Tormentoso

Regen is awesome with SOs. It is made more awesome with some defense, even with just 26%.

My Fire/Fire tank was happy with the +def he got before BoTZ was even introduced. And he got stuck in the 25ish range. When defense debuffs are not prevalent, he's extra tough. When there are, the defense still serves as an extra layer of protection.

Remember, you can be in the negative defense range.

I know Claws has wicked recharge gift as its 'bonus,' but at the same time Firey Aura Benefits greatly from +Recharge bonuses.

I guess the basic question is: is priority damage or survival? For normal gameplay, I'd lean towards recharge with some defense on the side. That means investing in Crushing Impact for the Melee, which fortunately are not that hard to come across.

I got plenty of Fire Armors scraps/tanks, but still leveling my own clawsie. So not sure I'd be much use for half of the build.

Filled.

Without knowing how the new Posi will be, I'm guessing they learned their lesson and there will be MUCH LESS traveling involved. So 'recall friend' would not be as important. Steamy mist will help more.

Assuming they keep the same foes: Vahz, CoT, Clocks, you'll want to be able to use O2 boost proactively for the end drain/disorient protection. Your end reduction for that seems to be good for the job, so no complaints there.

I think it looks fine.

On a related note: how badly to enhancement values drop by that level? If it's as bad as I remember, your accuracy will be very low, so you may need liberal use of Freezing Rain to help with -def...

I think the thing about Praetoria is that heroes could side with 'Cole' or 'The Resistance' depending on ideology. Heroes who believe in freedom and liberty regardless of the outcome would go with 'The Resistance.' Those that aspire to save citizens and keep them safe (something we aren't doing all that well in Primal Earth) might see some validity in Cole's argument.

Villains could also be the same way, anarchists could side with 'The Resistance' just for a chance to have some fun, or with 'Cole' because the enjoy the controlling the weak masses part and the power trip.

Likewise, native Praetorians could go either way as well. I'm sure there are plenty of good and lawful agents that grew up in Cole's system that trully believe what he has done is law, order, and prosperity. These types would end up heroside. And discontent torturers that keep this order would go villainside.

Similar argument would hold for Resistance.

I miss the old days when the entire tank community would say a collective "yes" or "no" based on what day of the week it was.

I would love to face a team of ourselves. At least costume/primary/secondary combos would be enough. Not sure if it's possible code wise, but still would be nice. I'm assuming stupid AI might make things less harsh.

Would make for a fun 8 man scrapper TF. "Ok, everyone fight themselves. Whoever dies first pays for the beer."

Quick question: What's the range of Thorntrops? Is it as stupidly short as Traps' Caltrops? Does it also has the fear component?

Maybe overkill, but stacking Trops over Ice Slick might make them try to run away when they are not tripping and shooting at you. But if the range is short it would clearly be much better to just jump in with Arctic Air.

My dominator laughs at Vanguard, shivers to the Cimerorans.
My scrapper laughs at Cimerorans, shivers to the Vanguard.

I like varied mobs like these.

Here's an easy one for you guys.

Firey Aura / Energy Melee tank. Yes, not optimal on two accounts, but I got a cool color combination and I'm digging it. Right now he is level 21.

Following rules:

• Basic IOs (except for the one Karma: KB)
  Up until level 30 slots and powers

Why such a basic build? Because I have way too much altitis to fully IO most of my characters and/or raise them all the way to 50. So setting the goal to 30 and taking the number of slots for that level is more realistic.

Anything critical missing here? Please keep advice centered on up till 30. If I end up really liking him, I'll think about expanding.

01: Block of Ice => Empty(1)
01: Charged Bolts => Empty(1)
02: Charged Brawl => Empty(2)
04: Lightning Bolt => Empty(4)
06: Hasten => Empty(6)
08: Hurdle => Empty(8)
10: Havoc Punch => Empty(10)
12: Ice Slick => Empty(12)
14: Super Speed => Empty(14)
16: Health => Empty(16)
18: Build Up => Empty(18)
20: Stamina => Empty(20)
22: Arctic Air => Empty(22)
24: Kick => Empty(24)
26: Glacier => Empty(26)
28: Static Discharge => Empty(28)
30: Tough => Empty(30)
32: Jack Frost => Empty(32)
35: Thunder Strike => Empty(35)
38: Weave => Empty(38)
41: Power Sink => Empty(41)
44: Charged Armor => Empty(44)
47: Surge of Power => Empty(47)
49: Voltaic Sentinel => Empty(49)

Pretty colors to make it easier to see what powers from which set are taken.
I know more of Ice Control than */Elec, so I'll comment on one half (and you know about */Elec, so you're fine there).

From Ice Control you have all the basics down. Missing the ST Immob, the AoE Immob, the AoE sleep, and Shiver, which are all personal matter choices rather than required.

Personally, I'm fine with no AoE Immob or Sleep, one breaks Ice Slick, and the other animates way too long and does damage to be useful (if it had a fast animation and no damage I'd be all over it, quick sleeps have their uses, I'm looking at you my dear Mass Hypnosis) .

The ST Immob does has its uses against high level EBs and AVs. It's pretty much the only control you can put against them. But this is rarely a problem in teams as the AV's attention is usually on someone and only rarely do they run all over the place. Still, when they do, you're going to wish you picked it.

Shiver, oh how I love thee. You seem to be going very melee, which works for Ice Control, and definitely works for */Elec. My Ice/Icy (which is both a ranged and melee fighter) has both Arctic Air and Shiver, since sometimes you need to prep the field before heading in to break face. Still, I can see it being dropped for something more important.

I think my only question would be the Fighting Power Pool. Why? I can see Tough, to stack with Charged Armor. But Weave has too little of a bonus to be worth it. If you were to stack it with the +Def patron armor (forgot which), maybe? Or are you planning on slotting IOs for +defense?

Arctic Air is already eating a good chunk of endurance, not sure the fighting toggles will be worth it.

Bah. So so sad. I'm away from my machine for the season and can't become a Secret Santa myself... Then again, I'm dirt poor, and suck at making inf, so being able to give away gifts would have been tricky.

Still, good job!

I guess another valid question is: how many Ice Melee we see running around these days? My experience is that there's a shortage of those, regardless of primary.

I can't claim to own OMG so many 50s!!! But I have a high enough Invul, Ice, Fire, and Dark Armor tanks, and I must agree with most posters, based on how much damage can you take, Fire is on the bottom.

And the Tank AT is oftentimes seen as the taking all the damage guy, so many people like powersets that lend themselves to that. Those that like to do damage tend to lean to scrappers and blasters.

That being said, as has been said by other posters, just because Fire Armor has the lowest survivability, it does not mean it cannot tank. It can tank fine once one learns how to deal with its shortcoming.

My favorite tanks are my Ice Armor/Stone Melee and my Firey Aura/Fire tanks. They both tank fine and in very different ways. My Icer just toys with the bodies letting them flip flop like fishes while the team slaughters them. My Firey can clean up the minions or at least put a serious dent in them before the team even begins. Ice survives by taking the hits and not letting them shoot at me. Fire survives by killing them before they shoot at me.

I still take the alpha and control agro. Which as far as I'm concerned, is the first role of the tank. After that, he can have fun however he chooses. Though I like it then they actually are capable to do damage. (Damn taunt bots!)

I enjoy my Invulnerability/Mace, but that has more to do with concept and Mace is just plain fun with all the AoE. So far only the cool concept and costume keeps me attached to my Dark Armor / Ice Melee tank.

This game is not all that hard. All tanks can tank. If anyone starts spewing numbers at you or giving you a hard time, just let them know you are having fun playing this particular set, and ask them to let you tank, and that if you can do the job, then there is no problem. If they are still jerks, simply move on.

If you start getting all high, mighty, and holier than thou because they are acting all high, mighty, and holier than thou, then you aren't really being that much of a better person. You are just using a different argument to claim you are better and smarter, and right.

It you want to make a solo first build. Take Assault and Aim a lot earlier than that. Keep moving the ally bubbles up.

Ice's biggest "problem" (outside of end usage) is that it is a good balanced solid set. It does nothing awesome, but it also does not suck at anything. So it's not as fun to discuss as the other sets that are AOE monsters, or ST fiends.

What Muon said.

I live in a tropical island. We have two seasons: Summer and Hurricane. Snow is the kind of thing that forms in the freezer and we're happy with that.

Right now I'm in shorts, an undershirt, with the windows open and enjoying the breeze. If I need to go out, I don't need to worry about getting battle armor or risking having my ears freeze off and crack away.

It's the good life.

About the Defender vs. Corruptor argument:
In world of PuGs, you never know what kind of Corruptor you will be getting, may be blast focused, (de)buff focused, or balanced. Whereas with defenders, my experience has been that they are more consistent with expectation and the demands of the AT.

Nothing wrong with any kind of build, but when looking to fill a specific weakness, Corruptors seem to be more wild cards than Defenders.

About the Brutes vs. Scrappers argument:
Meh. I want both for damage and some agro management. If I want real agro management, I'll look for Tanks.

As for what I'll be playing, whatever my concept says they are. Even with the same powersets, each AT has an ideology/attitude/play style defined in my head, so I'll pick whichever best matches that.

All this being said: I always recruit whatever is out there, giving priority to those who use the LFT flags, followed by those that don't names that make me question their reliability.

If you're going for soft capped, Aid Self might not be worth the power picks unless you want to go for the stupid stuff.
*Removing the Aid Self and picking Hasten / Super speed
*deslotting Boxing in favor of slotting the passives (for an extra point of defense and Defense debuff resistance)
*switching Thunderstrike for Ruin
*Avoiding the Zephyr +KB since it's expensive (though you do have some expensive stuff in there already, so money is clearly not a problem)
*and leaving everything else as is:


Click this DataLink to open the build!

Loyalists versus Resistance fighters... Our mother weeps as she sees her children not only fight amongst themselves, but threaten the lives of her other children and the balance she so carefully sought for us all.

As others have said, dominators are dual purpose. You should be alternating between primary and secondary as needed, seeing what's needed. Priorities are always changing.

I have a Mind/Eng which turned into a blast with the Energy changes. Energy is now one of the few that can be ranged single target fiend very early in the game.

Well slotted, Mind Control alone can keep you busy in teams, but you need to know if holding the minion is really as useful as blasting it twice and making it dead.

The best thing you can do as a dominator is know what foes you are fighting and what they do. Brutes tend to not care who they smash, unless it's a specific foe (sapper, Vanguard, etc) that can ruin their overall perfect life. Squishies don't have that luxury, so you'll be an asset to any team if you know what is each ATs kryptonite, since you can can hold pretty much anything out there fast.

A good Mind trick: Hold -> Levitate -> Hold on a boss. He should be under soft control long enough to not be a problem till he's hard controlled. (Not sure now if Mind's hold has -KB, if so, then start with Levitate. Still basic concept)

Maybe I missed it, but not sure what Primary you went with. I'd like to know if you already decided.

And to the one who said: