Finduilas

I agree with Windenergy that you should be fine for endurance with Physical Perfection; Invul is actually one of the least endurance-costly tank primaries.

There are some other things you should consider changing, IMO.

First of all, Invinc. The single biggest problem with your build, IMO is that you're taking Invincibility too late, and in the current build it's woefully underslotted. Invinc is the biggest source of defense in the set and should be slotted to the ED cut-off of 56% for defense. I'd move the two Rectified Recticle to Build Up and slot Invinc with 4 LotG or Gift of the Ancients. (GotA has useful +recovery and +end bonuses, BTW.)

In terms of power order, RPD can be easily delayed until sometime in the 20s or later. I'd recommend taking Taunt at 10, Invinc at 18, and Whirling Hands at 22. But if you do nothing else, be sure to take Invinc at 18.

TI and UY are way overslotted--once you've hit 56% resist enhancement and 30-40% end reduction, more is overkill unless there are specific bonuses you're slotting for. Also, IMO the Psi resist uniques are a waste of influence; unless you concentrate on that alone you're unlikely to get meaningful levels of Psi resist or defense, and that would entail sacrificing many other goals. I think you'd be far better off concentrating on increasing S/L/E/NE defense, and F/C defense as a secondary goal. To that end, I'd recommend 4-slotting Reactive Armor in UY and TI instead of the current slotting. That will free up a number of slots for other things.

I'll second the suggestion to move the Steadfast +def to RPD or one of the other passives. If you have the slots, you can also 4-slot some of the passives with RA or 3 slot with Aegis for the F/C def bonus or with Imperv Armor. (Skip the Psi resist IO.)

Kinetic Combat is a good, though pricey choice for your ST attacks, but currently they're underslotted for accuracy and damage. I strongly recommend that you add one or two slots from another set to finish out the slotting.

Touch of Death and Obliteration, on the other hand, are not particularly good choices for Invul since the typed defense bonuses they give are small for the number of slots that are needed. For instance, 4 slots of Smashing Haymaker gives the same S/L def bonus as 6 slots of ToD at a fraction of the cost. And given your endurance concerns, 6-slotting Oblit is a particularly bad option because the set has very little end reduction. A much better choice would be to 3 or 4 slot Eradication for the E/NE and +end bonuses, then add two Scirocco's Dervish, the Dam/End and Acc/Dam/End, which will give you sufficient end reduction and a nice 10% regen bonus.

Personally, I think Unstop is a good choice, *if* you're not going to try to soft-cap defense, which you haven't in this build. Another thing to consider if you can find the slots, is to 4 or 5 slot Taunt with Mocking Beratement, which will give you substantial S/L and F/C defense bonuses.

You need to either post a link and/or the data chunk if you want people to do a thorough review of your build.

I bought an ASUS laptop for my son at Christmas that has a ATI Radeon 4570 graphics card that runs CoH suprisingly well for a mid-range card. The model I got for him is a 15.6" screen, so it wouldn't be what you're looking for, but the graphics card is moderately priced and handles CoH's demands very ably.

According to this chart--which you may find useful in general:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html

it falls just slightly below the 9600M; but I was impressed how good everything looks considering it's a $650 laptop.

EDIT: Took a quick look at the 14" laptops available at Newegg, and this one caught my eye; fast processor, good graphics card for $850:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220634

I agree with Biospark about the Kinetic Combat sets; without additional slotting your attacks are underslotted for accuracy and damage. I'd put a fifth slot in FS, Incinerate, and GFS at the very least. It's also kind of baffling that you'd take Boxing so early when you're not getting Tough until level 30. I'd take FS at at level 6 instead and delay Boxing until right before Tough.

I also think it's a cause for concern that your regen powers--which are one of the primary means of damage mitigation for a WP character--are all underslotted for Heal. Fast Healing in particular is woefully underslotted, but I'd also try to get RttC and HPT to the ED cap for Heal, and slot some additional resist enhancement in HPT. Honestly, I think fully slotting your basic WP powers is much more important than sacrificing WP's strengths (and your offensive capability) to try to reach the soft-cap for defense.

I also agree with Biospark about the Gaussian's set. It's a great choice for positional defense, but for typed defense you're spending a lot of slots for relatively small return. I think a better choice would be to slot it with 2 Rectified Reticle + 1 recharge common for the S/L defense bonus, which would free up several slots. But replacing it with Taunt slotted with Mocking Beratement or Perfect Zinger would also be a good choice.

What Call_Me_Awesome said; your build is in dire need of a respec and some very basic knowledge of how slotting works in CoH.

Once you've got your build in Mid's, post it in the tanker forum; there are lots of experienced tanks there that can give you suggestions on how to improve your build.

I've got a lowbie WP/DB tank on Freedom that needs some levels--count me in!

Agreed. Death Shroud, no question.

I always recommend respecing in leveling order so you'll have the powers you need if you exempt. In this case, that means delaying RPD until the 20s so you can take Invinc right at 18.

Other than that, the 5th Reactive Armor slots in RPD and TI are unneeded for end reduction and you can find a much better use for those slots than getting a .63% F/C bonus. If you really want an F/C bonus, 3-slot Aegis in one of the passives instead.

UY and Tough are underslotted for resistance, and Tough is underslotted for end reduction. Instead of wasting the Reactive Armor set in RPD, which doesn't need end red at all, I'd recommend 4-slotting both UY and Tough with RA, and putting at most 3 slots in RPD. Imperv Armor is fine, but Aegis would be better, IMO. And move the Steadfast +def to RPD, it doesn't need much slotting since you'll be close to the S/L resist cap with Tough fully slotted.

KoB and Foot Stomp are both underslotted for end reduction. (KoB could use more recharge, too, IMO.) If you want to stick with the Hami-Os in KoB add some recharge and end red from another set. In Foot Stomp, the Scirocco's Dervish Dam/End and Acc/Dam/End would be a better choice than your current slotting. You'd get 10% regen bonus too.

The +Recharge and Defense IOs are the most expensive LotG IOs, so why not use a full 4 slots instead, for the HP and Acc bonus. I'd suggest the Def/End and Def/End/Rchg since currently Invinc and Weave are underslotted for end reduction.

Also, if you need slots for something else, taking them from CJ is an option. CJ's base defense value is low, so those slots aren't getting you as much defense as the ones in your other def powers.

Not bad at all with the changes! Just a couple of additional suggestions:

I should have noticed this earlier, but 18 and 24 are very late for your mez protection and Taunt aura. I'd move one power, SJ for instance, post-Stamina a shuffle things a bit so you can take AD and AAO earlier.

With CJ toggled, you're sitting at 52% melee defense, which is a bit of overkill, IMO. I'd save a lot of influence by swapping the Kinetic Combat set out for some other set like Crushing Impact.

If you check the "Sets and Bonuses" window, you'll see you're not getting most of the bonuses from the LotG set in Weave since you're past the "rule of 5". I'd consider slotting another defense set in Weave; Gift of the Ancients, for instance, which has nice recovery and +end bonuses. If you want to keep the LotG +Recharge that you have currently slotted in Weave, you could put it in Grant Cover instead.

Just a FYI from someone with two Mace tanks:

Skipping Shatter=bad idea
Skipping Clobber=very, very bad idea

Clobber is the most damaging attack in the set, and is a guaranteed stun for minions and lts--bosses if you stack stuns. You really, really don't want to skip it. Shatter is the second most damaging attack and has a cone wide enough that hitting 2 or 3 foes at once is not uncommon. It's not quite as much of a "must take" as Clobber, but I'd certainly never build a Mace tank without it.

As Heraclea noted, if this is a leveling build, the power order needs considerable work. If it's a respec build, I'd still encourage you (or your friend) to respec in leveling order so it'll be usable when exempting.

Specifically:

The resist passives can (and IMO, should be) delayed until 20 or later, so there's room to take the essentials, which includes taking Invinc at 18 at Stamina at 20.

ET and TF should also be taken when they become available; Weave can easily be delayed until 41 if necessary; Boxing and Tough should also be moved until later in the build.

The values for the Leadership pool powers frankly stink for tankers. You'd get more defense by taking Combat Jumping, at a fraction of the end cost of Manuevers. If you don't care about a travel power or epic attacks, consider taking Combat Jumping and Physical Perfection instead of Manuevers and Tactics.

Okay, slotting.

In general, if you're going to 4-slot some resist powers and 3-slot others, I'd recommend 4-slotting the toggles and 3-slotting the passives. It ends up not making a difference here since you're at the S/L resist cap, but IMO it would make more sense to put the RA set in Tough and the Aegis set in RPD.

IMO, adding the stun set slots to Barrage and Bone Smasher are a poor choice because those attacks are still underslotted for Damage. Two slots of Pounding Slugfest will give you a better regen bonus and fully slot the attack as well.

Dull Pain is terribly underslotted--you want to get as close to the ED cut-off as possible for both Heal and Recharge. I'd recommend using 5 or 6 slots of a high-recharge Heal set Doctored Wounds.

You'd get higher enhancement values in ResEl if you replaced the Res/End/Rchg with a Res/Rchg.

Whirling Hands is underslotted for damage and end reduction. Replace the CB Acc/Rchg with the Dam/End and Erad Acc/Rchg with the Dam/Rchg.

You'd get better defense enhancement values and sufficient end reduction by replacing the LotG End/Rchg in Weave and TH with a Dam/End/Rchg in Weave and Dam/Rchg in TH. Remember, TH doesn't need end red at all!

Slotting a Taunt set in a tier 9 attack is a very poor choice, IMO. TF is your most damaging attack, but with the Taunt set it has no damage enhancement at all. Since you've got plenty of S/L and F/C def (especially if you get CJ instead of Manuevers) I'd put another Mako's set in there instead.

Actually, since even 6 slots of Mako's doesn't slot fully for damage, I think I'd put the Mako's in Barrage and Haymaker and move the Kinetic Combat plus Pounding Slugfest slotting to ET and TF instead. But your call.

Here's the power order I'd recommend:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 48 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Energy Melee
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Barrage -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Dull Pain -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Bone Smasher -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Unyielding -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Taunt -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Whirling Hands -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Invincibility -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Stamina -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Resist Physical Damage -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Tough Hide -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Tough -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Build Up -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Weave -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Energy Transfer -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Total Focus -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Resist Energies -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Resist Elements -- Empty(A)
Level 47: Conserve Power -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Physical Perfection -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 2: Ninja Run

My first thought is that you went way overboard on melee defense to the point where you didn't even soft-cap ranged and AoE. Going a little over 45% on melee is helpful in case of defense debuffs, but it's more important to soft-cap to all positions than it is to get melee as high as possible.

In terms of power selection, I think Grant Cover, which gives the player defense debuff resistance as well as defense to allies, would be a better choice than Conserve Power.

For slotting:

Deflection is underslotted for resistance. If you're going to alot just two slots to enhance resistance, use a set that goes to 50 or two common resist IOs.

In the toggles with LotG, (Deflection, BA, Weave) replace the Def/Rchg with a Def/End/Rchg. You'll get more end reduction and still be at the ED cut-off for defense.

Combat Jumping has a tiny end cost and doesn't need end reduction. Replace the Def/End with a LotG Defense.

Kinetic Combat is not a good choice for positional defense; it gives a relatively small amount of defense and some pieces are *very* expensive. Besides, since you're so far above the soft-cap on melee, you'd be better off increasing ranged or AoE defense. I'd recommend swapping out the Oblits in Siphon Life for another set of Scirocco's for the AoE defense, then find the slots to put a full set of Mako's in Smite or Shadow Punch. Then you can 4 or 5 slot Shadow Punch with a set like Crushing Impact.

Also, there's no need to slot a Endurance IO in Tough, replace it with the Res/End/Rchg so you'll reach the ED cut-off.

