Hello, first and foremost I'd like to point I'm mostly a noob in this game and I have no idea what I'm doing. However, I do have a concept in mind that, even if not perhaps minmaxed, I'd like to at least make playable. I'd kindly need your help building it since optimizing IO sets can be quite overwhelming...
As the title says, it's a Dark armor/Battle axe Tanker. Let's work with that.
The idea is to make a tank that melts packs using death shroud. Logically, it needs high dps on it and good survivability overall in order to survive the time it needs to melt everybody. I think dark regeneration is probably key here, for it is a good hybrid option for aoe dmg + survival.... Perhaps?
Meanwhile, he uses battle axe to "crowd control" his current target, spamming knockdowns and knockups (chop, gash, swoop; more can be fitted as needed, at very least I'm thinking on employing pendulum since a bit of extra aoe dmg + knockdown would not be bad) to buy himself more time to melt while facing less agression from key targets.
For power pools I'm thinking about running fighting for ye olde tough + weave; Leadership seems good but dark armor seemingly has a lot of toggles already... Perhaps I can skip it?
Super speed seems cool for hasten, but since this build supposedly damages firstly through its dot, then perhaps, PERHAPS... It can skip it?
Sorcery. It is a concept thing, the character's roleplay is that he is an apprendice sorcerer of sorts. Yes, an axe slinging tankish apprendice sorcerer, go figure. I took arcane bolt because I'd rather pull mobs with a ranged attack instead of wasting my 10s cd taunt to pull (Sometimes I play with friends and they rely on me to save them from aggro on occasion) and because I feel it has less chance of pulling another pack since I don't have to get close; I also like having some ranged attack option in case I get hit by a heavy slow or immobilized. I use mystic flight for transportation and plan on taking rune of protection for extra tankiness since I'm already here.
Lastly, I'm thinking about picking dark mastery (EDGYNESS!); maybe by then I'll switch arcane bolt for a ranged nuke from this pool (or perhaps use them all together for more ranged combat capability?), then follow up with nightfall for more aoe (also, "nightfall" matches perfectly my character's concept!) and perhaps tar patch for crowd control, if it is worth it. Is it?
I'm completely at a loss for what IO sets I'll use, save for theft of essence on dark regeneration. The rest... Mayhap I can skip heavy investiment on recharge timers? Seemingly I'll run into some endurance problems...
Could you ppl kindly rate these ideas and give suggestions?