Jock_Tamson

The Story of Trick Amongst the Pugs.

This is a tale about not judging books by their covers, and about how even the wise can be surprised if they keep their eyes open.

- Jock Tamson, Who lied when he said there would be no more symbolic fruit this week.

The Children of Statesman prospered and multiplied in his City until the streets teemed with the descendants of Blaster, Controller, Defender, Scrapper and Tank, and Atlas Park rang with their calls. And so the time came, as it need must, for the Great Progenitors to leave the City so that their children would not forever seem small in their great shadows. Each, before parting, wished to leave their children with a gift by which they would be remembered. So it was that they called their families togther...

Blaster spoke to his children saying, "My children, I must leave you now and cross over the ocean. I leave you with this: So that you know that my spirit is always with you, when your strength wanes and you stand on your last footing I will lend you my strength so that you may strike down your foes with your last breath." A grandchild of Blaster stood forth and spoke, "But Great Father, you will only lend us your aid when we are near death?" Blaster laughed long and deep and answered, "My child, if you are truly a child of mine, you will find yourself there often!"

Controller spoke to her children saying, "My children, I must leave you now and cross over the ocean. I leave you with this gift: So that you know that my spirit is always with you, when your foe is helpless in your grip, I will lend my own strength to your blows that you may strike down those you have subdued." A grandchild of Controller stood forth and spoke, "But Great Mother, is not our role to aid our siblings by subduing their foes. Not to surplant the Children of Blaster?" Controller laughed and replied, "My child, the children of Blaster and Scrapper will soon grow bored if you never allow them a fight!"

Scrapper spoke to his children saying, "Kids, I must leave you now and cross over the water, but before I go: So that you know that my spirit is always with you, I will from time to time lend you my strength, doubling your own!" A son of Scrapper stood forth and spoke saying, "Thanks Dad". Scrapper smiled and replied,"Good on ya Reg! I don't care what Statespop says, I love ya!"

Tank spoke to his children saying, "My children, I must travel now over the ocean and leave the City to your keeping. Before I go, I leave you with this: So that you may know that my spirit is always with you, while you engage a foe I shall see that he does not flee from you." A grandchild of Tanks stood forth and said, "Great Father, does this mean I need no longer waste all my breath taunting my foes" Tank laughed and answered, "It may at that my daughter, but I don't know if the others will ever believe it!"

Defender spoke to her children saying, "My children, I leave you now to travel over the ocean so that you may grow without me overshadowing you. Before I go, I leave you with this: So that you know that my spirit is with you in your darkest hour, when you are exhausted and your allies near defeat, I will lend you a small part of my vigor." A grandchild of Defender stood forth and complained thus, "Great Mother, If I do my work well my allies are never anywhere near defeat! Scrapper and Controller have given their children far greater gifts, why do you give us so little?!" Defender looked sternly and answered, "You are arrogant, impudent, and ungrateful!" Then smiled and added, "Truly you are my daughter. Never change that, it shows you care about what you do. Why do I give so little? What little I give, is what little you need. I need not give much for you are MY children and you are strong!"

Defender no longer walks these streets, my brothers and sisters, but her spirit is with us. She may not need to lend us her aid often, but why should she need to. We are the Children of Defender and we are strong.

- Jock Tamson, Mythologist

Vigilance is a real mark of honor for Defenders...

- Jock Tamson, Who likes how this story captures the personalities of the different Archetypes.

The City you see about you is beautiful, but it is only a fraction of the whole grandeur of Statesman's creation for it is but one aspect of the 11 fold nature of the City as it crosses the Servers. The Servers in turn hang like a row of dew drops on the vast stretch of the Web that is the Universe. For the universe in which the Servers exist is a web, and on a web there are spiders...

One day a Spider came to the City, and seeing what Statesman had created for himself and his children it grew jealous and wished to own the City for itself. So the Spider took a mirror and put in a place where beautiful mermaids sang, and behind this mirror he wove a web.

The first of Statesman's children to find the mirror was Scrapper. Startled by his own reflection, Scrapper did what Scrapper does in these situations, and struck it with a swift blow, cracking the mirror. When he saw what he had done, Scrapper laughed at his own folly and went to tell his siblings of the mirror. Together they came and stood to look into this curious thing. The cracked mirror twisted and blended their reflections. Tanker's reflection mingled with his brother Scrapper's while the crack appeared to twist his face as if in range. Defender and Controller's reflections mingled with that of their brother Blaster. Blaster's reflection split, mingling with his brother Scrapper's in a way that made them both seem thin a gaunt, while fracturing into a multitude of images near where it mingled with his sisters. Disturbed by this strangeness, the Children of Statesman shied away from it, and went to seek more familiar things.

