Crysys

I was leveling both a Beam/Traps and Beam/Poison at the same time (level pacted...maybe the last pair I'll be playing). I'd swap off between each build (they are Twins...same look, almost same powers, but slightly diff names) about every other level.

From about 35 onwards, I stuck with the Beam/Traps character and only pull out the Beam/Poison for special arcs and TFs to get the badges/accolades. I just find it an inferior set to /Traps in almost every way short of the heal. And on /Traps, I never take Triage anyways instead opting for the Medicine pool.

The nice thing about /Traps is you don't have to take the time for setup via toe-bombing unless you WANT to. On teams, there's seldom time to do this anyways unless I'm being a jerk and running ahead to every spawn in advance of the rest of the team. I do Toebomb during AV fights when someone else has aggro, or create chokepoint traps during the Tips missions that include wave after wave of ambushers. But throwing out Acid Mortar and Poison Gas takes just a few seconds. Seeker drones are a great power...send them to distract the mob, follow in behind them and drop acid mortar and poison gas, then jump back and start Bzzzzzzting.

I wanted to like Beam/Poison more than I have but playing them both side by side....its just not as much fun or powerful as Beam/Traps.

Can't string together Emotes via macros any longer. Such a shame.

If you invoke Veng on a dead teammate, it buffs your Henchmen. Not sure if buffs Gang War henchmen. I play Demons and with Veng I can buff the demons but not the Hellfire imps....at least not that I can tell.

And just being sure everyone knows....you can't invoke Veng off a fallen henchman. Only works on fallen teammates.

The real money farmers and power levelers run a 4-5 Toon team comprised of a lead SS/fire brute and 3-4 Fire/ corrupters, usually 2-3 Kins and 1-2 Sonics. And these are SO-only toons, no IO's or Incarnate powers. There's a reason for this. You'd do well to study the mechanics and apply it to your goals, but here's a summary:

Brute = highest damage cap in game (750%?) and good aggro draw so others can do their jobs
4X Fire/* Corrs with SS/Fire brute = massive AOE, Fire seldom resisted by critters
2X /Kins = Insane recharge (stacked Speed Boost) + Stacked Fulcrum Shifts + END resupply + Massive AOE heal
2X /Sonics = Insane +RES to everything but Psi(?) and Foe -RES

Everyone would be running with very high levels of recharge with most key powers perma. And again...this is without IO's.

And if you team together consistently, you can do some very interesting non-standard slotting of your powers enabling even more neat tricks. Still, I'd suggest maintaining two builds (one superteam build, one normal PVE) so you don't gimp yourself when away from the superteam.

DP/Rad has proven to be a great combo for me. AM, a heal, terrific debuffs that lower Tohit and incoming damage while effectively increasing your damage.....just whats needed to improve the lackluster performance of DP.

IMO

DP isn't about performance, its about style and flash.

Pick the powers that look the best.

I'm running a StJ/SD and with all toggles up (3 shields plus Tough, Weave and Super Speed) I'm really forced to carry blues. And that's even after slotting the Numina and Miracle +recovery uniques AND Perf Shifter chance for +End. I seldom ever require all three of those outside a farming toon.

What -IS- the optimal attack chain for StJ?

This weekend saw the release of Real Steel and The Ides of March in theaters here in the US.

The Ideas of March has already garnered some critical acclaim for the story and acting. Real Steel is about a motherfarking robot battles with robot limbs being torn asunder and used as melee weapons to beat down the giant robots.

Guess which one will win the box office totals for the weekend?

There is a segment of the population that wants stories, desires stories and decries anything that isn't a good story. This is a minority. This thread even goes so far as to proclaim it a "protected class" minority.

Sorry folks....stories don't bring in the money. Some money, sure, but not as much as giant robots wailing away on one another.

Farms pay to keep the lights on around here. For the storytellers. You owe them a debt of gratitude and thanks.

Read your guide, thanks for the tips.

I still find my PB to just about the most worthless AT ever designed. I played tri-form since they came out (see no reason to NOT take all the forms...that's how they are meant to be played). But unless I'm teaming with players who really just don't know how to play their own toons, the "jack of all trades" role of a PB is just not enjoyable for me. I like to excel at one or two things and this AT excels at nothing. Sorry, just my opinion.

Nicely written guide though. And the binds do help (have had similar ones since the introduction of the Khelds several years ago). I bind the heal to a change into human form that also activates my shield at same time.

I have, did a full respec. Doesn't change my mind at all. The PB is definitely stronger than it was but still likely one of the weakest AT's out there unless we are talking about a pacifist empathy defender.

I thought I'd update this thread for posterity, since there were so few DS/TA builds posted on this forum.

I went with Psylenz' build, with the modifications I posted above (2-slotted Tough/3-slotted Hasten/4-slotting Ice). I did the iTrial grind and got everything up to T3 (Musculature, Barrier, Reactive, Pyronic and Storm Elemental pets for Lore). I've taken a few of my 50's all the way up to T4's but I think I'm done playing this one.

My review:

The overhaul respec and the investment in IO's certainly made this toon far more enjoyable to play. I don't die all that much...in fact, perhaps only 2-3 times leveling from 45-50. In the iTrials, I died mostly when on Lam's and then almost always on the warehouse/lab portion of the trial. I did a few Keyes and died several times per, but mostly because we lacked enough emps to heal everyone and I have no native heal myself to overcome the zap-from-space or the disintegration phase. Personally...I hate that trial. I dislike any dev content that acts as a "all your powers are useless against this, just get a heal from someone else" kind of deal. Not good development if you ask me.

As I guessed, I go petless during the warehouse/lab portion of the Lam. They just cause more trouble than they are worth. I just find myself a good melee type and follow them, using just my secondary and i-Powers. Feels pretty useless but constant recasting of henchies is worthless.

Honestly, I cannot recommend this power set. I have difficult on +0/x8 content soloing. Some types of critters are a cakewalk all the way up to +3/x8, but others...I just can't kill fast enough or the status effects just overwhelm me and the henchmen. Running Tips missions against DE (damn those Cairn drops) or versus Carnies is just about certain death for me unless I'm doing like +0/x3. This make this, without a doubt, one of the weakest toons I've ever taken to 50. Only my Kheldian Peacebringer would have been considered weaker.

So if you are reading this and considering a DS/TA for your collection, this build will keep you alive. And you can solo. Just don't expect to have that "MM's are Uber" feeling. This is not a great combo. Thematically, it worked just fine. But you'll seldom feel like you are anything more than just a minor support character. Dropping Oil Slick with Glue Arrow is a ton of fun, but you'll still find yourself struggling to take on anything really challenging without losing your henchman constantly. They just need more protection or better debuffs.

Sniff. Should have gone FOTM and went with /Dark.

...pair it with a scrapper.

Shmeld is da bomb. I've taken it on just about all my scrappers lately.

There was a bunch of chatter on the Help channel now that a few /Time MM's have gotten their toons to lvl 50. Basically, the claim (and this was from many players) is that a Bots/Time/Mace MM on MOSTLY SO's (think they had slotted a few +Recovery uniques and maybe a proc or two on pets) was outperforming a multi-billion inf Ill/Rad build versus AV's...and this was from players who were running AV killing tests with both.

Elsewhere on the forums, I've even seen comments that a Bots/Time/Mace MM on SO's is almost "game breaking."

What about this combo would make it so effective for soloing AV's, especially when compared to such an expensive Ill/Rad build?

After going through 1-20 in Praetoria a couple of times last winter, the place became a ghost town and teams were hard to find. So since then, I've pretty much just PL'd every toon to 28 (which only takes an hour or so) and start there. I start slotting IO's around 35 (uniques for Stam or Procs since level doesn't really matter much on those), and then full IO investment from 40-50 depending on sets. I have, however, also deleted some in their upper 30's after playing them in PVE content for 10 levels or so when I found they were just not what I enjoyed. Many defenders got the axe, as did more than a few Kheldians, Bane Spiders and Stalkers.

I still find the 1-25 range a grind. Its a short grind, but the rewards just don't feel worth the time investment for me so I prefer to skip them now.

I had 2 of the whip attacks leveling up to around 42, but after an IO respec to get some DEF bonuses, I dropped all but the cone one. Mainly because it just LOOKS cool (twirl in the air with a fiery whip). I only left the native slot in there, however.

If you aren't Magic and you are /TA, you could also use one of the whips to ignite your Oil Slick. I am Magic so I just did a macro to use my origin power for that purpose.

Otherwise...the whip attacks are totally skippable.

You confirmed what I thought...for an ambush farm, with high personal defense, you can toebomb repeatedly without much fear of interruption. And yes, the cone whip (the only one I took after the respec you and others helped me devise) does do "ok" damage but mainly because it hits multiples.

I am currently running iTrials on my Demon/TA and pretty much go petless for the entirety of the LAM's except for the outer street clearing (unless its a speed-LAM). I survive just fine, but my henchmen do not. When I look around me, most other MM's are going petless as well. I use my henchies more, and see other MM's use theirs also, during BAF's.