Ultimate Team Shield Tanker

[Shadowstorm06]

I want to run my first tanker and have loved all the Shield powers in the hero creator. I also love that it is a literal “stand behind me and follow my lead” tanker.

 

If I wanted to build the ultimate Shield Tanker for keeping my allies alive in 4* content, what secondary would you pair it with? These are the ones I've been looking at (and mostly theoretical):  

**Shield/Elec:** With it's double teleports attacks, you basically have an Alpha Strike for every mob. Single Target dmg is lacking, but AOE is insane and you're there to just to be unkillable and arrest baddies, right? Probably "feels" the most powerful out of the combos due to Shield Charge and Lightning Rod.  

**Shield/MA:** I believe some crazy stuff was performed with this combo in the past. MA can basically bring up all of Shields positional defenses to incarnate levels, and you can build heavy resists underneath it. Dragon's tail fires off really quick and can keep mobs down and if you slot a FF into it, it'll fire off to really pump up the recharge.  

**Shield/Kinetic Melee:** This combo is my "dark horse" and kind of under the radar strong. Shield Charge + Burst allows you to really keep mobs on their butt. Burst refreshes quickly, and can slot FF and -resist. The BIG synergy is that AAO in shield causes foes to do -Dmg, as does KM attacks. So you're effectively lowering the damage that enemies do to your team just by... being you. Heck, you could grab Darkest Night epic power as well and further tank their damage. You also have two ranged attacks for runners that also have knockdown for great crowd control.

**Shield/Fiery Melee:** FM just seems REALLY strong on Tankers. Good AOE and ST. Combustion seems really strong, and AAO will fuel more damage. Cool looking together as well.

**Shield/Stone Melee:** I feel like this could be close to Shield/SS, but without the rage crash. Idk if it does anything the best, but it seems to do EVERYTHING well. Nice dmg, good CC. You can slot the Entomb proc for a fatty shield and use FF to pump up the recharge.

 

**Shield/Ice Melee:** Seems to trade the damage from FM for more control. Cool (😎) thematically as well. I assume it’s good for procs and the ice patch power seems to work well.

 

**Shield/Street Justice:** This might be the most stylish choice 😂 I do love the crunch of StJ. Tankers get some wider AOE’s, which is nice, and you keep the hard hitting single target as well. Seems pretty easy to hit the shield defensive caps on a Tanker, which means you can probably proc out the StJ attacks more. I’m sure CU would hit like a nuke.

 

**Shield/SS:** How is the rage crash on a defensive set? I could see AAO + Rage leading to a lot of damage.

 

I know Shield/DM is good as well, but I ran a DM Scrapper on live and want to switch it up a bit.
I'd love to hear the community's thoughts and/or suggestions.

[Warboss]

I'm bias, but I'd go Shield/FM... 

 

It looks like you have pretty much summed up the combos. The big question is, "what do you want your Tank to do?"

 

Shield/Elect - Sadly Lightning Rod isn't up as much as you'd (me) would like. But you've nailed the basics of the combo

 

Shield/MA - MA is not my forte' I'll let other discuss it.

 

Shield/KinM - Kin Melee (imo) is one of the best sets you can take when Tanking for new players and poorly functioning teams. The blend of attack type gives many options for maintaining control and pulling mobs off of teammates or otherwise foiling their attack chain.

 

Shield/FM - Do it, don't look back, burn things to the ground!

 

Shield/Stone - Crash, Boom, Bang! If you want to hit mobs and smack them around, this is the set for you.

 

Shield/Ice - More Defensive and control focused than the other sets. Fun to play, but not a visually exciting as some of the other sets Frost though, is insane and your friend!

 

Shield/StJ - Haven't done that much with StJ, others will probably have better input than I can give you. I don't care for the power building attack sets, but nothing overall wrong with it.

 

Shield/SS - in many ways similar play-wise as Stone, just done a bit differently. Fun to play, and I'll defer to others for their input.

 

Shield/Dark - Good but, you've already opted out. So, stop stalling and roll your SD/Fiery Melee Tank already!! 

[Sovera]

From what I understand Hardmodes want Rad Armor more than anything. Consider maybe Stone since the +HP buff can make it HP capped.

 

I'm not particularly inclined towards Shield but it looks like you have a good grasp on what every secondary can bring. At the level which hardmodes are played at the individual differences between sets won't matter much when there are so many buffs. It is about knowing what to do and doing it more than anything.

 

Even Shield not having heals or endurance clickies don't matter in a hardmode team so the easy answer of playing with DM is not really important.

 

You just need to be tough and know when to get out of the way, and possibly pick something that has a big shield, like Rad Armor, since someone else can bring the HP buff.

[Carnifax]

22 minutes ago, Sovera said:

You just need to be tough and know when to get out of the way,

The second part is REALLY important. On the LGTF doesn't matter how buffed you are, those neural bubbles will mess you up.

