Jordan Yen, of Jordan's Town, has been bugging me to join in his ongoing contest with a new player guide. So, here's a new character build, and to date, the most expensive one I've made. It's a Dark Armor / Energy Melee tank, made largely to explore the on-paper issues with both sets.

The Major Issues

I've written about Dark Armor before and what I see as the problems with the set. On the surface the set has low resists and aura's that prevent effective tanking. As I played the set, I found there was another issues, endurance consumption. To put this in perspective, an Ice Armor Tank and a Stone Armor tank can stack the following powers:

• .26 e/s :: Frozen Armor
• .26 e/s :: Chilling Embrace
• .26 e/s :: Wet Ice
• .52 e/s :: Icicles
• .26 e/s :: Glacial Armor
• 1.56 end / sec :: Total

• .26 e/s :: Rock Armor
• .78 e/s :: Mud Pots
• .21 e/s :: Rooted
• .26 e/s :: Brimstone Armor
• .26 e/s :: Crystal Armor
• .26 e/s :: Minerals
• 2.03 end / sec :: Total

Now, Ice gets two Endurance Recovery powers, Energy Absorbtion and Hibernate. Stone Armor gets granite, which produces the following base stackables at high levels.

• .26 e/s :: Granite
• .78 e/s :: Mud Pots
• .21 e/s :: Rooted
• 1.25 end / sec :: Total

Dark by comparison, with all stackable armors

• .52 e/s :: Death Shroud
• .21 e/s :: Dark Embrace
• .21 e/s :: Murky Cloud
• .21 e/s :: Obsidian Shield
• .26 e/s :: Cloak of Darkness
• .08 e/s :: Oppressive Gloom
• 1.49 end / sec :: Total

• 52 e/s :: Cloak of Fear
• 2.01 end / sec :: Total

Without Cloak of Fear, Dark Armor is nipping right on the heels of Ice's endurance consumption. With Cloak of Fear on, Dark Armor nips right at Stone Armor's heels. This is a set that can't hard-cap resistances, can't soft-cap defenses, has no native endurance recovery, and no native regeneration boosts. Now, Energy Melee is something I haven't addressed before, mostly because I don't really see a problem with the set. One of the factors of CoH development is that all power-set balances are based off of Single Origin enhancements, and on SO's, Energy Melee is one of the best single target damage producers in the game. Still, the CoH forums are filled with players with battle axes to grind on the subject of changes to the Energy Melee set. Terms like nerfed, useless, and pointless, are often used by multiple players. As a tanking set, I'm not really going to argue with some points. Energy Melee's lack of AOE punch simply means tanks need to work their taunt to hold aggro in mob combat.

Overall Power Selection and Design

So, now for the powers I wound up taking. As a note, this character is still incomplete, it's only level 48. However, I already have the enhancements for the final power, so I can tell you what's going to happen with the build.

As I said, this is my most expensive character build to date. Early on my design goal had been to maximise the recharge and make Conserve Power permanent. However, when I actually checked the numbers on Conserve Power, at the recharge cap of 500%, there would still be a down time of 30 seconds between the power's recharges… and as I found out on my Controller Builds, increasing the recharge rate without equally increasing the endurance recovery rate was not a good thing for a sustained combat build. Thus, approaching the practical recharge rate cap was actually going to make endurance consumption problems worse, rather than better.

There was also the additional problem that I needed to spend slots on knockback procs as the Dark Armor lacks any native knockback protection. I also knew from experience that I'd need the Numina and Miracle procs to help offset the load from the Tough and Weave pool powers. With the recharge rate strategy out of the question, and with Physical Perfection looking like a requirement, I went back to the drawing board to rework power choices. I started focusing on sets that offered Endurance Capacity boosts, as boosting the total endurance would also boost endurance recovery. Eventually as I figured that my average Melee attack slot budget was going to be about 4 slots, rather than the 5 slots I had allocated for the Crushing Impact set. So, late in the life of the build, I started looking through power-sets and slots coming up with a new design goal. Of the Melee Damage IO slots, only 3 had buffs I'd actually be interested in for my tank in the pump 4 slot; Crushing Impact with it's accuracy boost; Mako's Bite with it's damage boost, and Kinetic Combat with it's defense boost. The sheer costs of using Kinetic Combat were an instant turn off:

• The set doesn't drop above level 35, so it was rare and hard to come across.
• The drop level also meant that the effective power range meant lower damage, higher endurance consumption, higher recharge times, and lower accuracy.
• The set costs a ton of influence on the market, with recipies commanding 80,000,000+ inf price-points. I'd need 20 IO's, with 4 recipes per melee power, which means that buy them on the market, I'd be looking at over 1,600,000,000 in influence… presuming I was able to win those builds.

