Switching to Rage Tank...help with Loadout and build..(Battle Tank?)

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Poveglia201, Jan 10, 2022.

  1. Poveglia201 New Player

    I'm needing a bit of help, and was hoping the community could help out.

    I'm currently playing Earth, with these specifications: CR:351, 160 SP (working on this) / Artifacts (Tank): Manacles (160), Everyman (120), Mystical Seal (120). Artifacts (DPS): Strat Card (140), Trans Card (120), Solar Amplifier (120).

    So, I'm looking for a new power because I'm getting a bit burned out playing Earth, and I'm looking for a more viable DPS power for those Raids / Alerts where there already is a tank and looking for a more enjoyable DPS power. After much deliberation between Fire & Rage, I decided to go with Rage.

    Can anyone who has a lot of Rage experience (both DPS & Tank) help me with a viable Loadout and Rotation for a Rage DPS and Tank build?

    I primarily prefer tanking, but definitely DPS on occasion, when needed. Please keep in mind the current Artifacts that I already put effort into, and my limited skill points (160).

    Any help is greatly appreciated!
    • Like x 2
  2. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    Tank:
    Your artifacts are fine. Skill points, keep working, you'll get there.
    Skill point spec, dump as much as you can into health. Rage relies on high health, then dominance.

    Full tank loadout:
    Ragebringer, severe punishment, redirected rage, hard light shield, eviscerating chain (to cancel the crash) and Ire (use before e chain so you're never stunned for a crash).
    Cycle one shield after cancel rage crash, then severe punishment again, then the other shield after cancelling crash.

    Battle tank:
    Transformation, everyman, manicles.
    Skill points (you'll need more) all critical attack and healing maxed. 150 precision, 150 health, rest into dominance (up to 150, then health again).
    Loadout:
    Without mercy, remorseless recovery, bloodlust, redirected rage, hard light shield (iconic), then whatever you want.
    1 handed weapon combo into mastery (does good damage and stuns).


    DPS:
    Transformation, grim, LA mort
    Rsk, remorseless recovery, berserk, outrage, e chain, lacerate.

    Rotation: recovery, e chain clipped to outage clipped to lacerate (2-3 hits until e chain cool down), repeat.

    ST:
    Transformation, solar, grim
    Rsk, channel hate, heat vision, dreadful blast, berserk, *shield or remorseless recovery

    Rotation: heat vision then q a range tap (gives grim time to apply PI), dreadful combo clipped to channel hate (2-3 ticks), dreadful blast combo clipped to heat vision- repeat
  3. Poveglia201 New Player

    After browsing around here for a while, I was low-key hoping you'd respond due to your knowledge on Rage.

    Thanks a ton for the help!

    Another quick question....to survive better as a DPS (I have a problem being a glass cannon), is there a way to incorporate Hard Light Shield into a DPS build without sacrificing too much?

    Also, is there a viable build / loadout using the DPS arts I already worked on, or is Grim and LA mort "must-haves"?
    Lastly, can you explain "clipping" I hear many people say this, but dont really understand what they are talking about.
    • Like x 1
  4. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    First, you're welcome! I enjoy helping people generally.
    Now, the artifacts aren't "must have" but your damage will suffer, and your loadout will change.

    Rage melee dps is a very risk vs reward type of power. So the higher damage you want to do, the more risky you need to be (not using shield).
    Remorseless recovery is a power that will heal you a little (6 times) based on your damage output. Through solo, duo, and alerts at times, you'll notice the help it offers. I think it's better than a shield because:
    1. It heals you.
    2. It's ready to use again immediately when it's done (shield must cool)
    3. You can use it after other things (like orbital) to cancel animations.

    Clipping is when you cast another power, just before the animation of the previous power completes. Outrage is a 3 hit combo. Cast, tap melee, hold melee. So just a moment after you hold melee to initiate the end of the combo, you'll cast lacerate. The animation gets cancelled, and if you time it right, you still get the damage from it.

    If you need a visual example, I could show you in game sometime, how to properly clip rage powers. There might videos out, but the choice is yours.
    Also, practice the combos: not until you get them right, but until you can't get them wrong. Properly timed combos are what make rage so powerful with melee.


    Side note: if you prefer to use different artifacts, the general melee loadout will be:
    Violence clipped to remorseless recovery, outrage clipped to e chain clipped to outrage clipped to lacerate (2-3 hits until outrage is ready again). Outrage clip to e chain clip to outrage clip to lacerate, then you'll need to start again with violence.

