You want the best TANK!? I'll let you decicde!

The Un-told hero guide to Tanking Mitigation.
The Un-told hero guide to Tanking Mitigation.

A lot of people ask regularly “what tank power set is the best” There is NO real answer to this except “personal preference”. Due to this topic I figured I’d write a brief summary of what certain power sets do and what makes them good. There are 8 tank styles to choose from and all have strengths and weaknesses that suit different play styles. My goal in this guide (which I most likely will fail at) is to help shed a little tiny iddy bit of light on these 8 different tanks and their strengths and weaknesses.

Firstly by no means is this entire information mine. I simply have read the forums a lot and have collected information from far more experienced and intelligent people than myself. Also you should know that there is no tank build out there that is better than another. All tanks have the potential to be fantastic now that we have special Invention Origin enhancements. Some are easier to work with than others but ALL can become Superman.

Secondly I am looking at the tools that the devs have given us in the primary powersets that we use for mitigating damage/aggro. There are secondaries to consider as well but I don’t want to go into that because that will make this guide extremely long, and apart from being lazy I’m most likely going to be boring as well? I promise to try and keep it as funny as possible I SWEAR
I guess I better start with a few basics first before I start rambling on about things some of you may or may not know?

Damage:
Damage, much like tanks comes in different forms; there are physical damage types and elemental damage types. They all get categorized into two sections positional and typed

Positional isthe make-up for 3 forms (all three are physical forms)
1. Melee
2. Ranged
3. AoE (area of effect)

Typed is the make-up physical and elemental
1. Smashing
2. Lethal
3. Fire
4. Cold
5. Energy
6. Negative energy
7. Psionic
8. Toxic

Also all characters have an element of survivability and depending on the type of Archetype and powers sets you choose within your Archetype these elements will vary. This guide is about TANK primaries so I’m just going to quickly highlight the different elements that make tanks, well TANKS!

Resistance (the ability to resist damage- Tanks have a resist cap of 90% which means there is a potential to only receive 10% dmg)

Defence (the ability to dodge, deflect and evade incoming attacks- This will stop you from getting hit all together. The game soft cap is 45%)

Regeneration (the ability to heal health per second- some tanks are better at this than others)

Recovery (the ability to refresh your endurance- This is the engine to all your powers- without it any character/tank will die. Not only that but you won’t be able to use any of your attacks either)

Whewh!!!!
Now that we covered that I need to try and work out what is considered to be the most popular or common tank type in the game…. This is tough, seriously…..

Stone Armor:
Stone Armor is probably the most popular Tank in the game. It is one of the easier armors in the game to work with. Its final power (referred to as T9) is called Granite Armor. It’s a toggle based power and actually nullifies any other defence/resistance toggle in the set from working. You got it; you only need to run the one toggle for all your def/res goodness! Trust me it’s enough.
You get fantastic defence,
Fantastic resistance to all damage types except psionic
Once you add Rooted to the mix then you get
Ridiculous amounts of Knockback/hold/sleep/Immobilize/repel protection.
On top of that you get a great heal Earths Embrace that buffs your Max Hit points increasing your HP regeneration per second
And a AoE (area of effect) aura called Mud Pots that deals damage over time for any enemy in melee range which also immobilizes them and decreases their speed and recharge rate. So with the Combination of very high resistances and defence, you are also able to target the speed of which an enemy will attack you. A slower attack speed means fewer hits over time. Granted that when they actually do they must first try and actually land the hit by bypassing your defence and then if successful must try and cut through your resistance as well.

Of Course there are set backs though L there always is I know. We just can’t have these massive Boulders of love able to mitigate all this aggro from villains and not have some sort of setback.

1st you get a -65% to recharge. This means very slow refresh rate of your powers (your attack chain will recharge 65% slower than normal)

2nd there is a -30% to damage. That’s right 30% less damage than before.

3rd You run as fast a snail. I’m not kidding here; a snail would beat you in a race

4th You can’t Jump… Forget white man can’t jump, there aint no way you’re playing basketball either.

There are ways to fix these issues and that’s using special IO’s that can increase your recharge and run speed. You still can’t jump but you can at least fix your recharge and run speed. There is also team members that can buff you as well but that’s a completely different guide.

Invulnerability:
I remember my first invulnerability Tank… I was so green. I didn’t know what a tank was or its purpose. I just wanted the closest I could get to Superman. You guessed it Super Strength and Invun. I remember reading the descriptions of the powers (taunt: Taunts foe and nearby foes to ATTACK YOU!!!) I thought to myself “I’m only lvl 10 there is no way I’m getting that, I’ll friggin die!!!!!!!!” any who back on topic.
Mitigation strengths with Invun.
Invulnerability has hard capped resistances to smashing and lethal damage (the most common type of damage in the game)
And fair resistances to the rest of damage types except psionic (there is zilchL). But what makes this tank another very popular type of tank is the power

Invincibility. It will give you a bonus too defence against all attacks except psionic for every foe in melee range (counting up to 10, that’s when it stops) the 1st foes gives the greatest defence buff and then it scales from there, the 10th foes giving the least defence buff. Meaning this type of tank can easily reach the softcap of defence compared to other tanker types.
Complimenting this fantastic power nicely is

Dull Pain It buffs your max HP by oh just about double increasing your regeneration/second even higher. More Hp and more regen to take more hits with J
All three of these elements Resistance, defence and max hp/regen layer on top of each other making it that much harder to kill.
However if you find your green bar quickly turning red (and your thinking you’re about to sink harder than the titanic) you have a T9 power called

Unstoppbale this power lasts 2 minutes and generates hard capped resistances to all damage types except psionic and increases endurance recovery by 100%. Gota watch out with this power though… once the 2 minutes is up your health and endurance will drop to border line zero and all other toggles you are running will drop as well, making you extremely killable (remember that snail? You just got stood on) so if you do need to push the “EFFFF ME IM NEARLY DEAD” button be sure you kill whatever it is within 2 minutes.

Willpower:
Willpower is the third most popular tank I’ve seen in my Paragon travels, I’ve played 2 willpowers but could never seem to get past lvl 50 for some reason? O well I’m sure you will do a better job than me?
Poor willpower, I feel sorry for this tank set. It has a poor taunt aura doesn’t really get much resistance love apart from some “GOOD” smashing/lethal and psionic resistance and the potential to softcap to S/L/F/C/E/NE damage types. Unfortunately though, willpower still cops a beating because there isn’t really great defence debuff resistance for this set yet most people rely on it for survivability. Maybe that’s why the taunt aura is weaker? To try and negate the aggro more freely so the set doesn’t get overwhelmed?
Oh did I forget to mention this set also gets a massive +to hit points and a gigantic buff to regeneration? Also a –to hit that is cast on your opponents so they have a less chance to actually land a hit on you?

High pain tolerance gives a great buff to max HP and you actually have the potential to get very close the Tankers HP cap 3500 hp this works very well with your regen/sec

Rise to the Challenge Here is where it’s at for a Willpower tank. This is the toggle that will boost your regen from a mere 30ish hp/sec to well over 100hp/sec. Rise to the challenge works exactly the same as Invincibility does. Your regeneration is increased for every foe within melee range, for up to 10 foes. The 1st foe giving the biggest regen buff and the 1­0th giving the least.
So let us do some mathematics here. We will assume that our Willpower tank has been built correctly and has 3000 hp and a regeneration rate of 130hp/sec. We are fighting the aggro cap limit of 17 foes. They are producing the most common dmg type Smashing/Lethal. Consider we have 65% resistance to S/L and there maximum output is 200ea with an attack rate of (avg) 3 seconds. 200*.35=70hp/hit, 70*17=1190 dmg/cycle that means over 3 seconds you regenerate 390hp and the 17 foes will hit for a wopping 1190, your max hp is 3000. This gives you a little less than 10 seconds of life span.
Now we will incorporate soft-cap defence. 45% to s/l will lower your chance of being hit by 95%. That’s right you have a 5% chance of being hit. The same scenario means 17*.05=.85 (average 1 person every three seconds will hit you for 70 hp while you regenerate 390 hp in the same time frame.
Let’s stop for a second and stare in awe.

Ok that’s enough awe for now. So there we have it a Willpower tank that can mitigate just as well as any other tank.

Ice Armor:
Unlike the last 3 type of tanks which are inheriting hybrids of Resistance/defense/regeneration we have looked at, this type is a defense type tank. It has very little resistance to negate damage but has very high defense. In fact this is very easy to achieve soft-cap with (you kinda need to get soft cap)

Its inherit powers focus on Typeddefense.
1. Smashing
2. Lethal
3. Fire
4. Cold
5. Energy
6. Negative Energy
7. Psi

Looking at our example we used in the Willpower section we will assume the following
17 foes in range (aggro cap)
200 dpa/ foe every 2 seconds
45% defesne (5% chance of being hit)
Meaning 1 in every cycle of attacks will land for the full 200 hp. Not a lot, but let’s consider the chance we are a lead tank in a taskforce or an important story arc. One where we must face an Arch-Villain in the end. Most likely 5% of the time they may hit you, let’s say its Maurder. He hits a Hard-capped resisted tank (90% res) for 400 hp with Knockout blow.
Some more fun math (I hate this crap)
600 is 10% of the total output here, max damage can be 4000+
Now the base value for tanks is 1800hp. I think we can see here that 4000 is a greater value than your 1800. In fact even if we select the power pool tough we will only get 23.6% resist to S/L
4000*.764=3056 dpa. Still much higher than the base value.
Luckily for Ice tanks though they have some special little tricks up their sleeves to boost that survivability. They have a power called

Hoarfrost: this power slotted correctly can buff your HP to the cap (or at least very close) A quick build I came up with got me 3300hp. It can become permanent meaning that your hp will stay at that value.
Now I know what you’re thinking… But that’s only 240 hp left over!? Which is why there are these powers?

Chilling Embrace: this has a -32% speed/recharge debuff cast on all foes within melee range (a PbAoE) and also has a -14% DMG debuff
So that 6000 becomes 4000*.14= 560, 560-4000= 3440, 3440*.764= 2628 dpa. Ohhhh that’s a bit better now .
On top of that you have many other means of dealing with damage to help synergize your build such as endurance drain and a special power called

Hibernate: This is a special power that self holds you and increases your health regeneration and endurance recovery and astonishing rates. Meaning if you are scared for your life you can taunt your foes so they stay focused on you and then POP Hibernate. You won’t actually be able to attack anyone but they won’t be able to attack you either. Then once you are done healing, you bust out of your ICE BERG I love and join the fight once more!

Shield Defense:
Shield is vastly becoming a common power set amongst tanks. They are very easy to play and don’t cost a lot to soft-cap. Unlike Ice Armor this defense AT (Archetype) uses positional

Melee
Ranged
AoE

these 3 are the makeup of all the attacks you will encounter in the game. You get slightly more resistances than Ice Armor and you also get a crafty power that will buff your HP called True Grit but what really brings this game into its own are the following powers

Against all Odds works just like invincibility and rise to the challenge, but buffs your damage output instead of your survivability. It will give you a 65% increase to dmg if you're surrounded by 10 enemies at any one time. this also stacks on top of whatever buff your secondary gives you!

Phalanx Fighting is the toggle that will buff your defense. If unslotted it will add 3% defense to every ally close to you, for up to a total of 3 allies. Thats a total of 9%. The more you slot it the larger the buff but 5% is really the most you will get out of this power. This really is enough. That’s 15% if you have three team members close to you in battle.

Shield Charge is an offensive power in this great set. It is a targeted AoE, which means you can put your little target cursor in the middle of a mob and swooosh to bash 'em with your shield. You will knock them all down giving you a chance to catch your breath and make your next move.
If after all this you still find yourself being saved by your team mates you have a secret weapon, your T9

One with the Shield same as unstoppable/Strength of will it will but your S/L res by 30% and all other types by 15%. Increases regeneration by 30%. Not as epic as unstoppble but you don’t carry the tremendous crash risk as an Invun does. You will only drop to 40% endurance afterwards meaning all your toggles will remain up and running.

The last 3 power sets im about to mention are Resistance based SETS unlike defense based characters which struggle to increase resistance, resistance based characters have the potential to become hybrid builds much like Invun/Stone/Willpower. Although they don’t actually inherit defensive powers, they can utilize power pools that will give them a fighting chance . I would call these, the distance cousins of the Hybrids. You got the gift NEO you just need to find your way... as the oracle would put it.

Fire Aura:
We have looked at the hybrids and the defense orientated power set, now it’s time for the opposite end of the rector scale. Solely resistant based. Fire Aura was one of the first power sets designed in city of heroes. For some time there it also was the most powerful tanker set as well. It unfortunately got nerfed and was then considered a weaker power set. But as i stated earlier in this guide "all power sets can be superman". Fire aura is no different.

A basic fire aura tanker will have numbers similar to the following listed

Smashing 71%

Lethal 71%

Fire 90% (hardcap)

Cold a whopping 15%

Energy 47%

Negative energy 47%

Psi 0%

Toxic 20%

Smashing/lethal/energy being the most common of dmg types we will work out our math’s accordingly.
17 foes hitting at 200 dpa with 71% resistance
44*.71= 12.76
13*17= 221 hit points every 3 seconds
1800 base hit points
1800/221 = 8.1 total cycles
This means within 24 seconds you will be dead. I haven’t taken hp regeneration into account in this scenario, just the resistance factor. Some of the tools we have to combat this are.

Healing Flames with basic slotting will recharge every 20 seconds and replenish roughly 50% of your health. 1800/2= 900 hp. You've increase your lifespan by 12 seconds- still not enough is it. Well like i said Fire Aura has been considered one of the weaker sets in the past. It is quite tough but it really shines once you softcap some defense
If you manage to find a guide or get the help you need to softcap your FA tank be very happy. Fire tanks though considered underdogs, once built right produce the most DPS a tank can, along with superman status.

Fiery Embrace much like against all odds will stack with any secondary dmg buff by adding dmg fire to all your attacks. This is popular because the increased dmg buff is what really makes your damage/second stand above other tanker sets.

