Amy_Amp

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Castle's in the Defender forums! *throws a net over him*

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Once in every so many issues, the devs come in and acknowledge that this forum exists. Anything more and then we really start to question why Vigilance hasn't been changed to benefit defenders.

And Castle, add in +recharge(helps damage, but not in a broken way) and make Vigilance work solo and the vast amount of hate toward Vigilance would be gone.

Psy/dev would be considered one of the weakest blaster combos.

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Well looking at them both in action I have these conclusions so far..

- DB has better animations for the attacks, hands down.

- Claws however seems to do more damage. This may change later on though as I start developing more Combo chains into DB. One Base damage alone however the advantage clearly seems to rest with Claws.

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And Claws will further cement it's lead at 18. DB will come roaring back at 26 based on the attack and it's part of your best combo, and Claws finishes off nicely at 32. The one advantage that Claws has for me is if I want something done instantly, Claws makes that happen. DB has to go through a combo to do the same, or will have to do it in melee as were Claws does it at range. Using Shockwave with it's ranged, fast animating, and wide cone KB for an alpha strike is something you just simply can't get in DB. 1K Cuts is beautiful to look at, but speed isn't it's thing.

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What is it about Spines that is OP exactly?

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Castle referenced spines having as many as three secondary effects in one power.

Stacking (small) immobilize
Toxic DoT
-spd/rch debuff.

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And he said the set was being looked at, but the time table for changes was on the longer side. The AoE damage he didn't mind, but it was all of the secondary effects that Spines gets. When it was mentioned on the scrapper forum it came across as a non-issue for scrappers since most people didn't really play it for the secondary effects anyway. Point is, Spines will be changed. Eventually.

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A Pistols Pool would be interesting.

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Power customize the weapons pool to change the shurikens into dual pistols.

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I'm pretty sure a redname somewhere said that pistols would never be a scrapper set, for one

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Yep.

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Moreover though, a melee set with some ranged attacks is not the same as a ranged set pretending it's a melee set.

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And this. Claws has 2 mere ranged attacks. I don't pick up a gun so I can beat somebody over the head with it.

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Force Bubble is better.

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Can't exactly respect into that with a Dark now can you? TK is highly skippable to me. It's the one power from Mind control that feels sort of meh.

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I may be wrong, but the claws animations were made before BABs got hired on... correct?

Either that or he just got better at his craft, because DB just looks so... amazing!

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Correct. BABs wasn't there for the creation of Claws. It's been reworked enough to where it's superior to what the original version was and I cringe at the thought of going back to Claws 1.0.

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I hugely prefer claws. Im gritting my teeth on my latest DB scrapper trying to get them to SOs (3 previous attempts have been deleted), so I can give the combos a fair go.

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Part of me getting into DB was skipping on any combo until I hit 26. Once I grabbed Sweeping Strike, then it got instantly fun for me. My lack of playing the build has more to do with my general lacking of playing, but I need to switch over to level 30 SOs and then get into the 30s because my slots are still on the light side for attacks. By the time I get level 35 IOs in there, it should further solidify it's status.

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I hate to say this but with what they did with Psi i doubt TT will make it in the blast set maybe in a dark secondary.

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It would be taking out one of the only reasons to play the set. It's also heavily DoT so I don't see why it would be an issue.

Dark actually would put up respectable AoE damage due to TT and NF having 10 second recharges. The problem with Dark's damage is that it's so DoT based it feels underpowered at times. Only real switch I see is Aim for Drain Life. I just don't see the devs giving blasters a potential Dark/dark option with two self heals even if they are also damage based powers and thus on the lower side for heals.

Claws(surprise), but that's like saying Claws is a 9.8 and DB is something like 9.7.

This is really close to what I'm currently using and it's a pretty basic build, ie no IO sets. Spin's placement is different because it ended up being something I tried out way late due to more recent changes. I'm still not 100% sure where I would put it. Levels of where I slotted stuff can be ignored. The click based powers for /regen get more slots early on as where stuff like FH and Health can be vastly ignored until your 30s.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Without Pause: Level 50 Natural Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Claws
Secondary Power Set: Regeneration
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strike -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(3), Dmg-I(3), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(34), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 1: Fast Healing -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(5), Heal-I(34)
Level 2: Slash -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(7), Dmg-I(7), Dmg-I(9), RechRdx-I(9), Achilles-ResDeb%(11)
Level 4: Reconstruction -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13), RechRdx-I(15), Heal-I(15), Heal-I(17), Heal-I(17)
Level 6: Quick Recovery -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(11), EndMod-I(13)
Level 8: Follow Up -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(19), RechRdx-I(19), RechRdx-I(21), GSFC-Build%(21), Dmg-I(48)
Level 10: Dull Pain -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23), RechRdx-I(23), Heal-I(25), Heal-I(25), Heal-I(27)
Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27), RechRdx-I(29)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 16: Integration -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(29), Heal-I(31)
Level 18: Focus -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(31), Dmg-I(31), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33), RechRdx-I(33)
Level 20: Resilience -- ResDam-I(A)
Level 22: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 24: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(46), Heal-I(48)
Level 26: Eviscerate -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(34), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(36), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 28: Instant Healing -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(37), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 30: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(39), EndMod-I(39)
Level 32: Shockwave -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(39), Dmg-I(40), Dmg-I(40), Dmg-I(46), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 35: Spin -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(42), Dmg-I(42), Dmg-I(43), Dmg-I(43), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 38: Moment of Glory -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 41: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A), ToHit-I(45), ToHit-I(45), ToHit-I(45)
Level 47: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Tough -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(50), ResDam-I(50), ResDam-I(50)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

