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.

Role-specific Passives
There are two powers that have the tank role available to them - Ice and Fire. They both play similarly, but are different in the way they deal with damage taken.

While tank role is active, a character will have their Dominance doubled, deal 20% reduced damage and using powers on enemies will attract their attention and cause them to attack the tank. This effect is aided by Dominance and will last for a maximum of 12 seconds. Tanks also gain 3 Perception that will help them detect stealthed enemies.

In PvP tanks are inheritely strong against controllers as they are highly resistant to controller debuffs, and may gain a significant damage bonus when attacking them. They are also inheritely weak against healers, who can strip down their otherwise high defenses.

Fire Tanking
Using a power as a Fire tank will increase a character's health by 60% and any healing taken (with the exception of Soder Cola) will be increased by 80%. This effect lasts 12 seconds.

Fire tanks play differently from Ice in that they possess several self-healing abilities, which will ease the healer's job, as well as possibly survive long enough to finish a fight if the healer has been taken out of the fight. It is therefore a good idea to invest any extra skill points into Restoration, healing critical chance and magnitude. However, this is a very power-intensive playstyle and without a controller providing extra power, a Fire tank will easily run dry unless they are careful.

Ice Tanking
Using a power as an Ice tank will increase a character's Defense and Toughness by 90%. This effect lasts 12 seconds.

Ice tanks rely entirely on damage mitigation, and while they do possess some self-healing it is not designed for consistent use. Ice tanks should invest any extra skill points into bonus Health as it is effectively multiplied by the high damage mitigation. Ice tanking is much less power consuming than Fire, making it the better choice if there isn't a controller in the group.

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 4 weapon styles which each give a bonus of up to +30 Defense amd +30 Toughness (10 oer point invested for a grand maximum total of +120 Defense and +120 Toughness). These 4 weapon styles are Bow, Staff, Dual Wield. and Dual Pistols which should always be invested in. Refer to the Weapon Styles page for a breakdown of innate bonuses.


 * * Edited per information corrected with February 2011's patch notes and in-game verification

A tank should always skill up a weapon's lunging combo, typically used by holding the melee attack button. Using this will quickly move a character into melee range of their target, allowing them to quickly change or recover their positioning.

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, which is why the only bad tanking weapon style is Rifles as they lack a lunge attack, which hinders a tank's mobility.

Movement
All movement modes share two general perks useful to tanks. The first of these are skills which allow 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 these abilities will cost only one or two skill points and are more important to Fire tanks, since they don't have a pull like this in ther powerset.

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
Out of the active Iconic Powers, the only ones that are well-suited to tanking are Hard Light Shield and Amazonian Deflection, with the latter more suited to PvP.

Out of the innate Iconic Powers, the only ones that are not suited to tanking are Super-Strength, Tactical Genius and Weapons Expert, while Empathic Healing and Miracle Worker are useful only to Fire tanks.

Fire

 * Flashpoint (Immolation) will provide a quick area effect knock-up with a low cooldown, power cost and damage.
 * Burnout (Immolation) will provide self healing and crowd control immunity to the entire group, making it an excellent PvP power.
 * Meteor Strike (Immolation) is a way of applying Burning at range and the meteor itself can be thrown for a good chunk of area damage.
 * Enflame (Immolation) It provides a reliable way of applying Burning to targets in melee range.
 * Fiery Weapon (Immolation) will self-heal when attacking a Burning enemy. This will trigger only once per activation.
 * Absorb Heat (Ignition) will stun and self-heal when used on a Burning enemy.
 * Reignition (Immolation, 25% Supercharge) provides a strong self-heal and will apply Burning.
 * Eternal Flame (Ignition, 100% Supercharge) will double the character's health and self-heal for a small amount every time the character is hit, making it very effective when swarmed by numerous enemies.

Ice

 * Cold Snap, Ice Bash and Reflection provide a Chill effect. Five consecutive Chill Effects activates Ice Armor for about a minute. 


 * Reflection (Cryogenics) directs damage from the next three attacks back to your attacker.


 * Cold Snap (Cryogenics) increases your resistance to control effects and damages nearby enemies.


 * Ice Elemental (Cryogenics, 100% Supercharge) is an excellent way to survive a tough spot or give your healer(s) a break if they are having trouble keeping you alive.


 * Hibernation (Cryogenics, 50% Supercharge) heals and deflects damage.


 * Inescapable Storm (Storms) is useful to pull a group of enemies toward you (and off allies).


 * Winter Ward (Cryogenics) increases your defense and breaks you and your group from Control effects.
 * Using any Ice power in Tank mode will increase Defense by 90% for a few seconds. Using any power will also increase AGRO which helps to keep enemies focused on your Tank.

General Strategy
As a tank it is your job is to reduce the overall damage your group takes. This means you must disable and taunt enemies when possible with area effect powers - pull enemies towards you and gather them in one big group to make doing this easier. Dodge powerful attacks 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. You should always block if you feel you're overwhelmed and your healer(s) can't keep up with the damage you take or you see a big attack coming and can't dodge it. However, blocking too much will strain your power generation and makes you immobile, making it easier for enemies to bypass you.