Onlyasandwich

Hello Mastermindians! I have been running this venerable combo with a pretty strong build, but the introduction of the ice mistral proc brought me to revisit. It wasn't a hard task to find the slot I needed to pop this in Demon Prince, but I see a few other spots for optimization that I would love your insight on. Here's the build: The essential question is how I will manage endurance, and whether Victory Rush is too much of a pain, as well as the tradeoffs involved in fixing things with Ageless. Victory Rush here works pretty well as a one-slot wonder, but has pretty wonky mechanics. It has ~40% up time, and solves endurance woes pretty completely when up. This gives me a sort of "beast mode" where I can slam attacks without care. To be honest, half the time I'm too busy with other tasks supporting my pets. The problem is that it's finicky. If you have any strategies for using victory rush effectively I'd love to hear them! Manually targeting a boss or LT corpse is very annoying. It's pretty useless if you end up getting a minion. If I drop it, I have a few options: Pick up Hover and mule it for a lotg. More recharge woo! I probably won't actually use hover on this character though - it's just not in theme and a bit awkward for the way he fights. Purely a mule. Same but mule out my reactive defense scaling resist. This frees up a slot to do whatever with. Whatever what though? I don't see any really useful gains with one slot, at least not compared to a lotg. Pick up a travel power instead. Teleport would be in theme. I could also pop a winter's gift in there for more slow resist. I could solve the end crisis with Ageless of course for 50+ content. However, Clarion is really attractive here, not just for the obvious self mez-prot, but to keep my demons from being knocked about. Endurance management even without victory rush right now is workable - I just can't willy nilly spam attacks. What do you think, and where would you fall on these questions? Do you see any neat spots for further improvement?

Have you been able to see if targeted aoe procs go off in the non damage portion? Based on how most procs work, I would think they don't, but am not certain how it's working in fault with the changes.

Scaling resist and more open slotting opportunities would be another! I agree that SD probably has the most optimized outcome when properly built, but SR achieves softcap or even incarnate softcaps effortlessly. Scaling resists with tanker HP allow you to largely ignore much additional resist stacking, though I do still like to have a healthy s/l baseline.

I was skeptical about ice/ before leveling mine, but it does feel like more than the sum of its rather uninspiring parts. I do think it could use a little love perhaps, but it does have strengths: Aggro as mentioned already. Certainly any tanker can do this, but it's effortless and super reliable on ice. Bottomless endurance. Energy absorption is one of the few end buff powers that I like to spam on cooldown regardless of my blue bar. The def buff is solid, animation is fast, and it grabs additional aggro as well. Always up when you need it - no need to hold back. This makes it easier to run end hungry secondaries or even keep pigs like focused accuracy on all the time. Hibernate is actually pretty neat! This is by no means a game changer, but allows you to push your limits without fear. Running FA and not worrying much about end support frees up some slotting for more procs or shoring up resists. Chilling embrace is more than just an aggro grabber - it is a potent autohit debuff. -dam and -recharge layer very well with your high defense, and provide greater overall protection than you might think.

As long as you can survive and hit things, there is not a substantial difference between any combo. What you bring to the team is aggro control, and all tanks are great at it. Optimizing this aspect of the class is more about your approach to combat. I recommend picking the sets you find fun and thematic, making the best build you can. If that means you want more buffy or controllery powers, that's fine! However, any tank you make is going to do a great job keeping the mobs tight and your team safe.

If I am chasing ranged defense, I'll definitely slot the full six for bastion as you say, typically in a less proc worthy power like a fast cycling aoe. Bastion proc will still have a high chance to fire, and I mitigate the opportunity cost of not slotting other procs. If ranged defense is less of a priority, I'll definitely part out the proc so it can be used in an ideal power, especially in a primary that otherwise lacks a heal. I wouldn't underestimate either of our ato procs, in any case! If you slot them mindfully, one or two of your attacks will passively provide an impressive amount of absorb and healing. They stack up quite well against what other ats get, and affect the whole team.

It has a very high proc rate of 5 ppm. As such, it has excellent proc chances even in a moderate recharge single target power. An aoe is fine, but I prefer it in either my snipe or heavy hitter (blaze, lancer, executioner shot, etc). This allows you to benefit from the healing in scenarios where aoes aren't as much in use, like pounding on an AV. Whatever power it goes in I avoid slotting extra recharge to maximize proc chance. It goes off pretty much every time this way. The amount of healing in a typical fight is actually quite impressive! It also happens passively, which is even better. It's all the healing any of my defenders ever really need.

This is my mo lately as well. The only exception being when I'm blasting DA arcs over and over to max my incarnates ASAP. Otherwise I just grab my t3 and passively gain shards and notices until I have enough for my t4 alpha.

