[Knockback Protection?]

If your set doesn't include KB protection the thumb rule is to either slot 1 KB IO (for MAG 4) or go to 3 (for MAG 12).  MAG 4 will handle 90% of the KB in the game and anything stronger than MAG 4 will beat MAG 8 so slotting two is fairly pointless.  Electric has quite good KB protection in Grounded so you should not be KB'd by much of anything and do NOT need any additional protection.

 

I've never had any tank with KB protection get knocked back by LR so I don't know what to tell you.  You do have Grounded? 

[Is my Alpha slot truly empty ?]

7 hours ago, Eva Destruction said:

You don't have to level along the other tree, you can also use the other T3 in the same tree.

 

Maybe OP's wife isn't aware that you can craft more than one ability for each slot and switch them out.

Also you must EQUIP the Alpha enhancement.  Go to Incarnate Abilities/Alpha/Equip and double click on the enhancement to equip it.  If you have more than one Alpha crafted you can equip whichever one you like.

 

When you look at Alpha/Equip you're looking at any Alpha Incarnate you have available to slot, you need to have it slotted into your Alpha slot in order for it to work.

[That time I became a Rikti Monkey]

I seem to recall hearing it was a 2% chance to get the monkey... personally either I'm really unlucky or it's higher than that.  I've gotten it probably a dozen times on Homecoming including twice while I was in combat.  Those two times did not end well...

[Willpower or Invul for Stone Melee]

1 hour ago, scarhead said:

I have been looking at both of these in Pines.

With 26 slots left to go I can easily get Invul def to 39.6% S/L, 37.1% E/N/F/C, and 29.5% psi, with res 90% S/L, 48.2% E/N,Toxic, 45.2% F/C, and 55.7% Psi. Regen at 216%, HP 188%, 50% DDR.

At about the same amount of difficulty, Willpower has def 26.3% S/L, 37.2% F/C/E/N, 32.5% Psi with res 90% S/L, 31.1% F/C/Toxic, 34.8% E/N, and 66.5% Psi. Regen at 663%, HP 162.2%, 21.6% DDR. Willpower also has better status protection to confuse and fear, and better status resistance.

 

I want to pair this armor set with Stone Melee. The question is, does the extra regen from Willpower compensate for lower S/L def, and lower E/N/F/C/Toxic resist, plus lower DDR?

 

My goal is to be extremely sturdy. I want to be able to sit in the middle of multiple AVs and not worry about dying. I did an Apex/Tin Mage last night with my Spines/FA Brute, who is a good farmer but also built for normal content and has 90% S/L res and 45% S/L def. I did not like dying as many times as I did. I did not like feeling as squishy as I felt.

 

At the same time, if I'm going to sacrifice the brute damage, I need to make up for it in surviveability, so that is the goal here. Tanking for SF and iTrials. Can you give me the pros and cons of these armor powersets, related to each other?

 

Thanks.

Well, my main back on Live was Invuln/Stone... I rolled him up in issue 3, hit 50 in issue 4 and regularly played him until shutdown.  Obviously the combination worked and was a lot of fun.  One downside is that it's fairly end heavy, especially before your build matures.

 

In the interest of full disclosure I'm not a fan of Willpower for tankers due to it's nearly useless taunt aura.  I've always thought a tanker should hold aggro and Willpower is by FAR the worst set in the game for that.  Yes, it's solid otherwise but the nearly nonexistent taunt aura is a show stopper for me.  You'll have to constantly work at maintaining aggro since you can't rely on your aura to help out.  You CAN hold aggro but it's going to be MUCH harder to do than with any other set.  You'll need to rely on spamming Taunt and constantly swapping targets to keep punchvoke working.

 

Invuln if built well can rival Granite Armor for durability without any of the drawbacks and it's great at holding aggro... the only set better at aggro is Ice.

[Opinion: More players should see Null the Gull]

12 hours ago, Zodai said:

Could I ask why so, if you remember?  The first ~20 levels of Redside I played felt really nice to me, though it's been a month or so since I've touched my redside char.

Mainly that I didn't like being the villain and particularly didn't like being a minion.  The zones didn't help but that was the main issue I had with redside.  I played a couple of characters to 50 there but it just wasn't me.

[Show me your Stalker tier list!]

1 hour ago, Veelectric Boogaloo said:

The talk here and elsewhere of BS has me excited to try one. I had a bs/wp scrap on live but deleted it at some point for general mehness and b/c i had too many wp toons and too many scrappers.

