Supernumiphone

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a sidegrade - which does not address the community's top three stated problems

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IIRC one of the top complaints was low damage and another was feeling like Domination was necessary just to perform at an acceptable level. The proposed change addresses both of those specifically.

While ideally I'd like to see a change that addresses PToD EBs specifically, I don't see that happening. I'm fine with that though. It doesn't bother me that much to have to rely on inspirations for those encounters. Especially since the usual "4xLucks and a mess of Enrages" approach will be much more effective now.

Ok here I put a quick one together. Have a look, see what you think and go from there. You didn't give a lot to go on so I just did what I thought fit. I went with Super Speed for the stealth power because I never make a kin without Hasten and it saved a power pool not dipping into Concealment that way. The last time I checked level 50 stealth IOs were quite affordable, so put on in SS and you have PvE invis.

I used SOs mostly, but even cheap frankenslotting would improve the build a lot.

I picked Mu mastery for Power Sink mostly to give you the option of playing the sapper if you want. Sub out whatever one you prefer.

There's not much single-target, but for a team-focused build I figured that'd be ok. Only thing that stands out that I don't like right now is no Aim.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Natural Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Secondary Power Set: Kinetics
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: X-Ray Beam -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Dmg(7), Dmg(15), Dmg(23), RechRdx(46)
Level 1: Transfusion -- Acc(A), Acc(3), Heal(7), Heal(15), Heal(17), RechRdx(46)
Level 2: Irradiate -- Acc(A), Acc(5), Dmg(9), Dmg(17), Dmg(23), RechRdx(40)
Level 4: Siphon Power -- Acc(A), Acc(5), EndRdx(9)
Level 6: Swift -- Flight(A)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(31), RechRdx(34)
Level 10: Siphon Speed -- Acc(A), Acc(11), RechRdx(11), RechRdx(13), RechRdx(13)
Level 12: Hover -- Flight(A), Flight(34), Krma-ResKB:30(50)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth:33(A)
Level 16: Recall Friend -- RechRdx(A)
Level 18: Cosmic Burst -- Acc(A), Acc(19), Dmg(19), Dmg(21), Dmg(27), RechRdx(27)
Level 20: Speed Boost -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21)
Level 22: Health -- Heal(A)
Level 24: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(25), EndMod(25)
Level 26: Fly -- Flight(A), Flight(37), Flight(46)
Level 28: Neutron Bomb -- Acc(A), Acc(29), Dmg(29), Dmg(31), Dmg(31), RechRdx(40)
Level 30: Increase Density -- ResDam(A)
Level 32: Electron Haze -- Acc(A), Acc(33), Dmg(33), Dmg(33), Dmg(34), RechRdx(43)
Level 35: Transference -- Acc(A), Acc(36), EndMod(36), EndMod(36), EndMod(37), RechRdx(37)
Level 38: Fulcrum Shift -- Acc(A), Acc(39), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(40)
Level 41: Power Sink -- EndMod(A), EndMod(42), EndMod(42), RechRdx(42), RechRdx(43), RechRdx(43)
Level 44: Charged Armor -- ResDam(A), ResDam(45), ResDam(45), EndRdx(45)
Level 47: Summon Adept -- Acc(A), Dmg(48), Dmg(48), Dmg(48), RechRdx(50), RechRdx(50)
Level 49: Repel -- EndRdx(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge

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ooooookay.. but if you were to represent the character in the game.. the CLOSEST AT would be a stalker.

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I think the reason you got the response you did is that there was a long thread about this some time back where it was discussed to death, so to some you're pulling out a dead horse and beating it. I doubt the thread is still around since there was a recent purge but who knows.

I'll join if there's room, but I can sit it out if the teams don't work out. I did an ITF with my Stalker already so no big loss if I can't make it. Inducto level 41 Elec/Regen Stalker.

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what is the general opinion between Charged Brawl and Havoc Punch?

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Similar DPA when using Arcanatime. Once you have the other attacks and some decent recharge you only need one of them.

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Even if I don't take stamina, I'll still be taking hurdle to pair with Combat Jumping. I usually don't play melee characters without the combo.

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I usually don't play any characters without the combo. I've been a fan ever since I first tried it. I keep meaning to try out the improved Hover on a squishy but immob protection is very valuable there.

It's well worth having just for the fun factor. Those "Chain Shock!" messages are very satisfying somehow.

