Osmiridium

I like the feedback/thoughts so far, keep em coming. How about putting them in some actual scenarios:

1 - Hard Single Target (AV/GM - doesn't have to be solo, but lets say you have aggro anyway)

• Brute - DN, more hitpoints, DDR, OwtS = more likely to survive. But will the ST damage be there to win (if solo)?
• Bane - From what I can tell, incredible ST damage, but will it survive? (possibly not from Rock Crag)

Basically if a fight takes a little longer, but there is a higher chance of actual success, I'd take the latter personally.

2 - AoE - pretty much no contest...as a Bane. Using the dual build though, I'm not even sure the SoA can match Crowd Control, Whirling Mace, Shatter (Brute is a smallish AoE) and Shield Charge.

3 - Teaming - The Bane brings more buffage no matter what build, but the Brute can assume the tank role much easier due to the Taunt aura (and I'll be taking Taunt as well).

Taking End out of the equation for now, leaning towards Ageless on the Brute which will take care of things anyway.

So ultimately, if it comes down to the Brute just taking longer on the Hard stuff, but still coming out on top, then I'll go Brute. And...probably roll a Bane later anyway knowing me.

So I decided to try something a bit different (for me) and go back to a weapon set for a chance of pace. Rolled up a Mace/Shield and have been very impressed with the damage so far (though brutes are like that starting out). Then started looking into Banes a bit and then potential looks promising there too.

Not looking for builds per se, I've messed around with Mids enough with both to pretty much do what I want with soft-capping and such, but rather want some opinions/differences between the 2.

1 - The Brute looks to have a world more AoE potential than the Bane (pretty much just crowd control), but I can't tell if the Bane will destroy the Brute in the ST department (Surveillance, Shatter Armor, Executioners/Stealth Strikes, pets, higher base modifier, but no Jawbreaker, Clobber, Fury, AAO). Enough to offset the lack of AoE?

2 - I haven't built for completely double max recharge on the Brute, so AD doesn't completely overlap for the full DDR. The Bane has none, but I can get it over 50% to all positions a lot easier than the Brute to help offset the lack of DDR. How will this play out?

3 - The Brute clearly wins in the HP department, my modified base is higher and with OwtS, I can crank it up to around 3k. But is that going to be a big deal with soft-capped defenses anyway?

4 - My Bane builds have come up much better on the End use side of things, but the Brute still hits 2end/sec recovery with all toggles running (including DN from soul). Will this be enough?

5 - The Bane does have the option for a complete dual build to Crab/Huntsman to switch to "AoE mode" instead. How well does this work out though?

Just looking for any other pros/cons/things I'm missing between these two.

Why not just play a DP/Traps Corr or Traps/DP Defender?

