Local_Man

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16) Grounded - EndRed

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Um -- I'm not an expert on Elec/Elec Brutes, as mine is only about level 13 or so, but isn't Grounded a passive? So you can't even slot an EndRdx into it?

A very nice update, EG! Thanks so much for keeping this essential guide up to date. My BS/Regen is 22 now, and is my main solo character. Your guide has been a great help.

I haven't taken the time on Test to really check out all the IO's, so your suggestions will be a fantastic help when it goes live.

No offense, but this should go in the Player's Question section, not the Guide section. You'll probably get more responses there. However, you may want to give a little more information about what you like. Melee or team support? Solo or team? How simple or complex? Storm Defenders and Controlers have a lot of flashy powers, but are hard to play well. Fire/Energy Tanks have a lot of bright powers, but are more survivable.

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*cries*

Have fun everyone! Take lots of screenshots!

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I'm gonna miss it, too. Darned Real Life!

It is a pretty nice discussion of your experience with the build. I noticed one slight error -- you stated that you respec'ed out of GASH, when you meant CHOP. You can't respec out of GASH.

Personally, I have both Hasten and Build-up on my Level 36 Invul/Axe tank, and I feel it makes the character much better. But each person makes his own build, and you may not need it for Ice. Invul has more "skippable" powers than Ice, so there was more room for the other options.

I find some of the strategy discussion interesting. As it is now, Holding Hami only keeps him from spawning mitos, but he continues firing his attack. It appears that the new encounter will involve having to actually deal with a couple of mito spawns, while trying to take Hami down. I suspect that there will have to be a Hami team and a Mito team working simultaneously, so the Mito team takes care of the spawned mitos while the Hami team continues to debuff and damage Hami.

Just a guess.

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I have a problem.

My Robotics Mastermind is a robot himself - just a robot, pure and simple. He has his regular costume and two empty costume slots. I'm getting a feeling this will end up being a one-costume character. I mean, what would a robot, manufactured to be just what he was manufactured to be, have as an extra appearance? Robots don't have capes or clothing or multiple color scheme "outfits"... or anything like that. I just can't think of anything else to do with him.

I'm totally lost with this character's costumes.

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Try making a Gold/Brass version . . . or Orange/Copper.

I have one character who has a similar dilemma -- my Earth/Rad Controller is "Brown Dirt Cowboy." (I already have a Capt. Fantastic, and he's the sidekick, based on the old Elton John song.) He's a Cowboy . . . dressed in Brown. Not much else I could do with him. How did I vary his costume? I just changed his shirt color under his jacket. That's it.

I really enjoyed this guide. You showed that a guide does not have to be the "Final Word" on a build to have some nice and useful information.

My Ice/Ice was the second character I ever made, and I pull him out every now and then to pick up a level. (Darned Altitis!) He's 27 now and looking forward to Shiver. Like your Chyll, I have designed him as a ranged-only blaster. He has none of the melee powers yet, and usually stays floating over the battle, out of reach of those nasty melee baddies. You made me look forward to some of the goodies yet to come.

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I love this guide! I think it helped to make my main character's costumes look much better. Here's some (admittedly mediocre) before and after shots:

Taumaril's main uniform:
Before
After

Taumaril's alternate uniform:
Before
After (Front) After (Back)

Actually, her alternate costume is quickly becoming her standard. I don't know about any of you, but I like them.

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Honestly, I liked your original versions better.

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Not me! I liked the changed versions much better.

I enjoyed this guide as some great suggestions about making costumes. Unless the name/Theme says otherwise, I tend to go for the classic golden-age or silver-age hero. To me, however, it all starts with a name, which is frequently a pun of some kind, and the choice of powersets.

For example, I wanted to make an Ill/TA,as I love the Illusion set, but had never tried the TA set. I thought they might synergize well. OK, now the name. An Illusionist who carries a bow. Hmmmm. An illusionist is an entertainer . . . so "Beau Geste" became "Beau Jester." Backstory? He's got to be a reformed Carnie, since they have Illusionists. That works!

