Before I commit into making a new character with new powers. What is the best powerset for tanking? In order of magnitude of course. Thanks in advance!
I have experience with Rage and Atomic (I can't speak about Ice, Earth, and fire). I would say that Atomic has the edge over rage because you don't have to worry about rage crashing, the damage is better, the pulls are better, and the defense is higher. Rage has higher hps, but defense is superior imo. The one thing Rage has over atomic is the lack of needing to do combos. Simplicity goes to Rage, but as far as tanking, I would hand it clearly to Atomic.
It depends on a few things what king of tank are you wanting to be? Turtle or active? Then do you want to have more survivability. Or more damage. To me the pulls of the tanks are about the same. The extra shielding and weapon combo style would be very easy for ice. Fire still self heals as does rage and atomic just differently
Honestly, people can say what their favorite is, but that are all fine. It's not really about health or defense anymore. It's all about the shields. Regardless of the power you pick, every tank class has access to at least 2 good shields in iconics, hard light shield and Amazonian deflection. As long as you carry a breakout power, a PvE breakout trinket, and some shields, you'll be fine.
It woudl be awesome if a few people who are experts in tanking with their preferred tanking power... could come here and explain the best ways to tank traditional style tank..and battle style tank... Things id like to know: 1.) How do fire tanks work now? What are you looking to Do with fire to stay alive? How are you battle tanking with fire? 2.) Rage, how has it been changed for tanking since the revamp? What are things you need to know and how do you battle tank with rage? 3.) Ice is it still just a shield rotation power?... is battle tanking viable and how? 4.) Earth .. which is better brick or after shock tanking...how do both ways work and is stone skin better or worse then 50% absorption? How does battle tanking work with earth? 5.) Is atomic exactly the same as it was before for tanking? I will start with 5.) atomic Atomic tanking seems to be about like it was pre revamp... You can go pure tank with just putting stats in dom and health and modding dom health... youll be tanky through your combos and have more time to stop and pull adds with out worrying so much about getting back into your combo rotations to keep yourself alive...however... Battle tanking with atomic is super easy and not as big of a risk as some might think... you can take some tank gear out and add dps gear if you want... but for me i just leave my tank gear in and mod the reds and purples with dom might and the yellows are dom power might power you'd o very good damage with out giving up too much of your tankiness
All I know is at the moment atomic and earth are performing the best. I don't know much about the changes to the others. Fire has shields now apparently.
I have tanked with Fire, Rage, Earth, and Atomic since the revamp. I find each off them equally viable as tanks. Tanking in general is very strong right now due to having good shields and much better power cost efficiency. From a pure tanking perspective I really don't think you can go wrong with any powerset right now. Each of has unique tanking mechanics so just pick the of that looks the most interesting. I won't comment much on battle tanking. That means different things to different people and isn't something I concern myself with too much. Your primary job as a tank is to be a tank. Get good at that. If you then want to try to increase your damage output while being a good tank that's fine but get the core responsibilities figured out first. No matter how much damage you do any decent dps will do much more.
Dunno about battle tanking but, i did jfa with my cr194 around 300sp no mods. It was lfg randoms With only 7 people at last 2 bosses. Just doing counters and some juggling was enough for smooth run. Overall it feels about same, but i am using old turtle-counter-juggle style still.
I Fire tank. Its my favorite tank now. I was a long time Earth tank but respec'd to fire when revamp hit live. I only did that because I love playing the battle tank role on test server. First and foremost I do what a tank is supposed to do for the sake of the group. My damage comes second and as a result of my active tanking style. But I when I need to I go full tank for the sake of smoothness of a run. Every tank has the potential to be very effective and to battletank. Imho there is no best tank...just the best for your playstyle. If you have a PC I recommend downloading test server and try out every power to see what fits your playstyle. I tried them all and landed on fire I now use fire exclusively. That's what I prefer. Its all how you build it. I have 3 tank builds and only 1 DPS. 1st tank is full defense...hybrid built health dom and resto build. 2nd is a fully offensive built tank with a superpowered focus might/power and health build with 2 shields. And the 3rd is a mix of both. I have a video on YouTube showing my 3rd in action in War Crimes.
