Archetype: The BehemothLink to Archetype http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/The_BehemothVideo review of The Behemoth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VvNNqUmU2w
Link to info on the Tank role: http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/TankThe Behemoth is your basic Super Strength tank. It's all about enduring and inflicting damage at close/melee range. Because of this archetype's super stats being Constitution, Strength and Recovery you will have high health points and heal quickly out of combat. You will also have good knock (back/down/up/towards) resistance and regain energy fairly quickly. This archetype is going to generate more threat then most so be prepared to end up surrounded by opponents on a regular basis. Below I will give some details about the powers, advantages and specializations I suggest for this Archetype.
PowersClobber: This is you energy builder attack. Think of it as a faster, weaker version of CoH's Super Strength power Jab but - Disorient and it gives you energy every time you hit someone.
Advantages:[It's The Time] Adds a 15% chance to Disorient your opponent with each hit.
(cost 2 advantage points)Defensive Combo: This is your common go to attack for many situations. It has a low energy cost and a quick activation rate. It does ok damage but the real beauty of this attack happens when you hit the same opponent 3 times in a row. The 2nd hit in a row does slightly more damage then the 1st while the 3rd hit in a row does just barely over double the damage of the first hit and not only harms you target but also every enemy within melee range of your taget for the same amount. The third hit also always either gives 1 stack of the Defiant buff (if you have none) or refreshes the durations of existing Defiant buffs. This attack generates a lot of threat when used.
Advantages:[Rank 2] Boost the damage and threat generation of this attack.
(Cost 2 Advantage points)[Crippling Challenge] Increases this attacks threat, put a 20% damage debuff on the enemy you hit, taunts your target and causes this attack to break through blocking.
(Cost 3 Advantage points)Mighty Leap: This power is useful to get at an opponent up to 60 feet away from you and not much else really. It is a handy way to get around the battlefield. It does some crushing damage and snares you opponent. If you leap at an opponent more then 20 feet away you will also stun that opponent for a short time. You will always leap in a straight line towards your target. So if your target is in front of you, you will leap forward and if your taget is right above you, you will leap straight up etc.
(Note: you will always fall back to the ground after hitting your target unless you have a flight travel power active at the time. If your character does NOT have some form of flight you may want to take the Nailed to the Ground advantage instead of Bulls Rush.)Advantages:[Bull Rush] Adds a close range radius area of effect that knocks back and snares enemies close to your target opponent when the hit lands.
Cost 2 Advantage points) Take if you can fly[Nailed to the Ground] Cancels and disables opponents travel powers for a time when attack hits.
(Cost 2 Advantage points) Take if you can't flyDefiance: This is an Auto defence power that is always active
(freeform characters have differences regarding these types of powers) and cost no energy. what this power does is keep 1 stack of the defiant buff active on you at all times and allows you to have up to a maximum of 6 stacks of the Defiant buff on you at once. The Defiant buff gives you a percentage of damage reduction that scales up relative to your constitution stat. The higher your constitution, the more this buff protects you. Each time you are hit by an attack this power will give you another stack of the Defiant buff (up to the max of 6), refresh the duration of all your stacks of the Defiant buff and give you a small amount of energy.
Advantages:[Rank 2] Makes the Defiance power keep a minimum of 2 stacks of the Defiant buff on you at all times instead of just 1.
(Cost 2 advantage points)[Force of Will] Adds increasing resistance to knockback and stun the lower your health gets.
Cost 2 advantage pointsRoomsweeper or Thunderclap: This time you get to pick 1 of these 2 powers. I recomend
Roomsweeper for the simple reason that you will often get surrounded by enemies playing this archetype.
Roomsweeper is a good damage dealer and knocks back multiple enemies at melle range in front of you so is a great way to get some breathing room when you get surrounded. This power will also give 1 stack of the Enraged buff and refresh the duration of all stacks of the Enraged buff if over 50% charged. When you eventually get the Enrage toggle buff this power is a great to build up stack of the Enraged Buff.
Advantages:[Concussive Blow] Adss a short stun effect to this attack that can happen at most once every 10 seconds.
(cost 2 Advantage points)[Challenging Strikes] Causes this power to generate more threat and adds a 5% damage debuff the enemies you hit with it.
(Cost 1 Advantage point)Enrage: This is a toggle power that must be fully charged to activate. When active it is always on unless you get defeeted and causes your powers to cost 10% more energy to use. The benefit of this powers is that it automatically grants and maintains 1 stack of the Enraged Buff which give you a percentage increase to the amount of damage you do that scales up with your Strength stat. While active this toggle power also grants another stack of the Enraged buff and refreshes all stacks of the Enraged buff every time you use a power that knocks (any direction, back, up, down, towards) an enemy (you don't have to successfully knock the enemy to get the buff so works even if the enemy is immune to knocks). Having this power active also allow you to be able to have 8 stacks of the Enraged buff on your character at once. The damage bonus from the Enraged buff scales with your Strength stat.
Advantages:[Rank 2] This power now constantly maintains a minimum of 2 stocks of the Enraged buff at all times.
(Cost 2 Advantage points)[Endorphin Rush] Every time you get a stack of the Enraged buff you gain a short heal over time effect that last 1 second for every stack of Defiant you have and heals for an amount that scales up with your Constitution stat.
