Call Me Awesome

If he hasn't already done the first morality mission to reaffirm his hero alignment he'll need to do THREE; the LotG 7.5% recharge costs 2 hero merits, not one. While he can take the 50 reward merits and convert them to a hero merit this will cost him 20 million... since his problem is a lack of funds he needs to get 2 A-Merits the cheap way.

Ultimo, the way tips work in case you didn't know already:

• They drop from any enemy over level 20. Yes, you can kill a level 20 in Talos with your level 50 and you DO have a chance for a tip to drop.

• Do 5 tip missions choosing "hero" alignment the first day, then do 5 the next day and you'll get your morality mission. Do that and you'll get 50 normal reward merits.

• On the third day do another 5 tips, then 5 more on the 4th day and the morality mission, this time you'll get a hero merit.

• Repeat this until you have two hero merits and go to the hero base in Atlas Park... it's by the lake on the shore closest to city hall.

• Go to the vendor, it's a box next to the robot "Bolter" and buy a level 25 Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge recipe.

• Take this recipe to Wentworths and check on the price it's going for as a recipe and what it sells for as a crafted IO... it'll cost maybe 4 million to craft including salvage, probably considerably less so check if it's worth it to sell crafted or not. If the recipe sells for around 120 million and crafted it sells for 150 million that makes your decision pretty easy. If the recipe sells for 130 and crafted it's 135 then it may not be worth crafting for sale.

• When it sells collect your inf and then start shopping

I'd be very surprised if you couldn't buy most of the recipes I recommended in my soft cap guide and craft them for what you just made... you'll be amazed at how much tougher your tanker will be. It's almost like having Unstoppable running as a toggle.

Inf is easy to come by at 50; just running typical missions on a team should get you at least 2 million per hour not including drops. An ITF is usually worth at least 3 million inf plus whatever drops.

As Jetpack mentioned you could run Tips and collect 2 Alignment merits in 4 days, then cash them in for a level 25 Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge recipe. That should sell for between 100 million and 150 million all by itself... and you should be able to complete a decent IO build for an Invuln for that much.

Like many sets Ill/Rad gets better as you level up and better still with IO bonuses.

Like Local said you'll want to use your debuffs and Deceive is a great power... it's effective the entire way to 50 to "recruit" assistance and take a problematic mob out of the fight. It's also no-aggro, so you can sit there and stack it on a boss without drawing attention.

One trick that works well is to deceive a mezzer or Malta Sapper and watch him mez/drain his buddies. I usually use a chain in the low levels of PA, Deceive, debuffs on a boss or LT... typically the one I deceived , Blind/Spectral Wounds on another handy mob until everything but the debuff anchor's dead. Then it's Blind/SW/another attack or just wait and repeat until the boss is dead.

In order to get perma-PA you need ~206% global recharge (including Hasten and AM) and PA slotted to ED cap recharge. Obviously this gets into pretty serious IO set bonuses and isn't cheap. Still, it doesn't have to cost billions either. At a rough guess 500 million - 800 million should get it done.

Check out Local Man's guide for more specifics, he knows far more about Ill/Rad than I do; I've picked his brain quite a bit while building my Ill/Rad.

Oh I'm not questioning that it's an effective build, just that the cost/benefit ratio is pretty bad. If the OP really wants to invest that much into the character then yes, it will work. I just think that he can get about the same result for vastly less effort and influence

Yes, I'd agree here. I've been stockpiling LotG 7.5% IO's for some time now... admittedly also slotting them on other characters. Each one only represents 4 days of work, typically about 40 minutes per day. You can also accumulate them with multiple characters, something you can't do for the PvP IO's since you can't trade or email A-Merits... you have to accumulate all of them on a single character.

I think we mostly agree Obitus; the build the OP had is effective, but that 99.99% of that effectiveness can be had for VASTLY less effort.

Quite so, the extra defense was mainly incidental in my slotting, not really what I was going after.

I've put in a few recharge bonuses, as I mentioned the 4 LotG 7.5% and a few others but I wasn't really after huge recharge. I'm hardly saying that "Thou Shalt Always Build Thy Shield Tanker This Way", just that it's a way I found effective. I may well end up revising things somewhat, in fact that's a given with issue 19, and that will probably end up giving me a bit more recharge.

The bottom line with a Shield tank is you have lots of options since you don't need to devote as much effort to defense.

Now really where did this come from? There are always top end players and builds, and there always will be. Just because person "x" can't do something doesn't mean person "y" also can't. The game mechanics work just the same for everyone. A casual player on straight SO enhancements deals with the precise same tohit and accuracy mechanics that an optimized extreme IO build character does.

I guess the thread's drifting from incorrect assumptions on the part of the OP into irrelevancies of what high end players can do. A very few select players have managed to solo virtually everything in the game short of Hamidon. Heck, I've soloed a lot of content with some of my more powerful characters; I do have a perma-PA Ill/Rad as well as numerous soft capped high damage characters. I wouldn't try some of the things others have pulled off though, primarily because it isn't worth the time and effort to me... not because they're impossible. I'll also freely admit that there are players more skilled than I am, and I can respect that.

Knowing that a very few dedicated players can pull off amazing things gives others something to shoot for and in my opinion is a good thing; but the rest of the players are still capable of managing nearly anything in the game if they play well and have a decent team; they don't even need to have an uber-fantastic build.

Yes, dedicated players will have better characters than casual ones, that's the nature of every game out there. Even back when SO's were the best there was a dedicated player simply built and played his character better than a casual player did.

Well, for slotting you could do something like in my soft cap guide; while things have gone up in price since I wrote it most of the items are still relatively affordable. You can't do it for 20 million anymore, but with some patience you could probably do it for around 100.

I'm still pondering the changes with i19 (I assume that's what you meant, not i17), one of the things that comes to mind is that it's going to open up my build rather dramatically.

Looking over your basic slotting you certainly need to make some changes; at the least Dull Pain needs recharge, your attacks need accuracy and Fly only needs a single slot now to hit the speed cap. I'm really not a fan of Hand Clap; it's always struck me that the last thing I want is to send all the mobs bunched close around me flying to the 4 corners of the map.

You do know that you'll need 35 A-merits for that Glad Armor? And that you can earn ONE every two days? 70 days is one helluva lot of work to fall under the category of "affordable". Even if you do the "convert merits + 20 million inf route you're only cutting that time in half and still spending 250 million in conversion costs. I do use A-merits for things like LotG 7.5% recharge and a few other very expensive normal IO's but those only cost 2 A-merits.

I think you'll do better to swap some things around and accept a lower defense to the very rare F/C damage types. Slotting the full Mocking Beratement set in Taunt for example will gain you 2.5% S/L and 3.125% F/C defense along with another 7.5% recharge... and it's dirt cheap. You can pick up significant E/N defense with a full set of Thunderstrike... 3.75% worth of it.

Personally I just can't see using the Glad Armor proc; it's way too expensive in terms of either influence or time for the amount of benefit it provides. I always look at that and think "I can fully slot out 5-10 level 50 characters with optimal IO builds for what that one IO costs". I seldom have more than 300 million - 500 million in a complete build.

Minor quibble here, you don't really need defense bonuses in your shields; a SD tanker is close enough to the soft cap on SO's that you can focus on other bonuses instead. I would most definitely save two slots for resistance; it provides a significant boost to S/L resistance.

Agreed

Um, I have to disagree with this, the GotA set gives you recovery and bonus endurance... two things I find HIGHLY useful in completely eliminating all endurance problems. A SD tanker's defense is high enough just slotting your shields to ED caps that you'll only need a few extra % in bonuses... they're easily and fairly cheaply gotten with your attacks.

If that's your build goal then by all means. I didn't get Hasten in my i18 SD/Fire tanker's build but I'll be considering it for i19. I did toss 4 LotG +rchg IO's in, and I've a few other recharge bonuses amounting to a bit under 40%.

Agreed, but if you have the slots Grant Cover increases it's debuff resistance by the amount of defense slotted into it, so it's useful to have if you have the slots. Take care of everything else first though.

