Unthing

I'll go with Jiaozy on this one, except that I'll add that with Tough, Resist Physical Damage is unnecessary too.

I got Resist Energies at level 47 for a little bit of extra protection.

Weave provides better protection than either of the Resist Es, because it stacks with Tough Hide and Invincibility ( and in my case Combat Jumping ) to get over 20% defence against 1 foe, things just get better as you add more.

26% ( Un + RE ) resistance means that you take 88% of the damage than you would with only 16% ( Un ).

18.5% defence ( Weave + Un + TH + Inv 1 enemy ) means that you 82% of the damage that you would with just 11.5% defence ( Un + TH + Inv 1 enemy ). Also the benefit increases as the amount from Invincibility increases. This is using I7 figures, but with a few foes around around you it is the same effect.

Sonic attacks seem nice to me. They are 50% smashing, 50% energy, but I've only got Shriek, Scream and Howl. As far as PvE is concerned lethal is the most resisted, with smashing as the secondary most resisted. It has no sniper attack yes, but I've never found the sniper attacks in blast sets very useful anyway.

As far animations and sounds are concerned it is not a really fast set like Ice, but on the other hard it isn't hopelessly slow either. It seems nearly chainable with the attacks I've mentioned below so with Shout I suspect I will have a reasonable attack chain without having to resort to recharges. The sounds might get old after a while but they seem to use a different sound per attack so I expect it won't get that tedious.

Also Castle confirmed the accuracy recently and the only ones that have reduced accuracy are Shockwave and Siren's Song, the cone knockback and the cone sleep.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What combinations are there? Just wondering.

[/ QUOTE ]
Nucleolus Exposure - Damage and Accuracy
Centriole Exposure - Damage and Range
Peroxisome Exposure - Damage and Mez*
Endoplasm Exposure - Accuracy and Mez*
Golgi Exposure - Heal and Endurance Reduction
Ribosome Exposure - Increase Damage Resistance and Endurance Reduction
Microfilament Exposure – Travel Speed Increase** and Endurance Reduction
Lysosome Exposure - Increase ToHit and Defense Debuffs, and Increases Accuracy
Enzyme Exposure - Increase ToHit and Defense Debuffs, and Endurance Reduction
Membrane Exposure - Increase ToHit and Defense Buffs, and Increase Attack Rate
Cytoskeleton Exposure - Increase ToHit and Defense Buffs, and Endurance Reduction
*Mez includes Holds, Sleeps, Disorients, Stuns, and Immobilizes, but NOT Knockback, or Slow. If a power has two of those effects, the enhancement will affect both.
**Travel Speed Increase applies to Fly, Super Speed, and Super Jump, but NOT Teleport. To increase the speed of Teleport, range enhancements are needed.



[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for that J - another quick question: Does ED affect Hami-Os? For example, if I have 3 damages and 2 accuracies in an attack, and I replace an accuracy with my dam/acc Hami-O, will the damage part have a reduced effect?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. So in your case you would be better off replacing a damage with the Hami-O.

[ QUOTE ]

So guys is Fire/Ice still the "in" herding build?


[/ QUOTE ]

IMO I'd say Fire/Ice or Ice/Fire would be the best herding builds. Inv/Fire would be third and Fire/Fire fourth.

The reasons are:-
Fire/Ice, Burn, Blazing Aura, Ice Patch.
Ice/Fire, Combustion, FSC, Icicles + infinite endurance from Energy Absorption. Better defensiviely than Fire + scalable defence from Energy Absorption.
Inv/Fire, Combustion, FSC, better defensively against S/L so choose S/L damage targets, Invincibility provides good defence when herding. No damage aura though.
Fire/Fire, Combustion, FSC, Blazing Aura and Fiery Embrace. Burn when appropriate. Worse defensviely that the other 3.

Other possibilties might be
Fire/SS due to Rage + Blazing Aura and Foot Stomp + Burn. I'm not sure it would work though.
Stone/Fire. Mud pots + Combustion + FSC + granite.