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Now, the jumps are auto-hit.

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That can be fun too. I've finished off a high defense enemy by hitting the mob next to him with CI and letting the arc finish him. You have to think a bit about target selection if you want to get the most out of the power. For some people that will be a strike against it, for me it's a positive.

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can anyone suggest a good solo corruptor build?

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Sonic/Dark. You will pwn things so hard you'll travel back in time...and pwn them again.

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If you haven't already completed the first part of the Patron Arc (that unlocks your patron powers), let me know which patron you are plan to go with.

I am thinking about running multiple Patron Arcs to fill in for the lack of +40 SFs villain side.

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I finished mine already unfortunately. I picked Ghost Widow and wanted to get the patron pools unlocked before I dinged 41, which I did already. I'll be happy to team up for others' patron arcs though.

As to the villain-only ITF, does that TF scale to the maximum level of the team? If not and we ended up a bunch of low 40s fighting a level 50+ Rommy that would be ugly.

My take is that you only pick Ice/Dark if you are going all out control. Dark Miasma has enough control and debuffs to allow you to solo safely and help your team greatly regardless of primary. Unless you want to make a Dom/Corr hybrid, after you've got enough control it's time to turn your attention to damage. Fire Blast is the usual set for that. Not that Ice Blast doesn't do very nice damage but the extra control it adds is kind of overkill when paired with Dark.

Ultimately it's all about having fun, so pick whichever you enjoy more. If there's no concept reason pulling you in one direction or the other and you like nuking spawns with lots of AoE damage, Fire seems like the way to go to me.

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The last time I tried to get an EOE farm I was met with crickets.

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If it helps any I saw you calling for tanks on one of the globals one time for a raid and not getting any replies, so I decided to roll up a tank. I figured if that ever happened again I'd be able to step up. It's still a work in progress, but I'll be able to help...some day.

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Can I count on Inducto to lead Team #2 (aka the fast team) as usual?

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Sure I'd be glad to. It's been a really long time since I've run the second respec, but unless it's substantially different than the first or third I should be fine.

Edit: I looked over the guides...looks like it's pretty similar to the third respec. I don't see any problems.

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The fact is, lots and lots of people don't marketeer. They don't want to put the time and effort into doing the research and planning. To them it's harder or more intensive work than "just playing the game".

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I represent that remark. I haven't been working the market at all for many months now, aside from a bit of crafting and selling common IOs. Many's the time I've thought I should get back into it a bit to make some inf, but the thought of doing the research to find some good niches to work made me cringe. I admit it wouldn't really take that long, or that much effort, but it's highly unpleasant to me.

It may not be work to some, those who enjoy it, but to me it is like work. If my job was getting my teeth drilled that is. For those who enjoy it, or who do it even though they don't enjoy it because they really want the shiney, as far as I'm concerned they deserve it. They have earned it.

That said, I recently accidentally stumbled upon a profitable area, and it seems that was all it took. Now the siren call of the phat lewtz has got me hooked again. All I can say about that is wow, these guys are right it really is that easy to make a ton of inf.

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I know Sonic Blast is good and I've been wanting to try Energy Blast. Maybe I'll try Energy blast. I just know a lot of Brutes will hate me.

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Not just Brutes, but Stalkers, MMs and Corruptors with anchor-based debuffs. I did NRG blast hero side twice, I would never touch it again.

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The KB in energy blast is not a problem if you teach yourself to AIM toward walls, corners, etc. Use KB to knock them TOWARD the brute, he will appreciate it.

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While I don't disagree, in my experience with the set there were too many times I couldn't position myself properly to do that. Narrow hallways or caves are often too restrictive. Other times I'd hop over somewhere to aim my KB and in the meantime the mobs had moved around or someone else had KB'ed them to another spot. Then there were the times I repositioned myself to aim my KB and grabbed aggro from another group of mobs I hadn't seen. Player error there of course, but if I was going to play the set again I'd either go the hover-blaster route, or take a secondary with non-suppressing stealth to facilitate positioning. Possibly both.

Last I checked Air Superiority did not take KB sets. Also Air Superiority pays for its mitigation with a higher endurance cost. That may or may not make it less valuable as a low-level filler attack depending on your playstyle. Jump Kick does the same DPA, has a lower end cost, and recharges faster. The only thing it lacks is 100% KU (20% for Jump Kick).

