Cobra_Man

delight of Swan

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I think the terms 'pure' defender generally means 'lazy empath with gimped build' and offender means 'I'm built properly and didn't just fall out of WoW and into this game with the same conceptions'.

I think that in general, if you are having trouble soloing on your defender then you're likely not contributing to a team as much as the next man either.

EDIT: Should also point out that people should be able to play the game however they like and built how they like. I just get very annoyed at 'pure' defenders advertising themselves as such, then somehow making out like you should be privelaged to have them in your team and ultimately spending 90% of their time standing around with their thumbs up their [censored].

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Don't sit on the fence Av .. Say what you really mean

Nice to see you back in the game btw

I don't have ... and indeed never have had a problem finding teams on Defiant or Union

My view on the the Defiant/Union debate is this.

Union is certainly the busier of the two and yes .. it does have a lot of chat firing about. Defiant has less chat but this isn't down to it having less players.

Players on Defiant I find are generally more ... serious and less prone to spamming broadcast chat in whatever zone they are in.

I started on Union, before shifting to Defiant. Currently I'm playing a few low lev alts on Union as well as carrying on with mid 30's/40's and 50's on Defiant - so I'm in a good position to make this observation.

I prefer the lack of chat on Defiant. The spam on Union was one of the reasons I moved in the first place - particularly Atlas and other low lev zones.

This isn't a snipe at Union ... it's just the way it is - and I couldn't even begin to say why it's this way.

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My Dark/Dark could happily solo missions on unyeilding, could have done maximum difficulty too but would have taken too long.
Great team defender too.

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I would agree with this. My Dark/Dark could easily solo at Rugged/Unyeilding. If Defenders and solo play is your thing, then take a look at it.

Your survivability - if indeed thats a word - is very high due to the awesome amount of Acc Debuff and coupled with the deadly beauty of Fearsome Stare, Tar Patch, Tenebrous Tentacles and Nightfall you can melt mobs.

As an added bonus you have a pet (Fluffy ) that you can use to take the Alpha hit.

Finally, as Star says, Dark/Dark is a great team player and most importantly a lot of fun to play as well.

The nature of the power sets in CoX is that the vast majority of them can be interpreted in basically any way you want.

For a Magician I would be very tempted to go for Illusion as a Primary power.

The powers can easily be interpreted as Magic.

For a secondary you don't need to restrict yourself to only certain sets that that can obviously be regarded or interpreted as Magic.

With this thought in mind I would highly recommend Kinetics as a secondary.

Kinetics may seem to have a non Magic feel to it at first glance but if you look closer you can make the powers suit a Magic character, like the following.


Transfusion - A spell of Healing that restores health to you and your allies, if close to the enemy when cast upon it.


Siphon Power - Quite easy this one. You cast a spell that draws strength from your enemy and allows you to use it for the duration of the spell effect.


Repel - A Ward of mystical energy that prevents enemies from getting close to you.


Siphon Speed - A spell of Slowness that reduces your enemies overall speed of movement and attack and allows you use to use that speed for the duration of the spell.


Increase Density - A powerful charm that, when cast on an ally, frees them from being held or immobilised and also protects them from being smashed, knocked back and energy damage.


Speed Boost - A simple but highly effective spell of quickness that allows an ally to run faster, attack quicker and be able to sustain attacks for the duration of the spell, without tiring.


Inertial Reduction - A basic Travel spell that allows you and nearby allies to leap vast distances when cast.


Transference - A tremendously effective spell that will cause an enemy to tire rapidly when cast on them and impart this body energy to all nearby allies.


Fulcrum Shift - The Jewel in the Crown for your Magician, representing the pinacle of her studies in High Magic. This complex spell will cause your targetted enemy and all enemies around it to lose power - which is magically transferred to you and all nearby allies. The more enemies that are affected by this spell the better. This spell can help to vanquish powerful enemies with alarming speed.


There you have it. Kinetics can be used in a Magical context.

Most powers can be interpreted in many ways, although I would still like to see a true 'Magic' powerset introduced into the game.

There was a thread about that a few months ago, although most people couldn't realy grasp what the OP (not me) was trying to say at the time.

Anyway, good luck in whatever you choose to roll.

Regen Scrappers are fun to play though. The early levels are a breeze due to the lack of endurance issues.

The real challenge for regens comes later on at 40+ when mobs start hitting a lot harder.

If you are going to be PvE and mainly in a team and want a Scrapper you could try a BS/DM Scrapper. BS offers great burst damage coupled with DM's AoE effects, such as Death Shroud, Cloak of Fear etc.

Endurance can be an issue but if you have a BS/DM, your team mates will most certainly appreciate it.

