Linea

Lucy Medrano +4x16: Nuking a Room full of Unlimited Aggro. Some combinations are worse than others, and pulling half of two groups can get overlapping doubled debuffs that don't normally happen in a single group. Build: SD RadM Tank - Prototype 801 - Build i4 - [i26] This build is both more durable and less durable at the same time, and requires considerably more player resources and concentration as compared to the Inv. 9 and down, I'm gonna give the star to the Inv. It's just so steady state, and overall in one run of a 9 I used a whole total of 2 medium lucks. A and up, the debuffs and dps are just so brutal I'm gonna give the star to the SD. The Inv is overall steadier and easier to drive, but inside heavy debuffs situations it burns through inspirations faster, and can have a solo uptime of less than 2 minutes. The SD is much harder to drive, much fiddlier, but it's uptime is 6+m even inside heavy debuffs. 801.A and up, if you are very unlucky, The Inv might burn through an inspirations a minute, compared to 1 or 2 inspirations every 6 minutes for the SD. Overall Steadiness to the Inv vs Peak Performance to the SD Solo/Self_Sufficient goes to the SD, but with enough team buffs, the Inv will be the most comfortable and steady, due to steady state resist, Better HP, and a Self Heal Primary Hole is Resists Hybrid/OwtS/Hybrid/Demonic ... Hybrid/OwtS/Hybrid/Wedding_Band ... Secondary Hole is Endurance OwtS Crash is very painful Even with Cardiac Core T4 Endurance is painful. Sappers are Deadly, keep that defense up in the 50s. Tertiary Hole is DDR When DDR drops, cascade happens but usually slowly. However, Cascade does still happen, ... and it's deadly when it does. When Defense starts dropping below 57 to 59 … start monitoring. Demonic, Purple Candy, Combat Armor (Accolade), as well as Team Buffs When Defense drops below 50, then Sappers can drain you in a blink. Combat Monitor Stealth DDR Last Chance to Hit Melee Defense Ranged Defense Aoe Defense Stun Protection Smashing Resist Energy Resist Fire Resist SD RadM Tank - Prototype 801 - Build i4 - [i26].mxd

That's a can of worms. There are biases baked into the game at every level. I'm also probably going to test Hybrid Radial T4 on the Inv to to fill in the DDR troughs. That's a bit of a first. Resists were (almost) never an issue, so Demonic/Wedding Band can cover those tiny 10-15s holes easily. I've always said the best tanker armors are probably Inv and SD. I'll be testing an updated SD build next. The Inv is just damn comfortable. It's not immortal, but it's very comfy. Unless you let yourself get distracted (trying to save the team, taunt, type in chat, take a phone call, etc) you will in most cases have enough time to react to whatever deadly situation arises. I also have an Alpha Build of an SR on Test using Rune/Hybrid/Rune that beat both Inv and SD, However, even the tiniest slip of concentration results in getting you insta-killed. Futhermore, Rune is being changed, and it was a chaotically hectic build and required massive player resources to pull it off. It could still work using Demonic/Wedding_Band to fill the Rune Gaps, but that makes it even more Chaotic and Hectic and requiring even more Player Resources. Which is to say, it would work, but it's not very practical. "I recommend: /EnA (Defense, Any AT), Rad (Resist-Cap, Brute and Tank), /Bio (Heal-Armor, Any AT) . . Defense Alternate for tanks: SD/ and Inv/" Heal-Tank Armor I solo +4x8 up to 6 with a Kat/Bio Scrapper. ... ... 3 and up I can only take a maximum of one group with the scrapper, but a Tank can handle up to 6 pretty well. However, Bio (even on a tank) gets blown out of the water the second you hit 7. It's essentially a Heal-Tank and 25,000 dps hurts. When the gaps in your armor hit, you die. Resist Armors Resist-Cap Armors Balance well up to 6 at -40 defense. However, -45 and down they fail (usually slowly). In practical terms, it's not hard to keep them upright if you monitor defense and use candy and/or even small team buffs. Resist-Cap Armors balance down to -0 defense in 7 and above. This is much trickier. You need significant team buffs here, but if you get those buffs, you'll cruise along nicely. A resist armor with team defense buffs and/or vengeance is effectively a Perma-T9 Armor. Without those team buffs, as soon as you get debuffed you're gonna eat dirt. Dark is probably the best resist armor, but very few players can either build dark, nor can they drive it if it's built for them. Defense Armors Defense Armors are unfortunately the best (solo or unsupported) answer, and that is almost entirely dependent on DDR. DRR-Cap Armors have a significant advantage. The SR above with team resist buffs will be a truly unstoppable force of nature. The catch there is 'Team Resist Buffs'. Team Resist Buffs are almost always in short supply. The SD above is in a little better position in that it needs only minimal defense buffs, and minimal (if any) resist buffs. This makes it the more practical of the DDR-Cap choices. I'm hoping the improved build above makes it more competitive vs the Inv while solo. Only time and testing will tell. The Inv above is in the best position, (prior to testing improved SD builds), in that it needs only minimal defense buffs, and even less resist buffs. It's a rare team that won't have any defense buffs at all. Yes you'll struggle with the DDR issue from time to time, but as long as you stay on your toes you should be ok. I'm fairly certain you can keep this one upright 20-30m solo. That should be more than enough to fill in any gaps where team support fails. The practical answer. If tanks ever get EnA, I can't wait to test it vs Inv and SD. Not only is it very solid defensively, it can get decent resists, esp with Rune/Hybrid/Rune, but it also gets great mitigation via endurance drain. Kat/Ena is one of my two favorite builds.

