Finduilas

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one thing, someone said something about slotting accuracy in dark regen, dont bother, before i got my IOs in it, i had it slotted with 3end redux and 3 recharge. It doesnt need accuracy, you hit 2 targets and you are full.

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And what happens when you are down to tanking a solo AV? Personally, I prefer to slot for accuracy & heal, along with recharge and end reduction.

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Agreed. I learned my lesson early on with Nerva Spectral Demons--there are times when is really not good for DR to miss. I usually slot more Acc in DR rather than less, for those occasions when having it hit is the difference between survival and face-planting.

You're right, closing and reopening the brower *does* work! Thanks so much to whoever figured this out, it's been seriously annoying me for several weeks now.

Though I still don't understand why MS doesn't give you an option to tell it to just stop doing that!

EDIT: What I think is really funny is that since I put the CoH forum on my trusted sites list, when I try to go to "My Home" I get a message that asks:

"The current web page is trying to open a site in your trusted sites list. Do you want to allow it?"

I feel like emailing MS a definition of the word "trusted" every time I get that stupid message.

Dark/Mace is a fine choice; mine is currently level 41 and cruising along with minimal endurance problems.

As others have mentioned, Dark Regen is a huge endurance-sucker. In addition, Death Shroud and Cloak of Fear, if you decide to take it, also use a lot of endurance and should be slotted heavily for end reduction.

When choosing IOs, look for +end, +recovery, and +def--the less you get hit, the less you'll need to use Dark Regen, and that in itself with help your endurance situation considerably.

You could either go for positional or typed def; I prefer typed def because you can concentrate on the most common types of damage (S/L) and Dark's particular weakness, Energy. I believe that Jebe also slots for typed defense in his DA/DM build.

The main sets to look for are Reactive Armor for your resistance shields, Kinetic Combat for your ST attacks, and Eradication for your PBAoE attacks, including Death Shroud. The Steadfast +Def is also a must have, IMO.

Why don't you post your build so people can make more specific suggestions?

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

Using the strategy Vox suggests, plus using Eradication in the PBAoE attacks, I have a build that gets an Invul/Mace to the soft cap for S/L and has 38% E/NE defense. As was mentioned earlier, it does depend somewhat on what sort of attacks you have; for instance, ST attacks are good for S/L def because you can slot Kinetic Combat in them, and PBAoE attacks will help increase your E/NE defense if you use Eradication. (I had to 4 slot Brawl to get the S/L soft cap on the that Invul/Mace.)

So yes, it can be done for some damage types without Weave, though you have to pick your sets carefully, and you may have to make some unusual slotting choices.

EDIT: Oops, didn't see the mention of skipping CJ in the OP. Without CJ, the Invul/Mace build I mentioned has around 43% S/L defense and 36.4% E/NE. Not *quite* the soft cap, but I agree with Vox that it would be more than adequate for 99% of PVE tanking.

Glad to help!

A short course in defense for you:

Most attacks have both a position (melee, ranged, AoE) and one or more types (smashing, lethal, energy, fire, etc.) A player can have different defense values for all of them, but when the game decides whether or not the attack will hit, it takes the highest value that applies to that attack.

For instance, let's say a player gets hit with a melee attack that does smashing and energy damage. If the player has 25% melee def, 40% smashing def, and 15% energy def, only the 40% smashing def is used to calculate whether the attack lands or not. Since the highest value is used, you really only need to soft-cap either typed or positional defense, not both.

Primary and secondary defense powers generally have positional OR typed defense, but not both. (Pool powers like Weave have both so they can be used by players with either positional or typed defense.) Ice Armor is a typed defense set, so a player using the set has a considerable amount of typed defense to begin with. So it's much easier to build that up to the soft-cap than it is for positional defense, where you're starting at zero.

Ice does have some weak spots; little defense or resistance to Fire, Psi and Toxic, and positional defense will help you with those. However, those damage types are quite rare compared to smashing, lethal, and energy, so most feel that having defense to those damage types falls into the nice-but-not critical category.

Hope that helps!

I'm a newb to both Kheldian and binds, but I'm enjoying my level 13 PB very much.

I copied some binds from Plasma's excellent Kheldian guide that will let me easily switch forms and active trays, and was able to get them set to the keys I wanted. However, I'd like have the bind that changes my PB to human form also turn on her shields--I know it can be done, but I'm not sure how to do it!

Here's the bind I have currently for Nova form:

v "powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova$$goto_tray 3$$powexec_toggleon White Dwarf$$bind_load_file c:\Program Files\binds\pb_whitedwarf.txt"
g "powexec_toggleoff Bright Nova$$goto_tray 1$$bind_load_file c:\binds\pb_humanform.txt"

Do I insert the command to turn on a shield, Shining Shield for instance, in this bind file, or the human form file, (shown below) and where do I put it?

v "powexec_toggleon White Dwarf$$bind SHIFT+LBUTTON powexec_name White Dwarf Step$$goto_tray 3$$bind_load_file c:\binds\pb_whitedwarf.txt"
g "powexec_toggleon Bright Nova$$goto_tray 4$$bind_load_file c:\binds\pb_nova.txt"

Help would be greatly appreciated!

Like Invincibility, EA has a per-mob bonus, so how much def it provides depends on whether you assume 1 mob, 10, or something in between. The most you can get is around 9% defense, IIRC, which would certainly help getting a player near the soft-cap.

The OP's build is already way over the soft-cap for S/L and E/NE, even assuming one mob in range of EA. (Ice starts with very little def to F/C and Psi, so it's very difficult to cap those.) I have no idea why the OP would also want to cap positional defense, since IMO it's completely unnecessary.

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Which ones *aren't* capable of soft capping, so that I may rule them out for certain?

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It depends on whether you want to include builds that are soft-capped for all positions or types, or just the most critical ones. (Which most consider to be S/L or Melee, with E/NE or Ranged to be the second most important.)

The pure defense sets like Shield and Ice are pretty easily capped for most or alll types/positions, and Invul can be capped for several defense types. (see Call-Me-Awesome's great guide for more information.) And though I haven't seen a completely capped Dark build, I have a Dark/Mace build in Mid's that has 43% defense to S/L and E/NE.

I don't know Willpower or Fire well enough to say one way or another for those sets, so hopefully someone will come along and give you the lowdown on them!

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One of the challenges (if this works) will be coming up with the IO sets for softcapping Defense...

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I think I can safely say that it's already been done for all the tanks sets that are capable of soft-capping.

A couple of minor things:

You have just one Scirocco, a Acc/Dam, in Crowd Control. I would change it so it's slotted like WM and Shatter. (I suspect this was an oversight.)

The Aegis Psi/Status Res in Tough really isn't doing anything for you. I'd swap it out for a Aegis Res/Rchg.

Other than that, *thumbs up!* Very impressive defense numbers you've got there!

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Let me ask you this...as far as tough goes....with Smashing and lethal already capped...does this really matter?

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LOL, you're right, it really doesn't. I'm so accustomed to making sure all my main res/def powers are fully slotted that I forgot that you're bumping up against the cap in this case.

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Ive changed the other ones though...and by the way THANK YOU ALL for the help

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You're quite welcome!

There are a number of attacks that can take buff/debuff sets of one kind or another. Whether you want to use those sets in an attack is another question entirely, since they often don't provide the kind of enhancement most people would want in an attack; Accuracy and Damage in particular. (Which is not so much of an issue in powers whose primary purpose is buffing/debuffing.)

So in most cases it's not worthwhile to use more than a slot or two of a buff/debuff set in an attack that you want to use as an attack. You can do it, of course, but it's generally considered a bad idea if you want to defeat foes at something other than a glacial pace.

Much better, but I want to reiterate what Kioshi and I have about saying about your Kinetic Combat slotting. KC sets are low in Accuracy, so the fifth slot should be an Acc/Dam or Acc/Dam/Rchg. As currently slotted, you have less than Acc slotting provided by a single SO, which most consider to be the bare minimum unless there's a source of significiant addiitonal Acc or ToHit like Rage.

Similarly, both the Eradication and Obliteration sets are very low in end reduction, and as currently slotted you have no end reduction at all in those three attacks. When I'm slotting Erad, I usually go with Damage, Damage/Recharge, and Acc/Dam/Rchg which are relatively inexpensive and not too hard to find, then finish out the slotting with Dam/End and Acc/End or Acc/Dam/End from other set.

