Nick_Riviera

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While this is the defender forum, it might make sense to roll a storm focused Controller. It's a bit of a longer slog, but most of the Storm skills are good on controllers, in fact some are better due to -KB in their roots. I think it'd be cool to try to take a Defender playstyle and put it on a controller...

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I have been trying to make Controllers ever since I got the game back in '04, but I haven't had much success. I don't think the playstyle of Controllers fits too well with what I find fun. I don't know what it is, but I just get bored quickly on Controllers.

I had looked into Fire/Storm, and I even got one to about level 14 before I got bored and deleted him, but the idea of using LS and Bonfire to knock baddies back and forth sounded really fun. I think if I could start a Controller at level 25 or so, I'd probably really like it, but I have yet to make it even close to 25 on any Controller.

I pretty much feel the same way about Corrupters. Though my experience with Corrupters is admittedly limited, I feel like Corrupters don't play much like Defenders at all, at least in the early levels. I feel like Dominators are much more analogous to Defenders, which probably explains why they are my favorite Villain AT.

It is sounding like the consensus is Storm/Ice. Frankly, even though I said I don't like Sonic, I expected everyone to come here and say, "Get over yourself! Storm/Sonic is the best!!!!!"

Storm/Ice and Storm/Energy were the top contenders in my own mind, and /Ice was leading because of the higher AoE potential, so I guess I am convinced. Storm/Ice it is.

With that in mind, anything I should know about Storm/Ice that will be better or worse than Storm/Dark? I'm liking the idea of Freeze Ray having a -KB component, but I'm still afraid I'll miss TT too much. I guess I should get off my butt and play the toon before I decide I don't like it, though, right?

I've got a level 50 Storm/Dark that I absolutely love. I really love everything about the character, and I think it's the most fun toon I've ever made.

I've been getting bored in the game lately, so I've been considering making a new Storm/* toon, but I'm torn about what secondary to take. I'm worried that I've been spoiled by /Dark with its Tentacles. TT + Hurricane is all kinds of awesome, and I don't know if I'll even like Storm as much without the immobilize. I certainly might, but it's still a concern of mine.

So, with that said, I would appreciate any advice for what set to pair with Storm that isn't Dark. What I want is something that works well with Storm (for example: no long rooting animations), and AoE attacks are much preferred.

I know a lot of people like Storm/Sonic, but I've never found Sonic Blast to be fun, so it'll take a very persuasive argument to win me over to Sonic. Electric isn't really my thing, either, since I don't particularly care about endurance draining. I could be convinced, but it'll be much like Sonic, an uphill battle.

I have no reservations for any of the other sets, so what would be a good pairing, and more importantly, why? Dazzle me with stories of the greatness of Storm/(good blast set)!

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skip any powers that state in any way: freeze ray, frost breath or ice storm in their titles.

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Wow, I don't agree with any of that. I have no experience with Dark/Ice specifically, so maybe that is good advice for that particular combination, but all of those powers can be good in general. I believe Ice Storm is the highest-damaging AoE attack available to Defenders short of nukes. Freeze Ray is a fast-animating, fast-recharging, decent length single-target hold. I will admit that Frost Breath isn't extraordinary or superlative, but I wouldn't call it bad, either. I would peg it as a middle-of-the-road AoE blast, which makes it quite useful if you're looking to increase your AoE damage output.

So, I love Ice Storm. It's not the fastest for animation times, but it does do a relatively large amount of damage if the enemies say in the area, and with Tar Patch and Fearsome Stare, you shouldn't have any trouble with that.

I love Freeze Ray. If a build is very tight, I could see skipping the hold, since Dark has a lot of mitigation already, but really, I think it's rare for a single-target hold to be a bad choice. There is almost always some enemy around that you really really don't want acting, and Freeze Ray is a lot more reliable than to-hit debuffs at guaranteeing that inaction. Bitter Freeze Ray, on the other hand, is quite skippable.

Frost Breath is okay, and I tend to take it. I won't gush about it, though. It's another AoE attack. I like AoEs. It's not horrible.

I can only speculate upon the combination of Dark/Ice, so I won't say anything about that here. Those are just my thoughts on Ice Blast for Defenders.

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End Mods in T-Blast? Bwha?

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That's actually how I have my Thunderous Blast slotted on my Kin/Electric. Everyone calls me crazy and says I should put damage in there, but the way I see it, I'm not going to nuke unless I've got a nice full steam of damage buffs on me, anyway, so I don't really need the damage. On the other hand, before I put end-mods in there, I would get a lot of aggro when I nuked, and sometimes I would die from it. With the end mods, everything short of EBs/AVs are completely drained, from full to zero, and they stay drained for a nice long while. That gives me/everyone else time to finish them off, or at least time for me to not be vulnerable anymore.

Of course, I explain this to everyone, and they still call me crazy, so maybe I really am crazy. Oh well, I say. I must be a high-functioning kind of crazy.

I am so with you about the staves, Jock. That's something I have wanted for some time now.

I loves all my Defenders, but I keep going back to Storm and Kinetics. The only set I've tried that I really haven't liked is Radiation, but Storm and Kin top my list of Most Fun Sets To Play.

I feel like Storm and Kin, while their playstyles are very different, both provide me with a similar amount of activity. They are both crazy, with lots and lots of things to do all the time.