Here is a first effort at a build following these priorities. This build focuses on moderate recharge (only 7 sec shy of perma-hasten), heavy defense and S/L resist, with proccy damage bombs where appropriate. All positionals are 47+, with Melee at 50. I also hate recharge/speed debuffs - this build is completely immune to them. It achieves massive accuracy bonuses as a side-effect. This isn't really by design, but a happy bonus, and allows me to proc out Shred more aggressively. Between this and tactics, you will not have any trouble hitting! A few things worth noting: Savage Leap is an amazing proc bomb power. Base damage enhancement may not be quite maxed here, but SL takes better to proc damage overall. This also gives you more headroom for buffs. Savage leap is also a part of your single target attack chain - it does very worthy damage. Open with it where possible, as it will reliably apply the -res debuff from the fury proc. You will have some gaps in your attack chain at lower levels. I heavily doubled down on resists with the full lotg sets. You could swap these for lotg+ 5 red fortune for more recharge focus. The resists I pursued outside of S/L were Psi/toxic. There are certain attacks from these categories that are nonpositional, and would bypass defense (maybe they fixed updated this in a patch I missed - certainly is historically the case). There really isn't a perfect place for the 50% crit ATO proc. Keep in mind this proc has a little over a 3 second duration buff. The idea is to use Savage Strike > Moonbeam > Savage Strike in the buff window. Endurance management is so-so with the leadership toggles running. SR doesn't have any endurance tools, and I haven't picked any from the epic. If you find yourself sucking wind too much for your taste, keep in mind you can detoggle maneuvers for most content with no impact. You could also rework it for body mastery epic, or pick up Ageless if that's your cup of tea. Shadow meld is an easy swap for whatever else you might want. The idea is to use it in incarnate content if you are lacking further buffs/debuffs, or when your defenses are being overwhelmed. You do have strong DDR, so probably won't be using it much if at all in regular content. Another option would be to drop shadow meld, scavenge slots from the lotg sets, and grab Soul storm, slotting it out with a bit of acc/dam and tons of procs. This would synergize nicely with the good global recharge, and give you another really punchy single target power. You would lose some resist and the headroom of Shadow meld in the trade, of course. There are many ways to further optimize to taste, but hopefully you find the foundation helpful! /SR is extremely flexible in slotting.

Hello there! You might find more success with build feedback with a few extra bits of information: The current build you are using/working on. Your goals with this build. (Be immortal, max damage at all costs, beefy psi Res, travel type, etc) General budget (infinite money, lotsa money, frugal, etc).

Yeah, this is where I find the real value on Font. It can pull extra aggro over yours or the pet's cap, giving better clumping, and take a hit here and there. The damage is kinda wonky and piddling. Mostly it looks pretty neat. 🙂 I just like having little balls floating around me.

@Nemu, thank you for taking the time to assemble an alternative perspective! The mids issue you describe was fixed in a recent update, fortunately. Even after applying the update, I was still having the error initially. I had to delete my data folder, then just copy over the data folder from the newest zip instead. Not sure why that made a difference vs extract/replace, but now my def debuff Alphas (musculature radial included) are no longer erroneously buffing defense. This is definitely a very different take on the build - much more geared towards offense, which I like. However, for my Scrappers I do prefer a more dumbfire playstyle, and am enjoying the higher resist layer. Otherwise I'd just roll another blaster. Granted, why wouldn't I just make another blaster anyhow? They're amazing. 😄 Still, I think there are lessons to take away from your build for sure. Very fair point RE Shadow Meld and psi damage. It will still give extra def pad for cascades, and provide more general utility against psi attackers. I'll switch out overload. I share your hatred of blinds. To pick up man/tactics, I'd have to kill CJ and evasive. Not a bad trade, as evasive is just a mule really, and the defense with maneuvers is a wash. I would have to retool slotting to make up for the lost mule. I'll play with it and see. Update: I did actually work tactics and maneuvers in, dropping CJ and evasive as mentioned. I scrounged the slot from Miracle, which I might regret when exemping. We'll see how this runs when I'm up there - I don't want to be too reliant on energy drain and get caught spending half my time in its animation cycle, or be catching wind single target. The upsides are that Maneuvers provides a hair more defense total, and tactics is much more useful than evasive overall. One new question this brings up - where to slot gaussian proc? I have it in soul drain, which is great when a crowd is about, but perhaps tactics would be better overall? It has great uptime on teams when in tactics.

I had forgotten it too until I pulled up the set! It's a great power, but I guess not as emblematic.

I guess mind does present a bit of a problem. I would consider ignoring energy font here. There isn't really an ideal spot, unless you just want the set bonuses anyhow. Energy font does minor aoe damage and takes occasional aggro. It's not very noticeable unless you have it in a heavily cycled aoe. Terrify would be my closest pick.

Got it! I hadn't really considered that it had a duration, rather than being consumed upon next attack. That makes way more sense. In that case, it is all about damage dealt in the buff window rather than the one big spender. I'll play around with placement once I have the snipe and see what flows best, but your insight has been very helpful.

Interesting! What does your rotation look like with this setup? I would think having the crit proc affect Midnight Grasp, the hardest hitting power, would be ideal. What do you usually "spend" the proc on when it fires?

Definitely agree on this front! Most of my shielders end up taking it for at least this reason. However, if you have the new Aeon TF in mind, there are some further reasons you might be motivated to pick up a T9 oh crap power. If you can pop to 100% resist (as in total bonuses, not actual effective resist value - of course that caps at 90%), you will be immune to resist debuffs of that damage type. This isn't really relevant in most other content, but can be a boon on harder difficulties for Aeon.

I would say fire is an overall superior blast set on any AT as far damage is concerned, and top tier on blasters. It has the native goods to light your oil slick as well. Archery is more popular to combo with TA simply for the sake of theme. Exploding arrow is a nice consistent spot for FFback proc as well. Other than that, it has an inferior damage type, and no way to light osa without procs. You can always light it with net arrow or procs of course. It does fine work of course if you like the theme. I rather like it myself, and it has a fluid feel. Note that blaster osa is a pale shadow of the support power. Strong enough damage but very small radius. Still quite useful! TA can be played quite well at range, so there is perhaps something to be said for a ranged nuke. Not a big deal though, as TA powers do work just as well in melee range, and jousting is a thing.

Mass hypnosis would be counterproductive, as the font does damage. I typically put it in my aoe immob, but any control you use a lot will work. I'll often have 2-3 out at once.

Ha! Fair enough. I can see where exemplar acc would be a challenge with the acc enhancement scaling down. Definitely something that can be fiddled with along the way according to how it feels.

I've been playing this guy up to level 30 now, and he's finally starting to click together! What an absolute joy EA is - I'm sure any combo would coast along nicely on the strength of this alone. From a DM perspective, I find myself liking touch of fear much more than anticipated. It's a pretty healthy aoe with fast cycle time, and the debuff is handy with a defense based set. Procced out it does good damage, and of course takes some very useful sets. I'm still not sure what to do with Siphon Life. I need to put it through the paces at higher level to see how much difference the heal enhancement makes. I may still end up dropping the extra heal slots for more procs. It is kinda poopy that it does comparable damage to Smite with twice the cast time. Right now its primary purpose is to activate the crit strikes proc for a better attack. So far end consumption is just fine! Energize seems to solve any issues, and of course I'll have absorption to lean on later. Would love further perspective from anyone who cares to look!

Looks like a really fun build, @Nemu! It's definitely fun to explore alternate means of mitigation, and doubling down on a theme like this gives a great excuse to play with some of these less appreciated powers. The slotting looks really good - very much in line with how I would build such a character. The only input I have is very subjective/personal taste. Here are the very tiny changes I would make if it were for my own use. It sacrifices one 9% acc bonus, but I think the defensive trade-offs are worth considering, especially the addition of the PM proc, which is especially nice on defense builds. You do gain some extra resists and a smidge of recharge. You had already swapped this out previously in pursuit of that extra bit of acc, so may prioritize that of course. It would be cool to see Shuriken made useful here. Is it just present for theme, and your ST is handled well enough in primary? I can see that there aren't really any easy slot cuts to make for beef here.

Ice Patch does indeed serve my KD needs quite well! A bit of passive mitigation from the proc wouldn't be bad, but the risk of doubling up would not be worth the annoyance, I think.

I'm glad it was useful! Those impervium psi resist slots could easily be cannibalized to round out end priorities, and recoup some of the def pad. It sounds like that was one of your cuts, which makes sense. I definitely understand why having a bit of pad is nice. I have historically gone for even incarnate softcaps myself where possible, but have taken a more intermediate approach lately, giving myself more room to benefit from buffs. In practice, I find end management quite satisfactory on stone with the buffs! You can always feel it out once built and open up slotting further if you find yourself a bit too flush with blue. I haven't had the chance to play with geode yet, having only a stone tank thus far. Although it isn't providing intangible like hibernate, would it perhaps still allow you respite from debuffs for a mid battle reset? If so, this might be a good compromise for scenarios where you are on the edge of cascade.

I'm a dummy - it was just Geode toggled on - Mids is working fine on Regen readouts. : ) My version in that case is only 20 regen below the original. However, I noticed that I made the silly mistake of relying on the shown value for unsuppressed hide defense! Swapping the Winter ATOs back in Zapp solve the issue, getting back to softcap in E/N, or even a couple percent above. I fiddled a bit further and stole the extra slot in maneuvers. It makes almost no difference in defense totals, and the return on end per sec saved is very marginal. I chose to use the saved slot for another 6% psi resist from impervium. Other strong options would be to cap F/C resist again with a second slot in SJ for Winter's Gift 2 slot, 2 slot celerity in Sprint for 2.5% more S/L, or even go to another slot in Stamina if you prefer. The lack of Hami O's here doesn't really change totals, and saves a good bit of inf, though that may not be of much concern. I like to use Hami O's myself where it makes sense. Modified build: