stormangel

Freind told me of this today. Pure brilliance!

I have a mind/bub I just hit 50 on after slowly leveling mainly by consistent TFs. Concept-wise, I chose the 2 powers to best reflect a telepath/telekinetic. Force Field feels under-powered, especially when it's shielding cousins sonics, cold, and thermal all have debuffs, but those are the breaks. Currently have psi epic, but not sure if psi tornado is worth it. I took World of Confusion hoping to be a confusion machine, but it doesn't seem to have a high chance of effect or just effects minions.

Anyways, now 50 and looking for suggesstions on build directions. Only big caveats is hover or fly (vet enough to get fly at 6) and only epics that make sense for concept is psi or fire (pyrokinesis). I am not great with IO builds despite my veteran status and mainly rely on SOs, common IOs, and some sets. But looking to change that. Not sure what bonuses to focus on. Can u softcap defense on a bubbler efficiently?

Anyway thanks in advance for any suggestions. I know mind/bub isn't the strongest combo, but would like to make her effective.

I'd definitely TRY to get both, but echo siphon speed first. And just cause you are on a team usually with another kin shouldn't mean u shouldn't be prepared for when not. On all my kins, I usually move siphon power to where FS is against solo AVS because it's both a faster recharge and slightly quicker animation. That allows more other attacks, heals and such.

I leveled my fire/kin and already had a lot of experience with a 50 kin defender. Since then, I number 5 level 50 kins, with another coming up. IMHO, you will see three basictypes of fire/kins out there, with many straddling between a few.
1. The farmer: Eventually planned to be a godly expensive build, they have one goal. Farm maps fast! Expect a build and playstyle more akin to an assault tank than a controller.
2. The team playler/roleplayer: While they may plan to farm, their mindset more lends to teaming, and thus their build is not built to maximize a farm build. They might have powers like leadership or powers based on their character's concept. (I'm more that way myself, but I always play as a kin first in many respects as I am usually hanging on huge teams and doing task forces every chance I can get)
3. The complete noob: No, I don't mean the player who's still learning his toon but doing well. I mean the PLed idiot with plans for glory and no care for the team other than how awesome they are.

Sadly, I've seen way too many of number 3, so call me jaded if you like. As a serious kin player, I've seen too many who either don't have Speed Boost (one of THE best buffs in the game and a serious reason why teams will want you), or more often just never give it out. And that is just lazy and selfish. I keep a bindset on all my kins to use the numpad to refresh SB based on team position. SB gives, speed (a mixed blessing), +recharge, and a massive end recovery boost. It is so useful, and empowers your whole team! You get it available at 20 and should take it at 22 after Stamina at 22. Practice SBing on the go and you will get it down fast. And you shall be loved. Let your team know it's ok to remind you if they need it refreshed.

Your heal is POWERFUL! At lower levels, play healer and practice it. If the mob dies that you were hitting, it produces no effect, so picking the right target can be tricky on a fast, high damage team. Transference and Fulcrum Shift have the same trouble, so practicing with the heal will get you set. 5 slot it for 2 accuracies and 3 heals early on, and you have a useful team tool.

Then there is Increase Density. A power you may or may not want. On a 1 minute timer, it's kind of a pain to keep up, but can be very useful to have at lower levels if you want another tool for buffing teammates and see if you like it. I find it a power I like to have, but rarely use, mainly because it lasts only a minute, whereas SB is 2 minutes. But man it is nice at times.

My point here is this. A fire/kin is awesome. A fire/kin can do damage like a blaster and mow through mobs. A fire/kin with some support can farm better than most others. But on a team, you should focus on the kin powers and the controls, or you will never truly make the most of that combo. Leveling gives you a lot of chances to do so. Good luck!

I'd like to add one more thing. I have 2 50s that are fire/* (fire/kin and fire/bubbler) and 4 other kins. I love my kins. One thing I see all the time on fire/kins is this apparent lack of consideration regarding speed boost. So many make yet another fire/kin and get this Me Me Me attitude teaming and never think about how much help your speed boost helps your teammates.

So some tips here. I bind speed boost to my numpad for each team slot, with a 2 key bind for my imps. I also bind a broadcast in team to ask if anyone DOESN'T want speed boost (some people have problems with it) and a reminder to just type sb if I go too long forgetting to refresh sb because I'm too busy kicking butt.

Just because you feel godlike, don't let it make you selfish. If you are on a team, act like it by helping your team out. Especially the poor folks who have end heavy builds or those friendly empaths to spam more fortitude or such. Speed Boost is a benchmark of the set, so use it! And I don't just mean on your own imps. You want the other kins to give you sb, right?

/end rant.

To restate other people, thank you Vox! Inventions are still shaky for me, so this will help not only my Invul/SS/ tank, but also my spines/invul herding scrapper! Great and detailed points to not only use, but as a basis for further reading! For those unaware of the site, I encourage checking out Paragon Wiki for some good detailed information on sets.

One small note on the rewards. I just found out recently to my personal disappointment that you can earn the temp power associated with stopping the robbery ONCE. I went and got my 40 kin defender to redo the Steel Canyon safeguard to regain the very useful TP Team power, was exemplared, and still did not get it again. Bummer.

