New to corrupting, and frustrated.

tl;dr alert

I was fiddling around in Mids Friday looking for a villian I could sink my teeth into, as the stawkers and MM's I've tried haven't done much for me.

I had a bit of an ^.^ moment when I finished up the Ice/Storm build I will post later, and began playing it. The first 9 levels went as expected, and then I hit a wall at 10. An even con minion and LT in a Dif 1 spawn would bring me to a few ticks of health and a few ticks of endurance, and I faceplanted more times as a L10 corruptor than I did in 41 levels of scrapping. (not exactly comparable, I know). I broke the hump, and L2P until I hit 14 today, and joined my first team. I got whaled on and whaled on over and over, Worse than when I was a new player learning to fire fire blast. In several missions, I was faceplanting literally every spawn. I'd get aggro just by popping a yellow inspiration, and couldn't shake it for anything. I know part of it is not knowing my AT and the other AT's on the team, but damn, I'd like to think I've learned a thing or two about playing the game. Ice/Storm is a whole different ball of wax. The number start to look really later in the build, but am I going to have to wait 20 levels before I can tackle more than a couple of minions and an LT? I read a post in this forum that the early levels were hard for this set, but dayum.

Any advice at all on corrupting, the set, the build, playstyle, anything would be greatly appreciated. (what I'd really like to hear is "stick with it until 24, it gets goood").


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Magic Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Ice Blast
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Ice Blast -- Build%(A), Hold%(3)
Level 1: Gale -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Frost Breath -- Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Acc/Dmg(3), Dmg/EndRdx(5), Acc/Dmg/Slow(7), Dmg/Slow(29)
Level 4: Snow Storm -- EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(A), Acc/EndRdx(5), EndRdx(7)
Level 6: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 8: Air Superiority -- Dam%(A), Dam%(9), Acc-I(9)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(11), RechRdx-I(11)
Level 12: Ice Storm -- Dam%(A), Dmg/Rchg(13), Dmg/Rchg(13), EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(15), Dmg/Slow(15), Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19)
Level 14: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 16: Freezing Rain -- DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(A), %Dam(17), DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(17), Rchg/EndRdx(19), %ToHit(29), DefDeb/Rchg(31)
Level 18: Bitter Ice Blast -- Dmg-I(A), Dmg-I(21), Dmg-I(21)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod/Rchg(23), EndMod-I(31)
Level 22: Hurricane -- ToHitDeb-I(A), ToHitDeb-I(23), ToHitDeb-I(25)
Level 24: Freeze Ray -- Hold/Rchg(A), Acc/Hold/Rchg(25), Rchg/Hold(27), EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(42), Hold-I(43)
Level 26: Steamy Mist -- ResDam/EndRdx(A), ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Def/EndRdx(31), Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Def/EndRdx(37), Def/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 28: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Tough -- ResKB(A), ResDam/Def+(46)
Level 32: Blizzard -- Acc/Dmg(A), Dmg/Rchg(33), Dmg/Rchg(33), Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(34), Acc/Dmg/Slow(34)
Level 35: Tornado -- DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(36), EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(36), Dmg/EndRdx(36), DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(37), Rchg/EndRdx(37)
Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Dmg/EndRdx(A), Dmg/Rchg(39), Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Stun%(39), EndMod/Rchg(40), EndRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Weave -- Def/EndRdx(A), Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Def/EndRdx(42), Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43), DefBuff-I(43)
Level 44: Dark Embrace -- ResDam/EndRdx(A), ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(45), ResDam/EndRdx(45), ResKB(45), EndRdx-I(46), ResDam-I(46)
Level 47: Soul Drain -- Build%(A), Dam%(48), %Dam(48), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 49: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50), RechRdx-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge

---

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

"stick with it until 24, it gets goood".

First - Freeze Ray will greatly increase your survivability while solo and help slightly on teams.

Second - On a team are you using Snow Storm right away? An AoE slow is going to draw quite a bit of aggro, and often Brutes don't have their taunt auras until after they get Stamina so they're only holding aggro on things that they're directly hitting. Any AoEs you use are going to come back on you unless the Brute took and uses something to taunt an AoE (and if there isn't a Brute, nobody else is keeping aggro although a MM can scatter it around).

Third - Looking at your build you took Air Superiority and no travel power. Since you took it at level 8, when Freeze Ray opens up, you can probably juggle things around safely to get your hold available earlier.

Fourth - Freezing Rain (AoE knockdown similar to Ice Slick) and Hurricane (large -tohit) make it easier when you get them.

---

[ QUOTE ]
"stick with it until 24, it gets goood".

First - Freeze Ray will greatly increase your survivability while solo and help slightly on teams.

Second - On a team are you using Snow Storm right away? An AoE slow is going to draw quite a bit of aggro, and often Brutes don't have their taunt auras until after they get Stamina so they're only holding aggro on things that they're directly hitting. Any AoEs you use are going to come back on you unless the Brute took and uses something to taunt an AoE (and if there isn't a Brute, nobody else is keeping aggro although a MM can scatter it around).

Third - Looking at your build you took Air Superiority and no travel power. Since you took it at level 8, when Freeze Ray opens up, you can probably juggle things around safely to get your hold available earlier.

Fourth - Freezing Rain (AoE knockdown similar to Ice Slick) and Hurricane (large -tohit) make it easier when you get them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with most of what you say, and will add I found focusing on single target damage early on helps as well. Frost breath will give you more aggro on a team with no aggro soak, where ice bolt helps you focus on taking down what you are hitting faster with out as much aggro.

---

Dirges

stupid temp powers got me spoiled. how the heck am I going to fit fly in? guess I'll drop BiB and put the slots in FR sooner, move the late FR slots to...frost breath

---

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

You know... I didn't even notice that.

Bitter Ice Blast is your best attack. Drop Air Superiority and put the slots in BIB if you're going to drop anything, take Superspeed instead of Air Superiority for travel and buy jetpacks for 10k inf in Grandville if you need vertical.

Superspeed + Steamy Mist will also give you a cheap invisibility.

---

Yeah, I usually wait for the melee/pets to go in and get at least a couple of attacks off, and then either hit the spawn with gale if appropiate for the room then/or hit snowstorm, breath, rain, rain, hide, die. What else can I do? That's the set at this point.

I took AS early because Freeze Ray just doesn't do any damage, has a 10 second recharge, and costs the same endurance. If I didn't have AS, my attack chain would be blast, breath, ray, blast breath ray, and every time ray missed I'd be toast. As does have some nice mitigation combined with gale.

I guess I just have to get used to the fact that CoV aggro management =/= to CoH aggro management. I logged shortly after getting the second rain, so maybe that will make a breakthrough for me.

---

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

You might want to skip boxing/tough/weave to make room. I'm going for Aid Other/Self myself.

---

Arc #40529 : The Furies of the Earth

I twinked it around some. I'll wait until it's time for singles and use a vet respec into this: (slots are wonky I'm sure)

