Returning player needs build advice

Greetings!

I've returned to CoX after, well...almost 2 years. Its been quite some time. So I'm doing the ole "Return to a game and try to relearn/research a bunch of stuff" thing. My main was level 31 when I last played and back then I was really happy with my build. Back then my playstyle was mostly PvE and I always duo'd with my wife's fire/empathy who specialized in the healing/controlling duties. It was a great duo and worked really well for us.

I realize some of the powers I had chosen weren't the most 'efficient' or 'best' combinations back then either....however....those were for concept reasons and are difficult for me to change (Such as Stealth, or choosing "Fly" as a travel power).

I REALLY could use some help to critique his old build to provide at least some advice on what I might need to change/doesn't work so good any more, etc. I greatly appreciate all the help and advice I can get.

Thanks!

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Katana/SR Scrapper: Level 31 Mutation Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Katana
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Concealment

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Sting of the Wasp

• (A) Accuracy
• (3) Damage Increase
• (13) Damage Increase
• (31) Damage Increase

• (A) Defense Buff
• (5) Defense Buff
• (5) Defense Buff

• (A) Accuracy
• (3) Damage Increase
• (13) Damage Increase

• (A) Defense Buff
• (7) Defense Buff
• (7) Defense Buff

• (A) Defense Buff
• (9) Defense Buff
• (11) Defense Buff

• (A) Accuracy
• (9) Defense Buff
• (15) Defense Buff
• (15) Defense Buff
• (19) Damage Increase
• (19) Accuracy

• (A) Recharge Reduction
• (11) Recharge Reduction

• (A) Defense Buff

• (A) Flight Speed

• (A) Defense Buff
• (17) Defense Buff
• (17) Defense Buff

• (A) Run Speed

• (A) Healing
• (21) Healing
• (21) Healing

• (A) Endurance Modification
• (23) Endurance Modification
• (23) Endurance Modification

• (A) Accuracy
• (25) Damage Increase
• (25) Damage Increase
• (29) Damage Increase

• (A) Accuracy
• (27) Damage Increase
• (27) Damage Increase
• (29) Damage Increase

• (A) Endurance Reduction

• (A) Defense Buff
• (31) Defense Buff
• (31) Defense Buff

• (A) Accuracy

• (A) Damage Increase

• (A) Endurance Reduction

• (A) Healing

Welcome back

Quote:

I realize some of the powers I had chosen weren't the most 'efficient' or 'best' combinations back then either....however....those were for concept reasons and are difficult for me to change (Such as Stealth, or choosing "Fly" as a travel power).

Nothing wrong with taking Fly as your travel power it is a great travel power


For your build somethings I saw Glambers Cut is a better DPS attack then Sting of the Wasp but it is not that big of a deal if you like Sting of the Wasp better.

Focused Fighting and Focused Senses could use some end Reduction in them. Your attack could use them too because they will burn more end then your toggles will.

With Divine Avalanche it is better to slot for an attack. I like to 6 slot it with 1 acc 3 dam 1 end and 1 def buff. With being /SR it should get you to the soft cap(45% defense which is your goal with /SR if you want to know more about that ask or read here) easy with 1 Divine Avalanche.

Other then that your build is looking find. Hope this helps some any more question just ask and welcome back.

My Characters Deviont Art page Currently-reading Me Skydiving

BrokenPrey,

Thanks so much You're a gentleman and a scholar. I really appreciate the help (as well as the 'welcome back').

I found another version of my build that took it out through level 40 or so which seems to take into account some of the things you mentioned. It looks to have some endurance reduction on the toggles.

I originally had Divine Avalanche souped up to give me all the defense I could...but perhaps I'm already exceeding the cap of 45% you mentioned? I just need to figure out how to exactly go about figuring out if I've hit that cap or not. I'll redo that to slot it out for more damage.

Thanks so much for the link to the "Guide to Defense". That will help immensely! Thankyou!

The only other real question I had is how is "Build Up" these days. In this build I pasted below, I seem to remember leaving out Build Up because I just couldn't find room for it and the other powers I'd taken were more important....perhaps its more important today? Is it worth swapping "Quickness" for?

Thanks again for the help!

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Katana/SR Scrapper: Level 40 Mutation Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Katana
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Concealment

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Sting of the Wasp -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(13), Dmg(36), Acc(37)
Level 1: Focused Fighting -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(5), DefBuff(5), EndRdx(34), EndRdx(37)
Level 2: Flashing Steel -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(13), Dmg(36), Acc(37)
Level 4: Focused Senses -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(7), DefBuff(7), EndRdx(34), EndRdx(40)
Level 6: Agile -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(9), DefBuff(11)
Level 8: Divine Avalanche -- Acc(A), DefBuff(9), DefBuff(15), DefBuff(15), Dmg(19), Acc(19)
Level 10: Practiced Brawler -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(11)
Level 12: Hover -- DefBuff(A)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight(A)
Level 16: Dodge -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(17), DefBuff(17)
Level 18: Swift -- Flight(A)
Level 20: Health -- Heal(A), Heal(21), Heal(21)
Level 22: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(23), EndMod(23)
Level 24: The Lotus Drops -- Acc(A), Dmg(25), Dmg(25), Dmg(29), Acc(36)
Level 26: Soaring Dragon -- Acc(A), Dmg(27), Dmg(27), Dmg(29), Acc(31)
Level 28: Stealth -- EndRdx(A)
Level 30: Lucky -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(31), DefBuff(31)
Level 32: Golden Dragonfly -- Acc(A), Dmg(33), Dmg(33), Dmg(33), Acc(34)
Level 35: Quickness -- Flight(A)
Level 38: Elude -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(39), DefBuff(39), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(40), RechRdx(40)
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Dmg(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Heal(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

Welcome back to CoH

The build looks solid overall. Changes I would consider: shift 3 of those slots out of Elude (leave just the recharge) as Elude by itself will pretty much "soft cap" your defenses. Then move those 3 slots into your attacks and slot with endred. To reiterate what Broken Prey mentioned your attacks is where a huge chunk of you endurance vanishes (in almost any build not just yours). Don't know how comfortable you are with Mids but if you mouse over the End Cost stat of one of your attacks while its "locked" it can tell you what the end/sec costs are ... most of the ones in the level 40 build are running around 1.0 end/sec compared to the toggles which, with current slotting, are running about a 1/6th of that at 0.16 end/sec. Excluding DA you have 5 attacks so after moving 3 slots from Elude I'd look for 2 more. Likely I'd move them from your toggles. The net loss from the missing endred in the two toggles is 0.08 more end/sec, you'll save that much and a good deal more just moving that slot into SotW, and then even more putting the other in Flashing Steel. Then I'd slot Divine Avalanche to do damage. Why, because if you use it in your chain it reduces the damage you do over the course of the fight in exchange for making you melee and lethal defense much higher. Currently you are sitting around 30% defense vs melee, another +15% puts you at the soft-cap. That's one hit with DA without any slotting for +defense (and it stacks) so you slot for damage to minimize the impact it'll have on your overall damage output.

With just those changes and the build will look like this:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Katana/SR Scrapper: Level 40 Mutation Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Katana
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Concealment

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Sting of the Wasp -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(13), Dmg(36), Acc(37), EndRdx(37)
Level 1: Focused Fighting -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(5), DefBuff(5), EndRdx(34)
Level 2: Flashing Steel -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(13), Dmg(36), Acc(37), EndRdx(40)
Level 4: Focused Senses -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(7), DefBuff(7), EndRdx(34)
Level 6: Agile -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(9), DefBuff(11)
Level 8: Divine Avalanche -- Acc(A), EndRdx(9), Dmg(15), Dmg(15), Dmg(19), Acc(19)
Level 10: Practiced Brawler -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(11)
Level 12: Hover -- DefBuff(A)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight(A)
Level 16: Dodge -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(17), DefBuff(17)
Level 18: Swift -- Flight(A)
Level 20: Health -- Heal(A), Heal(21), Heal(21)
Level 22: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(23), EndMod(23)
Level 24: The Lotus Drops -- Acc(A), Dmg(25), Dmg(25), Dmg(29), Acc(36), EndRdx(39)
Level 26: Soaring Dragon -- Acc(A), Dmg(27), Dmg(27), Dmg(29), Acc(31), EndRdx(40)
Level 28: Stealth -- EndRdx(A)
Level 30: Lucky -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(31), DefBuff(31)
Level 32: Golden Dragonfly -- Acc(A), Dmg(33), Dmg(33), Dmg(33), Acc(34), EndRdx(40)
Level 35: Quickness -- Flight(A)
Level 38: Elude -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(39)
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Dmg(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Heal(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

Edit: As for BU vs Quickness vs Other, in the long run I'd ideally want both. Which I would grab first is more a matter of taste, but nothing quite says "Hello!" like Build Up followed by Golden Dragonfly specially if you connect with more than one foe. Also you may wish to consider how to get Evasion in there .. as you move thru the 30's and beyond AoE can get to be a deadly common occurrance and Evasion is your aoe defense toggle.

Eventually you can grab yourself a stealth IO and ditch Stealth. It works just as well for concept, doesn't slow your movement, saves end, and saves a power pick.

Thanks for taking the time to put up that post Doomguide...that was really helpful and solid advice, and thanks for the kind "Welcome Back". Between the stuff from yourself and BrokenPrey I should be squared away.

Your points regarding Build Up, Quickness, & Evasion are well taken. Must....have....more....power slots Although...I think what Eva Destruction said might actually help me in that regard.

In a sense, yes, it's like a free power for one slot. It offers no defensive benefit, but it IS stealth (not invisibility, just stealth - reduction of the distance at which you can be seen). I typically put mine in Sprint, and just click Sprint on and off for two minutes of stealth. Then it doesn't even take the investment of a slot.

And yeah, you would buy one on the consignment house assuming you aren't lucky to have one drop. I haven't checked prices in a LONG time, but they're probably a few million? Whatever the cost, it's probably "not cheap, but not unaffordable".