I've posted a guide on Invulnerability.
So You Think You Are Tough? (A guide to Invulnerability)

So You Think You Are Tough? (A guide to Invulnerability)

The tanker/scrapper set of Invulnerability is a staple of the comic book hero. Superman, Hulk, Wonder Woman… all easy examples of it, but also the typical battle suited hero like Iron Man would fit there if the Tank set had blaster-type secondaries. For scrappers, invul is a good choice for any hero who wears body armor. This was written with the tanker in mind, so please excuse any mistakes I make on how the scrapper version differs.

Now first off, I firmly believe if you are playing an invul tank, you should really make sure to take taunt early. Those who don’t are cheating their team of that ability. Yes punchvoke and invincibility will draw agro too, but without taunt you can’t aid that teammate who has someone bad on them who isn’t right next to you. You want a tank to just solo with? Forget invul and go fire/fire. There is a reason it’s so popular.

Now the powers for invul are nice because practically each one is useful. Numbers provided are based off of a post by Buffy A. Summers on the official board or from the COH Planner.. For tanks, the damage resistance cap is 90% and 75% for scrappers. Scrapper numbers will be in parentheticals.

Resist Physical Damage (RPD): The first one out the gate will serve you well. Always on, it costs no endurance. 12.5% (9.375%) resistance to smashing/lethal damage, which is the basic types you will encounter most often in the early game. An SO will give only an additional 2.5% (1.875%), so I suggest not slotting it. Why? Because the next power is your friend.

Temp Invulnerability (TI): This is a toggle that while active will also give you resistance to smashing/lethal as well. It will cost you some endurance, but provides 32.5% (24.375%) resistance, with 6.5% (4.875%) per slot with an SO in it. Two or three slots should suffice you until the late game when you might have slots to spare. Slot with 2 damage resists, and maybe an end redux or two if you end up slotting it more than 2. A tank with 2 damage resist SOs here and a 6 slotted Unyielding will provide 89.5% damage resistance, which is just below the damage cap. It will be 78.375% for scrappers when combined with RPD, which is above the damage cap. I’ll be posting some effective combos later on.

Dull Pain: Click Power. This gives you +40% to your max health, with a healing of that much. A nice emergency heal, you can make this permanent with 6 Recharge SOs, or 4 only with perma-hasten. All depends on how you use it.

Resist Elements: Always on. Fire and ice are common in the lower levels as much as the higher ones, and thus this power is a wonderful one while in the Hellows, I mean the Hollows. Unlike RPD, this one is worth slotting a full 6. 20% resistance base (15%), with 4% (3%) per SO.

Unyielding: The core power of this set and you get it at level 8 for tanks!!! Before Issue 3, it was called Unyielding Stance, because you were stuck standing where you were. But that is no longer the case, and it has become the backbone of the set. Not only does it give you exceptional resistance to all mez effects like hold, sleep, disorient, and knockback, but it also gives you 20% (15%) resistance to ALL damage except psionics, with 4% (3%) more from each SO. Get it fast, 6 slot it fast. A toggle power.

Resist Energies: Always on. Just like Resist Elements, but against Energy and Negative Energy. Same numbers folks, so 6 slot it too.

Invincibility: Another toggle, grab it when it comes, because this too is a great power you don’t want to miss. With this power on, you generate an aura that garners you agro, so make sure to turn it off if you are traveling in areas that you don’t want the extra attention. In addition, you gain a bonus to defense and accuracy for each foe in melee range. Numbers are all guess work here, but so far theory is 5% (3.5%) Defense bonus to all non-Psionic attacks and to accuracy. For each slot devoted to a DefBuff, each foe will give an additional 1% (.75%) up to a set number of foes. If slotting ToHit SOs, it is another 1.67% (1.25%) per foe in your chances to hit. These numbers are not for sure, but a good start to see why it’s so good. The bigger the mob, the better defense AND accuracy you will have. So herd away! 2 slots will do you fine, with an end redux and a ToHit I’d suggest. For another slot, I’d add a defense buff or another ToHit.

Tough Hide: An always on power that gives you 7.5% (5.625%) defense to all damage except psionics. Extra slots will only provide 1.5% (1.125%) more, so I don’t recommend slotting it out.

Unstoppable: A click power that lasts 120 seconds, it used to be the mainstay before I3. Now with a longer recharge time, the days of unstoppable is gone. Providing an amazing 70% (52.5%) resistance to all damage except psionics, with an additional 14% (10.5%) per extra damage resist SO. Besides that, you get the same mez protection you would get from unyielding and an exceptionally high endurance recovery. But this comes with a price. When it wears off, you lose all your endurance and health. This is also known as a empath’s aneurism, because when this happens the healers will go nuts to try to heal you before it gets you killed. If you take this power, grab Hero Stats, a free program that I highly recommend. You can set it for in-game display and see when it returns. I don’t recommend taking Unstoppable until the 40s, as it’s mainly a panic button. Slot it with recharges and maybe damage resist SOs.

