Taunt, Challenge, *and* Provoke?? Don't see that every day!
Honestly, though WP's Taunt aura is weaker than others, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to take three Taunt powers, two of which are sub-par. If you expect to use Taunt that much, just slot the heck out of it for recharge and duration.
Stealth is also a very unusual choice. Do you actually want it for the Stealth, or more for defense? Personally, I think a Stealth IO slotted in Sprint or something similar is a much better choice since it doesn't require a power or pool pick. If you want a little defense boost, get CJ instead, its defense doesn't suppress in combat.
Instead of Stealth, Challenge and Provoke, I'd recommend getting CJ, SJ and Build Up. If you don't care about a travel power, you could just get CJ and pick up a couple of patron attacks instead. (I'd also get Strength of Will instead of Resurgence, but that's more personal preference.)
The sets five-slotted with Kinetic Combat are underslotted for accuracy and damage. I'd drop the KD proc (it's not like Axe needs more KD!) and slot a Acc/Dam from another set.
I'd 4-slot your WP toggles whenever possible. Those two additional slots in Hurdle are unnecessary, so pull those and use them elsewhere. In particular, 4 slots of Reactive Armor would be a good choice for MoB and Tough since they give small S/L and E/NE def bonuses.
IMO, it's not worth slotting for the F/C bonus with those Erad sets. I'd recommend sticking with three slots of Erad and adding two of Scirocco's Dervish for the regen bonus. That would free up three slots that you could use to put another set of KC in Kick or Boxing.
Another way to add some defense is to 5 slot Taunt with Mocking Beratement or 6-slot it with Perfect Zinger.
If you take CJ and SJ they can be 2-slotted with Blessing of the Zephyr for a small E/NE bonus. Build Up can be 2-slotted with Rectified Reticle for a S/L bonus. If you decide to take patron attacks, they can also be slotted for bonuses, but most likely they would require heavier slotting.
I don't see much point in taking Stamina immediately after QR, and if you decide to take a travel power you could definitely delay Stamina a few levels to fit it in.
Hope that helps!
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
I was going to skip the travel power entirely due to Ninja Run working so well. That's actually why I have 3-slotted the Hurdle, too... it makes NR much nicer. The presence powers were slotted for the small bonus to defense for S/L... I'm probably not going to use them at all.
Dropping Stealth for CJ sounds like a good idea. I thought about build-up, but actually getting useful amounts of defense out of it takes 6 slots. T.T
I'll poke at Mid's some more, and see what I can come up with.
Ok, does this look like a better build? I took most of your advice, though I kept the Hurdle slotting for ease of travel.
Code:
| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1418;694;1388;HEX;| |78DAA5935B4F13411CC567DB4281B6B6B5D07229A5C572299415DEBC241A11891A3| |045821835362B8C74934DDBEC2E886F7E009FF4C127DFBC7E05FD24DE4DBCA37E04| |83FFFF9C2986679BF49CDD9DDFCC399DE92E6ECF4585B873521891D38EE579D5597| |7D397E10B96BFE95A4EB2E236BCA65CF3ED2D99BFA146841069C55417A523A5396B| |F9BE23ABA7B665068FE7E44D59F7A4B96A3B4EB3714BBAC973F59A7465DD375B17D| |14AA3E198F3B65F979E17D3371B35DFAE6F6068415A4DBA89B76ED6A5EBD5EC66F6| |4CD35E3311B320B76CCBAF59F5EAA2E5F9D2BDDD4BCD4AF4FD245A9FDD3651211B1| |6134BB08BCACACBCAA6CE920D8AA9F3CA5EF10443CF2A92CD88B1FD565656824D64| |0C9EF5B935896619C80A202B80AC22B28AC81A45D66BD220B282C11C5D8C89D010A| |CA0AC38ACEC0D116DBA53DB0915D87EC9E0F8F6156587506DBF7D250DEB4E6174EA| |40A70E74EA45A7023A15D0E92D69A7EED4D9A356EFEA8625944DFD515C3B2D1D011| |7888CABC0E83E0B1310D3400C350F2CC19695BDA3A1B86128200E20012001E03B0D| |25F10382C99D00A71EFC09FBA5ACF7B7B2F744A47452EA5E80A776DF873D50D6415| |57A34D003200D200D20404006492233A9EAFF20EDD3E17D08EF47783FC20B08FF40| |C4805E7B00FB95C57E65B15F415A7B506FE8200E398743CEE1907338E41D228674E| |01002F308CC23308FC08FEAD0D075185D431431A23B8CA0C3283A8CA2439A80710D| |8C0328012801481230A9814900650065005F68C8D47F26F391DAB4C38F614F604F9| |5CD3C833D57F68DF869CC32A6D7E8514ACCAC2BCB86F65E4E4A56BF6221B4F7E6D1| |5F50CDAF84F65E2B61809AFF47FDD7E745B4B54EE752175D2D9388159655BEBDCC7| |285E52A3FBBC6729DA5CAB2FB32DAAA1F3FC2858EB21C6339CE7297A1708424C212| |6589B11C6089B32458522C69967E96872CBB7F01D4BFF738| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
Quote:
Though I'm willing to add a slot or two to get a desirable bonus, using two whole power picks just to get small S/L def bonuses seems...excessive, IMO.|
Originally Posted by Cayenne
I was going to skip the travel power entirely due to Ninja Run working so well. That's actually why I have 3-slotted the Hurdle, too... it makes NR much nicer. The presence powers were slotted for the small bonus to defense for S/L... I'm probably not going to use them at all.
