what would go well with Fire Aura at levels 20-30?

I have a dark/dark and an elec/elect that I like. Both are getting around 40 so I'm tired of them.

I have an inv/ss that I am tired of at level 26. Very tough, but he has few attacks and they are weak single target. I'm going to keep him for now, but will probably rarely play him.

I've realized that I want a tanker with a damage aura, so I want to go with fire (if there is another damage aura besides dark/elec/fire let me know).

I want something that does decent damage, especially AoE by the early 20's. I don't care about end game, I never play it (in any game).

I am a VIP but haven't bought any sets - so no TW

Fire/Fire is hard to beat for early AoE damage on a tank, though it can be a bit squishy unless you take Boxing/Tough and maybe Weave, which makes it hard to also take and slot all the attacks you have by 20ish. Stick with smaller teams and/or have some support along and its not bad though, and I've been on teams where I was probably providing half the damage of the team, so thats fairly satisfying.

It might be worth considering a brute, though, since they get attacks even earlier and the weak slotting you tend to have at low levels is somewhat mitigated by the damage bonus from Fury.

I don't do brutes. At low levels they are just that much squishier than tankers and make poor tanks imo. I don't need the AoE to do a lot of damage, partly if I am surrounded by foes I want to actually attack all of them, and also it makes it that much easier to control aggro. And I solo by herding a group and then beating them all down at once.

I am thinking fire/fire is probably the way to go, but I have no character concept

Ice Melee is awesome for Fire by the 30's.

Edit: I should clarify. By level 20, you have Blazing Aura, combined with Ice Patch>Burn>Frost. You can set everything on fire from the safety of Ice Patch, so everything is falling over itself, and can't attack or run out of Burn.

But he didn't ask about Ice.

I have a bunch of Tanks and I like Fire/** a lot.

One that I'm enjoying is Fire/Dual Blades - That will get your AoE fairly early (L6), and the individual attacks look fantastic and are Designed to chain-together smoothly.

If you're worried about the 'squishiness' of Fire/**, pair it with **/Dark for more self-healing and double Endurance-siphon powers. Unfortunately, Dark is a little weak in AoE, but I feel that Fire's damage Aura and especially Burn, make up for that lack a bit.

The main trouble with your request is that few Tanker secondaries have AoEs before L20. **/Energy Melee gets its one full (unfortunately weak) AoE at L16 and **/Electric Melee has a targeted 'splash' AoE at the same level. **/Stone gets its first one at L20. Of course, there's **/Fire, the King of AoE, which gets Combustion at L4.

The rest have to wait until L28 or even later, before they get theirs.

So, if you want to do lots of AoE, early, **/Fire and **/Dual Blades are your best bets.

Be Well!
Fireheart

thanks, I'll check out ice armor (I have wanted to make Frozen Caveman Lawyer for years) and consider fire/ice. I have played dual blades before and didn't like it. I don't play high enough to get the good combos basically.

so I may just go fire/fire.

Curious, why do you refuse to level past a certain point?

I find the game incredibly dull after around 30-40ish

characters have powers for everything and they are overpowered. Teams just steamroll everything in their path. It's just tedious more than fun.

When my dom can drop 3 aoe controls each fight, instead of conserving his powers for the right moment - it's just stupid to me.

And when the team moves up to a spawn, there is a flash of a couple of big powers and the whole spawn goes down - it's just stupid to me. It is fun getting those powers and getting close to that, but the third spawn that happens to it has gotten old.

I never farm. My interest is not in being powerful. It is not in designing my characters (I only plan if I have to respec, and only up to the respec and usually the plan does not factor in slotting). I play to have fun playing. I find the decisions made in the moment to be what is fun.

I don't disagree that some selected high level content can be hard.

But I don't want to raid, so itrials are out. And I want to just play and have fun. Not play and be bored so that at some point I can play challenging content.

Selling salvage, buying enhancements and general running around is enough tedium in the game - I don't want missions to be tedious as well in hope of some later payoff.

I want a game to be wall to wall fun and excitement.

I have loads of fun on raids and Itrials are totally different then raids. I have done some other stuff to make it fun and challenging. I have ran a few speed Mo's and gotten the badge. Failed a few times on getting it.