Frostweaver

[ QUOTE ]
How To Make Thing's Die: Serps' Guide to Nin/Nin Stalkers

The best guide I've ever written.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, except for an improper use of an apostrophe

How To Make Things Die: Serps' Guide to Nin/Nin Stalkers

Unless, of course, the guide is about the correct machining procedures and materials to make a die owned by Thing

The ONLY hole I find unacceptable in /ea is the 'aggro hole' which is the same hole I find in willpower. That's why most of my suggestions have basically boiled down to giving energy drain a taunt component. That's all I want.

[ QUOTE ]

I'm uncertain what you fight but I find 38% to be generally acceptable. The EA set does not provide even the 28% you have, and even what I have does not match the immortality line easily available to WP, fire, DA stone or... well anything except electrical actually. Even Invul can be made to do reasonably well here.


[/ QUOTE ]

Immortality line? You are still using that tired old argument?
immortality line is irrelevant with regards to a heavy damage-dealing AT.
'Immortality line' actually has REST as being more powerful mitigation than any brute secondary. That simple fact alone should be enough to clue most people into the fact that the 'immortality line' argument, while perhaps relevant to a stone tanker, is clearly flawed when dealing with brutes, stalkers, and scrappers.

I stopped arguing that /EA was working fine a LONG time ago, and quietly got my 3 EA brutes, and 2 EA stalkers to 50. claiming that subjective experience is not relevant is...a poor argument.

[ QUOTE ]

I'm currently running two softcapped EAs, a SS and an EM. Both hit the caps for smashing, lethal, fire, cold and energy. negative comes in around 38 on both, and psi is 35% and 22% respectively. I also had a fire/EA that was close to softcapping but not there. I do not find the performance comparable to that which can be obtained by equivalent investment of pool powers or IO expenditure with other sets except at the very highest levels. Once def actually hits the cap, then performance is reasonably comparable defensively, and with enough IO recharge to repair the build, offence can be fine as well. A set that underperforms untill all the pools are used and all the IOs slotted will underperform for 80% of the playerbase, and for 50% of the game for the other 20% of the playerbase. (wild guess at those numbers but I'm sure the point is clear enough)

[/ QUOTE ]
No, the point is not clear at all. You don't have any clue what the 'average' experience is for a player. pulling numbers out of your... wherever, does absolutely nothing to make a point other than look like extreme hyperbole.

Not that I am against buffing EA, I would like a buff to EA just like I'd like a buff to super strength. It probably doesn't need it but I'd certainly ENJOY it. I find /ea a LOT more survivable than willpower outside of a psi fight. (My ea brute laughs at nems, arachnids, cims, and banes. all of which kill my /wp regularly)


In short, PLEASE come up with your own arguments instead of quoting something Arcana said. The reality of the game is that most non-av/eb fights are over in less than 30 seconds. and EVERY brute and stalker set is similarly capable of surviving 30 seconds outside of an av/eb fight. it's what you do between fights that really determines how 'survivable' each set is.

I will bet a Numina's Unique recipe on champion that Invulnerability gets buffed before /ea. Any takers?

Good for you. I remember my first time too. Under the bleachers...

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What're you trying to say....Merc/Psn MMs are gimped?


>.> <.<

[/ QUOTE ]

Apparently /Traps corrs too?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope.
I was trying to say the 'un gimped underdogs' The SG is to prove how NOT gimped they are

Yup, starting a new VG on Liberty called 'strong and pretty'.
It's only open to grav/energy dominators, merc/poison masterminds, electric/traps corrupters, mace/ea brutes, and db/electric stalkers.

Main scheduled events will be thursday nights 7-10 pm mountain time starting 07 august. Goal will be seeing how fast such teams can get all of their members to 50.

ss/wp brutes, fire/dark corrupters, nrg/ninja stalkers, Thugs/dark mm's, and fire/psi dominators, and VEAT's need not apply.

frankly, I don't want a heal in EA. I don't think it belongs there. Thematically, it might be appropriate for electric armor (some frogs regenerate when you apply electricity to amputated legs, for example) But 1 'clickie' power in EA is enough of an interruption to my attack chain.

simply give energy drain a taunt component for the standard duration and add in exactly the same defense bonus (1% +.6% per opponent) as ice armor's energy absorption gets, for a total of 9% slotted defense and the ability to stack another 7.5% onto it.

Or even give it the brute modifier so that it's potential 6.75% surrounded by 10 opponents stackable for 12.375% .


With weave and CJ slotted that would give the set 41.25% s/l defense, with the potential to soft cap s/l, fire, cold, energy, and almost hit the soft cap for negative energy when you double-stack.

This would DRAMATICALLY improve the set's survivability, change the only real hole so that it's toxic/psionic, avoid the 'heal' issue entirely, and it won't modify the 'feel' of the set or break the rules. If a brute is going to energy drain everything, they are going to get aggro from them, so you might as well make the aggro useful even in teams.

he's using the new energy aura card 'hologram mark IV'

Only a mineral-oil cooled peltier-plus micromassive octocore can run it, with 700 megaterrabytes and a robot arm with a 12th century yang dynasty hand-fan waving at it at all times.

It runs an average of about 280 degrees celsius, with carbon-tube nanoprocessors, and a USB 3 full-immersion Virtual crayon interface.

[ QUOTE ]
whay this thread is still going? holy crap

[/ QUOTE ]

let me explain this:

When someone posts in a thread (like you just did) the thread is moved to the top of the forum page. That means more people will see it, and more will likely reply to it.

So asking questions like 'This thread is still going?' is it's own answer.

[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone actually made a WM/EA Brute to try this out yet?

wm/ea is a pretty cool guy eh, beat up skuls and doesnt afraid of anything

[/ QUOTE ]

Yah, got her up to level 37 on the double xp weekend.

Still seems to be pretty strong and strong and pretty. weirdly enough it feels a HECK of a lot more damaging and survivable than DM/EA. I was actually levelling faster (Pure SO build) than my ss/wp brute. I think it's because of how much mitigation WM has. Yah, it's low damage, but it's faster than stone, more end-friendly than SS, more mitigation than 'new' EM, and a hell of a lot more AOE/burst damage than dark.

hey cool

I found Maceymace's build

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Maceymace Level 48 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: War Mace
Secondary Power Set: Energy Aura
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Presence
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Fighting

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Strong attack -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Pretty Shield -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Beat skulls up -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Not get beat up Field -- Empty(A)
Level 6: Power Strong! -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Recall Friend -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Smash Skulz -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Provoke -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Intimidate -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Grant Invisibility -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Beat up LOTS of skuls! -- Empty(A)
Level 20: Teleport -- Empty(A)
Level 22: Conceal Pretty -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Invisibility -- Empty(A)
Level 26: Shatter Skulz -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Punch stuff -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Drain pretty -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Shiny Shield -- Empty(A)
Level 35: I WIN button -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Invoke Pretty -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Tough -- Empty(A)
Level 44: Tougher -- Empty(A)
Level 47: Conserve Power -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Toughest -- Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Fury



<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy &amp; Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;909;441;588;|
|&gt;-JETMM*PT`0!N`-;0FUK;'6JK6*4"A6E%"]\G`A'D$PH*A45`RQK'$AI"5)Q=[Y`+Z|
|";^`!#U?Z&lt;'%FG(KHI4O[,_DRN]UF8UUO9(6X61%:9MUSPM!&gt;"SJ13%F.JYI"%T(,$=|
|B6]*0T&amp;TY@6TY3EKYP0UY(/Y3FIB\#MVNO=@(GO^U?RD#ZD=DK!G=;+&lt;\\@/GM5A`YD|
|6KY&gt;2++\56[X_V0;?]*A&gt;I&lt;&gt;2KJYDBVE'L9*=\M;K95T^2M=&amp;`/822#[BCL;QJ^,YK@|
|$&lt;,'AKC'"^VGS&amp;H,(!K)`]0)[DF0/$*=8DF15.$1Z#Q+)S'A?IHE33(&amp;#1F6#$D9),&gt;|
|2(^D',5@,DCJLDV?)DTQ!3X&amp;E0/(,=9'W4R0QH&amp;&gt;$&gt;T9(YN!^B:5$HD%/F:5,\@+U!/|
|W[6$R0/$$]R2M/DLS#585G54C&amp;89TJ2Y4D`5+C6362I-Y[^K&amp;8(7F%VN19)LD;U'66^|
|M?*R=_GM?-'=I._SVLK^7VF_QKOV=YOI??Z(/&lt;Q#C$:&amp;$&lt;8QQ@G&amp;*&lt;89Q@V1OSQ/=M8|
|P`TM8BQA+&amp;/&lt;8I..KT,&amp;(XN1P^C',#`&amp;,`H8PQAC&amp;'&lt; 8\2&gt;\Q1XF|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre><hr />

Very good guide. I have sorta unconsciously doing most of this stuff the whole time (I am always effusive in my praise for when teammates do something really well... especially for the AT's that don't normally get much praise, like that /TA defender) and I almost never have a problem getting a full pug through most of the TF's. It's glad to have a lot of these things put into writing so other people can use them.

Okay, darned close to perma anyway


a ton of recharge and hasten

You can get it up almost 2/3rds of the time before you hit the recharge cap.

[ QUOTE ]

1. Energy protection gains +def to energy (+10?) and dark (+5), both slot-able.


[/ QUOTE ]
This should have been there from the beginning.
[ QUOTE ]

2. Energy drain cast time halved. Energy drain recharge time halved. +endurance to caster halved (opponent -endurance same as before), zero endurance cost, taunt.


[/ QUOTE ]
A zero cost energy drain will never, ever fly. I'd be happy with a simple taunt added to it.
[ QUOTE ]

3. Make status shield a click power.


[/ QUOTE ]
a very good idea, that way it doesn't crash when overload does.
[ QUOTE ]

4. Change Conserve power to Power up. Click power with +7.5 def all except psi and toxic, +15 damres all except psi and toxic, +20% hp, +12.5 recovery. 60s duration 120-180 recharge with about 25 endurance cost. Maybe add a minor crash of some sort, - def, -res and -recovery.

[/ QUOTE ]
No. not just no, Hell no. Conserve power is vital for recovering from Overload crashing. Perma-OL brutes wouldnt' be possible without carrying a tray of blues PLUS using energy drain. No way. If you wanted to change it for POWER BOOST (something I think EA should have had) sure, but not for...whatever that inverted rage-clone is.
[ QUOTE ]

5. Power shield cast time halved.


[/ QUOTE ]
Why?

Actually, this may be a joke thread, but it's actually true. Warmace has some pretty amazing mitigation once you work out how to do it, on par with dark melee if you figure out the trick. It's not em/wp, but if you are not worried about 'minimaxing' it's eminently surviveable for soloing, And actually quite fun.

You almost inspire me to write an energy/storm Corrupter guide.
Almost. Only my instinct for self-preservation presents it... (you know that thing that keeps you from eating your own fingers?)

Yes, b ut if that is the case, why doesn't he just come in here and say "EA is performing as expected" or something?

A few points about IO slotting-


I don't neccessarily agree with Garth on all of his suggestions, since he runs a primarily team-centric tanker and I run a more solo-oriented build, but I figured I would throw in a few slotting Ideas for the 'cheapskates' that want to optimize both soloing and team tanking. His advice is generally very good though and won't steer you wrong, but the joy of CoH is that two people can use the same powersets and come to the same conclusions by different routes.

One of the things about fire melee is that, frankly, the recharge on all of it's attacks is SLOW. The heavy-hitters for a tanker (combust and FSC) will likely be used almost as often when facing a single boss as it will be when you are facing a horde of minions. I tend to prioritize my slotting with recharge first, fire resistance second, and then the 'mitigators' (health, recovery, +regen) and I really like having hoarfrost up as often as possible.

Set IO bonuses-

The first thing I want to say is, 6-slotting is overrated. Very few sets give anything worth six-slotting for to an ice/fire tanker. The exceptions (not the rule) to 6 slotting avoidance I will list-

Luck of the gambler (1 set in your entire build)
Mocking Beratement- (1 set in taunt) or perfect zinger (1 set in taunt)
Crushing impact- (The best IO melee set in my experience) (2 sets)
Gift of the ancients- (1 set)
Doctored wound- (1 set in health)
efficacy adaptor- (1 set in stamina)
impervium armor- (1 set in tough)

And of course, any purple set you can get your hands on.

Beyond those basics, frankenslotting helps a LOT! A lot of sets you only want the first two in (such as energy manipulator) 4, or 5 slots. Red fortune can help a lot in your build, as can crushing impacts, both of these sets can be had for a song.

Some powers you really NEED to frankenslot. Energy absorption is a good example of this. You want the recharge, defense, and endurance modification to be as close to maximum as possible.

Energy absorption will do amazing things for your survival not only because it can be double-stacked, but once you have it slotted for all three above, it can also keep enemies almost drained of endurance, and your defense will take a healthy boost Even when it is only used on one enemy!

Hoarfrost should also be strongly frankenslotted for resistance/recharge/healing, because once you get hoarfrost near-permanent, it will nearly double your survival, and the toxic resistance in hoarfrost is pretty much all the toxic resistance you will ever get.

QR-
This is an excellent Guide. I disagree with several of the points you have made (I personally think of DA as more of a single-target damage aura with defense to the two biggest regen killers out there, melee and lethal...I set it on autofire accordingly) including the reliance on hasten with katana's recharge times, but your ideas will definitely help keep a newbie going until they have enough experience with the set to decide what they are going to do with it, and you have some good advice for vets as well.

could someone other than me try to get Castle (or Positron!?) to make a comment on this thread? I think he's getting sick of hearing from me about /EA.

Considering that it's quite easy to softcap most /ea defenses, I think the prior Idea was not an idea, It was just another attempt to poke fun at /EA.

So, in the spirit of 'creative dialogue' can we please avoid trashing the set and stick to figuring out ways to improve it?

Of course, considering that despite sending messages to several rednames, none has even showed up in the thread to say 'It's far down on the power list' or even 'it's working as intended'. The best answer I have been able to come up with so far is "I am not prepared to comment on it." from Castle.

the A.D League
(American Deserts League, but we are pretty AD too)

I come from kind of a melee background, so I had 'don't slot your defenses for end' pounded into my head, and I keep thinking of toggles as defenses, even though they really aren't.

I gotta remember, a stalker is a fighter plane, and a fire/storm is the aircraft carrier.

Okay, I changed it around a little bit to be a bit more 'mastermindy' and to have a little less care about my imps... I keep forgetting that they aren't mm pets, I don't lose damage resistance if one dies, and I don't need to re-buff them after I resummon them.

I am the aircraft carrier. My survival is paramount, followed by my team (and imps). ranged attacks are a plus, melee is a minus. The imps and tornado are there to do 'melee damage' and since I am not an empath, healing them is not my job.

The best way to save my imps and teammates is to debuff enemies into the dirt, and replace the imps when they die instead of trying to care for them like they are my babies.

If I get in over my head I will simply stop applying fire cages and let the tornado have them.

Okay, New build:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy &amp; Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1173;568;760;|
|&gt;-JEDDMK$U$4Q^\DDTZ33)I,8Y,V;=Y=*$(0W?A8"%8%I8%@Q56U 3B&lt;WZ6`R$V924!&gt;|
|BB(K8O2L_@.A:?'PCQ86?8#R/.TU`7'4@_U_N.?]S[KUGIOOXNBG$\ZM"*VR-[##&lt;V_|
|*]:&gt;"/1C)(=&gt;VAZQ1NV\XC5S9NNH$,IWXP-H00]9DK+NB@(5[,YZ\=#@:=':S&lt;VSD&lt;C|
|WW/]8;6+&gt;]`!M*;=N(_9L^G'E-/AB$OMJ4]`6\^7O1E$!ZXDQRMN[+O.JXGK1L3U^&amp;]|
|NW8XE&lt;&amp;353C?&amp;?B]TH1ZHI3(`O2D2.Q#L"42?8(N&amp;;N`JEAX)Q`/9V4,*'L-,0Y'":T|
|BL&amp;BA25A\3RVP;9(&lt;D9;\2"'S$R$%XTIQ1J3:5/,&amp;EH;J9GQ-4)LOA,QW@@.&amp;--?HZ3|
|:UR60(2TU&amp;C5!H$=Z"9KF?GN73F6&lt!9]NMOR4?,O/""78.\=V+5&lt;CWRD&amp;3B7/F63^,|
|YOY%B7NUV08T,%2M[4V*51A+$*FJ#+%!O=F6)!9X4QBA;&gt;K,#9YDD4PE)6A?)Y"J PIL|
|P)&gt;UI@QK'*I=`!1%@U&lt;#2*ZK.:R_I'-OO&amp;#P5&amp;KGYE$V&lt;#;\9JJG*70$[KKJ4/]%H&lt;9|
|/AAK`[_DY#*DYSZM5I5!;@0WM/X3H?\^&amp;/O&gt;M84!L_Q/IZ&lt;??GM`H4IUY3O1\,^,^Z3|
|L9T+LH/91[*+LH]U$&gt;H-@H^R@.2O3CN#I_$0]T"&gt;4RRA64(S09^%EF44R4',H22AZE@|
|%)$*:%44#Z@1'\!5[KU;@``|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre><hr />

