OneWhoBinds

I doubt we'll ba allowed to mess with the basic skeletons or images. We'll probably be limited to choosing a primary & secondary color, and having the pets outfit (for ninja, mercs, and punks) or overall colors (for robots and zombies) change to match those colors.

Still, an improvment that I would approve of.

Fitness - already have Hurdle/Health/Stamina in the build. With a couple Leadership toggles, and a Patron shield, in the build, I figured I should just take Stamina, and leave it in.

Hasten - I've taken Hasten on several toons. And I almost never use it... it just seems to be a way to burn through my Endurance faster, without much effect on my actual abilities.

Still... with the eventual Transference, the endurance issue may not be much of an issue... and it never does need more than two additional slots.

As for the combination of Dark/Kin... I was not aware that it was ever a FotM. Still, I can already see why the combination isn't popular. The only cohesion between the sets is that, snipe aside, Dark Blast works best at mid-range, making it easy to hop into close range for powers like Transfusion and Transference.

With a significant portion of Dark Blast's damage coming from pure DoT attacks, it kinda breaks up the impact of Kinetics. Oh, the effect is still there, it just isn't quite as noticeable. I know that after Siphon Power, that Gloom, for instance, is doing a good chunk more damage, but all I SEE is a series of DoTs that may be one or two points greater than normal.

DoTs also don't flow with the pure Speed that Kinetics seems to encourage.

Still, I like the combination, if only for the theme of this character. Of course, I haven't gotten to the 20s yet... (I wonder how many people would call me a bad /Kin player for delaying Speed Boost until 22 so I can pick up Stamina?)

I've got a Corruptor with probably one of the rarest power combinations around: Dark Blast/Kinetics.

And I've got an issue... I've got a power choice at either 18 or 24 that needs to be filled... and no idea what to put in it.

One of those positions will be filled with Assault - I'm leaning toward 24, to put it after Stamina.

That still leaves the question of what to take at 18. From my Primary & Secondary, I've got four choices: Moonbeam, Dark Pit, Torrent, and Repel. For pool powers... well I'll be using Kinetics powers for traveling. I'm already planning on Leadership (Assault and Tactics. Maybe Vengeance at 49), but nothing else, really. I'd prefer if it were a power that didn't need heavy slotting to work... but if needs must, I can dedicate 5 slots to it.

Any suggestions as to what power to take here?

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Vigilance may as well be a plain old endurance discount or +recovery.

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...Which would still make it far more useful than it currently is.

I have a question for /Traps players out there.

How do you slot your Seeker Drones?

I'm coming up on them fast with my Bots/Traps Mastermind, but still can't deide on how many slots to put into them, or what to slot them for. (Well, beyond Recharge.)

And, of course, the question of if it's worth trying to Frankenslot it or not...

Any recomendations?

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Vigilance must be completely overhauled. Once vigilance is replaced by something else, that is perhaps quite a bit more fun than the certainly boring (and allegedly underperforming vigilance), we can then better assess if Defenders need any more fine tuning.

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Speak, Brother!

Really, I am aware of how much work would be involved in overhauling Vig... but I think it is the root of most Defender's issues. An inherant power that has as much impact on the Defender as Defiance does for a Blaster, or that Containment does on a Controller, would likely revolutionize Defenders.

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I had a problem on test where seekers would go through walls. Did they stop that from happening? Nothing like having one slide into a wall, and see a mob in another room.

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Hmm... sounds like there is a downside to that, after all.

They removed collision detection from the Protector Bots Seeker Drones. This was finally done to fix the glitch where the Bot would get stuck on the drone, and not be able to get unstuck.

Now it looks like we've replaced one glitch with another...

There's a quote buried somewhere in these forums that I think applies here - or at least half of it does.

A Defender looks at a battle as a Chess Match.

Right there is a great deal of the problem.

Defenders are not intuitive. It's not nearly as easy to use the Buff/Debuff effectively sets as it is to use any other in the game. Not even Controls.

It is NOT easy to successfully master one of these sets. It's even harder to successfully combine or place the powers to actually mitigate more damage than they draw to you (at least, when solo.)

