Heraclea

50 million is "buy it with merits" range for me; and if you have to wonder whether you could afford to spend 50 million, it probably is for you as well. You can buy two of them and have enough to take two random rolls.

I run a task force a night, usually, and usually run one on a levelling character. Most of my characters level on task forces. Merits are relatively easy for me to come by compared to inf; I buy what meets the character's needs, roll the rest, and pass the enhancements on to my banking character. Only on that character do I try to accumulate inf.

Taking random rolls means gambling, and you should only gamble with stuff you can afford to lose. You might hit the jackpot and end up with a bag full of Numinas and Miracles. Or you could end up with sniper and pet damage junk.

If you're running Invulnerability, a lot of your survivability comes from defense, and endurance issues are going to be your biggest problem. Dark Melee is helping on both of those fronts.

With Willpower, your biggest issue is going to be surviving big alpha strikes. The small self heal of Dark Melee probably isn't going to see you through that.

I'd say the synergy is stronger for DM/Inv than DM/WP. My DM scrapper is DM/Reflex, and that scrapper definitely needs the endurance help from the attack set. The synergy might be even stronger than with DM/Inv, because /Inv starts with more base resistance, and as such can bounce back better than a WP or a Reflex with bad luck.

Thanks!

On my shield/electric tanker, I skipped Havoc Punch in favor of Jacob's Ladder. Not sure I would do this the same way again; despite being a slightly wider cone on paper, it seems to be even harder to hit more than one target with Jacob's Ladder than it is with Shadow Maul. Not sure why.

I also skipped Lightning Clap, of course.

I have several scrappers that can tank just about anything. I would not choose to tank Statesman Task Force on a scrapper for a master run, but about anything less demanding, a scrapper with an aura can handle it.

I'd rather have my Spines/WP scrapper tank Lady Grey than any of my tankers, including my Willpower tankers. Willpower is the defensive set you want versus Rikti; and I know that the scrapper's debuffs and slows will do more to protect a team than any tanker attack set, especially when you have huge spawns like you run into on some rooms there. With caltrops (yes, caltrops) and slows, I can control over the aggro cap with that scrapper.

I've tanked the ITF several times on an electric/shield scrapper, who brings a lot of burst damage and as such can hold aggro if needed without Confront. That scrapper is still levelling and doesn't even have Weave yet.

I tend to wonder what's going wrong when I play my Reflex and Regen scrappers. They don't have taunt auras and mobs run right past.

IO sets can erase the defensive difference between Scrappers and SO-slotted tankers; this tends to make some of them adequate tanks. This concerns me sometimes, for the obvious reason. My unsurprising recommendations would be that tankers need greater offensive sustainability - i.e. lower endurance costs - to enable them to fight their wars of attrition; and that giving any tanker powerset a weaker taunt aura is a mistake.

The issues you will have with Granite are going to be present with any secondary to choose to some extent or another. I am not a huge fan of Stone Armor. I do have a level 50 Stone tanker, Stone/Battle Axe, in fact, but I've no desire to play the set again with a different secondary.

My Shield/Electric tanker is great fun, and levelled very quickly; she hit 50 about a month after i16 went live.

Willpower/Electric sounds promising also. You can probably postpone Stamina a bit longer than I usually do. The splash damage should help you hold the attention of more mobs at a time.

I also considered Fire/Electric. That would also be an offense oriented, AoE based character. I went with Shield instead b/c defense currently trumps resistance in PvE.

I always try to put myself between an ambush and teammates. This takes a view of the whole situation; odds are the ambush is coming in from behind.

