Amber_V

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Well brutes don't have to get hit by everything I guess. I have seen to few that care to.

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How is that relevant?

Hey guys my Invul is fine against massive -Recharge and Psionic damage, I just don't aggro those mobs!

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How is talking about Brutes in the Tanker section relevant?

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This thread is, chiefly, about the Invulnerability powerset. Refer to the thread title and contents for confirmation of this.

Also, Invulnerability on Brutes is a point of comparison to their Tanker counterpart.

And in response to not seeing many Brutes that care to get hit by everything: in my experience this holds true for most playing the Tanker AT. Often enough see them lagging behind, waiting for the rest of the team to go first, and not even trying to attain aggro, just attempting to tickle one opponent. Usually a minion.

Alternatively as in the last case I saw, going near a mob then running around jumping, doing nothing, in what I can only assume is their idea of running away. In this particular case with Sonic shields against even-levelled enemies, too. One can only surmise that their 39-month badge is down to it being a purchased account. At least, I hope so.

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Sonic/Sonic 2
Dark/Sonic 5

Dark is great but i would rather have a defender giving shields while debuffing enemies res

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True enough, I perhaps made the mistake of automatically assuming we were judging by 1v1 PvP rather than also taking into account PvE performance.

Sonic/ Defender I think I'd prefer to have around rather than a Dark/, if only because Dark/ is the most awesome set to get consistently played very, very badly. Post-20 Dark/ Defender without Darkest Night or Fearsome Stare is something I've encountered distressingly often.

Hmm... might we be able to specify specific ancillaries for a show-down? I was thinking Dark/Ice/Psy Defender versus next victor, on account of having Petrifying Gaze, Freeze Ray and Dominate. That's some serious hard-control to go alongside heavy debuffs.

Sonic/Sonic - 0
Dark/Sonic - 1

Dark/ has an advantage over Sonic/ in that it has a very powerful, and spammable, self-heal where-as Sonic/ has nothing to that effect outside of Aid Self. It also has Fear effects and Shadow-Fall proves decent for Energy resistance.

Fluffy, alas, would not fare well in this battle. He does not cope well with being shouted at. (Sonic in PvP is entirely energy damage I think... and Fluffy already has -resist to Energy even before Sonic's own -resist kicks in.)

Also, Siren's Song drops Sonic Dispersion, and while being somewhat inaccurate, Sonic/Sonic has little means of building up any significant defense, so it will be hitting reliably if slotted.

In any case, this one is going to be noisy.

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rad/rad - 5
son/son - 5

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I believe someone's misunderstood how the scorin' is bein' tallied here.

Following on from Stryke, as praetorian is very unclear over who they opted for:

Sonic/Sonic - 9
Rad/Rad -6

Not only could a Sonic/Sonic be King of Defenders, they could be a King of Rock Across the Cosmos.

Also has [Drum Solo], which while having a needlessly long animation time will put the Rad/Rad to Sleep.

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its hardly game breaking, how offten do you have 14 kins running about following a granit tank just so he can jump.

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I dunno, one might have the same inadvertently occur just from strolling through Portal Court.

Another reason to go into melee as a Blaster is very powerful PBAoEs. Psychic Shockwave, Fire Sword Circle, Short Circuit, etc. Good and fast melee attacks, too. Energy Punch --> Bone Smasher, for instance, are fast and high-damage so fit into BU+Aim's 10 seconds well.

Having good damage also gives Blasters good survivability, I find. On a Fire/Mental, for instance, you can just hit BU+Aim then jump in with Drain Psyche and find yourself destroying all of your opposition faster than they can do the same to you.

The status of a 'squishy' is very easily avertable for short durations, also. Force of Nature, two tier-2 purples, Drain Psyche etc. And, being a Blaster, a short duration is most likely more time than you need to do your thing.
Edit: And, of course, breakfrees.

One application I've had for it is to set up Caltrops, Acid Mortar and Poison Trap at a herd point and set Time Bomb, then hit several mobs near-by with TAoEs before skedaddling to herd point.

Unlike Trip Mine, it actually has a guarantee of hitting all of them rather than being prematurely detonated. Also, this method gets -Res onto the mobs prior to kabloom.

Pacifism Through Extreme Firepower. A sound tactic.

Conflict between two sides? Remove one of the sides. End of conflict.

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And running on water while super speeding

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that's not half bad, gives ss a better ability.(and hopefully the NCsoft team can link the entity of water to ss, so it's solid when you use ss over it)

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Water does not have true depth in CoX. Effectively it just changes your movement animation and has graphical effects. Making it appear as if SS runs on water would not in any way change how SS moves across water.

