Tank help...

[AlphaFerret]

I recently returned to CO and am trying to make a toon similar to the ss/inv of CoH fame.  I took STR and CON as my superstats.  I get beat up real ez and live on chewing greens.  I have defiance in my defensive slot.  Is there a "must have" power I need in order to stand up to a beating? 

[Kaos Arcanna]

There is an invulnerability passive which is pretty darn good. If you're freeform you might want to consider changing to that one. If you aren't, I'm not sure which ATs have access to it.

[Brou]

Defiance builds up gradually to its potential resistance from 1-6 stacks, and it relies on CON.

Check your tooltip to see how much resistance each stack will give you. 15% is usually the average amount. If you are below this, try adding more CON.

[AlphaFerret]

Thanks for the info guys:)
I am freeform, so I will check both suggestions.

[Xev]

You could look at IDF.

Combined with Defiance and a high Con it gives you super-invul and you can also buff your team with it.

IDF will help you (and your team) shrug off waves of small attacks which virtually always precede the fights where you really need your Defiance stacks - allowing you to quickly build Defiance stacks to take you from ~ 15% damage resist to ~ 90%. You want to have probably at least 250 Con. 400ish wouldn't hurt either.

If you take IDF you can't have a damage buff like Enrage or Form of the Tempest up at the same time. Everyone wants to do more damage, and damage is agro, which is always one of my main considerations. Having said that.. I think IDF may generate agro too due to you are usually buffing at least someone from the team with it but I don't know. In my experience if someone can steal my Defiance/IDF tank agro, they can deal with it.

If you take Invul there is no point in taking IDF.


If you want to stick with Defiance but don't want to take IDF...

Block. When you first rush into an Alert, room, whatever situation that might get you faceplanted before you get your Defiance stacks up, run in and grab as much agro as you can and then .. Block until your Defiance stacks quickly build to max.

If you can click a device or two before rushing a room or boss to help buy you time to build your stacks this can help too.

You could fire off a HoT and an Active Defense like Unbreakable and Masterful Dodge before rushing a room... My tank has Defiance + IDF and I still do this all the time.

Or any combination of all of the above. Whatever buys you the seconds it takes to build those stacks.


Defiance alone with max stacks and a high con will still give higher overall damage resistance than Invul, but, Invul's damage absorption can shrug off the smaller guys easier unless you take IDF due to you take little or no damage at all from the smaller attacks with IDF's damage absorbtion. Plus, IDF generally makes it pretty simple to get your Defiance stacks maxed. IDF must be a great buff to share with squishies in your team in some situations too but I never heard anyone comment.

[Xev]

The variety of Protection and Healing bubbles, healing drones, life drains
http://web.archive.org/web/20130207143620/http://champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Healing

Along with that defense you're going to want heals. What I usually look for is something big and/or is fire and forget so I can get back to getting agro.

Masterful Dodge + Bountiful Chi w/RR advantage is good.

Devour Essence + Supernatural Power + Crippling Challenge = unlimited energy lifetap w/agro.

Resurgence is a big fast heal..

Some ppl like Conviction due to it sets off MSA..

I stay away from all maintains/toggles and watch for long recharges.

[AlphaFerret]

Great stuff Xev.  For whatever reason, my current tank character seems a lot more fragile than the MA scrapper toon I played previously.  Not sure if it is because my damage was so much better, or if I just have an awkward build going.  I plan on doing a repec on the tank just to get out of millennium flight...but gonna wait until I try a few more powers.

[Xev]

I'm glad you liked.

Things get way better don't sweat it.

Your survivability as a CO tank can be pretty comparable to a CoH tank I would say. I don't worry about surviving most of the content in CO anymore. And the rest of it I don't worry about that much. I just try to keep fails to a minimum and look good. Ha.

I would say concentrate on your theme and learn the mechanics. It'll all fall into place like it did in CoH. And then it'll be all about what build you want to try next. Do I want to be fast.. knock things around.. make them bleed.. be as tanky as possible.. whatever you're in the mood for.

It pays to spend time playing around with your gear too. Seeing what changes in gear do to your build. A lot of times the gear in the AE has been picked over and you won't even see some pieces to know they're available so it pays to check regularly until you have a set of gear you're happy with.

Spec tree choices and how they work with your SS's and powers and playstyle can be game changing too.

If you used to like living on the edge playing a scrapper then go with an offense passive like Way of the Warrior or Unstoppable but be prepared to die many many times in the beginning. Like when you learned your scrapper. Ha  : )

If you're used to playing resistance based tanks and like making that type of build you can't go wrong with Defiance. Invul will beat Defiance + IDF if you have low con and high SS's.

[AlphaFerret]

I just added focused chi, and that HoT has made a huge difference.  I want to be tank tuff by the mid 20s, so I think IDF will be one of my next powers.

[Xev]

Ohhhh I didn't get that your guy is still low level. ~ the time you can buy/obtain slotted gear that you can mod out things get way better.

Tanks can be late bloomers too. In the beginning your agro isn't so great, your survival isn't near what it will be, and dps isn't up there that much either. As with many late blooming toons tanks get way better as you get levels and gear as well as choosing powers that fit what you're wanting to do.