Healing Tank?

bluhman

For my next character I really want to make a character who works in one of two ways:

A: Wades into battle and uses self-heals and other techniques to protect allies, all while drawing considerable aggro.
OR
B: Places Crippling Challenge/Challenging Strikes on enemies, then holds aggro by performing powerful heals.

So, playing around at the powerhouse site, I managed to scrape together two builds that represent these two semi-dichotomous ideas. The first is a melee dodge-tank which happens to use "Gifts of the Storm" to provide 20% of the healing he receives to targets around him. (Ignore the power order: This build is not intended for levelling in the slightest.)


PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Swordseer

Archetype: Freeform

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

Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Shooter
Level 9: Finesse
Level 12: Showmanship
Level 15: Acrobat
Level 18: Ascetic
Level 21: Shrug It Off

Powers:
Level 1: Ego Blade
Level 1: Ego Weaponry (Rank 2, Siphoning Strikes)
Level 6: Ego Blade Frenzy (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Form of the Tempest (Gifts of the Storm)
Level 11: Lightning Reflexes (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 14: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Rank 2, Resurgent Reiki)
Level 17: Masterful Dodge
Level 20: Ego Blade Dash (Crippling Challenge)
Level 23: Ego Blade Annihilation (Mental Acuity)
Level 26: Ebon Void (Voracious Darkness)
Level 29: Conviction (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Telekinetic Eruption (Rank 2, Challenging Strikes)
Level 35: Ego Reverberation
Level 38: Ego Surge

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Lightspeed (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Rainbow Flight (Rank 2)

Specializations:
Dexterity: Combat Training (2/3)
Dexterity: Gear Utilization (3/3)
Dexterity: Evasion (2/2)
Dexterity: Quick Reflexes (3/3)
Protector: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Protector: Bulwark (2/2)
Protector: Debilitating Challenge (2/2)
Protector: Defensive Expertise (3/3)
Warden: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Warden: Slaughter (2/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Mastery: Warden Mastery (1/1)

The idea is to basically get lots of crits at every given moment using Ego Weaponry, and use the self-heals from its Siphoning Strikes as means to fuel heals to allies within 20 feet of me. Meanwhile, my BCR offers some very light passive healing, and Conviction can be used for a stronger burst every once in a while. Everything in this build is supposed to fuel how strong the main combo is, because the more powerful it hits, the more powerful its critical heal is going to be.

I can't even begin to think up something that would fit the bill for a "Type-B" deal. If anyone's got suggestions for powers for that, I'd really like to hear them. Another mystery I'm wondering is if "Gifts of the Storm" and "Selfless ally" from the presence tree can be used to make some sort of wonky "feedback loop" of healing.

monsterdaddy

Gifts of the Storm will not proc often enough to either heal or draw aggro.

Regeneration as a slotted passive will work better as a self heal and to keep aggro.

Sentinel Mastery will work to heal you and your allies but won't do much for aggro (maybe 500 hps for yourself). With Defiance, it could make you very hard to kill.

BTW as a tank, going Ego is going to get you knocked around alot so I may suggest adding in Circle of Ebon Protection somewhere.

stmoth

I WOULD say that you could check Guinevere the Holy Guardian, she's a Seraphim/Ego Blades tank/healer, but so much for character pages.

empyreal11

Assuming Gifts of the Storm works properly now, you're giving 20% of a heal every 8 seconds to nearby teammates.

Since you're layering so many small heals, the chance of that 20% being a BCR tick or something otherwise insubstantial is rather high.

My initial impression would be to spam as much AE-healing on your teammates as possible, like either of the Sorcery heals. I'm not sure if "overhealing" counts towards aggro or not, though.