Bricks premier solo-play oriented tanking com, the Titan com offers unparalleled durability though endless shielding. This is the only com in the base game to buff Unbreakable, and thus unlocks the ability to ‘chain’ instances of that skill taking effect allowing for near endless tanking when properly managed. The com also boasts shield capacity and damage reduction buff from the other skills improved, as well as the possibility of a small amount of health regeneration or a further increase in shield capacity via 5th line effects.
Pros:
-Invincible!: Unbreakable chaining=nigh invulnerability.
-Shield to Maximum: Mat3 versions with +4 in Safeguard provide the highest possible shield capacity in the game.
-Ultimate gun-tank: Unbreakable chaining synergizes extremely well with Blaster-Tank builds.
Cons:
-Unbreakable does not function during Berserk, which means this com has poor synergy with Brawler-Tank builds.
-No FFYL buffs, and inferior health buffs and no team effects compared to Centurion.
-No DPS buffs from com, hence DPS is inferior to Blast Master and Warmonger.
The build:
http://talent.87bazillion.com/brick.php?503000055055555555055
The why:
Brawler Tree: 8 points
-Iron First: A little more melee damage for when we have reason to use Berserk (we have points left over so might as well).
-Sting Like A Bee (3/5): Last 3 points here to help us not get kited in the event that we are actually using Berserk.
Tank Tree: 30 points
-Hardened: More Maximum Health, why not?
-Safeguard: It’s buffed by the com, increases our shield capacity, which in turn increases the potency of Unbreakable’s shield regeneration. Win-win-win I say! (nobody says that…I say that!)
-Juggernaut: On-kill damage reduction, also buffed by the com. It’s actually 12% per point, not 10%, but no amount of damage reduction offers invulnerability in BL. Instead, damage reduction is equivalent to an increase in total hitpoints by the stated percentage (+100% DR=you can take twice as much damage before going down).
-Payback: Increases all damage by 7%/pt. except bullet damage, which is increased by the advertised 8%/pt. It shares the same trigger condition as Unbreakable: it will trigger the first time your shields are depleted since having been fully recharged (by any means). The buff lasts 10 seconds, and (afaik) cannot be stacked, the duration is simply refreshed if you manage to trigger it again within the 10 second duration. Because we can chain Unbreakable’s effect with this build, this skill has especially excellent synergy with our build.
-Die Hard: This skill is in the build for those moments when ■■■■ goes wrong and we are taking too much damage and miss our unbreakable chain. In that situation it’s only a matter of time until our hitpoints run out and we will be taking a knee. Die Hard will give us a substantial buff to FFYL time and how much health we revive with, which is very handy in dangerous situations.
-Unbreakable: This is the skill that makes this build so powerful. It triggers the first time our shield is depleted since it was last fully recharged (by any means), and provides 5 seconds of powerful shield regeneration. This shield regeneration scales with our maximum shield capacity after all buffs are accounted for, hence it is effectively a multiplicative shield capacity buff. Even more than that, because this skill is also buffed by our com, it can actually fully recharge our shield on it’s own, even if we’re still taking damage (but not too much, too fast). If it does so, then we have fully recharged our shield and it can trigger AGAIN when they are depleted next. This is known as ‘chaining’ Unbreakables, and can allow you to soak up almost unlimited amounts of damage without even taking a knee.
Blaster Tree: 30 points
-Endowed: More explosive damage, yea please.
-Rapid Reload: Slightly faster reloads at the expense of slightly worse recoil (the recoil reduction is bugged and has the opposite effect than intended, it’s a small price to pay for the reload speed though).
-Revenge: On kill +10%/pt. bullet damage, kill a baddie, get tons of deeps.
-Wide Load: For when we break out the Rocket Launchers!
-Cast Iron: Might as well get even tankier.
-Master Blaster: On kill +15%/pt. Fire Rate and rocket ammo regen. Do want!
Gear:
Weapons:
Apart from Endowed giving us a slight preference for explosive weapons, we have buffs for both bullets and Rocket Launchers, so weapon selection is basically up to user preference.
Shield:
With the com buffed Safeguard and Unbreakable, and possibly even more capacity from the 5th line effect, we have every reason imaginable to want the highest possible capacity shield we can find. This makes a perfect parts, level 68 Hardened Ironclad (which has 3547 capacity before all our buffs are considered) the ideal shield for this build. A good alternative is a max capacity Pangolin shield (which maxes out at 3413 capacity for the level 69 version, before buffs).
Grenade Mod:
Just like with weapons, apart from the slight explosive preference due to Endowed, user preference prevails in nade selection.
Mat2 or Mat3?:
The mat2 version of the Titan com grant +2 Health Regeneration, and thus slowly restores missing health, in my experience it is also easier to com by the mat3 version. The mat3 version boasts a very impressive +42% Shield Capacity 5th line effect, which is honestly a much stronger and more useful effect for this build. Hence if you have it, definitely run the mat3 version over the mat2 version, but the mat2 version is still better (slightly) than the no-5th line mat1 version.
Tips and other information:
If under heavy fire when your shield goes down, it may be advisable to duck for cover a brief moment to ensure that Unbreakable fully recharges your shield and thus can trigger again the next time it is depleted. If you expect to be taking heavy fire, than having the +4 in Unbreakable instead of Safeguard is recommended as it will increase the amount of shield regenerated and hence the amount of damage you can take and still successfully chain Unbreakable (from up to 20% of max shield capacity in 5 seconds to up to 35% of max shield capacity in 5 seconds). If you aren’t worried about missing chains than +4 Safeguard is preferable for maximum shield capacity. +4 Juggernaut is generally inferior to the other two options, but it does reduce damage taken by a bit more, and hence increases effective hitpoints.
Since the hit that depletes your shield will also typically do some damage to health, you will often find that your health pool is slowly whittled down over time. This can be one reason to occasionally use Berserk (to restore that missing health). Since Unbreakable does not function while in berserk (not only can it not trigger, but the regeneration stops immediately if you enter Berserk), it is best to do this when either you miss an unbreakable chain to hopefully delay or avoid taking a knee, or when you’re not under heavy fire and expect your shield to last the entire duration or at least long enough to clean up the remaining enemies without being depleted (if it is depleted after Berserk is done, Unbreakable can still trigger and continue the chaining). You can also end Berserk early manually by entering a menu if you realize your shield is about to go down before Berserk would end normally in order to avoid losing your Unbreakable (and keep the chaining going). This can also be a reason to keep and sometimes use the mat2 version (it will slowly replace that lost health via the 5th line health regen).
The mat3 version of the Titan com with +4 in Safeguard allows the highest possible shield capacity in the game both in solo play and in coop. The latter requires 3 Sirens as teammates all running maxed Defender coms.
In solo play you can achieve a maximum of 7590.58 shield capacity with the perfect Ironclad.
In coop with the aforementioned Siren teammates, that number skyrockets to an astonishing 12379.03 shields. Your 3 Siren teammates (if they have the same shield and the +4 on their com is in Diva) are also rocking an impressive 10250.83 shield capacity (and could have 5/5 Girl Power too).
Keep in mind, in both cases you also have 2464 health and still have 8/5 in Unbreakable and hence can Unbreakable chain as well. (!)