Call Me Awesome
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Quote:It replaces them which can be a bit sticky if they're tanking an AV for you... sometimes when you recast the AV decides to take a potshot at you before the new PA acquire aggro.Originally Posted by Energy_Blaze
Regarding PA, I was wondering. If you use PA before the pets expire, does it replace them, or negate the effects of the power? -
Quote:Unfortunately if you're after a Perma-PA, Perma-AM and Perma-Hasten you're juuuust short there; my Ill/Rad ended up with 206% recharge to get to that level. It took 3 Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge IO's, 3 sets of Basilisk Gaze, 2 sets of Decimation, a set of Coercive Persuasion (Purple confuse set) and a few other odds and ends to get there so it wasn't cheap by any stretch.Originally Posted by eryq2
Yea, it's total. I just added it up (my cousin added before so i wasn't 100% sure) and it equaled 191.25 with AM and Hasten running. I can change some powers around and try to push for more rech if need be. I'm already not taking a travel, so, it shouldn't be too hard.
Oh, one drawback I found to that much recharge was that my endurance bar kept doing a Houdini on me and escaping into nothingness
. With that much recharge don't forget to allow for significant recovery and endred in your build or you'll be sucking wind halfway through a fight.
Just because you're a bit short of perma everything doesn't mean you aren't highly effective though so don't stress if you can't find the last bit of recharge. -
Quote:Ok, I'm afraid I'll have to disagree here in several areas.Originally Posted by Windenergy21
Again, I look to all situations, team playing. I like when having someone who can buff me in any manner makes a difference. Plus like I mentioned, popping a luck which lasts for a minute, and letting the extra regen shine through is far more useful than a simple respite IMO. With the amount of regen provided with the build I represented, a luck or sturdy basically gives you a minute of free time to survive most things in the game without a care. On every toon, scrap, troller, tank, defender, blaster etc,
Most of the inventory is lucks because of the way the game works and the benefit they provide. So its just natural that a simple tier 1 luck is all I need to basically pop elude for a minute. Not to mention, like the OP originally suggested in case you forgot, he DOES want to prevent psi some, hence my original build providing 13% psi resistance, and the extra regen helping fight the psi damage incoming, because regen doesnt care what type the damage is, it regenerates it all the same.
First, unless you're building for a static team and you'll always have X teammate or Y teammate available you should plan your build on the assumption that you're on your own support wise and maximize your durability so that you don't need outside support to survive whatever you may be tanking. You may be great so long as you have that bubbler, or that sonic or "fill in the blank" on your team, but what if you're on a team without any buffs... like happens a lot of the time? If you've built your tank so that you really don't need the buffs you'll still be at your optimum performance.
Second, and I really have to stress this, Psi is not a problem. I've leveled three tankers to 50 and tanked everything in the game with an Invuln tanker... there are very few missions where Psi damage predominates, and even in those situations it's almost always minor damage. You're much better off simply popping the odd inspiration or two if you get into trouble than by going to extreme lengths to build a, frankly, inconsequential amount of protection to an extremely rare damage type. I've tanked the Psi Clock King, I've tanked Mother Mayhem and all the Psi baddies and it simply requires a modicum of tactics and thought. By the time you reach the level where you might face these enemies you certainly should have the experience to handle the situation.
Third, building for extra regen instead of soft capping defense is a very poor option. Taking your defense from the upper 30's to 45% will do far more for your survivability than boosting your regen by any amount you could practically manage on an Invuln tank. Regen is useful to have sure, but you'll get far more good out of defense. It's always better to not be hit at all than to regen the damage so defense first, THEN regen. As an Invuln tank you simply cannot build enough regeneration via bonuses to make up for lower defenses.
There's no better way to boost the survivability of an Invuln tank than by boosting your defenses as much as possible up to the 45% soft cap. Because Invuln starts with significant typed defenses it's always much better to build on typed defenses than positional with IO bonuses, that's why things like Mako's Bite, Touch of Death, Obliteration and so forth are poor choices; they offer strong positional defenses instead of typed. You want bonuses to S/L, E/N and, as a third priority, F/C defense. Typically they're cheaper to acquire and take fewer slots than positional defense.
