Generalissimo

This is a no travel power PvE build I respecced my controller into at around level 40. It worked very well for me, both solo and on teams.

01 : Transfusion acc(01) acc(5) hel(11) hel(27) hel(31) recred(34)
01 : Spectral Wounds acc(01) acc(3) dam(5) dam(7) dam(9)
02 : Blind acc(02) acc(3) hlddur(15) hlddur(15) recred(31) recred(34)
04 : Siphon Power acc(04) recred(7) recred(13)
06 : Hover defbuf(06)
08 : Superior Invisibility endred(08) endred(9) endred(17)
10 : Siphon Speed acc(10) acc(11) recred(13) recred(17) recred(25) runspd(27)
12 : Deceive acc(12)
14 : Hurdle jmp(14)
16 : Health hel(16)
18 : Phantom Army acc(18) dam(19) dam(19) recred(21) recred(21) recred(23)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(25) endrec(29)
22 : Speed Boost endrec(22) endrec(23)
24 : Hasten recred(24) recred(29) recred(31)
26 : Spectral Terror acc(26) ferdur(33) acc(43)
28 : Inertial Reduction jmp(28) jmp(33) jmp(34)
30 : Increase Density damres(30) damres(39)
32 : Phantasm acc(32) acc(33) dam(37) dam(39) dam(42)
35 : Transference acc(35) acc(36) endrec(36) endrec(36) recred(37) recred(37)
38 : Fulcrum Shift acc(38) acc(40) recred(40) recred(40) recred(39)
41 : Fire Ball acc(41) acc(42) dam(43) dam(45) dam(43) recred(42)
44 : Fire Blast acc(44) acc(45) dam(45) dam(46) dam(46) recred(46)
47 : Flash acc(47) acc(48) hlddur(48) recred(48)
49 : Fire Shield damres(49) damres(50) damres(50) endred(50)


I only picked up Flash to set up containment for my fulcrum shifted fireball *drool*

The drawings he did on the "Static's son" thread were great Can't wait to see more of that kind of work

I speed boosted Gill Bates earlier in Atlas Good to see you on the European boards - your art is exceptional.

My ill/kin lived in superior invisibility so I needed stamina. If transference missed I found myself in end trouble occasionally, even with stamina.

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[...] EE are far better than invulns and ice for taunting as those 2 just have a self-heal with a long recharge

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Earth's Embrace also has a recharge of 360 seconds, just like Dull Pain and Hoarfrost. You're probably thinking about Healing Flames with its 60 seconds recharge, which doesn't increase the hitpoints though.

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Tsk, tsk - cutting the quote removes the context I believe the point was that rooted + 360 second recharge self heal > just a 360 second recharge self heal.

Last weekend I soloed a Fire/Dark corruptor up to lvl 15 and so far this weekend I've soloed an AR/Rad corruptor up to 13. Based on these experiences I'd have to recommend /Dark as the better/safer powerset for a soloing corruptor (in the 1 - 15 level range anyway). Dark's heal is better (once you've put a few slots of accuracy in it), its low level debuff seems more effective at stopping you from getting hit and it's got tar patch which is a very handy slow and debuff.

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Dragon's Tail could do with an accuracy as aoe powers generally have lower accuracy than single target ones.

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That is generally only true with AoE controls, Dragon's Tail has the same acc as the rest of the powers in the MA set.

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Oops, well corrected.

Yeah, cut down the passives to 3 slots of damage resistance at most (the 4th slot is giving only a tiny, tiny benefit). The fourth slot of damage resistance on Temp Invulnerability isn't giving you a whole lot either - I'd change it to an Endurance Reduction if I were you.
Cobra Strike is not a damage dealing power, it's a mez power so I think you should reconsider your two slots of damage in that power.
Dragon's Tail could do with an accuracy as aoe powers generally have lower accuracy than single target ones.
Tough hide has one too many slots of Defense in it (again, the 4th slot here is only giving you a tiny benefit).

What enemy groups were you fighting when you noticed that your PFF wasn't as effective as before?

Hmm, I might plan another respec when I get to 24 and pick up Dark Pit so I can use it in combo with Tenebrous Tentacles as a ghetto hold (I should have done that when I respecced at 22 but I was reluctant to drop my snipe (which I now know is pretty ineffectual on teams)).



