Hegemons Guide to INV/SS Tanking in Post-I6 Paragon City
Contents:
-- IC Forward
-- OOC Introduction
-- Powers List
- Invulnerability
- Super Strength
-- Whats the Purpose of Tanking?
- Aggro Management
- Gauntlet
- Taunt Aura
- Taunt
-- Putting It All Together
- Endurance Management
- Soloing vs. Teaming and How It Affects Your Build
- Oh $%&*!
- Leading the Team
-- Your Career
- 1 20
- 20 32
- 32 50
- Arch-Villains
--Appendix: My Build
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IC Forward:
My allies,
I have been around for some time, now, and I would like to attempt to make my mark on the heroic community. I am called the Hegemon, and I am an Invulnerable, Super Strong hero from the Pinnacle dimension. I am classified as a Tanker, and my raw ability to survive punishment is unmatched by most.
There are many heroes of my type out there. We Tankers are a diverse bunch. Some are as I am Invulnerable and Super Strong and many others have exotic powers that achieve the same effect. Indeed, one of my strongest allies is a Tanker hero who utilizes the power of flame to shield her body. I cannot fathom her methods, but the result is essentially the same. We are incredibly tough and our general role is to protect our less resilient allies by throwing ourselves in harms way.
I am by no means the most experienced Tanker in the multiverse. I do think, however, that I have some knowledge to offer others. I will not bore you with my origin story, never fear. Instead, I will proceed directly to my notes on the somewhat less-than-subtle art of Tanking. For those of you that are just starting out, I will say that it is far more difficult than it seems. Do not be disheartened, however. There are several effective strategies to succeed. So, without further ado
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OOC Introduction:
((Greetings, fellow Tankers, and welcome to my post-I6 INV/SS guide. Though weve changed much since the early days, Invulnerability and Super Strength are both great sets that have a lot of potential. Ill begin this guide by commenting on each power individually. Afterwards, Ill share some of the strategies that Ive found effective in multiple situations for different level ranges. I wont provide specific numbers, simply because a) I dont know them, b) they change quite often, and c) theyre confusing and/or depressing. Anyway, knowing the numbers isnt requisite for being a great tank!
My experience lies entirely in the Invulnerability and Super Strength sets, but Ive tried to include information thats relevant to tanking in general. I dont know everything there is to know about Tankers, so theres a good chance that Ive missed something.
As is usual, any information in this guide could be preceded with In My Opinion. While there are certainly wrong ways to build an INV/SS tank and contribute to the team, there is no 100% correct method.
Just a warning: Im quite verbose and Im trying to be as informative as possible. Some of the information is repeated and parts of this guide are certainly skippable. Enjoy!
--Hegemon))
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Invulnerability:
Definition: (taken from
www.dictionary.com)
invulnerable
adj.
1) Immune to attack; impregnable.
2) Impossible to damage, injure, or wound.
First of all, I should say that you shouldnt be fooled by the name. Invulnerability powers wont make you impossible to damage, injure, or wound. You can be hurt, even at level 50. You arent going to be impregnable. That said, youll still be pretty damn tough.
There are several strengths that the Invulnerable powerset has relative to the other Tanker primaries. Invulnerability offers extremely high resistance to Smashing/Lethal damage, the most common damage type in the game. The set offers four passive powers, which are always on and cost no endurance. Invulnerability offers protection from all status effects without having to resort to pool powers. The Invulnerability powers dont have any movement penalties.
Invulnerability provides a combination of Resistance and Defense, which makes it something of a hybrid when compared to the other Tank primaries. Resistance decreases the amount of damage taken when hit and Defense decreases the likelihood of being hit. Invulnerability provides the player with both, but in smaller levels than you might find in the other primaries because it features both.
Resist Physical Damage
This is the first of the passive powers available to you. It costs no endurance, is always on, and provides a small percentage of resistance against Smashing/Lethal damage.
People have mixed feelings about the passives. While its nice to have a resistance bonus like this, the bonus isnt very high. There are four powers like this RPD, Resist Elements, Resist Energies, and Tough Hide. Some players dislike these powers and feel that their benefit doesnt justify spending four powers. Some Tankers choose to skip one or two of them. Ive even heard of some tankers skipping the passives entirely.
Personally, I like them. While the benefit is small, it does stack with your other resistance powers, and every little bit helps. If you do decide to take them, you shouldnt put any more than two extra slots into them (for a total of three slots), as ED makes any more than that almost entirely useless. This isnt expressly clear reading the game manual.
Temporary Invulnerability
This is one of the three main toggles available to Invulnerable tanks. It provides a high amount of resistance to Smashing/Lethal damage, but you have to spend endurance to keep it active.
This is a very good power with a very obvious benefit. From level 1 onwards, you will notice the resistance benefit it provides. After I5, this became one of the necessary powers, simply because the amount of resistance it offers is so high. I wouldnt skip this power.
Dull Pain
This is a click power that provides an enhanceable boost to your maximum hit points for a fairly long amount of time. The effect lasts for about two minutes. Its situational, but the situation that requires its use happens to occur quite often.
