Lhanis

One of my oldest and probably favorite characters is my Dark/Dark controller, but I've always been annoyed how the AT suffers when on it's own. It's probably the safest thing I've ever played, handles x8 on it's own fairly well, Fade and Soul Absorption are wonderful things... but especially exemp'd there's a lot of time spent just sitting and spamming Dark Grasp while I wait for pets to do something. A friend of mine pointed out that Symphony might be to my liking though, with its focus more on damage. The 'nuke' in Confounding Chant looks downright terrifying when containment and build up procs are active, so I wanted to give it a shot. Procs definitely seem the way to go, and I picked up Arcane Bolt to fill the attack chain... but what I ended up with loses Darkest Night and I ended up leaning hard into global recharge as I couldn't fit Hasten because of it (I really need teleport target, which takes up another pool pick...) which leaves me with a gap in Absorption and Fade. Build is attached below. Thoughts? Advice? The reverberant definitely feels like an odd one to me, unsure how it should be slotted. Echoing the sentiment that I've seen around the forum that it would be nice if it could take Will of the Controller ATO. Controller Sym Dark wip.mbd

Tough call. The first character I made on HC when I discovered it back in 2019 was my old Thug/Dark from live. It'd likely be that, or the new Necro/Dark. I've always wanted to try Mercs, just because I love the idea of having purely ranged pets (and my own personal Rambo)... but I've never had a great character concept to work with it. They look like so much fun now though!

After taking a few days to mess with things and try out some combinations, I am absolutely a believer in the power of Claws. I've never played a set that cares so little about being exemp'd, and it's such a satisfying thing to constantly throw FU - Spin - Shockwave to mow through mobs. The animations are a little stiff feeling, and I do wish you could pair it with Shield... but I definitely think Claws has taken Savage's spot as my favorite melee. FU is a small change to the usual Aim/BU that makes so much difference for me. EA I'm a little less enthused with. It's an amazing set, but something about it just doesn't click with me. I should love it for the built in cloak, and the aura is probably my favorite non-damaging one short of AAO, but it's so... thirsty, before energize is available. I also had trouble remembering to use it, with how quick paced Claws constantly is, but that's definitely user error rather than anything against the set. What it DID remind me of, though, was Stone. Such a solid, flexible kit - and now available on Scrapper to boot. To bad Claws is incompatible with Stone on Brute (probably due to an issue with Granite, considering that's the only difference between the two versions now). I ended up making both a Claw/Stone Scrapper and a Claw/EA Brute on test to mess around with and get a feel for as a side project, and will likely end up with one of those two setups. Y'all have been amazing help working through these sets, and I appreciate it!

A made a Storm/Storm/Dark Corr recently, and the set has definitely become a favorite. Almost feels like the set was made for me. I don't tend to chase a ton of procs over set bonuses so the lack of them doesn't really hurt me, and as someone who was... mildly obsessed with Dark Miasma for years both here and on live, the prep time doesn't bother me either. It definitely loses a bit in faster group, but its such a satisfying way to play for me. Storm/Storm in particular though is starved for End constantly. It definitely feels like Storm Blast is a bit to expensive on bluebar for how it's meant to be played, and pairing it with the already very thirsty Storm Summoning may have been a mistake on my part. I will likely try a few other pairings in the future, and I imagine it'd be great fun on sentinel too, where you can focus on the blasting the way the set wants you to.

You know... I've run Elec on just about every AT, I love Elec Armor and Control. But I've never actually tried an Elec/Elec Dom. It'd definitely solve the "Elec Control doesn't do any damage" issue quite handily, and I do love my Doms... they might not be to everyone's taste, with the constant need to chase permadom, but theres no feeling quite like solo-holding an AV and having near complete CC immunity while you blast through a crowd. I'll have to add this to my project list.

I... don't think I've ever looked at Energy Aura before. Having a damage aura would be nice to grind down early targets when I have fewer attacks on a brute, but even without one EnA looks a lot more my speed than Rad or Bio would be. Having access to a stealth is a nice bonus too, and having so much global recharge from Savage on top of it would let me load more procs down the line if I decide to kit out out... I just wish it had a Min FX option, it's so visually busy The "Energy Glow" settings really aren't all that bad now that I look at them, definitely workable. I'm also admittedly quite fond of Elec Armor too, as it's what spawned my E^3 Sent to begin with (don't like Elec Melee outside stalker, Sent gets the damage aura back from Epic pool). I know it's also a great choice for Brutes too, with the regen/res combo and damage aura for Fury. I do have an Ice/Stone stalker, and it is definitely one of my favorites. Both of those sets are wonderful on stalker, even if the sword's whistling sfx is enough to give you a migraine. It definitely fits the criteria for this, and the only reason I didn't drag it out is because I was looking to do try something new and maybe move out of my comfort zone a bit. Having played a bit of Fort/NightWidow, Claws seems an interesting pick too. Follow Up was always easier for me to remember to wrap into my chains than Build Up, and Spin is a wonderful spammable early AoE option with some recharge behind it. A Claws scrapper might be something to consider as well, along with the Savage brute....

