Scarab_NA

it's hard to give you advice if you don't let us know more about what your playstyle or goals are. or you could just create your own build as a starting point for critique. this is a link to the build I just drew up for myself. it's a work in progress, but it could serve as a starting point or alternate perspective for you

in regards to the build posted by Hindenburg: unless you don't plan on solo'ing, I would not take TK Blast nor Will Domination that late. those are both powers that you need to pick up as soon as they become available. alongside Subdue, they are your bread and butter attacks. Darkest Night should also be picked up much earlier. I understand the logic for PvP, but I'm not a fan of dual travel powers. and it should be noted that Dark/Psi defenders are not good in PvP. I'll reserve commenting on the slotting, since I'm not all that awesome in that department either, with the exception of noting that I know the awesomeness of the bonuses on the purple sets, but slotting Subdue for immob is a waste

the first character I ever rolled in CoH back in 2004 is my Dark/Psi defender. also my first 50. that said, I've only recently returned to the game after a loooong hiatus. I've never really IO'd out any of my chars, so this is an experiment for me. I've also had to discard long-standing slotting rules that were ingrained in my head (2acc/2mez/2rec in FS and PG for example)

in my first build attempt, I tried to aim for defense. that didn't work out too well since I seemed to be sacrificing the actual power of my powers in order to get sets with good def bonuses. so then I read a bunch of other people's builds and stole their ideas (thanks!)

I'm not married too much to the build, but I do have reasons for almost all of the power selection, order and slotting. price is generally not an option. I'm not rich, but this is something I plan on building towards in the long term as this is my main character. please comment and critique, both from a Dark/ and /Psi perspective. thanks much in advance!

and without further ado:


Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.94
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Natural Defender
Primary Power Set: Dark Miasma
Secondary Power Set: Psychic Blast
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Dark Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Twilight Grasp -- Nictus-Acc/Heal:50(A), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen:50(5), Nictus-Heal:50(40), Cloud-Acc/Rchg:30(43), Cloud-%Dam:30(43)
Level 1: Mental Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(7), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(34)
Level 2: Subdue -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(3), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(7), TotHntr-Dam%:50(21)
Level 4: Tar Patch -- ImpSwft-Dam%:30(A), RechRdx-I:50(9), RechRdx-I:50(42)
Level 6: Fly -- Flight-I:50(A)
Level 8: Darkest Night -- DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx:50(A), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx:50(9), DarkWD-ToHitDeb:50(31), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx:50(45)
Level 10: Psychic Scream -- Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), Ragnrk-Dmg:50(11), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg:50(13), Ragnrk-Knock%:50(21)
Level 12: Fearsome Stare -- Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(A), Cloud-ToHitDeb:30(13), Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb:30(15), Cloud-%Dam:30(42), Cloud-Acc/Rchg:30(43), Cloud-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg:30(50)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(15)
Level 16: Telekinetic Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(17), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(17), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(19), ExStrk-Dam%:20(19)
Level 18: Shadow Fall -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), HO:Cyto(37), HO:Cyto(46)
Level 20: Will Domination -- Apoc-Acc/Rchg:50(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(23), Apoc-Dmg:50(23), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(25), Apoc-Dam%:50(25)
Level 22: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 24: Tactics -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 26: Howling Twilight -- Amaze-Stun/Rchg:50(A), Amaze-Acc/Rchg:50(37), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun:50(40), Amaze-ToHitDeb%:50(46), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(50)
Level 28: Psionic Tornado -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(29), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(29), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), Posi-Dam%:50(31)
Level 30: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 32: Dark Servant -- Heal-I:50(A), Cloud-ToHitDeb:30(33), Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb:30(33), Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(33), Cloud-%Dam:30(34), HO:Lyso(34)
Level 35: Petrifying Gaze -- Lock-Acc/Hold:50(A), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:50(36)
Level 38: Psychic Wail -- Armgdn-Dmg:50(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg:50(39), Armgdn-Dam%:50(40)
Level 41: Dark Consumption -- Efficacy-Acc/Rchg:50(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(42), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc:50(46)
Level 44: Dark Embrace -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(45), HO:Ribo(45)
Level 47: Soul Drain -- Oblit-Acc/Rchg:50(A), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(48), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(48), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg:50(48), Oblit-%Dam:50(50)
Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth:50(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I:50(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Heal:40(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(27), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(36)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod:50(27), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(36), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(37)
Level 4: Ninja Run

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Each badge reads:
You have helped celebrate the X anniversary of City of Heroes.

