cohRock

He is a fairly new character, and has just started slotting sets in the past week. Eventually all the attacks and armors will be slotted with various sets, adding native endReduc to each. With the -65% recharge penalty of Granite armor, he doesn't swing that quickly, even when Hasten is active. Thank you for suggesting the +End procs.

With the addition of level 1 Alpha:Cardiac, here is his current build: Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10 https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Glowie Me: Level 50 Natural Tanker Primary Power Set: Stone Armor Secondary Power Set: Radiation Melee Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Teleportation Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Rock Armor -- GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx(A), GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(13), GifoftheA-Def(13), GifoftheA-Run+(17) Level 1: Contaminated Strike -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(3), DefDeb-I(5) Level 2: Earth's Embrace -- RechRdx(A), Heal(3), Heal(5), Heal(21) Level 4: Kick -- Acc(A), Dmg(23), Dmg(40), Dmg(46) Level 6: Stone Skin -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(7), ResDam-I(7) Level 8: Rooted -- EndRdx-I(A), Heal-I(9), Heal-I(9), Heal-I(23) Level 10: Teleport -- EndRdx-I(A), Range-I(31) Level 12: Brimstone Armor -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(17), ResDam-I(21), ResDam-I(27) Level 14: Taunt -- Acc-I(A) Level 16: Recall Friend -- Range-I(A) Level 18: Mud Pots -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(19), EndRdx-I(19), Dmg-I(37), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(40) Level 20: Crystal Armor -- GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx(A), GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(25), GifoftheA-Def(25), GifoftheA-Run+(34) Level 22: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 24: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A), ToHit-I(43) Level 26: Minerals -- EndRdx-I(A), DefBuff-I(27), DefBuff-I(40), DefBuff-I(42) Level 28: Irradiated Ground -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(29), Dmg-I(29), DefDeb-I(37) Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(31) Level 32: Granite Armor -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(33), DefBuff-I(33), ResDam-I(33), DefBuff-I(34), ResDam-I(34) Level 35: Devastating Blow -- Acc-I(A), EndRdx-I(36), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(37) Level 38: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(39) Level 41: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A), Heal-I(42), EndMod-I(42), Heal-I(43), EndMod-I(43), Heal-I(45) Level 44: Atom Smasher -- Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Arm-Dmg(45), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(45), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), Arm-Acc/Rchg(46), Arm-Dam%(48) Level 47: Boxing -- Acc(A), Dmg(48), Dsrnt(48) Level 49: Weave -- GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx(A), GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(50), GifoftheA-Def(50), GifoftheA-Run+(50) Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(11), Heal-I(15) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(11), EndMod-I(15) Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A) Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Rest -- IntRdx-I(A) Level 4: Ninja Run ------------ If Cardiac and potentially Ageless alleviate the need for Conserve Power and Physical Perfection, I plan to swap them out for Cross Punch, taking full advantage of both a tank's larger area for melee cones as well as maximizing Fighting Synergy.

(also @kiramon ) His build originally did not have Weave. I was remembering my stone tank on Live standing in the shadow shard in Granite armor and Rooted, surrounded by +8 foes and barely getting scratched. Of course he couldn't do much damage to them either. That must have been pre-ED though. On Glowie Me (current stoner) he could do a +4*8 smash/lethal farm (due to the help of the Stone Skin passive resistance being active alongside Granite), but he had to really tone down the level to like +2*6 for Fire or Energy farms. A tanker forum thread suggested adding Weave. Adding it allowed him to handle +4*8 mobs on both Fire and Energy farms. Outside of farming, he probably wouldn't need it, but now he is pretty much a universal farmer. Well except for psi, where is only defense is about 7.5% from Weave and I think 7.5% from Armegeddon. His Granite form is currently slotted with an endReduc, 3 resist, and 2 defense. Now that he has Cardiac, he might replace the endReduc with a 3rd defense, though. Even with Weave, the +4*8 farms get a little hairy if they have wandering mobs and you end up fighting 2 or 3 large groups at once.

