How do I best build a Tanker for solo play?

[Bilirubin]

Hi all! I’m new to City of Heroes and looking to build a Tanker for solo play. I know Tankers are great for surviving damage and holding aggro, but I’m wondering how to set one up so I can tackle content by myself without constantly getting overwhelmed. What powersets work best for soloing, and what kind of enhancements should I focus on? Any tips for a beginner to keep things fun and manageable while leveling up? Thanks in advance!

[SeraphimKensai]

@GM Crumpet wanna toss this post into the Tanker sub so this new player can get the help they want?

 

@Bilirubin take your time, use enhancements and make sure they are level appropriate, and make sure your difficulty (ie. -1 x1 up to +4 x8) is set commensurate with what your survivability and damage output can handle. Often times it takes time to ramp up for a player to start bumping the difficulty and mob size they face solo. Also if you need you can disable bosses when solo to make them LTs. Typically tankers will work on enhancing their damage mitigation to hit their goals, and supplement their attack chain with temp powers from the Start Vendor until they get to a level where they have enough attacks to round out their attack chain. Use your inspirations, they are cheap and significantly can boost you albeit temporarily.

 

See :

 

 

Best of luck out there. o7.

[tidge]

Don't get discouraged by Tanker early level Tanker play. The early level content is highly tilted towards defeat enemies (quickly) rather than 'surviving' them, so there isn't as much need to focus on the Tanker primary powers... also, early toggles and auto powers don't do that much (generally speaking) at low levels. There are some relatively inexpensive temporary attacks available at the S.T.A.R.T. vendor to help with solo play (especially at low levels).

 

Also: running toggles (especially Resistance) at low levels is not that necessary, and even if teamed it is guaranteed that a toggle (again, especially Resistance) is helping to survive whatever damage (type) being thrown at you.

 

The philosophy of 'defeat quickly' never really changes across level ranges, but once your tanker gets an AoE attack, enemy defeats will start to happen quicker, even at 0x1.

[gameboy1234]

Also the START vendor in Atlas Park, Mercy and Pocket D can give you free temp powers (the old P2W set) that help out low level damage a lot.  I do the opposite: concentrate on survivability in early levels and use the temp powers to make up for it.  This also helps if you get a pick up team and need to be, you know, survivable.

 

Try to get three to four defense (primary) powers, then get Taunt, it'll help for teaming.  Pick up a travel power by level 12 (Fly is great for newbies).  Buy cheap Invention Origin enhancements on the auction house (they're under Crafted -> Other, which is totally sensible and not f'ed up at all).  These will help make all your powers better so you'll have an easier time leveling.

 

Once you hit level 22, you'll need more advice, maybe even an early respec to make up for problems.  Hit the Tanker forum as ask, they have all the good advice.

 

[laudwic]

If your looking at solo play, may I suggest going to a Brute instead of a Tank?  Brute's secondary power is more suited to solo, they focus on their attack powers as their primary and defense as their secondary (tankers defense is the primary set and attack secondary)  All that means is that you'll have your attack powers earlier.  

[MoonSheep]

16 hours ago, laudwic said:

If your looking at solo play, may I suggest going to a Brute instead of a Tank?  Brute's secondary power is more suited to solo, they focus on their attack powers as their primary and defense as their secondary (tankers defense is the primary set and attack secondary)  All that means is that you'll have your attack powers earlier.  

 

i’d say a scrapper would be better for solo play, higher burst damage

 

brutes don’t really seem to have a viable place in modern HC. less damage than a scrapper and often tank, less survivable than a tank, less initial damage than a scrapper

 

they were great in 2008