Ebon_Wrath

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  1. Coalfire's Fiery Aura Guide, Version 1.0

    I realise there are already a lot of guides to a Fire tanker, but I've done a lot of thinking about how a fire tanker works, and have some unique contributions. This advice will work for any secondary, as the principles behind a fire tanker are largely the same. I will discuss how to make a build, including build options, and also include a strategy section on how to play the tanker. Let's begin:

    Table of Contents

    1. Basic Build Principles
    2. Powers and Rankings
    3. Power Pools
    4. Getting the Most out of your Secondary
    5. Endurance Management
    6. Strategies
    7. Binds
    8. Sample Build

    1. Basic Build Principles

    A Fire tanker is a great tanker, but is incredibly slow to develop. Once developed, however, it will give you excellent resistance, perfect status protection and very good defence. We are often better than Ice or Invulnerability tankers against psionics, since we usually take Weave for our defence, while many of them don't.

    However, there is a downside. No one needs to dip into power pools like we do. We need to take 3 powers from each of the fighting and leaping pools if we want complete status protection and decent defence. Since we also should take Stamina, like basically everyone else, that is a total of nine pool powers. Add Hasten and it's ten. This means that we won't really have room for attacks until the 30s.

    Of course, we won't really need them. Blazing Aura does wonderful damage for the patient until level 18, and Burn does insane damage thereafter. Added attacks are really just fluff until then, and they eat up endurance like mad, anyway. As such, we should focus on building up our defences first, and then add attacks later.

    2. Powers and rankings

    I will use the smiley scale. The smiley scale is a scale I've seen in a few guides and is kind of fun. The smiley scale works like this:

    5 - This is an absolute must-have power
    4 - This is a great power, without which you will be a much less effective tanker
    3 - This is a very good power, that you should fit in if you can, but should not replace any 4 or 5 powers.
    2 - This is a mediocre power that could conceivably have some use, but you shouldn't bother with.
    1 - This is a dreadful power. There is no conceivable use for this power, or there are better powers doing exactly the same thing.

    That said, let's look at the powers:

    Blazing Aura -

    This is a wonderful power that has several uses. It is a damage and taunt aura that pumps out fire damage every two seconds to all enemies within melee range. Early on, it will be your main source of damage. You can use it to easily whittle away all the minions while Boxing the boss. With it, you can take out large packs of greens and blues in Perez Park, the Hollows or Boomtown.

    Once you hit 18, however, its function changes. It is now your taunt aura to keep enemies in range. Its damage relative to Burn, however, is miniscule and that is no longer its function. Now, you use it to keep enemies in your Burn patch, herd enemies, save squishies or just generally get the enemies' attention.

    Slotting Priority - ASAP. Put six slots in this and never look back. Early on, you'll want 1 accuracy and 5 damage. Once you get Burn, exchange this for 2 accuracy, 2 end reduction and 2 damage. The two accuracy ensure you'll hit everything up to +4 95% of the time. You can add taunt, but damage seems to increase the taunt just as much as taunts do, and also do more damage. If you really are stuck for slots and have a respec, drop this to 2 acc, 2 end reduction and never go below that.

    Numbers: BI 0.6111/2 sec, End 0.83/sec (BI means the amount of damage the attack does, relative to an unslotted Brawl attack)

    Fire Shield

    This is the meat of your defence. It is a toggle that will give you most of your smashing/lethal defence as well as Disorient protection. Without it, you will die. It also looks really great, turning you into a big blazing superhero.

    Slotting Priority - ASAP. Put six resistance in this power. Don't put an endurance reduction in it unless you have some extra slots to waste on Tough (which you won't have). I'll discuss endurance management below.

    Numbers: 30% smash/lethal/fire resistance, 10% cold resistance, End 0.41/sec

    Healing Flames

    This is a very nice power that will help you out early on and will help you out in the late game. Once you get all your defences up, though, you won't find yourself using it very often except in really huge fights. It heals about 25% of your health, and also provides 20% Toxic damage resistance.

    Slotting Priority - Low. Ultimately, you'll want to get this six- or at least four- slotted, but you won't really need to until your fourties. Put one Heal in it at first. Later, you'll want to go with 3 heal/3 recharge. 4 heal/2 recharge is the mathematically best number, but you'll find you'll want to use it more often, not really get much more healing out of it. When you get into some tough toxic enemies and have the influence to burn, swap out the healing for resistance, and put it on auto-fire. This stacks with itself, and you can easily keep your toxic resist capped most of the time. We're the only tankers who can do that except for Unstoppable Inv tanks.

