Bastille Boy

It is very possible to play Pain Domination solo when you have a fully kitted-out build. I have a Pain/Sonic defender at level 50, and he is quite tanky. But soloing with any of the healing sets is challenging when you're starting out. (If Pain seems challenging to solo, some of the other healing sets, like Empathy and Thermal, are even worse.) Others have said it, but it's good advice: take this character on teams! There are some missions that you theoretically can solo, but you're not meant to solo (on any archetype). Like Take Down Sea Witch from Lorenz Ansaldo (redside). Do you have any respecs available? Think about respeccing this toon to include some powers that will make your character less squishy: Tough and Weave from the Fighting pool (you must first take Boxing or Kick) Maneuvers from the Leadership pool Either Hover from Flight (for the defense boost), or Combat Jumping from Leaping (for the defense boost), or Rune of Protection from Sorcery (for a way to break mezz -- you must take two other powers first) To make room in your build, leave out a couple of the attack powers that you're using the least. Try to have at least two attacks with at least five filled slots: either an IO set, or SOs (1 accuracy, 2 damage, 1 recharge, 1 endurance reduction). Enhance accuracy first. I'd recommend 2-3 slots on Health and 2 slots on Stamina.

That's true for some defender primaries, such as Empathy and Thermal. But other defender primaries, such as Time Manipulation and Nature Affinity, have mostly PBAoE buffs that do affect the player. Funny you should mention that. Nature/water is my next defender project. I think Nature is a neglected set. I've played it to 50 on a corruptor, which I think was a mistake. It's stronger on a defender. The build I have planned has softcapped M/R defense (with Agility) and hardcapped S/L/E resists when Wild Growth is up. I'm sacrificing perma-Overgrowth for durability.

Of the primaries you're considering, the ones I've played to 50 are Time and Rad. If you want to be a tankermage, Time is a good choice. If you want to kill AVs and can deal with being less tanky, Rad is a good choice. Time Manipulation is arguably the best solo set for defenders. It is a good set for team play, though I wouldn't expect to see it in record-setting speed runs. Power Build Up + Farsight gives you (and all teammates in range) roughly a 32% defense boost, which makes it trivial to hit the softcap. This frees you up to put procs in your attacks, to take a resistance-based epic armor (rather than Scorpion Shield), and to take Sorcery instead of Leaping or Flight (no need for CJ or Hover). The rest of the set has a mix of useful buffs and debuffs. Time is less clicky than other sets. It enables you to focus on your secondary. Radiation Emission is a powerful debuff set with one powerful buff in Accelerate Metabolism. It is one of the strongest sets for AV killing. Of the toons I have, my Rad/Sonic would be my first choice to bring to a Katie Hannon TF (if I wasn't going for badges on another toon). It is not my first choice for a team that is steamrolling things. It takes time to apply the three big debuffs (two toggles on an anchor, one AOE). That said, it's not a busy set; once the debuffs are up, you can blast away. One drawback of Radiation is that it doesn't include any defense or resistance boosts. The -tohit is useful, but it's not a substitute for softcapped defenses in the late game. It's possible to softcap both ranged and melee defenses and to take a resistance-based epic armor, but your build will be tight. On the plus side, Radiation is an early-bloomer, and there are four skippable powers. The essential powers are T1-4 and T6, i.e. the AOE heal, the big buff, and the three big debuffs.