Now images and webs both have power to trap, and as the Children of Statesman looked into the mirror some of their essence was caught in the Spider's web. The Spider took this essence and from it spun his own children. Brute from the rage twisted reflection of Scrapper and Tank. The twin sisters Corrupter and Dominator from the mingled image of Defender, Controller and Blaster. Stalker from the twisted and gaunt reflections of Blaster and Scrapper. Mastermind for the multitudinous reflections of Blaster and his sisters. The Spider then gathered together his children, these twisted and cracked reflections of what Statesman had wrought, and commanded them to win the City for their creator.

They moved swiftly and attacked without warning, finding each of the siblings alone. Stalker, moving in shadows, struck down Defender first before she had chance to react. Dominator held Blaster with her power so he could not resist her, and soon brought him low. Corrupter weakened Tank's defenses with her reflections of Defenders gifts and felled him with bolts such as her brother Blaster might use. Mastermind overwhelmed Scrapper with the creatures he could command, for Scrapper could face but one at a time. Brute sought Controller, but could not find her.

Hiding in fear Controller listened to the laments of her sibling's spirits. Defender, always loudest in complaint, felt she had been particularly ill treated, but it is Defender's gift also to find solutions. "Sister", said Defender, "take of my spirit as I once took of our brother Blaster's and you can rouse us all!" Defender moved part of her spirit into Controller, who then called her siblings to her and breathed life back into them.

"Listen my siblings", spoke Defender, and so saying handed her sister an arrow. "Break that arrow sister", said Defender, and Controller easily did so. Defender then took a bundle of arrows, handed it to Controller and said, "Now break these". Truly while the arrows were tied together, Controller could not break them. Defender than spoke earnestly to her siblings, "Alone we fell easily. Stand together and share our power, and we are greater than this evil!"

The siblings who had not yet shared their spirits now did so. Tank gave some of his spirit to Scrapper who in turn gave some of his to Blaster. Controller gave some of her spirit to Blaster and Blaster, looked at his sister meaningfully. And Defender smiled.

The battle that followed was long and great. It shattered the earth and rended the very walls of the City. But as Defender had said, while the Children of Statesman stood together, they were greater than the Children of the Spider, and were in time victorious. The Spider and his children fled though a gap in the walls of the City far out into the ocean, and were never seen again in the City. While their children and their children's children may from time to time assault its walls, the City belongs now, and forever, to the Children of Statesman.

- Jock Tamson, Mythologist

Tonight, "The Parable of the Pointed Sticks". Wherein we learn the origins of villains, the value of working together, and another poignant analogy with fruit...

[Palin]Oh, you promised you wouldn't do fruit this week.[/Palin]

Well fine then, no fruit analogy this week, but there are some pointed sticks.

- Jock Tamson, A maniac without a bunch of loganberries.

You have heard the tale of how Defender tricked Scrapper into doing all the work when she wished to gain experience without effort. Well Scrapper never quite learned that he had been tricked, and he told all his siblings how Defender watched over and made sure he never died. Scrapper’s brother Blaster knew more of risk than his brother since he had a thinner hide and had to be more careful in his own hunting. So it was that Blaster saw through Defender’s trick and decided to play one on her himself.

Blaster went to his sister and asked, “Sister Defender, will you not watch over me while I hunt as you have done for our brother Scrapper?” Defender replied, “Why brother Blaster! I would be glad to do so, let us go over here and confront the Skuls. They have been tugging on that purse for near a day now.”. So they ventured out.

Blaster used his great strength to smite the Skul, then turned to his sister and asked, “Are you watching sister?” Defender reached out with the least of her powers and cured some minor harm Blaster had taken and replied, “Why brother Blaster! Of course I am watching. If I did not, you would surely die.” Blaster smiled to himself and said, “Thank you kind sister. Watch this!” So saying he leapt into a crowd of Bone Daddies that stood nearby. There Blaster set lose a great burst of flame that scorched and angered his foes but did not defeat them. They turned and attacked Blaster with great wrath. Surprised, Defender reached out to try and heal her brother, but the wrath of the Skuls was to great to be thus overcome and he fell. This bothered Blaster little, it was his way and he was used to it, but Defender was startled and fled sore afraid. From a safe place she called her brother to her and breathed life into him. Blaster arose smiling and said, “Sister! Were you not watching?” Through a smile that did not reach her eyes, Defender replied, “Sorry dear brother, clearly that was my fault. Let us try again!”

