Infinitum

See... why do you wanna go there with me? lol I have tried regen every which way I know to try it and it all ends up back to a mediocre level of suck. The problem with it is - you really really don't get a chance to build enough regen ironically enough - sure you have instant healing which doubles your regen to nearly 2k but the absolute best you can hope for with that is 90s of use with 140s of down time - which leaves you with 50s to fill - and sure you have MoG which takes out 15 sec of that - then it is 60s down - so that leaves you with 35 seconds of nothing to cover your exposed nether-regions except for the heals which again if you are being swamped will not be enough - because you also cant build enough defenses, or resistances - and definitely not both - because you are selling out to recharge and regen in this case - your static regen is always around 700-800 with regen. Keep in mind Bio can maintain a static regen of over 1k without even taking an incarnate alpha that boosts healing - activate parasitic and you are near 2k way more often than you are than with regen. Willpower - with RTTC saturated you are over 1k regen easy, and you can also build for really good resistances or really good defenses either way (I choose resistances with my willpower) With regen even if you sell out for defense you still will be left with mediocre defenses at best - with no DDR to speak of to maintain the paper tiger. Resistances are similar - you just can't get to decent enough levels to matter. See below from left to right High Recharge Build - Max Melee Defense - Max Typed Defense - Max Regen You simply do not get enough base in any area including regen to have a decent target to sell out to to make regen as good as the other sets. Your only hope is to get either Rebirth Radial or Barrier Core in conjunction with Melee Core Hybrid and rotate those in - with the hope of holding out long enough for your standard mitigation powers to come back online - but in my experience there usually ends up being a sufficient gap eventually that will be enough of a window to get ripped to shreds. Here are the builds represented above. And please if anyone has any suggestions for something I may be missing with regen let me know - but I am where I have always been with regen - it needs help - mainly in the form of more base regen and DDR IMO by either increasing one of the auto powers or by lengthening the duration of or shortening the recharge of instant healing - that would be all that is needed to fix the set. It really wouldn't take much. Then it could be ported to tankers. Brute (Katana - Regeneration) 1 Recharge.mxd Brute (Katana - Regeneration) 2 Melee Defense.mxd Brute (Katana - Regeneration) 3 Typed Defenses.mxd Brute (Katana - Regeneration) 4 Max Regen.mxd

I was in the same boat a few weeks ago until i was shown the light. Its definitely one of the best tanker armor sets and arguably THE best. Try this as a guide. You wont regret it - instead of spiritual go agility - i havent updated the build yet. Fulminare - Tanker (Bio Armor - Energy Melee).mxd

You could also use Bio Armor

Zathras of course. Not the one - not the one. I have the 5 season run and the movies on dvd, re watching it now because my teenager likes it - and when a teenager likes something you run with it especially if it is something as awesome as B5. Greatest sci fi ever!

that build by the way is this one, just swap in whatever elec melee attacks in the place of psionic melee that is there while retaining the same equivalent slotting. Alpha Infinitum - Tanker (Electric Armor - Psionic Melee) (1).mxd

That was my ranking - however if you look at my Tanker build list it is good enough to be named Alpha Infinitum. That ranking - honestly all armors are close - E Elec armor has 2 weaknesses toxic and lack of DDR. As you can see Elec Armotlr is stout - regen via energize is also high, you are a sappers worst nightmare - they wont be able to drain you. The problem Elec Armor runs into is if you are in an unreasonable position - +4/8 solo in a room of debuffers - and only if you run deep into the fight and cascade failure occurs after several rounds of attacks. Sets like Invul, Shield, SR - any set that has DDR will just outlast them. The reason Bio, Dark, Willpower, and Rad are ranked higher - despite not having ddr (Willpower does have ddr) these all have multiple other tools to offset incoming damage should cascade failure occur. Bio and willpower fall back on decent resists and high regen capacity - bio also has an absorb shield. Rad has the highest resists across the board (you can easily hit 90% on all but cold) debuffs, heals, and absorbs. Dark has dark regen which IMO is the best heal in the game and it is avail - if memory serves - around 15 seconds. Dark also has ToHit debuffs which also makes you harder to hit, and also the second best resists in the game. Fire is last because it is the weakest - but packs a punch so it makes up fir its weaknesses with offensive capability. So you see none are bad - just different and the only way i could find enough damage to separate them in order to rank them was to throw lots of insane incarnate level crap at them that you will never encounter in game anyway. So yeah roll that Elec/Elec. You will love it. I would also recommed shield/elec. Its one of the best mini nuke throwers in the game - Shield Charge, Lightning Rod, chain induction, thunderstrike, jacobs ladder. That will clear a spawn quick fast and in a hurry. 😉

Is that Zathras in your avatar?

