What to choose next?

[hakurr]

so i am looking at my next tank to be Bio / ??? i have not decided it is so far between Savage / Energy Melee / Fire? i like savage due to the AOE and the feel of attacking fast but it really is not putting out allot of damage. i like Energy Melee due to the tremendous amount of damage but it is mostly Single Target. Fire is a good compromise has the AOE and the Single Target that are good damage but the animations are not the best. any recommendation to try i have been trying them out on the Beta server so i am looking at all options just these three are the ones i have messed with so far.

 

all thoughts and recommendation are welcome.  

 

 

[Spaghetti Betty]

Energy Melee and Fire would be great choices, but I'd also throw in a recommendation for SS if you truly want the wrecking ball experience!

[hakurr]

i have always wanted to like SS but i hate knockback so for SS most the powers would need a knockback to knockdown and it seems like a waste of a slot. 

[Spaghetti Betty]

4 hours ago, hakurr said:

i have always wanted to like SS but i hate knockback so for SS most the powers would need a knockback to knockdown and it seems like a waste of a slot. 

The only powers that deal knock back are Hurl (actual knock back), KO Blow (knock up, not a big deal), and Hand Clap (not vital to your toolkit). Any other power should only knock down unless fighting mobs that con lower than you or Primal!Clockwork.

[hakurr]

i have little experience with SS in game but this is what i have found in all the descriptions on the power set are they wrong if so that would make a huge difference.

 

 

[One IV All]

6 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Energy Melee and Fire would be great choices, but I'd also throw in a recommendation for SS if you truly want the wrecking ball experience!

I know Rad/SS has long been one of the quintessential Tanker combos. How does Bio/SS compare? I’m guessing less AOE but stronger ST damage?

[Warshades]

19 minutes ago, hakurr said:

i have little experience with SS in game but this is what i have found in all the descriptions on the power set are they wrong if so that would make a huge difference.

 

 

 

I wouldn't recommend going off of the description. If you look at the details for each power, you can see the magnitude of the knockback. This is what primarily determines if the power actually does knockback or knockdown. Anything less than a magnitude 1 KB will result in knockdown. Anything greater than 1 will result in knockback. Punch, Haymaker, and Foot Stomp all have a KB magnitude of 0.67, so the powers will actually do knockdown instead of knockback. The exception being enemies that are lower level to your characters will experience increased KB magnitude and can be knockbacked, though I wouldn't expect anyone to be going around and trying to fight mobs that are so low in level.

 

The only 2 powers that SS has that have a higher than 1 KB magnitude are Hand Clap and Hurl. Hurl is a pretty bad power and not worth taking. Hand Clap can offer useful mitigation and can be worth picking up. The knockback can easily be eliminated by putting a KB->KD into Hand Clap.

[hakurr]

thank you for the explanation i did not know that

[SeraphimKensai]

Battle Axe would work really well with Bio. There's additional synergy in that axe cyclone will bring more mobs into range for things like: DNA Siphon and Parasitic.

[Neiska]

The in game numbers on Savage can deceptive. Sure they are small but there’s a steady stream of them, and iirc it’s in the top 5 for pylon times.

 

Bio/EM is my main tank, it hits fantastically hard.

 

Fire is definitely also quite good and well balanced. Also in the top times.

[Warboss]

Fiery Melee!! Do it! But I'm bias... or so they say...

[SeraphimKensai]

18 minutes ago, Warboss said:

Fiery Melee!! Do it! But I'm bias... or so they say...

I did make a fiery/fire tanker awhile back, partly based on Warboss' recommendation. Fire melee does pretty damn good and would have a nice amp paired with Bio.

[hakurr]

i have been testing different tanks on the Beta server to see how they feel and how the different types roll with my style of play so far fire is winning. i did try super strength @Spaghetti Betty for my game play i think SS would be better on a less busy primary.

[Warboss]

The lack of any AoE until level 16 (Hand Clap - needs about 3 slot to proc) with SS is kinda' annoying. But, SS is good at pumping out the damage. Fire though is pretty fast and provides fun animations ( AND ....it's FIRE!). With procs you can add mitigation or other affects depending on what you want to do. I tend to like Avalanche's KD proc in FSC (although at least a couple of current builds are using Armageddon's instead) , and slotting at least one Kin Combat KD in an ST attack. You can AoE proc out Combustion for some more fun (haven't tried Cupid's proc in there yet, does it affect more than one target?). If you Take Hasten and get LoG's +Global Recharge going you can get FSC down to about 5-6 seconds = MOAR Fire! Glad to have an Fiery Meleer out there. Enjoy your Tank!

