Blue_Centurion

Either this is a really crappy/boring question or there is no way a tank can solo AE unless 50 I/O'd out. I just want a reasonable return of experience for time invested, and most importantly, the ability to solo. But hey, I realize that farmerz killd th thang. So, I guess teaming (with all that can mean) is all a tank can do.

I was never a great AE farmer, just roamed in because the experience was better (and the mission localized). Over the last month I did 50 a blaster using the Kayzee 5 res buff 5 def buff mish. Got a few 40s out of it too. It was still a grind, just faster and easier than teaming. The way AE is set now I will not be using it anymore though. Better experience/treasure/badges elsewhere. Oh, I do like having an inspiration store on every map. Kind of funny that they built a whole bldg on each map for me to get inspirations from though.

yeah, I have 2 end red in Shadow Maul, and one each in the other two punches. My 2 vet attacks both suck end, so when I kick into full damage mode my blue drops pretty fast. On a team I try to just hit little attacks to taunt, run my AoE damage aura, and control the combat as much as a lowbie tank can rather than keep up with blasters/scrappers for killing potential.

huff huff huff, okay at 12th lol. Right, AE is nerfed. To clarify, I have a 50 tank, I have many 40 tanks, I have many 50 redsiders (mostly brutes). And final clarificcation, the dark/dark is a concept toon, so I am happy with the powers. The idea about pairing dark armor with something else is okay, but I acrtually klike the End Rech attack in dark melee, and the buff is great for supercharging the AoE in dark armor ( a primary damage dealer of the build )

Yes, teaming is going well. (Except for the PUG this morning where a teammate felt they had to explain in great detail what a pull is, only to have the rest of the team ignore every word) Ah, the cities lol.

Loving the PBAoE heal, hating to need it every minute and a half. Hating CoT for debuffing my aim so much it doesnt work. Gonna try some TF this weekend. Have DO end reducers in everything right now. (5 in my AoE dam toggle, 3 in each of the 2 shields I run right now) Still running end short, probably will for at least another eight levels until stamina, and maybe until after SOs. Plan to keep cramming more end red on my toggles through the late teens.

Thanks for the advice. Too bad about AE, that buff mish I 50d my blaster on was sweet, got a few 40s off it too to explore build ideas, and all in a couple weeks semi-casual runs. Best part - no teammates! Ah well, those Halcyon days are gone, and it has been pointed out that a tank is nothing without a team.

Aha, I see now they have gone half way to correcting the problem they created with AE. Now if they just stop having it give rewards at all they will be sublimely amused. Makes you wonder what genius tabled the AE idea at a meeting and the various derf headed responses that it got.

Now if they would just stop creating large sections of the game that they later remove, and improve some basic stuff.... oh wait, I keep expecting things to make sense. NVM

Does anyone know a good story # for a solo lowbie tank? I am struggling leveling because it's a dark/dark build. I prefer to run solo, but usually do it using blasters/scrappers/brutes. Any help is appreciated.

Here is what I like to call a "Meta Idea". It can be applied to everything in the cities, but Ice offers a great example. Have different "tracks" for a powerset. If you envision the standard Ice Tanker, fine, you got your build. However, if you want to ditch all those cool control powers, take the Icy Fist track, and freeze/smash to your hearts content. The stuff would be high damage single target smash/cold, with secondary effect a tiny amount of stackable slows.

Apply this idea to every build/set in the game to allow more diversification within an already developed structure and you have the meta idea!

I've done a lot of evil and stupid things in the past, but giving my account to someone else is never going to be one of them.

I do a lot of solo PLing using some favorite AE missions. Problem is the tanker does crap for damage at low levels. So my favorite mish is just going nowhere.

I hate being team dependent. The mishes I have found in AE are not spectacular, but I can 50 one in a lazy after works hours week if its a brute, blaster, or scrapper. All without ever having to deal with team drama.

Unfortunately, with my dark/dark I will probably start standard teaming, and as second string tank at that. Argh. Ah well, concept toons require a little more I guess.

Sorry, I was not clear. With a Invul or Willpower Tank, I understand the build. This is a dark/dark. It is very hard (for me) due to end management. I think I will be okay after 35 when the later powers come in. But until then I really do not feel strong enough to tank for a team.

Are there any solo AE missions that are tank friendly? (through bubblers/buffs, etc?)

Okay, I have short attention span theatre. After a trip to the sewers I am at level 8. I want to level a dark/dark tank fast. Very fast. Usually when I want a 50 on blueside I just solo a few AE runs I like. Is the only fast leveling for a tank to get on a AE team?

