Onlyasandwich

Rework #3 for me this week! Bringing out all my dusty toons and giving them the old 2024 work-over. I've never been quite happy with previous iterations of my Kin/Dark. For a while I ran a variation on @Darkir's kintank back when Rune was affected by global recharge, but of course later nerfs brought that down to earth. I like the idea of Repel, but ultimately I think stun stacking is a hard strategy to ignore with Dark Blast. I'd love any perspective on how I can inch closer to glory! Goals: Stun stacking mayhem (achieved simply through Dark Pit/Oppressive Gloom - nothing revolutionary here). Max hit chance against +3's. I'm actually a bit above, but the pad is nice. Ranged softcap with Unleash enabled. The idea is for the steroid to pull me out of a pickle very reliably. Maximize Slow resist and proc damage. (90% slow resist now - good!) Any extra recharge I can come by easily while pursuing the above. S/L resists, with any others I can reasonably stack with no wasted effort. Concerns and desired improvements: It would be nice to find another 4% melee defense so I softcap this with Unleash up as well. It feels weird not to take advantage of splitting the ATO set for double dip 10% recharge. However, it doesn't suit my proc damage and slow resist goals. Do you see a better path that leverages these bonuses well? I don't think the +end ATO proc is much needed. Is Transference Ok slotted as such you think? In the past, I've disliked leaning on it too much for end. I think 66 end a pop with the global recharge running should be sufficient, as I'm not pursuing a sapping strategy. Do I even need the second Provocation in Fulcrum? My god are these expensive. As much as I'm willing to spend on a build, they do push it a bit. Capped S/L resist would be nice. I know I have the slots to achieve it, but it would eat into my slow resists or the bit of melee defense stacking I've done. Maybe worth scrapping the halfway melee stacking and focus those slots on S/L resist? I can always do the old "2 celerity in each prestige sprint" strat, though it doesn't feel good to me for some reason. Strategy: Engage with Dark Pit, dive in to stack stun with OG, fulcrum, pop back to hit my cones for damage and to secure runners. Sprinkle Nuke as it's available. The immob proc in Night Fall is intentional - just a little extra stacking fun to keep bosses in place too when I'm lucky. Mega -tohit (even from Dark Pit - hooray procs) smooths things out in normal play, with stuns keeping me afloat. The big weakness is mez of course, but should be able to get on well for the most part. Unleash is there to stabilize me whenever needed. If I can even just survive till my Nuke is ready, it should be able to shut down any remaining problems through damage/major debuff. What do you think? Anything you'd do quite differently yourself? Any optimizations you see towards my goals above? Alternate version below as well. Which one do you like best? Corruptor (Dark Blast - Kinetics).mbd Text: Picture: Chunk: Alternate build I'm considering that swaps Night Fall for Torrent. Noteworthy differences: Torrent, even at damage cap, still has roughly the same DPA as Night Fall. This allows for smoother bopping back and forth between melee and cone range. Also, it makes a great initial engage, blunting return file while the stuns have a chance to stack. FFback juices my nuke and unleash as well. I went all in for the last mile on melee softcap with Unleash up. I lost a little local recharge in my Nuke, as well as the juicy 10% global, but the FFback helps here. Lost a damage proc in the nuke, but the KD proc isn't useless here either. Had to retool some other slotting to help make up for global acc lost, but actually end up a bit ahead on S/L resist. Lost 15% slow resist. Would love to pull a slot to get it back (maybe you see a good candidate!), but 75% is still solid. Corruptor (Dark Blast - Kinetics) melee version.mbd Text: Picture: Chunk:

Been messing with the build further, and have re-arranged powers, re-optimized some slots: Tanker (Shield Defense - Savage Melee).mbd Text: Picture: Chunk:

Very satisfying build, Nemu! A great showcase in how to leverage procs with Rage. That being said, spewing frozen vomit on my enemies is something I can't quite give up 😄 How do you find it handles heavy S/L content? I'm guessing between the KD's, stuns, absorbs, and heals, the lowish resist is manageable. I like the idea of using the ATO absorb proc in Rad therapy as well.