Clearly the answer depends on what you are trying to optimize for. I am optimizing for two things. Ability to fit into a backstory that involves a bunch of superpowered people living happily in close quarters. (My main storyline involves a Scandinavian-style open prison, but I also have a nuclear submarine officer, and I have plans to roll some modern-day sea pirates.) Ability to complete AE 801.2 solo at the highest possible difficulty. (+3/8 is my personal best. I'm hopeful about achieving +4/8 on my SD/EM tanker.) For happily living in close quarters, I would rank the archetypes as follows (more details here ) Best: Defenders, corruptors, and petless masterminds with buff sets focused on buffs and healing powers that do not require the presence of an enemy. Being in several overlapping regeneration or damage resistance auras presumably feels amazing. Second best: Tankers. Being physically almost invulnerable makes them generally chill. Third best: Scrappers and sentinels. Chill, but not quite as chill as tankers. Neutral: Blasters; defenders, corruptors, and petless MMs with debuff-focused sets, Dark Miasma, or Kinetics. Mildly problematic: Controllers (because they're, well, controlling); Masterminds with pets (because space is at a premium here); Stalkers (because they think they can get away with things). Second worst: Brutes. Rage is an issue. Worst: Dominators. They are nightmare roommates, for obvious reasons. For completing AE 801.2 max diff solo, here's what I believe to be viable: Tankers are clearly most viable. Most people who have reported a successful solo max diff AE 801.2 run did it with a tanker. The challenge is to get enough damage without sacrificing durability. Brutes and Scrappers have done it. There are fewer viable powerset combinations here than there are with tankers. Durability is the main obstacle here. Controllers have done it. There are likely many viable powerset combinations. At least one Time/ defender has done it. Linea has run AE 801.2 max diff with a Water/Atomic blaster but rates the build +2/8. Promising but unknown: Stalkers with heavy use of the updated Teleport or Concealment pools. Promising but unknown: /Time corruptors. Promising but unknown: Sentinels! Not promising: Anything that relies on soft-capped defenses for protection and has no DDR. If I were a diehard min-maxer, I would only play tankers and Time/ defenders. They are optimal, by my criteria, so why would I play anything else? But variety is good, there are other possibilities known to be viable by these criteria, and it is fun to try things that haven't been done yet. My focus right now is on my SD/EM tanker. But I have a Fire / Energy Aura sentinel at 50, made in the hope that it will be durable in AE 801 and other very tough content. It was fun to level up. It's pretty clear that sentinels are more promising than blasters for AE 801, and they're slightly better for my other criterion.

This is beautiful.

Dahkness is right about your rad/kin. You need to play the character to level 38 and get Fulcrum Shift before it will start to feel strong. Also, radiation blast will be stronger after you've added some procs. It's not the best blast set if you want to run an SO-only build or if you want your IO build to use only straight sets. Support toons are going to feel lackluster on radio / newspaper teams that are steamrolling everything. Support toons are more valuable on more challenging content, such as missions with archvillains. Suggestions on powersets (based on what I've played): Time: Effective on teams (with two big PBAoE buffs) and arguably the best support set for soloing. The defense boost you get from Farsight gives you a lot of build flexibility. Thermal: Arguably the best of the "healing" sets. The +resistance buffs and the T8/T9 debuffs make this set valuable even on teams with min-maxed builds. This is a very "clicky" set; you won't be able to focus on your blast set as much. Not a solo-friendly set. I find the "dark fire" visuals much better than the default. Nature: A strong buff set with proactive alternatives to healing (+absorb, +regen, heal over time). Because the PBAoE +res and +dam buffs affect the player, this is more solo-friendly than Thermal. It is also less "clicky," enabling you to focus more on your blast set. It lacks the ability to mez-proof teammates. There are several top-tier sets I haven't played to high levels (including Cold, Dark, Kinetics, and Storm). I won't comment on them. I think Pain and Empathy are both underrated, but I think Time, Thermal, and Nature are better fits for what you want. For blast sets, my favorites for defender other than Sonic are Water (if you want to focus on AoE) and Beam (if you want to focus on single-target). I have not played Dark Blast to 50, but it's been fun at lower levels. I consider Ice and Fire corruptor sets.

Is this SG about a specific country, or is this generic patriotism? If it's about the United States, and you want Titan Weapons, you could use the railroad pike weapon customization and go with a tall tales theme (Casey Jones or John Henry inspired). War Mace with a sledgehammer would also fit this theme (going with Henry rather than Jones). If it's generic patriotism, a firefighter would fit in with many countries' patriotic displays. You could take Battle Axe with the firefighter's axe customization. If it's about the Etoille Islands, go with Dark Melee, obviously. p.s. Today I learned that Pete Seeger's lyrics to "Casey Jones" were not the original lyrics and that Casey Jones was a real person.

Sometimes when I play video games, I want to relax and chill out. AE 801 is for the other times. The damage is mostly S/L/E, but there are a few bosses that do negative energy damage. There are a lot of debuffs. Details here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/26511-ae-801-incarnate-team-missions/