Semi-long bit of rambling here, apologies, tl;dr below: A while back I poked my nose into the Tanker forum for some advice on the AT, as it's not my usual fare. Convinced my brothers to come check out the game, and they wanted to give it a crack with an MM and a Corr, so I was looking to try something new and build a tank to run with them. Through the various bits of help and advice, I discovered a love of Savage Melee, and more than a few folks recommended Rad Armor as a great place to start, though I wasn't generally fond of the aesthetic - but in chatting with my brothers as I was putting together builds and mucking around on Test, said MM-minded brother discovered his own adoration of the set and ended up rolling a TW/Rad brute that he's been having an absolute blast with. Being that we had our 'tank', I ended up shelving my melee aspirations and dusting off my semi-retired main (good ol' dark dark dom), and we've had a ton of fun romping through the Rogue Isles. It reminded me of something I've been wanting to do for ages though, and it might be a good excuse to keep working on that melee build. I quit live well before sunset, somewhere around... i17? I remember AE being the new hotness at the time. As such, I wasn't around for Going Rogue or the incarnate stuff as it happened, and I know I'm -way- behind on story related things. I've been here on Homecoming for a few years now, but it's largely been just falling into the old rhythm og grinding up, grabbing accolades, IOing out, and moving to the next. Maybe some sporadic badge hunting when it strikes me. So, my plan is this: I want to take a character from the beginning of Goldside, all the way through to Night Ward and hitting every arc I can. Potentially following it up with a jaunt through Red, and maybe even Blue in the distant future. I've seen a few guides posted here and there on how to achieve it via level locks and such, but I'm not above hitting them through Ouro as well. I'm more interested in just seeing all that story content I've missed than any real challenge attempt like some folks have done. It's something I've poked at in the past, but a vast majority of the ATs I usually lean on really don't like extended amounts of solo/exemp'd play (I have a lot of 'troller, Dom, proc based 'fenders, HEATs, MMs), and that's something that has me worried with Tanker as well. It takes what feels like an age for them to put together a decent attack chain, and I won't immediately have a full attuned IO kit ready for them from the start. Essentially, I'm looking for advice on what folks think are good ATs or powersets to help with this. The tl;dr is essentially: 1) Planning to do a majority of story arcs starting with Goldside, either at level or through Ouro if I miss some things. 2) Looking for suggestions on ATs/Powersets that don't mind large amounts of solo/exemp'd play. My usual fare for ATs don't play nice with this, as I tend to fall into support roles or late bloomers, which means- 3) I've been mostly looking at Melee or Sents for more comfortable play, though I'm concerned a bit about Tanker taking to long to get a decent attack chain... padding using temp powers isn't exactly ideal. Stalker having early access to great ST and the ability to stealth missions seems great, but I vaguely remember seeing someone mention Goldside having a love of constant ambushes and escorts. Also- 4) A few sets have caught my eye already - namely Savage Melee, Axe, Warmace, and maybe Shield as an armor... But Savage looks awful with shield specifically, and Axe and Warmace aren't even options for Stalker to begin with. I've also been toying with an Elec^3 Sent build I've put together, but every time I try and play it theres this... weight, in the back of my mind telling me Sents are bad and I should feel bad. I know a lot of folks will argue against that, I don't really have any specific issue with the AT, but the community has done it's absolute best to drive that thought process home.... Anyway, enough of my rambling. Have any of y'all tried something similar? What ATs do you think have the easiest time with this sort of drawn out play? Maybe more importantly, what do you think would be fun to take through on a run like this?

I hadn't actually taken into account what they will provide when I'm playing with them, and thats a good point. Cold shields and End refill would help a lot to shore things up and let me move a lot more sets into offensive bonuses. I'm so used to slotting out with the intent to solo I hadn't even considered it. Now I feel a little silly.