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Magic Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Ice Blast
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Ice Blast -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(3), Dmg-I(7), Dmg-I(43)
Level 1: Gale -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Frost Breath -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(3), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(11), RechRdx-I(46), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 4: Snow Storm -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(5), EndRdx-I(7)
Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23), RechRdx-I(23)
Level 8: Freeze Ray -- Acc-I(A), Hold-I(9), Hold-I(9), Hold-I(11)
Level 10: Swift -- Empty(A), Empty(46), Empty(48)
Level 12: Ice Storm -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(13), RechRdx(13), Dmg(15), Dmg(15), Dmg-I(42)
Level 14: Health -- Heal(A)
Level 16: Freezing Rain -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(17), RechRdx(17), DefDeb-I(19), DefDeb-I(29), DefDeb-I(31)
Level 18: Bitter Ice Blast -- Acc(A), Dmg(19), Dmg(21), Dmg(31)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21), EndMod(25)
Level 22: Hurricane -- ToHitDeb-I(A), EndRdx-I(34), ToHitDeb-I(40), ToHitDeb-I(40), ToHitDeb-I(40)
Level 24: Steamy Mist -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(25), DefBuff(27), ResDam(27), ResDam(29), ResDam(31)
Level 26: Super Speed -- Empty(A)
Level 28: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 30: Tough -- ResDam(A), ResDam-I(37), ResDam-I(42)
Level 32: Blizzard -- Dmg-I(A), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33), RechRdx-I(33), RechRdx-I(34), RechRdx-I(34)
Level 35: Tornado -- DefDeb-I(A), DefDeb-I(36), DefDeb-I(36), RechRdx-I(36), RechRdx-I(37), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 38: Weave -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(39), DefBuff-I(39), EndRdx-I(39)
Level 41: Lightning Storm -- RechRdx-I(A), Dmg-I(42), Dmg-I(43), Dmg-I(43)
Level 44: Dark Embrace -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(45), ResDam-I(45), EndRdx-I(45)
Level 47: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Soul Drain -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50), RechRdx-I(50), Acc-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge

---

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

[ QUOTE ]
You might want to skip boxing/tough/weave to make room. I'm going for Aid Other/Self myself.

[/ QUOTE ]

With common IO's Mids is showing some really nice defense and resists using tough weave steamy mist and dark embrace. In the 15 seconds power boost is up I'll be at 18.9 defense, with 17-50 DR. I played around with slotting sets, and it's nothing to sneeze at, going by the numbers.

---

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

So you have freezing rain now, you hit level 16? Your attack chain should be first: freezing rain. If in doubt, cast freezing rain FIRST. Freezing rain has a big slow in it so affected foes use their attacks slower and SECOND, most of the foes are falling on their butts and won't attack while getting up. Once you get freezing rain, your frost breath becomes even more killer. Third, every other power misses less with the added defense debuff in freezing rain. Even sands of mu becomes much more useful.

---

Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.

[ QUOTE ]
With common IO's Mids is showing some really nice defense and resists using tough weave steamy mist and dark embrace. In the 15 seconds power boost is up I'll be at 18.9 defense, with 17-50 DR. I played around with slotting sets, and it's nothing to sneeze at, going by the numbers.

[/ QUOTE ]

I prefer just defense on a Corruptor. DR is nice, but it doesn't stop things mezzing you. Defense does when that mez is attached to an attack that needs to hit... which most do. Get DR when you can, but not at the expense of defense, in my opinion.

Also, you've got Steamy Mist as a place to slot the +3% defense IO from Steadfast. If you drop Fighting for Leadership you could pick up Maneuvers and Tactics. Maneuvers is about 3% less defense slotted than Weave, but it doesn't have any prerequisites and it adds defense to all around you. Nice on teams for stacking. Tactics is a place to six-slot Gaussian's for the def(all) set bonus, since you're not taking Aim. Also provides constant +percep, which is handy when a Widow smoke-bombs you or if you just want to peg that fleeing spectral.

Black Scorpion's pool has a nice typed-defense shield against the three most common damage types. Also has Web Envelope, which can immobilize enemies inside your Freezing Rain without interfering with the knockdown. Adds yet more -recharge as well.

After not wasting a slot on Boxing and if you took just two of Scorpion's powers instead of the 3 Widow you have now, you could also squeeze in Aid Self. People can talk about mitigation all day, but when a +3 boss nails you for 500+ through all of that, it's still nice to punch a self heal and say, "Okay, let's see you do that again."

---

Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer

Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!

Thanks for the advice. Could you give me a rough idea of what type of defense I'd be looking at with your suggestions?

---

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the advice. Could you give me a rough idea of what type of defense I'd be looking at with your suggestions?

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately I don't have my build on this computer. I'm ah... supposed to be "at work" on this one.

