Tanker Armor with room for pool powers?

[KingBear]

Hello Homecoming!  I'm looking for a Tanker armor set (to pair with Battle Axe) that does the following things:

 

• Good for general content (not looking to Fire farm or do 4* TFs)
• Can reach (or get close to) caps when slotted with best-in-slot enhancements
• Is fun to play at all levels and doesn't NEED to be 50 and fully-slotted to be fun
• Requires as few primary powers as possible

 

I'd really, really like to build a Tanker who has room for both Team Teleport and Fold Space in the Teleportation tree, but that requires four pool powers.  Tanker sets like Bio that want all 9 of their primary powers don't really have room for that many pool picks, so I'm wondering if there's an armor set that is reasonably resilient without needing to take all its powers.

 

Any ideas?

[arcane]

Dark Armor only needs the first 6 powers to function.

 

Might not be super fun pre-incarnates though unless you get Theft of Essence in Dark Regeneration to give your blue bar something to work with.

Edited March 16 by arcane

[Frozen Burn]

I will let others who play all the Tank armors weigh in on any specifics, but generally as a Tanker, you want to take most all or most of your Primary armor-set powers as they help you stay alive to hold the aggro for your team.  If you skip any powers, it should be on your attack / secondary powerset.  But even then, you should be able to take all your primary and secondary, and you'll have 6 slots for your pools - in which you can take your 4 teleport powers + 2 others.

 

Regarding Team Teleport - this is basically a travel power for your entire team.  You teammates around you will teleport to your chosen location WITH YOU.  This isn't a "recall your team to your location" power.  And many people don't like being teleported at someone else's whim, so they will have "Prompt Team Teleport" enabled and and decline when prompted - and having a ton of prompts come up on their screen can be quite aggravating and annoying.  So, think carefully before choosing and using this power.

 

 

[Purrfekshawn]

9 minutes ago, KingBear said:

Hello Homecoming!  I'm looking for a Tanker armor set (to pair with Battle Axe) that does the following things:

 

• Good for general content (not looking to Fire farm or do 4* TFs)
• Can reach (or get close to) caps when slotted with best-in-slot enhancements
• Is fun to play at all levels and doesn't NEED to be 50 and fully-slotted to be fun
• Requires as few primary powers as possible

 

I'd really, really like to build a Tanker who has room for both Team Teleport and Fold Space in the Teleportation tree, but that requires four pool powers.  Tanker sets like Bio that want all 9 of their primary powers don't really have room for that many pool picks, so I'm wondering if there's an armor set that is reasonably resilient without needing to take all its powers.

 

Any ideas?

 

Stone armor. Honestly you will need only Granite, then can totally SKIP another Armors (Rock Armor, Brimstone Armor, Crystal Armors, Minerals), if really desire - (won't advice) Rooted, Earth Embrace, (really won't advice) Stone Skin (and you have to have it by game design anyway, as Rock Armor is skippable).

90% res to most except maybe PSI if you don't want it and 45% typed def are guaranteed u won't fall in even FireFarm and 4+ TF.

But as you've Teleportation pool you will have to rely on Teleport Powers in combat mostly, because granite is slow as Heck.

Here're binds for that:

/bind SHIFT+LBUTTON "powexecname combat teleport"
/bind CTRL+LBUTTON "powexecname teleport"

/bind SHIFT+6 "powexeclocation target combat teleport"

/bind SHIFT+7 "powexeclocation target teleport"
/bind SHIFT+SPACE "powexeclocation up:10 combat teleport"

[KingBear]

4 hours ago, Frozen Burn said:

Regarding Team Teleport - this is basically a travel power for your entire team.  You teammates around you will teleport to your chosen location WITH YOU.  This isn't a "recall your team to your location" power.  And many people don't like being teleported at someone else's whim, so they will have "Prompt Team Teleport" enabled and and decline when prompted - and having a ton of prompts come up on their screen can be quite aggravating and annoying.  So, think carefully before choosing and using this power.

 

Okay maybe I'm mistaken... which is the power that lets you run/stealth to the end of a mission and teleport your team to you, so you can kill the boss and get out?  That's the one I want.

