WonderGran_EU

Scratch my first post - it's still broken. Just tried the test server again; fired up PBU and hit transfusion 3 times - 2 heals hit for 441 (my normal heal) and 1 hit for 781.

STILL BROKEN

According to Sherksilver's Hero Builder, it lasts 30 seconds. Not sure how accurate that is though.

So must just be the kin powerset it's broken on - meaning that it has no bearing on as to whether the heal comes from yourself (e.g. empathy, radiation) or if it emanates from a bad guy (e.g. kinetics, dark).

So maybe it WASN'T a fluke what I experienced when testing out I9 last night - gives reassurance that kin and PBU may be finally sorted out

But then that would imply that PBU would only SOMETIMES work - there's nothing to say that the power 'only works some of the time' or needs accuracy enhancements to ensure that it is transferred to the mob that you're bouncing heals from. No, the description of PBU states that it "greatly boosts the secondary effects of your powers like heals, defense buffs endurance drains" etc etc. Nowhere does it state that it requires accuracy in order for this to happen.

It'd be interesting if anyone with a dark defender has PBU and if they can confirm if they have the same problem that a kin defender faces when they use twilight grasp.

Agree with Okton - get Mass Hypnosis and try it out. When soloing, it's fab - sleep a whole mob and not only do you not get agro, it gives you instant containment for double-damage for the rest of your controlly attacks. Also, if you DO team, I still find it useful for a number of reasons:

1) there are 2 groups close together - let the tanker take one mob, you Mass Hypno the other mob - no danger of agroing both sets of mobs at once.

2) I open up ALL of my attacks now with Mass Hypno + Terrify (slotted for 2 acc, 2 damage and 2 recharge) - again, this means that I get instant containment on Terrify for extra damage.

3) If things start to get hairy (oops, didn't see the AV and we all waded in and people's health has suddenly dropped to a nasty orange colour) - Mass Hypno could be that vaulable life-saver as most people will be focusing on the Big Guy rather than the minions.

In all these cases, it's situational as to when you'll use Mass Hypno - but rather than being limited to just one situation (which is the case with some powers - should I take power X because I'll really only use it in situation Y) I'd recommend that you at least try it out. I've got it in my build, and my mind/emp controller is almost lv 35 and I must say that Mass Hypno is my most used AoE.

Another point to note is that, since you have in essence 3 AoEs (a sleep, a fear and a hold) I'd swap your fears in Terrify for damages. With 2 damages in it, at lv 34 I'm doing around 82 damage to +2 minions (double that if I hit a mob that's already asleep through Mass Hypno and hence 'containment' is activated) - so you can get a LOT of mileage out of giving yourself some extra firepower in your AoE. Technically, it's a cone power, but it's a 90 degree cone (I think one of the widest in the game) - and you can hit nigh-on everything in sight - and with a BI of 2.77, it's super-strong compared to all other troller AoEs (ice's frostbite - BI 0.834; earth's stone cages - BI 1.389; fire's fire cages - BI 0.918 etc).

Well, I almost screamed with joy when I logged in to live server - I hit power boost, then hit transfusion - a lovely 786 heal. Yippee! Then... tried it again - only 432 heal - boooo!

It's still broken on live - let's hope that it wasn't a fluke on the test (albeit if it WAS a fluke, then it was a fluke several times on the trot, which is highly unlikely).

Philosopher: to answer your question, it's been broken for a LONG time now (on kinetics only, as far as I'm aware - I know that it works fine for empaths - not sure about any other power set).

Fingers crossed this crosses over to live (no reason why it shouldn't) - but... I've just tried my Kinetics defender on test and thought what the hell, give it a whirl... activated power build up, then fired off transfusion - and it WORKED!

Let's hope that this has been properly bug-fixed now, and say 'HELLO!' to some LOVELY AoE heals

Can't comment on the PvP side I'm afraid (hardly ever PvP) so my inv tank is made purely for PvE. However, what I can say is that when I respecced at 50, I took res elements and res energies at lv 47 and 49. They're not much use anymore - but, since the name of the game for a tanker is 'hold the agro without dying' any little bit of resistance (or defense) is welcomed. But don't fret if you don't take it til later on because we are talking about piffly numbers for your damage resistance.

