Linea

Any. I generally recommend Fire, Water, Ice. Many like Emp/Sonic in particular. I know one guy that used Emp/Energy to great effect. Fire - Damage Water - Utility Ice - Utility and Holds, and Proc Builds. Sonic - Debuff Energy - KB/KD and Soloing. Also Proc Builds. DP - Proc Builds, and GunFu. Beam - Single Target Damage and Style.

I always recommend Partial Radial T3, and Radial T4.

Published a shorter version of 801.F ... no time to test it today, but we'll test it soon(tm).

Many Thanks to: MidnightBloom, Sinaptiko, Lowflow, Prophet of Pain, Rosa Crux, Baby Biscotti, Tyrant-Chula, and Lucy Medrano ... For Successfully completing 801.F

tldr: I suspect you have corrupt files. I suggest disabling any local autosave feature like dropbox, google drive, synology, etc while editing AE Arcs. I currently use microsoft, which does appear compatible, but you may want to disable it as well while editing for good measure. CoH also can somtimes re-read all the AE files anytime any of them are changed externally. ALL THE FILES. *IF* you're using dropbox, drive, synology, etc to constantly backup your directories, you may need to disable this while writing arcs in AE. The only one that I can verify DOES work while editing is Microsoft Drive. Synology and Dropbox, last time I used them, did NOT work and had to be disabled while editing. They temporarily lock the files while uploading/downloading, and while that may only take a second, that may leave the file locked right when CoH needs it. Worse, it may trigger CoH to re-read the file confusing things, and then having dropbox resync, which then has CoH resync, which then has dropbox resync .... This WAS an issue in the past, it may or may not still be, it may or may not apply to microsoft drive (but as far as I can tell microsoft drive is currently compatible, that's what I'm currently using) CoH will also try to recreate your .cvg files EVERY time you enter Edit mode the first time for each new copy of the .exe. This can be an issue if you dual box. This can be an issue if the files are missing. CoH will also try to recreate your .critter files, or read them, when it does the above recreate of .cvgs. ALL of your .critters. This can be an issue if you dual box. This can be an issue if the files are missing. This particular version can be very nasty and completely lock CoH permanently. CoH will try to reread ALL your .critters if you externally edit or change any .critters. ALL your .critters. This particular version can be very nasty and completely lock CoH permanently. This can also be related to dropbox, drive, google, microsoft, etc. (see above first issue)

For my builds, no. But every build is different. You should test your build. For me it's always either been neutral, or in a very few cases hurt dps to wait.

Here is an Heavily Armored EAfn/Elec using Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic/WeddingBand. I'm also including Myshkin's Offensive Procced and Armored /Fire, which I'm not translating to /Elec, but you should be able to do so for yourself. And I'm including an Offensive non-proc Resist based /Fire, which I'm also not Translating to /Elec, but again, you should be able to do so for yourself. All of these should help give you various ideas to work off of, or even translate and use directly. EAfn Elec Defender - Alpha 1 - [i26].mxd EAfn Fire Defender - Myshkin 1 - [i26].mxd EAfn Fire Defender - Fourcade 1 - [i26].mxd

SD and SR can both DDR cap. That can be invaluable.

This is rare, but ... Sometimes this happens, and once he gets into the 'ignore taunt' mode, nothing but immobilize will stop him.

After the nerf you fill the gaps with Demonic and Wedding Band. I never bothered to get them and actually fill the gaps before the change. Now days I'm doing dual (Demonic and Wedding Band) runs at least once a week. I also have some alternate builds that don't use Rune, but push resists the old fashioned way, much as Werner suggested a page or so back. I've only seen one player pull SR off effectively in the higher tier 801s. I personally drive SD instead. 11 out of 12 SR test runs I failed, usually in less than 5 minutes. It's only that 12'th flawless run that went well past 30m. When I say It's difficult to build and extremely difficult to drive, I do mean that.