@FEARtheCURRY The general rule for support toons in CoX is that buffs and debuffs are priority #1, attacks are priority #2, healing is priority #3. (The exception is in team PVP, where healing is top priority for emps.) I happen to like "healing" powersets thematically, and I've played all four of them to 50 on either a defender or a corruptor. I also have a Time defender. Thoughts: Empathy is very useful on mid-level teams and essential in team PVP. On endgame teams, where most characters have softcapped defenses, Fortitude loses some of its value. A resistance buff is usually more useful. It is a very "clicky" set; you won't be able to focus on your blast set as much. That said, by all means roll empathy if you like it thematically. (Your backstory can be almost literally any story!) A few highly skilled players have done amazing things with solo emps. Thermal Radiation is like Empathy, in that it is a "clicky" healing set, but it provides a +res buff rather than a +def buff, which is more useful in the endgame. The last two powers in the set are powerful debuffs. This is arguably the top "healing" set for PVE. I find it challenging to play solo. Aside from the AOE heal, there's nothing to protect the player. Pain Domination is less "clicky" than Empathy and Thermal. It has an AOE damage, resistance, and tohit buff that affects the player. If you want to focus on your blast set, or if you want to play a support toon who sometimes solos, Pain is a solid choice. Nature Affinity works differently from the other healing sets, as it provides +absorb, +regen, and healing over time to teammates rather than direct heals. (There's a cone heal, but I skip it.) It lacks a power to mez-proof your teammates. It does, however, provide +res and +dam. Nature defenders contribute well to teams and can also solo quite well. Time Manipulation is an excellent powerset both solo and on teams. It's not really a healing set, though it does have an AOE heal. Its key power is an AOE defense buff. Unlike the defense buff in empathy, the AOE buff in Time affects the player. This makes it easy to achieve softcapped defenses (45% either typed or positional) and gives you flexibility in an endgame build. Of the four blast sets you mention, sonic is arguably the best on teams, due to the -res debuff it applies. You won't do as much damage as you would with other sets, but you will help your teammates do more damage. It's not as good as other sets solo. If you plan to solo, I would go with dark or water. Dark provides a -tohit debuff which is helpful defensively. Water allows you to fight entirely at range (no PBAOE tier 9 power).

Archetypes don't have purposes. I am enjoying my newly-50 Fire/Energy sentinel because it gives me the option of attacking at range while being mez-proof without relying on Rune or Clarion. The changes to the Flight power pool will make hover-blasting a viable strategy more often (due to the new ability to resist -Fly in combat).

If it's my first time playing a powerset, I will usually level taking all the powers (unless there's a power that's widely regarded in the forums as clearly bad). Then I respec in the late 30s or early 40s to drop powers I find I'm not using. I usually respec when a character hits 50 or soon after. Usually I've slotted a bunch of yellow IOs while leveling, and many of those won't end up in the final build. Even if I don't want to move slots around, respeccing is cheaper and easier than using unslotters. I've respecced two of my toons (Bastille Boy and Mikey Iodine) several times. I started playing them back in 2019, and I've rethought their builds as I learned more about game mechanics.

I start most of my toons on redside for eccentric backstory reasons. The Rogue Isles has a police force, so they must have jails or prisons, but we never hear about them in the game. (The only redside prison we hear about is the Zag, run by Longbow.) So I made something up. Most of my toons are either corruptional officers or prisoners out on "work release." Stealing things and turning over the proceeds is considered "work." I always bring my high-level toons over to blueside for a while to get accolades. The easiest way to get all four accolades is to get three on blueside and one on redside...and that one redside accolade is easiest to get if you first run a blueside arc. It's not that hard to get all four accolades on blueside, if you're willing to run some annoying older task forces. Getting all four accolades on redside is tricky.

I don't have any ideas here, but my characters do. J. J. Roth, a.k.a. Bastille Boy: Herocatcher Jake: Jailbird Jamie: Damon Glasseater:

My current badge-collector is Jailbird Jamie, an escaped convict from the Rogue Isles sent to the Port Oakes Pen for non-payment of bribes. (What else?) He got high on stimulants, jumped the fence, and is spending his unofficial furlough whacking fascists with a garden shovel. My favorite comic book superhero is Martine Juliette Clocqueur, a World War II spy who was in the pay of both Britain and Germany but worked only for France. Her superpowers were deception, seduction, and marksmanship. They are not time travelers, so they could not meet, but I think that they would get along.

I agree that there is a problem. I think the solution is to add optional challenges, rather than changing the overall balance of the game. I would love to see some new, really difficult missions, both in AE and in the main game. I do not regard it as a problem that the game includes easy content, or that there are easy ways to level up a character, like +4/8 Council stomps. For a lot of players, altitis is the endgame. That it's possible to get a character to level 50 without a long grind is a feature of the game, not a bug. An 0.1% change to the softcap would not drive everyone away, but it also would not satisfy concerns about game balance / difficulty. The kind of change to the defense softcap that would satisfy people who have complaints about game balance would drive away a lot of players.

Yup. These changes would alienate many experienced players who've invested a lot of time into their high-end, softcapped builds. It would also make the game less accessible to newer players. Swing a nerf bat this big, and it's Game Over. There are AE missions that challenge high-end builds. Go in solo at +2/8 with no protection other than softcapped defenses, and you'll be on the floor almost instantly. These missions are the challenge that keeps me coming back to the game. Perhaps we could have some endgame missions with similarly challenging enemy groups (with appropriate warning to casual players). The way to add challenging content is to add challenging content. Nerfs are not the answer. I would probably quit, too. My best guess is that Homecoming would lose 50-75% of the player base.

Welcome back to the game! For your first new character in nearly a decade, I think you're most likely to be happy with one of the melee archetypes. Brutes and scrappers are simplest to play. Stalkers are a bit less survivable, but they do amazing single-target damage, and the stealth mechanic is fun. Tankers are very survivable and very welcome in groups, but they're less fun to solo if you want to go fast. (I solo tankers a lot, but I don't care that much about going fast.) None of the melee attack sets are bad sets. Take what you like thematically. (You can check the visuals in the character creator.) I would avoid stone armor on your first character. Of the ranged archetypes, Sentinel is most friendly to new and recently-returned players. Sentinels don't do as much damage as blasters do, but they have an armor set, so they don't die as often while leveling up. (A well-built level 50 blaster can be very tough.) I have less experience with sentinels, so I won't make powerset recommendations. If you want to go with a "support" character that can solo well, I'd recommend a Time/* Defender. Soloing the early levels may be challenging, but at level 18, you get Farsight, which is almost an armor set in itself. (Slot for recharge first!) At level 50, Time/* defenders are powerful solo characters, and they're welcome on teams (as most defenders are). Good blast sets to pair with Time include Fire, Water, Ice, and Beam Rifle. For a team-oriented defender, Sonic Attack is top-tier, but I would not recommend it for a first character that will be soloing a lot. I would recommend against playing a controller, a dominator, or a mastermind when you're new to the game or newly returning. All three archetypes can be powerful and fun, but they take more skill and knowledge of the game to play well. I would also recommend against Energy Blast or anything else with a lot of knockback, another mechanic that takes skill to use well. Knockdown is fine.

Thanks, @Linea, for creating these missions! They're a fun challenge, especially for my odd playstyle, which is to create team-oriented toons for character concept reasons and then try to solo hard things with them. The current focus of my altitis is to create toons that can solo 801.2 at max difficulty. My best runs so far, none of them deathless: Super Reflexes / Garden Shovel (War Mace) Tanker: +3/8, four minutes to spare. I did not yet have lores; I may be able to beat this at max difficulty when I have T4 lores. (Edit 3/13: Nope.) Pulling in the big rooms is key to survival. So is Rebirth Destiny, due to the lack of a self-heal in SR. This powerset combination is vastly better on a tanker than it is on a scrapper. Or at least it is for me. (I do not have super reflexes!) Invulnerability / Street Justice Tanker: +2/8, 18 minutes to spare. I tried and failed at +3/8 but might be able to do it with more practice. +4/8 clearly won't happen with this build. I'm not sure whether the limitation is damage or durability. Dealing with the rangers is a challenge. More to-hit in the build might help. Super Strength / Willpower Tanker: +1/8. This was an experimental proc monster build, which I think was ill-conceived. If missions like this are my goal, building for damage rather than durability is a mistake. The difference in DDR between Invulnerability and Willpower is noticeable. (Edit 3/13: I may be blaming Willpower for the vulnerabilities of Super Strength. Rage crash is a problem.) Pain Domination / Sonic Attack Defender: +0/8. I didn't expect this to be a top-tier build for soloing. Getting through the mission at this difficulty was a pleasant surprise.

I have a Pain/Sonic defender I quite like. Darkir helped me with the build. It is great on fast-moving teams. Pain is less "clicky" than Empathy or Thermal, partly because of the passive healing aura. So it is very possible to focus on your blast set. For solo play, Pain can give you a reasonably tanky character, thanks to the healing aura and the resistance buff. I can finish the challenging AE mission 801.2 at +0/8 on my Pain/Sonic. The big downside, as Darkir mentioned, is that it's challenging to softcap defense. Building for both melee and ranged isn't really an option. If you want two softcapped defenses (as I always do), you have to take Scorpion Shield and go for ranged and S/L. Builds are going to be tight, especially on a corruptor. The +res will benefit you more on a defender. The skippable powers are Share Pain and Conduit of Pain. I still take Conduit of Pain because I need it in my build as a set mule for Preemptive Optimization.

