KaizenSoze

Yes, bane ranged attacks really suck. Even Poisonous ray isn't great unless paired with venom grenade's -40 toxic resists. The rest of venom nade resist debuffs are -20. On top of that, the most of the animations are 2 secs. You literal set your feet and fire, the result plink! little damage. Except PR. That thread I linked to goes over crits, re-hide timers, redraw, dead horses, etc..

This could work just as well for taunting. Especially, since it's optional.

This is an awesome idea! Would fix so many issues for my VEAT chars.

Stealing an idea from the Gravity Control Pet changes on beta. Similar to Sonic: Disruption Field, which anchors a AOE -30% resist debuff player. Great for sticking on the tank. Grav pets are now pulling mobs to them. A reverse Repulsion Field field. Have it anchor on the aggro sink to help keep mobs clumped.

This is a vague general suggestion. The +5 or higher mobs should retain the same defense and resistance as +4 mobs, but with new buffs. Buffs that help mitigate the player alpha strikes and are de-toggled by mezes. Forcing a longer fight, but without the tedious missing and tiny damage. For instance, an absorb shield for all mobs, that scales up with level difference.

This I very much disagree on. I have tanked 4x8 DA "radio" missions, using AOE to keep aggro with my Fort. If I can solo 4x8 anything in PI and DA radios, then I can survive having a taunt aura. I have tanked lower level TFs. But, yes, not an ITF, too much constant -defense. A fully built out crab has close to 2000 hp with perma-serum, 50% resists in several categories. Widow scaling resists make them very sturdy, you have to get comfortable with running at reduced hps. This took me awhile, kept hits green insps out of reflex. Can VEATs tank Incarnate trials, probably not. But to say they cannot tank on teams. Just isn't true.

You might want to read the linked forum post. The VEAT inherent is lacking, to say the least. Once, you have accolades and the right IOs it's not a problem, but it's painful leveling from scratch. But the inherent is not providing a unique benefit in my opinion. My suggestion is new and not covered in that thread. Maybe they are not a great suggestions, but it does give them a unique flavor. I wanted to avoid re-hashing all the old discussion points. Hence, my beating a dead horse joke. As for damage, Forts and Crabs are fine. Forts have massive burst damage potential. Crabberminds at least are DPS monsters, just not burst monsters. Night widows are superior to all mace Banes. Both fall far noticeably behind behind Forts and Crabs. To give you an idea of the disparity between Forts and NW. There is a testing thread in the scrapper forum, where the second fastest clear time is a Fort build, just under 5 mins. Where a NW build took 7 mins, which is not horrible, but much slower. And Banes are generally weaker than NWs. Here's a whole thread were I tried to come up with a pure mace build, to avoid that horrible DPS eating redraw. I was able to solo at the same difficulty as a NW, but my god is was so much more effort. Also, I would not call Bane attacks fast animating, it's one of their issues. Yes, though NWs are claw blenders that drink end.

After putting in even more time into VEATs. A few more suggestions specific to Night Widows and Banes. Replace their single target placate with a better version of Concealment: Misdirection. Depending on how it's implemented, this could be the venom nade for NW and Banes. Of course, it would have to preclude Venom nade for the banes. Misdirection could be the replacement for NW's level 32 power. which honestly sucks for a t9 power. Also, give them a weak taunt aura. Nothing that would interfere with tanker or brute taunting. Would make soloing a lot easier. I think these two changes would make them unique compared to Fortunatas and Crabs. Our previous sadonecrobeastality...

My vague impression of the power order of VEATs. When I say power, I mean combined dps/defense 1. Crabberminds - king of VEAT DPS 2. Forts - ranged or melee hybrids 3. Huntsman/Petless crabs/Night Widows - depends wildly on build 4. Pure mace banes - the lack of good AOE is crippling, but using huntsman attacks causes DPS eating redraw

I changed to the Energy Master pool after a fight with five death mages. So, much -acc. Focused Accuracy fixes that issue and the Gaussian set provides a bit more defense. All the other slotting is the same.

Thou that I am not familiar in the ways of tankers. I have put together this Rad/Elec offering. I pray that you will correct my errant slotting. On the beta server was able to achieve this feats. (So, the build is not horrible) Heard the voice of the gods... radios... and soloed 4x8 everything PI and DA. Punish that harlot Clamor in a solo 0x8 Yin TF. (Actually, very easy) I only fell to the horde at the end of the first ITF. (Trying to tank a bunch of Crims and Nictus at once was too much)

I don't even take Evisceration on my Night Widow. It really meses up the attack rhythm. I use those slots for more AOE, usually Mu.