 

That was my main, chastening lesson, along with "Don't decide to be the Rad Tank on a 1 star LGTF while playing in the study on a SteamDeck over a glitchy WiFi signal"

 

So. Many. Lag. Deaths. 

[JJDrakken]

15 hours ago, Shadowstorm06 said:

I want to run my first tanker and have loved all the Shield powers in the hero creator. I also love that it is a literal “stand behind me and follow my lead” tanker.

 

If I wanted to build the ultimate Shield Tanker for keeping my allies alive in 4* content, what secondary would you pair it with? These are the ones I've been looking at (and mostly theoretical):  

**Shield/Elec:** With it's double teleports attacks, you basically have an Alpha Strike for every mob. Single Target dmg is lacking, but AOE is insane and you're there to just to be unkillable and arrest baddies, right? Probably "feels" the most powerful out of the combos due to Shield Charge and Lightning Rod.  

**Shield/MA:** I believe some crazy stuff was performed with this combo in the past. MA can basically bring up all of Shields positional defenses to incarnate levels, and you can build heavy resists underneath it. Dragon's tail fires off really quick and can keep mobs down and if you slot a FF into it, it'll fire off to really pump up the recharge.  

**Shield/Kinetic Melee:** This combo is my "dark horse" and kind of under the radar strong. Shield Charge + Burst allows you to really keep mobs on their butt. Burst refreshes quickly, and can slot FF and -resist. The BIG synergy is that AAO in shield causes foes to do -Dmg, as does KM attacks. So you're effectively lowering the damage that enemies do to your team just by... being you. Heck, you could grab Darkest Night epic power as well and further tank their damage. You also have two ranged attacks for runners that also have knockdown for great crowd control.

**Shield/Fiery Melee:** FM just seems REALLY strong on Tankers. Good AOE and ST. Combustion seems really strong, and AAO will fuel more damage. Cool looking together as well.

**Shield/Stone Melee:** I feel like this could be close to Shield/SS, but without the rage crash. Idk if it does anything the best, but it seems to do EVERYTHING well. Nice dmg, good CC. You can slot the Entomb proc for a fatty shield and use FF to pump up the recharge.

 

**Shield/Ice Melee:** Seems to trade the damage from FM for more control. Cool (😎) thematically as well. I assume it’s good for procs and the ice patch power seems to work well.

 

**Shield/Street Justice:** This might be the most stylish choice 😂 I do love the crunch of StJ. Tankers get some wider AOE’s, which is nice, and you keep the hard hitting single target as well. Seems pretty easy to hit the shield defensive caps on a Tanker, which means you can probably proc out the StJ attacks more. I’m sure CU would hit like a nuke.

 

**Shield/SS:** How is the rage crash on a defensive set? I could see AAO + Rage leading to a lot of damage.

 

I know Shield/DM is good as well, but I ran a DM Scrapper on live and want to switch it up a bit.
I'd love to hear the community's thoughts and/or suggestions.

 

Try this out. Axe now has Axe Cyclone, that sucks all enemies into you and then deals dmg, thus causing taunt and they are near you.  Keeping them away from your buds.

 

Tanker (Shield Defense - Battle Axe).mbd

 

[Onlyasandwich]

I don't have much experience in *4 content, so my perspective is lacking there.

 

It sounds like you have an excellent handle on the implications of the secondaries!

 

A few impressions from my own experience with some that you highlighted:

 

I don't find Street Justice very satisfying. This is just a personal "feel" from the feedback the set gives me. The aoes are awkward and small, even for a tanker. Concept is king of course! You may find the animations more to your liking. 

 

Kinetic Melee has nice soft control through KD and the damage debuff as you note. However, it pays for it in damage. The Power Siphon mechanic just about catches it up to where another set would already be without the extra effort. I'm sure survivability is more important in hard mode, however, so you may find it to your liking. 

 

Stone Melee I'm sure would be outstanding on a team, but can be difficult when solo unless you have end support through your primary. Not a deal breaker, especially with incarnates.

 

Electric Melee will have great burst damage, but is lacking in aoe damage over time. The Thunder Strike buff is nice, but actually cut the little aoe potential it had (not much lost here really). Chain Induction and Jacob's ladder are fairly minor aoe contributors. All of your aoe is highly invested into Lightning Rod, which is on a long cooldown. Still a good set, but its aoe is more concentrated rather than actually superior to others.

 

You can't go wrong with the others you mentioned. They will pair with any primary and perform well. I personally don't find the rage crash to be a problem, but I don't bother double stacking. I just use it as a perma base upon which to build a more proc oriented secondary.

 

My own Shield tanker is Shield/Savage. I absolutely feel the lethal resistance with some crowds, but it's very breezy to play, easy on the end, and has the very impactful savage leap. Savage Leap gives me more battlefield repositioning fun than Lightning Rod, and is super proccable. Single target rotation is a little janky though, as Hemo is still poop.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 28 by Onlyasandwich