For Fun - Tanker Challenge Dark/Stone

[ZemX]

Level 7 and so far my greatest challenge is getting Dark Armor not to look like ass in the character creator.  I have mostly had to go with No Fade and No Pulse.   Dear Lord... I am so glad I never bothered to try before these options were available.  I can't imagine how anyone plays.. blinking like that all the time.   

 

Then I got Obsidian Shield and it put a pulsating cheese halo around CG's head!   Okay, so go to minimal FX right?  WRONG!  Now the halo is gone but the fade/blinking is back.  Khaaaaaaan!

 

Okay, but I am used to this from playing Rad Armor.  So I put it back on No Fade/Pulse and colored it a very dark shade of cheese.   And now at least it's less visible.

 

What's that?  But other than that how does it play?  Eh... it's okay so far.  

[Spaghetti Betty]

6 hours ago, ZemX said:

Level 7 and so far my greatest challenge is getting Dark Armor not to look like ass in the character creator.  I have mostly had to go with No Fade and No Pulse.   Dear Lord... I am so glad I never bothered to try before these options were available.  I can't imagine how anyone plays.. blinking like that all the time.   

 

Embrace the dark and spooky!

[ZemX]

3 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

Embrace the dark and spooky!

 

The Cheesegardian embraces savory, not spooky!

[Warboss]

Seems like there should be a Norse cheese reference in there (given the look and all), something like "Jarlbergardian" or "Norvegardian", dunno'... something like that...

[SeraphimKensai]

Alright I parked my Dark/Stone in KR at the meet up for tomorrow night. I got it up to lvl 39 through organic game play and TFs. I did throw a few IOs at it, but not as much as I normally would, otherwise its rocking SOs. Harmonic Mind definitely helps the end.

Edited April 16 by SeraphimKensai

[Spaghetti Betty]

I have decided I will bring my baby Tank to Tanker Tuesday as well!

 

I unfortunately did not have the time to do Frostfire, but I did at least get to level 10. That means ATOs are in place!

[ZemX]

18 minutes ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

I have decided I will bring my baby Tank to Tanker Tuesday as well!

 

I unfortunately did not have the time to do Frostfire, but I did at least get to level 10. That means ATOs are in place!

 

@Warboss whatever you do, do NOT put @Spaghetti Betty in charge of the mish team!  We'll all be running +4 with no insps at level 10!

[Spaghetti Betty]

54 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

@Warboss whatever you do, please put @Spaghetti Betty in charge of the mish team!  I want to run +4 with no insps at level 10!

Fixed it for you!

[SeraphimKensai]

@Spaghetti Bettycan lead the Old School Positron TF at +4.

[smnolimits43]

I accept your challenge 🙂

[Spaghetti Betty]

I had some free time to do a little bit of soloing, and now I'm level 22! This is great because now I have proc'd Fault and Unleash potential! Pretty soon I won't need Plasmatic Tasers and Hand Grenades to clear mobs!

[SeraphimKensai]

I had a chance to play a little tonight so mine is sitting at lvl 42. I've started tossing it more sets. but I don't plan to fully IO the build til 50, just been going pieces here and there to help get a feel for the toon. Ran an ITF and a Manticore tonight.

[Renatos1023]

So, I saw this challenge and decided I would do it my own way...just hit 37 on my Dark/Spines (not a fan of /Stone and never used Spines on any melee character since live). I am looking for feedback on the Dark/ side mostly, but will take secondary feedback too. This combo is very new to me, as I generally play Defenders.

 

I have to say I REALLY love it. TWO damage auras are so fun. It is an endurance hog. I have slotted 3/4 of the endurance uniques that I can. One more to go.

 

One question that I want to pose is: are y'all getting KB'd like crazy? I have two +4 KB protection IOs slotted (Steadfast and Universal Travel) -- I thought +8 KB protection would be solid. But I still feel like a friggen ping pong ball at times. I thought sets with built in KB protection only got 10....is that corrrect? Do I need to add more KB protection, and if so, how? This is my biggest gripe tbh. There is no reason that Tank sets do not have KB resistance.

[SeraphimKensai]

Didn't play last night was tired after putting my toddler to bed. Played some today and sitting at lvl 46. This thing is coming along nicely. I was afk at a merit vendor and some lvl 50 dragged his ambush by me and I stole his agro. I came back to find 8 lvl 50 rikti attacking me and I was still at 90+% hp and regening it.

