Maelwys

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Primary powers: Sting of the Wasp (1 acc, 3 dam), Flashing Steel (1 acc, 3 dam), The Lotus Drops (2 acc, 3 dam), Soaring Dragon (2 acc, 3 dam), Golden Dragonfly (2 acc, 3 dam), Divine Avalanche (3 acc, 3 def), Build Up (3 hitbuf).

Secondary powers: Fast Healing ( 3 heal), Quick Recovery, Reconstruction ( 3 heal, 3 recha), Dull Pain (3 heal, 3 recha), Resilience (3 def), Integration (1 endrec, 3 res), Instant Healing (3 heal, 3 recha).

Pool power (Speed): Haste (3 recha)
Pool power (Fighting): Boxing, Tough (1 endrec, 3 def)
Pool power (Leaping): Combat Jump (1 endrec, 3 def), Super Jump
Pool power (Fitness): Swift, Health (3 heal), Stamina
Epic Pool (Power Mastery): Focused Accuracy (1 endrec, 3 hitbuf), Conserve Power.


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Disclaimer: Whilst I've played a Kat/Regen/Body scrapper to level 50, each person has his/her own preferences.

With that in mind, there's a few slotting changes that I'd suggest to boost your build's Offense/Defense:

Your Heal slotting is great. Bear in mind though that with the +HP accolades, your maximum HP from Dullpain will cap with 2 Heal SOs rather than 3 (but 3 is still optimum for healing).

In general Focussed Accuracy needs 3 Endurance Reductions, it's a very high cost toggle. You might also be better putting a second endrec into Tough, since it's a good bit higher also. You don't need an EndRed in Combat Jumping.

Divine Avalanche Slotting would benefit from changing an Acc to a Recharge, letting you double stack it constantly without hasten running. Make Sure you've 3 End Mods in Quick Recovery, Stamina's optimum is also 3 End Mods but Q.R. is better return.

Hurdle stacks a lot better with Combat Jump/Super Jump than Swift does, you'll be a lot faster and more manouverable if you take it. Build Up isn't worth slotting for Tohit buffs unless you're PVPing a lot, Go with 3x Recharge instead since this will let you get the damage boost much more often.

If you want to constantly chain attacks, it might be worth 6-slotting your attacks rather than 5-slotting them. My two big attacks are 1Acc/3dam/1Endred/1Recharge, but you can change the Endred for an Accuracy, especially since you're taking Conserve Energy. With a recharge in GD/SD I tend to be able to chain SD/GD/SOTW constantly for maximum single target damage output, using Hasten only really to get Dull Pain and Instant Healing up sooner.

There's very little point in adding slots to Resilience and Combat Jumping, since the resistance/defense return is minimal... if you've spare slots though, go for it!

I highly value Air Superiority and Energy Torrent from the Body Pool for extra control via Knockdown, but that's a "personal choice". I took Air Supp, Laser Beam Eyes and Energy Torrent to form a backup Smashing/Energy chain for use against high-lethal damage resistant mobs like robots. Energy Torrent (slotted with acc/2 recharges/endred) can really, really help me to control or "scrank" a large mob.

These are suggestions, not criticisms.
Nice Build!

Blasters have the option of doing damage from range, out of range of a rampaging Bosses/GM's/AVs PBAoEs. Most Scrappers with the possible exception of an oddly built Spines/Body Mastery Scrapper will do poor damage in prolonged ranged combat. You won't see a Broadsword Scrapper hoversniping...

Blasters in general are better at burst damage than Scrappers, with far higher BI blaps, nukes and the Aim/Buildup combo. This makes them theoretically better at taking out a nasty enemy quickly providing said enemy cannot kill them first. They also tend to be better at AOE damage than scrappers on teams (spines being the exception to the rule, but even they can't 'nuke', and Fire Tanks can generally kill herds better).

Blasters tend to do higher damage to mobs than Scrappers in the 40-50s because with the exception of Assault Rifle, Blasters do not do purely S/L damage.

