Electric/Kinetic: The Human Tornado

[SableShrike]

"That sucka think I'm dead, but he don't know: I'm a human tornado!" - Dolemite

 

The release of Storm Blast and all the stormy things got me itching to dust off a tanker concept I've had for a while, but not been 100% happy with.

 

I focused on Resist with this one, capping at 90% Resist to everything but Negative and Toxic with a single Tanker ATO stack.  Toxic has a bit of Resist (26%), and Negative is just shy of cap (83.6%).  You will get hit, so much of the 32-50 levels are spent muling powers to shore up Resistance to damage and status effects.  (I did cheat and take Barrier for my Destiny later on.)

 

After Resists were where I wanted, my main focus was on working Flight in.  This proved dual-purpose as the Hypersonic set can help up my Negative Resistance.  It's a concept thing, but Hover Tanking is actually very handy in many situations. **coughKnivescough**

 

The best bit of Kinetic Melee on a tank, and one I see many folks overlook, is Repulsing Torrent.  Slotted as I have it, it'll strike a massive 51 foot cone, do reliable knockdown on the group, solid AoE damage, and here's the important bit:

 

**Repulsing Torrent Taunts any targets hit for 20 seconds**.

 

Kinetic Melee does not need to take Taunt, you have Repulsing Torrent.  It's basically Taunt Plus.

 

EDIT:

 

Update based on two solid days of TFs and Mothership Raids:

 

I've re-evaluated Focused Burst in terms of tanking; I found it more useful than I was expecting.  It allows you to hold position and cork a stray Boss to draw aggro.  The knockdown on it fires more often than Quick Strike's, as well.

 

Theoretically, you should still be able to hit 4 or 5 Siphon stacks (I've done so in a good number of fights): Body > Smashing > Focused > Body > Smashing => buffed Burst.

 

Other changes are I've moved Flight earlier, as Positron was painful without it.

 

Lastly, this iteration hits the 100% Slow Resistance cap.  Tanking +4s for a full team the other day saw Arachnos stacking Slows on me and causing problems.  This should greatly alleviate that.

 

Mids' Export is borked again for the forums, so I've attached some screenshots.

 

Edited May 8, 2023 by SableShrike

[StriderIV]

I’m a KM fan. Love my KM/Ice Stalker.

 

I’ve always been interested in KM on a Tanker for the very reason you called out: Repulsing Torrent taunt. I’ve looked at Shield to stack the -Dmg, but Elec Armor seems like a really great, thematic pairing as well.

Edited May 7, 2023 by StriderIV

[SableShrike]

It looks very "windy"!

 

Electric and SR both helps KM a fair bit, as Power Siphon has long Recharge.  @Sir Myshkin has an insane -Damage Shield/KM tanker on the forums here somewhere.  There's a fair few pairings that would be great.

 

KM/Energy Aura Brutes might be a lot of fun as well!

Edited May 7, 2023 by SableShrike

[StriderIV]

8 minutes ago, SableShrike said:

It looks very "windy"!

 

Electric and SR both help KM a fair bit, as Energize and Power Siphon have long Recharge.  @Sir Myshkin has an insane -Damage Shield/KM tanker on the forums here somewhere.  There's a fair few pairings that would be great.

 

KM/Energy Aura Brutes might be a lot of fun as well!

Yeah absolutely. I’ve followed @Sir Myshkin’s Shield/KM with great interest 😂

 

One of the pluses I could see for Elec Armor is not having to worry about endurance at all! Haha always a nice thing.

[Major_Decoy]

For my Air Elemental, I went Dark Armour/Kinetic Melee.

 

I had to drop Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom for Whirlwind, but it's a lot of fun.

[Sir Myshkin]

20 hours ago, SableShrike said:

Kinetic Melee does not need to take Taunt, you have Repulsing Torrent.  It's basically Taunt Plus.

 

Want to point a out a small fallacy here about this. Individual duration's aside, everything a Tanker does is going to generate Taunt in regards to the aggregation of threat towards the Tank via Gauntlet and the fact that pretty much every Tanker power has some kind of set minimum Taunt duration, etc, etc. But there is a significant value difference in the actual power Taunt, versus powers with Taunt.

 

Taunt itself, as a power, has a robust AoE of 15 feet on a 70 foot range and a base 41/s duration, meaning pretty much no target is really going to be outside reach. The other key element about this ability that is significant and exclusive to the ability is its -Range component, and this is the important part. If a Tanker is looking to focus on creating directed and controlled aggro, the -Range component is a big aspect of what brings enemies into Melee range and switches their gears over, minimizing likelihood of larger scale ranged AoE/Cone attacks, and putting them next to the Tanker directly whom probably has either an aura or other PBAoE they'll be using that will continue to hold that taunt effect.

[ZemX]

On 5/7/2023 at 1:12 AM, SableShrike said:

Kinetic Melee does not need to take Taunt, you have Repulsing Torrent.  It's basically Taunt Plus.

 

In addition to @Sir Myshkin's points on Taunt, I would add that it's also autohit.  Together with the generous taunt duration, it means it needs neither accuracy nor taunt enhancement.  It doesn't need any added slots at all.  Some people put the psi damage proc from Perfect Zinger in there, but I prefer just a single +5 recharge IO so it's ready more often.  I use it to grab stray aggro while I am "in the pocket" with the bulk of a spawn.

 

Repulsing Torrent sounds like a great opener though on a new spawn.  The cone isn't terrifically wide, but it's super long.  At 67.5 degrees arc on a Tanker, it is 68 feet across out at 51 foot range.  That's enough to catch all or most of a loosely packed x8 spawn, so pulling up and letting that one rip from 30 feet away or so is a great way to start.  On my Rad Armor tankers, I like to use Ground Zero w/ Avalanche Knockdown proc for this if it's up or Rad Therapy if it isn't.  Rad Therapy only hits 10 though so it's not as good.   A good-sized PBAoE is nice too, but it looks like KM's Burst is just 12ft radius on a Tanker.   So Repulsing Torrent is a better way to knock down and taunt up to 16 targets in a new spawn.  It just requires you to pull up and fire it from a bit of a range.

 

I gather Fly is taken for concept reasons?  You'll have to be hovering close to the ground for your KB protection to be effective.  But also... human tornado without Whirlwind?  Duuuude. 🤪  Spinning is winning!

 

Neat ideas tho.  If I was doing this myself, I might consider working teleport into this instead of Fly.  Combat Teleport in particular might be very useful with a bind to BAMF you backwards 30 feet to set up a perfect Repulsing Torrent, then BAMF back into the pack.

 

 

[SableShrike]

Good points, guys.

 

I’ve seen what you’re speaking of firsthand in-game.

 

I’d say about 70% of content you can get by just fine with Torrent over Taunt, but for stuff like 4* Hard Modes or Hami tanking you’ll want the actual Taunt.

 

I tend to live in the journey portion of the game, and so usually stop grinding on level 50 HMs et cetera.

 

Fun aside about Teleport with this setup, I had an SR/KM with Teleport as an early version of this.  More of a Sorcerer Supreme vibe.  Fold Space is damn fun on a Tanker.