Tank



The Tank or Defensive role is one of the four roles available in DC Universe Online. It is the Tank's role to keep the group safe by attracting enemies' attention by aggravating or taunting and absorbing their attacks with high levels of defense, toughness, dominance and health. The symbol that represents a tank is a Shield.

In PVP Tanks have a disadvantage against Healers and DPS but have an advantage to Quantum, Light, Mental and Gadget Controllers.

Stats
In order of importance: Dominance is doubled for all Tank power sets
 * Health : The amount of damage a player can take in battle
 * Dominance : Dominance affects Control Effects, Self Healing and Shield Damage Prevention
 * Defense : Reduces incoming damage from non player opponents
 * Restoration : Affects Self Healing and Shield Damage Prevention
 * Critical Healing Chance & Critical Healing Magnitude : Affects Self Healing for Fire Tanks

Earth Tanking
Earth Tanks gain Damage Absorption and may Transfer additional damage to a Pet. Using a power in Tank role will grant 25% Damage Absorption and will increase Defense and Toughness by 1 point for every point of Dominance. Aftershocks from Gemstone Shield, Jackhammer & Upheaval will further increase Damage Absorption. Damage Shift will transfer a portion of your incoming damage to a summoned golem and Reinforce will transfer incoming damage from a team member to you.

Rage Tanking
Rage Tanks gain Health based on the number of enemies and may temporarily defer damage. Using a power in Tank role increases Health by 0.6 points per point of Dominance for each nearby enemy. Relentless Anger and Severe Punishment activate a Rage mode that defers damage into a Rage Crash. Several Rage powers have mechanics that reduce or ignore the delayed Rage Crash damage.

Fire Tanking
Fire Tanks gain Health and Healing bonuses and may use multiple Self Heals to restore Health. Using a power in Tank role will increase Health by 60% and any healing received increases by 80%. Fire Tanks also gain 2.2 additional Health for every point of Dominance. Healing from Absorb Heat, Backdraft, Burning Determination, Wildfire, Burnout, Overheat, Fiery Weapon, Stoke Flames, Eternal Flame and Reignition scale with Dominance combined with Restoration.

Ice Tanking
Ice Tanks gain Defense and Toughness bonuses and may use multiple shields to prevent damage.

Using a power in Tank role will increase a character's Defense and Toughness by 90%. Winter Ward, Bitter Winds, Shatter Restraints and Ice Elemental prevent additional damage equal to Restoration combined with Dominance. Healing from Hibernation and Ice Elemental scales with Dominance combined with Restoration.

Recommended Powers and Skills
Tanks should choose their passive and active skills and powers with some foresight, as loadouts are limited to only 6 abilities and tanks must remain as versatile as possible.

Weapon Styles
There are 5 weapon styles which each give a bonus of up to +30 Defense and +30 Toughness (10 per point invested for a maximum of +150 Defense and +150 Toughness). These 5 weapon styles are Bow, Dual Pistols, Dual Wield, Martial Arts and Staff and can always be usefully invested in. Refer to the Weapon Styles page for a breakdown of innate bonuses. With higher tiers of gear, total Defense and Toughness can be large enough that your innate level isn't as important. Consider increasing Dominance instead if you're focused on a pure tank role, and the Re-Spec Device can make a change of already spent power and skill points.

Choosing a weapon type should rely almost entirely on the stats they give. The weapon is merely there to help the power generation and provide additional crowd control and movement.

Movement
All movement modes share two general perks useful to tanks. The first of these skills is a targeted pull that allows the tank to pull enemies towards them - Low Pressure (Flight), Tornado Pull (Super Speed), and Grapple Line Attack (Acrobatics), out of which Grapple Line Attack is the only one that isn't an area effect. Getting one of these abilities may be helpful to a Fire tank as a targeted Pull as Backdraft only pulls in nearby opponents.

The second is the power restore upgrade to Breakout and some crowd control resistance. Getting these passive skills will cost an extra 5 points. These abilities are particularly useful for tanks during hard alerts and raids.