My defense hovers at around 12%, and with hurricane and smoke their accuracy is floored against both me and my pets, and then some.

I can keep some of them perma-stunned (a lot, actually) and even bosses will be stunned about half the time. what isn't stunned, debuffed, flopping, thrown around or running from aoe-fear is going to have it's recharge floored. I guess this might be 'enough' mitigation.

the 'aircraft carrier' build :P

Any obvious things I totally missed? My 'Plan' calls for picking up lightning storm and psionic mastery, getting the big 3 from that, and then speccing into assault at the very end.

I think I screwed up my fire/storm a lot.

I respecced into tornado. against solo targets it does great damage, but it's really suffering against larger groups.

and it's very team unfriendly, even with fire cages. I am beginning to learn this.

I like a splattroller build, but this thing....just doesn't seem to be working out as well as I had hoped, especially because of tornado's lack of containment. I had high hopes that romulans would be particularly vulnerable because of their kb protection, but that didn't pan out, they went all over the place anyway.

So far I am NOT using hurricane because of the amount of time I have to spend positioning mobs, but then again, I haven't really used it since before I got imps... if it improves imp survivability I might take it, but hurricane+hotfeet just does not work for my playstyle. I keep misjudging hurricane's distance and sending stuff lying now matter how hard I try to keep the KB under control.

Maybe you can give me some suggestions to improve my team-friendliness and possibly my overall damage solo?

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy &amp; Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1191;559;748;|
|&gt;-JE4LMNTT`4'=MQ3.*DMA.:MFE#TF:%D"*6/!9(%)"*&amp;BFBB%6A.*Z3C'#LRG8198%|
|`"!"B'\"&amp;-0O8P`80_\(O\`EF[KV3)@UBA26?XSGW?3W=)S=*C#V_QA1[,W"39&amp;\S"M|
|,X"@(_UKOND'OV;==[Q/W6+1[[21K%8X,QUIQZ30(ZX#`YS-JO'PX&amp;G1V(W-LY'(^CD|
|(=#9RL&lt;^;$?IIW)1ZD788XT])/$I$/`AZ/4PN]MW]WWXV3$#QP\;X6/&gt;&lt;+[/.#ID7/S|
|@'M4ONLFJ1\?+8L6SXOWE&lt;+DD^G,%)33F-H7X@93]Y%R/M&amp;NH`;+OV-`#Z=A1"+,%1K|
|)F:842&lt;M+/C-A@Q@J:#)&gt;^X0%=&amp;'2%9+T-@.I*"2#O'*&amp;K%+43G/)D2PS&gt;R)%0791J)|
|"V,,&gt;V]'TK?$V9WZQC23O",2M/L:?*,Z2S%]#V1AS*Y*Z4OZMH^88$F[+(HEJ?,:9&amp;4|
|]4^(IFBHB/G=6BXBI"J4JK*A@S!B[0#=5&amp;NK#['L,(EZ;.4)VUYCB'?BLR](G,/1,RJ|
|'';U)7:U]H*(1C]W&lt;99&gt;XQYHCXTO9/F*U'J/4:UU/!V+0U-&gt;H.9O&lt;J!\ZXU31#MLR]\|
|XQ!PTQ&lt;8O,I%CFQRS?SUKN9FK!P+;_DOIY4ZN(E-0:4Q]_NOY49KD*=R!'W(7H`=P#V|
|`7X#[``P`7H`_@`60_3Z*M2]#098`K`%&lt;!CL')@!MI`I0`R@`+`!:`#5`%J`'4`3X`9|
|'\`O+?PK@``|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre><hr />

Thanks in advance. I am not averse to ANY changes at this point unless you tell me to skip fire imps