AR: Instead of the tier-1 and tier-2 being Burst and Slug, having them be Burst and Heavy/Sustained Burst(Extended single-target Burst... not the SoA cone power)).

Traps: Change Seeker Drones so they can be named. I want to call one of mine Skaffen, the other Amtiskaw.

Blaster Secondaries: /Grenades. I was having loads of fun with Stun Grenades, Tear-Gas Grenades and EMP Grenades I picked up as temp powers on my 22 AR/Ice Blaster. Used up the stun, and I miss 'em. There certainly are enough grenades to go around. The aforementioned, fragmentation, smoke, sonic, flashbang, glue grenades and so on.

Like I said, it was a speedily-done arrangement for Arc/Mental/Ice. I spent no more than 10 minutes on it. Myself, I wouldn't even have gone /Ice Ancillary, but figured I might as well stick with the ancillary that'd been chosen by the OP.

Perhaps saying "here's the optimum build" was misleading. Well, no, it is mis-leading. I was tired at the time of writing, and ought to have read over the post again and noticed the phrasing was off there. What I meant was it's the speedily-done PvE build I did with the optimum, more expensive, enhancements in some powers. Not any kind of ultimate arrangement.

Hurdle with two slots is because I like to get that extra unsuppressed speed on Combat Jumping mid-fight, so is a preference thing. I have CJ on far more often than SJ. Recall Friend and Super-Speed was because I got stuck with having all the powers I actually wanted, but having to choose more. As were a few other powers, at that. If I hadn't been tired at the time of making, however, I also would've remembered the Leadership pool and picked up Assault and perhaps Tactics in place of Recall Friend and Super-Speed. Super-Speed, you see, was entirely an after-thought and, if I actually used that build myself, would see no use other than if I'd been web grenaded. Looking at it, I feel it's pretty decent for a job done in the minimum of time when I was quite tired.

But yes. Would make changes to it certainly, but kinda feel it's done with now, so suppose I'll leave it. That, and you've already done a very good build that I brook no disagreements with in terms of power choices and slotting except to perhaps swap out Super-Speed for Tactics out of preference. Or something else. Acrobatics for the unlikely chance of stopping a low-mag AoE hold, maybe. Just not Super-Speed. Don't particularly get on with that travel power.

Also will take note of some of the frankenslotting with purples, as the results of it are very nice.

Edit: Hmm, you're right. I didn't enhance Health. Must've been more tired than I thought, or too hasty.

Hmm, what I'd have done with Archery/Mental is different entirely, and what I'd have slotted in terms of IO sets is also different entirely.

Myself, would have skipped Snap Shot, Stunning Shot and Ranged Shot, and possibly even Explosive Arrow, and never even considered passing up Psychic Shockwave or Mind Probe. I'd also consider the +Damage set bonus as not being as valuable as you seem to. Would also have slotted 5x Doctored Wound (excluding Heal/End) and one Accuracy IO rather than 6x Efficacy Adaptor into Drain Psyche. The base +recovery from it is far more than good enough, where-as the regen can see noticable improvement. Would also have skipped the Medicine pool as Drain Psyche'd be my self-heal, pretty much.

Also would've put 5 slots in both Aim and Concentration to benefit from 5x Adjusted Targeting in each. +Recharge in quantity will get you dealing damage faster than +Damage set bonuses alone will. Particularly with Rain of Arrows (which I'd add a 6th slot to on top of 5x Positron for a recharge IO).

And just noticed you've got 5x Coercive Persuasion in World of Confusion but not the Contagious Confusion proc. That proc's what elevates WoC to a whole new level of effectiveness, I feel.

Slotting of Ranged Attacks I'd probably also lose Devastation in favour of 5x Decimation(all but proc) and 1x Thunderstrike Dam/Recharge.

In any case, we'd probably be aiming for completely different things, so I'll just post a quick slot-up of an Arc/MM/Ice I speedily did in Mids', mainly to give examples of IO slottings.

Anyhow, here it is:

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Note that 'Frozen Armour', 'Psychic Shockwave', 'Rain of Arrows', 'Combat Jumping', 'Blazing Arrow' and 'Mind Probe' all have an alternate slotting you can flip them into from the 'Enhance' window in the info tab. The one I have them on by default's the cheaper IO slotting, the other's the more expensive optimum.

With the cheaper alternative up, build has +73.8% recharge from sets, +52% accuracy, +11% damage, +3.4% MaxHP, +7.5% ranged defense, +4.5% max endurance, +?? Regen.

With the optimum alternative up, build has +111.3% recharge from sets, +81% accuracy, +14% damage, +5% ranged defense, +2.25% max endurance, +??(but quite a bit more) Regen.

The latter's perma-hasten so is effectively +181.3% recharge. Drain Psyche is also 1.9 seconds away from perma.

Ok, apparently 'Alternative Slotting' in 'Enhancement' doesn't get ported over in the data chunk, so here's the optimum build:

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I'd recommend Force Mastery, as /Mental Manipulation synergises so well with it. Slotted you're looking at resistance cap to Smashing/Lethal, and very near resistance cap for everything else. Now, combine that with Drain Psyche's +Regen...

Manage to hit 107 hp/sec regen on my Fire/MM/Force Blaster with those resistances up, and I can assure you, you will not die while you are like that, so you can basically feel free to pop a breakfree and act like a Tanker with Blaster damage for the duration.

On top of that, when you feel FoN's about to crash, you have a nuke to fire off as well. You'll be end-crashing from it anyway, so no reason not to really, and it's a nice way to end your brief bout of invulnerability.

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In fact no blaster secondary offers a way of getting hp back.

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Mental Manipulation. Drain Psyche. On a half-decent amount of hits it'll give you enough regen to get from 1% to 100% health pretty easily. With 10+ and slotting for heal it could effectively regen from 1% to 100% several times in the 30 seconds it lasts. Base recharge is only two minutes, too, and even unslotted for end mod it'll easily have you at recovery cap.

Mental Manipulation does have a huge amount of stuff in it, and I don't think much more than the listed powers would be. Mez aura in World of Confusion. Immobilise, Self +regen/+recov in Drain Psyche, -Recharge in Mind Probe, Psychic Scream and Shockwave, also damage and stun, Build Up and Fear in Scare.

That being said, Chill of the Night with the -ToHit it usually has when it appears would be overpowered. My main reason for it's inclusion isn't really a good one, as it was that I thought it'd be nice if it showed up in a powerset usable by players, not counting DM's Dark Servant. Death Shroud is the much more realistic possibility.


Soul Drain also wouldn't be too much for a Blaster, I don't think. It's a longer and higher damage boost, provided it hits 6-7+ targets, but is not as reliable as Build Up. When fighting dispersed or smaller mobs it'd suffer, and in AV/Monster fights, also.

But my main point, really, is that I don't think Siphon Life could even begin to hold a candle to Drain Psyche for hp recovery. Health recovery powers do already exist in Blaster secondaries.

I don't think Tar Patch would ever realistically make it to live on a Blaster, and especially not as a tier-1. Without exception the tier-1s of the Blaster secondaries are all single-target and, for the most part, immobilisations. What they all do without exception is damage.

I just don't think a fast-recharging location-AoE slow and -Res is ever going to make it onto a Blaster, except perhaps as the tier-9.

Concerning the tier-1, I think what'd be most in keeping with other secondaries'd be a single-target version of Tenebrous Tentacles. Midnight Grasp came to mind as a single-target dark immobilise, but considering what I envisioned only retained the immobilise aspect calling it that was perhaps misleading concerning what I was trying to get across.

I think the main rule I'm going with is to not deviate too far from what powers in the other Blaster secondaries do. Ice, for instance, has Chilling Embrace for a damage-mitigating debuff aura already, Mental has World of Confusion as a mez aura and a self +Regen power in Drain Psyche to mirror the life-drain, Fire has Consume for +End, Devices has Cloaking Suit. Soul Drain is different, but is also replacing a +Damage/+ToHit power with a different kind of +Damage/+ToHit power.

Tar Patch... doesn't really fit. None of the other Blaster secondaries do -Res or -Def, the debuffs that they do reduce average incoming damage from the target rather than increase your average damage to the debuffee. Caltrops is not really too comparable with it I'd of thought due to it having an avoid effect, damage ticks and no debuffs other than the slow.

I have no idea if this is already being worked upon or considered for next set of proliferation, or whatever. This is more of a speculation of how such a set would work, rather than a suggestion, but felt this the best place for it.

Now, Dark Blast would also be a possibility for Blasters, but I think that'd be an almost direct port with higher modifiers, so won't go into that.

The following is essentially taking existing powers from various Dark powersets while trying to adhere to what I interpret to be the basic formula of the Blaster secondaries. Most notable difference with /Dark, I think, would be the life-drains and Soul Drain replacing Build-Up.



Tier-1: Midnight Grasp?
The immobilise, ported from Dark Melee's tier-9, but not really the same power. Is ranged rather than melee, and suspect damage'd be quite different.