Not wishing to appear weak before he brother, Defender now reached out with her full might. Her brother was greatly strengthened and his foes weakened and slowed so that when he leapt once more into their midst they fell swiftly and he took little harm. As the last fell Defender reached out with the least of her powers and removed some minor harm her brother had taken. Blaster turned to her laughing and said, “Great heals sister!”

Now Defender began to suspect that perhaps she had been played the fool, so she resolved to turn the tables on her brother. They continued for some time achieving great deeds as the children of Statesman can when they use their full might, but when the opportunity arose Defender allowed her brother to fall once more while only the least of his foes remained. Rather than withdrawing and calling her brother to her as she had done before, Defender sped forward and began to strike, but with not quite enough strength to defeat her foe in any good time. Exasperated, Blaster’s spirit spoke to Defender saying, “Must you defeat him yourself in such a way? We could be well on our way!” Defender replied, “It is true brother, your strength could fell him in no time, if only you could lend it to me a short while.” “Of course Sister!”, Blaster replied, and moved part of his spirit into her. Exploding in light, Defender defeated her foe, but then ran off laughing, and has not returned her brother’s gift to this day.

- Jock Tamson, Mythologist

In tonight's story, Defender learns what goes around, comes around, but as always, she comes out on top in the end.

- Jock Tamson, Who isn't convinced she learned a lesson.

It is said that Statesman's favorite son was Tank, who was most like him. While Tank received fewer gifts than his sister Defender, those he did receive he received in abundance. Tank could stand amidst a sea of his foes and take no harm and yet hold their rapt attention while he slowly whittled them away.

One day Tank set out to test the limits of his powers. So he sought out the Drek who has famed for his numerous children. The children of the Drek were so kind to the children of Statesman as to stand back up once defeated so that they could be fought again, and were much valued for this.

Tank set about gathering about him all the children of the Drek, and indeed they came about him in a great throng, and yet could do him no harm.

In time Tank's brother Blaster wandered by to see what his brother was doing. Seeing his brother lost in a sea of foes, Blaster called out, "Brother Tank! Do you need help?" Tank replied "No. I shall put these in a box, just set them on fire and I shall bring more." So Tank piled many of the children of Drek into a box he had found and went to seek more, while Blaster amused himself setting them on fire.

In time Blaster's sister Defender wandered by to see what her brothers were doing. Seeing her brother lost in a sea of foes, Defender called out, "Brother Tank! Do you need help?" Tank replied, "No, I am putting these in a box so brother Blaster may set them on fire. Help him do it faster." Amused by the game Defender reached out her gifts to strengthen and speed her brother, who once more set it on fire, laughing to himself.

In time Defender's sister Controller wandered by to see what her siblings were doing. Seeing her brother lost in a sea of foes, Controller called out, "Brother Tank! Do you need help?" Tank replied, "No, I am putting these in a box so brother Blaster may set them on fire while sister Defender aids his strength and speed. Go help your sister." Amused, Controller reached out her pale imitations of her sisters gifts to aid her in her task, while Blaster once more set the box on fire, laughing to himself.

In time Controller's brother Scrapper wandered by to see what his siblings were doing. Seeing his brother lost in a sea of foes, Scrapper called out, "Brother Tank! Do you need help?" Tank replied, "No." So Scrapper amused himself by poking at the box while his brother set it once more on fire.

In time Statesman noticed his City was growing strangely quiet, and the challenges he had created for his children going unmet. So Statesman set out to see what his offspring were doing. Seeing his beloved son in a sea of foes, while his sibling sat playing with a box laughing inanely, Statesman called out, "Son Tank! Do you need help?" Tank replied, "No...", and so Statesman took half the power from each of his children and replied: "You do now!"

Thus a lesson was learned.

- Jock Tamson, Mythologist

[ QUOTE ]
Though I have to know, are you doing these in order? I seem to remember a few others before this.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is the order I originally posted them in. I'm afraid I peaked early

Here is another story about peaking early and then falling off...

- Jock Tamson, Who presents the origin of "nerfs"

Over the course of time Defender had many children. The eldest where the powerful and conceited Storm and his mild and giving twin sister Empathy. Then came Radia and Darkity who knew much of their mothers gifts for weakening a foe. Kin, like her older sister Empathy, was a giving sort, perhaps with less generosity, but with more of her mothers speed and strength. Young Trick was a tinker who made toys to copy his mother;s powers, while Sonic and Bubbles both inherited talents for enshrouding a ally with a protective grace.

These elder children in turn had children of their own until Defender was graced with many grandchildren and great grandchildren to help watch over the progeny of her siblings.