What I will also say is get tough. You will need it to max out your S/L damage resistance on an inv tank. Take unyielding (I slotted for 3 damage resists and 1 end redx), invincibility (I've got it slotted with 2 HOs, giving end redx, to-hit buff and defense buff and also a taunt duration SO - some people like to add more taunt durations, but since I've got a couple of fire AoEs, I find that I keep the agro on me), dull pain (slotted for 3 recharge redx and 3 heals) and temp inv (slotted for 3 resist damages and 2 end redx) as early on as possible. These will be your bread-and-butter powers.

I took resist physical damage at lv 26 (again, it's not very good resistance, but stacked with TI, unyielding and tough, it all adds up).

One last thing that I'll say (then I'll stop, honest!) is that, come level 32, take unstoppable. Some people love it (I do!), some people hate it. It's a 'panic button' clicky power, giving you 3 mins of being 'God' (unless you're facing a horde of mind/illusion trollers or any psychic defenders). Because my build is designed for PvE, I slotted it purely with rech redx. However, since you're building for PvP, I'd probably slot it with 1, maybe 2 resist damages. Although it already maxes out your resistances to everything but psionics unslotted (stacked with your other toggles and passives), all you need is for some slap-happy rad or sonic defender to come along and start piling on the debuffs, and suddenly you're about as tough as a pension book wielding granny. So I'd go for the added overkill of the resists so that you can be safe in the knowledge that even up against a rad or sonic, you're still a hard man

Hope that helps!

Originally on my kin defender, I neglected the travel pools and opted for siphon speed and IR. However, respecced out of IR, and took SJ (for acrobatics) and super speed (stacks with stealth for invisibility). Am umming and arring now whether to drop the leaping pool (acrobatics is PANTS for its kb protection as ANYTHING stronger than a sneeze de-toggles you) and speccing in hover instead for the kb protection (I had that for a while - and stacked with siphon speed, it's got a base speed comparable to fly).

It all comes down to personal preference at the end of the day.

Which server are your villains and heroes on?

Hmmm, you sure that it doesn't have an acc debuff Max? It does accept to-hit debuffs (according to my enhancement screen and also to CoH planner). I thought that all fear powers had an inherent acc debuff, but that some are better than others (I think that a dark defender's is better than a dark scrapper's).

The clue's kinda in the title! I've just taken Terrify on my mind troller, and am unsure how to slot it. Does anyone know the base accuracy debuff that it has? Gonna slot it with 2 accuracy, but don't know whether to slot it for to-hit debuffs, fear or damage.

Any figures is appreciated! Thanks

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Yet ANOTHER 50 for the bestest troller/defender/WS/<insert alt here> there is out there

Need em all for my defender - so I'm in!

This is the last one that my tank needs for the accolade - and with another at post-level 15, we could SK 2 others. I'm in!

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Errm actually Illusionist badge alone would require more time me thinks

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I MAY be wrong here, but I remember reading a thread re: this badge and have read that you don't actually have to DEFEAT the decoy illusionist, but just HIT it, even if it's phase shifted. I remember getting it with my tank (thank GOD for a friendly, chatty team!) and it took up most of the afternoon and then part of the next morning; but we were actually trying to defeat the illusions. Pretty tough with a team of 5 (2 trollers, 2 scrappers and a tanker) with 3-4 MIs spawning 3 Illusionists simultaneously. So, before you do what we did, check your bar to see if it moves before actually taking the Illusionist out - may find that you get through the badge a hell of a lot quicker than we did!

But then again, I may have mis-read the post about the badge and have given everyone false hope - sorry if I have!!

I'll be there with my tank, pisteuomen

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TY for all advice & building Tip's, I dont know how to install the test Server i have forgotten . If you guyz know could you plz PM me the details if its not to much trouble.

