Gadgets Tank

I recently inquired in another thread about mass provocation consumables (aggro) and the possibility of tanking with a Controller powerset.
My current experimental loadout is:
Low Pressure
Amazonian Deflection
Hard light Shield
Neural Neutralizer
Holographic Decoy
Battle Drone

With 280 SP placed in Critical Healing, Dominance, and Health.

Using Mass Provocation consumables as often as possible to maintain aggro.

My friend and leaguemate The KonEl has helped me out by making a video to show some of these test runs. He has posted them on YT. His channel is "B0rn Assassin" (The KonEl) and he also has guides on Atomic powerset post revamp with Earth guides soon to come.

Here's the link:



Feedback much appreciated.

hell yea, change the game

I'm sorry I know the POV makes it difficult to see, I'm not hip on uploading vids, hopefully will get my own up with some guides later.

Mind you, I in no way think this build can substitute for an experienced tank at my level. Just having some fun. All in all there were a few hiccups, but relatively smooth considering I'm a controller. And I'm definitely a much better controller than I am a tank lol.

This was some of my first attempts at this, hopefully I'll perfect my technique and shield rotation.

Thanks for the feedback.

Nice. Shows how overly strong our shields are currently.

LOL nice. Its a loadout that has made sense for a long time.

Yeah with 175 SP in Dom and Regenerative shielding tactical mods, they are almost unbreakable by regular npcs and hold up quite well on bosses as well.

Thanks. Yeah I've been tinkering with it for a long time, yet didn't really take seriously til just recently. Now I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner lol.

You should really make a video from your PoV.

I usually run ahead of the tank if they're slow (most are) and start off with 2 powers. Either I use Stasis Field to suppress them immediately and build my supercharge, or I'll just lunge and drop Decoy. The Decoy will stun them on cast but sometimes there are NPCs that are out of range of it and I end up aggroing them anyway. So I use Neural Neutralizer to shield myself and stun them. Depending on when they breakout of the stun, the decoy will still be up and as they make their way to melee me, they'll walk into the path of the Decoy and get taunted by it.

I'm Acro so I don't use Low Pressure but I use Implosion Mine often. It's power cost is cheap & does good damage. It's a 360 degree AoE pull so by spamming it I can do a better job at rounding up NPCS than some tanks.

In the past, and even now, when I go through content without a tank it requires tools in general that taunt. Anything or anyone can aggro but it's a Taunt that will be prioritized on the NPC. The M.P. consumables taunt. So while I can use the Decoy and suffer a 15 second wait for it after the decoy despawns, I had to look for other tools that taunt or other ways of mitigating damage on players. I would have to find ways to keep them alive long enough for me to pop Decoy again.

I either...

asked or someone just willingly cycled their Decoy with me. Like another Gadget DPS who was willing to take out an offensive power. Either by verbal code phrases or them visually seeing my decoy was out, would pop their Decoy when mine went away.

I cycled my Sidekick which also taunts and/or had other players cycle their sidekick especially on boss fights with alot of adds.

Asked other players to use pets that taunted.

I won't always waste a Decoy cast on the adds in hallways especially if there are like 2 of them, 3 if they don't break out early, and if the DPS burn is there. If they can be taken out within 5 seconds or less I just stun them, rely on healer shield for group, my own shield, and fast burn to eliminate them.

I have the plans for Mass Provocation but I don't use them anymore. They do work by taunting NPCs and I know that a Tank's taunt is superior to it. As for the priority list from the Decoy or Sidekick taunt I don't remember but ultimately it doesn't matter as long as attention is taken away from members who are prone to get knocked out.

Shields in general now are stronger but I think you should try Stealth with the Stealth mod somewhere. It's very powerful too while you're in Stealth form. You would have access to more powers. I use it.

I would probably try your set up if I could not find a tank and go for another troll but I think if I was to do a run like that I would probably go for 1 troll, 2 heals n the rest dps if. Maybe 1 heal if the player is really power efficient so I can get more burn in to minimize battle times.