As I rose in level though, the problems with Dark Armor became… insurmountable. As a tank set, the usual strategies and franken slotting weren't working. On SO's and affordable IO sets, Dark Armor sucks. Plain and simple. Now, I'll go into some changes that I think need to be made to Dark Armor to bring it up to par with Fire Armor towards the end of this guide.

Yes. I just said what you think I said. For tanks, Dark Armor is worse than Fire Aura.

Anyways, once I had resigned myself to needing Kinetic Combat to just survive, I started setting aside merits for the recipies and worked out the slots to try and push a softcap to smashing / lethal defense. The following build is the result.

The Build: Primary Powers

Death Shroud: Death Shroud is the primary taunt aura, and a huge end drain.

The slotting choice paired a 4 set Eradication for it's maximum endurance boost and maximum health boost with a Scirocco Dervish:Damage / Endurance to try and help take the edge off the end drain and boost damage up.

Dark Embrace: Dark Embrace is the primary smashing / lethal resist power for Dark Armor.

I went with the 3 slot Impervium Armor for it's recovery boost and not the 4 boost for increased endurance as….

I needed the fourth slot for the Steadfast resist / def boost, which helped put the build into softcap.

Dark Regeneration: The Dark Armor's party peice. Just two enemies can completely refill a Dark Tank's HP, at a 1000 plus Hit Point heal on a non-ED pressing 92% boost.

The bad news is the endurance consumption. The Accurate Heal sets are low on endurnace IO's, and Dark Regeneration requires a too-hit check. Ergo, the power chomps out nearly 25 endurnace, just about a forth of a players average endurance.

I went with Touch of the Nictus over Theft of Esscence mostly for the higher Maximum Endurance buff.

Obsidian Shield: One of the reasons why you would want a Dark Armor. Obsidian shield offers extremely high resistance to Psionic Damage.

I went with a 4 set of Impervium Armor here for a couple of reasons. First, to get the Psionic Resistance far into ED. Second, for themaxium endurance boost. This meant having to go without another knockback IO, so there are some critters that can knock this particular tank around.

Murky Cloud: The Anti-Mez. Slotted like Dark Embrace…

Only with a Knockback proc.

Cloak of Darkness: One of the powers that wasn't really thought out that well for tanks. Without an additional stealth, such as an IO or Super Speed, Cloak of Darkness's hide bonus isn't enough to not be seen by enemies. As will be shown with the next power, while it's not enough to prevent aggro, it is enough to interefere with aggro.

It is useful as a platform for Luck of the Gambler, and it's defense footing became important later on.

Oppressive Gloom: Another power that just was not thought through went brought to tanks. Okay, I'll get the obvious issue out of the way. The trade-off of health for stunis not an issue. That isn't the problem.

Lets go ahead and get the slotting out of the way. I did go with a 5 slot Razzle Dazzle for the Defense boost.

Here's the problem: The Status Aura's Prevent Tanks from Holding Aggro. Here's my tank fighting a mob of carnies. Note how the carnies are bunched around the tank in a close group. Every one of them is in melee range and the team can utilize their AOE powers to maximum effect.

Stun OFF

Stun ON

Here we can see that the carnies are stunned. They start trying to GET AWAY FROM THE TANK.

This is why Oppressive Gloomand Cloak of Fear, which I did not take for this build, ARE ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE FOR TANKS.

