Grey Pilgrim

Even though my Fiery Aura Tank has lower resists to Negative than S/L, he ironically has had fewer issues with the negative energy of that second mission: that defense debuff really is the killer. Though upping those S/L resists via the Cardiac Boost should help. I haven't ITF'd with him enough to say anything conclusively, but he was taking considerably less damage the one time I was soloing on the wall (as I was waiting for an ITF attempt to start up).

I mention Fiery Aura as I feel it is rather similar to Electric in performance (even though Electric has a lot more mobs it has easily capped resists to).

I would also agree (like I noted earlier), that his being level 38 is probably part of the issue, and that could have been compounded if some of his teammates were at the same level, and also only had SOs. You can play without IO sets, but they do make a big difference.

It's perception. I haven't seen any proof that somehow the numbers do not match with the actual performance, and they certainly seem like they take as long as they are supposed to from what I can tell. You are hitting on why some people probably think it is slower, since there is the windup/charging before the attack. That's part of the flavor of the set, though, so if someone doesn't like it, oh well. No way you can please them all.

I can look at the numbers and know Claws is a perfectly fine set, but that doesn't change me from disliking the set for some reason (I can't get around how silly that one ranged attack seems to me, but I know that's my own preference). That's different from the set not working, though.

I'm not sure what you mean by less damage in that second paragraph, though. Do you mean the lower damage to account for Power Siphon? That's okay not because of the -damage component, but because of how much Power Siphon accelerates your damage. You can put out some quite impressive numbers while that is up (and they're fine even when it isn't), and it's fairly easy to get PS or Buildup back up quickly with how the set works. I certainly prefer how it works compared to Rage, just because I kind of dislike its debuff period.

How it applies damage is different as well. It does an initial hit of damage then DoT, rather than just DoT (the DoT period doesn't do as much damage to compensate). I prefer the change, though it's good to know how it works: you want at least five targets around you to get hit by that initial tick (unless you're soloing with fewer mobs), as you can't count on them taking as much damage from the DoT if they come in later.

Snake, are you sure about the Scrapper thing? I thought this was possibly because of that weird AI thing where mobs tend to run away if they have a lot of debuffs or DoT on them. I would have liked to know if Castle found anything for certain about that behavior before leaving (or for Black Scorpion or someone to say that there is something up... as it seems like an issue after Castle posting and saying how it's supposed to work).

Layered protection does make you tougher, yes. That's why most defense sets have some resists or +hp sprinkled in, as relying only on defense can be problematic. That's why I argue for getting defense with a resist set (like in my Fiery Aura guide), because even with no defense debuff, it ups a resist set's survivability noticeably. The biggest issues my Fiery Aura Tank usually faces are those with defense debuffs, actually, which might be surprising if you look at his primary at first.

Anyway, the idea of layering protection is why Shields is just fine in later levels (better than earlier ones, if anything). It has +HP and resists to layer with its defense, making it quite resilient. Tough brings that resilience up even more. I suppose I should also make sure you are taking into account that Shields is meant to be a more offensive set, like Fiery Aura. They're not going to be able to take hits as well as Invulnerability or Willpower, as the benefit of those sets is their survivability, rather than more offense.

It's somewhat funny, actually, as most people are apt to say defense has it over resist in CoH right now, especially with how easy it is to get additional defense via IOs.

When it comes down to choosing a set, though, you just have to go with what works for you. Defense sets have their pros and cons, as do resist sets. I personally think resist sets are a bit more consistent in performance, as defense makes for significant differences depending on how things go for you with the RNG. That's more of a personal preference and feeling, though.

Back at the start of the game, I rather liked that storyline. Stood out for me in the 20s (don't think I ran into the Freaklympics with my first character). I know it's dated now, but... I rather liked the idea of redeeming someone from a bad life. Oh well.

Yup, it does have a few longer animations, but people have made mountains out of those molehills quite a bit. I do notice the difference between Empty Clips and Buckshot, but the net effect on how well my DP/EM plays compared to my AR/EM is pretty minimal. They play different, but they get the job done.

So help me, Recluse, if you two-shot me again, I am going to have to go Simon Belmont on this computer! Don't make me do it!

I should point out that my earlier post was more in reaction to that there isn't much you can do for defense while fighting +4s: I did think having slightly higher defense helped/was needed on those. It's been a little over (and re-) explained at this point.

However, I think you are missing something if you are still arguing for about 55 or even 65% defense: other than in certain encounters, that is going to be way overkill. And heck, in certain encounters (like the jokingly referred to Recluse fight earlier in this post), tower-buffed Recluse can still hit you when your defense is higher than 65%. Thinking 75-80% defense is what you need to go as high as you can against him. Darn to-hit tower, anyway.

In other words, ~50% is enough for most fights. Anything more, well, that's what inspirations and teammates are for.

What, punching your monitor and cursing the NPC that just hit you through all your defense? Sure, I do that already.

Hey, join in when you can.

What's the level range at now for us? 45? 46?

Wait, are you making a joke? I can't quite tell... *shakes joke meter* I think there's something wrong with this thing.