ninja surprise

The thing that bugged me about Hjarki's tips was that OP asked for Ice/Stone advice and Hjarki recommended taking as few powers from the sets as possible and replacing them with pool powers. And sure, that's one way to do it but then why play this combo at all if the goal is to avoid the set's powers? The ultimate build along that path is "don't take any defense or attack powers just team up with defenders and blasters".

You should totally go Psi Melee to plug Invuln's psi hole!

Here's a level-up build that'll have you soft-capped to smashing and lethal by 20, and pretty close on E/N. You can slot the Kinetic Combats at level 17 and even if you use level 20 Def IOs in Frozen Armor you'll be soft-capped, or close. At 22 you can use lvl 25 IOs to really soft-cap. No pool powers necessary except Combat Jumping, because who doesn't take CJ? Oops, in the build I'd swap places of Chilling Embrace and the travel power so you can get around on Positron and Synapse while leveling up. It's probably less than 100 mil depending on how many of the uniques you get. The ones in Health and LotG+rech are optional. If you exep onto a Yin you'll be soft-capped to the big 4 and still have Energy Absorption in case the Freak stunners sap out your endurance. You can take whatever Epic or Patron pool you like the most: Earth for theme, Soul for the -tohit stuff, Fire for damage, it doesn't really matter. And here's the guide: Ice Armor, or I'M AN ICEBERG COMING THROUGH TOOT TOOT Frozen Armor: Default S/L Defense. Three-slot Def Hoarfrost: Save it till the 20's when critters do real damage. 4-slot heal/rech Chilling Embrace: Take it in the teens, one-slot slow or whatever. Wet Ice: Take it ASAP. One-slot Rech so you can turn it back on quicker after a toggle-drop. Permafrost: Take it ASAP and give it both the Gladiator's Armor and Steadfast Protection uniques for +6% def. Icicles: Take it immediately. Three-slot with Eradication Acc/Dam/End. Eventually add three Cleaving Blow for the +E/N defense bonus. Glacial Armor: Gives E/N Def and +Perception. Three-slot Def. Energy Absorption. Gets all your endurance back for very little effort. Give it a bit of Acc and End/Rech and use it any time you get carried away SMASHING EVERYTHING WITH DIRT or a sapper gets through. Hibernate. You are literally unkillable in Hibernate. Some use it as a panic button but the true Avalanche can grab a full mob's aggro and avoid the alpha strike in Hibernate, then pop out with the twin AoE KD stomps and SMASH everything. Only costs a smidge of endurance so it's another way to recover from Sappers and both recover Endurance and Health mighty quick. Stone Melee, or WHO PUT ROCKS IN THAT SNOWBALL Stone Fist = Smash badguys with a fist of stone. Take it and 4-slot with Kinetic Combat Stone Mallet. Smash badguys with a mallet of stone. Take it and 4-slot with Kinetic Combat Heavy Mallet. Smash badguys with a bigger mallet of stone. Take it and 4-slot with Kinetic Combat NOTE: Each of these has chance to knockdown, so with all three you'll be knocking over badguys regularly, which is hilarious and useful. Taunt. Take this later after you're soft-capped. Build-Up: take it later after everything else has minimum slots Fault. Three slot it with Acc/Rech and a Force Feedback +Rech. Use this as your Taunt and to keep spawns off their feet so they can't attack your team. It's hilarious. Hurl Boulder. Fantastic power. Same damage as Stone Mallet with the same range as a Blaster's blast: 80ft! Also does -Fly! You'll have it on the Katie Hannon TF and can knock Mary MacComber right out of the sky and on her duff, or take out flying Freaks on Penelope Yin's TF. Recharges quick enough you can almost get it perma, which is AWESOME. Make a "Here's mud in your eye!" bind for endless entertainment. Tremor. Good PBAoE. Give it three Eradication and three Cleaving Blow to max dam/rech with two +Def bonuses for E/N defense. Seismic Smash. Your big gun. Give it Crushing Impacts for the +Rech bonus, and then a dam/end/rech to help it come back quicker. At 50 you can keep pretty close to this build so that exemping is a blast, but swap IO sets for bigger bonuses.

