[ QUOTE ]
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.
[/ QUOTE ]
The reasoning is simply that Res Energies and Res Elements provide a lot less bang for the buck than many other powers available to you... particularly Res Elements. First, Fire/Cold damage is very rare in the PvE game; it's only slightly more common than Psi. I believe the figures I've seen showed that F/C and Psi together amounted to less than 10% of the attack types you'd face.
As an Invuln your protections have layers... first there's your defense; using just SO enhancements you'll have 27.5% defense to all damage types but Psi with Invincibility, Tough Hide and Weave all 3 slotted for defense. A mob attacking you has a base 50% chance to hit you, LT's and Bosses get an accuracy bonus from that. This means that a mob attacking would have a 50% - 27.5% defense = 22.5% chance to hit you... basically they would miss you more than 75% of the time. An attack that misses (doesn't get past your defense) does zero damage to you; so you don't get hit by 3 out of every 4 attacks.
The one out of 4 attacks (in the above example) that does get thru your defenses then has it's damage reduced by your resistance to that damage type. Let's take a smashing attack that does 100 points of damage... your resistance to smashing is 90%, therefore you take 10% damage or 10 points. The same applies to energy attacks, there your resistance is 30%, so you'd take 70% damage or 70 points.
Your third layer is your natural HP regeneration and Dull Pain, the more time we can buy between getting hit by attacks (in other words, the more attacks we can make miss by our defense) the more HP you will recover in combat. At base at level 50 with unslotted Health you regenerate 11 HP per second; 17.5 HP/second with Dull Pain up. Therefore, if you're getting hit by 100 points of damage every 10 seconds on average after your defenses and resistances you're functionally immortal... you're regenerating 110 HP in that same time. Your defense gives your regeneration more time between getting hit to recover HP.
There's nothing we can realistically do to increase your non-S/L resistances so we ignore them and focus on the portion of your armor we can improve, your defenses. After all, if we get the defense high enough that the mobs can't hit you then your resistance is kind of meaningless.
You've heard about the Defense "soft cap" right? That's the point at which you have reduced a mob's chance to hit you to the minimum the game allows, which is 5%. The amount of defense you need to accomplish this is 45% (50% base tohit from the mobs, 5% minimum chance to hit = 45% defense needed to get there). If a mob has only a 5% chance to hit you then 19 out of 20 attacks will miss altogether! This increases your survivability from getting hit 1 time out of 4 to getting hit 1 time out of 20; you'll survive 5 times as long.
Ok, now let's look at the damage types you'll be taking... nearly 75% of it will be Smash/Lethal. Of the remainder, a fair amount will do dual damage, for example an energy blast that does both smashing and energy damage. In those cases your S/L defense would apply... and if one part of an attack misses then the entire attack misses. Because of this we first want to get our S/L defense to 45%
You'll be taking quite a bit of E/N damage as well, I don't have the figures offhand but probably 15% of the remaining damage will be E/N so we want to get that defense as high as we can also. Again, as we build defense the closer to 45% we get the more each point of defense is worth in terms of mitigation. The relative scarcity of E/N damage is the reason that Res Energies gets put off; and the end drain resistance, while nice, isn't going to be valuable until you start facing Carnies in the 40's. Malta Sappers will drain you dry even thru the end drain resistance, so it isn't a big factor with them, and you'll only face them in the 40's as well.
Finally, we'll be taking a small amount of Fire/Cold damage... this is a very rare damage type so it isn't a priority for us. That's the reason Res Elements is skippable; it's a minor amount of resistance to a rare damage type. It's secondary effect, a minor slow resist, isn't really worthwhile. Slows exist of course, but when they hit you they generally hit you enough that the resist won't help... you'll be at or near the slow cap anyway. No, Res Elements is less valuable to you than many other powers so you probably won't have any room in your build for it. I frankly can't think of a single time since issue 5 when it would have made a meaningful difference in my tanker's survivability. While getting this defense type to 45% is desirable, it's not really necessary and should be low priority in your slotting.
