ShoeTattoo

For a character with a grim, arcane, evil aura, it would be difficult to top necro / storm. Its a combo that offers loads of "atmosphere"

Also, the -to hit from necro minions stacks very nicely with the -to hit from hurricane, potentially putting mobs at the "to hit" floor. Plus, the controls offered by the lich neatly complement the softer damage mitigation tools in storm. Finally, steamy mist protects melee minions from fire, cold, and energy damage, which happen to be three particularly common sources of AOE damage.

You probably just had some bad luck.

I've only ever run into one nasty piece of work who felt the need to "educate" their teammates during the game about the shortcomings of khelds. I left the team after that mission finished, put that person on global ignore, and haven't looked back.

That incident was clearly about a particular person not having the grace or humility to let others have different opinions. It had nothing to do with the AT.

Put people like that on global ignore and move on to have fun with others. Those kinds of people are, fortunately, very few in number.

There's nothing wrong with taking one of either shiver and ROF, and taking aid self. If you don't have both you'll end up doing less AOE damage. But, fun >>>>> AOE anyways.

If you plan to take one, I'd recommend shiver. It is one of the best debuffs in the game, dropping incoming damage and mezzes from most mobs by about 40%, after alpha, and that total doesn't even factor in damage mitigation from making mobs move more slowly into melee range. And, you have plenty of damage anyways from fire blast and your /ice blaps.

On a related note, shiver will help immediately after you take it. But, it probably won't impress you immediately. It is more likely to impress you after its been franken-slotted, with three or four slots in it. Once shiver is frankenslotted for accuracy, slow (and perhaps endurance reduction), mobs hit with it barely crawl along and they can virtually never enter into melee, unless they have slow resistance. Plus, shiver recharges well before it expires, for blasters, making it easy to renew.

ROF plays nicely with shiver and ice patch. Set down as a math equation ...

If aim + BU + fire breath + fireball = minions down + lieutenants damaged + bosses thoroughly irritated ...

... then shiver + aim + BU + ROF + fire breath + fireball = minions and lieutenants who spend most of their last few seconds vainly trying to run away. Teammates then have little else to do other than to keep alpha away from your fire/ice blaster (most mobs will never get a second shot) and to focus on taking out damaged bosses and a few slivers of life, here and there, from lieutenants.

Post your build online, if you'd like some feedback. FWIW, relying on stealth while leveling up seems like a viable way to go forward. Also, you cannot slot the FFG for movement speed. Sometimes I would recast if FFG got hung up on something, or was taking too long to catch up. But, I don't recall having a noticeable number of problems because of the flight speed of FFG.

I skipped stamina until the mid 30s on my own electric / traps corruptor, and went ahead and got both VS and stealth as well. I ended up disappointed with that character, as endurance issues in the 30s really slow down one's rate of progress and VS ended up getting relatively little use because of a habit of entering battles while stealthed.

If I were to start my electric / traps corruptor over, I'd get stamina at 20 or 22 and I'd skip voltaic sentinel. I'd muddle through without the single-target damage boost from VS until trip mine at level 35, and be in good shape to solo or team after that. That's just one way, and I can't say for certain that it would be best for you. I did find that endurance issues were problematic without stamina, though, by the 30s.

The end drain on short circuit is identical for defenders, corruptors, and blasters (35% of target endurance, and the effect is resistable and subject to "purple patch" reductions).

As one thing to remember, you can either use the stealth route to placing time bomb, which means you'll get less utility out of voltaic sentinel (VS) and you'll probably want to skip it, or you can use defense to make mobs miss while you place trip mines, in which case voltaic sentinel can make a noticeable contribution to your single target damage; VS scourges for corruptors. You'll probably grow particularly fond of how VS helps for longer battles against difficult single targets, as DPE and DPA for VS are extraordinarily high, for such battles.

I'd also be available for a "Kheldian Day" (or two) on Dec. 26/27, and Champion works for me.

I'll be bringing along my human-only shade, who has mostly single-target damage, along with pets, controls, and leadership powers. He's currently level 36, but he'll probably be higher level once Dec 26/27 rolls around.

