New Dawn

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Depends on the group that I'm playing with. As a whole, I generally don't herd with my tank, since the people I play with want to be in the action more, or slightly impatient. Sure, if they ask me to herd, I will, but if not, then I'll usually jump into a group with taunt aura up, use footstomp to grab everyone's attention, and then everyone jumps in after me. After that, we immediately move onto the next mob, and so on...

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Thats pretty much how i levelled shannon but with must do herding away from ambush points. Now with over 1100 hours of being her i am either gonna play shannon as i want to or i dont play her seeing as i dont have to play her at all. With my new tanks i think the journey is important, i am in no rush to level, if i think the team dynamics are bad or i just dont enjoy it ill go play another toon. At the end of the day people play with eachother either because of the social side, good team dynamics, anarchy or whatever they decide as fun. Some people appreciate me getting all the aggro, i dont mind leaving a couple of strays as its not always important, i do believe in herd fast strategies and using taunt is sometimes a faster method than running in but if i am not first in or doing the tanking then i am not in the team.

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It's not unheard of to pull aggro from a poor-aggro-holding tank by doing consistently high damage on a scrapper or blaster.

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If the foe is no longer taunted then you can pull with a low damage attack or if the foe has a low amount of taunt duration from the tank left then your taunt aura if ya have one.

But the scrapper taunt is better than the tankers aura and can be better than a tankers taunt (depends on tanks slots and scrappers slots).

So the taunt can be used to pull whatever would stand a chance of dropping the tank but not your scrapper and that means that often when the tanker would go down he wont go down and some team members wont go down afterwards. Bear in mind most foes should be attacking the tank to make the tank being dropped by a certain type of boss even easier.

Simple rules for scrappers should be imo to never taunt an AV in melee range or any aoe creating villain whilst standing next to squishies, you might take the aoe but some of the rest of the team could be stunned, held or even defeated (This is why Raziel has in his sig "Shannon: 'As long as ya aint up my butt i am happy'" as i like room to move and space around me when i taunt). The other reason for having scrapper taunt is it can pull a foe of anyone.

The perma dull pain thing (with haste and sb or slightly better ab or am its as near as dammit) is the reason why i like it on an AV but for general missions i have so much faith in the debuffs but of course if people kill the anchor if there is one it could be lights out.

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You musn't have played a scrapper then...

I'm pretty certain when that lunatic managed to get up to 50, then get a kheldian up to 50 (in beta!) that the scrapper took less time ...

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I meant in teams not solo, you can revert to a highly resistant dwarf when necessary to avoid debt plus i was told that kheldian arcs give better xp.

When teamed with rads the debuffs are what i look for, AM isnt always available and when teamed with kins i ask to not get sb'd unless i am gonna deal with an AV. I dont ask for AM or SB in general cos i overshoot my mark.

and incase people dont see it on american forums i quote arcanaville from american forums (whose posts have helped me with my scrappers).

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2. Under "Is MoG any good" I would probably suggest that specific instances where its good are:

a. Severe debuffing situations, especially slows and -regen

Essentially, while MoG is, over the three minute run time, inferior to the rest of the regen set under optimal conditions, it can be stronger than the rest of the regen set when the regen scrapper is debuffed enough to reduce the effectiveness of the regen powers to less than what MoG provides.

b. Very low health, reconstruction and dull pain not available to provide quick heal.

MoG does heal to full in a relatively short period of time, even compared to instant healing, if click heals are unavailable and damage appears to be clearly outracing conventional regeneration. In fact, this is often (but not exclusively) seen in conjunction with a) above.

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I think thats good.

Requiring AM, SB or AB is going towards being 'i am a good tank but only with a certain type of team'. You will NEVER hear me say "we need a kin or a rad would be nice, or if a trick archer comes to team - we need an empath" for me the 'whole' team needs to play to suit the type of defense set there is. I have no intention of relying on certain sets or ignoring someones powerset and the true magic of it as id rather try to raise my game and yeah firetanks with a sonic defender is well nice. The only thing with some defenders is how they slot their defender, the differences are more noticeable if your playing a tanker and i wouldnt make a rad to be a blaster, id make a blaster for that.

