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Contemplating Spines...


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With Spines becoming a tanker secondary I've been toying with the best synergy of primary to pair it with.  One side of me says Dark/Spines but I'm not sure I'm that much of an end masochist :P  I never got my Spine/Dark scrapper past 30 due to the endless ;) problems with endurance.  Another part is thinking Fire for damage, or Ice for aggro (like Ice needs any more help there)

 

What have been your experiences with Spines?

Guardian Survivor, occasional tanker and player of most AT's.

Guides: Invulnerability Tankers, The first 20 levels.  Invulnerability Tankers Soft Cap defense

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Ive been hearing a lot of good things about Spines/Bio. Im sure someone posted a build around here somewhere.

 

EDIT: Apparently I was thinking of Brute, as I find a few Spines/Bio Brute builds but nothing for Tanker, though I imagine the train of thought isnt very far off to be tweaked for tanking.

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Im honestly wondering if it wouldnt be even better on a tank - better aggro gen, easier trip to def/res goals, more HP, etc.

 

Now, the damage loss hurts - but how badly?  Spines/Bio Brutes arent for AV hunting - cause, yannow, spines - and neither are tanks - so the only loss from Brute is thw room full of minions takes an extra spines burst to drop.

Great Justice - Invuln/Energy Melee Tank

Ann Atomic - Radiation/Super Strength Tank

Elecutrix - Electric Blast/Super Reflexes Sentinel

Ramayael - Titan Weapons/Bio Scrapper

C'len - Spines/Bio Brute

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My Ice/Spines experiment has been surprisingly fun. Three taunt auras, soft capped S/L and Eng/Neg in the mid-30s.

 

Great aggro control and mobility with mitigation from the slows and -recharge effects.

 

Fire and Psi are more challenging, but not impossible.

 

It's great for gathering opponents and letting your damage auras chew away while you taunt the edges and spam your AoE's.

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Admittedly Bio isn't something I'd thought of, mainly since I've never played or even really looked at the set.  Hmm, a little study seems in order there.

Guardian Survivor, occasional tanker and player of most AT's.

Guides: Invulnerability Tankers, The first 20 levels.  Invulnerability Tankers Soft Cap defense

Spoiler

 

 

 

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After a lot of thought I ended up with Ice/Spine.  Right now at level 16 it's too early to tell much, particularly since that came from 4 DFB runs... so basically meaningless.  I'll have to run some more serious content to tell but it looks good on paper and it's fun at least in the ultra low levels.  I've always liked the vice grip aggro lock of Ice so we'll see how it matures.

Guardian Survivor, occasional tanker and player of most AT's.

Guides: Invulnerability Tankers, The first 20 levels.  Invulnerability Tankers Soft Cap defense

Spoiler

 

 

 

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I ran in a group with Ice/Spines tanker a couple weeks ago.  Worked pretty well since we both had Energy Absorption.  He'd lead into the next group and I'd follow and we'd both EA to drain everything.  I don't think he had quite gotten to the Spines damage aura yet, if I remember correctly, but he was thinking that'd be just another aggro lock down on top of Ice's already formidable aggro retention.  It seemed to be working well for him.

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After a lot of thought I ended up with Ice/Spine.  Right now at level 16 it's too early to tell much, particularly since that came from 4 DFB runs... so basically meaningless.  I'll have to run some more serious content to tell but it looks good on paper and it's fun at least in the ultra low levels.  I've always liked the vice grip aggro lock of Ice so we'll see how it matures.

 

It's a good combo, you'll enjoy it. Gets ever "moar better" with IOs and incarnates.

Nothing warms your opponent like Fiery Melee.

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I've run both sets in the past so I didn't really see how it could go wrong, part of my problem now is I've too many ideas and alts at the moment and it's the busy season at work ;).  I took Spines to 50 on three scrappers paired with Regen, Elec and Invuln and one Ice/Fire tanker.

 

Back on Live I had every AT but Mastermind at 50, most of them multiple times.  Now I'm having problems focusing on just one long enough to get there although my Fire/EM blaster is getting close at 42 and nearly soft capped to ranged damage.

Guardian Survivor, occasional tanker and player of most AT's.

Guides: Invulnerability Tankers, The first 20 levels.  Invulnerability Tankers Soft Cap defense

Spoiler

 

 

 

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I don't have Mid's in front of me and I don't know Ice as well as Invuln but Ice's passive ice/fire resistance power as I recall is less useful other than as an IO mule.  In Spines since you're stuck with the tier 1 the only thing that immediately comes to mind is build up.  I always take build up powers on my scrappers and brutes but with a tank I consider it of secondary or tertiary importance.  As a tank I'm there to support the team with aggro management first and additional damage as a secondary. 

 

Due to that difference in roles I find build up to be skippable in a tanker.  In a primary damage dealer of course you want it, in a tanker I skip it.  I'm not there to dish out an alpha strike, I'm there to take it so the rest of the team can dish it out.

Guardian Survivor, occasional tanker and player of most AT's.

Guides: Invulnerability Tankers, The first 20 levels.  Invulnerability Tankers Soft Cap defense

Spoiler

 

 

 

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