I'm looking forward to this. It sounds like fun. My thanks to AO and any others who have been playing a role in organizing this.

I don't know if the group members are already determined, or if applications can be made "in-thread." If there's room for one more and there would be regular play sessions over the holidays, then I'd be interested in signing up.

I'm fine with whatever consensus emerges about a server, in case the answer to whether or not I can join is "yes."

A traps / archery defender would be a thematic and easy to play character.

You'll do a lot less clicking with a traps defender than with just about any other character hero-side. You'll solo well (even if slowly most of the time) and be a good contributor on teams.

The key is to listen to others, find a role for each teammate that they're likely to enjoy (it might as well be fun) and to be able to handle, and take it as a challenge (because it will be). Fortunately, AT choices and build choices tend to be a good guide concerning how a player wants to have fun, and so I'd use that information.

Aggro distribution and management will be key, and using terrain will sometimes be very helpful as well (perhaps even necessary). As resources, even badly built scraps / tanks can hold a decent amount of aggro (as long as they take their mez toggle or click power), if you point them in the right direction. And, the defender seems able to make good use of the powers available to her, which should be good enough. Plus, freezing rain, hurricane, and O2 boost can help noticeably for mitigation and recovery. There's even some team stealth in there, for added safety. In fact, a stormie in such situations, when well played, is a literal and real force of nature who can greatly mitigate incoming damage. Overall, this is a workable team, even if the going will be slow.

I'd alternate the handling of alpha between myself, the defender, and the tank. I would sometimes pull to reposition mobs so that terrain could be used to advantage, sometimes ask the defender to lead with freezing rain (ie: from behind cover) and have the tank then charge in, and sometimes the tank would take alpha. Still, the tank would take most alphas, with the defender offering freezing rain, snowstorm, and O2 boost as back-up. The tank will be asked to put brawl on auto-fire, to keep gauntlet working and to keep endurance usage under better control. The scrapper would be asked to handle bothersome (ie: especially mezzing) lieutenants, even if only to pin them for subsequent disposal by my blaster. Tank pins down bosses and keeps their attention, and I focus on cleaning up minions ASAP, then lieutenants, then bosses.

The stormie can do what she loves doing: supporting others with freezing rain over the tank, hurricane to keep my blaster from faceplanting, and O2 boost as needed. If she has the endurance to run steamy mist, that's great. If not (and she probably won't because O2 boost will get a workout, given the situation), that's unfortunate but manageable. If the defender seems reasonably skilled, I'd ask her to do "hurricane tours", in which she would lightly brush up against mobs while circling them, debuffing their "to hit" and pushing them into a tighter group (open spaces) or walk along one wall through an entire spawn, and then repel things into corners and generally keep them on their butts (crowded hallways, and where there are corners into which to push mobs). Gale can also be useful, on occasion.

The challenge would at some point come to feel a little like walking through hipdeep mud, though, and it would stop being fun. Even though I'd probably complete the current mission, I'd probably make continuing on that team contingent on dropping the difficulty.

An all-human peacebringer would probably fit your concept better, based on your description.

Keeping things on their butts is sound policy for your blaster, as you've been doing. Begin with aim or build up, then use an AOE opener, followed by your "threesome" (burst, blast, bolt) as needed to take down mobs. Use your attacks efficiently, so if bolt will finish off that last sliver of life on a mob, use it to finish up and save blast or burst for something else that isn't as close to keeling over.

I'm guessing there are also slotting issues with your build, if you're having difficulty soloing. If you could post your build, you'd probably get some more help.

If you'd like to destroy minds from a distance, by all means make a psy blaster. You'll get more range out of psy than any other blaster primary and if you'd like to destroy things from a distance with your mind, well, there's psy blast or there's ... psy blast.

Instead of allowing others to get you to focus solely on what ice does better than psy (and you didn't get a balanced answer, so bear that in mind), focus on whether what psy does is good enough to have fun. And, if you're not looking for AOE damage (psy isn't good at that), then it can be a fun set that offers excellent single target damage and a nifty grab-bag of secondary effects that mesh surprisingly well, in-game.

