Linea_Alba

Time Distortion(ala swap ammo type power): Doubles the (magnitude and/or duration), recharge time (longer), and endurance cost (more cost) of all your Time powers.

The goal would be to extend everything but mending to a duration of at least 60 seconds, and then rebalance around that duration. Mending could keep the up front heal, but increase the dot magnitude and duration such that it's total healing was double the magnitude over double the duration of 60 seconds. The problem I see then would be the massive endurance dump at the start of the fight. That might have to be adjusted by further tweaking to Chrono-Shift.

Cheap Hover Tank, based on the Gun, but you can easily change that to the Arms.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.956
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

The following are estimates based on spreadsheets as well as in-game experience. Mileage and builds may vary.

(Fire/Time/Fire) Soul with Fodder and level shifted can whittle down a +4 AV, but I wouldn't advise it. I'm actually not that fond of Soul for sustained damage anyway. Great Spike, meh on sustained. But tha's just me.

Time/DP is going to top out 150 to 170 -redraw -support clickies. Realistically that's probably 125, but depending on how much you have to use your clickies could drop sub 100. I've not had the patience to run a pylon without the pets. I suppose I should some day, just so I'll know.

That means +0 +1 AVs. If you level shift you'll be limited to level 52 realistically, but may be limited to only 51.

DP ST damage is typically below average. You can't fix that.
DP AoE damage is above average IF you leverage the mini-nuke with high recharge.
Time/ Leverages Lore extremely well.

As Time/DP I can and do solo everything* in the game +4x8. I've continually threatened to solo a +4x8 ITF with the Time/DP. I have no comments about the padding on my walls.

• I walk into a room with a scrapper surrounded by targets, nuke the room flat and leave the scrapper cursing his lack of chew toys.
• When solo, I prefer +2x8 for speed. But I also prefer +4x8 for the challenge. +2 is no challenge. +2 and down I nuke flat a spawn every 90 seconds. The spawns between go down with average to above average speed.
• It IS slow vs Bosses and up, when I'm solo I prefer to turn bosses off, but often leave them on for the challenge. If I hit an AV, I use lore. The buffs leverage lore to considerably above average. We have 48 second Pylon times. We've taken down +4 Hero1, he was one of the more difficult that I recall.
• I'm somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 the speed of a T4 SS/Fire on a cave run. +4 Bosses suck. I normally do the equivalent of a 30 minute run and it takes me about an hour. I've had slower runs as well. It depends on how well the bosses cooperate with my AoE. I've never done the full 2+ hour run, but I suppose I should just to find out exactly where in that duration it would fall. I'd bet on it being closer to 3 hours, but I could be wrong. T4 SS/Fire would do the same in 50-60 minutes, rarely over 60 minutes.
• Due to my buffs, my lore are actually useful and typically live in a cave run. The LT sometimes gets splattered. Rarely the boss stops taking orders, gets too far away from me chasing something, and gets ambushed.
• I can take a team into a cave run and keep them alive and let them fight. However, it's much easier to keep them alive in a +2/+3 run, than in a +4 run. If they do die, or get themselves killed, they tend to stay dead for a long time since my buffs are on strict cycles. The runs with a team are actually slower than solo runs. The discrepancy is due to having to spend almost all my time on support instead of offense. On the other hand, It's considerably more fun for them than door sitting, and if you actually participate it becomes a mission and a story arc, not an agricultural activity.

Before the mini-nuke, it's below average. If you maximize recharge in order to leverage the mini-nuke, it's above average after you get the mini-nuke. However, "above average" will never mean "Top Tier" in the case of DP.

PBU should buff Chrono. However, my testing indicated that it does not. It's possible that it's a bug with the power, a bug with the stat monitors, etc. From experience fighting I can't tell that it effects Chrono Either. It is possible that it DOES effect chrono, but that chrono is a pulse and so it's only effected for the 10 to 15 seconds that PB/PBU is active. This would be the most likely explanation.

