I like the idea of Staff/Bio as a tanker. Nine mode combinations to choose from, and I think Soul/Defense is going to be a great marathon tanking build. And not only does Staff have the ability to stream AoE right from the start, the extra reach of Staff's attacks will also be useful for gaining aggro in a crowd.
And then when you're solo and tanking for no one, you switch to offensive or efficient mode. Soul/Efficient should never need to stop for anything.
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Yeah, I think this is what I'll be going with... for these reasons even.|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I like the idea of Staff/Bio as a tanker. Nine mode combinations to choose from, and I think Soul/Defense is going to be a great marathon tanking build. And not only does Staff have the ability to stream AoE right from the start, the extra reach of Staff's attacks will also be useful for gaining aggro in a crowd.
And then when you're solo and tanking for no one, you switch to offensive or efficient mode. Soul/Efficient should never need to stop for anything. |
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Also, Bio is a PBAoE monster, so you should feel right at home.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Yeah, I think this is what I'll be going with... for these reasons even.
I wish I had more to add. |
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I'm also going to toss my vote in for Bio/Staff. You'll probably never find a better combo for on-demand fine tuning. Having dabbled with the combo as a Brute, I can say there is a lot of good synergy.
One note about Guarded Spin: Unless you're running into situations where you going to get hit by PURE LETHAL, you'll probably not notice a lot of survival boost. And really, you won't need it. And that means the attack can't be flagged for anything other than Lethal. The reason for that being is that your defense to everything else will be so high, unless you run around with GS constantly triple stacked, those attacks won't check to your lethal defense. Also, with the amount of ridonkulous S/L resist you'll have as a tank, you won't be that worried about it anyway.
But GS is great for the AoE in and of istelf, and when you want to proc heals or damage from it, it's going to be very helpful.
@Rylas
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You may be selling it short.|
Originally Posted by Rylas
One note about Guarded Spin: Unless you're running into situations where you going to get hit by PURE LETHAL, you'll probably not notice a lot of survival boost. And really, you won't need it.
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There are a lot of lethal attacks in the game (swords and bullets are for the most part purely lethal, with few exceptions.)
In addition, there are likely to be many attacks that are pure smashing that will be covered by GS melee defense bonus.
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True, this will depend on what groups you plan on fighting most of the time. In a place like the ITF, it will be nice. In groups like Council, CoT and Tsoo, not quite as much. No matter what though, the power will be incredibly useful.
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Originally Posted by Starsman
You may be selling it short.
There are a lot of lethal attacks in the game (swords and bullets are for the most part purely lethal, with few exceptions.) In addition, there are likely to be many attacks that are pure smashing that will be covered by GS melee defense bonus. |
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
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Council has a lot of brawlers and gunners.|
Originally Posted by Rylas
True, this will depend on what groups you plan on fighting most of the time. In a place like the ITF, it will be nice. In groups like Council, CoT and Tsoo, not quite as much. No matter what though, the power will be incredibly useful.
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CoT has few pure brawlers, albeit not many and their blades, even if pure lethal at times, are also negative as far as defense goes so thats also not a special point.
The Tsoo, though, is very heavy on swords and melee.
Malta, Knives of Arthemis, Nemesis, Freakshow, these are very prominent enemy groups with heavy sue of smash or lethal attacks that Bio has no defenses against. Carnies also have a lot of Smash/Melee only attacks in the Strongmen, the others tend to have a mixture of energy in their weapons though.
It goes on and on.
I hope to build some form of database with this information at some point... lets see where i pull the time out off.
I was planning on using Guarded Spin in addition to set bonuses, not by itself. In that situation it will possibly allow for softcapped Lethal defense to go along with my other defenses. Of course, with all my other mitigation it's probably not necessary. I suppose I'll see as I play the character.
@Rorn ---- Blue Baron ---- Guardian
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Does the defense granted from GS somehow differ from regular defense bonuses?? Cause the way you are describing it is not the way normal defense works.
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Originally Posted by Rylas
One note about Guarded Spin: Unless you're running into situations where you going to get hit by PURE LETHAL, you'll probably not notice a lot of survival boost. And really, you won't need it. And that means the attack can't be flagged for anything other than Lethal. The reason for that being is that your defense to everything else will be so high, unless you run around with GS constantly triple stacked, those attacks won't check to your lethal defense. Also, with the amount of ridonkulous S/L resist you'll have as a tank, you won't be that worried about it anyway.