With a name like that, I focus on the Jester part. CoH does not have a Jester hat, unfortunately. White face with a silly smile, Purple top hat, purple and green suit, with touches of white and black. He slightly reminds me of the Joker . . . Hmmm, the Top Hat just does not look silly enough, so lets add some longhorns with some Yellow . . .

And the first reaction I get from my buddies on Ventrilo when they first saw him was, "Oh, jeez, look at that! <laughter>" BINGO! Just what I wanted!

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I finally bought myself an Atari 800XL as a teenager.

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I saved up for months to pay $899 for my Atari 800 with 16K RAM. I could only afford a cassette tape drive for $129, two games and Atariwriter, the word processor. My next big purchase was a daisywheel printer, so I could claim that the computer was used for graduate school. (I was one of the very few with a word processor in those days!)

It took me six months to save up another $399 for a single sided, single density 5 1/4 in Floppy -- and I had to have the original Zork. Those disks held 90K -- 88K after being formatted with DOS. And $89 for an additional 32K to get up to the max of 48K.

Taught myself Assembler on that machine, and wrote some pretty good programs. Missle/Object graphics and 4 sound channels! When this new service called Compuserve came out, I got an accoustic modem, 300 baud, to hook up at $4/hour.

I wish my In-laws hadn't thrown it out!

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Nice guide! I've renewed my interest in my lvl 26 Dark/Elec 'Lil Sithster' after seeing this.

Local_Man - I too am a fan of SF+SS (I have it on a D3 and stealth+SS on another alt). What did you take for vertical movement? Is hurdle enough? Good to hear the feedback on Short Circuit -- I was planning to slot it up to get more end drain. Sounds like it's not worth it in your opinion. That would save me a power and six slots!

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With my Shadowfall + Superspeed, I took Hover in my Late 20's, and love having it. It provides knockback protection in those few missions where I need it, and it allows me to float over the battle and apply my powers where needed. I do use hurdle, too. However, I took Hover before I-8 and the Safeguard missions. Now, with the Raptor Pack and the Zero-G Pack, as well as the jump jet from the GvE Edition, you could skip Hover entirely (but lose the other benefits of Hover.)

Regarding Short Circuit: Opinions differ. I have, like and use SC on my Kin/Elec, who is level 36. He was designed to be a sapper, so SC is a key power. He will take Power Sink, too, and should be about as sappy as he can be. Since Kin has almost no defensive ability, sapping Endurance is his main defense.

On my Dark/Elec, though, Sapping Endurance took too much away from all the other things I can do. The damage done by SC is small, and just draws aggro to my Defender. It's recharge is not that quick, and the End drain is only about half of the blue bar for an even-level minion. Out of the electric secondary, I left off SC, Zapp and Aim. I would like to have Zapp, but just have not been able to fit it in.

Later, if I take either Power Sink or Power Boost from the Epics, I may change my mind, but for now, Short Circuit is not worth the power choice or the slots.

Overall, a very, very nice guide with good information and strategy. I started mine, Local Man, in I-4 before the "Sith" craze started. He was my main until his early 20's . . . when I rolled up "Area Man," an Ill/Rad, to be his sidekick. I found that Ill/Rad was so much fun, he took over as my main.

I came back to Local Man a few months ago, and remembered how much fun he is to play, especially after I respec'ed and picked up a few more powers. He is a pip shy of 39 now, and I'm looking to add a few more utility powers in.

