Bonnes

I've come back to CoH after a couple of years away and I don't remember how to make builds anymore!

I was very proud of my DB/SR build that was effective and not ridiculously expensive, but times have quite clearly changed. Between the new IOs, Incarnates, and the demands of the new TFs, I've decided to rebuild from scratch, and I'm wondering if you'll help me figure out my parameters.

Defense - I remember that I liked having more than 45% Defense, such that I could take one Defense debuff and still be capped, having the ITF in mind. Are there other considerations that I should take into account now? I've heard something about Praetorian DE, and don't things in the new TFs have extra To-Hit? How much Defense do you think I should be going for?

Regen, Resistance - I'm fairly confident that I'll still have Tough and will be slotting Health strongly, but aside from that what should I keep in mind regarding my secondary forms of protection? It should be noted that I'll be taking Body Mastery and won't take Aid Self. Yeah, I know, but it's just not going to happen on this particular character.

Accuracy - is 95% for +4s still a worthy goal? What goes into figuring how much Accuracy I need for a given mob?

Recharge - When I last visited this character I was using the BF -> AV -> PS chain. Now with merits and other shinies, I should be able to work some LotGs into my build. Is there something else I should be keeping in mind here? How about perma-Hasten?

To be clear, I'm not trying to get someone to hand me a build; I'm trying to re-learn how to make my own builds. If you want to post a build to illustrate a point or whatever, then by all means do so!

Thanks, all.

My above post may be a little misleading - it's not the number of enhancements that cause the effect but rather it's how much that aspect of the power is being enhanced. At early levels I'll put four Accuracy Training Origin Enhancements in my attacks and I'll gain the full benefit from each one.

The flip side to that is that if you're using level 50 IOs, those provide 42% enhancement each, as opposed to SOs' 33%. What that means is that the third IO really get eaten into by Enhancement Diversification. If I'm using level 50 IOs in a power, I'll often only put two in.

Finally some types of enhancement, like Resistance and Defense, are what are called "Schedule B", and enhancements improve those aspects less than other powers. An Accuracy or Damage SO will improve Accuracy or Damage by 33.3% (before ED), but Resistance or Defense SO will only give 25.5%. HOWEVER, ED starts kicking in earlier, too, so if you stick with the idea of "No More than Three SOs Worth of Enhancement", you'll be fine.

So, Enhancement Diversification. Here's what's going on.

You slot one even-level damage SO in a power and it increases that power's damage by 33%. You slot a second one and the damage is now increased by 66%. You slot a third, and and now the power's damage is increased by 99%, right?

Nope!

It's just about 95%. The third enhancement didn't has as much of an effect as the other two. SO 1 was 33%, SO 2 was also 33%, but SO 3 was down to about 28%. See the drop-off? Now, that's not so bad, but each SO will provide less enhancement than the ones before it. Check out how the numbers drop:

SO 1 - 33%
SO 2 - 33%
SO 3 - 28%
SO 4 - 5%
SO 5 - 5%
SO 6 - 4%

So what's this mean? Those last 3 slots will get usually be WAY more useful to you in other powers.

Great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending;
Many a poem is marred by a superfluous verse.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Elegiac Verse

Oh, and:

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Powers I'm most curious about would be shockwave, lightning clap, and the viablilty of lightning field for damage with sonic's -res stacking or the chance to stun IO in the energy manipulator set.

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I didn't see any particular *need* for any of those in the blapping playstyle.

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That and using it's drain plus power sink to keep mobs from reticking any end back. Or would that not be enough drain without short circuit?

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Not enough, sadly.

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Planning in the 40's to stack the elec epic pool as well. Best course or choose a different one?

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Looks good to me - you get a cone that works great with Howl and a hold to stack with Shocking Grasp. The powers are also very pretty. What's not to love?

I wound up deleting my Sonic/Elec because he was boringly powerful solo. I seem to remember: Siren's Song the mob, then each of Shriek -> Havoc Punch and Scream -> Charged Brawl with Amplify or Build-Up would take out the minions, and then Shriek -> Shout -> Thunder Strike on the lieutenant. I was lacking in AoE contribution early on, but Howl was some panacea for it. Howl -> Static Discharge made me quite happy later on.

His build was something along these lines:

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Stupid Blasters look stupid. Smart Blasters look, well, still kinda "one IO short of a set bonus"...

Compare that to stupid Scrappers - they always look good. *glares*

I use it solely for the mitigation. Between that and Char, I feel as safe as I could want to on a Blaster.

Just to be clear, what Umbral's saying about more than three enhancements doesn't apply to TO, DO, and low-level IO enhancements. Enhancement Diversification kicks in at particular percentages, not numbers of enhancements.

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Bosses will gut you even with those psuedo fear effects going.

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That's what Air Superiority is for.

/sigh

If you like Empathy, try running with a Forcefield Defender. It's one thing to have your damage healed, it's another to not be damaged in the first place!

