Tank Help

Hello Forums right now i am trying to find a tanking build as you can sorta see in the Title. I would like a toon to lead the team of a SF/ITF/TF/Missions/trials/Other (besides PVP). Maybe a lil farming skills in him but if we can't fit that in the build then nevermind we don't need it, it is just like a want not a need. I will probobaly badge hunt and some other stuff too with him.

I dont know what build i want yet so if you could make up a build that would be AWESOME! I have been looking at some builds like Brutes: Elec/Shield, SS/Shield, SS/WP, SS/Inv, and a couple other. I thought about Stone I know they are the best for mainly everything but idk if i want to be the slow dude of the bunch. You guys do not need to tell me what i can do from the builds i have listed up top. If you think the builds i listed are not the best then shoot me a build that you like and have tryed or have!

Feel free to send me a build to help me out and give me some tips with what the build has that would be much Appreciated. Because i am not to good with makeing builds but i understand if you don't wanna show your build on the forums (if that is the reason to be a Great friend you could send it to my email:tmaverick00@gmail.com). Tips and suggestions help too if you would like to talk to me ingame one of my names is FlameingxFries or just send a email in game---->> @The Arachnos
If you have any questions or don't understand please say something in your comment please only Nice and Helpful comments if i am not responding to your comments, if you would like to be ULTRA helpful send it to my email tmaverick00@gmail.com if you have any tips for my next forums post like how to give more info please tell! Thanks again guys!

Welcome to the forums.

First of all, I suggest you look in the Tank forums and read the threads that already exist. You'll find lots of discussions about what is or isn't "Awesome" to each person. Everyone has a different idea of what is "Awesome" to them.

There are builds there that you can look at, and can decide what works best for your mindset, and budget. If you haven't grabbed Mids Hero planner already, get it here. If you have problems understanding how to use Mids, let us know and we'll be happy to answer your questions.

Generally, you'll find that if you're not willing to put some effort into giving us an idea of what you want, it's hard for us to know what's in your head. Look through and find something that's close to what you want and then we can give you some feedback. You may "suck" today at making builds, but with effort you could be helping others with your "tank" advice.

Ok thanks, but usually when i look in the forums of tank builds i look at some and i never know if there good or not I don't know if i want a Tank Tank i think sorta like a leader of the pack who can herd and taunt but I think that is pretty much tanking guess. I also wanna go ahead and kill kill kill! I think right now i am fighting for a shield defence or WP and heard Shield is fun to play with but I dont know if it will be good for tanking mainly everything. WP i think would be good I think.

Here are some questions of mine??
-Would Shield be good if i added Dark to it but i really want elec but if dark would mainly kill or keep me alive then that would be nice
-Tank builds. . . . I was doing a ITF and i saw this Scrapper with Duel Swords/WP and he was good for leading the pack looked like because thats what he did but I don't know if he had sets of IO's to protect him from the enemies in the ITF

Thanks for the comment Rangle!

Tanking in the way you’re talking about it, as in being the leader of the pack is less about the build or for that matter even the arch-type and more of the mindset of the player (like the scrapper you saw).

All tanks/brutes and many other arch-types can herd and lead a team and all tanks can overcome their arch-types weaknesses. Sure a Stone tank is inherently slow with rooted and granite armor running but with teleport and run speed bonuses from IO’s you can overcome that deficiency, some of the funniest tanking I’ve ever done is teleport-tanking by TP’ing into a mob hitting an AoE attack and TP’ing to the next mob before returning to my group for them to clean the floor with them.

An invulnerability tank can handle the same level of mobs as a stone with again the right build, the same can be said of a shield tank, the defiance is that Stone and Inv. Are resistance based and Shield is defense based both have their advantages and disadvantages, it just comes down the how you play and how much money your willing to spend on the build.

My advise build a tank and play it, see what you think and get some experience under your belt, you’ll make some mistakes and correct them as you discover ways to do it better, maybe you’ll start a few tanks or brutes and find one you like better.

My advice would be to try one of the Invulnerability builds. Shield Defense is fun but it didn't get "good" for me until around level 38 or so. Invulnerability gets Temp Invulnerability at level 1, which provides a huge amount of S/L resistance right away.

Invulnerability will have problems later with certain types of enemies (Toxic, Psi) but those do go away eventually, and it's darn tough against anything else.

It might not even have these problems any more; my experience leveling an Invulnerability Tanker was pre-IOs and pre-Inherent Stamina. Inherent Stamina in particular should give you more power picks earlier and allow you to be tougher sooner.

Shield is more damage oriented (Tuant aura boosts your damage, Shield Charge) but WP has more long term staying power generally.

Shield is, as I recall, better at taking the alpha than WP as well. (Spike damage plays against regen based defense)

Dark Melee paired with shields is nice because of it's heal, but Dark Melee is a single target set more than anything, and you might prefer AoE. You can also pick up the medicine pool to add healing for a non-DM shield- just slot it with interrupt reductions.

This may be pricier than you're able/willing to go. You can always take the panaceas out and put in doctored wounds.

