Anthraxus

This right here is me as well.

Unlike with many other tanks, on a well-built Rad/* there's not a huge upside to Cardiac (IMHO); this really unlocks other potential Alpha Incarnate powers like Musculature for even more damage.

Condolences for your (our) loss. Many of us old-timers are starting to glimpse that far horizon at this point. o7

Welcome home! It was such a HUGE relief when I first logged back in (the implications of which are between me and my therapist). Go...hunt...kil Skuls.

I have two fully kitted-out Rad/BA tankers, and they are VERY powerful; also have a BA/Rad Brute who cycles the Rad tier-9 and with Rune of Protection (Sorcery pool) to achieve tanker level resists. One observation is that putting the +recharge proc into the two 360-deg attacks is more than enough if you want to save some slots for something else.

Beware of severe End drain issues pairing Axe/Shield, as both are capable of draining your reservoir by themselves... when paired they can suck you dry in one power rotation.

I can echo every sentiment that you expressed, OP. Welcome back! 🍻

Don't know that answer, but need badly to correct: Tidal.

Yeah @cranebump, the Talos mobs are the new ones.

I was able to make a pretty cool (and tough!) ice-themed tank using recolored Stone Armor/Ice Melee. Stone is now a fantastic armor set, and the fact that Mud Pots has an integral slow effect makes it fit in that way with the ice theme.

My wife just finished levelling her Shield/Axe tanker, and I followed her with a Time/Rad defender. That was a fun ride to 50! 😁👍

I have a 50 Bio/SS tank named "Rikti Hunter K'rang" that absolutely wrecks face; his theme is an alien hunter arrived on Earth following the Rikti invasion, who stayed to help defend Paragon City. 😁👍

To elaborate a bit more... I really enjoy the sort of "mathematics" of building a lvl 50 toon for maximum overall efficiency; tanks in particular can become quite the effective tank-mages in CoH, eventually controlling/crushing waves of enemy factions in just about any radio +4/x8 map. And that's fun...to a point. And just when you think you've got any particular build dialed-in to complete, dominant destruction, along comes one of the "changes" that the OP remarked upon. My latest example of this is my new lvl 50+ Rad armor/Stone melee tank; this bad boy laughs at Council, Arachnos, and Carnies (Oh my!), all without using much in the way of tertiary support powers like heals, inspirations, etc; but in the last few months Circle of all things surprises me with a brutal combo of cold damage combined with -resistance debuff, dropping me to the floor before I can remember that he has several timer-limited tools available to help! I have learned my lesson now, but there was a definite "WTF?!!" moment while I was trying to understand where that much damage could come from. The changes the Homecoming team has made are GOOD for the long term health of the late game especially, but also for the earlier game, where they have made enemies fight using many power sets previously available only to players, and this makes things WAY more fun for me. 👍

Eh, I really enjoy the changes that the Homecoming team has made. Have you considered moving over to one of the other servers?

I'm particularly fond of tanker radiation armor lately, and it provides an extremely smooth ride all the way to 50 due to the comprehensive resists, powerful absorb shield, and fantastic endurance recovery tools; literally any melee set pairs well with it. Also, consider a fourth melee possibility: Axe! On tankers, Axe melee is absolutely ridiculous, especially once you get Axe Cyclone. I currently have three Axe toons at 50, two tanks and a scrapper, and they are all completely OP feeling and super fun to play. Good hunting!

:forehead-smack: Duh! Thanks 🙂

Wha?!! I thought there was only one +resist io.

I'll post the build for this later today 👍

I also made an Axe/Stone scrapper that is incredibly powerful.

