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 and absorbing their attacks with high levels of defense, toughness, and health.

Role-specific Passives
There are three Power sets that have the tank role available to them - Ice, Fire, and Earth. They all 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 and deal 20% reduced damage. Using any active power in Tank role will taunt nearby enemies, attracting their attention and causing them to attack. This taunt effect will last for 12 seconds. Tanks also gain a +3 Perception that will help them detect stealthed enemies.

In PvP, tanks are inherently strong against controllers as they are highly resistant to controller debuffs, and may gain a significant damage bonus (55%) when attacking them. They are also inherently weak against healers, who can strip down their otherwise high defenses.

Earth Tanking
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. Reinforce will transfer incoming damage from a team member to you while Damage Shift will transfer a portion of your incoming damage to a summoned golem.

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 also gain additional Health based on their Dominance score with 2 additional Health for every point of Dominance. Healing caused by Fire abilities scale with Dominance combined with Restoration. Powers that are affected include Absorb Heat, Backdraft, Burning Determination, Wildfire, Burnout, Consume Objects, Fiery Weapon, Stoke Flames, Eternal Flame and Reignition.

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 8 seconds, gaining Ice Armor will keep this buff up for the full duration, roughly 48 seconds. Winter Ward, Bitter Winds, and Shatter Restraints prevent additional damage equal to 100% of Restoration combined with 100% of Dominance. Ice Elemental prevents damage equal to Dominance combined with Restoration. Healing from Hibernation and Ice Elemental scales with Dominance combined with Restoration.

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 all skill points into defense first as the 90% boost means you're getting double your value; after all defense points are taken, place skill points into bonus Health. 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 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 which should always be invested in. Refer to the Weapon Styles page for a breakdown of innate bonuses.

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 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
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. Please note that using Iconic Powers will not activate any of your tanking buffs, so whilst Hard Light Shield is useful, it's not as effective as the built in tanking shields.

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.

Please note that Fire Tanks lack a single targeted pull making Mesmerizing Lasso quite useful.

Earth

 * Damage Shift increases resistance to control effects by 10%.
 * Unstoppable provides temporary Control Effect Immunity to teammates.
 * Damage Shift transfers 33% of incoming Damage to a summoned Golem.
 * Reinforce transfers 33% of incoming Damage from a teammate to the caster.
 * Gemstone Shield, 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 increases Healing from Absorb Heat, Backdraft, Burning Determination, Burnout, Consume Objects, Eternal Flame, Fiery Weapon, Reignition, and Stoke Flames.
 * Immolation (Immolation) grants 10% control resistance, damages nearby enemies, and is usable while controlled.


 * Backdraft (Ignition) will pull nearby enemies toward you and self heal when used on Burning enemies.


 * Flashpoint (Immolation) will provide a quick area effect knock-up with a low cooldown, power cost and damage. Applies burning on enemies while Immolation is active.


 * 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) provides a reliable way of applying Burning to targets in melee range and adds 10% to your control resistance.


 * 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 which provides the 90% Defense Tank bonus for about 48 seconds. 
 * Cold Snap and Bitter Winds increase resistance to control effects by 10%.
 * Bitter Winds, Shatter Restraints and Winter Ward prevent damage based on Dominance.
 * 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 (Storms) is useful to pull a group of enemies off allies.


 * Winter Ward  (Cryogenics) increases your defense and breaks you and your group from Control effects

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.