Call Me Awesome

Although since it's an exploration badge anyone could get it... as long as Hami hadn't spawned since it's right under him. In the old days he spawned a few hours after being defeated and stayed until killed so there was a window where anyone could grab it if they were in the raid or not.

I'm leaning to Fire/Dark now when I get a chance to roll another character... at the moment I have 10 characters in the 15-40 range and I've been working on a Nature/Sonic Defender lately. Damn Altitis! I really should finish a few before I roll more but it never seems to work. 4 pages of characters and only 4 at 50 so far. Back on Live I had Fire/Rad, Ill/Rad, Plant/Storm & Mind/Kin at 50 and enjoyed all but the Plant/Storm... the playstyle that Storm required just didn't really appeal to me. I only finished him because he was part of a dedicated SG team we played. On Defenders I had Rad/Rad (possibly a pattern?), Kin/Rad, Dark/Dark and Sonic/Sonic all at 50 so I'm at least familiar with those sets. Oh, almost forgot the Ill/Emp I rolled in issue 3 and finally got to 50 in issue 22 or so... Emp isn't a set that appeals to me since it took 10 years to level.👇

I absolutely despise the Shard, unless you have Fly navigating it is a nightmare (come on, "geysers"? They don't even work right) and the zones are so huge it takes forever to cross them. Not to mention all the "kill 50 of x" at point WTF with no indication of where "point WTF" is unless you have Reveal and expose the map.

Actually you can get hit by level 50 mobs in Perez, if you're doing a mission that spawns an ambush then that ambush will appear in whatever zone you're in at the time. I've seen this happen hundreds of times over the years; several arcs spawn an ambush as you leave the mission and that ambush is set at the mission level, not the zone level.

There's already a "match colors across powerset" and "match colors across both primary and secondary" button so it makes perfect sense to have a global match colors button. The possible sticking point could be applying to pools you haven't yet taken in your build; I don't know how the game codes that.

We used to do this in AE with Ambush farms, you enter a room and trip 10, 20, 100 ambushes all at once. I used to make good coin with my BS/SD scrapper doing that solo. Trip the ambush, then stay there and rack up several hundred kills in 10-20 minutes then rinse and repeat. Ambushes would continue to swarm until they're all gone and they'd come to you even when you were over the aggro cap, you just wouldn't have more than 17 actually attacking at once. You just needed very high defenses and mobs you were strong against. Those went by the wayside at some point in the roller coaster ride of the admittedly somewhat poorly thought out Architect system. It used to be completely possible to enter at level 1 and leave a couple hours later at level 50. Unfortunately we had an influx of new players at that time who ended up with instant 50's who had never left Atlas Park and though AE was the entire game. It wasn't a good time in game with so many "AE Babies" running around with no clue how to play, or do anything but sit by the door and rake in XP.

I've done that on several characters; frequently my high merit earning characters have finalized their builds so I email the merits to lowbies who are working on their build. Or I just buy the IO with the character holding the merits, toss it into base storage and claim it on the lowbie. Right now I've 7 enhancement tables in the base full of various IO's and HO's along with a dozen storage racks for salvage. I also mail my Emp merits to new 50's just starting their incarnates.

I played a Plant/Storm on Live and found out that Storm really wasn't for me. I played him to 50 and he was ok, but I really wished I'd chosen another secondary. I've been considering the /kin set, it's good with almost anything and Fulcrum will jazz up the little aggro monkeys to 11. I'm currently working a Nature/Sonic defender so I think Nature is off the table for a choice. Thinking it over some more I think my short list is: Fire/Kin Fire/Dark Fire/Sonic Looking over the Dark set I see a few changes from the Defender version, it looks like Fade and Soul Absorption are the big changes, I can see how they'd work rather well. Black Hole is still the useless POS it's always been so there's a slot open in the build. I'm a bit bummed loosing Fearsome Stare though.

Ah heck, guess if I roll another it'll be a Scrapper then.

I'm thinking about a new Fire 'troller and am pondering the secondary. I've played Fire/Rad on Live and I know it's a beast both solo and teamed and while I haven't played Fire/Kin I have played several other primaries paired with Kin. Those of you with experience with the various combos is there one that's particularly effective on a team? Fire/Rad is something of a given there but do other combinations give it a run for its money? I doubt I'll be a fixed superteam to stack the Rad buff/debuffs up to absurd.

One thing to keep in mind is that a large percentage of us have made the low level slog dozens of times over the years and we're tired of it, that's why most of us use DFB to level into the mid-teens or beyond where characters start to mature a bit and then play up from there. Personally I've probably leveled a couple hundred alts in the old level 1-15 content and I burned out on it badly. Hollows in particular, while it does have some interesting content used to be an absolute nightmare to navigate on a low level character and we have bad memories of that hellhole. For me the main issue is I don't enjoy playing low level characters, I much prefer once the build has matured a little and the character is a bit more capable and fun to play. Typically this is in the 14-16 range for me when things start coming together. The late 20's to 50 are my favorite levels while the 1-10 levels are by far my least favorite.

It needs a prompt like TP and Mystic Fortune have. "Do you want to be affected by Group Fly?" yes or no. If no then you're fine, if yes then you're screwed when you get out of range. That takes care of the problem and if you team with someone with the power frequently then you can go to Null and change the option just like TP and Mystic Fortune.

I'd prefer shards to go away altogether in favor of threads. They're only good for the Alpha slot, which you can also use threads to craft, so once you T4 your Alpha any shards are totally worthless. Yeah, once a day for 10 million inf you can convert 10 shards into 10 threads. Even for your Alpha slot it's MUCH easier to craft using the alternate Threads salvage. Why should we have a separate salvage tree that's only good for the first Incarnate slot and require completely different methods to make the other 5 slots? Remove Shards from the game, change the drops to Threads and we're all good.

I haven't tried it on a Stalker but it was loads of fun on a Scrapper, I had a lot of fun with my StJ/Invuln scrapper on Live. There's just something that makes you grin about kicking the bad guy in the balls.

It should work great, the Stone Melee set has lots of soft control with all the knockdown. One thing to remember, although Fault doesn't do damage it DOES take a number of damage procs and it's base recharge means that they fire almost every time. I have the Perfect Zinger proc and one of the Knockback damage procs in mine and it does about the same damage that Tremor does. I use Fault as my opener on CMA to get their attention and put them on their butts, then follow up with a wack on a boss/LT, then Tremor to put them down again and keep their attention. I recommend Heavy Mallet, Fault, Tremor & Seismic Smash in the set... I skip Stone Mallet for a couple reasons. First, in the early game where you could use it as a filler attack you also have endurance issues so gaps in the chain aren't a problem since you don't have the end to attack nonstop. That's probably Stone Melee's biggest drawback, it hits your blue bar as hard as it hits the mobs. Secondly, once your build matures and you have the end to handle a full chain you really don't need Stone Mallet as a filler anymore with Heavy, Seismic, Fault, Tremor and your epic blasts. As I said, be prepared to really watch out for your blue bar, in the early to mid game you can drain it dry in only a few attack chains. It's at least as end heavy as Battle Axe if not more so... I haven't compared the numbers.

I didn't take it as a flame at all, just a difference of opinion. Your experience is different than mine is all and we're kind of getting into the "splitting hairs" territory of performance. I find your Shield build very intriguing; the last time I played a Shield tanker was on Live and it just wasn't practical to build up resistance like it is now. All of the top tier sets can easily handle anything the game throws at them with an optimal build. I'll certainly be looking at taking some of your Shield build the next time I respec my Elec/SD Stalker or BS/SD Scrapper. I knew someone back on Live that had a Fire/Fire/Fire tanker that could do things that amazed me and I couldn't figure out how he managed it. I had one myself and it wasn't capable of nearly what he could do, and I never did figure out what he did differently. This was true from issue 5 until near shutdown. I'd be happy to run with you guys sometime, I'm dealing with mainly PuG's now since the rest of my old SG hasn't started playing again. What server are you guys on?

I'm probably a bit biased but for the most part I look for buffs/debuffs in a Defender to work as a force multiplier. On an Emp, Recovery Aura is unlimited endurance... GREAT for the blast happy members of the team so they can continue going full speed ahead without running low on endurance. Regeneration Aura makes your team Regenerate almost like a Regen scrapper so there's little to no patching up to do. Fortitude? More damage output from the character you put it on and less incoming damage to fix. Your heals really come last in utility once you get into the mid game and beyond. That said, and while a good emp who used the buffs then starts joining in on the blasting fun is useful I'd rather have many other sets instead. Kin, Rad, Nature, Dark, Sonic, FF are sets I like to see on a team more than an Emp.

The main thing is that Chilling Embrace ticks every half second with the same MAG as other auras that tick once a second so it builds up MAG much faster. It also has a debuff which also increases taunt. Add in Icicles as a second aura/damage aura and it locks things down like nothing else. Back on Live a few years before Shutdown Castle explained the mechanics of Taunt, as I understand it Taunt works as a MASSIVE multiplier for damage dealt and debuffs applied. I forget the exact numbers but it was something like a 1,000x modifier on damage dealt vs taunt magnitude. Chilling Embrace ticking twice per second gets attention NOW, the -speed debuff multiplies the taunt magnitude, and the damage from Icicles adds another modifier on taunt magnitude. Basically Taunt trumps pure damage, Taunt + Damage trumps Taunt and Taunt + Debuff + Damage trumps all. If someone has a better recollection of Castle's description please correct me if I'm wrong (and I probably am in some regards since it was years ago and I just remember the cliffs notes version.)

Having played a couple of stone tankers to 50 on Live I agree, the benefits do not make up for the drawbacks. If they'd loose the -speed, -recharge & -damage then that might make the difference although the set has the problem of nearly all of it's durability rests solely in it's T9, Granite Armor. Pre-32 it's one of the weakest sets then suddenly it becomes the strongest and the earlier powers are mostly obsolete. Granite should be more of an addition to the other armors, not a total replacement for them... in addition to removing the penalties I'd move a fair amount of Granite's protection into the other armors and maybe make it more like One with the Shield... although I'd prefer keeping it a toggle and not a clickie. Let Stone keep it's #1 slot in durability but drop the penalties, or at least severely reduce them. Keep the -jump as that makes sense, it should be enough to balance out the durability advantage while still keeping the flavor of the set. We'll just have to disagree about Invuln. 😎

You're not wrong about the relatively weak grip most non-tankers (and unfortunately Willpower tankers) have on aggro. I'll tell you though if you team with an Ice tank you'll find that nothing will take aggro away from him, the reputation Ice has for aggro is no joke. I've been on TF's with my Invuln/Stone tanker and an Ice tanker... it's an eye opener since nothing could ever steal aggro from me and I could usually steal aggro from another tank. Well, that 'ain't the case with an Ice tank, even with me doing my damnedest to hold aggro an Ice is able to take that aggro. Unfortunately Ice isn't as sturdy as Invuln and it's lead to problems when he got over his head and I couldn't take aggro from him. Nothing in the game holds aggro better than Tankers. And of tanker sets, nothing can come close to Ice in pure aggro control.

I've never played Rad, but Dark has a couple of drawbacks with lack of KB protection (solvable with IO's) and a rather extreme hunger for your blue bar that makes it painful to level up. I have played a Dark/Fire tanker on Live and it was a painful slog. Yes, it gets strong in the endgame but it's a much rougher ride than Invuln getting there, and thanks to the KB hole your build has a few slots that are required to patch that hole. Another bonus of Invuln is the fact that you get defense debuff resistance; something that Resistance sets do not get. But hey, it's your character so play what you like; the different sets have different strengths and weaknesses.

Now that I've spent more time with the new world we have here I thought I'd provide CMA's current build. Yes, it departs rather significantly from my guide, it's also a MUCH more expensive build than my guide lays out. The guide is still quite valid, and will still get you a very tough and effective tanker without going to extreme expense. On the other hand, if you have over 500 million laying around (actually it could be considerably more as I bought probably half of the IO's with merits) things like this are possible. Here's the highlights: Defense: S/L - 44%, F/C - 50%, E/N - 42.5% Resistance: S/L - 90%, F/C - 84%, E/N - 70%, Psi - 54%, Toxic - 56% Regeneration - 196% HP No Accolades - 2,225 without Dull Pain, 3,319 with Dull Pain HP with Accolades - 2,600, Capped 3,534 with Dull Pain Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Call Me Awesome: Level 50 Natural Tanker Primary Power Set: Invulnerability Secondary Power Set: Stone Melee Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Sorcery Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(3), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(3), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(5), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(5), UnbGrd-Max HP%(7) Level 1: Stone Fist -- HO:Nucle(A) Level 2: Dull Pain -- Prv-Heal/Rchg(A), DctWnd-Heal/Rchg(7), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(9) Level 4: Heavy Mallet -- SprGntFis-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg(13), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), SprGntFis-Dmg/Rchg(15), SprGntFis-Rchg/+Absorb(15), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17) Level 6: Combat Jumping -- Ksm-ToHit+(A) Level 8: Unyielding -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResPsi(17), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(19), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(19), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(21) Level 10: Taunt -- PrfZng-Dam%(A) Level 12: Resist Physical Damage -- UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(21), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(23), ImpArm-ResPsi(23) Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A) Level 16: Boxing -- HO:Nucle(A) Level 18: Invincibility -- ShlWal-Def(A), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(25), ShlWal-Def/Rchg(25), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(27) Level 20: Fault -- PrfZng-Dam%(A), ExpStr-Dam%(27), Stp-Acc/Rchg(29), RopADop-Acc/Rchg(29) Level 22: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(31) Level 24: Weave -- Rct-ResDam%(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Rct-Def(31), Rct-Def/EndRdx(33) Level 26: Tough Hide -- ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(A), ShlWal-Def(33), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(33), ShlWal-Def/Rchg(34) Level 28: Resist Energies -- RctArm-ResDam/Rchg(A), ImpArm-ResPsi(34), RctArm-ResDam(34), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx(36) Level 30: Resist Elements -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), Ags-Psi/Status(36), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(36), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(37), ImpArm-ResPsi(37) Level 32: Hurl Boulder -- SprMghoft-Rchg/Res%(A), SprMghoft-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), SprMghoft-Dmg/Rchg(39), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg(39), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40) Level 35: Tremor -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Erd-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Erd-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Erd-%Dam(42), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50) Level 38: Seismic Smash -- SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(42), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(43), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(43), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45) Level 41: Char -- HO:Endo(A) Level 44: Fire Blast -- SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprWntBit-Dmg/Rchg(45), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(46), SprWntBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(46), SprWntBit-Rchg/SlowProc(46) Level 47: Fire Ball -- SprFrzBls-Rchg/ImmobProc(A), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(48), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx(50), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg(50) Level 49: Mystic Flight -- WntGif-ResSlow(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(9) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(11), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(11) ------------

Almost all my builds across all AT's pick up CJ, and most tend to get it early in the build... before 20 and usually before 10. It's just so dang useful and uses for all practical purposes zero endurance.

I rarely slot CJ, just go with the Kismet in the base slot. If you're looking for all the recharge you can get then I understand needing a LotG in there as well.

Well, it's your build after all. I just toss a Kismet Accuracy (To Hit actually, not Accuracy) into Combat Jumping and call it good. I rarely have any character who doesn't at least occasionally need to consider endurance; my Archery/TA blaster's the sole exception since that combo uses practically no endurance.