HaloInc

1st off I am coming into this thread late, forgive me if these concerns have been previously expressed.

I play a Bots MM and a Ninja MM (also have a Necro/dark but will retire that toon soon enjoy the others more.

To use BodyGuard pets need to be in Defensive stance.

My problem is I almost always have to keep my pets on Passive.

I use goto and attack target constantly to keep the kids reigned in.

I tend to focus on one target with the pets kill it then send them to next target while I use my secondary to mitigate other enemies. Occasssionally I'll break off LT's to focus on a different baddie if necessary.

Fighting together the pets are very effective in taking down a target, if I let them loose on aggressive or defense they go in all directions and do a little damge to everything but tend to be killed with lots of wounded enemies left standing coming at me.


Not to mention additional aggro pets like to collect when chasing foes.

Now this is all purely play style to compensate for the pet AI. I do like the concept of the BodyGuard function I just worry about how it will actually work in play.

Is the onset time instantanious as of the stance change? Can I keep minions on Defensive once attacked when they start running off throw them to passive follow then immediate switch back to defenseive to keep them close?


Anyone else have these concerns?

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PvE repel is exactly the same strength as before. Yes, it ticks more slowly, which is a double edged sword -- it costs you less endurance to maintain, but it's not quite as good defensively.

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Hurricane's Repel effect is now slightly less abusive in PvP situations. Hurricane will still interrupt Asssassin Strikes, but it should no longer be possible to pin a player in a corner during Base Raids.

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Why were the PvE changes excluded from the patch notes. If not excluded at least misleading. The patch note should reflect the tick time was reduced, and to compensate the cost was reduced.

This reminds me of the change to Enervating Field in issue 5 that the devs would not admit to for about a month and a half (estimated) discovered first week on test, dev's admitted to the change about 3 weeks after this was live.

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Those values are base for the specific toggles. I did not add in the stealth powers def bonus.

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So this is the base for Brutes? Are Stalkers lower than this?

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My guess and its just a guess is that they are the same, both being secondary sets from the same release.

However Hide has a fairly nice defense bonus better that Energy Cloak, which will put them 1 up on a brute.

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As others have said the most I have is anecdotal. Defiance, is not very easy to measure in combat.

The big thing is how little benefit you see in when your health bar is hanging in the middle between full and empty. Usually this is when defiance is just not kicking in. Other times in a big fight with several mobs (more than 10) I may get hit by a Tank Swiper for a large amount of damage and it takes awhile for my defiance to kick in. Realize that I am hovering at death. There is no time to wait the couple of seconds that it takes for it at times.

Which is what really makes defiance a frustration to even consider useing in the higher level game. It's bonus would be much more usefull if the bonus were seen sooner and on a more gradual scale. The massive scale up when a person is below 5% health is meaningless with the current coding because of how rare it is for a blaster to survive long enough to use the bonus when they are that low on health. Hell, at that health level an auto-hit damage aura will kill off the blaster.

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How come Brute FURY works so well and seems fairly instant?

What difference is there in the coding that makes defiance markably weaker.

I'd rather have a blaster version of fury that works more reliably than weak defiance that is buggy.

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Wow terrific guide, thanks. Two questions:

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Fearsome Stare (Level 12)

Slotting is more of an issue now, however. With perma-Hasten alone, it comes up every 23.5 seconds but that’s not enough to make it stack. Adding a Recharge will drop it to every 20 seconds but it still would run out the second it came up again. My personal preference is 1 Accuracy, 1 Recharge, and 1 Fear Duration as it would give the power good accuracy, a 20 second recharge and a 26.6 duration, meaning self-stacking. More slots would make the power more useful but duration is all that should be slotted for as a recharge SO would only drop it another 3 seconds while Fear Duration ups it 6.6 seconds.


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I dont know alot about how slotting works but going by your description wouldnt it make more sense to slot this with 2 fear duration instead of 1 fear duration + 1 recharge? If I understand your explanation correctly then the former would give you 23.5 sec recharge and 33.2 sec duration roughly, as opposed to the latter 20 sec recharge and 26.6 sec duration.

Also just want to make sure, for Shadowfall, you gain all the benefits but the only thing that transfers to your teammates is the Stealth correct? The Def and Res dont apply to others? Or do they?

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My planned slotting for Fearsome Stare will be 2 Acc, 3 Fear, 1 Rech with perma hasten this maybe overkill but I hate missing.

As for the Shadowfall, stealth, defense and damage resistance applies to all teammates if they stay close enough to you.

Outstanding Guide!!!!!!

I love it.

Working on my first Dark/Sonic now, not tied into an EPP yet. This guide and the prior version very VERY helpful.

Thanks for taking the time.

Lady Halifax, Ice/Rad Controller, Triumph
aka. "Hali"


Original White Costume:
Founders Falls
Founders Falls Close Up
Talos Island

Hali Black Costume:
Founders Falls
Founders Falls Close Up

Hali Street Clothes:
Streetwear in FF


Thank you for your consideration

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Tough Hide doesn't suck. Trust me when you get defense debuffs piled on you Tough Hide helps to counteract the defense debuffs.


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Most reliable testing puts this power at around 5% defense with questionable stacking with Invincibility. That's not worth it compared to any other power in the set or many pool powers you could take (and slot) instead.



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Funny how I have seen inv tanks without tough hide die to stuff that tanks with tough hide surivived because they didn't get hit.

The only difference in these tanks was the prescence of tough hide. With it they survived more.




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Cant have been the only difference. Assuming that they are equal level, the tank without TH must have placed something else in that power slot. TH is only REALLY effective if slotted well, so the tank without must have placed those slots elsewhere.

Sure TH helps but it does not make a world of difference unless you are really herding close to or past your limit. A tank must know their limitations. In most situations TH mill only make a very minor difference.

Enough thread jacking . . .

Are they really looking to do I5 by August!!!!

I removed Combustion from my build due to long activation and weak damage.

From your combined experience is going without combustion a mistake?

My build is posted below, I am currently level 30 and on plan. I like Incinerate for its high damage and like one big hitter attack for bosses and AVs. Burn and FSC will be my main/only AOEs.


01 : Scorch acc(01)
01 : Blazing Aura acc(01) dam(3) endred(3) tntdur(7) tntdur(7) tntdur(9)
02 : Healing Flames recred(02) recred(11) recred(13) hel(15) hel(40) hel(46)
04 : Fire Shield damres(04) damres(5) damres(5) damres(9) damres(11) damres(13)
06 : Combat Jumping jmp(06)
08 : Consume acc(08) recred(15) recred(29) recred(37) recred(40) recred(50)
10 : Taunt tntdur(10)
12 : Hurdle jmp(12)
14 : Super Jump jmp(14)
16 : Plasma Shield damres(16) damres(17) damres(17) damres(25) damres(27) damres(33)
18 : Burn dam(18) dam(19) dam(19) dam(21) dam(21) dam(23)
20 : Health hel(20) hel(48) hel(50) hel(50)
22 : Stamina endrec(22) endrec(23) endrec(25) endrec(27) endrec(29) endrec(31)
24 : Acrobatics endred(24)
26 : Boxing acc(26)
28 : Tough damres(28)
30 : Weave defbuf(30) defbuf(31) defbuf(31) defbuf(34) defbuf(36) defbuf(40)
32 : Fire Sword Circle acc(32) endred(33) dam(33) dam(34) dam(34) dam(36)
35 : Hasten recred(35) recred(36) recred(37) recred(37) recred(39) recred(43)
38 : Incinerate acc(38) dam(39) dam(39) dam(45) dam(46) dam(48)
41 : Conserve Power recred(41) recred(42) recred(42) recred(42) recred(43) recred(43)
44 : Fiery Embrace recred(44) recred(45) recred(45) recred(46)
47 : Build Up recred(47) recred(48)
49 : Rise of the Phoenix endrec(49)


Agent Immolate, Fire/Fire 30 on Triumph

I'm still a novice, but here are my recommendations:

Take Plasma Shield at 20 but Stamina off till 22. Those status protections help alot, of coarse so does end issues.

Move hasten back your not slotting until the 30s anyway. Get your travel sooner if you can.

My preference would be to take Fiery Embrace before Build up, long duration all attacks fire anyway.

I am still a novice as a fire tank (lvl 13), but that second lvl 5 slot in Scorch is a waist. It might not be so bad if it was at least damage, but that slot would be better served in Blazing Aura (Your main damage power until 18), Healing Flames (You will want this coming up fast, because your resistances are low in the early game), or Fire Shield (Tanks out last(when we take less damage)).

If possible find a way to move Fire Sword Circle to earlier in the build. With Blazing Aura/Burn you will want the AoE sooner. Unless you rather focus on single target attacks.

Personal Preference: start with SJ as travel, SS is faster in many cases (as long as there isnt too much vertical) and you get that stealth aspect which is great but tankers generally dont need. Super Jump first makes acrobatics available earlier (Knockback coming I4) and you maybe able to arrange your attacks and slotting differently. I'd catagorize SS as a nice to have but that in my opinion.

Although it is a very minor difference I'd take Blazing Aura before Fire Shield. You can practically herd(6-8) containated in outbreak without fire shield.


For comparison and also for comment below is my current build plan. I'm locked into lvl 12 and below already.

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

Archetype: Tanker
Primary Powers - Ranged : Fiery Aura
Secondary Powers - Support : Fiery Melee

01 : Scorch dam(01)
01 : Blazing Aura acc(01) dam(3) dam(3) dam(7) dam(7) tntdur(9)
02 : Healing Flames recred(02) recred(11) hel(13) hel(15) hel(40) hel(46)
04 : Fire Shield endred(04) damres(5) damres(5) damres(9) damres(11) damres(13)
06 : Combat Jumping jmp(06)
08 : Consume acc(08) recred(15) recred(27) recred(40) recred(46)
10 : Taunt tntdur(10)
12 : Hurdle jmp(12)
14 : Super Jump jmp(14)
16 : Plasma Shield endred(16) damres(17) damres(17) damres(25) damres(25) damres(27)
18 : Burn dam(18) dam(19) dam(19) dam(21) dam(21) dam(23)
20 : Health hel(20)
22 : Stamina endrec(22) endrec(23) endrec(29) endrec(29) endrec(34) endrec(37)
24 : Acrobatics endred(24)
26 : Boxing dam(26)
28 : Tough endred(28)
30 : Weave defbuf(30) defbuf(31) defbuf(31) defbuf(31) defbuf(34) defbuf(37)
32 : Hasten recred(32) recred(33) recred(33) recred(33) recred(34) recred(37)
35 : Fire Sword Circle acc(35) dam(36) dam(36) dam(36) dam(40) endred(43)
38 : Incinerate acc(38) dam(39) dam(39) dam(39) dam(46)
41 : Conserve Power recred(41) recred(42) recred(42) recred(42) recred(43) recred(43)
44 : Fiery Embrace recred(44) recred(45) recred(45) recred(45) recred(50)
47 : Combustion acc(47) dam(48) dam(48) dam(48) dam(50)
49 : Build Up recred(49) recred(50)

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01 : Brawl Empty(01)
01 : Sprint Empty(01)
02 : Rest Empty(02)