Kruunch

Question: Villains / Rogues able to attend?

Glad to help and one of the funnest experiences in the game as a Tanker is being the last person standing, and still being there when your group reforms and plows in again. I'm also a big fan of thumbing my nose at the agro cap, but you have to make sure you have a team that can handle it (agro management is a team chore, not a Tanker's sole responsibility .... too many in this game think otherwise).

The question was based around functionality. I.E. Ice Tankers are less functional than Radiation Tankers. Most of my questions are based around functionality, not concept.

Invuln. 800mill deep, incarnates done right... 90% resist to s/l/f/c/t, 83% to psi/ene/neg 45+% def to all Massive Regen, rebirth heal and dull pain. Non-deathable. Yeah calling bs on this. Not to mention you still have to go through having the PSI hole the whole way to getting close to that. Inv is a great set. Just pointing out the pain points (few that there are).

This is just bad advice. If you're worried about clear speed and nuke overlap, then use one per spawn instead of both at the same time. The reason you take shield defense is for AAO, and avoiding using it on the highest potential damage powers is a very poor use of the powerset. Change your playstyle to maximize your output to better serve your team instead of settling. As a stalker you have the unique opportunity to actually utilize these powers with timing and finesse better than any other AT with the same powers. Also, you should use Buildup on top of AAO. What are you even talking about. You're contradicting yourself. First you say use one per spawn, then you say you should avoid wasting damage buffs like AAO while ignoring the fact that wasting BU is way worse. Build Up + Gaussian's proc is a massive damage buff of +160%. On a high-end build with Musculature and global damage buffs, your Lightning Rod/Shield Charge are at around +140% or more. So +300% already, before AAO. Assuming pseudo-pets aren't capped at +300%/400% (not sure if they changed it), a fully saturated AAO is only giving you about an effective 16% overall damage buff(465/400) once you stack it with all your other damage buffs. AAO is a great power and it's a shame we can't use it comfortably on a stalker, but I'd say ignoring the mobility and speed of telenukes is just as equally bad advice, or even worse considering how powerful BU+Gaussian's Proc is in the PPM proc era so you don't need AAO nearly as much as before. A good balance would be using AAO+LR for one pack, and AAO+BU+SC for another, but I still prefer using BU+Gauss to its full potential by using both nukes, and letting AAO carry my damage when nukes are recharging. Is everyone making their Stalkers with no +recharge? Mine has +160% recharge ... LR/SC/SA every pack (multiple times per pack when doing +4/+8s). The only downside I can think of doing it Stara's way (and they are right on the benefits of adding AAO to the telenuke chain) is that you run the possibility of eating an alpha and it's slower moving pack to pack. Starting the chain with the telenukes entirely negates that. So I'd say play to flavor. I will try both and compare though, because I like the idea of ending a telenuke chain one boss down.

That is absurd Are you implying that a Lightning Rod, Shield Charge, Spring attack wombo combo is not the stealthiest means to assassinate someone known to man? Dammit got coffee all over my screen!

For Elec/Shield, Stalker beats Scrapper (and Brute) every time and in every way. AOE wise, you have Lightning Rod and then Shield Charge (neither can crit) for both, but following up with Thunderstrike, you have a 50% chance to crit per target hit with a Stalker (LR and SC don't break stealth for some broken reason). Same goes for Jacob's Ladder. Coming out of the same rotation, the single target attacks are guaranteed crits. Add in Assassin Strike crits to your rotation and the follow up crit (assuming Stalker ATO) and that makes Stalker the clear winner damage wise.

While resist based primaries live on the edge a bit less, I've found defense based sets working out just fine with a little IO loving (Incarnate turns anything into god mode imo). I have an Energy Aura Brute that tanks everything in the game ... so a defense based set can work. As for resists, with a Defense based set you are still going to get hit (not a matter of IF but WHEN). Resists, even a minimal amount can mean the difference between being one-shot and living through the encounter. Consider the +5 res global, scaling resist global and MotT resist proc and you have potentially +30% resist all right there. Add in some S/L resists via IOs (easiest to get) and you have yourself a decent stop gap for when you do get hit in most circumstances. And yes, Regen is huge with defense sets.

I'd vote for Electric Melee (lots of AOE, best alpha breaker in the game) or Dark Melee (lots of AOE and -toHit, and great sustain and best buildup in the game). Radiation Melee as well but I don't find it engaging enough.

Psi Melee has one tight cone and one PBAOE. Not exactly the set you want if you're going for an AOE build. This pattern is reflected in most Tanker melee sets. Electric, Dark, Staff, Radiation (via Contamination), Battle Axe (although I'm not sure of the effectiveness of Cleave as an AOE), Broadsword (again not sure of the effectiveness of Head Splitter as an AOE) and Dual Blades all break this paradigm by offering one or more additional AOE options. Electric Melee also has one of the best melee alpha breakers in the game in Lightning Rod.

Great sets (I'm a big fan of Elec Armor). Radiation Melee is super serviceable but I find really dull play wise (totally subjective of course). Animations are too long and lack oomph visually. But functionally it's got all the tools and is a great combo with Elec. You might try swapping your Obits and Might of the Tanker. Try putting MotT in your Lightning Field. Guaranteed double stacks (and biggest uptime on triple stacks) with mobs in melee range. Just a thought. Aid Other?

If you don't want to rely on heals, then any tank you take is going to face plant. Heals = damage mitigation. Invulnerability gets you to tanky goodness the fastest but has no sustain short of Dull Pain which is a long cool down. The Psi hole is problematic because you see a lot of it late game (and all game red side) and Inv Tankers have to plug it all with set bonuses / globals (which means you're looking at something like 50% maxed out on sets). Electric, Radiation and Dark are also great Tanky sets that also have a lot of sustain (much more so than Inv). I've found Bio to be great, but can be too fiddly and meta for some. Will Power I'm not sold on but I have yet to test it out all the way through (it also has great sustain though). Fire/Ice can both be serviceable but for "tanky" they fall to the bottom of my list. I'm liking Electric the best these days for reaching resist caps on most everything with Toxic being the hole (not a ton of Toxic late game). Also has among the best sustain between Energize and Power Sink making it a pleasure to play.

Put it in a damage aura. You will get perma 2-3 stacks with mobs in melee range.

You may want to swap your Obliteration (Eye of the Storm) and Might of the Tanker (Lightning Field) as the proc from the Might of the Tanker (resist) works constantly with mobs in range in your damage aura. This guarantees two stacks at all times (with mobs in melee range) with three going off and on. With MotT in melee attacks this usually ends up being 1-2 stacks at most. If you need extra slots I'd start with the following: Taunt (I recommend 2 Perfect Zingers for the Psi/Tox resist) Resist toggles only need 4 slots functionally speaking. Stamina (as mentioned) can be 1-slotted on an Electric Tanker (although I prefer 3 myself but I'm a chain hog) I'd dump Maneuvers for Conceal if you're going for a defense mule for LotG as Conceal (+Celerity: Stealth in sprint) will give the toon an added dimension. Conserve Power / Physical perfection seem to be throw aways on your build. You may want to look into Soul Mastery and taking Darkest Night (-20% to hit toggle slotted up). I really love Electric Armor ... it's the total package. Staff looks great (haven't gotten around to messing with it myself yet) ... let us know how it works out for you.

I ran perma Unstoppable on live ... I wouldn't recommend it. The management of it was annoying.

Tankers will allow you to be "tankier" faster (think 20s) whereas you don't start seeing that on a Brute until the 30s for the same type of content. Brutes will always have better DPS assuming you manage your Fury bar well. They actually start out at less damage potential at 0 Fury than Tankers do. You will never come close to Scrapper/Stalker damage with either. What you consider "acceptable" DPS between Brutes and Tankers is entirely subjective in feel. Brutes should always be higher numerically, but "feel" wise, I've always felt that Brutes just have a little better DPS (not categorically superior as do Scrappers/Stalkers). They are both on the same tier of damage (one farming build aside). As for slotting schedule, I tend to level up to L22 and slot L25 IOs. This gives me a feel for the build and i don't have to worry about those slots for awhile. In the 30s, I will start fitting in attuned sets as slotting allows. This method is obviously expensive, so adjust according to your means. Having played Tankers, Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers, I think I tend to prefer Brutes for a mix of toughness and DPS, although I default all high end content to my Tanker when I have a question of survivability. Hope that helps.

Great catch and digging +1 inf for you!

I believe all of the Radiation Melee powers are listed as AOE due to the Contamination effect. My guess here is that the siphon effect has a chance to proc off any enemy that receives damage due to Contamination being on your target and it hitting the nearby mobs.

simplifying this thread that way seems... perverse. that's probably the right call. from what we've gotten here, taunt enhancements only go in your taunt power or (rarely) your aura. as long as you're using your taunt power, taunt enhancements anywhere else are wasted. I've got taunt in Chilling Embrace, is that wasted? I'm trying to follow the technical discussion but not doing very well. :) I don't usually slot my taunt auras with taunt enhancements but if you want/need the longer duration then that's the way to go (or save yourself the slots for other things). Incidentally, my Taunt power almost always gets one accuracy as Taunt *can* miss (I have 2 slotted Taunt with Perfect Zingers for Toxic resist on my Elec Tanker to help shore up that hole).

Nope ... just playing the market.

How so?

I found Dark to be really clunky until the later levels (endurance wise). It's resist hole is energy, which is problematic (fixable but that's the third highest form of damage you encounter). Otherwise I agree (but is why I put it in the second tier).

Fire is a farming tank. Great against AE farm missions and certain other content but not what I'd want to main tank a TF with (yeah I know Fire can be built to, but so can a Scrapper :P )

On Bio you can turn the graphics to minimal on character creation (or at the tailor) to avoid the poo look (and I agree with you on that btw). Energy - my bad there (have that on my Brute). Energy is Electric Armor but Defense focused instead of resist. Dark I find too endurance needy. Towards the end it great, but painful getting there imho. I agree about Resists > Defense. Super Reflex is so easy to go past the softcap however that it functionally works well. Will Power - kind of a gimpy old style Regen (or a better Regen than current Regen). Haven't played around with it a ton but seems better suited for other ATs than Tankers (i.e. Will Power on my Sentinel works fine, but he don't get punched in the face for a living).

This is actually what got the agro limit put in place in the first place. Too bad too because it was a fun play style you couldn't duplicate in other games as epically.