I know a many of you have looked at my Fire^3 blaster guide. While that blapping build has been a lot of fun to play, after awhile I started to get a little bored with it. How many large groups of level 50s can I kill before it all starts to just run together like a watercolor painting left out in the rain? So when my SG scheduled a base raid with a villian group that is very experienced, I decided to try out Hellcatt in the PVP raid. We were embarrassed, failing the raid on them, while having our base fall in about 5 minutes. I decided to rebuild Hellcatt into something effective in PVP.
So how to rebuild her? Obviously, I was stuck with Fire/Fire, no choices there. After spending some time in all the PVP zones, and dying over and over again, I developed a theory on what could be effective. The one type of characters that the villians rarely have to deal with are stalkers, so many of the villians don't build in the extra perception that heroes do to deal with stalkers. I researched stealth to learn exactly how it works and what the limitations are, then tried to craft by build to accentuate the advantages of stealth.
The result is a fire/fire stalker type of hero that I have found to be pretty effective. Now I still maintain that I am a terrible PVP player, so in the hands of someone more skilled than I, I think this would be an effective build. Even with my limited skills, I can roam through the PVP zones and surprise and unsuspecting villian with great effect. Exaclty what stalkers do to heroes.
I'm not going to go over all of the fire/fire power selections. If you want my opinion on the powers, I recommend you read my PVE guide (Link Here). Instead, I'm going to cover the pool power selections and reasoning for them.
Stealth Pool:
As I said, the idea is to be as hard to see as possible. From this pool, you select all four of the powers. With Stealth active and a stealth IO in a travel power you are invisible to most builds when over 50 feet away. This is well within the range of your attacks, except Blaze (more on tactics later). When using Invis, you can't be seen at all. There are exceptions, such as builds with extra perception and people using yellows, but for the purpose of this build this is more than sufficient. Grant invisibility is useful for teams, and as a place to put more red fortune IO sets. Finally Phase Shift is a nice "oops, I messed up and need to escape" button. Since you are hard to see anyway, Shift is also nice for tricking someone into burning their alpha strike, like stalkers and brutes with TP Foe.
Fitness:
No real changes here. Fire/fire is big user of endurance given the speed of your attacks (assuming you use my recommended IO sets). You need Health for slotting the Miracle and Numina uniques and Stamina for the recovery.
Leaping:
The leaping pool is one of the two travel powers you are going to need. Yes, you need two powers (and I would take TP also if I could fit it in). PVP is all about movement, you want to be fast and be able to move in any direction quickly. Having two powers gives you the ability to get out of situation when one of the powers has been suppressed by an attack. The two absolute must have powers from this pool, however, are Combat Jumping and Acrobatics. CJ gives you immobilation protection (with my PVE build, I was killed all the time by web grenades). Acrobatics gives you knockback protection. Since many PVP players are carrying Nemesis staves now, the KB protection is essential. And no, the Karma and Steadfast protection IOs aren't enough, you would need 5 of them to protect against one blast.
Speed:
Haste is obvious for the recharge time. I also use Super Speed, since that is where I have my stealth IO slotted, and I find performing the attacks I want to chain easiest if I'm on the ground. More on this later.
Epic Pool - Force Mastery:
All of your power selections to this point have been focused on hiding, movement and attacking quickly. The Force pool gives some nice defensive benefits that help you survive when/if your surprise attack turned into more of a slugfest. Personal force field is a great power, but like invisibility, you can't attack with it on. I use this like Phase Shift as an escape power when things get too tough. Having two escape powers is very nice, since you will almost always have one of them available if the other is recharging. Temporary Invulnerability is a nice additional defense power, it won't help against energy brutes, but it is worth turning it on and keeping it on. The real gem of the pool is Force of Nature. This is a great power to use just before a surprise attack. If you aren't able to kill the villian quickly, or they suddenly have help (like a hidden stalker), FON will let you survive long enough to finish the job or get out.
Tactics:
The attack concept with this build is brutally efficient. You identify your target, select her, and stand about 100 feet away. I find masterminds to be best choice for really making someone annoyed. You hit aim and build up, then press your key for attacking with fire sword. You then speed into melee range of your victim. Once you get in range, you are going to stop to swing the sword. As soon as you see the animation start, hit your blaze attack. At this point you have just done 700-800 points of burst damage, and they are likely taking DOT damage as well. Since it will be another second before Blaze comes back, Fire Blast should now finish them off. If they are still clinging to life, you can either follow up with another Blaze or speed/jump out of their visibility range.
Variations of these tactics can be used for dealing with being teleported, and many other common PVP scenarios.
The Build:
This build (like all of my builds) is very IO Set centric. Yes, I have all of these IOs slotted, though maybe not at the exact level I specified. The selections are made to allow set effectiveness in as many of the PVP zones as possible. The bonuses for these sets are:
Note in particular the accuracy, damage, recharge and recovery bonuses. Those are the key benefits to the set, making sure that you aren't going to miss with your extra high damage attacks, and that they are going to recycle quickly.
Hellcatt PVP5: Level 50 Magic Blaster Primary Power Set: Fire Blast Secondary Power Set: Fire Manipulation Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fitness Power Pool: Concealment Ancillary Pool: Force Mastery
Peg's PVP Fire/Fire Guide
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I know a many of you have looked at my Fire^3 blaster guide. While that blapping build has been a lot of fun to play, after awhile I started to get a little bored with it. How many large groups of level 50s can I kill before it all starts to just run together like a watercolor painting left out in the rain? So when my SG scheduled a base raid with a villian group that is very experienced, I decided to try out Hellcatt in the PVP raid. We were embarrassed, failing the raid on them, while having our base fall in about 5 minutes. I decided to rebuild Hellcatt into something effective in PVP.
So how to rebuild her? Obviously, I was stuck with Fire/Fire, no choices there. After spending some time in all the PVP zones, and dying over and over again, I developed a theory on what could be effective. The one type of characters that the villians rarely have to deal with are stalkers, so many of the villians don't build in the extra perception that heroes do to deal with stalkers. I researched stealth to learn exactly how it works and what the limitations are, then tried to craft by build to accentuate the advantages of stealth.
The result is a fire/fire stalker type of hero that I have found to be pretty effective. Now I still maintain that I am a terrible PVP player, so in the hands of someone more skilled than I, I think this would be an effective build. Even with my limited skills, I can roam through the PVP zones and surprise and unsuspecting villian with great effect. Exaclty what stalkers do to heroes.
I'm not going to go over all of the fire/fire power selections. If you want my opinion on the powers, I recommend you read my PVE guide (Link Here). Instead, I'm going to cover the pool power selections and reasoning for them.
Stealth Pool:
As I said, the idea is to be as hard to see as possible. From this pool, you select all four of the powers. With Stealth active and a stealth IO in a travel power you are invisible to most builds when over 50 feet away. This is well within the range of your attacks, except Blaze (more on tactics later). When using Invis, you can't be seen at all. There are exceptions, such as builds with extra perception and people using yellows, but for the purpose of this build this is more than sufficient. Grant invisibility is useful for teams, and as a place to put more red fortune IO sets. Finally Phase Shift is a nice "oops, I messed up and need to escape" button. Since you are hard to see anyway, Shift is also nice for tricking someone into burning their alpha strike, like stalkers and brutes with TP Foe.
Fitness:
No real changes here. Fire/fire is big user of endurance given the speed of your attacks (assuming you use my recommended IO sets). You need Health for slotting the Miracle and Numina uniques and Stamina for the recovery.
Leaping:
The leaping pool is one of the two travel powers you are going to need. Yes, you need two powers (and I would take TP also if I could fit it in). PVP is all about movement, you want to be fast and be able to move in any direction quickly. Having two powers gives you the ability to get out of situation when one of the powers has been suppressed by an attack. The two absolute must have powers from this pool, however, are Combat Jumping and Acrobatics. CJ gives you immobilation protection (with my PVE build, I was killed all the time by web grenades). Acrobatics gives you knockback protection. Since many PVP players are carrying Nemesis staves now, the KB protection is essential. And no, the Karma and Steadfast protection IOs aren't enough, you would need 5 of them to protect against one blast.
Speed:
Haste is obvious for the recharge time. I also use Super Speed, since that is where I have my stealth IO slotted, and I find performing the attacks I want to chain easiest if I'm on the ground. More on this later.
Epic Pool - Force Mastery:
All of your power selections to this point have been focused on hiding, movement and attacking quickly. The Force pool gives some nice defensive benefits that help you survive when/if your surprise attack turned into more of a slugfest. Personal force field is a great power, but like invisibility, you can't attack with it on. I use this like Phase Shift as an escape power when things get too tough. Having two escape powers is very nice, since you will almost always have one of them available if the other is recharging. Temporary Invulnerability is a nice additional defense power, it won't help against energy brutes, but it is worth turning it on and keeping it on. The real gem of the pool is Force of Nature. This is a great power to use just before a surprise attack. If you aren't able to kill the villian quickly, or they suddenly have help (like a hidden stalker), FON will let you survive long enough to finish the job or get out.
