Call Me Awesome

Well, I haven't looked into it for a brute, but it's a fair ways short of the cap on a Scrapper so I'd assume similar numbers. From memory I think the Invuln Scrapper was roughly 8-10% short so you'd have to find that much additional def.

I've just completed a new guide on Invulnerability tankers.
Invulnerability tankers and the Defense Soft Cap

I've just completed a new guide on Invulnerability tankers.
Invulnerability tankers and the Defense Soft Cap

Invulnerability and the defense soft cap.

Issue 13 made some significant changes to the Invulnerability set, but even more importantly it made changes to the way typed defense worked with IO set bonuses. Now all typed defensive bonuses now cover two damage types, Smash/Lethal, Fire/Cold and Energy/Negative as well as providing half that amount in positional defenses of Melee, Range & AOE.

First, let’s look at what changed in Invulnerability for 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
Unyielding finally lost the 5% defense debuff
Invincibility lost a little defense per mob to compensate
Tough Hide gained 25% resistance to defense debuffs

The bottom line is that we’re significantly better off defensively than we used to be with 1-6 mobs in range of Invincibility and very slightly worse off with 10 mobs in range. Considering the fact that it’s nearly impossible to get more than 6-8 mobs in your aura unless you’re fighting Rikti Monkeys, that’s a big win for us. The debuff resistance in RPD and TH amounts to 50% and makes it much harder for mobs to knock down your defenses… previously, the Cimeroans in the ITF could completely eliminate your defense; now they can’t if you have RPD & TH.

Now let’s look at the changes to IO set defensive bonuses, probably the single biggest change. What does it mean to Invulnerability tankers? Well, it used to be very difficult to build defensive bonuses since IO sets only covered one type of damage. Prior to issue 13, an IO set might provide, for example, 2% smashing defense. Now that same set would provide 2% smashing AND lethal defense as well as 1% Melee defense. This is a very good thing for us since we can cover our defensive needs with only half the number of bonuses we used to need.

A small digression here about just how defense works in this game…

Defense works by making an attack miss you; if it doesn’t hit then you don’t take any damage. The mobs have a base 50% chance to hit you with their attacks; your defense directly reduces that chance. If you have 25% defense then the mobs have a 25% chance to hit you… 35% defense means they have a 15% chance to hit and so on to the “soft cap” of 45% reducing the mob’s chance to hit you to 5%. We call it the soft cap because while you can have a higher amount of defense you can’t reduce the mob’s chance to hit you to below 5%.

Now when a mob attacks you the game takes the highest defense amount you have to any part of that attack and uses that for your total defense… for example let’s take a fictional ranged power that does 100 points of energy damage and 100 points of smashing damage. You have 45% smash/lethal defense, 40% energy/negative defense and 20% ranged defense… which is roughly what this guide will aim for. Since the attack is ranged you have 20% defense to it… but it’s also energy so you have 40% defense to it… but it’s ALSO smashing and you have 45% defense to that. The game takes your highest defense, smashing, and therefore the attack has a 5% chance to hit you.

While not all attacks will have a Smash/Lethal portion, the vast majority do, so this is your most important defensive number; it’s the one we want to get to 45% the most.

Arcanaville explains things much better than I can so check out her Guide to Defense for a more detailed explanation.

OK, enough of the lecture! I just wanna know how to build my tanker!

Here’s your shopping list for Wentworth’s for your soft capped Invuln tanker:

• 5 sets of Reactive Armor – you need 4 pieces in the set for the bonuses we want, which are 1.5% defense to E/N and 1.5% defense to S/L. I suggest the Resist, Resist/Endurance, Resist/Recharge and Resist/Endurance/Recharge

• 3 sets of Smashing Haymaker – all 4 pieces of the set. (1.13% hit points and 1.88% defense to S/L) (Slot 4 sets if you use Mocking Beratement)

• Full set of Perfect Zinger (10% regen, 5% recharge, 2.5% damage and 3.13% defense S/L) _OR_ full set of Mocking Beratement (1.8% endurance, 2.5% defense S/L, 3.13% F/C and 7.5% recharge)

• 2 of the Zephyr universal travel set, the speed & speed/end IO’s… skip the knockback protection. (3.13% defense ranged, 1.56% defense E/N)

• Steadfast Protection 3% defense/resist unique IO – this is the only expensive item.

