Looking for some powerset advice!

[Lhanis]

I finally convinced my brothers to come give Homecoming a shot, they're young enough that they weren't around for live. One's playing a necro/dark MM, the other an ice/cold corr. I figured I'd make something new to tag along with them, and settled on a tanker to make things easier if we decide to pump the difficulty as they get acclimatized. The thing is... my experience with melee is almost entirely from my various stalkers, where the premise of the build is obviously a little different.

 

I know from experience I usually prefer resistance and hybrid sets over pure defense, and I'm particularly fond of ice, stone, elec, and dark armors, though the caveat is I'm also particular to hover and I know some abilities don't like you being off the ground.

 

I'm also a bit lost on the secondaries and had a few questions. The ones that caught my eye on tanker were savage, staff, and stone. 

 

Savage looks great for aoe and movement, but is leap going to conflict with hover and want me to be grounded? Is hemorrhage a hard skip like it is on stalker? Fits the character thematically, and Ston's recent testing makes it look like an amazing pick.

 

Staff seems very low in dps across the board, likely due to lack of build up, but I don't think Mids is showing Form of Body properly either. Does it's defense bonuses help at all for more Res focused armors? Bonus points for probably being the coolest taunt animation.

 

Stone Melee looks slow, but crunchy and satisfying. Hover might be a problem here too, though. Does it have enough aoe to feel good on a tanker? I remember briefly having one of these all the way back on live and remember not being impressed, but Homecoming is a whole 'nother beast for most of these sets and the AT as a whole.

 

I'm mostly just looking for folks thoughts, and curious to know which sets they enjoy. Do these sets have any synergy? Are there sets that wont mix due to being slot hogs? Which ones do you think are the most fun to play with? Any and all advice is appreciated!

[Grimm2]

So cool you are getting your family in on CoH, it's gonna be a lot of fun! 

 

I'd strongly encourage you add Rad Armor to your list of possibilities. Rad Armor has an excellent suite of resistances, absorb shield, debuff resistance, proccable attacks, and bonus recovery to build onto.

 

My latest tank happens to be Rad/savage. Savage would work with any of your interests, the blood mechanic gives you end reduction and recharge, most sets love that. It has no strong single target attack, but great AOE that's even better because, Tanks. No conflict with Hover. Hemo is a skip, but I've heard of folks proccing it to get some timely damage. 

 

But seriously, Rad/Savage. Leap/Viscous/Zero/Flurry/Rad Therapy/Flurry, and you have literally carpet-bombed an entire spawn beyond recovery in 10-12 seconds. Very little build sacrifice to do so, as well. 

[biostem]

If you want a solid and very capable tanker, I heartily recommend radiation or bio armor, and either savage or dark melee.  If you go rad/savage, you‘d have a ton of  extra recharge and be able to deal consistent and constant damage, with high mobility.  Bio armor will excel at permitting you to switch between dealing more damage or being a bit tougher, all on the fly. 

[Lhanis]

My biggest issue with Rad Armor is honostly just the aesthetic. I know it's a wonderful set but I've never been able to make it look good to me in the editor. Bio is similar to a degree, but the low fx option makes that less of a problem for me, and I do like the kit from what I see of it. I've also just noticed that Dark Armor would let me keep stealth which I'm rather fond of having, and Savage sounds like it'd help with the classic End issues the set usually has. I've always had a soft spot for Soul Noir effects, too...

 

A lot of folks seem to have nothing but glowing recommendations for Savage, too, and it definitely looks interesting. So that is probably where I'll start on primaries, and save Staff for a rainy day down the line when I have more inf to spare.

 

I'll have to poke at both Dark and Bio to see what I can do with them in Mids. 

[biostem]

11 minutes ago, farsinger said:

I'll have to poke at both Dark and Bio to see what I can do with them in Mids. 

I've had a few dark armor characters.  Outside of it excelling at resisting some rarely-resisted damage types or status effects, I don't find its "everyday performance" to be good enough to compensate for the end issues I usually experience with the set.  

[Lhanis]

Messing around in the test server, and that's basically what I'm seeing, yeah. Savage is easily my new favorite melee set after seeing it in action, but I think I overestimated the end reduction it provides. Especially if I'm consistently burning the frenzy on Rending flurry. In any content where I'm stuck without Physical Perfection and Cardiac Core, I'm sucking wind after a few pulls with toggles running. That might be mostly on my poor building skills, but it's a shame all the same as I quite like Dark's aesthetic.

 

Bio is a nice change though, even if it's a bit clicky for my tastes. Especially since Tanker is already drowning in defenses enough to not usually notice the negatives of Offensive Stance.

[Grimm2]

As far as Rad armor effects goes, I've found that light saturation Dark effects make it less obtrusive. I'll try to post some pics later. 

 

edit: there we are with all 4 toggles.

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by Grimm2

[Grimm2]

Here's another one with Particle Shielding and Meltdown active. Radiation Therapy can make you glow for 10 seconds or so, I like to make that bright.

 

[Lhanis]

 

Grimm has kindly offered to drag me off and showcase Rad/Savage once we have a chance where our schedules align, which I'm looking forward to! I'd like to at least give the set a shot before I settle. In the meantime, this is what I've been working on myself for Dark.

 

I may have gone a little nuts with defensive slotting, but the goal here was to hit caps and be as comfy with End as I can without actually using Cardiac alpha, as the premise of the character is that I'll be doing a great deal of exemp'd content with my brothers with it. I could probably do better with damage slotting, and the last couple skills were just mule picks since I didn't feel the need for hasten and wasn't sure what else to take, but I'm happy with it overall.

 

As always, I appreciate any and all advice, especially with slotting as Savage and Tankers in general are new to me. Ston and Infinitum's pages have been invaluable resources for looking at example builds, but I'm still figuring out where I should be aiming for on most of this.

Tanker - Dark Savage wip.mbd

[Lhanis]

I did poke through Bio for a while as well, I know Dark has the issue of lacking DDR so no matter how high I push Defense it will still be an issue in some cases, but overall I found Dark fit my theme better. Bio is a wonderful set, but the aesthetic doesn't do it for me and it feels very busy for an armor. In this particular case, I'm looking for something more chill rather than something that puts out better numbers.

 

I have a feeling Rad will be similar, but it's one of the few sets I've never actually played with before and a lot of folks sing it's praises, so I want to at least build one out to try it before I make my decision.

[Hyperstrike]

2 hours ago, farsinger said:

I did poke through Bio for a while as well, I know Dark has the issue of lacking DDR so no matter how high I push Defense it will still be an issue in some cases, but overall I found Dark fit my theme better. Bio is a wonderful set, but the aesthetic doesn't do it for me and it feels very busy for an armor. In this particular case, I'm looking for something more chill rather than something that puts out better numbers.

 

I have a feeling Rad will be similar, but it's one of the few sets I've never actually played with before and a lot of folks sing it's praises, so I want to at least build one out to try it before I make my decision.

With Resist-based sets, ones with no DDR, it's best to treat any Defense you have as an ablative shield.
It's there primarily to Tank the initial alpha-strike and go away for a little bit as any debuffs that make it through diminish it.
So you build for high Resist to carry you past the debuff.

Because, otherwise, you become an eggshell.
You're hard, until you crack.

[Nyghtmaire]

1 hour ago, farsinger said:

I did poke through Bio for a while as well, I know Dark has the issue of lacking DDR so no matter how high I push Defense it will still be an issue in some cases, but overall I found Dark fit my theme better. Bio is a wonderful set, but the aesthetic doesn't do it for me and it feels very busy for an armor. In this particular case, I'm looking for something more chill rather than something that puts out better numbers.

 

I have a feeling Rad will be similar, but it's one of the few sets I've never actually played with before and a lot of folks sing it's praises, so I want to at least build one out to try it before I make my decision.

Dark Armor is a set that benefits from leaning into the controls (CoF, OG or both). It’s a shaving game of limiting incoming damage from minions, enough defense to soften any incoming volley of attacks, high/decent resists (absent energy followed by toxic) to lower any damage that goes through, a boss heal, and stealth to limit nearby mobs from noticing you until you’re ready.

 

Since you have a Necro/dark and ice/cold, I’d build planning on having at least the /cold shields, 2 maneuvers, tactics, and nearly limitless end. So, build for max damage.
 

Defense doesn’t need focused slotting (merely your basic power slotting and the 2 defense procs). From your teammates and maneuvers, you’ll probably have a base of ~21-22 (not counting Arctic Fog and Shadow Fall). You’ll need to make-up the remaining ~23-24. The MMs ToHit buffs will be your debuffs resistance.

 

Resistances to all positions, aim for ~83 (planning on stack of the ATO proc), keeping in mind you’ll get a ton of cold and a little fire from the /cold shields, and more from Arctic Fog and Shadow Fall. I wouldn’t even pay attention to f/c resistances. 
 

Would certainly take at least OG. The Necro/dark can take as well for stacking. It will also stack with Howling Twilight’s stun. (And to that point, I’d be tempted to take stone as my attack secondary to stacks more stuns with Tremor and Fault). 
 

The Corruptor can cast Frostwork on you, essentially boosting your HP. 
 

The only thing I would be tempted to build for other than damage is slow resists. Arctic Fog will give a ton, but I wouldn’t want to plan for that. 90 should be sufficient (20 from Winter’s Gift, 4 sets of Winter ATOs - 2 piece bonus - for 15 each, 10 more from Synapse at 3 slots for example).

 

 

[Lhanis]

I hadn't actually taken into account what they will provide when I'm playing with them, and thats a good point. Cold shields and End refill would help a lot to shore things up and let me move a lot more sets into offensive bonuses. I'm so used to slotting out with the intent to solo I hadn't even considered it. 

 

Now I feel a little silly.

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by farsinger

[PyroBeetle]

TBH I have found that my Rad Tanker does just fine without slotting for defense. Pump the resistance pump the regen and pump the recharge. Proc bomb and enjoy.

[Hyperstrike]

5 hours ago, PyroBeetle said:

TBH I have found that my Rad Tanker does just fine without slotting for defense. Pump the resistance pump the regen and pump the recharge. Proc bomb and enjoy.

Exactly.  Usually in the load-up, most Resist Tanks pick up enough ancillary Defense that they're fine.