Rad/Axe kills. Absolutely. Everything. Rad/Axe survives. Absolutely. Everything. It really is the poster child for THE most overtuned combo in the tanking game. Unlimited endurance; two "nukes" that damage and debuff the enemy, heal you, heal your teammates; razor-laced vacuum cleaner of doom that clusters enemies around you; a hard-hitting RANGED melee attack; ONE resistance hole that can be easily mitigated with the crashless (basically) tier-9 on a relatively fast recharge; about thirty places for LotG +recharge... You probably get the picture. 😳

I'll give you a theoretical perspective; I have a RAD/Axe tanker and an Dark/EM tanker, and I've considered putting them together myself. The big gimmick with Dark Armor/EM (my EM combo) is the stuns that stack with Oppressive Gloom in the DA set; it works pretty well, but I find that OG can whittle down the hit points over time, somewhat equaling the damage saved from having minions staggering around instead of shooting/hitting me. Also, chasing wandering minions can get a little annoying, especially with a mainly single target melee set. The other nice thing that comes with the Dark/x pairing is of course...DARK REGEN, one of the best/most powerful heals in the game; this helps to offset the constant self-damage your tank inflicts from using Energy Transfer. RAD/x, while not providing the same compounding stun effect, also has a darn good heal; more importantly though, RAD comes with Particle Shielding, a multi-trick power that provides a HUGE, fast-recharging absorb shield and awesome +recovery; combine those with the potential proc-bomb of Ground Zero, and you've got a super-tough, super-recharge, super-single target tanker with a 30-target aoe (that also heals teammates!). Hard to go wrong, imho...just watch out for those cold-based villains!

I have this tank combo, and it is flat-out unkillable; it also consistently maintains recharge above 200% due to the FF procs firing just about every 5 seconds. Radioactive vacuum cleaner blades of doom.

I got to donate once, every other time I tried it was already closed-out. Love all you money-bags! 🙂

