Blue_Fenix

I think there's a few things going on:

1) Most people who give advice about this tend to assume that when planning an IO build, you're looking for the absolute best money can buy. With plenty of Inf to burn, it's entirely possible to soft-cap at least one of the three positional defenses on even a Blaster. Less rich players, on the otherhand, will find it a bit harder to pick up enough +def to outweigh the potential benefits of frakenslotting and careful choice of set bonuses to match their build.

2) Topped out defenses is the single best generic defensive strategy in the game that all AT's have access to, due to the above. When you're getting hit by only 5% of incoming attacks, you tend to feel invincible. The other big advantage of +def over +regen or +resist, is that if you don't get hit, you not only avoid damage, you also avoid any and all debuffs, mezes, and other secondary effects of the attack.

3) Stacking defense bonuses is something any AT can do, so it's easy to give that advice to anyone without stopping to actually analyze what is going to be most effective in increasing that character's damage output, control, buffs, etc.

4) Stupidly high defenses combined with massive aoe damage is one of the ways to efficient farming.

Is there any truly comprehensive guide to endurance on the forums? Preferably something with math/details on recovery rates, end reduc., powers that help with end management, etc. etc.

Ones I've found so far:
Endurance Dysfunction and You! - http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=122880
Endurance Management Guide - http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=116596
Endurance Management & Damage per End. - http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115557
How to survive before Stamina - http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=121511


If not, I may just write one.

So, messing around with my Shields/Mace tank, I suddenly realized just how much End my attacks were using relative to my toggles.

For the sake of determining where it would be best to slot more end reducers, does anyone have a simple formula for calculating the end cost per second for attacks? I'm not sure whether activation/animation time should be involved in figuring that out. Also, I'm assuming for now that I'm using the attack immediately every time it recharges.

So, I've been messing around in Mids some more... if I only leave out 1 from my primary (Grant Cover) and 2 from my secondary (1 attack and either taunt or build up, most likely), I've still got a very tight build if attempting to get Weave, CJ/SJ, and Stamina. What would you think of picking up Maneuvers early on and respec'ing out of it for Weave later? Or does anyone have another suggestion for powers that are skipable/put-off-able in SD?

So, I've never build a heavy IO build before, but I was looking at Shield Defense in Mids tonight....

Taking all the defense powers from SD, Combat Jumping, Weave, and Manuevers, slotting them all with 3 +defense IO's and throwing one Steadfast +3% def(all) shows a total of 46.6% defense. Is this right? Is it really that easy to soft-cap shields? Am I missing some other flaw in my cunning plan that makes it a bad idea to do it this way?

Note: I had heard Phalanx Fighting had an issue in Mids. My understanding is PF gives +5% unehancable defense, even solo, and that's what I'm using in my calculations.

Would really really like clarification on the Epics at 20 line.

EDIT: PLEASE DISREGARD. I put this thread in the wrong place.

I17 is coming - WOO!

That said, I'm wondering what this means:

"• Epic Archetypes now available at level 20"

Can we get a dev to clarify exactly what's going on here? Are we talking new EATs that open up at 20? Or are you dropping the required level to get the current ones down to 20? If the latter, that means I'll have access to both the Hero and Villain ones. It also means I'll probably never actually hit 50 with any character (which is fine, really).

So, yeah, clarification, please?

Wow, some really great ideas there, and even more motivation for me to buy the Ninja super booster. Hrm.....

Anyone else got anything?

The phrase "Seven Thrice" came up in conversation tonight, and I immediately said "That sounds like an awesome name for a character in something." BUT I have no idea what KIND of character! So who wants to help me decide who and what Seven Thrice is? I'd love your help in creating a complete character. I'll probably end up mixing and matching the best suggestions.

Suggestions I'd like to see:
-Potential alternate spellings or similar but different names ("Sevin Thrise"?)
-Gender/body type
-Background/origin
-Personality
-Costume
-Hero or Villain?
-AT/Build (no epic AT's, sadly)

Ready? Go!

EDIT: Just confirmed "Seven Thrice" is actually available on virtue, woo.

Looking for some advice on attack chains for my Elec/Elec scrapper. Currently level 20, and I'm not really concerned with optimizing for end-game, just what's gonna get me through the levels.

-I haven't decided on a travel power yet
-Currently have every Elec primary power except Confront (not a tank!) and the T8/T9 powers
-I'm planning to have one build with stamina, and one without
-Will probably start frankenslotting around level 25
-Definitely taking Quickened Reflexes
-Willing to try taking Hasten
-Would rather not have to seek out global recharge bonuses besides QR/Hasten just to have higher dps
-I like the aoe potential of Jacob's Ladder and Thunderstrike, but the animation times are a little slow for my tastes.
-Recommendations on pool powers to take if I end up dropping some attacks from my primary would be appreciated

Let's have a little thought experiment. Imagine every character got a bonus to endurance recovery that scaled by level such that by level 25 or so it was equivalent to 3-slotted stamina. Now also imagine the stamina power no longer existed. What powers would you add to your builds that you normally wouldn't, now that you don't have to take stamina?

Points of interest:

-I'd like to hear this for all kinds of AT's/builds.

-Standard answer might be "More from my primary and secondary"...yes, but what about builds where you don't have a use for any more primary/secondary powers or already took almost all of them anyway? What pool powers would you consider that you normally wouldn't?

-Would you still take Swift/Hurdle/Health? What if the entire fitness pool disappeared?

-I am NOT an endgame player. My highest toon is 43, and I have many many in the 10-30 range, so I'm coming at this from a leveling perspective. I'd like to hear more than just "power X, because then I can slot set Y for bonus Z".

-Another minor question: What is the most FUN (not *best*, most *FUN*) build you've ever played without stamina?