In normal play you don't need anywhere near these resist levels. It's in the 801 tank thread. Essentially the more resist you add, the higher your HP bar when it stops falling due to scaling resists. The higher difficulties of 801 requires that to be much higher than standard content. In 801.A, when I did it correctly, which was very difficult, it effectively drops to roughly half-health and stops. Anytime it drops more than a fraction below the the scaling resists cap it out again. Then I slowly start building it back up, until an other spike hits and drops it again. SR DM Tank - Prototype 801 - DN 2i - [i25].mxd

I recommend: Defense Armor: EnA (Any AT), Inv/ as the Tank Alternative. Heal Armor: Bio (Any AT, paired with a Defensive Weapon). Resist Armor: RadA (Brutes and Tanks Only) Defense Armors, Expanded and In Order of Durability: EnA (Any AT, Add Resists, Intermediate), SR (Advanced), SD (Intermediate), Inv (Easy). If you’re not picking EnA, I Recommend Inv. Inv is very easy to learn and drive, and very durable. Once you get your feet under you, then you can pick some of the more difficult to drive armors. My personal Favorites are EnA and SD, but I find myself driving EnA and Inv most often. Notes: Stone can still be very good, I just very much dislike Stone. I would rank stone somewhere between Inv and SD for durability. EnA is not on tanks, if it ever is, I might be forced to move it up or down the ratings, depending on how it's ported. Most SR builds do not add the resists required to get it to the rating I give it. SR is also the most difficult to drive if built my way. Most SD builds also do not add the resists required to get to the rating I give it. I use all three SD build slots: Defense, Psi-Tank, Proc/Offense. Inv is more likely to be built to defensive spec, it's just kinda naturally built that way. It's also so easy to drive. It's pretty much recommends itself.

I would recommend someone else's builds over mine, preferably something more DPS biased. I build to (very high) durability, this is redundant for tanks, unless you're running 801.7 or higher solo. I also tend to use Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic/Wedding Band or similar rotations. This is probably a rabbit hole you don't want to go down. Rad Kat Tank - Radicat II - Mu 3f - [i25].mxd SD RadM Tank - Prototype 801 - Build i4 - [i26].mxd SD RadM Tank - PsiTank Beta r4 - [i25].mxd

Primarily you want a well balanced team of T4 Incarnates. Toss the tank(s) at the mobs, Barrier Radials, Rebirths, Agelesses, ... Control and Support are Invaluable. I've had 2 teams report to have done F ... and they both asked for a harder one. I'll have to do a G someday. I've run 4 or 5 successful teams in D, but no higher. Good random teams are very rare, and usually break up after 1 or 2 missions, so it's really difficult to build your way up to the harder ones.

Sentinel had another successful run ... and then I fumbled the crash. This is much harder on the Sentinel than the Stalker. I can pull it off, but only about 1 in 5 tries, and it's only sustainable for 15 to 20m at most. I prefer longer sustainability. .. Therefore, ATM, I think I'm going to call this a 'Barely Fail' for 801.7, and then try to get all the accolades and see if that pushes it over into 'Barely Pass'. The accolades are really going to matter more to the Sentinel build than other builds. I don't know if the accolades will be enough difference, but It's so close I'm going to be putting time into getting them. I almost never do this. Discrete Healing as well as Sustained healing matters. Stalker is 11% HP/S, Sent is 4.8% HP/S. Stalker is discrete 30% packets, while Sent is discrete 11% packets. The size of the packet matters more than the sustained in this case, but both favor the Stalker. A double to triple hit in too close a time interval just leaves too little HP to sustain combat. This is more a problem not of sustained damage, but diescrete damage at just the wrong time. Hopefully Accolades will make this difference less critical. Discrete Damage as well as Sustained damage matters. The Sustained long term damage difference is not at all as large as the combat results in 801.7 would indicate. However, Sentinels just don't have damage spikes like Stalkers and Scrappers. The Stalker starts the fight by cutting an EB in half, then finishing him off in short order. By the end of round one 3 EBs are down. The Sentinel not only can't spike, but stuff runs so much you're lucky to take down one EB total per round. It's not long term sustained damage that counts here, but discrete applied damage as applied to a difficulty target that doesn't play nice and tends to run like Rommy unless spiked pretty hard. Additionally, the Stalker sheds more aggro. For each EB the stalker kills, another EB tends to run away. This greatly reduces the stress on the Stalker. Meanwhile, the Sentinel just attracts more and more aggro, never losing any. And if there are adds nearby, almost always pulling those as well. On the positive side, 801.6 is a cake walk. So overall I'm very happy with the build, even if it never manages to reach the goal. This also tells me that 5% HP/S isn't enough support while 11% HP/S is. So it's very much narrowed down the line of how much support you need to be successful on an 75% Resist Cap AT running a Resist/Def/DDR cap build, and it's not very much.

