Wilfred

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It looks like you are thinking of Invulnerability as a resistance set.

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Totally. TI and UY are just there as backup to the Def from jumping into a great huge mob. There's nothing better than watching a large group whiffling away trying to hit me.

They can be quite useful for vengeance and fallout, also.

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if theres a Granite to tank recluse we win, if there isn't, we lose.

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I'd like to add that Recluse can do virtually nothing to an Inv/*, either.

Spad's the best ice tanker I've ever teamed with, his build honed over 6 issues to the ultimate blend of toughness and flexibility. And even he had a tough time of it against Mr. Recluse and his Happy Holiday Campers.

Take everything that'll take some of the burden off your Defense, because lordy knows it ain't gonna save you from Recluse. And hope there's at least one empath and a sonic backing you up full-time.

Corkin'. And none of us were quick enough with the screenshot button.

I say again; Gratz chap!

PvP isn't more or less fair on any AT, at least in the zones. Because you can pick your battles.

As a Stalker, you can do this more than most. Watch for the diseased, the elderly, or the wounded, and pick them off when they stray from the herd.

Over-reliance on build rather than strategy leads to calls for nerfing and buffing, where players would obtain a lot more success by readjusting their tactics.

Energy Blast looks (and sounds) just like a water torrent. Have made a few water-themed characters that way. Waterspout Collins just got out of Outbreak, in fact.

Now, more Tank primaries would make me happy.

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The hero I have the most fun playing is a kin defender -- I use a buff/debuff chain, and hardly ever click an attack

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Wilfreds tank would probably have no need for aid self with your kin.

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I do play with kins, sometimes, and have no need for Aid Self!

Or Dull Pain, usually, but that's another matter.

Incinerate's a gorgeous attack... I had to really wrangle with my frontal lobe to drop it. The damage/second for such a dinky amount of endurance... it's droolworthy, to be sure! Trouble is, it was that or one or the resist passives, and I don't think I'd be comfortable dropping either of those!

Invincibility and combustion certainly work well enough for grabbing and holding aggro between them. But be prepared for a bit of grief from people who think you should have taunt - take no notice of that, the proof is in the slightly overcooked pudding.

I could paste in my build with hasten + ss swapped for CJ + SJ, but my build won't be for everybody - I only have the two AoE attacks to speak of, for starters. Plus it's not ready for inventions; I'm still working on that version of the build.


01) --> Temp Invulnerability==> DmgRes(1) DmgRes(3) DmgRes(3) EndRdx(5) EndRdx(45)
01) --> Scorch==> Acc(1)
02) --> Dull Pain==> Heal(2) Heal(5) Heal(7) Rechg(7) Rechg(9) Rechg(9)
04) --> Combustion==> Acc(4) EndRdx(11) Dmg(34) Dmg(37) Rechg(39) Rechg(40)
06) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(6) DefBuf(11) DefBuf(13)
08) --> Unyielding==> DmgRes(8) DmgRes(13) DmgRes(15) EndRdx(15) EndRdx(50)
10) --> Taunt==> Rechg(10) Rechg(17) Rechg(17) Taunt(42) Taunt(43) Taunt(43)
12) --> Swift==> Run(12) Run(34) Run(34)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14) Jump(43) Jump(48)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16) Heal(23) Heal(25)
18) --> Invincibility==> DefBuf(18) DefBuf(19) DefBuf(19) Taunt(21) Taunt(21) Taunt(23)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(25) EndMod(27)
22) --> Kick==> Acc(22)
24) --> Tough==> DmgRes(24) DmgRes(27) DmgRes(29) EndRdx(29) EndRdx(46)
26) --> Tough Hide==> DefBuf(26) DefBuf(31) DefBuf(31)
28) --> Weave==> DefBuf(28) DefBuf(31) DefBuf(33) EndRdx(33) EndRdx(46)
30) --> Fire Sword Circle==> Acc(30) EndRdx(33) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)
32) --> Stimulant==> IntRdx(32)
35) --> Aid Self==> Heal(35) Heal(36) Heal(36) IntRdx(36) IntRdx(37) IntRdx(37)
38) --> Unstoppable==> Rechg(38) Rechg(46)
41) --> Resist Physical Damage==> DmgRes(41) DmgRes(42) DmgRes(42)
44) --> Resist Elements==> DmgRes(44) DmgRes(45) DmgRes(45)
47) --> Resist Energies==> DmgRes(47) DmgRes(48) DmgRes(48)
49) --> Build Up==> Rechg(49) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)