It is for the player logging on, not a character badge.

[/ QUOTE ]

And Immortal reads: "You are truly Immortal. You have survived one billion points of damage." The player didn't earn sustain one billion points of damage, the character did.

Same with Empath: "You have helped your fellow heroes by healing them for one hundred million hit points." Again, the character, not the "player".

See? The logic doesn't play. At best, it's being interpreted to suit a viewpoint, but then it would have to apply to all over similarly worded badges - like, all of them. Should ALL of them be global? No. Vet badges, VIP, etc., all of those are "global" to the actual player. Everything else is engaged by action of a toon - including logging in for the anniversary month. See my point?

[/ QUOTE ]

much more eloquent than what I was about to write out

VIP is for me buying a game with money. much like the costume packs are for people who bought those in-game items with money. thus it makes sense for them to be account wide. the anniversary badges are for a person "celebrating" that anniversary with a character by logging in and participating in an event

why not then make *all* badges account wide? that follows the same logic

I really don't get the big deal about kill-count badges or "farmability" factors. seriously, who cares? why is this an issue? whose game is this breaking?

I remember endlessly patrolling Striga to get my wolf and vamp badges. I swung by that island in Talos just outside the DA entrance for months to get the mask badge. every time I was in Crey's I would take down at least 3 or 4 large groups of rikti monkeys. I'm quasi-compulsive about badges, but the only arguably "abusive" behavior I've ever engaged in to get a badge was for Empath. which I still don't have, by the by, even after the requirements were lowered. maybe some people joined farms to get those same badges in a tenth of the time, but I don't see how that has damaged my play experience or the game as a whole. it took me a year and a half to get my first 50. some people do it in a week or so. one approach isn't more valid than the other, and neither invalidates the other

I agree that some of the MA badges were unrealistic and unreasonable, but so are the third tier RV badges. so ... so what? why the change? why the need to disrupt a paradigm that has worked for five years plus?

smells like a bunch of care-bearing to me

I have no substantial problem with a future fix allowing for global anniversary badges. a retroactive change is wrong in my opinion. however, I don't feel strongly enough to fight about this. like someone wrote above, it ultimately smacks of homogeneity

Server: Virtue
Character Name: Nach S'Ariot
SG Name: Infinite Order
When do you crash: right after getting res'd at the hospital in MA in Steel Canyon
Does it affect all characters: in teh SG? I don't know. linked to my account? it's starting to appear that way
Does it affect only characters in one or more SG's or VG's: seems like it's affecting all of my characters

Server: Virtue
Character Name: Dread Widow
VG Name: Urban Decay
When do you crash: at loading screens between zones
Does it affect all characters: only noticed it thus far on this one, repeatedly, but I haven't played any others extensively
Does it affect only characters in one or more SG's or VG's: not known at this point

two years later, part deux, since I'm dissatisfied with my prior results (out of almost 10,000 tracks). I like these better

1. Beastie Boys - She's Crafty
2. Foo Fighters - Aurora
3. Blondie - Fade Away and Radiate
4. Dig - Decide
5. Metallica - Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
6. Helmet - The Silver Hawaiian
7. Fall Out Boy - The Music or the Misery
8. Matthew Sweet - Holy War
9. Trivium - A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation
10. Ray Charles - Unchain My Heart

two years later, more random than ever

1. The White Stripes - Expecting
2. Rusted Root - Ecstasy
3. Kenny Rogers - Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Backwoods
5. Coldplay - Clocks
6. Live - We Deal in Dreams
7. Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
8. Beastie Boys - Alright Hear This
9. Phil Collins - I Don't Wanna Know
10. Nine Inch Nails - In This Twilight

here's a reply for ya: I'd be interested to see your videos. I love my shade in PvE, but I've gotten destroyed every time I've tried to PvP. too much micro-management takes too much time. I spent all this effort trying to set up conditions precedent to a kill that I never had time to actually kill someone

so blue-side Wednesday and red-side Tuesday ... what times? any thought to returning to the Sat/Sun raids too?

