Fire/SS, or How I Turned a Tank into a Scrapper

[Spaghetti Betty]

Hullabaloo and howdy doo! I've had a pet project I've been waiting to work on for a little bit, and now that the new Page is here, I think it's in a good enough spot to share with you all!

 

See, I saw that Tanker's were getting a new Darkness Mastery pool. Now, new epic pools are great and all, but what piqued my interest the most was that some loony in the dev team decided Tanks (and Brutes) really need access to Tar Patch! For those who don't know, Tar Patch gives access to a huge AoE patch that debuffs damage RES by 22.5%! It also kills Fly and slows really hard, but that's second bananas compared to that tasty RES debuff.

 

So I really wanted to incorporate this pool into one of my Tanks! And I found the perfect candidate - Fire/SS! Already a strong combo to be sure, but I've been drawn to the allure of the risk/reward that it brings. Tar Patch compliments that with grace. And tar.

 

And as much as I'd lead you to believe I'm crazy bonkers and don't give a dime about mitigation, you'd be wrong. This is actually my squishiest Tank to date, and goes all in on damage!

 

To anyone looking for a cruise control impenetrable fortress, this is not for you!

 

Anyways, without further ado, here's the build.

 

Tanker (Fiery Aura - Super Strength).mbd

 

Wow! What a beauty! So stunning! Brave! Don't look Sovera

 

This thing is so selfish. It's mitigation is pitiful for a Tank. It can't sustain END without Ageless (one of my no no's), and has to spend it's time pulling old-school when solo.

 

But what it does do is hit like a bucket-wheel excavator being dropped from orbit! Seriously, I think this Tank might outdo my Rad/SS in damage. Maybe not in mitigation, but definitely in damage.

 

Run into a group, drop Tar Patch, use Foot Stomp (everything is half dead), use Burn (minions dead, lts shortly after), and mop up the rest. So satisfying!

 

Another thing I love about this Tank is its room for growth in teams. One RES or DEF buffer and it's flying. Kins are its best friend! It just might end up being my favorite Tank to bring to coordinated runs!

 

I definitely encourage anyone curious enough to give this a spin to proceed with caution!

 

***EDIT***

Updated build with all suggested improvements

Tanker (Fiery Aura - Super Strength)2.mbd

Edited March 6 by Spaghetti Betty

[Zect]

An argument can be made for fire epic too: it also has a -22.5% res power, char is a better attack (tied with dominate for fastest animation among the ST holds), and it has fireball, which gets more benefit from fiery embrace. Remember that burn does sufficient DPA to be viable as a ST attack so the value of dark blast to you is debatable.

 

Resistances in the 80's to all but cold/tox/psi is actually very good. There is room to optimize your resists further, for example by completing the 6th synapse's shock (4.5 EN res) and changing the 3x gaussian's to 3x adj. targeting (3 EN res), and you can fairly easily sit at 87-90% SLENF resists with 1 stack of might of the tanker proc. You can also shed some of the 4th piece unbreakable guards and the +def uniques, because that piddly amount of melee def will be gone the first time a roman looks at it (if you have 4 slots to invest in a resistance power, you can consider 4x titanium coating instead: the set bonuses have better resistance per slot than unbreakable guard, at the cost of being a mixture of SL and EN res instead of pure EN).

[Sovera]

One of us! One of us! One of us!

 

As Zect pointed adding the last Synapse point would put your E/N at 84% at which one a second ATO stack will neatly insert you at 90% to it. But not with the Might of the Tanker in the damage aura since it will only tick once every 10 seconds. Place the trio of Gauntlet Fist that has the absorb proc in Blazing Aura and the four Might of the Tanker in whatever attack you find you spam the most. I know that might ruin your all proc attack, but...

 

Again as Zect said (they nailed every point I would have pointed out but just reiterating) consider the possible slotting of saving some slots and take one from all the Unbreakables you have slotted. You're not aiming for defense so that S/L / Melee defense is adding very little. Even if you only save two slots you can put them in Haymaker for more procs, or split them into a second recharge in Fiery Embrace and a +5 end mod in Stamina.

 

 

These are only minimal min-max tips because your build's super solid as proc monster.

[Spaghetti Betty]

Thanks for the pointers. I'll comment on a few.

 

6 hours ago, Zect said:

An argument can be made for fire epic too: it also has a -22.5% res power, char is a better attack (tied with dominate for fastest animation among the ST holds), and it has fireball, which gets more benefit from fiery embrace

 

These are good points, but I appreciate the utility of Tar Patch a little bit more. It's one of those theoreticals where Tar Patch can technically affect way more targets than a single click since it can tag more mobs for as long as its active. The slow and -Fly are also nice. This is super useful for things like Rommy ambushes and making monkeys easier to manage during Omega Kong. I can take a DPA loss for that since the -RES already has so much value, and the other tools available do their jobs well enough.

 

6 hours ago, Zect said:

for example by completing the 6th synapse's shock

 

I was specifically weary about doing this because it means I lose out on a good chunk of Max HP from Consume! Without the D Sync it's about 107 HP lost, which I guess is negligible in the grand scheme of things, but still stings.

 

7 hours ago, Zect said:

You can also shed some of the 4th piece unbreakable guards and the +def uniques

 

After looking again, I agree. Force of habit. But they're gone now.

 

5 hours ago, Sovera said:

But not with the Might of the Tanker in the damage aura since it will only tick once every 10 seconds. Place the trio of Gauntlet Fist that has the absorb proc in Blazing Aura and the four Might of the Tanker in whatever attack you find you spam the most. I know that might ruin your all proc attack, but...

 

I've never had this be an issue but I'll entertain the idea and switch them around! No harm in trying.

 

 

This is what the build looks like now after taking the advice. I was able to bring my resistances up a bit without damaging my Max HP too much, at the cost of a slight damage loss (I had Gaussian proc in Rage). I do think it's better overall however. Thanks!

 

Tanker (Fiery Aura - Super Strength).mbd

[DarkRevelation]

@Spaghetti Betty

Your 'Air Fryer' build is one of if not the most fun builds I have played. That build can do a lot of things. It is a blast.

 

I have been trying to put together something like this for Fire/Spines, and it just isn't coming together. I have an odd Stone/Rad build I am going to post to the forum eventually, but it uses procs in a different way. 

 

I have been gone for a long time, so forgive my ignorance on this, but one question I have is why the Increased Perception enhancement in Rage? Where or how is that used?

[Sovera]

5 minutes ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

This is what the build looks like now after taking the advice. I was able to bring my resistances up a bit without damaging my Max HP too much, at the cost of a slight damage loss (I had Gaussian proc in Rage). I do think it's better overall however. Thanks!

 

Everything is looking good. You could try to play with your resistances where you see useful and remove about 5% since a second stack of the ATO will cover that 5% loss. So you could take the 6th sloth of the Synapse and regain the 107 HP you were sad of losing. Or putting a Gaussian back in Rage with two +5 recharges.

 

Doing this you can recover one slot from the Unbreakable unique, and honestly, recover another one from the Kismet since Rage gives such large bonuses to accuracy. Even without the Kismet all your attacks are at 128% chanc to hit +3, 118% to hit +4,  and 110% to hit +5. I think it's safe to say the Kismet can go.

 

Tanker (Fiery Aura - Super Strength).mbd

 

While it not as pretty as what you have a second ATO will put you at 90% and you have ANOTHER two slots to place where you'd like.

 

[Spaghetti Betty]

6 minutes ago, DarkRevelation said:

I have been gone for a long time, so forgive my ignorance on this, but one question I have is why the Increased Perception enhancement in Rage? Where or how is that used?

 

Since I don't have Tactics or Focused Accuracy, I'm vulnerable to -Perception. Putting the proc in Rage means I'm safe from Blind when I click it.

[Ukase]

9 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Tar Patch gives access to a huge AoE patch that debuffs damage RES by 22.5%!

So, I could be misreading this - but I think this statement is..inaccurate. 

Tar Patch debuffs damage by 22.5%. Not Damage resistance. 
At least, that's what my detailed info tab shows: 

[Sovera]

Yeah, Tar Patch is about doing more damage, not taking less damage.

[Spaghetti Betty]

Just now, Ukase said:

So, I could be misreading this - but I think this statement is..inaccurate. 

Tar Patch debuffs damage by 22.5%. Not Damage resistance. 
At least, that's what my detailed info tab shows: 

You're reading it incorrectly!

[ZemX]

7 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Tar Patch debuffs damage by 22.5%. Not Damage resistance. 
At least, that's what my detailed info tab shows: 

 

Er... it says -22.5% resistance to all damage in the detail.

 

You may be confusing it with Soul Mastery's Darkest Night, which does indeed debuff Damage strength on the enemy.

[Spaghetti Betty]

30 minutes ago, Sovera said:

 

Everything is looking good. You could try to play with your resistances where you see useful and remove about 5% since a second stack of the ATO will cover that 5% loss. So you could take the 6th sloth of the Synapse and regain the 107 HP you were sad of losing. Or putting a Gaussian back in Rage with two +5 recharges.

 

Doing this you can recover one slot from the Unbreakable unique, and honestly, recover another one from the Kismet since Rage gives such large bonuses to accuracy. Even without the Kismet all your attacks are at 128% chanc to hit +3, 118% to hit +4,  and 110% to hit +5. I think it's safe to say the Kismet can go.

 

Tanker (Fiery Aura - Super Strength).mbd 42.59 kB · 1 download

 

While it not as pretty as what you have a second ATO will put you at 90% and you have ANOTHER two slots to place where you'd like.

 

Good call on the Kismet, and I like your armor slotting a bit more. I feel this is a good middle ground of all the compiled data, so I'm going ahead with your adjustments.

 

With the 2 extra slots, I added an extra recharge in Fiery Embrace and gave myself 4 more points of KB protection. It was either that or a trivial amount of S/L or NRG RES. I considered an extra end mod in Stamina, but that feels wasted since I'm using Ageless and Consume on cooldown already.

 

Tanker (Fiery Aura - Super Strength)2.mbd

Edited March 6 by Spaghetti Betty

[BuiltDifferent5]

27 minutes ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Good call on the Kismet, and I like your armor slotting a bit more. I feel this is a good middle ground of all the compiled data, so I'm going ahead with your adjustments.

 

With the 2 extra slots, I added an extra recharge in Fiery Embrace and gave myself 4 more points of KB protection. It was either that or a trivial amount of S/L or NRG RES. I considered an extra end mod in Stamina, but that feels wasted since I'm using Ageless and Consume on cooldown already.

 

Tanker (Fiery Aura - Super Strength)2.mbd 43.29 kB · 1 download

This the most updated build Betty? *leaves to go create another Alt* I SHALL CALL HIM FORGE AEGIS (tm)

[Spaghetti Betty]

3 minutes ago, BuiltDifferent5 said:

This the most updated build Betty? *leaves to go create another Alt* I SHALL CALL HIM FORGE AEGIS (tm)

Yup! Use that one.

[Ukase]

2 hours ago, ZemX said:

 

Er... it says -22.5% resistance to all damage in the detail.

 

You may be confusing it with Soul Mastery's Darkest Night, which does indeed debuff Damage strength on the enemy.

And, I see now I did read it incorrectly. 

Rhetorically, why can't they word that in a more clear fashion - "Debuffs critters damage resistance by 22.5%". 

I'm far too obtuse most days. 
 

[Sovera]

One other thing for a slight extra damage bump would be removing the extra -4 KB and adding an Armaggedon +5 Damage in Burn. It would push Burn from 733 to 833 or near 14% boost.

[Spaghetti Betty]

1 hour ago, Sovera said:

One other thing for a slight extra damage bump would be removing the extra -4 KB and adding an Armaggedon +5 Damage in Burn. It would push Burn from 733 to 833 or near 14% boost.

Hmmm. Gaining 100 damage to get slapped around by Rommy's shield again is a hard sell!

[ZemX]

On 3/6/2024 at 4:25 PM, Ukase said:

Rhetorically, why can't they word that in a more clear fashion - "Debuffs critters damage resistance by 22.5%". 

 

I only look at City of Data as definitive for describing what powers do.  Even Mid's is not great.  The in-game power detail windows are least reliable as they don't seem able to parse ALL the details, like conditional effects, and the like.

 

Thought to be fair, even figuring out what CoD is saying can sometimes be a challenge.  

[Marshal_General]

One day I am going to create an alt named, I Blame the Forums.