LorannaPyrel

Another Tanker has fallen - but they hold the line forevermore, in CoH Valhalla. Good bye, my friend; may valkyries lead you to your blessed rest. - Loranna

Thanks to everyone who took part! This was a blast for me, and I'm definitely up for running another sometime in the future! Think next time though, I might suggest that people stock up on big red inspirations, for taking down the blues more quickly . . . Feel free to post thoughts, feedback, and other comments! - Loranna

Hey all, I have confirmed with the regular Hami crew on Everlasting, it's easier if we run our event in the Abyss that night - so be sure your alignment lets you walk on the redside ^_^ - Loranna

Speaking solely about Radiation Armor . . . back when Homecoming started up, my Radiation Armor/Super Strength tanker, at about level 30, tanked the massive Freakshow ambush at the end of the Penny Yin TF - and she did that purely on SOs/CIOs. You don't need an expensive IO build to be tough as a Tanker. It just helps when you want to go from Tough to Godly ^_^. You also don't need expensive sets in every power, when you're aiming for a tricked-out IO build. For my resist toggles, I often use three pieces of the Titanium Coating set. While leveling to 50, I often rely on Crushing Impacts for my melee powers, and the set is perfectly serviceable even for a level 50. The trick is deciding what set bonuses you want to chase, and then deciding what IO sets will give you those. Hope this helps, - Loranna

Hehehehehe . . .yup; that's been my experience with both Electric Armor and Rad Armor on Tanks ^_^ As for Defense, well, the nice thing about resist based armors for Tanks is, you can still get a good 20% to all positions and types, base, without sacrificing resists or recharge. That's enough that a medium purple will softcap you for about a minute, a T4 Barrier will softcap you for the first thirty seconds, and most any support toon's defense buffs will rocket you into the stratosphere without any problem. Sure, there's no defense debuff resist, but you honestly don't need the DDR; your Defense is there as a tertiary form of mitigation. . . . Though, if you want to get silly about it (and of course, I always do 🙂 ) - grab Soul Mastery. Hardcapped resists to 5 or 6 damage types, rocking absorb shield, -to hit debuffs in your epic attacks, and oh yeah - DARKEST NIGHT, just to mess with AVs that much more. And, of course, you have a decent ranged attack for those times Battle Maiden refuses to step out of the blue patches, or to act as a more . . . forceful Taunt on that lone enemy that slipped past to go after the Squishies. - Loranna

Have you looked at Radiation Armor? Solid resists, with two "holes" that are easily patchable with set bonuses, combined with a decent absorb shield, a self-heal that grows stronger with more enemies around you, helpful debuffs, and some innate end drain and slow/recharge resist. Also, the set's fairly "hands-off"; set your absorb shield on auto, use self heal when it's needed as either a self heal or as a regen debuff, and you're good 🙂 True, no innate defense, nor any defense debuff resist, but you have resists and healing/absorb as your main sources of mitigation, and some offensive debuffs to make killing targets easier - plus a mini melee nuke that, with the right slotting, can also knock an entire spawn on its collective duff, to help mitigate an alpha, over and above what your secondary offers. - Loranna

I've been noticing odd behavior in my absorb on my Rad Armor tankers too; rather than refreshing for the full absorb amount, I'm getting anywhere from 60% to 100% of the expected absorb.

Hello, Recently, I've noticed some odd behavior on my Rad Armor Tankers. When Particle Shielding refreshes, it's awarding a random amount of absorb, not the amount stated on the info screen. When the power fires off, the grey numbers that appear over my character's head indicate that the full, expected amount of absorb has been applied (1243 absorb at level 50 with Cardiac Radial equipped). However, when I right-click my health and endurance bars, the actual absorb numbers vary from 690ish to the expected full amount. I have watched this process happen multiple times with no enemies present, so there was no incoming damage to skew the numbers; the absorb showing on my life-bar has been random, again and again, sometimes with a large enough difference that I can see my absorb bar go down when the power refreshes. Thank you for your time, - Loranna

