After INV/SS, What..?

[tripthicket]

I have a INV/SS tank, lvl 50 + a few vet levels, got all the expensive sets in place, Incarnates almost all done. I feel pretty powerful, if a bit slow sometimes, but that's what teams are for. It's safe for me to jump into most mobs an' take a nap (almost), so that feels great. Also, Perma-Rage has me spoiled, I think. And there's the rub: no other tanks have satisfied to date, although I do admit that I've not invested the time an' money into any other tanks to this point that I have with my main tank.

 

I like Foot Stomp, but dislike that it's my only AOE. I'm pretty much a sucker for Laser Beam Eyes, so I'm locked into that (I keep making Rad Blast after Rad Blast just to have those eye beams). Even with that, I think I might like another SS, just for the Perma-Rage, but then I think if I wanna play SS, I have a toon all ready to go, no use reinventing the wheel there.

 

I've done a little reading here on the forums, and the early impression I get is that Shield or Super Reflexes might do as well or nearly as well as INV.

 

So, if I'm so in love with INV/SS, but want a change of pace, what might I turn to? What do you like more than INV/SS? Why do you like it?

 

Thanks for all eyeballs and replies.

[Erratic1]

3 minutes ago, tripthicket said:

I like Foot Stomp, but dislike that it's my only AOE.

 

That's why my SS/Bio Brute took Cross Punch.

 

3 minutes ago, tripthicket said:

 

I've done a little reading here on the forums, and the early impression I get is that Shield or Super Reflexes might do as well or nearly as well as INV.

 

So, if I'm so in love with INV/SS, but want a change of pace, what might I turn to? What do you like more than INV/SS? Why do you like it?

 

Thanks for all eyeballs and replies.

 

Never paired Inv and SS together on any character but have played them both. So I cannot answer the questions, "What do you like more than INV/SS? Why do you like it?"

 

If Regen were an option I would suggest it. But instead I will take Willpower as the suggested alternative even though I have never played it since it seems to go for a much more layered approach than Invulnerability (yeah, I know about Invincibility, but still...). Then you could go for one of the damage sets which faster animating attacks. Say like Claws, Dual Blades, or Savage Melee. 

 

Or did you mean you wanted a visual change of pace from graphically sedate powers? In that case I'd suggest Bio/Ice  or Bio/Spines. 😁

[Cakes]

If you wanna take your inv/ss to the next level, consider soul mastery (gloom/obli) and cross punch, all procc'd out

 

or Handclap (for rage crash mitigation)

[PeacekeeperKara]

I consider Invuln/Super Strength to be the benchmark hero in City of Heroes. It's simple, easy to use and can go from 1 to 50 through content missions and have very few periods of hellish struggle. Because it's such a simple set I naturally branched out. 

 

Willpower / Titan Weapons was my next tanker. Willpower is heavily regen based so you'll spend a lot of time fighting with 50%-60% health. The more you're getting swarmed, the more powerful you become with Rise to the challenge. It's solidly different from Invuln and worth checking out. You have to time things right when walking into an Alpha strike. You'll die more than you expect. 

 

Bio Armour - this set is massively powerful. There are stance changes with augment your attack, defense, and endurance efficiency which give you some things to manage. I spend most of my time in Offense mode because I have a tremendous pool of hit points and Carapace gives me an additional aborb buffer that is incredible. If I'm on a task force and the difficulty is ramped up - i switch to defensive mode and perform a more traditional tank role which is similar to Invuln. 

 

Stone - this is a classic. If you want to get more invulnerable than invulnerable, this is it. I spend so much time wrestling with my endurance drain I haven't gotten too far with this one. It has it's own unique feel to it. 

 

 

[ninja surprise]

3 hours ago, PeacekeeperKara said:

Willpower / Titan Weapons was my next tanker. Willpower is heavily regen based so you'll spend a lot of time fighting with 50%-60% health. The more you're getting swarmed, the more powerful you become with Rise to the challenge. It's solidly different from Invuln and worth checking out. You have to time things right when walking into an Alpha strike. You'll die more than you expect. 

