Sailboat

I've been under the possibly mistaken impression that I could do morality missions and accumulate Alignment merits and trade them in for IO recipes without GR, just that I could not actually choose a different alignment.

Is that possible?

Another question: if I have 3 alignment tips, can I get more to drop, or is that a cap? Is the morality tip dropping part of the same cap, assuming there is one?

I am carrying 3 alignment tips and so far no morality tip has dropped. But I am possibly misunderstanding something.

Time to update for new Fiery Aura changes!

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Archetype: Tanker
Primary: Fiery Aura
Secondary: Fiery Melee
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01: Scorch => 4 slots (Kinetic Combat, +3.75 S/L)
01: Fire Shield => 6 (Reactive Armor, +1.25 S/L/E/N), (Steadfast P +3% Def, Steadfast P -KNB)
02: Fire Sword => 6 (KC, +3.75 S/L, then frankenslotted)
04: Healing Flames => 5 (Doctored Wounds)
06: Fly => 1
08: Combustion => 6 (3 Erad 3.13 E/N, +3 Cleaving Blow)
10: Blazing Aura => 6 (Erad 3.13 E/N, then frankenslotted for acc/end)
12: Plasma Shield => 4 (RA, 1.25 S/L/E/N)
14: Swift => 1
16: Health => 1
18: Burn => 6 (3 Erad 3.13 E/N, +3 Cleaving Blow)
20: Stamina => 3 (2 Efficacy Adaptor for the +life)
22: Build Up => 3 (2 Adj Targeting plus a recharge)
24: Boxing => 1 (nothing or 1 Acc)
26: Fiery Embrace => 2
28: Fire Sword Circle => 6 (3 Erad 3.13 E/N, +3 Cleaving Blow)
30: Tough => 4 (RA, 1.25 S/L/E/N)
32: Weave => 4 (LOTG incl. 7.5%)
35: Incinerate => 6 (KC, 3.75 S/L)
38: Greater Fire Sword => 6 (KC, 3.75 S/L)
41: Char => 1
44: Melt Armor => 1
47: Fire Ball => 6 (5 Ragnarok + a triple to fill in)
49: Temperature Protection => 1 (SP -KNB)...OR Consume?

This will result in about 29.55% S/L defense, 33.31% E/N defense, and 10.8% F/N defense (but 90% resistance) I believe.

Concerns:

Slot-starved. I REALLY want to get another slot into Fiery Embrace now, but I'd have to break up a set or underslot Stamina or something. I already gave up one of my Kinetic Combat sets to get the slots for Burn (painful!).

No Hasten AND I give up one LOTG +recharge IO (by losing Combat Jumping).

Lower S/L defense.

If I ditch Temp Protection for Consume (mostly to get the endurance drain protection) I lose one of my two -knb Ios. However, I've read that there are few cases where 2 are useful; most people recommend either one or 3+.

I'd probably be better off six-slotting Scorch now instead of Fire Sword -- it has the Bruising debuff -- but this is a "flaming sword" based concept, so I have to use it.

Thoughts?

One thing I have trouble understanding when people skip attacks is what they are replacing those power picks with. My own Tankers take pretty much all their defensive powers -- including things like the Invulnerability passives -- and Tough and Weave...and Stamina...and still have room for 5-7 attacks. I've made some very tough Tankers without giving up damage.

Months ago, a Brute sent a /tell to one of my Invulnerability Tankers during an ITF that had gone wrong: "HOW are you STILL ALIVE???" That same Tanker, without respeccing, is the one I mentioned who did 601 damage with one punch while soloing (no help from Fulcrum Shift or any external buffs or debuffs). And this is feasible for anyone...I'm not claiming to be a genius.

The Heroic option is to "Diffuse the Nemesis bomb threat."

Diffuse means to spread through a medium. Do they REALLY want me to spread the bomb threat around the city? That's heroic?

Defuse (de-fuse...get it?) would be the term of art for shutting off a bomb's fuse before it explodes.

In my personal experience, I've met several Tankers who hesitated to take aggro. However, ALL of those Tankers, without exception, were built badly, typically having few or no shields and especially no status protection.

No wonder THOSE guys don't want to go into the maelstrom.

If you meet players like that, some of them respond to polite, helpful suggestions and will learn more and improve their tanking experience (and maybe even their skills). I recommend approaching them via /tells so as not to embarrass them in front of the team. I also usualy ask if they already know this, since they could be running a concept build intentionally.

Hrm. I don't suppose he could be talked into turning over the star (or at least promoting some active players) in the Iron Eagles Super Group so we can set base permissions and stuff like that?

Although this only helps already-considerate players, I like toggling Walk on and off as I enter WW. This kills all my toggles at once, without having to shut each off individually.

A Martial Arts-like set, sure. Martial Arts itself with anything like its current numbers would be pretty overpowered on a Blaster, wouldn't it?

BS/Shield can indeed be reasonably tough -- I have one at 38 who has never been defeated (he's in a "hardcore" supergroup). He has a Steadfast 3% IO but no other defense bonuses from sets, so he runs a measly ~30% positional defense (before Parry) and that's been pretty solid with help from Broadsword (and teammates!). Broadsword is a great set, it just kills stuff, and it's awesome with Shields' damage boost. It's not super fast-animating, but that doesn't seem to matter -- the blade tolls like a bell, boom boom boom, at a measured pace, and your enemies are just...gone.

True Grit makes the protective effect of your defense even better, since the problem with defense sets is big hitters spiking you, but True Grit gives you a nice cushion of extra life for those embarrassing "hit a large green" moments.

edited to add: your first attempt way overslotted Phalanx Fighting. Slots in it give pretty limited return; they only add some defense when you are teamed and near one or two teammates. One slot in it until you've finished everything else to your satisfaction...you'll have plenty of other slot-hungry powers.

It's also worth noting that a Shield Tanker can give some direct protection to teammates who stand next to him, which is pretty unusual. Other sets provide indirect protection of course, by soaking up aggro and disabling or defeating foes.
Although not as durable as a Granite or Invuln or maybe a Willpower, we're splitting hairs somewhat, and Shield is pretty tough. It might be a good choice if you want to protect one or more friends.