Tankers: L1-50 in 10 Days


BrandX

 

Posted

Heyas ... this is for people who want to realize their Tanker builds quickly. It's not meant to be a discussion on the merits/ills of farms and farming. There's another thread around here for that

For those that want to level quickly; here are some of the AE farms I've used and advice I would give forming teams (or joining an existing team). Except for the last arc, the mission IDs here do not belong to me nor are they arcs of my friends (although I have played with a few of the owners). These are just arcs I've worked and I feel work well for levelling purposes (and later farming for tickets and influence).

I make no guarantees that these arcs will be up as they can be pulled by players/devs at any point for any reason. I will say none of these are exploitive and won't constitute banning or penalties by Paragon Studios. So without further ado ...

Arc# 103791: Whitefox's LT mission. He's recently changed the map but the mission is essentially the same ... a bunch of DB mix LTs standing around an explosive (killable object). Use the explosive object to help kill the LTs. This mission is usually run on CL1 or CL2 (higher if you want the boss versions) on a full team. You get auto SK'd to L46-50 (depending on difficulty and number of players in group). This mission is good for lowbie groups, but you should have a couple of L24+ toons in it (hopefully one of them is the Tanker). Duo and Trio tanking is good here as well. Young Tankers will learn decent pulling techniques here.

Arc# 114644: The Matrix mission. This mission spawns LT packs and huge ambushes (MA/SR scrapper versions of Agent Smith). Run this on CL1-5 depending skill and makeup of team (should be full group). Each LT pack guards a "healing" chest. Fight at the chest (especially for the ambushes) to help keep the squishies upright. Everyone should be hanging on the Tanker's butt for this map. Duo tanking this map is very handy (one Tanker for pack and one Tanker to pick up ambushes). With a good group you can run this map in 20-30 mins. Can be done with a newbie group or an experienced one. Good for fast farming for solo Tankers of all makes as well. Auto SK's you to L48-50.

Arc# 70409: This is the Freak Room. Go straight to the end of the map (bit of a run) ... there is a large room with about 60 Freaks (LTs) inside. This room spawns ambushes of the same type of Freaks to a mob count of over 300. There are two machines in this room that provide regen and recovery auras. Fight at the machines. Usually only the Tankers and well built Scrappers survive in this mission. The rest just leech while dead. You can run this on CL1-5 depending on the strength of the Tankers in question. Above L24, I suggest CL5 for any Tanker besides Fire and WP (usually L32+ for those depending build). Ranged ATs with Hover can survive this room if played well. Auto SK to 50. Having multiple Tankers (or even a group comprised totally of Tankers) is a good thing for this mission.

Arc# 199916: This is similar to the Freak Room but is a combination of Freak LTs and Maniac Slammer bosses. This mission is front loaded and only the first room needs to be cleared. This mission will spawn packs of Maniac Slammer bosses as each normal pack is attacked. Again, usually only the Tankers and well built Scrappers survive this ... the rest leech. In the front room there are regen/recovery machines (3 ... left, right and middle). Fight at these. Beware ... there are usually mobs in agro range of the door, so let the toughest Tankers enter first. Doing just this room you can make L50 in three weeks playing 4 days a week, 3 hours a day. Auto SK to 50. Having multiple Tankers (or even a group comprised totally of Tankers) is a good thing for this mission.


Arc# 235308: This is my replacement arc for the Gnome boss mission (formerly 190800). It is packs of Maniacal Slammer bosses. This mission auto SK's you to L50 ... the bosses are L52. You will need a decent kill group for this. I generally take on one extra Tanker (to help manage agro), 3 DPS, 2 Trollers/Defenders and one freebie player. I generally limit these groups to L24+ level toons (hopefully in SOs). Doing this map, you can level to 50 in 10 days (3 hours a day). It's also an excellent map for those higher level toons looking for farm influence and tickets. A good kill team clears the map in 45 mins. A great kill team does it in 30. I suggest main tanks be L32+ (higher or lower depending on combo and build). Except for Stone or Invuln, every other Tanker will want Tough/Weave to main tank this. You can make about 6 mil influence per map. This is the map myself, Jebe the Pirate and several others level/farm consistantly on. You don't want more then 2 Tankers (3 if the third is taking the freebie slot) for this, as it will start drastically slowing down your speed getting through each pack. Also I tend to stay away from Energy Blasters and Khelds as they tend to blast the mobs all over the place (thus slowing down the speed of the map as well as being really annoying).

