coffee_EU

Jab > Air Superiority > Haymaker is an excellent attack chain that keeps you going. Both Haymaker and AS has very high chance of knockdown and will keep most bosses in the air (and, well, out of it as well, with the -fly).

Not to put down Super Jump, but if you can fit Air Superiority in and go for Fly I would do so. End Drain isn't unbearable and quite often I activate fly to keep flying foes busy. Especially if we have the luxuary of more than one tanker on a team. Of course, that's all up to one's own. But Air Superiority is a wonderful tool, IMHO. A lot of people seem to pick it up, but not use it more than for novelty.

I would try to fit in Res Energy and Res Elements sooner, but that's just me. My offensively-minded tanker had all powers in the primary by level 32

Tough is strictly optional . If you can't tank on your primary alone it's not worth it, pick another powerset and move along. But that's not the case, Inv can tank pretty well, your resistances are quite sufficient for small mobs, and Invincibility kicks in for the larger mobs. But if you want to be rock solid vs. Smash/Lethal, by all means go for it.

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A good idea when searching for team is to "advitice" a little... Just include your "key powers" into the search message...

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I tried that on my defender. I typed in: TA/Archery Defender. Always eager to help. I then played for two hours straight and not a single blind or even a /t (I had the box checked for "Looking for Mission Team" the entire time as well).

I then did some false marketing, and edited my search comment to: Superhealer, yeah, lol, right... and it took less than five until I get a team invite.

So obviously that little trick works.

Although, I can certainly understand why some Empaths have trouble finding a team, 9/10 defenders seem to have Empathy as a primary. I see a lot of concept build ruined by the belief that Empathy is the only Defender set worth taking, just because it can heal a tad bit more (not necessarily better) than the rest.

If you want to talk Lost Defenders, talk about Storm or Trick Arrow.

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Alright, what type of tanker has worked for you best?

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Fire/Fire back in I2/I3. A soloing beast, I spent most of my time between 23-30 in Terra Volta herding a massive amount of Sky Raiders. Fastest leveling I've ever done.

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Heh, which one could take the most damage for you?

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Don't know, my Fire Tanker was mainly dishing it out. My Inv/SS was currently in planning back then, would probably have tanked exceptionally well. Capped S/L, close to capped Nrg/Ele, *cough* perma-unstoppable *cough*.

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Best tank you've worked with?

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In regards of having played both an Offensive and somewhat less Offensive Tanker I've met few that plays better than me. I loved one of the Tankers in my SG, mostly for the company but I was usually SK:ed in, and since he was a pre-granite Stone Tanker I usually became main tank.

I've probably met too many bad tankers (like a Stone Tanker refusing to run anything but passives because he didn't like the look of Stone Armors).

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Anyway so far to me mudpots and blazing aura could be just like anyother tanker attack whereby there is an inherent gauntlet and you can slot for taunt.

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My understanding is that Blazing Aura and Icicles work that way, but that Mudpots has an inherent Taunt (like Chilling Embrace and Invincibility) that's seperate from its damage component.

Again, I'm not 100% about this, but I'm pretty sure.

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From how I understood it, the taunt component in mudpots goes together with the slow debuff wich is auto hit, not with the damage, hence Mmudpots have auto hit taunt but can keep even more aggro due to the additional damage.
Ice tankers are attention seeker not because of Icicle(wich i've seen only on 1-2 ice tanks so far)but due to the huge taunt on Chilling Embrace, i have it unslotted and i can get aggro away from a +1 invuln tanker running Invuncibility..
That much taunt IMO it's because of the debuffs it gives, that are seen by the AI of the foes as very bad things

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The "Taunt" component of mudpots consists of this:
- Immobilize
- Slow (for those not immobilized)
- Fire Damage

When I used Mudpots (got to level 14 or so back on the US servers). It seemed like they were immobilized within the Mudpots Aura. This was before the AoE changes so most of my leveling between level 7-12 consisted of simple herding and AFKing in Perez. I could pick up a few mobs with Mudpots and they nicely followed me around.

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Anyway so far to me mudpots and blazing aura could be just like anyother tanker attack whereby there is an inherent gauntlet and you can slot for taunt.

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My understanding is that Blazing Aura and Icicles work that way, but that Mudpots has an inherent Taunt (like Chilling Embrace and Invincibility) that's seperate from its damage component.

Again, I'm not 100% about this, but I'm pretty sure.

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Mudpots has an inerhent Immobilize (low mag I assume). And it does tick away with some fire damage. So it works both ways. Immobilizied enemies do seem to follow the aura in most cases as well (from what I've seen).

Mudpots always seemed a bit quirky to me.

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(I still firmly believe that a Tanker can hold all necessary aggro without Taunt, so I'm saying replacement for Tanker, not Taunt)

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How much aggro is 'all necessary aggro', half a spawn? The whole spawn? Can you hold all necessary aggro in all sensible circumstances? Can you hold all necessary aggro against all enemy type.

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Nope, as an Inv Tanker, versus a mob consisting of largely Elemental/Energy and of fairly high-level my Defense is rendered useless, I'm currently sitting with ~25%-ish nrg/ele resistances. I'm not saying I'm face-planting constantly but I definetly do feel the sting from those types of damage.

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I have tanked multiple spawns ( one after another ) and possibly tanked entire missions without using taunt. However that was because they were missions where I didn't need a ranged taunt, perhaps had melee enemies with nice close spawns. Maybe I was on a team that let me get aggro and respected that. I do have a lovely big AoE ( Combustion ) to get aggro. You certainly can hold lots of aggro without touching the taunt key.

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Yep, that's why I (so far) haven't picked up Taunt. I feel that my aggro managment is enough. I've also come across rather decent teams. They've never relied on a single tanker, or a single anything really, to pull the team together, it just happened on it's own.

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But against some enemy types, IMO an aura alone just doesn't work. Nemesis are a challenge for a tank, not because they are tough but because they have long aggro range AoE weapons that they use in preference to melee. Against Nemesis in a 8 man team, you better have a good tank with taunt or people are going to faceplant.

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As long as they ain't dealing Nrg/Ele in loads I just dive in. I'm sure I can be a better tank, but it works for me ... and so far the team as well.

Truth told my Tanker hasn't faced Nemesis yet. So I'll guess that will be something I'll experience for myself. If I suddenly discover I absolutely must have Taunt I'll remember who gave me the heads up.

But then again, Taunt is at a 5 target cap, you won't get a whole mob on it. And since Invinc is useless at range, I would probably still try to dive in first.

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If I was to choose between a tank with taunt but who didn't know how to use it and a tank without who used his aura excessively well, I would go for the latter. But I would prefer a tank who used aura, taunt and punchvoke proficiently.

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Of course all three are handy tools. I'm just claiming that for some people (like me) Punch-voke and Invincibility is enough. Heck, if Invincibility was enough for some for 50 levels before Punch-voke was even in the game I can't be that gimped as a tanker

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Well, on a large team I'm there's often a slim chance that there is a Controller or Defender, often negating any real need for Taunt.

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This often negates the need for a tanker too.

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The controller one I get.

What defenders negate the need for a tank?

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Defenders supply:
- Heals
- Buffs
- Debuffs

Thus, either enhancing the damage potential and/or survivability of the team. It's not replacement for a Tanker (I still firmly believe that a Tanker can hold all necessary aggro without Taunt, so I'm saying replacement for Tanker, not Taunt). But it's a different way of approaching it. And having a Tanker along with those Buffs and Debuffs, well, it's just icing on the cake.

I'm not talking about specific builds, Unthing. I'm talking about teaming in general. Some builds though, doesn't quite fit into that statement.

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That's roughly equals 10.99% Defense if you hit 14 targets with it. That is pretty weak, IMHO...

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If you can read, I said: 25% of your total amount of defence wich, with 41% maximum defence, is roughly 10.25%, wich is the amount that EA gives and is a good share of your damage mitigation.

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Yeah, ok, edited my post a bit. In retrospect I realise I wasn't clear enough.

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Energy Absorption was the cournerstone of Ice when it buffed defence into the silly numbers pre issue 5. Now its been turned into just another end recovery power that increases your defence by a tiny amount.

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Sure, that tiny amount is like 25% of your total amount of defence, so let's give it up..Rofl

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ROFL! LMAO! Hrm, sorry got carried away.

Spad has an Ice Armor guide up at these very boards.

Energy Absorption gives (unslotted) a 0.5% Defense Buff per enemy in radius. This equates to a maximum of 7%. Unenhanced, of course. Enhanced it's a whooping 0.785% according to Spad's guide.