I hope I've given you a small idea on how the game mechanics work and the reasoning behind the advice you've been getting.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
[ QUOTE ]
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.
[/ QUOTE ]
Phosphorescency, I just sold several recipes of Reactive, level ranges from 31-34... the recipe's were averaging somewhere around 300k each on the "last 5 sold". That didn't include the Resist, but it did include the res/rchg, res/end & res/end/rchg. It looks like if the prices did spike they've dropped back down again. I'd had several drop on a few characters who couldn't use them.
It's almost magical... tankers get snipe and pet sets drop while blasters get armor 
So you don't need to blame me anymore 
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
The dropoff in pricing on some recipes when you go down a few levels is just....stupid.
Reactive Armor Resistance level 40, last 5 sold are 5 to 8 million each. Level 39s are 1-2 million each. Level 38 and below you can get one of some decent level for less than a million unless you need it NOW. I got a level 35 for just over 300K today.
And the level 40 IO gets you 0.5% more resistance than the level 38, if you outfit completely with level 40s vs. level 38s you might net an additional 1% total resistance after the ED effect kicks in.
[ QUOTE ]
The dropoff in pricing on some recipes when you go down a few levels is just....stupid.
Reactive Armor Resistance level 40, last 5 sold are 5 to 8 million each. Level 39s are 1-2 million each. Level 38 and below you can get one of some decent level for less than a million unless you need it NOW. I got a level 35 for just over 300K today.
And the level 40 IO gets you 0.5% more resistance than the level 38, if you outfit completely with level 40s vs. level 38s you might net an additional 1% total resistance after the ED effect kicks in.
[/ QUOTE ]
Which is why I gleefully sell off those end of the level range recipes and buy a couple levels lower. The same thing happens with Impervium Armors and Numina's (I think a straight up Numina Heal at 50 sold for about 25 million more than the 49 at one point, or something like that). Some people seem to think the few percentage points (or hundredth of a percentage point) are worth spending a lot of cash on, but I don't.
Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory
One point I'd like to interject here for the OP and anyone else who is having survival issues with an Invuln:
Invuln is a hybrid defense/resistance set. As such, it depends as much on good defense as it does on strong resists--especially when it comes to FCEN damage.
Now, we're probably all clear on how Invincibility works, but just in case, it gives you a defense buff for every target in its aura, up to 10. The aura is basically a melee-range aura, so in order to max out your defense, you have to have 10 targets in melee range.
The thing is, for defense to be of any use, it has to be there BEFORE you get attacked. Willpower's regen buffs can come a second or two afterward and still do just as much good for you, but with Invincibility, the buff has to be there BEFORE you take the alpha.
This means jumping right into the middle of the most dangerous spawns.
Now, most tankers I've played with who are iffy on survival tend to approach a spawn hesitantly, maybe trying to pull with taunt, or edging their way up to a spawn in hopes of breaking up the alpha srike by only aggroing half the spawn at a time, or whatever.
If you are playing an Invuln, this is a huge, huge mistake.
For an invuln tank to be successful, you have to be decisive and very confident that your defense will come through for you. And you have to try to get as many targets in melee range as you possibly can, before they wake up and start attacking you.
If you are playing this way, there is really very little in the game that you can't handle. And if so, I'd chalk it up to overpowered custom critters in AE missions.
Buf if you're having trouble in regular PvE too, then either your build is very wonky, or you're not being decisive enough when it comes to leveraging Invincibility.
[ QUOTE ]
One point I'd like to interject here for the OP and anyone else who is having survival issues with an Invuln:
Invuln is a hybrid defense/resistance set. As such, it depends as much on good defense as it does on strong resists--especially when it comes to FCEN damage.
Now, we're probably all clear on how Invincibility works, but just in case, it gives you a defense buff for every target in its aura, up to 10. The aura is basically a melee-range aura, so in order to max out your defense, you have to have 10 targets in melee range.
The thing is, for defense to be of any use, it has to be there BEFORE you get attacked. Willpower's regen buffs can come a second or two afterward and still do just as much good for you, but with Invincibility, the buff has to be there BEFORE you take the alpha.
This means jumping right into the middle of the most dangerous spawns.
Now, most tankers I've played with who are iffy on survival tend to approach a spawn hesitantly, maybe trying to pull with taunt, or edging their way up to a spawn in hopes of breaking up the alpha srike by only aggroing half the spawn at a time, or whatever.
If you are playing an Invuln, this is a huge, huge mistake.
For an invuln tank to be successful, you have to be decisive and very confident that your defense will come through for you. And you have to try to get as many targets in melee range as you possibly can, before they wake up and start attacking you.
If you are playing this way, there is really very little in the game that you can't handle. And if so, I'd chalk it up to overpowered custom critters in AE missions.
Buf if you're having trouble in regular PvE too, then either your build is very wonky, or you're not being decisive enough when it comes to leveraging Invincibility.
[/ QUOTE ]
Excellent post.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
One point I'd like to interject here for the OP and anyone else who is having survival issues with an Invuln:
Invuln is a hybrid defense/resistance set. As such, it depends as much on good defense as it does on strong resists--especially when it comes to FCEN damage.
Now, we're probably all clear on how Invincibility works, but just in case, it gives you a defense buff for every target in its aura, up to 10. The aura is basically a melee-range aura, so in order to max out your defense, you have to have 10 targets in melee range.
The thing is, for defense to be of any use, it has to be there BEFORE you get attacked. Willpower's regen buffs can come a second or two afterward and still do just as much good for you, but with Invincibility, the buff has to be there BEFORE you take the alpha.
This means jumping right into the middle of the most dangerous spawns.
Now, most tankers I've played with who are iffy on survival tend to approach a spawn hesitantly, maybe trying to pull with taunt, or edging their way up to a spawn in hopes of breaking up the alpha srike by only aggroing half the spawn at a time, or whatever.
If you are playing an Invuln, this is a huge, huge mistake.
For an invuln tank to be successful, you have to be decisive and very confident that your defense will come through for you. And you have to try to get as many targets in melee range as you possibly can, before they wake up and start attacking you.
If you are playing this way, there is really very little in the game that you can't handle. And if so, I'd chalk it up to overpowered custom critters in AE missions.
Buf if you're having trouble in regular PvE too, then either your build is very wonky, or you're not being decisive enough when it comes to leveraging Invincibility.
[/ QUOTE ]
Excellent post.
[/ QUOTE ]
Echo'd my thoughts exactly. INV survives from a combination of defense. resistance, health and regen. Do not under estimate defense. My INV/NRG did not take the Res Elements or the Res Energies yet survives a lot of that damage well because I have enough defense to overcome it.
Mids is a valuable tool to show you what your totals are for resistance and defense.
