GGG247

Sounds great. Since PAX isn't being held over Labor Day weekend this year, maybe you could send someone to DragonCon in Atlanta, too. We hold CoH panels every year there, with really nice turn-outs, despite the lack of support.

How about just sending one person to say Hello?

Power Sink is definitely a BIG help. I've got Power Sink and Energize next to each other and I use them in tandem a lot.

I was so used to running this character "run and gun" style from the AE arc that I forgot that that's not the optimal way to run a Brute all the time. I had some big END problems until I started to settle back into my more deliberate pace of steady damage (Brawl on auto) and steadily increasing fury. That said, I think as an Incarnate, I'll go with Cardiac.

Incidently, I hit 50 but only leveled up to 40 so far so I could do my Patron Arc missions and choose Electrifying Fences, Ball Lightning, and Summon Striker at 41, 44, and 47. They're a lot harder to complete than I remember! lol

This alt is definitely a keeper, though.

FINAL UPDATE- I hit 50 this morning, after running Top Doc's storyarc 18 times at +1/x8 on my Claws/Elec Brute. 14 hours of game time for this alt.

Great fun! Plus, I have 260 million in the bank and IOs for sale worth another 49 million.

Here's a valuable tip: DON'T forget to change your settings from +1/x8 back to +1/x1 (or whatever you're used to running )before starting a "regular" mission in the game! Talk about a rude awakening.

Now I'm getting used to playing the character "properly" and learning to manage his END issues. I'm thinking of going with Scirocco's Mu Mastery powers for theme.

UPDATE-I've run the AE arc 13 times now and am sitting at level 43!

I've found that it takes me about 35 minutes to run the arc from start to finish, including loading up on inspirations and returning from the hospital (maybe 1-2 times per arc now--usually due to unlucky insp drops or not paying attention).

I'm running this for XP rather than just tickets, so I'm clearing the ambush groups out before exiting each time.

So, we're looking at roughly 7 hours so far, with maybe another 2 to 2.5 hours to go. Not bad!

EDIT-I also have 200 million in the bank. Most has come from Rare salvage. I've had some really bad luck "investing" in Gold Random Rolls.

Top Doc, I stumbled onto this thread late last night and decided to give it a go. It's fantastic! I've run the AE arc 6 times and am now at level 32, with 81mm Influence in the bank. My leveling went as follows:

Round 1: levels 3-18
Round 2: levels 18-22
Round 3: levels 22-26
Round 4: levels 26-28
Round 5: levels 28-30
Round 6: levels 30-32

My first run-through, I died a lot. It took awhile to figure out to run and move and go or broke. I load up on Reds, Yellows, and Purples and run in. Many times the RNG will work against me and I die, but usually I can make it through alive. A few times, I was running so good I lost track of time and got the entire 1500 tickets from fighting.

I mainly focus on my inspirations during the battles and don't even look at the enemies I'm fighting. I just need to click on all the insp. that I need to max outgoing damage and min incoming damage.

I think I've put 4 hours in so far, so I'm moving along very nicely (for me!).

Thanks TD!

I have a /Mace Tanker, a Mace/ Brute, and a melee-only Mace Bane. They're all great. Mace is very powerful and does SMASH in an incredibly satisfying way.

My Axe/ Brute is currently level 30 and is progressing very nicely. Axe is great for damage and knockdowns, and feels very powerful.

I have a Stone/Stone Tanker (my first character in CoH). /Stone is strong, but, like you said, END becomes very precious. Still, the sound of the attacks and the shaking screen is cool.

I'd say you can't go wrong with any of the three, but my preference would be Mace.

I agree with Delerius.

Elec/Elec was one of my first alts, created in 2004. I struggled with him for several years, but couldn't get past the fact that his damage ability was worse than my Fire/, Sonic/ Archery/, Rad/ and Ice/, and he wasn't as much fun to play as my AR/. Battles took a LONG time to complete with Elec/ as opposed to my other alts. He's one of the few characters I've actually deleted over the years.

Also, the sapping thing rarely worked at all. As soon as an enemy regains any END at all, he's back to shooting you. You may gain a few seconds of respite (at most) from that strategy.

This sounds like fun! I'll bring Jungle Rott to the party -- she's lvl 28 now.

EDIT: Then again, I guess not.

Major thunderstorms in the area kept me off-line this evening. Every lightning strike = 1 mapserver.

