I think you should do Stone Armor, despite the penalties, because it's the one you don't have. You also haven't done Dark Melee, which will likely result in the ultimate survival combination.
It'll also allow you to build for pretty ridiculous things. You can go whole hog for +recharge, eliminating the Granite penalty, and not worry about endurance recovery because you'll have Dark Consumption. Damage won't be as much of an issue either, as you'll have Soul Drain. Dark Melee is heavy on the single target damage, but SD with Mud Pots will let you cook the minions while you kill bosses with your attacks. You can always build for damage bonuses too.
Just pick up Teleport, for the love of $deity.
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Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
I am having a lot of fun with my Willpower/Dark Melee/Soul Tank. Its a great solo toon because it has nice Single target attacks and Siphon Life that makes up for not having a heal in the WP set. It doesnt have an awesome quick PBAoE like other sets but with the PPP you get a targets AoE and a Cone Immob and that helps a lot as well. The -to hit is an awesome synergy with the defense in the WP set. If you make a WP/DM I do suggest Soul Mastery for Soul Tentacles (Ranged, Cone), Dark Obliteration (Ranged, Targeted Area of Effect), and Darkest Night (Toggle: Ranged Targeted area of effect, Foe -Damage, Foe -To Hit). I kinda like to debuff herd to a corner. Once they are next to me they keep on missing and RttC rarely gets turned off by stuns. As for the 4th power choice I picked Summon Widow for additional damage and I keep her alive with taunting or you can get Gloom for the ST range damage.
Proton Sentry Peacebringer:lvl 50+++ - Human Build / Triform Build
Quasar Sentry Warshade:lvl 50+- Human Build / Triform Build
Red Katipo Arachnos Soldier:lvl 50+++ - Crab Build / Bane Build
Black Katipo Arachnos Widowlvl 50+++ - Fortunata Build / Night Widow Build
I'm going to recommend a slight twist on Dechs' suggestion. The remaining famous combination you haven't got on your list is Stone/Fire. Fiery Melee for Tankers is different than for Scrappers, as the additional AoE from Combustion helps melt crowds (despite the animation time).
Fire is great (for a Tanker) damage, both AoE and single-target. This may help ease the soloing. Its main downside is the lack of additional mitigation, which doesn't faze Stone Armor. One way to help offset the recharge penalties its to take 1-2 more attacks than are strictly necessary for an optimal chain, and thus have stuff to click while the rest is recharging.
The main thing about Stone that's hard to get used to is the fact that either form of status protection (Rooted or Granite) affects your movement -- not just speed, but you can't hop over anything and you drop from the sky, even when teleporting, like, well, a rock. So you have to develop the fine art of toggling your status protection off and back on as you move toward battle...and not (shudder) forgetting. You can often just battle-teleport...but not always, so it pays to get a feel for toggling. Fortunately Sprint is mutually exclusive with either, so you can toggle Sprint on and Rooted comes off for fast movement, then hitting Rooted cancels Sprint handily. Admittedly this is somewhat less handy if you blunder into your Sprint hotkey while fighting in Granite armor...not unlike having your pants fall down around your ankles while fighting.
All that said, Stone has a nice fortress-like feeling you should try out, and Fiery Melee is a very solid pairing with it. Now all you need to do is Google names of volcano gods!
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
I would like to second the Stone/Dark recommendation. My main is Stone/Dark and it's a fine combo for tanking. I run two builds, one for tanking in Granite Armor and one for running Granite-less, and both hold thier own against everything I've thrown at him. Build for speed and recharge to offset the penalties, with enough extra defense to softcap and you'll be in good shape. The extra recharge also helps Soul Drain come back faster to reduce the impact of Granite Armors damage debuff.
I went Soul Mastery for both theme and to grab a nice range attack, a solid AoE, and Darkest Night. While I don't need the extra survivablility Darkest Night provides, in situations where I hit the agro cap, it can help cover extra mobs.
While you won't be anywhere close to the fastest killer around, as a stone/dark you will be very hard to take down and still do respectable damage.
Alternatively, Fire/Fire/Pyre is a good combo for offensive output without the fragility of a Blaster. It's a good soloer. Not an unbreakable anvil for the hardest content, of course, but rips up most normal stuff pretty well.
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
Quote:
"Stand back! Or I'll DIE AT YOU!!"|
Originally Posted by Sailboat
Alternatively, Fire/Fire/Pyre is a good combo for offensive output without the fragility of a Blaster. It's a good soloer. Not an unbreakable anvil for the hardest content, of course, but rips up most normal stuff pretty well.
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I've always wanted to try that concept.
Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.
I lvled my Stone/Stone/Stone tank years ago and I would rather get my teeth pulled than do it like that again; however IO's came out since then and incarnates. I guess it would better to play nowadays. If I had to lvl a Stone tank again I think I would go Fire instead of Dark. I guess it it just me that likes to use DM with armors without a heal to make up the difference.
Proton Sentry Peacebringer:lvl 50+++ - Human Build / Triform Build
Quasar Sentry Warshade:lvl 50+- Human Build / Triform Build
Red Katipo Arachnos Soldier:lvl 50+++ - Crab Build / Bane Build
Black Katipo Arachnos Widowlvl 50+++ - Fortunata Build / Night Widow Build
I have more variety of tanks then I'd like to admit.
The ones that have been the most fun so far have been (excluding my dark/dark tank, per your comment.)
My Level 50s:
- Fire/Fire/Pyre, my main, and fully level shifted. Lots of orange numbers.
- SD/SS, lots of smashing goodness at the soft cap.
