Amazing_Shnyet

Thought I'd have a goosie-gander at all the shiney new toys too!
My new laptop has moved all my keys around though so please bear with me if we team as my binds are everywhere.....

My Thugs/TA has pretty much walked over all the EB's I've faced (currently 35). Don't think I've had to solo any full-blown AV/Heroes.

Just remember that Disruption Arrow stacks with itself, but Acid doesn't, so you should be able to have about -60% Res at points during the battle.

Also remember to apply Poison Gas AFTER Disruption and Acid, as lowering their DmgRes also lowers their Res to Dmg debuffs.

Both those coupled with a good bit of slow from Glue, and I've had no real problems.

This is a great read if you're after some hints and general breakdown of the powers and what you'll be aiming for.

http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/showfl...e=3&fpart=1

What's your secondary?

Force might be an option to keep that "natural" look, just call it Adrenaline

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Stygian

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Hmmm yeah i do admit, in solo situations, more slotting would be required. I hardly ever solo though as he blossoms so much more in teamplay

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Dwarf End

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Aye, I started with Endmods rather than Endreds, but then I saw some maths on here one day, converted to Endreds and was much more comfortable.

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Nebuolous Form

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Ahhh, travel power, sorry I use my Nova to get around as its less work-intensive than TP. The only thing I'd say though, is maybe you could drop Shadow Cloak for Nebulous form then
Because as I work it, I Nebulous Form into the mob, get my position as the mobs quickly scrabble about getting their weapons out and generally flailing about, wait for a break in the attacks (generally a second or so after the alpha) then pop out of Neb and Eclipse (which luckily has an under-1 second activation time. working with Nebulous Form ,you could also have Inky Aspect and Orbitting Death running because it wont aggro until you're ready.
Taking the alpha on the nose is going to leave you in trouble and in need of a heal, meaning you have to go up into Dwarf.

To be honest, pre-Eclipse, I'd TP in with Dwarf, take the alpha, Mire, Drain my health back, then drop into Human and mire. Its faster because it has less form changes, and safer because you go in with Dwarf. The only problem is that mezz's will remain stacked on your Dwarf, so as soon as you drop out to Human, you're screwed

Obviously again it'd be a different matter solo and in teams. (anything under 8 mobs isnt worth my mire combo ) all the above opinion and experience was team-based

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Stamina

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Well does it help if I remind you that Eclipse also fills your Endurance as well as Res? So you'll have 2 endmod powers.

Just a reminder

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I use Ring of Fire for holds combined with Power Push to keep them out of melee with me, I don't think either of those warrant 3 dmg.


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I think MaX was referring more to Snipe, Blast, Nova, Bolt, Fire Sword etc etc that all have only 2xDmg there. Having them 3x slotted for damage is a must Im afraid.

3 slotting Accuracy is a bit over-kill for anything, and Power Push has an inherently high Accuracy as it is. Just one Acc SO is sufficient to hit yellows and oranges. Maybe consider 2 Acc's in any AoE's etc, but generally your big hitters will be in the Aim BU window, so any more than 1 or 2 Acc is a bit wasteful.

Be interested to see how this pans out though, best ST damage Primary (imo) with best AoE secondary could be quite tasty.

Good luck

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Look at the numbers on nofuture, the damage is rubbish. Human form damage is better, nova is better, the only time for you to be in dwarf therefore is to take hits off people

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I dont think it's the fact that Dwarf damage is poor, but the fact that the times that you're FORCED into Dwarf, you still want to be kicking out the numbers.

Facing Malta, Knives, or any mass-mezzing mobs will pretty much keep you in Dwarf, as in any other form you're just walking about like Johnny Vegas.

I've 5-slotted my 2 dwarf attacks 3xDmg, 1xAcc, 1xEnd. They chain together quickly, and with Drain doing quite nice damage aswell, it's the best ST chain a WS has imo(not saying much i know). I also find the constant Knockup the chain provides handy too, you can pretty much take a boss without being hit.


Going back the the OP, I think there are a few powers that should be getting priority slotting over others you've gone for.

