SD/FM/Soul Tanker Build

[Wroth]

Greetings! After a week of falling on my face trying all sorts of different build styles for Lord Wroth here I am finally happy with this most current iteration! Now prior to this week I have never even used mids personally so this has been a journey let me tell ya. I am hoping I could get any tweaks and critiques from you all. I am an obsessive, OCD, perfectionist so you don't have to be gentle either lol (I want this DIALED).

Demon Lord (Shield Defense - Fiery Melee).mbd

[Wroth]

So being myself I have further improved upon the build - Popping Rune of Protection now caps you in all resists which is great. Also I swapped Darkest Night for Enflame to push damage even further (yet still fit the theme), but the 2 are easily swappable in the build depending on if you want more stacked defensive options or more damage. The build has proven near immortal so I opted for damage. If you want a good evil themed build that is still very strong then give it a go! Again if you see areas that could be improved please let me know!

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 07:29 PM by Wroth

[Warshades]

11 hours ago, Wroth said:

Again if you see areas that could be improved please let me know!

 

I can take a look on mid's tomorrow, but a few things that jump out a bit:

• Swap Arcane Bolt for Spirit Ward if you want to stick with Sorcery pool. You can slot the Preventive Medicine unique/global in it and still gain its effects without having to use the power. You have the forced feedback proc activated from Arcane Bolt in your build which isn't permanent, won't proc often, and you likely don't have enough accuracy to reliably hit enemies with it outside of a short build up period (I also suggest turning off build up and the Gaussian build up proc when looking at your acc/dmg on powers). Spirit Ward is a better 1 slot power choice for the Preventive Medicine unique/global. Procs like Gaussian or FF +rech will show you highly inaccurate stats on your powers if you have them toggled on.
• If you want damage, consider leveraging damage procs in your best procing powers (particularly combustion which procs at a high rate). You will average higher dmg by slotting 2-3 winter sets pieces that provide acc/dmg, acc/dmg/end, and/or dmg/end enhancement and filling the remaining 3-4 slots with dmg procs. Using dmg procs is usually a balance of trying to get enough global recharge set bonuses from places in your build to have a decent attack chain while avoiding directly enhancing recharge of your attacks to maximize proc chances. Ideally, I'd aim for getting a total of 5 LotG uniques into your build somewhere if you do decide to proc out attacks and likely a kismet +acc unique.
• Personally, I consider using 5 slots on build up just for Gaussian set bonuses to be wasteful. I prefer to just 1 slot with chance for build up and distribute the other slots elsewhere.
• You honestly don't need to go for RoP at all. Shield can get extremely high resist without it and you'd benefit more from something like Unleashed Potential to boost your regen (since shield lacks heals or regen) than you would from a few extra points of resist. Furthermore, the Superior Might of the Tanker proc can be easily stacked twice and you'd have an additional +6.7% resist to all in your totals if you factor a 2nd stack in. I prefer to slot SMoT in the t1 or t2 attack for that reason as it has a short recharge and can be spammed often.
• Again, personally, I would fit Grant Cover into the build.
•  

[Major_Decoy]

Okay, important notes:

 

1) Yes, Grant Cover is an important Source of Defense Debuff Resistance. ~17%

2) I would not recommend slotting Phalanx Fighting for defense. The 5% base ignores enhancements, the enhancements are just for the 3% you have for having an ally within 12 feet of you. So, with your slotting, you could have 19.18% defense (all) instead of just 14%, but there are other places to put those slots that could be more helpful. Especially since (if you're skipping taunt and Grant Cover) I suspect teaming is not forefront in this plan.

3) I agree with Warshades about Spirit Ward unless you're going to slot out and use Arcane Bolt.

4) I would recommend slotting Winter's Gift: Slow Resist instead of whatever Blessing of the Zephyr you've got slotted.

5) Slotting Active Defense and stacking it is another important source of Defense Debuff resistance.

 

[Wroth]

Sweet ty guys for the input! Lol i actually altered the build yet again and now it sits near capped in all resists psi included. The gaus full set has been one i included after seeing it in build after build for sd tankers by a pretty talented mids crafter on the forums.... funny enough my accuracy has been fantastic since using it so i dunno (build up is near always up) - Its also why its clicked on in mids as i have it up so much. This is even against 55+ mobs mind you. I agree tho if i can gain in the pretty obvious to-hit/dmg perks it seems to be allowing by slotting elsewhere i am in..... it is a truly odd set tho in how its worded. 

