dave_p

Another vote for both. Go for ranged def + S/L resist caps, you'll end up decent numbers across the board and the only things you really fear are non-positional psi damage & sleeps.

I just updated my guide and added more stats to the GIS section. Seriously, look at some of the DPA numbers bet. GIS & the other heavy hitters. It's pathetic. Hell, there are plenty of T1 tanker attacks that beat GIS: Shadow Punch, Barrage, Scorch, Stone Fist, and Charged Brawl all have higher DPA numbers than GIS!

My suggestion would be, to keep Minerals running all the time to keep looking cool. I.e. don't use Granite (which looks the opposite of cool). Take all armors (Brimstone is optional), and if you can afford to IO your tank out, you can sit on softcapped S/L/E/N/Psi defense w/capped HPs, excellent regen, a decent heal & S/L resistance (F/C too w/Brimstone). Granite becomes an ugly, distant memory that you only reserve for real emergencies or cheating bastards like (tower buffed) LR.

Dunno jack about KM; will let someone else handle that.

GIS. See my sig for detailed explanations.

My DB/WP w/S/L def at just over 45% has comparatively little problems w/full spawns of Romans, at least at +0. Over a long time, they'll eventually overwhelm my regen (and yeah, my def will go into the red pretty fast), and I'll pop SoW, and if that runs out and I'm out of insps, I may run into trouble, but by then, most things will be dead, and I'll have a fresh trey of insps. I will say, if I'm on a buff-heavy team, and my def is already in the 80s to begin the fight, I rarely see it dip into the red unless I spend a considerable time alone against a full group of Romans.

Werner, that's a great idea monitoring your base def as well as your totals. Never would've thought of that.

I'm not even looking at that build...

If your focus is on GM hunting, you need 3(4) things

1) High def, usually to ranged. ~38% w/RI will floor GM to hit to 8.5%. GMs that do ranged AoE attacks will chew through you so you may want to try to get your AoE def to the 30s too. This was easier before the BotZ nerf.

2) ST chain. I believe you need a 100+ DPS chain to solo AVs, but that's w/o -regen or debuffs. Not sure what it is on GMs. Slot Char & RoF w/damage (Thunderstrikes for the ranged def work well), plus pick up an epic blast (Fire or Cold are best, Psi if you also want mez prot). You also need to do enough damage to keep aggro off your imps so that they can add to your DPS.

3) Enough recovery to maintain said ST chain indefinitely. When I was soloing monsters, I'd actually regen more end than my ST chain, which meant I could throw in the odd EMP for the hell of it. This will almost always mean perma-AM, which isn't too hard. This should also give you perma-LR as well w/minimal slotting.

4) Optional: self heal, but this is only if you're soloing no insps, no temps. Even at floored to hit, you will get hit, and it'll hurt. You need to heal yourself back. Rad Aura will do the trick just fine (I leave mine w/the base slot).

Messing around w/your AoE immob, proccing out your holds, etc, will lower your GM soloing efficiency, if that's what you're really looking for (trying to break a 4min pylon time, for example). If you want to be effective on teams as well as being able to solo the odd AV/GM, you can incorporate AoE powers as well as keeping w/1~4 above, but will considerably slow down your soloing time (if you even care about such things).

This happened twice to me in the last week, both with WST TF runs.

Run 1: Numina's last Sunday, I started a team, we got to the CoT map in Perez (just before the zone-hunts) and someone quit the TF. We finish the mission (find Envoy, clear the room), everyone exits, I try to call it in but the mission has reset. We find & clear Envoy's room again, everyone exits, and the mission resets again. After a bit of discussion, we quit. Some on the team mention they've seen this before, but it was the first time for me.

Run 2: ITF last night. Someone else started the team, then passed me the star. 2nd mish (cyst hunt) and someone quits. Coincidentally (or is it?), it's the same exact guy who quit (I've since 1 starred him, since he was lying about why he quit, but that's irrelevant), and when we exited the mish after completion, I couldn't talk to my contact and the mish had reset. Again, we quit and started over, and I did all the re-inviting. Now, on this new run, we had yet another guy quit on the 3rd mish, but we still were able to successfully complete it, and the TF as a whole.

/bugged the incidents, but did not /petition, because no one wanted to wait around for a response. Anyone else experience similar problems?

Also, to add, if blasters are getting aggro ahead of you and surviving, that means you're likely not pushing the pace enough. Don't dawdle on the last boss; grab the alpha and if your team is able to survive on its own, just jump into the next spawn and set them up for your teammates' AoEs. If your blasters are able to survive fights w/o you, your job switches from keeping them alive, to maximizing their AoE potential. Adapt how you tank based on team makeup.

A better question is why you sheathe your sword when doing the MoG pose, when it would look oh so more glorious w/it out.

So, this thread and my recent experiences have made me reconsider Elude for my Elec/SR. I figured, as long as I got him to softcap (and maybe a bit more), I'd be fine, but a few nights ago, after just hitting 36, I ran into massed Nemmies for the first time w/him. When the Veng stacked enough, he went down fast. Looking at the combat logs was very depressing, seeing how easily they were hitting me w/all the Veng. So for (hopefully rare) situations like that, DE quartz, etc, I figure having Elude available wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

If you're just spamming Taunt, you're not doing your job. If you don't have Taunt, you may have problems w/some AV fights. If you have a taunt aura, attack your target (hey, apply Bruising while you're at it!) *and* Taunt, you should never lose your aggro to a blaster. Ever. Now a brute doing the same might be a different story.

Def-capped squishies still get hit 1 in 20 (or worse, depending on what you're fighting), have far fewer HPs, and will get mezzed on occasion. They also can't control aggro like a tank (or brute), at least a properly played tank. My Son/Son has ranged def cap as well as S/L resist cap (and other high defensive numbers) and partial mez protection (damn sleeps... ). My Ice/Storm has ranged and S/L def caps even before applying powerful debuffs, plus Hibernate for when things get rough. My Fire/Rad has high enough ranged & AoE def (capped w/RI running on mob) + near perma mez protection to solo damn near every AV/GM in the game. All are tough as nails and can stand against some of the worst mobs in the game (they kinda laugh at the BM fight in Apex, other than the Halberds). I don't pretend for a second they're substitute for well played tanks, neither for overall toughness or aggro control, and it's not even close.

I have a thread on the blaster boards about how Judgment may marginalize blasters to an extent. Those guys, I'm actually worried about, at least a bit. IMO, the "support" classes will benefit the most w/I20, but melee are right behind. Tanks are going to be fine.

My En/En has perma Boost Range w/just the base slot, and loves it on his cones. I always try to extend the range of all my cone attacks (Fire Breath, Fistful, etc), but w.BR & 5-slotted Posi's (including the Dam/Range), both ET & Static Discharge have ranges of 70, which is freakin' huge (both 45 deg cones, so the base should be around 50'). I was tempted to go Leviathan, which would give me 2 cones, but Static Discharge has a lower recharge, same 4.4s as ET in fact, so I can pretty much spam both cones all day long.