I did poke through Bio for a while as well, I know Dark has the issue of lacking DDR so no matter how high I push Defense it will still be an issue in some cases, but overall I found Dark fit my theme better. Bio is a wonderful set, but the aesthetic doesn't do it for me and it feels very busy for an armor. In this particular case, I'm looking for something more chill rather than something that puts out better numbers. I have a feeling Rad will be similar, but it's one of the few sets I've never actually played with before and a lot of folks sing it's praises, so I want to at least build one out to try it before I make my decision.

Grimm has kindly offered to drag me off and showcase Rad/Savage once we have a chance where our schedules align, which I'm looking forward to! I'd like to at least give the set a shot before I settle. In the meantime, this is what I've been working on myself for Dark. I may have gone a little nuts with defensive slotting, but the goal here was to hit caps and be as comfy with End as I can without actually using Cardiac alpha, as the premise of the character is that I'll be doing a great deal of exemp'd content with my brothers with it. I could probably do better with damage slotting, and the last couple skills were just mule picks since I didn't feel the need for hasten and wasn't sure what else to take, but I'm happy with it overall. As always, I appreciate any and all advice, especially with slotting as Savage and Tankers in general are new to me. Ston and Infinitum's pages have been invaluable resources for looking at example builds, but I'm still figuring out where I should be aiming for on most of this. Tanker - Dark Savage wip.mbd

Messing around in the test server, and that's basically what I'm seeing, yeah. Savage is easily my new favorite melee set after seeing it in action, but I think I overestimated the end reduction it provides. Especially if I'm consistently burning the frenzy on Rending flurry. In any content where I'm stuck without Physical Perfection and Cardiac Core, I'm sucking wind after a few pulls with toggles running. That might be mostly on my poor building skills, but it's a shame all the same as I quite like Dark's aesthetic. Bio is a nice change though, even if it's a bit clicky for my tastes. Especially since Tanker is already drowning in defenses enough to not usually notice the negatives of Offensive Stance.

My biggest issue with Rad Armor is honostly just the aesthetic. I know it's a wonderful set but I've never been able to make it look good to me in the editor. Bio is similar to a degree, but the low fx option makes that less of a problem for me, and I do like the kit from what I see of it. I've also just noticed that Dark Armor would let me keep stealth which I'm rather fond of having, and Savage sounds like it'd help with the classic End issues the set usually has. I've always had a soft spot for Soul Noir effects, too... A lot of folks seem to have nothing but glowing recommendations for Savage, too, and it definitely looks interesting. So that is probably where I'll start on primaries, and save Staff for a rainy day down the line when I have more inf to spare. I'll have to poke at both Dark and Bio to see what I can do with them in Mids.

I finally convinced my brothers to come give Homecoming a shot, they're young enough that they weren't around for live. One's playing a necro/dark MM, the other an ice/cold corr. I figured I'd make something new to tag along with them, and settled on a tanker to make things easier if we decide to pump the difficulty as they get acclimatized. The thing is... my experience with melee is almost entirely from my various stalkers, where the premise of the build is obviously a little different. I know from experience I usually prefer resistance and hybrid sets over pure defense, and I'm particularly fond of ice, stone, elec, and dark armors, though the caveat is I'm also particular to hover and I know some abilities don't like you being off the ground. I'm also a bit lost on the secondaries and had a few questions. The ones that caught my eye on tanker were savage, staff, and stone. Savage looks great for aoe and movement, but is leap going to conflict with hover and want me to be grounded? Is hemorrhage a hard skip like it is on stalker? Fits the character thematically, and Ston's recent testing makes it look like an amazing pick. Staff seems very low in dps across the board, likely due to lack of build up, but I don't think Mids is showing Form of Body properly either. Does it's defense bonuses help at all for more Res focused armors? Bonus points for probably being the coolest taunt animation. Stone Melee looks slow, but crunchy and satisfying. Hover might be a problem here too, though. Does it have enough aoe to feel good on a tanker? I remember briefly having one of these all the way back on live and remember not being impressed, but Homecoming is a whole 'nother beast for most of these sets and the AT as a whole. I'm mostly just looking for folks thoughts, and curious to know which sets they enjoy. Do these sets have any synergy? Are there sets that wont mix due to being slot hogs? Which ones do you think are the most fun to play with? Any and all advice is appreciated!

You're missing the context here. The point being made is that those increased caps effectively mean very little the moment another DPS is added to the Tanker's party, where the minions are immediately going to be dropped (along with most if not all of the LTs), leaving a handful of mobs that would leave it well within the same numbers a Brute can still hit.