Nucleocrat

I always liked the powers in the Energy Melee list, but I could never get passed the pom-poms.

I think it's a nice idea to have us pay tribute to Hero One to earn the right to wear a cape, but I can't see how they could enforce this as anything more than a "suggestion". Freedom of expression is protected and good luck arguing a dress code given the diversity of uniforms that superheroes wear.

A hero "might" go along with the rule, but equally well, he might not. Who's to tell him that he doesn't honour Hero One in his own way, or that he hasn't "earned" the right to wear a piece of clothing - he's risking his life to help other people, after all.

I like the cape mission, I like earning the right every time, but I don't have a problem with people starting with capes.

As far as creativity goes, they're not really stifling it by making you unlock rewards, they're recognising that people enjoy to use their creativity and so will work for new options and unlockables to expand their range of choices. That's probably better game design than just handing out experience points for everything, even if it's a barrier to executing certain, specific ideas.

Stone is a really good set if you want to be able to stand up to ridiculous amounts of pressure. Granite Armour gives you excellent levels of proterction against most threats, and you can get some nice utility defenses against more exotic hazards like endurance drain elsewhere in the set. The downside is that Stone can slow you down quite a lot. Great if you want to be an immovable object.

Offensively, I'm very fond of Super Strength. The "Knockout Blow" power hits like a truck, and if you can handle the ocassional "crash", then Rage is a long lasting and dramatic boost to your damage.

If you want to be a bit faster moving then Willpower is a very nice primary...it offers a good amount of health regeneration and is one of the only tanker sets to get endurance management early on, which can really pay off when you're running defensive toggles and smashing those melee attacks.

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Firstly, Im sure nobody in their right mind would suggest ANY attack is better than taunt in grabbing aggro.

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I do. Ok, whole "right mind" part is dubious but my experience with several tankers has been that Taunt only holds mob attention on characters with damage auras. I have no idea why that should be, but on my ice tankers and the like, taunt was gold - you taunt something, it sticks to you like glue. On my willpower tanker though...I taunt a group, they'd turn at look at me for about half a second then go right for the blaster. I did not have the problem with Jab, let alone any of the higher attacks. Of course anything I jabbed would be in my RttC, but when a power like Fireball does damage and taunts for 13.5 seconds, given that taunts multiply aggro I find it hard to believe that taunt is actually causing more threat.

I wish the aggro mechanics were a little more transparent. I used to believe that Taunt worked exactly like it said on the tin, forcing targetted enemies to attack you and only you for the duration, but experience and the little info out there seems to indicate otherwise. Does Taunt generate any aggro at all, or is it only multiplying some sort of "on sight" hate? If it has zero generation it's hard to argue that it's the best threat grabbing attack, because none of it is real. I've seen enemies go for me because I've blasted their friends, but I've never seen taunt alter the behaviour of any mob it didn't hit. Course that could be entirely illusory...I've love to see some sort of official explanation of what's really going on inside the heads of those mobs.

Still, until I do, I've got to go with what I've seen, which suggest Taunt is a low order aggro generator, and that if you take it before you have a full and effective attack chain, you'll be weakening your character in team play as well as alone.

An Idiot's Guide To Taunt:

The Good Things About Taunt: learnable early, auto hitting, ranged, area of effect, good duration, doesn't suck up slots, doesn't suck down endurance.

The Bad Thing About Taunt: It does nothing. You have gauntlet so why kid yourself? This is a power that has no effect. It's a blank bullet you can spray over an area to get a slightly-better-than-normal Gauntlet hit.

What Taunt Is Good For: It gives you scope. More reach, more area, more often, more accurate.

What Taunt Is Not Good For: Defense or threat generation, ie, everything a Tanker needs to have.

Is It Selfish Not To Take Taunt: Heck no. Being able to actually hold enemies because you took a real attack that builds hate instead of a power that does nothing is called "smart". Playing a class whose inherent power is completely useless alone is called "team friendly". Anyone who won't group with you because you don't have taunt is called a "numbskull". All your attacks are taunts.

Should you Take Taunt Anyway: Yes, but don't burst a blood vessel over it.

Stone without Granite plays a lot like Ice. You've got defense vs. physical and energy based damage and resistance vs. the elements. Instead of a slowing aura you've got an immobilising one, but it offers less mitigation through recharge penalties and damage debuffs. You can't get as much elemental resistance, but you get a little physical resistance in-set. You don't get an endurance drainer, but you are resistant to endurance drain, and have an accelerated rate of health recovery. One big plus you have over the Ice tanker is that you get specific psionic defense. Advantages the Ice tanker has over you would include easier mobility and the option of turning invulnerable to recover health and endurance.

The problem is that every Stalker can choose when a fight begins (his stealth cannot be pierced by anything beyond 10 feet) and he also chooses when every fight ends (via placate or powers like teleport and restealthing). Placate is autohit and nothing in the game protects against it, so there's nothing you can do about that.

Put these two together, throw in damage that can kill a scrapper in two hits while also detoggling him, remember they can open from a position of preparation (yellows, reds, build up) against a target who can't predict the attack, and you realise that the reason your sets don't help you is that you never actually fight the Stalker at all. He just choose when you die. Doesn't work? He just ends the fight and tries again in 20 seconds.

Your sets will help you a great deal if you actually get into a fight - but stalkers simply don't fight. Try and get a brute or the like to go up against, then you should see the benefits.

If you actually want to kill stalkers, then you have to work in a team. It's the only chance you have, because anything else that might work, the stalker can simply avoid forever.

The best way is trickery. Offer them a seemingly helpless target then have several people hit them with everything you've got - and remember they have all the defenses of a scrapper aside from everything else, so you're not going to get very far if it isn't a massively damaging assault.

Defenders can be useful team-mates to have against stalkers. Not all stalker secondaries have repel resistance, for example, so auto-hit repel aura powers can do you some good.

Rad seems to be very strong solo once you have access to Cosmic Burst. I wouldn't trade a short range, low recharge, high damage, 9 second Mag-3 stun for much when playing alone.

Good stuff Jenbot, I thought the drawings were evocative and the writing was very entertaining. Keep up the good work!

I'd definitely take Invincibility for the defense, but my experiences with damageless taunt auras has left me feeling pretty underwhelmed about their ability to control threat. If he had a PBAoE or two from his secondary then I don't see why he'd need it for threat control.

I think you'd have to be crazy to pass on Invincibility's defense, though. It's situational, sure, but it can grant you silly amounts of defense-based protection in an otherwise resistance-based set. I'd almost say it was a defining power in invulnerability - it shapes the way they react and the circumstances under which they're vulnerable, it helps to make up for the weak passives.

Still, some people just don't get along with some powers, and there's no single right way to build your character. Friends with the right buffs or good use of inspirations can make up for a lot.

I like containment, it seems to fit the AT very nicely. It rewards the controller for controlling, it speeds up the near-inevitable defeat of contained enemies, and it helps the only support power taking AT besides the defender to solo, which I'm all in favor of.

Personally I like the Serendipty set in Focused Senses / Fighting...the bonuses are pretty good for SR, though you'll need to 4 or 5 slot powers that can do pretty well with just 3 slots. It's not too expensive, either.

Powers like agile you can slot with a defense IO and forget about for a while; and I found that with Practiced Brawler (3 slotted for recharge), I could get it permanent at 20 thanks to Quickness even using IOs I'd bought a while back.

What can I say but....first class job! I love the idea of using an ELITE worker to tell the story, I think you created a very believable and likable voice there, and told a great tale in a compelling way. Loved it.

On my ice tanker, I used to like to jump into the middle of a group of bad guys, and taunt the outliers. I like this sort of "centralised tanking" because it's easy to follow and lets you easily see if any wayward mobs are threatening your friends.

With my Stone tanker, I'm still unsure of whether I can afford to take Taunt early on. It basically comes down to Taunt at 16 and Stamina at 28, or Taunt at 28 and Stamina at 22. Power slots are just too tight. So if I cannot take Taunt until so much later, I expect I'll develop a different style.

Ice is combination of luck and control. That makes it skill based - your luck based defenses create a variable situation and you then apply the excellent and extremely powerful tools of chilling embrace, hoarfrost, and hibernate to control it.

Hibernate is a very cool power because it's so versatile. You can hide and heal for 30 seconds in a desperate situation to effectively give yourself an extra life, or you can freeze up for a mere moment to block some impending big hit. You can hibernate briefly to recover health or endurance, or to counteract an unlucky damage spike. It's a great option to possess.

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Most skranker builds are very tight.

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I wouldn't know about that, but taking taunt early on with my ice tanker meant having an "attack chain" of Jab and Haymaker until my mid to late twenties. That was without taking anything frivilous or extraneous, just the powers I felt I needed to tank. I can see why someone might have said "Gee, I'd rather have punch".

I think it's easy to fit taunt on by the later levels but early on and right through the mid game, tanker builds are exceptionally tight, or at least they have been for the sets I have experience of, which are ice/ and fire/.

Later on choices are more plentiful, but so are options for getting monster's attention at range. If you're a /stone tanker you might be satisfied with the gauntleted hurl boulder you can get at 28. I don't know if epic pools get the gauntlet effect or not but they offer ranged attacks and even some AoEs.

Many tanker builds are extremely tight and taking taunt can mean making a sacrifice. Personally I like taunt and I think it's worth the cost, but that cost can be a serious shortage of attack powers so I can see why people choose to skip it.

I like scrappers because they're so pick up and play. You can just jump on a scrapper, collar some bad guys with a quick string of attacks and be well on your way to mindless fun. I like claws as a primary because it has good momentum and I like regen as a secondary because it virtually eliminates downtime and provides active defenses in the form of dull pain and reconstruction so that you have more to do. Scrappers tend to be less about thinking and more about doing. That's nice because you can focus on the story of the mission or getting into the spirit of things.

The easy access style is also the downside of course...scrappers are simple characters. Not necessarily easy or brainless characters, but the playstyle is more straightforwards. Personally I enjoy my scrapper very much as an alt...it's a fun character to be able to hop onto when there's no teams to be had or if you just want to kick back and have a drink, but there's just not enough to it to hold my interest as my main or only character.

You have a fantastic story, an original way of presenting it, and a good grasp of tone. I love the ending, the dark twist of humour really rounds it off well, ensures it feels in no way tacky...I was left, like the other guy said, wanting to read more!

I like your hero character - good intentions going awry, believable motivations, genuine human feelings, and power at a cost. These are staples of good comic-book characters and writing.

Superb!

Very well done, and thank you for sharing it.

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If you are looking at "Pure" tanking, it is only these three powers that gain anything from hasten, and IMHO they recharge pretty well, and, again, hasten isnt always up even 3 slotted.

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Energy Absorbtion! You mention it later, but I'm shocked no one mentioned it before...it's a huge help to your own endurance, it can suck the fight out of entire groups of enemies in prolonged confrontations, and it has a decent radius for drawing aggro. It boosts your defense, and it can stack with itself. Hasten'll also be helping Aid Self if that's the route that's taken.

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So, I would say that tough or weave is better for a "pure" tank than hasten.

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I think Tough and Weave both do offer a lot, but given this whole "pure tank" business - which I'm finding pretty silly, it must be said - you would need to take an attack to pick Tough. Only then could you even think about Weave. Hasten is only a single choice, and it can be the pre-requisite for your travel power if need be.

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I dont think faster cycling attacks mean anything to an ice tank with taunt to be honest.

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I disagree. I don't have Hasten, but it's very very tempting. Faster cycling attacks are extremely helpful - I don't generally need them to secure the aggro, but a good offense helps my defenses. I can guarantee that the foe I either defeat outright or knock out of the battle for several seconds every time Knockout Blow recycles helps my survivability far more than an extra percentage point defense from stealth would, or anything like that. A tanker who neglects attacks to try to build up his defenses is only trading a fun and active way to survive for a slow and tedious one.

So in some strange way, I actually think I agree with you. Boxing is solid and regular, if not particularly impressive damage, and Tough and Weave are both good powers. Weave stacks with Ice's existing defenses to sure up protection even further (though another application of Energy Absorbtion stacked thanks to Hasten might be better under many situations) and Tough gives Ice some physical resistance for those big S&L hits that are sometimes gonna land.

I think you can find more useful abilities in your primary and secondary powersets then you'd end up with from grabbing lots of different pools. Ice in particular is very power choice intensive, you may well end up wanting the whole bloomin' lot.

You can learn 24 powers over the course of your career. Assuming you want Fitness to Stamina and spend the minimum two picks on a travel power, that leaves 22 powers from your primary, secondary and epic pools vying for only 19 slots. You can cross three of 'em out before you even start thinking about what you'd be willing to give up for each additional pool power you take.

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errr... how does it not suffer from Psi vulnerability?

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Ice may not have a specific psi defense, but you're better off vs psi attacks than a Fire or Invulnerability tanker would be. Why? Well, you've got Chilling Embrace, Hoarfrost, and Hibernate working for you. These powers defend you against any forms of damage! You may not be as well protected as you are against conventional attack, but you're not exactly helpless, either.

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Ah yes, I forgot about the increased hit points. But that's only 12% higher so they're not that much tougher

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That's mathematically indistinguishable from a 12% universal resistance to everything that stacks with all other resistance, even beyond the cap, and can't be lost or ignored, and costs nothing. It's pretty good.

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My /fire Brute is definately far more squishy than my /regen Scrapper, for instance.

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It's gonna depend on how you build 'em and what sets you take, of course. But all other things being equal, Brutes should be tougher.

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I'd say they have about the same defences as Scrappers. Looking at Dark Armour for both Brutes and Scrappers, the resistance values are the same.

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Precisely. The numbers are the same and Brutes have more hit points, therefore Brutes are tougher.

Brutes are very scrapper like - they're a melee damage AT. They are tougher than scrappers, and at times that can seem almost unfair because once they've built up fury they're much more damaging too, critical hits aside.

A good brute builds lots of Fury. Fury is central to a Brute's power. It means you want to be attacked, and you want to attack - preferably with many, quick activating moves. Powers like Boxing are fantastic on a Brute. The difference between a damaging attack power and a not-so damaging attack power is nothing compared to the difference between a calm brute and a furious one.

In many ways, you're an anti-tanker. Tankers lock down fights, Brutes bust them up. Tankers get attacked to keep their friends up; Brutes do it to take their enemies down. The AT encourages fast, aggressive action and powering forwards. Knowing when to indulge these impulses is as important as knowing when to hold them in check. They're tougher than scrappers but they're not on a tanker's level.

All this makes playing a brute really fun, because there's a sense of urgency and excitement - you feel very powerful with fury running high, and you want to rush onwards while you're still riding that wave of strength. It also inspires confidence to know that the longer the fight goes on the more and more dangerous you're getting. While everyone else's health and endurance wanes, your fury builds. Your lowering health hardly matters once your best attacks start one-shotting your targets.

The greatest danger is running out of steam.