Sovera

I've noticed this with Ball Lighting. Throw it, use AS, Hide procs. Hide breaks from the DoT of the Ball Lightning.

You're correct here. Against content that does DD. Not all factions do DD though, so while defense will not help against those (it will will for a few hits at least) every other faction in the book that does not DD will have that extra layer of protection. For the ones who do, well, 90% resists will have to do. I don't find Toxic to be present in enough quantity to matter. Low level content is ran at +1 tops and eight people will demolish it anyway. High level content has Toxic, but not in the barbaric quantities that Vhaz has where every minion will spit it. High level is more... what? Toxic Spiders from the Arachnos faction I think? No, wait, there's the hydra in the Tinpex sewers. There I notice the HP being dented though I use Barrier before entering it so it's mitigated. ATO two stacking has not been a problem for me. Or perhaps I just consider it okay. It might be like when I thought throwing the proc in the aura was the bee's knees and it turned out not to be so. But when I glance at my monitor I see the nice blue 90% more often than not. I'll make an honest effort at tracking its uptime and will report on it. As for Barrier what is hard to understand? A metric ton of defense *and* resist (Psi/Toxic/Cold which is what's lacking) makes for a good panic button. It makes a for a *great* pre-emptive team savior where we know hard moments will come (sewers in Tinpex, ambush on top of the hill in ITF), and at minimum it's 5% defense and resists added to reach (soft)cap. I mean, what else? Ageless? It's not like we're starving for recharge or endurance. Same thing that I had. Stacking yellows and breakfrees (I mistakenly said oranges back there) would have helped a lot, but my friend was half AFK and I did not feel like pushing the envelope.

All but cold, toxic and psi are at 90%. Two stacks of the ATO and Barrier ensure it. I could decide to get hardcapped resistances without accounting for the ATO + Barrier, but then the ATO stacks and Barrier are useless. I prefer not to follow that course and instead use those tools. S/L, for example. With one stack it's at 83.9%. With Barrier it's at 88.9%. With a second ATO stack it's overcapped. Energy and Negative are at 79.3% turn into 84.3% with Barrier, then a second stack (barely) overcaps. Two stacks are much easier to get and maintain than three where PPM and misses thanks to RNG can mess it up. And then there's the harsh wake-up call like I had 😄 I had been duoing/trioing TFs with friends (this build has been fricking amazing for such) and we decide to do Posi 1. Yeah, that didn't go well. Between the huge toxic hole, losing a ton of protection from set bonuses being gone AND running it at +2x8 (told you I was getting 100% cocky 😄) I got *annihilated* by the CoT with their massive spam of -ACC, -defense, and immobilizes. In any other content it is as you've said it yourself. Go in, Burn, AoE, boom, melting pack and damage is immediately cut. With the astounding amount of -acc from the ghosts plus the bosses' FF bubble plus my friend half AFK I missed missed missed and they survived and spammed CC until they ate me alive. That said it's not a stain on the build. I don't think many builds can run such early content with so many toggles and IO bonuses cut off on +2x8 and not suffer from the same. Even so swapping most of my insps for yellows and oranges might have been enough but it was going to be too slow and painful just to drag someone half AFK.

Quotes from people I've played with 😄 : - Someone needed help with an AV they were not denting, 'What the heck, are you using envenomed daggers or do tankers do that much damage??' - Someone bitching because I was running ahead of a team in a TF and someone else tells them. 'They have Spin and Burn. They *are* the team'.

This is the original Brunker. Fire Armor/Claws. Exquisite, but ultimately replaced by Martial Arts who further embodies the Brunker concept. This is a leveling build I made for a friend that I convinced to play the game with me. It is a *lot* cheaper and still has 40% defenses (45% with Barrier) and the resistances are still capped with two ATO stacks and Barrier's 5%. So it has everything a Tanker needs to tank. There was care in picking up cheap sets a player can slot early as they level up and make money. Some things will always be expensive like the LotGs and the defense uniques but they are goals to be worked at. The trade offs are a worse Hasten and less damage due to no procs in attacks but it will do just fine to burn the content until money is amassed. I include tips for new players: This is the level 50 build with Shockwave. Shockwave has great value in keeping things on their butt with the KD which is invaluable in tough situations: Tanker (Fire Claws Shockwave).mbd The alternative build that I am currently using without Shockwave and my reasoning: Quotes: Tested against a pylon: Incarnates testing. Mah first +4x8 ITF soloed, like a grown-up! mids_build.mbd

Some things have changed with the patches. On the whole Fire Armor is still an offfense based armor and it is now more durable. But despite Burn having been tweaked to be (mostly) back on par with the bugged version it is (mostly) not worth using in a ST situation. This may require testing on a per case basis. Previously known as Fire/Claws: the Brunker. Alas Claws, I knew thee well, but your time on the throne has ended. What is the idea behind a Brunker? While I had my toughest tank in the Rad Armor/MA that I posted previously the damage was never exciting (plus the use of lightning was not very thematic). @Camel's funny guide revitalized my interest in Fire Armor and I went back to poke at it some more. I had been in a rut looking for a damage character to sink my teeth into but something never quite clicked as the moment I went into anything a bit more extreme the squishyness was felt. Sure, Council is never a problem but there is more to CoH than Council. Now I am pleased I can tank *and* have a nice damage dealing character with how this turned out. I am going to divide this multiple parts because after testing pretty much all possible combinations three have come out on top: Fire/Ice Melee: the all rounder. - Pros: This has become my favorite and my recommendation for a new player. Unlike the Martial Arts variant it works at near full potential right out of the box. The damage is good and the build has a very nice power progression. We get a good AoE at level 4 that usually makes me crank up spawn size to 4-5 that instant, we get Build-Up at level 16, then Burn at 18, then the ultimate protection skill at 20 in Ice Patch. At 26 we get our second Build-Up in Fiery Embrace, and at 28 we get the heavy hitting Freezing Touch. Everything afterwards is just padding. It is common to just destroy whole groups of enemies with Build-up + Frost + Burn leaving only nearly dead lieutenants and an half HP boss. The best part is that in the very early levels before our defenses are consolidated we can start a fight by dropping Ice Patch and just watch the enemies come running and start flopping. This makes us and our team safe. By level 30+ Ice Patch is no longer required but depending on the enemy and if it does nasty debuffs (I.E. Circle of Thorns) then dropping it in the middle of a spawn will add a nice fat layer of extra security. Lets face it, 90% of the game is pretty easy and does not require more than the baseline Tanker sturdyness. But when things get dire then Ice Patch can be whipped out and turn certain loss into wins. - Downsides: no Force Feedback anywhere to accelerate the build. The single target is not amazing either since it relies on using Frost for the single target duration. That said the testing of the damage is done on a neutral target that has the same resistance to all types of damage. In the 'real world' both Claws and Martial Arts do a type of damage (Slash and Smash respectively) that is commonly resisted, sometimes heavily so. This is not the case of Ice who is a much more exotic type of damage. That means ultimately we may not notice this damage difference since Claws/Martial Arts may be pushing through 20% or more damage resistance the moment they fight robots or such. Ice Patch is not a magic bullet for survival either. Enemies will flop but not all and not all the time so they will still attack. This is compounded by Freezing Touch applying a -1000% KB effect that effectively prevents Ice Patch from working (very annoying against Paragon Protectors we are trying to prevent from triggering their Moment of glory). Attributing my subjective opinion I would say Ice Patch adds something like an extra 30% survivability but in no way makes a character invulnerable. What makes a character 'invulnerable' is a combination of defensive layers and killing fast which is something this build achieves. Fire/Martial Arts: the Turtle. - Pros: It ends with 45% defense to Melee/Ranged/AoE. This makes it pretty defensive since it will deflect debuffing attacks, even Psi which is a weakness of Fire Armor. The damage from Dragon Tail is anemic but it animates fast and the Force Feedback forces more recharge which pumps more Burns, more Focus Chi, more Healing Flames, more Consumes. Substituting Crippling Axe Kick for Cobra Strike is a minor damage loss and in return the build has a complete AoE and single target chain before level 20. This is the defensive version difficult to beat. - Downside: it lacks an early Build-Up (Focus Chi) which prevents it from punching through early level BS such as -defense or -ToHit debuffing, but level 28 isn't that far. It also lacks an early AoE only obtaining one at level 18 and then 20. If soloing this means there is no point in increasing spawn size since they all need to be taken down one by one anyway. The build is a gimmicky carefully built castle of cards. That means that for the end-game it may well be the best of all three not lagging behind in the damage in the slightest but also the strongest defensively. But it means it wants a lot of slots and thus it will bloom late (but still exemplar extremely well, it just needs those slots in place). With its strongest point being capped defense it asks at least level 45 to get this, or 39 (if exemplared) for 40% defense. This isn't as bad as all that since the baseline is still a Tanker but someone leveling it for the first time may not understand the enthusiasm. Fire/Claws: the Dragon. - Pros: This is a nice no brainer build. Spin is obtained at level 16 and due to some wacky maths it does twice the damage of any other AoE from other attack sets. Even those obtained at level 35-38 (slight hyperbole but not by far. Atom Smasher, for example, does 233 in one of my builds and Frozen Aura 195. In this build Spin does 341. Not quite double, uh? But wait, because of Follow-Up the build is near permanently under a 70% damage boost. So that's 430). Spin is just that good. It also has a very solid and fast single target rotation and two places for Force Feedback slots to speed up the build. Follow-Up ensures we go around with at least two stacks of it boosting near permanently the damage of everything by 70%. Considering Build-Up increases damage by 80% for only 10 seconds and then has a recharge of 30 seconds then it is easy to see why Follow-Up is so well received. This is the offense oriented build. - Cons: it lacks a punch-through-BS button. Follow-Up is great since we commonly run around with 70% damage boost but what's better than 70%? 160% damage. Normal Build-Ups can trigger the Gaussian proc and (nearly) ensure it goes off whenever used. When fighting problematic enemies it's best to drop a 160% damage empowered Burn and start slapping the debuffing enemies fast before they crumble our defense. Follow-Up also suffers from having to hit an enemy to provide the buff which can go wrong if we are being debuffed already. The Fire/Martial Arts build is in this post. The Fire/Claws is here. The Fire/Ice is here. Martial Arts boasts of Storm Kick giving 10% to all defense for 13 seconds. Even very early in the leveling career we can have as much as 25% defense. Martial Arts also has two places to slot Force Feedback +recharge procs turning the build into something turbo charged straight out of a random Fast and Furious movie. One of them in Dragon Tail which helps as low as Positron part one. Dragon Tail also provides valuable soft CC by applying a reliable knockdown. Time spent falling on their back and getting back up is time not spent hitting back. Then it merges with Fire Armor's Burn - also available as low as Positron part one - that works for both single target damage as well as AoE, plus the offensive bent of a damage aura and Fiery Embrace. Upsides: - DAMAGE! Leveling with the character is pure carnage and I felt *very* powerful during the whole trip. Burn followed by Dragon Tail not just hurts enemies but puts them on their back nullifying the alpha and all with a nice wide AoE radius. Later on Fiery Embrace increases this even more where even Martial Arts being smashing damage shows the improvement with chunks taken off bosses with every hit. - Very good exemplaring. Storm Kick + Dragon Tail + Burn is available straight from Positron part 1 with only Crippling Axe Kick needing to be replaced for Thunder Kick until level 30 (if exemplared). Or simply replace Crippling Axe Kick for Cobra Strike for a pretty minor damage dip. CAK is still better is wanting to hit pylons since it has a -res proc that can be slotted in. - Pretty damn sturdy with 90% resists (with ATO stacks + Barrier) and 45% to Melee, Ranged and AoE, and 50% to melee (with Barrier). - The slotting is a bit more exotic than my norm. The upside of the exotic slotting was that I realized I was so close to S/L cap that Tough was almost not needed. A bit of juggling and it turned out to not be needed at all. This makes one less toggle which is always nice. Tough still needs to be taken to reach Weave but it's merely a mule. Downsides: - Definitely squishier than my Rad/MA. The build works very well against simple opponents as @Camel mentions in his guide. It is not difficult to survive grabbing agro saturation in the monster hunt during Hami raids. But once debuffs start being used things can go sour very fast. - Dragon Tail plays horribly with the Clockwork's weakness to KB gimmick. Save yourself angst and use an unslotter to substitute one IO of your choice from Dragon Tail for a Sudden Acceleration while going through that TF during leveling or if deciding to put yourself through it again once at max level. - The downside of the exotic slotting has Hasten suffering a bit and at a hefty 144 seconds but the FF procs are going to help narrow that gap. It is important to notice that the build HAS sapper protection. It is actually a rather good sapping protection (98% endurance drain resistance) but we need to be pre-emptive about it. Basically it is Consume. Using it gives a two minute buff and since Consume recharges in one minute this is easily a perma effect. But, it needs to be used pre-emptively. If you're doing sapping content (a friend of mine made an AE arc purpose made to slap me, and it worked really well with sapping enemies) use Consume either on cooldown or keeping an eye on the buff. But this does not protect against -recovery debuffs! Standing by a Super Stunner when it resurrects will still smack your recovery down. But at least a Sapper will not take a huge gulp of of your blue bar leading to catastrophic detoggling. But the leveling, how is the leveling? When I reach a pack of mobs I will usually open with Storm Kick (defense, resistance from the Tanker IO), Build-Up, Burn, (DAMAGE!), then Dragon Tail (Force Feedback proc acceleration and soft CC). Because of the slotting this order means Dragon Tail will always be ready at the same time as Burn. It is thus easy to align both allowing Burn to go first so it enjoys the FF proc. Then Cobra Strike (big damage all procced out as it is further enhanced by Builds-Up and the Gaussian proc (Gaussian lasts 5 seconds, so 2.3 seconds from Burn + 1.7 seconds Dragon Tail = 4 seconds)) followed by another Storm Kick (keep dem Tanker +resistance procs rolling and defense up). By now Burn is available once more and everything can start over. In single target I try to go with Storm Kick, Cobra Strike, Storm Kick, Crane Kick. Loop over. Burn whenever it is up. As the hardest hitter skill of the build it takes precedence. Do not try to hoard Build up and Fiery Embrace. I would not use both at the same time though. Build-up + Burn will already kill minions and using Fiery Embrace at the same time would only double kill them. I would rather stagger the use of both but use them all the time. Fire Armor primes for being an offensive armor set and it is something to lean on. BU + Burn, keep fighting, Burn is up again? Now use it with FE. The Force Feedback procs ensure they come back often. The build with Cobra Strike instead of Crippling Axe Kick. The changes are minor (Cobra Strike 327 damage VS Crippling Axe Kick 352), but the upside is that the build has all the AoE and ST by level 20! A friend wants to do Positron part one? Go in there like a champ with your full AoE and ST kit fully slotted, no greyed out attacks. Not many builds can boast of this. If wanting to play with pylon times take Crippling Axe Kick instead and replace one of the damage procs in it and Burn for a -res proc, but I have explained below why I stopped using -res procs, and that was the reason to take CAK so there is no particular reason to wait until 38 to have a full kit. Everything else after level 20 is just to add more damage or sturdiness. Incarnate priority: Leveling build with tips: Something I tested around page 4 or 5 was incarnates and their effect. Not napkin math but actual testing. To use -res procs or not? +4 AV testing: Pylon testing:

No. My rad tanker was tough from level 1 onwards. You seem to have already made up your mind though, as well as being shy about spending influence, so I'm not sure what else I can contribute to this conversation.

No, resists are, IMO, the strongest sets. Radiation in particular is a beast because it has debuff resistance to everything that matters. Any and all resist based set can reach 45% to S/L and Melee which is ample enough a security blanket considering the 90% resists, but few defense based sets reach 90% resists. And then there's the nut stuff like the Rad/MA build I have a bit lower that has 90% to most and then 45% defense to Malee/Ranged/AoE on top of being near impervious to killer things like endurance/recovery attacks. If you're doing leveling or simple content, such as sticking to Council missions, then there is no need to spend exorbitant sums to min-max your build. I'm going to go and say you're not using proper builds though. Dark Armor's endurance woes, i.e., has long since been solved by including a simple cheapo Theft of Essence in Dark Regen to the point it being a endurance hog is no longer even mentioned. A 'noob trap' (personal opinion) in Radiation Armor is trying to grab the mini nukes and ooh and aaah at the big 'splosions they do every 25-30 seconds where those powers could be exchanged for weaker AoE but that can be used three times during the recharge. You ought not shy away from the '20 million' IOs since a simple Hami + Tinpex a day (one hour total, though getting there early to then wait for the Hami raid to finish forming may take another extra half hour) nets 50 million. That's two of those purples a day and if you play more and do other stuff it can mean three or four of those purples (doing the other Hami raid as well for example). In two weeks you're maxed. And if you decide not to play that character you can respec, grab all the IOs, and throw them on your next alt who they too will be able to earn those 50 mill a day if you care to take them to the Hami/Tinpex. My signature has more information on this.

You're overthinking it. We don't need to account for all the possible set bonuses. We need to account for the *goals* reached by those bonuses. In very broad strokes that would need to be properly refined, simply assume everyone in incarnate content has those goals achieved. We see this in how 45% is no longer enough in incarnate content, but it can be taken further. As for the rest you're just trying to make it sound bad so I'm not sure if I should really bother answering if your mind is already set. But okay, lets take it at face value: - Anyone who has played any game is aware of how higher level content becomes harder. Saying 'hey, this is a mini raid, you need proper gear to survive it' is so commonplace I don't think I deserve any credit. - A simple blurb from a contact saying how it's going to get harder if players head to DA or do incarnate content. - What effect? People are doing max geared characters for shits and giggles and two weeks of casual play allows to max a build. - As long as the +0x1 difficulty exists no player is exempt from trying all content of the game.

Plaaaaay the gaaaame, sleeeeeeeeep. You're going to burn out something fierce!

Something happened to the current team though. No idea what. At first glance I'd say Corona but that usually means stay-at-home which is where HC business should have been happening anyway. The flux of news completely stopped, we have no patches, and more importantly, we have no information. It's fine, the game is up and running so we don't *need* any of those things to log in and have our fun.

The answer to this seems pretty simple. Same way we don't ever see WoW devs messing with old dungeons and only mess with current content. Basically let the 'leveling' game intact, regulated around +0 SO users, but DA content is incarnate content, incarnate trials, etc, the *end-game*, regulate around IOs. They are not difficult to acquire. We have a plethora of in-game channels between Help, General and even /b for new players to complain about how things suddenly got hard at incarnate levels and be pointed at the forums either to copy builds or learn how to make money. It's not a bad thing to have goals. It's not a bad thing to have an end-game. It's not a bad thing to have an end-game that is harder and welcomes buffers and debuffers instead of just amassing damage dealers. We don't have a team for it though, not yet, perhaps never. I don't even know what has happened to the current team since we have heard no more news from them in months and they have been tight lipped about it.

I tell ya, I have a new fun character which is a Fire/Claws Tanker. Loads of damage, fun, but I'm 100% sure it would be TERMINATED if I tried to tank that mission. Even one or two sappers kill its endurance in five seconds so that mission would be repeated murder.

I was tinkering with an old Ice/Bio I made. I was still working on frankenslotting Frost for minimum ACC, max damage, as much endurance, recharge and range as possible, but then my attention wandered and I never finished it. There are three slots free to use where ever. I just bring it up to mention that Genetic Corruption on a Stalker does not enchant me, but, it makes for a great mule as four Lethargic Repose bring some much needed SL and NE defenses. The heal proc I can honestly say I am unsure if it does anything. the occasional 50 HP is nice, but I doubt it changed any outcomes. I have another version where I ditched Physical Perfection (Bio swims in endurance 90% of the time anyway, and there's the Recovery Serum for the long fights against a single target) and Genetic Corruption and simply picked Zapp and Ball Lightning for moar AoE (MOARRRRR!). While Zapp is not used in a regular rotation due to not accruing stacks for AS it serves perfectly for missions where we open with Icy, use AS, proc Hide, and now what do we use while in Hide? Ice Sword? Zapp, that's what.

There are a few of those around already. There's one that is just *nuts* that can be searched as '801' in the AE.

You'll have to try how I explained. Simplest way is to start by selling all your salvage in order to have less of it cluttering the salvage window, and then try adding one number at a time. So lets say I have sold everything but have incarnate salvage and whatever totaling six separate items. /emailsendattachment @sovera "Emp" 0 11 1 "HAX" Didn't work? /emailsendattachment @sovera "Emp" 0 11 2 "HAX" Still didn't work? /emailsendattachment @sovera "Emp" 0 11 3 "HAX" If by the time I have reached /emailsendattachment @sovera "Emp" 0 11 7 "HAX" it still has not worked something else needs to be tried, but start with that. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if _ and " or a combo of both together did not work then it's not going to work. It's clunky old coding. Same way I use the text file to introduce my name and password and only need to click on accept to log in, but was unable to make it accept a space in my password and had to change my password for one without a space.

I agree and I've been pushing for the same. Tankers are super tough natively and with them about 10% behind Brutes it makes sense to go and aim for more damage since the faster things die the less time they are hurting the player. This is a super basic precept in games like Path of Exile and Guild Wars 2 that, like CoH, do not prime for 1 or 2, or 5 minute long fights. In those games 'enough' defense is aimed for and then the rest is damage. I have no ill will for R0y, zero, but he and other players like him take that pride in being low damage and super sturdy. Which is fine. Hey, there's room for everyone and it's not like we even have damage meters.

I haven't super refined this build so there's probably room to improve it a bit more. Basically the idea is to cruise around softcapped in defense to the important bits (ignoring fire and cold since they aren't big worries. The Psi hole will hurt more but as a Stalker it is up to us to start with hitting the dangerous targets first), and when/If in trouble we use our uber Icy Bastion. For 30 seconds all our resistances but Psi get capped and our regen gets a tremendous boost. It will have a one minute down time once its over but then we have Hoarfrost and Barrier to fill up as panic buttons during that one minute. Frost is used for AoE and ST because of how bad Frozen Fists are and to fit everything in. While Stalkers are not AoE beasts the build ends up pretty satisfactory. While leveling Frost + BU is a spawn killer (it's common to follow a tank and once everything is balled up around him we just kill most of the spawn by ourselves with that combo), Frozen Aura is.. okay (in theory same damage and near same animation time, but not nearly as satisfying as Frost), and Ball Lightning finishes adding to it for that initial AoE burst while still under BU's influence before we mop up what survived. For ST Zap is just a mule and not meant to be used. It does hit harder than Ice Sword but on the other hand it does not build up AS stacks, so see how you feel about using it or not. Icy Touch is the beastly ST damage overshadowing even AS. Basically while in Hide always use it. Eventually if hitting something for a while (hard boss or AV) work it so that Icy Touch is always used after AS but for regular missions don't fuss too much and open with Icy and then use AS and whatever is available (Zapp from Hide will HURT). AS, Icy, Frost and Ice Sword is the ST rotation for an AV.

I've tried to like SM so many times now. I have it on Brute, Scrapper and Stalker, all at 50, all leveled instead of farmed, but it just never clicked. I *love* the animations. But that's about it. That said SM/Ice Stalker would have the best of both worlds. Can't ignore the soft CC of Shockwave though since it makes a lot of difference with the animation to get up nearly coinciding with Shockwave's CD.

If I was to have a hand on a dream team of four (I do much prefer smaller teams but they seldom happen since people get bored) it would be: - A Tanker. Any sort really. A tough ball of agro that pulls everyone in a pile. The difference between Brute and Tanker has shrunk by a lot and the wide AoEs make up for the lower damage. - A /kin. Any sort as well. A Controller with a Tanker seems useless (IMO) so perhaps either MM for the extra damage or just a Corruptor and avoid the MM annoyances. Damage boost + recharge and fixing endurance woes + healing? Perfect. - A Blaster. Killing half the spawn at the start eliminates a lot of hassle with problematic factions like Carnies and Arachnos and their blind spamming. - A Scrapper/Stalker. Aimed at the tough targets so that by the time everyone has finished unleashing their AoEs and killed the soft targets the hard targets are down as well. Playing as Tanker with a small team of lowbies it was noticeable how we killed all the soft targets and then whittled the bosses away.

I loved the guide. It might be what I needed to feel better about Tanker ST damage actually. There's room for some tweaks (I wouldn't go as far as calling them improvements). The ATO proc in the aura was tested as not being ideal. Even in a target saturated medium it will at most stay at two stacks and between 5% chance of missing and PPM rules they might stay at one stack for periods of time. In the same vein there is too much S/L resistance going and some slots could be distributed, S/L defense cap reached to be softcapped with Barrier. But really, you're herding monsters in Peregrine and barely having to use your heal so are any of these actual improvements 😄 ?

This is just a bit of idle conversation. I adore my Claws/Bio Scrapper but I've been thinking about trying something with Ice Armor for a while now. The basic precept is that icy Bastion rocks and I want it. When in need of a heal pop it and the maxed resistances coupled with tremendous regen will just keep me safe for the next 30 seconds leaving me with one minute CD. I can use Barrier if I need another breather during that cooldown and have Hoarfrost for emergency heals. I have a hard time overlooking Bio's extra damage, but the ease of slotting means I could add more damage procs that would partly compensate for its lack. My original thought was DM/Ice Stalker though. I get Siphon life to top HP, Stalker adds big burst damage with AS and I can skip the slow animation of MG for AS, Siphon, Smite, Shadow Punch. It does force me to go for Mu for a second AoE where Claws is self-contained. Perhaps Ice/Ice Stalker? Ice melee is good on it, and it gets Ice Patch for bad moments though Shockwave achieves the same on the Scrapper.

Well, I've given different examples where using Parasitic Aura did nothing. I've used it proactively (as in, full HP and as an opening move when surrounded by enemies) and the results are the same. The 'maxed regen' happens if we hit 10 mobs but it does very little. We just seem to have had different experiences. As for the recharge it's not a problem. Unlike DDR we can use IOs to patch recharge debuffs. This build has 90% resistance to them, for example. I believe the cap is 95%.

This is exactly what happens with me! I'll be playing and die. 'Grumble grumble. I wouldn't die if I was on X'. So I start playing X. A week passes, no deaths, but at some point, 'good god, that took so long whittling those guys. It would have gone so much faster on Y', so I pick up. Y. A week later... Currently and though a new addition I don't see my playing any other Tanker than my little Rad/MA. The ST damage is sort of painful with 200-ish for my 'hard' hitters, but makes up for that with a torrent of *wide* AoEs. Dragon Tail, Electric Fences, Ball Lightning, Dragon Tail. Gap, fill with Storm kick for the 10% defense. START AOE ALL OVER AGAIN! I *adore* my Claws/Bio Scrapper for damage. And weirdly enough I never play it. It's what I use to powerlevel my new alts to 22-23 before they start TFing and it's so much more satisfying than using my Fire Armor tank for it. Have the Critical ATO proc go up, fit both Shockwave and Spin in its duration, see a *flood* of CRITICAL DAMAGE! and spawns melting. The ST feels damn good too. And to top it I had an inflated view of Bio Armor being super good for survival until I made other Bio Armor characters and realized I thought so because Shockwave/Focus kept mobs on their ass while I tore them apart.

My man, are you even taking time to breathe and sleep? Dare I say play the game? You seem to be breathing and eating this project.