Thought duff characters weren't possible, but...
By
Boy_Oracle,
Posted on: 2008-09-09 09:35 in Player Questions
If you are pre stamina I will assume that you haven't hit level 20 yet as it should be priority.
This also means that you are slotted with DO's not SO's as the earliest you get them is level 22.
So my conclusion...
Electric Blast does not do as much damage as the other blast sets even on a Blaster due to the -end bonus it receives as a secondary effect, as defenders do little damage compared to blasters anyway you seemed to have chosen the weakest hitting set for your assault.
Dark Miasma is a super set but is end heavy and requires good slotting to show its true capabilities.. With no stamina and slots you are probably going to struggle regardless, add that with a set that takes twice as many hits to kill mobs anyway its no wonder you are running out of end and dying all the time.
Don't delete the character tho, if you are really depressed about it /t me on Kawaiii and I will boost you into SO's at least and maybe respark your love for a rare toon.
Hope this helps
Donna
Carlsberg don't do Farming,
But if they did..........
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Well then.... roll yourself a Dark Miasma/Electrical Blast Defender, my friends!
That's right - get yourself a REAL reason to never solo a single orange-conning mob again!
[/ QUOTE ]You take two heavily AoE-based powersets and complain that you can't beat tough single opponents? 
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Well then.... roll yourself a Dark Miasma/Electrical Blast Defender, my friends!
That's right - get yourself a REAL reason to never solo a single orange-conning mob again!
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You take two heavily AoE-based powersets and complain that you can't beat tough single opponents?
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Ironic, isn't it? 
What can I say... at the time of her creation I was naive and foolish. Through bitter experience and much faceplanting, I have since learned much.
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Don't delete the character tho, if you are really depressed about it /t me on Kawaiii and I will boost you into SO's at least and maybe respark your love for a rare toon.
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Is that 'rare' as in 'no-one else would be daft enough to make that?' That's a lovely offer, Donna, thank you. The unfortunate character is on the Defiant server and her name is Elektra Static. And yes, so far she has just about limped her way to Level 14. I don't really want to delete her because she's the Hero I've had for the longest time, she's in a great supergroup and... well, in spite of her general pants-ness, I guess I'm quite fond of the old girl really. Like falling for the runt of the litter, I suppose. 
Before I rerolled my main into a D3 (Dark/Dark/Dark Defender), he was Dark/Elec and got somewhere into the 30s. What I can tell you is that in terms of damage, it doesnt get any better. Electric Blast is low on damage for Defenders and its inherent does nothing to help you. However, in terms of team support, you can be very powerful. Two holds means that you can stack them on a boss or take out two Lieutenants. Throw in Fearsome Stare which normally freezes a lot of the mob in their tracks and you can be a very control oriented Defender. Plus in later levels, you get the tag team pets of Fluffy and Sparky. One debuffs, the other damages. Its never awesome, but its nice.
If you want to enhance your damage, two things. Slot up Tar Patch with 3 recharges and get Hasten. Tar Patch does -30% resistance to anything in it so if you can stack it, you will notice a difference in your damage output. Also, pick up Assault from Leadership, Defenders get a nice bonus out of the Leadership pool, about the equivalent of an extra DO on all your attacks.
Lastly, team a lot. If you focus on team support and controlling the battlefield, your team mates will clean up and everyone wins. Dont despair just yet, a lot of toons dont begin to shine until they have Stamina and SOs/IOs slotted. But if youre hating your toon now, its up to you if you want to persevere. And given that I do know of one Dark/Elec Defender at level 50, it can be done! Good luck.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
Thanks for the encouraging words, Dante
I had noticed, now you mention it, that she does function a LOT better in groups; I know my place when it comes to butt-kicking with her, so I tend to just stick to healing my teammates and chuck the debuffs in between when everyone's at a safe health quota.
When you say 'slot up Tar Patch with 3 recharges' do you mean as in have 3 slots on the power and then max up Recharge in all 3 of them? (I'm a bit of a novice at the slotting business - so far I've tended to just whack slots for each area where they seem to be deficient, and since Tar Patch seems to be one of my better powers it's only got one slot at the moment. 
) I'll certainly give that a go, thanks.
Thanks to all for all the good advice I've received in this thread. I shall plough onward then; I'll make something of the old girl yet!
Can't really help you with the electric side as I've never played it past about level 7, but I'll second Dante's Dark advice, particularly the three recharges in Tar Patch.
Once you've got Fearsome Stare and Darkest Night fully slotted up you still won't kill stuff very fast, but by jove, you'll be very safe while you do it.
Interesting but ultimately unimportant side fact: Back in I4 Dark/Elec reached a semi FotM status in the US, with the so called 'sith' build.
Dead Calm's Defender Manifesto
I'd play to your strengths, which are debuffing and controlling using Fearsome Stare, Darkest Night (on a lieutenant in the spawn) and Tar Patch and then following up with Aim, Ball Lightning, Short Circuit.
Debuffing & Controlling for a Dark is more important than healing since most of your debuffs prevent the need for healing.
Fearsome Stare > Darkest Night > Tar Patch > Aim > Ball Lightning > Short Circuit on teams is your most effective chain. Follow up with choice holds and single target blasts.
Once you hit 32 opening up by casting Fluffy in the middle of a spawn is a good move (he'll swiftly debuff their accuracy and then heal himself). He won't do much damage but he's great at nullifying a spawn and dark defender tanking (tanking by reducing their ToHit rate and healing himself)
Howling Twilight isn't just a rez, its a great low level AOE stun and debuff too. Great when soloing as a second mez when Fearsome isn't charged or vs AVs (spam your heal vs AVs too as its got a handy -Regen component which really helps taking them down).
Here's a team-centric AOE early build I cooked up quickly :
http://www.cohplanner.com/builds/11558
+---------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner
+ http://www.cohplanner.com
+---------------------------------------------
Name: Test
Level: 41
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Dark Miasma
Secondary: Electrical Blast
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Charged Bolts ==> Acc(1),Dam(9),Dam(31),Dam(37)
01 => Twilight Grasp ==> Acc(1),Heal(3),Heal(5),Heal(17)
02 => Tar Patch ==> Rech(2),Rech(3)
04 => Darkest Night ==> ToHitDeBuff(4),EndCost(5),Empty(37)
06 => Ball Lightning ==> Acc(6),Dam(7),Dam(7),Dam(9),Rech(19),Rech(34)
08 => Recall Friend ==> Range(8)
10 => Short Circuit ==> Acc(10),Dam(11),Dam(11),Dam(15),Rech(21),Rech(34)
12 => Fearsome Stare ==> Acc(12),Fear(13),Fear(13),Rech(15),Rech(19),Range( 34)
14 => Teleport ==> EndCost(14),Range(17)
16 => Hurdle ==> Jump(16)
18 => Lightning Bolt ==> Dam(18),Acc(21),Dam(27),Dam(29)
20 => Swift ==> RunSpd(20)
22 => Stamina ==> EndMod(22),EndMod(23),EndMod(23)
24 => Aim ==> Rech(24),Rech(25),Rech(25)
26 => Shadow Fall ==> DamRes(26),DamRes(27),EndCost(37)
28 => Howling Twilight ==> Rech(28),Rech(29)
30 => Petrifying Gaze ==> Acc(30),Hold(31),Hold(31),Rech(40)
32 => Dark Servant ==> Acc(32),ToHitDeBuff(33),ToHitDeBuff(33),ToHitDeBuf f(33),Heal(34),Heal(34)
35 => Voltaic Sentinel ==> Acc(35),Dam(36),Dam(36),Dam(36)
38 => Thunderous Blast ==> Acc(38),Dam(39),Rech(39),Dam(39),Dam(40),Rech(40)
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Sprint ==> Empty(1)
01 => Brawl ==> Empty(1)
02 => Rest ==> Empty(1)
In my experience most builds have endurance issues before L20/Stamina - some even have end issues after that!
I find Ice sets the worst, personally - my Ice/Ice dom had such terrible end issues at low level that he could barely finish a single spawn on one end bar - my Ice/Dark Corruptor had similar issues and a similar fate (deletion), as did my Ice/Ice Blaster though he did make it to Stamina by teaming. My Ice/Storm Corruptor has been pretty bad for end as well, but I think I've finally managed to fix him at L38 by putting more end reduction in his attacks (but I'm still taking Scirocco as patron and getting Power Sink at 41 just in case 
).
Storm Summoning is far worse than Dark Miasma for having lots of end-hungry toggles, so I would suggest you slot some more end reduction into your high end-cost powers on your Dark/Elec Defender and see if it helps before giving up on the character. I only have experience of Electric Blast set on a low level blaster back in I5, but it didn't seem too end-hungry to me, not compared to Ice Blast anyway - but it is a low damage blast set, and with Defenders being a low damage archetype it is probably taking you quite a lot of blasts to kill an orange, so that might be your problem - teaming will definitely help as others have said - Defenders are pretty much biased towards teaming (for soloing a Scrapper/Brute/Stalker/Blaster would be faster/safer, or even a Mastermind though they can start slow).
Also with Dark Miasma don't try and run Shadow Fall before you have a 3-slotted Stamina either - it can be quite a costly toggle, especially when you're already running Darkest Night in combat most of the time too. But generally you'll find that end reduction in attacks (i.e. your electric blast powers) will help you more than slotting up toggles with end reduction (though that helps as well, and certainly helps end to recover faster between fights if your toggles are on all the time like Shadow Fall will be eventually).
Sticking to Heroic/Villainous difficulty until you get Stamina is also a good idea too - you mentioned fighting an orange con enemy - well yeah that will drain end quite badly as hit-points/damage for enemies does scale up quite fast at low levels, so an orange will probably seem nastier to you below L20 than they will eventually at later levels (when they'll probably be what you're fighting all the time). You level so fast at low level anyway that putting the difficulty up pre-Stamina can actually slow down your progress instead of speeding it up.
And if all else fails pre-Stamina you can always do what I do with a lot of my low level characters - fill your tray up with blue inspirations before every mission. I do this on Brutes especially, because there's nothing more annoying than filling up your Fury bar only to find out you need to rest to refill your end bar, then watching all that Fury drain away.
Funnily enough, the second hero I created was a Fire/Ice Blaster. Being still very green at that time, I thought that was a great, cover-all-bases type of combo - until mid-fight one time I suddenly had the thought "Hang on a sec - am I actually neutralising all my ice spells with my fire ones here (being that hot stuff generally melts cold stuff and all?)" Still don't know if there's any truth to that...
In fact, most of the stuff I have learned about the game thus far has been the hard way, in true newbie-style. For example:
1 - When you are a Defender, marching up to an orange-conning Lead Brick and launching into Sands of Mu is probably not a good opening battle strategy.
2 - When you are a Dark/Elec Defender... no, you really can't kill that red-conning mob on your own. No, not even if he's on his own too.
3 - If you really must fly 200 feet into the air with your freebie jet pack, remember that it's on a very short timer. And that the resulting 200ft-freefall is going to be slightly more hazardous to your health when you're still only level two.
4 - If something hits you hard enough to knock your health down by 50% in one shot, don't bother turning round to see who did it or where they are. Just chuffin' run, you fool!
5 - If you're going to teleport that single yellow-conning mob out of that bunch of four orange-conners so you can fight him seperately... don't expect the aforementioned orange-conners not to notice.
6 - oh yes... and the time it takes to stop twenty feet away from a group of purple-conning mobs and think to yourself "Oooh, they're too hard for me, I'd better move on and not fight them" is roughly equal to the time it takes for just one of them to kill you.
That made me laugh and yes I've done all of those
Happy to be on Defiant.
Global name @mereman
Member of P.E.R.C. Representing Defiant
Alts http://cit.cohtitan.com/profile/4488
CoH faces http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/mereman
I've been playing (on and off) since US beta and I still do most of them
However, it turned out that Smith was not a time-travelling Terminator
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I've been playing (on and off) since US beta and I still do most of them
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Oh dear!
Contact Information!
Twitter: @TonyParkeze
Facebook: www.facebook.com/anthonyjp91
Email: anthonyjp91@gmail.com
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Funnily enough, the second hero I created was a Fire/Ice Blaster. Being still very green at that time, I thought that was a great, cover-all-bases type of combo - until mid-fight one time I suddenly had the thought "Hang on a sec - am I actually neutralising all my ice spells with my fire ones here (being that hot stuff generally melts cold stuff and all?)" Still don't know if there's any truth to that...
In fact, most of the stuff I have learned about the game thus far has been the hard way, in true newbie-style. For example:
1 - When you are a Defender, marching up to an orange-conning Lead Brick and launching into Sands of Mu is probably not a good opening battle strategy.
2 - When you are a Dark/Elec Defender... no, you really can't kill that red-conning mob on your own. No, not even if he's on his own too.
3 - If you really must fly 200 feet into the air with your freebie jet pack, remember that it's on a very short timer. And that the resulting 200ft-freefall is going to be slightly more hazardous to your health when you're still only level two.
4 - If something hits you hard enough to knock your health down by 50% in one shot, don't bother turning round to see who did it or where they are. Just chuffin' run, you fool!
5 - If you're going to teleport that single yellow-conning mob out of that bunch of four orange-conners so you can fight him seperately... don't expect the aforementioned orange-conners not to notice.
6 - oh yes... and the time it takes to stop twenty feet away from a group of purple-conning mobs and think to yourself "Oooh, they're too hard for me, I'd better move on and not fight them" is roughly equal to the time it takes for just one of them to kill you.
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Thanks for the laugh
If it was easy, you wouldn't be a hero
Firstly welcome to the bed game in the known Universe (until October 21st at least)
SEcondly: Experiemtn. It's a game so if you can't zap and orange conning mob then go for yellows (actually orange is pretty tough for most solo non-melee types so don't feel too badwhen you fail)
Third: I'm not an expert on defenders but I do have some experience of elec: Try not to be all things to all men. Elec, unusually has three principal effects; Damage, -End & some very good holds. Not to mention AOE etc. Decide what each power you have is gonna do. Yes they are end heavy and don't belive the descriptive bit where it says "some of this endurance may be returned to you" (it might but the net effect is as useful as a rubber duck in the sahara.) But if you want a power to damage, slot for damage, if you want end drain slot for end drain. Etc ad infinutum.
A Defender's job is to defend. S/he is principally a support character. Yes, you CAN solo, but this game is geared towards teaming and the clue is in MMO (ie lots) so if you take one of the squishiest ATs and try soloing, well hello. That might sound patronising (you seem to have Sands of Mu so I'm guessing you have some levels under your belt) but it's an easy lesson to forget. I've got one of the hardest hitting PvE Blasters and I still fall down when I tank. My point here is to remind you what your team role is. Keep your team-mates alive. Grow with some like-minded players who will appreciate your skills
Don't forget that just cuz you've rolled this toon it's not mandatory you play it for 6 hours every day at the expense of everything until you've made 50. Be selective. It's easy to get sucked in to one toon so make sure you have others for (light) relief
Finally, enjoy the game. Challenging toons are sometimes the most rewarding. When you get this toon to lvl 50 you can justifiably spit in the eye of every fire/kin that walked the server because you earned that Hero of the City. Ultimately so long as the toon is fun for you, then enjoy it. Delete is an option
Thelonious Monk
Yeah, just sat and chuckled at those as they are all so true. (I even got mezed on the ship raid the other week while flying between pylons and I was SKing someone. 
I felt so bad.)
Im really hoping there are people out there who play this game and know what theyre doing, but after three years I still do all these. I still have the endurance blues with all my characters (low and high level) and I still love my sonic/sonic (as Ive said so many times) but she still really is the least useful of characters (maybe I should just RP her and have done with it ).
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Firstly welcome to the bed game in the known Universe (until October 21st at least)
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Why? What's happening on October 21st?
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Yes they are end heavy and don't belive the descriptive bit where it says "some of this endurance may be returned to you" (it might but the net effect is as useful as a rubber duck in the sahara.)
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Dang it, that's why I chose Electric in the first place! Although I've since noticed you're dead right - duck in the sahara just about clinches it
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A Defender's job is to defend. S/he is principally a support character. Yes, you CAN solo, but this game is geared towards teaming and the clue is in MMO (ie lots) so if you take one of the squishiest ATs and try soloing, well hello. That might sound patronising (you seem to have Sands of Mu so I'm guessing you have some levels under your belt) but it's an easy lesson to forget.
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Not at all patronising In fact, after reading yours and others advice in this particular thread I've realised that, at least when I'm soloing, I've been trying to play my Defender more like a Controller, which was never gonna work. I got my Sands of Mu for having a veteran Mastermind (who I love to death. ) The poor old Defender was created later and just snaffled the power off the back of my MM's good (or rather, evil) work.
Thanks for the good advice and ego boost!
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Why? What's happening on October 21st?
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I think that's the releaser of "Warhammer: The Age of Dissapointment".
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I've been trying to play my Defender more like a Controller, which was never gonna work.
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True, it's a well known fact that if you're going to solo with a Defender, you play them like a Blaster. It's possible to solo with Defenders, but they are hardly optimal for it, even a confirmed soloist like myself knows that. You need to reel yourself back and take on lesser targets. You just don't have the damage output for big targets.
I have to disagree with the statement made that this game is geared toward teaming, it isn't, but several of the ATs certainly are and I think Defender is one of the most team-focussed ATs there is. The game itself is one of the best there is at giving a good challenge to both solo and team players, with the instances scaling the way they do. (In, for example, WoW, putting together a team to do most quests just means you mow through them without a thought, they don't scale to a team level unless they can't be done without a team.)
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
I found all these funny, and I'm one of those who still makes these sort of mistakes on a semi-regular basis. I still occasionally manage to teleport into trees by accident - very heroic.
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4 - If something hits you hard enough to knock your health down by 50% in one shot, don't bother turning round to see who did it or where they are. Just chuffin' run, you fool!
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- Just don't be surprised if you accidentally run deeper in to the mob of doom by mistake!
And here i was hoping for duffmans cap and belt. OH YEAH!
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I found all these funny, and I'm one of those who still makes these sort of mistakes on a semi-regular basis. I still occasionally manage to teleport into trees by accident - very heroic.
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4 - If something hits you hard enough to knock your health down by 50% in one shot, don't bother turning round to see who did it or where they are. Just chuffin' run, you fool!
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- Just don't be surprised if you accidentally run deeper in to the mob of doom by mistake!
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Ahem... Did that last night, actually.
Took on three yellows in Steel Canyon with my new (level 13)Grav/Rad Controller, forgetting that they were Outcast Chiller, Outcast Shocker and the One That Chucks Big Rocks respectively. (Could be described as a somewhat over-optimistic target for a squishy controller, but hey, that never stopped me before.. ) Anyway, as I watched my health bar plummet I thought "Blow this for a game of soldiers" and ran like heck along the main street and around a corner...
...Straight into two purples and a red. It all ended pretty quickly after that.
I have to say, Steel Canyon has a pretty varied mix of mobs, even on one street. Everything from grey to purple... makes it very hard for a gung-ho hero with no 'stop and think' switch on her brain to survive...
"Hey there, hero-makers! Are your toons just too darn FUN to play?
Are you bored with always having enough Endurance left to finish a scrap before you die? Worried that your local hospitals aren't seeing enough of you? Despairing that you're just NEVER going to earn that 'Pay off one gazillion XP Debt' Badge before you hit Level 30?
Well then.... roll yourself a Dark Miasma/Electrical Blast Defender, my friends!
That's right - get yourself a REAL reason to never solo a single orange-conning mob again! Or more than one yellow at a time! Revel in the constant stress of watching your Endurance bar dwindle away to a pinprick as a Lead Brick pounds the bejasus out of you! No need to worry about your faceplanting technique anymore - you'll be getting all the practice you need to make it picture-perfect! Even the hospital cleaners will greet you like an old friend - heck, they might even keep a bed on constant standby for you!
So, roll a Dark/Elec Defender now... you'll wonder why you ever wanted to be good at the game!"
*sigh*
... Or at least, that's how it seems to be at the moment, with mine! I used to believe it was impossible to make a really bad character, but this one seems to be. (And I don't think it's just because I'm rubbish at playing CoX, because I have lots of other, different alts who absolutely rock by comparison. Not that that's hard to do, mind...)
So I guess I'm looking for some guidance here, please. Is a Dark/Elec Defender a really sucky combination, or is she likely to get better once I get high-enough level to take Fitness/Stamina as a power?