AWRocketman

I wanted to try a TW character and have also been wanting to try Regen on a brute so decided to put the two together. I've been reading a fair amount about people who don't like the combo without going into the reasons why.

I get the clicky nature of Regen and that it doesn't mesh with TW - but then it doesn't mesh with any weapon set because of this.

In looking at TW it seems to fit well with Regen for a couple of key reasons:

- The AoE knockdown helps the survivability of Regen by letting Regen's regen kick in while mobs are on the floor.

- The melee defense in Defensive Sweep gives Regen the ability to softcap melee and smashing. This means that a TW/Regen can hit MoG, jump into a big group, and well before it wears off he's sitting at capped melee/smashing and the minions likely dead. At this point a Regen can easily out-heal what the bosses and lts can put out.

Am I missing something that turns the combo into a "fail"?

I've SEEM to have had missions where procs just don't fire at all then next mission they do. Last night, trying my procced out Distortion Field for the first time, in two consecutive missions I saw not a single yellow number above good sized groups.

I'll go in and try some big groups in zones and see if I can get them to fire.

I've got three damage procs in Distortion Field and haven't seen it proc once. Anyone with any insight?

My Fire/Traps is one of the nastiest characters I've got... though I prefer my Ice/Traps defender for survivability at soloing +3/8

I've been toying of the idea of trying a proc-monster build. Artic Air and Distortion Field can take up to 7 total, Frostbite can take three. That's 10 damage procs that will have a chance to hit multiple times every spawn.

Questions:

I'm seeing builds here relying on Chrono Shift's +rech to get perma-hasten, but Mids shows Chrono as only having 30 second duration. It looks like you can have it up about a 1/3 of the time so are getting an effective 16%ish recharge over time. Is Mids correct on the duration? If so, does the single slot in Hasten still work?

I haven't seen anyone mention the Earth pool. While it lacks a ST blast, it does get a massive ST melee attack that holds, a massive perma HP increase and a fast recharging close AoE that recharges very quickly and can add some extra control. Not to mention a defense armor if you want it. Is the benefit of a ST blast that important or can Fissure and Knockout Blow make up for the lack of one? (especially considering that you'll be in melee range a fair amount)

I've been playing with both Beam/Dev and Beam/Energy in Mids. There is no doubt that boost range brings a lot to the table. I've got an AR/Energy that is amazing because of the synergy between Boost Range and the cone attacks. The Energy attacks on that build are key to bringing down heavy targets.

Beam doesn't need the melee attacks and doesn't have the breadth of cones. As mentioned Boost Range helps dramatically with Disintegrate.

Devices brings the ability to soft cap Smashing, Lethal, Energy, Negative and Ranged damage when used in conjunction with Smoke Grenade. Additionally you can get 5 useful defense powers for LoTG +recharge IOs. Note that Energy can get you to the softcap for 15 seconds with boost power so protects you from the alpha.

Originally I thought that the Illusion/Time would be superior pairing, but as I was thinking about Plant/Poison I started seeing a lot of natural synergies.

When the secondary AoE effects of Poison were added I didn't think much of it. The radius is too small for most spawns. However, when paired with an AoE confusion power you'll have all sorts of nice bunched up mobs to hit with them.

That means that all sorts of -res for better damage combined, some good -tohit for defense. Add to all that all the proc damage goodness that both sets can offer (amplified by all the -res) and I think this makes for a nasty combo.

I rolled a Storm/AR not too long ago and am currently at level 21. While it will take a while to bloom, if you like to herdcane it has the potential to dish out massive damage. Herdcane things into a corner and igniting them just has too much fun factor for me.

The thing is that it has to wait until patron pools AoE immob for truly effective solo herdcaning, but once there...

I have a Traps/Ice at 50 that is one of the most potent solo characters I've ever played. I run on +3/8 with no issues for most mob types.

A friend duo'd a Traps/Sonic with me so I know what that can do.

Traps/DP has a good synergy due to the up close style of both.

Here would be my rundown as the most useful secondaries (in order):

#1) Depends:
- If you want to be able to solo AVs then Traps/Sonic goes #1
- If you want to be able to crank through /8 spawns then Ice goes #1
#2) Still depends:
- If you want to stick to primarily AoE and Ice isn't your style then put DP here
- If not then Sonic
#3) Whichever of the above three has not been placed yet

Why Ice:
- Traps/Ice has the benefit of having two slows in Ice Storm and Caltrops. This means that when you throw them both down the baddies start running (so they're not shooting at you), but stay close. Additionally, Ice's holds come in very handy against tough bosses and mesh nicely with a Chance to Hold proc in Acid Mortar and Poison Trap.

Why Sonic:
- The stacked -res does amazing things against hard targets. It's hurting in AoE, however, since it's only AoE is a cone and when you're up in the baddie's faces cones don't work so well.

Why DP:
- Lots of AoE and you can use it up close. No second slow hurts, though, because baddies sometimes run from Acid Mortar. Which can be really annoying.

Others:

Rad: Not bad with a couple AoEs, including Irradiate. You can proc out Irradiate and NB and do some nasty stuff. However, the secondary effect (-def) doesn't help much with Acid Mortar already doing a lot of that.

Archery: Not a lot to synergize with here. No real weaknesses either. The nuke being able to be up a lot is a good thing.

Assault Rifle: Basically no synergy and a lot of down side. AR is a ranged set due to the cones and traps is up close. Does not mesh well.

Dark: Similar to AR, it's a ranged set. Also, when you're IO'd out you don't need the -tohit except against -def enemies.

Electric: Not a bad pairing. You can stay alive long enough to sap and you can use it up close. The hold is a good pairing. This would probably be #4.

Energy: Bah. Worst pairing by far. Some will say you can knock baddies into your traps. One baddie doesn't cut it.

Psychic: Not a good pairing, but there are worse. No real synergies.

And...

Fire (in the next issue): I've got a Fire/Traps corrupter that is just nasty. You get the stacked slows with RoF and lots of AoE. I'll be interested to see how this plays as a defender with lower damage an no scourge. Another down side is the lack of a hold until patrol pools. Still, I burn through mobs like nobody's business. It's just that bosses can hurt when you can't hold them.

The Chance to Hold proc in LS is second (in my book) only to putting it in Acid Mortar in the Traps set as the most useful use of a proc in the game. I say second because:

- With Acid Mortar you can pair it with the Lockdown proc placed in Poison Trap and have the capability to hold the majority of a spawn immediately.

- LS already has some mitigation in the form of knockdown so the hold isn't quite as useful as Acid Mortar

Still, one of the best uses of a proc in the game.

First off, the T3 blast in Ice is not "broken." On the surface it looks to be slightly out of whack with respect to recharge times (roughly +20%) and endurance costs (roughly 25-30%) vs other T3 attacks.

However, you have to add in that it does slightly more damage than any other T3 attack except Blaze and has two secondary effects (-spd/rech and -tohit). While you can argue whether the -tohit added effect and the relatively small damage boost is worth the added recharge and endurance, you can hardly call it "broken."

As for the combo, I have a Traps/Ice defender and it is incredibly potent, both solo and on teams. When I play him I run at +3/8 and have a blast. If you can reach the softcap on a Corrupter then it should be of similar effectiveness.

AR and Kin do not synergize well at all. Kin is an up close and personal set while AR is best at range due to the cones. Additionally, the recharge bonuses from Speed Boost get tempered somewhat by the long animation times of AR.

Honestly, AR is the worst pairing with Kin of any of the defender secondaries.

I sooooooo desperately want them to make it function like the satchel charges in Half-Life. The mechanics basically exist in the MM version of traps in Detonate. They could summon a psuedo pet and place the equivalent of Detonate on it, then when you click the power the second time it blows the charge.

I love Hover on Kins. With Siphon Speed you move around very quickly and the maneuverability is awesome. You don't even need to slot it for speed if you're willing to deal with the occasional Siphon Speed miss. A single application of SS basically gets you maxed out.

The two things you give up are immobilization protection and endurance cost.

With that said, I have both on my Ice/Kin. I've gone for a defense build and Combat Jumping is the cheapest (endurance) defense you can get.

I have a Fire/Storm that's pretty insane. The AoE damage is just plain nasty and it has better ST damage than Ice.

Ice gets controls, much better slows and -recharge.

However, /Storm can come pretty close to capping slow and -rech through Snow Storm and Freezing Rain so much of Ice's slow potency is overkill. Granted, Snow Storm takes an extra action and is slow animating.

Fire will be far superior against minions and lts as it melts them away before Ice would be able take its theoretical advantage of its slow and -rech. Ice theoretically gets a bonus against bosses where its holds, slows and -rech has time to take effect, but /Storm has enough other tools to mitigate bosses on its own (Hurricane, Tornado).

I just pulled my perma-dom'd Mind/Psi off the shelf so I could run her over to hero-side for the Ice armor. She's now softcapped and perma-dom'd. The difference before and after is pretty striking. I was running on +1/4 on the way through the alignment changing arcs and now I'm at +1/8. The only time I run into problems is when I get into a troublesome Arachnos spawn (too many resists to confuses, holds, etc.) or when I get slowed (or forget to fire Hasten in time) and dom falls. That will be less problematic when I hit 50 and get purple sets slotted.

I will say that pre-respec I was not at 35%, probably closer to 30%, but it will give you an idea.

Subject sort of says it. How do you close off the psy hole in Ice Armor's defense?