Sovera

I made a build myself but I'm a bit embarrassed at showing it since it's a bit of an odd duck in terms of power choices with some picks at least for PvP (Tactics (otherwise not needed since everything is close to softcapped in accuracy), Taunt for ranged characters, super speed to catch up to said ranged characters (I already have Fly so this is has no purpose otherwise). This is not really helping the PvE side of things). I worked it to 40% defenses and will rely on Barrier for the last 5% (actually, 4 enemies caught by Energy Absorption is enough to softcap by its own). At least to S/L/R/N. F/C and Psi are going to be holes, but only Psi is a thing in the end game anyway. Accounting for 3 stacks of the Tanker IO (reliable once slotted into an attack as per the experiments in the Elec/MA build) plus 5% of Barrier the resists end being 70%-ish S/L, 60%-ish Fire/Negative/Energy, and about-ish 53% to Toxic. For a tank I find its low, BUT perma Hoarfrost, accolades and IOs cap HP at a whooping 3.5k HP and with my frankenslotted Siphon Life I'm getting back 577 HP every 3 seconds ( o_o; ), barring misses. Not to forget Chilling Embrace. Mobs really hate it and the -recharge plus the -damage can probably be mathed into pseudo resistances.

Call me optimistic or dumb, but I don't think anything will change. Half of infinity is still infinity and people were printing inf by the billions, all that money won't just disappear. Since I salvage my gear from one alt to the next I reached a point where I had one character fully slotted with the most expensive stuff, plus about a billion in raw inf, plus at least half of that in IOs floating in my base. That's when I stopped salvaging all IOs from one alt to the other and started allowing two or three of my favorites to remain slotted. I still have close to 400 million in raw inf, a bunch of random IOs in my base, and I never set foot in a farm or played the market. Too much free printable currency is just bad, y'know. Prices skyrocket. Someone with 500 million who wants an IO that costs 20 million will not blink at buying it for 25 mill instead of trying to get the recipe and craft, or set a bid and a wait. Why, when they have free printed money and more coming in? And the next guy who comes in will have no problem in throwing 30 mill. I sometimes notice this when I put something for sale at 7 mill and someone buys it for 10 mill. Do you think the one who bought it went at it trying to buy for five mill, then six mill, then seven mill? This is fine until a new player tries to wedge themselves in to buy their stuff and they are competing with whales who have no prob in completely outbidding them.

With the patch (finally) out my first thought was Ice/Dark Melee as well, but at first glance I'm not sure what Ice Armor really brings to the table. The resists are bad, but the defense is easy to softcap. It has the huge HP buff, but it recharges super slowly. It has Chilling Embrace b-... Ok, no cons in that. Dark Melee tanker seems to fix most of these. Siphon Life keeps us topped until Hoarfrost recharges, the 20% (25% if Barriering) resists with the ATO proc goes a long way in spacking over the resists (though not up to Tanker snuff IMO). Not sure if Shield just wouldn't do more.

I've said, but I'll say it again. CoH is PoE, MMO version. The fact we do not walk into a TF and every mob is an EB shows this. We are meant to walk in and do a barrage of AoEs and cleanse a pack in seconds. The only thing the game needs is more difficulty options that are rewardings. I honestly want a 'boss only' spawn option where every mob is a boss and the bosses turn into EBs.