My current project is a huntsbane. Pros: Good defense and resists Single target damage is better than expected Can solo 4x8 anything in PI and DA. Ageless radial for DDR Good debuffer, makes great use of -40 toxic resists from venom grenade Attack rotation is very small, but is gapless even at 25 Cons: Expensive Notes: If you are wondering why I didn't take Experimentation: Toxic Dart Caused lots of redraw in my attack chain The dot is very long, so long that I could have rotated through my current attack chain again before it finishes Experimentation Injection is a nice support power at lower levels, endurance and mezz resistance Corrosive Vial is weird power Single target attack, but creates a damage patch Because it's single target with a long recharge it almost always procs on the initial target If it misses, no damage patch You can venom grenade after the patch is created and still get the benefit of -40 toxic resists Adrenal Boost 34% damage, tohit, recharge for a minute Mids is bugged, it doesn't directly boost your defense. It a power boost power. Mind link would benefit for instance. I have enough recharge to have it up 1/3 of the time

@Kanil I am running my Fort through the mission. I would love to see your Fort build. I think it's because I am old and slow, but my times aren't as good as yours.

@hakurr Yes, two slots in TT:Offensive is unnecessary. Two end red in TT:Assault is unnecessary, because TT:Assault is cheaper than Leadership assault. Crowd Control and Shatter do not need -kb, they are knockdown only. Unless you're hitting lower level mobs. If you are going to only melee attacks, then put Dominion into Crowd Control. And Touch of death into Pummel. You'll only lose a little melee def. I will politely disagree with Gulbasaur. Banes do not get Widow scaling resists. I think tough is useful. Nice resists by the way. The problem with pure melee banes are they lack good AOE. Not to say they are bad, they are decent. If you were to add in Venom and Frag grenade, it will greatly improve your AOE and single target damage. You'll have to pay the gun-mace redraw tax sadly. See bottom of thread for my Huntsbane build. It's not quite finished, but very close. It's a monster, but much more expensive than your build. You can read this thread where I tried a bunch of different pure mace builds. Huntsbane:

Laying attacks/debuff which cause explosions! Like the disintegration effect but with a big boom if you lay on a opposite effect. Positive/Negative stuff like in atomic manp. They would have to be quick powers, or you would never get them off in the current game. Or a series of debuff that build on each other. Great for AV-GM fights.

Ignore the prestige resetting double jump. It's in the patch notes. Double jump timer resetting on zoning is still probably a bug.

If Super Jump: Double Jump expires normally, it also causing the two prestige jumps to reset.

Follow up testing. Canceling either prestige jump, will cause Super Jump: Double Jump to reset. Even if Super Jump: Double Jump is never turned on

I created a char for testing travel powers. I crammed as many powers as I could into him. Found one odd interaction between Super jump and the prestige jump powers Steam Jump and Jump Pack. Canceling behavior: 1. Turn on Super Jump 2. Turn on Prestige: Jump Pack 3. Turn on Super Jump: Double Jump 4. They stack nicely 5. Turn on Prestige: Steam jump 6. All three powers are canceled and you have to wait for recharge 7. I understand that they two prestige jumps are mutually exclusive, but they are canceling Super Jump: Double Jump. Even if you have not started Super Jump: Double Jump Zoning behavior: 1. After causing all three jump power to cancel as described above 2. Zone and Super Jump: Double Jump is recharged, but the two prestige power are not 3. I would expect all three to still be recharging

If you were going to build a tanker to tank just one specific task force forever. What build would you use for each task force, incarnates TFs included? Example: Yin, max level 25. Electric/Radiation, Freakshow are weak to energy, electric armor gives you endurance drain resistance plus end drain.

I updated to include the three mobs at can give you fits at 54. Archnos, PPD, and Soldiers of Rularuu.

It has started working a few hours later.

The new launcher is not showing this behavior. Tequila 1.0.0.20. Getting this error today, when it required me to update. Download error: hc-bin32/cityofheroes-pre.exe Size mismatch (9084928 vs 9085952) Checksum Mismatch (cd1520a36919e7b1fea4878fb31e1513 vs c6b95f60a4d7a92293f8c1ec0b6699c2)Download error: hc-bin64/cityofheroes-pre.exe Size mismatch (10761216 vs 10761728) Checksum Mismatch (65fe6712a7b988ff836183e44c5a6516 vs 0bfd9f607aa38e185911e68632a4e8ac) Revalidating did not fix anything. Beta URL: http://patch.savecoh.com/beta.xml

There is a saying in software. Software is not released, it escapes. I have tortured this build enough for now. 🙂 Final version for now.