 

I still havent gone in an AE mish with it, so i've held true to the no PL on it. I've ran numerous TFs, SFs, and a lot of mission teams including a taste in DA tonight and got to kill an avatar of Mot. Looking forward to hitting 50 with it and playing with the other dark/stones. Psi Tornado is working well, I picked that up at 44.

[theDarkeOne]

Havent played in months (BG3 took me away) but I always return at some point and saw this challenge. And since I havent played in forever basically I am "cheating" a bit and buying all my sets and planning things out ahead of time and slotting on the fly. However, will not be powerleveling. . . Doing Eagle Eye in KR right now since have not done his arc, some tip missions, and have never done the new Striga so looking forward to running all of that content.

 

Great challenge combining two sets I have used prolifically in the past but never together. 

[SeraphimKensai]

44 minutes ago, theDarkeOne said:

Havent played in months (BG3 took me away) but I always return at some point and saw this challenge. And since I havent played in forever basically I am "cheating" a bit and buying all my sets and planning things out ahead of time and slotting on the fly. However, will not be powerleveling. . . Doing Eagle Eye in KR right now since have not done his arc, some tip missions, and have never done the new Striga so looking forward to running all of that content.

 

Great challenge combining two sets I have used prolifically in the past but never together. 

You're okay slotting sets as you go, that's what we've all been doing. Especially they ATO procs and theft of essence.

 

Have fun with it.

[theDarkeOne]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:37 PM, Renatos1023 said:

So, I saw this challenge and decided I would do it my own way...just hit 37 on my Dark/Spines (not a fan of /Stone and never used Spines on any melee character since live). I am looking for feedback on the Dark/ side mostly, but will take secondary feedback too. This combo is very new to me, as I generally play Defenders.

 

I have to say I REALLY love it. TWO damage auras are so fun. It is an endurance hog. I have slotted 3/4 of the endurance uniques that I can. One more to go.

 

One question that I want to pose is: are y'all getting KB'd like crazy? I have two +4 KB protection IOs slotted (Steadfast and Universal Travel) -- I thought +8 KB protection would be solid. But I still feel like a friggen ping pong ball at times. I thought sets with built in KB protection only got 10....is that corrrect? Do I need to add more KB protection, and if so, how? This is my biggest gripe tbh. There is no reason that Tank sets do not have KB resistance.

My main, back in the day, was Darke/Spines Scrapper and I sat at 11 for KBR after inventions were introduced. That helped stop the ping pong.

 

Tank spines is definitely a bigger hitter for targets but damage is a bit lacking. Your cones are massive though so take advantage. 

[Spaghetti Betty]

Level 27! Now I can start slotting some real IOs!

 

I may or may not show up to TT tonight. I have a lot on my plate today. I might have to make up for it by leading a pug or two this week!

[Warboss]

On 4/23/2024 at 10:17 AM, Spaghetti Betty said:

LI have a lot on my plate today.

 

I know the feeling. No worries take care of what you need to. My Dark/SM won't see any action (FrostFire) until Friday, which I just realized is tomorrow...

[Warboss]

I was able to get my Dark/SM up to level 21 this Friday. Don't recall everything we did, but manage to get him there. Out of habit I took SJ instead of T-port, so I need to correct that at some point (soonish). I was able to get a few of the lower level IOs, even a couple of Winter-Os, but then time ran out. I'll need to give the build a bit more love when I have time. So far it's been pretty fun playing the set, and my friend is running one as well. The overlapping Death Shrouds are pretty effective. I've been running the alternate animations, and I do enjoy them, however I still expect to see the hammers show up (old habits...). All-in-all, I'm enjoying the run. More when I get a few more levels.

[Spaghetti Betty]

42 minutes ago, Warboss said:

. I've been running the alternate animations, and I do enjoy them

I know it's just my mind playing tricks on me, but the punch animations feel slow to use.

 

In other news, I have been playing mine off and on during my limited free time. I'm level 32! This thing is really trucking along now that I have most of my key powers.

[SeraphimKensai]

I can't wait to get all of our dark/stones together again. In my free time I've been working on IOs, but been a bit distracted as I'm in the process of switching jobs, so I've been busy reassigning my projects to my colleagues and making introductions.

[Warboss]

On 4/19/2024 at 7:37 PM, Renatos1023 said:

So, I saw this challenge and decided I would do it my own way...just hit 37 on my Dark/Spines (not a fan of /Stone and never used Spines on any melee character since live). I am looking for feedback on the Dark/ side mostly, but will take secondary feedback too. This combo is very new to me, as I generally play Defenders.

 

I have to say I REALLY love it. TWO damage auras are so fun. It is an endurance hog. I have slotted 3/4 of the endurance uniques that I can. One more to go.

 

One question that I want to pose is: are y'all getting KB'd like crazy? I have two +4 KB protection IOs slotted (Steadfast and Universal Travel) -- I thought +8 KB protection would be solid. But I still feel like a friggen ping pong ball at times. I thought sets with built in KB protection only got 10....is that corrrect? Do I need to add more KB protection, and if so, how? This is my biggest gripe tbh. There is no reason that Tank sets do not have KB resistance.

 

Sorry a bit slow on my thread reads these days, but to answer your KB question, yes. Dark has no inherent KB protection. Also the last issue added KB/stacking KB powers to many of the mobs that previously didn't have them, Council being the most obvious change (personally not a fan, don't see the point or the theme of it). 8 KB used to get you by on the majority of the content (I used to build for 12 on my Fire and Dark Tanks (I really don't like KB)). Now though, I think 12 might be the starting point, especially with the current frequency or stacking changes/opportunities. Blessing of the Zephier, 3 Fury of the Gladiator, and Karma's KB protection are the easiest to slot, Steadfast Protection's KB is good, but takes a Resist slot. 

 

And yeah, the End drain you'll feel from Dark Armor paired and running Spine Burst is an issue. You'll have some End management challenges. As I recall though that is a fun combo to run (once you've got it tuned in).

[ZemX]

1 hour ago, Warboss said:

Also the last issue added KB/stacking KB powers to many of the mobs that previously didn't have them, Council being the most obvious change (personally not a fan, don't see the point or the theme of it). 8 KB used to get you by on the majority of the content (I used to build for 12 on my Fire and Dark Tanks (I really don't like KB)). Now though, I think 12 might be the starting point, especially with the current frequency or stacking changes/opportunities.

 

I don't know if you want to change anything.  What they did is give certain Council a "critical" KB chance.  Doesn't seem to happen that often but when it does, it seemed to be accompanied by a "FREEM!" message and it was enough to knock back my Rad tankers with their built-in KB protection.

 

For example, per COD, the Council's rocket folks have a Rocket Launch ability that normally does Mag 1.2 KB.  But it has a 5% chance of mag +14 KB.  There is no point trying to build for that on a toon with no KB protection.

[Warboss]

2 hours ago, ZemX said:

 

I don't know if you want to change anything.  What they did is give certain Council a "critical" KB chance.  Doesn't seem to happen that often but when it does, it seemed to be accompanied by a "FREEM!" message and it was enough to knock back my Rad tankers with their built-in KB protection.

 

For example, per COD, the Council's rocket folks have a Rocket Launch ability that normally does Mag 1.2 KB.  But it has a 5% chance of mag +14 KB.  There is no point trying to build for that on a toon with no KB protection.

 

I can't speak to other's experiences in the game, but I don't care for it. And that explains the "Freeming" I've been seeing (, again, not sure about this change...), I figured it was something like that (just haven't had the time to look into it).

 

Are Stone and Invuln affected by it? I know my Icer's are (iirc, Ice Armor's KB Resist was pretty up there as well) as are the other primaries I play. Just seems like a weird mechanic, considering Tanks are supposed to be able to take that kind of hit. Council have never been on the "superior" side of anything... in fact, that was kinda' their charm. To all of a sudden give them epic levels of KB seems like a weird design choice (and off theme). Also the KB I've been experiencing happens pretty frequently (granted I'm running 8+2 or better, so big mobs with more opportunity to get hit). If Stone and Invuln aren't affected, I don't see why the other sets should be if they had the ability to resist prior to the buff.

 

And yeah, chasing that level of KB  protection would put a dent in any build.

 

On a side note, is there a power that Tanks can run that "Freem" their opponents?