Kinetoa

Thanks all.

Right now I am trying the Fire/SD angle, and then I will dip into a Fortunata and check it out too.

Fire/SD is named Solar Infinity, and I can see him as a definite incarnate candidate.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far, its a great set of things to pick from.

For some reason, I am not as averse to elemental fake-y weapons, like fire sword and ice sword, so the first suggestion the Fire/SD feels decent, as does the ice/ice blaster.

The Fortunata really seems to fit, but IDK if I can play a girl, lol, did I forget that one?

Edit: I guess with the weapons thing, I just don't want to feel like I am playing a fantasy MMO, with sword and board, etc. I am not averse to like guns and stuff.

I am sure there have been a million posts like this, but I figured what the heck.

I have played CoH off and on since release day, subbing about 1/2 the time (by looking at my vet status), and playing in fits and starts.

With the incarnate path, I kind of want to finally "settle down", and start to get IO'd out and do Task Forces and work on the Incarnate path. This may be a char I already have and may just be too dense to see I am already there.

The problem is maybe what I am looking for is too restrictive, or I just am missing the forest for the trees. This is what I want:

Good Single target damage
Good Area of Effect damage
Decent crowd control (hard or soft)
Something in the Pri/Sec powers that buffs/helps the team like an aura, or a debuff, or a buff
A combo that makes concept "sense", ie not something hard to get your head around concept wise like bots/dark, or plants/fire.
A feeling of being relatively tough and super-hero-y(not necessarily tanker/brute, but not squishy)
Something that doesn't hit people with a weapon (my WM/MP brute is out)
And lastly, something that makes sense to be Incarnate level (I like my MM, but Incarnate robot maker doesn't make much sense to me)

I realize this list is kind of lol restrictive, and that's why I am coming out here to see if anyone can help square this circle.

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas.

Ok, so you get a drop or a random bronze/silver/gold roll and you get a nice fancy looking recipe.

If you take that recipe down to the university and make it... is it consumed, so that essentially you need one recipe drop per IO slot?

So, to get like, say, 5 powers 5 - slotted with Blah of the Blah set, you need 25 recipe's?

Or, can you make multiple IO's per recipe at all?

I am confused because pricewise, I have seen some recipe's go for so much inf, that it would appear you could get more than one IO out of them... or is it just always that the recipe costs x, and the IO is going to cost X + cost of materials + markup.

Thanks for any clarification, and sorry if this is so dense for a longer time player, but I played primarily pre IO's and this is my first attempt to branch out and really start getting them, and get my head out of the SO sand.

Sadface.

It is what it is, however.

Thanks I will check that out as well.

Do you find that having TP (even with the keybind) as your travel power makes you nuts?

I don't know alot about these things, but your build just seems to make alot of sense to me, as far as the power choices, slotting and sets.

Usually when I look for build help on the forums, there is always a power here or there that I don't agree with, but yours just seems to click with me.

I am interested in Grav/Nrg for concept reasons and it just seems cool, but I cant play something that is too bad on the min/maxing, it will eventually make me nuts.

How is Grav/Nrg on teaming as far as providing control and doing dps? I have a fire/kin controller at 41 as a point or reference, but this is drop dead my first dom try.

I want something that can solo well enough to get by, but that can execute the control and dps functions on a team well enough to feel like a solid contributor.

Any thoughts or tips?

Thanks.

How do you handle keeping everyone bubbled and managing the pets?

I find the durations on bubbles a bit maddening enough just to track, and then to give 2 bubbles to 7 people and 6 robots (26 casts), but on top of this I am trying to make sure that I am getting maximum dps from bots, while keeping them alive (especially the one that has a melee fetish).

How do you keep your team bubbled without going crazy juggling everything, because I find it a bit hard to juggle w/o feeling overwhelmed.

PS. I like to forcebolt tougher mobs to get some soft mitigation, so I am working on that too while everything is going on.

How does traps play versus ff?

I have a 36 bots/ff MM, and while I like him overall, I feel like he is *almost* there, and could use just a kick in the pants. With so much defense, I feel like I am never going to be taken down, but I am going to take all night in the process, lol.

Reading several posts it appears that /traps is the most popular pairing with bots.

I dont want to have to reroll and level up again, but I am thinking that maybe /traps is a more synergistic pairing. If I were to reroll how would the set perform and play differently?

Any thoughts?

Thanks!!

Attempting to answer my own question... I am not using Combat Jumping for anything right now (like a DEF set mule), so I am switching to hasten/SS. This gives me more levelling value from Hasten as opposed to something that is just a place holder.

Thanks so much!

With the suggestions of 5 slotting attacks, conversion of CTO to Aim, haste/SS for CJ/SJ, and an extra slot in CTD so I can add the KB protection (eventually), here is the build with just SO's (although I will start to work on IO's):


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.91
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Operative Blackiron (Pass 2): Level 40 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Channelgun -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(3), Dmg(5), RechRdx(5)
Level 1: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- ResDam(A), ResDam(34)
Level 2: Longfang -- Acc(A), Dmg(7), Dmg(7), Dmg(9), RechRdx(9)
Level 4: Combat Training: Defensive -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(11), DefBuff(11)
Level 6: Aim -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(13), RechRdx(13)
Level 8: Suppression -- Acc(A), Dmg(15), Dmg(15), Dmg(17), RechRdx(17)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(19), DefBuff(19)
Level 12: Arm Lash -- Acc(A), Dmg(21), Dmg(21), Dmg(23), RechRdx(23)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(31), RechRdx(34)
Level 16: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx(A)
Level 18: Venom Grenade -- Acc(A), Dmg(27), Dmg(27), Dmg(29), RechRdx(29)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- ToHit(A), ToHit(31), ToHit(37)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run(A)
Level 24: Super Speed -- Run(A)
Level 26: Fortification -- ResDam(A), ResDam(31), ResDam(33)
Level 28: Serum -- Heal(A), Heal(33), Heal(33), RechRdx(34), Empty(37)
Level 30: Assault -- EndRdx(A)
Level 32: Maneuvers -- EndRdx(A)
Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- Acc(A), Dmg(36), Dmg(36), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(37), RechRdx(40)
Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- Acc(A), Dmg(39), Dmg(39), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(40), RechRdx(40)
------------
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(25), EndMod(25)
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Thanks so much for the response.

I have never really mastered the art of using IO's while leveling (sticking to the easier to get and work with SO's) and this was very helpful detail.

The reason I didn't take Aim was that I didn't see it in many builds. One thing I had debated was hasten, so now am thinking about hasten vs. aim for that CT:O replacement.

Any thoughts?

I think the power choices make sense (at least on paper to me), but am curious if the slotting makes sense.

One thing I am confused about is the potential end issues from having so many toggles running. They look relatively low end use (.2/sec?) so I suppose that helps.

Also, I didn't take slice or frenzy and am wondering if that would add some close range value, and if that might be a weakness of the approach I took with this.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks!

Thanks for all the responses thus far. Sonic is definitely emerging as a candidate.

Hello.

I am creating a Crab and I have browsed the forums looking at specs, but, understandably, most of them are IO’d out 50 builds with the travel powers taken late, etc, and I was looking for some direction on practical power and slot selection when I ding 24 and then moving up to 40 or so when I would think about the more advanced choices.

I would like to primarily team, with the ability to solo as needed, and to generally level at a good pace. The below is based on reading between the lines of the 50 builds I have seen and working backwards, so I may have goofed something up in that, and for all I know, this could be a disastrous build. =) Since this is a first pas, I am expecting to have to do some tweaking based on feedback.

Thanks for any feedback on the build or general crab tips! (mmm crab tips)

