Help with a bio tanker

[Gdead909]

Hey I just found out about this and I am so excited to start. I got everything loaded up. I played waaaaaay back in the day but I wanted to ask before I built anything

 

whats a good complimentary power for bio armor? Or are they all pretty balanced now?

 

[MoisesG]

Any secondary set will work, so try what you think you will enjoy.

Tankers received some changes recently, the most notable being an increase in the number of targets affected by AoEs.

For tanks i really like Fire Melee, Dark Melee and Staff Fighting, lots of AoE and utility in the case of DM and Staff.

Other sets i have tried and like for tanks is War Mace, Battle Axe, Electric Melee and Radiation Melee.

For pure Damage i like Super Strength, Energy Melee (recently improved), and stone Melee.

All of the other sets i have not tried as a tanker, and i'm sure others can give you better advice, but i say Try Them All.

After all that is what this game is about 🙂

[a1cd]

I have a 50 Bio/Spines tank - a lot of fun and very thematic. Spines has a lot of AOE and DOT effects which goes well with skills from the Bio tree.

 

 

[Xandyr]

Check sig.

 

I love my Bio/Rad and Bio/Staff. 

 

Dark would be really good. Yet another heal, and the -To Hit Debuff would be nice.

Martial Arts...for extra defense, and mitigation. 

 

Honestly,  all Secondary powers would work with Bio. Just depends on your toon's background story, and what you want to achieve.

[PLVRIZR]

10 hours ago, Xandyr said:

Check sig.

He's being subtle and humble.  DEFINITELY check the link in his signature.  @Xandyr is the Bio armor guru and I used his guide to make SWMPTHNG (Bio/Rad), and as an incarnated 50+3, he's nearly unkillable.  

 

My current project is Bio/Fiery Melee.  Last night, at lvl 31, I joined a Citadel TF on Exc, and he cakewalked through a +2, with a team of almost all melee/damage toons - i.e. almost no support (one kin Corr with tanks, scraps and blasters filling out the group).  Ran in Offensive mode, until Vandal and the Council just melted, in droves.  In hindsight, didn't even need Defensive mode, for the AV, as he went down quickly, as well.

 

My $.02 infl for Fire as a secondary 😁

[Xandyr]

2 hours ago, PLVRIZR said:

He's being subtle and humble.  DEFINITELY check the link in his signature.  @Xandyr is the Bio armor guru and I used his guide to make SWMPTHNG (Bio/Rad), and as an incarnated 50+3, he's nearly unkillable.  

 

My current project is Bio/Fiery Melee.  Last night, at lvl 31, I joined a Citadel TF on Exc, and he cakewalked through a +2, with a team of almost all melee/damage toons - i.e. almost no support (one kin Corr with tanks, scraps and blasters filling out the group).  Ran in Offensive mode, until Vandal and the Council just melted, in droves.  In hindsight, didn't even need Defensive mode, for the AV, as he went down quickly, as well.

 

My $.02 infl for Fire as a secondary 😁

Appreciate that @PLVRIZR.

 

 I've respecced and tested Jon Deere, my Bio/Rad, so many times it's ridiculous . My current build has softcapped S/L/F/C/E/NE defense while in Offensive. The other night I was running 50+4 missions with some friends and would jump in a mob and /em newspaper. Was hilarious as I would flip through the newspaper, not take damage, and my 2 damage auras would slowly melt them.

 Once went to Monster Island in PI by myself. Was awesome tanking a couple of Monsters.

 

 Bio has one weakness, and that's defense debuffs. I mean, come on. Even Superman has 1 weakness. And I'm ok with that.

 

 It is the most versatile, most durable primary power for tanks. Stone can be built to be pretty f'n awesome also...without granite.

[Gdead909]

Amazing! Thanks for all the help. I ended up rolling a dice after I narrowed it down to a few. I ended up with spines. I am loving it so far. I feel like I can tank the world lol

[Xandyr]

Nice! Gotta love another damage aura!

[PLVRIZR]

2 hours ago, Xandyr said:

Appreciate that @PLVRIZR.

Hey, I call them as I see them.  Your guide is 'da bomb, for Bio.

 

For Inv, I reference @Hyperstrike and @Infinitum.

 

For Fire armor, it's @Sovera and stone is @Bopper.

 

Me, I just steal from everyone else and hope that Zect gives just one compliment, about my posted builds, while calling me a "Forumite", as an insult 🙃

[Gdead909]

Ooooooo going to bookmark those

[lemming]

7 hours ago, PLVRIZR said:

He's being subtle and humble.  DEFINITELY check the link in his signature.  @Xandyr is the Bio armor guru and I used his guide to make SWMPTHNG (Bio/Rad), and as an incarnated 50+3, he's nearly unkillable.  

 

My current project is Bio/Fiery Melee.  Last night, at lvl 31, I joined a Citadel TF on Exc, and he cakewalked through a +2, with a team of almost all melee/damage toons - i.e. almost no support (one kin Corr with tanks, scraps and blasters filling out the group).  Ran in Offensive mode, until Vandal and the Council just melted, in droves.  In hindsight, didn't even need Defensive mode, for the AV, as he went down quickly, as well.

 

My $.02 infl for Fire as a secondary 😁

One of my favorite tanks is a Bio/Fire.    She needs a respec since I built her when I had no clue, but she's still one of the most durable, and a lot of fun.

[Sovera]

👋

 

Fire is still fun but lost some of its oomph in the chase for balance. It's still what I'd recommend to get more AoE out of the box (Burn at 18 for a Tanker) which makes a character feel good  when we can keep on dumping AoEs into a group of enemies.

 

Bio will be more single target damage but roughly as squishy all things considered (less so I'd say thanks to some regeneration shenanigans that Fire can't mirror) while Invulnerable can just tank the world but you'll feel like a Tanker in terms of damage.

 

But if you're not soloing then your personal damage does not matter (as much) since the team is there for it and the Tanker is there to stay alive.

 

If you DO intend to solo most or even half of the time then definitely consider Fire or Bio because eventually it becomes tiresome to sandpapper mobs and a well built 'squishy' Tanker can still take on 90% of the game's content (I have soloed the Cimemora taskforce with a Fire Armor tanker on max difficulty with enemies buffed and only died at the end where I got stunned and one shot).

 

Fire/Fire for AoE extravaganza (Combustion at level 4, Burn at 18, Fire Sword Circle at 24), or Fire Armor/Ice Melee to still have enough AoE (super wide cone at level 4 but unlike Combustion it needs moderate aiming), Burn at 18, Frozen Aura at 30) and have Ice Patch as a defensive move that does not need slots at level 20. Fire/Fire will do better single target damage as well.

 

It's what I meant about Fire Armor helping a character feel good. Woo, Combustion/Frost at level 4! ....and now nothing else until level 24/30.

 

 

Regarding your actual question the same applies roughly. Simply in terms of gameplay without thinking of theme Fire will give you easy AoE (and you can try to grab Fire Breath to sub in for the loss of Burn, but it's a narrow cone unlike Frost) and good single-target damage further helped by Bio who is good at increasing ST. Or Ice to help with the somewhat squishyness of Bio.

 

Keep in mind that as a Tanker squishyness is both relative and quick to disappear once levels are accrued and power slots are filled, but also keep in mind that for a first character it's fine to start with something easy(er) and then just make a new alt later. Leveling is quick, money is easy to make, and stuff you bought for one character can be passed to the next.

 

Check my signatures about that as well as the money making tips.

Edited January 8 by Sovera

[Thraxen]

On 1/5/2024 at 8:17 PM, Xandyr said:

Check sig.

 

I love my Bio/Rad and Bio/Staff. 

 

Dark would be really good. Yet another heal, and the -To Hit Debuff would be nice.

Martial Arts...for extra defense, and mitigation. 

 

Honestly,  all Secondary powers would work with Bio. Just depends on your toon's background story, and what you want to achieve.

got the bio/rad build handy?  Didn’t see it on link on sig. just made one on torch for the extra exp. Have had several bio scraps, still have one, but assume lotta stuff different tanking. 

[Xandyr]

I believe this is my most current build.

Tanker - Bio Armor - Radiation Melee cap def.mbd

[Thrax]

Sweet thanks.

 

[Thraxen]

Do the two click heals need accuracy for pve?  Can't seem to find out for sure.  

[PLVRIZR]

57 minutes ago, Thraxen said:

Do the two click heals need accuracy for pve?  Can't seem to find out for sure.  