 

[Warshades]

1 hour ago, hakurr said:

i have been testing different tanks on the Beta server to see how they feel and how the different types roll with my style of play so far fire is winning. i did try super strength @Spaghetti Betty for my game play i think SS would be better on a less busy primary.

 

Can you explain how SS doesn't work for a busy primary like Bio? For me personally, a secondary is mainly an attack set that you use to attack. Outside of considerations like long animation times of attacks, they're no more or less busy than other attack sets. If anything, I would actually say that SS is less busy as you need to click/use Rage less often than Build Up. To me, the main determination of how busy a tank is would be the primary set with armors that have/rely on a lot of clickable powers (like bio and rad armor) being more busy than those that don't (invuln, stone, sr, etc).

 

Don't get me wrong, fire melee is a top melee set and absolutely worth using if you found you like it. Just trying to understand how SS feels less fitting to you for bio armor as I don't think it makes the combination any more busier.

 

The build below is something I put together really quick for bio/ss with an emphasis on damage output. It's mainly for high lvl content, but it can dish out some massive damage with double stacked rage. While actively fighting and moving quickly from mob to mob, you should find that hasten will be permanent from all the FF +rech procs that trigger and ageless destiny +rech boost. Consider giving it a try on the test server and see if it changes your mind. This definitely isn't designed to exemplar well, so if you're considering playing all levels of content, I'd definitely go /fire instead. For level 50+ content, it will steamroll through mobs.

Tanker (Bio Armor - Super Strength).mbd

[One IV All]

1 hour ago, Warboss said:

The lack of any AoE until level 16 (Hand Clap - needs about 3 slot to proc) with SS is kinda' annoying. But, SS is good at pumping out the damage. Fire though is pretty fast and provides fun animations ( AND ....it's FIRE!). With procs you can add mitigation or other affects depending on what you want to do. I tend to like Avalanche's KD proc in FSC (although at least a couple of current builds are using Armageddon's instead) , and slotting at least one Kin Combat KD in an ST attack. You can AoE proc out Combustion for some more fun (haven't tried Cupid's proc in there yet, does it affect more than one target?). If you Take Hasten and get LoG's +Global Recharge going you can get FSC down to about 5-6 seconds = MOAR Fire! Glad to have an Fiery Meleer out there. Enjoy your Tank!

 

I’ve recently been messing around with a Shield/Fiery Tanker…. It might be one of the coolest looking combos I have seen in game lol

[Warboss]

Visually Shield Charge + Fire Sword Circle is hard to beat (then Combustion, maybe a ST, and FSC is up again, so "Wall of Fire"), another ST (maybe two) and Combustion, then FSC, then Shield  Charge! Yeah, an thing of beauty...

[hakurr]

7 hours ago, Warshades said:

Can you explain how SS doesn't work for a busy primary like Bio? For me personally, a secondary is mainly an attack set that you use to attack. Outside of considerations like long animation times of attacks, they're no more or less busy than other attack sets. If anything, I would actually say that SS is less busy as you need to click/use Rage less often than Build Up. To me, the main determination of how busy a tank is would be the primary set with armors that have/rely on a lot of clickable powers (like bio and rad armor) being more busy than those that don't (invuln, stone, sr, etc).

 

i apologize i guess i used the wrong word when i said to busy i just did not like the flow of things it did not resonate with me. don't get me wrong the build i tried out on the beta server was good and SS does awesome on the damage just for me personally it does not work. 

[PLVRIZR]

On 3/10/2025 at 9:16 AM, Warboss said:

Fiery Melee!! Do it! But I'm bias... or so they say...

I have a Bio/Fiery that is an absolute beast.  Second this recommendation.

[Camel]

20 hours ago, hakurr said:

 

i apologize i guess i used the wrong word when i said to busy i just did not like the flow of things it did not resonate with me. don't get me wrong the build i tried out on the beta server was good and SS does awesome on the damage just for me personally it does not work. 

That's fair, SS is pretty... bland. But it is definitely not "busy". As others have stated, it is probably the most "sit back and relax" melee set in the game if you don't mind the Rage crash.

As for what's next? Most have hit the nail on the head here. One thing I might add about Bio.. you need to pick all 9 powers to really get everything out of the set. Really.. not a single power is skippable. They all offer huge benefits and it's sort of an "all, or none" type of primary. This means it has a harder time pairing with melee sets that ALSO need 6-7+ powers to feel 'good'. 

That being said, I'd like to throw in a vote for Bio/Stone/Soul! Stone Melee is great for the Tanker ATO procs, the two mallets attacks hit really hard and they have amazing proc rates for the two Tank ATOs I mentioned. The two knockdown AoE powers can either be slotted with procs, or purple sets and still have room for a Force Feedback +recharge proc. It really helps keep your uptime with Bios goodies and also helps keep your AoE and single target attack chain going. 

Also, because you mentioned it before, none of the Stone Melee powers do knockback either, except for Hurl Boulder, or whatever it is called. Always look at the in-game magnitudes if you think something does knockback, or, just test it out since you use Beta pretty frequently! A very alarming amount of powers CLAIM to do knockback, but do not.. And an alarming amount of players do not know that, which in turn either keeps them away from the set, or they slot useless IOs like the KB->KD IOs. 

I think you would really enjoy Bio/Stone/Soul if the animations or whatever don't bother you. It's a really solid pairing and Stone Melee can dish out some pretty chunky ST numbers and has a decent AoE rotation to boot! 😄

Cheers!

Edited 19 hours ago by Camel

[One IV All]

5 hours ago, Camel said:

That's fair, SS is pretty... bland. But it is definitely not "busy". As others have stated, it is probably the most "sit back and relax" melee set in the game if you don't mind the Rage crash.

As for what's next? Most have hit the nail on the head here. One thing I might add about Bio.. you need to pick all 9 powers to really get everything out of the set. Really.. not a single power is skippable. They all offer huge benefits and it's sort of an "all, or none" type of primary. This means it has a harder time pairing with melee sets that ALSO need 6-7+ powers to feel 'good'. 

That being said, I'd like to throw in a vote for Bio/Stone/Soul! Stone Melee is great for the Tanker ATO procs, the two mallets attacks hit really hard and they have amazing proc rates for the two Tank ATOs I mentioned. The two knockdown AoE powers can either be slotted with procs, or purple sets and still have room for a Force Feedback +recharge proc. It really helps keep your uptime with Bios goodies and also helps keep your AoE and single target attack chain going. 

Also, because you mentioned it before, none of the Stone Melee powers do knockback either, except for Hurl Boulder, or whatever it is called. Always look at the in-game magnitudes if you think something does knockback, or, just test it out since you use Beta pretty frequently! A very alarming amount of powers CLAIM to do knockback, but do not.. And an alarming amount of players do not know that, which in turn either keeps them away from the set, or they slot useless IOs like the KB->KD IOs. 

I think you would really enjoy Bio/Stone/Soul if the animations or whatever don't bother you. It's a really solid pairing and Stone Melee can dish out some pretty chunky ST numbers and has a decent AoE rotation to boot! 😄

Cheers!

I’m REALLY enjoying leveling my own Bio/Stone, although I went with bodyfor my epic pool to take Focused Accuracy. Might look into trying the psychic or soul. Mind sharing your build?

 

Loving it so far, has some great synergy and CRUNCH.

Edited 14 hours ago by One IV All

[Erratic1]

5 hours ago, Camel said:

hat's fair, SS is pretty... bland. But it is definitely not "busy".

 

"Busy" was in reference to Bio--"@Spaghetti Betty for my game play i think SS would be better on a less busy primary." Not sure where the notion comes from that 3 clicks and stances means you are playing Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on a pipe organ, but some people prefer never doing anything outside using their attack powers apparently, so situationally doing anything else is not their cup of tea.

 

5 hours ago, Camel said:

That being said, I'd like to throw in a vote for Bio/Stone/Soul!

 

Stone Melee is really awesome. It is like the love child of Radiation Melee and SS (though of course it predates Radiation Melee). Not in love with its default visuals but it does alternate animations featuring cyrstals.