Maelwys

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[color=light blue]Naa bridge will keep this unlocked, its our friday funny. [/color]

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Wrong.

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LMAO, classic!!

Won't say I didn't see it coming though...

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Can't wait for the general topic

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Said thread can be found here

Better check quick, B's bound to lock it soon... things went downhill FAST.

Hmmm. Should be interesting.... is that including "Build Up"?

I realise it's available for Nova too, but the morph time cuts down its effective duration for Nova form and I've found I can JUST squeeze two Incandescent Strikes into the buff when Hasten is running.

Good Cosmic Balance buffs will skyrocket your damage... but will be interesting to see any comparison numbers.

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"and impressive in quality"
peacebringers were a big let down for moi

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Whereas for me my Peacebringer is considerably powerful.

He consistently outdamages and outsurvives my Kat/Regen scrapper, when facing anything other than Voids.
On larger teams with +damage/+resistance from Cosmic Balance, it's just sick what a PB can do.

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I think in general Human form starts to outperform Nova form from the late 30s onwards.


[/ QUOTE ]Depends what you mean.

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I'm mainly referring to the boosts from Cosmic Balance which Human gets on teams (Nova doesn't) and the better damage output buff from damage SOs in Human attacks compared to Nova attacks.

Nova tends to do a lot of Knockback, which annoys many toons. It doesn't get Cosmic Balance buffs, and can't compete with Human for single target damage (though has a slight edge in AoE damage even at endgame).

I think Human form is much more versatile (in that you get more powers available) and is more damaging in general after 35ish. That said, Nova form is a nice power and I wouldn't tell someone to definately NOT take it.

Slots will be even MORE of a pain trying to properly slot Human, Dwarf and Nova powers though...

That doesn't exactly cover the behaviour of "defenders", or even "empaths in general".

I also suspect it's more geared towards play during Power Levelling sessions, where frankly people don't need to think as much or as often as they do during normal gameplay.

A good defender will use his/her powers to give the best possible effects to their team, and pay little or no attention to the tanker with an "I'm the only one fighting here" complex. If that results in a stream of silly protests from a tanker, maybe that tanker should look at the success rate of all-defender teams.

Empaths get Healing Aura, Regeneration Aura and Recovery Aura... all of which are nearly "melee ranged". They can take take the leadership pool which has short range buffs, and they can get melee range attacks and debuffs from their secondary and epic pools.

Even taking into account the "defender = empath" point (which many defenders would be up in arms about) would you seriously tell all empaths not to come within about 50 feet of a tanker on arachnos missions?

Uh huh... so all the Kinetics who use Fulcrum Shift (a melee range power) have to stay well back. And the toons who have Short Radius PBAoE buffs like Recovery Aura/Healing Aura/AM. Heaven forbid the defender might want to drain the mob with Short Circuit or use a short-range hold or disorient on him.

Lets not even talk about the Scrappers, Blappers and Offender builds.

They're just not meant to be in melee range, 'cause that's where tankers live.
(Range for that Smoke Grenade is about a 50 feet radius by the way)

...right.....

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I also hate it when im duoing with a defender and like an EB or a difficult boss(s) like 2 night widows come up and the defender says

"I hate these bosses"

so i reply with

"Doesnt matter for you, im the one that has to fight it"

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I'm hoping that was meant to be sarcastic, it's a perfect example of the 'God Complex' in action.

Night Widows tend to spam smoke grenade. This is a very long duration, very nasty -accuracy and -perception debuff. It's also a wide radius AoE, so any toons nearby the tanker will be hit with it.

You seriously think it doesn't matter for support toons not to be able to target or hit an enemy?

Aye, it's been a good few weeks since the last one, and IIRC it was organised on the spot...

I imagine there's not been much interest lately what with all the horrible crashing business. I'd be up for participating in one again, though as usual Sundays tend to be booked up for me...