It came to pass that one of these later generations decided to learn which of the branches of Defenders children was the greatest. So he went in turn to his Grandfathers, Grandmothers, Grandaunts and Granduncles to ask.

Empathy answered, "Why my children of course, because we make those under our care more powerful than any hero alone."

Storm answered, "You have to ask who is most powerful?!" And swept the child from his home with a powerful wind.

Kin answered, "My charges are as safe as Empathy's and move twice as fast! My children are clearly the strongest."

Bubbles answered, "Protected by my children you need fear no harm, what could be more powerful than that!". Listening nearby Sonic retorted, "Mine shall do that and weaken the foes around you, clearly I and my children are more powerful."

Radia and Darkity both fell to squabbling about the most effective way to weaken a foe, but both agreed this was the strongest of Defender’s gifts.

Trick laughed and said, "Show me what another can do that I cannot!" The child replied, "Heal?" So Trick shot him with a sharp arrow and the child fled.

Confused and frustrated the child sought Defender herself and asked, "Great Mother, which of your children is strongest?" Defender chuckled and laid before the child some fruit she had in a nearby bowl and said, "Which of these fruit is greatest my child?". The child thought and answered, "Well watermelon is cooling on a hot day, and orange will help ward off illness. Apple is sweet and filling, but grapes are jucier and make heady wine. I could not say. What do you say?". Defender then took the fruit and chopped them, mixed them together in a bowl and handed it to the child saying, "That my child, is wisdom."

- Jock Tamson, Mythologist

Here now is my personal favorite. This isn't the origin of the Fruit Salad Defender meme, but it is by far the best definition of it I ever wrote.

- Jock Tamson, Who would add that say you could define accurately "Fruit Salad Defender" is to misunderstand it.

[ QUOTE ]
WOOHOO! So tell us your plan Jock, are you really going to spread it out over time or what?

[/ QUOTE ]

One a day until they are all back, because my Muse instructs me this is the way it must be done. Who am I to argue?

- Jock Tamson, Who hopes he will be rewarded with inspiration.

One day Defender grew hungry for experience, but did not want to labor herself, so she sought out Scrapper and said, "Won't you join me on a team so that we may both gain more and faster experience?" Always eager for more foes Scrapper readily agreed and they ventured forth. Whenever they reached a foe, Scrapper would rush up to fight while Defender would stand behind and idly watch. After a while, Scrapper became aware of this and asked, "Why do you not join me in the fight?" Defender reached out with the least of her powers and removed some minor harm Scrapper had taken and said, "Why Scrapper! I stand back here and heal you, for if I did not you would surely die!" Scrapper thanked Defender for her kindly vigilance on his behalf and they continued on. In this way Defender gained her experience while Scrapper did all the work and thanked Defender for the privilege!

- Jock Tamson, Mythologist

In the beginning the servers were shapeless and without form. Then Statesman moved across the servers and created the City, and he filled the City with villains to be defeated, challenges to be met, and Skuls to be hunted, and he saw that it was good.

Villains, challenges and Skuls will soon lose their appeal if you have nobody to share them with, so Statesman next brought forth his 5 children, Blaster, Controller, Scrapper, Tank and Defender.

To Blaster he gave great strength but a jaw of glass. To Controller he gave the power to silence and still her foes and allies to aid her, but little strength of her own. To Scrapper he gave great strength and great toughness, but a short reach so he would not be over mighty. To Tank he gave even greater toughness yet but made him slow and short of reach.

To Defender he gave the greatest gifts giving her great speed, great reach, much strength, and the ability to avoid harm. Then Statesman spoke to Defender saying, "I have given you these gifts so that you may watch over the others for that one keeps dying, that one has been running around in circles for ages now, and those two have been fighting the same motionless Skul for 10 minutes." Defender looked over those she was tasked to protect and replied to Statesman saying, "Do I have to?". Statesman was angered and thundered a curse upon Defender for her impudence, "While you have a great many gifts, the greatest shall be of more use to others than they are to you!" And so it is to this day that the children of Defender have many gifts they cannot use alone so that they, from time to time, "have to".

- Jock Tamson, Mythologist

[ QUOTE ]
Greetings Jock_Tamson:

Would you mind sharing your build?

Thank you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not at all. Here it is pre-IOs:

<ul type="square">
1. Radiation Aura (3 Heal, 2 Recharge, 1 End)
1. Shriek(3 Damage, 2 Acc, 1 End)
2. Scream (3 Damage, 2 Acc, 1 End)
4. Radiation Infection (3 End, 3 To Hit Debuff)
6. Accelerate Metabolism (3 Recharge, 3 End Buff)
8. Howl (3 Damage, 2 Acc, 1 End)
10. Hasten (3 Recharge)
12. Combat Jumping (3 Defense, 1 End)
14. Super Leap (1 Jump)
16. Envervating Field (3 End)
18. Hurdle (1 Jump)
20. Health (1 Health)
22. Stamina (3 End Buff)
24. Lingering Radiation (1 Acc, 2 Recharge, 3 Slow)
26. Amplify (1 Recharge)
28. Acrobatics (3 End)
30. Shout (3 Damage, 2 Acc, 1 End)
32. Choking Cloud (3 End)
35. Screech (1 Acc, 2 Disorient, 1 End, 1 Recharge)
38. EM Pulse (1Acc, 2 Hold)
41. Power Build Up (1 Recharge)
44. Temp Invulnerability (3 End, 3 Dam. Resist)
47. Total Focus (3 Dam, 1 Acc)
49. Conserve Power (1 Recharge)[/list]
I should point out that I was not taking particular care with efficiency of slotting, and that this was a built to a specific purpose: Soloing AVs! I got one or two without using a Shivan too. In part that meant over kill on the endurance slotting so that I could blast for ever if I had too.

- Jock Tamson, Who got Battle Maiden and The Paladin with out using a Shivan. (Yes that last one is a GM and not an AV)

[ QUOTE ]
SHAMEFUL BUMP TO SAVE THE THREAD FROM THE VOID!

[/ QUOTE ]

Congratulations, you've been stickied!

This thread and the FF thread. This is a serious setback to my program of taking over the top of the Defender forum. I'm going to have to work harder at being useful and entertaining!

- Jock Tamson, Who is glad we now have the origin of Fruit Salad stickied by extension.

If they made Deflection Shield an aura buff, I might be able to stand playing a FF....

- Jock Tamson, Who loathes constantly reapplying single target buffs.

Best At Everything: A Short Guide to Rad/Sonic

- Jock Tamson, Who said he would post this some time ago, but kept getting....Hey Shiny!

Best At Everything: A Short Guide to Rad/Sonic

- Jock Tamson, Who said he would post this some time ago, but kept getting....Hey Shiny!

Radiation Emission

Radiant Aura: Your common or garden healing aura. Slot for health, end and recharge. Not such a large heal that it is going to pull you our anyone else back from the brink, so learn to use it proactively.

Radiation Infection: Pure Gold. Everything standing in it will be much easier to hit and significantly handicapped in hitting you. Slot for To Hit Debuff and End. At high level, go to WW and buy some To Hit Debuff/Defense Debuff HOs! You want to open with this power when solo and on small teams as it will help protect you from the Alpha. The name of the game is to get everything standing next to the RI anchor. I prefer to get right next to the anchor and agro things in to me as necessary, an anchor that prefers to melee attack is ideal for this.

On picking an anchor: You want to choose something with high hp so it has some staying power, use the color conning to help you pick out someone fast. Also look to the back of the tab order to avoid the mobs your teammates will be attacking first. Never anchor on a teleporter or a flighty mob like a War Wolf as they can agro half the map to you when they run off dragging RI or EF with them. Lingering Radiation is a big help in keeping your anchor from moving away too fast. Your anchors are going to get killed, there is no use in raging against it, just learn how to retoggle quickly and when you don’t have to. Some people like to split RI and EF on to separate targets to help them last longer. I like to put both on the same target as I can apply them faster that way, and it makes it easier to herd targets into both auras at once.

Accelerate Metabolism: Makes you move faster. Makes you attack faster. Makes your endurance recover faster. As if that wasn’t enough, it also provides Mez Resistance (reduces the duration of mez effects). Should I mention it does this for all your teammates as well? Basically you will want to use this as often as possible. Slot for Recharge and End Mod. If you stagger this with Hasten you can attack faster all the time. If you stack it with Hasten it will be available more often. I recommend that you stack it when on teams and stagger it when solo.

Enervating Field: Your second anchored toggle. This one debuffs Damage Resistance, which will synergize nicely with your Sonic blasts. Open with this power when on large teams to help buff the damage AoEs that will no doubt be flying in from every direction.

Mutation: A better rez than Resurrect as this one also buffs the target. It doesn’t need more than a single recharge enhancement. This and Fallout are the two most skipable powers to make room for more /Sonic or Power Pool selections. If you are using your other powers well, teammates just won’t be dying all that often.

Lingering Radiation: Slows the target and those nearby, also a powerful Regeneration debuff. Slot with Accuracy, Recharge, and Slow. In most fights this is useful to help keep foes next to your anchors. In a GM or AV fight, this power is why everyone will be singing your praises. Ever since they buffed the GM and AV Regeneration, Rad Defenders have been immensely popular with high level teams and GM teams.

