Sailboat

It's worth pointing out that, with a few exceptions, almost all naval battles were fought close to land, often in narrow passages, choke points, and outside major ports. That's despite the vastness of the sea.

The reason is because the vast empty ocean looks the same everywhere, and there's no real reason to BE in one spot or another during long passages. The only places enemies were likely to meet were places where access was controlled or shore assets attracted attention.

That's the case here, I would hazard. People will gather in places they're familiar with and can easily describe even though there's a vast area they could choose.

The pilot releases the drop tanks to clear for action. As the twin silvery eggs tumble into the soft clouds below, the Mustang banks gently left and then right again, sliding in behind the unsuspecting enemy fighter. This one will be a sitting duck!

The thumb eases up the safety cover. The fingers, slightly sweaty in the pressure-suit glove, fold carefully over the trigger. As the range closes rapidly, the wings of the target grow to fill the circle of the gunsight. A slight rudder adjustment...the pipper is just leading the target...no deflection, an easy shot...the trigger finger begins to squeeze....

Hrm, didn't know that Pendulum only hits 5. That seems out of synch with other cones. And since Cleave apparently affects 10 targets (weirdly), does that raise any faint possibility the limitation on Pendulum is the result of an error? Logically, Cleave would be 5 andf Pendulum 10 targets. Is there any chance this might get looked at/fixed eventually?

Willpower is a very strong Tanker primary; I personally consider it the third strongest (after a Stone in Granite, or an Invulnerability Tanker) but some people put it tied with Inv or even slightly ahead. At any rate, it's strong enough that I find your report surprising. Do you get the same results on a balanced build?

As for Shield, I currently have a level 39 Shield/Axe Tanker without Tough or Weave. I'm planning to pick them up in the Epic levels, although I might respec. No IO set bonuses yet. Currently I run around at about 34% defenses.

Result: I take damage. Last night I was tanking for an 8-player Task Force and did pretty well, losing about 25% - 35% of my life in many fights, and quickly regenerating it back. On nastier content I will lose 50% of my life or even more herding up a decent-sized pack and concentrating them to feed my AAO toggle.

Then I hit Build Up, Shield Charge, Whirling Axe, Pendulum. And suddenly everything is allllllll better!

Clearly, once I get to the soft cap, this will be a much sturdier Tanker than currently, and the damage and control (through knockdown) is quite nice. But my point is, Shields is a damage-boosting set with good defense and some resistances -- it's not designed to be used on its own, but to make a secondary set into a killer, and to mitigate enough damage that the AAO-enhanced secondary attacks can cover the rest of your needed mitigation. Try using it that way and see if it works.

Without damage bonuses from sets, I'm doing tons of damage with built-up Shield Charge -- 250-300-400 to everything in a large radius isn't uncommon (it varies depending on team buffs and debuffs). With a Trick Arrow on the team last night, I saw some 512-damage hits (TA has a lot of resistance debuffing potential). At 46 seconds recharge, the pair is available every 46 seconds, about every other spawn on a smoothly-moving TF team. The spawns it's not available for give the Blasters something to do.

Durability is crucial to tanking, but a balanced tanker is usually more effective.

Maybe you should replace the wireless with CAT-6.

Guys, we really appreciate this labor of love.

Question: why not Shield/Axe? It's very similar to /Mace, trading knockdown for stun on some of the powers, and with slight differences in what level the hard-hitters are. I am currently enjoying my SD/Axe Tanker very much.

Dark Defenders have a lot of control powers. Notice the quote is "Nice controlling," not "Good job Controllers." Maybe he or she was including your body of work in that compliment.

Don't the very latest vet rewards have a bonus to market slots? Could really ease the bottleneck in this project.