Best Tanker Primaries?

[Heraclea]

Svengjuk was a legend. I haven't been able to bring myself to play him again. In fact, all my old toons, can't do it. I've moved on to new things. I'll admit, sometimes the naysayers are right and something is gimped. But it is fun to prove them wrong when you can.

 

I've remade old characters, but with differences.  I23 Heraclea was Inv/SS; i25 Inv/DM.  This was done because I knew this was a solid combo back then; my Inv/DM tanker was Omphale, and she became my goto for things like master runs.  I am glad I did not choose /SS this time around.  Rage never fit her concept anyways, and before ED I skipped it.  Probably works better without it now, but will be pretty lackluster. 

 

[Catgoyle]

I'm actually surprised that you find Rad and Electric tough enough but not Fire...

 

Stone?  Yeah.  It's too slow for the modern game.

 

Teleport is a must-have for stone.  Teleport pulls are a bonus since if you're taking TP, you might as well take TP foe.  And Recall Friend can gain popularity points as well -- I carry spare wakes to share.

 

It is nice for overcoming the 5 limit on taunt, I slot mudpots with taunt to keep aggro.

 

Not good for an overenthusiastic PUG though -- lots of "zip ahead, get killed, blame tank."

 

With a group that knows how to work with a stone tank, it works very well -- wait for me to TP into the mobs, then follow me in.  Or let me TP foe and gank em.

 

I made R a hotkey for rooted and usually save granite for "things are going pear shaped" moments or boss fights.

 

Bio: I'm a costume freak.  Turning into a stone goliath, okay.  Turning into a puddle of poo?  Nah.  I know, dumb reason for bypassing a set but hey.

 

Bio can be worked with if tinted.  I'm a 'themed character' fiend, and this is what I did with it:

 

Bio/TW fairy with bark armor and thorn axe.  A four foot tall tank amuses me.

 

Bio/Fire demon, bio can look demonic, fire tinted to look like dark melee.

 

 

[JusticeBowler]

Bio: I'm a costume freak.  Turning into a stone goliath, okay.  Turning into a puddle of poo?  Nah.  I know, dumb reason for bypassing a set but hey.

 

Bio can be worked with if tinted.  I'm a 'themed character' fiend, and this is what I did with it:

 

Bio/TW fairy with bark armor and thorn axe.  A four foot tall tank amuses me.

 

Bio/Fire demon, bio can look demonic, fire tinted to look like dark melee.

 

I have a bio strapper who has FX on minimal so essentially there is nothing at all. I get a hand glow when I switch to offensive, I think, but that's it. Otherwise I look like I don't even have a secondary.

[MrAxe]

I love Ice.  My highest character on Live (up into Alpha at least) was Ice/Axe (can you imagine?) and I've got two more on Excelsior.  My Ice/Elec is fun to play; she's an END drainer alongside her defense, slow, and little bits of resist, she's been fun to build (no sets yet).  That doesn't mean I don't recognize that Ice is at or near the bottom of the Tanker primaries list (as seen in this thread).  I'm not going to run out and start a different Tanker, I like Ice, but I'd like to see Ice get a boost or two somehow.

 

Ice/Axe FTW! and yes, I made it because people told me not to make it. It was "let's see what I can do with this" character that turned into my signature toon back on Live. I didn't stick around to see Incarnates happen though... and all my IO set slotting was for the Enhancement value, I pretty much ignored whatever set bonuses I was getting as gravy.

 

Svengjuk was a legend. I haven't been able to bring myself to play him again. In fact, all my old toons, can't do it. I've moved on to new things. I'll admit, sometimes the naysayers are right and something is gimped. But it is fun to prove them wrong when you can.

 

Axewrath was my Ice/Axe main back on live and my first proper character. It was difficult but a lot of fun (although Terra Volta made me wish I hadn't chosen super speed). Only ever saw one or two other heroes with the same combo.

[Gigajoule]

Bio and Fire are fiddly sets.  They do just fine IME,  but rely heavily on click powers for survivability.  I understand that Electric is also that way

Electric doesn't rely on click powers for survivability, unless you mean the emergency heal Energize. But every Tanker primary set's emergency heal is a click (if they have one). Electric's bread-and-butter defensive powers are all toggles. Or, I guess you could mean Power Sink, but that isn't really a survivability power. That's more of a refill-your-Endurance-bar-whenever-you-get-around-to-it kind of power.

 

Electric is a very strong resistance set (comparable to the other resistance-only sets), easy to play, with no Psi hole, and no Endurance problems. Layering some defense and regen on top makes for a very solid all-around tank whose only real vulnerability is Toxic damage.

