hubertgrove

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To the ops original question; I would perhaps start at Heroic... learn you're powers and move up a difficulty.

Keep going until you reach Invincible

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Thank you - does anyone else have more specific advice as to level?

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If you are trying to stay ranged and solo, then worth getting hover/fly to stay out of melee range.

Energy primary gives you lots of knockback which is very handy for soloing. You're key power early on is Energy torrent. Its main use is not for damage, but rather keeping the enemy back or on them . Use it as a large mob entry power to take that initial hit... learning how to place yourself to maximise hitting as many as possible.

The boring melee powers you mention can do more damage to single targets than blasting alone (inparticular Energy ).

If you are soloing then I would aim for maximising single target damage as mobs are relatively small and bosses/Elite bosses later on wont succumb as easy to knockback

Build up and aim are the key . Be aware that when used together they partially cancel out each others effects.
Hence it is best to use them independently when fighting mobs; and together for fighting single targets.

...The solo blaster survives by arresting enemies fast

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This is very good advice - and I thank you for it - except it doesn't answer my prime question; at what level do you recommend that I set my missions?

My powerset is Energy/Ice. Does that help recommendations for soloing levels?

I am choosing my powers so I am Ranged - and choosing my support powers accordingly - and trying to avoid the boring Melee powers assigned to Blasters.

I am fairly new to CoH though I am a longtime player of CoV. In CoV, I play a Brute and found I was able to solo at the highest setting, Relentless.

In CoH, I am levelling a Blaster. My question is, what level should I be soloing at? Obviously, yes, I will nbe experimenting with different levels at different times to find out for myself, but I am asking now for your recommendation?

And, are Blasters ever strong enough to solo at the highest setting?

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presence can be very useful but TBH i'd really consider them as something extra. If you plan on pvP'ing at a realtively low level, say in SC then you'd probably have to take a hit on your build to get it working well. Base accuracy is horrid and the fear duration isn't very good. You'd probably be better slotting for to-hitdebuff and use that with your EA defences.

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No, I meant to use Intimidate and Invoke Panic at quite a high level - the L50 battlegrounds in fact. Would they work there, do you think?

I'm a SS/EA Brute, L44 and mostly playing just PVE. However, evetually I want to get into PVP. I have a number of talents that I don't really use and I wondered whether I should drop three of them and take some of the Presence tree? Admittedly the first two talents in Presence are useless in PVP - and, because I usually solo, in PVE too - but Intimidate and Invoke Panic look like very good 'Hold' powers which would certainly be useful in BGs. Can anyone advise me?

Thank you both for your advice - primarily, I just cruise around BGs solo, looking to fight solo Heroes. I guess I will eventually try and team up but, for now, I it's all by myself.

And you are suggesting a brute is the best option for this?

Hi,

I'm relatively new to CoV - and have never played CoH much at all.

I have painstakingly built up a EM/EA Stalker to L42, mostly so I could PVP in the battleground.

I know that I am relatively inexperienced in PVP and that Villain ATs are, however much you put a brave face on it, just not comparable to the best Hero ATs, but I am continually getting my [censored] handed to me.

OK, I know that I must refine my tactics, obviously, and that I need to devise a better management system for my Inspireations and that, of course, 'I should play whatever AT I am most comfortable with' but...

...Which Villain AT (and, without going into too much details, which Build) have you had most success with - not just in terms of survivability but also kills in the battlegrounds?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

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That too. An AoE attack like Foot Stomp should reveal the enemies as well.

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Unfortunately, aoes don't seem to reveal them - or at least mine don't.

Do 'Break Frees' and Accu. insps really work against these appear/disappear critters? Posters seem to disagree.

I'm a L41 SS/EA Brute. I am pretty much sailing through my solo missions at Relentless - but have now found the only critters that really give me headaches; Psi Tarantulas and Bane Spider Scouts.

What they do is seem to disappear - I can't see or target them - and then they re-emerge and hit me with sneak/steal (ie damage plus attacks) that take vast chunks out of my halth.

I can go toe-to-toe with AVs but the 'stealth strikes' really hurt.

Any advice on seeing them? Preventing them? Other?

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I've seen a few SS/EN builds and played witha few although never played myself - if your duo'ing without support then the lack of a self heal can hurt - also duoing with another brute will take away from your own rage.

I would advise going for Aid Self which after level 32 will time in very well with your foot stomp - SS dishes out tonnes more damage when that attck is slotted up due to the number of mobs hit and the damage mitigation factor too.

As for Hasten - well I'd say the three slots would be well spent having a fast KO blow is always nice

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I personally disagree with your requirement for a self-heal.

Firstly, it detracts from your attack chain/defence toggle (and you need every one of those to be really unchallengeable as a SS/EA brute).

Secondly, once you have all those Def toggles going, you can kill everything in sight (within reason = 2 x three groups of reds) without needing any healing other than Rest and some green Inps. This is what i have found.

If ever I get into a position where my health is reducing too fast, it's because I hjave been mobbed and no Self Heal would help me anyway.

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Nobody? I can't be the only SS/EN in the village!

G.

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I am a SS/EA. It gets much easier as soon as you start stacking your toggle defs - but you have to boost these as much as possible. Also Combat Leaping adds Defense buffs. Once you have all these Defs in place, you actually WANT to get beat up because it raises your Rage. The final piece of the puzzle is Overload - use it sparingly because the recharge time is about 15 mins but, once its on, you can go toe-to-toe with Giant Monsters.

Get Stamina, of course, to help you with the End cost. Hasten is useful to speed up attacks - and so is Air Superiority (drop one of the minor attacks and replace it with this; if they are on the floor, then they can't hit you.

Oh well, thank you all for your advice. I will try to put your principles into practice though I am not necessarily convinced.

I wish:

- You were allowed a little more time fotr the mission; say 20 minutes
- The cops and superhero pursuing didn't automatically 'see' you. I mean, our 'hiding' is the whole rationale of a stalker.

Insapirations, in the amount needed, are either too expensive to make the thing economical or else you can't hold enough of them. Shifting levels down to Villainous? Perhaps - but it does seem rather cheap. Tier 9, not an option for most.

I completed my first Mayhem missions with my scrapper in about two minutes flat. However villain Mayhem missions do seem unduly and unfairly weighted against the solo stalker.

Or are we not supposed to?

Excellent full answer from Hammerfall.

Just one thing, if I am only doing paper-missions - never Bank Jobs, waste of a time for a stalker, right? - where do I get inspirations from since I never get any new contacts?

I have the same question as the original poster and none of you have really provided anything like a helpful anbswer.

Look, the question is this. Those of us whon have low level stalkers in CoV find it very slow to solo conventionally - ie by doing the story arcs by ourselves.

However, it is also quite difficult to find teams - perhaps because we play during the day, perhaps because stalkers are not immediately team-members of choice ect.

We have heard that just doing paper missions - the steal/kill options rather than the kidnap options - mean you can earn Xp faster.

However, having started doing those paper missions, we find that the Xp gain is really just as slow. Therefore, we assume that we may be doing something wrong on those paper missions. So the real question is:

- How does a stalker do paper missions to optimise Xp gain? Please give your tips, techniques and experiences.

I am a Ice/Cold Corr, just L14 atm. I am prepping for PVP. Is any kind of Corr strong enough to hold their own in PVP?

I use my Hurl move from SS as my back up move to bring down flying heroes. However, I rarely use it though it comes in useful sometimes.

My question is, would you recommend that I drop it and take Air Superiority instead.

If I did so, I could also drop 'Haymaker' and replace it with AS in my fury-building chain (I believe that AS and Haymaker give about the same level of damage. Is that correct?).

Thus I would free up two slots and could take, along with Haymaker, either Conserve Energy or Hasten.

Can anyone give me advice on this?

How many more powers do we get from L40-50 please?

I recently rolled a EM/DA brute. Between L1-6, I had a lot of fun. It seemed to hit a lot harder than my old SS/EA brute.

Then, as soon as I hit L6, something started to go wrong. I found my accuracy dropped way, way down. I am not a numbers guy but, having looked at my last five combats pretty closely, I am 'missing' two out of three punches/blows I make at mobs.

I am now currently L12. I have three blows - Energy Punch, Bone Smasher and Air Superiority. The first two, from the EM line, barely connect. The last one, from Flight, is the one that connect with more frequency. I have four slotted the first two - 2 Dam and 2 Accu.

I do use BU when i can but I have only just got this power - the duration is short and the recharge is long.

Fights now seem to be taking at least twice nas long as they should; I run out of End pretty fast because I miss so many times; i am in constant danger of getting my behind kicked simply because my blows don't connect. I don't remember having the same problem with my SS/EA Brute at these levels.

So - is this accuracy problem specific to EA? Does it get better? What do you recommend I do to boost my Accu (aside from eating 2 x yellow Inps before each figh)?

Interesting, thank you

Right now, at this very moment, I have a level change and am about to choose a new power. I need a third 'punch' so i am thinking of Air Superiority. My question though is - how does it actually work? I mean, can I 'pluck' fliers out of the sky? How far up can they be? What range? etc Can you tell me?

This is vaguely how I see myself going. till 40. Are there any gaping holes I've missed? Or redundant powers I have put in?

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name:
Level: 50
Archetype: Brute
Primary: Energy Melee
Secondary: Dark Armor
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01) --> Energy Punch==> Empty(1)
01) --> Dark Embrace==> Empty(1)
02) --> Bone Smasher==> Empty(2)
04) --> Murky Cloud==> Empty(4)
06) --> Build Up==> Empty(6)
08) --> Combat Jumping==> Empty(8)
10) --> Swift==> Empty(10)
12) --> Obsidian Shield==> Empty(12)
14) --> Super Jump==> Empty(14)
16) --> Health==> Empty(16)
18) --> Dark Regeneration==> Empty(18)
20) --> Total Focus==> Empty(20)
22) --> Acrobatics==> Empty(22)
24) --> Stamina==> Empty(24)
26) --> Cloak Of Darkness==> Empty(26)
28) --> Stun==> Empty(28)
30) --> Cloak Of Fear==> Empty(30)
32) --> Energy Transfer==> Empty(32)
35) --> Oppressive Gloom==> Empty(35)
38) --> Hasten==> Empty(38)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Empty(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
01) --> Fury==> Empty(1)
---------------------------------------------

Is it possible to 'super jump' up and hit a flying foe? I am not really sure how Air Superiority works, never having used it before.