SoilentGreen

If you ran a higher-level team of all Shield/SS or Shield/Fire I doubt you'd see a drop in killing speed. In fact, half the team could Sheld Charge one spawn and alternate for the other and you'd have some pretty quick encounters.

With 2 Tanks constantly in melee range? I'd go with a Kin...probably a Kin/Sonic Defender. That way you can heal them, buff their damage, fill their end and debuff the baddies resistance.

I've got a lvl 50 SS/WP Brute. You'd think by now I would have it figured out, but in truth, I don't. My Brute feels a little squishy. When I am on teams and have support in the form of +def +res or heals, I do well. However, without that support I feel pretty weak.

Help me figure some things out. First of all, with WP, should I focus my build approach toward Resistance, Regen, Defense or a little of all? I have the resources available to pick up various sets that will grant bonuses, but I'm really not sure where to go. It feels like I'm decent in a few things, but vulnerable in all areas. What priority should I make each of these characteristics? Any help is appreciated.

Just had to reply to this thread...because.

I love my Shield/SS and yes, he's strong...good for TFs, teams and all-purpose tanking. However, I will include the caveat that you need to get set bonuses for soft-capping to be as tough and effective as a Tank should be.

With Shield, Hurl is a one-handed attack. It looks pretty cool. Still the same animation and activation time. The tank takes a large chunk of rock out of the ground and throws it.

If you properly slot rage (also, with Hasten and set bonuses for +rech) you should be able to stack Rage before the first one runs out. If you have rage stacked, you can avoid the -Def penalty and all you'll have to deal with is the Endurance loss and -Damage penalty. You can still use veteran attacks (sands of mu and nemesis staff etc.) at full damage since they can't be modified. Of those, I find the Endurance loss to be the most annoying...since Tanks are pretty end-heavy and losing End from both Rage and Hasten crashes is a bit of a pain to manage (and my Tank runs with Stamina and both +recovery uniques).

Other tips...um...this is a very offensive and fun tank to play. Once you get to the higher levels, you can get Pyre mastery and add another AoE in Fireball. With Rage and AAO, you can run into groups, let AAO pulse for full +dam buff action and then unleash. I will typically hit Footstomp, Fireball then Shield Charge. Anything left standing gets Footstomp again because it's back up pretty quickly. Like you said, KO Blow is a big-hitter that you can use against tougher targets along with a couple of other decent attacks from SS. With this defensive based set, you need to be careful with any groups that can debuff (or buff their to hit). I'd recommend getting one with shield (the tier 9). Yeah, it's not a 'god mode' per se, but it'll buff your resistances, add HP's and endurance recovery. It has a decent sized crash of endurance...but not a total crash.

Well, from what I can tell all of the spawns have several Lt's...but some have fewer Lt's and Minions, while some spawns have more of both. It's not like one spawn has 2 Lt's and 7 minions and the other has 4 Lt's and 6 minions. It's more like one spawn has 2 Lt's and 5 minions and the next one has 5 Lt's and 10 minions.

I've noticed that when I run my missions at an increased difficulty (anywhere from 6 - 8 man) that the spawn sizes and make up vary wildly within the same mission. Some spawns will have 6 or 7 enemies, while others will have twice that number.

Is there any reason for this? Have the Devs said anything about the inconsistency? I've noticed this on all sorts of missions: Story Arcs, Radio Missions, etc. All of these have come while solo. I've also tested variations with one other on my team, which usually leads to bosses being added to some of the spawns, but the same inconsistent numbers.

5+ years in the game and I still have 2 or 3 "original" characters that I play from time to time. I'd actually have to say the character that I still play the most from way back when is my PB that I created when they first became available. She's been my PvP main for 3+ years (yes even before PB's were buffed for PvP) which has contributed greatly to that character's staying power. It's also my first billionaire.

Since then I've created, played and deleted more alts than I care to think about.

I go through "cycles" when playing CoH still where I get really into a character that had been on the shelf for months and months. Currently I've been playing a lot of Brutes and Tanks - with Shield being my very favorite.

Indeed...in addition to the damage mitigation in the form of knockdown, the damage you inflict can get in the range of 600 - 800 points (depending on the enemy) in your "alpha" with the edition of the 2 procs. Add in another 100 or so from Fireball (you could also proc that if you have the slotting space) and then a repeat Footstomp seconds later: game over man!

The only part of a vet reward I didn't really enjoy was the 5 FREE MERITS. Sure, it's free and it's better than nothing...but 5 merits? That's like grandma handing you a dollar for your birthday and telling you to "get yourself something nice" like this was still 1930.

I know they don't give enough for at least a single random roll or something like that because there would be those who would create new character after new character until they received valuable recipes...but I'd rather get another respec or free tailor token than something that I can't do anything with until the character has finished a bunch of arcs or a TF.

I have a Shield/SS/Pyre and a Shield/Fire/Pyre - I'd say they're both fun and both effective. Of course...there are differences in the two, but for overall effectiveness they're pretty even. The one thing that SS has going for it is Rage. Sure the crash is annoying but can be managed - and that leaves you with a big damage boost the rest of the time. My SD/SS has Stamina and both Numina/Miracle uniques but still has End issues from time to time too.

For farming purposes, I can't imagine anything being much better than Shield/ (and I've played almost every other tank Pri/Sec in my 5 years) simply because the offensive nature of AAO and Shiled Charge. In a high recharge build you can use it every spawn and if you pick up the AAO buff in the middle of the group, you can easily down the minions in one shot and clean up the rest with other AoE's. No other primary set has a mini-nuke like that.

By the way, I run two farms (BM and Freaks) at +2 / 8 man / no bosses. Sometimes I'll even throw bosses in. They take a little longer but the extra inf/xp/drops come in handy sometimes. I can handle this difficulty with no real problems at all and it goes fast.

Something that I'm really liking in my SD/SS farmer is having Obliteration slotted in both Shield Charge and Footstomp. Moving from one big spawn to the next really lets the procs in those power shine. That extra bit of damage ticks generously when you use it often and I've noticed it be the difference in a kill / non-kill on a number of occassions. I know Obliteration isn't the cheapest set out there but the bonuses and benefits are pretty dang good.

This has happened to me a few times - Rom dies and there are no Nicti in range to rez and we have to kill them...this is by far the hardest way to complete this TF, but it can be done. They have a ton of HP and seem harder to kill than Rom himself...the best way to kill them is separate the healer, kill the other two and then deal with the healer. This might take a few minutes but if you keep most of your team out of its range you can overcome the healing.

I think one reason you don't see that is you really don't need both when you're farming. If you're getting mezzed often enough where you need both, you're not doing it right. With a high recharge farm build, if you're cycling through single target attacks (like on a boss, for example) you'll be able to cycle through Aimed Shot and Blazing Arrow...and if you happened to be mezzed, Aimed Shot will come up fast enough to attack 2 or 3 times while you're mezzed...but then again, you really shouldn't be getting mezzed all that often.

I'm interested that all of these builds discuss using defense as the main survival tactic. My Arch/MM build actually uses Tough and Temp Invulnerability to achieve around 50% resistance. Since I'm only taking damage from weak crossbow bolt attacks (I farm the BM map) I don't even think twice about getting hit. Add to that the fact that I have Aid Self to cut down on any downtime (also a good place for another set of bonuses) and It's quick and safe.

Honestly, with Archery and a high recharge build you really can't go wrong. If you're stealthed in some way or another you can hit build up, aim, Rain of Arrows and Fistful and all the minions and Lt.'s are down (with maybe a couple of stragglers). You can also cue Explosive Arrow and then cycle Fistful again if they are clumped together. In fact, outside of Build Up, you can go without using any of the secondary powers. I do like to, from time to time, stand in the middle of groups and fire off RoA and then PSW...that is slightly more risky and could get you mezzed...From that point, if you're including bosses, you can cycle very quickly through your single-target attacks. I've found it to be quicker and more effective to run at 8 man +2 no bosses...but from time to time I'll throw the bosses in there. You can kite them until they die and they give a truckload of xp/inf.

If you spend a little bit you can softcap quite easily without Weave...letting you get and slot up Fireball two levels sooner. Tanks are easy to work with on Shield Defense soft-capping.

I enjoy farming with my Shield / SS / Pyre. Shield Charge and Footstomp take care of the minions and Lt.'s and KO Blow (and other single-targe attacks) take care of the Bosses. Is it the fastest? I don't know, but it's effective, enjoyable and it's as fast as I need it to be.

Have the changes been made to the live servers?

I've never earned an accolade on the red side and decided to start on various accolades and badges. What's the best way to earn this badge?

I'm happy to report I participated in 3 task forces (including the LGTF) last night as well as a mothership raid...all with the same core of team members. The raid got going with 3 full teams around midnight mountain time (where I reside) so it was a bit on the later side for a lot of people, but it turned out to be quite productive. I was able to earn over 300 vanguard merits and got the costume pieces I needed.

I'm wondering if there are any regular Rikti Mothership raids going on these days on Freedom? I have a couple of characters that would like access to some of the costume pieces that you can only get through Vanguard merits...

No, but if an Arch/MM is built right it's just as fast and safe as a Fire/Kin

The OP came to the wrong place to vent his frustration...

However...to his point...it has to be somewhat discouraging to newer players or those who can only play for 2 - 3 hours per week to see all the great "loot" availble in this game for their characters, only to find out is virtually unattainable. I'm not suggesting it isn't possible for them to earn things, or even learn how to play the market in order to get the necessary funds. But the truth of the matter is that it used to be a lot simpler and, as in real life, the rich keep getting richer and the poor stay poor.

I used to consider myself fairly well off in this game, but the stash of 1 billion influence I have today has a fraction of the buying power it used to have.

It may have something to do with the fact that shield charge (as I understand it) is a pseudo-pet, so you're not actually doing the damage, the pet is. I may be wrong on that...either way, it would be nice if it showed up in the logs.

This better be a bug...and one they address prior to taking it live. This will make a huge difference to those of us who PvP.