Now that I'm quite satisfied with my Fire/EM (what a fun monster!), it's time to rework my dusty old Shield/Savage. I built him back in 2019, and his current double down defense focus is showing its age. I know I can squeeze more damage out of him and bring up the resists. My goals in his rework: Superb aoe rotation. As much recharge as I can find, partially enabled by FFback. Softcap positionals with incidental pad (not chasing it, but hey why not if it happens) Generally increasing all resists across the board as much as possible, with a little extra emphasis on S/L/E/N Squeeze in thoughtful procs where it makes sense to maximize damage. Power considerations: No epic attacks. It just doesn't fit the concept. He's a flyer! Concerns: ST damage may be lacking without an epic attack to help. I'm hoping a very efficient shred, and the fact that Savage Leap is actually good ST as well will be enough bridge to make it solid. Slotting efficiency. I have a ton of flex slots here. As you see, the extra shield walls, muled brawl, and many other slots are very focused on muled bonuses, with little extra helpful power enhancement. If you see a more efficient use of said slots to achieve higher resist, or equal but while enhancing something more worthwhile, that would be excellent! Taunt. I'm fine missing it, but I do miss it! I could probably drop physical perfection, but the extra end and power transfer proc seems nice. Hemo. Maybe I drop Physical perfection and just go for it? What are your thoughts on Hemo these days - is my thinking outdated, and is it now worthy of inclusion? Doubling up on Active Defense. How important do you find juicing recharge here for double stacks? I find the extra animation investment annoying, and baseline with endredux does the job. Alpha. Maybe I could get by with musculature core here for some happy extra damage? I do have a lot of end support, and savage has the extra end discount mechanic. Note that I have procs disabled in my FFback powers to reflect more accurate totals. The Might ATO proc isn't working in mids right now, so no totals added from that either. Build: Tanker (Shield Defense - Savage Melee).mbd Text: Picture: Chunk:

There is no set number, but simply whether a given power has better slot options, a good proc rate, and if that rotation is already saturated pretty well with FFback. I don't like it in shield charge, as it isn't happening enough to be all that worthwhile (5 second buff). I do like it in at least one ST and one AOE attack if possible, as mcdoogss mentioned. If you have two aoes capable of slotting it, you'll really be able to cycle them smoothly. On SS specifically, I put it in Foot stomp, Handclap, and Haymaker. You could put it in KO blow, but I prefer extra damage procs there. It could go either way. The FFback buff is 5 seconds, and does not stack. However, it does refresh the duration on a new proc. With enough powers cycling in, you can keep pretty high uptime.

This is my new favorite power! A lot of tanks just need a boost to get out of a tough spot and stabilize, rather than permanent immortal resists. Unleash does so much and asks so little. The prereqs are even pretty universally decent.

My results reflect yours. Slow procs are a nice addition if you have room. Targeted AOE not amazing. Worth noting the base damage is quite decent as well! Base damage enhancement is a good start before procs here. Tranq takes the two extra slow procs too, making it a better than average st blast with a useful control effect.

