Deathstroke33

I should max out my WS tonight, and I'll be honest, I've enjoyed the ride far more than I would have even though. I can see myself playing this toon for some time to come, but I got to wondering about a PB. Do they play differently, or are they basically the same? If they do, how so?

Thanks in advance.

Does the Huntsman build do anything really well? Granted, I haven't played one so I can't really state for a fact, but it LOOKS like they're a weaker AR blaster.


My play style varies between characters I play. I suppose I do tend to play more scrappers than blasters, but I really love my blasters and Corr's too.

I'm currently lvl 31 and I feel like its time to dust off my SoA. I need to do a total respec but I'm not sure what direction to do. I do a lot of soloing but I don't avoid teaming, especially with a team friendly toon like this is.

Just wondering what everyone else is finding to be the most fun? I'm not talking about most powerful or anything, just what toon do you have the most fun playing?

For me its actually a hard choice, but if I had to choose one, I love playing my Kin/Elec Defender. I've had this toon since launch and it has gone through many respecs and changes through the years but has remained one of my favorite to play. (The other toon I really enjoy is my Ice/Kin Corr).

I've teamed with a few DP blasters or corrs and they look like a lot of fun. I see what several of you have mentioned in the silly animations on the draw. While it is hard to see, because the numbers aren't mine, it didn't appear that the secondary affects of swap ammo really had any affect. The idea of being able to switch ammo is actually really cool and would make the set pretty versatile, if it actually worked.

Has this EVER been addressed by a dev?

I keep toying with the idea of making a DP toon, but the number of negative comments I keep hearing about its very lack luster damage kinda scares me away. Is it as bad as people say, or is this just another example of people over exaggerating?

I'm not trying to make a "what is better" type discussion. I'm a fan of both Brutes and Scrappers for different reasons. I haven't decided on my secondary yet, as I haven't decided which way to go and I'm open to suggestions there as well. I'm thinking maybe StJ/Elec for a brute and maybe StJ/inv or WP on a scrapper. But I'm not locked into anything at this point.

With summer coming to an end my time to play will be cut a ton with lesson plans and coaching so I'd like to focus on 1 of these. Both are right around lvl 30, give or take a few levels. I'd like to have something useful in endgame, which initially lead me to look at the dark/thermal, but lately I've been seeing a lot of requests for support and healers. Both sets can heal, granted the Emp does it better, but its the rest of the sets that have me wondering which is best out of these two.

So with double xp I've hit my WS really hard and got it to lvl 45 last night. As I played I found that I was struggling with exactly how to be the most effective member of the team. It seemed like every time I went to human form to hit mire I was hammered by anything around, even if I let the tank, brute or scrapper take the alphas, sending me racing into Dwarf to try and survive, which wasn't a given. Once I got eclipse, this race was not quite so bad, but right now my recharge isn't high enough to have it even close to perma so there are many fights I have to go without it.

Basically what I struggle with is how to use my forms. Just for survivability I found myself in Dwarf most of the time and going to Nova when eclipse was up and I could use mire to boost that damage.

I'm just struggling with how to play my tri-form. Strategy and tactic tips would really be appreciated. And before anyone points me to the MFing Warshade guide, I've read it 3 times now. Great guide for building a foundation and is the reason I made a WS, but isn't a be all, end all guide.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I've read your guide several times and I've gotten a great deal of information from it, my only problem is, I have no idea what powers to pick or how to slot many of them. You say to avoid the blasts and shields, but for several levels they were my only choice. The guide is both hugely helpful and frustrating at the same time.

I love how the ingame message says to come here for info and they tell us NOTHING. What garbage.

I understand that the anchor debuffs are AOEs also, Its just that LR is the only one that doesn't require an anchor, just a target for the debuff to hit. And Local, your guide is a big reason I tried an Ill/Rad. As I said, I don't think its weak by any means, I've just found it underwhelming Post 50 set. But again, it could be me.

I've been hearing a lot of good things about cold and have been thinking about giving that a shot. Not sure yet what I'll pair with it yet but that will come with time.

So I see Ill/Rad mentioned all the time when powerful controllers are mentioned. Having read about them I finally made, and leveled one to 50. Once at 50 I invested in sets and hit the TFs for some fun. Well, I was less than blown away to be honest.

