Returning player looking for some advice.

[Nefris]

Heya, it's been a very long while since I played CoH and I was thinking about giving Tanker a shot.

 

Thing is I don't know how to efficiently build it for 1-50 leveling process - I've only played Corruptor and some low lvl dps alts so my knowledge about everything else is limited. And to be honest I forgot a lot of stuff 🙂

 

I've read several topics here already and I think know what I want more or less:
1. Solo everything story-related plus dungeons if I'll need them for story arcs.

2. Build that will allow me to tackle something harder like soloing AVs/GMs in the distant future and not feel like I've picked power set that is simply too weak for this challenge.

3. Safe AFK farm when I'm feeling like turning my brain off for one day.

4. I intend to play with groups very rarely and prefer to just go at my own, slow pace solo through dungeons/bosses.

 

Like I've said I've read few topics here about power sets and builds and I was mostly thinking about picking Bio, Rad or WP Primary and EM, MA, Rad or Staff Secondary. Bio/EM interests me the most but before I fully commit I thought that I'll ask here just to be 100% sure.

 

1. Which option would be the most stress-free and comfy in the long run? And still completely self-sufficient if I wanna solo something harder?

2. I have some crafted lvl 20-25 general purpose IOs on some of my alts (damage, endurance reduction, recharge, accuracy etc) but I have no idea how to slot Tanker properly with Enhancements for leveling.

Do I need some defensive IOs just in case or will pure dps IOs be enough to keep me alive from 1 to 50 and clear dungeons/bosses during leveling process?

3. Build doesn't have to be super-meta.

I'm just looking for something safe and comfy. I do not intend to play cutting-edge large scale hardcore group content.

4. At lvl 50 I will definately respec and try and learn from a proper endgame guide here on forums.

My questions are mostly about how not to handicap myself for leveling process 🙂

[PeregrineFalcon]

Welcome back to Paragon City!

• If you're planning on mostly soloing you should make a Scrapper or a Brute instead of a Tank. Tanks are high survival/low damage. This makes soloing slow and tedious unless you turn the difficulty way down.
• There were threads (not sure if there still are) about Scrappers soloing GMs. With the changes to GMs on the test server right now that might no longer be possible in a couple of weeks though.
• I'm not sure if AFK farming is really a thing anymore (it might even be against the rules - I don't remember), but I believe Spines/Fire Brutes are the king of farmers.
• If you play any of the three, Brute, Scrapper, Tanker, you won't have any problems surviving while leveling up, regardless of your build, unless you raise the difficulty.
• The points in your list basically describe two or three different characters. Spines/Fire Brutes are great at farming not so much at soloing GMs, and EM or Titan Weapons Scrappers are great against GMs but no good for farming.
• If you're looking for something "safe and comfy" try a Scrapper with whatever primary you think is fun and with the Willpower secondary powerset.
• Also, if you need money for IOs, send an in-game email to @Yomo and he'll give you 100 million Influence, just cause he's cool like that.

Hope this helps.

[Nefris]

Thank you 🙂

[Sovera]

1 hour ago, Nefris said:

Heya, it's been a very long while since I played CoH and I was thinking about giving Tanker a shot.

 

Thing is I don't know how to efficiently build it for 1-50 leveling process - I've only played Corruptor and some low lvl dps alts so my knowledge about everything else is limited. And to be honest I forgot a lot of stuff 🙂

 

I've read several topics here already and I think know what I want more or less:
1. Solo everything story-related plus dungeons if I'll need them for story arcs.

2. Build that will allow me to tackle something harder like soloing AVs/GMs in the distant future and not feel like I've picked power set that is simply too weak for this challenge.

3. Safe AFK farm when I'm feeling like turning my brain off for one day.

4. I intend to play with groups very rarely and prefer to just go at my own, slow pace solo through dungeons/bosses.

 

Like I've said I've read few topics here about power sets and builds and I was mostly thinking about picking Bio, Rad or WP Primary and EM, MA, Rad or Staff Secondary. Bio/EM interests me the most but before I fully commit I thought that I'll ask here just to be 100% sure.

 

1. Which option would be the most stress-free and comfy in the long run? And still completely self-sufficient if I wanna solo something harder?

2. I have some crafted lvl 20-25 general purpose IOs on some of my alts (damage, endurance reduction, recharge, accuracy etc) but I have no idea how to slot Tanker properly with Enhancements for leveling.

Do I need some defensive IOs just in case or will pure dps IOs be enough to keep me alive from 1 to 50 and clear dungeons/bosses during leveling process?

3. Build doesn't have to be super-meta.

I'm just looking for something safe and comfy. I do not intend to play cutting-edge large scale hardcore group content.

4. At lvl 50 I will definately respec and try and learn from a proper endgame guide here on forums.

My questions are mostly about how not to handicap myself for leveling process 🙂

 

As Peregrine pointed out Tankers are the best AT to feel like a super hero.... Wait, no, that's not what he said...

 

😄

 

Seriously though. While other ATs can solo at x8 it is the Tanker that does so at the earliest. All my runs at 0x6 and later +1x8 from 20 onwards. But, this is from a min max twink perspective with all the good expensive IOs waiting to be slotted when I ding the correct level. Leveling with generic IOs means taking it easy at x4 tops until all the defenses are slotted in and doing the job that the expensive IOs would have been doing.

 

Peregrine is right that Tankers will only slowly whittle stuff but you can get around it by playing Fire Armor which increases the damage output to be at least reasonable (if never top damage). Something like a Fire Armor/Claws will let you work through the game at a steady pace. Fire/Fire has good numbers too.

 

The way I level on a twinked out character involves slotting all my attacks first, then slot by heals/endurance, and finally my armor toggles which is around level 40-ish. Until then all the IOs and a stream of inspirations in the very low game (up to 20-ish) becomes the occasional inspiration up to 30 once the armor toggles are slotted the use of inspirations is simply gone.

 

Until then it's a matter of defeating the enemies before they defeat you which Fire Armor is good at. Other sets are good at surviving (better really) but do not achieve the same kill-first. Later in the end game Radiation Armor can do it too, maybe even better to be honest.

 

As regarding AFK farming that's easy to do. Any Tanker that has been built can handle a farm. Now a FARMER build will not handle general PvE since they are strictly built to survive against fire mobs, but a Tanker built for PvE will handle PvE and handle farms. If you meant completely AFK then that's definitely a Fire Armor and probably specialized.

 

 

You can level with only generics, but to be completely honest with you there is no reason to. If you don't know how to sell merits check my newbie guide. Sell your merits, or use them to craft, make enough millions to start buying good things. It's not wasted money since you can pass those good things to your next alt.

 

Some stuff you could/should look at minimum while leveling would be:

- Both 3% defense uniques (Gladiator Armor and Steadfast Protection).

- Both +res uniques (Shield Wall and Reactive Defenses).

- Performance Shifter proc in Stamina.

- Panaceia unique in Health. Once you can efford it the Miracle and Numina's Convalescence uniques.

- Definitely the Might of the Tanker unique even if you don't buy the rest. It has a chance of giving 5% to ALL resistances when you hit a mob with a power that has it slotted (so try to put it in a power you use often) and can stack up to three times (so 15%).

 

Truly important I'd just say those. Other than the Might of the Tanker any of them can be transferred to other ATs at a later date, or you can even sell them back to the AH. Even the Might of the Tanker can be saved (check how to make your base to store your IOs in the newbie guide) in case you make a new Tanker.

 

I made a lot of money simply by saving my IOs I bought piece meal but then transferred to the new alts instead of re-spending half a billion worth of gear and it only takes 5 minutes tops.

 

 

Once you decide what flavour of Tanker you want to try we can put our heads together and see how to cobble it.

[PyroNugget]

based on the tone of your OP  "slow,at my own slow pace,solo"

 

gotta say tank is for you

 

recommend a dual damage aura like bio or ice armors with spines or rad for secondary  -- i prefer bio  with adaptive carapace on auto when i AFK

 

or the tried and true fire/ice melee

 

for GMs currently just use envenomed daggers from the P2W vendor to overcome the GMs regen

 

* another note on BIO armor is the use of EFFICIENT armor mode-- lets you run a new tank without having the cash for the uniques mentioned above --you just switch to offensive later when you have them in place.

 

** another new tank trick is to run at  MINUS 1/8 on missions -- large amounts of easier to hit enemies plays well with dual dmg auras (and burn)

 

[Nefris]

Thank you very much!

[Azari]

If you want to AFK farm, make a tank with bio armor and rad melee.

[Pleonast]

The great thing about a Tanker is that if you get distracted by something (phone call, bio break, tennis lesson, etc), you can just leave the character in the mission. They’ll still be there when you come back, maybe with some new friends pantomiming a fight. 

[tidge]

A few random comments:

 

While leveling, I rarely slot the Tanker primaries. Enhancements values don't do very much until you are at the point where set bonuses come into play (special except for Kismet +ToHit and the Defense/Resist PVP global pieces). The primary becomes more important as you turn up spawn sizes.

 

In order to NOT be frustrated by turning up spawn size, you will need endurance under control and attacks. Tankers do well with AoE attacks, I am certain you can get specific advice depending on the the build later.

[Sovera]

@tidge speaks true, though I found it more on the resistance sets. I tried slotting Fire Armor and it barely made a difference in my survivability which was why I started to slot my attacks and living off inspirations for survival.

 

But with a caveat for defense. Defense sets bloom with early slotting. Instead of 90% they only need to aim for 45%. 5% are accounted for in the early level Amplifiers, 6% from sloting both uniques. Then we have silly things like being level 13 and be at nearly 40% or effectively immortal as I showed in the post in my signature.

[PLVRIZR]

On 2/25/2024 at 10:18 AM, tidge said:

A few random comments:

 

While leveling, I rarely slot the Tanker primaries. Enhancements values don't do very much until you are at the point where set bonuses come into play (special except for Kismet +ToHit and the Defense/Resist PVP global pieces). The primary becomes more important as you turn up spawn sizes.

 

 

I agree, with the caveat that if you have the cash (and you should, if you follow @Yomo Kimyata or @Sovera's advice), the +Res and +Absorb procs from Might of the Tanker and Gauntleted Fist, respectively, are really nice bonuses, at the lower levels.