[Why no love for Psionic Melee]

 

I think pys real problem is its just unremarkable. It lacks the inherent utility of sets like dark and staff. The damage of super strength or energy. Or the Aoe of claws or spines.

 

The fact it feels like a worse, reskined version of fire or when its resisted you can feel it is just gravy. 

 

 

[[Stone Armor / Super Strength] Proc Star - Never Stop Rocking! Get you a tank that can do both.]

13 minutes ago, Marshal_General said:

If you really need the extra recovery, you can always switch to muscular radial. You will trade some damage for it, but it might be worth if you need it.

 

The benefit of having it inherit to the build is you can Exemplar, as opposed to relying on incarnates. Next to movement speed it was definitely the biggest con to the build. 

 

Anyway it looks really good now. I'm looking forward to giving it a shot. 

[[Stone Armor / Super Strength] Proc Star - Never Stop Rocking! Get you a tank that can do both.]

5 hours ago, redshirt said:

Rev 1.0: 6/3/2021

This is my first guide, so please be gentle...

 

TL;DR Summary -

Tank anything. Kill anything. Party like a rock star. Avoid exemping.

 

This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.0.4.7
https://github.com/Reborn-Team/MidsReborn

Click this DataLink to open the build!

 

 

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Background

I initially started this project to take on @Linea's excellent 801 series Architect missions. What I got is a proc monster that can do any high level content. Team optional. I'm working my way up the 801s at +4/8 solo and it's been a blast. This may finally be my personal cure for altitis, so I wanted to share it with everyone. It's definitely not the first Granite / SS proc tank, but this one is mine and I think it brings the complete package to the table.

 

This is an Endgame Incarnate Guide, built for people already familiar with Stone Armor and Super Strength. It relies on the fact that damage procs do not care about your +/- damage, and zero recharge slotting to maximize their chances. Additionally, pool and APP attack powers that weren't designed with Rage in mind.

 

How to Play (General Content)

1. Make powexeclocation binds for Teleport, and other power binds as you like. I like buttons for Taunt, Travel, and Earth's Embrace.
2. Toggle On Granite, Mud Pots, and Weave. Add Leadership next to them if you want. Add Rooted in a convenient place but off, generally.
3. Remove all other toggles from your bar, except maybe Ninja Run or other P2W travel power of your choice. I use a bind for travel form that untoggles Granite and activates Athletic Run /e shrug
4. Set Hasten or Rage to Auto, put the other on your main bar.
5. Single Target Powers - Knockout Blow, Char, Ring of Fire. All others are unused / mules.
6. AoE Powers - Cross Punch, Foot Stomp, Fire Ball.
7. ??
8. Bring the Mountain down on everyone in your path. Keep attacking, pretend you're a Brute. Your attacks with Force Feedback bring everything back faster.

 

Power Sets and Pools

1. Stone Armor - Proc Monster builds want tons of slots. Granite Armor does everything in a single power, letting us focus on overcoming its debuffs. Earth's Embrace gets us to the HP cap, synergizing with Rooted's regen and additional def debuff resistance.
2. Super Strength - Rage double stacks for massive +dmg, and the set is balanced around that. But, what if we took powers that weren't balanced around Rage? Plus Knockout Blow is literally off the charts damage while stacking Holds, and Foot Stomp is amazing as ever.
3. Fighting - We're taking Weave anyway to get us defense softcapped and synergized Cross Punch damage is tons of damage. Combined with the recent buffs to Tanker melee radius and target caps and *mwah*.
4. Speed - Hasten. None of our attacks are slotted for recharge. We need recharge.
5. Teleport - Granite Tanks need Teleport. It's just a fact of life. I tried both Combat Teleport and Teleport, and ended up prefering the longer range of the latter. But Combat TP is great too, it animates faster and gives a ToHit buff to help land the initial Foot Stomp upon bamfing into the middle of a group.
6. Leadership - 801 missions hit you with every debuff in the book. More Defense, ToHit and Perception is never a bad thing. You can leave it off for normal content though.
7. Pyre Mastery - A lot of choices for Epic pool here. I chose Pyre primarily because of Char. Holds take tons of procs and Char (and most fire powers in general) activates quickly and cheapy. Ring of Fire and Fireball provide good damage without being 6-slotted. But honestly several other pools would work here, it comes down to personal preference. Dark/Soul take -ToHit procs. Elec/Mu take EndMod set procs, which can be fun.

