How do I take my tanking to the next level?

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Curveball, Jan 23, 2020.

  1. Curveball Active Player

    I've hit something of a wall, figuratively speaking, while playing my tank.

    I've got the Tanking 101 part down: you taunt the boss so it focuses on you while dps whittles it down. Or, if it's not a boss fight, try to collect as many random thugs as you can, for pretty much the same reason.

    But I'm a little lost on the Tanking 102, 201, 202, 301, 302, 401, and 402-level Tanking things. I was going through the Phoenix Canon 8-man yesterday and I found I spent most of time trying to get my atomic tank to recover from multiple stuns instead of, you know, effectively taunting the bad guy. Not to mention it seems like there are fights you just can't tank, at least not traditionally -- Doomsday for one, and the big shadow archons roaming around the Anti-monitor metropolis zone. (Or maybe you can, but only if you can go into the zone naturally, without being buffed -- I hadn't considered that till just right now, writing this). What does a tank do when tanking isn't effective?

    Anyway, where can I get the advanced tanking information? I'd like to be a little more useful to the groups I join. Staggering around wondering where all the pretty lights are coming from while try to shake off multiple stuns strikes me as less than optimal team participation. :-D
  2. Curveball Active Player

    Just wanted to add a quick update -- I have done the whole "Google for Tank guides" thing, and I've found a few Youtube videos and posts that went into Tank theorycrafting that I have found somewhat useful. The problem with most of them, though, is that the guides are focused on how to play an optimized, maxxed out tank ready for elite raids. Every one I've seen so far tends to focus on a build with maxxed out sp and at least some elite gear, including specific trinkets and charms that I haven't stumbled across yet. I guess there's a certain amount of logic there, since endgame raid content is probably where roles are most important, and tanking one of those requires using every scrap of everything you've found. And I guess that represents the 401/402 level instruction. So to amend what i posted above, I guess I'm looking for the 102, 201, 202, 301, and 302 level manuals. ;-)
    • Like x 1
  3. Krytin Active Player

    To be honest many bosses are large powerful adds are scripted to jump from you. Each power you use in tank role is a taunt. So you dont need to hit your single pull taunt all the time. Learn your pvp mechanics for countering and of course always find the better locations on the board to mainly tank in. I have learned while in tank role the more adds or bosses I hit with powers works well bad thing is dealing with all those bosses at once. But with how most in this game play they dont want 2 tanks or trolls or healers and yes I prefer those a lot more. Spec into your power might some raise your power pool and damage it will help control and keep things on you more
    • Like x 3
  4. Curveball Active Player

    ... ok you posted something that never occurred to me. Tanks use _pvp_ mechanics in pve content? I am wholly ignorant of this, which may be part of my problem. I largely ignore pvp altogether, because standing there wondering what's going on for three seconds then dying isn't a lot of fun for me. :-D
  5. Illumin411 Loyal Player


    You can get the breakout trinket from lot of the old content vendors. It's like 10 source marks give or take. That helps a bit with stuns. But constantly getting stunned and constantly breaking out is simply a part of tanking, particularly in newer content. All you can really do to get better at that is keep running content and honing your breakout reaction timing. Like anything else in life, the more you do it the more you react automatically and quickly.

    You can also run immunity in your loadout but I typically don't use it on my atomic tank. I only swap it in for mass density on FIe first boss, MOMe last boss and PCe first boss if I'm tanking the boss.


    PVP mechanics have been my biggest learning curve in tanking and I myself am still learning on that front. To add to that, atomics comboing mechanics make timing counters pretty difficult whether you can identify them or not. All that being said, I've still been able to tank CR relevant elite raids with little problem so while learning that stuff definitely helps, it's a lot less essential to atomic tanking as opposed to other tank powers.

    On last thing I'll add is that often times 2-tanking elite is easier than solo tanking reg. I made my first tank toon one year ago with last years free CR boost. Despite me feeling like I still had a lot to learn, I still jumped in to some FOAe runs about halfway in to that DLC and found that not only was just holding adds in the first boss fight and just tanking Klarion in the last boss fight pretty easy, it helped me hone certain skills because I just had to focus on one thing. Often times the best way to improve is to take time to focus on individual parts of a skillset. It's similar to sports like, for example, in basketball practices you'll do ballhandling drills, shooting drills, rebounding drills, etc to hone those specific skills individually.
  6. Solarbound Committed Player

    It's true, the recent content hasn't been very tank friendly. It's time to learn the art of kiting, my friend:D
    • Like x 2
  7. Illumin411 Loyal Player


    While kiting is more needed in current content than in older content, thankfully atomic tanks don't have to kite as much as other powers as long as your dom is pretty high.
  8. gemii Dedicated Player

    Taunt
    Kite
    Kite
    Kite
    Skull block
    Taunt
    Kite
    Kite
    Kite
    Block/roll oh crap
    Kite
    Kite


    Your welcome Lol

    No such thing as tanking anymore running from 100”s of adds so your shield won’t break quickly is the new meta of tanking. Yes that’s right avoiding the enemy is tanking in dcuo
    • Like x 1
  9. Solarbound Committed Player



    Well, I'm a fire tank. So, I don't have the same luxury as an atomic who's blessed with all of the great gimmicks, haha.
  10. tioalbert Well-Known Player

    Hello everyone, I am a player of the 3 types of support.

