Fire_Storm2

I am rebuilding my fire tanker and brute both into def builds. Just like you i have been looking at the posts recently, and then playing with mids. Just like you, going for mid 20s or higher for general defense, mostly higher in s/l/m, but also diversifying my IOs for a good cover for aoe, fire cold and energy. I think ranged def is weak in both builds.

After my near permadom, I was ok with using Burn as a click and just firing it off as click immob protection too. Hasten was click with permadoms, so it is just a different way to play using burn as click, no biggie.

Burn is ok for AVs, as they usually get immob by controllers anyway, and its great for things like portals, DE eminators, ritki drones, nemisis bots and a few other things. I think some AVs may still run from Burn tho. I also love the way it looks, and the scatter can save you life at times. I am also like you, i just love the way it looks too. The thing to max burn, is to dumpster dive or pack them into a tight place, so when they run, they come back into the patch. If you are good with doing that, then you can use burn solo for damage. You have to time your combust and fsc as they run back and forth from the fear of burn. The to hit check is made when you activate combust or fsc, so it still hits them as run away from the burn patch the second time etc. It is all timing.

this is stuff i just know, i went to the test server when IOs were in closed beta. I could buy Numinas and Miracles and all sorts of rare things on the BM, for market testing (yes they were only 250k each lol). So i played some with my build. It was primarily a regen build with no defense. A solid build with a very high regen rate, (numinas regen/recovery and 5 stacked 10% regen bonuses) is pretty dog gone hard to kill. I was fighting 5 levels up. HF and my regen was ok enough, i had some really close calls but mostly i was generally ok for long periods of time solo. What i learned tho, as i was testing how hard i could get smacked around with that regen build.....burn, by itself, was not adequate to protect me from massive numbers of higher level immobs. Those guys were 5 levels up at the time. With out CJ, i was getting immob-ed due to stacking of immobs and the way the game does to hit from higher levels. Burns Immob protection came be over come. In regular game play, Burn may be just fine, especially since so much has changed with the sk set ups and everything.

As i build into defenses, i am planing on going with some regen on top of the defenses. Add some recharge and recovery. CJ is a good place for LOG recharge. I am going for Defs in the 20s or so, and i think about 30% global recharge, and then the super Health Procs IOs. I also respec into temp protection 20% slow resist, a slot for always on mag 4 kb IO, and then i got the winter gift slow resist 20% as well.

Should be a stout tank with decent killing power.

I think i went with CJ on live, now deciding on the trade off in damage output vs picking back up weave for the added defense. Will have to sacrifice something to get weave.

yep i am transitioning my fire/fire/elec into an overall def build, without sacrificing really too much of the build. It just required getting things re-slotted differently. I still have a decent attack chain/toon with this build so it is not too gimp. Thats the whole key, not gimping your build too much.Waffling if i want weave or not.

And it is going to be expensive tho, selling a purple or two to redo the build. Or time consuming thru merits.

off the top of my head and not looking at the build, I think i was aiming about 25%+ s/l/melee def, with atleast 20 for aoe and fire/cold/energy. I am still toying with trying to get it closer to sm/l 30%, so a luck or two will get me close to soft def cap. Ranged defs were not good.

With that def level, i should get about a 50% reduction in incoming attacks/damage/slows, on top of my build which could hold its own for alot of stuff, just had some serious weakness against certain groups. Ranged will still be a weakness. My thoughts were this....That def would help offset some of the holes, if i got hit about 40-50% less of time in general. Less end drain, less slows less..... (carnies are pbaoe end drain). Just a lots less to deal with, then add in some global recharge for hf and consume, and + recovery and HP/regen.....

Another things i did in the transition, i picked up temp prot for 20% slow resist, and the winter gifts 20% slow resist.

General Qol improvement with layered def/resistance, that can be added to with insp for def on tough fights and AVs.

Tricky build with lots of options, that i am playing out as i build it, but it should be a really decent toon once it is done.

You need mids.

This may appear like a wall of text, but try to read it, this is what i learned when i played with my MMs.