[ QUOTE ]
- Getting to the blob. This was a real pain for those teams that did not have fly. Group fly is OK but if you're in one of the three 'key' teams of illu's, tanks and kinetics that need to drop in first, trying to get everyone with fly is probably the way to go. I also think something is wrong in the Hive as 'swarm' cluds didn't just slow recharge but actually de-toggled our entire team en route. Thanks to Sara Aegis for having recall friend as we wouldn't have been able to get in place without it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know that in the Eden trial some of the swarms have -fly so they may have been the same ones. I think the group fly method was only problematic because Dutch didn't realise Hami and friends had such long range. I'm not sure you will necessarily be able to find enough tanks with fly as you had to bring me in to replace the epic holder tanks in your team without taunt :O.

[ QUOTE ]
- The drop. This is VERY tricky as getting the tanks far enough away from the other guys did prove to be a bit of a problem. We tried to move away from the 'turtle' but people were so far spread out that it was hard to see where the turtle began and ended. It was also proving impossible to actually get in range to taunt/epic hold him at some points due to the sheer number of heroes. The fact the tanks were all in the black costume and repeated shouts for the hangers on to move away from us were ignored was just annoying.

[/ QUOTE ]

The drop was somewhat chaotic. Next I'd advise the tanks to bring lots of break frees as well as awakens, being unable to get back up and taunting ASAP after the inevitable face plantage from Hami attacks pre healing blanket was so frustrating.

Maybe stating that tanks go on the north side of Hami from the start may have helped, but either way there are still people who will not listen.

[ QUOTE ]
Still the usual noob problems that seem to go with the territory of people having no idea of the plan but deciding they can order the attack, tell people when to use Vanguard, not turn off useless powers that cause lag, etc but most of them were kept under control.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there was general confusion among everyone about what powers to use. Luckily there weren't too many people attacking so we got him held before he got to a spawning point.

As my first raid I really didn't get the whole weird lag thing or appreciate what it meant until most of the way through the raid. Someone should probably write a how to deal with Hami lag guide, how to read the combat log, targetting through pets etc. However this will only really help forumites.

[ QUOTE ]
A BIG THANKS TO THE TAUNT TEAM

Henke
Golden Golem
Dutch Barbarian
Silentium
Sara Aegis
C0rp0ral Punishment
Mister Volcano

And, of course, me as D-Zol

[/ QUOTE ]

It was a pleasure, shame about the rockly start, but I was just glad to on the team, I thought my lack of epic hold would mean I wouldn't be able to play an active part of the raid.

I think he went down in almost exactly 2 hours form the start.

Well Done to Jiaozy and the organising team!

Well done to the rest of the 200 heroes too!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Level 50 inv tank signing on for low pay, hazardous duty, and no perks. No epic holds, No Vanguard, unless I can dig out 100 Lost bosses in 3 hours.

[/ QUOTE ]

Go to the sewers You'll have 100 lost bosses in 25 minutes

[/ QUOTE ]
Is the vanguard pointless unless you have a hold? The Freedom Phalanx and Portal Jockey accolades are probably more useful as they increase your hitpoints.

[ QUOTE ]
Played as mr cuddles the other night and it was a lot of fun.

Might be bringing him out of retirement because I never did get to finish the AV arcs.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was so suprised when I was leaving Portal Corp with my blaster and saw Mr. Cuddles standing there.

I brought Golden Golem out a couple of times this weekend too. There is something so superheroey about him compared to my other heroes... He gains influence at a astounding rate too, enough so that I can fund all my alts for a couple of weeks with a few hours play.

[ QUOTE ]
Just a question, how should i slot my hold? 3 recharge 3 hold? i do run tactics. Sign psydock up on the darn list :P.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'd say slot it 3xrecharge 3xhold. The chances there would be multiple people running tactics ( including you ) so you are unlikely to miss. Slotting all hold was suggested on the last Hami raid but you need about 30 Accelerate Metabolisms or 15 speed boosts for that to pay off.

[ QUOTE ]
For the taunt team, I have a few names but I know what people are like with regards to saying they'll come then not turning up (yes, I am cynical), so I'll just do it on a first come, first served basis.

However, any under 50's I get will be replaced if a 50 turns up, purely to squeeze out that extra HP and I those with Epic holds and the vanguard accolade will also get priority.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll be turning up with Golden Golem, no epic hold, 6 slotted taunt ( slotted with 3 taunts and 3 recharges especially for the raid.).

