Uncle Shags

I hear you. I sometimes regret choosing it on my invuln. I didn't manage it well, and when it synced with the hasten crash it got me killed too often...

Yes, no need for grumpiness. Apologies. If you look at the difference between hasten 2 (2x55) vs 3 slotted the difference is minimal, and not worth the extra slot. +5 refers to the ability to boost certain enhance. You can buy boosters in the merit vendor and add 5 levels to your level 50s. You can have that show up in mids by hovering over the enh and hitting the num pad + 5 times before clicking to slot it. Jeezus this game is complicated... Accuracy is important, but there are all sort of set bonuses that add up once you hit 50, and sometimes that isn't an issue anymore. Rage and FA add a ton of accuracy, also. At the top of the window in mids you can select "Enemy Relative level" and set it to +3, which represents you with incarnate compared to 54s. 95% is the best you can get. Leadership is great. But you could also argue that you provide a ton of team utility by being sturdy, setting the pace, grabbing aggro, cc for your teammates, and decent damage. If you can fit it in, that's great, but I don't think it's common or expected of tanks. It's a very silly game we play. And some of us make it sillier by trying to push the limits of build performance and obsessing over minute details. Sometimes I'm guilty of this. It's fun. Try the Arachnos radio challenge. IO medley! I like that. Warshade referred to it as proc bombing. It's a way to increase damage past the normal boundaries by adding IOs that proc extra dmg. Compare your build's dmg on those powers to the one on my damage build. Certain powerset combos can take advantage of "proccing" and SS is one of them. Rage and lots of inherent recharge lets you get crazy with the slotting. It's kind of complicated, but there's lots of info out there if you're interested. You basically trade set bonuses for extra damage. I think Fold Space is amazing, especially for tanks. Battlefield control. I try to fit it into all my builds if I can. Others like it less, and that's okay. Damn this game is crazy, eh?

For me, Warshades is the go to for tanky builds. His min/max is second to none and he gets to numbers that make you scratch your head, "How the hell is that % so high?!" And he's also really nice. So I'm going to try to not be grumpy about your response to him. To me you seemed a little bit defensive? When you put your builds up you have to be ready for feedback. Here's my thoughts: Only need two 50+5 recharge enh in Hasten, not 3. Don't need Kismet. Your accuracy is way higher than it needs to be. For +3s your acc only needs to be 95%. Even with Focused Acc off you're at double that. You could gain more slots by cutting back on that wasted accuracy. It looks like you're missing the Shield Wall unique. Agreed, Hand Clap is awesome. Getting that and dropping epic pool might be your only way to get leadership, if that's what you really want. Something's got to give. Are you sure "nothing kills me"? My Inv/SS has similar offense and better defense than your build and there's stuff out there that gets me down. Several groups of +4/8 Arachnos with multiple spider bosses, for instance? Improvements to your stats can be a good thing. I linked 2 builds. One is my standard, the other is going for damage. I'm certain neither is perfect, but maybe they can give you some slotting ideas. One is my standard tanky version, the other I went for lots of damage. Our power choices are different, so it may be only so helpful. Good luck! Tanker (Invulnerability - Super Strength)FS Dom and Hasten.mbd Tanker (Invulnerability - Super Strength)DMG+gloom+procs.mbd

I guess it says something about our game that people can still get worked up about developer decisions from 20 years ago.

Everyone is different, but I've never had extra slots laying around to put in a travel power.

Infiltration is good for lotg if you're already in the concealment pool. Other than that it blows. It is veeeery barely better than athletic/ninja run, which it doesn't stack with. Infiltration is about 2mph more run and jump speed and about 2 feet higher jump compared to athletic. It costs .1 less endurance. Better? Yes. But I think it's junk considering it costs a power and athletic is free. I think it should stack with althletic/ninja.

So full strength defender primary with .75 strength controller set as secondary. Maybe they could just lower the hold duration and such. Or... I got it! Defender with Ice Blast and Ice epic. ST holds, aoe slows, aoe sleep, and an ice pet! With full strength defender support. There you go!

Even fully slotted out it can be kind of tight in long drawn out battles when I'm spamming aoes. I use ageless and think of it as just another support I provide. "Hey! Who wants a full end bar, lots of recovery, and tasty -recharge?" BAM!

