StormDevil

Parry/Divine Avalanche makes most any secondary into a beast; get mobs into melee range, profit. I know there was a lot of recent talk about Kat/DA and its potential, as well as some newly energized Kat (or BS)/Inv love, given the fairly recent buffs to Inv. The other thing Inv has going for it is the +toHit with mobs in melee range; that plus the swords' inherent accuracy and defense debuffing means you won't have to slot too much for accuracy.

OK, that's about what I figured. I was looking at possibly Touch of Death instead of Mako's, since most melee attacks have the Smashing component, and both melee and smash are pretty well covered by HPT, Fast Healing, RttC, and Tough.

Oh, and I'd never take this build into PvP; it's a strictly PvE character.

The standard line is that BS and Kat work out to about the same DPS, when all is said and done. BS hits harder, recharges and animates slower, costs more end (per attack). Kat does less damage (per attack), recharges and animates faster, costs less end (per attack). I'm not one of the most informed folks when it comes to the swords, but I'm fairly sure that by the time you get your full attack chain, the end and damage tend to equalize between the two sets. I'd imagine you'd have an easier time making a gapless attack chain with Katana.

Also, don't downplay the aesthetic comparison. The only reason I'm holding off on a BS/Inv is because I don't like the animations all that much. But of course that's totally personal, subjective, and possibly silly.

Hey folks. I've got a low level SS/WP, and I wanted to make some plans for her future. I was wondering if anyone has some experience/advice which they could share re: the above topic. What are the pros and cons of trying to soft cap typed vs. positional on a WP Brute? i.e., is one much easier to reach than the other (it seems like positional, or at least 2/3 of the positions, would be easier, but I could be very, very wrong) ?

Pretty broad/vague question, but if someone could just point me in the general direction of not being an idiot, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks!

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Also: that car looks awesome.

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I know, right? I've got this female private eye character (Moxie Danger), and I wanted her to have a cool car. I did a Google image search for Boyd Coddington, and while that car isn't one of his designs, it knocked my socks off.

Ha. Oddly enough, both of you guys are on my mental "short list" of artists with whom I'd like to work. Specifically because I've got this new crew of pulp/noir female characters. I've always liked Elec's illustrations of the ladies, and Lousy (aka heo), your digital watercolors would, I think, make for an interesting take on the classic pulp style.

I've got a few other things cooking right now, but the fact that it was the two of you who first responded is a tad bit serendipitous.

Hey, thanks Mr. A! Yeah, I try to use simpler costume parts in hopefully interesting ways. The Baron's got the zombie face with black skin, and the Jongo mask in white. It's actually a combination I've not seen anyone else with (on Virtue anyway), but that combined with the Glow Eyes aura (with the color all the way down to black, the eyes glow just a little) make for, I think, a pretty cool effect.

I hear cars are very tricky for some artists to draw. I have a commissioned piece in mind that has a car as a central image. Figured I'd send up a flare here whilst I poke around DA and such. If anyone either can, or knows someone who can, draw vehicles, please gimme a shout.

Thanks!

EDIT: This , by the way, is the kind of car for which I was looking. I am by no means an auto enthusiast (heck, I don't even drive), but that car makes me drool.

My first finished commissioned piece of my "other main".

Baron Midnight

The second in what will probably be a series of "sticker art" pieces of my characters. Gammaknight is fast, easy to work with, talented, and his sticker art price is a steal...but don't tell him that!

...or you could just wait a few months for Going Rouge, and gain the ability to have pretty much most of the best of both worlds. Want Archery with buffing/debuffing (except Poison)? Bring a Defender to the Redside. Really want to play Dual Pistols? Looks like that's happening, too.

My advice would be, have patience. Getting a petless MM to 50 might be some kind of weird feather to stick in your cap, but I can't imagine that character would be half as much fun or a tenth as effective as the options Going Rogue seems to have in store.

The slotting I used is 5 posts up, and the results I got are 2 posts up. Also, I've not got Short Circuit.

I managed to achieve what I was trying (hit the Ranged Soft Cap without sacrificing concept, power selections, or using mule powers), and picked up some other nice benefits along the way.

Oh, then you're in luck! Virtue has an excellent thread, "The Virtue Name Watch". You're sure to get some suggestions there. The more info you provide about your character, the better; it is admittedly difficult to come up with a name that's very spot-on in re: powers/weapons (Arrowgirl, Bowman, etc.). Adding a bit of your character's "flava" into the name will make it unique, interesting, and hopefully, spark some platonic man/polygon love.

What Server is Doombow on? A few of the servers have name threads, and it's a lot easier to give advice for a new character name when folks can check its availability on the character's home server.

Nah, I left everything the exact same, as far as the defense granting set slotting; I just pulled a few from Build Up, Power Boost, and Aid Self. I'll double check it.

EDIT: Well, I must've been doing something wrong. Went back in and tried again, and I'm sitting at 45.3 to Ranged. Also a ~45% increase to Accuracy and 17.5 to Damage...that last one was a nice surprise. I was only paying attention to the Ranged Defense stuff, and the Primary is Elec, so it's nice to have the added damage.

