Not sure if Everyman is an art I need for my tank. How important is defense really? Is Dom the better stat ?
Defense is important for a tank, but more important for specific types of tank powers. What power are you?
ice - doesnt really benefit a lot from everyman since you are always having shields up (not getting hits to proc the art) but it can be useful if you dont have other artifacts to compensate in 3rd slot fire - really important since you're getting hit 24/7 while healing back, everyman just improves it more atomic - also important like fire (minus the self-heal back) earth - important if you're playing with jackhammer build. not so much important if you're playing with brick build rage - same as fire/atomic, you get hit 24/7 to proc everyman
Defense as a general stat is important. It’s one of the games damage mitigation is achieved. Also, defense VS dom is not really a valid argument since you can’t spec into defense. So it’s not as simple as “this art gives more dom so it’s better”. Regarding Everyman, as others have said, it’s strong art but some powers make better use of it.
I was never a huge fan of this artifact, as the effect is barely noticeable. Its very good if your healer is kind of slow but with the way heal artifacts are so OP that its almost impossible to not be a good healer, i wouldnt invest in it. Back then, when it was released on test server, i barely noticed a difference between everyman and dilustel refractor. Although the effects are different, dilustel has a 100% uptime, wich is not the case for everyman. Dilustel also benefits the group, making it in the current state of healers the much more beneficial option imo. Since the devs are looking into rebalancing old artifacts soon, dilustel refractor could see a slight change if the devs feel like it.
So... many... useless... artifacts... Cough cough, eh hem, you were saying? We need power specific artifacts, not role specific artifacts. We need iconic specific artifacts, along with more iconic powers to choose. We also need to be able to afford to level up said useless artifacts and not later feel like we were robbed at knifepoint for having leveled them in the first place. I, personally, would spend so much more money on the whole maxing all artifacts I found interesting, much less necessary, if it was made less daunting on my time, energy, and money "needed" to max artifacts. I say "needed" because there are those types who would create the argument, because they are so inclined to do so, that you don't "need" anything. Don't buy it. Use nth detectors. Wait til double XP. Et cetera, et cetera. Fact is, artifacts need to become far more interesting, and way less challenging to level up. And I do not want a slick rebuttal from anyone who only rocks one or two created characters. This is a MMO, mass multiplayer online, make artifacts accessible to the masses of players, and the masses of their entire pantheon of created characters. I am so sick of seeing people walking around with a level 19 Tetrahedron, Pied Piper's flute, and Circe's mask. It is tragic.
Contrary to some opinions above, I find defense very important and the Everyman a vital artifact. I particularly notice it’s impact when using my battletank LO (when appropriate of course). My battletank doesn’t have the full damage mitigation stats that my full tank loadouts have plus I don’t catch nearly as many counters due to trying to maximize damage out so I take a lot more damage in when battletanking. My battletank LO only uses one “staple” tank artifact and originally it was Manacles since that’s the consensus “best” tank artifact. But then I swapped Everyman in and noticed a pretty big positive difference, especially with my health bar moving up and down a lot more. A few things to consider: - The Mystic 7’s effectiveness diminishes in situations the little to no adds and/or more big burst damage vs lots of ticks. In those scenarios, it’s pretty much just giving you stats (less than other tank arts) the healing received boost and 5% defense. - These days the vast majority of base damage received scales to health (including when health is buffed by artifacts, trinkets, pets, etc) which essentially makes health a worthless stat by itself. The Everyman actually makes use of that stat by converting it to defense. This also means healrh buffs like the Dillustel refractor, heartthrob pet, tank trinket, etc also boost the defense from Everyman when procced. - As I just stated, the health stat essentially doesn’t matter on it’s own due to scaling damage which makes the refractor useless on its own along with those 5% health stat boosts from your other artifacts and health boosts from augments. That is, unless said extra health is being converted to defense via the Everyman or a damage buff via the tetra or cog. For the same reasons, it does nothing to help group survivability as well. Unless, once again, group members are running the Everyman (2nd tank), cog or tetra (buff troll). - Again due to scaling damage, it also makes no sense to spec any SP in to health unless, again, said health is being converted to defense, might or precision via those artifacts. So without the Everyman, after maxing out dom you might as well max resto. Which in that case, for certain powers/playstyles makes sense. - One criticism of the Everyman is that it does nothing other than provide stats when your health is full or close. But that’s not when you need the extra defense. You need it when you’re getting smacked hard. In my view, that’s like being critical of a healer not healing you when your health is full or close to full. That’s not when you need heals. Theoretically, if one tanked absolutely perfectly, that is, rotating shields perfectly, catching and perfectly timing every lunge and block counter, moving out of range of anything you can’t counter, perfectly juggling adds, etc, etc they’d take little to no damage meaning there’d be little to no need for defense, health or even heals save for blocked one-shot mechanics. But that’s not reality. In real life even the best tanks get smacked hard (at least in elite) and that’s when defense goes from inconsequential to critical. Opinions on tanking and tank builds differ probably more than anything else in this game so I’m sure a lot of people would debate some or even a lot of the info I just said. But based on my first hand experience as well as what I’ve gleaned from countless conversations with others good players on the subject,, t above info is my take and I stand pretty firm on it (obviously, lol). But YMMV.
