New Dawn

At level 24 getting to the reactor for a respec with no one to tp you will be a pig without someone to tp ya (i know from experience btw), faultline you dont have to enter, shards have geysers which you can learn to use but gettin to the terra reactor without a tp well i just hope you outlevel the map before you go in and the last shard tf in that great big palace i have no idea how you get in or out ive always had a tp.

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I also am nto concinved it actually needs end mod enhancements because even with 2-3 buff icons the endurance recovery is as good as a slotted recovery aura

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i read your posts cos you often strike me as very funny and now even when your not trying to be funny you are funny just look at those spelling mistakes and its edited! i do love you, you will always be my empaths fave tanky cos mostly it was only you i had to heal.

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Anyway so far to me mudpots and blazing aura could be just like anyother tanker attack whereby there is an inherent gauntlet and you can slot for taunt.

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My understanding is that Blazing Aura and Icicles work that way, but that Mudpots has an inherent Taunt (like Chilling Embrace and Invincibility) that's seperate from its damage component.

Again, I'm not 100% about this, but I'm pretty sure.

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I'll take ya word for it, ill also like ta squeeze out everything ya know!

so mudpots accuracy for damage but not taunt, blazing aura and icicles gauntlet, chilling embrace, invincible and mudpots autohit taunt. so icicles and chilling embrace no wonder the ice tanky is such an attention seeker.

Are taunt pulses of mudpots spaced out a bit cos i have had trolls run right through when i first got it?

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I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to this poster. I read a thread (since deleted) where I assumed he was either a professional troll or a complete retard. Given it was quite a well written (if mistaken) post I assumed it was an attempt at trolling. I accused him of being a troll and he reacted strongly and abusively. I did not mean to give that much offence and I can only apologise for my mistaken assumption and hope he forgives me.

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FOR SHAME!!

SHANNON lvl 50 professional retard/complete troll

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Its good, especially as it now boosts the size of the cone.

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too much range and being close to a group through no fault of your own obviously but i dunno say tank and map can have you hitting the group you want and the group behind, too much cone can have you hitting whats around the tank and in the tanks taunting aura and whats outside of the aura and therefore whats outside may come for you. A range slot means one slot less of something else. yes i have experienced all this. As to it being good, bad, pointless, worth it? Well to me its all four, the question was like asking how long a piece of string is to me. I dont have range slotted anymore i just ask the tanker for tight herds and look for the best position in which the herd looks tightest and shoot. My buckshot has range i think thats sweet and it knockbacks (ooh borrowed time).

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I think my personal gauntlet lasted 15 secs but it was a while ago

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My personal experiences about gauntlet with tanks is that it wears out in about 1,5 seconds, not 15 seconds!

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I do apologise but i wasnt being certain with the words "I think" and "but it was a while ago" I meant to go test it but no one i knew of my level was available at that time of the day so i left it and forgot about it. 15 seconds was a figure i had in my head for some reason and i dont tank with my auras off and would use taunt almost between every attack if necessary so the duration of guantlet isnt something i got familiar with. Anyway no auras off different levels of damage with different but not severe secondary effects foes stayed with me for upto 6 seconds whilst blaster tried to pull them off, but take into account damage, knockback, action time of foe to retaliate 6 secs isnt that hard to believe although may not be the gauntlet duration.

I noticed in lower levels of having mudpots that enemy could run right by me through them plus in my aura they could turn around as if about to pop someone else and then get a slight tick of damage and turn around again.

With my blazing aura i had the same turning around business so to me the taunt effect unslotted is slightly less than the two seconds between damage ticks which coincides with what Hammerfall has said about gauntlet having a duration of 1.5 secs thereabouts. All this rings true to me.

About the possibility of missing well blazing aura and mudpots accept accuracy enhancements although afaik iirc mudpots is still thought to be autohit however in all cases?

Anyway so far to me mudpots and blazing aura could be just like anyother tanker attack whereby there is an inherent gauntlet and you can slot for taunt.

I tested gauntlet last night as i had to double check where i was getting the figure in my head from that i had from testing gauntlet weeks ago i did say in my post on gauntlet that "i think my personal gauntlet was such and such (15sec ) but it was a while ago when i tested it". Anyway the more the damaging attack the longer gauntlet seemed to of lasted although i didnt have an enemy stay with me any longer than 6 seconds or any less than 2 seconds. Now the gauntlet duration + foe action time and any secondary effect passed on from me may of lengthened the time the enemy stayed with me.

Then i tested secondary effect "ice patch". Now the tanker put the ice patch down without any taunt or anyone attacking and this meant the enemy got up and then went for tanker. Then the foe got ice patched again and i fired a weak shot at start of ice patch duration. When ice patch went the foe got up and went for tanker. Then we repeated and i shot just before the end of the ice patch duration in which case foe got up and went for me.

I dont do maths! or scour boards for figures but with damage, guantlet, taunt, secondary effect there "appears" to be some wicked maths involved whereby one overrides the other that says who gets the aggro. So far i know there is one when it comes to two people taunting the same body to as to why one would win.

At the end of the day it wont change the way i play my anyother toons but my tankers because with them i know to wait until tanker has reached a herd point and is tightly surrounded before attacking.

Do i think relying on gauntlets good enough no and never did but even less now.

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Anyone tried +range on FA? If so - good/worthless/ok sometimes?

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its good, its bad, its absolutely worthless most of the time yet ok sometimes.

on my lvl 47 ar/dev blaster i have in this order

speed (haste and superspeed)
fitness (hurdle,health and stamina)
leaping (combat jump/superjump/acrobatics)

would have conceal (stealth) but i have cloak from dev pool and the rest is offense

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Secondly, is it my imagination, or do trip mines now require you to be fairly close to them in order to be detonated by enemies?

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point i picked up on, yes you do and you can make controlled detonations without caltrops, use a tanker, scrapper or any squishie toon phaseshifted to herd.

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I've always popped the 'trops just behind the Mines, personally. Firstly, because it stops the mobs scattering too early, secondly because it allows stragglers to run closer in before the mines get triggered.

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i'm same as syn, but depending on map i maynt even bother as enemy sense of direction can be pretty predictable, i also may lay caltrops to the side of the mines to help guide them along my mined route.

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I'm not sure about that one. When I play as a kin I am in front of the ( more sensible ) squishies and behind the tank,

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behind the tank? squishies behind the tank too? omg no! tank could jump behind the mob and turn around so all cones are in his/her direction only. I'm sure u can cusp the aura across the mob to reach the tank and having the team fighting within the aura yourside of the mob too. When it comes to the likes of jaegers i like defenders to shoot in aura shoot out.

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Actually, while I'm at it - part of my raging altoholism is produced by a desire to see how the other half lives.

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best way to grow as a player imo.

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As an MM remember you have by far the lowest hit points of any archetype

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nope its way less than all of them im quite sure

Plant control/empathy would be sweet

I'd slot with disorients as when the bleep hits the fan you can use it and the enemy can be disorientated long enough for you and the team to take control rather than poo damage and all on you after a mere 5 secs.

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I'd say an Empath was good support for a kinetic-heavy team, as the heals and end replenisment could hit Blasters, and non-meleers.

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The melee half of the team is already covered with a good healing blanket, end is not an issue as the kins can provide 2xspeed boost, so the only thing left for an emp to do is heals for the ranged people and the buffs of Fortitude, AB and Regen Aura. Not much for an empath to do IMO.

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I did a tf with my empath with two kin defenders and i had loads to do thankyou very much!

FAI i believe all defenders are equal just some are better in some circumstances than others.

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night was talking about support pvp builds so i wud agree that secondary doesnt matter that much, dont no about sonic but with empathy and kinetics in support roles (as kinetics can be used as an attacking role as well) there is so much to do u really dont have time to attack

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Sonics add more mez protection than emps. They also have nice res debuff and buffs. Plus sonic cage (which can remove that ill tempered ice/nrg blaster or really annoying stormy)

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OMG THANKYOU! i havent got sonic cage yet but now you made see a really good reason to get it!

Most important thing is if you like teaming, people like having you onboard as an empath/archery defender dont expect too much damage output soloing coming from a trick archery/archery defender (which rocks!) and an empath/psionic/psi defender (which rocks too). Hell if i wanted an elven character it would be trick archery/archery

Bridger is the dps taking into account the multiple hits and adding them all up. What i hope _castle_ takes into account is that dps is only really going to happen pve and not pvp (why?) because people aint so stupid as to huddle up for my claws scrapper.

You got me thinking now - i must go and ask every different type of defender how and when their powers are most effective to work out how i should tank as far as my postion in mobs is concerned atm i like to be opposite side of the mob directing fire my way and facing the team to see whats goin on.

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with my fire tank, for taking the aggro of the alhpastrike, i make a "division" (assuming tha fact that there is about 15 mob)

i go left and use combustion, i go right (at the opposite of my first combustion for 1-2s with blazing aura;

with this i don't really need to use taunt cos i take the alpha strike, but:

1- a blast shoot a mob how i can took the aggro again without move (and breaking my actual control aggro on the mob troop)

2- another mob troop came in fight, how i can took the aggro cos i've already a band of mob???

the only answer is taunt, there is no other solution

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Well there is also hurl. If you have it but that aint much of an answer because when -recharged, -accuracy or - end taunt also helps alot better, fireball has a 15ft aoe 32 second recharge unhasted moderate gauntlet effect, hurl has 8 second recharge guantlet sized aoe (i must find out what that is but i suspect 8ft diameter) and slightly more gauntlet duration but slightly longer action time and half the endurance cost. But for taunt duration the taunt has the highest. The more towards even level you face the less the necessity of taunt but the higher level you face (say +4s) the more you need it as taunt duration is lowered. With lower taunt effectiveness the rest of the team are more likely to have to fend for themselves and teamwipes are even more likely to happen. Keeping the tanker alive against all of a +4 mob is alot easier than trying to keep everyone alive from my empath defenders perspective whose lvl 50 so imo taunt adds survivability to the whole team.
When faced with having more foes than you can taunt at a single time all thats left is gaining aggro from the team members targets, what the the team havent targeted should still be after you if you have aggrod them already despite being untaunted for a bit.

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Walk into group of mobs (-2s or so). Hit them all with single pulse of aura. Immediately have blaster hit them with a fireball. See who they attack. Wait 5 seconds. See who they attack.

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The damage ticks of blazing aura and mudpots are at about 2 second intervals, the taunt effect is slightly less on both. playing all types of tankers i find enemies stick more like glue on invincible and chilling embrace but i'd have to say from experience without clinical testing that i think chilling embrace is ftw but like i say tests arent clinical. Either way if you move to gauntlet an enemy of a team mate, your aura and taunt effect wont last too long on the foes you may of had to move away from no matter what type of tank.

my stonetank will definately have taunt and every amount of taunt possible, i struggle more on recoveries (reherding from knockbacks etc, herding from preemptive team members, quelling ambushes) with rooted on (cant always take it off) and once granite -recharges me aswell i will most certainly need 3 rec,3 taunt in taunt and have hurl boulder ftw and i dont want to be like some other stonetanks i have seen (lame without a kinetic) and taking 10% of the spawn

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Thing I dislike about mines isn't only that things can walk by them without them going off but even when they do go off they frequently miss the things standing right on top of them. Looks like two hit checks there...

When they do hit, they do some very decent damage. Pity it takes so long to lay a few though, even with recharge SO's and hasten teams usually gets fed up and charge in before the third mine is down.

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Most often by the time you have laid all the mines the enemy could be all dead. I would only lay them before an AV say, if people were waiting for more people to come, or around the reactor of the reactor room whilst waiting for the next wave, other than that its mainly for solo and pvp purposes now.

You do have to be within a certain range of the mines for them to go off - trust me. Exploitable post ED? well Im still looking.

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As a tanker you should be leading the attack and reciving the alpha strike which means every one will be focused on you already, or simply use a proper tuant to get their attention. IMO you should be able to get a whole mob on you back and be able to survive while your team mates pick of targets one by one, instead of just taunting the nearest 3 or 4 foes.

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What tanker have you been watching? Tanks may have to taunt, that taunts five foes but more should come. The more that come you have to herd into your aura before people attack. Job done? almost but not quite, direct the enemy line of fire away from the team and keep a watch over any foes that may go for anybody in the team and be ready to taunt.

For me changing the inherent gauntlet power to something else will give people a chance to play an even harder scrapper if they so wished. I wouldnt change gauntlet for anything.

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But tankers should be more tank like and less of an atention seaker

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In a comic book the tanker type of hero toon would put him/herself in serious amount of harms way for a friend etc, taunt is part of the game mechanics that helps to make this happen and gauntlet on a tanker makes it less avoidable.

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Make the job easier for the Tanker (and the rest of team), definitely. Negate the 'need' for a Tanker? Not in my experience.

I've never been on a team where I didn't feel my Tankers have made a useful contribution. No matter how many heals, buffs, debuffs and control effects you have available, a Tanker is always handy.

Of course, my opinion is perhaps a little biased.

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just out of curiosity, Bridger. Do you have Taunt? or do you rely on the Area taunts?

I dont have taunt, and to be honest, rarely have i been in a situation where would i have had it had been useful. Well, except for pulling. I HAVE run into a few groups with blasters that have had absolutely no concept of "pulling".

So having taunt (or a ranged attack) would have made it less painful. But as to taunting mobs to help a teammate out that is in the red, that has been even more so rare.
Usually theyre halfway down a corridor running AWAY from me screaming "Heal plz!!" (and the empath) instead of towards me or the defender.
Having taunt wouldnt have made a difference in the first place since I wouldnt have been able to target the mobs anyway.

In closing, ive leveld to 50 and i have never had any complaints for not having taunt. (save one time, from a blaster who wanted to try out his Nova. And all he had to do for the rest of the mission was to wait 1-2 extra seconds for me to consolidate the aggro before he could shoot off his Nova, which he did)

I believe Taunt to be a good complement to a tanker build, but not needed and certainly not essential
Sometime i might use my last respec to put it in..

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ah ha so your officer cuffz! small world! i must admit the energy melee set seemed to offer nice disorients that can keep the enemy somewhat preoccupied for awhile. I've only teamed with ya on a couple of missions and a really good dark defender was on them and it all worked out fine, better than i expected in fact.

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Well, except for pulling. I HAVE run into a few groups with blasters that have had absolutely no concept of "pulling".

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Thats a statement that i can "kind of make" because my blaster is very almost 50, but despite that, an obvious bad pull with an M30 grenade at its range can be judged as bad by anyone, and seeing one person pull a certain kind of enemy compared to another can also help. I for one as a tank wont put a blaster at any risk if i can so help it incase bad pulls happen. I personally hate pull and interceptions, i dont like messy anythings and I get very jealous if other peoples healthbars are moving.