I found my PB started to shine in his 30s and really hit his best in the late 40s.
Human form blapper mainly, with Dwarfie as backup. I didn't take Nova form.

I think in general Human form starts to outperform Nova form from the late 30s onwards.

I used Photon Seekers/Solar Flare/Pulsar/Dawn Strike (AoEs, Pulsar is a great opener)
Incandescent Strike/Radiant Strike/Glinting Eyes/Gleaming Blast (single-targets)
Conserve Energy/Essence Boost/Reform Essence/Build Up/Hasten/Light Form/Quantum Flight (buffs)

I also took Combat Jumping/Hurdle/Health/Stamina from the pool powers, helped a lot with the 'blapping' playstyle... I'd advise picking up Acrobatics too. I took Dwarf later on and slotted Flare, Heal and Antagonise... and took the self-rez at 49.

I don't have my original build handy anymore since my PB has been respecced a few times since then... but a decent Human/Dwarf Build would be as follows:

01) --> Glinting Eye==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(11)
01) --> Incandescence==> DmgRes(1)
02) --> Gleaming Blast==> Acc(2) Dmg(5) Dmg(5) Dmg(11) Rechg(50) EndRdx(50)
04) --> Essence Boost==> Rechg(4) Rechg(9) Rechg(9) Heal(15) Heal(15)
06) --> Radiant Strike==> Acc(6) Dmg(7) Dmg(7) Dmg(13) Rechg(17) EndRdx(17)
08) --> Hurdle==> Jump(8)
10) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(10)
12) --> Build Up==> Rechg(12) Rechg(13)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Swift==> Fly(16)
18) --> Incandescent Strike==> Acc(18) Dmg(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(23) EndRdx(25) Rechg(25)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(22) EndRdx(23)
24) --> Reform Essence==> Rechg(24) Rechg(34) Heal(37) Heal(40)
26) --> Pulsar==> Acc(26) Acc(27) DisDur(27) DisDur(31) Rechg(34) Rechg(34)
28) --> Conserve Energy==> Rechg(28) Rechg(29) Rechg(29)
30) --> White Dwarf==> DmgRes(30) DmgRes(31) DmgRes(31)
32) --> Dawn Strike==> Acc(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33)
35) --> Solar Flare==> Acc(35) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Rechg(37) EndRdx(37)
38) --> Light Form==> DmgRes(38) DmgRes(39) DmgRes(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)
41) --> Quantum Flight==> EndRdx(41)
44) --> Photon Seekers==> Acc(44) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Rechg(48) Rechg(50)
47) --> Hasten==> Rechg(47) Rechg(48) Rechg(48)
49) --> Restore Essence==> Heal(49)
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01) --> Power Slide==> Run(1)
01) --> Sprint==> Jump(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Energy Flight==> Fly(1)
01) --> Cosmic Balance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
10) --> Combat Flight==> EndRdx(10)
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30) --> White Dwarf Strike==> Acc(30)
30) --> White Dwarf Smite==> Acc(30)
30) --> White Dwarf Flare==> Acc(30) Rechg(46) Rechg(46) EndRdx(46)
30) --> White Dwarf Sublimation==> Rechg(30) Rechg(42) Rechg(43) Heal(43) Heal(43)
30) --> White Dwarf Antagonize==> Acc(30) Rechg(42) Rechg(42)
30) --> White Dwarf Step==> Range(30)
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I'm sacrificing a few powers until later in order to get Acrobatics in. If you feel you can do without it until the later game (I'd advise taking it eventually) then you can fit Hasten and Quantum Flight in earlier.

Slotting is always a problem on PBs, that build could make use of a dozen more enhancement slots... but as it stands it's a functional "blapper" in PvE and can tank when needed in Dwarfie.

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Hi Guyz, I just made my 1st Tanker, the Build i picked was :-
Fire Melee/Invincability. I have a couple of questions before i continue to lvlup.

