b_rad_ical

I respec'd this morning to Fort, and spent the afternoon in RV. What a difference. If any of you have a NW and are looking to pvp, I definitely suggest going the Fort route. At least for RV, it's a ranged attack game.

I'm not sold on my build yet, but I dropped CJ/SS for the leadership pool. The drop in dmg bothered me, so I decided to get it as high as I could without sacrificing the rech and def I need. This is what I'm using right now, though I am sure I'll make a few more tweaks.

Haven't decided on Incarnates yet, but still planning on Agility Radial & Rebirth Radial. I'll stick with Hybrid Assault Core for now, unless someone convinces me that Melee or Support are better.

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I'm a villain Fatal_Mind, but I will keep an eye out for you two in RV. Traitors of Arachnos must be dealt with harshly. o.O

First off, sorry for the tl;dr post...

I'm trying to figure out how to spec my Widow for PvP. Right now she is spec'd as a PvE melee NW, but with the lack of high end trials I have found myself mainly in RV these days. While the NW does great dmg and can hold her own with the melees, my biggest complaint is that without mez and ranged, those bouncing little squishies are hard to hit with melee, and hard to stop from hopping around. At best I can get 2 good hits in before they are jumping off, and hope my judgement is up.

So the Fort path is looking pretty nice. It should have better survivability than my Dom/Def do in RV, have the ranged and mez to help with the little bouncies and kiting squishies, and the psi to cut through some of the melee godmodes. However, I have read elsewhere that some players who switched from NW to Fort were pretty disappointed in the drop in dmg. Sadly, I can't really afford to go both with dual builds. I realize there is no right option here, I'm looking for some player's experiences and opinions.

I have tentatively put together a PvP Fort build in Mids, focusing on def (melee/range) and recharge to get as close to Perma-MindLink as possible - I already have my heal/recovery/regen procs, LotGs, +3 def procs, and 5 different purps I can convert to a single set, but I can't afford to add additional purps or pvp sets at this time. Any suggestions on powers, sets and slotting would be greatly appreciated, and any suggestions where to slot the one purp set, if at all, would be great as well.

A few additional questions:

Mezzes: Fort gets 2 stuns, 2 holds and 2 confuse - I don't need all 6, but which type of mez is best in PvP? Whichever I go with I'll get both powers to stack, but should I get two sets of mez (both holds and stuns, or both stuns and confuses, etc?)

Incarnates: Since I chose them for my PvE NW, I went with Musc Core for Alpha, Ageless Core for Destiny, and Assault Core for Hybrid - NW is all about dmg and rech. Now looking at PvP and the Fort, I am leaning towards Agility Core for Alpha (for rech & def), and am hoping that Rebirth Core will work (unless I have end issues and have to use Ageless), and Melee Radial for added def + mez prot. On the right track?

Aid Self? Lacking a heal, I thought it might pair nice with Phase Shift or in-between rounds of fighting. I could drop SS & Stim/AS for Tough/Weave, or Assault/Tactics, or Recall Friend/TP Foe. Any suggestions?

Epics: Am I missing something? Aside from the weakest ATO set in the game, I'm not seeing anything uber in the Epic pools either (unlike my def's mace set, or my stalkers leviathan set). Are there good pvp powers in the epics that I am overlooking?

Procs: I clearly don't understand building for PvP, as other AT pvp builds I see on the forums look awful to me, with all kinds of dmg procs instead of set bonuses. So help me out here people. Do I need to put in more dmg or other procs and sacrifice some set bonuses?

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You don't have to comment on everything, any suggestions on any one of these issues and questions will help me get closer to my build.

I know you are looking for various builds with this post, but let me ask you all a few questions about the power selections for this toon (Shout has already been addressed):

Why go with Vengeance over Fallout - Fallout looks pretty slick, especially with the extreme dmg. I assume because it costs too much endurance, is overkill on debuff, and has a long cast time?

I notice most builds don't take Dreadful Wail, and a lot of people don't take EM Pulse - I am guessing that the Endurance crash is too much on a build that already has a lot of toggles?

In terms of controls, you went with EM Pulse, Siren's Song and Screech - and didn't bother with Choking Cloud and Elec Shackles - are they not very good powers since their mag and durations are so low?

Lastly, I see you went with the Spiritual Alpha, which makes sense for Perma-Haste and Perma-AM, not to mention spamming Shriek and Scream. What about the other Incarnates:

Destiny - Ageless seems redundant, and you already have a heal so why go with Rebirth - so Clarion for Status Protection, or Barrier to boost Defenses seem like viable options.

Judgement - Pyronic Core seems an obvious choice for an AoE attack with the less resisted Fire dmg, especially since this toon already has plenty of Energy attacks.

Interface - I could see most of these powers serving this toon well. Recommendations?

Lore - I love my Warworks and Seers for my melee class toons, nice to have a ranged pets and some decent debuffs. I don't know much about the Defensive Orbs, but IDF looks nice for a ranged Defender - seems like a couple of Brutes on hand that you can keep alive with heals would be a great fit. Thoughts?

Dare I admit it publicly, but you have me halfway convinced to make a hero.

So the Defender is going to do less dmg without the scourge, but I assume that your logic is that the extra -res makes up for that since it applies to the entire fight and not just when the AV is below half health.

Certainly the added debuff will make for better teaming, since I rarely solo these days and will not benefit much from the 30% dmg buff for soloing.

But that would entail playing a defender... and who wants to play a villain toon called a Defender? Lame. I started the game with the release of CoV in '05, only playing villains, and even since the alignment system I have yet to make a hero-class toon. So why you ask? Personal prejudice I guess.

I was tempted to go with /traps for this corruptor, but the two debuff toggles seem pretty killer with /rad.

Thiik hei, acchaa huun.

Anyone have a Sonic/Rad Corruptor Build they could post, something to help get me started? All the ones I'm finding are old out-of-date legacy builds. This toon will be mainly teaming PvE and duoing AVs/GMs with a /Kin.

I rolled an Elec/Shield Brute and absolutely love this toon: great AoE burst dmg, only needed fairly cheap IOs, base situational defense of 49% melee, 47% range and 42% AoE. Aid Self works decent enough lacking a good heal. The lack of ST dmg is a problem, but I manage to solo EBs just fine, it just feels like I am slowly slapping them to death. I generally duo with my brother's Sonic/Kinetics Corruptor, who can does enough ST dmg along with his Debuffing for the both of us, or I team for TFs anyways, so lack of ST dmg doesn't bother me too much.

So I have two separate questions here:

1) Which incarnate ability and Epic powers do you all recommend? Right now I am at 2nd Tier Cardiac and Mu Mastery. I took Cardiac due to his moderate endurance problems (and the secondary Resist buff, though it turned out to be a nominal difference of only a couple %), and went with the Mu Mastery for a decent ST attack (Mu Lightning) and another AoE to fill in a decent overall AoE attack chain (Ball Lightning). I don't love either, and they are more of an extension of my primary set than something different to fill in a gap in his build.

Since Lightning rod and Shield Charge are my staple attacks, would it be better to drop the Mu set, get Energy to help with the endurance problems, and then drop Cardiac for either Spiritual or Musculature? Spiritual is attractive since 4th Tier would put me mighty close to perma-haste, and 25 second recharges for my two big guns LR and SC. Musculature is also tempting since, after all, I made this toon to do massive AoE damage.
Any thoughts?
Has anyone played around with this combo?
Will Superior Conditioning and Physical Perfection offset the increased endurance usage that comes with an inherent recharge?


2) I need some advice on the two Location PBAoE attacks, Lightning Rod and Shield Charge. Basically, it's a bit challenging getting them off all the time. I find that about 20% of the time, when I pop them and try to place the spot in the middle of a crowd, I end up selecting a mob or teammate instead of blasting the AoE. Sometimes the round locator is red, even though the terrain is fine, and I end up wasting a few seconds just trying to get them off. This is especially true in tight hallways and tunnels.

Can they be bound in such a way to just go off at my feet where ever I am standing instead of having to click on screen?
Would I be better off not trying to place it in a crowd, and maybe sit it just to the edge of a crowd?
FYI - I don't use either to teleport into a group. I usually run into a group, hit all my other AoEs to draw some aggro, pull the stragglers into PBAoE range and built up some fury, then pop BU and hit both. With a good amount of fury the damage is ridiculous.

Great advice, and thanks for the explanation. So as a follow-up question, does the Def bonus apply so long as the toggle is on, or only when hidden? Probably a dumb question, but hey, those are my favorite kind.

Is there any advantage to slotting Hide with Recharge Redux, or is the standard to just put a single Def buff in Hide and call it a day? In other words, does slotting Hide with a Recharge Redux increase the rate at which you become rehidden, assuming the toggle has stayed on during the fight, or would recharge redux only help if you were to turn off the toggle altogether?

I understand, if not agree, with the idea that it is better to avoid damage than to heal. That said, I have had great success with my Ninja Blade / Regen stalker. There are some EBs and Heroes that hit so hard that increased defense & regen rates don't matter if I die in two hits. But most mishes I do just fine. Last night I soloed a purple EB -- Dull Pain and Instant Healing together are a nice duo, and kept me alive long enough to do some good dmg. When that wears off, still have Moment of Glory and Shadow Meld, and still have the Accolades powers (DA & FoN). When those wore off I hit Phase Shift and took a moment to recoup. Then my DP and IH were back, and started the cycle over again. Hasten is a must imho in order to keep these secondary regens cycling (as well as Placate, BU and AS). I used to have whirlwind which occasionally saved my butt when trying to get mobs off, though I dropped it to make room for Epics. Since I just came back after a few years off, I only have SOs slotted.

I recall a few years ago I had a PvP nemesis, he was a Spines/Regen Scrapper, and we could fight for an hour, neither of us ever able to kill the other because we were both stacked with so many regen powers.

I can't offer expert help, as I need help with this build myself. My Fire/Fire brute is only to lvl 27 right now, but I've been going through various builds and combinations in MVD and think you have to do both to be able to take damage. Here is my thought process...

Looking at the stats, at lvl 50 with 3 SO Dam Reduc/Def in Fire Shield, Temp Protection and Plasma Shield, you get 0% on defense, 35.1% resist to smash, lethal, energy and negative, 90% to fire, 23.4 to cold, nil for Psi and Tox. So I will be getting hit a lot but resisting 1/3 of the damage. IMO, I will need better damage mitigation.

Throw in Combat Jumping, Tough and Weave w/3 SOs and now you're at 8.8% Def, 52.7% Resist to Smash/Lethal, and pretty much immune to Fire. This is much better, but you still need Healing Flames and Consume to keep going battle to battle and keep your fury up, and in my build I'm leaning towards adding Aid Self as well. With RotP, perhaps dying can become part of my AoE attack plans, albeit a bit kamikaze.

Regarding offensive attacks, this is trickier. I want the PBAoE attacks as that's the main reason I chose Fire/Fire. BA is a decent staple when slotted with dmg, Burn is cheap and does good dmg but needs recharges as 25 seconds is too long to be effective as your primary AoE attack, & FSC does good dmg but is very expensive @ 18.51 end so it needs a lot of end reduc. When I respec I'm dropping BoF as it is a narrow cone and rarely hits multiple targets and is too expensive unless hitting multiple people. This gives you 3 PBAoE attacks, and with both BU and FE, they have the potential to do good dmg to ancillary mobs.

This leaves you with Scorch, FS, Cremate, Incinerate and GFS as the 5 single target attack options. I'm not sure about chain DPS calculation and thus which of those 5 to take, and would love some advice, as this build has left me with no room for powers. Taking Combat Jumping, Tough, Weave and Aid Self alone took 6 powers, with RotP I took all 9 secondary powers, and still want room for Hasten, SS -or- SJ, and the Epic powers...