Wytchven

Hello all,
My first Brute was a Dark/Dark, which I only got to like 20ish. Fit my concept, but was worried I didn't capitalize on building up her fury if all her attacks reduced the acc/to hit of her enemies. So on my next attempt, I am wanting to make an Energy Melee primary and was thinking of going either Willpower (I like the idea of the set) or Invincibility (so I could just take a bigger beating and hopefully survive through it). Anyone try one of these combos or have any thoughts on how they would play? I plan on going primarily solo, or small groups, and strictly PvE.

What are all you guys using? I seem to like both of these the best. I am a Kat/SR scrapper, and I am running with the Musculature Alpha for the damage boost. Will the Defense Debuff stack with my innate ones from my normal attacks? Or should I just go for the fire DOT to heap on the DPS?

Follow up question: Core or Radial for theses?

so the set bonuses are always on? I thought they only triggered when the power was activated.

That makes sense on the Globals, so how do the other parts of the set bonus trigger on the pets?

So how do the set bonuses work on slotting the pets? They would trigger once you cast them, but wouldn't they wear off after a couple mins? Or does it trigger once and stay on as long as the pets are running/refresh every so many seconds like a toggle? It would seem that only the global +res/def IOs would be the only ones you would really want from the sets. I am pretty sure I am missing something here.

I think the consensus is that Sting of the Wasp is better than Gamblers Cut from a damage perspective. However, the animiation is a little cooler for Gambler's.

I do not see Elude in this build. This power is a godsend and can get you out of some tight jams. My Kat/SR got it asap and has it three slotted with Recharge. It lasts longer than you would expect and eating a blue inspiration afer it drops will be enough to get all your toggles back on. I really only use Elude on boss fights so as not to worry about it dropping at a bad time. I can usually defeat what I am fighting before it pops most of the time. I would certainly drop Energy Torrent (you dont want anything that is going to push mobs away from you) in favor of Elude.

I am at work atm so I cant post my build, but with Kat/SR you want to take all of your secondaries and all but the Taunt for your primaries (Calling of the Wolf I think). Going with Fighting for Tough and Weave is a nice idea to bump up your defenses/res.

As for slotting, all my attacks are 6 slotted, and I think 1/3 or 2/3 of my secondary toggles are six slotted all have Luck of the Gambler in them. All of my passives (sans Quickness) are only two slotted with straight defense IO's (three slotting these is probably fine).

My Build Up is three slotted with Recahrge IO's, but I havent actually looked into the sets to see if they were worth it, so you may know something I don't.

I am not sure you need to four slot Health - I have mine 2 slotted with the global IO for Numina's and the other Health set (can't remember the name). There is a third global IO for health that I would probably slot in if you went down to three. Those are all pretty expensive IO's though and I honestly havent purchased them yet myself, but it is a "dream" build so to speak. Overall, the idea with SR is that you shouldnt need a high pool of HP or Regen since you "theoretically" shouldnt be getting hit.

Same thing goes with Stamina - I have mine three slotted with Stamina IO's - never looked into the sets for that either since they are passive and you dont need any of the other stats like Acc, Recharge, End Red, etc - so you may want to stick with some globals or just the Stamina IO's.

I have stuck with the same build for my Kat/SR's career and she is one of my favorite characters. Things are getting a bit tougher with i19 and I did junk Darkness Mastery for Body Mastery (I took Focused Accuracy instead of Energy Torrent) and added the Fighting pool to replace the Fitness stuff. My Recovery usd to be enough, but having to actually stop and rest again now - APPARENTLY 7 toggles is pushing it, LOL.

thanks for such a detailed response. I figured it had something to do with the changes not making it to the client, but MAN, this has been going on for a week and I never remember having this kind of problem before. I will give this a shot next time I play.

Kind of a moot issue at this point as I was trying to bind Practiced Brawler to the 5 key. Happy accident though, found out that with one recharge IO can have PB on perma, so I just set it up to autocast PB. Freed up 2 slots that I can now throw into 6 slotting Shield Wall and Luck of the Gambler on my toggles!

I have been previously able to make changes under the keymapping tab, however, for some reason it will no longer save the changes I make. It will reset whenever I enter a mission, leave a mission, change zones, or log out. I have tried applying my changes, doing a normal log out, as well as, applying changes and doing the quick log out.

Has anyone else been having this problem or know a solution?

what level range or slider should I be using for the Random Recipe rolls with the A-merits to maximize my returns? I technically still need some of the damage and defense IO sets, so any of those I get I will craft, but am really just trying to build up cash to buy some of the global IO pieces.

Oh, and I do have going rogue and have been doing the morality missions to get my A-merits.

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I am NOT planning on doing anymore than the single slot for these. So I will probably just forget about the one for my K/SR scrapper and just add the knockback IO for Kinetic Combat on Kick on my DP/Kin corrupter when all else has been slotted.

With the refund of Fitness coming soon I have freed up the Fighting pool on most of my characters to get the added defenses from Tough and Weave. I have never tried this pool before and am wondering which is the better attack. I am looking in on this with a Corrupter and a Scrapper, so neither really needs the extra attack.

I am thinking that Boxing would probably be better just for the IO that gives the Disorient bonus (vs the immobilize in Kick). Any thoughts or suggestions? The last option would be to just pick one and never slot it or add it to the tray at all.

Thanks for the tips guys on a topic that I am sure has been posted numerous times before. I am still lacking a lot of influence so the conversion of reward merits and 20 mill is still too rich for me atm, so I think I am just going to run the morality missions and task forces when I can (mostly because I just want to experience them).

I just hit 50, paid attention to most of the Story Arcs, but sadly this was prior to the implementation of Reward Merits so missed out on a bunch. I am trying to work on getting all my powers IO setted out and want to know what is the best way to farm for these. Should I be running task forces? Architect Missions? Story Arcs? Tip Missions? Running random crap and just using the influence in the AH? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated as I can only play a few hours a week and want to make the most of my time. Thanks!

Ok, time to lock experience then it seems until I finish these peeps off. Thanks!

I am halfway through level 19 and still have like 3 contacts that I want to finish (Dark Watcher, Praetor Tillman, and Dr Helix) but I am most likely going to hit 20 before that. Do I need to turn off exp? What actually forces you out of Praetoria?

thanks for the tips, just to comment on a few things: I do try to stick to concept over pure power playing, for the most part, and then build my characters around their travel power, as weird as that may seem. This guy was going to go the Super Jump route, but I found that I just really liked watching him Ninja Run and flip around the world, so much so, that I felt SJ would detract. I still wanted some of the defense bonuses though and when I found out that Invis and Stealth stacked with Ninja Run I was pretty much sold.

Ultimately I played around a bit and found out that if I just played a little smarter I could do without CJ, and ended up going Stealth Invis.

From Shred Monkeys post it doesn't look like there really is a suppress effect on Stealth (my brother seemed to think they removed that from the game, but not the flavor text too). So, the only think I lose out on in is a little mobility and the Immob effect, which I am cool with.

Thanks again to everyone. Tonight will actually be my first night to try combat with Stealth running. Wish me luck.

"I suspect Swift and Hurdle become one power. Call it "Athleticism" or something."

-that is actually not a bad idea at all. Assuming that we will be able to slot. Since most peeps only take Swift OR Hurdle, if you combine them and allow the choice of either Fly, Speed, or Jump IOs, what you choose to slot it as makes it become what you would have picked initially, more or less, with a slight buff to the one you didn't.

What would be great is that if Athleticism unlocks (as a slottoble) at like level 10, Health at like level 15, and then Stamina at level 20 - any staggering would work really and as long as Stamina wasn't anything beyond level 20 no one could really complain. I dont think that they should award all of these as inherents at level 1. Would it be nice? Sure, so would having our level 32 powers at level 1, so by staggering it creates some balance, and should make us have to work just a little bit. We should feel more powerful as we get higher in levels, not have everything handed to us right up front. The earlier levels should still be a little more frustrating and we still should have that same feel at level 20 that, yes, this is still a milestone level.

Yeah the speed decrease, which I am assuming is movement speed and not recharge speed, isn't too much of a concern. I am more worried about what kind of reduction to the actual defense properties of stealth that will happen when I start to attack. Because if the defense drops to below 2% then it really wont serve my purpose at all and I would then be better off just sticking with CJ.

I started a Dual Pistols/Kinetics corrupter and also just bought the Martial Arts pack and am finding Ninja Run to pretty much eliminate the need for me to choose a formal travel power for this guy. I am debating skipping Combat Jump/Super Jump and going with Stealth/Invis instead.

It seems that Stealth and CJ give pretty much give the same defense bonus when active (sans the Immob defense on stealth) at 2.67% res all. I find that I am needing some powers to give myself a bit of a defense boost. Would Stealth work as a toggle for this instead of CJ, or will I lose the defense bonus when I start attacking?

I was also thinking of grabbing Acrobatics at 49 to also give another toggle for this. Bad idea or are there other ways to make me less squishy?

I primarily will solo with this guy, but will group every now and then.

I guess Maneuvers may not be a bad idea if just go the Stealth/Invis route. Any feedback would be great thanks!

Since we have all have turned a cool idea, and a gracious post from a red name, into DOOM!!! without any facts or details let me try and difuse a little and make some speculations.

Nowhere did Positron say that ONLY epic badges would unlock mission/dialogue options. Nowhere did he specify Fabricator. He just said, that the programming would look at your "Crafting" badges. Maybe you only need 10 crafting badges taken from ANY of the invention badges, which may or may not include the 50, 100, 500, 1000 badges. Maybe you dont need the top tier healing badge, but maybe just one of the healing badges. Just need to be patient.

Thanks for the teaser, can't wait to learn more, and I will be happy to join the flame when more info comes our way if I need to.

Would be great though if they did halve Fabricator or something - may seem a little more attainable, yet still need to put the work in.

I never said my solution was a an easy one. And yeah, it would actually require the devs to sit down and think some things out (not to imply that they don't). Issues of balance always will exist, and to do an overhaul to this system would most likely create bugs, but if it makes a fairer and balanced system it sure beats the current implementation.

if I haven't already signed this, I will sign it again. In some post somewhere else I suggested similair improvements to the accolade design. I like the idea of removing any level restrictions. I also purported that you could just assign certain levels to each accolade so that once you get one it will always act as a level 25 accolade, so regardless of what level you obtained it at, if you exemped below 25 you would lose it (and everyone else who got it would lose it too). Each accolade could have some level atttributed to it that gave some freedom to those who REALLY wanted it and earned it earlier on, but wouldnt penalize those who got them later. This would also put some more balance on it than the system where all level requirements were just removed.