This is an amazing power that will save you from debt many, many times. Its the only form of active damage mitigation available to Invulnerable Tanks in their main powerset. Variants of it exist in other Tank primaries and Scrapper secondaries. It is especially useful to tankers for a few reasons. Firstly, Tanks have a huge amount of hit points. Even unenhanced, the addition it provides is enormous. After I6, the max boost became enhaceable, meaning that any heal enhancements in the power would increase the number of hit points added to your total. Secondly, the number of hit points gained per tick is calculated based on the maximum number of hit points you have. This means that, with dull pain on, you actually gain more health per tick. Stacked with Health, which increases your regeneration rate, this power is incredibly effective.
Resist Elements
This is the second passive power available to you. It provides a bonus to Fire/Cold resistance.
Same concept as Resist Physical Damage, really. If you feel that you can spare the power choice, its very worth it. Unlike RPD, however, this power might be worth putting off until later in the game. When it becomes available, there are simply better options to be considered. Its also worth noting that Fire/Cold doesnt start to become a serious threat until later in the game, anyway.
Unyielding
This toggle power provides your protection from all status effects. It also gives you resistance to every damage type except psionics, at the cost of a small defense debuff. Its also a necessary power because of the universal status protection it provides.
Note: The debuff is significant such that, unenhanced for resistance, this power actually makes you slightly more likely to die (without taking the benefit of mez protection into account). The developers have justified this by saying that your character is absorbing the blows rather than avoiding them. It is unlikely to change any time soon, but this becomes less of a problem as soon as you get Dual Origin enhancers.
This is your most important toggle, since all of your other toggles depend on it. If you get held, disoriented, or slept and Unyielding isnt up, all of your other toggles will drop. You should try to monitor your endurance so as to keep it on at all times. This isnt as much of a problem in the lower levels, but it becomes very significant later as more enemies get status attacks.
Id recommend taking this as soon as it becomes available at level 8.
Resist Energies
This is the third passive resistance power, this one providing an automatic bonus to Energy/Negative Energy damage.
Like the elements passive, you might consider taking this later in your characters career, once Energy/Negative Energy becomes more common. Like the others, its not worth putting more than two extra slots in this power.
Invincibility
This is the last necessary power. This is pretty much an ideal Tank power. Invincibility provides a bonus to defense and accuracy for every enemy in melee range. It also continually taunts affected enemies, making your job much easier.
Note I: The power now works such that a larger defense boost is provided for the first target in range. Each subsequent boost is for less defense. This means that, while the max boost is still the same as it always has been, the boost for fewer enemies is larger than it used to be.
Note II: As this isnt a damage aura, it wont help you at all for revealing Stalkers in PvP. Im fairly certain that it hits enemies automatically, however, which is better for keeping aggro.
Note III: I say that this is a necessary power, but Im fairly certain that Ive seen someone mention that theyve gone without it and done alright. Personally, I wouldnt dream of it, but some players like to challenge themselves.
Tough Hide
This is the last passive power available to Invulnerable Tanks. It provides a small defensive boost to every damage type except psionics.
I chose not to take this power, but it was a very tough call to make. Its useful, and every little bit helps. This also completely counteracts the debuff from Unyielding. I did have this for a while, but had to make some sacrifices when respeccing for my final build. Theres nothing particularly wrong with this power. I would probably take it if I had room for it. If you cant fit it in, though, dont feel like youre missing out on a lot.
Unstoppable
When you activate this power, you become extremely resistant to all status effects and damage types (except psionics) for three minutes. Your endurance recovery rate is also boosted by quite a bit. When the three minutes are up, however, the power crashes, leaving you with no endurance and 10% of your hit points.
This power is extremely controversial. Some love it, some loathe it. Its all down to personal play style, really. Im in the camp that loves it, myself. Ill provide my argument for taking it and Ill also try to give a half-decent argument to the contrary. You can decide for yourself whether or not its worth it.
Unstoppable is the only way for you to reach the resistance cap without relying on the buffs of others. Sure, its situational, but it can really save you and your team from faceplanting if used correctly. By level 32, when it becomes available, youll have a good understanding of what you can handle and what will kill you. Unstoppable lets you win fights that you wouldnt survive under ordinary circumstances, so long as you finish things within three minutes. For those three minutes, Unstoppable also makes it unnecessary to worry about your endurance. You can attack constantly and forget about all your toggles except Invincibility.
While its technically true that, if youre careful, youll never need Unstoppable, its fairly inevitable that accidents will occur from time to time. Unstoppable gives you a little more tactical fudge room. If you or a teammate accidentally aggros another spawn or two it happens to everyone Unstoppable will let you survive it. Without it, theres a good chance you might die, unless youve got a tray full of lucks and respites. If the team is depending on you, which happens quite often if youre the only tank, your dying can mean a full team-wipe.
Also, nothing feels quite as epic as saving everyones [censored] in a fight that shouldve sent you to the hospital. Rising to the challenge and overcoming overwhelming odds is definitely heroic. To me, thats a ton of fun.
Unfortunately, fun is a relative thing. Its completely understandable how others might dislike the power. The crash on this power is significant, to say the least. Crashing in the middle of a fight is almost always coupled with swift defeat. I have gotten lucky with this power crashing in the middle of fighting Anti-Matter and living through it due to sheer luck comes to mind but its rare. If you crash in the middle of the fight, theres a good chance that youll die.
It should be noted, however, that if youre in a fight that requires Unstoppable, you probably would have died anyway, and in much less than three minutes. I should also say that three minutes is an extremely long time far longer than you can reasonably expect to be fighting (there are, of course, exceptions to this).
