Unthing

Hi All,

I've been running a Defender with Electrical Blast and bought the Perfromance Shifter: Chance for +End to slot into the AoE attacks for a nice end gain during combat. However it didn't seem to work. I didn't get the message in healing like you do when you slot stamina with it and I didn't get any noticeable end gain either.

Has anyone has any luck doing this on any of the Electrical Blast powers or is my idea flawed?

Cheers.

I'm up for bringing my level 22 tanker Thundernaut to the fray.

I'll see you at 4pm.

Positron Task Force is 55 merits.

In a random PUG team , I did it in under 3 hours last night.

The team was
50 storm/ice defender
50 warshade
<25 dark/SR scrapper
24 Shield/dark tank ( me )

The 2 50s may have been fairly IO'd up, I don't know. My tanker wasn't.

As for doing story arcs, most story arcs take about an hour and can be done solo. Most of them give about 5 merits.

I've had a couple of tankers who have dipped into the presence pool in order to fulfil their role more effectively.

I'm wondering about the benefits of Challenge and Provoke as taunt powers.

Provoke hits multiple enemies ( 5 IIRC ). Challenge has a super-fast taunt time but only allows you to hit one at a time.

On my WP tank I picked up Challenge because I figured that my aura will taunt most of the enemies, taunt for a second group and then whatever else I pick will be for stragglers.

What do people think?

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CoH is all about the journey, and rolling alts to experience as much of it as possible.

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I agree, CoH is all about alts... so for a altaholic like myself it is a very good game, especially since they increased the number of slots available ( I actually left at one point because I didn't want to delete any characters ).

Sounds interesting to me. I'm in favour of some additional variation to the current tanking mechanics and tricks.

8ft is fairly small, and is usually filled with enemies under the influence of a taunt aura. Does this power buff friendlies only in that area, or anyone in the team?

The main thing I can see is that with stacking it may become overpowered when stacked. It probably isn't an issue though.

I have Fighting but not fitness on my level 40. Fighting really helps survivability, with both Tough and Weave helping out.

I've not found endurance a problem but then I don't have Hasten either as Willpower has nothing defensive that really benefits from it. I have slotted end reducer in my attacks though.

Willpower is one of the cheaper of the tanker sets ( only Invulnerability is cheaper ) so Quick Recovery must have been put there as the token 'offensive' power ( like Invincibility for Invulnerability and the Damage Auras for everyone else ).

Hi,

I'm running Vista with the 175.19 nvidia drivers. I have a GeForce 8800 GTS 512 that I use my main monitor and I have my old gfx card, a 7600 GT running the second monitor for stuff like Herostats, Mids, web browser, music player etc...

All other games work fine with this setup, but for some reason CoH refuses to start up, getting very confused. I've left it for over 15 minutes and it just sits there at the loading screen ( pre logon ).

Has anyone else tried running CoH with 2 graphics cards?

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I don't know about anyone else but as an Invuln player I have come across players who immobilised spread groups. At times they are spread and I still have attention except with less defense which means I have less survivability.

They are so spread also that no ones AoEs be they controls, debuffs or damage properly stack and it could be the damage aoes are hitting uncontrolled foes whilst the control aoes are hitting the debuffed foes. When you want damage hitting those debuffed with out aggro going towards anyone. It can also mean a much longer drawn out fight.

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AoE immobs on spread groups by daft controllers wind me up. They often do more for the team dead. Less is more.

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Amen to that...

AoE immobs are like scatter powers. If they are used incorrectly ( as they often are ) they can nullify most of the the advanatages a tank brings to the team. Used correctly they are good powers though.

Don't buff the whole team with it. Just buff people who

1) Have no Mezz protection and are held, immobed or stunned.
2) Are a melee with no knockback protection
3) are key in surving against a foe who does a large aamount of enrgy/smash damage ( normally a tank against certain AVs ).
4) Are a defender controller who are nice enough to be mez protecting you ( with say Clear Mind ).