Sentinel Results: Sentinel is a bit more fragile than the stalker. Surprisingly good offense. After several tries I managed just over 10 minutes in 801.7. I pulled a second group yet again. Like the stalker, it's one, and only one, group at a time, in 801.7. Adds are fatal. Unlike the stalker, it's a bit more fragile, so there are some random group combinations that I'm not sure it can handle. Unlike the stalker, it has less ST dps, and more AoE dps. However, in 7 and up, unless you have way more AoE, the EBs pretty much ignore the splash. Overall, that is a negative for this build in 801.7 and up while solo. However, the AoE is also a positive if teamed or in any easier content where the AoE will be more meaningful. Unlike the stalker, the lower ST DPS means taking out one EB at a time, pretty slowly. The Stalker can usually take a few before needing to worry about handling the armor crash. This makes the Stalker a much better option. I expect to run this build a fair bit for the next few weeks, as well as do more testing.

When I said 'Base' I meant lowest soft cap, where it is variable. I don't know what to call that in this context. If a critter has 'aim' and 'targetting drone'. The it will be 45 + 20 = 65 minimum, but can spike to 85 for 10s every 90 seconds. I'm calling 65 in this case 'base'. And yes, I know the official i-cap is 59, but we don't have an 'Incarnate' button in AE. We have to work with what we have available in AE.

In order: Kat/Bio Scrapper, Most of the time, I reach for this first. Just barely enough taunt, maybe, and all the offense. Kat/Ena Brute, a lot more taunt, but a lot less damage. RadA/Kat Tank, the most taunt, but near the bottom of the damage list. Give me some defense buffs and it's effectively perma-T9, and Taunt and AoE Taunt, and more AoEs to Taunt even more! My most team-friendly build. Inv/RadM Tank, More durable, easy peasy to drive, less damage. This is almost auto-pilot with plenty of player resources available to run a team or be otherwise distracted. This is also the tank I'd probably most recommend because it's just so darn easy to drive. SD/RadM Tank, More durable, More Damage, but Also much harder to drive. The Inv gets picked more often due to ease of use, even though this build has more damage capabilities. Normally if I want more damage, I skip up the list to the Kat/Ena, instead of down to the SD/RadM. I normally only drop down here for the durability, and/or Psionic Tank Build.

801 varies in difficulty 0 to F (F is Hexidecimal for 15). 801 has killed over 1,400 Tanks (that I know of), and Most TEAMS fail 7. I would suggest starting at 801.2, the 'standard difficulty'. You may also want to read the AE 801(link). 801.2 (Tier 1) is harder than official Incarnate Content. Most official incarnate content is effectively +1x8 at it's hardest, without any EBs, and generally with mobs that are at least a little bit nerfed. If you run 801.0 -1x8 no-bosses, that's probably roughly equivalent to official incarnate content. In 801.2 (Tier 1) Most of the mobs will have a base to-hit of 45, with either Aim or Rage. About 1/3 of those will have Aim for a 58 to 65 (variable by mob rank) to-hit for 10 seconds every 90 seconds. About 1/3 of them will have Rage for a base to-hit of 58 to 65 for 2 minutes every ... very long time inbetween. 1/16 of the mobs will be snipers, and about 1 in 3 (1 in 50) of these will have a base to-hit of 65 with aim for 85 to-hit for 10 seconds every 90 seconds. Also, of the snipers, 1/3 (1 in 50) will have a T9 Armor, the other 1/3 (1 in 50) will have status protection. If you try to steam roll the mobs, your front-line will be facing full incarnate to-hit and full incarnate damage. If you move slower between mobs, then you'll be facing much more standard non-incarnate to-hit and damage, as many of the mobs pop their rage, aim, and similar powers when you first come into AI range, instead of at a more intelligent point in the fight. If you spend 2 minutes beginning to end on this mob, then move to the next, chances are that next mob has already wasted most of it's 'Incarnate Power' and you'll be facing a much easier fight. 801.5 (Tier 2) ... Is the same as 801.2, but more mobs have base to-hit of 58 - 65, instead of just 45. More also have Aim on top of that base. 801.7 (Tier 3) ... The mobs have all transitioned into EBs only, and is similar to 801.5, but now most (but not all) mobs have base to-hit of 58-65, and all snipers have aim or rage, and any mob that is base 45 always has aim. This pattern holds all the way to F (F is hexidecimal for 15) which is ALL AVs supported and buffed to the resistance caps. Resistance Capped AVs, with 85 To-hit, and Triple Damage Nukes! Wheeeee!

