So I've resolved to actually start looking more into Earth tanking via one of my alts, however at the moment I know very little about it (I'm a Controller by trade, DPS on occasion). I have a little knowledge on Tanking basics, but for Earth I mostly just know that there is the pet Tanking with Brick and the Aftershock Tanking with that power. I've always kind of used both in my loadout but now I'm wondering if I'm doing myself a disservice and won't be able to use it viably later on, and I don't want to grow bad habbits as I learn Tanking. Right now I use Tectonic Break as the Dazed PI applier, then 3 pet powers (Summon Brick/Heal Brick/Power Brick), Soothing Sands for immunity, and then Jackhammer. Will this work, or are there fatal flaws? Any help is appreciated!
Pet tanking is by and large the more consistent way to tank as earth. As long as brick is out and alive 25% of your dmg is always sent to him now. No longer do you have to use the damage shift power. Any time you use any power as earth you get a flat 25% absorption plus a defense boost based on your dom for 12 seconds. This means that unless you never touch your powers, you'll be at full defense at roughly all the time. Throw in casual use of gemstone shield to reduce dmg further and you'll be taking very little dmg. In most cases dmg that any half decent healer can manage. After shock tanking work with the jackhammer power or that other ranged one that I can't remember. The first use of the power gives you the flat normal 25% absorption and defense boost, your first after shock raises it up to a total of 50%. This last for 12 seconds and is pretty easy to keep up obviously. Especially now that the first three aftershocks cost no extra power now. This takes a little more patience on your part, and getting stunned or knocked down could leave you relatively defenseless for a time if your absorption falls. Obviously you should almost never bet at nothing, any power at all used every 12 seconds gives you the flat 25%. Again you want to use gemstone shield to add another layer of dmg prevention when it's available. The thing to consider though is after shock blocks more dmg, slightly. Pet tanking works one after another. First the 25% from a power, then 25% from brick. 25% twice however only stops about 47%, while a combined total from aftershock stops a full 50%. In all honesty both work fine. Main thing though is to not aftershock gemstone shield unless our desperate to pick some one up or something. The base value, 25% I believe makes the shield last a lot longer and keep you alive better over all.
Oops forgot to mention that aftershocks bonus's to absorption doesn't work if you have brick out.. Jackhammer is still a pretty good AoE juggle move to build up agro with. Just don't after shock it too much as the precision based attacks don't' really help as much as the first might tick.
Maybe I should clarify. I'm not asking if you can use Aftershock tanking and Pet Tanking's mechanics at the same time, I'm asking if a loadout that uses both Brick and Jackhammer (the latter as a power that goes off of Tectonic Break for the PI and aggro/juggling purposes, not as the Aftershock version of Earth Tanking) will work, or if it won't be viable later because other powers are needed. I am Pet Tanking (I use Brick and his mechanics), but what I want to know is if using Aftershock in one of the open abilities in my tray (after the 3 Brick-related ones) is viable.
These issues with Aftershock achieving 50% and Brick only getting like 47% were supposed to have been resolved during the Earth revamp earlier this year. Do you have #s to show that it's still not working? OP - As the powers are designed... Aftershock Tanking cannot be used along with Pet Tanking. Meaning, if Brick is up... you can use Jacks, but will not get the bonus 25% absorption. Being Earth, and simply casting a power, grants you 25% absorption for 12sec. Either using Jackhammer OR having Brick out, grants you the other 25% absorption. Brick, obviously is more consistent... provided he stays alive. IIRC, Jackhammer is currently bugged and does not offer the extended absorption window from additional aftershocks. Not sure if it's been fixed yet. You can always run w/ Brick for absorption and then just you Jacks for taunts and CC.
Nah I play on PS and far as I know there really not any programs available to do the numbers myself. All I know is what comes from the forums, the earth tanking guide thread to be specific. That said I don't really think 3% ever was too much of a problem. Especially since pet tanking is pretty much always up and brick is easier to keep alive now.
yeah, that was supposed to have been corrected during the revamp. It was mentioned specifically. Yay!
You can use both but all JH will do is juggle enemies. So its viable if you want to juggle not so much if you wanted extra absorption.
It's actually 43.75%. Brick absorbs 25% damage after your standard 25% absorption kicks in, that's where the number comes from ( 0.25+(1-0.25)*0.25=0.4375 ). Jackhammer just overwrites your 25% absorption with a 50% one. I don't know if this was necessarily considered an issue but I did secretly hope myself that they would buff Brick to 50% total absorption. I explicitly tested on the test server when the revamp was on it during the last days and it was still 43.75%, didn't bother testing after that since it seemed highly unlikely that they would have ninja-changed this after. Deathmike out.
For the life of me, I cannot find the post. Perhaps, it was in the WIP forum, which has been cleaned out. I distinctly remember reading that Damage Shift was going to be doing the correct amount of damage mitigation. This is not working as intended still?
I think this is how it's intended to work and it's also consistent with the tooltips. My guess is that the notes you read on test were referencing an unrelated bug with Damage Shift that was present at the time. Just to be safe I tested this with my Earth toon earlier (like 5 minutes ago) and it still works exactly as I described in the post above (25% of the damage gets negated by your standard absorption then Brick absorbs 25% of the remaining 75% damage). Deathmike out.
I think in the Update notes Devs said it would be 50% without realizing it was multiplicative instead of additive. It's funny but this is probably why they have players test because they are quick to pick up on these things.