Skylark Walker +4x16: Nuking a Room full of Unlimited Aggro. Some combinations are worse than others, and pulling half of two groups can get overlapping doubled debuffs that don't normally happen in a single group. Build: Inv RadM Tank - Prototype 801 - Build i3 - [i26] Primary Hole is Defense and DDR. When DDR drops, cascade can happen fairly quickly. Monitor Ageless and DDR closely. When Defense starts dropping below 57 to 59 … cascade slowly starts happing. Demonic, Purple Candy, Combat Armor (Accolade), as well as Team Buffs 801.7 Needs 1 Medium+ Purple to carry through the low DDR trough. 801.A Needs 1 Large or Super Purple to carry through the low DDR trough, unless you get an unlucky combo of debuffs ... 801.A and up, if you are very unlucky, you might burn through an inspirations a minute, compared to 1 or 2 inspirations every 6 minutes for the SD. Overall Steadiness to the Inv vs Peak Performance to the SD With enough team buffs, the Inv will be the most comfortable and steady, due to steady state resist, Better HP, and a Self Heal When Defense drops below 50, then Sappers can drain you in a blink. Resist almost never drops below 90. Resist is very solid now. Thank you Hyperstrike and Infinitum. Hybrid, Wedding Band, Demonic, … Stuns can be an issue with this build, monitor Stuns and Over-Aggro. Hybrid Combat Monitor Stealth DDR Last Chance to Hit Smashing Defense Energy Defense Fire Defense Stun Protection Smashing Resist Energy Resist Fire Resist

I'd love to see more difficulty options in everyday content. ... With increased rewards, as most players will never touch increased difficulty without increased rewards. I'd love to see official content built like 801 (AE 801 link), and scaling all the way from 0 to A (10). Most teams don't want a challenge nor do they want to need to work together, they actually 'want' easy-peasy Rofl-Stomp, maximum reward, zero danger. On average, one person rage quits even on a 0 difficulty 801 run. The average team on a 10 difficulty run goes through 16 people, despite being warned "Incarnates Only, Incarnate Trial Difficulty, ..." sgmate says "You lie. I've /NEVER/ died on an Incarnate Trial. Pass me another handful of wakies. 8-p" Run Small Teams: I run a lot of 3-man teams. I try to avoid duos because that can be too small, and I try to not go over 5 as that's too big. 3 to 5 man teams seem to be the sweet spot. I also run other team styles too, not just small teams. If you're doing an ITF, split the team in half, 4 left, 4 right, kill em all!. First one to the end wins. 😜 You can do this for other things too, but not radios really, as they are too short. But anything that has enough targets and that you're not 'speed running'. I tend to prefer scorched-earth tactics. Although I do run a lot of '1-hour ITFs', 'Kill as much as possible in 1 hour', which are a combination of speed and scorched-earth tactics designed to always take as close to an hour as possible, both positive and negative. Join some of the RP teams on Everlasting. They tend to be a bit less focused on roflstomping. They also tend to have fun and interesting character interactions and banter.

Published 3 more new 801.7 missions: Random New Warehouse Maps, Random Praetorian Tech Maps, Random Praetorian Biolab Maps.

None of that changes the way I experience the game, nor does it dissuade me of my desire to have Rune with it's longer duration, and other pool options with similar efficacy as well, to help shore up my poor hand-eye coordination, inferior skill, terrible builds, and poor playstyles.

Even being mezzed for a short duration is essentially an insta-kill on squishies, and for that matter many non-squishies. That stun that finally punches through the tanks protection, drops the tank almost instantly. A measly 50 dps incoming in a capped out tank that gets stunned can instantly turn into 2500 or even 5000 dps. Oops, you're dead in half a second. (I use Rune/Hybrid/Rune on those armors, particularly resist armors, in high-mez situations. It totally sucks when your tank gets stunned. As a side note, I'd totally be in favor of doubling resist armors status protection for this very reason) A standard rotation is: Rune/Hybrid/Rune/30s gap. That gap is negligible in normal content as it can be spread out while moving between mobs, and most fights don't last 5+m Revised Rotation is: Rune/Hybrid/30s gap/Rune/30s gap/Hybrid/Rune/60s gap/Hybrid. Many more gaps, and a maximum on-time of 3m instead of 5m. While my Time/ will be less effected due to both higher recharge and the ability to do an alternate Force of Nature build, pretty much all the other squishy builds will be significantly negatively impacted.