Well, BS/Shield is great on Scrappers... I've played it to 50 a couple times here and back on Live.  Right now I'm leveling an Electric/Shield stalker and at 30 the combo is working quite well although I'm certainly looking forward to the double nuke in a few more levels.

[True Grit]

44 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:

I loved both versions of the movie, but that's not what this post is about.

 

I'm making a build in Mids and I'm sort of torn with how to slot True Grit for a Psi Melee/Shield Def Stalker.  I'm evaluating 5 Panaceas vs 4 Unbreakable Guards + Panacea proc.

 

I'm not seeking holistic feedback, just thoughts on this specific question, so I'll just post the relevant end results rather than a Mids link:

 

All Positional Def vectors are at 45 or a smidge more.  The 4 passive accolades to buff hp and end have been included.

 

With Panacea:

1796 hp

f/c res 28.3

e/n res 20.8

toxic res 17.8

regen 222% and 16.61 hp/sec
global rch 97.5
 

With Unbreakable Guard (including the 7.5% hp IO):

1751 hp

f/c res 34.3

e/n res 29.1

tox res  23.8
regen 212% 15.46 hp/sec
global rch 90

This also bumps Melee Def from 45.3 to 48.4.

 

My strong preference is for Panacea (option 1), mostly for the recharge.  I'm willing to go the other way if the resist numbers would make a notable increase to survivability.

It looks like the numbers tend to favor option 2 unless that extra 7.5% recharge is buying you a major benefit.  Off the top of my head I'd tend to think in terms of the second option without seeing the rest of the build.

[Show me your Tanker tier list!]

On 8/28/2019 at 6:56 PM, synfoola said:

Can I ask why Stone Melee is at the bottom? I've had fun tanking with that melee set since the game went live, especially after they changed its KB attacks to KD back in Issue: Early Single Digits. 

I still have so much fun with it. It's loud, feels epic hitting mobs with stone/crystal/magma fists and sledgehammers, I get two AoE KD's (one with an added stun that's a targeted, ranged AoE so I can get them on their asses before Knockback McChaos Spreaderson Teammate has a chance to fling them across my monitor and make the fight last 40 seconds longer than it has to) on relatively short CD's with ST attacks that have a Stun/KD (and one w/ a Hold) thrown in as well.  Throw Boulder is trash, but it's the easiest tanking around. I just cycle through the AoEs and Taunt watch my team melt stuff around me. It's almost relaxing...and LOUD! 😄 

IMO Stone Melee is a great set, the only drawback is that it's quite end heavy, something that's problematic until your build matures.  Back on Live my namesake was an Invuln/Stone tanker that I played from issue 3 until shutdown.  Fault's a great opener/aggro getter, then when they stand back up Tremor knocks 'em down again, then start clobbering mobs with Heavy Mallet/Seismic Smash.  I usually skipped Stone Mallet and took Fire Blast/Fire Ball from the epic pools to round out the chain.  In the earlier going Stone Fist works as a filler; later on it's less important.  Taunt is, of course, highly useful for any tanker and a great place for cheap IO sets with good bonuses (Perfect Zinger/Mocking Beratement)

[Sudden Acceleration Proc and Knockback Enhancement]

I've used the Overwhelming Force KB-KD IO in Bonfire ever since the set went live.  It makes Bonfire a fantastic control/damage power instead of the PITA and limited utility power it had been... I'd never have it on a character without a KB-KD IO.

 

As far as I know the KB-KD IO in Sudden Acceleration works the same as the Overwhelming Force with the benefit that it's not Unique.  I'd assume slotting the set would work the same, with the KB-KD IO negating the +KB enhancement from the rest of the set... which does seem counterproductive. 

[Opinion: More players should see Null the Gull]

I tried redside back when COV launched and just couldn't get into it.  Once Going Rogue went live I changed my villains to blueside and hardly ever went back.

 

I just didn't enjoy the redside content and storyline so I've stayed blue.

[Are Blappers Still a Thing?]

On 8/24/2019 at 5:08 PM, BlazinBrazen said:

I have so much to reread and catch up on. ATO's, Winter IO's and Incarnate abilities....I may reroll my fire energy blaster...🤔

It's a great combination, mine is sitting at ~40% ranged defense and somewhere in the 20% range for other positions.  Perma-boost range helps Breath of Fire a bunch and you can stay back out of range if you like, or you can fly overhead and rain hell on the mobs without fear of retaliation.  Of course I didn't build for blapping, with the sniper changes I may rethink it and drop the Leadership toggles for some melee attacks.  Right now I have Bone Smasher and Power Thrust for when the party gets too close and did not grab Total Focus.  Fly in, Nuke, Bone Smasher/Power Thrust a boss, fly out and unload on anything left from overhead.