Some people don't like the buffing that Kin pretty much requires, but I have always liked being the guy that people say "Yay, SB!" about. I would certainly prefer a longer duration on SB, but it doesn't bother me too much.

What I love about Kin is the SPEED! With Hasten and a few Siphon Speeds, every power comes back very fast; even your nuke can be up about every 3rd fight, and you should be nuking like crazy. Also, with Speed Boost for your teammates and Siphon Speed for yourself, your whole team should be moving like a movie on Fast-Forward. Zip to a group, explode all over them, zip to the next group, blam blam blam. Kin isn't really being used at top effectiveness unless no one stops for anything. It's just a blitz from the mission entrance to the end.

With Storm, you are a god. There are very few enemies in the whole game, other than AVs, who won't be puppets subject to your whims while playing Storm. The only time I don't like playing my Stormie is when, for whatever reason, I can't be the center of attention. If I can't be in the thick of the action, pushing around with Hurricane and Gale and blasting away with Lightning Storm, then I get bored very quickly, because I'm mostly just left with Freezing Rain. Of course, Freezing Rain is amazing, but that's only one power.

Those are the sets that appeal to me. Everyone has their own tastes, though, so you'll probably have to just try them all out. Fortunately, they're all great, so you can't really make a bad choice. Just get out there and have fun.

Hah, that would be awesome. Shoot the hearts out of playing cards, shoot a can 6 times in the air before it lands, make ricochet shots to hit enemies around corners...

As much as I would love an original (i.e. non-proliferated) new primary powerset, I really don't see that coming down the pipes anytime soon, if ever. We already have quite a few, and the ones we have are all pretty diverse, so we're probably not on the top of the list for new sets.

It would be fun, though.

While I am certainly no expert at Rad (I don't really like the set), I think you would fair better getting Radiant Aura and Radiation Infection as your first two Rad powers, though the order on that is largely irrelevant. In other words, I wouldn't get AM until level 4 at the earliest (and I wouldn't even get it at 4, since I would want another attack first).

As for 6-slotting it with recharges, I don't know exactly how the ED cap works specifically, but don't bother going over that cap. At a certain point (roughly 3 SOs-worth), more enchancement value in a power stops being effective at all, so it is better to choose another aspect of the power to enchance, or just put fewer slots in the power.

The Rad experts will have to comment on whether AM should have 6 slots or not, but if you go with 6 slots, you want to enhance the end mod on the power as well as the recharge. So a very rough and imperfect final build for the power would have 3 recharge SOs and 3 End Mod SOs.

Now, sets and bonuses and blah blah blah are going to change that set-up drastically, but it is at least in the right direction.

As for what you should do with your TOs, maybe 6 recharge TOs would be good? That's equivalent to, what, 1.5 SOs? Not great, but can you do any better with any other set-up? I don't know.

Still, once you start getting DOs, SOs, and IOs, you'll want to watch that ED cap on the recharge. Going over that cap is very very very rarely worth it, so a good rule is to just avoid it entirely.

Good luck, and have fun with your new Defender.

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Hmmm, will Defenders get Pistols? They don't have AR.

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Considering that almost every new powerset they have introduced recently has gone to every AT that can use it, I think it is safe to assume Defenders will get Pistols. I guess Stalkers didn't get Shields, though, so I suppose it is possible.

Also, I agree with Rigel that Pistols will probably be a lot like Archery, but I think the Devs will think of that, too, and so make powers in the set that will distinguish the two. That's my hope, anyway.

For example, it wouldn't make much sense thematically for Pistols to have a snipe power, so they could add some utility power in exchange for that, maybe something like Follow Up from Claws, though that's just me wishing.

The new important-character-dude coming in the paid expansion uses pistols. I would assume that means pistols are finally coming as a powerset, and based on the MM pistol powers, it's probably a blast set, and its secondary effect is probably knockdown.

So, just for fun, what would be the best primary to pair with /Pistols? Is there a specific primary that would benefit from knockdown in a way that it wouldn't benefit more from -tohit or slow?

I don't really have any ideas right now without knowing the specific powers. Looking at just the knockdown component, I can't think of any particular set that would be significantly improved when paired with /Pistols.

Of course, I expect any /Pistols Defender to be great, because all Defenders are great. I just don't see there being a star performer with /Pistols. What does everyone else think?

Also, feel free to speculate about the Pistol blast set in its own right. For example, I hope it has a mini-nuke, like the other drawn-weapon blast sets have.

Discuss!

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Well, what about the DO/SO issue:
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Lightweight-(20 to 24)


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A 20 and a 21 aren't going to stand a chance against a 22, 23, or 24.

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Let me rephrase what I said above, (and maybe Positron can answer this if he's still watching)
Statesman said, "the effectiveness of your Enhancements are capped to the level of effectiveness of that weight classes' Enhancements."
What is a Lightweight's enhancement?
If it's a SO, then yes there's probably an imbalance. If a it's a DO, then there's no problem - a 22 only gets is an edge during PvE.

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Well, consider this. There are five levels in the lightweight range. Three of the five levels have access to SO's. That's a majority, so perhaps for that weight class all enhancements are considered SO's?

That would seem to work to me. That way even training enhancements would be useful. And it wouldn't diminish the person who got twinked to afford all SO's, because they'd still be better in PvE, but they'd be on the same footing in the arena.

How's that sound?