Yomo_Kimyata

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Heh, this reminds me of a conversation I had with a client about Warren Buffett. Buffett (who has done wonderful things, not just in business, but in charity as well) always complains that his taxes are too low and stumps for various tax benefits to be reduced or eliminated. My feeling is that if he wants to pay higher taxes, he can send a check to the Treasury for as much as he wants; his real complaint is that OTHER PEOPLE's taxes are too low. Which is an entirely different kettle of fish.

Getting back to your issue, the problem is that not only do you want to destroy your inf, but also the inf of other market participants. The first part is easy; the second not so much. I would recommend:

1. Just make as much inf as you can through normal means then delete/burn it to take it out of the system. Every inf you take out of the system via commission is an inf taken away from someone else, either by getting rid of new value in the system or destroying accumulated value. Make a billion, transfer it to a mule, delete. Repeat hundreds of times.

2. Identify the items in the system that are used as trading vehicles or stores of wealth. Generally, these are going to be items that enter the system at a slower rate than the rate at which they exit the system. LotGs for example. Once you have identified these items, buy them. And delete them. This destroys the listing fee on one trade, but if you are able to keep ahead of the supply, prices will increase disproportionally to the "economy" as a whole, meaning that commissions will increase as well. This will cause micro-inflation in various markets while having a much lesser effect on macro-inflation in the aggregate market. Traders and the wealthy will pay more in commissions, while users of common salvage and IOs will not see their prices increase nearly so much.

Of course, it'll cost you.

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Hey Scrapperites:

My main, a level 50 Broadsword/Invulnerable Scrapper, is planning on completing his 2nd build and I wanted it to be "more effective" for the low level TF's.

As way of history, I just ran my first Synapse and Sister Psyche and he only had Parry and Hack along with is Veteran attacks (Axe and Nemi Staff) with Build Up. I didn't feel very Scrappery or as big damage guy as I normally would.

So...effective Low Level TF build: Posi level 15 (travel at 14? Toxic Reist?), Synapse level 20 (stamina and 1 AoE?), and Sis Psyche level 25 (2 AoEs?). I'd be interested to see if they are soloable also but that's not a requirement by any means.

I'll build it to 50 so everything at the low level will have 6 slots of IO's (common) if they normally would.

Thoughts and previous experience appreciated.

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Oddly enough, I've been running a new BS/INV up from scratch while prepping to rewrite my I6 guide (I never said I was fast!). I've been running solo on lvl 5 difficulty up to about lvl 30 right now, so I've got some advice for you:

Lack of attacks will be tough. Rely on veteran rewards and temp powers whenever you can. Get Hack, Slice and Parry by level 8. If you go travel power by lvl 14, then take Jump Kick, Flurry or Air Superiority for an extra attack. You can take Slash if you really want, but it's kind of a tight build until the 20s, and you'll just respec out of it later.

I would go:
1 Hack
1 RPD
2 Slice
4 Dull Pain
6 Temp Invuln
8 Parry
10 Jump Kick (take that!)
12 Hurdle
14 Super Leap
16 Unyielding
18 Health
20 Stamina

From here you can add Build Up, Whirling Sword, or some Pool Powers. Or you can start on the Resist Energy/Elements track. Keep 26 and 28 open for Disembowel and Invincibility respectively.

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You should have upped your donation by a factor of ten and then see if they stuck to their morals. Every one has their price after all.

Turning down 5 Million is one thing but 50? 100? That will get you near any non purple rare or fund most of a build.

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Morals? Maybe they just didn't want to be bothered with 5mm. Now if you were gifting packs of 100mm, then I'd be somewhat surprised if someone turned it down.

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You ppl are haters, I will show yu that I am right and telling the truth.

You can't deny factrs.

Here is a screenshot of me being STRONG and pretty.

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Fake! Photoshoped! Mace is a right handed weapon, He holding it with his left

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Obviously that is a rear view of the brute, who is looking away from the poor skul. I am guessing he's got a gnarly neck tattoo that looks a little like a face. That way skuls are afraid to sneak up on youz from behind!

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What the heck is "snood," anyway?

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The factuals have been given, but it matters in context for CoX as it is one of the lines Robin exclaimed in the old Batman series: "Holy priceless collection of Etruscan snoods!"

One day, I figured that to be a good hero name.

