Still Viable?

Is this guide from IGN still a viable build? It's an Invisibility/Super Strength Tanker. It's from February of 2008 so it's a bit outdated.

Sincerely,

Supraman

I'm sure there'd be a newer up to date build in either the tanker forum or the guides forum.

Since when did they add Invisibility as a new Tank primary?

You should read Call Me Awesome's two Invulnerability Tank Guides.

Invulnerability tankers, and the first 20 levels.

Invulnerability Tankers and the Defense Soft cap.

As a non-subscriber, I would only look at non IO builds unless you have IO/Auction House unlocked or bought the monthly licenses. I would imagine otherwise they will be loaded down with IOs, relying on set bonuses that you wouldn't have access to.

IO = Invention (Origin) enhancement. They are special enhancements that you don't outlevel like most you will come across.

You can purchase a 30 day invention system license for 160 points I believe. That's the equivalent of approximately $2/month.

For a permanent unlock you would need to fill in tier 7 of the paragon reward tree, which is lot more expensive.

Should you decide to subscribe, the license is free as long as you're subbed.

Sorry, IO stands for Invention Origin, a crafted enhancement versus the ones that critters would drop or would be available in the various ingame stores. "Normal" enhancements simply modify aspects of the power they are slotted in, things like reducing endurance used, improving damage or accuracy. Invention Origin enhancements can also grant global modification to all powers besides the normal modification it would do to the power it's slotted in.

Nowadays most published builds are designed around using IOs and their global bonuses to cap various aspects or fill gaps such as granting a lot of defense to an Archetype like Blaster which normally has little or no defense.

IOs came out in Issue 9 so published builds before that won't have them. You should also know that some posted builds are designed for a respec Level 50 character, a respec is when you can rechoose the order of powers taken and the number of slots you assigned to each power, and they may not illustrate a character that naturally levels. You end up with builds that have it's "travel power" picked at Level 49 for instance.

For more about enhancements, ParagonWiki: Enhancements.

Edit: The problem with pre-Issue 9 builds, even pre-Issue 19 and 21 builds is that there has been major changes in power pool sets in Issue 19 and 21. In Issue 19 the Fitness Power Pool is now inherent at Level 2 for every new character. Doesn't count as a power pool choice either (you can have up to four power pools and one "epic" power pool). In Issue 21 they adjusted the other pool powers to unlock at Level 4 instead of six and in the case of the so called Travel power pools (Flight, Leaping, Speed, Teleportation) the primary travel power available at Level 4 instead of requiring a prerequisite power selection and unlocks at Level 14. Also a 5th power were added to those sets (the remaining power pools will have a 5th power added in Issue 24). These changes seriously affect when and what to take in the first 20 levels of a build. Also the so called "epic" power pools now unlock at Level 35 and not Level 41 (also an Issue 21 change) which affects the later part of the build.

So problem is old builds don't take into the account of the changes to pool powers but newer builds have a tendency to be populated with IOs instead of Single Origin enhancements (SOs) which doesn't help a player without IO access.

^ lol to be fair, I'm sure they mean "Defense" as in "Damage Mitigation".

"Defense" in most any other game is just a catch-all phrase for damage mitigation.. But not here in CoH, drives me nuts sometimes xD