Linea

If you want crazy Offense, crank up recharge to the max, and get all the pets perma. Try to get 40ish Ranged defense and 28 to 33 AoE defense with Hover. Then Hover-Tank and send in the pets. A full offense build like that can push 1000dps. It's entirely not my style, but it IS effective. I'm not overly worried about the psionics. MRA will block half of it, and minimal resists can deal with the rest. I HATE THE CRAB LEGS! A large part of this build is getting rid of the crab legs via Costume: Syndicate Agent, Costume: PPD Hardsuit, and Costume: Arachnos Arbitor. Animating Crab attacks without legs is equally wonky. DPS (base) Gun 61,92,24; 32,38 vs Crab 64, 81,20; 32, 38. Assuming a certain minimum recharge, this works out very close to even. I've soloed a +4x8 ITF with very similar builds, these just emphasize the double leadership a bit more, and have been updated for i27. The Third Build is 59/59/59 with Agility Core. This is by design, as the Incarnate Cap is 59. Yes that's 55 without Agility and outside of Incarnate Content. Chances are 44 and down I'll swap to the mother hen build with more recharge. I'm not currently planning on building the Medic build. I did build all three in the past, but I'm most likely skipping the middle build this time around. I did also mention Ageless in the discussion as an option over Rebirth. I'm sure I'll actually use both. Which one is better when will vary by content. The endurance is OK. I wouldn't call it good. This build definitely needs both Endurance Accolades, then it will be good, but not great. Carry Recovery Serums. Yes I took both resist uniques out of the incarnate build. Putting one back in asks the question "how?" Both KB and Heal Unique changes below. This would give resists a big boost, while also doubling the negatives, IF you consider those outcomes negative. If you are not me, I'd probably say Choose this option and take your +8 resist All and Run with it. Recharge. But I'm already pushing the minimum boundaries on functional recharge. I feel like this is a definite no. KB1. This would work, but require wiggling a few things around to bring KB2 in earlier. Probably swap Tactics1 and Mystic Flight positions, but that goes against the MOMAS principle. However, this is probably the best alternative. Heal Unique. I consider this the second best alternative. But I really really like that maintenance tick. I "Feel" It helps keep me moving at a good pace without pause. It might not be helping near as much as it feels like it does. It probably isn't helping as much as it feels like it does. But so far it's a Subjective Win, and the devs are probably laughing at me for choosing it and wanting more of them! I don't understand the 0% Accuracy Comment? All the attacks have accuracy slotted and all of them are 112+% chance to hit +3s (50+1 vs 54). If you mean global accuracy bonuses, I don't see that as a problem. Arctic Breath is a great addition, but it's not going to happen in this build, there just is not room. I also like Shatter Armor as a similar alternative, if you don't like the shark animations. I do NOT like the shark animations, purely subjective. When you choose to take the Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic path you are trading (always on resists) for (peaks and valleys resist on demand). And if you include Hybrid in that, you're also trading away Damage on Demand. I would like to have the resist uniques such that I'd be RDR capping at peak, but that is also what inspirations are for. A standard medium Def/Res will be close enough to RDR cap. The greater concern is both (Resists and RDR) during Hybrid instead of Rune/Demonic. But that's also just part of the price of admission to this particular style.

Typically one slotted? with a purple+5 then add Temp:Stun Grenades. Works wonders on squishies, not so sure about scrappers.

Added the just barely Incarnate Soft Cap with Agility Core T4 version above.

