Author: bigspeer
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Tankers and Power Pools: How to Patch Those Pesky Holes in Your Primary
“The Tanker is an irresistible force combined with an immovable object. This Archetype can take and dish out all sorts of damage. The Tanker is not totally invulnerable, but his skills allow the other Archetypes to play their parts, too. The Tanker is a devastating hand to hand combatant, and ranks second only to the Scrapper in sheer melee power. He possesses some ranged abilities, though far below those of the Blaster or the Defender. Tankers proudly stand in the front lines of battle in order to protect their comrades and, of course, the innocent.” - CityofHeroes.com
Tankers are meant to be the spearhead into a battle, to soak up all the anger of the enemy and spit it back out in their faces. Their primary power set is all about self protection with different types of armor from Ice to Fire to Stone to Invulnerability. Each of these sets have different abilities, ranging from how their armors work (defense vs resistance), offensive capability (stone vs fire), stamina replenishment (ice and fire) to unstoppable modes (stone and invulnerability). Since each of these armors work in a different way and contain different tools to get the job done, they each have inherent holes that balance out their weaknesses. The Power Pools are a great way to address these holes to completely round out any tanks arsenal. We shall examine each Pool and compare it to the four sets of armor and if it can fill those gaps then how it does.
All of these sets become available at Security Level 6. The third power in each pool is available at Security Level 14, if one of the first two is chosen. The last power can be selected at Security Level 20 as long as two of the three powers are chosen from the pool.
Concealment
This power pool gives heroes the ability to conceal their presence and the presence of teammates. The general consensus is that it is not a good pool for tankers to dip its toes. Yes, you could make your teammates invisible, but there are far more effective pools to get the job done.
Fighting
The fighting pool is a friend to tanks. It can make a tank tougher to hit and absorb more damage. The four Fighting powers are Boxing (a simple punch), Kick (a “kick the door open” style kick), Tough (damage resistance toggle) and Weave (defensive toggle). Boxing and Kick aren’t bad powers, each with a status effect, but they also aren’t good powers. Pick whatever one you want to open the pool and use it to replace Brawl. Maybe give it an additional slot or two, but no more than three total. Tough and Weave are very nice toggles that give you that extra oomph! in terms of survivability, but use more endurance than your normal toggles. The only armor set that really needs either of these powers in my opinion is Fiery Aura. Because it was designed as the most offensive set, it’s damage resistance levels have been scaled down and need something to bolster the set. Tough gets this job done quite well and really keeps you upright. Weave can be taken also, but it is not as necessary as Tough.
Fitness
Don’t ask any questions about this Pool. Take either Swift or Hurdle, or both, then Health and Stamina and slot the latter two ASAP! Fitness is needed by EVERY tank. If you think otherwise, you are asking for a rough tanking time and might be a glutton for punishment! Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you skip it.
Flight
The Travel Pool which lets you soar in the skies! Horray, I can fly! Not only is that the iconic power of most superheroes, this Pool is filled with goody powers. Air Superiority could be the best attack in any Pool. It does guaranteed knockdown on any class below Elite Bosses (there might be a few that can’t be knocked down but I haven’t seen any). It is also a great way for tanks to open up the Flight Pool. Hover is another good power and provides KB/KD protection for Fire tanks, although it is not the recommended way to achieve this protection. Hover should be used for more of a concept tank. Flight is a fun travel power, but slightly slower than the others. Group Flight is useful for Hami Raids and other events when the entire team needs to fly somewhere.
Leadership
Team buffs are provided thru the Leadership Pool. Tankers get the least amount of buffage from this set of all the ATs, but some of the powers are nice to have regardless. Maneuvers gives a defense buff to all teammates. Assault increases the damage output of your team. Tactics buffs your accuracy and perception. Vengeance is the best power from this set, except for the fact that a teammate has to fall in battle for it to be activated. You pretty much have to stand over the fallen soldier to activate it and whoever is in range gets a hearty boost to defense, accuracy and damage (basically all three of the other powers). It is the equivalent to your teammates eating a can of Popeye Spinach mid-fight. This is a personal preference pool.