Currently leveling an Electric melee/Rad armor brute - "Daemon Core;" his concept is mild-mannered nuclear plant technician injured and transformed during one of the MANY villain assaults on the Paragon City facility. He's at level 40 and rising smoothly. EDIT: Hit 50+, went full resist with 100% recharge debuff protection and high recharge G2pjAKwK7HbDKxbCTsry8shthl8uRbr2bDVN+ajM8K55rkLSWb4aUSrF5EibH9CTJxTnq66vqo0ys8cFPUW/t/rIJA+wvrGR48zcqs5CdLJUVk2JnRfhA/wAWYD87953B1eJsDg581yF5niEaZKbdI6Rlz/CGNN9+WU9YwuFU5VYx72sF+b7dZUgXEHhJRYV0VnuL2xYyXdVE07NDbGIf6gQz+/D15XDyK1/GgPItgwyT8lh+9ayX4DPIaI6QJGOYN5n/B03xbmSb3vjgYW0IofdAozblXZ9dQk+AhksKbXkwCdryUA9m3lCIwd2YTFLJqLespAIp+mo3lWqM0hGCjYtzQbhZMV/RM/9PEm2MkKAiV0me9ZlD4H2RWo22qrCfppn/zLDZFINQ6r//AF0se69BLHMXIiPb2I25IvrZLmptNhgKnuG3rUw7ITMfTmW+GBNrGBT+gyQJw3nyZPQg9WyDK1HdvW5fiEoTFzV5Ezs9S9utTc03k2R3oT9vudnl+oBh8Z/seh0M7G5EcYqZ3PwMFNwU4J67f9KPxvYApNedoKvVzk0sALvwz5dKsOfF0McLZ4nK1MwHT3Dx3hRHaiBe+rUnrs/9qL6qeDHqXIFK8W1A4m2+A5F+LrQRFnwHyLvsERDnaI5ls7WwOjFIcUvnb0FzzRi6RfkA4LpJlnbcNK647kPFlTRbC9S8LB4VvGuzAQ4hcyiZOIilxULmlSfXsbYuS9LZ1OuM2HQ4C8TFqQAgRYZQg8m4YNcaqfoYukxwnq6Fw/Q84I/8DhTJNbBPg3+4J3SmX2VzvMesx7LwyH0tm+vvtuKLSVo1WCK0qW5FNO/lgQk7aJAlsLby/nWQr8SAW+izjim4WBIa/PGay1k6Kl1CC7zoGDTLx7an3TnT8MiX6IuY3F2AqjUhiudq4QiiDQV87B2qbtX6ZFoSAdl8OoMijyA9Ii+oJKw7ukSFPbQQAk+4ZbOKEiDMb/nfiIWm3S3SocjtnfMEPoXt+hh7PytJIpxDTsHaU68e0ejYN0LcDHxBkKz+PgLdhFZRGhx0F84TV77WOOHtjpbQTjfsDmsgd5v35bxVLNnsf2tmRZMxTAZTtDDlf1ePToIkoXWMbV8zoDRwAhQVMtvVySi2TJOwYRVI7yH4+xnifSEWy8kYiMKDkisPLbF597Kbtszs8sj7aWdLweWP1lzGAFqZCKDDjF96dXqLZky78FVnQwPsS6eDIQUF6slZiK0PxVoJDvGlL+YuOJrHlrxYhPeWAnzltvX+RJs7DBabOgnvsS9qPR7O9Gg/44z0nwtTG8onmwHmWHH2yjmXzWPgY6yWQ+cZMgNEJkFOLM4sWPERHMYmyhQ4QGptJSIzCO80qd5CKSCd2de8ffnPwlpPUA0iKEcjsqhaQQGL2zIddPKKlfJMszJGWGCG+jipr+IAaM9CRWsfI5d4we2SI/tU9ix1OhSRuMbNV/CiN14UW2jYKdmHk/HeJoFlfPr26o6usqSyLAnWnatNKIRBF7pAwtrLkbjFhLGuscGo/yzhUivv1QMMtzGfiw8pkqLNWuOSsrn4vwvS3WQt4VGekryJ4jYhceox4qR6oQxknpVw+yiyq34+LizCvWALj1mx5jaKrGR9+gWs6Iqt3/GCoP7+nlXQNADrq30HHac6HsCd9Z8A64Hi6B/GgGkZsHj59FNCevYNt98Igw0b6qsezFrHuBxRVxnWpHpx7tDoKUF5GPCRKfBSAyh2jfRgEyfoR8ZJSPIxFDrYe8iGMMKrelk2KGzOogUTXbZMpptaeFaX8O67/wlCeqqcxSMNoXcLsdrN1+DlnM1KRbZ4xLWGTGcXBQIkicU/oETiD8cXoA/gc0+QqLZYwU2N2VkBZABOV3H/aCaKFBlYwYljQwZIOqr5Va96hFn0ANyV+xyUxxdC39qJJt0k1lucNt4nP4SgRy+n5D8IqhrkPziyOWiLL4CZXjOmddmPJ6EKfFkyo+f/JLPkbz2qROtEkkFLsVcdYgGTjS2Az/BSZJP0hySeJMy7Wgl/JhJrcfTMZ5qbh+5j2yGkyj4zXVLwpE+hQrEFKoYRIIiH0hin3F1ck/SnhHtXClWYZ2Sn2FRBkTAVw7En0KpF9YsK63xCpO+/A0mNOswzbCK1069IJx4R4cXwB0tbo7TcH1/u2PcfzGjXcntxrZzLzJMaJQd70SDCGxolt4+pXGLoDLsjisgXkn62nK80kN/t2O8r6g0emfST5fwrG0Jb3lBG+m+7Ifl3bCHCOB5CdlWgauYbgwb7ShFR8wG/1IVNzM4PYqomMf3S2UO/uDQh0pgNplqW4x1R33JH14z+MdfCAGSOIL/8TBChzhIRZUd/Mytf9V45G0ZHuCRk0NrWHan/QMgw5tgARV29HtIK2iePHwhpQpaSDg+5k6c+pnEScJvddDJSqvpeFa6OgpfPYfVmz7v2p/WtDIqraBtFOjEaCiWXNdU0ef0sn2pBBiLSCTy7EquFDC+vXeKyxtTLUaNNXX3kdO+zsG08nn1Pg==

I tend to chase Speed/Recharge debuff protection, mainly on front line melee toons, so my Health and Stamina usually looks like this: Lots of Recovery procs, plus 10% Recharge speed protection along with Run Speed increase and End Mod.