Author Topic: Most Played Tank Builds  (Read 25123 times)

RGladden

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #20 on: June 24, 2015, 01:45:53 PM »
I'm really surprised no one has voted Fire yet. I remember so many Fire tanks herding maps back in the day. The game changed a lot over time and different sets seemed to be more or less popular as it did. I'm not much of a melee person myself so my opinion probably shouldn't weigh as heavily, but my favorite was Willpower pretty much from as soon as it came out until the end. If I'm honest, I think it was because Willpower was easier for me to play and not suck at.

I'm also surprised at the lack of support for fire tanks.  Those that I built I never played much beyond level 20, mainly because they always felt a bit squishy, compared to my other tanks.  I'm really a bit surprised at the lead Willpower is building up over Invulnerability.

HEATSTROKE

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #21 on: June 25, 2015, 03:21:23 AM »
I am not at all surprised that WP has a lead over Inv.. WP is a very good all around set that requires little to no IO support to be very effective. It Regens health and you when Stamina was made an inherent power it instantly became a favorite of many because with quick recovery end issues disappear..

Fire has always had an issue with survival for two specific reasons. It has no inherent defense in the build and it has lower resists than other sets that arent based around defense. Fire tanks were popular in the early days not because of Fire Armor but because of Burn.. to the point where they were called Burn Tanks by many people. Burn was nerfed into pretty much a shell of itself for a very long time because the fear component made foes run away so they didnt get the full ticks of damage... It was later changed and the fear effect removed so Burn was better and Healing Flames also was aided when its percentage of hit points healed was increased. However even with those changes Fire Tanks were still not and strong as far as resists to other tanks. With IO's and depending on secondary taken however Fire Tanks could be very viable builds..


HEATSTROKE

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #22 on: June 25, 2015, 04:05:02 AM »
For comparison sake here is a comparison of my best tank build for WP and INV both which were very good at the end of the game.. These are considering IO's and Incarnate Powers.

My WP Tank

Defense (numbers are rounded)

S/L/E/N softcapped

F/C 38%
PSI 33%

Resist

S/L 70%
F/C/E/N/T 12%
PSI 49%

Here was the kicker with this particular WP build

With ONE foe in range his Regen is 1079%. Which means he regens 126HP per second. If he has what I call the standard sized mob which is usually about 8 he regens @ 1206% which is 141 HP per Second..

Factor in that he has ZERO end issues.. He can run double stacked Rage and easily survive the crash to defense and the drain on endurance as he has END to burn.. In fact he runs Focused Accuracy all the time.. with Stamina and Quick Recovery, Numina Regen Recovery. Miracle Recovery and Three Performance Shifter Procs he never runs out of end..

Using FootStomp he can keep foes bouncing up and down.

Basically he is extremely hard to kill without a serious debuff to his regen.

HOWEVER the INV tank is also difficult to kill for different reasons..

Defense

S/L/E/N Softcapped
F/C 43% (almost softcapped)
PSI 24% ( through IO's)

Resists

S/L 88%
F/C/E/N/T 27%
PSI- 17% (through IO's)

Regen 296%-3807 HP per Second...

Looks much weaker.. However the INV tanks has an ace in the hole.. Perma Dull Pain.. Which allows him to add 60% more HP and Heal 80% of his hit points every 100 Seconds.. Even if you manage to take him down to 25% of his total hit points he can heal it right back if needed..  This allows him to do things he shouldnt.. like tank Mother Mayhem who is mostly Psi damage without dying..

There are many different ways to build a tank that can survive..

my Dark/Stone uses a combination of defense, To Hit Debuffs and double stacking of Oppressive Gloom and Fault to perma stun bosses... and the best regen tool in the game in Dark Regeneration..

The Ice/Stone has great defenses, Perma Hoarfrost (dull pain clone) and Hibernate if need be.. Pretty much he wont die unless I do something stupid..

The Fire/Fire tank survives by having Healing Flames on a very very low recharge and the ability to burn through mobs faster than they can take him down..

Shields just make everything miss.. /SS uses Rage and Shield Charge to mow down mobs.. /Fire tears through them with Fire Damage.. /Ice just laughs as he shield charges in and then drops an ice patch

Elec/SS has very high resists although very little defense but drains mobs end and has Perma Energize. He can easily cycle in Power Surge and Energize without the crash killing him..

I made my wife a Stone Tank that was pretty good..

I never made a SR tank.. but I have a SR Brute.. If I were going to make an SR Tank I probably would have chosen SR and Titan Weapons..

I never developed a favorite tank because I found that you could make any tank survive..




Canine

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #23 on: June 25, 2015, 10:01:22 PM »
You forgot to list Stone Armour...

My Stone/Fire scranker was my most played tanker.

And I separate Stone from Granite because some of us used the *rest* of the set after we got to 32...

