Story Archer

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.

...I don't think that's the general consensus. Looking at Mids, but admittedly not doing any sort of deep dive, I compared it to Dual Blades and Katana and it definitely seemed to be ahead of the curve. Am I missing something?

I'd have to go with a Willpower or Radiation - Willpower for the nukes and bonus Recovery and Radiation for the nukes. I give a nod to WP because the power set doesn;t mess up my meticulously crafted costume 😛 Something I always try to keep in mind when making Scrappers (unless they're exclusively for solo'ing) is that its always better to have multi-layered defenses (Defense, Resistance and Healing) rather than trying to max out any one - this is because you always have allies providing buffs but you never know what those buffs are going to be and you don't want to waste their benefit by already being mixed in a particular area at the expense of the other two. Of course, saying all that, I've leveled two /WP Scrappers and one WP/ Tanker to L50 as well as two Rad/ Tankers and a /Rad Scrapper to L50 so now I'm trying out a DB/SR Scrapper to see how it compares...

I'll never understand why most auras - if not all - don't have a minimal effect option. Seems like it'd be one of the easiest features to implement and I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I avoid entire power sets solely because of what it does to the costume I spent over an hour fine-tuning...

...PLUS unbreakable stealth and one of the best self-heals in the game up every 20 seconds or so.

I run hot and cold on MA because Storm Kick is so good but Eagle's Claw really gets on my nerves for some reason, but MA/Dark has got to be the toughest tanker there is. Check out the build below just as an example, and keep in mind that this is with NO purple enhancements or Incarnates of any kind. Tanker (Dark Armor - Martial Arts).mbd You're basically soft-capped on defense, and your resistances to everything are high as a kite and that's not even counting the crazy self-heal that's up every 15-20 seconds or the fact that you've got one of the strongest Stealth options in the game. Martial Arts lacking in AoE? Guess what, you've got Cross Punch and not one but two tricked out damage auras running simultaneously to compliment it. Just imagine what you could do if you actually put some influence into it... my 50+ version is over the soft-cap defensively on everything, maxes all resists except Energy and Toxic (70% each), has better recharge and deals even more damage. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, while this was the toughest tanker I've ever played, the most fun I've had as a Tanker was probably my Rad/SS... going proc-heavy in all the wonderful ways that set opens up almost completely mitigates Rage Crash and you're melting baddies faster than you can track.

Again, thank-you so much for the response - this is very helpful. I agree that Cross Punch is better, but I HAVE to take Punch, and I have to slot it/use it because Cross-Punch won't take Tanker IO's. I'd rather not have to kick anything out for Haymaker and I don't think I have the slots for it anyway. 😞 I currently have Gloom in the actual character, and looking at it, Soul Tentacles is certainly overkill on the AoE, I just figured averaging 315 dmg per attack was fine even if you're only attacking one target. Having said that, I can reasonably get Gloom up to 377 dmg, it casts faster and recharges faster, so I'll definitely swap that back in. Gloom has nice set bonuses as well. 🙂 She's getting a little expensive 😜 but I'm liking the attack chain - it's super smooth, it just repeats itself, alternating between KO blow and Foot Stomp, and seems pretty seamless, even without the FF proc going off (remember, Punch is where I've got both the MotT and the FF proc, I want that attack going off as often as possible). KO Blow -> Punch -> Gloom -> Punch Foot Stomp -> Punch -> Gloom -> Punch EDIT: Here's where I'm at right now. Tanker (Rad-SS) 50-2.mbd

Thank you very much for the response - I wish I was that proficient with my phone! Cross Punch and Kick was originally part of the build (technically still is, in the actual character I'm playing with) in part to give me another solid, fast-recharging attack that I could also drop a FF proc in. I've dropped those two for the higher-damaging-but-slower-recharging AoE Soul Tentacles and Dark Obliteration because I figured, between the those attacks and everything else I'd have a smooth attack chain - that, and because it's more exotic damage it'd be a little less resisted than the Smashing from Cross Punch. Right now the idea is to basically auto-fire Punch and intersperse all of my other attacks in between each time it goes off, something like: Dark Obliteration -> Punch -> KO Blow -> Punch -> Foot Stomp -> Punch -> Soul Tentacles -> Punch -> ...and, of course, Ground Zero and Radiation Therapy when they come up. That's about a 12-second attack chain, which should be plenty of time for everything to come back up, especially if even one of the FF procs fire. Every one of those attacks deals more than Cross Punch, or so it seems - is that a bad plan? Right now, my L50 build (which has been tweaked a tiny bit vs. what I originally posted - see below) has 80% Slow resistance and 85% Endurance Drain resistance - do you think the need for more than that is great enough to start unravelling other things? Tanker (Rad-SS) 50-2.mbd

My mindset when building Tankers has always been to approach it as 'how can I build THE most survivable character possible', working from the old-school concept of what a Tanker should be. With this build I'm breaking away from that and figuring that in large groups I'm always getting ancillary buffs from my allies that tend to mitigate a lot of my min./maxing minutia meaningless anyway. So I decided to see how deadly a Tanker I could make, and to see if it could give Scrappers and Brutes a run for their money while still being as durable, if not moreso. Playing to the Tanker's strengths, I wanted to make AoE damage the top priority, with single-target damage and survivability 2a & 2b. I thought the potential for mini-nukes in Rad/ was very strong and realized that leaning heavily into procs would be a great way to mitigate the only downside of /SS, mainly Rage crash. I took Soul Mastery because I felt that Darkest Night could help out with survivability when needed, and because it gave me two more AoE's to play around with. Obviously I want to get my recharge up for pretty much everything (AoE attacks, Rage, Hasten, Meltdown, etc.), and the only way I could think of doing that without unravelling the entire concept were the FF procs. These builds are intended for all aspects of play, solo and group, but hasn't factored in Incarnates yet. Thus far it seems to be working out really well (low 40's atm) - I play her like an AoE Scrapper and she's going through mobs like a hot knife through butter - but I can't help but wonder if there are as yet unforeseen issues for builds like this in post-50 play? I just want to make sure I'm getting the most out of my concept and that I'm not missing anything that should be glaringly obvious (or maybe not so glaringly). I know that I'm heavily exploiting procs with this one, but it's my first time, so I'm kind of like a kid in a candy store. Let me know if its too much for my purposes. Tanker (Rad-SS) pre-50.mbd Tanker (Rad-SS) 50.mbd Thanks in advance 🙂 P.S. If anybody has Incarnate suggestions, I'm all ears. I think I'm finally ready to dip my toe into that aspect of the game.

If I drop a Celerity +Stealth IO into the Infiltration slot and turn it on, do stealth benefits of both stack or is there some sort of funky interaction I need to be aware of? If they do, is that adequate to effectively stealth missions I don't want to fight my way through? TIA.