Dechs Kaison

All my aggro are belong to Ashe.

This is what I'm trying to teach people with that rule. I don't care if you're a fire/fire blaster, you have the tools to survive one alpha strike. Open up with bonfire or eat a few purple inspirations. And don't worry, the team will always be right behind you. Hell, most times they don't even need to be, since buffs can be so powerful.

The other option (that seems oddly popular) is simply resign yourself to defeat; nuke them with everything you've got and have a wakie ready.

There is one little unspoken rule: To get your alpha strike, you pretty much have to race me to it.

And it was glorious.

The first rule of DKTF is: You do not talk about DKTF.

The second rule of DKTF is: At all times, you must be having fun.

Third rule: If you think you can handle it, you're free to go for it.

Fourth rule: If you thought you could handle it but couldn't, get back up or hosp out.

Fifth rule: Any build, any budget, no exclusions.

The sixth and final rule of DKTF: If this is your first DKTF, you have to take an alpha strike.



Most of the rules are actually there to protect the team from the leader (me). They make sure I don't become overbearing and micromanage the team. The second rule is a sort of "catch all." Rule four is only there to prevent a scrapperlocker from turning into a leech because he's dead and waiting for someone to come save his hind end. Two of those rules are there for Fight Club references. Rule six is there to instill people with confidence.

What I'd really like to stress is that there is no "best." There are "best for X" and "best on Y budget," but really, there is no clear "best." Your SA/FM will perform perfectly well on everything this game can throw at your team.

If you put a gun to my head and forced me to pick just one optimal secondary specifically for keeping the team safe: I'd say Stone Melee.

It has no debuffs, but it's got control in spades. It has a lot of area powers to keep the most attention on yourself and not your team. Those powers can stun and knockdown the enemies, keeping them from firing at all. It also has a ranged attack (with knockdown) which is great for grabbing the attention of foes far away from you.

The next runner up would probably be Ice Melee. Ice has great controls and recharge debuffs, making enemies attack less often.

Dark Melee has a self heal, which is great for keeping you on your feet. It has more trouble than other sets at keeping attention because of its limited area of effect powers, otherwise I would rate it higher.

I'm glad to hear you'll at least check the guide out. If one tenth of what I've been told is true, it will provide the direction and motivation you've been waiting for.

Be prepared, though. The guide is not like anything you've ever read before.

Absolutely not, but mostly because you cannot define "best overall." There are a lot of scenarios this game will present you with. Some require straight survivability, others require mobility. Generally, all the powersets are very well balanced, especially when Invention sets are taken into the mix. Play what you will have fun with, as every set can do very well.

Stone Armor has all the survivability out of the box, but the mobility is lacking and there is also a penalty to recharge, which will penalize the utility of your other powers. These penalties can be worked around with invention sets, but where Stone will build mobility and recharge, the other sets build more survivability to match Stone.

Fire Melee, in particular, is a terrible idea for a tank aimed at high level teamed content. Every melee set has some kind of secondary effect worked into it that generally provides more mitigation for you to help you and your team stay alive. Some sets debuff the enemy, some can control the enemy, others do a good bit of both. Fire Melee does nothing except more damage. That didn't stop me from playing a Dark Armor/Fire Melee tanker and excelling with him on all the content you're aiming for, though.

Don't get me wrong, in its own way, extra damage can be mitigation because enemies die faster. The problem is that, on a team, as a tank, you job is not damage. Your damage output, even with fire's bonus, will be piddly compared to that of the team. When it comes to mitigation for the team, fire's bonus damage is no where near as strong as controls or debuffs.

Don't take this the wrong way and assume you don't need to do any damage as a tank. Damage is part of the threat formula, and to keep the attention of enemies, you need to be doing damage. Further, any damage is still contributing to the team in a meaningful way.

Just play the game a bit. Don't aim for a high end build right away. It took me five years to get my first level 50, and I've had hundreds of characters. This game is about the journey, not the destination, so enjoy the leveling process a bunch of times. There's no better way to learn what you want out of a character than to try them all.

Define better.

I don't see a MFing Warshade in that list.

Heh, whatever you decide to play, best wishes. I'm sure you'll have a blast.

That being said, I would also like to thank you for your service. I had the opportunity to serve, but I chose an easier road. You are a better man than I, and I very much respect and thank you for your service.

... and solo x8 maps on SOs alone.
... and solo AVs on SOs alone.
... and solo some GMs on SOs alone.
... and excel at single target damage output.
... and excel at AoE damage output.
... and excel at survivability.
... and the primary aggro control role of a team.
... and act as the primary buff and debuff roles for a team.
... and do all that with the same build.

Sorry for the distraction. I now return you to your previously scheduled thread.

This is not possible. Build up lasts 10 seconds and recharges in 90. At the absolute cap for recharge, Build up has 8 seconds of downtime, meaning an uptime percentage of 55%. This is absolute best case, and I highly doubt your build has +245% global recharge in addition to Hasten and 95% slotting. Even with T4 Spiritual Alpha, you'd still need 210% +recharge in bonuses alone.

Build Up is to be used strategically.

Elec gets resistance to both through Static Shield. It gets additional (superfulous) resistance to end drain from Grounded.

I think you're more correct than you intend, here. The game is doomed from its conception in that one day it will go away.

The only thing my parents could be sure about when I was born was that, at some point in time, I am going to die.

I can attest that Dark Armor has recovery debuff resist as well.

The two are always paired from what I have seen.

End drain resist is not reported in attribute monitors, but recovery debuff resist is. It's in the last tab of "Debuff Resistance."

Small distinction: Your attitude is intolerant and ignorant. I did not say you were.

Your expectations are unreasonable. We're playing a game and it's one that's not hard at all. If your characters are built half as well as you claim, then you can carry a team on your own.

I've taken "pure healers" on my team. I've taken Kins without fulcrum shift, let alone ones without SB. I've taken petless masterminds on my team. I've done ITFs with a team full of kheldians. I've even taken a level 36 regen scrapper with not a single set bonus on a MoITF that I set for +4 by accident. I've never had to turn back and say "sorry guys, we just can't do it with this team."

Again, we're playing a game. The main goal is to have fun. Some people don't have time to plan a build or care enough to make the decisions you feel are optimal. Maybe they don't like SBing the people on the team. Maybe they don't have fun being a healer. If they're having fun, who the bloody hell are you to tell them they're doing it wrong?