Nemu

When I do my solo goldside level 1-20 runs I usually run them at -1/1 on damage oriented ATs like blasters, stalkers, MMs. I don't solo with lower damage ATs, it's not a good use of my time. On the damage oriented ATs I never found gold side missions overly difficult. There are a few missions with never ending ambushes that see through stealth that get a little tricky, especially the one in the level 15-20 range where you have to zip to the end of a multi-story map and defeat a Shen? while the ambushes pile on, that one requires burst damage to take the objective out. Speaking of stealth, highly recommend a stealth IO and some other form of stealth so you can stack them and full invis and zip through missions. The way goldside contacts mission are paced is perfectly suited for speeding objectives and leveling via mission completion and story arc completion bonuses even at -1/1, and you have enough cushion to get most of the defeat badges like PPD, ghouls, resistance, etc through that journey. I've never hit a gap going through those contacts where I need to run repeatable missions to get to the next tier.

Food for thought from a different perspective. There was a thread last year that played around the idea of stacking stuns. I ended up making the Dark/Elec tank that focused on stuns from that post, and what started out as a meme build has turned out to work very well. It's not going to solo any AVs any time soon, but it accomplished my expectation of what it set out to do (stun stuff in the face!) To be fair, the stun procs have a pretty low chance to fire and if you want something more performance driven you can swap those out. For me, theme won over function. As for the build itself, it's not very starter friendly because most attacks are picked up at later levels. So depending on where you are on your current journey you may want to pick up a few other attacks while you are leveling. Stunning Supermodel - Tanker (Dark Armor).mxd

Broadsword and titan both suffer the same issue of high endurance, high recharge starting powers and I wouldn't recommend pairing them with DA unless you have a lot of funds to address endurance and recharge. MA provides defense to all which is the primary draw of the set for tankers. If you want to pair something with a resist based primary and defense is your goal, this is the premier set to get you there. The other weapons sets only provide melee defense (and either lethal or smashing but not both), that's not going to get you as far as you think. While melee defense might help you out against the 3-6 mobs that are in your face, it does nothing against mobs outside of melee range shooting at you. There are plenty of maps where mobs are scattered and if your playstyle is just to charge in and beat the first thing your tab buttons lands you on, you are going to learn a hard lesson - (Think late game resistance). You can herd them around a corner, that'll increase your chances of survival and clump them up for AoEs. The other way to approach survival is to take a look at the tools available to you out of the box. Dark Armor has oppressive gloom and you can leverage that and stack stuns from other sources as a way to mitigate damage. The more successful builds have layers of mitigation, whether it's a combination of hard/soft control/more damage(kill them before they kill you)/resist/defense/healing. Point is, if you don't care about theme but do care about function, don't put all your eggs in the Softcap Defense/Hardcap resists basket. Look at synergies, there are other ways to make a build successful instead of piling on those 2 hard stats.

I see a lot of the vet posters forsake the core toolkit/principals that contributes to the survival of any particular combo in favor of stacking hard def/resist bonuses at the expense of everything else. With the influx of new players to the game it's time to call that out and take a more analytical approach to making builds. Here are the build elements you should focus on for anything fire armor in terms of survival, and why: 1 - slow resist, because fire armor is pretty dependent on healing flames and the ability to kill quickly for survival. Dead things don't fight back, and you'll want healing flames to be available as much as possible because you WILL be taking hits regardless of how much defense you stack. This means if your recharge is neutered, you can't heal, and you can't attack, and that means you will die. 2 - recharge, for the reasons stated above. You need recharge to kill stuff quickly and cycle healing flames. 3 - resist, because defenses will fail and your core damage mitigation will fall back to resists 4 - defense, it's a cushion to soak alpha strikes Now let's look at what is available in staff fighting to help with those elements: 1 - Knock down powers like eye of the storm and sky splitter are good candidates that can fit a force feedback +recharge proc. It's not consistent but a few of these in the build will boost your recharge over time. Knock down powers also contributes to your survival. It's not consistent, but it's synergy nonetheless. 2 - Guarded spin provides some melee defense which is good, but also can fit a luck of the gambler 7.5% IO, and that helps with recharge. 3 - Of the forms, form of the body provides both a damage boost when building stacks, and a resist boost when you consume stacks of perfection with sky splitter. This should be the form you want to be in by default. So here are some priorities when I look at how I want to build fire/staff: 1 - recharge, as much recharge as I can fit in while being mindful of some of the secondary objectives I want to achieve, such as 2 - slow resist, don't need to cap it at 100%, but enough so that a base buff or time lord buff will top off, I'm aiming for 80% slow resist with temperature protection 3 - At the very least, decent Smashing/Lethal/Energy resists (which are the more common damage types throughout the game) so that form of the body Skysplitter proc and tank ATO proc will top me off at 90% 4 - enough defense so I can hit 45% melee defense softcap with one guarded spin However, you also want to exemp, and this is something a lot of people overlook. Power picks matter when you plan your build to do lower level content. This means I also need to plan the build in a way that you get the core of your build by level 30 (it's my metric for exemp friendliness, yours may vary), which includes travel, core mitigation features and a decent attack chain. You'll see a lot of build that take stuff like combat jumping at level 47 as an afterthought, that's not how we roll for your build. Hero Tanker Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.6.6 rev. 3 ────────────────────────────── Primary powerset: Fiery AuraSecondary powerset: Staff FightingPool powerset (#1): LeapingPool powerset (#2): SpeedPool powerset (#3): ConcealmentPool powerset (#4): FightingEpic powerset: Energy Mastery ────────────────────────────── Powers taken: Level 1: Blazing Aura A: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage3: Superior Avalanche: Damage/Endurance3: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance5: Superior Avalanche: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge5: Superior Avalanche: Recharge/Chance for Knockdown Level 1: Mercurial Blow A: Superior Gauntleted Fist: Damage/RechargeTime19: Superior Gauntleted Fist: Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime21: Superior Gauntleted Fist: Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime43: Superior Blistering Cold: Accuracy/Damage45: Superior Blistering Cold: Recharge/Chance for Hold Level 2: Healing Flames A: Preventive Medicine: Heal19: Preventive Medicine: Heal/Endurance21: Preventive Medicine: Heal/RechargeTime23: Preventive Medicine: Endurance/RechargeTime23: Preventive Medicine: Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance27: Preventive Medicine: Chance for +Absorb Level 4: Guarded Spin A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed11: Superior Gauntleted Fist: Accuracy/Damage15: Superior Gauntleted Fist: RechargeTime/+Absorb17: Superior Gauntleted Fist: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime17: Nucleolus Exposure29: Superior Might of the Tanker: Recharge/Chance for +Res(All) Level 6: Fire Shield A: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance7: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance7: Unbreakable Guard: RechargeTime/Resistance9: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 8: Combat Jumping A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed9: Kismet: Accuracy +6%31: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage33: Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Reduction (4 points) Level 10: Hasten A: Invention: Recharge Reduction11: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 12: Plasma Shield A: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance13: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance13: Unbreakable Guard: RechargeTime/Resistance15: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 14: Infiltration A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed45: Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance (20%) Level 16: Eye of the Storm A: Superior Might of the Tanker: Accuracy/Damage39: Superior Might of the Tanker: Damage/Recharge39: Superior Might of the Tanker: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge40: Superior Might of the Tanker: Damage/Endurance/Recharge40: Superior Might of the Tanker: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge40: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge Level 18: Burn A: Armageddon: Damage/Recharge36: Armageddon: Chance for Fire Damage37: Armageddon: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy37: Armageddon: Recharge/Accuracy37: Armageddon: Damage Level 20: Staff Mastery Level 22: Consume A: Synapse's Shock: EndMod27: Synapse's Shock: Damage/Rechage33: Synapse's Shock: EndMod/Recharge39: Synapse's Shock: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy45: Synapse's Shock: Damage/Accuracy/Endurance Level 24: Boxing A: Absolute Amazement: Stun25: Absolute Amazement: Stun/Recharge25: Absolute Amazement: Stun/Recharge/Accuracy31: Absolute Amazement: Recharge/Accuracy49: Absolute Amazement: Stun/Endurance Level 26: Tough A: Gladiator's Armor: End/Resist29: Gladiator's Armor: Resistance/Rech/End31: Gladiator's Armor: TP Protection +3% Def (All) Level 28: Innocuous Strikes A: Nucleolus Exposure34: Armageddon: Damage/Endurance34: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage34: Perfect Zinger: Chance for Psi Damage36: Ice Mistral's Torment: Chance for Cold Damage36: Fury of the Gladiator: Chance for Res Debuff Level 30: Sky Splitter A: Hecatomb: Damage42: Hecatomb: Damage/Recharge/Accuracy42: Hecatomb: Recharge/Accuracy42: Hecatomb: Damage/Endurance43: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative)43: Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge Level 32: Weave A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed46: Shield Wall: Defense/Endurance46: Shield Wall: Defense46: Shield Wall: +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) Level 35: Focused Accuracy A: Invention: Endurance Reduction Level 38: Taunt A: Invention: Range Level 41: Temperature Protection A: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3%48: Steadfast Protection: Knockback Protection Level 44: Fiery Embrace A: Invention: Recharge Reduction Level 47: Serpent's Reach A: Apocalypse: DamageA: Apocalypse: Damage/Recharge/AccuracyA: Apocalypse: Recharge/Accuracy48: Apocalypse: Damage/Endurance48: Apocalypse: Chance of Damage(Negative) Level 49: Stealth A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed ────────────────────────────── Inherents: Level 1: Brawl (Empty) Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Sprint A: Unbounded Leap: +Stealth Level 2: Rest (Empty) Level 1: Swift A: Invention: Run Speed Level 1: Health A: Panacea: +Hit Points/Endurance33: Miracle: +Recovery Level 1: Hurdle A: Invention: Jumping Level 1: Stamina A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End Level 1: Combo Level 1 Level 1: Combo Level 2 Level 1: Combo Level 3 Level 20: Form of the Body Level 20: Form of the Mind Level 20: Form of the Soul Highlights: +102.5% global recharge bonus 80% slow resist (including temperature protection, without it's 60%), enough to be topped off to a very respectable level through base buffs/time lord day job. This is with the Tanker ATO and Sky Splitter - form of the body proc (which lasts 15 seconds) 11pts of knockback protection, enough for most content and you can also get a KB protect base buff to further bolster that. This is not including the force feedback procs that I sprinkled into the build and one procced up attack that helps you do a bit more damage. Is this a perfect build? Nothing is perfect. Does this build have more hard defense/res stats than other builds? Absolutely not. Does this build play to the combo's strengths more while maintaining a balance between chasing those hard stats and using/strengthening existing synergies? Yeah, I absolutely think so. Tanker (Fiery Aura - Staff Fighting).mbd

Others will disagree with the justification "but you have cLaRiOn" and "you have breakfrees" For squishies, CM is 5/5. It's the only buff I care about on my squishies for regular, non-hardmode content. I can build for softcap, I can use other tools at my disposal to mitigate damage, my biggest weakness is mez. Mez = I can't nuke after I just hit build up, mez = my enemy anchored toggles drop and the team suffers for it, mez = I can't hit that clutch heal for a dying teammate, etc... Fortitude, the auras, and Adrenaline Boost are good buffs, not arguing that. All things considered, these buffs have a marginal to nominal effect on my contribution to the team, but I can't contribute ANYTHING regardless of uber buffs if I'm mezzed. CM is a game changer for squishies, and I will always advocate that if you want to be a good emp you know to keep Fortitude and the other buffs up. But if you want to be GREAT, CM those who need it and keep it on them.

I hope this gives you some appreciation of anti-mez powers like enforce morale or clear mind. How wonderful would if be if a teammate that had access to those applied that on you all the time? Do on to others and yada yada. While my comment doesn't help you directly, if you want to be better than 90% of the support players out there, take enforce morale and apply it onto other squishies regularly (I suggest during the wind down, clean up phase of each engagement or as you are moving to the next group), most of them are in the same boat as you.

Pretty goofy if that’s what you are going for. Some of KM’s animations are extravagantly twirly, and then you trow ninja stars. Go for it!

Stone armor has an unconditional damage boost via the brimstone proc which is why I chose that combo for my scraptinel (TM) If you don’t want to do SA then ninjutsu for scrappers is excellent choice albeit clicky, with a stealth strike mechanic and better endurance management. I prefer kinetic melee for this concept for the unconditional build up, but claws will be more of a buzzsaw if you mix it up.

Those ranged hover builds are missing out. melee is dangerous, but you also have better/easier access to good builds, all you need is a little finesse. if you want to play a fire/fire to its intended potential, ignore those range only builds and embrace the proper use of your melee toolkit as well as your ranged toolkit.

The only protection you need, you will find in the Church of SPIN. SPIN, and be rewarded my child. SPIN, and you will be invincible SPIN, and be blessed by everlasting glory I will add some context later after I finish SPINNING.

Your enhancements did not go bad because you exemped down from level 20 not do they not count because you acquired the slots after level 16. You don’t have to be level appropriate to solo TFs optimally. Optimal TF soloing tends to come from completed high level builds with attuned set bonuses/ATOs/purple sets. A lot of TF solo runs also rely on constant feeding of inspirations through email and/or envenomed dagger p2w temp power. The latter provides enough -regen to slow AV regen for you to whittle them down.

You skipped my post and the link didn’t you? I should add some context: kinetic melee has two ranged attacks, an aoe knockback attack (repulsing torrent) that you can get very early, and a single target knockback attack (focused burst) that you can get soon after. The knockback can be converted to knockdown but the beauty of knockback/down is that it’s a very spammable form of mitigation, which aligns with what you want based on your scenario/use case. You can also take additional ranged attacks from epic pools to make a wacky yet very functional ranged scrapper. You can do the same with claws but Kinetic melee has an unconditional build up type damage boost power, whereas claws require followup, which is a melee attack, for damage boosts.

Sure, I’ve written a few in the blaster forum but the build and the focus for you will depend on your goals. The link below walks you through the general approach and methodology towards the poster’s specific goals.

Scrolled through way too many posts to highlight particle shielding. This should be THE number 1 advice. Put this on auto and you can proc out your entire arsenal and not run out of end when supplemented with radiation therapy.

Why stop at 1 ranged power? Make a whole ranged scrapper and hide behind blasters!

People that come from other MMOs often harbor the “pure” mentality when it comes to support and Tank roles. That doesn’t work here. There is no better way to spot an inexperienced player than someone that takes the first attack of their set, ignore all other attacks, take all the heals/res and dip into the medicine pool, or the one attack + taunt “pure” tank. Get that notion out of your system ASAP. if you think being a healer is an automatic invite on teams then you are in for a rude awakening. You are going to see this progression as you level: early game to early 20s - people need heals, these are the levels where you will feel valued if all you do is heal. Level 20s on - twinked builds need heals less and you will see emergence of builds capable of carrying teams especially if they are level 50s with attuned sets participating in lower level content. You will not be the center of attention and those twinked builds will carry the team with or without your dedicated healing. Good emps will support the team with buffs and enable teammates that lack mez protection to fight on via clear mind and heal when necessary. All the while mixing in attacks or controls. Not so good emps sit around with healing aura on autocast, never attack, only buff the tank and insist that EVERYONE “gather for RA” every 2 minutes.

Nothing has changed, except most people are pretenders and phonies when it comes to storm blast. They don't embrace da cyclone!

Burn the heretic! I'd go fire for theme. You could also do Beam/Ninja for space marine with a chainsword(ish).

Sure that's your story about why you like the set, but you have to recognize that other people might not have the same measuring stick for what's fun/easy for them right? Helping newbies is not about you, it's about the newbies. We can all be a little more prescriptive and exercise some empathy in how we endorse what we endorse and take an objective lens to highlight pros/cons/tips for success. It's cool to list the good, but you gotta be fair and list the bad and how to over come the negatives also. The goal here is to help newbies make an informed decision, not to tout what you personally love, keep that in mind.

The pandas are migrating to Torch-BEAR-er It should be the official panda server. I'll see myself out.

Everyone tends to ask "what's the best" when they start. But make sure you learn to crawl and walk before you run. People that post builds and suggestions typically do not look at their suggestions from your perspective as a new player, most just espouse their favorite build tweaked to optimal performance with expensive builds and incarnates. You don't have those resources when you start the game, keep that in mind. It pays to ask some smarter than average questions like: What can I expect leveling this up/when does it get fun? What are some elements I should prioritize/be mindful of? What kind of investment do I need to take this build to the level of performance as it is posted? Otherwise you might very well start that character and abandon it 10-20 levels later because no one told you what it's like to level that build. For example Invuln/Super Strength. Footstomp, the only AOE of the set, is available at level 30, so that means you have to wait 30 levels to a point where the build actually becomes fun, meanwhile you'll be riddled with poor damage and endurance issues. As a new player with no funds I struggle to see how you would stick with it that long before you jump ship into something else that is more fun from the get go.

"Board Transit" missions require you to go to a train station or a portal that allows to travel to other zones. For your case I'd imagine you are in atlas park, go to the train station (Marked with a T on your map) and the mission will be listed as the first destination at the top of the list.

Leadership,-resist stacking and being overall self sufficient are its strengths. Its weakness - lack of alpha strike capabilities and no resistance against debuffs. The lack of alpha strike capabilities really shows when facing enemies that pile on debuffs. You can't kill them en-masse fast enough, debuffs starts stacking - cascade failure - dead bane. For that reason I advocate that for all banes the most complimentary patron is leviathan for a proc-monster arctic breath, not black scorpion (shatter armor). Banes have enough ST, they don't need another ST mace attack even if it has more -res. Arctic Breath also has -res and comes with a host of other benefits when you look at what Banes need the most. Frag grenade + Venom + Arctic Breath is enough of an alpha to kill enough mobs to start triggering mob fear/run AI and that buys you time to recover/kill those problem targets still alive. People are still sleeping on arctic breath, time to wake up.

I don't recommend any melee AT to start. Those require you to engage in melee and melee can be pretty dangerous early game when you don't have your defenses/mitigation fleshed out (think being put on the spot to tank/take the alpha running troll missions, ruin mages, etc...) The survival for most melee ATs also very much depend on IOs. Most melee ATs also suffer from poor endurance management at early levels due to the need to balance offense and survival toggles. For a beginner with no cash flow it'll be a long road for you to get from where you are to those builds and performance levels that people post on the forums. Criteria for an easy beginner build: Good endurance management - no endurance = no fun Decent survival - dying all the time = no fun Playstyle that doesn't feel too restrictive - melee ATs force you to be in melee even if you are put into a situation where it's not advantageous to be in melee (ruin mages). Ranged attacks are more versatile, nothing preventing you from shooting stuff in the face as well as from afar. Even though I'd encourage everyone to start with a blaster to learn all the nuances of the game, it's definitely not the easy path. But if you are genuine about learning, go blaster, experience all the shortcomings/holes that you need to be mindful of. No other AT will give you as much insight into fundamental game mechanics such as proper threat assessment, positioning, aggro management, line of sight, movement, inspiration usage, mez awareness, etc.. as blasters. If you want a more relaxed, easier experience, I recommend sentinel. Good AT to pick up and just have some fun with a lot more room for error.

Listen to Pandas. They are berry berry wise.