Golden Azrael

That's a very tasty build. Oh yes. Nicely built up Res'. Punishing Positional Defence. Shield Charge, Crowd Control, Shatter... Mob batteringly Decent. Bone crunching stuff. Azrael.

Update. I respec. Out goes Taunt. ('He's a naked Tanker...he doesn't have Taunt.' *points and laughs.) Better that than a blind tanker getting a kicking. Against Arachnos. Got blinded ('Har, Har!') and whilst I couldn't be hurt (that much) it was pretty embarrassing. A tanker who can't see the enemy mob. The Arachnos weren't laughing when I went back into the mission with Foc(k) Accuracy. 🙂 In comes Foc(k) (...as I was calling it yesterday) Accuracy for Perception bonus which is off the scale good along with it's To Hit bonus which is also insanely good. I had to put x2 End Red IOs in it because it has a crazy end cost. I lost the Healing proc in the 3rd slot of Stamina and made it a clean sweep of x3 Common Stamina IOs. I lost the 2nd slot in Tier 1 Kick. 1 From the Ranged Shield Def' (Tier 2. So sacrificed a slither of AoE/Ranged...) and a Slot out of Weave (sacrificing another slither of overall positional def'...) ...and? Max slotted Crunch Punch with Avalanche for the 5% Melee def'. And MOAR slow res. This also boosted my Fire/Ice Def by 5% (common dam' types), improved my AoE by 2.5%, some more Res' to Fire/Ice and Mez res' by 10% etc. And a nice little 4% to Recovery. Above Inc' def' for Melee. I hit 'a' mob with Storm Kick? Inc' in other two positions as well. In a mob of +4x8 Council? Don't get it. (Rarely.) Azrael.

Hmm. The Shield/War Mace idea is a good one. Shield Charge and Crowd control. Ouch. Though Energy Melee might also be a contender since it's revamp! Azrael.

*nods in agreement. Invulnerabiity. Very easy going. Easy to pick up and play. Nice res. Nice to hit. Nice defence boost when surrounded by mob. I played one on Live Invul/Energy. Grindy on the damage. And the latter on HC. Energy is now single target 'light's out' on Single Target. It's AoE is decent due to the tank buffs and energy revamp for Whirling Hands and Energy Crash (which I have procc'd out.) Far less grindy. You'd notice the 'bring it' dam' difference. Shield MA. Very good tank. Just finished building mine out. The only thing missed is perhaps a heal for MOAR surviva. Ageless Radial Rebirth, mm? Azrael.

SR/SJ. I enjoyed it, but it felt like pushing the boulder up the hill at times. Passive armour. No DoT 'melt' damage or Shield Charge to 'Burst' Damage. Still, the two AoEs in the SJ set stacked nicely. Light but fast damage. Bone crunching fun. (In a 'That's going to hurt in the morning, son...' kind of way.) SJ. A fun 'I'm Batman' (do the voice, folks...) street fighter (TM) set. In the end I didn't bother with One with the Shield. Or Grant Cover. I've pushed the res' higher with sets. I've got Ageless Radial debuff protection in mind there...and MOAR recharge. My go to chain? Spring Attack>Dragon's Tail>Shield Charge>Cross Punch>Dragon's Tail. A mob is decimated to slither's of health. Enabling MA to crunch az for what's left of their health. A friend did point that you can stack Cobra Strike>Eagle's Claw for stunning bosses and keeping a single target with the twirly birds. Over Incarnate level+ on Melee. Capped ++ on other positions. I've taken Cardiac which has squeezed my damage resistance even higher (in the absence of 'One with the Shield...') Another reason for me 'not' taking that 'Unstoppable' was I now remember you can't affect it's recharge time like some other tank Unstops... I did try my SR/SJ on a Hami TF. It was rather embarrassing so I won't talk too much about that. But in general content? Immutable beat down. On Shield/MA I wanted to push the AoEs to stack with Shield Charge. More than happy with the results. I can push the positional defence even higher with Hybrid as well as help acc/dam and end reduction (always useful...) My idea was to hit the mobs hard and quick. Build in Shield's strengths of def' and dam' resists and the damage potential for being in the thick of the action which ties in with MA's burst damage but also the Dragon's Tail AoE, Spring Attack, Cross Punch and...the armour's Shield Charge. Just got to watch when you play debuff content, Carnie, Long bow et al. Hit them hard and fast. But if you get bogged down? Don't just stand there and take it...as they will land a shot...then the debuff cycle begins the spiral of doom. So you may have to get out of melee, string them down a corridor to thin their debuffs and... That's the weakness of Shield. No heal. So there may be an argument for Destiny's Radial Rebirth...which I have on my Ref/Katana Scrapper and my Shield/Elec Tank. Azrael.

In addition. I took CJ, SJump and Spring Attack which caused me to run out of power picks. SAttack stacks very nicely with S/Charge. Update. +3x8 Nemesis. No Level Shifts. Gave them a beating. Fitted my Alpha. Cardiac. No lingering End problems now. Dam' Resist when I get the Tier 3. The Range will help out with the length of S/Charge/Spring Attack? Azrael.

I've hit L50. And I've decided against OWTShield. And against Grant Cover. Choosing instead of build it out as is. And I'm very happy with the results. Proc damage in where I can vs balancing full sets for mOaR defence in positions!!! I've finished the build. Purpled out two key attacks. And some 'slow resist' sets. I'll also go Cardiac to add to my incoming damage resistance and bring in end reduction so I can go full tilt with the AoEs I've collected. 🙂 Also, mindful of facing Longbow/Arach/Carnie. I'll take Ageless Radial. These will thus somewhat address the ommission of OWTShield and Grant Cover. I tend to have a fetish for taking as many powers from the Primary and Secondary as I can before committing to a build. The two sacrificial lambs in this instance already outlined. I took the Fighting Pool and that took me to the def' cap in AoE/Range. As I'd already hit the Melee cap. Managed to squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze the S*L Res' to 70%.blob. 😄 I thought I'd developed an end problem at L48 until I realised I'd put Athletic Run on and removed it from my tray by accident... (Please. No jokes.) Azrael.

Can't argue with that. Azrael.

It's going great! L35! Lots of death and carnage, No Clucks Given. Quills added to the other DoT in the Armour? And we're putting the melt boot into mobs. It's a very engaging set. Not passive like some. A bit like Ice armour or Rad in the active management of its gifts. It's almost like they were made to be together. 'Throw Sticks' is up at L38. MoAR AoE naughtiness. Aggro' magnate. Nemesis really get annoyed by them. The 'Tick' of the toggles circumvents their 'Vengeance' mode. If you haven't tried Bio/Spines? Give it a whirl, Folks! Azrael.

All of them. 🙂 All six slotted bar the Tier 1 which is x2 slotted. My thinking is to try and double proc some of the sets where I can for proc dam. Azrael.

Those Unstoppables are useful from time to time as they can in 'hot' situations take you over the top. I can imagine being in amongst some Longbow and finding OWTShield and Grant Cover useful... Azrael.

You're correct. Thunder Kick is not skippable. Wishful thinking... Storm Kick. Has the defence buff like the one from Katana. Must hardwire that into my attack chain. Pop a single luck plus Storm Kick and you're golden. Hmm. I've been building as I go along. Only Purples to fit when I hit L50. eg. Crippling Az Kick, Dragon's Tail, Storm Kick and Eagles Claw. (Cobra Strike and the attack after have the Tanker's AT in them.) I'd have to take out a MA attack for Grant Cover. Or lose Taunt for the 'One with the Shield.' Ham. Lots of Ham. Do I need the Broccoli? Azrael.

*nods. Noted. I'll have to respec to fit it in. Losing the MA Tier 1 kick for it. As an aside. Additionally... If I want 'One with the Shield?' I'll have to lose Taunt. Azrael.

Grant Cover? Necessary to take? Yes or no? Azrael.

Yep. Spot on with this post. What he said. Azrael.

I don't think you can argue (too much) with Invul'. Took mine for a test drive on an ITF many moons ago. Tanked like a charm. Classic armour set. Handles most things. Azrael.

That's a decent build, Xan'. Thank you for the response. I'll be having a look at that build for some inspiration. You certainly packed some def' in there and some good resists. Looks like it can handle a bit of kick azzery. *Saves to Mids for close inspection. 🙂 Azrael.

Katana? Kill stuff quick is its niche. Defence buff will have you near the melee cap sooner... An Oxo cube machine. Azrael.

Thank you for the insight re: Storm Kick with Shield. That's an interesting take on both sets. And basically seems to mirror my own experiences of both. I played both on live (didn't get far on SJ before the plug was pulled. But I did play MA a few times on diff' alts.) On HC? I've done a MA/Regen scrapper to 50. SD/Axe brute, SD/SS brute and SD/Elec Melee Tank. The latter of which was great, fast fun and made me see the light for Shield on Tanks. Ergo my trying with MA. MA is still fun and satisfying after all these years! It gets to the 'point!' KERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-POW! Azrael.

I had more 'fun' playing SR/SJ! But the damage seemed to be somewhat light. A touch grindy. I DO like the 'Justice' Build UP mechanic...(which can make MA seem somewhat dated...I'd like to see a dual blade mech' adopted for MA to really make it something special. It feels 'old') and the two AoE powers. (I@m currently planning to take Fighting Pool's AoE smack fu to get the equivalent there at L49...to get the speed boost...) MA only has 'one' AoE. But the one it does have? Kicks Az. SD/MA. It does kick az. I am enjoying it. Hand cramp (no jokes, please...I didn't enjoy it that much) on the way up to L20. It could do with an early AoE/Cone. eg. Cobra into an Arc for some AoE capability. To stack with Dragon's Tail later. Shield Charge and DTail stack nicely together. Dragon's Tail was like life giving oxygen when it came. 🙂 Very single target clicky for MA. Feels like hard work compared to Bio/Spines for example. Pushing that boulder up the hill. Currently Capped+ on Melee. That makes a difference. Starting to eek in moAR S*L res'. Thinking about a respec. Taking out 'Kick' from MA and putting in the -Slow Res and and One with the Shield unstoppable (which will force me to drop Taunt. Sacrilege. I know...) Azrael.

Dragon's Tail Kicks Az. Having looked at my SR/SJ L50 tanker. The damage on Street Justice seems 'light' compared to MA? Azrael.

I've never played a Bio Armour tank before. I like it. Lots of fun with Spines. Double Dam Toggles melting the mobs away whilst Spine Burst adds to the pain. (I rolled this before the Shield/MA. And thought it an interesting levelling contrast. Res vs Def'.) But I have no experience in building one of these. It seems to perfectly fit with Spines. How you do you build one of these? 😮 Azrael.

I've rolled a Shield MA. Currently on L39. I rolled and lvled a SR SJ to L50. Which do you think is best? Azrael.

This is a Kick Az thread. Mandatory reading for Dominators. (And for Controllers that want to upgrade...) The Dominator template is simple but effective illustration of this 'mid-level' advice. A Dominator on a budget that pops the notion you need to bankrupt yourself to get a decent Dominator. As an interim build, this is top knotch stuff. For anyone who does get what Dominators are or struggling in the wasteland of the mid-30s. This is what you need. _Tex is what this CoH community about. Following his inspiring advice on Mind-Psi I took my L40 Dominator Mind/Psi from mediocrity to a next level build and probably my best Dominator yet. This could be applied to any Dominator to make it as good as it can be. A bridge from powerful to the God Like being that will be more expensive, for sure. But here, the advice is for the here and now. And how to get to the 'then.' I used to think Dominators were complex to build. And whilst I was aware of the tricks for recharge? This thread makes it very simple with a clear framework to hang your own interpretation and ideas on. A brain trust thread for aspiring, despairing or veteran Dominators. It shows you were the keys to the Perma-Domi kingdom are. It's all about Perma-Domi. Once you have that? No more ambulance visists to the Hospital for you and your Bean Can Hitpoints. No Siree. It's payback time! DOmiNaTiOn! Azrael.

I'd go Illusion/Rad. I did. Bosses melt like silly putty. AoE 'choke' hold for mob trash. So you can...tank out the trash with Phantom Army. They sure do put the boot in. Azrael.