 

Incarnates

1. Alpha - Musculature Core: We're using slots on Procs. We hit ED damage caps in every attack with purple damage IOs and Musculature Core. There's an argument to go Radial for the runspeed boost, but the only power it'd affect is Swift, and that's not good enough to lose the 12% enhancement on damage. If you choose an electric epic pool the endmod might be useful? Not sure. Core has never let me down. Non-Musculature choices just can't compare.
2. Judgement - Ion Core: I like Ion for general content because I can zap the next mob while I'm finishing up what I'm working on. This is another one that's up to personal taste. For 801 and other tough encounters I switch over to Void Radial for the -damage in a PBAoE.
3. Interface - Reactive Radial: Reducing enemy resists while applying a moderate fire dot with most attacks? Yes, more procs!
4. Lore - BP / Longbow Core: These are generally the metagame picks for the best DPS from Lore pets. They are extremely useful in bringing down hard targets.
5. Destiny - Ageless Core: T4 Core is required for the build to operate comfortably. We need the non enhancement +recharge and +recovery. I wish I could have gone radial while in 801 for the debuff resistances, but everywhere else you won't notice it, especially while you're Rooted. ITF Romans might cascade you, but everyone has to deal with that. Then you still have 90% resists so what are you worried about?
6. Hybrid - Assault Core: After many spreadsheets and testing, Core beats DoubleHit Radial for this build. It all comes down to Foot Stomp being over the damage formula. Melee Radial can help in 801 type situations, especially when you're being chain Confused or Feared. My strategy for that so far has been to carry Breakfrees and squish the offending mob. None of the other choices really have anything to offer us that's better than more damage to delete enemies faster.

 

Overcoming Granite and Rage

1. Every Granite guide has a section like this. Most say to get Speed Boost from a Kinetics friend. While I'll never turn down SB, we don't need it to function.
2. Move Speed - The build has a total of +105% Run Speed. When you're in Granite you're double base move speed, when Rooted you're at it. Combined with Teleport binds and slow debuff resistance you're as mobile as anyone.
3. Damage - Granite imposes a -30% damage mod. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. We're well into the green with nothing running. Then we get build up procs from Char and Gaussians, Rage is usually double stacked. Add Assault on top and the in-game damage bonus stat is usually riding in the +160% - +200% range when solo.
4. Recharge - Granite's -65% recharge debuff is rough. Plus we can't slot our attacks for recharge due to how proc math works. Enter: Force Feedback: Chance for Recharge. If you're attacking, Hasten is as good as permanent, even against a single target. I've soloed a fair few AVs and the worst I've seen is about a 5 second gap where nothing was recharged. If you didn't like the RNG of procs then this isn't the build for you.
5. Rage Damage Crash - Guess what? Damage procs do not care about your damage modifier. Just keep attacking. You'll do better than most Super Strength folks.
6. Rage Defense Crash - You're Granite. Yes, it's an unresistable -20% def, just ignore it 99% of the time and fall back on your capped resistances. In 801s or when I know there will be incoming damage spikes I tend to carry purples or keep Earth's Embrace off cooldown to use as a heal.

 

Build Pros and Cons

Pros

1. Invincible - Softcapped defenses, capped resistances. Decent psionic resist. HP is capped, as long as you get your accolades, and you're regenerating 60HP per second. Combined with your 90% resistances that's 600 dps of passive effective mitigation.
2. Unstoppable - While rooted, we have more status protection than we'll ever need. Just stand next to Rommy while he rezzes without being stunned. Sappers tickle your blue bar (you drain that yourself plenty). Defense debuffs tend to fall off before they become an issue. We have enough resistance to slows to keep on trucking. Just teleport out of caltrops.
3. Hits like a Truck (A Rock?) - See above damage chart. All attacks hit for at least 400 damage with 90% (capped) proc chance. Cross Punch, when aimed correctly, will delete +4 LTs and below. Combined with Knockout Blow to finish off bosses. Seriously, just aim at bosses. Your AoE will take care of the rest.
4. Controls for the Team - Mud pots and Taunt make us the center of attention. Enemies are slowed, Gauntlet reduces their range so they crowd around. Then you Foot Stomp and they're all on their backs. Cross Punch! Another AOE knockdown. Target a boss, Knockout Blow -> Char. If not dead boss then it's still a held boss.
5. Movement - Yes, this is a pro. Even while Rooted we're at or slightly above base move speed. While not Rooted we're at double base move speed. Teleport binds put us anywhere we want to be in an instant. Imagine the look on your enemy's faces as a mountain barrels toward them or suddenly appears in their midst. While teaming you can target a teammate who has run ahead, hit your TP bind and bamf to them even without line of sight! Great fun. So what if you can't jump?
6. Movement Binds - /bind button4 "powexeclocation cursor Teleport" and /bind key "powexeclocation target Teleport"

 

Cons

1. Granite Form - You have to stay in Granite whenever you're in combat. I have a bind that turns it on and off for RP reasons. This is a dealbreaker for a lot of people in a game with so much costume customization, and that's okay! It's not for everyone. I make up for it with emotes and power color customization. If you're still reading this far then you're probably ok with the look of Granite. All of its other downsides are mitigated by the build... except jumping. Small stairs and ledges, my secret weakness!
2. Endurance Hungry - Starving, more like. You absolutely need to mainbar Ageless, or you will Out of Power and lose Granite then splat.
3. Can't Exemplar - Due to reliance on Incarnates, this build is for level 45+ content. You can limp along when exemped with lots of blue candy, P2W and base recovery booster temps, but it will never feel like enough.
4. Psy Damage - We're at ~14% Psionic Defense ~45% resist, which isn't that bad. But it's definitely the hole. You probably shouldn't pull 3 groups of +4/8 Carnies without making sure you have backup. Soloing single +4/8 groups that send Psy your way is doable. Swapping to Minerals is a trap. By the time you retoggle up other armors you'd have been better off Foot Stomping and just reducing incoming damage via your powerful offense.
5. Too Tanky - A common complaint about Granite in general. Nothing poses a threat, the defensive capabilities are overkill. There are other Tank armor sets that will survive plenty. Heck, you can IO just about anything to survive these days. I just wanted to see all those Totals bars in mids be maxed out.
6. Expensive-ish - It has a few purples, but it's not the most expensive build I've seen. You've got a total of 6 Winter IOs that'll drain your bank, plus the boosters. Sorry, I'm a min-maxer. There are some cheaper substitutions you can make. Mostly the expensive IOs are there to add Damage enhancements at the purple rate, which is higher than all other IOs. You could do Obliteration: Damage instead of Avalanche in Cross Punch, for example. Or just common level 50 Damage IOs in places while you save up.

