Tonality

It still does knockback. Only pick it up for RP or thematic reasons.

It serves some utility I guess, but there are much better options out there.

The best thing I can say right now is that farming is not necessary to be successful in this game. Think about why you want to farm. If it's to earn inf, you will find with less time invested, you can make a LOT more simply using the market.

Farming can be enjoyable to some players. It can be fun soloing missions at 0/8 difficulty. But if farming is not fun for you, I strongly recommend you not burn yourself out on the game.

With all that said, I will answer your question.

Blueside, the standard farming character has always been the fire/kin controller. With limited investment, it does a great job, which is great for starting out. You'll have to get used to the playstyle, but it's a viable option.

Shield/Super Strength tanks are pretty quick and aren't too expensive for a simple build. However they won't kill as fast as a fire/kin or a AoE scrapper.

Scrappers can be AoE monsters. You can make a spines/?? or a fire(or elec)/Shield scrapper for some very sick AoE damage, but expect to spend a good deal of inf to get these performing well.

There are a few blaster builds, but I'm not going to point you to them as they probably aren't the best to get started into right after returning to the game.

Redside, make a SS/WP brute. It's fun, works alright with SO's. IT only gets better with IO's. While the Superstrength/Shield brute outperforms it by a long shot, it also costs a ton to get up and running, so it's probably out of your range.

But in general, just about any brute you pick can be effective at soloing 0/8 content. Just pick a more AoE oriented set, so Superstrength, Claws, Electric, and Fire being the top ones, with Mace trailing closely behind.

So again, think about why you really want to farm and whether it will adversely affect your experience in the game or not. You don't have to grind at this game to enjoy it.

That guide is wrong. Sorta.

A Stalker is a Blapper with stealth and mez protection. Sorta.

The issue with stalkers and teaming has more to do with pacing. There's a set period of time (I forget if it's 6 or 8 seconds) before hide re-engages after you stop attacking and getting attacked. That means that it takes you a little bit to get yourself setup for the opening Buildup -> ASSASSINSTRIKE.

So, some stalkers modify their playstyle on teams to be more like scrappers and just go start stabbing whatever has the most HP.

However, I won't give you rose-colored lenses. Stalkers still aren't highly sought after on teams. That said, if you have a group of friends you team with regularly, don't worry.

Edit: Siolfir already put it well: Don't rely on hide/AS on teams as much - go with the team flow and you'll be fine.

You're right, it is incredibly uncommon, and I'd have no suggestions on even where to start on that combo. Just the basics, really:

-Get a KB IO slotted ASAP.
-Combat Jumping covers your immob prob
-Kismet 6% is a good idea to help you not miss those combos.

If you are going to focus more on damage than tanking, I'm going to suggest a recharge/HP build. You still will benefit from taking tough, but you can skip weave.

Crushing Impact in 4 single-attacks (5 slots)
Doctored Wounds in Healing Flames (5 slots, and skip the heal/end one)
Titanium or Impervium armor in your resist toggles. Either HP or recovery.

Someone with more knowledge on DB can help you. I hate the set, only because of that 5% chance to miss ruining combos.

While Claws/Elec is going to be more stable with endurance, I'm thinking that if you can get your end under control, a claws/fire will do the trick. And if you're patient, I'd wait for the elec/sd/blaze scrapper to be able to go redside. That damage output is significantly superior to my purpled SS/elec. It takes my SS/elec brute 16 minutes to clear a map that my elec/sd scrapper can do in 10.

I think in the end, solo farming on a claws/fire will be slightly faster due to fiery embrace and burn, and a slightly better damage aura. Besides, in solo farming, insps drop like candy.

But, I'd definitely have endurance in mind when working on that build so you can at least last long enough between combustions. Slotting spin efficiently should do the trick. I'm thinking at least two of those slots being eradication for the end bonus (or 4 for the nrg and HP). Probably a net gain of 3 eps would be fine.

My money is still on the SS/SD if you want to kill fast and not have to tailor your mission around them. Besides, on that build you can carry around a tray of purples before you IO it out and be nearly tough to kill. To give you a rough price estimate, you can probably softcap a shield on either side for about 400 mil, and then throw another 1.6 bil and errm ..wrek skuls so gud.

What are you looking to get out of the build?

In terms of performance, your current build will not be that sturdy, as it is well below the soft-cap. You didn't pick up tough/weave, which would really have helped your survivability. Yes, it costs power picks, but far better to still be alive and smashing than dead and waiting for a rez.

It's odd that you have slotted end redux in combat jumping and superjump. You'll probably only use superjump when you're outside traveling from place to place - when you don't need to worry about endurance. You're saving 0.02 endurance with that IO in combat jumping. It's not effective.

I see that you're trying to save money by not investing in expensive sets like obliteration, touch of death, numina, and LOTG. The best thing you can do without increasing your build cost now is add Tough/Weave. I'd also then recommend picking up one with the shield to increase your survivability.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

Given that pulse rifle is a mix of energy and smashing damage, and does KB, how is it going to be different than Energy Blast? (other than visually)

If you're open to blueside as well, Elec/SD/Blaze scrapper is just sick.

Redside: Rage + Against All Odds + Fury -> Shield Charge -> Foostomp = tasty.

Claws/Fire sounds good. Spin is great to spam, but it will burn through end quick. At a 14 second base rech, a good recharge build will have you spamming this a LOT.

You know, I really wanted to be a hater, but this is so long, I can't stay mad that long.

That, and I'm already ebil.

Not sure if srs.

If srs: Don't let numbers get in the way of your fun. You can make room for it.
If not srs: Mmmm, McFlurry.

It all depends on how much you want to invest in the build.

A SS/SD is good at about 400 million, and arguably the best damage-dealer redside when you throw 2 billion inf at it.

A SS/Inv is great for ITF runs.

A SS/WP is a jack of all trades. It was very useful for the old liberate TV farm map. It also performs better than the other two builds if you are just using SO's. When IO's are added to the picture, the other two sets really start to shine.

SS/Elec is nice because of the endurance tools. Lightning Field is a nice boost to AoE damage, though Shield has eclipsed this with Shield Charge and Against all Odds.

I know several players in the game that have chosen one of these four combos as their main, and each player is happy with their choice. So if four different players all have decided to make four different sets their main, how can I advise you on which one you should pick?

You have generalized the advice given out on every AT board here on the forums. Positional defense is not the default advice given out on any board except possibly the dom board, for a valid reason. I don't know where you get your observations, but it's not these boards.

To prove my point,

On the brute boards, defense is not the default advice. You'll see +HP/regen builds, recharge builds, and yes defense builds. But those defense builds are a healthy mix of typed defense and positional defense. If you don't believe me, what are the top 5 topics right now looking to build for? We have a person wanting to make a WP with lots of +HP. We have a mace/DA build looking for +HP. WE have a SS/Fire looking to build for recharge.

I don't think you looked very closely at the blaster boards either. I've only seen a handful of positional defense builds in the past six months.

You also missed the tanker boards, where +HP is a very viable way to build a tank. Not only that, but I see recovery being the biggest focus on this board. I'd argue that 75% of all tank builds posted on that forum have impervium armor slotted. You won't see many tanks with six-slotted titanium armor for melee def.

So why go defense? Perhaps it's because making your character tougher makes you feel stronger!

Perma-Dom isn't as good as it used to be, despite the intentions of castle to preserve those that had perma-doms. Your only real advantage is mez-protection, and an extra point of mez. However, perma-doms used to also get a damage buff, and so if you wanted to really cause havoc on them, you needed a perma dom. Now that this bonus is gone, survivability seems a little nicer than damage, so why not build your dom with good range defense, because you've got an AoE immob to keep them at range!

So I'd suggest you take another look at these boards. You'll see that positional defense is NOT the default answer.