In my opinion, the most effective argument against taking this power lies in the simple fact that, most of the time, you dont need it. If youre on a team with a defender or controller, theres a good chance that theyll be able to increase your survivability such that you wont need to use this power. You might consider taking another power in its stead, one that you can use far more often - another attack, for example. You wouldnt be decreasing your survivability in most situations by all that much.
Still, Ill say again that accidents can, and often do, happen. You or a teammate will accidentally aggro another group or two. You wont see that AV until its too late. Hell, you might be running level 50 Shadow Shard missions on the highest difficulty with a full team in a suicidal(?) attempt to push your character to the absolute limits. These are the situations that will make you glad to have this power.
Ultimately, its all about fun. Id recommend taking it, but if you dont like it, feel free to drop it. There are certainly perfectly good tanks out there who dont use this power.
Note: If you are about to use Unstoppable, you should warn your team somehow. I have a keybind to this effect. This is to let them know what youre doing, so that they know to take a break after the fighting stops to let you crash and recover. Its the courteous thing to do.
(/bind numpad8 say I have become Unstoppable! I will hold them off, but I do not know how long I can keep this up!)
In Summary:
Invulnerability is a great set. Every power is worth taking. Unfortunately, after I5, the passive powers were changed such that you might not notice an appreciable difference without slotting them. Youll have to take them and just take it for granted that theyre working. Certainly, not all of the powers are this way. Temporary Invulnerability, Unyielding, Invincibility, Dull Pain, and Unstoppable are all powers that are extremely effective right out of the box.
One side benefit to Invulnerability is the +acc thats present in Invincibility. Its significant. If you slot an accuracy in each attack and combine this with Rage, youll miss only rarely, even when fighting enemies that con orange, red, or purple. If youre of a Scranker persuasion (I know I am!), Invulnerability is a powerset you should strongly consider. That theres no movement penalty is very, very nice for this reason. Unlike Stone, theres no best travel power for Invulnerability, making it great for concept reasons.
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Super Strength:
Super Strength is one of the most traditional and comic-booky powersets that the game has to offer. Invulnerable/Super Strength is a combination that occurs many, many times in hero-related fiction. As such, SS is a common choice for Tankers.
This powerset contains five single-target attacks (one of them ranged, four melee), one PBAoE attack, a damage/accuracy boost, taunt, and a PBAoE knockback/control power. The secondary effect present in almost all of the attacks is Knockdown, which, in addition to looking cool, is pretty damn useful. As with Invulnerability, Ill be examining each power individually and providing comments.
Jab
This is a single-target attack that does minor damage and has a small, unreliable chance to disorient. It recharges very quickly. You have no choice but to take this power.
Jab isnt really a major damage addition to your attack set. The disorient component isnt very useful, either. That said, its not a horrible addition to your offense. I didnt put more than the base slot into it, but I rather like the animation (a body-blow) and its useful for punch-voke/Gauntlet and aggro maintenance.
Punch
This is a moderate damage, single target melee attack. The animation looks like your character makes a fist and brings it down on an enemy like a hammer. This attack has a chance to knockdown. Combined with Haymaker, its fairly frequent, too.
All in all, this isnt a bad attack. I respecced out of it for my final build, but Id probably take it again if I had room for it. When I did have it, I had it four-slotted. It was certainly a respectable addition to my attack chain. Really, my only gripe about it is the animation. I wish it looked more like brawl, personally. The damage and utility found in this attack can also be found in power pools if you dont like the animation. I subbed Aerial Superiority for it, myself.
Haymaker
This is a high damage, single target melee attack. It looks exactly the same as Aerial Superiority, which is a double-fisted overhead smash. It has a knockdown component.
This is a great attack that Id highly recommend taking. Unlike Punch, nothing you can get from power pools can approach what you gain from this power. The damage is good, the knockdown helps out a lot
its a lovely addition to your attack chain and probably shouldnt be skipped.
Taunt
This is a ranged foe taunt, which costs no endurance, automatically hits five targets, and does no damage. It forces the taunted foes to attack you.
(I will revisit this power later in the guide in the Aggro Management section. The debate about this power has been done to death, and Id rather not clutter up the powers section with my rambling.)
Hand Clap
This is a PBAoE knockback power that has a reliable disorient component. Its knock
back rather than knock
down, which detracts from the usefulness of this power. (Of course, they might have changed this. When I had it, it was still under the I3 rules. Hand Clap would be much, much more useful if it were knockdown instead of knockback.)
Ill be honest; I really dont like this power. Ill admit that it has its uses, but can actually be counter-productive in a lot of situations. If youre trying to keep enemies in a tight clump to get the biggest possible bonus from Invincible, the last thing you need is all of them flying away from you. Plus, blasters will yell at you. Its much easier to keep aggro when theyre all nicely clumped. If you take this power at all, it should be as a filler power. Of course, thats just my opinion.
Knockout Blow
This is an extreme, single-target melee attack with a little extra range. It has a hold component and a reliable, cool-looking knockup effect.
This power is
fantastic! It looks amazing an uppercut with an exaggerated wind-up and the damage is
huge! Combined with Rage, youll one-shot most even-con minions. Its good enough that you barely notice the hold component, as whatever youre using it against usually gets defeated shortly after you hit them with KO blow. The sheer cool factor of this power makes it worthwhile, too. The first few times you use it, youll want to shout Oh snap! as you send a minion, lieutenant, or boss sailing through the air. The introduction of ragdoll physics only made this power better.
Take it as soon as its available at level 24. You wont regret it.
Note: Want to feel super? Use KO Blow on clockwork minions in Kings Row. Theyre weak vs. knockback and youll send em flying 20 yards into the sky. Priceless
Rage
This is the Super Strength version of build up. For two minutes, it increases the amount of damage of all of your attacks and makes you more accurate. After the two minutes are up, you will lose some endurance, be easier to hit, and wont be able to attack for a few moments.
This power will make you smile and frown at the same time. The entire Super Strength set was balanced around it, so you should think very, very carefully if youre thinking about skipping it. The damage/accuracy bonus is huge and the duration is impressive.
The crash is, admittedly, annoying. Its easy to make this power perma, but I wouldnt advise putting it on auto-cast. It will annoy you to not have the ability to attack for a few seconds. In my experience, it hasnt seriously impacted my ability to maintain aggro, but you may want to use it sparingly in a large team. Its a great power that doesnt require much slotting. Two recharges will make it perma, and you can also slot it for tohit buffs, though thats entirely up to you.
Note: It was rather hard to make this power work for concept reasons. My Tank isnt the type to fly into a berserker fury. For those of you like me, who want the benefits of the power but dont want to envision your cultured, refined tanker flying off the handle, there are other ways to explain it. I simply call it falling into a state of extreme concentration, which improves Hegemons battle capabilities but is very difficult and taxing to maintain.
Hurl
This is a ranged attack that deals moderate damage. Your character rips a hunk of earth out of the ground and throws it at the enemy. The attack has knockback and a fly component.
Im not qualified to say much about this power. This is the only power in both of these sets that Ive never taken. I can only offer advice based upon hearsay with regards to Hurl. Ive heard that the animation is long and that the damage isnt very impressive. I chose not to take it for concept reasons. The one Tank I know that has it doesnt seem to use it very often at all. It
is nice to have a ranged attack, though, especially with gauntlet, as it helps you pull aggro off of friends that need help.
Foot Stomp
This is a PBAoE damage attack that can hit up to ten targets, does slightly more base damage than Punch, and knocks down the enemies.
Foot Stomp is amazing. I have mine slotted for 3 damage, 3 recharge. I chose not to put an accuracy enhancement in it because I always use it when surrounded (with a hefty tohit bonus from Invincibility). It does a ton of damage and can be used again and again in fights. It also looks cool. You cant go wrong with Foot Stomp.
Summary:
Super Strength offers good, consistent damage that comes almost entirely in the form of single-target attacks. Even though Tanks arent meant to dish out big orange numbers, the damage that you get from this set isnt trivial. Coupled with your primary, youll have an unparalleled defense and a decent offense. Youll have no trouble soloing anything except for AVs.
This set is also very cool looking, in my opinion. KO Blow is one of the flashiest and most effective attacks in the game. It beats out Foot Stomp, though not by much. If you want to look super, you cant go wrong with this set.
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Whats the purpose of Tanking?
In this section, Ill attempt to define the Tankers role in a group. Ill give my suggestions on how one might go about fulfilling that role, all of which I can back up with personal experience.
The Tanker is a melee archetype. With his (or her) impressive personal defenses, he epitomizes the term unmovable object. Few enemies in the game pose any immediate threat to the Tanker. His awesome shielding is complemented with a set of attacks that make him a strong and stalwart combatant under almost any circumstances.
What is his purpose, though? Is he simply an odd sort of reversed scrapper? What does he bring to a team?
The Tanker AT is specifically designed for the purpose of taking damage so that his teammates dont have to. He does this by keeping
aggro that is to say, the net aggression generated by the enemies present. He is the first to engage a group of enemies, as hes also the best equipped to survive the retaliation.
How does he do it? Aggro Management:
Aggro is, for the most part, calculated by damage. The hero who does the highest damage will get the most attention from the enemies. If a hero hits a single enemy with a very powerful attack, he runs a higher risk of attracting that enemy and others around him. This creates a problem for Tanks. After all, Tankers arent a damage AT. Blasters and Scrappers will be able to generate far more aggro than Tanks. How does a Tank keep enemy focus on himself?
Tanks are given three tools for managing aggro: Gauntlet (the Tanker inherent power), Taunt, and a Taunt Aura. These things are what allow the Tank to keep aggro in battle. Maintaining aggro is far more difficult than it seems. Other heroes will inadvertently attempt to take aggro from the Tanker in the course of doing their respective jobs. The Tanker and his tools are one of the only things that stand between his squishier allies and almost certain death.
Gauntlet
Gauntlet is the Tanker inherent power. Its been around for a very long time. Before every AT
had an inherent, even. In the past, it was called Punch-voke. Basically, it couples every attack that you successfully land with an AoE taunt that hits five targets. This means that, even though a Tank wont be doing as much damage as a blaster hitting the same target, hell still attract the aggro from that enemy
and five additional targets. Foe taunt overrides aggro generated through natural means, i.e. damage or proximity.
Gauntlet is a power that gets better with a higher character level. Im not entirely sure what this means, but I suspect that the taunt duration increases as you level up.
Gauntlet is what lets Tankers who dont take a taunt power maintain aggro successfully. Its very useful in team situations. Unfortunately, it does absolutely nothing for soloers, nor does it help out at all in PvP.