    Best of luck!
  5. |The 3rror Committed Player

    severe punishment ragebring without mercy redirected rage hardlight shield and chain
  6. Poveglia201 New Player

    Whats the big difference with Ire and Without Mercy?
    • Like x 1
  7. Trexlight Devoted Player


    So Ire is a Group Breakout ability thats provides crowd control protection for about 3 secs (you flash white when its active). It also provides a Heal that if memory serve4s, is increased by the Crit Heals/magnitude and Resto stats. Nothing to really spec in in my eyes but to each their own for sure.

    Without Mercy is a midrange AOE group pull and also provides Heals to you as well. Very handy on handling Adds for some stacked heals.
    • Like x 1
  8. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    As mentioned above, true:
    The reason I suggest to use Ire is because of all sorts of crowd control mechanics that can prevent you being able to successfully cancel rage crash (which 99% of the time during boss fights, means you die). So hitting Ire before you are casting e chain (to cancel crash) ensures that you are able to cancel without a problem. I suggest this, until you are very familiar with the rage crash mechanics. Once you are familiar with it, you might want to change to another power, or you might keep it to have that "safety net" for survival.
    • Like x 1
  9. |The 3rror Committed Player

    in honesty there’s no point using ire cause you gonna need a breakout trinket and it’s best to have crowd control it’s best to keep the ads on their back even when you have another tank in the group having a boss/ads it helps pull aggro give the group time to pickup the other tank if they go down
  10. Monkeyboy Committed Player

    Glass cannon? If that's a WoW warlock reference, then play as a rogue if you're melee dps, stay behind the mobs or boss. For Rage, Grim and LA mort are not "must haves" unless you're min/maxing for different fights. Grim if you drop Heat Vision, otherwise you're in a good place. Clipping is using an ability or weapon attack before the previous animation of the previous ability or attack is complete. You get complete damage for the attack who's animation is cut short. Some abilities or attacks don't need the full animation to get the full effect. This practice leads to using 2 abilities at "once" which leads to faster or more dps.
  11. Daitoso0317 Active Player

    Completely random qeustion are there any builds on rage in which channel hate is effective, I'm a sucker for energy beam based attacks, an it looked like the heal might help? Just curious since you seem to know your way around rage
  12. Trexlight Devoted Player


    Channel Hate isnt effective for Tank builds due to it being interruptible. Now yo ucan get a Mod from your Base to stop it from being interrupted but the Heals are also not the greatest as that healing is based on the damage Channel Hate does. Its more useful in Range DPS at certain times.

    Fire has the same type of ability with Absorb Heat. Again, not useful in Tanking.
  13. SingingCoyote Level 30

    you should probably focus on tanking unless you have 200s for dpsing as rage requires a lot of artifacts for good dps. (quislet, scrap, flute, strat, trans) it's main source of damage is the supercharge berserk and without it, it's pretty bad.

    for tank you need manacles - laz pit (200 only) - 3rd slot doesnt really matter (mystic if you struggle with ads) and get the lex luthor ally if you can he's amazing
    rage is really good for ST tank, but for ads you're gonna need dreadful blast and chronos to CC

    ST loadout- lasso(iconic), severe punishment, redirected rage, HL shield(iconic), ire/dash attack, e-chain or dreadful. (can use shields to tank your ragecrash)

    Ads loadout- rage bringer, severe punishment, redirected rage, without mercy, dreadful blast, HL shield or ire. Use chrono emitters (consumable) with dreadful blast to perma CC ads and use without mercy to group them

    PS: for an encounter with multiple bosses you don't need "without mercy" so replace it with a shield or the immunity (ire). Use the fortified assault neck mod and accelerated redirected rage back mod, prioritize dominance then health and make sure to have updated generator mods in your base.
  14. Daitoso0317 Active Player

    Unfortunate, thanks for the help tho
  15. TI99Kitty Dedicated Player

    I've never used Rage, so I don't know how Rage abilities work together, but most of the time a DPS loadout is 4 attacks that you can rotate, leaving 2 slots that can either be 2 SCs, or a "flex" slot (as DeitySupreme calls it) and an SC. If you're having trouble keeping your health up, I'd put the HLS in that flex spot, unless Rage has a better shield. I'd also suggest that you get the Kandor Bottled Soder and level it up. It's only 8 ranks, so it's pretty easy to max out, and at rank 8, it restores 90% of your health (and power, IIRC). It's reusable, so you won't ever run out, and you can just sell all those soders that are constantly dropping. Plus, it gets equipped in the consumable slot, so it doesn't take up an artifact slot.

    I mean, if you're in a group with a halfway decent Healer, you shouldn't need either of those, but I'm seeing a lot of groups, at least in Regular content, that are either all DPS, or mostly DPS and a Tank.
  16. Mr. Mage New Player

    fire is better in both damage and tank roles than rage, however I don't know enough about fire to determine any good builds, but rage is my main tank powerset and it got nerfed into oblivion during the years I was gone from DCUO, if you ask me, you're wasting time and DB cash with this inferior powerset that could be invested into fire, and for free, you'd be far more satisfied with how much more potential it has to be a battle tank compared to rage
  17. Trexlight Devoted Player


    1000% incorrect assessment on the Tanking side. Fire is nowhere better than Rage. Rage can still function as a Power without Artifacts unlike Fire that requires Artifacts to be effective. Rage was nerfed but we are still functional just not godlike as we were before Stats Revamp. Also, you're contradicting yourself hardcore where you main Rage, but dont know Fire but you recommend Fire over Rage lol DPS side of things, Fire does a bit more damage but thats because they are better at Range than Rage. Rage does better damage in Melee. Each have their strong points but their effectiveness depends on their placement. Of course when you bring Artifacts into play everything varies as not everyone uses that same Arts in DPS for the Powers.
    • Like x 1
  18. Pale Rage Dedicated Player

    Not really for the tank side, considering there are much better options for healing, much better options for taunting, and you can easily get knocked down while channeling. So as far as tanking goes, it's not a viable choice.
  19. undrline Issue Tracker Volunteer

    I haven't read what people above me have said.

    TANK

    Loadout:
    Severe Punishment, Evicerating Chain, Ire, Redirected Rage, Rage Bringer

    Rotation:
    Severe Punishment (damage mitigation, heals you for most of incoming damage)
    When Severe gets to the bottom (6 o'clock) of the cooldown and the hearbeat speeds up
    Ire (releases me from control effects and will soften the rage crash if I can't cancel. The point of this is to be uncontrolled and able to cancel. Also gives a small heal.)
    Evicerating chain (doesn't need to be combo'd unless you miss the timer, will cancel rage crash)
    Clip Echain with Redirected Rage
    Hopefully your Dominance is high enough, or your sustain from other sources is available, so this will last you until the next Severe

    Swap slot:
    That leaves one slot. I recommend Outrage or Without Mercy, with that being the slot for your Single Target Taunt as needed:

    Outrage gives you a second way to cancel if you messed up with Echain. If you combo (use tap, hold; never tap tap hold), it will also give you a point blank aoe knockup that will buy you enough time if Redicrected Rage shield is on cooldown. A double-edged sword is that you lunge to your target. That's great if Zeus bounces you away in Godsphere. Also good if you're flight and trying to stay ahead of the group. Not so good if you accidentally target a random barrel across the room.

    Without Mercy is also a pbaoe knockup, but will also pull things toward you ... often pulling together what rage bringer spread out. Like Ire, it will also soften the blow if you do mess up your cancel and give you a small heal. Like Outrage, the knockup will buy you time until your shield. Once you're comfortable cancelling rage crash, I recommend switching to this, and only using Outrage situationally.

    Rage Blast is your Single Target Taunt, though a lot of people prefer the iconic lasso. Read more about how a single target taunt works here: https://tinyurl.com/DCUOAggro

    DAMAGE

    For my dailies and melee might:
    With Robot Sideckick up, Revenge combo clipped with Outrage tap hold combo clipped with violence clipped with severe punishment, lacerate, repeat
    If I need to end Lacerate early, to cancel crash, I'll tap range (or tap/hold range for brawling shuriken storm) and clip with Revenge or Outrage
    That gives me a knockup with Outrage, and a second one with with Violence which also applies plasma.

    For range I spec precision augments and skill points, but keep mainframe all might since I spend more time in dailiies. With Robot Sideckick up, I clip Galling Eruption, Remorseless Recovery, Bloodlust together. So, I have two DoTs, sustain, and weapon buff, and go at it with Brawling Shuriken storm. I use Berserk on this loadout. Berserk clipped with RR, Galling Clipped with BL. I have Redirected Rage as a shield for pickups.

    Most of the high DPS ranged rage players I've seen are going precision and using the superspeed Whirling Dervish clip (which, imho should go back to being a cancel, not a clip). Here's how to do that:
  20. nanoUSB Well-Known Player


    There's many bossfights where there's no need for pulls, and Channel Hate can be a great replacement as it's essentially a low-cooldown Ire with the Empowered Channeling mod, for personal use at least. Also, unlike Absorb heat or many other channeled moves, one can simply tap or block out of it whenever needed, so it can't get you stuck either. Thus "at certain times" it's perfectly viable and useful for tanking.

    Also disagree on Absorb Heat, it's a stable in my and plenty other firetanks' loadout, as its heals are massive and again, low cooldown immunity with the hand mod. This one can be more tricky though as it's an especially long channel move and one can get stuck in the animation.