Could you use Mid's hero builder and post your build for us to look at?
Also, what server do you play on?
Juzam
Tanker aficionado
Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.
It's hard to offer much advise in a vacuum, but an Inv tanker can be second only to Stone for raw survivability if built right. With IO slotting you can easily get to the defense soft cap; that coupled with your resists will make you the next best thing to unkillable.
Even with just SO's you shouldn't be having much trouble in the 30's though, so there may be something amiss in your build. I've put together a guide (linked in my sig) on how to build a soft capped Inv tanker... with that build I've had no difficulties in tanking anything in the game.
On your resistances there's no way to boost your non-S/L resist by any appreciable amount, therefore you'll want to boost your defense instead. In order of priority you'll want to boost your S/L defense first since it applies to the vast majority of incoming attacks... even many other damage type attacks will have a S/L component; if your defense causes one part of an attack to miss the whole thing misses. Your second most important defense is your E/N defense, nearly all of the non-S/L you'll face will fall into the Energy/Negative category. Finally there's your F/C defense... and those damage types are actually quite rare.
My guide has a more detailed write up on the subject. Anyway, good luck with your tanker; a well built Invuln can handle anything in the game.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
70% of the damage in this game is S/L. Not having high resistances for other types isn't very important. Your high defenses should take care of it. If you're still worried, get some IO sets that boosts your defenses, as well as Combat Jumping.
I'm on the Virtue server. And I don't have Mid's, but here's my build. Level 34 now, after levelling once after posting the original post:
Jab - 4 slots, 1 acc, 1 end red, 2 rech
Resist Physical Damage - 3 slots, all resist
Temporary Invulnerability - 5 slots, 3 resist, 1 end red, Impervium Unique +resist psionic
Dull Pain - 5 slots - 2 heal, 3 rech
Resist Elements - 3 slots, all resist
Unyielding - 4 slots, 3 resist, 1 end red
Taunt - 3 slots, Triumphant Insult IO set
Resist Energies - 3 slots, all resist
Hurdle - 1 slot, jump
Health - 1 slot, heal
Combat Jumping - 3 slots, all defense
Stamina - 3 slots, all end modification
Invincibility - 4 slots, 3 defense, 1 end red
Super-Jump - 1 slot, jump
Tough hide - 3 slots, all defense
Boxing - 2 slots, 1 acc, 1 rech
Tough - 2 slots, 1 resist, 1 Aegis Unique +resist/+mez
Weave - 4 slots, 3 defense, 1 end red
In addition to that my brawl is also 2 slotted, since it's a common attack in my very small attack chain. This makes my defense in around 20 against all attacks (except psionic, where it's only 11). My resist is almost capped for lethal and smashing (88-89%), my resists against other things is around 31%.
And while 70% of the damage in the game is S/L and I have no problems tanking that, it's against the groups that use dark or energy or fire or cold that I get destroyed utterly and completely.
Anyway, thank you for the guide, CMA, I'll take a look at that. Those many sets just look like they could be very expensive. :/ For instance the reactive armor set costs 4 mill for the end/res and 5 mill for the res, meaning each of the 5 sets will cost like 10 mill each.
TAKE YOUR ATTACKS/SECONDARY POWERS.
They offer mitigation as well. And it's no wonder you get destroyed at that level, because you probably can't take out enemies in anywhere close to a normal time frame. You've got the two weakest attacks, and that's it. And Jab isn't even slotted for damage.
Ignoring your secondary to that degree is probably not helping you at all. You can't take out a dangerous opponent to you, and if you team, you're relying on your teammates taking out the biggest threat to you, which they may not be trying to do.
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus
Your build with its lack of offense looks like it was made for team play, yet you sound like you're getting very little support on a team.
I suspect that it isn't just the wrong damage types that give you problems, but specific enemies (such as Earth Thorn Casters with their -defense).
I also wonder if you aren't sacrificing too much of your secondary; not necessarily because of damage output, but because of the control potential. Knockout Blow and Foot Stomp can make quite a bit of a difference.
As to your defense, that should be quite a bit higher with at least one foe in range. Positioning yourself correctly within a spawn can make quite a bit of difference when it comes to your survivability.
I am build solely for team play. And while my team may at times provide support, I'm far too often teaming up with a random group where there's only empathy for damage migration.
It's not in damage output I got a problem. Sure I don't do much, but I have soloed once in the last 34 levels and that was to get my second costume slot.
And it is in my plans to get more of the attack powers, now that I'm mostly established defensively. I can hold aggro and I'm almost impossible to kill when fighting the majority of the enemies. What I'm looking for is a way to increase the survivability against the remaining 30%. I know that I'll always be weak against psionics, but I would like to find a way so I'd be able to take an alpha from non-smash/lethal enemies.
