Returning player after 4 years, another tanker :)

chillipepper_EU · 03-23-2009 11:48 AM

hello, well I used to play a long long time ago on my character Chilli pepper a fire/fire tank. this was way before CoV came out so i have missed out on a lot of new things.

Been plying for almost a week now, had a lot of fun messing around with different toons.

I've decided to make another tanker.

So far i very much enjoy the willpower set mainly due to the quick recovery. I have this on my scrapper, plus the psyonics resistance is great.
I'm thinking with quick recovery and stamina I can generally choose any secondary and not worry about endurance drain too much.

I remember this being a msaaive problem with my fire tanker which was even before they stopped allowing full stacking of endurance mods through stamina. After checking Wentwroths i've noticed some other enhancements with endurance mods and other stats included.
Does this mean I can stack fully these and not have to worry about diminishing returns?

Shield defence also looks very nice, I just don't like how many toggle defenses they seem to have and I really don't like weaknesses to psy.
i remember some missions arcs in peregrin and psy mobs shredding my fire tank, it was horrible lol.

So talking secondary powers. After a bried look through the ability captions, ie moderate damage, high damage etc etc, Mace and Axe seem to have the highest overal DPS?? or at least the biggest hits with Energy Melee quite close behind?
is this the case?

Really don't want to be fire melee or ice, ice is basically the same as fire just its cold instead of hot lol. I think the fire and ice swords look slightly lame as well :P

I have a peacebringer at 20 so I just got White Dwarf. i'm presuming there is just no substitute for a real tanker and it will do a decent job just not as good as a real tank?

What is all this talk of set bonuses etc through Merits?

I'm really quite clueless right now on certain aspects of the game. When I played my fire tanker was insane and could tank as many of any mob as it wanted as long as there was no psyonics. they have since had a huge nerf which is a good thing, it was silly before.

i'd appreciate any help

And if possible could you keep it as simple as poss, I've read some theory craft posts with letters and numbers about soft caps and hit caps etc. i'm afraid although i know what you eman by capping etc the figures mean very little to me

TRTerror · 03-23-2009 12:08 PM

Welcome back to the game.
The little i have poked around tankers tells me that dark(fully saturated soul drain) and ss (double stacking rage) have high dps on tankers. Mace and stone are also good.
Start off by doing common io's and so's.
Hope someone can answer more as i'm on my phone right now(damn limits).

Maelwys · 03-23-2009 01:40 PM

Four Years will leave a little "Required Reading" to get up to speed again I'm afraid!

1. Enhancement Diversification (AKA "ED")

Short Version: Slotting lots of the same type of enhancement into a power will begin to drastically lose effectiveness once you go over a certain limit. (this is the equivalent of 3 same-type even-level SO enhancements - 100% for accuracy/damage/recharge/etc. and 60% for range/defence/tohit/etc.).

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/E...iversification

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2. Global Defence Nerf (AKA "GDN")

Short Version: Defensive armor effectiveness got drastically reduced.

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/GDN

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3. Aggro Cap

Short Version: You can only get the attention of up to 17 enemies at a time. If you attempt to aggro more mobs than this, you will start losing the attention of already-aggroed mobs.

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Limits#Aggro

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4. Issue 7's Defence Scaling Update

Short Version: Defence based armors become effective again. In i7, all mobs got set to 50% ToHit, plus +accuracy depending on level/rank... in other words, things like bosses and AVs don't virtually "automatically" hit you anymore.

Mobs always have at least a 5% chance and at most a 95% chance to hit you.
You always have at least a 5% chance and at most a 95% chance to hit mobs.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...Number=5759413

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5. Invention Origin Enhancements

Starting with Issue 9, inventions were introduced.

Short Version: These are a bit like "mini Hami-Os" in that they enhance more than one aspect of a power at a time (like accuracy and damage). They're broken up into different sets - some for melee attacks, others for ranged attacks, some for healing powers, etc.

