Infinitum

Try this out - I would have liked to have gotten more psi resistance in this, but I squeezed as much as I could out of this build and I believe covered the bases fairly well. 1. Melee Defense over 45% 2. S/L En/Neg and Fire is at 90% Res 3. This should have a very strong attack - lots of variety and high Damage. 4. Healing Flames recharges in ~ 14 Seconds with hasten - Hasten is not perma though - but still should be good. 5 Consume will cover any end issues that may arise. 6. You can swap out fly - just make sure whatever you swap in cover the Knockback enh that are in both Hover and Evasive. Hope this helps and also enjoy! Tanker (Fiery Aura - Stone Melee).mxd

I do not, but could make one fairly easily. I will take a look when i get home from work. Basically we will combine Turbo Infinitum's or Lodestarr's Primary with Halenrock's secondary. Should be pretty clean to do.

Added two more Tanker Shield Builds and updated 3 of the scrapper builds - reasonings is on the first page.

I know right? I cant believe i never thought of that. I made my character last night. lol. ZPE is its name Zero Pont Energy Credit goes to @jackdaw1234 pointing me to this awesome synergy.

Hello - shield was one of my first uber nigh indestructible shield builds - so this is something I have many game hours playing over the years - lots of fun! Tanker (Shield Defense - Dark Melee).mxd I based this off of my tried and true Captain Infinitum build - which is pretty darn close to being as survivable as my Invul Build - and honestly with this having Dark Melee you have all the benefits of Shield's superb Positional Defenses combined with a small heal and high damage attack in Siphon Life - plus an endurance booster in Dark Consumption to offset Shield's hungry endurance nature - This is why I go straight for Resilient instead of Cardiac - because you should be set for endurance with Dark Consumption ready roughly every 54 ish seconds. With all that it is probably a bit better than my shield build and probably directly on par with my Invul Build - which means you are unkillable unless a gas pump takes you out somewhere (they are becoming a bit vicious and not gentle at all these days) Other features - if you look at the by the numbers screenshot below you have Incarnate softcapped defenses in both melee and aoe ~65% and 60% respectively and well above softcapped defense in ranged ~52%. You also have the option of bolstering this with Hover should you feel like you needed it - but you probably wouldn't To bolster this your resistances are all around 70 which is where you want them - except for Psi which is near 60 and S/L which is at 80. One note about these is that is based off of one stack of Might of the Tanker - if you spam shadow punch you can easily get that to 3 stacks which would be an additional 13.4 res to every category. Active defense should easily double stack which would for most of the time get you DDR at 87% which is one of the best numbers in the game at that point - which means all that lovely defense will be really hard to break through - and even if it is you have all that nice resistances to hold the ground the rest of the way. I really looked for a way to include touch of fear - but couldn't find room - I don't think you will miss it - but if you did you could always replace it in Hover's place and borrow a slot from health - maybe the absorb there. Anyway - Hope this helps - it has been a lot of fun for me over the years - honestly I might try the Dark Melee version here to see how this plays on my Shield framework - it really looks durable and fun. :-) Also if you have any questions please feel free to message me any time! One last thing - since you are new to melee - feel free to take a look at my post here - I have a lot of melee builds Scrapper,Stalker,Brute,Tanker of varying Primary and Secondaries that are all really durable and fun to play.

Yeah, that isn't what i did at all. This isn't my first rodeo. See screenshot. Still not as strong as other builds i mentioned - especially against Debuffers - (i wasnt referring to just defense debuffers) see doesnt matter if you are blocking 90% the 10% still debuffs your regen, accuracy, recharge and defense - and you crack like an egg regardless.

I am not a huge fan of Rad because it just isn't IMO quite as strong as Invul, Shield, Dark, SR, or even Ice in a lot of cases. The lack of DDR makes it fragile in a lot of extreme cases. Under most circumstances its fine and even quite fun, but get drenched in the middle of high level debuffers and it folds too fast even when trying to work around the situation with incarnates. Dark is similar but there is something about it that is just more durable than Rad - IMO.

Not only that (and i may be remembering this wrong) but i think i remember reading somewhere that with the frequency of dmg tics in auras and how MotT procs you can only get two stacks in damage auras - or it is very difficult to get a 3 stack anyway. Yet i still do it sometimes. 😀

Couple of questions - what numbers brute side were you not happy with? And what are you looking to do with this build? - (ultra survivable tank - with great single target and serviceable aoe, or something more like a proc monster)?

Try this one out and see how it does - I made one slight change to your build (the rest was very familiar) - I like to get melee defense above 45% - that way it gives invincibility time to saturate each damage type applicable - and once it does its lights out for the enemy because they cant touch you at that point with anything. See with the build I posted - you are at 49% defense to everything melee - get in range fast like a tanker should and once you are saturated to 3 plus you are then softcapped to everything but Energy, Negative and psionic. Get to 7+ saturation and you are softcapped to everything but Psionic - + melee defense still at 49%. That is why Psionic and toxic resistances are important - because defense just doesn't cover them well. Hyperstrike's build is great, but I wouldn't bet my life on 49% psi resistances and 18% psi defense - a hardened psi enemy will shred that build in a heartbeat - and toxic also for that matter. I also like to hover at or above 70% res with everything but S/L which is always above 90 by default. This way anything that might get through defense in the opening round of a fight will be more like a tickle fight - and that goes for psi/toxic or negative which are all exotics but found at increasing frequencies late game. See it all ties together and the Keystone is the 49% melee defense - with the saturated defense on one side and the complete resistances on the other. Which if you have Might of the tanker fully saturated you will be near 80% + to all at that point. Combine all that together and you are unbeatable. One thing that Hyperstrike misjudged is you aren't relying on dull pain at all with that setup you had - it is there for the slotting bonuses and also to cap HP when needed (Miss liberty TF vs Lord Recluse) - the heal really isn't ever needed on this build because its as I said unkillable unless you doze off and even then you are liable to wake up several hours later and still be standing there - the enemy having perished by exhaustion... lol Having said all that I would stack this up against anything and reasonable sure that this one will out survive anything out there you might face. Hope this helps and thanks for the shoutout! :-) Tanker - (Invul - Stone Melee).mxd

100 percent transparent here - I don't really like Bio - the way it looks or plays. It just doesn't have a feel that I tend to gravitate towards in this game. However I think with a little tweaking and some further - Bio Related expert advice, this build will get you close to where you need to be. Tanker (Bio Armor - Radiation Melee).mxd

Or Energy Energy Stalker - this is true, but EM is the perfect synergy for stalkers. This doesn't mean you shouldn't sample the menu on other ATs. I have EM on every melee AT with Shield, Energy, Ninjitsu, and Invul. I love them all.

Sorry I am late to the party - I have had a busy week in the real world as my alter ego :-) Here is another take on this build - basically I worked it off of my Energystar build which is EM/Inv - and it is more than capable enough to do whatever you need. I like to cover all my bases - which is why I sell out to cover toxic/psionic on Invul and balance every category other than S/L around 50-60 res for brutes. On the defense side I always make sure Melee Defense is 45+ and that will cover any engagement you might encounter in combination with Invincibility once it starts to saturate. I typically run Assault for my hybrid slot on brutes - but if you wanted to be more tankerish you could always go Melee core and then 100% you are unkillable unless you fall asleep with this build. lol I also like to run the flight pool because I like to fly - but you could swap that out if you need to - however Hover is especially useful since the travel update - especially situationally when you need a boost in defense. I also like to run Energy Mastery for physical perfection for an extra boost to recovery and regen. Hope this helps - please feel free to message me any time if you need any more tips or build help - I am always glad to lend a hand. Brute (Spines - Invulnerability).mxd

That is pretty close to my take on it also, surviving the alpha wasn't usually an issue - it was after whatever alpha absorber used ran out and you were in a sustained +4/8 fight with lots of debuffs ~10 seconds later you are dropped. I tried ageless and barrier and honestly rotating barrier and MOG gained more survivability time than using ageless as a prop. Kill speed comes in to play here also, better clean your plate if you end up with a gap in protection. My secondary support stat i went with was softcapped melee and aoe defense and that at least buys you some more time when absorbing the alpha then rotating MOG and Barrier. Like i said earlier you could literally pull it off with regen most of the time - but you are having to use tactics that you literally do not need to in any other armor set out there just to stay upright and that is a problem IMO.

2 things are needed IMO to bring regen back to the table - DDR and Regen/Recharge Debuff Resistance. Until that happens its just an odd duck that you can make work but it ends up not being fun IMO.

I was in the same boat about 2 years ago and thought i could make regen work (never had played regen - even on live) to my liking. I had heard it was bad but in my head i can make anything overperform in survivability terms. In the end IMO i was unsuccessful - i mean i developed a build that could do "ok" but jupiter would have to be in retrograde and you had to be almost perfect in your timing. There are just better less annoying options that fit the theme. So i went back to willpower and pretended it was regen. lol

Al Bundy cant afford inspirations. lol RTTC is the reason stalker regen is better than stalker WP because it isn't present. But that's like saying the honda with a worn out engine is better than the honda with no engine. It really isn't a comparison because RTTC willpower cant run.

I just realized i have never built a Shield/EM Tanker. What is wrong with me? Getting lax in my old age.

Nope An analogy: Willpower is driving Elenore in Gone in 60 seconds Regen is Al Bundy crashing his car in his garage then coming inside to an empty fridge. Pick Willpower if you want useful Regen.

4 reasons, 1. I like fly as a travel power - 90%+ of ally builds use it. 2. Hover - after the travel buff IMO is extremely useful - and also boosts defense should you need a little extra. 3. Thematics of this character is like a cross between Iron Man and Nova - so flying is a must. I also built a scrapper to be the counterpart of this one on an EM EA lineup. I went through a phase of Franks Red Hotting all my builds with EA or EM or both. I put that .... on everything. Haha 4. Luck of the gambler mules if so inclined. You could always swap if fly isn't your thing though.

Try this one - it is close to - if not my favorite build to play. Novaflux - Stalker (Energy Melee - Energy Aura).mxd

Great responses and great ideas. This is almost as fun as the gameplay. Wish i had started sooner. You guys are awesome!

I agree 100% i am rolling one now - at level 39 and its really getting nasty. Im beginning to worry i will find it on Maury one day soon with how it treats enemies.

Someone challenged me a year or so ago to make a great Ice tanker - at first I didn't think i could - until i started comparing it to energy aura and it was similar enough to where i could pull this off. Its all about utilizing energy absorption to boost defense and balance the def holes with resistances. Yeah Ice/Ice pairs really well together - I am sure some of the responses to Ice Armor in here are warranted, buy my experiences with my Ice/Ice are top notch and i don't play the squishy game. In fact my Ice build is one of the most durable builds I have - It has great defenses balanced by resistances that fill the holes in the defense. It also has slows, controls, damage debuffs and excellent aggro control. See the posted graphic - that is energy absorption hitting only 1 in range.Absolute Infinitum - Tanker (Ice Armor - Ice Melee) (1).mxd

I know how the market works - to the ends of satisfying my build ambitions but never played the wealth game until recently. Do you guys also track market wealth in terms of what your combined portfolio is worth on the mean? Or is it just cold hard influence? If the answer to the first part is yes, how do you calculate that? (i am guessing its a estimation?) I currently have 40 decked out builds usually with Both ATOs and at least 2-3 Winter sets and more often than not 1+Shield Wall sets then top tier sets to fill the rest out. Like i said i have been spending about as much time lately playing market games as the actual game just to shake things up a bit internally. I currently have close to 4bn - goal is 80 bn - 2bn per maxed build. If someone asked what would I tell them my portfolio was worth in game terms?