Nemu
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Assault Rifle would be my pick as well. You can still do a Rambo AR/TA/Arsenal (LRM) build without full auto, and it'll still be on theme.
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You skipped all the melee attacks, that tells me where your mindset and comfort level is at. That's a good set of starting clues. 45% range defense + epic resist shield is the cookie cutter route for range survival, most people also hover blast if they go down that route. 45% range defense is the softcap for normal content, meaning mobs will only have a 5% chance to hit you without buffs with range attacks. Add a resist shield on top of that means attacks that do get through will hit you for less. Then you layer the controls/other tools you have from your toolkit (including killing stuff fast) to further limit incoming damage. That's called layered mitigation. Don't skip cosmic burst. It's your hardest single target hitter with a guaranteed stun. Slot attacks as attacks first and foremost and not for debuff/secondary effects, looking at neutrino bolt. Typically you can skip either the Tier1 or Tier2 primary pick if you have enough recharge, I'd skip neutrino and sub in cosmic burst. Wild fortress and for that matter any other blaster sustain should be taken the moment they are available so you can mitigate/eliminate any endurance issues. IO sets for your build that's good for range defense: Thunderstrike (3 pieces or full set) Artillery (3 pieces or full set) Blessing of zephyr (2 pieces) Both blaster ATOs (full set each) Basilisk's gaze (2 pieces but you should get 4 for the 7.5% recharge bonus too) Preemptive optimization (full set) I'm going to make the claim that the only reason you went force mastery is because of personal force field so you can turtle up. Temp invuln is just a nice little bonus. Once you get comfortable with playing blasters or if you have a build that hit range defense softcap, you can open up your selection of epics. Soul master and Fire mastery both offer attractive powers that help with your ranged game plan via soul tentacles and bonfire, in addition to providing a resist shield with S/L and other element resists. Finally, learning to play blasters is not an easy journey. There are a lot of things you take for granted playing lol melee that will serve you a hard reality check when you play blasters. A build can only take you so far. Success in playing blasters is a combination of: Understanding inspiration usage Understanding conditions that allows you to go all out vs when you should hold back Understanding your toolkit and how to use them for survival if you have such tools Understanding mob targeting priorities Understanding positioning (where you should and should not be standing) Understanding and leveraging game mechanics such as line of sight, mob fear mechanic, movement, etc... Having said that, a good build can help mask a lot of those nuances and carry you through a lot of content.
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What you are looking for is a hover blaster with a resist epic shield and 45% range defense. This is a pretty typical hover blaster ask/goal for those that haven't embraced the finer nuances of blasterhood and/or developed expertise in playing blasters that can function in and out of melee range.... But that's OKAY because hover pure range blasters are still very functional. Although you CAN skip all your melee powers, they do provide a place to slot full sets of mako's bite for 3.75% range defense, my recommendation is to keep at least 1 for that bonus and as a "you'll regret getting in my face" power. Besides Mako's bite, other sets that provide range defense bonus that's pertinent to your combo include Thunderstrike (full set), blessing of the zephyr (2 pieces), eradication (3 pieces), preemptive optimization (full set) . I wouldn't worry too much about kb on single target powers. But do put a KD proc in your AoEs. Artillery is a great set but it has greatly diminished value for energy blast because you will not be slotting the full set due to the KD proc tax. For Epics Dark Mastery and Fire Mastery are both attractive for hover blasters. Bonfire is still pretty strong even after the adjustment to KD rate. Dark Mastery gives you fearsome stare AND possess, the latter can be slotted with a full set of Coercive Persuasion for 10% global recharge and +5% range defense. It is the best bang for the buck if you have the funds to get that purple set. Powers that you can absolutely skip from Atomic manipulation as a pure ranged hover blaster include atom smasher and beta decay, with positronic fist a distant third (although you might consider it for the Mako's set as a mule and never use it). Beta decay is a trap power since it requires mobs within melee range for the bonus. Fighting pool for tough/weave is the norm for defensive blaster builds, you may want to also consider leadership for Maneuvers for the extra defense as well. The last pool depends on your preference, most go speed for hasten, but I can see the case for something like stealth or combat jumping for more defense and you can somewhat make up for recharge by slotting force feedback procs in your AoEs along with the KD IOs. Since you have to pay the KB tax those defensive picks might just be what you need to hit softcap.
