Unthing

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From Invulnerability I count Temporary Invulnerability, Unyielding, Invincibility as the vital three. No different to fire; S/L, mez and stuff, and areavoke [1]. What are the other two?


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The ones I was thinking of were:-
Inv : Temporary Invulnerability , Dull Pain, Unyielding, invincibilty and RPD.
Fire : Fire Shield, Healing Flames, Plasma Shield, Blazing Aura.
Ice : Frozen Armor, Chilling Embrace, Wet Ice, Hoarfrost, Glacial Armor.
Stone : Rock Armor, Earth's Embrace, Mud pots, Rooted and Probably Crystal Armor. I've never played stone

Thinking about it maybe you can cut it down to 4 for all, dropping RPD and the energy armours for Ice and Stone.

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I think it's a big mistake for Invul tankers to take RPD at level 1 - and at every other subsequent power selection choice up until the mid-twenties, you have a better power available. Even an attack can be a better defensive power than RPD's paltry value; if you defeat an enemy, that's 100% resistance against its damage.

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I haven't levelled an Inv tank from 1 to 20 for a while (I4 when RPD + Ti +Un could cap resists with DOs ) so I don't know whether the trade off of getting RPD is worthwhile. I dropped RPD for tough in I6. It really is pretty pathetic, but it gets you up to 50% on DOs. However unlike the others Inv really needs taunt as they have no decent aggro holding at low levels.

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[1] *Please* resist the urge to tell me that Invincibility gives defence, etc...

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Invincibility gives defence, etc... :P

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Although being new to tanking, i didnt take taunt until lvl 22.
Not because i didnt want to BE a proper tank, i felt i was too squishy.

Now i have SO's i have taken taunt, and full intend to be everything ppl expect from a tank.

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There is also the issue that prior to 22, assuming you want a travel power and stamina and to pick up a single extra attack ( the level 4 one ) you have only 5 choices left. With Ice, Inv and Stone these pretty much have to be from your primary or you are compromising on defence. Only Fire actually has a real choice ( whether to take consume, burn, taunt or a third attack ).

I didn't take taunt on my Brute. My Brute plays like a scrapper, hit hard and fast and go for the next group. Let the masterminds soak the aggro up. I didn't even take the Aura yet.

I'd say Energy is an average set single target damage wise, Power Bolt and Power Blast are the same as the Electrical equivalents in animation time, damage, recharge and cost. Both are moderately slow IIRC at about 2 seconds activation. However Energy also gets Power Burst, a better single target power later on, which puts it ahead in the single target league.

Psy has 2 attacks that are about as good damage as Power Burst, both of which have short animation times ( 1 second or so ).

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Kaya was saying to me a while back how Kin/Psy rocks, and how she was the best kin/psy on union ( ) so she'd be the one to ask, but unfortunately she has taken a break from the game. So my advice would be to give it a go anyway and I'm sure you'll find out why she found it so damn great!

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I think Kin/Psy 'rocks' because it has more quick ( low animation time ) effective single target attacks than the other sets ( Will Domination, Telekinetic Blast and Subdue ). I think only the first single target attack in the Psy set has a long animation time. A set with long animation times ( archery for example ) works badly with Kin as the set is so busy. It also has mezs as a side effect. The disadvantages of longish recharge times and higer end use per attack for the Psy powers are offset by the fact that Kin can build up a nice recharge buff ( Siphon Speed ) and has almost unlimited endurance ( Transference ) especially with Hasten running.

Another set that seems good single target is Sonic. Electrical is certainly not a good single target set, the only good single target attack is lightning bolt. I'm ignoring Snipes because I never find them useable in team play.

It is tough to solo a kin/elec defender ( who have a damage boosting power and a strong heal ), so I would say very...

@Maximillion
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In almost all teams I've been on recently most people have refused Speed Boosts after a few missions.


[/ QUOTE ]Then you've been teaming with idiots

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Possibly but there doesn't seem much choice these days, on balance the endurance is unneeded if they stand in the right place ( transference ) and the recharge may not be worth it if they don't like the speed and already have a nice attack chain. Sometimes ( especially for squishies ) the wrong positioning = death.
Personally I will always take a speed boost when offered. I spent a reasonable amount of time pre-supression with superspeed permanently on as my regen scrapper. Superspeed is essential to my anti-sapper strategy on my tank. Also running a kin defender with a build entirely addicted to recharge ( stacked Siphon Speeds ) means that you always go really fast. So going fast doesn't bother me.

@Cognito
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On bad / inexperienced teams, empaths are head and shoulders above anyone else.

On good teams, empaths are a little less desirable than other teams.

Only my opinion. After 30lvls playing a tank, i certainly loved empaths, but felt a whole lot safer basking in green radiation or dark debuffed enemies.

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I agree with this completely.

@Cynic
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A Kin struggling to get teams? Where you looking?

The amount of PuGs I've been in where the first question asked is "anyone know a kin?" is unbelievable......... of course I've been on villains mostly recently so maybe hero's is different

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I've been looking on the 1 AT Coalition chat on Union mainly. In almost all teams I've been on recently most people have refused Speed Boosts after a few missions.

@Venture
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Imho empaths are invaluable in high end missions. Try one of the SS TF's on invincible with a full team of lvl 50's... Empath FTW.

The problem is if your teaming with a group that is on a lower difficulty, the team doesn't recieve enough damage to make and empath that desirable.

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I wouldn't say emapths are invaluable. I would say they are damn useful but most other defenders are just as useful. The empath has the advantage over others in that it is the defender that needs least awareness from the team to help, hence the 'bad team saying that they need a healer' thing.