I'm aware. In practice it works fairly well. Mostly we're just buying time to react as needed. This version was specifically intended as a "Mom" to herd the ducklings in the back-line or mid-line. However, more defense (incarnate cap) and more healing (medicine) are not at all amiss, but that will cost you both recharge and double leadership. Typical Piloting Guidelines: With little to no DDR it's critical that you watch your def/res numbers and know your enemies. When you hit -1/3 health, pop Rune or Hybrid, and Temp Heal (This solves 90% of the problems) If you hit -2/3 health again a second time, pop a Medium Def/Res and Serum Double Check your def/res Numbers. If needed pop a Medium Purple, Orange, Def/Res, or Demonic If you hit -2/3 to -3/4 again a third time, pop Rebirth or Inspirations Triple check your def/res Numbers. If needed pop a Medium Purple, Orange, Def/Res, or Demonic At This Point the dismembered body parts have well and truly hit the dual blades flurry. If things continue to go south, use your emergency heal inspirations, more Def/Res inspirations, phase, run, die, teleport to the hospital, or logout as needed. It's still not durable enough! So What Now? First, Swap Rebirth for Ageless +DDR. It'll make things a bit cramped on the piloting check list, but it can not only help keep you out of the defense hole proactively, it can also be used re-actively to get your out of a hole as needed. Which method works best will vary by target group. In order to keep as much recharge as possible, I'd probably drop Double Leadership in favor of Aid Self / Field Medic. Field Medic having the additional benefit of being a +endurance power. Sacrifice even more recharge for even more defense, getting as close the Incarnate Cap as possible while retaining Field Medic and Perma-Serum. Sacrifice Aid Self/Field Medic to the Incarnate Defense Gods. At this point you'll also be pushing the boundaries on Perma-Serum as well.

The top Tank* armors in my testing have been: 13: SR** 12: SD 11: Stone 10: Inv, SR *On a scrapper these top armors all get crammed into the 6 or 7 range, which is why I list the Tank ratings instead. **SR is extremely hard to drive at difficulty 13, failing 95% of the time, but it's also the only armor that EVER passed difficulty 13. The rest of the time I'd probably rate it a 10. It should be pretty Cozy in the 10 range. Back on Topic What are the worst armors and why? I want to build one. Yes I'm crazy. Sometimes I just like the challenge of making the worst work as well as possible, and figuring out what that means. Point out the Why. Which armors and which points of which armors need attention and why they need that attention. Aka: If scrapper fire had a taunt aura it would suddenly be top tier instead of bottom tier.

The intent is to be able to herd all your little low level ducklings along on high level content. I rather suspect you're going to really need your accolades and recovery serums. Crab - MOMAS 1b - Leadership - [i28].mbd Swapping Double Leadership for Aid Self / Field Medic +Endurance Crab - MOMAS 1d - Medic -[i28].mbd If I get around to an Incarnate Capped Variant, I'll add it here later Crab - MOMAS 1e+ - Incarnate - [i28].mbd Adding version f. I decided to go ahead and swap things around a bit, and add in the resist uniques. It's a question of +15% performance peak, when everything is capped out, vs +20% performance all the rest of the time. I almost always go for Peak, or Peaks and Valleys and exploit that mechanic. It really is a tough choice in this case. Crab - MOMAS 1f+ - Incarnate - [i28].mbd

The problem I'm seeing is: I'm effectively agreeing with all of you. I would say, so far, Willpower, Regen, and Fire(scrapper) are all on my list. Regen - If any armor should have -regen resistance, it should be regen. IMO regen should be effectively immune to -regen. Willpower - Should probably have a half measure of both -endurance and -regen resistance. Fire - I feel subjectively I agree with this assessment, but have NO idea what I'd do to fix it. The one thing fire has going for it is "Taunt Into Burn", and the scrapper version loses that. But at the same time, ANY buff to /Fire on Brute or Tank would be unwarranted. And as to the reason I'm asking the question: So far I'm leaning toward Willpower. I have no desire to play Regen or Fire ever again. I've played way to many Regens, and have never really liked fire outside of farming where I tolerate it.

If you are going after AVs: Web Grenade and the Trap with -Regen. Traps is a great set. The downsides are that it's position based, strategic, and slow moving. The average team is Perma-Super-Speeding at 90mph from one end of the mission to the other. Perma-Super-Speed does not play well with traps.

Once upon a time, I did this with a scrapper and pool powers. My most recent Psi Hunter is a Ranged Fortunata, although Melee Fortunata would have been a more optimal choice. The downside of Fortunatas is the expense. You pretty much have to go all in, full expense, break the bank, with little room for compromise. If you want Staff/Psionics, then we're looking at a Scrapper or Stalker with APP, and/or Sorcery. Given Staff's weaknesses, I'd go Stalker for Staff/. On this front /Nin is a very good Psionic Armor as well. MRA Defense combined with Psionic Resist. However, we have Sentinels now. If you want all ranged, that would be a near perfect choice. If you want ranged and melee, then a Dominator (Assault Sets are Ranged/Melee) or Melee Fortunata (Claws/Psionics)

We always talk about the best armors. What's are the Worst Armors? And why?

Kat / EnA would be my pick. Get the Defense Unique IOs as early as reasonable. Divine Avalanche slotted for recharge and defense, combined with Kinetic Dampeners and reasonable sLenfc defense from EnA. Ease in to the edge of a mob and start with DA, then watch your defense numbers, and stack DA as needed. relatively early in life you should be able to push softcap on M/L with senfc not too far behind. It's one of the few combinations that I completely broke in a good way. Later, Once you get enough levels and recharge to start stacking Energy Drain +Defense, you can push well over Incarnate Cap defenses. If you push even further into the high recharge overload build, with Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic, stacking everything, you can push well beyond most tanks, or limited periods of time; and then transitioning with Demonic (accolade so it works in Hardmode), or other temps to bridge the gap outside of hardmode. In the end you can push 7m or so pure insanity. All of these probably need updating, my end-game build ended up EnM/Ena instead of Kat/Ena. But Kat/Ena is a ton of fun, and can be leveraged much earlier in life with lower investment costs. Alpha - This build is lower recharge intended for higher armor values at all times. Psi Armor - Trades some armor for higher Psi-armor while using Rune/Hybrid/Rune. Psi is your primary weakness as EnA Alpha 2J - This buid is higher recharge intended to run overload as often as possible and/or needed. Kat ENA Shadowmeld Scrapper - Psi-Armor 3 - [i25].mxd Kat ENA Shadowmeld Scrapper - Alpha 2 - [i25].mxd Kat EnA ShadowMeld Scrapper - Angel 2J - [i25].mxd

This is a concept build, so I made some choices that may not entirely make sense. It's a Ranged Fort build, although I typically recommend Melee Fort Builds instead. Considerable Debate vs Fate Seal, Vengeance, or Aim. As well as some debate about exactly how to use a few of the last slots. Aim, as is, is perfect for Aim/Nuke 100% chance. Slotting aim more could shave 10 seconds off and let it be used in other ways. Vengeance would be great for running this in 801s, and for further buffing regular teams. Fate Sealed is really probably not needed, but might also be just enough extra control to control a few of those targets than can currently slip out of your hands. For a ranged build you really probably want to add Scream too. Otherwise it's clunky till you get recharge up toward late build. I filled that slot with Envenomed Daggers Instead. Fortunata - Mind Hunter 1c+ - [i28].mbd I'll also include some older builds that may require updating if you wanted to look at them or use them. Fortunata - Isabella - Rev 8j (Psi-Tank) - [i25].mbd Fortunata - Celine - Rev 8j - [i25].mxd

Divine Avalanche helps seal up issues with the Heal-Tank armors. But the new Axe Roomba would also be fun.

Kat / Any - I'd play Katana / Wet Tissue Paper. I just love Katana. Kat/Bio - This is probably the ONE. Kat/EnA - This is probably my number TWO pick for Katana. Kat / Regen - Classic, but I'd recommend Kat/Bio instead. Kat/WP - if you want to split the difference between /Regen and /Bio, and want minimal FX

Beam/Energy is a really nice sniper build. I didn't do Beam/Energy this last time around because I wanted a lazier build. Less range, but more lazy.

FF / Bots MM or FF / Water Defender.

Pro Staff / Bio is one of the most "Fun" and adaptable builds you can play. I Highly Recommend it as a "FUN" build. Its easy to build and performs well on SOs. /Bio adds to the flexibility, and helps mask the otherwise lower damage. It's a great cheap build to learn on, and it's relatively forgiving of build issues. You effectively have 3x3 = 9 stances to help counterbalance and fine-tune build issues. Con End-game on a full Tier 4 Incarnate Tier 4 IO build, it will perform sub-par to half of the other alternatives. But in the big scheme of things, that's not really all that bad either. It's still a scrapper, and scrappers rule.

