Call Me Awesome

I'm coming in late to this discussion, but for my money it's hard to beat the classic BS/Shield combo... mine's 50 and softcapped to all. I used Parry to make up the difference in Melee defense so I could cut down on the set bonuses I needed. That opened my build up so I could focus on other bonuses instead of melee defense.

That scrapper is by far the most effective scrapper I've played; it's far superior to my other two 50 scrappers, a BS/Regen and a Spine/Regen. Raw survivability actually rivals my tankers and the damage output is phenomenal. He's become my character of choice for anything challenging; thanks to AAO I can tank with him decently well, thanks to the defenses I can survive most anything I run across and thanks to the AOE and ST damage I can drop anything in my path.

I'm glad people are finding my guides useful. Take it for what it's worth and of course others have differing opinions, but there's a few powers in that last build I generally consider low priority or entirely skippable.

First is Build Up... I understand the attraction but that's a power I always find skippable with my tanking philosophy. I'm looking first for aggro control, second for survivability and only third for damage. A 10 second damage buff is simply less important to me than many other things and there's never room for everything. I know other players find it very useful, it just doesn't fit with my idea of what a tanker is about. <shrugs>

Second, Resist Elements. It's useful sure, but it's minor protection from a very rare damage type that your defenses already provide more than adequate mitigation to. In my opinion it's the least valuable power in your primary. If you're scraping for powers to drop I'd put this pretty high on the list.

Third, and I hate the necessity on my Invuln too, but Hasten is a power you really hate to drop but there's simply other powers that do you more good. I really like Hasten, but I usually can't find room for it on an Invuln.

I don't have Mid's with me right now, but a cursory look at your build shows a couple of other tweaks... Invincibility is a prime candidate for 4 Gift of the Ancients for the recovery and +end. I think you're better off with the additional end than the regen from the Luck of the Gambler. Later on when you hit 47 I recommend trying to obtain three Cytoskeleton Hamidon Origin enhancements... that's the perfect slotting for the power.

I would get Taunt considerably earlier in the build; I always grab it at 10 on an Invuln and never later than 24 on any tanker.

Without having Mid's handy I won't get into more detail; I'm not quite up to figuring bonuses and enhancements in my head. Overall though you've a solid build. A few things I'd do differently but I didn't see any major mistakes.

Hey, long time no see Dante. There's still a few of us old timers here, welcome back and enjoy your stay.

If you want to soft cap without anyone in range of PF an easy way to accomplish that is by trading the ToD in Stone Fist for a set of Mako's Bite and trade the Obliteration in one of your AOE's for Scirocco's Dervish... that change puts you at 44.6% Melee, 46.2% Range and 42.5% AOE. It's also considerably cheaper on the wallet, but if you're slotting the LotG recharge IO's that apparently isn't an issue with you.

Another choice is going with Combat Jumping/Super Jump for travel... that one change will soft cap you if you slot all your defenses to ED cap and only slot the Steadfast unique.

If I could make a suggestion... you may want to three slot Active Defense so you can double stack it, and finding room for Grant Cover is also a good idea. That will greatly increase your resistance to defense debuffs. Also, if you exemp below your recharge bonuses or get hit by a slow your mez protection won't be perma anymore.

Personally I've found One with the Shield to be a great addition to my protections on my BS/Shield scrapper; it's just the ticket for absorbing a really tough alpha strike. A 2 minute duration resistance/hp buff with a substantial, but manageable, end crash is a useful tool to have. I probably wouldn't get it at 32, but I'd find a way to get it sometime.

There's always powers we really want that simply won't fit; an optimized build is by definition going to be very tight and one person's optimal build won't necessarily be the same as another's.

As others have pointed out, if your PB can't handle a boss, ANY boss for that matter at level 30 then something's way wrong in either your build or your tactics.

Bosses really cease to be a big issue for a Keld about the time you turn 6 and get Nova form; tougher bosses later on may require Dwarf if they have significant mez abilities.

By the way, Kelds received a huge buff a couple of issues ago, Dwarf damage was substantially increased and your inherent Cosmic Balance changed to work on all three forms. I believe there were a couple other buffs at the time that I can't think of offhand.

When you face a boss you can run up and hit Incandescent Strike, Radiant Strike and go to Dwarf if needed. If you're taking damage you have three heals available to you at level 30... Essence Boost which is a Dull Pain clone, Reform Essence which is a straight heal and White Dwarf Heal.

No decently built and played level 30 Keld will have difficulty with bosses. AV's are another story of course, but bosses or even EB's are manageable.

My base slotting for Dull Pain is 5 Doctored Wounds, all but the End/Recharge and save the last slot for another power that needs it more.

Looking over your build there's a few things I'd change... I'd add a 5th slot in TI for the Steadfast unique so it'll be there if you exemplar below 32. I'd probably toss another set of Reactive Armor into RPD and Res Energies. Stamina I'd stop at 4 slots, the fifth Perf. Shifter probably isn't as useful as that slot would be elsewhere.

I'd be tempted to rearrange the power selection and dump Build Up, grab Boxing in it's place and put Tough/Weave in at 30 & 32. Resist Energies I'd move out into the late 40's and personally I'd skip Resist Elements.

I'm not completely familiar with Electric Melee, I've only played it on a level bumped Shield/Elec tank on test. With that said I'd be tempted to find a way to snag Jacob's Ladder, it's a pretty nice cone attack and Electric's strong point is AOE.

Getting back to your original question of priorities, I'd tend to list my power/IO bonuses in this order:

1. Soft cap S/L defense and as much E/N defense as is practical, ideally above 40%
2. 90% S/L resistance and maximum E/N resistance.
3. Dull Pain above 90% recharge/heal
4. Enough endurance recovery to support the demands of the toggles and attacks. How much is that? It all depends on the rest of your build and only actually playing it will tell you.
5. F/C defense above 30% (likely automatic with Weave and the Steadfast unique)
6. Regeneration above 200%
7. Recharge bonuses aren't a big priority for me on an Invuln; I don't need Dull Pain to be constantly available thanks to the other defenses and I have a full chain. If they're there on sets I want for other purposes great but I don't really go looking for them.

Anything after that point is gravy. If you're having end issues you can slot the Gift of the Ancients set into Weave, 4 of them is worth 2% recovery and 1.8% additional endurance. Also, don't forget the new APP power Physical Perfection... it's pretty much an enhanceable Numina's Unique.

Oh, just so you're aware the Kinetic Combat set is once again very expensive and hard to come by. You can accomplish the same thing with the Smashing Haymaker set, you'll just need to slot a couple more attacks with it.

You rang?

Just to clarify, here's the skinny on the changes to Invuln with issue 13:

Resist Physical Damage went from 7.5% S/L resistance to 10% S/L resistance AND got a 25% resistance to defense debuffs.
Resist Energies went from 7.5% E/N resistance to 10% E/N resistance AND got 25% resistance to endurance drains
Resist Elements went from 7.5% F/C resistance to 10% F/C resistance AND got 20% slow resistance
Tough Hide gained 25% resistance to defense debuffs

What that means is that RPD and TH are now quite valuable to you; more thanks to the debuff resistance than the actual values of the powers. Prior to issue 13 the Romans on the ITF would take my Invuln's defense down into the deep negatives... lowest I recall was about -50% defense. Since issue 13 and respec'ing into a soft capped build I have yet to see my def drop below 40%.

Res Energies is now useful, both for the small end drain resist and for protection against the third most common damage type... but it isn't a critical power. I do have it in my Invuln builds, but it comes late... typically as the 49 power.

Resist Elements I completely skip; Fire/Cold damage is very rare and the slow resistance isn't enough to make a real difference... mobs that slow will hit you hard enough that you'll never even notice the slow resistance. This isn't to say it's worthless... just that a soft capped Invuln tanker usually has a very tight build and you're going to have to make sacrifices... Res Elements is simply about the least important primary power you have.

I went into a bit more detail in my soft capping guide and it should apply quite well to any secondary. I focus first on S/L defense, then on E/N defense and finally on F/C defense. As a side effect you'll also build fairly significant melee/ranged/AOE defenses that will apply to psionic damage.

Whew, I guess I tend to get a bit long winded... anyway good luck with your tank; if you build it right there's nothing in the game you won't be able to handle.

I was in the early beta testing; the poor graphics and the interface really left me completely unimpressed with the game and I didn't bother trying it again until late in the beta shortly before it went open. Well, it had improved somewhat, but I still didn't like the graphics, character options or interface so unless something changes dramatically I doubt I'll buy the game.

Of course the once a week four hour long playsessions in closed beta also had something to do with why I didn't bother trying to play it much... it was only available to play at times my SG had regular sessions in COH. Given the choice between the two I'll take COH.

You can always drop the concealment pool and get a Stealth IO and Super Speed... in PVE that's as good as invisibility. Either the Celerity Stealth for Super Speed or the Unbound Leap Stealth that you can put into Sprint. The Jump stealth IO is usually MUCH cheaper than the Celerity Stealth.

Just a suggestion but on my Archery blaster I grabbed the Devastation Hold proc for all my single target blasts; it isn't too expensive and it goes off enough to be a worthwhile amount of mitigation.

I'd also snag Havoc Punch at a minimum; it's useful to have a heavy damage melee attack for when the party comes to greet you. Since you have both Power Sink and Shocking Grasp, both of which require you to be in melee, you may as well have something else to knock upside the baddie's head.

I'd suggest slotting Build Up and Aim a bit better; my personal favorite slotting is Adjusted Targeting Recharge, To Hit/Recharge and a common Recharge IO; that'll get ED cap recharge and a bit of to hit as well as a 2% damage buff in three slots.