You're not doing it wrong; that is an effective way of dealing with the yellows, so long as there are enough taunters to go around. I myself invariably home in on a single yellow, grabbing another one or two if there's only two or three of us, or if I see that nobody is covering the mitos next to me. So long as the yellows are aimed at us taunters, and not at the other teams, then it all works out ^_^ But, that's a tactic I use because I've done a number of Hami raids before, and trust my knowledge of the raid's mechanics to guide me. The instruction to taunt clockwise, now, is a general rule that will work whether there's one taunter or ten, and doesn't require a new player to worry about anything beyond "go round clockwise, taunt yellows". So it's a good rule for the raid leaders to offer us, and even experienced taunters who like to follow their "own" rules ought to keep it in mind. Lastly, thanks Veracor for making this topic. I know I've been getting a bit snippy; I'll watch myself from here on. Looking forward to many long years of jello fights ^_^ - Lorna

* New Content, across all levels * New Powersets * New Costume and Powerset Customization Options * New Incarnate Abilities * New People To Meet And Game With! ^_^ Loranna

QFT Super strength now is somewhat less than super. Rage crash now having 3 negative effects and really punishing you for stacking it makes the juice not worth the squeeze when you can just take a build up set and have a huge damage spike every 30 secs with the gaussians proc slotted. Not to mention smashing is heavily resisted, so im not sure losing all damage for 10secs plus end dump which can detoggle and get you killed, plus -def which wrecks most peoples main form of damage avoidance makes up for a small buff you can get anyways thorugh red insp and a HUGE damage cap on brutes through fury alone. I find SS not only much less fun to play trying to manage rage dumps, but also very lackluster overall compared to its former incarnation. *long, world-weary sigh* Just out of curiosity, is there anyone here who has repeatedly been killed due to the Rage crash? Not just once, but over and over again? And if so, which aspect of the crash is actually killing you - the ten seconds of -20% Defense, or the -25% end drain upon the crash? Or is it the lack of damage for ten seconds? Please. I really, really don't get this whole hate for Rage now. >.> - Loranna

Hello! Yes, Bobcat - if you fight her after beating Neuron - can dish out a LOT of damage, enough to take down even S/L hardcapped tanks. She's the bit on the Tin Mage TF that forces tankers to stay on their toes :) That being said, there are ways to dull her claws. Damage debuffs, like Darkest Night from Soul Mastery, are an option; the to hit debuffs don't hurt either. Having high defense and/or regen going into the fight also helps - try popping your Destiny proactively, and/or popping purple inspirations or swapping for a Barrier Destiny for that fight. Interfaces to lower her damage or to hit will also help. Lastly, just be aware, she CAN two shot you if you're not careful. Fight with this in mind; always be ready to pop Energize and back off a bit, force her to waste a few seconds following you. And coordinate with your teammates for a mix of Destiny buffs. Hope this helps, Loranna

Arctic may have its problems - the ST blast feels kind of weak, and I'm unsure if even Controllers and Dominators bother with Shiver. But calling down shards of ice to shred one's foes, as a Tanker, has a certain visceral charm. Especially if you pair it with some form of knockdown. ^_^ - Loranna

Yeah; once you're level 50, the catalysts tend to drop roughly once a day for your toon, in my experience. Sometimes I seem to miss it, but those days I hadn't played very much. - Loranna

