SpaceDog_EU

Here you go

The only way to make your dark armour differ from anothers - is through the auras (lvl30) - and as you can see, it aint much. The greenish aspect is the aura..

Scrappers are a very balanced AT and can be fun to play, especially when you start getting the more intersting powers in both the primary and secondary pools - and have slotted these with Single Origin Enhancements.

Find a scrapper combintation you like and see where you can take it

I'm soon to level a Kin/Rad defender to 47 and have already delved into the Psychic Epic Pool and have Hypnotise and the Mind over body armour.

Looking about for some inforamtion on what the power Telekinesis does has been rewarded with minimal results.

What I think I know; It holds and repels mobs based on an anchor and 'collects' mobs in close proximity to this anchor and repels them in a straight line backward (from the caster).

It costs a bit of end. How much end in practical terms for a kin? Its Auto-hit? What else can it be slotted with?

What are people's experience with this? From what I'm thinking.... target boss or mob group and force them into a corner of the room......and keep them held in place as long as the endurance lasts?

I really want this power to be good - anyone with the power and loves it (or hates it for that matter) could give me some idea of their use of it?

Cheers

Six slot, Sprint, Swift, Rest, Elude, Phase Shift, Stealth, Aid Self and respec Hasten into the build to bring Rest up as often as possible.

Hmm.

Create costumes that blend into the scenery, grey/brown for cave missons and so on.

And of course, the necessary 'Warcry', "I surrender!" (F10)

Apart from that, the build looks great

Depending on what you wish to do, will affect how you slot Twilight grasp - Do you want it to be a AOE heal or -acc debuff? I've got 3acc 3 heal in mine - tends to miss a bit otherwise - could easily get rid of an acc or heal there for a recharge.

Howling Twilight - as far as I remember is auto-hit - AOE res and disorient - one of the best powers in the set. A heal enhancement in there sounds like a bug - think thats back in the days when the quality of the res would depend on the number of enemies drained to use it. Not needed anymore. One enemy is enough to res a whole team back to full health. You might want to stick another recharge and then start thinking about disorient enhancements.

With fearsome stare - depending on what level enemies you're be facing, and the intention of your build - will determine whether you get anything out of how you've slotted that. I've gone for accuracy and fear with a recharge or 2.

Dark Servant - again, it possible you have been looking at old information. the recharge is wasted. You can't have more than one servant out at any one time now and they last as long as the power takes to recharge. So recharge isn't needed.

On dark servant - you can decide on what you want him to be good at. Throw in a couple of accuracies and with the other 4 slots you can decide if you want him as a debuffer, healer, 'controller'. Personally I've gone for 2 acc, 2 heal, 2 hold enhancements.

In regard to the leadership pool - with Tactics, you might as well stick some tohit buffs in it to get the most from this.

Being Kin/Rad - I'd thought I'd post my build - cos i don't have any experience with your secondary.

I've found that with IR - there is really no downtime - its back up as soon as it runs out - and a recharge would only allow you to overlap - which you can do on the ground - otherwise the animation brings you out of the sky

3 SO's on IR is possible and not wasted - I've found i have more slots than I need to be effective - the rest are bonuses that have rounded out my attacks.

I've found I need stamina - simply because of the Leadership, Hasten, Mind Over Body and spamming heals, transference, siphon, Fulcrum and Speed Boost - not forgetting running through an attack cycle

I see everything I do as helping the team in some way - buffing and debuffing all at the same time.

Having got Mass Hypnosis as an Epic/Auxillery, I noted how slept mobs don't react when FSed or Siphoned etc - a nice opening move to get the blasters in range of FS before the action starts in ernest.

Anyway - my build... the slotting of the primary works perfectly for me and opened up the attack powers which I couldn't be without