So (when considering extensive solo play) while other ATs are cruising through the initial levels, Defenders (and Corruptors, incidentally) are lagging behind, slowly working out the kinks in their sets, and looking at each mission as another chore to be completed.

And visiting the Hospital.

A lot.

And then these same players look around, and see that Toon that was in the Tutorial at the same time, who is AT XXX. And wonders to himself... "Why, self, is that toon already in his late 20s, while I slowly creep my way through the teens?"

When you don't know what you are doing, Solo Defenders (and again, Corruptors) are a massive chore. 3 to 4 time the effort for less than half the results that other ATs give you. That mission that a Scrapper or Blaster finishes within 10 minutes? Controllers and Tankers 20? The Defender is probably looking at 30-40 minutes minimum, including a strong chance of including multiple trips to the hospital and back to the mission.

(Provided it isn't a mission someone can ghost. Those kinda break the scenario.)

When it comes to solo play, Defenders and Corruptors alike, will be painful and slow until they reach the 20s, and Single Origin Enhancements. Like Tankers, this is a huge turning point, and I find it often redefines how the ATs play.

They still remain rather slow, though. Especially the Defenders.

So, for those dedicated - or obsessed - enough, a Defender can become an incredibly versatile solo player... who still needs to analyze each battle, try to predict how the enemies will react, and hope nothing unforeseen happens, and renders most of your mitigation moot.

It's not something that many players can stand to do. I certainly have issues with it, and I have struggled with getting Defenders up into the 20s, and seen the difference that makes.

I am all for changing the so-called "Inherent" that Defenders have been stuck with. The change proposed earlier? With a +Rech and -End Use buff attached to each power? I'd LOVE that. It may provide just enough forgiveness into the AT that it no longer is a matter of a single little mistake before another trip to the Hospital.

And, for the record, I HAVE seen a team leader turn down a defender in the hopes of grabbing another controller. This was over a year ago, but it still happened.

Well, that's just my two bits... make of that what you will.

Is it possible to change the stance of the AE contact? And more specifically, to change that stance between missions?

I mean, I think I've seen this, where a Rikti contact appeared to be sitting down after we came back from a mission, but I can't be certain, and I have no idea how to do it.

I ask because I have an idea for a mission where your contact doesn't survive to the end. hat would need the last two appearances of the contact to be laying prone to work... if this isn't possible, however, I would need to rework the idea...

Thanks for your help in advance!

Wait... Seeker Drones can accept Recharge Intesive Pet sets? Since when?

There is a situation where I would advocate working a particular attack into your build: If your primary is Necromancy, and your secondary isn't either Dark Miasma or Pain Domination.

Under that situation, working Life Drain into your build - and treating it as a self heal - would be potentially quite useful. True, it isn't as effective as Aid Self, but it also doesn't require an additional power selection.

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The original CoH manual also has something like Resist Holds in /Regen for Scrappers. (And yes, there was a power called Fold Space in Grav Control.)

That power was rolled into Integration. Can't remember what replaced it. Resilience maybe? Dunno. Don't have my manual handy.

So, there IS precedent for the wholesale removal of powers.

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Yes. Thing is, as I understand it, they only remove/completely rework a power when they can absolutly find no ther way to balance the set.

I... have never had the kind of problems being described in this thread with my Blasters.

Blaster Damage is already over the top. Damage output alone usually carries them until the mid-to-late 30s.

Of course, I've never been one for the 'Blapper' play style, so maybe that's what's saving me.

That, and I believe that Fire/Fire is the most fragile of the glass cannons in the game...

Gotcha... good to know.

One additional tip - I learned this one the hard way.

When all five alters are clicked, Bat'zul will spawn in the central lava pool... invisible. (You should be able to see the PToD, but not Bat'Zul itself.)

That Stealthed up team member is good for getting the glowies, but would need to drop stealth and get into Bat'Zul's Line of Sight before it would drop its Invis and attack.

Alternatively, have someone use an AoE that doesn't require a target in the general location of the PToD to convince Bat'Zul to wake up.

