Call Me Awesome

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Mr. Awesome i have a challenge for you, if you have the time.

I have the Invul/Stone tank i'd like to be uber with. He's fun to play. Would you take the time to post a "very fine" build? I'd be willing to pay you on Justice, if you have a toons there.

Just don't list purps because i refuse to buy them at the current prices. Anything else i will do. Influence isn't an issue with the other sets.

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This is close to my current build on CMA; I've still a few HO's left to change over. CMA grew up in issue 3 and was a Hami raider from issue 4 until the change in issue 9; I have over 300 HO's available to me on all my 50's and CMA at the time IO's were introduced had over 60 in his build. I've been gradually moving from that HO build to a set IO one; this is the most recent build I've drawn up so it's probably very close to what I have on Live right now.

I do recommend the Cytoskeleton HO's for Invincibility; there's really no better slotting available. I haven't priced them in the last year or so since I had more than I could use already; but they may be a bit pricey nowadays.

For the most part I'm using relatively inexpensive IO sets; the Reactive Armor and Smashing Haymaker are both pretty cheap. The Zinger is cheap, but the salvage to make them gets a bit pricey... Mocking Beratement has the advantage there as it's nearly free and uses relatively cheap salvage.

I noticed I had the Numina listed... I didn't remember getting it for this character but maybe I do have one; I know I've got one on several other characters.

Anyway, long story short (too late I know) the basics of this build should be pretty inexpensive; you'll obviously have to substitute defense IO's for the Cytos in Invincibility until level 47. I built a "bare bones" version as an "under level 30" exemplar build for about 10 million mid way thru issue 13; looking over the market today you should still be able to get the basics for 50 million.

Oh, I almost forgot; here's the build I'm playing:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Call Me Awesome: Level 50 Natural Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Stone Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- RctvArm-EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam(3), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(3), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(5), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(42)
Level 1: Stone Fist -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(34), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(37), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(37)
Level 2: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Rchg(9)
Level 4: Heavy Mallet -- B'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(A), B'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(17), S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg(17), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(31), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg(33), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 8: Unyielding -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), RctvArm-ResDam(9), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(11), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(23)
Level 10: Taunt -- Zinger-Taunt(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(11), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg(13), Zinger-Taunt/Rng(13), Zinger-Acc/Rchg(15), Zinger-Dam%(42)
Level 12: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(15)
Level 16: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(21)
Level 18: Invincibility -- HO:Cyto(A), HO:Cyto(19), HO:Cyto(19), Taunt-I(21)
Level 20: Stamina -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(23), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(25), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(48)
Level 22: Fault -- Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(A), Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(25), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(27), Zinger-Dam%(27), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(43), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(46)
Level 24: Boxing -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(43), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg(43), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 26: Tough Hide -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(29), DefBuff-I(29)
Level 28: Resist Physical Damage -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(31), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 30: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(33), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(33), RctvArm-EndRdx(46)
Level 32: Weave -- GftotA-Def(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(37), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42), GftotA-Def/Rchg(46)
Level 35: Tremor -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Erad-Acc/Rchg(36), Dmg-I(36)
Level 38: Seismic Smash -- HO:Nucle(A), RechRdx-I(39), S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg(39), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(39), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg(40), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Laser Beam Eyes -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(45), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48)
Level 47: Energy Torrent -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Centri(48)
Level 49: Resist Energies -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(50), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(50), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
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[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]2.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]18% Defense(Smashing)[*]18% Defense(Lethal)[*]3% Defense(Fire)[*]3% Defense(Cold)[*]16.4% Defense(Energy)[*]16.4% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]10.5% Defense(Melee)[*]12.1% Defense(Ranged)[*]3% Defense(AoE)[*]3.6% Max End[*]14% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]4% Enhancement(Heal)[*]3% Enhancement(Stun)[*]21.3% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]140.6 HP (7.5%) HitPoints[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 14.3%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 4.95%[*]9% (0.15 End/sec) Recovery[*]32% (2.5 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]3.76% Resistance(Fire)[*]1.26% Resistance(Cold)[/list]

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Hi I am wondering about a rumor my friend told me. My friend was saying that the devs are nerfing stone tanks. Is that true?

