cprice

That makes sense then lol. They gave me the business lol. Is this where you extra Defense% comes into play with hedging for defense debuffs?

So I see you've been posting this build a few places on the forum. I'm an Ice/Kat tank. At times I feel pretty good and other I feel downright bad. How does your build operate on ALL content? I thought I had a solid build since I run ITF +4/8 with no issue, but when I fought Banished Pantheon in Dark Astoria mission arcs, they handed my a** to me if a support isn't on their game. I like ice/ tanks, but I don't want it to be a build where I have to seriously analyze the enemy and then say "What guys, let me grab an ult that can deal with this better."

I ask that as there are many sets that really don't cover everything, so we have to plug those holes up. Some sets I feel are harder to plug those holes though and it's really kind of annoying me. Reason it bugs me is because thematically there are some sets I like, but they seem to fall short of some the more popular primaries, so we would have to lean on a secondary as some sort of damage mitigation tool. I also don't want to fall into the crowd that makes a FOTM or in CoX case FOTY. I see so many of the typical tanks and not as much variety. There aren't even as many tanks out there as there used to be since people say Brutes can do the job ALMOST as well as any tank. I may be in the minority here in saying that as a Tanker, the dude that is supposed to be THE DUDE on the team that can withstand all the beating, it's really takes some of the fun out of the themes I or some other folks aim to build. What sets are the holes more easy to remediate? I'll be frank in saying my lvl 50+1 Ice tank can seem like a beast at times, but other I feel like a little B****! And I don't know what is a good path to make those holes less glaring. I want to start a new set, but I also don't want to fall into the same issue of plugging up a hole that is seemingly hard to plug. I know I people will say "Get pines and tinker away" which is fine, but that can be a lot of work. I've tried to get into the whole pines thing and it honestly makes me tired and confused making a build FROM SCRATCH. Finding a premade build and tweaking it proved problematic probably because I am not a Pine's guru or anything.

Been meaning to ask because I may be missing something here. What's the point of putting the defense WAY past 45% when there is the that streak breaker tossed into the mix. You know, when you you beasting and the game says "you are beasting too much, take a few of these hits pls." I could be missing something here and if I am, well then I have some work to do on my build.

I ask this because I would like to find another a secondary that is solo friendly. I have a fire/shield scrapper that can take on a lot of things on it's own. Not everything, but a lot of things. I am guessing it is the whole "positional defense" nature of the set. So does that make all secondaries with innate positional defense (like SR and NIN) more solo friendly? When I say solo I mean taking on large groups as well as AVs. I have a /DA toon that is softcapped s/l and maxed s/l resists. That toon is fine and all, but it's more of a team player. I know with some primaries, surviving while fighting large groups can go slower because of single target damage, but I'm more concerned with the surviving aspect. Any opinions on this matter?

I level up and specced out a DB/DA scrapper. Overhauled it twice and my take on it is that the Dmg is OK. You won't beat any record with it, but with the right attack chain, it is well serviceable to a team. Some of the secondary effects with the combos are nice. My issue with it is that you have to make sure you have some good accuracy or else you will be missing those important combos and that can hamper your DPS chain more than any other scrapper primary. With other primaries, if you miss an attack then you just move on to the next best attack that is up. With DB it's like "Damn I missed that attack. Gotta try and restart the next best combo chain." The combo oriented nature of its effectiveness is what turns people off sometimes. Also, keep in mind it is a bit endurance intensive as well. It isn't a bad set though. I also love the sound FX and animations!

That what my train of thought was with DM/FA and soul drain. Seems like an interesting combo on paper. I'll give it a go and see how I fare out. Let's hope I don't crash....and BURN! Ok, I'll see my way out.

I see it often on Brutes that run that fire/spines build, but could it work out on a scrapper WITHOUT SPINES? I don't particularly care for the looks of spines. I never ran a spine and I probably never will. As good as people say it is, thematically and aesthetically it does nothing for me. So, could /FA work one something else? I would like to try DM/FA or Kat/FA, but I'm afraid of the survivability aspect. Any thoughts?