    Numbers: 25% heal, End 15, Recharge 60, Duration 20 seconds, 20% toxic resist, Activation 3.3

    Temperature Protection

    Bleh. Temperature Protection is really, really terrible. It is an auto power and is always on. It only gives 20% fire protection, which doesn't matter, since you'll have capped that anyway with your two shields. It also gives 10% cold protection, which really isn't worth it.

    Slotting Priority - Low.

    Numbers: 20% fire resistance, 10% cold resistance

    Consume

    This is a very, very nice power that will keep your endurance up. It also can serve as a ghetto point blank AoE taunt, since it has a huge radius and punchvokes. After you get Conserve Power, you won't need it as much, but if you plan to attack, you'll want this, even with Stamina. It is a point blank AoE attack that damages all the enemies around you and adds to your endurance. It seems to add about 25% of your base endurance on a successful hit, so, if you hit three or four enemies with it, you can go straight to full. It recharges every three minutes, so you can't depend on it as your sole means of regaining endurance.

    Slotting Priority - Medium. This is a good place to throw extra slots. You'll want to have it six-slotted by your mid-thirties. I'd suggest 2 acc/2 recharge/2 end recovery. The 2 end recovery are because you'll often be using it against just one enemy, and this'll make it not a complete waste of the power. The two accuracy are because you really want to hit with it. The recharge are to compensate for the terrible base recharge time.

    Numbers: 25% end recovery per enemy hit, recharge 180, End 2.0, BI 1.1111, Activation 2.0

    Plasma Shield

    This is the other backbone of your defence. It is a toggle that emits a blue flame from your body, like the orange flame from Fire Shield. It also protects you against Hold and Sleep. It provides Energy, Negative Energy and Fire resistance. You need this power or you will die.

    Slotting Prioity - Medium. You'll want to get this six-slotted eventually with resistance, but you won't really need to until you hit 30 and start facing Rikti, et cetera. Make sure you have it six-slotted by then, especially if you plan to hit Crey's Folly. Until then, just one-slot it and use it mainly for the status protection.

    Numbers: 32.5% resistance to energy/neg energy/fire, End 0.41/sec

    Burn

    Oh my, Burn. Burn, Burn, I love you. This is why you are a fire tanker, and not an invulnerability tanker. It does an absolutely incredible amount of damage by dropping a patch of fire. Anything in this patch takes damage for the next ten seconds. Unfortunately, enemies like to run out of this patch, so you'll need a way to keep them around. Blazing Aura will accomplish this nicely, as will Taunt from your secondary. I'll discuss this power more in the tactics section. As a side note, Burn provides immobilization protection while standing in it, though Combat Jumping gives this as well; I think I've used Burn twice in my whole career to escape immobilization.

    Slotting Priority - ASAP. Get six slot this with damage right away. In theory, you'll get the most damage over time out of it if you slot 1 recharge, 5 damage, but really, the world will be divided into things that you can kill in one Burn patch and those you can kill in two. Adding more damage means there are more things that fit in the first category.

    Numbers: BI 0.2777*40 ticks (thanks to Immortal Nite for the correction), recharge 10, End 7.0, Activation 1.5 (but it takes 3 seconds for the damage to start)

    Fiery Embrace ( for Fire/Fire tankers)

    Fiery Embrace is actually a very nice power for Fire/Fire tankers. It increases your fire attacks by 100% base for 30 seconds and your others for 10 seconds, and can be enhanced to the point it will be up more than half the time. Unfortunately, you really don't have the slots to do this, and it doesn't enhance Burn which does most of your damage anyway. If you are going to take it, wait until your forties, after you get attacks. For non-Fire/Fire tankers, it does enhance Blazing Aura damage for thirty seconds, and other archetypes can use this + Build Up for some very high alpha strikes, but if you're not Fire/Fire and really want a damage boost, get Build Up.

    Slotting Priority - Medium. Unfortunately, you probably won't have slots to boost this power much, but if you did, it would be nice to six-slot for recharge. I personally have it three slotted, since that's all I could spare.

    Numbers: 100% damage boost, recharge 180, End 11.5, Activation 0.7

    Rise of the Phoenix

    This is a wonderful rez that you should never have to use. It gives you back half your health and half your endurance unslotted, and hits all the enemies around you with a disorient. Plus, you'll be invulnerable for a while (usually enough time to put your sheilds back up). Unfortunately, of course, as it's a rez, you'll never want to use it. As it is, though, you'll get defeated occasionally, this will help turn the battle back to your side (remember, they just lost their tank), and you'll be able to not fear defeat quite as much.

