ClawsandEffect

Beam/Rad Corruptor.

Putting toggles on things doesn't make you put your gun away.

Dear Devs,

Could you please just go ahead and make Tankers brokenly overpowered so Johnny will shut the hell up about it?

Thanks,
Claws.

*shrug*

I've been happy with my DA/Staff tank so far.

Only level 18 currently, but it's performing about how I expected. Enough damage to kill things in a reasonable time frame (meaning I'm not expecting to clear maps in 2 minutes), and it gives me enough extra survivability I'm not feeling much pain from playing a low level DA.

Once I hit 20 my end problems will largely disappear as well.

I'm chalking this up to people not knowing how a set works best yet and knee-jerking all over the place. I recall a lot of threads saying how bad Titan Weapons was in the first week or so too, and now it's being hailed as the best thing since sliced Super Strength.

And more on topic:

After having played Staff Fighting for a little while, I haven't found it especially weak. I'm defeating things in a reasonable time span, and te defense boost from Guarded Spin helps a bit with my survivability.

I'm playing it on a DA/Staff Tanker, and I've set my difficulty to x4 at level 17 while soloing, and doing just fine with it. I have only done that one time before and done just as well, with a Claws/Fire brute. My personal experience here is telling me that Staff Fighting isn't as underpowered as some people are claiming.

Maybe it lags behind a bit in ST DPS in the late game, but its AoE output is enough to make up for that in my opinion.

Comparing a set to sets that are brokenly overpowered and saying they suck when they don't perform the same isn't a good metric of how good a set is.

Some sets do perform better, I'm not arguing that point. But what's being ignored is that Staff Fighting can do things those other sets can't. It's the only set I know of that alleviates endurance problems for sets like Dark Armor using only SOs. It's also the only set in existence that can increase your damage resistance as well as defense (which you can do consistently with enough recharge).

Using just SOs, Staff Fighting doesn't need to slot any end reduction in its powers at all, something only certain combinations can say (Regen and Willpower coming to mind with other sets). It doesn't matter what you pair it with in Staff Fighting's case. Since you don't have to slot for end reduction, you can slot another recharge reduction in your powers instead, which will increase your recharge in those powers more than Form of the Mind will. And since you're attacking faster, you should be dealing more damage in the long run than Form of the Body's damage buff will achieve.

Slotted with just SOs (which, believe it or not, the game is still balanced around), Staff Fighting's utility powers actually DO make up for dealing less damage than the best performing sets. Saying it sucks at the absolute bleeding edge of performance isn't accurately representing the majority of the people's experience playing it, because 90% of the people playing it are not going to reach that level of performance in the first place.

More to the point, I didn't respond to your bating (which you seem to be a master at) before for a couple reasons:

1) I don't really care if you believe me.

2) I have better things to do with my time than argue with an internet bully.

You've earned a spot on my ignore list right next to Fire Minded and City Life, which should give anyone who remembers them a good idea how worthless I consider your opinion.

Have a nice day.

Slot Soul Transfer for as much recharge as youi can squeeze into it.

If you build a Dark Armor character that completely ignores any and all defense slotting, you'll need it back up as fast as possible.

I speak from experience here. I have a BS/DA scrapper that was almost deleted dozens of time before I figured out a good build that adds defense. If you are taking 50% of the hits that come your way while main tanking any mission in the game, you are going to eat floor. A LOT.

That's why Dark Armor and Fiery Aura have self-rezzes as their tier 9.

For the record, I too am leveling a DA/Staff tank. Maybe once our builds are finished we can hold a contest to see whose build tanks better. I'll have just as much resistance as you, and I'll have better defense (once I figure out a build, at least). It's not hard at all to build a DA tank for defense without gimping other areas.

Dump TP Foe, for starters.

Pick up Spin at 6. Dull Pain at 10. Focus at 18. Resilience at 20. Hasten at 22. (You can take Hasten earlier if you want, but I wouldn't take it later than 24, my build has it very late, but I never exemp with it so it's fine for me)

Work the Fighting pool in somewhere. Pick up Eviscerate and maybe Shockwave. Take MoG at 38.

It's pretty difficult to screw up a Claws/Regen to the point of unplayability, but if you follow that general guideline you'll be in good shape.

Sounds like the Control option that lets you mimic Scourge will be the best bet if you want to increase damage.

Scourge technically being a critical hit will allow you to deal damage over the damage cap, because all the critical hit type mechanics in the game will deal above damage cap damage when they land.

Gonna try it with SR I think.

Don't really care if it's not the new SS/Fire. Dealing stupid amounts of damage with brokenly overpowered combinations isn't why I play the game.

The BotZ sets still work, they just don't give as much enhancement as they used to. My BS/DA still runs 2 full sets, since I need the KB protection anyway it was worth it to me.

Desktop for hardcore gaming.

More room to upgrade, and you have more options to do so for most models.

If you travel a lot, a laptop might be a better plan if you want to game from anywhere.

My concepts usually include the powers found in a given power set. If they didn't, I probably would have chosen a different set.