I would look at building an Invuln tanker with a series of priorities. Your first order of business is to create a solid build with your power selections. Once that's accomplished you should try to reach the 45% soft cap to S/L defense, and ideally also E/N defense THEN you think about building regen bonuses. Until you've gotten your defenses up you'll get more return on investment from defense over regen.
Your protections in order of effectiveness are:
- Defense - up to the 45% soft cap
- Resistance - primarily S/L in importance
- Dull Pain/Hit Points
- Regeneration
While you're building your defenses it's also important that you don't neglect the basic enhancement values of your powers... attacks should have at least 33% accuracy and 90% damage for example with whatever you feel is adequate end reduction and recharge. Defenses should be enhanced to around 50%+ defense/resistance depending on the power with maybe 33% of end reduction. Make sure you haven't gimped yourself in one area in order to make up a bonus... it's entirely possible to maximize your durability without making any sacrifices on your effectiveness. -
Go with S/L defense; it'll protect you against more damage than any other single defense type or position. The majority of all attacks are S/L outright and a majority of the non-S/L damage types also have an S/L component to them, so that defense applies.
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Quote:While it's written for Tankers you may want to look at my soft cap Invuln guide... Scrapper's lower numbers means you'd need to find more bonuses in order to softcap but the guide will give you the general idea.Originally Posted by Colossal
I have taken a break from the game and have come back to find (at least from what I've read, not sure about the numbers exactly) that Invulnerability has been made much better. So I am bent on making a /Invuln scrapper because that is something I have not yet tried out. I am wondering what kind of slotting bonuses and sets I should shoot for through IO's to really bring the best out of Invulnerability, preferably not a very expensive build-I do not have much money, and also what are some good pairings with /Invuln? I am currently looking at BS because it seems to fit the concept I want. Also, should I take tough and/or weave?
Soft capping an Invuln Scrapper isn't likely to be cheap though... you're going to pretty much need the Kinetic Combat IO's to do it and they're hard to find and rather pricey. As my guide explains, with Invuln you want typed defense bonuses, particularly to Smash/Lethal as that will protect against the vast majority of damage in the game. -
Quote:Ah, but with enough recharge you have a window of double stacked AD, which adds a bunch to your debuff resistance. I've found it quite valuable on my BS/Shield scrapper, and while I haven't yet faced Cimerora on my Shield/Fire tanker (still only 34) I found that with my debuff resistance maxed out my scrapper was basically unaffected by any cascade defense failure.Originally Posted by Windenergy21
Wrong, somewhat. Never more than 2 slot recharge in this power (PVE) when picking up grant cover as well. Without hasten, 2 recharge, plus the slow resist from grant cover, plus the fact, that you should be avoiding most of the -recharge attacks on you by large to begin with, you'll have more than enough cushion with the 2 recharges. With moderate recharge bonuses as well giving an even larger cushion.
And now about True Grit:
I agree that resist is useful here; although it is resist to exotic damage. On my scrapper I slotted the Miracle unique, Miracle Heal, Miracle Heal/End, common Heal, common resist and Steadfast unique. I think we're debating fine points here; your slotting gets more exotic resist and regen, mine gets more HP and recovery.Quote:I mostly agree here, with a few things otherwise. You'll still want to get close to 90% heal yes, but resistances are just as important. Max hp bonuses work, basically as exact resistance to all, only the % max hp you increase, diminishes the more you get. So look at it like this, with a base 100% hp for any battle, in survival outcome:
Extra 10% hp from true grit = 10%/110% = 9.09% resistance basically, because you you can take that much more damage before faceplanting, however, thats for the first set of max hp. If we fully slot it, so 19.5%ish max hp, look what happens:
19.5/119.5 = 16.32%
So even though we added 9.5% more hp than before, we only gained a little over 7% "resistance"
So begin by assuming you'll get the accolades starting you off at 20% plus base true grit's 10%, and for this thread I always have at least about 10% max hp from bonuses, so we start with:
40/140 = 28.57% "resistance"
Adding the slots for max:
49.5/149.5 = 33.11% "resistance" So from not slotting, to slotting for it (looking at end game here, on the way up, definitely slot 3 heal SOs in it) we gain about 5% "resistance" So even if you only slot it by 70%, thats like dropping about 1% "resistance". Now its to all, so thats still nice but the point of me talking about this is when you figure, what's more important, heals, or resistances. Which is why I suggest this slotting:
Numina: heal, heal/end, heal/rech (granting depending on the level IIRC 85%ish) and with the other 3 slots 2 common level 50 resistance IOs, and the steadfast unique. Pretty much maxing both heal and resistance values. So normally I'd like to fully enhance the heal, but 85% in this circumstance is more than enough.