Hey guys. So I found out about this great Homecoming server about a month ago. I've been having a blast, but something doesn't sit quite right with me. Throughout all my questing, teaming, and forum sifting, it seems that many villain ATs are preferred to the hero counterparts. Way more Brutes out there than Tanks. More Corruptors out there than Defenders. Doms and Controllers seem a bit equal in numbers (through my experience). Anyways, in my experience, that is the way it seems. The villain variants seem more solo-able. I more of an old school CoH person, so I tend to lean more towards Hero side ATs. Do you think this was the intention? To make the villains seem a bit more offense-driven rather than defensive? I personally wouldn't have any issue with it if the two sides were split and we only met up on the battlefield but as a Tanker purist Brutes tend to annoy me...because they can do my job! And with great offensive prowess! Let's be real here. Yes, Tankers have better survivability and maybe more effective taunting, but when you have a support or two, does it even really matter? Even some scrapper can go in and take the alpha strikes with or without the aid of a support. So, care to discuss? Let's not take this into belligerent and bashing. Just an interesting subject to me.

yes, most of the time it is Against All Odds! Once in a while, it's something else, but mostly that. I'm building more recharge as I go with the IOs. So eventually it won't be an issue. I found with enemies that slow recharge it can be a bit of an issue, but it is becoming less and less of an issue.

Hi Gang. I had a few questions concerning /shield defense and the build. 1. Is it a common occurrence for a random toggle to drop? Many times I will look at my abilities and notice a toggle has dropped apparently for no reason. I wasn't stunned or anything as I have active defense on auto and it SHOULD overlap, but it doesn't it just waits for the previous duration to expire and then activates again. 2. I notice all, if not, many /SD build have hasten. I have active defense on auto, so I assume we are just supposed to keep a close eye on that hasten ability and keep clicking every time? 3. I don't care for One with the Shield to much. Not a very good "oh ****" button in my opinion. So would any of you recommend a self heal or something from a pool power to replace it? I can already hear the voice in the back of the hall yelling, "a good shield scrapper doesn't need a bail out button! Just build good and git gud!" At this point in time, I end up needing that button occasionally. Lol. Any other shield defense tips would be nice. I paired it with Fire Melee.

With this build, is it necessary to have HASTEN? Is there any particular ability to we are looking to have up more often other than the Active Defense? I ask this because I have active defense on auto since it isn't a toggle (which is stupid to me) and have slotted two crafted enhancements there that made it permanent now. So I couldn't possibly make Hasten an auto power now.

Is this a possibly viable combo? Or how bad is it?

Thematically I made a Ice/Katana Tanker and I love it. Not because it gets the most DEEEPS or anything. I hold a lot of close aggro, I get a decent cone attack, one small cone attack, and then a PBAoe that does DoT. Icicles is my damage aura and IN MY OPINION isn't too shabby. I've gotten tons of props from the many groups I've played in. The disclaimer is I have yet to take it into Incarnate trials. I've gotten my T4 alpha ability and a few other T3 slots. I have enough resistance built up that when attacks do get through, I'm not dead in the water. I'm all IO set up, but not to the point of having all the purple sets. I have one purple set with Tanker's Might. So, I don't know if it is the best set, but I like it and it's my main.

I've been wondering about FM/SD myself. How viable is it late game? Does it take incarnate abilities to be "pretty good?"

I think I have been searching for it the wrong way, but is there a way to click a button to automagically target a member according to the number in the team party list?

I just made a Thermal/fire defender. I was looking for a build, but couldnt find much. Is it not viable? Does anyone have a build for it? Would be my first defender.

Thanks a lot for the build. Pretty pricey, but I bet the gist of it and will work toward something like that. Thanks for the side note too.

I have a level 50 DB/DA scrapper. Fun playing, fun animations, but I'm looking for more output. I'm seeing that the only combo worth using, and I mostly agree, is Attack Vitals. With that being said, should my aim when making IO sets be shorter global recharge time bonuses and perma hasten in order to get that attack vitals combo up and much as possible? Of course we know DA is an endurance hog, so of course I will be focusing on recovery too. Any suggestions? Any builds? I'm not really comfortable with the hero builder as far as experimenting with build inside of that.

I know I may get roasted for this kind of question as many people who seem to know a lot about these things think we all have the same wealth of knowledge. So, I'm having trouble trying to decide on a main because I don't want to go down a path where I am having fun with a primary, but in the end it is weak at what it is trying to accomplish. Like maybe there is a primary that is more AoE focused but doesn't to it right or single target damage is lacking at takes a lot of IOs to make viable for some harder end game stuff. Or maybe there is one that is more focused on weakening the mobs so they are easy for others or me to take out or something. Help? I've have a high-level DB/DA and KM/Regen. I just want to know if I want to tackle some high-level content be it solo or team, what primaries I should avoid.

I was going to try dual blade/dark armor, but I'm almost afraid that the leveling process will be a nightmare. Thoughts?