Lvl 25 Shield/Mace frankenslot - am i doin' it rite?

Hey guys, this is my first attempt at a frankenslotted character (I've never done a high level build with IO sets before, only commons), and I was wondering if you thought I was on the right track.

The only thing I think I've done 'wrong' so far is that Jawbreaker is over-slotted for accuracy (70% enhancement, whereas I usually aim for around 40%). I'm also not sure whether I want Taunt or Build-Up or both in this build at some point, but right now I have neither. Anyway, here's the build as it stands right now; I'd appreciate any and all advice you have to give.

Level 25 Shield Defense/War Mace tank
Main goals:
-Be a solid, alpha-taking tank for large teams, including against AV's
-Achieve soft-capped defense to all positions
-Be able to solo on occasion when I feel like it and not suck
-Slot with cheap dual/triple/quad IO's for max enhancement values, mostly ignoring set bonuses until later
-Have fun!

Powers and Enhancement values:
SD
-Deflection, 4 slots - Def/End, Def/End, Def, Def/End/Rech (51% def, 56% end)
-Battle Agility, same slotting
-True Grit - 1 heal (How high a priority is it to slot this up? +Heal or +Resist?)
-Active Defense - 3 recharge
-Phalanx Fighting - 1 def
-Against All Odds - 1 End, 2 Taunt

Mace
-Bash, 4 slots - Acc/Dam, Acc/Dam, Dam, Dam/End (40% acc, 89.4% dam, 20% end)
-Jawbreaker, 5 slots - Acc/Dam, Acc/Dam, Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/End/Rech, Dam/End (70% acc, 88% dam, 30% rech, 34% end)
-Clobber, 4 slots - Acc/Dam, Acc/Dam, Dam/End/Rech, Dam/End (41.1% acc, 76.9% dam, 16.6% rech, 36.6% end)

Other:
Hurdle - 1 jump
Health - 1 heal
Stamina - 3 End Mod

Combat Jumping - 3 defense
Will get SJ later

Boxing - 1 acc
Will get tough/weave later

EDIT: Thought I should note that I have no set bonuses worth mentioning at this point.

Two points:

I don't think it's possible to soft-cap a shield tanker without *some* set bonuses, though granted, you don't need a lot.

Frankenslotting makes a lot of sense for powers like attacks that have many atributes that you want to enhance. For defense/resistance powers that generally have only 2 attributes to enhance, its not nearly so useful. Even though you're officially not worrying about sets until later, I recommend looking at sets for Deflection, BA, Tough, and Weave. About the only thing frankenslotting gets you for those powers is additional endurance reduction, which really isn't needed for a moderate end cost toggle.

Oh, and to answer your question about True Grit, the +HP is extremely useful and adds a lot of surviability at no endurance cost. If you're not slotting sets, I recommend at least 2 Heal commons and 2 resist commons, with Heal the higher priority.

EDIT: forgot to mention that Deflection also needs to be slotted for resistance. I recommend slotting it with 4 defense set IOs of your choice and 2 resist commons. Also, be sure to pick up the Steadfast +Def unique and slot it in Deflection, True Grit or Tough.

Thanks for the advice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finduilas I don't think it's possible to soft-cap a shield tanker without *some* set bonuses, though granted, you don't need a lot.

I'm aware of this. Steadfast +def and a minimal number of sets for that last few % are both in the back of my mind, but I won't have the inf. for that until at least the mid to high 30's, if not later.

Quote:

About the only thing frankenslotting gets you for those powers [defense toggles] is additional endurance reduction, which really isn't needed for a moderate end cost toggle.

Yeah... I'm aware of the fact that End Redux is usually more valuable in attacks than toggles, but I still feel sometimes that I want to put it in my toggles anyway. Old habits die hard, I guess. Next time I respec or switch builds, though, I'll try shuffling the slots around to move more end redux to my attacks and see how it feels. I'll also have to take a look at what defense sets give the best enhancement values and set bonuses for 3 or 4 slots

If I'm 4 slotting a defense power, my default choice is usually serendipity. At 4 slots it gives a touch of HP, regen, and accuracy, choosing all of the pieces with defense gives capped def enhancement and 40%ish endredux (at about level 25-30ish), and it's dirt cheap.

For later on, in terms of getting the bonuses you need to softcap, I'm a fan of the red fortune, multistrike, and smashing haymaker sets. They all provide useful positional defense bonuses, and they're all usually reasonably cheap.

Assuming toggles, weave, and CJ slotted for 55% def and the 3% and phalanx, you'll be at about 43% overall defense. You've got 4 melee AoE attacks you could slot with full multistrike sets, which would be an extra 7.5% melee/AoE defense, leaving you at 5.5%ish over the soft cap to those positions as a nice buffer against debuffs. You could even drop the multistrike set from shield charge in favor of frankenslotting something with more recharge. If you don't end up using multistrikes, putting smashing haymakers (along with some other pieces to round out the enhancement percentages) into your three ST attacks could add another 3%ish melee defense.

For ranged you could do a lot worse than red fortune in battle agility and weave - tons of endredux and 2.5% range def and 5% recharge per set. That would leave you 3%ish over the cap, again as a buffer against defense debuffs.

Also, if you're actually planning to slot out and use tough, I'd give it 4 reactive armor for the small amount of melee and ranged defense. If you find yourself not using the multistrikes, you could even give it a 5th slot for the 1.25% AoE defense.

If you weren't planning to take all of the AoEs, I'd urge you to reconsider. One of the big strengths of mace is its very high AoE potential, and all of the last three powers in the set are pretty good ones. Combine that with shield charge and AAO, and you've got the makings of a pretty darn good AoE damaging tanker. Plus the AoEs give you nice defense with multistrike.