With the exception of the Steadfast unique, the rest shouldn’t cost more than 10 million and probably quite a bit less.

• August, 2009 update: Prices have increased on several of my recommended sets since this was written; but with some patience you should still be able to acquire everything for well under $30 million.
  

Why not use the Kinetic Combat set for the attacks?
Well, the reason for this is a simple one. At the time I’m writing this guide, there are two pieces of the Kinetic Combat set that are completely unavailable on the market. If that ever changes, then yes, the Kinetic Combat set is better than the Smashing Haymaker. But for now, I’m recommending what’s available.

• August, 2009 update: These have started to become available on the market again, albeit at somewhat of a premium price. If you can get the Kinetic Combat sets they'll be twice as effective as the Smashing Haymaker thus requiring fewer set bonuses.
  

Why not use Aegis instead of some of the Reactive Armor?
The reasoning here is simple. S/L defense will protect from most elemental attacks and pure elemental damage without a S/L component is extremely rare in the game. That being the case, I’d rather concentrate on the more common damage types. Additionally, the Reactive Armor set is considerably cheaper. If you’re taking Resist Elements in your build, then by all means slot Aegis there, as that makes 6 resist powers… you can only get the bonus from Reactive Armor 5 times.

Now that we have the IO’s we need, we need to put them somewhere. So, here are the powers you’ll need for this build:

• Temporary Invulnerability – 4 Reactive Armor and the Steadfast Unique
• Dull Pain – 3 recharge/3 heal or 5 of the Doctored Wounds set

• Unyielding – 4 Reactive Armor

• Taunt – full Perfect Zinger or full Mocking Beratement

• Combat Jumping – 1 common defense or 2 Zephyr IO’s

• Super Jump – 2 Zephyr IO’s

• Invincibility – 3 common defense, 1 endred or, at level 47+ 3 Cytoskeleton Hamidon Origin enhancements. One common taunt if you have the slots.

• Tough Hide – 3 common defense and it’s done

• Resist Physical Damage – 4 Reactive Armor

• Resist Energies – 4 Reactive Armor

• Boxing _OR_ Kick

• Tough – 4 Reactive Armor

• Weave – 2-3 common defense, 1-2 endred

• 3 single target attacks to slot the Smashing Haymaker set. You can finish out these attacks with the Acc/Dam and Dam/Recharge from Pounding Slugfest for an 8% regeneration bonus.

At this point you should have:
45% Smash/Lethal defense
40% Energy/Negative defense
30% Fire/Cold defense
20% Melee/Range defense (this covers most Psi damage)
13% Psi defense

Your resistances will be something like this:
Smash/Lethal – 90% capped
Energy/Negative – 30%
Fire/Cold – 17%

Very little damage will actually get past your defenses, and of what does very little will be Fire/Cold. This is the build I’ve been playing for the past several weeks and it’s nearly as durable as my Granite tankers.

My thanks to Local Man, Pep_Rally, Carnal, Rad_Avenger, and all the others who helped proofread and correct my mistakes. Thanks to issue 13, Invulnerability can once again be a great tanker.

[ QUOTE ]
Because you can use slow sets, Taunt sets and PBAoE sets, there are a lot of ways to slot mud pots. I used enhancements that had multiple effects like acc/dam/end and dam/slow to get as much out of it as possible. In my 6th slot I used Perfect Zinger chance for psi. Since each tic has a tohit check, some of them are for 72 damage instead of 8-14, but it's a lot less than the 20% it says it should do.

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to use the Zinger proc on my Invuln's aura... unfortunately auras won't take taunt sets anymore. They changed that a while back, maybe issue 10? Anyway, you can still slot taunt enhancements, just not taunt sets. I've got faint hopes that the devs may someday fix the problem with the stun proc that hit the tanker, not the mobs when slotted in an aura but I'm not holding my breath.

But it's certainly true that you've got a lot of options for slotting Mud Pots, that does make it more difficult to find an optimal slotting.

[ QUOTE ]
You may be right about taunt not missing in PvE. I have seen the words "miss" over Mary's head when taunting, but perhaps it is because I had Perfect Zinger chance for psi damage slotted and that is what missed.

Thanks for the info, I will correct my post.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd imagine the "miss" you're seeing may be mud pots' damage component... the taunt and slow portions of mud pots are autohit but the damage needs to roll tohit. I tend to maximize accuracy/damage/end for mud pots and the slow is a catch as can. My current slotting is 4 Scirocco's Dervish and 2 Multi-Strikes for ED cap damage & end with around 50% accuracy. Come to think of it, you can gain a bit by shuffling things and slotting a couple of damage/slow or accuracy/slow in there though... must think on that.

[ QUOTE ]
Lvl 10: Taunt – Targeted AoE
Damage: 0
Recharge: 10 sec
Accuracy: 75%
Range: 70 ft
Radius: 15 ft
Duration: 41 sec
Animation time: 1.67 sec
Rating: 4/5
Slotting: (2) acc/acc

Description: If you don’t take taunt, you are not a tank. Period. You are a scrapper with weak attacks and not doing your primary job which is to keep the agro on you. Many tanks will tell you that they can grab agro with just their aura and their attacks, but sometimes you can’t. Sometimes the stupid blaster agros a second mob. Sometimes the mob scatters from Rain of Fire. There are a hundred reasons to take taunt and they are worth spending one power on.

At the same time, don’t spend too many slots on taunt. With a duration of 41 seconds, you don’t need to slot for taunt duration. If your team can’t wipe out a mob in 41 seconds, you have other problems. If you have slots to spare I would slot a second accuracy because it can miss, especially on AVs like Mary McComber with a tohit debuff. Personally, I have this 5 slotted for one reason: the set bonuses on Perfect Zinger are awesome.

[/ QUOTE ]

Some incorrect info here, Taunt is AUTOHIT in PvE, so unless you intend to PvP slotting accuracy is a complete waste. In the PvE game Taunt can not miss. I'd recommend either leaving it with the default slot (recharge) or slot it to 3-4 with Perfect Zinger for cheap bonuses. 3 Zingers gives a 10% regen, and 4 gives a 5% recharge.

The issue with Mary has nothing to do with Taunt missing (which it CANNOT in PvE), but with the mechanics of aggro. Taunt alone won't always get aggro away from a blaster wailing on an AV, but taunt plus an attack WILL. That's one reason I find Breath of Fire to be quite useful on my Stone/Fire, it has some range to it, and it's the only ranged attack you'll have available prior to level 41.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

On LR, you can prevent his bane spawn (except for the "pet nuke" at 25%) by having one of the debuffers toss a toggle debuff on him, his pet summon is interruptable. The tanker's aura will serve the same purpose (as long as it has an autohit component, sorry Fire & Dark) if he's in melee range, the debuff just makes sure.

[/ QUOTE ]


The thing about this is that debuffing Recluse with a rad toggle generates a LOT of agro. If the Tank hits a lag spike, guess what happens? I left this out based on my experience with him ganking the Rad. It's only happened to me once in all the runs I've made of the TF, but I think if the Tanker aura is sufficient then the Rad is more of a danger than it's worth.

I should probably spell that out a bit in the guide though, if people want to use a Tank without the autohit aura etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm, in all the STF's I've tanked I've never lost LR's aggro, although to be safe I always auto taunt for the purpose... and I keep him in melee range as a double whammy with my aura. I've also run several STF's with my Rad/Rad and I've never had him loose interest in the tanker and go after me... but I've had competent tankers I could trust.

Oh, one trick we discovered by accident a couple-three months ago, LR seems to have a maximum altitude that his AI functions... we discovered this by having a Rad anchor him and fly to max altitude. LR hopped up the side of the building behind him to a high ledge... then just stood there and completely ignored us as we took out the towers then pounded on him on the ledge. Undoubtedly a bug, and it may have been fixed since but it was the easiest takedown of LR I've ever had.

We haven't tried to repeat those circumstances to see if the bug's repeatable... interestingly enough the Fire controller's Imps just stood there as well and would not attack.

