Chill_Out

Great question - started off in beta with Dark/Dark scrapper, first 50 was ice/ice tanker, but these days I prefer Corruptors, Masterminds and Controllers.

Hey Kaoz! How you been, nice to see you back (This is Night Fist)

I keep missing folks, but it'd be nice to see the old crew come back to CoH. Cap Omega was the last person I saw (well, also Big George) since the breakup of -Corporation- and The Eternals following the blow-out with Prime.

Prime days were good days. I'm no longer playing on Justice due to late night low population when I play, but I'm on Virtue. Good luck with the new SG, and you can always catch me on my global (@chill out).

well, that Baron gets my vote.

Want to hear my theory? The same sadist who designed Perez Park, Hollows and put mezzing Vahzilok in the AP Sewers also designed the buff rotation FF and Thermal sets. :P

Dark isn't the best because of an area of effect heal. yes, the heal is massive, but the area effect part is pretty marginal (10') compared to the corruptor/defender version. Unless you are right up with your pets in melee, you are not likely to rely on healing them all, you'll have to be selective. My necro fares better in this regard than my bots.

Dark's strength isn't the aoe heal, its the debuffs in HT, Dark Pit, DN and FS (and TG to a lesser extent).

Overall, I would recommend Dark or Pain. Dark is proactive. Pain is reactive.

I'm currently leveling a DS/Pain and it has literally (forgive the pun), "painless". As smooth as /Dark. You can get roughly the same resists as Thermal (but vs. all damage types), and you get group scrapper-level regeneration as opposed to another debuff (in Thermal). You can Painbringer (make virtually indestructible) one toon (ahem, Prince), versus Thermal, where you can spread out the love a bit with Forge.

One thing Pain doesn't have compared to Thermal is -Regen, so if you are AV hunting, consider Thermal. But really, IMO, if you are AV hunting, you are best off with Traps or Dark for reasons you can find all over these forums

Have fun, hard to go wrong, just find the secondary that suits your playstyle. Like others, I find applying buffs every 4 min a bit tedious. I prefer Pain's AoE buffage/debuffage better. Thermal does get style points, though.

I can only imagine you've never really had experience with corruptors. They are among the best solers in the game, assuming you do not take secondaries that rely on teams to be at their best, like /Pain. They were designed to 'pwn' as well as support, so please roll back the preconceptions of corrs as weak, mushy support priests.

Here's a partial list of combos that solo well, some virtually breaking the game:

Sonic/Rad
Sonic/Dark
Ice/Dark
Fire/Dark
Fire/Traps
Sonic/Traps
Ice/Traps
Dark/Rad
Dark/Cold
Fire/Storm
Dark/Storm

And that's just a partial list. There are Archery Combos and a whole bunch of others I haven't mentioned.

If you go Pain, Thermal, Sonic, Trick Arrow, yeah.. you're gonna solo worse. But don't paint the whole AT with a broad brush, check out the other combos, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

They get life drain at 32. Depending on your secondary I may not bother, especially with the Zombies, who have small health pools anyhow.

I dunno why your zombies are giving you problems, mine path a bee line to whatever I tell them to and destroy, destroy, destroy. Try using Gotos? Also, be aware some geometry makes pets go insane (fences, for example), so melee pets who have to traverse it may hang up, so use Gotos and planning to avoid.

I commend your self-restraint and lack of drama. Well done.


Seriously, no one is forcing you to by it. Its overpriced in my estimation too, but I'm not playing chicken little either. You know. The sky ain't falling.

True, confused my Mind and my Ill for a sec. My year away is showing. Thx for correction.

There are some older posts about it, if you run the search.

I have a 50 Ill/TA with standard level 35 IOs, no real set bonuses. It is a powerful combo, both solo and in groups. I found it to be fairly steady in terms of power and leveling; you are good early on pre-20, and it only gets better with PA and Phantom.

Key Powers:

Blind - your ST hold
Deceive - your ST confuse
Spectral Wounds - your ST damage
Terror - cone fear
Phantom Army - temporary invulnerable tanking/damage pets
Phantaasm - summoned damage pet
Superior Invis - great aggro control and best stealth in game, does not suspend in combat

Entangle Arrow - useful, for the -recharge as well as quick immob
Ice Arrow - i love it for the extra hold, some hate it
Acid Arrow - debuff
Glue Arrow - -rech and -speed
Disruption Arrow - more debuffs
EMP Arrow - awesome aoe hold
Oil Slick Arrow - aoe soft control, massive debuffs, and superior damage if you light it on fire (energy/fire damage required, so grab tech or magic origin for the energy newbie attack)

I'm writing this quickly, so I may have left something out, but you should get the idea. Ilusion offers you controls, and some great pets. Arrows offers more hard controls (immob, another hold) plus wonderful debuffs. You won't be an AoE damage machine (outside of Oil Slick), but you can pretty much solo the toughest missions, as well as greatly help a team melt groups of enemies. Leave the heals to the Empaths

That running pose is a classic anime/japanimation running pose. Very suitable for ninja and swordsmen.

You emerged from lurking for 4-5 years to add this astute bit of wit?

Really, after all the win that was I16, you just had to find something to complain about?

Geez.

Satire?