Shield/Elec Build: The Telecommuter

[Rylas]

After getting such great feedback for my Elec/Rad tanker (she's been a lot of fun, and is just now getting into the Incarnate realm), I thought I'd see if there weren't some tweaks that can't be made for this Shield/Elec that I've been tinkering with.

 

The Goals:

Solid defense, good recharge, and being a TP'ing SOB!  Shield Charge and Lightning Rod, sure. But also Spring Attack. And Combat TP. And Fold Space! If I'm not leaping to them, I'm pulling them to me. I'm not as worried as being an absolute boss in Incarnate content, just having a fun game play style for crowd management.

 

My reasoning so far:
Considering how often I'll be moving around, I'm leaving Phalanx Fighting off the build. I can't always rely on its defense for alphas, so I've built to keep myself soft-capped without it. All positions are 50 or higher to cushion for Def Debuff. With the near Hasten levels of global recharge, I should be able to keep things moving at a fast pace. I went ahead and grabbed Lightning Clap for some extra crowd control and proc damage. Cardiac Core seems like a no-brainer. It could definitely make use out of end reduction, range and resists.

Thoughts?

I've tried to minimize slotting/power selection where I could, but I'm sure there's some things I failed to consider. I can always have my mind changed on things like Phalanx Fighting or Lightning Clap. But the teleporting powers are a must. Any thoughts on ways to open power selections or slots up? Missed opportunities for recharge or def or damage? Critique me, senpai!

Telecommuter.mbd

 

Edited December 4 by Rylas

[Psyonico]

I should point out that Phalanx Fighting provides a straight 5% defense to all vectors regardless of if you are near an ally or not.

 

I've only ever played this combo as a scrapper (and also took Spring Attack).  While SA is fun, if memory serves, it does less than 1/2 the damage of Shield Charge or Lightning Rod.

 

Also, I see you skipped Chain Induction.  This is a pretty solid AOE attack (that gets slotted as ST) so IMO its worth more than Lightning Clap, especially since you don't have another stun to stack with it (its only mag 2).

[Rylas]

4 hours ago, Psyonico said:

I should point out that Phalanx Fighting provides a straight 5% defense to all vectors regardless of if you are near an ally or not.

 

I've only ever played this combo as a scrapper (and also took Spring Attack).  While SA is fun, if memory serves, it does less than 1/2 the damage of Shield Charge or Lightning Rod.

 

Also, I see you skipped Chain Induction.  This is a pretty solid AOE attack (that gets slotted as ST) so IMO its worth more than Lightning Clap, especially since you don't have another stun to stack with it (its only mag 2).

 

 Ah, I totally misunderstood the power description. I can drop maneuvers at least and maybe drop Gaussian’s. Thanks for the clarification!

 

With current slotting, SA is about 1/2 of SC, and 3/5 of Lightening rod. But it’s still a good clean up for any small mobs left over.  I’ll consider Chain Induction. For me, the stun in Clap is secondary to the KD (KB to KD, that is). Not having a heal, I wouldn’t mind the extra mitigation tool. Still, the at damage is admittedly slim. It’s worth tinkering with. 

[Psyonico]

10 hours ago, Rylas said:

I totally misunderstood the power description. I can drop maneuvers at least and maybe drop Gaussian’s. Thanks for the clarification!

The description is a little misleading.  I believe that 5% is unenhanceable though.

[Zect]

This build has adequate def (except for the phalanx issue which has already been pointed out), but disregarding your FF proc in lightning clap, the rech is really poor since you are hasteless due to concept. Even as a hasteless build, it is still worth getting AD close to 60s recharge to double-stack it, yes it does stack. This significantly increases your DDR from 66% to 88%. Shield tankers are the only shields who can consider not taking ageless radial to buff their DDR.

 

Some points for further improvement:

 

Firstly, thunderstrike does KB, a lot of it. Me, I personally enjoy knocking enemies out of tar patches and sleets, but I am guessing from the sudden accel you have slotted in lightning clap that you do not. In that case, you may want to rearrange your sets so that you can get an overwhelming force unique in there.

 

Secondly, on shield tankers deflection is usually slotted for resistance, not def. The reason is that tankers naturally have an excess of melee def due to the types of sets they have access to (as evidenced by your 58% melee vs 50% R/aoe def). So on most builds, it is a gain to slot deflection for res and then rely on your set bonuses to make up the melee def, resulting in an overall gain of SL res. This in turn could allow you to cut SL res bonuses elsewhere. It also means you can think about dropping a piece of oblit (losing 3.75 melee def) to fit in a desired proc, like the one I mentioned above. In general, when you have significantly imbalanced defenses like this, that is usually a good sign that you can optimize further either by cutting down on the excess defense or raising the lower defenses to match.

 

It's difficult to discuss any tanker without a comprehensive discussion of incarnate strategy, because tankers stand to gain so much from incarnates, so this is where my advice ends. For now, think about what alpha you should slot and how you can use it to cut even more defensive slotting to invest in dps and rech.

 

[Psyonico]

9 hours ago, Zect said:

thunderstrike does KB, a lot of it.

 

The Electric Melee version is knockdown.  CoD has it at mag .64

[kelika2]

Dump the following:

Taunt, the chances of you being a super ultra end game trial backbone or hami squad dude are small, and even then not sustainable, meaning you wont do that forever or longterm.  taunt only hits 5 targets.

Grant Cover, this gives you nothing

Jacobs Ladder with tankers aoe increase might be cool but chain induction will be better

Combat Teleport, yeah sure theme but holy crap is it redundant and overslotted.  yeah 2.5% def to all but damn thats a lot of slot dedication

Lightning Clap, it just does no damage and when you take it that late in the game thats where people melt +4 maps no problem and wont do much good

leadership is not needed and you dont have the slots for it anyways, if dead set with what you might as well bust out the money for cyto hamis

oh god do you only have one single target attack?

the Touch of Death set is a little light on acc but if you take phalanx fighting and slap a kismet proc in there it will help

 

oh god your slotting

between red fortune in defense toggles thats a nice handful of ranged defense

you can 4/6 unbreakable guard and  2 health in true grit for some solid melee defense from sets, resists and so on.  or just 4/6 unbreakable guard if the build is tight

same thing with Tough, 4/6 unbreakable guard and 2 procs

and if you are dead set on 3 slotting weave you might as well get 3 cytos or 2 cytos and 1 lotg proc

i very rarely slot my travel powers for melee alts because of how tight things are

[Psyonico]

8 minutes ago, kelika2 said:

Grant Cover, this gives you nothing

Except for DDR, it gives you that.

 

Also, if you team, it's helpful to others.

 

 

[Rylas]

Some much appreciated pointers, thank you! Given the feedback I moved a lot of things around. Picked up Phalanx and dropped the Fighting Pool altogether. Thanks again @Psyonico for that clarification and pointing to Chain Induction. The ST/AOE damage is a little more balanced now. 

And @Zect, your slotting suggestions for Deflection started a domino affect shifting bonuses around. The resists are a lot more rounded out now. I've got AD to perma stacking once Spiritual Core kicks in. Even without it, it's only a 14 second gap, and that shouldn't be that major.

I've done what I can to get HP as high as possible since I won't have a heal, as well as recovery. I get the feeling I'll have to pick up Ageless.

 

Telecommuter.mbd

Edited December 7 by Rylas