this guide is horribly outdated ... there was no need to necro it

[ QUOTE ]
Having a level 50 all human peacebringer, played up that way from level 1... I'm glad I didn't see this post until now. Your build is subpar in several areas and you don't offer any useful tactical advice in your guide for employing the build or playing as a human peacebringer.

I could pick your build apart, but I don't feel it's appropriate to. I will point out that it doesn't consider IOs at all, overslots several powers, and underslots one critical one.

[/ QUOTE ]

having read this entire thread, I wish to point out that your post is subpar in several areas. I could pick your reply apart, but I don't feel it's appropriate to. I will point out that it doesn't consider that the original guide was posted in October 2006, a very long time before I9 was released

it should be mentioned for those unfamiliar with Psi that, outside pool, vet and epics attacks, TK Blast is your only source of non-Psi damage for those much ballywhoed highly resistant mobs

quick comment on the Psi AoE's: you forgot to mention that Scream has a hefty -rec debuff, much like Mental Blast. I'm not a numbers guy either but in my experience Scream and Tornado do about the same amount of damage. the difference being that Tornado's is DoT. the DoT factor, combined with the greater utility (to me) of guaranteed -rec over possible KU/KD makes Scream a more attractive power if one is to chose between the two. frankly, I tend to think that if you're going to bother with an AoE, you should take both to maximize the impact in teams. you take AoE's for team damage, not for solo'ing

regardless, Mental Blast and Scream can easily earn a place in your regular attack chain based solely on -rec (which is also great in PvP)

a couple notes on the Epics:

1) Thunderstrike is exactly like Total Focus, at least as far as the animation and such. the only difference is that TF has a disorient component and TS has a chance for a small AoE KB & damage
2) in the context of end recovery following a nuke, your two best bets are Power Sink and Dark Consumption. nuke > chew a blue > PS or DC > ~ full end bar (with two or three targets depending on slotting). Conserve Power doesn't do alot for you in the nuke recovery department. the Energy Mastery pool shines for Power Build Up alone (kinda like Body Mastery for Scrappers is huge solely due to Focused Accuracy)
3) Electric Fence has a small to moderate DoT on top of the immob in the neighborhood of a tier 1 blast. I've never been impressed with the power. but that could just be me

is the healing bubble now a thing of the past?

I was in a semi-active Counter-Strike clan a couple years ago. we signed up for CAL and whatnot. turns out most of us lived pretty close to each other, so we met up for beers. I remember the first time, I couldn't stop myself from calling everyone by their handles instead of their real names. picture five late-20's, early-30's seemingly normal guys sitting around a garden table in a bar, surrounded by whiskey and beer, arguing over strats for Dust2. even now if I happen to give one of them a call on the phone, it's always, "hey monkey, it's scarab"

my favorite gaming-leaking-into-RL moment was about six or so years ago when I was working as a paralegal in a huge Manhattan law firm. I was getting a cup of coffee in the break room when I overheard these two guys debating EQ. as a, at the time, huge UO player, I then proceeded to explain to them how EQ was a grossly inferior game to UO. nicely, of course

good times, good times

does it really matter if a couple jackasses here and there can solo TF's? on my lvl 38 stalker it took me almost a half an hour to kill a Warden last week *with* a shivan. actually it was with two shivans since the Warden killed the first one

I don't see the point in nerfing the entire playerbase just because one or two powergamers are out there farming the hell out of the system. for someone like me who solo's alot, shivans are a godsend when I don't feel like trying to rally a team together so I can get past the fifth EB in a particular story arc (and there are way too many EB's in CoV arcs, by the way)

look ... be realistic, this is what happens when you incorporate l3wt into a previously lootless game. people *will* find ways to farm it

comment and a question

comment: on Virtue we still have the attack phase. it's a massive lagfest, but in the couple months that I've been going to raids, I've never seen a yellow dawn. the debuff/damage phase theory is very interesting though. I just wonder whether or not we're organized enough to make it work. as in, to have people actually listen and follow instructions like that

question: this might be somewhat noobish, but like I said above I've only been going to raids for a couple months now. during the unofficial fourth phase, the trade phase, I constantly see people advertising 51 and 52 HO's. I've also seen a couple comments in broadcast about exemping to get 50+ HO's. what's the deal with this? I've only ever gotten even con's. do certain geniuses actually combine HO's or is there a legit way to get a 50+ drop?

/signed (on the OP)

I wonder why it took so long for this thread to get started. I understand that its a difficult job, forum rules, etc etc ... but the almighty hand of the mod(s) has been exceptionally present lately. and honestly, when this is all coming from someone "new" to the team it leaves a somewhat sour-er taste in my mouth

1. Living Colour - Middle Man
2. The Cure - Figurehead
3. Madonna - La Isla Bonita [gf's CD]
4. U2 - Staring at the Sun
5. Atari Teenage Riot - Deutschland Has Gotta Die
6. Jane's Addiction - Ocean Size
7. Bob Mould - Circles
8. The Prodigy - Fire (Sunrise Version)
9. U2 - Electrical Storm
10. INXS - The Stairs

since U2 came up twice (I have the U2 iPod) I went to an 11th song ...

11. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Apache Rose Peacock

Dark Miasma has a group stealth power called Shadow Fall, but as far as I know that wouldn't place you back in hide faster than the normal ten seconds. but then I've also never tested that out. more likely what happened is that the mobs you were targetting were held. Dark Miasma has a single target hold, petrifying gaze. I don't think you have a chance to crit on feared mobs, so it prolly wasn't fearsome stare, DM's fear cone (which is a spectacular power, btw)

what are your thoughts on concealment and fighting? you seem to have left that out of your power pool discussion. also, a proposed build might be useful ... I'm more concerned about order of power choice right now than anything else

right now I have a lvl 18 ninja/energy stalker and I'm debating whether I really even need the fitness pool. granted, I haven't taken all my toggles yet and I do tend to suck wind at times, but as a stalker you have the luxury of sitting around sometimes to recover end. however, this is all in the pve context and I do want to be viable in pvp, which I haven't played around with too much. as a matter of habit I took hurdle pretty early on, I took build up at 18 and I still want to take stealth and power shield asap ... which puts off stamina until 26 ... and I could very easily not want it then since so many other great powers open up in the interim. and in case you're curious I took tp and tp foe ... but then since I tend to lag sometimes I also want to grab hover at some point in the immediate future. big dilemmas here

just a couple notes on Psi, since I have zero experience with empathy but have a 40's Dark/Psi defender:

I took psi scream way back, re-spec'd out of it, and then retook it a couple levels later. six-slotted (1xacc, 5xdam) it can do very well against a group. its generally end and time prohibitive against single targets, but does well as a gap-filler. long range and wide cone ... you can fit alot of baddies in there without too much positioning

played briefly with tornado on test. didn't like it. I found the AoE to be too small and I'm not a fan of DoT. this was in i3 or i4, so maybe things have changed, but my non-scientific observations had scream doing more damage similarly slotted

I'm also in the process of dropping the nuke. I love the whole nuke concept, but I honestly can't justify wasting a power choice and 6 slots on a blast that I've maybe used five or six times. the risks associated with all my toggles dropping and being rendered essentially helpless for a few seconds just aren't worth it. but it does look really cool

my only piece of advice that isn't sheer subjective opinion, however ... psi lance is inherently more accurate than regular blasts, and you can get away with dropping that acc enhancement. I subbed in an endred and have zero problems, but if you can't afford the extra slots for damage and you aren't worried about end you could just put another dam in there. sure its got a long activation time, but fully slotted for damage, lance is impressive. and as the OP points out, its very easy to get one off after a TK Blast or a WD-induced sleep