SemanticAntics

Forgive my ignorance, but what is 801.5?

I played a SR/Rad Tanker to 50 a while back and found it to be quite solid. IIRC, it had 95% DDR, so precious little made more than a momentary dent in my defenses, and the scaling resists make so much more impact with the deeper HP pool Tankers have. It seemed like such a clever pairing with /Rad (giving it the damage aura and heal SR lacks), but I found the damage to be...slow. Enough to get through just about everything solo, though, so I didn't mind it. But I couldn't finish the LRSF. That last fight was a stalemate for me. If Scrapper /SR is comparable, I'm expecting great things. Even if it falls short, it'll still be very good.

Oh, yeah. That's what originally attracted me to the set back on live. The old "buzzsaw" build. High recharge, quick attacks, lots of procs. Of course, proc calculations have changed quite a bit since then, but it's still decent. I'm more of a Tanker player at heart, though. Generally, I'd rather be the last one standing at the end of a protracted battle than the glass cannon that either ends fights decisively or is running back from the hospital to try again. As you might guess, I could never get the hang of Blasters.

Thanks again for the advice, everyone. I plan to incorporate what I can of your advice and see how it goes. I'm optimistic about the tweaks. So, already considering my next project. Given the feedback I've gotten here and elsewhere, when I'm ready to move on I think I'd like to try some kind of walking-nuke build. The idea of being pure DPS has never appealed to me, but then again, I have never given it a sincere try. So, a combination survivable enough to deal damage (DPS is 0 if you die, obviously), but whose primary defense is dead arrested foes, with particular emphasis on taking down hard targets. What primary/secondary would you recommend for that?

Oh, I feel dumb. I play solo virtually all the time, so I've become accustomed to ignoring taunt powers. It never occurred to me. Good tip on the knockdown proc! I'll add that.

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. Since there seems to be a bit of confusion, I'd like to take a moment to clear something up: I'm looking for advice on how to best make use of a character I already have, not how the combination compares to the current meta. I get that it isn't top-tier DPS and that isn't a problem for me. I'm enjoying it and will continue playing it until I either hit 50 or get bored. Honestly, the only complaint I have right now is the runners. Maybe it's because I spend most of my time playing Tankers, but I seem to be spending a lot of time chasing down runners. Kill-all missions are the bane of my existence right now. But the combination itself runs well.

I had a DM/SR Scrapper back on live that I remember enjoying, but I don't think I've touched Scrappers in years. Many of the builds and threads I found when searching for this combination are quite old now and I'm not sure how the various changes have affected this pairing. I'm in my mid-20s and looking to start slotting IOs, and I'd appreciate some advice. I plan to build for defense (no sense playing /SR without softcapped defenses, right?) and recharge. Is that enough, or should I have other goals as well? Are there any particular powers or quirks I should be aware of with this combination? Thanks in advance.

I realized recently that Enforcer's Leadership abilities stack with multiple Thugs/ masterminds. Do any other henchmen have abilities that stack or otherwise benefit across multiple masterminds?

Is there a slash command or something that can prioritize targets affected by Contaminate? My eyes aren't what they used to be and picking out a contaminated foe amongst a crowd is pretty hit and miss by hand, leading to a lot of wasted opportunities for Radiation Siphon's heal. If not, are there any tricks that help with singling out contaminated targets? Thanks in advance.

So many excellent suggestions! I think I'm going to try out /Staff and /Martial Arts for ten or twenty levels and see which of the two I like better. /Radiation is one of my favorite melee sets, so I might try to squeak in one of those later, but I have an SR/Rad Tanker that is pretty sturdy. It sailed through the LRSF solo until the last mission, when I couldn't outpace the Heroes' regeneration. That was before the recent tanker changes, so that might be easier now. I haven't tried again due to lack of time lately.

Question in the title. I'm planning to make a new Tanker and I have a concept for Dark Armor, but the secondary is wide open. What combinations do you like, and why?

I explored the function of Burn a long time ago and found that the Flames component did not actually use any slotted accuracy. I was thinking this had been fixed some time after I pointed it out, though. Maybe the changes were rolled back. Flames inherits to-hit buffs (and I think accuracy buffs--it's been a while and I don't remember everything), so powers or effects that buff that (focused accuracy, insight, etc.) will make Flames hit more reliably while the effect lasts (only briefly, on toggle powers). Another thing Burn does is create not one Flames patch, but one for each enemy hit with the Burn primary attack. This is why you'll see so many to-hit rolls in the log and why there are so many damage numbers each time it ticks. As written, Burn should create one patch which burns up to five targets within for 13 ticks of damage. In practice, it creates up to five patches, each of which does 13 ticks of damage to up to five targets. I believe this was the cause of the "knockdown procs throw enemies out of burn patches" bug that was around for a while (that did get fixed, right?), as each patch would have a chance of proccing the knockdown effect and knockdown effects that happen close together stack.

Thanks for the input. I'm certainly leaning toward Bio/Spines now. After a quick search, I note that many of the builds I've seen skip Spine Burst. Is there a particular reason for that? Does it not translate well to a Tanker? Is it just because it's slow?

I have never tried Bio Armor before and I'm looking for a good secondary to go with it. I have a concept that lends itself to physical attacks (as opposed to elemental/energy/psychic) so I'm trying to decide between the following: Any of the weapon sets (except Dual Blades) Martial Arts (I'm disinclined to pick this set, personally) Savage Melee Spines (this is a pretty good fit for my concept) Stone Melee (this is a little bit of a stretch but, colored appropriately, can fit my concept) Street Justice I'd prefer average-or-better damage. With the coming changes, I'd prefer something with some good AoE powers. I would appreciate any recommendations and the reasons behind them.

You're going to want some accuracy in consume. It has to hit to work. Edit: Burn, too. Burn is about to be fixed so that it properly uses accuracy, but even now it is significantly better with accuracy slotted.