Xandyr

I've heard Mercs/Cold is a great combo.

Greetings all ! I'm starting to get burnt out on my tanks and MMs, so I was thinking about rolling a new Defender. I've played Time on a MM, and looking at secondaries, it looks like it would pair well with Dark. Thoughts or input? I'm not locked in to these sets. I'm just looking for a fun set that'll hold my attention, bring a lot to a team but can solo. I've already done Dark/DP and Nature/Electric. Appreciate it! -x

@Infinitum - Excelsior Server He posted his Global in his Infinitum tank thread.

I know/understand that you weren't going to mention builds/slotting. But I'd like to throw out something here. If you slot the Panacea proc or Numina's proc in Soothing Aura/Suppress Pain ( the villain's equivalent) then these procs have a chance to proc on EVERYONE within the radius. It makes this power that much better. The villain equivalent, Suppress Pain, increases the Regeneration Rate of everyone while the hero's power, Soothing Aura, ticks a heal every few seconds.

To the OP, First, welcome to the City! Now, to the nitty gritty.... Every Primary powerset can tank. HOW you want to tank, and your concept, will determine what powersets you want. If you want to do more damage, then definitely take a Resist based set as they typically have a damage aura (Fire Armor has Blazing Aura, Dark=Death Shroud, Electric=Lightning Field, etc). Bio has a damage aura, has 3 different "Adaptations", which one will also increase your damage across the board on every attack. See my sig for a tutorial on Bio. Invulnerability is considered the "classic" tank. Shield offers an additional attack in Shield Charge, plus with more enemies near you, you gain a damage bonus across the board. Willpower, as was mentioned, is a "fire and forget" powerset. Turn your toggles on, and never look back. It can achieve absurd levels of Regeneration, with the potential to have capped Energy/N.E/Fire/Cold defenses, along with the potential to have capped Smashing/Lethal Resists. I would recommend looking at synergies between Primary and Secondary sets as well. For instance, Staff, while in Form Of The Body, can increase your Resists, and Guarded Spin will also add to your Melee/Lethal Defense. Pairs great with WP or Bio. Energy Melee attacks can stun, as can Oppressive in Dark Armor. Stack the 2 and you can stun A LOT. Martial Arts has a power that increases your defenses. That would help if you are near the softcap for defense (45%) and push you to it ,or exceed it. Or use the the stun capability of it to stack with Dark Armor. Or use the boost to defense to "round out" your Resistance Based powerset. I, personally, have found that concept and fun trumps everything else. I LOVE my WP/Staff tank. I created a (personal) backstory for him that includes personal details. That tank IS me. The Staff animations are fun and hits EVERYTHING around you. Is it my most damaging Tank? Nope. Do people "recruit" WP tanks for 4 star content? No, they want Rad, Bio, Shield, or SR. But I don't care. I'll bring my WP tank to anything. I may die, but that's part of the game. I have soft capped defenses to most, capped S/L Resists, and can hit about 300 HP/Sec. Hope that helps. Once you narrow down your Primary/Secondary powersets, let us know. There's a LOT of knowledge and experience in these forums, and most everyone is willing to help and explain "why" we chose which powers and why we slotted them the way we did. Good luck!

Here's mine. I focused on Max HP, Regen, and Defenses. I went with Melee Core Embodiment for my Hybrid Incarnate power. It bumps up your Resists and even more Regen. I love this toon...so hard to kill when you're regenerating around 300HP/Sec. WP/Staff is a great combo. So is Bio/Staff. Tanker - Willpower - Staff dark night.mbd

