Help me with my Bio/Dark Melee build

[Gunnarr]

So, I rarely played a tanker on Live, and I've never played Bio anything. I've also never found the Leviathan Mastery EPP to be appealing, either in style or effectiveness, but for this character, along with Dark Melee, it seems to fit. I have the bare bones of the build - the powers I'd like to have - but no idea how many slots are good for each power, or if there is a necessary priority for any of them. Starting blue side, but will make the journey to red side to get the villain epic pools unlocked (and then come back). I didn't really choose a travel power until the very end, because with the P2W powers and team/mission/long range teleport he can get around well enough so far. I did buy and slot a Celerity:Stealth enhancement (attuned/15th level) into my Sprint, because I considered taking Stealth as a power or SS, but haven't really figured out how to make either fit. Stealth fits thematically, much more than SS (but with the minimal FX, SS could replace SJ or something and not ruin the look).

 

I have played him to 12th level so far, and enjoying it, but its time to come up with an actual build plan I think. I'm not worried about soloing AVs or GMs, so DPS is always nice but I just want to be very, very hard to kill. Feedback/suggestions are welcome

 

Orcinus: Magic origin, a failed spell by an insane CoT mage (because who in their right mind tries to combine an Orca with anything). Constantly wrestling with his violent urges, but generally fighting on the side of law and order.

 

EDITED: New build follows in thread below

 

Edited February 17 by Gunnarr
snipped blank build for brevity

[Gunnarr]

Found a very old post where I tried to build a WP/StJ Tanker with the same costume (it didn't pan out), but the advice there and a couple of nice PMs today gave me a little better starting point. Just got home and now have a frosty beverage in front of me and Mids open to tinker with the build.

 

 

[Gunnarr]

OK Updated Build v2.0

 

Ditched SJ in favor of Stealth, delayed my T9 attack a little, tried to build for recharge primarily. A lot of expensive stuff in there, but if the build is good it will be worth the grind/farming/waiting.

 

 

 

 

Orcinus v2.0 - Tanker (Bio Armor - Dark Melee).mbd

Edited February 17 by Gunnarr

[Gunnarr]

Well, I discovered that Stealth is a waste of time on a Tanker with auto taunting auras...sigh...I play a stealthy character every chance I get so this was a blindspot in my thinking. Time to rethink my build a little, since I am almost to 20 and get another respec.

[Sovera]

11 hours ago, Gunnarr said:

Well, I discovered that Stealth is a waste of time on a Tanker with auto taunting auras...sigh...I play a stealthy character every chance I get so this was a blindspot in my thinking. Time to rethink my build a little, since I am almost to 20 and get another respec.

 

You can always turn off the taunting auras if you intend to sneak, but it's not really the game for it. We thrive on a large volume of mobs and bashing their faces in.

 

Now if you want to be really really hard to kill Bio isn't really it though it can be built to be sturdy. Bio is for damage. A stupidly hard to defeat combo is for example Radiation Armor/Dark Melee. But there is a lot to be said about defeating stuff before it defeats you, and for that a good damage is required. I've hard runs with sturdier characters than my Fire Armor usuals and they ended up dying the same since they took longer to kill stuff.

 

Anyway.

 

Stealth is not a travel power. You can use Infiltration for that instead which does both stealth and gives a boost to run and jump speed. Or put a Celerity +Stealth in Sprint.

 

I would not recommend School of Sharks or Arctic Breath since they are narrow cones and the closer you are the harder it is to hit several enemies at once with those. But I can see how they would fit your theme so I didn't touch your powers too much.

 

There is a bit too much S/L resistances still since a second stack from Might of the Tanker in Smite will put S/L at 93%, and anything above 90% is wasted. Your ST rotation should be Midnight Grasp, Smite, Siphon Life, Smite. Repeat.

 

Take Barrier at 50 as a panic button and it will also finish pushing your defenses to 45%.

 

 

Assuming you would want to drop the sharks it frees slots to drop a few procs here and there to increase your damage a bit more. But the AoE of Dark Melee is no big shakes so having two extra cones might be something you appreciate. Time will tell, respecs are cheap, so test and see what fits you.

 

 

Neither of these are leveling builds though the powers are in their correct places, but obviously the sets cannot be used while leveling. If you want a cheaper leveling build I can cook something.

 

Orcinus v2.0 - Tanker (Bio Armor - Dark Melee) V2.mbd

Orcinus v2.0 - Tanker (Bio Armor - Dark Melee).mbd

Edited February 18 by Sovera

[Gunnarr]

Thank you so much for the help!

 

Since I'm almost completely without experience as a tanker, I think I will try to stick with the theme and include the sharks (at least) from LM, and try your second build. If/when I get it to 50, I'll have a better understanding of how to play it. So far its  been solo streetsweeping and radio missions, once I left Atlas Park. The only thing so far that really had me worried was a group of red/orange Tsoo, the boss could go intangible and fly and they had me backpedalling and popping insps for a bit. Unfortunately for them he flew off for a minute before coming back, and by then I had healed up and applied a beat down to his troops.

 

I have questions, of course 🙂

 

I see you have Brawl 4 slotted? It takes no End to use (something I did not know), so it's a filler, or a finisher for mobs with a speck of HP bar left? Why not put the slots in Boxing?

 

Does it matter whether I take Kick in place of Boxing? I don't have a 'kicking' attack, animation wise.

 

I've been popping the Ablative Carapace just before I enter range of the enemy to take the Alpha, then just mashing attack buttons as they refresh, trying to line up my cones (still using Sands of Mu at this level) with a little step or two to the side. What's the defensive rotation like? I haven't seen the higher level Bio powers in action so thats why I gave them so many slots in my build before. You have a lot less in them, so I'm wondering how/when I will use each.

 

[Sovera]

28 minutes ago, Gunnarr said:

Thank you so much for the help!

 

Since I'm almost completely without experience as a tanker, I think I will try to stick with the theme and include the sharks (at least) from LM, and try your second build. If/when I get it to 50, I'll have a better understanding of how to play it. So far its  been solo streetsweeping and radio missions, once I left Atlas Park. The only thing so far that really had me worried was a group of red/orange Tsoo, the boss could go intangible and fly and they had me backpedalling and popping insps for a bit. Unfortunately for them he flew off for a minute before coming back, and by then I had healed up and applied a beat down to his troops.

 

I have questions, of course 🙂

 

I see you have Brawl 4 slotted? It takes no End to use (something I did not know), so it's a filler, or a finisher for mobs with a speck of HP bar left? Why not put the slots in Boxing?

 

Does it matter whether I take Kick in place of Boxing? I don't have a 'kicking' attack, animation wise.

 

I've been popping the Ablative Carapace just before I enter range of the enemy to take the Alpha, then just mashing attack buttons as they refresh, trying to line up my cones (still using Sands of Mu at this level) with a little step or two to the side. What's the defensive rotation like? I haven't seen the higher level Bio powers in action so thats why I gave them so many slots in my build before. You have a lot less in them, so I'm wondering how/when I will use each.

 

 

Hello again and you're welcome.

 

Do try to stick to storylines if you can instead of radio missions since if you're using double XP you're getting no money from defeating enemies and Radios give no merits which means your only money is selling loot. You can either use the Contacts tab, or instead go to Ouroboros and explore the storylines all in neat rows. Completing each of those stories gives a varying amount of Merits and each merit can be sold for around-ish 210k.

 

Brawl is just a mule for that sweet 3.75% defense. It is not meant to be used and tbh neither should Punch/Kick even if slotted, but if you do wish to use Kick then take the slots from Brawl and put them there so it at least has some oomph to it.

 

There is no true defensive rotation a la games such as WoW. Since Ablative does a small heal (and amps your regen for 30 seconds) you can wade in and only use it after you get hurt in order to have that little heal push your HP back up. You can also try being in Defensive Adaptation if you want a bit extra defensive values, and there are tricks such as going into Defensive Adaptation to use Ablative since it amps up Ablative, and then go back to Offensive Adaptation for the perma 25% damage.

 

Even if you don't need endurance you can use DNA Siphon on the corpses of the enemies before they despawn. Using DNA Siphon on living enemies gives HP and endurance, but using it on corpses gives regen and recovery. Properly slotted DNA should be up less than 30 seconds so there is no reason not to use at each fight and it will top up your HP. If you save it after having defeated a few enemies like minions it will mix giving both heal and regen from those living and endurance and recovery from the corpses.

 

Parasitic Aura is 'just' a panic button. In practice I've stopped picking it since a Tanker is rarely in trouble, but all it really needs is to hit 2-3 mobs (or as many as you can fit in) and you'll be an unkillable demi god. The downside is that you might get used to that status but it only has 45 seconds duration and at best Parasitic takes 70-ish seconds to recharge so roughly 30 seconds downtime (accounting for the times when Hasten is down).

 

Until level 30 and obtaining Midnight Grasp I'd suggest picking Shadow Punch instead of the prestige powers. You can have a really early really easy rotation with Life Siphon, Shadow Punch, Smite, Shadow Punch. You have free respecs every 10 levels so once reaching level 30 you can /respec and take out Shadow Punch.

 

 

Take a gander at the newbie guide in my signature for more tips.

[Gunnarr]

I just hit 20, so I'm going to respec into your build now, and go back to doing storylines since I have a new contact. Thank you for the tips, I had no idea DNA Siphon would do that!

 

Also, that is a really great link for making money, thanks again!

 

(I wish there was a Beer emote, best I can do is give you a Trophy)

[Sovera]

6 minutes ago, Gunnarr said:

I just hit 20, so I'm going to respec into your build now, and go back to doing storylines since I have a new contact. Thank you for the tips, I had no idea DNA Siphon would do that!

 

Also, that is a really great link for making money, thanks again!

 

(I wish there was a Beer emote, best I can do is give you a Trophy)

 

You're welcome 😄

 

Use the slots from Brawl to spread the love a bit and add one extra slot to Hasten and two to Parasitic Aura. Later on you might not find much use for Parasitic but early on and without money for the expensive IOs the extra recharge will help in having it up.

[Sovera]

I went ahead and tweaked it for a leveling build.

 

Most of the new IOs will be something you won't give use to later on, but you can either re-sell them or you can make your own SG and stash them so that the next alt has the leveling IOs to use when it is their turn to climb up the leveling.

 

Until then you can also use generic IOs: one accuracy, three damage, one recharge, one endurance reduction. Then move to the cheap version, then climb to the expensive.

Orcinus v2.0 - Tanker (Bio Armor - Dark Melee) Leveling.mbd