Tankiest Tank question

I want to create an extremely 'tanky' tank. I been around enough to know this can vary widely based on what enemies are coming at the team. But I want something that performs well very well most of the time and at least adequately all the time.

First) Stone is right out. Sorry to the dedicated rock lovers, I just cannot do it. I could even go with it for concept with a slow moving Bot but that granite skin they force you into is not why I signed up for the costume creator.

I believe Invulnerability may be the way to go. I am willing to throw a LOT of enhancers at this beast, most I believe I already have in my warehouse (base) and would be willing to scrounge the rest. But I am unfamiliar enough with Tanks to think perhaps I am missing something. I drove a Willpower Tank through trials for a few months about a year ago, and was not unhappy. Also, the new Bio Armor could be the way to go, and I know nothing about that yet. My only experience with Electric Armor was an incredibly sturdy Scrapper I trialed with for awhile. Dark has wonderful resist numbers and the best heal in the game. In the end I am lost in the choices.

So, I ask for the wisdom of the Tank boards. For a high end I/O build with an incarnated Tank what armor tends to be the most survivable?

Word on the street is invulnerable followed by willpower or dark, followed by everything else with fire taking last.

I like Shield. Positional softcap. To iSoftcap if you want. 80+ ddr. Excellent taunt aura. Decent resistances before ato proc. Have hit 80%+ sm/l with the proc.

Drawback... No self heal. Pair with DM if that is a concern. Alternately, there is always rebirth.

Held and maintained aggro on 15 monster island gm's on this toon. That's tough enough for me. I do have a stoner, but there is never, never any NEED for that level of survivability, especially on teams.

If you are looking for the sturdiest Tanker around, with the ability to spend a fortune on them, I would say that you want to go with one of the pure Resist sets or Invincibility.

For the late-game ITrials, Elec Armor works very well, because you're going to have capped resistance to Energy, along with your potentially capped S/L resistances. And since you can get to the S/L softcap as well, you end up with a very sturdy Tanker capable of surviving against the three most common damage types in the game, with decent resistance to everything else as well. Plus, you get a self-heal/regen power, a +recharge auto power, and an End drain power to keep you rolling along. As such, I would go with Elec armor.

Pair it with anything dishing out some KB for additional sturdiness, or just anything that kills mobs fast, since dead mobs = no damage.

thanks for the responses, I'm going Electric. Tesla move over.

Electric is my favorite armor set, with invul as a close second. Pretty much all can be made damned sturdy though.

Anyone remember that massive thread about the most survivable build possible? I can't remember if it was an Elec or a Willpower build that came out on top

The toughest all around tank combination has to be Elec/Ma/Soul. Hand's down.

You can have almost perma Energize, soft capped Melee/Range/AoE defense AND capped S/L/E resistances.

Ageless Radial Epiphany is a pretty good answer for that, however.

Always find it funny when someone tosses Elec to the "other" catagory, knowing well that those other tanks buckle under many battles that Elec breezes through .


I definitely would go with Elec for tankest tank (since you tossed out stone). Inv might have a edge here and thier, but elec also has the edge over Inv here and thier, and Unlike Inv elec is immune to sappers/energy drain. And caps the 3 most common damage types in the game.

As for ultimate tanky elec combo.

I have to say... Elec/DM

DM gives you another heal that you fire.. all the time, along with more -tohit debuffs to make your Def work even better (-tohit debuff might not be DDR, but it has similiar potental on those you hit).

As to your epic/patron...

Soul or Energy would be my picks for tankest. each does it a different way.

Soul... Has a toggle debuff, and gives more tohit Debuffs. It also has gloom, a fantastic attack.

Energy... Has Physical Prefection. This will give you more reg, and potentialy more hps (since you can slot more IO sets that have big Hp boosters).

Over all I have to give the win to Soul, considering that Elec has End tools already it can run Soul easyly.

Other sets that are tighter on End, I would say Energy for the extra reg and rec.


Going into Incnarte area... Rebirth or Barrier (many argue ether way).

Interface.... Diamagnatic (sp?) Most people go Reactive, but for pure tanking on a elec tank you can't go wrong with putting up to an additional -20% tohit debuff on everything around you.

The Incarnate with DDR in it has potentail, but Im still on the side line on that one for elec tanks. A little DDR vs the other ones beneift doesn't seem to weight out.


My Tank currently (without the new res changes) Sits at...

S/L Def: 52%
En/Neg Def: 38%
Range Def: 30%

S/l Res: 90%+
Fire/Cold res: 70%
En Res: 90%+++
Neg Res: 56%
Psi res: 70%
Toxic Res: 9%

When I copyed him to beta all those numbers went up 4-10% each. (avg was about 8%).

So your looking at 90s and 80s % res vs everything but Negative and toxic (Neg was 60% and toxic 14%).

Thats better resist then many other sets after they pop thier tier9s !!