Choking Cloud: A very misunderstood power. It's a power that is bound to disappoint out of the box. Especially if you read the description and think the Devs were drunk enough to give you an always on aura that would hold everyone around you.

It costs a lot of end, it only works on minions unless stacked with something else, and the ticks aren't that fast. Sounds lousy huh?

Make the investment in slotting to afford the End and learning the techniques to get the most out of it, and it is a fantastic power. It most effective solo: If I hit Amplify and leap into a group while stunning the only Lt with Screech, I can end up with the entire group controlled. That's 100% damage mitigation, which is pretty impressive. It won't happen every time, but it will do more than enough to make you glad you have it.

People look at the description and think it is a control, but it simply does not hit reliably enough or often enough to be an effective control. No this is damage mitigation. Think of it as a peculiar form of damage resistance for you and your team. Some of the time, some of the foes around you will be held, and therefore not shooting at you, or anyone else. To get the most out of this power, you will want to be in melee range. For this reason, I recommend taking Acrobatics to go along with it.

CC is a real end hog. If you decide to take, be prepared to invest in endurance slotting not just in it, but in other powers as well. If you are willing to make an investment in play style and slotting to get the most out of this power, it is very effective. It is not, however, worth taking if you are just going to stand back and throw a single enhancement in. Slot for Endurance.

Choking Cloud is almost completely useless in PvP. So far the only helpful thing I have managed to get it to do is to alert me to the presence of a Stalker by going “Miss”.

Conclusion: Choking Cloud: Great power if you are willing to make an investment in slots and tactics to get the most out of it. A waste if you’re not. Don't take it on a whim. Almost totally useless in PvP.

Fallout: A craftable Nuke! Ingredients: One Dead Blaster. Ok, any AT will do, but Dead Blasters are easier to find and I figure they ought to do more damage This power is really more about the debuff than the damage. Either way, it will certainly turn the tide in your favor.

EM Pulse: Saps Endurance, Debuffs Regeneration, and provides a mez powerful enough to hold a Boss. What’s more they threw in damage to robotic type mobs just as a little gravy. The duration on this power is impressive. Power Build Up + Ampify + EM Pulse and you can finish off your victims at your leisure with time to spare. This is perhaps the game’s best panic button power, and a wonderful tool to have when your team accidentally agros an adjacent group of 5 Lts and a 2 Bosses. Slot with Accuracy, Hold and Recharge. While EM Pulse will crash your Endurance recovery, unlike a Nuke it doesn’t actually take away all your Endurance as well. If you are already ok on End and running Accelerate Metabolism as well, you can EM Pulse without much worry. Even if you are low on End, the recovery only crash is easier to manage than the full End crash of a Nuke. I find Conserve Power makes a nice companion power.


Sonic Blast

Shriek: Your number one blast. Low single target damage. You will want to take it and use it frequently anyway. The answer why is instructive to the overall use of Sonic Blast. Shriek, like most Sonic Blasts, does a Resistance debuff for several seconds. That means you just gave yourself and everyone else on the team about a 20% damage buff against that target. Applying, stacking, and keeping up that debuff is what Sonic Blast is all about. You want to take Shriek to help fill out your attack chain so you can be constantly applying and stacking that debuff. Soon you will find yourself hitting damage levels impressive in a Defender.

On Blasting for Resistance Debuff:
A spreadsheet analysis (how big a geek am I huh?) of attack chain blast order suggests that it doesn't matter much. You will be up to 4 * Debuff in about 5 seconds and bounce between 3 and 4 with occasional dips to 2 and rare spikes to 5. Best consistency seems to come from prioritizing your blasts by activation time: Shriek - Scream - Howl - Shout. Using Shout as often as possible is actually damaging to maintaining debuff levels because of the long activation time. I got my best results by using it only when everything else was recharging. That logic, however, doesn't take into account the amount of damage done. Will the brief drop to 2 * Debuff result in more lost damage than you gain by using your big gun? The solution is left as an exercise for the student.

My recommendation: Just blast as quickly as possible in an order that feels comfortable. Use Howl to hit as many targets as possible in team play. Don't waste Shout on a target with a sliver of health if you can finish him with Shriek and Shout at someone healthier.

Scream: Single target blast. Does nice damage in part because the rapid DoT pulses it comes in benefit from the Resistance debuff of the first tick. This is the second staple of your attack chain.

Howl: A long narrow cone attack. Provides the third attack in your basic attack chain and allows you to debuff entire groups with artful positioning. Combine Howl, with Enervating Field and a Fire Tank or Spines Scrapper and it is amazing how everything melts away.

Shockwave: A knockback cone. No Resistance debuff here I believe , but the knockback is useful in keeping foes next to your anchors if you prefer to stay back out of melee range.

Shout: High damage, short range, although not as short as it used to be thanks to a recent buff. The recharge on this is such that it will be an every other attack chain power. This is your finishing move in PvE and PvP (until you pick up Total Focus ). The burst damage against a target you have already stacked debuffs on will make those inexperienced with Rad/Sonic blink. Particularly if they are a Brute who made the mistake of thinking he could just go toe to toe with you.

Amplify: Aim by another name, but still sweet. Useful to help Choking Cloud land some hits when you first go in to a fight, and as a buff to Siren’s Song or Screech’s accuracy against that target you just have to mez. (Sappers!)

Siren’s Song: A sleep zone and a powerful one at that. This can make a build that is already powerful in a solo mission almost boringly effective. If you use Screech to wake your targets you can keep the mezed. I personally skipped this because RI and Screech and EM Pulse were all the defense and control I could ever want, and it disagreed with my wanton use of Howl.

Screech: Single target disorient that is powerful enough for a Lt, but not quite for a boss. Excellent to remove high threat single targets such as Sappers, Rikti Mentalists, Illusionists, and whomever your least favorite Lts are from the fight. Easily made permanent with a little recharge and hold slotting. And of course 20% Resistance Debuff

Dreadful Wail: Your Nova. Brings high damage, stun, and of course Resistance debuff to a dozen of your closest “friends”. Like all Defender Nukes, this is a finishing rather than an opening move, and a good panic button if you have means to recover your endurance.

PvE Overall Tactics:

Everything will be a variation on this basic theme:

Apply Toggles
Get everything next to anchors.
Blast vigorously until dead. (Them, not you silly!)

Pay attention to your terrain and agro and learn how to use it to move everything into your anchor debuffs and keep them there. As long as everyone is standing in RI, you are safe from everything but an attack that turns of your toggles. Learn who can do that, and apply your controls to them. Remember, everything you hit will take more damage the next time. You will be doing your team a favor by hitting as many targets as possible as quickly as possible.
Apply your heal proactively to keep yourself and your teammates up and fighting. Don’t put it on auto unless you have a very good reason to or the Defender Forum officially hates you forever
EM Pulse, Fallout, and Dreadful Wail are excellent panic buttons if things go south.

PvP Overall Tactics (Solo, I don’t know team PvP yet)

Your two anchor debuffs are auto hit and powerful enough to make your victims scream nerf if they can’t get away from them. Apply your debuffs and start out slow and methodical on your blasting. Ideally you want to convince your target that he can stand toe to toe with you and simply smack your squishy Defender self about with his superior hitpoints or damage. Let them think they are winning while keeping yourself in the fight with break frees and Radiant Aura, then when you have their hitpoints low and your Resistance debuffing nicely stacked, strike as hard as you can with Aim, Power Build Up, Shout, EM Pulse, Total Focus, temp powers, whatever you can bring to bear. Careful you don’t fall into the same trap yourself. Never let your health hover around nothing because you think that if you just get another couple of blasts in you’ll win.

In zone PvP, your target will often flee into PvE mobs to agro them against you once you have anchored on them. Either disengage, or just follow them straight in. As long as the mobs are in Radiation Infection, you have little to fear from them.

Power Pools

I avoided saying too much about power pools beyond commenting on the powers I have taken and are therefore familiar with.

Let's see, what can I say about Power Pools?

Concealment: RI will provide all the defense you need, stealth won't do much for you in PvE. Could be useful in PvP?

Fighting: I have found Sands of Mu and Temp. Invulnerability valuable. Fighting provides cheap knock offs of these powers, but I don't really see much value in it.

Fitness: Swift or Hurdle, Health, Stamina. Isn't that a law? Stamina is probably a must if you plan to use Choking Cloud.

Flight: Hover can help you stay next to your anchor, which is useful to herd everything towards it. Air Superiority will be impressive with all your Resistance Debuff. I didn't take it, but it seems like a good set for this build.

Leadership: You don't need the extra damage, to hit, or defense buff, your toggles are taking care of all that. Tactics is very important in PvP however, and is one of the few ways to make Choking Cloud hit more often..

Leaping: I took this and recommend it for use with Choking Cloud. Combat Jumping helps you close quickly and Acrobatics helps you survive in melee. For a toggle based AT, the extra Mez protection in Acro is great to have.