    Slotting Priority - Low. Throw a heal in here and forget about it. If you're slotting this for recharge, you're dying too much.

    Numbers: Recharge 300 seconds, Damage 4.0278 BI

    3. Power Pools and Rankings

    Fire tankers, unfortunately, almost always pick the same four pools if they want to be the best possible tankers. Of the four, Speed perhaps could be dropped, but at the cost of a serious reduction in damage. However, Fighting and Leaping are required to fill holes in our primary. Stamina is required to help run the eight toggles most of us run on a constant basis. In total, most of us end up taking ten pool powers. While this is a lot, once we get these holes filled, we become incredibly potent tanks. I will go through the various pools Fire tankers tank, and discuss how to slot them.

    As for the ancillary pool, I recommend Conserve Power from the Body Mastery pool. I find I'm usually fighting constantly, and set the pace of my team. This doesn't give me any time to rest or even recover. With this power, I never have endurance problems

    Fitness

    Swift/Hurdle - I chose Hurdle, but Swift is a good choice too. Since we're running out in front of the heroes, we need to be faster than them. There are two ways to do this: hop around with Combat Jumping + Hurdle, or run around using Sprint or Swift. If you choose the latter, Swift lets you run one less toggle. I did the former for most of my career, but recently started running Sprint as endurance became less of an issue. One-slot this with jump or run speed.

    Health - You'll want to take this as your second fitness choice, as the regeneration from this will often be enough to keep you full of health without Healing Flames. It would be nice to slot this, but you probably won't have the slots for it. One-slot this with Heal. Base, it gives you +7.5% of your health per minute.

    Stamina - This is the reason you took Fitness. Some Fire Tankers used only Consume once upon a time, but now that we don't need the Presence pool any more, we can all take Stamina. However, given that we do most of our damage with a very low-price attack (Burn), we won't have room for any good attacks until our late 30s, and we also have Consume to reboot us every once and a while, there is no rush. Feel free to put this power off until 30 or 32. Six-slot this with End Recovery, high priority. Base, it gives you +0.4167 end/second.

    Leaping

    Combat Jumping - This is a nice power for five reasons: it increases your jump height; it gives you perfect control when jumping (nice for leaping into packs); it gives you immobilization protection; it gives you 5% defence to melee and ranged attacks; and, it costs almost nothing. If it didn't open up the leaping pool, it wouldn't be worth taking, but as it is, it's a really nice little power that's worth running constantly. One-slot this with jump or defence. I personally use defence, since I found that I was actually jumping too high with the jump enhancement, especially in indoor missions. Cost: 0.08 end/second.

    Super Jump - This is, in my view, the most fun travel power in the game. It is almost as fast as Super Speed, but also lets you jump up. I love jumping from rooftop to rooftop, and is occasionally nice in missions, when you need to get somewhere high in a hurry. Get this as soon as it becomes available at level 14. One-slot this with jump, though if you have an extra slot, a second jump would make you even faster. Cost: 0.54 end/second.

    Acrobatics - I hate this power, if only because it is so necessary. It is a toggle that gives hold and knockdown protection and nothing else. We are the only tanker primary that doesn't get knockdown protection, and we need to take three pool powers and run an otherwise useless toggle to compensate. It doesn't even have an effect. If we don't run it, we spend our entire career on our butts. So, we need this power, and three leaping pool powers. Ah, well. With it, we get very good knockdown protection and are even more resistant to holds. I wouldn't recommend slotting this power. The base endurance enhancement should be enough. You'll want to get it almost as soon as it is available, certainly before level 25. Cost: 0.32 end/second.

    Fighting

    Boxing - You might actually use this power early on when you don't really have any attacks, but at level 49, it's disappeared completely off of both my power trays. For some secondaries, it might be worth slotting, as you can use it twice between burns, and does reasonable damage plus disorient. However, its main reason for being here is to open up the fighting pool. It is a better choice than Kick as it has a better DPS (damage per second), costs less endurance and doesn't knock enemies back out of your Burn patch. I'd recommend having a base accuracy enhancement here, unless you plan to use it as part of your attack cycle, in which case, I would use 1 acc/5 dam. Numbers: Activation: 1.1, Endurance 5.0, Recharge 2.5, BI 2.1111.

