What's a good tankery tanker

I'm not too familiar with all the latest powersets but I've got a WP/BS to 32 right now in homage to a BS/Reg Scrapper I used to play. He's moderately fun but I've lost interest in BS right now. I also have a fire/ice to 12 because I had a 50 back in the day that was fun...but all these homage toons...well, been there done that. Time for something new and different.

I want to be that guy who runs into the crowd, holds aggro for the team while doing a fair amount of damage himself. I want to be that tank to help keep the party safe.

Without subjecting myself to fancy IO sets what is a good fun combo to play? 

INV/SS for getting a feel for it.

Be sure and use Dull Pain before entering the mob. Use it like build up. Trust me.

I had two tanks pre-shutdown, a Dark/Fire and an Ice/Stone. Rather than rebuild them I have been working up a Rad/Psi. She's solid and Mass Levitation...the endless joy of tossing nearby enemies into the air is difficult to put into words.

While this is a tank thread, if you really like tossing enemies in the air, I'm gonna suggest checking out grav trollers. Wormhole will toss them as high as the war wall ledge. ;)

While this is a tank thread, if you really like tossing enemies in the air, I'm gonna suggest checking out grav trollers. Wormhole will toss them as high as the war wall ledge. ;)

I have a level 35 Grav/Energy Dominator.  :D

Oh so you know the joys of 'reverse gravity' :D

Based on your requirements I would put in a vote for Inv/Stone. Decent damage and great crowd control via knockdown. Things get especially fun when you add Earth Mastery!

Invuln/Dark Melee, tough as Granite with none of the drawbacks.  You get a self heal that's also an attack that does decent  damage.  Most of your attacks do -tohit, which mathematically is the same as adding defense against the mobs you hit with them.  I rolled Heraclea as Inv/SS back in the day, and Dark Melee was not ported over to tankers until i12 IIRC.  The current version is Inv/DM.  The synergy there is just greater. 

Good "tankery" primaries:

Invulnerable – for being covered on defense and resists (except for Psi)

Ice – for strong defense and crowd control (got the best aggro aura in the game)

Dark – for strong resists and mez effect

Stone – something for everything, just not all at once

Good "tankery" secondaries to go with them:

Super Strength – Punchy McPunchfest

Ice – Good mez and crowd control

Dark – The utility belt of melee

Stone – Knockdown King

Pair them up any way you like, should be fun. There are, of course, plenty of other sets good for tanking, but these have the most "impeding hunk of aggro fest" feel to them, IMO.

I've never played Inv or DM. I never played Inv because frankly...everyone played one. But I'm open to trying it. Never played an Ice, Dark or Stone primary either. No a fan of SS secondary due to all the Punchy McPunchfest mentioned. I have played IM before...icicles and ice patch and all that.

I like the Dark Melee idea...never tried it. Now to just pick a primary.

DM pairs well with a lot of primaries.

Ice/DM, Fire/DM and Elec/DM will all have double up end recovery and healing. Ice/, Inv/, Shield/, and Super Reflexes will all have synergy with the -To Hit in DM. And for sets that don't have a heal in them like Willpower, it's an nice set to plug that hole a little.

Having played a DM/Elec Brute who was stunningly survivable pre-shutdown (and am in the process of remaking), I can assure you an Elec/DM tank will not disappoint. You quite literally cannot run out of endurance so long as three foes are about and having both an quickly recycling healing attack as well as a backup heal that does not have to hit is a major plus.

Is EM really that bad?

Rad/Fire

Ice/Spines

Dark/Fire or Dark/Dark (Rangle will never let me live this posting down)

I personally enjoy some variations on Ice Melee, but you have to be tough to be an IMer.

Rad/Ice

Dark/Ice

Electric/Ice

Shield/Ice

Is EM really that bad?

It isn't completely unplayable.  You do not want to mix it with sets like Fire or Bio that depend a great deal on click power heals.  Too much can happen during the five seconds you're stuck watching animations play. 

Pre-shutdown I started levelling an Ice/EM Tanker...that is what prompted me to make my far more successful and enjoyable Ice/Stone Tanker.

DM pairs well with a lot of primaries.

 

Ice/DM, Fire/DM and Elec/DM will all have double up end recovery and healing. Ice/, Inv/, Shield/, and Super Reflexes will all have synergy with the -To Hit in DM. And for sets that don't have a heal in them like Willpower, it's an nice set to plug that hole a little.

Is SR viable at all? I mean, you can play it, but it doesn't feels it was meant for tanking. Scaling resist with HP loss is looking for trouble in my opinion. Everything can be built to work I guess, but Super Reflexes seems like a masochist pick. Anyone played a good tank build with SR?

DM pairs well with a lot of primaries.

