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Jorden_Yen

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Best tank for holding aggro

I'm thinking of making a companion tank on my second account to help out with my main characters. Decent damage potential would be good, but holding aggro without a lot of personal attention would be most important.

For example, I might herd up a room and then jump to the other machine where I can cut down the mobs with my fire blaster. The tank would need to survive and possibly even do decent damage at the same time.

I can fire off between 4 and 5 attacks by using binds while fighting from the other machine so I'd be able to do AoE attacks and fire taunt fairly easily during the battle.

Any thoughts?

01/08/08 21:18

Solarix

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

im not big on tankers for the most part, but i have heard and seen that ice tankers are extremely good at herding, and when paired with ice patch from ice melee, they are great at keeping squishies safe. as for after level 32, you could go granite and just take recall friend on your blaster to keep the tank from lagging behind.

PS - don't take my word as anything other than second-party observation, having never really played either of the mentioned sets.

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01/08/08 21:36

Randy7

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

I have an inv/ss tank that does a wonderful job of holding aggro. Invincibility has an auto aggro property that provides more protection with more bad guys around. The only drawback is he gets his first real AoE power, foot stomp at lvl 38 (though hand clap is an option with good enhancements). Big drawback I'm finding as Stan XX hits his 40s is psi damage cuts through him like air.

In summary though he has never had any trouble keeping aggro.

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01/08/08 22:03

RonJ73

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

With Taunt, plus the Auras (Icicles and Chilling Embrace), Ice Armor is probably the best at grabbing and keeping aggro if properly slotted. Someone who's better with numbers will probably know better, but I *think* Chilling Embrace has the quickest "tick" time for aggro grabbing too.

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01/09/08 01:41

BigChill

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

Ice Armor is the best, and yeah, someone proved CE has the highest tick rate. The only current debatible option 'may' be Willpower, but I believe it falls similar to Invulnerability.

IIRC the rating list should go:

Ice Armor
Invulnerability
*Willpower inserted here*
Fire Armor
Stone Armor

The only reason stone and fire are lower is the survivability and speed. Stone's slower speed without SS and teleport makes ti too clumsy to keep up. Fire's survivabuluty and agro hold is hurt but the slow tick on its AoE and its inability to deal with damage well.

Ice Armor is the best by far, and combined with Ice Mele there is no other comparison when teamed with blasters and scrappers, with trollers it is moot point cause immmobolize negates the advantage of Ice Patch. Add CE+Icicles+Taunt+Icepatch and that's all that is needed.

Invul suffers from a slower tick, but its manuverability and remaining options leaves it high up there.

Willpower may be lower because of the lack of 'oh crap' buttons that can sufficently do the job in bad spots, it requires good backup, at least a defender, empath or healer of some kind, or a couple ppl with aid other and a ton of inspirations.

Fire as stated has a slow tick, but it causes alot of damage, and gets alot of attention. A good combination for aggro containment without an AoE immobilize would be Fire Armor and Ice Mele for Icepatch, add taunt (maybe the taunt pool too if your desperate) and it does the job, abit behind the others, but well. The other downside in comparison to Invul, Willpower and Ice is their main PbAoE aggro holds have no acc check, Fire and Stone's do.

That also explains why Stone is down last. Its lack of mobility and reduced recharge from armors kills any option fo quickly adjusting to the situation, it just lags a bit too much.

Now so long as others doens't argue my comments to death here too, I hope this helps.

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01/09/08 04:10

Jorden_Yen

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

I'm considering making him a farmer or PvP-able as well. For high mez resist, is Willpower the best option?

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01/09/08 05:39

RonJ73

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

I think Rise to the Challenge is a 1 second tick. (CE is 1/2 sec, as I understand it) I notice about a 1 second delay before the "stars" appear around my foes.

However, even if CE were 2 seconds, I would still say it was the best because of the multiple taunt auras.

If you intend on making a farmer, I wouldn't go Ice Armor. I would go Fire/Fire. You need to have the "kill em quick and move on" mentality, which Ice/Ice can't do.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

01/09/08 05:55

Jorden_Yen

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

QUOTE

I've been reading the deions and fire as a primary seems good because of 3 Aoes instead of just one, but what about stone as a secondary. Stone seems very tough and mudpots will keep aggro and prevent them from running away at the same time. It also has a self heal and high resistance to mez with rooted.

01/09/08 05:59

RonJ73

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

You're mixing up Primaries and Secondaries.

The Fire SECONDARY has 3 AoEs. Combustion, Breath of Fire and Fire Sword Circle.

The Secondaries are the Melee Damage sets. The Primaries are the Armor sets.

01/09/08 08:23

robot mind

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

stone armor is fine for holding aggro.
but theres a few things that have to be taken in order do be the best agrro tank you can be with SA.
(this is based on a gratine armor tank)
1: haten- granite armor slows down your recharge alot hasten is a must.
2: teleport gotta have tele port becuase when GA is on you move slower the a sloth.
3: swift to go from SLOWWW to ok.
4: (you dont have to get Super Strength but it helps the damage output with rage)

if you have thos you should be a wonderful aggro holder for anything.

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01/09/08 08:41

Lightfoot27

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

The one I've been tinkering with is an Ice armor/ Energy melee tank. Ice armor is the best at holding aggro, as chilling embrace (like mudpots) slows foes ability to run out of its effects. Also, as was previously stated, it is the fastest tick rate. Most enemies tend not to even try to run. As for EM, this is the best secondary for PvP due to the high stun effect of almost all of the attacks, but it is endurance heavy. No prob with Ice armor, you have a recovery emergency button in absorbtion. Ice is based on defense, and therefore you'll take less static effect as hits will land less frequently, downside, psi defense is lacking. If you are going pure aggro holder (but never want to kill ANYthing in PvP) go ice/ice, you can't beat it for controlling mobs as a tank.

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01/09/08 09:35

BigChill

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

Hmm... for farming there are THREE definite ways you will want to go, depending on what the tank actually is, ie a dummy accnt or an actual person.

#1 is the obvious go with damage, hence a Fire Armor/Fire Mele, requires someine to click the powers cause the damage only spikes with the activated powers and a fire-related build up on Fire Armor. Can work as a dummy, but not as well.

#2 is the other dummy option just to get and hold aggro, Ice Armor/Anything does well at that, and with most farms youe are not facing any opponents that shoud trouble you, even if, Ice Armors Horafrost and Energy Absorption (another click aggro magnet) will keep the tank alive plenty long enough to do its job.

#3 is mine, I doublt ppl are aware of it, and even fewer will try it, but when it happens it does wonders. Ice Armor/Ice Mele, and Frozen Aura, NO Icicles, or at least not activated. You know Frozen Aura is a PbAoE Sleep right? 6-slotted for acc/rech will be plenty. You farm with someone with containment, and most (at least 2) Tactics. You'll love it. Go in with the tank, aggro and sleep most of the mob, then the troller does its stuff. Controllers get the nice Containment bonus right off the bat, doubling its damage from the start, and with Ice Mele and Arctic Mastery(or another option with an immobilize/hold mix) You can get those tougher opponents in an immobilized or held state first. End result: exceptionally fast runs, even only running CE and EA the aggro is managed plenty for the troller, but its a delicate mix and needs people to know how it works, the troller must hit right after the tank and before anyone else or the whole containment benifit gets shot when the damage breaks FA.

Any way will do, it just depends on how your doing it. Fire is normally the accepted farm support, and any will do cause of the expected farm setup, but i've been surprised quite well with 5 min farm runs with only me and a troller. Its all in how you run it.

Dive in, hafe fun, and think about it later :)

01/09/08 12:18

Lightfoot27

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

For Bigchill: As Jordan is going with a primary fire blaster, the frozen aura bit will not work at all. As we all know, fire blasters are AoE BEASTS and to have them focus on single targets would neglect their very nature. IMO, frozen aura is out, any sleeps are out. Its hold, dizzy or bust... thus I prefer the ice/em for the stuns. That and the functionality of having a PvP capable toon at a later date.

Edit: I am a huge fan of fire/fire tanks, but after all the nerfing, and having played them in their glory days, I just can't go that route anymore. Hehe, I guess I'm just spoiled by the glory days.

Also, this is only abstractly on topic, but I have been running my 2nd account to build up a fire/kinetic, and wow, thats easy to run a dual with. Especially post 32, leaving imps out and setting him on follow, I have fire cages, flashfire and transference hotkeyed and rarely even have time to fire off any siphons. Dead too quickly. If you are feeling adventureous, try dualing with a troller, it may pay off more post 32 than a tank for the pets.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

01/09/08 12:34

BigChill

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

Hey, I was just throwing it out, it isn't that hard to get onto a troller's farm and it does come in handy. Besides, its just an option, Jordan can go for whatever, I'm just throwwing what I know out there.

01/09/08 12:38

Lightfoot27

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

Yeah, to each their own, just going with my experiences with my fire/devices. Sleepers don't much care for my contributions, hehe.

01/09/08 12:42

Jorden_Yen

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

QUOTE

I rolled an earth/rad originally as a support pet and it works pretty well for stunning then keeping enemies in place while I fry them. He's also useful for dropping the damage, accuracy, and resistance for tough bosses and AVs.

But since most of my mains are ultra squishy and because I've never played a tank past 14 (and that was years ago), I figured I should give them a shot.

01/09/08 13:16

Lightfoot27

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

Tank it is then. I can tell you what not to do. I rolled a fiery aura/ice melee toon to 50 for the burn/icepatch combo... only to have burn nerfed to near useless. Needless to say, he's not my favorite toon any longer. To me, it seems that ice melee is miles behind the other sets for dmg... so only go that route if you are looking to purely control mobs. Super strength is always a good choice, but I always found the animations very boring (except footstomp). If ever there was a set that needed a few animation revamps, ss is it.

01/09/08 13:22

bigspeer

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

Ice/Fire is your best bet for herding with damage AoE potential. Fire/Fire might be better just because of Fiery Embrace giving you a 20 second Build-up for all fire based attacks (i.e. all of your attacks).

Don't pick Ice Melee or Stone Armor if you're looking to farm, damage or herd. Ice Melee sucks for damage and doesn't kill quickly enough for anything. Stone Armor hinders you too much for farming and if you get a big enough group and need to go Granite, your might as well stand there and go wash the dishes.

Invul's aura actually has the slowest 'ticks' of all the sets.

Ice - every 1/2 second
Fire - 1 second
Stone - 1 second
WP - don't know what the tick rate is here
Inv - 2 seconds

Big out.

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01/09/08 17:12

Warron Peace

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

WP has 1 second ticks. It seems to me, at least at low levels on a tank, that the magnitude of the taunt is rather low. I'm having trouble keeping aggro off of Nasazi's PB. Of course, she puts out alot more damage than I do, but I've never had this much difficulty with a taunt aura before. Maybe my results are skewed by higher level play. The magnitude prolly increases based on level.

I dunno for sure, but if you want an aggro tank, I'd stay away from WP. It requires too much player control to just set on auto while you blast away.

W.P.

01/09/08 21:13

BigChill

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

Okay, I just ran a 'few' farms with a Will tank, didn't ask how he slotted it, but 1 sec sounds right. The taunt effectiveness is debatable, mostly cause i'm thinking of the duration of its effect. My Ice Armor's CE ticked fast enough I was pulling aggro off him. Leads me th think the slow duration of CE prolongs the taunt effectiveness as opposed to the -acc of RttC, which wears off fast if they are out of its reach. Good thing too, those Demons and that cryst would've killed him if he pulled more than me.

01/10/08 02:48

RonJ73

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

He might not have had his RttC slotted with any taunts. Some people are weird like that. Once I get into the higher levels, mine will be slotted with 3 Heal IOs, 1 Taunt IO and 2 ToHit Debuffs.

01/10/08 08:03

knickknack

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

*sigh* reading all this talk about tanks makes me want to give tanking another try. As some know, tanking and I have not agreed much in the past, but it would be worth a shot. I really shouldn't read posts like this as they feed altitis every time.

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01/12/08 13:54

marinex

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

Just to touch on the "Play" aspects of having a tank as a pet, you have to decide on an armor first, and how you can do damage second. I think you may have something with your thoughts toward Stone/Fire. Stone offers excellent survivability at about any level and having fires AoE attacks will be nice. If you take "Recall Friend" on your Blaster, then set the "Accept TP to Auto" on the Tank, you could easily move your "Pet Rock" around ( with Mudpots on and Comustion or Burn set to Auto ). This way you will never have to worry about Rezzing the Tank because he will be tough, have two damage attacks going all the time, and if you load MP with taunt, a good aggro grabber that is low Maintenance letting you concentrate on blasting them to bits. The less you have to fool around while playing two toons the easier it will be, which increases the fun quotient immensely.

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01/12/08 16:53

jfire90

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RE: Best tank for holding aggro

id say ice can hold agro really well since it has 2 taunt auras and the one (chilling embrace) keeps em on the tank REALLY well. I'm not really one to give advice on tanks (my one and only is a lvl 13 ice tank) but from playing with them ive always looked for ice tanks when searching for one. Good luck

01/12/08 21:23

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