The Taunt issue:
I can only think of one nerf that's been applied to Taunt... the 5 target cap that went in back in what, issue 5? It's still a great attention-getter, zero endurance cost, auto-hit and grabs 5 mobs. True, I don't use it all the time, but when a situation comes up it's very nice to have. For one thing, just try range tanking an AV without it... or tanking an AV in any case... auras aren't autohit against AV's and I've had them turn away from a tanker who didn't have taunt. Don't forget that Taunt also has a pretty significant -range debuff to get mobs to come in close to you.Quote:I'm on the opposite end, after the nerf especially to taunt, and the actual power taunt, with a strong autohit aura like AAO, and gauntlet, and a very larger radius shield charge which should get their attention, and in this case foot stomp which has a decent radius as well, you shouldn't be having problems keeping aggro. As far as, lets say an outlier attacking a teammate, there are two situations here. One, the team isn't caring enough, you have most aggro, and its not going to matter.
Or two change your tactics, if its TOO difficult, that's where things like herding, and better teamwork come in. I'm not going to worry about that one guy out of such a large reach of shield charge/foot stomp/general aggro that is not doing much. If its a boss, you jump over, hit them, and jump back, mob still stays together, and you get the boss, if its a minnion or lt, like usual, if they can't take care of themselves by moving on the other side of you or taking care of it themselves, something is terribly terribly wrong, and I don't feel needing to take taunt in this situation is worth it.
On slotting Health
While adding a little more regen is a desirable thing I find that the slots are still more useful elsewhere. If I had slots available after taking care of everything else then yes, I'd probably toss another into Health... but you're not talking about all that much extra survivability from the minor increase in the regen. Health just ends up lower priority than many other powers.Quote:WAY WAY disagree, especially on shielders who have no self heal, regeneration is your key aspect outside of defense that's going to keep you alive. Always at least 3 heal this one, I usually do a minimum of 4 on a build with no self heal or a rare one with a numina unique, numina heal, numina heal/end, and heal IO, capping heal enhance value, and getting a bonus 32% regenation and 1.88% max hp bonus in the process. On a shielder, i'll usually 5 slot for the regen tissue unique eventually as well.
I see the point here, and if slots are available then this isn't a bad choice. I just seem to always find somewhere else that can use that 4th slot more.Quote:Stamina, again, if something like shields, I 4 slot it with efficacy adaptors. Maxing end mod enhance values, and granting 1.5% recovery bonus, 1.13% max hp bonus and 10% regeneration bonus, for pretty darn cheap.
No argument here, my BS/Shield scrapper uses the Sirocco's Dervish minus proc in all the AOE's, with a common recharge in the 6th slot. On the other hand, a scrapper needs more defense bonuses to soft cap making that slotting more desirable. I may reslot later on in the tanker's career; the Multi-Strikes were cheap, available, and gave a decent boost to defense when I originally slotted them in the 20's.Quote:I go dervish, again 10% regen bonus, 9% accuracy bonus. Or Obliteration for the recharge bonus, accuracy, and melee defense bonus. Even if not going for the defense bonus, Its perfect for shield charge as it has good acc/dam/rech stats for the 5 enhancments minus the proc, and the power really doesn't need much end reduction, so its good there. I suggest dervish, minus proc for foot stomp, with a multi strike dam/end/rech in the 6th slot, and 5-6 obliterations for shield charge. Also, with slotted rage, you won't need much accuracy slotting in anything.
I wouldn't say ToD is easy to find... I've been acquiring a set of it for my Shield/Fire for the last 2 weeks looking in the 30-35 range. I STILL haven't found a Damage/End recipe or IO below 40, and I've had going rate bids covering the 30-35 range. As of last night they still hadn't filled.Quote:TOD is very easy for find for MUCH cheaper at level 35, for mostly the same values. Mako's bite are VERY common at level 50, 12 mil per Mako's Bite set at level 50 last I bought a few months ago. -
Well, first off you definately want Rage, and you'll want it to be perma (recharging before the buff expires).
