Whataguy

I agree with computer. In addition, I am not a fan of stealth or grant invis, especially when you didnt even take invis itself. I also prefer tp as a travel power for empaths since I want recall friend.

I would also say that this build works way too hard at shoehorning LoTGs. 5 LoTGs are great, but it has to not diminish your main functions or gimp your slotting.

So I would dump hover, fly, grant invis and stealth. I would take recall, tp, vengeance, and either hover or another epic power. If you are dead set on concealment, at least get stealth + invis. I could also be talked into dumping scramble thoughts on a team build.

I love Ice. The two auras alone make it exceptional, and that's before you throw in EA and hibernate. Just customize your armor color and you're good.

Ice melee's damage is better than in the old days. Make sure an ice sword fits your concept, though. The slows and controls in /ice are wonderful. Probably best as a teamer, though.

Acro is for hold and kb protection. One endredux and you're good. Highly recommended, even with defiance. Still vulnerable to sleeps and stuns, but whatcha gonna do?

35 Rad/dev here. I have all of the primaries and skipped taser, smoke grenade, and time bomb in devices. I took cj + sj + acro and assault and tactics.

I found the -Def aspect of rad insufficient to reliably hit foes with future attacks. Enter targeting drone. I. Probably overkilled it with tactics, but this allowed me to totally ignore accuracy slotting. This in turn allowed some serious frankenslotting for damage/recharge/endredux. Which in turn enabled fun set skirting in caltrops, drone, and web grenade.

I also like devices as it adds lethal damage to rad's energy. Variety is good.

Overall rad/dev is great for a ranged concept, for soloing, and for stealthing.

I probably need to respec into taser to combo with cosmic burst, at least for the solo build.

Big devices fan here. I have noticed a substantial damage boost since defiance came out, and I monitor my damage boost at all times.

Agree that the mines and turrets' activation time / interrupt makes this mostly viable for alpha strikes when solo. It is hard enough to get the turret out when teamed, let alone the mines.

But devices is well worth it just for caltrops, the drone, and cloaking device. Time bomb and taser are the most skippable powers unless you solo a ton.

Lightning field helps tremendously with keeping targets sapped. Electric fence and tesla cage also do this on single targets.

On a side note, LF gets no love even though its cumulative damage is impressive. Its aggro generation is way overstated. All of the blaster secondary airwaves are great in general play.

I personally like /ice. Chilling embrace delivers a huge amount of mitigation and the aggro is minimal if you have a decent tank or controller. Freezing touch is a good power and another hold is always handy for stacking or to deal with a loose mob charging you.

Both of these powers are consistent with a single target "root blasting" strategy.

"Is everyone staying after this mission?" or even "I have an SG mate that wants in, is anyone leaving soon?"

These messages convey your intent to have someone new join the team. But if everyone wants to stay, guess what ... you need to deal with the team as is or quit your team and form a new one with your SG buddy.

The rude ways to make room on your PuG:

*kicking the non-SG PuGger without warning
*asking/targeting a non-SG PuGger to leave to make room

I have extensive experience with /devices.

Must-have powers: web grenade, caltrops, targeting drone, cloaking device.

Solo powers: trip mine, time bomb. Great fun solo, harder to use regularly on a team. Time bomb does a lot of damage despite its limitations.

Useful situationally: taser (only if you have another disorient to stack it with), smoke grenade (helps to stealth your team, but the debuff is weak and cloak gives you better personal stealth), gun drone (long interruptible animation and relatively short duration makes this hard to use in a fast group).

Caltrops and targeting drone make the set.

We're going to see this again, in spades, when free to play is live. It therefore devolves to us to lead our teams and educate the ignorant. With going rogue and the influx of VEATs and corruptors blueside, we have to fight against defender prejudice/ignorance by being effective teammates.

Specifically, three of them:

1. Redside, villainous, loyal to Recluse possibly with arachnos affiliations. Toon is a Fortunata.

2. Blueside, anything with Longbow affiliations. Toon is a tanker.

3. Anything with a Vanguard affiliation. Toon is a dedender.

Overall I have a light/medium RP style. I prefer in-mission RP to stand-around RP. I am low-drama and am active player. I have about five toons that occupy 80% of my game time.

Just taking the temperatures of the board denizens ay this moment in time. Rank, in any order you deem appropriate, your RP preferences:

Action RP ... You RP in missions
Adult RP ... The naughty bits
Light RP ... You talk OOC in some channels, RP in others
Immersive ... It's all RP all the time, baby. You hang out regularly at pocket D, etc.
No RP ... It's just you playing a game
(Insert your own category)

I am primarily a light /action RPer, though sometimes I just want to play without the RP effort. Some toons are more RPish than others.

On Virtue I started Fortunata Romonova, the granddaughter of Anastasia, the lost Russian princess. She has a complicated lineage, but she is a Recluse loyalist through and through. I play her as an intense, suffer-no-fools leader. Good times.

I have a 24 sonic/kin and love it. The resistance debuffs stack nicely with kin's recharge and damage buffs. There is also just enough mitigation in Sonic/ to give some protection while the heal is recharging. Love it.

My tanker Flamequake on Virtue is level 45. He has all of the primaries (except Temp Protection), all of /stone except Hurl Boulder, CJ/SJ, Boxing/Tough, and Char/Melt Armor. He has SOs, generic IOs, and some uncommon IO sets. I have one Steadfast Protection -KB IO slotted in Tough, but no other KB protection. I have generally slotted him offensively, though he is reasonably durable for general play.

A couple of observations:

1. Melt Armor is incredible. I am thinking about getting Hasten just to get this up more often.

2. /stone is awesome at damage and mitigation, but is an end hog.

3. My original reason for fire/stone was to get /stone's knockup to keep foes in the Burn patch. Since the fear effect was removed from Burn, this is no longer critical, but the knockup adds nice mitigation nonetheless.

My questions:

1. I am having major endurance issues when fighting AVs, Monstes, and other long-duration fights. All of my attacks have one SO-equivalent in Endredux or more. /stone is just an end hog, great as it is. Consume is not coming up often enough to be significant here. I guess I have to just add another slot to my attacks and add more endredux. Stamina is 2-slotted with generic IOs. I am open to suggestions here.

2. I am fairly squishy by late-game tanker standards. Should I care about this, or just focus on damage and self-healing via Healing Flames? Is it ok to just accept my "off-tank" status for high-end content?

3. I have about 10 million influence plus another 10 million or so in salvage I could pawn. I also have 200 reward merits. I am considering blowing my wad to get either a LoTG IO, the +regen/recovery IO (Miracle? I forget), or another Steadfast Protection -KB IO. I am also willing to simply get uncommon IO sets for all of my powers (I only have about half of my powers with sets, the rest are SOs) to improve overall performance (especially endurance!) without regard to set bonuses. How would you spend your influence/merits in my situation? I know it's not a huge bankroll and I'm willing to stockpile instead if that makes more sense.

4. I have two power selections left at 47 and 49. I am considering the following powers: Hasten, Weave, Acrobatics, Fireball, and Temperature Protection. What powers would you take to improve survivability? I am seriously considering Hasten and Weave but I'm already gasping for blue candy after a substantial fight.

Thanks in advance. I'm not looking for a specific build, by the way, and I am happy with the powers I have so far.

You're all right, of course. There *is* no definition of RP we could all agree on, and no way to police anything.

Bear with me here.

This may be a pipe dream, but I am wondering if we could have an official/unofficial RP server that wasn't inundated with non-RPers. I have no problem with people playing the way they want, but I would like a place ... one place ... where content and in-game persona meant something.

I know there are a zillion problems with this. "RP" itself means different things to different people. There's light, medium, heavy, adult, and many other levels/types of RP. I suppose to me, the big distinction I'm making is between content/character-oriented players and power-oriented players. I know there are no bright lines, and maybe we should just self-police this by only gaming with friends/SG mates that share our views on these subjects. That seems to be the developer's solution -- and after all, how do you police RP? I just know that I'm running out of /ignore slots.

My perception (and feel free to correct me here) is that the powergaming aspect of the game has become heightened or otherwise elevated as the game has evolved. Maybe that's part of the MMO evolution too. I don't claim to have the answers. I just know that it's hard for me to stay in my medium-RP comfort zone when someone is having a powergaming discussion on the help channel.

That said, powergamers don't have a monopoly on irritating behavior. And there are times I want to "just play" or level up without RPing at all. I have some RP toons, some "experiments," and some fun characters that nonetheless never developed their own RP identity. As I said, I know there are no bright lines.

Also: I don't think the VIP server solves this issue -- the VIP / non-VIP distinction has nothing to do with the content / power distinction.

Lastly, I know many folks have a vested interest in Virtue and don't want to leave it, but I've also wondered whether we should collectively have a RP reboot and start on an underpopulated server.

Just dancin' in the dark here. Feel free to comment.

I went ahead and respecced into boxing and tough on my fire/stone. I have to say it has made a difference in survivability and I didn't miss hasten and acrobatics (after I plugged in a -KB IO I'd stashed away).

Re: endurance cost of the Fighting toggles, in my case anyway endredux has never been optional. I have it in everything, and two SO's worth in major end hogs like blazing aura and the stone attacks. Even with ~ 50% endredux, I'm still waiting on Consume to recharge and popping blue candy. Of course, I am an unrepentant button-masher.

FF/elec is fun. Slot your powers for drain and get Power Sink from the Epic pool. Control, buff, and damage, all from the mez-free comfort of Dispersion Field.

I'm still a begrudging non-Convert. I suppose I need to revisit this.

On my 42 Fire/Stone, I've been tanking with just the Fire toggles and /stone's knockup mitigation. With Healing Flames and the occasional inspiration, I can tank fairly well and the damage output is great ... Fire for AoE, /stone for single target. But I have noticed that against upper-end factions (Nemesis, etc.), I am pretty squishy unless I am being actively buffed by a teammate.

My current power picks:

Fire: everything but the passive fire resist power
/stone: everything
Speed: Hasten
Leaping: CJ/SJ/Acro
Pyre: Char

Assuming I take Melt Armor and Fireball, I have just one power left to take.

To make room for Boxing/Tough/Weave, I would have to dump the tier 2 /stone attack and either Acro or Hasten (and get a couple of -knockback IOs). And then there's the endurance issues ... /stone is an End hog. I will probably end up with 50% endredux on all attacks other than Burn.

Personal preferences here:

I would drop the Fighting and Leadership pool powers (saving 5 power choices) and add Hasten, Energy Punch, Unstoppable, Laser Beam Eyes, and Stun. The endurance savings alone from dropping Tough, Weave, Assault, and Tactics will more than cover the increased burn from using Hasten, and frankly having Build Up, Energy Transfer, and Total Focus up more often gives you more bang for the buck. It is also handy to fire off Conserve Power right after Hasten triggers.

And if you having trouble due to your slightly reduced defenses, hit Unstoppable and win the fight in the next two minutes. Laser Beam Eyes is a great for runners and single target pulling. Energy Punch gets no love but it outclasses Boxing and has better debuffs, and Stun (probably the most underused tanker attack in the game) is great for Sappers and other annoying targets.

I would move the passive resists up further in the build, too (RPD early, ResEl + ResEn in the 20s).

Due to the sheer awesomeness of Energy Melee's upper-end damage output, I haven't had much trouble tanking without Tough/Weave or Aid Self, especially if you are using EM's stun tools for mitigation.

