Erratic1

I think the prevailing wisdom is that Staff is lackluster as goes damage and Ice probably draws less attention because people dislike its visual effects. Still, I play from time to time with a guy who has multiple Staff/Bios (Brutes, Scrappers, and Tankers) and he seem to churn out nice damage. I do not have a build lying around but if I get a moment or two (depending on work) I may try to toss a quickie together at some point.

While you are not looking for a farming build, you still might want to look at builds people have come up with for ideas, like from: I have never played Spines and its been a while (Live) since I played Fire, so the following is probably fatally flawed in various way since it is a quickie I tossed together just to get an idea of what things might look like:

I look forward to what you find.

While there are AT differences, I had a DM/Elec Brute back on live and he was a powerhouse. Glad to see a Tanker version.

Yeah, it was Evolving Armor which was turned off. The problem did seem to manifest when two or more spawns were involved.

So normally my SS/Bio brute has no problems cruising through Carnival of Shadows. But tonight he kept finding himself in trouble and I finally noticed they were detoggling his Mez protection toggle. Not because he was out of endurance--he generates plenty of that. They were somehow overwhelming it and shutting down his toggles. It was not a Carnival Cruise to Happyland. If its a matter of stacking enough debuffs to override his Mez resist it seems odd to not have run into it before.

I quite literally never play the same theme on both primary and secondary sets. Not on a single character. Energy/Energy is the one which might tempt me.

In any event, it was not my purpose to turn this into another front in the Brute v Tanker war. How about we drop that tangent or at least find it another home?

If you're out running radio missions in PI with a full group of fellow 50s, all kited out, perhaps. But at that point why aren't we all playing Blappers? If you're running with a less optimize team or using the new, higher difficulty settings, or dealing with specific events within TFs (or all of the above) then one's ability to survive comes into play.

Dude, I posted a video of a Tanker clearing at record speeds. That is -=NOT=- opinion. That is objective, recorded demonstration. As for opinion, it is your post full of the use of the word, "my".

I am not sure it is the only way. A good way certainly but there are other ways to buff outgoing damage. And it is not like SS and Rad do not exist for Brutes, and yet nobody has posted the like. Of course the Brute would need to build Fury, keep it up, does not hit as many targets....but details, details.

*glances at his previous post to make sure it is a sub-4 minute clear posted by a Tanker*

What AT is being played here? Doesn't seem to be a brute. I am not sure any other AT has shown a sub-4 minute run, let alone on a first attempt on a build. But I am not here to re-ignite the great Brute/Tanker war of...was the last flare up just last year?

*glances at Energize and Energy Drain and wonders what is being said*

The real trick is the eyes. You have to trick the costume editor. 😄

Can I at least give Canada part of the blame?

Okay, if I am suggesting something to someone who has no experience whatsoever with tanking or the Tanker powersets.... ...Invulnerability/Dark Melee? My first melee character taken to max was a DM/Inv scrapper back in the days when Tankers did not get DM. He was stupidly tough. Never tried the combo again on Tanker but it has to be glorious.

Truthfully? Whatever is going to endlessly fascinate them and make them stick with the character (especially if/when things get tough) to level 50. My Elec/Rad Tanker struggled with endurance while levelling him, even with Energize as a power, slotting Performance Shifter, putting in Endurance Reduction enhancements...he was just always barely not avoiding detoggling and having to limit his attacks to do so. But conceptually I could not let him go. I would fiddle with his build, planned his costume multiple times, had a bio to fit the costume and powers. Other characters giving me that much trouble, especially as they break into their 40s, would have been benched and I would have gone onto my next project. Slowly, oh so slowly, as he neared 50 things began to get better. He is a true, brought to full functionality via set IOs, creation. But even without IOs in mind, I would advise finding a concept you love and will be deeply invested in.

It feels like bait and switch here at times. Sure, at level 50 you've got the slots to slot endurance reduction and damage resistance. A low level tanker? He's got a limited number of slots to work with and a lot of ground to cover. FWIW, I only slot one endurance reduction in toggles and double slot attacks (eventually). Dark Armor...oh the endurance woes. Great set in the end but the road getting there...ouch. I should make a Dark/Rad or Dark/TW tanker for the ultimate, "I'm out of endurance" experience someday. 😁

Muling (using a power's slots for holding set IOs with useful effects) is outside the realm Azrael qualified. He is talking about beginning level broadly and no more than SOs in the end. I've got Weave on my Elec/Rad Tanker for muling purposes--Shield Wall (+5% Res), Reactive Defenses (+3% Resis and Scaling Resist), and Luck of the Gambler (+7.5% Recharge). Having no DDR, his defense values are an afterthought.

You qualify that we're talking about beginning level tankers, say that you can notice the impact of Weave (particularly unslotted), but somehow the endurance cost of the power at those low levels is not an issue? Weave costs 0.33 endurance per second, meaning it costs more than 25% more endurance to run than the typical defense/resist toggle, and you are layering that on top of your primary toggles and the endurance consumed by making attacks. At low levels it is easy to run yourself out of endurance. Yeah, pop a blue where you have to but for the most part running out of endurance is far more detrimental to survival than not running Weave, especially on a resist tanker. But let us compare the impact of running Weave to not running Weave. Assume fully slotted Weave (SOs) running at about 8% Defense(All) and making even cons miss 8% more often. Compared to a non-Weave using Tanker they are taking 85% of the damage. So it is like them having 15% more health. So Weave, consuming 0.33 endurance per second, with 3 SOs is worth 15% more life (in the face of incoming damage sufficient to drop your character). Stick one slot in Health and slot 2 Healing SOs. Your total health regeneration goes up by more than 15%. This has cost you 1 slot and no extra endurance. It is not exactly an apples to apples comparison since you otherwise need to survive a minute in the face of incoming damage for the health regen to play out but there are unstated assumptions on the Weave side of things too (like lieutenants and bosses being in the mix who hit more reliably).

True, but I am that way on all my characters. Well, mostly now anyway...on my melee characters I will now (having a bit of pocket change) spring for the +3% Defense IOs from Steadfast Protection and Gladiator's Armor once a Defense based character has reached the point where no further improvement will be had via slotting their base powersets. Oddly enough the resist based melees just have to tough it out*. Thematic I suppose. * I could get them the 5% Resist All from Shield Wall, but I don't do that.

You do not need to have Weave to be able to pop Luck inspirations. And the inspiration is what is doing the heavy lifting here...a small purple is worth 12.5% which is 2.5x the base value of Weave, and 50% more than what you're getting out of a fully slotted Weave. Oh...and it doesn't cost endurance. You keep tossing out "built out" when responding to me. I am talking pure game mechanics here with no reference to sets.

I was in CoH beta. This is a different game. Back then there was no ED and you could slot 6 of the same enhancement without penalty. Sets are the way to regain levels of functionality which went away with ED.

Now, now.... I level on basic (non-set) crafted IOs, but that is because I am lazy and cheap--I neither want to replace SOs all the time and by using respecs later when switching to set IOs I can get the crafted IOs back, throw them in storage, and use them on future characters, thereby saving them a ton of influence. And on the initial character, not replacing SOs all the time also amount to a nice chunk of saved influence. I like to tell myself it teaches me how the character handles, but really it is just me being cheap.