Flitbit

Here's an update, actually specifically soldier-related!

I want to start leveling my baby Huntswoman, so I went through Redlynne's latest Huntswoman build with a fine-toothed comb. It fits right into my love of high recharge ranged carnage, and looks amazingly sturdy as well as a great team player with the auras, and good stam to be able to keep those auras up. Wow!

I originally was planning to go combat jumping rather than hover, but it's awfully tempting to be able to hover out of range and take advantage of that softcapped range defense. Maybe rocket boots are in order?

I'm tempted to switch the Entropic Chaos set in Burst with the Arachnos ATO -- I'd be sacrificing one of the chance to heals and some endurance with higher damage and better recharge. I'm not wedded to the 6-piece bonus on that, so I could keep the -res proc. Another tempting-looking place to put the ATO proc is into Venom Grenade -- I could sacrifice 5mph in hover speed and a little in overall defenses (but keep the softcap on Ranged) to move a Luck recharge from Cloaking Device into Hover, then move that slot to Venom Grenade and add the ATO proc for area terrorized/-damage instead of single-target. I don't really know how well it procs in cones, though.

I'm planning on working through the villain questlines with this character, so I really like how Soldiers are fun right out of the box so I won't be terribly impatient to level. I already dislike how fragile Widows feel in their early stages, so I may group more intensively with that one to speed past the awkward age and into the Fortunata goodness. Soldiers do not have this issue!

My spouse's Soldier is around 20, is one of his "do all villain questline" characters because he's enjoying him so much, and has already acquired a Longbow-esque "deniable" outfit. He is opting for some melee in his build because he just likes whacking people upside the head, so he may end up "Bane-ier".

Singularity sounds like a great pet! I believe it's also highly (if not entirely) resistant to being debuffed as well. Energy doesn't quite get the lovely ability to hide inside/behind the pet and be nigh immune to melee, because the AoE is melee range, but I think the Wormhole/Singularity combo will still really work well for me.

I love the idea of using gravity for TK; it really suits that theme. My character is a unified field theory mad scientist; I decided not to get Teleport or Recall Friend because objects come out of Propel kind of "foamy" in that you can kick around that couch you just tossed at someone, and Wormhole stuns, I figure her teleports make things come through kind of "wrong" so she doesn't really WANT to be teleporting her friends or herself. Do not look into laser with remaining eye.

Thank you for the information! I was able to free up one more slot for four, so I am thinking of doing hami-o accuracy/mez, damage/mez, damage/mez, and a pet set accuracy/damage. While leveling it'll be accuracyx2, damage, and either hold or damage depending on what I feel short of.

I don't have Tactics on this build, but would Singularity benefit from it if I did? Or is it immune to the leadership aura? I know that mastermind pets do benefit, but since you can't heal Singularity I'm not sure if it benefits from leadership powers.

I have a Praetorian who would be interested in this group, though I level very slowly and she's still in Praetoria, so it may be a while!

My spouse and I also have a themed Primal hero supergroup, Haven Outreach Society, based around helping gangers get off the streets. Because of the amount of gangs there, they tend to do a lot in the Hollows, and they'd like to help out as well -- they would see the Last Ward as a much-needed focus point for rebuilding in the Hollows, and might be able to help out with local knowledge of ganger politics. This can provide some RP opportunities that don't require being in Praetoria.

I am new(ish) to the game and have mostly been lurking even though I am mainly on Virtue because I love RP, but finally I started joining the RP channels this week.

I have seen a very welcoming and friendly community, and while I've only been dipping my toes in RP while I learn the game mechanics, I've really liked what I've seen; I even went on a RP task force last week, and they were very gracious with my noobishness.

I'm sorry I've been so quiet (I'm a little shy about trying for general RP), but I wanted to say that the existence of the RP channels and threads has been very inspiring, and I'm planning on getting more involved in the future, though RL tends to keep my schedule random. Right now most of my RP has been with family/friends as we have sets of interconnected characters in small themed supergroups and it's easier to coordinate with them. But the existence of this effort has made a difference to us even if we've been quiet about it because we're still breaking the ice.

I'm working on a build for my gravity dominator, and I'm not sure if global accuracy from set bonuses applies to Singularity. I don't actually have the pet yet so I can't check the in-game bonuses window, and if Mids gives breakdowns on pet stats I haven't figured out how to show it.

I have a 45% global accuracy bonus from sets -- will Singularity pick that up? Or does it not get my bonuses? At 50 I'm planning to slot with a mix of accuracy/mez and damage/mez Hami-Os, but with an additional 45% accuracy one accuracy/mez should give the pet plenty of accuracy (I hope) and a decent amount of damage. If it doesn't benefit from set bonus accuracy then I'll probably want to slot more accuracy into the pet, but I'd like to get the damage up higher if I can. (Prior to 50 I'll either do common IOs or a mix of pet set and a common hold IO.)

Also, how sturdy is Singularity without adding the resistance aura IOs? I'm having trouble finding the slots so wanted to short-slot it with three Hami-Os if I can get away with that.

This is a gravity/energy dom who is frankly kind of hard to play so I may be a good long while getting my pet, but I'm unreasonably attached to the character (including having it be the one I was going for the Field Inventor badge on) so I'll probably get there eventually. My plan is to shove things into a corner with Wormhole and use Whirling Hands on them, with Singularity to keep them pinned. I also have a grav/time controller version that will be curious about what happens with the pet's accuracy as well.

Clearly Arachnos are a high draw! My husband is very Mastermind-crazy (he has four now) but he just created a Soldier after seeing how happy I was with mine even at very low levels. And I've recreated mine on the same server so we can play them together. (I have a baby Widow, too, but I had so much more fun with Soldier than Widow at low levels that I'll probably save that one for groups and use the Soldier to explore the Arachnos arcs.)

I will second the sticky response; I went looking for threads on building for exemplaring and found this one immensely useful for both that and for leveling and building a Soldier.

I have a question about non-set pieces while exemplaring. I've been planning for level 50 common IOs with the understanding that they will be reduced when exemplaring, because they give the most bang for the buck at level 50. According to the page on ParagonWiki, a level 50 quad isn't reduced at all at any level of exemplaring, and a level 43 trio likewise. If I have a slot free and want to just add some damage/endurance or damage/recharge to a power, will I get hurt badly when exemplaring if I use a level 50 combo IO? Should I be thinking harder about HOs in those slots? Or should I just go ahead and put in a 50 damage/endurance or whatever to boost me in level 50 play, and not worry about how it's reduced when exemplaring because it doesn't affect my set bonuses?

If I don't mind losing the last set bonus on a set while exemplaring (like Positron's, for example -- a little toxic resistance is okay but not earth-shatteringly good), would putting one of the pieces at 50 or 43 to get more overall enhancement bonuses out of it when I'm not exemplaring make sense?

Another question I have is about the Force Feedback proc. Does it proc often enough on a fairly fast cycling AoE (for example, Thunder Strike, with about a 10 second recharge+cast time) that I can slot Energy Torrent purely for damage? Or should I put one in each to keep the uptime higher? The build in question is for an Electric/Shield Defense scrapper and based on my reading, Shield Charge and Lightning Rod both create pseudo-pets which means that procs either don't work properly in them or sometimes do very odd things like hit the caster with a damage proc, so I have avoided putting procs into either. (That made building sets kind of awkward there; a lot of the PBAOE sets have procs, and Force Feedback would look good in there if I could be sure it would work properly and not buff the pseudo-pet instead of me.) With the upcoming proc changes should I count on Force Feedback at all? I'd like to use it if I can, as some extra recharge would be very helpful.

Edit: I checked the wiki and it looks like Chain Induction's problems with damage procs was fixed, as well as Lightning Rod's tendency to zap the user with procs, but I still am not sure that Force Feedback would work in Lightning Rod or Shield Charge, as it might try to buff the pseudo-pet rather than me. I don't have those powers yet but when I do I can try them out on the test server.

A post so good my very first post had to be a necropost!

I heartily approve of chainsaws! Especially titan ones! That could get me to buy titan weapons....

Regarding cost, a quick examination of the consignment house told me that it's not going to be cheap at all, but if I'm willing to be patient, I think I can manage it. I've been poking at the economy anyhow so I'm not very likely as poor as the average person who doesn't have a fifty yet. The economy here is *odd* but there seems to be a "convenience" market for turning recipes into crafted goods, so a little patience lets me build a stash that I can turn into goodies, and I always find crafting addictive on any MMO, so I might as well get some use out of it. (People will pay what seems to me absurd amounts for common accuracy IOs that I've memorized the recipes on, for instance.) Simply trying to buy it as recipes rather than finished pieces helps my budget a lot -- salvage tends to swing up and down so I try to craft only from the cheap end. I've already picked up a few of the easier recipes for cheap, though it's mostly not anything I'll want to slot until later in order to create sets. I also got a lucky performance shifter end proc, which is going in as soon as I finish dithering over my respec.

I've bought recipes with AE tickets and they are set to the level of my character -- do merit and alignment purchases work the same way? If so then I'm wondering if I should turn off XP in a level (she's currently 26) while she builds a library of recipes. On the other hand I hear rumors that level 50s generate inf practically by breathing, and I look at her current small stash of reward merits and wonder if those come faster. (Note to self... do more tip missions; those are a guaranteed source of goodies and I've been enormously enjoying them since she hit 20 for the plot alone, so plot + goodies == win.)

I definitely feel like this is a slow blooming strategy, but there's a huge satisfaction in being able to have a plan that "keeps" into the fifties. In fact I tried making a "money is no object" build in MIDS out of curiosity, to see how she'd differ if built as some sort of Athena-like character who sprang out of my forehead at 50 with all sorts of expensive purple toys, and it was astonishingly difficult to soft-cap her as easily. It looks like a lot of good armor bonuses are down in the 20s, though I did miss out on some tasty things by not taking a lot of those great sets that come in at 30. But while I could build an astonishing amount of recharge... and trust me, I became addicted to recharge enhancements the second I figured out that they made my favorite clickies click faster... I felt kind of naked and struggling between building in the oodles of recharge on offer at higher levels and scraping for those last five points of defense. That may be a flaw in my building or in the electric/shield scrapper combo, or in my choice of powers (a LOT of PBAOEs), but it was just *easier* to get capped along with nice (I hope) levels of recovery and regen using the outwardly more constrained level 27 build plan. (Mostly because those decadent big recharge bonuses weren't there to tempt me away from the armor bonuses, I bet.)

Also, for some reason I feel less constrained by noobness on the level 27 build. "Well, she can actually slot these now!" I think. I feel less worried that I'll make an expensive mistake, even though logically I realize that it can still be pretty expensive. It just "feels" less expensive for some reason.

Given that I'm already having a blast (literally) playing her in SOs at low levels, I'm not worried about it taking a while to get her sets in order, either. This way every time I replace an SO with a set piece I get to cheer!

Regarding SoAs, I just managed to fit one in on Virtue (my favorite server) so she is way more likely to get some face time, though my altitis is terrible to behold, see above about how my highest is a puny 26. I haven't played one past 6 but wow do I love how well the powers synergize even that early, given the ability to choose plenty of ranged attacks and the inherent ranged defense and accuracy -- unlike a lot of sets, this one comes out of the box ready to go and kick a lot of behind, and it just felt really well put-together; I was actually using my evil laugh a lot, running her through missions at all of level 6. Usually the "Muahaha!" doesn't come out until at least level 10, though my mastermind and stalker both started earlier. (Yes, I have terminal altitis, and at least one of each AT, why do you ask?) My little dual pistol blaster is awfully jealous, though dual pistols has its own gun-fu charm, but she feels both less deadly and less durable than my SoA, poor thing. In my head, she's plotting to assassinate my SoA so her playtime doesn't vanish. But given the durability that might be difficult!

I would be very interested in seeing Redlynne's current crunching on Leggs, who I find very inspirational. Going into the tradeoffs between sets was very educational... I'm not actually sure which side of SoA I would feel most drawn to. So far, the riflery is *completely* satisfying, but it's early days yet of course. It's possible that the bane side would get even more "Muahahas!" out of me. (And really, if I'm playing a villain, that's a lot of what it's about.) I'm a little intimidated by the unquellable costume of the bane backpack, but may end up loving it... I may try it out in the training room if I get her high enough to have it as an option. Right now I'm just in a clone of the generic soldier goon armor that I've tried to make colored exactly the same as the NPCs, while I work through the early "goon" levels. I don't get many armor options anyhow, so might as well embrace it!

Not strictly about Soldiers of Arachnos (my soldier is very wee yet, but VERY enjoyable even so low level), but I found this thread incredibly useful and inspirational as a general idea -- I found most suggested leveling techniques felt rather wasteful (level a build, cycle enhancements, respec at 50, etc.) I really enjoy the concept of building for a character who's exemplar ready and who levels into a final build rather than planning to respec.

I am new, so my highest (electric/shield) is 26, so perfect for trying out the concept.

I've chosen level 27 as my target for set IOs, and according to Mids I can get her to the softcap on everything by level 50, plus give her healthy regeneration, recovery, and recharge. She's a touch below 45% on Ranged and AoE, but Phalanx Fighting helps -- standing next to a teammate she's comfortably above softcap, and she has some inherent defense debuff resistance to keep her there, plus some resistances across the board even though I focused much more on defense, recovery, recharge, and HP/regen. I haven't priced everything out precisely, but everything will probably be cheap except Luck of the Gambler, and I've already picked up some Red Fortune recipes for very good prices. It's probable I've made all sorts of newbie errors on my build, but I like how it starts her out sturdy now and she will just get better as she levels and slots in more set pieces. It definitely beats slotting SOs!

Electric/Shield is something I really chose for the looks as well as the sturdiness of shields; I just liked the look of the electric-themed shield a lot. But it turns out it has two very similar late-blooming powers: Lightning Rod and Shield Charge. So to make it more "lowbie friendly" I gave her Spring Attack early in -- I'm treating it as a mini version of those two powers, and I'm orienting her style around PBAoE knockdown effects. (Thunder Strike is the bread and butter one, so there's really an absurd amount of it available.) That way I can get some of the feel of them at lower levels, and if I exemplar with her later then I won't miss them as much.

So thank you for the guide! I will very likely end up with something like Redlynne's Huntsman build if I level my SoA. (Odds are good; she is SO MUCH FUN, and I enjoy the gun powers a lot. But I have ten gazillion alts so it may take me a while.) My husband also loves this concept and is doing the same approach with his characters.