My Elec\Elec (43), feels like it underperforms the higher I get

Do Electric\Electric tankers mature early? Is the slow down I feel is happening just the mobs catching up finally?

Character is 43 with generic I/Os that I just upgraded to lvl 45s (mostly) because I have this perception of under-performance.

I solo this character because I am not a good tanker and I have seen what bad tankers do to a team often as not. I am doing Ouroboros missions and AE (I have a silly arc I keep testing and changing) so I pick what I fight. It isn't like I have suddenly changed the foes.

I haven't felt that way on my tanker at all (shield/mace). If you can post your build, that would help. A couple of thoughts:

Do you have the fighting and/or leadership pool?

Do you have the Steadfast Protection +3% Defense IO? It can be purchased fairly cheap for regular merits.

Before slotting, Tough+Weave+Maneuvers+SP3% will take your defense from zero to 10% across the board and increase your S/L resistance by 15%.

You're concerns are really vague, which makes it quite difficult to determine the problem and how to fix it. "Under-performing" is very subjective.

That being said, if you're using only common IOs and have played other toons that use set IOs or frankenslot, I can understand your feelings a bit more.

As Green Wind suggested, Tough/Weave/Maneuvers are quite helpful. Tough more so than the others until you start building with set IOs for defense. With Tough+Charged Armor you should be somewhere around 75% s/l resist.

Other than that, you really need to be specific about your troubles or post a build. If you're having problems with 'tailor made' mobs then either something is off with the build or you're picking the wrong mobs, or something along those lines.

Only a personal guess,but some of your concern may come from the fact that electric melee have good aoe,but really sucks at single target damage. If you tackle a boss especially at higher difficulties it will take you ages to kill him. I had and elec/elec too,but deleted him. I love electric armor,it was the secondary wich didn't suit me. I ended up deleting even my shield/elec,and for the same reason. Fights with hard enemies will go on longer and longer,and the more an enemy stays alive the more attacks he dishes out,so you may take lots of damage even with a tough armor set. If you can slot for defense it will help,but the slow pace at wich you kill enemies will still be a problem.
Electric melee works better for scrapper or brutes,and i've heard even them complain about the lack of single target damage. A good set for teaming and clearing spawns fast,but solo and with tanker bas damage,it becomes a drag against anything stronger than a lieutenant

There doesn't appear to be a consensus that the character would have trouble in later levels so I guess it is user error or at least my perception of what I should be doing is higher than it should be. Which was what I thought would the most likely answer. I know that this character is a better team player than soloer but I am adverse to the role of setting the pace or playing team lead.

If I find that app that takes your character information from in game I will post what I have (opposed to what my Mids build says I 'should' have) and we could discuss that but from what I read I have formed the opinion that this is as much a expectation/perception problem as anything.

None of the points brought up are things I think I have missed. I have adequate KB protection. Though I took Grounded later than I should have I don't fall down. I turn Bosses off and on, approximately seventy/thirty, and run at +0/x6 usually. I learned groups fuel the powers early. I will experiment and go to -1 or x8 or both just to see if that changes my vague feeling on this issue.

I have Tough/Weave/Maneuvers covered though I tend to turn Maneuvers off because of END concerns. It is on the edge, when I next get slots I can drop the END drain on it to where I won't worry. I don't have the SP3%, Steadfast Protection unique, mentioned. I could certainly get it but I don't die a lot so it isn't urgent to plug holes in my protection. My real issue is just that I feel I am not killing as fast, relatively, as I did a few levels ago.

I know I shouldn't really be soloing this tanker but I haven't played the class much and I haven't played it at 50 ever so I wanted to try.

Thanks for the time and thought going into the replies by all.

It seems your problem is indeed electric melee low damage. Sadly,there isn't a solution for this,and it will only get worse. At level 50,with shield and Against all Odds,my attacks still felt weak. Either you accept your low damage output and learn to live with it,or reroll a different character.

Also: how can you say that you are a bad tanker,if you don't play in teams? You cannot know until you try. The main reason bad tankers are ,indeed,so bad,is that they only care about showing how tough they are and don't pay attention to what happens to the team. This doesn't seem to be your case. If you try your best to draw the aggro and protect your team,you are not bad. And there's always room for improvement. No one was a good tanker from day one,it's something that you learn as you play.

I havent played /elec on a tank, but I have a elec/sheild scrapper. others are right about the single target dmg. There are a few things you can try.
One, set your difficulty to not include bosses if they are the hang up. If they put a hurt on you, or take forever to kill it is a real downer to the character. Instead, change the settings to increase the spawn size.Then use AOE's all over the place to wipe out big groups of minions with a few liuts mixed in.
i would also look at frankenslots for the build, just look for cheap double and triple IO's. you can get a good chunk of extra recharge into some of your more useful attacks that way. Especially lightning rod, that is the most fun power in the set and the character will be more fun the more you can use it.
Something else to try- pick up air superiority. I am not a huge fan of using pool attacks normally(no custumization) but that is one that can be a life changer in certain builds because of the knockdown. it does at least as good of damage as some of the ST attacks in elec melee anyway, and the mitigation from the KD is awsome when you fight a harder foe for an extended period of time- which can be more common on elec melee.

I love my elec/elec tank... Ellektro. He's 50.. and he does really well. I haven't tested him to the max, but so far he I find he can do some things that even some other good tanks can't... my energy and Psi resist are very good... those are things to hang your hat on.

I can't get S/L as high as an Invuln tank, BUT if I go with Cardiac Core Paragon (I haven't decided yet because I don't actually have endurance issues!) I can get my S/L to 85.5%. That's pretty good considering my Psi will be 73%!

Nothing wrong with that at all..

For utility Lightning rod is a good soft control, as well as mentioned AOE damage... I can end drain a lot of the sub AT content... I can put an Elite boss down to zero End in a very short time... and keep most of them there myself.

You will notfind an elec/elec tank is the straight forward, tough as nails tank as an Invuln, or perhaps a Stoner naturally, but you have things they don't...learn how to use them.