|
Quote:
|
Dropping Stealth for CJ sounds like a good idea. I thought about build-up, but actually getting useful amounts of defense out of it takes 6 slots. T.T I'll poke at Mid's some more, and see what I can come up with. |
Regarding the new build, the biggest problem I see is that you are seriously underslotting your AoEs for damage. I recommend 3 Erad (Dam, Dam/Rchg, Acc/Dam/Rchg) plus two Scirocco's Dervish--Dam/End, Acc/Dam/End, is what I do, though you can play around until you get the slotting you like. I think that would be better in terms of slotting and bonuses--the regen bonus from the SDs is larger than what you're getting from the Pounding Slugfest. But even if you decide to stay with the 4 Erad slotting, those attacks definitely need another slot.
To free up those slots you can take two from CJ--it's base defense value is so low that slotting it for defense is a low priority--and one from Fast Healing, which is currently slotted way into ED territory.
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
Well, the Scirocco's Dervish won't add any regen, which is why I was going to skip them... I'm already at the max number of +10% regen bonuses. As far as taking something out of Fast Healing, try it in Mid's, and see just how much regen even one slot taken away costs... That single extra heal IO is giving me 24% extra regen. The CJ is slotted for more HP and regen, too, the defense is a tertiary concern at best.
I can easily swap the acc/dam/rech/end for a straight-up dam, which raises the damage to +73%. Is it really worth stripping slots from something else to go higher? I'm all right with doing a little less damage in the name of better survivability. That said, I could drop the slots from Build Up, and put them into the AoE attacks.
Quote:
Don't know where you got that 24% figure, because when I compared Fast Healing with and without the 6th slot, the difference in regen was exactly 5%.|
Originally Posted by Cayenne
Well, the Scirocco's Dervish won't add any regen, which is why I was going to skip them... I'm already at the max number of +10% regen bonuses. As far as taking something out of Fast Healing, try it in Mid's, and see just how much regen even one slot taken away costs... That single extra heal IO is giving me 24% extra regen. The CJ is slotted for more HP and regen, too, the defense is a tertiary concern at best.
|
Quote:
| I can easily swap the acc/dam/rech/end for a straight-up dam, which raises the damage to +73%. Is it really worth stripping slots from something else to go higher? I'm all right with doing a little less damage in the name of better survivability. That said, I could drop the slots from Build Up, and put them into the AoE attacks. |
Do I think that fully slotting those three AoE attacks is worth losing the 5% regen in FH and the bonuses from CJ? Heck yes! Damage is a very important part of survivability too, after all. I would never trade that much damage in my top level attacks for some minor additional survivability in one of my tanks, let alone a brute.
But I do think dropping the Gaussian's set would be a good alternative if you're dead set against taking slots from FH or CJ.
My Characters
Knight Court--A CoH Story Complete 2/3/2012
You're probably not looking at the 'view totals' window. The healing IOs in Health also buff up the +regen from the two procs. It's 5% directly, and another 19% or so from the extra procs.
I'll see what dropping the Gaussian's set can do for me.
I've been poking at Mid's, trying to get a fun brute build for farming.
I tried to maximize regen, HP, and defense, in roughly that order. Here's what I've come up with: