Gulbasaur

I can solo +3x8 Dark Astoria content quite comfortably and solo +4 AVs, if that's any indication... (+4x8 is doable but the DPS makes it a chore when you have to fight too many bosses). I have out-tanked a brute on more than one occasion. The only enemy that reliably catches me off guard is Silver Mantis because she hits like a freight train and uses Build Up, which pretty much wrecks defence builds. I do have sizeable resists from sets and the melee hybrid and well as melee defence that's at can and other defences that usually are at cap. You can stack up scaling resistances pretty decently - I've hit cap once or twice, but that's only really when I need it, and there's a good synergy with the +absorb proc. I'm pretty happy with the build, which is why I put it up - I genuinely think it's a very good build. That said, everyone's different and what I like isn't what you'd like. Survivability isn't an issue, though! I took TD out in the end - the recharge time makes it less worthwhile. Psychic Tornado does knockdown (which is surprisingly helpful) and works as a proc-bearer - I put the -res proc and a couple of damage procs in it and it performs well.

Stock up on damage procs - tankers get decent returns on them as they have a lower damage modifier and procs are static amounts.

There's so little in it that I really would worry about damage types. It really is a matter of hitting an enemy once more every now and again and is only something speed runners will see a difference in. Titan weapons and martial arts regularly top the single target damage lists and they do a lot of smashing damage, which is the second most resisted.

I'd like to invite you over to the dark side and suggest one of the epic archetypes, namely fortunata or warshade. Melee, range, control, buffs and survivability. Fortunatas are control scrappers and warshades are blast brutes. I've been soloing AVs on my fortunata for a while now - very little can even hit them and almost nothing can hit them twice.

I get what you're saying - I pretty much use them all, though! Ranged for minions and runners, melee for bossfight mode. A huge element to survivability is that all my ranged attacks also do control effects. I rotate through the three nukes (incarnate, wail, confuse) and that keeps things at a brisk pace. If I had to lose anything, it would be the TK blast, but I can't really think of anything else I need and it's fun to boink enemies off things. Obviously different people play differently and I've tried to make it very solo exemplar friendly and very end-game friendly, hence the variety of attacks. The cool thing about fortunatas is that you really can piece together the build you want. I have to say this character is semi-retired now because he sort of trivialises a lot of content - I was doing +4x8 incarnate stuff without noticing any difference in difficulty so he's largely a badge hunter nowadays. Regarding slots, it's tight but I honestly don't see a problem, but I've been fairly min-maxed for what I want. Obviously your playstyle might differ! If you wanted to go for perma hasten or something then it's an easy swap for one of the attacks.

Have a look at my build here. It's tried and tested and a few other people have chipped in with their views, as well as a discussion on playstyle. My fortunata is the only character I've had unsolicited messages in-game about asking how I'm so powerful, so I feel like it's a pretty good build - have a look at the comments and see what you think. Don't think you have to copy it or anything, but It might help. One thing about fortunatas is that to make the most of them you have to be hyperagressive with them. Fire every control effect you've got out all the time and mow down enemies in between. I got a lot of mileage out of damage procs in pretty much every attack I have - they don't always hit, but when they do they hit harder than adding in another +dmg enhancement. Apologies if I've missed it, but I can't see the ATO toxic damage proc in there - it's worth getting, as is the +fear one (put it in an AoE). All my attacks are pretty much 4- or 5-slotted for set bonuses and then have a damage proc as the 6th. I'd swap out a couple of your less damage-y ranged attacks for melee equivalents they're slightly more damaging. One thing I've noticed is that you leave MInd Link until very late - this might cause issues if you exemplar for task forces or whatever as it's a core part of the fortunata defence strategy! This would probably allow you to drop Weave as well... Defence isn't something Fortunatas generally have a problem with. I don't have any of the Fighting pool and I don't think I need it as use of fear, knockback, holds and confuse take a lot of threat out of enemies. I leave Assault until much later as it's less impactful than most people realise, being a fairly small boost overall. I'd also grab Psychic Wail earlier because it hits like a hammer.

There is definitely a before and after, isn't there. Hero ATs are build for team play and villain ATs are built to solo. I remember playing the CoV beta and noticing how different team play felt. I've got my tanker up to L48 and I tend to lead groups, calling my pulls and telling teammates where I'm going. As long as you're always doing stuff with some challenge, but in the "everyone can nuke and has 45% defence" world of end-game play, it kind of falls away.

I actually miss old-style quantums that did unrestistable damage. Now I barely even notice they're there, but previously they could take you down in Dwarf form. There also used to be nictus crystals in missions that spawned, but they were annoying for the whole team, not just the Kheldian. Novas are mathematically pretty similar to blasters in terms of damage scales, but they suffer a bit that they never get above the (about) T5 blaster powers. I'd love it if they picked things up over time - the fact that the nova rotation is permanent from level 6 really annoys me as it does make them flatten out very hard. Dwarfs can hold aggro very well if you spam the taunt. I have never had any problems pulling aggro off brutes (who usually have build differences from tankers that make them less aggro-sticky), for example. They do absolutely anaemic damage, though. Both PB and WS have a "become unkillable" power later on. You can rain down nukes with almost tanker tier damage resistances. ----- Multi-form warshades can, and usually do when they hit the late-30s, run around with self-capped damage, +50% ToHit and 85% resists. Peacebringers rock human-only builds, which means they can toggle up and keep them running making them more of a sentinel than a sentinel with higher damage resistance, more nukes and more melee. When Light Form hits perma, you genuinely do become something else entirely. I've been on teams with Kheldians and when played moderately well they really help a team. That all being said, the fact that they haven't really been touched by the tank changes on beta is a bit of an annoyance and they are outshined a bit by the VEATs, but the VEATs are pretty darn shiny. I would: Increase the Dwarf form threat rating from 3 to 4 so it gets higher aggro priority Mini-Defiance for novas? allow them to do a bit more damage over time. Add some sort of power progression to forms to stop them plateauing so low.

I constantly forget that's a thing. Yeah, good call.

1. The IOs should cover it if you get them as soon as you can. I play on a dark/dark tanker while haemorrhaged endurance until I got the performance shifter etc IOs in place. 2. Power has Converse Energy, which is useful in prolonged fights when endurance will be an issue. 3. Alpha: musculature will probably be your best bet - it's boring but it works and if you exemplar down then it's sort of something you won't miss too much. Ageless or Rebirth are probably your best bet - Rebirth is an excellent panic button. 4. Take kick instead of boxing, put in the FF recharge proc and a melee damage proc and an accuracy/something enhancement in from a set with a decent 2-slot bonus. It's surprisingly good at keeping your recharge high.

Very subjective, but... yeah, Pyro is right. Go with a melee fortunata. Night widows gain a load of things they don't need (defence will be way over cap so you basically get just more melee damage and some enhanced stealth) and fortunatas gain a load of things that make them slightly overpowered (ranged damage, ranged control, even more defence). They two specs are really unbalanced. As bad as this sounds, the ultimate night widow is probably a claws/SR stalker with leadership (a couple of powers are copied over from spines, but the core of it is claws). I really tried to like the night widow build, but after playing a stalker it never stopped feeling like a crap stalker. I'd go for as much resistance as you can get and then a crapload of damage procs. Put the chance for fear ATO into an AoE attack - it's phenomenal damage mitigation because it massively drops enemy attack rate to one attack every 5 seconds. Fortunatas have better survivability through better control , stronger AoE and already have enough defence that you have to build around it to stop ending up with something ridiculous like 80% melee defence with IOs. The disparity between the two is just too great. (My build is up as the "best of both" build in the forums). You can get a solid melee chain and also have access to holds, confuses, knockback/down and that's before the fear proc, which is the point at which you start being able to solo +4x8 incarnate content.

I'm going for that on my kitbashed Kheldian tanker (made by the ritki to simulate a kheldian then escaped). Also, range is very useful!

Could someone verify for me if AoE powers like Dark Regeneration (attacks them, heals you) and Dark Consumption (same, but End) have the higher target cap and radius? Thanks

With costume change emotes, you could very easily make someone who transforms into a giant robot by binding it to a key in your power bar. The Clockwork costume pieces are all pretty good for robotic themes and don't forget to layer up on different pieces where you can. The tech knight is pretty robotty for some parts and the Vanguard stuff looks like it came straight out of Transformers. One thing I'd say is to look at customising the powers - some have alternative animations. I actually think some of the best effects can be if you pick light or dark then pick the opposite in terms of the actual colour - Radiation set to Bright but then pick the darkest grey makes it look like you've got smoke pouring out of you. Dark armour with Soul Noir and a really bright effect looks like you've got energy rippling over you. Bio armour can be set to look like you've got electricity charging all over you. Shield Defence has a couple of energy shields (under elemental, I think). Elec/elec would be an obvious choice, but rad/rad could work too as radiation leaks from your robot's core. Ice armour can be tweaked so it looks like your robot's coolant system? Titan Weapons is a love-or-hate set due to how it operates, but there are some pretty crunchy looking pieces in it.

I've just started my first tanker that's more than just a "run it though DFB and see what happens" tanker. I got a rad/rad brute, a peacebringer and a fortunata to 50. I have to say, that as a brute I was just scrapperlocking my way through as much as I could - not having the Fury bar has chilled me right out and I'm actually focusing more on what I'm actually doing. The DPS drop-off is considerable, but I'm going to try to proc that out as much as I can. The dwarf-form Peacebringer makes a tanker feel fast-paced and the fortunata can tank pretty much anything, albeit in a chaotic intense way with control effects to make up for the low resistances. I've gone for dark/dark because I like the control effects. I'm trying to do it in a no respec kinda way an IO out as I go, which is expensive but I feel very unkillable and it's mitigating the obscene endurance cost that dark/dark has. This whole thread is really useful advice, so I just wanted to kind of say thank you. If ever you see Corona Borealis running out of endurance on your travels because Dark/Dark is a clucking nightmare end-wise, please say hi.