I'm leveling a Kat/Bio Scrapper myself, and having lots of fun. First time I do a Katana and it's lovely. I'm a sucker for fast animations. My own attack chain is simply Divine Avalanche, Golden dragonfly, Soaring Dragon. This has a 0.5ish second gap that I decided to ignore. If someone throws an Ageless, if someone throws an SB, or an Accelerated Metabolism, or the FF procs goes off, or etc, the gap works itself out. I have the Critical Strikes proc in Avalanche, the Force Feedback proc in Soaring Dragon, and the Achiles proc in Golden Dragonfly. This is my reasoning but it is not backed by math: - One of the perks in Katana is Avalanche and the defense it brings. I can slot the build accordingly taking in consideration Avalanche so this is what I did. There is an appreciable damage difference between the two (87 base damage Avalanche VS 120 base Sting) but it's a choice. Considering I have Sting anyway and use it as a mule reversing the slotting is certainly doable but having the skill and not using it makes no sense to me since it's not like I can retroactively grant myself the defense stacks. I want those in early and I want them stacked since /Bio's weakness in lacking DDR will appreciate the buffer (81% Lethal for the pesky Cimeroran swords and spears, as well as bullets, all lethal, all defense debuffing. 75% Melee). - Because of this Avalanche is my filler. If I am doing AoE I will use it, if I am doing ST I will use it. So I put the Critical Strikes proc in it. I read about how putting it in Golden Dragonfly was the best choice, but then if I exemp down I won't have access to it any longer. This is something math may well disagree with me as well as those who do not intend to exemp down. - The Force Feedback had to go somewhere since it would be a waste not to have one slotted in. Soaring Dragon is the earliest attack I can put it in, and while I could put it in Golden Dragonfly the exemping thing rears up again. I am not fussed about not having the -res proc, but having more recharge for Ablative/Hasten/DNA Siphon is important to me.

Uploaded the wrong version, fixed now. It was supposed to be Avalanche in Dragon's Tail, the thing I mentioned I was mourning to lose. That puts melee to 40%.

I don't know how to answer this. When a resist based armor with 90% resists and 45% defenses positional, with immunity to the real danger that is being detoggled (not DDR, defense just just a secondary layer), is 'ok, with team buffs' and 'will fail', I don't even. Are we talking of the same game a Scrapper with half of this is soloing? I don't even, so, I won't even.

That's not how it works. The latest iteration has 90% after 15-20 seconds and stays there. Before that it 'only' has 75+ resists.

Both are capped with two stacks of the Tanker IO and Barrier as per the latest iteration. As for DDR, yes, but not everything causes DDR, and after having caused it they still have to get past the 90% resists.

Ok.

Of course the defenses will break. Overcapping a 'little bit' isn't going to do much. On an ITF we survive on the merits of our 90% resists to S/L and out team killing things fast. My Fire Armor Tanker did ITF fine though it had a heal that was much faster than Energize, I wouldn't lift my nose at trying to make a balance of damage and tankyness in a character. We don't need to be turtles as other than some very specific content we don't requir-.... Are we really arguing that a 45% softcap defense to all with 90% resists to pretty much all isn't tanky enough...?

Yes, too much is trying to be worked into the build so something has to give. I could wreck the Hectacomb and add another 15% resists to slows at the cost of another damage proc and yet another 10% recharge but I'm leery of doing so since there is a balance trying to be reached. As for defense it's already softcapped so more isn't going to add much.

Alright, building on everything discussed here this is the newest iteration. - The aim lays in being capped with two stacks since those are the most reliable. The toggle is not a good choice for one target. It will serve well against multiple targets but we might as well rework it into an attack. - HD's current numbers (with Musculature toggled off so its bug does not mess with the math) accounts for one stack of the Tanker IO. So Barrier + a second stack equals current HD numbers + 11.7%. So with that in mind S/L is at 92.5%. Psi is at 90.8%. Negative is at 88.8%. - I am not going to OCD like mad trying to round the Negative resists since A) the scaling resists from the IO kicks in at 90% (the Scaling Resist IO starts at 90% with 4% (3% base) to 6% at 50% and 12% at 10%. Psi and toxic included), and B) there is still that third stack which comes out reliably with the Tanker IO in an attack instead of a toggle. That means we could even eschew Barrier purely in terms of resists with the third stack though the 5% to all defenses is still wanted. The only thing I am unhappy about is the loss of Armaggedon in Dragon Tail. The loss of 10% recharge + damage proc is ugh considering Dragon's Tail already knocks down so I don't even have get the satisfaction of slotting the KD proc in there. But it is about the only sacrifice I had to make and it should not matter too much ultimately.

