Advice for Freakshow Tank costume

[Petrograd]

Hey folks. With Prismatic Aether costumes being a thing, I thought it might be fun to play as a Freakshow tank, just leave the costume on at all times.

I was wondering if anyone had tried this before, and if you had advice for what melee power set looks good with the basic tank or Rikti tank costumes.

I thought Savage Melee made the most sense, but when I made a char and put on the Tank costume it looked kinda... floppy. I'm kinda reluctant to roll a bunch of chars and waste 10 aether on each one to find out what looks good.

[Projector]

Super Strength is going to be your best bet for the Tank skin, seeing as Tank Smashers already use Hand Clap. 

Electric Melee could be interesting too, with Lightning Rod almost looking like you are charging up all your cybernetics to unleash a surge of electricity all around you. 

As for the Rikti Tank, I would probably go for a weapon build like a Broad Sword, Battle Axe, or Titan Weapons. I'm pretty sure there's a Rikti sword in the customized weapons part of the costume creator, so you can check each one til you find a weapon that you think would work with the Rikti skin you want to use. 

If not, going for a diff AT and doing something like Psi Blast, Mind Control, etc. Could be interesting too. Or Psi Melee might work, but I have a feeling some of the animations will still look goofy with the RIkti skin.

[biostem]

Maybe try savage melee - it uses open-handed strikes which may work well with the Freakshow Tank's claws.

[Petrograd]

Hey folks, appreciate the feedback!

I realized I could use the Beta server to test out different versions and even see how the powers look up to 50, and thought I would share my results.

For a normal Freakshow tank (claw and hammer):
- Super Strength is closest to the original feel, very chunky. It also has the boulder throw I think they use.
- Energy Melee has similar animations to Super Strength and a bit more variety, so it works out well.
- Claws is a good alternative if you want the powers to look a little more aggressive. The Widow claws are small enough that they're mostly hidden inside the costume.
- Electric Melee is ok if you like its animations, its just not as brutal-looking as the other sets.
- I wasn't too happy with Savage Melee, it made the most sense on paper but in practice the hunched over posture and the speed of the swings just look a little goofy on the tank model.

For the Freakshow Rikti Tank (Freakshow tank but with a Rikti sword and blaster as arms), I tried all of the above plus Psychic Blade, Electric Melee, Energy Melee, and Dark Melee:
- Dark Melee (tinted green) had the most Rikti-weapon-ish feel, plus it gives you a lot of green glows when you use drains, which feels kinda Rikti-ish.
- Psychic (tinted green) was a decent alternative, the animations don't line up perfectly but it does look like you're cutting loose with plasma.
- For Energy Melee the animations don't really line up with the weapons.
- Electric was again OK, just not exactly on point.
I also think there's a lot of potential to play this as a blaster/sentinel with the arm-gun, but I'm a bit too lazy to try out different blaster sets, at least tonight.

Edit: There's also a Freakshow Noise Tank costume (speakers on head, two sickle hands), didn't consciously test it but I'm betting claws would look good.

I also tried different armors (Electric, Dark, and Regeneration), and they're all... fine? Electric makes a the most sense, but I really want to run a set with a self-rez, which I guess is Dark, Firey, Regeneration or Willpower.

Last thought, I recommend changing your Inherent costume stance to Parkour, Blitz, or (if you're feeling sassy) Ninja. The normal run animation looks a little silly on the tank.

Edited April 13 by Petrograd

[Petrograd]

Ended up going Dark/Dark, thought I'd share.