Medicine: You have a healing aura, why bother?

Presence: The taunts could be used to help herd next to your anchor. Combining the fears with your other controls could be very effective as well. Now that I think about it, I kind of wish I had room for this.

Speed: Hasten compliments Accelerate Metabolism wonderfully.

Teleport: Teleport Friend + Fallout. Nuff said

- Jock Tamson, Who was supposed to have posted this some time ago.

Championship face off to determine which build is King of the Defenders
<ul type="square">
Rules:


1. Each contest shall consist of 2 Defender Primary/Secondary combinations.

2. Anyone may start a contest, but having done so may not vote in it.

3. You may not vote more than once in a given contest.

4. The winner is the first set to 10 votes.

5. Once a winner is determined it must be included in the next contest against a challenger.

6. If multiple posters attempt to start a challenge, the first one in wins, the others will have to try again later.

7. Players of the current champion power set gain the unofficial right to include the title "King of Defenders" whenever they refer to it.

8. If this thread disapears the last champion holds the title until the end of time, or until someone starts a new thread, whichever comes first.

9. There is no rule 9.

10. Post in the following formats:

To start a challange:
[Champion]
vs
[Challenger]

[Amusing comment]

Round 1. FIGHT!

To vote:
[Champion]: Vote Total
[Challenger]: Vote Total

[Reasons why if you want]

[Amusing comment][/list]
First match:

Rad/Sonic
vs
Dark/Dark

You knew who I was going to put up top first

Round 1. FIGHT!

- Jock Tamson, Who hopes this catches on rather than just dying quietly, leaving him feeling embarrassed

Ooo Special Edition!

Obviously we need bonus extras. So here is

The Origin of Fruit Salad

It all started in a thread now sadly lost called “Answers to R U Hlr”. After a round of suggested sarcastic responses and a few “Lighten up. You’re a healer, live with it” posts the indomitable and much missed TheMightyScourge piped in to say that some people like fruit salad and others don’t and that was nothing to get worked up about, and might she add this was in no way to be taken as an analogy. I followed up to say that while this might be true, if someone just walked up to me on the street and said “Fruit Salad?” it would be a denial of my fundamental nature to not give a sarcastic response. Fruit salad recipes were exchanged, Wiggles songs and Monty Python sketches were linked to, a grand time was had by all.

The idea evolved that if, as many of us claimed, “Healer” was a term so confused and loaded in this game as to be useless as a descriptor, you might as well call yourself Fruit Salad.

The whole thing really hit the main stream when the poster formerly known as Hobo_Healer was called out by someone on his name after expressing his opinion on the “Healer” debate. He promptly changed his name to Hobo_Fruitsalad and the rest is history

So what is a Fruit Salad Defender? Fruit Salad is a Dadaist meme. It is a rejection of labels in general and the label “Healer” in particular. It’s a term for “a good Defender” that we get to define ourselves, with the added bonus that anyone arguing about it sounds instantly silly. Anyone can be a Fruit Salad Defender or Controller, all that is required is that they care about what they are doing and try to do it well. As the Paragon Wiki entry someone (whistles casually) created puts it

[ QUOTE ]
If following true furu-tsusarada-do (The Way of Fruit Salad) a Defender should be good humored, witty, and devastatingly effective. Healing powers are neither forbidden nor required.”

[/ QUOTE ]

…but really my best effort to capture what it means is the “Parable of the Fruit Salad” in the “In the beginning…” thread.

- Jock Tamson, Who didn't start but sure did push it

[ QUOTE ]
Step 1: log in villain
Step 2: ...


[/ QUOTE ]

Step 3: Profit!

- Jock Tamson, Who is sorry. It had to be done.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
But the PlayNC site does not have registration/sign-ups for Indy.

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks like we have hit capacity for the Indy event, I am working on this or we can discuss an alternate "unofficial" greeting place where I can meet all of you.

Stay tuned for further updates. We are currently looking at Alcatraz but there are still some details to be arranged, I am mentioning this so that we (COH) community can start scouting other locations to meet up.

Ex

[/ QUOTE ]



I live less than an hour from Indy and really wanted to attend this. I feel like the title should have been "We want to meet you if you have no job.". An announced sign up window would have at least given me a chance.

- Jock Tamson, Who is pouting.

*edited: My friend tells me I'm supposed to edit for first post after a red name, but I don't want to stoop to that.

This may be a controversial opinion in a time of war, but...

I would like to express my sympathy for the Rikti Invader standing in the middle of the Portal Corp Courtyard. Clearly didn't know what he was volunteering for.

- Jock Tamson, Rikti Sympathizer