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3 damage, 2 end mod, 1 recharge

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Why 2 End Mods?

When I use TB, I go for this attack chain;,

BU + Aim + Ball Lightining + TB.

Basically everything is 'arrested'. I would replace your 2 End Mod slots with Recharge. That way TB will be up a hell of a lot more.

I should add this is for mobs that con +3/+4 to me. Even con to +2 mobs don't need the Ball Lightning.

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The fun part imho, people calling themself blapper the moment they pick 1 or 2 melee powers from their secondairy, while every secondairy have these powers and basicly is part of the blaster set (read discription on coh page).

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Indeed, theres no such thing as a Blapper, its a Blaster in Melee.

How can you be a hybrid between a Blaster and a Scrapper if your squishy and within criticals hit relatively the same damage cord? :P

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Blappers certainly exist. I have 2 of them, one at level 50 (Fire/Fire) and one at level 38 (Elec/Elec).

Being a Blapper is all about style of play. Yes every Blaster set has melee powers but it depends on what you actually do with them and I suppose how you slot them as well.

An orthodox Blaster, in my experience, will build their character with the powers weighted heavily for ranged attacks. They may have a few melee attacks but will prefer to stay at range away from the mobs as much as possible and only use melee attacks for stragglers and for close quarter defense.

I should point out that there is nothing wrong with orthodox blasting.

A Blapper on the other hand will play very differently.

The Blapper mentality is to fire of a few ranged attacks (AoE ones only in my case) and then choose to enter a mob and chain together several melee attacks - which will be fully slotted.

An example of this on my Fire/Fire Blaster is an attack chain like this;

From range - BU+Aim ... Fireball - Flamebreath (optional)

Enter mob - Firesword Circle ... Combustion ... Firesword ... Blaze/Fireblast (for any runners)

If the mob is particularly tough the Blapper will stay within melee range and continue to use AoE's from point blank range, along with ST powers.

The Blapper may also go after high threat targets, using ST powers (which I do) in the same manner as a Scrapper will.

So there you have it. Being 'squishy' or having no Critical hit capability has nothing to do with it.

It's all about what you choose to do with the available Blaster powers.

Only one answer to this.

1. Make a Fire/Fire Blaster

2. Make friends with or have a friend make a Fire/ or Ice/ Tanker.

3. Pick every single AoE power available plus the great ST ones then team with your Tanker buddy and you'll have the best time you'll ever have playing CoH.

Seriously

Hmmm Superheroes getting turned into Zombies, killing everyone and turning other Superheroes into more Superzombies.

I like it and it's well written but it's awfully familiar......

Congratulations to Paragon Lal who reached level 50 last night.

As a side note this is Lal's 11th level 50 character

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Finally ... Fire/Fire blasting/blapping is for me the most fun you can have - with your clothes on

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Fixed for truth

Each prefer their own sets, some dont like the fire animation, others dont like the 'elec beam hits but still it says miss', others dont like AR or sonic (the noise!). Blasting/blapping the best is on the set that suits you most.

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Well I did have my tounge firmly in my cheek Your point is well made.


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Finally ... Fire/Fire blasting/blapping is in my opinion the most fun you can have - with your clothes on

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There. Fixed for accuracy

Hmmm I'm going to say go for a Fire/Fire Blaster and have a shedload of fun blasting/blapping and doing awesome AoE damage.

One important point though. If you're going to the above ... go out there and befriend a Tanker - preferably a Fire or Ice one.

Also take Aid Self in the 20's. It'll keep you on your feet a lot longer.

Finally ... Fire/Fire blasting/blapping is the most fun you can have - with your clothes on

Yeah ya lazy bum. Get a move on and catch up with me

Robo Lal has reached level 50 ... and in doing so has elevated Lal into the upper echelons of having ten level 50 characters.

Lal has indicated that there's more to come and maybe will make a post here, letting us know the secret of how to get so many level 50's (as I know from experience that there is no Pl'ing involved).

Seriously though .. well done mate

That is odd. I just finished taking a DM/Reg to 50 and had no issues with End whatsover.

Mind you I only had it for a few months and don't know if anything changed in the DM set before I got it. Regen was as I remembered it from previous experience, in relation to End.

It depends on what you class as 'fun' really.

If fun for you is a real difficult challenge then go for Dark Armour or even SR as a secondary. A real challenge would be to go for Spines/DA or BS/DA.

If, on the other hand, you just want to have a 'normal' fun then go for Regen as your secondary.

My choice for something a bit different from the normal Regens you'll have seen a lot of is DM/Regen. I'm currently levelling one up and it really is a whole lot of fun to play.

