Story Archer

What would be the difference (if you know) between robotic drones and polar lights? I think polar lights will fit best theme-wise but the drones would be good as well, so I'm torn...

I think it's down to these two if I go with theme... what makes Polar Lights good?

I'd really appreciate any critiques/observations/thoughts about my current Rad/Stone build, including Incarnate selections. I love the character but I want to make sure that I'm getting the most out of him. For single targets, he just chains his four attacks, and for AoE's (which is where he thrives), he uses Tremor, his two mini-nukes and his Judgement power, relying on the FF +recharge to have them back up when they're needed. TIA! (final) Tanker (Rad - Stone).mbd

Well this is her if you want to review her... [Sheen].mbd

Obviously I spend the vast majority of my time teaming, but it'd be nice to be able to solo effectively as well, so I'm thinking probably a damage dealer with a little bit of survivability - maybe one that can pull/hold some of the aggro? If it matters, my other Incarnates are: Alpha: Nerve Core Paragon Judgement: Ion Core Final Judgement Interface: Diamagnetic Radial Flawless Interface Destiny: Barrier Core Epiphany Hybrid: Assault Radial Embodiment Build, for those interested: [K-D1VA] with Inc.mbd

Well, she's not built for defense like a conventional Tanker - basically just high resistance and a bit of healing/absorb and that's it. Still, I feel like the only thing I really need help with is single-target DPS for those EB/AV/GM fights, since I tend to dominate the AoE aspect of the game. I'm having a little bit of difficulty tracking that on the link (thanks for the link, btw) - any suggestions off the top of your head to narrow it down? Maybe Phantoms or Knives of Vengeance?

As Damage Resistant and AoE smacking as possible? Sounds like my favorite character ever, my RAD/SS Tanker. Two mini-nukes up every 20-30 seconds (at the most) plus spammable Foot Stomp fuled by stacking Rage... The Res-based defense lets you ignore the -Def from Rage crash and focusing on damage procs across the board let's you ignore that aspect of it as well. In a game where groups move fast I'm usually finishing off mobs by the time my group catches up. LOVE it.

What would be the most highly recommended Lore pet for a Rad/SS Tanker that relies almost entirely on +Res and +Absorb/+Regen for defenses and relies on damage procs to counteract Rage crash? And while we're on the topic, other side of the fence, what would be the best Lore pet for a SR/Dark tanker that's pretty much the opposite? Why each suggestion would be the best call would also be appreciated, if you're so inclined to share 🙂

My RAD/SS is by far the most fun character I have, and that's out of dozens and dozens. The trick is to go extremely heavy into damage procs and lean into the +Res/+Absorb/+Regen aspects of your defenses and simply expect to play with your Defense floored. The only SS powers I actually take are Punch, KO Blow, Rage and Foot Stomp. The two mini-nukes from Rad combined with Foot Stomp makes you a bit of a burst AoE king. I also use Darkest Night and Meltdown when going up against particularly hard foes, but I almost never need them. The character plays more like a Scrapper who can take an Alpha pretty easily than a traditional Tanker - a lot of times all I need to do is drop FS -> Rad Therapy -> Ground Zero -> FS and then its off to the next mob while the rest of the group cleans up. Seriously, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Awesome - thanks!

I'm trying to understand how Recovery rates work. Let's say that I have 100 Endurance and normally recover 1 point/second, meaning that it takes 100 seconds to go from 0 to max. If I increase my maximum Endurance to 105, do I still recover 1 point/second, meaning that it now takes 105 seconds to go from 0 to max, or do I now recover 1.05 points/second and still need only 100 seconds to go from 0 to max?

