So, my Tank finally hit 50...

After years of sitting in the late 40s, my Tanker hit 50 on a speed ITF last night. He's going to be my guinea pig for the Alpha slot since I haven't dabbled too much into the incarnate stuff. I was wondering which route would benefit him best being Invuln and Energy Melee? I was thinking Musculature because of EM's low-damage ways BUT I have noticed my blue bar suffers from time to time but never drops to zero in a fight. He has no IO sets because I don't get huge amounts of play-time to gather inf to spend on buying and creating them. He's just an SO/common IO kind of Tank.

I went with cardiac on my invul tank. I was already soft-capped S/L, but not close for other things. So getting such an end discount plus more resistance...win/win.

Musculature is not going to help much if your attacks are fully slotted for damage. I'd say Cardiac if you have any endurance issues, or Spiritual if you don't.

But what if you're fully slotted for recharge? That is, you have a functional attack chain?

You can gather INF in short periods of play time. Some people don't like playing the market because it is risky and it takes a decent amount of INF to get started. I suggest doing tip missions and collecting Hero or Villain merits.

You can easily gather tips in Terra Volta by killing grey-con bosses. The trip there is fast if your SG base has the teleporter for it. That should take less than 5 minutes. Next, stealthing or running to the objectives for each mission should take less than 5 minutes per mission. Once you learn which tip missions are annoying or hard for you to do quickly, you can dismiss them while in Terra Volta so you only get the tips you want to do. Overall, it should take you about 30 minutes per day to do tip missions as long as you're not using Fly as a travel power. It may take you longer at first, but the speed will come as you learn the mission layouts and learn which ones to skip. Do the morality mission when your alignment is full. If you're on Hero side, the alignment mission that has you fight your mysterious double is significantly easier and faster than the one requiring you to rescue a bane spider.

After four days, you should have two Hero Merits. Turn those into a Luck of the Gambler: Global Recharge IO and craft it and sell it on the market. That should get you about 150 million INF. Do that three to five times and you will have more than enough INF to get your character into almost any IO set build as long as it doesn't have purples or PvP IOs. There are other IOs worth buying but the market changes all the time and I don't have time to look up what is the most valuable. The point is that almost any character is capable of earning enough INF in a short amount of time per day. You don't have to already have a "farming" character to make enough INF to get into the IO market.

Lvl 20 and above mobs drop tips. Im not sure if sharkhead is the appropriate lvl range, but id start there.
Also, why go to Terra Volta? You can do this in Talos, which I find way more convenient for travel purposes for when they send you to Kings Row or Atlas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Ravenwolf My favorite combo is Faceplant/DebtCap with the TeamWipe Ancillary

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Originally Posted by Dispari Yeah, I like Blasters too.

Maintaining the primary powers is key to holding up as a Tanker. With that in mind the more damage per endurance your Tanker does the better. Now musculature should make you have to attack less cos you duffed it in say 5 attacks instead of 6 but then again you can get end drained pretty tough, be on the ropes and so what then? Cardiac has an effect on more powers than Musculature so could be doing more for endurance management.

The best place to actually do the tip missions is a small zone, like Atlas Park. With the exception of a couple of tip missions which always spawn in Independence Port, they'll spawn in your current zone. For me, rather than flying through gray bosses to maximise my tip drops, I just head to RWZ on x8 difficulty and do one timed mission. I get the lvl 50 drop chances and Inf, and I always end up with at least 3 tips from one mission.

I think I'd go with Cardiac or Spiritual on an SO build. Cardiac for sure if you have any end issues, or spiritual if your blue bar moves on occasion, but not much or often. If you IO out, though, then you may very well want musculature.

As for tips, you can get them easily just about anywhere with large groups. I do Talos, but anyplace with lvl 20+ enemies will work just fine. Personally, I like to choose a place with a train/ferry and a market and store access for convenience, but that's just my personal preference. After I collect 3 I want to do, I head to Atlas to do them. I try to get to the end as quick as possible, and leave as many enemies alive as I can. Then when I complete, I clear till I get a tip drop I like. I almost never have to go far, I can sell easily in between missions, and I never need to street sweep again until after the morality mish clears my list of tips. Rinse and repeat after every Hero Merit earned.

Also, as note, instead of using 2 Hero Merits for 1 specific in-demand recipe, the random roll of 5 rares may actually be the best option over time, but the potential for a bad run of luck makes it much less appealing to many people. Just something to consider. Your mileage may, and likely will, vary, but it's worth considering.

I'd say go Cardiac for the extra Dam res.