Innigo

You mentioned people dying left and right, well the No1 killer in CoH isn't any particular mob, nor is it lack of a defender powerset it. No, the biggest killer in the game is... player ineptitude.
Rad/rad IS a good set and I realise that at the lower lvls empath is more coveted than the other sets, but with or without an empath a good team can succeed in any reasonable mission the game throws at them, with minimal casualties.
So, my advice to you is, cur yourself some slack and stick with it until you get into SO territory as it's not until then that you get a good picture of what your toon is capable of.

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Out of curiosity, any reason why it couldn't be the other answer stated? Is it more likely that the camp was situated exactly at the North Pole, or that there's another camp two miles east of his?

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Yes, because he other answers don't actually answer the question; namely, what colour was the bear that trashed the camp?

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QFT. He's 2 miles to the east of the campsite he set off from.

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Im amazed people are falling for the riddle's trap, but it's like anything else; it's easy if you know it. Another, easier, version of the riddle goes like this;

A man has a cabin. The cabin has four walls, on each wall there's a window. Each window faces south. The man looks out one of the windows and sees a bear. What colour is it?

Another, contempory version goes like this;

A man has a cabin. The cabin has four walls, on each wall there's a window. Each window faces south. The man looks out one of the windows and sees that thanks to global warming the pack ice his cabin is built on has melted and his cabin is now sinking into the artic ocean. Water soon floods the cabin and the man dies of exposure a few minutes later. A bear spots the body of the man, but being a predator and not a scavenger it leaves it for the fishes. What colour is the bear?

Admittedly the up to date version isn't as fun.

White

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Ive stopped dying since the respec tho

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Not been playing much the last week?

Just kidding.

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Thats impossible, fireshield doesnt give 70% resist
But if it did (and slotted), you would hit the cap of 90%, thus getting 10 damage effective.

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Original text: "With fire shield only (fully slotted), I'll take 30 of them".

I don't actually know what fire shield actually gives in terms of protection. You seem to, can you tell us please?

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guess I should say he's taking 300% of the damage he was before?

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You could do, but it would be an odd way of saying it.

If you drove 100 miles yesterday and 200 miles today, would you say you'd done 200% of yesterday's mileage?

Personally I hate percentages as it's so easy to confuse people with them;

"A reduction in defence from 90% to 70% may look like a reduction of 20%, but it'll result in a 200% increase in the amount of damage you sustain so so in terms of your damage resistance, you're only 33% as resistant as you were before and so the true reduction is 66%."

All this is correct (a basic repeat of the work already done), but I lost the plot once or twice through it

So, my question is; given 100 point of damage coming in. With fire shield only (fully slotted), I'll take 30 of them. How much damage would I take if I had tough as well?

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I'd say with 90%s/l, you were taking 10 damage from a 100 damage hit, with 70% you take 30 damage from the same hit.

So you're taking 300% more s/l damage now (or lasting 33% of the time you could have before, or a 66% reduction in effectiveness?).

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A change from 10 to 30 is a 200% increase.

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I never dream of accepting an invite without prompt for TP on. Its particularly annoying when there's a retreat taking place and you, the Tank, get TPd out before the rest of the team. Tanks in first; tanks out last.

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Prompt team teleport doesn't work on team tp, which just for clarification, is where the character teleports himself and everyone around him at the same time. You simply have no say in the matter and hence the kickage.

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Bad tanking is a nightmare for sure. I have to agree that you really need the star to get anything done, aggressive kicking seems to be the best way to keep everyone alive too.

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I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. Not only do you need the star, but I think you need taunt (or some other ranged attack) as well. Not *just* to herd and control agro but to take control of pulls.
I spent two missions with an idiot blaster who refused to let me pull - wouldn't say a word, just wait for me to step forward and taunt, and then a few seconds later, shoot at someone who wasn't running towards me.
Sadly, I didn't have the star either, but after a few goes of this I stopped worrying about taking the agro back off him.

The other story was an idiot with group teleport who caused a team wipe by tping us all into a mob when we weren't ready. This was after I'd twice asked him not to group tp as he'd nearly gor us wiped out before and it's slighly disorientating when you don't know it's coming.
On my way back from hospital I innocently asked for the star and booted him right off the team, then passed the star back

So yes, if someone is refusing to learn, or buggering about for his own amusement at the expense of the team: BOOT and forget.

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In all seriousness, blasters can't compare to tanking like a true tank...i.e. taking the alpha and holding the aggro of 14 enemies at +4/5. But then a tank can't take down the lot in one fell swoop!

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We both got jobs to do. I herd up the room and then put the kettle on whilst the damage dealers dispatch them with impunity.

I think blasters have a long way to go before they're seen as respectable They're the spotty, rebelious teenager who swiped their Dad's car keys and drove his Merc into a bus stop full of old people waiting for their ride to their weekly tea-and-scone afternoon.

That's not to say there's not good blasters out there, there's just a lot of bad ones. Scrappers are the same to a lesser degree. If I were to guess, maybe it's because those two ATs are favoured amongst newbies.

Meh, stone tank here. You're all amateurs!?!

In all seriousness, given the views and opinion expressed on the forums I get the impression I'm talking to the upper ranks in the skill stakes.
There's few people who come on advocating a Leroy Jenkins as a valid tactic (other than for the sheer humour of it). But out there in PuGland it seems that Leroy Jenkins is the favoured strategy by many blasters and I'm afraid those buggers are giving you lot a bad name.

Just as the scranker fraternity are giving tanks a bad name.

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Oh I'd say a good 75% of blasters have delusions of tankerdom

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Yeah but the other 25% don't have the delusionary part!

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Ah, said like a true 75%er.

Now repeat after me; Blasters can't tank!!

Say 20 times before logging onto CoH and who knows, after a few months you might be out of debt

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Fire/fire is a matter of aggro management. The big hitting attacks are aggro, and both sets are AoE based. What they mean is, fire/fire is BRILLIANT at drawing aggro. It irritates tanks (especially lumbering, slow stones ) to no end, because they have to keep saving your behind.

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I gave up trying to save fire blasters behinds a while ago. If they insist in throwing in an AoE before I've gathered up the agro then they get to live with the consequences. Usually works out great. The fire blaster Benny Hill's away with have the spawn behind him and I mop the rest up into a nice tight group and let the rest of the team take them out in safety.
Then, after the remainder of the spawn has killed the fire blaster and comes back, I gather them up whilst the blaster is getting tp'd back and rezzed.
Awfully decent and self sacrificing of him

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I really, really, liked the use of the word 'tanking' there, I thought I was the only one, sniff \o/

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Oh I'd say a good 75% of blasters have delusions of tankerdom

I went stone/stone and team exclusively. Believe me, if you've got mudpots and taunt it's no handicap. I can hoover up the mobs and if they get to riotous I stamp my foot and yeehah, nothing more satifying than watching 10 mobs do backward somersaults

But I always build concept toons. My stone tank is a big lumbering beast (I don't even use sprint) and the idea of him doing those leaping twirls with the fire sword just didn't quite fit.

Just so I'm clear, temp buff made like this last 15minutes from the moment they're built?

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would it be any fast at killing the herds?

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Stone can herd just fine, and better than fire as it can take the pounding better. You have teleport so mocing quickly isn't an issue if you need to.

As for killing the herds quickly? Tanks don't kill very quickly. Period and with anoticeable absence of end recs it looks like endurance could be an issue at least until after you get granite and the -recharge on all your attacks solves that.

Herd: Yes
Kill all: Yes
Kill quickly: No

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You catch up with him, you have travel powers after all. Seriously, for the millionth time, taunt is in no way necessary to tank.

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What? And abandon the rest of the spawn you've carefully herded around yourself? I don't think so.

No one's really saying you can't be a tank without taunt, but you can never ne the best tank you can possibly be without it.

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I would love to see more art from you! How about some Defender loving

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Defender loving? Is that anything like safe sex?

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No, it isn't. What's the point in having an AT that's primary function is stealth and the ability to remain unseen, if they can be seen by most everyone in the zone? Perception powers are common, meaning perc can be capped easily, as opposed to stealth powers, where's the balance there?

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Now you're exaggerating. *Most* people can't see stalkers. Tactics alone isn't enough to see through hide and stealth, another perception power is required and the simple fact of the matter is that most builds don't have a second perception power they can choose before getting into the Epics and even then, not everyone tailors their build to cope with stalkers.

It's a simple case of rock, paper, scissors. Some builds can see stalkers and that's how it should be. There's nothing wrong with perception now.

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I really wish I could think of a way to fix perception/stealth, as it's really not too balanced...Let me think for a sec...

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Isn't it? Why not. Seems fine to me. Some people can see stalkers, other can't. I get the impression people are of the opinion that stalker should always be invisible, or in the case of this post, only visible at close range despite your perception bonus.

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Well thing is other ATs have about half the stealth cap of stalkers, which means they'd end up appearing from huge distances even with their stealth.

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And that would appear to be right and proper. Stalkers are the stealth specialists - they're SUPPOSED to be harder to see than anyone else.
If you can see a stealth specialist you would expect to be able to see a stealth amatuer.

I have the; Peroxisone Exposure Hamidon Origin Enhancement(Damage & Mez). No use to me. Make me an offer - sent via private message so I dont miss it. No point asking for summat as I don't know know what Hami-Os you get.

To be a good *player* irrespective of AT you have to care. Tanker may well be a special case, given it may be more difficult to excel at it then it to say, excel at being a scrapper (just an example), but I would tend towards saying the differences in terms of "what it takes" are relatively minor. You need to know your build, your limits and have a sense of team spirit.
I'm glad to see that everyone seems to be posting variations on this theme, I'm just saddened this attitude isn't more prevalent ingame.

I'm lvling a stone tank at them moment. He's 17th lvl, fully slotted armour and got his mudpots at 16th and *now* he can tank. I focus on gathering up the agro, making myself a meat shield whenever possible and try my best to be the last out if it all goes pear shaped, but as of yet I haven't really pushed for being the team leader all the time, but am realising that to be a "great" tank this is a necessary step.
Players without the right stuff need to be kicked as they'll only be a liability and a clear and concise plan needs to be laid out for each type of mob.
I'm also coming to the conclusion that to be a great tank you absolutely, positively MUST have taunt, because you have to take on the duty of pulling as well. In my experience less than 1 in 5 ppl know how to pull properly. They'll fire off their shot and then stand there in full view. The mob will return fire and after a couple of exchanges the rest of the team surge forward, rendering the pull attempt futile.

So, to be a great tank, imho, you have to tell the team, I'll be pulling the mob to *here*, give me a few second to gather up the agro and then go wild. Or, whatever the specifics of the plan are.

A tank is one of the more obvious team orientated ATs like the defender, but the bottom line is simply that EVERYONE has a responsibility to their team mates.