For another, do you have the 60 month vet badge? If you don't then you cannot take super jump before combat jumping, and SJ doesn't come available before level 14.
On power order, pick up Active Defense much earlier, it's your status protection. You'll want to slot 3 recharge into it to get overlap and a cushion for slow debuffs. Against All Odds is good with a single endred unless you want to add 1-2 taunt duration to it. I'd move the fighting pool back in the build; my Shield/Fire tanker is picking it up at 30, 32 and 41. I'd definitely pick Hurdle over Swift on any jumper... hurdle stacks very nicely with jump for added speed and distance.
Grant Cover doesn't give you any added defense, just those teammates within 15' of you. It's useful because of the debuff resistance it gives you but it can wait until later in the build. Phalanx does give you a 5% defense bonus, but that's unenhanceable. The extra def you get for teammates within 8' of you is the only part that's enhanceable... for that reason most players leave it with the default slot unless they're using it as an IO mule.
Hurl is a power many tankers feel is aptly named
because of the lengthy animation. Most players in my experience skip it, although some enjoy having it. Personally I'd skip it and pick up something like Fire Blast or Laser Beam Eyes from the APP for a ranged attack but if you enjoy the power then by all means get it.
Now, some thoughts on enhancements.
I like to slot 4 Gift of the Ancients into all my defense toggles for the added endurance and recovery bonuses... they make a big difference in your staying power. For Deflection I round things out with two common resistance IO's.
True Grit should, at minimum, have 3 common heals in it and is a great place to drop in the Steadfast Protection resistance/3% defense unique. I generally tend to leave it at that, or if slots are available add a couple of resistance IO's. You can toss the Numina or Miracle uniques in here as well, just make sure you keep ~90%+ heal enhancement.
I'm a firm believer that Taunt is a good tool for anyone playing a tanker; it isn't something you need constantly but when the unexpected happens it's very nice to have in your toolbox. As a bonus it's a great place to slot some really cheap IO bonuses from Mocking Beratement or Perfect Zinger.
Health I generally leave with the default slot... I find that slots are more valuable elsewhere most of the time. Stamina I just toss 3 common endmod IO's in and call good; most of the better IO bonuses require too much slot investment for the return.
Shield Charge and Foot Stomp both benefit strongly from accuracy, damage & recharge... on a tanker I slot the full Multi-Strike set, it offers good enhancement numbers and a small AOE & Melee defense bonus for very little cost. Another good option is the Scirocco's Dervish set... it's more expensive and offers considerably more AOE defense bonus but as a tanker you won't need all that much added defense to soft cap.
Tough I really like to 4 slot with Impervium Armor for the bonuses... it's an expensive option though. For basic enhancement you might consider frankenslotting Res/End IO's from several inexpensive sets.
For your single target attacks you've a lot of choices. You can slot Crushing Impact for a recharge bonus relatively inexpensively. You can slot a set of Mako's Bite for a damage bonus and a ranged defense bonus, which could be useful. You can slot Touch of Death for a damage buff and a large melee defense bonus. Your best choice is probably to mix and match your slotting for what your build needs; once you've reached the 45% defense soft cap for melee/ranged/aoe you won't really need more defense bonuses and can start thinking about recharge.
Sets you should avoid unless you're very rich would be any of the purple IO sets and any of the PvP IO sets... many of these sell for 200-500 million per IO and some sell for more than the 2 billion inf cap... the Gladiator's Armor 3% defense unique comes to mind here. The Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge IO is also expensive... in the 50-150 million range last time I bought one. The Numina Regen/Recovery unique is another pricey one in the 50-100 million range as is the Miracle Recovery unique.
The Touch of Death set will cost 50-60 million for the complete set and be fairly hard to find below it's level cap of 40. A set of Mako's Bite should be obtainable for 30 million or so and Crushing Impact should be under 10 million for the full set.
The Steadfast 3% defense unique should be in the 15-20 million range, although since it's a standard enemy drop in the 10-30 level range you may well get one that way... or you could roll tickets on Bronze rolls in that range.