To use this effectively, you should cycle your targets in fights. Sure, you wont take individual enemies down as quickly, but youll be better able to keep the attention of the whole mob on yourself this way. If you have a ranged attack, you can use it to pull mobs away from your vulnerable teammates from a distance.
Because of Gauntlet, you will be doing your job so long as you are able to keep attacking. You should pick your targets carefully, though, so that you keep all attention on yourself.
Taunt Aura
Every Tanker primary comes with a Taunt Aura, which constantly taunts all nearby enemies and forces them to attack you. Invulnerability has this in the form of Invincibility.
This is incredibly useful. If you put a Taunt Duration SO in Invincibility, your job will become much easier. Youll see enemies start to chase a squishy, pass you, and then turn around to take swings at you as the aura taunt hits them. Though you cant simply rely on it to do your job for you, it makes a formidable addition to your aggro tools.
Invincibility isnt as useful as the other taunt auras for this purpose, but its still quite effective. I say this because it doesnt have a damage component, meaning that you wont have a tiny orange number above your enemies heads with which to tell who has been taunted by the aura. This means that, for Invulnerable Tanks, your aura isnt going to be as useful for PvP. Having no damage component means also having no way of revealing Stalkers or otherwise stealthed enemies (unless you have a +perception power).
Taunt
Taunt is the third and final aggro management tool thats given to Tankers. Its a ranged AoE that does no damage, automatically hits five targets, and costs no endurance. One Taunt SO is enough to keep an enemy permanently taunted, or at least close to it.
The debate over whether or not this power is necessary has been present on these boards for a very, very long time. Many tankers would simply rather not take it, and would prefer to have another attack instead. Taunt used to be much more than it is today. It used to hit an unlimited number of targets, meaning that a tanker could use it over and over again and keep an entire spawn (or more) taunted by simply spamming this power. This is no longer the case, so the tauntless Tanks are more than capable of doing their job effectively.
Still, this power has a lot of merits. Ill do my best to list the reasons for and against taking Taunt here.
Taunt is the only thing youll get that gives you ranged aggro control for a very long time. This power becomes available early in the game and will remain useful throughout your career. These two things make it worthwhile, but my favorite aspect of this power is that it costs no endurance whatsoever. End management is
essential to being an effective tank. No matter what flavor Tank you are, you will be running more than one toggle power. These toggles are all that stand between you and defeat. Logically, since
you are all that stand between your
team and defeat, your toggles are essential to the health of the team. If youre low on endurance, attacking can be risky. Taunt allows you to maintain aggro without using endurance, making it quite useful for situations like this, which are quite common in the early to middle game.
The fact that the power auto-hits is also nice. Youll appreciate this in the late 30s while fighting MoGed Paragon Protectors.
There are also some valid reasons not to take this power. Its completely without value in solo play, for one. If youre a tanker that likes to solo a lot, you may get more mileage out of another attack instead of Taunt. Many players dont like the concept of this power, either. Why on earth would an enemy neglect attacking a blaster, the greater threat to his freedom, just because the Tanker insulted his mother?
Also, later in the game, this power becomes a lot less useful. When Im Tanking for 50th level teams, I hardly ever use it. My AoEs, Foot Stomp and Energy Torrent, are much better at keeping the aggro of an entire spawn. If youve got a ranged attack, Gauntlet turns it into something similar to Provoke. Still, if you ever plan on exemplaring, Taunt becomes helpful again.
Ultimately, the choice is up to you. Taunt isnt necessary to being a good tank, but it
will make your life a lot easier. I took it and dont regret it.
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Putting it all together Useful Tips for Invulnerability/Super Strength:
In this section, Ill address some strategies I use for Tanking within the various level ranges. Before I begin, though, Ill start with some general issues.
Invulnerability is a pretty straightforward set. General tactics consist of trying to surround yourself with as many enemies of the spawn as you can in order to get the maximum benefit from Invincibility, managing your endurance to keep your toggles up, and pressing Dull Pain when your health starts to drop. Theres more to it than that, though.
Endurance Management:
As I mentioned earlier, Tanks depend on endurance for keeping their toggles up. They depend on their toggles to stay alive. This means that endurance management is very, very important to Tankers.
My opinion, which is perhaps controversial, is that Stamina is a necessary addition to most Tanker builds. While Im sure there are Tanks out there without it, I dont think Id be nearly as effective without Stamina. Not only is Stamina important, but the prerequisites to it are also quite useful to Tankers. Health will improve your HP regeneration by a noticeable amount, especially if its been three-slotted. Swift will make running around in combat much less tiresome. I cant comment on Hurdle, however. Ive never taken it on any of my characters.
In any case, my advice is that you should strongly consider adding Stamina to your build. Youll notice the difference in your effectiveness right away, and the prerequisites will give you some extra slots to play around with, as theres no need to slot up swift or health as soon as you can (unless you want to, of course).
Even if you do have Stamina, I would also consider adding Endurance Reduction enhancements to your toggles. I even added them to some of my attacks.
Soloing vs Teaming and How It Affects Your Build:
Most Tankers eventually end up in a similar place with their builds. Theyll have strong defenses and a half-decent attack chain. What should you build up first, though? That depends on personal preference and play style. The general rule is, if youre planning on teaming a lot from 1 20, you should focus on your defenses and getting Stamina. Attacking is taxing on your endurance bar, but if you dont have too many attacks, its not really a problem. With the spawns and damage types that youll be seeing pre-20, you can get by fairly well in teams without a full attack chain. If you choose to take Taunt, youll do even better.
If you solo through to the 20s, youll want more attacks. You need to be able to take mobs down faster and your level 1 attack isnt going to cut it. Tankers are effective soloers, however, and taking a few extra attacks will make your journey to 20 much less tedious. Of course, by taking more from your secondary, youll be less able to bolster your defenses.
In short, taking more attacks means being able to take less punishment. Eventually, youll have both an amazing defense and a great attack chain, but you need to choose between balancing your build and spending more on your primary early in the game. If you team a lot, youll be facing more mobs at once and will therefore get more benefit from having higher defenses. Youll also be relying on teammates to do the damage. Soloers wont need that level of defense quite yet and can get by with spending more on their melee attacks.
Either way, you shouldnt neglect your primary powerset completely. Tankers without defenses are going to have a much tougher time, both solo and in teams. Why skimp on the defining feature of the AT?
The Inspiration Tray:
The composition of your inspiration tray has a huge impact on what sort of tactics you can use. You should
never be afraid to use inspirations. Theres no point in saving them for later, in my opinion. If youre on a team, youll refill most of your tray in one spawn.
Endurance inspirations are always useful. Theyll become less so later in the game once you can slot your toggles and a few attacks for endurance reduction, but for most of your career, youll find these to be a godsend. If you team up with an Empath, a Kineticist, or (to a lesser extent) a Rad Emission defender/controller, you wont need them as much.
Accuracy inspirations are somewhat useless after level 22. If you slot an accuracy enhancement in each attack and keep Invincibility up at all times, you wont miss very often under normal circumstances. If you use Rage, youll use them even less often. They can help you out in PvP or if youre fighting enemies that use attacks with a acc component, but theyre by far the least useful of the inspirations youll find.
Damage inspirations are great, especially once youve got a decent attack chain. Theyre even better after level 38, when you get Foot Stomp. If you solo a lot, youll love seeing these in your tray.
Defense inspirations are by far the most useful type you can have. The bonus they provide is simply massive and theyll help you do your job that much better. If you have two of them and use both, minions will have a pathetic 5% chance to hit you. LTs wont be much better off, especially taking the defense from Invincibility into account. Tanking AVs is extraordinarily difficult without using Lucks.
Resistance inspirations arent as useful as Lucks, but you should still use them before tough-looking fights.
Anti-mez (breakfrees) inspirations arent as useful to Invulnerable Tankers, since were given mez protection in the form of Unyielding. Still, if youve got room in your tray, its useful to keep one around. There will be times when your toggles will drop, and it can become a disaster if youre held, disoriented, or slept during that time. Breakfrees can save you from that.
Health inspirations are almost as useful as Defense inspirations. The smallest ones heal you by 25%. To Tanks, who have the highest HP in the game, 25% is a huge amount of HP. These guys will keep you standing for much longer.
Awakens arent as useful to Tanks, but its generally considered good preparation to carry one around if you have room for it. Its rather inevitable that youll die from time to time.
Inspirations are very important to good gameplay in City of Heroes. If youre not using inspirations, youre not getting as much out of your character as you could. I cant fathom why some players dont use them. They can save you from disaster and debt! Nothing puzzles me more than playing with other tankers as my Warshade and trying to pass them green pills in order to save them from dying only to get the inventory is full message.
Also, dont be afraid to ask for Lucks if you think youll need them. Itll save you some grief down the road. Most players will be happy to oblige; they dont want you to die any more than you do.
Oh $%&*!:
What do you do when things get hairy?
Say youre fighting too many mobs for your group to handle. Your inspiration try is empty. You have a pretty good idea of how many mobs you can safely take on without inspirations or heavy buffing, and the army surrounding you exceeds that number by more than 8. What do you do?
Use Unstoppable thats what its for! If you dont have it, tell your teammates that youre going to die and that they should run. If a Tank says that its too much for him to handle, the other team members will listen. Well, not always, but it behooves you to try. If youre going down and you know it, you should tell your teammates to get the heck out of there. They wont last long without you to take the heat.
With careful gameplay, you should be able to avoid this situation under most circumstances. Its not reasonable to expect that this would
never happen, though. In fact, some of the rooms in this game seem intentionally designed to place enemy spawns too close to each other. You may wish to make a keybind for such situations. Teammates will be grateful for the warning (if they decided to follow your advice, that is).
Leading The Team
Oftentimes, the Tank is the
de facto leader of the team. By this, I mean that he tends to direct the movement and action of the group. This just makes sense, really. In order for the Tank to be most effective, he has to be the first one to get the attention of the group. This means a few things.
First of all, before you attack for the first time, you should ask the team if theyre ready. You dont want to charge in only to find that some members of your team arent ready or arent there. After the first group, you can get into a sort of rhythm and keep the pressure up from spawn to spawn. If a team member asks you to stop, do so. A healthy group is one that moves in unison.
As Ive said before, youll eventually get an accurate sense of what you can handle and what you cant. If you think taking a group by the normal method of charging isnt going to be entirely safe for some reason because of the way the room is set up or the way the spawns are spaced out, for example say so and recommend an alternative strategy. As the tank, you should be able to take any non-psionics alpha strike with relative ease. You can head in first, get the attention of a group or two, and drag them around a corner to an ambush. This is called herding, and its a good alternative to normal spawn-by-spawn fighting in risky situations.
Alternatively, you could use Taunt to pull if youve got it.