Then the Snood Liberation Front and the Liberation Front of Snood got on my case for letting her languish at 46 while my other sig folks hit 50. Now she has a shiny Field Crafting bench that doesn't work, and she's 3 pips from freedom.

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Oh that zany Burt Ward!

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What the heck is "snood," anyway?

(Seems like this board is developing some of its own conventions and terms, what with "snood" this, and "drinking tears" that. Would be nice if someone would write up a FAQ for the, dare I say it, casual forum reader…)

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snood is a term for a hairnet which sounds kind of funny. Squez made a character that included the word. It went off the tracks from there, but not due to Squez.

I have to admit, my initial post had the nyt url, but it linked to the recluse rickroll,. I thought about it for a few seconds and changed it because it just didn't seem right to put a rickroll in a thread as full of win as this one.

And I still got Sagaril! Woo hoo!

Not only is this brilliant and hilarious, but it got in before the New York Times article today actually discussing the "rickroll" meme.

article

Nice work peter. Thanks

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it is possible for certain...unimaginative....people to mix I and l as needed to make it *look* like they have a certain name, when in fact they have another

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First of all, what's wrong with that?

Second, don't be so quick to assume that the only people taking advantage of the L and i trick are unimaginative. I think the Parallel Illusion on Triumph is a brilliant idea. If you don't know, all the members of the SG are Phantom Army decoys, once summoned by Illusion controllers, that have gained independence and semi-permanence. We all look exactly like the PA decoys, and we all have the same name, The Parallel Illusion. There are well over 50 of us.

Now, if you wanna be able to immediately tell the difference on your end, I have no problem with that. It's your game, too. But let's not just assume that this feature is always a bad thing.

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Get 65 in there and I'll be impressed

too easy to get prizes, in my opinion

Spell check please.

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Great post. Very informative, and I enjoyed the humor.

One thing though...no love for controller's? You're talking about clumping mobs and such to make great AE fodder...You've never grouped with a Grav controller that could make good use of Wormhole and Crushing Field have you?

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I always considered grav controllers on par with leprechauns and Eskimos -- something you have heard about in fairy tales, but that did not exist in real life.

(joking btw. no offense meant to our Inuit community.)

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I received the Lanista badge on my CoH main by observing a gladiator match.

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Are you Chuck Norris?

I have been sending personalized hearts to people and it is freaking them out... they seem to think I actually had them made and taken a picture of them.

Like I would spend that amount of effort.

hehehe, you picked the ugliest toga they had

Zikar, it will probably take place on Justice in a few hours. It hit at midnight on the east coast servers.

I was the player that started up that discussion in the Tanker forum and I just wanted to thank you for making it clear. It has not only increased my interest in tanking, but has made me a better player on my other toons as well.

Hey Fulmens! I'm more than happy to discuss different ways to play the build. Like I said from the beginning, my build is not the only way to play the build, nor even necessarily the best way.

Some of my thoughts on your comments:

1. Yeah, it takes a little time to gather a good sized pack. If I am soloing, it really doesn't pay to gather more than two packs. If I am teaming, I am often tanking for the group, so I'll build a bigger group of 10-15 for quick AoE extermination. Also, it is a ton of fun building a big group and they are incapable of hitting you at all due to Invincibility and Parry. But to each his own; small groups quickly v. large groups less quickly is the tradeoff.

2. Minions are awesome, which is one of the reasons I like to spend a few extra seconds building a huge pack of them before tackling the boss. Yeah, sometimes collateral damage wipes them out before the boss goes down, but not all that often. I find they all tend to go down at about the same time.

3. Parry is also an extraordinary power, but I still prefer to slot it for accuracy and defense over recharge. As it stands, if I put Parry on auto (as I always do in the PvP zones) it activates about every third attack and leaves me with a constant Parry bonus (with 3x defense buff, I believe it is just under 30% defense) and a brief overlap of stacked Parry. I think I prefer that to a constant Parry bonus of 15% with a larger overlap of stacked Parry. I could probably spare 2 slots and slot it with 1x accuracy, 3x defense debuff, 2x damage; I'll try that in a respec.

4. Good point on build-up; you should be able to get 4 attacks out of the chain in 10 seconds. The activation time of each attack is really the sticking point rather than the recharge time. Best single target damage chain for that 10 seconds is Hack, Slash, Headsplitter, Slash, Hack. But with Headsplitter, Slice, Whirl, Hack you equal or better that chain in aggregate damage if Whirl or Slash hit more than one mob.

