Spaghetti Betty

In my testing during Beta, treating Second Wind just like Dull Pain still gave me a nice cushion of healing that helped a lot during encounters against things like Arachnos or IDF, so I'm opting to keep it! It does hurt a bit not being able to take other goodies like Melt Armor or Fireball, but it is what it is! It's not like SS is completely suffering on the AoE front, due to how good proc'd Foot Stomp is!

Howdy pardner! I hope everyone has been enjoying the new update! I haven't been able to do much other than theorycraft a bunch of stuff in Mids, but that's like half the game! The one thing I did pay a lot of attention to during Beta was the fact that Regen was getting some love and also getting ported to Tanks. Now, anyone that has listened to me rabble knows that I've stressed the fact that Regen would be among the top mitigation set if Tankers ever got it, and I feel like I've only been proven right! I'm also happy with the fact that it was mostly unchanged from what I got to play around with before release. Anyways, here's the build! New Main! - Tanker (Regeneration - Super Strength).mbd So, in building this, I noticed a few things. Tankers are going to go through a bit of a headscratcher placing their ATOs depending on their chosen Melee, mostly because there is no damage aura to dump some of those in. Also, pretty much everything will be picked. This is namely because you'll be arsed to pick between having both Fast Healing and Reconstruction or taking your T1 melee at level 2. There is an argument for skipping Quick Recovery based on how end-hungry your chosen Melee is, but I absolutely could not do it here. Other than that, the slotting itself is still pretty straightforward from every other Regen I've demonstrated here on forums. The major difference here is Tanker scalars are giving me some really, really wacky stats! The RES numbers above are with 1 stack of MoT, but check this out! Sweet bajeebus! That's a lotta armor! See, I'm still going to recommend the usual Rune of Protection and Melee Core juggling for this. It really does allow you absurd levels of protection for next to no investment! This means trading off set bonuses to rocket your damage comes with no consequence at all! Well, maybe the consequence of juggling two clicks. Anyways, I already have confidence that I'm going to be playing this toon a ton once I get settled in, and I also hope this helps give some pointers on how you could potentially spec your own Regen tank! QUICK NOTE: So, I realized the power progression on Mids is a bit bugged at the moment (6/18/2025), so this build might change a bit once that gets ironed out! *** EDIT 6/21/2025 *** Tanker power progression has been fixed in Mids, so I've made a new version of the build! You can find it below. New Main! v2- Tanker (Regeneration - Super Strength).mbd I've traded out Fast Healing for Melt Armor, but someone wanting more control over force multiplication can easily trade it for a 2-slot Hand Clap instead! The Miracle: +Recovery has been moved to Ailment Resistance, as I found Max HP can still easily be capped with just set bonuses, accolades, and Second Wind active. There is also a slight gain in F/C RES, as the Hamis in Foot Stomp have been traded out for +5'd Armageddon Dam, Dam/End. The previous version will still run fantastically, but this one is just a tiny bit more tweaked in my usual direction!

I have posted a new build for the i28p2 Regen buff! You can find it in the OP!

Hullabaloo and howdy doo! So, I took a look at your build, and I'm just going to cut to the chase. Your build isn't geared for 4-star optimization at all! The reason being is that the mindset you need to get in for that kind of stuff is not individual toughness. You'll generally want to stray away from speccing into things like the Fighting pool or Focused Accuracy since those don't do anything for your team. If everyone on the team is taking things like Leadership instead, then you all get to share 8 times the benefit! This also coincides with the fact that a coordinated team will be doing Barrier cycling, keeping your DEF and RES at a suitable level for mitigation (for the number freaks, this is ~125% DEF minimum and whatever your AT's RES hardcap is). You should also be looking at what other offensive utility you can bring that will provide benefit to everyone during the fight, such as debuffs (every little bit helps!) or Epic Holds (no need for a Controller if everyone is throwing a mag3-7 Hold)! Yes, Max HP is generally your biggest priority when building for 4-star, because you are going to get hit and it is going to hurt. Rad Armor gets around this by having a huge Absorb layer (your team should also ideally have a Nature or Elec Affinity to do most of the heavy lifting), so it's not as important! Nictus Rom absolutely does hit insanely hard at 4-star and also does irresistible damage, so it kind of is what it is if you end up getting chunked! But, once again, if you're positioning yourself like you need to and clicking your own mitigation where applicable, then it's up to the support on your team (and Barrier cycles) to keep you standing! Remember that there's no point in facetanking Rom during his invulnerability period while the rest of the team steps away to neutralize the Barrier Novas. Just run around and keep him taunted! The staircase at the ambush door is great for providing LoS breaks to keep yourself safe while doing so. As for a build, I quickly whipped up this example of what a pure 4-star Rad/MA Tank would look like for your perusal! RadMA4starEX.mbd I'm sure it's not a surprise at all that this thing would absolutely crumple without some outside help, but that's the whole point! You're there to provide Taunt and damage, first and foremost! You also want to have high mobility so you can move on a dime, and also so you can reliably get to each objective without having to be TP'd around. I hope this helps!

I'm actually going to be tinkering with some stuff today! I still think Regen as a set is going to need all the help it can get as far as solo durability. Remember that soft control is tons better at helping Regen do it's thing over stuff like debuffs, which is why I personally avert from rolling DM as a pairing, but it can work!

Definitely a Regen/SS! I'm probably going to be making quite a few Regen Tanks, now that I think about it, but that one is at the top of the list! I'm also juggling a few different pairings I'd like to try with Psi Armor. Since everything has to be taken (except maybe Aura of Insanity), I'm leaning towards a melee that doesn't require a ton of investment to function, like maybe EM or Fire. Katana doesn't sound like a bad pick, either! I'm curious on unearthing my various Elec Armor Tanks and seeing if the buff causes me to play them any more as well! Oh, and as far as Energy Armor goes, I already know it'll be plenty strong, but Ice Armor is already my go-to DEF armor for Tanks. I'm sure I'll come up with something eventually, but it's not very high on my list!

Skipping Quick Recovery is going to be very dependent on which Melee you plan on pairing with. I'd say the power I'd skip in a heartbeat is still Fast Healing!

This is not a hard game, at all! And if you look at the timeline of the game, I don't think it ever was. A lot of the difficult back then was artificial, mostly due to intended time investment bloat and withholding of information. I can assure you there were tough games before Dark Souls! And as someone who used to speedrun the game, I can't necessarily describe it as hard as much as "vague and unforgiving". You can really blow it wide open and have fights completed in seconds, but the game isn't holding your hand and teaching you how to do it. Not only that, but completing your first Souls game makes the rest exponentially easier, since the "difficulty" hinges on the player being completely unaware of the design formula.

You can check this thread for some work I did with the current iteration of Regen on a Brute!

This is the key here! If you look at most optimized Tanker builds over the last couple of years, they showcase just how easy it is to achieve enough mitigation to still be Tanker tough while inflating their damage with ridiculous amounts with proc bombing. When you add how the AoE buff from Gauntlet currently functions on live (acting as a "proc" instead of a hard increase to range), it means Tankers just straight up aren't following the rules and doing Blaster AoEs with little to no consequence! Granted, it was hasty dev work that allowed all of this and by no means was an exploit. On topic, I think actually hard coding the AoE buff for Tankers is enough of a nerf on their end as it is, as it'll normalize proc rates for them across the board. Some of the other stuff in beta feels a bit heavy handed, but it won't stop me from playing Tanks! They've always been my main since retail!

Absolutely! I'm going to be training up a Regen/SS in a heartbeat!

Anything that can spam knockdown is going to pair exceptionally well with Regen for two reasons: soft control and usage of Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge. The new Regen doesn't hinge as much on uptime with Instant Healing being turned into a toggle, but having Second Wind, Reconstruction, and Moment of Glory on small cooldowns will be how the set flourishes! I think another thing that doesn't get called out enough is choosing sets with a large variety of range types. It makes slotting for Slow RES much easier, since it means you can stuff more 2-piece Winters without crutching your other numbers. Regen will be getting a shiny +20% buffer, but you will still have to work for the cap, which is essential! Your clickies can't come back if your recharge is debuffed into the ground!

None of the players at Tanker Tuesday know how to read either, so you'll fit in just fine!

I just passively click it whenever it's up, so that might have been the case! I can check again whenever I have the time.

Hullo! I'm sure it's no surprise that this is the change I'm most interested in for the new patch. I've gone on endlessly about how I'd be switching mains pretty quickly if my baby ever got ported to Tankers, so of course I wasted no time giving the new Regen a spin! I've been wanting to try a Regen/SS Tanker for a long as both sets have been a thing, so that is absolutely what my "testing" experience has been with. I also prefer testing the upper end of things rather than the lower end. Anyways, here are my thoughts! I'm almost flabbergasted at how great the stats look at a base level, so I wasn't really shocked at what they looked like at 50+ with a full build. Here are my resting stats (with Rage, Second Wind, and Hasten active) And this is what they looked like after scrapping with Cims for a little bit! (Rune of Protection active) Granted, I had to eyeball a lot of my build choices and it wasn't perfect by any means. I also don't slot full sets in my attacks for the most part (I do be procbombing), so I'm sure more defensive numbers could be squeezed out. But, needless to say, Cims were not making a dent in my HP, like, at all! So I had to find bigger fish to boil. So, I tried some Carnies at +4x8. They really didn't stand a chance. The only thing I felt was my blue bar disappearing. Speaking of the blue bar, I could definitely feel the presence of another toggle. Now, a proc bomb SS is going to be pretty endurance hungry, but it's not usually a gigantic issue when running my Regen Brute on live. Maybe it's placebo, I dunno! To conclude my stress test, I decided to take on Arachnos at +4x8. Just to see, I yolo pulled about 30 of them, something Regen shouldn't be able to do. And, it went about as well as I expected it. I got sapped, held, and splatted. So, I can definitely tell you for certain this iteration of Regen will explode when faced with debuffs, even with the protection it's being given! Don't worry, I got back up and pwned them. Speaking of getting up, I had Second Wind active when I went down, but I wasn't given the prompt to come back. So, I used Return to Battle, activated Second Wind again, and went down on purpose. I was given the prompt the second time, so there might be a bit of an inconsistency issue! I'm not a huge numbers tester, but I can definitely say from a feel standpoint that the changes are fantastic. I was really worried that the identity of the set was going to be gutted when I heard there was a revamp in the works, but this is a great way to make the set much stronger without completely changing how it functions, and I really appreciate that!