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I've lurked the forums for quite some time and played corruptors enough to know that most people seem to think that DoT powers are better for optimizing scourge.

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I don't know where you got that impression from. I've seen a number of discussions on the subject and the behavior of Scourge with DoTs has been well established and well known from what I've seen. I'm kind of surprised this is news to you if you've been following this forum.

No offense intended. I do tend to take lengthy breaks from checking certain sections of these boards so it's entirely possible I missed some discussions. It's kind of hard to imagine a discussion with misinformation going uncorrected though.

Anyway yeah Scourge doesn't play well with DoTs for the most part. ;shrug. Whatcha gonna do?

Dark Blast is more of a utility set. If you want top tier damage it's not where you go. IIRC Gloom gets a little bonus damage for being all DoT. It's not much but it's something, and when it Scourges those tics are big.

The AoE is actually not bad. It's no Fire Blast, but it's not bottom of the barrel either. Night Fall is a narrow cone, but it has a long range too. In practice what you usually end up doing is using TT, then hop/run back a bit to use NF. I try to squeeze some range slotting into TT to reduce the difference in range between the two cones. As for -tohit slotting, I'd only consider that after the cones were both hitting ED hard on damage and recharge. Stacking the debuffs twice will do a lot better than a little bit of -tohit enhancement, and you get more damage that way too.

Dark Blast is one of the few sets that I always take the snipe on. It might be possible to keep busy later on without it with good recharge slotting in the other powers and Hasten. For me though snipes are a sort of guilty pleasure, so I don't mind having an excuse to take it. I know they're not good from a performance standpoint, but they're just fun. As a bonus if you take the snipe early, it can one-shot an even-con minion up to level 4 I think it is. Worth taking just for the first few levels of lulz IMO, even if you respec or just switch to build #2 and skip it later.

Life Drain is also worth taking IMO. Even if you don't need the heal you can slot it as another attack, and it's nice to have another filler when you're focused on a single target. Plus when it Scourges and you finish off a mob with it, that is the most pure style move in the game to me. I never get tired of seeing that. Sometimes I will stop attacking and wait for it to recharge so I can use it as a finisher.

I don't now how to answer the question of whether the damage will be too low for you. I've never been unhappy with it, but no two people will agree on how much is enough.

One recommendation I do have if you decide to go with it, is to try to get some +def set bonuses. Primarily ranged def, with AoE def a secondary priority. In my experience the -tohit from the blasts isn't enough by itself. Of course it's hard to know when an attack misses whether it would have hit without the debuffs. There are too many times where you get a solid string of hits despite your debuffs though.

Part of the problem is that many foes when you open with your first debuff, they immediately start retaliating with their ranged attacks which do -def. At that point they're only debuffed by -7.5%, less by a bit if they're above your level. So some of the -defs will hit, at which point they've usually more than negated your debuffs. I haven't tried Dark Pit and that might mitigate the problem somewhat, but lieutenants usually have the same types of attacks.

Anyway some +def to stack with your -tohit will be great synergy and help prevent cascade failure when facing foes with -def attacks.

Beyond that I'd say just try it. To me it has a very different feel from other sets. It's one I happen to like. Judging by the rarity of the set though I'd guess I'm the exception there.

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I'd recommend trying to get around 15% defense and then go nuts with recharge. This way you can pop Shadow Meld to softcap yourself when the need arises.

My biggest piece of advice is to be careful with how you use Thunderstrike. It's a nice AoE, but be careful because those 3 seconds it takes to cast can leave you laying face down on the ground. Long cast times are the bane of regens.

For my elec/regen I held off on taking placate till much later (level 35 I think) since I found taking hasten earlier helped much more and because I found placate to be only useful against EBs and AVs. For defense toons it's invaluable, but for regen it's kind of meh since it's a lot harder to perform an AS while getting pounding on.

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I agree with all of this. I love using TS but sometimes the hang time can be a real nail-biter. I'm not sure if I'm going to get my heal off afterwards in time.

Ditto on the difficulties of using Placate, although I still took it earlier. Due to the Placate bug it's very difficult to get off an AS, or even a regular crit many times. So many times I timed my Placate just right so I could get off an AS without taking any damage, and the mob just keeps attacking me through it anyway. It's to the point where I don't expect it to work at all unless I haven't attacked the mob I'm using it on even once. Either that or if I'm fighting just a single boss I can time it during a knockdown. It also still has its use as a 10 second "You can't attack me." power against a mob you're not fighting, which can be valuable as well. Still there's no denying that overall it is much less useful than it would be on a defense-based toon.

IIRC on my Mind/Psi I took both Levitate and Air Superiority. Between those two I had a decent amount of non-psi damage for resistant enemies. Robots do suck for psi users, but they are weak to smashing damage, so having even one smashing attack is a very good idea. If a pool power attack won't fit the build and/or concept, I do recommend taking Levitate at least.

The only downside to Levitate is that it's still typed as a psi attack, so Carnies psi defense, and that of Fortunatas and Night Widows will still apply.

Mesmerize I slotted as an attack, and between that and Levitate, along with Mind Probe, you can get a decent attack chain going even at low levels. In that way Mind and Psi go well together.

Between those two I'd go with Mind for soloing. Mind is just very strong solo. Earth I wouldn't pick personally because many of the controls have long animations. That's fine on teams where aggro is distributed but solo where all attention is on you being locked in a long animation can mean the difference between success and failure.

I'm in with my usual. Inducto level 40 Elec/Regen Stalker.

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Can I get some data on the options? I also just rolled a Spines/...a Spines/SR and I was wondering how much damage will kick from the fighting pool do at 50 compared to Barb Swipe at 50?

I also have the two vet powers Sands of Mu and Black Wand.

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Here's a quick rundown I did on DPSA on some of the options using CoD. I used Arcanatime to modify the cast times so it should be accurate as long as I used the right damage values.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Barb Swipe 14.74
Boxing 32.01
Kick 23.59
Air Superiority 32.41
Jump Kick 32.41
</pre><hr />

The last time I checked Red Tomax's site the Stalker version of EM had lower stun chances on most attacks than other ATs that get EM. Can anyone confirm that's true? In the past I've presumed it was a PvP balance thing, but with EM being nerfed and PvP reworked, I wonder if it wouldn't be worth trying to get Stalker EM brought up to match other versions.

I should be able to join as well, depending on time. My day is mostly open, I just need a bit of advance notice. I can bring whatever based on what's needed.

Edit: I should mention here that the villain respec is not very forgiving of those attempting it below the max level. My recommendation is that you try to have enough mentors to LK everyone below 34 up.

Seems to me like you've pretty much got it. The low level squishitude is standard for Stalkers. It certainly gets better.

I don't remember the specifics, but you have a chance for your attacks to crit outside of hide, and that chance goes up for every team member within a certain radius of you. You have a base chance to crit even when solo though.

Your role on teams is up to you, and it can change depending on circumstances. If you have a Brute, Dom, or Mastermind who is taking care of the alpha, you may want to open with an AoE to help take down the spawn faster. If no one else is up to the task, or if you just like rushing ahead, you can handle that job as well. What allows you to do that, aside from your defensive secondary, is the demoralize effect attached to AS. In order to get the effect the target needs to survive the AS, so you just AS a boss, or a lieutenant without Buildup.

For primary I'd recommend Elec. It's great fun and the AoE in it is perfect for teaming. When you just want to do mass AoE damage opening with Lightning Rod-&gt;Thunderstrike is nice damage and mitigation through knockdown. Other times you have AS for hard targets. It's my favorite set for a team-focused Stalker.

Spines is nice too, but the long animations and lack of good single-target in the lower levels, along with the more resisted damage type makes it my second choice for AoE. That's not to say you shouldn't choose it if you prefer it. Both sets are good. My answer was to roll one of each.

Oh yeah Dual Blades has some good AoE too. That one I haven't tried personally because it just hasn't captured my interest at all, but it's another option if you like weapons sets and don't mind melee cones.

If you don't mind the redraw pick up Air Superiority or Jump Kick. Barb Swipe really is pretty bad, I'd rather have a pool power fill in than take it. Not much else you can do. Once you get Ripper slotted up you can do fairly well with just Lunge, Impale, and Ripper. The longish animations on Impale and Ripper mean that with some recharge slotting you can keep pretty busy. I realize that doesn't help with your pre-25 requirement. There was a discussion on basically this subject a while back and the best suggestion I saw was to take a pool power attack on the way, then once you get Ripper slotted, either respec or just switch to your secondary build to drop the pool power.

Of course if you really like it you could just keep it, but with Stalker builds being as tight as they are that's often a luxury that's difficult to afford.