Unthing

Yes, the only big decision you have in the next few levels is whether to get glacial armour at 18 and push fitness or taunt back to 22. I didn't.

That and of course slotting.

Ice/SS is nice! I have a level 40 one.

Most of the primary is good. Permafrost I wouldn't rate. Icicles is optional, but given SS doesn't have a PbAoE until level 38 I picked it up in the 20s and I am very happy with it ( it does about 1/3rd of my total damage per session ), despite it needing 6 slotting.

From the primary I have everything but Permafrost. Energy Absorption and Hibernate are both very fun. All the toggles are essential, but I left Glacial Armour until the early 20s. Hoarforst is a tanking essential that should be picked up early too.
From the secondary I have Jab, Haymaker, Taunt, Knockout Blow, Rage and Foot Stomp.
Rage is awesome, get it at 28. KO blow and Foot stomp are also awesome.

You missed out a damage resist in Unyielding. Personally I'd transfer one from Resist Elements to put there unless you have a Hami-O or something.

You seem to be slotting the resistance powers but ignoring the defence. From my experience Inv tankers mainly need to rely on defence to get them through.

I would 3 slot Tough Hide over Resist Elements or Resist Energies, 1 def is better than 1.5 res, especially as your max res is about 27%, however stood next to 1 enemy your def can be around 15%. Def is twice as effective as Res and small amounts make more difference as you get higher ( from invincibility for example ).

For the same reasons I would always slot def rather than Jump in Combat Jumping. A free 0.5% def is not to be sniffed at. The max from the primary is just over 30 def, 0.5% additional def at this point decreases incoming damage by about 2.5%. Jumping higher doesn't. My current ( I6 44-50 ) Golden Golem build has 3 slotted Combat Jumping for Def, I think my I7 build will only have 2.

Also with Aid Self you will want defence to prevent you being interrupted.

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In any case, Rage + 1 SO Acc enh in the attack power should be eoungh is not it?

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Yes. For hitting anything that won't splat you straight away if it hits you.

You can get away with no accs for less important powers if you slot to hit buffs in Rage.

I probably can't do Friday either.

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I know this post is bout the EA part, but when I take a look at ur attack powers, I notice U don't slot for ACC much. I know Rage can be made perma and gives a +50% toHit, but no Accuracy in ur haymaker and Knockout blow (which is ur best power) is a bit risky imho.

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Rage does not give a +50% to hit buff. It is between 18% and 20%. I think it is 18.75%, the same as Focussed Accuracy for scrappers.

See scrapper FA thread here for actual to hits.

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No idea how to fill the bar though because no defender sets are the same...

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Same as fury but for all team members? So when any team member attacks someone*, or gets attacked by someone.

*Maybe make this uses a power instead.

Perhaps it should be a Power Build Up power like domination but for Buffs/debuffs?

I have FA on my Spines/Regen, I slot it 3 end reds, 3 to hit buffs. It really is an expensive toggle, more expensive than Hero Builder states ( I've heard twice as expensive ) so 3 ends reds is not excessive.
IIRC It has a base between 18 and 20, I think it is 18.75. With 3 to hits it has about a +30 to hit buff.

To hits against 0,+1,+2,+3,+4,+5

none 75 68 61 55 48 41
1 SO 95 90 81 73 63 54
FA0 94 87 80 74 67 60
FA3 95 95 91 85 78 71
2 SO 95 95 95 91 80 68
FA0 1SO 95 95 95 95 89 79
FA3 1SO 95 95 95 95 95 94

I play on Unyielding, as such I have removed all accs from some of my attacks ( the 2nd tier attack lunge, Spine Burst the PbAoE, Quills the damage Aura ) but left one ACC in Impale, Ripper and Throw Spines. I am considering dropping the ACC in Throw spines.

Damn I just realised you are MA. That is extra accurate with a 5% acc ( not to hit ) bonus the same as broadsword and katana.

none 78 71 64 58 50 43
1 SO 95 94 84 76 66 57
FA0 95 91 84 77 70 63
FA3 95 95 95 89 82 75
2 SO 95 95 95 94 82 70
FA0 1SO 95 95 95 95 92 83
FA3 1SO 95 95 95 95 95 95 89 76*

* I carried this on for 2 levels just for a laugh.

As you can see, dropping all ACC will cap your to hit against oranges (+2s) but not against reds ( +3s) . Personally I would leave one ACC in some key attacks just for those big teams where you are fighting +3s to +5s.

The passives are pretty rubbish, I would go for an attack with control if available ( tremor or fault ) or slot them with most recharge if you have them. You should try and put some more slots in Dull Pain too if possible.

