ZemX

Since that earlier post I have paid more attention to my staff fighters and I'm convinced now the redraw is not a performance issue. It does not add time to your attack chain. It instead causes the attack you activated that caused the redraw to have its animation interrupted by the attack following it. i.e. If you, without the staff drawn, do something like Guarded Spin -> Precise Strike -> Eye of the Storm, you will find that Precise Strike begins at the same moment as if you'd started that same chain with the staff already drawn. It's because Guarded Spin, in the redraw case, has its animation interrupted such that the time from redraw to where it is interrupted is equal to the normal animation time of Guarded Spin. Sorry if that earlier post caused confusion. Redraw certainly makes things FEEL slower but it is a perception only provided you always queue your next attack while the redraw animation is playing.

This is the next respec I am looking at. Not purpled/wintered completely yet. But it looks decent to me. Incarnates not included. This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.0.6.0 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Annie Proton: Level 50 Technology Tanker Primary Power Set: Radiation Armor Secondary Power Set: Staff Fighting Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Concealment Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Alpha Barrier -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(3), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(3), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(5), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(5), UnbGrd-Max HP%(7) Level 1: Mercurial Blow -- Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg(A), Mk'Bit-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Mk'Bit-Dmg/Rchg(9), Mk'Bit-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Mk'Bit-Dam%(11) Level 2: Proton Armor -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(13), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(15), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(15), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(17), Ags-Psi/Status(17) Level 4: Guarded Spin -- SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg(A), SprMghoft-Dmg/Rchg(19), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), SprMghoft-Rchg/Res%(21), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(23) Level 6: Fallout Shelter -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(23), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(25), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(25), ImpArm-ResDam(27), ImpArm-ResPsi(27) Level 8: Gamma Boost -- Heal-I(A) Level 10: Combat Jumping -- ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(A), Ksm-ToHit+(29), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(29), Rct-ResDam%(31) Level 12: Beta Decay -- AchHee-ResDeb%(A) Level 14: Radiation Therapy -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(31), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(31), Prv-Heal/Rchg(33), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(33), Prv-Absorb%(33) Level 16: Eye of the Storm -- SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg(A), SprGntFis-Dmg/Rchg(34), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), SprGntFis-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), SprGntFis-Rchg/+Absorb(36) Level 18: Particle Shielding -- Pnc-Heal/EndRedux(A), Pnc-EndRdx/Rchg(36), Pnc-Heal/Rchg(37), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg(37), Pnc-Heal(37), RechRdx-I(39) Level 20: Staff Mastery Level 22: Taunt -- PrfZng-Taunt/Rchg(A) Level 24: Super Jump -- WntGif-ResSlow(A) Level 26: Kick -- TchofDth-Acc/Dmg(A) Level 28: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(39), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(39), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(40), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40), GldArm-3defTpProc(50) Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40) Level 32: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(42) Level 35: Focused Accuracy -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 38: Sky Splitter -- CrsImp-Acc/Dmg(A), CrsImp-Dmg/EndRdx(42), CrsImp-Dmg/Rchg(42), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43) Level 41: Innocuous Strikes -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(43), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(45), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46) Level 44: Laser Beam Eyes -- Dcm-Acc/Dmg(A), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg(46), Dcm-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(48), Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48) Level 47: Stealth -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(48) Level 49: Infiltration -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 1: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 1: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 1: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(13), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(50) Level 1: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PwrTrns-+Heal(50) Level 1: Combo Level 1 Level 1: Combo Level 2 Level 1: Combo Level 3 Level 24: Double Jump Level 50: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 50: Portal Jockey Level 50: Task Force Commander Level 50: The Atlas Medallion Level 20: Form of the Body Level 20: Form of the Mind Level 20: Form of the Soul ------------

First Ward / Night Ward on a team, even exemplared, can be a horror show. I went there with my usually very sturdy Staff/Nin Stalker and joined a team that insisted on running a Living Spells mission at +4x8. If looking for Rad's kryptonite, I say yeah... look for enemies that debuff you into next week. Look at Praetoria at high levels and at +4x8 settings. Defense based Tankers, at least the ones that can get very good DDR, will get through that more easily I think.

The extreme rules +4x8, no incarnates team I've done a few times certainly cuts up my Rad/Staffer for fish bait. Slowed and defense floored, then dead. And that's with several tanks on the team. I need to run on a "normal" +4x8 to see how much different that is.

It's more in the middle. Some of the bad rep comes from a really outdated DPS spreadsheet that has Staff third from last in DPS for Scrappers. But it makes no allowance for stacking Form of Body whereas it does count Street Justice combo level. It was just never completed, I think. Pure ST DPS is also not always relevant. Also consider that spreadsheet has Claws dead last. A more recent analysis goes by experimental rather than theory-crafted results in this thread: And if you skim through it, you see Staff is more middle of the road. But also notice that the clear times for the bulk of sets except those at the very top and bottom are actually pretty close to one another. In practical terms, Staff performs roughly the same as most other sets except for the outliers that are broken good/bad. P.S. It has enormous AoEs on a Tanker. uuuuuge! 🤪

I used to think this as well, but it turns out it isn't true. The redraw animation does play first, but it doesn't actually add any time to the attack chain. What happens instead is that the animation time of the attack you activated begins with the redraw and ends before the animation of the attack is finished playing. You can see this most easily by activating Eye of the Storm without the staff drawn. Activate the attack and then hold down the forward button. Normally, the rooting time of EotS covers the whole spinning animation. But in the case where you begin with redraw, you will notice you're breakdancing while sliding across the floor towards the end. That's because the animation (and root time) has expired but the EotS animation is still playing. Perform this staff party trick while waiting with a team at a mission door! If you had instead of holding down forward, queued another attack, that attack would have begun before the end of the EotS animation, interrupting it. It's even weirder if you start redraw with a short attack like Mercurial. You have to quickly queue a second attack but if you do it right, the Mercurial animation almost doesn't play at all because it would have animated in the same time it takes to draw the weapon. The redraw animation makes it LOOK slower, but it reality is is not actually slowing you down or hurting DPS. I believe the same is true of all weapon sets with redraw. Choosing the "no redraw" option is cosmetic only. It does not improve the actual performance of the set.

Is any tanker really vulnerable if you throw IO sets and Incarnates into the mix though? I would say a big issue I've had with Rad Armor is debuffs. Everything hits you. Unless you invest heavily in defense set bonuses to the point where you're hurting something else probably. I skipped Energy Mastery to get more AoEs from Mu. Didn't think I needed the endurance tools. But it looks like I need Focused Accuracy if I don't want to keep being just a taunt bot in the middle of a pack of ordinary CoT, storm-using enemies, Carnie fluffy pets, etc. All that hits me because I have no significant defense. Sure... throw up a barrier incarnate. But that's still a hole in the set that you needed to plug just like other sets deal with psi or endurance.

Can't check Mid's right now. I'm (hardly) working. But usually this sort of difference has something to do with powers being active/inactive or procs being marked on/off in Mid's. Check all the yellow and green dots on powers. Make sure all Incarnates are selected in the Incarnate window and appropriately turned on/off as desired in the main window once they appear there. That sort of thing.

I wasn't going to say anything but since you have, yeah... Base quartermasters have them if your character is low enough. I can see them on a level 21 but not on my 50s. I assume they disappear at 24 then? And since combining now works to add to the level rather than ++, I assume you can create TOs for any level.

The text descriptions of Shout of Command don't list KB protection but City of Data has it as +Mez protection (All) whatever that means. I've also noticed them stop falling down on Ice Patch so it's gotta be this power. It's a huge 30ft radius so it's hitting pretty much every Cim in the room with -10 protection for 15 seconds and it comes from any of the boss or lieutenant types, I think, once they are damaged enough.

Well I am a newbie tanker myself but I just recently got my first to 50 and it is a Rad/Staff. Rad Armor is pretty easy and comes with great endurance recovery for no blue bar worries. Staff has three great AoEs expanded by the Tanker AoE buffs. Guarded Spin is a 9ft, 135 degree cone available at level 4. Eye of the Storm is a 15ft PBAoE you get at level 16. Innocuous Strikes, which you may find redundant, is another 9ft, 135degree cone available at 35. But in any case, loads of AoE for x8 teams. And it's dead easy to punch voke entire spawns, even if a bit spread out, from level 16 onward just with EotS. No Build Up, but the stances come with various bonuses. Form of Body has a whopping 13.3% +res(All) bonus when Sky Splitter is used with 3 stacks of Body. I put the Might of the Tanker ATO +res proc in Guarded Spin and it procs easily as well, bringing any res I don't have capped already to the cap. It definitely wants Focused Accuracy to help with toHit debuffs or certain enemies will turn you into an auto-taunt aura and little else. The lack of Build Up is occasionally annoying for that same reason but it's made up for with many other benefits. Anyway, I played this with PuG leveling all the way and it was easy and fun. I'm looking at something good for a defense-based tanker next to see how the other half lives.

Yeah, buffed +4x8, debuffed team, no incarnates, no temps, no insps, no amps. Previously done by having a level 44 team lead that would force-exemp everyone to just below incarnate level but still leave all powers accessible. They've just started running at 50 by getting everyone to just unslot all Incarnates. I haven't tried that yet but it sounds more convenient than the level 44 route. I'll think on it. The SD/DM is one attempt if I can keep him going. Nice to have the self-heal. But I level the slow way so it will be a little while before he's ready to run. Same with anyone else. So having one that's fun to play in normal content while leveling is key too. That's where I'm struggling with DM. MA sounds like it might be a bit more fun.

Alas, I've fallen in with an unsavory crowd on Excelsior that likes to run the ITF with Incarnates disabled. So I'd probably tweak the build with that in mind. What looks good to me is the decent S/L/N resist and over-soft-capped defense with Storm Kick. Those buffed Cimerorans do otherwise like to re-enact Julius Caesar on me if they can strip defenses. My Ice/SD stalker and Rad/Staff tanker, so far... are not really up to it. They get by. But it's ugly.

Not for Staff Fighting. And not that it's a real performance issue. If you draw the staff and execute an attack, the attack animation just gets interrupted by the next attack. Overall DPS isn't affected. It's just a minor annoying aesthetic issue I found putting Staff and Combat Teleport together. It would be nicer on almost any other melee attack set.

Yeah, I am having a similar issue having played mostly defense-based Stalkers. I came to tankers and tried starting a SD/Rad. But Rad Melee is just so uninspiring to me. I rolled a Rad/Staff and shot to 50 in no time. Hilarious fun with bountiful big Tanker-buffed AoEs on short timers. But the getting hit all the time part is a drag when it comes to debuffs (particularly toHit) and confuse/fear. Maybe I'll try a SD/Ice or SR/Staff next instead. I've got a SD/DM going but DM is about as boring as Rad Melee so far. Or I'll give Werner's SD/MA a whirl. Sounds fun. Boots to the head and all. That +def Storm Kick is pretty nice looking, even if it's sort of lacking AoE.

The one time I tried it, I could see how handy it might be... but yeah. Wouldn't have given up CJ for it. I actually gave up Teleport Target and Super Jump that respec just to try it (and Fold Space)... but I kept CJ. Big problem I had with it was I was on a Staff Stalker and CT causes redraw. Boooo!

With a 30min cooldown? Not exactly. Most pick up TFs I join seem to have a couple people capable of stealthing a mission and then summoning the team and often that's enough. But on my Stalkers with Teleport Target there's no worry. If I've used ATT already, I just port in someone who hasn't and they use it. Guy whose travel power is Ninja Run? Port to the door. Someone face-planted next to an AV dishing out constant AoE? Yoink! It's not essential. But it's handy. It's for people who want some team utility and are willing to sacrifice some other more optimal build choice to get it.

Limitless Radial Freeeem! I don't think ever leaving that one mission is too much to ask for such unbelievable power, is it? But okay seriously... my real fav that I take on nearly every character? Super Jump. I can just jump around on rooftops all day really. Second runner up: Mighty Radial Final Judgement. How many other powers have "causes massive knockup" in their description? Plus it's just fun to watch a whole group of enemies all get tossed up in the air at the same time.

I'd never want to be without CJ on my melee toons just for the combat mobility... but a Dom? You might have some melee attacks in your secondary, but your bread and butter is mostly ranged. Practice with CT and a decent click-bind and you should be good getting around a battle. Don't bother with the jump pack though. Crap vertical speed and maneuverability compared to a jet pack plus a recharge time between uses. Just bind a temp jet pack to a key and use it to "jump" over any obstacle that's too much for SS/Hurdle. 5K/30min flight time on the cheapest jet pack may as well be permanent because keeping it topped up is pocket change. Oh, CJ is also a place to put a LotG:+Rech IO. You didn't list that as a disadvantage so does that mean you have five other powers to slot this IO in or just that you already have perma-dom without needing the limit of LotGs?

I used the /loc method mentioned above recently testing Tanker AoE arc/radius buff: In this case, I stood next to the targeted Luddite above and got /loc. Clicked on it. Then just manually typed the coordinates in chat with small adjustments to move the pin under the Luddite. e.g. /loc gives [x y z] so type [x+2 y z] in local chat and click it again. etc. As it is, in the pic above I should probably have moved the pin a little closer to me since I think the attack hits if it intersects whatever the bounding box of the target is, so putting the pin a foot closer to me is likely more accurate for the target shown. I think I had cases where I centered the pin between the target's feet and hit them at 10ft (when the power has a 9ft range). So be aware of that.

Range is how far away from you you can target the power. Radius tells you the size of a spherical AoE. CoH has two types of AoE areas: spherical and conical. Radius, it seems, only applies to spherical AoEs. These are either zero-range Point-Blank AoEs (PBAoEs) or range-targeted AoEs (TAoEs). Either way, the size of the sphere, whether it's at your feet or out at some range away from you... is determined by radius. And this is what is boosted by the Tanker inherent. It adds 50% to the radius of PBAoEs and TAoEs. Cones have "Arc" which is the angle formed by the point of the cone (i.e. You) and the two opposite sides to your right and left. This is boosted by the Tanker inherent by 50%. So my 90 degree Guarded Spin above becomes 135 degrees. So it can hit more targets to the sides or up and down but not farther away. And while cone power descriptions also list a "radius" it doesn't seem to have any effect on the size of the area. Note that you won't SEE the Tanker-boosted radius or arc anywhere in power descriptions in-game. It's like a global enhancement. Hence why my pic of Guarded Spin above still shows 90 degrees, same as it would for a Scrapper, Brute, or Stalker. But if I set this experiment up again and did another overhead view of enemies spread side to side in front of me, I could show that it really does have wider than a 90 degree arc on the Tanker. Type /loc in chat and it will print your location in brackets like [x y z]. Click on those bracketed numbers and a thumbtack will appear at your feet. So I just stood next to the target and did this. I used grey con mobs so they wouldn't attack me. You can also type coordinates in chat yourself and then click on them. I did that to tweak the numbers returned by loc to move them over slightly under the feet of the target. Objects you can left-click on your map behave the same way. So left-click on a trainer, neighborhood marker, teammate, etc and you get a pin on their/its position. If it's a teammate, the pin moves with them. SO if you just want to test the range of a power like, say, teleport. Click on some map marker to place a pin and use it as your range test point.

Well, that's true though. The tanker has a higher target cap and a 50% wider cone. That makes it MUCH easier to hit more targets already. Just not more distant targets.

And now testing a Ranged AoE cone this time: Here is an Ice Melee tanker on test using Frost on a Hellion that's 15ft out. I put 3 lvl50 common range enhancers in Frost. You can see it still lists a 10ft radius in the power info but now a 15.85ft range... and it hits the Hellion. Before doing this I ran the same experiment as before with Guarded Spin. Frost was similarly unable to hit targets that were just beyond the 10ft unenhanced range/radius. However, it is still damned nice if you DO put in range enhancers on powers like this that can slot them because that AND the Tanker arc increase means a MUCH bigger area.

None of them are. Or at least, the one I just tried is not. Here is a mostly overhead view of my Rad/Staff tanker with a pin placed at the feet of a Luddite 11ft away from her. As you can see in this first pic, I am keying the attack but getting "Out of Range". Which makes sense because that target is beyond 9ft from me. However, his buddy that is nearer to me is well within range and when I attack him... ...only he is hit by the cone. If its radius had really been boosted by the Tanker inherent then it would have struck the target at 11ft as well because its radius would be 13.5ft. It should have probably hit all three targets. I can tell you without even trying it that Eye of the Storm (10ft radius normally PBAoE) would have hit all three easily since it DOES get boosted to 15ft radius. I hit entire x8 sized spawns with that if I am centered well enough. So... I think I was right the first time and radius doesn't actually have anything to do with cone area (or at least melee cone area) even though a radius is listed. I don't know what it's for. And it makes sense now that you've brought up Ranged AoE cones as well. Frost is a Ranged AoE cone and accepts both ordinary range enhancements and Ranged AoE damage IO sets (which can include range enhancement). Range enhancement extends the range of a cone but outside of the Tanker inherent, I don't think "Radius" strength enhancement exists anywhere. The radius would not change.

Ah yes... Age of Empaths. Last year's HC numbers no doubt mirror early Live in this respect. You had a lot of people coming over from other "Holy Trinity" MMOs (not naming any names) and wanting their tank, heal, dps. But, and this is obviously anecdotal, I don't think I run across Empaths any more often today than I do any other type of support player. Same thing, in my feeble memory at least, happened on Live. Empaths who were braggy about it and who advertised themselves as "healers" would often enough catch flack for it in global chat channels because there really was just as strong a sentiment going around that this WASN'T a game about the Holy Trinity. This was already a game where individual players were more self-sufficient to begin with than in some other MMOs and IO sets and Incarnates only made it more-so.