As mentioned before, I don't have ageless, but I did some testing and indeed I don't think the extra recovery, though substantial, really matters too much. Great call-out! Between Burn's incredible efficiency, and the fact that ET takes zero end, this combo is actually really end friendly where it counts most (clickies!) I still didn't put it in Build Up though. That extra slot indeed went over the the Overwhelming Force KD proc. I tested it on some crowded maps and it's outstanding! Avalanche KD proc plus Overwhelming KD proc = every 10 seconds roughly one third of the crowd gets knocked on its rear, and half a second later, one fifth of them do. Weirdly, they seemed to not engage at the same time, and had this tiny half second spacer. I can only guess it's due to the unique nature of the Overwhelming proc. It isn't a normal PPM proc, but set to a flat 20% chance no matter what. Perhaps the timing for its check is slightly different somehow. This is especially helpful, as otherwise they may risk stacking mag and turning into KB instead. In many minutes of standing amongst Rikti, no KB, and plenty slipping on their rears. 😄 This is a substantial amount of passive mitigation, and even affects bosses that lack KD protection! Makes a noticeable difference on a primary that is lacking extra layers of mitigation like Fire. Update after my respec and playing: Really satisfied! As @Sovera suggested, Burn and Whirling Hands is definitely enough aoe. I am kept plenty busy between them popping total focus and ET on bosses, then ready for the next round. As in my initial testing, the double KD procs in Blazing Aura are also very effective. I'm going to consider this combo on more of my tanks! This is my first time messing with the reworked Phoenix Rising as well. The control effects are very strong indeed. Between this and Unleash, I have two emergency buttons that can be followed up with Healing flames to recover and stabilize in a tough spot. End management isn't remotely a problem. I didn't once have to rely on consume, even. I could probably pull the miracle and not notice much difference, but don't want to stress my baseline too much in exemping situations. Maybe I would consider siphoning it or Numina for that extra recharge in BU as @Spaghetti Bettysuggested - we'll see! As it is I sometimes forget to hit buildup in time anyhow, or it comes back when my TF+ET combo isn't quite ready for maximum impact. I tested him on a +8X4 S/L farm, against +8X4 level 50 council, and the same for carnies. I was a little surprised that the psi damage mixed in with carnies didn't give me much trouble, though a more dedicated psi faction would probably pose issues. The soft controls really make a difference. Smooth sailing across the board so far. Here's my final build for reference. I did move slots around a little to support some extra KB protection. Ignore the fact that I forgot to drop an enhancer in Taunt 😄 Tanker (Fiery Aura - Energy Melee) unleash.mbd Chunk: Text: Picture:

I don't have ageless. I'd probably go barrier, but don't account for incarnates beyond the alpha in my builds. I'm not sure why the total looks a bit too high. Current mids is borked. I don't have any ffback to account for it. Build up is still a good slot move suggestion! I may need to just see how end balanced it is in practice and calibrate from there. If I were to swap the 4th, the overwhelming kd proc for twice the passive aura kd actually sounds fun.

I think you're right on target, @tidge! I like storm blast best on sentinels. The secondary proc mechanic doesn't get nerfed by sent target caps, so a lot of the power ports over nicely. Also, storm blast wants you to be using more storm blasts. Secondary attacks get in the way of more stormy procs. Sents don't have this split focus, and can just toggle on defenses and focus on storm blasting.

Thank you for your insight, Betty! Looking at your builds historically, I think we have a very similar approach overall. A few things regarding my odd slotting in Blazing Aura here, as indeed it does seem silly on the surface to go so far into the Winter set without wanting the melee defense: I do want the slow resist. I also want the KD proc (I find it very useful in auras! Roughly 20% chance of KD every 10 seconds - even thinking about swapping in Overwhelming KD for a second 20%) The third slot is to round out acc/dam/end with the happy bonus of some cold resist. The fourth slot was a flex slot in the build. The endredux here combined with the set recovery bonus makes this roughly equal to as miracle in recovery savings, which I felt was pretty decent compared to other places that slot could serve. Other considerations were a final proc in energy punch, extra heal in Consume, or the recharge in build up as you mentioned. As for Total Focus, indeed base damage is most of the game here! However, maxing ED on recharge compared to what I have gains me less than a second of recharge, so no big loss here. Meanwhile, my absorb proc lives in a place that is guaranteed to pop at the beginning of battle, as TF will be second in my ST rotation, I get a happy E/N bonus, and the procs present are running at 89% chance. As for Phoenix, I really just need the purple set bonuses here, especially the global acc to maintain totals against +3's. We'll see how much I end up wanting that extra bacon saver with a beefier heal! Meanwhile, I'm hoping the strong mitigation provided by the KD and stun is sufficient, and explosions are nice. My global recharge isn't all that great. I just have hasten toggled on. I have 61.25% from set bonuses. As for HO's, I definitely use them where they make a meaningful difference! I'm revamping enough builds these days that I don't sweat the very marginal difference a +3 HO has versus a fully boosted set IO that hits the same stats. Acc/Dam for example is only a 5% enhancement value difference, which is not very impactful at all given the rising prices of Nucleolus. I'll use an HO/DO when: They are cheap enough to compare anyhow and I don't need the set bonus. They offer a unique combo not available in a set (Provocations infamously) and the power needs this enhancement. The power has a strong enough base value that the little advantage is more meaningful. Hurricane for example is a great one-slot wonder these days. Meanwhile, my ToD Acc/Dam paired with the proc still gets me the accuracy I need, ED capped damage, and a handy set bonus for much less money. If you see any slots that would especially benefit from HO usage, let me know!

