Redlynne

1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51+ (Incarnate content, basically, but also some high level zones and task forces) Blue Red Gold

Well, just follow the slotting levels (I was very careful in laying those out, it's not an auto arrange). The first build IS the leveling build. For cheap enhancements ... that really depends on you and what you can "afford" with your budget (and when). This time at least I "saved" the slotting of the HOs until Levels 48-50. Ideally speaking you wouldn't want to try and level this as your first build (when you've got no INF to speak of while leveling), but after you've got a Farmer 50 who can funnel INF to an alt it should be fine. So on those terms, just follow the power picks and slotting progression as presented to know what to acquire/get when. If you can't afford the upgrade(s) right now, make do with common IOs until you can. Just remember that not everything needs to be bought attuned (a lot of the procs don't need attunement).

Rectified Reticle: Increased Perception works as a global buff to the PC who slotted it only, just like a set bonus.

I'm sincerely doubtful that this build will translate all that well to a Scrapper. There's just a few too many factors fitting together a little bit too neatly on a Tanker to be able to pull off the same stunt on a Scrapper, starting with the lower Defense buffing from toggles/passives in Super Reflexes as well as the fact that Storm Kick gives +10% Defense for 10s (when it hits...) on Tankers and Brutes. That's a very large factor in how I was able to fit everything together "just so" in this build the way you'll see it in your build planner (you'll need the MRBU patch to parse the .mxd file correctly, of course). Build(s) posted (finally). Have at it. And yes, I've basically been working on getting all of this decided and posted over the last 11 hours (or so) with only the occasional break (for lunch). So if the posting looks "exquisitely hand crafted" ... well ... that's because it is (and because I'm going to be referring to it myself when leveling my SR/MA Tanker ... The Extraordinary Death Defying Redlynne ... who is still grinding through content in Imperial City before moving on to Neutropolis). Redlynne was originally a MA/SR Scrapper (rolled up in Issue 2) on Virtue who then went on to do Stupid Scrapper Tricks™ such as holding the aggro of FIVE RIKTI MAGUS (as a Scrapper no less!) for over a minute on Mothership Raids while waiting for the cavalry to arrive and deliver the necessary beatdownage. The first time I did it, people were surprised to see that I was alive (and kicking!) under the dogpile. The second time I did it, there was astonishment ... and then I did it AGAIN on the same Mothership Raid (twice in one raid!). After that, I got a bit of a reputation for pulling that kind of stunt. 😎 And that was when I was playing a Scrapper. Now I'm a Tanker. Thanks. 💫 Definitely an option! However, I'm more concerned with possibly needing to use Mystic Flight during combat since there have been numerous times when I've needed to use Hover to stay above multiple Caltrops patches thrown by Knives of Artemis and the like while still within Boot to the Head range of my $Target(s). So that's a matter of priorities. Likewise, if you need more Knockback protection for Pylon challenge runs, you can also swap in a Knockback Protection IO. It's one of the points of easy fungibility (unlike a lot of the rest of the slotting).

And this is why I do the whole Reserved Reserved Reserved deal while posting these. That's two replies before I've even posted the first of 2 slottings of the build. Guess there's a little demand for this kind of thing ...

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1512;736;1472;HEX;| |78DA6D94D94F135114C6EFB403D852A00B9442D9CA5E904AD5C41D4540D69A468C6| |FA619E012274E5A32D31A7851D117F7C4FD1F707DF1C57FC7187D73635113131F4C| |3D9DF389137192F29BF9CEFDEE39E72EA496477DAFC6578F0AC5376268969539AD6| |5CF4BB3E2A4962F989A214A4F05FD9A59CF8CCA4599B56462B6B0445FA7E4A22197| |A5D580684A1A5226529A99D73523336CE62DE14BE77246623667CE4B73A5C6FE989| |1DA8234AD73FA52C0FE9ECC5ED02D7D4E37F4FC4A95ADA4E4823EAF6765FDD8923E| |9F386E16F232339B2B18999466E5699E085514A7DFBE30FD514A3516CB849F5E1A5| |5110C302341666388D9540BD61123AA38161678C8FBC66DC776BC05DF31BDEFC149| |61D3374DAC56C5307915E455AEF118D775F00653BD09DE6296DF66EE27AF1B5E376| |A8EA1E6186AEE44CD9DA8B90735DFEF12A28C6B1665519ACFA38A8361DEA19256D1| |4F487AC408691E681ECB2544AD2A0E935689BC95C8DB82BC2DC8DB82BC6DC81B43D| |E43E4AD62AFA8FA25ECBC0748AB614DA9C1F838C61FA15800B1C03F3D8C532C8475| |0F5D54ED58ED25F03233BC0A5E6146AE3203D4681D7AA85BE7F58C6F809BCCBEAFE| |037F03B31A48A1079EBE1AD7FE2B263034F99BB9E81CFC117CCE44B5EBB21AAB901| |FD370CF01A8F9116C51A47B1EE77697F9AD15BF307CEBFF323F809FCCC1CF802AE7| |17D8FC8DBCA395CADA542698DDB76F31EB7FDE4312728673BE66F9FE033D981B3D9| |3105E28C762E704DC9B4CBE60479BBE0ED82B71BDE6E78BBE1EDF9E39D626F90D6A| |E17FDF7C638768726EB47FFFD1BAAAD3D242D012DF1BAA4D19E927710DAE034F7D3| |A46EDD3DCA2BEC717175EB2E17FB9CF1223D62D0A9600792DB46EDD9A6ECFD8F6FC| |6A9795C76C76915C94953A25C91C74F3795B5E29A77EBC60B05F36CFCD5DC4A1377| |563EC43BE79F52EC1D6B3C436C56C5BAD3DFCBFE4DAFE3BFC83D3E71BE07CCEAC77| |CF2AA37F9E4FBBF33833F545B4F7B4B778B6B3BEB78D71CEF738EF7DF4CA1D341| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Level 50 Natural Tanker Primary Power Set: Super Reflexes Secondary Power Set: Martial Arts Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leadership With Rune of Protection off and on: Hero Profile: Set Bonus Totals: Set Bonuses: Proc Chances: Attack Chain Info: Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1512;733;1466;HEX;| |78DA6D94594F13511886CFB403D852E80665295BD917A9544DDC510464AD69C4786| |79A010E71E2A42533AD814B13D71B13F73FE07AE3BD7F04D718BD73635112132F4C| |FD3ADF2B4EC449CA33F39EF39E6F39E7905C1AF13D1BBB785428BE6143B3ACF4692| |D735E9A6527B55CDED40C517CCAE8D7C87A7A442EC88C25E333F945FA3A25170CB9| |24AD3A8C26A521653CA999395D33D24366CE12BE54366BC467B2E69C3497FDF6C7B| |4D4E6A5699DD31783F6F744E6826EE9B3BAA1E7962B6C2529E7F5393D236B4617F5| |B9F871339F93E9996CDE4827352B47EBD452463DF4DB17A13F4A31C7428908D04B4| |215A120B336C4AC0F331BAAC06AE6B188C043DEB76E5BDBF10E7CCFF47E00278A2D| |50856F8A58A98A21F22A88ABACF01CD70BF025537D05BE6696BE61EE27AF1B5E377| |28E21E718726E47CEEDC8B90B39DFEE10A284731625515ACFA38A8311DEA1A256D6| |474878C430691E681ECB2544952A0E93568EB8E588DB84B84D88DB84B82D881B43D| |C43E4AD60AFA8F825ECB80748F3B3A6F831BF07F38FD0581063C17F6A18A3B130FA| |1EBEA4DA5AD565F00A337215BCC6ACBDCE0C52A1D5A8A17A8DFBD9B30E6E307BBF8| |1DFC14D62581561F2D6C05BF3C0658FF53F64EE7A043E069F30134FB9778394731D| |EAAFEBE71E8F9216458FA3E8FB4DDA9F46D4D6F891E3EFFC047E06BF30FBBF82AB9| |CDF3DF236730C57733151EA71CB6EDEE3969F3CE704C56CC5FAADE37C26DB7036DB| |26419CD1F679CE299172D91C276F07BC1DF076C2DB096F27BC5D7FBC93EC0D51EFB| |A517F778CC76ED0627DA8BF6F5DB5B5BBA4C5A1C59F634FC93B006D608AEB6950B7| |EE9E10F582F74FDDBACB855EE778811E31E054B003896DB3F66C53F6FEC737EDD43| |C2EBBE2948AE0A42951CEC813A09BCA5A61D5BB75E3858275D6FF6A6E25C695950E| |F2CE0526157BC7EACF287667D79CFE6EF66F781DFF456EF189F3DD6156DEE79357B| |9C15D0C6C32433F545B4F798B778B733BEB78D71CEFB38EF7DFC4F9DA82| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Level 50 Natural Tanker Primary Power Set: Super Reflexes Secondary Power Set: Martial Arts Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leadership With Rune of Protection on and off: Hero Profile: Set Bonus Totals: Set Bonuses: Proc Chances: Tanker - Super Reflexes - Martial Arts.mxd

