Help with Katana build for +4/8 solo

[R jobbus]

I'm trying to make a build for katana that can solo +4/x8 ITF no deaths/temps/insps and I haven't really been able to come up with anything that I feel like is good enough to do the job. I've done this challenge using variations of builds with SD, but I can't use a katana with that. I am quite new to other tanker primaries besides SD.. so I am asking for help cause i'm not quite sure what i'm doing. This is just me tinkering around in the beta server. My first pass was a variation on an invul/kat build I found, I was trying to eek out more damage.. but it still doesn't seem to be able to damage the AVs in a satisfactory way. It was about 25 minutes for getting stage 3 rommy to half health. that's way too long compared to other builds.

 

 

 My second try was dark/kat.. I had no idea what I was doing with that. It seemed to do ok but the defense failure is just too rough really. Anything over any remotely small groups and it just doesn't seem to work right. It can't really cast itself into large groups at all safely.

 

sorry for the giant images. 

 

Any ideas? Should I be trying another primary ? I love katana and i'm trying to get it to work but for soloing +4 content, especially the ITF, i can't seem to sort out it's damage enough. Or like I said with dark, the defense failures happen with anything over small groups. Should I be trying SR, or any suggestions for these builds. I am a bit newer to the game, I'm just basing these off of several builds that have worked, but again i'm really new to anything on tanker that isn't shield. I just can't use kat on shield though.

 

any help is appreciated, just trying to get a feel for it. edit: incarnates are musculature core, ageless core, reactive radial(whatever the t4 is called) and assault core. mighty judgement radial, no lores

Edited September 4 by R jobbus

[Spaghetti Betty]

A +4x8 solo ITF with no extra goodies? I would definitely consider SR as your primary choice, then. SR will be excellent cruise control for wading through mobs, since you can sneeze and hit your DEF benchmarks, and not have to worry about it being melted off of you with its 95% DDR. SR Tanks are really good at trivializing a lot of general content!

 

Of course, there are other hurdles to overcome with SR, namely having no sustain past DEF and scaling RES. There are plenty of ways around that, however!

 

For one, I would recommend leveraging something like Rune of Protection in order to keep your resists at a healthy level before scaling RES kicks in. This will be especially important for the final Rom fight, since you will have to eat the autohit AoE from the Nictus Essence. SR becomes incredibly strong when you're sitting at the DEF softcap and RES hardcap, and you'll want to achieve that sooner in your lifebar rather than later. This way, you can leverage Rebirth as an emergency heal.

 

I would also drop Darkest Night from your build. You'll benefit much more from having other utility options, such as an epic hold (held things can't hit you!) or a -RES debuff (if you kill things harder, they die faster!).

 

Here's an example of how I would do it!

Butter Cutter - Tanker (Super Reflexes - Katana).mbd

 

RES totals with 10% scaling RES and RoP

 

Basically, my approach is geared more towards making the AVs easier to tackle. To that extent, you'd want to use Char on cooldown, since it will dump a potential mag 7 hold plus a chance for Build Up. What this will do is give you a decent shot at holding the AV, at least while triangles are down, and bolster your damage for a short time as well. -RES procs are slotted into your main rotation for maximum uptime, and Melt Armor will just be icing on the cake for your burst window.

 

I also included things that will help your protection for sour moments, such as Melee Core and Void Radial Judgement.

You can think of Melee Core as a second Rune of Protection that also comes with a dash of Instant Healing. You can cycle between this and RoP for maximum protection. Or, if you feel that your mitigation is good enough, swap it out for Assault Core for extra damage!

Void Radial has a very chunky -DMG debuff attached to it, so it'll be good for things like the Elite Boss general and the subsequent ambushes that will follow.

 

Finally, Longbow Core is chosen for the big -Regen bot, and the extra DPS the Longbow Nullifier will bring. Just make sure to keep him alive!

 

Hope this helps!

 

EDIT: I noticed that I forgot to include Hasten in the build. I don't think this would have severe issues running without it, but here is a version with Hasten!

 

Butter Cutter w Hasten - Tanker (Super Reflexes - Katana).mbd

Edited September 4 by Spaghetti Betty

[R jobbus]

18 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

A +4x8 solo ITF with no extra goodies? I would definitely consider SR as your primary choice, then. SR will be excellent cruise control for wading through mobs, since you can sneeze and hit your DEF benchmarks, and not have to worry about it being melted off of you with its 95% DDR. SR Tanks are really good at trivializing a lot of general content!

 

Of course, there are other hurdles to overcome with SR, namely having no sustain past DEF and scaling RES. There are plenty of ways around that, however!

 

For one, I would recommend leveraging something like Rune of Protection in order to keep your resists at a healthy level before scaling RES kicks in. This will be especially important for the final Rom fight, since you will have to eat the autohit AoE from the Nictus Essence. SR becomes incredibly strong when you're sitting at the DEF softcap and RES hardcap, and you'll want to achieve that sooner in your lifebar rather than later. This way, you can leverage Rebirth as an emergency heal.

 

I would also drop Darkest Night from your build. You'll benefit much more from having other utility options, such as an epic hold (held things can't hit you!) or a -RES debuff (if you kill things harder, they die faster!).

 

Here's an example of how I would do it!

Butter Cutter - Tanker (Super Reflexes - Katana).mbd 43.23 kB · 1 download

 

RES totals with 10% scaling RES and RoP

 

Basically, my approach is geared more towards making the AVs easier to tackle. To that extent, you'd want to use Char on cooldown, since it will dump a potential mag 7 hold plus a chance for Build Up. What this will do is give you a decent shot at holding the AV, at least while triangles are down, and bolster your damage for a short time as well. -RES procs are slotted into your main rotation for maximum uptime, and Melt Armor will just be icing on the cake for your burst window.

 

I also included things that will help your protection for sour moments, such as Melee Core and Void Radial Judgement.

You can think of Melee Core as a second Rune of Protection that also comes with a dash of Instant Healing. You can cycle between this and RoP for maximum protection. Or, if you feel that your mitigation is good enough, swap it out for Assault Core for extra damage!

Void Radial has a very chunky -DMG debuff attached to it, so it'll be good for things like the Elite Boss general and the subsequent ambushes that will follow.

 

Finally, Longbow Core is chosen for the big -Regen bot, and the extra DPS the Longbow Nullifier will bring. Just make sure to keep him alive!

 

Hope this helps!

 

EDIT: I noticed that I forgot to include Hasten in the build. I don't think this would have severe issues running without it, but here is a version with Hasten!

 

Butter Cutter w Hasten - Tanker (Super Reflexes - Katana).mbd 43.22 kB · 2 downloads

 

This is so awesome thank you so much for the detailed breakdown. i'm still learning and I love tanks, i'm gonna dive into this, thanks so much!

 

I was curious about SR and have not tried it yet and maybe that's what i'm looking for, I very much appreciate the build!

[R jobbus]

On 9/4/2024 at 3:29 PM, Spaghetti Betty said:

A +4x8 solo ITF with no extra goodies? I would definitely consider SR as your primary choice, then. SR will be excellent cruise control for wading through mobs, since you can sneeze and hit your DEF benchmarks, and not have to worry about it being melted off of you with its 95% DDR. SR Tanks are really good at trivializing a lot of general content!

 

Of course, there are other hurdles to overcome with SR, namely having no sustain past DEF and scaling RES. There are plenty of ways around that, however!

 

For one, I would recommend leveraging something like Rune of Protection in order to keep your resists at a healthy level before scaling RES kicks in. This will be especially important for the final Rom fight, since you will have to eat the autohit AoE from the Nictus Essence. SR becomes incredibly strong when you're sitting at the DEF softcap and RES hardcap, and you'll want to achieve that sooner in your lifebar rather than later. This way, you can leverage Rebirth as an emergency heal.

 

I would also drop Darkest Night from your build. You'll benefit much more from having other utility options, such as an epic hold (held things can't hit you!) or a -RES debuff (if you kill things harder, they die faster!).

 

Here's an example of how I would do it!

Butter Cutter - Tanker (Super Reflexes - Katana).mbd 43.23 kB · 1 download

 

RES totals with 10% scaling RES and RoP

 

Basically, my approach is geared more towards making the AVs easier to tackle. To that extent, you'd want to use Char on cooldown, since it will dump a potential mag 7 hold plus a chance for Build Up. What this will do is give you a decent shot at holding the AV, at least while triangles are down, and bolster your damage for a short time as well. -RES procs are slotted into your main rotation for maximum uptime, and Melt Armor will just be icing on the cake for your burst window.

 

I also included things that will help your protection for sour moments, such as Melee Core and Void Radial Judgement.

You can think of Melee Core as a second Rune of Protection that also comes with a dash of Instant Healing. You can cycle between this and RoP for maximum protection. Or, if you feel that your mitigation is good enough, swap it out for Assault Core for extra damage!

Void Radial has a very chunky -DMG debuff attached to it, so it'll be good for things like the Elite Boss general and the subsequent ambushes that will follow.

 

Finally, Longbow Core is chosen for the big -Regen bot, and the extra DPS the Longbow Nullifier will bring. Just make sure to keep him alive!

 

Hope this helps!

 

EDIT: I noticed that I forgot to include Hasten in the build. I don't think this would have severe issues running without it, but here is a version with Hasten!

 

Butter Cutter w Hasten - Tanker (Super Reflexes - Katana).mbd 43.22 kB · 4 downloads

 

 I am practicing with this build and it seems good but the first issue was it had a very difficult time hitting anything through phalanx fighting (like 20+ hits in a row not hitting) so I took out melt armor for tactics+hami origin in it and it seems to have helped alot. 

 

But one thing I wanted to ask was, resistance is only how much damage you take, right? Or is that incorrect. I thought defense was the rate that you actually get hit, and resistance is the amount of damage you take?

 

is that not true though? Just to experiment for my own tinkering, I switched from cardiac core to musculature radial, and I got hit way way more. So I think i'm incorrect...or that's just luck. Does higher res affect your hit rate? or maybe i'm just going crazy.

 

Im sorry for the elementary questions, I only started playing last year. I appreciate the help!

 

I am still practicing with the build and getting used to it, it works great! The only problem is trying to figure out more damage. taking down a Praefectus Castrorum for instance takes like...maybe 40 seconds or so. it can get lengthy. But this may be to be expected, it's difficult to balance everything. Might be able to swing assault

 

thanks for the help!

Edited September 6 by R jobbus

[Spaghetti Betty]

2 hours ago, R jobbus said:

 I am practicing with this build and it seems good but the first issue was it had a very difficult time hitting anything through phalanx fighting (like 20+ hits in a row not hitting) so I took out melt armor for tactics+hami origin in it and it seems to have helped alot. 

Yes, my build is a little lax on accuracy. Trying to hit through Phalanx Fighting is already very inconvenient, so I find it much easier to pick on smaller packs at a time and let the -DEF do its job. Melt Armor also does -DEF.

 

2 hours ago, R jobbus said:

is that not true though?

Resistance resists damage and Defense avoids it! Anything else you're experiencing is just the luck of the roll.

 

2 hours ago, R jobbus said:

The only problem is trying to figure out more damage. taking down a Praefectus Castrorum for instance takes like...maybe 40 seconds or so.

Cimerorans are highly resistant to lethal damage, so this sounds about right!