Oh, good call, Chaos. I didn't catch that set when I was reviewing them. The odd thing is, I finally downloaded Mids last night to see if my numbers were right. I plugged in what I had listed above, and it came back with ~43%. So I just figured I made a mistake with the math somewhere, and decided to see what it would look like if I 6 slotted Stupefy in Boxing. Came back with ~41%. Now I don't trust Mids anymore.

Even by AT name alone, Defenders have a clearly defined role (apologies to all Fruit Salads, Defebcers, Offenders, and RO Networkers out there). Tankers Tank, Scrappers Scrap, Controllers Control, Blasters Blast, Defenders Defend, and Kheldians Kheld. Their lower baseline damage numbers are in-line with their conceptualized "place" in CoH.

I have another option for you; FF/Rad. The defense of Force Fields combined with the flexibility of Rad (decent at Range or in Melee). You can boost your own damage by slotting the Achilles Heel proc into a bunch of the attacks, and you'll have a melee attack that hits like a truck (even for Defenders) with the added benefit of applying a large magnitude stun. Also, teams will appreciate the -Def (and -Res, with the proc) component more than the -KB.

And shooting lasers out of your eyes is infinitely cooler than shooting them out of your solar plexus.

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I'd say it's best to do the opposite. First you use the hold, then the "cage" ( immobilisation, slotted for damage ).

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You can do this, but you sacrifice the Containment bonus you'd get for caging first. It probably depends on how much you fear the retaliation of the mob.

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Uh, no you don't. Holds set up Containment just like Immobilizations do.

OK, I think I have it figured out for my build, but again, I've not got Mids, so if someone could take a look at this and let me know what the Ranged Def bonuses total, I'd be very grateful.

Charged Bolts, Lightning bolt: 6 Thunderstrikes each
Energy Punch, Bone Smasher, Total Focus: 6 Makos each
Tesla Cage, Shocking Bolt: 6 Lockdowns each
Combat Jumping, Super Jump: 2 Zephyrs each
Aim: 6 Gaussains
Tough: 1 Steadfast Unique

If I haven't made any mistakes, that looks to me like 43.26, including the base values for Combat Jumping and Weave (1.75 and 3.5, respectively). Can you get the last 1.74 by just throwing a couple of Defense IOs in Weave?

One option to get armbands, a black chest covering, and still allow for the lightning bolt:

Use Leather Straps under Tights. Choose the sub-option Tanker, color it black. It's true you can still see the buckles, since they are white/silverish and can't be changed, but it might just work.

Just another option in case you were looking for one.

Welp...they certainly get KOd more than most any other AT in the hands of players unfamiliar with their strengths and weaknesses. Like any other character, you can utilize the Invention Set system to really shore up your defenses.

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It just occurred to me, however, that this is pretty obviously a blapper build with as many melee and PBAoE attacks as ranged attacks, and as such, will get a lot less mileage out of softcapped ranged defense than purely ranged blaster builds.

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Not as such, actually. For one, I've not got Short Circuit.

Thanks to everyone for all the feedback; that Thunderstrike question was the only thing keeping me from figuring it all out. Now that you've all sorted that for me, I know the changes I'm going to make. They actually aren't any of the ones specifically mentioned, but I think I'll be able to hit the cap and still not deviate from concept or efficiency.

Thanks all!

(btw, since this Thread title is somewhat misleading--general title, specific character/power combo questions--passerby can absolutely feel free to solicit their own advice and such; I've got what I came for, so have no fear of threadjacking!)

Same rule that applies to any Set Bonus; i.e., you can only have 5 of any one given bonus. Thunderstrike is weird because it grants a bonus 2x, for 2 different values (and it's listed in CoD as only giving the 2.5), so I'm not sure how it works.

Re: Thunderstrike. Since the bonuses add up to 3.75, does that count towards the Rule of 5 for 3.75? If so, then 2 Thunderstrikes, 3 Mako's, and 2 Lockdowns are 2 too many.

Cool, good info. There are a few sacrifices I'll have to make, but seeing as how there are two Holds in the build, that should be OK. Two questions:

1. No one mentioned that new Hold set (can't remember the name off-hand), but it grants 3.75% Ranged Defense. One of those sets in Tesla Cage and Shocking Bolt each sounds like it'll help a ton.

2. Thunderstrike confuses me. At the 3rd (I think) slot it offers a small amount of Ranged Defense (1.5, I think), and then at the 6th slot it offers a slightly larger amount (2.25, I think). Are those amounts additive, or does the larger one simply replace the smaller one?

So, I've heard that it's possible to reach the Ranged Soft Cap with Blasters. I'm looking at my Elec/Energy/Elec, and wondering how the heck he can do that.

I don't have Mids, but I figure listing his powers would be helpful. I figure my big drawback is no Weave.

Elec:
Charged Bolts; Lightning Bolts; Ball Lightning; Short Circuit; Aim; Tesla Cage; Thunderous Blast

Energy:
Power Thrust; Energy Punch; Build Up; Bone Smasher; Power Boost; Total Focus

Pools:
Combat Jumping; Super Jump; Hurdle; Health; Stamina; Aid Other; Aid Self; Hasten

Epic:
Shocking Bolt; Static Discharge; Charged Armor

So, is it possible to Soft Cap with those powers?
Thanks in advance, I want to love my Blaster, but he sure don't make it easy.