Thanks @Sovera! Yeah, I noticed the proc issues. It looks like a lot of procs and secondary effects aren't being represented properly in this version. Very annoying. I like your perspective on Burn/Whirling Hands, and think I might give dropping power crash a shot! If I open with my aoes, my ST rotation should take enough time to keep me productively busy before cycling aoes back in so I don't feel like I'm twiddling my thumbs too much. I do think power crash or the epic aoe would offer a more seamless aoe rotation, but at the end of it I'll be wailing on bosses anyhow, so it's maybe not such a bad trade. I've iterated further, and think I'm good with leaving my fire APP behind for now. If I miss it, I'm only another espec away. 🙂 Meanwhile, I'm debating my flex power pick left when dropping Power Crash and cannibalizing its slots. Taunt or Focused Accuracy? FA would let me re-optimize my Blazing Aura slotting a bit if I like, and the debuff protection is really nice, but Taunt doesn't put any further pressure on my end, and comes in clutch at times. Tanker (Fiery Aura - Energy Melee) unleash.mbd Text: Picture for @Spaghetti Betty (Consume and Unleash toggled off for this), ATO proc not represented in totals as Sovera mentioned. Edit. Noticed I left mighty leap on, so end drain is actually a bit lower. Certainly don't run this in battle.

Edit - ack - went to correct the chunk and pasted over my reply. Thanks for sharing, @Spaghetti Betty! I understand that burn's procability was nerfed in the last pass, but I suppose it's still pretty good for procs even accounting for this? I'm curious, are you able to load chunks into your older mids? Chunk:

I've considered it further, and agree! Putting Might ATO in bone smasher also let's me open with it for a quick proc, whereas ET would need to wait for TF to complete in my initial rotation. Thanks for taking the time to provide input, @PLVRIZR. Both builds only have ~15 Psi defense, 8% resist, so basically nothing. The unleash build hits 39% when it's up, which is something at least. I imagine I'll eat it pretty hard against Psi 😄 EDIT - looks like newest mids isn't actually accounting for ATO procs. Annoying. This does mean my potential psi resist isn't terrible with a couple stacks going though.

Hello Tankers! I'm trying to decide how much theme is really important to me with this guy, and would love your insight. He's a basketball player, and currently I find Fireball not only an excellent aoe addition, but also a very satisfying thematic proxy for a flaming basketball, so am hesitant to drop Fire APP. However, the two power commitment to get there pulls away from other priorities, and dropping this thematic element really frees me up to optimize my ST potential and survivability, while still maintaining good aoe. The main difference is Bone Smasher. The thematic build lacks it! It's a really great power, and I find a necessary part of the /EM rotation when you are waiting to recharge that focus from TF. On both builds I'm okay with being a little shy of S/L resist cap, as the second ATO proc will make up for it more often than not when it counts. How bad of a sacrifice do you think this is? Fireball build: Tanker (Fiery Aura - Energy Melee).mbd Pros: Fireball, melt armor add substantially to aoe potential. Ring of Fire is moderately useful for run happy AVs. Cons: Slightly lower recharge. Lacking Bone Smasher - ST could be painful at times. Perhaps sufficient to fill gaps with burn? Text: Unfireball build: Tanker (Fiery Aura - Energy Melee) unleash.mbd Pros: Bone Smasher! Heavily procced as well. Very powerful defense steroid in Unleash potential. Brings me to melee softcap when online. A little more recharge. Cons: Must rely on power crash more heavily for aoe rotation. Decent when focus is op, meh when focus is down. No flaming basketball! Text: Questions that apply to both builds: Would you put the Might proc in ET or Bone Smasher? ET will have good percentages, and is theoretically good to spam, but maybe not always suitable to use as often. Consume slotting. I think I've enhanced healing well enough, with a little endmod to help me through tough times. Do you think the extra ~100 max HP is that big a deal? Psionic Damage. Will I survive it at all? I guess I have healing flames, at least! The incidental stun stacking and bit of knockdown will help. If you see any other elements that stand out as silly to you, I'm open to your review!