Or do I really have to roll a stone tanker to get a high resistance to everything?
am i reading that right or do you have only three attacks - brawl included?
that's not enough. dead mobs = mitigated mobs. you should have no less than 3 attacks from your secondary by this time which with boxing should make a nice chain.
you also have a small aoe taunt with each hit. tankers need to smash. taunt alone isnt enough (and is limited in targets)
most likely the problem is the fights are taking too long. something i saw during the meow weekend when i'd compare how fast heroes were kiling those spawns vs. villains. heroes-took a bloody long time for each pack. so many tanks had little to no offense. go redside and you'd get the opposide - faceplanting brutes. but those few brutes and tanks who knew how to balance it out made it a breeze - and quick
your offense cant be ignored. not in this game.
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I'm on the Virtue server. And I don't have Mid's, but here's my build. Level 34 now, after levelling once after posting the original post:
Jab - 4 slots, 1 acc, 1 end red, 2 rech
Resist Physical Damage - 3 slots, all resist
Temporary Invulnerability - 5 slots, 3 resist, 1 end red, Impervium Unique +resist psionic
Dull Pain - 5 slots - 2 heal, 3 rech
Resist Elements - 3 slots, all resist
Unyielding - 4 slots, 3 resist, 1 end red
Taunt - 3 slots, Triumphant Insult IO set
Resist Energies - 3 slots, all resist
Hurdle - 1 slot, jump
Health - 1 slot, heal
Combat Jumping - 3 slots, all defense
Stamina - 3 slots, all end modification
Invincibility - 4 slots, 3 defense, 1 end red
Super-Jump - 1 slot, jump
Tough hide - 3 slots, all defense
Boxing - 2 slots, 1 acc, 1 rech
Tough - 2 slots, 1 resist, 1 Aegis Unique +resist/+mez
Weave - 4 slots, 3 defense, 1 end red
In addition to that my brawl is also 2 slotted, since it's a common attack in my very small attack chain. This makes my defense in around 20 against all attacks (except psionic, where it's only 11). My resist is almost capped for lethal and smashing (88-89%), my resists against other things is around 31%.
And while 70% of the damage in the game is S/L and I have no problems tanking that, it's against the groups that use dark or energy or fire or cold that I get destroyed utterly and completely.
Anyway, thank you for the guide, CMA, I'll take a look at that. Those many sets just look like they could be very expensive. :/ For instance the reactive armor set costs 4 mill for the end/res and 5 mill for the res, meaning each of the 5 sets will cost like 10 mill each.
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Ok a couple of things:
1) Your build is horrible. Not to worry ... you can respec.
2) Part of why your build is horrible is your lack of offense. I understand about making a team built character but if you're going down because it takes your team forever to kill mobs because you aren't really factoring into that equation, then you're not doing your team any favor.
3) You have some really off slotting choices (1 end red; 2 recharge in Jab?!)
4) This is a practical joke isn't it?
5) Make sure your SO's (at least for your defenses) are green when you can.
6) If you find yourself constantly face planting, be smarter about your pulls. Stock up on purple (defense) inspirations and greens (heals).
7) Even with the build as bad as it is, looking at it there is nothing that isn't Psi that should be killing you at L33 before you can hit Dull Pain. The only thing I could think of is that someone is telling you to herd and you're biting off more then you can chew. That and you have no mitigation from your secondary due to not having taken any of its powers basically. Your secondary is a big part of what makes a Tanker.
8) My god man, respec as fast as humanly possible.
9) Is this a pacifistic build concept? Just curious.
I don't have the 40m+ for a respec. 
And I felt that my build was quite good. I wanted all the primary powers first, since it is the defensive which is the most important.
From secondary pools I need stamina, for endurance. I want a travel power. And fighting gives tough and weave, which adds more to my defensive force. I simply have no idea where to get more power slots from (except levelling), that will allow me to get more from my secondary. However the plan is to focus on the secondaries, since my defense is now built to maximum (I think).
As I said previously, I don't have any problem with doing so little damage. The team I'm with usually wipes enemies fast. And I don't have a problem keeping aggro, except when there's maybe 15-20 mobs, but that seems to be a problem for all tankers, so not due to my build. I am there simply to take a punching, which I also do excellently against most foes. It's when I meet a dozen mobs doing fire damage. Or negative energy. Or ice. Or energy. That's when my health goes down fast.
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I don't have the 40m+ for a respec.
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Have you done any of the Terra Volta Respec Trials? You can get up to three free respecs that way.
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And I felt that my build was quite good. I wanted all the primary powers first, since it is the defensive which is the most important.
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Are you sure of that? Secondaries are important for mitigation, too.
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From secondary pools I need stamina, for endurance. I want a travel power. And fighting gives tough and weave, which adds more to my defensive force. I simply have no idea where to get more power slots from (except levelling), that will allow me to get more from my secondary. However the plan is to focus on the secondaries, since my defense is now built to maximum (I think).