Yes, with either power personal survivability increases. An enemy that is not attacking is as good as an enemy that isn't there. However, this now means that with the survivability factor turned up, my tank now has to CHASE DOWN runners. If my tank is keeping a troublesome Archvillain, Ebby, Monster, or other critter in place, a stunned or feared enemy critter will simply leave the area. Once out of melee range, what happens when the critter recovers? They do a perception check. If your tank is running Cloak of Darkness, it's entirely probable that a stunned enemy that wandered off will promptly start firing on your teammates. Then there's the additional problem that both of the status auras are All-Or-Nothing powers. Either the enemy is mezzed, or they aren't. So while I can knock even-con Carnies out of the running pretty easily, Nemesis, Rikti, Devouring Earth, Cimerorans, Malta, and higher con-enemies… not so much. Thing is, these powers are Great on Scrappers. A scrapper doesn't care if an enemy critter wanders the other way, or if a wandered off critter recovers and chooses to pick on the squishy defender, blaster, or controller. I'm not even sure the status aura's are such a bad idea on Brutes. On a tank, it's just bad.

The Build: Secondary Powers

Okay, to rehash from before, Energy Melee is heavy on the single target damage. For Purposes of leveling guide, there's also a pool power in here.

Barrage: the basic 1-2 punch of the EM set.

Kinetic Combat. To reiterate, getting these sets took several months of work. However, no other damage set offers the defense or max health bonus's.

Bone Smasher: Not much to write about. Another melee attack with Kinetic Combat. Did I mention the ludicrous amount of effort that went into getting these sets?

Boxing: As mentioned in the design section, I went through several different possible builds trying to fit in the powers I needed to handle the sheer endurance drain of the Dark Armor set. In most builds I simply toss a stun boost on Boxing and leave it alone. For this build, after looking at the numbers, I decided the best power to drop was Energy Punch.

While Energy Punch's DPA @ 50 was better than Boxing; 53.60dpa vs. 31.60dpa, the Damage Per Cast Cycle was in Boxing's Favor; 9.47dpcc versus 9.21dpcc. This freed up a power letting me take Physical Perfection later on, and Boxing was taken early in the respec chain.

Whirling Hands: The only PbAOE the EM set gets.

As with Death Shroud, a Scirocco Dervish damage-endurance IO takes the ting off the low levels of the Eradication Set.

Taunt: Every tank needs this. Period. If you ever run into a tank that says they can tank without taunt, laugh. Loudly.

Perfect Zinger was chosen for the defense buffs. It's +psidamage proc is fun to use as well.

Stun: One of the reasons EM combines well with dark is that the stuns can stack.

Energy Transfer: The party peice of the EM set. Energy transferoffers an extremly high damage count for a bit of health. Worth it.

The Energy Melee Power Controversy

To be fair, I do need to address thatthere is a bit of controversy over the last two powers; Energy Transfer and Total Focus. The animation on Energy Transfer used to be much shorter, and requests to un-nerf the power are frequent on the City of Heroes forums, as a thread from this month indicates. Total Focus also animates like a PbAOE attack. Many players feel that the damage output does not match the animation times, and to be fair, there is a fair bit of point on this matter. In the case of Total Focus, it's a tier 9 Single Target attack. Here's how it's Damage per Activation / Damage per Cast Cycle stacks up against the other Tier 9 single target attacks @ level on tanks:

• Greater Fire Sword: 56.86 / 9.24
• Seismic Smash: 105.59 / 7.37
• Total Focus: 47.99 / 6.80

So, compared to it's revivals, it actually is weaker. The same cannot be said for Energy Transfer:

• Incinerate: 66.60 / 9.53
• Greater Ice Sword: 37.42 / 7.07
• Energy Transfer: 138.46 / 16.31

Which, brings me to something a lot of players don't understand. Sets are balanced against what the entire set does, not what other sets do. In some aspects Energy Melee is weaker than other melee sets with weaker average attacks, and a lack of an AOE punch. As an entire set on Tanks, I'm not entirely convinced that Energy Melee is out of line for what it is described to do.

The Pool Powers

Now we get to the edging powers, and for this build, also known as proc city.

Combat Jumping: I took combat jumping to help stack up the defense. It's a minor amount, but every bit helps this build. I also used it as a proc point.

Knockback IO: Another 4 points of Knockback protection

Luck of the Gambler 7.5: I didn't entirely give up on increasing the recharge rate.

Kismet Accuracy: This power should actually be named Kismet: To Hit buff. One of the issues with this particular build is that there's a lack of decent accuracy boosts, and against con-higher enemies, missing with attacks gets to be a bit of a pain. As dark doesn't have a passive defense power, I wound up putting the buff on Combat Jumping and when I need to renew it, just swap back and forth between CJ and Super Jump.

Super Jump: if this was an SO build, this would be the path taken to get acrobatics. Since I wanted a anther Def buff slot to host a LoTG 7.5, it was either jump or fly… and fly's a little slow for a tank.

Blessing of the Zephyr: taken mostly for the extra knockback protection.

Swift: how do you make swift sound interesting?

Health: More expensive procs.

Miracle set: I wound up 3 slotting with the Miracle set for the health boost and IO recovery boost.

Numina Proc: Strange that this and the LoTG 7.5's are not the most expensive IO's in the build…

Stamina: I ran out of slots, or this would have 3 crafted level 50 IO's.

Conserve Power: Takes forever to come back, but if I have to lay on the self-heal power, it's still very much needed.

Physical Perfection: A newer pool power, this boosts Regeneration and Recovery at half the rate of health and stamina. Slotted for Endurance Recovery.

Tough: given the sheer end-drain this build pulls down, Tough and Weave would be the final powers taken after Physical Perfection.

4 slotted with Impervium Armorto push resists into ED and gain another max endurance boost.

Weave: not pictured.

Weave is the reason there arefour more LoTG IO's sitting at the bottom of the enhancement screen. So, yes, this build will get another 7.85% defense, 7.5% recharge,1.13% hp cap boost, 10% regeneration boost, and an accuracy boost.

Power Performance

So, there's the slotting, now here's how it looks with Accolades. Due to a bug in the power source display*, I turned them off to just show the base stats.

And now, for the payoff:

With 38.05% defense to Smashing / Lethal, the additional 7.85% from Weave will place total Smash / Lethal defense at around 45.9%… over softcap. Melee defense will approach 37%. In practice, as is, the existing defense tends to hold up well enough in average combat.*For those interested in knowing what that bug is, the power sources flicker on and off, shifting the list up and down, making it difficult to read.

Fixing the Dark Armor Set

As indicated at the start of the build guide, I do have some furtherrefinements to the idea to fix the Dark Armor power set against SO's.When I originally advocated changes I looked mostly at changing or removing the status effects that didn't fit with the tanking objectives, and increasing effective defense. I expressed somereservations about the suggested changes as they might not fit within the cottage rules, and thus not be considered. To reiterate the issues,as I have played them:

• Extreme Endurance cost does not match defensive performance ofthe set
• Native Mez Powers interfere with ability to hold aggro
• Resists are low
• No way to maintain moderate levels of defense

Extreme Endurance Usage and Low Resists

Dark Regeneration Modification:Energy Absorbtion / Heat Loss / Eclipse hybrid

Lets deal with the endurance question first. One of the other Extreme Endurance Sets is Ice, which getsEnergy Absorbtion. Each affected enemy returns 15 endurance points base, and when capped into ED, an Ice tank recover around 30 endurance per enemy. Energy Absorbtion also boosts Defense. A fully saturated unslotted EA swipe will give around 5%~8% defense. The conceptual idea then is this:

Implement EA as a Dark Miasma Resist

Part of the work has already been done. The WarShade Epic Hero Archtype gets a power called Eclipse which already does a stacking Resist bonus based on enemies. For the Dark tank, scale that back to something like 1.2% resistance non-buffable for 10 targets max. the Result is that in Mob Combat Dark Tanks will be able to press 80% resistance to smashing / lethal and be within slotting distance of hard-cap Psionic resistance. Now, since we don't want a straight rip off of EA, convert the straight endurance recovery into an average 2.5% per target, max 10 target, recovery rate bonus. The conceptual idea is this:

Activating Dark Regeneration gives the player 50% of base Secondary Speed Boost recovery, or 25% recovery rate

If the player chooses to slot recovery IO's over health IO's, they'll be able to produce a recovery effect equivelent to getting hit by an unslotted speed boost. Now, while i would prefer that the actual heal component on Dark Regeneration be unchanged since this is supposed to be about bringing Dark Armor into parity with the realistic play performance of other tanking power sets, adding in a resistance bonus and a recovery bonus might neccessitate dropping the total heal component.

Anti Status Effect

Counter the counter-intuitive Mez Effect Powers: Combine Mud Pots and Death Shroud.

A potential solution to the enemies that wander off when stunned or feared could be found in the Stone Armor set. The power Mud Pots contains a 2 magnitude immobilize component. Implement this Immobilize component into Death Shroud on the Dark Armor set. Poof, stunned or feared enemies have a lower chance of walking around and getting lost from the aggro. Considering that just about every other dark set in the game has an immobilize of some sort, the idea certainly fits.