Here is my final build. It didnt start out this way as I didnt have enough influence but after doing a lot of TF's and selling and using the market as best as I could I was able to make this my final build
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]
Level 50 Technology Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Energy Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(3), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(3), ImpArm-ResDam(5)
Level 1: Barrage -- P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(5)
Level 2: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(9), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(9), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Dct'dW-Heal(11), Dct'dW-Rchg(13)
Level 4: Energy Punch -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(13), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(15), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(7), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(7), LkGmblr-Def(50)
Level 8: Unyielding -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(19), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(19), ImpArm-ResDam(21), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(21)
Level 10: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 12: Kick -- Acc-I(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Heal(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(43), Numna-Heal(43), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(43)
Level 18: Invincibility -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(45), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(46), LkGmblr-Def(46)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(23), EndMod-I(23)
Level 22: Whirling Hands -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(25), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(27), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(27), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29)
Level 24: Bone Smasher -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(31), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(31), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 26: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(33), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(33), ImpArm-ResDam(34)
Level 28: Tough Hide -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(29), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), LkGmblr-Def(46)
Level 30: Resist Physical Damage -- ResDam-I(A)
Level 32: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(34), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34), LkGmblr-Def(37)
Level 35: Energy Transfer -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(36), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(36), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(36), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37)
Level 38: Total Focus -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(39), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(40), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 41: Unstoppable -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 44: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 47: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(48), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(48), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(48), Mocking-Rchg(50), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 49: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]5.5% Defense(Smashing)[*]5.5% Defense(Lethal)[*]6.13% Defense(Fire)[*]6.13% Defense(Cold)[*]3% Defense(Energy)[*]3% Defense(Negative)[*]8.63% Defense(Psionic)[*]4.25% Defense(Melee)[*]3% Defense(Ranged)[*]4.56% Defense(AoE)[*]8.55% Max End[*]73% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]32.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]4% Enhancement(Heal)[*]105.4 HP (5.63%) HitPoints[*]MezResist(Held) 2.75%[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 8.8%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%[*]11% (0.18 End/sec) Recovery[*]70% (5.48 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]1.26% Resistance(Fire)[*]1.26% Resistance(Cold)[*]3.13% Resistance(Negative)[*]1.26% Resistance(Toxic)[*]11.3% Resistance(Psionic)[/list]
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
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With ONE foe in range I have about 34% defense to smashing lethal and 32@ to energy.With 5 which is not unreasonable for a tank I have almost 41% S/L and 38% Nrg...
That is what makes Inv Survive.. the combo of defense and resistance. Keep im mind you also have regen working for you as well and the way regen works is the more health you have the faster regen whill work do dont use Dull Pain when you are almost dead.. I use DUll pain when I get to half health.. It heals me.. give me extra health and has the side affect of boosting my regen...
I have tanked stuff people said I shouldnt be able to with this toon because I know the strengths and the limitations.
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
[ QUOTE ]
One point I'd like to interject here for the OP and anyone else who is having survival issues with an Invuln:
Invuln is a hybrid defense/resistance set. As such, it depends as much on good defense as it does on strong resists--especially when it comes to FCEN damage.
Now, we're probably all clear on how Invincibility works, but just in case, it gives you a defense buff for every target in its aura, up to 10. The aura is basically a melee-range aura, so in order to max out your defense, you have to have 10 targets in melee range.
The thing is, for defense to be of any use, it has to be there BEFORE you get attacked. Willpower's regen buffs can come a second or two afterward and still do just as much good for you, but with Invincibility, the buff has to be there BEFORE you take the alpha.
This means jumping right into the middle of the most dangerous spawns.
Now, most tankers I've played with who are iffy on survival tend to approach a spawn hesitantly, maybe trying to pull with taunt, or edging their way up to a spawn in hopes of breaking up the alpha srike by only aggroing half the spawn at a time, or whatever.
If you are playing an Invuln, this is a huge, huge mistake.
For an invuln tank to be successful, you have to be decisive and very confident that your defense will come through for you. And you have to try to get as many targets in melee range as you possibly can, before they wake up and start attacking you.
If you are playing this way, there is really very little in the game that you can't handle. And if so, I'd chalk it up to overpowered custom critters in AE missions.
Buf if you're having trouble in regular PvE too, then either your build is very wonky, or you're not being decisive enough when it comes to leveraging Invincibility.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thank you
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You shouldn't need more power slots, really. If you have survivability problems with that much mitigation, something else is wrong.
[/ QUOTE ]
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.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, we understood you're fine against most foes, but you STILL shouldn't be dying that fast against other stuff. I played my invuln tank in the Mother Mayhem mission with every enemy using psi damage and the only time I even came close to dying was against the AV herself.
As for where you can free up slots to take more attacks: most invulns take Resist Elements and Resist Energy after level 40 or, very often, skip them completely.
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
[ QUOTE ]
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.
[/ QUOTE ]
I play a Inv/SS Tanker, and have played him since the game started, and he was my first lvl 50. Lots of fun to play once you get your technique and slotting down - Let me offer a few opinions.
Powers:
If you mix in Haymaker and Knockout Blow, and slot each of them (for at least Accuracy and Damage), it will certainly add to your survivability. You would need to remove two powers from what you have, and I gather that would be a tough choice for you.
I have not had Weave in my build for a long time. To me, it was just never enough of a bonus for the number of Slots it needed. I would at least delay it a little.
I do have all of the Invul powers, but several of them (like Res Ele and Res Ener) I didn't take until the 40's.
I would pick two of those powers, and dealy them slightly to let you take Haymaker and Knockout Blow. Fully slotted, Knockout blow is your big single target damage attack. Haymaker is a fast recharging attack, decent damage, and some mitigation too.
Slotting:
I would prefer having 3 slots in Health over 3 slots in Combat jumping. The gain to your Defense is not all that high from CJ, and slotting just increases it slightly. Slotting health increases your Regen, so that when you do take damage you recover from it faster. The higher level you get, the more HP's you have, and the more you will regen each 'tick'. Tanks really should Slot Health by your level.
Slotting your Passives:
If you do take them, you really don't get the bang for your buck when slotting them, compared to using the slots in Offense first.
I have them, and they are slotted (Great place to stash some Invention sets), but I didn't slot them until later.
Work with what you have.
You have one Impervium Unique +resist psionic in TI. Look at getting some of the other Impervium Recipes, see what you can grab at a decent price. Don't just look at the "Buy It Now Price, and look at a range of Recipes you can use. Level 26-9 and 31-34 are just as good as those 'Magic Number 25/30/35, and usually MUCH cheaper.
You have 1 Aegis, check and see what a second one will run. Again, look at Recipes - they run cheaper.
Another thing to consider, if you do keep those passives and each are 3 slotted. Look and see if you can get 2-3 of a set to put in there just for the partial IO Set bonus. Sometimes what you can gain there can actually work better, or at least a little more interesting, then just the tiny bonus you get from an enhancement. (I have no access to other sources here at work, so can't show you examples of that, but I know other people can, if you are interested).
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
"The tip of a shoelace is called an aglet, its true purpose is sinister." The Question
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You have one Impervium Unique +resist psionic in TI. Look at getting some of the other Impervium Recipes, see what you can grab at a decent price. Don't just look at the "Buy It Now Price, and look at a range of Recipes you can use. Level 26-9 and 31-34 are just as good as those 'Magic Number 25/30/35, and usually MUCH cheaper.
You have 1 Aegis, check and see what a second one will run. Again, look at Recipes - they run cheaper.
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Unless an Invul tank is making a concerted effort to get as much Psi resistance as possible, I don't see much point in slotting either the Impervium or the Aegis +Psi unique. As it stands, the OP has a grand total of 6% Psi resist, which, to say the least, is not very helpful. The set unique that I think all Invul tanks should have is the Steadfast Protection +Def, which a) is defense against all damage types, and b) stacks nicely with the defense in Invinc and TH.
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Another thing to consider, if you do keep those passives and each are 3 slotted. Look and see if you can get 2-3 of a set to put in there just for the partial IO Set bonus. Sometimes what you can gain there can actually work better, or at least a little more interesting, then just the tiny bonus you get from an enhancement. (I have no access to other sources here at work, so can't show you examples of that, but I know other people can, if you are interested).
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There are a number of very desirable set bonuses that you can get from slotting just 3 or 4 of a set including, (most notably for a Invul tank) typed def bonuses. The OP should look for S/L and E/NE bonuses if he wants additional protection from the most common types of damage. Psi and F/C def is nice, too, but it just isn't needed as much as the others.
And for the record, I completely agree with the other posters that the OP should get more attacks and slot them fully!
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
Thank you all for your advice. I'll see if I can't find a Terra Volta trial tonight, so that I can get that respec.
I do understand the importance of both defense and resists and I have worked on getting both of them up.
