Linea_Alba

There are plenty of Dark Miasma around, RO has an entire dedicated SG of them. OTher servers have them as well. However, builds tend to go in cycles, and Dark/ may have simply cycled out. It'll be back in sooner or later.

Dark/ Anything is good.

Dark Miasma/Sonic Blast would excel at focusing harder targets, similar to a scrapper. The harder the target the more -resistance the sonic can stack and the closer they can move to optimal damage. However, vs soft targets the targets die before the -res can reach optimal levels. Against large groups of targets, sonic lacks in the AoE department.

Dark Miasma/Dark Blast and Dark Miasma/Rad Blast would both excel at focusing on larger groups of softer targets. Proc-ing AoEs as well as STs can dish out some impressive AoE damage as well as acceptable ST damage.

The question then becomes which you'd rathat focus on and which fits your playstyle and expectations best.

On average, I consider +1 x4 with Bosses to be hard.

I run anything from +1 to +2 with x2 to x6 with Bosses. Remove the bosses and it is often too easy, although much faster.

Even my worst solo-er tends to breeze through +1 x2 with bosses, only slowing down for endurance issues.

PBU: Take it or Leave it. It has it's uses, but they aren't often enough or powerful enough IMO to be a must have. Personally, I skipped it since it wouldn't work with the cold bubbles. Change it so that PBU worked with the cold bubbles and I might rethink it's use.

Standard Benumb already ruins a PP's day, you just have to use it FIRST, the same applies to almost any uber-buff. Hit the target just before they use their Tier 9 and their day is over. The Healing Nictus as well, the standard benumb does more than enough to neuter one, PBU+Benumb would be cute, but dead is dead and standard benumb does the job.

Standard Heat Loss already does it's job exceptionaly well, too.

The strongest argument for me would be adding PBU to the nuke chain, THAT almost has me salivating, but as that was the only real selling point for me, I decided to go another route. After all, I'm already nuking for near blaster damage after the debuffs are taken into account.

I concur and endorse this OP.

My primary target is the healing nictus. It drops it from ~270 per heal to ~80 per heal.
Secondary target, depending on the team, is the auto-hit nictus.
Tertiary target is rom himself.

It really depends on the team makeup which is most useful. Also, it depends on how hectic battle is and if I can pick out and keep my targets aquired while still fighting effectively offensively. With all three nicti named the same, on bolder teams the chaos makes it such that I may often only get one benumb off on the proper nictus before just defaulting to Rom. Of course, by then, we've likely already killed Rom once, the biggest threat eliminated, and the game already won whether Rom knows it yet or not.

I'd hate to be the person that had to load this thing ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS31Gm9tIig

It should be very close to equal. Defender_AR+Fulcrum ~= Blaster_AR no buffs. However, the defender will be damage capped, and the blaster will not. IO out the defender and you can become similarly resilient to a Regen scrapper, but without the status protection. IO out the blaster and you should be able to (nearly) soft-cap two vectors and make yourself a considerably sturdy target. Make a corruptor version and get a bit more of the best of both worlds, more damage than a defender and more defense than the blaster, but still damage capped where-as the blaster still isn't damage capped.

I would go Hover/Fly

Then I would be tempted to steal 2-3 slots from somewhere so I can: BotZ,BotZ,BotZ,D/E,D and BotZ,BotZ,BotZ gaining ~6.9 AoE. I'm fond of the ~30% defense number. I'm even more fond of the 33% + number, but then I'd have to likely swap some Range for AoE. I wouldn't be adverse to that however, Knowing that even 1 small purple would still over-cap my defenses.

Click this DataLink to open the build!

This game is very versatile, and the sets are very variable.


I can make a defender that out blasts a blaster. Simply pick the best defender blast set and pair it against the worst blaster primary.

I can make a tank that out-damages most scrappers. A fully loaded DM/Shield tank will somewhere in the 160 single target dps range. It can solo a pylon with ease. Few scrappers aim for higher dps ratings, but instead start working on defense after they hit similar offensive marks. The tank starts with defense and works his build toward offense, where-as the scrapper starts with offense and works his build toward defense.

I've seen blasters with capped Ranged and AoE defenses taking on AVs with ease, and anything else they can keep at arms length by using hover. That blaster could easily alpha 8 man spawns using, hover and range, and then heal up with aid self.

I like to aim my defense numbers at the 32.5+% range, so I can use a small purple to cap. Then I put the rest of my energy either to offense, or team multiplication. This means I can off-tank in a pinch, and I'm very survivable. Often I have vengeance and aid-self allowing me to over-cap my defense, as well as significantly boost my team-mate's defenses anytime things start to go wrong.