If ya did get to or past 10 on both toons pick a toon of which concept you like best and just play it. The disadvantages and advantages of both sets will be coped with, liked or loathed differently by you the player. I personally think the icetank is the easier one to have herding wise but would be more interesting to play versus AVs and stonetanks require a more patient team, less thought against AVs but alot of recharge and taunt in taunt whilst in granite to keep aggro. I dont see haste as a good to have recharge buff for taunt though as its not perma anymore cos what happens if you was relying on it and it runs out?

You can actually get through the game quickest with a kheldian, you have forms to choose from that go from high damage to high resist and a travel power at low level. These things have to be earnt.

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Heya, have recently wondered about making a tanker, as i'm interested in playing a more team-focused character than my scrapper (Kind of built to solo). However, two sets really grab my attention, Ice and Stone. I like the graphics on both, but i can't really decide which i want to play long term. Have tried two low level ones of both. (Both deleted now) and i still can't decide. Any advice?

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Only you can decide, try levelling them both to 10 and then see which one ya want.

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The base duration of taunt in any aura doesnt last to the next taunt pulse.

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Lol, yes it does.

Aura pulses every 1 second.
Aura taunts for about 13 seconds.

That's simple math. If you don't get it, I can't help you.



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No good smirking cos it isnt true. Tell me what was your test method. I can take a good guess.

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I think the damage you do has more to do with that than your aura.

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If you knew anything about brutes and AVs/RSF, you'd know the brute "gauntlet" doesn't work against AVs, only auras do. Try attacking all day on a brute w/o aura, a second brute sitting next to you AFK with his aura will keep the aggro.

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Whoever deals the greatest of damage gets the aggro, it has nothing to do with gauntlet unless its a brutes single target gauntlet or a tanks hit 5 gauntlet then itll stack but not if it misses and not if you are too low on end to keep ya attack rate up and even then due to the rank of the AV of very low duration.

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If you go afk in an AV or GM fight although you maybe spamming taunt and taunt is the only power that you can actually guarantee to keep aggro with then you still arent going to be necessarily doing the team any favours. Should the team move to more dangerous positions then you arent there at the keyboard to redirect fire away from them. The game is maths, there is no divine intervention, what you may do with one team against an AV wont be what you can do with another. In cov there is even less need for a tanker (and so there isnt one) as people are more self sufficient and the amount of buffs and debuffs that come from team can get very high.

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'kay, your comments show you don't play CoV at all so I'll clarify a few things for you.

Brutes are closer to scrapper level defenses than tankers.
Brutes's gauntlet doesn't work against AVs (will be fixed with next patch), aura does, taunt does.
Tank's gauntlet/auras doesn't work against AVs (will be fixed with next patch), taunt does, pool power attacks do.

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I know how gauntlet works, i know how taunt works. I have 4 tanks and 3 brutes. I think your test methods need improving and the fixes wont make taunt any less as good to have as it is.

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COH has one debuff/buff primary AT (defender) + one control/debuffbuff AT (controller). COV has one debuff/buff secondary AT with same or lower values as controllers (corruptors) and one debuff/buff secondary AT with lower values on debuff and same as controllers on buffs (masterminds).

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I have 3 masterminds, 5 controllers, and 4 dominaters and 3 corrupters. I think i know. Your teaching me how to suck on an egg. There are more likely to be more toons with debuff/buffs in a cov team than in a coh team, almost the world and his mother levelled a mastermind first.

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I don't have taunt, never will have, and one of my AFKs tanker running only Invincibility/Mud pots could hold aggro of 7 blasters of every kind using any power they can. Got it?

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You do realise that many people would come to read this and see the level of what you think you know. In pvp your gauntlet at best would have a 43.5% chance to hit as a tank and if it were a brutes it'll be a single target and your taunt in your aura will count for nothing.

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The only thing you got partly right is, as you said, the game is math, and the math shows you can perma-taunt an AV with aura only (when Gauntlet works, not atm). So stop trying so hard to spread misinformation.

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You cant perma taunt an AV with the aura. Thats why people arent holding aggro, thats why people want more from gauntlet. Thats why people are saying you need taunt for AVs now. You are being misinforming.