Leaping
Think Incredible Hulk distance jumping! Think Superman leaping tall buildings in a single bound! Thing Toad… jumping really high! Aside from the coolness factor, this could be most plaster-like pool for tankers. Jumpkick is a simple, flip-style kick that has knock-down, but not very impressive overall. Take it because it looks cool if you like. Combat Jumping gives you a heightened leap, a small defensive bonus and immobilization protection. Super Jump lets you do just that, jump super! Acrobatics provides protection from knockback and knockdown. The only tanks that need this pool would be Fiery Aura. The Fiery Aura set gives no immob or KB/KD protection and this pool provides both. Now, acrobatics can be avoided due to Invention set bonuses, but the KB IOs are hard to come by and if you go that route, you will need at least 2 KB IOs to protect against anything short of an AV or stacked KB effects. Every other tank set provides full status protection and normally take the Leaping Pool for concept or travel power reasons.
Medicine
Each Tanker primary has a self heal, but sometimes that just is not enough. The Medicine Pool provides Aid Self (a self heal that can be interrupted) after taking either, or both, Aid Other (heal someone else) or Stimulant (a status clearing power). Resuscitate is the last power in this Pool and gives you the ability to revive a fallen comrade. Aid Other also is often used by non-support ATs to obtain the Healing Badges, so it is often the prerequisite taken to Aid Self. All Armor sets can benefit from Medicine, but defensive based (Ice/Stone) sets might have an easier time using it.
Presence
The Presence Pool is somewhat redundant for Tankers. It provides Challenge (a single target taunt), Provoke (an AoE taunt that is not auto-hit), Intimidate (scare a single target) and Invoke Panic (AoE Fear). Tankers already get access to Taunt in their secondary sets, so Challenge and Provoke aren’t necessary, although one must be taken to access the second two powers. This pool is mostly used for PvP Tanks because Fear powers are widely unresisted across the board. I would not recommend dipping here on any tank, unless you PvP.
Speed
Containing one of the most utilized powers in the game, the Speed Pool is used by just about every character in Paragon City. Hasten reduces the recharge time of ALL powers while it is active. This can make or break your tanker when the fight gets drawn out and down right dirty! It brings back your heals quicker, recharges attacks faster, and you are able to keep things taunted more often. Take it, slot it, love it. Flurry is an attack consisting of rapid kidney punches to the victim (think Neo from Matrix punching). It’s not a bad power, but has a long animation and keeps you stationary too long in my opinion to be worth taking. Super Speed is the travel power in this pool and I think it is an excellent way to travel. The big obstacle (which can be numerous) when superspeeding is vertical impairment. By using Hurdle, Combat Jumping or a temp power that grants vertical movement, many players are finding this less of a concern than before. Whirlwind is a neat little power, but not of much use to a tanker. You spin quickly in a circle and cause a funnel around you (think X-Man Storm). This throws mobs away from you and scatters crowds. If you didn’t want to get hit, I’d say take it, but you’re a glutton for abuse and you want those fists flying in your direction. Easily skipable as a tanker.
Teleportation
Another classis super hero ability is teleportation. Show me someone who doesn’t like Nightcrawler and I’ll show you someone with no imagination! Recall Friend lets you teleport a teammate in your immediate vicinity, while Teleport Foe lets you snatch a villain to your grasp. Teleport is the travel power in the set. It has its ups and downs as a travel power: it is very end heavy in the beginning and can be hard to drive, but it is great for a quick escape and cannot be suppressed at all. Stone tanks often choose this as their method of transportation because they cannot leave the ground while running Granite Armor or Rooted.
Lets take a moment to review what we have learned.
- All tanks should take the Fitness Pool. You need Health and Stamina. End of discussion.
- All tanks could use Hasten from Speed. It brings your heals up quicker and helps manage aggro.
- Some tanks take Medicine for two reasons: Aid Other to obtain Healing Badges and Aid Self for another self heal.
- Some take fighting because they want to increase survivability. All Fiery Aura tanks should take at least Tough; they will be hurting without it. Some defense bases armors take Weave also to max out defense.
- Leadership can be taken by tanks, but is used mostly for the +perception in Tactics for PvP.
- The Leaping Pool provides immob and knockback protection for Fire tanks thru Combat Jumping and Acrobatics. Flight also provides knockback protection via Hover.
- Stone tanks should take teleport as a travel power. They should also put three slots into swift to counterbalance the slowed run speed of Rooted and Granite Armor.
- Fiery Aura needs the most pool powers to fill the gaps in its primary (Leaping, Fighting). These two pools are not as necessary on the other three primaries, but help tremendously.
- Take a travel power that you enjoy, heck, take two even! But if you don’t tank any, you are a moron.
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