In summary, you will be expected to head in first in most situations, but that wont always be the best way to do things. Let the team know if youve got doubts.
You should try to be aware of whats going on in the fight at all times. This is pretty difficult, and sometimes youll see a teammates health drop despite your best efforts. If this happens, taunt or attack whatevers attacking them. If you cant see whats doing the damage, try clicking their name on the team window and using Taunt or a ranged attack. This will execute your queued action against whatever they have targeted. Due to the way aggro works, chances are good that thats whats hurting them.
* * * * * *
Your Career:
Level 1 20:
Youll probably want to take Resist Physical Damage, Temporary Invulnerability, Dull Pain, Unyielding and Invincible within this range. This makes you much better able to withstand Smashing and Lethal damage, which is the most common type of damage in the game. From 1 20, almost all of your enemies will make liberal use of it. Some, like the Trolls, will even use it exclusively. In my opinion, you could probably stand to skip the passives until later in the 20s, simply because they arent going to be as effective until you can put SOs in them. If you solo a lot, you might even be able to put off RPD until later in your build in favor of another attack.
In teams, your ability to control aggro will rely on Gauntlet and Taunt (if you chose to take it). Without Taunt, you should have a tougher time of it, but its by no means impossible. After all, youll have another attack with which to use Gauntlet. You wont get Invincibility until 18, so you should really make an effort to cycle your targets so as to better maintain aggro.
Also, your play style may vary depending on what travel set you chose. If you want to go with Flight (I did), I cant recommend Aerial Superiority enough. Another attack may be just what you need, and AS is perhaps the best pool attack available. My only gripe, as I believe that I mentioned earlier, is that the animation is the same as Haymaker. Your tank will do that double-fisted smash quite a lot.
Levels 20 32
This range is where your INV/SS Tank really starts to shine. Youll have your defenses at respectable levels and youll be able to spend on new attacks. Youll get Knockout Blow, which will make the entire SS set seem worthwhile. Rage will make your solo play much better. Youll get SOs and your damage output will improve significantly.
After you get your pre-unstoppable defenses sorted out, everything will seem much less threatening to you. You wont die a whole heck of a lot. Debt will actually surprise you when you get it. Solo, there really wont be much to challenge you unless you crank the difficulty up.
Teams, however, are an entirely different ballgame. Youll have to defenses to hold out against an enemy spawn for quite a long time and the aggro control to keep them focused on you, but you wont have the damage output to deal with massive spawns by yourself. As always, youll be relying on other team members to do the damage. Using the same methods youve been using, youll be a worthy addition to any team. Youll have all three of your aggro management tools, unless you chose not to take Taunt.
In this range, enemies will start using AoE attacks. This creates a problem because, despite your best efforts, your teammates will still get hit from time to time, even if you have 100% of the aggro. If they stand too close to you while a squad of Council Adjutants is getting grenade-happy, it can spell death for a squishier character. The best thing you can do to mitigate this is to warn your teammates.
Levels 32 50
By now, your character will be as tough as he can reasonably expect to get. Youll have Foot Stomp, which is a phenomenal addition to your offense and aggro control. The powers that you pick up in this range will largely be to round out your character. What does that mean? Well, its entirely up to you. The Ancillary Power Pools let you obtain abilities that you cant get in your primary or secondary power sets. Failing that, you could choose not to go into them at all, instead choosing to fill out your remaining power choices with picks from your main sets or the mundane power pools. This is where your Tanker truly becomes unique.
Whatever you decide to do, you need to adjust your tried-and-true tanking methods in order to accommodate the non-standard enemy tactics that start appearing after level 40. All of the old rules still apply, and some enemy groups will seem specifically designed to be a pain in the rear. Including individual strategies for each of them would make this guide wordier than it already is, however, so Ill decline to do so.
Arch-Villains
I will comment on AVs, though. From the 40s onward, you will encounter powerful enemies called Arch-Villains. Theyre specifically designed to be too strong for an individual hero to defeat. As a Tanker, your role in these battles remains the same. Youre supposed to keep the aggro of the AV and take the damage s/he deals so that your teammates dont have to.
Theres a problem, though. These enemies oftentimes do enough damage to kill an Invulnerable Tank very quickly, especially if its an enemy that deals non-Smashing/Lethal damage.
Its not the end of the world, though. There are effective strategies for tanking AVs. I always use the same method.
First of all, after level 40, your inspiration tray will be massive. Fill the entire thing with Lucks, perhaps leaving some room for a few Respites. Before you engage the AV, pop three purple pills. This will give you a whopping 75% defense, not counting your normal defenses or the player buffs/enemy debuffs provided by your teammates. The AV will have a pathetic 5% chance to make contact with you. You can now tank him/her.
Of course, this is a temporary solution. The inspirations dont last forever. Thats why I recommend that you bring a whole tray full of them. When you think youre about to run out of Lucks, pop three more. This should last for almost 10 minutes, unless youre sidekicked, in which case your tray wont be large enough. Youll have to do the best you can. If youre worried about running out of Lucks, ask your teammates for theirs. If youre taking the heat, they wont need them.
If the fight lasts longer than 10 minutes, youve got a problem. This is extremely rare, though, unless youre trying to beat an AV thats more than one level higher than you (Its still pretty rare). When all else fails, hit Unstoppable. Unless its a psionics AV, youll be able to take anything s/he dishes out for those three minutes.
If the lucks drop before you manage to pop your next three, its not a big deal. Tanks have enough hit points that they can survive a few hits from an AV. Use Dull Pain or your Respites.
This works for almost every AV encounter in the game.
Also, what are your other teammates doing? This strategy is made entirely irrelevant with some solid support. Defenders and controllers make AV fights much easier. If you have more than one, you should be able to take the AV alpha-strike and tank him just fine.
Appendix: My Build:
I will post the build that Ive used, tested, and enjoyed, but I strongly encourage originality in this respect. As Ive said before, there is no 100% correct way to build an INV/SS Tank. Veteran Tanks will probably notice some oddities with my build. Ill do my best to explain.
Name: Hegemon
Level: 50
Archetype: Tanker
Primary: Invulnerability
Secondary: Super Strength
Origin: Magic
---------------------------------------------
Power List for Character
---------------------------------------------
Level 1 --> Sprint
Level 1 --> Jab
Level 1 --> Brawl
Level 1 --> Gauntlet
Level 1 --> Resist Physical Damage
Level 2 --> Rest
Level 2 --> Temp Invulnerability
Level 4 --> Dull Pain
Level 6 --> Provoke
Level 8 --> Unyielding
Level 10 --> Haymaker
Level 12 --> Air Superiority
Level 14 --> Fly
Level 16 --> Swift
Level 18 --> Invincibility
Level 20 --> Health
Level 22 --> Stamina
Level 24 --> Knockout Blow
Level 26 --> Resist Elements
Level 28 --> Resist Energies
Level 30 --> Rage
Level 32 --> Unstoppable
Level 35 --> Intimidate
Level 38 --> Foot Stomp
Level 41 --> Conserve Power
Level 44 --> Laser Beam Eyes
Level 47 --> Energy Torrent
Level 49 --> Invoke Panic
---------------------------------------------
Powers List with Enhancements for Character
---------------------------------------------
Level 1 --> Sprint===>Run(1)
Level 1 --> Jab===>Acc(1)
Level 1 --> Brawl===>Acc(1)
Level 1 --> Gauntlet===>Empty(1)
Level 1 --> Resist Physical Damage===>DmgRes(1) DmgRes(3) DmgRes(17)
Level 2 --> Rest===>Empty(2)
Level 2 --> Temp Invulnerability===>DmgRes(2) DmgRes(3) DmgRes(7) EndRdx(21) EndRdx(46)
Level 4 --> Dull Pain===>Heal(4) Heal(5) Heal(5) Rechg(17) Rechg(34) Rechg(34)
Level 6 --> Provoke===>Acc(6) Taunt(7)
Level 8 --> Unyielding===>DmgRes(8) DmgRes(9) DmgRes(9) EndRdx(21) EndRdx(43)
Level 10 --> Haymaker===>Acc(10) Dmg(11) Dmg(11) Dmg(34) EndRdx(37) Rechg(42)
Level 12 --> Air Superiority===>Acc(12) Dmg(13) Dmg(13) Dmg(36) EndRdx(46) Rechg(46)
Level 14 --> Fly===>Fly(14) Fly(15) Fly(15)
Level 16 --> Swift===>Run(16)
Level 18 --> Invincibility===>DefBuf(18) DefBuf(19) DefBuf(19) EndRdx(33) TH_Buf(36) Taunt(37)
Level 20 --> Health===>Heal(20) Heal(43) Heal(43)
Level 22 --> Stamina===>EndRec(22) EndRec(23) EndRec(23)
Level 24 --> Knockout Blow===>Acc(24) Dmg(25) Dmg(25) Dmg(31) EndRdx(37) Rechg(40)
Level 26 --> Resist Elements===>DmgRes(26) DmgRes(27) DmgRes(27)
Level 28 --> Resist Energies===>DmgRes(28) DmgRes(29) DmgRes(29)
Level 30 --> Rage===>Rechg(30) Rechg(31) TH_Buf(31)
Level 32 --> Unstoppable===>DmgRes(32) Rechg(33) Rechg(33)
Level 35 --> Intimidate===>Acc(35) Fear(36)
Level 38 --> Foot Stomp===>Dmg(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)
Level 41 --> Conserve Power===>Rechg(41) Rechg(42) Rechg(42)
Level 44 --> Laser Beam Eyes===>Acc(44) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Dmg(45)
Level 47 --> Energy Torrent===>Acc(47) Dmg(48) Dmg(48) Dmg(48)
Level 49 --> Invoke Panic===>Acc(49) Fear(50) Fear(50) Fear(50)
* * * * * *
As you can see, I chose to take Provoke instead of Taunt. They have essentially the same function (though Taunt is the better of the two), but I chose to take Provoke in order to gain access to the fear powers in the presence pool for character concept reasons. Intimidate and Invoke Panic are also very nice to have for fighting Malta. Sappers are feared with one application.
I love this build and Im very proud of my character. There are a number of things that I could change without altering his efficiency, but I dont think Ill be respeccing him any time soon.
Normal fights go like this:
I open with Energy Torrent. All foes are knocked down, not knocked back. I use Invoke Panic. All the minions are now feared. I use Foot Stomp just for kicks. Most of them are floored again. Then, I use KO Blow to finish off a Lieutenant. Change targets, melee attack again, Provoke if necessary. Foot Stomp.
Its a lot of fun and very effective.
Thank you for reading and have fun tanking!