[Which secondary has the highest end recovery?]

You can just roll an Archery/TacArrow and never worry about endurance.  It's the lightest combination on your end bar I know of... mine is always flying, using all three leadership toggles and only has the default slot in Stamina.  It takes a long drawn out AV fight for my end to drop below 50%.  The character plays like a cross between a Blaster and Controller... slightly less raw damage output than my Fire/Energy blaster but far more control, both hard and soft.

[Defense build question...]

You can pick up the Mez protection in the Sorcery pool to cover mez issues.  It's not perma, but it offers a lengthy protection period and can be used like a break free.

 

On defense, I tend to favor high Ranged defense for squishy characters and avoid melee; that works pretty well most of the time.  My main ranged attacker is a Fire/Energy blaster so I most assuredly draw aggro, but building for ~40% ranged defense makes him remarkably durable.  If things get "interesting" I always carry a few purples and greens to patch things over.  So far I haven't come up with a build offering more defenses that doesn't compromise the character's effectiveness. 

[Stealth bug]

I've encountered a possible bug in Stealth on a Peacebringer... in addition to the known display error of providing full transparency it also double stacks in the attributes menu.  I effectively have full invisibility to mobs and the menu lists Stealth Radius of -70 feet; showing in the details two stacks of the Stealth power at 35' each.  The character is level 25 and I've run a couple of Strigga Island arcs and all the mobs have acted like I had full invisibility until I attack.  No, I don't have another stealth power or Super Speed and I've been playing solo.

 

I'm not complaining about this of course 😊 but it does kind of make taking Invisibility pointless.  I don't have the power on any other characters so it may be specific to PB's or it may be universal.

 

[Incarnate Abilities - What are you using?]

I don't yet have an incarnate tanker on Homecoming but here's what CMA had on Live:

 

Call Me Awesome, Inv/Stone tanker

Alpha - Cardiac - Stone Melee is very end heavy and the resist bonus was useful for non-S/L

Interface - Reactive

Lore - Warworks (Currently I may choose another)

Destiny - Rebirth - Another heal for when Dull Pain was recharging and I was taking too much damage

Hybrid - Assault  (This was my default on all my incarnates since it was the only one that seemed to be beneficial)

[Most powerful pair of clones?]

There's the old standby of Fire/Rad controllers, stacking AM, Rad toggles, leadership toggles and the fire monkeys is a fantastic combination. In the old days a team of 8 Fire/Rads could absolutely destroy anything in the game... I believe they held the record on the Statesman's TF in something like 20 minutes or so.  The more you add, the better they get.

 

Any pair that can stack buffs and debuffs can be a godly combination.  I once ran a team of 7 all Rad characters... some defenders, some controllers and trivialized content.  At level 25 we took down Lusca in less than 5 minutes.  Massive amounts of Rad debuffage and massive amounts of buffs from AM and leadership worked wonders.

[Best DPS spec?]

Frankly if you want DPS I'd go with either a Brute or Scrapper, either can be very tough and leaps and bounds better at damage than a Tanker.  Unless you want to tank for a team you'll be happier with either of them than with a Tank.  That said, the classic answer for a damage dealing Tanker was Fire/Fire and it's still pretty good today, Fire melee is one of my favorite sets.  Shield is another good set for boosting damage and it's quite durable.  The ever popular Electric/Shield combination is a staple with Brutes and Scrappers; I see no reason it wouldn't work well for Tankers.

 

Anyway, think it over and decide what you want to do as your focus.  Tank and protect the team?  Then by all means roll a Tanker.  However if you just want to do a lot of damage and survive then consider either a Scrapper or Brute.

[Worst builds?]

2 hours ago, EmmySky said:

Call Me Awesome sounds familiar....were you on Guardian server?

I was indeed.  Hami tanker back in the old days and many other roles.  I think the only AT I never had to 50 was a MM.

[Worst builds?]

The worst I ever played personally was a Stone/EM tanker post nerf.  I leveled the character in issue 7 maybe, pre-ET nerf anyway, and it was only marginal then.  Once the nerfs hit her I shelved the character... the only level 50 I ever stripped and abandoned.

 

There's lots of combinations with no synergy, kinetic/energy blast or vice versa for example, but that Stone/EM was the worst I played.

 

Some of the best combinations I've run?  Broadsword/Shield scrapper, Fire/Energy Manipulation blaster, Dark/Dark Defender, Illusion/Radiation controller, Fire/Radiation controller and several others.

[is it really as good as evereybody says it is]

In my opinion yes, it is.  I started playing it back in issue 3 in 2004 and I played it continuously until shutdown in 2012.  In that time I tried WoW, Star Wars The Old Republic, Champions and several others but none held my attention for long while CoH was running.

 

The customization and power set combinations are a great bonus but what really kept me playing was the community, there just wasn't another community I found like the one here.  Very few build snobs or elitist players, this was certainly a game for the casual player and as long as you played your character decently nobody was going to give you grief because you weren't at "optimal DPS" or some such.  No "Holy Trinity" of Tank/Healer/DPS, nearly any combination of characters could handle over 90% of the content in the game and most builds could be startlingly powerful... more to the point, most AT's (Classes) simply FEEL powerful to play.

 

As several have mentioned, it's free so go ahead and download it and see for yourself.  If you're a solo player I'd suggest playing a Scrapper or Brute since they're straightforward and have enough damage and durability to be forgiving while you're learning the game.  I would NOT suggest playing a "Healer" since that play style isn't needed or looked for.  Buffs and Debuffs are many times more powerful here than in most games and are far more beneficial to a team than simple healing.

 

As far as powerset choices, most of them are quite functional so pick ones that sound fun.  If you want to change your powers (the individual powers you pick as you level, not the power sets themselves) you get a free respec every 10 levels so you can rebuild your character and grab this power in place of that one.  Most people you run across will be happy to help you if you have questions.

[Making a Captain America style hero?]

I'd try Mace/Shield for an Endgame tribute

[Fire / Fire Tank and ITF]

I've seen some extremely capable fire tanks who could handle anything the game threw at them.  Yes, it's weaker in protection than some overall but it's still a stout base to build on.  The whole point of Fire Armor was as an offensive tanker as opposed to a defensive one.  Stone Armor was the exact opposite, all defense at the expense of offense.

[How much does a Tanker cost?]

3 hours ago, Daramar said:

So I should probably stop reading the Min/Max build guides ...lol

Possibly so.  You need to weigh benefit vs cost, most builds I've seen reach 90% or more of their potential with 20% of the cost. Yes, a perma-Phantom Army Illusion/Rad controller is a very expensive undertaking however it's considerably cheaper to build defenses than to build 200% recharge bonuses.  

 

Shop around a bit for other sets too... for example in my Invuln soft cap guide I suggested the Kinetic Combat set for S/L bonuses, but also mentioned that the MUCH less expensive Pounding Slugfest set could also do the job if you slotted an additional set of them.

 

Many sets are like that, while the expensive set offers better bonuses you could substitute a cheap set and slot two sets of them for the same benefit at a tiny fraction of the cost.

[Fire / Fire Tank and ITF]

They can and will strip your defenses in no time since you have no debuff resistance, however with 90% S/L resistance and Healing Flames to patch you up it shouldn't be that bad.  I can't look at your build as I'm on my Mac laptop without Mid's but it shouldn't be an issue.

 

I didn't have a lot of problems with a Spine/Electric scrapper back on Live in that situation and your fire tanker should be considerably tougher.  Just bad luck with one group of mobs?  Check on your actual defense/resistance numbers in game and make sure you didn't get something wrong, or have a brain fart and jump in without something turned on.

 

At a guess you had one of them get lucky and drop your defenses, then others started getting lucky until your defense was in negative numbers and they were more or less always hitting you.  Still, a 90% S/L resistance and a tanker's HP bar should have handled it easily.  You should have seen a slow drop in your HP that Healing Flames could take care of while you took them out.

[How much does a Tanker cost?]

I don't really know how to answer that as it's highly dependent on the primary and secondary as well as what your expectations are for the build.  For an Invuln tanker you could probably get the vast majority of the maximum durability for $50 million.  From there it's all down to how you want to tweak things.

 

Frankly a competent player can handle tanking nearly anything in the game with SO's and a decent team behind you.  Set bonuses make things easier sure but what you spend on your build is all up to what you want to accomplish and what you're willing to spend to get there.

 

Most set IO's cost less than a million each even buying them crafted on the auction house; if you're crafting your own then that can drop to MUCH less.  Yes, some highly desirable IO's sell for more but outside of a VERY few I don't see many prices over 5 million per IO.  I've been doing a lot of marketing recently and I seldom see even the Miracle +recovery or Numina +regen/recovery uniques selling for much over 7 million.  Purples, now yes they are expensive but I generally don't look at them in a tanker build unless I'm going for a no holds barred ultimate build.