This is very interesting - and I haven't played this particular build so I cannot speak knowledgably about it, but I'd like to offer a couple of counterpoints, particularly with regards to diminishing returns. Please note that I haven't dipped my toes into Incarnates at all yet, so their potential benefits are not include din this analysis. Not very long ago I took a break from my chronic alt-itis and embarked on my own RAD/SS Tank, focusing on a damage-heavy build rather than defaulting to 'ultimate survivability' for a change and the results have been absolutely spectacular. I have never enjoyed a build nor had more fun playing the game than I have with this character (named 'Gleaming Fury'), so in spirit I'm very much right there with you... but again, without having played what you recommend, merely going off of what I would surmise from your build as presented and from your own comments here, I think you're losing a good bit more than you're gaining with the pursuit of Psi Mastery. I feel like I deal more damage with my build than I have with any non-Blaster character I've ever made, but I don't want to lose all the wonderful things that come with being a Tanker... and one of those things is being able to jump in, take an alpha and set the table for the rest of the team (when I'm not just wiping out the mobs before they can get to them). And preferably without an over-reliance on inspirations - I just struggle to admire a build that has to lean on something that has nothing to do with the build to keep it alive, particularly when it's a Tanker build. I've no doubt that you have come all to the same conclusions as I regarding this particular power set combination - that damage procs mitigate the offensive drawbacks of Rage crash while a high Res build mitigates its defensive drawbacks, that the Tanker's ability to affect a greater number of targets with their AoE lend themselves well to Rad's mini-nukes and Foot Stomp as part of a regular rotation, and that SS grants a number of wonderful opportunities to take advantage of the synergy of FF procs... but I still want to be survivable, and I want to be able to focus on destroying my enemies rather than spending my time juggling my inspirations trying to stay one step ahead of the reaper. With Meltdown up more than it's not, I'm basically hard-capped Resistance-wise to everything, and, to compliment that, I chose Soul Mastery, because I found that I simply didn't need any additional AoE. Two mini-nukes, Foot Stomp and well-placed Cross Punches keep me quite busy enough as they're up for every mob and usually by the time I cycle back around to the big guns, somebody else has finished that particular group off, or at least enough so that additional AoE's are just a waste. I think you'd find that a proc'ced out Cross Punch compares very favorably to a similarly enhanced Dominate dps-wise, and that's before taking into account that it can often hit two or three targets at a time. By taking Darkest Night in place of Psionic Tornado, it let me actually put some effort into my defenses, and between the two I'm at roughly 49% defense vs melee and 32% Ranged/AoE (before teammates chip in, of course). I don't always need it and it's certainly not the end-all, be-all, especially without having any notable DDR, but it does add a very strong extra layer of survivability, especially during those crucial first 5-8 seconds of combat, and let's me play like a TANK should play, without fear. Previous defense-heavy builds didn't bother with Darkest Night (again, diminishing returns), but its synergy with this particular combination seems ideal. I also don't take Taunt in this particular build, so DN can help give my allies a little more protection than they might normally have, including against AoE's directed at me but which might also catch them. All of that's not to say that the way you've built things isn't without it's upside, and NO ONE should ever try to judge another on their personal preferences when it comes to play style - that is absolutely not what I'm trying to do here. My counterpoint is simply that I would much rather have a tiny bit less damage in exchange for a whole lot more survivability, and I'd rather not spend my time focused on juggling inspirations and trying to keep my 'glass canon' alive long enough to get off my next big boom, that's Blaster stuff. Sometimes there CAN be too much of a good thing, especially when you have to surrender so much to get it. As an additional benefit, by not having to load up Dominate and Psionic Tornado also leaves a lot more available enhancement slots to play around with. Frustratingly, due to the recent issues with Mids, I'm not able to look at your build directly to make a fair statistical evaluation, but I'm going to go ahead and include mine, just so that interested parties can consider their relative strengths and weaknesses. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that your build would struggle with Accuracy and/or Endurance against higher-level mobs, unless that's something you plan on relying on Inspirations and teammates for as well. Again, I want to reiterate that this is not intended as a disparagement in any way, just a counterpoint to what looks like a perfectly strong and interesting build. If you (or anyone else) has actually read this far, thanks for taking the time to endure my rants and please take them in the spirit with which they are intended. 🙂 (final) Tanker (RAD - SS).mbd EDIT: This build is a tiny bit out of date. In place of the +Rech you see in Radiation Therapy, I have Overwhelming Force Damage/Chance for KD proc and and in place of the +Acc you see in Ground Zero, I have the Shield Breaker proc for Lethal damage. I'm also seriously considering dropping down Meltdown to a single slot and maxing out Gloom to increase my single-target dps vs. those pesky AV's & GM's...

That's why I'm here 😉

Is this still true? I ask because MiDs shows the Regen bonus stacking, but MiDs seems unreliable lately...

Is this still the case?

I've got the most current version of Mids and under Options -> Configuration -> Effects and Maths, I have Average (Damage x Chance) selected. Nothing I can come up with will get the additional damage from procs to show up in the Info window of the display. In fact, when I toggle the procs on and off (yellow button on the powers themselves) nothing changes, even if all of the enhancements are damage procs. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Straight up. Assume they will be slotted with an Accuracy and procs, mainly FF and damage.

That's got to be it - I'll play around with it some more, because right now it's coming out way ahead. Is there a download or spreadsheet somewhere that lists the relative damage of all of the attack powers (or Scrappers at least?), dps, attack chains, something?

This was more in reference to Shield, but looking at Mids, you can get Shield's resists up pretty high as well.

I've always been hesitant to use a Defense-based Primary with SS because of the Defense penalty that comes with Rage crash - has that been an issue for you? I generally mitigate the damage crater by proc'ing the attacks out, but that limits the number of set bonuses I get to shore up other things...

lol - trust me, I make bigger (and more foolish) assumptions on a daily basis. Just the one unique is... well, unique.

Focused Fighting: Shield Wall - Def/End Shield Wall - Def Shield Wall - Def/End/Rech Shield Wall - +5% Res Luck of the Gambler - +7.5% Rech Focused Senses: Shield Wall - Def/End Shield Wall - Def Shield Wall - Def/End/Rech Shield Wall - Def/Rech Agile: Luck of the Gambler - Def Luck of the Gambler - +7.5% Rech Practiced Brawler: Rech IO Dodge: Luck of the Gambler - Def Luck of the Gambler - +7.5% Rech Quickness: Run Speed IO Lucky: Luck of the Gambler - Def Luck of the Gambler - +7.5% Rech Evasion: Shield Wall - Def/End Shield Wall - Def Shield Wall - Def/End/Rech Shield Wall - Def/Rech Elude: (don't take) Also, for what it's worth... Combat Jumping: Kismet - +6% Acc Luck of the Gambler - +7.5% Rech Tough: Unbreakable Guard - End/Res Unbreakable Guard - Res Unbreakable Guard - End/Res/Rech Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP Steadfast Protection - +3% Def Gladiator's Armor - +3% Def Weave: Full set (all 6) of Reactive Defenses

Okay, then Mids must be WAY off, because, comparing it to DB, for instance, the attack chains I'm putting together have almost double the dps... not sure why it's coming up that way. FWIW, I've got Feint triggered once and Soul Drain cued to 1 with basically the same enhancements in the relevant powers and the same Secondary power set selections (SR).

Well, hopefully the other 4,600 or so posts made more sense...

I don't get it.