Cutter

Not exactly, but I posted a Sav/Rad brute a few days ago that's gotten a bunch of looks but no comments, which must mean it's perfect and can be cribbed for tanking 🙂

For primaries, Willpower is generally regarded as one of the "friendliest" sets, and is often recommended for new tankers to get their feet wet. It can be built to be a good all-rounder. Outside of the rez and the T9, it's all toggles and autos, so you can focus on your secondary during play. Invulnerability is similarly "set and forget" (aside from Dull Pain), as are Super Reflexes and Shield. If you're mostly solo/duoing, tho, you likely can't go wrong with anything (except maybe Stone because of the movement limitations, which could be a "fun"-breaker for you). As far as secondaries are concerned, that's much more subjective and really comes down to what you want to play. I'd suggest rolling up a few combos that interest you and run them through a few DFBs and maybe DiBs. That would get you into the high teens quickly and give you somewhat of a feel for them. (That said, if I were to give a single recommendation, my current favourite is Elec Melee!) Hope some of that helps.

So I rolled this girl because of a name. I wasn't totally sure on things early so I went into this fairly blind; then I got into a couple steamrollers which were all kinds of fun, and suddenly she's at 34 and wanting to push for more, with no plan at all. Better late than never, as they say. I'm used to building tanks, not brutes, so while I have a reasonable grasp of slotting basics for melee ATs, I'm entirely unsure of the priorities and potentials here. The plan I've come up with seems like it has decent numbers, relying on Meltdown and Rune of Protection for big ugly stuff (tho not enough recharge to be able to go back to back, if such a thing is even possible). The 1-34 in the build plan is not where I'm at now (like I said going in blind), so I'll have to be pulling the trigger on a respec anyway. Biggest question is about that Meltdown/RoP plan - should I bother? Or just work on other aspects of the build that are "always up", as well as the recharge piece? Secondary question is simply - how much have I overlooked or mis-valued? Any slots weirdly out of place? (Yes I know Ground Zero could use 2 more, but from where?) Note that I'm not going for a giant dollar build, hence only the 1 purple set, no winters, and non-super ATOs (I could scrape other characters for a winter set or two if it would make that significant a difference). Here's where I am (just a powers screenshot): And here's where I (think I) want to be: Many thanks for your advice!

You mean, like they do with Beast Run active?

OK, so I totally cheated with the pants here 🙂 but this looks about as close as the colours are gonna get to hitting everything. Seeing the expanded palette told me I needed darken up the purple a shade, as well as the "sand" (it's not quite dark enough but I can't find anything that fits better). intox.costume

Yeah good call on that. Dumb*** me didn't actually to the page, just worked with the palette. Had I gone to the page I would have seen the individual colour breakdown better... Back to the drawing board!

Thank you. And sadly, yes it is 😞 I just couldn't dig up anything in the COH palette to match that second stripe (blue-biege? bleige?). Thinking on it now, I suspect the closest I could get to it would be using the blend effect somewhere. Hmmm...

Intoxicant - a wine-themed Poison/Water Defender. Over the top and snobbishly pretentious, with a slightly bitter aftertaste of absinthe and almonds... intox.costume

Yeah I'm not totally sure on the ST and procs math- definitely not my strength! On my Shield/Elec I use Charge Brawl > Havoc Punch > Charged Brawl > Mu Lightning for a true single target chain, at 137 DPS according to Mids. There are no procs anywhere. The chain is effectively gapless (I think there's the tiniest lag before the second ML comes back up) and works OK for me. The alternative is subbing Chain Induction for ML, which yields higher DPS but also higher end use, and I couldn't tell you about gaps with that one. I haven't tried out Gloom at all on a Tanker yet.

Looks solid to me. I'm in the same boat as you - really kinda winging it with this combo. My build is posted for you to have a look at & maybe poach ideas. Biggest difference is in the ST department, as I've taken Havoc Punch over Jacob's Ladder. It's kinda unconventional (I do have a backup plan in case it falls apart at the high end - only 31 atm) but it seems good enough.

Another player's name inspired me to go hunting, and I managed to snag Rad Riding Hood - she's a Savage/Rad brute. Just her luck that the wolf that ate gramma was an escaped test subject from a Crey lab...

Splattering Ram! I just fixed the OG post. The bio pic showed up as an image link instead of an image.

(I'll quit spamming after this one...)

And here's Dudebro, the personification of toxic masculinity... (SR/Rad tanker, redside)

SHADOWBEAST (Psi/Rad Broot)

Clean, simple and straightforward. Nicely done. I like the right (alternate?) version. It just "pops" more for me.

Yeah that's the biggest (negative) difference between the builds. Tho my number is without alpha - toggling on Vigor Core it pops up to a respectable 649%. I see you also have a truckload of recovery which is another place mine doesn't quite get there (it's not terrible mind you, just smaller 🙂 ).

I have a WP/Mace build that you could poach from as well.

Maybe there would need to be a "uniqueness" check on the frames? Say any given power can slot up to 3x doubles, 2x triples and 1x quad? This wouldn't be tied to the enhancements, just the type of frame itself.

First off, gratz on the milestone! That out of the way (and apologies if this is overly obvious information), I prefer starting my new 50s off by running them through Mender Ramiel's alpha unlock mission chain ASAP. While you do start earning incarnate xp for your alpha as soon as you ding 50, I'm 97% sure that the chain gets it done sooner than just running missions will (since no matter what your incarnate xp is at, the last mission automagically unlocks your alpha). After that, it's up to you and what you want to see. I generally follow up Mender Ramiel by going through the Dark Astoria intro from Captain Nolan, and start into the DA arcs. (The first one from Heather Townsend is infinitely repeatable via Ouro, and can be skated through quickly for a fast - if repetitive - grind for incarnate components. If you like that sort of thing.)

"Wait a minute, I didn't ask for shrimp!?!?"

As I read it, the latter. Set bonii on player-determined IO groupings would be a nightmare.

Seems like a neat idea! If I may add a couple of suggestions to your suggestion... Rarity (especially if they are AH-available) Dual - uncommon Triple and Quad - rare (with Quad being some amount "more rare" than Triples, without dipping into Super Rare territory) Levels Set up, say, 3 overlapping level bands that the frames could fall into 10-25 20-40 30-50 The player could use any IO that falls within the level band The only part I'm not totally convinced on is the bit about allowing multiple of the same IO to be slotted into the frame. It sounds a little too micro-manage-y and would likely require an even higher level of system mastery which could be a barrier. Question: you mention no boosting or catalyzing. What about attuning?

/sadface

I'm with @Psyonico, 5x Decimation (no Dam/Rech) for the set bonii. I throw it in my Rad/Fire's crappy ST chain: Scorch > LBE > Scorch > Incinerate is good enough for my needs.