Call Me Awesome

I think that's correct although it's been a long time since I tested it. Resistance will reduce the damage a lava pool does; way back in issue 4 when Invuln tankers could cap all resistances but Psi at 90% I tried standing in lava. The incoming damage just barely outpaced my regeneration as I recall, but by the time it was dangerous Dull Pain was recharged and took me back to full. It was a popular way to farm damage badges by AFK'ing with Dull Pain on autofire.

Agreed.

I'm really not sure where the OP's confusion is coming from. As is obvious there are enemies that deal Smashing (punches, kicks and the like), Lethal (Guns, blades etc), Fire (fire based attacks) Cold (Ice attacks) Energy (Energy blasts) Negative (Dark blasts) and Psionic (Mental attacks) damage. Therefore there are defenses against each damage type. The power in question states in it's detailed description what it defends against and what it's defense values are. The flavor text is just that, and for some reason the OP has decided to take it to mean it doesn't affect enemy damage for some reason. Anyone who takes the flavor text of powers as gospel is doomed to disappointment, a large number are flat wrong and many are missworded.

Environment is a null term in CoH, damage comes in categories and defense/resistance also comes in categories and it does not matter where the origin of the damage may be. Defense comes in typed, Smash/Lethal/Energy/Negative/Fire/Cold/Psi, and it comes in positional, Ranged/Melee/AOE. It does not care if the damage is a mob or a lava pit, it's all the same. Resistance is all typed, Smash/Lethal/Energy/Negative/Fire/Cold/Psi and applies after an attack has beaten your defenses to reduce the damage you take. Also, the flavor text in power descriptions is famously inaccurate, look at the detailed description for what the power actually DOES, not what it says it does. IO's also suffer from this, for example the Kismet +Accuracy IO actually gives the considerably more valuable +To Hit, not Accuracy. There's lots of fairly involved mechanics in the game that you'll likely eventually get into if you want to maximize your durability and effectiveness. Some of it gets into, *gasp* MATH *ugh* and is fairly complex. There's some real math geeks on these boards who can help you with the details. A lot of number crunching has gone into this so we know the results we need. I've always let them figure out the details, I just want to know the bottom line, what do I need to reach to achieve "x".

Some pieces got moved to different sub categories but as far as I know everything that was there before is still there, plus quite a few additions. It's not always obvious where some item may have moved to and when things were reorganized it tended to break costume files. What pieces are you missing? Maybe someone can point you to where they got hidden.

If you prefer it then that's fine.

You need to be tough enough to withstand the aggro of an 8 man spawn at +4, or to withstand a +4 AV. I'd say that's the minimum requirement for tanking in the late game and with a good build most tanker primaries are capable of that. Defense is quite effective, and as SR you have massive resistance to debuffs. You'll expect to eat about 5-8% of the incoming damage at the defense soft cap; that's where layered defense/resistance/regeneration/healing comes into play. Unfortunately SR doesn't really give you much once damage gets past your defenses. I'd build for resistance, if you have the cash you should be able to layer on 30-50% resistance to back you up which will make a major difference in your durability. I don't know if the changes to Tankers affected the aggro aura of WP and SR or not, they used to be the red headed stepchildren with almost nonexistent aggro auras. That's what kept me from rolling those two sets before.

I've found that tossing Bonfire on the tower keeps the repairmen away. Any similar location damage power should do the same as the repairmen are only around level 40 minions. Surviving LR while doing this is the major problem.

Agreed there. I've played Regen to 50 several times both on Live and here. Without additional help it tends to drop quickly in the later levels. On Live pre-IO I had a Spine/Regen and Broadsword/Regen scrappers. With the Spine I went through a ton of purples staying alive in tough missions while the Broadsword was better thanks to Parry. Here on HC I have a Fire/Regen Stalker at 50 who's fairly capable, but I built for soft capped S/L defenses. Frankly as a Tanker primary I wouldn't play Regen, it would be too squishy to take alpha strikes as it stands now. A tough alpha strike is fully capable of killing an unarmored tanker in a couple seconds... possibly even faster than you can hit Dull Pain or Reconstruction. The problem with Regen is that it's unarmored and has no way to mitigate incoming damage other than healing it. When incoming damage exceeds Regen capacity you're headed to the floor.

Here's a thought if you like the look but don't like how it plays why not roll a Claws character and use one of the blades options instead of claws?

ABSOLUTELY. This was one of the biggest improvements in my attack chain. I use the following: /bind button4 "powexec_location target Lightning Rod" /bind button5 "powexec_location target Shield Charge" Button 5 on your mouse will shield charge at your targeted mob, button 4 will Lightning Rod on your targeted mob. Soooo much easier than having to click a ground location.

In my opinion the question of Boxing or Kick is kind of flip a coin, it isn't an attack I'll ever use so it doesn't matter. I can't help but think you'll be better served by your primary attacks than by anything in the Fighting pool. On your end issues I prioritize the Miracle +recovery, you can slot it as low as 17 and it'll have a noticeable effect on your endurance. As an alternative to Air Superiority try slotting the Kinetic Combat KD proc into single target attacks, it'll fire off fairly often as a 3 ppm proc.

Having only played the Stalker version I'll say it's a fantastic minion/LT killer but without the Stalker's Assassin Strike it'll be lower ST damage. Great AOE, only mediocre ST damage. My Elec/Shield Stalker is, by FAR, my highest damage character. You'll want to think about some recharge bonuses because your big spawn killing combination will be Shield Charge/Lightning Rod/Fireball (Pyre APP)/Chain Lightning. Even with Tanker numbers it should make a noticeable dent in the baddie population. My Stalker gets the two big TP nukes back in 25 seconds so they're available every other spawn when I'm farming +3 x 8. You'll feel like a god against minions & LT's but Bosses will take a few hits to drop.

For what it's worth, here's my Shield/Fire tanker from issue 19. I haven't looked through the build but I'm sure it would change now... still it was quite capable back then:

Is this new? I don't remember him having a KB that troubled an Invuln, Stone or Shield tanker. Sorry, I've never tanked him with anything else, and not at all since Live.

In my basic Invuln guide I laid out a softcapped S/L build that should be pretty light on the wallet along with more high end builds. The cheap build will soft cap your S/L and give you good survivability but it will make some tradeoffs for price. It'll likely be tougher for low investment than most other sets but Invuln doesn't lend itself to extra damage, it just leads to extreme durability. The advice on Shield is good, and having played a Shield/Fire tanker to 50 on Live I can attest that it's a great combination, and likely up there as far as high damage tanker combinations thanks to Against All Odds and Shield Charge. It won't be as tough as Invuln until you goose it with a fair IO build but it should be tough enough with minimal expense. At a minimum I'd try to get the Miracle +recovery, Numina +regen/recovery, Steadfast +3% def, Gladiator's Armor +3% defense and probably Shield Wall +5% res. You'll appreciate the increased recovery and the +def uniques will help out a bunch. Those slotting recommendations really apply to most any tanker you may roll up.

Things like the various ranged attacks that are duplicated in Human and Nova used the same enhancements? Not sure how that would work honestly.

Interesting premise. I don't know how it would actually work, it might lead to a superior character or it could end up limiting the character. Still, offhand it doesn't sound like it would be gamebreaking in either direction, subject to a closer look.

Hmm, as if I didn't already have enough characters I'm suddenly curious about a Kat/Regen. I've played Regen to 50 5 times, 4 with a scrapper on Live and once here on a Stalker but I've never played Katana. Ok, Broadsword twice so I pretty well know the set but Kat's a bit different.

Only if it has a Frickin' Laser on its head.

And a Dwarf CAN tank if needed, just not as well as a Tanker or Brute... two AT's that are designed to hold aggro. An AT that's designed to be as versatile as a Keld can NOT be equal to a specialist AT in that AT's specialty. That means that, by design, Kelds can't be as good at tanking as a true Tanker, nor can they be as good at damage output as a Blaster or melee damage as a Scrapper or at control as a Controller. They can perform all of those roles in a team at need, but not any of them as well as the specialist AT. This is BY DESIGN and REQUIRED for any semblance of game balance. If a Keld can deal damage like a Blaster, tank like a Tanker, melee like a Scrapper and control like a Controller then it's one hellaciously overpowered AT. I play Kelds. I had both a PB and WS at 50 on Live and I have a PB in the 40's here. I enjoy the AT, it's fun and a challenge to play well. I can fill most roles needed in a team at any given moment. Melee getting overwhelmed by incoming damage? Dwarf can take the brunt of it to allow a moment to regroup. Everything going smoothly? Nova puts out good damage with Human adding utility and melee attacks when the party gets close along with some light control. I do not need to fill every role perfectly, I'm flexible and can fill the role needed at that moment. YES a Tanker can, and damn well should, out tank me. YES, a Blaster can and should out damage me. YES a Scrapper can out do me in Melee. What none of them can do is take whatever role the team needs at that moment. A Keld isn't a mediocre Blaster, it's also a pinch hitter Scrapper, an off Tanker and a weak Controller. All rolled up into one AT and able to change roles in an instant.

I'm not sure it would have been intentional, it could have simply been an oversight. We know the Devs at the time weren't exactly married to the concept of consistency. We did have Red = damage and Green = heal/regen. I guess it made too much sense for Blue = endurance/SB and Yellow = To Hit. If it were still Jack at the helm then it's anyone's guess, but I believe Positron had taken over by the time the STF came about. I think they just tossed the buffs out without considering the tower color for the Blue & Yellow. The old "never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance or incompetence" and we had quite a revolving door of Devs at the time.

True, they have no idea of the power of Total Radial FREEM.

A Kin/Sonic defender would likely fit the bill; it's capable solo and even better in a team. Kinetics is hard not to place as one of the top sets and Sonic not only does decent damage but also applies a hefty -res debuff to everything you hit thus increasing your damage even further. You'll have to look to IO bonuses and pool powers to build your defenses; that's really the only downside for playing at the damage cap (Fulcrum Shift) and beyond (Damage Cap + -Res = more damage still) while having infinite endurance (Transference), a fairly massive heal (Transfusion) and +recharge/run speed (Siphon Speed). You'll have a couple of cone attacks, one with KB (KB-KD proc suggested) and several fairly hard hitting ST attacks. Also remember that Defenders get more out of Leadership than any other AT. My only real complaint about Kinetics is the limited IO set potential. I ran a static team back on Live with 2 Kin/Sonic defenders paired with 3 Ill/Rad controllers and one Fire/Rad controller. Massive amounts of butt was kicked; we took down Lusca in under 5 minutes at level 25. Unaided by anyone else.

Without the debuffs there's not a lot of benefit to taking Radiation.