Shield Defense Tank for PvP

What is a good defense total to have for a SD tank in RV? I have a build that is clocking in at 50% melee and 52% range in mids, with 3k hit points. However, that is with Phalanx Fighting. Should I even take Phalanx Fighting? Do I get no bonus unless a team member is standing within 8 feet of me? Or is there a default bonus? Without Phalanx Fighting I'm clockin in at 42% melee and 44% range.

How many knockback IO's should I expect I will need if I want to avoid being knocked down vs levitate or lift?

Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Phalanx Fighting has a small bonus even when there aren't teammates around, so I'd still take it. You won't need any knockback IOs provided you have enough recharge to keep Active Defense up all the time (it's got KB protection and resistance just like Practiced Brawler).

I would consider throwing grant cover in to just to get some more dbuff resistance if you can fit it in. Its not make or break, just nice if you can throw it in.

Thanks very much for the feedback guys, will adjust build accordingly. Only reason I asked the defense question was I have always been very impressed about how hard it is to hit a few of the shield tankers I've run into in RV. There is one guy that is SD/EM that with my huge acc bonus dom build still was only hitting on midranged 40%, its crazy, and I want to be like him. :P

Most defense based toons get h4xed my powers like dominate and mezmerize. Thats probably the reason. I would roll elec/ss or elec/em blood.

If my primary concern should be just 2 powers, then I'm not concerned. Besides, the toon is already 50, I'm just finalizing the build hehe.

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Originally Posted by Musey Most defense based toons get h4xed my powers like dominate and mezmerize. Thats probably the reason. I would roll elec/ss or elec/em blood.

I'm pretty good at limiting my exposure to being mobbed, Etherial Shift anyone? :P

doesn't that only have 5 uses or something? Then you have to run to WW and go through all the loading to buy another one? Don't base your build off a temp power, just find another way around it.

Oh I certainly didnt base the build off of the temp power. However if you have a good connection and box, load times should never exceed 20 secs. I can get to the base, refill greens, pop a few to get to full health, craft a new Etherial Shift, and be back in zone in just over 1 min 20 secs. With Etherial Shift as good as it is (has 5 uses per craft), there is simply no reason to take phase in a zone build.

I finalized the build with 50% melee def, 58% ranged def, 47% resist, 2937 hit points with 15% coming from accolades (I refuse to ever do all those task forces), well slotted taunt, 47.5% rech, 9% global Acc (I didn’t bother with global Acc due to the good + to hit bonus gotten from Rage), aid self, with a 3 power ranged attack chain including the dreaded Fossolize. Should be a good time.

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Originally Posted by Sentry4 doesn't that only have 5 uses or something? Then you have to run to WW and go through all the loading to buy another one? Don't base your build off a temp power, just find another way around it.

TBH my rad and stalker has no problem against shields....i warned you blood that toon is not going to be as leet as you think lol. Can't wait to meet you in zone =-)

My stalker has never bothered with a tanker with this many hit points unless he's being mobbed. Solo vs a stalker would be a joke, I could aid self heal the entire amount of your AS lol. Rads in zone are easy since they have a big target painted on their head and are marked for death. If by some miracle I come into contact with one solo...
---->Etherial Shift.

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Originally Posted by __Divine__ TBH my rad and stalker has no problem against shields....i warned you blood that toon is not going to be as leet as you think lol. Can't wait to meet you in zone =-)

Lord, where were you before I finalized the build lol. I had another one with 67% ranged and melee def, but it really suffered from lower hit points and craptastic (on a melee toon)SJ as a travel power, so I could turn on CJ when fighting. If my ranged defense comes in close to 40% from 58% after DR then I'm ok with that. When my EA stalker pops invis and shadow meld I pop up to around 40-42% with DR, which pushes the to hit chance of most anyone I'm fighting down into the low 40%. I'm very comfortable with that if you're right about it dropping to 40% from 60%.

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Originally Posted by Antigonus Are those PvE numbers or DRed PvP numbers? If those aren't taking DR into account, it won't be nearly enough once you step into a zone.

Mind doms/rads/colds/and mms are going to give that toon alot of trouble. Mind becuase of the whole untyped thing (95% of the doms in rv are mind), rads because the toggles are auto hit, cold because of sleet being a auto hit, and MM's becuase the pets have untyped dmg.(some of the dmg). Defense is just not the way to go on tanks or brutes right now. Resistance > Defense. But hey you might prove me wrong.

The doms might give him trouble but colds won't and neither will rads. The slows from colds do nothing and i don't think he's stupid enough to run into sleet, they sure as hell can't KB him and then drop a sleet on him so unless there a 'good' cold and can drop sleet as he KO blows then i don't think it's going to cause so much trouble. Not to mention there are hardly any colds left in RV.

As for Rads well hes got Rage; the -tohit won't effect him so it will only take one fossilize to drop the toggles

MM's could give some trouble i guess but if he took shield charge and foot stomp their minions might die rather quick unless it's a pain MM.

These are just my thoughts. Personaly i think shield tanks are hella tough. I've always had trouble with hittin them.

umm...rad does -defense too. Im just saying well see how it plays out.

Fought quite a few mind doms over the weekend, no problems with any of them in zone. Best recorded to hit chance was a 58% on a Dominate from one player. Dominate and Mesmerize seemed to clock in the high 40% to low 50% most of the time. Secondary attacks (mostly fire it seems) ranged from the low 30% to mid 40%. My ranged 3 part attack chain feels a bit busted and OP to be honest. I was consistently doing more damage at range than they were, with a good 1,000-1200 more hit points, and the same resist #'s they had if they took the res shield instead of def. I'll be very surprised if Fossilize doesn't get beat by the nerf stick.

End was an issue for me. Running 6 togs, with active def taking 10% chunks of my end, while constantly spamming attacks with a very nasty double hit from rage and haste crash was brutal. I learned to manage it, but it took some doing. On the plus side I noticed that stacking rage eliminated the -def portion of the rage crash, stopping my vulnerability window completely. With aid self I could also easily take on 2 stalkers at once with no problems, often killing 1 with the other running for the hills. The most amusing part about all of this is I have yet to pick up my 15% more health from accolades, so it can only get better as I close on 3k hps. The toon is not as enjoyable as my tri/regen PBer simply due to his one dimensional approach, but its a fun change of pace.

You should have checked your to hit rolls. With your debuff AND BU you never got higher than 79%. Without BU and with the debuff on me you were still needing to roll under the low 60% range to hit. When your debuff came down, I watched you need to roll under 48% without BU just to land it. Just because you got lucky and rolled under that most of the time doesnt change the numbers. The other factor here was the fact that you had no chance vs me in a standup fight, or did you forget that I took you and a second stalker on with no problems lol. Both of you broke off the attack when I almost killed the other guy and he ran for it.

The really nice thing about Shields is its got a tasty power that gives me a 20% resist to defense debuffs and 30% resist to -recharge. This was making a big difference when faced with Poisonous Ray and Waterspout. Tack on to that the giant hit point buff from True Grit, and resists numbers only 9% lower that my Invul brute, and you get a freakin' beast. (Betty Beast that is) My dom loves resist based tanks because I'm sporting a hot 95% to hit chance when laying on the debuff Poisonous Ray. Having to roll under a 45% just to lay the debuff is VERY frustrating when facing a shield tank because I am at a disadvantage to start with a defense based shield, what with SS tanks and rage dropping them in at around a 95% chance to hit anyway. Add to that the fact that I'm losing 20% of the effectiveness on the debuff if it actually lands, and madness can set in. :P

If I had decided on a resist set it would have certainly been Fire over elec anyway. With all the /fire doms and fire/ cors running around on Freedom, its a no brainer with all that resist AND a huge heal on super fast recharge.

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Originally Posted by __Divine__ Once i hit you with lolz water spout i had no problem ASing you.....i think i missed once out of 10 times. The problem with that toon is if you get it by ANY defense debuff your instantly vunearble. Thats why i shelfed my EM/EA Brute, any kind of -defense is gonna hurt. Im curious have you fought anybody with rad blast yet, im pretty sure thats going to hurt. If your having probems with end...stay far far away from elec blast lol. Honeslty blood i think your invul brute is better. You should have went Elec/SS Tank. You would have alot more surviability, and few things that would be able to wreck you. That toon is going to be beastly if they ever move elusitivity up from 10% to about 20%. But i would not hold my breath.

Ok, ran some tests in RV today. Without DR my Shield tank has 50% def to melee and 58% def to range. With DR running that drops to 33% melee and 37% ranged. I tested with a dom who had +17 to hit from tactics and kismet before DR. (forgot to ask him what that DR'd down to) With a melee ranged power that had 78% Acc and was running the tactics kismet combo he had a 47% chance to hit me. (That's vs my 33% melee defense) Turning off Tactics, his chances dropped to a staggering 34%. We then tested with Drain Psi as that was the only power he had with 95% slotted Accuracy. With Tactics running he needed 53%, without it, he dropped to 39%.

I then had him slap Waterspout on me to see how bad the debuff was. I dropped to 27% ranged defense, then it hopped right back up to 32% right away due to Grant Cover's debuff resistance provided and stayed there. It was difficult to test attacks on me since the debuff from spout appeared to be very short duration, so we were really unable to get hard numbers. I'll try and test with poison ray next time if possible.

I'd say that defense is alive and kicking, at least for shield tanks.

when mac was forging my earth/ea dom, i was rolling 75-85%s on you without powerboosting tactics (i was saving that for my squishy tfs).

I would expect as much, considering you were stacking -def on me while forged.

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Originally Posted by black_barrier when mac was forging my earth/ea dom, i was rolling 75-85%s on you without powerboosting tactics (i was saving that for my squishy tfs).