Defense Debuff Resistance

Add a Defense Debuff Resistance Component: Empower Cloak of Darkness

As the Dark armor set is primarily a Resistance based power set, it doesn't get any sort of Defense Debuff Resistance even though it contains a native Defense Power. Adding in a minor Defense Debuff Resistance Component to Cloak of Darkness would help Dark Tanks retain what defense they could naturally obtain.

This is the first artwork piece I've done for my Call for Catgirls on the Battleclinic forums. These two were listed together so I decided to draw them both. In this case, Tripolar is messing with NegaTrip's head

I'm sure there are all kinds of things wrong with this that I'll notice later when I'm more skilled, but for now, I think it turned out kind of nicely.

A screenshot of the actual characters

Bonfire

An area control effect.

Score

2 of 5

Unslotted Strength

5.3 x Brawl

Summary

Click it an target an area on the ground. That spot grows a large area of fire that will knock back any enemy that comes close and burn them as they approach.

How to Use

I finally realized that it has more uses than I thought. Generally, it is recommended for protecting doorways, corners, or anything else where you want to keep someone away.

Where it really comes in useful is for keeping people out of melee range. If you launch the power and then stand in the middle, enemies that try to get close will get thrown back leaving you free to continue blasting them to bits.

Bonfire is a little like a Blaster's version of Hurricane from the Storm set

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( Default Slot Only ) There's not much you can do with this so you won't need many slots. 80%   Damage (80% Minimum) Default: 127.9 points With max 100% enhancement: 255.8 points It's an AoE attack that will hit enemies for about the strength of Flares for each hit. It's actually not that bad so it's worth adding to it a bit. 80%   Recharge (80% Minimum) Default: 120 sec With max 100% enhancement: 60 sec Besides damage, recharge is the best way to enhance this. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 16 end With max 100% enhancement: 8 end It's a bit spendy, but you won't use it enough to worry too much about this. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 70 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 112 Feet You don't need to set this very far away in most cases, particularly if you're going to go stand on it. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Char

Choke and burn!

Score

3 of 5

Unslotted Strength

5.7 x Brawl

Summary

A simple single-target hold, but that can save your butt! However, because you can't stack this no matter how much you buff recharge and hold, I subtract a few points.

How to Use

The goal here is to handle enemies that are a giant pain to you before they can be a pain. sappers for example or enemies that hit particularly hard. Lock them down and deal them death without hesitation.

If fighting a GM or AV with a team, spam this because others probably are two. In combination, most big enemies will get held for at least part of the time making the fight a lot easier.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 5 Slots ) You could probably get away with only 4, but the recharge is pathetic and needs adjusting. 40%   Accuracy (40% Minimum) Default: 90% With max 100% enhancement: 180% Fortunately, you already start high for accuracy, but bump it up a little more just to be sure. You don't want a control power to miss. 80%   Recharge (80% Minimum) Default: 16 sec With max 100% enhancement: 8 sec Bring it back as fast as you can for control reasons. You won't be able to stack it on a single target, but you can at least spread the control around a bit. 50%   Damage (50% Minimum) Default: 137.6 points With max 100% enhancement: 275.2 points Among other things, this is a pretty decent attack. Once you've handled recharge, why not make it hit harder? 30%   Hold (30% Minimum) Default: 2.4 sec With max 100% enhancement: 4.8 sec Even if you slot this to the max, you'll never hold anyone for long. Fortunately as a Blaster, you don't need very long to take them down anyway. 30%   Endurance Reduction (30% Minimum) Default: 10.7 end With max 100% enhancement: 5.35 end Lowering endurance is good. Do it as much as you can afford after everything else. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 80 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 128 Feet It's already the same range as all your other primary attacks so no need to make it further. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Fire Shield

Protection at last.

Score

5 of 5

Summary

After spending levels and levels dying, it's nice to have some protection for a change. This power gives about 20% damage resistance from Fire, Smashing, Lethal, and Cold. If it helps, think of it as reducing most attacks by 1/5th.