I don't have a problem with most of the PVE content. Mostly its when I'm doing MA mishes or on an sk and fighting Malta. The Council also has some pretty mean fire spiders or whatever they're called and they're also ripping through me like I was a wet noodle.
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I don't have a problem with most of the PVE content. Mostly its when I'm doing MA mishes or on an sk and fighting Malta. The Council also has some pretty mean fire spiders or whatever they're called and they're also ripping through me like I was a wet noodle.
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I really think you may have problems primarily with nasty custom critters from the MA and/or poor teams. I've been on many a mission with my Invulnerability tanker, often side-kicked on an invincible team (meaning +4 or sometimes +5 mobs), and not having any serious problems. Mind you, that was with Invulnerability/Ice Melee, but it wasn't like I was using Ice Patch ALL that much. And that often without the exotic resists. And I just have trouble relating to your experiences. Malta, for example, were always boringly simple -- it's just a game of "find the sapper and put a hold on it" (admittedly, for that you need to have a hold or other mez).
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Thank you all for your advice. I'll see if I can't find a Terra Volta trial tonight, so that I can get that respec.
I do understand the importance of both defense and resists and I have worked on getting both of them up.
I don't have a problem with most of the PVE content. Mostly its when I'm doing MA mishes or on an sk and fighting Malta. The Council also has some pretty mean fire spiders or whatever they're called and they're also ripping through me like I was a wet noodle.
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Just to reiterate what others have said, don't use the MA's as a measuring stick. I run a pretty decent L50 Inv/SS Tanker and he gets creamed all the time in those.
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I really think you may have problems primarily with nasty custom critters from the MA and/or poor teams. I've been on many a mission with my Invulnerability tanker, often side-kicked on an invincible team (meaning +4 or sometimes +5 mobs), and not having any serious problems. Mind you, that was with Invulnerability/Ice Melee, but it wasn't like I was using Ice Patch ALL that much. And that often without the exotic resists. And I just have trouble relating to your experiences. Malta, for example, were always boringly simple -- it's just a game of "find the sapper and put a hold on it" (admittedly, for that you need to have a hold or other mez).
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"Find the sapper and hit it until it goes away" works just as well.
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
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"Find the sapper and hit it until it goes away" works just as well.
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Not if your endurance bar goes kerflooey before the sapper goes splat.
Yeah, my Fire/Fire Tanker that can run around solo clearing the walls in Cimerora and other things that are fairly "tough" to do has had trouble with some MA mobs. I remember one fairly not well done story arc (story was not good, mobs were annoyingly tough) that had tons of bosses, some with Fire, some with Dark, and some with Ice powers. They liked to rez, too, and the 8-man team I was on had its hands full with one mob, let alone the 2-3 mobs that were stacked in close and liked to join in.
Guide: Tanking, Wall of Fire Style (Updated for I19!), and the Four Rules of Tanking
Story Arc: Belated Justice, #88003
Synopsis: Explore the fine line between justice and vengeance as you help a hero of Talos Island bring his friend's murderer to justice.
Grey Pilgrim: Fire/Fire Tanker (50), Victory
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"Find the sapper and hit it until it goes away" works just as well.
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Not if your endurance bar goes kerflooey before the sapper goes splat.
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I'd call that a compelling reason to take and slot your attacks!
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
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"Find the sapper and hit it until it goes away" works just as well.
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Not if your endurance bar goes kerflooey before the sapper goes splat.
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That's what a Slotted Knockout Blow is used for. No More Sapper.
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
"The tip of a shoelace is called an aglet, its true purpose is sinister." The Question
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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.
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I'm just gonna take a wild-[censored] guess here - Is one of your major problems lack of Endurance?
That's a poop-load of toggles you're running. Do you really feel the need for that much mitigation over and above what Invul already has built in?
Whammer is my Invul/SS Tanker, and he don't run anything from the fighting pool. I have no problems tanking with Whammer, except 8-man missions set to Invincible.
