Call Me Awesome

It's a judgment call really. Nerve's primary benefit, more accuracy, generally isn't that valuable on a mature build but it does have some nice secondary benefits. I've never taken it on a character yet but I can understand the logic.

For most characters I tend to think either Cardiac or Spiritual depending on what that character's needs are. My Inv/Stone went T4 Cardiac while my Stone/Fire went T3 Spiritual. The bottom line is that you've played that character up from level 1 and you know where your holes are; plan your Alpha to fill some of those holes.

Ok, I'm going to go against the advice you've gotten earlier and suggest NOT getting willpower for a first tanker because it's far more difficult to hold aggro with and demands a higher level of skill on the tanker's part in order to actually tank. I see WP as a "scranker" set (something that plays like a lower damage scrapper) rather than an aggro controlling tanker.

Willpower is a solid and durable set true enough... however it's taunt aura isn't just weaker, it's actually only about 10% as effective as any other aura. (1.25 second duration MAG 3 vs a minimum of 13.6 second duration MAG 4) You will have to rely on a strong AOE secondary in order to hold aggro at all and you'll still loose it to other teammates on a regular basis. Frankly I've only ever seen one WP tanker who could reliably hold the aggro of a spawn in the face of a high damage team and even he couldn't keep aggro away from my Shield scrapper. Admittedly my Shield scrapper doesn't need anyone to keep aggro from him; he's more than tough enough to handle it AND he has a very strong taunt aura. Still, WP is the only tanker primary I can reliably steal aggro from on that scrapper.

I would suggest Invuln as your first tank actually; it's more durable and generally just as "set and forget" as WP while having one of the best taunt auras in the game. You'll have a lot easier time with aggro and with a decent build (and it doesn't have to be extravagant) you'll easily handle anything you come across.

Secondary wise I'd advise against Energy Melee (I have that at 50 and it's definitely a bottom feeder nowadays) but really anything else will serve you well. A secondary with AOE capability will assist you in aggro management and decent damage is always a plus... good choices there are Fire or Electric. If you want a bit more mitigation then something with soft controls comes in handy like Stone Melee, Dark Melee or Ice Melee. Super Strength is the classic pairing with Inv and it's good; it just takes until level 38 before you get any AOE... but when you get there it's a good one.

Agreed with BS/Shield; mine is my favorite scrapper and highly durable. As Local mentioned Parry allows you more room in your build for set bonuses since you won't need to build melee defense. I used Mako's Bite and Scirocco's Dervish on mine to build my Range/AOE defense and slotted Gift of the Ancients in my shields to take care of any endurance issues.

Stone/Fire is a highly capable combination that's extremely durable on straight SO enhancements, I have one at 50 that's been a good performer. I consider Fire Melee the best pairing for Stone Armor; it's high damage, considerable AOE and very good single target yet it completely lacks any form of mitigation beyond simple damage. That's fine as a mature Stone tanker has little need of any mitigation; it's already nigh unkillable.

With all that said Stone armor is one of the most difficult sets to play because of it's mobility penalties. You're pretty much locked into teleport for combat mobility as you're slow moving (absent massive IO bonuses or team buffs) and incapable of jumping over any obstacle without first toggling off your Mez protection (Rooted). Later on you pay for your unequaled durability in Granite by adding a damage and recharge penalty on top of your mobility penalty. On the other hand those penalties are a part of having the most durable tanker in the game.

If you're just starting off I'd suggest another primary without all the drawbacks... it'll be easier to play and you'll probably have more fun. Invulnerability is typically regarded as second in durability to Stone and it has none of the penalties. On basic SO enhancements Invuln is a good bit behind Stone but once you add IO bonuses the gap closes up. In the low level game (pre-32) Invuln is considerably tougher than Stone and in the end game it can be built to withstand anything the game can throw at it.

Shield is another fun primary; it's not as tough as Invuln but it's certainly a capable tank and it does offer really good damage output. It's primarily a defense based tanker so it'll struggle some in the early going. Sets that rely on defense primarily always seem squishy until their defenses mature while those that rely on resistance do better in the early game. Later on defense comes into it's own and becomes massively effective... that's part of what makes Invuln and Stone so powerful, they have a combination of strong resistance, good defense and healing.

Really any primary can be made to work for anything you might want to do, some will require more work and/or a different playstyle. On the question of secondary sets the only stinker in the bunch (IMO having played it to 50) is Energy Melee. I've run Energy, Stone and Fire melee to 50 and Electric Melee to 37. Of those my favorites are Stone Melee and Fire Melee. The Electric is coming along and it's a fun set but I still give Fire the nod since it likewise has loads of AOE yet it doesn't sacrifice single target damage like Elec does.

I've had Unstoppable in and out of my build several times over the years. Frankly ever since issue 13 and the Invuln/IO changes I've found it to be fairly useless... an Invuln who's soft capped to S/L/E/N will very rarely find it to be of any use and for those few situations where it might have been useful the judicious use of an inspiration or two generally takes care of the problem.

Currently CMA doesn't have Unstoppable and I don't miss it. In roughly 70 trials I haven't found a situation yet where it would be a better choice than simply popping an inspiration. The only real problem is in Lambda dealing with all those Seers and their psi/end drain; that's something that Unstoppable won't help much with.

The crash can be managed sure, but I personally don't feel that it's benefits justify the nuisance of dealing with it's crash. Back prior to issue 13 it was a different story as you simply couldn't build to the same level of durability you can now. I'd only take it on a tanker nowadays if I wasn't going to invest in the IO bonuses needed to boost at least S/L defense close to 45%.

Buying an off brand PSU would worry me a lot; I've had several of those fail in short order as many manufacturers cheap out on the build quality. That's one area of the computer where I never cut corners.

I'd spend another $10 and get something like this from Antec in the same power rating.

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Which is exactly the same unit that Dissolution was suggesting.

The biggest factor is that you must be on the ground... if you hop over a curb you're subject to KB. Personally I'd snag a KB IO to cover those situations.

I've had no KB problems with my Spine/Elec scrapper although I have slotted one KB IO in addition to grounded.

Wow, I had to make a search of the forum to find any mention of discounts on server transfers. I had little difficulty finding out about the discounted character slots but finding the bit on server transfers and add on packs wasn't at all obvious.

The NCSoft launcher talks about the anniversary and looking further it mentions character slots. No mention of transfers or add ons on the home page and the link in the launcher takes you to the news archive discussing character slots... there's no mention of transfers or add on packs.

You'd think that if they were running a special to try and get players to spend more money with them that they might want to actually let the players know about the special? Yeah, I know... dumb idea.

If I, as a player who's active on the forums and reads them daily didn't know about the discount on anything other than character slots how do they expect the masses of players who don't follow the forums closely to actually spend money with them? I found one announcement (rather cryptically titled) that mentioned transfers and I had to go looking for that.