/DB attack slotting...

... so Sky Commando (WP/DB) is slowly but surely approaching level 50. I'm trying to figure out how to bump up his defense...

unfortunately for DB, you pretty much have to wind up taking every single power in the game (you *can* skip blinding feint, but the combination of bruising plus the 30% damage buff is actually quite nice for tankers). But that means you have a lot of attacks that you can use to get defense bonuses, half single target and half AOE.

Alas, this makes slotting everything out pretty tight. I wondered if I could get away with only four-slotting all my attacks, putting four kinetic combat in all the single targets and four eradication in all my AOEs. This helps boost my smashing and lethal defense up to 46.1 and energy and negative up to 49.6, which is nice. My concern is that I might be cheating myself out of damage. How workable would you all think this is?

Just wondering!

I don't think accuracy will be a problem (maybe I have lower standards than the norm but Mids' was reporting accuracy averages of 130% which seems fine to me.) And recharge should work out OK with a base 40% in each attack plus a global recharge from other set bonuses (though one DB attack will, now that I think of it, still be shortchanged.) Damage was only listed at 80% though... so I'll go for a s/l Def in the mid-30s and see how that works from me.

It may be that Accuracy will not be a problem for you. The 130% reported by Mids is vs an even-level minion, not vs a plus-level Boss, AV, or GM. It also does not account for debuffs.

As for recharge, that is less of an issue than Endurance Reduction. DB is a fast-cycling set whose individual attacks may be endurance-light, but maintaining the attack-stream still puts a strong drain on your resources. Happily, Willpower has nice recovery powers, to offset that - somewhat.

Unfortunately, this thread has not attracted the attention of other experienced Willpower tankers, so we are stuck discussing my own experiences (and, admittedly, my prejudices) which may or may not apply to you.

Whether you will be 'gimped' by your chosen slotting has at least as much to do with your playstyle and teammates, if any, as it does with your build. For instance, I'm usually partnered with a psychotic Scrapper, so I only have to hold the enemy's attention and survive long enough for him to chop them into tiny, quivering gobbets. Best way for me to do that, usually, is to be almost as aggressive as he is, especially when holding aggro with Willpower.

Your needs and experiences may be different, but that doesn't mean I'm trying to sell you a load of moldy bologna.

Be Well!
Firheart

If you can fit one more slot into those powers, 4 slot them like you plan and fill the 5th slot with a Nucleolus Hami-O. It gets your damage to about 95% and accuracy just above 70%, and only costs you one more slot per power.

Additionally, if you can spare a 6th slot for Ablating Strike, put an Achille's Heel proc in there as well. It's a 20% chance for a 20% resistance debuff, which will indeed stack with Bruising. (I confirmed it myself)

You can slot 5 Obliteration in one of your AoEs and still stay over softcap on E/N, or you can slot it with Scirocco's and gain a little bit of F/C defense.

I'll see about throwing a build together for you when I get home. I don't remember for sure, but I think I managed to softcap all types except Psi with a WP/DB build, I'll have to check and see if I saved it or not.

I DO know that you can softcap at least S/L/E/N without gimping your attacks and still getting enough Max HP and regen to keep you going. I'll definitely make sure to post a build for that for you to look at and see how I did it.

Sweet! Thanks! I look forward to seeing it.

You may end up having to give up one of the combos to do it. If that's the case, which ones are you least attached to?

... gah. I'd have to think about it. Currently I open with bruising, then use Blinding Feint, then go through Attack Vitals and Sweep. Sweep is really useful when Sky Commando is completely surrounded (that knockdown is great) but if I had to choose between the two Attack Vitals is the one I wind up using more.

But... Attack Vitals has only one attack with knockdown in it. I need more than that for Malta Sappers unless there's a way to pump my recharge up so high that I can spam that one attack over and over and over again...

I have to say I never would have thought of some of those things. Though the first problem I see is I'd have to swap out hover and fly, which makes the character name ("Sky Commando") a bit unusual. ;-)

Thanks for this info! I'm going to study this in more detail when I get home this evening...

You could always use a Raptor Pack and adjust his backstory to say that he's a reformed Sky Raider. They use swords in melee combat, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to have one using two.

And I'm always glad to share my build knowledge. I made a lot of really crappy builds and asked a bunch of dumb questions to get to this point, so I try to pay it forward.

Some small things I would change about that build C&E posted:

1. Accuracy slotting in Blinding Feint. As far as I know you need to hit with Blinding Feint to get the +ToHit effect(though I could be wrong), and without the extra ToHit you'll be missing quite often against +3's.

2. You can lose the Rectified Reticles in Focused Accuracy and BF, and put 1 slot from each in Boxing for another set of Kinetic Combat. The fourth slot for Boxing would come from RttC since you're at the ED cap with Spiritual.

3. I would replace the set in LBE with Devastation for extra regen and HP, and then remove a slot from 1K Cuts and put it into Taunt, for the F/C defense from Mocking Beratement.

About point 1.

The build I posted is endurance sustainable enough that it can run Focused Accuracy for extended periods if you need to hit higher level enemies, even unslotted for end reduction.

That was one of the things I made sure of before I left it that way. I figured out how much I needed to gain in net endurance to run it without running dry. As long as the net endurance gain stays above 2.2 you can run Focused Accuracy and still fight. (Mids is not showing the gain from the 2 Performance Shifter procs)

For even con enemies up to +2 or so, the Kismet +Acc should be enough.

Your suggestions are good ones, but I did already think about the uplevel accuracy situation

If you don't want to rely on the proc for endurance, you can swap the Regenerative Tissue in Physical Perfection for a Miracle +Recovery (which I left out because it doesn't really need it) or a third Performance Shifter proc (your choice)

And about point 2: I HATE slotting powers I'll never use, and I try to avoid it whenever possible. If I can do something without slotting Brawl or Boxing, I'll do it that way instead. It seems kind of wasteful to slot a power that's just going to get removed from my tray. LBE can at least be used to taunt back a runner if Taunt isn't recharged yet (or if you want to pull a single target for some reason), Boxing deals crap damage and forces redraw, so I'd rather not slot it if it can be at all avoided. (I may actually use this build myself when I feel like leveling another tank)

Does laser beam eyes cause redraw? None of the builds I ever worked with considered taking that power because I assumed it would disrupt my DB attacks.

I particularly liked putting the steadfast protection +def io in the Strength of Will slot. I was thinking of putting it in high pain tolerance but SoW seems a much better choice considering that it only marginally adds to survivability compared to other tier 9's.