Sovera

I can't seem to get into Scrappers though I try lured as I am after spending 20 minutes killing an AV. But I always feel squishy, and when I build for survival the damage stops being impressive. I thrive surrounded by an ocean of enemies and for most of the game being a Tanker suits me but then I get those 20 minutes fight and my eye strays. Edit: It also doesn't help half the armor sets don't have agro auras and I'm long past any interest in chasing runners at every single spawn I come across.

First post.

Was soloing Numina when I had to face CoT and got ToHit debuffed. Fortunately Focused Accuracy was there to rescue my butt, but then I thought how it is really not needed to always have it on, and checking on the numbers, there really isn't. It is used when mobs have extra defense or when a mob debuffs. So some painless minor slotting changes (acc/dmg/end instead of dmg/end) and the build has the hardcap to hitting +3 enemies without FA being turned on, which, at this point, means the endurance woes are licked at 1.6 consumption and 4.6 EPS leaving 3 EPS without accounting for the 4 endurance procs from Performance Shifters and Panaceia. That does not really change my original plans for Incarnates. I'll still take Musculature with the endurance boost and then decide whether I want Barrier for a buffer towards defense debuffs or Vigor to replace a heal. The gut says Barrier since no heals help once defense is in the negatives and the extra 5% will slow down cascading failures. Devouring Earth continue being a pain that I can't facetank, but it's a matter of going to a spawn, unload both AoEs, float away from the stacked buffs/debuff fields they lay down, then when they rejoin me BU + AoEs again. No biggie. Play smart 😛 Dat Jurassik must be resistant to fire because chrissakes it was a good 15 minutes to whittle it down.

The first thing to consider is if those winter event IOs are REALLY needed. The biggest reason to slot them is for the defense, the second for the slow resist. If not chasing slow resist then a humble Kinetic Combat is almost the same defensive value for a laughable price difference. As I pointed above most of the time purples are not even the best in slot and are just more recharge than any other option, but at the cost of having no particularly useful bonuses (there is an argument to be made for the 15% accuracy and the recovery).

Soloed Manticore in 1:36 minutes, of which 20+ were spent on the three AV fights 😄 Had to use three Recovery Serums during that time but was in literally no danger since what few hits landed were regenerated before another landed, so no inspirations used. The damage is very Tanker like with GFS hitting for 146 damage (not accounting for Fire Melee DoTs, Brimstone, or procs), but both got whittled down.

I understand. A second account who is in the SG with the tables can grab the stuff and then do the trade. An unified base where we pool all the account's resources is better than having stuff scattered, in my opinion. Personally I'd explain I'm grabbing some stuff from my other SG and will quit for a couple minutes and please re-invite afterwards.

By the gods, mailing them one at a time. I remember way back doing that when I discovered Merits and went through my already abundant stash of alts to mail those 9-12 Merits each had 😄 Use SG bases and tables, plz.

You seem to have found it, but just in case it's the enhancement table. How DO you transfer IOs without tables, Carni??

Yeah, like defense debuffs that can go as low as -50. 'Oh sure, you ate two lucks and got 30%, that's cute, but it's still -20%' 😄

Not particularly radical. Not even particularly original. We've had this conversation a number of times and your point was one I and others already mentioned in the Focused Feedback threads during the testing of the new CoT and Council when players complained it was too difficult compared to the old CoT and Council: 'If it's too hard then lower the difficulty since you're literally fighting content meant for 8 people at max difficulty'.

Not to mention Tactics does not even protect against -Tohit. All it does is add a buffer that gets whittled down each time a -ToHit lands. Same as having a buff AT throwing a +defense shield and then we fight something like the romans who gleefully debuff defense with each time. Even 8 persons with Maneuvers (roughly 28% defense) would not stop catastrophic cascade failures. Stacking Tactics is a full team tactic, but the truth is that in full teams the -tohit or even the -defense is not as problematic as it is for a soloer. Did the tank get its accuracy debuffed to oblivion? So what, the other 7 are raining nukes and AoEs. But is that same tank solo? Now it is unable to hurt the enemies other than the small window where BU + Gaussian is active. There are ways around this. Focused Accuracy as mentioned (Tsoo Sorc hurricanes, CoT big ghost -ToHit aura), sometimes counter-intuitively a few purples if the debuffs are carried in hits (CoT ghosts, Vampyr, etc). I haven't found yellows that useful because they are not useful in normal play so who is going to carry several of them for the niche moment of being ToHit debuffed?

