Regen Secondary?

[Zeronthe]

What do you to guys think will pair well regen now that tankers can use it? Both thematically and mechanically, of course.

[Doc Spectre]

Having some knockdown helps your health tick back up while the mobs are on their backsides.

[Psyonico]

I think MA for its +def to all and Staff for Sky Splitter’s + resist would be good choices

[Ceejer]

Dark Melee with it's -tohit and extra heal (Negative Energy Vampire), Battle Axe for all the knockdown (Berserker), Radiation Melee for the knockdown, heal, +damage and -def. (Radiation Monster).  

[Spaghetti Betty]

Anything that can spam knockdown is going to pair exceptionally well with Regen for two reasons: soft control and usage of Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge. The new Regen doesn't hinge as much on uptime with Instant Healing being turned into a toggle, but having Second Wind, Reconstruction, and Moment of Glory on small cooldowns will be how the set flourishes!

 

I think another thing that doesn't get called out enough is choosing sets with a large variety of range types. It makes slotting for Slow RES much easier, since it means you can stuff more 2-piece Winters without crutching your other numbers. Regen will be getting a shiny +20% buffer, but you will still have to work for the cap, which is essential! Your clickies can't come back if your recharge is debuffed into the ground!

[MrAxe]

I'm going all "back in the day" and going regen/spines.

[Psyonico]

Regen/Claws?

 

actually, regen/spines sounds pretty fun, assuming regen is worth it on a tank.

[biostem]

5 hours ago, Zeronthe said:

What do you to guys think will pair well regen now that tankers can use it? Both thematically and mechanically, of course.

I think it depends upon what you want out of the character;  Super strength may work, since it's not like the crash is going to ruin your defense or anything.  If you want to "compensate for" regen, then maybe dark melee or one of the sets with +def might be a batter choice.  You could always go radiation melee or spines to get yourself a damage aura, or maybe savage or elec melee if you want a nice T9 with some extra movement and soft mitigation...

[Psyonico]

I’m actually legitimately considering rerolling my WP/spines as Regen/Spines, the -recharge from Spines would allow you to regenerate through stuff, you then just need to worry about surviving the alpha.

[Zeronthe]

The goal for me is largely just to hold aggro and stay alive against impossible odds, it's what i find fun in tankers. If i want damage i usually go for other ATs.

 

/Axe and /Dark definitely have some promise, at least playing around with them on the test server.

 

I wasn't a huge fan of relying on sets like /katana, /staff, or /martial arts for defense buffs to be honest.

 

Anything i might have missed? Spines mentioned above sounds interesting but i'll need to test it a bit. /Energy seems interesting, but i've never used it before.

Edited May 31 by Zeronthe

[Erratic1]

44 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

I’m actually legitimately considering rerolling my WP/spines as Regen/Spines, the -recharge from Spines would allow you to regenerate through stuff, you then just need to worry about surviving the alpha.

 

Never liked Spines but I have to say, not that you've mentioned it, Psionic Armor/Spines.

[Erratic1]

As for what to pair with Regen, Ice Melee would slow attacks giving Regen more time to work, would it not?

[Psyonico]

Yes, and you get ice patch for knockdown goodness.

 

then again, Frozen Aura doesn’t do -recharge, so your only AoE with it is Frost, and seeing how cones are getting nerfed for tanks, that’s not a great option.

 

Spines has both Spine Burst (which comes early) and Quills for pbaoe -recharge

 

 

[Warshades]

I'll second @Spaghetti Betty and say that going for a secondary with a lot of knockdown soft control as being the best choice for making a durable regen tank. The biggest downfall of regen from what I tested so far is getting hit by to many debuffs. Mobs that are constantly getting knocked down won't be able to use attacks and debuff you while also giving your regen time to work. FF +rech procs unfortunately may not hit as often anymore on tanks due to the other changes that are happening.

 

Regarding -rech/slow and -tohit from spines and dark melee respectively, mobs tend to have multiple attack powers to hit you with so I never found -rech useful end game and dark melee -tohit is largely ST which doesn't actually help when you have many enemies attacking you. Having said that, spine is very thematic for obvious reasons.

 

On 5/30/2025 at 9:46 PM, Zeronthe said:

 

I wasn't a huge fan of relying on sets like /katana, /staff, or /martial arts for defense buffs to be honest.

 

Staff would actually be more useful for the (iirc) +13% resist to all buff they get from one of the form combos and it should also have a little knockdown in the set. It is however extremely low on damage output. Long animation times on attacks can also be problematic if you're stuck in the animation when you need to pop a heal.

[Maelwys]

15 minutes ago, Warshades said:

Staff would actually be more useful for the (iirc) +13% resist to all buff they get from one of the form combos and it should also have a little knockdown in the set. It is however extremely low on damage output.

 

The Tanker version of Staff's actually not too bad (for AoE damage output) on Live... my Bio/Staff is one of my favourite Tankers even... but unfortunately the proposed cone arc reduction and overcap damage nerfs on Brainstorm really hurt the performance of Guarded Spin and Innocuous Strikes. 

 

Sky Splitter got a somewhat noticeable damage buff though.

 

It's definitely not a high ST DPA powerset, but the utility of Guarded Spin's +Defense buff plus the +Resistance buff from 3x-Perfection-of-Body + Sky Splitter is nice... and the -Resistance debuff from 3x-Perfection-of-Body + Eye of the Storm can be useful to stack on top of all the regular IO and Reactive Interface Procs.

[PLVRIZR]

For KD and other mitigation, add Stone Melee to your list...

[WhiskeyDingo]

On 5/30/2025 at 1:38 PM, Spaghetti Betty said:

Anything that can spam knockdown is going to pair exceptionally well with Regen for two reasons: soft control and usage of Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge. The new Regen doesn't hinge as much on uptime with Instant Healing being turned into a toggle, but having Second Wind, Reconstruction, and Moment of Glory on small cooldowns will be how the set flourishes!

 

I think another thing that doesn't get called out enough is choosing sets with a large variety of range types. It makes slotting for Slow RES much easier, since it means you can stuff more 2-piece Winters without crutching your other numbers. Regen will be getting a shiny +20% buffer, but you will still have to work for the cap, which is essential! Your clickies can't come back if your recharge is debuffed into the ground!

 

So, what I'm reading is it's time for my 5th Super Strength Tanker.

[Spaghetti Betty]

1 hour ago, WhiskeyDingo said:

 

So, what I'm reading is it's time for my 5th Super Strength Tanker.

Absolutely! I'm going to be training up a Regen/SS in a heartbeat!

[WhiskeyDingo]

6 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Absolutely! I'm going to be training up a Regen/SS in a heartbeat!

I might have to try it as a Brute, just for a change of pace especially after, I'm assuming, the proc changes probably nerf Handclap as a second AoE for SS.

[Thraxen]

I can’t see a world where SS isn’t the best. All the knockdown. Both want crazy high recharge. Footstomp proccing the damn ff proc. It seems like the next easy super new meta build.  An easy choice and will be the most popular choice. Makes it boring for me. And I already have an SS tank so probably wouldn’t make another myself. 

I’ll try regen and something I’m sure. I’m more pumped about trying brute with new psionic. Maybe scrap if they don’t make the one power a cone. 

 

 

[Thraxen]

I might try regen/kin. The minus damage is less for regen to heal from. And I have yet to successfully make a kin melee toon I liked. I usually don’t, but made a chick toon. I figured if a half naked chick doing animations didn’t help nothing would. The toon is dead now though. 

Edited Tuesday at 03:56 AM by Thraxen

[lemming]

For Knockdown, Axe is another good choice.   I'

[Spaghetti Betty]

3 hours ago, WhiskeyDingo said:

I might have to try it as a Brute, just for a change of pace especially after, I'm assuming, the proc changes probably nerf Handclap as a second AoE for SS.

You can check this thread for some work I did with the current iteration of Regen on a Brute!

[Zeronthe]

On 6/1/2025 at 4:11 PM, Warshades said:

and dark melee -tohit is largely ST which doesn't actually help when you have many enemies attacking you.

 

If you LoS enemies to group them dark does fine in my testing, about the same amount of clumping required to get the most out of axe. It has a pretty wide cone and a targeted AoE on a low cooldown which seems to work well enough.

[Warshades]

1 hour ago, Zeronthe said:

It has a pretty wide cone and a targeted AoE on a low cooldown which seems to work well enough.

 

Iirc (and someone can correct me if I have this wrong) the -tohit from the targeted AoE is only applied to the initial target. The only thing that surrounding enemies get is the damage effect and not the -tohit. As a result, the only dark melee power that can hit multiple foes with -tohit is Shadow Maul since Sould Drain and Consumption don't apply -tohit either. If you want an AoE that can hit multiple foes easily and apply -tohit to all of them, soul mastery is the best patron to pick for Dark Obliteration, and this can be done with any melee set pick.