Stone Armor & Fiery Melee Tanker: Annzilla

I thought I'd elaborate on one of my characters, Annzilla, my Stone Armor & Fiery Melee Tanker.

She was created from a screen name I have that is very similar to it. And since it had the 'zilla' at the end of the name, I felt compelled to make her as tall as possible and give her a reptilian flair. I usually like to have an idea of my characters' history before I create them, but since I created her on the fly, she doesn't have a developed background story yet.

As for game play, have mixed feelings about it.

I have created several Stone Armor Tanks in the past, but was never able to get any of them past level 20. Its that darn Rooted toggle power that is essential to for Stone Tanker to have. When toggled, it allows the character to have faster regeneration as well as status protection. That's all fine and dandy, but the drawback is the movement debuff which does not allow you to jump or fly, and your sprinting is soooo sloooow. Since I am a naturally impatient person, I couldn't tolerate it.

The reason why I got this far is thanks to my old Super Group -and no, they did not power level me. I just have good friends there that would switch their characters to play an Archetype that better complimented Annzilla, namely any character with Kinetics. Its safe to say that about 98% of the times I teamed, there was always a pocket Kin around to Speed Boost me. I am spoiled, I know!

It seems as if the Stone Armor power set is based on the concept of "slow, but solid." Being solid is nice, but 'slow' is not my playstyle. When I tank with Ms Ann, I move quickly from group to group; I am conscious of where my teammates are at all times and I make sure that all the bad guys' attention is on me. I do try to emulate my Invuln Tanker playstyle with my Stone Tanker, but it the Stone Armor powerset makes it inherently difficult to due to the lack of mobility.

I like to think that it takes actual skill to be a good tanker, but after reaching level 32, Stone Tankers have access to the Granite power that has very high defense buffs. Because of Granite, it doesn't require much skill to be a 'decent' Stone Tanker.

For most other Tanker primary sets, people will instantly know when a Tanker sucks. These Tanks must argo manage and health manage, with some requiring more attention than others. If they have no clue, missions will be a mess, people will die, and they will be exposed as a crappy tanker. After level 32, Stone Tanks become slow defensive behemoths and can stand around and spam taunt.

And for someone impatient and easily distracted as I am, that kind of playstyle becomes very tedious. My general feeling with Annzilla is "I can't wait til she is level 50." I don't think I will play her too regularly after she reaches the cap.

Even though she's a boring Tanker, she's still a Tanker and that's the role I thrive in. I am a harsh critic, because she's really not that bad to play. However, I think the overall character concept of Annzilla is what saved her from the delete button. I just get a kick out of running around as a giant, green lizard lady breathing fire at things. Hopefully that sentiment will last me all the way to level 50!