And here is a quickly made starting point to go with the above.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Test: Level 50 Technology Defender
Primary Power Set: Dark Miasma
Secondary Power Set: Ice Blast
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Dark Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- Theft-Heal(A), Theft-Heal/Rchg(3), Theft-Acc/Heal(3), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(5), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Ice Bolt -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg(7), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9)
Level 2: Ice Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 4: Tar Patch -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(9)
Level 6: Frost Breath -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(17), Posi-Dmg/Rng(17), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19)
Level 8: Darkest Night -- DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(A), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(19), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(21), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(21)
Level 10: Howling Twilight -- RzDz-EndRdx/Stun(A), RzDz-Acc/EndRdx(15), RzDz-Stun/Rng(23), RzDz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(23), RzDz-Immob%(25)
Level 12: Fearsome Stare -- Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb(A), Cloud-Acc/Rchg(27), Cloud-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(29)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(29), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 16: Freeze Ray -- BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(31), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(31), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(33)
Level 18: Super Speed -- Run-I(A)
Level 20: Ice Storm -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Posi-Dam%(34)
Level 22: Petrifying Gaze -- BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(34), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(36), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(36)
Level 24: Shadow Fall -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam(25), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(31), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 26: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 28: Bitter Ice Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(39), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 30: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 32: Dark Servant -- DampS-ToHitDeb/Rchg(A), DampS-ToHitDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(37), DampS-Rchg/EndRdx(40), DampS-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(40), DampS-ToHitDeb(40)
Level 35: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(42), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(42), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 38: Blizzard -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(43), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), Posi-Dam%(45)
Level 41: Combat Jumping -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A)
Level 44: Dark Consumption -- Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(45), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(45), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(46)
Level 47: Dark Embrace -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(48), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(48), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Soul Drain -- Erad-Acc/Rchg(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(50), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- Empty(A)
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 8% DamageBuff(Smashing)
• 8% DamageBuff(Lethal)
• 8% DamageBuff(Fire)
• 8% DamageBuff(Cold)
• 8% DamageBuff(Energy)
• 8% DamageBuff(Negative)
• 8% DamageBuff(Toxic)
• 8% DamageBuff(Psionic)
• 4.25% Defense(Smashing)
• 4.25% Defense(Lethal)
• 3% Defense(Fire)
• 3% Defense(Cold)
• 18.63% Defense(Energy)
• 18.63% Defense(Negative)
• 4.875% Defense(Psionic)
• 5.5% Defense(Melee)
• 14.56% Defense(Ranged)
• 3% Defense(AoE)
• 9.9% Max End
• 65% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 2% Enhancement(Stun)
• 5% Enhancement(Heal)
• 50% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 8% FlySpeed
• 114.45 HP (11.25%) HitPoints
• 8% JumpHeight
• 8% JumpSpeed
• MezResist(Confused) 2.5%
• MezResist(Held) 2.5%
• MezResist(Immobilize) 2.5%
• MezResist(Sleep) 4.7%
• MezResist(Stun) 2.5%
• MezResist(Terrorized) 2.5%
• 24% (0.401 End/sec) Recovery
• 42% (1.783 HP/sec) Regeneration
• 4.725% Resistance(Fire)
• 4.725% Resistance(Cold)
• 2.5% Resistance(Negative)
• 8% RunSpeed

A few general things I see.

- Powers
-- You probably don't need all 3 holds between Dark and Ice. Personally I would drop Bitter Freeze Ray as it's the slowest of the 3.
-- You skip Ice Blast, which is not a good idea as it is very good in a ST attack chain. I would pick it up instead of Bitter Freeze Ray.
-- Aim isn't mandatory, but Aim+Tar Patch+ Ice Storm/Blizzard is fun.

-Slotting
-- Twilight Grasp needs to hit in order to heal and Doctored Wounds doesn't have any ACC in it. Take a look at the Accurate Heal sets though (sadly I don't think they have any +Recharge set bonuses that I bet you are gunning for here).
-- Darkest Night is overslotted. If you want Dark Watcher's, get the 3 IOs with End Redux (it's a hog) plus one of the others to suit your tastes to get back a slot and keep the recharge bonus.
-- Shadow Fall is better served slotted for Resistance as Dark brings ample -ToHit with it. Layered defenses are better than focusing on one. Shadow Fall + Dark Embrace will net decent resists.
-- The proc in Fearsome Stare will let a spawn get an attack off on you before they go into cowering. You may or may not want that.
-- Freeze Ray does pathetic damage, slot it as a hold instead.
-- Petrifying Gaze will needs more slots to be effective.
-- Ice Storm should be slotted as an AoE attack.
-- Tough is WAY overslotted for what it does, especially considering you have Shadow Fall+Dark Embrace.
-- There's a few hundred different ways to slot Fluffy, but I tend to lean towards more -ToHit as he runs Chill of the Night, which is a PBAoE auto-hit power (think the CoT ghost leuts).
-- Dark Consumption is overslotted for End Mod.
-- Dark Embrace could use more slots.

It really looks like you went the route of deciding on set bonuses and only looking at that, in this case defense and recharge. Your powers REALLY suffer in some cases how they are slotted. A few suggestions on that note.

-- Don't worry so much about defense with Dark/Ice. The -ToHit, resists from Shadow Fall+Dark Embrace, the -Dmg from Darkest Night, Fear from Fearsome stare, at least 2 holds and one of the best heals in the game is WAY more than you need to worry about a few measly defense set bonuses.
-- Dark/Ice is nice in that, if you want, you can play it form almost entirely ranged. To that end if you want to work in some defense form sets, stick to ranged bonuses.
-- As for recharge, there a few things you could do that will help offset better slotting on other powers. 4/6 Basilisks Gaze will get you 7.5% Recharge in Hold Powers. 5/6 Decimation will get you 6.25% in ST Ranged powers (and a fun Build Up Proc if you want). 4/6 Clouded Senses in Fearsome Stare is another 6.25% (and I tend to prefer enhancing the -ToHit instead of the Fear duration myself).