That’s the powers for Invulnerability. For pool powers, Fitness pool is a must as always, with Stamina at 20 or 22. Don’t worry about hasten until after you get Stamina at 20, unless you want Super Speed as your first travel power. I highly recommend any teaming tank to take Hasten/SS by the 30+ range, simply because you can then move between foes faster, but that is just a personal preference. That and I like getting off my high end attacks more. Combat Jumping/Super Jump is the travel set I’d most recommend for the early invul though, as CJ’s Defense bonus is nice in the early game (and late!). If you want to Fly, don’t waste your time on Hover… take Air Superiority. It’s only moderate damage, but knocks foes down. Plenty of ways to go on pool powers for Invulnerability in the end, so knock yourself out. Endurance will be an issue until you can get Stamina, but just focus on taunting and holding agro and let teammates do the real damage and you will be fine. In the late game, consider getting the Epic Power Pool of Energy Mastery (Body Mastery for Scrappers) if you have endurance problems again simply for Conserve Power. If you 6 slot it with Recharges and have Perma-hasten, you will find it to have little down time. And I must admit Laser Beams eyes is just plain cool.

As you can see, we have one critical Achilles’ Heel… Psionics. Fortunately, most psionic foes are not present until the late game in the 40s. So two options present themselves to you.

First off, you can take the Fighting Pool. With Tough you gain damage resistance of 20% (15%), with 4% (3%) per SO. This also costs slightly less than TI in endurance. With Weave, you gain 12.5% (9.375%) Defense, and that includes Psionics! Each SO provides 2.5% (1.875%). So a 6 slotted Weave will provide you with a total Defense bonus of 27.5 % with even con SOs. If you go this route, you can skip TI and just take RPD, but you will be using a lot of slots up to maximize this. Or don’t slot up Tough and just focus on slotting Weave. You will also have to take Boxing or Kick, which can be good or bad depending on viewpoint. Note that both Tough and Weave are toggles that require endurance.

Second off, just don’t worry about it. Psionic damage is only from certain enemies, so just use care against them. Plus, many useful pool powers provide defense bonuses of their own. Combat Jumping, Hasten, and Hover provide 5% Defense, with 1% per SO. Stealth and all invisibility powers provide 7.5%, with 1.5% per SO.

So here are a few combos I’ll recommend for maxing out your damage resistances. More can be found at here.

Tank Combo 1: (My 50 tank American Brutal uses this build)
Unyielding (6 SO DamRes), TI (2 SO DamRes) - Total 89.5% resistance to smashing and lethal (Adding RPD with 1 SO pushes this up to 98%)
Unyielding (6 SO DamRes), REl (6 SO DamRes) and REn (6 SO DamRes) - Total 88% resistance to elemental and energies
Unyielding – Total 44% to Toxic

Tank Combo 2: (for a more end friendly build by putting an End Redux SO in Unyielding also)
Unyielding (5 SO DamRes), RPD (1 SO DamRes), TI (1 SO DamRes) - Total 94% resistance to smashing and lethal
Unyielding (5 SO DamRes), REl (6 SO DamRes) and REn (6 SO DamRes) - Total 84% resistance to elemental and energies
Unyielding – Total 40% to Toxic

Tank Combo 3: (for those wanting fighting pool and not taking temp invul)
Unyielding (6 SO DamRes), RPD (1 SO DamRes), Tough (3 SO DamRes) - Total 91% resistance to smashing and lethal
Unyielding (6 SO DamRes), REl (6 SO DamRes) and REn (6 SO DamRes) - Total 88% resistance to elemental and energies
Unyielding – Total 44% to Toxic

Scrapper Combo 1:
Unyielding (6 SO DamRes), RPD (1 SO DamRes), TI (2 SO DamRes) - Total 78.375% resistance to smashing and lethal
Unyielding (6 SO DamRes), REl (6 SO DamRes) and REn (6 SO DamRes) - Total 66% resistance to elemental and energies
Unyielding – Total 33% to Toxic

Scrapper Combo 2a: (With Fighting Pool instead of Temp Invul)
Unyielding (6 SO DamRes), RPD (1 SO DamRes), Tough (6 SO DamRes) - Total 77.25% resistance to smashing and lethal

Scrapper Combo 2b: (This takes 1 more slot, but with a slightly higher non-toggle smash/lethal resist)
Unyielding (6 SO DamRes), RPD (6 SO DamRes), Tough (2 SO DamRes) - Total 74.625% resistance to smashing and lethal

Well that’s it. I hope this guide was helpful. If so, send me a million dollars!

I've duscussed my thoughts at length so I'll be quick and simple this time.

Just drop this. It's harmful to the entire game simply to humbug the PL crowd. The controllers and defenders who don't deal damage with many of their abilities will be hurt the most.

The death timer is lame, because in a heated fight it can be over a minute before someone can rez you, and without someone like that, you must wait until it's clear to rez safely.

Just drop it States. PLing will still happen, and this will make people want a PL EVEN MORE as xp slows down even further.

I have no Ice tank, but I'm against gimping the Ice tank, which is by far from what I understand, the weakest set, without something in return.