The Tank Gods. . .

[Sovera]

I had to answer my own question.

 

Same set up as before but switching Gloom for Contaminated Strike:

 

- 3:20

- 3:53

- 3:35

 

Spoiler

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10
https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Melee
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: zc_Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Blazing Aura -- SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg(A), SprGntFis-Rchg/+Absorb(3), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), SprGntFis-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Contaminated Strike -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(7), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(7), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), GldStr-%Dam(48), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 2: Fire Shield -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(13), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(13), UnbGrd-Max HP%(15), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(15)
Level 4: Radioactive Smash -- SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg(A), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), SprMghoft-Rchg/Res%(19), SprMghoft-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), FrcFdb-Rechg%(21), GldStr-%Dam(23)
Level 6: Healing Flames -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Absorb%(23), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(25), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(25), Prv-Heal/Rchg(27), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(48)
Level 8: Consume -- SynSck-EndMod/+RunSpeed(A), SynSck-Dam/Rech/Acc(27), SynSck-EndMod/Rech(29), SynSck-Dam/Acc/End(29), SynSck-EndMod(31), SynSck-Dam/Rech(31)
Level 10: Hover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(31), Rct-ResDam%(33)
Level 12: Plasma Shield -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(33), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(33), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(34), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(34)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 16: Radiation Siphon -- HO:Golgi(A), HO:Golgi(36), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Hct-Dam%(37)
Level 18: Burn -- Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(37), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Arm-Acc/Rchg(39), Arm-Dam%(39), Erd-%Dam(40)
Level 20: Fusion -- RechRdx-I(A), RctRtc-ToHit(40), GssSynFr--Build%(40), RctRtc-ToHit/Rchg(42)
Level 22: Fly -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A), WntGif-ResSlow(42)
Level 24: Afterburner -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Fiery Embrace -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 28: Irradiated Ground -- AchHee-ResDeb%(A), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(43), Obl-%Dam(43), Erd-%Dam(43), Mlt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(46)
Level 32: Boxing -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(48), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(50), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 35: Focused Accuracy -- RctRtc-ToHit(A), RctRtc-ToHit/Rchg(46)
Level 38: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(A)
Level 41: Physical Perfection -- PrfShf-End%(A)
Level 44: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(45)
Level 47: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 49: Vengeance -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(9), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(11), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(17), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(46)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(17)
Level 0: Portal Jockey
Level 0: Task Force Commander
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve
Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon
Level 50: Pyronic Core Final Judgement
Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface
Level 50: Banished Pantheon Radial Superior Ally
Level 50: Barrier Core Epiphany
Level 50: Assault Core Embodiment
------------

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by Sovera

[Tsuko]

3 hours ago, Infinitum said:

Dark > Rad > Elec > Fire

 

By super slim margins.

I m a former Brute, my kind Sir Tanker 😉

 

So IMHO, Bio = rad = fire > dark > elec 😛

[Infinitum]

Dark

>

Rad

>

Elec

>

Fire

 

Invul >*  LOL

[Tsuko]

1 hour ago, Sovera said:

I had to answer my own question.

 

Same set up as before but switching Gloom for Contaminated Strike:

 

- 3:20

- 3:53

- 3:35

 

awesome times 🙂

 

But i have to admit i m not surprised, having a Rad / Fire brute able to make ton of inf 😛

The issue being clearly the recovery, you have here the exact same issues than farmer builds.

 

So ageless core is almost a mandatory ^^

 

Just fyi, if you're not familiar with Rad Mélée, Devastating blow is the only way "spam" your heal cause it's the only power with 100% chance of contamination.

 

On top of that, using the contamination mini game for healing removes the possibility to use it for the mini burst, so slighty reducing your DPS.

 

 

It common to remove Siphon on "full dps" rad build (for scrappers)

 

And, tbh, i dont understand why you remove Devastating blow, being the top DPA power of the Rad, just behind Gloom 🙂

 

EDIT : maybe try to use superior avalanche in your blazing aura : it's the best endurance reduction set for PBAOE powers.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Tsuko

[Tsuko]

1 minute ago, Infinitum said:

 

I completly respect your point of view 🙂 

 

But IMHO, in all mmorpg in late endgame content, and cox is no exception, at the moment a main tank (not tanker, but tank, the one taking alpha strike and agro all day) can stay alive with Help of his team, he HAS TO push his own dps.

 

Because when dps (and even support) have reach their max dps, Tanks must deal their part too.

 

Tanking a big bad raid boss all day afk is awesome, but killing it as fast as possible by pushing the OVERALL dps of the FULL raid or team is better 🙂

[Infinitum]

51 minutes ago, Tsuko said:

Tanking a big bad raid boss all day afk is awesome, but killing it as fast as possible by pushing the OVERALL dps of the FULL raid or team is better

There are some Heavys in CoH still that you cant AFK on no matter how strong your tank is.  You may not believe it but the DPS and burst damage on all those tankers belonging to the screenshots is really good.  As long as you dont have a team of tankers - nobody is going to kick anyone out of bed here.

 

The only tanker i have that i would hesitate to bring to a raid level event would be my shield/elec, its really weird how good that one feels frying whole spawns before the team can attack but stall against a heavy.

 

I will never bring that one to a Reichstman TF again.

 

 

[Tsuko]

2 hours ago, Infinitum said:

There are some Heavys in CoH still that you cant AFK on no matter how strong your tank is.  You may not believe it but the DPS and burst damage on all those tankers belonging to the screenshots is really good.  As long as you dont have a team of tankers - nobody is going to kick anyone out of bed here.

 

The only tanker i have that i would hesitate to bring to a raid level event would be my shield/elec, its really weird how good that one feels frying whole spawns before the team can attack but stall against a heavy.

 

I will never bring that one to a Reichstman TF again.

 

 

YMMV as americans said 😄

 

I tanked both reichman and baracuda with no issues at all (and tinpex, RSF, MLTF and so on) with with my TW bio scrapper and his all mighty Confront in offensive (+DNA +evolving armor)... and +100% def due to the buff of the team + kin heal 🙂

 

and i did it with this very build :

 

 

 

It's a build with full sloted confront and Titan sweep to help thrash cleaning, explaining the average "bad" time for a TW Bio scrapper 😛

Edited August 26, 2020 by Tsuko

[Sir Myshkin]

9 hours ago, Bopper said:

I never used demorecord, but if the fidelity is good, that sounds like a good way to go. Other options could include summoning Arcanaville. If you @ them 3 times, they may appear Beetlejuice style.

... I was dead serious going to do it. I was like setting font and everything, grabbing some good ol' Beetlejuice reference pics, the works.

 

And then I typed in the @, got the name to pop and was like "Oh wow, are they really actually signed up?" Then I felt a bit bad about it, like summoning a maid to clean the dishes and decided against it 😅 I feel like we ought to save that genie wish for a more important endeavor.

[Infinitum]

43 minutes ago, Tsuko said:

YMMV as americans said 😄

 

I tanked both reichman and baracuda with no issues at all (and tinpex, RSF, MLTF and so on) with with my TW bio scrapper

Those are not the droids you are looking for.  Think bigger, think more incarnate.

47 minutes ago, Tsuko said:

and +100% def due to the buff of the team + kin heal 🙂

You do realize by that same setup you can dmg cap any one of my tankers if a kin is on the team right?

[Sovera]

6 hours ago, Tsuko said:

awesome times 🙂

 

But i have to admit i m not surprised, having a Rad / Fire brute able to make ton of inf 😛

The issue being clearly the recovery, you have here the exact same issues than farmer builds.

 

So ageless core is almost a mandatory ^^

 

Just fyi, if you're not familiar with Rad Mélée, Devastating blow is the only way "spam" your heal cause it's the only power with 100% chance of contamination.

 

On top of that, using the contamination mini game for healing removes the possibility to use it for the mini burst, so slighty reducing your DPS.

 

 

It common to remove Siphon on "full dps" rad build (for scrappers)

 

And, tbh, i dont understand why you remove Devastating blow, being the top DPA power of the Rad, just behind Gloom 🙂

 

EDIT : maybe try to use superior avalanche in your blazing aura : it's the best endurance reduction set for PBAOE powers.

I loathe Devastating Blow. Too long animation and it does not feel impactful enough. But I'm the person who still does not feel ET is impactful enough to warrant the 2.9 animation.

As for Avalanche I have no room for it. Avalanche -does- give better endurance (0.28 to 0.34) but I need the 6% Negative.

 

If I changed Burn's slotting (but that would be heresy), or Irradiated Ground (but half the reason for taking Rad Melee is taking and proccing IG). I did find a slotting that allowed me to keep it all but then my accuracy dipped too much (even with Tactics toggled on) so it was a no go.

 

 

Siphon does heal a nice bit, but it's one of those things ultimately without much use because when we take damage we take a lot of damage very fast (debuff situations). In moments like those what helps survival is -preventing- damage from happening (Parry, Divine Avalanche). Even nice fat heals like Siphon don't change things since they don't keep up with the damage.

 

For example I tanked a duoed Market Crash and the last boss was not a problem (except the time I tried to DPS to the max and cut things too close by letting my HP reach 700HP instead of disengaging at around 1k as I usually do (but I wanted to do a leetle beeet more damage!) and the boss stunned me through my toggles and killed me. I was literally awash in mobs plus the AV and his auto-hits, and it was fine with my AoE killing the adds while I whittled the AV. And this was on the Fire/Claws. Would the heal from Rad Melee add anything?

 

We have very few situations where we are slowly whittled and see death coming (exception: low level CoT where the -ToHit debuff mixes with the mage bubble for us to be unable to hit a single thing (thus unable to kill anything), and then the mages drop the -defense pulsing ground effect thing and we are whittled no matter how many inspirations we quaff. Running from the debuffs is the only solution). What we do have is quick damage such as reaching -30% or -50% (or in Fire Armor's case, fighting psi enemies such as Carnies) which is when 90% resists do nothing since the damage comes in too fast. At that point heals only cover our asses as we run off to let the debuff expire.

 

Overall Katana might be the best pairing (horrid exemplaring though) because Divine Avalanche allows to remove a lot of the slotting placed in defense. It does open a hole in Smash damage though, and while most ranged damage is Lethal as a rule Energy/Negative is paired with Smash such as any energy blast, sonic attacks, some psi and etc. Without Ranged and without Smash we'd become open to ranged attacks, but this might not be a big problem since most factions are heavy on melee, and if we engage in melee they start hitting in melee instead of continuing to hit with ranged attacks (notable exception in those damn ICU(?) end game robots).

 

When Katana uses one tap of Avalanche to softcap Lethal and Melee the second tap puts it 60%, and the third at 75%. While it can still be stripped it's a large buffer to overcome in a damage heavy build that will melt opponents.

[Tsuko]

6 hours ago, Infinitum said:

Those are not the droids you are looking for.  Think bigger, think more incarnate.

You do realize by that same setup you can dmg cap any one of my tankers if a kin is on the team right?

Tankers are monsters among men and i really enjoy all of my 14 tankers i have from my 133 lvl 50 toons.

 

Tankers are very (maybe too) strong now.

 

But if there is a thing they CANNOT do, it's challenging TW scrapper in Damage, even cap 😉

[Crowcus Pocus]

Were there any updated to Energy Melee in the past 6 months? I haven't played in a long while and suddenly there's all this /EM builds o.O

[Piecemeal]

1 hour ago, Falsey said:

Were there any updated to Energy Melee in the past 6 months? I haven't played in a long while and suddenly there's all this /EM builds o.O

*coughs in foreshadowing*

[Infinitum]

22 minutes ago, Piecemeal said:

*coughs in foreshadowing*

DUN Dun dun.

[Piecemeal]

Just now, Infinitum said:

DUN Dun dun.

And yet nobody acknowledged my Elec/Rad build.

 

I see where your priorities are!

[Infinitum]

3 hours ago, Tsuko said:

But if there is a thing they CANNOT do, it's challenging TW scrapper in Damage, even cap

Who said they could?

 

They aren't supposed to, just like whether or not you admit it there are things a tanker can contribute and survive that your scrapper cannot possibly do.

[Infinitum]

Just now, Piecemeal said:

And yet nobody acknowledged my Elec/Rad build.

 

I see where your priorities are!

It was such a perfect build silence was the greatest compliment. 😉

[Infinitum]

1 hour ago, Falsey said:

Were there any updated to Energy Melee in the past 6 months? I haven't played in a long while and suddenly there's all this /EM builds o.O

Its called hope.

[theDarkeOne]

56 minutes ago, Piecemeal said:

*coughs in foreshadowing*

Seriously?!?!?!

Now you have me thinking about remaking my Cheerleader (Pom Poms of Doom) Tank from issue 4. . . Dont tease me like that!!!!

[Sovera]

Allow me to revise my 'Katana is horrid exemplaring'. I couldn't find enough people and duoed Posi 1 and it *tore* through the TF at +0x8. It's not a feat, but, it kinda is when done in the low levels with few slots and against said '-ToHit and then mage bubble making us unable to hit things and then we are whittled to death' which never happened.

 

Divine Avalanche and Burn (with two procs and BU + Gaussian) carried us hard, but an honorable mention to Flashing Steel that let me me BU, FS, Burn, FS. Boss? What boss? Surrounding enemies? What surrounding enemies?

[Tsuko]

44 minutes ago, Infinitum said:

Who said they could?

 

They aren't supposed to, just like whether or not you admit it there are things a tanker can contribute and survive that your scrapper cannot possibly do.

You love quote wars 🙂

 

 

[Tsuko]

5 minutes ago, Sovera said:

Allow me to revise my 'Katana is horrid exemplaring'. I couldn't find enough people and duoed Posi 1 and it *tore* through the TF at +0x8. It's not a feat, but, it kinda is when done in the low levels with few slots and against said '-ToHit and then mage bubble making us unable to hit things and then we are whittled to death' which never happened.

 

Divine Avalanche and Burn (with two procs and BU + Gaussian) carried us hard, but an honorable mention to Flashing Steel that let me me BU, FS, Burn, FS. Boss? What boss? Surrounding enemies? What surrounding enemies?

NO NO NO NO i had to much katana(ninjato) / whatever before !

 

...

 

...

 

Where is my mid's ?

[Infinitum]

12 minutes ago, Tsuko said:

You love quote wars 🙂

 

 

Do I?

[Sovera]

6 hours ago, Tsuko said:

NO NO NO NO i had to much katana(ninjato) / whatever before !

 

...

 

...

 

Where is my mid's ?

Fire/Katana has been a travel on FIRE (hehehe). Blitzed the leveling route completely. The only downside was leveling with only DA and Flashing Steel and neither are meant to be ST attacks which visibly shows. Burn carried the show. And I haven't touched an inspiration since Yin.

 

 

I've also been thinking about the exemplaring problem.

 

If we are at max level we have no purpose to give Gambler's Cut and Sting of the Wasp since Divine Avalanche, Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly make a complete ST rotation. If we are low level we have no access to Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly.

 

Ergo if we don't mind spending TWICE THE CASH we can use the dual build system for low level (taking and slotting Gambler's Cut and Sting of the Wasp) and have a regular level 33+ build with Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly. And i could recover the slots from Flashing Steel for the 33+ build since Burn + Lotus Drops is enough AoE for me while filling with DA (keep defense up) and GD (mini AoE with FF proc).

 

This would be daunting for a new player but for us with a billion in cash in bank it's a feasible solution.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2020 by Sovera

[Tsuko]

On 8/27/2020 at 12:36 AM, Sovera said:

Fire/Katana has been a travel on FIRE (hehehe). Blitzed the leveling route completely. The only downside was leveling with only DA and Flashing Steel and neither are meant to be ST attacks which visibly shows. Burn carried the show. And I haven't touched an inspiration since Yin.

 

 

I've also been thinking about the exemplaring problem.

 

If we are at max level we have no purpose to give Gambler's Cut and Sting of the Wasp since Divine Avalanche, Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly make a complete ST rotation. If we are low level we have no access to Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly.

 

Ergo if we don't mind spending TWICE THE CASH we can use the dual build system for low level (taking and slotting Gambler's Cut and Sting of the Wasp) and have a regular level 33+ build with Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly. And i could recover the slots from Flashing Steel for the 33+ build since Burn + Lotus Drops is enough AoE for me while filling with DA (keep defense up) and GD (mini AoE with FF proc).

 

This would be daunting for a new player but for us with a billion in cash in bank it's a feasible solution.

 

 

when i began farming, i tried several fire brutes : Rad, spines, Superstrenght, TW and Kat'...

 

And this happened : 

 

 

 

It took me 98 veteran levels to decide me to stop and create a new farmer, Katana is a drug :x

Edited November 26, 2020 by Tsuko