TwoHeadedBoy

Pretty much anything is possible. I threw a build together for a /Time Mastermind that softcapped all positions, but it was pretty expensive. That wasn't all due to the defense, it was also due to wanting perma Chrono Shift and layered resistance and defense. Don't forget that things like pool toggles and the Steadfast unique are helping to bring up all of your defenses though. After that, it's just a matter of reaching your goals with a smart build plan and using your slots wisely.

Many of my builds settle for 32.5% to something but for me it's not a budget issue, more of an "I need room for recharge, etc. too" sort of thing. Basically building up something like ranged defense is very cheap, use full Thunderstrike sets in your ranged attacks, full Mako's Bite sets in your melee attacks, full Gaussian's sets in Aim or Tactics, and the new Defender/Troller ATO sets offer ranged defense bonuses for 6 slots also I believe. Just get a calculator out if you can't use Mids, add up the bonuses, and then go to your combat attributes in game and add up the defense you're already getting from Combat Jumping, Weave, Maneuvers, and any defensive toggles you might have in your primary/secondary such as Arctic Fog.

Another common defense goal to build to the softcap is smashing and lethal. This is equally easy but often more expensive. If you play a support class character, you have the option of Scorpion Shield, which I personally never take because I prefer to build my defense through pool toggles and set bonuses and use an epic shield that will give me resistance for layered survivability. Once again for s/l defense you'll want Weave, Maneuvers, and Combat Jumping/Hover. The good thing about Weave on a support class character is that it also gives you access to Boxing and Kick. Those two plus Brawl provide you with three places to mule Kinetic Combat sets which combined with toggles will do a lot to bridge the gap between no defense and reaching the softcap.

Kin Combats are a bit more expensive than things like Thunderstrikes which are so cheap they might as well be free, but you have the option of saving Villain merits to get the Kinetic Combat pieces you need, and if you're just using them as set mules you can skip the tri and use the chance to KD proc in order to save yourself some cash. Another useful way to add on to your s/l defense is 2 slotting Rectified Reticles in Tactics, Aim, and anything else that will accept the set.

Edit: And don't forget about Steadfast: 3% defense. This isn't that expensive especially compared to its counterpart, the Gladiator's Armor 3% defense, but again you can use Villain Merits to pick it up if your funds are limited. This can be placed in Tough, and any other resistance power you might have. It's useful for any defense goal.

I think Time should be on that list. I only have one Mastermind, a mid 40's Bots/Time, and he's pretty tough just on generic IO's. I haven't played him in about a month because I just don't really like babysitting pets, but Time is an awesome set. The heal is great, and the debuffs and buffs are very solid. I actually threw together a petless Demon Whip/Time/Knockout Blow build recently that softcapped every position, had perma Chrono Shift, and good resistance to boot.

Oh neat, I haven't stumbled upon that in the costume creator yet. I'm using quite a few of the pieces from that set on my Blaster though, they came out really nice.

What helmet is that on the Warshade costume?

Updated the OP. I hate losing names too, but at least you had an equally cool backup name.

No I have yet to do anything like that, I've been spending most of my in game time on my Blaster recently (still trying to get all his Incarnate stuff) but I'm sure I'll get back to doing things on my Warshade again soon. I never used temps on my shade, but I'm sure at least a lvl 51 would go down easy enough without inspirations. I used lore pets for my solo ITF a while back so I didn't bother making a spectacle out of it, hah.

The overall point I was making is that Warshades are so survivable that using Nova form and the outrange tactic against an AV is not only detrimental to damage output but completely unnecessary in the first place. I can see the appeal of nova form for the AOE, but without toggle suppression and faster animations I don't think it's even worth using it.

You realize that I've already soloed AV's up to 53 in level, right?

Except that's just not true, hah. Both of the builds posted in this thread have the recharge for a high end single target attack chain. Just because every single ST power doesn't recharge by the time it finishes casting doesn't mean that the build doesn't have the recharge to always have the next attack in the chain up by the time the previous attack finishes casting. Once again, the chain used is Gravity Well>Shadow Blast>Essence Drain>Shadow Blast.
But it doesn't fit into the ST chain I built for. In the initial build, it's meant as a utility power for things like stacking immobilizes with support characters if an AV wants to get away like during a BAF or an ITF, etc. It has no bearing on single target damage output for the build that included it.

Quiet you.

Heya, this wasn't a critique thread just so you know but that's alright.
The +recovery made my ST chain more comfortable to sustain. I also had quite a bit of passive regen in the build that it stacked nicely with.
The attack chain is the one I use on most of my builds, G Well>Blast>Drain>Blast. Not sure what you mean by "spammable powers," the recharge of the chain works out just fine. Gravimetric Snare is a control power, not an attack.
Do you not know about Clarion? And why were you looking to change things? I don't remember saying I was having any issues with the build.

Anyways, all that said, I did do another respec the day i22 launched thus going back on my "final build" promise, hah. I'm sure most of the people here saw that coming anyways since I can't help a good respec.

The original plan was to just pull my Nucleos in Eclipse out since they were rendered useless with the launching of this issue, but I ended up reverting to a variation of one of my old builds in the process. I figured I would want to be within the softcap of s/l/e/n defense with a small purple again for soloing Dark Astoria content (which I still haven't gotten around to) and I missed Provoke.

I'm not totally happy with this build and I'm sure I'll be making quite a few changes next time I feel like it's time to respec my Warshade, but as of right now this is what I'm running on live, except the hamio's are 53's and there's a catalyzed form empowerment IO one slotted in Bolt so with res toggles it actually essentially caps s/l/e/n resists with just 2 Eclipse targets.


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That's why you build for defense and use Eclipse. Trying to range an AV down in Nova form is silly because you lose access to not only Sunless Mire but also a high enough DPS attack chain to get the job done in the first place. I guess if you use lore pets you can do anything you want but that doesn't really count as an accomplishment imo.