Scientist

I got around 20% ranged defense without trying too hard, instead of slotting up my nuke (which I just didn't get around to using much, despite having an End refill power) I took those slots and distributed them among the many "travel" powers a WS gets, which include the Intangible one for example, as well as the Recall Friend and TP Foe clones, for Zephyr sets. That plus a Steadfast Res/Def meant getting noticable Ranged defense, especially handy in Nova form where you can stay at range even when mezzed. And it didn't require much of a build compromise.

Its enough of a base, though, to pop 2 small or 1 medium purple and be soft capped for very good safety in tough situations. And if I can't manage to accumulate some purples in a regular mission with the insp slots I have at 50 I don't deserve to have a WS.

To go much further, IMHO, requires slotting for Def instead of Rch, which hurts having Eclipse up all the time, so I don't know if its worth the tradeoff, especially since its a lot rarer to debuff resistance then defense.

Just tested, in case they were holding off on the freespec until later, and the character I finished freespecing 5 minutes before the server went down this morning for maintenance has a new freespec.

So unless they offer another one later on for the lack of notice on this one, that was it, it issued with the I15 release to live (which was confirmed with a popup window when I just logged on).

Pity, I also had in mind doing a PvP respec on a grav/FF who is sitting around unplayed otherwise but that was a more complex project I didn't have a chance to get to this weekend. At least I got the two characters who *really* needed it.

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grav/ff has good synergy from its -movment...

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I haven't played a Grav before but didn't they remove all -movement in PvP? I know all my cold and TA using characters no longer have that in the powers that used to slow movement

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One of the things that got me interested in this was dueling a friend with my WS on his grav/emp, and seeing how badly I was pinned down in every form, Nova, Dwarf and Human. I could never close with him because of the crippling slows; he was even dropping my Nova out of the air. And the Sing kept hammering away at me, even if I dented him.

Thank you very much Neeto, that was the kind of information I was looking for, since I'm trying to do a PvP respec on the character before they issue the I15 freespecs and I have to work out what powers to keep. I know there were modifications to things like Detention Field, but I wasn't sure exactly how the powers ended up effectiveness-wise.

I have a grav/FF I was considering doing a PvP build for, because I'm looking for something they can do at 50 besides run Disp Bubble at raids. I realize he won't be FOTM, but I'm hoping he can hold his own better then pre I13 when he was getting mezzed and killed in seconds through Disp Bubble. I'm wondering a bit about what powers are useful for general arena/zone play, though.

In particular, are Crushing Field, Repulsion Bomb and/or Fireball worthwhile for fighting against teams and MMs?


And are Detention Field and/or Force Bubble useful for disruption?

And finally, how do you slot Lift up to Mag 35, as the previous posted suggested?

Having played both a Bane and a Widow to fairly high levels, they both seem more then adequate soloers by my standards (which are admittedly low, I usually play more support characters, and rarely play melee, so mezz protection with good takedown speed is quite exciting to me.

But I'm wondering if anyone has crunched the numbers on which brings more effective dps to a long fight against an AV, which is where the exact AT, powersets, damage, and debuffs start really mattering. 20% less damage on your average minion is barely noticable, on an AV it can make the difference between winnning and stalemating or losing. In particular, even though it takes up animation time to inflict the ~40% resistance debuff a Bane can do with Surveillance plus Venom, does it have higher *effective* dps then the Widow? For a large enough team it would, of course, since it multiplies everyones damage, but what about solo or duo where you wouldn't switch over to Crab?

I prefer the WS; its got a bigger bag of "utility tricks", I think, and the steamroller of destruction once it gets rolling is quite nice. Its great on large PvE teams, though falters a bit against AVs since its tricks start wearing out after a couple of minutes and it becomes just a hovering blaster.

The PB has me looking more then the WS at taking power pools, which tells me its AT powers aren't that great. I am also constantly annoyed by my inability to take Recall Friend. It has a bit more to do in an AV fight since it has a fairly good friend heal and can heal itself a couple of ways without needing foes around, in addition to its ability to slot Achilles -resist debuff IOs. If I enjoyed solo melee style play, I think it would be preferable but I prefer teams. It may also have an edge if you go strictly humanform, I had a friend who soloed his to 50, mostly on Invincible. As a note, he likes a challenge.