First off, Ill:

PA was a very handy power while lvling, but at lvl 50, I found it caused problems as they would often attack other groups drawing aggro to the the team. I found myself only calling on them when there was an AV to fight.

Phantom is another nice leveling power, but at 50, I had more people asking me to dismiss him then wanted him around. Tanks especially didn't like him because of the knockback, so again, he only comes out to play when there is an AV.

Spooky can come in handy at times. the fear is pretyt powerful, but again, a far more handy leveling power than a lvl 50 power.

Blind, Spectral Wounds and Deceive are all decent powers, but nothing to write home about and Flash, while good, has too large of a recharge to be useful.


Now for Rad

Rad has an OK heal, and AM is definitely a fantastic buff, but Rad is really known for its debuffs. All but 1 of the debuffs need anchors, and there lies the problem. When playing on a lvl 50 team, by the time an anchor is made, the spawn is dead and everyone is moving on. Its pointless to even debuff a group unless you're using Lingering Rad, which is the only AOE debuff. Again, just like with Ill, most of the powers are pointless to use unless its an AV or maybe an EB.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm NOT saying that this set is weak. It isn't by any means. And I'll be more than willing to admit I'm wrong, perhaps I'm just playing the set wrong. All I know is that this AT was a blast to level up (which is why I don't feel it was a waste to level up at all, I love the journey too) but once I got to 50, the bottom fell out.

So again I ask. What am I missing?

I already have a shield/fm tank but I'm looking to build another tank. I just enjoy the journey to 50 I suppose. I'm only in the beginning stages of trying to decide what kind of tank to build, but I figured, I'd start with secondary and then decide on a primary. I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

When defenders get thermal, will the buffs/debuffs the corruptor gets out of thermal (and to some extent dark) be made obsolete because of the superior numbers of a defender? I only ask because my dark/thermal is now lvl 40 and while I enjoy it, I'd rather not spend the time to get to 50 and the inf to get the sets when a defender will just blow it out of the water.


Or will the added damage from dark being a primary with scourge out weight the higher thermal numbers in the defender primary?

I'm speaking from an endgame team stand point, not soloing or even leveling.

I did go through a respec and I now have 4 ice attacks. I'll give those a shot later tonight when larger teams will be easier to come by.

That said, I'm a bit confused. Some of you have said that by not blasting, I'm hurting my team, but I would counter with the fact that I'm spending a lot of my time healing anyhow. If I wait until people are really low, it might be too late for some of them, or I get caught in an animation while they die.

Hearing that empathy is the 2nd most useless set end game, is kinda discouraging. Why put all this time into a toon that doesn't serve much of a purpose team wise later? Wondering if my time would be better spend working on my Thermal cor instead, or maybe going Pain Dom.

Very good point Auro, thanks for putting it into perspective.

I guess I have a second part to that question. Do either lose their usefulness in end game where everyone has incarnates and full set bonuses? Do either power sets have an advantage then, or is it the same argument?

Right now, at lvl 25, Fort makes the tank rock solid, and a scrapper or brute almost a tank. When RA is up, the team can roll and not worry about end. Those are 2 of my best buffs, but in end game, none of the 50's I have ever need end, and all have very significant bonuses from sets.

Yesterday I dusted off my empath that I haven't played in about 3 years. After a few hours of playing it all came back to me why I enjoyed playing a support role character, especially in the earlier part of the game (she is lvl 25 now). As I played I started to wonder about Pain Domination on a Cor, and if it's damage would have been more handy for the team. I've never played a pain domination character, so I don't know how it stacks up to empathy. Should I just keep trucking with my lvl 25 emp defender, or will I be more beneficial to the team later in the game with pain dom as a cor?

I came back to playing an empath I made a very long time ago yesterday, and was suddenly reminded how much I really enjoy playing that type of support role. Keeping the team alive and moving along was a lot of fun, but then something happened later last light. Between missions someone said to me "Great heals, but why ice?" I initially took ice for the minor protection Ice would give to me in a crunch, but clearly this was lost on this person.

So I began to wonder, as an Empath, my biggest job is healing and buffing, right now at lvl 26 I only have 2 attacks from Ice. So does secondary really matter? Did I somehow gimp my character by taking ice?