Robobot's Guide to I5 Tanking (INV/SS)
By
Generic_Past,
Posted on: 2005-08-07 02:14 in Player Guides
Shouldnt it say I5 Invuln/SS Tanking? Its misleading since I figured maybe you would explain each powerset for tanking
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eep sry about that, ill correct it
Thanks
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Why not the fighting pool? Isn't 2 travels a waste?
no fighting pool because I don't need tough for the smash/lethal cap. the recall friend serves no VITAL function in this build, and can easily be replaced. I like teaming in the shadow shard though, and TP friend is invaluable there 
THANKS robobot for the info... But being a newb, I need a few more details. My invuln/ss tank is 21 now, and I want to put together some details on what I will respec when I5 hits.
I guess where I'm less than clear is:
- At which level do you want to pick each power up? This seems to matter when exemp'd... Other than getting Hasten ASAP and Stamina (and it's prerequisites) ASAP, I'm concentrating on defense. So at lvl 21 I only have 3 attacks that I cycle when meleeing, one of them being Brawl (go ahead, laugh). And I still solo about half the time, but it is SLOOOOW.
- How do you slot Conserve Power? with -recharges or -end?
My own recommendation re/ travel: I love SS in lower levels, because of the lower end use, and the lack of vertical as an absolute necessity. BUT... when I get stamina at 22, I'll want to respec out of it and get hover/fly or hover/teleport instead.
I'm thinking Invuln/SS Tanker might be one of those types where you want two or three builds along the life of the character, and would almost COUNT ON a respec around 24 or 26...
-the level you pick these powers up is something im glad i don't have to deal with for my own character. Offhand, I'd say it has to be done more by intuition. You have to feel the problems your tank is having in his/her adventures tanking, and go from there. From the description you gave me, I'd say your biggest problem would be your lack of attacks. At lvl 20 you get access to the beautiful KO Blow, and I'd take that then. As for stamina, yes getting that asap is good. 22 or 24 would be a good time to grab that, maybe 26 if you cant fit it in before then. And hasten... is a luxury. You'd be far better off with an attack. Seeing as how you want super speed, i guess flurry is the answer. I'm personally not excited about that one, seeing as how the animation takes forever, but maybe it could replace brawl. At lvl 50 my tank has 6 attacks, none of them brawl, but by lvl 20 he had 5, and found each one of them useful. Get more attacks, I promise you won't be disappointed. Respec at 24 if you can (its always a good idea to save a free respec), but until then don't worry about stamina, worry about attacks (assuming your defense is all wrapped up).
-conserve power doesn't give you many options on how you can slot it. It uses a small amount of end on the click, so i think its possible to put end reducs in it, but for the love of god don't. Recharge is the answer. Even with hasten, it cant be perma'd, but its still damn uselful to have around. Like i said, click that, hasten, and rage and you've got at least 90 seconds of straight butt-whoop, which is devastating because by then your attacks are slotted heavily.
Lastly, I wouldn't recommend hover. Air Superiority is the BEST basic style attack, and i would definitely take that. hover used to be important because you'd need it to fight in the air. This isn't true anymore due to the suppression on flight and the removal of the -acc from it. And besides, as a tank I never needed to fight in the air until i hit the shadow shard. rularuu are such jerks... so i recommend fly or teleport, but not hover.
Tank on!
lol...we went in radically different directions. Just some quick examples.
I took TP Foe (If I can't taunt him to me, I'll just BRING him to me) and teleport (fits the evolution of the hero, good for quick movement in the age of suppression, and with less defense/damres, i might NEED a quick escape).
I six slotted EVERYTHING, and 7- and 8-slotted a couple, in my primary, using HO's. I went from being an attack machine to being a defense king.
And before you say it, yes, I KNOW I've breached the cap for S/L damage. But mobs can reduce defense and dam res, and I don't want to take chances with my team.
I DID take Tough Skin, and slotted the hell out of it.
All of my attacks are only 3-4 slotted now, although I DID respec hand clap and Energy Torrent in, since I respecced Hasten OUT.