1 - Is Fire on Tanker's still Badly Nerfed??

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Not really. In fact Tank's Burn is getting a slight recharge buff soon (is on test atm).

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2 - Was Invincability a good choise??
(I Want to be a DMG Dealer Mainly, who can PvP)

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INV does nothing for damage, in PvP it's ok but nothing special (Fire and Ice are generally better).
Invunerability's main PvP selling point would be repel protection in Unyielding.

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3 - If i made the wrong choise which should i choose??
As i stated above I Want to be a DMG Dealer who can PvP & is able to solo without worrying about End to much.

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As stated INV will do nothing for damage, Fire is the best damage-orientated primary. INV has no recovery powers or endurance drains, so some builds can be very heavy on endurance. Fire is the best AoE damage secondary, but it's not very solo friendly and is not great in PvP.

To be honest a "soloer with good endurance, good damage output and decent at PvP" suggests you'd have better luck trying a Regen scrapper. If you're dead set on a tanker, a Fire/Ice Primary with a SS/EM Secondary will be much more solo-friendly builds and will generally fare better in PvP.

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4 - If Fire/Invincable is a good Build, could any 1 plz post any tip's, Sugestions & Build's if it's not to much trouble & You can spare the time.

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INV/Fire is a good combo, but it will be quite heavy on endurance and is best suited to team PvE.

INV is a solid resistance set, making you very tough against the most common forms of damage (smashing and lethal) and granting good evasion to other damage types (except psionic). INV works best in the middle of a tightly packed group of enemies because of the evasion bonuses from "Invincibility".

Fire is a AoE damage set, allowing you to cause large amounts of damage to groups of tightly-packed enemies. It is less effective against single targets, making it harder to take down a Boss than several minions.

The advantage of Fire is AoE damage, and INV works best in the middle of big groups of enemies... therefore you'll thrive in the middle of mobs on big PvE teams. It's really not that great a toon for PvP though...

Dreck's already dried up, hasn't it? Untimed versions only exist on very old toons' "current missions" list.

I see powerlevelling as the pursuit of lazy skilless people and a complete waste of time. It's essentially a rush to gain levels without experiencing the normal content, and is especially pointless in CoX since there's not much actual endgame stuff to do.

I'd much rather get to know my character's limits by actually playing the game, rather than have someone farm my exp for me in one mission, over-and-over-and-over-and-over....

Thankfully in CoX there are instanced missions everywhere so the rest of us usually don't have to put up with any Powerleveller antics until we hit 46 and get pestered with "bridge plz?" requests.

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Should you start from the beginning and not from the build I submitted, would you make any other major change? The Epic pool for example.

And would you get any hold power?

Is it better getting the Medicine pool or trying to fit in Weave and Tough Hide?


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I went for Tough/Weave/Tough Hide and took the jumping pool on my INV/SS, and I'm very happy with that toon's current build. However he was built as more defensive than offensive... I focussed on making him a very sturdy team tanker, with damage output being a secondary concern to me.

I honestly think that you'd get better milage out of Aid Self than Weave/Tough Hide on a Energy Melee toon. I'd hesitate to drop Tough, so I'd probably take the Speed pool rather than the Teleport pool and 3-slot hasten to get the clickies up sooner... apart from that there's not much I'd change from the build I posted above.

I might possibly replace "Whirling Hands" with "Tough Hide", but I'd need to test it first to
(i) Be CERTAIN that I could hold aggro sufficently with just Invincibility and Taunt.
(ii) See if Whirling Hands is worth keeping for the disorient's damage mitigation.

I'd imagine that once you get Mr. Poo, your Sonic shields and the allied-anchor -res toggle would be golden.

Ol' Winnie is immune to Psi damage, and you can buff his other resistances up to their respective caps.
He also has "tauntiness" so your anchor shouldn't pull much aggro from him. And he's being made KnockDOWN!

But as many have already said, don't expect to actually kill anything before it dies of old age...