[ QUOTE ]
CE is the best Taunt Aura in the game. Icicles is &$&*%.

[/ QUOTE ]

Icicles is a good damage dealer, it does most of my damage output on my Ice tank. It is certainly an optional power. CE is a requirement.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
but I run quills, sprint, integration and SJ

[/ QUOTE ]

But there's no point in having Sprint and SJ on while you're fighting, only herding. So you herd, then turn 'em off, then attack. I run Tough and Integration, and have Energy Torrent on top of my other AoEs (Energy Torrent has quite a high end cost) and don't have much trouble at all, with no end reduction in attacks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Combat Jumping and Hurdle give you all the mobility you need in fights unless chasing flyers and that's what impale is for. Running Super Jump and quills seems completely pointless to me, surely Super Jump will always be suppressed.

[ QUOTE ]

Or you could try a mish mash of these and go for something rare/unique - Storm/Archery, Storm/Sonic, Rad/Elec, Dark/Sonic, Kin/Archery.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would NOT go for Kin/Archery. I have a Kin/Elec and a Rad/Archery. The Archery secondary has very long animation times and longish range. Kin has many clickie powers, is best close to and is a very busy set, so the two don't mix that well IMO. I do like Archery as a secondary for my Rad though, it does significantly better damage single target than Elec.

Rad/Elec sounds like it would probably be pretty good as Elec has a few AoEs and is a bit aggro magnetty, Ball Lightning + Short Circuit + debuffs + a hold should be pretty effective when an EF is down. Also elec doesn't do knockback which is nice for debuff sets. Similarly Dark/Elec might work.

Kinetics still can fill the screen with icons with Increase Density, it just takes a long time, I've never done it with FS though, the highest I've ever got in a combat situation is probably 10-12. Especially as if you try and double stack FS everyone has already defeated all the enemies after the first FS.

Don't bother with Energy punch and get Healing Flames at level 2. Get Blazing Aura and or Taunt by level 10. Get Bonesmasher at level 4 if you are going to delay Blazing Aura.

Blazing Aura is pretty good and will probably provide most of your damage output until level 35, the rest will come from Whirling Hands.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Im toying with a DM/SR build, DM to reduce their accuracy, and SR for the ok defenses which requires accuracy to get past
Provided DM gets the end drainer from the scrapper set etc

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought DM/SR might be a strong combination, however SR and Ice Tanks will resist -acc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really, I thought they only had -def and -slow resistance.

Some general advice

Dark Regen needs to be slotted for ACC ( 1 is fine ) end reduction and recharge, I would 6 slot it. It's that good.

Don't bother with Health slotting, you one of the best self heals in the game.

I would slot super jump either, it's fine unslotted, especially with Hurdle.

Get Cloak of Fear ASAP, it is one of the best defensive power in the secondary. Slot it with 2xAccs 2-3 end reds and 1-2 fear durations or to hit buffs.

Slot Combat Jumping for a single Def Buf, the jump is unnecessary. Whilst not much defence you have hurdle already.

I'm not sure Death Shroud is that great a power... I'd probably skip it, DA is enough of an end hog in the early levels without another one. I spent most of my time pre stamina with my toggles off.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why would it be not Psi. Dark has resistance to Psi already so -Psi makes no sense.

[/ QUOTE ]

My reasoning for -psi: Shadow Dweller represents the general difficult to spot elusiveness of the Shadow Stalker. Psi attacks do not need to be able to physically see the target to hit, they can detect the mind. From a gameplay point of view +def vs all on auto would be simply to good, unless it was a tiny value like 2.5%. +5% Def S/L is more likely, since this would make it the same as an existing power in the Invunerability set.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you are talking about Tough Hide for Inv tankers it is 5% def vs all but Psi, 3.75 for a scrapper. It is not limited to S/L or it would be a completely pointless power as opposed to one of the must have tanker powers.

5% defence on auto isn't overpowering given that they only have Hide and Cloak of Fear to stack it with. I think DA will probably be the most scrappy secondary, as unlike regen this DA set will not excel at hit and run tactics due to the aggro grabbing side-effects of Cloak of Fear, Oppressive Gloom and most importantly Dark Regeneration. However Dark Regeneration is a great power for recovering from very low hit points in hairy situations.

Do you have a link to the original US forum thread?

[ QUOTE ]
Well, as i posted on general discussion and got told off for by Cynic, the name Shadow Dweller sounds like a passive (auto) power.

Based on Castle's comment about the set being res with a little def, I would say it's a +def power (either S/L or all -psi).

Based on the low numbers for def in general, and the assumption that it is passive, I would say 5% or less.

i.e. skip it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why would it be not Psi. Dark has resistance to Psi already so -Psi makes no sense.

The name Shadow dweller sounds more like a mass placate or a stealth power.

As for not having a berserker power at 38, DA scrappers survive on having OG and CoF and Dark regen, none of which are quite as good for stalkers as they would bring you out of hide and count as attacks. Do stalkers get criticals against mezzed opponents?

Okay, no response and only Shao was online so I didn't do it. Let try for 8pm on Tuesday... Can everyone make that?

I ran out of character slots, and you can talk with your Kheld :P

Can people make tonight? Maybe 8ish?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Stone may need swift for mobility and teleport as a travel power, but everyone gets the fitness pool anyway. Hasten is the only extra for a granite. Must have power count for a perma granite is 5 from the primary with one extra power.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with most of what you've said, but if Fire needs Acrobatics, Stone needs TP just as much, for mobility not for travel. Granite has no Knockback protection and Swift is nowhere near enough to allow mobility in GA + Rooted.

You say everyone takes Fitness anyway, and I realise that's true, but no other primary needs it to tank in the same way, it's just useful. In the same way, Provoke is helpful for getting around the -Recharge of GA, but not actually needed.

[/ QUOTE ]
I was assuming that every tank needs stamina to function* and either teleport self, super jump, super speed or fly to travel. So swift being picked is not an extra power pick, rather that stone is 'forced' to pick it rather than Hurdle. I agree stone ( granite or not ) needs tp just as much as fire needs acrobatics but I classed that as the chosen travel power. Stone is 'forced' into the teleport pool just as Fire ( and Dark Armour ) is 'forced' into the Leaping pool.

* All tanks are toggle heavy, whilst in theory you can get away without it, just using the required powers as stated above will result in almost no endurance regen for some of the tank primaries, especially those with a damage aura. Fire for instance cannot run the fighting pool, the jumping pool and it's primary and attack without heavy end slotting.

[ QUOTE ]
I would agree with that Tundra, im playing a invun/ss tank at the moment and i will be taking tough and possible acrobatics as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why take acrobatics on an Inv? It gives you nothing... you already have knockback protection.

I may come along and bring my tank, although Rularuu are pretty much my least favourite enemy type so I'll need good support. Not to mention lots of AVs all of whom seem to be Psi.

[ QUOTE ]

Out of interest, what Tanker primaries do you think can tank acceptably without taking pool powers to fulfill that role? Ice and Inv Tanks still seem to take the Fighting pool and I've never seen a succesful Stone without Swift and Hasten - and a very large number look on Teleport as a requirement too.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would say that Ice seems to perform reasonably well without pool support, certainly well enough to carefully run around fighting in hazard zones or fight brickstown prisoners. Where it is lacking is when fighting higher levels but that will be fixed in I7. However I have taken both Combat Jumping and Hasten so that does count as one extra pool support power, ( the other is a travel prerequisite ). Must have power count is 6 powers from the primary. No extras if you go for the speed pool. If you take the fighting pool, of which Tough and Weave both help, it would be a 6 + 3. Similarly the medicine pool is an option for 6 + 2.

Inv can leave out the Passives and pick up the Fighting pool and tank well. So that means the same number of powers as from the primary but more slots. Must have power count is 5 from the primary, 3 additionals from the Fighting pool or the passives.

Fire really needs acrobatics and tough, which is 3 extra powers as you need kick or boxing to get tough. It does limit the travel power selection to leaping though. Must have power count is 4 from the primary and 3 extras.

Stone may need swift for mobility and teleport as a travel power, but everyone gets the fitness pool anyway. Hasten is the only extra for a granite. Must have power count for a perma granite is 5 from the primary with one extra power.

To me it looks like Inv is possibly the worst off and maybe Ice too. Fire suffers from not having enough pool powers to help it's power light primary. Stone in perma-granite has the most powers to spend in their secondary but not by much.