[Heraclea]

Rad also seems fairly glowy and ugly, not for the costume crowd.

Set it to Bright tintable then pick really dark colours. It turns the flashy glow into a smokey simmer. It's what I do on all the effects I don't like and quite a reliable way of making them more subtle.

 

Thanks! Will give it a try.

[Hyperstrike]

I took an Inv/EM and Stone/Fire to 50 back on live, and am currently leveling an Elec/Staff and Rad/SS (25 and 20). My two new tanks feel much more survivable than my Inv ever did, even at these low levels. I'm on generic IOs which is comparable to the SO build I ran back then. I'm sure part of it is that I just know more now (and for the Elec the bonus defense from Staff helps), but given my experience thus far I can't see myself at this point wanting to build with either Inv or Stone in this new world.

Elec and Rad are great Resist-centric sets.  You can max or near-max your main typed resist, generally with a slightly lower setting to your opposite.

Same for Fire.

 

Then just slather some defense on top and voila!

 

Also, while I was rocking one of the toughest CMA-centric Invuln builds Live, Invuln now, due to the Winter-Os is basically just a maxed Granite Lite.

You don't soft-cap all defenses and resists.  But you don't have the recharge, damage or movement penalties.

 

 

 

[Xaeon]

Invuln is baby's first tanker primary for people new to the AT and just want to survive stuff. It's extremely easy to build, very forgiving, and exceedingly resilient.  Dark Armour is punishing to level and requires you to know how to build for certain things, but its peak is obscenely good.

[Heraclea]

Invuln is baby's first tanker primary for people new to the AT and just want to survive stuff. It's extremely easy to build, very forgiving, and exceedingly resilient.  Dark Armour is punishing to level and requires you to know how to build for certain things, but its peak is obscenely good.

 

Dark is also not particularly costume friendly in a way that WP or Invuln is, but it lends itself to certain effects.  Back in i23, I had a dark tanker who colored all of the armors and auras bright pink.

[Erratic1]

Invuln is baby's first tanker primary for people new to the AT and just want to survive stuff. It's extremely easy to build, very forgiving, and exceedingly resilient.  Dark Armour is punishing to level and requires you to know how to build for certain things, but its peak is obscenely good.

 

Dark is also not particularly costume friendly in a way that WP or Invuln is, but it lends itself to certain effects.  Back in i23, I had a dark tanker who colored all of the armors and auras bright pink.

 

I colored Dark Armor's powers red and orange to suggest heat back then.

[JusticeBowler]

Invuln is baby's first tanker primary for people new to the AT and just want to survive stuff. It's extremely easy to build, very forgiving, and exceedingly resilient.  Dark Armour is punishing to level and requires you to know how to build for certain things, but its peak is obscenely good.

 

Dark is also not particularly costume friendly in a way that WP or Invuln is, but it lends itself to certain effects.  Back in i23, I had a dark tanker who colored all of the armors and auras bright pink.

 

I colored Dark Armor's powers red and orange to suggest heat back then.

 

As long as we're sharing styles Bob The Janitor uses orange scented products while cleaning up the city streets of Paragon. So I tried to diminish the effects as much as I can, but if they have any color at all... it is a soft orange. :)

[Myrmidon]

People are foolish to write off WP so readily without trying it.

 

Shhh. Let people have their illusions.

[Snakebit]

Imagine having primaries so good that Costume Appearance is a variable when picking the set and then reading about how that AT is no longer relevant.

[misat]

There really isn't a Best Tanker Primaries. All bring something to the table the others don't. To me, it's how you want to play a toon. you can't play them all the same way.

 

Pick something that looks fun or something you have another done before and go kill stuff :P

 

reminds me of people asking the best solo class or the most overpower spec in-game because it's all they want to play and are too lazy to learn how a class works, just like asking for a complete build instead of learning your class and what works best for you. someone else build won't always work for your play style

[Kruunch]

There really isn't a Best Tanker Primaries. All bring something to the table the others don't. To me, it's how you want to play a toon. you can't play them all the same way.

 

Pick something that looks fun or something you have another done before and go kill stuff :P

 

reminds me of people asking the best solo class or the most overpower spec in-game because it's all they want to play and are too lazy to learn how a class works, just like asking for a complete build instead of learning your class and what works best for you. someone else build won't always work for your play style

 

The question was based around functionality. I.E. Ice Tankers are less functional than Radiation Tankers.

 

Most of my questions are based around functionality, not concept.