The primary benefit of using these is that you can cram in more enhancement numbers into fewer slots. For Example, [three level 50 Accuracy/Damage IOs] equate to more raw enhancement than [3 damage SOs plus 3 accuracy SOs]. This makes it possible to properly outfit a character using far fewer slots than with SOs alone.

The secondary benefit of using these is that using more than one invention in a "set" grants extra bonuses which are always on (as long as you're not exemplared - then there are extra rules which cover this). These extra bonuses each stack up to five times. So you can have five "+3% damage" bonuses adding up to +15% damage. etc.

Some inventions don't actually add raw enhancement numbers to a power, but instead add another special buff... like the "Luck of the Gambler" Defence set IO which grants +7.5% global recharge, or the "Miracle" Healing set IO which grants +15% recovery (like a "mini-stamina").

Inventions are craftable at special stations, and use salvage plus a recipe.

Salvage drops fairly randomly from defeated mobs. Certain recipes drop from mobs, others are awarded upon mission completion, others need to be redeemed for earnable "merits" at vendors.

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Inventions

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6. The Market

Short Version:

Wentworths (Heroside) or the Black Market (Villainside).
The Hero and Villain markets are not interlinked.
The EU Hero market is linked to the US Hero market.
The EU Villain market is linked to the US Villain market.

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Market

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7. Merits

Short Version: Complete trials or task forces (including Ouroboros Task Forces), or defeat GMs to earn merits. Can redeem these later for stuff at vendors.

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Merit_Rewards

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8. Ouroboros "Flashback" system

Short Version: Can revisit old mission arcs in the form of flashbacks.

Whilst on a flashback, it's treated as a Task Force. You get auto-examplared to the maximum level of that arc. You can do arcs that your character has "missed" or never been on before.

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Flashback

Maelwys · 03-23-2009 01:48 PM

I'm sure I've left out stuff from the above shortlist, but hopefully I've covered the main PVE bits...

Regarding Tankers, They're all rather decent these days. Thanks to the difference between Typed and Positional Defence, The "Shield Defence" set does not actually have a hole against Psionic damage. INV, Fire and Ice Armor still do, but Stone Armor, Dark Armor and Willpower don't.

There is a bit of a problem regarding Willpower tankers in that their Taunt Aura only lasts for around 2 seconds compared to other tankers which last around 14 seconds. This is "working as intended" and is one of Willpower's few weaknesses. If you're going for a Willpower tanker then it's best to pair it with a secondary that has a good few AoE attacks to keep aggro.

If you want a tool to help you plan out a character (or are just confused over the whole invention/set bonuses thing) then download Mid's builder. It's one of the few that're still regularly updated, and is pretty much a de-facto standard these days on the forums when discussing builds. Sherksilver's builder and the old CoH Hero Planner are way, way out of date.

Lots of raw numbers for powers are available here if you're into browsing through statistics!

New Dawn · 03-23-2009 04:10 PM

I think what ya done there for the returning player is really nice Maelwys and perhaps could also go in the guide section with a quick link in ya sig so more can look to it an all.

He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.

chillipepper_EU · 03-23-2009 05:25 PM

yeah nice one mate, some really informative stuff Thanks

I'm sure i'll get into the swing of it again fairly quickly, the general game play doesn't seem to have changed any other than people are all alot more clued up on how to play. Very few wipes and stalled missions, and of course the community is as friendly as ever

I have to say I did notice a lack of real taunt/aggro on willpower, other tankers were taking threat off me very easily.
I guess having two forms of endurance recovery does mean you can dish out the attacks to keep threat. I'll have a mess about with it and see

Mothers_Love · 03-23-2009 05:31 PM

Wow! - nice post Maelwys! *applauds - can't add much more to that!.

Welcome back to Paragon City chilliPepper!
@Mother's Love if you need any help in-game or invites to all the major channels on Union. (presuming you choose Union that is).

Captain_Tastic · 03-24-2009 03:28 PM

I consider myself something of a tanking aficionado and I would say that WP is a splendid choice. The low-maintenence nature of it makes it especially suitable if, like yourself, you are looking for an offensive type tank with some big attacks.