Hero A Day - Star Crusader

On one of our accounts I decided to add a new theme team - Invulnerability Tankers, Brutes, and Scrappers. I wanted them to also share a similar look, sort of a tech-knight, and a similar color scheme which would mostly be red, white, and silver. Now Star Paladin was the first of these but he's a scrapper and I've been focusing on tanks so we will start with...

STAR CRUSADER

My second Star-character was a tanker and I knew I wanted a particular look for him, one I had seen on a few characters in my travels. It mainly involved the Valkyrie shoulder plates, Cyborg limbs, and one of the Martial Arts helmets. So I started with a pretty good idea of the look I wanted and I already knew that his primary would be Invulnerability - all that was left was determining the secondary power set.

I admit I went ahead and designed the costume first. Then I went back and both considered tanker secondaries that I had not tried and played around with how they would look with my costume. I tried various combinations and ended up with Battle Axe because 1) I haven't played an Axe tank and 2) the Fantasy Axe looked really good with the costume. Oddly enough the Tech Axe looks too small next to that torso and shoulder pad set so I skipped it and used the big double-bladed axe because it looked like it was this guy's "size". So after some final tweaks to the costume he was good to go.

All of the Star characters will likely take Flight for movement and will probably add rocket boots at a later time. Crusader will also have Fighting and after that we will see.

Now in the late teens SC is ready to roll and leveling up when I can find the time. He's on Infinity server.

Hero A Day - Bituminous Man

One of my earlier tanker concepts was prompted by the "stone" costume - what if it was coal, rather than something like granite? Thus was born...

BITUMINOUS MAN

The idea was that coal as stone armor might not be great but coal is known for burning, so I went with Fire Aura for the primary - one of my first fire tanks as a mater of fact. I went with a an almost black base color with a red-orange blend pattern towards the midsection.

For the secondary I liked the way the big hammers of Stone Mallet looked so I went with Stone Melee using the lava option and making the colors match the rest of the costume - black and orange.

This ended up as both an effective character (see my many other postings on my love of fire tanks) and a visually unified one (the colors lined up well for all of these powers and costume parts) and a thematically it's funny (or "light" at least) while still being unified - if a man fell into a burning coal bunker and gained super powers from it this is what he might look like.

I enjoyed running Bituminous around so much that I also created Anthracite Man with the same setup (more red less yellow) on another server and briefly created Lignite Man as well. Though now deleted both of them may make a return appearance, one of them probably as a brute just because I'm trying to avoid duplicating powerset combinations on the same archetype. I may also try out the Omega aura as a supplement to the Fire Armor glow - we'll just have to see.

The Man of Coal currently lives on Freedom server.

Hero A Day - Draco Ignis

Draco Ignis was the fourth and last (for now) of my draconian-themed fire tanks After creating Fire/Super Strength, Fire/Dark, and Fire/Ice tanks there was really only one combination left that I wanted to try and thus was born...

DRACO IGNIS

I've said a lot about Fire Aura before so I won't repeat myself. It's a versatile set of powers that unlike some tanker primaries will not cripple your offense, making a character that plays more like a comic book strong guy and less like a punching bag. The main weaknesses are psionics (like most defense sets) and knockback (fairly easy to fix with an IO or two or Acrobatics if you're going with the Leaping pool.

Fire Melee now, is perhaps the most offensive of the tanker primaries with a secondary effect not of damage mitigation or slow or some other side effect but a secondary effect of more damage. It's important to keep this in mind when playing, as without that secondary mitigation you're going to take more damage. Building up some toughness is very important.

Synergies - let's see, the most offensive primary paired with the most offensive secondary? The synergy is that you do a lot of damage, especially AOE damage. Fire Melee alone has 2 PBAOE's and a Cone attack combines with a damage aura and Burn to make for melted minions in short order. The single-target damage is strong as well. You just don't get a lot of other effects like knockdowns or slows or immobilizes or extra healing - but you get a lot of straight-up damage.

Pools are Flight, Fighting, and maybe Leadership to buff Defense since we get no secondary mitigation. Ancillary will have to wait and see.

