Teeth

My first guide about powers:

Blast and Burn: A Guide to Fire/Traps Corruptors (Issue 12)

Power Pools

Concealment +++
Grant Invis on your traps and allies could be handy, and personal Stealth is very useful for setting traps outside the radius of groups that you don't want to get in the middle of, and the usually negligible defense bonus from Stealth would actually help you since it should stack with your other defenses. I doubt full Invisibility would allow you to set traps from within it, but it'd be pretty wild if it did. (I may have to test this...) I didn't find this pool worth taking; the personal concealment helps me a lot, but I managed to afford a +Stealth IO, which covered it. Unless Invis would allow me to lay Trip Mines, I wouldn't take anything but Stealth if I actually did go with this pool, but there are worse pools you could choose in a build.

Fighting ++
Boxing might be nice if you didn't take Flares (you're in melee a lot anyway), and the survivability from Tough and the toe-bombing potential from Weave might be nice. The immobilization protection in Weave would actually come up somewhat often. All that said, this pool is too many power choices and too much endurance cost for a Fire/Traps.

Fitness +++++
Fire/Traps could probably be light on endurance, but I find that I need Stamina to keep up with my fast-recharging AoE's, as I didn't want to slot for endurance reduction. Adding toggle powers into the mix makes Stamina even more important. I'm also fond of having Hurdle or Swift to assist with in-combat movement and Health to reduce the duration of the ever-annoying sleep status effect.

Flight ++
I chose this for my travel power, as I like to Hover around and blast things in open areas when my traps aren't really needed (such as on very fast teams). The small defense bonus from Hover helps a bit when added to your FFG, too. Honestly, though, those more worried about their effectiveness should take Speed instead (especially if you have the Good Vs. Evil Edition Jump Pack to help with vertical movement). Knockback is a big problem as of Issue 12; I may have to try to afford an anti-knockback IO now.

Leadership +++
I decided that the Leadership toggles would cost me too much endurance, and I'm also not fond of running many toggles on characters who get toggle-dropped often, but Assault, Tactics, and even Maneuvers would help a Fire/Traps quite a bit.

Leaping ++++
Fast movement, a small defense bonus in combat, the cheapest (non-free) toggle power in the game, immobilization protection, added hold protection, and knockback protection, all with only one more power choice to take than the other travel pools? Leaping is always nice for squishies (AT's that don't take damage well), and this is no exception. (Speed would likely be better, though, as you are less squishy than most other Corruptors.)

Medicine ++++
I suppose one could do without Aid Self, but I don't advise it. All the charging into melee that I do results in me taking a lot of damage when things don't go exactly perfectly (which they rarely do). In general, though, I cling to Aid Self on my squishies; if you play squishies better than I do, this might be a good place to save two power choices.

Presence +++ or ++++
The Fear powers seem like a good way to get off toe-bombing or just generally remove resistance, and the the taunt powers cost no endurance. Taunting as a Corruptor might seem like a bad idea, but Fire/Traps can get a lot of aggro anyway, so it might not change a lot to taunt your foes formally, and you can put some nice procs in those taunts to turn them into endurance-free disorienting psi blasts. They would be highly unreliable endurance-free disorienting psi blasts, but you might not care if you're out of endurance (such as after using Inferno), and there's still the Fear to use when you do have endurance. Also, Fear IO sets give good set bonuses. I strongly considered taking this pool.

Speed ++++
Hasten would do wonders for laying mine fields or just general blasting, and Super Speed is both fast and useful in missions (combined with a +Stealth IO, it makes you invisible). I took Flight instead, but I think Speed would be the best travel pool for Fire/Traps (or just /Traps in general).

Teleportation ++
I like Recall Friend for use on teams, so I took this. This pool doesn't specifically help Fire/Traps, though.




Patron Pools

Black Scorpion's Mace Mastery gives you Black Scorpion Shield, which stacks with your FFG. I strongly suggest that you take Black Scorpion Shield at level 41 and slot it at level 42, it makes your life much easier. Also, I personally look forward to the AoE immobilize, as I often wish I had this for Rain of Fire (or for fleeing in terror, honestly).

Scirocco's Mu Mastery gives you a good endurance recovery power, which would be nice to have (especially if you like toggles), and Ghost Widow gives you a good personal damage buff (that also works as a PBAoE attack). Both of these would be quite useful for a Trapper, but I don't see them competing with Scorpion Shield.

I don't understand why anyone would want to take Mako as a patron, unless you're enamored with him conceptually. (I hate him conceptually too, so avoiding his worthless power pool is even easier for me.)

Traps

Web Grenade ++
You're forced to take this, and as mandatory powers go, it's not very impressive. The recharge debuff is useful on tough enemies and the immobilization is nice for stopping runners or in combination with Rain of Fire, but for some reason this power doesn't have a full Slow effect--if the target resists the immobilization, he can still sprint at top speed. (I'd have given the powers like this a Slow effect if I was designing these sets). The slotting recommendation assumes that you want to be able to stack this on resistant targets (which I advise). The lack of accuracy is annoying, but not so much that you would usually want to slot this instead of other things, especially since your Acid Mortar (when available) makes targets easier to hit.
__1/2 Acc, 1/2 Immob
__2/2 Acc, 1/2 Immob, 1/2 Rech


Caltrops ++
Caltrops can be handy, I suppose, but I mostly find myself using them to protect my retreat or keep things from getting too close to me--and these are not things that I have needed to do often as a Trapper. They'd be better if I didn't have a Rain power, but the scatter they cause is bad for my Rain if I use Caltrops first and the scatter from my Rain is bad for Caltrops if I use my Rain first. They'd be better if I was a Mastermind, but I'm not. They'd be better if I was using a lot of expensive procs, but I'm not. Any time I've needed Caltrops, I was able to use Rain of Fire instead. I don't suggest taking this on a Fire user.
__Probably 1 Rech
__Probably 2/2 + 2 Rech, 2/2 Slow


Triage Beacon +
I don't see why you'd take this. Maybe it would be useful while fighting an AV (Arch-Villain); I think I've heard that said. On the other hand, I'm sure there are better things you could take for that purpose, especially since I think the AV statement was meant for Masterminds. People will tell you, "Fully slotted, it's as good as Integration!" Well, I have a level 50 Regen Scrapper. She has more hit points than my Corruptor, so +Regen is better for her right off the bat, and she's also got Fast Healing, Health, and set bonuses. She still needs to actively heal herself frequently, and she gets her +Regen all the time (you have to spend a few second tying your shoes while getting shot in the back to get yours). Slots in this power--and it won't do much without slots--are a waste.
__Don't take this power.
__5/2 Heal, 5/2 Rech


Acid Mortar +++++
Defense debuff, resist debuff, proc sink for the rich, not interruptible, takes aggro for you, hard to kill. If you chose Traps as a power set, I don't understand why you wouldn't take this power at level ten.
__2 or 3 Rech
__3 Rech, 1 Acc


Force Field Generator (FFG) +++++
Take this power at level 16. This is the reason I chose Traps over Cold, and even so I was surprised by how wonderful it is. It makes up for Web Grenade being so oddly lame. You'll still get hit a lot, albeit less often; you'll still get interrupted while toe-bombing (laying traps at people's feet), albeit less often; you'll still suffer from status effects, albeit less often; you'll get irritated that it can't be controlled or that you often get out of shield range. Still, it stays up while you're toggle-dropped, it costs no endurance to maintain (and little to summon), it has a base recharge time of only 15 seconds (so it's expendable), and it takes aggro off of you. It's neither game-breaking nor set-defining (I suspect that an "Arctic Fog Generator" could have been put here instead, for example), but it's an essential power choice for any Trapper.
__2 Defense
__3 Defense


Poison Trap ++++
I took this at 24 (I wanted Stamina first). You could possibly skip this, but it facilitates Rain of Fire and toe-bombing by briefly holding humanoid critters, and the -Regen is important for big bad ugly things. The recharge debuff is nice too. Putting this off until 28 to take Aid Self first wouldn't gimp you (in fact, I could even imagine waiting until 30 and taking Seeker Drones at 28); this is an excellent power, but you could do without it if you had to. (If a fellow trapper berates you for lacking this at some point, set a mission against Arachnos and watch him get slaughtered by all the spider drones. Make no mistake, this is a very nice power; but you MUST learn to play without it, and therefore it's possible to skip it entirely.)
__2 Rech
__2/2 +2 Rech, 2/2 Hold


Seeker Drones ++++
I took this power at 30, after Poison Trap and Aid Self, but I would probably try playing with Poison Trap as my level 30 power if I had it all to do over again; I'm not actually sure how that would work out. At any rate, you summon these at the location of the enemy. These guys take initial aggro, which gives you time to run in and do whatever it is that you wanted to do; you'll probably be attacked almost right away, but your FFG will have time to catch up to you if you sent in Seekers first, and this is important. Seeker Drones do briefly stun enemies when they hit, which makes things even better for you. You summon Drones in pairs, each causing an AoE 20% damage debuff to your enemies when they survive long enough to self-destruct, so you can use these to make fights against big nasties easier too. This power makes Poison Trap much more useful; I usually died when trying to toe-bomb with Poison Trap before I got Seekers, but now that I have Seeker Drones I can usually survive long enough to get in, get out, blow things up--whatever.
__2 Rech
__1/2 + 2 Rech, 1/2 Acc, maybe an Immob proc


Trip Mine +++++
Take this at 35, slot it right away. The base recharge is 20 seconds, and there's an unslottable four-second interrupt period when using these, so you're supposed to be setting these at a distance from a spawn and luring the enemies to you. This does work--in fact, it works fantastically well, ignoring that you must be within about a hundred feet of your mines for them to go off--but it's not the only way to do things. A mine lasts four minutes, so with a +100% enhancement bonus to recharge ("3 Rech"), you can can get about fifteen of them in one place. A mine does four times the damage of Fire Ball (or 2/3 the damage of Inferno), which is pretty impressive. Acid Mortar makes it even better. (Two Acid Mortars in a fifteen-mine field will result in the lifeless body of an Elite Boss being flung across the room half a second after he was charging you at full health. It's glorious.)

Toe-bombing is great fun and very satisfying. If your enemies are controlled, distracted, or otherwise unable to hit you , you can drop a Trip Mine in the middle of a group of foes. This works best if you have team members pulling aggro off of you, of course. My usual attack chain, assuming I start the battle (I like to go before even the Brutes are ready), is Seeker Drones -> (charge in) -> Poison Trap -> Acid Mortar -> Trip Mine -> Fire Ball -> (if anything is alive) Rain of Fire or single-target attacks. I go straight to Fire Ball and Rain of Fire if the Mine gets interrupted. (Note that Fire Breath would be useless here, since the enemies surround you.) Be advised that this is a bad idea against things that won't vomit in Poison Trap, like Arachnobots; for these, I set the Acid Mortar about 50 feet outside the group of enemies and start in on Rain of Fire and Fire Ball.
__2/2 Acc, 3/2 + 1 Dam, 3/2 + 1 Rech
__This is a high-priority power.


Time Bomb - (Doesn't deserve a rating.)
Do not take this. If you're really good at timing, you might be able to hit something with this by setting it and pulling the enemy over, but with an extra ten seconds (literally) and no skill at all you could have simply set two Trip Mines and done the same thing for 60% more damage. There's no point toe-bombing with this because it does the same damage as Trip Mine + Fire Ball, only with more animation time and virtually no chance of getting the power off uninterrupted; by the time you lay the thing, if you do manage to do so, the spawn should be almost dead, and by the time it goes off the spawn should be totally dead. Trip mine + Blaze + Fire Blast would do significantly more damage to a hard target than Time Bomb, yet take the same amount of time as merely activating the Time Bomb. Seriously, don't take this "power."