It really does come down to personal damage vs buff/debuff values. The higher base damage modifier + Scourge is nice, especially on hard targets. You also don't lose Scourge when you team unlike Vigilance. I went Defender myself (and Dual Pistols) myself for several reasons.

1 - Most of the population focuses on damage, it's really a dime a dozen. If I watch the global channels on Freedom, half the time people are waiting for buffs/debuffs to do the new trials (not there yet, only level 36).
2 - The Leadership pool is very desirable (for some builds/ATs) now that Fitness is inherent. And Defenders get the best numbers from Leadership of every AT in the game.
3 - Stacking solo Vigilance, Defender Assault, IO set damage bonuses, Achilles Heel procs, Chance for Build up procs and Acid Mortar, I have no trouble mowing things down solo.
4 - DP is extremely flexible once you resign yourself to the fact that it isn't top damage, and neither is a Defender to begin with. Remember, Defenders get the best buff/debuff numbers of all the ATs, even in the blast sets that have them. Seeker Drones + Bullet Rain/Empty Clips using Chemical Rounds just decimates a spawns ability to do damage. Switch to Cryo Ammo to slow em down if wanted as well. When solo however, I can squeeze a bit more damage using Incendiary Rounds.
5 - As mentioned, easier to softcap defense. I personally don't hit it as I account for the Seeker Drone debuff, but between FFG, Maneuvers, Stealth and a few set bonuses, I'm between 35-40% to everything. And about 25% of that goes to the team (always welcome).
6 - Once I played around with Mids, I was starving for slots with a Corrupter DP/Trap build, but just barely got what I was looking for with a Defender Trap/DP. This is purely subjective though for what I was looking for.

So once it got down to it, I designed a character that is perfectly suitable for solo play when I want to, yet brings a LOT in terms of buffs/debuffs to a team. And I get to blow #!$@ up with Trip Mine

I don't have any experience with Piercing Rounds as it isn't in my plan for a few reasons.

1 - I don't want to switch ammo just for the -RES debuff, but that's just me.
2 - I work in 3 Achilles Heel procs, 2 of them in AoE powers and the other in Pistols, which is MUCH faster to activate and recharge than Piercing Rounds.
3 - I simply don't have enough slots left to do anything with it even if I wanted to take it.
4 - I don't go for all out recharge, but that's also back to a personal playstyle. My ST attack chain of Pistols->DW->Pistols->Exec. Shot is good enough with my recharge levels.
5 - If you are looking at getting more debuff action, just switch to Cryo or Chemical Ammo on teams and lay into em. But see my first reason about not wanting to toggle ammo for Piercing Rounds.

Oh yeah, I didn't mean to imply that you should drop Charged Armor for the other powers, just that it would be easier to work them in since you already took the pool to begin with. Layering a nice resistance shield on a set that can get to the soft cap for defense is always a good idea if you can swing it.

Just a few things of the top of my head.

You seem to prioritize recovery, which is fine, but you have exceeded the rule of 5 on 2 of the 2.5% recovery bonuses. You also take Mu for charged armor, but skip Power Sink and Conserve Power. One or both of those powers would go MUCH father than the recovery bonuses anyway for end management.

You probably are a bit overkill on the Force Feedback +Recharge IOs (though I like getting a couple in myself). Might consider swapping the one in Empty Clips for another Achilles' Heel proc instead.

Consider trying to work in the Devastation proc into Acid Mortar as it takes ranged damage sets. Combined with the Lockdown proc Poison Trap which you have in there already you will see lots of randomly held mobs.

If you do the above, Suppresive Fire is a bit wasted. Traps already has significant mitigation in it's debuffs alone. Adding in the nice hold procs in the pulsing AoE powers and you may not need it much (a possible good spot to work in your triage beacon too).

We that's no fun...



That snippet was against +0s and it definitely shows that the ACC isn't getting applied to Shiver since it has a base ACC of 1.00. The combat log shows 85%, but the other 10% is from Supremacy. Looks like I may have some more slotting to consider.