It's a great place for the resist sets' +Def uniques. Aaand I just noticed you said that in a later post. I can post a build later. Ignore all of Hjarki's opinions. He's giving some bizarre version of a dark blast / ice armor stalker with a couple of Stone attacks. You're going Ice/Stone because you want SMASH. You want to be an ICEBERG OF DOOM. You can only do that by taking all of the powers from both sets! I'll post a build later when I get to my PC.

Since the starting values on passives are so small, it can be overkill to more than one-slot a passive. One slot, definitely. Two slots, probably. Three slots if you have slots and inf to spare and don't mind you're only getting about half a percent increase to the total value. Back to OP: What primary/secondary pairings are particularly good for Tankers (or for which type of content)? Energy Aura / War Mace is both strong and pretty, and great for all content except the stuff it doesn't have high defense against. What Primary/Secondary pairing are particularly bad for Tankers (or for what type of content)? Stone Armor / Anything is bad for any content with stairs.

Yep it's underpowered until you get all 3 toggles and all 3 passives. But when you get those and your attacks 6-slotted for +def bonuses you'll be unhittable and riding the SR high.

That's a fantastic idea! Never thought of doing that before.

What I'd like to see is an explanation of what the powers do and what good enhancement options for them are. Just looking at Bio in Mids it seems I can either buff my survivability by eliminating my damage output, or boost my damage by becoming a glass cannon. Can Bio be tough and have good damage output?

Forums are funny. OP: I'm level 24 and can't afford SOs. Replies: Here's level 50 builds with every proc, purple, super-rare, and AT IO in the game. Super0Fluffy - if you have some time you can make some money by going into the /ah, look for level 50 - 54 SOs, bid about 10k on 'em, then sell them to the matching origin store for max inf. If you ran TFs go to a merit vendor and trade the merits for enhancement boosters. Those sell for about 1.5 mil. You can also browse the /ah for cheap recipes and sell them to a store (typically bid 1k and sell for 15k, etc) It takes a while, but if you bid in the evening and log back in the next afternoon you'll usually have purchased a lot of stuff to sell, and then you're on the way to cash-flush.

What level are you? If you're not at level 22 using level 25 SO/IOs with an EndRedux in each attack you're still just going through growing pains. /Fire eventually gets an endurance recovery power, then things get easier.

Do you know what levels you'll spend the most time at? Regen matures early with extra endurance. Energy Aura and Ice Armor are both easy to softcap to S/L by 20.

Basically you can be as unpunchable as a Tank but won't be able to take as many hits as a Tank. Can't hold aggro as well. But I've played Scrappers that survive as long as the team's tank. Occasionally outlast them because the Tank pulls the most aggro due to the inherent taunt mechanics.

Speaking as a primarily melee AT player, having a Corrupter on the team means I never have to bother attacking something low on health because I know the next AoE with Scourge will take care of it.

This is exactly what I was searching to find out. I really hope to get permadom without hasten so I can have it on auto, but wondered how it worked if you had to build domination every time regardless. Glad to find out this is how it works.

Thanks for those tips! I've never looked at the Winters since those were pretty expensive last time I looked. Hadn't even thought of taking a hold to get Entomb! Just got into the low 40's on that ITF so no incarnate bonuses yet. With this NE hole I was debating whether to continue or switch to a StJ/Ninjitsu Scrapper.

Whichever of those means you can't see a shield on the arm.

*that's* what causes it? I have a shield tank with costumes using the small male, huge male, and female frames. I'm always shocked and horrified when the female scream-taunts vs. when all my other female toons do that quiet "Ha!" taunt. So annoying.

Is soft-capping Energy Aura to Negative Energy possible or feasible? I've been happily cruising my Street Justice / Energy Aura brute up through the levels. Got most S/L/E to 45% but NE is still about 35%. Didn't worry about it too much until my first ITF, then those Dwarfs and Rommie at the end would just wipe me out with a couple Mires. The bonuses I've seen pair Energy and Negative Energy. Do I just need to suck it up and try to go for 55/45% E/NE defense or is there a source of pure NE defense bonus?

Here's level-up tips that are bare minimum & cheap. As you complete tasks forces and make inf you can add set bonuses. Ninja Reflexes: 3-slot defense Danger Sense: 3-slot defense Shinobi-iri: 1-slot defense Add in Combat Jumping here at some point, put in a Karma anti-kb because you don't get knockback protection until level 28 and you'll get slapped all over on low-level TFs. Kuji-In Rin: 2-slot Recharge, or 3 if you want to be certain it's always active until you get +recharge bonuses. You can take any travel power you want here. I always take Mystic Flight now so I can TP across long zones and flying is the only heroic way to travel. You could take Air Superiority in place of a MA attack and Flight, plus Hover and Afterburner for 1-slot LotG powers. Seishinteki Kyoyo: 3-slot recharge, eventually 2-slot endmod/rech + at least one pure recharge. I use this constantly during battle, every time it's up. Kuji-In Sha: 3-slot recharge, eventually 4-slot Heal/Recharge Bo Ryaku: 2-slot with both of the Resist +Def uniques from Gladiator's Armor and Steadfast Protection. Because of this you don't need Tough! People debate whether to skip Blinding Powder or Kuji-In Retsu, up to you. Add Maneuvers, three-slotted for defense Now you should have about 35% def to melee/ranged/aoe. When you get cash 6-slot your attacks with: Touch of Death for Melee def Mako's Bite for Ranged def PBAoE powers with Eradication for AoE def In NR, DS, and Maneuvers 5-slot Red Fortune and a LotG +Rech for some global recharge and you'll be doing great on a fairly cheap build. I have a Titan / Ninja and it's a blast.

I'm in this line too.

I just started one because it looked like an ideal Bloodshot tribute character, and it's been fun blasting through 4 DFBs to get to level 14. Next I'll start on the TFC task forces and radio missions. Thanks for this thread though, because I have no idea what to do with Bio.

I sure wish Translocation could be enhanced.

I love Stone Melee and wish it were available to Scrappers. Like KelvinKole says - (but I have screen shake disabled) the smashing, chunks of dirt flying, knocking critters around, throwing a boulder at a flying enemy and knocking them to the ground... loads of fun. Fire blasting is my favorite blasting. I think I've tried all the others and just didn't like them as much based mostly on sound effects. The whooshes of the fire blasts just work for me. BUT I can't stand Fire Melee, especially one attack that makes a loud shrieking sound. I like Dark Melee to pair with a secondary that doesn't have a self-heal or endurance recovery. DM/SR was my first 50 and I also love it with Ice Armor, even though it has a heal and endurance. The last two favorites would be tied between Electric Melee, Staff, and Dual Blades. I have an incarnate Titan/Ninjitsu Scrapper that I thought would be my main but then I keep playing my tanks in SR/Elec and Shield/Earth. So may fun combos!

Heresy! The doomcloud must flow!

How to put this delicately: Some people, who feel inferior, think they have to tear down that which is superior, in order to feel better about themselves. Other people are just trolls. Dark/Dark's a great combo, here's why: Things that people complain about in Dark Armor are addressed in Dark Melee, and vice-versa. DM is light on AoE - DA has Death Shroud DA is an endurance hog - DM has Dark Consumption to solve your endurance woes. Cloak of Fear is Mag 2, add a Mag 3 Touch of Fear and you've scared the boss. Soul Drain is a fantastic build up and buffs your DA cloak attacks in addition to your primary attacks. Dark Armor provides probably the most Psi resist of any armor set and can be built with tons of defense and overall resist, as shown by builds posted here. The only real drawback is that you may never see your costume again. Looking at other ATs all the various Dark powersets are pretty darn sweet.