Fire Blast

Flares ++++
I took this at level 4. I recommend it; it charges fast, it animates fast, it's cheap (in endurance cost), it keeps you busy with shooting things. If you have an expensive IO build, you can probably get enough of a recharge bonus that you won't need this, but otherwise it's very useful. If you do have an expensive build, you might want this for procs. Finally, I would rather take the first three Fire Blast powers than any two of the first three Traps powers, and this is the choice that you must make.
__3/2 Acc, 3/2 + 1 Dam
__3/2 Acc, 5/2 Dam, 1/2 Rech, 1/2 End or Range


Fire Blast ++++
I took this at level 1. It's your basic blast (Flares is more of a "Brawl Plus"); I could see a recharge-heavy build that skips this in favor of excessive use of Flares and I could see dropping this to make room for Fire Breath, but I prefer to have Fire Blast in my attack chain.
__3/2 Acc, 3/2 Dam, 1 Dam
__3/2 Acc, 5/2 Dam, 1/2 Rech, 1/2 End, 1 Rech


Fire Ball +++++
I took this at level 2. This is a staple of the set, and you should take it. It's easier to aim than Fire Breath, its damage is more front-loaded than Fire Breath or Rain of Fire, it recharges pretty fast, and it does decent damage. This power is CRUCIAL for a Trapper, as it works when you're in the very center of a spawn (which you will be).
__2/2 + 1/3 Acc, 4/2 + 1/3 Dam, 2/2 + 1 Rech, 1/3 End
__Fireball is never low-priority.


Rain of Fire +++++
After coming to my senses, I chose this as my level 6 power, and I'm very glad that I did. It does great damage when it takes full effect, and it's sometimes useful for crowd control because enemies often avoid it. It can be fired around corners, and it has a large enough radius that it can hit loose groups. Indeed, the simple fact that it's location-targeted instead of enemy-targeted comes up quite often (you can fire it at stealthy targets or while blinded, for example). I fire this at my own feet a lot as a Trapper. I was recently corrected regarding the accuracy of this power; apparently, it does benefit from having Acc slotted.
__1/2 + 1/3 Acc, 4/2 + 1/3 Dam, 2/2 + 1 Rech, 1/2 + 1/3 End
__This is a high-priority power.


Fire Breath +++
I took this at level 8, but I respec'ed out of it not too long afterwards, and I don't plan to pick it up later, although I do sometimes miss it. It does more damage than Fire Ball, but it animates slowly and the damage isn't as front-loaded. With a different secondary power set, I'd take this, but there are better things you can be doing as a Trapper. The last nail in the coffin for Fire Breath is that it's not very useful when you're in the very center of a spawn, and as a Trapper you spend a lot of time in the centers of spawns.
__2/2 + 1/3 Acc, 4/2 + 1/3 Dam, 2/2 + 1 Rech, 1/3 End
__If you take this, give it some love.


Aim +++
I'm putting this off until level 47, though if I wasn't so fond of Recall Friend I would have taken this at level 32. It's a nice boost to damage (with some accuracy to make sure that you get to use said damage), but it's only half of a Build Up, and my build was tight, so it waits.
__1 Rech
__3 Rech


Blaze +++++
I took this at level 18; it meant that I had to wait on Stamina until 22, but this build isn't as big an endurance hog as some, and Blaze is a very nice power. You shoot someone, they take huge damage, and it recharges and animates fast. It's a great power. The only real drawback is that its range is a bit shorter than Flares and Fire Blast.
__3/2 Acc, 3/2 Dam, 1 Dam
__3/2 Acc, 5/2 Dam, 1/2 Rech, 1/2 End, 1 Rech


Blazing Bolt ++
Well, it's a snipe. I'm not taking it; the Fire Blast set can do damage faster by chaining normal attacks, it has no cranked-up debuffs like the snipes in some other sets, and as a Trapper I have no reason to use this as an opening move. There are times I vaguely wish that I had this, but these are few and far between. I can't really suggest slotting here, as I can't think of any reason to take this; if you have a purpose for Blazing Bolt in mind, I'm sure you can slot it appropriately on your own.
__?


Inferno +++
I'm not really big on taking "nuke" powers, but I took this at 38 because it suited my recklessness. I'm usually on a team, so I often have someone on hand to resurrect me if I die, and this removes the problem of the endurance crash. Thus, I typically fire this off as an act of spite (and effectiveness, I suppose) when I think I'm about to die. Sometimes it even saves me. Of course, it works at the more traditional nuke-use times too, like at the end of an attack chain to finish off a spawn. Note that the resistance debuff from Acid Mortar helps this power a lot.
__2/2 Acc, 3/2 + 1 Dam, 3/2 + Rech
__Slot this well if you take it.

(Guide written shortly after the launch of Issue 12.)

This guide attempts to communicate my thoughts on making a Corruptor with Fire Blast and Traps. This guide is written based on my own experiences, and it may therefore be less than ideal for you if (1) you PvP a lot, (2) you are good at laying out invention enhancement (IO) builds which heavily employ set bonuses and uniques (and can afford to do so), (3) you plan to be powerleveled or are otherwise worried about only high level play, and/or (4) you'd rather spend three minutes carefully preparing the easy destruction of a spawn than spend forty seconds charging in screaming "Banzai!" with only a general idea of the results. Even if these are true, I hope that you may find this guide useful.

I wrote this guide with my character at level 40, so "epic" level slotting, powers, and resources are not yet taken into account. I do plan to take this character to 50, despite my usual inability to play a character to high levels, and I will update this guide as necessary.

So, why Fire/Traps? I wanted to blow things up, but I don't handle control effects well (I'm a Scrapper at heart). Fire and Traps help with the "blow things up" part, and Force Field Generator is a wonderful patch for the holes in my skill.

On to the sets! Here is the format:

Power Name, Rating, from + to +++++ (five pluses being the best)
Comments
__High-Priority Slotting (see note below)
__Low-Priority Slotting (see note below)

When slotting enhancements, I prefer to slot dual-stat IO's, as this method is both the cheapest and the most effective if you tend to ignore set bonuses, "procs" (see an IO guide), and uniques. Thus, I usually list slotting suggestions in halves or thirds. Where this is impractical, I list whole numbers. Example: "3/2 + 1 Dam" would mean three IO's which have damage as one of two enhanced values and one pure damage enhancement. This sort of thing arises because of the limited availability of dual-stat IO's; much as one might wish to slot 5 Dam/Rech in Inferno, for example, only three Dam/Rech IO's exist for that type of power.

High-Priority Slotting is what I wanted within a few levels of taking the power; Low-Priority Slotting is for high levels, if you decide that you have some extra slots to put in the power. In many cases, the Low-Priority Slotting does not assume six slots in the power, so you may still be able to throw in procs or fill some matters of preference (such as slotting for range).

Yay for Rularuu stuff!

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Are we ever gonna see a Ralaruu story line...

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Oh, forgot about this.

Can we have more Rularuu, oh great story guru? I like the Rularuu.

(What I would REALLY like is to have Shadow Shard access as a Villain. Heck, even make it a PvP zone--it wouldn't affect you much as you'd virtually never see anyone, but it'd be flavorful.)

Ignoring balance issues, how do you feel about player characters getting corrupted or redeemed (i.e. switching from CoH to CoV or CoV to CoH)? Can it fit with the "Destined One" story redside?

Ooh, nice costume!

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My only criticism would be that in terms of color scheme, it's actually quite common.

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Perhaps. I always enjoy seeing costumes that make good use of light colors, it seems to take more work than darkity-dark costumes.

Damn, you're good. O_O

Okay, I'm calling it:

The Psi sets will suck for Blasters as much as they do for Defenders (at least in PvE), but since they'll be primaries to the Blasters, the Blasters won't be able to do anything else of any use, and they'll whine about it all the time. (Also: People taking /Mental will often take Drain Psyche and Build Up ONLY.)

Also:

I want to say "Fortunatas will be ten kinds of broken and PvP heroes will hate them worse than Stalkers," but frankly, my official prediction is still "lol CoV." That said, I do think that heroes got Mind/Psy redshirts because villains get Fortunatas.

Holy freaking crap Batman.

BLASTERS WITH REGEN DEBUFFS!

Also, "!!!!!!!!!!"

This is mostly cross-posted. I wasn't sure which thread would be more appropriate.

I actually realy like this idea, though I cringed when I saw the announcement (I've been on the internet long enough to see how people react to in-game ads).

Still, the whiners aren't gonna get me down. There's two reasons I like this:

1) Immersion--You can't even turn around in real life without having product placement crammed up your... well, you know. It actually irritates me when I'm playing a game in a modern setting and brand logos aren't plastered all over the place. It makes everything seem so dead.

2) "Teh monies"--NCNC is a company. They literally don't exist unless they're making enough money to matter. The more money they make, the more viable Co* is. Yes, they can still do stupid things to ruin it (lol SWG NGE), but being poor wouldn't stop them from doing that. In general, more money--> better game.

Needless to say, I'll be leaving this turned on. It's not like it hurts me any to do so, and I want to encourage them to keep it up; I figure they'll probably use datamining of the number who opt-in to attract more advertisement.

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Unfortunate about the death of villan pvp though.

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lol villains
lol pvp

Anyway, let's see, checklist for awesomeness... Elec/Storm on Corr's? Check. Cold/Ice on Def's? COLD/ICE ON DEFENDERS? HOORAY (artificial substitute for) LIFE!!!

*Ahem.* What were we talking about again?

Oh, right.

lol villains
lol pvp


Edit: Actually, it's not all good news, I suppose. What I really want, deep in my heart, is an Ice Sword Scrapper. Costume piece, power set, I don't care, I just want it.

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Neither Mystic nor Magickal nor any other sort of enchanted Origin has the slightest impact on this game. None, zip, zero, null, void.

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Um, arcane salvage.

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Certainly no viable benefits.

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Arcane salvage. Also, costume pieces are the shiny bit here, not badges.

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All of this has the same impact, IMO, as the entire Rikti raids we've had to endure...

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No, the Rikti Raids drop dirt-common tech salvage and don't give you costume pieces (unless you're level 35). (Also, the Rikti Raids are awesome...)

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War Witch, Level Designer who's doing the Hollows Gameplay Makeover, wanted me to point out that the changes are to address spawns and that there are no significant art changes (like moving buildings, etc.) being done with the changes.

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Oh, well if War Witch says it's okay, I'm sure it will be fine.

That does make me feel better... I was expecting some sort of Faultline-style changes. If it's just spawn-moving (PLEASE OH PLEASE BE LOW-LEVEL IGNEOUS) and a "Hollows Radio," I guess that's not detracting from real and significant changes. QoL changes are good; dozens of hours spent on retreading working content is bad.

(I'm still very irritated about the 10-20 content addition, of course.)

Edit: And I guess "first." "First" comments are forbidden on most forums I go to, but I guess they're compulsory here.

So...

They ignore CoV, they ignore CoH's dead zones (Dark Astoria, Boomtown, etc.), and they "fix" one of the most used and working zones (as opposed to, say, Perez), thus making two of the Issue's major features devoted to the short-and-bloated 10-14 level range.

Repeatable missions? Yeah, we have radios for that. I already outlevel the Hollows on accident on most characters (I actually want to do the current arcs), I really doubt I need another source of repeatable missions at that level range.

It's the "i12 is not a big issue" promise that's keeping me from being particularly mad right now, but I still can't imagine what they might be thinking.



Edit:
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You guys live on a series of islands. Unless one suddenly springs up out of the ocean you are SOL.

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Or if they find a dome under the ocean.

[sarcasm]
Hey, cool, two of the major "features" of this issue are devoted to levels 10-15, the fastest and most content-bloated levels of the game. That was smart.
[/sarcasm]

I just don't get why they insist upon adding content to areas where I already never see more than half the content. I also don't get why the leave a sucking void in levels 30-34. Just... ugh.

This 10-20 arc is going to be exclusively flashback content for me--without Stamina, as a kick in the teeth. I'm certainly not skipping Yin-O's or Safeguard missions, and I'll probably continue to do the two (long and XP-heavy) TF's in that range due to the way the recipe drop pool changes at higher levels.

I just really don't get what they're thinking on this one. 30-50 would have been a much more interesting level range.

Ugh, no badge sorting? Badges needed it much more than contacts (which at least appeared in the order you got them).

Also, power tray customization does nothing useful for me if I can't save the settings so as to rapidly implement it between characters.

I'm not gonna sail "fail," but only because they did promise i12 being a "small" issue.

[ QUOTE ]
Hey I have a great idea... remember when it was said by a red name that villains could not respec out of their patrons due to it being a conflict of RP?? Now we can go back in time to run old mission... why can't we respec out of our patrons saying we can "time travel" ... that is freakin logical.. yet here we are.. scratching our heads at why this of all things was even on the "top" of the list of things to do.

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This is because the devs hate CoV. This is in keeping with the game balance vision, apparently.

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btw great way off putting old content in and mask it as some attempt of new content...

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Okay, calling bull---- here. People have been asking for (perhaps "demanding" would be more accurate) this feature since beta, and they implemented it very nicely.

Anyway, I'll be happy about this change if it means cheaper salvage, which it might (better farming --> market glut), so... *raspberry*

Argh, I can't read it! "Invalid plug-in detected, Acrobat Reader will now quit" is all I see!

T_T

Edit: Wait, there it goes. Nice work!

Huh, a pro-farming change? "Pad once, benefit twenty times!"

Also, /scorn at people who can't beat missions set for more people than are in the team with high-level IO's and rep set to Heroic. Sure, it's annoying to not be able to run on Rugged or Invincible or whatever, but in most cases you should still be entirely capable of completing with little extra effort and not much danger. It's not like the AV's spawn as harder for larger teams (though such a change would not surprise me).

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the problem with soloing my Defenders isn't that it takes some of them 2 minutes to kill an even level boss, it's that I'm just not slotting their debuffs enough... But it won't make her defeat things faster.

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My experience doesn't uphold that at all. Granted Elec Blast is unimpressive on damage (no cone attacks, no "Bitter Lightning Bolt"--ick), but it shouldn't take two minutes to drop a boss with 'cane slotted.

As a general rule, I find that being safe ALWAYS increases my soloing speed (which is why my Scrappers solo better than my higher-damage Blasters). No, I may not be able to kill the guy in one attack chain, but (with Elec Blast) he's usually down by about the time of the second firing of Zapp, if not earlier. Granted some last longer, especially at high levels. Then again, I don't see all that many bosses while solo, so they still don't add much time.

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My bad.

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No kidding.

Poobah, I think I've found your problem with Defenders.

So, out of curiousity, do your invuln tanks "not get XP by slotting for resistance," your ice tanks "not get XP by slotting for defense," and your scrappers "not get XP for stabbing things in the head with a big sword until they stop moving?" I'm guessing you don't have problems with that last one, but I've seen people who do ("Why is my Scrapper so weak, I fully slotted all my armors!").

Similarly, it might work better for you if you did try to debuff things to death. It works quite well for most people. (I recently saw a Storm/Psi solo half of an 8-man mission in the Citadel TF because he got bored of waiting for a couple of people to come back from a bio break...)

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This whole argument about whether Defenders need more damage being broken down into semantics is mind boggling to say the least.

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...Yeah. I agree that Defenders could use a bit more damage, but expecting them to solo as well as *anything* else, even post-GDN Controllers, is something I don't agree with. (Previously, I'd have said that Controllers should have been worse, and sometimes they were.)

I think Vigilance should give you endurance reduction (and maybe even a small +Damage) when your team is at HIGH health. That would be both functional and logical, unlike the current (what am I going to do on my FF, "Bubble Faster?" Or is Force Bubble supposed to have prohibitive endurance use?). Still, as it currently, is, I consider that Negligence probably wasn't intended to be useful, and is therefore doing its job nicely.

(Now I'm just trying to figure out how Storm/Elec is having trouble with bosses. Shouldn't the whole "knocked down in a corner with no accuracy or endurance" thing help with that? I'm no fan of Elec for Defenders, but other than being slightly slower than other sets it's not THAT weak.)