My playstyle is a bit different from yours. I tend to be more of a team-oriented Defender/Controller whose blasts come afterwards. I would agree with most of your rankings, but would probably knock Zapp and Short Circuit down to 3's. After ED severely nerfed Short Circuit, I found it was not worth the trouble. When it takes 2-3 shots of getting in the middle of the battle to drain the endurance, almost everything is dead before that, or they have all aggroed on you and you are dead. (End Drain is much more effecive on my Kin/Elec, where I drain most of the End from a single target with Transference, and then Short Circuit finished the job and keeps them from recovering End for a while.) Without Short Circuit, I can stay almost entirely at range, using holds and debuffs as much as possible. I love the combination of Shadowfall and Superspeed. It allows me to zip around the battlefield and help whoever needs it with my heals, rez, holds or debuffs.

On my Dark/Elec, I usually start either with sending Fluffy in as a tank, or Fearsome Stare, depending upon the opposition. Darkest Night and Tar Patch follow. I check the status of my teammates, and then blast in my spare time. I like Voltaic Sentinel a/k/a Sparky. I will often throw him out at the beginning of the battle and let him go to town while I'm busy with other things.

My job is mainly to protect the team from damage, allowing the damage dealers to take down the bad guys. I contribute with some damage, but that's not my main job. To me, both holds, Tesla Cage and Petrifying Gaze, are a big benefit. I really like the fact that my PG stacks with Fluffy's, often allowing me to hold a boss in one shot, and not two.

Very nice guide, and a good excuse to begin discussions again on strategies for Dark/Electrics. Thanks for the great work!

I have a few alternative suggestions on this build:

(1) Seriously consider taking Superspeed as your travel power. Why? The stealth in SS combines with Shadowfall to give you full invisibility. Since Hasten is included anyway, it saves one power choice, too. You can use that power choice to take Hover, which not only gives you vertical movement and the option to hover out of melee range, but also a kind of knockback protection. I like this combo better than the leaping pool with acrobatics, since you get stealth and combat avoidance as well. If you want to save that power choice for something else, you can rely upon the temp powers from the early Safeguard missions to give you your vertical movement, as well as the Jump Jet from the GvE edition.

(2) After ED, I found that Short Circuit was not very effective. You need more than one End Drain power to make End Drain an effective tool. I found that Short Circuit was very good at gathering aggro focused on my squishy behind, and that was about it. It also requires going into melee, while my Dark/Elec is mainly a ranged Defender.

Repel has its uses, but you need to be smart in the way you use it. If you play with it a bit, you can learn how to get close enough to an enemy to get the heal from Transfusion, but not send the enemy flying away. It's tricky, though.

At low levels, Repel is a great power to use to run through dangerous zones (like the Hollows or the Sewers). Repel is really the only defensive power in the Kinetics set.

I mainly use Repel as a panic button, or as something to "play" with. As a Panic Button, it really can save you, and maybe your team, from debt. When you over-aggro a bunch of melee-oriented enemies, you can use Repel to send them flying, to give you and your team a few seconds to re-group and run away or pop some inspirations and get back in the fight. It can also be used, with some practice, as a "hold" by trapping an enemy in a corner.

Repel is awesome on any "keep-away" type mission, like the CoH respec trials. One bump sends the guys attacking the reactors flying away. Croatoa has a few "protect" missions, where Repel is great.

And, of course, Repel can just be fun. Playing soccar with another Kinetic with Repel is very, very funny. Run through large groups of low level baddies. Trap guys in a corner or other places.

If Spectral Terror could make use of Enzymes, it should also have been listed under Lysosomes, since the Accuracy of ST is more frequently slotted than EndRed. However, I checked and Spectral Terror does not take ToHit Debuff or Defense Debuff enhancements. I think it should be removed from the list for Enzymes, since it would only use one (EndRed) of the three enhancements.

I spotted a minor omission that would be pretty obvious. I recently started an Ill/TA, so it has gotten me thinking about the set.

Endoplasm (Acc/Mez)

-Defender/Controller - Trick Arrow - Ice Arrow, EM Pulse Arrow

Also, I am not sure that Illusion's Spectral Terror will take ToHit or Defense Debuffs (I will try to check), but if it does, then Lysosomes would work and actually be a better fit than Enzymes. ST definitely benefits from Accuracy. Either it should be in both or neither.

Thanks for the link. I actually had seen this before, but did not realize that it was the actual wings that they are working on. The little ones, Bat and Cherub, look kind of wierd.

No mechanical wings, though. We need those for Tech characters (and Natural?). Even Icarus wings would not move like the ones already available. They would be stiffer. I don't want to sound ungrateful for the ones we have, though. They are lots of fun.

The article is an interesting read. It is nice to see that the Devs pay attention to what we say (and hopefully ignore some of the stupid stuff). There are more wings coming? I would love to see a set of mechanical wings! I have already worked out a set of macros to allow me to switch costumes when engaging Fly, so the wings only show up when flying.

For the most part, I like the vet rewards. Kilts and Trenches will be fun to add, and I have one character where I will use the Samauri Armor. I will try most of the costume options out, but the main things I am REALLY happy about are the Vet powers (Ax and Sands of Mu), teleport to base power and the respecs. They make the game more fun, without giving us something overpowered.

Overall -- Thanks Devs!

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I'll try to be constructive in my critique of this build...

1: Your powers aren't ED compliant. Remember the rule of three, no more than three enhancements of the same kind in any power.

2: You've failed to understand what illusory damage does. A goodly portion of the UNENHANCED damage heals back over time. The ENHANCED damage, however, does not. So if you slotted spectral wounds with 3 damage SO's, the damage from those would not heal back, only a portion of the BASE damage would. Same goes for Phantom army by the way.

3: You haven't done any research on decieve. It's an extremely powerful tool, people have used it to solo AV's by chain decieving bosses so the bosses take down the AV. Also, let's say a mob damages a foe 50% and you do the rest. You'd still get 80% of the xp, not 50%. As such, it speeds up fights and gives better xp over time.

4: It seems like you've done no research whatsoever. Read a bunch of other guides, try your build. I can tell you right now that your build is so sub-optimal it makes me weep.

-W

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I have to agree with this post. Just one small example -- Spectral Wounds. This is the kind of information people need:

Spectral Wounds is a blast of Psi damage, where the target is forced to "believe" he has been damaged. SW initially does over 4 BI in Psi damage (Don't have the exact numbers at the moment -- this is from memory.), but then it heals back Illusory damage of about 1.3 after a few seconds, leaving net damage of about 2.78. This is net amount is pretty standard damage compared to other Controller low level damage powers. NOTE: If you defeat the enemy before the heal-back, you get to "keep" the illusory damage.

However, the heal-back damage is handled differently when considering Containment. If you Blind first, you then do not get full double damage. The game assumes that the heal-back damage does not count, so it actually gives you 1.6 times the damage instead of double.

But this is the important part! If you add Damage Enhancements, the enhanced damage does NOT heal back. Therefore, Damage enhancements have more of an impact in Spectral Wounds than other damage powers. This means that it is very important to slot up SW for Damage as soon as you can. It should be slotted with 1 Acc, 3 Dam to start. You can add a second Acc if you are missing your targets, or add recharges. With 2 Recharge, SW comes back quickly enough so that you can do an attack chain of Blind-SW-SW. You can get in two shots of SW before the Containment bonus under Blind expires. If you have Air Superiority or an APP blast like Fire Blast, and if Blind has at least 2 hold enhancements, you can get an attack chain of Blind-SW-[Air Supp or blast]-SW all under Containment. So, final slotting should be:

1-2 Acc, 3 Dam, 0-2 Recharge. Mine is 1 Acc, 3 Dam, 2 Rech, even with Hasten.

Very nice guide. I have decided to roll up an Ill/TA Controller, and I was looking at your nicely done guide for information on the TA side. I thought the TA would make up for the lack of control on the Illusion side.

What do I need to be able to light the Oil Slick Arrow when I get it? I suspect nothing in Illusion will do it. I vaguely remember that certain origins have the inherent power that will work. Which ones? (I presume not Natural, since the inherent is throwing knives.)

It seems to be working now.

Very, very good guide. I love the strategy ideas. My Ice/Ice was the second character I rolled up and my first to Fly. He gained a bunch of levels from Winter Lords before I understood much of anything in the game, and then I moved on to other characters. A few months ago I respeced him into a pure ranged blaster and got him up to level 26.

To keep him at range, he is always in flight. I use the Speed-on-demand binds in CityBinder, so he stays in Hover unless I press a direction key, when he automatically changes to Fly until I let go of the key, when he goes back to Hover. I don't have to slot Hover, and I never have to switch back and forth.

I have taken everything in the primary except Aim, and have only taken Chillblain and Build-Up from the secondary. I have Hover, Fly, the Fitness pool and Hasten. I plan on taking Shiver at 28, and probaby Ice Patch at 30, and of course Blizzard at 32. I might consider switching out Ice Patch for Aim. Do you have any suggestions for 35 and 38?

I have considered the medicine pool, Stealth pool, or going ahead to get Freezing Touch and Aim, or Frozen Aura, or even getting the Ice Sword, just to have it. I'm leaning towards the medicine pool.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

This is actually some pretty good information for someone who does not understand the variety of controls in the game. However, I think it would be substantially improved with some examples and a little more information. For example:

Holds are most easily determined by finding out whether the power takes Hold Enhancements. Each Controller set has a single target hold, and at least one Area of Effect (AoE) hold. Many other power sets may contain a single target hold. Examples of single-target holds include Illusion's Blind, Fire Contol's Char, Ice Control's Block of Ice, Mind Control's Dominate, Earth's Fossilize, Gravity's Gravity Distortion, Dark Miasma's Petrifying Gaze, Electric Blast's Tesla Cage and Ice Blast's Freeze Ray.

Some of the AoE holds are centered around the caster (Point-Blank Area of Effect, or PBAoE), while other holds may be cast from a distance. AoE holds include Illusion's Flash, Fire Control's Cinders, Ice Control's Glacier, Earth's Volcanic Gasses, Mind's Mass Domination, Gravity's Gravity Distortion Field, Radiation Emission's Choking Cloud and EM Pulse, and Trick Arrow's EM Pulse Arrow. Most AoE holds have a short duration and a long recharge.

Nice guide, with some valuable insight.

I don't entirely agree about Repel, though. I have several */Kin and Kin/* characters, and after playing with a couple of Kin/Sonics who had Repel, I decided to try it out myself on a baby Kin/Elec I rolled up.

Just after taking the power at level 4, I was invited to a lowbie sewer team. Repel was just awesome at keeping me alive when the rest of the team wiped. Repel let me run through the sewers to rejoin the team coming back from their teamwipe.

Repel is great at the right time. Solo, I can generally ignore the melee attackers and focus on those who do the most damage from range first. On a team, Repel lets me protect others. It can be a terrific defense. Against melee-oriented enemies, it is kind of like a personal force field that allows you to attack. you just have to be careful of ranged attackers. You can use Repel to trap an enemy in a corner. You can, to some degree, tank. And with some practice, you can learn to get just close enough to an enemy to be in the healing area for Transfusion, but not quite in the Repel field, so your heal works.

Repel and other knockback powers are absolutely fantastic for certain missions, like the Terra Volta Respec trials. When I did that trial this past weekend, those two Kin/Sonics used Repel to protect one side of the reactor, while my Fire/Rad protected the other side with Bonfire. It was one of the easier times I have done that mission.

In many cases, you can hide around a corner, waiting for an enemy to come around a corner -- Booiiing! Back he goes! With some practice, you can knock enemies back onto area effect powers, like Ice Slick or Quicksand. With practice and thought, there are lots of uses for Repel.

Yes, it uses a lot of endurance, so you have to learn when to turn it off. However, it can also save you and your team from a lot of debt.

Besides, it is a lot of fun, too.