Pretty good overview. One thing I didn't see, you didn't mention Ghost Widow's worst aspect, her MAG 100 Cone Hold. The safest method to handle that is to make sure that the Tanker has, AT ALL TIMES, at least 8 Clear Mind/Increase Density mez buffs on him. Absent those stacked mez buffs the tanker has to rely on purple insps and hope that the random number generator doesn't take a dislike to him. You touched on this earlier in the description but it probably bears spelling out in the writeup on GW.

I've been on both sides of that equation with my Stone/Fire tanker and my Mind/Kin controller, a kinetic can keep 15 stacked ID's on the tanker by himself if he does nothing else, or he can keep the 8 the tank needs and still have time if he's attentive to aid in the smackdown on GW. It's easier for an Emp with CM since you've got a longer duration on CM than ID.

On LR, you can prevent his bane spawn (except for the "pet nuke" at 25%) by having one of the debuffers toss a toggle debuff on him, his pet summon is interruptable. The tanker's aura will serve the same purpose (as long as it has an autohit component, sorry Fire & Dark) if he's in melee range, the debuff just makes sure. We generally have the tanker pull LR to the back corner way behind the Green tower, that way we don't have to worry about the Flier if it spawns during the beatdown of LR.

Nice job Darkity, I've only got one observation; I've found that by slotting range into my cones I greatly increase their utility... Fearsome Stare particularly benefits from this. I slot 5 of the Glimpse set like you do, but for the 6th slot I toss a range in... it allows me to cower the entire room. My experience is that I get great benefit out of slotting cones for range... the cone lengthens and widens.

Actually, some 3rd party macro programs will handle that type of thing... I use a Belkin Nostromo N52 game pad for most of my controls and it will set up complex macros with built in delays. I hadn't thought of that application but it should work, just create a macro in the controller's software to do one thing, then a delay of x seconds and do another.

I've used it to set up a "re-toggle" macro for my defenders, it activates all of my toggles with one key. To do this, first I bind the various powers to keys, for example, bind a "powexec_toggle_on assault" and bind t "powexec_toggle_on tactics". Then, in the controller's software I make a macro that first hits "a", then hits "t". Bingo, when I hit that key on the controller it turns on Assault then Tactics. You can set it up with a time delay between the two actions as well.

So, while the game itself won't let you do things like that some game controllers have macro software that will.

Nice overview of the combo there, in general I agree with you with a few exceptions. Like you, I've played an Inv/Stone tanker since issue 3 and I've seen the ups and downs of the set over the issues. For the most part we seem to have similar philosophies on the sets, here's a few thoughts I've had that differ somewhat. I've found over umpteen builds and trials since issue 5 that while the set isn't what it once was it's still a potent tanker.

One thing I'll disagree with you on is the elemental/energy passive resists... I've tried both with the passives and with Aid Self... Aid Self offers CONSIDERABLY more damage mitigation, and with the correct slotting it's a reliable combat heal. I can routinely get it to fire between ticks of DOT with 2 interrupt IO's; the 40% heal every 20 seconds or 15 with a recharge helps more than another 12% resist.

RPD however does offer some benefit since it has more resist it can add to on top of TI & Unyielding. It's still an optional power in my opinion, but it's more useful than REn or REl. Hmm, reading over that I see that it's a bit unclear... I meant that while RPD has the same resist % as the other passives you already have significant S/L resists from TI & Uny, so going from ~60% to ~70% does you more good than going from ~15% to ~28% for the Energy/Elemental resists. Did I make that about as clear as mud?

I'd say that Invince should be a critical, take at level 18 power; it's one of the 4 absolute "MUST HAVE ASAP" powers in the set along with TI, Uny & Dull Pain. (I could see a small delay on Dull Pain, but it should absolutely be there before 20.) I think we agree there for the most part, I'd just place a bit more priority on Invinc.

On the Stone Melee side, you pretty much read my mind on my own opinions of the set , so I'll agree with your thoughts. I'll especially agree with the opinion of Buildup; it's nice on some AT's but a tanker always has another power that's more useful and rarely has enough latitude in the build for BU.