Like I say, I like it defensive :P

Fire sword is infinitely better than boxing, sadly... most of the pool attacks (with a couple of notable exceptions) are only good as filler powers... they'll never do the damage FS will. Can't help you make that choice though.. follow your nose! You've got more respecs if you spadger it up, eventually

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hastened dull pain is my thing in those levels.
id read the differences slots make to the powers as you level and be aware 6 DO slots may help if ya happy to use a respec.

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My name is Tom Selleck, and I approve this message.

Hasten's great for bringing Dull Pain (and taunt and aid self if you ever go down that route) and unstoppable and your toggles after a crash back up faster. It helps that I love superspeed with all my heart, too.

I had this with my Inv/Fire when he was levelling up. There's so much to take and slot, and I found I could never have everything I wanted.

First thing I'd drop is Breath of Fire. The end usage on it is fairly vast, for a pretty small cone. I've recently dropped it completely, as between taunt, combustion and fire sword circle I couldn't really fit it in well.

Then I'd drop BuildUp. It's a wonderful power, but if you're teaming then I say let the other AT's be the big damage dealers; if you can do your job well, they can focus on theirs.

Now the controversial one. Fire Sword. I've just gimped your attack and left you with Brawl, Taunt and Combustion, I know. But the thing is, Inv tanks thrive in the middle of a gigantic mob. That's why you have the monsteriffic defence from Invincibility. I find there's nothing more fun than leaping into the biggest mob I can find, then taunting another big mob over while spamming combustion and FSC. The sheer quantity of orange numbers that start to fly make me grin, and single target hits just can't live up to that.

The only other thing I can suggest is laying off RPD until a later date. The Res is fairly dinky, and I think you'd be better off getting a pool that'll increase your survivability started; fighting or medicine. You'll probably want RPD eventually, to get that s/l res to cap, but it can wait for a bit, probably.

You'll always want slots in your attacks for endurance reduction - slot an endurance reduction in there in preference to armours, it'll make more of a difference overall.

This early on in the toon's career it's difficult to know what you want of it - whether to pick lots of attacks, or lots of defence, or what sort of balance to strike... think about what you enjoy doing with the toon and bias it towards that.

Personally, I find nothing better than being able to take whatever they can throw at me, and do it grinning, so mine's very defensively based, with just buildup, combustion, fire sword circle and scorch. But you may enjoy something different.

There's only two words needed to answer that question.

Fearsome. And Stare.

Seriously, I play a Dark/Rad def for a small themed team (two scrappers and a blasters, besides myself), and I often feel like there's nothing I can't accomplish. Things just don't hit us. They're too busy quaking in their boots most of the time, and the rest of it their accuracy is so low that they flail pathetically and miserably at us. Drop Tar patch and those left able to run suddenly can't, and everyone's resistance drops very noticeably. By the time that's done, Fearsome Stare is up again and the next mob awaits.

It's sillygood fun really, and I'm only level 22 so far.

We seem to be perversely rare. It's a shame because the sets go together conceptually and visually, and there's a bit of synergy with the KB heaven.

Can't give you any advice, though, treat it as any storm defender and don't neglect your offensive power. Ta-da!

Think twice about losing Flight and Tactics - they're pretty good protection from being poked by Stalkers. I didn't find Dominate to be of much use in PvP, even coupled with Telekinesis, so swapped Psionic mastery for Power mastery, with Psi secondary the addition of a buildup power is an absolute boon. I don't mind boasting that very often with regen aura up and Heal Aura firing regularly, I can send /Energy stalkers scurrying for the trees, and have actually managed to kill two without any outside help. Stealth is very handy, if you can fit it in. i couldn't, because I'm unwilling to drop stamina. I have the Fitness, Leaping, Speed and Leadership pools. Mine's not a pure PvP build, but I like to think it contributes well both there and in PvE.

Oppressive gloom, choking cloud... there's quite a few powers with a mag at minion level. They affect Lt's and bosses, but do not have a high enough mag to overcome their mez protection by themselves.

I'd count on Decoy badge taking 4-6 hours by itself. Also, I'm free for this all this week except thursday evening, with my 50 kin/psi. It'd help if the person with the mission was closer to 45, so that the rest of the team weren't actually in mortal danger.

I find that odd. My Inv Tank has pretty much all the Def he can lay his hands on, with Weave running on top - I rarely get hit in larger spawns. Definitely never ran into trouble using Aid self, specially when fully slotted out.

On a brute? The activation time and endurance cost must be taken into consideration. It's powerful, and slotted up for intredux and heals, will give you a huge chunk of health back reliably in combat. Especially if you're in the middle of larger herds, invincibility and tough hide should mean you're getting hit very little and will be able to fire it off. My Inv tank never had any trouble using it, and his herds were occasionally very large.

The trouble is, if you're anything like me, I really needed aid self for CoT missions only, and CoT have so many nasty toggles and interrupty powers that it becomes an intercombat power.

I'd say, if you're doing fine for health, don't worry about it. You'll get a lot dodgier with Tough Hide, and the end drain on Aid Self is quite high, which can be quite bad for an Inv brute.

If you plan on dragging vast hordes of enemies around, it's probably a bit more necessary, but make sure you've enough slots going spare to 5 or 6 it.

I disagree heartily with the maneuvers comment - it's a small amount, but when added on top of what your minions have, and dispersion bubble, you've got a big ol' pot of don't-have-to-do-anything.

After my Enforcers were slotted up for defbuff, and maneuvers and disp bubb were running and slotted, I didn't need to individually bubble the minions anymore. It's still useful for a boss, but most of the time the amount of def from the enforcers and your toggs combined keeps nearly all of their attacks from landing.

Toss in the occasional aid other and you've got yourself a romping raving MM.

More general build pointers... drop the slots from Health. The bonus to regen is tiny because our hitpoints are hard to see with the naked eye, Heal Aura provides infinitely more health regain than Health does. Doing good on the empathy side of things - as mentioned above, drop the fourth heal SO. With Vigilance, stamina and occasional recovery auras you really shouldn't need the endurance enhancements in heals; I'd personally go with 3 heal and 1-3 recharges. The exception is Absorb Pain - assuming you're using it in emergencies, you can probably drop three slots from it and go with 3 heals, or 2 heals and a recharge. You can max it out to six later in the build.

Likewise, you shouldn't need six slots in fly - 3 flight speed in it will be all you need, as you should be using hover or nothing in combat.

So, where to put those newly available SO slots? Recovery aura needs 3 recharge (and may want 3 endmod later, but they can wait), and Fortitude wants as much slotting as you can spare it (eventually slotted with a mix of defbuff and recharge)

Looks like you're doing good so far, but as you hit higher levels you'll need to concentrate on the buffing side of powers as much as the healing side.

I've now slotted up MB, it still feels a bit lacklustre but at least doesn't lock you into position for a few seconds. Subdue's still superior but if you need that powr slot, MB is acceptable now.

My Empath cycles Will Dom and TK Blast with Psi Tornado and Psi Scream thrown in when large mobs are afoot, my kineticist only needs WD and TK.

No matter what, take and slot TK and WD. They're really very very good. Those two powers by themselves completely make up for the lack of a BuildUp-type power in /Psi.

I never had a tank pre-ED. My 50 tank now feels overpowered, if anything - I've yet to see a mission at his level he can't cope with and bring a team through alive.

If he's this good now, how good was he before ED and the GDN? Unnecessarily so. We can do a fine job with or without ED.

I've no idea, really, that's just how I interpreted it. Heh.

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So they knew about it and pushed the patch through anyway? Ridiculous.

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Timeline:

Patch goes live on US
People complain about buggy taunt
Guys in EU left with decision - hold back patch (and all the content that came with it) until fix available or release buggy patch and have people complain about Tank bug

They couldn't really win either way, but I think they made the better choice.