I dumped a couple of powers from my Travel sets (CJ, SJ, Hasten, Superspeed), and here's what I'll say:
It takes me a lot longer to arrest the bad guys, but I'm still pretty badass in the defense department. Solo, it's a bit of a pain, but on a team, with a good damage dealer, using taunt, punchvoke, invinc, and tp foe, plus my Dull Pain with two Golgi's in it, I'm still doing alright.
I would, however, love to go on test with you sometime and compare these two builds. I sure miss Knockout punch and Foot stomp being six-slotted.
Ah well.
Taunt is obsolete for inv/ss tankers.... My shield taunts them and very effectively, without a keystroke. Useless imo with inv tankers. I have never had any loss of agro, even with blasters blasting and PB's pbing. Chose a power you can use without uneccessary redundancy.
Mast
Any ideas for I7?
So in case you havent noticed, I5 is coming, and we tanks need to prepare ourselves. This is Robobot's guide to Inv/SS tanking for I5, and its also my lvl 50 build. I'll do a rundown of each power and explain my thoughts on them:
each HO has an acc and a def buff bonus, and 2 have end reducs, while the other 2 just have recharge. Without HOs, I think you'll find this needs an end reduc and then either def or acc buffing, depending on your preference. I found that this power effectively makes me not need any acc SOs in my attacks, but that was just I4. With I5, it won't be that helpful anymore.
INVULNERABILITY
Resist Physical Damage
I clock this at about 10% with a single slot. Take it and don't slot it. The slots will be much more efficiently used on temp invuln. You can reach the smash/lethal cap without slotting this puppy anyway. So don't worry
Temp Invulnerability
6 slots. Maybe not ASAP, but 6 slots. I do mine all resists, because I'm going to pay for the Stamina and the Hasten and the Conserve Power. I'm pretty sure you'll need all 6 to hit the cap, but I could be wrong...
Dull Pain
Take it. I used to just do 3 slots on this power, but with I5 damage is much more common and plaguing a problem. 3 heals so that it essentially refreshes you completely, and and 3 recharges to make it readily available.
Resist Elements/Resist Energies
A lot of contraversy on these 2. Some people say its not worth taking, others say its not worth slotting. I'm with the latter. I take these 2 but dont slot them, because even if I did both with 6 each (thats 10 slots i just lost), I would go from having a mere 10%ish resist to a mere 20%ish resist. Its just not worth that many slots, but I have room in my power picks for these two. So I take them and don't slot them.
Unyielding
While the I5 panic rumors were running around, I heard that UY got reduced to 5% resist overall. That's been changed. Given the broad coverage of the resists in this power, I find it's still worth 6 slotting. I'm lucky though, and I have one HO to satisfy the end reduc this power needs. I get 6 resists and one end reduc in this bad boy, and I wouldnt have it any other way. I end up getting a good 20% resist out of it (maybe a little less), and thats really all I can ask for. However, even if you don't care about the resists, you MUST take this power. Without mez protection you'll suffer, and so will your team. You need this power to fight anyone with status effects.
Invinvibility
No matter what you think, you need this power to effectively tank. It's a necessary component of aggro management (above all, your duty as a tank) with its PBAoE taunt, but whats more the def and acc bonuses really add up pretty quick. You'll find that you can be surrounded by a large group of baddies and be relatively safe from their attacks, unless they're just high lvl or have some sort of acc bonus (nemesis and vengeance, anyone?). I personally use this power with 4 slots, 1 for each HO
Tough Hide
Don't care for it. Never did. You can if you like, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Unstoppable
This is now a much more important power. I can count the times I've needed this power on one hand, excluding my engagements with malta (sappers...) However, with more damage in the near future emergencies will be coming up more and more, and this power solves most emergencies. That makes it a very good catch, but even so, I wouldnt slot it. I'd just like having it in the hole if I ever need it.
SUPER STRENGTH
Jab
You got no choice, it's yours. I don't like having an unslotted attack, so I gave this puppy 4 slots. Thats just to keep it usable. Feel free to add or subtract, but doing either for me is a waste of slots or a waste of an attack.
