DrMike2000

Most fun:

Anything with knockback. Crane Kick, Force Bolt, Propel, Lift, they never get old for me.

Gang War is fun, especially if you let it off by accident, pressing the wrong key. I've done that.

Deceive/Confuse: Even without the fancy tricks of confusing Force Field Generators or Tsoo Sorcerors, this power just rocks. Its a hold on steroids with bonuses.

Ive really enjoyed Hide and Assassin Strike on my first Stalker. Its much more fun that I thought it would be.

Powers like Soul Drain, Fulcrum Shift and Drain Psyche are fun because they steer you into playing risky minigames that revolve around how many enemies you can survive in close range to get the best buff.

Least fun:

Fortitude. Having to watch this buff for when it comes up, and remember who's next in line so you can carefully balance it out over 5 people or whatever your slotting allows. Gahh! Its a great power but a real pain to maintain if you're also trying to do other things like attack or control.

Phantom Army.
The uptime ratio, even with good slotting, means I'm somehow always worrying about this power. Is it up yet? Is it about to go down? And when it is up, its not especially fun. The pets do their own thing, no one attacks me or the team, and I'm just watching and hoping they dont fade soon. Or having fun with Deceive.
I will get an Illusionist past 26 one of these days. I keep trying...

Neutrino Bolt, definitely yes.

Most damage procs have a 20% chance of causing 71 damage at level 50 - thats an average of 14 damage.

Neutrino Bolt does 21 base damage at level 50, so a damage SO or plain IO adds 1/3 of that, or only 7 damage. The damage proc is twice as effective on average.

A standard 4 second attack (most Tier 1's or X-Ray Eyes) does a base of 36 damage, so a damage IO adds 12 damage. The ddmage proc is slightly more effective but its close. For higher damage scale attacks, use the damage IO if its either or.

You can also, as you said, use damage procs AND damage slotting to sort of bust the ED cap. This will be the equivalnet of slotting X-Ray Eyes with an extra damage IO (4 total), and Cosmic Burst with maybe an extra 1/2 damage IO.

My advice - stick one damage proc in Xray Eyes, and as many as you can in N-Bolt. Also add the Achilles Heel Chance for -Res into N-Bolt while you're there.


I've done this with my current FF/Energy blaster - slotted Power Bolt, Power Blast and Power Burst with the Explosive Strike damage procs. Its not game changing, but I do see them go off, and its does help a little bit with soloing.

Talionis makes a really good point about slotting and Vigilance.
You can't really count on Vigilance when you plan your slots - no-one want to suddenly have end issues because a FF Defender has joined the team, for example. You want to plan your powers and slots so that you can cope when the team isnt getting damaged, thus when Vigilance kicks in you probably don't need it.

This is different from not slotting for damage because of Scourge. Full damage slotting and Scourge combine with each other for a cumulative effect, whereas having enough endurance and then having some more doesnt really provide much of a bonus. You could maybe turn Sprint on? I guess you could argue it would allow you to run all three Leadership toggles if Vigilance is cranking, but only run one or two if it isn't. Some builds its almost impossible to slot for constant full performance, some it is.

As for Defenders underperforming, player generated statistics on these boards have shown Defenders are the least played archetype heroside, particulalry in the 20-40 range. I don't know what datamining by the developers would show.

I've gone S/L on a few melee characters, because Kinetic Combat will give you 3.75% for 4 slots, whereas Touch of Death requires 6 slots for 3.75% vs Melee.

Kinetic Combat also gives you more choice in the actual slotting of powers, ie you can Frankenslot with the remaining two slots, possibly throw in the highly useful Knockdown proc as part of your set of 4 for lighter faster attacks.

Touch of Death alone gives pretty poor enhancement values, especially for faster heavy hitting atacks where a bit more recharge is preferable to a damage proc.

