Seriphos

Air sup= infinite knockdown= hah, try healing NOW you smarmy bugger! (directed at /regens). Also known as hah, try flying NOW you little goit! (directed at hoverblasters).
It's a better choice than, say, Shadow punch.

Touch of fear= just uber. I've gone entire fights by using this to act as though I'm in elude. Carry a few lucks with you (or, if you're like me, 15 at all times, except 20 for PVP) and you won't get hurt much. Or, if the luck favours you, at all.

Thanks for the great TF, it flew by (until the end, I loathe CoT with every bone in my body)

AND I got 8 bars of XP, dinged, and got the cash to get some new enhancements. yay!

Welcome to the game, and enjoy arresting things by blowing them up, decapitating them, setting them on fire, destroying their minds, and having a health service that would make the NHS cry

If you ever need a hand wondering what AT to play, PM me @Marcathonas and I'll give you a long talk on all the diversity, builds, and playstyles to be found within a DM/DA scraptrollertankmage

Oh, and most of all have fun. And don't powerlevel! no end game content til september!

I would do it, except Dr Who comes on at 7. If we take an hour break then, then count Seriphos in (level 41 DM/DA scrapper)

I'm sorry, but any build that doesn't have howling twilight slotted for damage is not uber enough for this guy

So I'm planning on making a spines/DA, mostly PVE but casual PVP once I get past 40 (hence last 3 powers are purely there for PVP), and I'm completely clueless as to how a spines build should look.

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Eon8
Level: 50
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary: Spines
Secondary: Dark Armor
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01) --> Lunge==> Acc(1)Acc(3)Dmg(3)Dmg(42)Dmg(43)Rechg(50)
01) --> Dark Embrace==> DmgRes(1)DmgRes(5)DmgRes(5)EndRdx(7)
02) --> Spine Burst==> Acc(2)Acc(7)Dmg(9)Dmg(9)Dmg(11)Rechg(50)
04) --> Murky Cloud==> DmgRes(4)DmgRes(11)DmgRes(13)EndRdx(13)
06) --> Build Up==> Rechg(6)Rechg(15)Rechg(15)
08) --> Hasten==> Rechg(8)Rechg(17)Rechg(17)
10) --> Obsidian Shield==> DmgRes(10)DmgRes(19)DmgRes(19)EndRdx(21)
12) --> Combat Jumping==> Jump(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)
16) --> Dark Regeneration==> Acc(16)Acc(21)Rechg(25)Rechg(25)Rechg(27)Heal(46)
18) --> Swift==> Run(18)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20)Heal(27)Heal(40)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22)EndMod(23)EndMod(23)
24) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(24)
26) --> Ripper==> Acc(26)Acc(29)Dmg(29)Dmg(31)Dmg(31)Rechg(43)
28) --> Death Shroud==> Acc(28)Acc(31)EndRdx(33)EndRdx(33)EndRdx(33)Dmg(40)
30) --> Quills==> Acc(30)Acc(34)EndRdx(34)EndRdx(34)EndRdx(36)Dmg(40)
32) --> Throw Spines==> Acc(36)Dmg(36)Dmg(37)Dmg(37)Rechg(43)
35) --> Oppressive Gloom==> Acc(35)Acc(37)Dmg(39)DisDur(39)DisDur(39)
38) --> Stimulant==> Rechg(38)
41) --> Conserve Power==> Rechg(41)Rechg(42)Rechg(42)
44) --> Focused Accuracy==> TH_Buf(44)TH_Buf(45)TH_Buf(45)EndRdx(45)EndRdx(46)EndRdx(46)
47) --> Aid Self==> Heal(47)Heal(48)Heal(48)IntRdx(48)IntRdx(50)
49) --> Cloak Of Darkness==> EndRdx(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Power Slide==> Empty(1)
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Critical Hit==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
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I've gone for SJ to cover up the glaring KB weakness, and add enough hold resist to stop blapper holds being an issue. Decided against impale on the lines of saving endurance by mass AoE killing, not wasting attacks on single targets (hence 2 damage auras). Biggest problem is I don't have a clue what the end is like, or whether I really shouldn't be ignoring impale. Any tips?

