I play fire,earth,ice Tank class.

Both pve and pvp.

The earth class sucks too much power to build proper defense. The powers are interuptable or can be cut short before you can benefit from the aftershock.
1. The gemstone shield does not last long enough when it hasnt recieved the damage that breaks it off. The power is costly and fleeting.

The fire tank is very challenging and, although i cant pinpoint exactly what seems to be making things difficult; I can sum it up with one common statement i ask myself when fire tanking "Am i in dps mode"?

The ice tank is great. I have no real complaints. However, i have noticed that they/myself can keep the shields that protect them activated almost all the time, making them spammable. This removes the challenge and promotes players to use the same 4 powers with ice tank, making it a very boring class for me.

Methinks you may not know how earth fully works. The text descriptions of the abilities don't help at all, since they're very outdated.

For aftershocking, you only need to do one aftershock to achieve full absorption. So, building def isn't as power costly as one would think. Also, don't put GS up to all 4 shards. Treat it like a variable shield. It's going to absorb damage = to your dom+resto. With 4 shards, it will absorb 100% damage up to that threshold. If you use only 2-3 shards, you'll absorb partial damage until that threshold has been met. So, the shield will last longer and serve as a good buffer for your healers to do their thing.

Fire rely's on the healers to keep you alive, ice tanking is more self sustained. That is probably the feeling you are getting.

absorbition isn't earth only way of tanking , it also has pet tanking with brick or crystal, for fire don't get def buff but you get hp buff that scales of dom . so when you get hit your not reducing the damage but just rising your health with every power you use so that's why it seems like your in dps role.

Pet tanking is absorption tanking. Earth has two ways to achieve the same type of mitigation. Both ways have pluses and minuses

I would loveif earth actually had both the ways you listed but currently aftershocks is the only viable one. Don't even waste your time trying it in lower raids it works but you are not practicing for the main event.....t5 raids.

Thank you for your feedback and very good information from blk lightning. I wanted to argue that point you made though. You commented not to use all 4 shards as common practice which indicates that aftershocking to 4 shards is not worth it. This means the benefit is poor and not worth the extra power used or time to activate. You also say you only need one aftershock. I believe this also indicates that aftershocking needs improvement since its not practical to aftershock beyond 1...well because beyond one is costly and the benefit is not good.

One final note on posts mentioning other Mitigation such as Golem. I do love golem. However Tech trees have specialization for only using one of the 2 types of trees, and the benefit is provided because the developers believe specializing will not affect overrall balance and play for a player doing so. In other words, Both tech trees can be played specialized without one being better than the other. Both will have str/weakness but overrall they are balanced in what they achieve. I have specialized in both earth trees and believe they are both very balanced. Individual powers like gemstone and other aftershocking powers have some problems though.

Looking outside of the box, i believe earth is a ******** version of ice.

I play all 3 types of Tanks at the higest level, and am prepared to make my Main(a HL now, who will be replaced) the next Tank set when it comes out.

That said...

You have your descriptions, which may be accurately stated for you, and I'm not saying you are wrong, but to perform at the optimal performance level.for each type of Tank, you have to vary your playstyle for each one.


Ice = pop shields and rarely block, leaving plenty of time to "control the battlefield" or whatever(for me, that equals doing quite good amounts of damage)... Simple tank AND spank style tanking works wonders with Ice. To me, ice make the sturdiest "Damage-style" Tank.. My most preferred playstyle in DCUO, so far as Tanking goes(i can go completely through T5 ops most runs without EVER even thinking about needing to block, can't
Say/do the same with Earth or Fire, unless i wanna end up dead).

Fire = keep your health buff up, and block/roll/try and mitigate incoming damage by using CC and your healers good graces in your favor, because, lik
like you say, you are all but a DPS with a little extra Defence(not a whole lot %-wise), double health, but the aggro of the entire room on you. You have to turtle the most with fire. Think of it as if you WERE tanking as a DPS... You wouldn't be running around not blocking, would you?... That's Fire tanking. To me the most Traditional mmo "pure" Tank.


Earth = a beast of another sort. Has a different playstyle altogether to perform optimally and efficiently. You have to be smart, quick, have a keen eye on your surroundings, make wise decisions and not get too confident or comfortable. You gotta "know when to hold 'em, and know when to fold 'em", as to me it has the most difficult learning curve and is sort of the "high risk, high reward", of the three Tank types. Not everyone will make a good Earth Tank.. It's very satisfying to pull off a successful raid/alert, but you have the biggest window of being left vulnerable, of the three Tank sets. Point blank Earth is hard, but fun(the most fun, IMHO).

To me all three are equally as effective, but you CAN NOT go about playing them the same way, of else you ARE exploiting their differences, and not playing them correctly. As quoted by me, "all Tanks are created equal but you can't play them equally", which to me, it sounds like the very light the OP was using to compare them. Each is unique and requires a separate playstyle to be accurately contrasted equally.

completely inaccurate. my earth tank made it through nexus in one of the easiest runs i've ever had (it was his first time). and he used brick the entire raid. its a matter of player skill and knowing how your power works. these together got us through no problem

I don't see how player skill has anything to due with your brick getting killed every 2 seconds from aoe & weapon attacks in the last room

Lmao player skill has nothing to do with brick living. I also used brick my entire smooth run but I didn't damage shift he died too often for that. He was there to aggro if I got close to death.

brick didnt die very much. if your brick is dying every 2 seconds you're doing it wrong.

my statement had nothing to do with player skill being the reason brick lived. i said player skill determines how you play. the guy before said there was only one way to earth tank t5. all i said was he was wrong. calling your powers at the right time are where player skill comes in to play.

I am the guy before and there is only one way aftershock tanking. The other option is damageshift tanking and that does not work in t5 if brick dies you are left wide open. I standby my statement and I know im skilled soooooo

Did you actually tank the raid? If not please stop posting like you have first hand experience. Because watching someone tank and actually tanking is night and day as to what is actually going on.

I want to clarify Gemstone Shield, aftershocks, and damage absorption for you:
1 - Casting any power, in Tank stance, grants you 25% damage absorption. To gain the other 25%, you need to cast either Upheaval or Jackhammer, then aftershock it only one time. Though the tooltips state otherwise, there's no need to aftershock more than once to obtain maximum DmgA.
2 - Gemstone Shield only grants the first 25% of absorption. Aftershocking it does not grant the additional 25% like Jacks and Ups do.
3 - What GS does do is this. Let's say that your Dom+Resto = 1000 (to make it easy). GS will mitigate 1000dmg for you. If you put up 4 shards, it will absorb 100% of your incoming damage until 1000 has been met. If you do 2 shards, it absorbs 50% of your incoming damage until the 1000 has been met. My percentages may be incorrect, but the gist is spot on. You can decide how strong you want your shield to be and how long it will last. Sometimes, it's wiser to just reduce your incoming damage for a longer time than it is to eliminate damage for a shorter time.
4 - GS should be used along with, but not instead of, Jacks and Ups. Use Jacks to get to 50%, then GS to mitigate some of the overflow.

As an example.. my favorite... we'll use the Future Lex battle in Family Reunion. When he puts down his orange circle, you're looking at heavy and sustained damage. If you put your shield to 4 shards, you absorb 1000dmg and then your healer is left trying to keep up with the heavy damage again. If you use only 2 shards... then the shield lasts a bit longer. You're taking a bit more damage than 4 shards, but the shield will last longer and your healer won't have to worry so much.

Agreed, I want to see video of someone actually pet tanking Nexus. DmgS only. Brick can't survive Future Lex's attacks in FR. There's no way he can survive any of the Lex's in Nexus. His constant and untimely deaths leave us vulnerable at the moment where we should be the most protected.

I have power spec'd to each tank class, today I went back to fire after a year. I was Ice for about a week. I'm not sure what world you live in but so far Earth has been the best class for tanking in my eyes but also the most difficult to learn and the least forgiving. Ice is the easiest by far if you want to learn how to tank and I would say Fire next, then Earth last. You are not timing your jackhammers correctly therefore getting interrupted. This is all part of the experience of tanking which again why I said Earth tanking is the least forgiving tanking power.

Ice was easy mode for Nexus and Paradox. I ran 3 Nexus' today as Fire, 1 Superman DNA, 2 Skeets. All successful runs. I'm not sure what you mean by Fire is challenging. It's really easy to me. I have yet to run Paradox as Fire. I was the first Earth tank on USPC to complete Nexus and I might not have been the first Earth tank to complete it but I did complete Paradox as Earth. Honestly, it all depends on the person. Ice and Fire have a rotation, Earth does not.

As for PvP, tanking in PvP 1 on 1 is crap. Stop doing it unless it's in group content like 8s and 5s. Earth is OP in PvP, Brick+Dmg Shift+Totem. You are practically immortal. I've destroyed Ice and Fire tanks while wearing dps gear using Brick in Tank role.

It kills me inside when people say Earth is crap. It just tells me that you do not understand or know how to play the powerset correctly.

Long time fire tank here, we do rely more on our healers. Quite a bit. And I'm not saying the other tank powers don't benefit from more sp, but fire gets easier the more you have. And there's so many options when building a fire tanks specs. Restoration, Dominance, Health, Critical Heal Magnitude, Critical Heal Chance, Critical Attack Damage, Might, and even Precision can be useful to a fire tank, (some are more useful then others for sure). The game would have to have the possibility of over 300 sp for all of these to be maxed out. So in order to play a fire tank successfully, you need to figure out what type of fire tank you want to build. Self healing, damage, and if you have enough sp, you can make a hybrid of the two. I've seen a lot of fire tanks try to make the hybrid before they have enough sp and they tend to have the issues you were talking about feeling like a dps.

4. Gemstone Shield does not stack with Jackhammer or Upheaval. It can be used along with either power, but mostly only as a backup power. Gemstone Shield, however, does stack with Damage Shift.

3. The values they absorb are 50% damage on the first shard (supposedly, but it's bugged), 67% with two shards, 83% with three and 100% with four. All of them (again except for the initial casting due to the bug) last just as long as each other at 12 seconds maximum.

2. Gemstone Shield grants both the initial 25% damage absorption and the 50/67/83/100% absorption. They do not stack, but if the shield breaks before the 12-second duration, you will revert back to 25% instead of down to 0%.

I'm going to have to disagree on some of the points made. To say earth is "difficult" is not true. Earth may actually be the most simple of all the tanks. Aftershock once and block/dodge simple as that. What is the difference between an EXCEPTIONAL Earth tank and an EXCEPTIONAL Ice or Fire tank? Nothing absolutely nothing. BUT what is the difference between a good earth tank and a good ice or fire tank? The good ice or fire tank still stands a chance. This is not because earth is "more difficult" on the contrary it is the simplest we don't have to manage shield cooldowns or heals we just use one single power and block. I feel I personally could tank nexus with jackhammer as the only power on my loadout. What im getting at here is Earth is a one trick pony and if you master that one trick you are great if not you see the weakness in the powerset.