All in all, don't let it rule your life. Generally 2-4 are hard to notice, if you use it for only 1, it serves it's purpose.

I would never keep it on a whole team, but I have kept it on one or two. It is a missable power, it is useful though, especially for paying back Clear Minding empaths (4).

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My tank is now lvl21 and I am starting to realise the value of taunt. Bigger mobs, more dangerous guys, you are needed to hold them to you.
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So since then I have been catching up on defence. Now at the 20+ I have a problem invincibility gives no damage aura so I want to take taunt to help out team mates but I feel I need unyeilding first. So many things that sleep, stun and daze me I need a defence before I can hold a mob.

Getting dazed and all your buffs dropping in the middle of a massacre is no fun at all, so I don't think I can take taunt until level 24.

What do you think, can I survive without unyeilding? Would I be better risking it and just hoping I don't get bashed?

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IMO for an Invulnerability Tanker, I would say the order of importance is...

Unyielding ( so you aren't stunned, knocked back, held etc. )
Invincibility ( so you get hit less and taunt the enemies near you )
Dull Pain ( massive hitpoint buff and a sometimes needed heal )
Temp Invulnerability
Taunt
Tough Hide
Resist Energies
Resist Elements
Resist Physical Damage

The thing you may need to learn is how to use Invincibility to keep aggro... it taunts people around you but it is a very small radius. One trick is to run round in small circles, or even figures of 8 in the mob. Unfortunately you cannot see that they are actually taunted.

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i find the tick speed to be apparent when changing toons. for instance, if i swap from my ice tank to fire brute, the difference in aggro grabbiong is very noticeable. My ice tank can run full pelt thru a mob, with speedboost on, and aggro the whole lot every time.. my brute can stand next to them for what seems like an age waiting for a tick... and then thats no gurantee that it will hit all the mob

effectively, the damage auras are no different in effect to using a PBAoE attack every two seconds.

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Chilling embrace also has a larger radius than the other auras. That's why it is the bees knees when it comes to aggro grabbing, largest radius + fastest tick rate.

The large radius is same reason than Combustion is probably the best aggro grabbing power in the secondaries.

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Damage aura has the same usability as a taunt aura, they even are the same just that the effect and rules are different.

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Not really, the key difference between a damage aura and taunt aura is that the taunt aura is Auto-Hit, which is beneficial both at lower levels when you don't have access to decent enhancements and also when fighting high conning foes.

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Damage Auras also cost far more endurance than the taunt auras ( ~ x2 ), so the fact that they need end and acc ( and damage ) is a bit of a slot sink at low levels.

Also more subtley taunt auras tick faster than damage auras ( 0.5 s for CE, 1.0s for Inv versus 2s for the dmaage auras ). This makes tanking easier as you can get aggro faster.

I wouldn't invest much in Health. I would get it mainly on the way to stamina, small amounts of regen doesn't get more effective the more regen you have*. However it is a good stepping stone to stmaina, which is probably a good choice for all regen scrappers in the late game as it allows you to run Focussed accuracy.

Other pool powers are also not that effective at increasing survivablity, as they generally only work well if you have something to stack them against, generally I've found that timing of the regen powers and good use of the defe3nsive aspects of the primary are the key to (my) regen scrapper survivability.

* This is unlike resistance or defence, where the closer you get to 100% resistance or 50% defence the more effective a percentage point is.

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Taunt is part of the tanker secondaries. None of these have taunt at level 4, they're not available until level 10. Taunt AURAS however are part of the primary, and ARE usually available from level 4 (or level 1 if you're a Fire Tank).

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Shannon probably made them before I6/I7 when they swapped the tier 3 and tier 4 powers on all the tanker secondaries.

I took taunt at level 4 on Golden Golem. Combustion would have been far more appreciated at that level.