Lastly, Phalanx Fighting is a much better choice for the Kismet +Acc than Weave. As it is, you'd have to have Weave running to get the benefit, but in a passive like PF it'll be 'always on'. Slot a LotG Def/End/Rchg in the 4th slot of Weave, and you'll be all set.

I'm rather baffled by your reluctance to slot FA fully, it's one of Ice's primary sources of damage mitigation and is not a power you want to skimp on. I also think your worry over the amount of F/C def you have is misplaced, to say the least. Basically, Ice has a weakness to Fire damage, and intentionally so. If you can mitigate that somewhat, fine, but it should not at the expense of your other, more important damage mitigation tools.

One of those tools is Hoarfrost, and currently it is woefully underslotted for Heal, which means that you'll be getting much less of a HP boost than you would if it were fully slotted. I think it is a very big mistake to give up a significant portion of Hoarfrost's HP boost for another few percentage points of F/C defense.

Hoarfrost will help you against *any* kind of damage, including Psi--another Ice weakness. Since Ice armor has capped Ice resistance, increasing your F/C defense will basically help you against Fire damage, and *only* Fire damage. As I said earlier, it is great to have if you can get it, but it not worth getting at the expense of other, more important damage mitigation tools like Hoarfrost, EA and Frozen Armor.

Note that with Frozen Armor fully slotted you don't need a bonus from KoB to soft-cap, even without EA running. So you can slot it however you like.

I can see why the recharge bonus in Kinetic Crash is tempting, but IMO you'd be better off using some of those slots for other things like fully slotting FA and adding slots to EA and possibly Health. If Hoarfrost is slotted with a high recharge set like Doctored Wounds, it'll be perma without the Kinetic Crash bonus.

EDIT: Changing from the Erads to Scirocco's in Foot Stomp is a bad idea, IMO, since you'll no longer be hitting the soft-cap for E/NE except when EA is up. Scirocco's just gives you a F/C bonus, and as you noted, you're never going to hit the soft-cap for F/C anyway. If you want to add the Armageddon proc, fine, but I think a better slotting would be 3 Erad, 2 Scirocco's, and the proc.

Regarding the advice to drop Tough and Weave in favor of Aid Self, I'd only recommend that if you're willing to spend the inf it takes to soft-cap without Weave. IMO, soft-capping is far, far more important than having an additional heal, so that should be your first priority. And while it is certainly possible to soft-cap without Weave, (I plan to do it on my Ice/Axe) it is a lot more expensive and much more of your build will be devoted to sets that give defense bonuses.

FWIW, I don't have Aid Self on my Ice tank, and I've never really missed it.

You 4 slotted Permafrost and 2 slotted Frozen Armor??? Gah, no. Frozen Armor is your main source of S/L defense and is far, far more important to slot well than Permafrost, which just provides a little fire resistance. And currently, FA has no endurance reduction at all, which is not good. I'd add an LotG Def/End and Def/End/Rchg.

Lot of other slotting problems too. From the top:

Do NOT slot Hoarfrost for defense unless you decide to put the Steadfast +Def there. It should be slotted like Dull Pain; Heal and Recharge. Doctored Wounds is a good set to use if you're going for sets.

I know you said that Frozen Armor and Wet Ice would be taken sooner (MUCH sooner is my advice) but Permafrost can and should be delayed until late in the build if you decide to take it at all--and many Ice tanks don't. One or two slots at most.

IMO, Health needs some standard Heal enhancement as well as the uniques. I'd add one or two slots with common IOs at least.

Stamina is way overslotted. IMO, the small amount of F/C defense is not worth the additional slots.

Why the Kinetic Crash set in Kick? Ice Armor doesn't need KB protection and if you're going to use it, KB is the last thing you want. If you aren't going to use it, why spend six slots on it?

Touch of Death is not a good choice for Ice Armor, you can get the same S/L def bonus with 4 slots of Smashing Haymaker at a fraction of the cost. Kinetic Combat is an even better choice if you can afford them.

Energy Absorption needs Recharge and End Mod as well as defense. I recommend frankenslotting it with End Mod and Defense sets to get as close to the ED cut-off as possible for all three attributes.