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Yeah, I looove the dwarf stomp I am however just level 22. and I plan on 6 slotting dwarf form beyond my 3 slots I have now to put end modifications in it.

I have 3 resist in dwarf, the steadfast protection IO in my human form passive for the 3 percent def, and a few regen bonuses.

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Just a note, its not particularly effective to put EndMods into Dwarf form, the extra amount you get is rather small. You are better off using those 3 extra slots to put End Red into attacks, or better yet Frankenslot them (mixture of cheap set IOs, not going for bonuses but just a mix of Acc/Dam/Rch/End Red), I found that made a big difference when I was spamming attacks in Nova form.

And at 22 its going to be a bit tougher, you don't have your attacks or Dwarf Heal slotted up much. If you duo with a friend, I actually suggest one of you concentrate on tanking and one concentrate on Nova blasting, the higher Nova damage will reduce enemy fire faster by taking them out so they won't get to wear you away.

Friend of mine with a PB was primary tank on a Faathim Task force our sg did. Which has a lot of psi damage, which Dwarves don't even resist. He died a couple times, generally when he pushed the pace a bit too much and got ahead of the team too far, but was right back up with the PB rez and we never had the whole party drop. But that took the kind of slotting you can do on your Kheld in the 30s and 40s.

Thanks; I hadn't picked up on the immob in both sets. You are right, Earth looks like good synergy.

Any thoughts on whether the ST hold in the set, Fossilize, is worth it on a team tank build? I'd have to give up either Incinerate or GFS to take it, obviously it would be helpful against certain problem mobs like Sappers and Tsoo Sorcs and the Basilisk Hold set is very nice, but I also find myself wondering if I'm going to be taking the time to do ST holds on a team.

And something I found on my rad defender is that exemplared down to lower levels where you'd really like to have that control because you can't destroy everything instantly, you don't have access to your epic powers anyway.

Interesting idea on the mitigation from Quicksand + Burn; I was debating going Ice for epic, for the ST Immob which should let me pin an AV in Burn (learned how useful this was for AVs on a bots/traps MM). It also allows for things like pinning Ghost Widow at range while taunting her in the STF.

Which do folks think is more useful for an end game Fire tank, fairly well IOed out? Spawn mitigation from Earth's Quicksand/Burn, or AV control and takedown with the Immob/Burn of Ice?

Yeah, I've seen several TF DC issues on leaving maps, mostly on final mission exit but at least in one case that seemed to boot a member part way through. Hopefully this will fix it.

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Lots of times the difference between the controller buff numbers and the defender buff numbers is meaningless. The presence of the buff is enough. Umbral's right about the numbers, but most of the time nobody will notice the difference. People are just happy to have buffs.

I used to think this meant my defender would not get teams, because controllers brought more to the table. Turns out this is utterly untrue.

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I think part of that is because when I'm a team leader, and am putting together a team that needs more support, I'm likely to look for a defender before a controller because theres a better chance that they have (1) taken, (2) slotted and (3) learned to use their support powers. Not guaranteed, nothing is, but better chance.

After a horrendous 6-hour STF a friend and I organized for our Khelds, I have sworn to question controllers in place of defenders more carefully about what key powers they've taken and how they've slotted them if its going to be tough content. . .

And to the OP, I"ve never seen anyone complain about a defenders lack of damage. I've occassionally seen a complaint about a defender not USING any attacks, if the team is rolling through stuff without a problem, but really nobody expects a defender on a team to be the main damage source. I was SO wishing I could have swapped my IOed out Warshade on that STF for my defender, we would have knocked 2-3 hours off that TF with less damage and more defendery goodness.

We won't discuss what happens when you start getting 4 or more defenders on a team, heh heh. . .

A few suggestions. I focus around getting +recharge, around the 60-70% level Accelerate Metabolism and Hasten are basically perma which helps with a LOT of things for you and the team.

1. Consider the Achilles proc in Neutrino, as another person suggested. Spamming that alone on an AV (which is a lot of the end game for a rad def) gives substantially more resist debuffing, the only type they don't have super high resists to. If you put another one in Rad Infection, you get something like a 65% chance of the 20% resist debuff on average, or about another 13% debuffing. Thats like running Assault, with no loss of time, End or powers taken. Its better there then in Irradiate, its not really worth debuffing resistance on any PvE mob below boss level on a team, more likely EB or AV, so Neutrino is plenty for single target debuffing and Radiation Infection covers AoE. And with enough recharge, Neutrino is a complete attack chain with good dps.
2. If you can afford it, Decimation is good for the other 5 slots in Neutrino.
3. If you can afford it, Enzymes in Rad Infection are good and you have everything you want in 3 slots, which frees up a few. They are running about 16M heroside right now, with patience.
4. I'd skip Hover and Fly and buy the jet pack in the Shadow Shard for 10k Inf when you need more fly time. Well worth it to free up 2 power slots. One of which you can take Tactics in, handy for fighting Mako in the STF as well as other high Def foes and any with -perc like Arachnos, the other Vengeance, which will fit the LotG you had in Hover and can be a team saver in tough high end content.
5. In Superspeed consider slotting a couple of the Zephyr Universal Travel set, don't need to be high level to cap speed and a bit of ranged defense is always nice. You are way overslotted for End Red there, 2 level 50 IOs almost gets you to the ED cap.
6. In Proton Volley consider a Acc/Interrupt/Range from Calibrated Accuracy in place of the Range, its nice to have reduced interrupt on that when you are trying to pull a nasty AV. Which is pretty much the only use for it, aside from holding a very nice set. Not a high priority slot, drop it if you have to.
7. In Choking Cloud and EMP consider the Basilisk set, its got 7.5% global recharge bonus for 4 slots.
8. I like the Psi epic pool, Mass Hypnosis lets you set up debuffs (they don't wake sleepers) and takes a nice +recharge set, you might even be able to afford the purple sleep set, its one of the cheapest. Also handy on ambushes and aggroed second spawns, where rad is weak because your debuffs may already be tied up. Domination gives you another hard control, with good slotting in that and Cosmic Burst you can keep 2 bosses permanently out of action with careful alternation or take out pesky sappers, mezzers, etc before they shut you down. And its base damage is equal to X-Ray Beam, your tier 2 rad attack. You shouldn't really need Conserve Power if you can get Accelerate Metabolism perma.
9. Try to get Neutron Bomb a bit earlier, for exemping down for TFs.
10. I suspect you can get by with 2 slots in Stamina, again thats close to the ED cap with lvl 50 IOs. That depends on having Acc Met up a lot of course. The Numina will also help.
10. I like Obliteration in Irradiate, if you can afford it. More +recharge. Put something in for damage at least, its your only AoE for a looong time and I've been on plenty of teams where I'm contributing to damage; thats the beauty of rad/rad, once the toggles are up, you spam Lingering Rad every 30 sec and Accelerate Metabolism every 2 minutes and you have the rest of your time to blast.

Finally, in getting sets consider getting stuff around 30ish to exemp down to more TFs. Rad is popular for that.

Thats my 2 cents based on my Main (and still most played 50) being a rad/rad.

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(1) Which Archetype can produce more damage
either in melee or ranged attacks?

(2) Which Archetype is best at soloing?

(3) Which Archetype might get more invites to teams as they are seen as more valuable in team play?

(4) In the early levels, which Archetype has more bells and whistles in their arsenal?

(5) Which Archetype has better survivability (defense)

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I ran a dual build Bane/Crab to 50, and now have a NW/Fort up to 38.

Bane and Crab are very different in functionality. Bane is a much easier soloer unless/until you IO out the Crab for better defenses, typically late game. Crab brings much more to a team, with some of the best AoEs you can get villianside. Very convenient to have both builds if you do some soloing and some teaming, both welcome on teams but probably Crab more so. And I never had a tough time choosing which one to run, based on soloing or teaming.

