Are there any tanks that you would consider AV killers?

[Damoklese]

So I've got a lot of characters I'm juggling as I slowly make my way towards end game builds, and it occurred to me that if I was to find myself doing difficult content and getting frustrated, I'd really like to have 1 guy that I could consider my main, whom I could bring into any situation and just be that immovable object that can brute force through any challenge.

 

Tank seems to be a good fit for that, but if I'm going to earmark this character for a large investment of time and resources, I want him to be the right combination of fun, effective, and thematically cool.

 

So what powersets would you say are a good fit for this kind of role?   If you could have one tank that you put a billion influence Into... the "superman" of your personal comic world.. what powers would you go with?

[Boon]

Just from reading, I think EM/Rad might be an AV beast. I am planning on trying out an EM scrapper after I finish my SS/Rad Brute and fire/fire tank.

[Damoklese]

3 hours ago, Boon said:

Just from reading, I think EM/Rad might be an AV beast. I am planning on trying out an EM scrapper after I finish my SS/Rad Brute and fire/fire tank.

Not a huge fan of the pom poms or the overbearing visuals of Rad.   I do have a character concept that might work well with it, but im currently using it on a gravity controller :D.  Still..ill keep this in my back pocket as something to consider further.  Thanks!

[Sovera]

I've killed them with pretty much anything from MA, to Fire, to Ice, to Stone.

 

Some will have a harder time if they face particular AVs with strong resistance to their damage types.

 

Try Fire Melee, its recent tune up made it top tier and the damage type is not commonly resisted.

[nihilii]

I'm going to second the sentiment that just about any Tanker can take on most level 50 AVs and some level 54 AVs if you pour a billion influence into the character and optimize your build and attack chain to a reasonable extent.

 

For immovable object the obvious answer that comes to mind is Stone. These days you can play in normal armors for good damage output, then fall back to Granite the moment you're in trouble.

But, the look may be a concern.

There are many valid options so I will rather list the primaries and secondaries I would personally avoid:

 

PRIMARY

 

- Ice: some strengthes but also various holes, to the point it's a bit more involved. In theory Hibernate would be excellent as a panic button that allows you to recover. In practice letting the AV regenerate is a bit bothersome.

- Willpower: functionally a slightly less survivable Bio, also losing the offensive tools. There's never a good reason to go Willpower when you can go Bio, unless you hate Bio GFX.

 

- Elec Armor: all resistances with a weak heal will make this primary more involved than some other choices. Rad tends to be a better option for pure resistances for example.

- Fire Armor: resistance-based with some holes and great offensive tools. I'm listing this one here because you mention specifically wanting to be an immovable object. Fire has great boons but generally takes more active management.

 

Note all of these primaries, even Ice and WP, are perfectly capable of soloing AVs regardless. I just rank them as below the other options, given the objectives I infer from your post.

SECONDARY

 

- Staff, Kinetic, Spines, Elec, Psionic, Broad Sword, Katana, Savage all do (!relatively!) weaker single target damage. Again, you can make any of these work. You would just have an easier time with other choices.
 

 

Edited January 23 by nihilii

[ZemX]

15 hours ago, Damoklese said:

Not a huge fan of the pom poms or the overbearing visuals of Rad. 

 

Rad Armor could certainly use some power customizations that remove or limit vfx, but what you can do for now is select "Bright Radiation" and then choose colors from the left side (darkest) of the color palettes.  I find the dark reds/blues work best for being least visible.   You'll still be able to see the taunt aura as a smoky haze at ground level and you'll noticed the flying ping-pong balls still orbiting your character but they will be less eye-searingly obvious or distracting.

[Snarky]

6 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

Rad Armor could certainly use some power customizations that remove or limit vfx, but what you can do for now is select "Bright Radiation" and then choose colors from the left side (darkest) of the color palettes.  I find the dark reds/blues work best for being least visible.   You'll still be able to see the taunt aura as a smoky haze at ground level and you'll noticed the flying ping-pong balls still orbiting your character but they will be less eye-searingly obvious or distracting.

when artists mix colors the basic solution to "muddy up" or "turn grey" depending on the situation, is to take a color from opposite on the color wheel.  mixing the two opposites together gives grey or mud depending on shades.