Need suggestions for a new Tanker

[Redlynne]

25 minutes ago, Socks10 said:

I do have questions about Set IOs. Should I ignore these until close to 50 and just keep putting regular IOs in slots?

You can wait until 50, but that's not necessarily an "optimal" answer to the question.  You'll see in my builds that I figure you can start slotting non-attuned set IOs (aside from procs) starting at Level 24 (for Level 27 IOs) and at Level 28 (for Level 31 IOs).

28 minutes ago, Socks10 said:

Can Set IOs be added at any time if you have the money or should they only be added if you have a full set?

They can be added at any time, but if you're building out (on a budget!) then it's often times best to try and acquire sets as sets, but slot them into your powers as you acquire them.  Don't think in terms of "unless I've got it all, slot none of it" since that's going to gimp you until you can get everything.  Fill in the gaps as soon as you can.

[Socks10]

I got into a bigger group last night with my Ice/Ice Tanker. There were a couple of Brutes, but I did well keeping aggro. I still have to get used to the roll of being a Tanker, but it was fun. I did die a couple of times to the same group of spawns. The mission was mostly all werewolves, so I have no idea what was different with this one group of spawns, but it took me out in seconds. Every other group of spawns I jumped right in and held my ground. 

 

I have gotten amazing help from people in the community, so thanks. I have a decent bankroll and am working on slotting my powers with regular IOs. I am not sure when I'll start buying the set IOs, as they are crazy expensive, but I'll start looking into what I should be purchasing first and keeping an eye on prices. 

 

The help I have received has also inspired me to make a Rad/Fire Tanker to maybe one day run some Fire Farms for other people. I doubt he'll ever get to the point that he's able to run one, but it's the thought that counts? 🙂

[Call Me Awesome]

6 hours ago, Socks10 said:

I got into a bigger group last night with my Ice/Ice Tanker. There were a couple of Brutes, but I did well keeping aggro. I still have to get used to the roll of being a Tanker, but it was fun. I did die a couple of times to the same group of spawns. The mission was mostly all werewolves, so I have no idea what was different with this one group of spawns, but it took me out in seconds. Every other group of spawns I jumped right in and held my ground. 

 

I have gotten amazing help from people in the community, so thanks. I have a decent bankroll and am working on slotting my powers with regular IOs. I am not sure when I'll start buying the set IOs, as they are crazy expensive, but I'll start looking into what I should be purchasing first and keeping an eye on prices. 

 

The help I have received has also inspired me to make a Rad/Fire Tanker to maybe one day run some Fire Farms for other people. I doubt he'll ever get to the point that he's able to run one, but it's the thought that counts? 🙂

At a guess you ran into a group of  Vampires, they deal negative & psionic damage and you're weak to Psi.  Council is mostly S/L damage outside of those mobs.  Were you running missions in Strigga Island?  Some of the missions will be mostly Vampires and Psi is your kryptonite.  Hoarfrost is your solution to those situations; that and your inspiration tray.  They don't do large amounts of damage but they DO bypass your defenses.

 

Also, don't worry about farming; frankly it's a fairly boring activity and Tankers aren't the best suited for it.  Scrappers, Stalkers and Brutes are better at it since they have considerably higher damage and adequate durability.  Most farmers are built for a specific type of enemy and they're not much use outside of that particular situation.

[Socks10]

3 hours ago, Call Me Awesome said:

At a guess you ran into a group of  Vampires, they deal negative & psionic damage and you're weak to Psi.  Council is mostly S/L damage outside of those mobs.  Were you running missions in Strigga Island?  Some of the missions will be mostly Vampires and Psi is your kryptonite.  Hoarfrost is your solution to those situations; that and your inspiration tray.  They don't do large amounts of damage but they DO bypass your defenses.

 

Also, don't worry about farming; frankly it's a fairly boring activity and Tankers aren't the best suited for it.  Scrappers, Stalkers and Brutes are better at it since they have considerably higher damage and adequate durability.  Most farmers are built for a specific type of enemy and they're not much use outside of that particular situation.

Oh, actually it was a Rad/Fire Brute that I made to farm with at some point. He’s already level 37 due to helpful AE fire farms. My thoughts were to use him to help friends level and to help farm for influence for my Tanker. I’m pretty new back to the game and am not yet into the swing of things with what activities I should be doing and what the best way to make money is. I’m just having fun. But I do see these set IOs and would like to get them someday. Perhaps the farmer is not needed and I’ll get more than enough money just playing my tank. 

[Call Me Awesome]

1 minute ago, Socks10 said:

Oh, actually it was a Rad/Fire Brute that I made to farm with at some point. He’s already level 37 due to helpful AE fire farms. My thoughts were to use him to help friends level and to help farm for influence for my Tanker. I’m pretty new back to the game and am not yet into the swing of things with what activities I should be doing and what the best way to make money is. I’m just having fun. But I do see these set IOs and would like to get them someday. Perhaps the farmer is not needed and I’ll get more than enough money just playing my tank. 

The Auction House is the easiest way to make money actually.  Here's a tip, any vendor will pay 5k for a level 50 yellow recipe and 10k for a level 50 orange recipe.  Look over the recipes for sale and you'll find lots of them going for under 1k, just buy them from the auction house and sell them to a vendor for instant profit.  Once you have some money built up that way then look for yellow recipes at level 31 and craft them.  Buy uncommon yellow recipes because they do not use valuable rare salvage.  Then spend some inf on Enhancement Converters (going rate is $90k each) and convert those worthless IO's to get something good.  Why level 31?  Because that level has the best ratio of valuable IO's to crafting costs.  On average you'll have 5k in the recipe & salvage, 30-50k in crafting costs and maybe 5 converters to get you an IO that sells for over a million.  If you get a winner like a Luck of the Gambler, Shield Wall, Numina's or other pricey IO's then it can sell for 4 million and up... several can bring upwards of 10 million.

 

Doing that is the fastest way to pick up inf I know of, this afternoon I spent 15 minutes and cleared over 150 million in profit, which will fund the majority of most of my character's builds.  Email the inf to your alt that needs cash and you're golden.  Check out the Market forum for more ideas; making inf in the game is really trivially easy if you try.  I don't bother to push for having billions of inf on hand so I work the market to pay for my builds and call it good.  I do know some of the serious marketers make billions a day on the market; I'm not interested in going to that much trouble.

[Socks10]

Huh, I have been in and out of the AH constantly trying to get the right IOs for my Tanker at a decent cost and I never thought once about buying and selling to try to build my Influence. This is a great tip. Thank you. I'm going to start messing around with it and doing some reading, but you've given me a great starting point. 

[Call Me Awesome]

1 hour ago, Socks10 said:

Huh, I have been in and out of the AH constantly trying to get the right IOs for my Tanker at a decent cost and I never thought once about buying and selling to try to build my Influence. This is a great tip. Thank you. I'm going to start messing around with it and doing some reading, but you've given me a great starting point. 

You're welcome.  You know you can type /ah anywhere outside of your base or a mission and open the auction house interface?  I frequently head to the Steel Canyon university and go to the invention tables so I can buy, craft, convert and sell without having to move around.

[Caulderone]

2 hours ago, Socks10 said:

Huh, I have been in and out of the AH constantly trying to get the right IOs for my Tanker at a decent cost and I never thought once about buying and selling to try to build my Influence. This is a great tip. Thank you. I'm going to start messing around with it and doing some reading, but you've given me a great starting point. 

This was the best guide to follow for me.  Once you have the money to get started, influence can be raked in:

 

 

[Socks10]

8 hours ago, Caulderone said:

This was the best guide to follow for me.  Once you have the money to get started, influence can be raked in:

 

 

This post has evolved so quickly. All of the information has been super helpful. I basically spent the night last night playing around in the AH. Now I'm addicted to another part of the game. 🙂

 

Thanks for this guide. It's very helpful. 

[Call Me Awesome]

16 hours ago, Socks10 said:

This post has evolved so quickly. All of the information has been super helpful. I basically spent the night last night playing around in the AH. Now I'm addicted to another part of the game. 🙂

 

Thanks for this guide. It's very helpful. 

Your cash problems should be well on their way to being solved.  As the saying goes, Welcome to the dark side, we have cookies.

[Socks10]

My leveling has stalled a bit (still at 34), but I'm doing pretty well on the money front. That's got me thinking about sets again and what Redlynne said below. 

On 3/20/2020 at 12:05 PM, Redlynne said:

You can wait until 50, but that's not necessarily an "optimal" answer to the question.  You'll see in my builds that I figure you can start slotting non-attuned set IOs (aside from procs) starting at Level 24 (for Level 27 IOs) and at Level 28 (for Level 31 IOs).

They can be added at any time, but if you're building out (on a budget!) then it's often times best to try and acquire sets as sets, but slot them into your powers as you acquire them.  Don't think in terms of "unless I've got it all, slot none of it" since that's going to gimp you until you can get everything.  Fill in the gaps as soon as you can.

In my ventures into the AH, I have come across a lot of level 31 set pieces. Some of them, Luck of the Gambler, are pieces I know I want for my build. Now, I know that I can start buying and equipping some pieces at level 24 according the the build I'm following by Redlynne. But, what are the exact thoughts with this? Am I eventually going to put level 50 pieces in every slot and the 27 pieces (or 31 pieces) I'm buying now are good enough to do me until then? Isn't it more cost effective to just use regular IOs and wait on the set pieces until 50? I think I know the answer because checking in the AH for the differences between a 31 Luck of the Gambler piece and a 50 shows only a 3-4 percentage difference, but I don't want to mess up. 🙂

 

The AH has been fun, but I'm looking forward to getting back to leveling tonight with some friends. 

[Redlynne]

2 minutes ago, Socks10 said:

Now, I know that I can start buying and equipping some pieces at level 24 according the the build I'm following by Redlynne. But, what are the exact thoughts with this? Am I eventually going to put level 50 pieces in every slot and the 27 pieces (or 31 pieces) I'm buying now are good enough to do me until then?

You can buy them now and slot them in and then pick up the booster/catalysts/whatever they're called at your own pace to attune the sets to you.  Or if you're buying the enhancements outright you can just buy them as attuned in the first place and skip the attunement step.

[Socks10]

4 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

You can buy them now and slot them in and then pick up the booster/catalysts/whatever they're called at your own pace to attune the sets to you.  Or if you're buying the enhancements outright you can just buy them as attuned in the first place and skip the attunement step.

Haha, thanks again. I learn something about this game every day. I never considered attunement. I should have, but I didn't. 🙂

[Call Me Awesome]

5 hours ago, Socks10 said:

My leveling has stalled a bit (still at 34), but I'm doing pretty well on the money front. That's got me thinking about sets again and what Redlynne said below. 

In my ventures into the AH, I have come across a lot of level 31 set pieces. Some of them, Luck of the Gambler, are pieces I know I want for my build. Now, I know that I can start buying and equipping some pieces at level 24 according the the build I'm following by Redlynne. But, what are the exact thoughts with this? Am I eventually going to put level 50 pieces in every slot and the 27 pieces (or 31 pieces) I'm buying now are good enough to do me until then? Isn't it more cost effective to just use regular IOs and wait on the set pieces until 50? I think I know the answer because checking in the AH for the differences between a 31 Luck of the Gambler piece and a 50 shows only a 3-4 percentage difference, but I don't want to mess up. 🙂

 

The AH has been fun, but I'm looking forward to getting back to leveling tonight with some friends. 

You can buy  the Attuned versions from the AH, they're the same price as the non-attuned and will always match your level, between the set's minimum and maximum.  I do NOT recommend buying non-attuned as they're going to be a fixed level.

 

As an example, Numina's comes from level 30-50.  If you buy a level 31 then when you hit 50 it'll still be a level 31.  If you buy it attuned then when you're 27 you can slot it as a level 30, and when you're level 40 it will be a level 40, when you're 50 it'll be a level 50.  If you exemp down to level 30 for a TF then an attuned IO set will still give you the bonuses.  If you bought a level 50 and exemp down below level 47 then the bonuses shut down.

 

The nice thing about the AH is that when say a level 31 IO is listed the AH changes it into whatever level or attuned that the purchaser wants.  You list a level 31 LOTG +recharge, Joe Blow then buys it as an attuned IO.  The AH doesn't care what level the original IO was, it sells it as what the buyer wants.

 

Long story short, ALWAYS buy your IO's attuned.

[Bopper]

14 hours ago, Call Me Awesome said:

As an example, Numina's comes from level 30-50.  If you buy a level 31 then when you hit 50 it'll still be a level 31

It's funny you picked that number, because that is often the level of IO I typically will create if I plan on exemplaring a lot while wanting to keep the set bonuses. The reason why I choose 31 is because the set bonuses stop working at level 27 and below. But seeing as how there are only a few things I might run at 27 or lower, I'm usually safe with bonuses. 

 

The other reason why I dont go attuned is because of enhancement boosters. I can boost a level 31 enhancement to be more powerful than a level 50 attuned IO. And where as an attuned IOs will scale from all levels, the level 31 +5 IO will stay the same strength all the way down to...level 31, coincidentally.

 

So my recommendation is...buy attuned if you aren't going to boost and/or you typically exemplar to very low levels. Otherwise, you might prefer the benefits of non-attuned IOs, especially lower leveled ones that are boosted.

 

Edit: keep in mind you can't boost attuned IOs, so know ahead of time if you are going to want to use boosters. Also, NEVER attune purple sets nor PVP sets. Those sets do not lose set bonuses like typical sets, so attuning them is actually detrimental as you will not be able to boost them, and you suffer from attuned scaling (whereas non-attuned retain full enhancement value from exemplar level 31-50)

 

2nd edit: if you have no set bonus (like if you one slot a luck of the gambler into hover), do not attune the LotG. Again, scaling is better when exemplaring, and you should just slot a level 50 into it. Then boost it if you like more enhancement value.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Bopper

[Zeraphia]

If you want to "cave" to the meta, you're going to have a very tough time beating Rad/TW Tanker...

 

-High as hell ST (the highest ST set in the game)

-Amazing AoE with proc monsters from Rad Therapy + Ground Zero & TW's overperforming AoE

-You shore up Rad's lower defenses with Titan Sweep for things like ITF

-Great control as well for teammates to not die because of how often you'll knockdown enemies which also helps you survive as well.

-Gives a hefty amount of -res (-50%) with Achilles proc in Rend Armor + FotG in Arc of Destruction, another benefit to your entire team.

-Solos AV/GM very well

-Rad Armor HELPS TW with TW's end hog tendencies.

-Rad Armor has the best "hole" for a resistance in the game, Cold, which is rarely ever seen in the game and is much more forgiving to have a hole to than hard Psionics enemies.

-Rad Armor provides recharge to help TW recharge its damage potential

-Rad Armor excels late game

-Can afk for minutes at a time for almost every enemy group and not end up even close to dead

-The absorb makes your effective HP around 3,700 once properly IO'd and gotten accolades, that's more than Invul with Dull Pain, doesn't even factor if someone drops something like Frostwork on you.

 

In short its only shortcoming is that it makes the game so easy you might get bored.

[Socks10]

3 hours ago, Bopper said:

It's funny you picked that number, because that is often the level of IO I typically will create if I plan on exemplaring a lot while wanting to keep the set bonuses. The reason why I choose 31 is because the set bonuses stop working at level 27 and below. But seeing as how there are only a few things I might run at 27 or lower, I'm usually safe with bonuses. 