You can completely control BG mode and Damage output at the same time. But you gonna be "playing/mashing buttons" like hell, it is not passive. It is just not real obvious on how to figure it out.



When i play my mm, I am usually a taunt bot, but i have storm which is an aoe. On my dark, generally don't have any problems, i use aoe attack or taunt.

i need to dust off my mm again. I don't play them that much anymore, it has been OVER a year, so my syntax on the commands might not be exactly right. maybe someone else who is more current can correct my syntax on the commands in the example. You need to find the guides on naming and commands. So you may have to look for commands help. I may not be giving you the exact right terms since it has been so long since i worked up the MMs.


This is what i came up with when first tinkering with this whole taunt/body guard thing. MM pets can act basically a dull pain/shield/heal (ie a damaging but expendable hitpoints/buff), so tank it. That might not make alot of sense at first, but keep reading. Taunt/provoke (ie pool power) or an aoe mm attack that refocuses foes attention on you, will generally solve the problems with pets in BG mode. Keep damage coming at you, and leave pets in BG mode, so they attack AND Buff you.



i think this stuff below is important, and makes the whole bg mode/damage work



There is a way to drag the pet commands icon from the pet window to the power tray, and then edit them. or You can make custom binds but they are a pain in the **** based on my khelds. I am too lazy to make a boat load of binds, so i drag and edit the pet commands.


Naming of pets can be important, and here is why, proper naming and using commands, allows for COMPLETE control over BG mode.

For example, Larry Barry and Moe are ninjas. Sonny, and Johnny are Jounin and Oni is M O F O

By example, So if the flame thrower is the only pet with (ie Moe ), once you edit the dragged command pet_com_all i think, to pet_name_ Moe then the command becomes for that one pet only with moe in his name, with the spelling of moe. if you use just the spelling "mo" the command works for both Oni (tier three) and Moe (tier one).

Editing the commands based on names of the pets, gives an enormous amount of fexiblity. You can custom control the pets, purely by their name spelling, combination of tier one, tier two, or combination of tier one, two AND three at the same time all by name spelling. A command for petcom_name mo then, controls oni and only one ninja. Using "petcom_name defensive follow? y" controls all pets with y in their name, in this case for larry, barry sonny and johnny go defensive. That leave Mo pets in a different mode (attack whatever). So the MO pets attack, and the y pets defend (aka attack too, but stay in BG mode to buff you)

So, you can drag/edit "attack my target petcom_all" to "petcom_name oe", use that and only send a tire one (named moe) around a corner, have him attack, follow that command after he attacks with "defensive follow petcom_all?" command to all pets, and Moe will return to you (if he lives), and all your other pets sitting right next to you, are already in defensive mode to brunt the incoming alpha. You edit the command to just "mo" and oni and the ninja go, and the rest stay in BG mode. Sweet eh?

But you might need to buff up to hold the alpha in bg mode, or you might need more damage output, less buff. Just depends on the pull and aggro.

Once the foes are incoming, if there is enough range, you can taunt/aoe attack as they come, refocusing their attention. Pets generally stay in defensive mode/bg mode, and you have tried to pull and control aggro. Time to adjust BG mode/buffing and damage output. That technique is fun but unpredicatble. Any pull can be unpredicatble, a buffed up pet etc improves the chances of that working.

You can pull or attack using ANY combination of tier pets AND choose to leave certain pets in defensive BG mode to buff yourself. So you can have tier twos and tier three attack, while keeping tier ones in bg mode. (remember i was talking about using the pets as a damaging expendable hitpoints, now you can see how). You can progressively change the pets attacking and the number of pets in BG mode on the fly using this stuff. So if the pull or damage is going to be hi, you would "DP/heal/buff/turn on MOG" as a tanker but for the MM, you will switch your different tiers pets into BG mode, and leave other tiers in attack mode. If you are taking a beating, switch them all off attack to BG mode on the fly, keep summoning or vice versa swap them back to damage when you can . I can swap out my bg mode and balance my pet attacks this way all from the power tray.
You can use BG mode kinda like a heal/buff if you understand how. And you can control BG mode buffing and adjust the number of pets attacking this way.