Here's what I'm running. So far, End has not been a problem whatsoever (even with running all toggles including Darkest Night). The Theft of the Essence in Twilight Grasp really helps. I'm sure there are "better" ways to slot the Pets (I didn't even use the Soulbounds or SCotM IOs. I really like having the Achilles' in Soldiers. Almost every attack they have will have a chance to proc the Achilles:Chance for -Resistance (along with the Touch of Lady Grey: Chance for Neg Energy damage, or the Shield Breaker: Chance for Lethal damage, neither of which I slotted). You could go crazy and load up all your pets with as many procs as you can, but I never do. I try to get a solid combination of Acc/Dam/End in them, and fit in all the +Def/Resist IOs. Works for me. Others may say I'm an idiot for doing so, but anyway. You could swap out the Superior Entombs (in Petrifying Gaze) with Basilisk's Gaze for another 7.5% to your recharge, a little extra Energy/Neg Energy defense, and +2% to end recovery (instead of the 4% from the S. Entomb). I went with the S. Entombs for the F/C resist, slow resist, and the +4% End Rec. Again, either one would be fine. P. Gaze is a nice power. I am leaving for vacation tomorrow, so I won't have internet service or anything for a week or so. Feel free to pick apart my build, comment, ask, rip it apart, etc. Like I said, so far it is working great for me. I do wish I could have gotten Serum's recharge down a bit more. I may play around with it at some point to see about doing that. But for now, I'm having fun, and that's what matters. -X Mastermind (Mercenaries - Dark)1.mbd

I am actually working on one now. I've paired Mercs with Pain, FF, Storm, Electric, Thermal, and Nature. Not sure when I'll be able to pull up my build, but I'll try to throw a few pointers. Soldiers Slot the Overwhelming Dam/KB/KD and Acc/Dam/End. Along with Achilles' :chance for -resist. The Overwhelming kb/kd is a great mitigation tool. Get the Accurate Heal Chance for End for Twilight Grasp. Fearsome Stare...slot the (I think) Dark Watcher chance for damage. It fires fairly often. Same for dark servant. You can squeeze all the Pet +Resist/Defense in your pets. Just spread out. Panacea chance for HP/End for health. So far I'm liking my build. I've mainly been ToTing though. The few times I've solo'd, I find myself wanting to continually increase difficulty and team size. Once I'm incarnated out, gonna try a couple of TFs solo and see how it goes. Start saving/making some influence. Some of the enhancements aren't cheap, but make a world if difference (MM ATO, Overwhelming, Panacea, LotG:Recharge, Unbreakable Constraints, etc.

I've had a lot of fun with Pain, FF, and Nature.

I've not played an Empathy toon since Live...like Issue 5 if that tells you anything. With so many other secondaries offering, what many believe, superior powers (debuffs, "better" buffs, and some with healing to go along with it), is there even a case for Empathy anymore? Especially whenever you get on a team and everyone just steamrolls everything? With that said, IF Empathy still has any love, what would you pair it with? I thought Necro, but I have gotten 2 different Necro MMs to 50 recently. So, my next thought is Mercs. With Equip and Serum (perma or as close to perma), the Mercs will have great resists, with just the Medic helping toss out heals. The Mercs are excellent at -Defense, and with an Achilles' proc in the Soldiers, you can keep the enemies' Resistances debuffed as well. It seems to me you could keep AB on 1 pet perma, and keep Forge (rotating permanently) on 4(?) possibly 5 other pets? If Forge is slotted with 1 LotG Dwf/global recharge and 5 pieces of Red Fortune, that's almost +18% to Defense. Maneuvers would add 4-5%, and the Pet Uniques another 10%. Is it feasible to think that you can have at least 4 pets perma-Forged and their defense at around 32% plus whatever their base defense is? If this is the case, then it seems like those pets would be well rounded, as far as resists and defenses go. So...any thoughts? -x

I've got one at 50 with some incarnates. Whenever I get a chance, I'll pull up my build and take a gander, and pm you or reply here . It's a fun set. My concept was an undead pirate as well. (Arrr, tis a good day for ya to die matey! Is my battle cry haha). Focus on ranged, and aoe, defense, and stay ranged. Use your team as your shield while you hang back and launch all your arrows for debuffs, then oil slick, then whirlpool, steam spray, geyser. And watch everything melt. And giggle. Don't forget to giggle.

Used to be fairly big into photography (senior pictures, families, weddings/engagements). Now I only drag my camera out for when the kid plays sports. Other than the typical "take care of the house, garden, yardwork,etc etc", I'm also into firearms. I could show you what's in my safe, but then I'd have to kill you...and I really don't wanna do that. Too much love for this community.

@Groovy_Ghoul, yeah if you'll scroll down a few posts, you'll see where several people, including myself, have commented on Necro/Pain. The Panacea and Numina's proc WILL have a chance to proc on your pets and teammates if they are within range of it. Also, whatever Heal Procs you put in Dark Empowerment will have a chance to proc on whichever pet heals itself. So, when your GKs heal themselves, then that proc can fire on that pet. I believe I put the Miracle:Chance for Regen in DE, along with a pair of Numina's (Heal, Heal/End redux) in it (to increase their HP, and Heal, and to give me the 2 piece set bonus). The Soulbound: Chance For BU proc works GREAT in the GKs. They now have a damage aura, and that will help it Proc. I went ahead and put the Shield Breaker:Chance for damage in them as well. There's several ways you could go. You could build for Max HP, +Regen, +Healing to help out your Heals/Suppress Pain. Don't forget to throw in some recharge to get Soul Extraction, Heals, Painbringer,World of Pain up as often as possible. I've found that when I team, I keep Painbringer on Teammates, but Solo I will throw it on either the Lich or a GK. The Cloud Senses:Chance for Neg Energy Damage works great in the Lich. Be sure to slot the Pet +Resists/Defense IOs as that will help tremendously. Overall, I am pleased with mine. It's a great combination. Necro also pairs well with FF.

Here's mine. Mastermind (Necromancy - Pain Domination)1.mbd

I would say I agree with this (from what I remember of all the primaries). Cold is a good set, and it should pair very well with Beasts. These poor pets just need some loving. Like a revamp of their powers/cooldowns/activations for one.

QFT I've been playing the following: Mercs/Nat Mercs/Pain Necro/Pain Necro/Nat Necro/FF Nin/Sonic With Mercs, they are very "well behaved". They stay in your back pocket per se, which makes Secondaries like Pain,Elec,Nat, etc even better. The damage is improved, and of course, they are kings at debuffing defenses. Serum was a great revamp. Necro is, I think, just awesome now. They were good before, but with the changes, they're top notch. I loved my necro/ff. Since they can heal themselves, and do so fairly regularly, it helps them out tremendously. Slotting Uniques in Dark Empowerment will affect the pets when they heal themselves, so they should fire often. The damage Aura on the Grave Knights is so nice. I think Pain is now my favorite set to pair it with (so far...haven't done them all). Nature, as usual, is a strong set and pairs with about everything. I had an old Necro/Elec that I need to dust off and respec and give it a whirl. I never really played Ninjas. But I rolled it with /Sonic. With their high defenses, ability to heal themselves, and with the +Resist from /Sonic, it actually makes a great pairing. I smiled like a lunatic every time they Crit, which is OFTEN. EXCELLENT single target damage. May need to branch out and see what else I should run it with..../Time maybe? Or Dark? Hmm. I'm thankful that the volunteers we have took the time to address the needs/wants/shortcomings of some of the MM pets. I wonder what they have in store for the others (especially Beasts, IF they are planning anything). It's been forEVER since I played Thugs,Demons,or Bots, so I can't really comment on how I personally would rank them. But, I will say that I am really enjoying Necro and Mercs. Need to play more with the Ninjas to find that "sweet spot" on them.

Hi all! It's been a while since Bots, Ninjas,Mercs, and Necro were buffed. Has anyone "tested" or updated a "tier" list? Through my own (limited) playing, I would probably have to say that either Necro or Mercs lead in overall damage/utility. What say you?

