Red Pirate Boggarts

Hey fellow defs (trapper / pistols here):

I can't wait to see what effect going rogue will have for a certain sub-sect of defenders, the healer-only builds. I can feel the hate and loathing now from the healer-only crowd, but I hope more and more defenders will use both their primary and secondary powers with corruptors and masterminds in the mix.

I realize even some corruptors advertise themselves as healer-only, but there's way more wannabe-empaths out there who skipped out on everything else but their heals, rez, and rec aura.

Heals? good.
Complete support? great.
Complete support with slotted attacks?
Complete support w/ an army of gigantic robots armed to the teeth at your beck and call? Holy.....

Hopefully seeing more complete support toons running around and "arresting" crims with style will passively spur the healer-only crowd to respec into full empath defenders.

I have a huntsman, and this is what I do. probably not the most efficient thing but it works for me when I farm.

I target someone in the middle of the pack, fire off venom grenade and heavy burst. I then close to melee and let them surround me for a bit (I assume you've got pretty high defenses + much better resistance than I do, having fortification ). I then fire off wide are web grenade (aoe immob.) and venom again. Jump out, aim and fire heavy burst, then finish off with frag grenade.

EDIT: I used to fire off web grenade first, but I found that having them cluster around me first then firing it off catches a lot more of em in my trap. We're soldiers, so we've got naturally high defenses due to TT:maneuvers + we're easy to get capped or near capped thanks to set IO bonuses.

Also, I'd advise you against Omega. For the damage vs. recharge of the power, you'll be much better off picking another normal aoe power.

That does sound good, although I'm a bit hesitant to not have an aoe if I exemp down to the teens or 20s. I didn't pick up tornado until I had foresight + cloak + confuse for defense/utility.

To be honest, I picked up dart burst mainly cause it looks great , I could get it in early, and it's not psi damage. I guess I've gotten used to the redraw after all this time.

Oh yeah, I forgot I don't have CJ + SJ anymore heh. I went on a late night respec mission last week and switched to hover + fly for a more ghost widow-esque style. Hover + maneuvers + assault + all 3 TT leaderships + indom. will + mask = around 1.30~ish end on me

I build for effectiveness but also for style, although now I wish hover to have the end cost of CJ.

Let's see, off the top of my head:
dart burst
telekinetic blast
subdue
dominate
aim
psi tornado
psi wail

Then everything from widow training except CT offensive

mask presence
confuse
mind link
ghost widow immobilize (thematic reasons + I love aoe immob.)
CJ + SJ
swift + health + stamina
maneuvers + assault

That's my 24 powers. To be honest, I'm leaning towards staying the way it is now and just getting either the health +recov or that end mod +recov. But... veng... argh lol.

(btw thanks to both of you for your inputs!)

Hey guys/gals,

First, let me clarify. I took all TT powers excluding vengeance. Now, I would like to respec my fortunata and was wondering if I could get some input.

I'm not home right now so I can't post a mids hash, but here's my question. I've only room for two, and there's 3 choices: Maneuvers, assault, TT veng.

I have both maneuvers and assault to stack with VEAT maneuvers/assault. But a little end heavy, even 2 end reducers on assault and 5 red fortunes on maneuvers.

If I drop maneuvers I'll be slightly under cap on range and aoe (about 41% on both). If I drop assault my team will lose 15% flat damage. But... there's always that teammate that goes splat at just the right moment and veng is ridiculously awesome. So, if it were you, what would you take out of the 3?

You tanks need to pop in the brute forums more often, they've got the inside scoop on WM.

You'll never be as pretty as an energy aura brute, but you'll be almost as strong.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=124689

My heroes are going to be vigilantes, and my villains (save one) are going to be rogues. Just like my personality. I'm not Dr. Evil evil nor am Clark Kent.

As on-the-fence characters, will we be able to essentially do any taskforce or strikeforce we want to?

I want to see wild animals (wolf, birds of prey, and then a huge bear) for a druid MM theme, and a medieval set (archers, 2 squires, 1 heavily armored knight)

wild animals + storm = eat your heart out malfurion! (ok ok, bad form I know)

My veats.
Huntsman/bane combo that I'm IO'ing out.
Fortunata/currently gimped NW. Only the fort has some IO slotting, the rest SOs.

I just love their versatility, not to mention 20% def (TT:M + M), tactics, and 30% +dam (TT:A + A) on my huntsman? And he doesn't run dry of end thanks to performance shifter and numina's procs?

I play my huntsman like a corruptor, my bane like a blapper, fort as a blast happy dom, and NW... well I loved the fort so much I don't usually go NW lol.

Only thing I wish for are customizable power colors (for fort) and more weapon options for the soldier.

Psi is good. If it's good for your concept, go /dark for tentacle immobilize. Spawn seekers at mob, run in, PGT, jump out, TT, acid mortar, caltrops just because you want to pour saltwater on their wounds.