Ageless +Recovery T3/T4 is overkill on recovery. It's roughly double recovery or more. I'd have to go back and look it up, but I'm thinking it was in the neighborhood of 4.0 eps.

Musculature Core Paragon T4 is well worth it. However, T1, T2 are meh. It's the punching past the ED cap that counts, and you don't get that in noticeable levels till Musculature Core Paragon T4.

Cardiac however, is helpful at T1, though I'd grab a T3 for the level shift when/if I want to use it while solo. Most missions are not nearly as intense as what I build for, you may well find you have plenty of endurance once you finish out the builds as is.

As I recall, and don't quote me on this. But once upon a time I figured up the relative eps levels of the options. I don't recall the exact answers but it was something along the lines of:
* Radial +endmod (musculature/agility) is .1 to .2 eps. Translation, if you need a little bit, a radial might be just what you're looking for. Of course, if a radial is enough, then a base empowerment would be enough too. Therefore, I almost never recommend the radial option. Also note, the radial option is only noticeable once you reach T4, for the same bypassing ED caps reasons. pre-T4 it'll be even more underwhelming.
* Cardiacs roughly .6 to 1.0 eps
* Agelesses 1.0 to 4.0 eps

You'll have to decide how long do you want to be able to fight. Prefer 180s, but would settle for 120s.

Using a 120s fight as a minimum benchmark ... assuming lotsa stuff....

If you're dry in 95s, then a radial would make you 120 seconds.
If you're dry in 60s, then cardiacs would get you variably between 85 and 120 seconds.
If you're dry in 30s, then Ageless would get you variably between 60 and infinity seconds. Aka: Ageless +recovery T4 can solve all but the most ludicrous abuses of endurance. Synchronized with Nukes it can make the nuke crashes painless as well.

For level 44 and down Malfactoring, soloing, and/or non-ageless builds, I'd recommend Force of Nature alternated with Conserve Power ... and of course PBU. I don't know if that will or won't be enough endurance for you, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. In non-stop fighting, I can go over an hour full out AoE Damage by alternating those two. It gets a little tight sometimes between them depending on recharge. Near perfect balance, and I'll be using 20% or 30% less endurance than fire going all out AoE. I'll also be doing 20% or 30% less AoE damage as well. Mixed Blessing, I can fight forever, but do less damage. However, due to the nature of the "Stupid Scrapper Tricks" I like to pull, Fighting forever was a priority for my build.

For more endurace:
* Base Empowerments - They last an hour and are easy to renew if you store 10 of each component in the base next to the empowerment station. I do this a great deal on lowbies, but don't normally do that on mature characters.
* Recovery Serum Temp
* Accolades
* Maybe even some Day Jobs

If one of you runs ageless +recovery, you won't even need Musculature Radial.
If you stick to Musculature Core Paragon T4, you're Judgements, Lore, and Interfaces will see a large benefit. Offense really IS that important. You have everything else in the build, even a few kitchen sinks, you need OFFENSE.

"Non-Musculature Core Paragon T4" would turn my 48 second pylon into a 90+ second pylon and make me sad.

"Non-Musculature Core Paragon T4" would turn my double nukes that take out anything +2 and down, to leaving lotsa ticked off angry, but still alive stuff poking me with sticks and leaving me sad, sore, bloody, and bleeding.

If you're on freedom, send me a tell and I'll be happy to demo what a high-end PBU+Farsight Musculature (Clarion Core/Clarion Radial) build can do and answer any questions you might have.

I could demo either in +4x8 DA, +4x8/+2x8 ITF, or +4x8/+2x8 Ambush/Patrol Farms. I can survive the +4 versions, but the +2 versions are more in-line with my offensive capabilities. Note +4x8 DA is essentially equal to +2x8 normal mobs for offensive-vs-npc-target once adjusted for mob difficulties, higher mob resists, and level shifts.

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Double Stacked Farsight should cover your to-hit needs. You can simulate this in mids, using the exemp base options and adjusting to-hit appropriately or modifying the database, whichever you prefer. If not, then double stacked PBU+Farsight will definitely cover it.