    Tough - This is the power that makes you a tank, rather than a tough scrapper with nice fire effects. It only gives you 24% resistance to smash/lethal when one-slotted (it is a toggle), which doesn't sound like much, but when you add that to the 66% from a fully-slotted Fire Shield, you hit the tanker cap of 90%. With this power, you take 10% damage from incoming smash/lethal attacks. Without it, you take 34%, and increase of 240%! Since smash/lethal is the most common damage in the game, this is the power that changes your life forever. You don't need more than the base slot, and I'd suggest getting this power by 22 at the latest, and even 16 if possible (14 is reserved for Super Jump). Numbers: Base resist 20% smash/lethal (24% one-slotted), Endurance 0.23 end/second.

    Weave - This is an absolutely fantastic power that actually enables us to take on psionic enemies that we wouldn't otherwise be able to take. It is a toggle that gives a base 12.5% defence against all ranged/melee attacks including psionics. This is incredibly useful, since otherwise, the Fire primary doesn't give any defence at all. That said, it is a power you can put off until your 30s, since you'll be pretty meaty until then and psionics won't become prevalent until after level 40. Once you do get it, you'll want to six-slot it; it's really that good. This will probably be your last defensive power, and at that point, you'll be able to take on huge packs of +3 or +4 enemies without fear. Base defence 12.5%, end 0.27 end/sec.

    Speed

    Hasten - This is an incredibly nice power that is like adding 2 SO recharge enhancers to each of your powers. It is a click power that lasts two minutes, and costs you 20% endurance when it wears off. It can be made permanent by fully slotting it for recharge (or almost permanent with five slots). The main reason it is useful for us is for Burn. With this, Burn's recharge is 5.88 seconds, rather than 10. That enables us to use more Burns and do more damage. As a side benefit, it also improves the recharge rate of Healing Flames, Conserve Power, Consume, Taunt and Fiery Embrace, and all our attacks. Yep, get this power. It's medium priority, though. I'd suggest getting it in the mid-late twenties. You'll want to six-slot it with recharge enhancements.

    Body Mastery

    Conserve Power - If you fight constantly, you'll love this power. Since you're a tank, you'll often be fighting constantly. Conserve Power gives you the ability to fight without any drop in endurance for as long as it's up. It's a click power with a 90 second duration, and when fully slotted for recharge (with Hasten), it'll be up most of the time. Of all the pool powers, this is the one I find the most useful, and would recommend it to anyone. Six-slot it with recharge enhancements.

    4. Getting the Most our of your Secondary

    I've decided to make a guide that can be used with all secondaries, but there is some general advice that I can give that will help people make the most out of their secondary set.

    First of all, keep the number 5.88 in your head when calculating. This is the amount of time between Burns. If your attacks take more than 5.88 seconds, you're actually losing damage. Your goal will be to pick two or three attacks that can dish out the most damage in those 5.88 seconds.

    Second, you'll only have room to take two attacks before level 41 if you take all the above powers, so make them count. If you use your starting attack from your secondary or Boxing, you can take three. Remember that this includes special attacks like Ice Patch or Hand Clap. You can take a third attack at level 44 (including Laser Beam Eyes, if you like).

    Third, beware of powers with a recharge time of greater than 10 seconds. If it's longer, you'll only be able to use them between every other Burn, and that will slow you down. Powers with an 11 or 12 second recharge can be made to fit with a recharge enhancer, but if it's longer than that, remember you won't be able to use them in every cycle. Some powers will be worth it anyway, but you'll want to be very cautious about them. A very quick attack like your starting attack or Boxing may be used twice per cycle sometimes.

    Fourth, seriously consider getting your secondary's AoE attack. Yes, you are doing a ton of AoE damage anyway, but the world is divided into what you can defeat in one Burn patch and what takes two. Taking the AoE attack will often let you wipe out a pack before Burn recharges, giving you time to save squishies or just move one to the next batch.

    Fifth, status effects are good, but not equal. Knockback is a bad idea. It knocks enemies out of your Burn patch, and actually reduces damage. Disorient is usually fine, but be careful with it. Knockdown and holds are great, since they keep the enemy in your patch and reduce your incoming damage.

    Sixth, be patient. You do a ton of damage with Burn anyway, and your team will supplement you. For bosses, unslotted starters and Boxing can whittle them down fast enough. However, unless you have an incredibly good attack (like Ice Patch), make sure you get all your defences up before dipping into your secondary.

