New DA Tank Builds

My Dark Armor Tank has seen some heavy revision since the last I posted his build. In fact, I even rerolled him with a different powerset for a while. I'm going to talk about all those revisions, what changed and why, and then give you the Mids exports.

Before I get to all that, though, I want to make it clear that the old build is by no means outdated. It still performs every bit as well as it ever has. For any of you who have used it or taken ideas from it, none of them have magically become invalid.

The first revision I went through was when Martial Arts was ported to Tankers. I jumped all over that, giddy as all hell with the idea that I could get a huge defense bonus to everything and start stunning bosses and knocking down everything else. I set to work on a build that really took advantage of everything Martial Arts had to offer. What I created was glorious. I only had to build for 35% defense to S/L/E/N because Storm Kick would cover the difference (and I made sure Storm Kick had over 95% chance to hit +4 enemies). This let me pursue more recharge and max HP bonuses, resulting in an extremely sturdy tank. Further, my F/C/AoE defense was now above 30%, so my only possible weakness from before was fading fast. Then, since the attacks had the control I wanted, I dropped the Earth Mastery for Conserve Energy. A good thing too, because my new attack chain, while much stronger than with Fire Melee, was burning about 40% more endurance per second. Finally, I exchanged Teleport for Super Leap and Spring Attack. This is what it looked like:

The Highlights (With Storm Kick Active):
45.9% S/L defense
45.3% E/N

22.5% Max HP (2670 total with accolades)
22.2 HP/sec all the time
70% S/L resistance
2.2 Net endurance recovery per second with everything running
Dark Regeneration up every 13.3 seconds or less.

| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1536;746;1492;HEX;|
|78DA6554DB52D350143D69522150A017A0DCA1A5D036A5A1197D4784823A74A60AE|
|39BD309104BA4A69DA48CE28BA2E30FF8E283CEF807BE7A1DFD117FC00BEA0F3875|
|377B819D69A6CD3AD9E79CBDD6DE5927A507EBA1379B272B420AADD54CCFABEC98C|
|EA1E5064B66D5DE13740D6ED78F6ABB47AE33B76D3AFB5E0F85C6794D65DDBA6339|
|9EA5AF9BEE6165D5BD5777CF664A56CDB2F492E9366DB346534D2F72CD39B05CCB6|
|9EA678350B95EAFE95B96D9B09DEA80FFB061570F9AF414F59F762849A3EE36CDA6|
|5D7786CE56EF5BAE77603762C586BDA7171DCBAD1E574AA6D7B4DCE331D2A6D1FF9|
|D4A37A92DBE1514711A4C2B2230C6B89C214C2B622C054C33CE65192F8F0A5C2D59|
|9409928A08DD601CBCC918DE665C1D050DF148B9801006AD493386338CD12C634A6|
|30CDC153EBE258D3234CADF02BE36E514F89D71E627F0BEF0B5CD3F64FC407B83BC|
|570ECEB0EE0B096092717496F123ADEDF155B6823D5B92CFDD1B97FDB9DE61C6BE8|
|8ECF3F485194351C635AA4FE5FA846AB0EE4F14E807777F9839A231C6E161E008E3|
|15DA3FC0FB958147E8F363C6C409E3E213E053E826830D717E69087996FF0A5FCF7|
|BE28E803BA2F1DC848E7D79C6A902D75824EE18734BB197D4C718E579C52811C708|
|EA1A69D125648AC491398ECC33C83C87CC0964FE4C2AC679AD189FE0AE6C10DB249|
|C3009D7CCC335F3704D0AAE49C1019ACDA810F734B8A75171021D5D4447F3E8749C|
|D6CE42F9EC57AA4655C4267127C19DFCC18E49C3416938280D67658F9833FF8CDD7|
|895F62E60EF027467A13B0BDD1A746BD0BD04DDAFC9241968C9E4382651BE1C4E4F|
|0EAE5E02F712B4E5A1E90BF551C75A1D7306E60CE837906381EA2E80AB80BAA794F|
|3934ABFF65BDCEA8CA801BF6365E5FC8C0AC95F9555CEBF0E2D354CA790675BE5BE|
|B657787CBB636C768C773BC6A73496E00329CFF5FFEA8C6538F6FB7F4C92AE4BBE0|
|3276EF1D7E84FE7DCF3F63B51C5D40B7E3785AEFAB4AE88D115B9D415B9D81559A1|
|8361A0EA7F000BEF60|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

The build was not without problems, but they were hard to notice them until I played the Tank. Leveling up, I became extremely aware of how much I took Combustion for granted. You'll notice that I delayed my third attack in favor of early Taunt. In low levels, I even found myself using Dark Regeneration as an attack simply because it hit more than one target. Hitting level 35 and gaining Dragon's Tail did not help as much as I wanted it to. Yes, the recharge on it was obscene, especially with the +recharge proc going off all the time, but the radius was tiny. Spring Attack was hardly reliable with its recharge time, so I was stuck hopping around and tabbing through targets like crazy, struggling to actually hold my aggro as a Tanker.

In the end, I abandoned that Tank. The benefits to the build came at too high a cost, but they did make me appreciate what Fire Melee and Earth Mastery were really doing. All the added survivability didn't matter, not because it didn't help, but because I just wasn't being hit as often as before. Having a better attack chain hardly helped either; I had to spend too much time jumping between targets.

So back to Fire Melee I returned, this time with some new enhancements. Between enhancement converters bringing prices down and my merit pile steadily increasing, I was able to justify the +3% defense PvP IO. The release of ATOs gave me further reason to revise the build.

At a glance, it doesn't appear to be very different from my old Dark/Fire. Only three slots have changed location, but don't let that fool you. The changes are noticeable in play. The biggest difference probably comes from being able to slot the Kismet unique since it affects so many powers. Now even my Scorch is very accurate despite its slotting, which is important for applying Bruising to enemies. Next would have to be the ATO proc because it allows me to hardcap my S/L resistance with a few stacks. Those stacks even bring my energy resistance to great levels. Obviously, I can't tell that I ripped three slots out of Boxing because I never used it anyway, so I've lost nothing with these changes.

There's one more improvement, but it's not as noticeable. Between the PvP IO and half of a set of Aegis, I've added 6% F/C defense to the build. Before this build, there was only one instance where I would think "Gee, it'd be nice if I had some more F/C defense." In the LGTF, and before incarnates, my tank was hit or miss against a +2 Dra'gon if I just jumped in. One inspiration was enough to tip the scales well in my favor, but the point remains. Now, Dra'gon only gives me pause at +3, or +4 if I start stacking the ATO proc up. Or I could just turn on the iPowers and forget about it.

The Highlights:
45.8% S/L defense
45.1% E/N

16.9% Max HP (2565 total with accolades)
22.4 HP/sec all the time
77% S/L resistance (with only one stack of ATO proc)
2.2 Net endurance recovery per second with everything running
Dark Regeneration up every 14.4 seconds.

| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |

|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1530;735;1470;HEX;|
|78DA6554DB4E1351143DD3990A2D057A01DA72A7174A0B8C1DE1DD1801A3A14915E|
|29B690618E9489936D3122F6FFE82D1F8A0DF60E293D788F11B7C30EA0FA0A2FE00|
|1937672F6A934EDAAED37DF6659DB5F799D2BD95D08B2B0F2F0A2574B966369B954|
|DD3D9B35C7FC9DCB5B7053D031BF583DAD681EB4C6F98CE4EB3874C49F6A9AC58B7|
|2DA769E92BA6BB57B9E4EED7DD04764A56CDB2F435DB72EFF33A72D5A95AAEE5B4F|
|4B345A85CAFD7F475CB6CD8CE6E54FED924CF46DD6D992DBBEEF44BD39ABD5B6D91|
|C3E099F78EE536AB7623BADAB0B7F555D36D552B25B3D9A242096256A0EFEB00FD2|
|8A7D43DBF48D0624213BE38F0822A84A1894491FEE7089718A79719234181C75345|
|9920A589D075C6811B8CE10DC668106584A729F01D806F18BE51F866EE085937463|
|12AC7F8D59F3EC949FB053C668CFE609CBD2B24A7D9078C6FE95C7E3E97EA9F64BE|
|E752C034E3C80CE33BF2ED91EC3C7FCFBA226BF7C655B9D73BC4188CA8B24E30CC1|
|88A32BEA2D800F40B1C319751701B07B749709E04C73438BEA7D83E70EC0B3397A1|
|21E030B48E812B8D523FFB2AFDD89B391132EF1BCA33883C8319C465E13387F81CF|
|292A611D654440CD6394BB963B0C5BE13D7802614B20DC336ECD12354B2C451250E|
|4517A61817A1EC79283A4255921CAD249F51C6189DFE39639CF6C6D0D5312895467|
|7D3502AB3CF0A651CC6429D51230E13E03071A602149A85728B50F2905499C2744E|
|21FF02F22FA0338BE8588238A5309D294C670ED399C374E6309D794C679262B2384|
|7163179C4E41153404CE12BDF24E31BE3638239709BFB08ED0E819F188D0F8C4721|
|21E6D189F9976CCB910E3A6C3A3AF6847216A179F1339FCBF88249D4DA37953EA7D|
|D5CEFB4A83E99B5ACB5EFA850A4575E6BBF1DBC40B87D1BBD7250C6C9F5AD8EB5D9|
|B1DEEA581F9FDE7EA533F3EF2ECB9FFF1645B9A6C85919BDC96FA2BF9D7B8F88AD1|
|110E34F7D52CB62D7D90A5D16A3CBB2DC6559EAB284E2540027F807496BF773|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|