And, for actual build details, here's my current Rad/Super Strength/Soul build that I use. I'm not familiar with the Savage Melee set, but this build might give you something to start with. Hope it helps - Loranna == Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Rad Tanker: Level 50 Technology Tanker Primary Power Set: Radiation Armor Secondary Power Set: Super Strength Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Flight Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Alpha Barrier (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (3) Titanium Coating - Resistance (3) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance (5) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Recharge Level 1: Jab (A) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage (5) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Damage/RechargeTime (7) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (7) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (9) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (9) Superior Gauntleted Fist - RechargeTime/+Absorb Level 2: Proton Armor (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (11) Titanium Coating - Resistance (11) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance (13) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Recharge Level 4: Haymaker (A) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage (13) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (15) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (15) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (17) Superior Might of the Tanker - Recharge/Chance for +Res(All) (40) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Recharge Level 6: Fallout Shelter (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP (17) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (19) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (19) Unbreakable Guard - Endurance/RechargeTime (50) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance (50) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 8: Radiation Therapy (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance (21) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge (21) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (23) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (23) Panacea - Heal Level 10: Maneuvers (A) Kismet - Accuracy +6% (25) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage (25) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (27) Shield Wall - Defense (27) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance (29) Shield Wall - Defense/Recharge Level 12: Taunt (A) Empty Level 14: Tactics (A) Rectified Reticle - Increased Perception Level 16: Beta Decay (A) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (29) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/ToHitDebuff (31) Cloud Senses - ToHit Debuff/Endurance/Recharge (31) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Recharge Level 18: Particle Shielding (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal (31) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance (33) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime (33) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime (33) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance (34) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb Level 20: Knockout Blow (A) Hecatomb - Damage (34) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge (34) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (36) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Recharge (36) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance (36) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative) Level 22: Gamma Boost (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery Level 24: Kick (A) Empty Level 26: Ground Zero (A) Superior Avalanche - Recharge/Chance for Knockdown (37) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (37) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (37) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (39) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (39) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Recharge Level 28: Rage (A) Recharge Reduction IO Level 30: Tough (A) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance (39) Titanium Coating - Resistance (40) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance (40) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Recharge Level 32: Fly (A) Winter's Gift - Slow Resistance (20%) Level 35: Gloom (A) Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (43) Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (45) Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (45) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (45) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage Level 38: Foot Stomp (A) Armageddon - Damage (42) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge (42) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (42) Armageddon - Accuracy/Recharge (43) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance (43) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage Level 41: Darkest Night (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance Level 44: Dark Obliteration (A) Ragnarok - Damage (46) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge (46) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (46) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge (48) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance (48) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown Level 47: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 49: Hover (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Celerity - +Stealth Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Quickfoot - Endurance/RunSpeed Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift (A) Flight Speed IO Level 2: Health (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance Level 2: Hurdle (A) Jumping IO Level 2: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 50: Cardiac Core Paragon ------------

I can offer a bit of advice on Radiation Armor, if only in a general way. Rad Armor is a fun set, with a lot of powers that serve double or even triple duty; your taunt aura debuffs enemies and gives you bonus recharge, Ground Zero is a PBAoE nuke, an ally heaol, and an enemy debuff all rolled into one, Meltdown gives damage bonus as well as resists and recovery, even your self heal debuffs enemies and gives minor amounts of endurance back at the same time. The majority of the debuffs you get are more offensive than defensive in nature; you get two ways to debuff defense, one way to debuff regen, and one way to debuff to hit. Rad Armor also gets a strong, easily-perma-ed absorb shield in Particle Shielding, which will also boost your recovery (and your regen, albiet only for half the duration of the shield itself). Particle Shielding is, in my opinion, the lynchpin of the set; you live and die by how able you are at keeping that absorb shield up, and getting it back up when incoming damage takes it down. Building for recharge, then, along with resistance, is a good idea, as it will improve your ability to get your absorb shield back up, and improve your abiolity to get your self-heal back up to help you weather the damage until your absorb shield refreshes. Defense is helpful, if you can fit some in; you get no innate Defense, nor Defense Debuff resist, but any Defense you can get on a resist-based tank is helpful. Since Rad Armor offers some debuffs, you may want to look into epic sets that build on the debuffs from Rad Armor, to further leverage their usefulness. I've had good success with Soul Mastery, which offers to hit debuffs and damage debuffs - both of which synergize nicely with your taunt aura's -to hit and your overall resists. If, on the other hand, you wanted to double up on the defense debuffs, I believe Earth Mastery might be of help there, along with offering some crowd control in the form of slows and stuns. Hope this gives you some ideas for working out your build. Good luck ^_^ - Loranna

Gah, I'm never gonna live my Super Strength advocacy down; there's now visual proof!

No; you're flagged as untouchable and only affecting self, so your auras stay on but have no effect on anything else. Because of how aggro is calculated, you will also very quickly (but not necessarily immediately) fall off the hate list for anything that was aggro'd to you. Oh. Darn; I was hoping you could still taunt things while doing the whole Iceman thing. Thank you for the prompt answer; most appreciated. - Loranna

In regards to Ice Armor, I have a question: do your taunt auras continue to work while you're using Hibernate?

Okay, I lied. I'm not done. So . . . and I admit I am paraphrasing here - it seems the essence of your argument is "a power with a long duration buff, then a short, but debilitating, debuff, is bad game design, especially when the set is built/balanced around said power." Or in other words, Rage is rather like the old-style "3 minutes godmode, then keel over and die" T9 powers from many armor sets, a relic of old, outdated thinking about what makes a game fun. Huzzah! You're right! \o/ Personally, I can't stand those T9 armor powers. Heck, I don't even take them even when they don't conform to that old, silly design philosophy. Too many bad memories of running around on Electric Armor as a crackling ball of static electricity, then keeling over and dying to a stiff wind at an embarrassing moment. Having to deal with a painful, debilitating debuff isn't all that fun! . . . But Rage isn't changing anytime soon, and as it happens, I know from personal experience that Rage's debilitating crash can be mitigated. I've been trying to explain how one can mitigate the crash throughout this thread. I can go over it again if people really need to, explain multiple ways to deal with each aspect of the Rage crash - the defense debuff, the endurance debuff, and the damage debuff - but really, if you don't like the design concept behind Rage, then . . .don't take it! I know people who use Super Strength and skip Rage; heck, even I've done it myself a couple of times. Or, as you and others have chosen, don't use Super Strength at all, if you feel that the set has too many "underperforming" powers. As I said before, it's a good thing that we have so many powersets from which to choose. You like Street Justice now? Great! Personally I can't stand the set; the AoEs feel gimpy to me, I dislike having to chase after three levels of Combo just so that a third of my powers will do what they're "supposed" to when I want to use them, and I never really felt that the set was doing all that much extra damage anyway. Oh, and I couldn't figure out how to pare the set down to just six power picks without seeming to gimp myself. And as for double-stacking Rage to avoid the crash, well yes, that was just a little unbalanced. As you noted, it was obvious, so I figured it could be left unsaid ^_^ So there. You're right, Rage is an old, antiquated approach to game design. You're well within your rights to dislike how the power works, and its effects on your gaming experience. However, said crash can be mitigated. I know it can; I've done it plenty of times. I've also found that, once I understood how to mitigate the crash, Rage became a useful addition to Super Strength's arsenal, one that I enjoy using, and which improves my enjoyment of the set as a whole. So no, I'm not "pro Rage crash" so much as I'm "pro Rage" - though honestly, having grown used to the design of Rage over the years, even if they do come up with a reworking of the power someday, I might prefer to leave my Super Strength toons as they are, with the old version. I'm happy enough with what I've got to work with now. - Loranna

A good - if somewhat humbling - run tonight :) Thanks to everyone who came out to christen Everlasting's first official night as part of the tour. I'll be here next month, waiting to greet you all back to the shard for more tankery goodness. Best of luck on the rest of the tour! - Loranna

No, I specifically said problem, not weakness. They aren't weaknesses, they are bad mechanics, and thus problems. Don't be a used car salesman and call something that is a broken a feature. "Oh the air conditioner doesn't work, but you can just roll down the windows and enjoy fresh air." Oh, used car salesman? Fine; I'm almost done here. What's Rage supposed to do, then? Because, far as I see, its purpose is "give you a damage boost." It comes with a downside, but it still does the job of giving you a damage boost. Heck, said damage boost, beyond the periodic Rage Crashes, can be kept up as long as you want. That's not a broken feature; that's you either not knowing, or else not caring to learn, how to deal with the downside. The power does its job; please stop saying that your opinion on the power's downside is proof that it's badly designed. There; I'm now done here. If people have any further questions regarding Super Strength, feel free to ask me via PM. I won't continue to derail the conversation about tangents. - Loranna

I hereby go on record as stating, using the Sudden Acceleration proc on Hand Clap is cheating mccheesy cheddar, melted on top of scrumptious elbow macaroni, and I will gladly eat it all up except that i need to watch my carbs these days :P Seeya tonight Boss! Loranna

Super Strength does have some things going for it. It contains several skippable powers, including Hurl, and yes, Hand Clap. But other attack sets either don't have those disadvantages that are exclusive to Super Strength. They just bring more to the table. Foot Stomp is really only that useful from levels 46 - when a tanker can get it - through 49; because at 50 your alpha slot opens and will mostly replace it as an opening move. I agree, one of Super Strength's pros is that the set can be pared down to six powers and still offer the vast majority of its functionality; that's three extra powers one can thus grab from pools, epics, and/or patrons, opening up further options that other melee sets, by comparison, would have to sacrifice a valuable attack to obtain. The point where I take exception, is the claim that other sets "just bring more to the table." To use Dark Melee as an example for now, Dark brings lots of -to hit, yes, which adds to survivability. Dark also brings a self heal baked into an attack, and a potent self damage buff that lacks any crash like Rage. These are all great tools for a tank! But Dark does have its limitations, too. Dark Melee's AoE, for example, is limited to one 5 target cone, and two AoEs on two or three minute timers; even limited to just Foot Stomp, Super Strength has more AoE potential overall, not having to line up a cone in order to get multiple targets. Not having much familiarity with the set, I don't know many ways offhand one could mitigate the dearth of AoE, but I can at least see how taking pool powers like Cross Punch, Spring Attack, Fireball, et al, could definitely help - as could picking up Sands of Mu (and some global accuracy/to hit bonuses to make the attack hit reliably - I kind of forgot to mention that in earlier posts! ^_^) Both sets have their selling points, and both sets have their drawbacks, and both sets appeal to different players - and that's fine. Everyone's playstyle is different, and it's good that we have a multitude of powersets to pick from! But I keep seeing people claiming that "Super Strength is bad because X", and I know, from experience, that X is invariably something mitigatable. The one big thing about the set that isn't mitigatable, is that it's all Smashing damage, and Smashing is a commonly resisted damage type. But beyond that, the issue I see people have with the set always boils down to either "I don't like what it offers, compared to another set" - or "I don't get how you're supposed to deal with these downsides." For the latter, particularly the Rage crash, I hope I've offered suffecient examples of how one can deal with the downside. For the former . . . all I ask is that people acknowledge the difference between a power that doesn't do what it's supposed to, and a personal preference in playstyle. (Before anyone says it: No, Rage does what it's supposed to. It offers a long-lasting, big damage buff, essentially perma-able, in return for a periodic, short-lived penalty to damage and survivability. Can you kill your foes before the crash hits? If not, can you keep your enemies from killing you during the downtime - even if it means investing heavily into your build, or taking an unpopular power? Yes? Then yes, the power does what it's supposed to - offer you high reward for taking a risk, and you can stack the odds in your favor to boot) Thank you for the conversation; I hope I've managed now to state my case, clearly and without rancor. - Loranna

So, your rebuttal to my argument is, because there are weaknesses in the Super Strength set, that prompt people to seek ways to mitigate said weaknesses, that said weaknesses are somehow antithetical to the set itself and to tanking in general. Do I have the right of that? Soo . . . what then would be an example of a melee set that doesn't have any outstanding weaknesses that require some working around, in one way or another? That doesn't require either slotting to account for some feature in the set, or making use of powers outside the set to shore up a downside, or otherwise require you do something to account for some failing in said set? - Loranna