How to Use

Turn it on. Keep it on. Enjoy.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 4 Slots ) The goal is to leave it on all the time and have the highest resist possible. 4 slots is enough to do that. 50%   Damage Resist (50% Minimum) Default: 19.3% With max 60% enhancement: 30.88% Take it as high as you can. 80%   Endurance Reduction (80% Minimum) Default: .33 end per second With max 100% enhancement: 0.165 end per second Toggles are a constant drain and adds up. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 4 sec With max 100% enhancement: 2 sec Comes back fast already. Don't worry about it. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Melt Armor

Weaken them before the barbeque.

Score

3 of 5

Summary

Target an enemy, hit him and all near him (just like Fireball). Lowers defense of all affected targets by 7% and damage resistance by 9.75%.

How to Use

This isn't complicated. Use it on enemy groups before you start the rest of your combo. However, if you don't have a Tank nearby to take the aggro for you, this could be a dangerous thing to do.

By dropping Bonfire or Burn on a doorway, you can launch Melt Armor and run around the corner picking off anyone that makes it through. You can also save it for when you're fighting tough bosses or particularly well defended targets (like force field drones).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 5 Slots ) If you take this, you'll need some slots to make it really work. 60%   Accuracy (60% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% If the debuff is going to work, this has to hit. 80%   Recharge (80% Minimum) Default: 200 sec With max 100% enhancement: 100 sec It's useful, but slow to recharge. Try to buff this to the max and you'll see it every 2 minutes or so. 70%   Defense Debuff (70% Minimum) Default: 7-1 With max 60% enhancement: 4.9-1 Small reductions in defense can have a big effect. Increase this to the max for a total defense reduction of 10% per target hit. 30%   Endurance Reduction (30% Minimum) Default: 22.8 end With max 100% enhancement: 11.4 end It's pretty spendy. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 70 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 112 Feet It's range is good as-is. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Rise of the Phoenix

I'm baaaack!

Score

4 of 5

Unslotted Strength

13.9 x Brawl (per target)

Summary

Revives you and deals damage, stun, and knockback to any nearby foes.

How to Use

Using Self Destruct and Rise of the Phoenix for giggles :) (Video: 4.6Mb)

Of course you can just revive yourself from death when you die. That's the simple way. But what about making it part of your combo? If you have the cyborg booster pack, run to a group and self destruct. You'll die, but gain no debt. Use Rise of the Phoenix to come back and beat everything down. If they're close enough when you use it, you can use your nova right away followed by consume. Think about it! You could have some fun with this power

And remember that while the stun effect of this power doesn't last very long, you are protected from debt for the next several seconds. I would have rated it 5 of 5 for the revenge factor, but you do have to die to use it.

Rise of the Phoenix does as much damage as a Nova power! Don't underestimate it as a regular part of your strategy!

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) 3 is enough though more is better. 60%   Recharge (60% Minimum) Default: 300 sec With max 100% enhancement: 150 sec It's useful because you can use it when needed (if you bring it back soon enough). 60%   Damage (60% Minimum) Default: 333 points With max 100% enhancement: 666 points Punish the dudes that put you down. Hit them as hard as you can! 20%   Heal (20% Minimum) Default: 50% With max 100% enhancement: 100% If you have the room, slot some heal so you get back more of your life when rezzing. 0%   Stun (0% Minimum) Default: 2 sec With max 100% enhancement: 4 sec Mid's hero planner says the stun value is only 2 seconds long, but in testing it was much longer. Buff it if you want, but I didn't find a need for it. 0%   Endurance Modification (0% Minimum) Default: 50% With max 100% enhancement: 100% You get half your endurance back which is enough if you launch consumer immediately after. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

01: Gale

47%47%21%

01: Shriek

45%94%45%45%

02: O2 Boost

62%24%17%

04: Howl

48%95%21%41%26%

06: Steamy Mist

90%52%47%42%

08: Hasten

83%

10: Freezing Rain

74%88%47%

12: Recall Friend

42%

14: Super Speed

35%

16: Snow Storm

83%83%42%

18: Hurdle

42%

20: Shout

66%90%45%40%

22: Health

83%

24: Stamina

83%

26: Tornado

89%70%70%70%

28: Hurricane

92%54%42%

30: Shockwave

47%88%37%26%

32: Lightning Storm

86%90%45%40%22%

35: Siren's Song

48%48%27%16%13%

38: Dreadful Wail

95%95%21%

41: Thunder Strike

90%71%40%

44: Charged Armor

69%41%

47: Shocking Bolt

89%89%47%45%19%

49: Power Sink

83%42%

At this point (if you slotted well), play goes very fast. You can toss out tornados, lightning storms, and beat people down with fists of lightning. You're a great debuffer and fantastic at moving things around. Playing something this chaotic is pretty darned cool.

Now that you've made it to 50, remember to use your Nova power as often as you like. I tended to hold it when I was married to that idea of taking Whirlwind as my level 50 power, but it seems so unnecessary when you already have hurricane and other powers that push people around.

Instead, I took an endurance recovery power which makes it possible to use my nova without worries (since I can get all my endurance back as long as I have a blue inspiration on me before I use it).

If you do what I did and put a "Chance of self heal" into Siren's Song and even if you didn't, use it as much as possible during battle. It's not strong damage, but decent and most importantly, it will keep some enemies from being able to fight you while they sleep. This is especially true when soloing compared to teaming.

Most everything else that I can say about playing a noisy stormer has been said so I will give you this instead:

Gale's 50

WOO! IM FIFTEE! I CAN HAZ WINGS!?

Electric Fence

Hold still

Score

1 of 5

Unslotted Strength

3.3 x Brawl

Summary

This is the same single-target immobilize power that blasters are forced to take in their secondary. It's low power and of little use.

How to Use

If you're desperate to keep something from running away, perhaps this will have some use for you. Also, you can immobilize them and let Tornado and Lightning storm rip them a new one (assuming you're not here just to read about the pool and not building a Storm/Sonic).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( Default Slot Only ) There's not much you can do with this so you won't need many slots. 40%   Accuracy (40% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% Standard attack percentages. Make it accurate so it will hit. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 50 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 80 Feet I think 50 is enough, but if you want to stop a runner, adding some distance might not be a bad idea. 0%   Damage (0% Minimum) Default: 43.2 points With max 100% enhancement: 86.4 points So it's a decent attack. By the time you can get this, you'll have many much better attacks to use. 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 9.75 end With max 100% enhancement: 4.875 end If you were to spam this power, the end cost would get pretty bad, but I don't know anyone that would do this. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 4 sec With max 100% enhancement: 2 sec It already comes back 5 times faster than its immob duration. 0%   Immobilize (0% Minimum) Default: 22.4 sec With max 100% enhancement: 44.8 sec This lasts a really long time. No enhancement necessary. 0%   Endurance Modification (0% Minimum) Default: 2.5% With max 100% enhancement: 5% Drains an itty bitty little bit of endurance from the enemy and lowers their recovery rate for a while. If you already have a theme of controlling the enemy via their endurance, this would be helpful. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Thunder Strike

Blammo!

Score

6 of 5

Unslotted Strength

8.27 x Brawl

Summary

With a long activation delay, you jump into the air and drop down with a strong electrical melee blast. It hits your target, but also any other enemies that are close. Like most electrical powers, this also lowers the affected enemy's endurance recovery rate.

How to Use

First, this is the strongest attack you're going to get as a Defender and second, it's not single target! Besides being an attack, you can also use this to stack stun on enemies (if you have stun in your primary or secondary like I do).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 6 Slots ) This power has a lot going for it. Give it 6 slots minimum 40%   Accuracy (40% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% Standard attack percentages. Make it accurate so it will hit. 80%   Damage (80% Minimum) Default: 91.1 points With max 100% enhancement: 182.2 points So it's a decent attack. By the time you can get this, you'll have many much better attacks to use. 50%   Recharge (50% Minimum) Default: 40 sec With max 100% enhancement: 20 sec Bring it back as fast as you can for control and high damage. 50%   Stun (50% Minimum) Default: 7.45 sec With max 100% enhancement: 14.9 sec Stun is a great secondary power particularly when dealing with tough enemies. 30%   Endurance Reduction (30% Minimum) Default: 23.1 end With max 100% enhancement: 11.55 end Lowering endurance is good. Do it as much as you can afford after everything else. 0%   Knockback (0% Minimum) Default: 6 Feet With max 180% enhancement: 16.8 Feet I've never thought I wanted more knockback on this. I kinda don't want the KB I have... Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Charged Armor

Protection at last.

Score

5 of 5

Summary

What's there to say? It's the damage reduction armor every Defender gets access to in the Epic pools. Smashing and Lethal resistance like normal with a side of energy resistance.

How to Use

Turn it on. Keep it on. Enjoy.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 4 Slots ) You can fully slot this with 3 or 4 slots. I went with 4. 50%   Damage Resist (50% Minimum) Default: 27.5% With max 60% enhancement: 44% Take it as high as you can. 80%   Endurance Reduction (80% Minimum) Default: .33 end per second With max 100% enhancement: 0.165 end per second Toggles are a constant drain and add up. 0%   Recharge (0% Minimum) Default: 2 sec With max 100% enhancement: 1 sec Comes back fast already. Don't worry about it. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Shocking Bolt

Same as the Clockwork power we all hate.

Score

4 of 5

Unslotted Strength

2 x Brawl

Summary

At good distance, you shock the enemy with electricity and hold them in an electrical field (exactly the same as the power that the Clockwork knights are always using at low levels).

How to Use

It's not hugely powerful as an attack so don't take it for that reason. The main reason you want it is for what it was intended: a hold. If you already have some good stuns, sleep, or holds in your other sets, maybe this is superfluous, but I like the ability to stack holds or handle more enemies.

If you DON'T already have control powers, you really, really need this. Shocking Bolt will let you take problem enemies (like sappers) out of the battle for a bit. When fighting Archvillains and monsters, let your other team members focus on attacks while you help the controllers and other defenders spam holds.

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 5 Slots ) You'll only need 5 to buff most aspects of this power. If you want more damage, give it 6. 60%   Accuracy (60% Minimum) Default: 75% With max 100% enhancement: 150% If you fire this, it's because you need something to stop moving. Make sure you hit it. 60%   Recharge (60% Minimum) Default: 16 sec With max 100% enhancement: 8 sec Bring it back as fast as you can for control and high damage. 40%   Hold (40% Minimum) Default: 17.9 sec With max 100% enhancement: 35.8 sec Lengthen the duration of the hold effect to help support stacking with multiple applications. 10%   Endurance Modification (10% Minimum) Default: 5.33% With max 100% enhancement: 10.66% Use of this power can actually restore endurance to you. Slot this up some if you can. 10%   Endurance Reduction (10% Minimum) Default: 10.7 end With max 100% enhancement: 5.35 end This isn't a huge priority, but you should easily be able to drop the endurance a little with everything else. 0%   Damage (0% Minimum) Default: 21.6 points With max 100% enhancement: 43.2 points It's ok for an attack, but I think other attributes take priority. 0%   Range (0% Minimum) Default: 80 Feet With max 60% enhancement: 128 Feet It's plenty long. Leave it alone. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

Power Sink

Slurp!

Score

3 of 5

Summary

Drains endurance from nearby enemies and recovers some of your own endurance.

How to Use

As someone who uses a LOT of endurance, it doesn't hurt to be able to have some more. However, I did such a good job of controlling my endurance use, I didn't really need this power and thought about not taking it.

However, if you have a Nova power, it drains all your endurance. The best combo is Nova + Blue inspiration + End recover power. This is the last in the chain. With it, you can fire your Nova whenever you want in the middle of any battle since you can just get your endurance back in a second.

Remember you have to be in melee range to use this (which you will be if you just used your Nova so that works out just fine).

Recommended # of Slots and Enhancement Priority

	( 3 Slots ) 3 is good, 4 is better, more is kind of a waste. 80%   Recharge (80% Minimum) Default: 120 sec With max 100% enhancement: 60 sec The ONLY disadvantage to this power is the long recharge so fix that first. 40%   Endurance Modification (40% Minimum) Default: 25% With max 100% enhancement: 50% You regain 25 percent of your end (unenhanced) PER target hit. It's still good to bump this up in case you only have one or two enemies around to suck from AND because the end mod attribute also increase the amount the enemy is drained (41% unenhanced, 80% fully slotted). 0%   Endurance Reduction (0% Minimum) Default: 16.3 end With max 100% enhancement: 8.15 end You'll gain plenty of endurance from using this so this is not necessary. Help The enhanceable properties of this power are listed in order of importance. Hover the mouse over each for detailed information and a description.

I'm also planning on some upgrades to the guides to account for new travel powers and several of my characters that have recently reached 50. There's a lot in mind, but it all depends on time .