3 slotting Health? To be honest I'd drop those into Gravity Well. Most people use it as a hold, but i slot it more like KO Blow from Tanker SS. It's got "superior" damage, and is your highest ST damage attack.

I even think Stygian Circle is over-slotted, I run on just the default 1xEndmod. That'll completely re-fill my Health off about 2-4 minions, and my End off about 4. If you're going to slot it for something, slot it for Recharge.

Hasten not 3 slotted? When you get the big recharges like Extract Essence, Unchain Essence, Quasar, and Eclipse, you'll want Hasten up as much as possible. Consider trying to find 2 more slots for this.

I think you'd be better off droping the 2 endmods in Dwarf into seperate Endred's in the attacks.

Is the Superspeed to stack with Shadow Cloak? If so, consider swapping it out for Nebulous Form. It's also got a stealth component, but is about 300 times more useful for you as a WS than SS will be. It's not going to save your life, it's not a panic button. BUT it will enable you to get to the centre of a mob, avoid the alpha, and position you nicely for Mires and Eclipse. Worth a thought.

Gravitic Emanation is a great tool aswell, nice Cone disorient, with a high mag KB. So pretty much Energy Torrent with disorient Im currently trying to find the slots on my 44 to finish this off to give it the slots it deserves. Try picking it up a bit earlier.

Im not entirely sold on the Stamina issue. You could either keep your shields slotted for Endred and drop Stamina, or drop Stamina and keep the endreds.

For a few different ideas try
<ul type="square">[*]Leadership - Apparently kheldains give the same boost as Defenders, so your pets and all around would beneifit. Also Eclipse + Double Mire + Vengeance too godly for words.......[*]Presence - A nice pool, i held it for about 10-15 levels going through. Nice to take the heat off an ally, and a nice litle pseudo Hold. Also getting off an Invoke Panic during your Mire combo can buy you valueable time.[*]Concealement - Grant Invis is always a nice touch, and kind of a forgotten power these days with the changes to Invis etc. Dont rely on it to quieten your pets though, they'll still shoot anything in range.[*]Medicine - I see a lot of Khelds running around with this these days. Stimulant is always popular, a self-heal not dependant on foes can be a welcome change for a WS, and after Eclipse you'll be out-living a lot of your team-mates, so combined with your inherent TP friend the Rez is popular.[*]Jump - Im going for this one through the 44-49 period. Nice lil defense buff from CJ, bit of mobility from SJ, and the amount of times KB has messed up a Mire or Eclipse will be solved by Acrobatics[/list]
So yeah, try some stuff out. I've respecced mine a few times on the way up (tri-form throughout however), my best advice would be to get out a pen and paper, write down all your powers, then have a play for a while. Go back to your list and check with powers you used, and which you didnt. Sometimes with all those forms flying about, you dont even get to use powers, and those powers could be dropped in exchange for things which could improve your style.

Have fun

Hey guys, nice read that.

Got an Ice Tank at 18, and enjoying it so far. Looking forward to SO's to finally feel fully Tank-y.

Few questions though

- How long does the defense buff last on EA?
- How much more piddly defense would an extra SO in Frozen Armour give?

It's my first Tank, and I'll be going for a Stamina-less build, but was wondering if Health was really useful on a Tank, because of their higher HP's, hence higher regen rates.

Cheers chappies.

I loved getting a much more powerful Dwarf form when I respecced at 26ish.

Very nice. Especially at level 3, when the only thing worth slotting is the inherent Teleport

Hey Leon, good to see more Nrg/Nrg's about, gotta love that blue glow.

Anyway, build looks pretty good. Only thing I'd comment on, is that with all that recharge, and Hasten too, you might find yourself not using all your Ranged Blasts.

I know a good ranged chain is important, but with the recent changes to the range of Burst, and with Snipe, Blast (and in your case Explosive Blast) in tow, you maye find you don't need them all.

I get by fine without Power Bolt. I'm not exactly a fan of the animation, and a ST attack that pretty much tickles an enemy doesnt fill mew with joy

For a recommendation, try out Energy Punch. It's animation is pretty much the fastest you have. Get it, put it in your tray, put it on Auto (ctrl and click), and it'll chain up with Bonesmasher nicely.