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I've heard this "rumor" every few weeks since issue 6 and so far there's been zero substance to it. Yeah, a Granite tanker can easily become the next best thing to unkillable with a plain SO build... but there are some pretty hefty penalties attached already in the form of -spd, -rchg, -dmg and no jumping.

I'd worry about a stone nerf when I see an actual redname post about it; past history says it's someone who's envious of the stone tank's ability and is nerfherding.

Well, speaking from the tanker perspective the two synergize quite well; the combo has been highly effective. I've been working on a Stone/Inv brute a bit lately but he's still too young at level 16 to know if it works as well redside.

You'll have to be aware that the end use is a bit stiff pre-stamina and the slower recharging attacks I'm finding tend to be a bit slow building Fury. Looking at a mature build, and basing it off of my Inv/Stone tank the set should really come into it's own once you get into the 30's and slot up a few IO sets but it's going to be painful until SO's.

I have no real doubt that once it matures the set will be very nice; it's going to take some patience in dealing with it's early teething problems however.

That's because Rock Armor protects you significantly better than Stone Skin; it's the superior choice. You really aren't going to want to run Granite 24/7; even as a tanker I only run it when I need that level of protection. If I don't then I certainly don't need the penalties.

Now if we could change the Invulnerability secondary to give Temp. Invuln instead of RPD as the tier one selection...

If you're looking to debuff tohit primarily you can't beat a dark/dark defender... mine at level 50 can output a sustained -95.6% tohit debuff... before you even include Fluffy's contribution. Mine also provides roughly 12% defense (shadow fall &amp; maneuvers) in addition to the tohit debuffs; a double whammy.

On the ITF I've been able to completely eliminate the offense Rommy and his puffballs deal. Add the -30% resistance debuff of Tar Patch and you've pretty well rolled out the red carpet for the rest of the team.

Rad's good, no question and I also have a 50 Rad/Rad; but for sheer focused debuffing though the D3 is better, and the potent tohit debuffs are safer. If they can't hit you they can't hurt you. On the other hand the Rad/Rad does solo better and it does better damage. Either is always a welcome teammate for difficult content. One is better at debuffing tohit, the other is a swiss army knife debuffer doing a decent job at several things but without the same focus.

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My feeling in general is that if you need to ask if you should sell them, then yes, you should. That kind of influence can get you so much performance from non-purple IO sets.

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I'd strongly second that thought; you can build a very effective and powerful character for not a lot of inf... my soft capped Invuln cost around 10 million in issue 13... looking at today's prices that would run roughly 50 million.

I also just built a BS/Regen scrapper with ED capped damage/recharge on the attacks and ~60% accuracy who also has soft capped melee defense and 25%+ to range &amp; AOE on top of ~600% regen full time; it cost 120 million and I did it a couple of days ago. He's also sitting at 30% global recharge. I'd say that's flirting with tankmage territory; I'm not sure just how much more effective I could get even if I had a billion to dump into him.

For my money hugely expensive builds may look pretty but you can usually get something equally or in some cases actually more effective for far less inf. Out of my 12 level 50 characters I think the most expensive build is my Fire/Rad 'troller; his build cost around 170 million. Most of them were put together for under 50 million and are highly effective.

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there were APPs before ED, for around 6 months or so anyway. but seriously, I knew a couple guys that could clear a map quick as hell with Inv/SS, just by the sheer number of mobs they could pull at once. I used to race one on the Dreck map regularly on my Fire/Ice tanker. Granted, didnt seem like they were going as fast because they spent most of their time rounding them up, but when it was kill time, it was just insane. They only needed one AoE, when it one shot most of the mobs.