Like Umbral says, +Ranged and +AoE are pretty easy to stack up to complement whatever you choose.
You do end up with a hole to purely exotic melee damage, but generally trade it for better offence.

This was how I went on my melee based Elec/Energy Blaster.

The only time I've dispensed with my Tier 1 attack at higher levels was with my Emp/Energy duo - once they were perma-AB'd they were using Blast-Torrent-Burst-Explosive as an attack chain.
Every other Energy Blast Defender ended up with Bolt-Blast-Bolt-Burst with AoEs thrown in when they're up.

So I'd dispute that your first solution only helps low level Defenders. Luckily, I think its not just low level Defenders that need help.

I think it introduces too many extra issues though. How do Archery and Rad Blast work, with their faster smaller Tier 1's? If you up Neutrino Bolt's damage, you shift the procs vs Damage slotting balance that many builds are based on.
Does it unbalance Psychic Blast, which has four single target attacks?

In the end it would be a lot easier and lower risk to reduce all Defender (and Tanker) attacks to 80% of their current endurance cost - still leaving them with lower DPE than Blasters and Scrappers but better than what they have now.

I agree. That's a great idea.

Empathy makes for a better "follow-bot" than Thermal. Its the ultimate "buff my favourite few" set when played well.

Thermal will protect a large team better, since it can cover 7 others with its shields, but Empathy is the best buff set for playing favourites.

For a Controller, Fortitude gives 18% Def to everything, equivalent to 36% resistance roughly.
Thermal gives 23% resistance to S/L/E/N, double to fire, negligible to cold and none to Psi.

Fortitudes offensive buffs and Forge are much of a muchness, Forge is 10% better maybe?
Once you get Adrenalin Boost, all bets are off, Empathy is the clear winner.

I've tried both in a dual-boxing situation, and Empathy wins hands down as a support set for a single other player. Any questions about what dopey Empaths on pick up groups have done are irrelevant if you're playing the backup character yourself.

(Of course, two Empaths buffing each other is the clear winner. Dont get me started... )

Nice thread, and some very cool ideas.

Short duration superbuffs are a great idea - I really like that one. It would require a fair amount of coordination between players, but it requires absolutely no new tech.

Wouldn't they be using Aim and Build Up before firing off Blizzard, for a pretty hefty +To Hit?

I know it won't cover the entire duration of the power (15s) but does the -Def make that much difference? I'd have though it would be more pronounced with other powers if anything, since non-nukes dont always get the full double To hit buff

This forum seems like as good a place as any to ask.

So what hasn't been done before? Most sets offer some -Res, quite a lot give some -To Hit or +Def.

Some of the rarer effects are:
Storm gives -Range
Kinetics stacks -damage, especially nice on big targets (AVs)
Cold and Poison debuff special effects like mez duration and heals
Cold and Storm offer -Recharge
Empathy suits small teams since you pick favourrites with the best buffs.
Sonic adds Resistance
Traps has a lot of laoctaion based effects
Rad is a mixed bag with two enemy-targetted debuffs.
Trick Arrows is a bunch of AoE long recharge debuffs with maybe less damage mitigation than most sets.
Sonic has two ally-targetted debuffs, bad idea IMHO because it excludes solo-ers.

There's currently no set that protects primarily via -Recharge. Cold and Storm and Kinetics use it with everything else on offer.
That by itself leaves the team vulnerable to alpha strikes, so I'd add a bit of the relatively rare - Damage in there to soften the alpha.

There are also relatively few PBAoE toggles.

Maybe a short lived AoE -Dam (for 10 seconds) on a per spawn recharge (60 sec base) to cover alpha strikes.
Add a PBAoE toggle -Recharge debuff, possibly with some movement debuff too.
These two powers provide a decent reduction of incoming damage. Complement that with a PBAoE +Regen like Mastermind Pain Domination's Soothing Aura.

For ally buffs, I'd add a +Recharge buff along the lines of Accelerate Metabolism. Unlike AM and Speed Boost though, there's no +Recovery, so teammates can burn through their END pretty quickly.

Most teammates. Add in a single target +Regn/+Recovery like Adrenalin Boost/PainBringer and some selected teammates now have all the end they can eat.

What else?
A single target -Recharge to stack with the AoE one.
A single target -Dam perhaps.
The whole thing is starting to feel like a Time Manipulation set, so maybe a hold of some kind? Plenty of precedence there in Dark Miasma, Posion and Rad. Maybe a single target hold with an AoE debuff that reduces speed and Recharge, or Damage? maybe even a modest -To Hit on it?

That's where I'd kick off from if I was asked to design a new support set that played differently from existing ones.

For a Blaster with Aim and Build Up it is pretty useless beyond proc-slotting.

On a team it can be handy against cerrtain enemies, like large groups of Rikti Drones. Aim, Irradiate is a alovely starter there.
But often its either not needed because everyones at 95% to hit anyway, or you're facing so much defence that the team still has a very low chance of hitting (MoG-ing Paragon Protectors) and there are better options to deal with them (eg control to stop them MoG-ing).

Try Dual Blades with a damage aura set (Im using a DB/Elec Brute for example).

You've got Blinding Feint as a repeatable source of +Damage and the Power Up combo, so even if you're not a Brute you have a Fury-lite going on that pumps up your aura to do considerable damage.

DB doesnt offer a whole heap of damage mitigation by itself, and I sometimes feel this on the early levels with Elec.
Dual Blades/Dark Armour would be pretty cool, I reckon.

Empathy degrades in performance very little as a Controller secondary compared to a Defender primary, so the only thing you lose is that powers come later.

If you're dual boxing, either will support a Blaster incredibly well. If you actively play the second account via keystroke braodcasting, a Defender is probably easier since their extra powerset matches the blasters, whereas a Controller is better off switchign targets and a Blaster is better off taking down enemies one by one.

As a support character on a task force, a Controller is probably better for high level content. A Defedner provides better AoE damage, a controller provides a high level of control.
If you plan on running lower level task forces a Defender may win out, eg they'd have Fortitude avaialble to run Positron.

Yeah, for levelling, their appeal is pretty marginal, but not totally negligible.

Say you're making a Ranged Defence Hover-blaster, which is probably your best bet to leverage some defence through IOs.

In the 30's, you could expect to have a Blaster with 4 sets of Thunderstrike (3 primary + Teir 1 immobilise or 4 primary for Psi) and 2 pairs Blessing of the Zephyr (Hover + Flight) for 23% vs Ranged whilst Hovering.

Weave with Red Fortune (5.6 + 2.5) and Tough with Steadfast IO (+3) will give you an extra 11% Ranged Defence, bringing you up to 32% Ranged Defence. You're paying the END cost for Weave, Tough is just a stepping stone and an IO mule here, and doesn't need to be run unless you want the resistance.

I reckon you could probably get all this in your early to mid 30's, so you're benefitting for typically half your playtime on the way to 50 (at which point I also dump characters).
Add in a full set of Stupefy in a stun power and you're even better off.

You've spent three powers, a pool and 5 extra slots to get this. It means you need 1 small luck pill to cap Ranged Defence instead of 2.

You are of course still wide open to Melee and AoE attacks, unless you can hover out of melee range.

They're pretty small values for a Blaster.

The Fighting pool is useful if you're going for a specialised Defence build using IOs - Weave provides Defence and Tough gives you a place to stick the Steadfast IO, but it costs you in terms of power picks and influence.

I'd recommend against it as a general rule.

Seriously, I wouldnt worry unduly.

I've drifted away from several forums I frequent, and its always a case of drifting. Not so much waking up one day and deciding that I'm going to leave and maybe should let everyone know, as not posting one day, then the next, then its been a week...

I've usually drifted back after a few months, in one case (Freedom Reborn) after a few years absence.

Jock has gone before and come back. He may do so again, but I dont see any reason to assume anything's up.

He's appearing in a kid's book where you have to spot the warmly humorous Scottish ex-pat Rad/Sonic Defender in a large crowd of people in each illustrated page.

I've been less than impressed with Flash Arrow myself.

What you say is correct, Whisper, but its the "only works well vs AV's" bit that got me. Even if you're running ITFs back to back, AVs are a small part of the PvE content.

I made a TA/A duo a while back with Flash Arrow and Manouvers each for an effective 30% Defence against everything for the whole team if they both opened with Flash. I did stop short a little at level 26 (27 means Thunderstrikes and capped Ranged Defence) but found their survivability and their ability to keep a PuG alive really quite poor compared to other Defender combos I'd tried. Even just one Dark Defender would allow me to eat lunch and keep a team going.

Flash Arrow being a click presents a few problems. If you're approaching a spawn through a door, half of them wont get debuffed. If a Freakshow rezzes, he doesn't keep the debuff. Maybe I just had the bad luck to fight mostly Freaks in an office. The duo did do very well against Dr Vazhilok, I may pick them up again sometime.

The newer arcs are generally the best.

Faultline is easily 5 stars.
Croatoa gets about 4 stars from me overall
The Rikti War Zone - 5 stars again.
Mercedes Sheldon - 5 stars, some very cool tricks in "The Magic Man" arc
The soloable task forces in Ouroborus - Twilights Son in particular
Striga - 3 stars, its a bit grindy.
Montague Castellan - only 3 stars for offering two missions in a row that feel almsot identical.

These arcs have personality, interesting contacts and varied gameplay and maps.

Of the older content, I'd recommend:

The respec Trial.
The final generator rroom is fun and kind of different.

Harvey Maylor's Carnies arc
Colin larson's Freakalympics
Tina MacIntrye, purely for the ten minute long timed mission. That's definitley different and a real adrenalin shot if you dont expect it.
Gordon Stacy's Revenant Hero Project.
Ginger Yate's Terra Conspiracy
Steven Sheridan's Organ Grinders
Cadao Kestrel's Envoy of Shadows
The Shadow Shard in general - do the arcs in here even if they are like radio missions.

These tend to have a decent story to follow at least. The missions themselves can get a bit grindy, but have at least one unique map or a plot twist or two to break things up.
It can also take a while to get the actual stroy arc off soem of these people.

Also a shout out to the "Retrieve Stolen Weapon from the Freakshow" (20-24 range) mission which dishes out the Pwnz badge. Nice map, one merit per run and you get a Beanbag rifle temp power with 75 shots, all repeat-Ourobable. Very handy for any character who should carry and use a gun on occasion according to their concept, such as military-themed scrappers or tankers.

I'm a mainly solo-ist who doesn't like pets too.

Gravity Control works really well - its got solid sinlge target damage and good damage-per-endurance in Propel.
Singularity is a pet but far less obtrusive than the humanoid pets. He tends to hang back off camera and acts like your subconscious mind, lifting and holding things for you without you having to press the buttons. He's tough enough to rarely need resummoning.
He also makes a very handy shield, step inside him if you're getting threatened by melee enemies.

All the time he feels like an extension of your power rather than a separate conscious entity.

My secondary was Empathy, not great for soloing. Doing it again I'd recommend Radiation.

A defence armour would stack with the To Hit Debuff in Rad Infection, and make you less likely to be mezzed.
Resistance armours and -Damage from EF dont stack in the same way.

And the AoE stun in Fissure stacking with Flashfire makes Stone Mastery pretty hard to beat from a practical point of view.

I went for Primal Forces Mastery myself, but I was playing a twin duo with no Stamina, so Power Boost was handy for boosting the END Recovery from AM, as well as boosting hold durtaions. I also had Stimulant to make the mez protection in Psionic Mastery redundnant.