Some of my lower level Tanks:
- Elec/SS and Fire/SS, but both primaries cover the end drain from the rage drop.
- Dark/Electric, Endurance pig, but still fun.
- Inv/DB, I avoided Dual Blades for the longest time, but I'm having fun with this. The plus to-hit from Invincibility is a bonus, making it easier combos to hit consistently. (this one is on Union).
A couple of Combinations I want to try soon. Stone/Fire, Fire/DM and Elec/Fire. (I really like my Stone/Stone/NRG, but I'm not sure I'm willing to go through the process of getting another stoner's movement speed up to snuff again soon.)
I think any of the above would work well. They've all solo'ed well for me, and they've all been fun during Tanker Tuesday events so far. (at least on the servers we've done the TT's on)
For better survivability you could also try Inv/DM or SD/DM. Siphon life also makes up for SD not having a heal.
Maybe one of the above combinations will strike your fancy.
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:
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
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Thanks for all the suggestions and the lively discussion! I don't have tanks on all the TT servers yet, so I'll probably use some of them in the future.
However, for this one I think I'm going to bite the bullet and try out Stone/Dark since both sets are new to me and it sounds like a viable alternative. Now I just have to think of a name!
Thanks again!
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
Sorry a bit late to this dance, just got home from work, but if you're up for a few more suggestions...
Elect/Ice (I'm actually enjoying IM on this toon... pssst, don't tell anyone 
)
Elect/Stone (as you've already posted)
Fire/DB
Fire/Kin (as you've already posted)
Dark/Stone (just because Endurance is so overrated)
Dark/Kin (because I don't think I've seen one...)
Ice/Stone (because of the color tinting/theme possibilities)
Ice/DB
Invuln/Kin
Invuln/Fire
WP/Fire
WP/Ice
SD/Stone (Lots of bouncie)
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Quote:
I got a Stone/Energy to level 35 before the drive of "But I'll be immortal" just failed entirely. It became "Yes, never getting to the fight on time ensures immortality."
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Originally Posted by Sailboat
The main thing about Stone that's hard to get used to is the fact that either form of status protection (Rooted or Granite) affects your movement -- not just speed, but you can't hop over anything and you drop from the sky, even when teleporting, like, well, a rock. So you have to develop the fine art of toggling your status protection off and back on as you move toward battle...and not (shudder) forgetting. You can often just battle-teleport...but not always, so it pays to get a feel for toggling.
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u shud do this build. i know its not one of ur builds ur debating on but fire/ss is beast all-round....look at this midds build.
http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...09FF0053BFCF35
hope u like it
I would also take a look at Stone/Superstrength. Rage's damage buff should help offset the granite penalties.
My wife loves her Shields/Ice, so that could be a possibility as well.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
-Don't just rebel, build a better world, comrade!
I have a Stone/Dark. The only thing I've found that can kill it so far, is an AE map full (and I mean, running +4/x8 solo) of Monster-class Adamastors. I drop pretty quick then. Outside of that, I'm fairly certain it can tank a tower-buffed Recluse indefinitely. But then, I went out of my way to be within 1.5% of the Resistance hardcap to all but Psi, and minimum 42% Defense to all types (except Psi). Because I'm crazy like that. That said, damage is almost nil, recharge is horrendous (I've started carrying around temp Hand Grenades and Plasmatic Tasers, because Taunt isn't up enough), and I only manged a 20 mph run speed in Granite. Most certainly not a solo build, in my case.
My other suggestions: Shield/Dark. Freaking awesome. Pyre or Ice Mastery... Combined with Soul Drain and AAO... Delicious damage. A bit of an endurance hog without Cardiac, though. (To be perfectly honest, Dark Consumption really isn't up often enough to be useful for endurance recovery, outside of emergency situations like Malta Sappers totally draining you.) In a way, it plays a bit like a Scrapper or Brute. You get angry when people steal your kills, you're doing so much damage (as far as Tankers go, at least). But, I've also tanked all 4 AV's plus Reichsman (all at once, mind you) on the Kahn TF, so the survivability is there as well. Easy enough to solo. My build could use a bit more recharge, though.
Ice/Elec. I love it. Good damage, enough survivability to tank, but also has a hint of danger with that "I wonder if I'll have to use Hibernate this mob?" fear of almost dying. Enough recharge, and Lightning Rod is up every mob, plus EA and Chilling Embrace. I wouldn't want to tank Recluse with it, but it does just fine on ITF's and such. Is also low-level friendly, unlike Stone. Take Mu Mastery, and gain the Wonder Button that is Lightning Clap, minus the Knockback. Great survival tool. (Mu Mastery has the only AoE Immobilize available to Tankers that does -Knockback, as far as I know.) Probably the best soloer of my three suggestions. Lightning Rod is up enough to be a significant damage source, along with Thunder Strike, Chain Induction, etc.
I'm planning to make a new tank for the TT Euro tour on Union tomorrow, and can't decide what powersets to use. I have quite a few tanks already, and would prefer something that's a little different from what I've played before. So far I have:
Invul/Mace (my main)
Invul/EM
Dark/Mace
Ice/Axe
Shield/Elec
WP/DB
Fire/KM
Elec/Stone
I've never done DM before, so that's a possibility, but I'd rather not do Dark/Dark since I have a Spines/Dark scrapper as well as the Dark/Mace tank. I've also never used Stone Armor, but I've always been a little leary of Stone's movement and recharge debuffs. (I solo a lot, so doing decent damage is important.)
Any suggestions for good combos to try?
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012