Bill Z Bubba

Pondering that, I see it as a problem with the game's design. We're given these mixed powersets with damres to SL and defense to FCEN and then put into situations where SL using foes cause massive defense debuffs to ALL types instead of just SL so they cut us and that makes it easier for the Khels to lay the smackdown on you because you end up with zero mitigation to nrg/negnrg.

@Soveraand @InfinitumI've been quite pleased with my ET/BS/TF/BS repeat attack chain. Get those lowbie DPA attacks outta there!

I still have yet to pull this off with any character I've built. But if memory serves, and it usually doesn't, did you say that it took you a damn long time on both? I'm pretty sure impatience gets me killed more than anything else these days.

Yea, Bio has a lot to do with it as @Hewjust stated. My mace attack chain is, as mentioned, clobber, jawbreaker, shatter repeat. Those three are the highest DPA attacks in the set, so if you're using anything else, your overall DPS won't be as high. Practiced Brawler is absolutely cutting into your time, but that just can't be helped. On my claws/sr(s), I keep hasten on auto and it's perma or dang near, so with its 2 minute duration, I use that as my guide to manually fire off PB so as not to waste end/time stacking it. The problem with just ignoring PB while pylon testing is that if you get hit, you're probably going to get knocked back, thus losing more time. Other possible differences will be the incarnate choices and they DO make a difference. I go with Alpha Musculature Core, Interface Degenerative Core and Hybrid Assault Core. If you've got all three of those at T4, and the tightest chain you can get (which, granted, needs a ton of recharge but as you're SR, you should be able to get damn close to the 112% global recharge needed on top of hasten's 70% to get it perma,) then I'd honestly be surprised if you didn't end up under 3 mins, which is my claws/sr scrapper's average time. And yes, I DO always test with assault core toggled on to begin the test run because I always have it ready for hard target fights. Total side note: I was amused that by pulling out my T4 Core Demon Lore pets (generally a no-no when testing pylons) BZB's time dropped from 3 mins to 1.25 mins.

True point. I have long term rage issues with Romulus' autohit fluffy.

Thanks. Probably would help to get all the accolades. More HP means more absorb.

I'm seein that as well.

Love this. To add to the story from my PoV: Ok, got hybrid assault T4ed at vet lvl 6 thanks to stealing all the emps from my other 50s. Time for some pylon testing. Zone in: DAMNIT! There's a gorram ship raid going on. Ok, they're going counter clockwise. I should at least get one good test in. Boom, 1:44. I can live with that. Huh, pylons are respawning. Must be a single team trying to get this done. Screw it, I'll help. Another pylon down. Some more respawn. Huh. What's goin on here. Hit another pylon, there's @HelenCarnate Wait... seriously? They've soloed all those pylons? And apparently wanna keep going? Ok. Oh look, shields are down. Ok, to the ship. Geez... I've faceplanted 5 times and she keeps goin? That's one hell of a sent build....

Just saw this exact issue with my mace/bio scrapper in an ITF. -50% defense is a very bad thing. @Papaschtroumpf DDR is what makes super reflexes so damn glorious. Defense Debuff Resistance. With it, defense is useful ALL the time. Without it, defense is useful for a couple incoming hits when they have defense debuffs.

Waltzed into a max diff master run settings ITF... it didn't go well. My AV killing time is glorious... my survivability sucks ass. When you're sitting at -50% defense, the two absorbs and 1 heal just can't keep up. Ageless with the +DDR might help. But as hopeful as I was... even this may not be the combo I seek. Pondering SR/Mace tank now.

I bounce adaptations as needed and yes, I'm goin full recharge build. ST chain is clobber, jawbreaker, shatter repeat. At vet lvl 6 now, stole more emps, T4ed assault core. Averaging 1:45 pylon times with it enabled.

With zero DDR and what's the actual % uptime on Shadow Meld these days?

Edited. I'm using a chance for -res instead of a chance for +rec in Shatter. One problem I do have with this build and Bio armor in general is how often it gets debuffed, especially with tohit debuffs. Another Edit: At vet lvl 5, I'm now out of the emps I stole and down to a couple threads, but I'm +3 with T3 Lore and Destiny, T1 Judgement and T4 Interface and Alpha. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1485;689;1378;HEX;| |78DA6593594F135114C7EF74A6D452288542CBD615A11B14AABEB88588280F50256| |9A28F759C5EB1496D9B2926F2E8BBBE68A29FC11713FD18AE5FC07D49DC5013356A| |14EBE99CBFA5712693FCEE3DF79C39FFFFBD73F317167B6E2E5D9C178AF770456F3| |48A05C3D4EB7569BA8EE9EBE74DBD22E8F1E437CCAA1ECD1B4B52BA681EFC9754CC| |CB8A94D9933A8D7443C6DBF1457946561B32BB50AE158F9B6B7AB56C140F99E76AA| |6F0ACD66A95ECD14A79EDEC7AB7352ED4A52CF558C315A9D7CBD5B55ECE69A5D0AC| |FF48BD6C64176AA50D6AD25897E6C6306948B57404049E26BDF48847133451AC885| |37C5585C869A2EB1BB3FB07F893D913A4C4107117CF870328A55AE59466C51C3A78| |9AE93398811228998FA9AF8ABEEA1BFE9EF6167CC7F4BE674E7D0037991EDA52275| |C38C738364A5A5CD0E24A38ACD88E2498627AD34C5F863995E4DA27A4C50D2D6E9F| |C2DEFCEC757890E7B1216662996B125F984FA9D6C3B5CD11D2D0CB1A94DE8CE0BA1| |BDCEB39E5F5F19AA32FCFDF1A2880F0E92603FDF0D58F7E2FA8CEAFB41A34553FCE| |6710E733F89D99C639C5A97E88B52843567FB78881015A0BF29A08E2DB21D23B823| |D1BD9CB3A47F781FB998903CCD441709E7BBD245D63D035063FE3F0330E3FA901D5| |DA43857A87E02B64FD752A4522AC468DC05514AEA2701585AB30A98C4365FC0EC72| |6EE82F7C0FBCC9D0FC087CC57A47212B593BFD8C1CC6FE6EC16F887996B82826B5F| |536D121A93703803873370380B871AF9C92037833F687A4B586BD3F883A6B1EB052| |AC96237B2381D411EE7109B43DEB8F6FF5D8D68EDBBDA5C4EB7579B695BE69C2D92| |B34576DB227B6C91155B64556BDF79A15811B74FB476CC52B2D94DAB4AE7EAA7ED8| |8AA9C6067E1184E09F73E877BFFD156FD793BE254AEF0F9745D6586AF81D799E94B| |E065E6ADD6CD84AE671DE3DB1DE3BF4AC60060| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

At vet lvl 2, I got degen T4ed. 1:52 pylon right after that.

Katana/Bio.

Hit 50, built but not +5ed and she had a 2:42 pylon time. With no incarnate powers. That's a better time than my fully T4ed tricked out all to hell and back claws/sr scrapper. Decided to go through all my other 50s and email her whatever emp merits I can scrounge up. I want to see what she does with T4ed Musc, Degen and Assault Core. I'll update this thread with numbers as I get them. So far, at vet lvl 1, she'll have a T3ed alpha. Make that vet lvl 1 with a T4 alpha musc core. Oh yea... she's an auto mechanic with a magic pipe wrench. Ran another pylon after T4ing Musc... 2:29.

AVs running away from me, killin my DPS and adding more enemies I have to waste time on. So here's the question: Would Provoke from the Presence Pool keep AVs from running away due to fire DoTs or whatever it is triggering them to be cowards?

This was the case for me back on live before IOs. Now? I just kill the sapper first before he gets off a single shot.

I don't even care about the numbers. It's Stone for me for no other reason but that it flows better and crunches harder.

Ugh. Hour better than my last time and still no deaths... but... ugh. (Fire/EM tank built for damage.) Yes, max diff.

I think a lot of us, and apparently the devs as well given the recent tank damage buffs, see tanking in exactly the same way but our view is tempered by the fact that even the weakest tank armor set can pull off the task you describe as "absorb the Alpha collapse the spawn AoE half the spawn and laugh at the rest while we take them out." So can most brutes. Throw in "but tanks also control the battlefield through taunt AND the above" and I have to say again, yea... so can most brutes. I get building a tank purely to tank. I have a lvl 50+ invul/ice tank that is amazing at survival and aggro management. Her damage kinda sucks but that was by design. We're still "tanking" with our high DPS tanks. We're still doing the same job you do and probably just as well, while also dealing out higher damage.

No, I had not looked into it heavily yet. Thanks for those pointers. And I mispoke earlier. Apparently I can pull off a max diff ITF and had already done so with my fire/em tank. About to clear final Rom again. Just hate having to run away to get debuffs to fall off so I don't die. I'll edit this post with a pic if I can get it done again with zero faceplants.

Pretty sure this is why I can't stand certain ATs. If you're eating dirt, your DPS drops to zero. OTOH, as Sovera states, if THEY'RE eating dirt, it doesn't matter how survivable you are. For the record, I can't complete a max diff ITF with my fire/em tank. Soon as khels are in the mix, I get slowed to the point that neither my attacks nor heal can fire off and I can't move to get out from under the debuffs. Granted, this last run I didn't utilize afterburner to get the hell outta dodge as soon as I saw my defense go into the red. Because I don't like doing that. Playing SR, I'm accustomed to just sitting in the thick of it, ignoring all the defense debuffs and slows and whatever else is being thrown at me. Right up until those lovely autohits start coming in. Then only the SR tank survives unless I start cheating with ultimate insps or P2W garbage. In the end:

Wanna talk about useless T9s? How about SR's Elude? Yes, we KNOW you're already at the softcap but have some more defense! And some extra run speed that you don't need either. Hey, we'll throw in some recovery but then we're gonna crash you out for no good reason even though we didn't do anything for you in the first place but give you a groovy backflip to show we had done it. As others have said, some of the T9s we still have came from a different game. One that actually was "balanced around SOs." But the newer sets have much better ideas. Shield, Willpower, Bio, all decent even if you do still skip them. Example: I don't have parasitic aura on my bio/claws tank. Just couldn't fit it in even though I would have liked to. But Elude? I actively tell everyone to skip it. Same goes for Unstoppable. Were I to have my wish for SR, it would get the Master Brawler treatment from Sent SR to get rid of the click mez (if you so choose) and then turn elude into a continuation of the concepts behind the scaling resists. A bit more scaling, a bit more absorption, a bit more plus speed/recharge and call it a day.

Yes on burn and I'm pretty sure 3:30 was my average on the bio as well. And yea... kinda weird seeing a time on a tank that close to my main claws/sr's average time. Don't think I much care for that at all to be honest. And I need to find another 30% recharge for the fire/claws.