Have a look at the guides for DM/Reg on the US forums and give it a whirl

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I've found Katana damage to be very middle of the road, certainly not as noteworthy as Broadsword or Martial Arts. It's a nice all round set, some AoE with some solid single target attacks with reasonable end costs, looks swish too
Divine Avalanche is a handy power for boosting your defence but as a result works better with SR and Inv where it can stack with your existing armour. Stick with claws and see what you think, with DA tapping your end out as it does the lower end usage set might work out better...

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Katana damage ... Middle of the Road?

How on earth did you come to that conclusion?

Katana hits hard and has a relatively quick recharge on the main attacks. The ST damage on the top tier attacks is very, very good and the DPS is comparable with Broadsword.

There was a thread comparing Katana and Broadsword last year. Look it up and have a read.

Middle of the Road? ... Sheesh

Agreed the -speed and -recharge are very handy in the Spines set.

I'm certainly not knocking Spines, as I intend to take my current Spines/Reg to 50.

It's purely a personal opinion to go for Katana - for the reason given.

My only observation on Spines is that I wish I had taken it with /Inv instead of Regen. I've seen a couple of Spines/Inv Scrappers lately that were very impressive indeed and were able to take a lot of heavy damage.

I would pick Katana/Regen.

I'm basing this on having a 50 Kat/Reg and a 38 Spines/Reg and I'll give my reasons why.

My level of enjoyment was a lot higher playing the Kat/reg as that set enables you to become a high threat killer, such as Bosses, AV's - as mentioned above.

This specialisation of role appealed to me - particularly in the 40+ levels.

Spines/Reg is a great AoE minion killer but I found the High, quick Damage of the Katana more appealing.

One last thing is that the Kat set has 2 of the best high end ST attacks in Soaring Dragon and Golden Dragonfly. These round the set of very nicely and add to the 'fun' factor of the Kat set.

The very last thing .. RW is correct Regen's Achilles Heel is being overloaded with damage all at once, so you can't heal quick enough. I would highly recommend taking Tough before you get to level 35 and if you can't then certainly by level 40.

I would agree with going for Illusion/ for soloing. There's not much to choose between Ill/Rad or Ill/Kin as both are tremendous from the late 30's on.

I would point out that while both of these sets are good for solo work they absolutely fly when on a team - particulary Ill/Kin. Although again theres not a lot in it between Ill/Kin and Ill/Rad when teaming.

Both will be in demand in the 40+ levels for taking out AV's.

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Only thing wrong with it is its long activation which may make you want to use shorter activation powers..

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Since they removed the pause after casting, Deceive now has the same activation time as Blind.

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I don't know the exact activation time but it was shortened recently and is a lot more user friendly in that respect now.

That's what I was getting at as well.

In an ideal, experienced, balanced large team that is ripping through the mobs the need for Deceive is less.

If you're lucky enough to have this situation at all times or even the vast majority of the time you won't really miss Deceive ... but lets face it we do find ourselves in 'weaker' teams from time to time.

I could spout several scenarios where not having Deceive would be detrimental but perhaps the most obvious one is when you want to neutralise a particular threat, i.e Malta Sappers, CoT Mages, Tsoo Sorcerers, Paragon Protectors, Lost/Rikti bosses etc - not to mention AV's.

With one or two applications of Deceive those threats are no longer a problem - allowing your 'weaker' and indeed any team make up to wade in and clean up.

As I said ... it's a wonderful power to have if used correctly.

Not having Decieve in those situations would be a real challenge for the team and even in a strong team it makes life a lot easier as well.

I would stress that is only my opinion and I do respect other peoples opinion who don't rate the power. Decieve just suits my style of play - it clearly isn't the same for everyone.

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Its a good'n for sure. But rather long recharge. Fair call tho, forgot about it.

Choking cloud is still the king of defender holds if you ask me. And it needs to be, given end cost and danger it puts you in!

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Choking Cloud is an excellent power but I have to say that Fearsome stare just shades it overall.

Fearsome Stare is a ranged attack (less dangerous to use) and has considerably less Endurance issues but gives a very similar result when used.

It's only my opinion mind you but I'm basing it on experience from using my 34 Grav/Rad and 50 Dark/Dark.

I do agree with Shannon though. Stick with the Rad/Rad at 22.

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Only thing I'll say on the matter is this. An Illusion Controller without Deceive would be a challenge.

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No.

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I tip my hat to those Ill trollers who managed to get by without it.

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Why thank you

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You're very welcome but it's notable that the part of my post you chose not to comment on was this bit ...

It's a wonderful power to have - particularly when used correctly.

Interesting