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[HEATSTROKE]

I never went for the uber defense builds on most of my characters.. Some had them.. but most did not. I was never a fan of what I used to see which were badly frankenslotted builds or things that in my mind made no sense of why the character would have such a power or ability.. Sure there were some exceptions but mostly I tried to build a combination of what was effective and what fit the characters origin and or ability.

[ivanhedgehog]

Yeah.. Frostfire was always fun to fight... I remember one time I was in a PUG group where what ended up happening is the whole team, save one person, died while fighting him and then we all watched that one person defeat Frostfire.

frost fire was the mission, that hooked my wife. she was trying out my account and got on  FF team...Thats why my account had 1 week less longevity than hers did.... we both stayed subscribed for 7 years till shutdown

[Minotaur]

Something that had value when the game was new before they gave everyone the ability to survive all fights.  They also come in handy during hami raids.

Some people could survive all fights before that, healers were unnecessary if you had a well built granite. The only thing they couldn't deal with was stupidity. I remember herding 40+ jaegers plus 3 fake nems and assorted lieuts and warhulks (lab room of death) when the blaster decided to step in and nuke, killing the entirety of the rest of the party instantly as the jaegers exploded. I was still fighting the remainder of the mob when the party returned from the hospital.

[Azrael]

Ah...the room of death.

Azrael.

[Paragon Avenger]

I was glad to have them on the team, but sometimes I really hated the uber tanks.  Like that story above, everybody on the team dies, the healers included, so we hit the hospital.  We come back, and the tank is still standing.  He is still at it, holding aggro.

I had one uber tank, myself.  It was great doing the respec trial and not needing one of those stupid bubbles.

[pinballdave]

I was glad to have them on the team, but sometimes I really hated the uber tanks.  Like that story above, everybody on the team dies, the healers included, so we hit the hospital.  We come back, and the tank is still standing.  He is still at it, holding aggro.

I had one uber tank, myself.  It was great doing the respec trial and not needing one of those stupid bubbles.

  some tanks were so entitled - the most overpowered AT in the game

[Azrael]

some tanks were so entitled - the most overpowered AT in the game

...once I got the hang of of tanks they became even more powerful to me.  As I realised how you play them.  Slow to begin with...  Once I got SOs and my defences rounded out things really speeded up.  Then was Rage in S.S that really upped your damage output.  I didn't need another archetype.  But I often played with a duo partner who had an ASR/dev blaster.  Fun deploying different types of pulling tactics eg pull to trip mines.  It was 't always how fast we could 'arrest' stuff.

He had an Ice fire tank that was very soloable.  And an Ice ice tank which I like and wish I had rolled.  Thought hibernation was a cool power.

Sometimes he'd tank with his I e ice tanker and I'd use my fire fire blaster and when he got the aggro it was scorched earth.  Stuff gone in seconds or less.  Toast.  Turbo toast.  Good alt name.

As for entitled...perhaps though what the mostly blessed arm chair gaming scrapper..?  All the damage most of the defence?  Those who had more always wanted more.  I couldn't believe how easy coh was once I revoked my blaster/defender only policy.  And the one I bemoaned was a bit of mitigation. :p. But your mitigation was either to team or how you played with tactics.  But that vulnerability was as rewarding as it was frustrating.

Water Blasters were the first of a new dawn for blasters.  I didn't need to team.  Mostly solo'️ mind you...so was my ice ice blaster....but it had fab mitigation unlike fire which seemed...

Azrael.

[parabola]

My original main was an ice/fire tank. I loved ice armour, not the toughest but enormous utility and it was amazing at holding agro. With the two auras and a couple of aoes from the secondary it was hard for even the most trigger happy blaster to peel agro off you. There was little point in being utterly indestructible if you couldn't also keep mobs interested even under heavy aoe fire.

[brothermutant]

My original main was an ice/fire tank. I loved ice armour, not the toughest but enormous utility and it was amazing at holding agro. With the two auras and a couple of aoes from the secondary it was hard for even the most trigger happy blaster to peel agro off you. There was little point in being utterly indestructible if you couldn't also keep mobs interested even under heavy aoe fire.

Did that too with a Ice/DM iirc, but added the dark or soul Epic which had the -to hit-dmg toggle in there. Man, once I had that going, I was all but unkillable. End could be an issue if I didn't plan right or got spam happy. But Ice Armor was way more fun than it should have been. LAME resistances (even had to get Tough and weave...but I always tried to get both anyways) made for fun times when stuff would level me a couple times too hard. I think that was the fun in Ice Armor, it kept you on your toes, you couldn't be a meat punching bag like some of the other sets (Stone or WP especially). Always hated that most pugs I had hated seeing that I was an Ice tank. Don't know why, with the possible exception that they would never wait for the mob to get around me (chilling embrace always on, slowed them a bit when it came to running up on me).

But as for "entitled", yeah, decent tanks thought they were the "team leader" every time. I had scrappers last longer in fights than some tanks I teamed with, and I am sure there are other ATs that could successfully "tank" better than most tanks. I always asked when pugging who the leader was, meaning "who here knows enough about this TF to tell me what to do". To me, the Tank is just the guy or gal that I let round up the mobs for me and others to arrest.

[Azrael]

My original main was an ice/fire tank. I loved ice armour, not the toughest but enormous utility and it was amazing at holding agro. With the two auras and a couple of aoes from the secondary it was hard for even the most trigger happy blaster to peel agro off you. There was little point in being utterly indestructible if you couldn't also keep mobs interested even under heavy aoe fire.

Yes...the mobs would get particularly annoyed by an ice fire tanker. 

Excellent at holding aggro'.  Those agitating auras and yes, fire attacks of any kind seem to really annoy mobs.  Yes.  ..difficult to get aggro off them...even with a blaster.

Azrael.

Did that too with a Ice/DM iirc, but added the dark or soul Epic which had the -to hit-dmg toggle in there. Man, once I had that going, I was all but unkillable. End could be an issue if I didn't plan right or got spam happy. But Ice Armor was way more fun than it should have been. LAME resistances (even had to get Tough and weave...but I always tried to get both anyways) made for fun times when stuff would level me a couple times too hard. I think that was the fun in Ice Armor, it kept you on your toes, you couldn't be a meat punching bag like some of the other sets (Stone or WP especially). Always hated that most pugs I had hated seeing that I was an Ice tank. Don't know why, with the possible exception that they would never wait for the mob to get around me (chilling embrace always on, slowed them a bit when it came to running up on me).

Ice DM tank sounds like it would be fun to play.   I remember the slow aura creating a slow chain of mobs chasing and piling onto the ice tank. 

Dark melee -to hit and an epic toggle giving more of the same complements defence in my view.

I remember my energy defence brute and dark melee' minus to hit provided a great compliment.  Rarely got hit.

Who knows...may get the chance to play one...one day.

Azrael.

[Tyger42]

Something that had value when the game was new before they gave everyone the ability to survive all fights.  They also come in handy during hami raids.

Healers were never really vital except maybe during Hami raids. Even when the game was new. Sure, they helped, but one of the great things about CoH was it broke the "holy trinity". Even at launch, you could run an effective team of all DPS. Or all tanks. Or all support.

[Stitchified]

Healers were never really vital except maybe during Hami raids. Even when the game was new. Sure, they helped, but one of the great things about CoH was it broke the "holy trinity". Even at launch, you could run an effective team of all DPS. Or all tanks. Or all support.

See, that's one of the bigger things I loved about CoH/CoV and am saddened that no other MMO has picked up on breaking the "holy trinity".

[HEATSTROKE]

some tanks were so entitled - the most overpowered AT in the game

Can you explain what you mean by entitled? Im not quite getting your gist..

I dont necessarily agree that tanks were the most overpowered AT in the game. Maybe the hardest to kill in the game depending on the circumstanced.. but I definitely wouldnt say overpowered.. What  is you definition of overpowered.. meaning having too much power?

[HEATSTROKE]

 I had an Ice/Stone Tank and it survived very well. Between being softcapped to S/L/E/N and having Perma Hoarfrost (perma Dull pain) and Hibernate.. he survived quite well... In fact most of my tanks did.. Fire/Fire was my squishiest ...

[Canine]

Can you explain what you mean by entitled? Im not quite getting your gist..

I think they meant that they'd run into more than a few tankers who thought that because they were the tank, they ran the team.  And some that I saw micromanaged (or tried to) everyone else.

Me, I was a scrapper at heart, so even when I was tanking, I was punching things in the face with fire (usually), although I reckon I had more than a couple of tanker megalomania moments.

Having only one well slotted tanker out of my three (and a half, had lobster mode on my WS slotted so that it could pseudo-tank) meant that usually, I needed the rest of the team, and in return did my damnedest to hold all of that delicious aggro away from the rest of them.  Brutes didn't appreciate that aspect very much though

If I was on my Stone/Fire scranker and you came along on one of my regular trips to screw with Vanessa DeVore's mind, however, all bets were off.  I was functionally immune to Carnies, very few other toons were....

[Azrael]

Immune to Carnies?

My en/en blaster wasn't.  MeZ.  Dead.

Azrael.

[Minotaur]

some tanks were so entitled - the most overpowered AT in the game

This was true before IOs, then anybody could be well nigh invincible for non incarnate content and you were often better off with a brute or scrapper taking the alpha. I must admit, whether I was the tank or not, the tank organising usually worked best unless the team was good enough that we could just steam through stuff.

And the ultimate test of aggro holding for a tank was a rad/fire blaster. Irradiate with its huge debuff and hot feet could pull aggro off all but the best tanks.

[LadyVamp]

what do you call a Controller? a Troller.

What do you call a Troller that can scrap? a Trapper.

you rarely needed heals in the game, buffs and other forms of /Team Support/ were better.

yeah it's true that a good troller/trapper spent 50% of their time buffing the team, but it's also true that 50% of the time a good /team/ didn't need buffing. and that left the troller/scrapper open to use the foe repression side of their powers which made a really good team much more efficient.

in truth a good troller knew after a few minutes which kind of team they were on, one they had to babysit or one they could go all out with and adjust their gameplay accordingly.

That was much later in the game.  I started when it was beta and healers (emps) were a sought after toon.  Back in issue 2 - 5, it was I'd login, pick my healer, and have at least 5 tells and an invite before I even could see the zone.

And yes a Controller was called a troller.

[HEATSTROKE]

And the ultimate test of aggro holding for a tank was a rad/fire blaster. Irradiate with its huge debuff and hot feet could pull aggro off all but the best tanks.

Muahahahahahahahahahahaha...

so very true.. However I did not take Hot Feet because of its tendency to make foes run away.. I wanted them to stay put and take all the damage.. I took Burn instead..

However Rad/Fire could definitely draw a ton of aggro..

[Victoria Victrix]

It always seemed to me that the best tanks were run by people who had started out with fenders or trollers.  They got used to watching their teammates' bars, and knew when to grab aggro back from those who had inadvertently attracted it.