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Sure, no probs. First, open up Windows Explorer and make a new folder (called CoHTest) and copy all of the CoH files and folders from your 'City of Heroes' folder into your CoHTest folder. We're now working in the CoHTest folder: right-click your CoHUpdater.EU.exe file and select 'create shortcut.' Now, right-click on that shortcut and select 'properties.' In the 'shortcut' tab, add the following to what is already typed in the shortcut (without the quotes): ' -test' So where it says 'target' in the 'shortcut' tab, mine reads "C:\Games\CoHTest\CohUpdater.EU.exe -test" (my CoH test folder is in a folder called 'games'). Now, double-click on your shortcut that you just created. It'll ask you where to install City of Heroes to - just point it to the folder MINUS the 'CoHTest' folder. So for mine, I told it to install to 'C:\Games' and then it'll download whatever patch it needs and bingo, you're on test server.

Hope I've not complicated it too much for ya

Hi guys,

I'm using Union as the server for my villains, and Defiant as the server for my heroes. I've got a few million influence for trade (on Defiant) if anyone has few million infamy (on Union) if anyone is interested.

I'll be back online Tue/Wed (first week in December) as am working away from home for the next few days.

Thanks guys!

Thought I'd add my two penneth worth aswell. Just respecced my inv/fire tanker (after several attempts on the test server). Here's my build...

01) --> Temp Invulnerability==> DmgRes(1) DmgRes(3) DmgRes(3) EndRdx(11) EndRdx(13)
01) --> Scorch==> Acc(1) Dmg(33) Dmg(34) Taunt(34) Rechg(34) EndRdx(36)
02) --> Dull Pain==> Heal(2) Heal(5) Heal(5) Rechg(7) Rechg(7) Rechg(11)
04) --> Combustion==> Acc(4) Taunt(15) Rechg(15) Acc(17) EndRdx(17) Rechg(42)
06) --> Hurdle==> Jump(6)
08) --> Unyielding==> DmgRes(8) DmgRes(9) DmgRes(9) EndRdx(13)
10) --> Taunt==> Taunt(10) Taunt(46)
12) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Boxing==> Acc(16) DisDur(40) DisDur(46)
18) --> Invincibility==> EnzymExp(18) EnzymExp(19) Taunt(19)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20) Heal(21) Heal(21)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22) EndMod(23) EndMod(23)
24) --> Tough==> DmgRes(24) DmgRes(25) DmgRes(25) EndRdx(27) EndRdx(29)
26) --> Resist Physical Damage==> DmgRes(26) DmgRes(27)
28) --> Tough Hide==> DefBuf(28) DefBuf(29)
30) --> Fire Sword Circle==> Acc(30) Dmg(31) Dmg(31) Taunt(31) Rechg(33) EndRdx(33)
32) --> Unstoppable==> Rechg(32) Rechg(48) Rechg(50)
35) --> Incinerate==> Acc(35) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Taunt(37) Rechg(37) EndRdx(37)
38) --> Greater Fire Sword==> Acc(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Taunt(39) Rechg(40) EndRdx(40)
41) --> Block of Ice==> PeroxExp(41) Acc(42) Hold(42) EndRdx(43) Rechg(43) Rechg(43)
44) --> Ice Blast==> NucleExp(44) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Rechg(45) EndRdx(46)
47) --> Resist Energies==> DmgRes(47) DmgRes(48) DmgRes(48)
49) --> Resist Elements==> DmgRes(49) DmgRes(50) DmgRes(50)

I've got a couple of Hami-Os in there, hence the fewer slots in Invincibility (the Hami-O gives me end red, def buff and to-hit buff). I've plumped for 1 taunt duration in each of my attacks (save the epics, 'cos you're not allowed to slot them for taunts). I've also not taken build up, fire breath or fire sword. Reason being is: a) I'm not primarily a damage dealer (more a meat shield, but can do some fairly decent damage) b) ice blast compensates for not taking fire sword and I've got sands of mu from the veteran awards. These attacks keep me going just great (my attack chain, for the record is: incinerate, GFS, scorch, ice blast - and use the AoEs and my hold when it warrants it). I keep the whole mob focused on me (I was teamed earlier today with 2 defenders, a blaster and a scrapper and they weren't interested in anyone but me!)

