Goodlivn

OK so my NW just dinged 35 and i love the way she burns thru solo missions. i dont team much with her. im happy with her build and im looking for opinions on what would be best to enhance her present efficiency or add a new dimension based on what i have in the build now, how i play and what is left to pick from. i recently picked up Mental Training so im trying to decide what my next pick will be

i cant post my build but will just list the stuff for ease...

Swipe, Strike, FU , Lunge, Slash

CT: Def, TT: Man, IndWill, Foresight, MindLink, MaskPrez, Ment Train'g

Hasten, SS, Stamina, AidSelf


my defenses seem adequate for how i play. since im all ST attacking i run up to a group running MaskPrez and crit on the first foe. i know Build up goes better with that style but i prefer having FU in my attack string after my opening attack. as long as im not surrounded by too many foes my HP and Endo are normally enough to sustain me thru each battle. i slash, they die, i move to next group. when i have too many around me for the defense to handle it, i can move around a little, use AidSelf, keep attacking and normally there will be at least a couple dead which makes the group manageable again

i dont use IO sets so i use Hasten, MT and Def/rech to keep MindLink almost perma

i will list the powers that im thinking of getting next and why. if anyone has reasons for getting or skipping something please let me know...

1)TT: Assault or leadership: this is not really a team oriented toon so these arent as required as that would imply. however either would be nice on a team and meanwhile i think i can get good use in solo play out of the +damage or +to hit. im a little concerned about whether the endo use would be worth it. of the 2 im leaning more toward leadership 1st...assault maybe later in build

2)Placate: its my understanding that once i open with an attack out of maskprez i can hit placate for another Crit. depending on the size of the group i normally leave maskPrez running while i fight. if it looks like i will have to fight for a while i turn it off. if i can burn thru quickly i leave it on so placate might come in handy inserted into my attack string. my concern is that i have read on the forum that the pause to placate a foe actually hurts DPS and the placate should be replaced with an actual attack in which case i wont take it

3)Spin or Evis: another attack is always nice but since i have some experience with cones im not sure whether Evis would be worth the endo. it doesnt take much to line up for a cone attack but i often dont even try and just keep attacking. i hear Spin is very good but it is a AoE and im not surrounded very often (above playstyle) which again calls into question the endo use....maybe spin is good to catch a couple guys just outside cone range in addition to my main target?

4) Elude: i always take my tier9 god power on other toons. i hardly ever use them because of the HP crash and i find if i need it to defeat something it will probably crash before its dead. its just there for security if overwhelmed. however since Elude doesnt drop my HP perhaps i would use it more since all i need is a couple blue pills to get my toggles up again. heck i might use it whenever its up like a blaster Nuke

ok thats all i got. thanks

oh ****!!

i see the thread on how to fix /elec and while considering the suggestions i first need to understand...

WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO /ELEC?? (since i left)

i played my elec/elec brute to lvl50 a back in '06. i played him mostly solo and he was awesome. the lack of ST heavy hitters wasnt an issue at all because i only used the little punches to build fury. back then JL wasnt worth it (positioning) and CI didnt work but that didnt matter. i would run around with LF gathering at least a couple of good sized spawns and LR them to death. it didnt matter whether they did energy damage or not. having aid self + tough was all the extra i needed. i used pretty much standard slotting of my armors with a healthy dose of power sink to keep the go juice full...during my time away i fondly remembered my elec/elec was easily my favorite villain and one of the things that made me want to reactivate

anyway after i reactivate i read the forums and keep seeing people talking about fixing /elec? i think maybe its just people who want super-uberness. /elec is fine i said

so i take my brute ( same build) on a solo mish against a couple EBs and after much running, power surging and dying (huh?) i decide to just try a regular mish. nothing extreme and not even close to what i did before. maybe im just getting used to him again

it was arachnos. i zone in and see the first small spawn. one +1 minion and a +1 lute. there is another +1 spawn of 2 minions and 1 lute further down the hallway. BAH!! child's play. my AoEs wont even have to work hard. i turn on LF and grab the first couple foes as i run to the 2nd spawn to start work. the 1st spawn hasnt even caught up to the fight yet and im at less than half HP. i wound up running away with only a little sliver of health. i killed a couple of them but i was near death...i could have gone power surge again but i never needed that before for a group like that before

has there been a reduction or change to /elec since i left? did foes start doing more damage? this just isnt the /elec i remember.