Advantages to will domination, sometimes dismissed or treated as "throwaway" issues, are that it has an 80% chance of sleeping mobs at mag 3, a short cast time, and reasonable damage. Instead of only viewing will domination as the "half full glass", which some do, bear in mind that with will domination you get a good DPA power that offers a strong probability of mezzing a single foe of lieutenant strength or lower, whenever you cast it.

Simply put, there's no need to be a sad panda. Make a psy blast character and decide for yourself if you enjoy him or her, or not.

As for a secondary, I have /devices on one of my two currently played psy blasters and /ice on the other. They're both fun to play, and very good at taking down single hard targets; they both solo very easily, as well.

One possibility is to live without thunderstrike. You won't need it to fill out your attack chain and it lowers your DPA when you use it anyways. Its a "flavor" power in a build that is already full of flavor, and very tight.

Question 1:

The sorcerer will teleport away on attack, leaving a short interval during which both minions can be taken down. The yellow ink man may sleep me on first hit, and then the green ink man can come by and mess up my day. So, the yellow ink man goes down first, the green ink man while he's approaching my blaster, and the sorcerer after he teleports back into range to try to heal either of the ink men.

Getting the ink men down well away from my blaster is helpful because that way, even if the sorcerer teleports in with hurricane switched on, he'll teleport next to his minion to cast O2 boost and *not* debuff my blaster.


Question 2:

When solo, I'd take out the mortificator first. A mortificator's ranged slow and -recharge makes your low level blaster, who will have little recharge and few powers with which to work, more vulnerable to having the eidelon sidle on up and stun with oppressive gloom. Then I'd take out the eidelon because being stunned isn't good when you have an exploder running around. Exploders are easy to dodge when you're soloing a blaster, as long as you aren't slowed or mezzed.

On a team, I'd probably take out the exploder first, the eidelon second, and the mortificator third. On teams, exploders can be team wipe material, the eidelon can stun all or almost all melee toons in a few seconds if left alone, and the mortificator then becomes the least deadly threat.

A little about your build and playstyle preferences would really help those offering advice.

If you're human only, inky aspect becomes more attractive because you'll stun minions that come anywhere near you and you'll be able to stun bosses by opening with gravitic emanation (puts bosses on their butts and puts a 3 mag stun on the boss) + inky aspect to follow-up (2 mag stun), putting the boss at 5 mag stun (at which point, bosses without stun resistance will be mezzed and won't fight until the stun wears off).

If you're using dwarf form, then unchain essence might be more to your liking because you have less need for boss-specific mezzing capabilities (if you have dwarf slotted up well, switch to dwarf for bosses and pound them into submission).

This thread has almost convinced me that its time to make that storm / energy blast defender, and slot for knockback.

Earth/sonic (37)
Groovy sounds emanate
from walking lump of mud,
bad guys fall down.

Gravity / cold (23)
Summoning pollution from waters deep
she knocks me over until I sleep

This is a superhero / supervillain game. Supervillains and superheroes throw eachother around in their epic battles. Anybody who doubts that can pick up a random comic book in the genre or watch some cartoons in the genre.

It the game didn't have knockback, it wouldn't fit into the genre. Thankfully, the devs get that and they have not homogenized the game into a sleep-inducing exercise in maximizing DPS.

To the OP: Take criticism of knockback as a sign that you're not using it as well as you can and a challenge to get better at using it (it isn't that difficult, really), but not as a sign to stop using it. If you run into one of those (in my experience) rare individuals who has an implacable hatred toward knockback, spare yourself the unpleasantness of being in their company and find a different teammate.

The lich does a magically delicious 9.38% base amount of "to hit" debuff with most of its attacks that have a to hit debuff attached to it. It does an even more delicious 18.75% base amount of "to hit" debuff with fearsome stare. Buffing the lich's base "to hit" debuff totals by 57.5% could go a long way toward resolving your minion durability issues, all by itself.

I'd rather slot grave knights with 2 acc and 3 damage SOs, and then put a heal into the final slot. Their melee-based heal recharges in 10 seconds, and I've found that a heal IO in the grave knights helps them more than it does in the lich (a least, that's been my experience). A defense debuff SO is also a reasonable choice for a final grave knight slot, if you are sticking with SO slotting.

You'll get little incremental value from slotting to hit debuffs in grave knights because they only have a 7.5% base to hit debuff per attack, and the debuff always goes away within 10 seconds or 6 seconds. In addition, you can put at most one to hit debuff SO into them without significantly weakening your MM's overall damage potential (Again, I like that 2 ACC, 3 DAM slotting as my base for grave knights). Also, you should already be flooring the accuracy of mobs with your own fearsome stare, darkest night, and other powers, when added in to your lich's to hit debuffs and, later, your dark secondary's minion (fluffy).

The lich actually does decent damage, and it is tempting to slot for damage as well (who doesn't love more DPS). But, his control and debuffing capabilities are quite strong, and so I emphasize them when choosing enhancements. I have so little difficulty keeping him alive, in most situations, that I've never once felt the urge to slot a heal SO in the lich.

There are lots of viable ways to slot, though. I'm merely describing my way and I can't say for certain that my way is best, or even best in most situations.

To answer Gavin's question: You are correct. Everything the lich does, except for petrifying gaze, has a -to hit debuff attached to it.

With SOs, I'd slot lich as follows:

2 Acc, 2 -to hit debuff, 1 hold, 1 fear

or

2 Acc, 3 -to hit debuff, 1 hold

I find the fear duration to be acceptable without buffing, but a little more fear never hurt anybody. Or it did. Or something. But, the extra hold duration is very nice when the last thing standing is a boss and you'd like a little more hold duration on that petrifying gaze your pet just cast. It stacks nicely with your own holds, and with your Soul Extraction's hold.

What the lich throws out more than anything, though, is to hit debuffs. And they stack nicely, especially if your secondary is dark.

I wouldn't bother slotting lich for heal. In my experience, mobs that defeat the lich are usually so powerful that an extra heal SO wouldn't make a noticeable difference.

I'm glad the earlier advice was of some help.

I'm a little confused as to why you're taking all four fitness powers, and not taking either ice arrow or smoke flash. If its concept, its all good and you'll still be viable. If you'd like a more powerful build, ice arrow really helps to mitigate incoming damage. Also, flash arrow and smoke flash go together very well. You flash arrow a spawn, blinding them, move your oni to an appropriate distance, cast smoke flash on your oni, put him on defensive attack against a specific target, lay down a glue arrow as your oni attacks so that mobs can't move out of range quickly and an acid arrow so they feel the oni's attacks more keenly (or just drop an oil slick arrow), and enjoy the ensuing carnage. If you can somehow fit both ice arrow and smoke flash back into your build (also I see tactics at level 49 but not one of the first two leadership powers), you'll see an uptick in effectiveness.

Regarding slotting, you'll draw aggro if you put procs in flash arrow. It is inconvenient to have a flash arrow that draws aggro because it has such a large radius that you can aggro multiple spawns, when on large teams. Also, you cannot stack the debuff from flash arrow and it recharges quickly enough that you can easily re-apply it. There's little value to be gained from slotting flash arrow for recharge.

Again regarding slotting, you get very little value from a third end reducer in your pet upgrade powers and probably little value even from the third end reducer in smoke flash. You'll get more value by slotting end reducers into your frequently used arrows instead, especially those with less than six slots under your current build plan.

I hope this also proves helpful.

If you have the "Natural" booster pack you could drop the leaping pool powers and rely on ninja run for a travel power (if a ninja MM wouldn't, then who would? ), drop the leadership powers, get hasten, and also take stamina. That would leave you with the same number of powers, healing for yourself and your ninjas, and stamina. Hasten gets your nifty arrows and summons up more quickly in tough battles, while stamina gives you a better ability to use smoke bomb and to keep up when re-summoning is important.

If you can somehow overcome endurance problems without stamina, that would take away a lot of the impetus for getting it. But, smoke bomb is highly endurance-intensive, even after endurance reduction slotting. If you're healing regularly and/or re-summoning much in tough battles you'll probably find endurance difficult to manage without stamina.