darminiam

Yeah, if you are worried about stamina, then I would suggest not taking Smite. On my tank I had Shadow Maul instead of Smite and I had no end issues (I had Dark Consumption and Stamina) but when I switched to Smite, all of a sudden I had to worry about it.

I'm not saying that it was a problem, but I had to manage my attacks better because the stamina bar would go down so much faster.

As others have said, if you are looking for mainly single target, then smite is better, but if you're looking for a little of everything, then grab Shadow Maul.

@Nihilii: Man really? I was hoping that with having the proc on Shadow Maul, it would make all my other attacks (SL, MG, etc) become stronger for that duration. That makes me rethink my new slotting ideas.

Edit: Ok, I just read Werner's post. I was thinking of using the proc on Shadow Maul mainly for the AV soloing thing. The only other way that I can get a -res, would be to take Laser Beam Eyes and putting an Achilles' Heel there. But maybe just putting a damage proc in SM and calling it a day should be what I do. What do you guys think?

Yeah, I would think that too.

But I wonder, if you have that IO in there, would it increase your solo DPS if you place that in Shadow Maul?

How about your overall DPS? If so by how much?

Nice! Thanks for posting these up. I've been waiting to check them out to see what you can do. My current build doesn't have Shadow Maul, but I've been looking for a good reason to bring it back.

I've also just had a crazy notion to put a Fury of the Gladiator -res proc into Shadow Maul, so that it serves another purpose than just damage and the - to hit.

Time to start downloading the videos.

Just remember that Mace also sucks up a lot of endurance, so you will have to be strategic with the abilities you are going to be using.

Also with Dark, there may be a couple of mace powers you don't need. Whirling Mace is a good example. It's one of the lower AoE attack powers that tankers have. I took it on my character to help maintain aggro. With all the auras that Dark has, you may not need it.

I tend to look at guides for two things.

1. Has that power combination been done? Did the writer of the guide enjoy it? Would it be a play style I would like?

2. Ok, I have my 50 and IO'd him out. What have other people done. Hmm, that's something I didn't think about before. Why did that work for him.

I tend to stick to a few characters. So I try to maximize the characters I have since I'm more of a concept, build a story around the guy and use him a lot.

Yeah, same here. Really interested in this. I tried moving around, but I'm not sure if I'm doing this right or not since I can't hit more than three mobs.

Maybe I'm not trying hard enough.

I totally agree with Golden_Ace and many others in this thread.

The fact that we can sit in the middle of a huge group of mobs and be the focus of their attention. The confusion on their faces as you don't fall down as you constantly insult them, or they are mesmerized by your costume, or plain mad at you because you are burning them (or freezing, or knocking them down, etc.)...

Being surrounded by legions as your teammates rise and fall and rise again... Unless you are blessed by another tanker standing next to you as the two of you laugh at evil's futility...

It's like in the comic book where the hero(es) is/are surrounded by thugs/soldiers/werecreatures, and the heroes keep on fighting. Fighting while spouting out witty banter, or talking about their current relationships.

Oh, sorry. Went off on a tangent. Yeah. I like being a tanker.

While most of the complaints come from the added animation time of Energy Transfer, I think there would be a lot less complaints if they boosted the damage of Whirling Hands.

Remember, the only thing that Energy Melee has is almost all Single Target damage. If you lose some of that, then what is the point of having it?

Dark melee seems single target, but it does have some Cones and AoEs that even though they are on a long recharge, they half of its attacks have utility.

And when you look at SS with only one AoE, its a pretty strong AoE which gets a boost with Rage.

So if they don't fix Energy Transfer, they do need to do something with Whirling hands. There could be other suggestions to improve ET, but for someone who used EM for my main for 3 years, I had to retire my FA/EM character.

There are other things you could slot into it, if you have the funds.

Kismet: +6% to-hit
LOTG: +7.5 Recharge
Gift of the Ancients: +7.5 Run Speed

Other than that, I would put a regular Defense IO into it in case you ever do Tank and a scrapper comes by, its just bonus defense.

You could put in more slots to get a set bonus, but I think you'll find other powers that you can put your slots into.

Well the way that defense debuff resistance seems to work (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) is that some defensive powers grant defensive debuff resistance that is enhanceable by adding more defense. This is noticeable by looking at Battle Agility. The more defense you add, the DDR percentage increases.

Well Active Defense adds DDR to your protection. But the devs made so that you can't add defense in the normal ways to enhance that benefit. You can't add IO sets or anything else to it except recharge or end reduction. Well it seems that Hamidon IOs have always been a special case.

You can slots Hamidons into any power that has a least one of enhancements in the powe. And as you have pointed out, Membranes have two abilities that can be enhance. Also for the record, you can also slot in the hammys that add Def and End. Mid's currently doesn't show this, but it does work.

Also, I do have a lot of recharge in my build. I have AD up a second or two under 60 seconds. Set it on auto and I usually don't have to worry about DDR. If you are going for a high recharge build then this what I go for. I will post my build when I get home tonight. But its a pretty expensive build.

I currently have defense debuff resistance capped without Grant Cover. I have enough recharge on Active Debuff to double stack it. Here are my numbers from in-game:

Battle Agility: +26.67%
Active Defense: +34.6%
Double stacked AD: +69.2%

This puts me at 95% (the cap for defense debuff resistance)

To increase your buff on Active Defense, slot it with Membranes Exposure. I have 3 membranes in active defense to get those numbers. I use Membranes because they increase defense (for the higher numbers) and they also increase recharge.

I don't know if they would allow you to change Granite as powers. But who knows. I was just thinking it would be powers with colors like Energy, Radiation, Lighting, etc. But I could be totally wrong.

I would just like the ability to have my primary match my secondary or uniform. You know, like an Energy/energy blaster with its primary and secondary matching.

Or my dark tank being changed to a different color (like orange) so it looks like my hands are on fire. I always wanted fire melee to be more like hand to hand combat.

Anyway, I will await eagerly for the patch.

How is Burn with Footstomp? Does the kd actually help and allows you to use Burn as a combo?

If you were a scrapper, you could get away with not hitting the cap if you don't plan on soloing everything or taking on AVs, but as a tanker, your most important thing is your defenses.

As Garth said, most of the debuffs are from range. Anything that does Dark damage, Lethal damage or radiation for example decreases your defense. Rularuu, Malta, Carnivals, Council, etc. all have the potential to do that. Then you have ITF.

So if you can, do everything you can to at least hit the softcap. I try to recommend anyone who creates a Shield Tanker to try and get higher than that since our Defense Debuff protection is not at 95% (and if it is, it may not be 100% of the time).

Just some recommendations for ya. Even if you are not the Alpha tank, people just expect you to survive things.

Just wanted to post a quick response to the above.

I have Hover and Combat jumping on my tank. 4 slots on each. 3 for the Zephyr set and 1 for the LOTG recharge on both. This adds a good amount of defense on my tank.

For reference, I have added my current build below (though I'm currently trying to tweak it to see if I can get some improvements on it).

I never touch the ground with this character and my AoE attacks like Crowd Control and Shatter work fine. There are times in the ITF when things get crowded and I get pushed up in the air a bit. But a quick Shield Charge or a bit of manuevering can get you back on ground level.

(Note: if you are flying, not hovering, and you use Shield Charge, you're flying speed is not supressed, only your attacks are. So you can do flyby attacks.)

Also, I currently do not have Tough/Weave on my build and I'm plenty hard to kill. I do have Medicine, but I haven't had to use it often. Only in ITF do I have to worry sometimes, but for most of the time, I'm maxxed out on my defense debuff resistance.

Ok here's my build: (and if anyone has any sugggestions, let me know, thinking of adding tough at least, maybe weave...)

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Defiant Prime 002: Level 50 Technology Tanker
Primary Power Set: Shield Defense
Secondary Power Set: War Mace
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Deflection -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(3), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(3), ResDam-I(5)
Level 1: Bash -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(5), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(7), T'Death-Dam%(7), Zinger-Dam%(9), Hectmb-Dam%(9)
Level 2: Battle Agility -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(11), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(11), Ksmt-ToHit+(13)
Level 4: True Grit -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Numna-Heal(13), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(15), Numna-Heal/Rchg(15), Numna-EndRdx/Rchg(45), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 6: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 8: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Zephyr-ResKB(17), Zephyr-Travel(17), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(19)
Level 10: Active Defense -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(19), HO:Membr(21)
Level 12: Phalanx Fighting -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 14: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Heal(36), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(46), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(46), H'zdH-EndRdx(48), Numna-Heal(50)
Level 16: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(21), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(23), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(23), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(25), GSFC-Build%(25)
Level 18: Against All Odds -- Taunt-I(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(27), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(27), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(29)
Level 22: Clobber -- Hectmb-Dmg(A), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(29), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(31), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Zinger-Dam%(46)
Level 24: Fly -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(33), Zephyr-ResKB(33)
Level 26: Shield Charge -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Oblit-%Dam(43)
Level 28: Aid Other -- Mrcl-Heal(A)
Level 30: Aid Self -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(36), Numna-Heal/Rchg(36)
Level 32: Whirling Mace -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(37), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(37), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Oblit-%Dam(39)
Level 35: Shatter -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(39), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(40), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Oblit-%Dam(42)
Level 38: Crowd Control -- Armgdn-Dam%(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(42), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(43), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(43)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 44: One with the Shield -- EndMod-I(A), ResDam-I(45)
Level 47: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Zephyr-Travel(48), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(48), Zephyr-ResKB(50)
Level 49: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt/Rng(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet

Woah, see that is what I like about these forums. Learned something new everyday.

So Weave also protects against untyped (not positional) psi damage? I didn't know that. I wonder if I can make a build with enough psi protection now...

Maybe I should be happy then. Over the last week, I was able to get 5 PVP IOs. But on the same token, I have never gotten a purple drop and I've done my share of farming.

I've struggled with this thought myself. To be a good Alpha tank, you definitely need the fighting pool. Properly slotted, for 2 glorious minutes you will not only have your incredible soft capped defenses (you do softcap your build right?), but you could/should have capped s & l resistances (90%).

But to get to that point, you would need 3 slots for fighting, I assume you will have 2 slots for a travel power, and then, to alleviate your endurance problems (not totally necessary), you would need 3 slots for Fitness.

This means you have used 8 pool powers to get to this point. Everything else is optional. Do you grab another pool and get Medicine? Or do you go for Hasten for faster attacks. Or how about dabbling in your Epics for Conserve Power or any other goodies? Or do you need more from your primary or secondary?

On my current build, I didn't get the Fighting pool. Instead I got the Medicine pool. This is what I use for everyday soloing or small team (and depending on the team) large team tanking.

But I'm now in the process of creating my second build for Alpha tanking. This means Fighting, Fitness, travel power, or anything that will help me protect the team better. I wouldn't need Medicine for Alpha Tanking because this assumes that you will be in a team with someone that can help protect you with Buffs, Debuffs, Heals, Holds, etc.

So that was a lot of babbling to say this. If you are creating a Alpha tank, Medicine is not necessary because this typically means you are a team tank. The team needs to help you just like you are helping them.

If you are typically on a small team or soloing, you may not need the fighting pool, so medicine may be a better fit.

I have to agree. Crowd Control, along with Shatter and Clobber (and to a lesser extent Whirling Mace) does make me feel powerful. With that and Shield Charge, I feel like an AoE monster. I loved that the community got involved and convinced the Devs to fix War Mace. Great job guys.

Hey Garth,

I haven't posted in a long time, but I just wanted to put up some comments on this great guide. I used your guide to create my Ice/Fire tank and now that I've been using a SD/Mace for a while, here are my comments:

--Quote:
In the late game, it has been reported that slotting Active Defense with Membranes (Def/Rch Hami-O) enhances the defense resistance of the power. It also stacks with itself, which means it gives solid debuff resistance with three Membranes slotted.
--End Quote.

Yes, this is very true. I currently have Active Defense 3 slotted with Membranes and with AD double stacked and with about 54% defense in Battle Agility (defense IOs also effect the defense debuff resistance on this power) I reach the 95% cap on Debuff resistance. I've check this in the Combat Attribute window for myself. I don't have Grant Cover on this tank, but I'm thinking of getting it since my brother just got his Fire/SD scrapper to 50.

Also, please note that when you exemp down, your max defense debuff resistance goes down too.

--Quote:
Tier 5: Build Up (+Dmg, +To-Hit)

The to-hit is a nice boost, but since an Alpha Tank role is more about Aggro management and survivability and less about damage, this power gets a “skip” from me.
--End Quote

This is very true. I didn't get this for my Ice/Fire tanker, but I would suggest getting it for a Shield tanker for two reasons.

1. He is a damage tank. You have a lot of things in your primary that helps with damage With saturated AAO, Buildup and a damage insp (may not need it) you hit the damage cap on a fully slotted Shield Charge. It's amazing.
2. The real reason to get it, is so you can slot a full set of Gaussians in it so that you can get the 2.5 bonus to Melee, Range, and AoEs.

I know you mentioned you don't like IO sets too much, but just wanted to throw that in there.

Great guide by the way. It was an enjoyable read and thanks for putting this up!

Thanks for remaking this to fit into I6. You can tell that you put in a lot of work into remaking this guide. It's frank, well organized and a breeze to search through. Your original guides are what got me to make my Dominator and made me feel confident that I made the right choice.

I was going to ask if you plan to make a Dominator one, but a lot of these things already apply to Dominators minus the containment. Thanks again.

I have a question. Does SoD 3.0 still have the annoying bug where if you are moving while flying and you immediately hit a power button, you drop from the sky?

This was the problem that I had with this bind originally and it got to the point that whenever I moved and fire (in normal combat) I would drop from the sky two or three times. It's annoying because not only do you take fall damage, but you also fall into the midst of your enemies and into melee.

Thanks.

Oh and by the way, for those that have been to the Monkey Island, it does look like a zoo there. Or at least a barn/farm full of monkeys.

Maybe that is why it is called the Zookeeper Badge.