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Playing With Fire: the Fire/Therm Corruptor

(Current for issue 10)

Playing With Fire: the Fire/Therm Corruptor

I've just completed it for I10, and would like it added to the list.

Part 2

Thermal Radiation Powers

I’ll emphasize that TR is highly team-oriented: if you plan on lots of solo Corruptor play, most other secondary power sets would be better options since six of TR’s nine powers require the presence of teammates (what’s more, two of the powers you don’t need teammates for are the last two TR powers you can get). Also look elsewhere if you can’t tolerate click buffs, which are definitely an acquired taste.

However, TR Corruptors are possibly the best team support archetypes available to villains. Ultimately, they boost a team’s defensive and offensive capabilities about as well as other Corruptors, but they really distinguish themselves as healers: no other villains can heal others as reliably as TR Corruptors. Furthermore, at levels 35 and 38, they gain access to two very strong enemy debuffs, usually well worth the wait.

The Good: Ideal for teams, strong buffs, strong healing, strong debuffs, no toggles (yes, this is a Good Thing if you decide you like TR).
The Bad: Six of nine powers require teammates, resistance buffs don’t protect against toxic or psionic damage and practically offer only weak resistance versus cold damage.

Ratings: All ratings in this section presume you frequently play on a team. If you primarily solo, then team-required powers would all be rated one smiley.

Slotting: TR powers, especially teammate buffs, generally don’t benefit from heavy slotting as much as Fire Blast powers.

Warmth – Point Blank AoE heal, self and allies.

The Good: Works on you, decent radius, fast recharge, healing (a rare talent among villains), no accuracy check required.
The Bad: Fairly weak healing without slotting.

Even if this power were optional, you’d want it. You’ll use it from day 1 and never outgrow it. To be most effective, make sure you start using Warmth from the moment you or your teammates begin losing HP; *don’t* wait until someone’s HP is down to half or lower because even with Warmth slotted for maximal healing, it often isn’t powerful enough to pull someone back from death’s door when that someone’s still under attack.

Rating:

Slotting – Once again, slot for maximal healing. If you have slots to spare, recharge and endurance reductions will be of benefit.

Fire Shield – Single target resistance click buff.

The Good: Good resistance to smashing, lethal, and fire damage, almost instant recharge, easy on endurance.
The Bad: Weak resistance to cold (better than nothing, but still . . .), needs refreshing every few minutes.

Your first and possibly most useful click buff. It protects against the game’s three most common damage types. Furthermore, unlike a toggle, a click buff will not expire automatically if you’re somehow incapacitated (or hit with a taser in PvP . . .), and your allies won’t have to worry too much about wandering away from you.

I can’t lie: constantly needing to refresh buffs on teammates can become monotonous sometimes, but click buffs generally perform better than toggle buffs and are well worth the annoyance. Your teammates will love you for it.

Finally, your resistance click buffs wrap your allies in flame. Some allies *won’t* want these buffs because the visual thoroughly messes up their graphics display. If this happens with one of your allies, suggest the following troubleshoot, which I’ve found fixes the problem most of the time: go into the options menu and turn down the graphics display detail by one notch. It results in a minimal sacrifice of visual detail, but it fixes the flame graphic glitch.

Rating:

Slotting – If you’re scrounging for extra slots, this power works well with just two resistance enhancement slots. Eventually, once you have access to level 50 IO enhancements, two are enough to almost max out resistance potential. I don’t recommend slotting for anything else since Fire Shield recharges very fast and costs little endurance.

Cauterize – Single target heal.

The Good: Strong heal (especially when slotted), accuracy check not required, excellent range, fast recharge.
The Bad: Not self-affecting.

A slotted Cauterize is much more capable of dramatically saving the day than Warmth; an ally on the brink of death can be brought back to about half HP with just one application. Overall, I feel it’s a little less useful than Warmth, which can heal you and everyone else at the same time, but having access to both powers will be a major asset to your team.

Rating:

Slotting – As with Warmth, don’t hesitate to maximize slotting for healing.

Plasma Shield – Single target resistance click buff.

The Good: Decent resistance to energy, negative energy, and fire damage.
The Bad: More situational than Fire Shield.

Your second resist buff, Plasma Shield compliments Fire Shield’s spectrum of protection. The fire protection from both buffs stack for superior resistance. If for some reason you decide to take only one of the shields, Fire Shield is the better choice. However, other TR fans would call me blasphemous for even suggesting someone would consider skipping a shield—most TR Corruptors take both shields, and most allies expect TR Corruptors to have them both.

Rating:

Slotting – Same as with Fire Shield.

Power of the Phoenix – Single target resurrection, targeted AoE attack.

The Good: Rez, damages nearby enemies, powerful disorient and knockback mez.
The Bad: Less restorative than other rez powers, high endurance cost, possible aggro magnet, slow recharge.

<rant>A few guides I’ve read suggest that rez powers are simply a way to reward bad players, and I have to disagree. Rezzes are clear-cut situational powers, but they’re possibly the most important situational powers available in the game. I don’t care who you are. Even the wonkiest CoX fanatic gets his or her toon killed on occasion, and getting this amazing player’s toon quickly back on their feet is sometimes the difference between a convincing victory and a complete party wipe.

So, feel like you need to punish a lowly player that deigned to die? Get over yourself. Except for a few psychos that play, no one *wants* to get everyone killed, and almost everyone learns from their mistakes. Get him back in the fight, win it all, and maybe even get his thanks (and that of your team, even) in the end. And if your awesome self still ends up becoming spider food once in awhile, what’s the big deal? There’re so many more things in your daily life that are worse than accruing a little debt in a fantasy world. If you feel the need to tear into teammates after such an incident, you probably should spend less time on the computer and deal with your real issues. </rant>

(Ah, that felt good )

Anyway, awaken inspirations are far trickier to use in the middle of a battle than rezzes, and despite the listed Bad Stuff, Power of the Phoenix is one of the best rezzes in the game. The built-in fire/mez attack is very potent and normally gives all your allies a moment of breathing room so you can attempt to turn the tide of a battle (or end it that much quicker). Be careful, though: in rare fights (thusfar, the following has happened to me only twice), you may be up against lots of bosses and other enemies that may resist the mez, and applying Power of the Phoenix in such a situation will be your death sentence.

You can do without this power, but I’ve found it worth the investment.

Rating:

Thaw – Single target demez and resistance click buff.

The Good: Neutralizes almost all mez effects, lingering mez protection, fast recharge, click buff.
The Bad: Stalkers, Brutes, and even some Masterminds already have strong anti-mez powers. Break-free inspirations are almost as effective.

Like Power of the Phoenix, Thaw is a godsend in the right situation. However, you’ll probably have long periods of play between meaningful uses of it, especially when your teammates have some break-frees and/or mez resistance powers. Furthermore, though it provides enough cold resistance, combined with Fire Shield, to match the resistance you can bestow to smashing, lethal, negative energy, and energy damage types, Thaw’s duration is short. Maintaining it at all times on all your teammates is going an extra mile that no one will reasonably expect you to travel. Overall, if you need room for another power, you can reasonably do without Thaw.

Rating:

Forge - Single target accuracy and damage click buff.

The Good: Long lasting buff to accuracy and damage.
The Bad: Recent nerfage.

Forge used to be the long-lasting love child of Aim and Build Up. It’s still long-lasting, but now its base accuracy buff is 20% while its base damage buff is 40%, stats worse than probably all versions of Aim and Build Up in the game. However, that sort of buff applied to anyone, especially a Brute, has noticeably good effects for your team.

Rating:

Slotting – Maximizing recharge reduction will allow you to keep Forge on three of your teammates at almost all times. It’s questionable whether slotting for To Hit Buff enhancements will significantly improve the power.

Heat Exhaustion – Single target click debuff.

The Good: Very strong debuff of damage, regeneration, and recovery, some endurance damage.
The Bad: Accuracy check, long recharge, single target, not worth your time to use on standard mobs.

. . . Wow. Throwing this on your target works as well as aging them 50 years. Their attacks become spitballs, and their efforts induce asthmatic attacks if their plummeting endurance bar is any indication. This power wrecks the offense of its victim so much that I’ve been able to solo elite bosses (barely). It’s particularly deadly in PvP due to its effect on endurance regeneration.

That said, it’s only useful against single targets you have difficulty fighting, which means its use also becomes more limited in team play where you face lots of powerful enemies simultaneously and usually have heavy hitters to help you fight.

Rating: in team play, when solo or in PvP.

Slotting – If nothing else, maximize its accuracy. Considering the duration of its recharge, it’s a big deal when you miss. Maximizing recharge will enable you to almost maintain Heat Exhaustion on your target indefinitely.

Melt Armor – Target AoE click debuff.

The Good: Powerful defense and resistance debuff.
The Bad: Accuracy check, long recharge.

Some ultimate powers let you down, but Melt Armor’s as fun as a rave every time you use it. Brutally effective, it’s the perfect compliment to your copious AoE damage capabilities. In team situations, even if you’re incapacitated, the effect doesn’t shut off the way it would if it were a toggle. It even applies a cool graphic to its victims. No matter your play style, you’ll never regret taking this power.

Rating:

Slotting – As with Heat Exhaustion, Melt Armor benefits immensely from accuracy enhancements. If you have the slots and the levels, I would recommend the following slotting using all level 50 IO enhancements: 2 accuracy, 2 recharge, 2 defense debuff. This will almost maximize Melt Armor’s abilities in those three areas.

Synergies with Thermal Radiation

I previously discussed TR’s synergy with Fire Blast. If you seek to maximize Thermal Radiation’s defensive capabilities, better options would probably be Dark Blast, which affects enemy accuracy, or Ice Blast, which slows enemy movement and speed as well as providing some hard control.

Power Pools

A few power pools are particularly useful to and commonly seen among most Corruptors.

Flight

Hover, an excellent power for any ranged attacker, most importantly keeps you safely away from melee combat in both solo and team play. It also protects against knockback and provides a little defense bonus. If you maximize its flight speed, you won’t have to turn it off when you want to move (a recent improvement). It also unlocks at level 14:

Fly, the slowest but most versatile travel power available, lets you go almost anywhere with ease. Just select your destination, rise up a few hundred feat, point towards the target, then hit automove (the R button). While you wait for arrival, you can rearrange your inspirations, chat with friends, etc. Flight speed enhancements do much to speed up Fly, but your level also limits how fast you can go.

Air Superiority and Group Fly are of less use than Hover or Fly for most Corruptors.

Fitness

Swift permanently increases your run and flight speed. It can also accept flight speed enhancements. More importantly, it unlocks at level 14:

Health. It speeds HP regeneration noticeably and provides some resistance against sleep mez. You may as well slot it for maximum healing enhancement, but it won’t be as important to you as Warmth (though, if you’re drowning in infamy, you can slot Health for dramatically better regeneration and endurance recovery). Its chief value for Corruptors is that, at level 20, it unlocks:

Stamina. By the time it becomes available, you’ll have enough powers to drain your endurance in under a minute. This power, especially when three-slotted for endurance modification, returns you to a level of staying power you enjoyed earlier in your career. Most Corruptors will still run out of endurance more often than they’d like, but with careful power use, Stamina allows most Corruptors to last an entire large battle without taking a breather.

If you choose Leaping (or possibly even Speed) as your travel power pool instead of Flight, switch Swift with Hurdle, which boosts jumping speed and height.

Leadership

Though less commonly seen among Corruptors than Flight or Fitness, Leadership provides some worthwhile advantages to them. No other villain reaps as much raw mathematical benefit from Leadership than Corruptors, and given FB/TR Corruptors’ team orientation, it compliments their abilities very well.

Maneuvers provides only a trivial defense bonus to those in range. Most Corruptors find it more worthwhile to take Assault, which increases the damage output of those in range by about an unenhanceable10%. Taking either power unlocks the jewel of the set at level 14:

Tactics provides a base 10% accuracy bonus to those in range, but this value can be increased to about 15% through slotting. It also enhances perception, handy when attacked by stealthed foes or smoke bombs. Furthermore, it provides significant mez protection against confusion and fear.

Vengeance is situational like rez powers, but it’s an amazing power if you have room for it. Target a dead teammate, activate Vengeance, and every ally in range gains a huge boost to accuracy and damage, a small heal, and massive mez resistance. As long as your team isn’t totally outclassed, Vengeance will normally turn the tide of a battle dramatically in your favor.

Teleportation

Though the other powers are certainly useful, I’ll just mention Recall Friend. Team players often take it to speed team gathering or to remove dead teammates from areas that make rez impossible. Those with concealment powers or super speed also use Recall as a skip-to-the-end-of-the-mission power; they find the target without enemy interference and teleport all their teammates to their location.

Patron Powers

You gain the option late in your advancement to become the lackey of a signature villain. Aside from providing fun plot arcs, signature villains also provide Corruptors with types of powers normally only allowed to other archetypes. Each Patron Power Pool will provide a Corruptor with the opportunity to gain a resistance toggle, a hold power, a pet power, and a power unique in many respects to that patron.

Black Scorpion – His mace powers work well for those interested in immobilizing effects. Web envelope, his “unique” power, is about as effective as certain Dominator powers at immobilizing large mobs.

Captain Mako – His leviathan powers deal lots of lethal damage and some control. Like Web Envelope, the School of Sharks power has a good chance of immobilizing multiple foes at once.

Ghost Widow – Her powers focus on negative energy damage. Soul Drain not only does damage, but it also buffs your accuracy and damage output. Also of note, Ghost Widow’s pet attacks with unfrequently-resisted psychic powers.

Scirocco – I chose him for my Corruptor for thematic reasons, and I usually haven’t been disappointed. His powers inflict energy damage and endurance drain, the latter nicely synergizing with Heat Exhaustion. His resistance buff is possibly the best of the bunch for late in your advancement, his hold is reliable, and his pet can fly, which is much appreciated when you yourself want to fly around.

I do offer one caveat: Power Sink seems like it should be set-defining since it allows you to regenerate endurance while damaging energy endurance. However, it’s very tricky to use effectively. It has a tiny radius, so you’ll need to enter melee to use it. Then, if you miss all enemies in your short range, you’ve probably just gone from hurting for endurance to out of endurance. What’s more, you can’t enhance this power for accuracy, and I’ve often completely missed my targets even with Aim active. If I could make Power Sink more reliable, I would bring it back into my build in a heartbeat (maybe some of you have suggestions .

And that’s it. See you in Grandville!

Playing with Fire: a Fire Blast/Thermal Radiation Guide

Welcome to my first player’s guide for City of Villains, written during and current as of Issue 10.

The following information comes partly from hard sources (especially CoH/CoV Character Builder at http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php ), fellow players, and mostly my personal experience. Still, anyone who’s played a Fire/Thermal Corruptor will probably disagree with some of my observations and omissions, but that’s the nature of the guide beast. My true hope isn’t that my little presentation isn’t “the most correct” out there. Rather, whether you’re a beginner or you came over on City of Heroes’ Mayflower, I hope to at least adequately inform you about these powers and maybe inspire you to give them a try.

As always, play whatever power combination you find interesting, and, if you’re into it, have fun visually and socially fleshing out your hero or villain. I’ll presume you’re not here for those lectures, though, so without further ado, follow me into the inferno . . .

Corruptor Basics

If you’re familiar with CoH archetypes, Corruptors are the evil siblings of Defenders. While Corruptor support powers are generally weaker than those of Defenders, Corruptors generally have stronger ranged attacks. When villain teams are in need of ranged damage, they generally turn to Corruptors.

Ruthless opportunists, Corruptors really come alive offensively with the Scourge ability: the more wounded their opponent, the more likely their blasts will do double damage on any single hit. Don’t expect Scourge to activate until an enemy is down to at least 1/3 of his hit points, though I’ve seen Scourge activate very rarely at ½ hit points.

Corruptor primary power sets obliterate the enemy from a distance through brute force. However, each primary power set has added flavor to set it apart from its ranged-beat-down cousins. In our case, we’ll be looking in depth at:

The Fire Blast Primary Power Set

Other blast sets incorporate pleasing (for you, not your target) non-damage side effects, like knockback or defense reduction. Fire blasts can’t be bothered, though. They ignore the pleasantries and mercilessly thrash the lifeline: most fire blasts set their targets on fire and cause extra Damage Over Time. The extra DoT varies in effectiveness each time it activates, but if you average the numbers from each of your successful attacks, it adds about 1/3 of the initial hit’s damage to total damage. This power set also unlocks most of its Area of Effect attacks early in your nefarious career.

The Good: Among the highest damage potentials of the blast power sets, lots of early AoE.
The Bad: Lots of enemies resist damage from fire, probably the most resisted damage type next to smashing and lethal damage.

I’ll try to objectively rate each power for its usefulness to a Fire Blast/Thermal Corruptor according to the following scale:

– Useful in rare situations.
– Optional but useful.
– Useful in most situations or very useful in many situations. You’ll probably want it.
– Very useful in most situations. Just take it.

When you see yellow text, I’m clearly preaching on a soapbox.

Slotting – As CoV and CoH changed from issue to issue, nothing ever seemed to have changed so much as the rules surrounding power enhancement slotting. Furthermore, with the introduction of Invention Origin enhancements, effective slotting strategies have become far more varied. Even more, slotting strategies change depending on where you like to spend your time in-game (for instance, PvP play benefits from strategies less geared to vanilla team- or solo PvE play). Therefore, instead of suggesting specific slotting strategies, with an exception or two, I’ll only mention general strategies for select powers.

Primary Corruptor powers benefit from heavy slotting, particulary for damage and some accuracy. Corruptors also burn out their endurance rather fast, so making room for some endurance reduction is a feasible strategy or, if you have a healthy infamy income and some patience, you could also consider slotting lots of set enhancements for multiple recovery bonuses.

Fire Blast Powers

Flares – Single target attack, fire damage.

The Good: Flares activate and recharge very quickly, cost little endurance, extra DoT, fun animation.
The Bad: Though quick to activate, Flares have a very long animation time for a blast, which means you’ll be stuck posing for the enemy when you could be using your time more efficiently. Not-so-impressive base damage.

Rating:

Flares is a handy power, at least in the early game when you don’t have many powers to keep you occupied. I recommend picking it up as your first or second blast power. Later on, if you find you can maintain an offense while seldom using Flares, consider dropping this power to make room for a different one.

Fire Blast – Single target attack, fire damage.

The Good: fast activation and animation, impressive range, low endurance cost, decent damage, extra DoT.
The Bad: there’s nothing really bad about Fire Blast.

You must have either Flares or Fire Blast. Should you decide to not have both, I—and just about every other Fire Blast Corruptor I know—recommend you drop Flares. Fire Blast makes a versatile attack and is the perfect mainstay of your offense.

Rating:

Slotting – In addition to extra damage and accuracy, I like to slot this power for maximum recharge, which lets it better fill in the holes between your actions.

Fire Ball – Target spherical AoE attack, fire and smash damage.

The Good: Early AoE attack, very fast activation and animation, good range, decent damage, extra DoT.
The Bad: AoE attacks make you an aggro magnet if you’re not careful, and as a Corruptor, you have a hard time taking a beating. Expensive endurance cost.

Applied properly in a team setting, Fire Ball is a tremendous asset. Unless you have endurance to burn, save Fire Ball for use against enemy groups, and try to use it after your teammates have thoroughly grabbed enemy aggro.

Rating:

Rain of Fire – Target area AoE attack, fire DoT.

The Good: Affects a very large radius, very high accuracy bonus, slows enemy movement, respectable total damage, foes flee the area.
The Bad: Foes flee the area (yes, good and bad), expensive endurance cost.

By itself, Rain of Fire makes a handy panic button; when the enemies threaten to overwhelm you and your friends, pull the trigger and you’ll often win enough breathing room to regroup and recover or escape. However, unless you or allies have a means of further slowing enemies down, they will usually escape the rain before it exacts most of its damage.

Many Corruptors that take Fire Blast will take Dark Miasma as a secondary power set specifically to access the power Tar Patch, which slows enemies to a crawl AND reduces their resistance to all damage types. Under these conditions, Rain of Fire can be one of the deadliest Fire Blast powers. Unfortunately, Thermal Radiation doesn’t have a similar power to unlock Rain of Fire’s true potential.

Rating: for Thermal Radiation Corruptors. for Dark Miasma or Cold Domination.

Slotting – RoF has a 100% accuracy bonus, so though you could slot for even more accuracy, you’ll get little return on that investment.

Fire Breath – Conical targeted AoE attack, fire DoT.

The Good: high damage AoE attack, built-in accuracy bonus, available to take fairly early.
The Bad: long activation and animation, expensive endurance cost, cone AoEs require practice with aim for maximum effectiveness, can draw serious aggro.

