Any Tank build guide?

renegadejg · August 2018

Looking to make an efficient tank while being able to level up through story quests. Ranged preferably. Any tank build guides around??

rtma · August 2018

Generally for any Tank oriented role follow this guideline.

Use Con as a Super Stat, Primary for more Tanking oriented specs/HP.
Use a Defensive Passive, preferably in Tank role.
Use a power with Challenge advantage, something that you'd cycle through often.
Ideally use Protector Specs, since they're intended as Tank specific Specs.
Rank up your Block, Rank 3 ideally.
Self Heal/Active Defense for self preservation when Support is stagnant/lacking.
Gear can come later if you're perusing that, like the Super Villain Onslaught gloves of Defender and Spark Shield device for example to help with Aggro, oh and Confront mods, it's not necessary unless you want to fight for Main tank in Cosmics, otherwise #2 & #3 is sufficient for the rest of the game.

There is your foundation, now build upon it.

warcanch · August 2018

renegadejg wrote: »

Looking to make an efficient tank while being able to level up through story quests. Ranged preferably. Any tank build guides around??

Make sure your FORM is based around one of your superstats.

Without knowing your intent once you reach 40, it's difficult to give more advice.

If you never plan on doing the Cosmics, you can build a more dps-centric tank and even run in Hybrid role and still be viable, fun, and useful.

It's when you want to step up to the "big boy pants" that you'll need to start taking it more seriously on the build.

bluhman · August 2018

rtma wrote: »

Generally for any Tank oriented role follow this guideline.

Use Con as a Super Stat, Primary for more Tanking oriented specs/HP.

Use a Defensive Passive, preferably in Tank role.

Use a power with Challenge advantage, something that you'd cycle through often.

Ideally use Protector Specs, since they're intended as Tank specific Specs.

Rank up your Block, Rank 3 ideally.

Self Heal/Active Defense for self preservation when Support is stagnant/lacking.

Gear can come later if you're perusing that, like the Super Villain Onslaught gloves of Defender and Spark Shield device for example to help with Aggro, oh and Confront mods, it's not necessary unless you want to fight for Main tank in Cosmics, otherwise #2 & #3 is sufficient for the rest of the game.

There is your foundation, now build upon it.

There's some extra nuances to this to keep in mind

CON as a superstat will basically gimp your damage output, flat out. It has excellent survivability, yes, and gives vital knock resistance to ranged tanks (and isn't a bad deal altogether for DEX-based tanks either), but considering all the benefits you get from the Protector tree (especially its mastery) you can absolutely get by without the benefits CON offers as a primary stat. Now, as a secondary stat yes, absolutely take CON. My #1 recommendation of a Tank primary stat is STR, largely because most enemies will be fighting you up-close anyways, it offers excellent knock resistance so that you can use your attacks more consistently without blocking, and it comes with the superb Juggernaut spec which increases your defense stat via your CON stat.
This is a given. In cases where you don't need to hard-tank mobs or enemies (usually in timed alerts) using Hybrid is preferable to do slightly more damage. In cases where it's very unlikely you'll even get aggro, you might even be better off running in a DPS role without a passive if the team needs even more damage output.
Defiance is the optimal defense passive for cosmics. Invuln works extremely well for alerts, during the nightmare event, and in any places where you'll be fighting tons of enemies at once (works fine for cosmics as well). Regen is also workable. Lightning Reflexes is very tough to build for optimally and requires a much different gear and spec loadout, but potentially has some of the most crazy survivability of all the choices. Finally, Personal Force Field is worthless.
Ideally you'll want to spend 2 APs on Challenge, usually on the one Single-Target attack that'll put out your highest DPS, and one AoE that either is integral to your attack cycle, or one with big coverage. Spending three is acceptable as well. So for example, Inspector Steel's current build has challenge on Haymaker, Chest Beam, and Particle Wave.
If you are rolling a CON primary, it might be worth exploring some offense trees to offset your lower damage, though I don't highly recommend this for full-on tank builds. Protector mastery is extremely good, and becomes even better if you have multiple AD abilities.
Another great given. Energy Shield's the optimal choice in most cases, with Telekinetic Shield also being a high-priority choice. Blocks with special advantages such as Ebon Void or Parry can work, but you need to plan around their gimmicks. In the case of the melee-defense-boosts, remember that that's costing you damage output, which by nature, is going to slightly reduce the aggro you draw. Though that's totally not a problem if you're in a position in a cosmic for just soaking damage, but usually you'll want to just be reliable in that role and keep your block up at all times.
Self Heal/AD always. If you have a spare power slot or two, you can get an extra AD, which will make you really hard to kill. Masterful Dodge and/or Resurgence are usually the best choices for tanks; the former offers pure defenses to layer on top of your existing ones, while the latter restores a percentage of health... Which helps a ton when you have a lot of health! The rest range from niche usage (unbreakable, better for healers and during certain events) to outright useless (field surge, which is basically a really bad version of unbreakable.) Last Stand is a special case where it's a great option for DPS, but bad for tanks, as you'll likely want to consistently stay alive to maintain your aggro on enemies instead of dropping it when you die.
yes. Gloves of the Defender are simultaneously excellent for tanks and are pretty easy to get with consistent SVO farming.

Any Tank build guide?

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