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The biggest factor in the old herding days was the "stacking bug" where if you positioned yourself just right around a corner you could get as many as 200+ mobs to jump into the same physical space; then you could unload with your single target attacks... which would hit EVERY mob in that same space. I once wiped out 210 freak minion/LT's with one 6 slotted Hami-O'd (back in the days of 50% enhancement HO's) Seismic smash. Yep, I actually counted the number of "you have defeated....." messages I got. All the orange numbers froze my machine for almost 10 seconds

The way it worked was you went around the map and aggro'd/taunted the mobs, building a clump, then taunting and going for more. Once you had "enough" mobs following you you then went behind a corner and left slightly more than enough room for one mob on your side of the wall. Everything jumps into that same small spot and once they've arrived you simply unload on them. In those days it was possible to herd every mob on the main island of the Dreck map into that one small space... we're talking about issue 3-4 here.

Of course all this is academic now; you can't pull more than 17 mobs and they no longer stack (although I DID actually have 3 of them do just that last week; apparently there's a bug that's crept in recently). Nowadays AOE is king in farming, so the more of it you have the better. That's why /Fire Melee is so good at it.

Oh, and I don't know when APP's came into the game, but they were here in issue 3 when I started playing.

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Interesting replies. Thank you. Now i have a couple questions.

1) Why skip the 2 Resists? Is there not enough energy or fire damage to protect from at end game? (50) That's 10% resist and 20-20% effect resist. (what is effect anyway)

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Resist Energies is fairly useful for both it's end drain resist and the, admittedly small, E/N resistance and I do recommend getting it, but get it late in the build; it's less useful than other powers such as Tough/Weave. If you're building for an IO soft cap build it's a good place for another set of Reactive Armor as well.

Resist Elements is simply the least useful power in the entire set, it provides a small resistance to the rarest type of damage in the game. You're far better served by focusing on building defense; that will net you far greater durability than taking this power.

The damage types you'll encounter are overwhelmingly slanted toward Smash/Lethal damage, nearly 70% of all damage is of that type. Second most common, and it's a considerable drop, is Energy which may account for 15-20%. Fire/Cold collectively are very rare; about tied with Psi and none are really common enough to worry about... put all three together and they may amount to 7%. You'll have a significant amount of defense to all of these using the build design I've listed in my Soft Cap guide anyway. I tank Psi without any problem at all, and I have ZERO resistance to it. If I run into anything that poses a problem, well, that's what my inspiration tray is for.

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2) Tough, i usually get. Is weave really wanted? That's 5 toggles running, can the end. be maintained easily? (without getting alot of sets) I mainly just run common recipes on builds.

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Weave is actually more useful to you than Tough is; your defense is your first line of protection... an incoming attack must first beat your defense in order for your resistance to even matter. With this in mind we want the most defense we can get... an attack that doesn't penetrate your defense does absolutely ZERO damage. NO damage is always better than reduced damage (resistance). Fortunately as an Invuln we have three layers of protection.
<ul type="square">[*]Defense, which prevents an attack from hitting you at all[*]Resistance, which reduces the damage of an attack that penetrates your defense[*]Healing and HP boost in Dull Pain to recover from damage that gets past your first two layers[/list]Because of this our first priority is building as much defense as is practical, then building the resistance to survive damage that inevitably gets thru. Dull Pain is your "ouch, that hurt" power that heals you by a huge amount and simultaneously increases your hit points by up to 60%.

The endurance use is perfectly manageable on an Invuln, mine actually has quite limited recovery bonuses and neither of the recovery uniques at the moment... yeah, in a long battle I can run a bit low but it really hasn't been a huge issue. IO set slotting including some endred in your attacks and shields makes this manageable. Oh, I was able to manage decently with this character even back before IO's were introduced.

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The main reason i wanted to try Inv. was the lack of end. usage it looked to consume in mids. I'd hate to have to get more toggles to run if not needed. Thanks for all the replies.

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As I mentioned above, with a little endred slotting in your attacks first and your toggles second you'll be just fine. You do need Stamina, but I've only ever played one character who didn't so that's almost a given, particularly with a tank.

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His bane summon isn't being interrupted by Invincibility anymore?

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I think you are misremembering, but maybe I am. As far as I am aware, Invincibility never interrupted the summons. RttC and AaO work for sure. I believe Chilling Embrace and Mud Pots will also work, but anytime I ran with those type of Tankers, we also had another Toggle debuff, so I am unsure. The power seems to require a Debuff component in addition to the auto-hit nature in order to interrupt (and I think the tick rate has to be faster than two seconds, as I have seen him spawn inside Hot Feet, but I do not have conclusive evidence on Hot Feet's failure to stop him).

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I guarantee that Invincibility did in fact interrupt LR's bane summon in issue 14 and before; I ran the STF probably close to 30 times with my Invuln tanker. I never had him summon a bane as long as I was in melee with him irregardless of weather he had a toggle debuff on him. Now a Fire or Dark tank was a different story since their aura isn't autohit but from personal experience I know both Invincibility and Mud Pots DID work to prevent the bane summon.

Just to clarify, I'm talking about the normal summon, NOT the "pet nuke" summon he does at 20% health. So far as I know there's no way to prevent the pet nuke... but it goes away in a hurry with a Kinetic's Fulcrum Shift

I think you're limiting yourself quite a lot by not taking Rock Armor; the way you're set up you really don't have any choice but to run full time Granite. Oh, I really see no purpose in the Fighting pool on a Stone tank... it's worthless while in Granite and if Rock/Rooted/Stone Skin aren't enough you probably need more than it would give anyway.

I'd suggest getting Rock Armor at 1, it's your bread &amp; butter armor the whole way to 50; anytime you don't need Granite's level of protection you'll want Rock Armor.

Truthfully I don't see any pressing need for a tanker to ever take Invisibility... that's not your job and if you want to ghost a mission then just armor up and use tanker stealth; walk/tp thru the mobs and ignore what they do to try and stop you. That's served me well on all my tanks for those occasions where I simply want to bypass a few groups. Let 'em shoot at you as you go by, who really cares since they can't hurt you anyway.

Oops, looking at your build you're considerably under slotting Granite for resistance; you're just shy of 10% lower in resistance than you should be. You can easily do without that 4th LotG bonus.

Melt Armor... this isn't a power I'd take; the debuff is too low and the recharge is too long. I'd take Fire Blast &amp; Fire Ball from the pyre epic and drop Hurl Boulder.

So, if it were me I'd grab Rock Armor, drop the concealment and fighting pools entirely and loose Melt Armor for the far more useful Fire Blast &amp; Fire Ball. Oh, and slot Granite to ED cap resistance, THEN slot to ED cap defense.

With the power choices freed up you may want to consider grabbing Hover; it makes TP a much more pleasant power for zone travel. You can't use it in combat obviously but the loss of status protection isn't an issue when you're traveling from A to B. Oh, you'll probably want to pick Stone Mallet up as well; with the -recharge from Granite you'll want attacks to fill out your attack chain. Oh, I almost forgot... you probably want Hasten as well. It won't be perma of course, but while it's up it negates the -recharge of Granite.

That's my thoughts anyway based on playing a couple of Stone/* tankers to 50. Admittedly neither was Stone/Stone (one Stone/Fire, the other Stone/EM... yuck ) but I have played the /Stone secondary to 50 on an Invuln.

Take the ideas that make sense to you, disregard what doesn't and make the tank that appeals to you; after all you're the one playing it, not me.

If you haven't played one before you may want to glance at my mini-guide to the first 20 levels playing an Invuln, it will give you a solid foundation to build your tanker with. Later on you might want to check out my guide to soft capping your Invuln for more advanced suggestions and IO set recommendations.

Invuln is capable of some extreme feats now if built correctly; it can rival a Granite tanker for raw survivability.

Both guides are linked in my sig.

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As long as you're in Melee with Invincibility running he will NOT summon banes.

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This is, sadly, not the case. Everything else you mention is spot on, but I have seen plenty of Invuln tankers and scrappers in melee with LR and he summons banes unless you also add a debuff of some sort.

There is also no shame in pulling out after a tower is destroyed to restock on inspires as needed before making a run at the next tower. If the team is already having a rough time or is on the edge, I will often take out the Blue or Red tower, then pull out to regroup, get inspires if needed, and then finish off the other offense buff tower. Usually once both the red and blue tower are down, he is manageable.

Far too often people are reluctant to pull out and get a fresh inspire load. That is how tower rezzing happens, IME.

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His bane summon isn't being interrupted by Invincibility anymore? Well, that's new with issue 15; the last STF I ran it worked just like it always has... I admit I haven't run one since i-15 thanks largely to my work schedule limiting my game time and the reports of the bugged repairmen.

Now, if you exit melee range of LR he'll sometimes pause in chasing you and summon a bane but I never had him summon while I was toe to toe with him. Admittedly a toggle debuff like RI is a safety net but I've done it without and without him summoning many times. I wonder if that's a bug like the repairmen?

Oh, about hover tanking him... he has a huge end drain attack that he'll use if you're out of melee; last time I tried that method he drained me dry in about 5 seconds and I fell to his feet with no toggles. Needless to say that didn't end well . I haven't attempted it again from greater altitude... does anyone know what the range of that drain attack is?

LR is perfectly doable with a well built Invuln, even with zero support. Here's the basic method:
First, as long as the blue tower's up you'll need 75% def to floor his tohit; purple candy is the key here. Also, as long as the Red tower's up he does double damage... this can really smart so a few oranges aren't out of order. Finally I always carry a couple-three big greens for when LR gets lucky and Dull Pain isn't up.

Ok, you've cleared the courtyard and the Flier... eat a few purples to get 75% def (I recommend watching your combat stats), then pop a few oranges to get your Energy resist up a bit and immediately jump into melee range of him. As long as you're in Melee with Invincibility running he will NOT summon banes. As soon as you've established aggro (taunt is a near-must here) your team should immediately jump the Red tower.

I say that because while the red tower's up his damage can really hurt badly, even with capped resists. Make sure you keep your def above 75% via purples while the team kills the red tower and, optionally, the blue as well. Personally I don't usually have problems with surviving his attacks without purples once the red tower's gone but if you have them you may as well use them.

Positioning... I usually draw LR back into the corner behind the Green tower, this way we don't have to worry if the Flier respawns while we're fighting him.

I've tanked him several times without support using this method... if you run low on purples I have a teammate come by and drop some on me. I don't often need the greens but when I do I need them badly.

Here's my "basic" inspiration loadout for LR:
10+ purples, preferably medium or large
2+ big greens for moments when he gets lucky
3-4 big oranges, needed until the red tower dies.

That usually handles the entire encounter quite nicely. I do restock from teammates before LR though, I carry a couple of big yellows for dealing with Mako.

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How many times do we see new Tankers (and new players) come up here and say something along the lines of "I'm trying a Tanker out and I'm always running out of endurance. Does it get any better?"

This has been an age old problem since the early days of beta. How many subscribing customers have to get frustrated and lose the love for the game before this issue is addressed.

Specifically the L1-20 portion of levelling. This applies to almost all ATs hero and villain side, but especially to Tankers who run dry *really* quickly.

Suggested Fixed: Do away with TOs and DOs and make SOs available at L1. This would alleviate much of the frustration and tedium that is the current mode of play in the L1-20 game (imo).

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Hmm, I'm not sure about that, SO's are simply too expensive to slot in the early levels, particularly when they wear out so fast. How about adding a similar mechanic to the "beginner's luck" accuracy bonus that they put in a few issues ago where you start with a large recovery bonus that slowly fades away as you reach level 20? That would address the problem you're referring to without making it completely a case of veterans with inf trivializing the low levels while the broke newbies still have the same problems.

I do agree that this should be addressed somehow, but I'm not sure SO's at 1 are the answer.

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No. I've got most of what i want out of my build.

What I'm having a problem is understanding how Doc got such a high recharge.

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Mid's is calculating the +recharge proc as always being active... in actuality his recharge is going to average out far short of what he thinks it is. The proc will actually have, what, a 20% chance to give 10 seconds of +100% recharge? In other words, it's a calculation error.

&lt;edit&gt;
Just checked, the Force Feedback recharge proc has a 10% chance to grant you 5 seconds of +100% recharge. The way he had it slotted every time he hit KoB he had a 10% chance that he'd get a recharge boost lasting 5 seconds.

Overall this is a build that will do the job, and do it very well. I have a few thoughts about it though. First, you are way over the soft cap for S/L with one enemy... you're actually over it slightly with no foes in melee. That's telling me that you could shift things around a bit and sacrifice some of the S/L def in order to boost other aspects.

One suggestion would be replacing a couple of the Kinetic Combat sets for the Crushing Impact set, 5 of them caps out your damage with adequate accuracy and it gives you a 5% global recharge and 7% global accuracy bonus, among other things. Those would be more useful to you in more situations than the excess S/L defense over the 45% cap... and it would leave you with slightly over 45% anyway.

Since you're using the Kin Combat set I'd consider the Mocking Beratement set in Taunt instead of the Zinger... MB gives def to F/C and more global recharge at the expense of roughly .6% S/L defense; it would be a better fit in your particular build.

Personally I would certainly squeeze Bone Smasher in, probably at the expense of CJ in your build; I'd slide RPD down into the 20's and pick up Bone sometime pre-20.

Laser Beam Eyes I would slot with Thunderstrike; it gives you a recovery buff, E/N defense and 7% global accuracy in 4 slots and it's relatively cheap.

Focused Accuracy I frankly have a hard time recommending; since the nerf awhile back it only provides 5% tohit buff and 20% accuracy... the tohit is too little for the end cost and you're already getting more than enough accuracy via set bonuses. It also has a rather extreme endurance cost.

Resist Elements is really your most skippable power; it's mostly useful for it's slow resist and as a mule for IO bonuses.

With just a bit of finagling of your basic build I came up with a quickie modification that gives you the following:
<ul type="square">[*]47% S/L def[*]45.7% E/N def[*]33.8% F/C def[*]27.5% global recharge[*]28% global accuracy[*]2.63% endurance/second recovery (still room for improvement here)[*]3.6 additional total endurance[/list]There's still room for considerable further improvement, that's just a quick reslotting and some power substitution. I dropped FA for Conserve Power and dropped Res Elements and added Bone Smasher. I didn't get into re-ordering the powers for that quick experiment but I would before actually playing it. Oh, here's the sample changes, bear in mind that the power order should shift somewhat with Bone Smasher moving up and RPD moving down into the 20's.

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Hmm, most often created. Well, disregarding all of the lowbies who haven't and probably won't make it out of the teens the tally looks something like this:
<ul type="square">[*]Tanks - 3 level 50's, 1 at 37, 3 in the 18-30 range, total of 7[*]Defenders - 2 level 50's, 1 35 and 4 more in the 20's, total of 7[*]Scrappers - 2 level 50's, 1 at 49 (probably will hit 50 tonight) and I think another in the 20's somewhere, total of 4[*]Controllers - 2 level 50's, 2 in the early 40's and one in the 20's, total of 5[*]Blasters - 1 level 50 and one in the early 20's, total of 2[*]Keldians - 1 level 50 Peacebringer and one Warshade in the early 20's, total of 2[/list]
The created part is impossible for me to keep up with, over the last 5 years I've rolled and deleted or abandoned (on other servers) before level 10 so many characters I can't begin to remember all of them. If we're counting the ones who actually made it past 10 there's probably another half dozen defenders, at least that many controllers and a whole bunch of scrappers.

I've actually recently started playing semi-seriously redside; to date I haven't gotten anything past 18 but I expect that to change. I've played a bit over the years but never really gotten into it, now my SG has started a new expansion redside on Infinity and we've been playing there lately. Maybe by next year I'll have added some redside 50's to my list.

You say you have a budget of $50 million; that should easily buy everything I've recommended in my Soft Cap guide for an Invuln tanker except possibly the Cytoskeleton HO's for Invincibility; when I outfitted an exemplar build for my tanker about 6 months ago I did it for under 10 million.