As one exhibit of the variabilty of offense, the following chart represents every set combination's resulting damage chain's dps taking into account multipliers from the non-blast secondary/primary:
http://www.repeat-offenders.net/foru...3_74_13457.png

Defenders have to work harder for it, but it's entirely possible for their damage to overlap the lower 1/3 to 1/2 of the blaster damage range. The defender will have to work very hard on his build to do so, while the blaster gets all that damage at a much lower cost. To put it similarly to the tank vs scrapper, Defenders start with defense and have to work toward damage, where-as blasters start with damage and have to work towards defense. There is, however, an area of overlap between defenders and blasters as well as between tankers and scrappers.

The real question is, "How will you customize your build to meet your particular objectives, especially if those objectives lay in the range of overlap between defenders, corruptors, blasters, and EATs."

PS: I know someone that was working on a multi-billion Solo LRSF build. As far as I know, it just barely failed to work out. After that near miss, I'm certain a duo multi-billion build could succeed.

I agree with "The slotted vs unslotted trumps everything else".

Slotted would be in the roughly 21% defense range with dispersion and maneuvers.

Unslotted bubbles, dispersion, and maneuvers would be in the 28% defense range

I doubt that 7% was worth everything else that was lost in the unslotted build.

PS: Defenders are still defenders, even when they do use their secondary.

Fluffy's damage is in the 1/20 th range of your damage, and that's assuming you take the worst defender blast set available. Yes, this means once upon a time, circa i6 to i9, I killed a few minions and timed it, then had fluffy kill the same minions and timed it. This was before procs, and the results were the roughly 20x, so I dropped any and all plans to ever slot for damage. Abysmal damage, slotted for damage, is just shy of abysmal damage. However, as stated above, procs will actuallly help this. I would agree, 2-3 hamis + 3-4 procs would bring fluffy up to around "teething puppy" level. It could be quite fun to let fluffy play with things for RP value and giggles. If you have nothing better to do with those slots and procs, then knock yourself out.

As I recall, I tend to slot heavily for to-hit and recharge with some endurance tossed in. That way I can toss and teleport fluffy around from just inside stealth more often as another form of control. I REALLY wish fluffy's summon range was about double ... Poor Girl's Phantom Army.

power cycle assuming a predictable power cycle.
Hold : 4 (up to 6 ?) Procs roughly 70 damage everytime he uses his hold (say 1/3 of the time) = 23 damage per cycle.

Hold: 4 Procs roughly 23 damage per cycle
Heal: 2 Procs roughly 9 damage per cycle
Tent: 2 Proc roughly 4 damage per cycle

Gladiators: 70 x .2 chance x 1 of 3 powers = 4.6
Unbreakable: 100 x .33 chance x 1 of 3 powers = 10.9
Ghost: 70 x .2 chance x 1 of 3 powers = 4.6
Neuronic: 70 x .2 chance x 1 of 3 powers = 4.6
Trap: 70 x .2 chance x 1 of 3 powers = 4.6
Touch: 70 x .2 chance x 1 of 3 powers = 4.6
Cloud: 70 x .2 chance x 3 of 3 powers (and maybe toggles every 10 seconds) = 14 (maybe more ?)

So, given power recharges and such I'd say add them in the following order:
Cloud, Unbreakable, Touch, and Trap

It might even be more interesting to add in the 2 hold procs, Lockdown and Grav, if you haven't used them elsewhere. If you're concentrating on a hard boss, that would be that much more potential hold stacking, if you use the holds at all.

I ABSOLUTELY PROTEST!

I've been running a minimum of 4 Task Forces and/or Strike Forces per week, and as many as 12. Removing the ability to run TF / SF content at the equivalent of i15 "Invincible" will absolutely remove my motivation to run any TF or SF more than once or twice per character ever. The Challenge was my entire motivation for running 4 to 12 TFs a week. The running of 4 to 12 TFs a week is the only reason I continue playing, and constitutes 80% of my playtime. The other 15% of my playtime is joining other Coalition TFs, the majority of which run with higher difficulty level settings. The remaining 5% is associated with market activity that results from those combined TF SF runs. This change will in effect eliminate 98% of my playtime and motivation to play. TF / SF content at i15 Challenge Level 3 thru 5 *IS* my playtime. If this is a permanent change I will have NO REASON TO CONTINUE PLAYING.

Storm/Ice is one of my favorites.

And good job on what you've done so far. I still say I'd have no patience for Emp/Electric. I have done Emp/Sonic and I would do Emp/Ice ... but the last combo I would have chosen is Emp/Electric. So Kudos.

It depends on the hardiness of the target. The harder the target the better sonic as more -resistance gets stacked.

On Bosses (maybe), Elite Bosses and Above Sonic is better, on Lts and below Ice is better. Ice also has better AoE, while Sonic has better Damage per Endurance.

If you're wanting to take out EBs, AVs, Monsters, and Giant Monsters then I'd tell you to go Sonic for the longer very focused Boss fights. The better Damage per Endurance will be as important in long fights as the -resistance.

In one set of example builds:

High End Ice Blast can hit 100dps @ 4.6 eps*
High end Sonic Blast can hit 65dps * (1--resistance) @ 3.0 eps

Anytime you perma-stack 3 or more -resistance blasts then Sonic is matching or exceeding Ice and doing it for a cost of 1.6 less eps.

* This does not include primaries, temps, pools, procs, special IOs, etc. Ice can excessively well procced making an entirely different ball game. However, even well procced Sonic typically maintains the eps advantage even if the dps advantage lessens. It should also be noted that the majority of content in the game is NOT EB, AV, GM level and for that content the AoE of Ice as well as the front loaded damage that doesn't rely on the stacking of multiple -resistance powers will be an advantage for Ice over sonic. Sonic will however Always be an advantage when teaming, the larger the team the larger the advantage. It's a very complex issue.

22-28 is normally where I phase out vet powers as well. You get stamina, you get hasten, you start getting a decent "real" attack chain, and the need for fillers just falls into very low priority.

I never investigated or tested anything beyond that 22-28 range. There was a post by castle years ago, that prompted me to do the minor testing, you could probably poke him to get the information re-iterated. Alternately search back to the when the tables and information started getting leaked by Iakona. It was shortly after that time that it was revealed Sands and similar powers have their own special tables that aren't the same as other powers.

Sands and similar vet powers have their own special tables that emulate what the devs considered "standard Training, DO, SO Slotting". This means that in some cases Sands may have a higher to-hit than your own attack powers, and in other cases a lower to-hit. Which will depend on how closely your slotting mirrors what the devs considered "standard" at that time. I can confirm the last-chance-to-hit percentages through around level 20 when I stopped using my vet powers, were nominally similar, as were damage. My personal slotting tended to be a few % higher on the last-chance-to-hit, but a bit lower on the damage, but nominally equivalent. Circa i9 If I recall correctly.

The next problem will be deciding what is an acceptable "Time to 50", and under what circumstances and restraints.

Good Luck. I might do Emp/Ice, Emp/Sonic, Emp/anything but electric.

Overall, I like the idea of granting the defender a ~40% damage boost at full team health, then scaling that damage boost back to 0% while scaling in a powerboost effect as team health drops. This wouldn't be equally fair to every set, but so far it's the most attractive proposal I've seen.

Here's a link to my old emp/sonic build along with discussions of why to take what when. This was originally built as a Green Machine spin-off trio on a server RO wasn't on at the time.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcwx699m_173dkr3sdm

One strong note, target assist is your friend. When we ran these as pairs and trios, coordinated alpha and coordinated target assist were critical. We even went so far as to not team at all pre-24 as I recall. The one teaming experience we had before that level was abyssmal. It wasn't bad teaming because of us, but it was bad teaming because of what everyone expect we would be and what we wouuld do, aka babysit. When the team repeatedly wiped and left only the two of us standing to finish of the spawn ... well you can imagine the results easily enough. So we went back to plan-A which was to not team at all until level 24 to 26.

We can only HOPE someone DOES die! Vengeance, Fallout, Fallout!

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.... Basically, an MM who doesn't know how to control their pets will end up drawing additional enemies into a fight ...

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Funny, I consider it my job to shovel as many groups into the killing zone as possible. I'll pull using an enforcer, or even pull two different groups using an enforcer each, add in a Darkest Night pull, and a tar patch to funnel them all into a nice pack in the killing ground. One group with 2 darks and 2 rads we were each of the 4 of us pulling 1-2 groups simultaneously into one giant AoE Conflagration centered on a (optional) tank with a plant/ dominator as lockdown with a couple of blasters and a spines scrapper. Nice Stuff, we couldn't pull enough of them fast enough. I guess each to their own.

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... An MM who knows what they're doing, of course, is a force to be reckoned with....

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That, at least, I can agree with.

Fire/Kin, Fire/Cold, Ice/Kin, Ice/Cold