Call Me Awesome

I have to agree with Strato, I believe firmly that a tanker's primary purpose is to protect the team... that most definitely includes preventing them from being mezzed. When you're tanking those two AV's PLEASE have the common courtesy to at least move back when you get a second warning so nobody else gets sequestered.

I'm very serious about tanking; I'm very serious about managing aggro. However I'm serving nobody's interest by being sequestered and I'm actively sabotaging the team by getting others sequestered along with me. The metric of "well we succeeded in the trial" is a pointless claim; I have NEVER done a failed BAF in over 50 runs. Therefore sure, you can succeed even with bad tactics. That doesn't mean that those tactics are suddenly good however, just that the task is easy enough and the rest of the league is strong enough to make up for it.

Most BAF trials I've run have had multiple tanks and the AV's just don't hit hard enough to seriously threaten a well built tank. You trade the aggro; as one tanker gets the second warning he jumps away to handle the reinforcements while another takes over the aggro. Doing this leads at WORST to the first tanker getting sequestered away from everyone else and most often it allows you to take up the aggro of the adds thus helping the group dealing with them. When the rings fade from you it's time to go back to the AV's and take over from the other tanker who's probably on his second warning and needing to get out.

Based on Unbound's statements I know that on his BAF runs I can't count on him to keep the team unsequestered so I'll have to adapt my tactics accordingly. If I'm running CMA I'll attempt to swipe the aggro or at least be out of sequester range so I can snag it after he gets himself and his team held. If I'm on a scrapper I'll make damn sure I'm out of melee after I see that second warning on him. Yeah, it'll cut my damage on the AV but that's better than being completely sidelined until the hold wears off. I may have never been a Marine but I know how to improvise, adapt and overcome so I can modify my tactics to the situation.

Bottom line is that the trials are easy enough to overcome even with poor tanking (and yes, just standing in melee by your teammates and getting them held instead of at least moving away from everyone else is poor tanking)... but just because you can succeed with poor tactics doesn't mean that you SHOULD. I've run many BAF's with Strato and we rarely have anyone sequestered and it's very rare that anyone on the AV team faceplants because the tankers trade aggro as needed. As a bonus it's also rare that the reinforcement team faceplants because one of the off tanks will be managing that aggro while waiting for the red rings to fade.

With CMA (Inv/Stone) I've gotten 5 V-Rares and probably a dozen Rares out of 30 some trials. I did this by concentrating on tanking and liberal use of my AOE's; holding AV aggro on the BAF until I get the 2nd warning then moving away to the ads and holding them until the rings go away; then back to the AV's.

CMA's done considerably better in the drop department than my Fire/EM blaster has... I'm STILL waiting for a V-Rare on the blaster although I have at least 2 of every one of the Rares along with tier 3 on all 4 slots.

I haven't figured out what the admittedly broken participation metric is but obviously CMA "participates" more than Delta (my blaster) as far as the trial's concerned.

Out of my 4 level 50 tankers my Inv/Stone is by far my most effective and extremely durable. I agree that Inv/Dark would be a fine choice but it's going to be very single target based since the AOE's are on fairly long timers. Stone Melee may only have one damaging AOE but it also has the awesomeness of Fault (at level 20!) which is a fairly quick recharging AOE knockDOWN and stun power that offers great mitigation and excellent aggro ability.

Looking at straight up survivability the Inv/Dark combo may slightly better the Inv/Stone but in actual game terms it's fairly meaningless since the latter can be nearly unkillable anyway and it's a better aggro machine. Any Inv tanker shouldn't have much trouble with aggro but the two quick recharging AOE's of Stone Melee make it even better. Check out my soft cap guide for IO slotting suggestions; it can EASILY be done for way under 500 million; with a little patience you can do it for under 150 million... leaving lots of room for extras like Numina's unique, Miracle unique and things like that.

Destiny affects all in the AOE... since it's PBAOE that includes you. Rebirth and Barrier seem to offer the most bang for the buck, the Radial Rebirth tier 4 is a perma 200% regen buff and a ~800 hp heal... half the time that regen buff is MUCH greater as well.

In my experience on the Incarnate trials (BAF & Lambda) you're going to face noticeable amounts of Psi in Lambda and quite a lot of energy damage in both trials. The biggest problem I've had with CMA (Inv/Stone) on Lambda is the various Psi mobs draining my end and halting regen with Drain Psyche. Against those I'd think Electric would be an ideal pairing with it's immunity to drain coupled with capped energy resistance. Adding significant S/L/E/N defense would have an excellent tanker for the purpose.

On the BAF I've found CMA to be quite durable with the sole exception of the turrets which seem to be auto hit... I've yet to see one miss even with over 70% defense. The swarms of reinforcements during the AV fights can occasionally get problematic if they get some lucky hits through my defense but overall they aren't all that dangerous.

While I have a couple of Stone tankers I've yet to run them through a trial... I just finished getting CMA to T3 on all slots and started working on my Fire/EM blaster. Stone would have something of a dilema though; deal with the Psi by running Minerals or deal with the S/L/E/N by using Granite. I'd foresee quite a lot of swapping from Granite to Rock/Rooted/Minerals and back again on Lambda and pretty much perma Granite on the BAF.

For the other TF's any durable tanker can do the job nicely; for the STF you want high resistance and defense for Lord Recluse but if the team's any good any tanker should be able to use his insp. tray to manage until the team takes down the towers. The ITF is a cakewalk for nearly any well built tanker and the Tin Mage and Apex are fairly easily handled. Situational awareness is paramount in Apex to avoid the Blue Death and the real danger in Tin Mage is Bobcat's vengeance; you'll want to get maximum S/L resistance for that.