Tier 2: Smite
Hard-hitting melee attack with fast animation and reasonable recharge, a somewhat more damaging version of the dark melee power.

Tier-3: Death Shroud or Chill of the Night

This one I have some uncertainty about. Chill of the Night, in almost of it's incarnations, is a powerful -ToHit aura with negative damage ticks. I'm not sure if this'd be considered too powerful a debuff aura for a Blaster or not. If so, Death Shroud would take it's place.

Tier 4: Cloak of Darkness
Same as the Dark Armour power. Defense, stealth, immobilise protection.

Tier 5: Soul Drain
This, I believe, would be the main deviation from other Blaster secondaries, as a replacement for Build-Up. PBAoE, for each target hit +Damage and +ToHit. Lasts longer than Build Up at half-a-minute, with only a two minute recharge, but dependent on large mobs to be at peak effectiveness.

Tier-6: Siphon Life
Melee, moderate damage, small but respectable self-heal upon hit. Decent recharge.

Tier-7: Dark Consumption
The PBAoE self +End power of Dark.

Tier-8: Cloak of Fear or Oppressive Gloom
Cloak of Fear's a fear-aura toggle, basically. Oppressive Gloom's a stun aura that damages the user for each enemy stunned.

Tier-9: ???
Now... for tier-9, I've really not been able to come up with anything I'm too sure about. Soul Transfer's a no because Fire ancillary already has self-rez, Dark Regen might be considered too powerful, also. I'm toying with the idea of Darkest Night, but think that could get ruled out for same reasons as Dark Regen. This is one I particularly want suggestions for.



And that's basically the gist of it, the kind of basic thing I'd expect could make up the Blaster secondary of Dark Manipulation.

Ideas on what you feel should be included or left out I'd like to hear, and other possible new Blaster primaries/secondaries. What's come to mind to me is Rad Blast and Rad Manipulation, the latter perhaps including some of those radiation melee attacks we sometimes see mobs use.

Looking back over it, it seems as if it might be too powerful... but then, the same applies for many sets that're in-game and live. Only real shortfall is the secondary itself doesn't bring too much damage with it from actual attacks, but it does bring a lot of +Damage.

Something I would recommend is Dark/Ice. Debuffs stuff so hard they're harmless, has excellent control and self-heal and a good slow/-Res. It can herd with ease and keep huge amounts of mobs at bay for a long (if not indefinite) period of time. It functions brilliantly both on a small scale and a large scale, in terms of mob size.

Ice is good for damage as well as control. Ice Storm when used to maximum effect is one of the most powerful Defender AoEs out there and Tar Patch lets you use it. Fast and powerful single-target attacks complement this.

Main problem's you'll want all of your primary except Black Hole, and thus be pressed for powers to spend on your secondary and tertiary pools. By level 22 only had Freeze Ray from my secondary, but a small price to pay for being nigh-unkillable.

I imagine Dark Servant could also take over the debuff role if when solo you'd rather opt for blasting everything in sight with /Ice.

Surprisingly wasn't bad on endurance, but the way I played it I wasn't throwing out attacks too often, focusing more on control. Would differ to playstyle one would imagine.

It's not unusual to be at the fore of a team with them having to catch up to you, it can perform admirably at tanking. Fearsome Stare to Darkest Night'll floor their accuracy, lower their damage and have them cowering till either support's arrived or you decide to make a start yourself. The trick to Dark Miasma is knowing the debuffs are worthy of your trust. Break-frees are good to have on you for more mezzy enemies, but aren't needed as much as you'd think with all the -Acc flying around.

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AR/EM you an avoid all but the tier 1 melee attaks and take the buffs, whih are explainable as learned feats

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Seconding AR/EM, worth it even if you just take Boost Range and Build Up, as they augment AR magnificently.

Myself, I find it more than adequate for endurance recovery with it's base figures, just one or two people hit'll be enough to allow me to spam AoEs and break even with endurance.

Personal slotting I went with was 1 Acc, 2 Recharge, 3 healing here. The hp/sec regen component's high enough to regen your max HP twice in the 30 seconds duration, so as long as it's not too spiked you can soak up a huge amount of damage and come out of the fight with full health. In effect it might as well be tripling your Max HP.

This is, however, from the perspective of a Fire/Mental, which I'd imagine is more adept at grabbing aggro than Psychic/Mental and'd therefore benefit from the regen more. Endurance recovery has been enough to make me never drop below 90% unslotted, and I never stop attacking and veritably spam AoEs.