Wilfred

Thugs. they have range and barrels more personality than any other MM primary, I reckon.

If you want to focus on damage and not turn into a debuffer, take EF only. Lowers their res by 25% (i think), which is a nice boost.

Kudos on the idea, personally I'd try it without any of the debuffs first... by 24 you'll know whether it's do-able, right?

Get handclap earlier. It's a demon for both grabbing aggro and lowering incoming damage.

Drop some end reduction from toggles and pop them in clickies.

Drop end redux from invincibility and get three taunts in alongside the Defbuffs.

Get taunt earlier and slot it up - it's no good being tough if you can't make the mobs beat on you instead of on your team. Without a fast-recharge long-lasting taunt or some way to spread gauntlet far and wide, the foes will just run straight past you and wallop the blaster.

Get weave! It'll do more for your survivability in the later game than any other pool power, and turn you from "get hit sometimes" to "rarely get hit by stuff".

Hasten would be ace if you can live without vertical movement (hurdle helps lots) as it brings unstoppable and DP back that much faster.

If you really want to be the toughest you can be, go with Aid Self. It may sound sappy, but slot that puppy up and your survivability will go through the roof.

Reconsider both Resist Elements and Resist energies. That late in the game they'll do virtually nothing for you, and by then you're tanking on your def rather than your Res anyway. Personally, I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot bargepole. They help a bit against AV's, but will rarely make a difference between debt and not-debt.

Drop the damage res from unstoppable - you'll still be running the rest of your toggles and it's no use going past the res cap.

Empaths take attacks for the same reason you take epic armour - self defence. It's no fun having a tank smasher who is low on health hitting you and having no way to stop him.

It's also no fun to be stood around doing sod all when the going's good, and brings the whole profession into disrepute (it's that sort of behaviour that started off the whole "Empaths leech!" thing).

Shameless plug with nothing about psi in.

Never did get around to finishing a /psi guide, it's sat half-completed in my documents.

The build at the end of the guide - I've shuffled it around now to include Subdue, which I like a lot.

Lance is very very useful early on, but once you hit 32 goes out of the window in favour of piling in mindlessly and repeatedly.Scream takes a little too long to fire off but has the potential for huge damage, slotted up, FS'd and spread across a whole mob. Course, that means huge aggro, too.

Generally speaking, pick powers that look kinda fun and by the time you hit the 34 respec you'll have a good idea of exactly what you do and don't want.

Depends how you want to use it. They'll never be great for damage, but if you want to try that route, 2 recharge, 2 damage, 2 acc would probably be the way forward. Personally I just use GW to take the heat off my real henches when faced with EB's or particularly nasty bosses, so mine only get 1 recharge.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Temp Invulnerability==> EndRdx(1) EndRdx(3) DmgRes(5) DmgRes(7) DmgRes(39)
01) --> Scorch==> Acc(1)
02) --> Dull Pain==> Heal(2) Heal(3) Heal(5) Rechg(7) Rechg(9) Rechg(9)
04) --> Resist Physical Damage==> DmgRes(4) DmgRes(31) DmgRes(31)
06) --> Hurdle==> Jump(6) Jump(45) Jump(46)
08) --> Unyielding==> DmgRes(8) DmgRes(11) DmgRes(11) EndRdx(17) EndRdx(40)
10) --> Taunt==> Rechg(10) Rechg(15) Rechg(15) Taunt(17) Taunt(40) Taunt(40)
12) --> Hasten==> Rechg(12) Rechg(13) Rechg(13)
14) --> Super Speed==> Run(14)
16) --> Swift==> Run(16) Run(46) Run(46)
18) --> Invincibility==> DefBuf(18) DefBuf(19) DefBuf(19) Taunt(23) Taunt(23) Taunt(27)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20) EndMod(21) EndMod(21)
22) --> Boxing==> Acc(22)
24) --> Tough==> EndRdx(24) EndRdx(25) DmgRes(25) DmgRes(27) DmgRes(43)
26) --> Tough Hide==> DefBuf(26) DefBuf(33) DefBuf(33)
28) --> Weave==> DefBuf(28) DefBuf(29) DefBuf(29) EndRdx(31)
30) --> Combustion==> Acc(30) Acc(33) Dmg(34) Dmg(34) Dmg(34) EndRdx(39)
32) --> Unstoppable==> Rechg(32) Rechg(37) Rechg(37)
35) --> Fire Sword Circle==> Acc(35) Acc(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(37) EndRdx(39)
38) --> Stimulant==> IntRdx(38)
41) --> Aid Self==> Heal(41) Heal(42) Heal(42) IntRdx(42) IntRdx(43) IntRdx(43)
44) --> Build Up==> Rechg(44) Rechg(45) Rechg(45)
47) --> Incinerate==> Acc(47) Dmg(48) Dmg(48) Dmg(48)
49) --> Greater Fire Sword==> Acc(49) Dmg(50) Dmg(50) Dmg(50)

Ah, you left before ED... make sure you're sitting down before I tell you this.

Sitting? Good.

Six slots doesn't work any more. Stuff is effectively capped at three SO's - so 3 SO's will give you 100% more damage, whereas 6 will give you 105% more. Not worth slotting more than 3 SO's of one type in anything.

This means stamina is less effective, so you may need to slot for more endurance reduction in AoE's like combustion and Fire Sword Circle.

Welcome to the brave new world of Enhancement Diversification.

Haha! You're in luck. While you've been gone, I made myself an Inv/Fire and got it to 50!

I suspect not a lot has changed, frankly. Res is 90% cap, you need RPD, TI, and Tough to hit it for s/l damage.

Resist elements and energies are a matter of taste, good for AV's but not a lot of use besides. You're still tanking on Def rather than Res at high levels, so go with weave and don't be skipping tough hide. I like Aid Self, too, since DP takes an age to come round. Can post my current build, if you like.

Sonic powers are great and the -res fantastic, but they take so long to fire off - Psi wins out there, hands down. And for a solo def, the mega controls afforded by psi really help take out the threatening mobs.

Rad would be good - Kin also is, although forget about repel and bear with it til 22 to get to the shinygood feelin'.

Dark is a great primary, try a more offensive secondary (such as Psi, or Energy, or Rad) to do justice to its -res?

Also, bear with dark. At 32 (not as far away as it sounds) you get your pet and will be able to concentrate more on being offensive.

For solo scranking? Fire/SS, all the way.

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/Psi good all rounder but pathetic when you get psi-resistant enemies (spend 10 mins killing a +1 clockwork minion... )

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...except clockwork are probably the most psi-vulnerable enemies in the game and go down like a sack of puppies.

10 minutes killing an auto turret is painful, though.

They all fly directly up in the air and land back where they stood, as if hit by Mind Control>Levitate (level 1 power, so roll a controller if you don't know what I mean and try it on a hellion), then land on the ground and spend a while getting up. It's a great opener, if the tank's worried about the alpha. They won't stay there bouncing, like ice slick, they just go up and come down.

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Hey peeps was wondering about a build, im taking stone as my primary coz lets face it when u get granite ur a god. From what I have seen they are always last to fall if they fall at all

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Don't take that as gospel. The job of the Tanker is twofold, they need primarily to take aggro away from the team, and as a side effect of the aggro they need to survive a large amount of damage.

In granite, your ability to grab and hold aggro is severely compromised. Yes, you can do it, but you'll never be doing it as well as a non-granite tanker. You'll be waiting for taunt to recharge as you notice a stray lieutenant pounding on the disoriented blaster, and you can't get to him in time because of the -speed, can't taunt because it's not recharged.

CoH battles are fluid, dynamic systems, and the best tankers are able to constantly reassess and react to the changing environment - granite tanks are that little bit worse off than any other tanker and why I always feel like I'm taking my life in my hands when teaming with granite.

Remember your main job isn't to take as much damage as humanly possible - it's to stop that damage getting to the aggro-drawing squishies around you. Never lose sight of your purpose.

Having said all that, fire is good for the three ranged powers (Fire sword circle, small aoe, combustion, big aoe, breath of fire, decent range cone) - stone melee is also useful, having a few ranged options. Remember, with your mobility limited by rooted and/or granite, you will need to be able to operate at a distance from time to time.

Mind, a lot of the people of the mindset that "granite can survive the most damage, so is the bestest" are also of the mindset that want to see big orange numbers. In that case, go with energy melee, although remember it won't help you much with aggro grabbing, which is where you may well need help.

Knockup, for definite.

Lots of little controls. ST KB, Disorient, Immob and sleep, along with AoE KU. No buildup, but the -res from dark makes it that little bit more effective. The attacks are mostly powerful and fast-firing, and the lack of resistance to it makes for more damage across the board. It's just nifty.

Edit: although the things that do have res to it tend to have BIG red to it.

Psi's always good.

I like elec too, Tar patch + Darkest Night + Ball Lightning/Short circuit til everything's arrested makes good hazard zone hunting.

The S4 prizes were bigger than any prize ever handed out for a US competition.

Tea's not just important. Tea is life.

If it was male, I'd go with "Neurotic Norville, the Necromantic Neurosurgeon of Nuneaton", but no good at naming female toons.

Unless you've a barrelful of Defence to stack it with, of course.

I've taken maneuvers and got it slotted up - with Aid Other and Enforcers 3-slotted with Def SO's I can just about get away without needing to apply the single boobles in most cases. Excellent for being really lazy.

If I'm pushing the envelope and playing on vicious, I apply the single boobles too. After all, it's only a short burst of activity every four minutes, way less than anyone else gets away with!

Not everyone exists to try to make everyone else feel good about themselves. Sorry, Sammy, that's not my bag.

[ QUOTE ]
He means that... um... er.

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He means that this is not my experience of Defiant. There are far more Empathy 50's than any other defender primary, and perhaps a bias towards them, but a quick check of who was online today revealed more non-empaths than empaths.

The balance is redressing away from the Empathic flood.