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Bio/Kin/Soul sounds really interesting. Getting somewhere around -63% Dam on aoe plus Repuls. Torrent w/ Overwhelming proc. Add in some degenerative love from Incarnate and it should be a good combo.
Then again Bio/X/Soul can get ~-49% Dam in AoE form.
I would think Bio/TW would be a strong contender too.
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Try to get hit point set bonuses as well. Bio has a good amount of regeneration, so there's synergy there, but absorption is also based off of maximum hit points. Bio armor probably benefits from +max hp even more than willpower does.
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Originally Posted by Vauluur
I was planning on using Guarded Spin in addition to set bonuses, not by itself.
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Bio Armor has much higher defense against exotic types than S/L. If the attacks are checking against another typed defense as well, the defense from Guarded Spin will provide little or no improvement over your exotic defenses. Thus, Guarded Spin is only a significant benefit against pure Lethal attacks.
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Originally Posted by Sir Hextor
Does the defense granted from GS somehow differ from regular defense bonuses?? Cause the way you are describing it is not the way normal defense works.
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Don't forget the Melee Defense it adds. This will give a level of protection against melee smash attacks... It adds up.
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Originally Posted by Hopeling
Bio Armor has much higher defense against exotic types than S/L. If the attacks are checking against another typed defense as well, the defense from Guarded Spin will provide little or no improvement over your exotic defenses. Thus, Guarded Spin is only a significant benefit against pure Lethal attacks.
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It can and it can't. It all depends on the groups you're going up against. If they have a lot of mixed damage attacks, then your lethal and/or melee defense numbers won't matter. |
Originally Posted by Shadey_NA
Don't forget the Melee Defense it adds. This will give a level of protection against melee smash attacks... It adds up.
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But when you run into groups like Warriors or a lot of the KoA and KoA spin-offs, it's going to be much more helpful.
If I implied I thought it was useless, nothing could be further from the truth. I was only stating that Bio can negate its defense in a lot of situations. That is all.
@Rylas
Kill 'em all. Let XP sort 'em out.
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Shadey specifically mentioned melee smashing attacks, which it will defend against without qualification.
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Originally Posted by Rylas
It can and it can't. It all depends on the groups you're going up against. If they have a lot of mixed damage attacks, then your lethal and/or melee defense numbers won't matter.
But when you run into groups like Warriors or a lot of the KoA and KoA spin-offs, it's going to be much more helpful. If I implied I thought it was useless, nothing could be further from the truth. I was only stating that Bio can negate its defense in a lot of situations. That is all. |
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So I'm looking forward to the Bio Armor set and I'm planning on making a Tanker. I've been trying to decide which secondary to pair it with though. I'd like to avoid Titan Weapons, as I don't really like the animation style of the set. Other than that I can probably fiddle with colors and alternate animations to get to a look I like. So far I've thought of the following:
Staff Fighting: Strong AoE set, so it should make it really easy to gain and hold aggro. It also features the three different forms, which could be used to offset or complement the adaptations in Bio Armor. Plus it has Guarded Spin, which might help fill the S/L defense hole that Bio Armor has - well the Lethal part anyway. The pairing is my favorite on paper, but I'm not sure how effective it would be in game. Also, I'm not sure how a fully armored up Bio character would look going through the Staff animations, but I'm sure I could live with that.
Kinetic Melee: I haven't really been a big fan of this set in the past, but it's growing on me. The main synergy I see with Bio Armor is that it contains -Damage. That could mean a pretty good amount of mitigation when that gets stacking. I have no experience with the set on a Tanker though, and so I'm not certain how reliable it is.
Super Strength: It seems to be a fan favorite on beta right now, probably because Rage can overcome the -damage from Defensive Adaptation. Footstomp is also a great power. SS has the added bonus of looking really good with Bio Armor.
Street Justice: Just a generally good set. No particular synergy with Bio Armor, but SJ is pretty good on it's own. Plus, it'd probably be pretty great to see some of the animations with Bio Armor's toggles on.
Dark Melee: DM seems competitive since it offers Soul Drain and -ToHit. Both of those things go well with Bio Armor. The self heal might be useful as well, since healing behind +Absorb is generally the goal of +Absorb as I understand it.
Other: Bio Armor is pretty versatile, so I imagine it's hard to pick a set that's bad. Anyone think one of the other sets deserves discussion?
What are some of your thoughts?
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