Tanker damage?

Hi tankers!

I come from a scrapper/brute background. Since like the game started. I once managed to get a tank up to 26 or so. But that was Em, and since the nerfs to Em, ugh,

Recently I made a Fm/Inv brute that I absolutely love. I noticed though that he seems to lack in AoE damage, and that FM on tanks has the addition of combustion. So I came here to ask about it. More about it the single target damage though. I'm the kind of player that likes to solo AV's, and contribute to a team.

So with bruising, is it possible to put out decent single target damage, as well as get the wonderful AoE?

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: still yes, though it will be lower than Brutes and Scrappers. As long as you are okay with that, you'll be fine.

In before JB derails this into yet another tirade about how Tankers need their damage buffed.

You will deal less than a Scrapper or Brute, but you'll also need to put much less effort into surviving the return fire.

Short answer, you'll be fine for damage output.

There are a number of players who insist that Tankers deal crap damage and are useless for anything in the game. Don't listen to them, the only person who can decide those things about your character is YOU.

Soloing AVs will be much more difficult. As far as I know, though, it should still be possible to build to do it, and for general purposes I've always found tanker damage to be more than adequate as long as you choose your sets and build appropriately.

I would recommend for something with a damage aura, very survivable, toggle up and go with a strong toolbox...Dark Armor. Then I would pair it up with something like Fire or Super strength, maybe DM or Stone Melee, and it should hit like a mack truck, softcap easily, and have arguably the best composite resists in the game. I am currently enjoying a Dark/Fire tank, and I must say, I like it better than any tank I've ever rolled. You could go stone armor with granite for slightly more survivability, but you sacrifice a lot more with Stone for the extra mitigation.

Just my 2 cents for a lot of fun on a Tank.

I was thinking of Inv/Fm. I really love it on my brute. Though I admit that when Dechs first put out his DA Sucks video, I almost rolled up a DA tank.

Maybe I will try Da/Fm. Thanks for the help all.

Inv/Fire should be a very nice combo on a tanker; once it matures a bit Inv doesn't need any help from the secondary in the durability area while /Fire is quite light on endurance and has nice damage with decent AOE.

I've played /Fire on a tanker twice to 50, once as Stone/Fire and once as Shield/Fire... the set is quite nice at damage and the AOE's are good at saying "Look at ME!" to the mobs. My only Inv tanker is of course my namesake Inv/Stone and he's my go-to tank for any tough content.

Inv is so good it's hard to come up with a bad pairing (besides /EM... that set really sucks now. I've a 50 Stone/EM tanker I exiled to another server shortly after the nerf) and /Fire offers good damage, low endurance and good AOE at the expense of any damage mitigation so it's suggested for strong primaries.

Inv/FM could solo even-level AVs while leveling before Bruising was introduced. Other combos can do the job just as well of course, just saying don't lock yourself out of a concept you enjoy because you feel it might not perform - it does.

There is a tough part (strictly speaking about AV soloing) from about level 25 to 35, as mob HP/regen starts going up proportionally but you're still stuck with just Scorch and Fire Sword, but once you get your final two attacks, and before that (due to the damage/mobHP ratio being in favor of the player at low levels) it's all good.