Well ... it looks like I was wrong about Thunder Kick ... ... and the reason WHY is so incredibly META that it only makes sense when comparing the build(s) above with the build(s) below, so I'm really glad I reserved extra space in the first few posts here so I could have both versions in the same thread. So everything beyond this point is going to be v3.1.0 ... not to be confused with the v3.0.1 build(s) you can see posted earlier and which is slightly different from what you can see below. Right, everyone still with me on this? This is going to be one of those cases where something that shouldn't work out like it does actually winds up being better when getting all the way down into the "meta" building of attack chains but which looks like a mistake in the build planner. What am I talking about? I removed Cobra Strike from the build entirely and reassigned those enhancement slots to Thunder Kick instead. Which on the face of things looks like a really major mistake, since Cobra Strike is "qualitatively better than Thunder Kick in every way" by almost any metric you'd care to use when comparing the two powers (without context in a vacuum) ... which is essentially true until you start trying to build repeating attack chains. Here, have a look. Not exactly shabby, according to my copy of the build planner (which is probably out of date and not reporting Tanker damages correctly, but that's an error of proportions more than anything else). Now compare the above with what happens when taking out Cobra Strike and replacing it with Thunder Kick in the build and the attack chains. So comparable output performance (better in some situations but not quite as good in others) ... but there is one thing that cannot be denied when examining more closely ... and it doesn't even show up in the DPS/endurance analysis above. The Thunder Kick build uses Storm Kick TWICE per attack rotation in EVERY scenario, while the Cobra Strike build uses Storm Kick twice per attack rotation ONLY in the single target without Eagle's Claw attack chain while the other 3 attack chains have Storm Kick being used only ONCE per rotation. To put it mildly, this is a HUGE amount of opportunities to proc +Resistance being "lost" in the Cobra Strike invested build simply because of the "shape" of the recharge on the various powers used and how "quickly" Storm Kick can be (re)used during the rotations. To put it mildly, using Thunder Kick "solves" that recharge problem with Storm Kick. That's because Thunder Kick plus ANY other Martial Arts attack power aside from Storm Kick will take either 2.772s or 2.904s to animate, during which Storm Kick is recharging. In order to recharge Storm Kick in 2.772s or less (which also happens to be the arcanatime of Eagle's Claw, coincidentally) requires 6/2.772=2.1645 or +116.45% recharge enhancement ... and with +20% from Quickness and +62.5% to +65% from global set bonuses, that leaves only +33.95% or less needing to be slotted onto Storm Kick itself (and Might of the Tanker easily exceeds that amount of recharge in the "SO strength" level ranges). So with Thunder Kick in the mix, you can Storm+Thunder followed by something else, then Storm+Thunder again and attack with a different something else ... at which point you're ready to repeat the whole chain all over again ... and the something elses can be a mix of Warrior's Provocation, Dragon's Tail, Crippling Axe Kick or Eagle's Claw. Storm Kick and Thunder Kick together are just "too much chocolate and peanut butter" or even "chocolate and strawberries" of a combination, depending on your tastes and preferences, in terms of what they enable downstream of the build planner when it comes to building out attack chains. That in turn allows Storm Kick and Thunder Kick to see double usage per attack rotation, making both powers prime candidates for procs (even though the proc chances in Thunder Kick are kind of low). Being able to use Storm Kick and Thunder Kick every 3.9-4.4s helps stack up proc opportunities (quickly!) as well as ensuring that if Storm Kick misses a $Target there will be another opportunity to not only refresh the +10% Defense vs All for 10s buff (that requires a hit to take effect) before a previous (successful hit) buff expires, in addition to getting lots of chances to proc Might of the Tanker for +Resistance (All) which can be stacked up to 3x ... and the only way to accomplish that is to use Storm Kick (with Might of the Tanker slotted in) as often as possible. So although the above cross comparison of builds (Thunder Kick vs Cobra Strike investment) LOOKS relatively comparable in terms of damage production, that's merely scratching the surface of the underlying structural differences. The Cobra Strike invested build obviously places a heavier emphasis on single target Stun power as its primary means of mitigation (with double stacking Stun durations from Cobra Strike being a major consideration), while putting the Resistance, Absorb and Regeneration factors all acting as backup for hits that "leak through" Defenses at lower priorities. The Thunder Kick invested build abandons some of that Stun potential in favor of a more "rapid fire shotgun" approach that mixes in Knockdown proc chances in Thunder Kick itself while falling back on a 8s Stun duration cycle in which as many as 3-4 Stun proc checks happen EVERY attack rotation, rather than having only 1-3 Stun proc checks per rotation with the Cobra Strike configuration. In addition, the Thunder Kick build demonstrates that almost EVERYTHING is better with Eagle's Claw (damage production, attack chain rotation timing, longevity due to endurance usage) in addition to enabling more frequent usage of Storm Kick AND Thunder Kick, relative to the prior Cobra Strike build. So this is why when I say I think I was wrong about Thunder Kick ... when I see this kind of shift in the underlying meta of attack chain sequencing I simply have to sit up and take notice. Hopefully I won't be alone in doing that. v3.1.1 Edit: An alternative option for the Level 47 power pick, as suggested by @Caulderone, would be to swap out Enflame from Sorcery so as to instead Conserve Power from Energy Mastery and slot it with a single common 50+5 Recharge Reduction IO. In the context of the rest of the build, this would give Conserve Power a recharge time of ~252-255 seconds ... which means that since the recharge is shorter than the 300s recharge of Victory Rush, you can easily alternate Victory Rush and Conserve Power, rather than stacking them, so as to have a remarkably small period of only ~90s or so in which neither Victory Rush nor Conserve Power buffing is active. Even better yet, you can wait after the Victory Rush buff expires, so as to allow your Endurance to drain a little bit during continuous combat before using Conserve Power (you can delay up by ~45s after Victory Rush expires so as to fit Conserve Power into the "middle of the uptime gap" of 180s in Victory Rush) and basically wind up with what will feel like a nearly bottomless endurance blue bar. It may turn out that doing this winds up being "endurance longevity overkill" in terms of never risking extreme net endurance loss in continuous combat ... but that's also assuming there aren't any Sappers to deal with either (which as we all know, isn't always true).

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1510;731;1462;HEX;| |78DA6D94D94F135114C6EFB4536A4B819696ADA54081226BA56ADC41D9D79A468C6| |FA619609089134A66A6065E54F4C53D5113FC075C5FFCBBDC5894C4C407534FE77C| |E2049CA4FDDD39F77EE77EF7DC7B27B3361AF838B171514881115D31CDDC5565E5A| |66A782F2B56C15074517ABCF48B733C37AA2EA92BA69A9A2BACD2DB15754957D754| |B301BD195557D55446312C4DD1734386658A40369FD7537379634135D6ABEC97595| |559540D73595B0DD9EF532BB734539BD774CD5A2FB723E3BA7663D9AA1B5BD51652| |C346C1527373F9829ECB28A64559EAC94F17FD4ED7D29F547258F4882035A2B2381| |202AB998D61665304AC21D6CBE252ADC05314629190F689218A49C8273D70DBE35D| |0FC1474CF931F88459F6947986B46E68DDF01285974678698297167869819797492| |13CF0E289513E9F2CCE513E2FE713DE1EF6374C311F8FF3F826859DC33F054E332B| |678895B2388635A5A75D362F90B61CFECAE12F007F01F86B81BF04FC25E0EF3C692| |BE0A5E2B7B0FD9DA55815C7A4AA03E307A82F84BE10FADAD137417D61AC217C5BB6| |FB227798B577C10D66FD3DF03E7384B435A8538D49EB8AC8224487B30EEBAADBE6B| |D68DF01779947BF833FC03D6258168394AF01EB6AE8E37A8D512C863962A87B98E6| |88638EF86B979DA3FB0DB3F72DB3EF1DF81EFCC0FEAA49DB8C399A139C6F9CE6684| |50D5AB18F6DD8C736EC63DBC17DCCF23E4E9236096D12DA0E683BA0EDF8AB3D452C| |738BF400F339093BA1EDFCC4B5E8FA0C7E01BF32BBBF815B5CAB4DD2F6B0D6D5532| |A389D81DEE37C567B7FF19808AD3585DAA566B8EF19E9FA11EBDF91ED9A34CA8EBB| |172DAD8FE695F7EF72B1DBD95FA447F43B23D8A9F4A151270E454EFE4737EB8CF95| |C76A5B23226A798146347BE20DD688E15B7FCFB5F062121CFCEBF985B4AF06ACB06| |B932C169C9AE48F41A312E8B6DA7BE93F5BB7EC7D7E6059F9ACA4D66F0154ECF2E9| |FFCEA3DDC949F5CC1ACBF74B7D8DB75475B71B4E71DED3FD7B4CF08| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Level 50 Natural Tanker Primary Power Set: Super Reflexes Secondary Power Set: Martial Arts Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leadership With Rune of Protection off and on: Hero Profile: Set Bonus Totals: Set Bonuses: Proc Chances: Attack Chain Info: Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1510;727;1454;HEX;| |78DA6D94594F135114C7EFB4536A4B816EAC652B9BAC95AA7107655F6B1A31BE996| |6808B4C9C5032D31A7834717D315113FC02AE2F7E1CD72FE0C6A224263E987A3AE7| |2F4EC049DADFCCB9F77FEEFF9E3377526BA381D71337CF0B253062689695B9ACAD5| |C97A6F7A296CB9B9A218A97977E0D1CCF8CCA25B962C9C45C7E959E2EC92543AE49| |AB16A3296948994869664ED78CCC9099B344209DCD1A89B9ACB920CDF50AFB61566| |A8BD2B496F5D590FD3CB57243B7F479DDD073EBA57664DCD0AF2DE7AAC756F585C4| |B099CFC9CC5C366F64529A95A32C35E4A78B7E27ABE84F293A2C7844906E92AA381| |402C3CCFA08B3310A56322F54095C05211609499F18A298827CCA1BB73DCFF5167C| |C754DF831F98251F99A748EB86D60D2F75F0520F2F8DF0D20C2FCDF0F2B85D080FB| |C786294CFA78A3394CFCBF984B787FD0D53CCC7F33CBEC9625354E19F02A799E533| |C472551CC19E92D32E9BE7485B0A7FA5F01780BF00FC35C35F1CFEE2F07796B465F| |052F65BD8FE4E53AC82634AC5BEF9033416C25808636D189BA0B108F610B9A5DAB1| |E86D66D51DF02EB3E61E789F3942DA4AD4A9D2A27D455511A297B31AFBAADEE25EB| |46D833BCCC3DFC11FE02E31A28A41CA578B7DD5F671BDC62816C31A31D43D426B34| |608D86A72E3B47F73366EF7366DF0BF025F88AFD8549DB84359AE29C6F9CD668410| |D5AD0C756F4B1157D6CDDDFC734F77192B4EDD0B643DB016D07B41D7FB52788256E| |911C603E246127B49D9FB8165D9FC12FE05766F73770936BB541DA1ED6BA7A8A05A| |7757A8FF2BBDAFB8BE74469AF09D42E31C3630F48D78F58FF36F7B15E759CBD3AC1| |EBAA7B67B9D0ED1C2FD025FA9D11742A7960D6B10391E3FFD1CD3A633E975DA9B48| |AC529A6C4D8912F48279A63854DFFDE974128C8B3FD2FE656E2BCDB9241C566705A| |B12B5277852BB5E5D477B27EC7EFF8DA3CE2B7A67C83197C82B767872B16DEC549F| |9A9DAF1B4BF78B6D8DB55C7BDE6B89F77DCFF01F7DFD619| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Level 50 Natural Tanker Primary Power Set: Super Reflexes Secondary Power Set: Martial Arts Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leadership With Rune of Protection off and on: Hero Profile: Set Bonus Totals: Set Bonuses: Proc Chances: Tanker - Super Reflexes - Martial Arts.mxd