I'd have to say that in general Scrappers fit into their role as Boss-Killers or psuedo tanks, whilst Blasters are AOE damage dealers and ranged damage specialists. Naturally you get some variation in the ATs, Spines Scrappers are better at AOE damage, and Electric Blasters are better at controlling mobs. This comes at a tradeoff: my Katana Scrapper is much more survivable and better at killing single targets than a Spines Scrapper, but cannot do the same AOE damage. I would not expect to be able to do Blaster-level AOE and Ranged damage and be as survivable as a Scrapper, the only thing that I've seen that comes close is an Eclipsed Double-Mired WS or a Human-form PB making full use of Cosmic Balance.

I'm afraid that to my mind the ATs are WAI. You can always take the Force Mastery epic pool, after all...

Ahh, you're just blappers at heart... =D

Spines scrappers, Fire/Kins and Warshades can do just as much if not more AOE damage than most Blasters. Admittedly my Katana/Regen is generally pants at AOE, but he can pull his weight with Flashing Steel, Golden Dragonfly and Energy Torrent.

On "survivability"; whilst I don't really agree with the range-is-a-good-defense argument, I can say that my Blapper PB is a good bit more survivable when he's firing from a distance and hopping around with CJ than he is at melee range. (And he has two heals and a Phase Shift...)

One solution might be to tweak defiance so that it also raises defense (not resistance) as HP goes down...?

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As I said before, the only thing a PB lacks is Mez resist.

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You get that in Dwarf and Light form.

Actually, I find my PBs really miss Recall Friend and Air Superiority.
(Darn devs, locking us out of those power pools! )

Having much fun with my bot/dark, currently about 34.8.

Was tough going until the first second tier pet, after that it got faster to actually kill things. I know it's a long wait, but after the second upgrade I've been steamrolling through practically everything in solo missions, rarely need to do anything other than put pets in aggressive/follow, maybe laying down tar patch and spamming AOE heal on bigger mobs. Bosses and EBs still give me decent challenges though, and I expect to have problems with Malta in a few levels...

On teams it's great fun jumping into mobs a brute would have trouble with (in bodyguard mode...)

Bah, can't believe I missed this, I've been on CoV far too much lately...

GRATZ DIS!!

Endurance should be more than manageable if you can squeeze in Conserve Energy from the body pool. That way you can just take FA and drop LBE (it's not that great due to the weapon redraw unless you're chaining it with Air Superiority or something) and get Energy Torrent straight away for the Wide Cone Knockdown... which combined with Invincibility will help your survival a lot against big mobs.

Did a quick sample build up, export follows.
Sprint + Hurdle + SJ, all with Jump SOs = V. Fast Travel!!

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
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Name:
Level: 47
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary: Katana
Secondary: Invulnerability
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sting of the Wasp==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(3) Dmg(7)
01) --> Resist Physical Damage==> DmgRes(1) DmgRes(40) DmgRes(46)
02) --> Temp Invulnerability==> EndRdx(2) EndRdx(9) DmgRes(15) DmgRes(15) DmgRes(37)
04) --> Flashing Steel==> Acc(4) Dmg(5) Dmg(5) Dmg(7)
06) --> Dull Pain==> Heal(6) Heal(9) Rechg(11) Rechg(11) Rechg(45) Heal(46)
08) --> Divine Avalanche==> Acc(8) Acc(13) DefBuf(17) DefBuf(17) DefBuf(19) Rechg(19)
10) --> Build Up==> Rechg(10) Rechg(13) Rechg(40)
12) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Unyielding==> EndRdx(16) DmgRes(25) DmgRes(25) DmgRes(37)
18) --> Hurdle==> Jump(18)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20) Heal(21) Heal(21)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22) EndMod(23) EndMod(23)
24) --> Kick==> Acc(24)
26) --> Soaring Dragon==> Acc(26) Dmg(27) Dmg(27) Dmg(29) Rechg(34) EndRdx(36)
28) --> Invincibility==> EndRdx(28) DefBuf(29) DefBuf(37) DefBuf(46)
30) --> Tough==> EndRdx(30) EndRdx(31) DmgRes(31) DmgRes(31) DmgRes(40)
32) --> Golden Dragonfly==> Acc(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Rechg(34) EndRdx(34)
35) --> Resist Energies==> DmgRes(35) DmgRes(36) DmgRes(36)
38) --> Unstoppable==> DmgRes(38) DmgRes(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(43)
41) --> Focused Accuracy==> EndRdx(41) EndRdx(42) EndRdx(42) TH_Buf(42) TH_Buf(43) TH_Buf(43)
44) --> Conserve Power==> Rechg(44) Rechg(45) Rechg(45)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Power Slide==> Run(1)
01) --> Sprint==> Jump(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Critical Hit==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
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Assuming you want to take FA at 41 and Conserve Energy at 44, you're left with two power picks and a power pool free, so you could pick up Hasten, Aid self or expand on the body pool, etc. Picked up Tough because it stacks so nicely with Invun's resistance, but you could swap it for Aid Self, really is down to play style.