---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: Incarnate
Level: 46
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Kinetics
Secondary: Radiation Blast
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Transfusion==> Acc(1)Acc(3)Acc(3)Heal(5)Heal(5)Heal(9)
01) --> Neutrino Bolt==> Dmg(1)Dmg(15)Dmg(37)Acc(37)
02) --> Siphon Power==> Acc(2)Acc(9)Rechg(43)
04) --> Irradiate==> Dmg(4)Dmg(11)Dmg(13)Acc(15)DefDeBuf(25)
06) --> Siphon Speed==> Acc(6)Acc(7)Rechg(7)Rechg(11)
08) --> Increase Density==> DmgRes(8)DmgRes(19)DmgRes(19)
10) --> Electron Haze==> Dmg(10)Dmg(17)Dmg(31)Acc(37)
12) --> Speed Boost==> EndMod(12)EndMod(13)EndMod(17)
14) --> Swift==> Run(14)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16)
18) --> Inertial Reduction==> Jump(18)Jump(21)Jump(34)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(23)
22) --> Assault==> EndRdx(22)EndRdx(23)
24) --> Tactics==> TH_Buf(24)TH_Buf(25)EndRdx(31)TH_Buf(39)
26) --> Transference==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Rechg(27)Rechg(29)Rechg(29)EndMod(31)
28) --> Cosmic Burst==> Dmg(28)Dmg(40)Dmg(40)Acc(40)
30) --> Repel==> EndRdx(30)
32) --> Fulcrum Shift==> Acc(32)Acc(33)Acc(33)Rechg(33)Rechg(34)Rechg(34)
35) --> Neutron Bomb==> Dmg(35)Dmg(36)Dmg(36)Acc(36)
38) --> Hasten==> Rechg(38)Rechg(39)Rechg(39)
41) --> Mass Hypnosis==> Acc(41)Acc(42)Rechg(42)Rechg(42)Sleep(43)Sleep(43)
44) --> Mind Over Body==> DmgRes(44)DmgRes(45)DmgRes(45)EndRdx(45)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Vigilance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------


Should be lvl 45

No recharge on Transfusion or devled into the medicine pool. Simply I guess to deviate from the 'Healer' mold and be a buff/debuff team friendly toon, rather than a team rescuer.

I see my toon as a specialist. I'd say a good team can make xp much faster with her on board. Another defender along and xp will flow like water

I have a dark defender and made a mistake in trying to fulfil 'expectations' of defenders by delving into another pool to solve what I thought were weaknesses in the set, i.e no single-target heal. Once I went down that route, I lost track of what the set does best which was to debuff.

Kins are the same; great at loads of things - poor at a few. I'd think twice about going down the medicine pool route myself.

Glad to see my idea taken up

Sounds all good to me..

I'm... starting..to feel... the altituss...coming on


ARGH!...MUST MAKE NEW TOON

Hmm - How about an Ice/fire? - herd up all those mobs for some AoE fun...

...The armour might get in the way of your toon's hair - but post 30 a fiery red head aura might add that extra stylish touch

My Sexiest toon - and I don't care about 'large thighs', I like my women like that..

Lil' Green Man gets moody

The birds go quiet as a Warshade takes a walk through the park

Still A-Force to be reckoned with

My build has avoided hasten and becasue I was enjoying the damage output so much, I put off acrobatics for a very long time.

Its probably advisable to get that earlier.
---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
---------------------------------------------
Name: Lil' Green Man
Level: 50
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary: Spines
Secondary: Dark Armor
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Lunge==> Dmg(1)Dmg(3)Dmg(3)Acc(11)EndRdx(11)EndRdx(45)
01) --> Dark Embrace==> DmgRes(1)DmgRes(5)DmgRes(5)EndRdx(13)
02) --> Spine Burst==> Dmg(2)Dmg(7)Dmg(7)Acc(9)EndRdx(9)EndRdx(46)
04) --> Death Shroud==> Dmg(4)Dmg(13)Acc(15)EndRdx(15)EndRdx(17)EndRdx(17)
06) --> Murky Cloud==> DmgRes(6)DmgRes(19)DmgRes(19)EndRdx(21)
08) --> Swift==> Run(8)
10) --> Impale==> Dmg(10)Dmg(21)Dmg(23)Acc(23)EndRdx(25)EndRdx(46)
12) --> Combat Jumping==> DefBuf(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Jump(14)Jump(50)
16) --> Health==> Heal(16)Heal(25)Heal(27)
18) --> Dark Regeneration==> Acc(18)EndRdx(27)EndRdx(29)Rechg(29)Rechg(31)EndRdx(50)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(31)EndMod(31)
22) --> Boxing==> Dmg(22)
24) --> Quills==> Dmg(24)Dmg(33)Dmg(33)Acc(33)EndRdx(34)EndRdx(34)
26) --> Tough==> DmgRes(26)DmgRes(34)DmgRes(36)EndRdx(36)
28) --> Obsidian Shield==> DmgRes(28)DmgRes(36)DmgRes(37)EndRdx(37)
30) --> Ripper==> Dmg(30)Dmg(37)Dmg(39)Acc(39)EndRdx(39)EndRdx(48)
32) --> Throw Spines==> Dmg(32)Dmg(40)Dmg(40)Acc(40)EndRdx(42)EndRdx(46)
35) --> Build Up==> Rechg(35)Rechg(42)Rechg(42)TH_Buf(48)TH_Buf(50)
38) --> Cloak Of Darkness==> EndRdx(38)EndRdx(43)DefBuf(45)DefBuf(48)
41) --> Conserve Power==> Rechg(41)Rechg(43)Rechg(43)
44) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(44)EndRdx(45)
47) --> Oppressive Gloom==> Acc(47)
49) --> Soul Transfer==> Heal(49)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
01) --> Critical Hit==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
---------------------------------------------

A decent build might go something along these lines - its held me in good stead so far. Currently lvl 45 with it.

Very Entertaining. In a 'late-night-Channel 4' type of way.

You know, late night as in weird stuff is on and your eyes are barely open and you really should be asleep, but you have insomnia, sort of way.

This is something that could only be carried off once, I really hope no-one else takes this original idea to heart and attempts to start off their own....um.. thingy .

I don't have an Ask a Ben question, just concerns, perhaps. Mild concerns. The sort of concerns you might have when contestants go for the gamble on Bullseye, when perhaps they really shouldn't.

But you have to watch anyway

Gah! Am I going to say this?..... Roll on the next episode

My experience with DA has been the real need to five or six slot everything. i.e shields 3 res and 2 end and attacks 3 dmg, 1 acc and 2 end red.

Same with Dark Regeneration. You want it up when you need it, and when you need it, you want it to work Hence an acc or two + recharge and end Reds, of course.

Quills and Shroud together do some good DoT, but again, they need five or six slotting to get the most out of them.

This is my biggest pain with the set combination - its taken 45 levels to achieve the same sort of independence that my regen scrapper had at lvl 22!

And I'm still not quite happy with it..

For me, Cloak of Fear was a end hog. Add that to the other Armours + Tough + Acrobatics and your end problems.... and your likely to have some in comparison to other scrappers.... will spiral.

My play style means jumping into a large mob to get the benefit of all my AoEs etc. While Oppressive Gloom is cheap to run, those ticks of health can really drop fast if you get in the thick of things.

There may be issues around the animation time of Barbed Swipe which I dropped in favour of Lunge, but apart from those 3 powers, I have all the other attacks and armours including the stealth power.

Slot the shields with some End Reductions and think about doing the same for attacks.

As there is no knockback protection in the DA, you might consider the Leaping Pool and go Combat Jump, Super Jump and Acrobatics.

Also Tough might be an option from the Fighting Pool. I have it on my Spines/DA.

To be honest, endurance will be one of the issues you will continue to have to overcome. At lvl 45 at current, my spines, with conserve power is still an endurance hog. Slotting your attacks and shields is really an art and I haven't optimisied him quite yet.

Build Up + Kinetics will be your friends.

Go for Build Up and bribe a kineticist

Edited: Oops, forget Confront. Didn't bother with that either.

[ QUOTE ]
Rather than the usual about how to hold aggro, is taunt needed or do our primaries needed a boost, what suggestions do people have to sort out some of the problems the AT currently has? By problems I mean how low level tanks can't really tank and how to stop seemingly a large majority of tanks becoming scrankers?


[/ QUOTE ]

My thoughts...

Instead of the tanks attack powers generally consisting of few AOE attacks, how about having only ONE single target attack in the set?

As a consequnce, a scranking tanker cannot help but to pull everything in his direction whether he intends to or not.

Future conversation between 2 new players..

"You going to try those tank ATs? I hear they've changed them a bit."
"..Nah - I got a mate who tried one out. He says that everytime you try and attack something, about 16 other mobs appear out of nowhere and attack you!"
"...Thats sucks.."
"Yeah, and you have to wait until level 32 until you get a single target attack..."
Pause -
"Um,.... lets roll out a blaster? Yeah?"
"....YEAH!"

Amen

Its a difficult choice. My experience of warshading has left me to believe that it is the most exciting AT i've played so far. The excitement increases with every level as you gain more powers and slot others.

Self-sufficiency comes with play style, enemy type and often team-makeup and ability of other players and of course experience. Stygian Circle and Eclipse become your best friends together with a well slotted gravity well.

My only problem with Warshading has been with the lower lvls where you are far more squishy than you will be post lvl 38... when seemingly nothing can hurt you.

As far as the controllerish issue is concerned, I wouldn't concern yourself about it - in that apart from the Hold and Immobilise, its very difficult to notice any effect (slows) from your attack powers - and even if the mobs are effected - they are dead very shortly after

At the higher levels - I have noticed a distinct damage output sustainability and self-sufficency superiority between the Warshade and the Peacebringer, I guess simply becasue after Eclipse the WS can stay in Nova form and blast AOEs without fear, regain End from the dead mobs and move on to the next group without downtime.

Warshades turned out to be everything I wanted them to be after lvl 38

Just be thankful you don't play Final Fantasy XI..

I used to run into my double about.... oh - every third second..

[ QUOTE ]
I still don't see its use in any team - any form it goes in weather its human, dwarf or nova, it is not as strong as its counterpart. Thats why I feel like they are like a last resolution for any team that lacks a particular AT i.e tank or blaster.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not so sure about that. Unfortunately I'm not a numbers guy, but Eclipse + Dark Dwarf gives some good Damage Resistance and Mire + Dark Nova = Not to be underestimated damgae output.

+ Extracted Essence
+ The occasional Quasar
(+ the mini-nuke - keep forgetting the name )

= Comparable to Blaster damage output?

I play a lot of tanks myself and whilst it has no taunt aura, I feel that Dark Dwarf + Eclipse can compare well with most tanker builds as a damage absorber.

However, as has been said earlier - its not the forms, but the totality of the forms and powers that makes a warshade

[ QUOTE ]
Wanting to sample every AT at some point, I am a complete utter novice at tanking. TO that end, I'd like to try something that works really well together. It doesn't matter how easy or difficult it is to play; I want a challenge, and as long as I have a few move combos that work well I'll be fine (I hope ). Besically I want something that is effective and fun.

So, what works well?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think its important to understand the purpose of a tanker and then to learn how to do it.

There is a noticable difference bewteen poor/average/good/great tankers. A great tanker is huge asset to any team, whilst a poor tanker is usually a liability.

A great build cannot create a great tanker from a foundation of poor tanking skills. Whilst I would argue that a skilled tanker can make a poor build work.

So, in conclusion;

1.Learn the art of tanking

2.Choose a powerset that you think wil be fun

3.Learn the art of tanking

4.Have fun


.........

[ QUOTE ]
Having previousy got a warshade to 33 and deleting it because it sucked I can say that imo, Khelds and warshades are sucky versions of a tank and blaster. The dwarf forms are resitricted to 4 attack powers (which need slotting badly) and a useless taunt and now i think blasters outdo them no probs with defiance. They are both an exremely unepic AT which i found do not fit in to teams very well. When people recruit to their team i find that if they need a tank, they go for a tank not a warshade or Pb and same with blaster. When i recruit for taskforces I usually go for Pbs and warshades as a last option, except for posi because the nova form isnt so bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think your teams could be missing out on a serious damage dealer. Playing to 33 means you missed out on eclipse and had not got either quasar or extracted essence - all of which adds to the potential sustainable damage output of your WS.

Knowing what a WS can do post 38 and even before in many cases, goes a long way in understanding the place they form in a team. I wouldn't get a ws in a team solely for their 'tanking' ability or 'blasting' ability - but for the numerous attributes they can bring to the team.

For me, the WS within a team that can support it, is the star of a team. In some team-makeups (like most ATs) you don't get to see their potential. But in the right team - an aggro manager present i.e controller/tank - its open season on Mobs.

No messing

I haven't found any need to slot shields for end reduction with my fire/ice tank - running tough, weave, combat jump, acrobatics in addition to the shields.

I have consume.
I have stamina.

Its enough for my needs.

[ QUOTE ]
my shade is at lvl 33 and i respected out nova form at 30 as for me its just far to squishy, my human, dwarf, shade performs great and ive taken more controller style aproach to the whole thing and seem to be amounting alot less debt this way, my dwarf form is just for panick situations at the moment but probably be alot more use after 40 i think

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, Bio! Don't forget Eclispe!! U can squid form mobs at point blank range and never wince while its up!

