Want a DA tank but what secondary??

Hey peeps, so iv decided I want a DA tank but can't make my mind up on what to pair it with. Just started a DA/DB tank but not sure how it will be. Should I just roll a DA/SS?
Ps. I don't want elec and would like at least 1 AoE
Cheers for your suggestions and reasons why

It sounds like you think Super Strength has some sort of unbeatable advantage over the other sets. While it does have a nice buff from Rage, other sets have nice features too. Dark Melee has an endurance restore power and self-heal that can help with Dark Armor's heavy endurance cost. Fiery Melee has more AoE attacks than other sets. Stone Melee has two AoE knockdowns.

If you expect to team more than solo, you should focus on surviving and holding aggro. A Tanker does not do as much AoE damage as other ATs and is not expected to be the minion-killer on teams. Your taunt aura and taunt power are generally enough to hold aggro long enough for the team to destroy the soft targets quickly. While Tanker AoE is not useless, you will feel like you can't contribute much to the AoE damage when everything around is getting destroyed so fast by everyone else.

If you expect to solo and farm more than anything else, there are much better ATs and combinations for that. If you really like Dark Armor and have fun with it, I would say pick Fiery Melee for the extra AoE attack.

I'm biased, but I like to say /Ice. Make your Tanker a Contranker. It's the ultimate aggro and crowd control combo.

Oh, and IBTDP (in before the Dechs post)

Kinetic Melee.

Excellent knockdown mitigation, great energy damage, and a solid AoE. The -Damage will layer atop your damage resistances and make for a truly powerful combo. I have a Dark/Kin Tanker at 30 and he is unstoppable at +0/x6.

Mace.
Good damage and the stuns will stack with Oppressive Gloom for great damage mitigation.

I'm gonna say DA/Stone. Stacked AoE stuns means multiple bosses = no problem. Plus seismic smash if any of them get away from you. Excellent mitigation through control in this combo.

While the AoE damage in /stone isn't fantastic and comes late, tremor is serviceable and the damage aura helps until then.

Dark Armor has a great synergy with......Dark Melee. Look for anything by Dechs Kaison on dark tanks. You'll be glad you did.

/stone, /kin, /mace for the stacked stuns. /ice will add in nice mitigation and AoE as well. /dark for thematic reasons.

I currently have both a Dark/Dark and a Dark/Elec tank. Both are a nice, with the Dark/Dark my favorite between the two. The /Dark tank is more ST oriented, and the Elec has some nice AoE. (I know you don't want /Elec)

Should I make a third Dark tank the choices will be /Fire, /Kin, or /Stone. The /Fire would currently be the favorite with /Stone behind it.

I have a friend who went /Ice on his Dark tank and just doesn't feel that it's giving him the damage output he wants/likes. As he puts it, he's been spoiled by /Fire. I'm not saying don't go /Ice.

As was mentioned, Dechs Kaison has good information on Dark Tanks. Make sure you also find information from Jebe the Pirate, who wrote a pretty good i14 guide to Dark Tanks that hasn't lost its value.

Dark/Dark plus some colour tinting lends itself for a Sandman concept, just add earth mastery as an epic and you have something with quite a few very useful tools plus a rare seen concept. I keep thinking about it myself.

Thanks for ur help so far, is /stone not super end heavy? I think /fire is coming at the top for me so far.
Noone has said anything about duel blades, don't get me wrong I'm not a fan of these but never tried a tank with DB, are they just reall bad or is it the combo thing that puts ppl off?

My absolute favorite would be Dark/Kin, despite mine being a dark/fire. You get -dmg to stack on the resistance, stuns in the mix, and a long term damage buff to really boost Death Shroud.

Dark/elec does well thanks to stacking stuns.

Dark/Dual Blades is one that a friend of mine has done, and he's done some impressive things with it. It's got a lot of AoE, and the mitigation is pretty decent too. I have issue with the lethal damage.

Stone is probably really sturdy, what with all the reliable stuns.

SS has Rage going for it, which makes Death Shroud powerful, but I'm not a personal fan of the set.

Mace, laden with stuns, is a good pick. Also pretty AoE capable.

Dark Melee is too single target focused for my tastes, but the endurance recovery tool is pretty attractive. Also, you can stack fears.

Have I forgotten anything?

Dark Melee has more attractive stuff than Dark Consumption. Soul Drain is awesome(makes your damage aura better), and so is Siphon Life and the thematic match with DA.

The lack of any good AoE's up until you get your ancillary pool AoE is definitely a turn-off though.

My favorite is my DA/spines tank...right along with my ice/spines tank..

I can dream, right...

With the crazy amounts of end management in Ageless coupled with the Cardiac Alpha, I don't think you need to invest too much in +recovery IO's anymore.

I have a few suggestions:

/Ice melee as someone said would be good. It has good mitigation, the dmg is not the best as a downside.

/Stone has good mitigation and good damage, downside being the heavy end cost of attacks.

/DM compliments DA in soo many ways. I cannot think of a con with it.

I

I can't think of any other secondaries I prefer for DA since I like it with mitigation and buffs so thats all.

Another pro to consider for DA/DM, though, is the fact DM's attack inflict To Hit Debuffs. Stacked with To Hit Debuffs from DA you, effectively, increase your defense against attacks.

If I were making a new DA/ tank a few months back, I'd lean toward /EM - for the stun stacking with OG (done mace a bit much or that would be great too).

But with /KM now, it also would offer some stun synergy, and the animations coming out of the dark auras could be cool with the right customization.