The stated slotting for DA is optimum for defense buffs and will let you perma-double-stack it without hasten running, achieving about 45% melee defense from that alone. (This will be overkill 90% of the time!)

Stamina by itself should more than cover running all normal toggles apart from FA (Temp Invun, CJ, Unyielding, Invincibility, Tough) so you'll be left with the standard level of end recovery for attacks. You're maxxed out on Smashing/Lethal resistance at around 67-68%, and the rest should be capped when running Unstoppable.

Resist Energies is probably OK to pick up (brings you from 12% to 20% Energy/Neg. Energy resist) or you could switch it out for Hasten to get Dull Pain and Unstoppable up sooner. In PvE there's not that much you'll need Resist Elements for other than certain CoT enemies or Infernal...

If it was me, I'd swap Resist Energies for Hasten (Rechg/Rechg/Rechg) at 35 so that Dull Pain, Conserve Energy and Unstoppable would be up quicker, take Energy Torrent at 47 (Acc/Rechg/Rechg/Endrdx/Dmg/Dmg) and Resist Energies again at 49 (Dmgres/Dmgres/Dmgres)... but then I'm not a fan of Aid Self...

Hence the button marked "Eclipse".

You only really need the Nova form's Cone and AoE Powers fully slotted if you're double mire + eclipsing, and even then you can probably do without acc SOs in them because of all the tohit buffs from double mire.

There's a nice guide complete with i6 build here

I'm not a bind expert, but those bind commands themselves look ok. We'd probably need to see what's in those four ".txt" files before anyone could help you out.

Seems something in there has gone a little Ka-ka and is outputting something onto your current chat window, possibly interrupting itself trying to repeat before one bind command has finished.

I'm still not using a numeric bind system with my Bots (I tend to use a joypad a lot so the keyboard is less accessable, although since getting my 6th bot I'm beginning to rethink things...) but judging by your filenames your binds seem to be based on KHAIBA'S MASTERMIND NUMERIC KEYPAD PET CONTROLS, which is generally thought of as the best set out there...

???

(Don't you get mobs on team missions anyway....?)

PBs abilities are generally geared towards staying in one form, as a result they are great Blappers and Backup tankers with a bit of soft control thrown in.

Warshades are exceptionally good at AOE damage if they use the Eclipse/double-mire/Nova form combo, but they need to shift forms a lot to get the most out of their powers.

Both do well in teams... just slightly different roles.

Generally WSs tend to do much more damage against large 8-man mobs but PBs are better at tanking in Dwarf form and are a lot stronger in situations where you have smaller groups of enemies (eg. AV fights, smaller team missions or PVP).

I'd say PB are better tankers in dwarf form, because of three points:

* Flare for aggro control.
* No acc check in their heal.
* Essense Boost and Conserve Energy carry over from Human to dwarf form.

Another thing that can be very useful in smaller mobs is Pulsar, since when slotted you can effectively keep all minions and 50% of LTs mezzled near-permanently (after +2 mobs you'll begin to notice a short gap without hasten running). It takes reasonably long to activate, but it can be worth downshifting to human temporarily to fire it off if you have most enemies otherwise occupied (eg. in the middle of a knockup/down animation). If you get mezzed, pop one of those Breakfrees...

More than a few times I've had to play a little crazy in order to tank adds, pulsaring the second group can make or break the battle. You can also chain Dwarfie Flare and Human Footstomp in order to get a little breathing space (PBAoE Knockup followed by a fast-activating PBAoE Knockback, then click Human Heals or Hasten etc. and switch back to dwarfie to herd them again)

In a few Dire, Dire emergencies when we're getting really overcome by mobs I've used Build-up/Dawn Strike... followed by popping a blue, hitting conserve energy/Geas of the Kind ones for the +end and switching either to dwarf form or light form to handle the resulting aggro and keep fighting.

I've not much experience with Warshades, but from what I've seen they're really built for being damage dealing junkies with double mire and the Eclipse/Nova combo. The only time I'd rather have a Warshade dwarf-only tank is if we're up against PSI mobs (when Eclipse > Light form!)

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Slightly OT... I'd like to stress that I haven't built my PB as a tanker, but as a Human-form blapper that can shift into Dwarfie when he or the team gets into trouble.

I've had to develop some tanking skills over my route to 50 because quite often in PUGs they will lack a tank, or the tank leaves early, or the tank is too incompetent or scared to tank certain mobs. (I've tanked the Psychic CW King AV mission because our INV tanker didn't have the striga isle arc's wedding ring temp power and with absolutely no psi resistance he was too scared to attempt it)

One of the funniest points of my PB's career was being tank for a group with two INV tankers, a fire/kin troller and 4 blasters... Neither of the Inv tanks had taunt or unstoppable (were fighting Fire/Energy mobs and later on the Envoy of Shadows AV) and the others were dropping like flies until I shifted to dwarfie and starting herding the mobs. Ended up successfully tanking the AV with the kin using Speedboost/Increase Density on me and spamming Heals... the Tankers couldn't even hold aggro over me.

But as with anything else, Dwarfie has his weaknesses.
I HATE Malta Sappers, and too many stacked -recharges can also kill me pretty quickly, Hasten or not.
(Geas the kind ones accolade (for +recovery/+recharge) is about my dwarfy's only defense against these).
The other thing that's really annoying is if you get a lot of -acc on you, since Dwarf taunt isn't autohit and you have no aura, you can't keep aggro.

"Sensible use" would generally be hitting as many mobs as possible with Flare and Antagonise each time it's up, unless you have a teammate(s) currently in danger.

Generally you'll want to try to herd as many enemies as possible (within reason- one mob's fine), keeping their aggression foccussed on you rather than your squishier teammates. If scrappers or a blapper pulls a mob or two away from you then leave them to it unless they get into trouble (throw an antagonise), focus on spamming Flare and Antagonise onto the majority of the mob. If you start having major HP issues despite your heal (which will happen regularly in large teams without a dedicated healer) then that's when you start popping insps!

You want to have a lot of purples in your tray if you're a PB tanker, since they'll help out the most in terms of damage mitigation when you're in trouble. My tray is usually 8 purples, 4 healths, 4 Breakfrees (damn that Human Form mezzing), 2 Blues, an awaken and 1 slot free for team gifts. Big Oranges (the + 20% damage resistance ones) are always good to replace purples if you can find them.

The awaken is rarely used, but can help a lot if given to a teammate that can rez after a team wipe... I took the human-form self rez so dwarfie generally gets up again on his own (can be v. useful after a bad fight...)
*PB self rezzes, pops 2-3 purples, hits EB, toggles on Dwarfie and proceeds to unleash The Whomping (tm)*

I've tanked a good bit as a Dwarfie PB. They're often a lot more survivable than people give them credit for, especially if there's a handy empath around to cast Fortitude on you...

In terms of powers, they have an AOE knockdown, 60% (3 slotted) resistance to all but PSI and can heal half their HP every 30 seconds with slotted heal. Essence Boost's HP buff also carries over, although the %boost is based on your human HP.

The downside is you don't have any defense, none of your resists are capped, and you lack a taunt aura. Flare recharges fairly quickly when slotted but is your only real AOE aggro holder power besides your Taunt, and unlike tanker taunts, dwarfie Taunt isn't autohit in PVE.

I've used dwarfie to tank most AVs and GMs (including the PSI Clockwork King... yay for Quantum flight to absorb the alpha and dwarfy's heal!). In terms of survivability, you can certainly tank a tentacle (or two) from Lusca unaided, but the likes of Infernal will cream you without a LOT of support.

Dwarfies are NOT good at herding, and cannot generally tank more than one spawn at a time without controllers in the team. One 8-man invincible level mob is usually tankable as long as you have slotted flare and antagonise and use them (sensibly) whenever they are up.

Generally before a big mob I'll buff up in Human (Hasten, Essence Boost, Conserve Energy, Photon Seekers are all useful) --> Quantum Flight into the mob, switch to dwarfie, flare the nearby mobs and antagonise the others. Continue spamming Flare and Antagonise throughout the battle. After the fight to eliminate downtime, shift to Human for access to a second heal. It can get a little crazy, but it's doable.

My Dwarfie slotting is below. It's a bit underslotted in the heal and possibly antagonise.
Flare could also use Two extra damage SOs for extra aggro.

White Dwarf==> DmgRes DmgRes DmgRes EndMod EndMod
White Dwarf Strike==> Acc
White Dwarf Smite==> Acc
White Dwarf Flare==> Acc Rechg Rechg EndRdx
White Dwarf Sublimation==> Heal Heal Rechg Rechg
White Dwarf Antagonize==> Acc Rechg Rechg Taunt
White Dwarf Step==> Range

Congrats Sed!!!!!

A well deserved big 5.0. there, always a pleasure teaming with you.

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Hehe, gratz mate. Got one thing to say.

Burn Spirit overtook you, stamped on your level, spat on it, buried it, dug it up, spat on it again, buried it again, before running past it

Maybe slight exaggeration, but that's what you get if ya leave a character alone for a while

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Bah, you and your Fulcrum-Shift-Imp-exp-fest

Mild case of altitis... that's all it was...
Built a Tank and MM while I was waiting for that AV regen patch!

Thanks all for the help!
Unit got from 45 to 50 far faster than Maelwys did, and I wasn't even trying to rush it this time...

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This is why I have given up any hope of soloing my PB at the moment. I'm doing malta missions, and found a mob with 2 sappers and a void seeker, who do you kill first? Suffice it to say I killed none of them and ended in a trip to hospital myself, actualy was quite annoyed by that!!

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SS+Stealth or Light form or Quantum flight to the middle of the group, pop Pulsar first to mezzle the Sappers, Two shot the void with RS/IS and then introduce the survivors to your vast array of AOEs...

or

Conserve Power, Pop a few rages, Build up, Dawn strike. Pop a CAB, IS the void to finish it off then shift to dwarfie to clean up the stragglers.

or

Dwarfie Teleport or Quantum Fly past them.

Big GRATS to all of you!

Was absolute madness last night trying to get half the coalition into each mission...

Logging on shortly @49.8 so you can soon add Unit Omega to the list!

My level 48 PB "Unit Omega" is a Bi-form Human/Dwarfie and has had no real problems soloing after level 18 (Incandescent Strike goodness!). He's built as a blapper with Dwarf and Light Form taken very late as damage mitigation tools. At present Void Bosses are about the only things I really can't handle, since they tend to one-shot me no matter what I do... Sappers can be a pain, but they're more annoying than an actual threat.

In terms of soloability, I soloed a mission last night with 6 purple/red shadow cyst crystals and a red EB as the final installment of the Kheldian Arc. I did pop a shivan at one point, but that was to speed things up by taking on two cyst crystals at once without waiting for Light form, so it doesn't really count...

I highly recommend pulsar for teaming, it's fantastic for mezzing large mobs. Between IS's hold and all the Knockdown/Knockback in IS, RS and SF I find that rarely need to use it when I'm soloing.

My build's below... I've shuffled things around a little in the free respec, had taken dwarf at 35 and light form at 44, but slotting is basically the same as ever. Reasoning for taking dwarf so late is that I'm built as a blapper and any time I'm exemping down we should have a dedicated tank anyway. Dwarf is slotted up so that I can still tank AVs/GMs fairly decently at endgame.

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
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Name: Name ?
Level: 50
Archetype: Peacebringer
Primary: Luminous Blast
Secondary: Luminous Aura
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Glinting Eye==> Acc(1) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(13)
01) --> Incandescence==> DmgRes(1)
02) --> Gleaming Blast==> Acc(2) Dmg(3) Dmg(5) Dmg(9)
04) --> Essence Boost==> Heal(4) Heal(11) Rechg(11) Rechg(13) Rechg(45)
06) --> Radiant Strike==> Acc(6) Dmg(7) Dmg(7) Dmg(9) Rechg(17) EndRdx(17)
08) --> Hurdle==> Jump(8)
10) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(10)
12) --> Hasten==> Rechg(12) Rechg(15) Rechg(45)
14) --> Health==> Heal(14) Heal(15)
16) --> Build Up==> Rechg(16) Rechg(25)
18) --> Incandescent Strike==> Acc(18) Dmg(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(21) Rechg(23) EndRdx(23)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(48)
22) --> Reform Essence==> Heal(22) Heal(31) Rechg(31) Rechg(31)
24) --> Pulsar==> Acc(24) Acc(25) DisDur(27) DisDur(27) Rechg(29) Rechg(29)
26) --> Conserve Energy==> Rechg(26) Rechg(37) Rechg(45)
28) --> Quantum Flight==> EndRdx(28)
30) --> Solar Flare==> Acc(30) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Rechg(37) EndRdx(37)
32) --> Dawn Strike==> Acc(32) Dmg(34) Dmg(34) Dmg(34)
35) --> Photon Seekers==> Acc(35) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)
38) --> Light Form==> DmgRes(38) DmgRes(39) DmgRes(39) Rechg(39) Rechg(40)
41) --> White Dwarf==> DmgRes(41) DmgRes(42) DmgRes(42) EndMod(48) EndMod(50)
44) --> Restore Essence==> Heal(44)
47) --> Super Jump==> Jump(47)
49) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(49) EndRdx(50)
---------------------------------------------
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==> Fly(10)
---------------------------------------------
41) --> White Dwarf Strike==> Acc(41)
41) --> White Dwarf Smite==> Acc(41)
41) --> White Dwarf Flare==> Acc(41) Rechg(46) Rechg(46) EndRdx(46)
41) --> White Dwarf Sublimation==> Heal(41) Heal(43) Rechg(43) Rechg(43)
41) --> White Dwarf Antagonize==> Acc(41) Rechg(42) Rechg(48) Taunt(50)
41) --> White Dwarf Step==> Range(41)
---------------------------------------------

Agree with Idris: Nothing much has really changed build-wise for a kat/regen in i7.

With the defense scaling changes "Divine Avalanche" has become a good bit more powerful, and the katana attacks "-defense" secondary ability is more noticeable (though it's still not worth slotting for!).

Any of the i6 build convos listed should do ya.

My current (i7) kat/regen PVE build is unchanged from the i6 one, which is listed in THIS THREAD.

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along with Fast healing, Reconstruction and Health all fully slotted for healing

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No, no, no. I cry every time I see 3 slots wasted here.

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It's not wasted, it's an Extra 78.89% HP regen (3-slotted) that's always on!

According to Sherksilver, /regen only gets about 495.2% regeneration in total with Heal-SO-3-slotted integration and fast healing, which can be brought up to 574.1% with 3-slotted Health.

Realistically this means that adding 3-slotted Health to a normal /regen build makes you regenerate HP about 16% faster than without it. And makes you heal from 1 HP to full in just 41.8 seconds instead of about 48.5.

In my opinion you don't need to 3-slot it, but I certainly wouldn't skip it. Being about 16% faster at regenerating all damage is probably better than taking tough and resisting 17.7% S/L damage. And the prerequisite choices are generally better for the fitness pool than boxing or kick!

My Human/Dwarf form's at 45 now. He doesn't have Acrobatics (getting SJ at 47 and Acro at 49) and by far the worst headache for him has been malta sappers. IS has far too long an activation time to hold them before they get off a short burst with that damn End Drain/Hold ray, and if they hit him with it once, he's dead... Chain held without endurance till they chip away enough HP to kill him.

As a PB you can't get a 100% Knockdown ability with a fast activation (no Air Superiority) or TP foe, so dealing with sappers is probably harder for you as an AT than anyone else in the game.

Really only have a few choices:
+ Pop Light Form (for dealing with one even level minion, that's game balance for you >&lt
+ Use Dwarfie Knockdown attacks (maybe pop Seekers first) and hope your End holds out till you kill him.
+ Pop a Break free for Hold resistance and then IS the [censored] out of him.
+ Use Quant. Flight to absorb his alpha and try to time it so you can IS him before he gets another shot off.
+ Acrobatics (assuming the hold mag inflicted by his ray isn't more powerful than it can handle) and IS him.

At present I tend to try popping Seekers (if it's up) and then fly in with Quantum Flight, use Build Up, drop Quant Flight, RS --> IS. Usually unless RS causes Knockback I'll still get held, since he gets a shot off before the massive-activation time of IS is over.. but more often than not IS will still hit and finishes him off, leaving me held for a few more seconds with a little under 50% endurance.

Another option is that once every 25 minutes I have the option of using Geas-the Kind-Ones accolade plus Dwarfie's hold resistance to take down a sapper in safety.

All that for a single white minion.
Did I mention I HATE sappers?

I really, REALLY think that either Human form should get some form of mezzle resistance, or Dwarfie should get Resistance to End Drain and -Recharge. Relying on the often-not-picked Quantum Flight, or the rarely-up "Light form" to take out one white minion is ridiculous.

Hehe, I've seen a fire/fire/fire blaster that loved to do that. His excuse was wanting to use 'Rise of the Pheonix' in his normal attack chain.

Well there's certain things like Toxic damage and Psi damage that's hard to find decent tanks for... in that situation all you can do is find someone with a high HP pool and throw green numbers at them...

I've ended up tanking Psychic Babbage before a few times as a Peacebringer Dwarf tanker when our stone tanker realised everything in the zone did psychic damage and started having a panic attack... (PBs can get a 60%ish HP Boost DullPain-esqe move in Essence Boost and a 50%ish HP clickyheal every 30 seconds. And a "Taunt" in dwarfie antagonise.... "PUNY HUMAN DWARFIE *STOMP*!!") and my /regen scrapper regularly takes the alpha strikes in carnie missions regardless of what type of tank we have with us.

Just on the Parry thing, AFAIK it's still the i6 value, which gave about 15% unslotted/24% 3-slotted. I'd still advise 3 slotting it for defense since the build isn't overly tight on slots and he noted he might want to use it for PVP.

Assuming he's running with CJ and all SR abilities 3-slotted with defbuffs he should be at about 30-35% defense... 15% extra from one application of unslotted Parry should *just* put him over that 45% ceiling.

Extra defense would still be fairly useful against enemies with tohit buffs or -defense in their attacks in PVE (Nemesis, plus anything with Bladed Weapons) as well as practically vital for survival in PvP against players with Focussed Accuracy, Rage or multiple layers of Tactics. And 2-3 Extra slots for defbuffs in one attack isn't that high a price to pay for that extra protection...