ShoeTattoo

I believe that quant / void energy attacks are resistable now. If you take your energy / negative energy shield (quantum shield), quant and void attacks will hurt less when they hit you.

Tri-form PBs and Warshades have the highest peak performance--in terms of damage, survivability, and versatility--compared to alternatives for each. Between PBs and warshades, warshades have the higher average and peak levels of performance, overall, for pretty much any variant you can build (all-human, bi-form, or tri-form). However, PBs have a higher minimum level of performance because their buffs don't rely on the nearby presence of defeated enemies. And, you can get a viable solo build and be a good contributor on teams no matter what combination you choose.

If you'd enjoy lightform, then a bi-form PB or all-human PB will tend to work out best because you'll want to slot up your human attacks, and probably some utility powers as well. It would be very difficult to slot up nova and dwarf, and then still have enough slots left over for you to get the most out of light form. Lightform gives you mez protection while its up, which makes a nova/human build a little more versatile and survivable than it would otherwise be.

To answer another question you pose, shifting into dwarf or nova turns off all human-form toggles and you need to turn them all back on again when you switch back to human form. You can use binds to partially alleviate the need to re-toggle, but if you have more than one toggle you'll find yourself frequently re-toggling, when fighting in human form. This annoyance alone can be enough to sway some toward going all-human (which is perfectly viable as a PB or WS, even if you don't spend a fortune on IO sets).

Regarding IO sets, slotting IO sets to boost recharge tends to help a PB more than slotting to boost defense because you tend to *really* notice the difference in damage potential when building a PB for recharge. Having the heals up more often is also a major boon.

On the subject of damage, PBs and shades have lower human form damage than a damage specialist such as a blaster or scrapper. But, their damage is better than sufficient for PvE gameplay and it is not "low" when compared to all ATs.

If you go tri-form, "dancing" makes them as effective as they can be, once all three forms are reasonably well slotted up. I often use all three forms in a single battle and I've also fairly often used all three forms multiple times in longer battles. If you're trying to maximize team survivability and speed, you'll be re-visiting which form to take during battles on a routine basis, making split-second decisions according to what each situation in a given battle seems to require or reward.

To add a few ideas of my own to the very well expressed thoughts of Justaris, those who want "the ultimate build" often self-identify, putting their desire for the most dominating / powerful build possible into the thread title and/or the OP.

Most people treat COX as a pleasant pastime, and not as an important focus for their daily efforts. They're typically happy with "good enough" or "not sucking", and are not concerned with optimizing anything about their approach to the game (their builds, their use of the markets, their general knowledge of the game, or their playing skills).

Optimization isn't at all interesting to me and I make no efforts to optimize anything about how I approach COX; I have no apologies to offer for that choice, either. Still, those who want to optimize aren't doing anything wrong; if somebody wants to optimize, good for them and hopefully they have fun doing it.

Yes, fire/thorns is good on teams.

Fire gives adequate crowd control and good damage (for a dom primary). Thorns does good AOE damage, for a dom assault set, which is particularly helpful in teams. It also debuffs mob defense, which helps teams move more quickly. Aim will help your controls hit more regularly when you really need them to hit, as well.

Here's another way of building a necro / FF. This isn't necessarily any better than other ways, but I'm happy with how it plays.

This MM is only level 36 at the moment, but progressing well through the game. Buying one of the 5% defence unique IOs made a big difference for gameplay for this particular MM (I still have bids out for the other one). I may not bother with the resist uniques, as even without the second 5% defence unique this build is already very resilient.

The slotting is pretty much what you would expect, with frankenslotting where such options were available. The only potential surprise is that the sixth slot for grave knights and zombies is currently a vanilla heal IO, which makes a noticeable difference for minion survival against multi-boss spawns and EBs. I may get an achilles heel proc later, for the grave knights, if damage becomes an issue (it hasn't been lacking so far, though). Also, I've not missed personal force field at all, with life drain currently three-slotted for acc, heal, recharge, and a little endred. Finally, a three-slotted hover allows me to deflect a lot of AOEs away from my minions (especially for alpha) and it covers the knockback hole, keeping dispersion around my minions and teammates even against knockback-heavy opponents.

+---------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner
+ http://www.cohplanner.com
+---------------------------------------------
Name: Unnatural Forces
Level: 50
Archetype: Mastermind
Primary: Necromancy
Secondary: Force Field
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Force Bolt ==> Empty(1)
01 => Zombie Horde ==> Empty(1),Empty(3),Empty(3),Empty(5),Empty(5),Empty (7)
02 => Deflection Shield ==> Empty(2),Empty(9),Empty(9),Empty(25)
04 => Insulation Shield ==> Empty(4),Empty(11),Empty(11),Empty(25)
06 => Enchant Undead ==> Endred(6),Endred(7)
08 => Life Drain ==> Empty(8),Empty(34),Empty(37),Empty(40),Empty(40),E mpty(43)
10 => Swift ==> Empty(10)
12 => Grave Knight ==> Empty(12),Empty(13),Empty(13),Empty(15),Empty(15), Empty(23)
14 => Health ==> Empty(14)
16 => Hover ==> Empty(16),Empty(17),Empty(17)
18 => Maneuvers ==> Empty(18),Empty(19),Empty(19)
20 => Dispersion Bubble ==> Empty(20),Empty(21),Empty(21),Empty(23),Empty(46)
22 => Stamina ==> Empty(22)
24 => Fly ==> Empty(24)
26 => Lich ==> Empty(26),Empty(27),Empty(27),Empty(29),Empty(29), Empty(31)
28 => Soul Extraction ==> Empty(28),Empty(31),Empty(31),Empty(34),Empty(34), Empty(43)
30 => Tactics ==> Empty(30),Empty(33),Empty(33)
32 => Dark Empowerment ==> Endred(32),Endred(33)
35 => Repulsion Bomb ==> Empty(35),Empty(36),Empty(36),Empty(36),Empty(37), Empty(37)
38 => Aid Other ==> Empty(38),Empty(39),Empty(39),Empty(39),Empty(40), Empty(43)
41 => Dark Embrace ==> Empty(41),Empty(42),Empty(42),Empty(42)
44 => Soul Tentacles ==> Empty(44),Empty(45),Empty(45),Empty(45),Empty(46), Empty(46)
47 => Soul Storm ==> Empty(47),Empty(48),Empty(48),Empty(48),Empty(50)
49 => Vengeance ==> Empty(49),Empty(50),Empty(50)
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Sprint ==> Empty(1)
01 => Brawl ==> Empty(1)
02 => Rest ==> Empty(1)

I'm glad an effort is underway to improve upon past measures of AOE damage. I've found past efforts disappointing because the simplifications made promoted misunderstanding about the relative in-game value of different AOEs (ignoring the amount of area covered by an AOE when calculating damage, calculating damage for one foe while ignoring the maximum number of targets, and ignoring the gameplay implications of cone / PbAOE / AOE distinctions).

Probably the influence of the amount of area covered by an AOE on damage needs to be weighted on a sliding scale that is determined by spawn size. Values for AOE area coverage that are not weighted according to spawn size will inevitably be misleading because the effect of AOE area coverage is directly and heavily influenced by spawn size. If an interaction term can be worked out for area covered by an AOE and the maximum number of targets, then we'd be a significant step closer to AOE damage calculations that reasonably approximate the truth.

Incidentally, I agree with the decision to use enhancement values when calculating damage. It makes the numbers easier to interpret, as they can be compared against mob hit points to determine how many hit points are left after an AOE volley.

You can pull out the numbers for zombie resistances by getting to the character creation screen and looking through the details. Incidentally, this brief thread already contains a surprising amount of misinformation about zombie resistances, which you can easily verify by looking at their resistances in the character generation screen.

As for whether alkaloid is enough, it won't keep up with EBs / AVs with good AOE or PbAOE damage, or with multiple-boss spawns. But, it will be adequate to more than adequate in most other solo or small team situations. Alkaloid will probably disappoint on large teams with less than fully capped defences (or close to capped), even if you have good reflexes and can switch targets quickly. Consider purchasing the IOs that boost pet defences and/or resistances, to help alleviate some of the pressure to use alkaloid. Also, six-slot alkaloid fairly early in your necro/poison MM's career, with a generous helping of endurance reduction, as you will use it a *lot* over the course of fifty levels.

I bought the booster pack and I feel like it was worth it just for Ninja Run, with the other goodies as a bonus. I'm finding Ninja run acceptable as a travel power, when paired up with hurdle or sprint with an appropriate enhancement in the base slot of either.

I especially like Ninja run with my stalkers (not a big surprise), for my dark melee / energy aura brute, and for my all-human warshade who is always using shadow cloak.

HEAT-specific epics would be a helpful way to make the end-game better for both types of khelds (the Epics of the Epics!). A HEAT-specific power pool or two (available at level 6) might also be worth exploring, and would give players more opportunity to enjoy whatever was generated, compared to epics.

PBs could be offered a power pool with teammate buffs/heals that were better than medicine pool, but not as good as "purebred" buffers. Warshades could be offered different kinds of teammate buffs and/or a selection of debuffs. The pool powers / epics offered could focus primarily on human form, but could also, perhaps, offer the opportunity of some variation in how khelds function when in the forms (All aliens look identical and are capable of exactly the same things, when humans aren't? Huh?).

It may not be a popular view, but I like the knockback in solar flare. It feels all super-hero-y and stuff, it doesn't have 15 magnitude knockback, and PBs on the whole still have less knockback than energy blast (and its still a popular blaster primary). I hope solar flare doesn't get homogenized with footstomp and that PBs keep a little of their own flavor.

I don't see any bad fits, thematically.

I was thinking demon / poison would be a particularly nice thematic fit, though.

Also, /dark tinted red would probably look good.

I've had three observations about the new walk power.

1. I really like it.
2. I was confused about why all powers toggled off when walking.
3. It will be great if/when we can use our other powers when walking.

I'm particularly fond of how walking would fit nicely with the (over?)confident villain / hero walking in to kick some opposing butt.

There's nothing wrong with looking at numbers to help you figure out whether you would enjoy a human-only PB. Still, if you look at numbers to help you figure out whether or not you would enjoy a given AT or build, then the attractions of a human-only PB (and a *lot* of other builds in the game) may never make sense to you.

On a similar note, I've never much cared for opera or hip hop. I know that others like them, I don't fully understand why because no matter how somebody might sing their praises the reasons just don't register and stick with me very well, I've reached a point where I'm fine with that, and I spend my time thinking about other things.

This is probably not the answer for which you were asking. But, maybe its the answer that makes it easiest to get on with your day.

The ability to buff pets meshes nicely with the ability to use arctic fog to get pets close enough for them to initiate and take alpha. This is helpful for all controller primaries (except mind/, of course), and particularly helpful when facing opponents that frequently mez.

The heavy -resist in /cold ultimately makes primaries that do significant damage even more effective at soloing (fire, illusion, gravity), once the mid-30s has been reached. Plus, the knockdown, slows, and -recharge in /cold help to increase the damage mitigation capabilities of all the primaries.