Question re: General varieties of Invuln IO Set builds

Hello folks,

So I won't lie, I've let my main Tank's build (he's Inv/SS/Energy) lie fallow for ages. When Inventions came out 4 years ago, I put together a rudimentary effort at a close-the-Psi-gap build, and implemented, well, some of it, but it's fairly far from complete. So now that I'm turning my eye to him, before I get too far along with him, I want to get an idea of what folks are actually doing with their Tanker IO builds. (I mean this in the big-picture sense of design goals, I'm not trying to cadge sample builds here)

First up, we have the "Softcap Special." My impression is that has kind of been the gold standard of design goals for the past few years. I have a Mids file put together for one I think I can live with, should I go that route. Is it still considered as valuable as it once was?

Second, we have what I was working toward, the Psi-buffering build. I still see occasional references to folks using this sort of build, but I get the impression it's not as common.

So I'm wondering, are there other general flavors of IO-buffed Tanker builds that I haven't mentioned? If you've got some feedback, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks.

Later on,
Gate

PS - If you have any general insights on similar build goals for WP tankers, I wouldn't pitch a fit if they showed up in this thread.

Well, the soft-cap special is definitely the most common, because of all the defensive benefits it gives you.

However, I also sometimes see the "Let your offense be your defense" strategy. Where you try to maximize recharge and endurance recovery, then utilize the mitigation aspects of your secondary to help keep you alive. I'd say this is most prevalent on control-heavy secondaries, like /Ice and /Stone.

Having built my invuln to the logical extension of all three concepts, I can emphatically state that building for the softcap improves performance over building for either of the other two. As a point of fact it improved survivability by an order of magnitude over my previous build - 75% recharge, which lead to perma dull pain and an attack chain of my three big hitters, no end issues and over 20% psy def and res.

I had 5 purple sets, 5 impervium armor sets, Aegis unique, scirocco's, etc. Every psy def or res bonus I could reasonably get my hands on.

When I made my second build a softcapped to S/L/E/N/F/C, I almost cried because its was insanely cheap (in comparison) and far more effective.

Of course if you want to go nuts you could build for the "Apex softcap" but that's another story...

The Tank I play has the same pri/sec/app as the OP's.

I went down the soft-cap s/l and (hopefully) psi def path.

I'm in phase 2 of that. The first phase, I got psi def just over 45% def. However, that required build compromises I was not content to live with. Most notably, taking a pet, slotting it with a full purple set (5% psi def) but finding it to be of little to no use in practical gameplay. So I went to Energy Master and 6 slotted Miracle, which lowered psi def to about 42% but I was more pleased with the utility of the powers I took from Energy.

So this is still a s/l capped build with 1 foe in range, capped to all others with 2 (maybe 3 for one pair of dmg types) foes. This has served me very well and I have no intention to change.

What I am planning to do though, is make a "heavy assault" build for when I'm on a buff heavy team, but that's for another day.

My inv/fire's final build (Almost there, just have to get a few more a-merits to get that Gladiator IO) is softcapped to S/L/E/N, has 250% regen, and 87.5% recharge (no hasten.) Currently, he's got 10% less recharge and is only softcapped vs. S/L. Dull Pain has a 6 second downtime.

He also has about 16% psi defense as a purely ancillary benefit - I didn't build for it.

I don't feel that higher levels of recharge are worth pursuing on him - he's soloed a couple of AVs, and adding hasten doesn't enable a better attack chain. The only benefit would be a faster-charging Dull Pain.

I use the Cardiac alpha slot to raise my resists slightly and never look at my blue bar again.

Yeah, my first IO builds on my Inv/SS also focused on closing the Psi hole, but I don't think it's worth it. Most Psi damage has something else attached to it that you can use for Psi mitigation instead. And for the times that it doesn't, there's Dull Pain. I used several respecs and now have him chasing the Def Softcap AND "killing them before they kill you is the best mitigation" (ie, lots of recharge) with a little bit of "needz moer regen". Definitely more survivable.