my ice tank doesnt have tough or weave and i did ok. i was going for more of an offensive build so i have more attacks than most. if you are looking to tank tough missions for large teams you will want them or at least a teammate who can help you compensate

i will probably make an alternate build with both

i just dinged 50 last night on my ice/fire and i will say that while i dont consider him squishy....i think i know what you mean TC

i should say though that i didnt take weave or tough and i try to avoid using HF or hibernate to see if there is a better plan B....basically if my health is dropping that fast and the team cant compensate then its just a matter of time anyway. HF isnt up enough and i cant do my job well enough in hibernate every 2 mins

its funny though that i never even noticed that hibernate is up every 2 mins....when i go into ice-block mode i normally am just itching to get out of it because i dont want teammates to die if my taunt expires.( my taunt isnt slotted though so maybe i will do that and use hibernate more)

back on topic i agree that most often whatever the weakness of a tank's build it can be addressed with tactics....like last night im on a boss spawn. i died twice early in the mish because i (as usual) try to jump into the middle of a spawn and hit EA and start burning stuff as the team joins in. unfortunately the defender seemed unable to heal me fast enough and the alpha from the +3 bosses would pound me to a icy paste. after the second time i decided to just taunt the groups over to me. apparently having the bosses surround me slowly was better suited to the defenders healing schedule

i think the OPs problem would be quickly fixed with some mid-high lvl20s playtime on some of his present toons. as was stated, once you get out of the teens and graduate to stamina, SOs, more complete build, etc... you wont take long to get hooked.

pick the build you have the most fun with then take a few minutes and do some reading on whats in store for your toon when he gets that lvl28 or lvl32 staple power...or even better, see if you can team for a bit with a slightly higher level player who has a similar build and can show you how good things will be

man was it tedious for my ill/rad in the low levels trying to kill with 1 attack and PA.....when i saw a ill/rad wreck shop with phantasm and some higher level /rad goodness i was, "oh man....i want some of that!!"

as was mentioned my Ice/Fire tank doesnt NEED taunt but i always take it. i hate the idea of having to jump/run around to gather aggro once i have a nice tight group for /fire's AoE goodness....so i use taunt almost exclusively for ranged squishy protection. obviously once foes are close enough to my AoEs and 2 auras i need not be concerned with keeping them aggroed

I never took it on my elec/ brute either but recently while teamed with another brute he told me that the 'chaining' effect had been fixed so that it does actually jump from foe to foe....he even demonstrated it for me a few times. i might make a dual build and get it in there now

oh he also said there is still a bug involved with procs in CI....procs interfere with the jumps. i havent seen that since i dont have the power yet

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For me I have always seen lvl 50 as the death of my characters.

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i agree with this....i have several 50s (blue and red) and because i dont farm it normally takes me hundreds of hours to get there. after that i normally just start another alt or two and play the heck out of them until they reach 50

i cant build IO heavy builds because i dont play my high level alts enough to amass billions. even if i can get 20 million or so i use that to keep equipping my new alts so the older toons are broke and the newer toons have the SOs and the money.

the good thing about AE missions is that i can get into the 20s on a new alt quickly and dont have to go thru the suck of an early build and killing skuls....again

i like all my toons and would likely play them more if there was more +50 content...since its not they most often get shelved unless the SG needs /rad for a AV or more damage on missions etc...

as it is when i deactivate i dont feel like im missing much

My Ice/fire passed 41 a while ago but i didnt take any of the APPs. i thought about taking Pyre then but when i saw i needed to take either the hold or immob to get at the other powers i was turned off. my build lives for getting as many foes around me as possible for AoE goodness....i want those foes to be mobile in most cases so they get as close as possible so i can freeze/burn their faces off

anyway i was talking to another tanker who noticed that i didnt get any APPs and he said that he loved Melt Armor from Pyre and that i should just suck it up and take the hold for stacking with controllers on bosses or whatever

so i took another at look Pyre and noticed another concern. since i love the AoE of my Icicles/Fire build i was interested in fireball from Pyre to add to the AoE goodness but it looks like piddly damage for a lvl47 pick. the fireblast ST power from Pyre is just as underwhelming. plus its ST.

if i take and slot Melt Armor will the -def compensate for the lackluster damage of fireball making it a "much" better attack overall? will it also help my ( and my team's) other AoE attacks 'enough' to make the choice worth it? or was i right from the start in skipping the APP altogether?

what do you all think?

I admit that on some missions with certain teams i am the 'wont-push-the-pace' type of tank....

sometimes im on a team and about 3/4s thru a big group i see teammates start twitching and jumping so i can tell they want to move quickly. my ice/fire is happy to oblige

but on some missions with some teams i feel like i should do a ready check before i charge off and start gathering aggro. since it almost doesnt require thought to hold aggro with my build im always assessing the groups killing speed and how quickly they can gear up for the next group....sometimes the WS is doing the corpse thing, the 'fender is doing the buff thing, or the troller is prepping pets or whatever so as much as i would love to give into scrapperlock with the tank i feel an obligation to the team to make sure they are all ready. im afraid if they arent ready i will rush into a group and then somebody might get dead

its annoying when most of the foes are dead and i feel i should still do a 360 turn to check everyone's status before i run to the next group i admit...but sometimes its how i protect those cute little squishies

yes if you use dual builds you can use your lvl24 respec to make one fortuna and the other build can be NW

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i used /ice to help solo early on but i like the munitions APP better because of the ranged sleep grenade instead of the PBAoE Frozen Aura in /ice

the only control power in /ice i found useful for soloing was freez touch and ice patch. which i use a lot.

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You seriously don't use Chillblain, the best Immobilize in Blasterdom?

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haha yea i used to use it when thats all i had. back then i learned that i am not a huge fan of immob as a mitigation tactic. it has helped before but it always left me wishing i had more

now my soloing is bolstered by three holds and a AoE sleep grenade. with that many holds there is always one available so there is no need for a "stop and shoot me from over there" power

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Aid Self is a complete waste

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As a categorical statement, I'd have to disagree with this.

Defense comes first in my widow build, but it doesn't always work reliably, in the sense
that some mobs debuff defense, and sometimes RNG lets you take a lot of burst damage
occasionally (call it streakbreaker or bad luck, whatever).

That seems especially true at higher difficulty levels and/or with EB, AV battles.

As a toon that only Duos with a friend of mine, or Solos, I definitely find the Med Pool
to be very beneficial for dealing with these situations.

I can see certain playstyles, or certain team combinations where that may not be the case,
but I, for one, have it on my widow, and I'm not the least bit surprised to see it in both
of TopDoc's high-end widow builds, in the guide he published, as well...


Regards,
4

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im wondering how you feel about when a NW should take the med pool if they decide to. TopDoc has it late in the build and you mention high level as well.....so assuming a NW takes the med pool is it likely something that wont be overly useful until lvl40+?

i used /ice to help solo early on but i like the munitions APP better because of the ranged sleep grenade instead of the PBAoE Frozen Aura in /ice

the only control power in /ice i found useful for soloing was freez touch and ice patch. which i use a lot.

just an update...

so much for #4 and "slog thru"...

my widow isnt 24hrs old and is already lvl25 after a global friend invited me for some teaming

damn....a lot has changed since 2006

still plan to try a Bane though

ok so i have several 50s on both red/blue sides...now i often just log on to solo a mish or two but now im so familiar with all my toons after hundreds of hours that i would like a bit of 'new hotness'

i want to know what you guys think the best solo SoA would be based on what i like. if you believe a build to suit me in SoA doesnt exist please leave your thoughts as well. thanks...