Build up is a very good power, to be sure, but it simply isn't available enough for me to make it the centerpiece of my build outside of PvP.

5. I absolutely agree with you that I am overkilling in end reduction. I simply ran out of places to put my slots. I could (and should) probably take out one or two end reduction slots from Unyielding and add a damage or two to Parry.

6. I also agree completely; minions are chumps. I find it takes about 2x slice and 2x whirl to take down an orange minion. So after going twice through an attack cycle on a boss, the boss is down and the collateral damage has wiped the minions at the same time.

Just my $0.02, there are a bunch of ways to play this build.

Coming soon, observations and build variants for PvP.

Katana/INV should be relatively similar, but with slightly less endurance issues.

Excellent guide it has been very valuable to me!

The I6 update to the Hunter/Gatherer guide for BS/INV.

LEVELLING AND TACTICS:

Strategy for the Hunter/Gatherer begins early. Your initial skills are no-brainers: Hack and RPD. However, do not skimp on your costume design. A Hunter/Gatherer needs to be tall, not so much to be imposing to his/her foes, but because the size of your broadsword is proportional to the size of your toon. It is difficult to make fun of katana users when your 4-foot-tall Choppy Smurf has a weapon smaller than some 7-foot gorilla’s katana. Be proud of who you are!

Levels 1-10:

Powers: Pick up Slice at level 2, then I would add Dull Pain, Temp Invulnerability, Parry, and the introductory power for your travel power (Combat Jumping for me). By level 10, Hack and Slice should be at least 5 slotted; you really won’t need slots in anything else at this point.

Strategies: Welcome to Atlas Park (or Galaxy City if you misclicked). For the next few levels you are essentially the same as every other toon your level. Congratulations. Level as/where you will. Start to get a feel for the cone range of Slice. After you Hack, get used to moving around a bit in order to get the best angle on the opponents. It is hard to hunt and gather at this level – I am partial to jumping into a group and punching the boss in the nose then running around a corner. At level 5 visit the Hero Corps Analyst and set your missions at Invincible. You will never notice. Seriously.

Levels 11-20:

Powers: Mandatory levels to save for powers are 12 (Swift or Hurdle) 14 (main travel power), 16 (Unyielding), 18 (Health), and 20 (Stamina). Not a lot of free room there, huh? Spend some of your slots on Dull Pain (recharge reduction first, save healing for later) and TI.

Strategies: This is probably the hardest stretch, because you are going to spend these ten levels cursing your attack chain. You will be tempted to add Hasten. You will even be tempted to add Slash. Fight your temptations. Once you get Stamina, your life becomes much easier and your downtime between battles is cut remarkably. Continue to Hack and Slice and Parry your way into Paragon City’s heart. Teaming may make things a bit more bearable, but not much faster.

Levels 21-30:

Powers: Mandatory level to save for power is Invincibility at 28, which will allow you to stop jumping into a crowd and punching the boss in the nose in order to get them to follow you. I would add Whirling Sword, Resist Elements, Resist Energies, then at 30 either Kick as a prelim to Tough, or Build-Up. Once you hit the 20s, there is a lot more flexibility. Slots should be focused on Stamina and Whirling Sword primarily.

Strategies: Aaaaaaaaaah, finally we have a real attack chain. There will still be some lapses, but Whirling Sword makes it fun! Get a feel for when to activate WS; there will be times you completely waste it because by the time you activate it, your opponent has already run away. Such is life. If you were a bad boy/girl and took Slash or Hasten, run the respec trial and get rid of it.

Levels 31-40:

Powers: Mandatory level to save for power is Head Splitter at 32., and your next 5 slots should be spent there. From here on out, spend your powers and slots where you will; I took Tough at 35 and Build Up at 38.

Strategies: This is definitely the sweet spot of the build. With a full attack chain, your strategy is to hunt and gather and wait for the baddies to follow you. When the first one sticks his head around the corner, Parry to get your defense working. When more come in, decide based on their grouping whether to lead with Head Splitter or Slice, then start clicking buttons. You will level so fast it is not funny; be careful not to out-level contacts that will give you mission badges.

Levels 41-50:

Powers: Everything is optional at this point; I threw in Tough Skin, Hasten and Unstoppable, completely ignoring the Epic Pools.

