So I Created A New Tanker for...

...Tanker Tuesday spending 3.5 days getting him up to level 23. It is a Shield Defense / War hammer build. Now, this is my first time using a War hammer, not the shield defense. I was taken back by a couple of things.

1. Activating, swinging, and recharging: OMG! My grandmother, when she was alive, could move faster than a tanker swinging a hammer! It has to be that slow? I thought I would have to shave after a few combat rounds after obtaining 3 of the attack powers. Not only is this frustrating it is shocking. My tanker with Shield Defense / Broad Sword is blinding fast compared to this! I am disappointed in this for sure.

2. Shield Defense & Warhammer = Endurance Pig: This did not manifest itself until I hit the magic level 20! Although there was some hints of it coming about after level 15. I countered by running around without sprint on. However, imagine my surprise and dismay while engaging in combat with Lady J next to me and I run slam out of endurance with only Battle Agility running! And before you ask, I slotted all IOs. Had I not announced my displeasure in the help channel over this, I'd more than likely deleted this toon and started anew. However, Shield Defender and I discussed ways of increasing staying power. It meant I had to break some of my attack power IO sets, but I was able to do that without losing my major attribute of regeneration. Which, in my opinion, is super important to a tanker/brute/scrapper/stalker in order to stay alive!

Now, I had to replace RR enhancements in Active Def & Against All odds with another End Red enhancements, slowing the attacks even more. That gave me 2 slotted end reduction for each. And I was able to add two more slots for Stamina which I'll slot Performance Shifter for that. This should solve most of my problems for now.

That said, I was not prepared for the immediate endurance drop off with this build. I never dreamed I'd find my toon without any endurance struggling to combat a bunch of Spirit Thorns and being slapped around like someone's red-headed step child! LOL

So far, it did okay, far better than I expected after changing over to an endurance reduction for 3 of my attack powers. I'll see tonight what the effect the stamina change will do. I'm sure it will be okay.

The most troublesome thing for me now is the molasses’ affected attacks. Sometimes, quick reflexes for second mutation helps, but I don't always get that. Therefore, my concern is that when I reach into the 30s or 40s that the attack rate gets worse.

Has anyone else run into this problem using the Warhammer? If so, how did you manage to increase the attack rate without crippling the endurance? Thanks.

War Mace is beautiful in the later levels. You can pretty much chain AoE attacks and be surrounded by pretty orange numbers. But yes, the early ST attacks at early levels are tricky.

For end use, I always slot accuracy and endurance reduction first, then add damage as I get the slots, so I never really had dramatic problems with it. It does go dry faster than others, just had to pay a little extra attention.

It would help if you could post your build. We might be able to spot the cause of your problem.


I find that I do much better early on by slotting my attacks up first before my toggles, especially if I'm soloing. At SO levels, that would be 1 ACC, 1 END, 3 DMG, 1 RECH.

Also, how many toggles are you running? You shouldn't need Tough/Weave until later on. CJ should be enough with the 3 SD toggles.

War Mace does some whopping smashing damage. My personal preference is to pair it with Electric Armour, steal the bad guys endurance!

Mids: http://www.cohplanner.com/

Use the export feature to copy/paste your build here.



I also have questions, similar to the OP. I have SD/War Mace tanker and I was having trouble with the build. I'm now level 41 and I wanted to figure out how to finish this character.

First question is attack chain. What do I pick? What are the best? This is something that is hard to figure out in Mids.

Second question is SD, what should the "best" powers be? I think I have this one ok, but some input would be appreciated.

Also pool powers. I have Tough, I'm using Fly, but obviously I could now pick up CJ and not have to take Hover, so I wouldn't loose a power pick. Are there any other "must" have pool powers? What about Epics?

Finally, set bonuses. Unlike the OP, I'm not a fan of Regen unless I can stack with some. I also felt the set was a bit slow, so I was thinking +Recharge. Buckets and buckets of +Recharge. Getting Shield Charge down to 30 sec recharge would be hoot. Incarnate, I assume I'll have to go Cardiac, but I'll wait until I get there to see.

Thanks!