(Cost 2 Advantage points)Demolish: I love this attack and it is always my opening move once I'm up close to enemies of Vilain level (like Lieutenant level enemies from CoH) or above. This attack does pretty high damage but more importantly it also places a crushing damage debuff for 15 seconds on the enemy you hit with it. Since all Behemoth attacks do crushing damage it is alway useful and everytime this debuff wears off just hit your enemy with this attack again.
Advantages:[Below the Belt] This advantage further increases the damage debuff of this power the more you charge it up before hitting your enemy.
(Cost 2 Advantage points)Retaliation This power enhances you block ability making it give you even more damage resistance then before. It also provide a substantial percantage bonus to your next hit. When you see a BOOM sign or some other indication that your enemy is charging up a powerful attack or crowd control effect to hit you with, that's the time to press the
SHIFT KEY and resist for all your worth. The more powerful the enemy the more important it is to block. Give 250% damage resistance and 83% damage boost to next hit when active. Some players might like to take the Punitive Pummeling Advantage but personally I think that when something like Grond is charging up to hit you with his best shot you want to make your block count for all it can.
Advantages:[Rank 2] This power now gives 300% damage resistance and 100% damage boost to next hit when active.
Cost 2 Advantage points)[Rank 3] Further enhances this power more then Rank 2 so that it now give 360% damage resistance and 120% damage boost to next hit when active.
(Cost 2 Advantage Points)Aggressor: This is a 12 second self buff that gives a break free effect, 42% damage increase, +35 to Strength & Constitution and grants a stack of the Enraged buff. This power does have a long cooldown time of 1 minute 30 seconds but if you are determined to use this buff as often as possible there is gear and gear mods that will reduce the cooldown of all your powers.
Advantages:[Rank 2] Improves Aggressor power so that it now last 15 seconds, gives 50% damage increase, +42 to Strength & Constitution and 2 stacks of the Enraged buff.
(Cost 2 Advantage points)[Rank 3] Further improves Aggressor more then Rank 2 so this it now last 18 seconds, gives 60% damage increase, +50 to Strength & Constitution and 3 stacks of the Enraged buff.
(Cost 2 Advantage points)Unbreakable: This is another 12 second self buff but this one gives you a 2,310 points damage absorption shield that's damage absorption is refreshed by 1,155 points as you are attacked and is reduced when you attack. This power also has a 1 minute 30 seconds cooldown time but as I said before you can eventually get gear to reduce that.
Advantages:[Rank 2] Now absorbs 2,772 damage and is refreshed by 1,386 point as you are attacked.
(Cost 2 Advantage points)[Rank 3] Further improves this power so that it now absorbs 3,326 damage and is refreshed by 1,663 points as you are attacked.
(Cost 2 Advantage points)Uppercut or Haymaker: You have to again make a choice of which two powers to take. I'd suggest Haymaker because it is the msot damaging power the Behemoth has access to. It also has a knockback effect and deal extra damage to enemies that are immune to knocks. When you're facing legendary or cosmic level enemies (such as Grond or Mega-Destroids) this is the attack you hit them with. The knockback effect will give you a stack of the Enraged buff and will also give you a heal over time effect if you have taken the
Endorphin Rush advantage (as mentioned in
Enrage above). Just be sure to hit them with
Demolish when needed to keep that damage resistance debuff going on them, use your 2 buffing powers as you need them and dont forget to block when their charging up their most powerful attacks. I'm not saying that you'll be unbeatable, but you will put up a good fight.
Advantages:[Nullifying Punch] Applies Trauma debuff to enemy hit which ends any heal over time effect they have on them and causes them to recieve only half the benefit of any other healing effects for 6 seconds.
(Cost 2 Advantage points)Shockwave: Your final power and the only ranged attack the Behemoth gets (unless you count Mighty Leap). You basically start hammering your fist against the gound as if you're banging on a drum. This sends a shockwave of sonic damage through the ground in a 90 degree cone to a distance of 50 feet that does 97 point of sonic damage to all enemies within that cone every 0.5 seconds it is maintained for. It also snares these enemies reducing their movement speed and if maintained for the full duration knocks these enemies up. There will be some times that you will find this power useful but I thought it more important to focus on the melee attacks since as a tank you'll have to take the hits and keep the more powerful enemies off the ranged and support characters in your team.
Advantages:[None] If you have been following my above suggestions for advantages then you will have no advantage points left to spend on this power.
TalentsThe Talents I selected in the screenshot at the top of this page are inteded to increase your Constitution stat as much as possible. +33 Constitution in total. As your primary superstat Constitution boost the damage of all your attacks while also giving you + 15 health points for every 1 point of Constitution and is the primary factor in this Archetypes damage resistance and self healing ability.
(Dont take any stats that boost Ego or Presence as these stats are no use to the Behemoth)Specialization TreesThe Behemoth gets the following Specialization Trees. Check the links below for details.
(Recomended specialization selections within each of these trees are shown in the screenshot at the top of this post)ConstitutionProtectorWardenGearNumber 1 on the list. Max out your defence as much as possible.
Number 2 on the list. Aim to get a least 200 Constitution ( I think there are
Diminishing Returns on the bonuses it give (except for the health bonus) after that point but I'm not certain)
Hopefully this advice will help you to get the most out of the Behemoth Archetype in Champions Online.