Dark Regen ultimately deserves a solid 6 slot. However, tighter slotting would be: Touch of Nictus Acc/Heal Touch of Nictus Heal Touch of Nictus damage proc Theft of essence end proc Given that Dark Regen is typically an overkill amount of healing in the first place, this should be plenty of heal enhancement to work with, and it refills your end, as well as doing some nice damage while you're at it. Depending on how much global accuracy you end up with in your build, you may need some additional acc slotting here as well. Between kismet and global acc, I typically don't need more than this. I personally like to fill the last couple slots with more damage procs, as it makes a very reliable aoe damage power that pops while you are doing something you'd be doing anyhow (healing!). I get that you don't like them, but they work very well here, as the proc rate will be high.

A solid foundation for sure! A few notes: Guassian proc in FA is pretty pointless. It will only have a chance every 10 seconds to proc, and a low one at that. Either ditch it entirely, or toss it in rage for the extra bump when you re-up. Highly recommend working FFback into Footstomp, and ideally one of your ST powers as well. Hurl is fun thematically and sometimes useful to have. Overall still an underperformer these days, and the set bonuses aren't doing anything for you here. Bare minimum I'd swap for laser beam eyes, energy torrent, or even Handclap. Handclap with KD conversion, FFback, and a damage proc along with accuracy to boot is a strong mitigation tool. Ignore if you simply must have it for theme. Your ST attacks could use a little love (top off damage, some procs). One benefit of Rage is that it allows you to go easy on accuracy slotting. Energy Mastery is a bit suboptimal for this reason - FA isn't really doing much for you. You also have Energy Absorption to lean on for End, so Physical Perfection isn't amazing here either. I'd consider another epic. Especially if you follow the above advise of working FFback into your ST chain, you only need one of Jab or Punch. I'd choose punch, as it has more proc potential. Jab is even worse than Boxing. I like the split for your ATO set here, but you could work things around with some effort, or even just go for a full ATO set in whichever one you keep. Gaining the extra S/L resist isn't a bad trade. Unless Incarnate softcap is really important to you, you can afford to lay off a few S/L defense bonuses. Blistering cold in KO blow is nice, but you could save a ton of influence and do more damage if you pulled back to just a two slot blistering Acc/Dam and Dam/End, then focused on proccing it out. This also helps you maintain damage during rage crashes, as procs aren't affected by the damage debuff. You're only going halfway on F/C defense, so while the 5% is substantial, it's not a huge loss since you aren't near softcap. Hibernate is actually a really great power. Some folks don't like it, but give it a shot if you haven't before. You do maintain aggro for a bit after popping it, and it activates pretty much instantly, so can really save your bacon and allow you to reset in a bad situation. As a bonus, it only really needs one slot to do its job. One thing you might consider is: Drop Super Jump, Hurl, and one other power (maybe one of the epics, Jab?). Pick up Mighty Leap, Weaken Resolve, and Unleash Potential in their place. Unleash is really strong, and will give you a handy steroid to pop into incarnate softcap for most defenses, overcome defense debuffs, assist with end, and handle many other problems. Alternatively, going for Rune would be helpful for similar reasons, though you may not wish to fly, so would lack power choice efficiency in that case. There's more that I would do if working from the ground up, but I hope you find this helpful!

It would be pretty bad to skip any one of these unless you're living in granite. Even then, mud pots is your taunt aura. I would recommend either recoloring ice to be in theme if you can, going pure granite, or maybe just grabbing rock armor from an epic on another AT. Brimstone has a significantly different alt effect you might like.

For easy street high level performance, it's pretty much Rad/, SR/, Shield/, Invuln/, and to an extent Bio/. Bio is actually sort of tricky to balance optimally for survivability and damage. Everything else is still quite good, but not quite on that level. Honestly Electric is pretty close. It isn't really fair to compare other resist sets to Rad though. The proc damage potential, strong resists across the board, lack of true weaknesses, and abundant endurance are just that good. DA is all about Dark Regen, which is amazing. The control auras are sort of a sideshow that can be pretty useful. Honestly if DA just had native KB protection and its end management were better, that's all it would take to bring it in line with the big guns. Still, every Tanker armor set is really good when built appropriately. Theme and how fun you find the powers is what should guide you.

