NEW DAWN

It used to be Emp/Psi, I say that because just after I complained about how my TA/Archery DEF and Archery/TA Corrupter compared Vigilance got +damage. Before that I always moaned about tickling mobs to death. It gets boring when minions are like AVs to you. Empathy didn't make you offensive and no one did your missions. It's probably now slightly less of a ticklefest.

They're swiss army knifes to me, good for compensating for things in the heat of the moment, need blast, need control, need tank but the one niche is in Nova with it's super amount of range, you can outrange quite a few things. At the very beginning of the game, you could of made 50 and levelled one on totally newbie teams, compensating for their mistakes changing forms to take over different jobs as needed.

I think managing expectations sums it up, I am a huge lover of active defense, I love the secondaries for utility purposes and can garner extra survivability from them. You don't have to take an alpha, alpha them instead, you don't have to always be in melee taking the full attack chain in order to maintain taunt control and tank. There is not one way to play, adapt with what you are and who you team with. Let Scrappers, Brutes have some aggro so it's not all yours, they probably don't need a tank anyway. Let others play to their strengths and if they don't know how, know enough of the game to let them know what they are. I have been armoured up and I got bored with my lack of offensiveness and so armoured down for more attacks and had ended up with the same net effect in some cases albeit fight durations are shorter. Extra pool powers are like comfort blankets until you have a process of elimination. I would have targeting macros to pick out my number one target to say, hold, one shot whatever and move on from there, as an Invuln you wouldn't save sappers to last. All enemy groups have something depending on what you tank with.

I tanked on the first successful all scrapper STF, tanking with a scrapper ofc, I did all the tanking with a Claws/SR, I also did Mender Silos TF free all hostages solo with that SR before incarnates. For me it doesn't matter what Tanker idea you put together, I'm a gonna tank with it. I will tank GW in melee for over 10 mins unaided and go through unstoppable crashes for sport in front of her with an invuln if I want. If it's insane to someone I like it. On my first tank I tanked all the Praetorians before I got to lvl32. You can go lengthy periods in melee, or lengthier periods, melee to range, turn AVs, work with their recharge times, kite out of range some, kite to in and out of range, the options are all there, but to develop some skill with some of what I said I had to take it to test server and spend time playing around with options. I pretty much played different tanks, preferably anarchic pugs anonymously. Team make up doesn't matter, play to strengths with what you got, powersets don't matter, enjoy your concept, even if you want to rotp a lot, but get taunt and get on test server with the beasts.

Mender Silos TF, rescue all hostages and keep them alive.

Tankers are less important to a team as the game goes on, good, I remember people waiting around for what a tank does first, yeah it was often necessary but it made one player the keyplayer and everyone else more of the sidekick. Brutes can do some of the job, Scrappers can do some of the job, other ATs can make the job less necessary, good. It's vitally important that people aren't sidekicks. What you will see though, is some Tankers fully commit to every aspect of Tanking they can and it can and will always make a good difference, you won't see that with Brutes, you won't see it with Scrappers, and even their played by someone who knows how to fully commit to every aspect of Tanking. My idea of a good game is where everyone has the opportunity to look good but in some circumstances for some people what they do is unnoticeable. A great team is a sum of all parts. I can taunt control so many AVs/GMs on any type of Tanker/Brute/Scrapper and make defenders/controllers etc unnecessary if they weren't in team but if they are in team then there are benefits so the swing goes both ways Reason to pick and play a Tank therefore is to commit to every aspect of Tanking. It's not a Brute, it's not a Scrapper. No one should have to switch toons and more than one in team is far too many imo, but can be okay done right so Tanker population shouldn't be an issue.

Hyperstrikes build knowledge and builds are consistently in the ball park of as good as it gets, "you're" just adjusting personal to taste trade offs.

All defenders are at their best when a team can work to their strengths, it helps even if a forcefielder has all of their primary, because there was a design concept. Team mates and their powers, strengths and flexibilities either determine how they can stack, with the defender or determine how they position around the defender, the idea isn't to give the enemies everything and take from them nothing. A scrapper, 6 blasters and insert defender here should be able to do an STF with everyone on a SO build. No one is ripped off by the developers.

The kind of fill in for tank role has always been viable right down to the blapper.

All scrappers can get confront. Regens can steal aggro from Tanks with confront, scrappers were meant to take on AVs from the beginning, they can have the tools available and means to do it in a team. Threat = Dam*debuffmod*ATmod*RangeMod*Tauntdurationremaining*1000. So lets say the Tank was kiting to prevent AoEs wiping the team, the scrapper is doing damage+possible debuffs, the scrapper is closer doing the damage, the Tanker is further away, all the scrapper has to do is used confront. AV picks up on Scrapper and numbers around it, AVs AoE is fully rechg'd. Whack. AV goes from low DPS range attack on Tank to PBAoE on team. Scrapper is kiting with confront, and the team are around the AV, one scrapper in melee does a lot of damage plus has their damage and taunt aura on, same again, AV goes from low dps range attack on Kiting Scrapper to the Scrapper doing lots of damage and a taunt aura on, whack, pbaoe on team. You rarely see teams with no support characters or scrappers with confront, but this can happen.

Scrappers can steal aggro from Tankers, even if the tankers taunt. I have lived on both sides. Who is closest, who is doing the most damage does come into play. I also can say that Scrappers taunt auras can also strip aggro from a kiting scrapper with confront, as they are closest and doing damage. It's not all about the duration, it's all about the threat. Sorry for the necro post. I have been doing search fu.

We never took taunt for slotting bonuses in the old days, I have had multiple tanks with taunt and multiple scrappers with Confront, some powersets like SR you get +rechg, some sets like stone tanks you get - rechg. Some AVs you lose attention quick so then add duration. If you are weak to the attacks no need to look for a particular defender, try range, range lowers the dps and kept damage off of the team, never cared who was in the team, never dressed up a team but whatever there was I just tanked whatever it was to suit whatever the team make up.

There is no wrong or right answer except someone giving you an exact answer. This is going to vary. There are reasons for 6 slots in PvE not just PvP. Some primaries vs some AVs, some secondaries vs pve groups, who you team with, what the average playing age of your typical PuG in experience looks like, where you are at in levels, in build and what your intentions are.

Well what is Telekinesis doing to balance the set? Most controllers don't get a repel, I used it a lot in pvp.

Well there is me on other controllers skipping the immob because I could not fit it in for the sake of other powers taking priority. You have to ask how many other players are doing that because if that is a lot, then Mind Control doesn't end up being stand out lacklustre in the damage department or falling behind in xp/time for not even having an immob. Some sets work better at different things for different ATs, Mind Control from early on can tip everything in a teams favour, just by mass sleeping, no one has to wake all the mobs, but people do people. That's not the fault of the Devs, meanwhile containment comes from Sleep. I was level 10, and 7 other people teamed with me, we mullered Hollows, it was easy xp, people just didn't have to wake all the mobs. Concepts not kicked to the side, some sets were meant to have a playstyle.