General question and some specific questions.

I've only ever used it as a Scrapper, but I rarely died from it. I'd usually either bail out of combat / use a phase temp power / magus / inspirations to survive. Some of those options aren't as palatable for the Tanker playstyle, though.

There are a couple things you could do:
*) Don't worry about them, if they die, it's their fault.
*) When they do that, catch up and let the group / scrapper deal with that spawn as you hit the next. (I generally only do this when teaming with friends who I know can handle it.)
*) Don't give the Scrapper time to move ahead in the first place.

The last one is my preferred choice. What I tend to do is wait till the spawn is getting close to defeat then moving on while the rest of the group cleans up. This takes some practice/experience to know when is the right time to move on without them, but it works really well when you've got it.

I'm almost always on the lookout for loose mobs to taunt / reaggro. While I prefer to go after high priority targets first (could be dangerous bosses, or nasty minions like Sappers), keeping the attention off squishies is a higher priority.)

For me, I generally get to groups 5-10s before a group, so I have time to setup. I jump into one side of the mob while Taunting the other. Then I use AoE(s). If the spawn is spread out enough, I might taunt one side (ie: left), jump into another and AoE (ie: middle) then jump to the next and AoE or Taunt (ie: right). Basically my goal is to get taunt applied to all of them from the start, then moving on to actually defeat them. If mobs are staying at a range, Taunt them. the range debuff will often force them to get closer, maybe not melee range, but still.

The more I have trouble with losing aggro, the more often I'll Taunt - even baddies in melee range. (Then again, I'm WP. It should be much easier for you as Invuln.)

I used to use Unstoppable fairly frequently prior to the issue 13 buff to Invuln and IO sets; now that I've soft capped my Invuln I no longer have or need Unstoppable.

If you find the power useful, and I'll certainly admit it has it's uses if you don't have soft capped defense, there's a few things you can do to mitigate it's crash.

• You can only use it against foes that your team will be able to drop in under 3 minutes. This pretty well negates the penalty since you won't be in combat when it crashes... it does force everyone to wait after the fight until you crash & retoggle.

• You can eat a couple of large purples and/or oranges when you're ready to crash... pop a blue after the crash then dull pain and you should be able to continue on.

• You can get the "Ethereal Shift" temporary power... this is a 5 use CLICK phase shift power. Simply taunt the baddie just before you crash then click Ethereal Shift and wait out the crash and recovery in perfect safety. This is one of the many temp power recipes that you can find in Wentworths, usually very cheaply.

As I mentioned however, once you've built significant defenses approaching the 45% soft cap as discussed in my guide you'll have no need for Unstoppable anymore.

Sarrate covered this pretty well, my general rule of thumb is to push the pace as hard and fast as the team can handle, but to be careful not to go over that. This cuts way down on what I call the "Bored Blaster Syndrome" where someone decides to aggro a group over there while we're working on a group over here. Scrappers are generally pretty self sufficient and usually don't require a lot of baby sitting... unless I see a scrapper has gotten in over his head I generally worry about the rest of the team.

Blasters, Defenders and Controllers are the ones I usually concentrate on protecting, Scrappers usually can take care of themselves and also usually know what their limits are.

When I'm tanking for a team I'm usually more concerned about holding aggro and keeping mobs looking at me and away from the team than actually killing anything. I spread my attacks out to maximize the punchvoke (ah, Gauntlet I mean, they changed the name of the mechanic a few years ago) effect.

I always have the camera zoomed out so I can see as much of the battle as possible, if something turns away from me toward the team I see it and can do something about it.

Here's a tip, always position yourself on the far side of the baddies from your team, that way all the mobs are looking at YOU and have their backs to your teammates. By doing this you keep any AOE's from splashing on your team and you'll know immediately if a mob turns to attack the team.
Kind of like this:

(Team->)........(Enemy->)(<-Tanker)

Since you're Invuln you do have a strong aura to help you out, what you'll need to work on is clumping the mobs tight enough around you. There's several techniques for this, and some groups are easier to clump than others. Mobs with primarily ranged attacks are considerably harder to clump than melee mobs for example.

• One approach is to do a quick lap around a group to get their attention and then break line of sight by ducking behind a wall, pole or any convenient obstruction and let the mobs come to you. This is known as "Corner Pulling". It works quite well and is the easiest way to clump baddies but it does have the drawback of being slower than other methods. It also tends to get disrupted when a Controller suddenly immobilizes everything while they're chasing you and spread out... I don't recommend this method on PuGs for that reason.

