Actual usefulness of PVP IO's?

Early into the release of PVP IO's, I bought one of nearly all of them, and I've been sitting on them ever since, waiting in vain for MIDS to incorporate DR before actually slotting them into a build. But since it doesn't look like MIDS will be incorporating DR any time soon, I've been thinking of selling them off for a cool profit. But I'd really like to get into zone PVP with either my SS/Inv brute or my Inv/SS Tanker. So are PVP IO's actually worth slotting in these builds? Are there any "must-haves"?

imho in some builds its not really worth it.. but in the weaker builds it does make a difference.. but thats my opinion of course... if your going a melee build you can use them and bush that toon to the limit.. but its up to you..

If you're using an SS/Invul brute or a Invul/SS tanker, I'd recommend you keep some specific ones.

Shield wall +res
Panacea +regen +end
Any Gladiator's Strike procs

For invul, it's nice to 2 slot the passives with 2 Glad armors (res, res/rech) to help your end.
For more +HP, it's nice to slot 3 shield wall in some powers here and there.

I'd say those are the most important ones.

Also go for the brute because DR is harder on tanks...etc.

Is it worth it to slot for defense on a SS/INV brute or an INV/SS Tank? The tank is currently softcaped in PVE and the brute is softcapped to S/L.

With DR I realize the defense will be gutted so I plan on reducing the focus on defense significantly.

It depends, it can definitely increase your survivability. If you stick the Absolute Amazement proc in something like Jab and spam it on someone, it'll help a ton.

Invul does get a good amount of DDR in PvP (more than PvE, even after DRed). You have to remember that against ranged, nobody is in range of invincibility, and that since PvP fights are not straight fights for minutes at a time and are more jagged, it means they'll have Build up and Aim up for those times they attack.

On average with good recharge, a blaster will have Aim up 25% of the time and Build up on 25% of the time. It makes me wonder if defense is really good at all in zone because of that. 50% of the time blasters are rocking what's equal to Rage or higher.

Invul has no elusivity, a mechanic introduced to help defense sets. For low accuracy builds, elusivity will take away around 7% acc from your enemy, for high accuracy builds, elusivity can take around 14% from your enemies. (42% acc gone if you're Energy Aura in Overload).

Lastly, you have to consider endurance. Weave, Invincibility, Maneuvers or stealth....they can all really add to your end consumption. With hasten and rage crashes, it may cripple you a lot.



That said, it can be done. I recently saw lll SOUL TAKER lll (Invul/SS tank) run out of hero base with what looked like Veng/Fortitude, and he was tanking all of us pretty well.

3500 hp, 70ish res with Unstop and missing 80% of the time really made him invincible.


Basic answer is, it's not worth it unless you really know what you're doing.

make your ss/invuln a taunt bot and you will be the scourge of rv.

if you can take your tank red side you get better res and the webnades - built right dull pain can be pretty much perma - you can slot the hell out of psi res ios and if you go the incarnate route and get the heal or res or def you can basically taunt/nade the whole map. You won't kill anything but on a team you will be loved.

If you can't web and double stack taunt on 6 targets, you're nothing. NOTHING.

I only slot unstoppable as a set bonus holder - +hp is a gimme but since most of it can dual for +recharge and my DP give me hp cap yea for me!

the resists you can slot with gen ios and add in a +psi res and an ageis...my arena taunt bot build is expensive though but it is hella fun to play. People would not talk to me on vent after being perma taunted and webnaded lol.

I agree with most of what has been said-

PvP IOs are very useful in helping with +hp for melee as shield walls or glad armors can give the nice 2.25% +hp which is pretty hard otherwise to get. Unless you do some crazy power choices (lol footstomp with errad, or some ranged power with devs).

I do want to point out that Brutes and Tanks get DR'd at the same rate. The difference in values you see is due to base resists then enhancement values. Brutes do start out higher (unenhanced) then tanks but once you slot the powers Tanks (for the most part) have better resists, however due to DR the difference between:

47.5% psi resist for tanks and 45.7% psi resist for brutes is negligible.

Brutes used to be favored due to web envelope however, with patron pools available to both tanks and brutes now. I would go with the tank every time for great survivability (bigger bag of hp).

Sorry for the length in advanced.

DR is harsher on tanks than brutes. In the DR equation, Brutes get A=0.6 B=1
while tanks get A=0.8 B=1

The higher B is, the harsher the DR. That's why blasters have A=1.2 and MMs have A=1.8

Here's some comparisons

3 level 50 SOs in all res shields + tough

Fire Brute = 48% S/L, 75% F
Fire Tank = 47% S/L, 67.5% F

Ele Brute = 51% S/L, 73% E
Ele Tank = 50% S/L, 66% E

Invul Brute = 57% S/L
Invul Tank = 55% S/L

Invul Brute Unstoppable = 82% S/L
Invul Tank Unstoppable = 71% S/L

Invul Brute Unstoppable + Demonic = 87% S/L
Invul Tank Unstoppable + Demonic = 73% S/L


The difference on normal levels is hardly noticeable, but on the extreme levels (unstop, elec, fire, power surge etc.) there are huge differences. Comparing the last one, the brute takes 13% of full damage while the tank takes 27% of full damage. The brute is more than 2x more survivable in Unstop+Demonic.

Scrappers have the same DR curve as Brutes, as well as the same +10% PvP bonus and base amount of resistance in powers, so believe it or not, scrappers also have more resistance than tanks.

Tanks, Brutes and Scrappers all have -roughly- the same resistance in RV on normal levels. Any +res added on after (T9s, elemental specialties, Shield wall proc, bonuses, therm shields, oranges etc.) benefit the scrappers and brutes much much more. The scrappers, however, cap their res at 75%. A scrapper in unstoppable will hit the 75% cap, while the brute will go past it to 82% res.

+Psi resist IOs would also benefit the brute much more than a tank.



That being said, this isn't an argument that brutes are more survivable than tanks, and nobody is allowed to quote this in that arguement. Tanks have higher base HP and a higher HP cap. +HP can also be labelled as +res which makes tanks more survivable...except in the extreme cases, although to be honest, those "extreme" cases are becoming more and more common with burnout.

As for invul brute vs invul tank, the invul brute is -more- survivable in t9, which can be a considerable amount of uptime these days, but less survivable than tanks out of it.

It's choosing between a Arch-Villain (Invul Tank) or a being an Elite boss 50% of the time and Giant monster the other 50% of the time (Invul Brute).



tl;dr DR makes brutes/scraps have more res than tanks, don't ask me why.

Brutes in extreme res cases > Tanks res > Normal Brute res