    The best site out there for numbers is cohvault. It has endurance costs, activation times and recharge times that are largely accurate. For the Brawl Index numbers, check out the Brawl Index.

    5. Endurance Management

    Endurance is a problem for everyone, and we are not an exception. We go through different phases, and the endurance strategy changes as we go. I'll discuss here the different phases:

    Pre-Consume: In your first seven levels, just use Blazing Aura for damage. If you face a boss, use your starting attack, but remember this will hurt your endurance.

    Consume to Burn: Your strategy will be similar to the pre-Consume strategy, but you'll have Consume to refill your endurance, so you'll be able to use Boxing and your starter more. If you find yourself resting a lot, use your starting attack more sparingly.

    Burn to Stamina: Here, your strategy will be to just drop Burns all over the place. Bosses will take a while, but you'll actually be saving time by not using any additional attacks except your occasional un-slotted starter. If you just use Burn and your toggles, you should be able to keep your endurance nearly at full.

    Stamina to Conserve Power: Again, you'll be dropping Burns all over, but you'll be able to use one or even two secondary attacks if cheap between Burns. Use Consume to refresh when your endurance gets low. You'll be able to do some real attacking here, but you won't be able to go crazy.

    Conserver Power to 50: Now, you'll be a crazy person. You'll be able to attack non-stop if you're careful, and even be able to solo several AVs. The trick is to make sure you have any very expensive attacks slotted with an endurance reducer. If you do, you should actually regain all your endurance while CP is up. Then, your endurance will start to drop, and you can hit Consume. By the time your endurance gets low again, you should be ready to hit Conserve Power again. Repeat.

    6. Strategies

    There are several different things you can do with a Burn tanker. I'll go over some of the basic strategies.

    Grouping

    When you're grouped, your job is to protect the squishies and kill things, in that order. That means the first thing you'll want to do is get the aggro of every enemy around. Then, you can start Burning them down.

    The best way to do this is to leap into as many enemies as you can hit. Those hit with Blazing Aura will now hate you forever. Now, target the enemies you didn't hit and use Taunt. Now, they will also hate you forever.

    Now you drop Burn. Hit your AoE attack. Whatever was around you that was a minion is now falling on their knees. Once your Burn is almost gone, find the largest clump of enemies that wasn't in your Burn patch and drop one there. Rinse and repeat.

    If there is a Boss, pay special attention to it. You can do a ton of damage to it, and you'll be able to keep it from one-shotting your squishies.

    Keep your eyes open. Sometimes a squishy will get in trouble, and you'll have to go to the rescue. Taunt works well, but is slow. Often, the fastest way is to just jump over and whack it with your biggest single-target attack. Don't worry about the ones you're leaving behind. You've probably hurt them already and they'll follow. If you can't figure out who is hurting your squishy, target the squishy and hit Taunt. This will taunt whatever it is that the squishy is targetting. Usually, people target whatever is killing them, so this strategy will often work.

    Leadership

    It doesn't matter who has the little star beside their name; you are in charge. For any big decisions (Will we herd? Do we go straight to the AV?), let the leader make all the calls, but you set the pace and decide what to attack next. The team will follow you, don't worry. Get to know your maps, so that you can clear them systematically and not be running all over the place. One trick is to remember that doors that open lead forward in the mission. Clear everything before you open a door.

    Don't worry about other people's end. If they're low on end, they're attacking too much and the best way to get them to conserve is just to keep fighting. What you want to do is keep a non-stop burnbath going of all your enemies. When you do that, people are having more fun and they're getting more experience, and that will make them happy. Don't move on to the next pack, though, until everything is completely defeated. A stray minion can defeat a blaster in about ten seconds, and it will be your fault. Everything is your fault. Remember that.

    Sometimes, you'll have to make request. If someone is using AoE knockback powers, politely ask them to stop. Don't embarrass them, just say "Whoever is using the AoE knockback, please stop", even if you know full well who it is. AoE knockback powers will slow you down and get people killed. If someone is using single-target knockback, that's fine, but don't chase. That person probably knows what he or she is doing. Remember that Illusion pets sometimes use AoE knockback, and there's nothing you can do about it. The other thing that can be a problem are controllers (usually very good controllers) that hold or immobilize everything before you've got them around you for Burning. Politely ask them in a /tell to wait until enemies are surrounding you before using hold or immobilize.