Smash/lethal plays a heavy part, even in the end game. The aforementioned feat against the carnies only really needs buffs for 2 reasons: 1) DA sucks end, and 2) I needed resistance for smashing damage. (I wasn't joking about the 2 groups )

Even carnies have strongmen and fencers, so Invuln still ranks high. Look at mobs like malta aswell, LOTS of lethal.

Actually, I really think this could be good. No more "DA is teh gimp" rubbish (although I think the Americans will never get over "My friend's friend's teammates Sg members teammate's uncle said DA is lame, so I won't pick it")

Defence+MASSIVE regen move+resistance+mitigation is just fundamentally better than any of the others on their own. Jack of all trades, Masters of some. But Soul Transfer is STILL the worst tier nine (even if practically the most useful for the inexperienced player )

Pfft. Just do what I do, and go nuts.

2 full 8 man team groups of +2 carnies? BRING IT!
*wok* *smash* *crunch* BLARK! *smack* LEEEROOOY! etc.

Please note: The above only applies when you're buffed to the teeth. But still, the psi resist is nice

SR doesn't defend against psionic.

I'm still finding it hard to believe DA got higher than regen. See, I knew I pwned you all

[ QUOTE ]
melee as a blaster is NOT wise

[/ QUOTE ]

Are we playing the same game? I can handle a brute without problems, fury or not. Now if I fight a blaster in melee, I get beaten senseless. Blasters are not listed as a ranged archetype, but as an offensive juggernaught, doing damaged at ranged and in melee. Therefore the high damage melee attacks are, as said, risk v reward.

Having said that, fire doesn't get much in the way of control at 14, when you're 38 you have hot feet to slow the enemy and cause them to run, but thats about it.

CoD is a base graphic. All buffs, all other powers from DA and powerpools all appear on top of it.

And a lot of people completely disagree with you. Resilience means awakens can't stun you. Revive is, in it's current state, not worth the power which could be spent elsewhere. It's better than awakens, but not better than most other moves available.

[ QUOTE ]
btw souldrain in team pve is the best thing you can have

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT. It completely outstrips BU when it hits 7 targets.

Hasten USED to be perma-able. Back in the days of six slotting, combined recharge and hastens own 70% recharge increase meant it was set to auto and everything died quicker.

Then came ED and all that stopped, but hasten is STILL awesome. I tend to use it more as an "Oh bugger" power than anything, if I'm surrounded in a fight that looks like I might be in trouble I'll turn it on, so I can spam soul drain, dark regen, and dark consumption.

Oh, and Hover has knockback mitigation, not protection. If you are knocked with hover on, you flip in the air, and you're fighting in a few seconds. With acrobatics, you just don't get knockback.

Self rez is dark armour, not melee

However, fear is insanely useful. Annoying empath buffing everything? Lock him out of the fight for 20 seconds!

As a fire tank? Take leaping. Because firstly: You have bugger all defence. You have resistance. And secondly: You want acrobatics for the knockback protection. If not, you will not be able to tank anything with any knockback whatsoever. Well you will, but you'll faceplant quite quickly.

That, and SJ is the most versatile. It's fast, end light, has good pre-reqs. I take it on every non-concept toon, and even on concept toons I try to fit it in.

Dark melee: Highest DPS when chained correctly (which is damn hard), can floor accuracy to the point where you're outperfoming eluded SR scrappers (ToF has 20% acc debuff and can be triple stacked with 1 recharge), has fear as a status effect, and is an almost totally unresisted damage type.

I'm sorry, but that katana scrapper was an idiot. He has parry going for him, but ToF is BETTER. His damage output and type are worse, and he can't use things like Air Superiority without wasting redraw time. DM rules.