I've noticed that with the Cardiac slot and PvP IOs, Invulnerability can cap Smash/Lethal resistance without taking Tough. I was thinking of doing it just for the novelty, but I'm pretty happy with my current build.

If cost is no option, you can soft-cap Smashing/Lethal/Energy/Negative Energy/Fire/Cold, have 364% Regeneration, and 2607 Hit Points. If you're worried about cost, drop the Gladiator Armour piece and, while still fairly expensive, the build shouldn't cost more than a billion.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1,92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Major Decoy: Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Super Strength
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(3), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(3)
Level 1: Jab -- P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(5), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(5)
Level 2: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Dct'dW-Heal(9), Dct'dW-Rchg(36)
Level 4: Haymaker -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(11), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(40), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(11), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(13)
Level 8: Unyielding -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(17), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(17)
Level 10: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt/Rng(A), Zinger-Dam%(13), Zinger-Taunt(15), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(15), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(42), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(46)
Level 12: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(25)
Level 14: Air Superiority -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(40), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(43), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 16: Resist Energies -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Aegis-ResDam(31), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(31), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(43)
Level 18: Invincibility -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(19), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(19)
Level 20: Knockout Blow -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(21), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(23), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(25)
Level 22: Resist Elements -- Aegis-Psi/Status(A), Aegis-ResDam(29), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(31), GA-3defTpProc(33)
Level 24: Resist Physical Damage -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(27), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(29)
Level 26: Tough Hide -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(27), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(33)
Level 28: Kick -- P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(34), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(34)
Level 30: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(33), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(46)
Level 32: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(34), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(36)
Level 35: Rage -- AdjTgt-Rchg(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(50)
Level 38: Foot Stomp -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(39), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(45), Numna-Heal/Rchg(45), EndMod-I(45), EndMod-I(46)
Level 47: Hurl -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 49: Unstoppable -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: Task Force Commander
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
Level 50: Cardiac Core Boost
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Heal-I(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- RgnTis-Regen+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(36), Numna-Heal(37), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(37), Heal-I(37)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(40)

Without the Gladiator Armour +3 defense, it still has 45.9% Smashing/Lethal, 44% Fire/Cold, and 42.8% Energy/Negative Energy. Though, you can get it up to 45% Fire/Cold by taking the slot for Gladiator Armour and giving it to Super Jump to get a third Blessing of the Zephyr enhancement.

Yes, but it also gets rid of 12% regeneration and 2.25% health for only 1.25% more Energy/Negative Energy defense.

I mean, if I was strictly interested in defense, I could also switch out titanium coatings to get more Energy/Negative Energy defense. Lose 1.5% Health and get 1.25% more Energy/Negative Energy defense, which seems a much better trade, no?

Actually, with that in mind, I was able to make a few changes to get more health and more Energy/Negative Energy defense. Now it's 45.9 Smashing/Lethal and 44 Energy/Negative Energy/Fire/Cold.

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...55F61714C3F0B2

*prods Ribic*

I LIKE cheap.

I went for a combination of Resists, Regen and Softcapped S/L Defence.

Oh, and enough recharge for Perma Dull Pain. Inv's got a very big strength in that it's the most resilient Tanker set which can can stay at the 3540HP Tanker Hard Cap indefinitely (Stone can hit it, but the recharge debuff of Granite means it's not perma in that form. Ice can hit it, but has low resistances. Willpower can probably technically hit it too - it could certainly hit the old cap - but would likely require considerable slotting sacrifices).

Current build has the following:

90% S/L resistance (nearly goes without saying)
36% F/C, 31% E/N/T

45.5% S/L Defence with one foe in Invincibility range.
40.5% F/C/E/N Defence with one foe in range (softcapped with 4 foes)
14% Psi Defence, 21% melee, 20% Ranged, 19% AoE

3540HP (Capped) with 51 HP/Second Regen.
Dull Pain on a 110 Second Recharge (adding ~1450 HP).
FootStomp every 8 seconds.

There's very little in PVE that can take him out. The build still has Unstoppable, but I can't remember when I last had to use it - it was certainly well over a year ago. Rikti, Carnies and Psionic Clockwork don't bother him in the slightest, mainly due to the high HP and regen. Even Malta Sappers and Rularuu bother him far less than they used to back in the day. Large Longbow spawns are probably the most dangerous enemy for him to face in general PvE (due to loads of -def and -res from the bosses) and they're still handle-able.

liar!

If I was building an Inv/* purely for survivability, I'd look to defense (S/L/E/N), then Regen, and finally Recharge. You'll hardcap your HP just from Dull Pain, Accolades, and whatever set bonuses come to you through the rest of the build. Regen, coupled with capped HP, gives you a very nice backup plan for what little damage sneaks past your defense and remains after your resists. Recharge will help keep Dull Pain up and your heavy hitting attacks cycling faster.

I made my Inv/SS to handle Psi damage, for some reason or another (I didn't really know what I was doing then). Impervium Armor and Crushing Impact sets were the basis of the build. It works pretty well overall. It works amazing well compared to a non-Psi Inv/* build when you're facing Psi-heavy opponents. It just doesn't work as well as defense-focused builds do when it comes to everything else. And there is a LOT of "everything else" in this game.

As long as he's facing S/L damage and has a few opponents around him, he's still effectively invincible. I can walk away, take a phone call, grab a drink, and come back to a full health bar. Take him out of that comfort zone, though, either with fewer opponents or non-S/L damage and survivability is a lot less assured. It's still really good, but he's faceplanted enough that I know better options are out there.

So I'm working toward an S/L/E/N softcapped build (1 opponent) that will end up MUCH more expensive than the previous build, but also a lot more capable. It trades HP & Regen for Recharge, which does hurt his survivability a little, but Dull Pain and Accolades put him a little over the HP cap anway. The additional recharge should cycle his big hitters more often, too.

Here's a build skeleton that softcaps S/L/E/N/F/C... There are a couple of the Eradications that are a bit pricey, but they can easily be gotten with alignment merits, and the AE to grab the Reactive Armor. Otherwise, it's relatively inexpensive. Likewise, using an A-merit to buy a Steadfast Res/Def should be almost any tanker's first priority.

It's a skeleton - there are 16 slots I haven't even placed, let alone slotted. It should be fairly easy to adapt to any other secondary. For those concerned with Fire Melee having two AoEs - thunderstrikes in an epic blast will cover the defense from that second Eradication set and cheaper, though you'll need six slots instead of three.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Technology Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(3), RctvArm-ResDam(3), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(5), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(11)
Level 1: Scorch -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(5), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg(7), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 2: Dull Pain -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Combustion -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Rchg(21), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(29), Erad-%Dam(31), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 8: Unyielding -- RctvArm-EndRdx/Rchg(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(9), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(9), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 10: Boxing -- P'ngS'Fest-Acc/Dmg(A), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/EndRdx(13), P'ngS'Fest-Dmg/Rchg(13), P'ngS'Fest-Stun%(17)
Level 12: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(40), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(40), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(40), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(42), Mocking-Rchg(42)
Level 14: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(15), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(15), RctvArm-EndRdx/Rchg(17)
Level 16: Super Jump -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Invincibility -- RedFtn-Def(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(19), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(19)
Level 20: Build Up -- Rec'dRet-ToHit(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(21)
Level 22: Weave -- RedFtn-Def(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(23), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(23)
Level 24: Resist Physical Damage -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam(25), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(25), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29)
Level 26: Tough Hide -- RedFtn-Def/Rchg(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(27), RedFtn-Def(27)
Level 28: Fire Sword Circle -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Erad-Dmg(33), Erad-Acc/Rchg(33), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(33), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Erad-%Dam(34)
Level 30: Resist Elements -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(34), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(37)
Level 32: Resist Energies -- Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(37), Aegis-ResDam(37)
Level 35: Incinerate -- S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg(A), S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg(36), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(36), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 38: Greater Fire Sword -- S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg(39), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(39), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg(39)
Level 41: Char -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(42)
Level 44: Fire Blast -- Empty(A)
Level 47: Fire Ball -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Unstoppable -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(50), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)

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