It ultimately comes down to leveraging buffs and debuffs in a smart way! If your critters only had attacks, chances are they got pounded down due to the overwhelming damage the now super buffed GMs tend to dish out. Critter AI also isn't very smart when compared to most players!

I use Moose because it's funny!

Mhm, that makes a lot of sense from a pure DPA standpoint. But I like having the ability to stack mag on AVs by myself, so having 2 holds is how I usually go. There's been a lot of instances where I was the only player bringing holds (pug life) and I've been able to lock down AVs by myself, before Triangles. There's definitely some driver bias on my end, and that's ok!

I didn't actually know this, so thanks for the insight!

That's fair! I can't see myself ever skipping the ST hold on any Blaster nowadays. It's just too strong of a tool to have!

I think /Plant is ok! As stated above, you only really need 3 powers from it to get the best from it (those 3 being Toxins, the sustain, and the ST Hold), but I do like to mention that Vines is a pretty good sleeper pick, as it's one of the only "Blaster mez" AoEs that can be fully proc bombed, turning it into a decent checkmate in a stressful encounter. Skewer also isn't a terrible melee attack, and Spore Cloud is one of 6 powers across the entire AT that has a -Regen component. I just think it's neat!

My favorite MM is still my Necro/Dark/Levi. I really like playing the debuff game with it, where it's basically a race to dump the equivalent of a 7'' Tungsten cube worth of -tohit before I go kersploosh! It's also really, really good at fighting big targets!

Here you go! Tanker (Radiation Armor - Martial Arts).mbd As is typical with my builds these days, this is a bit lax on the armor side of things, relying on good inspiration use or teammates to fill the gap, but it excels at dishing out quite a lot of damage!

Hullo! I'm not really much of a Sentinel player and not the biggest fan of BR, but something about this did pique my curiosity, so I gave it a go! Firin Ma Lazor - Sentinel (Beam Rifle - Super Reflexes).mbd Now, this is definitely an endgame build (Softcap is achieved with Nerve Core), so take that as you will! CJ is definitely not necessary, since running Hover + Fly will give you all the maneuverability you need during combat! I also like including lots of options for damage, since it makes encounters really fun! As such, I included Psi Mastery for your perusal. This will give you access to strong ST damage options, including a really handy lockdown tool for big targets that will also double as a pseudo-Build Up, plus Psychic Shockwave, which will do a great job as shoring up BR's lack of good AoE damage! I do think SR on Sentinels is a bit frail and restrictive build-wise, but it's definitely one of the more serviceable secondaries!

The gist was already covered, but I'd like to expand just a bit! I'd double down that Recharge is definitely the most important stat offensively, but it also benefits you greatly from a defensive standpoint as well! Don't forget that all clickies are important to your overall wellbeing! I'll also say the second most important "offensive" stat to build up is accuracy! It's kind of easy to forget about, at least for me. This matters less if you only plan on fighting even con mobs, as raw enhancement value will usually cover your accuracy needs at that scale. But if you start pushing up into the +3s or +4s, you'll need to find some extra accuracy somewhere in your set bonuses. This becomes exponentially easier once you start diving into VR sets and Incarnates at level 50, so don't sweat it too much now. Also, don't fall into the trap of building up +Dam bonuses! You get a poor return on them, especially as a Brute, who have a very strange relationship with their own damage scaling. Another thing I'd like to touch on is building Defense vs Resistance. As a general rule of thumb, always build upon what your armor is good at first and foremost! While Brutes start with the same base numbers as Scrappers, they get the same Resistance hardcaps as Tankers (90%), so as Electric Armor - or any other Resistance based armor - you'll definitely want to attempt to get to that! If you build up a little Defense along the way, great! But keep in mind that -DEF is the most common debuff in the game! Any mob carrying something resembling a machine gun or blade will reduce your Defense! It only gets worse as you level up!