Currently the tank ("Glowie Me") has the Atlas Medallion, three minor recovery and +maxEndurance buffs via Gift of the Ancients, a 4% recovery bonus via Armegeddon, and he is working toward Portal Jockey. Besides the current 4 sets, his enhancements are at least level 35 vanilla IOs. He got Cardiac slotted yesterday, but I haven't really tested out the effect on his sustained endurance stamina.

I have an alt with end problems. He has taken the Epic pool powers Conserve Power and Physical Perfection. He is 50+ now, and almost ready to slot his Alpha with Cardiac. What I wonder is after he gets the 33% - 45% end reduction on all powers due to Cardiac, will the two Epic Pool powers still be necessary? Note he is also slowly buffing up max endurance and recovery via Accolades and sets. The alt is a stone/rad tank. In his Granite form he will typically have 7 toggles on -- Granite, Rooted, Mudpots, Irradiated Ground, Weave, Tactics, and Assault. They all have at least one end reduction already (Mudpots has two). I don't want to respec out of the epic pool powers (replacing with two attacks) unless the endurance load is low enough that he can continuously fight in an extended battle. When Granite is not on, the situation is even worse. Its single toggle is replaced by up to four others -- the individual armors for smash/lethal, fire/ice, energy/negative, and psi+perception.

@Omega-202 and @Luminara , thank you for the information and experience. I guess Atom Smasher gets to be the one to receive Armageddon.

My stone/rad tank has reached 50, and I plan to have him 6-slot the Armageddon set. He can place it in Mudpots (currently 6-slotted), Irradiated Ground (currently 4-slotted), or Atom Smasher (currently 6-slotted). None seem a particularly good fit for Armeaeddon. Why this isn't posted in the Tanker forum is my general question about Armageddon and endurance cost. The set seems to be designed for a direct attack. Three of its elements include recharge, but only one reduces endurance cost. That is great for an attack, but backwards for a damage aura. Mudpots in particular is quite expensive (.78 end/sec unslotted), and is a major factor why the tank has endurance problems. Currently I have it slotted with two vanilla end-reduc IOs. Confusingly the set's proc is extra fire damage 4 to 5 times a minute. This is a great addition to a damage aura, but he may not even get the chance to use Atom Smasher near that often. Thus the set feels sort of schizophrenic in design, sort of an odd fit for either an attack or an aura. Am I missing something?

Thank you, @Unknown AT . I am the "Glowie Me" you made this example build for. @Gobbledegook , he made this build for me in game. My tank was about to hit 50 and we had been discussing various sets. We share the Radiation Melee attack set, but he was on a Fire brute. We were actually in a Fire farm. Glowie died a couple times when not paying attention to the battle. He correctly ascertained that my fire defense was not what it could be. (Granite with two defense IOs gives him over 28% defense to everything except psi and toxic.) AT seemed to freeze at a calm point for 10 or so minutes. Next thing I know, he told me that he had a first pass at a build, and here it is. 🙂 One thing I find funny is that AT thought I want a "fire farmer build". Glowie is a stone tank -- he can be an "everything but psi" farmer. Granite form gives him 78% resistance to all but psi, and the auto set Stone Skin caps smash/lethal resistance at 90. He has already brought fire/cold resist up to about 80.5 with the one set he does have now, 4 of Gift of Ancients. I'll be replicating that in two more defense powers, bringing fire/cold resist to 85, and greatly mitigating the slow effects of Granite and Rooted. I'm considering the other ideas, but in the context of my first character on Live being a stone/stone tank. Thank you, AT for taking the time to do this.

I think both are great sets. To me, the factor that has me choose one over the other boils down to two powers. Ninjitsu Shinobi-Iri (available level 6) some positional defense to all stealth run speed boost jump boost (speed and height) Super Reflexes Quickness (available level 28) +recharge run speed boost fly speed boost resist(slow) One other factor to consider is knockback protection. SR gets it at level 10, whereas Ninjitsu does not get it until level 28. What factors are more important to your character concept?

Thank you for the feedback, guys. @oldskool I especially appreciate the time and analysis you gave to my idea. I will continue to pursue the copper cannon idea for a while, knowing I can always respec later.

I have made a new Sentinel as a sort of thought experiment. It is the "copper cannon" -- more robust than a blaster but less than a full sentinel. I know he starts out as a less offensively powerful blaster. The copper cannon's secondary is Regeneration, and he only takes its auto-powers and Integration, granting him mez and knockback protection as well as additional regeneration. The other powers taken from the set are Fast Healing, Quick Recovery, Dismiss Pain (increases max hit points), and Resilience (providing a little resistance to all damage). The experiment allows for any primary, but my guy chose Dark Blast, eventually taking all powers except its tier 1. I know Life Drain will not make up for the active healing powers not taken, but it is something. His pool powers will be: Combat Jumping Boxing, Tough, Weave Assault, Tactics, Manuevers Hasten And from Soul Mastery Soul Tentacles Soul Storm Summon Mistress I know this is a crazy thing to do on a character I would solo regularly. But he is in an active SG with a lot of opportunities for teaming with friends. His damage potential is as strong as any Sentinel, and his Leadership skills will improve the team overall. (Not by a lot, admittedly, but some.) Yes, teammates may have to keep him alive from time to time, just as they would a blaster -- but not as often. Would you be okay with teaming with someone with such a build, or think he's some dumba** who has no idea what he is doing? Any optimization suggestions within the copper cannon concept?

Thank you for the analysis and testing, folks. So gauntlet extends radial powers by 50%. Nice! I still kinda think defenders should get the same Leadership range bonus, but I'll gladly accept what we have. Hmm, I wonder if a tank with Ice Melee has his Ice Patch radius extended from 10 to 15 feet. A controller's Ice Slick would still beat it, at 25 ft., but 15 ain't nuthin' to sneeze at. And a fire tank's Blazing Aura would expand from 8 to 12 feet. -- same with Spines:Quills and Stone:Mud_Pots. I think if I were to build a farmer knowing this, he'd be a tank, not a brute. Irradiated Ground (Radiation Melee) seems to have a different, non-radial mechanic. I wonder if its effective thickness is also affected by gauntlet.

Today my level 33 tank was teamed with two brutes. I noticed that my Assault and Tactics showed up for them before their Maneuvers and Tactics would buff me. The detailed info for all our leadership powers said that they all have a radius of 60 feet, which was probably right for the brutes. But my tank seemed to buff them at about 100 feet. Does anyone know if this is a bug or simply incorrectly documented behavior? It would make sense to me that leadership on tanks and defenders would have a larger range than other archetypes. Their primary job is to protect teammates (though in different ways). So giving them a larger range would be one way to accomplish this. BTW, one of the brutes was level 50 and the other was 36. This wold seem to eliminate a mechanic where range gets larger with character level.

The Corruptor, Frick and Frack, got his Galvanic Sentinel early, but the Votaic Sentinel was not available until 26. He named the GS "Frick", and the character concept was to name the VS "Frack". It turns out that Frack is untargettable, and hence does not even show in the Pets window. Nor can I rename him. 😞 Hopefully teammates will realize that Frick and Frack has a pet named Frick and a very shy pet named Frack.

Ah, but you are forgetting about your alternate selves that save their planet. So in the long run, I think the pluses outweigh any minuses. 🤖

It works! Thank you. Although commanding them is not an option, just being able to see their health and quickly target them is a big plus. Actually I haven't verified that the Voltaic Sentinel will show up there; it is a tier 8 power and my char is only level 7. I don't think VS can be healed, though, so it may be moot for it anyway. @MTeague Thank you. I'll experiment with such binds and see what works best. An issue is that, at any given time, a certain pet may not be up. I.e. if the buff pet is up but not the Galvanic Sentinel, I'd want to heal that, and vice versa. Of course, nothing says I cannot have two macros. 🐶

As has already been said, power leveling is not new with Homecoming. What is new is its prevalence, and I believe that was the OP's point. Some players seem to assume your new level two "needs" to be power-leveled and may even offer to do so. A player new to Homecoming, or especially CoX itself, may well get sucked in to that mentality without even realizing the long-term depth of play available outside AE. What some of us wish we saw more of is the veteran player showing new guys the ropes, not just bringing him into a mission and telling him to stay out of the way. Just, when you offer to help someone, let them know there are two ways of advancement, and be willing to show them the ropes. If they want to be sucked into a mission with all purples and pick their nose at the door, cool. Don't assume everyone had 50s on Live and is anxious to get back to Incarnate Content. (Or worse, get stuck into self-perpetuating loop of thinking that his job is to start power leveling others.)

I created an elec/elec Corruptor who will eventually have 3 pseudo-pets, Voltaic Sentinel, Galvanic Sentinel, and a prestige buff pet. The Electrical Affinity set includes a "chain" heal, which means you target an ally or pet and cast Rejuvenating Circuit. If soloing, a pet can be targeted, usually healing the pet and and nearby allies, including yourself. The problem is, if a quick heal, is needed I do not know of a way to target one of his pets without taking time to turn around and manually clicking it. This can be very awkward in situations where multiple foes are attacking you. An MM's pet control window includes not only his normal, primary-power pets, but also pseudo-pets. Is it possible for a non-MM to have this window as well? If not, what is an efficient way to heal self solo in battle situations?

@Johnny Thank you for the thoughtful counter-proposals.

I'm not going to fight the issue. Based on feedback here, I appear to be in a minority. I do think you are incorrect in saying "There's nothing difficult or challenging about it", though. Many a player died as they went to the second clicky. Yes this could be avoided if tam clears what it can first, but not all teams would do that. You make a good point about players with special circumstances.

Thank you for the official reply. I guess I get it, especially since you also made Task Forces soloable. At some point if you decide the population numbers warrant it and developer time is available, please consider undoing this simplification for normal missions, and making it an option on TFs. I like a design where occasionally some different mechanic has to be addressed.

The second mission from Talos contact Andrea Mitchell is "Defeat Lead Cultist, His Coven" (banished pantheon). The mission briefing tells you explicitly that you will need a team with at least 2 players. There are 2 chests, in different rooms, that have to be clicked simultaneously. Or at least, that was the design, and how it was on Live. But when I just did the mission, a single person needed to click one chest, and that part of mission was complete. I can understand if a few bugs have crept in, but I really don't like it if that mission was intentionally dumbed-down to be soloable. We did this on the Torchbearer server, and there are plenty of players around with whom to form a team. If it's a bug, I hope the staff will eventually fix it. With unpaid volunteers, I can't really complain. We have a LOT that works. 🙂

Thank you for the deep comment and analysis. The one element I partially disagree with is above, where you say having double shields is bloat. I'm sure you remember the bad old days when shields (from thermal, FF, Ice, Sonic,, etc) were not AoE powers. You had to cast them individually on each teammate. Now that was bloat! So I can handle casting 2 shields every 4 minutes, vs potentially 14 for teammates and more for any pets. If they were going to change the set, maybe Thaw could become either an AoE or toggle power with fairly large radius. They could do this on just the Mastermind version of Thermal, the way Sentinel armors get tweaked for just that archetype. @Coyote and @Nyghtmaire thank you for your encouragement and sharing your experiences. I'm going to have to look into Electrical Affinity. I don't remember that from Live.

@Vulpoid it turns out that the bind he set weeks ago was lshift+lbutton. 🙂 Thank you both.

Thank you, @Greycat . I was able to save then view the .txt file, but it did not contain a bind for teleport. I tried to recreate one: * /bind z Teleport When I press z, however, I am told that Teleport is unrecognized command.