This is what I did with mine. But frankly, if you six slotted Phalanx Fighting and One with the Shield, what you need most urgently is to respec and put those slots to use elsewhere. That's going to do more for you than any set bonus you could ask for.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Yansan: Level 50 Mutation Tanker
Primary Power Set: Shield Defense
Secondary Power Set: Electrical Melee
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Deflection -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg:50(9), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(11), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(15), ResDam-I:50(42), ResDam-I:50(42)
Level 1: Charged Brawl -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg:40(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx:40(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg:40(3), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:40(13), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:40(37), T'Death-Dam%:40(37)
Level 2: True Grit -- Heal-I:50(A), Heal-I:50(9), Heal-I:50(11), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(15), ImpArm-ResDam:40(43), ImpArm-ResPsi:40(43)
Level 4: Jacobs Ladder -- Erad-Acc/Rchg:30(A), Erad-Dmg:30(5), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(5), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:50(13), C'ngBlow-Acc/Rchg:50(36), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:50(37)
Level 6: Active Defense -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(7), RechRdx-I:50(7)
Level 8: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I:50(A), Taunt-I:50(43)
Level 10: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- Zephyr-Travel:50(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx:50(46)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(A), Mrcl-Heal:40(17), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(17), RgnTis-Regen+:30(46)
Level 18: Thunder Strike -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg:50(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(19), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:50(19), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(25), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(25), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod:50(21), P'Shift-End%:50(21)
Level 22: Battle Agility -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg:50(23), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(23), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(34)
Level 24: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt:50(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(36), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg:50(36), Mocking-Rchg:50(42)
Level 26: Shield Charge -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg:50(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(27), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(31), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), RechRdx-I:50(50)
Level 28: Chain Induction -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:50(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:50(29), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:50(29), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34)
Level 30: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit:50(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg:50(31), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx:50(31), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx:50(40)
Level 32: One with the Shield -- Aegis-Psi/Status:50(A)
Level 35: Phalanx Fighting -- DefBuff-I:50(A)
Level 38: Lightning Rod -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg:50(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:50(39), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(39), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(40), RechRdx-I:50(40)
Level 41: Boxing -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:50(A)
Level 44: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg:40(45), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(45), RctvArm-ResDam:40(45), RctvArm-EndRdx:40(46)
Level 47: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(48), LkGmblr-EndRdx/Rchg:50(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(48)
Level 49: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(50), RechRdx-I:50(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 2.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)
• 2.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)
• 2.5% DamageBuff(Fire)
• 2.5% DamageBuff(Cold)
• 2.5% DamageBuff(Energy)
• 2.5% DamageBuff(Negative)
• 2.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)
• 2.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)
• 9.56% Defense(Smashing)
• 9.56% Defense(Lethal)
• 6.44% Defense(Fire)
• 6.44% Defense(Cold)
• 10.2% Defense(Energy)
• 10.2% Defense(Negative)
• 3% Defense(Psionic)
• 10.5% Defense(Melee)
• 8.94% Defense(Ranged)
• 9.88% Defense(AoE)
• 3.6% Max End
• 27.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 34% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 10% FlySpeed
• 147.6 HP (7.88%) HitPoints
• 10% JumpHeight
• 10% JumpSpeed
• MezResist(Held) 5.5%
• MezResist(Immobilize) 6.05%
• MezResist(Sleep) 4.95%
• MezResist(Stun) 4.95%
• 8.5% (0.14 End/sec) Recovery
• 30% (2.35 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 2.84% Resistance(Fire)
• 2.84% Resistance(Cold)
• 8.5% Resistance(Psionic)
• 10% RunSpeed

Electric melee does feel slow to me, especially on my tanker; I took Jacob's Ladder rather than Havoc Punch, thinking it was more like Shadow Maul. And now I'm using it for set bonuses too, which means it costs to respec.

On the other hand, its multi target ability is second to none; superior to Fire for aggro holding, despite some of the additional target damage really being splash damage rather than full damage; and its utility is superior as well. Every melee attack set that gets added to the game pushes Energy Melee further down the list of recommendable sets. Even Carp Melee would be better.

I happily am a slow tanker. I'm a mother bear, not a rogue male. Rather than rush ahead to the next spawn, I always have a weather eye out for ambushes, control escapees, getaway mobs.

If I'm needed to take point, I will. But if a scrapper wants to run ahead and eat an alpha, just makes my life easier. They'll either die or they'll live and maybe kill something. I know my scrappers can take it. Maybe yours can too. I will live picking up the pieces. And I'll have more fun knowing I'm keeping the defenders, controllers, and blasters alive. They're helping keep me alive as well. The leapfrog scrapper is just keeping things interesting.

Not at all. But some useful things sell for more than around 15-20M inf, and that's fairly close to what a typical character carries. I do have a stable of about 18 regularly played heroes on my home server, and around 8 villains. Using a banker means that I can afford to buy things that cost more than what any one single character is likely to own.

Duh! This is more or less what I've been describing.

And the SG base and prestige is needed elsewhere for .... what, exactly? Base raiding?

It costs the princely sum of 1900 prestige to keep the base storage operational, and one levelling character can make that with a couple of radio missions. "Waste" suggests there's something more worthwhile to do with a SG base. I already have the teleporters, and obviously a lot of storage and crafting stuff. What else is there?

For me, there are other considerations. Making inf is one goal of several.

It's also important to me to make inf useful to me, by concentrating it on a banker character. This mean that valuable but unneeded recipes must be crafted, so that the resulting enhancement can be sold by the banker. If the recipe itself would simply be auctioned off by the character that got it via rolls or drops, then the inf would be scattered over multiple characters. That's what I try to avoid now.

I anticipate my character's wants. The banker bids recipes before they are needed and crafts them if they come available. If the market price is ridiculous or the bids fail, my characters buy with merits straight up and roll any leftovers. The banker makes sure the right salvage is available.

This means that I have to be able to craft stuff. Several rooms of my bases are devoted to salvage storage, so I usually have what I need to craft the drops. If I don't, I will look first to the market; the banker will buy what's needed and put it in the base. But if what's on the market is above an arbitrary cutoff point - usually around 2K for commons, 15K for uncommons and 1.2M for rares - that means its a ticket buy or at least roll-at. I do a fair amount of messing around in MA, so most of my characters have more than enough tickets to buy rare salvage to order.