When mobs experience the "avoid" status, they will occasionally attack you, but far less often than they would otherwise. Also, there is no "magnitude" to stack, so just one of those three powers will be enough. Burn isn't particularly good, and Rain of Fire recharges slowly, so I suggest going for Hot Feet.

Hot Feet, Fire Ball, Fire Sword Circle, and either Aim or Build-Up will be more than enough damage 90% of the time. For other times, an inspiration or Rain of Fire will be enough.

Say, Werner, didn't we come up with a higher DPS chain way back when we were trying to figure out ShredMonkey's chain?

Don't take my word for it, but Aim/BU -> Fire Ball -> FSC with HF has always been all the AoE I've ever needed - I suppose I could use Combustion on the boss, but that's what I have single-target attacks for. Then again, I haven't done any of the crazy all-boss MA stuff yet.

Some powers are useful to a melee Fire/Fire Blaster, some aren't. By all means, though, use what you want and have fun.

I can't be of much help here, sadly, but I was wondering where your sig comes from. It seems very familiar.

Combustion really is a horrible power. After Fire Ball and Fire Sword Circle the minions and probably the lieutenants will be dead. If not, they'll be dead *long* before Combustion has done anything. Also, that time spent being vulnerable while using Combustion could be far-better used actually killing something, or at least ASing them. You do more damage and are safer by not using Combustion. Really.

Also on the list of bad powers is Blazing Aura. Little damage, TINY radius. Hot Feet will make the mobs run away from you slowly, but BA's radius is so freakin' small that the few enemies close enough to be affected by it in the first place will be out of the radius before a second tick gets off.

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking.

If you're wondering about how to play a ranged Fire/Fire Blaster it seems like you're on the right track already.

If you're wondering how to play a melee Fire/Fire Blaster there's another recent thread about them in this forum.

If you're wondering about fun melee combos then Fire/Fire is a great one for Blasters. Pretty much anything with */Elec, */EM, */Fire, or maybe */MM will do just fine for you. Then again, there are Scrappers, and pretty much any Scrapper build will be effective and fun in melee.

If you don't have any interest in melee, */Fire might not be for you. If you don't care to re-make you character, at least pick up Consume for the post-nuke hangover!

"Blapping" is actually a pretty viable approach for a Fire/Fire, if you can be clever about it.

The secret is to use the "Only Affecting Self" status and Hot Feet to your advantage. The idea is to get into the middle of a mob without being touched, and then unleash hell on them while they're trying (and failing) to run away due to Hot Feet. Here's how I do it:

Turn on Invisibility. Now, I can waltz into a mob safely and with Hot Feet already going.

Target the biggest threat in the group, use Aim and/or Build-Up, turn off Invisibility, and immediately hit Air Superiority or Char.

While that mob is busy not doin' s***, knock out the minions and lieutenants with Fire Ball -> Fire Sword Circle. (Once you get to 50, the purple knock-down proc works wonders in Fire Ball)

Proceed to kill beefier targets with Blaze, Fire Sword, and Air Superiority.

If I find I need more firepower (heh) to drop a spawn I can pop an inspiration, use Aim *and* BU, or drop Rain of Fire.

In any case, it's the fastest way for me to deal damage, and the faster I can do it the safer it is. Also, thanks to AS and HF, melee is the safest place for me to be. Sure, all this means that Fire Breath, a staple Fire/* power, isn't useful to me and isn't even in my build, but that's okay - it's still seeing plenty of use by every other Fire/* out there.

I have a MA/DA I've been working on - a darker take on the classic kung-fu sage. I think he'll be pretty beast if I can get a handle on his Endurance usage.

Dragon's Tail, Oppressive Gloom, Death Shroud, and Exploding Shuriken sounded like a pretty good combination, especially with Cobra Strike for boss-stunning stacking.

I really dig my Elec/DA/Sci Brute.

He's fairly strong, but he's also very pretty. He's like a black cloud of doom that spews evil red lightning!

That's a shame, but thanks all the same, Catwhoorg!

I've come back to CoX after more than a few months away, and I need to get up to speed on all of the IOs added in the last few patches. I went to www.cohplanner.com to update Mid's to get started, but it looks like the last update was in December.

Are there any more-recent updates available somewhere?

RotP also looks very, very awesome. Surely that counts for something!

I think the primaries that benefit most are Assault Rifle and Electrical Blast.

I think the strongest combinations that include Energy Manipulation are AR/EM, Arch/EM, Fire/EM, and Sonic/EM. If you're looking to team whenever possible I suggest Fire/EM. They're all stupidly-powerful offensive juggernauts, though.

I applaud Macskull's letter as well, though it's a shame that people who claim to care about PvP are also saying that they couldn't be bothered to actually read it.

It's not surprising, though. The thing that turned PvE players away from PvP wasn't the mechanics - it was the jerks they met in the zones.