 

Gonna have to try this. With Willpower there's no armor clickies or pansy self-heals, so it's all Titan all the Time.

[tripthicket]

My much-belated thanks to all who offered suggestions!

 

For Titan Weapons, I turned my nose up early at the Momentum mechanic, but freely admit I never gave it a fair shake. Time to explore that.

 

For Bio, almost the same thing. I never got very far with it, and so was never exposed to the set's full possibilities. Time to explore that.

 

For Stone, yadda yadda, same thing. What time is it, again?

 

I'm too in love with my Laser Beam Eyes to consider switching epics, but I am very interested in seeing if I can fit Cross Punch into a respec for my INV/SS.

 

Just one quick question, for Titan Weapons: is Brute a better fit for trying it out? Or Scrapper, maybe?

 

 

[Ukase]

For me, I have an invuln/stone, a rad/SS and several other tanks. But, tho Stone secondary offers a satisfying crunch, lately I've gotten quite a kick out of my fire/ice tank. 
The thing about fire primary - although Burn is by far one of the best AoEs in game, the armor is ...well, it's biggest issues are the lack of KB protection and the lack of defense debuff Resistance. 

But, I've found with some clever slotting, I can stack a number of KB protection points in the build and use Ageless for some DDR. I've got capped resist for fire, smashing, lethal, and really close to cap for energy and neg. And the combo of Burn with Frost...it's quite delicious. 

As for killing slow...no. Don't need a team, can farm, can solo the tfc tfs with wise use of envenomed dagger. It's a fun tank. 

[Omega Force]

I think that Brute TW is more natural than Scrapper.  You're already chasing Fury, may as well catch Momentum at the same time.  Plus the higher HP will go well with Willpower's regeneration.

[Biff Pow]

It's hard to follow Inv/SS because you get spoiled by the +ToHit bonuses.

[GhostDawg]

On 9/25/2021 at 10:40 AM, tripthicket said:

I have a INV/SS tank, lvl 50 + a few vet levels, got all the expensive sets in place, Incarnates almost all done. I feel pretty powerful, if a bit slow sometimes, but that's what teams are for. It's safe for me to jump into most mobs an' take a nap (almost), so that feels great. Also, Perma-Rage has me spoiled, I think. And there's the rub: no other tanks have satisfied to date, although I do admit that I've not invested the time an' money into any other tanks to this point that I have with my main tank.

 

I like Foot Stomp, but dislike that it's my only AOE. I'm pretty much a sucker for Laser Beam Eyes, so I'm locked into that (I keep making Rad Blast after Rad Blast just to have those eye beams). Even with that, I think I might like another SS, just for the Perma-Rage, but then I think if I wanna play SS, I have a toon all ready to go, no use reinventing the wheel there.

 

I've done a little reading here on the forums, and the early impression I get is that Shield or Super Reflexes might do as well or nearly as well as INV.

 

So, if I'm so in love with INV/SS, but want a change of pace, what might I turn to? What do you like more than INV/SS? Why do you like it?

 

Thanks for all eyeballs and replies.

I tried to love tankers for the longest time, but never could find a build that held my interest for long. Don't get me wrong SS was always my favorite melee set, but I used it on brutes. Then along comes Elec/Elec/Mu. Decent AoE potential, a solid taunt aura, resistance to drain effects and good PSI protection too. The build let me experience and come to love high level tankers, and I'm starting to experiment with other builds again. So yeah, I highly recommend */elec because it just doesn't have the holes or negatives of other sets. It can laugh off sappers, master illusionists, and the awakened. Plus it has built in +recharge, and endurance management tools. elec/* is an interesting set. I like SS and EM more but lightning rod is fun and hits like a mini-nuke. My only real complaint with it is that it feels gimpy until the 40's range. After that it's kind of a monster. I think I'll do something weird next. Pair SS with Elec. Could be interesting.  I'll likely miss the AoE, but I do love rage.

 

[Lancek]

Shield/SS