If you are not futher IO'ing the builds, For Incarnate Content, I would definitely suggest PB or PBU for one of the builds. I would mirror PBU on both builds, but it wouldn't strictly be needed. Without one PBU, your coverage could be spotty depending on the reliability of your debuffs. with one PBU you're barely covered sans-debuffs. With two you're covered and have room for some psuedo-DDR, then your overlapping debuffs can work as further pseudo-DDR. At that point, with stacked (PBU+Farsight and Debuffs) you'll make most tanks jealous, and you'll be able to take quite a few hits before you cascade.


Alpha
Paired: Musculature Core T4 and Musculature Core T4
Solo: Musculature Core /Agility/Cardiac/Vigor/Other T3/T4

Paired you want damage. Solo you may need endurance management or other.

Destiny
Paired: Ageless Core +Recovery T3/T4 and Clarion Core T4/Clarion Radial T4
Solo: Clarion Core T4/Clarion Radial T4

Paired one of you will be endurance management, the other status protection or status protection +special +defense buff.
Solo you'll want either Status or Status +special.
Clarion Radial acts as another PB to effectively grant PB+PB/PBU+Farsight ~= 50 defense. If you both used it you could almost hard cap defense. Drop a vengeance into the mix and you could be surpassing the defense hardcap. Yes, there IS a defense hardcap. Nevermind all the talk of the piddly little softcap. O.o

Note: Clarion Radial T4 works for both of you, which gives options of synchronizing or alternating to optimize either or both defense and status protection. I've never experimented with synchronized stacked clarion radials and if there is a hardcap to +special. If there's no hardcap to +special or it isn't reached with a pair.
Alternated that could be .... approximately ... 7 + (2 * (12.5 * (1 + .55 + .8 + 1.6 + 0.4)) ~= 115 ... possibly capped to 107 ....
Stacked that could be .... approximately ... 7 + (2 * (12.5 * (1 + .55 + .8 + 1.6 + 1.6)) ~= 145 .... Likely Capped to Either 107 or 132 ... if +special has a cap.
Needless to say, I almost never run the Clarion Radial version, but it's a nice option to have if needed. I typically run Clarion Core instead.

Further Note: The teamwork required to pull off the (synchronized stacked clarion radial+pbu+farsight) is emmense. It's pretty well limited to voice chat and/or sitting right beside each other. However, the benefits are along the lines of borken(tm).

Interface
Paired and Solo: Reactive Radial or Degenerative Radial on both. T4

Reactive is the best damage, but everyone and their granny uses it, there's a limite to stacking (which means it's often wasted due to the stacking limite on teams), and it causes things to run like chickens with heads cut off.

Degen is likely second best, and not everyone uses it, and it's exotic damage. Degen with Chem ammo practially ignores T9s. Degen with Chem Ammo and Seers* Lore would ignore T9s.

*However, as a warning, Seers lore are also the weakest overall damage, so unless you're specifically hunting T9 Avs, Seers are not worth the investment. That translates as Master of Lambda.

Judgement
Paired and Solo: Void Radial -Damage T3/T4 on Both:

Pseudo 30 second T9 on 90s recharge. That's 2 out of 3 spawns or 60 of 90 seconds under a pseudo T9 ... The things I could do with that second copy, I'd totally pay for that, even if the second copy did no damage, the debuff alone would be worth the money.

Lore
Paired and Solo: Cimmies, Warworks, and .... optional Longbow, Bots, Any. T3/T4

Cimmies are the best Single Target damage.
Warwarks are the best overall

See: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...7&postcount=26

Longbow with the Cat are going to be the best for level 50 and above Giant monsters. For most all other content pure damage will trump the debuffs. For those really hard targets I'd likely mix (one LB with one Cimmie). For DD and above itrials with massive resists, I might even look at two LBs. It really depends on where the numbers fall in actual combat, and how much other support and debuffs are on the team. If the special debuff resists I've heard talked about are too high, then you'd have to go the opposite direction and ditch both LBs and go with Two Cimmies for a pure damage approach.

Bots are just my personal subjective favorite and have nice AoE, but this has no basis in fact nor in scientifically measured nor tested performance. I just like them.

As a base platform you're fine with neither. But if you want to do more, and push the envelope, your choices are: Elude or Controls.

With elude you gain DDR and Pseudo-DDR.
With Melee Fort (including redraw) you about 10% of your offense, but you gain controls. With those controls you can survive more, more often than elude.
Now if we could just add more Resist or HP or Damage, too. Push the envelope even futher.

Non-Melee Forts give up too much offense for my tastes, and I'm also assuming high recharge builds. The lower the budget for the build the larger the offensive gap between Melee Fort and the Nightwidow. It's similar to the perma-ML issue. The Nightwidow can Perma-ML much more easily and cheaply than the Fort, but once both reach that level, the differences become minor. The Night widow can top out offense more easily and cheaply, but once the Fort invests enough in the build, the differences are less meaningful.

To put it another way, lets say I want to solo +4x8 ITF or DA content, where defense debuffs are prevalent.
At the base build I can take 1 or 2 hits, or 1 DA debuff, before I cascade. Add Elude and I can stand in the middle of the pack and ignore the debuffs. Add Controls and I can preemptively turn the debuffs against them, and get a pocket emp. With Neither I'll either have to dance, eat candy, or die. If I was on a base build without elude or controls I would probably opt for dancing, and candy if the dancing failed. Kinetic Dampners can help too.

You have to sacrifice something:

• Price
• 1 Pet
• Perma Pets
• Ranged Defense.
• Recharge
• Medicine Pool
• Immobilize

Perhaps more than 1 something. You can barely get all those things top end build. If you put medicine pool on the list, then you can't get them all no matter the cost.

I would suggest prioritizing, then we could probably help you more.

SOA crits and crit chances have never been as good as a stalker. I don't see that as a problem.

I prefer more defense, but it should be solid enough for +2/+3. +4 without the level shift you might feel a nibble here and there. The same for DD 54(+3) and above Incarnate content.

Kismet is +to-hit, not +accuracy. How much you need depend on what level targets you plan on fighting and what level you plan on malfactoring down to. You can simulate this in Mids by adjusting the Options->Config->Exemping->BaseToHit as well as flipping or manipulating other accuracty and to-hit bonuses appropriately for the level intended.

Placate is damage neutral for Widows. The time spent animating Placate results in essentially the same damage as if you spent that time on a high end high recharge constant damage chain. Spike is higher with placate. It's a choice of "Nothing Nothing Splat" vs "Stab Stab Splat". However, Placate is a good control.

Assuming a high end high recharge chain, Followup yields the better sustained damage chain. Obviously spike is better with BU. How many of your fights last 10 seconds or less vs how many of your fights last more than 20 seconds. When I say fight, I mean the entire non-stop fight/spawn, not one target within the fight. Fiddling with non-combat powers that break your offensive chain, and interrupt keeping followup maximized will also affect this decision.

Mako's higher proc rate compensates for the damage type concerns in the overall picture.

If you're not taking Elude, *I* see little reason not to take the Melee Fort path instead. For myself it was always a choice of Control vs Elude. For me Control won the argument. To Pick neither is a bit baffling.

If you want to survive, you have to at least off-tank. You're strength will be in high recharge near-perma Drain Psyche combined with defenses (defense and resist) strong enough to allow you to stay at PBAoE range.

• If you're not on a team with another alpha breaker, then you will be the one up close and personal with the targets.
• If you are on a team with another alpha breaker, let them go in first, wait 3 to 5 seconds, and follow. If they're good at their job you won't need to eat your candy. If not, you'll have to eat your candy and step up.
• If you're on a steamroller killing spawns in 10 seconds or less, you're gonna have to leapfrog with the other alpha breakers. So again, eat your candy and step up.

A) Soft Cap SL Defense
B) 32.5 Melee/Ranged/AoE and (Candy/Buffs/Vengeance/Kinetic Dampners/etc) for softcap to all vectors.

I think I prefer the latter. One good buffer on the team and you're as solid as the average scrapper, perhaps more solid.

There are builds for both from several sources in my archives in my sig.

I taunt by opening with Venom, Heavy Burst, eFences, and jumping into melee. It's not a true taunt, but if you can get the first two or three into the targets, most everything will focus on you. Of course I've always been a bit darwinian: "Adapt yourself to the team or die". Don't expect someone else to save you. Hence no taunt in my builds.

Soloing really hard targets, I'll go in alone for 10 seconds, get immobilize locked down, then summon the pets. By that time the target is more than sufficiently annoyed with me to ignore the pets for the duration.

Of a mixed mind on the pets. Keep them alive and on hard single targets that 1000+ dps is great. On the other hand, they die easily on higher difficulty settings, and AoE is king in general content. You can definitely swap pets for more AoE and nuke down more groups.

If I wasn't already running a huntsman for level 1-45 malfactoring, I'd be running 3 crab builds. Offensive Nuking Crab (less or no pets), Offensive with Pets Crab, Defensive Tanking (but not taunting) Crab.

Crabs can vary from Tank to Blaster depending on how you build them. There have been several rather lengthy discussions following these lines recently. Read further into the forums for several examples. You can also browse the archives in my sig for more example builds.

TLDR: Scrapper vs Tank

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Double Damage with Regen Scrapper Defenses (assumed build) vs iCapped Defense (more than double the defense), additional -tohit for DDR purposes. Both can have healing, endurance, -damage, resist and defender T9s.

The scrapper version probably won't solo beyond +2x8, but at that level will nuke every group it comes across.

The tank version nukes flat anything +2x8 or below every 90 seconds, and slugs it out in-between. The tank version can solo +4x8 incarnate content.

The scrapper version will have enough damage to not slow down significantly on +4 bosses (but would likely struggle more to solo +4x8), while the tank version will typically want to avoid +4 bosses while soloing, but could tank a room full of them solo or grouped. +2 bosses are ok for either.

The scrapper version will also turn a good team into a great team, a fast team into a super-train. However, the scrapper version will not turn an average team into a great team, nor a poor team into a good team. You'll need a good team as a base starting point.

The tank version can turn a bad team into a good team. Turn a complete team of squishies into a team of tanks or at least scrappers, depending on the build choices. You can grant an entire team +30 to +60 defense to all, as well as massive +to-hit to help lower level sks hit their targets. In addition you have -damage -tohit and several other tools. You can also play main tank vs anything other than iAVs, LR, and States. (you need +hp for the latter)

One of Each (Kin/DP/Kin Time/DP/Time) can turn ANY team into a steam roller. The Kin providing healing, -to-hit, -damage, endurance, and ++damage; while the Time provides healing, endurance, +defense, -to-hit, ++to-hit, -damage, and tanking.

PS:
I would recommend both as defender for the higher modifier numbers, and access to the multiplier powers earlier.

Fulcrum+DP should hit hard enough that you don't miss scourge. Conversely, pre-Fulcrum the corruptor will have more damage.

Pre-50 Time/ can iCap as well as standard soft-cap much more easily and early in the build. Post-50 the corruptor using well timed Clarion Radial can still iCap although logistically it's more difficult, and team buffing will definitely take a hit by using the synchronized clarion radial technique. Aka: Theory vs practice. The theory is sound, but the practice is exponentially more difficult to achieve.

PPS:
There should be i22.0 builds for both Kin/DP and Time/DP in my archives in my sig. Updated i22.5 and i23 versions should be available for Time/DP, but probably not for Kin/DP. i23 versions subject to change.

Enzymes no longer effect defense levels in Heightened Senses. You would be better off with a straight End IO, Cyto, or +5 Def/End. My build in my archives in my sig sacrifices some recharge and flashing steel in order to softcap MLENFC.

I'll second that. Everyone has their own preferences.

I updated my archives, and now have ... five ... variations of my current Crab build. I'd like to have them ALL. Each one has a niche. But I'm only running 9a while building 9b. I'm also running a Huntsman build 5a.

I tend to be about survivability first, while maintaining offense second. To that end I'm running 3 builds.

• Huntsman with emphasis on malfactoring 15 to 45.
• General Crab 9a with Ranged iCap and Standard Melee/AoE, then all the rest of the build goes to offense. Blank slots are for the i23 ATO, which may or may not play nice sub level 45/47. Optional flip Frenzy to Armageddon depending on the i23 ATO and if you aren't worried about malfactoring sub 47.
• i23 Hybrid iCapped to All 9b. This build gives up a lot of recharge and the (near) perma-pets to iCap defenses. This is overkill for anything other than main tanking or soloing +4x8. It may well be overkill even then. Notes: it is NOT icapped prior to i23 and Hybrid T4 +Defense. Blessing of Tielekku grants 2.8 defense all.

The other builds are optional Omega Maneuvers builds, trying to maintain defense levels while maximizing recharge for double mini-nukes (Omega + Judgement) every 90 seconds, or rotating mini-nukes every 45. This type of build steam rolls large spawns. The combined 200+ ST dps with Mini Nukes is impressive. However, you just gave away 1000 Single Target 5 minute surge dps (No sub 50 second pylon times for you). But if you find pet management to be a persistant problem and aren't really leveraging the pets to benefit (1000 dps dead is ZERO dps), then this type of build might be the option for you. If I was going the petless omega route, I'd go with 9e.

Reactive or Degen would top my list.

If you're happy that's all that matters.
It's ... original.

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If, however, you want more performance, there are many high end builds in my archives in my sig, as well as in the Soldiers Forum. The two major build patterns follow either offense, or survivability. The offense line pursues recharge and leveraging of the pets, while the survivability line pursues defense, resist, and hp while sacrificing some of the offense offered by the pets. Other variants sacrifice the pets further if not eliminate them, however, there seems little to gain and much to loose in many of those scenarios. In my own line of builds I have an offensive one and an i23 hybrid icap defensive one, but the icap version sacrifices significant burst offense in order to achieve icap. If you don't plan on playing "main tank" then I'd advise taking any of the various offensive high recharge variants. Start with one of the known good builds and then modify to fit your own needs and preferences.

Some Known Good Builds, neither inclusive nor exclusive, from my archives:
BlueRuckus 2
Darkstar 6
Giant2005 2
Granite 4
Trilby 2
Wlyfen 9

A +1 (with optional Master of) can be soloed in ~1 hour.
Edit: By a Crab Spider, Defender, and likely several other if not ALL Archetypes. 2 hours at most.
It's only the +4 variety that takes forever.

Good Luck.

If you're doing it +1 or less, don't worry, it's easy.

If you're trying it +4x8 then I strongly suggest triple stacking immobilize capability as Rommy is a Gold Medal Track Star. The lack of immobilize is what made me have to respec.

Rather than take over your post with ITF soloing info; If you need the 3 page version of tips, techniques, and tricks send me a PM.

If assault continues to effect pets after beta, I'm almost certain I'll be going Assault and Melee.

On the most defensive end I'll be going Melee, Rebirth, and Cardiac.
On the most offensive end of the spectrum I'll be going Assault, Ageless +Recovery, and Musculature.

I like the extra defense I get from fighting, but that in turn means I need cardiac or other buffs.
I tend to Main Tank a good deal, so in turn I need hp replacement. That's aid self, rebirth, or melee.
To solo +4x8 incarnate content, I'm gonna need a bit more defense, that's melee, and maybe Agility or Vigor, but probably Cardiac since I have resist shields too.

My new build is in my archives in my sig as Wlyfen 7r, I'll put it directly my sig (instead of in the archives) when I get it updated and tested in-game. By the time I do that, It'll be time to update it again. 8-p

The Dominate slotting I have in my build (see sig), with an SBE Devastation Hold Proc, should be very high chance to Mag 5 Burst Hold. However, I've not tested the i22 build it yet.