While they both do list Accuracy as an available enhancement slot, only Accurate Healing sets are available, so I slot Theft of Essence +End proc, but no accuracy IOs.  My current project is 37 (Bio/Fiery Melee) and ran with a 54/8 PI team last night.  Didn't really watch but clearly didn't notice missing +5s, with either.  My attacks certainly whiffed alot, so anecdotally I'd say no.

[Psyonico]

DNA siphon has a base accuracy of 1, meaning 75% chance to hit even conning minions, so yes, you want an accuracy in that

 

Parasitic Aura has a base accuracy of 1.5... I can't do the math in my head right now to figure out what that adds up to, but it's >95% chance against even conning minions.  Depending on what level you plan on fighting against will determine if you want to shoot accuracy in it (I still would though)

[Greyhame]

Does anyone build Bio with more of a focus on resistance bonuses instead of defense?  I'm working on a Bio/Ice and currently tinkering with final build ideas.  Given the lack of defense debuff resistance, I am not strongly inclined to make a build focused on softcapping.

[Xandyr]

1 hour ago, Greyhame said:

Does anyone build Bio with more of a focus on resistance bonuses instead of defense?  I'm working on a Bio/Ice and currently tinkering with final build ideas.  Given the lack of defense debuff resistance, I am not strongly inclined to make a build focused on softcapping.

 I mean, you could build and focus on Resistance bonuses. Just keep in mind, that if you are in OFFENSIVE Adaptation, your resistances will suffer a -7.5% penalty.

 

I just finished slotting out my Bio/Ice tank last night. It's pretty tough.

[Sovera]

5 hours ago, Greyhame said:

Does anyone build Bio with more of a focus on resistance bonuses instead of defense?  I'm working on a Bio/Ice and currently tinkering with final build ideas.  Given the lack of defense debuff resistance, I am not strongly inclined to make a build focused on softcapping.

 

As a rule the aim is building for both with Bio Armor. Bio has strong Smash and Lethal resistances but weak to Energy and Negative. But it has strong defenses to Energy and Negative while having no defenses against Smash and Lethal.

 

So you want to boost your resistance and work your E/N defenses up. At that point and with a Tanker it's just easy to crank all resistances as much as possible (while trying not to go past 90% with the ATO stacks) and bump S/L defenses to at least 40%. Now you have a tanker that has both defenses to S/L as well as E/N, with strong resistances to S/L and mediocre to E/N.

 

Neither those defenses get protection though, and can be quickly whittled down. It's not a huge problem with S/L due to the resistances but with E/N if it happens (the murderbots in the end game do this) then it's a glaring hole in the armor set which has to rely on the absorb shield.

 

But in order for those defense debuffs to work they first need to hit and that means a healthy buffer makes that take longer since defense makes the debuffs miss. If we are at medium defenses (25-30%) the whittling starts right away and each subsequent hit is easier since there are less defenses. A vicious and cascading cycle.

 

But if having a softcapped defense (45%) and knowing that the faction that will be fought does the defense debuffing then sometimes it is no worse to simply eat a small purple inspiration before fighting. By the time it ends or the mobs have overcome the buffer and whittled defenses down most will be dead which means less mobs hitting, less mobs debuffing, etc.

 

It's how my Fire Armor Tankers deal with stuff.

 

Edited January 14 by Sovera

[Nerrai]

Do you have any thoughts on how you'd do a bio/axe tanker?  I've been trying to find some ideas but most of what I can find is scrapper based.  Thank you!

[Trollium]

I was just thinking about posting needing guidance with bio/spines. Hopefully I can figure enough out to get capped enough to figure it out since it's my first 50.

[Xandyr]

On 3/3/2024 at 8:16 PM, Trollium said:

I was just thinking about posting needing guidance with bio/spines. Hopefully I can figure enough out to get capped enough to figure it out since it's my first 50.

I threw this together fairly quick. Might give you an idea or 2.

 

Tanker (Bio Armor - Spines).mbd

[Xandyr]

On 2/23/2024 at 6:20 PM, Nerrai said:

Do you have any thoughts on how you'd do a bio/axe tanker?  I've been trying to find some ideas but most of what I can find is scrapper based.  Thank you!

I've not played the revamped BA, so I'm just kinda guessing on it.

 

Tanker (Bio Armor - Battle Axe).mbd