senseichen

You really want Freeze Ray. Even ignoring the hold, it's your highest DPA and Damage per Cycle attack. Swapping any of Ice Bolt, Ice Blast, or Bitter Freeze Ray for it would be an upgrade, and just swapping it in for one of your pool powers would also work. I'd put at least one more slot in Hasten, maybe 2. You can run alright with two 50+5s, but until then I'd go with 3 total. I'm trying to decide on an Epic pool for my Ice/Kin, I'm curious how well you like Dark, and what sort of tricks you have for it. It looked like it might overlap a lot with self-only versions of Transference and Fulcrum Shift, but maybe they just feel twice as awesome?

One thing I didn't see mentioned: Sniper Shot on Homecoming gives a 10s, 50% range buff. So Boost Range + Sniper Rife is 275+ range, but then all your cones are 200+% range. I only noticed this late on my AR/Plant, and was thinking of rolling AR/Nrg just to try to play this to hilt.

Thanks. I ended up respeccing through a bunch of them for my last few levels. I basically gave up on the APP pets after a few rounds. 😞 Stone shouldn't be good, but I'm a sucker for Sleeps and feeling like a controller. A 30' radius sleep is fun for ranged stragglers while you pummel everything in 10'. I'm trying Stalagmites with all the procs, but it still doesn't really feel like a great AoE. I wanted to like Quicksand, but I think I've going to favor the Hold for stragglers. I really wish all the -DEF powers too Defense Debuff IOs. Soul is solid. I gave up on the AE Immob, but Darkest Night and Obliterate are both great. I should re-try Leviathan. I really didn't like the cone Immob, but I think I've mostly given up on any of the AE immobs being satisfying. If I can get a great -Res power (base and Proc) it might be worth it. Mu looked good, but mostly because I wanted an AoE Immob. It's weird, but I think I didn't like it because the Immob made a noise. But without the Immob, Soul is superior. Mace worked well, but the animation felt too slow. With no damage on Web grenades, but the same animation/recharge as the other Immobs, it felt weak there. I suppose if I needed To Hit? I still need to try Energy. I doubt I'll take LBE, but I'm still iffy on End sometimes, so I might as well be complete. Maybe Energy Torrent for another FF procc-er will be good. I couldn't bring myself to try Ice or Fire. I don't really need to go out of my way for another hold (although if I'm forced to take one in Earth Mastery, eh?)

Let's talk about Shield Charge! How are you slotting it? Procs? Sets? Range? What are you using it for? Do you use it on CD, save it from pack to pack, or save it for a rainy day? Do you use it to move in, or wait so that Against all Odds stacks come up? Is it worth getting a second lower powered copy from the Leaping Pool? I've got Force feedback and Fury of the Gladiator proc slotted, since the CD is long enough to max proc chance. I've currently just got the non-Recharge Scirocco's slotted, but that's more of a placeholder. With my Global and regular FF procs, it recharges in about 30s, so FF is up around 16% of the time just from this. I think I should probably through the Apoc Fire Proc in here, but I'd like to keep the 5 piece? The proc might not be worht it with the base damage so high. I'd like a bit of extra range on it. It feels like 60' is just short enough that targeting the middle of the pack will often aggro the edges. Does anyone else slot it for Range? Is there anything other than basic Range IO or the Zinger Taunt/Range IO? I like that the CD stays in sync with BU if both have no slotted recharge. So I'm almost always popping BU (with 90% for second BU proc) before it. I'm usually just using it at the start of a pack to jump in, Against all Odds be damned. But on longer fights, or if the CD is out of sync with pulls, I'm also a fan of dragging melee around a corner while pummeling them, then using this to avoid the crowd and hop into the ranged that accumulate at the corner.

Awesome! Thanks. I really like the "force a copy" link into Google Sheets/Docs, too. I'm going to start using that. 🙂

Just having the 107.1 and 71.75 as a note on that proc page would help people plan/compare I think. If we have the data for other levels, that would be great, but the level 50 values are enough.

Awesome, looks great! I was just throwing together a basic PPM spreadsheet to point people to. It would be cool if you could add info on the damage proc amount for each type/level ( or just level 30 and level 50?) so people can compare proc damage vs damage enhancements.

Thanks Heraclea, that has some good stuff in it. Marcus, I'm less concerned about "which is better" and more about "how do I get better." I assume Shield Defense can do the job, but knowing your enemies seems like it can make a huge difference for Defense tanks. And just getting DDR doesn't replace that.

I'm Shield Defense, for what it's worth. Everyone's mentioning DDR as protection for Defense tanks, but it doesn't really do anything against massive To Hit buffs from enemies, right? Even at 90% DDR, Super Reflexes is going to keel over to a Vengeance-d up pack of Nemesis without knowing what to avoid.

Thanks. It definitely seems like an issue with Defense tanks. I would have thought there'd be a pretty solid general guide for Defense tanks with specific info though? For example, I just ran a tip mission against Nemesis. I monitored my defenses the whole time and didn't see any debuffs. But I was getting worked. Checking the combat log, the enemies regular had 50-70% to hit chances. I'm assuming their Vengeance power is +To Hit instead of the +Accuracy described as well. Does the power analyzer let you monitor enemy combat stats and see the source of their buffs? Figuring out that their To Hit is through the roof isn't obvious until you're face planted. 😞

Is there a good general guide out there for what to look out for while tanking each enemy type? I feel like when I hit 35, went from walking wall of invulnerability to regularly faceplanting against various enemy groups (starting with Vanguard.) I think Vanguard have some significant +To Hit, which makes it rough for Defense tankers? I was hoping there was a brief guide somewhere (Vanguard: +To Hit, kill the ??? first to remove the buff, etc.)

I can't find a thread dedicated to discussing Tanker Epic or Patron pools. What are your favorites? Are there hidden gems in there? None of the epic pools look that interesting/fun. I guess a long CD Conserve Power and half a Stamina are the best options? The Patron pools look better, the AoE immobilizes look promising, and maybe the -Res from Leviathan or -ACC from Soul Mastery? I'm Shield/Stone if that changes any recommendations.

Are we now sure the max proc chance is 90% and not 95%? Just checking for some of my slotting which is close.

I did some testing. It seems like the Spores toggle itself procs on you/caster (~3 PPM each for Health and Endurance) and the psuedo-pet also procs separately on targets, but much less often (looks like ~1/5th as often, which makes sense for the area reduction although I can't find the radius.)

Is there a way to change what your pets say when they're summoned, or orders to change stances? I feel like there is, but I'm not having any luck finding it.