I don't know Super Strength that well; it's a set I've never played myself. I do know that you'll want Rage for a massive damage & tohit buff... at a minimum slot 3 recharge in it. For IO bonuses many Super Strength tankers slot 6 Gausian's Syncronized Fire Control IOs into it.
Well, I hope I've given you some ideas; you can pretty much spend whatever you want on your tanker... at level 50 a pure SO build will cost around 5-6 million; the suggestions I've given will probably come in around 150 - 200 million depending on which sets you choose for your attacks. Adding things like the Numina & Miracle uniques, the Luck of the Gambler 7.5% recharge and other high ticket items will of course increase the cost significantly. On the other hand, influence is really easy to come by now... my level 34 Shield/Fire tanker has already bought most of the sets I can currently use out of his earnings leveling up and has roughly 60 million in cash on hand. Just playing the game and selling your unwanted drops at Wentworths or the vendor (whichever pays more) should get you plenty to outfit yourself. You're likely to get one or two "I Win" drops that will sell for 50 million+ in your career as well as a constant stream of 1-5 million drops. -
My first reaction is that you're spending an INCREDIBLE amount of inf and ending up with a substandard build... your defenses aren't soft capped, your attacks generally aren't very well slotted, you aren't slotting True Grit for heals which directly increases your HP and you haven't even taken Rage.
I'd hate to even guess just how many Billions of inf that would cost but the Gladiator Armor 3% def unique sells off market for over 2 billion all by itself... you're buying that and not getting the FAR less expensive Steadfast 3% def unique.
For a tiny fraction of what you're spending on that build you could have something MUCH more effective.
Looking deeper into the build it just gets worse, you're slotting NO accuracy at all in Foot Stomp; you're slotting a Kinetic Combat proc all by itself in Boxing, you're slotting for knockback protection of all things on a tanker that already has all the KB protection you'll need in the primary, if you every exemp down below 19 you won't have status protection and your slotting in general is all over the place without any real theme.
If this is a serious build then please rethink things here; it wouldn't surprise me for that build to cost you over 6 billion inf... you could have a far more effective build for less than 150 million. -
A shield scrapper running AAO and attacking full bore WILL steal aggro from a tank simply taunting at range. However, if you also include a ranged attack along with the taunt I've never known of a tank loosing aggro.
I haven't tanked Hami since issue 8, but I tanked him several hundred times in the issue 4-8 era... as long as I was taunting AND hitting him with some form of ranged attack I NEVER lost aggro, even a couple of times when we had a griefing tanker trying to taunt into the hold group.
That strategy for holding aggro from range has worked perfectly every time I've used it since on AV's and GM's... as long as I include a ranged attack along with Taunt I have the baddie's attention.
My (non-technical) understanding of Taunt's mechanics is that it acts as a massive threat multiplier, and you increase your threat by attacking. In order for someone to steal aggro from you they have to generate DOUBLE the threat you have... and by taunting and attacking from range that isn't going to happen. Just make sure you get aggro first as the reverse also applies... if someone else gets aggro before you get set up you'll have to generate twice his threat to get it away from him. -
Quote:Sort of, remember that higher level foes will resist the debuff, and AV's will resist 85% of it.Originally Posted by GoldenClaw
Ok all you math whiz's out there, I was curious how the numbers worked for getting a WP toon to the 45% defense "soft cap" taking into account the -3.75% foe ToHit I am getting from an unenhanced RTTC. My question is; if I am at say 42% defense for S/L, F/C, En/-En am I actually at the 45% defense soft cap for all foes that are currently being debuffed for these dmg types? Or do the percentages not really work together like that? Thanks in advance.
Against even level foes with no debuff resistance you're correct, but as you face +2 or higher foes RTTC's debuff becomes much less effective. I don't have the purple patch numbers offhand, but the short version is "don't count on the debuffs" since the RTTC numbers are so low to begin with. By the time you're facing +4 mobs that debuff is less than half as effective. -
I tried to make WoC work on my Fire/Rad... but it has a couple of major issues that seriously compromise it's effectiveness.
First, the AOE is tiny... much smaller than Hot Feet or Choking Cloud, and second the confuse duration is practically nonexistent... you'll never notice it actually doing anything.