• Another method that I frequently use is to jump into the middle of a group and then jump behind them. This is a quick & dirty method that will get most of the attention, toss a Taunt on anything that doesn't pay attention to you.

• Sometimes I just use the quick lap around a mob then stop behind them, that also works quite well, particularly for a group that's relatively compact already.

There's lots of other methods of course, one thing that will help your skills would be to run a few missions solo and practice gathering the mobs into a tight bundle... there's really no substitute for practice. There's three things you'll need to be aware of though.

• You have an aggro cap of 17 mobs... if there's more than 17 baddies in the group some of them will be unaffected by your aura and taunt. Keep this in mind while you're tanking, once you have your 17 new best friends you'll have a lot of trouble getting the attention of the Blaster's new friends.

• Taunt will only affect a maximum of 5 targets at a time, the mob you targeted and up to 4 others around him. By targeting different mobs with Taunt you can spread the love around.

• Your aura only affects an 8' radius around you... in practical terms that means only about 6-8 baddies maximum will be in your aura at a time. Move around a little to maximize your aura's effectiveness... Invincibility's aura will last 17 seconds against even level mobs so you can effect more baddies than will fit in melee with you. By the same token your attacks also have a small AOE taunt effect, by spreading your attacks you spread the effect.

Welcome to Tanking; it's great to see someone who's trying to learn how to tank effectively. The biggest key is simply practice... get a radio mission of easy mobs like Council, set it to 6 man/even level mobs and practice bunching groups. That will do more than anything in helping you learn the mechanics... and you don't have to worry about doing it wrong in front of your team.

I play both and I play them both the same way...
I don't see any problem with a scrapper going on his/her own way. Speeds up the mish and xp/inf... yes please!!!


And lol stalkers

Who says the role of the scrapper, or anyone, is to wait for the tank to do everything? Even if the scrapper is as tough as the tank, they still serve two distinctly different roles. A tanker tanks, and a scrapper flips out and kills stuff. Sometimes they will wait, sometimes they don't. I just hope any toon that runs off from the group can handle whatever aggro he pulls up to and including the tank.

It's not a terrible power. I have it. Many people skip it. I never die when it wears off. It used to be a challenge before we got the 5 second warning (in the form of the blinking power icon). Now it's a breeze.


Let them solo it and, if it turns out that way, let them die.
If they run off to attack a group alone, they are declaring that they THINK they can handle it. If they are wrong, they were the one at fault. If one person runs off alone, regardless of AT, I will ALWAYS let them die rather than risk the lives of the TEAM PLAYERS.

Having said that, if I can save them with NO RISK to the rest of the team, I certainly will. If the current spawn is locked down, or the soloer is within Taunt range, I'll do whatever I can - short of risking the people who are playing wisely and as part of a team.


Both. If the enemies are all over the place, and attacking my teammates, I have to address that first. Once the situation is under control, I will focus on the beatdown. If you're just going to focus on beating up the enemy, you should be playing a scrapper. If you do nothing but taunt and use 'soft control' (slows, holds, immob, etc), you're wasting your damage output. You may do less damage than the blasters and scrappers, but that doesn't mean it isn't significant or needed.


There are too many variables to answer that. Are you playing with blasters? Scrappers with taunt auras? Are the controllers immobilizing enemies while they are spread out? Do the enemies prefer to fight from range? Are they snipers, who never close to melee? Is team mobility being hindered by caltrops? Are the enemies being slowed in some way?

Just do your best. And it absolutely doesn't matter if your teammates get smacked around a bit. Just keeping them from dying is good enough.

It's also the general concept of the scrapper to wipe out everything in sight. When I run ahead of the tank with my scrapper, I can handle it.

Generalize much? I have seen some poorly built examples of each AT, including tanks. I have seen blasters do things that defy explanation, and some that were made of glass. The same goes for tanks. With that said, you should never assume someone doesn't have a very steady and finely tuned control over what their toon can do.

As for the role of the tank- I don't argue that he is built for absorbing hits and controlling aggro. I never said or implied that scrappers have gauntlet. But don't tell me that the only way a spawn can be opened up is via the hand of a tank. Certain control sets are just as capable of locking down mobs before they even have the chance to attack. The beauty of this game is that there are many ways to skin the cat, so to speak.

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