01 : Dark Blast acc(01)
01 : Personal Force Field defbuf(01)
02 : Deflection Shield defbuf(02) defbuf(3) defbuf(3) endred(5)
04 : Force Bolt acc(04) recred(5) recred(9)
06 : Insulation Shield defbuf(06) defbuf(7) defbuf(7) endred(9)
08 : Combat Jumping jmp(08)
10 : Dark Pit acc(10) acc(11) recred(11) recred(15) disdur(19) disdur(21)
12 : Dispersion Bubble defbuf(12) defbuf(13) defbuf(13) endred(15)
14 : Super Jump jmp(14)
16 : Tenebrous Tentacles acc(16) acc(17) thtdbf(17) thtdbf(19) thtdbf(21)
18 : Hurdle jmp(18)
20 : Health hel(20)
22 : Stamina endrec(22) endrec(23) endrec(23)
24 : Maneuvers endred(24)

Isn't Irradiate the best debuff in the secondary? For that alone I'd pick it.

Howdy all I was wondering if anyone could help me with a decision I'm trying to make regarding my next power choice for my level 22 FF/Dark defender. This defender originally started off as a solo-defender project but things were going quite slow for me so once I got to lvl 22 and SO's I used my I7 respec to change his build to a more team-focussed one. This is his current build:

Exported from version 1.5C of CoH Planner
http://joechott.com/coh

Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Ranged : Force Field
Secondary Powers - Support : Dark Blast

01 : Dark Blast acc(01)
01 : Personal Force Field defbuf(01)
02 : Deflection Shield defbuf(02) defbuf(3) defbuf(3) endred(5)
04 : Moonbeam acc(04) acc(5) dam(9) dam(11) dam(11)
06 : Insulation Shield defbuf(06) defbuf(7) defbuf(7) endred(9)
08 : Combat Jumping jmp(08)
10 : Hurdle jmp(10)
12 : Dispersion Bubble defbuf(12) defbuf(13) defbuf(13) endred(15)
14 : Super Jump jmp(14) jmp(15)
16 : Tenebrous Tentacles acc(16) acc(17) thtdbf(17) thtdbf(19) thtdbf(19)
18 : Health hel(18)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(21) endrec(21)
22 : Force Bolt acc(22)

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I've only played this guy for one evening so far with this build and I was on a team with another FF defender at the time (*tips hat to BlackDragon*) so I don't have any kind of a feel yet for what my defender brings to a team. Initially, when I was planning out my respec at lvl 22, I had planned on taking Detention Field at 24 and then Maneuvers at 26, Tactics at 28 and Vengeance at 30. My thinking was that with Detention Field if there was a boss tearing the team apart at least I'd be able to take him out of the fight and give my team some breathing space. I still want to take Detention Field but now I'm wondering would it make more sense to pick up Maneuvers at 24 and drop Detention Field to 26. Basically my question is, with the changes to enemy accuracy/to-hit that came with I7, would Maneuvers add more value to a team from lvl 24 to 26 than Detention Field?

I also did some positional PA drop testing while I was there and will probably do some more tomorrow when I have more time. I took a position a tiny bit west of an imaginary north/south line through Hami's centre and did a series of drops starting halfway between the starting platfrom and Hami. I wanted to see at what position the decoys would stop appearing on the surrounding rock formations and start appearing in the jelly. All the drops I did I set my camera into first person view, facing straight down. The PA summoning target was clicked on as close to the centre of the screen as I could estimate.

Summoning them HERE made them appear on the rocks and summoning them HERE made them appear in the jelly. Anything south of the first shot appeared on the rocks and anything north of the second appeared in the jelly.

Tomorrow I'm going to drop PA at random locations and see if they'll appear only at certain spots. I started doing a little of that today and it did appear like they were only landing in certain places. It'll be interesting to see if it's possible to position the decoys at predictable locations.

Just to put the defense question to rest, I used 16 lucks and walked towards Hami. The first blue mito to attack me held me and dropped my superior invisibility and the next 2 attacks from yellow mitos hit without a problem. A GM standing nearby threw in a footstomp too but I'm pretty sure I was already dead at that stage

I'll probably be popping into the Hive this evening to check out the PA dropping behaviour a little better so I'll bring a tray of lucks with me and check if mitos are auto-hit.

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Sorry im behind the times, whats the issue with PA's?

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The decoys are unresponsive when summoned at range so when they're dropped into the jelly all they do is stand there and not attack. This means that they don't attract all that much aggro which in turn makes setting up the tank team and mito clearers very difficult.

Defensive powers won't do anything unfortunately, due to the damage being untyped.

In the hopes of giving people something to mull over, here's my summary of what was tried last night:
1. The PA droppers spread out evenly over the jelly and dropped PA. The decoys tended to appear in the same place each time they were dropped and ended up clustered together in 2 large clumps and a few smaller ones. The Tank team tried to get into position after a while and died quickly as the PA weren't taking aggro.

2. The PA teams then added empaths/kins/darks and tried a ground insertion. This wasn't a well co-ordinated attempt so only half went in. Those that went in died pretty quickly.

