Help me think through a Dark/Dark/soul(?) Tanker build?

[cothurn]

Hi gang, I just discovered CoH/HC, after only trying the game a little like a decade ago. Made a DP/WP sentinel to 50, and is very much enjoying derping around paragon city on her. 

 

The idea of a dark/dark/soul mastery tanker is, however, triggering my altoholism hard. I think have a clear theme that I want to follow in my head, but after reading and reading many of the posts on dark/dark tanker I have no idea how to materialize that theme. 

 

Since I have no idea how to build tankers, I am asking for some (a lot actually) help.

 

What I want:
a dark/dark tanker that is not the best at dealing damage but really good at surviving and debuffing enemies (and hold aggro I guess). I would like to mainly bring this to group content with exemplar in mind.  

 

Things that I would like to have:

1. Capped/Almost capped resistance
2. Some, maybe not soft capped but getting there defense with all the -hit debuffs from dark melee and darkest night
3. Go soul mastery and get/use darkest night
4. No hasten (I just don't like it on a personal level)
5. manageable endurance (hopefully even before incarnate)
6. Use mystic flight for travel power, but actually walks during combat (so no hover)
7. I want all the toggles from dark armor, because they look cool, but have no idea how useful/applicable 

 

Maybe something that look like this.

 

I am however, completely lost after picking the powers (and I don't even think the powers are that right).

 

I am not good enough with set IOs yet to know what to put where, and it feels like wanting darkest night instead of energy mastery really makes the endurance situation a lot worse. 

 

I read that dark armor does not have knockdown resist, and me not wanting hover on this seems to also not help either. 

 

So, the question is:

 

How to actually accomplish that? Inf isn't really an issue (since I am almost having more fun gamba enhancements that actually playing the game).

 

I feel like I am asking for a lot, but I have no idea if I actually am or not. 

If no, what are the things that in the list-of-things-I-want that I really should give up on to ensure the build can be serviceable in end game content (even though I have no idea what is that)?

And lastly, I would love to have some pointers on making tanker builds in general. 

 

Your help is much appreciated. 

 

Edited February 15 by cothurn

[Warshades]

Endurance will be an issue. Pairing with dark melee helps since you can use dark consumption to refill your blue bar, but if you exemplar below that then you can start to run into some issues. Theft of Essence proc in Dark Regeneration will help a lot with gaining some endurance back.

A few points regarding power picks:

• Do not skip Dark Embrace, it's your primary s/l resist toggle. If anything, you can skip Cloak of Fear which is largely useless with the way fear functions.
• Yes, knockback is a problem, however hover alone would do nothing to solve it. You can still get knocked down while hovering. There's 2 directions you could take. Stack enough kb mag protection from procs (steadfast protection, blessing of zephyr, or set bonuses) or else go into jumping pool for Acrobatics and you'd need fewer kb protection from iso sets/bonuses. Ideally I'd aim for a minimum of at least ~12 kb protection.
• You should not be taking both kick and boxing from the fighting pool. The only logical reason to take them is if you simply lack a better power choice pick and want to boost cross punch (which you did not take).
• Jump kick is point blank useless. Get combat jumping as you can mule it with LotG +rech. CJ has extremely minor endurance consumption and will further provide some defense.
• If you're not focusing on damage, there is very little use in going for assault from leadership pool, it's worsening your endurance problems and dark melee isn't a damage heavy melee set to begin with.
• One thing that you'll want to pay attention to is your recharge debuff resist. Dark armor has one of the most powerful heals in the game in Dark Regeneration, but that powerful heal won't help if your recharge is heavily debuffed and you're waiting for it to come off of cooldown. PvP winter sets provide a solid amount of recharge debuff resist in the first 2-3 set piece bonuses. Winter Gift's travel set also has a unique proc that provides 20% recharge debuff resist.

Don't have the time right now to build a dark/dark from scratch, but this is a rework from a dark/ice tank that I had plans of building and never got the build to where I was happy with it. Do not use this as something to build, it's only an example of some ways to slot dark/dark/soul to achieve some really high defense/resist numbers. Powers need to be moved around to be more exemplar friendly and I didn't test out how well it's endurance would be when exemplared down. My original goal for my dark/ice tank was to make an absurdly sturdy build with capped resists and soft capped positional defenses (with the help of barrier destiny and ice patch to make it even harder to bring down), but I've shelved that project for a bit.

 

In terms of alpha incarnate, Vigor or Cardiac are usually the better 2 options to take for dark armor, though you can also consider Spiritual. Vigor would be the one I lean towards for dark armor.

 

Hope this helps you with some ideas.

Tanker (Dark Armor - Dark Melee).mbd

[hobopete]

Far from the most experienced tanker, I’m newish and have 1 toon.   But it’s rad/dark tanker, so I have a bit of experience.   Please ignore anything I might say that conflicts with Warshades who is a super experienced tanker.
 

I like smite over shadow punch by a fair bit.

 

Touch of fear is super while you level, loved it, love the animation, loved it thematically.   I would suggest when you hit 50 you might rather have dark obiliteration, which is ranged and can be dropped on mobs up close.   Gives you access to a bunch of I/O sets you won’t otherwise get including the ragnarok purple set.   Touch of fears cone is much smaller than shadow maul.

 

I agree kick and boxing are just fillers on the attack chain while you level and are both junk attacks used so you can get tough and weave.  Of the two I leveled with boxing but on my last respec went kick so I could slot the force feedback proc

[tidge]

There are some classic problems to overcome with Dark Armor:

1. Lots of Toggles = Lots of Endurance Burn
2. No Knockback Protection
3. Several Auras have really bad base Accuracy

#1 can be addressed in the usual way: Globals/Procs/Set Bonuses for %+End, +MaxEnd, -EndCost, Recovery, and Accolades... and of course, slotting.

 

#2 requires Set Bonuses (e.g. Gladiator's Armor, Fury of the Gladiator) and single-slot pieces for KB protection. I suggest a minimum of 14-points KB protection, since +10 from a SG base gets you over the limit for Council FREEM! Your heals/toggles will mean nothing if you are getting rag-dolled around the map. I don't think it is a bad idea for a Dark armor Tanker to build more than 20 points of KB protection, but in my experience that requires some compromises on other set bonuses.

 

#3. Consult City of Data. I'd skip (or seriously delay) Cloak of Fear. This is a power that takes a LOT of slots to do what it advertises. Soul Transfer is IMO a better power pick than Cloak of Fear, and it needs no extra slots (just Recharge, IMO)

 

I disagree with the choice of the 4 powers in the Fighting Pool and Jump Kick. I don't want to be too critical here, but I feel that Combat Jumping is a better choice (from Leaping) and the 4 picks from Fighting could be used for things like Spirit Ward (as a mule),  Enflame (some more DoT) and Rune of Protection (another Resistance mule, and would allow you to get away with a smaller amount of KB protection when used). I'd delay Maneuvers as I don't think it yields that much at low level, unless it is where the Kismet +ToHit piece is.

[Uun]

Here's the current build for my Dark/Dark/Fire. This predates the changes to when powers become available, so many of the powers can now be taken earlier. 

Uundead - Tanker (Dark Armor).mbd

[cothurn]

On 2/15/2025 at 1:16 AM, Warshades said:

Endurance will be an issue. Pairing with dark melee helps since you can use dark consumption to refill your blue bar, but if you exemplar below that then you can start to run into some issues. Theft of Essence proc in Dark Regeneration will help a lot with gaining some endurance back.

A few points regarding power picks:

• Do not skip Dark Embrace, it's your primary s/l resist toggle. If anything, you can skip Cloak of Fear which is largely useless with the way fear functions.
• Yes, knockback is a problem, however hover alone would do nothing to solve it. You can still get knocked down while hovering. There's 2 directions you could take. Stack enough kb mag protection from procs (steadfast protection, blessing of zephyr, or set bonuses) or else go into jumping pool for Acrobatics and you'd need fewer kb protection from iso sets/bonuses. Ideally I'd aim for a minimum of at least ~12 kb protection.
• You should not be taking both kick and boxing from the fighting pool. The only logical reason to take them is if you simply lack a better power choice pick and want to boost cross punch (which you did not take).
• Jump kick is point blank useless. Get combat jumping as you can mule it with LotG +rech. CJ has extremely minor endurance consumption and will further provide some defense.
• If you're not focusing on damage, there is very little use in going for assault from leadership pool, it's worsening your endurance problems and dark melee isn't a damage heavy melee set to begin with.
• One thing that you'll want to pay attention to is your recharge debuff resist. Dark armor has one of the most powerful heals in the game in Dark Regeneration, but that powerful heal won't help if your recharge is heavily debuffed and you're waiting for it to come off of cooldown. PvP winter sets provide a solid amount of recharge debuff resist in the first 2-3 set piece bonuses. Winter Gift's travel set also has a unique proc that provides 20% recharge debuff resist.

Don't have the time right now to build a dark/dark from scratch, but this is a rework from a dark/ice tank that I had plans of building and never got the build to where I was happy with it. Do not use this as something to build, it's only an example of some ways to slot dark/dark/soul to achieve some really high defense/resist numbers. Powers need to be moved around to be more exemplar friendly and I didn't test out how well it's endurance would be when exemplared down. My original goal for my dark/ice tank was to make an absurdly sturdy build with capped resists and soft capped positional defenses (with the help of barrier destiny and ice patch to make it even harder to bring down), but I've shelved that project for a bit.

 

In terms of alpha incarnate, Vigor or Cardiac are usually the better 2 options to take for dark armor, though you can also consider Spiritual. Vigor would be the one I lean towards for dark armor.

 

Hope this helps you with some ideas.

Tanker (Dark Armor - Dark Melee).mbd 50.53 kB · 9 downloads

Those are so helpful, thank you so much!