Crysis

I always build anything I keep on the T4 Incarnate path to a) some level of softcapped +DEF…this can be positional (usually ranged) or S/L and often several and b) enough damage to reliably solo +4/x8 non-Incarnate mobs. If I can solo it on max difficulty, there’s really no reason for me to worry about doing anything other than the above. This isn’t a game about max defense/resistance. It’s a game of -enough- defense/resistance and -enough- DPS to take out the enemy before they take out you. Every once in awhile I find a toon that is highly proccable. I have a Marine/DP Defender like that. She doesn’t have max Defense natively as I’ve procc’d out all her attacks and sacrificed all IO bonuses for +DEF as a result. But even in such an edge case, I still end up T4’ing out Hybrid>Melee and Destiny>Barrier so I still end up with softcapped +DEF and +RES pretty much all the time. Worked well for me across dunno….60-80 level 50’s across all classes. I see no reason to change it now.

I -always- T3 Alpha, Destiny and Lore to get the +3 Level Shift. Then I'll T3 Hybrid and then work on T4'ing Alpha, Destiny and Hybrid. Then a full respec into my final build for the toon. Those three incarnate powers do more for your build than any others and depending on choices can allow you to do crazy things like ignore set bonuses and go proc crazy with your powers. Can be jarring how much they allow you to frankenslot and gain massive returns. I've had Defender characters go from OK to some of the most damaging toons in my library after this part of the game. Only then will I go back and T3/4 Judgement, Interface and Lore in that order. I've done this since Live. Just faster and easier now.

It's been WAY TOO LONG since I've seen Masterminds make the top of ANY list. I gotta admit, as much as I always liked the AT as-was, the buffs and changes and the new Marine Affinity powerset has made 2024 the best year for MM's yet. I T4'd out no less than an even dozen MM's, some of which had been abandoned in their early 40's for over a year. Lots of respecs used to account for the changes but boy oh boy were they worth it!

-Navy SEALS but with advanced robotic commando's from DARPA, and outfitted with oceanic control gloves (tech, not magic) -Go watch The Abyss.....alien tech takes over advanced undersea exploration drones. Lots of undersea alien tech angles you could take. -Little Mermaid but with Robots.....think "Ariels Avengers" Hell, I saw a guy dressed like Moses the other night, big staff (I'm assuming it was Blackwand) who was a Robotics/Marine player. He had these macros where he'd lift his staff and fire off Tide Pool and shout out "DO NOT BE AFRAID FOR TODAY YOU WILL SEE DELIVERANCE MY PEOPLE!" and other quasi-biblical quotes. His name was "AQUAMOSE" or similar. Let your imagination run wild!!!

I max out active farming on PVE maps at around 280K XP per minute. Most missions take time to travel to the next one in the arc, travel up/down elevators, occasionally find glowies that are hidden, you’ll get that infernal layer-cake cave map, whatever. I can match that pretty easily in a custom-built AE map packed with all the EB’s I’m allowed to spawn and barely moving at all. The spawns just converge onto me. So while the rewards are now better in PVE, if you are just after herd-and-burn mechanics, AE still offers the most efficient XP per minute. It’s just convenient. If I’m in it purely for rewards, however, I find PVE is better because I can (depending on content) get AV’s, different salvage types, merits, aethers, etc.

Defense Amplifier is about the best mez protection you can get in the game, available from the P2W vendor from level 1. Yes, it’s not cheap, but you really only need it while leveling and then mostly only when solo’ing. It amps up your defenses, your resistances and also gives you mag 4 protection against most holds. That plus building for softcapped positional defense of some kind will literally almost guarantee you limited deaths from mezz until you can get your Incarnates. Many will you tell you its “cheating” but if you got the influence to spare, use of any power available to anyone that wants it is no more cheating than a rocket pack.

I went Musc Radial, Destiny Barrier and Hybrid Support. For builds, start with the thread titled “It’s a BOW Time”. Ninjas got buffed a little with the upgrade powers so my advice is to 2-3 slot each of them now but otherwise the classic build in @Redlynne‘s OP is a good starting point.

FTFY

Have a tech based Beam/TA alt who has an origin backstory based on Wentworth monopoly forcing all the SO/DO stores out of business. Because that's effectively what happened in Homecoming. That said I'm amazed when I still run across players new to the game who don't realize IO's exist and/or don't understand them. So they get well into their builds just using SO's. They are easy to obtain and use, just like Geranimals of yesteryear. Sometimes I'll duck into one of the stores for nostalgia. Talos used to be where'd I do most of my mid level enhancement commerce.

Ok I understand your POV. I played Marine for so long on MM's that I became accustomed to anchoring on Barrier vs my pets because it was always near me whereas pets can wander out of Tide Pool (kinda like players do). Also Shifting Tides drops the toggle entirely if the anchor gets too far out of range....hung up on geometry or whatever.

I'm confused. It's effectiveness doesn't change regardless of how you use it as long as it's used on an anchor within Tide Pool. So how is it less effective on Barrier? And using END when not in fights...END isn't an issue with Marine.

Just confirming this happens to me also. I think we should bring a Class-Action against ICON!

+1 on anchoring Shifting Tides onto Barrier Reef. As a melee oriented Defender it's always next to me in the Tide Pool anyways. I do have Soothing but just the Absorb Proc in there. It's not even in my power tray. At such high regen levels plus huge Absorbs I have no need for heals. Shoal is useful for Proc damage but even then, fully skippable. I'll spam Brine far more than Shoal Rush and get more out of it for ST damage. -MaxHealth is just damage by another name.

Mini mode has its uses but you basically look like something afflicted with Funkopop disease. I’m glad I tried it on Brainstorm first. If we could adjust the head and thigh dimensions I might feel better about spending 250 Aethers on it.