Untouchable Tank

[irtsiam]

It's possible? Tank with VERY high defenses without exhausting endurance? How to build? Which secondary?

[marcussmythe]

If you can wait till Granite, and are willing to accept a lot of drawbacks - Stones.

 

Failing that, Invuln is probably the toughest set overall.  You wont be super-tanky fresh out of the box, but if you research how to build it, how much slotting, Invuln can be well-nigh indestructable wit just lvl  50 generic IOs - barring a huge hole where Psionic damage comes in, but theres not much psi damage.  Set bonuses can patch that hole pretty well, and then Incarnate stuff can take you past ‘over-defended’ into ‘were just gilding lillies’

 

 

Thats true of most tank sets though, TBH.  Tankers are, at 50 with sets, frankly tougher than they need to be and tougher than any content your ever likely to bump up against calls for.

[itaalh]

Shield

[Gigajoule]

It's possible? Tank with VERY high defenses without exhausting endurance? How to build? Which secondary?

The "very high defenses" is the easy part. There are several valid ways to build a ludicrously tough tank, and most Tanker primaries can be built to insane levels of defense and/or resistance without too much difficulty (some easier than others, of course). The "without exhausting endurance" is what will be tricky. But, you might want to be more specific with your question. When you say "without exhausting endurance", do you mean without the use of a "crash" power like Unstoppable, or do you mean without endurance problems in general?

 

If what you are looking for is a Tanker primary that is tough enough to fill normal Tanker expectations while not really having to worry much about Endurance, give Electric Armor a look. Power Sink is great.

[Garthamatic]

Shield

 

This. Super easy to soft cap positional defense in your late 30's with IO sets. Offers resistance for layered mitigation and RttC offers a strong damage boost in large spawns.

 

Plus.... Shield Charge.

 

Shield/Fire can be a real AOE beast for tanking...

[marcussmythe]

Shield

 

This. Super easy to soft cap positional defense in your late 30's with IO sets. Offers resistance for layered mitigation and RttC offers a strong damage boost in large spawns.

 

Plus.... Shield Charge.

 

Shield/Fire can be a real AOE beast for tanking...

 

I think it is safe at this point to exclude shield from any 'whats good' discussion, because assuming your willing to give up access to certain sets, accept the quality of life hit of clicky mezz prot, and are willing to look around for character concepts that include 'carries a shield', shield is always the right answer.

[Garthamatic]

Stone is slow with rooted and Granite comes late.

SR has clicky mez protection.

Willpower has a weak taunt aura.

Ice is hard(er) to soft cap.

Etc.

 

Shield has limitations as well, was attempting to answer the question asked by the OP. (shrugs)

 

Pick a character hook or theme and choose powersets that support your vision....

 

[Erratic1]

It's possible? Tank with VERY high defenses without exhausting endurance? How to build? Which secondary?

The "very high defenses" is the easy part. There are several valid ways to build a ludicrously tough tank, and most Tanker primaries can be built to insane levels of defense and/or resistance without too much difficulty (some easier than others, of course). The "without exhausting endurance" is what will be tricky. But, you might want to be more specific with your question. When you say "without exhausting endurance", do you mean without the use of a "crash" power like Unstoppable, or do you mean without endurance problems in general?

 

If what you are looking for is a Tanker primary that is tough enough to fill normal Tanker expectations while not really having to worry much about Endurance, give Electric Armor a look. Power Sink is great.

 

I see your Powersink via Electric Armor and raise you...

 

...Dark Consumption in Dark Melee.

 

No, not instead of, but in addition to. Hear me out.

 

Pre-shutdown I ran a DM/Elec Brute. I already had a DM/Inv Scrapper from the month CoH was released, hate repeating powerset combinations, and so went Electric Armor instead of the more popular Invulnerability route. Turned out to be an incredibly good choice as on top of having great defenses, self-healing, and area damage you also get to drain the endurance out of your toes and literally are never at a loss for endurance. Sappers? Pfff...no problem. Did I mention that Soul Drain lasts 30s and like Dark Consumption can be slotted with damage enhancements?  I probably should have mentioned that.

 

After I got into playing Tankers the only reason I did not make an Elec/DM Tanker was that old hangups about repeating powerset combos. Given how stupidly survivable the Brute was (and stellar damage output) I am certain the combo will yield a rock solid Tanker.

[irtsiam]

It's possible? Tank with VERY high defenses without exhausting endurance? How to build? Which secondary?

The "very high defenses" is the easy part. There are several valid ways to build a ludicrously tough tank, and most Tanker primaries can be built to insane levels of defense and/or resistance without too much difficulty (some easier than others, of course). The "without exhausting endurance" is what will be tricky. But, you might want to be more specific with your question. When you say "without exhausting endurance", do you mean without the use of a "crash" power like Unstoppable, or do you mean without endurance problems in general?

 

If what you are looking for is a Tanker primary that is tough enough to fill normal Tanker expectations while not really having to worry much about Endurance, give Electric Armor a look. Power Sink is great.

 

"without exhausting endurance" I mean with all "buffs" turn on my endurance do not get zero and deactivate all.  And and i say "VERY high defenses" im saying defenses and not resistances.  I mean dodge attacks.

[Piecemeal]

Might be a controversial choice, but Electric Armor. Bear with me on this one. Resistances are great, two endurance-helping moves, and you can build to the S/L softcap fairly easily.

[Erratic1]

Might be a controversial choice, but Electric Armor. Bear with me on this one. Resistances are great, two endurance-helping moves, and you can build to the S/L softcap fairly easily.

 

He has clarified he wants to go the "not get touched" route as opposed to the. "Your puny blows mean nothing riute".

 

I had an Ice/Stone tanker I enjoyed back in the day, but I enjoy working around problems. It might not be your cup of tea. Ice, and Willpower would seem to be your choices here. The issue with Defense based sets is that you can be plenty fine until you get a series of blows which get through. Also some opponents are good at debuffing and/or have good accuracy. What this means is you will want to grab some resistance backup via Tough (but hey, resistance tankers do this too) in addition to padding your defense with Weave.

[Gigajoule]

My suggestion would be Ice Armor/Dark Melee (or Ice Armor/Ice Melee) then. Dark Melee debuffs the enemy's chance to hit, which is cumulative with Ice Armor's high Defense, making you extremely hard to hit. Alternatively, Ice Melee has the side effect of slowing the enemy's rate of attacks, and Ice Armor still has really good Defense so you rarely get hit when they do finally take a swing, so that also is good synergy. 

 

Regarding Endurance, most Tanker sets struggle with End (except for Electric Armor), but Ice Armor is not nearly as bad as some. Energy Absorption goes a long way toward fixing your End problems. And Dark Melee also gets a power that gives you Endurance (Dark Consumption), but it comes pretty late. And, pro tip from a former Ice Armor Tanker main if you decide to go with Ice Armor: don't bother with Icicles. You don't need it for aggro since Chilling Embrace is such a phenomenal taunt aura by itself, and the piddling damage it does is not worth the massive Endurance cost.

[Rylas]

My suggestion would be Ice Armor/Dark Melee (or Ice Armor/Ice Melee) then. Dark Melee debuffs the enemy's chance to hit, which is cumulative with Ice Armor's high Defense, making you extremely hard to hit. Alternatively, Ice Melee has the side effect of slowing the enemy's rate of attacks, and Ice Armor still has really good Defense so you rarely get hit when they do finally take a swing, so that also is good synergy. 

 

Regarding Endurance, most Tanker sets struggle with End (except for Electric Armor), but Ice Armor is not nearly as bad as some. Energy Absorption goes a long way toward fixing your End problems. And Dark Melee also gets a power that gives you Endurance (Dark Consumption), but it comes pretty late. And, pro tip from a former Ice Armor Tanker main if you decide to go with Ice Armor: don't bother with Icicles. You don't need it for aggro since Chilling Embrace is such a phenomenal taunt aura by itself, and the piddling damage it does is not worth the massive Endurance cost.

 

I would second Ice/DM as a great route for never getting touched. Ice Armor comes with really great defense numbers. Grab Combat Jumping and Weave from the pool powers, hit ten targets with Energy Absorption, and you're getting pretty darn close to the defense cap on Smash, Lethal, Energy and Dark Energy. That's a huge % of attacks in the game you're going to avoid. With barely much investment in IOs, you can stay at the cap all the time. The -ToHit then provides even more mitigation for those few attacks that you won't have defense for. And hey, if get in a pinch, there's always Hibernate, which makes you literally untouchable.

 

But I would take Icicles. That's just my preference.