Oh, and I never took Sonic Repulsion. Does it behave like Hurricane...aka it will repel foes and not knock them down? I do remember on a Storm toon I had, I took Hurricane and slotted the KB>KD IO, and foes were repelled and not knocked down. I'm curious to know.

I don't know how Thugs/Sonic would be, but I did roll a Ninja/Sonic. With the update to some of the pets, ninjas now heal themselves. Since they have inherently high defenses, I thought pairing them with Sonic would kinda round them out. It works decently, and I get the "Liquefy" arguement....it's nice, but sucks that it takes forEVER to recharge. While Thugs don't have a heal, and won't be near the defense softcap, I think that they will rely a lot on you,the player. Whether that's through using Heal Other, Spirit Ward, or maybe even Bonfire (with the Overwhelming Force proc), I feel that you need to have some mitigation, and strategy, before engaging any and all fights. I believe you're spot on with using KD procs! I'll also say that the(few) times I was able to find a team, my teammates liked what Sonic brought to the table...so it's team oriented, and should be appreciated if you do team.

Try to softcap F/C/E/NE defenses. Fit in as much recharge as you can. You want Ablatice, DNA Siphon, and Parasitic up as much/fast as possible.

@Zect and I agree WHOLE HEARTEDLY about people maxing out Invincibility(or other similar powers) and doing the FF proc as you said and posting it and saying "OMG LOOK AT THIS! Capped defenses, resists, and my heaviest hitting attack recharges in 2 seconds! And my heal is up every 10 seconds! This is teh uberz!"

Damn dude. Chill out. I threw that build together in like 5 minutes. I'm open to criticism, especially if it is explained why some people slot this vs that. I'm not,however, open to criticism that is insulting or degrading. I DO,however,appreciate your ideas. Especially towards the end of your post when you start to explain the "why" behind how you would slot different powers. Perhaps I need to revisit this build that I threw together and put more thought into it. There's numerous ways to build a Bio/Savage. You can focus just on heal,max hp, recharge. Or focus on hitting soft cap defenses. Or focus on proc-bombing everything. The beauty of this game, and for the most part "formite guide makers", or professional guide makers as yourself, is that the person actually playing and running the toon has many different options available and can get different inputs/ideas. Hopefully the OP builds a Bio/Savage and shares his input. I'd be curious to know, since I myself have hardly any experience with Savage.

If I were to run a Bio/Savage (which, admittedly, I don't have much experience with Savage), I'd probably do this. In OFFENSIVE Stance, you STILL have soft capped Defenses to Fire/Cold/Energy/Neg. Energy. Your S/L Resists are almost capped with 1 stack of the SMotT proc (should easily be able to double stack it, so your S/L resists should be capped). For Incarnates, I would go: - ALPHA Musculature Radial for the extra Damage and End Mod. - JUDGEMENT Void Radial...good damage, you're always going to be in the middle of things, and it also does -DAMAGE. Stacks nicely. - DESTINY Ageless Radial...Defense Debuff Resistance (since you have none) - HYBRID Melee Core...add Resistance and Regen while you're fighting. The more mobs, the higher your resistances/regen. You won't die. - INTERFACE Diamagnetic Core...the -To Hit Debuff will be a nice bonus given your Defenses. Plus, the -Regen also stacks nicely. - LORE...I almost always say whatever suits you best. Perhaps one that the pets thros out Debuffs or -Regen? Hope this link works. If not, holler and I can do screenshots for you. Tanker (Bio Armor - Savage Melee).mbd

Check my sig

As stated, your pets will be over the softcap, and flirting with incarnate softcap. It should leave you with several power slots, so you could load up on the personal Beast attacks (which proc really well). You'd never have to use Fortify Pack, so your pets will always have the crit chances (which is so nice!). I had one WAY back, and deleted it around level 15/20. I got bored with it, and didn't fully understand Beasts. With the FF changes, it ought to be great. I know I love my Necro/FF.