Tactics:
The attack concept with this build is brutally efficient. You identify your target, select her, and stand about 100 feet away. I find masterminds to be best choice for really making someone annoyed. You hit aim and build up, then press your key for attacking with fire sword. You then speed into melee range of your victim. Once you get in range, you are going to stop to swing the sword. As soon as you see the animation start, hit your blaze attack. At this point you have just done 700-800 points of burst damage, and they are likely taking DOT damage as well. Since it will be another second before Blaze comes back, Fire Blast should now finish them off. If they are still clinging to life, you can either follow up with another Blaze or speed/jump out of their visibility range.
Variations of these tactics can be used for dealing with being teleported, and many other common PVP scenarios.
The Build:
This build (like all of my builds) is very IO Set centric. Yes, I have all of these IOs slotted, though maybe not at the exact level I specified. The selections are made to allow set effectiveness in as many of the PVP zones as possible. The bonuses for these sets are:
+9% DamageBuff
+3% Defense
+0.95% Defense(Energy)
+0.95% Defense(Negative)
+3.13% Defense(AoE)
+4.5% Max Endurance
+34% Enhancement(Accuracy)
+62.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
+90.4 (7.5%) HitPoints
+MezResist(Confused) (Mag 61.7%)
+MezResist(Held) (Mag 62.8%)
+MezResist(Immobilize) (Mag 76.5%)
+MezResist(Sleep) (Mag 64.4%)
+MezResist(Stun) (Mag 60%)
+MezResist(Terrorized) (Mag 60%)
+31.5% Recovery
+89% Regeneration
+5.36% Resistance(Fire)
+5.36% Resistance(Cold)
+3.13% Resistance(Negative)
+5.5% Debt Protection
Note in particular the accuracy, damage, recharge and recovery bonuses. Those are the key benefits to the set, making sure that you aren't going to miss with your extra high damage attacks, and that they are going to recycle quickly.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.153
http://www.onthejazz.co.uk/hu/mhd.php
Hellcatt PVP5: Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Fire Blast
Secondary Power Set: Fire Manipulation
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Force Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fire Blast -- Decim-Acc/Dmg:33(A), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:33(3), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx:33(11), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:33(25), Decim-Dmg/Rchg:33(39)
Level 1: Ring of Fire -- Acc-I:50(A)
Level 2: Fire Sword -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:33(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:33(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:33(15), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:33(25), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:33(37)
Level 4: Fire Ball -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:33(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:33(5), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:33(5), Posi-Dmg/Rng:33(40), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:33(40)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(7), RechRdx-I:50(7)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- Ksmt-ToHit+:15(A), Ksmt-Def/EndRdx:30(9), Ksmt-Def/Rchg:30(9), Ksmt-EndRdx/Rchg:28(27), Ksmt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:30(27)
Level 10: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A), Jump-I:50(11)
Level 12: Aim -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(13), RechRdx-I:50(13)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth:15(A), Clrty-RunSpd:50(15)
Level 16: Build Up -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(17), RechRdx-I:50(17)
Level 18: Health -- RgnTis-Regen+:30(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:33(19), Numna-Heal:33(19), Mrcl-Rcvry+:33(34), Mrcl-Heal:33(36)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:50(A), EndMod-I:50(21), EndMod-I:50(21)
Level 22: Blaze -- Decim-Acc/Dmg:33(A), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:33(23), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx:33(23), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:33(31), Decim-Dmg/Rchg:33(31)
Level 24: Super Jump -- Jump-I:50(A)
Level 26: Acrobatics -- EndRdx-I:50(A)
Level 28: Stealth -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(29), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(29), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg:33(31), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:33(33)
Level 30: Invisibility -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:33(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:33(40), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:33(43), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:33(43), RedFtn-Def:33(46)
Level 32: Inferno -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:35(33), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:50(34), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:35(34)
Level 35: Blazing Bolt -- Mantic-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx:40(36), Mantic-Acc/ActRdx/Rng:40(36), Mantic-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg:50(37), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(37)
Level 38: Grant Invisibility -- RedFtn-Def:40(A), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:40(39), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:40(39), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:40(46), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:40(50)
Level 41: Personal Force Field -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:50(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:50(42), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(42), RedFtn-Def:50(43)
Level 44: Temp Invulnerability -- ImpSkn-Status:15(A), ImpSkn-ResDam/EndRdx:30(45), ImpSkn-ResDam/Rchg:30(45), ImpSkn-EndRdx/Rchg:30(45), ImpSkn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:30(46), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(50)
Level 47: Force of Nature -- ImpSkn-Status:15(A), ImpSkn-ResDam/EndRdx:30(48), ImpSkn-ResDam/Rchg:30(48), ImpSkn-EndRdx/Rchg:30(48), ImpSkn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:30(50)
Level 49: Phase Shift -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
------------
Level 1: Defiance
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Copy & Paste this data chunk into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build.
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