Both of these are fairly middle of the road combos from a Meta power perspective, but I'd give the edge to EA/DM overall. This is due to: EA's superior overall resist package. End management. DM benefitting very strongly from Tanker aoe's (Shadow Maul becomes outstanding) No extra slotting needed for KB protection. That being said, both would be very workable and good. DA/EM's main trick as others have noted is stun stacking, which to be fair is really great.

We had a fun and detailed exploration of it in this thread:

Thanks for sharing your build, @EnjoyTheJourney! How have you been enjoying this particular journey? I felt inspired by the combo and think it will be my next alt. I went a more heavily procced out on aoes, and doubled down on the epic aoe as well in mine. Still debating: Ways to maintain (more or less) S/L softcap without muling out Brawl. I could swap tentacles for smite and pop the set there where it's actually useful. However, I'm not sure if perhaps my attack chain will be fine as is. You parsed yours quite a bit - what do you think? I actually like tentacles as an opener. The immob is really handy, and it has a good sized cone and target cap. E/N resists. I see you really focused on shoring this up, which isn't a bad idea. I'd have to sacrifice some end management or procs to refocus mine. I wonder how much of an issue this will be in practice with softcap defense here, and Geode as a backup to recover. Stone Skin slotting. I typically try to do something clever here, but am not impressed by what I can gain refocusing with low hanging set bonuses. Perhaps there is something I'm missing! Earth's Embrace. I think I'm okay with the fairly minimal slotting here. On Sent /Stone, base recharge is high enough that this isn't a super operable heal to rely on, and mostly here to pump your max hp. I'd love to squeeze in full PM set, but had to pull slots to address defense priorities. This is an interesting build to balance. Umbral Torrent. I really want to like this power, and would even consider giving it a shot with the low target cap if the cone were longer and wider. Does anyone enjoy it? It is rather snappy, and has interesting proc options. My experience with 40 ft 30 degree cones is not super positive. Meanwhile it's a skip. T1 vs T2 blast. Dark Blast looks slightly lower DPA, though pretty close if you're not proccing. Did you choose it because the attack chain needs the extra bit of filler here and there, or other reasons? Here's my build for reference: Sentinel (Dark Blast - Stone Armor).mbd Text: Chunk:

I went ahead and finalized things for now, and thought I'd share my update. I did try the Overwhelming KD proc in Acid Mortar, and decided it was pretty decent value. Not a game changer, but enough passive mitigation to be worth a slot - at least moreso than the remaining sets available to me. Probably the closest second place was capping out my slow resist with a brawl mule, but the expense tipped it in favor of the proc this time. : ) Here it is for posterity. If anyone digs in and has feedback, still appreciated of course! Defender (Traps - Beam Rifle).mbd I put it through its paces on a +4X8 S/L farm, and it has zero issues as long as I pay a little attention. This is a little surprising, as defense based builds without DDR tend to fare poorly in this environment. However, the baseline resists and extra -tohit from Seekers, along with a trickle from Triage beacon goes a surprisingly long way.

Sure! With everything accounted for, you're at 55.68% ranged defense. I'm not sure what totals you are reviewing, but this is from the latest mids version 3.7.4 with updated database. I am set to "attacked" as well, so stealth is only showing the lower value. No bonus from Infiltration either. Softcap is 45%. As for my build, I was going primarily for ranged defense, and achieved it rather easily without many set bonuses, as Defenders have higher baseline values. I was then looking for fun things to do with a couple spare slots, and found I could hit melee softcap as well for a happy bonus. I wouldn't consider it an important goal, but it only took a small adjustment to my build, and I wouldn't gain any appreciable damage or other utility by dumping it as a sideline.

It doesn't work this way for pet powers. The power is being cast by the pet, not by you, and won't be affected. Meanwhile, juicing recharge allows you to cast the pet more often. This is also true of psuedopets like rain powers and persistent effect fields (poison trap is one such example). If you ever aren't certain, look at the city of data entry. Look for a pet entity that is summoned. Poison trap's cod page: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=corruptor_buff.traps.poison_trap&at=corruptor