So I was....

[WuTang]

working on a Sav/Dark Brute build when a buddy of mine started talking about a Dark/EM tanker he has that stuns the bajeezus outta mobs. And I thought that might be a pretty fun build to make.

 

Can anyone tell me if the Oppressive Gloom stun and all the stuns in Energy Melee's attacks work well enough to stun....what exactly? AVs maybe?? At least for a sec...

 

Also, is disorient and stun the same thing? The wording seems to intermingle.

 

Thanks,

 

-WT

 

And as I'm typing this...I'm having deja vu...so if this is a repeat lol sorry

[Spaghetti Betty]

Yes, 'stun' and 'disorient' refer to the same effect! 

 

Just speaking from personal experience, my EM toons can just about perma-stun AVs with just the punches (and Cross Punch). Oppressive Gloom will definitely stack with it, and it is a pretty low investment toggle to run. Just keep in mind it has a hit check!

[BuiltDifferent5]

2 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Yes, 'stun' and 'disorient' refer to the same effect! 

 

Just speaking from personal experience, my EM toons can just about perma-stun AVs with just the punches (and Cross Punch). Oppressive Gloom will definitely stack with it, and it is a pretty low investment toggle to run. Just keep in mind it has a hit check!

I mean, if you felt inspired and so INCLINED to drop a Dark Armor/Energy Melee Tanker build… we wouldn’t be mad at you 😉

[WuTang]

8 minutes ago, BuiltDifferent5 said:

I mean, if you felt inspired and so INCLINED to drop a Dark Armor/Energy Melee Tanker build… we wouldn’t be mad at you 😉

 

I mean I ain't no @Spaghetti Betty but here's the one I threw together. I peeped some slotting from others' builds cause I've never used Dark before.

Tanker (Dark Armor - Energy Melee).mbd

[Intermipants]

I literally just posted this build at the same time that you asked this question!  Yes, you can build a very effective stun tank - see my build in my flavors of tank post that I just put up two mins ago 

To make it work reliably you need to put the disorient proc in cloak of fear.  Happy to discuss the build if you like.

[WuTang]

2 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Yes, 'stun' and 'disorient' refer to the same effect! 

 

Just speaking from personal experience, my EM toons can just about perma-stun AVs with just the punches (and Cross Punch). Oppressive Gloom will definitely stack with it, and it is a pretty low investment toggle to run. Just keep in mind it has a hit check!

 

That is great to know!

 

Thanks Betty!

[WuTang]

14 minutes ago, Intermipants said:

I literally just posted this build at the same time that you asked this question!  Yes, you can build a very effective stun tank - see my build in my flavors of tank post that I just put up two mins ago 

To make it work reliably you need to put the disorient proc in cloak of fear.  Happy to discuss the build if you like.

 

I thought procs in a AOE toggle didn't pop very often at all

 

[Intermipants]

21 minutes ago, WuTang said:

 

I thought procs in a AOE toggle didn't pop very often at all

 

It procs often enough to be effective. I tested it to make sure and it makes a big difference in keeping mobs stunned or feared. 

[Spaghetti Betty]

23 hours ago, BuiltDifferent5 said:

I mean, if you felt inspired and so INCLINED to drop a Dark Armor/Energy Melee Tanker build… we wouldn’t be mad at you 😉

I guess I could!

 

I don't think I'd particularly ever play these two things together (not the biggest fan of Dark Armor), but it was interesting to try and make something work!

 

Fuzzy Pompf - Tanker (Dark Armor - Energy Melee).mbd

 

Funnily enough, Cross Punch has a Mag 3 stun like all of the EM punches! It also brings extra utility that EM loves! Like a good cleaving ST attack to juggle with Bone Smasher that can take a -RES proc and a FFback proc! Why do I keep hearing this power sucks again?

[WuTang]

I've rejiggered the build a little more and won't need Cardiac and I wanted to max out my Super Speed for theme, so plan on going Muscular for that and a damage bump.

 

It's at level 40 now and so far the stun effect seems to work pretty good. It's just another layer of mitigation, but a comical one. All the minions are insta-stunned with OG and then Whirling Hands keeps them drunk, while the ST attacks keep the hard targets wobbly. It's not all 100% but good enough.

 

I'm a little let down by Dark Regen, the heal is fantastic, but since I slotted it for recharge, ToE: +End is almost useless. I guess it's the icing, but most often I only get back what DR costs. Still a free huge heal is pretty good.

 

It exemps down well too.

 

How much KB protection is really needed? I assume pretty high for Freem, but other than that? 11? 15? More? I looked at my Fiery Aura Brute and he gets by on 9, but he doesn't need bad guys around him for a clutch heal.

Edited March 12 by WuTang

[SeraphimKensai]

A bunch of us did a Dark/Stone tanker challenge awhile ago where the idea was that we had stacked OG and Fault to stunlock mobs as we killed them.

 

Dark/elec works well. As does dark/as for stacking stuns with oppressive gloom.

So there's several ways of doing it. But once you hit mag 4, you stun bosses.

[WuTang]

Oh righty.... Not discouraged, BUT I had an ego-bruising ITF run last night.

