Best tank build for end content and 54x8

[IUIXIUI]

Hello,

 

I am currently looking to build the best well rounded tank for end content and 54x8 maps with IOs and incarnates. Looking for opinions and also any mids builds people are willing to share.

[Gobbledigook]

Most tanks have no problem with 54x8 content when built well. Harder content is usually in teams anyway and you will be buffed considerably.

 

But you could try Invuln/Martial arts or /Dark melee. Very durable to everything with extra +to hit . There are plenty of builds if you check the forums @Infinitum has quite a few to start you off.

[AngieB]

In my experience any tank with the right IOs and Incanates can fill your requirements.

 

I would recommend Invulnerability, Rad Armor, Bio Armor and Shield Armor as the top choices with Stone Armor, Electric Armor, Dark Armor and Super Reflexes following close behind.

 

Out of the top choices Invulnerability is my favorite for high end content.

It reaches hardcap resistances to all including psi, and sofcapped defense to almost everything with only 1 or 2 baddies in range.

 

Rad is a close second for me, with Bio and Shield close behind.

 

These are only based on my experience, but others might dissagree and based on their own eperiences.

 

I say make one of everything 🙂 

Try them out, tanks are incredible fun to play.

Edited February 20 by AngieB

[tidge]

With ONLY (non set) IOs, being "well rounded" will probably involve specific power choices to mitigate debuffs, improve Accuracy/ToHit, and self heal.

 

With sets, it is reasonably straightforward to mitigate those sorts of concerns via slotting on just about any tanker. In general terms... At 54x8 settings, plan to be hit and make sure you can hit back.

[IUIXIUI]

Simply put If there is one set combo that were at the tippity top for survival what would it be? What combo has the most impressive def, resists that also takes psi into consideration and doesnt have any glaring hole or limitation. I care less about the speed of killing things.  Influence/IOs costs are of no concern. 

Edited February 20 by IUIXIUI

[Gobbledigook]

10 minutes ago, IUIXIUI said:

Simply put If there is one set combo that were at the tippity top for survival what would it be? What combo has the most impressive def, resists that also takes psi into consideration and doesnt have any glaring hole or limitation. I care less about the speed of killing things. 

Granite in stone armor will be your toughest but comes with drawbacks,being damage and recharge debuff on you. You could try a build that has Granite as back up and only use it in dire need or hardest content. 

 

Personally i would just pick Invuln as it is considered 2nd to granite only. It has no drawbacks. 

 

Staff/MA/Dark M will boost survival. Staff is the lowest damage of those, boosts resistances. Dark comes with a built in endurance/health gain. MA is fast and fun and boosts defense.

Edited February 20 by Gobbledigook

[IUIXIUI]

2 minutes ago, Gobbledigook said:

Granite in stone armor will be your toughest but comes with drawbacks,being damage and recharge debuff on you. You could try a build that has Granite as back up and only use it in dire need or hardest content. 

 

Personally i would just pick Invuln as it is considered 2nd to granite only. It has no drawbacks. 

 

Staff/MA/Dark M will boost survival. Staff is the lowest damage of those, boosts resistances. Dark comes with a built in endurance/health gain. MA is fast and fun and boosts defense.

So i guess my question is would Invul/Staff be able to get psi resists high enough to not be a weakness?

[Gobbledigook]

12 minutes ago, IUIXIUI said:

So i guess my question is would Invul/Staff be able to get psi resists high enough to not be a weakness?

Check out some builds first . But yes it can get high psi resists with or without staff.

 

I would test the secondaries on the test server to see which play style you prefer or if you have a concept in mind. It is not all about numbers.

[IUIXIUI]

16 minutes ago, Gobbledigook said:

Check out some builds first . But yes it can get high psi resists with or without staff.

 

I would test the secondaries on the test server to see which play style you prefer or if you have a concept in mind. It is not all about numbers.

In this case it is for me. I have multiple level 50's and a couple max level tanks. I am looking to pick the brains of the best tanks out there who excel at mids hero builder and extensive experience. This project is simply to make the most survivable tank in the game with IO's, accolades, and incarnates that doesn't require outside buffs such as a kin or emp. I want my health bar to move as little as possible in any scenario.

Edited February 20 by IUIXIUI

[Infinitum]

29 minutes ago, IUIXIUI said:

So i guess my question is would Invul/Staff be able to get psi resists high enough to not be a weakness?

Yeah invul would pull that off - you can build an invul to be as strong as Granite if not stronger - depends on how extreme you go with the slotting - and successfully pulling enemies into your range to max out invincibility. 

[IUIXIUI]

26 minutes ago, Infinitum said:

Yeah invul would pull that off - you can build an invul to be as strong as Granite if not stronger - depends on how extreme you go with the slotting - and successfully pulling enemies into your range to max out invincibility. 

I am good with herding and using corners of walls to pull range in close. I tend to position myself so that AoEs that hit me aren't hitting my allies.  I have been tanking since live when you could farm entire wolves maps and then get them to stack in certain spots so KO blow acted like a cone. Those were the days...