I had the same problem on an 8 gb memory computer when I first used the new NC Launcher. I had to go into the Launcher's options and turn off the option that kept the Launcher running in the background while I played. Since then, I haven't had that problem.

I saw the fix under the Tech threads.

"[Hilarious. Here's my guarantee, it takes a LOT less time to go to the fateweaver, click twice to turn diff down, click twice again to turn it back up, then it will take to recruit a team.]"

No, you misunderstand. I know its very simple to visit the Fateweaver to lower my difficulty. What I'm saying is that I've built this SS/Inv Brute with IOs to make him incredibly tough and durable. He's marching through the game, smashing any and all enemies, until he runs into this one guy who's apparently (for me) impossible to even dent. I have to lower my difficulty level (maybe to -1), fight him, and then return to my regularly scheduled game of destruction.

It just seems odd and a little disappointing. I thought that maybe I was missing some key strategy in dealing with this character, but it looks like others have had similar problems with him.

Earth/Storm is a great combination of powers and is a big help to any team, even at the early stages. However, as a solo'er, Earth/Strom is an extremely late bloomer (mid-late 30s). Prior to that, it's a LONG tough road. In order to solo effectively at all, you need Fossilize, Stone Prison, and Air Superiority (or Boxing) as your 3 attack powers, each slotted for damage. Your many other control powers will assist you greatly in handling mobs, but without the Fossilize-SP-AS combination to actually do some damage, you'll be spinning your wheels.

As a dedicated soloist myself, I have to say that Earth/Storm is MUCH better for teaming than solo, at least until you get Animate Stone, Tornado, and Lightning Storm. With those, you'll be able to do pretty much whatever you want. (It's worth the pain to get to that point. I LOVE my Earth/Storm!).

Another fun session of Plant domination in Praetoria!

I got Jungle Rott (Plant/Sonic) up to level 19 (I want to finish my Mother Mayhem storyarc to see how it turns out) and Fetid Compost (Plant/Rad) up to level 20.

See everyone next week in Talos Island!

Looking forward to tomorrow's garden club meeting in Praetoria.

I've got my Plant/Sonic at 17 and a Plant/Rad at 16. I also have a level 11 Plant/Cold, but it looked like we already had /Cold covered pretty well last week.

I've been running at +2/x1 for awhile now. I'd hate to have to drop my fighting level just for this one guy in the game and then raise it back again as soon as he's dead. I may just recruit a team and treat him like a GM.

Yeah, he seems a lot more like a GM than a regular Elite Boss. Even Nosferatu (the toughest EB in the game IMO) showed a little bit of vulnerability. Biff was like trying to solo Jack in Irons.

The other weird thing about this is that Biff doesn't even seem like "the big bad guy" that a story arc leads you up to. Dobbs just gave me a mission to go fight some guy named Biff. No suspense or anything.

I'm at a loss as to how to take this guy down. My lvl 43 SS/Inv Brute couldn't make a dent in his health bar. I lasted a good long while in the fight, but he was impervious to all my attacks. He healed faster than I could hit him.

What are some useful tips/tricks/strategies for pounding this guy into submission?

This is some great information--thanks guys!

My Axe/Shield just hit level 30 and he's already a powerhouse. I'm doing mainly Tip missions in order to be able to afford all the stuff I'm planning on slotting into his powers. He's definitely a keeper.

I like the Dark/Dark Blaster idea. I can delete my lvl 22 Dark/Dark Corruptor (never warmed up to that AT) and start fresh.

I'm also planning a Plant/Poison Controller, even though I'm not overly impressed with /Poison on my MM.

These are some very nice changes.

I'm planning on 4-slotting Stamina on my Axe/Shield Brute with Performance Shifters, including the proc +End. Since I'm also taking Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection on this alt, does it make sense to take more than 1 of these on him, or would 3 End procs be overkill?

Jungle Rott here; we really blew through those enemies today, primarily from just Strangler, Roots, and Seeds (with a few Spirit Trees at the end). I can't wait to see how fast we go once our secondaries start to get slotted and used!

That was a lot of fun, and a couple of hours felt about right for the low-level stuff. Looking forward to next week!

Local Man, your /Rad advice is always most welcome. I used your information on Fire/Rad to breeze from 1-50 to Incarnate level. I just made a Plant/Rad a few days ago, so thanks again!

Global is @KillDozer

I'm playing around with Mids, focusing on /Cold and /Sonic. I like the IDEA of Sonic, but the END issues look a little tough to deal with. I'll keep working at it, though.

/Rad is awesome. My Fire/Rad was my fastest to 50. I wanted to try out a couple of secondaries I've never played before, but we'll see.

This sounds like fun--count me in. I've already played a Plant/Thorns and Plant/TA, so I think this time I'll try either a /Sonic, /Cold, or /Rad.

Anyway, I'll see you guys on Saturday at 2:00. Do you want to meet at the trainer in Nova?

Banes are great damage-dealers. I use my Bane as a melee Scrapper/Stalker and he's really powerful.

The attacks you'll want for this type of set-up will be Bash, Pulverize, Poisonous Ray (short-ranged, so good for runners), Shatter, and Crowd Control (180 degree cone attack). These 5 powers will do well for you for your entire Bane career. Plus, there's no redraw for these. I also recommend Surveillence (a debuff) and Build-Up as a combo. Following these with Shatter does some massive damage to some poor unsuspecting enemy!

I use Venom and Frag Grenade on my Huntsman build, but not on my Bane build. These are good powers, they just didn't fit with my melee Bane concept.

I have a Mercs/Traps MM who's level 38 and is leveling up nicely. Thanks to the great defenses from FFG, I've decided to slot him for +defense and +resistance. When complete, he should be a pretty sturdy fellow.

My Necro/Pain MM, on the other hand, has proven tougher to decide on for IOs. My zombies hit really hard (nice when compared to my Mercs!), and they also do some good -tohit, which I like. /Pain, of course is all about the healing. I THINK I'd like to slot up the -tohit, but without giving up on the excellent damage I'm already doing. After all, -tohit is about the same as +defense (maybe not).

I just need some advice for how to slot this character up. I have an Achilles Heel proc and a Kismet +acc that I got from doing newspaper missions, but aside from that, I kind of stuck. Below is my skeletal build (all SOs right now), which can be adjusted depending on the IOs I eventually choose.

I play this character solo. I tried teaming with him, but he kept turning into a petless healer on each mission, which was no fun for me (I tend to play Scrappers and Brutes usually).

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.94
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Ghoul Man: Level 50 Magic Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Necromancy
Secondary Power Set: Pain Domination
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Zombie Horde -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(3), Dmg(7), Dmg(7), ToHitDeb(46)
Level 1: Nullify Pain -- EndRdx(A), Heal(5), Heal(9), Heal(11), EndRdx(34)
Level 2: Gloom -- Acc(A), RechRdx(9), Dmg(34), Dmg(34), ToHitDeb(46)
Level 4: Soothe -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(5), Heal(17), Heal(17), Heal(19)
Level 6: Enchant Undead -- EndRdx(A)
Level 8: Share Pain -- RechRdx(A), Heal(11), Heal(19), Heal(23)
Level 10: Conduit of Pain -- EndRdx(A)
Level 12: Grave Knight -- Achilles-ResDeb%(A), Acc(13), Dmg(13), Dmg(15), Dmg(15), ToHitDeb(40)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight(A)
Level 16: Assault -- EndRdx(A)
Level 18: Maneuvers -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A), DefBuff(25), DefBuff(31), DefBuff(31)
Level 20: Suppress Pain -- Heal(A), Heal(23), Heal(25)
Level 22: Tactics -- EndRdx(A), ToHit(31), ToHit(33), ToHit(33), EndRdx(40)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A)
Level 26: Lich -- Acc(A), Acc(27), Dmg(27), Dmg(29), ToHitDeb(29), ToHitDeb(43)
Level 28: World of Pain -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(33), ResDam(37), ResDam(37), ResDam(37)
Level 30: Hover -- DefBuff(A)
Level 32: Dark Empowerment -- EndRdx(A)
Level 35: Anguishing Cry -- Acc(A), Acc(36), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(43)
Level 38: Painbringer -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(39), Heal(39), Heal(40)
Level 41: Night Fall -- Acc(A), Acc(42), Dmg(42), Dmg(42), ToHitDeb(43)
Level 44: Soul Tentacles -- Acc(A), Acc(45), Range(45), Range(45), Immob(46)
Level 47: Oppressive Gloom -- Acc(A), Acc(48), Dsrnt(48), Dsrnt(48)
Level 49: Dark Embrace -- EndRdx(A), ResDam(50), ResDam(50), ResDam(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 1: Supremacy
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump(A)
Level 2: Health -- Heal(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21), EndMod(21)
------------
Set Bonus Totals:------------
Set Bonuses: