Infinitum

It's not that I assume the brute is the tanker - but my point is the regen brute could never be the tanker - whereas every other brute armor set could play the role of tanker 1 - mainly because of reliability. I have scrappers and stalkers more durable than the most mitigation based regen brute I could think of - you wouldn't want my scrappers or stalkers tanking however because of aggro management. The rest of the brute armor sets can pull off the tanker roll if you build them for that roll. Out of curiosity and for collaboration, could you post you Res/Def/Regen stats with and without Instant healing. Also what incarnates did you choose? I want to make sure my assessment isn't painted incorrectly by my own ignorance. Never stop learning - that's one of my mottos..

Was discussing this the other day on discord. Willpower has more tools in it's kit than regen does - res, Def and ddr also. That alone makes it stand out far better than regen - but then you throw in the fact that IH cannot be made perma - any defense you build to offset that is shredded in seconds. Once IH drops the rest of the set can't keep up. Willpowers RTTC is a toggle and always up but even against AVs - the other tools mitigates incoming dmg far better than regen. I built a test brute and compared it against every armor set and basically Regen with Instant healing running is on par with an electric armor and fire tankers - Shield, invul, SR, Dark, Bio, WP, Stone, Ice. Once IH dropped - no amount of strategy will keep it alive if running in tough mobs - even running unrelenting after IH dropped wasn't enough. This regen brute had around 1100 regen without IH or any other click power. Without IH that - wasn't enough to compete with any other tanker or brute armor set by a good margin. On a good team Regen is fine, but if you are a brute running as a tank and you hit a hard patch it will be hard to stay alive without assistance - regen without IH - no other set runs that weak and even with IH is only middle of the road at best.

We talked about this the other night. The freakshow farm - lure the whole map into a dumpster then massacre them.

I didn't know you could pick more than one pool power at first so I would always end up with fly because I like fly - and back then the fitness pool wasn't inherant so needless to say I had yuuuge endurance issues for a few months till I realized my error/stupidity.

100%. I haven't agreed with 100% of every change HC has done, but I would say at least 85-90% I do. And even the changes I haven't agreed with ended up not being as bothersome as I originally thought. So I will always give any change a shot, and voice any issues after I have tested the change. Both major complaints I have voiced after changes had the changes modified to address the concern - so it's not like the HC devs don't listen also. In fact I truly think the HC devs are more effective than live devs even though they are also more limited in time and resources.

I'm totally with you there, but I just truly didn't understand the contradiction that they were making using those results for SS being average when those results show the opposite. I don't have any data to prove my opinion, but I think from my experience (I have played over 100 melee combinations - and currently have 50 of what I consider the best, fully set out in my list currently) SS is a great set even with the rage crash. Because it's a feeling. Same feeling that tells you stalker ninjitsu isn't as good as scrapper Ninjitsu. Or that kinetic melee on stalkers is better than the other 3 melee ATs. I don't need a data point to tell me SS is one of the best, because I smile and giggle every time I ko or footstomp and watch the mob disintegrate swiftly. I agree here - all my tankers are built to be team tankers - still with awesome damage, but I'm not proc'ing them out to make them something they aren't. Same with Trollers - I don't lose sleep and whinge if my troller has bad damage. The metric I look at is how good can I do it's job - locking down mobs. For several reasons but mainly because I think procs will be adjested in the future. Also because I think the game gets bland if every At is played to chase damage - there is no prize at the end of the journey for kill speed. I play for the experience and seek to make every pairing unique but true to it's role also. Agree 100%. And honestly - truly no offense to Ston, but when these tests include moonbeam and cross punch etc - whatever they used - it really doesn't give a good metric of what the set can do at that point. So agree 100% no balance pass should take these results into account because they aren't 100% true to the set. I only pointed back to those results because it's what ParagonKid used but tried to paint a different picture other than what those results showed.

If you can't see - even in your own evidence that it would be and currently is. There's no reasoning with you. I don't have any fear of it either. This is a game, I take it for what it is... A free game that's drastically better than it was on live. I don't let little things like the rage crash stop my enjoyment, because it's an easy challenge to be overcome to reliably play one of the best attack sets in the game.

I think you are overthinking it there. Nobody has made excuses - but for the strongest performing self damaging modifier it has to have a tradeoff - which said tradeoff still allows the set to be top tier. Moreover the crash is easily mitigated. Without any crash the set would be absurd and would probably rival pre nerf tw - especially if SS was ported to scrappers. Could you imagine that? Double rage with crits on the scrapper damage scale?

Are you referring to Ston's data you provided? That isn't middle of the pack. Now I'm not saying anything against you personally, but in fairness, you can't classify an STier Trapdoor and overall average as middle of the pack. SS is great as is - could use a rework - yes, but it is bothersome to think what that could end up looking like.