Punch
I've had this power for a long time, but now I'm showing it the door. Air Superiority is better in every single way. Every single way. This attack has an unimpressive 30% knockdown, whereas AS has 90%. The damage and end usage are exactly the same from there. So I'm skipping over punch.
Taunt
Need this power to tank. You just need it. I gave this power 4 slots, 2 taunts and 2 recharge, to make sure I can keep all the aggro I need to on me. This power is still AoE, but it only hits a max of 5 villains at once. That means I need to be using it more, hence the high slotting.
Haymaker
This is an important attack for SS. I take it and 6 slot it. It has a 60% knockdown rating I think, and that knockdown is always helpful. The damage is high and with proper slotting it will help you destroy whatever gets in your path.
Hand Clap
I tried this power in I3 i think. I didn't care for it. But now I'm back, apologizing. "I didn't mean to treat you that way baby, honest." Here's the deal: it used to be knockback for even higher lvl mobs (bad), now its knockdown (good). Also, now that protecting yourself has become a challenge as a tank, this will seriously help you with mitigating damage. The disorient from it may not last that long, but it will be a welcome relief from troublesome baddies. I take this power, and I put four slots in it. One is an HO (acc/mez), so i end up with 2 accs and 3 mezzes in this bad boy.
Knockout Blow
Favorite attack. Straight up, hands down, the best attack a tank can have (at least, an SS tank). Extreme damage, I can use it to one-shot even con minions. Also, the range on it is a tad longer than the rest of your attacks, and also defines the radius of foot stomp. 6 slot it and love it. I've got 5 HOs to put in this one, so that gives me 2 accs, 3 mezzes, and 6 damages. Can you tell I love this power?
Rage
Meh. It's alright. I take it but don't slot it, and I just use it whenever I think it's appropriate. The acc bonus on it is nice, and the damage bonus isn't too shabby either, and will be particularly noticable if you haven't slotted your attacks heavily. I put one accbuff in it.
Hurl
Just not worth it. The animation is too long. The only useful part about it is the fact that it's ranged, but I find that the eye lasers from energy mastery are just much better. So I pass this power up.
Foot Stomp
Awesome. I like it just as much as KO Blow, but I don't have the HOs for it. 6 slots for this attack. It's about as strong as haymaker, has a very respectable radius, and if you're surrounded by as many baddies as you can, with the invince bonuses you'll probably hit quite almost all. Learn the strategic placement of it, because it can be used on-the-go to gather up aggro from a pal thats being hurt.
FLIGHT
Air Superiority
This is my single most used attack. 6 slots for it because of that. It's just very good all aroud, and I wouldn't recommend any tank being without it.
Fly
This is my travel power. 3 slots in it. 'nuff said.
FITNESS
Swift
1 slot, unimportant.
Health
1 slot, a little more important, but slots are too valuable to try and turn yourself into a regen tank.
Stamina
6 slots, of course. Never less.
SPEED
Hasten
6 slots, because it's worth it.
TELEPORTATION
Recall Friend
1 slot, because some people are just lazy and want TPs, and others just don;t have the vertical and need TPs. All in all the most useful power in the game, combat excluded.
ENERGY MASTERY
Conserve Power
I think I drooled when I learned that this sweet power could be mine. It's wonderful. It reduces the end cost of all powers to what I hear is 25%, but I just know that I can activate it, hasten, and rage, and seriously crank up the butt-whoop. I put 6 slots in it so I can eliminate jsut about every self-imposed end problem I come up with. However, if it's and end problem someone else has imposed (neuron, sappers), then you're gonna need help.
Eye Laser Beams
This turned out to be a rather decent attack when I tried it out. I took it because some ranged capability is nice for several reasons. With the inherent tanker taunt, it can relieve allies of aggro from a distance. Also, troublesome enemies near death can be dispatched with relative ease. I think I am going to love this power the more I use it. As of now, it's only 4 slots, but I might change that later.
So that's my new I5 build. It's for lvl 50s, and I don't know how to explain the order in which I'd pick these. Thankfully, as a 50, I don't really have to. So, here's how I'm adapting to the nerfs. Take it easy out there heroes, it's a dangerous word out there (for tanks now, too)