Better Primary to pair with /Savage Melee

[StriderIV]

Hi heroes!

 

I’m looking to build my first Tanker since LIVE. Savage Melee seems fun, and I’m kind of going for a Vampire type character =P I also think the quick animations on a tanker could be cool.

 

2 defensive sets I had my eyes on were Dark Armor and Shield (with the dark shield of course).

 

I feel like the passive end recover from Savage would help with the Dark Armor end cost. Shield seems like it would be a lot of jumping around once fully built, which could be fun as well.

 

Would anyone have recommendations on either of those 2 sets, or another they would throw in there?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Dark Dove]

Both are very good sets.  Shield is maybe the optimal choice (Shield is great in endgame) but dark will work very well.

 

Dark can cap most resists without much effort and also reach softcap defense due to cloak of darkness.  Dark does not have any defense debuff resistance which means it will have a harder time against cascading defense failures.  Dark has some control in Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear, which can mitigate more.  It has a skipworthy tier 9 power with the self rez (you can just buy a self rez from the P2W vendor and save a power pick).  Dark Regen is amazing as a heal when slotted properly, and shield does not get a good heal in set, which is a big advantage for Dark.

 

Shield will give you higher overall damage with AAO, will also give you a strong additional teleport AoE with shield charge, and it has good defense debuff resistance and can easily cap positional defenses and reach very high resist numbers (not as high as dark but good numbers either way).  With a full IO build it will probably hold up under more stress than Dark Armor will and more easily just because of the in-built defense debuff resist.

 

They're both a little shaky leveling up, but I think Dark is smoother to level up with, Shield feels very subpar before a full IO build, while Dark can rely on Dark Regen and control toggles to mitigate before IO's are heavily slotted.

 

Pick the thematic choice or the visual choice you like best. Both will serve you well and play great.  If I were going to pick it would probably be Dark... of course.

[StriderIV]

36 minutes ago, Dark Dove said:

Both are very good sets.  Shield is maybe the optimal choice (Shield is great in endgame) but dark will work very well.

 

Dark can cap most resists without much effort and also reach softcap defense due to cloak of darkness.  Dark does not have any defense debuff resistance which means it will have a harder time against cascading defense failures.  Dark has some control in Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear, which can mitigate more.  It has a skipworthy tier 9 power with the self rez (you can just buy a self rez from the P2W vendor and save a power pick).  Dark Regen is amazing as a heal when slotted properly, and shield does not get a good heal in set, which is a big advantage for Dark.

 

Shield will give you higher overall damage with AAO, will also give you a strong additional teleport AoE with shield charge, and it has good defense debuff resistance and can easily cap positional defenses and reach very high resist numbers (not as high as dark but good numbers either way).  With a full IO build it will probably hold up under more stress than Dark Armor will and more easily just because of the in-built defense debuff resist.

 

They're both a little shaky leveling up, but I think Dark is smoother to level up with, Shield feels very subpar before a full IO build, while Dark can rely on Dark Regen and control toggles to mitigate before IO's are heavily slotted.

 

Pick the thematic choice or the visual choice you like best. Both will serve you well and play great.  If I were going to pick it would probably be Dark... of course.

Such a good breakdown. I appreciate you taking the time man, you’re a legend.