Back to bodyguard mode, so when fighting a slowed foe that can not attack, (an EB or something, with snowstorm (slow -recharge) and pulse hurricaine (-to hit) the pets will quit attacking in body guard mode, if there is no incoming damage. I had to Attack my target petcoma_all, then revert them back to "defensive follow" again once damage starts coming back your way. Or keep issuing an attack only to certain pets using the name command, and leave the others in bg mode/defensive mode to buff me. Sometimes there are noticble delays in solo play with switching back and forth from pet stances globally, hence allowing certain pets to attack while others are in BG mode really helps.

they weren't kidding when they named this AT the MM, it is purely on you to figuring it out tho. Dynamic as you want it to play. All of my MMs were "set up" meaning all these commands and naming over a year ago, and i haven't messed with it since. My syntax and commands may be off from memory, but all of this is possible with proper planning in naming and commands. I do it automaitcally now (since all the commands are set up) from the power tray and dragged commands.

I never mastered this completely but got down some decent work arounds, the possiblities are pretty amazing. You just have to figure out how to make the naming/commands work for you, to keep some/any/all of your pets in bg mode at anytime you want. That depends on play style.

Hope that helps. Check out a guide to the pet commands, and naming conventions. I am sure my syntax is wrong on the some of the commands, mine were "set up" over a year ago, but that is how i did it. I only did it for each MM and it was all trial and error based on the set of pets. Each set behavies differently. Once you get commands and pet control down, start "playing" with the commands, and controlling combinations of pets using names, and you will completely master bg mode.

Thanks for the reply. "That" was what I was wondering if I was seeing.

Will study the build, has alot of features in it that i was looking at. Appreciate it.

here is my initial toying

| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
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|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

i tired to copy one too this am, and got copy in progress but nada when i logged in.

Hey,

Been gone from the game for a bit, and recently reactivated on time card, to check out i16. love power customization, not perfect but pigs are flying I heard. So with switching sides in the works? (another major want)....I am looking a new corr. Overall i like the new direction of the game (except the ae farms) but...


I have been toying with the concept of a Pain/Rad corr. I plan on IO’ing it some but not insanely. I sure aint gonna waste the real life time on tweaking a toon with an uber IO build (like i did my fire/psi and afew others). I plan on tweaking to getting reasonable, I think perma WOP is not hard, and AC recharge can be brought down considerably.

As I tinker in mids, i have some nonspecific questions evolving, and musing. Some are nonspecific and others are very pointed. I have just started playing with this concept in mids, SO, like it took me a few weeks to tweak my fire/psi in mids, and I am still researching this build and sets, looking at recharge times etc.


WOP is a PBAOE, and it has a nonenhanceable 15% dam buff to teammates, does that stack with Assault? So would you get a SUSTAINED 30% PBAO damage buff with both running? (Throw in a SOA ? wow) how would that apply to the damage caps for individual team mates.

I am also looking at AC and Irradiate. Both have significant PBAOE foe negative DEF and Resistance when added together. Irradiate is -30% DEF, and AC is also -30% def. AC also has a -res (non enhanceable?) -22% res to foes. Would the achille's heal proc add a 20% on top of AC? Am I seeing this correctly? If I throw in some Achille's heals chance for -res in the rad powers like irradiate, with enhanced -def of AC and Irradiate, you shred defenses of foes by 60% and then pop some Achilles heals in there to shred foe resistance 20 to 40% on some foes to boot? and stacked damage buff from assault and WOP?

Tactics is to hit as well, that should stack with the WOP to hit buff? and again PBAOE to hit for the enitre team? PBAOE for all of it? Are they kidding?

The other thing, what is the difference in the defense debuff sets? The defense debuff sets should increase my ability to affect foe defenses. There are two sets showing up in mids. One is accurace defense debuff and the other is just defense debuff? I can tweak the rad powers with full acc/dam/rech/end etc and add defense debuff in there with good choice of slot placement. What is the difference in the two sets?

This guy or gal is looking like a monster on a team and for av fights. And just flat out, not near the PIA factor that empathy is.

Anyone got any tweaked builds or advice?