TBH I think knockback in all the attacks would be counterproductive with Sonic's ally-anchored -res debuff, you'd keep knocking them out of the debuff aura.

And you'd annoy melee toons nearly as much as NRG blasters...

Actually, if they gave Sonic Blast attacks knockback they'd probably take the -res away. Dooooooooom!!

Generally the Jump pool (for CJ and Acrobatics) is the pool of choice for Fire tankers. Stone tankers tend to take the Teleport pool because no other travel power will work whilst Rooted and Granite Armor are on. Ice and INV tankers don't "need" to take any particular pool... but since both are defence based sets they will get a slightly noticeable buff from Combat Jumping or Hover.

+ Hasten is really the only reason for a PvE tanker to take the Speed pool (SS is useful in PvP for melee ATs). Super Speed lacks vertical movement and tankers generally won't have any use for its "stealth" effect.

+ The Flight pool has a very nice attack in Air Superiority, which can increase a tank's damage mitigation with its low cost, fast recharging 100% Knockdown. The damage output is on-par with super-strength's "Punch". Hover also has a slight defence buff but can be a noticeable endurance drain to run constantly.

+ The Teleport pool has Recall Friend and Teleport Foe, either can be useful in certain situations. The main reason for a tanker to take this pool is if they want to move whilst in Granite/Rooted.

+ The Jump pool has Combat Jumping, usually taken with Hurdle for 'unsuppressed movement'- allowing you to maintain good speed whilst attacking. This is handy for most toons in PvP and "squishies" in PvE. Acrobatics is also sought-after for toons without Knockback protection (Fire Aura tanks, Dark Armor scrappers, etc.)

Note that Combat Jumping also grants considerable immobilise resistance which is useful for some powersets (including Fire tanks!). The defence buff of CJ is very small and should really be considered "icing on the cake" rather than the main reason to take the power. The endurance cost of CJ is extremely tiny and isn't even worth an endurance reduction SO in the default slot.

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You can also leave "Resist Physical Damage" until much later, nothing short of a high level AV will do significant S/L damage through both Temp Inv. and Tough.

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Your build looks much more balanced than mine.
My only concern is about leaving RPD until so late, but I'm gonna trust you since I'm really a newbie in Tanker stuff.


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If you encounter any major trouble whilst running both Tough and Temp Invunerability... it won't be from Smashing/Lethal damage!

Aid Self more than makes up for RPD, and taking it at 49 will let you have it available for the very occasional GM/AV fight where prolonged capped S/L damage resistance might be needed. You can still hit the S/L cap (as well as the cap for all other damage except PSI!) for short periods with unstoppable.

I'm not too sure what you think Soul Transfer actually does...

It's a self rez that basically leeches Health and Endurance from all nearby enemies. It does pants damage, but is autohit. It causes a VERY high Mag disorient to all enemies nearby (although the stun's duration is quite short) and makes you "untouchable" for 10 seconds.

Unslotted it'll take 4 mobs to fully refill your Health and Endurance bars, and take 300 seconds to recharge.

Slot it however you want, though I'd only really see use for Disorient Duration (since it's quite a short mez- 10 seconds base on +0s) or endurance/health/recharge depending on how you use it...

VERY nice work Xanthus, should definately put that into the Guide section.
I only disagree with you on one small point- you don't *need* to take the sonic secondary!

I rolled a very odd combo for my Sonic Defender, Sonic/Elec. It's a pure support toon and used a fairly different build when levelling than it currently has at level 50, because damage output of /elec is very low which made the occasional soloing session quite tricky.

At first glance the powersets might seem at odds with each other, but they actually have some synergy: Sonic gets a very good single-target damage mitigation power in Sonic Cage, and Elec gets a very good AoE damage mitigation power in Short Circuit (and a ranged hold).