Energy Punch, Bonesmasher and Power Burst are my bread and butter on that toon. It's a fast, devastating chain, and a chain which'd be used in different circumstances than your regular ranged one.

Another option would be to try out Power Push, Im sure that if I ran Hero Stats through a night, it'd be one of my most used powers.
Seeing as though you seem to prefer ranged combat, it'd be the only control you have. It can let you easily solo any boss (bar KB-resistants such as DE/Nem) without even a scratch. Fun

YMMV obviously, and in the end, your build is your own. Mine is far from cookie cutter (no-stamina and love presence pool, Munitions) but I wouldn't change anything about him, much to the disgust of most forum "guru's" I'm sure

Enjoy

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NB, if you want to change the priority of the target bind, remember that binds read themselves backwards, so put the highest priority last, hence why i had Cyst towards the back

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They read themselves forwards, each target instruction just overwrites the one before it. So if you tell it to target A then B then C it will... but since it happens in order, C will be targetted last.

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.........which is what I said......I'm glad we agree

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Does Black = White too?

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It would appear so

Read backwards / Overwritten commands

Tomato / Tomato

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NB, if you want to change the priority of the target bind, remember that binds read themselves backwards, so put the highest priority last, hence why i had Cyst towards the back

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They read themselves forwards, each target instruction just overwrites the one before it. So if you tell it to target A then B then C it will... but since it happens in order, C will be targetted last.

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.........which is what I said......I'm glad we agree

Aye, I use target_custom_next a lot. Even on the large open area maps trying to find that last ghost hostage. As long as you know part of the hostage name, you can use it to find them (or my current pet-hate, is the near-invisible bombs to plant on CoV, a nice "targetcustomnext bomb" sorts them straight out)

The enemy defeated one, I actually use instead of double clicking the power, because I usually look for the corpse while still in Dwarf form, hence wouldn't be able to fire the power to get the target. Also, I wouldn't want to target the mob thats been flung out of the centre by the over-zealous Nrg Blaster, I want this corpse over here, so it'll cycle to the next, rather than fire my power

Horses for courses i guess.

Glad they're helping somewhat anyway.

NB, if you want to change the priority of the target bind, remember that binds read themselves backwards, so put the highest priority last, hence why i had Cyst towards the back

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The Reservoir Dolls, an all AR/Dev theme Sg on Union, has been going for a while. As a team they're pretty effective in pve. Granted we haven't faced an AV yet but it's only a matter of time.

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I'm pretty sure that team would destroy an AV.

Each /Dev'er can get down about 9 Trip mines is it?........then a lil pull........pop goes the weasel.

But indeed, all-Blaster teams are pretty intense, although post-32, it's pretty much

"ooooo look, a mob.....ooooo look, someone Nuked it..........ooooo look, we need a new mob"

......over, and over and over

So whenever the Rangers roll out with our 50's we've made it a policy to ban Nukes (unless comedy value is needed).

But you wouldn't really need all 8 Blasters to run Maneuovers, just get one kindly */Nrg Blaster to have Power Boost and Vengeance..........if someone bites it....instant 50-75% Def.....and that's possible from level 20 onwards....

Shnyet AWAY

I dinged 50 on my Blaster in an all-Blaster 7man AV battle. Not even any faceplants (although it was Battle Maiden, but we'll ignore that bit ).

Can be very fun indeed, and usually a welcome change to the PuG Tank saying "I herd to here, wait until i say go!"

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Also bear in mind that without stamina, your endurance recovery will be sluggish, one hit from a sapper and you'll be a sitting duck.

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It actually ends up being exactly the same as Stamina folk. Because as I've slotted for Endreds, it takes less End to fire a power, hence I can get off a power about the same time a Stamina user could. It's recovery Versus need. It's a pretty close race, and I've found myself winning it a lot of the time against Carnie bosses.

Kept it simple for my beloved Thugs ;

<ul type="square">[*]Trigger, Calibre, Zippo (Arsonist)[*]Colt, Clip[*]Magnum[/list]
Kind of gun related, and seemed to fit the look.

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Possible? Yes.

Effective? Not particularly. You'll need to slot endurance reducers where you wouldn't otherwise, which will detract from damage potential. You will also struggle to run a lot of toggles. Even with all that playing at a good pace when conserve power is not available is going to require heavy use of blues, carrying a lot of blues is going to mean less other useful inspirations that you may want at higher level, most particularly break frees.

In addition to which although you'd free up three powers, you wouldn't free up a lot of slots, what would you take instead that wouldn't need slotting?

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Well I'd free up the slots people would usually put into the Fitness Pool, so the new powers would get those........it's not rocket science

With the Invention system just around the corner I can forsee a lot more people going Stamina-free.

I can't see how slotting an Endred here or there would "detract from damage potential".

Horses for courses I guess

Im always up for demonstrating my Stamina-less builds, I think I've even teamed with you before on my controller and had no complaints .
Without playing one yourself, it's hard to be a judge unfortunately.

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The defense rests

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Oh quiet you Half that time was waiting for you to kill someone with Ice secondary

Guess I'd better give a wave too!

Howdy all, I'm a Commander of the Precision Rangers and am pretty spread across the whole 1AT.

Seeing as though monkeys before me seem to have no advertising/selling technique what-so-ever, I guess I'll help

We have........

<ul type="square">[*]Bases with TP's to every zone[*]Zomg REAL girl-gamerz (check out our forum for pics)[*]Regular Group Events[*]Spam[*]Free cookies[*]Matching SG's on the Villainous CoV[/list]etc etc.

Disclaimer : cookies and pimping of girl-gamers not guaranteed...........but occassional

Shnyet AWAY

Hmmm, interesting build prospects. The one thing you might want to consider though, is quite heavily slotting Animate Stone for Recharge, rather than Damage.

Maybe 3xRech, 2xAcc.

With your shields, you could make him into a pretty good Tank, and the faster he recharges, the more times you can plonk him into a mob.

You'll have to be quick with your shields though, as he'll take the most damage off the alpha Strike.
A bind to target him would help.

It's not ideal, but seeing as though he doesnt kick out THAT much damage anyway, it could be a nice little twist on the usual.

Something to consider anyway

Very possible.

I've run my Nrg/Nrg blaster to 50 over about 500+ hours without Stamina. (also an Arch/Elec to 35 without, 42 WS without, 41 Earth/TA without.......etc etc)
I slot my melee's with 2endred and primaries with 1endred.
It's rare that I'd run low on end, and if I do, the Stamina users are running low too.

I only ever use Conserve Power after a Nuke, so I can keep blasting.

If you team a lot, you'll be fine. In a team of anywhere over 2-3 people, there'll generally be someone with a +End power in their pocket.

Be it the abundance of Kins with SB, or a helpful Empaths with RA, or even the Rads with AB.

It gets easier once you hit the 30's as you get the slots to finish off your build (either slotting additional Acc or Rech)

I've never felt inadequate on a team or felt a "sub-par" Blaster. If anything I felt a little stronger........because well, I had 3 more powers to pick.

My main advice would be to avoid toggles, or be prepared to slot them heavily.
I went Munitions Mastery with the auto-shield, meaning no End-cost. Yes, it's less effective, but it stays on when mezzed etc, so it aint all bad.
It also opens up the excellent Cryo Freeze Ray hold and extremely useful LRM. But obviously if you're set on Force, go for it, it's not a crime to use Blue inspirations for the gain of 3 extra powers

I love my lil Adrian.

Stallone reference ftw.

I've got the Stalker love too, and oddly enough ALSO Claws/Ninj.

Never been one for PvP, so it's a pure PvE build. Enjoying it a lot. Solo's like a gem, and teaming is fine, havent experienced any of this "I dont feel like Im doing anything on a team as a Stalker" that I've seen some people say on the boards.

Focus ftw.

For a Claws/Ninj, Caltrops is pure Mayhem Mission gold.

Get it, love it.

It also prevents MM's being Ubah Malefactors. As you could easily just buff your henchies then Malefactor, and absolutely own.
Its right in principle, but the "Out of Range" automatic despawn sounds a little harsh (and dangerous).

Hopefully they'll get around to adding some sort of max time outside range. Enough to navigate a door/lift anyway.