New Dawn

The taunt in your aura lasts say just under 2 seconds, but anyway 1 taunt duration in your aura should tick the taunt to 2 seconds which is about the duration of time the aura sends a pulse out so it covers nice. If your hitting something in melee range and you have a taunt aura you dont need a taunt as your aura does the taunting anyway and guantlet becomes a nothing thing. So taunt in melee attacks is a bit of a why bother thing.

No less than 2 recharge slots to spam it in different directions if necessary.

The higher the villain you face the lesser the taunt duration so the more taunt duration you have the better too. The more taunt duration you have the less likely that +3 AV will suddenly turn on the team so I personally suggest at least 2 taunt slots.

I also stick one range slot in mine because it betters your chances at keeping an AV/GM kited. If you taunt an AV/GM from afar you wont have the AV using their short-range cone/aoe attacks causing a possible half/total team wipe. AV's and GM'S ranged attacks are far less damaging. I'll take Battle Maiden's crossbow over her broadsword any day. By keeping any AV/GM kited and taunted your making them forever using a weaker long ranged attack and only attacking the tanker. This leaves only the tanker at risk and therefore the only one the healer has to heal and with the amount of healthpoints a tanker has thats easy!. But you must not have a scrapper taunting in melee range or another tanker hitting the AV/GM in melee range in order to keep the other members of the team from being hit. Also like that an empath defender should easily outgun AV's the tanks have no resists too.

So my advice is 2 recharge (1 more on a stonetanker), 2 taunt minimum and 1 range. I wouldn't want my taunt anyother way.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
01) --> Strike==> Acc(1) EndRdx(7) Dmg(9) Dmg(13) Dmg(15)
02) --> Slash==> Acc(2) EndRdx(7) Dmg(9) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) DefDeBuf(46)
18) --> Focus==> Acc(18) EndRdx(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(21) Dmg(21) Rechg(31)
26) --> Eviscerate==> Acc(26) Acc(27) EndRdx(27) Dmg(29) Dmg(29) Dmg(31)
32) --> Shockwave==> Acc(32) EndRdx(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(34) Rechg(40


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How do I hit Stalkers(Ninjitsu/Energy Aura/SR) if I allready miss sometimes with 2 ACC in Focus now???
(I PvP alot and most Stalkers dont have Stealth so I can see them with Focused Senses but if they have nice defense I cant hit them out of Hide. Focus is a great power to hit them out of Hide because it is ranged and Eviscerate has a long animation so more chance for them to AS me.)


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mate its a final lvl 50 build, you may of needed to have an extra accuracy slots pre follow up but once you get follow up you remove an accuracy slot for damage and its a guide too so tweak it to suit your needs. Take out the recharge on focus and add an accuracy. I have 2 accuracies in my prize attacks which are the most damaging, most end sapping but i find them still the most likely to miss too.

The changes I think are with the action time and end reduction of certain powers. Claws is meant to have lower end cost and fast recharge (hence late quickness is reasonably fine) to make it stand out from the other sets. The action time of some attacks made the point of having a fast recharge in other powers pointless, and some of the powers endurance costs was not as low as it should be compared to other scrapper sets. In making the changes to tweak claws right the damage per second capability has improved and is supposed be higher than other scrapper sets. I personally wonder if the possible damage output of shockwave is included because that can hit like 10 foes pretty damn good so by adding all their damage taken up you have great dps. In pvp though a bunch of people standing together for their picture taken is a bit of wishful thinking for claws so i hope that the multihits arent too seriously taken into account.

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Only 1 end reduc in the toggles?! Are those end reducs in the attacks really helping alot than?

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Your base end recovery should be enough to cope with the toggles unslotted for endurance. The EPS of the toggles is phenomenally low in comparison to the EPS of your attacks hence your end drops whilst your fighting and not before. I know regens fighting to keep their endurance up against my toon.

Standing out like a sore thumb as a defender can soon equal dead defender. I have stealth and superspeed as i am no good dead, hovering painfully slowly around a tanker or a scrapper getting aoe'd aint my style either. Those situations are wholly unnecessary. A tanker can herd to offer range for all of the team and keep all the aggro so that the said tanker is the only one requiring the odd heal but whether team members allow even the inclined tanker to achieve that is another matter.
What i am saying is with decent teaming i dont need to be endangered or even get knocked back, held, mezzed etc as things can be made safe rather than run in mash mash mash and fighting on the ever so dumb artificial intelligences terms. (Thats those times where everyones healthbars are traffic lights).

I personally would like to give up the teleport pool for leaderships pve because a) a team should stick together and i shouldnt have to tp myself to get to hard to reach places fast and b) the recall friend bit was taken for any of the scranking, blanking or blapping noobs in the pick up teams i was in.

Having said that though its great in the pvp zones. Fitness to take the following: tp pool (for escape artism), haste and ss (for recharge and mobility) and stealth (to keep myself from being instantly "the most wanted"). People do spread out in the pvp zones, it maybe that you cant stand still for a second so i'd imagine leadership pool the least a teams needs plus i dont see why my buffs arent giving more than enough to the team to cope without leaderships. I'd settle for the flyby, in out buffing of a defender.

This post is entitled "how to make a good all round healer" imho its not, to me slots have been wasted on absorb pain one heal enhancement easily is enough, the clearmind taken at 24 is just damn late, fort at 30 is late, stealth and ss are nice but dont outweigh the buffs or good strategy. Fort is so i have been informed better 3 recharge 3 defence slots as the tohit buffs make little difference and by the time you have taken it people should have woken up to accuracy slotting anyway. Sorry if i sound belligerent but I am not happy with the post title, if it said "Neo Kash empathy/radiation defender build" i'd of been ok.

My blaster followed these rules when teaming because i have tank:

1) teaming with a tank pre aura:

hit what tank hits

2) teaming with tank with aura:

hit what is hitting tank in melee range

3) teaming with tanker who has taunt aswell:

hit what is actually hitting tank but go mad with everything you got

4) teaming with a tanker who doesnt save you with taunt:

forget i even mentioned 3 till you get a better tank.

5) teaming with a tanker who is pulling to a herd point:

stand well back as the untaunted chasing the taunted never saw the tank and are looking for fresh aggro.

6) dont stand too close to or pass the tanker.

