Heraclea

Dead Boys - Ain't It Fun

Humble Pie - Stone Cold Fever

I must confess that I rather miss the old coot. If nothing else, he was an irresistable figure to make fun of. His characterization in-game, and in the official comics, did nothing to discourage that. The fact that he was the in game avatar of Jack Emmert also helped. For a while I had published on Homecoming an AE arc, The Great American Skull Fry, in which Statesman gets slipped some tainted water from the Well and ended up getting captured by Skulls. He is rescued by the players and Flower Knight. (I'd put it up again but I still haven't persuaded anyone to open up more AE slots.) And Who...Will...Die???? is one of the worst comic book tropes ever, so very 1992.

David Byrne - Good and Evil

Myself, I prefer to let people play the characters they brung. I often play the tanker. And people will either need me to tank for them or they won't. I tend to play fairly conservatively and don't move on to the next spawn until the last mobs from the old one are down, because the last mobs standing tend to be bosses, and they're the ones that need to be kept corralled. If there's a scrapper or brute handling it, that's another thing. But if you need me to tank, you'll turn off Sprint and let me get there. Sprint doesn't actually help you move faster in the caves anyways. My pet peeves are large, noisy pets that are always in the way - not a "mastermind" problem per se, because some of the Lore pets are as bad or worse - and the dominator or controller that wants to root all the mobs in place before they've been gathered for the nukers, without using the sort of hard controls that actually take them out of the game. Floaties are hard enough to rope in, and if they're rooted they can't close and tend to just spam ranged attacks.

Shield also supplies Dark Melee's chief deficiency, the lack of relatively quick recharging and hard hitting AoEs. And of course its -Tohit is the mirror image of Defense, so the synergy between the two is strong.

PDQ Bach - Schleptet in Eb Major

Mozart - Magic Flute overture

Donovan - Season of the Witch

The other set that has something of the feel of the old Energy Melee is Kinetic Melee. Tried it on both tanker and scrapper, and I think it's a bit underrated. Solid single target damage and a fast recharging PBAoE.

John Stewart - Gold

Pretty Things - She's a Lover

If you can get past the weird noises it makes, Kinetic is pretty good. You get solid single target damages from Concentrated Strike, and a fast recharging AoE attack in Burst. Some of the animations are rather long, so it pairs well with a set and forget primary like invulnerability. Though I do think Dark Melee has mad synergy with Invulnerability. Defense and -tohit are like mirror images of each other.

Fleetwood Mac - World Turning

Had an interesting time running Dark Astoria missions. Needed to move to a coop zone because we had a rogue on the team, who couldn't do Maria Jenkins hero stories. Figuring out what was a comfortable level was difficult because what was white to me was deep red or purple to everyone else. But everybody came away with a couple badges at least.

Steve Miller - Jet Airliner

I would recommend something like Fire with DB. Fire is a very forgiving armor set; on a tanker everything it has that directly keeps you alive is available by level 12, and the rest can be postponed or skipped. Getting the most out of DB's combo systems means taking all the attacks; some will say that all you need is Attack Vitals, but they all help. And of course you're a tanker so you will want Taunt. This will give you a very active DPS oriented tanker that will be quite fun to play. Most of the individual DB attacks are fairly quick animations; this plays well with Fire's reliance on a self heal.

Totally worth it to see the high kicks.

Be Good Tanyas - Rain and Snow

Job one in my builds is getting out from under the endurance mechanic as much as I can. I forgot that I had left those slots in Against All Odds; if I moved them I would be tempted to put them in Kick. I am remembering now how Shield is full of powers that don't eat slots. I didn't take Hasten because I couldn't use it normally the way I would on a character that takes Hasten as a matter of routine. There also isn't a self heal or such to rely on, and there seem to be plenty of attacks. I took Air Superiority because my impression is that Fire is weak on control, and the concept more or less requires flight.

