Synaesthetix

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Good point. But Kin's question can be moved to the brutes. What if a brute has +RES? Is it best to give him RES buffs to cap him (or attempt to cap him anyways) or is it better to give him +DEF buffs so he's got allround damage prevention? The same could be asked for +DEF brutes but the other way around ofcourse.

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The only experience I have with Brutes in PvP is from the perspective of an EM/Fire Brute - not the most hardy of secondaries, but with one application of Thermal Shields and Thaw and the occasional (but not constant) healing, I have stood my ground in Sirens for five-to-ten-minute periods against 3-5+ groups of heroes (last night I managed to stay alive numerous times when facing up against a group consisting of: MA/SR, DM/Regen, Spines/Regen, Fire/Fire [Tank], Ice/Ice [Tank]). Bearing that in mind, I'd say Res is more important - Brutes are designed to take hits, and every Res set has holes in it (except Stone Brutes in Granite, but the -Recharge, -Dam, -Spd in Granite presents its own problems), and every Def set can't help but be improved by more Res.

There's also the issue of gamesmanship - players are more likely to attack a target if they can see its HP moving up and down than they are a target who doesn't get hit frequently, regardless of whether or not that target is the best choice (although this is more prevalent in Zonal PvP than Arena, where people tend to kerb their instincts more). Brutes getting hit is what makes them tick, the more hits you take, the more damage you can dish out - with full-ish Fury, Build Up and Forge, I think EM can pretty much near two-shot any Scrapper not using Dull Pain. (hard to tell accurately, as damage from Blazing Aura and Fiery Embrace could be obscuring my perception). It goes without saying, every Brute engaged in PvP will be pretty much obliged to take Taunt, if only for Fury building.

I actually think the main problem most Brutes face is in running out of Endurance before they can use their Fury. Keeping opponents in range long enough to use it is also an issue, but one that can be worked around.

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(even superspeed maybe)

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Remember the +Stealth aspect of Super Speed was removed for PvP.

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IIRC (and just to be pedantic before MaX can be) it was removed for PCs but it remains for NPCs.

I'm guessing it's because Kin was being considerate, and not wanting to step on anyone's toes. That said, it would make things a lot easier to try to get everyone together on one night, and would also have the benefit of being able to test villain tactics vs heroes. Also, you could start tonight instead of next week.

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personally i think its very close between /thermal and /sonic with thermal just slightly ahead, of course in such a crucial role the player must be very good to maximise these sets with buffing, debuffing and staying alive

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It's also worth noting for the record that (unlike Empath heals) the Thermal heals all have a rooting animation - which is quite a disadvantage as far as PvP is concerned.

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What, a gimped blaster with a bad tan and a gimped scrapper with a bad haircut?

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As opposed to your FotM troller with the same bad tan, and your FotM everything else with bad everything? (And you smell.)

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That's it. You can wear your own sodding Julie Andrews and high heels outfit from now on. we are through.

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Don't be like that, sugar.

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what's your next main then?
8o)

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They're all my mains.

I have no idea, that said. If I can drag 'cel away from her Defiant Blapper long enough, I might try to get my Mind/Kin 'troller levelled up a bit.

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yes I am being a fart brain

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Not a fart-brain, just having a brain-fart - where a normally sound mind decides to take a wander for a bit whilst the rest of the body continues as normal.

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I thought both Ice Armour and SR were Resistance based sets?

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*shakes head* Both Def (although the passive shields in SR give +Res when HP dips below a certain amount).

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For example, if we were to take a RES based stalker for a pentad team, what should we be doing as a team to use him most effectively in order of priority?

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Just FYI, until I7 there won't be any Res based stalkers (Dark Armor), unless you count the minimal +Res passives in EA and Regen.

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My gut reaction is to buff his defence as he already has RES so you can get a balance but from what I've seen and the fact min/maxing plays such a big part, i'm guessing i'm completely wrong?

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For stalkers, you're better off buffing his Stealth (with Grant Invis) and damage and acc if possible (with Forge, Acc Metab, etc) if they're playing the role of Assassin. If they're going to be more Scrappery, then as much Res, Def, and +Regen as you can manage.

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I'm guessing a */Thermal is probably the most useful in a pentad for the shields, heals, buffs and debuffs?