I tried respecing it into a proc heavy power... it will actually take 6 procs. Even so, I was disappointed with the power; mainly because of the extremely small AOE. Yeah, the procs were nice, but too sporadic and only affected mobs who were right on top of me.
After lots of trial and a couple of respecs to make it work I've decided to drop it; in my testing I just couldn't get enough benefit out of it to justify having the power... I'll be going back to Psi Tornado with the i17 freespec. -
Quote:You'll find it quite frustrating trying to maneuver with Rooted, and dropping your mez protection in combat is usually A Bad Thing. I always plan on TP as my travel on a stone tank and get it at 14.Originally Posted by Timeshadow
Thanks for your responses guys. You've given me some insight on Stone Armor as a whole. But perhaps I should've been more clear in my OP. I don't plan to run with SOs the entire time. I mentioned them because I usually don't start picking up IOs until 30 so I've gotta survive eight levels before I can start getting +Defense or +Regen. I'm definitely not thinking about skipping Granite. The look of it is what's driving me to play Stone Armor at all
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I'm familiar with using Teleport for travel. I play Kheldians regularly and have the binds to manage TPing around. My main concern is fitting it into my build. I usually grab my travel prereq at 12 and then the travel power itself when it becomes available at 14. That's tricky to do with Stone because Rooted comes at 16 (The level at which I usually start getting the prereqs for Stamina). So my real question is when does TP become a major boon? Can I leave it out until right before I pick up Granite or should I grab it earlier to offset Rooted?
<edit>
Oh, and Rooted comes available at level 8, not 16. No tanker gets his status protection power later than 8. Scrappers and Brutes, with their armor as a secondary, frequently get status protection at 16 but Tankers have it available by 8. -
Quote:Oh my... yeah, you ABSOLUTELY need a respec on that character. I'd STRONGLY recommend looking at my Invuln first 20 levels guide (in my signature), your build is in desperate need of help. Just by respec'ing into a better build you'll increase your effectiveness by at least three times, possibly more.Originally Posted by KW STRYKER
I am a level 31 tanker, soon to jump to level 32. Here is my build:
TANKER, LEVEL 31
Resist Physical Damage 4 Damage Resistance
Temp. Invulnerability 2 Damage resistance
Dull Pain 2 Heal
Resist Elements 1 Damage Resistance
Unyielding 2 Damage Resistance
Resist Energies 1 Damage Resistance
Invincibility 1 Red. Endurance, 2 Damage resistance
Tough Hide 1 Damage Resistance
Jab 1 Accuracy, 2 Damage
Punch 1 Accuracy, 1 Increase Knockback, 1 Damage
Haymaker 1 Accuracy, 1 Increase Recharge, 4 Damage
Taunt 1 Accuracy, 1 Increase Recharge
Knockout Blow 1 Accuracy,, I Increase Recharge, 4 Damage
Brawl
Sprint 1 Speed
Rest 1 Increase recharge, 3 Heal
Hover 1 Speed
Air Superiority 1 Accuracy, 4 Damage
Fly 2 Speed
Swift 1 Speed
I am thinking of adding Rage with three recharges and a hasten. Any comments?
You've made some questionable power choices and your slotting is, frankly, terrible. Resist Elements is highly skippable, Resist Energies is useful but should be delayed until much later, Temp. Invuln is three times as effective as Resist Physical Damage yet you're underslotting it and completely wasting slots in RPD due to the ED cap, you don't have Stamina, you're slotting past the ED cap for damage and of all things you're slotting for KNOCKBACK?
Please read my first 20 levels guide and then plan out your build using Mid's Hero Designer. Later on, once you've absorbed the basics you may want to think about an effective IO build but for now just learn the basics. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a good foundation for your build. -
I'm afraid I never even saw that last ambush come over the cliff while we were pounding the computer... unfortunately my first clue was when someone suddenly turned red... I was watching for the 'bots to wake up so I could snag their attention ASAP.
I'd assumed after beating the ambush and waiting a couple of minutes for stragglers that we were good to go on the computer. I guess that was an error
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2.5 years is considerably longer than I get out of a mouse; generally I replace my mouse every 12-18 months. My keyboard is typically worse; I replace it annually.