Hasten's nice to have, and indeed I used to have it on my Inv/Stone... unfortunately it was a victim of a tightening build to compensate for the losses of issue 5 & 6. It's a power I wish I had room for; unfortunately there's no room in the inn anymore .

Like you I used to avoid the Fighting pool. Recently however I've experimented with adding it back in to cap out my S/L resistance and I've noticed a dramatic improvement in overall survivability in very tough situations... primarily the STF. It makes the difference between surviving Lord Recluse with Unstoppable until the red tower goes down and surviving without Unstoppable. For 95% of the tanking you'll do Tough's not needed, but it's handy for the extreme cases where the fight will outlast Unstoppable's duration.

Over my career with CMA I've had all 4 travel powers on him at various times; my favorite was Super Jump. I've ended up with Fly at this time, mostly a holdover from the old-school Hamidon Raid days. In any case, this isn't a deal breaker no matter what travel you choose.

All in all, a real good guide, and one I've frequently thought about writing myself. Well done.

Indeed, building a character used to be easy, slot for acc/dam/end, slot armors appropriately and you were good go go. Now it's "THIS set gives me x% bonus to this, but THAT set gives x% on something else... and the other set has a great bonus at 5 slots..."

The big difference in the CI vs Stupefy would be damage, you'd put out double the damage from those attacks slotted with CI, trading 0.75% health and 1.25% recharge for a 7% accuracy bonus. The unfortunate loss is the 2.5% recovery... /EM's a bit end heavy as I've discovered.

I'll agree that Minerals can be argued either way, I've tanked everything in the game with CMA who has zero Psi resist and -5% defense to it so you can do without. Let's see, you've got a few Psi clock missions, the Mother Mayhem, Maliese and a couple of other psi baddies... other than that you don't find that much of it around. That said I do like having it available, if for no other reason than as a mule for 2 LotG's and the 10% regen or 2 Gift of the Ancients and 2% recovery.

Rock armor on the other hand I use a lot, nearly 100% of the time solo and about 50% on a small team. If I don't need the full Granite level defenses I'd prefer not to have the -recharge/-damage hit.

Here's my current build with BlarneyStone for comparison. I'm still buying IO's, but most of the sets are in place now:


<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy &amp; Paste this data chunk into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MHDz;4127;1045;1396;|
&gt;-KE5TMOXS80O@?(?]"I/119BP^]T--NO=L$118+VVB!W@29MH6U)8.BB@8@]-L[I"22MJFL?"Z&lt;2(/
AQ^&amp;\.7IFO%[F(O^3\::LJU_1!_KX\.F8\XJ]K45=L15KSJR07W/1\OPH-WGUG?''![T6?.2GFLO/%&gt;
/[M^"5'1F3+]6!&lt;58)^:44%6L:N0'VN&gt;8B%R!?KL^,;&gt;678[D_"+,Q;P3C;X\/2(;#C\C?RYT(ZET@#
G!,590@LNF6;-?1#L&lt;4GJ0C&amp;2"G&lt;(O/U7:U_5?#PQ&amp;.Y1]E&lt;V*BV]3/I?A%+49$+V)G\7(WS48`I7#&gt;
TZAD_^X^%D6'X0P-HIEF#ACUQ)+*95V(**-M\%?=5MNF&gt;V;Y4&lt;%)-&amp;Y"7HQ5@A`T0OWB%JOBL-=`\@-
@+]/BZ8C'^&amp;:#`&lt;4.R)A'0&amp;TL(_D;;YM#6&gt;V#E],Y+X3RR&ampYVEOM41B.^\D4&amp;@"9.26^05W(RY(YP-
%$%!K?I5[X@,O2:=AHT@C-C)-1[P_UBL`Z%?!NU5:0$M1$-[IEH=#+,[(2^*=*ELX5W-D()!X&gt;PGZF$
9?I&lt;$5R792\+HKZYR98,OY/V1Q&lt;#R!LXI1-06U0D7$"HCZT#2Q"Z8^A1@&lt;3+12_(]91!&amp;-G1S?PP1.F
$E#JU"22M"_&lt;ETKT0&amp;S2"2$'2'0`D-R4)Q;\%*PA$1BTJJH\MT?=R[I5I32.;.W#GFFT43C"T;5FZDB
D\D?%S!/*R-$K`32!7[=BQ:&amp;W@%I3$_F-\1TK1/`WY"_CW29O*S%Z-\8&amp;B=-IY**W+,:F.9!P`CT`C:
HD=BS*M*)8!^6UWBJ;;*PR+QN'4VPC%J.AMZX%R[&lt;[N#R";[P6H)L."FN6^6D!/5RW]\1T;^P$%ZO&gt;1
&gt;'WVAY%&amp;:P%+[^SBXRU)Y-+T%416'_26]R8TXB^A[IJ5\BD(XZ]^KG'QTZ`K(,B*'6D.Y$G17`TP8\G
^$[U8)5\RG-WM5W8==&lt;=D&lt;VZ)"B&gt;&gt;TMXD-,-W;G@L+I@=$?OYQ65D:9T8=''ACAXV&lt;2Y-]4KA1"!+JJ
IM:=^CAI25V7M8"5X`L!^F#.A9-B@=&lt;RU%.!1AWW7F/0._G+\`K,4\U.[VRES0Z^Y%#(FN7=.N#/%2#
0K9SRPB9R90-[,"B2&gt;GUMC;]1&gt;4964WNN5Y$ZOI/.\DL[VRLP):KJ$/5[);.&gt;BH9Y]YJ8?O7/\AVG-F
Z[4N1HHT&lt;/71/.D$_&lt;N?!I,\:WD6)L&amp;#&gtK6QP9``;-D%JRL%11_=_`[#\DU+/KPNY)Q3?LD/W4Z-?Q
.^OJ-B#7ZU?RDXL3GY!'C?\)4WD#TN6I;]2(1%"L*=9#8&gt;R0L261(:/4&lt;D/+S2P76W+$FF_%00\81!%
)U%%$`Y/4DIDAT]"2R)+8DL225E@:6=+*36-+TH%\?/@/)JV%SP``
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
</pre><hr />