*ahem*.

If you wish to go 1v1 PVP, /dark is not your friend. Sure, it can hold its own against most other scrappers (yes, I HAVE fought against /regens without losing), anything /psi is going to lose pretty much automatically, but blasters have the burst damage to destroy you fairly quickly. Having said that, it's a very utlitarian set, and it has served me well in zone PVP. (To the tune of beating down multiple stalkers and doms, granite brutes, and a few masterminds)

MA/DA is a choice I myself have just started, and am looking forward to. With a combination of boxing, OG, and other moves from MA, it's possible to hit mag 8 stun, which is enough to detoggle anything but a /regen scrapper (although some tanks might be an issue, not checked).

Spines/DA is the single most awesome thing in this game. The damage! build up+Quills+death shroud+spine burst (all slotted for damage where appropriate) reaches a brawl index of 13. In one single tic. Given the time taken to set spine burst up, it's more like 16-19 brawls of damage to up to 8 opponents. That's a BI of 152. One hundred and fifty two. In about 10 seconds. Or, an DPS of 15.2, when in optimal conditions (IE, whenever build up is charged and you are surrounded by 8 mobs). Spines/DA is the KING of AoE damage. However, the endurance is ludicrous, and unless you have a pet kin or a mountain of blues I advise against it.

As usual, I will throw in the word for DM/DA. It has the highest DPS in the game (tested on the American forums with hasten I believe), and serious ultility. With the stacked debuffs, I can gain the equivalent of double slotted elude, from a measly cloak of darkness.

But as for powers to pick: Not really knowledgable about spines or MA, so I'll stick to the DA (and DM if you're interested ).

Dark Embrace: Your main defence. Gives some mediocre S/L resist, as well as some of your negative energy resist. Fairly low cost, so I'll say slot 3 resist/1 end redux

Death Shroud: This is fun early game (arrest 5 minions in 10 seconds) and devastating late game (arrest 8 bosses in under a minute). The endurance is a pain though. I don't plan on getting this until I'm raiding Hamidon, and can get some Nucleous exposures to raise the Acc and Damage of the move. This is more damage and almost half the end cost of quills, so if you want an aura for damage and not the -recharge, pick this. If I had it, I would go 1acc/2dam/3end redux.

Murky Cloud: Your basic element/energy/end drain resist. This is the thing that makes /regens scream in envy as a sapper demolishes them, and you're left to solo the malta. You'll survive it too. It also gives your some more neg resist. 3 resist/1 end redux.

Obsidian Shield: If Murky Cloud made regens scream, this makes everyone else just break down and cry. It's your standard sleep/disorient/hold resist (missing knockbac) but also resists fear, and psi. Unslotted it has 37.5% psi resist, which means tanking carnies and anything else like that is no hassle if your keep an eye on your HP. It's just so awesome to fight anything that uses Psychic attacks and see "7 damage" tick up from mind probe
Standard shield slotting, 3 resist/1end redux.

Dark Regeneration: Start drooling. A PBAoE that has NO accuracy reduction to it, and heals 30% health per mob. 3 mobs= pretty much full health. The damage is mediocre, and never worth slotting. The heal is uber, and doesn't need slotting (IMO, YMMV, ETC). It's on a 30 second recharge timer. I like to spam it while surrounded by 17 +2s, so I go 3acc/3recharge. But you could always go 2acc/2heal/2recharge. For 1v1 PVP, I would go 3 heal/2acc/1recharge.

Cloak of Darkness: Your immob resist, fairly high mag. And it's got the combat jumping defence bonus. And it's stealth. It boosts your perception. It's cheap. For a PVE build, it's skippable because while being good, it's not great. For PVP it's free tactics. Take it, love it.
I slot it with just 1 end redux, nothing else worth slotting.

Cloak of Fear: Ohmigodwtfbbqpwnz. This thing just stops minions moving. It's beautiful.
It's also competing for "heaviest end usage toggle in existance", has a 50% tohit, had it's acc debuff nerfed (but it's still 10%, fairly decent), and the fear isn't all too long. For a Dark/Dark, when you have ToF with it it's brilliant. It can even (on it's own) interrupt an AS by fearing the stalker (which makes them visible).
It's a good power, but not brilliant. I can't afford it in my build, and with Spines/ I doubt you will be able to. If you do, 3acc/3endurance. It's too end heavy and innacurate to slot otherwise viably.

Oppresive Gloom: Holy [censored]. This thing is just superb. Stuns minions, for almost no end cost and a tiny health cost. I respecced out of it and missed it, this thing could easily stun a squishy all by itself. Take it. And I would slot 3acc/3disorient, endurance reduction is minimal.

Soul Transfer: Some hate this, some love it. Hell, I used to hate it and now love it, with it's brute defeating properties in RV. It basically gives you 30% health and endurance for every enemy it hits, which it then lands with a mag 37 stun, and makes you immortal for a (very) short while. I am still going to spec out of it though, don't have the room. But I will miss it.
Slot it with one recharge, and as many disorients and extra recharges you can. I think of this as an "I win" button against whatever took me out, not a resurrect.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: forgot 2 things. One: You need leaping pool. Extra immob protect always rules, and you need Acro for KB protection and to stop blasters being able to hold you. I consider this next to stamina in usefulness.

Two: I present The DM/DA bible. Has some advice that differs from me, if so take his (he's been doing it longer)

Most squishies have no knockback protection, unless they are building specifically for PVP and want to. Some non-squishies don't have knockback protection as well (DA scrappers and Fire tankers/brutes come to mind)

The mouseover has no -regen component, but the move does. There was a debate on the US forums recently about it, and someone produced a screenshot showing the green rings clearly. They symbolise either a regen buff or debuff, nothing else.

The defender was wrong.

Er...

But you have to get there first.
Damn, my covers blown! Fire ftl!

/runs away.

Well, you want mind/ first to fit the concept. Mind has the same telekinetics as grav in levitate and telikinesis, and Jean can't summon a singularity

For all out damage, actually fire owns. Energy has damage and some cool powers which boost hold duration, and total focus, which deals about the same damage as a corrupters nuke (if not more). But psi has nice long range attacks, is very rarely resisted, and has drain psych, a truly awesome move.

Fire? Easy set to play? Not really. You have to learn how to control aggro like no other blaster, since early AoEs and DoT means you get A LOT of aggro.

/em points at gankatron's debt cap.

Now, that is for 2 reasons. 1) I've never actually played a fire before, so a good deal of it is my fault. 2) From the other blasters I've played (only 1 got to SOs), I've had no aggro problems. Whereas fire is a walking aggro generator

Also, Elec was most fun and best to play, for both PVE and PVP. Ice comes second, but that could be the fact I chose the /ice secondary.

I really wouldn't count Elec primary out. It's a far better fighter than Fire, which is aggro from hell in PVE, and lacks control in PVP.

Although Fire/Energy is tremendous fun to play. Aggro everything! Smack them all!

As a final word: Don't think of siphon life as a heal. That's a pleasant side effect, nothing more.

Siphon life is 2.7 brawls worth of delightful PURE negative energy. I plan on taking it for Dulin instead of shadow punch (which is weaker and smashing damage, so resisted)

Since you've taken all the pools, the options available are:

Siphon life (Which owns)
Whirlwind (Meh, quite cool)
Kick (NO!)
Weave (NO!)
Acrobatics (you don't need it)
Conserve power (not needed)
Hurdle (Meh)
Laser Beam eyes (A ranged attack)

Personally, I'd pick LBE. Having a ranged attack is great when you're immobed or slowed. Whirlwind is fun, and knocks everyone back. Siphon Life gives you a full attack chain, and means you rely on reconstruction less, and just keep your green bar near the top more often.