I am currently enjoying building a ranged only blaster concept, but that's not at all the norm for me, and even it has a couple of mostly unused melee attacks. My standard builds are heavy armor intended to fight in melee range, and stay in melee range. Water is an excellent primary for this, perhaps even the best primary for this. That said, most players will prefer a more offensive and less defensive build. Here's a quick conversion and rebuild of one of mine, adapted to Water/Energy. It is intended to run Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic/KitchenSink. Water Energy - Cia 2b - [i25].mbd

Beam hands down, unless it's a concept build. Overall Beam performance once you get the nuke is better. I personally dislike for entirely subjective reasons both Flame Throw and Ignite. If you DO go AR, do NOT skip Ignite, it's one of your better powers. You probably shouldn't skip flame thrower either, but I've yet to be able to enjoy it. I would say do NOT skip Grenade, just slot it with a SA KB/KD(cheap), or OF KB/KD (twice as good but much more expensive)

I'm not sure if anyone else mentioned it. But Slot the Blaster AT +status proc in a T1/T2 attack, you can use those even when mezzed and with the proc you can 'sometimes' dig your way out of a mez hole. I go full defensive IO build from level ~10 or however early I can. Swap out early IO sets at around 20. That may not be an option for you.

LRM D 1b+ This is another Concept Build. It's based on an older Beam Energy LRM build, but I wanted simpler to drive. It's a Long Range Fire Support build instead of a brawler. Triple Snipe and Triple Nuke capabilities. I'm Planning on using Intuition Radial T4 +damage/+Range and Clarion Radial T4 +range You can get some armor using Kinetic Dampeners to seal up SL. I'll probably run Dampeners full time. Then if you want to seal up ENFC you'll need to add Amplifiers, which I'm not planning on doing due to expense. But if you have a particularly difficult challenge or TF you're wanting to solo, it might be worth it for the short term. I'll also attach Alpha 5i as an armored variant. I don't plan on building this one, but I might change my mind and put it in one of the two alternate build slots. Beam Atomic Sniper - Mila Liski - LRM D 1b+ - [i25].mbd Beam Atomic Sniper - Mila Liski - Alpha 5i - [i28].mbd

tldr: We all do crazy things sometimes, particularly when it comes to concept builds. If it's FUN for you, do it. I build Extremely Heavy Armor builds. Many tanks have less armor than one of my average squishy builds. Each player has to adapt the build or the idea accordingly. The average player will in general be better off emphasizing less armor, more AoE and/or Proc based Offensive Builds. There are other builders that specialize in that direction. I build a build as a whole. I typically do not slot powers, I slot builds. It's a completely different way of thinking. As a relatively new player, you can completely skip IOs for now, and just use SOs and the Upgrade Button. Get a feel for things first. If you want an easy introduction, I'd recommend Sentinels - These are probably one of the best picks for getting a feel for the game in safety. Rad/Rad Sentinel might be a good pick for you. FF/ Defender - If you want Sentinel Like, a little more complicated, and adds buffs for the team while still being pretty safe to learn on. Huntsman - Soldier/Bane with mostly rifle attacks. This also adds team buffs and debuffs, and is the next pick for safety and ease of use. You can bring one of these to Atlas at level one and still be a hero. (I haven't done this recently, so I'm not sure of the mechanics, or if you'd have to pop through an SG base and/or Pocket D to accomplish it) Masterminds - I probably should have mentioned this too. You let the pets take the hit, while you primarily act as a defender. This is another fairly safe learning environment, not as safe as above, but pretty safe, and masterminds excel on simple SO builds. You can also make these as heroes, and I'm pretty sure you can start directly in Atlas now without needing to travel or change alignment. Scorpion Armor is a major keystone to sealing up defenses. Rune/Hybrid Melee T4 +Resist/Rune/Demonic ... Rune/Hybrid/Rune/ ... gap: Is very effective. Rune can be used reactively as well as proactively. Rune's recharge is fixed, you can't change it nor enhance it. Even if you do your job right, people WILL need at least minimal healing. But minimal is usually enough. I would agree, Res and Fallout are less useful in PUGs. I generally just use the temp Res power. Counter, Faithful Fans of Fallout teams are a blast with everyone nuking and dieing in rotation. It's hilariously fun. But those teams are almost non-existent these days. No clue why in picked which power now, but I frequently pick at least one fast recharge power if the build feels awkward. If it doesn't feel awkward, I pick the higher DPS power regardless of recharge. That build is an Alpha build, there could be plenty of things in it that need changing. It's also ancient and the game is very different now, including many revisions to the powers themselves. Snipes are a major DPS boost, particularly if you are running tactics. I bind Aim to Key-Press and Attacks to Key-Release so that I never have to purposefully press it unless I want to. But also skip Aim entirely sometimes. Powers Exemp to Power_Taken_Level - 5. Sets Exemp if the Power Exemps, AND: Sets Exemp to IO level -3, except: PvPs, Purples, and Attuned always Exemp to the minimum level of the set -3. That's 7 for PvPs, not sure what it is for purples, but probably 7. For other sets you have to look it up. IO Enhanement Values ARE modified by Exemp Level. Mostly this doesn't change much till you get below 30, and doesnt' change drastically till you get below 20. You'd have to see if the Wiki still has an article on the math for that, it's very complicated. Slotting level does not matter, only Power_Taken_Level and IO Level. 6-Slotting 49 on respec is a feature. You can trust mids numbers the least, You can not always trust what the in-game numbers tell you either, they are generally only estimates. The only source that is 99.9% accurate is City of Data 2.0 ... and then you have to do the math part yourself. If CoD says 2 seconds, that should be accurate. However, It also says "Stacking by Caster" and "Replaces Effect". You also have to account for Purple Patch and Resistances. But that's still about 3 seconds out of the box. If you want maximum effect, given the 50/50 odds, then yeah, 8 or 9 seconds would be good. But I'd also put a lockdown proc in it. If you want perma anything, you almost always need hasten. Also max recharge is around 400%. I'd have to look that up again. Perma-Hasten and Perma-AM are probably both around 165 Global Recharge, and that's not going to happen without both. As with Aim, I'd use binds to alternate Hasten and AM, so that I don't have to think about them too much. But I also do some very advanced bindings that I would absolutely NOT recommend to a new player, nor most veteran players. Defense Slotting is entirely doable. However, once you get into the 30s and higher, tactics and similar buffs take over and tend to make it obsolete. It will extremely rare to run into a higher level team that actually needs defense debuffs. But I also built a Petless MM and soloed a +4x8 ITF with her. We all do crazy things sometimes, particularly when it comes to concept builds. If it's fun, do it.

Updated build on the more costly end. AR Nin Sent- Mind Hunter IO 2f+ - [i28].mbd

tldr: I also said it's incredibly hard to drive at that level. Other sets can be trivially easy to drive and almost as good. Context: standard content rates about 1, incarnate content 3, and official hard-mode stops at about 7. Which either translates as all (tank) the armors sets or half the armor sets. It's not an accident that it's balanced on that break-point. I think I rated SR as a 13, but was only able to achieve that level of success 1 out of 13 tests, and failed miserably the other 12 times. I know it's doable. I've done it. I've seen others do it better. But it's the very rare pilot that can manage it. As I recall SD was 12, but most pilots barely build SD's durability above a 2 or 3, instead preferring offense. Inv, Stone, and similar topped out around 10 or 11. The various resist sets topped out in the 6-7 range. But don't knock the resist sets in a team environment. If a resist set gets defense buffs from the team, they can effectively walk around all day as perma double T9 equivalent. Acquiring a similar level of resists buffs is less common.

1. Detention Field. After that they all have uses, it's just a matter of preference. At a minimum you want Deflection, Insulation, and Dispersion. I'd add Damping to that list as well. You could be selfish and only go with Dispersion and Damping and effectively be a Sentinel, but you may have issues with other players (expectations and attitudes) in teams. 2. Any. Water is one I'd recommend. FF/Water makes a powerful solo-able combo. 3. yes definitely, and you should. The main questions you need to answers are: 4. MRA or SLEFC type defense. MRA will block all but the non-vectors Psi attacks, but only at standard soft-cap. SLEFC leaves more holes, but can reach Incarnate soft-cap Levels. 5. Dark (Full Offense), Soul (Offense/Buffs), or Power (All Buffs). Many Hard Mode teams will want one of the latter two, where the first is best for soloing and standard teams. Attached are some older builds, NOT UPDATED for Damping Bubble Changes, NOR the other -RES changes, NOR the Dark Soul Transfer Changes. But they can still give you some ideas to start with, then adjust for the more recent updates and changes. FF Water - Budget Build 2 - [i26].mxd FF Water Dark - Soul Drain - Overwatch 1 - [i25].mxd FF Water Soul - Heavy Support 57-74 - Overwatch 1 - [i25].mxd FF Water Soul Def - Heavy Support - ITF MRA 2c - [i27].mxd FF Water Soul Def - Heavy Support - ITF SLE 2b - [i27].mxd