Aett_Thorn

Okay, someone I think asked what an Ice Tanker could be looking at with all of their powers, so here ya go:

Base Armors: 17%
Wet Ice: 1% (unenhanceable, probably even the Alpha slot won't be an exception to that)
EA: 1.6% - 7%

So, from 1 to 10 enemies, base, you've got:

19.6% - 25% Defense base.

Slotted with even-level SOs (1.56% enhancement):

30.016% - 38.44% Defense.


With SOs and the Alpha Slot:

32.1222% - 42.448% Defense.



Almost at the soft cap without any additional powers, provided enough enemies. With the +3% Def IO, you're above the soft cap without any additional powers.

However, here's where it gets good: Pool Powers. Since the Alpha Slot will increase pool powers as well, An Ice Tanker is unlikely to have to slot for Defense sets to a large degree.

Combat Jumping: 2.5% Defense base on a Tanker. Most people don't slot this much at all. So, we'll put a single SO on this power, bringing it up to 3% Defense. The Alpha slot will not be impeded by ED at all on this, so it'll give the Tanker 3.5% Defense. So now we're at 35.6% - 45.95% Defense.

So let's then add Weave. But we'll fully slot this power. 5% Defense base, times 1.72, gives us an additional 8.6% Defense, bringing the Ice Tanker, with no IO slotting, up to 44.2% - 54.55. When fighting a single enemy, you're within 0.8% of the soft-cap for S/L/E/NE damage types. That ain't bad. Not bad at all.

It used to work much, much better, and some people just haven't figured out that it's not always as effective as just steamrolling mobs.

Basically, back in the day when there were no aggro limits, a Tanker could go into a room, aggro the entire room, and pull them all to one location for the team to wipe out. Effective, if a bit boring for most of the team.

Now, with the aggro limits, it is by no means faster to do this (at least most of the time), but it can be safer. It establishes the Tanker as the focus of the aggro at the beginning of the fight, and condenses mobs so that the tanker can more easily hold aggro. It also bunches things into debuffs better, as you found out.


Now, the problem is that the herding time is time that is spent not killing the enemies, which would've bunched around the Tanker anyways, if he knows what to do. So it's not usual any faster to herd nowadays, though it can be helpful sometimes, especially in tight rooms with multiple spawns, where there is a fear of over-aggroing the room.

Tough choice, and I think it's going to depend on the build. Aett might try to go for the Nerve branch, and adjust slotting to more recharge instead of Defense. My Shield/Mace will likely go with the Spiritual branch, for the recharge goodness.

My other characters are likely going to have very tough choices ahead.


Edit -> and as far as the math goes, I think this is how it'll work:

Fire Armor base numbers: 30% for S/L. You can enhance that to the decently functional cap of 1.56%, bringing you up to 46.8% S/L Resistance.

Let's say we get to the Radial Paradigm level of the Alpha slot. That's a 20% Resistance boost, 2/3rds of which ignore ED. Since we're already at the ED cap, we'll get a 16.7% boost on top of what we've got, bringing the modifier up to 1.727. This will cause our Resistance value to become 51.8%. Not a huge boost, if you ask me, but it might be worth it.


Edit2 ->

If we add Tough to the mix, it also gets the bonuses of this slot with no additional cost. So, that's the 15% base value, times the same 1.727, and we end up with 25.905 S/L Resistance from Tough. Total S/L Resistance: 77.7%

Whereas before the Alpha slot we were at about 70.2% Resistance to S/L. This is a functional increase of 7.5% Resistance. Dang.


Compare this with the Defense values of, say, Ice Armor.

17% * 1.727 = 29.359% Defense.

Pre-Alpha Slot:

17 * 1.56 = 26.52, for a whopping increase of slightly less than 3% Defense. Hmmmmm...

I'd say that the Stone/Fire is a decent changeup. Not only in the primary (Defense + Regen combo until Granite, mainly), but also in the secondary (single-target versus AoE damage). Teleport will round out the changes.

This is also going to vary wildly by powerset within the AT, too.

For instance, my Ice Tanker fears Sappers very little, but has a much harder time with anything that has auto-hit damage, or with greatly enhanced ToHit (Rularuu eyeballs, Rikti Drones, DE +ToHit Emanators). Meanwhile, my Elec Tanker has no problem with any of those enemies, since he relies more on Resistance than Def, but has trouble with enemies that slow his recharge.

Well, you will need to buy a full version of the game, yes. However, didn't you say that you had an old account? Why not just resubscribe on that, since then you wouldn't have to pay for a new version.

Too close to both the Halloween and Christmas events, I'd say. Also, don't more people travel during Thanksgiving?

1) Invuln/Ice should work out pretty well. It's got a few things going for it: Ice Patch can help you take less damage, while also keeping those foes contributing to your Defense against the foes not flopping about. Also, Invuln, since it doesn't have a damage aura, can make good use of Frozen Aura, which will sleep mobs after it hits them for damage, as long as you don't have the Ice Patch down knocking them over.

This can allow you to keep one spawn (or some of it, at least) flopping around on the Ice Patch, and another spawn slept, making you pretty safe.

2) Elec Armor is a weird beast. It's good on Tankers, especially when combined with Tough from the fighting pool, I'm just not all that thrilled with my Elec/DB Tanker (though that could be more to do with the /DB part of it). I think that it'll do fine on any of those ATs, but I've never tried it on a Scrapper.

Welcome to the game, EvilDonald!