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And I felt that my build was quite good.
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If you have survivability problems with that much mitigation, something else is wrong.
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OK, actually read the whole thread now.
Dude, your build is a clown built. You're running a one-trick pony, theme spec and you're posting on the forums wondering why you're struggling as a main tank?
OK, you tried your "interesting" Tanker build, and you're having problems. Take the advice of the long-time Tankers here and go for a more ballanced build.
As it stands, any pull that includes a Sapper = a team wipe.
The knock-up & knock-down in the SS set = mitigation. And Knockout blow hits harder that most Scrapper alpha attacks. Dead enemies don't hit back. That's more mitigation.
Is someone in your team pressuring you into this build? If so, you might want to rethink your relationship with this person. I don't think he is really your friend.
BTW OP, if you're on Pinnacle, Infinity or Virtue then shoot me a PM and I'll give you a hand on Terra Volta.
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I'm just gonna take a wild-[censored] guess here - Is one of your major problems lack of Endurance?
That's a poop-load of toggles you're running. Do you really feel the need for that much mitigation over and above what Invul already has built in?
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I don't have any endurance problems, in fact it's one of my toons with the best endurance management, despite running so many toggles. I guess when I get rage and more endurance expensive attacks it will change considerably.
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Dude, your build is a clown built. You're running a one-trick pony, theme spec and you're posting on the forums wondering why you're struggling as a main tank?
OK, you tried your "interesting" Tanker build, and you're having problems. Take the advice of the long-time Tankers here and go for a more ballanced build.
As it stands, any pull that includes a Sapper = a team wipe.
The knock-up & knock-down in the SS set = mitigation. And Knockout blow hits harder that most Scrapper alpha attacks. Dead enemies don't hit back. That's more mitigation.
Is someone in your team pressuring you into this build? If so, you might want to rethink your relationship with this person. I don't think he is really your friend.
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Nobody have pressured me into this build. I got tired of being destroyed repeatedly and respecced into that build, where before I didn't have the resist energies, weave and tough. It did increase my survivability a lot, as in I could now take on a dozen lethal/smashing 4 level higher bosses in the AE without flinching, where before I got destroyed when I tried to do that. So in most cases it was very much an improvement from my previous build which was very much like suggested by people. My previous build didn't have the fighting pool and didn't have the resist energies and elements, but instead had many attacks from the secondary. I died more than once in the lvl 54 boss farms from the alpha strike, before I decided to respec out of it and became far more defensive. My current build I like much better than my previous, but I still have the stupid vulnerabilities to anything but smashing/lethal and it doesn't sound like I'm really able to get rid of that vulnerability in any way. :/ Not unless I reroll to stone, which I'd prefer not to, because I dislike the way their armor looks.
As for not having more attacks, then yes, I know that SS has some good migration in the knockdown attacks. However the only one that is really useful is Footstomb, which I don't get until 38, since that's the only one that affects all mobs surrounding me. My problems doesn't start until I fight maybe 10+ mobs and when fighting those it's not really any help to knock down one of them. As for sappers, then pulling one isn't a problem. Neither is pulling two. Pulling 16 ice zombies in the AE and I get frozen solid and my carcass sold on the black market, for organ harvesting.
I guess this is more an issue of being so squishy compared to the granite tanker. Against the most common damages I stand up just as well, but I take twice as much damage against the more exotic damages (fire/cold, energy/negative energy). And with the advice of getting rid of the resist elements and energies, I'll be even more vulnerable against them, so I'm not sure it was really the advice I was looking for.
I guess the only solution will be to reroll to granite tanker. :/
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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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This reminds me of the movie Coming to America.
Customer: I was at a restaurant and the waiter brought my soup so I asked him to try it.
Waiter: Sir is there something wrong with your soup?
Customer: Just try the soup.
Waiter: Sir I can bring you another soup if you prefer.
Customer: Would you please just try the soup!
Waiter: Ok sir .... where's the spoon?
Customer: Ah ha!