 

And also Fold Space, the one that brings all the bad guys in the room into melee range with you so the Blasters can deal with them easily. 

[Sovera]

45 minutes ago, KingBear said:

 

Okay maybe I'm mistaken... which is the power that lets you run/stealth to the end of a mission and teleport your team to you, so you can kill the boss and get out?  That's the one I want.

 

And also Fold Space, the one that brings all the bad guys in the room into melee range with you so the Blasters can deal with them easily. 

 

That's either the START vendor power (half hour recharge) or the incarnate (level 50, two minute recharge). Fold Space lets you grab every enemy in the room and teleport them all at once to you (with full recharge and slots it should be down to about 30 seconds).

 

You CAN stealth to the end and teleport your team to you but one by one via Teleport Friend from the Teleport pool. And while it's true that people will usually have the prompt to accept or decline the previous poster is not making sense as you're not using it randomly but to recall your team to your spot.

 

For your original question... Dunno. It's easier if you just use Teleport for your travel power since then it's just a matter of shifting things around. Depends on what you want to do tbh.

 

Also, few people still play with Granite Armor only since it's obsolete and the gains are minimal compared to the losses incurred.

 

 

I can't really answer your question for you since all Tankers can be made tanky so it's a matter of knowing what flavour you want. I'm in a Stone Armor bend lately since its strong straight at level 13 which is not something I felt I could boast of with other combos. But before that I was in a Fire Armor streak.

 

I feel you might do well going for resistance based armors since they usually ignore defense and so you will free a pool by not picking Combat Jumping or Maneuvers.

[Haijinx]

You can skip the last two powers on WP. 

 

Probably fast healing too I suppose.

[Frozen Burn]

2 hours ago, KingBear said:

 

Okay maybe I'm mistaken... which is the power that lets you run/stealth to the end of a mission and teleport your team to you, so you can kill the boss and get out?  That's the one I want.

 

And also Fold Space, the one that brings all the bad guys in the room into melee range with you so the Blasters can deal with them easily. 

 

The power you use when stealthing to end of map and TP'ing your team to you is Assemble the Team (30min cooldown) purchased from START/P2W vendor (1 Mill Inf).  Also, there is Incarnate Destiny ability Incandescence that does the same (2 min cool down).  ...so if that is what you want, then that is only 3 powers from the Teleportation pool set you need.

 

And yes, Fold space brings a group of foes to you in a pile.  🙂  

 

[KingBear]

Fantastic, thank you very much.  So that frees up at least one pool power 😄

[Hjarki]

In general, if you can skip a lot of a Tanker's primary powers it probably means that set isn't very good.

 

However, the real issue in terms of pool powers is how many +Defense you need to slot LotG. Almost all builds want at least 5 powers that can be slotted for +defense because spending a single slot to get +7.5% is so incredible.

 

So if you're a Radiation Tanker, you won't be taking the Teleport pool because all four of your pools will already be spoken for with Defense toggles. On the other hand, a Super Reflexes Tanker tends to grab Fighting pool and wonder what else they might need.

[Haijinx]

I figured Lotg was out since the OP is already scrapping primary powers for pool powers.

 

The best choice for LOTG is probably SR/ since you can softcap it without the fighting pool AND slot 5 LOTG with just the primary powers, and get an extra +20% recharge for one power pick.

 

 

[Psiphon]

Hi, I'm not too sure what you believe  the problem is here. 

With any Tank  you should be able to pick all of the primary if required, a good range of attacks from the secondary and a number of pool and epic powers. 

I would expect to take the fighting pool, a travel power, hasten and a couple of epics. 

The only time I've struggled a bit and maybe not taken a travel power is if I try to squeeze in self heal.

You should be able to take any primary and worst case use athletic run or other start travel power to get around, with sprint, this works fine. Use temp jet pack for the really difficult places to get to. 

Also, pick up the start attacks, Sands of Mu, Blackwand and...sorry, the other one who's name escapes me at the moment. These are useful for any AT at low levels but Tanks especially, as you've probably focused on your primary and have minimal attacks. 

Edited March 17 by Psiphon

[Uun]

I have a BS/Shield scrapper with Fold Space. I was able to include all the Shield powers and the Fighting pool. I don't take Hasten and use TP for travel. Don't see why you couldn't do something similar as a Shield/BA tank. I'll second the recommendation for Dark Armor. I skipped Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom on mine (DA/DM) and had lots of room for pool picks. There are also several sets that don't require taking the T9 (Elec, Invul, SR).

[ZemX]

So here's an admittedly wacky challenge in the spirit of the OP.... what kind of result could you get with an SR tanker that took only the toggles and the click mez protect?  Obviously, you'd lose a portion of defense, DDR, and the big thing... no scaling resists.

 

But what could you do with all that air in the build?  Enough to make up for the lost powers in some interesting way?  Maybe a secondary that has a +def power like MA, Katana, BS, TW, Staff?   These would normally be overkill for a full SR Tanker.   Staff btw seems an interesting choice both for +melee def and +res(all).  Or one of the secondaries that has a self heal: Dark or Rad Melee.

 

I am not calling this a "good" idea obviously.  You lose a lot.   But it might just be what you could call a "minimum viable" base on which to build a Pool Tanker taking only 5 powers and all by Level 12.  (btw, Pool Tanker is probably taken but if it wasn't, you could grab that name and a Pool Cue in Staff Fighting... perfection!)

[Warboss]

I think if you're looking to put four of the Teleport powers in, you'll likely need to sacrifice somewhere. I'm not sure I'd look at powers from the primary set, but rather the secondary. Battle Axe is fun, but fewer powers from the set will make it less so (imo). Take either of the first two (you have to take one), Axe Cyclone (otherwise take another set, AC is pure Tanking magic), Pendulum, then Cleave. You'll be a bit gimped when exemping, and won't be the blender that Axe can be at the higher levels, but you'll be able to fit all needed Primary powers. Run a few ideas through mids, then see what you think. It should be doable. Although, thinking about it... once you get Fold Space going, it will become part of your "attack chain/"5th" power". Fold Space may also offset the need for Taunt, and you can slot your aggro aura and attacks for Taunt... so... might work out.

[Thraxen]

You could probably do SR and skip elude and passives. Yes, the passives give you the resistance buff when low. My ST tank rarely gets low and he does 4 star stuff. So would likely be fine for general stuff. Or can take 8 powers but not need fighting pool or anything else to add to defense. 
 

fold space is cool. Taunt reduces range and forces most mobs to come to you to attack. 

[Psyonico]

I may be wrong, but I believe all of the DDR in SR is in the passives, so you don't want to skip them.

[ZemX]

11 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

I may be wrong, but I believe all of the DDR in SR is in the passives, so you don't want to skip them.

 

Not all of it.  Not even most of it.  Also because SR's DDR is enhanceable, it easily overcaps it.  I just loaded up my SR/Staff Tanker in Mid's.  It has 122% DDR, which is then capped at 95%.  Removing the three passives dropped DDR to 82%, so not capped anymore but still quite good.   Also had 50/43/42 defense left in melee/ranged/AoE and that's without replacing the lost passives and reslotting.  I'm sure you could easily soft-cap and then some with a rebuild.

 

Again, it's hardly optimal but that was a given from the OP's idea in the first place.  So having a bit of fun with the idea.

[Thraxen]

Sr caps easily on a tank. Brute/scrap you want all powers. 

[biostem]

On 3/16/2024 at 11:44 AM, KingBear said:

I'm looking for a Tanker armor set (to pair with Battle Axe) that does the following things:

 

• Good for general content (not looking to Fire farm or do 4* TFs)
• Can reach (or get close to) caps when slotted with best-in-slot enhancements
• Is fun to play at all levels and doesn't NEED to be 50 and fully-slotted to be fun
• Requires as few primary powers as possible

Are you dead set on it being a tanker?  Ninjitsu on scrappers has a few "skippable" powers whilst still providing solid defenses, some damage resist, a self heal, and self end-recovery power...