3. The PA teams (with added healers/buffers) group flew over Hami and dropped PA to try and grab some aggro. The group flyers then turned off group fly and dropped the PA droppers plus healers/buffers into the jelly in the hope of forming a healing turtle. Within about 30 to 45 seconds we were all dead.

Those were the tactics used. If anyone wants to add more detail to what we did so we can figure out how improvements can be made then add them here.

Dull Pain increases your hit points and is non-interuptable so it's still very important to have. I'd prioritise Fitness pool over Medicine pool too.
It's very hard to pick up all the powers you need to be honest Maybe plan a respec into the Medicine pool at a later level? I left my memory stick at home otherwise I'd post my initial and respecced builds for comparison

EDIT Just remembered that I had posted my levelling up build previously:



01 : Resist Physical Damage damres(01)
01 : Lunge acc(01) dam(3) dam(5) dam(11)
02 : Spine Burst acc(02) acc(3) dam(5) dam(11) dam(13)
04 : Temp Invulnerability endred(04) damres(7) damres(15) damres(19)
06 : Dull Pain recred(06) recred(7) recred(15) hel(25)
08 : Impale acc(08) dam(9) dam(9) dam(13) acc(25)
10 : Hasten recred(10)
12 : Build Up recred(12) recred(21) recred(21)
14 : Super Speed runspd(14)
16 : Unyielding endred(16) damres(17) damres(17) damres(19)
18 : Hurdle jmp(18)
20 : Health hel(20)
22 : Stamina endrec(22) endrec(23) endrec(23)
24 : Stealth endred(24)
26 : Ripper acc(26) dam(27) dam(27) dam(29) acc(34)
28 : Invincibility endred(28) defbuf(29) defbuf(31) defbuf(31)
30 : Quills endred(30) endred(31) endred(34)
32 : Throw spines acc(32) dam(33) dam(33) dam(33) acc(34)

At 35 I picked up Whirlwind for a laugh and at 36 I'm respeccing to drop Stealth and Whirlwind to pick up Stimulant and Aid Self.

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After reading this thread, I caved in...

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The boards are currently undergoing routine maintenance. They should return shortly. We apologize for this temporary inconvenience.

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Doh!

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It IS a good combo, right?

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I enjoy it Spines/Regen is more survivable overall and you have a lot less downtime but I had a few bad experiences with my MA/Regen scrapper where I was taken from full to zero health in the blink of an eye when a couple of bosses focussed on me so I figured if I was going to be drawing a load of aggro on myself as a spines scrapper then having decent damage resistances would probably help keep me alive in those kinds of situations. And it does keep me alive. But once I get past that opening salvo Invul is doing a lot less for me than Regen probably would in the same situation. If I was to compare my two scrappers on teams I would say that Invul is better for the opening few seconds of each fight and Regen is better for the rest of the fight. I'm going to be respeccing my spines/inv guy into Aid Self over the weekend so I forsee an improvement in my survivability over the course of a whole fight.

With my spines/inv scrapper I run with 1 end reduction in each of Temp Invul., Unyielding and Invincibility. I have Quills with 2 end reduction and it's a drainer... a third end reduction will be added eventually. If you pick up Quills before Stamina like you're planning to you're going to spend a lot of the time not running the power due to endurance issues. I'd bump the fitness pool up 2 levels and pick up Quills only once I'd have Stamina. It's down to personal choice really.
On the attacks side of things they're currently slotted 2 acc, 3 damage and a recharge for the longer recharging ones (he's built for PvP at the moment) but I'll most likely be changing that to PvE slotting of 1 acc, 3 damage, 1 recharge, 1 end reduction as I try and push him from lvl 36 to 50.

From CuppaJo on the US forum:

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So - here it is.

Added to the patch notes:

The Hamidon has been increased in difficulty. It is now capable of using one of its attack powers even when Held, Slept, or Stunned.

Evidently Hammy got a laser beam on it's head a long time ago but just now figured out how to use it.


The Mitos are AVs and are acting according to this patch note:

AVs/Heroes and Giant Monsters now ignore threat level damage multipliers for different Archetypes. They are still affected by Taunt as before.

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LINK

Very nice video - great work

Crowd Control, the cone aoe from the Mace set, causes knockback as does Shatter (one of the single target attacks). Knockback should be discouraged when you're plodding around in Rooted/Granite. I went Stone with my stone tanker and am enjoying it a lot.

Apparently Hami has changed in Issue 7 - now he can still attack while held

LINK

So, to summarise: If he's not held he'll spawn mitos as normal. If he's held he won't spawn mitos but he can attack. The question is, how can you know if he's held or not if he can still attack when he's held? Hopefully it won't affect us too much with our "holding to death" strategy and our large number of holders.

Hugely impressive work