Stone Armor question chain

Hello everyone,

I'm planning to make my first Tanker and I chose Stone Armor as my primary. I'm used to damage dealers and I would like a set whose focus is not dps.

With that in mind, I would like some tips from Tankers more experienced than me. I searched the forums about topics related to Stone Armor and some doubts still persisted.

1) Which Secondary?

Most people suggest to focus on 2 things: AoE and a quick attack chain. From what I've gathered, these are the sets most mentioned in this forum:
- Fiery Melee: Good AoE and recharge, and has some synergy with Mud Pots from Combustion.
- Super Strength: Foot Stomp for AoE and Rage that negates Granites damage debuff. But are the activation times good enough?
- Energy Melee: Good damage and recharge, but poor AoE
- Dark Melee: Poor AoE, but Neg Energy protection is rare, it helps to negate the damage debuff with Soul Drain, stacks -ToHit and has a pseudo heal. But what about the -ToHit? Is it worth for Granite?
- Electrical Melee: Good AoE including a great opener, but the secondary effect is almost useless unless you have Electric Armor.

Right now I'm deciding between /Elec and /Dark, but any insights are appreciated.

2) Which Alpha?

I can't see any reason not to get Spiritual, for the Recharge and Heal Bonus. Is it worth getting Musculature?

3) Which Epic Pool?

Soul Mastery: Darkest Night seems nice to help with Granite's defense. Is it worth or -ToHit overkill?
Energy Mastery: Focused Accuracy would allow me to not worry about ACC, and Psysical Perfection gives a bit more Regen, which stacks with Rooted.
Fire, Earth, Ice: More AoEs, which seem nice but I don't know if they are necessary.

4) I will not ask if I need Taunt

5) Which Power Pools?

Teleport for travel is a no brainer, Hasten to help with the recharge debuff from Granite is also highly recommended. What about Tough and Weave? They seem to good to pass, but are they necessary?

Thanks for any future help!

1. With Stone Armor you want ideally a fast recharging secondary with good ST and AOE damage in my opinion. Having played it to 50 Stone/Fire is a great combo; even in Granite I still have a full ST attack chain and my AOE attacks are up very often. I've also played (pre-nerf) a Stone/Energy to 50 and it was marginal then and frankly terrible now. I would NOT suggest energy as the secondary.

I'm currently leveling an Ice/Elec tanker; at 38 I'd say that Elec is ok but not fantastic... I think /Fire is the better choice.

2. I went Spiritual on my Stone/Fire; in my opinion the two stand outs are Spiritual and Cardiac depending on your endurance use. Since Fire Melee is very end-light it made it an easy decision. This is something you'll figure out for yourself as you play your tanker through the levels and will depend on your particular playstyle and build.

3. For epics my choices are either Energy if I need Conserve Power or Pyre if I have room for Char, Fire Blast & Fire Ball.

4. You will want it

5. For pools on a Stoner I'd say TP (hate it but it's pretty much a necessity) and Hasten. Hover is handy for zone travel so you don't fall out of the sky with TP. Tough/Weave are optional... you'll want them if you're aiming for high defense so you can use Granite only on an "as needed" basis. If you're planning on more or less living in Granite then they're relatively pointless. With some thought and a few bonuses you can fairly easily soft cap S/L/E/N without Granite; this is enough for most general purpose tanking and if you get in over your head Granite's only a click away.

Dark Melee is good for the heal alone. Siphon Life turns a high-mitigation rock into a self-healing high-mitigation rock. I gave up on damage completely with my Stone Tanker. I still do decent damage, but it was never a focus of my build. Taking the best armor set in the game and making it the most unkillable thing out there was the main focus of my build.

My Stoner is Stone/Stone. You really can't go wrong with Stone, Fire, Dark, or Electric. I think you'd probably be disappointed with either Energy or Ice Melee on a Stone tank, but beyond that you should be fine. I went Spiritual on my Stone tank as I had my end under control.

I've already tried /Elec last week and played with a new /Fire yesterday.

I gotta say that /toggle Mud Pots -> Teleport -> Combustion is really fun. I couldn't get Fire Sword Circle but I guess it gets even better.

My /Elec feels a bit slower. Thurder Strike is fun, but Combustion feels better. Although I was really intereted in Lightning Rod, it seems to be great opener.

But I still have to get Granite with both, that will be the real test

Thanks for everyone that posted on this topic, it really helped to understand better how to use the Stone primary!