Shield Tanker or Brute?

(This isn't just to you Hopeling. See the link in my Sig "Tanks: Gauntlet, the Streak breaker and you". I believe I did a reasonably good job of testing, but there's always a possibility I made some mistakes. Please let me know if you see any.)

Between the two choices, I like them both for different reasons. Brute Shield Charge won't get a great benefit from Fury, but you'll still do great dmg on your attacks. Mace is Smashing, Axe is Lethal so they will be more effective against different mobs. It will take more work to get the Brute soft capped.

Originally Posted by PapaSlade Rangle's right....this is fun.

When would I need Taunt, exactly? I'm balls-deep in the mob, Punchvoking and holding aggro with my taunt aura. Runner? Meh, someone else will grab it, I got all these guys right here. Blaster pulls a boss off me? He'll kill it mighty fast, and if not, live and learn, Blaster buddy! Shield scrapper pulls aggro from me? She's tough enough to handle it until either it's dead or I pull it back. Brute beats me to the spawn and grabs aggro first? Good on him, he needs the fury and anything that lives more than ten seconds will be on me by then.

Taunt's fine for what it is, but I don't need it to be an awesome tank. Tankers have so many tools to pull aggro, my animation time is better used attacking than waving my hands and making silly grunting noises. The fact you think Taunt is needed to be a good tank tells me that it's you who doesn't know much about tanking.

People like you either learned to tank in a different game, or learned from someone who did. City of Heroes doesn't require taunt spamming the way other games do, because we have mechanics - including but not limited to: variable Threat levels, Gauntlet, and Taunt auras - that tend to keep aggro "where it's supposed to be".

Before Inherent Fitness, I never took Taunt on a Tank or Brute; I never had room in the build. Now, I always take it, but I still don't spam it. I can hold aggro up to the cap without using it, so I only use it to snag a runner or someone picking on a squishy, or when fighting something that must be kept on me, like Recluse in STF. I never spam Taunt except on an AV or GM, and I've never seen a team wipe because of it.

"Taunt every time it recharges" is pretty bad advice too. With a 10 second recharge, it's pretty easy to get to the point where you'd be Taunting as often as you attack, and I've got better powers to use than Taunt.

This! Makes everything you said irrelevant to me. (IE: Not worth my time to discuss)

I know your type. I've seen you on some Lambda runs. You run thru the lab/warehouse leaving your friends behind, attacking the crates, everyone on your team is dieing left and right. You continue on thru the map locating crates. You suddenly find yourself alone and see that everyone else on your team has headed to the hospital. Than you think to yourself "Man these other players just don't get it, i'm alive and they keep dieing. Don't they know to just follow me. Meh, oh well, i'm a good tank, I haven't died!"

You are a Scrap or Brute player, stay off of Tankers and giving advice about them. Selfish Tankers are NOT needed.

...I lol'd. I've got to ask now, what is the proper way to run through the Lam lab/warehouse maps? Herding all the squishies and never moving forward until all the mobs in your way are defeated and none of them can draw stray aggro? Yes, in general, tanks should stick with the team and protect them. The Lambda is an occasion where that is not really productive.

Honestly, as someone who plays majority squishy characters, I find your attitude beyond patronizing. A TEAM JUST FALLS APART WITHOUT A TANK ZOMG. Those 7 remaining players? Should not all be dying horribly if they had some modicum of player skill. I don't know if I'm blowing your mind here, but squishies have, in fact, been known to solo crates without a tank to protect them.

As for taunt... I have it on both my brutes. It's good for the LRSF, where the first AV will try to run away unless hit with taunt multiple times, or for AM in the Keyes trial, so he stays undamaged, or if you need a quick pull like in the TPN. But save for those outliers, taunt is /not/ necessary, let alone part of the regular attack chain, not even for tanks. Punchvoke along with a taunt aura will be fine for 99% of the game.

Anyhow...

to the OP, I'm just going to echo what's already been said, a /shield tanker is one of the tanks with the highest damage output, but it will never rival that of a brute. However, it will have higher resistances (a survivability gap that widens if you use the tanker ATO proc), as well as higher defenses (You can hit the incarnate soft cap on a shield tanker without making too many sacrifices in your build, the same cannot be said of the brute) along with higher HP (Shield tanks can hit and surpass 3000 HP, Brutes will be around 2400). Either of them can tank.

The brute will be dealing very good damage, but due to the way fury works, will not be receiving as much benefit from Against All Odds.

A shield scrapper will be just as survivable as the brute, save having slightly lower HP (Around 2000+), but thanks to their high base damage amplified by Against All Odds, will be dealing significantly better damage.

So, I would recommend scrapper, but if the choice is between tank and brute, I'd favor the tank for the higher defensive values. If you're gonna sacrifice damage for survivability, may as well go all the way.

Your posts are comedy gold.