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.91
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Operative Blackiron (Pass 1b): Level 40 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Channelgun -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(3), Dmg(5), DefDeb(5), EndRdx(34)
Level 1: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- ResDam(A)
Level 2: Longfang -- Acc(A), Dmg(7), Dmg(7), Dmg(9), DefDeb(9), EndRdx(40)
Level 4: Combat Training: Defensive -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(11), DefBuff(11)
Level 6: Combat Training: Offensive -- Acc(A), Acc(13), Acc(13)
Level 8: Suppression -- Acc(A), Dmg(15), Dmg(15), Dmg(17), RechRdx(17), EndRdx(34)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(19), DefBuff(19)
Level 12: Arm Lash -- Acc(A), Dmg(21), Dmg(21), Dmg(23), DefDeb(23), EndRdx(37)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A)
Level 16: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx(A)
Level 18: Venom Grenade -- Acc(A), Dmg(27), Dmg(27), Dmg(29), Range(29), RechRdx(37)
Level 20: Tactical Training: Leadership -- ToHit(A), ToHit(31), ToHit(31)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run(A)
Level 24: Super Jump -- Jump(A)
Level 26: Fortification -- ResDam(A), ResDam(31), ResDam(33)
Level 28: Serum -- Heal(A), Heal(33), Heal(33), RechRdx(34)
Level 30: Assault -- EndRdx(A)
Level 32: Maneuvers -- EndRdx(A)
Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- Acc(A), Dmg(36), Dmg(36), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(37), RechRdx(40)
Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- Acc(A), Dmg(39), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(40)
------------
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A), Empty(25), Empty(25)
------------

I have a friend (no really) who wants to start CoH, but is somewhat particular about what he plays in MMO's, and has asked for a character that matches the following:

- must be evil (villain)
- must be ranged
- must be high damage
- must be focused on single target damage, preferably the highest ST damage
- preferably the combo would be hard to play *well* skill wise (as opposed to hard to play due to bad synergy, gimped, etc)

I explained to him that CoH does tend to favor AoE in many areas, but he still wants to be the ST guy.

I have no experience with Corruptors, but just looking at paragon wiki I was thinking of Rad/Kin, as it appears to be ST friendly, and Kin allows for stealing +DMG.

However, I could be way off about how Rad is performing and where it sits in the AOE to ST spread.

Any ideas on challenging villainous extreme ranged dps?

According to Zaprobo's guide

"Henchman resistance and defense scales with level, to a high point over what 2 Single-Origin enhancements would grant (henchman summons can not be slotted for additional Resistance or Defense). "

I wonder if the res/def scaling doesn't work as well or at all if SK'd as it does from actual leveling? This would explain why when being SK'd your pets dying much worse than those that are actually 50.

Thanks for all the great responses!

Is this purely a nice rez, or is it intended to be cast as a debuff even if no people are down? Obviously, if you are debuffing with it and no one is dead, then it wouldn't be ready if needed.

Having someone drop from an alpha strike or ambush, particularly the tanker/brute and then popping them back up at full, *seems* more valuable to hold then to just use it for debuffs when you have so many in the set, but I was just curious.

Thanks.

Thanks for the responses.

Here is a version 2.0 based on your collective feedback!

Let me know if you still have any other thoughts!


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.91
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Nec/Dark Take Two: Level 40 Magic Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Necromancy
Secondary Power Set: Dark Miasma
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Presence
Power Pool: Speed

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Zombie Horde -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(3), Dmg(5), Dmg(5), ToHitDeb(7)
Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- Acc(A), Acc(7), Heal(9), Heal(9), Heal(19), EndRdx(34)
Level 2: Tar Patch -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(31), RechRdx(33)
Level 4: Darkest Night -- ToHitDeb(A), ToHitDeb(11), ToHitDeb(31)
Level 6: Enchant Undead -- EndRdx(A)
Level 8: Hover -- EndRdx(A)
Level 10: Howling Twilight -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(11), RechRdx(17), Dsrnt(19)
Level 12: Grave Knight -- Acc(A), Acc(13), Dmg(13), Dmg(15), Dmg(15), DefDeb(17)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight(A)
Level 16: Shadow Fall -- EndRdx(A)
Level 18: Soul Extraction -- Acc(A), Dmg(23), RechRdx(23), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(40)
Level 20: Fearsome Stare -- Acc(A), RechRdx(25), RechRdx(25), RechRdx(33), ToHitDeb(33)
Level 22: Assault -- EndRdx(A)
Level 24: Tactics -- EndRdx(A), ToHit(37), ToHit(37), ToHit(37)
Level 26: Lich -- Acc(A), Acc(27), Dmg(27), Dmg(29), Dmg(29), DefDeb(31)
Level 28: Petrifying Gaze -- Acc(A), Acc(34), RechRdx(34)
Level 30: Provoke -- Acc(A)
Level 32: Dark Empowerment -- EndRdx(A)
Level 35: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(36)
Level 38: Dark Servant -- Acc(A), Acc(39), ToHitDeb(39), ToHitDeb(39), RechRdx(40), RechRdx(40)
------------
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21), EndMod(21)

This is just a quick build I threw together to make sure I am essentially "doing it right" and not missing something major from either power selection or basic slotting approach.