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The herd school worked, but only because they had asked him to show them how to herd properly. If i tried to put my mate in a controlled environment and teach him different tactics and techniques, he'd take great offense and probably never speak to me again.

basically, there is no way to teach people unless they want to learn.. this is a game, after all

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As you say, people are playing a game and object/don't have fun if you start telling them what to do.

I ran some tanking lessons for someone I used to play with a lot. I was doing it in Perez Park as a blaster, showing where to stand and how to cluster up a nice group of 10-15 green or blue Hellions/Skulls. Of course this was also so I could let rip my Fireballs/Fire Breath at the neatly arranged group afterwards.

Unless people specifically ask, the best way for people to learn to play tanks is for there to be a fairly large number of decent tanks out there playing. Somehow I doubt that this will be the case ever again, especially in PuGs.

I have an Ice/SS. He's a very nice tank.

Rage is good, it does make you glow yellow though. This combines with the Ice Armours to make you look like a light bulb ( but whiter ). When I first saw it I though it would be a great set for an Angel character. This might be made worse by the fact that my Ice/SS tank is minimum height though.

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That said, even with all the right powers, it can be tough at lower levels. I've only got one Tank (at level 13, no less) and have been in the Hollows for a while now. Every team has expected fairly standard tanking... which is pretty difficult since by level 13, I haven't exactly got a full complement of slotted shields.

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Having made tanks in I6 and later, they are clearly harder to get right. In, say, I3/I4 they had much higher base values for their shields so they tended to be tougher, although on TOs they were still pants, as an inv tank being able to cap your resistance versus S/L at level 12 was fairly nice...
The best bang for buck for a low level tank these days seems to be Dull Pain/Hoarfrost/Earth's Embrace or Healing Flames. Maybe people learn that they aren't that tough in the Hollows, so don't bother investing in defence/aggro stuff.

When I see tanks in the mid twenties with no taunt aura though, something is clearly wrong, they should be having a ball enjoying the tastes of true toughness, rather than meekly wading into the fight when they think it's safe.

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Edit: sorry just noticed that you said he was new...I hope you pointed out a few helpful hints for them?

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He also pointed out that the new tanker told him he knew what he was doing. I had a fairly similar experience with a number of tankers.
To be honest it is the kind of thing that makes me give up on some of my aggro heavy characters ( half of my defenders, my blasters etc ), and makes me avoid teaming with some of the more soloable ones ( scrappers ).

That basically leaves just my controllers and tanker for pick up teaming.

Force Field is an easy primary to play and pretty fun too. Most of the functionality of the set ( as far as others is concerned ) is covered by Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield and Dispersion Bubble. This means you don't have a very tight build and can go and get useful pool powers, I have the Leadership and Medicine pool on mine, as well as well slotted blasts at level 32ish.

As for powers that Knightly has not elaborated on, I have both Repulsion Bomb and Force Bubble on my FF/Son defender. Repulsion Bomb I'm not convinced by, it gives you some chaotic control though, it will annoy people if used indescriminately.
Force Bubble is a large repel field. It is pretty fun when you get it working well, but does rely on careful positioning. It is good for use in smallish spaces, you can trap enemies in corners with it.

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Positional defense may occasionally help you against some attacks that are have no damage type

[/ QUOTE ]Like.....what? I can't come up with anything.

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Zombie spew? Toxic isn't a damage type for defence.

Any chance you could give more info on them, ie what set type they are and what the set bonuses are?

I don't think trading is out of place on the Union - Heroes forum, so I hope you don't get jumped on ( except maybe as a mad scramble for your wares ).

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Standard tactic is teams is to start with build up / amplify, use Howl for cone damage and -res, Jump in to mob unleash /Fire PBAoEs, jump out again may have time for a few ST attacks on boss/Lt, Howl cone again, jump back in etc etc. An entertaining dance.

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My Fire/Fire Blaster used to do the same, I call it the Blaster Hokey Kokey.