GavinRuneblade

Have you seen the math on what happens if you give /regen to brutes with their higher hit point numbers?

electric Melee is NOT the best AoE under all circumstances, it depends on what you plan to fight. It sucks dog #$$ against the Rikti and Paragon PD for instance because they have ginormous energy resist. It is extraordinary against the banished pantheon because they take a bonus 10% damage from it. Trying to kill rikti bosses, especially those psychic jerks, is very frustrating. I can drop a Banished Pantheon Totem boss in less than time it takes to put down a single Rikti Heavy Gunner lieutenant with only electric attacks.

It has, overall, the best AoE potential with a massive weakness in single target. Nearly as good, and vastly superior single-target is fire melee. Claws is also a complete beast and right up there against many types of enemies (you will learn to loathe robots).

WP is not stronger in every way. It has its advantages and disadvantages. Last I heard, the record for most simultaneous solo'd AVs with to inspirations and no temp powers is 9 by a dark melee/invulnerable scrapper. Will Power cannot pull that off (or at least no one has yet to my knowledge). On the other hand, WP is able to do mind blowing things, comes with no holes in your protection at all, means you can ignore stamina if you choose to, and is almost completely passive so you can just focus on killing things.

In the end, the difference between them really comes down to this:
Does the weakness to psionics bother you a whole lot? If yes play Will Power
Does having to blow three low-level slots on sprint/hurdle and health before you get stamina bother you? If yes, play Will Power
if not at least try invulnerability it is a great set with huge potential.

For starters, I'd ask what you're farming for. In general the purple drops make up more of your farming income than all the rest combined. In which case, run at 0/x8 and kill A LOT faster with either build without losing half the value of your other random IOs because people are dumb and won't pay the same for a level 49 they will for a level 50. Otherwise -1/x8 is ideal.

If you're just going for prestige or the inf/kill, then the -1 through +2 you will have to experiment with yourself to determine the ideal setting for your personal play style. Time yourself, track the inf. Just running at +2 does NOT mean you earn inf faster. I have farmers that make more at -1 than at +2, and I have one that makes more at +2 than +1.

Brute will kill faster. Tank will be able to survive quite a bit more.

Is that a trick question? Are you proposing the existence of people who AREN'T?

*Boggle*

Ragnarok is spectacular for a wide variety of uses. I'm sort of addicted to it in caltrops. That right there is pure lulz.

It also makes any of your rain powers do more damage as the enemy has a bit more difficult time running out of the area.

It is a wonderful proc.

No you are absolutely wrong.

level 24 dual aspect IOs give more bonus than +3 SOs. level 18 Triple aspect IOs give more than SOs. They never expire, and can often be cheaper. They always exemplar better. You sometimes get cool set powers as a freebie. SOs lose out in every single category.

If you have two slots and add level 53 Acc and 53 Dam SOs you'd have 38.3%/38.3%

If you slotted two level 24 acc/dam IOs you'd have 38.4/38.4.

If you then exemplar down to level 22 your SOs are only giving you 23%/23%. the IOs are still giving you the full 38.4/38.4 not because they are level 24, but because of Rule #1 for small bonuses.

If you add full slotting, say 2 acc, 3 dam and 1 end you have 76.6%a/about 100%d/38.3%e

Slotting level 24 Kinetic Combatx4 gives you:
19.2%a/73.0%d/34.6%e/34.6%r
Plus the HP and s/l Defense and you still have two slots left. So lets fill those with
a Pulverizing Fisticuffs Quad and Triple:
48%a/about 100%d/47.0%e/63.4%r

In otherwords:
-18%a/--%d/+8%e/+63%r +1.5%HP +3.75 S/L defense

If you care about the accuracy, you can frankenslot some duals dropping the recharge and having significantly higher number in all areas. If you use level 25 sets, you have a bit more variety and can go for lots of other options. If the price is too high you get the same % enhancement using smashing haymaker with lower +HP and S/L defense.

All this is just for melee attacks, but it is equally true for all powers. IOs are a great bargain starting at character level 14 and the get better every level higher. Starting at about character level 20 there is no reason to go with anything other than IOs unless you need to cram a boatload of ACC into very few slots because you're obsessed with running at +2/+3 and you aren't smart enough to save a ton of money by slotting the Kismet +acc instead.

I envy you on both counts. I have found it extraordinarily expensive. The few IOs that make a profit don't earn enough to counterbalance the ones you have to delete because they won't sell even for 1 Inf. Mostly because you're competing on cost/profit with epople who have the recipe already memorized hehe.

I think account wide would be a bad idea.

I think my only request would be to quit the nonsense about 50% level a and 50% level B and 1 more either. That is really annoying. either track it so we know what we need, or just combine them as we already know they have the tech in place right now for the "1 that can be either".

The "good guys" I never remember the names Warden and responsibility I think, you go undercover just by walking up and talking to them.

The "bad guys" Power and crusader, you go undercover by finishing the morality decision at the end of the good guy arc, and talking to Scott/Marchand they will tell you to go deeper undercover and then you can get the last mission arcs that are currently locked away from you.

Right after a bunch of AoEs when you're cleaning up the boss and lieut stragglers. =)

EM typically means Energy Melee, that's not really a great AoE set. Now if you meant Electric Melee? Different story. best for offense are Shield and Fire. the recommended Willpower is an excellent first brute becasue you can't ever go wrong with willpower. Invulnerability is also easy and tough, just watch out for psychic enemies and you're good.

If you liked the cape mission, then here on the forums and on the official website read all of the "Letter From ______" where you get the stories of the people who were in Omega team.

When you hit level 35, go to the Rikti Warzone and do all of the story arcs, in particular "the Peculiar Case of Benjamin A. Decker". At 45 run a Lady Grey task force.

Then go back with a villain, and do the first story arc from Dean McArthur.

Let me know if you delete your villain after that or not. =)

A story rich villain setting you will enjoy is St Matial. If possible, you want to run Jezebel Jones arc "Johnny's Squeeze" and at least one arc from any of Basse Croupier, Hardcase or Hard Luck to get an introduction to Johnny Sonata before you run his missions. I think, the most important is to do Jezebel before Johnny, but as many of them as you can do first, will give you an idea of the man. Then when you run his arc you'll appreciate it much more. It is an amazing bit of writing. Brilliant variation on a traditional story.

When you get to Grandville, do everything from Television. Those are fun.

Hero side, I too love faultline. Striga and Croatoa are similar zones with contained stories that are really unique.

It looks like you missed it, so jump into an Oroboros portal and do the level 10 mission in the Hollows from Flux the Outcast. The final mission in it is one of the most memorable CoH has to offer. You will not regret it!

Mission glowies are less often placed in the middle of or inside aggro-range of enemy spawns, making clicking them easier.

More missions are just kill the enemy boss rather than "boss and everyone in the layer-cake cavern room" or "boss spawn plus all enemies within a variable range that gets larger the more of a hurry you are in".

Missions like the longbow invasion in Neutropolis, where you just talk to a guy inside the mission, don't need to fight at all if you don't want to.

Enemy groups where specific powers are key to the group danger levels. Ghouls as a key example. Kill the lieut and they can't aggro additional spawns. Leave the lieut alive and end up being attacked by 2, 3 or even 4 groups at once. Ghoul damage and defenses were apparently based around this mechanic as small packs of hunters are wusses.

I can probably give more, but just off the top of my head, those are the mechanics I've come across that favor stalkers compared to CoV.

Yes the ambushes are rough. The losing stealth to talk is also rough. But unless you attack, you can run out of aggro range and come back with stealth. So as I see it, only the ambushes are the issue.

I tend to gank any solo bosses I find. Bosses have about 10x the reward of a minion for about 3x the attacks needed to bring them down. In my mind, that's a perfect recipe. =) Lieuts, it depends on how violent I'm feeling. I generally don't waste my time on minions while stealthing to the end of a mission.

To be honest, people have been playing for years without softcapping on any builds. The recent craze and obsession is only since a somewhat recent issue (I think i15 maybe?) where defense set bonuses were paired up. Since then it became easier to softcap and people do it compulsively now even when it is not needed. The one that really makes me laugh is when someone thinks their farmer needs to be softcapped. I mean, what the hell are they going to do with the 6 to 10 inspirations that drop each group of enemies if they aren't using purples? hehe.

In terms of need, Will Power is one of the better sets out of the box, the more inf you dump into it the better it gets.

For starters, you will appreciate Smashing and Lethal defense of 15% or higher. Less than 15 you might not even notice. at 20% you will really be feeling it. if you can get over 25 or 30% without hurting your attacks you'll start to feel godlike.