 

The other reason why I dont go attuned is because of enhancement boosters. I can boost a level 31 enhancement to be more powerful than a level 50 attuned IO. And where as an attuned IOs will scale from all levels, the level 31 +5 IO will stay the same strength all the way down to...level 31, coincidentally.

 

So my recommendation is...buy attuned if you aren't going to boost and/or you typically exemplar to very low levels. Otherwise, you might prefer the benefits of non-attuned IOs, especially lower leveled ones that are boosted.

 

Edit: keep in mind you can't boost attuned IOs, so know ahead of time if you are going to want to use boosters. Also, NEVER attune purple sets nor PVP sets. Those sets do not lose set bonuses like typical sets, so attuning them is actually detrimental as you will not be able to boost them, and you suffer from attuned scaling (whereas non-attuned retain full enhancement value from exemplar level 31-50)

 

2nd edit: if you have no set bonus (like if you one slot a luck of the gambler into hover), do not attune the LotG. Again, scaling is better when exemplaring, and you should just slot a level 50 into it. Then boost it if you like more enhancement value.

Thank you @Bopper and @Call Me Awesome for the two posts about Attuned Set IOs. This is the exact topic I have been trying to research for the past couple of days. I have learned some things, but still have more questions. 

 

I have been using builds by @Redlynne for my two main characters (an Ice/Ice Tanker and a Grav/Time Controller). Great builds and information. Like most builds, each power is slotted out with set IOs. Now, they are listed with levels beside them. Redlynne tried to explain this to me in this post, but I still had some road blocks to understanding this concept (I still might). I thought that when a low level, of say 27, was beside a set piece. This was the earliest you could slot it. What I think I understand now is that you actually want to buy an set IO for that power of that level (27). This allows for you to exemplar down to as low as level 24 and still have your set bonuses active. You will use this level 27 set IO all the way to level 50. These builds are not using attuned set IOs. Level 27 must be considered a good enough power level that you can use it all the way to 50. I was assuming that you always wanted the higher level gear, so attuned would be what you wanted. Not always the case, especially if you expect to exemplar at all. 

 

So, my questions still are:

 

1. If the above is true, is the only time you want attuned set IOs when you do not care about exemplaring at all? 

 

2. If you are using attuned set IOs, will the lowest level the set bonuses be active be your level - 3 levels? 

 

3. Or, is the level of an attuned set IO not based on your level, but the level you purchased it? This would mean you kind of messed up your build if you didn't buy the piece as soon as you could. 

 

I hope these questions do not make me seem like too much of a dunce. I'm really trying to get a grasp on these sets before I take the plunge and start buying. 🙂

 

[Socks10]

3 hours ago, Zeraphia said:

If you want to "cave" to the meta, you're going to have a very tough time beating Rad/TW Tanker...

 

-High as hell ST (the highest ST set in the game)

-Amazing AoE with proc monsters from Rad Therapy + Ground Zero & TW's overperforming AoE

-You shore up Rad's lower defenses with Titan Sweep for things like ITF

-Great control as well for teammates to not die because of how often you'll knockdown enemies which also helps you survive as well.

-Gives a hefty amount of -res (-50%) with Achilles proc in Rend Armor + FotG in Arc of Destruction, another benefit to your entire team.

-Solos AV/GM very well

-Rad Armor HELPS TW with TW's end hog tendencies.

-Rad Armor has the best "hole" for a resistance in the game, Cold, which is rarely ever seen in the game and is much more forgiving to have a hole to than hard Psionics enemies.

-Rad Armor provides recharge to help TW recharge its damage potential

-Rad Armor excels late game

-Can afk for minutes at a time for almost every enemy group and not end up even close to dead

-The absorb makes your effective HP around 3,700 once properly IO'd and gotten accolades, that's more than Invul with Dull Pain, doesn't even factor if someone drops something like Frostwork on you.

 

In short its only shortcoming is that it makes the game so easy you might get bored.

Thanks for this. This is another great option. 

[Call Me Awesome]

4 hours ago, Socks10 said:

1. If the above is true, is the only time you want attuned set IOs when you do not care about exemplaring at all? 

Buy the attuned so you have the set bonuses available to you from 3 levels below the minimum of the set all the way to 50.  Attuned IO's will also increase their enhancement value with your level; if you buy a level 30 it will give the exact same enhancement at 50 as it does at 30.  If you buy that same IO attuned then at level 30 it's a level 30 IO with that enhancement value and when you reach level 50 that IO will work as a level 50 with that enhancement value.

 

In my opinion if you aren't ever going to exemp then buy level 50 IO's and boost them.  The set bonuses would shut off at level 46 however.  Buying level 30 IO's and boosting them will give you a small advantage at level 27-35 but you'll be loosing effectiveness at level 50.

4 hours ago, Socks10 said:

2. If you are using attuned set IOs, will the lowest level the set bonuses be active be your level - 3 levels? 

 

Attuned will provide set bonuses down to -3 levels of the lowest level the IO exists at.  Numina's for example is a level 30-50 set so if it's attuned you'll get the bonuses from level 27-50.  Kinetic Combat I believe is level 20-35 so attuned it'll provide bonuses from 17-50; it's raw enhancement percentages will stop increasing at level 35 as that's the limit of that set.

4 hours ago, Socks10 said:

3. Or, is the level of an attuned set IO not based on your level, but the level you purchased it? This would mean you kind of messed up your build if you didn't buy the piece as soon as you could. 

The level of an attuned IO is based on your current level within the limits of it's level range.  A set with a range of 15-30 will always function based on that range... when you exceed it's level it stops improving it's enhancement values and continues to work at it's top level.  A set with a range of 30-50 likewise always works as if it's your current level from level 30-50.  Exemp below a set's minimum level and you loose the set bonuses but it will still enhance your powers... based on a rather complicated level scaling formula.

 

My advice is to always buy attuned.  While you're leveling they will level with you and when you exemp down they'll keep their set bonuses down to -3 levels below their set minimum.  Yes, they'll degrade their enhancement values as you exemp below 35? I think, but they'll continue to work.  The thought of buying level 30 and boosting them to +5 DOES make them stronger when you exemp below 30 but they'll be weaker at 50.

[Bopper]

I agree with CMA in the above post. And since it sounds like your dilemma is more about slotting now while low level, go attuned so the enhancements can grow with you (gets stronger as you level), and you can always exemplar back down without fear of losing set bonuses.

 

My above post was more of a mindset of a level 50 character that is min/maxing enhancements while still factoring in exemplaring. Honestly, that is probably too much info for what you're wanting to do. It was more of a case argument for why you shouldn't always get attuned IOs, but I digress. 

 

Good luck. If you have more questions in regards to enhancements, keep asking. We are always here to help and to provide you with more information than you asked for 😛

[Bopper]

7 hours ago, Call Me Awesome said:

The thought of buying level 30 and boosting them to +5 DOES make them stronger when you exemp below 30 but they'll be weaker at 50.

This isn't true. A +5 will boost an enhancement by 25%. For an example, let's look at a level 50 IO that provides 26.5% enhancement to two areas (e.g. a Dmg/Rch IO). Compare that to a level 30 IO that provides a 21.75% enhancement (e.g. Dmg/Rch IO). Now boost that level 30 IO +5, and it's now enhancing your power 27.1875%.

 

So a level 30+5 IO will provide more enhancement value than a level 50 attuned IO at level 50. Plus, that enhancement value stays at 27.2% for all exemplar levels ranging from level 32-50, while the attuned IO will scale down to whatever level you're exemplared to (edit: I did more research and I might be wrong about this statement. Follow up on post below). So using a lvl 30+5 IO will mean you keep the better than lvl 50 stats from levels 32-50 (scaling starts happening at level 31).

 

Edit, quick add on. Level 27+5 is the point of seeing values that are less than a level 50+0 IO. So if you do a level 28+5, you will essentially have a slightly better than level 50+0 (+0.53% better, so basically the same), and you dont lose set bonuses until exemplar level 24 and below.

