The Battlemaster (Tank-Support)

bluegrassbeast

Okay, a caveat here - this build is currently almost entirely theoretical - its only been used up to level 11 on Live and dabbled and built but not equipped or tested on PTS.

The concept here was based initially on a "Captain America" type figure - a tough but mostly mundane hero who was of primary benefit to his team through leadership; when Live testing began the use of the lunge gave a different visual idea and the name shifted - to more "alien warlord" in the vein of an Ork Warboss or a Krogan Battlemaster. Basically, this guy can hold some threat and do some damage, and offer field support with bots and meds, but his real strength is (in theory) that simply by showing up he just makes everyone else on his side better through "tactics" and "example."

This is highly theoretical, as I mentioned, so feedback is not only welcome, but encouraged.

PowerHouse (Link to this build)

Name: Battlemaster 1.0

Archetype: Freeform

Super Stats:
Level 6: Presence (Primary)
Level 10: Constitution (Secondary)
Level 15: Strength (Secondary)

Talents:
Level 1: The Hero
Level 6: Impressive Physique
Level 9: Shrug It Off
Level 12: Physical Conditioning
Level 15: Finesse
Level 18: Martial Focus
Level 21: Acrobat

Powers:
Level 1: Clobber
Level 1: Defensive Combo (Rank 2, Crippling Challenge)
Level 6: Mighty Leap
Level 8: Aura of Primal Majesty (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Inexorable Tides (Rank 2, Rank 3, Challenging Strikes)
Level 14: Retaliation (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 17: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 20: Inertial Dampening Field (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 23: Support Drones (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 26: Munitions Bots
Level 29: Aggressor (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 32: Bionic Shielding (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Masterful Dodge
Level 38: Resurrection Serum

Travel Powers:
Level 6: Athletics
Level 35: Swinging (Rank 2, Rank 3)

Specializations:
Presence: Selfless Ally (2/2)
Presence: Grandeur (3/3)
Presence: Moment of Glory (2/3)
Presence: Force of Will (2/2)
Sentinel: Caregiver (3/3)
Sentinel: Sentinel Aura (3/3)
Sentinel: Moment of Need (2/3)
Sentinel: Genesis (2/2)
Arbiter: Enforcer (3/3)
Arbiter: Arbiter Aura (3/3)
Arbiter: Honor (2/2)
Arbiter: Preservation (2/2)
Mastery: Arbiter Mastery (1/1)

superalfgorn

There is a similar thread you might take inspiration from (HERE).

I would guess that your plan is to begin a fight in Tank role with Defiance to build threat and Def. stacks. Then switch to Support with AoPM. To keep threat, refresh Defiance stacks, and proc the Arbiter spec you plan to spam Defensive Combo. If this is the case I would drop Defiance to rank 1 and put the points in the munition bots.

Finally in the Sentinel tree I would drop Genesis in favor of Eternal Spring for more healing.

Unknown

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pedipalp

Well, in that case, you're going to have a hard time running 2 passives at the same time...

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pedipalp

If you choose to actually mod for presence, you would be much better off on a 5 man team if you ran in support. You're not going to be doing much damage anyway, but you would be SIGNIFICANTLY greater at buffing your team-mates.

For instance, with about 200 Pre in Hybrid you would give yourself about +48 to all stats and team-mates about +18 all stats.

In Support, you'd be giving yourself about +43 to all stats, and your team about +65 to all stats.

Pulled these numbers straight out of my rear, but the proportional differences are close. Go to PTS, insta-level to 40, and look at the expanded description of AoPM. Seriously. Check it out.

The damage difference for you is about -25% in support, but the damage buff for team members is at least that times 2-4 (depending on size of team). Not only are you buffing their superstats and increasing their overall efficacy via their passives and specs, but you're buffing their ego/str for direct damage, crit chance, hit points, and buffing end/int/rec to allow them to attack more often and increasing their DPS. Sorry, run-on.

Even considering diminishing returns for some of their stats, there is no comparison overall team-DPS-wise between the 2. Support AoPM wins hands-down.

This assumes, of course, that you're stattiing Pre to a reasonable level...

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oniganon

Perhaps I'm just vastly underestimating it, but trying to tank using a passive with no inherent damage resistance or dodge/avoid just seems like a bad idea to me.

flamingbunnyman

It's possible to get impressive levels of Defense and Dodge/Avoid off gear and specs alone. With PSS Pre, heals are likely to be plenty large enough to make up the difference.

Yes, a defensive passive would make it easier to tank, but it's even possible to tank with an offensive passive. Just ask Sekimen.

xeiros

bluegrassbeast wrote: »

The main reason I hadn't decided on that route myself was uncertainty on whether the healing could keep pace to generate enough threat with the default reduction in it of the role; otherwise, yes, the stat rate difference seemed comically bad by comparison.

No. Remember that in the Support role your threat is reduced by 10%, the damage bonus your SS provide is only 15%, and because you're in said role you cannot use Bulwark to increase your threat generation. CC and CS won't save you when you choose to us laughably bad powers like inexorable tides, defensive combo, and non-ranked munitions bots as your primary means of attack.

You go on about healing threat being all you really have, but you don't have powers like Devour Essence or Ego Weaponry that can heal you and damage at the same time. You even choose Inertial Dampening Field instead of a damage toggle so your damage would be as almost terrible as possible. Good for you. Look you either choose to be a Tank or you want to play support hero, but you can't be both at the same time otherwise you'll end up failing at both.

superalfgorn

I have the impression that running in hybrid only without the Bulwark spec from the Protector tree you are going nowhere.

As Xeiros says you will not DPS, nor Tank, and only marginally support.

I would really follow the plan I outlined above: keep two passives and switch role mid-combat (if needed).

Nevertheless, at least drop the two points from Retaliation and put them into the Muni Bots!