I have a different approach here; on a shield character I use my shields for GotA slotting to handle all my endurance issues and use my attacks to pick up the minor additional defense needed... my SD/Fire tanker is around 46%-50% to all positions. I generally go with Pyre mastery for more damage & a ranged AOE attention-getter... therefore I solve my end issues without resorting to Physical Perfection.

Just as an example of what the GotA set 4 slotted in all the shields will do, my BS/Shield scrapper has infinite endurance sustainability while running 9 toggles and attacking full bore. I do have the Miracle and Numina uniques but I don't have any epic pool. My SD/Fire tanker is lighter on end so I only have the Numina on him and I've yet to run my blue below 75%.

Let's see, for defense bonuses on my SD/Fire tank I have one set of Touch of Death, one set of Mako and 3 sets of Multi Strike along with the Steadfast 3% unique... that puts me over the soft cap with Combat Jumping and Weave and leaves lots of room for other bonuses not directly related to survival.

Remember AV's resist debuffs, and he's +4 so he'll resist them a lot. That's gonna make keeping out of his range pretty tough. I did try range tanking him once with CMA, he hit me with his Channelgun end drain, my blue bar went bye bye and I dropped to his feet with no end and no toggles. Needless to say it didn't take him long to introduce me to the dirty floor of his courtyard.

While it's a great power and well worth the price of the MA pack I really think it's horribly out of character for a James Bond homage character. Bond's a highly cultured and sophisticated English gentleman, not a ninja.

"Dry martini shaken, not stirred" doesn't go with ninja run.

Bond wasn't real big on martial arts as a rule, he had all the toys instead and that little pea shooter Walther PPK. I seem to recall he spent a good bit of time getting his butt kicked when he'd get into a fight with one of the major baddies... Jaws comes to mind. Bond pounded on him for a while and Jaws just looked at him, then grabbed him and cold cocked him.

Bond was definitely a brains character rather than a brawn one. Of course he WAS easily distracted by the girl

I'm always happy to see a good dark defender on a team; they really do bring a lot to the table. Dark's one of the two or three sets I most like to see on a team.

A D3 well played is an asset on any team. As I'm sure you know it's hardly a damage powerhouse even under optimal conditions but it is phenomenal at neutering mob's tohit. Mine's designed as a primary debuffer and before taking Fluffy into account I can maintain something just over -100% tohit debuff on a single foe and a bit over 50% tohit debuff on a group. Add that to Fearsome Stare, Tentacles and Tar Patch keeping them in a nice tight group and you're almost as good as a Controller.

I slot my D3 for tohit debuffs mainly, I only have damage in the ST blasts and Nightfall... Tentacles is slotted purely for debuff since it's damage stinks anyway. Fluffy is likewise slotted for debuff. My D3's pretty low damage output but I can make a huge difference on a team. Fortunately most PuG's nowadays are smart enough to know what a D3 brings to the table... and it 'ain't heals either. Debuffs, controls, some damage and defender level leadership buffs make a valuable teammate. Just look to someone else to do the killing.

Your best bet would probably be an Elec Armor with massive IO defense bonuses (and lots of insp use) or an Invuln scrapper with a lot of S/L/E/N defense and, possibly, Unstoppable. Shield might well manage with a lot of oranges/purples and big honkin' greens. You're still going to be hoping for a friendly RNG though; scrappers simply lack the hit points and resistances of tankers and damned few tankers can pull it off. You'll want to be as close to the 75% S/L/E/N resistance cap and the 45% (75% with the blue tower) defense soft cap as you can get and you're still going to take some nasty hits, just hopefully not 2 in a row.

Three of the buffed LR's heavy attacks will drop a Granite tanker so be careful and expect to die if the RNG isn't your best friend that run.

Well, I've done it many times with my Stone/Fire tank just using Granite/Rooted/Stone Skin and an occasional Earth's Embrace... usually I don't need to dip into my inspiration tray. Yes, he has dropped me twice in several dozen encounters (RNG hated me and he got me three times in a row before I could pop a green or EE). I have that tanker built primarily for recharge and runspeed instead of durability; any well built Granite tanker is such a huge overkill on the durability front already that it didn't make sense to me to go for still more. Instead I worked to fix the weaknesses.

I've also done it a bunch with CMA, my Inv/Stone tank but I do need a particular insp. loadout... typically 5 big oranges, 10 medium purples (all I need to soft cap at 75% tohit he has while the blue tower's up is one medium so I save the big ones for other characters) and a couple of big greens for when he gets lucky. Lately though he's taken to using his end drain attack in melee which can make things sticky; it'll almost drain you dry in one hit. Melee character + no endurance + Lord Recluse = a new job as a pavement inspector.

You could do it with a tough scrapper who had 75% defense to S/L/E/N or Melee/Range (while the blue tower's up, once the blue goes down you just need 45% like normal) and good resistances but you'd have much less margin for error than with a tanker. You're GOING to get hit by a bit over 10% of his attacks no matter what you do so you need resistance and healing in reserve. If he hits you twice with his heavier attacks before you get a chance to heal he WILL drop you.

If you specify no inspirations then you're pretty well limited to a Granite tanker, or an Invuln with Unstoppable provided you can kill all towers AND LR in the 3 minute window. Of course you could also get the "ethereal shift" temp power to have the 30 second phase shift period where you can wait out the crash, pop a blue and retoggle. Hmm, I may see a use for Unstoppable on CMA again after all these years. I've gotten along without it since issue 13 but now that I think of it ethereal shift does make it more attractive. Wouldn't work for a MoSTF run... though I've gotten that badge about 8 times so far on 4 characters so it's no big deal for me.

Let's see, my Mind/Kin 'troller has it twice, my Stone/Fire tanker has it 3 times at least, my Inv/Stone tanker has it twice and I think I got it on my Dark/Dark defender once. I tried a couple of times on my Ill/Rad controller but both times we had a teammate with a death wish.

Bottom line, there are going to be a few scrapper builds that could do the job barring a string of bad luck but it's going to be much tighter than using a tanker. LR is, outside of Hamidon, the most dangerous single mob I've faced when he's buffed by his towers. The ITF is usually a breeze by comparison and I've tanked that several times with my BS/SD scrapper. True, not as well as I could with a real tank but enough to do the job.

You could always play in windowed mode, even with the game occupying the entire screen you'll still have the taskbar and the clock on it in the lower right corner.

If I came off that way I apologize, it wasn't my intention. Addressing your question about A Merits you get them by doing 10 tip missions over 2 days time then doing an alignment mission to reinforce your alignment, either hero or villain. The first time you do this you get 50 reward merits (which are different than alignment or A Merits). Each subsequent time you do an alignment mission, which you can do every two days, you will get one A Merit. A Merits can be traded in for either specific recipes or random rolls for 5 rare recipes. Most of the expensive recipes cost two A Merits... things like Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge, Miracle Recovery and the like. That Gladiator's Armor proc is a PvP IO and it costs 35 A Merits; it would take you 60 days of work to buy it that way.

The Gladiator's Armor 3% defense proc is so very rare that it almost never appears on the market and in fact usually sells person to person for more than the maximum influence that one character can hold. It's by far the most valuable IO in the game; there's only two others that occasionally sell off market for over the influence cap while the Glad Armor proc almost always does.

Rare recipes on the market can go for 1 inf for the worthless ones (Calibrated Accuracy snipe and a few others) to 200 million for the valuable ones like the aforementioned Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge and the Miracle Recovery unique. Purples are the very rare sets and they can go as high as 500 million per recipe although some are much cheaper.

It's actually fairly easy to soft cap an Invuln without spending a fortune; my guide in my signature tells you the ingredients. I'd guess that you could soft cap with the IO's I suggest in my guide for around 100 million or less; the only really expensive item is the Steadfast 3% defense and you can get that with AE tickets rolling bronze recipes in the 15-20 range. Yeah, there's lots of junk there but there's several winners as well and the rolls only cost 60 tickets.