    Well, currently 2 I stopped troll support.

    Handle the 5 tank powers (before renewed). and I only stayed with ice, rage and earth.


    I'm sorry for fire since I liked its similar dynamics or = to rage and atomic similar to ice.


    Well said this here my suggestion to the thread (tested from t1 to t7 group and raids).


    1.- only use chest, legs, shoulders and helmet rol tank (increase in defense) and the rest of the dps team.


    2.- Equip the power of attraction and shield with the effect of breaking effect.


    The other 4 squares equip them with dps powers or direct damage.

    (Preferably those that do more damage this find in will be those of a single objective or use the iconic breath of ice and vision heat).


    I think that iconic poison to the tank used to increase defense, if it is still use it.


    3.-SP take it in power recovery, third icon from right to left and from top to bottom.

    Get health as much as possible and keep an almost equal score of presicion and might.


    Put the 8 points of weapon specialty, in weapons mastery gives you an increase in pressure.



    4.- Artifacts look for what you might like, presicion and health or power.


    With effect of increased skill damage or weapon damage or increased defense.


    For t6a t9 many recommend artifacts in 120 or 160.

    But while using household-based benefits, sp minimum 180 +, increases 200+. artifacts you can take to 80.


    Good morning all and good game all.
  11. Curveball Active Player

    I see. It's the "Brave, Brave Sir Robin" school of tanking.

    (Response to gemii's post)
    • Like x 3
  12. Solarbound Committed Player



    Ikr? Would be so nice to feel like an actual tank again. I mean, being able to stand in the middle of those 100s of adds is supposed to be part of the thrill:D
    • Like x 1
  13. Black Jaq Devoted Player


    I think this is where Atomic suffers. Back in the day, Atomic combos used to function as lunges which meant just by doing your combos, you could PvP bosses a lot of times provided they weren't blocking. Even if a boss blocked if the controller and healer are doing range attacks they end up BB the boss. In fact, Atomic could solo tank GoM fairly easy because they could lock on the Phoenix and continually lunge it, stopping it from healing.

    This was removed with the stat revanp to standardize across all the combo powers. It sucked as a Rage tank when you were trying to combo Eviscerate and the boss would block and you get knocked on your butt while trying to cancel rage crash. It meant an Earth tank could Aftershock a group of ads and not be knocked down by an add that blocked.

    These days, with any prec DPS in the group, needing to BB is not a concern usually; it's the lunges. If Might DPS helped focus on lunges by having Rifle equipped (it has that ranged lunge) then that would help tanks. Tanks are always expected to lunge these attacks without support from anyone else.

    I will say that Earth and Ice are probably the best ones for PvP mechanics against bosses, if you can PvP the bosses, that is.
  14. Curveball Active Player

    Ok so my atomic tank uses dual pistols, so I guess if I take some time out of my combos to lean on my right mouse button for a few seconds that might help a little? Obviously there's more to it than that, I'm just looking at that as a starting point.
  15. Krytin Active Player

    I wish se could cancel the combo move more easily. But as said earlier atomic has a disadvantage for using pvp mechanics. Ice fire and probably earth with give you the best chances of being able to use them consistently.
  16. Illumin411 Loyal Player


    The Shadow Golem in Chaos Gotham and the Forge thingy in FI (2nd boss) are good for practicing countering.

    On another note, Thermochemical Explosion is by far the best add juggling power in the game and the shortest atomic combo power. I always saw tanks kiting the Poison Ivy spores in MOMe but atomic tanks can just stand there and juggle them with Thermo like a boss. If you're not using it in your loadout, start doing it now.
  17. Krytin Active Player

    Sorry for not directly replying to you earlier. What I mean by the pvp mechanics is the counter system in duels and pvp. As you learn the bosses most of them have similar tells when you can knock a boss down or interrupt their attack move. It's not just about blocking all the time its timing for when you start your block to when the boss or add does their combo move. Now when you pvp some of the best pvpers know when to counter that makes a good tank even better. I am by know means a great pvper but I have had a few take me under their wing to teach me enough to get some of the pvp feats and how it would work better in pve.
  18. Curveball Active Player

    I love Thermochemical Explosion. It's cheap, fast, useful, and I like the animation. It fulfills all practical and aesthetic needs. :)

    I do keep Beta Surge around, in case i get knocked out of the TE combo and I need to keep my aura refreshed.
  19. Curveball Active Player

    So I've been trying to pay more attention to that kind of stuff but it's hard to see what specifically a boss is doing through a haze of quark gluon aura, some kind of random smoke add, Controller debuff animations, oh look there's a random fire explosion, and two quantum tunnels going off at the same time. :-D It's going to take a little practice to sort through all that.

    ... or... I suppose there might be a graphics setting that lets me tone down the visuals a bit? That would work too.
  20. Barry Allen Well-Known Player

    dont kite ppl hate tanks kite