You're quite correct. It is pretty easy to Soft-cap Shields. Phalanx does give you a min. of 5% defense with no one else in range. In Mids you can edit the main data base and make it so you can set Phalanx to 0 teammates next to you. Right now it's lowest defaults to 1 in range.
Generally I'm not a big fan of Manuevers for a tank and will find set bonuses to cover the final gap to the Soft-cap. But really, if it works for you that's all that matters.
Throwing darts at the board to see if something sticks.....
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Tanks: Gauntlet, the streak breaker and you!
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
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In my experience, I've found shields to be extremely endurance hungry and adding a toggle like maneuvers would probably cripple you.
But with some IO slotting you can still hit the soft-cap without it.
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This is correct. You can softcap Shields with SOs if you take Maneuvers. Without it, there's about 5% per position that you need to make up with set bonuses, and that is fairly trivial to do. Ranged defense seems to be hardest generally.
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Originally Posted by Blue_Fenix
Taking all the defense powers from SD, Combat Jumping, Weave, and Manuevers, slotting them all with 3 +defense IO's and throwing one Steadfast +3% def(all) shows a total of 46.6% defense.
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<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
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I think ranged is one of the easiest to cover. 6 pieces of Mako's, 2 pieces of BotZ, A full set of Thunderstrike, A full set of red fortune. None of those are that hard to come by, when compared to full sets of oblits and ToD to get melee def.
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Originally Posted by Heraclea
This is correct. You can softcap Shields with SOs if you take Maneuvers. Without it, there's about 5% per position that you need to make up with set bonuses, and that is fairly trivial to do. Ranged defense seems to be hardest generally.
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Level 50s: to many to remember at this point
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Heh you got there first, this comment confused me too. Ranged is very easy to cover.
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Originally Posted by Brynstar
I think ranged is one of the easiest to cover. 6 pieces of Mako's, 2 pieces of BotZ, A full set of Thunderstrike, A full set of red fortune. None of those are that hard to come by, when compared to full sets of oblits and ToD to get melee def.
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If you go with Energy mastery you can pick up Focused Acurracy and slot it with a set of Gaussian's
Basic L50 IOs plus the unique res/def and the Gaussians will cap your defence to all positions - 46.6%.
L50s: Tanks: Cryofission - Ice/EM - Dr Celsius - Fire/Ice - Saint George - SD/SS | Controllers: Psichosis - Ill/Kin - Major Chaos - Ill/Stm | Scrappers - Neutron Crusader - DM/SR
Currently Levelling: Angelic Blade - BS/WP Scrapper | Seeds of Destruction - Plant/Kin Controller
You could also put Gaussian's in Rage, Soul Drain or Build Up. It may not be super-efficient to do so, but it works.
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Wow... just looked at Gaussian's seriously for the first time....I had no idea how nice that set was for defense bonuses. Sticking that in build-up lets me drop manuevers and not have to think about any other sets at all (With my level of inexperience, I'd much rather just frankenslot than try to manage many sets).
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Originally Posted by Godpants
You could also put Gaussian's in Rage, Soul Drain or Build Up. It may not be super-efficient to do so, but it works.
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Yup, that's why it's a spendier set to put together. The Rech/End recipe seems to have gotten quite rare lately, too. Didn't use to have an issue picking it up off of the market, but now they only show up rarely.
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Originally Posted by Yoshitomo
In my experience, I've found shields to be extremely endurance hungry and adding a toggle like maneuvers would probably cripple you.
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If they're going to shell out for the Steadfast +def unique, a fraction of that cost could go to frankslotting budget IO sets for +recovery to easily bring in more endurance than Maneuvers will cost. One of my defenders has +34% recovery with no uniques. His entire build cost under 25 million.
On the other hand, if you've got the dinero, skip Maneuvers and get some defense in set bonuses. My shield tank has 51% melee and 48% range and AoE without Maneuvers.
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So, I've been messing around in Mids some more... if I only leave out 1 from my primary (Grant Cover) and 2 from my secondary (1 attack and either taunt or build up, most likely), I've still got a very tight build if attempting to get Weave, CJ/SJ, and Stamina. What would you think of picking up Maneuvers early on and respec'ing out of it for Weave later? Or does anyone have another suggestion for powers that are skipable/put-off-able in SD?
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Grant Cover gives you debuff resistance to Defence and Recharge so I wouldn't drop that.|
Originally Posted by Blue_Fenix
So, I've been messing around in Mids some more... if I only leave out 1 from my primary (Grant Cover) and 2 from my secondary (1 attack and either taunt or build up, most likely), I've still got a very tight build if attempting to get Weave, CJ/SJ, and Stamina. What would you think of picking up Maneuvers early on and respec'ing out of it for Weave later? Or does anyone have another suggestion for powers that are skipable/put-off-able in SD?
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I would leave maneuvers all together.
It's usually best to leave more of the secondary,as long as you have an attack chain.
L50s: Tanks: Cryofission - Ice/EM - Dr Celsius - Fire/Ice - Saint George - SD/SS | Controllers: Psichosis - Ill/Kin - Major Chaos - Ill/Stm | Scrappers - Neutron Crusader - DM/SR
Currently Levelling: Angelic Blade - BS/WP Scrapper | Seeds of Destruction - Plant/Kin Controller
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It's not essential that you hit the soft-cap early; most of the really tough content isn't available until the end game anyway. Skip Manuevers altogether and try to fit in Grant Cover, late if necessary.
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Originally Posted by Blue_Fenix
So, I've been messing around in Mids some more... if I only leave out 1 from my primary (Grant Cover) and 2 from my secondary (1 attack and either taunt or build up, most likely), I've still got a very tight build if attempting to get Weave, CJ/SJ, and Stamina. What would you think of picking up Maneuvers early on and respec'ing out of it for Weave later? Or does anyone have another suggestion for powers that are skipable/put-off-able in SD?
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My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
So, I've never build a heavy IO build before, but I was looking at Shield Defense in Mids tonight....
Taking all the defense powers from SD, Combat Jumping, Weave, and Manuevers, slotting them all with 3 +defense IO's and throwing one Steadfast +3% def(all) shows a total of 46.6% defense. Is this right? Is it really that easy to soft-cap shields? Am I missing some other flaw in my cunning plan that makes it a bad idea to do it this way?
Note: I had heard Phalanx Fighting had an issue in Mids. My understanding is PF gives +5% unehancable defense, even solo, and that's what I'm using in my calculations.