For a long time, my official main (Bastille Boy, Tanker, Invulnerability / Street Justice) was my intended "forever character." I put a lot of effort into his build and his biography. Then I rolled another tanker (Jailbird Jamie, Super Reflexes / War Mace) who plays better. The big challenge for my solo characters is to beat AE 801.2 at max difficulty. Bastille Boy can do +2/8. Jailbird Jamie can do +3/8 and might be able to hit max difficulty when he gets T4 lores. So at least for now, he's my badge collector and my go-to character when I want a tank. I expect Bastille Boy will come back once a year, on July 14. I expect I'll keep coming back to my Ice / Thermal corruptor, Herocatcher Jake, because he's the central character in the shared backstory of my redside toons. But he doesn't solo well, so I don't bring him out that often.

He could use storm powers to summon a gentle rain (and to get those Atlantic hurricanes to go elsewhere). He could use plant control to make strawberry plants grow more runners.

Thanks for the advice, everyone! There are several tempting combinations here. I'm giving Plant / Storm a try first.

I'm having another episode of altitis. I'd like to create a character who is an actual farmer and uses his powers to raise crops. He won't be a farmer for gameplay purposes; he'll do ordinary content, both solo and on teams. Likely powersets from which to choose: Nature Affinity Plant Control Storm Summoning (to water the crops) Water Blast (same) I suppose the first two options would be somewhat more useful for a farmer based in the Etoille Islands, since they're in the middle of the Atlantic and get plenty of rainfall naturally. I'm ruling out Plant Manipulation because the animations are incompatible with my plans for the costume. (Those thorn-vine things would rip any non-magical clothing to shreds.) I value safety over DPS in a build. My reaction time is not quick, and I tend to prefer playing in melee range, even when I'm playing a ranged character. (Maybe that wouldn't be true on a controller; I have limited experience with controllers.) I like to be able to crank up the difficulty in solo missions without dying. With those criteria in mind, are there any combinations with at least one of these powersets that would be especially good? I have an Ice/Nature corruptor and was underwhelmed; the damage is good, but it's too squishy for my taste. My Time/Water defender is good. (I suppose I could just take him to the Facemaker...) I haven't played Plant Control at all, and I haven't taken a Storm character into the 30s. Nature/Water, Plant/Nature, Plant/Storm, Plant/Time, and Storm/Water seem like the most obvious candidates, but I'm sure there are others. Anything involving fire is a no-go. Summoning fire is not a useful ability for an actual farmer.

My new favorite: Super Reflexes / War Mace (Shovel). I have characters that can conjure swords made of ice, summon spirits from the underworld, and blast enemies with high-tech beam rifles, but my most powerful toon is an escaped convict who got high on stimulants, jumped the fence, and is now whacking villains with a garden spade. (They're very good stimulants.) I just finished my first solo ITF on this one. Base difficulty, but with AV on. I didn't tick the boxes for the MoITF challenge, but I didn't die or use temporary powers. (Well, no powers that the game considers temporary.) I did use inspirations. No strategy was required for the final battle. I could just walk up to Romulus and his nicti and whittle them down one by one. It's likely that I could handle this at +0/8; I've done other Cimeroa missions at +0/8. Pretty sure I could not handle this at +4 without temporary powers; I don't have enough damage. I've also completed AE 801.2 at +3/8 with no lores. There were deaths, and I ate inspirations like candy (as they dropped, nothing specially bought for the mission). I haven't chosen lores yet, but I may be able to beat this mission at max diff with a bit more damage.

The glorious machines were everywhere, once. Their warm clickety-clack filled every office and every newsroom as strong, well-trained fingers produced memos, letters, columns, and stories. And stories! Every novelist, playwright, and screenwriter had one of these machines. A carbon copy required real carbon, back then. The machines were built to last, but even the best machines require maintenance. A small army of modest but highly specialized mechanics lubricated the machines and the commerce and creativity they enabled. Then came the quiet killers. The new devices accepted words with a faint tap-tap-tap, producing nothing solid and real, only a stream of bits, first on a "floppy disk," then in "the cloud." Like the ephemeral documents they produced, the new machines were temporary, intended to be replaced after five years, maybe ten. A new army arose with the machines. They called themselves "IT." Without spilling a drop of blood, the new army vanquished its aging foes. The old writing machines were relegated to landfills, museums, and the windows of a few fashionable cafes...to be seen, not heard. One stalwart from the ancient army remains. His repair shop stands open, its unprofitable operations sustained by the proceeds of a closed-end fund (another unlikely survivor of a bygone era). He carries with him the memories of a time of great newspapers and great novels. He is... Typewriter Repair Man