Notes:

All of these maps max the tickets per map (1500 currently).

Use tickets to keep your toons in SOs until you're ready for IO sets. If you can fun your new toons, pay for SOs with infuence instead and save tickets for gold class random rolls.

I've found gold class random rolls set at L39 to be the best bang for the buck (includes Numina/Miracle rares, LotG Recharge, etc ...). Use the level slider at the vendor to lower your level as necessary to achieve these levels.

I also use tickets to purchase rare (orange) salvage for recipes.

A good money making scheme is to use your tickets for Silver Class recipes (again I recommend 35-39 range) which cost around 500 tickets and net you the slightly more common forms of the orange recipes. These are usually good sellers at WWs.

Finally these farms should teach your Tanker about agro management, pulling, speed runs, mitigation, ambush handling and general build strength (if you can't do my arc easily, your Tanker isn't ready for the end game TFs without a lot of support).

Please keep in mind however that these are controlled mission arcs, and won't prepare your Tanker for debuffs, mixed damage mobs and situational Tanking (with the exception of the ambush arcs).

Hope this is helpful to those building new Tankers (both vets and those new to the game) who want to realize their builds quickly.


 

Posted

Warning: One other note ... I've seen (and been on) several L54 boss farms. Don't get sucked into these. With one of the best kill teams I've ever worked with, it took us about twice as long as my arc, for about 30% more influence and experience ... and most of us were L50 (I think we had 3 players in their 40s as the lowest contributors). Definitely not the most efficient of farms and down right ugly with most PUG groups.


 

Posted

ill keep this is mind..when and if i ever get a new primary tanker powerset


 

Posted

Oh I've had fun just realizing the realities of builds (much better then theory crafting ).

In the past month I've levelled 2 Tankers to 50, a Troller to L41, a Scrapper to 46, another Scrapper to 35 and currently have a baby Tanker at L24 (new build idea).

While not a diverse set of levelling areas, I like to be able to get a toon to various stages of its development and run around normal missions and TFs and see how it performs (sort of a snapshot guide if you will).

There just is no substitute for experience


 

Posted

I might have to try a few of these Kruunch. Sounds like fun.


[color=gold][b][size=5]♪ Sometimes you feel like a Tank, Sometimes you don't! ♪[/size][/color][/b]

[url=http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=114726][color=black][b][size=5]Moon [color=red]Hazard [color=black]Zone![/size][/color][/color][/color][/b][/url]

 

Posted

Nice going Kruunch, I'm a lil worried the red names might see this and go all zeus lightning bolt on those arcs....heres hoping they miss this little and not posted much on, thread. Either way tyvm.


"If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything"

"You're like Giraffe's, the way you look down on me, with your vegetarian scorn."

 

Posted

Well I'm not going to hide what I'm doing .. that would feel like I'm exploiting and I'm not. These arcs don't have bugged mobs that give outrageous amounts of XP and tickets ala the original Meow farms with the Rikti Comm Officers.

If the devs feel that the levelling curve is too fast, they'll need to adjust an experience cap to AE missions just like they did tickets.

However if it helps them (any red names reading this) I doubt I'd still be subscribing (again) to this game if I were dealing with the same levelling curve as I was 2 years ago, or 4 years and so on.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

However if it helps them (any red names reading this) I doubt I'd still be subscribing (again) to this game if I were dealing with the same levelling curve as I was 2 years ago, or 4 years and so on.

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Well, this might be a problem...

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In the past month I've levelled 2 Tankers to 50, a Troller to L41, a Scrapper to 46, another Scrapper to 35 and currently have a baby Tanker at L24 (new build idea).

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I'm not a dev but I'm going to guess 236 levels in 30 days (# of hours would be a better determinent) is outside what they consider "ok."

Your choice to level your heroes this way is your call, and I don't really care. I just hope you are objective to know it might be a bit outside their leveling curve.


 

Posted

Shrug ... this post shouldn't be a revelation to anyone. It's been going on since I14 came out on a regular basis. If it is something they (the devs) consider "bad" they have the power to change it.

And please keep your snarky comments to yourself.


 

Posted

(shrug* been p.ling toons since iss 2...seems if they wanted to stop it they would put a lvl requirement on p.i. back then.

they wont stop the rmt spammers their not gonna stop us..after they announced trying to stop rmt spammers i got more emails then before..although on a side note the cost for influence seems to go down every week..lol


 

Posted

rmt spammers?


 

Posted

Lol .... it amazes me how many people get ruffled over levelling.

Nice sig btw ... guess you aren't ignoring my "abuse" of the MA system though.

*rolls eyes*


 

Posted

About the "Usually only the Tankers and well built Scrappers survive", I find that 1 purple inspiration at a time is enough to keep even my limpest tankers afloat for longer periods of time that should be needed while they stand around the objects with regeneration buffs. If my 19 dark/dark tanker could handle it, it would be a very sad sight to see who couldn't. (edit: when discussing something other than all bosses)



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About what wasn't supposed to be discussed:

I find more can be learned from the game, both from a player's and designer's perspective, from those types of missions than simply who the "bad" people are. If there are powersets, maps, or opponents that provide unreasonable benefits that jeapordize whatever balance is supposed to exist, I'm sure the most productive approach would be pointing out adjustments to those problems, not whine and moan at people for using what's given. I don't go piss on WoW forums telling them how boring and repetitive I find their form of entertainment.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
And please keep your snarky comments to yourself.

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Kruunch, if you want to run these, that's up to you. I'm not commenting on that. But there was no snark in Clouded's post. I've seen you say things like this to a few posters that are not being snarky with you at all. Here's Clouded's entire post for reference of the non-snark. Pretty much just reminding you of what you probably already know, but no snark.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

However if it helps them (any red names reading this) I doubt I'd still be subscribing (again) to this game if I were dealing with the same levelling curve as I was 2 years ago, or 4 years and so on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, this might be a problem...

[ QUOTE ]

In the past month I've levelled 2 Tankers to 50, a Troller to L41, a Scrapper to 46, another Scrapper to 35 and currently have a baby Tanker at L24 (new build idea).

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not a dev but I'm going to guess 236 levels in 30 days (# of hours would be a better determinent) is outside what they consider "ok."

Your choice to level your heroes this way is your call, and I don't really care. I just hope you are objective to know it might be a bit outside their leveling curve.

[/ QUOTE ]


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

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

Arc# 70409: This is the Freak Room. Go straight to the end of the map (bit of a run) ... there is a large room with about 60 Freaks (LTs) inside. This room spawns ambushes of the same type of Freaks to a mob count of over 300. There are two machines in this room that provide regen and recovery auras. Fight at the machines. Usually only the Tankers and well built Scrappers survive in this mission. The rest just leech while dead. You can run this on CL1-5 depending on the strength of the Tankers in question. Above L24, I suggest CL5 for any Tanker besides Fire and WP (usually L32+ for those depending build). Ranged ATs with Hover can survive this room if played well. Auto SK to 50. Having multiple Tankers (or even a group comprised totally of Tankers) is a good thing for this mission.



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Actually, lvl range for this is 45-50. Auto-exempt to 45. Final room is a real trip.

With any of the OP's suggested arcs, watch out for builds using just SOs as if you outlevel them, anyone's survivability can be in serious jeopardy.


 

Posted

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And please keep your snarky comments to yourself.

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Please point out my snark.


 

Posted

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[ QUOTE ]

And please keep your snarky comments to yourself.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please point out my snark.

[/ QUOTE ]I think by 'snark' he means 'any comment that fails to support or agree with my behaviour.'

And this isn't snark, it's just me trying to explain.


 

Posted

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However if it helps them (any red names reading this) I doubt I'd still be subscribing (again) to this game if I were dealing with the same levelling curve as I was 2 years ago, or 4 years and so on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, this might be a problem...



[/ QUOTE ]

That came off as snarky. If it wasn't intended that way then I apologize.

Would you care to further explain what you meant by this then?

Grey Pilgrim: Care to run down a quote and context where your statement is correct?


 

Posted

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About the "Usually only the Tankers and well built Scrappers survive", I find that 1 purple inspiration at a time is enough to keep even my limpest tankers afloat for longer periods of time that should be needed while they stand around the objects with regeneration buffs. If my 19 dark/dark tanker could handle it, it would be a very sad sight to see who couldn't. (edit: when discussing something other than all bosses)


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Mmm possibly but I wouldn't want to be depending on a person who is depending on a random insp drop to keep themselves afloat. Especially if the purpose of the excercise is efficient XP gain and/or efficient influence gain.

Having said that, I've found that most Scrappers get eaten alive in that room (all except the Scrappers that are built like Tankers) and some less then stellar built and/or lower level Tankers. I make the warning so people know what to expect ... not as some form of bragging right.

As for the rest of your "What isn't supposed to be discussed" portion of your post, you lost me there. Care to clarify?


 

Posted

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However if it helps them (any red names reading this) I doubt I'd still be subscribing (again) to this game if I were dealing with the same levelling curve as I was 2 years ago, or 4 years and so on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, this might be a problem...



[/ QUOTE ]

That came off as snarky. If it wasn't intended that way then I apologize.

Would you care to further explain what you meant by this then?

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Sure. That sentence was a transition between your first quote in my post and then the second.

You mentioned how you'd probably not be around if the leveling curve was similar to the process 2 years ago, and then I showed your next post where you stated 230+ levels in 30 days. It goes from one end of the spectrum to the other.


 

Posted

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Mmm possibly but I wouldn't want to be depending on a person who is depending on a random insp drop to keep themselves afloat. Especially if the purpose of the excercise is efficient XP gain and/or efficient influence gain.

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There's an insp vendor right outside the MA. Kills me that more people don't use it. Your tray is only so big, but you might as well stock it with what you really need... most well build folks only need one or two purp/oj insps at a time.


 

Posted

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Mmm possibly but I wouldn't want to be depending on a person who is depending on a random insp drop to keep themselves afloat. Especially if the purpose of the excercise is efficient XP gain and/or efficient influence gain.

[/ QUOTE ]

There's an insp vendor right outside the MA. Kills me that more people don't use it. Your tray is only so big, but you might as well stock it with what you really need... most well build folks only need one or two purp/oj insps at a time.

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Most well built folks don't need any (especially for a farm).

But if that's what gets you through your map, by all means have at it. Never thought about insp-zerging to get through the Freak Room myself, but maybe I'll give that a try on my baby Fire Tanker.


 

Posted

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Most well built folks don't need any (especially for a farm).

But if that's what gets you through your map, by all means have at it. Never thought about insp-zerging to get through the Freak Room myself, but maybe I'll give that a try on my baby Fire Tanker.

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Lordie, less cat pee in coffee. This is a *leveling* thread. If you think your chars will do fine w/o insps in the freak farm sub-30, I'm very amused because you've got a lot more support than you thought you did

Do my 50's need insps? Heck no. Do my 40's? 1 now and then. Do my 30's? Yep. Mitigation's not fully layered and enhancements aren't great yet.

This game is not that complicated, less high horse.


 

Posted

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Most well built folks don't need any (especially for a farm).

But if that's what gets you through your map, by all means have at it. Never thought about insp-zerging to get through the Freak Room myself, but maybe I'll give that a try on my baby Fire Tanker.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lordie, less cat pee in coffee. This is a *leveling* thread. If you think your chars will do fine w/o insps in the freak farm sub-30, I'm very amused because you've got a lot more support than you thought you did

Do my 50's need insps? Heck no. Do my 40's? 1 now and then. Do my 30's? Yep. Mitigation's not fully layered and enhancements aren't great yet.

This game is not that complicated, less high horse.

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Shrug ... whatever knocks you out kid.

*EDIT* You may want to read past the first sentence of a post btw, since I was stating you brought up a point I hadn't considered trying, and would try it myself where I thought it applicable. Must have been the cat pee in my coffee that made me not explain myself ingratiatingly enough for you