Aquaria, Water Tank (Force/Ice Tank)

raighn

Time to try my hand at my 2nd ranged (or simi-ranged) tank... This time going with a water themed build using Force & Ice...

PowerHouse http://powerhouse.nullware.com/

Link to this build: http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=11&n=&d=1530diN00000000300033053704390JI900J5035B073F01P80G000000005F03000000000ckr3V7609gO

Name:

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Ego (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15:

Talents:
Level 1: The Mountain
Level 6: Field Ops Training
Level 9: Ascetic
Level 12:
Level 15:
Level 18:
Level 21:

Powers:
Level 1: Force Bolts
Level 1: Force Eruption (Rank 2, Gravitational Polarity)
Level 6: Force Shield (Force Sheathe)
Level 8: Crushing Wave (Rank 2, Rank 3, Challenging Strikes)
Level 11: Defiance
Level 14: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Ice Barrier (Rank 2, Rank 3, Frigid Freedom)
Level 20: Inertial Dampening Field (Rank 2)
Level 23: Pounce (Crippling Challenge)
Level 26:
Level 29:
Level 32: Fractal Aegis (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35:
Level 38:

Travel Powers:
Level 6:
Level 35:

Specializations:
Ego: Force of Will (2/2)
Ego: Insight (3/3)
Ego: Follow Through (3/3)
Ego: Sixth Sense (2/3)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Retribution (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Mastery: Ego Mastery (1/1)

I know I need an EU and an AD... not sure if I want to use MD or Unbreakable... Don't know what my 3rd stat should be... probably going to be INT for MSA or END for Wind Reverb... I'm probably going to be using Crushing Wave as my primary attack so Wind Reverb should proc consistantly... and that still leaves me with 2 empty power slots and no idea what to fill them with...

raighn

Hm... I have to ask now... how viable would END PSS be for tanking?

Specializations:
Endurance: Readiness (3/3)
Endurance: Gear Utilization (2/3)
Endurance: Power Overwhelming (3/3)
Endurance: Hardened (2/2)
Guardian: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Guardian: Ruthless (2/2)
Guardian: Retribution (2/2)
Guardian: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: The Rush of Battle (3/3)
Vindicator: Modified Gear (2/2)
Mastery: Endurance Mastery (1/1)

I know it probably won't push Defense as high as EGO or STR PSS since Power Overwhelming boosts Offense... but it would still trigger the Offense/Defense loop of Guardicator & unlike EGO PSS it would give me a higher max HP over just Con & give me some equilibrium with Readiness...

flowcyto

I'd prob use Con PSS over End PSS for tanking- mostly for the easy extra knock resist, but also for Adren Rush. Otherwise, Ego PSS is good if ya can work through knocks.

The build will prob have issues holding aggro in groups w/ high dps atm. Then again the only spam-able attack w/ a repel and CripC avail is Gust atm, so the theme could be too limiting to performance here. Ya could still do fine threat- & dps-wise using Hard Frost taps w/ CrpC, but only if ya can justify Ice Blast, and then ur main ST attack doesn't innately work w/ any EUs (suppose that may not be an issue w/ Defiance and the right gear).

raighn

Honestly, it'll be far easier to justify Ice Blast than it would to justify Gust... besides I did say I'm building from Force & Ice afterall... I'll go ahead and toss Ice Blast into the build... and this is one of the few builds that I can actually justify Frost Breath (though I'd still prefer if it wasn't a breath >.<)... the character is a liquid construct, so anything to do with water is justifiable with her...

The reason for asking about End PSS was mostly out of curiosity... just curious as to how viable it could be for a tank... if it's not viable then I'll certainly stick to EGO or CON PSS... and of course End Mastery would help with any remaining energy issues at 40... granted Con PSS w/Fuel my Fire would do the same exact thing...

I'm sure I've asked this before... but... does the energy return from Defiance still scale only with Rec or was it changed to scale with all SSs? The tooltip only tells me that the defense bonus scales with Con (which I'm certain isn't true anymore) but it tells me nothing about what the energy return scales with​​

flowcyto

Oh End PSS is still viable, but for a ranged tank I'd prob pick a diff PSS over it.

Defiance's energy scales w/ Con, unless they changed that recently.

raighn

Ok... so for this build which of the following stat combinations would you recommend the most?

EGO/Con/End
CON/Ego/End
CON/Dex/End​​

flowcyto

If ya dun care about enemy knocks as much, I'd take EGO/Con/End (and/or get CoPD to deal w/ things like Gravi).
For more knock resist- CON/Ego/End if using Conc. CON/Dex/End if using FotT.

There's more health and knock resist w/ the Con PSS options, but less dps and threat; most other things counter-balance each other (Insight vs. FMF energy, Adren Rush heals vs. FT & 6th Sense increasing crit-enabed heals, Force of Will and Ego Mastery vs. Armored_Deflection and Con Mastery). So it'll mostly just depend what's more important to you

raighn

Conc/FotT don't factor in the build. I'm using IDF with her... I think I'm gonna go with CON/Dex/End... The lower dps can be countered with high crit rates... Won't have as high severity but that's ok... And Con just seems to provide better survival to me...

With the upcoming changes to the ice powerset I might be changing a few things with this build soon... People possibly changing to a more ice focused build...

flowcyto

Assuming ya want to keep IDF and Con PSS, then yea I'd prob take Con/End/Dex. Ego instead of Dex can work, but then again its pretty easy to get Ego to ~70 for the ranged dmg soft-cap that way.