1) i want to solo... teaming is a distant second because i have a ton of toons that will help a team. i have options in that area and this toon isnt about that

2) while its a distant second i would like to have a couple things to offer a team so i dont get complaints when i team once in a while

3)i prefer a strong offense with a middling defense ( assuming strong O and D is a bit too much to ask). i hope to make them dead before i see my HP start to drop. what i mean is that sometimes you can sacrifice your O for D (/stone brute) or your D for O (/fire brute)...i dont want either extreme but a little more on the O would be good if possible

4)i dont want to wait until 30s to be at least effective. if im in my teens i would like to sign on and wreck shop. i dont want to slog thru too many levels before im a force. if i have to choose between a build that peaks early and suffers later or a build that peaks way late but is a lvl50 'I Win' button, i will take the former

5) as i said im a experienced player so i dont care about how intricate a build is to make it work. i have a tri-form kheldian that can solo fine. ( although slower than i hope this SoA will be)

6)im not big on IO heavy builds. i normally dont play my toons enough to amass billions and so the extent of my spending is in the 10-20 million range which is likely just plain IOs and only a few set bonuses

Lastly i dont mind doing some research on builds. if i get some good suggestions i dont mind doing even more reading in the builds sections if required. im asking first so i can at least get a little direction

so what do you think? is there a SoA for me?

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The downtime after a nuke makes you lose damage... unless it's the last spawn of the mission, I don't really see much point in a nuke at all.... I find nukes are not worth spending a power choice on.

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while i agree that nuking constantly isnt quite worth it on a team, i use it enough that i would always take it.

because i have an Elec/ blaster there is no knockback issue. i just rarely use it on teams because of the endo drain/recovery time.i rather attack continuously most often. sometimes obviously when the tank has a tight taunted group and its just perfect for my nuke then i let fly because im sure we will be moving on shortly after

sometimes i wait because there is a bit of a 'dramatic' build up involved. when the team is moving from group to group taking 30secs or a minute or so to dispatch the whole group its quite a show when the team is gearing up to fight for a while and suddenly all the foes are dead...getting those "whoa! nice work" tells are still pretty kool

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A yes
B not sure, have not made one of those. 3 recharge and a little global and rage is perma

Edit to add, it is not just footstomp but rage that is the kicker. Since it also adds constant bonus damage to your patron AOE attacks it ends up being better total damage. Add shield in there as well and you have some pretty impressive damage potential. Im just not the one to ask how to build a /shield brute.

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now im intrigued by this and would love to try it. my only two brutes are an lvl50 elec/elec and a lvl50 SS/Inv....

what kind of set bonuses would i have to get to make SS into a AoE machine? right now the elec/ guy is my AoE guy and i use the SS/ guy as a ST smashing machine with only an occasional footstomp

anybody have an idea of what kind of IOs i should get and around what it would cost?/

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Just a note, Elec blast is actually above the norm with blasters as far as ST goes:

Voltaic Sentinel, Charged Bolts and Lightning bolt together do impressive DPE and DPS, rivaling achery's ST.

Its just underperforming in AoE and in that it's effect (end drain) is poorly designed...I mean, why make it a binary effect, when the big power we have for it (Short Circuit) doesnt even do it fully?

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The point is that Archery is actually rather anemic at ST damage. Archery isn't anywhere near impressive at single target damage. The fact that you're comparing Elec's ST damage to Archery's in a favorable light while simultaneously mentioning that it's got none of the substantial AoE capabilities that Archery is packing is demonstrative of how the arguments for Elec underperforming.