I built the willpower brute for global rech. As a SS/Will brute he is in the top 5 damage dealers when built this way. The tier 9 is therefore very important. I will be at my game in about 4 hours and will post the actual down time using a good old fashioned stopwatch.

Find a AE mission (or create one) with bubblers. collect them on the map, and then hit start to spawn the rest of the map. Use a damage dealing class, Corruptors and Blasters are probably fastest. Since your res and def are capped by the bubblers, start killing. Kill one levels worth, hit end, collect tickets, level, restart. Takes abut 2-3 days semi-casual play. With lots and lots of coffee and motivation could probably do a 50 in 24 hours straight or less. But I drink Beer and F that.

On my main, a SS/Will brute, I soloed the entire game, at standard setting. When I say the entire game, I mean every story arc, every contact. Took a little over 2 months, and I had to suspend earning experience about 3 times in the early levels. Now any brute before 20 (pre-stamina) is at a disadvantage. Our main power comes from the rage bar, but we have to keep stopping to rest. Ain't life a bummer Still, it is doable, just takes a while longer. Do not ask me why I did this, we all have our own brand of crazy.

Now after 20 things got way easier for my WP brute. Not sure your shielder willl have the same experience. The only shielder I have leveled was in AE, and that is a different experience entirely.

The only problems in the later game came with heroes like Valkyrie, a true B!t@#. To be honest, I saved those fights for after I leveled, effectively making them -1/+0 without ever once in my career going to the fateweaver.

Now, I have a lot of experience redside, and most of these fights were not new to me. I have soloed 1-30 previously on various brutes, but always got distracted. And since I have a number of 30+ toons, and a few 50s I had experienced a portion of the later game content as well. So experience helps. But in truth, my most valuable tool was a +stealth enhancer i dropped into fly from freebird. I could "brute stealth" most glowie or kill boss group missions. The few random minions I ran into that saw me I just let whoop on me as I raced to my target. THe opposite of scrapperlock basically. I goal oriented every mish that was not a kill all. At below 20 most brutes (at the correct setting) can do this with simply running. Minions should mean nothing to a brute, LTs basically nothing with jam.

Just posted this to brag, er, I mean let you know it is very doable. GL, and keep going. If you love the concept, victory is in your sights.

Surviving thr Unstoppable crash is only part of the battle. Say you are a 50, and have lots of inspiration room. Most Invulnerabilty builds are end heavy, especially brute ones, cause you are spamming the big attacks. Invul gives no end mitigation power, so you are always treading water. There are a couple primaries that work really sweet with Invul (like Dark Melee), but mostly you are dependent on Inspirations to reblue you at the end of the crash. You can continually buy/create the ethereal shift and carry tons of inspirations only used for crashes. In this case you are using most of your inspiration tray for crash mitigation.

1) One, getting away. If you (your team) did not kil the entire spawn/the AV/end the mish you gotta shake a ton of agro and find a hole to get well. There is the ethereal shift method, or you can start looking around 20 secs before the crash, stop spamming AoE, try to finish whatver boss might follow you. Basically, start fighting defensively, stop bruting. This does not help the team, it is all about you. I ran a SS/Invul as my main for the first year I layed, I used unstoppable, this is a very tough period in the game. Team wipe can be right around the corner, especially if you are the lead brute. Also, if your safe spot has squishies in it, then FU to them.

2) Say you survived part one. Time to get well. If you did the ethereal shift you can only use inspirations, no resting in the ethereal. If you did not go ethereal, and if you were not trailed by too many uglies, you can rest. This takes about a minute, but is a lot friendlier on the inspiration storage. Bad news: Team could be dieing.

2A) If you needed Unstoppable the fight was probably going pretty damn rough. If it is any type of long term problem (you did not hit it just to absorb the alpha on one mob) then your team is probably in deep crap. Even if you hit it for the Alpha on a particularly nasty spawn, if not enough of them were killed/controlled/whatver, your team could now die.

3) Back to the fight. So, for whatever reason you survived. So, Whatever it took you are now at good health/end. You are almost always out of position now, you are cold (rage gone), and now you gotta draw agro back onto yourself. If it is one AV, not too hard. Most brutes do nt use taunt, so if it is scattered mobs its time for the track and field smack fest around the map. (this does not build rage either, usually)

So, compare that with the tier 9 off of Willpower. A simple 2 minute everything in my life gets better. At the end of which a significant end hit. Wait, end hit?, a WP brute laughs off an end hit. So it is a freebie, neve even leave combat. Just make a mental nte when the tier 9 drops that maybe i shouldnt solo that fresh mob of +4 cims without some backup.

