Firewasp

Thanks for that answer. Lets me know I did the right thing and have much to look forward to

So what about the original question. Is there any advantage of playing a brute over a scrapper with EM/SD? And vice-Versa.

I can see on MIDS that Scrappers do more base damage than Brutes, but I was wondering if brute was better for some reason.

I have a 23 EM/SD Scrapper now and he solos -1/X4 fairly well. Doesn't seem to have much defense.

Was Phalanx Fighting designed to force you to team?

Yep, that is right -- I only wish a Huntsman"s damage was better. Players told me that a Blaster with AR does more damage. Checked it out on MIDS and they would be right -- DPS is higher. So a Huntsman is a weak blaster with an excellent defense?

I have seen builds full of sets that increase the damage and defense, but is this just to the Mastermind himself or to the pets or both? Since the mastermind usually isn't a target they really don't need defense themselves. My thinking is that if a brute doesn't add defense to their attacks, why would it add defense to a pet (which as you know is an attack)?

When your BIG Demon whips out a huge ice sword you know you got the level 32 upgrade on him

I am doing paper missions in Martial at the moment trying to get the next Arc contact. This guy is a 34 demon/therm. After a few missions I seem to remember these guys getting through the spawns quicker. Got Hasten on auto and keeping Forge on up to 4 pets at all times. Also Hell on Earth on the big guy as soon as it is up.

So why are they slower in killing stuff??

I forgot to upgrade them. Yep, forgot both upgrades!

They seemed to do pretty good before, but now they are Demons on drugs.

Thanks for the helpful advice. Had thought that with my defense already this high I wouldn't need a purple, but I see what you mean.

Yep, Ballista was a Elite Boss with FF. He kept knocking me far from him with the the Force Bolt. Went back to the base and made a KB temp power that adds +10 for an hour.


I don't mind throwing thermal shields out for 20 seconds every 4 minutes. I really don't think about it anymore after playing every pet type with thermal up past 30. Have been casting them so many times I have a built in timer in my head for 4 minutes. Having fun with my current 34 demon/thermal. With leadership's Assault, Forge and Hell on Earth the big guy gets a damage bonus of 103.75% that lasts a hell of a lot longer than buildup (90 seconds). Plus with all those little guys running around helping you fight, its like Gangwar on drugs. Hasten is on auto and I can keep Forge (30% damage bonus) on up to 4 of the pets at all times. This is by far the most damaging mm set in the game. Plus the demon resistance is very high or soft-capped. The pets never die on me and rarely need to be healed.

I still play the bane, but he ran out of Patrol xp. I have 6 alts that I play all at the same time, but only when their Patrol xp gets full. If you're going to build up several alts to 50 anyway, you may as well do it 50% faster. Did the same thing on rested characters when I used to waste my time on WoW for the double xp. Took me half the time to get all 10 characters up to 80.

You have defeated Longbow Ballista
You gain 22,746 experience and 24,321 infamy.

Had to eat a dozen greens to stay alive, but having Placate and Hasten sure did help. I'm also using a few temp powers.

Increase Recovery
Increase Attack Speed -- 20% (same as Mental Training)

Came close to dieing a few times with lag not letting me pop the inspiration.

and about the mm's:
I have a 42 bots/therm mm that has soloed AV's and Heroes since 35, and a 33 Demon/therm mm that does more damage then the bots do and will pass that bot mm. Not only do they solo the AV's and Heroes, but at a diff of +0/X8 or +1/X5.

Dark Healer,

You had me there for a second. The only difference was that you put 3 DEF in each defensive power. Maneuvers is only 1 power taken at a 3.5% DEF base compared to Weave's 5% DEF base, but 3 powers to get that, so a nice idea there.

I also see that you bought that expensive Steadfast to get another 3% DEF. I have bids in for it in 4 different places, but it may be some wait.

With this build you add the Placate and Hasten which is nice.

I can definitely see an improvement and even less end use while using several less endurance reductions than I did; which is impressive. When it is running you wouldn't have the recharge problem. With Mental Training, Hasten would only be down about 35 seconds.

You also didn't have to waste do many slots in Surveillance as I did.

Thanks for coming up with a build that will put me back on track!

Sorry about that, but I'm a numbers guy. I listen when I easily see that the numbers are better, but to say to use 3 damage enhancements in an attack power with no thought of end or recharge times does not actually increase damage. If your defense is mediocre and you die, what do you think happens to your DPS? It goes to zero.

I am STILL looking for a way to save my BANE. To keep me interested in playing him to 50 and beyond. Yes, Placate is a good one, but it only works if there is only one guy attacking you and usually see 2 to 3 more in close range. If you placate and the other guy hits you, they all know where you are and placate becomes useless. So Placate is purely situational. If I had it while fighting that EB I would have got more damage on him, sure, but not killed him.

I realize there are limitations to every build and AT. I know that after playing over 130 different alts. I know this after playing 29 different mmorpgs over 11 years. Its just that I was looking for something so amazing that I couldn't wait to go back and whoop that EB's butt.