Would be nice if homecoming could put together a retro server where you could still do those things like no caps on aggro and AoE's.

[schrodingercat]

counterpoint:

 

Go granite-less stone  and build for regen and heal procs. Your layered defenses and resists will protect you, and when stuff does get through, your max HP and high regen will fix the booboos quickly enough.

[Infinitum]

2 hours ago, schrodingercat said:

counterpoint:

 

Go granite-less stone  and build for regen and heal procs. Your layered defenses and resists will protect you, and when stuff does get through, your max HP and high regen will fix the booboos quickly enough.

Another route with invul. If you are taking the durable route. Go with melee core and rebirth radial.  You will max resists and add regen with melee core - then when it expires pop rebirth radial for it's regen buff. 

 

All the while dull pain should be perma or close to it - effectively maxing HP, then resistances and high regen with melee core, then extremely high regen with rebirth radial.  And defenses should be over soft capped with your power choices and set bonuses plus saturated invincibility. 

 

You would really have to try hard to fall with this setup. 

[Gavlam]

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with anything above, Invuln/Stone/Shield are very strong endgame and while leveling. What I will say is that they lack a heal with a quick cooldown. Again, this can be mitigated by your team and buffs just like any other tanker primary, however, I'd argue that for +50 content, you'll find more strength in Rad/Bio/Elec/Fire. Everyone has their own opinions, that's just what I've found. Out of those, I'd prefer Invuln personally. 

[Gobbledigook]

30 minutes ago, Gavlam said:

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with anything above, Invuln/Stone/Shield are very strong endgame and while leveling. What I will say is that they lack a heal with a quick cooldown. Again, this can be mitigated by your team and buffs just like any other tanker primary, however, I'd argue that for +50 content, you'll find more strength in Rad/Bio/Elec/Fire. Everyone has their own opinions, that's just what I've found. Out of those, I'd prefer Invuln personally. 

Rad is a great armor and it has heals/absorb. It needs these. It has no defense unless built in and no DDR. It also has a cold hole.

Shield for example has huge DDR and defenses with really good resistances and with the right set up capped resistances. It does not need a heal as it does not take enough damage, unless it is a 4* in which case you will not be solo anyway.

Invuln may not have Rad/fire/Bio/elec heal but it has more max health than those by a big margin, good resistance to every damage type and high defenses with good DDR. It also makes it easier to hit higher level mobs.

 

Psi resists are easy to build for.

 

Less clicking heals also allows more attacking/taunting.

 

 

[punahou]

5 hours ago, AngieB said:

In my experience any tank with the right IOs and Incanates can fill your requirements.

 

I would recommend Invulnerability, Rad Armor, Bio Armor and Shield Armor as the top choices with Stone Armor, Electric Armor, Dark Armor and Super Reflexes following close behind.

 

Out of the top choices Invulnerability is my favorite for high end content.

It reaches hardcap resistances to all including psi, and sofcapped defense to almost everything with only 1 or 2 baddies in range.

 

Rad is a close second for me, with Bio and Shield close behind.

 

These are only based on my experience, but others might dissagree and based on their own eperiences.

 

I say make one of everything 🙂 

Try them out, tanks are incredible fun to play.

hi there

 

so one thing I get confused about

 

when I go select archetype, I go melee, then theses the choice of brute or tank.

 

o notice if select tank, I can go tank or brute.....  what's the difference in a brute tank vs a tank tank?

 

and is pure tank better?

 

I read somewhere. that on homecoming, tanks are radically buffed and at some point out dps brutes

thanks

[AngieB]

There is no difference as far as where you select the class. That is just because of the merger of villain and heroes. A tank or brute will always be their own class regardless of where on the scren you select it.

 

Now, the difference between tanks and brute is that tanks have higher resistance/defense to absorb more damage, where the brute does more damage. the brute are kinda like Hulk, the more they fight the more damage they do. This is represented in a bar next to health/stamina called Fury.

 

The tanks while doing less damage they hit more target with AoE attacks than the brute.

 

Have fun with your new toon

 

Edited February 20 by AngieB

[Gobbledigook]

13 minutes ago, punahou said:

hi there

 

so one thing I get confused about

 

when I go select archetype, I go melee, then theses the choice of brute or tank.

 

o notice if select tank, I can go tank or brute.....  what's the difference in a brute tank vs a tank tank?

 

and is pure tank better?

 

I read somewhere. that on homecoming, tanks are radically buffed and at some point out dps brutes

thanks

off topic but...

 

Tankers have higher base resists/defense. Higher health/max health. A really good ATO set proc. They have increased radius to all attacks which is a little OTT.

 

Brutes need fury to ramp up their damage, which is easy to do. They have higher damage cap but lower starting damage than a Tanker. They will hit harder generally than Tankers but procs and +damage buffs can alter this. Brutes have bad ATO set procs. Brutes probably need a little love in the ATO or a scaling resist/defense in fury or something.

 

Brutes are between Tankers and Scrappers. Less damage than a Scrapper but better survival., mostly due to higher health.

Edited February 20 by Gobbledigook

[Infinitum]

1 hour ago, Gavlam said:

What I will say is that they lack a heal with a quick cooldown.

I promise I am not peacocking or bragging or exaggerating what I am about to say, but they dont really need it.  

 

It takes a lot lot lot of -Def to actually hit Shield, Invul, or SR to begin to whittle them down. 

 

Once that happens (if it does) you then have to get past the resistances. 

With invul you should have sl capped, and the rest at 70+ with it being fairly easy to get to 80.  

With Shield the resistances may be slightly lower than invul but still can cap sl and easily approach or exceed the 70s on the rest. 

 

With SR - ddr is capped so it's defenses are hardest to overcome - but it can happen - that's when the real fun begins. With it's scaling resistances I have had my SR literally hover around 10% health indefinitely just seeing how long I could last.  The enemy literally ran dry of end and I was never in ultimate danger. 

 

Incarnates can then be utilized to fill in any holes these might have making them insanely durable.  Or you can take a different route and take attack based incarnates because it would still be safe to do so with these builds. 

 

Ultimately I don't think you can go wrong with any tanker set. They are all more than capable in different ways to survive any content. 

 

With all that said. Nerf Regen. 

[Gavlam]

I wouldn’t disagree with anything above. Every primary has strengths and weaknesses. I have found myself with a few +600 badged tankers that are well built and have seen a lot. When I’m not teaming and taking on monsters prior to a Hami, Invuln suffers. Shield suffers when you get hit (dark is a good secondary to mitigate no heal if going true tanker). My main, and elec primary, falls apart when I get looked at by toxic. 

I love defense because it prevents me from getting hit, obviously, but I’ve found it easier to have a resist based set and slot bonuses for defense to make up for the hole than vice verse. Just my 2 cents

Edited February 20 by Gavlam

[Sovera]

For regular +4x8 any Tanker will do. Heck, a Brute or a Scrapper could replace a Tanker for 90% of the content. So just play whatever you'd like. I stick to Fire Armor and it's considered a squishy set.

 

 

Now, if we're talking hardmodes then more specialized advice will be needed.

[Erratic1]

4 hours ago, Gobbledigook said:

es need fury to ramp up their damage, which is easy to do. They have higher damage cap but lower starting damage than a Tanker.

 

A Brute requires 13 Fury to deal equivalent damage to a Tanker. They will pretty much exceed that amount by making an attack while being attacked in return.

 

4 hours ago, Gobbledigook said:

Brutes are between Tankers and Scrappers. Less damage than a Scrapper but better survival., mostly due to higher health.

 

And reaching higher resistance caps should they build for it (which nearly all Brutes using a resistance based set will do and a lot using defense based sets do).

 

 

[tidge]

As @Infinitum wrote above: it is really hard to go wrong with most any Tanker. I have also watched Tanks drop in Health and then the Regeneration plus Scaling Resistance cuts in and then the Tank's Health is idling at some value.

 

There are corner cases of content that can cause grief.... Like -MaxHP attacks. The 'tankiest' Tank will have to plan for all the corner cases too.

[Wiseguy]

My opinion for the two of the tankiest tank choices:

 

- Invulnerability. You can plug the psi-hole with x4 or x5 Impervium armor and set bonuses. It's extremely well-rounded. The cons? With set bonuses, I'm not too sure. Your self-heal isn't spammable but you can go dark melee if you really want.

- Dark Armor. Some may not agree here, but the raw numbers and auxillary effects Dark armor provides speak for themselves. The cons? You lack DDR and also miss innate kb protection without sets or acrobatics. Some complain about end issues, but with accolades, panacea and perf shifter I don't really have issues there. Dark Regeneration is freaking insane.

 

Honorable mention:

- Stone armor (no granite). It's got a little bit of everything, and can be setted to be beefy. Con: You have to have rooted on for your hard status protection, meaning you're on the ground.

 

 

Also in general, any 'layered' set is going to be really successful post-slotting. A layered set being something that provides both resistance, and defense. (I don't really consider Dark layered, despite the -ACC in cloak of fear and the +def in cloak of darkness)

 

edit: I just want to echo that yeah, you can tank the 54x8 on any tank. Don't sweat it too much and pick what seems cool. My opinions are just opinions and are aimed toward covering as many situations as possible efficiently.

Edited February 21 by Wiseguy

[Sovera]

1 hour ago, Wiseguy said:

Honorable mention:

- Stone armor (no granite). It's got a little bit of everything, and can be setted to be beefy. Con: You have to have rooted on for your hard status protection, meaning you're on the ground.

 

 

No need to be on the ground for more than activating the power then it stays on and giving the expected bonuses.

 

Signed: someone who always picks Fly.