Strategies: In many ways this is a very tough stretch. Foes are either laughably easy or unspeakably difficult (i.e., AVs). Teaming up to this point has been optional, but becomes mandatory because there is no way you are going to solo most of these AVs, even with a little help from some temporary powers. Here are some tips on teaming for the tough missions:

Tanks: Always follow the tank. And by tank I mean Invulnerable tank. Any other tank is a Fake Tank (kind of like a Fake Nemesis) and when teaming with these Fake Tanks, you should probably take the point. Between your taunt aura and the amount of damage you will be inflicting, you will constantly steal aggro from Fire and Stone tanks. I have heard that Ice tanks hold aggro nicely, but since I have never actually seen one I will chalk that up to urban legend. Treat Fake Tanks like tough but low damage scrappers.

Scrappers: Respect all thy fellow scrappers. They don’t like you and you don’t like them, but you are all used to soloing so have at it. An all scrapper team clears maps like nothing I have ever seen. An all scrapper team also gets owned by AVs like nothing I have ever seen. Make sure you make fun of katana users as much as possible. My favorite line: “Oh, that’s just like a sword, only smaller! How sweet.”

Defenders: Love all defenders. All of them (especially Kinetics. Sigh, kinetics.) They all rock, hard. Even the archers, because they are so cute, the way they try to help out and all.

Controllers: Controllers are the devil. Correction: pets are the devil because they ruin aggro and stop you from gathering into nice tight groups of fodder. Make sure your controller buddies know how much you love their buffs but hate their pets. Also, ask them to wait on group holds until the baddies are actually closely packed.

Blasters: Meh, a necessary evil I guess. Ask them to refrain from AoEing until the whole pack is gathered. Make fun of their squishiness.

Squids and Lobsters: Should be treated as any/all of the above ATs, depending on their form.

SUMMARY:

Actual quotes:

“You are the toughest scrapper I have ever seen.”
“You are like a blaster, only you can take aggro. Awesome!”
“I kicked you from the team because you were killing too fast.”
“You must be half tank!” (My reply to this one: “Only from the waist up. From the waist down I am pure scrapper.”
“Damn, this must be what Brutes are like.”
“Why is there no one on this half of the map?” (My reply to this one: “Because I already cleared it.”

I enjoyed every minute of it. I hope you do too.

Peace, Yomo

Invulnerability (Secondary):

DOOOOM! Well, maybe. It was overpowered in I4, seemed reasonable in I5, got slaughtered in I6. Maxing out resistances is essentially impossible without outside help, so it is important to try not to get hit. This will be fine for us because we will pump defense as well as resistance, we will encourage opponents to close to melee range where they play against our greatest strengths, and because we will leave everyone lying on the floor before they even have the chance to touch us.

RESIST PHYSICAL DAMAGE – You have to take this, so stick a damage resistance in there and stop complaining. Currently that gives you 6.75% resistance to S&L. I wouldn’t add any slots in here until late game, since each additional slot gets you 1.125% resistance to S&L only (slightly less for the third SO). When you have slots to spare get this 3-slotted with damage resistance.

TEMP INVULNERABILITY – Annoying that it is a toggle and kind of an endurance hog, but you are going to need this as well. I think I was one of the few people who slotted this for endurance reduction in I5. I guess I was ahead of the curve. Don’t 6-slot it until you feel you need it then 3x damage resist, 3x end reduction. I picked this up at level 6, since as much as you will need it, you don’t need it nearly as much as you need …

DULL PAIN – Who wants more HP? How about 40% more HP, does that sound good? I6 forced me to change my play style with DP. Whereas I used to 6-slot this for recharge and run it on perma, that is now impossible, so it can no longer be a “background” power. Six slot it with 3x recharge, 3x heal and use it as a panic button. Practice will help you figure out the optimal spot to trigger it in order to get a full heal out of it. Pre-level 16 you are going to be at a loss where to stick some of your enhancement slots – here is your candidate!

RESIST ELEMENTS – Here is the fly in the ointment. Levels of resistance have been so badly nerfed that you are better off slotting out your defenses than slotting either Resist Elements or Resist Energy. I suggest picking up this skill in your mid-20s and using the default slot with damage resist. I did not think it was possible that I6 could have made this power worse, but I was wrong. I would even consider skipping it if there was someplace else to put your power selection. In end game, if you have absolutely nowhere else to put slots, go here.

UNYIELDING – You know, they really did need to nerf this power somewhat since it really was all that and a bowl of guacamole. Mez protection along with massive resist all made in mandatory in I4 to pick up at level 16 and 6-slot it ASAP. Despite the fact that it is so much weaker, I suggest doing the same anyway. You need status protection, and without slots it hurts you to run Unyielding as it stands due to the defense penalty. 3x damage resist and 3x end reduction. If you are PvPing, consider adding some recharge reductions instead; 7 seconds is a long time to wait without status protection if your toggle drops.

RESIST ENERGY – See Resist Elements. This power is probably a bit more useful for PvE than Resist Elements, but it is still pretty sucky.

INVINCIBILITY – Once you pick this up at level 28, you have finally come into your own and have the ingredients of an elite group-killing machine. Increased defense and accuracy for every enemy within melee range (soon to be capped at 10) sounds good to me, but how oh how will I get them within melee range? Maybe with the auto-taunt? Once you hit level 28, you should NEVER be fighting a single opponent at a time if you can possibly avoid it. 6-slot this bad boy, but don’t feel you need to rush. I am working with 3x defense buffs and 3x to-hit buffs, and that seems to do fine.

I6 has made this power more situational, and a lot of the time it will draw a lot more aggro than you are expecting. It feels as if the taunt radius was increased in I6. Do not travel with this on, or else you will get potshotted by some random foe that sniffed your Invincibility aura. I do not recommend slotting taunt enhancements for the simple fact that I have never had any problem drawing the aggro in the first place.

TOUGH HIDE – Prior to I5 this was a wasted power. Now it is a semi-useful power that adds a modicum of defense to everything except psionics. Defense is good, especially against the elemental and energy damage that will be slung at you. Think of it as a purple inspiration that is always on and 3 slot it with defense.

UNSTOPPABLE – Use this as your “Oh <bleep>” button if you think you need it. I haven’t so far – I have never found a circumstance that made this power mandatory. Some love this power, some hate it. I added it late game, but pretty much the only time I use it is when I am running low on endurance versus an AV.

Power Pools:

One of the advantages of this build is that you are not locked in to your travel choice; any of the four would work nicely. Also, since I would only judge Fitness (and probably Fighting) to be mandatory, you can have some fun with things.

CONCEALMENT: Concealment? You are a sexy beast and you want people to see you, especially that big shiny sword! Seriously, with the nerfs to Stealth and Phase Shift in I5 and I6, I do not see much of a use for this set. If you can afford to spend three powers in this pool, Phase Shift might make a nice “Oh <bleep>” button. Thirty seconds is plenty of time to run away. Coward. If you disregard my advice and want to go into the PvP world, then Stealth and Invisibility may have their uses.

FIGHTING: In order to maximize resistance to smashing and lethal damage in what I consider to be an endurance-efficient manner, you are going to need to take Tough (if you go with my suggestions in UY and TI, 3 slots resist damage and an optional 3 slots endurance reduction). After that, I would consider Weave to be optional as well. At this point in your build, you are already going to be pretty much maxed out on your defense versus melee, but Weave provides equal benefits for both melee and ranged so even the base slot will help your ranged defense. Then again, if you are playing this right, no one will be attacking you from range. Catch-22.

Given a choice between Boxing and Kick as a preliminary power is difficult, but I always go with Kick. Yes, Boxing is more efficient DPS-wise, but you will never use this power for anything except for finishing off that last sliver of health, and you might as well humiliate your enemy as much as possible. How you feel when a member of The Family PUTS AWAY his gun to come closer and kick you in the thigh? Like you are such a minor threat that he can put away his weapons and just kick you like a mangy dog. It’s pretty embarrassing, no? Well, pass on the bad mojo and kick your foes when they are down. Slot it with knockback to add insult to injury.

FITNESS: No brainer; you will need Stamina as early as possible. Yes, even with the ED goodness; BS is a very endurance heavy build. You are also going to want 3 slotted Health, since it is your only healing power other than Dull Pain, I would suggest taking either Hurdle or Swift based on your personal preference. In late game, you can add more than 3 slots to Health and/or Stamina. You won’t get a huge benefit from them, but it is better than putting them in Sprint.

FLIGHT: Take this if it is your chosen travel power, either Hover or Flight or both. I don’t recommend Air Superiority since you are getting plenty of knockback/knockup effects, and you really don’t have the slots for another full attack, especially one that makes you put your sword away each use. Don’t get me started on Group Fly.

LEADERSHIP: Your choice if you have room. Since you are going to be maxed out on defense most of the time, I would certainly take Assault over Maneuvers. I went a different direction but I can understand if you want to go this way.

LEAPING: My personal favorite. Combat Jumping is always useful, and Super Jump is my preferred way of getting around this big ole city. Jump Kick is fun to look at, but a waste of a power, and only take Acrobatics if you for some reason feel that Unyielding does not provide enough knockdown protection.

MEDICINE: If you like. You really won’t have a lot of free time to be running interruptible powers, but whatever floats your boat.

PRESENCE: I don’t even know why they still have this power set. Invoke Panic might be nice to keep everyone nice and tightly packed, but why waste the slots?

SPEED: Repeat after me, YOU DO NOT NEED HASTEN FOR THIS BUILD. That said, if Super Speed is your bag for travel power, or if you just cannot live without it, grab Hasten and use it as a situational <oh bleep> button. I actually added this in I6 for the sole purpose of cutting the recharge speed of Dull Pain. Be careful when activating, because it will screw up your attack chain by giving you too many options, and you may find yourself running low on endurance.

TELEPORT: I have always hated Teleport as a travel power, but that is mostly because I would lag out in mid teleport and end up falling three hundred feet onto a pile of Tsoo. Then I upgraded my RAM on my computer and there are no issues. Recall Friend is a good team support skill, but then again, you are feral, so why help them out? Teleport Foe is just plain fun.

Choose your travel power. If Super Jump is your thing (as it is mine) then pick up Combat Jumping and Super Jump by 14 (defense enhancement in CJ and you can pretty much just leave it on for the 5% defense boost). If Flight, then I suggest Hover and Flight. If Super Speed, then Hasten and SS, for Teleport, either preceding power will do you just fine.

Epic Pools:

I don’t see any of these as necessary, but any could be a fun tweak. Body Mastery can help you with any residual endurance issues via Conserve Power (Focused Accuracy is accuracy overkill for this build) and Laser Beam Eyes can add a ranged component to your attack stream that is not lethal damage. Energy Torrent is not optimal – you want to keep your enemies close, not knock them away. Darkness Mastery gives you a nice option with the single target hold of Petrifying Gaze (avoid Torrent for the knockback as well) and Dark Blast also gives a ranged energy attack. Cannot say much about Tenebrous Tentacles. In my opinion, the best epic pool of the lot is Weapon Mastery, especially if you want to PvP in the arena. Web Grenade and Caltrops both do a good job of slowing or stopping runners, and Shuriken and Exploding Shuriken give ranged options.

POWER SELECTION:

Broadsword (primary):

NOTES ON ATTACK SLOTTING – I have spent a fair amount of time collecting data on performance, so I can say with confidence that the best slotting for attacks in broadsword in this build is [dum Dum DUM] the awesomely unique 3x damage, 1x accuracy, 1x endurance reduction, 1x recharge reduction (Yomo Slotting™). Thank you ED, you really made my choices diverse. 3x damage is a given. Given that a single accuracy enhancement has a bigger overall effect than 3x defense debuffs, we can safely eliminate the debuffs as an option. With a single accuracy enhancement I run to hit percentages not statistically different from the cap at 95% versus +1s and +2s. Without it, accuracy runs in the 85% area. Not a big deal, and certainly doable, but can that slot be used for something else? Two recharge reductions make you cycle through your attacks too quickly in my opinion – if you have two unused attacks at any point in time, you are really wasting endurance. No recharge reductions mean you need to add attacks to your chain or only get a full attack chain when Hastened. I can see two endurance reductions possibly if you want to skip Stamina, but since Health is a big part of this build, I don’t see the point. If you want, you can even 5-slot your attacks, but then where are you going to put your remaining slots? Resist Energies? Don’t make me chortle.

HACK – One of your go-to attacks from level 1 onwards. High damage plus a reasonable regeneration time makes it vastly superior to Slash, which should never be taken unless you are very awkward at clicking buttons on the screen when it comes time to select your powers. 6-slot it as early as you can, but it is not quite so high a priority as Slice. Eventually, you may consider respeccing out of Hack into Disembowel (see Disembowel for more info), but this will be one of your two primary attacks into al least the 20s. Yomo Slot™ it.