Combined with the Elec Epic Pool's 'Power Sink' or 'Power Build Up' from the Power Mastery pool you can completely cripple most normal PvE mobs. With just three attacks you can drain all the endurance of the mob and cage a Boss/AV at the same time. You also get self/team mez protection and very good damage resistance, so you can quite happily survive in the middle of the mob in order to use your endurance drains.

Your Smashing/Lethal resistance is very nearly capped just from Sonic Dispersion and your epic shield, and if you take the Elec Epic Pool you get a very nice level of energy resistance too.

My only gripe with the build is that it's very, very low on damage output when soloing.
It brings a LOT to a team though: -60% res, Sonic Cage, Short Circuit/Power Sink, 55% team damage resistance to all but Psi, a stackable targetted +perception/mez protection buff, PBAoE team mez protection that's nearly on-par with Integration, Tesla Cage for sappers... I also took Aid other/Aid Self on it so it's usually able to keep even large teams alive when it's the only support toon available.

It's certainly not as good as /Sonic for stacking resistances and it doesn't get a ranged disorient, it's more a team-defence toon than a team-attack toon. You also need to be very aware that you have a gap in your self-mez protection: Sleep attacks will detoggle you. It's mainly Freakshow and Carnies that use ranged attacks with "sleep" components, so be extra-careful when fighting them.

Judging by the sig you're Claws... so you won't get Dark Consumption for an +endurance boost.

Obsidian Shield (mez toggle) should be the first toggle up, followed by Acrobatics (Instant activation now!)
After that I'd go with Oppressive Gloom or CoF, followed by the damage resistance shields (S/L first).
If at any time the disorient wears off before you finish retoggling, you can use Dark Recovery...

Dark is one of the easier self-rezes to recover from. You may want to put an Endurance SO in the default slot though, it can be hard work retoggling all those powers back up on a nearly empty blue bar.

I'll assume that the Teleport Pool is concept?

Generally a mainly-melee toon will do slightly better with Hasten/SuperSpeed or Combat Jumping/Super Jump.

If you take Tough Hide I'd try to fit in Weave and maybe Combat Jumping too in order to cap your defense in large mobs... as it is you only have mediocre defense so I think you'd get better use from the medicine pool.

Energy Transfer drains your own HP too... so I'd probably try to get Aid Self into the build somewhere. It'd increase your survivability and even on a lower-defense tanker it'll tend to activate successfully when slotted with interrupts. You can also leave "Resist Physical Damage" until much later, nothing short of a high level AV will do significant S/L damage through both Temp Inv. and Tough.

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01) --> Temp Invulnerability==> EndRdx(1) DmgRes(3) DmgRes(3) DmgRes(17)
01) --> Barrage==> Acc(1)
02) --> Dull Pain==> Rechg(2) Rechg(5) Rechg(5) Heal(9) Heal(9) Heal(11)
04) --> Bone Smasher==> Acc(4) Dmg(7) Dmg(7) Dmg(11) Rechg(13) EndRdx(13)
06) --> Boxing==> Acc(6)
08) --> Unyielding==> EndRdx(8) DmgRes(15) DmgRes(15) DmgRes(23)
10) --> Swift==> Run(10)
12) --> Recall Friend==> EndRdx(12)
14) --> Teleport==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16) Heal(17) Heal(25)
18) --> Invincibility==> EndRdx(18) DefBuf(19) DefBuf(19) DefBuf(23) Taunt(40) Taunt(43)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --> Taunt==> Rechg(22) Rechg(25) Taunt(46)
24) --> Stimulant==> Rechg(24)
26) --> Aid Self==> Heal(26) Heal(27) Rechg(27) EndRdx(34) IntRdx(34) IntRdx(37)
28) --> Build Up==> Rechg(28) Rechg(29) Rechg(29) TH_Buf(48) TH_Buf(50)
30) --> Tough==> DmgRes(30) DmgRes(31) DmgRes(31) EndRdx(31) EndRdx(34)
32) --> Unstoppable==> DmgRes(32) Rechg(33) Rechg(33) Rechg(33)
35) --> Energy Transfer==> Acc(35) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Rechg(37) Rechg(37)
38) --> Total Focus==> Acc(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(40) EndRdx(40)
41) --> Focused Accuracy==> EndRdx(41) EndRdx(42) EndRdx(42) TH_Buf(42) TH_Buf(43) TH_Buf(43)
44) --> Whirling Hands==> Acc(44) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Rechg(46) EndRdx(46)
47) --> Conserve Power==> Rechg(47) Rechg(48) Rechg(48)
49) --> Resist Physical Damage==> DmgRes(49) DmgRes(50) DmgRes(50)
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Invincibility and Taunt should easily take care of aggro control. I've left Whirling Hands in the build, it can be swapped with Build Up if you'd rather have more AoE capability earlier on. I find Build Up is very useful combined with heavy single target attacks, so if you solo or concentrate on a few targets at a time I'd take it earlier.

