Intermipants

Thanks for the tip with the open gift! I got a 19:29 with my stalker. Used SG buffs on run speed and flight speed to move things along a bit. Also experimented with the invisibility buff on the warshade but was killed in Perez. Perez is so good though, that cluster of 6 badges - I just can't leave it alone. I also sold all my salvage for the Wentworth badges while I was flying around Cap, which saved a bit of time. Need to change my route a bit though because I'm still wasting time.

loved that run! The ski runs were inspired and when you told me you were doing it with a ws the other night I was blown away, great to see it in action. Quick question - what’s with all the Christmas packages? im still stuck at 20:25 with my stalker approach. I think I can get a minute off that but now im tempted to go warshade. also how do you get the timer on your screen? again, well done! That was brilliant.

Brutally dull conference call at work almost interrupted a blistering 22:45 run! My friend on the same call ran a 27 even.

Couldn't resist another go and I smashed it: 25:57. Sub 25 is possible.

This sounds great to me. I’d be up for it. I can definitely help with the first 100! 😉

So I gave it one last go and got it down to 28:06 thanks to Blarf and his nutrient rich goodness. 101 badges: 58 explorer, 20 AE badges, 11 achievement, 7 accolades, 1 day job, 1 ouro, 1 event, 2 gladiator. (Forgot to do the Wentworths ones which would probably have shaved off 30 seconds). That'll be my last go, I don't think I can go much faster. But where one door closes another opens - I now have a level 1 character with 101 badges which is the perfect starting point for the Snarky inspired how many badges can a lvl 1 toon get challenge. I'll be doing a few zones a day with this little fella if anyone's interested in joining. I spent a lot of time working on the build for it in mids and I'm pretty satisfied where things ended up but if anyone has any build advice or guidance it'd be much appreciated. Thanks again everyone for the great tips on blarfing, stalking etc. (it's not every day I get to say that).

Done! 28:48. Trick is to get explorations near to trains and SG bases, sell salvage, do AE badge arcs, and flip to red side as a vigilante. Echo explores are great and being a stalker is a must.

I’ve seen plenty of 50s with 30 badges. I’m laughing at the idea of seeing a level 1 join a DFB with 800 badges! Badge run?

Blimey, the lowest level for 1000 badges, and this sound so good. I’m gonna go for my sub 30min century of badges and then start thinking about the marathon challenges!

Fair point. I’ve been doing it solo. I alt invite to my SG, and then I drop an ouro, log on my level 1 and go for it. It’d be fun to get a few people trying it for a cannonball run type race - a prize to whoever makes it back first to the top of Atlas with 100 badges.

Also sewer badges are great because they’re super close to the entrance

I got it to 32 mins earlier today and was killed going for a cheeky echo rwz badge grab which cost me about a minute. I’m gonna give it a go tonight, got it planned out with consignment badges in the mix and the paragon dance party featuring. I gotta break 30 mins.

Cool idea, but unfortunately they're 100 merits each and so unattainable for a new toon.

37 mins 27 seconds. I made a mistake going to Kings Row - badges are too spread out - and didn't think to go to the Night Ward for the 3 badges you get in the Midnighter club until the very end. Sub 30 mins is possible. Love the advice about going stalker! Got it to 35:25. No multi-boxing, and I invited my cannonballer toon to the SG before beginning the run. It's tricky.

Switching alignment at Null gets about 5-10, AE badge missions gets another 5-10. Think it could be done in under 30 mins? I’m gonna try it this afternoon

Chatting about this with a friend - if you rolled a new toon and your objective was to get to 100 badges as quickly as possible - what would you do and how quickly do you think you could bring up the century? I’m thinking travel powers and knowing the streets well would be crucial (plus vidiot maps and popmenu for badges).

I built a regen tank described in this forum post… Maybe use that as a starting point?

Hi all, been offline and just catching up on the replies. Thanks for the tips on reslotting invincibility. I have to confess the invuln tank was my last one and it was proving to be so tough that I started switching things about to add damage etc. and so it really isn’t min/maxed as much as it could be. Think I’ll respec it when I get back from vacation with your tips. Thanks again!

I respec a lot to try out different power combos. The cheapest way to get a respec recipe is from the Halloween contact in Croatoa (right next to the station) - she sells respec recipes for 50 of the Halloween special salvage which you can buy on the AH for about 1000 apiece.

It procs often enough to be effective. I tested it to make sure and it makes a big difference in keeping mobs stunned or feared.

I literally just posted this build at the same time that you asked this question! Yes, you can build a very effective stun tank - see my build in my flavors of tank post that I just put up two mins ago To make it work reliably you need to put the disorient proc in cloak of fear. Happy to discuss the build if you like.

Ahoy Homecoming! I’ve recently been experimenting with tankers and the different ways they can be played. I took the secondary effect of the tanker primary (slows, mez, damage etc.) and combined them with a secondary that accentuates those effects to build various different types of tanks. Couple of caveats on the builds - I made sure that they were sturdy enough for tank basics (i.e. holding aggro without dying) and then I skewed them to accentuate their secondary effects and so they’re not min/maxed and some of them lack damage. However, all of them are more than capable of tanking at +4x8 if that’s the kind of thing you like to do. Also, there are purple sets etc. in the builds but I found that they’re not really necessary and can be substituted for less expensive sets that do the same thing just slightly less effectively. Finally, I love procs in some of my damage powers for tanks and so some of the builds are choc-a-bloc with procs. Thanks to the great Homecoming community both in the forums and in game for all the advice and help you’ve given with the builds. If anyone has any other flavors of tank that they’d recommend please let me know! Here’s the experience I’ve had so far: Mez Tank Powersets: dark armor / energy melee Goal: reduce incoming damage by stunning everything Build priorities: resistance; stun magnitude; endurance management Being surrounded by people staggering around never gets old, and that’s as true in City of Heroes as it is down the pub. The combination of oppressive gloom and the disorient proc in cloak of fear guarantees that all minions and roughly half the lieutenants are stunned instantly. Everyone else can be stunned with a quick energy melee bash. This tank was very durable and highly effective and great fun to play (I took it all the way to Tier 4 incarnates). There were some downsides though: (1) stunned mobs are difficult to cluster tightly; (2) the stun effect doesn’t switch on until level 20 with oppressive gloom; and (3) endurance is something that you have to stay on top of – getting ready for a Synapse TF was like an 800 lb chain smoker limbering up for a marathon. I actually installed a chair near my SG entrance just for this character. I really enjoyed this one and I’d recommend it for any control freaks and dominators (like me) who also like a bit of tanking. Here's the build I used for Disorient Express: Damage Tank Powersets: fiery armor / fiery melee Goal: reduce incoming damage through arson Build priorities: resistance; accuracy, recharge, endurance (the holy trinity of damage dealers) Absolutely nothing subtle about this one - just glorious amounts of enormous damage. I love playing this tank – although it’s probably the least sturdy of the tanks it can still hold its own, can manage aggro well, and the damage level is really nuts. It works equally well on teams, solo, and in farms if you like that kind of thing (I do enjoy the odd bit of farming here and there). Downsides are that you have to keep an eye on your green bar and get ready to heal and it’s quite expensive compared to the other builds. This is now my go to for soloing and it can pretty much solo everything (I sometimes like to take my time soloing TFs so that I can read the dialogue and as a brief aside if you haven’t already done it I’d highly recommend taking your time on the Aeon SF, it’s really well written and hilarious!) Love playing this tank and I’d recommend it for any soloists, farmers, or blasters who fancy some red hot tanking action. Here's the build I use for Emberno Fantastico: Slow Tank Powersets: ice armor / ice melee Goal: reduce incoming damage by slowing everything to a crawl Build priorities: defense; -recharge; -slow This tank was just ok for me - I felt ice armor was a bit unpredictable and could be great for a while and then everything could go catastrophically sideways in a hurry. This character benefited from “micro-kiting” where you cluster the mobs and then step about ten feet away from them and wait – with all the slows it takes them so long to reach you that some will have died of old age, others will have retired to a nice seaside community, and the rest will have been killed by your teammates. The slow effect was good but the unpredictable fragility of the tank and the ongoing endurance issues put me off a bit. I think I could’ve slotted better to manage endurance but I never really got into the groove with this one and just like in real life I stopped caring and gave up at 50. Here's the build I used for Disco Dancefloe: Regen Tank Powersets: willpower / dark melee Goal: sluice away incoming damage in an endless torrent of regen and healthy superfoods Build priorities: smash / lethal resistance; typed defense; regen; HP This is the vegan yoga instructor of City of Heroes. In the two weeks I spent leveling this character I lost 20lbs, started wearing hemp trousers, and discovered the meaning of the word bespoke. I initially had trepidation about this build because I thought I’d get knackered by the alpha strikes but it actually turned out to be extremely sturdy and was the second toughest of the tanks I built. The damage was very weak (the build isn’t very balanced) but it could easily tank on teams at +4x8 and while there wasn’t anything particularly unique about it I really enjoyed playing this one. I’d recommend this for anyone who still has vague memories of playing a regen scrapper in the early days of live and being unkillable. Here's the build I used for Bamboodoo: Tanker’s Tank Powersets: invulnerability / staff Goal: just be really really tough Build priorities: resistance; defense I thought that my willpower tank was going to be difficult to beat in the sturdiness stakes. How wrong I was! This tank was ridiculous! After level 30 my green bar barely moved at all and when it did I thought there was some kind of problem with my vision. This could tank everything and by the time I reached 50 I had stopped paying attention to my green and blue bars. The only downside to this build is that it removes all jeopardy from the game. Admittedly I didn’t run anything on hard mode but everything else didn’t scratch the paint. I’d recommend this for anyone who wants to run a tank but is deathly afraid of the ignominy, disgrace, and enormous humiliation that comes with occasionally faceplanting. I actually really enjoyed this one particularly because I find the staff moves endlessly entertaining. Here's the build I used for Kendo Barbie: My final planned tank is an electric / electric sapper although I don’t really have high hopes for it given my experience with sapping on other ATs. Thanks for reading, and again if anyone has ideas for other tanker flavors I’d love to try them!

One way of thinking about builds is to look at the predominant secondary effect of your attacks and pick a primary that complements it. Disorient is the secondary effect of EM and dark armor is the best complement to that because it offers a stun aura in Oppressive gloom as well as the possibility of a second stun aura once you put a disorient proc in Cloak of Fear. Add in the stun from stalagmites from the earth epic pool and you have a tanker with soft capped resists that is capable of stunning all minions and lieutenants. Once you add on the disorient effect from all of your EM attacks bosses are stunned too. Downsides are that it is very endurance hungry and the stun effect isn’t really switched on until you get oppressive gloom around lvl 20. Once you get it though the effect is immediate.

Thanks everyone, I’ve got the cable coming round this week to take a look because a lot of things are glitching here, so it’s definitely a problem on my end. Thanks for all your help! Hopefully back on soon.

Hi Ultra, thanks for the suggestion. I tired that but had the same issues - constant mapserving and crashing. I’ve been playing since 2019 and have never had any problems but the game is unplayable for me now unfortunately. I’m going to check all my hardware again today to make sure I’m not missing anything.