Stone/Fire Tanker Respec

[BlueBard]

I'm thinking about doing a Respec on my Stone/Fire Tanker.  Here's what I'm thinking about doing in general:

Archetype: Tanker
Primary: Stone Armor
Secondary: Fiery Melee
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Rock Armor==> Empty(1)  Empty(3)  Empty(13)
01) --> Scorch==> Empty(1)
02) --> Stone Skin==> Empty(2)  Empty(3)
04) --> Combustion==> Empty(4)  Empty(5)  Empty(5)  Empty(7)  Empty(11)  Empty(23)
06) --> Earth's Embrace==> Empty(6)  Empty(7)
08) --> Mud Pots==> Empty(8)  Empty(9)  Empty(9)
10) --> Rooted==> Empty(10)  Empty(11)  Empty(15)
12) --> Brimstone Armor==> Empty(12)  Empty(13)
14) --> Swift==> Empty(14)  Empty(15)  Empty(25)
16) --> Breath of Fire==> Empty(16)  Empty(17)  Empty(17)  Empty(25)
18) --> Health==> Empty(18)  Empty(19)  Empty(19)
20) --> Stamina==> Empty(20)  Empty(21)  Empty(21)
22) --> Crystal Armor==> Empty(22)  Empty(23)
24) --> Build Up==> Empty(24)
26) --> Minerals==> Empty(26)

Not a lot different from my current build, except that I'd be dropping Fire Sword to pick up Breath of Fire and dropping both of my Jumping powers to pick up Build Up and another armor, as well as juggling some Enhancement slots.  In particular I'm wanting to triple slot Swift so I can still move around somewhat while Rooted.  (In fact, I might juggle the powers around a little so I can make sure to have both powers when exemped as low as possible.)

Suggestions more than welcome...

[Midnight]

If you're tanking for big teams, I'd take Taunt instead of Build Up.. While you don't have to have it (Mud Pots and Gauntlet are enough) it's a useful tool for pulling people off of the squishies, especially when you're in Granite Armor.

[Verfall]

And I'd work teleport in there or start buying up run speed IO's or you're going to hate the 30's and beyond.

[BlueBard]

And I'd work teleport in there or start buying up run speed IO's or you're going to hate the 30's and beyond.

Teleport doesn't fit my concept.  I'd probably work Jumping back in as a travel power over the next few levels or so.  And I had planned on putting the best run speed enhancements I could find in Swift in any case.

But for my own edification, why exactly?  I know I don't like not having travel powers, but I figured on supplementing with the travel temp powers from the safeguard mishes as need be.  What is it about the 30+ missions I need to know?

[Verfall]

Rooted guts your speed. Granite does the same. Put them both together, and you can't move at all. Taking teleport has nothing to do with travel powers, it has to do with actually being able to move while using the 2 powers that define Stone Armor. If you plan to just solo you can probably skip Granite, but if you ever want to team with PUG's on that character, you basically need granite or be prepared to be kicked off the team.

Run speed Io's, however, can push your run speed up to a degree where it's manageable. Gift of the Ancients defense set has a 7.5% run speed IO that can be put into your defense powers. Put one into minerals, crystal armor, rock armor and, if you take the jump pool, combat jumping, as well as 3 slot swift with run speed so's/io's. That'll let you move reasonably well in just granite or just rooted, as well as let you move at a fast crawl in both.

[Ephemeris]

Rooted guts your speed. Granite does the same. Put them both together, and you can't move at all. Taking teleport has nothing to do with travel powers, it has to do with actually being able to move while using the 2 powers that define Stone Armor. If you plan to just solo you can probably skip Granite, but if you ever want to team with PUG's on that character, you basically need granite or be prepared to be kicked off the team.

Run speed Io's, however, can push your run speed up to a degree where it's manageable. Gift of the Ancients defense set has a 7.5% run speed IO that can be put into your defense powers. Put one into minerals, crystal armor, rock armor and, if you take the jump pool, combat jumping, as well as 3 slot swift with run speed so's/io's. That'll let you move reasonably well in just granite or just rooted, as well as let you move at a fast crawl in both.

Don't forget the dreaded curbs....

[BlueBard]

Okay, that makes a certain amount of sense.  Even though I hate the idea.  :P

Thanks for the input!  I might go the Run Speed IO's route.  Or I might bite the bullet and take Teleport powers.   :blink:

How fast does Granite recycle when it gets dropped?  (Not that I'm going to need to worry about it until I level that high.)

[Midnight]

Granite takes a little under ten seconds to recharge for me (I may have recharge bonuses). Now, I presume you're thinking you'll just pop out of Granite Armor, turn on Super Jump, maneuver and reactivate Granite? That's been though of before. Just remember this: Granite is your primary status protection. If you superjump into a set of mobs with any sort of mez without it on, you'll get mezzed, you won't be able to activate Granite, you won't be able to self heal, and then you'll die. Believe me, I've done it.

[BlueBard]

That's what I was thinking, Middy, but 10 seconds is too long.

Well, here's the build I'm going with for the moment (more or less).  I'll probably respec again when I get Granite.

01) --> Rock Armor==> Empty(1)  Empty(3)  Empty(7)  Empty(25)
01) --> Scorch==> Empty(1)
02) --> Stone Skin==> Empty(2)  Empty(3)
04) --> Combustion==> Empty(4)  Empty(5)  Empty(5)  Empty(7)  Empty(9)  Empty(25)
06) --> Swift==> Empty(6)  Empty(9)  Empty(19)
08) --> Rooted==> Empty(8)  Empty(11)
10) --> Earth's Embrace==> Empty(10)  Empty(11)
12) --> Mud Pots==> Empty(12)  Empty(13)  Empty(13)
14) --> Health==> Empty(14)  Empty(15)  Empty(15)
16) --> Breath of Fire==> Empty(16)  Empty(17)  Empty(17)  Empty(23)  Empty(27)
18) --> Brimstone Armor==> Empty(18)  Empty(19)
20) --> Stamina==> Empty(20)  Empty(21)  Empty(21)
22) --> Crystal Armor==> Empty(22)  Empty(23)
24) --> Taunt==> Empty(24)  Empty(27)
26) --> Minerals==> Empty(26)

Bear in mind that Swift is loaded with Run Speed SO's at the moment.  So I'm still slow when Rooted, but I can move faster than a crawl.  I went ahead and took Taunt to try to pull in mobs that don't aggro off the Mud Pots.

Kins with Speed Boost are my very best friends ;)

[Ephemeris]

Stoners don't need to take tp, but it does make life easier.  The only things I see that could be changed is some slotting.  I'm not sure stone skin should be two slotted.  I understand slots are at a premium at this level, but eventually rooted, health and EE should be slotted with 3 heals.  EE should also have 3 recharge.  EE will boost your hitpoints which in turn will be affected by health and rooted to boost your regen moreso than before the hp boost.
I'd also recommend getting hasten to offset the -recharge effects of granite.

[BlueBard]

This build seems to be working okay so far.  I'm holding aggro quite well for the most part, though consuming more end than I like.  That's just going to be a slotting issue and should be fixable by trading off a bit of damage and/or swapping out for IO's.

Right now EE is mostly my panic button.  That's probably the wrong way to use it, but the slow recharge time makes it difficult to use any other way IMO.  It would make more sense to pop it off right before tangling with a tough group... just hard to tell sometimes which groups I should do that with.

You're probably right about Hasten.  I'll consider that on my next respec.  It would fix a few issues with recharging powers.