Well after trying to read the bright yellow text "omg!" i decided it maybe better to reconstruct your build (in a how i would slot in a workable way). My claws scrapper is Katalina and her endurance bar basically "ever so slowly moves" unless i have of course left superjump on. endurance wise I am ok there, well happy. It looks to me as though you are spending more endurance slots on the toggles to drop your endurance use per second rather than have them in your attacks. Firstly claws aint a fast 1 on 1 finisher, so attack chains can be drawn out and each attack has a much higher endurance cost rate per second than what your toggles have (endurance cost per attack divided by the action time of the attack). Whilst an attack is recharging you are using another attack so the beat goes on. I dont personally look at any armour set and go "oh thats end draining" I look at my attacks for that.
Also accuracy mucho mucho overkill, how much do you need? On Shannon (my tank) her accuracy can be through the roof no tohits in invincible (cos its poor return) but has accuracy slotted, focused accuracy for the times she its a risk to use rage and rage obviously for the lets get this AV down quick moments or basically when that sapper must not be missed. But on claws I do feel it is an inaccurate set quite frankly but not that inaccurate to the point you need so much accuracy in game. When it comes to acc debuffs your most likely going to be missed although not always. I feel follow up is great early levels (when you lack damage slots especially) and maybe once you have all the damage slots you need respec it out for focused accuracy so you have more freedom of movement with less worries about missing (and i worry about it as missing is a complete waste of the endurance of the attack and the enemy has an extra turn so to speak). Afaik you get more of an accuracy boost coming from follow up than focused accuracy problem though is landing the follow up in the first place! Having an attack chain so that you use follow up just inside of 12 seconds would be nice but IN REALITY you may not want to use follow up. Below is something I can read with focused senses and agile changed around (makes more sense to me). I have also slotted from my own personal experience, its okay slotting no real end problems but I have had different powers in a different order.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://home.comcast.net/~SherkSilver/index.html)
---------------------------------------------
Name: Lillia Perfecta
Level: 50
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary: Claws
Secondary: Super Reflexes
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Strike==> Acc(1) EndRdx(7) Dmg(9) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Rechg(43)
01) --> Focused Fighting==> DefBuf(1) DefBuf(3) DefBuf(3) EndRdx(43)
02) --> Slash==> Acc(2) EndRdx(7) Dmg(9) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) DefDeBuf(17)
04) --> Focused Senses==> DefBuf(4) DefBuf(5) DefBuf(5) EndRdx(45)
06) --> Agile==> DefBuf(6) DefBuf(40) DefBuf(43)
08) --> Swift==> Run(8)
10) --> Practiced Brawler==> Rechg(10) Rechg(11) EndRdx(11)
12) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Dodge==> DefBuf(16) DefBuf(17) DefBuf(42)
18) --> Focus==> Acc(18) EndRdx(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(21) Dmg(21) Rechg(34)
20) --> Stimulant==> IntRdx(20)
22) --> Aid Self==> IntRdx(22) IntRdx(23) Rechg(23) Heal(25) Heal(25) Heal(37)
24) --> Health==> Heal(24) Heal(37) Heal(37)
26) --> Stamina==> EndMod(26) EndMod(27) EndMod(27)
28) --> Eviscerate==> Acc(28) EndRdx(29) Dmg(29) Dmg(31) Dmg(31) Rechg(31)
30) --> Quickness==> Run(30)
32) --> Follow Up==> Acc(32) Acc(33) EndRdx(33) TH_Buf(33) TH_Buf(34) TH_Buf(34)
35) --> Evasion==> DefBuf(35) DefBuf(36) DefBuf(36) EndRdx(36)
38) --> Elude==> Rechg(38) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) DefBuf(39) DefBuf(40) DefBuf(40)
41) --> Lucky==> DefBuf(41) DefBuf(42) DefBuf(42)
44) --> Hasten==> Rechg(44) Rechg(45) Rechg(45)
47) --> Focused Accuracy==> EndRdx(47) EndRdx(48) EndRdx(48) TH_Buf(48) TH_Buf(50) TH_Buf(50)
49) --> Resuscitate==> EndRdx(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> EndRdx(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Critical Hit==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> IntRdx(2)
---------------------------------------------


Ok thats something i can read better. Why resuscitate someone when you could of taunted their assailant and saved them?

I too would like to know where shockwave is as its sooo much dps. It must be where the set exceeds the other scrapper sets surely. I took combat kick instead of combat jump as its an attack chain filler, has a irresistable knockback pvp (must test on a tanker sometime) and suits my concept.

ok here is my suggestion, its too late in the day for me to pick at every detail myself though:

