Good Primaries for /Dark Armor or /Invuln Tanker

[StriderIV]

6 hours ago, catsi563 said:

For me personally Ive taken  a D3 tanks and scrapper all the way to the top and 2 Invuln SS tanks and an SS Invuln brute up a ways

 

SS is never a bad combo with Invuln and invuln works well with Mace and Axe

 

Dark is end hungry but works well with nearly any power primary but dark mellee as its partner is where it shines 

Interesting question, since you have some experience with SS! How does it pair with Shield Defense? I like the concept.

[Gorgar]

A couple people mentioned inv/axe.  This is my main tank.  I think it works well.  All the knockdown buys you a little time and interrupts incoming damage, which gives you time for healing, regen, etc.  I built for regen, defense, and psi resist and am quite happy with it.

 

DA is a great primary too.  I like mace with it so much I have both tank and brute.  Oppressive Gloom + mace stuns + Dark Regeneration = effective.  Didn't bother with Cloak of Fear on that one.

 

Inv and DA are definitely my favorite armor sets, and they're both strong enough to be good with whatever other powerset you pick.

[siolfir]

14 hours ago, Snarky said:

My Brutes do not take taunt.

My Brutes don't often take Taunt either, but because of the punchvoke, for most purposes Gloom = Confront and Dark Obliteration = Taunt. I've certainly used them to draw aggro away from others at range.

 

11 hours ago, Li_Sensei said:

Being 'that person', I'd just like to point out that for a tanker, Dark Armour and Invulnerability *ARE* Primaries....

I realize that this was the second post in the thread to point this out, but I came into the thread to say the same thing if nobody else had. Because I thought it'd be funny to suggest Invuln as the primary for a /Dark Armor Tanker: they plug each others holes so well. Dark Armor provides a damage aura, a fast-recharging heal, a little defense, and a lot of psi resistance; Invulnerability has knockback protection, defense debuff resistance, and +to-hit to help those control auras! Sure you'll end up using all pool attacks, but you won't need Tough or Weave, so there's room to take them!

 

2 hours ago, StriderIV said:

Interesting question, since you have some experience with SS! How does it pair with Shield Defense? I like the concept.

Not the one you asked, but in the pre-shutdown days Shield/SS was the only Tanker I could stick with to 50: running around at the damage cap due to AAO and stacked Rage, you effectively had Fury on your Tanker.

 

As for an earlier suggestion of Dark Armor/Stone Melee - with Oppressive Gloom and Fault you can perma a mag 4-6 stun to everything around you and have a mag 4 hold that can be applied almost immediately with Seismic Smash, but your endurance bar will be begging for all the help you can give it, and your damage won't be there relative to other sets. If you're going to pair those two sets I'd recommend a Brute, though, since IIRC the Tanker bonus to AoE only applies to Fault.

Edited December 22, 2020 by siolfir
gushing over the Invuln/Dark Armor pairing

[StriderIV]

37 minutes ago, siolfir said:

My Brutes don't often take Taunt either, but because of the punchvoke, for most purposes Gloom = Confront and Dark Obliteration = Taunt. I've certainly used them to draw aggro away from others at range.

 

I realize that this was the second post in the thread to point this out, but I came into the thread to say the same thing if nobody else had. Because I thought it'd be funny to suggest Invuln as the primary for a /Dark Armor Tanker: they plug each others holes so well. Dark Armor provides a damage aura, a fast-recharging heal, a little defense, and a lot of psi resistance; Invulnerability has knockback protection, defense debuff resistance, and +to-hit to help those control auras! Sure you'll end up using all pool attacks, but you won't need Tough or Weave, so there's room to take them!

 

Not the one you asked, but in the pre-shutdown days Shield/SS was the only Tanker I could stick with to 50: running around at the damage cap due to AAO and stacked Rage, you effectively had Fury on your Tanker.

 

As for an earlier suggestion of Dark Armor/Stone Melee - with Oppressive Gloom and Fault you can perma a mag 4-6 stun to everything around you and have a mag 4 hold that can be applied almost immediately with Seismic Smash, but your endurance bar will be begging for all the help you can give it, and your damage won't be there relative to other sets. If you're going to pair those two sets I'd recommend a Brute, though, since IIRC the Tanker bonus to AoE only applies to Fault.

Thanks for this response man! Honestly, Shield/SS is kind of a dark horse coming up right now. I always steered clear because the Rage crash with a primarily defensive set scared me, but it seems like that can be mitigated on a lot of ways.

[KauaiJim]

I have a SS/Invuln Brute and a Invuln/SS Tanker that are both beasts. They both feel unstoppable.  Very fun.  The Brute was more expensive to build - but the Tanker was relatively inexpensive compared to most of my other builds.  I think Hyperstrike has some nice builds out there for Invuln/SS or SS/Invuln if I'm remembering correctly.  

 

[catsi563]

17 hours ago, StriderIV said:

Interesting question, since you have some experience with SS! How does it pair with Shield Defense? I like the concept.

In my personal experience i had an Shield SS tank who was 35 and climbing when shutdown occurred  and she was very solid  the shield meant she could hang in the melee easy enough and SS always hits hard so yeah It paired really well very good synergy no worries about redraw or anthing and all the powers work well.  I can definitely recoomend it heck i need to remake her when i have the chance