carpenlov

I love to see threads giving dark armor some love, and plan to use some of this for my dark armor tank. I just haven't found the right set for me to pair with Dark Armor. I wanted to pair it with Mace attack but already had a 50 fire/mace tank that I would casual farm with. Not the best farmer but I already have a pimped out rad/fire and ice/fire brute that I farm with. I just like the feel of the mace set. But wanted to do something different. I have a 50 Invul/Street FIghting Tank and did not want to go that route. Back on live I used to farm with a spines/fire scrapper really do not like spines. I know its powerful AOE but just do not like the feel of the set. I leveled a Staff/Dark brute to 49 but while Staff helps a great deal with the endurance issue, something about Staff Set I just did not like. It is more of a feel (animations) I think then actual numbers, but I haven't had the desire to get him to 50 and Incarnate him up. Is it a better combo for tank than brute? Next I had leveled a PsyMelee/Dark Tanker to 50 and liked him little more but was not enthused with PsyMelee. More recently I have gone with a Rad Melee/Dark Armor Tank and just got him to 50 and am starting to work on his incarnate abilities. I like him much more, but was brutal running all the toggles from Dark Armor and adding a additional one from Rad Melee. Though the sets do not have really a whole lot of synergy it feels fairly tough. On live I had a 50 Ice/Stone Melee tanker that I really enjoyed, but when I remade him I went Ice/Titan Weapons brute and have him lingering somewhere in the 30's. Haven't really enjoyed Titan Weapons. I have a 50 elec/elec brute that I have not touched in ages. Elec melee has some fun tricks but did not want to go that route. I would really like to pimp out a dark armor tank and see what he can do, but just have not found/figured out the right combo for me. Recently I have been considering going the dark armor/claws route. Never leveled a claws past 20. Back in the day all the claws/regen characters just made me avoid this over the years. I am curios how this combo is these days. How is claws on a tanker? You never really see much on claws on the forums these days. Sorry to ramble on, but loving this thread so far.

Permafrost is what I usually skip. Energy is one of the most common damage types so don't skip Glacial Armor. 12.5% base DEF might not seem much, but with 3 DEF IO's in that 3 in both Maneuvers and Weave, that puts you around 30 DEF, leaving only around 15% under the soft cap, which you can help cover with set bonuses and hover/combat jumping. On top of that when you fire off Energy Absorbtion you can gain DEF for every enemy within power range up to 10 (with the first giving the most). Hope this helps.

How about the Blue and the Gold? Blue Beetle and Booster Gold?

Back in the day my first lvl 50 was an ice/storm (my second was a fire/storm). Some random thoughts The thing with a ice/storm to me is to decide wether you wish to be more melee focused or ranged focused. I choose the melee type because it more suits my style. Shiver and Snowstorm pretty much cover the same thing, and Artic Air is similar also but with a confuse added. So you can skip at least one of the three. Shiver is a nice sized cone from what i remember and Snowstorm is one where you just toggle it on a bad guy (has a nice -Fly aspect to it also). Artic Air is a self toggle that has a confuse added to it. Each has its strengths. Personally I preferred Snow Storm and Artic Air. Try all three and eventually settle on the ones that fit your play style. Ice Slick and Freezing rain is just pure fun. It's great control and helps teams mow through enemies. Big problem in teams is that teammates would always seem to use their immobilize powers on the enemies and nullify the knockdown. But with the newest patch that shouldn't be much of an issue any more. I hope this is a team build that you have because leveling will be ultra slow if you solo. When I was leveling mine I had Block of Ice, Chilblain, and Air Superiority to help with soloing. I slotted the later 2 for damage. When I hit 50 I dropped Air Superiority and Chilblain. Your blue bar will be tough to maintain without help. Storm just guzzles endurance. Running Maneuvers and Tactics will be rough until you slot up for it. I didn't really run with them until I 50'd. Thunderclap can be very underwhelming without any other stun to stack with it. I liked the power but used it more with my fire/storm than my ice/storm. Tornado on the other hand is just pure fun. immobilize a foe and drop the nado on them and watch it grind them down. I always loved Artic Air. I usually stayed in the middle of things and the confuse aspect when slotted can be very useful. It is an endurance hog from what I remember. And back in the day it was great to spot those pesky stalkers in siren's trying to sneak up on me. Flash Freeze was always my Oh No! power. Just drop it and sleep the enemies. In groups it wasn't to useful, but had it's moments. O2 Boost is a ok heal. You will never be considered a healer (but hey, if your playing storm, healing should be the last thing you think of). The side effects of the power are the best part of the power. Protection from stuns, sleep and end drain. I used to get asked a bit from farmers that would want me their to just apply o2 boost to them as they farmed. That's all I can think of at the moment. I hope it helps. Good luck, it's a fun combo.

My first 2 lvl 50 characters were a Ice/Storm then a Fire/Storm. Such a fun powerset. Storm is not a well known/used powerset, but can be deadly fun in the right hands. Ice/Storm was a more safe controlled chaos, Fire/Storm was a fun wild (mostly) controlled chaos. I am going Fire/Rad this time, but I do miss my stormers. There is nothing like when on a 8 man team that is in middle of a fight and another large mob gets aggroed or ambushed the team and you shout "I got this" and turn on the hurricane and herd the mob into a corner while throwing lightning storms and bonfires while the team finishes the other mobs. Going to make another /storm contoller just not sure of the primary yet.