Now that Fitness is inherent and with the plethora of travel powers available from safeguard missions and veteran rewards (assemble the team, taking travel at level 6, etc.), building an Inv tanker is much easier and harder to mess up. In fact, level 20 is no longer the holy grail for stamina ... the key levels are 12 and 22, when you can slot DOs and SOs (and decent IOs if you wish).

Also, with the passive resist powers having a 10% base plus some bonus resists to debuffs, they are much more worthwhile than before, even if left unslotted.

My 1-32 Inv leveling build, then:

1 Temporary Invulernabilty
1 Tier 1 attack
2 Dull Pain
4 Tier 2 attack
6 Tier 3 attack
8 Unyielding
10 Taunt
12 Open
14 Open
16 Tier 5 attack
18 Invincibility
20 Open
22 Open
24 Open
26 Tough Hide
28 Open
30 Open
32 Unstoppable or Open

The Open power picks should be used for the passive resist powers, travel powers, pool powers like Hasten or Boxing/Kick (which can be reasonably substituted for the tier 2 attack on some tanker secondaries), and your upper-end secondary attacks as they become available. Personally, I take all of the passive resists as soon as they become available. You can make the case that RPD, in particular, is just as powerful as Dull Pain in the early game due to the quantity of smashing/lethal damage and the fact that Dull Pain becomes much more useful with SOs.

I am not a huge fan of Unstoppable but it has its uses in soloing and in team emergencies.

Slotting

The only downside (?) to getting the fitness powers as an inherent is that you will want to slot health and fitness quickly, which necessarily effects your other slotting.

My view under the current issue is to slot Dull Pain, TI, Invincibility, and your attacks as much as possible (typically, 3-5 slots each) while 2-slotting Health and Fitness, until you get SO-level enhancements. At that point, go back and 2-3 slot the passives. Taunt is also a fun power to slot up if you can spare it, and there are some great cheap Taunt IO sets out there to use.

Depending on your secondary set, you should consider slotting some of your attacks for secondary effects -- especially powers that are focused on those effects (kb, stun, slow, etc.). This is for three reasons: one, to add to your mitigation and survivability; two, because some of these powers don't do much damage anyway; and three, because there are some wonderful and cheap IO sets out there that can give you some powerful set bonuses.

The best attack powers to do this with are your minor damage secondary power (usually but not always your Tier 1, a filler attack with bad damage ... consider slotting it with Taunt IOs) and any AoE powers whose secondary effects are just as important or better than their damage aspect (Hand Clap and Whirling Hands come to mind). Of course, you need to do some damage too, so make sure your other attacks are near the damage enhancement cap.

Well, you do have three extra powers (but not slots) to play with now that Fitness is inherent. I think the OP raises a good question. Before, it was harder to justify taking a plethora of power pools.

This is an ancient topic and a subject of tanker threads for years. When combing the power pools for more defensive capabilities, it basically comes down to personal preference ...

1 -- can you manage a ton of click powers? I can't but some can ... making Aid Self an option for them. Defense-based tankers seem to get more from Aid Self as they can deal with the interrupt issue better.

2 -- can you handle the endurance burn? Are you willing to double-slot end reducers in attacks and/or slot full melee sets to get 50%+ reduction on click and toggle powers? If you are willing to do this, adding another toggle or two (Tough + Weave) can be done.

3 -- is the improvement to survivability from Tough + Weave significant enough to devote three powers? For pure tanker types, maybe .. but for a Brute, maybe not. It depends on how you play and what your role is. You may get greater mitigation from enhancing your offensive output or adding epic powers that give you other forms of mitigation (immobilization, stun, etc.).

4 -- it's incredibly unpopular, but the Presence Pool works too if you are in the "tank" role. The fear IO sets also have some great bonuses and are relatively cheap.

All that said, don't blast the OP. Under the new regime, assume you take 8 powers each from the primary and secondary pools ... plus 2 for a travel power and 3 epic powers. You still have 3 more powers and it's natural to want to enhance your survivability.