I've tanked one with my fortunata. They're somewhere in the middle of the threat table so if you don't have a tank or a scrapper, they're next on the list. I quite often do tip missions to help lowbies level in Atlas Park and good aggro with my widow and the power pool AoE taunt. Control more than makes up for the middling damage resistance. Enemies that don't move don't hurt you. I think part of the issue is the power difference between a night widow and a fortunata. Night widows are stalkers with fewer crits and one or two ranged attacks and fortunatas are a dominator-stalker combo that can hold elite bosses. Control is a survival mechanic and fortunata have enough of it to tank.

I always shout out a good costume when I see it and I love it when people do the same to me. A well done Silver Age of Comics costume is something I can never quite get right but always makes me happy to see. There's someone who I've run into over a few task forces and she always recognises when I've changed costumes (I tend to do variations on a theme, like 90s comics, Cimemora, Vanguard, future/winter/injured version of my character etc) and it's so gratifying to be noticed for something that I had fun doing.

This is important to realise and you've explained it really clearly - I put almost everything up at 1,150,00 inf (to avoid the 1,111,111 bids) and make more than enough to fund alts.

Statesman was used in a 2017 MOBA released by NCSoft. It's possible that it was a loving nod to an IP one of the devs enjoyed, but it's also possible that he was put in as a way of keeping the IP on the backburner to maintain their hold on it.

It gets worse! I like to alternate.

Occurred twice tonight. CTD with no error message.

If I've understood it correctly (which I think I have, with some margin for error), the single DoT should be going off about once every five or six hits with two dots less than once in every twenty. I'm not sure if the debuff cancel-on-miss impacts the damage rolls, but I think they do... I could be wrong, though so please correct me if that's the case. For the ones that have more than two effects, I haven't tested them so I don't know at all. I also don't know if they're effected by the guaranteed hit or miss mechanics. Anyway, the numbers behind it are, if I am right (which I might not be): If the debuff cancel-on-miss impacts the chance for damage: Debuff 1 tick 2 ticks 3 ticks 4 ticks 5 ticks Core 75.00% 18.75% 4.69% 1.17% 0.29% 0.07% Radial 25.00% 18.75% 14.06% 10.55% 7.91% 5.93% I did some testing and for Degenerative Radial, this seems to be the case: Chance for each tick of damage: 1 tick 2 ticks 3 ticks 4 ticks 5 ticks Core 75.00% 25.00% 6.25% 1.56% 0.39% 0.10% Radial 25.00% 75.00% 56.25% 42.19% 31.64% 23.73% So it seems like Core is less efficient unless your debuff is one of the more efficient ones, such as the Degenerative -HP one on AVs and GMs and arguably a few others. The others do have more niche uses, but I think Degenerative still wins for all-round utility due to the -1000HP debuff being pretty darn snazzy. Powersets with lots of quick attacks (claws, masterminds through pets etc) will get more bang for their buck as they do more rolls to start the chain within the average combat situation. EDIT I did some testing. 40 Brawls on a ritki pylon resulted in 75 damage ticks (I copied the combat logs into Notepad++, I didn't sit and count them). An attack to tick ratio of 40:75 is a tick rate of 187%, or around two ticks on average. With more testing, I could get better numbers, but I got bored. It looks like the debuff hitting or missing does not impact the chance for the first damage tick. I averaged just under two ticks per hit, which is about right for what I've worked out. tldr for real this time: Take Radial unless you really, really, really need the debuff.

They all work, but the way it's programmed is just much stricter than comparable effects in the game. Each separate tick of damage has to roll, in sequence, and if one fails then the whole thing stops, and a separate roll is made for the debuff. Most start off with a 25% cancel-on-miss chance for the debuff, then another for each subsequent damage tick so you get hard diminishing returns until you hit T4 when suddenly it swings round to being useful. It's more or less 25% of 25% for the first tick of damage to happen, as there is a 25% chance to activate and then a second 25% for the damage tick, with further 25% rolls all the way down, which means that you're at about 6.25% chance for one damage tick. For the ones with a lower chance for the debuff, it's even worse. At T4, you'll be ticking very regularly - one in four hits will start the chain, from which you'll get a 75% chance for each tick, and then 75% for each subsequent one with diminishing returns. Chances are that when it ticks, you'll get about 3 ticks of damage out. But yeah, it's annoying. The -HP debuff is probably one of the more useful ones out there and at T4 the damage tick goes off often enough to feel useful. tldr: Get to T4 as quickly as possible. Ones with bigger chances to hit work much better because of the cancel-on-miss mechanic.

They're both fine, although rad's Contaminated effect will probably give you less bang for your buck as it's designed for AoE damage. The -DEF is heavily resisted by AVs. Bio is the important one as it has -regen and +DMG. The -regen means your enemy will heal slower giving you a quicker effective "arrest" time. As long as your endurance doesn't run out and you don't get knocked out, it's just a matter of chipping away at them.

I stand corrected! I knew it was something/bio. I know it's totally thematically inappropriate and would be absurdly overpowered, but titan weapons on a stalker would be fun to play with.