Stupefy in Barrage/EP? That seems like an unusual choice to me anyway, wouldn't it work better to slot in a Crushing Impact set there?

I do question the lack of Rock armor though, I find that nearly all the time on a small team and even about 1/3 of the time on a full team that Rock/Rooted/Stone skin is enough protection and I don't have to deal with Granite's recharge &amp; damage penalty. If I'm facing some of the Psi enemies in the late game like the Clocks or Mother Mayhem's brood I want Mineral armor.

I've found that all of the dull pain analogues such as Earth's Embrace seem to work best with the Doctored Wounds set; if you slot 45+ set IO's you can ED cap heal &amp; recharge in 5 slots. I do fully understand the overload of HO's though, so far I've respec'd CMA 3 times changing from a full HO build to a mixed IO/HO build; I've still got 20 of them on him though. I pulled off 3 Ribos and that paid for the entire set IO build I've currently got.

All in all it's interesting to study someone else's take on a particular combo, my Stone/EM is currently sitting at 47; I'd thought to take her to 50 by now but alts just keep calling

[ QUOTE ]
&lt;qr&gt;

In case you got this far (or only found this through the Dev Tracker)...

Visual Sounds are NOT going into the game. We are NOT deleting all your sounds off your hard drive. This was NCNorCal's internet prank for April 1st, 2008.

[/ QUOTE ]

And when are the Martian's landing, Mr. Wells?

Gak, just realized I'm dating myself there

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I wonder if, if you take out the generators and then spam holds on the Hydra head, and keep it held, if it will prevent the shield from coming back up again when the generators revive?

[/ QUOTE ]

Does anyone know?

[/ QUOTE ]

Doesn't work anymore, and hasn't since issue 4.

True, sometime I need to find the time to update this guide with the changes that issue 10 brought; the primary change being that the "pull to the boat" strategy for LR no longer works... you can get him there but his buffs don't drop so it's pointless.

Now that you HAVE to drop the towers, I need to stress to drop the red tower FIRST!. Thanks to Angry Citizen's research we now know what the towers do, and that's a 105% damage buff and a huge tohit buff as well. While that tower's up LR hits for double damage and he's nearly auto-hit... defense is nearly worthless against him.