Glad you like it! Even solo! I mostly team, but when I've soloed it's been a pretty smooth ride. Actually, I saw your comment, decided to knock off the dust and give mine a spin last night, and "smooth ride" was a good way to describe the team experience too. Nothing flashy, no bumps, just smooth and steady. Maybe I should call it the Cadillac build. =P

It depends on your build and your playstyle. They're usually isn't a "best one" because it's too dependent on individual preferences and opinion.

There's a whole forum over there in archetypes dedicated to doms if you're looking for tips. "Can't really perform" is a very subjective opinion. But it's not a huge secret. For me it went: Slot for recharge -> Get permadom -> Slot for damage and procs -> Stop playing it because it's so powerful that it feels like cheating. OP. My advice is for you and your friends to chill out. You're level 13. CoH mechanics are very complicated and you'll not be able to differentiate balance from build from skill until you've got more of a grasp of the game.

I was going to make a long drawn out attempt to make a point about balance, but this right here does it for me. When one player can have experiences that lead to this opinion, and the teammate next to them on the roster has come to the opposite conclusion of "Why play any other AT when I can play a Dom?", how can we make sweeping assumptions about balance? The only way to "know" is to crunch numbers like a mad scientist, but even then most of the conclusions are iffy and hotly debated. What I love about this game is you can go into a team mission with any build or AT and come out thinking your contributions to the team were key to success. When I'm playing (subtly) on one of my maxed out toons on a team full of lowbies, to them it seems like they're the ones saving the day. Even though I could solo the mission, on their screen and in their minds they are super. No matter what they're playing. I think that's great.

Oh, I got it! If a super is capable of controlling radiation to the point where they can form it into a ball and chuck it like an exploding pumpkin, then they could probably also collect all the radiation in the room, including sucking it out of bystander's bodies.

Do you have to turn these on to get them? I don't get anything other than regular. No team, no double. I've never turned those options off.

I bet they've got a cure for it. Maybe just a direct treatment for radiation damage, or maybe a cure for cancer. Or maybe just being rebuilt in one of the hospital "good news you're not dead" machines.

It kind of stinks, though. Last night I was on a big team and we were kicking butt. We had a huge group of baddies we were wailing on when all of a sudden.....KABOOM!!! Flash of light and sound. Bodies flying everywhere. It really felt epic. Wow. Energy blaster nova. Awesome. But then, as soon as the half dead baddies stood up scattered to kingdom come I heard the Waaaaawaaaaa noise. Maybe just in my head. It sucks that such a visceral, powerful moment is also be completely counterproductive to the mission of fast and efficient arrests. I don't think it's nearly as epic if the bodies just...fall down. Maybe it just sucks and that's it. Probably. Or maaaybe they make a KB->KB again enhancement! Knock back! Then a second later knock back again to where they started from! Everyone wins!

Start a respec? I don't think it boots you if you're respecing.

In your defense, the enhancement set system is very complex and takes some time to learn.

Knockback to knockdown is amazing. Using 6 Sudden Acceleration? That might be the trap... What power are you putting that in?

I think dark armor is the cats pajamas. Although, ITF can be tough on a lowbie dark tank. They can floor your defense and they've also got some sort of +def power that can make them much harder to hit. Without enough +to hit and acc you'll be whiffing a lot. If your heal can't hit them you're in trouble. I think most folks skip defense on dark armor, but I've been able to get it up to 48m26r35aoe. You need ageless for ddr, but with maxed resistance and a full heal every 10 seconds it's the sturdiest tank in my stable. Stuff that kills my inv and shield doesn't even make my dark break a sweat.

This got me thinking. I enjoy ITF usually, but last night I ran it on my Dom and remembered I hate it on that toon. Half of my tool bag is useless due to all the status protection floating around. I'd imagine controllers might feel similar. Perhaps there are other trends within ATs and powersets that make some tfs more or less enjoyable.

I've got 2 ARs. They're fun. I like the idea of range boosted cones. You don't like Ignite? Recently I became disgruntled when I realized the target cap for Full Auto is 10. What a load of crap...

I haven't played one myself, but I read someone here talk about how sentinel seismic meteor was extra fancy when you combined the reduced sentinel CD with the seismic -rech gimmick. Supposedly super fast.

One thing secondary effect boosting powers don't work on is knockback - despite in game descriptions, coh data, and mids saying they do.

I don't have geas, but I do have ageless, which works pretty well.