Lastly, I'd pull a slot from Hasten, CJ, and Taunt (the 6 slot bonus is nice, but non-essential) to add at least one slot to Weave and Tough, since they are still very underslotted. And I think RPD is a better choice for the SP +def, since it doesn't matter too much if it's underslotted.

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So its ok to ski[ Whirling mace/

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Well, I wouldn't do it; I'd drop CJ, SJ or Conserve Power first. But it won't be as much of a problem as skipping Clobber would be.

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You can't skip clobber, it's your best attack!

Also, use a crushing impact triple (acc/dam/rech) for your attacks instead of the dam/rech or else your accuracy will stay at 23%ish.

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Yes, I usually use that, or the CI Acc/Dam to supplement a set of KCs since the set is low on Accuracy. And there are other, cheaper options--Smashing Haymaker and Focused Smite are both good inexpensive choices.

I still don't understand why you're using Obliteration rather than Eradication; the amount of S/L def you get with Oblit is not that impressive given that it takes 6 slots. Eradication gives nearly twice as much E/NE def in just three slots. And if you're slotting Scirocco's for the F/C def, there are better choices. For instance, 3-slotting Aegis has a 3.13% F/C def bonus. Impervium Armor's Psi def bonus is not very useful since Invul has no Psi defense to stack with.

Also, as much as I like Whirling Mace, if it has to be a choice between WM and Clobber, take Clobber and slot it with KCs. Those 4 slots will give you as large a S/L def bonus as *12* slots of Obliteration. Besides, Clobber is a great attack and the highest damage attack in the set.

EDIT: You're also underslotting Tough for no good reason that I can see. If you're low on slots, take the slots from RPD and move them to Tough, since Tough's base value is higher.

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A word of warning, though, the Gladiator's Armor IO is a PVP IO, and last I looked, EXTREMELY expensive. (We're talking 100 million + expensive) I do highly recommend the SP IO, and get it for all my tanks.

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No, we're talking 500 million+ expensive, I just bought one and some were sold for as high as 700 mil

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LOL, once it gets that high, it's all the same to me--"more than I'll ever pay for an IO!"

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the +3 defense IO all add to positional defense as well.


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Hi new to looking at tanking stuff. What's the +3 defense IO you're talking about?

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There are two, the Steadfast Protection Resistance/+Def, and the Gladiator's Armor TP Protection/+Def. Both go into Damage Resistance powers, and are global uniques.

A word of warning, though, the Gladiator's Armor IO is a PVP IO, and last I looked, EXTREMELY expensive. (We're talking 100 million + expensive) I do highly recommend the SP IO, and get it for all my tanks.

The new build is better, but if you use Kinetic Combat instead of Smashing Haymaker you can reach the S/L soft cap much more easily. I know that couple of the KC pieces are hard to find, but if you're patient and wait for a level 34 or below to come on the market, you can put together a full set of four for a reasonable cost. Also, the 5th slot in those attacks should be an Acc/Dam; like Smashing Haymaker, 4-slotting KC leaves you low on Accuracy as well as Damage.

I also strongly recommend that you try Eradication for your PBAoE attacks--you should be able to get near the E/NE soft cap with them slotted. (And I notice that you've dropped Whirling Mace, which I wouldn't do.)

I posted a build in the "Lopsided Defense" thread if you want to see an example of my recommendations.

Your slotting looks good, but IMO the power order leaves a lot to be desired. (Stamina at 28?!?) And even more significantly, delaying Clobber until 30 and skipping WM and CC is a really bad idea.

My Invul/Mace is a little idiosyncratic, but if I was to build a plain vanilla invul/mace with capped defense, I'd do something like the build below--it has 48% S/L and 45% E/NE defense. (I've included some expensive uniques, but for most you can easily substitute something less expensive without seriously hurting your effectiveness. I do strongly recommend the SP +def and Kismet +Acc if you can afford them, though.)

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Technology Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: War Mace
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- RctvArm-ResDam:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(3), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(3), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(43), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(46)
Level 1: Bash -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg:35(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx:35(15), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg:35(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(45), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:40(46)
Level 2: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:50(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:50(7), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:50(13), Dct'dW-Heal:50(15), Dct'dW-Rchg:50(25)
Level 4: Jawbreaker -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg:35(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx:35(5), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg:35(5), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(7), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:40(45)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(25)
Level 8: Unyielding -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(9), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(9), RctvArm-ResDam:40(13)
Level 10: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt:50(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg:50(11), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(11), Mocking-Taunt/Rng:50(40), Mocking-Rchg:50(43)
Level 12: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-Travel:50(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx:40(19)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx:40(A), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg:40(17), Mrcl-Heal:40(17), Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(19)
Level 18: Invincibility -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx:40(A), GftotA-Def/Rchg:40(31), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:40(33), GftotA-Def:40(37)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(21), P'Shift-End%:50(43)
Level 22: Clobber -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg:35(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx:35(23), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg:35(23), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(31), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:40(34)
Level 24: Build Up -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(31)
Level 26: Tough Hide -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg:50(27), LkGmblr-Def:50(27), Ksmt-ToHit+:30(33)
Level 28: Whirling Mace -- Erad-Dmg:30(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg:30(29), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(29), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(34), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(34)
Level 30: Boxing -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 32: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(33), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(37), RctvArm-ResDam:40(40)
Level 35: Shatter -- Erad-Dmg:30(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg:30(36), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(36), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(36), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(37)
Level 38: Crowd Control -- Erad-Dmg:30(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg:30(39), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(39), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(40)
Level 41: Weave -- GftotA-Def/EndRdx:40(A), GftotA-Def/Rchg:40(42), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:40(42), GftotA-Def:40(42)
Level 44: Resist Physical Damage -- RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(46), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(48), RctvArm-ResDam:40(48)
Level 47: Resist Energies -- RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(48), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(50), RctvArm-ResDam:40(50)
Level 49: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth:50(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]23% Defense(Smashing)[*]23% Defense(Lethal)[*]6.13% Defense(Fire)[*]6.13% Defense(Cold)[*]20.2% Defense(Energy)[*]20.2% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]13% Defense(Melee)[*]13.9% Defense(Ranged)[*]4.56% Defense(AoE)[*]9% Max End[*]9% Enhancement(Heal)[*]5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]5% FlySpeed[*]175.7 HP (9.38%) HitPoints[*]5% JumpHeight[*]5% JumpSpeed[*]MezResist(Held) 2.75%[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 13.8%[*]MezResist(Sleep) 4.95%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%[*]9% (0.15 End/sec) Recovery[*]10% (0.78 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]6.26% Resistance(Fire)[*]1.26% Resistance(Cold)[*]5% RunSpeed[/list]


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I agree with Ribic, Invinc should be taken at 18; either RPD or Build-Up can easily be delayed instead. Clobber is now a must-have, take it at 22 and slot it fully.

As shown, the slotting is rather strange. If you're going to short-slot a res/def power, pick the ones that have the lowest base value, like the resistance passives. I'd recommend fully slotting TI, UY, Invinc, TH, Tough and Weave, unless there's a compelling reason not to. 4-slotting Reactive Armors are the best choice for the resistance shields since they give both S/L and E/NE defense bonuses. I'm really baffled by that single Imperv Armor in ResEn--why spend the infl for that when you're not getting any bonuses and a ResDam IO would work just as well?

And since your friend should be looking for typed defense set bonuses rather than positional, the ToD sets are a waste, IMO. Kinetic Combat has a S/L def bonus that's twice as large for 4 slots instead of six. I'd also replace the Obliteration sets with 3-slotted Eradication, which should get the E/NE defense up near the soft cap. Most of the attacks can be fully enhanced with 5 slots, which will free up some slots for the other powers.

Getting stuck at the loading bar is a problem that has reported before, and it's usually associated with a Windows skinning program like WindowBlinds.

If you have one of those programs running, disable it, or set it to exclude CoH.

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Oh isn't kismet always on like lotgs? I'll change it if it's not then.

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Nope, in a toggle it's on when the toggle is on, plus 120 seconds. (Same as the stealth IOs) If you want it on all the time, it's best to put it in a passive.