The first time I did this one, the team I was on was full of people who had never done it before... and we waited for half an hour before taking out infernal and started trying to get to the alters, to see if one of them hadn't actually triggered. Then, suddenly Bat'Zul was there, and wiped us out very easy.

We never could beat him - in retrospect, we weren't designed for actually fighting Bat'Zul ourselves. Even with all the temp pets we could call up against it, the horde of Fire Imps it called just kept overwhelming a team of single-target damage dealers...

How does this combo work? Is it a boost to your recharge, or the the Assault Bots?

Corruptors and Defenders are broken mirror images of each other. They are the closest Red side to Blue side ATs in terms of abilities and play style. If you know how to play a Defender, you've got a good heads up on Corruptors.

That said, they are not identical. But it's still a good starting point.

Now... like Defenders, Corruptors were not designed to be solo players. As such, it's going to be a slow crawl up the levels until you can achieve the kind of mitigation vs. Damage output ratio you need to survive - you certainly aren't going to hit it until at least level 22, when you can start slotting SOs. Until then... go slowly, avoid battles you don't need to fight, and be prepared to run at any point. Oh, and get used to seeing the hospital.

For solo play, the best secondaries are, without a doubt, /Dark Miasma, /Radiation Emissions, and /Storm Summoning. /Cold Domination and /Kinetics rank high for that, as well, and /Traps isn't awful... it's just very slow and has some pretty lackluster power choices.

As for primaries, Dark Blast, Ice Blast, and Sonic Attack are probably the best primaries for Solo play - these sets have built in mitigation abilities, and powerful secondary effects.

Radiation Blast, Electrical Blast, and Assault Rifle are also okay, but not really spectacular, for a solo player. Fire Blast can be dangerous when Solo - it provides no additional mitigation in any of its powers. It just does additional damage. Killing things faster IS the ultimate mitigation, but you can quickly bite off more than you can chew with this set.

Energy Blast... can be quite good, or self defeating, depending on your secondary. It's THE middle-of-the-road set for blasts, but its secondary effect is Knockback. That can be bad if you knock an enemy out of a area debuff, or knock and anchor close enough to another group to aggro it. If you know what you are doing, though - Energy can be very effective, and provide excellent mitigation.

If you want to solo EBs or AVs, I'd suggest either /Rad or /Dark, above all others.

Good luck with your new toon!

Is there a maximum number of story arcs you can have open at one time?

I ask, because I've got a contact that won't give out his story arc for anything... despite that I've nearly completed all his non-arc missions. Enough of them that he's not even giving me a choice of two... yet he won't start his arc.

Here's the more detailed scenario: I've got a hero character that recently hit 35, so I started looking for what 35-40 arc were available, and which I could access. And, lo and behold, there were three I liked the sound of. And though, hey! I can have up to three active missions, I'll just start all their arcs, and that will last me through to level 40, easy!

At least, that was the plan.

Colleen Nelson gave up her story arc after two intro missions.

Anton Sampson gave me the first mission of his arc after I got his number.

Gordon Stacy... I've already filled his association bar, unlocked all his store, and gotten another contact introduction... and he STILL won't give up his story arc!

Does anyone else know what's going on, here?

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I make 50 million a day easily. 10 mil really is nothing. If you aren't making that much you are honestly not trying to make inf at all. That's okay of course, as there is a lot more to this game than influence, such as RP, leveling alts, hanging with friends or PvP. But if you're trying to make money and aren't making over 15 mil a day you're pretty much doing it wrong.

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I gathered that a long time ago. I just haven't figured out how to 'do ir right' yet.

Esecially on Red Side, where I don't have a 45+ character to aid in that issue...

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You know, all this discussion on the ability to soft-cap or not is nice... but: is an IO build actually "In a Vacuum?"

While I'm not sure it would matter much... what's the results when IOs are removed from the discussion? A completely SO build for MMs, how do the sets perform?

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mm's dont cost near as much as the other at's to io out. this is because the pet sets areplentiful and not in demand. this keeps pricing down.

each of my two mm's cost no more than 200m each in infamy to io out for 60% global recharge. that includes one LOTG for each character at 30m and 100m respectively.

the total cost of putting all 4 uniques in gang war for my thugs/traps? 15 million. total.

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...you say 15 million so easy... like it's a small number.

Seriously, how do people make that kind of Inf? My blue side level 50 never had more than 10 mil at any one time... My Red side characters? HA! I'm lucky if I can afford to ugrade my normal enhancements...

Regardless... even excepting that the IOs are 'Cheap' - it doesn't answer the question I raised.

How do the sets perform without IOs?

You know, all this discussion on the ability to soft-cap or not is nice... but: is an IO build actually "In a Vacuum?"

While I'm not sure it would matter much... what's the results when IOs are removed from the discussion? A completely SO build for MMs, how do the sets perform?

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It's not as easy as just dumping SO's into a tank and calling it a day, but it can be done even on a budget.

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O_o;;

What kind of budget? Because I've not seen one that doesn't involve multiple Gift of the Ancients and Luck of the Gambler globals to manage it.

Fiery Melee:

Scorch is pretty weak, and may not be worth it. That said, you'll probably want it at least in the pre 20s game, simply to fill in your attack chain.

Breath of Fire is, technically speaking, a "Ranged" Cone attack. The 30 degree cone is pretty typical for a ranged cone, actually... oh, wait. I said ranged. BoF is "Ranged." And at, say, 15 feet rather than 40-50 feet? Yeah, that make those 30 degrees practically nothing. It also has a 2.7 second cast time, making its value to a brute even more dubious. At least Fire Sword Circle is easier to aim.

That said, it does have one advantage to consider before you toss it aside: it has a high innate accuracy.

Stone Armor:

Granite is going to make most of this entire set redundant. Still, you will need a good chunk of it just to get to Granite, so...

Brimstone Armor (Fire and Cold resistance) and Crystal Armor (Energy/Negative Energy Defense) are highly situational, with protection values on the low side. Granite will be superior to both, and they may be safely skipped. (Personal note - as there actually are more pure fire and cold using enemies in CoV in the 20s, Brimstone may be worth picking up, with plans to respec out of it later.)

Do be sure to take Minerals, however - Psychic defense is nothing to sneeze at when you need it, and it's the only real hole in Granite.

Mud Pots... on one hand, its your taunt aura. On the other hand, it's a Mag 2 Immobilize, with a Slow (Not a -Rech!) component as well. Great for mitigation... somewhat counter-productive toward building fury. You'll have to decide for yourself if it's worth it.

Archery is actually pretty 'Blah' for Defenders.

It has the same enhanced accuracy that the Blaster Version uses - the exact same values. Which is good for conserving slots - one Accuracy SO/IO enhancement in your attacks, and you sholdn't have many issues missing things. Throw in Aim when against things that DO have a high defense, and hitting things isn't ever going to be a problem.

Archery also gives a Crashless nuke, meaning there's one of the usual dilema of if the Nuke's damage is worth the end crash.

But now the bad news - It's a lethal damage set (regularly resisted to some degree). This isn't so much an issue on Blasters, as their damage base means that they will still pull off decent damage. Defenders? Not so much. You will feel how much less effective your attacks become as the game progresses.

And... it has NO secondary effect. Many times, the secondary effect of your blasts mean the difference between survival and a faceplant. Archery brings nothing to the table in this case... all it can do is hit things with higher regularity.

So... go with it for theme if you must, but I wouldn't recomend it for a new Defender.

Why I love my Tank?

Hmm... probably because... he's my go-to toon when I want to feel Super!

Sure, energy blasts, rains of fire, and powers of darkness are all fine as far as they go... but nothing says 'Super' to me like going up and punching some punk, accompanied with a thunderous noise. Super Strength just feels so powerful to me, I've had a hard time getting into any melee toon since!

...Although I will admit, the crawl to SOs was painful. Once I got them, though, it was like a breath of fresh air for my Tank. And then I hit Rage, and haven't looked back.

Of course, my Tank isn't a level 50 yet... in fact, he just hit 35. So far I'm waiting to see what the game has in hold for an Invulnerablility/ Tank at these levels. (I already know I'm going to have problems with Rikti and Carnies... I'll see how others work out...)