Burn maybe considered a non-mitigation tool but I still like to think of it as one. It is an added AoE attack that adds immobolize protection, and of course, does a heap of damage. Its reacharge is quite quick and will make you toast your enemies even faster , meaning "dead enemies are harmless enemies".

Consume Is a power i will mention, although not a mitigation power is a helpful power that allows certain play styles decide if Fire Aura is for them. Consume is another minor AoE but absorbs endurance at the same time. It will effect up to 10 foes in melee range and although wont actually drain them of endurance will fully replenish your own.


Electric Armor:
Electric Armor is my favorite type of tank. Their resistance level rival that of a Stone tank and will not only hard cap Energy but has the potential to hard cap Smashing and Lethal dmg too. It works very much the same way as a Fire tank does.
All resist and no defense. In fact I will go as far to say. That due to the only real set back being NO DEFENSE that if this power set did get defense powers then Electric Armor would be extremely over powered. And here is why, electric gets a few more little tricks to play with that help with mitigation.

Lightning Field is a damaging aura and is what keeps enemies focused on you; it how ever has a very special element. It sucks your enemies’ dry of their endurance.
unslotted for endurance drain you will suck 3%/2seconds. Sucking your enemies’ dry of endurance is of great advantage to you. This prevents them from attacking you. Much like you, if they run out of endurance they can't attack.

Power Sink is another special trait of the Electric. It sucks the endurance of up to 10 foes within melee range and replenishes your own. The more foes you hit the more endurance you get back. But you must be careful, if there are no foes around you at the time, it will be a wasted effort. Combine this with lightning field and you are mitigating damage using solely just the tools given within the set. There is no way the group of enemies is going ever to be able to hit you if they don’t have endurance to attack with. Combining this power with Lightning field and even without defense you’re a mitigating machine.

Energize is a click power that has 3 special aspects to it.
1. Heals up to 50% health
2. Increases regeneration for 30 seconds
3. Decreases endurance usage by 59%
Recharge is nowhere near the same as healing flames in the FA set and is unfortunately about the same heal buff. But like I said, you get a few extra perks that come with it.

Dark Armor:
Yet another diamond in the rough when it comes to power sets. Previously mention ALL resistance based power sets have an easier time getting to the soft­cap of defense then defensive sets getting to hard capped resistance. Dark Armor is no different. Of course though, instead of blabbing on about how to get soft-capped and all that nonsense where there are far better qualified players than me for that) I’d rather share other form of mitigation this power set has so you don’t need to spend a poop-load becoming superman/neo/ any other ridiculously powerful hero you may know.

Dark Regeneration is the best self-heal in this game. It works like power sink, but is a HP healer instead of an endurance drainer. If you manage to draw the life of 10 foes you will heal almost 500% you max hp. That’s thousands of health. On top of that huge heal it can also recharge at the same levels as Healing Flames. My DA tank recharges Dark Regen in 13 seconds! The only real set back to this power is you need to have a good amount of accuracy slotted so it will hit all the affected foes. Mine is about 158%. Luckily for you though that there are 2 more powers you can utilize if you find yourself in too deep (jaws deep)

Oppressive Gloom this toggled power won’t use much endurance to run but at a cost. It will drain your hit points. In return for your own life force it will disorientate the enemies around you. Yes they won’t attack you because there dizzy. Just remember that it’s sucking your own life away though.

Cloak of Fear will suck your endurance dry. This toggle is very endurance heavy and at minimal gain. This power cast fear on your enemies within the same range as Oppressive Gloom. Unlike Oppressive gloom however, this power only works effectively when you don’t attack the enemies. If you attack them then they will stop being frightened and attack you back, they will incur a –to hit debuff though. Some may find the debuff worthwhile and others argue that Oppressive gloom is a better mitigation tool, in the end its entirely up to you as the player.

Well that concludes this little guide. It wasn’t supposed to be as big as this but I got carried away. Could you imagine what would have happened if I was putting secondary’s into consideration? Sheesh. Um I hope I covered everything and please feel free to let me know what I may have missed or got wrong.

(disclaimer: All math’s are examples, figures were taken from my builds created in Mids and damage and recharge times were averaged guess’s for the shear purpose of this guide)
Be sure to check back for updates

It might be worth noting that Dark Armor has Cloak of Darkness (which's Weave-level defense), so has just a mite easier time reaching the softcap than the other resistance sets. You might want to mention Burn in Fire Armor, since it's a fairly notable aspect of Fire Armor. While it doesn't exactly add mitigation, it's a huge attraction for many like Shield Charge is for Shield Defense.

Otherwise, pretty good overview.

Due'ly noted guys thankyou for revise. I'l be sure to update when I get home. I too felt FA was short changed and admittidly I got lazy. After spending so much time at the start i got eager to finish. Ill be sure to revise and incorporate.

Updated