 

Ice/DM, Fire/DM and Elec/DM will all have double up end recovery and healing. Ice/, Inv/, Shield/, and Super Reflexes will all have synergy with the -To Hit in DM. And for sets that don't have a heal in them like Willpower, it's an nice set to plug that hole a little.

 

Is SR viable at all? I mean, you can play it, but it doesn't feels it was meant for tanking. Scaling resist with HP loss is looking for trouble in my opinion. Everything can be built to work I guess, but Super Reflexes seems like a masochist pick. Anyone played a good tank build with SR?

Im.. designing one now?  Idea is that (unlike so many other builds!), you dont go chasing every pool in the game for +DEF, cause its all there already.  You slot up to Incarnate Softcap (I picked up weave for that purpose) and then you go forth with everything missing you forever.  Take Aid Self, skip hasten, put Practiced Brawler on Autofire...  resits are running in the 25-55% range, before the 'scaling resist with decreasing health' kicks in.

Now, where the money comes in - late, late game content comes with massive DEF Debuffs.  They hand them out like candy. They are everywhere and they make baby jesus cry.  Some spawns will floor a softcap RES character flat out, leaving them with just resistances to take damage on.  SR Tanks are (if Pines is to be trusted!) very high on DEF Debuff Resistance, and can be driven to a higher starting defense - delaying or avoiding the DEF Collapse Cascade and the follow on debuffs that crush your resistance, regen, and everything else.

I'll let you know how it goes in a month or never when I get it to 50.  Going Claws for.. some good reason.  Cause I miss claws and they made it better while I was away and I like the green arm blades.  And who doesnt want good DPA Ranged Attacks on their melee toon?

DM pairs well with a lot of primaries.

 

Ice/DM, Fire/DM and Elec/DM will all have double up end recovery and healing. Ice/, Inv/, Shield/, and Super Reflexes will all have synergy with the -To Hit in DM. And for sets that don't have a heal in them like Willpower, it's an nice set to plug that hole a little.

 

Is SR viable at all? I mean, you can play it, but it doesn't feels it was meant for tanking. Scaling resist with HP loss is looking for trouble in my opinion. Everything can be built to work I guess, but Super Reflexes seems like a masochist pick. Anyone played a good tank build with SR?

 

Im.. designing one now?  Idea is that (unlike so many other builds!), you dont go chasing every pool in the game for +DEF, cause its all there already.  You slot up to Incarnate Softcap (I picked up weave for that purpose) and then you go forth with everything missing you forever.  Take Aid Self, skip hasten, put Practiced Brawler on Autofire...  resits are running in the 25-55% range, before the 'scaling resist with decreasing health' kicks in.

 

Now, where the money comes in - late, late game content comes with massive DEF Debuffs.  They hand them out like candy. They are everywhere and they make baby jesus cry.  Some spawns will floor a softcap RES character flat out, leaving them with just resistances to take damage on.  SR Tanks are (if Pines is to be trusted!) very high on DEF Debuff Resistance, and can be driven to a higher starting defense - delaying or avoiding the DEF Collapse Cascade and the follow on debuffs that crush your resistance, regen, and everything else.

 

I'll let you know how it goes in a month or never when I get it to 50.  Going Claws for.. some good reason.  Cause I miss claws and they made it better while I was away and I like the green arm blades.  And who doesnt want good DPA Ranged Attacks on their melee toon?

Well, the way you planned/described SR is more enticing than what I thought when I looked at it at first. It makes me even want to try it out!  :) Let us know how it fares once you've ironed it out at 50.

It may not be one of the top builds, but we’re going to be really happy to have our friend’s Electric Armor/Radiation Melee tanker when we tackle the Synapse TF... :)

Rad/TW has been a blast for me. I don't think I've had anything kill me since I hit 50 and built myself up.

I've halfways wanted to try an SR tank since I heard arcana talking about how good the sliding resistance is with tank base values and hp. Think that was back when it was still in beta. But to do that would require me to roll a tank, which isn't my cup.

No love for Shield/ Elec?  I have one at 50 and he's great fun

No love for Shield/ Elec?  I have one at 50 and he's great fun

Cheering for Shield is like Cheerleading for the Quarterback, who lettered in a few other sports, is taking all AP classes and is a Mensa-Spanking Genius, whose parents are Waltons and who is dating a member of the Royal Family. 

Sure, its great, but...

No love for Shield/ Elec?  I have one at 50 and he's great fun

 

Cheering for Shield is like Cheerleading for the Quarterback, who lettered in a few other sports, is taking all AP classes and is a Mensa-Spanking Genius, whose parents are Waltons and who is dating a member of the Royal Family. 

 

Sure, its great, but...

HA!

Also, while a great combo with lots of tele-smashing goodness, I wouldn't necessarily say it feels TANKERY. But that's all subjective, right?