No, the point is very clear. In an AoE centric game, single-target specialists will be contributing less. Still contributing sure, but less than others. Stalkers themselves are fine, it's the game around them.

They didn't say Stalkers weren't useful, they said almost every other AT is MORE useful in most situations than a Stalker. And I have to agree. Most AT's have ways to take out "high priority" targets from the fight. Holds, debuffs, etc. Stalkers simply do it by death and be done with it.

Also, balancing the game around +0/x0 and SOs has nothing to do with actual team makeup, gameplay, and performance. The simple fact is that this game heavily favors mass AoE and most stalkers don't bring that to the table. And those same AoE teams are more than capable of dealing with the single tough targets as well, with or without a stalker.

It isn't really a problem with stalkers so much as it is the now AoE centric nature of the game itself. Stalkers ARE good at what they do, but as already pointed out, by the time they have dealt with 1 boss, the rest of the team destroyed the rest of the spawn. And yes, that is true for any single-target specialist.

To compound the issue, the really hard targets are taken down more by great debuffs instead of raw single-target damage. Look no further than the slew of AT builds that pack -regen, -dmg, etc. that can solo AV/GMs. And no, AS demoralize doesn't hold a candle in that comparison.

So stalkers are stuck in a game where their specialty role is simply marginalized. AoE damage is king along with great debuffs/force multiplication. I'm one of the people that WANTS to like to play stalkers, but can't stick with it for these reasons. I have more fun joining in the mass AoE steamroll.

It's even safer when you get Seeker Drones. Just summon them right into the spawn. They last a couple of seconds, take the alpha, then explode with some nice debuffs. Perfect lead in to toe-bomb Poison Trap and Acid Mortar. All 3 just happen to have the same recharge time too...

I put 2 of these up yesterday 1 was 35 and the other was 30. And yeah, 30 mil didn't come close. I think the 35 went for well over 100 mil.

Everything mentioned thus far is true, but I'll add my 2 cents form experience with my DM/FA/Soul.

1) Burn definitely helps pick up the lack of AoE in DM. You will need the patron immob to make it effective. Plus as DM, the patron immob+midnight grasp will keep bosses in the burn patch. Big time extra damage.

2) Fury does only affect the first 2 seconds of burn. That's because burn patches are pseudo pets that inherit the brutes buffs when cast. Fury actually only has a 2 second duration, but is recalculated on the brute in that interval as well. But the Fury bonus on pseudo pets just drops off. It isn't horrible though, with proper slotting, Soul Drain and Fiery Embrace, Burn still ticks for a lot.

3) I prefer Soul over Mu. I started out as Mu, but I often found myself surrounded and used E.Fences, hoping the radius would just catch everything. It didn't work so well in practice. Since I found myself repositioning anyway out to around the distance of the cones, I switched. That, and Gloom and Darkest Night are 2 of the best patron powers available to brutes.

4) DM has some really good synergy with FA. DM is great single target damage where FA can help in the AoE dept. DM brings an extra heal in Siphon Life (also one of DM's premier attacks) to help with FA's Healing Flames. Dark Consumption and Consume bring the possibility of going stamina-less (beware energy drain though).

I used to think Dark Miasma was the bees knees when it came to effective debuffs...until I rolled Traps. It definitely gets my vote now. The thing with Traps is that it doesn't revolve around 1 or 2 themes as many debuff sets do, it does just about everything. And it does them well too. The playstyle does take some getting used to, but it's very flexible once you have all the tools available.

Wow... You know they made Defense stacking overpowered when that is the aspect people focus on with these two powers. Yes, the defense is negligible unless you are approaching the softcap, but that isn't the sole purpose of Hover and CJ.

Hover pretty much grants you guaranteed melee defense if you hover out of range (doesn't work if you have to get in close, but it's perfect for ranged characters). It is also slightly less annoying being knocked back while hovering. And while slow, you can still fly with it.

CJ gives you a decent jump height boost AND Immob protection. Many people take it and hurdle to get around early on (less so with the temp travel powers now). Also, don't forget other IO slotting besides defense, such as KB protection, that can be put in both powers.

You did mention you prefer to blap and such, so CJ would likely be a better choice in that regard. But I wouldn't take either one simply for defense stacking unless you are REALLY close to the softcap.