Taking Surveillance too late?? I am level 40 and respec'ed -- who cares where Surveillance is? If you looked at my build you might have noticed that I was only level 40. This wasn't some dream build. Problem with placate is it only uses up 2 slots. If you take it you have to put all those 5 other slots somewhere and when there is no more room you have to hold something back.

I could hold combat jumping back, but that gives me 2.5% DEF ALL and uses only 0.07 end.

I did have 1 acc, 3 damage, 2 recharges in the attack powers, but end is sucked out. All that damage does nothing with no end -- Reduces your DPS!

If you use 1 acc, 3 damage, 1 recharge and 1 end. You will have to wait on a power to become available again -- Reducing your DPS!

Even with 1 acc, 2 damage, 2 recharge and 1 end I still have to wait a second or two sometimes. I only have 5 attacks, but most have a long recharge.

My current resistance:
smash and lethal 31.61%
all others 10.22%

My current defense:
Ranged 42.07%
All others except psi is 31.45%
Psionic is 23.95%

Adding a third defense enhancement into Tactical Training: Maneuvers boost my defense a whole half of one percent. I don't think that will replace the 7.29% I get from weave. I mean you say this like all I have to do is get rid of Tough and Weave and add this third slot and all my defense problems are gone

Note: I didn't have tough and weave before my respec last night, but I needed a boost in defense as I was getting my butt kicked. Now I am doing quite well defending against bosses (they used to kill me sometimes, but don't now). I did drop acrobatics and got a steadfast +4 KB (acro was mag 7). Now the EB keeps knocking me over. I will have to add another KB enhancement somewhere.

Adding 2 DEF in Combat Training: Defensive adds 3.17% DEF over the base. You can't get these high numbers in defense unless you build it correctly.

So nothing you have told me will increase my damage or defense. I can't train placate without wasting slots -- maybe I can get it at 47 or 49 when it only gives you 3 slots on the off level.

In order to get the most out of this game I have to have an AT that will get through missions quickly. If I have to constantly run from EB's or AV's and Hero's, I can't play that AT (unless I turn off the AV and boss on the diff). I have a 42 bots/therm mm that has soloed AV's and Heroes since 35, and a 33 Demon/therm mm that does more damage then the bots do and will pass that bot mm. Not only do they solo the AV's and Heroes, but at a diff of +0/X8 or +1/X5. A bane can't solo a X8 unless the diff is brought down to -1 or the bane has 2 billion in sets on him.

Note: When you solo a -1/X8 mission it is not just a pile of blues, the con rises up so you see whites and yellows with some oranges.

I had my bane with a group one day and it took me (a while) to kill a purple. Then I watched in horror as a demon mm killed one in less than half the time. So a bane is an "epic" AT? You should have had to get to 50 to unlock the Mastermind

I had the same problem. I figured it out with another answer -- make both builds either huntsman or bane. The backpack goes away automatically. Stays off even if you zone.

My main build is a melee bane with poisonous ray. The other is all ranged bane. Melee does much more damage.

My bane is level 40. He does really nice damage and has a great defense, but he can't solo an Elite Boss let alone an AV or Hero. He can solo a boss, but it takes some doing. But my mm's solo them starting in their mid 30's.

My build uses level 30 to 40 IO's -- mids just shows them as 50's

[color:#489AFF]Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.803[/color]
[color:#489AFF]http://www.cohplanner.com/[/color]

[color:#B1C9F5]Click this DataLink to open the build![/color]

[*]3% Defense(Lethal)[*]3% Defense(Fire)[*]3% Defense(Cold)[*]3% Defense(Energy)[*]3% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]3% Defense(Melee)[*]3% Defense(Ranged)[*]3% Defense(AoE)[*]Knockback (Mag -4)[*]Knockup (Mag -4)[*]1.5% (0.03 End/sec) Recovery[/list]

Thanks

Surveillance can be used in cloak without becoming uncloaked. Just wondered if you could do the same with venom grenade.

I used to use avast until they tried to charge me for it after a year. with AVG is don't get those nagging emails.

TV commercials advertise the viruses do not attack Apple computers since they are not pc's. Any truth to this? Why don't virus programmers just make them for Apple?

Wow, that's really nice!


So as a rogue I do 10 more rogue missions and a morality to get 30 merits, then repeat it to get 60 more each time?

Well since my mm solo's most of the time I guess being a rogue is not such a hot idea unless he becomes a hero all the way. I just lose my base access which would be a major pain -- access to 14 full bins and other storage.

If I join someone else's sg on blue side I have to start all over again and most likely never have the access I have now

What do you lose or gain as a rogue doing 10 rogue tip missions?

What do you lose or gain as a vigilante doing vigilante 10 tip missions?

What do you lose or gain as a villain doing 10 villain tip missions?

What do you lose or gain as a hero doing 10 hero tip missions?

Already seeing missions going away when you log off. Anything else?