Rangle M. Down

As for the whole cottage rule discussion, I'll use a quote from Arcanaville:

Before someone like Arcanaville shows up, there isn't "A cottage rule" per se.

Funny enough, my wife avoids this problem by slotting lvl 15 Generic IO's after she gets to level 12, then upgrading them when she has time/inclination. Her IOs never go red. (And no, she doesn't stay with the lvl 15 IOs till shes 25+. She usually tries to upgrade every 5 levels or so, using her main to craft them.)

I, on the other hand, wouldn't be opposed to this idea.

Did you factor in bruising into the equation?

I think I just figured it out.

I now believe that there is a council of Evil out there, with Warboss is their leader. His Lieutenants being LSK and Callie Sunshine, and his right hand man; Papa Slade. I'm not sure how Desi Nova fits in, but they seem to be an independent operator that's been fooled by the Warboss' Hirelings Iniquitous Machinations (I've heard rumors they call it WHIM for short). It all makes sense now.

I think LSK is attempting to take over WHIM from Warboss; which is why they're both attempting to out each other as the "mastermind" behind the non-existent "Rangle Plots™." And me, stuck in the middle of this nefarious scheming.

In the long run I still believe that if/when the developers ever look at Tankers anything that modifies their damage potential will be something that benefits the team as a whole, not just the tanks. Even though I'm not opposed to a "double-hit" style mechanic being used on bruised targets, or something similar, I just think they'll use that approach. It would keep in step with what they introduced with bruising.

How about this?

As I've mentioned before, I think the Build Workshop Forum divides focus. Instead of looking and/or asking in the specific AT forum you now have two areas to peruse. On top of that, if you feel you can help a specific AT, like Defenders, you have to "rummage" through the thread to find Defender questions. (Just like an accountant rummaging through a box of unsorted receipts. ) Of course they could always create sub-forums and sort the builds by specific ATs... but then we're right back to where the forums were before the Build Workshop was created.

The addition of the Build Forum has also created some confusion in those seeking requests. Quite often people have mentioned, in their posts, of being unsure if the AT forums or the Build Workshop were "the right place to ask for help". I can see why.

In the meantime, I'm waiting to see who will be starting the third Developer's "Build Challenge" in the continuing attempt to draw attention here. (and how soon we will be seeing that thread.)

Granite armor is great, once you get it.

I suggest you search the tank forums for previous Stone Armor threads. There are also a few Stone/Stone threads where you can find builds. Find something you like and play with it in Mids Hero Planner (www.cohplanner.com) to see what works for you. Export it here and we'll take a look at what you've got and make suggestions on where it can be improved, or how we'd do it differently.

Although they're not recent guides, read up on Stone Armor in the tank guides section. There are still valid ideas there; especially for overcoming some of the de-buffs (run speed, recharge, and damage) that you get while in Granite Armor.

While there are some exceptions to the following:

• The best Typed defense set bonuses can usually be found in 3-4 enhancement slots.
• The best Positional defense set bonuses can usually be found in 5-6 enhancement slots.

So in general, chasing Typed defense bonuses will typically use less enhancement slots then chasing Positional defense bonuses, and give you more flexibility in builds. As always YMMV.

I'll paraphrase what I said earlier in the thread.

1. Remove the movement penalties from Rooted by making it a clone of Grounded.
2. Make a new Earthen Armor set from scratch, as any major changes to the Stone Armor set will upset most Stone Armor users who have found away to work with the current penalties. I don't know if the hue and cry will be as loud as the originally announced changes to the Epic pools, but I'm sure it will be as vehement.

Personally, if the Developers look at Tankers and make changes, these are things I wouldn't be surprised to see:

• Damage cap stays the same. To help with Tank damage potential they either leverage bruising further, or add some minor de-buff to their attacks, that will stack from other Tankers.
• Something akin to SoA's Conditioning is added, but not at the same effectiveness. This wouldn't change the DPE at lower levels, but would make it less painful for Tanks early on.
• If they can't figure out a way to fix the gauntlet bug (see sig), I could also see them adding a minor damage, or DoT to make up for gauntlet screwing with tank to-hit rolls. Maybe adding the aforementioned de-buff/bruising to gauntlet.

Mind you, I wouldn't be upset if they did raise Tanker damage caps, or upped the Damage Mods. I just don't believe that this would be their approach at the moment.