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Tentatively, I'd say yes. I'd say there's scope for /Cold and /Sonic to prove equally viable, depending on what you want to achieve. In 8-man+ events, then /Kin and /Dark could work well too, or even /Traps (if you're highly imaginative).

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I think we need to start a thread about words like Blastvoke and Scrapfiance.

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I'm pretty sure I coined the last one after the SR +Res changes, but they are excellent words.

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Could have meant Sonic Resonance? Since +Res buffs were mentioned, I think that might make more sense .

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What kind of numpty would refer to Sonics as SR though? SR has, does, and will forever refer to the powerhouse of a set that is Super Reflexes.

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RES heavy sets such as SR

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I hope that's a brainfart.

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Not enitrely. IIRC SR powers do give increased resistance to attacks as your health goes down, but you can't slot it. It is defence, but resistance is in there, I was thinking he meant Invul? Maybe

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Having just levelled my Claws/SR to 50 yesterday, I know all about "Scrapfiance" - and it's about as bobbins as Defiance is.

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RES heavy sets such as SR

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I hope that's a brainfart.

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I don't agree with Syn on Hold powers for Blasters, they're definitively useful, especially when fighting against another blaster.

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With the abundance of anti-mez powers from teammates and the availability of BFs, Holds are nothing more than a momentary distraction - so that's why I believe holddur is a waste, especially when you don't get a great modifier bonus in the first place. YMMV.

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In terms of Epic Pool I used to have Force Mastery. In my opinion it's the best PvE pool. However in PvP it's not useful for our builds. As you know energy/fire blasters have no hold powers and Force Mastery doesn't offer one.

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Force Mastery has many applications in PvP, but it does require a change in playstyle.

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Also, consider getting the Leadership pool. Assault increases your damage output and provides resistance to Taunt & Placate, while Tactics gives bonus accuracy & perception, so you can see Stalkers without Stealth...

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A single application of Tactics won't do much, and I'd really only advise people to think about going that route if they have TD from Devices to stack with it. Assault is okay if you can fit it in, but Taunt changes for PvP make it less attractive.

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And finally, create another blaster if you're thinking seriously about PvP. Fire Manipulation is too weak compared with Energy & Electric secondaries

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You can still make the best of what you have - you don't have to have the most uber build to enjoy PvP either, and I wish more people would figure that out.

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So is that all of the fun, or did you change your mind about it and there's another half of the fun still unrevealed?

I ask because I need to make an informed decision about this.

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The other half is in going to the PvP zones and having people complain about you killing them with your overpowered Scrapper.

Yes, that makes 1.5 halves. This is made possible by Claws/SR being that awesome.

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-50%, Filth. *sigh* Some people just never understand how this game works.

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Jesus Christ you nubs, the water gives him -60% DamRes, -Perception, instantly kills the wolves in a 300-yard radius, and turns Shadowhunter's underwear pink. If you had two 50s like me, you'd know that.

Talking of which: Dinging 50 in Shadowhunter's SR Graveyard (Say hello to my friend Focus, Mr Wolfy.)

It's been an odd 50 levels - having got to the early-40s around the same time as Eir hit 40, altitis kicked in, ED landed, then CoV wrestled my attention away for many months, and I finally ended up coming back onto Kuroshi only because I wasn't enjoying playing my (what I considered to be overpowered) Blapper in the PvP zones, and I figured that picking up and dusting off my Claws/SR might provide something of a challenge. Then, of course, we had the scheduled Claws and SR changes in I7, so I might as well get back into the mindset of playing him, right? Somehow, that translated to dinging 50 with relative ease and tanking AVs and Monsters along the ways (Confront ftw!). Oh well.

Thanks to everyone I teamed with along the way who wasn't a complete gimp, also thanks to Filth and Light Petting. Many thanks to Freaks for being the nicest weirdos you could ever hope to meet in the darkest recesses of the interweb, and to College of War for being very nice (mostly) foreign nutcases as well.


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Hey, I've been thinking about making a Claws/SR myself. Better hurry while it's still gimped right?

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That's half the fun! Actually, half the fun is in being the only person left alive in the team engaged in battle, tanking Nightstar and wiping out her minions with only the Elude on your back and the purples in your tray (and then almost getting wiped out by a group of white Nemesis on the way to the next mission).

Qwoorw!

We will not see his like again.

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Yep evasion is taking a downgrade so take lucky for the extra AoE defence.

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It's still the one power from SR that's the highest on the list for "dropabilty". If it's a choice between taking Lucky and one other power vs Medicine pool and Aid Self, the latter choice will vastly increase your survivability in all situations.

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Would you rather drop some resists for an interuptable heal?

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Every time.

Drop 2 Interrupt Reductions in Aid Self, you can get it so you barely notice that it's interruptible.

Corruptor: */Thermal - great buffs and one awesome debuff (Heat Exhaustion), with my pick of primaries being either Ice (slows and ST damage), Sonic (-Res and mezzes), or Rad (low endurance, -Def, ST disorient).

Brute: EM/Fire - The penalty of poor shielding is negated by the shields from the Corruptor - what's left is a highly mobile, offensive Brute with the best burst damage capability (Fiery Embrace + Build Up) and a readily-available self Heal (Healing Flames), with the gaps in healing being filled in by the Corruptor. Low-cost shields in addition to a good self +End in Consume mean that /Fire is more self-sufficient than most secondaries as well. EM provides disorients on top of high damage - this isn't a major concern, but it's always good to have something that can throw the opposition off their stride.

MM: Robotics/Dark - -Regen in ranged attacks, with the inherent weakness being negated by the shield in the secondary puts Robotics over Mercs for me; Dark is full of too many tricks to ignore, with Tar Patch, Darkest Night, Fearsome Stare, Howling Twilight (as debuff), Dark Servant all being more preferable in my eyes than, uh... bubbles. Also, Twilight Grasp seems like it will work fantastically well with the new Bodyguard system - I've always been a fan of proactive defence, especially when you can stack -Acc in the process.

Stalker: EM-or-Spines/EA - EM for high damage, Spines to be annoying as all hell, EA for the reasons Imaginary listed. (I'd expect other members of the team to have Grant Invis as well.) The build would ideally be a more Assassin-esque build than a Scrappery build, but it'd be down to the individual concerned as to how they play it.

Dominator: Plant-or-Mind/Thorns-or-Ice - Maybe my view is skewed by playing alongside Filth's Dominator, but Plant/Thorns can turn an opposition force inside out. Mind is undeniably good, and shouldn't be ignored; /Ice might seem an odd choice, but the fact that Doms get a +modifier to control effects means that the slows would be cripplingly effective.

YMMV, of course.

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A plant dominator? Great in PvE, pretty gimped in PvP compared to Ice or mind.

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Seeing as arguably the best PvP Dominator on Union is a Plant/Thorns, you might want to check that statement. On paper, I agree with you; in action, it's somewhat a different matter.

Of course, powerset selection runs secondary to player ability.

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To add to that, you can get away with not taking lucky at all and use the extra power to take something cool like the medicine pool or whirlwind just because. The extra AoE defense won't seem critical especially since for a very long time you'll be vulnerable to AoE's and be adept at hating/avoiding them anyway and evasion is slightly better than the other toggles.

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You can even take your ST Taunt instead of Lucky, and stun everyone into silence by proclaiming, "I'll tank Mother Mayhem" and then doing so (until Elude runs out). SR is just that awesome, and so are you for being SR.

My suggestion:

Primary Powers - Ranged : Energy Blast
Secondary Powers - Support : Fire Manipulation

01 : Ring of Fire acc(01) acc(43)
01 : Power Blast acc(01) acc(3) recred(7) dam(15) dam(25) dam(43)
02 : Fire Sword acc(02) acc(3) recred(5) dam(7) dam(15) dam(42)
04 : Energy Torrent acc(04) acc(5) recred(25) dam(48) dam(50) dam(50)
06 : Hasten recred(06) recred(11) recred(19)
08 : Power Burst acc(08) acc(9) recred(9) dam(11) dam(19) dam(37)
10 : Hurdle jmp(10) jmp(46)
12 : Fire Sword Circle acc(12) acc(13) recred(13) dam(34) dam(37) dam(40)
14 : Super Speed runspd(14)
16 : Build Up recred(16) recred(17) recred(17)
18 : Health hel(18)
20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(21) endrec(21)
22 : Aim recred(22) recred(23) recred(23) thtbuf(43) thtbuf(46) thtbuf(48)
24 : Blazing Aura acc(24) acc(27) acc(27) endred(31) endred(31) endred(34)
26 : Grant Invisibility rng(26)
28 : Consume acc(28) acc(29) recred(29) recred(31) recred(34)
30 : Invisibility endred(30)
32 : Nova acc(32) dam(33) dam(33) dam(33)
35 : Sniper Blast acc(35) inttim(36) inttim(36) dam(36) dam(37) dam(50)
38 : Hot Feet endred(38) endred(39) endred(39) dam(39) dam(40) dam(40)
41 : Char acc(41) acc(42) recred(42) recred(46) recred(48)
44 : Fire Shield endred(44) damres(45) damres(45) damres(45)
47 : Bonfire recred(47)
49 : Rise of the Phoenix recred(49)