Feedback: The title of the video is misleading to say the least.

1. Crit healing is a healer stat and goes for the healers crit % healing out not yours healing in.

2. A tank holds aggro by taunting which overrides whoever is at the top of the hate table.
a. The hate table is set by damage. 1st damage is going to get the most hate. Thus draw aggro unless the tank taunts or there is a scripted attack.

3. The only time you can hold aggro with gadgets is with the hollow graphic decoy unless you are at the top of the hate table. (ref #2 & 2a) Being in controller role that's highly unlikely.

4. You had Earth DPS / Tanks in there using jackhammer with tank pets on top of everything else.
a. the earth tank pet taunts and draws aggro as well.

5. Try doing that without Earth using the jackhammer with their pets.

I use to run halograhic decoy in the seasonals to keep the npc's from killing the pew pew pew DPS's when they were harder. A LOT harder than they are now.

Nice idea but remember there is a place and time for everything and the guy battletanking using jackhammer with his pet tank is the one that was really tanking not you. Yes you helped but he was the one tanking.

Re read or finish reading what I wrote and you will see. You missed the part about the hate table, taunts, Earth's tanking pets & aggro.

edit* and his damage out.

1. he was not drawing aggro because damage was too low
( Hate Table : aggro goes to the highest Damage out with exceptions of healers in some instances )
2. only temp drew aggro when decoy was out.
3. The rest of the time the Earth tanks's pets were taunting & drawing aggro. ( Tanks job )
4. The earth DPS was using Jackhammer to keep boss's NPC's off balance. ( Tanks job )

I must respectfully disagree with most of your feedback here. First off, I can't help if my friend was overzealous when he titled the video. I did preface this video by saying in no way do I think this is as good as a real tank. And I will admit it would be a lot clearer to see what's actually happening if it were from POV and in real time.

1. Does crit healing not affect your own self heals? And if so, does regenerative shielding not fall under that category? Also I find this point mostly irrelevant because it is mainly a means of unlocking the dominance and health categories.

2. & 3. Did you miss the part where I mentioned I was using mass provocation agents to taunt? They aggro everything in the immediate vicinity for a duration of 12 seconds. The decoy is merely a back up and mostly only effective on adds and some sub bosses. Even with the outside POV it is pretty clear that the bosses and adds stay fixated on attacking me for the majority of the raid. And I'm aware of how the hate table works.

I will admit I did lose aggro on a couple of occasions, however, those were due to my errors in timing my taunts properly (or just forgetting to use them). In my defense, this was my first few times doing this.

4. No one in the raid was in tank role. I believe they may have had crystal out, however if what you're saying is correct, then does that mean an Earth DPS crystal can tank a Tier 8 raid? Wouldn't crystal have died several times? And wouldn't those earth DPS have died a lot more times if they were the ones with aggro on the bosses? Mind you they were playing in melee range mostly.

Seems pretty clear anytime I didn't have aggro, someone close to the boss would immediately take heavy damage or go down. For example, the Earth DPS or the gadgets melee DPS.

I appreciate the constructive criticism, but I'm not sure if we are looking at the same video.

Also how do traditional "turtle" tanks keep aggro, if they do not put out a lot of damage?

IF I am not mistaken. I don't remember if it was changed in the revamp or not. Taunts last 12 seconds and can only be refreshed after 10 seconds.

Taunt & hold block until they see skull to maybe lunge or any other another opening. Think Rope a DOPE.

LOL, I watched the same one. I'm not saying it wasn't great teamwork because it was and kudos for thinking outside of the box too but... You wanted feedback and I gave it.

The crit heals.
I'm not going to get into it with you about stats and percentages. You believe what you want and I'll put points were the percentages tell me the biggest gains are.

Like I said.
The earth DPS / battle tanks were doing the majority of the tanking. DPS using tank gear or vise verse is considered battle tanking. Considering that pet scale damage to CR and the defense that you get with tank gear these guys were more than likely wearing tank gear. The Earth guys were spamming JH and knocking everything down while you were helping. You were popping some taunts yes & using your shields and that's about it. There is nothing wrong with helping tank using taunts but you were by no means being the tank much less an OP tank like your buddy posted. LOL

Using Jackhammer has CC effects (knockdowns) every time it's used.
How many were spamming JH?

Do that without the couple Earth DPS / battletanks spamming jackhammer right next to all of the NPC's knocking everything down and see how far you get.

We are allowed to disagree here correct?

I was asking a legit question about the crit heals, not arguing with you. Also you have to spend points in crits to open up the dom and health. So would it have been better to put those points in crit attack or power?

Also everyone in that run playing earth DPS, are my leaguemates. They were straight burning that whole run, that's how they dps with jackhammer, like every other earth dps post-revamp lol. NO TANK GEAR, NO TANK ROLE BONUSES, when they got a second or 2 of aggro they went down or took heavy damage.

There were 2 Earth DPS in each run. By your logic, every run with an earth dps or two in the group (which is highly likely as of late) you would consider there to be not much need for a tank at all. Put an Ice tank in this same raid, it would look very similar.

My buddy said "Epic Gadgets Tank" and "I've seen worse tanks"...he did not proclaim me OP by tank role standards. Furthermore, I previously stated in no way does this fully substitute for an experienced tank at my level.

So to continue to insinuate that the earth dps were tanking the raid for me is not only categorically false, it would be to insinuate that I have manipulated the group to make it only LOOK like I am tanking, and therefore blatantly lying on this forum.

Instead of the condescending approach and talking like you KNOW exactly what's going on in this run and apparently are so proud of the basic knowledge you have aquired on the group mechanics of this game that you flaunt these simple, well known facts as if that somehow makes you the smartest guy in the room....

Perhaps, you should open your mind to the fact that this gadgets troll clearly just tanked these T8 raids regardless of the "facts" and observations you
seem to have pulled out of thin air. It is obvious regardless of effects or POV of the video, I clearly am taunting and maintaining aggro on the bosses, pulling adds, stunning adds, all while they are fixated on attacking me a lone. Not crystal, not decoy...me...the gadgets tank.

Now stop trying to suck the joy out of this. It's not constructive criticism when the facts you bring up are irrelevant and you make assumptions/accusations based on your own skepticism. This was really fun and effective. Your negativity and bias cannot take this accomplishment away from me and my team. I will not dignify your "feedback" with another response after this. Good day sir.

Looks like you did a good job of tanking, for not being a tank. Way to think outside the box. But even better that you found a way to enjoy the game, getting something outside the box and a league that let you do it.
Maybe try switching out low pressure for lasso on bosses. Not sure if it would make a difference. For those that say you did not tank, you were the main focal point for most of it.
Your damage in is a good indication of that fact. Epically when you add in the damage that was not taken in due to the shields you were running.
Again good job and way to think outside the box. Now add some exobyte interference shields from Anti-mont event, and you can be helping the healers out. Lol

Thanks, yeah I've yet to test lasso, or taser pulls effectiveness, because with out low pressure I can't AOE pull adds. Next time I'll give a single pull move a try on bosses like Zeus for instance.

Also, there were a few instances where I screwed up my shield rotation or forgot to block (I'm really getting used to the constant blocking thing lol) and I started taking heavy damage. Luckily, either I caught it in time with a soda or the healer caught me. I know I got to get that down better, I will die at some point if I don't fix that lol.

Has anyone else tried this with another troll or healer powerset?

lol, elite next ?

Not since revamp. Used to be able to tank with Sorc, would think it is still possible. Could probably do it with Mental, but not as efficiently due to holigraphic decoy is a great tool.