SLASH – I say skip it. Single target damage which has a brawl index less than, well, everything except Parry. A reason to take this is to build an early attack chain and respec out of it the instant you get a better attack. But since you get a better attack at level 3, why waste your time? Don’t take it, but if you do, Yomo Slot™ it.

SLICE – Your next go-to attack for the next 20 or so levels, so pick it up at lvl 3 and slot it at a slight priority to slotting Hack. Why? Slice has less damage, but in a nice sized cone attack that hits up to 5 baddies. Since the animation is basically a huge backhand slash, you would expect the cone to start at your targeted opponent and continue to the right, but it seems to center on your target. Experience has shown me that it tends to be a pretty wide cone – I often find myself hitting foes that I would have bet my bottom dollar were outside the range. Yomo Slot™ it.

BUILD UP – Do you like more damage? How about more accuracy? I know I do! In I5 this was a nice benefit. In I6 I believe it is necessary. In general, the boost will get you through three attacks in your cycle. If those three attacks are hitting 5 or more foes each, then, well, you have done your job well, grasshopper. Slot with 3x recharge and 1 or more to-hit buffs as needed.

PARRY– largely ignored in earlier versions, this became critical in I5 and later, and comes into play much earlier than I would have initially expected. Although the damage is low, it should be an early and integral part of your attack chain. A 15% increase in defense is nothing to snort at. Of all your attacks, this is the one you want to hit most, so I would recommend 1-2x accuracy, 3x defense buffs. I do not see the point of slotting this for damage at all – you might as well slot brawl for damage. This was the third attack in my chain and although it does not do a lot of damage, it keeps you alive a lot longer.

CONFRONT – As a single target taunt, in my opinion this is worthless to this build. If you want to taunt, run out and dance in front of your opponents wearing Invincibility (which is not the newest Calvin Klein fragrance, by the way). If you are looking to draw only a single target, shame on you. Delete your scrapper and make a blaster. Don’t take it, but if you do, slot it with whatever you want. You disgust me.

WHIRLING SWORD – It’s been a long wait, but finally we can enhance that attack chain with a nice AoE attack. Damage is decent, with a timed open wounds-type drain. This is a very annoying power to use when fighting single opponents, since they have a tendency to run away while you are getting some mad air. Also, WS does not require a target to be in range, so you run the risk of premature attackulation; be careful when you activate it. It appears that if a target is in range when you begin the animation but is not at the end of the animation, then they are considered out of range; this is the opposite of your other attacks (it is so satisfying to queue up Head Striker as your opponent starts to run away, gets 20 yards off, and gets chopped in two.) WS will affect up to 14 foes, if I recall correctly. Yomo Slot™ it.

DISEMBOWEL – My initial take on this power was that it is optional, and I still think you can do great without it. Since our goal is to cause as much aggregate damage as possible, single target attacks are vastly inferior to multiple target attacks. Disembowel does about 20% more damage than Hack for a single target attack with a longer activation time, so unless you are willing to respec out of 5-slots of Hack enhancements, I’d consider skipping it. But if you want to tweak that attack chain for all that it is worth, then respec out of Hack late in the game and Yomo Slot™ this bad boy.

HEAD SPLITTER – This power should be illegal, it is so tasty. Small cone attack, massive damage with increased chance for critical hit, knockup. This becomes your best attack at level 32 and if you do not have it fully slotted by level 34 I want you to see a doctor. I hate to reinforce this point, but do not ever forget that Head Splitter is a cone attack. Learning how the cone is aimed is pretty easy, since you can simply follow the line the sword follows to know where it is going to hit. Here is where you can take advantage of the slowness of activation of the set. Say you are against two foes standing side by side in front of you. It is easy to strafe to the side (using A/D keys or whatever you have them keyed to) in order to get one standing behind the other while you are waiting for the animation of your last attack to end. It takes some practice, but it is well worth the outcome.

In addition, the range on this attack is slightly longer than that of your other attacks. It is possible to be able to hit a foe with Head Splitter, but to be out of range of the rest of your attacks. You can slot Head Splitter for knockup/back but I really do not see the point. You know how to slot it by now. (NOTE: if you are skilled/patient/bored enough to actually go after Hamidon, damage/range HOs affect the range on Head Splitter. Even though you cannot slot it for range on its own, a damage/range will nonetheless increase the range of the cone.)