A Scrapper does more damage but requires a bit more investment to reach soft-capped defenses. The main difference between a Scrappper with the same power sets and a Tanker will be Gauntlet. The taunt aura will work just as well on the Scrapper.
If you are set on Tanker, it is fairly easy to hit the soft-cap. Slot your toggles, add Combat Jumping and Weave, slot a Gaussian's full set and add the Steadfast 3% defense IO. If that doesn't get you to 45% defense on all positions, you didn't slot your toggles or Weave right. After that, the rest of your slots and build can go towards whatever bonuses you like. Recharge is usually best for farming.
Syntax42,
I really appreciate your suggestions, but since I am new to this game, I am not sure exactly what you mean. That is kinda why I am also asking for help on powers to choose and how to slot them. If you could help with that I would really appreciate it!
Thanks!
Basically, you want all the powers in Shield Defense, with the possible exception of Grant Cover and One with the Shield.
You want most of the powers in Electric Melee (skip Lightning Clap, and maybe Havoc Punch, depending on how much room you have.)
Take the Fighting and Leaping pools. Try to fit in Hasten from the Speed pool. Make sure you slot Stamina in your Inherent Fitness pool with 3 End Mod enhancements.
You want to add 5 mores slots to Build Up and put the Gaussian's Synchronized FIre Control set to it. (you can find it at the Wentworths building for sale, it shouldn't be too crazy expensive)
That should softcap your defenses. The Softcap is 45%, which is the point where more defense doesn't do any good. Most enemies in the game have a base to-hit of 50%, and the game will not allow their chance to hit you to go below 5%, so 45% will get their chance to hit you as low as it will ever go.
If you plan on doing any teaming at all, you will probably want Taunt. There is much debate on whether Taunt is necessary, my advice is if you've never used it before, try it out and decide for yourself if you think you need it.
I'd go into more detail on the slotting, but that would just confuse you at this point. For now, in your attack powers slot: at least one accuracy (2 if you find yourself missing a lot) 3 damage, a recharge, and an end reduction (you can swap one or the other of these for a second accuracy if you find you need it)
Slot True Grit with 3 Heal enhancements, and if you getone, slot the Steadfast Protection Resistance/Defense in it as well.
Slot your defense powers with 1-2 End reductions, and 3 defense buff enhancements.
Once you have a better idea what you're doing, you can always come back for more specific advice on slotting.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
I made this SD/Elec build a while back, feel free to use it.
http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...ADDB27E97BE5F7
Code:
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Mains (Freedom) @Auroxis
Auroxis - Emp/Rad/Power Defender Pylon Video Soloing an AV
Pelvic Thunder - SS/Elec/Mu Brute
Sorajin - Elec/Nin Stalker
Neuropain - Sonic/Mental/Elec Blaster
It would be best to look at several builds to see what powers people take. Do a forum search for other Shield Defense builds. Don't worry about Electric Melee being in the build because melee sets are not very different from each other, when it comes to slotting. Be sure to read the threads to see if a person's build did or did not include something they should have.
If you will only be farming and never teaming or doing task forces, you can skip Grant Cover. Otherwise, take it for the defense debuff resistance.
My suggestion, get some farming buddies either via an SG or some other way. Some other way will let you keep a SG for enh storage. Talk with them, even minor changes in the game can make big differences when you're very specialized.
You also might want to directly copy a build off the forums and then modify it over time. If you don't have the vetspecs, you can always run the horrifically boring Terra Volta TF and get one. The reason you'd want to do this is because with a respec you can remove and keep 10 enhancements. I never do huge changes in respecs so this is handy.
And, uh, unless you're really stuck on a Tank, I gotta mention Brutes, Scraps, Controllers. There's a reason that FireKins are like stray cats in CoH. And I think that Fire/SS/Pyre is the Brute du Jour for eating spawns.
Though, with that Brute idea, and all other Fire Armor farmers, I don't think fire farming is going to last forever.
[Hell, remember those lv 1 GMs? What a joke.]
I doubt they will make any changes to fire farming because it is not based on an exploit. Other armor sets can be durable in farms involving other damage types. Electric, Dark, and Invulnerability can be highly resistant to their respective damage specialties. Fire Armor is popular because Fiery Embrace and Burn add a lot of damage a character at the expense of survivability in other content. If they change anything, it might be how Reactive Interface functions with Burn.
Quote:
You said not to take One With the Shield and Grant Cover; without those, you are basically hampering the fullest potential of his build. With Grant Cover, he gains valuable defense debuff resistance, which will help when he/she eventually runs task forces, and will help monumentally on some farming missions, especially if he/she decides to crank the difficulty up.|
Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Basically, you want all the powers in Shield Defense, with the possible exception of Grant Cover and One with the Shield.
You want most of the powers in Electric Melee (skip Lightning Clap, and maybe Havoc Punch, depending on how much room you have.) Take the Fighting and Leaping pools. Try to fit in Hasten from the Speed pool. Make sure you slot Stamina in your Inherent Fitness pool with 3 End Mod enhancements. You want to add 5 mores slots to Build Up and put the Gaussian's Synchronized FIre Control set to it. (you can find it at the Wentworths building for sale, it shouldn't be too crazy expensive) That should softcap your defenses. The Softcap is 45%, which is the point where more defense doesn't do any good. Most enemies in the game have a base to-hit of 50%, and the game will not allow their chance to hit you to go below 5%, so 45% will get their chance to hit you as low as it will ever go. If you plan on doing any teaming at all, you will probably want Taunt. There is much debate on whether Taunt is necessary, my advice is if you've never used it before, try it out and decide for yourself if you think you need it. I'd go into more detail on the slotting, but that would just confuse you at this point. For now, in your attack powers slot: at least one accuracy (2 if you find yourself missing a lot) 3 damage, a recharge, and an end reduction (you can swap one or the other of these for a second accuracy if you find you need it) Slot True Grit with 3 Heal enhancements, and if you getone, slot the Steadfast Protection Resistance/Defense in it as well. Slot your defense powers with 1-2 End reductions, and 3 defense buff enhancements. Once you have a better idea what you're doing, you can always come back for more specific advice on slotting. |
You have to be aware of the fact that Shield Defense isin't going to have much resistance against anything--and when that random number generator decides to fail you, you're going to need some sort of cover. Typically, that cover would be, making spawns die before you die, but Electric Melee, while having a lot of AoE potential, still doesn't do the most damage. Without a very high resistance to defense debuff, cascade failure is undoubtedly possible; and with low resistance, you can faceplant, fairly easily. Consider taking both One With the Shield and Grant Cover.
One With the Shield can get you to 90% resistance to Smashing and Lethal, as well as fairly decent resistance to the other forms, with the exception of Psionic. The only real downside to One With the Shield is the -50 endurance at the end of its duration; and that is really, no sweat. If you have room, take One With the Shield and Grant Cover, and consider speccing into the Medicine pool for Aid Self.(You'll need a prerequsite power)
The OP requested the build to be tailored for farming. Both OWTS and Grant Cover are optional for farming, but mandatory for team content.
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Grant Cover isn't needed for defense debuff resistance, double stacking Active Defense with Hamis will cap this. |
Originally Posted by GI Justice
You said not to take One With the Shield and Grant Cover; without those, you are basically hampering the fullest potential of his build. With Grant Cover, he gains valuable defense debuff resistance, which will help when he/she eventually runs task forces, and will help monumentally on some farming missions, especially if he/she decides to crank the difficulty up.
You have to be aware of the fact that Shield Defense isin't going to have much resistance against anything--and when that random number generator decides to fail you, you're going to need some sort of cover. Typically, that cover would be, making spawns die before you die, but Electric Melee, while having a lot of AoE potential, still doesn't do the most damage. Without a very high resistance to defense debuff, cascade failure is undoubtedly possible; and with low resistance, you can faceplant, fairly easily. Consider taking both One With the Shield and Grant Cover. One With the Shield can get you to 90% resistance to Smashing and Lethal, as well as fairly decent resistance to the other forms, with the exception of Psionic. The only real downside to One With the Shield is the -50 endurance at the end of its duration; and that is really, no sweat. If you have room, take One With the Shield and Grant Cover, and consider speccing into the Medicine pool for Aid Self.(You'll need a prerequsite power) |
One with the Shield will be usefull for for Incarnate trials but outside of that shouldn't really be needed, its a nice to have.
For farming I'd leave both of these to allow room for Fireball and its prerequisite powers.
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
Is the fighting pool a must have set to reach soft cap or can it be done with the leadership set?
It's definitely not a must to reach the soft cap for standard content(45 defense), but without weave, you have no prayer of achieving soft cap on Incarnate Trials. Well..maybe you could, but I'd hate to imagine the sacrifices.
A quick suggestion, though, and I don't expect you to adhere to my style of play: Consider the Fighting pool, in lieu of the Leadership pool. If you could take both, great, but if its forcing you into this sort of decision, the fighting pool wins, hands down; unless you are going for a particular concept. Shield Defense is very toggle heavy, by itself. If you spec into the Leadership pool, you are going to become even more toggle heavy(as you would with Fighting), but the value of the buffs of Leadership, per endurance point, are dwarfed immensely by the Fighting pool.
Lets think about the functional reasons to take Leadership on a Tanker. Off the top of my head, I know Maneuvers gives around 2.27 defense, unenhanced, and Assault gives a 10.9ish boost to damage. First off, that 2.27 defense vs. the 5 defense from Weave speaks for itself. The utility of Assault, however, has always been under scrutiny. If you're fully enhanced, and alotting for reasonable damage, that benefit is even further diminished. Tactics gives +to hit and +perception; and both have questionable degrees of usefulness, for different reasons. The +to hit function of Tactics can easily be substituted with +accuracy set bonuses. The perception aspect matters most in PvP. Then you have Vengeance, which while awesome, requires someone to die; and it doesn't stack, so multiple characters on a team with it is generally a waste.
Now, these benefits are cool to bring for a team, and I'm sure they'll be happy to have the aid; but chances are, there are already multiple teammates with the Leadership pool. If no one has it, the buffs provided by Corruptors, Masterminds, Defenders, et all, certainly suffice. If you're geared toward more solo-oriented action, the value of the Leadership essentially flatlines in comparison to fighting. With fighting, you can pick up more defense, not to mention some much needed Resistance to smashing and lethal.
Hello,
I am trying to build a tanker and I already chose Shield Defense/Electricity. Can someone who has built these, or are very familiar with this type of build help me determine power choices and slotting? I want to do farming missions. People ask me well what kind of farming missions, I do not know.. I would hope there is a type that works great with a build that is SD/EL and maybe you can suggest that.
I greatly appreciate any and all help in advance!
Revyek