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I think I might the only person that isn't on board the gloom/st from epic train and instead chose to embrace arctic breath for a super proc tank. Most Rad/SS proc builds I see still gives up proc slotting for enhancements that boost acc/dam/end. As far as I know @Spaghetti Betty is the only other poster that has linked builds where attacks are 6 slotted with just procs. I remember a post a while back where someone asked what's the build with powers that can hold the most procs and most responses were /temporal defenders or some such. No, Rad/SS is the poster child for extreme proc builds. It's very effective and it's a breath of fresh air compared to the conventional "You should shoot for 45% defense and/or resists cap" mentality that dominates the Tanker forums.
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Someone on Excelsior asked me in game about Dark Dark. Here are the criteria he listed: Solo Friendly Exemp Friendly Budget build < 500mil Flight pool, fight pool, speed pool The build needs to elicit feelings of "Wow I pulled that off" It's a tall ask. Dark/Dark works better at range. It's not one of the more damaging combos which makes it more tedious to solo with. Temper your expectations, you are not going to be plowing through x8 mobs with this combo at lower levels. The ST immob is taken here to aid with soloing. The low level playstyle is going to be very single target focused. This is a cheapish build with only a few expensive pieces. The goal is softcap range defense and then as much recharge as I can cram. I also built up some respectable psi defense along the way. The upgrade would look drastically different than this cheap build, it would include a lot more slow resist. If it were up to me I'd ditch the entire flight pool and grab combat jumping instead for guaranteed immob protection. If I need to fly, there's temp flight packs for that. I'd also make sure I'm at 95% chance to hit against +4s, With the higher values that purples and ATOs provide there's a reasonable chance that the build can also hit perma-hasten and AoE softcap as well. Budget Friendly D/D/D - Hero Controller Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.6.6 rev. 3 ────────────────────────────── Primary powerset: Darkness Control Secondary powerset: Darkness Affinity Pool powerset (#1): Flight Pool powerset (#2): Speed Pool powerset (#3): Fighting Pool powerset (#4): Leadership Epic powerset: Dark Mastery ────────────────────────────── Powers taken: Level 1: Dark Grasp A: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Hold 3: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold 3: Thunderstrike: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance 5: Neuronic Shutdown: Chance of Damage(Psionic) 27: Ghost Widow's Embrace: Chance of Damage(Psionic) 45: Cloud Senses: Chance for Negative Energy Damage Level 1: Twilight Grasp A: Touch of the Nictus: Healing/Absorb 5: Touch of the Nictus: Accuracy/Healing/Absorb 33: Touch of the Nictus: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge 34: Preventive Medicine: Heal/RechargeTime 48: Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb Level 2: Shadowy Binds A: Invention: Accuracy Level 4: Fly A: Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Reduction (4 points) 43: Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance (20%) Level 6: Possess A: Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Recharge 7: Malaise's Illusions: Endurance/Confused 7: Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Endurance 9: Malaise's Illusions: Confused/Range 9: Malaise's Illusions: Accuracy/Confused/Recharge Level 8: Fearsome Stare A: Glimpse of the Abyss: Accuracy/Recharge 11: Glimpse of the Abyss: Endurance/Fear 13: Glimpse of the Abyss: Accuracy/Endurance 13: Glimpse of the Abyss: Fear/Range 15: Glimpse of the Abyss: Accuracy/Fear/Recharge Level 10: Hover A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 11: Shield Wall: +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) 29: Kismet: Accuracy +6% Level 12: Tar Patch A: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 14: Hasten A: Invention: Recharge Reduction 47: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 16: Shadow Fall A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 17: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance 17: Luck of the Gambler: Defense 19: Impervium Armor: Resistance/Endurance 39: Impervium Armor: Resistance/Endurance/Recharge 39: Impervium Armor: Resistance Level 18: Haunt A: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Recharge 42: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage 48: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge 49: Expedient Reinforcement: Damage/Endurance Level 20: Fade A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 21: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Recharge 21: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance/Recharge 23: Impervium Armor: Endurance/Recharge 23: Impervium Armor: Resistance/Recharge 29: Impervium Armor: Resistance/Endurance/Recharge Level 22: Kick (Empty) Level 24: Soul Absorption A: Preemptive Optimization: Accuracy/Recharge 25: Preemptive Optimization: EndMod/Endurance 25: Preemptive Optimization: EndMod/Recharge 27: Preemptive Optimization: EndMod/Accuracy/Endurance 36: Preemptive Optimization: EndMod/Accuracy/Recharge 42: Preemptive Optimization: EndMod/Endurance/Recharge Level 26: Umbra Beast A: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Recharge 33: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage 33: Expedient Reinforcement: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge 34: Expedient Reinforcement: Endurance/Damage/Recharge 43: Expedient Reinforcement: Damage/Endurance 43: Expedient Reinforcement: Resist Bonus Aura for Pets Level 28: Tough A: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All) 40: Impervium Armor: Resistance/Endurance 40: Impervium Armor: Resistance/Endurance/Recharge 40: Impervium Armor: Resistance Level 30: Weave A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed 31: Reactive Defenses: Defense 31: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance 31: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage Level 32: Dark Servant A: Cloud Senses: Accuracy/ToHitDebuff 34: Cloud Senses: Accuracy/Recharge 36: Cloud Senses: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge 36: Cloud Senses: ToHit Debuff/Endurance/Recharge Level 35: Murky Cloud A: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3% 37: Impervium Armor: Resistance/Endurance 37: Impervium Armor: Resistance 37: Unbreakable Guard: +Max HP 39: Impervium Armor: Psionic Resistance Level 38: Darkest Night A: Invention: Endurance Reduction Level 41: Howling Twilight A: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 44: Umbral Torrent A: Artillery: Accuracy/Damage 45: Artillery: Damage/Endurance 46: Artillery: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge 46: Sudden Acceleration: Knockback to Knockdown 47: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge Level 47: Shadow Field A: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Hold 49: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Recharge 50: Basilisk's Gaze: Recharge/Hold 50: Basilisk's Gaze: Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold Level 49: Evasive Maneuvers A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed ────────────────────────────── Inherents: Level 1: Brawl (Empty) Level 1: Containment Level 1: Sprint A: Unbounded Leap: +Stealth Level 2: Rest (Empty) Level 1: Swift A: Invention: Flight Speed Level 1: Health A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance 15: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery 45: Miracle: +Recovery Level 1: Hurdle A: Invention: Jumping Level 1: Stamina A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End 48: Performance Shifter: EndMod Level 4: Afterburner
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Slot Machine's Random Challenge (the 20th Anniversary edition)
Nemu replied to Troo's topic in General Discussion
46-80-74 Robotics/Storm Summoning MM - yay! -
If you wanted new powers what would it be?
Nemu replied to darcstarmerc's topic in General Discussion
Panda Roll Travel power. (imagine that with whirlwind) I have very simple needs. -
Gingers can't be Jedis!
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Looking for help to recreate a character based on Weapon Hex
Nemu replied to NecroLord27's topic in Scrapper
Or you can just make a fortunata. That AT has claws and psi attacks and its pretty self sufficient to boot. -
Defense never stacked across different tags, an attack only checks for the highest defense you have against its respective tags. That's one piece of conventional wisdom that I believe without questioning.
