Draeth Darkstar

I've corrected the Paragon Wiki entries for TPN Campus and Minds of Mayhem to correctly reflect the reward table rate shift, as the Keyes Island Reactor page does.

Dilemma Diabolique does not mention any increased reward scheme in the patch notes that I can see. Does anyone know if it has unusual reward metrics other than the 2/1 empyrean scheme?

The closest thing I do to this is conceptual power choices. I absolutely never use SOs on a final build; I very rarely even use SOs past 30. I would never, ever, ever outright skip powers that make a set what it is, and I never skip things like Incarnate abilities.

The most important part of a character concept, to me, is conceptual development. It actually really irritates me when people say "I refuse to use X because it doesn't fit my original concept." Concepts can grow. Characters can grow. They can gain things they didn't have to start with.

I'll save you some research.

The best Time/Reward Ratio is TPN Campus, unless you need a guaranteed Rare/VR, which changes it to Underground.

TPN awards 60 Threads + Reward Table with weights shifted towards Rare/VR + 2 Empyreans first run, 1 Empyrean every subsequent run for 20 hours.

UGT awards 60 Threads + Reward Table guaranteed to drop a Rare/VR + 2 Empyreans first run, 1 Astral every subsequent run for 20 hours.

Edit: I omitted farming for Astrals. If that's your game, Badge BAFs or TPNs are the easiest and fastest.

The pet from super packs is not the same as the one in the market.

I'm big on Spiritual, Agility, and Cardiac (depending on sets) for Brutes.

Due to the nature of Fury you're probably gonna get more damage output out 22-45% recharge (depending on slotting) than 22-45% damage enhancement.

Cardiac for resistance armors is amazing for +res -end (since most of the resist armors are a bit more endurance heavy anyway, partially due to increased reliance on clicks and a damage aura).

Agility with a Defense armor, as Bosstone said, is wonderful for the hybrid offense/defense bonuses of +def and +rech/+endmod.

Spiritual, finally, I like when I either really need every drop of Recharge I can get, or I benefit a lot from the +Healing as well.

If I was going to pick a primary to go with Sonic, it'd be Demons. They have the most inherent and internally buffed Resistances (and can take both +10% auras, easily muled in Hell on Earth). I would imagine that, well slotted, you could hit upwards of 80-90% res to most damage types on a demon/sonic, then take Aid Other for healing.

For Force Fields, it's a toss up between Thugs and Bots, but honestly, having mained a /Force Mastermind for years upon years (my first villain, Bot/Force), I would never recommend the set. Traps has adequate pet defenses, BETTER personal defense (yes, FFG is better than Disperson Bubble), and has MANY more tools in its tool kit. The only non-defense boosting powers in Force Fields I EVER use are Force Bolt (which I wouldn't take if I wasn't forced to) and Force Bubble, which sees play in BAF and occasionally when **** hits the fan on ITFs.

/Cold Domination on Masterminds will be, in my opinion, the final nail in the coffin of Force Fields, unless it sees some dramatic improvement in breadth of ability.

Just to throw my two cents in... it would be criminal to nerf Bots/Thugs/Demons down to the levels of the other MM primaries, and would probably cause me to quit the game.

The very, very best Mastermind combos are still behind the other ATs that don't rely on pets for bleeding edge content/solo challenges/et cetera, and there is no justification for doing it based on their normal gameplay performance.

Yes, my level shifted Bot/Force and Bot/Traps can solo on +4x8, for example.

My Dark/Dark Corruptor can do it at least twice as fast. My SS/Fire Brute can do it several times faster than her. I have seen Fire/Kin (Controllers and Corruptors) outpace me handily before as well.

The aforementioned Illusion/Cold is better at the Mastermind's own game than they are and I don't feel even those sets need to be nerfed.

Mercs, Ninja, Necro to a lesser extent, and probably Beast Mastery, need to be improved to par with the rest of the primaries, not the other way around.

Just to warn you if you've never had it before, Flash Freeze is possibly the single worst power in the game.

It is an AoE sleep with a poor duration and long recharge.
The GFX are buggy and do not always display, so you cannot always tell whether it is in effect on a target or not.
It does (an extremely tiny amount of) damage, so it can't be used to stack magnitudes of sleep onto other sleeps or itself to lock down bosses.
If you take an Interface power that deals damage (and really... you should), it will proc your Interface because it can be slotted for damage, breaking itself instantly.

There is literally no redeeming quality to this power aside the fact that it can mule Fortunata's Hypnosis, which, as of Enhancement Converters, is no longer cheap, and will run you 600-1,200 mil at market value right now.

I would take anything over Flash Freeze.

Exactly how much recharge does it take to maintain the optimal chain for TW? I'm not even sure what, exactly, it is.

As the subject indicates, I am looking to build a Titan/Fire Brute with enough survivability to feel durable, while maintaining the recharge necessary for the optimal attack chain.

My ideal survivability goal would be soft-capped defense to either S/L or Melee in addition to ED capped resistances + Healing Flames.

I am not opposed to going Spiritual or Agility for the Recharge (and +Heal or +Defense) to make that happen if necessary; however Cardiac seems like a better choice if it can be done.

Is this kind of build mechanically achievable?

What are the optimal attack chains for StJ on a Stalker, and what levels of recharge are needed to hit them?

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Lore_Slot_Abilities

Yes, Soul Mastery's version of Soul Drain is really the nerfed version.

For verification you can use [Soul Mastery.Soul Drain][Dark Mastery.Soul Drain] in chat to see the differences in-game.

How does the DPS of KM compare to StJ? Just looking at the sets it seems like StJ should be the top dog by miles because of how the combo system interacts with the new AS, and the fact that KM's tier9 doesn't do extra damage on crits.

Note: Masterminds are only a good choice for this kind of thing if you like to play on +2 or lower.

At +3, your Tier1 pet powers are at 30% effectiveness, Tier2s are at 48%, and Tier3 is at 65%.

At +4, your Tier1 pets are at 15%, Tier2s are at 30%, and Tier3 is at 48%.

On top of that, there is also the matter that fighting +5s reduces base ToHit to 30%, and +6s reduces it to 20%. Being attacked by a +5 enemy gives it a an Accuracy modifier of 1.5; at +6, it gets a 1.5 Accuracy modifier and +5% ToHit.

Oh, and the same mechanic that serves to make your pets impotent on those higher difficulties also makes them take ludicrous amounts of damage when hit (a tier1 mastermind pet being attacked by a mob that is +4 to you is taking +66% damage, for example).

In short: If you like fighting on amped-up difficulty modes, play something that doesn't depend on pets.