SR/Staff feels like cheating :D

[Curveball]

When I think of the Tanker AT I usually don't think of SR, simply because I don't think of Tankers moving out of the way to avoid damage, and I don't think of Staff because... I don't think of staff. But I read something random about how it was a good tanker combo and decided to challenge my preconceptions.

 

It feels unfair. This is not a complaint. 😄

 

Keep in mind this is still at low levels (he just hit 18) BUT at level 18 without any kind of set bonuses his basic positional dodge scores are already in the low to mid 30s, and with guarded spin melee is past the soft cap, and passes the incarnate soft cap when it stacks. And guarded spin is a decent cone attack, so I'm looking forward to see what eye of the storm can do as a proper pbaoe.

 

Sure, no heals, but that's what greens are for...

[Warshades]

44 minutes ago, Curveball said:

Sure, no heals, but that's what greens are for...

 

That's actually what your scaling resist from SR passives is for. With a focus on resist set bonuses and double stacked SMoT proc, you can typically reach 90% resit caps to all but psionic with ~30% HP left. Perfection of Body combination from Staff adds and additional 13% resist to all iirc, so if you keep that running with double stacked SMoT, you should be able to hit resist caps to all but psi with ~45% HP left. At that point you're bordering on immortal as you're positional soft capped to incarnate levels with capped resists.

[ZemX]

Staff isn't winning any damage contests, thanks to long animations and this game's long-standing "original sin" of never considering animation times in the damage balancing formulae.

 

But it makes VERY sturdy Tankers.  I have an SR/Staff I haven't done much with lately, but my main is a Rad/Staff who can self-cap or nearly cap all resistances WITHOUT rotating any long cooldown +res powers like T9s or Incarnates.  The sauce, as @Warshades points out, is really Perfection of Body's combo with Sky Splitter.  On tankers, it's +13% res(all).  Combine that with a couple stacks of MoT (+12%) and you looking at a whopping +25% res(all) added to whatever you already have from powers and IO sets.  Very nice on my Rad Tanker.  Just about cheating on SR's scaling resistance.

[Uun]

I've got a T4 incarnate SR/Staff that I rolled 6 years ago. It's insanely sturdy. It hits 90% resist cap to all but T/P at 15% health (not including stacking SMoT or Perfection of Body). I rarely need to use inspirations. I do have Rebirth Radial and Melee Core (because why not) but rarely use them. The damage from Staff isn't great, but rotating through the two cones and the PBAoE takes out the trash well enough, then I rotate Precise, Serpent's and Sky Splitter on the bosses. Other than changing to Soul against stuff with autohit end drain, I change forms based on damage types a foe/faction resists. If a foe resists smashing damage I'll switch to Soul or Mind so that the bonus damage from Eye of the Storm and Sky Splitter is energy or psi.

[Curveball]

I'm about to display my ignorance, but what is MoT? I can't keep my acronyms straight in this game, and searching for "MoT" keeps bringing up references to Dark Astoria. 😕

 

[Arbegla]

11 minutes ago, Curveball said:

I'm about to display my ignorance, but what is MoT? I can't keep my acronyms straight in this game, and searching for "MoT" keeps bringing up references to Dark Astoria. 😕

 

Might of the Tanker is my guess, the Tanker ATO proc.

[JediDave]

11 minutes ago, Curveball said:

I'm about to display my ignorance, but what is MoT? I can't keep my acronyms straight in this game, and searching for "MoT" keeps bringing up references to Dark Astoria. 😕

 

Might of the Tanker and Superior Might of the Tanker(SMoT). Usually just referring to the proc that gives ~7 resists to all at a bit higher than normal proc rate.

[Curveball]

Ohhhh, OK. Thanks!

[ZemX]

Right. Sorry. Superior Might of the Tanker proc is 6.7% res(all) per stack and you can often count on two stacks in a decent combat.  So I should have said total of about +26.7% res(all) if you have Sky Splitter in Form of Body and two stacks of SMoT.  

 

Might of the Tanker's is +5% res(all) per stack, so still plenty worth it in the lower levels before you can slot the superior set at 50.  The six-slot bonus for the set is +5.25% S/L resist too (+6% for Superior set), so not too shabby.