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You shouldn't need more power slots, really. If you have survivability problems with that much mitigation, something else is wrong.
I have done the first one. I used that respec to become more defensive, because before I had decent damage, but my defenses were abysmal. At least Weave gave a small boost to those defenses.
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You shouldn't need more power slots, really. If you have survivability problems with that much mitigation, something else is wrong.
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My migration is fine against most foes. But when meeting fireclowns or ice zombies or necromancer elves and whatever else there is in the AE, I go down. When I play offtank to the Granite tanker I see them walk through it all, as if it was nothing, as if their resistances and defenses were capped or at least very close. I'd really love to be able to boost my own resistances and defenses to that level.
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You shouldn't need more power slots, really. If you have survivability problems with that much mitigation, something else is wrong.
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My migration is fine against most foes. But when meeting fireclowns or ice zombies or necromancer elves and whatever else there is in the AE, I go down. When I play offtank to the Granite tanker I see them walk through it all, as if it was nothing, as if their resistances and defenses were capped or at least very close. I'd really love to be able to boost my own resistances and defenses to that level.
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ah
yeah. like i pointed out in another thread on the MA, most of the custom enemies are simply too powerful for sub 50's no matter what they sk you to. some of the power sets are just absurd
consider putting io's in your powers. i dont mean the sets, but regular io's. at your elvel they should be giving a higher bonus than so's and they will last till 50 - saving you money
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My migration is fine against most foes. But when meeting fireclowns or ice zombies or necromancer elves and whatever else there is in the AE, I go down. When I play offtank to the Granite tanker I see them walk through it all, as if it was nothing, as if their resistances and defenses were capped or at least very close. I'd really love to be able to boost my own resistances and defenses to that level.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, I see now. Yes, custom critters in the MA can be pretty rough, and much more damaging than normal missions (I was duoing some on a Willpower tanker with a friend the other day and went through inspirations by the truckload, and we didn't even dial the difficulty all the way up). Granite tanks do indeed have the perk of having high resistance and defense and bonus regeneration, but obviously at the price of offense and mobility. To get to a similar level, you will have to invest in IOs.
However, the bigger point is that this kind of MA content IS meant to be a challenge and generally assumes that you're playing with competent support (or, alternatively, have a fine-tuned IO build or use lots of inspirations).
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Level 34 Natural Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Super Strength
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage -- ResDam(A), ResDam(3), ResDam(3)
Level 1: Jab -- Acc(A), EndRdx(5), RechRdx(5), RechRdx(7)
Level 2: Temp Invulnerability -- ResDam(A), ResDam(7), ResDam(9), EndRdx(9), ImpArm-ResPsi(11)
Level 4: Dull Pain -- Heal(A), Heal(11), RechRdx(13), RechRdx(13), RechRdx(15)
Level 6: Resist Elements -- ResDam(A), ResDam(15), ResDam(17)
Level 8: Unyielding -- ResDam(A), ResDam(17), ResDam(19), EndRdx(19)
Level 10: Taunt -- Insult-Taunt/Rchg(A), Insult-Dsrnt%(21), Insult-Taunt(21)
Level 12: Resist Energies -- ResDam(A), ResDam(23), ResDam(23)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump(A)
Level 16: Health -- Heal(A)
Level 18: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(25), DefBuff(25)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(27), EndMod(27)
Level 22: Invincibility -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(29), DefBuff(29), EndRdx(31)
Level 24: Super Jump -- Jump(A)
Level 26: Tough Hide -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(31), DefBuff(31)
Level 28: Boxing -- Acc(A), RechRdx(33)
Level 30: Tough -- ResDam(A), Aegis-Psi/Status(33)
Level 32: Weave -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(34), DefBuff(34), EndRdx(34)
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc(A), RechRdx(33)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]1.88% Defense(Smashing)[*]1.88% Defense(Lethal)[*]0.94% Defense(Melee)[*]1% (0.02 End/sec) Recovery[*]6% Resistance(Psionic)[/list]
His build, in case anyone was wondering.
I would calmly suggest a nice little jaunt over to Terra Volta, and respec for damage. Dead mobs can't hurt you.
The best method for handling MA content is with a team that is good. Anything short of that will cause you to die because the custom MA mobs deal often deal non s/l damage and invulnerability is very vulnerable to anything that is not s/l damage.
I am an ebil markeeter and will steal your moneiz ...correction stole your moneiz. I support keeping the poor down because it is impossible to make moneiz in this game.
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I am build solely for team play. And while my team may at times provide support, I'm far too often teaming up with a random group where there's only empathy for damage migration....but I would like to find a way so I'd be able to take an alpha from non-smash/lethal enemies.
Or do I really have to roll a stone tanker to get a high resistance to everything?
[/ QUOTE ]
If you're on a team with an empath and they aren't putting Fortitude on you, that' a bad empath. Add 15-25% defense on top of what you have and you should be really hard to kill.
Good news is that you get Foot Stomp in a few levels, that will help your survivability quite a bit, take that ASAP at 38 and lead with it for the knockdown.
Don't judge your build based on how it does against some MA content, if it's set to Extreme some of it gets pretty insane.
I have to agree with the others here, you really need to respec. If the character was created before issue 14 hit then you've a freespec available (type /respec) and you say you did the respec trial. That being the case you have two available respecs; not to mention simply choosing a dual build.
I strongly recommend downloading Mid's Hero Designer and planning out your build. Here's a few guidelines for you:
Temp. Invuln at level 1
Dull Pain at level 2
Haymaker at level 4
Combat Jumping at 6
Unyielding at 8
Taunt at 10 *optional*
Hurdle at 12
Super Jump at 14
Health at 16
Invincibility at 18
Stamina at 20
Knock Out Blow at 22
Resist Phys. Dam at 24
Tough Hide at 26
*Boxing at 28
*Tough at 30
*Weave at 32
*Rage at 35
Footstomp at 38
Resist Energies somewhere in the 40's.
Resist Elements is skippable, as is Unstoppable if you're building for high defense.
That guideline should provide you with a solid, capable tanker. The IO's you need for the build I have in my sig shouldn't be anywhere near that expensive; and don't think you have to have the highest level IO's... level 25-30's will do almost as well.
Just put in bids and let them sit for a day or so; prices spiked a small amount a while ago but I've noticed that for the most part recipes are stabilizing to around or a bit less than their issue 13 values. In some cases they've come down a whole lot; the Kinetic Combat set was unobtainable when I wrote my guide so I recommended the Smashing Haymaker instead, now there's decent availability of Kinetic Crash at decent prices, and it's twice as good.
For the record, when I put together a second build for my Invuln about 2 months ago I spent less than 10 million for everything... and don't think you HAVE to get the whole build at once. The most bang for your buck is going to be slotting the Kinetic Combat sets in your attacks, that's worth 3.75% to your S/L defense for each set. Slotting Mocking Beratement in Taunt will give good returns for very little inf spent.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
FYI--The price on Reactive Armor has spiked pretty significantly recently. And I blame you personally, CMA 
Edit--for the OP though, I just bought a set in the last two days. It's still manageable if you're patient and you're not hung up on having level 40 of everything.
Is there a reason for resist elements and resist energies so late or not at all? They both provide significant resists (10%, 15% enhanced) and protects against endurance drain and slows? I personally feel those two powers should be as important in the build as any other powers.
The original plan for the future was Rage at 35, Footstomb at 38. The remaining powers would be from secondaries or the epic pool.
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Is there a reason for resist elements and resist energies so late or not at all? They both provide significant resists (10%, 15% enhanced) and protects against endurance drain and slows? I personally feel those two powers should be as important in the build as any other powers.
The original plan for the future was Rage at 35, Footstomb at 38. The remaining powers would be from secondaries or the epic pool.
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The high DEF build helps mitigate against the effects that would be covered under the passives. It's your choice though, CMA's build is high DEF and capped RES, with the soft-cap of DEF with only one mob in your Invinc aura. You can tweak here and there and make it to where you are soft-cap with two or three mobs in the aura and supplement with insp accordingly if you are fighting exotic DMG AVs.
Here's my mids plan for a Fire/Inv/Pyre if it helps. I'm level 41 now and sitting with 90% capped res to S/L and 44.2% def to S/L -- just short of the soft cap. As soon as I engage a mob, I cap def with invincible. I'm at 30%+ on all my other defenses except psionic which is always something of a gap.
My big AoEs recharge in 5-7 secs each and dull pain is perma.
This lets me gather up a big group and stand there cycling AoE attacks.
About the only thing I have difficulty with are the rad debuffing meson/muon robots, so I round them up in smaller groups or pop insps.
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We don' need no stinkin' signatures!
Hi all,
I'm going to ask some advice. I currently have a level 33 inv. tanker. I have all invulnerability primaries, combat jumping, tough and weave for my defense and its slotted with either 3 defense or 3 resist SOs, so each power is at the cap for what it can take.
In most cases I don't have any problems, since many enemies use use smash/lethal, but there are times where I go down faster than I have time to hit my healing button. It wouldn't be an issue if it was against psionic, I know that's my weakness, but my energy, negative energy, fire and cold resists seem to be stuck around 30% and I honestly have no clue how to increase it to get to the cap.
So please, if anyone knows any way of increasing these numbers, to get them closer to the soft cap, tell me, I'd be very happy.
As for slotting IOs, then I'm not a rich player. I currently have around 15m influence, which I'll be willing to invest into making the toon better at surviving.