Call Me Awesome

It may be having issues, I just logged in but it took 5 minutes for the username/password screen to come up. My connection is just fine; while I was waiting I ran a speed test on my line and got 25 Mbs down/4 Mbs up.

It isn't cheap, but here's my current build with CMA, it's been unkillable so far with the occasional insp for very tough content:

It's ok, a relatively quick TF dealing with a Sky Raider/Praetorian threat to the US Navy. While it isn't one of my favorite TF's I've done it several times and it isn't bad by any means.

You start by clearing the Raiders and a group of WarWalkers from a group of Navy cruisers, then go on to defeat an offshore invasion. Typically it will take ~45 minutes on average to complete, less if you speed it and more if you take your time and kill all.

I believe it came in with the Going Rogue (issue 18) release.

For pure survivability nothing else in the game (except Phantom Army) equals a Stone tanker in Granite+Rooted. Even on SO enhancements with a decent build that's an unkillable brick wall. On the other hand you pay for that durability with penalties to recharge, damage output and especially mobility. I've taken Stone to 50 twice, once as Stone/Energy (do yourself a favor and avoid this combo) and once as Stone/Fire, a MUCH better choice. I enjoyed the set but I admit the drawbacks get frustrating at times.

Second to Stone with none of the drawbacks is a well built soft capped Invuln tanker; in my opinion the best all around tanking set. It combines 90% Smash/Lethal resistance with decent defense to all damage types but Psi (which is rare enough to be a non-issue 99% of the time). Adding a moderate amount of IO sets raises your defenses to the 45% soft cap creating something almost as tough as Stone with full mobility, recharge and damage output. Invuln is my favorite tanker set and my namesake was my first 50 and is my go-to character for a tough tanking job.

Willpower can be quite durable but it suffers from by far the worst aggro abilities of any of the tanker sets... it's aura is 10% as effective as any other set. I wouldn't suggest WP if you intend to be a team meatshield tanker; it's much less suited to the task. I've not played one myself to any significant level but I've never teamed with one who could do more than a mediocre job at aggro control. Unfortunately Willpower offers great durability yet lacks the tools to make use of that durability in protecting the team.

Shield with very minor IO sets can soft cap it's defenses and it does have moderate resistances to back them up. It's one of the most offensive builds with a damage boosting aura and a massive AOE attack. Durability wise it falls in somewhat below Invuln but it's quite capable of handling most anything you'd throw at it. I've taken a Shield/Fire to 50 and while it isn't as tough as Invuln I've managed to tank most everything in the game with it.

Ice is your aggro king; you get the fastest cycling taunt aura in the game to instantly grab attention and another damaging aura to lock it down hard. Once an Ice tanker gets aggro nothing is going to get it away. On the other hand Ice comes with a bit less durability than Shield so you can occasionally get in over your head. Still, while my Ice/Electric tank is only 39 right now I'm not having any real issues with him. I see no reason why a well built Ice shouldn't be up for nearly any challenge... it'll just need a bit more care than a Stone or Invuln.

That's the sets I have much experience with; I know of a couple of Fire tankers who are incredibly durable but they've dumped many billions of inf into their builds. With a more realistic build Fire's going to be a good bit squishier than the leading sets. I hear good things about Dark but it's one of the rarer sets so I haven't seen it in action much at high levels. Electric has good resistances and with a high end build adding considerable amounts of defense it's another beast... at it's base levels of performance it's a middle of the pack set.

With the targeting is it possible you accidentally hit whatever button you've bound to target_next (tab by default) or target_closest? I've done that myself a time or two; also I occasionally line up a cone, the target dies as I hit the attack and I lock onto a loner behind me and let fly with the cone.

Inspirations don't take effect instantly; greens heal you but you can take damage faster than the heal gives it back, purples boost your def but an enemy who's queued an attack as you pop it gets to make his attack roll before the insp takes effect and so forth.

Power recharge lag is usually caused by server side lag; Rikti Invasions, Mothership Raids and the third mission of the ITF are classic cases of this. Any time there's lots of players and/or enemies in a relatively close area with lots of power effects going off you're likely to get server lag.

Absolutely no question... the +regen side is far superior. With the +HP you get a fixed HP boost that rapidly decays to negligible amounts. The +regen side starts out with Instant Healing level of regeneration and drops to roughly willpower levels for half it's duration finishing out with +200% at the tail end.

The Rebirth Radial tree is so startlingly superior to the Core tree that something really seems amiss in the design of the power. The Core tree doesn't even boost HP according to AT modifiers, it's a fixed amount for all AT's. You'll gain much more HP over the duration with the Radial thanks to it's regeneration.

As a point of clarification, unless things have changed the game does not count healing for badge purposes beyond an AT's base HP. An example of this is that as a tanker I only got credit for damage and others only got credit for healing me up to my base HP... the boosted HP from accolades and Dull Pain were ignored for those badges. This was extensively tested in the old damage farms where one character stands in lava while another has heal other on auto.

It's always possible this has changed but that's how it worked back prior to issue 9; I haven't checked it since.

Since you're a returning player chances are you have a freespec from previous issues waiting on your characters. Because these don't stack and you're going to get another when issue 21 drops it's a "use it or loose it" situation. To check if you have a freespec on your character simply type /respec in the chat window... if it takes you into the respec screen then you have a freespec. If it says something about needing to see Jack Wolf in Galaxy City then you don't have one. If you do have a freespec I suggest using it to make any changes you need now, then you can use the freespec that'll come with issue 21 to tweak things for the new issue.

Important! Download Mid's Hero Designer to work out your new build and Titan Sentinel to export your current, live build into Mid's before you start your respec. It's amazingly easy to screw up a build if you don't have a design worked out ahead of time.

Any time I'm forming a TF I'll take pretty much whoever asks until the TF is full. Frequently I have someone ask me what we need... I usually comment with a general "we have X and Y and could probably use Z but bring whatever you like and we'll make it work". There's a VERY few cases where something specific is helpful; the Hami portion of the LGTF is REALLY tough without holds for the greens for example.

I like to have debuffs and damage on a team with a sprinkling of support (tank, buffs, etc) but all I really care about is a competent player behind the keyboard. Occasionally I get a rookie and that's fine, everyone needs to learn sometime. As long as they're willing to learn I don't have any problem.