This is meant to be an overall normal distribution of solo and teaming kind of thing. This only goes through 40, as by then, I will re-evaluate for PP and IO's, etc and we'll cross that bridge.

Any input is welcome, please let me know if I skipped/took/slotted/unslotted something boneheaded.

Thanks.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.91
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Levelling Nec/Dark: Level 40 Magic Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Necromancy
Secondary Power Set: Dark Miasma
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Presence
Power Pool: Speed

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Zombie Horde -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(3), Dmg(5), Dmg(5), ToHitDeb(7)
Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- Acc(A), Acc(7), Heal(9), Heal(11), Heal(36), EndRdx(37)
Level 2: Tar Patch -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(17), RechRdx(23)
Level 4: Darkest Night -- ToHitDeb(A), ToHitDeb(19), ToHitDeb(25)
Level 6: Enchant Undead -- EndRdx(A)
Level 8: Gloom -- Acc(A), Acc(9), Dmg(11), Dmg(19), ToHitDeb(21)
Level 10: Hover -- EndRdx(A)
Level 12: Grave Knight -- Acc(A), Acc(13), Dmg(13), Dmg(15), Dmg(15), DefDeb(17)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight(A)
Level 16: Shadow Fall -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(25), EndRdx(34)
Level 18: Soul Extraction -- RechRdx(A)
Level 20: Howling Twilight -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(40)
Level 22: Assault -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(34), EndRdx(37)
Level 24: Tactics -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(34), EndRdx(37)
Level 26: Lich -- Acc(A), Acc(27), Dmg(27), Dmg(29), Dmg(29), Fear(31)
Level 28: Petrifying Gaze -- Acc(A), Acc(31), Hold(31), Hold(33), RechRdx(33), RechRdx(33)
Level 30: Provoke -- Acc(A)
Level 32: Dark Empowerment -- EndRdx(A)
Level 35: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(36)
Level 38: Dark Servant -- Acc(A), Acc(39), Hold(39), Hold(39), RechRdx(40), RechRdx(40)
------------
Level 2: Stamina -- End(A), End(21), End(23)

I have a 26 MA/SD going, and I am starting to think about how to actually build him. I sat down with Mids and kept restarting trying to get a feel, as I have never done an IO set build and I am hitting my head on a wall, because I don't know some basics about how to set it up.

(I haven't played in a long time and I haven't played much past 40)

1) There seems to be a glut of attacks, especially with APP/PP added in, and I am having trouble figuring out which to prune vs. take.

I know I want Cobra Strike for the control, Dragon Tail for some AoE and the KD, Crippling Axe Kick, I *think* because it's great damage, so that makes sense. EC makes sense because its the Big Daddy and for the next-attack-buff, but then Crane Kick is a form of control too, and is decent damage, not to mention TK and SK which also are ok, and of course you have to take one.

Does TK, CS, CAK, DT, EC make sense as your five MA takers?

2) How many from an IO set makes sense (or does it vary with the set bonus?)

Like, should I 5 slot my attacks? 6 slot them with the whole set? Which of the set like Mako's Bite should one take? Some of the 6 set bonuses look good, but that's kind of ungainly.

3) What APP/PP makes the most sense with MA/SD? I was thinking fire for Fireball and more AOE.

4) Is just 3 slotted stamina and IO's enough for end recovery?

5) Last one... do I need a hea? If so I have to spend on Heal other to get self Heal, and I am already probably "wasting" a slot getting to Tough/Weave.

Any thoughts, or your experiences are welcome!

I hadn't really thought about dark being a good fit, but I think it may be... what about the AoE aspect?

Will MA/DA give you any kind of decent AoE? I am looking at DT + Death Shroud? that's not alot to eek out an AoE livin'.