Edited March 25, 2020 by Bopper
I think I'm wrong

[Socks10]

Thank you everyone for the information. The boosting does confuse things for me, as does having levels in the builds beside each enhancement. To me, just buying the attuned pieces, whenever I can, takes levels out of it and makes things much simpler...so this is probably what I'll do. 

 

I'll also be rereading the last several posts over and over again until I am sure I didn't miss anything. 🙂

 

Edit: And I found this quote from an earlier version of Redlynne's Grav/Time Controller build I have been looking at:

 

"I am Ye Olde Skool when it comes to build planning.  Attunement of enhancements didn't exist in Issues 1-23.  This meant that the best compromise balance point for Set IOs was, in most cases, at either Level 27 (for Exemplar Level 24 content due to Flashback level brackets) or at Level 31 (for Exemplar Level 28 for the Moonfire Task Force).  With attunement it's less of an imperative, but I still write up my builds "the old way" for people who aren't rich enough to be able to afford attunements for every Set IO they've got yet."

 

This clears up those numbers in the builds that were confusing me. 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Socks10
Added quote.

[Bopper]

7 hours ago, Bopper said:

So a level 30+5 IO will provide more enhancement value than a level 50 attuned IO at level 50. Plus, that enhancement value stays at 27.2% for all exemplar levels ranging from level 32-50, while the attuned IO will scale down to whatever level you're exemplared to (edit: I did more research and I might be wrong about this statement. Follow up on post below).

My apologizes, but I think I have to own up to a possible mistake. I was under the impression that when you exemplared with an attuned IO, the level you are exemplared to would become the IO's equivalent level. So if you were level 50 using an attuned IO, and you exemplared down to level 35, the attuned IO would take on the strength of a level 35 IO. However, I might have been very mistaken and the strength of the IO would still take on the exemplared version of a Level 50 (non-attuned) IO. So in this example, at level 35, the strength of the attuned IO will still be level 50 strength, and it would not start to scale down until levels 31 and below.

 

So I apologize once again. If this is how it works (I haven't tested it in game nor on beta), then that would make me rethink some things on how I'd prefer my enhancements. I would probably still maximize boosters where appropriate, but likely not as much.

[Socks10]

No need to apologize. I have had more revelations and been more confused by this one topic than I care to admit. 🙂

 

For a more general question regarding set IOs, will slotting my powers with them be really noticeable? I've been figuring out what prices I'll likely be spending to slot my powers in attuned set IOs and am starting to think I'll have a hard time parting with my hard-earned cash. 

 

Now, about my (now level 39) Ice/Ice Tanker. I'm slowly trying to work towards my Accolades for the bonuses, so I brought my small team to Ouroboros to work on some missions there. I'm not sure I'm doing the right ones, but I'm having a lot of fun. We ended up doing one string of missions that involved werewolves and vampires, with three bosses at the end. I absolutely loved jumping into a group of guys, tanking everything, while my teammates stayed on the outside and picked on the mobs. It's such a fun feeling that I'm sure is what all Tankers must play like. This mission involved us getting swarmed by multiple waves of mobs and I just stood in the middle doing what I could to take aggro. I was not always able to keep them off my friends and my friends did die multiple times...sometimes all at once. It was so fun to keep tanking the mobs while my teammates all discussed how they could pop a rez and get everyone back in the fight...while I kept going. 🙂

 

With how fun this was, I do realize I could be better at taking absolutely all the aggro. It can be difficult to get your bearings when surrounded by mobs, but there are probably some things I could have done better. Besides filling out my slots for some powers with more Taunt (or getting the set IOs going), are there common Tanker practices I should be doing? Should I be running to a teammate and dropping a Frozen Aura? Or just running around the room more to pickup adds?

[Psyonico]

don't bother slotting for taunt in your attacks.  Gauntlet will keep enemies right next to you between Chilling Embrace, Icicles, Frozen Aura, and your ST attacks (they automatically taunt 5 enemies).