Yes, yes I do.

It does, 😂 but not in practice. I have tried, been challenged to, stayed up late trying make regen worthy to tank, but it just can't - not at a high level like the rest anyway. I even had native regen before instant healing to right under 1100 regen - then rotated instant healing, unleash potential, MOG, and Unrelenting - still not sustainable. With team support it's probably fine, but if that falls apart - well... It's been nice knowing you. If you bought willpower on temu it would be regen and literally broken in a few minutes.

I can't help it. Your posts are maddening. Every time I read your posts... It's in Zathras' voice. I also add a little ad lib. Zathras try to tells them, but they never listen to Zathras. click click click click.

Shield has no holes if you build it right - your don't really need a heal. Plus AAO is really sweet when you are swamped. It has better than average res if you build it right also. If you are viewing dull pain as a heal mainly - I get your frustration, but if you make it perma and view it as a perma HP cap - it's purpose is much more valuable. Invul is sturdy enough to where if you need a heal you have gotten into some gnarly stuff. Regen is bad, yes. SR is one of the best. SR can occasionally get overtaken by a bad burst roll but I can count on one hand either tanker or brute SR I have have fallen. Best ddr in the game, positionals easily can incarnate softcap, extra recharge and slow prot. in quickness, a click status protection that will protect even if you run out of end, and then a scaling resistance that will cap and literally make the enemy punch themselves out of end trying to take the last 10% of their health.

If you do nothing. Yeah it will hurt you. But, we do know it's there - and will happen. You can bypass it rather easily by building extra defense and or popping a purple or two. It's really not the end of the world and never has been. Not to mention more often than not it will drop after the mobs have been dispatched. It definitely isn't a big enough deal to not take SS.

Super strength. You never miss... And Smash. Whats not to love?

Your best bet with invul is the imperium armor +psi in 5 of the res powers - combine that with other +psi and toxic set bonuses and you should be able to get to 70+ easily. Lastly you can use a combination of Weave, combat jumping and defense set bonuses to get melee defense softcapped and the other two high enough to matter against psi and toxic there also. Maneuvers and stealth works also - I personally don't usually go that route because of theme.

Try elec/storm troller - end drains plus slows

I'm not sure what you have seen-this is not my experience at all. I can easily make like bob barker and spay or neuter the mob population solo on a +4/8. Takes forever to kill them but they can't move and they can't fight in literally a few seconds of me taking over.

I promise I am not peacocking or bragging or exaggerating what I am about to say, but they dont really need it. It takes a lot lot lot of -Def to actually hit Shield, Invul, or SR to begin to whittle them down. Once that happens (if it does) you then have to get past the resistances. With invul you should have sl capped, and the rest at 70+ with it being fairly easy to get to 80. With Shield the resistances may be slightly lower than invul but still can cap sl and easily approach or exceed the 70s on the rest. With SR - ddr is capped so it's defenses are hardest to overcome - but it can happen - that's when the real fun begins. With it's scaling resistances I have had my SR literally hover around 10% health indefinitely just seeing how long I could last. The enemy literally ran dry of end and I was never in ultimate danger. Incarnates can then be utilized to fill in any holes these might have making them insanely durable. Or you can take a different route and take attack based incarnates because it would still be safe to do so with these builds. Ultimately I don't think you can go wrong with any tanker set. They are all more than capable in different ways to survive any content. With all that said. Nerf Regen.

Another route with invul. If you are taking the durable route. Go with melee core and rebirth radial. You will max resists and add regen with melee core - then when it expires pop rebirth radial for it's regen buff. All the while dull pain should be perma or close to it - effectively maxing HP, then resistances and high regen with melee core, then extremely high regen with rebirth radial. And defenses should be over soft capped with your power choices and set bonuses plus saturated invincibility. You would really have to try hard to fall with this setup.

Yeah invul would pull that off - you can build an invul to be as strong as Granite if not stronger - depends on how extreme you go with the slotting - and successfully pulling enemies into your range to max out invincibility.

My experience as well. When I learned Elec Control was regarded as pretty bad in some circles - I was left scratching my head. Because it is literally my best, safest, and most fun - especially paired with Storm.

Alpha: Musculature, Hybrid: Assault Radial, Interface: Degenerative Core, Destiny: Ageless Core or Radial if you go for offense, Barrier if you go for defense. Lore and Judgements are personal preference picks.

That's all there is to it. As long as you keep the resistance/defense numbers in that range - you should be good to go.

Try this one - it's fairly current - the powers can be moved sooner in the build if you like. This is a very durable tanker - especially if you lean on Energy Absorption for defense. Absolute Infinitum - Tanker (Ice Armor - Ice Melee).mxd