By no means is it the sturdiest tank around. It's a fire/fire tank and even with tough, getting to the s/l resistance cap would cost billions of inf, unless you just have a slew of hero merits to draw from. I think it's a good balance of resistance and defense with a decent recharge of 125%. You could certainly get higher recharge, but that would mean a few sets of purples which although they provide good recharge, they don't always provide the bonuses you want.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Possible Time: Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Blazing Aura -- Oblit-Dmg:50(A), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg:50(40), Oblit-Acc/Rchg:50(42), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(42), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), Oblit-%Dam:50(43)
Level 1: Scorch -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg:35(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx:35(17), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg:35(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(19)
Level 2: Fire Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(3), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(3), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(37), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(50)
Level 4: Healing Flames -- Dct'dW-Heal:50(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:50(7), Dct'dW-Rchg:50(7)
Level 6: Super Jump -- Zephyr-ResKB:50(A)
Level 8: Consume -- P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(11), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(11), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg:50(15), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(15), P'Shift-End%:50(46)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB:30(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(23), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(37)
Level 12: Plasma Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(13), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(13), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(50), GA-3defTpProc:50(17)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(23)
Level 16: Hover -- Krma-ResKB:30(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(36), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(37)
Level 18: Combustion -- Oblit-Dmg:50(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg:50(21), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(33), Oblit-%Dam:50(43)
Level 20: Burn -- Oblit-Dmg:50(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg:50(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg:50(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34), Oblit-%Dam:50(43)
Level 22: Kick -- KinCrsh-Acc/KB:50(A), KinCrsh-Rchg/KB:50(40), KinCrsh-Dmg/KB:50(40), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx:50(50)
Level 24: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(25), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(25), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(46)
Level 26: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(27), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(29)
Level 28: Fiery Embrace -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(29)
Level 30: Fire Sword Circle -- Oblit-Dmg:50(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg:50(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg:50(36), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(31), Oblit-%Dam:50(46)
Level 32: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(A)
Level 35: Build Up -- Rec'dRet-ToHit:20(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg:20(36)
Level 38: Char -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold:30(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg:30(39), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold:30(39), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(39)
Level 41: Greater Fire Sword -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg:35(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx:35(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg:35(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(45)
Level 44: Melt Armor -- Achilles-ResDeb%:20(A)
Level 47: Fire Ball -- AirB'st-Acc/Dmg:50(A), AirB'st-Dmg/EndRdx:50(48), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg:50(48), AirB'st-Dmg/Rng:50(48)
Level 49: Rise of the Phoenix -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 50: Cardiac Core Paragon
------------
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(21)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-End%:50(9), EndMod-I:50(9)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run

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Consider Dark Melee / Invulnerability. For both Brutes and Tanks (and Scrappers) it generally gets votes as one of the most survivale right outta the box.

We could suggest combinations all day long and most of us probably have quite valid reasons for our favorite choices... still what you want is a combination that appeals to you and that's a far more subjective thing.

First off, you say you want to lead a team on TF's... well, really any tanker combination can do that although some do it better than others. The first question is do you want an offensive or defensive focused tanker? As the question would suggest an offensive set deals better damage at the expense of durability while a defensive set offers better durability but probably less damage output.

Stone (after level 32) and Invuln are the most durable sets with Stone taking (by a considerable margin) top honors albeit with many drawbacks. Fire and Shield are the most offensive sets with Shield being more durable (on average) and Fire doing more damage. The other sets tend to fall in between.

Shield can be very durable, but it's not going to rival Stone or Invuln in that department... I have all three sets at 50 with fairly optimal builds and the Invuln and Stone survive things that turn the Shield into a grease spot. However the Shield is adequate for anything I've tried and it does kill considerably faster and it probably comes in slightly above average in end game durability.

The new Super Reflexes set is amazingly good in the low levels; quite possibly the most durable tanker set around pre level 20. In the upper levels it'll fade a bit probably ending up on par with Shield in end game durability.

In my opinion a true tanker isn't about powersets; it's about attitude and mindset. The true team shielding tanker that's desired by teams is one with the philosophy that the only way the mobs are getting to your team is over your dead body... and the ability to withstand the punishment required to stay alive in that situation. Depending on the build and the team composition (team buffs can make a huge difference here) there isn't a tanker set that CAN'T fill this role, indeed many scrapper builds can do it as well.

In closing I'd suggest you decide just what you want out of a tank and then ask again in the Tanker forums. I'll say that out of all the sets I've played I've found Invuln to be the best overall set combining top tier durability with no serious drawbacks. Does that mean you should make one? Heck, I've played and enjoyed Invuln, Stone, Shield, Ice, Fire, Dark, Electric and Super Reflexes and all of them have advantages and disadvantages. I had fun and was an effective tank with all of them.

If you want to be a tanker, remember there's a difference between Herding and Steamrolling (both non-official names, but pretty descriptive).

Herding is... generally out of date in today's game. Basically, it involves telling everyone to wait while you gather mobs with Taunt and your aura. The problem is, nobody likes to wait unless absolutely necessary (such as big room, or an AV).

Steamrolling is basically the designated one jumps into group of enemies first followed shortly, or immediately by everyone else. When the mob is almost dead, the designated one immediately moves into a new group and the others follow (including leftover enemies), or polish off enemies before jumping in. Much more faster paced, and with IOs and different powersets allowing everyone to survive easier, it's a more viable style of play.

First off, let me start by saying that the Tanker forum is a good place to go when asking questions about the Tanker archetype, which it doesnt sound like the OP is too interested in. For a more general discussion, there is the Archetype and Powers General discussion board, and then move down to the individual boards for Brutes and Scrappers once you determine which you'd prefer to play.

Secondly, if you're looking to tank by keeping the mobs distracted, Willpower probably isnt the way. It has a taunt aura that is probably the least effective of all taunt auras. While teamed up with WP Tankers as a lowbie Tanker (as happens frequently on all Tanker events like the weekly Tanker Tuesday tour) I have to take great care when jumping into a large group, or I wind up having too many switching targets from the tank, and focusing on me.
This is most common when playing as a Shield or Ice tanker, as they seem to have some of the most effective taunt auras (plus the extra damage that shield is able to put out).