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./ Before SO levels, the purely defensive toggles (Mind over Body and Heightened Senses)

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Your right but the thing is you don't get Heightened Senses till lvl 28 on a Scrapper so that is after SO. And I take MoB at lvl 22 which is right when you get SO. So it is the same thing but I get MoB good before you and with no End issusesa, and have the attacks I want.

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you negate the chief advantage of picking Willpower.

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Again I think you negated the Chief advantage of picking Willpwer if you take stamin at lvl 22. It is not because you can take your defense part it so you don't need to work in Stamina by lvl 20 so you can take a travel power easy and get the attacks you want when they come available. So you can slot them up and make them good with SO.

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This. I really don't need Stamina at 22 considering I'm just now able to 3 slot QR with SOs and I have a mere two toggles running. If you are grabbing Stamina at 22, it means you are putting off other powers you could of had already until 24, 30 and 35. No thanks. QR with any needed end slotting on other powers, ie attacks, more than covers you and you may be able to skip even that small amount of end reduc slotting depending on the primary.

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After that, it's pure upswing for controllers compared to defenders, IMO

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You know what I'd like to see? What % of playing defenders are /Archery at 25, 35, and 45.

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Probably would be better to see the % compared to other defender secondaries during those levels. My guess is there aren't a lot of /a defenders because TA isn't played a lot, and /a doesn't really have a style pairing outside of maybe Dark. /a also causes redraw with any primary not named TA. It's currently the only nuke for defenders that offer something outside of the box, so my guess is it has better higher level numbers versus others though. I can all, but assume /ar will follow a similar pattern.

To me DB is just way more fun of a set to play. I'm highly tempted to roll a DB/dark, but with limited play time I'm vastly just leveling guys I already made.

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One statistic that jumps out at me immediately: the median level for controllers in your sample. The median level for defenders looks about 32, scrappers blasters and tankers together in about the 36-39 range, and the median level for controllers is probably at least 45, and may even be 50 outright, if level 50 controllers outnumber all under-50 controllers, a significant possibility. (Note to newbie statisticians: the median is the number at which half the samples are below and half the samples are above... for example, the median of 10 20 30 40 50 50 50 is 40; the median of 10 20 30 40 50 50 50 50 50 is 50.)

My theory to explain the two outliers: controllers are extremely popular for level 50 content, and defenders level 12% slower than everyone?

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It's just easier to quote myself.

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If the average player gets a character to level 30, you would assume somebody playing a controller would lock down on getting those two levels to get to the "good point" of being a controller. After that, it's pure upswing for controllers compared to defenders, IMO, and thus you would be crazy to not want to level that build some more, which means getting the final two and then off to get epics.

Here's a quick chart of how much ATs get played. While it's a one shot look at it, the same poster has done in depth versions of it before. Now, look at the 30+ level range between controllers and defenders. People typically play defenders up the level 30 range, but not many seem to go all the way to 50. Controllers on the other hand keep getting played. Why? Because players have a bigger incentive to do so.

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And Freedom really could be called the controller server if not in vast part due to the number of Fire/kins that play on it.

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Hate to interrupt (sort of) but I'm building an emp and would like to know if Vigilance surpass the need for Stamina on most builds.

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Yes. Only if you plan on soloing would I consider getting Stamina.

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ability to skip Flares

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But Flares is very good now! Skip Fire Blast!

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On my Kin/elec I can nearly get away with one ST attack and two AoE. With Fire, I get two credible ST attacks and two AoE. Flares's damage isn't worth me taking the time and effort to use it when there are more damaging things to use. If you are looking to solo and certainly lower level play, then by all means Flares fills in nicely for those situations. Later on when I'm on a team and using stacked Siphon Speed and Hasten? Not worth it.

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How many hrs does the avg player play for per session? per week?

I imagine the term "casual player base" wasn't coined due to the majority of players being capable of rushing into the 20's in a matter of hours.

Last number released quite some time ago (iirc) said that the avg player level is around 30.

What about key tier 8 powers? hour many hrs does it take the avg player to go from 26 to 35? Do most players even reach 35 to even get to use said power?

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Note I stopped at the level 20 range. Level 12 really is fairly quick to get to even if you only play a couple of hours per week. Let's say four hours per week which means two hours on a typical day off for a work week on average. Outside of Posi, pretty much the vast majority of TFs can be burned through in that time. Posi can be, but you are looking at a team more built for that kind of thing versus the 6+ hour horror stories. One weekend to get within Posi range. 2nd weekend to do Posi and 3rd weekend to do Synapse and you should be looking at level 20. You now could possibly have 6 out of the 9 total powers.

Does it suck to wait until 35 instead of 26? Yes it does, but if you are only playing 1-2 days a week, you are looking at rested exp and using the day job for more exp per mission completion. Leveling in this game is easy as ever. I don't even consider getting to 30 that difficult these days if you lock on to playing that build and then you are looking at having 7 out of the 9 powers. Getting those final two will take some effort, but in a lot of cases for a set that uses a defender primary, it can be very much worth it compared to what the defender is getting at that point.

If the average player gets a character to level 30, you would assume somebody playing a controller would lock down on getting those two levels to get to the "good point" of being a controller. After that, it's pure upswing for controllers compared to defenders, IMO, and thus you would be crazy to not want to level that build some more, which means getting the final two and then off to get epics.

Here's a quick chart of how much ATs get played. While it's a one shot look at it, the same poster has done in depth versions of it before. Now, look at the 30+ level range between controllers and defenders. People typically play defenders up the level 30 range, but not many seem to go all the way to 50. Controllers on the other hand keep getting played. Why? Because players have a bigger incentive to do so.

Forgot to add this in earlier. I wouldn't factor in real time to get to a certain level versus game time. If it's taking you a year to get a power for a one AT, then it's taking you months and months to get it for a defender as well.

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Maybe they will fix it when it is ported? *ouch ouch* No more rocks *ouch ouch*

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I highly doubt PT will get fixed back to it's previous glory, but there's no way in Hell for Castle to port the powers as is from a numbers point of view.

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I don't consider this really a controller problem here. It's completely a defender problem since the support sets get the proper numerical bonus across the board

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Not really. Secondaries that are used as a primary on other ATs generally are playing at 75% of the primary. Controllers walk all over this.

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Hurricane at lvl12 was enough reason for me to go storm/son over son/storm. Freezing rain at 8 was an even bigger decider.

Speed boost at 12, excellent.

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I can ding 12 in a play session, or two if I'm being lazy. The only way 20 takes awhile is if you solo your way. If you don't plan on playing the build much I can see it being an advantage to getting powers earlier, but that's about it.

Since we know defenders are getting Traps next, it will be interesting to see the sheer numbers of converted Fire/kin corrs since defenders still won't have access to /fire. Fulcrum + Scourge + ability to skip Flares? Yes, please.

Let's not forget that in it's current form, Traps isn't too bad.

1. Depends. It's fairly up for debate. One reason to still have it is that it's still good for AV fights since you can stack the buffs/debuffs versus just using Fulcrum.

2. I've never had it on a Kin period, but I've rethought about it, and IOs can make it useful since you can toss a KB protection IO in it. It's nice if you can fit it in.

3. You likely don't even need CP. Grav doesn't really have any huge end drain powers like Fire and Ice do, so you should be ok without it. You will likely want two builds though. One before Transference and one after.

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My standard answer to every person who asks a variant of "What Defender do I roll next?" is Dark Miasma. The obvious exception would be those people who just did Dark, but that seems to be a surprisingly small number of people.

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As much as I'm known among my game friends for playing Kins, I think Dark is actually my favorite primary. It really doesn't get played as much as it should.

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There's a lovely Guide to Kin/Elec, it's somewhat outdated, but a lot of the basics are covered.

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Page four has more current basic builds. I really need to do a Kin/elec 101 type guide that gets it a little more updated, but I'm horrible at doing projects in my free time. Kins are the most diverse build to take on so there simply isn't a "do this" type method to how to build one. Once you understand the pros and cons of deciding on the travel power and fitness debate, it becomes a lot easier.

EDIT: I would consider the build I posted in the guide thread to be even outdated for me. Yes, it works and you can get it to 50 since it's pretty much my current build, but if I was rolling one again, the final build would look different even with mostly common IOs.

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My highest level character is a level 30 Claws/Regen and I gave the meager inf I had away when I left, so I am essentially starting fresh.

With that being said, what are some combinations that won't make me rip my hair out if I can only afford SOs?

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Learn the market and solo as much as you can stand since that will help increase your earning rate as well. Once you hit 32, start crafting level 35 common IOs since you won't have to sub those out. Really, you already have a level 30 Claws/regen and the best way to earn influ is to still rock out with your highest guy unless you have somebody somewhat close that solos faster. My Claws/regen is 47 and sporting nothing but common IOs and I have yet to meet a EB that makes me go, "Ok, I can't get past that one." Also, depending on what TF badges you have, you might want to go back and do some lower level TFs so you can horde up some influ without gaining exp. The badges that help get the TF Commander accolade are always nice as well. Depending on what server you play on, other players(waves) might be willing to help you out to get going again.

Now, if you hate playing Claws/regen, then that's different, but really any build you like to play works. For me most of my influ is made via the market these days anyway. Most of the influ I get from doing missions doesn't really happen until the level 45+ range. At that point it's hard not to let it rain in since level 50 common IO recipes sell for so much at stores. You can either take the Claws/regen and hammer out those 15 levels, or grab a new guy and hammer out 45 levels. I know what I would pick.