 

Phalanx slots are there to try and get my psi/toxic resist up not even so much the defense....if you know how to get all resists into 80/90s without i am down. Previous builds i did have the full 5 lotg.......newest build i made i managed to slide 1 more in so 2....i def want all 5 back. New build off the top of my head 90s/l 84ish f/c 81ish e/n and 90 toxic/83ish psi. Juuuuust snuck by getting the incarnate soft cap of 59 melee d also. Also whats this about double stacking might of the tanker - dont fully understand ya there....icant have more then 1 set can i? RoP is handy as a IO offload tbo and a mez/cc break if needed but yeah. I had a previous build that went all in on the proc frankenslot thing......it got shredded like paper but it DID do some damage.....i wanna be unkillable tho. Oh also i do dig the IO slotting of spirit ward....tho i admit arcane bolt has actually been pretty decent, but if it frees up a IO slot that takes priority i would think.

 

Can you both send me builds using the power pools i have? Def wanna see what u guys are cooking!

Edited 21 hours ago by Wroth

[Wroth]

Here is the current build i been dabbling with - i see what you mean about the defense debuff resistance from Grant Cover.....sadly i would need to cut something like Enflame to fit it in.....yeaaaah cant do it lol. Also is double stacking if u can hit the same attack proc twice before the first runs out? That is def nice if so - tho with that proc being 10ish seconds i wonder how often u manage to double dip for it to matter all that much. That cheeky spirit ward idea allowed for me to get my blessed 5 lotg back! Also the lotg are +5s for the defense buffs - build i think may have been SLIGHTLY under that 59% melee defense softcap otherwise.

 

Thinking about it one thing I could maby do is drop incinerate and full 6 fire sword to get the tanker resist proc set in there (I do like the double stack plan) this would in turn free up room to get and slot grant cover. I’ll dabble a bit more lol - also with i definitely would rather single slot build rather then the set so I’ll dabble more on that front as well. I’ll be honest I was surprised how much that set seemed to impact my overall hit rate/dmg in general tho

Demon Lord 4 (Shield Defense - Fiery Melee).mbd

Edited 9 hours ago by Wroth

[Warshades]

4 hours ago, Wroth said:

Here is the current build i been dabbling with

 

That build is impossible currently. You have Dark Obliteration at lvl 49, you only get 3 slots on lvling up from 49 to 50, so you can at most 4 slot it at that level. There's also no reason to take Enflame unless you just want it for concept reasons, it's not a useful power and has an incredibly long cast time. The main point with Spirit Ward is that you have to take at least 1 power in addition to the flight travel to unlock RoP and Spirit Ward has a limited use for slotting Preventive Medicine unique/global so you don't have to use a slot for it in something like Health. If you're going to take Enflame regardless, then you can drop Spirit Ward and take Grant Cover.

 

I would do something more along these lines.

 

 

I detoggle anything that isn't permanent or effectively permanent. Toggling melee core embodiment will get you to resist cap, but it's only active for 2 minutes with a 4 minute recharge. You also really don't need to go for RoP at all. One with the Shield fills a similar role with a similar uptime (1/3, double the active duration but double the recharge also), the one exception that it doesn't buff resists against Psionics. You still shouldn't need more than ~70% for anything in the game. Unleash Potential provides a decent regen buff since Shield lacks healing/regen, Mighty Leap also gives you a utility soft control in Take Off which while not doing damage, does knockdown surrounding foes. This build nearly caps recharge debuff resist at 95% (yours is only at 15%) and if you double stack SMoT and add another 6.7% resist to all, it will sit at 90% s/l, 83.2% e/n/f/c, 80% toxic, and 77% psionic resist without relying on RoP or OwtS. There's really no need to go into RoP at all. This does depend on the minimum 5% resist/def from T4 barrier core destiny slot and using resilience core alpha, but if you want unkillable, it does require some sacrifice on offense.

 

Another build that leans more into the fire theme. 

 

 

Having an epic pool with a ST hold will let you slot Entomb unique which will provide an additional source of absorb shield. Melt Armor is nice to have both for the -res and a place to put the achilles -res proc. This build keeps Mystic Flight as a travel if you want it for theme and skips out on Force of Will. 

 

At +4 (in-game set to +5 and accounting for incarnate +1 level shift), both build should have 95% accuracy without relying on build up. The only exception being Char which sits at 92% in the second build. These builds do +5 boost some IOs, particularly PvP and some purple pieces.

 

Also to @Major_Decoy point, you really want the Winter's Gift +20% slow resist unique in your travel. Active Defense provides 10,000% KB/repel status resistance with one stack, you'll be at 20,000 with 2 which is pretty easy to upkeep. Both Shield and SR require no -kb protection as they inherently just won't get knocked back from anything with their clickable status protection powers (and you also double up on the status and mez protection by stacking Active Defense, so you really don't need RoP for the mez protection but OwtS also provides you mez protection as well). 

 

This is with 2 stacks of Active Defense stacked.

Tanker (Shield Defense - Fiery Melee)2.mbd Tanker (Shield Defense - Fiery Melee)1.mbd

Edited 7 hours ago by Warshades

[Glacier Peak]

31 minutes ago, Warshades said:

That build is impossible currently. You have Dark Obliteration at lvl 49, you only get 3 slots on lvling up from 49 to 50, so you can at most 4 slot it at that level.

Normally through leveling up, this is correct. However, a player can respec and six slot the power selected at Level 49.

[Wroth]

Ok love how your cooking here! Sorcery will be an absolute must with my builds theme btw, also dear god I thought melee core was an always in effect ability jesus that changes things. Also the dark oblit absolutely works im already fully leveled up and have been using it full slotted but yeah back to the drawing board for me esp with my massive derp about melee core. Enflame isnt a must.....sorcery flight+tp def is tho and since im in sorc ill just use RoP in place of one with the shield. I have been knocked around fighting before (i fight in flight mode)....figured that kb IO would help but sure i can slot winters instead. I am not opposed to fire mastery over soul so ill take a look. Man my missing the fact melee core isnt always on is killin me lol. Appreciate the help with the builds my dude! Major decoy any chance u could throw a build at me also? keeping sorcery and either soul mastery or fire? Cheers to u both!

 

Also I just need to add as im looking at the builds now.....brother that is some clean/beautiful work 

 

Also Also lol wouldnt swapping muscle core for resil place me in the wet noodle department for damage? Is there a way to be a durable tanker that also hit hard or is that a pipe dream not possible by design lol

Edited 7 hours ago by Wroth

[Wroth]

55 minutes ago, Warshades said:

95% accuracy without relying on build up

Curious about this - im looking at certain attacks in the sorcery build and some of them are def under 95? i admit where to look in regards to this is confusing to me (im scrolling over the abilities under the enhance tab).

[Warshades]

40 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Normally through leveling up, this is correct. However, a player can respec and six slot the power selected at Level 49.

Interesting, did not know that was possible. Learn something new every day.

[Warshades]

22 minutes ago, Wroth said:

Curious about this - im looking at certain attacks in the sorcery build and some of them are def under 95? i admit where to look in regards to this is confusing to me (im scrolling over the abilities under the enhance tab).

 

Enhancement tab is just the amount of enhancement value towards a particular stat, accuracy can vary depending on the base accuracy of the power. Just look under info tab and the "accuracy" stat. If you intend to play at +5, set the enemy relative level to +4 to account for the +1 level shift from incarnates. 95% is the max chance to hit, there's always at least a 5% chance you'll miss any attack. Having extra doesn't hurt as it does provide a layer of protection against -tohit debuffs, but these aren't particularly common outside certain specific enemy groups and powers.

 

 

Edit:

 

47 minutes ago, Wroth said:

Also Also lol wouldnt swapping muscle core for resil place me in the wet noodle department for damage? Is there a way to be a durable tanker that also hit hard or is that a pipe dream not possible by design lol

 

Really just depends on your play style, how you want to build, and your viewpoint on things. I only really take RoP on Regen as it needs the extra resistance and you can cycle between melee hybrid and RoP to reduce downtime. On armors that can sustain high resist permanently, I just prefer going for that instead of trying to pay attention to cycling between RoP and melee hybrid. 

 

You can make an argument that if you kill things fast enough, you can afford to sacrifice your resists or defenses since dead things can't hurt or kill you. Trying to maximize both the damage that you do and your defense/resist numbers is pretty much impossible. The former will use damage procs to increase damage output and sacrifice on set bonuses, the latter requires set bonuses to increase your defense/resist values and will sacrifice on procs.

 

For comparison: 

 

Combustion without damage procs:

 

Combustion with 4 damage procs (average damage based on proc chances of the power):

Edited 6 hours ago by Warshades

[Wroth]

Ahhhhh ok perfect thank ya the accuracy thing has been one my biggest sources of confusion. How would the damage be with this sorc build btw?

[Warshades]

10 minutes ago, Wroth said:

Ahhhhh ok perfect thank ya the accuracy thing has been one my biggest sources of confusion. How would the damage be with this sorc build btw?

 

Edited my previous post regarding damage vs survival if you want to read through it and see example. You can always open both your current build and my /fire epic one with 2 instances of mid's and compare the damage of the powers. Just make sure to compare evenly in terms of having procs/buffs toggled on or off like build up/gaussian/etc. 

[Wroth]

Ah yeah just read the edited post - yeah i been slowly going insane trying to combine durable with damage.....funny enough the closest i got was using that gauss 6slot. I got a challenge for ya brother - can you craft a (mostly durable) build that hybrids defense with the whole proc IO thing or is that as u say just impossible lol?

[Warshades]

 

This would be a more damage leaning build. One of the other things that usually suffers is accuracy when going for damage procs. I would probably suggest staying at +4 (effectively +3 with level shift) when using this. Although if you team and your teammates have tactics and such, it won't be an issue. It should have enough survival for most content and you still have melee core or OwtS for more resistance when needed.

 

You could change out GFS slotting to a full hecatomb set to get more recharge/accuracy and tox/psi resist bonuses if you want. With a tank, you're mostly best at doing AoE damage so your AoE attacks like Combustion, FSC, and epic AoE are the primary targets that you would want to damage proc. FSC slotting isn't ideal, there's no real way to 3 slot Superior Might of the Tanker without buffing recharge which hurts the proc chances on it. You could alter it a bit if you want higher damage. 

 

This is with acc/dmg, acc/dmg/end Scirocco piece boosted to +5 and Obliteration dmg +5 boosted along with the damage procs from those sets and Perfect Zinger proc. Doing this will result in higher proc chances and you can slot the Superior Gauntleted Fist proc into Fire Sword instead of the SMoT: dmg/rech. You lose a bit of s/l resist and e/n resist from 6 set SMoT and 3 set Superior Gauntleted Fist but make some of that back up with the 2 piece s/l bonus from Obliteration and 3 piece set bonus from Scirocco. This does put both the SMoT and Superior Gauntleted Fist procs into Fire Sword which is nice as you'll want to spam it to keep double stacked SMoT and can get the absorb shield at the same time.

 

If you hold shift and right click on FSC and GFC, I already have the alternate slotting that I mentioned above built in on the build if you want to compare the differences. You will have to manually go in and change the dmg/rech SMoT to the Gauntleted Fist proc.

 

Edit: One small additional note, I do have the decimation chance for build up proc in Char, so be careful if you toggle the procs on in the power as it will show much higher dmg/acc as it will count the brief build up proc from decimation set.

Tanker (Shield Defense - Fiery Melee).mbd

Edited 5 hours ago by Warshades

[Wroth]

Awesome thank you yet again my dude! Yeah i dabbled with some VERY proc focused builds and was trying to keep them at least somewhat tanky as well, however despite the very fun damage it would just get utterly starched in any kind of rougher content.

 

Also i just realized besides the accuracy benefits splitting combust and fire circle like that is u dbl the 2/3 slot bonuses - fricking clever man i love it

 

Heres a build of an attempt to make it work when i was even more green to using mids lol.

Lord Wroth.mbd

Edited 5 hours ago by Wroth