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://home.comcast.net/~SherkSilver/index.html)
---------------------------------------------
Name: Lillia Perfecta
Level: 50
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary: Claws
Secondary: Super Reflexes
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Strike==> Acc(1) EndRdx(7) Dmg(9) Dmg(13) Dmg(15)
01) --> Focused Fighting==> DefBuf(1) DefBuf(3) DefBuf(3) EndRdx(43)
02) --> Slash==> Acc(2) EndRdx(7) Dmg(9) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) DefDeBuf(46)
04) --> Focused Senses==> DefBuf(4) DefBuf(5) DefBuf(5) EndRdx(43)
06) --> Stimulant==> IntRdx(6) Range(48) EndRdx(48)
08) --> Swift==> Run(8)
10) --> Practiced Brawler==> Rechg(10) Rechg(11) EndRdx(11)
12) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> EndRdx(14)
16) --> Follow Up==> Acc(16) Acc(17) EndRdx(17) TH_Buf(46) TH_Buf(46) TH_Buf(48)
18) --> Focus==> Acc(18) EndRdx(19) Dmg(19) Dmg(21) Dmg(21) Rechg(31)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20) Heal(43) Heal(45)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22) EndMod(23) EndMod(23)
24) --> Aid Self==> IntRdx(24) Rechg(25) Rechg(25) Heal(31) Heal(34) Heal(34)
26) --> Eviscerate==> Acc(26) Acc(27) EndRdx(27) Dmg(29) Dmg(29) Dmg(31)
28) --> Dodge==> DefBuf(28) DefBuf(36) DefBuf(37)
30) --> Agile==> DefBuf(30) DefBuf(37) DefBuf(37)
32) --> Shockwave==> Acc(32) EndRdx(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(34) Rechg(40)
35) --> Evasion==> DefBuf(35) DefBuf(36) DefBuf(36) EndRdx(42)
38) --> Elude==> Rechg(38) Rechg(39) Rechg(39) DefBuf(39) DefBuf(40) DefBuf(40)
41) --> Lucky==> DefBuf(41) DefBuf(42) DefBuf(42)
44) --> Hasten==> Rechg(44) Rechg(45) Rechg(45)
47) --> Quickness==> Run(47)
49) --> Confront==> Taunt(49) Range(50) Rechg(50) Rechg(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> EndRdx(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Critical Hit==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> IntRdx(2)
---------------------------------------------

i played with your build and cheekily snuck in confront and shockwave ftw! slotting wise its not that dissimilar to what i am playing with now.

[ QUOTE ]
Actually, the question of whether a dark melee/dark armour tanker can tank effectively is an interesting one. If you think about it, dark armour has two PAoE powers to "lock down" mobs, (much like the damage/aggro auras all the tank sets have) which have the benefit of reducing enemy attacks (either through disorient or fear) and a single target fear effect to stack and lock down bosses. With their higher brawl index they do damage with Midnight Grasp that i'm sure is in the same ballpark as Knockout Blow, Total Focus, etc. that I think (don't have hero planner to hand!) also holds the target. Plus its armour (whilst not quite to fire tank levels) is still respectible, especially with Tough, and they have very strongs Psi protection to boot. They even have a limited taunt power (which is admittedly not that great in tank terms ). However, if they went to the Presence pool (again I don't have full details here) they could have a click fear AoE lockdown that would hold troublesome mobs who were attacking squishies whilst they went back to dealing with the main group.
They also have a very effective self heal and endurance recovery. And finally soul drain can be a very effective self buff.

Oh no....I can feel another concept build coming on!!!

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Concept build all you like, the Dark Armour scrapper is missing higher resists in everything but psi, couldnt work like a tank as an aggro magnet, doesnt have the healthpoints of a tank but can "help" make up for the lack of a tank in teams combined with other AT's.
Imo if they made a dark armour tanker they would probably have to nerf the dark armour scrapper, i personally feel that the dark armour is strong in some areas compared to other scrappers partially due to there being no dark armour tankers around. People may think they would be a great idea against the likes of Babbage, Mother Mayhem, Countess Crey and Clockwork King but they just need the team to be tactical and co-operative as not one person has to get killed facing them AV's.

[ QUOTE ]
My 50s Time to level:

Raziel DX 672 hours
Raziel D-X 680 hours
Hot Chills 505 hours
Raziel. 960 hours
Raziel-DX 572 hours

Total Time for 50s: 3389 hours

O.o

Proves I spend too much time here.. LoL

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you spend too much time posing in atlas

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I have all of primary pool and I have never considered taking fighting pool and never will. I have always also considered resistance > defense but thats mostly for me tanking so long in the pre-I5 world. I dislike the whole thought that my overall ability to withstand attacks would be somehow connected to the situation im in. I recognize the skill required in such manner of tanking but I still dislike the whole idea. That keeps grating against my common sense. To herd a group of minions to the AV so you could tank AV better.. UGH!