[KingBear]

17 hours ago, Warboss said:

I think if you're looking to put four of the Teleport powers in, you'll likely need to sacrifice somewhere. I'm not sure I'd look at powers from the primary set, but rather the secondary. Battle Axe is fun, but fewer powers from the set will make it less so (imo). Take either of the first two (you have to take one), Axe Cyclone (otherwise take another set, AC is pure Tanking magic), Pendulum, then Cleave. You'll be a bit gimped when exemping, and won't be the blender that Axe can be at the higher levels, but you'll be able to fit all needed Primary powers. Run a few ideas through mids, then see what you think. It should be doable. Although, thinking about it... once you get Fold Space going, it will become part of your "attack chain/"5th" power". Fold Space may also offset the need for Taunt, and you can slot your aggro aura and attacks for Taunt... so... might work out.

 

Yeah I think this is where I'm heading.  I'm testing out Rad (without Meltdown), and skipping Gash and Taunt from the secondary.  Bio is just not suited for what I want to do - Bio wants to use a lot of power picks to build up both Def and Res, and if you don't lean in hard, the build doesn't come together.  So I'm going to try a Res-only set with CJ/Hasten/Fighting and Fold Space, see where that takes me.

[Jacke]

21 hours ago, Psyonico said:

I may be wrong, but I believe all of the DDR in SR is in the passives, so you don't want to skip them.

 

Not sure about the DDR (and you can never have too much DDR), but the 3 SR Passives give the scaling Resists (against all but Psionic and Toxic) as the SR toon loses HP.   Those scaling Resists are vital for an SR toon not falling to some big damage getting past Defense.

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=tanker_defense.super_reflexes&at=tanker

 

In short, for a SR toon, you want to take at least 8 of the 9 SR powers, usually skipping the T9 Elude.

Edited March 19 by Jacke

[tidge]

On 3/16/2024 at 9:02 PM, Hjarki said:

In general, if you can skip a lot of a Tanker's primary powers it probably means that set isn't very good.

 

I kinda agree with this... although I have a slight caveat that some powers (like the early S/L primary powers) can be delayed for a long time. For example: I usually don't even toggle on S/L resist powers unless I am tanking for a large PUG.

 

On 3/16/2024 at 11:44 AM, KingBear said:

I'd really, really like to build a Tanker who has room for both Team Teleport and Fold Space in the Teleportation tree, but that requires four pool powers.  Tanker sets like Bio that want all 9 of their primary powers don't really have room for that many pool picks, so I'm wondering if there's an armor set that is reasonably resilient without needing to take all its powers.

 

Any ideas?

 

I had the same idea (for Battle Axe), and I changed my mind....mostly because Fold Space was IMO completely unnecessary for the kind of Tanking I wanted to do, and it also required multiple slots to be any good if I wanted to use it... it needs both Recharge and Accuracy, otherwise it is just another power that will show its timer. Even as an extra 'Taunt' I don't like it on Tankers. YMMV.

 

What I did instead: I took Shield as the primary, and only went with Combat Teleport. With the Battle Axe set, this Tanker has no problem gathering up enemies and jumping between groups.

[Sovera]

41 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

I kinda agree with this... although I have a slight caveat that some powers (like the early S/L primary powers) can be delayed for a long time. For example: I usually don't even toggle on S/L resist powers unless I am tanking for a large PUG.

 

 

I had the same idea (for Battle Axe), and I changed my mind....mostly because Fold Space was IMO completely unnecessary for the kind of Tanking I wanted to do, and it also required multiple slots to be any good if I wanted to use it... it needs both Recharge and Accuracy, otherwise it is just another power that will show its timer. Even as an extra 'Taunt' I don't like it on Tankers. YMMV.

 

What I did instead: I took Shield as the primary, and only went with Combat Teleport. With the Battle Axe set, this Tanker has no problem gathering up enemies and jumping between groups.

 

A bit unrelated but Axe having so many powers that are good is a 'problem'. Well, the real problem is Cleave. Cleave's awkward recharge forces a 4th attack to not have gaps. I'm sorely tempted to ditch Cleave, blasphemous as it might, to free a power and make the attack chain more relaxed. Otherwise I only have Fly at level 30 since there are too many good picks.

[tidge]

On my Shield/Axe: I use Weaken Resolve and (mostly) Wall of Force to close the gaps. The latter is a favorite power on Tankers, as it can be available at low levels and can get the attention of many enemies at a distance.