Tank primary set for a full time 5 person only SG team

[Dirtball]

I have a small SG of five IRL friends.  We play as a five man team once per week. We are getting up into the upper 40s with our current team and I am looking ahead to our next team.  I am thinking of running a tank but am not sure what primary to choose.  We never lack in DPS, one of us always runs a Dominator, one gravitates towards scrapper/stalker and one usually runs either tanker or brute/scrapper.   I am normally the buff/debuff with a defender or controller but the stalker/scrapper says he thinks he would like to try a "supportive" AT this time.  I may be tanking for this team.

 

  Last time I ran a tanker I played Shield/Kinetic Melee and by mid 30s I felt pretty strong, to the point where we were running +2.   I'd like to try a different set but am not completely against going Shield Primary if that is my "best" option.  I am looking for a primary set that will allow me to build to be the "tankiest" I can be while leveling.  Once we hit 50, we start new toons so I don't worry about slotting purples, or finishing incarnate abilities.  Cost of the build isn't a problem, I have a bunch of Inf and merits stocked on my old previous 50s.

 

What would be suggestions for creating the "invincible" tank for leveling?  (I prefer Defense vs Resists.) 

 

Ice seems (on paper anyway) to be a good defensive set, would this be feasible for what I want to do?

 

Or should I get over my Defense > Resist thing and play one of the Resist sets?

 

Thanks for any input!

[Triumphant]

Invulnerability/Super Strength is always the recommended go-to for resist based tanker sets.  I always struggle with endurance management on INV builds at low levels.  Even after putting in End reduction IO's and Endurance Procs, I always find myself endurance starved on INV and it annoys me.  It's fixable once I get into my incarnates, but you aren't going that far, so you might also find it as frustrating as I do (Or not.  Who knows?  As with all things in life, YMMV).

 

I enjoy Radiation Armor for protection and having lots of useful clicky powers on a tanker.  As far as attack power sets, Titan Weapon is pretty great.  Like you, though, I much prefer defense sets, my favorite being Super Reflexes.  My ultimate recommendation is always just to try whatever seems the most fun to you.  If you don't like it, abandon the toon and try something else (it should be relatively easy to find someone to power level your new toon up to whatever level your buddies are currently sitting at).

 

I'm no expert on tanking, by any means, though.  So hopefully some experts can get in here and give you some genuinely useful advice.

 

 

[BrandX]

1 hour ago, Dirtball said:

I have a small SG of five IRL friends.  We play as a five man team once per week. We are getting up into the upper 40s with our current team and I am looking ahead to our next team.  I am thinking of running a tank but am not sure what primary to choose.  We never lack in DPS, one of us always runs a Dominator, one gravitates towards scrapper/stalker and one usually runs either tanker or brute/scrapper.   I am normally the buff/debuff with a defender or controller but the stalker/scrapper says he thinks he would like to try a "supportive" AT this time.  I may be tanking for this team.

 

  Last time I ran a tanker I played Shield/Kinetic Melee and by mid 30s I felt pretty strong, to the point where we were running +2.   I'd like to try a different set but am not completely against going Shield Primary if that is my "best" option.  I am looking for a primary set that will allow me to build to be the "tankiest" I can be while leveling.  Once we hit 50, we start new toons so I don't worry about slotting purples, or finishing incarnate abilities.  Cost of the build isn't a problem, I have a bunch of Inf and merits stocked on my old previous 50s.

 

What would be suggestions for creating the "invincible" tank for leveling?  (I prefer Defense vs Resists.) 

 

Ice seems (on paper anyway) to be a good defensive set, would this be feasible for what I want to do?

 

Or should I get over my Defense > Resist thing and play one of the Resist sets?

 

Thanks for any input!

 

I'm going to suggest Bio Armor.  Once built up, you're going to feel tough and you'll also have ways to help your team with Bio's offensive abilities.

 

My Bio/Spines feels so tough, it's great 🙂

[jprewitt73]

1 hour ago, Dirtball said:

Ice seems (on paper anyway) to be a good defensive set, would this be feasible for what I want to do?

Ice Armor is awesome. Great set from start to finish. Fairly easy to get to the soft cap for defense and you will never have end problems once you get to level 22 with Energy Absorption. 

 

I have a 50 Ice/Psy Tank that is a lot of fun and can stand toe to toe with pretty much anything. 

 

[Naturallymorbid]

I second the Rad Armour suggestion, iv'e got a Rad/Axe, he is tanky as hell and does great damage - easly solo running 54X8 content without breaking sweat.

 

Axe is also a great feeling set in general both with big numbers and the overall "impact" of the set (it just feels chonky 😄 )

 

Edited July 15 by Naturallymorbid

[Lazarus]

Also gonna suggest RAD ARMOR.

 

The resists are great, has great END/RECH debuff protection.

 

GROUND ZERO is a good aoe that also HEALS team.

 

All-around its one of the best armors.

[Dirtball]

Thanks for all the input!  I'll be checking into Ice and Rad primaries.

[SeraphimKensai]

On 7/16/2024 at 7:21 AM, Dirtball said:

Thanks for all the input!  I'll be checking into Ice and Rad primaries.

Both primaries are great.

 

Ice pairs types based defense with slow mitigation (chilling embrace). Chilling Embrace also reduces the damage potential of targets it affects. You can significantly add onto the -damage effect by getting darkest night from soul mastery. This helps the survivability of the whole team, and your friend that wants to try a support based toon could roll Rad Emission, Dark Miasma, Poison, or Trick Arrow to build off the -Damage effect as well. I have an Ice/Spines/Soul and a Ice/Savage/Stone tank at max level along with a bunch of other Ice Armor from other ATs. Between the two I prefer the Ice/Spines as the spines slow stacks with Ice's.

 

Radiation armor pairs resistance and absorb, and really benefits from slow resistance. You can proc bomb rad therapy and ground zero as well and rotate meltdown, demonic, and melee core when you're an incarnate to allow more flexibility in proc slotting. For leveling up your friend that's going to play support could roll something like thermal or elec affinity to pair with you. I personally play Rad armor with SS using procs for when rage is down, and I have a Rad/DM that I made back in 2019 or so. Between the two I like SS better, otherwise I know some people that make great use of Rad/Axe and Rad/Fire tanks.

 

The best part of playing with a group of friends is coordinating the teams complimentary powers.

[tidge]

On 7/15/2024 at 11:54 AM, Triumphant said:

Invulnerability/Super Strength is always the recommended go-to for resist based tanker sets.  I always struggle with endurance management on INV builds at low levels.  Even after putting in End reduction IO's and Endurance Procs, I always find myself endurance starved on INV and it annoys me.

 

My experience with Inv Tankers is that they don't really need to run most of their toggles, especially at low levels. If teamed with others and running content where the toggles are needed, slow down on the attacks.

[Triumphant]

1 hour ago, tidge said:

 

My experience with Inv Tankers is that they don't really need to run most of their toggles, especially at low levels. If teamed with others and running content where the toggles are needed, slow down on the attacks.

That's totally fair and probably a great point.

 

Part of my problem is likely that I'm always pushing myself to solo as difficult content as I feel I can manage at any particular level, because I like to level quickly (hate grinding) so I have a more interesting selection of powers to play with, so I'm striving to squish as many baddies (or goodies, if I'm running a villain) at as high a level as possible.  This, naturally, puts a strain on my endurance bar due to the necessary frequency of attacks.

 

When playing in a group, at normal levels- especially if you have a good team buffer to replenish endurance, it's probably a non-issue.

[mistagoat]

I think I'm up to 10 lvl 50 Rad tanks now so I may be biased but.... Rad tanks are so awesome! I like to put 4 damage procs into each Rad aoe and use the other 2 slots to enhance the acc/heal/dam of the power. I aim for about 30% melee def and cap most of the resists. Its can be very strong even at low levels.