 

Keep in mind my dude is only 40 but he's fully slotted out for his level. I might've...sort of...prioritized damage over survivability in my slotting, so it should even out soon, I hope. BUT, that made me wonder how you guys might prioritize your slotting. I'm decent at power selection for exemp'ing, but still trying to find that balance in slotting while leveling.

 

On a Tanker, is it best to get the AT sets in, sprinkle in a couple attack power slots, focus on becoming the meat shield, then finish out the secondary? Or is that decision really down to the set choices? I felt extremely squishy in that run. I died more than I've ever died before, but also it was sort of a patchwork team that lost 2 members. So, it was me and another 40 Brute, a 50 Scrapper (who really did most of the work), a 50 Sent, and two others I can't remember and no support. I think though my two auras were pulling more aggro than the Brute's one and I've long theorized that the mobs prioritize any AT that is controlling them, and I've got built-in stuns. I know they were debuffing the begeezus out my veneer of defenses and my resistances are not up to par just yet, close though. LOL I think at this point I'm trying to rationalize my failure...

 

Any who, question still stands...

 

-WT

[Warshades]

1 hour ago, WuTang said:

Or is that decision really down to the set choices?

 

To me, it is down to the set choices. I will only ever choose to focus on offense for a tanker if the primary helps to somehow boost damage in a significant way and I've paired it with a good damage dealing secondary. Imo, it comes down to rad, bio, fire, shield, and stone for armor sets that can significantly boost offensive damage output. For other tanker primaries, I prefer to focus on building for survival as they just don't increase damage in any significant way (and I don't count a damage aura from sets like dark, elec, and ice as being significant damage).

 

I've not played ITF with a dark/energy tank (I don't think I've even fully IO'd a dark tank since CoH was live), but IIRC the mobs have some significant mez protection so you're really climbing an uphill battle when your stun mitigation is nullified. More than anything, I suspect this was the main reason for your downfall, other than possibly fighting against +5 mobs if leader had the difficulty set to +4. Dark armor gets good mileage out of Oppressive Gloom since mobs are largely made up of minions which will get stunned just from the toggle itself. When this doesn't happen and every attack is hitting you because of the massive defense debuffs, then it comes down to your resists and low HP pool since dark armor has no max HP boosting powers.

Edited March 13 by Warshades

[Camel]

5 hours ago, WuTang said:

Oh righty.... Not discouraged, BUT I had an ego-bruising ITF run last night.

 

Keep in mind my dude is only 40 but he's fully slotted out for his level. I might've...sort of...prioritized damage over survivability in my slotting, so it should even out soon, I hope. BUT, that made me wonder how you guys might prioritize your slotting. I'm decent at power selection for exemp'ing, but still trying to find that balance in slotting while leveling.

 

On a Tanker, is it best to get the AT sets in, sprinkle in a couple attack power slots, focus on becoming the meat shield, then finish out the secondary? Or is that decision really down to the set choices? I felt extremely squishy in that run. I died more than I've ever died before, but also it was sort of a patchwork team that lost 2 members. So, it was me and another 40 Brute, a 50 Scrapper (who really did most of the work), a 50 Sent, and two others I can't remember and no support. I think though my two auras were pulling more aggro than the Brute's one and I've long theorized that the mobs prioritize any AT that is controlling them, and I've got built-in stuns. I know they were debuffing the begeezus out my veneer of defenses and my resistances are not up to par just yet, close though. LOL I think at this point I'm trying to rationalize my failure...

 

Any who, question still stands...

 

-WT

On Tanks, the Tank ATOs make a huge difference. After that, the two +3% defense uniques, the two +resistance uniques and after that I like to get Panacea, Miracle, Numina... Throw in some LoTG 7.5s. The uniques plus Tanker ATOs will help boost your sturdiness significantly. Now.. An ITF is a different story, especially if you were fighting +4s at level 49. Heck, even +1, +2 can chip away and faceplant you immediately. You have everything going against you at that point, most likely uncapped S/L resistance, the inability to heal since Cimerorans can significantly buff their defense to absurd levels, etc. Outside of an ITF, content that you are leading should be pretty easy to tank as long as you are able to hit with your heal.

As far as set bonuses when at a lowish-moderately high level, I try to prioritize Unbreakable Gaurds, 4 slotted for the melee defense. This allows you to get a pretty significant defense boost in melee range while also keeping your slot investments pretty low, allowing you to slot your attacks and other goodies. LotG 3 slotted for regen snd health bonuses is pretty nifty too!

[Camel]

This is probably how I would slot my leveling Dark/Energy Tank. Or something similar. Most of the expensive IOs would still be used in the final build. 

Leveling Tanker (Dark Armor - Energy Melee).mbd

[WuTang]

Quick update...

Finished out the build and got the important incarnates to T4. It does well, wouldn't say great. ITF is still tough, I guess all the mez resist sort of cancels out my whole stun thing, like @Warshadessaid. I've also noticed it seems to rely pretty heavily on the heal... But man does he look cool doing. At least he's not face-planting like he was!