Ah, the PvP level 10! That makes a lot more sense now.

Why 1-10? I've had a devil of a time converting level 10 IOs to anything useful. At most there is the +3% defense Steadfast but nothing else at that level is useful. Even Kinetic Combat or Preventive Medicine only opens at level 17 which would be my minimum cut-off for me. I usually stick to level 31 to stay off the useless low level recipes.

Same. Tsoo Sorcerers were so kind as to turn off Hurricane so that I could hit them, otherwise it would not happen. Good guy Tsoo Sorcerer!

You don't need to 'boost everything you can'. Attuned is better for exemplaring and boosts run across ED which nerfs boosting. Purples aren't even the best in slot half of the time and just the one that gives more recharge. The number of times I catch people slotting Ragnoroks instead of Bombardments... So yeah, it can cost 1b, but as @tidge it's just massive overspending for the sake of spending. A 'normal' expensive min-maxed build should cost between 600 to 800 million. And it takes 10 minutes to transfer that amount of gear to a new character via a respec avoiding having to re-earn 600-800 million, or even 1b. Not wanting to spend those 10 minutes is sheer laziness and up to the player.

Read the guide in my signature and you should be more than fine. Even just doing the tour earns 1 million (5 Merits, each Merit worth 3 Converters so 15 Converters, each converter worth around 70k so 70x15=1 million). Doing the early storylines that end by level 9 earns another 9 merits. So 9 Merits = 1.8 million. So by level 9 and combining both you should have almost 3 million. Buy generic IOs but not SOs as the vendor sold SOs turn bad after 5 levels and need to be re-bought where generic IOs stay good until 50. The three million will buy all the generic IOs your build will need, and that's in the first half hour of playing! Of course generic IOs are just the barest minimum and the actual gear will cost a lot more, but at least you will not be running naked. I predict you must have quite a few Merits to your name if you haven't been on a diet of radio missions. You're also truly being hyperbolic. I get that it's a new game but the drama is palpable 😄 Any game involves gearing up. You either get it from drops, grind it from bosses, craft it, or buy it. Even in WoW as we level we end up in the AH buying stuff to cover what quests did not and don't get me started in Guild Wars 2 where the drops are crap and diluted over a multitude of useless affixes so while leveling solely via drops and quest rewards is possible it is a slog compared to hitting the AH every 10 levels and buying a whole suit of upgrades for a few silvers. Sell Merits and buy what you need by typing /ah. There are no economic shenanigans other than hitting an ATM to transform Merits into Converters and then toss those into the /ah.

I'm finally vindicated for always taking Focused Accuracy! ... not for the accuracy boost but rather for the large -ToHit debuff resistance. One of my last Fire Armor runs had me going against Vampyr who simply shut me down until I kited them to the point the debuff wore off. But this is a recurring trend against -ToHit (even early level CoT) so FA keeps finding its way as a one slot wonder to my builds. Of course it's hard to condone FA when players want their Moonbeam max damage option.

They are when I also point out to where they can make money, and how even without the uniques they will be at around 33% where a single small luck will put them at 45%. I'm not discounting all the rest. Rad Armor is strong and capable. I just have an extensive experience leveling resist based armors and there is a world of difference in passively not being hit and leveling while trying to have our stat poor heals be available as we are pelted by everything that has debuffs attached. We can argue at end level Rad Armor pulls ahead where Stone Armor's lack of an actual heal does not keep up, but that's where incarnates kick in. Outside of Hardmodes I think it does well enough.

As I point in this very thread, at level 13 it's on at 39% defense with only both +defense uniques, four SOs, and Amplifiers. At level 28 it's at 45%-ish without Amplifiers. But in the low levels 40% is already godmode.

After extensive (so extensive...) leveling with resistance armors I'll have to disagree. By level 13 not needing inspirations and then ignoring debuffs like Vampyr in Moonfire killing accuracy to a point only BU + Gaussian hits them is too good.

Some quick things I noticed before hitting the hay: Weave should be a mule, no reason to push it early. By level 40 I was at 45% without amplifiers and without Weave. No need to slot an expensive D-sync when a regular +5 heal/recharge will put your HP at one point from being capped. Swapping the slotting between Contaminated and Radioactive Smash lets you slot a FF proc in it which will help Hasten become perma. You got a mix of purples, two slotted Hastens, and non superior ATOs which sends mixed messages. Is it a leveling build or a final build? If it's a final build then remember to superior the ATOs. And your E/N hole will appreciate a second 6% from splitting the superior Gauntled Fist. Don't bother with the -res proc in Mud Pots since it has a low chance to go off once every 10 seconds. There are more small things but I think you'd better off checking the Stone/Rad I posted in this thread for some slotting ideas. It had E/N at 70% at least and Weave was only a mule. Without Hover to add another 3% defense you will need something to make up for it, and, yeah, Weave could be it.

Made some truly minor changes to the final build at realizing it did not have a 5th LotG slotted (teehee). After way way too long fiddling with it I couldn't find a spare slot for Physical Perfection. It would be better to take the slot from Brimstone and put it as a +5 endmod in Physical perfection, but, eh, it's a 0.04 gain. Could also take a single proc from any of the attacks, but no, Tankers already whittle enemies down. So I left it as is. Still a sliver better recovery and sliver less consumption, 2.7 seconds for Hasten so it's squarely at 126 seconds now. +5-ing the two slots in Earth's Embrace is just petty but it leaves the HP a one point from being hardcapped once the accolades have been collected. Lost 2% S/L resistances in the process.

From what I understand Hardmodes want Rad Armor more than anything. Consider maybe Stone since the +HP buff can make it HP capped. I'm not particularly inclined towards Shield but it looks like you have a good grasp on what every secondary can bring. At the level which hardmodes are played at the individual differences between sets won't matter much when there are so many buffs. It is about knowing what to do and doing it more than anything. Even Shield not having heals or endurance clickies don't matter in a hardmode team so the easy answer of playing with DM is not really important. You just need to be tough and know when to get out of the way, and possibly pick something that has a big shield, like Rad Armor, since someone else can bring the HP buff.

@ZemX has already hit most of the nails on their heads but I'll add some more. Your ATO in Charged Brawl gives 6.7% to all resistances and it stacks up to three times. Mids always accounts for one and with it you're already at 94% to S/L. AWhile three stacks are not reliable because it has a duration and we can whiff an attack of the ATO simply does not proc, but two stacks can usually be reliably had. That will have your S/L resistance to 100%. More than 90% is useless. That means you can play with your slotting and increase the E/N resistances instead. You failed to get the recharge bonus from Preventive Medicine, twice! There is no point in slotting Overwhelming Force in Thunderstrike. The bonuses aren't good and TS doesn't need the KB>KD There is no point in slotting sleep in Jacob's Ladder (we might say no point in taking Jacob's Ladder but your mileage may vary). There is no point in slotting two Gift of the Ancients instead of finishing to slot four Wall Shields for the Negative resistances you're lacking. Spring attack is a bad attack. Unslotted as it is it's even worse. There is little point in slotting 5 Blistering Colds if you're not aiming for S/L defenses. Same for Avalanche in Lightning Rod. There might not even be a point in taking Tough and Weave since you can reliably take your S/L resistance to 90& without Tough and if you're not building for defense there is no need for Weave. You should try to find a place to squeeze Build-up even as a Tanker. Being able to burst down mobs in the first 10 seconds of combat removes a lot of incoming damage from the equation and as Lightning Melee you're already going to be lacking in damage. Decide on what you wish to do and I can take a pass at the build.

Oh heck, as am I. We gotta smack heads together. I'm @Sovera there, as well as ... Sovera 😄