Tell me if this reasoning is sound for Bio and the Alpha Incarnate - Agility Core - because on my builds it will boost defense to this: It reduces recharge which is important for the 3 click mitigation powers The endurance reduction will allow me to sell out to ageless radial for the DDR which will sure up the defense numbers because of lack of DDR. From a strictly "I want to withstand the most damage" perspective - Does that make Agility the winner here?

@Hyperstrike It isn't Reactive Defenses - never is - it always grants a base of 3% which is how Mids Calculates it in my build and how it calculates it in game. I just confirmed this and what I will say below in game also. The issue falls to the ATO not having any stacks to boost resistance and Phalanx fighting not having an ally in range to boost defense - so gold star @Texman you nailed it. In this case Mids is perfectly identical to what the actual in game numbers are once you take this into consideration I always calculate it with 1 stack and with 1 ally in range because it is realistic - and honestly wouldn't matter if you didn't because the build is still bulletproof :-) Thank you for the shout out and the kind words @Texman It always makes me feel good when someone has found use from my builds!

Absolutely. I am going back and forth between Spiritual and Agility, but both have recharge so its good either way. Vigor is an option also but i haven't convinced myself it needs the extra healing factor.

I think you have a pretty good build there - I think I understand what you are going for with it (solid team support with the leadership pool - and balanced resists and defenses) - and it seems pretty solid. I would definitely pick up Agility Core as your alpha because then your defense will be rock solid. This wouldn't be how I would slot an Invul/SS but it is hard to argue with your results because the numbers end up similar to one of my builds and I know it can perform - so great job when it is all said and done! I do have one question - is end usage an issue with this one?

It is awesome. Eternal Patriot - Tanker (Shield Defense - Super Strength) (1).mxd That is mine - rage crash is nothing to this build - plus footstomp and KO blow are procd so they still do decent damage even during a rage crash.

I ask this out of curiosity - do you solo exclusively? If so what content do you play? But my overarching point to those questions is - if you are an exclusive solo player - why do you even need reward merits? You could play unslotted on -2/1 and would never be an issue - or ramp up to whatever challenge you thought was fitting. If you arent a exclusive solo player then reward merits are pretty darn easy to get and depending on how many characters you have could get a decent amount just by playing the weekly.

They both take different slotting approaches than normal sets.

Not N E more. 😀 i just needed the light shown to me is all - then I re-made it my own way. Had to unlock willpower the same way.

Strong reactions does not a decision make - especially when its other people's strong reactions. 😁

You won me over with that comment. Haha

A little advice - try not to look at dull pain so much as a heal as active mitigation that is possible to make perma - i would lead with dull pain to cap or come close to capping your HP pool which in turn increases your healing factor. This further adds to your layered mitigation with an additional layer of HP to burn through and increased healing factor to regain it per tic. I six slot dull pain - it is much more than a heal.

I concur with @Sovera none of my builds contain taunt. Personally I don't need it on any of my builds - that is not to say it is a useless power - but there are many ways to play this game. The question is - do you feel the need to have taunt. If the answer is no - the " tell them to go suck an egg" approach is validated. 😀

Either one - but i lean tanker - while having less damage than the brute you can max resistances out to 90 in every category except two. My Dark Dark tanker is one of the most durable I have.

One thing you may want to adjust - especially with the upcoming typed defense changes - is to raise your resistances on psi and toxic. Otherwise there are a few high level factions that were tagging defense for S/L that will now tag toxic or psi. Luckily to offset we were granted new psi/toxic res and defense in a few powers but that should be bolstered - IMO. Res to each of those should be at least 70% - then boost your melee def to anything North of 45% and that should cover the majority of exotic dmg that could impact you now. As long as you target selectively you build will largely be bulletproof.

Main post updated.

Khelds in general are a mixed bag of don't make sense, but i believe where brutes are concerned - fury generation was more of a priority than it is now - because it was updated and now easier to generate fury. Could be wrong, but that seems familiar in my brain.

Awesome! Thanks, with some help collaborating with @Myrmidon i think i have a fairly durable Bio Armor framework now. Its probably going to take the #1 spot honestly. That is to say until it gets nerfed - which is likely. But we can delve into the awesomesauce until that day. 😎 If all goes as planned i should post tonight.

Major updated build list coming soon, including: 1. Upon Further Review - new rankings with Bio Armor coming to the party and shuffling the deck a little. 2. Two Bio Armor builds - based on speedster concepts. 3. Updated most builds - tweaks and refinements. 4. The Ultimate Invulnerability Survival build. Rolling these out one day this week when my life isn't insane. 😀