The differences between resistance-school and defense-school arent that great imo. You can be a good tanker with either.

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I agree i dont want more defence from a mob around me attacking an AV when all of the mob have a chance to hit me as well as the AV and i dont think anyone does this, I think it only helps with taking the Alphastrike of a mob and even then there never has to be one through playstyle (flyby taunt anyone?) Well with resistance school you can judge your survivability more precisely in a mob as your health more steadily decreases. The extra 4.33% defense from weave isnt scaleable till i7 so is worthless to me, people can argue but i have had tough and weave on top of the full set of primaries and i am alot happier without. For one I have more endurance and more powers to help kill faster and not so many toggles to care about. With the extra armours you can sit there in mobs longer or with the extra attacks sit in the mobs for less time. The Rel and the Ren are also more pvp friendly imho. PVE wise what my build may lack in defence i can make up for in many otherways as i find the Artificial Intelligence way too predictable.

Never known that before but I have felt like saying for all the reasons space dog has mentioned, you wait and wait and you begin to wonder who the tanker is waiting for, or with tanks i have teamed with as a non tank peoples healthbars are up and down like a yo yo but they have their one "omg threat!" white conned minion to deal with.

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To learn how to politely stop knockback players rescuing defenceless enemies from your icepatches, then faceplanting as they get up and thank him.

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You can never explain to an nrg blaster that his useless nrg torrent, power push or explosive blast will only send the mobs flying and scatter them while aggroed on him.
They'll _always_ fire nrg torrent into your herd, always use explosive blaste when you have a nicely packed mob and always push the EB-/Boss away into another mob with power push/power thrust.
They have those powers and they fire them. Anytime they're up. Slotted for knockback.

I tried everything to make them understand but it's been useless, I tried to be polite, I tried to shout and I tried to show them what I meant..To no avail..

[/ QUOTE ]

Most often i herd to a wall or an inside corner so that my footstomp becomes more knockdown than knockback and i ask people with knockbacks to direct them at the walls, I'd say 50% of the time they start doing this, at lower levels though I swear someone let their six year old on the game.

[ QUOTE ]
if i'm allowed i will go in an do my best to hold the agro

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If I am not allowed to play as i play my tanker i go get my scrapper! and have successfully scranked tyrant, marauder, siege, malaise, mother mayhem all pretty much lvl 52, siege was 51 but is poo anyway with just my claws/super reflex post ED. How? its alot to do with the team.

I get my tank to play as a tank to suit my tanks build. If i dont get to play my way i often: A) leave team, B) go get an alt if i know people on the team, C) on a TF which i cant quit, park myself (I normally always have star).

Anyway that was derailing this thread a bit. My tanking tactics changes with different enemies and different people, you have to work with different AT's to an extent and different people of different experience to an extent so all i can offer are my general playstyle/ingame rules as a tank and some things thrown in. Some i may slack on at times as i sometimes forget ED has happened especially the allowing for an empaths buffs, i do myself prefer proactive buffing.