On the Night Widow/Fort, I keep flip-flopping between the two. The NW is a bit faster soloer, because of higher damage, the Fort is safer and sometimes even nets faster then the NW because the Fort almost never needs to wait around to heal up from a bad hit string, she just doesn't get hit much if I use the controls (Confuse stacked on bosses ftw!). The Fort is better on most teams because of more AoEs, though once in awhile its handy on a team to have a melee type like a NW to charge in and set the pace if you lack a brute (or a sufficiently aggressive brute ). Definitely learn about the IO slotting tricks for recharge on Mind Link on the NW, though, otherwise you come out of a lot of fights damaged.

Though you also want to consider the Achilles proc for Channelgun; when you are fighting AVs, always nice to have extra -resist debuffing besides your normal acid AoE. Its the one debuff they don't have super high resist to.

Thats one of the tough calls for a fast, defdebuff attack, which to put in if you can only afford one (say because of slotting Decimation or something). The -resist probably gives more net damage if you are teamed, since everyone does more, the proc probably does more solo.

I highly recommend a Plant/Rad controller for soloing it, most of your damage will come from Seeds since you don't care about XPs (watching how quickly confused Vahz rip themselves apart shows you why they are nasty low level opponents). Ideally high level so you can carry a large insp load to deal with mezzers and such.

I think a Warshade or PB could also do a decent job of it in Nova form, though you lose a lot of your good tools that low its hard to beat the AoE damage output of a Nova at that level, and remember they can't mezz you out of the air any more. I had to solo about half of it one time on my WS when we had to break for Maintenance and most of the team was slow coming back, very doable with insps and a solid IO build.

On the more off topic subject of duoing it, my fire/fire tank and a friends fire/rad controller blew through it pretty fast even at natural level. Just enough protection to survive long enough to deal the damage needed to make it fast.

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I've played characters that are clearly defined and easy to slot, this is not the case with Kheldians.

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After running my scrapper I want run something a little bit less intense. From what I'm seeing this seems to lean towards warshade, am I correct in thinking this?

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Kheldians are I think generally considered the most difficult characters to define and slot in the game; of course, the other side of this coin is "most flexible".

But I also find my WS at least the most intense character I play. Very little passive mitigation like a scrapper has, its all based on formshifting and using the right power at the right time to survive, whether its changing to Nova and blasting the dangerous boss whos at low hit points, or human and mezzing the spawn, or Dwarf and grabbing aggro on the incoming ambush. Hence the suggestions for using keybinds or macros, my Kheldian forced me to learn the keybinds for tray changing as well.

And you will definitely have to plan, build and rebuild as you play to match your style; my best friend and I have rather different playstyles on our PBs despite being similarly built.

Oh, and plan to take a lot of power pools, you need a lot of powers that don't need slotting because you'll never have enough slots.

I'd definitely suggest frankenslotting a PB (or WS for that matter) early. Just doing that for the Nova blasts, for example, means I'm no longer sucking wind for End by the third spawn or so on a fast team.

And if I was going to do a dual build early on I'd focus one on blasting (Nova) and the other on tanking (Dwarf) because most teams tend to need more damage or more support to move more quickly. Heck, some just need someone to take the alpha and set the pace to move efficiently.

I have friends who swear by humanform PBs, but I think they lend themselves better to solo play, as team play emphasises AoEs and most of their AoEs scatter spawns. If you expect to solo a lot, though, they make fairly good "scrappers".

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Dual box'ing really helps with this ebil slot building ... I worked on it last night for about 20 mins and racked up 800 sales for each ... that was at selling at 1 and buying at 5

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You don't even need dual boxing if you have a comp thats reasonably fast at logging in; fill your slots with something cheap and low turnover for sale, log to another character same or different server (but same hero/villian side) and buy them for a bit more, relist them cheap, log back to rebuy, get the extra slots on 2 characters at once.

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Hoarding leads to shortages which benefits the "ebil marketeer" types.

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But you can bet that group of "ebil marketeers" would hoard far more than anyone else if we could put more in our bases.