What a difference being able to use updates to the game and a build planner can do for realizing new possibilities. So to start, here's the other threads I've made on this specific topic, in case anyone wants to enjoy the evolution over time. SR/MA ... NO GET HITSU!! [v2.0] SR/MA ... NO GET HITSU!! SR/MA ... Unrelenting Elude Unleash Power Absorb (what the frack did I just make??) Looking back on how I got here, the way I feel about these previous builds I've posted can best be summed up ... well ... like this ... Oh and the WALL OF TEXT CRITS YOU!!! factor shouldn't be as bad as usual this time around, since a lot of what I'm talking about here is pretty well known and researched (and if you really want to read more, there's the links above to peruse). An interesting thing to know about this version is that this new build is has slightly more Defense than the previous ones (aside from the ridiculous Elude build version, of course). Melee Defense: 61.7% Ranged Defense: 62.8% AoE Defense: 61% The reason for this particular (upward) shift turns out to have a surprising source ... the Rune of Protection power in Sorcery. In this new build, I realized that by dropping Hover in favor of Mystic Flight (which is more useful overall, I'm thinking) while also abandoning the Medicine pool entirely (more on that below) that opened up the opportunity to add Rune of Protection into the build ... not because I wanted/needed the Status Protection, but because Rune of Protection can slot Resistance sets ... and with Resistance set slotting comes the pair of +3% Defense IOs and the +Max HP IO available from the Resistance sets (Steadfast Protection, Gladiator's Armor, Unbreakable Guard). Doing that then means that there's no longer a compelling reason to need to pick up Tough to provide the same service (meaning the Fighting pool is not needed) and the Defense buff yield is higher than slotting (and toggling on) Hover for use in covering a Defense gap when trying to get to 59% and higher. It also means that Spirit Ward is needed, so as to slot in the Preventative Medicine set into the build (somewhere) owing to the loss of the Medicine pool seen in previous builds. So I dropped Hover, Aid Other and Aid Self ... in favor of Mystic Flight, Spirit Ward and Rune of Protection ... and arguably wound up with an overall stronger build for my troubles. It also turned out that with Rune of Protection serving as a +Defense set mule power, it was no longer necessary to slot Dodge/Agile/Lucky as aggressively to buttress gaps in Melee/Ranged/AoE Defense totals in order to get to 59% Defense. In fact, the global set bonuses added enough Melee Defense that Dodge could remain unslotted and still achieve 61.7% total Defense vs Melee, so Dodge turned into the place to put the Kismet +ToHIt IO (mislabeled as a +Accuracy by Cryptic) as a One Slot Wonder™ power. Agile and Lucky however still needed to have some Defense enhancement, but a mere 2 slots would suffice and allow slotting of only the Defense and Defense/Global Recharge IOs from Luck of the Gambler so as to add another +10% Regeneration (each) to the build while still providing adequate amounts of Defense. Also, if you need to "heal up" from taking too much damage too quickly, there's an exceptionally simple way to do it. Use Warrior's Provocation (which applies a -Range debuff) ... and kite. Just run circles around whatever you're playing Keep Away from while your health regenerates and your endurance recovers while your Taunted $Targets helplessly give chase. Easiest to do while soloing, obviously, but can also be done while in groups at a pinch before diving back in to mop up the stragglers. Another somewhat major change from previous builds is the fact that Tankers got their Homecoming update and now no longer have a good/reasonable reason to slot up (let alone use) their T1 secondary powers for Bruising anymore, meaning that in this particular new build all of the slots that had previously been devoted to Thunder Kick can be cannibalized and put to better use elsewhere. In this case those slots wound up being redistributed to Health (+1), Stamina (+3) and Rune of Protection (+2). The combination of the slotting changes this made possible, along with the abandonment of the Medicine pool, meant that the overall build was able to achieve a respectable (for Super Reflexes) Max HP of 140% full time (with Accolades) and a remarkable 29/s (or higher!) Regeneration rate. Because if you don't have a self-heal power, you're going to need to either have a lot of Inspirations or a healthy amount of Regeneration in order to mitigate the hits that do leak through softcapped (and incarnate softcapped) defenses. In this case, I decided to maximize Regeneration after "solving" the Defense softcap(s) question(s). This is also why I decided to slot Focused Fighting, Focused Senses and Evasion with full 6-slot sets of Luck of the Gambler ... for the +Max HP, +Regeneration and +Resistances (Smash/Lethal and Toxic/Psionic!) factors to buttress survivability (the +Accuracy is also a nice bonus). On those terms, fully slotting Luck of the Gambler into the defensive toggles gave me "everything I needed" for a well rounded build context when looked at holistically. To assist with that goal, build features the Might of the Tanker +Resistance proc in Storm Kick (where it will see plenty of use) and the Gauntleted Fist Tanker +Absorb proc in Dragon's Tail (where it should proc plentifully) in addition to having Reactive Defenses slotted into Maneuvers (for additional Scaling Resistances, above and beyond what Super Reflexes offers natively) as well as the full Preventative Medicine set slotted into Spirit Ward (for the Absorb proc there too). On top of that, Rune of Protection can offer additional Resistance vs All (when recharged) for 90s, which will hopefully be sufficient to deal with a wide variety of potential defeat threatening situations (such as +ToHit dialed up to "kryptonite" quantities and other Auto Hit threats). The basic idea is Defense In Depth where there are multiple layers of protection (scheming) so as to be able to handle circumstances that would otherwise force a retreat. All of this then gets layered on top of a lot of +Max HP and +Regeneration bonuses (and Heal procs from Panacea and Power Transfer set IOs) so as to be able to Take A Lickin' And Keep On Kickin' ... (or words to that effect) ... 😎 Now, one thing that I know has created a lot of division among theorycrafters and build plans for Martial Arts has often times been the perennial question of ... to Eagle's Claw or not? Personally speaking, I'm of the opinion that the answer to this question is a resounding YES ... both for style factor and for game mechanical reasons on a Tanker. As you'll see in my (perhaps too brief) analysis of the PBAoE and Single Target attack chain rotations, with and without Eagle's Claw ... it kind of depends on what you're doing (and why), and what you're placing the highest value on (rotation animation speed, damage per rotation, damage per second, net endurance cost, etc.). Broadly speaking, the answer(s) I found using the attack rotations I formulated for this specific build wound up being either a wash (single target) or empowered (PBAoE) when including Eagle's Claw versus not using Eagle's Claw. Overall, I'd rather use Eagle's Claw than not, but since on a Tanker you won't have access to it until Levels 33-38 and up (depending on Exemplar and how far you've gotten with your leveling) so it's definitely going to be something you'll want to be able to work WITH as well as WITHOUT depending on what you're doing. And yes ... this means it's time for yet another Dirty Pair clip just to illustrate the point ... One other offensive/control factor that deserves a major mention here is the way I've got Cobra Strike, Crippling Axe Kick and Eagle's Claw (all three!) set up with Pounding Slugfest Stun procs. The low end proc chance is ~41-44% (Cobra Strike and Crippling Axe Kick) and the high end is ~51% (Eagle's Claw). I figure that together these single target attacks will have an EXCELLENT collection of proc chances to stack both Stun AND Immobilize onto a single target so as to "ghetto hold" them until you're done with them. The occasional attack might leak out from time to time (unless dealing with PToD) but most Bosses and perhaps even some Elite Bosses will be rather conveniently neutralized thanks to the sheer amount of Stun and Immobilize mag and duration stacking that this build can produce rather reliably. I'm posting the "leveling build" loadout slotting (first) below, along with the Attuned/Superior 50 version (second) in the alternate slots and the .mxd file for all of it will be appended at the bottom of the build post(s). v3.0.1 edits: Upon receiving advice, consultation and feedback from @Bopper, @Caulderone and others, I've made a few updates to the original build which are now posted below ... so if you downloaded the .mxd file before, I'd recommend downloading afresh to see the changes. The minor edits where swapping the slotting of Mystic Flight from a common Endurance Reduction IO to instead using a Winter's Gift Slow Resistance (proc) for increased resistance to Slow effects. Additionally, the Rectified Reticle I'd previously had in Vengeance got pulled so as to replace it with a Shield Wall Teleport Resistance/+5% Resist All PvP set IO to further enhance the build's overall resistances across the board. Two really major changes happened to the slotting of Stamina (dramatically improved!), as well as the slotting of Cobra Strike and Crippling Axe Kick for improved Endurance Reduction at a slight (and acceptable) cost to damage production and Stun/Immobilize durations that wound up enhancing the longevity of the build's performance rather markedly. As you'll see in the Attack Chains portion of the leveling build, ANY of the attack chains is now capable of being used continuously for over a minute before needing to worry about slowing down (or using Victory Rush to refuel) in order to recover endurance (and in one single target configuration the longevity exceeds three minutes before needing to slow down!). This means that with careful attention by the Player, it is perfectly possible to need little to no downtime at all while playing this build during steamroller play ... although there will still be edge cases (aren't there always) where you'll still want to pay attention to your endurance bar to make sure you're not draining it too low before either reaching for an Inspiration to pausing to recover endurance. I'm also adding the Show Totals window with Defenses and Resistances to the builds so that it's possible to see the effects of toggling off/on the effects of Rune of Protection to the overall protection scheme while Rune of Protection is active. v3.1.0 edits: Okay, I've had to consolidate the Cobra Strike v3.0.1 build(s) into a single post so as to make room for an alternate build that I would argue wound up coming out even BETTER because I "did the wrong thing™" and dropped Cobra Strike from the build entirely(!) and reassigned those slots to (gasp! horrors!) Thunder Kick instead(!). I know ... BURN THE HERETIC and all that. But hear me out, because this one gets ... interesting ... And yes, as far as looking at the powers in the build planner, doing that LOOKS like it's a "rookie" mistake ... because Cobra Strike, on its own, "does more" than Thunder Kick does (or can) with similar slotting. But what I found was that once I got past the powers and slotting of the build planner and drilled all the way down into the actual timing of power usage in the attack chains, having a well slotted up Thunder Kick suddenly made a LOT of structural elements of building SOLID attack chains SO MUCH EASIER while also enabling a consistently(!) higher frequency of using Storm Kick ... which then in turn strengthened and enhanced the overall protection scheme for the entire build. Trust me, there's a BIG difference in being able to use Storm Kick every 3.9-4.4s (consistently!) versus every 8.3-9.3s(!), both in the "reliability" of being able to hit something (it's possible to miss...) and the benefits and buffs that flow from doing that (+Defense buff refresh and +Resistance buff proc chances) that require hitting a $Target in order to happen. So, ironically, although Thunder Kick is "weaker" than Cobra Strike (objectively speaking) when looking at it in the build planner for slotting, Thunder Kick counter-intuitively winds up being the "better" choice when it comes to working out how to "structure" attack chains in ways that not only flow smoothly but then maximize opportunities for Storm Kick to be used both rapidly and repeatedly. There ARE tradeoffs involved with either choice, but from a holistic viewpoint I prefer to think that Thunder Kick "enables more" in the rest of the build as a whole than Cobra Strike does, when looking beyond just the build planner presentation of stats. Needless to say, this was not the result I was expecting ... but now I'm glad I kept questioning if the Cobra Strike option was the best/superior choice I could have made, because now I've got both builds and can cross compare the merits of each in a holistic way that goes all the way down to the attack chain sequencing level ... and it's when you get to THAT point, the actual "end user experience" of the build laid out in the planner, that the TRUE worth of Thunder Kick (and everything it enables) finally becomes apparent, understood and belatedly recognized as advantageous despite first impressions to the contrary. So I hope this helps more people realize that outside of extreme recharge builds that use the SK>CAK>SK>CS attack powers rotation there is DEFINITELY a place for Thunder Kick in Martial Arts builds that aren't leaning on Hasten to fill in the gaps for them.

To be fair ... */Kinetics Masterminds ought to be able to make use of this trick, it doesn't have to be Beasts.

You basically asked a question that amounts to "somebody make up my mind for me" over an inherently subjective question where the answer varies depending on what you value most ... which only you can answer ...

All excellent points. It really comes down to what you're trying to optimize your build FOR. Are you trying to optimize for Incarnate content and plan to NEVER have to Exemplar? Or are you trying to optimize for a "broad level range" strategy where you ARE going to Exemplar some/a lot and want your build to be able to perform across a wide range of Exemplar levels in a way that "degrades performance gracefully" as powers become inaccessible. In that context, if you're wanting to prioritize the "broad level range" strategy, keeping Ice Patch makes perfect sense, even if you don't use it all that much while playing Level 40+ content. As for swapping out powers and changing up slotting and so on, there have been a LOT of developments in the past year alone(!) by the Homecoming team and the PPM Research Group that would bring about a multitude of changes in choices. One of the big ones, however, would be making sure that Frozen Aura gets the (now unique) Call of the Sandman proc for a chance to Heal 15% of your Base HP every time you use Frozen Aura ... which ought to average something like 5 times per minute in heavy combat. There's also the new 3 PPM Heal proc which could be slotted into Stamina and some other options to just pile on enough Regeneration so as to make the entire Medicine pool somewhat superfluous and unnecessary thanks to the combination of -Damage, -Recharge, +Defense and +Regeneration going on against $Targets in melee(-ish) range combined with what you're getting for yourself out of the bargain. Which is one of the things I noticed about Ice/Ice that was kind of surprising when playing back on Virtue in that -Recharge combined with +Regeneration really does increase your survivability rate rather considerably. If I had this to do over again, I'd be looking to cram as much Recovery, Regeneration and Recharge debuffing as I could into the active/passive powers after settling the +Defense priority.

Psionic DoT -Recharge Psionic damage Mag 2 Hold Smashing damage Lethal damage +Absorb proc Conspicuous by its absence is an Ice damage proc among Hold sets. The reason why you don't remember is because there isn't one.

Kind of surprised you didn't lean towards Willpower/Kinetic Melee.

To be honest, so would I ... but priorities compete, and (free) time is a finite resource.

Actually, Stealth (the power) DOES stack with a Stealth IO (slot wherever most convenient for your build). It was also just tested and found that Grant Invisibility DOES give "full invisibility" (no extra buffing required) to Pets in this other thread.

The irony is that Ice Patch winds up being useful during a span of the mid-game while leveling, but then once you reach 50 and have your build slotted out Ice Patch tends to fade in terms of usefulness and utility ... particularly on an Ice/Ice Tanker that is intended to operate using a "flypaper" strategy that pulls foes in and doesn't let them go until they're faceplanted.

Okay, so it's only Stealth that is "half invisibility" while Grant Invisibility and (actual) Invisibility are "full invisibility" ... so you only need Stealth and Grant Invisibility for this trick, and a Stealth IO proc SOMEWHERE in a Kinetics build for the Surprise Alpha Fulcrum Shift with all of your Pets getting all of the benefits while on Defensive Follow for Bodyguard Mode.

Something I want to draw @Zeraphia's attention back to this topic to see if there's any confirmation available for the notions. Now I've never seriously considered the possibility of double stacking Stealth for Pets (in addition to your own Mastermind) before the question got brought up in a completely unrelated topic here in the Mastermind forum (follow the link in the quote to see the full context) ... but now I'm starting to wonder if "group travel" powers like Group Fly, Team Teleport and even Inertial Reduction would be able to be slotted with a Stealth proc IO, confer the benefit of that Stealth proc IO to your Pets in addition to yourself when that power is either toggled on or clicked, and then be able to double stack that Stealth proc IO with Grant Invisibility. Because ... if that works ... that's perhaps the easiest way possible to use Fulcrum Shift on a Beast/Kinetics Mastermind (as promoted by @Zeraphia HERE) by literally stealthing yourself and your entire pack of Beasts into the midst of a pile of foes and alpha striking them with Fulcrum Shift while in Bodyguard Mode so the Beasts respond when everything attacks you. I'm thinking that might be a pretty dastardly (and thoroughly appropriate!) way of initiating combat when you have the initiative to open on your own timetable (or because you've got a team who wants you to "soak" the alpha strike for them). The only question here is ... if you put a Stealth proc IO into Inertial Reduction, does that Stealth effect also get applied to your Pets or not? Is the Stealth effect a self only? Under the circumstances, I'm thinking this is an answer worth knowing, since it would mean that taking Concealment: Stealth and Grant Invisibility would make a LOT of sense for a Beast/Kinetics Mastermind at that point, even if you're only interested in keeping Inertial Reduction as a One Slot Wonder™ power. Being able to initiate combat with a Fulcrum Shift from relative safety while buffing all of your Beast Pets (or indeed an entire team, given time and endurance!) so as to start from a position of extreme buff/debuff disparity would seem to be one of those Mastermind Tricks that really deserves to be tested ... wouldn't you say?

Go Defender.

Grant Invisibility yes. Vengeance no. You'll need to have another power granting them stealth above and beyond Grant Invisibility in order to do this. Grant Invisibility gets them "halfway" to being able to not draw aggro. Without a second power to supplement Grant Invisibility, they can still get too close and draw aggro ... but with a second power supplementing they can stand right next to hostile foes and not be noticed ... so it really depends on what you can get from your secondary/team. It occurs to me that no one has really tested what would happen if combining a Stealth proc IO in either Group Fly (Stealth effect only lasts while toggled on) or Team Teleport (Stealth effect lasts for 120s after teleporting) or even Inertial Reduction from Kinetics (Stealth effect lasts for 120s after use) and then combining THAT with Grant Invisibility to achieve "double stacked stealth" effects for yourself AND your pets. The question is whether the Stealth proc effect gets shared out to everyone affected by the power(s) or if the Stealth proc effect only affects the caster. Some research on this point may be required for an answer. In a lot of cases though, the simplest way to handle this is to dismiss the Pets, use "stacked double Stealth" effects on yourself, "ninja" the mission to where you want to be (presumably at the end) and then resummon them nearby to where you want to fight ... thereby sidestepping the whole question of "herding cats" during the trip to your destination. They can be buffed by Vengeance, but they can't be the $Target you use to cast Vengeance. You can only use Vengeance on a (and I quote) ... DeadLeaguemate ... which for all practical purposes means defeated PCs only.

Easiest possible way to differentiate these sets would be to convert Broadsword from being yet another Defense Debuff set (the game is simply littered with too many of those) and instead make it a Resistance Debuffing set. Just take the -Defense values, double them, and change them over to -Resistance (not affected by enhancements) and remove the Defense Debuff enhancements and sets from the slotting options. There are other options to differentiate the sets ... but that's the most obvious and simple one if you're willing to "blow that cottage house down" on that one point for Broadsword.

Think I was probably the one to mention it in the previous topic, as you cite, but it is something that would have large reverberating effects on every Mastermind primary powerset.

So ... burn the heretic ...??