Call Me Awesome

It's the build as a whole that counts, not one particular IO. Is the tank already high level or is it still a lowbie? A character under 30 is generally better served with standard SO enhancements; I typically start thinking about IO builds about level 30.

In all honesty since you're just starting out again and have a lot of catch up to do you may want to spend some time just getting the feel of the game; I don't know when you quit playing but this isn't the same game now that it was a couple of years ago to say nothing of what it was at launch.

The whole gamut of powers, enhancements, IO bonuses and the like can be overwhelming if you take it all at once. Break things into smaller pieces and get used to playing the game before you get into really complex IO builds. Once you're ready for that my two guides should help your Invuln tanker, they're linked in my signature. I recommend you at least look through the first 20 levels guide even if you're already high level, it discusses the all-important foundation powers and provides a template to build your tank.

Oh, everyone on the boards uses an invaluable tool, Mid's Hero Designer in planning their builds. I'd recommend downloading it and working out your build. All the guides will reference this program and most will provide sample builds in Mid's format.

Well, you may want to check out my first 20 levels guide for some basic info on Invuln. Beyond that if you want to make your tanker as tough as you can look at my guide to soft capping an Inv tanker... both of these guides are secondary-neutral and apply to any Inv tanker.

I haven't played a /SS tanker to any significant level yet so my knowledge of that set is secondhand and/or theoretical. You'll absolutely want Knock Out Blow, Rage, Foot Stomp and you're stuck with Jab. I personally recommend that any tanker who intends to play the meatshield role to take Taunt; I can't help but believe that a 0 endurance, autohit ranged AOE attention getter with a range debuff is way too useful to skip. You won't want Hand Clap due to it's rather sizeable knockback and Hurl is questionable due to it's long animation.

Welcome back to the game and enjoy your stay.

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Just saw the bit about attack chains... really there's no "thou shalt use this attack, then this, then that" for any set except Dual Blades. Personally I tend to lead off with my largest AOE attack, so for /SS that would be Foot Stomp. After that use your single target attacks on a likely boss or LT and keep an eye on the rest of the team... if you get loose mobs attacking the squishies then taunt those mobs to get them to you. Other than that, just pound on the enemies and hit Foot Stomp as it recharges... as long as there's several mobs on you that is. Obviously use your strongest attacks as they're recharged and your lesser attacks as fillers.

Having played both a Fire/Shield and Spine/Regen scrapper let me say that the Fire/Shield dramatically outclasses the Spine/Regen in damage output, both single target and AOE. Fire Sword Circle recharges quickly and deals significant damage... additionally you have Shield Charge for more massive AOE goodness coupled with the damage buff of Against All Odds.

Twice isn't it? I thought it was killing the Nictus Rommie 5 times... you kill him 4 times in one ITF.

This may be, but you CAN have two monitors run different resolutions... I'm doing just that right now.

275GTX card
Display 1 - Asus 24" @ 1920x1080
Display 2 - Samsung 20" @ 1680x1050

The only catch is that if you run a program on Display 1 that reduces it's resolution to, say, 1024x768 it will likewise reduce the resolution of Display 2.

I've run dual boxed COH with one fullscreen on display 1 @ 1920x1080 and a second on display 2 @ 1680x1050. It takes a bit of finagling to get the second instance fullscreen on monitor 2 but it can be done. If you're dual boxing I will admit it's much easier in windowed mode though.

On my machine right now the taskbar and desktop programs are all on display 1 while display 2 is just an extension... I have the Weatherbug gadget, Ventrillo and Outlook up on the second display while Firefox is running on the primary.

I think you're getting into technical function while I'm talking about the practical effect... and the effect is to have two independent monitors even if they are interdependent at some level. After all, what we want is more screen real estate to put programs on; that's what we get. They need not run at the same resolution.

Hmm, I just loaded up Civ Call to Power and had no issues with dual screens. I'm not questioning that it may well happen with older games, just that I haven't seen it and I've been playing dual monitor since about '03.

Let's see, no issues with any of the Fallout series, Civilization 2-4 (haven't tried Civ1 in years), SWKOTOR 1 or 2, COH or Mass Effect 1. What games have you found problematic?


I solve the resolution problem by setting the game resolution to the same as the desktop resolution. If the game's old enough to only have specific preset resolutions I just ignore that it shrinks the resolution of the secondary monitor.

Anyway I think we may be moving a bit far afield from the OP's question. To the OP, if the instructions I gave originally don't solve your issue then make sure both monitors are connected to the primary video card. I doubt you'll have much problem with games and dual monitors unless you're playing games from WAY back.

In my opinion you should build for self-sufficiency; you won't always have a kin on the team and half the time you do they'll be one of the ones that won't use SB. Therefore I plan on handling everything out of my own resources.

TP is a near-must for a stone tanker for tactical mobility... it takes some getting used to but it works well once you get the hang of it. Granite is very useful of course, but many teams won't require that level of protection... I probably spend maybe 50% of my time outside of granite unless I'm on a big team and/or doing difficult content. Rooted however is inescapable outside of Granite and it slows your movement even more than Granite does.

Typically I'll start combat by TP'ing into a group and popping off an AOE to get their attention. I keep an eye on the rest of the team and if there's loose aggro I toss Taunt or a ranged attack out on the stragglers. Once the group we're working on is down or nearly so I TP into the next group and repeat the process.

I've a friend who's always way too aggressive so I've learned that I really have to move fast to stay ahead of him... those habits also do wonders for keeping any problem children in your team under control, keep the team moving fast and they don't get bored and go looking for trouble.

In short, you want to push the pace anytime you're tanking... I don't care what tank you're playing. With a stone tanker TP is your best method for pushing that pace since you're very limited in mobility without dropping your mez shield; generally a no-no in combat. Now of course I'll never say no to SB on ANY character... it's an awesome buff for anyone, you can never have too much recharge. I just always plan my characters around their own capacities... buffs are a bonus, not a requirement outside of specialized static superteams.

I haven't found a game that behaved that way; true if it reduces the resolution of the target monitor it will also reduce the resolution of the second one while it's running... but if you've set the games resolution to the monitors natural resolution it won't have any effect.

Now there are a couple games I've played (Mass Effect comes to mind) that won't let you move your mouse to the second screen while the game's active... you'd have to alt-tab to do that... but COH isn't one of them. I've played COH on dual monitors with the game fullscreen in the left monitor and Ventrillo, Herostats, Firefox and so forth on the right since issue 3 without any problems.

With dual monitors going full screen puts it full screen in the monitor it was showing when you clicked it, it doesn't span both monitors. To do that you would need to go windowed and drag it across both monitors.

I'm not sure even then... I've tried WoC with 5 procs, including the Contagious Confusion on my Fire/Rad and found it to be very underwhelming. As a confuse power it's nearly useless thanks to the very short duration so I tried using it as a proc mule. I'm still leaning towards the opinion that it's a waste of a power; the next respec will drop it to put Psi Nado back in.

Indeed, the premiere AV/GM soloer is a perma-PA Ill/Rad controller; they have mitigation with Phantom Army and -regen with Lingering Radiation coupled with debuffs from Rad Infection and Energizing Field and decent single target damage. It isn't a cheap build, but it is effective.

I've soloed a few AV's (Seige, Chimera, Battle Maiden and one or two others) and one GM (Jurassic) with my Ill/Rad. It's boring though after the first time... just a challenge thing since the rewards aren't anywhere near the effort expended.