My resistances (based on +3 SOs, and even level Hamo-os) are as follows:

89.6% for smashing/lethal
27.5 for cold, energy, negative energy, fire and toxic
0% for psionics

Running CJ and tough hide, that gives me a base defense of 5.3% (that's after the -5% that unyielding gives). From what I can gather, invincibility gives you 5% base defense plus 1.5% per bad guy in range up to a max of 10 bad guys (in essence, 20%). So you can get some decent defense if you've got bad guys in range - if you 2 or 3 slot it for defense buffs, you could probably see your defense rise to around 30% (if you've got tough hide and CJ running).

I didn't take weave, 'cos I find that with 30%(ish) defense and my resistances, I dodge a lot of the attacks thrown at me (thank GOD for dark defenders when there's a psionic around!!!) and weave's another toggle to run. It's got a base defense of 5% - so you may or may not want it in your build.

Lastly, I took the ice epic power pool because I wanted a hold, and I wanted a ranged attack. A hold is very useful when confronting things such as the dreaded Malta Sappers. Hit him with a hold, dispatch with him and move on to the rest of the mob. Ice blast is better than fire blast from the epic pool, too - it's more powerful and has the nice -spd and -recharge debuff. Plust it's got a SLIGHLY faster animation time over fire blast. And on the aesthetic side, it's nice to have another power-type OTHER than fire

At the end of the day, and I say this everytime I give my opinion on a character build, it's down to how YOU play your toon and what YOU feel comfortable with. I have ditched a couple of powers that some people like (i.e. build-up, fire sword). I've taken some powers that some people won't like (i.e. the ice epics). That's what I feel comfortable with, and make it work for ME. There's no right or wrong build - just because mine may be different to yours, doesn't make either one of them better.

Have fun with him!

Hahaha - the old adage that 'an empath is there as a buff-and-heal-bot' is officialy dead!! Good on ya Mystie - and even better on ya if the person who died kept running away from the group to attack his/her own set of mobs in spite of your numerous yells not to (come on, I KNOW that you've been there before)

Glad that you like the respec

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The only change im going to make is Im going to get Air Superiority & Fly, instead of the Leaping pool

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If you really want to take Fly instead of SJ, then I suggest taking Hover (and slot it for 1 defense) instead of Air Superiority, as it too offers knockback protection (you just kind of do a girly little spin in mid-air). If you have Siphon Speed (with 2 slows slotted) then you'll be whizzing along with hover at a very nice pace indeed. Get 2 Siphon Speeds stacked and it's waaaaay faster then Fly (in fact, it's getting almost to the speed of Super Speed) - I'm pretty sure that this is the flying speed cap.

I've respecced my defender again in light of I8 - I tried Acrobatics, but wasn't all that happy with it due to its lack of sleep protection (and later on in the game, I've found, most of the mezzes that are used are sleep - so toggles STILL drop).

Here's my latest (and final!) build...

