All-Purpose Guide to Creating Highly Effective Builds

Dr_Dismemberment · 07-20-2010 07:39 PM

This thread is intended to be a general guide to creating highly effective builds. It won't delve into the details of any one archetype but instead concentrate on illuminating the strategies that are common across a wide-range of high-end builds and provide the tools to help you create your own build. Most of the information in this guide contains information that is well known and has been hashed out and discussed to death already. This is just an attempt to conglomerate that information to help make build-making easier.

This guide is in its infancy and will be improved over time. Comments and suggestions are particularly welcome.

< Note: more details and formatting to be added later. >

Dr_Dismemberment · 07-20-2010 07:40 PM

Build Optimizer's Rules-of-Thumb: Part I

I. Effective builds are more fun than ineffective builds.

This is taken to be self-evident.

II. Maximize the use of every slot.

If there is any one slot that you can remove from your build without completely ruining it, you haven't optimized your build enough! Really. I mean it.

III. Try before buying.

Builds with power selections that you've tested for yourself and like are more fun than builds with powers selections handed to you by someone else or based off the description (which are often misleading and almost always under-specified).

If there is a power that seems you might not like based on its description but haven't tired for yourself, try it out anyways. Ask how people who use and like the power use it and try to use it that way. Perhaps there are uses of the power that you hadn't considered.

Don't be afraid to respec.

IV. Use Mids Hero Designer.

Builds made in Mid's Hero Designer are better than builds not made in Mid's Hero Designer. Being able to see all your powers and stats at a glance and play with the build before you actually respec into it is a tremendous advantage. This is a prime reason for people on Macs and Linux to get MS dual-boot.

V. Check with the community.

Builds based on feedback from the community are better than builds made in isolation. At least read any guides for the AT that you are considering the build for before starting your own. Absorb the knowledge that they are trying to impart, but remember it is still only one person's opinion and it may differ from your own.

VI. No build can have everything.

Just look at all the competing rules in this guide. There is no possible way that they could all be satisfied with a single build. Find some happy balance that you enjoy and call it day. A corollary of this rule is: "There is no one best build.". Another corollary of this rule is: "The more highly optimized a build is, the more trade-offs will have to be made (or at least the more obvious they become).". Really, don't sweat it. It is just a game after all.

VII. Try, try and try again.

The first several attempts at a build are never good enough! A good build needs time for review, contemplation and experience, then tweaking. After that, the whole process probably needs to be repeated a few times.

VIII. Two great tastes that go together...

Look for synergies between powers when selecting them for your build. For instance Choking Cloud (PBAoE toggle hold) may be a mediocre or bad power on a Ill/Rad that doesn't have other PBAoE's damage attacks and is usually out of range of mobs, but may be a really good power on a Fire/Rad who has some PBAoEs and will often find themselves in the middle of the action.

IX. IO sets all the way.

Well planned builds with IO sets are much better than builds without IO sets, often by a quite outstandingly large margin. For instance, a build with capped defense takes 10 times less damage over time than a build with 0 defense. A build with capped defense (45%), will take half as much damage as a build with 40% defense. For many ATs, the only way to achieve these levels of defense is to use IO sets.

IX. The purple blues.

Purple sets don't necessarily make a build better. Often, they just make builds cost more. They do tend to have lots of recovery, accuracy and recharge. When trying to optimize your build for one of those, add them in.

X. Broaden your focus.

A build that optimizes a broad range of important attributes is better than a build that focuses on one or a few.

XI. Strengthen strengths and lessen weaknesses.

Builds that play to an ATs strengths and make up for their weaknesses are better than ones that don't. Some corollaries:

-- Group-oriented ATs with more group-oriented powers are better than ones with fewer group-oriented powers.

-- Attack-oriented ATs with more attack-oriented powers are better than ones with fewer attack-oriented powers.

-- Defense-oriented ATs with more defense-oriented powers are better than ones with fewer defense-oriented powers.

-- Control-oriented ATs with more control-oriented powers are better than ones with fewer control-oriented powers.

-- Pet-oriented ATs builds with more pet-oriented powers are better than ones with fewer pet-oriented powers.

XII. Bring on the damage.

Builds with good attack chains are better than builds without good attack chains. Some corollaries:
a. Builds with main attack chain powers taken at the earliest possible level are better than ones where the main attack chain powers are not taken at the earliest possible level.
b. Builds with heavily slotted attack chains are better than builds where the main attack chain powers are not heavily slotted.

XIII. The early bird gets the worm.

Builds with critical powers taken at the earliest possible level are better than builds with critical powers taken at later levels.

Dr_Dismemberment · 07-20-2010 07:43 PM

Build Optimizer's Rules-of-Thumb: Part II

I. Zzzz.

Builds with more status effect resistances/protections are better than builds with fewer status effect resistances/protections. No one likes being slept or held constantly and being slept or held if often the precursor to being dead.

Many ATs have minimal or no status resistances/protections. The more one solos or is the main tank for groups, the more important status resistances/protections are. ATs with critical toggle powers that get shut down when held or slept really need to consider adding in status resistance/protection as well. In a group, it's not unreasonable to expect that buffs from group members will remove most of the serious issues.

If you need more status resistances/protections consider picking up powers like:

Combat Jumping: Immobilize Resist
Health: Sleep Resist
Acrobatics: Knockback and Hold Resist
Assault: Placate and Taunt Resist
Tacticts: Confuse and Fear Resist. +Perception.
Weave: Immoblize Resist
Some special IOs have status resistance and some IO sets have status resistance bonuses see:
<Need more info here>

Some ATs have at least one Epic Power Pool that has a status resistance power. If you find yourself in need of more status resistances, consider taking it.

Some ATs have one or more powers in their primary or seconday powers that increase status resistance. It is usually a good idea to pick up these powers if they are available to you.

II. Defense

Builds with more defense are better than builds with less defense. Being at the soft-cap for defense (45%) is particularly useful. Every AT can soft-cap some defenses if they really want to. Many IO sets bonuses include defense bonuses. Defensive powers also accept +7.5% global recharge Luck of the Gambler IOs (a single IO with massive recharge bonus). The more defensive powers one has, the easier and more efficient it is to increase global recharge.

A build with soft-capped defense takes 10 times less damage over time than a build with 0 defense. A build with soft-capped defense will take half as much damage as a build with 40% defense. That being said, defense debuffs are plentiful by many enemies. Also, higher level mobs will have an easier time of hitting you and some buffs that foes have will make it easier for them to hit you. The value of defense is greatly reduced in PvP. Therefore, defense should not necessarily eclipse every other build goal. However, capped defense is fairly easy to achieve in many situations with careful build crafting and should be striven for whenever possible.

Grouping oriented builds can get away with defenses in the 20-30% range. One can typically expect some type of defense buffs when teamed and trying to cap defense often compromises the group-friendliness of a build.

Being greatly over the the defense soft-cap (15% and more) is often a good way to achieve defense debuff mitigation and will help against cascading defensive collapse if one or two lucky defense debuffs manage to land. Many of the defense debuffs that you'll encounter are in the 7.5% - 10% range. Being slightly over the defense soft-cap is almost entirely wasted. If you find yourself in that situation, try to lower the defense to the soft-cap and use the freed up slots to better effect elsewhere.

Many ATs need help with increasing defenses. In that case consider taking from the following powers:
Combat Jumping
Weave
Maneuvers
Defensive power from Epic Pool

< Common defense goals here.. S/L vs Hover/R vs M/R/A >

< Defense IO sets data here >

< Link to defense discussion here. >

III. Global Recharge

Builds with lots of global recharge are better than builds with little or no global recharge. Who doesn't want to use their powers more often -- more damage/more defense/more control/etc? Many IO sets offer between 3.75% - 10% global recharge and increasing global recharge on a build is often fairly easy. Triple recharge reduction IO slotted Hasten (70% global recharge) is nearly standard on every build.

Defensive powers accept +7.5% global recharge Luck of the Gambler IOs (a single IO with massive recharge bonus). The more defensive powers one has, the easier and more efficient it is to increase global recharge.

Purple powers sets often have +10% recharge when 5-slotted and are a good, although expensive, way to increase global recharge.

Exemplary builds tend to have perma-Hasten which is 106% global recharge from IO set bonuses and any recharge powers a set may have (not including Hasten itself). This tends to be pretty difficult to obtain for many builds and would involve too many compromises in other areas. Very good builds have Hasten with a less than 15 second cool down ~75% global recharge from IOs and non-Hasten recharge powers.

The "Rule of 5" which limits any bonus to the first five does not apply to the 7.5% global recharge in Luck of the Gamble vs multi-stot 7.5% global recharge IO sets. That is, you can get a benefit from up to 5 LotG's *and* up to 5 IO multi-slot 7.5% bonus sets (like Gaze of the Basilisk).

IV. Perma

Builds with perma'd critical powers are better than builds where the critical powers are not perma'd. Some examples include: Accelerate Metabolism in radiation, Phantom Army in illusion, Domination for dominators. Usually the way to perma a power is to get Hasten and any recharge buff abilities that an AT has and then load up on global recharge via IO set enhancements until you can use the ability without interruption. Perma only applies to powers with a recharge time longer than their duration. Not all ATs have critical powers that need perma'ing and some powers have such long recharge times that they could never be perma'd no matter how much global recharge you have. Check the appropriate AT boards for your build.

Hasten is a critical power that nearly every build should try to perma. It often involves too much compromises in many builds to perma it, but one should aim for perma-Hasten if possible or, at the very least, to reduce its down-time as much as possible. You need 275% recharge to perma-Hasten. A assuming you have it triple slotted with recharge IOs (the most standard slotting with 99% recharge reduction) and the recharge from Hasten affects itself, so you "only" need 106% (275 - 99 - 70) recharge from buffs and IO sets for it to be perma'd.

See: http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Perma

V. Stealth

Builds with stealth/invis are better than builds without stealth/invis. One very popular and exremely efficient means of getting invis for everything up to boss level (apart from a very few exceptions) is to take the Super Speed power and slot it with a +Stealth Unique IO. This usually doesn't involve taking unecessary powers since many builds already have Hasten and you get a fast travel power to boot. If your AT already includes stealth/invis powers you should probably take them instead.

See: http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Stealth

VI. Resistance

Builds with higher resistances are better than builds with lower resistances. It is virtually impossible to get significant amounts of resistances with IO set bonuses. The only power pool power that provide resistance is Tough. Having high resistance is a wonderful thing but it is really out of reach of most ATs except for some resistance-based primaries/secondaries for brutes/scrappers/tanks/epic ATs.

VII. Accuracy/To-Hit

Builds with lots of global accuracy/to-hit are better than builds with little or no global accuracy/to-hit. Accuracy is fairly common on IO set bonuses.

<mention powers with accuracy/to-hit>
<mention unique IO>
<links to accuracy discussion>

VIII. Mules

Builds with no/fewer mule powers (powers taken that you don't intend to use but take them or slot them for IO set bonuses) are better than builds with any/more mules. Sometimes to get what you want out of a build muling becomes necessary.

IX. Primary Effects

Builds that don't maximize the primary effects via slotting (e.g., damage for damage powers, holds for hold powers) of important powers are less effective than ones that do.

X. Endurance Gain

Builds with a bigger endurance gain (Endurance Recovery - Endurance Usage) number are better than ones with a smaller such number. The absolute values for either is irrelevant, it's the difference to which you need pay attention.

XI. Endurance Slotting

Builds with endurance heavy powers or fast-cast powers that are slotted for endurance reduction are better than ones not slotted for endurance reduction. The faster the cast of the power and the more often it is used, the more endurance reduction is needed (unless the power is very low endurance to begin with or the build has recovery increasing powers).

XII. Max HP

Builds with higher Max HP are better than builds with lower Max HP. Max HP is much more important for melee type builds and PvPers than for others. Having more HP has the extremely nice benefit of increasing the effects of Regeneration which is based off a percentage of total HP.

<mention IOs>
<mention accolades here>

XIII. Regeneration

Builds with more regeneration are better than builds with less regeneration. Regeneration is absolutely critical to some regeneration-based melee ATs. Melee ATs, especially ones with high resistance, get the most benefit from regeneration since they will typically expect to have incoming damage and that damage will be low and steady rather than spike damage allowing regeneration to act as an effective heal.

Here is a close to ideal slotting for Health for regen-based builds:

Miracle - +Recovery
Miracle - Heal
Miracle - Heal/Endurance
Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration
Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
Numina's Convalescence - Heal

See: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=119002 for ideas on slotting Health.

XIV. Max Endurance

Builds with higher maximum endurance are better than builds with lower max endurance. Max endurance is important for nearly everyone as having more endurance has the extremely nice benefit of increasing the effects of endurance recovery which is based off a percentage of max endurance.

<mention IOs>
<mention accolades here>

Dr_Dismemberment · 07-20-2010 07:44 PM

Build Optimizer's Rules-of-Thumb: Part III

I. Slotting

The more heavily used or critical a power is, the more heavily it should be slotted until it has the max number of slots or hits a steep-cutoff in diminishing returns. For instance, Haste should almost always have 3 slots. Putting more slots into it has such little benefit, that it would be a silly thing to do in most situations. Conversely, putting fewer slots into it has such a dramatically adverse impact, that it would be a silly thing to do in most situations as well.

The less important a power is, the less it should be slotted.

II. AOE

Builds with more AoE powers are better than builds with fewer AoE powers. AoE have the advantage of better "force amplification" than single target powers. If you increase the damage of a single target power by 10, then every time you use that power you do 10 extra damage. If you increase the damage of a an AoE power by 10 and that power hits 10 targets, you've increased you total damage by 100. Damage procs in AoE powers are particularly good for this reason.

III. Group Friendly

Some of the group friendly powers that nearly everyone should consider taking at some point:
Stealth/Invis + Recall Friend
Aid Other
Maneuvers
Assault
Tactics
Vengeance

If you can't squeeze in group friendly powers in your solo build, consider using your second build for a group-friendly version that picks up some of these powers. Teaming without some group benefiting powers is selfish.

IV. Travel Power

If you you have too many good powers that you are trying to squeeze into your build, consider dropping a travel power. Ninja Run (from the Martial Arts booster pack) with double slotted hurdle is a very good travel power. Raptor Packs can help with vertical travel.

V. Leveling Down

Make sure your build is effective when leveled down. One way to do this is to ensure your main attack powers and any critical powers in your power sets are taken at the earliest possible level.

VI. Slot for Biggest Advantage

Builds that place their slots where they can have maximum effect are more effective than builds that don't. Imagine that you have 2 toggle powers that you plan to run all the time and you have one slot available for an endurance reduction. Put it into the power that is draining the most endurance rather than the one that drains less.

VII. Unique & Special IOs

Consider slotting some of the unique and special IOs (e.g., knockback resistance, slow resistant, recovery, regen, global recharge, to-hit, global defense, perception) for a large impact with a single slot.

<More details here>

VIII. Damage Proc IOs

<More info here>

IX. Rule of Five

The "Rule of Five" limits the bonus of any attribute from any IO set to the first 5. For instance, if you have 6 IO sets with 5% to global recharge (independent of whether the sets have the same name or not), then you will only get the benefit of 25% global recharge rather than 30%. Attribute bonuses of differing amounts are not considered the same for application of this rule. You can have 5 sets of 5% global recharge and 5 sets with 7.5% global recharge and they would all apply.

This rule does not apply to the 7.5% global recharge in Luck of the Gamble vs multi-stot 7.5% global recharge IO sets. That is, you can get a benefit from up to 5 LotG's *and* up to 5 IO multi-slot 7.5% bonus sets (like Gaze of the Basilisk).

Good builds do not violate this rule as it is typically inefficient. You could probably get better overall set bonuses by using different IO sets. In Mid's, the "Sets & Bonuses" window will point out any violations of the rule to help you avoid them.

See: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Rule_of_5

X. More is, in fact, less.

<More info here>

XI. Diminishing Returns & Enhancement Diversification.

See: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancement_Diversification

XII. More is, in fact, less.

<More info here>

XII. Buffs & Debuffs.

<More info here>

Dr_Dismemberment · 07-20-2010 07:45 PM

Build Templates

Here are some proposed build templates. They are really just ideas to help get you started. Some power sets make some of these default power selection not particularly desirable, in which case, feel free to remove them. Feel free to modify the powers/slotting/levels for the needs of your particular build. For general guidelines I like to take Hasten on or before 10, Super Speed on or before 14, Stamina on or before 24, Recall Friend on or before 14. Having these critical powers at these levels will keep your build functioning better when exemplared down.

I. Solo Template

Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I, RechRdx-I, RechRdx-I
Level 14: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I, Jump-I
Level 18: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+, Numna-Regen/Rcvry+
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%, P'Shift-EndMod, EndMod-I
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+
Level 26: Boxing -- Dmg-I
Level 28: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+, S'fstPrt-ResKB, HO:Ribo
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+, LkGmblr-Def, HO:Cyto

Note: Extreme solo builds (inspiration-free AV solo build, etc.) might want to consider dropping Combat Jumping in favor of Aid Other and Aid Self if their power sets have no other self-heals.

Note: Solo builds encountering difficulties with holds should consider picking up Acrobatics.

Note: Those going for range defense with Hover should consider swapping out Combat Jumping for Hover.

II. Grouping Template

Level 6: Hasten -- RechRdx-I, RechRdx-I, RechRdx-I
Level 10: Recall Friend -- EndRdx-I
Level 14: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth, Zephyr-ResKB
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I, Jump-I
Level 18: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+, Numna-Regen/Rcvry+
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%, P'Shift-EndMod, EndMod-I
Level 26: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+, LkGmblr-Def, HO:Cyto
Level 28: Assault -- EndRdx-I
Level 30: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+, LkGmblr-Def, DefBuff-I

Note: If you don't have Ninja Jump, you can change the double-slotted Hurdle to a single-slotted Swift to save yourself a slot. Swift has a much lower base improvement than Hurdle, and it is not typically efficient to allocate extra slots to it.

III. Regen-Based Builds

Consider using this slotting for Health instead.

Level 18: Health

Miracle - +Recovery
Miracle - Heal
Miracle - Heal/Endurance
Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration
Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
Numina's Convalescence - Heal

See: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=119002 for ideas on slotting Health.

Dr_Dismemberment · 07-20-2010 07:47 PM