50 stone/rad tank trying to make my build better

[schrodingercat]

Don't get me wrong, I haven't found anything that can kill me yet, i don't need support to tank anything, and I never run out of endurance. I do incarnate level content running musculature and assault without issues. I use ageless radial for the def debuff resist. It works for farming, bossing, whatever, and it exemplars wonderfully. But, I know my build can be better! Like it would be nice to have a 3rd single target attack or a build up. It would be cool if I could slap more procs in.

Right now it is literally a hodgepodge of whatever dropped + level 35 IOs and some stuff I have attempted to form into sets.

 

my actual build (Stone Armor - Radiation Melee).mbd

Edited April 26 by schrodingercat

[DarkRevelation]

I took a look at this the other day, but didn't reply then; let me explain why. Everyone builds differently. I love looking at builds to see what they aim for, and how they get there. First thing I do is open it up and look at the totals. I then go look for the ways that numbers can be, um, padded a bit, and turn them off.  I like looking at what he worst case scenario is, and that isn't right or wrong, but just how I like to look at it. You didn't have any of those, and I appreciate that. You have some nice numbers. Your defense to S/L/E/N/P are over the lvl 50 soft cap, and S/L/P are close to the incarnate cap. Where you have a lower defense your resists make up for it, which is a nice strategy IMO. I can see why you can solo most things without support. Your build is at the point where I'm not sure how much help/good I'd be. There are some things I would do differently, but that is just my opinion and how I build things. I'll list some for you, but your build has a sound foundation.

 

Two things jump out to me. Your endurance recovery to usage ratio (3.55/2.84) seems like it could get out of hand at times. You said specifically that it isn't an issue, and I assume that the Theft Of Essence +endurance in Rad Siphon helps out a lot. If not, I see you have conserve power, and when it is up I know it works well. I would move the Endurance Reduction IO from Rooted (base .21/s) to something like Mud Pots or Irradiated Ground (both are .52/s)  to get a better ratio when it is used. If you just moved that slot to Mud Pots Rooted would move from .12/s to .15/s (+.03) and Mud Pots would move from .38/s to .29/s (-.09), saving you .06/s. Not a lot, but those add up. You can do the same thing with set bonuses. I swapped something the other day, three piece LotG to a three piece Shield Wall, which bought me more HP for the same amount of space. Always be looking on how to maximize your slots, if you are into something like that. 

 

I think your to-hit and accuracy are an issue. 0% to-hit and 9% accuracy is kinds tough as a global. With Stone you don't get the to-hit of Invuln, nor the to-hit of SS with RM, so you will have to add in some of to-hit/accuracy IMO. What I do in MIDS is to set the 'Enemy Relative Level' (top middle on the same bar with File, Options, Build Sharing) to +4. It makes a world of difference. For example, your use of two pieces of the Scirocco's Dervish set that have some Accuracy slotted in IG works well at default/same level giving you 117%, but at +4 drops to 61%. That may be a MIDS thing, as some things are broken right now, but you can see roughly how much that level difference makes. Your procs don't have a chance to fire if you don't hit. IMO it is worth sacrificing a proc, and I usually sacrifice something that gets resisted a lot, like Smashing/Lethal, for an +5 Accuracy IO if nothing else.  If you only ever fight default level stuff, ignore what I said. I saw this play out last night in a 4x8 Market Crash, where the TF had a lot of melee, and there were tons of misses at each AV.  It took forever as a result to take those AVs down. It was great on minions, bad on AVs. Too many folk didn't have the accuracy required to burn down a +4 AV. 

 

Set aside some time, sit down with MIDS and start there. Make a plan of what you want with the build, and be flexible enough to work around it. This is where I have an issue, flexibility, but I am getting better.  Bring something back and let us look at it once you have a plan on what you want and how you want to get there. Good luck to you and enjoy the process!

 

 

[Sovera]

The accuracy seems to be alright at roughly 90%+ against +3 which is where the Alpha leaves us at anyway.

 

The Superior Gauntleted Fist would be better off in Mud Pots IMO.

 

The slotting in Proton Sweep gives almost nothing of interest. Three Eradications and then whatever would push your E/N a bit more (but it's already at 52%) or four Multi-strikes for a bit more resistances.

 

I would definitely fit in Fusion since every 30 seconds or less it can force two or three heals out of Radiation Siphon which is brutal HPS.

 

I personally find Proton Sweep to not add much to the build as the ST rotation is Radiation Siphon, Contaminated Strike, Radioactive Smash, Contaminated Strike, repeat. I suppose it can be looked at as an extra AoE since it has a native 75º angle plus the Tanker's inherent making it roughly 110º, which is decent. But if it went away you could pick Hasten, give it one slot, and then have about four extra slots to play with of which one or two to Crystal Armor to duplicate Stamina's slotting, one for Brimstone for a Gladiator's end/res (just to scoop the two piece bonus) and the last one to do whatever with.

 

Earth's Embrace is just a health buff, not a heal, so it doesn't need the full slotting. If you take the time to collect the accolades (which you should as it boosts your recovery as well as HP) you're over the cap. Rooted, on the other hand, is your perma regen. The slotting of both should be swapped and the slot for endurance recovered.

 

That Obliteration proc in Atom Smasher could be a Scirroco Dervish proc and net another 2.5% E/N resists.

 

With a properly slotted Rooted and with Radiation Siphon you don't need all those Power Transfer procs. That's a few more slots that can be moved around.

 

 

I picked Focused Accuracy because it was becoming tiring trying to keep the accuracy at 95%. The EPS may seem a bit dire but FA has half the cost it says it does after this last patch and there are a few stamina procs in the mix Mids does not account for.

 

my actual build (Stone Armor - Radiation Melee).mbd

[schrodingercat]

thank you guys! Yes, this is exactly the kind of feedback I am looking for. I know the endurance usage seems awful in mids, but in the real world, I dont recall the last time i used a blue, even when fighting carnies and malta. It's a build that just kind of works. I use proton sweep because i always feel like im not putting out enough AOE, and the sound is kind of neat, but i can swap it out easily. Hitting stuff is a pain at first, but the -def debuff in rad melee does help - once i hit things! I mainly run this with musculature and assault incarnates rolling, and havent ever had to worry too much about hitting things. I think I had the power transfer procs in to see if vigor changes how much they heal for (it doesnt) and then when I thought about respeccing to remove them, i got overwhelmed. 🙂

 

Despite how clunky it looks, it is an absolutely gloriously fun tank where you never have to worry about much of anything and stuff around you just dies.

 

Sovera, i took a cue from your book and have a rad/stone brute version because I am curious which kills faster with the least amount of trouble!

Edited April 30 by schrodingercat