DreadShinobi

Yeah I still don't understand why Death Shroud didn't get the Dynamo treatment when Elec Manip was changed.

A blaster that deals less damage than a defender?

Radiation Blast tends to perform very well on defenders because of how well it incorporates proc damage into its slotting. The -def alleviates lower accuracy slotting slightly when faced with tohit debuffs. Defenders/Corrs can also more readily afford to massively proc load rad blast because they have primaries that can make up the base stat deficit (kinetics, time manip). Blasters tend to prefer high base damage and fast animations and don't care as much if you can slot 2 dmg procs or 5 into a power because they would rather chase set bonuses (advantage: fire). Radiation Blast is also great with oppressive gloom, which is better accessed on defenders/corrs that get 120s soul drain in the same tertiary pool. OG+Cosmic Burst = 1 shot stunned bosses.

Questions to be had. Did you actually put IOs in the character? My StJ/EA has CU on a 5.97s cd, capped at 5s cd during forcefeedback procs. Did you notice that Shin Breaker is actually a great proc loaded ability? Not including hecatomb proc, it can take 5 dmg procs or 4 dmg procs+achilles proc. Do you have zapp/ball lightning in your build and how much global recharge do you have to supplement their usage? Did you notice how much having a level 3 combo stack actually changes CU damage and did you notice your crit damage is not modified by your combo level? My StJ/EA slots CU 5 hecatomb with proc and unbreakable constraint proc. Base = 694.9 dmg (18% global dmg buff + musculature) lvl 3 combo = 809 dmg (~16% increase) Base + Crit = 1151.4 dmg Base/crit/combo3 = 1265.5 dmg (~10% increase) You certainly do not need 3 stacks of combo, however stalkers set up the lvl 3 combo easier than ever because AS gives 2 stacks, so there really isn't any reason that should be difficult, or even something you need to wait for.

skipping fighting is not indicative of being a floor magnet.

I'd love to see a powerset with the attack animations based on emotes like this.

Should add the username attached to the posted times

Shield defense has excellent base values with tanker modifiers - both defensively and offensively. It is definitely a better choice for tankers than brutes or stalkers - and a bit of a tossup between tank / scrapper.

The thing about the current game state is that survivability is relative and you can always be dealing more damage. If I build a hyper aggressive full offense fiery aura tanker that holds aggro and never dies, am I a "50/50 jack of all trades master of none"? If a tanker provides 3 functions - survive, hold aggro, and deal damage, which tanker will be contributing more to the team? The "dedicated" tanker that survives, holds aggro, and sits there spamming jab? Or the tanker that equally survives, equally holds aggro, and completes mission objectives by actually dealing damage? The same can be said of defenders that adequately understand how to balance their primary/secondary usage. Kinetics is a great example where appropriate weaving of your abilities feels like an art form.

You're cherry picking, and no I actually didn't say that, to be frank I don't see a point to playing dark melee (especially on stalker) and I wouldn't play shield defense just to find a use for it. If I was looking to play a melee set that can heal I will stick to Rad Melee, and with that I'd probably be looking at a tanker anyways. People like double teleport attacks. Popularity is a poor way to describe actual effectiveness, and no I am not saying anything one way or the other in that statement. I have full respect for the information Croax put together in his thread, but take a closer look at his build. There are huge DPA differences between his elec/sd and my elec/ea. He absolute needed to put a huge amount of his slotting towards getting to the softcap and it did significantly reduce his potential output. Dmg procs available to his elec/sd vs my elec/ea Zapp 1 proc vs 1 proc+1 purple proc Ball Lightning 0 proc vs 2 proc Chain Induc 1 purple vs 1 purple + 1 proc Lightning Rod 1 proc vs 3 procs + 1 purple proc I believe he would be using ageless to keep sustainable, which means he doesn't have rebirth. Since EA needs neither I can run incan, and also don't need maneuvers so I have provoke utility for teams as well. The EA build should also be exemplaring quite a bit better. SD vs EA regen 437 hp regen / 30 sec vs 1568 hp every 30 seconds. 2.14 EPS vs 2.53 EPS with energy drain refill. EPS gap will widen with sprint and super speed toggled on. Ball Lightning spam = 1.31 EPS on the SD build. Stalkers are pretty endurance hungry, and a big part of why I talk about EA the way I do. Personally I just don't care for the over reliance on Ageless in character building these days. The question then is... was AAO/shield charge worth it? I do wonder how the two would compare in actual gameplay.

The question is can you put as many damage procs in your shield build as I can with energy aura? How much is your global recharge deficit by chasing the softcap/procs? Are you relying on vigor/ageless/rebirth when EA can take musc/incan? And what is the opportunity cost by relying on dark melee sustain to prop up shield defense when EA can opt into a set with better damage? You can patch up shield's weaknesses yes, but there will inevitably be a trade off. Where Shield must make decisions on where and how those trade offs occur, EA takes option D) all of the above. You stuff your attacks full of damage procs and still have a softcapped defenses, layered mitigation/healing, infinite endurance, and massive global recharge.

I would love this too - in any form it takes o.o

Not signing on here. Resist cap change does nothing for the archetype. Literally only Fiery Aura, Electric Armor, and Ice Armor see any benefit to a higher resist cap and only to fire/energy/cold damage respectively. Even post-IOs most sentinel resist based secondaries do not hit 75% resists, and many secondaries are not based on resistances, which this would do nothing to address for sets like energy aura, super reflexes, ninjtsu, regeneration. Further the issue with sentinels has never been one of survivability, they don't even need the survivability they have access to without any aggro holding mechanics. An extra alpha slot that youre locked into at character creation just screams *I chose the wrong one and so now I need to reroll the character to fix my choice.* It also screams choose musculature/intuition radial and that just screams have sentinels rely more on proc damage than they already do. Even if it was a 33% always on damage buff this does not fix their low base damage. They do need their target caps looked at, and if target caps are not changed they need a significant bump in their damage scalar, cause their single target damage is really quite garbo, especially pre-IOs/pre-damage proc slotting. Sentinels bring minimal team utility outside of damage dealt - when their damage dealt is lower than archetypes that can provide aggro control, hard controls, buffs, and debuffs there is a serious issue. If their damage is not increased, which I highly doubt that this basic aspect wouldn't be addressed when the sentinel patch eventually comes, then they need to be able to provide more utility to teams, which will like come via their inherent.

I would hope that any "newbie" tanker not feel restricted into picking their primary power choice based on that armor sets lack of click powers. Compared to other archetypes, playing any melee archetype is extremely forgiving and straightforward. The original post specifically said they want a good level-up experience - not an endgame oriented choice. Most of the posts in this thread have ignored that part, and so I will second @ZorkNemesis suggesting Fiery Aura. The set does fine with just SOs, a knockback protection IO is all you really need. Healing Flames recharges in 20 seconds with just SOs. Burn comes in at lvl 18, no other tanker primary will hit such a power spike. It is great for solo clearing content as the OP requested.

Fiery Melee isn't so hot for stalkers. Fiery Melee also has *opinions* the absolute ugliest and laziest of the assassin strike animations. When they ported FM to stalkers they gave the AS a melee version of blazing bolt animation, and numbers aside, made me hate and delete my fire melee stalker. Then there is the part where fiery melee trades out having any knockdowns, stuns, debuffs, ranged attack, defense buff, self heal, or additional proc options for..... a dps advantage that doesn't exist. .... ...... ........ Fiery Melee secondary effect of burn damage does not put it in the same place that Fire Blasting does in comparison to other blast sets. Also, please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the fire damage over time secondary effect is not calculated into your critical bonus damage. Critical hits increase your base damage before burn damage. Very unfortunate for stalkers. StJ/EA is fantastic. One of my favorite characters. If you would like me to provide a build for you to look at just tag me and ask for it 🙂

Not a bit of that trailer reflected actual gameplay lol.

Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.1.25 https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Stalker Primary Power Set: Electrical Melee Secondary Power Set: Energy Aura Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Presence Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Havoc Punch -- SprAssMar-Rchg/Rchg Build Up(A), SprAssMar-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), SprAssMar-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), SprAssMar-Acc/Dmg(15), SprAssMar-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), SprAssMar-Dmg/Rchg(19) Level 1: Hide -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 2: Kinetic Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(13) Level 4: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(11) Level 6: Assassin's Shock -- SprStlGl-Rchg/Hide%(A), SprStlGl-Dmg/Rchg(7), SprStlGl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), SprStlGl-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), SprStlGl-Acc/Dmg(9), SprStlGl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11) Level 8: Power Shield -- Rct-ResDam%(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Rct-Def/Rchg(23), Rct-Def(40), Rct-Def/EndRdx(43), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg(43) Level 10: Entropy Shield -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 12: Build Up -- GssSynFr--Build%(A) Level 14: Jacobs Ladder -- FuroftheG-ResDeb%(A), Obl-%Dam(29), Obl-Dmg(31), OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg(31), OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg/End(34), OvrFrc-Dam/KB(34) Level 16: Kinetic Dampening -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), UnbGrd-Max HP%(17) Level 18: Chain Induction -- Hct-Dam%(A), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Hct-Dmg(21), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), Hct-Acc/Rchg(25), TchofDth-Dam%(31) Level 20: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 22: Boxing -- AbsAmz-Stun(A), AbsAmz-EndRdx/Stun(25), AbsAmz-Stun/Rchg(27), AbsAmz-Acc/Stun/Rchg(27), AbsAmz-Acc/Rchg(29) Level 24: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A) Level 26: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(46) Level 28: Energy Drain -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 30: Super Speed -- HO:Micro(A) Level 32: Lightning Rod -- Arm-Dam%(A), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(33), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Erd-%Dam(33), ScrDrv-Dam%(34), Obl-%Dam(37) Level 35: Energize -- Prv-Absorb%(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(36), Prv-Heal(36), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(36), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(37), Prv-Heal/Rchg(37) Level 38: Zapp -- StnoftheM-Dam%(A), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), StnoftheM-Acc/Dmg(39), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx(39), StnoftheM-Acc/ActRdx/Rng(40), Apc-Dam%(40) Level 41: Ball Lightning -- PstBls-Dam%(A), PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), PstBls-Acc/Dmg(42), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx(42), PstBls-Dmg/Rng(43), Bmbdmt-+FireDmg(46) Level 44: Mu Bolts -- Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Apc-Dmg(45), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(45), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Apc-Acc/Rchg(46) Level 47: Summon Adept -- ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(A), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx(48), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(48) Level 49: Provoke -- PrfZng-Taunt(A), PrfZng-Acc/Rchg(50), PrfZng-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(50), PrfZng-Taunt/Rng(50) Level 1: Assassination Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- HO:Micro(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(3), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(3), NmnCnv-Heal(5) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-End%(21) Level 0: Marshal Level 0: High Pain Threshold Level 0: Invader Level 50: Ageless Core Epiphany Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon Level 0: Born In Battle Level 1: Quick Form ------------ | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1537;725;1450;HEX;| |78DA6594DB4F134114C667BB5BB1A5953B05CBC5722D2D2DADFAA2C410E5A2526A3| |0C44B7C693675AD8D9B52DB9280E883CF5E6278E16FF0C5178DFA5F08826FC4C468| |8C37EE0FC6F8B09ECE772C4DBAC9E637F3CDF9CE9C99D99DF8FC98EBC5F98723427| |18F9A7A3E9F9829E8E61D23678FEBA9745215F454D1DBC172226E9886111E378D64| |21974EEA2604EFFFE131E39691C95340C6C8A5161267E772BA704DCFCE9AE12943C| |FA63329A7ECCC640DE3A65B3627D2A9DB051AA893BDB89E4967E74CBD909ECD78C6| 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Between Ninjitsu, Super Reflexes, and Shield Defense, I would choose Energy Aura. EA hits softcaps easier than Nin and SD, it has healing and regeneration values that SR and SD lack, it has a recharge buff that Nin and SD lack, and it has access to some of the most powerful endurance sustain abilities in the game, which Nin, SR, and SD have zero endurance management tools. About softcaps - --Ninjitsu Ninja Reflexes and Danger Sense are base 13.88% defense, slotted with LotG +Rchg, and LotG-Def (with +5 boosted IOs) you get to 20.85% def buff. When you add in Combat Jumping, Hide, and Weave buffs, and steadfast + gladi armor uniques you get to about 37% defense. That is an additional 8% to chase with IOs, as well as needing to fill the kb protection hole and slots for endurance management. --Shield Defense is even worse off because the base values on Deflection and Battle Agility are set at 11.25% base. With the same set up as above with all +5 IOs you reach about 33% positional defense, leaving a massive 12% to chase with your IO slotting. Shield Defense also needs slots for +regen and endurance management. -Neither Nin or SD have the free +20% global recharge --Super Reflexes can hit 45% positionals by itself with CJ/Hide/Gladi Armor/Steadfast, however that requires 8 defense based powers (thinking about IO set diversification), it doesn't have any inherent heal or regen buff, or endurance management tools. --Energy Aura Kinetic Shield and Power Shield have a massive 16.5% base defense - this is why softcapping energy aura is so much easier than Nin or Shield, and why it so much more power-slot effective than SR because it gets such a large amount of defense from just 2 powers. For Energy Aura I put my 5 lotgs into Hide, CJ, Kinetic Shield, Weave, and Energy Drain - and so I slot Power Shield with 6 reactive defenses. Power Shield grants 26.42% def and Kinetic Shield grants 24.79% Def (with the lotg+rchg and lotg-def same slotting as used in the other sets for equal comparison). This puts your defense totals to 40.92% S/L def, 42.56% F/C, 46.5% Energy, and 36.55% Negative. Before Energy Drain, which can put you above softcaps to all sans negative. A set of Superior Blistering Cold is also a great choice for energy aura that gives you a 5% bump to S/L/C/F but it isn't necessary - Superior Stalker's Guile also provides 5% S/L def, and Assassin's mark provides 2.5% F/C. Needless to say Energy Aura is extremely efficient at hitting softcaps with essentially zero need to chase extra defense like Nin and SD have to, and it requires significantly less power picks than SR to hit those softcaps. This is all before mentioning just how amazing Energize is, which basically lets you ignore your blue bar, which none of the other sets can do. Because all your basic build requirements (defense softcaps, blue bar sustain, green bar sustain) are already set for you at base levels you can chase massive amounts of +rchg set bonuses and still have plenty of room for proc damage slotting which allows its offensive capabilities to far surpass the other sets. More specifically there isn't a single primary power choice that I feel would perform better on Nin/SD/SR than it would on Energy Aura.

Fast animations are a big deal. Blaze even with defender mods is always going to be an amazing DPA attack. Fire blasting requires low slot investment into damage procs to deal good damage, which means you can devote more slots towards set bonuses and defensive procs. This makes fire blasting on a defender a premier choice for Poison, which has low self protection. The high damage of fire is great with the -res debuffs from envenom and VG. The lower requirement on procs allows poison to chase the +def and +regen set bonuses that it loves. My poison/fire defender is one of my absolute favorite characters - it is very competitive in effectiveness.

I often skip aim on defenders as the tohit buff is typically irrelevant and the damage buff is only 50%. The major power slot comparison here is that in that slot for aim I can take assault for 18.75% dmg buff which is permanent and affects the whole team. Especially for my sonic blasting defenders that have low personal damage and focus on increasing team member dps, aim is not very significant. Defender base damage is low and often heavily supported by damage procs for their output (outside of sonic) which is not affected by damage buffs. This is the only archetype that I skip aim on and I would certainly not skip it on a blaster.

The one thing missing from this conversation is that the game has since introduced electrical affinity and Faraday Cage. Imo triage beacon (and spirit tree) could easily be fixed by replicating faraday cage functioning. The animation time needs some love though - Faraday - 1.3sec Triage - 2.9sec Spirit tree - 3.4sec.

Doms get sleet - please port dominator ice mastery to blasters. Thanks! In seriousness though, ancillaries cant really be cross AT ported because they are balanced around that particular archetype. You also can't port ancillaries that have powers that are already present in any primary or secondary that archetype has access to. New ancillaries would be great though and I would 100% prefer some *thoughtful* expansion to ancillary choices for any or all archetypes over having any new super cool amazingly powerful primary/secondary powerset added to the game.

You really don't need to buy incarnate inspirations other than the ultimates to level shift. Just have a few people with team red insps, even the medium sized +25% aoe red insp is plenty. You just cluster close and pop 8. Everyone else can keep a handful of personal reds for an extended fight against tyrant, you get 20 slots and you really dont need to use any insps to get to tyrant. You dont need to spend your threads for RHW on anything other than the ultimates. Protip - i use my farmer with all insps disabled except red and break free with team insps enabled and throw all the large reds, team reds, med/large break free, and team break free insps into my sg base.

Farming is fine. I don't consider it a problem in terms of resource generation. Actively farming a mission over and over is no different than farming a task force or farming the market or farming hami raids or farming PI radio missions. The keyword here is actively. I do think AE moonmap afk farming is ludicrous however. I can set the mission run my character into the middle of the map and tab out of the game. I can completely ignore my character while passively earning inf and drops. This is something that has existed on homecoming far longer than it would have on live before being patched. I will occasionally farm as i have a need for inf or to level an alt but most of the funding for my IOs comes from speed running TFs and hami raid merit rewards. However when you have 2 accounts, which many people do, you can slap your fire farmer on the moonmap, tab out, and run a task force, missions, or wait for that hami raid to finally start. Hell you can just drop your guy off on the moon and go for a walk, take a bath, do the dishes, or read a book, and it takes <60 secs to reset the mission. In terms of time investment for the rewards given such inactivity has never been so profitable. This is where I see the issue.

@Retroman Tps = teleports Best attribute of interface is the dmg proc portion, thats why i dont choose ones that dont have a dmg proc and why i always go radial side for the 75% proc chance on the dmg. The +5 on your IOs is from enhancement boosters. You can buy on the AH or from merit vendor. Theyre especially useful on single attribute normal IOs like what you would put in hasten. It brings the value of the io from 42% to 53%. You cannot attune an io with an enhancement catalyst and also +5 it. You gotta pick value or exemp friendly. Purples exemp with you so theyre also a good choice to +5. You cannot +5 ATOs. Server hopping takes about 20 seconds.