Aid Self is interruptible and so needs heavy slotting before it is usable in dangerous circumstance. I heard that with 3 interrupts it can be used mostly without interruption. I have never had it though.

Have you got Dull Pain and Invincibilty?

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i think its 1.1% acc per mob in melee range

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I thought it was 2% per mob, either way, not enough to boost your to hit enough with 1 enemy to allow you to drop ACCs in attacks but enough to improve your to hit when surrounded.

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The main problem with Vigilance, or almost any other Inherent power you could think of, is that Defenders as a whole are just about as varied in playstyle as the other ATs combined.

None of the primaries play like each other at higher levels, while there are similarities there are also important differences. What one primary could use as an Inherent is almost completely useless to another.

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I agree entirely. As someone else said recharge is important to an empath, but to a Kin it is pointless as they are limited by their animation times.

Endurance is probably important to most pre 20. But the idea of an inherent that is only useful before level 20 seems stupid.

So the only way would be to make it good for all, so perhaps mez protection + recharge + end discount when everyone is low on HP? Okay but still doesn't really help FF ( who have mez protection already ).

In fact what could FF do when the teams hitpoints are low, the only thing I can think of is blast more which is covered by the end discount and recharge boost above.

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1/2 EndRdx, 3 DamRes, it gives nice resistances (20% unslotted, 31% with 3 SO's) to E/N/P, which are generally not too well resisted.

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Are you sure it is that good? From memory they look the same as the corruptor numbers. I thought MMs were worse at buffs than Corruptors, or is it like Twilight Grasp where they reduced the radius of it.

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Why doesn't it alter the defender index value for heals, buff & debuffs? Thats the AT multiplier defenders have for heals & buffs / debuffs.

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Because this would mean for a FF defender to take advantge of it he would have wait until the team was mostly dead to apply the forcefields. Just perma fixed duration clicky debuffs ( almost the whole Trick arrow set ) would barely benefit at all unless the team was doing badly at the point it was applied.

For toggle buffs ( Shadowfall, Dispersion Field, Sonic Dispersion ) and instantaneous power ( Heals etc ) this would be good though.

For my Kin I find it useless, as I tend to keep most of the team at full health or it is a large enough one to have an empath. The only person who ever has low health or endurance is me.

Sonic has a number of advantages.

3 damaging single attacks, all with -res
3 cones, 1 damaging with -res, 1 inaccurate Knockback cone and 1 inaccurate sleep cone.
A single target stun
Aim with a different name ( Amplify ).
The nuke does long duration disorient.

The sleep and knockback are probably not much use. The knockback will probably knock enemies out of your debuffs and the debuffs may wake up sleeping foes.

The -res from Enervating Field will stack with the -res from the single target attacks and the cone -res, which will be great for taking out AVs and Heros. The -res from Howl is perma when slotted for recharge. Also -res improves the effect of -dam powers ( enervating field again ).

However whilst it doesn't have perfect synergy, the -res is probably enough for it to be good. I have a Sonic/Dark and the Dark set seems to have more -dam than Rad but overall they probably have about the same synergy.

The only drawback is with Sonics is that you don't have as many good AoE attacks as some of the other sets ( Fire or Rad ) which are always good to have with a debuff set.

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Being a /dev blaster I've felt I was missing out with not having BU, when I get to 50 I have the eventual plan of getting into PvP. Is not having BU such a loss?

[/ QUOTE ]You will simply have to learn to play to your own strengths, Build Up just won't be part of it. I wouldn't fret though, there is plenty you can still do . (You essentially lose 100% of base damage for about 10 seconds out of every 40, so your DPS will be about 25% of base less than people with Build UP, this is wothout really crunching the numbers though)

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I ran a spreadsheet a while ago to work out whether Targetting Drone was better or worse than Build Up in sustained DPS delivery.

Basically the to hit buff of 3 slotted TD is about the same as 1 ACC in effectiveness ( actually slightly better ) so you can drop an accuracy off your attacks.

I used lots of sensible slottings and found if you did this, on average you got just a bit better DPS and DPE with Targetting Drone than with Build Up, averaged over a number of slotting combinations. Similarly if you added Aim ( so it was Build Up and Aim vs Targetting Drone and Aim ) the results were the same. However add Hasten to the mix and Build Up and Aim have better DPS and DPE.

However this only applies if you attack constantly, so probably isn't extremely valid and Build Up probably has the edge.

Sorry, I edited the original post to be more accurate, these are base to hits in I6 and to hit against undefended toons in I7. The final to hit against people with no defence is the same in I6 and I7.

Which armours did you have on?

As Sinergy said get Temp Inv first, not RPD.

If you are going to get Tough, you might as well get Weave.

RPD Tough and Temp Inv almost cap your resists to S/L at about 89%. Personally I don't think that is worth wasting a power on RPD for when 80% with high defence is damn good. I found anytime I come across S/L enemies I just laugh in their faces with Golden Golem and he has 80% resist to S/L.

If you aren't going to get Rage at 28, I don't see why you are bothering with Super Strength.

Don't get Focussed Accuracy, get Rage, it's better. It has the same to hit buff, has a 80% damage buff as well and isn't a toggle ( FA is a very expensive one too ). It's major downside is the 10 seconds downtime every 2 minutes.

The top powers for Inv tankers are:-

Invincibility : 3 defence buffs, get at level 18, slot at level 19.
Dull Pain : 3 recharge, 3 heal. Slot completely by levels 12-15 as then you can take advantage of a 40% hitpoint buff 2/3rd of the time on DOs, with SOs slot 3xRecharge, 3x Heal.
Temp Invulnerability : 3 damage resistance, 0-2 end reds. Get at level 1, use you level 3 slots for it.
Unyielding : 3 dam resistance, 0-2 end reds. get at level 8, slotting is low priority.
Tough Hide : 3 def buffs, get at level 26, slot at level 27.

Secondary :
Taunt : I would get this in the teens in order to hold aggro unless you are planning to solo them. If not get it in the early 20s.
Rage : Slot with 3 recharge to have it always available, 2 if you have Hasten. You can add to hit buffs too.
Knockout Blow : 6 slot it. It is awesome.
Foot Stomp : 6 slot it, it is better than Knockout Blow.
Hand Clap : Soft Control, can help survivability but I don't like it.
Other Attacks: With Rage active, 3 slotting damage is not as important, make sure you have enough end reds in your attacks for you playstyle, a tank running out of end is no use to anyone.

Pool powers :-
Health : Slot it with 3 health, I would use my level 17s for this, it does help especially when you are lacking (healing) support.
Stamina : 3 end mods. Slot ASAP
Tough : 3 damage resistance, 1-2 end reducers. This is a reasonably expensive toggle so slot the end reducer[s] first.
Weave : 3 defence buffs, 1-2 end reucers, same as tough.
Combat Jumping : 1-3 defence buffs, it makes little difference, but it is the last few percentage points, so save it for when you have spare slots in your 40s.

People think Inv is a resistance set. It isn't, it is a strange defence set with great S/L resistance. Using Invincibility to your advantage is the most important part of playing an Inv tank.

I've done it twice. The last time I did it, the only way we succeeded was by unexemping the level 50s and sidekicking to them, although I was 38 at the time so fighting level 42 rikti was way too hard. I think we were all a little too low level though.

The first time I did it, I think it might have been with your Warshade Nefarious. It was I5 and I was my Inv/Fire tank Golden Golem and I was happily taking out spawns of force field generator guards by myself. I must have been level 41 or 42 because I remember being a bit unimpressed by the enhancement I got.

Organisation is definitely the key to this trial.

Me too.

Hibernal Flea wants a shiny enhancement and the satisfaction of beating the Rikto fairly and squarely.

I hope it isn't all +3 Rikti bosses like it was last time.

Well given that +3 enemies have a base of 65% to hit, 74.75% for lts and 84.5% for bosses, he's getting hit 30% more by minions, 50% more by lts and 70% more by bosses. I think this explains enough as it probably means he is taking at least 30% more damage from a given spawn and 60-70% more against those Warhulk + Fake Nemesis spawns you find in PI.

PS to hits from Dr Rocks AT comparision chart for minion, lts and bosses
+0s 50.00 57.00 65.00
+1s 55.00 63.25 71.50
+2s 60.00 69.00 78.00
+3s 65.00 74.75 84.50
+4s 70.00 80.50 91.00

Removed base from the title, these are mob to hits verses undefended heroes

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TBH I cant think of a worse power anywhere in CoX. Jump Kick, Group Teleport, Group Fly about the only ones I could come up with. I suppose Temparature Protection from Fire Armour tank set is just as pants.

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I'd say Temperature Protection is worse as the damage type it helps you against ( cold ) is less commmon and it doesn't have the slow protection.

I would put 6 slots in Dull Pain as soon as possible. With 3 recharge and 3 heals it is up most of the time.

Dull Pain probably make the most difference to you survivability after Invincibility and possibly Temp Invulnerability.

However I can imagine you would probably want to slot Total Focus first.