HD bug. It needs to be taken into consideration which I am not doing. I need to be more thorough when trying to write down maths. Best way is just to turn it off when trying to check the resists.

Alright, I went to test this and you were spot on. Against a single target a mix of PPM and the damage aura missing a tick and the 10 second rule from toggles meant that I spent periods of time with no stacks even. At all. And only very briefly did I get three stacks. Surprisingly jumping into a bunch of enemies did not improve things. Even staying in the middle of a group of enemies in the AE I never once got three stacks o_o I stayed solid at two stacks and it did not budge which plays with the PPM and the toggle rule. Seriously, good catch, Bopper. I'm going to respec and try with the proc in an attack. Alright. Respecced and tested. In an attack it is a lot more solid and three stacks were achieved reliably and tended to stay there. But, not to the point of saying it happening 100% of the time (misses) so building for two stacks and placing the proc in an attack is going to be a better choice. Back to the drawing board. Very low. Until 26 spamming Energize is your better choice (spam early, spam often, since it does not -give- endurance, it just reduces endurance costs, ergo don't wait until you're dry to use it) . After 26 Power Sink's ridiculously short CD ensures this is never again a problem. It will falter against one single enemy and this is noticeable as we level, but not so once Power Sink is slotted, our attacks have endurance reduction, and all the different recovery bonuses are in.

I went to check in game and it says it has a 6 procs per minute. This will not change the toggle rule though. I'll have to test things.

Guys, try putting these in the Spoiler so it does not clutter the thread. You now have a hole in AoE, overcapped S/L resists already with just one stack, lost one performance shifter in Lightning Field and another in Stamina (better dividends with Performance shifter + regular endurance than what you have even though HD does not show Performance shifter procs in the endurance gains). If you're aiming for Ageless that's fine, otherwise I know that we have Power Sink but slotted just for recharge it will not help with just one enemy (compare cost of power VS endurance gain). Crane Kick absolutely wants the Overwhelming Force/Sudden Acceleration or you'll be knocking back targets all over the battlefield. Don't be, it may be 2020 but my feelings are not hurt over a healthy back and forth conversation. I am sorry I tried to offer constructive feedback and pointed out a few flaws on your build. Have a nice day as well. You're probably right. Well spotted, Bopper, I will need to take this into account and see about maneuvering things to work with two stacks (though it's perhaps a bit OCDish on my part since it's not a stack of 6.8% resistances against a single target that will make or break a fight 😄 ) I wonder if dropping the proc out of the toggle wouldn't be worthy. Perhaps tag it on Storm kick which will be used both in AoE and ST situations.

Well, most of the goals are certainly achieved and if you are satisfied that's fine. I still don't know what you would be aiming for as Destiny. Rebirth? The next two stacks of the ATO (13.6%) will go to waste since you're already at 90% with just one stack which is sort of a waste in my book. You're also aiming for Fire/Cold resistances but these are not really a thing needed in end game. I still feel it loses a lot of nice QoL, such as damage procs which play well for Tankers and a bunch of recharge noticeable in Hasten.

Well, I don't want to hurt your feelings, so let me edit the title.

Fly has the KB protection. Yes? And yes, it's mentioned in the first line of the post? I don't know man. Losing Musculature's damage boost for a bit of defense and recharge doesn't seem like a good trade off. What will you take for Destiny? More recharge and endurance? But Hasten is already pretty close to perma thanks to the FF procs and the build has Power Sink so it's not hurting for endurance. Agility's recharge will also mess with the procs.

One enemy is enough, the aura just needs to hit it three times, PPM permiting. There is a ramp-up time involved though and you're correct that higher native resists will require less ramp-up. For regular play we carry the stacks from one spawn to the next though, but if we start cold on a tough enemy we'll be 20% resists short. You are also correct. It's a trade-off. Energize is a slow ass not very interesting heal despite the regen boost, but since it doubles as an endurance tool it comes with limitations. There is no way or shape that it can compare to Dark Regeneration jumbo sized heal. But. It's a trade-off. Neither MA nor DA have endurance recovery tools other than Ageless at 50. Without it a MA/DA would be gasping soon and hard. This is where Energize and Power Sink come in and round the build. You are very correct that in pure survivability the DA version would be over the top with the stupendous heal, but, at 45% defense and 90% to all I believe it's going to be splitting hairs.... Even auto-hit things such as Romulus' Nictus will still have to contend with the 90% resistances. 5% from Barrier yes. So if I exemp down then I lose access to that 5%. In fact, I lose more since I also lose Weave's 7.5% to all. There is not much to be done about it though. I'm going to argue that lower content ran exemped is rarely (ever?) ran at +3 or +4 and biggo survivaval is for max level content. As for why Grounded and Charged Armor got slotted the way they were I've already explained. Charged Armor gives S/L resists which are already overcapped as it is. Adding more slots will just further slide the overcapped resists. Once at 90% what's the point of having another 15% extra since it stops at 90%? I've tried different permutations between Charged Armor and Grounded for the last ergs of Negative resistances and I can almost sort of save a slot if I do change them around. You have a point though, so I made a few tweaks just to round numbers up and slightly improve endurance consumption while upping numbers as Blopper suggest in order not to rely on stacks so much. At this point I have a free slot for some very minor tweaks I could: - Boost both LotGs in Maneuvers and Hover. I don't usually use Boosters on defense, but oh hell, whatever, I'll only lose 10% Regen x2 if I exemp down (someone correct me if the lotG 7.5% gets affected by boosting and exemplaring). I place the free slot in Conductive Shield and gain 3.75% Toxic/Psi. It will go to waste once at three stacks though it will add a bit more to Toxic. - Add a third slot in Maneuvers. Gain defenses neatly at over 40%, but is 0.4% really something noticeable? Psi and negative are still going to be capped at 3 stacks. - Perhaps Tissue's 25% regeneration unique in Health? Or another slot in Power sink to shave another couple seconds in recharge and further empower the endurance (this could come in handy against a single tough enemy we fight over a period of time)?

Take a look at the other one I just posted, Blooper. It's even more ridiculous than a granite tank since no downsides 😄 Okay, it doesn't have the huge HP buffer.

I'm going to row against the current and say that if you play with a group of friends where a Emp defender, a Corruptor AND a Controller are a constant presence then you, as a Tanker, aren't adding much. mobs are not going to be doing much and the Empath and Corrupting will be keeping people buffed and mobs debuffed. I would suggest a Scrapper instead. Things are locked, time to kill. Scrappers can be very close to unkillable and with the backing of an Empath and a Controller AND a Corruptor I doubt you'd manage to get killed. What a group like that wants is more damage. That said if you're having fun with a Tanker just continue because things will die anyway.

This is the most stupid thing ever that I've made. 45% to Melee, Ranged, AoE, and 90% to all resists with the exception of toxic. What are the downsides, you ask. Did you murder your attacks to fit sets? No, all my attacks have at least one damage proc in. Thunder Kick we are forced to take but will just be used when leveling/exemplared and even that one has a damage proc. Did you murder your recharge? #$%& no, Hasten is at 135 seconds and the build has two Force Feed Back procs, one for ST, one for AoE, which will ensure it will be close to perma. Then, there are gimmicks such as rune of Protection and Incarnate Hybrids and juggling both with only minor downtime? NO! It's perma. Barrier T4 is all that is needed. Agility...? Musculature all the way, baby. Then, constant gasping for endurance needing to chug on blue in-... Energize and Power Sink, the later down to 22 seconds or less. Gimped atta-... Let me stop you right there. Three AoEs and three ST attacks. This is all born from Storm Kick, of course, with a mind blowing 10% to all defenses, coupled with the Tanker IO. This stems from the other build I just posted. Copy pasting from it: As I mentioned in the other thread it is all about maneuvering the Tanker ATO and the 20.4% total its unique gives once stacked three times, plus 5% of Barrier for 25.4% total. HD only shows one stack when we slot it in, so we need to account for another 13.6% plus 5% from Barrier. So, if HD shows 90% we know it's a waste since there will be another 18.6% going over the cap. In practical testing while monitoring resists the proc goes off like a machine gun in a damage aura so Elec plays well with it and the stacks not just happen fast but stay up without micro managing. That's to say it's on purpose that I've not slotted things like Tough or Charged Armor/Conductive Shield since resists are already at 73%. 73% + 18.6% = 91.6% (not accounting for the scaling resists of Reactive Defenses). I did not try to lower Energy since it is tied with Negative so let it overcap if it must. I compared the Claws to the WM version, so how does this one do? Well, WM is the crunchiest of sets right after Titan Weapons. But MA has shorter animations which evens things out (WM still leads). Storm Kick: 162 dmg. 1 second animation. Jawbreaker: 207 dmg. 2 second animation Crane Kick: 252 dmg. 1.9 sec animation Clobber: 342 dmg, 1.5 sec animation Crippling Axe Kick, 270 dmg, 1.9 animation Shatter: 291 dmg, 2.5 animation Dragon Tail: 172 dmg, 1.7 animation Whirlwind Mace, 134 dmg, 2.9 animation In a vacuum CAK having a -res proc narrows the distance a little bit more. ST rotation is Cripling Axe Kick to see if the proc is triggered, Storm Kick to get the defenses up, then Crane Kick to get some CC and Force Feedbacking in. Once all IOed out CAK, SK, CK can be done, until then CAK, SK, CK, SK, CAK. AoE is Dragon's Tail, Storm Kick, Lightning Fences, Lightning Ball, Dragon's Tail, then play whack a mole as they recharge. The build. - Things to consider: Crippling Axe Kick takes Defense Debuff sets in game, but not in HD. I edited my database to allow for this, but if you see a hole in the slotting this is why. - Dragon Tail can be taken at 20 now, but HD does not have this in. So even if it shows as red all will be well in the actual game. Edit: After some edifying conversations in this thread and some back and forth further tweaks were added to refine the build: - The aim now is being resist capped with two stacks since those are the most reliable. The toggle is not a good choice for one target. It will serve well against multiple targets but we might as well rework it into an attack. - HD's current numbers (with Musculature toggled off so its bug does not mess with the math, or download the new HD unofficial updates from here ) accounts for one stack of the Tanker IO. So Barrier + a second stack equals current HD numbers + 11.7%. So with that in mind S/L is at 92.5%. Psi is at 90.8%. Negative is at 88.8%. - I am not going to OCD like mad trying to round the Negative resists since A) the scaling resists from the IO kicks in at 90% (the Scaling Resist IO starts at 90% with 4% (3% base) to 6% at 50% and 12% at 10%. Psi and toxic included), and B) there is still that third stack which comes out reliably with the Tanker IO in an attack instead of a toggle. That means we could even eschew Barrier purely in terms of resists with the third stack though the 5% to all defenses is still wanted. The only thing I am unhappy about is the loss of Armaggedon in Dragon Tail. The loss of 10% recharge + damage proc is ugh considering Dragon's Tail already knocks down so I don't even have get the satisfaction of slotting the KD proc in there. But it is about the only sacrifice I had to make and it should not matter too much ultimately. Other people have posted different versions of the build so read the comments and make a choice. There are compelling points made about adding more melee defense. If there's interest in a leveling build I'll whip something up. Closing statement: Does the game really warrant a built with softcap defenses to all and maxed resistances to everything? No. No it doesn't. Not really? But in the end

Dudacious, you're a god send. I did vaguely remember this but was looking for the patch notes and got distracted and forgot what I was doing. This will make WM -so- much easier to level. Thank the heavens the new devs are smarter about this than the old ones. And so has Martial Arts. My goodess, Dragon's Tail at 20! I can do *things* with Storm Kick's 7.5% 10%(!) defense to all. Back to the drawing board.