Looking at your latest build it's better, but you're still slotting several powers sub-optimally. One thing is that you want to 4 slot Reactive Armor in TI, Unyielding, Tough, RPD and one of the passives (By the rule of 5 you can only get a given bonus 5 times). Slot the Resistance, Resistance/Endurance, Resistance/Recharge and Resistance/Endurance/Recharge IO's from the set.

The Serendipity IO's you've slotted aren't giving you worthwhile bonuses; I'd suggest the Gift of the Ancients instead, it helps immensely in solving your endurance problems.

The Multi Strike set is cheap and it's great for some things but it doesn't have much recharge and it's bonuses aren't really ones you particularly need as an Invuln tanker. The Eradication set will work better... I know it's more expensive but it provides an endurance bonus and 3.125% E/N defense for slotting 3... just skip the quad (acc/dam/end/rech) as it's the most expensive. I'd suggest finishing out with something else, perhaps the Scirocco's Dervish for the regen bonus. Remember that you don't want to cheat your power's attributes when chasing bonuses so make sure you get 90%+ damage, at least 40% accuracy and endred along with good recharge. When I'm doing that I'll figure "I want set x and set y in this power, which IO's from these two sets give me the best enhancement?"

An Invuln tanker built to the guidelines in my soft cap guide won't need Maneuvers to soft cap S/L/E/N defense. F/C is a rare enough damage type that I don't worry about it; almost everywhere you encounter it it's also not very hard hitting.

Again if I was too critical in my first post I apologize; looking it over again I can see how you might have taken it that way. That wasn't my intent.

Um, just what are you going for here? On one hand it looks like you're going for cheap frankenslotting then you put in a 3 BILLION inf IO like the Glad Armor.

You're well short of the S/L resistance cap due to some... questionable slotting of your armors. Your slotting is all over the place and frankly doesn't make sense in a lot of places.

Looking at things from the top:

• Temporary Invuln really should be the first choice and should be slotted to ED cap resist, I recommend slotting all 4 resistance IO's in the Reactive Armor set.

• Resist Phys. Damage can delay until later and depending on need for a mule can stay with 1 slot or go with 4 Reactive Armor.

• Your single target attacks should get 4 Smashing Haymaker and fill out with other IO's, I usually use Pounding Slugfest Acc/Dam and Dam/End. Either that or go with a cheap frankenslot.

• Dull Pain really needs to be slotted to ED cap recharge and heal... 5 Doctored Wounds will do that nicely.

• Resist Elements is the single most skippable power in the entire set, put it off until later if you want it. Use it as a set mule for 4 Reactive Armor or leave it at the base slot.

• Unyielding needs 4 slots for Reactive Armor.

• Resist Energies is more valuable than Res Elements but the same comments apply.

• I would get Combustion earlier. I'd also get some recharge in it... I like to frankenslot Cleaving Blow and Eradication.

• Invincibility at level 47+ is best with 3 Cytoskeleton HO's; prior to that you could slot 4 Gift of the Ancients for more endurance or frankenslot.

• You're slotting Boxing? I'd use those slots elsewhere to better effect. Scorch, Fire Sword and Combustion could put them to better use.

• Tough I'd use 4 Reactive Armor in.

• Weave I'd put 4 Gift of the Ancients for more endurance.

• Tough Hide I'd either put 3 common defense IO's in or slot 4 Gift of the Ancients.

• Fire Sword Circle could, like Combustion, use more recharge. See my slotting suggestions earlier.

• Level 30 seems a long time to delay a travel power but that's up to you.

• Incinerate and GFS I'd slot like the other single target attacks.

• Maneuvers I'm not really a huge fan of but if you're taking it I'd either leave it at a base slot or slot 4 Gift of the Ancients.

• Fire Ball I'd 6 slot with Positron's Blast and a recharge... I'd do this by either removing Maneuvers or delaying it until 49.

So yeah, I'd say you need to start over from scratch on your build and forget about that Glad Armor proc; it's pure unobtanium. For the cost of that one IO I could completely slot out at least TEN invuln tankers.

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Actually you have zero purples on the build I'm looking at from your first post. In general purples aren't an ideal choice for an Invuln because their bonuses don't really do what you need done.