Admittedly, it's also a /Dark corr, so anything I do with defense is made that much better by debuffing enemy tohit chances. But... with CJ, SFall, Maneuvers, Scorp Shield, and my IO slotting I am sitting around 32ish s/l/e defense (bit better energy defense actually thanks to slotting ranged/neg/energy defense bonuses, I think). High 20s on everything else.

That's just my recollection. If I remember to, I'll check Mid's or take a reading in game and post it along with the build tonight. I'm also fairly biased about defense, I'll admit. I just prefer to get hit less often, suffer fewer side-effect debuffs and mezzes, etc. than rely on resistance to keep me standing. Of course, with no defense debuff resistance this is very susceptible to cascade failure against certain enemies.

---

Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer

Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!

Okay, for defense with my toggles going as described above, here's what the in-game numbers are showing...

34/16/16 for ranged/melee/AoE
32.5 smashing/lethal
39.4 energy
27.5 negative
14.7 fire/cold
13.4 psi

I mainly went for ranged defense bonuses with IOs and this is just where everything ended up after figuring in the toggles. As I said, with a /Dark this plays a lot like soft-capped defense against most enemies once I start stacking tohit debuffs but it's decent just by itself too.

Here's the Mid's data if you want to see the sets. Except for the Steadfast unique in Shadow Fall, which you can do with Steamy Mist, none of the actual defense slotting comes from sets placed in /Dark powers.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>| Copy &amp; Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
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|2560122B25A37B5087664BB12DCF8009C59D555AC47D455E5 C82A7160BB41818F52|
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|-------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre><hr />

---

Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer

Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You might want to skip boxing/tough/weave to make room. I'm going for Aid Other/Self myself.

[/ QUOTE ]

With common IO's Mids is showing some really nice defense and resists using tough weave steamy mist and dark embrace. In the 15 seconds power boost is up I'll be at 18.9 defense, with 17-50 DR. I played around with slotting sets, and it's nothing to sneeze at, going by the numbers.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is no way you will be able to run tough, weave, patron armor, mist and hurricane at the same time. I have a build maximized for recovery on my stormy (3.87 end a sec) and I still bottom out on big spawns. This is only with the storm toggles and patron armor. I know that the answer is to pick up conserve power. The only thing keeping me from swapping to mu is that I want four powers out of the pool and my build can only fit three patron powers. Luckily Scorpion only has three I want.

---

[ QUOTE ]
I have a build maximized for recovery on my stormy (3.87 end a sec) and I still bottom out on big spawns. This is only with the storm toggles and patron armor.

[/ QUOTE ]

Toggles are cheap. Almost any click power with a reasonably short recharge time is going to use more endurance than any one of your toggles, if used every time it is available, that is. Sometimes more than any two toggles put together. Worse if your build adds global recharge with IOs or Hasten, which don't affect the cost of running toggles but can let you burn endurance faster with click powers.

---

Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer

Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!

[ QUOTE ]
Toggles are cheap.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, armor toggles are cheap. Debuff toggles, not necesarily. Go check out Mud Pots and Arctic Air. I've never played a stormie, but I bet Tornado has similar end use.

In some cases, toggles can be just as much an issue as click powers.

---

@Roderick

[ QUOTE ]
Toggles are cheap.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tell that to my Illusion/Sonic Controller. Superior Invisibility, Sonic Dispersion, Disruption Field and Sonic Repulsion are all very costly powers. Even slotted with End Red SOs and fully slotted Stamina, this troller is still using large amounts of blues, even if it doesn't use many attacks in combats and none of those attacks are end costly.

---

[ QUOTE ]
No, armor toggles are cheap. Debuff toggles, not necesarily. Go check out Mud Pots and Arctic Air. I've never played a stormie, but I bet Tornado has similar end use.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hurricane, I think you mean, is about 0.66eps unslotted. Still less than most clicks which are typically 0.9eps or more if used every time they are available during combat. AA is more, you're right, but again only about as expensive as spamming an attack and probably less so if you are talking about a build that adds global recharge, allowing you to burn end even faster with clicks.

You can find some exceptions but generally speaking toggles ARE cheap. It's not that they are not an issue. Loading up six toggles will cost significant endurance. So would six attacks in an attack chain. It's up to the player to decide if they are getting their endurance-point's worth for each power they are running.

In the post I was responding to, the implication is that even with a lot of recovery he's still runnning out and it's *because* of the toggles. It isn't. All the toggles he mentioned together are using less than half his available recovery.

It's pretty common advice on these forums to two or even three-slot toggles for end reduction if they are considered "endurance hogging" toggles. Take those same slots and put them in your attacks instead and you might be surprised, is all I am saying.

---

Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer

Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!

To the OP, on the original question... I've never found a villain that was easy before SO's. They have a huge unpleasant pit from about 10 to about 21. Admittedly the only things that I"ve managed to get through that pit are two stalkers, two brutes and one corruptor... I might have missed the "easier mode" characters.

Good luck on the slog!

---

Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.

So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.

[ QUOTE ]
To the OP, on the original question... I've never found a villain that was easy before SO's. They have a huge unpleasant pit from about 10 to about 21. Admittedly the only things that I"ve managed to get through that pit are two stalkers, two brutes and one corruptor... I might have missed the "easier mode" characters.

Good luck on the slog!

[/ QUOTE ]
I finally started another /Rad Corruptor, and I'm finding it ridiculously easy thus far (level 11) compared to most. I had simply forgotten how easy a time I had it playing the other two I've made through low levels, because it's been over a year since I made a new one.

Radiation Infection is better than SO-slotted defense sets and works to keep you from getting hit at that point (-25% tohit) and puts your base tohit at the cap (-25% defense applied to a base tohit of 75%). Throw in Accelerate Metabolism for better-than-Stamina recovery for 2 minutes at a time every few minutes, and I've been doing well. It's even worse with the Blackwand vet reward, since through the first 10 levels one shot from it put minions into range for Scourge to kill them.

Yes, it'll get harder in the upper teens when I start running into more mobs with mezzes, but that's something that all Corruptors have to deal with. Not all of them have +recovery +recharge +damage buffs and autohit -tohit -defense -damage -resistance debuffs at that point - all of them AoEs.

For an AT-wide suggestion, Brutes require managing Fury and endurance early on and become a balancing act, but they play well through the low levels in my experience simply because they do more damage than anything else if you can maintain any decent level of Fury. Slot accuracy to hit, endurance reduction to maintain the ability to attack, use your armor toggles sparingly if at all and rely on pure offense to get the job done - it works well for Blasters through the teens.

---

I've been angrily kicking a level 19 Dark/Rad corr through the teen levels over the last few days. So while /rad is better, it still does not meet my standards, apparently. Maybe I'm spoiled and finally joining the "power through to 22" club. Hope not.

---

Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.

So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.

I don't know if I've ever had a character of any kind power their way through the upper teens. Mob hit points in this range seem to be scaling up faster than my damage output and endurance recovery can handle, so it usually becomes a grind of frequent rest-stops.

But my easiest lowbies bar none *have* involved either rad blast or rad emission (or both). Especially now with vet attacks. It's a bit less dramatic now that there's beginner's luck to alleviate the really low-level accuracy doldrums, but by the high teens and until SOs you start to need some help there stilll.

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Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer

Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!

Corruptors are tough to play. My main (which means my namesake here), is a corruptor. A dark/dark, to be exact. He's soloed most of his stuff, but there've been a few times when the assistance of a brute, stalker, or mastermind has been needed. Be patient with the corruptor. Keeping mobs at blasting range is tough work, but it feels very rewarding afterwards.

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Update

I finally got to 32 thanks to some great teams with Repeat Offenders. This is a fantastic set combo for teaming, and is quite fun to play solo.

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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson