attacks do decent damage unlike Fault. Though I do like Fault, the reduced inherent accuracy, large end cost and minor damage can be a painful till it is well slotted.
I don't know, I have both a FA/SS and SD/SS Tank, both IO'd out and both are currently my favorites. I'd swear the FA/SS puts out more DPS. The SD/SS is no slouch and has more recharge, but I think Burn/FS comes up faster and just chews thru almost anything.
just my observation
50 Inv/SS Tank, 50 Inv/EM Tank, 50 FA/SS Tank, 50 Shield/SS Tank, 50 WP/SS Tank, 50 Dark/Dark Tank, 50 EM/Elec Brute, 50 SS/FA Brute, 50 SS/SR Brute, 50 Fire/Kin Controller, 50 Plant/Storm Controller, 50 Earth/Therm Controller, 50 Necro/Dark MM, 50 Bots/FF MM, 50 Elec/SD Scrapper, 50 Arch/MM Blaster, 50 Emp/Psi Defender
Quote:
I agree. I love my FA/SS brute. My elec/sd was but burn+footstomp rech so much faster. Esp after the Alpha slot radial boost. Now im off to PL my fire/fire scrapper.
|
Originally Posted by Achilles6
I don't know, I have both a FA/SS and SD/SS Tank, both IO'd out and both are currently my favorites. I'd swear the FA/SS puts out more DPS. The SD/SS is no slouch and has more recharge, but I think Burn/FS comes up faster and just chews thru almost anything.
just my observation |
Thanks for all the advice everyone, after much deliberation and a late push for the previously unconsidered ElecMelee, i decided to go with SS and let the rage crash be danged!
The rage crash doesn't effect sands of mu. During the 10 second crash, I'll use that, heal if I need it, consume if I'm low on end, and combine insp. After all that my damage is back up, and I'm back to arresting.
Put your global damage bonus in the combat attributes monitor (I like to put it at the top or bottom of the list so it's easier to find quickly) and it'll make it easier to monitor the duration of the Rage crash (as well as monitoring other buffs/debuffs to your damage). It'll also make it simple to see when Rage is double-stacked.
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
----------------------------------------------------------
The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
Looking to build a Fire Armor tank and can't seem to make up my mind between a few different offensive sets. I have sort of whittled it down to three choices: Fiery Melee (the best defense is a good offense), Stone Melee (nice mitigation through soft and hard controls), or Super Strength (good balance though needs a bit of recharge). I'd like to try to come to a decision for double xp weekend (no time like the last minute) and have heard recommendations for all three from SG mates but was looking for a few more opinions. Ideally, i'm looking for something that using a few different builds can run as a main tank on a not-too-brutal TF while being able to solo efficiently. Thanks for taking the time to help me!