MrLiberty

Don't have access to my minds build atm but I think two solid options for DP/Energy are a soft capped S/L build (with some decent ranged defense thrown in) using ice mastery. Between high defense, maybe a little regen, hoarfrost and hiber you should be able to keep going.

The other option is DP/Energy/Force with aid self stuck in there. You can focus on damage, HP, procs and recharge for bonuses and just use aid self or PB aid self to keep you health up and PFF as a quick escape when you need it.

I liked this thread better.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=204842

Highlights if you don't want your brain numbed. :

WP is so much better for zones than EA.

EA can be a real pain in that you have :

No self heal
No Resists what so ever
Non existant defense to Psi (Which is the most popular blaster primary) If Overload got psi defense it'd be a decent set.
Typed defenses instead of positional


What it does have going for it is 1. Repel Resistance (which WP also has) 2. Conserve Power and Overload making it possibly one of the easier builds to go staminaless on.

For a Primary in zones. Elec Melee or Spines is the way to go.

Granted "No Ill/Emps" isn't exactly saying "No Emps what so ever" but still. Wow.

Underrated toons I'd say would be clawlz stalkers, Mind/Rad and Grav/Rad controllers FF/Sonic defender (Know there are a few out there, just never see them used anymore)

Even though a few people still use them, Doms I think are underrated as far as team arena goes. If the timing is done well its awesome to have absolutely nothing you can do to save yourself from a spike.

Kins in general are underrated. Mainly because IR makes everything more fun. So ready to roll a Psi/Kin if corrupters ever get the blaster version of Psi blast.

If a Stalker is beating a regen scrapper or vice versa in a 1 on 1 match the disparity of skill is probably so wide for the winning side that really any build would work.

As a Regen Scrap between all the heals, MOG and Phase in addition to movement to kite melee attacks and as a Stalker between heals, placate, invis, phase, hiber and whatever else, the build isn't going to get you killed. Playing your toon poorly is.

HP is in a nice range.

KB protection is light (For team arena even though bubblers are scarce I'd still shoot for 45+)

Recharge is a little light, usually shoot for 55 - 60 ish on emps (personally)

Jump speed is kinda low with that slotting. On an emp I'd go for a min of like 66% enhancement (I think with that set its maybe 42%) And if you have the slots, more even.

+Range and + Heal are something you could work in as well as far as bonuses go.

I dunno for sure its been that way for a *while* though. Pre i13 I think? Maybe?

On a team, I'd rather have a cold/sonic or sonic/cold with power build up/power boost.

Lay down the cold debuffs, then start firing off the sonic attacks. Any AV or GM is going to melt fast.

As for being safe, between the reduced effectiveness of the AV from the debuffs, the shields, arctic fog, frostwork and possibly maneuvers is definitely the way to go.

Make an AR/Pain and spec as a support toon, you could actually be pretty useful.

Get decent at playing support and someday you might actually get some props for playing an AR corrupter.

Something to note for team arena stalking. Claws still has a 72 second base build up time where I'm pretty sure every other primary has it at 90 seconds.

If your three primary abilities are build up, AS, Shark it definitely comes in handy there.

Pretty much anything/SD/Fire

Especially Elec/SD/Fire with two mini nukes you can get on like 25 second timers.

Runners up would be : SS/Fire/Elec Arch/Mental Fire/Mental Spines/Fire/Fire.

For street sweeping I'd think something like a Plant/Fire Perma dom would shred minions and bosses alike. No clue how good or bad psi is anymore.

Zone stalkers are for the most part.... really bad.

The fact that you are having a problem with AS and not sharks, points to you more than likely being bad. (Just being honest)

On a decent build I.E with enough HP and KB protection and some sort of escape power (Phase or Hiber) One AS shouldn't be hurting you that much (Maybe 50% of your health?) unless you are really debuffed. Yes this is on a squishy.

I think I saw that you are against IO's? That could be your problem... its like bringing a level 2 tank against tower buffed recluse then complaining you are a tank and shouldn't be getting wrecked. A 1000 HP defender is just easy stalker bait. On a good stalker build against a 1k HP defender you can have the oneshot code come into play....


Once you get your build in order, next would probably be movement. Its easy enough to go through RV jumping from high point to high point, generally just staying away from ground level. Slotting hurdle and SJ for two jumps each helps. When you are attacking? Learn to jump time. Attack at the peak of your jumps so you have minimal time grounded. If you know stalkers are around. Don't be predictable, land on surrounding geography. Even something that requires the smallest jump to get over is enough to buy you the time to get away from an AS. Never plant for an attack and launch another if you know stalkers are around.

Also, learn to LOS when you do ground or hiber. Stalker AS has a few second activation time, if you can break their line of sight during that interruptible period, their power will activate for them but no damage will be applied. Near the Vill base in RV is a great example there are those three different levels to fight on past the Mexican place. As you attack jumping from one to another will break the line of sight from the previous one and keep you from getting AS'ed.

I so feel like I'm missing something with counterpicking.

"They have stalkers, how many? Get enough VEAT's and or MM's to cover that."

"Okay, they are getting VEAT's to counter our stalkers, go get blasters."

"Alright, they got blasters again, back to the jump team. Match starting yet?"

I know its not just that, you see a FF'er around? Double check everyones KB protection.

Colds? Make sure you have a Kin or Therm.

Taunters, maybe bring some of your own to counter or just bring more dam.

TA, bring a Kin.

MM's, anyone have any AoE toons left? I think it'd be kinda awesome to see 3 or 4 Fire/Em's come back out for something like that...

Not saying these would be the best counters or anything like that. I just assume most teams will have one or two people at least who know what to bring when someone else brings X. And see how many times you can go back and forth before the match has to start.

I'd say shoot for 1550 on anything squishy with a 1606 HP cap. This includes defenders, controllers, corrupters and I forget what else? VEATS maybe? I forget what their HP scale is.

Blasters and Stalks of course should be 1606 because they are so easy to cap.

For a scrapper - You should probably be Regen so really High HP doesn't matter as much as long as you have the recharge for near Perma DP with DR. 1800 - 2000 shouldn't be too hard to hit with accos before DP though.

For tanks and brutes (I forget brute HP mod off hand) Somewhere between 2600 - 2800 should be solid, aim at the higher end of that for builds that don't have a +HP power (DA, Fire, Elec)

For MM's 1200 HP is decent, more is always better.

As a speed runner who used to take purpled out fire blasters and sometimes my DM/SD for a posi run most times would be around 1:00 - 1:20, and at the end I'd be left with 2 sets of 66 merits unless I gave the other spot to someone who wanted the badge. It wasn't something I ran all the time because really, it was a pain even at that speed. Low levels, lots of running around, etc etc.

I was hoping for an improvement with the new Version. So far its been a massive disappointment, for run times? After doing it about 4 times (1 to check it out, a few to finish off TF commander) I've found my times to be around 27-37 minutes for the first part and 30-35 for the second. So I can just about match the old times, with encounters that are to me much more difficult, for much less rewards. I think I missed the part where it was balanced.

Part one with the ambushes outside of City Hall, it was fine solo (Set for 2 obviously) not easy, but inspirations always help. Set for 5 people? What a nightmare, wiped... then the ambushes all spawned leaving around 8 Ruin mages with a pile of spec demon lords and who knows what else. So after more than a few inspiration loads we got past all of them (Its awesome to see that many stacked debuffs at level 15)

The Boss spawn, again.... I'm not complaining about it being difficult. But it is *much* more difficult than anything the previous posi offered. (not a problem... wait for it) For Significantly Less reward. (There it is)

Running through the second part, not too bad again travel times are nice until you get to the last mission. Inside the Dam I was getting multi boss spawns with only 2 people on the TF. Again 2 ruin mages + a handful of minions + a handful of LT's (Spec demon lords with the tohit debuff aura, wooo) Even if it was set for the full three people I started it with, the encounter is much more difficult for much lower rewards. Then of course... the AV.

Throwing the AV in, no big deal. Throwing an AV that runs like crazy and either spawns or calls nearby ambushes at again... level 15? For a reduced reward. Is kinda dumb.

I'm not saying I mind a challenging encounter... I just expected to be rewarded for completing it. The old posi was easier, took less time, and offered a much better reward for the time you needed to invest.

Just be a Regin with phase shift, you'll never be bet.

My suggestion was pretty much If you have 1 or 2 stalkers, anything goes. If you have 3+ more none are allowed to shark. So for enforcing it, if you get a line up with 3+ in it all you do is snap a screenie, like if t-strike was used, and go from there.

Yeah you could end up with impale spikes, but it'd be interesting to see if they would be worse than a psi spike that has the three hit package along with the ability to continue to follow it up for serious damage, where as stalkers pretty much drop hide and half their damage. (From much less range)

Most of what Psoma posted for dUmb I agree with except for the stalker thing. I'd honesty rather see :

- The cap just raised to three
- Sharks banned (more powers banned always suck, but yeah)
- Work something goofy out like can run 2 stalkers with the intention of them being sharkers, 3+ no sharks allowed? Could be like the same deal with Thunder Strike, if you are against a team with 3+ stalkers and get a screenie with someone being sharked? DQ DQ!!!

I don't really know for sure how to work it out, but having run some 2 stalker line ups, adding a third in for that third AS would have added a HUGE amount of pressure on targets, where with only 2, if they are about a second apart on the AS, there is enough time to jam greens and get away with no real follow up to worry about.

Best Jump Team : u2bg
Scariest Offense : SMD (Very fitting name)
Best Offensive Lead : Vinnie, Dex
Best Blasters : Silit, h0j, Z, Dex, Mage
Best Emps : Klesk and Spiner, Haunt and Vex. Psoma would get mentioned but she doesn't emp anymore. :P
Best Stalkers : Rice, Doyler
Best Disruption : Peril on TA, Steatoda
Most Improved team : EP

Best Drama : Silits DQ call against Bobc
Best Follow up Drama : Ouro portal

It was definitely interesting stepping into the kind of "Lead" for dUmbs offense having no real 8 v 8 experience outside of some KB's on freedom when I transferred over. I figured I'd do more learning than explaining but did a bit of both! All in all it was a lot of fun, once we got the storm team up and running it was definitely the match I looked forward too most in the week.

Other fun moments :

The random line up we turtled on Eden with SMD

Doyler dying 37 times in a match.

Eran landing the sweep combo on two people at the same time with his DB/WP brute in Perez, wutabeast!

Watching Stalker line ups work in practice when Slax wasn't there to see them, watching them fail miserably when we tried in an official

Trying to jam stalkers into line ups some how, missing when they finally worked in the finals.

Slax never using PTT

Throwing random line ups together for most of the season.

Getting out killed by Doyler's brute while blasting.

Blaming Psoma for everything. Also her mascot, the dUmb *** was pretty cool?

Rei raging for 4 hours on Vent... then in dUmb chat... then in AC about Bleak's Sonic/Em/Fire blaster and Doyler's 1200 HP Psi/EM. Good times!

Not league, but watching Statesguard wreck a Mind/Fire on his DP/EM blaster.