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01 : Brawl acc(01)
01 : Sprint endred(01)
02 : Rest recred(02)

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I tried to keep the build as authentic as I could to the one you have listed.

Burn: Dropped it - with Blazing Aura and Hot Feet available to you, Burn is overkill.

Fire Sword Circle: Your main toggle-dropper and a useful attack, especially in grouped battles like you often see in Sirens.

Grant Invis: Great support tool, you're right.

Nova: Dropped some slots from it as I felt they were needed elsewhere.

Char: Hold Duration is of neglible benefit for non-control ATs in PvP as a general rule, IMO - Blasters have poor modifiers for mezzing, so it's better to have it up more frequently to affect more people, than to try to lock down one person indefinitely.

2 Accs in all attacks: Pretty much mandatory for PvP, I'm afraid.

2-slotted Hurdle: Because -Speed powers can really hurt an SSer.

6-slotted Aim: Being able to see the SR stalker with Hot Feet is one thing, being able to hit him is quite another.

Sniper Blast: You'd be surprised how quickly you can fire a snipe off in the middle of combat with 2 IntReds in it, also useful for tagging runners.

Bonfire: Surprisingly useful to sit on.

Slotting levels are a bit wonky, but you're a 50 anyway.

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Slot all the passives 3 Def

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(But if you need the slots elsewhere, you can easily pull them from the passives - the difference isn't critical.)

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Slot Elude 3 Def and 3 Recred because Elude is awesome

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(And use it frequently - not because you need to, just so you can leave everyone standing in the wake of your awesomeness.)

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Slot at least two Recreds in Practiced Brawler

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(Or if you're going to be seriously PvPing, 3-slot it.)

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stacked melt armour +ignite would be ownage

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Yeah, ownage in a 2-mob radius.

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Then THAT fellow pointed out he'd been watching a fight, which I couldn't see, over broadcast.

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I don't know about anyone else, but I love fighting spectators - not because it provides a fun PvP experience, or any sort of challenge, but for the wonderful flow of messages over /b and /tells both during and afterwards.

spectator > "im not here 2 fite!!11!1"
> spectator "But you *have* to fight on your first night."
spectator > "OMG STOP ATAKIN ME U [censored]"
spectator /l "WILL SUMONE KILL KURO HES ATAKIN ME AN IM TRYIN 2 WATCH FIGHT"
You killed spectator
spectator /b "OMG YOUR SUCH A NEWB ***** U SUK"
/e dance

*****

After reviewing all my PvP experiences, I have come to the conclusion that some people really dislike being killed by other people - for some reason, the same people seem to enjoy spending time in PvP zones. (I don't pretend to understand.) The only unwritten rule of the PvP zones is Kill And Be Killed - no more, no less. There's nothing wrong with what you're doing; if they can't figure out a way to stop you, that's their problem - not yours.

Keep on truckin', Mr Wuffles.

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I'm just amazed that I managed to not only pop an Awaken, but make it in to the mission before getting splatted! Surviving FTW! I'd like to thank Empath's (apparently) inviting corpse for the distraction.

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I actually saw you rez, and was in the middle of deciding whether to let you limp off, Levitate you, or /e drumdance on Empath's head - by the time I'd decided, you'd already gone.

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[Tis Mordancy, by the way, I was the stalker you took down with Archy and Empath]

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It's funny, I'd said over team chat that I was wondering why there hadn't been any stalkers trying to splat me (first time I'd taken my baby 'troller into Sirens), and a minute later you were tapping on my shoulder! Guess I was lucky we had +damres and that I was standing in the radius of Steamy Mist.

It's nice to see new faces in Union PvP though, even better to see new villains.

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Oh I will get you lot back for that! Defecate on my corpse will you?!

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Hey hey, don't be like that now, it's not our fault Quilly's not housetrained yet.