    If there's another tank who is a higher level than you, let them be in charge, but if they're going too slow, feel free to start on the next pack. That'll get them moving. Eventually you'll get a nice pace going and everyone will be having fun. Remember that the point of all of this is to have fun, so if you need to choose between better experience and not hurting someone's feelings, don't worry about the experience.

    Herding

    Herding is what you do when soloing. After level 22 or so, you'll be able to take on several groups simultaneously, and you'll want to drag them all to a spot where you can Burn them down. Often, you'll want to do this in missions with groups, too. In this case, you'll want to get all the enemies you can handle and bring them to a single spot where the blaster can Nova (etc.) them.

    Herding is tricky, but a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. The trick is to jump from pack to pack, and then jump back. Here's what I mean. Jump into a pack, and let Blazing Aura anger them. Then, jump into the next pack and anger them. Now, jump back into your original pack and reanger them. Then jump into another pack, and jump back into the now double-sized pack that is chasing you. Every time you do this, the pack chasing you will get larger. Sometimes, you'll want to gather them up, and you can do this very easily using a corner. Once you've got so many enemies your life is in danger, go to a pre-determined spot. This will either be a tight corner, a dumpster or your group when you are with one. Drop a Burn and start using your AoE attacks. The blaster will now explode and if you did it right, they will all fall over. It takes a lot of practice, but once you get the hang of it, it will be really easy.

    7. Binds

    There are several binds I find helpful as a Fire tanker, and here are two of the more useful. I wish I had more ingenuity here, but I admit, I'm not a very good programmer.

    The reset bind

    Use this bind to get all your toggles up after being defeated, stunned or just logging in. The last power in this toggle will go on first.

    bind x "powexec_toggleon Blazing Aura$$powexec_toggleon Sprint$$powexec_toggleon Combat Jumping$$powexec_toggleon Weave$$powexec_toggleon Tough$$powexec_toggleon Acrobatics$$powexec_toggleon Plasma Shield$$powexec_toggleon Fire Shield"

    The travel bind

    I like this one for swapping between Combat Jumping and Super Jump.

    bind b "powexec_name Combat Jumping$$powexec_name Super Jump"

    8. Sample Build

    I've added a sample build here to show what a build would look like. With the exception of a couple secondaries (Ice Patch will go in earlier), most builds will look very similar until level 35:

    Archetype: Tanker
    Primary Powers - Ranged : Fiery Aura
    Secondary Powers - Support : Fiery Melee

    01 : Scorch acc(01)
    01 : Blazing Aura acc(01) acc(3) dam(3) dam(5) endred(5) endred(7)
    02 : Fire Shield damres(02) damres(7) damres(9) damres(9) damres(11) damres(11)
    04 : Healing Flames hel(04) hel(46) hel(48) recred(50) recred(50) recred(50)
    06 : Taunt tntdur(06)
    08 : Consume acc(08) acc(17) recred(23) recred(29) endrec(33) endrec(34)
    10 : Combat Jumping defbuf(10)
    12 : Plasma Shield damres(12) damres(13) damres(13) damres(15) damres(15) damres(17)
    14 : Super Jump jmp(14)
    16 : Boxing acc(16)
    18 : Burn dam(18) dam(19) dam(19) dam(21) dam(21) dam(23)
    20 : Acrobatics endred(20)
    22 : Tough damres(22)
    24 : Hasten recred(24) recred(25) recred(25) recred(27) recred(27) recred(29)
    26 : Hurdle jmp(26)
    28 : Health hel(28)
    30 : Stamina endrec(30) endrec(31) endrec(31) endrec(31) endrec(33) endrec(33)
    32 : Weave defbuf(32) defbuf(34) defbuf(34) defbuf(37) defbuf(40) defbuf(43)
    35 : Fire Sword Circle acc(35) endred(36) dam(36) dam(36) dam(37) dam(37)
    38 : Incinerate acc(38) dam(39) dam(39) dam(39) dam(40) dam(40)
    41 : Conserve Power recred(41) recred(42) recred(42) recred(42) recred(43) recred(43)
    44 : Greater Fire Sword acc(44) endred(45) recred(45) dam(45) dam(46) dam(46)
    47 : Fiery Embrace recred(47) recred(48) recred(48)
    49 : Rise of the Phoenix hel(49)

    I hope you've enjoyed my guide and that it's been helpful to you. After 49 levels as a fire tanker using everyone else's advice, I wanted to give something back.
  2. Sure, I hope this helps:

    Sting of the Wasp = Hack
    Gambler's Cut = Slash
    Flashing Steel = Slice
    Divine Avalanche = Parry
    Calling of the Wolf = Confront (Taunt)
    The Lotus Drops = Whirling Sword
    Soaring Dragon = Disembowel
    Golden Dragon = Head Splitter
  3. DA doesn't really replace SR, though it can cap melee defence againt +1 bosses (DA + Hasten = 77%) and even +3 bosses with some extra powers thrown in. SR does have a few advantages, even so. First, in order to do this, a Katana/Regen scrapper needs to spend about half to a third of his or her time parrying. This reduces damage. Second, DA can miss. Third, DA takes a little time to "warm up", since you don't actually get the defence until after DA hits, and don't get the 77% until after it hits the second time. This can make for some nasty alpha strikes if you're not careful. Fourth, it doesn't defend against ranged or AoE attacks, which can make up a significant part of enemy attacks.

    What I'd suggest for an SR scrapper is to take DA and use it as an attack for damage until level 40. Properly slotted, its damage isn't terrible (it's the same as Gambler's Cut). This will give you a +20% or 40% bonus, constantly. Add that to even unslotted Focused Fighting, and you'll have 41% or 61%defence, enough to almost cap your defence against minions, starting at level 8. Once you get and slot Dodge, this goes up to 66% or 86%. I did this with a young Katana/SR scrapper, and was basically invincible. With DA, Sting of the Wasp and Flashing Steel, you can keep up an almost constant attack chain, even without Hasten (DA,SW,FS,DA,SW,...,DA,FS,SW,DA etc.) Once you get perma-Elude, though, DA will become basically irrelevant, and you may want to spec out of it in favour of a stronger attack. After all, if you're capped already against Archvillains, you don't really need any more defence.

    On the other hand, if you decide not to go with perma-elude, DA can nicely supplement a toggle-based defence. Normally, the cap that toggles can reach is 66%, not even enough to cap against an even level boss. Whenever you face a tough boss or even Archvillain, you can just start attacking with your damage-slotted DA and push yourself up to 86% or even 111% if you use Hasten. Since it'll be slotted for damage, you can do an alternation like I mention in the guide above, but you won't even significantly harm your DPS.

    The ability to slot DA for damage and still cap defence is what provides the synergy for DA and SR.
  4. Don't worry about the icon not showing up. From what I can tell, the buff icons only refresh every five seconds or so. That doesn't mean they're not active. I've seen it bump from one DA icon to three sometimes. The buff becomes active immediately on hitting the enemy and stays active for ten seconds.
  5. Errata:

    1. "With perma-hasten, it has a 2.35 second recharge time."

    should be:

    "With perma-hasten, it has a 1.76 second recharge time."

    2. "if you enjoy slowing taking while parrying their every attack"

    should be:

    "if you enjoy slowing taking enemies apart while parrying their every attack"

    I wonder how many errata = version 2.0 .
  6. Someone PM'd me and told me the activation time for the Broadsword Parry is actually 2.9 seconds instead of 4. He got it from the Prima Guide that got its numbers right from Cryptic Studios. So, I was wrong about this.

    This is good news, since it means the strategy can still basically work for Broadsword. You won't be able to keep double parry up constantly, but the gap will be less than a second. With the higher damage of Broadsword, it will basically balance out. So, it looks like "Parry Scrappers" are also a possibility .

    P.S. If you like my guide, please don't forget to give me stars . I've been two stars forever. Some people must really hate me .
  7. [ QUOTE ]
    I also have parry for broadsword... I hope that fix in the bug will improve it significantly... as it's pretty much useless for now.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Is there a fix planned for the broadsword parry? I hadn't heard anything about it, but I would add it to my guide if it were true (I also have a 37 BS/Inv scrapper to play with).
  8. [ QUOTE ]
    I would assume this also works for BS?

    [/ QUOTE ]

    The problem with Broadsword's Parry isn't the recharge time (it's 4 or 2.35 seconds as well), but the activation time. The activation time is four seconds (because of the delay after the animation), just like Katana's used to be. This means that you'll only be able to use Parry every 6.35 seconds, and it will gut your offence, since you'll be spending most of your time parrying. So, you won't be able to constantly double stack it, and you'll do much less damage.

    If you were going to try it with Broadsword, I'd suggest doing two attacks between each Parry. That will enable you to keep your DPS to a respectable level, and still keep Parry up constantly. Unfortunately, Broadsword parry can never reach the 100% defence and beyond that you get from Katana.
  9. There's a pretty strong consensus around the scrapper boards that it's 20%. It's the only number I've ever seen and I have no good reason to doubt it.

