The Tank Gods. . .

[theDarkeOne]

I have been playing more tanks then ever before after the adjustment a couple months ago and have to say I am hooked and in love! My Shield/Savage is far and away one of the most played characters I have (out of 250 or so) but lately she has been supplemented by my Rad/Dark - WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME HOW AMAZING THIS COMBO IS!?!??!

 

Now that being said, who is your tank god? That character that just walks into any mission, straps on his/her boots, and says, "F*** it, try to kill me!" And proceeds to just cruise through with ease?!?!?

[Werner]

All I play these days is my Dark Armor/Martial Arts. But I'm working on a build for a Shield Defense/Martial Arts, and testing on beta, and it's looking even better to me. Also fiddling with Invulnerability/Martial Arts, which looks even more survivable, but with less damage output. I... might have a thing for Martial Arts on Tankers.

[Bill Z Bubba]

I feel your pain, @Werner

 

SR/Claws (Currently my favorite tank.)

FA/Claws

Bio/Claws (May give the SR/Claws a run for its money.

 

FA/EM

Rad/EM

Bio/EM

SR/EM

 

FA/SM

 

Ice/Spines (Soon to be nuked.)

 

I don't like how many tanks I have. Pretty sure I'm missing a couple.

[theDarkeOne]

4 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

I feel your pain, @Werner

 

SR/Claws (Currently my favorite tank.)

FA/Claws

Bio/Claws (May give the SR/Claws a run for its money.

 

FA/EM

Rad/EM

Bio/EM

SR/EM

 

FA/SM

 

Ice/Spines (Soon to be nuked.)

 

I don't like how many tanks I have. Pretty sure I'm missing a couple.

You two - @Bill Z Bubba and @Werner - are a big reason why I have gotten hooked on tanks lately. . . Every time I make a different character I come to these threads, read something one of you posted, and wham. . . back to my tanks.

BillZ you  are one of the biggest reasons since I met you on my first day in game way, way back in the OG days. . . I had a mace/stone mini-tank and you dropped a million influence on me when I was a teeny baby tank in Atlas Park and then spent 15 minutes helping me out with the difference between a tank and scrapper. . .

Still to this day, one of the coolest moments I have had gaming in my - ahem - 35+ years of MMO's/gaming in general.

Edited August 13, 2020 by theDarkeOne

[Bill Z Bubba]

1 hour ago, theDarkeOne said:

Still to this day, one of the coolest moments I have had gaming in my - ahem - 35+ years of MMO's/gaming in general.

I'm damn glad I did that!

[Gobbledigook]

My Rad/SS Tanker. Not built for survival but can do 99% of content easily. Groups just melt fast. It will give blasters and scrappers a run for their money. 

 

It farms faster than a lot of fire brutes.

 

Alas I can not play for a few months due to a problem with my arms. 😞

 

[Heraclea]

Heraclea, Invuln / Dark Melee, is still my gold standard.   Where DPS is an issue she wouldn't be my first choice, but for getting through from start to finish she's who I want to bring. 

[theDarkeOne]

4 minutes ago, Heraclea said:

Heraclea, Invuln / Dark Melee, is still my gold standard.   Where DPS is an issue she wouldn't be my first choice, but for getting through from start to finish she's who I want to bring. 

It may be sacrilege for you @Heraclea but if you haven't tried re-rolling her since we came back I HIGHLY recommend Rad/Dark. . . Nothing my girl cant stand up against and the damage is right there with many of my scrappers. . .

So MUCH FUN!

[Saikochoro]

I’ve started to get into tanker lately. 
 

Playing my SR/MA tanker almost feels like cheating haha. Pretty sure I can’t die on this combo. 
 

My Rad/SS tanker has way more damage than I ever thought a tanker would be able to put out and is very survivable to boot. 
 

I also started a shield/DM tanker because I love that combo so much on scrappers. So far, I think I still like it better on scrappers, but it is still fun. 

[MrAxe]

Shield/Psionic Melee and only because I spent over 300mil on him. 🤑

[Xandyr]

Bio/Rad

Electric/Staff

Rad/Spines

 

 I love my Bio/Rad. First real tank I've ever played (and I started waaaaayyyyy back in Issue 2 on Live). The combination of extreme regen, with capped/near capped defenses, and so so resists make for an unstoppable beast.

 

 Recently leveled my Electric/Staff. It's just a fun set. And if I decide to go into a fire farm, he will not die. I can walk away and come back 10 minutes later and he's still standing.

 

 Rad/spines was fun. Goal was to get as much aggro as possible and hold it. I consider him more of a tank/defender because of the team heal, and i went with Ghost Widow for Darkest Night.

[Bill Z Bubba]

1 hour ago, Heraclea said:

Heraclea, Invuln / Dark Melee, is still my gold standard.   Where DPS is an issue she wouldn't be my first choice, but for getting through from start to finish she's who I want to bring. 

 

54 minutes ago, theDarkeOne said:

It may be sacrilege for you @Heraclea but if you haven't tried re-rolling her since we came back I HIGHLY recommend Rad/Dark. . . Nothing my girl cant stand up against and the damage is right there with many of my scrappers. . .

So MUCH FUN!

 

I suspect that Heraclea absolutely must be Invulnerable. Going otherwise would be like Bill Z Bubba not being SR... and that just wouldn't be right.

[Infinitum]

22 hours ago, theDarkeOne said:

I have been playing more tanks then ever before after the adjustment a couple months ago and have to say I am hooked and in love! My Shield/Savage is far and away one of the most played characters I have (out of 250 or so) but lately she has been supplemented by my Rad/Dark - WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME HOW AMAZING THIS COMBO IS!?!??!

 

Now that being said, who is your tank god? That character that just walks into any mission, straps on his/her boots, and says, "F*** it, try to kill me!" And proceeds to just cruise through with ease?!?!?

My goal was to have 10 fully loaded tanks

10 fully loaded Brutes/Scrappers/Stalkers

10 Troller types

10 ranged types

 

As far as the gold standard for nothing will kill me - my 10 tanks

Invul/SS

Invul/EM

Shield/SJ

Shield/Elec

Dark/Dark

Fire/Fire

WP/SJ

Elec/DB

Fire/EM

Rad/Rad

Edited August 14, 2020 by Infinitum

[Bill Z Bubba]

16 minutes ago, Infinitum said:

No SR

Dude.... what?

[Infinitum]

10 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Dude.... what?

Oh yeah SR is good, I just didn't choose it, had it on scrappers for a while too, but swapped it out for Ninjitsu. Ninjitsu is like SR 2.0 IMO.

 

Only allowed myself a 10 tank limit.

 

SR is very good though once my 40 is complete I may add more - I'm at 29 now.

 

Actually more like 39 but I have 10 that I lost interest in and they lay dormant and unslotted.

[Sovera]

I've had a resurgence of altitis and was trying to find something better than my FA/Claws... But it's not happening. As far as I am concerned FA/Claws is simply the gold standard.

 

Tried FA/Fire. Slow animations, bad Combustion, mediocre ST.

Tried FA/Psi. Good mitigation, bad damage, only having a cone until 38 is a no.

Tried FA/Rad. Good Mids numbers, but, no AoE until 38. Ok, Irradiated ground at 28, but it's more of an aura than actual AoE (really should be at 20). Slooooooow aaaanimaaaaations. It's the combo I feel I should make an effort to like what with easy access to -res and fat 650 HP heals, but what are those Atom Smasher numbers? 100 damage less than Spin, and 3.1 animation to boot? That disorient tax is too high.

 

Most of these exemp simply terribly (only one AoE and at 38, or important ST skills at 35 and 38 so what to use if lower than that?) and as someone who exemps a lot I'm not into looking at level 50 performance only.

 

Looked at a bunch of others but I keep hurtling against no AoE until 28 or just being plain worse than Claws (3.4 sec animation Tremor 🙂 )

[chadius]

I feel your pain on Tremor. I love the animation but gameplay wise? Nnnnope.

So, I hit 50 on my Bio/Spines tank. Yeah, that was smooth as butter. Spine Burst at level 4 is a big game changer, long before quills and throw spines comes online.

 

I should theoretically like Kinetic Melee (cone, great PBAoE, ranged attack,) but those animation times, man.

 

The AoE cap increases are so good. Gives tanks a great niche.

[Sovera]

1 minute ago, chadius said:

I feel your pain on Tremor. I love the animation but gameplay wise? Nnnnope.

So, I hit 50 on my Bio/Spines tank. Yeah, that was smooth as butter. Spine Burst at level 4 is a big game changer, long before quills and throw spines comes online.

 

I should theoretically like Kinetic Melee (cone, great PBAoE, ranged attack,) but those animation times, man.

 

The AoE cap increases are so good. Gives tanks a great niche.

I was looking at KM. I had good times with a Stalker KM, but it's true that AS mitigates KM's shortcomings. FA isn't a good pairing since I need to use the primary for bonuses and KM plays much better with all attacks having three or four damage procs.

[chadius]

Yeah, KM on a Stalker is really nice (the best AT for it, IMO) but I feel it works best on a "Toggle up and forget" armor like Willpower or SR.

[Giocondi]

Pure enjoyment wise, I keep coming back to my Ice/Axe Viking tanker Theodoric buuuuuuut it just so happens my most recent 50 tanker is also a Rad/Dark Melee and I haven't even replaced the basic IO's because good lord that combo is just amazing. I'm honestly scared for the bad guys once I finally create a build I'm satisfied with.

[theDarkeOne]

12 minutes ago, Giocondi said:

Pure enjoyment wise, I keep coming back to my Ice/Axe Viking tanker Theodoric buuuuuuut it just so happens my most recent 50 tanker is also a Rad/Dark Melee and I haven't even replaced the basic IO's because good lord that combo is just amazing. I'm honestly scared for the bad guys once I finally create a build I'm satisfied with.

I started slotting at 35 and it is ridiculous. . . So much fun and I forget I am playing a Tank until I look up and realize my health barely moves. . .

Soul Drain

Ground Zero

Radiation Therapy

Dark Obliteration

Shadow Maul. . .

 

Maybe a boss or a couple Ltns left standing and that is at +8/+3 and I am only level 42. . . Seriously just scary fun!

[nihilii]

SR. Secondary optional. I'm endlessly surprised by the survivability you can get out of a SR Tanker.

 

Leveling? Enjoy softcap and high DDR by lvl 22, which makes you mostly invincible to the content you'll face.

 

Endgame? It's not hard to get to 59% defense without sacrifices, DDR is capped, scaling resistances + Tough + set bonuses + tanker ATO make it fairly easy to reach 90% S/L once the going gets tough, and even other resistances get downright impressive. Throw in a Rune of Protection / Melee Hybrid rotation combo and you can hardcap all resistances at low life.

 

I hopped on my SR/TW Tanker the other day and started soloing Rularuu. On +4/x8. And never felt the need to click an insp. Shouldn't AUTOHIT enemies be the kryptonite to a defense-based powerset?! Modern SR is plain amazing.

I just wish we got the Master Brawler treatment from Sentinels, because click mez protection is a bore. Solely because click mez protection is a bore. Tanker SR doesn't even need extra absorb as is, given the state of the game. Cruising on Panacea proc + Power Transfer proc + ~300% regen + the occasional absorb from tanker ATO, you never feel the need for a heal.

[Pep Rally]

My best tank is of course my main, Pep Rally. INV/SS.  The alternate dimension versions of her: SR/Staff, WP/SJ, and Rad/Rad are also fun, but just not as tough.

 

I'm also happy I upgraded my BS/SR scrapper into a Shield/BS Tank. So much more fun.

 

I'm really a fan of all the sets. Eventually, I'll get one of each to level 50. Currently working on Bio/Spines, Elec/Elec, and Dark/Psi in addition to the alternate dimension(aka server) ones above.

[Hyperstrike]

I currently have 11 L50 Tanks

Inv/SS
Fire/Fire
Ice/Ice
Inv/SS
Stone/Dark
WP/Stone
WP/Stone
Inv/SS
Stone/Fire
Rad/Rad
Elec/Elec

 

[Piecemeal]

Elec Armor / Rad Melee is holding as my all-time favorite.