Infinitum

All very good choices.

I think it's more a nemesis plot lately. lol Been one thing after another.

I haven't forgot about you, today has been a hectic day - I got a call at lunch today that my Son had broken his arm at school so we spent the afternoon in the ER - broke both forearm bones right at the elbow. Luckily it looks like it wont require surgery - but we will know more next week when he visits the orthopedic Dr. I will answer this as soon as I can shake the crazy out of my brain from today. :-D

Ok so here is a build I want you to try - It will probably exhaust your 50 Million, but will also in turn allow you to regain it pretty fast. One thing to note - I suggest buying all enh as attuned enhancements - allowing them not to wane in power as you level - I have never had any issues with Attuned Enh not being powerful enough at max level. The reason it took me so long to put this together - was because its been a long while since I have built for basics. Before the invention system though - this is what we all knew. Now, this build has some uniques in it that will help - the uniques give great stats and should be the building block for you to dive further into the invention system. With this build there are 3 defensive stats you need to be concerned with. 1. Melee Defense - punching, kicking, clawing, stabbing, slashing. 2. Ranged Defense - shooting, throwing, blasting 3. AOE Defense - whirling flailing attack, big explosions etc That is what Shield does best is softcap those three stats fairly easily - you had mentioned teaming with other people and playing with spawn size 4. So what I did was toggle Phalanx Fighting to take into account you being near at least one other player at any time - this softcaps your positional defense - anything more is pure gravy. Anything less and you are probably still ok but slightly below the defense softcap - which is 45. With Incarnate content the softcap is around 60 -but you can worry about that as you gain experience with normal content. I also toggled Against all odds to be encountering at least 4 enemy at any given time - I believe that is realistic for how you said you wanted to play - this stat boosts your damage. This build has no incarnates selected, but what you can do as you get to that is keep checking back in here for advice and we will work on your incarnates together as it becomes more of a priority - but don't worry with that until the time comes. Shield is what I consider a Hybrid set - the reason is - if you notice the defensive stats on this build - it also had decent resistances - I was able to cap the smashing lethal which is the most important damage type to mitigate - the resistance cap is 90 for every type. I got the rest to around 59% with one stack of might of the tanker. What is might of the tanker - well that is the ATO unique that is in Hack - the reason it is in Hack is because you are likely to have two stacks of it running at any given time - and what that means is 6% res for each stack for every Res category. Also notice Combat Jumping - my go to slot for it is to mule the Reactive Defenses scaling res unique - what it does is as your health dips it give a bonus to resistances - combat jumping also gives you maneuverability - its a great power to take. Notice One with the Shield - it is a great T9 oh crap power - one of the better ones, but its also a great mule for the two Uniques that give you 3% defense each. - eventually you can fill that third slot in with another unique of your choosing - whatever you think works best for your build. Notice Health and Stamina - those I used needed healing/endurance uniques that benefit shields slight tendency to be an end hog. Lastly Notice build up - it has the gaussian proc - which give a chance for an extra dose of build up plus a to hit/recharge gaussian also because they aren't terribly expensive. For the Attacks - these you will want to explore sets that will fit in each one that will boost your resistances - defenses or do other cool procs like extra damage, healing or endurance, or even holds and debuffs to the enemy - but look at adding these as you gain more influence after this initial build. For the basics I added mainly 2 attack, 2 accuracy, 1 end, and 1 recharge for each attack aside from Shield Charge - i went two recharge on it to try to get it ready asap each cycle. With Parry the more you use it the more it boosts melee defense. I would encourage you to start with this build - and get a feel for it, but in between playing - explore other epic sets and pool sets that might interest you - there is no right or wrong choice - because you can always respec out of something you don't like. Also play around with the invention sets in each attack - watch what each one does to your overall defensive stats as you input different sets - figure out where you need it to be and what sets or balance of sets can get you there - keep in mind you can only utilize one bonus up to 5 times, uniques only once - aside from Luck of the Gambler unique. Hope you enjoy, play around with it and come back with any questions and we will go from there. Tanker (Shield Defense - Broad Sword).mbd

I'm not going to give you all the answers. Just think of what I am going to give you as a paint by numbers build only you get to choose your colors. There's no mystery to common IOs but will at least let's you break out and fill in the build with sets that will meet your needs. There is not really any other way to teach you but this will get you off on training wheels. From the basic build - you can also experiment with different travel and pool powers and make it your own. Like I said give me a day. I need to think about what to put together that will get you started and allow you to explore.

Give me till tomorrow night around this time - I want to compare a few options for you and then put together the best leveling build that will be future proof also.

So what I would suggest is start with common IOs. I think that's awesome. And there are plenty of ways to do that I will detail in a moment. I would probably advise against this for a few reasons. The most important is so you and fill the tanker role for your team without having to worry about active mitigation. The most important thing you can do for your team as a tanker is survive and keep attacking. You will pull attention of spawns for a team of 4 fairly easily. The second reason is it would be more expensive and you would have to tap into a lot more influence to make an active mitigation set function vs a passive mitigation set like SR or Shield which is what I would highly recommend for your starter tanker. As a tanker I wouldn't worry about debuffing for your starter. The best weapon a tanker will always have is to make the enemy extremely angry at them and them alone and then kill it either by team or attrition. With SR and shield you will be able to unlock a lot of their potential with just common IOs and be able to protect your team by just target selection and attacking. This will give you a chance to take part in any tf in the game without investing in any set bonuses until you can buy some nice expensive ones with reward merits or any influence you gain by running the task forces. As you progress and continue adding sets to increase your power you will be able to run more extreme content, gain confidence and a greater understanding of the games mechanics, and then be able to run a more active based character with the influence or reward merits to piece sets together for it from the word - go.

What is your influence situation currently? And Do you have any builds picked out?

It can be overwhelming. And honestly where I would start is here. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Main_Page Talking just tankers here First step is to know your character - is it res based, is it defense based, is it a hybrid. Knowing that will tell you if building for defense will be useful - or if you need to trade some res for Def or vice versa. Second step is to set a goal - what do you want to be able to do with the character? Put that on notepad to refer back to as you plan. Lastly you will have to study what the armor set in your build does - it's effects etc. Then I would repeat all of the above for your secondary. Your attack set. Once you have your brain wrapped around what your character is capable of. Start studying homecoming wiki link above for applicable sets/set bonuses to see which ones are applicable for your build. Eventually you will start being able to use mids exclusively because powers will overlap more often with sets and you will start to learn them and what to look for. This is how I started - because it is a ton of information - give it about a month and you will start to gain confidence. Lastly roll your builds up on test server - because everything is free and see ultimately how your build performs. If this answer is confusing please allow me to clear up any foggy spots. I am here for ya. 👍

It will. And it's funny too. lol

I love the learn to fish comment. I am big on that. That's why I never advocate my builds as the destination for anyone seeking help - because what is great for me- may not be as useful to someone Else, but get them in the right neighborhood of what they want to do and then tailor the build to their needs. First question. Do you have Mids Hero Designer?

You are doing great also - just keep asking questions. Elec armor has built in end drain protection - it's worth retesting my memory on how good that works against Sappers, but I believe you are OK just running with ageless - and maybe if you did grab anything else - Power Sink. But it might work without it.

I like the first one better - I know in some circles it's unpopular to build defense on a Res based character - but IMO I still do it to at least mitigate any alpha strike and beyond - depending on how long your defense holds out. As far as barrier vs ageless - I would get both and swap for the occasion. With Ageless I would go radial instead of core for the increased DDR to buy your defenses a little longer - plus with Elec Armor you shouldn't have any end issues. The only reason to go core is if you still have any end issues post 50 and you don't need the DDR. Builds look good though!

I just started a Savage Bio Scrapper and I have a couple questions for the powers that be in Scrapperdom if you could be so kind. 1. is hemmorage overrated? 2. Is it worth keeping if you have a spare slot to burn 3. Would maiming slash be a better alternative to hemmorage? Thanks x meelions in advance!

Dark can be made to be comically durable. But I think your problem is anything you make to follow up your Rad/SS is going to seem lacking - when in reality it's not - rad/ss has just such a good synergy. Not to mention Dark is going to be harder to level because it's an end hog but also because most of its survival tools aside from dark regen are more set it and forget it passive mitigation via toggles. Dark really comes into it's own once you get all those toggles loaded with set bonuses and dark regen - which IMO is the best heal in the game - slotted up for max heal and recharge. You will just need to give it time - unless you really hate it. lol If you want two more comically durable tankers - nothing is more absurd than SR and then also Shield.

Yep. Captain Starburst still exists also. It's my 16 year Olds go to tanker. My version is Magnus Invictus - you are correct. They are basically the same build so I consolidated. And you are more than welcome. If you ever need help ease ask.

The worst part of it is right after you defeat the first Goliath War Walker. The arrow for the War Zone points left - that doesn't take you to the war zone. It keeps taking you deeper in the base and I ended up getting more turned around and had to base portal my way out to go back in the war zone to find the exit. In fact if you are viewing that wall with the arrow - pull a 180 and go that way - maybe I missed it but that happened today while running a Tin Mage - it was the first one where I didn't have TT on a character. That needs to be fixed to orient the player properly for a clean not confusing exit to the war zone.

boom! its so fun just ran a Tin Pex with mine it felt like an episode of Cobra Kai lol

Do both - Unlimited slots - just sayin :-D

Try this - with a preface that I have never played Spines. Just not my cup of tea. The Bio part of this build is good though and as long as you kept the numbers fairly close if you changed things around to suit your need - to the build I posted you will be good to go. Hope this helps and hope you enjoy - and thanks for following! Tanker (Bio Armor - Spines).mbd

Try this - extremely durable - lot of utility - Psi Melee is a good attack set - very fun to play. Also have a free power space at the end for whatever you would like - or if you wanted to swap things around a bit - to make it more about your playstyle it would still be fairly durable with a few changes here or there. Build attached below - hope it helps and hope you enjoy! Tanker (Dark Armor - Psionic Melee).mbd

I chuckled to this.. lol Yeah it's as sane as any other combo. I would probably take Omega Infinitum and swap dark melee on it for psi melee and keep similar numbers. I will mash this together for you later tonight. Just got in a few min ago detailing my oldest son's new car.

I'm a bit different in my approach to the game. Let me preface by saying there's nothing wrong with building for AOE and statistically it's probably better than my approach. My view is this is a game and I'm going to find as many different ways to enjoy it as I can. If a set like MA is inherantly ST strong - I build for that strength and try to make a mini game of how many things I can one shot as quickly as possible. It also comes in handy for hardened target encounters. Ninjitsu is a very strong set with a lot of tools - and with Shinobi Iri it increases critical chance so it will cater to the strong ST MA attacks but also can benefit Dragons Tail.

Ninjitsu - res/def/End management/stealth/heal/movement. It's got it all.

That is always a great plan - I do that often on something new just to make sure I haven't gone off the rails. you do, and remember this is just a game at the end of the day - goal is to have fun - there is no endgame - and nobody is keeping score.