On Shield/Mace Tankers

So, after raising my new Shield/Mace tank to 14, I'm seeing a few things which raise questions for me about how the character will progress.

1) I'm assuming that the enormous rise in enemy s/l resistance as you progress will eventually knock a significant chunk out of this build's overall damage in the later levels. How is the damage for a Shield/Mace tank boosted with Against All Odds if you plan on softcapping and reliably being boosted by having 16 enemies in proximity?

2) How difficult will it be to slot this character for sustainable recovery? A lot of Mace attacks have a big Endurance cost...

3) How reliable is the mitigation for Mace in the later game? Its stuns are all fairly low magnitudes, I'm aware.

4) Exactly how is Jawbreaker not one of everyone's favorite powers in the game? You uppercut someone in the face WITH A HEAVY, BLUNT OBJECT so hard that they go FLYING INTO THE AIR!

I don't actually have a Shield/Mace Tanker at 50 -- Mine's in his high 20s. But I do have a Shield/Axe Tanker at 50, which is fairly analogous, so I'll take a hack at these questions if you promise not to bash me.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Grumpums 1) I'm assuming that the enormous rise in enemy s/l resistance as you progress will eventually knock a significant chunk out of this build's overall damage in the later levels. How is the damage for a Shield/Mace tank boosted with Against All Odds if you plan on softcapping and reliably being boosted by having 16 enemies in proximity?

Remember that enemies have separate smashing and lethal resistances, not one value for s/l. And common wisdom is that lethal resistance is somewhat worse. I have not really felt too hampered by it with Axe, however (accepting that Tanker damage is what it is, of course). So I assume smashing will be fine -- my other smashing damage tankers (notably Super Strength) have not felt unacceptably weak. I think AAO helps A LOT with the damage; it would probably not feel as strong if I had used another set.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Grumpums 2) How difficult will it be to slot this character for sustainable recovery? A lot of Mace attacks have a big Endurance cost...

I took Body Mastery for Physical Perfection. Sustained fights do tend to wear down the blue bar. But you should be fine if you employ the usual tricks to maximize endurance. Notably, my characters do not have an Alpha Incarnate power slotted -- there are two (Agility and most particularly Cardiac) that will help if you are still having problems at that point.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Grumpums 3) How reliable is the mitigation for Mace in the later game? Its stuns are all fairly low magnitudes, I'm aware.

This is where I have no direct experience. Axe has the same type of mitigation from each attack (knockdown) and it works pretty darned well, except on AVs. But you'll get knb in the fantastic Crowd Control power; with good recharge, you should get a ton of mitigation from spamming that every chance you get.

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Originally Posted by Mr_Grumpums 4) Exactly how is Jawbreaker not one of everyone's favorite powers in the game?

Because you get Crowd Control. Also Clobber.

Forgot to mention: Shield by itself is pretty solid on a mature Tanker. With Combat Jumping, Weave, and the Steadfast +3% global alone, I am brushing the soft-cap at 44-point-something percent defense before level 30. Couple with Shield's other defensive aspects (the small -dmg debuff, the mid-range smashing and lethal resistance, the hit point boost, the DDR) it makes a fairly sturdy tank. You won't really need to depend on your secondary for mitigation.