RE: Psi SR The lower difficulty rating 801s are not as strenuous, but for 801.7 and above, .... You need DDR Cap, and 60+ defense; or 80s DDR and 85+ defense. You also need Resist Cap. You may or may not have enough healing capacity, but you'll need a live target to use it. But then modify that by ... Even with Rune up you'll be taking over double damage vs resist cap, and an additional triple damage vs incarnate-defense, if not 4x or higher considering debuffs. At 50 defense, you're also in serious danger of cascade failure. Anything less than 60def starts hitting the redzone, and 50 is critical, 45 instant failure. So I suspect you're doomed in 7 and up.

Nice Catch. I swapped the PvP Defense into KS and +5d them, then put the scaling into RF. Net No-Loss even when malfactored. Rune is for the bonuses. I'd love the Guassians in TF, but No clue where to steal a slot. There's little to be gained from going above (50+5, 50+1), 23.32 vs 23.48. If you do use Guassians, I prefer (50+2, 10+3) for the 95% proc rate. Double BU on demand trumps a second or two on recharge, IMO.

I almost never take the Steam_Spray and similar cones. Cones are a PITA to hit max targets, and somewhat less flexible. I just don't want to have to deal with a short range cone. The shorter range on this one just makes me dislike it even more. Whirlpool DPA is better, but DPR worse, and Avoid is both a benefit and detriment. DPR in this context is more useful, unless I decide I want the survivability benefit of Avoid. I usually do like the Avoid Element. An AoE Immobilize is one of those things I wish I had on every non-taunt build. And this one does damage, and can make a nice chain of: Fences, Burst, Fences, 2s gap, repeat. Whirlpool won't fit as well, and while Spray might perform better (it also might not) I don't want to be forced into close range to use it, either. Fences worked into the build nicely. It wasn't my first choice, my first was going to be Psionic Spike damage for taking out T9 EBs. Whirlpool: 60r25, 48.4 dpa, 1.74 dpr, 16 tgts Steam Spray: 40<50, 36.7 dpa, 4.50 dpr, 10 tgts Chain Fences: 80r30, 32.2 dpa, 2.59 dpr, 16 tgts * I did not double check dpa and dpr numbers, and have notice some minor variances.

This is for AE 801(link), specifically 801.7, if you don't know what that is then follow the link, and run a few missions. In short it's much like playing somewhere between +5x8 and +8x8. If you can make any of these builds better, I welcome the feedback. I've never cursed Sentinel design nearly as much as I have the past week. The slightly lower armor has been a nightmare to work around. Outside of 801 and a very few other niche cases, there are likely better alternatives to the Sentinel Armored Blaster. Defense and DDR Issues. Blasters struggle more starting as low as 801.3. When you stress the builds, you can really start seeing the difference. If all you run are +0 Speed TFs, you'll never notice, and probably not even chip a nail. But in 801 as you go up the difficulty ladder, you will start noticing the differences. Huntsman are still probably the best Sentinel, ... but can't reach the insane defense levels needed for 801, and no DDR. I run one of these and probably always will. Other Veats, ... Most have minimal to no DDR and much lower defense levels. Nightwidows are not completey off the table, but still have DDR issues. FF/, ... Primarily DDR issues. But I run one of these to fill the same niche. Better resting defense, No DDR, and no T9 Defenses. It doesn't have much of a chance in 801.7 and up. The sentinel should be ok in 801.7, and possibly up to 801.9. Time/, ... Pretty much the same as FF above. Primarily DDR issues. Great in 801.6, but 801.7 is a tiny bit too much, and the Sentinel should be ok in 801.7, and possibly up to 801.9. --- Why Water Blast: Healing and Utility. You could also use Dark for the Healing at least. --- This should play very much like the Stalker. In 7 and above, turtle up in the T9s. Use Rune first, so you can Rune/Hybrid/Rune. But Primarily you use Rune First so you can use it's non-volatile timer to know when your T9 is going to crash. You can also use Overload's timer, but if you get external recharge buffs, they can mess with that and make it unreliable. Also, use Demonic and Wedding band to help cover gaps. You can double up two chains with a demonic in-between for 7minutes of uninterrupted T9 fighting. You can use inspirations in-between as well. Ageless, .... 60s Gap .... Rune, Overload, ... Hybrid, Ageless, ... Phase, Energize, Recovery Serum, ... Ageless The timing on Ageless is a PITA, if you mess it up, don't worry about it. Just drop back and hide, and/or use a blue. The main difference is the loss of ShadowMeld. ShadowMeld with Rune/Hybrid makes normal Carnies a bit of a non-issue. In 801 ShadowMeld helps fill in gaps and gives you more options. You will definitely feel the loss. When I get this one done, hopefully I can get some stats and results and post back, assuming I don't get distracted my 7 other alts first. I'm planning on building the B variant. Yes I'm aware it doesn't have both T1 and T2 powers. I picked this one primarily for more AoE. It should have a nice, if imperfect, AoE Chain when done. The C variant has more ST damage, and can punch through T9 armors with Psionic damage. That was originally going to be the build I picked. However, most of CoH values AoE over ST damage, and T9 armors are really only an issue in soloing ITFs. The A variant has both T1 and T2. Neither A nor C are as mature or revised a build. I spent the most time on B. Hopefully it will all pay off. Water Ena Sent - 801 T9 1c - [i25].mxd Water Ena Sent - 801 T9 1a - [i25].mxd Water Ena Sent - 801 T9 1b - [i25].mxd

Re OP: 475+ ST dps, and I'm not even trying. I'd hate to see what an offensively built stalker could do. Yes I have armored blasters that subjectively 'feel' like they perform as well, but they do not objectively. The Armor itself is the same, subjectively that armored blaster feels great, but objectively Stalker armor is better and easier to deal with. Re Slow-AS: Yes definitely something could be done. Because mobs 'twitch' and interrupt AS. After 2 or 3 tries, I frequently find myself just saying '^@#$ IT!', and Critting with my highest damage non-AS, then following up with Quick-AS. The current mechanic is THAT annoying. I'd be happy if it just rooted so I could Follow/AS and if the mob moves it doesn't break AS. As is it's clunky to run up, STOP, WAIT, then AS and hope the mob didn't twitch during a server tick. If you want to buff it, then by all means, make it half the cast time, and leave the damage as-is. Between not breaking because the caster or mob twitched by accident, and a bit faster cast, it should be fine. I hesitate to increase damage, as it's already very high. (at least on the top tier sets) Re Lower-Tier-Sets: Yes, these should be looked at. I definitely feel, see, and can objectively measure, the difference in the best sets vs even the 2nd tier sets, and the difference is striking. But also, good luck with that. It's a baked in fubarred bias from as long as the game has existed. The game was originally balanced on DPR and DPA was completely ignored. I'm not even sure the original devs knew what DPA was. It was only much later that DPA ever even got looked at. The best melee set is 2.5x better than the worst set. This is a HUGE can of worms, and I just don't see anyone wanting to try to tackle it any time soon. Re Focus: I've noticed this too. I feel like, but can't objectively say, that it should just be straight up made a 100% chance per primary power use, and it should indeed have all the timers refreshed when any primary power is used. More frequently than I'd like, it drops before I can actually hit the next target.

Love the durability, but I paid for it in dps.