There's two "spare" slots - one Heal SO in Health and one Taunt Duration SO in Taunt.
If I could fit anything else in, it'd be Hasten to get Dull Pain/Unstoppable/Conserve Power up sooner.

Would depend on the scenario.

In general for big PvE groups it would favour higher survivability, since EM is a single-target set.
But if you're facing tougher mobs in fewer numbers, the build with Hasten would begin to have an edge.

Hasten's also a considerable endurance sink and INV has no self-recovery powers. Trying to attack flat out whilst running all your toggles plus Hasten... that'll see your blue bar plummet FAST.

In PvP though, I'd say Hasten (and Aid Self) would certainly win out over the fighting pool.

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You seem to think ppl only do s/l damage so having only resistance is your goal but not talking the other 3 resistance powers is putting you at risk of being smacked about when they break your defence. Having a 27.5% is better than wasting time on weave plus also a waste of slots.

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I disagree. 16% from that 27.5% is from Unyielding anyway.

After much testing on my INV/SS I found the non S/L passives definately really aren't worth it. Using Weave to cap your defence works out to be far better mitigation in PvE, and you can grab "tough" on the way to cap your S/L resists. The only thing I'd even consider on a "team tanker" INV build instead of (tough + weave) would be Aid Self, the energy/element passives really aren't worth the picks.

My INV/SS is at the S/L resistance cap constantly, can hit the defence cap when he's tanking large groups of mobs and has (Unstoppable + Hasten + Dull Pain + Footstomp) for extra mitigation in case it's ever needed. I've never had a situation where taking Resist Elements/Energies would have been beneficial over capped defence... quite the opposite.

Super Strength gets good disorients in its main two single target attacks already (Knockout Blow and Haymaker) and you can Knockdown Fliers with Hurl. You really don't need any more mezzes if you get good unsuppressed movement (slotted hurdle and Combat Jumping are the usual favourites). I'd not bother with Hand Clap as it has a 20% accuracy penalty and Knockback is heavily resisted.

The main reason for the Primal Epic Pool would be Focussed Accuracy. Even with Perma-Rage running and two Acc SOs in your attacks you'll still miss consistently on the higher defense ATs. Focussed Accuracy helps a lot, and gives +perception which can help vs. stealthier toons.

Ice's Ranged Blast and Immobilise can be spammed, they both do -recharge and slow and allow you to catch up to kiters much more easily. Cold damage is also hardly resisted at all villain-side.

The Fire Pool is basically hopeless for pvp, Fire damage is well resisted and has no mez worth talking about. The Stone Pool has accuracy penalties, stalagmites requires contact with the ground to work and only has a 10% chance to cause disorient anyway.

Tesla cage can be slotted to overlap with itself for a second or two, as can Petrifying Gaze.
You should be able to perma-hold a boss using both of them, providing the Boss isn't very high level.

You can hold a LT but not a Boss with one application of either hold.