    I can confirm that it's definitely more than 10%. With it double-stacked, I'm definitely capped against even-level bosses; they hit me about 5% of the time. Right now, I'm running one-slotted Combat Jumping and Hasten with double parry, so I'm getting 83% defence. If it were only 10%, I'd just have 47% and would be hit about 30% of the time (since they have a 75% base to hit). I'm simply not. They whiff almost every time and I can stand against an even-level boss all day.
  10. Divine Avalanche Scrapper Guide, Version 1.0

    With the recent changes to Katana, an entirely new archetype has come into existence - the Divine Avalanche scrapper. A new archetype? Yes, I would go that far. Divine Avalanche allows you to play an entirely different strategy as a scrapper, acting almost as a tank, combining the best of your defensive power set with the defences of a super reflexes scrapper. Your damage goes down, it is true, but you'll be able to face enemies you never thought possible.

    The Divine Avalanche Scrapper has a mindset all his or her own. We do not rely on tearing through enemies before they manage to take us down. We are like a fencer, slowly, methodically taking apart the enemies as they futilely try to hurt us.

    What is Divine Avalanche? It used to be known as "Parry", but then it was changed and became a completely different power. With the new activation time, we can use it between every attack without gutting our offence. It is a melee attack that, if it hits, gives us a 20% defence bonus to melee attacks for ten seconds. It has a four second recharge time, and about a 2.3 second activation time. With perma-hasten, it has a 2.35 second recharge time.

    Here is why it is incredible. Properly slotted and used, it can make you virtually invulnerable. I slot it with two accuracy and four defence. The accuracy ensures it rarely misses. The defence boosts it to a 36% bonus.

    36% is good, but Divine Avalanche does something better - it stacks! If you use it between every attack and have perma-hasten, you can keep it doubly stacked constantly. That is a 72% bonus, constantly! Add to that the 5% you'll get from Hasten plus any other bonuses you use (Weave is nice, but I personally use Combat Jumping), and you can get 100% or better.

    The trick is to find the right chain. Versus a single target, the following chain works very well:

    Divine Avalanche
    Golden Dragonfly
    Divine Avalanche
    Soaring Dragon
    Divine Avalanche
    Sting of the Wasp...

    This enable you to keep a nasty enemy on the ground for most of the fight, and be nearly invulnerable during the few seconds it can actually fight back. Against groups, the following works nicely:

    Divine Avalanche
    Lotus Drops
    Divine Avalanche
    Flashing Steel
    Divine Avalanche
    Golden Dragonfly...

    Substitute Soaring Dragon for Flashing Steel if you have a nasty boss you want dead, now.

    Of course, if you aren't tanking or soloing, you can revert to a standard attack sequence that doesn't involve Divine Avalanche, and do massive damage as a classic Katana scrapper.

    What secondary archetype is best with a Divine Avalanche Scrapper? They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Regen is best, since it's +defence is fairly weak, and Divine Avalanche gives your regeneration powers time to work. Dark Armour is also nicely complimented since it has low +def, and it gives you time for Death Shroud to pick away at the enemies. With Invulnerability and Super Reflexes, it's a little redundant, since it improves already good +def powers. However, that redundancy means that you'll almost always have defence capped, and it works well against single enemies (Inv's problem), and helps Super Reflexes scrappers get out of the perma-elude trap (why waste all your endurance very two minutes if you don't have to?).

    So, if you're tired of trying to beat them down before they beat you down, if you enjoy slowing taking while parrying their every attack, if you enjoy feeling like a real swashbuckler and fencer, the Divine Avalanche scrapper may be for you.
  11. Sorry, I'm not understanding the Atlas Medallion math. Does this mean that the Atlas Medallion gives you more than 5% bonus endurance recovery? The toggle cost calculator seems to have it bump up about 10%.

    I just got the Atlas Medallion today, so I'm wondering what it does.
  12. Wonderful! This was one of the most frustrating aspects of this game. Thank you.

    Is there any chance this could be worked together with the "follow" command, so that follow allows us to catch up to runners? Slowly jogging behind a runner is really annoying Not to quote the competition, but the /stick command from Dark Age of Camelot has done this perfectly.
  13. I love your calculator. I added it to my favourite threads immediately.

    I'd like to see additional recovery bonuses in the top part of the calculator. For instance, if you were to add Unstoppable or Accelerated Metabolism. That would make it even better.