Apart from the occasional mez

I thought I'd post in the creative zone as I'm not really saying much, but wanted to share some pics of my toons. Not just for the sake of vanity , but because I'm starting to think a lot about the tuypes of costumes I create......I'm trying to create some art (I think) in my toon's cossies becasue its only recently, for me, I discovered that revamping the costume of the toon, really brings it back to life.

As you can see, I play quiter a few toons (not all are here), and some of them have become neglected and left to rot. Maybe becasue something about them didn't inspire me - I lost the zest I previously had for them and moved on to something else.

My most recent costume change is with Peace who remained neglected for many weeks. I'd be interested to see the different costume concepts for the differnt ATs taking account of powerset choices... i.e - does a MA scrapper always look like a kung-fu guy, or a broadswordsman look like a barbarian? Stereotypes I know, but I was very concious of avoiding the obvious in a few of my cossies.

What do you think, and what about yours?




Peace, the MA/Regen Scrapper


Peace in action

Dark Apollo the Warshade


Dark Apollo in action


Tectonic the Stone Tanker



Strike-Force Fire/Ice Tanker for the camera..

Stirke-Force yet again

Troop-Force Mercs Mastermind

Troop-Force again


Lil' Green Man Spines/Drk Scrapper

Ms Miracle ILL/Emp Controller


Incarnate Kin/Rad defender


Booty Drk/Drk defender


And if you got this far, hope the links worked and sorry if the pics don't show enough detail

I LOVE the costume shop

I'd pretty mush go along with BrainDamage's advice, although I didn't get Punch, as I thought it was a bit of a weak attack and instead started dipping into the Fighting pool for Tough and Weave(not that I really used Boxing much ) - also I got Taunt a bit earlier allowing me to slot it up a bit - allowing it to be more effective against higher lvl mobs + recharge, to be up when I need it (the recharge on it sucks imo).

But any route you take, at lvl 24 with the powers advised, you're be a pretty sturdy Tank

I'm not sure I've heard cries of 'Tank!', but I understand the sentiment. Many times have I been patiently waiting for the tanker to staring tanking - to absorb the majority of the aggro so the team could unleash their firepower in relative safety - only for the tanker to hang back and wait....and wait.....and wait....

Yet, in the majority of times, I've waited also. I think thats the pain of some tankers, not sure when to take the initiative and just tank mobs. Check the team is ready and go. If your toon is an aggro magnet without a tanker (decent tanker I should add) then you're stuck waiting on the tanker.

I must add that with my spines/da, I can take out relativley large spawns and with eclispe on the ws, even bigger spawns - but with a decent tanker, its so much easier - a pity sometimes you have to wait on them to get into action.

Alternatively, there's the tanker who rushes past a spawn on the way to another, aggroing both in the process and only maintaining the aggro of one of them While the tanker is peacefully taunting his nice grouped spawn, the rest of the team are fighting for their lives with the other....

Tank!

With a decent tanker and decent shields, you usually have the luxury of being able to turn and view the health and situation of your team mates and then aggroing the mobs it appears they can't handle whilst keeping an eye on the aggro limit.

When I play as tanker, I probably look at my teammate's health bars almost as much as when I play my defender - If their health is dropping, I think; What can I do about it? ..... then do it

A nice, user-friendly post covering basic details re: tankers.

Also there has been a thread where the validity of using shields for different mobs has been discussed, with Bridger (correct me if i'm wrong - it may well have been in reference to scrappers) would utilize shields depending on the enemy, thereby saving endurance. I think that sort of play requires a bit of experience knowing what type of mob does what type of damage - but its always there as another option to save end..

In other words - know your enemy - do you really need a fire resistance shield for this mob? if not save endurance switch it off!!

Taunt around corners and use objects to hide behind rather than rush into a big mob taking all the damage and only part of the aggro..

Taunt AOEing mobs (nemesis come to mind) so they face away from the squishier members of the team ..

Know your tanking limit and don't take on more than you know you can handle..


Look after your tank and feed it the best your influence can buy - don't let your shield enhancements go red!!

Utilize resepc missions to modify power choices that are in need of changing due to your gathered experience of what you now want your tanker to be able to do..

Finally.. to get a decent costume for your tanker - after all you are the star! Dress for the occasion!

Edited for... unless your a Stone tanker and use Granite Armour... go naked, pebble head!