If you build it well and play it well you should be able to overcome any of these with virtually any tanker powerset combination.

I generally hit Taunt when I first grab aggro then leave it alone and just attack. By the time I get the second warning I can usually jump away to the adds and let another tanker take up the aggro on the AV. By the time he gets a second warning and needs to leave I'm usually out of the red ring and can jump back in.

Multiple tankers is the ideal solution here, either that or a couple of Illusionists as I believe PA are immune to sequestering. Of course a tanker will strip aggro in a heartbeat from PA so that's an imperfect solution.

It's quite useful on the trials for my Invuln, it's a second slightly watered down Dull Pain on a 2 minute timer. Right now I've only gotten to tier 2 Radial on CMA... I just CAN NOT get that rare table to pop for the last piece of salvage I need for the T3.

I'd move the Ill/Rad into the LT killing position; it still packs a lot of damage and is perfectly capable of killing the uncontrollable LT's reasonably quickly. Take the blaster/scrapper role in that portion of the trial instead of the controller role and I think you'll have a different outcome.

I find CMA to be quite effective in that role despite the lack of AOE damage. Pretend you're playing Shiver Shot instead of Area Man and just kill the mobs, don't worry about control.

For the rest of the trial Ill/Rad should be just as effective as normal.

Wish I'd seen this on Friday; if you guys run this again next week I should be able to join.

In case you hadn't found out already you cannot move the AV's from their spawn points at any time and get the badge. Last night we had Siege move about 100' from his spawn point during the final beat down and the badge wasn't awarded. I'm not sure what the exact tether range is but when he ended up about halfway between his spawn and the gun tower directly across from him we didn't get the badge.

Well, after running about a dozen BAF's and Lambdas (collectively) here's what I found from a tanking point of view.

• BAF

First, it's MUCH easier. Other than the gotcha of killing both AV's within 10 seconds of each other at the final stage it's relatively vanilla. One thing to watch out for though are those gun turrets... they're unresistable damage and are either auto hit or very high tohit as I'm not sure they ever missed even through 70% defense. Getting hit for ~250 unresistable damage per turret every 2 seconds isn't happy making. Carry greens for when you need to pull the AV's as those turrets can drop you VERY QUICKLY.

Beyond that you have the "sequestered" bit if you hold an AV's attention too long... it's a MAG 5,000 hold (not a typo) and it'll get your teammates within a certain radius of you as well. Two tankers to trade aggro is recommended here. By the way, that hold from hell doesn't detoggle or do damage so it's mostly a nuisance as long as you get clear of your team. You get a "First Warning", "Second Warning" and then you're held the third time so back out of combat after the second warning and let someone else step in. Outside of that the two AV's aren't all that dangerous to a well built tank.

• Lambda

The outside is your standard steamroller; nothing special there. Once you clear that the next step is killing the turrets and the courtyard... again nothing out of the ordinary. Going through the labs and warehouse for the temp powers is a bit hairy as you only have 5 minutes to find and destroy 20 glowies in maps loaded with those @#!! clockwork and war works. There are also a fair number of seers floating about and they'll put a hurt on you. If you aren't careful you WILL faceplant in this.

After you've completed the warehouse/lab maps it's time for Marauder. Make sure you use the Acid temp powers to close the portals ASAP to prevent the massive numbers of reinforcements from overwhelming you. Once you've eliminated the reinforcements Marauder isn't all that dangerous... outside of his Nova Fist attack. When you see the text that he's about to use it GET AWAY! It WILL one shot code you no matter what your defense or resistance is. It's a PBAOE attack so jumping back 20' or so is enough.

During the Marauder fight he'll jump away 4 times, once to each corner of the courtyard. Just follow him and keep the DPS up until he falls.

Zephyr works in any travel power including Sprint... however it's no longer worth the slot cost now since it's values were cut a couple of issues ago. Originally it gave (from memory) just under 2% E/N def for two slots, now it gives ~0.6% E/N def for two slots. I no longer recommend slotting it for typed defense.

You should be able to get the Reactive pieces for around 5 million per IO provided you have patience and get level 30-35 recipes. If you insist on 40's expect to pay upwards of 30-40 million each... and the difference between slotting 30's and slotting 40's is under 2%... heck, 25's are just slightly less than 2% lower total enhancement than 40.

Kinetic Combat is expensive... I haven't checked prices recently but last month they seemed to go for 40 million - 150 million depending on the recipe. Look over your build and decide if they're worth it to you... but remember that you get the same benefit out of two sets of Smashing Haymaker that you do out of one Kin Combat... and those two sets of SH will cost a fraction of what you'd pay for a single Kin Combat IO.

For all PBAOE attacks I'd go with 3-4 Eradication and then possibly finish off with Scirocco. Juggle the individual IO's to get your maximum benefit... the Eradication Quad for example is extremely expensive; I skip that one and make it up on other enhancements.

A billion is more than enough to build a kick *** Invuln; you won't get purples but you'll get a really nice build. One thing you can do is run Tip missions for the A-Merits and redeem those for the really expensive IO's you need in your build. I have 4 level 50's I regularly run tips on and they're slowly filling up my storage racks with LotG 7.5% recharge, Numina & Miracle uniques and other high dollar IO's my other characters can use.