Iconic Powers
Iconic Powers will taunt and activate Tank role bonuses just as super powers found in the main trees. Several active Iconic Powers may be useful to Tanks including: A few Passive Iconic powers could be useful to Tanks:
 * Hard Light Shield: Damage Prevention = Restoration + Dominance
 * Self Heals if using the Empowered Channeling Hands Equipment Mod
 * Useful for a Fire Tank as there is no Shield in either Fire tree
 * Amazonium Deflection: Adds 5000 Defense; Knocks down & Stuns nearby opponents
 * Prevents Control Effects and Counters including Block Breakers
 * Sonic Cry: Stuns nearby opponents
 * Mesmerizing Lasso: Ranged single target Pull
 * Useful as a ranged single target pull for a Fire Tank as Backdraft is a short range area Pull
 * Pheromone Bloom: 35% Supercharge; Self Heal; Knocks down & Stuns nearby opponents
 * Useful as a Self Heal for an Earth Tank as Envelop prevents movement
 * Word of Power: 50% Supercharge; Self Heal; Knocks back nearby opponents
 * Provides power to self and group
 * Powerful Resistance: Adds 100 Health
 * Fire Tanks have a 60% Health bonus so this adds 160 Health after a power is used
 * Intimidating Gaze: Adds 25 Dominance;
 * Dominance doubles in Tank Role so this adds 50 Dominance
 * Dominance is added to Restoration for Self Heals
 * Dominance affects damage prevention Shields
 * Fire Tanks gain 2.2 points of Health for each point of Dominance so this adds 110 Health
 * Earth Tanks gain 1 point of Defense for each point of Dominance so this adds 50 Defense
 * Nanoweave Armor: Adds 50 Defense & 100 Toughness
 * Ice Tanks have a 90% Defense & Toughness bonus so this becomes 95 Defense & 190 Toughness

Earth

 * Damage Shift increases resistance to control effects by 10%.
 * Unstoppable provides temporary Control Effect Immunity to teammates.
 * Damage Shift transfers 25% of incoming Damage to a summoned Golem.
 * Reinforce transfers 30% of incoming Damage from a teammate to the caster.
 * Gemstone Shield  Damage Prevention = Restoration + Dominance
 * Jackhammer and Upheaval increase Damage Absorption for every Aftershock.
 * The higher health Brick Golem will taunt opponents if the health of the caster falls below 40%.
 * The Crystal Golem uses Control Resistance abilities which may be useful in PVP. 
 * Totem heals any nearby Golem by a small amount.
 * Earthen Grip is useful as a long range single target pull.
 * Epicenter pulls all nearby enemies toward the caster.
 * Envelop prevents damage and heals for a small amount but also prevents movement.

Fire

 * Enflame and Immolation increase resistance to control effects by 10%.
 * Burning Determination and Burnout provide temporary Control Effect Immunity to teammates.
 * Absorb Heat, Backdraft and Fiery Weapon will self heal when used on Burning enemies.
 * Dominance and Restoration increases Healing from Absorb Heat, Backdraft, Burning Determination, Burnout, Overheat, Eternal Flame, Fiery Weapon, Reignition, and Stoke Flames
 * Backdraft pulls all nearby enemies toward the caster.
 * Flashpoint & Enflame are Radial crowd control abilities.
 * Reignition is a 25% Supercharge that provides a self-heal and will apply Burning.
 * Eternal Flame is a 100% Supercharge that doubles health and self-heals after each hit

Ice

 * Cold Snap, Ice Bash and Reflection provide a Chill effect. Five consecutive Chill effects  activates Ice Armor which provides the 90% Defense Tank bonus.
 * Cold Snap and Bitter Winds increase resistance to control effects by 10%.
 * Bitter Winds, Shatter Restraints and Winter Ward prevent damage based on Dominance and Restoration.
 * Shatter Restraints and Winter Ward provide temporary Control Effect Immunity to teammates.
 * Reflection prevents damage from the next three attacks and deflects some damage back to opponents.
 * Inescapable Storm is useful as a multi target ranged pull.
 * Ice Elemental is a 50% Supercharge that triples Health & Defense and Self Heals.

Rage

 * Ferocity and Ire provide temporary Control Effect Immunity to teammates.
 * Ragebringer, Eviscerating Chain and Without Mercy are useful as pulls
 * Redirected Rage is a damage prevention shield
 * Relentless Anger and Severe Punishment activate a Rage mode that heals and defers damage into a Rage Crash
 * Bloodlust, Galling Eruption, Lacerate, Remorseless Recovery & Violence reduce the damage from a Rage Crash.
 * Dreadful Blast, Eviscerating Chain, Outrage, Plasma Retch & Revenge can be used to ignore damage from a Rage Crash.
 * Vindictive is a supercharge that Self Heals and provides immunity to Rage Crash.
 * Without Mercy, Rage Blast, Ragebringer, Remorseless Recovery, and Channel Hate provide a Self Heal based on the damage dealt.

General Strategy
It is the job of a tank to reduce the overall damage a group takes. A Tank should disable and taunt enemies whenever possible with area effect powers that knockdown, juggle or stun. Pulling enemies and gathering them in one large group will make this easier. Powerful attacks should be dodged by moving out of range or breaking line of sight.

Blocking is extremely effective if done right. It will reduce incoming damage by approximately 70%, interrupt most weapon combos by stunning the attacker and provide protection against most crowd control effects. A Tank should always block if overwhelmed and the healer(s) can't keep up with the damage or if a big attack is coming and can not be dodged. However, blocking too long may strain power generation and cause enemies to bypass the Tank as active powers are necessary to taunt opponents.

Also see

 * Tank Weapon
 * Tank Costume
 * Tank Item