For the look I wanted to change things up a bit from Nyx and Polaris so I started with the Monstrous head but went with the glowy bio organic wings from the mutant pack and the organic armor sets for most of the body. I then added one of the Cyborg chest plates to change things up a little - I wanted less of the traditional fantasy magic look and more sci-fi type elements and I got it. He may get a look more like the others as the costume slots open up but for now I like that he's different.

Draco Ignis is leveling up on the Justice server and would be happy to join any team looking for a tank that deals damage juts as well as he takes it.

Hero A Day - Draco Polaris

Polaris was the third of the Draco tanks and was a particularly interesting combination. I had seen some discussion that Fire Aura / Ice Melee was a strong tanking choice, but one of my first characters in COH was a Fire/Ice tank and I was not happy with it and eventually deleted it. Now though, knowing much more about the game, I could see the synergies and decided to give it another try - thus was born...

DRACO POLARIS

Fiery Aura is my favorite tanker primary mainly due to the mix of powers and the early availability of many good ones, and also due to the look.

Ice Melee is not a high-powered offense compared to some but it has some interesting properties. Most attacks in it have a slow effect (keeping the badguys close to you in your damage auras and off of your teammates) and also have a -recharge effect, slowing their attack rate and mitigating damage. It also has a cone, a PBAOE, and Ice Patch which is an area foe knockdown which again keeps foes in your damaging aoe's like Burn.

Synergies are that Ice Melee makes for a very sticky tank and Fire Aura ensures that the enemy is taking damage while they are stuck to you. It's not as offensive as a raging fiery embracing superstrength fire tank, but it is very good at the traditional tanker role of keeping the enemy busy and focused on you and it is fun to play.

Pool powers will be the now-essential for tankers Fighting, the thematically required Flight, and I'm not sure after that. Ancillary might be Arctic but I'm not there yet.

For the costume I started with the reptilian Monstrous look, veteran reward Demonic Wings, Valkyrie breastplate & belt, and the spiked pauldron shoulders. I went wit ha white primary scheme with light blue highlights for a solid icy look. I added the Omega combat aura to add an element of flaming ice to the look and I like it so far.

Draco Polaris is busy leveling up on Freedom server - team up if you get a chance.

Hero A Day - Draco Nyx

Nyx is the second of the Draco tankers I created.  I liked the look of Draco Rex and I really like Fire Aura as a defensive power set so I decided to theme a group of fire tanks on one account with similar names and looks to Draco Rex. One power combination I wanted to try was Fire Aura / Dark Melee and thus was born...

DRACO NYX

Fire Aura is my favorite defensive set - decent resistance to smashing and lethal defense to start, then a damage aura, a self-heal, and an endurance recovery attack are all available before 10th level, making for a well-rounded character before offensive sets are even considered. Burn at level 18 is a nice offensive type power as well. Plus, and not inconsiderable in it's importance, Fire Aura just looks good.

Dark Melee is a strong offensive set that in addition to decent attacks adds another self heal at level 16 in Siphon Life.  Dark attacks also carry a -tohit component that strengthens Fire Aura's resistance by making more attacks miss.

Synergies - If an effort is made to improve defense through IO's and pool powers, then the strong resistance of Fire combined with the defensive boost of Dark and bolstered by 2 self-healing powers and an endurance boost makes for a very resilient tank and one that has good offensive capabilities as well.

For pool, powers I'm going with Flight (theme, prob only Air Superiority and Fly), Fighting, and possibly either leadership (though I'm not sure he needs more toggles) or maybe Medicine to stay with the idea of resilience, I'm not sure yet.

Much of the look was determined by the precedent set with Draco Rex.It's mainly the Monstrous parts with the veteran reward Demonic Wings, the Organic Armor shoulders, and the Valkyrie chest plate and belt. I thought about going with black for a color scheme but it's been done and I wanted something more colorful and so went with a more purple scheme.

Draco Nyx is still fairly low level but looking good so far. He runs on Virtue server whenever possible so if you see a big purple flaming lizard run by, give a shout out.