One minor point, ID lasts 60 seconds, not 20 seconds. Other than that a very detailed and in-depth guide. Nice work there!

*edit*
And in dealing with Ghost Widow's godawful hold it's relatively easy for a kin to keep 8+ ID's stacked on the tanker and still have time to take care of other chores. I've found that if you do nothing else you can keep 15 ID's on someone... and a Stone tanker running Granite + Rooted will need 6 ID's to prevent the hold from landing, any other tank needs 7. 8 just gives you a bit of leeway and some margin for one buff expiring.

[ QUOTE ]
1) Does the old strategy of pulling Recluse to the ship so that his buffs dont have any effect still work? As in, did they change that in a patch or is that still a real strategy.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, you can still get him to the ship if you know how, but the buffs don't drop anymore... so it's pointless. This was changed with issue 10.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Also, SS can one shot hold a boss, and be perma if slotted that way.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think you meant SM there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Probably meant Seismic Smash.

*edit*
I type too slow

What I'm hearing here is a lot of "more!" from greedy children. They've heard what the policy is, and they've heard why it's that way but it's not enough. Hmm, I wonder just how many names the dev's are freeing up with the under-6 cutoff of inactive accounts vs how many would be freed by upping it to 20? I wouldn't be at all surprised if 90% of those names are &lt;6. Obviously we don't have hard numbers, but my own account has 50+ alts scattered on servers I don't play on much, and 24 on the two I do play on. Of those scattered 50+ alts, only 5 of them are level 7 or more, yet on my 2 home servers I play regularly and currently have 5 level 50's, 3 in the 40's, 10+ in the 20's and a few lowbies. And I've been here for 2 1/2 years. So out of roughly 75 total characters only 30 of them are over level 6.

This new policy isn't a "I want 'x' name!!!! Gimmie!!!". It's a reasonable balance that affects the least people while giving the greatest return. Now, last I looked that was the most effective way to make a decision. I'd bet that by far the largest group of characters in the game are level 6 or less, and as has been said it's trivial to level one to 7 so it causes the least infringement on former customers while giving current customers a HUGE number of freed up names. And now you're arguing that it's not enough? That you must have everything, and RIGHT NOW?

No, you can't have that 10th helping of ice cream.

&lt;QR&gt;
Just a small example; I've been playing for 2 1/2 years now and I do have my share of high level characters... however they're entirely focused on two servers. A while back I checked out what was floating around on the other 9 servers, and found that while I maybe only played the 24 on Pin &amp; Guardian I had another 45 alts spread around... all of them under level 8, most of them level 2-3.

So if a very active player still has 40-some characters under the cutoff; I'd bet that the vast majority of character names belong to level 10 &amp; under.

Someone joins the game, rolls up a character and plays a bit, then decides to roll another AT, then another... before too long they've got a full server of &gt;10 alts and maybe one in the teens or beyond.

And, unfortunately Issue 10 did change that part. The tower buffs now do reach the boat so you've got no choice but to take out the towers. That was an unfortunate surprise last night when we ran our first post-I-10 STF; pulling LR still works just fine, unfortunately his mega-def and the constant ~3k heal make that strategy unworkable now.

We found it worked well to have the tank pull LR into a corner behind the red tower while the team took it down, the tank will need heal support until the red tower falls. After that, the team takes the towers down in turn while the tanker holds LR's attention. The tanker will need far less heal support once the red tower's down; LR's damage is a fraction of what it was with the tower up.

Taking down the towers isn't hard; it just adds time and nuisance to the STF. Of course we wasted some time figuring out that the old method didn't work anymore but we still brought it in under 2 hours even with the confusion.

[ QUOTE ]
Shivan and Nuke rewards were balanced around gankers. Think of it this way... if all the PvP'ers move to one server, there are 7 others were you can pretty much farm them uninterrupted without any risk whatsoever.

[/ QUOTE ]

So once again, if one of my home servers is selected I have to move away to escape something that pretty much does not exist as of now. I really fail to see how this benefits the vast majority of the players who have either limited or no interest in PvP.

Lots of us deliberately chose servers with little or no PvP and low populations for a reason. We have no desire to see our home become another Freedom.