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Awareness (both mob target priority and situational awareness), jousting, inspiration use, proactive mitigation and knowing how to use your toolkit, high defense. stuff like rune of protection and clarion. dealing with mez is not just for blasters but all squishies. You have to spot or create opportunities for you to go into melee, and once you are done what you need to do in melee, you need to get out of melee. It takes game knowledge and skill first and foremost, in addition to builds, to be successful as a melee blaster. Here's a tip - if you are going into melee open the fight with force of thunder(with a knockdown proc), then either short circuit followed up with powersink or alternatively thunder strike(also with a knockdown proc). Hop out of melee range and pew pew after you do that, when the powers recharge, hop back in and repeat. When you get good you don't need to hide behind tanks, when you are at the state of play where you can play super aggressively and be the first one to dive into a +4/8 spawn and still kick ass, and when you can do this even without a softcapped defense build or rune of protection, then you have graduated CoH and you can play any other AT (except kheldians and masterminds) well.
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I take soul to sustain whirlwind. IMO these are the top candidates in no particular order for regen, and what they have in common: Ice melee - ice patch Stone melee - fault/tremor rotation Electric melee - Thunderstrike/lightning clap rotation Regen does fine against single target. It's overwhelming odds (and debuffs) that kill regen. AoE damage and AoE mitigation (I prefer pbaoes and not cones) allows regen to survive. Staff has AoE damage, and a +def spam that's also an AoE, soul allows you to supplement that with AoE mitigation via whirlwind in addition to eye of the storm. While whirlwind kd proc chance is drastically lower than KB, these combination of synergies pushes Staff/Regen above Axe in my opinion. The fact that most of these KD powers on that list also support force feedback procs further synergizes with regen build goals.
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Ice/Atom/Ice has slightly more synergy in that you can triple stack holds. Rad/Ice/Ice will have more AoE potential, especially if you choose to engage in melee with your melee attacks. Most first time blasters build defensively, as they are in for a rude awakening coming from the world of armored ATs. So it's not uncommon to see beginners embrace hover blasting with range defense as a build priority. But even the cheapest of those type of builds will still run you ~100 million inf. As a new comer to homecoming with little funds, I'd lean Ice/Atom/Ice. You can get 2 holds early in your leveling progression in freeze ray and positron cell, and you can add bitter freeze ray later on. Together they give you quite a bit of safety at range for solo content at default difficulty. Just don't make the mistake of slotting attacks for secondary effects. You are a blaster, dead things don't fight back, slot attacks for damage first and foremost, not hold duration. 1acc 2dam(minimum) 1recharge and maybe 1 end reduction is what I would recommend in those attacks. Make sure you take metabolic acceleration the moment it's available at level 20 and prioritize 3 slots of endurance modification in it. It will make your endurance problems go away. As a beginner with little funding, this is also a good opportunity to learn the ins and outs of playing a blaster. People that start out playing armored ATs are pampered and ignore some very important game mechanics. People with funds are also more likely to powerlevel alts and copy builds without really learning the AT, and you can come out better than 80-90% of blaster players I see in game if you really lean into learning game mechanics that make you a more successful blaster in spite of builds. If you can master playing a blaster, you've mastered most other ATs except kheldians and Masterminds. There are plenty of people that are happy to give out builds on the forums, if you want to learn how to succeed as a blaster in spite of builds, I can provide advice as well. Instead of an IO build with lofty goals that you can't afford right now, I'm going to take a more practical approach and start you off on regular enhancements with a hover blaster build: Blaster (Ice Blast - Atomic Manipulation).mbd Basic 101 level tips - as you level, lucks and breakfrees are your best friends. pop 3 lucks at a time to get hit less, and always keep a supply of breakfrees. Learn to combine inspirations during downtime to what you need. If you are taking too much fire, duck around a corner and break line of sight. When on a team do that while moving towards the team, not away, and stop attacking so others can grab aggro from you.
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Electrical affinity is for corruptors and defenders, you are in the blaster forum. Do you mean electric manipulation which is a blaster secondary? Also, what is PG in Electrical PG? Also, imagine asking "suggest to me a car?" you'll get answers from Toyota Prius to McLarens. Is that really going to help you? What do YOU want? What are Your requirements? What's Your playstyle? What's Your budget? Those are the questions that at least I need you to be able to tell me so I can provide you guidance on what works for you. Otherwise you'll just a bunch of posters tossing you builds that may be out of your budget, doesn't align with your playstyle, doesn't fit your concept, etc... The more details you can provide, the more personalized we can make the build for YOU.
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Amateurs. Elec/Staff with whirlwind is obviously the way to go. Obviously Have you heard the Gospel of SPIN?
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The above thread took an electrifying turn. As did this one. What do both of these threads have in common??? Me. Because I'm the most Electrifying poster in all of thread entertainment! If you smelllllllllllllllllll.... what the Nemu... is cooking
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The way you have your power picks laid out doesn't appear to show any consideration for exemp effectiveness. Is this meant to be played at level 50 only? If you take harmonic mind at level 38 you get some use from it before you get access to cardiac alpha, but at level 47 you might as well pick another pool since cardiac alone will solve your endurance issues. You don't need weave by level 30 since this is not a defense build, the only reason I have it in my build before level 30 is because the build was made before the power availability revamp, and I ran out of other powers to take. Since the power availability re-balance I'd fit in chain induction, lightning clap and lightning rod earlier, especially lightning clap for the knockdown and stun synergy. That power and Thunderstrike will do more for your survival than weave ever will. Other build comments: Obsidian shield is way overslotted and puts you way over the psi resist cap Lightning clap is not auto hit and has really poor acc to start, you need ACC in that power Without tactics, some key control powers like lightning clap and oppressive gloom have really low acc. I don't think the leadership pool is necessary at all since you are not shooting for high defense with Maneuvers, and you already have +perception to counteract blind with cloak of darkness. You just need to make sure you slot more acc into powers or get +acc bonuses. My build goals always aim to have ~95% chance to hit against +4s. Since your toolkit does depend on hitting stuff to survive, don't skimp on ACC in favor of hard survival stats like resistance and defense. This is what I would do with a very quick rework of the stun/fear/knockdown build I posted. It doesn't have the silly stun proc shenanigans. Note that I'm not hung up about getting 90% resists either. When you understand synergies and how to exploit them for survival, coupled with layered mitigation, inspirations and teammates (if you team), it's very rare that you will need that levels of survival on a tank. This is also factored into my choice of alpha. It's not cardiac. The strength of dark armor is not 90% resists. It's dark regen, oppressive gloom and cloak of fear, all of which need to hit. Vigor is a better pick because it reduces end cost, increases ACC and heal and all of these attributes benefit the entire combo of dark/elec. Also note that death shroud is taken later in the journey, at earlier levels you don't have the endurance to sustain it nor the survival to handle the aggro it draws. Dark Elec Tank.mbd
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The original build I had was stun focused so Mu mastery was chosen to slot the energy manipulator stun proc (which totally sucks by the way, but I did it for the memes) Psi mastery is a good pick but you can just as well pick cardiac or vigor as your Alpha if you are looking to play this at high levels and get your endurance under control. It depends on what levels you plan to play at. Harmonic mind isn't available until level 38 and you'll only be able to get a few levels of value when you exemp (33-45) and there's just not a whole lot of content in that level range that provides the most bang for the buck for your investment in that single power. However, I do like the other options in that pool, mez, dom and psi nado are all useful powers, nado being a good FF +recharge power if your build has no other such candidates to boost your recharge. With something like Tar Patch I would want spammable AoE within that 45 second duration to get the most value out of the debuff. If I took electric melee then I probably would just take another procced out Epic AoE to supplement my AoE damage. Despite the reputation as an AoE melee set, electric melee really is not when it comes to consistent AoE output. That's my approach, it makes sense in my mind, but I also make builds with whirlwind so you know, feel free to look at me sideways.