01) --> Transfusion==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Heal(3) Heal(5) Heal(5) Rechg(9)
01) --> Mental Blast==> Acc(1) Acc(19) Dmg(37) Dmg(40) Dmg(50)
02) --> Subdue==> Acc(2) Acc(13) Dmg(13) Dmg(15) Dmg(15) Rechg(50)
04) --> Psionic Lance==> Acc(4) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) IntRdx(37)
06) --> Siphon Speed==> Acc(6) Acc(7) Rechg(7) Rechg(9) Slow(11) Slow(11)
08) --> Stealth==> DefBuf(8)
10) --> Psychic Scream==> Acc(10) Acc(37) Dmg(46) Dmg(46) Dmg(48) Rechg(50)
12) --> Speed Boost==> EndMod(12) EndMod(19) EndMod(48)
14) --> Hasten==> Rechg(14) Rechg(17) Rechg(17)
16) --> Super Speed==> Run(16)
18) --> Inertial Reduction==> Jump(18)
20) --> Will Domination==> Acc(20) Acc(21) Dmg(21) Dmg(23) Dmg(23) Rechg(25)
22) --> Telekinetic Blast==> Acc(22) Acc(25) Dmg(31) Dmg(31) Dmg(34) Rechg(34)
24) --> Increase Density==> DmgRes(24)
26) --> Transference==> Acc(26) Acc(27) EndMod(27) EndMod(29) Rechg(29) Rechg(31)
28) --> Recall Friend==> IntRdx(28)
30) --> Psionic Tornado==> Acc(30) Dmg(43) Dmg(43) Dmg(43) Rechg(45)
32) --> Fulcrum Shift==> Acc(32) Acc(33) Rechg(33) Rechg(33) Rechg(34)
35) --> Teleport Foe==> Acc(35) Acc(48)
38) --> Psychic Wail==> Acc(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)
41) --> Mass Hypnosis==> Acc(41) Acc(42) Rechg(42) Rechg(42)
44) --> Dominate==> Acc(44) Hold(45) Rechg(45) Hold(46)
47) --> Siphon Power==> Acc(47)
49) --> Telekinesis==> EndRdx(49)

A couple of things: 1) I've respecced Mental Blast back in as a viable attack power. What made it utterly pants before I8 was the horrific animation time - you could actually be faceplanted by several minions in the time that it took you to fire this power off (2.67 seconds!) Now it's been reduced - don't know what the official animation time is, but it seems even shorter than Telekinetic Blast (and that's just 1 second). 2) I've taken Super Speed and Stealth along with Hasten. I can get my Psychic Wail up in about 3 minutes or so (that's unslotted for recharges at the minute, as am lv 39 and will slot it for 2 recharges when I get to 40). SS stacked with Stealth DOES give Invisibility (not against those with +perception, such as Rikti Drones and snipers, but then again neither does Invisibility). I figured that Stealth + SS is better than Invisibility for a couple of reasons: it costs less endurance and you can still attack whilst you've got them both on. 3) I dropped Scramble Thoughts in favour of Dominate because Dominate has a slightly faster recharge (16 instead of 20 seconds) and the hold lasts 15 seconds as opposed to Scramble Thoughts' 10 seconds disorient. 4) Took Telekinesis as a 'panic power' so you can keep one (or more) minions/lieuts perma-held whilst fighting another lot of mobs. I've got it on my Mind Troller, and it's come in quite useful at times.

My advice is as always, try it out on the test server first. Do a few missions, and see how you get on with the powers. This is just MY combo that I like and you may find that you prefer another combo.

Yup, looking good Mystie - though I agree with Extremus re: hover. It uses next to no endurance, so you'll be fine w/out the end red in it. Re: Wail, I can see why you wouldn't want to take it. Reason I took it on mine is cos she's kinetics, so once you're drained, pop a blue then hit transfusion. Unfortunately, you can't do that, and even whacking RA on afterwards won't help, since it's your recovery ability that's impeded. Good idea to leave the nuke (and, IMO, that goes for any empath).

Fortitude, I think my empath has it 2x recharge reductions 3x defense buffs and 1 to-hit buff. With 2 recharge reductions in, you're looking at an unenhanced (i.e. neither SB nor hasten running) 34.1 seconds to recharge (not bad to say base is 60 seconds). With 3 recharges, you're looking at 30.42 - a little under 4 seconds. I'd rather sacrifice that 3.7 seconds for a bit of extra accuracy. Base accuracy buff on fort is 30% - stick a to-hit buff in there and it's up to 36.9% 3-slotted defense goes up from 30% to 47.21% figures that even an ice tanker would be proud of And 2-slotted for reductions, I find that my empath can comfortably keep 3 team mates perma-buffed with just a few seconds downtime to keep 4 buffed.

And just something else to think about (this may even be going back on what I have previously said) - before you respec, take a look at mental blast. Yes, the damage is still pretty pants (which first offensive power of a defender isn't?) But what made everyone loathe it (the horrendous animation time) is now gone! I tried out mental blast this morning on test server (after downloading, I'm guessing, the final tweaks to I8) the animation time used to activate mental blast is virtually zero - blink, and you miss it. So no more rooted to the spot, trying to hit a bad guy for about 40 damage, whilst you get hammered by 5 others and there's sod all you can do about it. Noooooo, this is now so speedy, it's unreal. It looks about the same as, if not slightly shorter animation time than, telekinetic blast.

So you MAY want to beef up mental blast a bit more - you may not. All I know now is that for my defender, it's a power I may be using a bit more (for when my subdue-blast-domination chain is recharging) but unsure yet as to whether to slot it for damage. I'm sure that after a few tinkerings on the test server, I'll make my mind up. At the end of the day, you can number-crunch all you like: this combo does X amount of damage for X amount of endurance, average it out and you 1.324785987 more damage per second for 0.125874598 endurance less so you SHOULD take this combo. How many times have you heard things like that? And how many times does theory translate into reality? Not all your hits will land, so suddenly 'Dr Poindexter's Ultimate Guide to Slamming Your Foes With Psychic Powers' becomes a little uncertain. As we have already talked about, some people like scream, some don't. I myself may even start to consider mental blast as a useable power again. You can crunch numbers til the cows come home - but you have to find a combination of powers that YOU like and that YOU feel comfortable with. Some people ignore the super-duper powers and go for the 'short-but-sweet ones' that don't cause tremendous damage, but eat very little endurance and slot them for damage, acc and recharge reductions.

Have fun finding out what suits you best Mystie!

But it doesn't do 1/6th damage to a minion - not even close to 1/6 - maybe 1/10 or 1/12 if you're lucky. And I've never found the -recharge all that useful. By the time that the minion/lieut/boss has gone through his plethora of attacks, the recharge debuff has worn off. For example, so a Tsoo yellow ink man won't be able to hit you with dominate twice in a row - but instead, he'll hit you with dominate, then a shuriken, then a martial arts move and before you know it, his dominate is back up again. And on a team, the defender's primary role (for empath primary) will be to keep the team buffed/healthy. No, that's not to say that they won't attack, but is a defender really wanting to be drawing agro with a cone attack that really isn't all that powerful? If it put them to sleep (like mass hypno) or disoriented them (like dark pit), then I'd say take it. But to slow their recharge time for a few seconds doesn't, in my eyes, justify taking the power, since you're not actually stopping them from attacking you (like tornado does, whilst they're being knocked down) but rather hitting you with an array of attacks instead of just the same one over.

At the end of the day, it's Mystie's decision on what she wants to take on her respec. But I wouldn't seriously consider scream in the build for the aforementioned reasons.

Even so, scream has a base damage of 2.9 (rounding to 1 decimal place) and mental blast being base damage of 2.8 (again 1 decimal place), I think that almost all people agree that mental blast is pretty much a redundant power. So why would anyone use a multiple-hit mental blast (which is what, in effect, it is). Aside from the fact that the damage that mental blast (and scream) deals is minimal, the animation time for a NON-snipe move is horrendous - 2.67 seconds. Compare that to 1.67 for subdue, 1 for telekinetic blast and 1.1 for will domination, they're going to be the powers to use for damage. Even psionic tornado, with its activation time of 2.37 seconds (still a long animation time, but not as long as scream or mental blast) is more worthwhile than scream due to a) its knockup component (if they're lying on the floor, they're not attacking you) and b) its base damage is 4.8615, nearly double that of scream.

Remember that we're not arguing purely on numbers here - we're debating what powers a DEFENDER should take. A defender is not primarily a blaster, and I can't really see scream fitting into a defender's build. Even my defender, which is primarily an offensive build, doesn't take scream (as I've said before - it doesn't do enough damage to warrant it as a damaging power, and it doesn't have enough control aspects for it to warrant a controlling power).

As for the fact that it can hit several opponents at once, I think that I can honestly count the amount of times on one hand that I've finished off a baddie with mental blast. That is basically what you'd be hitting multiple targets with - mental blast - the power that very few defenders who play with psionics as a power set ever uses.