I haven't used a wired mouse in years though... that cord drives me nuts getting in the way. Currently I'm using a Logitech MX-1100 8 button cordless and I've yet to have an issue with the mouse-receiver signal. I do have the receiver on my desktop however with the USB extension cable Logitech supplies instead of plugged into the back of the machine. I really like the cordless Logitech; I just toss a pair of AA batteries in every couple of months. I've been using similar mice for years now... it's in the $80 price range though.
(8 button... 3 thumb buttons, right, left, wheel down, rock wheel left & right) -
Quote:You could buy the Martial Arts pack and use one of the robes from that... it's not armor but it is similar to Samurai everyday attire in the movies. Add that to a Katana or Dual Blades character and you're good to go. Heck, one of the standard robes may suit you also... although the Ninja Run power alone in the MA pack is more than worth the price.Originally Posted by Darthvegeta800
Darn... their goes my Samurai idea!
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Quote:No problem, and I'm glad to help out. Just call me the Charles Atlas of Invuln adviceOriginally Posted by SpikyShane
Sorry about the second post. Just wanted to let Call Me Awesome know that so far this build is brilliant. When I've finally got the Kinetic Combat's, it's going to be even better. Thanks so much for all your advice. It's really helped me make a great Tanker.
(For those too young to remember, there used to be ads in the comics for the Charles Atlas course to turn a 98 lb weakling who gets sand kicked in his face into an athlete who fears no man)
Hmm, I think I'm dating myself a bit here
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Quote:I've never had Crystal or Brimstone on a stone tank and never needed them... Rock will protect you from the majority of energy/negative/fire/cold attacks due to most of those also having a smash/lethal component to their damage. I've tanked all the TF's with a Stone tanker and while some mobs are annoying they can be handled.Originally Posted by Katie V
That's good advice for a perma-Granite tank, but if you're planning to exemplar down below level 27 or run the Synapse or Sister Psyche task forces, you'll want to take Crystal Armor to give you energy defense. It's a good place to put a Luck of the Gambler recharge, a Gift of the Ancients runspeed, or five-slotted Red Fortune.
Brimstone Armor is also useful (but not essential) for a non-perma-Granite tank. It's not as good as Crystal Armor (fire and cold attacks are rare, and it provides resistance rather than the defense of the other armors), but it's still helpful, and it provides a place for things like three pieces of Aegis or the Steadfast Protection unique.
I do not advocate a perma-granite playstyle... there's just too many negatives to Granite to run it when you don't need to. Still, I don't see the necessity of grabbing Crystal and Brimstone is a complete waste of a power thanks to the rarity of F/C damage and the minimal resistance (not defense) that it offers. Most Stone builds are too tight for a lot of extra frills and Crystal and Brimstone are definitely skippable. -
Well, there's no question that Stone armor is pretty squishy (for a tanker) on SO's prior to Granite... still I've leveled two stone tankers to 50 in the pre-IO era and was able to do the job, I just needed to exercise caution while tanking and possibly use more insps than other tankers needed.
I am a big believer in TP for a stone tanker... absent a kinetic on the team for speed boost you'll have two choices, move at the pace of an arthritic snail or toggle off your mez protection. Teleport is the only way to have tactical mobility without dropping Rooted or Granite. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of TP myself, but it's the only way to have mobility without sacrificing your mez protection on a stone tank.
Even with a kinetic there will be many occasions where you'll need SOME vertical mobility... without TP you won't even get over a small curb. It takes a little practice, but using TP for combat mobility isn't that hard. If you don't want to be forced into TP then the Stone armor set probably isn't the tanker you'd want to play. -
Quote:Any version of the game will give you access to both sides, and the new "Going Rogue" expansion that's due to hit in a couple of months will allow you to switch sides.Originally Posted by Darthvegeta800
Wow thanks for the quick and kind response!
Paypal seems a good way for me. As I imagine I'd go and come back once in a while. Seems silly to pay full swing during periods of r/l when I can barely get on. Is using paypal/direct payments more efficient than gamecards? I vaguely recall reading that gamecards cost a tidbit more.
And if I understood the situation if I bought CoV, the patching and all that should give me access to all content?
How well is CoV populated compared to other mmorpgs? As CoV has been around for quite a while.
As for my referring only to CoV. During the Trial version I noticed I had access to both sides of the spectrum but... well I never cared much for the 'lightside' of the spectrum.
I'm a fan of Doctor Doom and Silver Samurai, not Superman and Cyclops
I will say that the playerbase as a whole is heavily biased on blue (hero) side; probably 75% of us play heroes over villains. With that said, you should still be able to find teams red (villain) side without too much difficulty. While I'm one of those blueside players I have dabbled a bit redside and leveled a few villains into the 20's and one to 50.
Welcome to the game, there must be something the dev's have been doing right to keep so many of us playing for so many years; quite a few of the original beta players are still playing and I've been here myself for over 5 years. It's always nice to see new players entering the game, I hope you enjoy your stay. -
Quote:This is something I absolutely agree with... I've teamed with exactly two other tankers who I trust absolutely. Now I've teamed with a number of competent tankers but only two do I trust without a second thought.Originally Posted by Severe
its also why i tank so much...i honestly only will trust a couple people in all the years ive been playing to actually tank...anyone can tank but to tank well takes a willingness to learn and adapt!
I guess I must not be too bad myself since most of the time when we're running tough content I'm asked to bring a tanker... it's actually somewhat unusual for me to be able to bring a blaster or controller on an STF or ITF, it's usually "bring a tank". -
Yep, DE are beasts... they're specifically designed to absolutely destroy defense based characters. I've a priority list on the emanators, Quartz die first, then Cairns and the Fungi I worry about last unless we're 'troller heavy. Killing mobs generally takes precedence over the Fungi.
NOTHING takes precedence over the Quartz or Cairns. And unless I was with a group of players I know to be highly capable I'd never face them as +4... +1-2 is plenty for DE, particularly on a PuG. -
Well, I haven't played a Stone/Stone tank, but I do have a Stone/Fire and an Inv/Stone at 50 so I know both sets pretty well.
From the Stone Armor side, you'll want, in pretty much this order:
Rock Armor - 4 Gift of the Ancients works well here
Earth's Embrace - 5 Doctored Wounds is my preferred slotting
Rooted - 3 heals... frankenslot for heal/end if you like
Mud Pots - I tend to frankenslot Scirocco & Multi Strike
Stone Skin - base slot, this is a great place for the Steadfast unique
Granite - A pair of Aegis and frankenslot to ED cap Resist & Defense
*Minerals - take it late though if you take it at all. Another place for 4 GotA
From the Stone Melee side, you'll want:
Stone Fist - 5 Crushing Impact
Heavy Mallet - 5 Crushing Impact
Taunt - 6 Mocking Beratement
Fault - 5 Stupefy
Tremor - Eradication is nice here; as is Scirocco
Seismic Smash - 5 Crushing Impact
Power pools you'll want:
Fitness - Swift (3 slot for runspeed), Health, Stamina
Teleport - your only real mobility with either Rooted or Granite.
Speed - Hasten is useful to negate the -recharge of Granite
*Fly - Hover makes using TP for travel MUCH easier.
*optional powers
In building your tanker I would take Rock Armor at level 1, Earth's Embrace at 2, Heavy Mallet at 4, Travel prerequisite or Swift at 6, Rooted at 8, Taunt at 10, Travel prerequisite or Swift at 12, TP at 14, Health at 16, Mud Pots at 18, Stamina at 20, Fault at 22 and Stone Skin at 24.
Now for your slotting... a Granite tanker has all the durability he'll ever need on pure SO slotting so there's little point in planning IO bonuses for that. Instead I'd focus on bonuses to fix your weak points, namely runspeed, recharge and damage. -
Indeed dang; had a friend who jumped from the 54 month badge to the 63 month today and I didn't even get a T-shirt
Still stuck at 60 months... so unless lightning strikes again it'll be June before I get the 63 month badge
(Of course, that's what I'm supposed to be so I guess I really can't @#$! too much) -
Quote:Oh, now you guys are just being mean... I mean isn't that kind of thing against the Geneva Convention?Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Damn! He figured it out. We have to step up the indoctrination and brainwashing. I'll get the room ready so we can lock him in it with Perfect_Pain, while you guys slip the drugs into his food and water.