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Well this thread got me to examine my Stun tank, I made some modifications and now it's a Stun AND Fear AND Knockdown tank: It's like red bull and vodka. I don't know what I'm supposed to do! Ahhhhhh! Stunning Fearing KDing Supermodel - Tanker (Dark Armor).mbd
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Not weird at all. When you look at the forums most people don't ask these questions and just post billion inf IO builds. Context matters. Controller (Gravity Control - Radiation Emission).mbd Here's an example of what that journey looks like. Look at the levels of the slot assignment as it's designed to mimic the leveling journey to highlight where and when you allocate slots. You want to get your core powers slotted up well and when you are using SOs it is ok to be "fair" when spreading your slots around as you level. The blank powers are flexible slots for pool powers. I wouldn't invest too much in the meta picks like tough/weave/leadership on an SO build, inspirations help an SO build a lot more than those toggles. This blueprint has your core powers (ST Hold, ST blast, AoE Stun, AM, Hasten, and Heal) pretty well slotted by level 30.
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Kinetic melee is probably the best set to build a ranged scrapper. That alone makes it pretty not bad in my book.
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It depends on your budget and you requirements for the build. It sounds like you are just using Single Origin enhancements right now. Long term goals with IO sets can get expensive and some people never get there due to cost/loss of interest/altitis... Typical long term goals with Radiation is to get perma accelerate metabolism (AM), that means a hefty investment in Invention Origin sets with global recharge bonuses. This is not something you can achieve with Single Orgin enhancements. Perma AM builds can cost hundreds of millions of inf. Your build approach shift when you move from SOs to IOs, on SOs most powers follows a prescriptive slotting approach, stuff that needs to hit get a mix of Acc, Recharge, End Redux, and depending on the power, Damage or control SOs. Shorter recharge powers like gravity distortion usually get something like 1 acc, 2 hold, 1 recharge (and if you have slots to spare, 1 end reduction). Longer recharge powers skip the end reduction and invest more slots in recharge, like EM pulse or Wormhole, those would get 1-2 acc, maybe 1-2 control and 2 recharge. The exception to this approach is lingering radiation, the slow is not worth enhancing (in an SO build), as the main draw for this power is not the slow but the -regen debuff, and you can get away with slotting 1-2 acc and 1-2 recharge in the power. Toggles on the other hand get End reduction first and foremost, and since endurance management is harder on an SO build I'd put 2 end reducers in radiation infection and enervating field. Once you move to IO sets, your potential opens up. So what are you in the market for? A realistic SO build or the dream build?
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I believe you were looking at seaborndan's build, not the original build posted by DrHappy85. I have not given the former a thorough run through 😀 I have edited my previous post to clarify who I was addressing.
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@DrHappy85 You need more attacks. The toggles you got, even excluding sprint and spirit ward, is on the heavier side and I would not be surprised if you are addicted to blue pills or recovery serums. I think your emphasis on defense is misplaced on dominators, especially with an OP set like Arsenal control where you have the best stealth in the game in cloaking device, can open each fight with your confuse grenade as an alpha without retaliation. You have the toolbox to get the drop on mobs without them fighting back, and if mobs are dominated your defense does nothing for you. Cloaking device means you are not going to alert adjacent packs when you fight, so the only time I see range defense being a factor is ambushes that ignore your stealth and those are very rare. But those comments aside the biggest concern I have for the build is the lack of attacks.
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Duckbutler covered the numbers If you have low defense, resist is better, more consistent mitigation. Defense starts showing an edge as you approach high 30s-45% because that's when you really start to notice that you are getting hit less. But you can also layer defense with resists and most notably soft controls/heals and other tools in your toolkit, which a lot of builds don't take advantage of because they favor stat numbers via IO bonuses, to augment survival. Most of these build discussions don't focus too much on synergy and how to use your toolkit and playstyle to compliment your goals. It's generated a lot of focus instead on chasing 45% defense and 90% resists or whatever the resistance cap is, some times at the cost of synergy, damage, slot efficiency and sometimes even theme. But those builds still work because the game is pretty accommodating to all kinds of builds. So while there's nothing wrong with adapting one of those super durable builds. If you want a different perspective play a blaster, once you understand the fundamental tenet of any game like this, which is "dead things don't fight back," and master the nuances with that AT, then I think you'll be ready to step out of your comfort zone and apply some of that philosophy to armored ATs. The result might surprise you.