At 34% you can use a small purple to softcap. This is roughly the same thing as having access to a tier 9 like elude but with no crash afterward. going above 34% is purely for people who like to do the whole "solo'd an AV with no inspirations" thing for ego stroking and bragging rights.

Since you're slotting, and most of the recommended builds people have given you include Kinetic Combat, I will mention that you need (and I use the word NEED intentionally) to get a Kismet + Accuracy. It is listed as + Accuracy but actually gives +toHit. Accuracy scales with the level of your enemy, so you need more of it against a tougher (higher level) enemy. +toHit is a flat modifier that is not affected by anything. If your "last chance to hit" said 80% and you slot kismet, it will now say 87%. Period. No qualifiers. No exceptions. If you get a 7% Accuracy bonus from an set like Crushing Impact, you might go to 82% you might go to 85%, it depends on who you are fighting. You might stay at 80% even. You NEED the Kismet if you are building for S/L defense.

At level 15:

Let's say 4 slots in a "used a lot" melee attack power.
On Yin-O's and SO's dropped from AV defeats you could have 38% acc and 100%+ damage or 76/76 but most will go 38/100. It won't really be 100 because of ED and I don't have mids to calculate for me, but then it will also drop as you level, whatever, we'll call it a wash.

On IOs "the best" you can do:
Pulverizing Fisticuffs full set level 18, + any 1 extra Acc/Dam level 18:
50.5% Acc/ 50.5% Dam, 21.7% Recharge, 10.1% end
Set: 1.25% negative energy, energy, 0.6% ranged defense.

Or 4x Acc/Dam level 18s:
57.6% acc/57.6% Dam

Neither one is bad, but neither is really OMG Awesome.

At level 17 though things open up a little with the level 20 IO sets coming on line:
4x Kinetic Combat/Smashing Haymaker for the +HP and S/L defense

If we assume 3 attacks, that could be 5.6% def from Haymaker, or 11.25% from Kinetics. You can have both Maneuvers and Combat Jumping at this point.

The % aren't great at this stage, but not terrible either:
16% Acc/ 60.8% Dam/ 28.8% Rech/ 28.8% End for a full set of haymakers or kinetics

4x Acc/Dam are nearly at +3 SO performance (that hits at character level 21, IO level 24): 64%/64%

If you're just chasing set bonuses, one I have done for my parked level 15 I farm AE tickets with is to get an important power with 5 slots and lessers with 2. They go full Bruising blow for the recovery and HP set bonus, and use the Pulverising triple and quad to kick in another 20% accuracy, end and recharge. On the "lesser" power (tier 1 or 2), I run pounding slugfest acc/dam and dam/rech for the regeneration (I'm a claws willpower brute so I do feel it).

Again, you're not Purpled out, but compared to anyone you team with, the difference is really visible. And this is just looking at the melee attacks. There are equivalent gains from other sets.

And I am embarassed to admit I contemplate getting a full set of level 20 kinetic combat for a VEAT...

So, um I gather that you don't play ANY doms or stalkers? Because all of them have powers that don't crit out of hide and that don't work with domination.

I'm not sure why it matters either way. I've done three or four missions in a row without using domination once (solo on +1x6). So, I'm thinking that Schismatrix nailed it on the head.

I'm not saying make it a ranged power or use the ranged modifyers. I'm saying change what sets it accepts and what aspects of the power accept modifyers. The game engine doesn't think it is a ranged damage power unless the devs tell the game engine to think it is.

Think about it this way, spec ops (the merc tier 2 pet) can take defense debuff sets. But the power is still a pet summon. Same concept.

Actually that request is not just for the benefit of stalkers, though stalkers are the biggest beneficiaries of it. Moving the game away from pure AoE to balance would open up a lot more builds in all ATs (except I don't know of any single-target controllers).

The last mission on spy hunt is no longer timed, so you have to do it as a kill all.

Also the zephyr -kb that goes in any travel power.

Also the set bonus from Kinetic Crash.

Three of the PvP sets offer knockback protection as well, but I think it is safe to ignore them.

Number crunching min-maxers on the scrapper boards say quick strike is part of your top DPS attack string:

BB>SB>QS>BB>SB>CS (9.6sec)

Recharge needed: 95% from enhancements, 70% from Hasten and 40% from set bonuses.

which should be pushing numbers in the fire melee range depending on your siphon stacking.

but only if put into a clickie? Or if you shift does that confuse the new rule about toggles instantly ending the 120s counter?

Cool. Sands is awesome.