That's roughly equals 10.99% Defense if you hit 14 targets with it. That is pretty weak, IMHO... it is roughly 25% of an Ice Tankers total Defense. But still, negligable. Especially since you're upgrading it for about 4% extra Defense...

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Also, I used to play a bit back in the days when Taunt was single-target and most Tankers relied on Provoke and back then, there was a lot of tankers who managed to hold aggro on invincibility alone and was quite content (and so was their team mates) with it too. There were a few taunt-less and provoke-less tankers back then. I can't see why a taunt-less tanker should "fail" when we have punch-voke.

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Gauntlet has been introduced as an inherent power only in I5, but tankers had already that ability(only not slottable) before.
They 'gave' us the faith of having a 'new' inherent but it's always been there.
Issue 5 just showed that to us(like scrappers' criticals, always been there, even without the inherent)but weakened it, A LOT.
Think of those tankers herding +5 or higher with just the taunt aura and occasionally and AoE attack, now a +4 already NEVER follows you for more than 200ft. because the taunting of the taunt auras is been cut a lot, along with the taunt from attacks.
Now the Gauntlet can be slotted tho, but back in the day when Taunt was single target the auras where far more powerful at keeping aggro.
Anyway, I'm not saying that a tanker is 'that' bad without Taunt, just that I won't rely on one if I'll have to face challenging missions and on big teams.

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Nope, it wasn't always there. Punch-voke wasn't around before I4 I believe (might have been I3, poor memory).

And, truth told, I'm not really sure why I'm continuing to argue this, it's like this you see: My Tanker doesn't have taunt. It's a power like everything else, I didn't pick it up. I've done fine without so far. End of discussion. It's up to one's own if you pick it up or not. I've never quite seen it since the punch-voke and AoE changes, but if Taunt is so AT-defining, why not make it inherent as well? Which, by the way, was the original point many tried to make when Tankers still were more or less required to pick up Provoke.

It's a whole other issue if you already have taunt, and won't use it and can take the aggro as the original post was all about. Not that picking up Taunt automaticly makes you a Taunt-bot, but it's then a tool in your little toolbelt and not using it is lack of judgement not a respectful statement in being an "anti-taunt-bot".

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Yes its easily possible for a Tank to hold aggro without taunt. However, especially on large teams, taunt is invaluable to pull targets away from squishies when ur surrounded by a group already.

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Well, on a large team I'm there's often a slim chance that there is a Controller or Defender, often negating any real need for Taunt. And chances are there's another tanker to divide aggro further.

Teaming often hides even the most obvious flaws in a build

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BTW I've never seen a SS/Inv tanker hold agro WITHOUT taunt and their damage output (I have one) pales next to a scrappers damage. IMHO, and it is purely an opinion this type of tanker without taunt is just a scranker and the team would be better off with a scrapper.

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Well, you're free to watch my level 30 Inv/SS Tanker some day. I hold aggro pretty well, and KO Blow One-shots any minion (almost). And I destroy lieutenants as well. And, with AS and Haymaker and occassional KO Blow I can juggle bosses as well.

I do notice Invincibility and Punch-voke. Often foes turn around again to keep aiming at me, after being drawn by some blasters damage.

Also, I used to play a bit back in the days when Taunt was single-target and most Tankers relied on Provoke and back then, there was a lot of tankers who managed to hold aggro on invincibility alone and was quite content (and so was their team mates) with it too. There were a few taunt-less and provoke-less tankers back then. I can't see why a taunt-less tanker should "fail" when we have punch-voke.

And, as my Tank is only level 30 I might pick up Taunt, but I've just not figured out how I should fit it into my playstyle yet.

Yes, I scrank a lot, but I'm not considering it a weakness. I really don't like AT stereotypes.

I feel content with my ability to hold aggro, have not yet caused or not been able to prevent a team kill (where I could acctually change the outcome).

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Not directed at anyone specific but if you have "taunt" the USE IT. And if one of the squishies cries out for you to use it as their health plummets redward then don't ignore them and keep on scranking. That makes you a rubbish tank imho.

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Speaking strictly as an Inv/SS relying on Haymaker and AS here, I can juggle bosses around very easily. One KO Blow and I'm doing more than chipping away their life. Invincibility + Punch-Voke. I also rely heavily on Jab as an attack and as a trigger for Punch-voke in my build.

I have not yet felt the need for Taunt. And I've not caused any team to die because I didn't have it. Maybe I could have saved someone, sometime with it but if a Blaster runs away from the Empath, the controller, me and the rest of the team with a following of five lieutenants and a boss and yells: "Help! Help!" I don't think I'm to blame

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Sorry, a rant prompted by a rubbish team I was on last night. Two tanks, one couldn't taunt and the other WOULDN'T taunt. And the latter ignored me everytime I brought the subject up.

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Well, level 15/16 you say? Many tankers don't stand a lot of beating even at that level.

But you say you had a good team going. Well, there's a lot of circumstances regarding the player: age, language, casual, playing while distracted, etc, etc.

As a small rant on my part, I think it's great the devs ridded the tanks dependancy on Provoke (and thus having to pick up an excessive power pool), and I really like the new taunt. But the AoE cap on it just makes it less appealing again. I might pick it up one day, but so far I'm doing fine without.

I'm not certain about this but the Extreme, Superior, High, Moderate and Minor measurements is relative to other powers within the powerset not in comparison to other powers in other powersets.

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My blaster has it slotted with 3 knockbacks. as the damage is so low its not worth trying to cause damage but the "get away" factor is nice.

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Silly you . Buckshot recharge speed is exactly the same as Slug. Compared to cones such as Fire Breath and Frost Breath (and AoEs such as Fire Ball and Ball Lightning) it rechages twice as fast. Effectively meaning you can (purely theoretical and mentioned before in that corruptor thread) fit in two Buckshots during one Flame Breath, effectively making the power higher damaging than Fire Breath if you would cycle just the one power.

It's a bad example, but it is a fast recharging cone and will give you more damage over time than other cones in the set. However, as a Blasters main tool of survival is to clear a mob quickly, before they can start hitting back it's counterproductive.

The damage isn't that bad though. As soon as it hits more than one target it's higher damaging and more end effective than Slug for taking out multiple targets. A cone is a cone, no matter how lousy it is. I would slot it for damage.

Another problem is that people tend to think AR/Dev as soon as you spit out AR. There are plenty of */Dev and plenty of AR/* as well. AR/Energy can obviously be pretty fearsome, even those basic attacks suddenly become quite deasant with an early Build Up.

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Having great fun with my AR/Dev blaster in PvP. The lask of any special effects pointing back to me when I snipe usually allows me enough time to loose off another couple of attacks before being targetted.
But the sniper rifle seems fairly poor and the lack of "build up" means none of the attacks sub-30 are particularly devastating. I here energy can 1 shot stalkers. Whereas the sniper attack will usually take off around a 3rd of the hps.
So I was wondering how AR compares with the other sets. Comments?

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AR isn't weak on it's own. I think most AR/* will tell you a totally different story than AR/Dev.

A small tip, which I have yet to deploy myself (seeing how I don't own an AR/Dev Blaster ATM) is to try to slot Buckshot and Slug for range. That will efficently put them very close to Sniper Range. It might be worthless, but if one would learn how to control that range, well. Just staying at max range all the time would mean the ability to pull of 3 shots at sniper range.

Before EDs a */Dev Blaster could basicly 6-slot all attacks for damage and run TD 24/7 to provide enough accuracy. Now you don't gain as much by trying to 6-slot your attacks.

There was a bit of discussion in the Corruptor thread about AR. I put some theories in there. Go ahead and have a read. They apply to Blasters as well.

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Could be wrong but IIRC Kat has a +5% ACC bonus over MA due to the drawing of a weapon. So does BS which would be my pick

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Yeah, Katana has a 5% ACC Bonus to all of it's attack. But MA has a 10% ACC Bonus.

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I'm considering on building a scrapper for solo purposes.
I like the Martial-Arts moves, but also the coolness of the Katana-blade.
I'm certain to take Regen as a second, because of the self-heal and self-buff abilities. But i can't make up my mind about getting MA or KAT??

Any help would be nice...plz

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Okay, a few questions:

1) What do you want to do with your character?
2) Look at No. 1.
3) Again, what do you want to do with your character.

Katana has the strong-point of having a Cone, one AoE and some solid Single-Target attacks.

Martial Arts acctually have slightly higher damage, but except for one attack it's all Single-Target. You won't ever be doing any huge mobs. Well, Katana won't either but at least part of the capability is there.

As far as concept go, pick what you like. If you're only 26 you still have a long way to go to 50 so have some time to think about yet .

SHANNON, you're quickly becoming my favourite poster here.

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There are many people that fight on follow in order to stay on an opponent who dont like knockbacks, because that means they have to chase the opponent and find themselves running of the edge of something or maybe toward another group. The time to follow an opponent messes up attack chains and reduces killing speed. Tankers dont like having to reherd and alot of people out there prefer knockdown to knockback.

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This is universal, and not Set specific. Energy Blasters suffers from this as well, for instance.

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Firstly you have to actually hit with the slash and follow up to gain anything out of them. No hit no gain. The amount of extra damage you gain from follow up is way less than build up, probably less than half that than build up and lasts 10 seconds.

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Think it's a 50% Acc/Dam Buff. But not sure.

Otherwise, great points from a perspective of experience.

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Definately is about preference.

You've seen how many AR/Traps corruptors there are? Hardly any! That's probably one of the reasons why I chose this build, I've still yet to see an AR/Traps corruptor in all me 40 levels. The build may be gimped but I rather be that way then be one of many.

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The fact that you got to level 40 ought to be proof for everyone that it isn't gimped .

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Irs probably because Claws doesn't give you a tood to survive. Katana/SR has devine avalanch, DM/SR has Touch Of Fear (and Dark Consumption for the end woes) BS/SR has parry, MA/SR has some nice status effects. Spines/SR.......... I wouldn't fancy, nor Claw/SR. At the moment SR needs the benefit of a safe primary to survive, at least in my opinion

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Claws has a Knockback on Focus and Shockwave. -DEF on Slash. Plus a re-occuring Damage and Accuracy Buff as a part of the Attack Chain.

No tools, eh?

Regarding SR, people sure can whine. It's always been a somewhat risky set. But at one point SR was the solo AV Hunting set. A ton of vids showed up at the US Boards with SR Scrappers soling AVs like a breeze. This has gradually changed, think it was in I4 (or was it I3) there was a beef-up on enemies there SR had a bit more trouble (still could take on AVs though). All of this of course, were mostly about MA/SR Scrappers. Claws/SR still lurked about, but seeing how those MA/SR played Claws should have been able to do the same thing...

SR is probably the greatest proof in existance that Balance never is constant in this game. It's been swung back and forth. However, I don't think I really heard at any point that it's Broken Beyond Belief. I thought so once, but was proven wrong.

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People whining mostly.

Both are perfectly good sets.

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My thought exactly, none of the sets have been more severly nerfed than any other set (referring to ED and Global Defense Changes).

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By the time you've finished the game Assault Rifle does almost catch up with Fire. It still lacks a nuke and has some other issues but it has roughly comparable powers everywhere else and even a couple of nice bonuses. As a Corrupter though it does have major problems with activation times and as any class needs a good ability near the bottom of its secondary. Annoying, sub-par and in need of love but not totally gimped.

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Acctually, activation timers for AR isn't that slow. We're talking 0.2 seconds here and there.

Also, lacking a Nuke is a good thing. Full Auto has a 60 second recharge, while all the nukes has a 360 second recharge. Full auto is still there a lot more often than a Nuke attack. Flame Thrower + Full Auto is the nuke.

Again, matter of preference. Attack neatly packed mobs from medium range or pull of a nuke in the midst of the fray.

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It's not a question about preference, unless you are talking about preference to being a good soloer and/or a useful team member to being neither. I like everything about the powersets except being a total anchor.

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Yes, it is. You don't go about saying that Ice is Gimped, when it's not just because it lacks AoE capability (which doesn't either, really) in comparison to Fire. Really, what set you choose, play and like is preference. All sets are different.

We've kind of been staring us blind on two sets in this discussion. There are more to Corruptors than just AR and Fire. And Definetly more to AR than AR/Traps.

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do you know what i do to hovering AR blasters?

Hide+Stealth+Grant invis

BU+Impale+placate+AS/or an attack again

there is another trick tool that i use as a nice surprise

3 slotted placate for range and 3 slotted impale for range and watch who snipes who

Soon we will be demonstrating a team tp spines stalker team in sirens as well......

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I get a 3 Slotted Impale to Range 62 (even-level SOs).

AR/* Blasters have Burst (Range 90), Slug (Range 95), Sniper (Range 120). A Range in each (sans Sniper) and you're at ~110 for each. AR still Snipes Stalker.

But, as have been mentioned before, there are no safe distances in this game. That extra range is very little compared for someone super speeding in on the Blaster while performing his Snipe...