Sailboat

Agreed. That's sort of what I was getting at: my perception that some posters were downplaying certain threats (defense debuffs, slows, etc.).

My guess is the costume parts (Draconic wings, etc.).

I think at this point in the discussion, the definition of the threat being survived will make the biggest difference between these primaries. Dark's greatest strength in survivability hinges on the amazing heal, which is pretty vulnerable to recharge debuffs, to which Inv is less vulnerable and WP hardly at all. Dark wil require several (let's say, three) -knb IOs to be regarded as roughly secure from knockback; you can cram one into a travel power, but the others are likely to cost you two slots. How much impact does that slot cost have?

Dark looks very good with solid resists, some controls, and the fantastic heal; defense and recharge debuffs and the slot cost of -knb offset some of that. How often do you feel like you encounter slows and debuffs? I think that might be where we are differing. Willpower suffers from defense debuffs less than dark but it still suffers; Inv suffers measurably less but still suffers some unless it consumes slotting with otherwise-not-useful excess defense. Slows hurt Dark pretty harshly, Inv a little, but Willpower essentially not at all.

Good point, clicky mitigation consumes both animation time and operator attention (decision cycles), at least to some degree.

Hey, that would let us use market porters to get into the Shard quickly. Maybe we could get one in Cimerora too?

Thanks for the shout-out, but I was running Fire/Fire/Pyre (L'Oriflamme). I think the Inv/Axe was...KangarooRed (am I mangling the global?) running Radical Raptor. I just talked about the Joy of Axe because he was giving me flashbacks to my Shield/Axe.

There were three? I only remember two, but it was very graphically dense fight...did you guys waste one before I even turned around and noticed it?

Hey...I saw The Amber Fist last night for Tanker Tuesday! (I was L'Oriflamme.) Interesting to read how the character was built.

The sword sets (Broadsword/Katana) are the classic recommendations for survivable, well-rounded, affordable -- fun being subjective. They have Parry/DA for solid addition to your defense, a little defense debuffing and a tiny accuracy bonus, and a good mix of single-target and AoE.

I see Kat/WP recommended a lot as sort of a hands-free build (just use Divine Avalanche when it's up and stand near some guys for the regen bonus); I'm more a fan of BS/Shield just for all the nifty things it brings to the table. The use (almost abuse, really) of Parry does amazing things for your durability. I ran a low-cash-invested BS/Shield character from 1 to level 44 without dying once to any cause whatsoever before buying the farm in a mass of +1 Carnie bosses a tank had herded up.

Explosive Blast will take snipe sets?

Nitpick: Inherent fitness actually comes in at level 2. I don't know what that adds to the gameplay experience vs having it at 1.

I wonder if "The Grease Stain" is taken on every server?

Ah, might be worth trying. My friend and I are on Guardian (although "leveling up" to 10 is hardly grinding. )

Yeah, the "point" of level-locking at 10 was that random rolls are cheaper than picking specific recipes one at a time. Obviously, in practice, the difficulty of "farming" at level 10 pretty much negates that.

Yeah, I hate to ride on someone else's coattails though, so I'd want to do the fighting myself.

There's an app for that!

Let me know if your level-shifted Incarnate gains any XP.

Hrm, that means I have to pick one of my Guardian Tankers.

*enters deep thought mode*

Not to keep picking, but where do you get the impression that Dark is closer to the soft cap than Ice? I'm not an Ice expert, but sn't Ice relatively easy to soft-cap?

Uh...someone named Call Me Awesome posts in your thread with huge links in his signature to two Invulnerability guides and you want a pointer to "CMA's" guide to Invulnerability?

Look, my own impression of the guide AND the set aside, that's been one of the most talked-about and recommended guides on the forums for a long time. The indication that you're unfamiliar with it says volumes in itself.

Yeah, Brutes aren't especially tanks.