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
Oh wait, I'm sorry, I picked up the wrong script

1. If I get two tells from a soldier and another AT, I would probably pick the soldier because they're added damage, a damage multiplier (thanks to assault and venom/surv), and added survivability factor (thanks to maneuvers).
2. Call me a Nazi, but I do inspect people joining my team. Comes from playing a defender, which along with controllers have the most wildly varying playstyle. EDIT: Inspecting someone and looking over their powers might seem invasive to people, but I call it being a responsible leader.
3. If said soldier doesn't have assault or maneuvers or venom grenade (honestly I haven't seen a huntsman or crab w/o this yet) then I would privately tell them "sorry, we're going to get another guy" if the team's got 7 already and we're doing BSF or RSF.
4. I'll proceed to get that other AT.

I can feel the hate now, but I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to provoke your righteous indignation. It's my team, I'm responsible for picking the players and ensuring each member can contribute to their fullest to ensure success.

Coming from a defender background, I have an unhealthy hatred for "pure he4lz0rz" builds with 1 attack and just sits back spamming healing aura. To me, "pure offense can't-be-bothered-to-pick-defensive-powers-that-help-THEM-and-their-potential-teammates" are in the same category. "Pure" loads of (oh look a kitten). I can find another AT with comparable or even better damage and contribute more through personal survival (dead dps do zero dps), control, buffs, or debuffs.

Let me add: I build different style teams for different occasions. Easy door missions? I couldn't care less, really. Bring your 6 slotted rest/brawl/dance-like-its-1999 characters. TFs or SFs that I want to get done in a fast and easy manner? Little more scrutiny in a person's power selection.

Traps. Go with traps. I say this from a traps/pistols defender standpoint. I soloed reliably and it gets to be absurdly safe as you fill out your traps arsenal. It's a proactive set; you unleash your traps then have fun blasting rather than constantly looking over the HP and status buffs of other teammates. The traps themselves are very good out of the box too, meaning that if you're strapped for slots, just put 3 on each and put recharges on them.

steps to trapping:
1. seekers right in the middle of the spawn
2. lay down pgt, mortar, in the middle of the spawn
3. HAIL OF PEW PEW HAHAHAHAHA Neo eat your heart out!
4. Rain of bullets / empty clips
5. Cackle maniacally
6. Shoot down any stragglers in the back while they attempt to run

You've also got FFG which is +def, mez protection, and no end cost to you (aside from the initial summoning). FF'ers get this too but they're nowhere near as offensive minded as traps are.

The journey to 50 (especially the early parts from 1-24ish) had more of an impact for me when I was choosing which route to go with for my pistols trapper.

I chose defender purely because I get FFG, mortar, and PGT sooner. I got by just fine on having 2-3 attacks until the 30s.

However, with the advent of going rogue, I would say corruptor would now be the better way to go.
If and when you do team, you'll have slightly less powerful buffs/debuffs but 30% or higher (go go scourge!) damage output than a defender would. This is the great disparity which the corruptor edges out.

Sure if you decide to go with a pure he4lz0r build with only 1 attack with a single acc on it, then defender would be better, but egh....

I'm really attached to my trapper but I'm now building up the inf and collecting rare salvage to have a nice roll as a blue side corruptor.

Offenders are complete defenders. They make sure every single fight isn't fair. Whether it's through buffing your team, or debuffing the crims, or both, every defender's job is to make sure your side's got the (unfair) advantage. Offenders complete the package by bringing on the pain!

That said, they're very different from an lolender, which I was a prime example of late last night. Team's all buffed, we pop off inspirations, and get ready to arrest some freaks. I play my traps/pistols defender like a scrapper, and so boldly goes and jumps in the middle of the pack!

Oops... forgot seekers... splat... lol... facepalm...

The OP said which powerset is good for 100% support build?

Group oriented + support /= empathy alone.

Not a knock to empaths, but I believe he can make a better support char than just empathy/some underslotted blast, even if it's setup for debuffs.
I have great fun with my ice/cold controller. 100% support team char.

This comment's not really pertaining to how non-healing defenders work, but you really shouldn't judge any powerset by level 8. Or by level 20 even.

Now, as far as traps:
My traps/pistols defender is so much fun after I got the following each with 3 common IO recharges:

1. Acid mortar
2. Poison Gas Trap
3. Seekers
4. Caltrops

Web grenade, I have an acc, end redux, and immobilize.

I've respecced out of triage beacon, the powers listed above (yes, even web nade) do so much more for me than beacon did. I found traps having an average kill speed for a defender. It's ridiculously safe though, and your level of safety (and that of your team) rises exponentially as you gain levels and more powers.

EDIT: note, the 4 powers listed above only have 3 recharges in them, no other enhancements because I've 6 slotted my attacks and 3 slotted FFG w/ defense. Even with just the recharges, the above four work great out of the box.

One thing Stalkers have on Banes (at least SR stalkers) is that Banes lack defense debuff resistance. I haven't found this to be a huge deal, I just carry purples around if machine guns begin to debuff me.

I play bane primarily, but the second build is huntsman. My end build for that includes TT Maneuvers + pool maneuvers for roughly 20% def for the team AND surveillance + venom for -res debuffs. It's like playing an AR corruptor with inherent mez protection, a lot higher natural def (from SO level, no IOs), and 2 spider pets.

Also, the gun attacks have faster animation times than the comparable crab ones.

VEATs, the baskin robbins of COX. So many flavors, all of them (deadly) good.