However good mob clustering from the rest of the team with a Dark, Rad or Kinetic and you will get the same or better results as these can boost damage more significantly for a team than a empath as well as their other tricks to keep you safe.

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conversely, the auras and Fort are highly usefull in teams of all difficulties and are yest often overlooked and unappreciated by non empaths.

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Fortitude is definitely good, Recovery Aura is universally appreciated, the others I usually overlook.

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Slotting EF at 21 kinda makes sense to me, no point until you get SO's worrying too much.

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I would disagree. I have slotted EF at level 7 or 9 and found that it means that it is usable with DOs. It does mean that I haven't slotted RA at level 15 but haven't found it that useful yet. EF combined with AM ( 6 slotted at 15 ) is great for solo play.

I've been finding it hard to get on teams for Booster and he's Kinetic. He just isn't self sufficient enough to solo so I got bored of him. I think the major problem is that the server populations are quite low at those levels in CoH. Also there certainly isn't a shortage of empaths.

Put me down as a reserve. I have Atomic Arrow, my level 14 Rad/Archery defender. He does do moderate damage*, but his main forte is debuffery.

* enough to solo Frosty and Atta.

Gratz!

Being new to the game it shouldn't matter from a story point of view. It might be worth trying out various enemy types as different enemy types do different damage. As a tanker you have shields that protect differently against different damage types. At higher levels this matters less as you have better all round defences but at lower levels it can be a pain.

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Well well then, nice timing since I've remade (3rd time) the blaster set I've always thought looked the 'coolest', Elec/Elec.

Only level 2 or 3 and would be built for maxium end drain at the expense of damage output combined with a bit of blapping since I'm unsure of Ball Lightnings appeal as either damage/end drain.

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I'm not sure that end drain builds work unless you have multiple people. Defenders have better end drain than blasters and in PvE the only significant end drain are from Short Circuit ( ~25 end ) and Zapp ( 10 end ). Ball Lightning even when heavily slotted is a bit rubbish for end drain. I basically gave up end drain as a viable mass control tactic after ED, but Short Circuit can still be used if you can get 2 off.

Apparently in PvP the end drain is less though, I would test it before committing a build to it.

The debuff of Cloak of Fear is 9%, so in total you will get a 15% to hit debuff on the enemies ( == 15% defence ).

Minions will still be afraid a great deal, more than 75% of the time depending on what you are fighting, so your fury generation when CoF is up will go down.

IIRC slotting to hit debuff in CoF is The Question's preferred slotting on his DD scrapper.

It provides a pathetic amount of Slash/Lethal/Toxic resistance, about 5% IIRC unenhanced. The only advantage of it is the Disorient resistance. At higher levels it is enough to allow you to us an awaken and not be stunned.

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I'm 34 atm nearing 35.

.....

The next power choice is moment of glory and Im not skipping that for ss or fear .

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I thought Moment of Glory was available at level 38.... IIRC level 35 is Revive.

Touch of Fear is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME. With just an Accuracy in it you can turn a boss into a useless coward in 2 hits. The duration is much longer than the quite quick recharge time. It is a very fun power with a short animation. I managed to perma-fear Maestro with Touch of Fear so I imagine it works on other AVs too.

Superspeed is nice, it's my favourite travel power and is the most useful one in missions both because of its speed and it's stealth component.

Assuming you would be taking superspeed as a second travel power I would recommend getting Touch of Fear.

Congratulations!

Gratz!

Sorry I couldn't be there!

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Just thought I'd give to hit chances for fortified people. This assumes they have slotted one ACC in their powers and the powers are 75% base to hit ( true for 90% of powers ).

Enemy 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7
No Fort: 95 90 81 73 63 54 45 33
0 TH : 95 95 95 95 95 88 78 67
1 TH : 95 95 95 95 95 94 85 73
2 TH : 95 95 95 95 95 95 91 80
3 TH : 95 95 95 95 95 95 95 85

So basically with no to hit buffs you are capping anything up to and including purples minions ( +4s ). I believe that Bosses and Lieutenants are generally as easy to hit as minions of the same level ( not the same colour ).

In light of this I believe that slotting defence is more useful than to hit as the to hit buff of Fortitude is good enough out of the box.

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lol u must patrol these boards like no one for figures or atleast you have nice little site to goto well i am definately going with 3 recharge 3 defence now.

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No, just have a nice spreadsheet with the to hit equation on it... I probably do patrol these boards a little too much for my own good though.

RI is 30% ACC debuff. I think the dark one is the same. However ACC debuffs are schedule A so RI can get up to about 58%. That would blow fortitude away unless you also have tactics.

I have 6 slotted all of the attacks on Golden Golem apart from Scorch and Boxing.
The 6 slotted ones are Combustion, Fire Sword Circle, Incinerate and Greater Fire Sword. All are slotted 1xACC, 1xEND, 1xRCG, 3x DAM. Even with Hasten running I still have attack chain gaps depending on what I'm doing. However I found Build Up is not that great with /Fire because of the long animation times, FSC particularly has a nasty 2 seconds pause at the end of the animation which means that you can maybe manage 3 attacks max before it runs out.

I would have thought an offensively minded tnak would be one who concentrated on damage from an early point not just in the last 15 levels.

The base for PvP means that fighting a player ( 50% ) is approximately the same as fighting purples ( 48% ), so provided they have no defence powers you are still pretty okay.

Unfortunately it looks like I can't make tonight after all.

Does someone else have the arc open for the 2nd team?