Sarrate

I16 difficulty sliders, my friend.

I agree, Khan is pretty bland, especially after the recent TFs they've done (STF, LGTF, ITF). The villain version (Barracuda), however, is a lot more interesting (with an awesome cutscene), but more difficult as well.

Ranged Damage Mod

10 * 0.11 * 27.805 = 30.5855

The way taunt works is the same for all powers. Durations don't work differently in an aura than they do in powers. That said, when you see weird numbers in game (like 400% taunt) that's a bug with how Real Numbers is displaying them - that's the taunt's MAG (which is largely irrelevant except in some extreme corner cases). If you want to see the info, the best place to go would be City of Data (as New Dawn linked more directly to below).

Circeus's guide (highlighted) was written long before Castle (with the help of Ghost Widow) told us how Taunt really works. Some of the info is right, some of it completely wrong (most notably 17 and 26). I wouldn't trust it anymore.

[edit: I say that with no disrespect meant to Circeus, btw.]

There is a huge difference between tanking for a group with a WP Scrapper than trying to out threat a Shield / Invuln Scrapper. Scrappers (and Tankers/Brutes) have higher innate threat mods than the squishier ATs, (3 for Scrappers, 4 for Brutes/Tanks), so mobs are more likely to stick to them anyways. Add in a weak taunt aura and Scrappers can pseudo tank. If a Tanker doesn't Taunt, Invuln/Shield Scrappers will out threat them given enough time. I did it all the time on my Invuln Scrapper vs Invuln and Stone Tanks (this was before we knew how taunt worked, mind you.)

Personally, I find holding aggro off other taunt capable characters to be fun - it's part of the challenge of tanking. Besides that, it makes me a better Tank in knowing how to push the character to the limit. (I do feel bad for Brutes I team with sometimes, though. :P)

The difference between 37.5% and 50% base res is very large. That means slotted a Brute has 58.5% and a Tanker has 78%. That translates to the Brute taking 88.6% more damage. Add in Stone Skin and the Brute has 70.2% s/l, the Tank can hit 90%. That translates to about 3x as much damage. (Yes, the Brute can add Tough and hit 87.75% res.)

That is only part of the story, as it doesn't even count the lower def, lower base hp (for the regen aspect of Rooted) or the smaller +maxhp/heal of EE, either.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Granite Brutes are squishy, but they aren't Granite Tanks. The gap gets closer and closer the more IOs you invest in them, however.

The Performance Shifter proc has a 20% chance for +10 end every 10s. That works out to roughly 0.2 eps. If you lose less than 0.2 eps by swapping a slot out, then the PS proc will do better (on average).

The +regen component of the Numina and Regen Tissue uniques are also enhanceable. (I presume it's a bug, but it's lasted since I9...) You'll get the biggest bang for your buck if you slot those two in the power with the highest heal enhancement. In other words, if you have 95% heal in Health and 33% in Physical Perfection, place the two uniques in Health. In fact, the two uniques combined offer more +regen than PP does, so you'd be better off even 5 slotting Health and 1 slotting PP than trying to split it 3 / 3.

Or, if you'd like to math it up yourself:

So, as a simple example, suppose we have Health 3 slotted (3 SOs) and PP 3 slotted (1 SO, both uniques):

Now take Health 5 slotted (3 SOs, both uniques) and PP 1 slotted (1 SO):

So you can clearly see how with the same slots, you can squeeze out a good chunk of extra regen.


Oh yeah, don't forget to add any set bonuses you may have acquired, such as Numina's +12% for two slots.

Steiner, if I spelled it correctly.

I'll [code] it up when appropriate, and not a moment sooner! One bummer is the current [code] is flaky - in an I16 discussion thread, I found out that the tables align differently for different people. Gah! Annoying.

I haven't tried myself, but I've read you could.


Londer - The... "cat"... on the right of your sig frightens me in new ways.

Numberz!

End Discount (~60%) for 30s
Regen Boost (100%) for 30s
Self Heal (25%)
Recharge - 120s

Oh ffs Horatus, one time when your ever present "doom!" would be appropriate, and you completely drop the ball. Fail!

*raises a hand to object, but stops mid-motion*

...touche! Well played, sir. Well played. *chuckles*

Psh, do that with Guassian instead!

Note: AoEs cost more endurance, but if you can hit enough targets (generally 3) they break even with single target attacks. Hit more than that and you're saving bucket loads of endurance.

So Fire has 3 things going for it in terms of end efficiency:

1. AoEs - More end efficient than st attacks if you fight enough mobs.
2. Fire dots - These are free damage that adds up over time, especially against harder targets like bosses.
3. Incinerate - This attack has a rech/end discount for being a pure dot. This makes it your most end efficient attack, not to mention the highest DPA in the set.

Trust me when I say this - you will not have issues with survivability when running 45% s/l/e/ne def, ~3000hp, and ~700% regen on top of Siphon Life: example.

If you could squeeze it in, I think it'd work well, since DM is light on AoE aggro and it would frequently be buffed by Soul Drain. Of course, even if you did fit in the power, you'd still need to find slots for it.

I hear ya, trust me. I've had a lot of builds with powers (not necessarily Fireball) that I've wanted, but I just didn't have enough picks to squeeze it in. It always boggles my mind when people say they always have power picks left over. Give them to me then, dangit!

Ahh, I downloaded the HQ version, didn't even check YouTube. Thanks for the info.

Nope, sorry. Other than pausing and playing (ctrl + p) that's the only trick I know. I do know that it's impossible to show the UI during a demo playback - that's something that demo records just don't capture. The only way to get that is FRAPs (or other capture application) while playing.

I have no doubt you didn't. I rarely felt in need myself with Fire Melee, and I didn't pickup Tough/Weave till the 40s. I'm saying average players - this includes people who may picking Flurry as an integral part of their attack chain. It means those who don't realize that purples are the best inspiration a WP Tank can have.

That comment was also specifically at the ITF. I did that TF once SKed to 50 before I picked up Tough and there was another Tanker on the team. If I took too much aggro, faceplanting was a very real possibility. (It was a while ago, I'd say I died 5-10 times, maybe?) I simply didn't have the res / maxhp / regen to keep myself alive under the pressure the Romans applied. I can only imagine how rough that would have been if I was the only Tank.

I'm not an idiot; I knew exactly what was happening, but I didn't have the tools to avoid it. From that one experience, it's easy for me to see someone who has a build like that who doesn't understand game mechanics to be in a lot of trouble. Yes, the team should be supporting the Tank, but that doesn't always happen (poor team makeup, support not paying attention, dead support, etc).

I'm not trying to defend the statement that a Granite is required for the ITF - that's crazy talk. All I'm saying is I can understand why people may feel that way, as wrong as it may be. Does that make more sense?