Despite serious drawbacks, Fire Breath is well worth the investment if, as with anything, you know when to use it. The guidelines for Fire Ball apply here as well.

Rating:

Aim – Personal Buff for accuracy and damage.

The Good: large improvement for accuracy and damage (both about 42% in issue 10) when using any other relevant power.
The Bad: lasts only about 10 seconds, fairly long recharge before you can use it again.

Aim used to provide a much higher accuracy bonus, but it seems that was nerfed for Corruptors, who now get a moderately better damage buff out of Aim than before. It may not be the most spectacular power available. However, it dramatically improves your performance in key situations, especially later in the game when facing enemies with high Defense ratings in both PvE and PvP.

Rating:

Slotting – Aim used to provide more than enough accuracy by itself, but now it’s conceivable that adding To Hit Buff enhancements could benefit the power. However, 42% base is still formidable, and slotting for maximal recharge significantly increases the amount of use you can get out of Aim.

Blaze – Single target attack, fire damage.

The Good: incredible base damage, extra DoT, fast activation and animation.
The Bad: recharge can be a little slow.

Blaze used to have incredibly short range. As of issue 8, it’s no sniper rifle, but you no longer have to risk your pasty physique by entering the mosh of combat, either.

Rating:

Blazing Bolt – Single target attack, fire damage.

The Good: massive damage potential (the highest of any snipe power in CoV), extremely long range, extra DoT, built-in accuracy bonus.
The Bad: long activation and animation, interruptible.

Sniping powers burn holes in enemies from an extra safe distance. Skilled snipers can, with a pinch of luck, also pick off several weak enemies in a mob before the rest of their friends notice and counterattack. You can even use Blazing Bolt during a general melee, but take care to stay away from the action since even a Rikti monkey giving you funny looks will spoil your attack.

Fire Blast doesn’t have nearly the impact of Blazing Bolt, but it’s far more versatile and can be used almost as effectively for pulling if you don’t care to one-shot weak targets.

Rating:

Inferno – Point Blank AoE, fire and smashing damage.

The Good: Inherent accuracy bonus, AoE, INCREDIBLE damage . . . and extra DoT in potentially ridiculous proportions (as if it needed it . . .), entertaining.
The Bad: Takes a few moments to activate, point blank, long recharge, eats every last pixel of endurance you have, and prevents endurance regeneration for 20 seconds.

Guilty pleasure, or kingmaker? I don’t find Inferno to be a crucial piece of my offensive foundation . . . but it’s lots of fun to watch. Pop some damage inspirations, then Aim, Melt Armor, Fire Ball. Finally, make entire Longbow mobs resent their bosses with Inferno. If some poor soul somehow survived, you *can* regain some endurance by popping endurance Inspirations and proceed to clean up your mess (just be warned that, until you start regenerating endurance on your own, your powers can eat up your entire endurance bar in seconds).

Rating:

Slotting – If Inferno doesn’t do enough damage to your targets, you’re at great risk of dying under a pile of aggro. Therefore, unless you have Inferno just to show off at DJ parties in Pocket D, invest heavily in accuracy and damage enhancements.

Synergies with Fire Blast

Thermal Radiation is the natural thematic choice to compliment Fire Blast. In function, the FB/TR combination directly addresses more than the other combinations the one thing that determines the victor of any fight: HP. After all, you can mez (or be mezzed), buff (or be buffed), debuff (or be debuffed), etc. in every possible way, but the winner ultimately is the one that still has hit points at the end of a fight. Fire Blast removes your opponents’ HP while TR replenishes yours.

Thermal Radiation isn’t necessarily the best match for Fire Blast if you’re really aiming to maximize its damage potential, though. As mentioned previously, Dark Miasma, aside from being a fantastic power set in its own right, turns Rain of Fire into a tremendous weapon from the moment you take it. A similar synergy, and possibly a more powerful one at that, occurs between Rain of Fire and Cold Domination’s Snow Storm and Sleet powers all used simultaneously. Then, of course, there’s Kinetics, which seems to work well with any primary power.

The point is this: if you’re not excited about Thermal Radiation, Fire Blast works well with other secondary powers perhaps more to your liking.