And frankly, I *liked* running all the toggles.  With Teleport, a simple keybind and a fair amount of practice, I had no mobility issues.  Running at soft cap to S/L/E/NE/Psi with good F/C/Toxic resist, +regen, effective end drain immunity, full suite mez protection (inclusing confuse which wasn't that common among armour sets) meant that I was functionally immune to most things, and I avoided the extra movement, recharge  and damage penalty from Granite, which was nice :)

Cost me a fortune to IO out that toon, but since I *had* several fortunes, that was a non-issue.

Hells Wing

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #24 on: July 25, 2015, 11:49:48 PM »
I played and totally enjoyed my Inv/SS tank. She kicked so much ass and was so fun to play as. Not to mention that satisfying sound when I did a uppercut on a enemy and sent them ragdolling up and down to the floor or stomping the ground to create a shockwave/

FourSpeed

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #25 on: July 28, 2015, 10:57:11 PM »
I am not at all surprised that WP has a lead over Inv.. WP is a very good all around set that requires little to no IO support to be very effective. It Regens health and you when Stamina was made an inherent power it instantly became a favorite of many because with quick recovery end issues disappear..

Fire has always had an issue with survival for two specific reasons. It has no inherent defense in the build and it has lower resists than other sets that arent based around defense. Fire tanks were popular in the early days not because of Fire Armor but because of Burn.. to the point where they were called Burn Tanks by many people. Burn was nerfed into pretty much a shell of itself for a very long time because the fear component made foes run away so they didnt get the full ticks of damage... It was later changed and the fear effect removed so Burn was better and Healing Flames also was aided when its percentage of hit points healed was increased. However even with those changes Fire Tanks were still not and strong as far as resists to other tanks. With IO's and depending on secondary taken however Fire Tanks could be very viable builds..
The "trick" to solving those problems was  Fire / Ice.  Ice Slick would knock them down (and if you put the proc in it, or stacked casting it, you could even knock Bosses down), mitigating both the fear issue with Burn and also reducing the number of times you'd get hit. IIRC, it also came with a hold or two that was also helped mitigate the burn fear and incoming damage.

The synergy of that set was fabulous, and a friend of mine made a pair of them to play together.  In the early days (~I3?)they were incredible, before the Burn nerf -- after which they dropped to just very, very good.  ;D  IOs / sets got them back up to "incredible" once again.

With the changes just prior to game closure we were planning to respec them into "awesome" Incarates, but alas we didn't get the chance.   :'(

Still, those two characters were two of the ones we enjoyed most, and sometimes, we *still* reminisce about them. 

We didn't make WP or Inv tanks -- opting instead to make Brutes with those sets -- one of those was my RWZ Pylon soloist.


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4

Ultraamann

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #26 on: July 31, 2015, 03:55:41 PM »
Inv/SS- Classic combo.  By far and away my favorite.  Probably more time spent on this toon than all my others combined.  IO'd to the hilt, but left the Incarnate stuff alone.  I never cared for that as an endgame.  You're not a real tank anymore, you're something... else. 

Loved being pretty much utterly invulnerable to almost all physical damage, with that Psi hole that you'd fill in as best as possible.  I enjoyed defining my characters as much by their weaknesses as their strengths, and the Psi issue gave it a very real, very comic-book feel.

Laughing off most attacks, drawing as many baddies to you as possible to amp up Invincibility, keeping your eyes peeled for the Psi attacks and the dreaded end drainers, the -def and -res attacks, it was purely second nature.  Scanning the crowd, identifying the actual threats, dropping the KO Blow on them while Foot Stomping the fodder, taunting all the while... man, I miss playing. 

Supermax

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #27 on: August 01, 2015, 04:31:06 AM »
I tried a few tank builds, but nothing could match my Fire/SS, who eventually became my main toon. I spent basically all my influence on him, so he was built well, but could have been even more powerful with an unlimited budget. I realized that I couldn't "tank" as well as some other tanks, but I could tank 99.9% of the game's content, and that was good enough for me. I'd routinely stand next to Stone tanks, taking no more damage than them, while doing like 5 times more damage. The layered power of high resistance, high defense through IO's (1 small luck away from cap), and arguably the best self heal in the game....it made him basically a tankmage.

If the game ever came back though, I think I would reroll the same build as a brute.

ryuplaneswalker

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #28 on: August 02, 2015, 02:02:55 AM »
Considering my Main was Katana/Dark Armor I think I have to vote for DA.

in the incarnate days he could run OG, CoF and the damage aura all at once and not break a sweat, come I-24 I would have been Melee defense capped without using Divine Avalanche as well as Capped to S/L/E/P/N resistances.

HEATSTROKE

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #29 on: August 02, 2015, 02:55:59 AM »
Inv/SS- Classic combo.  By far and away my favorite.  Probably more time spent on this toon than all my others combined.  IO'd to the hilt, but left the Incarnate stuff alone.  I never cared for that as an endgame.  You're not a real tank anymore, you're something... else. 


 Played lots of incarnate stuff. Never made me feel like I wasnt a real tank. The Alpha slot in particular was a benefit to most of my tanks and helped them do their job better.

 

HEATSTROKE

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #30 on: August 02, 2015, 02:57:11 AM »
The "trick" to solving those problems was  Fire / Ice.  Ice Slick would knock them down (and if you put the proc in it, or stacked casting it, you could even knock Bosses down), mitigating both the fear issue with Burn and also reducing the number of times you'd get hit. IIRC, it also came with a hold or two that was also helped mitigate the burn fear and incoming damage.

The synergy of that set was fabulous, and a friend of mine made a pair of them to play together.  In the early days (~I3?)they were incredible, before the Burn nerf -- after which they dropped to just very, very good.  ;D  IOs / sets got them back up to "incredible" once again.

With the changes just prior to game closure we were planning to respec them into "awesome" Incarates, but alas we didn't get the chance.   :'(

Still, those two characters were two of the ones we enjoyed most, and sometimes, we *still* reminisce about them. 

We didn't make WP or Inv tanks -- opting instead to make Brutes with those sets -- one of those was my RWZ Pylon soloist.


Regards,
4

One of my buddies played a Fire/Ice tank. I would never play that combo as it didnt make
" sense " to me.. the fire powers would melt the ice patch in my mind.. But agreed it was a boon to that tank..

Auroxis

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #31 on: August 02, 2015, 08:48:31 AM »
I think Fiery Aura had more potential on Tankers than people gave it. In particular I feel its potential was partially wasted with those kinetic combat/eradication s/l/e/n defense builds which kept you really vulnerable to Psi and didn't help your recharge and accuracy much.

I think Fire/Martial Arts had good combo potential due to the +10% M/R/A defense buff. Together with Cardiac, Barrier and some expensive IO's you could have a build that's at at the softcap for M/R/A and at the resist hardcap for S/L, while maintaining good recharge+accuracy.

DBadger

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #32 on: August 02, 2015, 09:00:03 AM »
While I loved Willpower I mainly played that on scrappers. My main brute was Fire Armour/Electric Melee and my main tank was fire/superstrength, both were called Emberwilde as they were on different servers.

I leveled my fire armour tank when they were probably at their weakest (before the buffs to burn/healing flames etc) but as I was constantly teamed with a kinetic def and a couple of scrappers we absolutely wrecked everything. I even managed to tank and (mostly) survive pretty much every AV.

My brute was my no1 Mission Architect PLer/Recipe token grinder

B.Roid

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #33 on: August 02, 2015, 10:16:04 AM »
All heads must bow and tongues confess that Ss/ Regen Brute was king of damage and survivability.  My too was B.Roid or black steroid looked like Galactic ran on freedom pvp server. Was the number 1 build of all melee fighters on that server.   Before that I rolled with Granite tanks until I met Ghost Widow.

Vee

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #34 on: August 02, 2015, 10:33:47 AM »
Considering my Main was Katana/Dark Armor I think I have to vote for DA.

All heads must bow and tongues confess that Ss/ Regen Brute was king of damage and survivability.

So your favorite kind of tank is...non?

Aggelakis

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #35 on: August 02, 2015, 03:28:14 PM »
You don't have to be a Tanker (archetype) to tank (activity). My bubble defender tanked well enough in a pinch.
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HEATSTROKE

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #36 on: August 03, 2015, 02:24:41 AM »
You don't have to be a Tanker (archetype) to tank (activity). My bubble defender tanked well enough in a pinch.

 Tanking to me isnt about running in and surviving the alpha.. I have blasters that can do that.. Tanking to me is also about controlling the battlefield... mob placement.. holding their attention.. keeping the AV focused on me.. pulling the aggro off that squishy.. etc etc.. thats tanking..

HEATSTROKE

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #37 on: August 03, 2015, 03:09:32 AM »
All heads must bow and tongues confess that Ss/ Regen Brute was king of damage and survivability.

Really??? My EA/SS Brute would argue that point profusely...

HEATSTROKE

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #38 on: August 03, 2015, 03:14:31 AM »
I think Fiery Aura had more potential on Tankers than people gave it. In particular I feel its potential was partially wasted with those kinetic combat/eradication s/l/e/n defense builds which kept you really vulnerable to Psi and didn't help your recharge and accuracy much.

I think Fire/Martial Arts had good combo potential due to the +10% M/R/A defense buff. Together with Cardiac, Barrier and some expensive IO's you could have a build that's at at the softcap for M/R/A and at the resist hardcap for S/L, while maintaining good recharge+accuracy.

And thats the problem with Fire.. you have to so all that stuff just to get a good build out of it when you do that with any other tank build much easier.. I mean look at your comment..

With BARRIER ??

Come on seriously.. Barrier ?? 

Fire can be a good build.. I played Fire pretty much from day one.. enjoyed it.. I would probably never roll another fire tank again in all honesty.. I can easily make any other tank far more survivable with less effort. and I LOVE my fire tank...

ryuplaneswalker

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Re: Most Played Tank Builds
« Reply #39 on: August 03, 2015, 03:51:52 AM »
So your favorite kind of tank is...non?

I kept aggro! I had to to keep that Fury bar full.