1) Have no one else pull! unless there is a possibly needed, but easily had, whittle down of numbers on offer but be ready to intercept aggro. Hopefully blaster will run past the outside corner your tank is on.
2) Tell people you prefer to have everything get to your aura before anyone fights no matter what (when i am really impatient people only have to attack pre-emptively ONCE and i am gone <head hits wall>. Its more frustrating from co-level 50's). Its also better for all types of defenders to have me grouphugging the enemy.
3) Try to have all cones etc in your direction only where reasonably possible by being the opposite side of enemy to team and therefore having the enemies backs to the team. You may have to taunt whats just outside of aura.
4) Be aware that people can effectively pass you in tight spot so they can get more aggro than the team needs through unaggroed enemy perception so herd groups away from eachother. (I often simply tell people not to pass me thinking that they wont..doh!)
5) Be facing the team as much as reasonably possible so you can easily see if other people get aggro and taunt.
6) Be ready to taunt in between every attack.
7) Take sappers out for oneself and gain aggro at sametime (at least you know the whole deed is done and fair enough a little bit of scranking is involved).
8) When you find you have Mr Knockback "Energy Blaster of 2006" on the team smacking enemies towards nearby groups watch for those in the other group to stand upright (thats often when they see someone even closer to them than you the tank is) and if so jump in.
9) Always respect the enemy - no showing off, being clever.
10) Be a confident tank, I personally like to be the only tanker as i am not sure about having another tanker in team. In fact i hate it.
11) Always watch healthbars in case someone has got themselves trouble and be ready to click their name and taunt because maybe you cant see them and often the person has targetted the enemy thats attacking them. (On a team without a healer its not good to have a stunned blaster toddling about for 15 secs slowly having their health bar drop whilst your attacking a stupid minion). I personally get very jealous if someone elses healthbar is moving.
12) Spread groups - move to where most enemies are grouped and aggro others through taunt, ranged and/or aoe powers coil up (weave them into you as much as possible).
13) Happily go down for a GOOD team but not for a BAD team where's the justice? (i have done just about every tf, trial, all AV's quite a few times over and over so i can often tell a blatant difference. When I hadnt i couldnt.
14) Dont tank in small rooms (aoes are bad for all) herd out (plus can be graphically blinding- lag).
15) Try not to have a squishie behind you as you taunt (as often cant be helped as they are looking for a stun grenade etc).
16) Offer blasters etc safe range because they will likely move into the best position to maximise their multihit potential (some often wont).
17) Allow space behind an AV so people can attack from there (that way hopefully the cone attacks meant for you doesnt get them too).
18) Try to be the only one the a healer has to heal as much as possible (lots easier that way, its a percentage heal and you can take multiple strikes at once anyway). Not taking the whole spawn for aggro = other people needing healing plus mess plus low DoT, taking all the spawn = just you for healing, no mess and fast multihits ftw. Defenders are more effective too. You know your doing well when people freely give you their insps just incase too.
19) Allow for buffs for the team as its better. Team survival = tanker survival.
20) Dont be ready till the defender says ready. People asking for clearmind cant get any while people are needing to be healed for example. Unforeseen events can happen.
21) Dont type to tell people anything whilst tanking even if its what they should of not done. Eyes down sometimes fails on the aggro keeping.
22) Let noobs die till they learn (as they can often help faceplant whole team if they dont). I have met some people I'd prefer to have laying dead as things are alot better that way for everyone else.
23) Dont let people allow you not to tank your way (my most common mistake levelling up is the teams actions/people seemably in a hurry sometimes dictated to me how i should tank - pressure can lead to mistakes).
24) Mistakes are made learn from them, everyone makes them.
25) Hamidon for debt badges!
26) Check your toggles as you enter the mission as you may not of necessarily forgot to have them on or turned them off yourself, it maybe some kind of bug.
27) Dont run into groups standing on blind corners there maybe a group just around it, dont run straight around blind corners.
28) Dont tank any group between any group vertically or horizontally as you will most often would of effectively herded the team into danger because someone is bound to be seen.
29) Fly-by taunts - taunt just as you hide behind a corner it minimises attacks you may recieve as enemy come to you (maximises chance for teams to rush in before consolidated aggro i know). It can allow time to pick out a sapper if he was blind to you.
30) Never think that your the best, that success was down to you, as the team count for everything. As a blaster or especially as a defender i can make any tanker look seriously bad. Any numb nut can kite an AV the pressure is really on the rest of the team imo.
31) Insult(the egotistical)/advise(the ones you wanna be real good) other tanks for anything so that they may either like/hate you. They may most likely remember what you said about their tanking or about what they did or didnt do alot more and then become better for it and hopefully better than you, or perhaps equally importantly throw stuff back in your face so you may go "well yeah thanks for pointing that out" and get better as a tanker, some people just cant be critical and i do expect criticism.
32) Unstoppable crashing (my personal rules remember) - sometimes it does pay more to leave a team for just ten seconds block yourself have the crash and return than to have some defender try to ressurect you right next to an AV who will kill you again in no time.
32) 90% of the time dont expect to get to tank the way you want to (i do try semi-pick up teams out occasionally) and have scrapper mates that wrecklessly scrank, with them i mostly get my scrapper.

I see the tanker as a bodyguard and bodyguards have to tell their clients whats best for them sometimes and some of the above comes from low level experiences of which i am reminded with my other 3 tanks.

Tanking can sometimes be a thankless and unrespected task mostly to people who you may have slowed the xp rate for or caused boredom from being too careful, but thats because we all play for different reasons and so we should try to be with likeminded people. A mission is always failed in my eyes if someone dies. I am playing a hero, heroes dont shrug of deaths lightly, its my sense of roleplay. I dont play for xp. I'd rather be getting in, achieving objectives and getting out unscathed. We will all be good and bad in different peoples eyes for different reasons and some people will judge people over one thing and hold onto it.

All in all i think i can tank well enough for my 50 scrapper, 48 blaster, 34 controller, 50 defender but i am not playing other peoples toons. The chance for complete safety is often there but alot of people dont take it. Alot of what i learn about tanking comes from playing those other toons and knowing how things can be for them and some of that knowledge has come after my tanker made 50.

You used to be able to taunt whilst phase shifted. I am pretty sure thats what Prize had done for the first hami raid. I like the concept of a hero changing their molecular build from completely hard to something tangible. Room can be found at some expense to have your toon suit this concept however thats something should i of wanted would of found that room at much later levels. People who are permanently in granite can respec out armours i would guess and people who go with less attacks may choose to fast recharge them for a better rate of gauntleting and let other people basically do the damage. If you have rage you can use that as the way you get 3 damage slots. In short you dont have to have a completely written off tank to fit it in.

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry for picking your brains again, but...

If you had to choose one of the following for an L35 AR/Dev power, what would you pick?

- Time Bomb
- Hasten
- Beanbag
- Acrobatics

[/ QUOTE ]

timebomb! i have 3 of the above and if i wanted or needed all of them i would of had them by 35.

all that bright yellow ink...hurts eyes...please change text colour

well those options are on here for anyone being a community forum.

well there was no guide, i didnt read the forums as i just wanted to play and i think there are alot of people like that still around. The base rates of passives were alot more then too anyway.

this is in fact true and i wouldnt give my slotting away for anyone to look at so ill just give you with a power run down at the time

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://home.comcast.net/~SherkSilver/index.html)
---------------------------------------------
Name: Shannon (1st ever build)
Level: 32
Archetype: Tanker
Primary: Invulnerability
Secondary: Super Strength
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Resist Physical Damage==> Empty(1)
01) --> Jab==> Empty(1)
02) --> Punch==> Empty(2)
04) --> Temp Invulnerability==> Empty(4)
06) --> Dull Pain==> Empty(6)
08) --> Resist Elements==> Empty(8)
10) --> Unyielding==> Empty(10)
12) --> Taunt==> Empty(12)
14) --> Resist Energies==> Empty(14)
16) --> Hurdle==> Empty(16)
18) --> Invincibility==> Empty(18)
20) --> Health==> Empty(20)
22) --> Stamina==> Empty(22)
24) --> Haymaker==> Empty(24)
26) --> Tough Hide==> Empty(26)
28) --> Hasten==> Empty(28)
30) --> Super Speed==> Empty(30)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Gauntlet==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------

It wasnt until level lvl 16ish i knew you could stack slots in powers either, she was my first one to get to 50 who i started in march and i was so innocent i had 4 slotted rest 1 interrupt, 1 mod red, 1 rest and 1 recharge i believe.
I was ED ready long ago. In my own 8 man team which i had pretty much everyday from 13 to 38 i tanked how i liked to tank and from 38 i found i was borrowed for AV's alot having very little experience what to expect and on teams that i had no "routine" or familiarity with who looking back at didnt play too well neither. One time running to terra volta for respec took me 2 whole hours lol. it was a four man team too.

well i can talk about tanking in the lower levels with any tank.

Is it the same as before to me pre ED? well yes it is.

Do i see where that guy in america gets his frustrations from? well yes i do.

Does his build make what he says is true? well i can see how it does.

But would i have the same build? no i wont.

do i find tanks important? damn right as it should generally mean less in mission chaos.

my main gripe was not being able to get a sodding travel power till level 30 on my invuln as what i do in the mission was most important.

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And if i drop, and I ALWAYS dropped before anyone else, the team took this as the RUN signal

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sounds alot like my ice tanker atm i dont mind takin one for the team but i aint takin one for a complete noob in the team is my attitude.

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I could pretty consistently manage 100% aggro with my inv/mace using taunt,provoke,whirling mace and invincibility.

Some people found it boring to be honest but I always had a laugh

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laziest moments for me as a defender what i liked most about Mr Cuddles was what i'd like to call his force tanking attitude he'll tell people not to do stuff, to wait in places, to attack at certain times and sit down on his butt unless people complied because he was tanking and he knew how to play his tank. Granted against what any tanker has never experienced its a learning situation.

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Pre-I5, the best tank i came across was myself with Sulphur SL50 Fire/Fire Tanker

Now... I'd have to go with Stone.

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ah ha it was you who didnt show up for the first shard tf on sunday. I wouldnt turn around and say that now i'd have to go with stone as tanking is a matter of playstyle having everyone elses health bar barely moving is what i class as good tanking. The other thing is that no tank needs to be as hard as stone tanks as in most cases the in fight position and the rest of the team counts. 90% of the tanks i could ask would think they are the best tankers around and half of them wont play post ED.

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SHANNON 270 badges approx tanked over 1000 hours (not spent in dreck neither!) and coming up for my 4th 50 so i must know something.

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[color=green] You know how to collect badges?

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damn you figured me out!

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Alright, what type of tanker has worked for you best?

Heh, which one could take the most damage for you?

Best tank you've worked with?

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1st and 3rd question strike me as the same. I'd tank with any tank.

The one that could take the most damage over time depends on damage type and lack of damage mitigation. Over than that tanks shine at different levels to eachother against different enemies.

If a tank isnt hitting the aggro cap in teams it maybe down to not given adequate chance to consolidate aggro or no real inclination in doing so. I find the stone tank the one with the hardest job of keeping aggro on noob teams, recoveries should never have to be made really and with rooted on and no speed boost its most definately trickier.

If someone asked me who is the best tank I have ever seen I would say no one. I have seen every tanker balls something up and I have never teamed consistently enough with all of them to judge them. Also that teaming would have to be on 8 man teams with no other tanker. I dont rate tanks who tank with other tankers in general and i wont judge a tank on a bad team.
There is no "We did it! and its all down to me because I built and I am a great tank" erm no as there is only "good teams". Defenders, controllers, scrappers and blasters can cover up the simplest mistakes and make up for inadequencies.
Every tanker has noob moments at some points in the game and countless moments where they can't actually tank on their terms. Then there are moments when you have consolidated aggro, directed all fire away from the team and what does the blaster do? he comes around your side and stands next to you or you have scrappers that stray within perception range of the next group when there is a whole football field of space the otherside of the group your fighting. People ask me why dont i use teamspeak well I'd simply have no friends left.

SHANNON 270 badges approx tanked over 1000 hours (not spent in dreck neither!) and coming up for my 4th 50 so i must know something.

So empaths are great on bad teams and all the other defenders are good on good teams...right got it.

However I think your generalisation is completely false but we'd have to agree to disagree. As a empath defender i mainly buff i prefer teams that work together that has a tanker that herds tight as spread groups can lead to blocked/out of range/no chance of saving team mates because there is too much to handle at once for an empath. But with every AT doing their job properly any defender should be adequate.