Let me quote Cuppajo from the 30/11/06:

"• Gauntlet and Aura Inherent Taunt Changes:
- All of these powers may now affect Archvillains and Giant Monsters once again. However, they must pass a 'To Hit' check at -20% for the taunt to effect these targets, even for powers such as Invincibility which are normally 'Always Hit' "

-20% isnt exactly hot is it, its not autohit, and these to effect require endurance, auras less so but even so the duration of the aura taunt isnt long, which is why people will manage to pull from tankers and if you note the "once again" thisll tell you that for a while now there hasnt been a anywhere near desireable effect on GMs and AVs until lately on test. Even level foes have escaped auras before the next taunt pulse, the closer to the outskirt of the aura the more able a foe is able to escape and can still happen but any damage component helps against this.
I did tests using an invincible tanker and my trick archers snapshot, i could tell his aura wasnt slotted for taunt when i pulled, but anyway invincibility at that time was looking at the wrong table. I had accepted that because other auras debuffed and/or did damage that especially in the damage scenario the damage stacked with taunt for better effect as it would do. No aura autohits for damage so taunt stacking with damage is unguaranteeable and the higher the rank or level you face the lower the duration you are going to achieve.

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Tell that to my brute who perma-taunts 8 lvl 54 AVs with her aura alone.

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I think the damage you do has more to do with that than your aura.

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Aura pulses every second and taunts for 13s or so base, there's no way you'll need taunt for AVs

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It all depends on team make up and level of AV.

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(when gauntlet will be fixed) unless you're not slotting for ACC, or you're afk (actually I had to go AFK in some AV fights, and never lost aggro, so I mean this as a "AFK at the mish ent"), or fighting a +7 AV, or something.

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If you go afk in an AV or GM fight although you maybe spamming taunt and taunt is the only power that you can actually guarantee to keep aggro with then you still arent going to be necessarily doing the team any favours. Should the team move to more dangerous positions then you arent there at the keyboard to redirect fire away from them. The game is maths, there is no divine intervention, what you may do with one team against an AV wont be what you can do with another. In cov there is even less need for a tanker (and so there isnt one) as people are more self sufficient and the amount of buffs and debuffs that come from team can get very high.

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Aura pulses every second and taunts for 13s or so base

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The base duration of taunt in any aura doesnt last to the next taunt pulse.

With enough -acc and -dam in an area you can have as many lvl 54AVs as you like, survivability is more to do with the team support than your brute.

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is it just me who finds maximillion an insufferable, opinionated [censored]?

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You cant say that! hes in the forum cartel now

i do find any posts mentioning exactly what other people have already said in the same section annoying as well as replies that are just /em agreed, seconded, thirded and qft.

I overshoot targets too. It would be nice if we could slot slows in the sprints to produce a jog. We have a selection of sprints now. 1 could be for speed, 1 for end conservation and some speed and 1 to slow ourselves down.

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I don't think a scrapper should ever be able to grab aggro from tankers taunt powers, but this calls for little experimentation..

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not from the tanks secondary taunt but from the aura i think scrappers should with their taunt and as it is they can. A tanks secondary taunt would have to be well slotted against a scrappers. All my scrappers take the taunt as i find it very useful but id rather a scrapper with taunt that knows when and when not to use it than one that doesnt. In the wrong hands it could even cause a teamwipe.

speed boost? how does that effect how he cant get them back? id get them back in no time my taunt would just spam away even quicker than it does.

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** Goes off to find an AOE-knockback blaster and respec Mael back into 'Energy Torrent' and 'Lotus Drops' **

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yep remove villains from the aura and they become untaunted and if its an invuln tank possibly get the tank killed due to lowering their defense.

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Generally it's down to a Tank not having (+ using) taunt and at the same time not running an Autohit taunt aura. No, I don't care if you have it six-slotted for acc and taunt duration, Blazing Aura doesn't count...

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Doesnt always count which is why i think BA needs a buff. The idea of a tank saying "if ya wanna get to my friends then ya gonna have to come thru me" can end up with a reply of "no problem" with some villains making the tank almost utterly worthless without taunt.

If ya coped with superstrength which is late on getting its build up (rage) and its pbaoe(footstomp at 38) you should be more than fine with mace in terms of damage and mace is better for cone and aoe attacks. What mace lacks in damage compared to axe it makes up for in survivability.

People actually avoid this game due to the type of players playing it.

I'd of left the team.

The secondary power taunt always rules when it comes to AVs, they arent making gauntlet autohit and of good duration and even if they did, the secondary taunt would still rule for the flexibility of directing aoes away from team when needed and preventing some of the pbaoes from happening. I dont find team wipes an acceptable part of tanking and i dont find needing certain powersets of certain ATs a good thing.

Stacked aoes by the team on tightly packed mobs saves on endurance, increases team survivability and lowers fight duration but i aim to play a bodyguard not a sheepdog so most often i dont run off for the next herd whilst people are still fighting.

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people dont understand the phrase "Herding to here stay put and dont attack till i say Ready!" then i get annoyed.

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Your being ignored as a player and as an AT that tries to consolidate taunt control but I also see tankers do it all the time to other powersets.

Title Topic:

"Disappointed in the Union Community"

Met them all have we?

I personally after only having high level toons on union have struggled with 'my' level of patience on PuG groups on defiant. In the time that i have levelled on union, i have learnt alot and perhaps my expectations/memories are different/jaded now. I have forgotten what things were like on Union, knowing less in my early levels made things seem better and so i have to look at both Union and Defiant and say perhaps they are as bad as eachother. After all alot of the players are probably in fact the same "i have a 50" people who still start fighting without really knowing what the other players in the team actually are, how they work, or how even their own toons work or the best way to even integrate.

1. Time bomb looks really awful. Is it?

Not to me it aint when soloing, its about timing and you can stack it with mines or with a mine. In teams its often pointless as people who lack knowledge, skill, interest or experience with the set arent gonna be too good at helping to make it viable.

2. Is the snipe really worth it with no build up / aim, and a fairly long range base attack (it does look cool, i know)

The only thing bad about snipe is the interrupt time allowance and action time. Its a penalty but in all other ways its good.

3. Ignite and caltrops? workable? do you need caltrops (a power i dont generally like) for ignite to be valid (im looking at those AVs)

I found ignite fiddly to work with at the speed id like to work with it at, id much rather target a foe and then for it to autotarget the ground beneath the foe for speed. Something like that could be done for tp too so you could tp to target "whack!" tp to another target "whack!" just like nightcrawler from marvel comics.

4. What travel power? Choice between Jump, Fly, and Teleport. Any Ideas?

kbs lower ya dps and arent fun so hover or acrobatics are good however cloak and ss is great if ya going down the tripmine and or timebomb paths. Fly if ya want but for PVE ive never had too. SJ and SS have been great for me.

When we can start making my own hami type enhancements from salvage this is one combination of powersets i think is worth getting excited about as its bye bye fitness pool.

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On another note, as a brute you should slot your armors first, then your attacks, they're what will keep you alive.

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I am in fact the complete opposite of that, but thats cos i have dark regeneration and before dark regeneration i wasnt trying my luck versus 6-9 most of the time but now its a case of do unto them before they do unto you. I still got 1 slotted armours and even now its end slotted i just have to fight efficiently, getting my fury high fast, and postioning to make shadow maul hit as many as poss whilst my death shroud is working on the others.

i am tempted now to try out slotting armours more instead of attacks on test and seeing how it is.

I think thats fair, spines isnt lacking really is it especially as a scrapper, it has tools, it has great dps in terms of multiple targets potentially, arguably and for many in practise better than claws due to dam over area, there being less res to toxic and additional survivability from -rechg secondary effect (-dps of foes).

i lvlled mine together at the start so made mistakes on 4 out of 5 toons which is still good really .

i stuck acrobatics on my scrapper at 20 who had practised brawler because i thought she sould flip around.

i had flurry on my blaster because haste never sounded appealing as i wanted an attack before ss.

My tanker Shannon was unbelieveably gimped at the start as i didnt know you could stack enhancements and ended up having 4 slots on the rest power cos i didnt know where else to put them (in those days base rates were higher tho ).

As my defender i didnt know why my heals were weaker than other peoples but my controller was surprisingly good, very good imo but in low levels slotting 1 slot of each enhancement does wonders anyway for a controller.