Eradication is a good choice for Foot Stomp, but you do NOT want to 6 slot it; the set has almost no end reduction. Drop two of the Erad slots and slot two high-end red IOs from another set; I like Scirocco's Dam/End and Acc/Dam/End.

I think you're missing out on the AoE potential of this build by not taking Icicles. I'd drop Block of Ice or Hurl and take Icicles instead.

The biggest problem I see is that this build uses sets that are primarily for positional defense, (Mako's Bite, Touch of Death) and Ice Armor is a typed set. That means it uses a lot of slots--and in some cases, a lot of influence--to get defense bonuses that could be achieved with fewer slots/influence. For instance, 6 slots of ToD gives you a 1.88% S/L defense bonus, but you could get the same defense bonus from Smashing Haymaker at a fraction of the cost. (Kinetic Combat is an even better choice since it has a 3.75% S/L def bonus for 4 slots, but it's quite pricey.)

Other issues:

Hoarfrost is taken way too late; defense sets are particularly squishy in the early levels and a good heal/HP boost will literally be a lifesaver. Take it before level 10.

This build currently has absolutely no AoE attacks, which is not good at all for PvE. I'd recommend picking up both Whirling Hands and Icicles. Slotted with 3-4 slots of Eradication plus two slots from another set for endurance reduction (lots of it in the case of Icicles) will give you a far larger E/NE defense bonus than the two Mako's sets it has now.

To make room for the AoE attacks, IMO Permafrost should be first on the list to go; you can move the Steadfast +Def to either Tough or Hoarfrost. You'll have to decide what else you want to drop too. Another option is to drop the ancilliary powers; Physical Perfection is certainly nice to have, but not *that* necessary for an Ice tank with EA. In any case, I'd move the Gaussian's set to build up and if you're keeping the ancilliary powers, get CP instead of FA. FA is a huge end hog, and you can get the ToHit boost by slotting a Kismet +Acc in one of the defense powers.

Hmm, I'd move the Miracle slots from HPT to Health so you'll have room to put a couple of common resist IOs in HPT. Having more damage resistance is never a bad thing.

If you need slots for something else, QR is overslotted by at least two slots.

Perhaps it's an excess of caution on my part, but I prefer to have my toggles slotted for more end reduction than you have in some of yours. Between that and the three attacks slotted with Obliteration (and therefore, underslotted for end reduction) end problems are not outside the realm of possibility. I'd consider putting a fourth slot in some of the toggles that are currently underslotted for end reduction. (IW, RttC, HS, Weave.)

I'd also recommend taking Heightened Senses much earlier that you have here--it's one of your main sources of damage mitigation for non S/L damage. The Fitness pool can easily be moved back a few levels so you can take it earlier. (I'd take SJ at 14, move Hurdle to 22 and take HS at 28. You could also move Hasten if you prefer to take Health earlier.)

Dual builds are fine if you want to go that route, but I think a Stealth IO is a much better option. Saves on a power pick, costs no endurance, and doesn't affect your movement speed.

And I'll second the suggestion for Build Up, not only is it useful it itself, but 6 slotted with Gaussian's you get a 2.5% defense bonus to all positions.

I also agree with Rangle about Crowd Control; IMO having two attacks slotted with Oblit is asking for trouble, and CC doesn't need high recharge the way Shield Charge does. Multi Strike is a good choice, or since you have less Ranged defense than the others (and will have even less when the BotZ change goes into affect) you should consider slotting Eradication for the Ranged defense bonus. (1.56% for 3 slots) I recommend 3-4 Eradication and 2 Scircocco's Dervish, Dam/End, Dam/End/Rchg to be well slotted for end reduction.

Also, MoB and Deflection are underslotted for end reduction. Just swap out the Def/Rchg for a Def/End/Rchg and you'll have enough end red and still be over the ED cutoff for defense.

Though I usualy take Air Sup instead of Hover, I'm with you on Fly--almost all of my tanks are flyers.