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also its nice to add in VS damage to ST DPS but since the blaster has no control over whether VS is single target DPS asset or a lackluster AoE aggro machine you have to factor that in

leaving Elec/* underperforming again

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another vote for Elec/ blasting.

if you really want to see how bad a tradeoff you are making for endo drain, try pairing Elec/ with something other than /elec or maybe /energ

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Already have. In fact, I mentioned it in this thread: Elec/Dev, the posterchild for "gimp combination" in the blaster community. Mine doesn't even have VS or the Gun Drone, and yet, she still does what a Blaster is supposed to do: destroy spawns. Sure it takes a tad longer, but I have a ton of utility powers that makes her have a playstyle I enjoy.

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yea i did much the same with my elec/ice guy...he has more holds than my controller. i can lock down a group and pick them apart at my leisure

apparently i didnt learn my lesson though because when i went to the red side i picked another build that has gotten several mentions here....an elec/elec brute. however he is my favorite villain

another vote for Elec/ blasting.

if you really want to see how bad a tradeoff you are making for endo drain, try pairing Elec/ with something other than /elec or maybe /energ

i cant post my build but i dont think my questions are too elaborate

i just reactivated after being away for a couple years. i have been trying to get up to speed on my lvl35 tri-form PB. i dont remember all that went into the build decisions i made back then but right now he is pretty fun to play. i play mostly human but will switch to nova if im comfy with that. i dont have any slots in the dwarf powers because i was just using that form for a panic button but i do have all the human and nova attacks at least 4 slotted (1acc,3dam)

the nova has more damage overall it seems but when i see a tough foe that needs to go down quick i always go with the burst of BU + IS + RS and it never lets me down (unless i miss)

my problem is that the human ranged attacks are underwhelming. there are times when i cant even see the sliver of HP a foe has and that glint eye BS still doesnt kill them. it seems that after i use the human melee strikes the other powers are just something to do until they recharge. the human attacks im talking about are: GlintEye, ProScatter, LumDeton ( i also have the solar flare& seekers but i like those)

would it be a more efficient use of my slots to take those slots from the ranged human attacks and slot the dwarf attacks for damage, rech, etc.?? im thinking of moving slots around because i still like the Nova form at times but it just seems like ranged attacks in human form are a waste of time...i would drop them altogether obviously but there isnt a lot more to choose from

after my human melee burst is it better to start with ranged or drop into dwarf for more melee carnage ( and better survivability too)?

i prefer ill/rad for solo and team play

I been away from playing for i think 3 years but i just reactivated and thought i would take all my old toons out for a whirl to get reaquainted. took out my lvl50 ill/rad for a solo mish and it was a breeze again just like before. i didnt even remember some of the powers i had in my build and it was still relatively easy.

the foes were reds and purps but it didnt matter. soloing was just as steady and progressive as i remember even though i forgot to use power boost and AM.there is just very few solo situations that arise that a ill/rad doesnt have the tools for and you get those tools pretty early in the build with phantasm being the icing on the cake at 32. sometimes i might get bored with just staging fights so i get more involved with attacks or flash, etc... but the amount of risk you take is up to you and you will still roll even tough missions

as for teams you win again IMO. i was on a team with my lower level tank who had a ill/kin and we rolled thru a tougn mish with no problem until we got to the AV. we beat on the guy and we could see his health take a dip briefly but it would recover soon after so after 15mins of no progress i decided switch to the ill/rad. i dropped the debuffs on him and it didnt take long before the AV's HP was clearly dropping slowly. it wasnt a quick fight but AV fights arent meant to be. as long as the team can see a dropping HP bar there's no problem

i loved the ill/kin when i had my tank because some of the battles were much easier with the buffs...but in the end i prefer to have the debuffs of /rad when needed so im still a ill/rad fan