 

Final Words

1. Rock on!
2. There's definitely some choices here that are subjective. I would love feedback or improvements that I missed. I've tried some things but you can never try everything, that's what's so great about this game!
3. Thanks for reading!

 

 

I've also been playing with trying to make the perfect Granite tank and this looks amazing. The only thing I'm not sold on is if using 10 slots or so for what amounts to a fast walk is worth it. You are still going to be spamming teleport to move everywhere in a group anyway, why not just use those slots for more regen and getting over your crippling ageless dependency.  I know its completely personal preference, but other than that this is fantastic and I'm definitely stealing a large portion of slotting. 

 

Looks awesome.  

[Merits: How to drum up redside activity]

47 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

Yeah, because you're doing a bunch of things no one playing blueside joining blue teams has to worry about.  I already do this too.   I don't even bother to message the team leader until I am in the same zone they are.  Even if it means missing the team, it's more convenient for them not to have to deal with my issues when they'd rather just right click and punch "invite" to all the incoming tells.   I also already avoid going to my base or Ouro when everyone else on the team is using that as a means to get to the next door faster. 

 

That's the entire point of this suggestion.  Remove those last few annoyances so rogues don't have to tip-toe through a minefield to team blueside and maybe more people would consider playing rogues and thus be running more redside teams on occasion too.  And it's no skin off the backs of anyone who doesn't care about cross-teaming or doesn't like playing redside because it doesn't affect them.

 

Thank you for further explaining this. At the end of the day we can posite a million reasons as to why red side is so underpopulated.

 

Astetic

Personal morality

Self propagating population on blue side

Nostalgia

 

But its completely inarguable to say that unreliable and inconvenient mechanics play a large role in this. These mechanics only exist because NCSoft originally wanted two monthly fees, realized people wouldn't double pay, and tried to make a fix out hopes and spit.

 

Just have everyone be a vigilante in the games code and change the red/rogue only missions to be vigilante missions.

 

I know this is a ton of work, but if the developers would seriously want to make red side more appealing this is it. 

 

 

[Merits: How to drum up redside activity]

45 minutes ago, VulnaviaPhibes said:

Revoionary freedom fighters and stuff like that, can play the content that makes the most sense for them without having to change their alignments back and forth to get access to it.

 

However I'm not sure it would actually fix the problem of it being hard to find a redside group on most servers. If 99% of players are already rogues or vigilantes, and alignment can be changed instantly in the pocket D, and TUNNEL/bases allow you to teleport anywhere from anywhere, then the main mechanical obstacle to redside grouping is already gone. I'm not sure how much more this would do.

 

I think people who've posted about players in most RPGs finding evil content unfun or unpleasant in itself might be hitting the nail on the head, actually. Redside content is fun and well-written and enjoyable, but it's only to the taste of a limited number of players who really love the vibe or really get into character, and that would explain why it's most popular on the rp server, I think.

The problem with it is its not that easy or convenient when a group you actually want to run pops up. You saying "alignment can be changed instantly in the pocket D, and TUNNEL/bases allow you to teleport anywhere from anywhere" is completely disingenuous, because it takes minutes to do these things. Most people don't want to ask 7 other people to wait as they:

>leave the mission

>walk to a portal

>teleport to blue side

 

 

All to just to be able to accept to the invite. Sure this isn't a ton of work, but it takes awhile. Awhile for absolutely no reason whatsoever I might add. The reason Red side is so empty all the time is 95% of the player base doesn't level on red side. A huge reason that being invited to a group just takes awhile. This is what I mean by convivence. 

 

A lot of people not liking the content is probably true. However, I think a lot of people realize that choosing to play red is basically choosing to be completely unable to interact with the majority of players. 

[Merits: How to drum up redside activity]

I think the Homecoming developers should give serious consideration to just removing the mechanical portion of heroes/vigilante/rogue/villian alignment. Just make every quest, trial, task force and area open to every character. 

 

At this point who cares? 99% of players play as rogue or vigilante anyway. I think the biggest reason most people play blueside is just flat out convince, if you want the option of grouping easily you are going to hang out in blue side. If you could do red stories and get invites to blue groups without several zone transitions or vice versa you see a massive increase in redside activity.