Your basic build could also use some work, I'd highly recommend grabbing Bone Smasher early and I would drop Build Up. Hurdle should be left with the base slot, you're really not getting any noticeable benefit from slotting it. Personally I feel rather strongly that skipping Taunt is a mistake; it's not a vital power but it's a highly useful addition to your tanking toolbox. I don't use it every fight, but it's extremely useful in a lot of situations; say when that boss you missed in your aura turns and goes after the blaster.

Looking over your build I see several problems... for one if you exemplar below 26 you're going to be severely handicapped with a nonexistent attack chain and poor endurance management. Combat Jumping provides a very small defense boost, it certainly isn't worth 3 slotting.

My mini-guide on the first 20 levels of an Invuln is another good starting point for creating a solid Invuln tank. You can build on that base for your final result and have a much more solid build. Adding the basics from my Soft Cap build and you'll rival Granite tankers in survivability.

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Oh, just noticed you have Kick from the fighting pool... I'd trade that on Punch; Kick tends to send your target flying away from you... I found that out the hard way awhile back while trying to work out a post-ED build in issue 6. Not a big deal, but it was frustrating.

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I think you mean Boxing, C_A_M.

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Doh! That's what I get for posting late at night after a long day.

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But I agree that many of the attacks are over-slotted. In most cases, with sets you can fully enhance an attack with 5 slots. And with the required attack from the Fighting pool, unless the OP is planning to actually use it on a regular basis, I'd give it as few slots as possible to get the desired set bonus and no more. All the SH sets need is a single Acc/Dam to be fully slotted; I recommend adding two other set enhancements that have end reduction to the Erad slots in Footstomp, since the Erad set is very low in end reduction.

The OP can also drop the Def/End/Rchg in Weave; as it is, it's slotted way past the ED cap. Consider 4-slotting TH with GotA; the set has nice +rec and +end bonuses and are considerably less expensive than LotG.

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Looks like another valid option; I know I've used the GotA set for the bonus end and recovery in my Shield scrapper; 4 sets of them and Stamina eliminated all my end issues on that BS/Shield... He uses end about like a /regen now.

Shield Charge by itself is huge damage, and as I understand it (My Shield character is a scrapper, not a tank) it actually does the same damage as the Scrapper version? In that case it's huge... mine routinely does 350+ damage to a large AOE. Foot Stomp is another healthy AOE, I don't know if it's that good (I've never played /SS) but it doesn't stink by any stretch.

Slot your attacks for damage, particularly Shield Charge &amp; Foot Stomp and you'll do just fine. While I haven't personally played /SS I do know it's a great damage set. Oh, I DON'T recommend Hand Clap; it will knock the entire group around you back way out of range and scatter them. If you've ever played with a bad Storm defender or controller Hand Clap works a little like Gale.

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3. Again "frankensloting" in Stomp is far less effective than just picking a set and going with it...I suggest Multi-Strike.

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I would lose quite a bit of energy/negative defense if I did that...for nothing really useful in return.

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Quite correct there; you're much better off with more E/N def than F/C def... it's much more common. Your original build is far better already than the one he put up; yours just needed some minor tweaks. I also don't understand his advise for slotting ToD and Mako; those are positional def, not typed def.

In thinking things thru a bit further there is some merit to replacing Unstoppable with Res Elements since you're soft capped... it will give you some slow resist. I doubt it would get you out of a KoA caltrop field but every bit helps, and I don't expect Unstoppable to be of much use to you. I haven't needed the power since I respec'd at the start of issue 13. It's marginal, but you've already covered your essentials.

Um, that build's... just a bit substandard. Going down the list:
<ul type="square">[*]No Dull Pain? Bzzzzz! Huge red flag here.[*]-KB IO in Hover????? Why?[*]-KB IO in Fly? Why? It's very expensive and a waste.[*]KOB slotted for Knockback????? Bzzzzz![*]All attacks poorly slotted for damage[*]Laser Beam Eyes slotted for... debuff???[/list]Whew, that's certainly a.... unique build. There's lots of other problems with it but the ones I listed above are, in my opinion, show stoppers.