I'll check again (on holiday and away from my game) and time it. Seriously, I can hit that tier 9 like a minute after it drops (from memory, again) I have 4 purple set bonuses for global recharge and the LOTG global. I just assumed that was what is affecting the speed of the recharge, maybe my account is just bugged. I guess I thought that because everything got soooooo much faster. I normally run double rage, and my attack chain is pretty much my 5 strongest attacks.

Sure, here is my final reply. I will no longer post here for at least a few days. (in this thread). Stop insulting people. There, that is the post. I have said everything I need to say before, and multiple times/ways to clarify for you. Lets stop wasting peoples time.

Okay, I have not put this in Mids, so I will just ask you. How is it for end issues?

Now you guys have me wanting to set up a Dark Armor/Dark melee tank concept toon. Hmmm, Malkavian Vampire with a "I see dead people" fixation. Heh, goes off wringing his hands and laughing.

wow, I thought you would pop up with just insults. Then I would either leave the post, or apologize to everyone else trying to read and leave the post. In fact you tried to read for comprehension, of course then you started in on the insults. But okay, here goes.

1) Any post to any thread, if no quotes are made, can be assumed to be talking specifically to the original post in the thread. If you read mine (and I see now you have) it does.

2) I play the ITF regularly. It has lag. It has stupid lag. If (if) the Devs fixed this, they fixed it like a retarded chimpanzee with a wrench trying to fix the space station. In other words, without hypebole, and to be clear, they failed to fix the lag problem in the ITF.

3) lastly, and back on point. I love that Devs want to give us new powersets/do powerset proliferation. Unfortunatey, IMO, they have somehow found the least loveable powerset to give to Brutes, a "tons of KB" "Higher Range" set. Combine this with the fact that it is new, and that people are getting 50s out of AE in days so they do not understand how to play them, and you end up with a recipe for high level teams having the perfect storm of bad players. New, high level, not understanding that their toon is working against the team, and with a buttload of ability to make the team's job harder. So, do I think the Devs could have spent their time more wisely, oh H--- yes.

Actually I was talking about dark armor. From what I understand Dark Melee is a top damage dealing choice, especially when in a 10+ spawn. I think with Dark Armor you are almost wedded to Dark Melee because of end issues, but there are probably a couple other sets that would work with it.

Actually, you can try to treat me like a fool. Says tons about you and not a thing about me. Read my original post, read the rest of the posts in this thread. My response is set in that context.

If you jump into a conversation, pretending that nothing was said before, and start criticizing the speaker you show your level of communication.

As far as Invul tier 9 and the lag in the ITF, if you read my post, you would realize those are examples of what I would personally like to see the Devs working on. I think that would be so much better than wasting time creating a team unfriendly power set, the brute equivalent of energy blasters.

I am not sure if I am a pessimist or a realist, but I think this will have zero effect. Having said that, I have to try.

For the Invincibility powerset, the tier 9 power "Unstoppable" is unusable. I have shelved my 2 50s who use this set. The rest of the set is fine, even with no Psi p;rot, I can see the game balance issue there. However, making the tier 9 have such a dramatic crash that it either 1)effectively kills you, or 2)you rescue yourself but your team loses the lead tank/brute for a minute +, or 3) By some miraculous happenstace you timed how long it would take to kill the spawn/finish the mish/kill the AV in the next 3 minutes perfectly just seems blatantly unfair. THis is supposed to be the crowning jewel of the powerset. You do not know how many posts from Invul users say "I do not use this power" It seems crazy to take a powerset that lacks even a decent tier 9, much less a horrid one. Any actually reading of this by a Dev is appreciated. No response is necessary. I really just hope someone is listening.

I wholeheartedly disagree. The more I invested in my SS/Will Brute, the more his tier 9 became useful. With a 2 min godmode (for WP, more like godling) and a negligible crash, it is worth it. Having invested in 4 purple sets and LOTG my global rech is solid. That tier 9 pops up a minute or so after it drops, so approximately 2/3 of the time I can be in tier 9, with no real end concerns. That ain't throwaway unless you know something I do not. Since my brute is built to do damage and not as much for res/def (according to research on scrapper board one of the top 5 melee damage dealers when built for rech) I need the kind of protection that tier 9 gives. And i use it, i use it regular, and can wade into stupid situations because of it. At the end of the ITF I regularly split from the group and solo a giant mob on a building top using tier 9. Just jump in and solo a huge spawn of Cims. Without tier 9 I could not do that without worries. Unless I built for res/def, in which case I would not grind them nearly as fast.

So, all tier 9s are throwaways because the Devs cannot fix Invulnerability's? Not in my experience.

[QUOTE=Clouded;2755490]Wow, is it possible to have this much ignorance?

Go wiz up a stick until you feel the rain.