Started a new tanker and got her in reach of Posi on Torchbearer yesterday. Shield/Fire, this is an offense oriented build. At any rate, this is her wishlist build. Remembering now that Shield is full of powers that don't need slots. Astonished that someone had already claimed the name 'Vanth'. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Vanth Rasnal: Level 50 Magic Tanker Primary Power Set: Shield Defense Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Deflection -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(5), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg(37), LucoftheG-Def(39), LucoftheG-Rchg+(46) Level 1: Scorch -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(15), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Acc-I(46) Level 2: Fire Sword -- SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg(A), SprMghoft-Dmg/Rchg(3), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), SprMghoft-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), SprMghoft-Rchg/Res%(37) Level 4: Fly -- Flight-I(A) Level 6: Active Defense -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(7), RechRdx-I(7) Level 8: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(9), Taunt-I(15), Taunt-I(37) Level 10: Taunt -- PrfZng-Dam%(A) Level 12: True Grit -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), StdPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(13), GldArm-3defTpProc(13) Level 14: Kick -- Acc-I(A) Level 16: Breath of Fire -- Ann-Acc/Dmg(A), Ann-Dmg/Rchg(17), Ann-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Ann-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Ann-ResDeb%(50) Level 18: Battle Agility -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(19), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(21), LucoftheG-Def(43), LucoftheG-Rchg+(45) Level 20: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(A), UnbGrd-Max HP%(21) Level 22: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(23), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg(23), LucoftheG-Rchg+(25) Level 24: Air Superiority -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(25), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(50), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50) Level 26: Shield Charge -- SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg(A), SprGntFis-Dmg/Rchg(27), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), SprGntFis-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), SprGntFis-Rchg/+Absorb(31) Level 28: Fire Sword Circle -- ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg(A), ScrDrv-Dmg/EndRdx(31), ScrDrv-Dmg/Rchg(31), ScrDrv-Acc/Rchg(33), ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), ScrDrv-Dam%(33) Level 30: Combustion -- Mlt-Acc/Dmg(A), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Mlt-Dmg/Rchg(34), Mlt-Acc/EndRdx(34), Mlt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36) Level 32: Afterburner -- Empty(A) Level 35: Phalanx Fighting -- Ksm-ToHit+(A) Level 38: Greater Fire Sword -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(39), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), KntCmb-Knock%(40), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg(40), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40) Level 41: Incinerate -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(42), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), KntCmb-Knock%(42), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg(43), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43) Level 44: Grant Cover -- ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(A) Level 47: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(48) Level 49: Physical Perfection -- PrfShf-End%(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(11), Pnc-Heal/+End(46) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(11), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(48) ------------

I don't think Titan Weapons is the best tanker secondary. Spines is. This is part of the reason why. Now, TW does some things for you that Spines does not, like boosting your defense. But TW was slow and painful to level as a primary; as a secondary it's worse. For the same reason, a TW character is not a whole-game character. I like my characters to be as at home running a Penny Yin as they are a Ms. Liberty. TW does not take well to being exemped down. But even without Quills, Spines has AoE attacks that are there well before Quills. If your goal is to be the toughest tanker out there, Dark Melee is your first choice and all the rest are also-rans. If your goal is getting and keeping as much aggro as possible, Spines is your first choice.

Both forum lore (forget who pointed it out) and my experience suggest that Reflexes on a tanker has a much weaker taunt aura, rather like Willpower's. The set does not give you the sustainability in attacking that Willpower does, so I do not know why this was made so. I didn't know when I made the character, either, so I really didn't know what I was getting.

Taunt is about her only way to hold serious aggro. Katana and Reflexes have good synergy at the survival goal, but not much at the tanking goal. Neither the primary nor the secondary have fast recharging PBAoEs or pulsing damage auras of the kind that would make it easier for her to be the aggro magnet. At level 28, where she's sitting now, my kinetic/rad scrapper does better tanking than she does. So I've sort of lost interest. When our AoEs and Taunt target numbers get expanded I'll probably go back to her.

I am used to the contact system and have no issues with it aesthetically. But new contacts should live in the zone where their missions are, and relate to the zone occupants, the zone lore, and the mobs that live there.