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Just a note on this; redside is generally acknowledged to have more hoarding and shortages then blueside. Most "ebil marketeers" prefer working blueside, because things turn over faster, I've even seen people say they prefer playing villians but stick to heros because the market is more fun. With the exception of anticipating changes in market dynamics (for example the addition of merits to the game), marketeers generally aren't hoarding things, they are buying things, possibly crafting things, and reselling things as fast as possible.

And Snow_Globe, I'm a little puzzled that you took it as condescending for someone from the market forum to come here and give advice on techniques they thought might solve a problem some base builders face.

If someone here said they were struggling to float a storage bin, and a base builder gave advice on how to rotate the desks to stack them, would it be condescending? Not everyone here would need that advice, and some might argue strenuously that the devs need to change the system so you can float whatever you want but it is advice someone might find useful for their particular problem *as the game exists right now*.

It seems to me that advice on how to afford base items is just as relevant here as advice on how to use the base editor. At least one person who has already posted in this thread may be using it, they have a lot of Inf but very little prestige, and hopefully they will come out of this with a better base thanks to this very helpful community.

Protector bots will even bubble other pets of other MMs, but only one bubble for you. And yes, as with the disabling of the Dispersion Bubble power the protector bots still carry around, I'm betting it was found to be too powerful.

With a bots/traps you can still get to around the soft cap for yourself (at least for smashing/lethal) and your pets, with IOs and effort, so its still pretty good.

One suggestion early on to deal with End woes in Nova form, do some frankenslotting (mixing cheap set IOs) to get some End Reduction in the single target and AoE attacks. Stygian solves it later, for the most part, though fighting AVs can still be tough when you don't have bodies to drain for awhile.

Yeah, the "does it solo at a decent rate" varies enormously from person to person with definition of "decent".

I suggest on at least one build taking the AoEs early, and debuff pulling with Darkest Night so you can maximize use of the rad AoEs; thats its one big advantage over other defender blasts. And Darkest Night plus Tar Patch on a defender lets you pull 2-3 spawns together for more efficiency.

I wouldn't recommend the SO market, the profits tend to come from selling people things they are willing to pay extra for for convenience. They can buy SOs at stores, so they don't need to go to the markets for those. I've sometimes bought SOs when I'm going to do a quick respec just to cash them out (you get full purchase price back on a respec), but only when I can get them for less then stores pay.

My suggestion for fairly safe profits is look at what common IOs and levels are selling well; things like defense, accuracy, damage, etc are good sellers because people need a lot of them. Then look into the guide to getting the crafting badges, and make/sell enough to get the badges on those, which lowers your production cost tremendously. In the process you should be finding out what the lowest "overnight" price you can buy the salvage for is. Then just start cranking them out.

Then, as you start putting together set IO builds, sometimes you'll notice something with wide price variations. That can be a good niche to start working on for the markets.

I kind of eyeballed this when I was first considering Death Shroud on my Dark. Tried it on Test in Kings Row (was low level at the time) and it could drop 3 white con Skulls before they could drop me, with me running no shields and just standing there. I took it and never looked back.

Whats nice is it means as you get higher and get things slotted up that you can jump into a spawn and start wailing on the boss and by the time they go down, the minions are pretty much dead too. This is not only an End saver but a time saver as well. And the larger the teams you favor, the more efficient this is.

One caution, if you are running this and sidekicked up to a friends MA/SR scrapper who is running Invincible, say, expect to die a lot. You are doing a lot more AoE aggro then he is. The flip side is I've tanked for teams without a tank because I can keep the aggro off the support folks pretty well, who can keep me alive if needed.

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Now that I didn't know. Everything I've read on BG Mode says Follow/Defensive. It does make sense, though.

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Most of the guides and such only mention that, but I've confirmed it for Stay and GoTo; very handy for AV fighting in particular, where the PbAoEs can quickly drop your pets.

Once I have a wide assortment of pets, I"ll often leave 2-3 in Bodyguard and have the others "attack my target". That gives me enough "resistance" to damage to keep me alive against almost anything long enough to shift more if necessary, while giving me enough focused damage to drop bosses and such in reasonable times. Thats where having a variety of keybinds set up is good.