The above builds are better and more balanced builds. ^^^ Below are the two builds skewed toward SLE with a Hole to Psionics, I'm planning on testing next, unless I modify them more or find other interesting ways to change them. The major Questions are: Does [Contaminated Strike] have to-hit in order to Proc the Tank +Resist Proc? Will [Gaussian's BU Proc] fire often enough in Saturated [Invincibility] for the above [Contaminiated Strike] to-hit? Or will I prefer the [Gaussian's BU Proc] in Fusion? Vengeance or Taunt? And of course, will these be Objectively Measurably better than the builds I currently have. If the Rune changes go thru, I'll probably go this way regardless. Inv RadM Tank - Prototype 801 - Build i3 - [i25].mxd SD RadM Tank - Prototype 801 - Build i3 - [i26].mxd

Various Builds Inv RadM Tank - Infinitum 801a - Build 3 - [i26].mxd Inv DM Tank - Infinitum 801a - Build 2 - [i26].mxd Inv RadM Tank - Infinitum 801a - Build 2 - [i26].mxd Inv RadM Tank - Infinitum 801a - Build 1 - [i26].mxd SD EnM Tank - Infinitum 801a - Build 1 - [i26].mxd Inv RadM Tank - Hyperstrike 801a - Build 1 - [i26].mxd Inv EnM Tank - Infinitum 801a - Build 1 - [i26].mxd

I would rather see Rune balanced with slightly lower magnitudes, but retaining the 90s duration. resists 26 max on a defender, instead of 39. Status 6 instead of 10 or Scaling Status 4: Status 10 for 20s, followed by Status 4 for for the entire duration of 90s

RE: As Durable as possible solo, so they need the least buffs. There are times I may be isolated holding back the horde while the team regroups. It's not at all unusual for 801.7 and up to literally kick you out the front door. 801.7 and up are All-EB maps. Stuns will not work well, but KB does. Bio/ works well right up until it gets shredded due to DDR, RDR, or -Recharge issues. Fights are almost non-stop, so when your defenses eventually slip, you crash hard. I have a pretty good Bio/ I run with, and he dropped a handful of times in a 7, and I'm wanting to build for a 10 (A). I'm not at all against alternate Non-Rune Builds. At the same time, I'll deal with Rune when it happens. I frequently grab Demonic and Wedding Band, if I don't want to change or completely rebuild, I can fill in with those. With 801.7 and up I'm not offensively focused, there's no way you're going to solo complete them. I just want to survive as well as possible in order to anchor the team. 801.7 and up are purely team oriented missions. From Testing, assuming little to no healing in the set (Inv, SD, SR, etc): From testing, as best as I can tell you need the following to survive the worst spikes, and I'm not against cheating and using amps, dampeners, and base buffs ... but would prefer not to as much as possible. Primarily SLE typed (with some minimal other types) with a 50/50 mix of Melee/Ranged and about normal AoE. Obviously the numbers are approximate, and would vary by build. 200 def / 140 resist - Squishies (Kiski managed a bit over 5 minutes till the candy ran dry, probably 8m max. Listed values are the totals over-cap to keep from being dropped too low and either cascaded due to -defense or attrition-ed due to -resist. Obviously it'd be a good idea to bring a tank along to toss to the wolves.) 88 def / 88 resist - vs 71 ddr Tank (50ddr +Ageless T4 at the Tail, you have to protect the minimum ddr or they break you in that last 30 seconds. Rarely needs minimal buffs to cover that tail, otherwise the defense numbers can be lower as DDR is higher most of the time.) 68 def / 88 resist - vs 88 ddr Tank (SD without ageless is ~88ddr, she needs just the smallest team buffs and she's good, otherwise *splat*. Overall solo she did better with Ageless and DDR cap. But both ways she needs at least tiny team buffs.) 65 def / 88 resist - vs 95 ddr Tank (SR on test. This is the only one that managed 30+m in 801.A)

I have never before specifically built for 801. But with 801.A, I am looking for a more durable build. 801.A is 5k sustained dps, with frequent 10k dps bursts, and some 25+k dps bursts, along with -300 defense, -300 resist, -100 to-hit, -endurance, -recovery, -recharge, and just about everything else you can imagine. Almost any weakness will be pried open and heavily exploited. Also note, 801.7 and above are All-EB maps, so things like OG+Stun_Grenades will not be of much use. So what build, any build other than Stone Armor, will be the better tank? Of my exiting builds can Skylark be made more durable, since over all she’s more steady and easy to drive, … or … Do I go toward refining Sera, even though she’s much harder to drive and much less steady, does she have more potential if I put more player resources and concentration into her? Or perhaps an improved Asja Build? Maybe an Improved Lucy? Or is there another completely different Tank that’s a better answer all together? Asja – Kat/Ena Brute Rating +4x6: I run most 801s with Asja. She’s the most overall flexible and independent build with a good balance of offense, defense, and ability to taunt and gather aggro. However, in 801.A the resist debuffs are really getting to her, and the small gap in DDR is also an issue. Dahlia – RadA/Kat Tank Rating +4x6: This is my primary ‘tank built’ tank. She gathers, pulls, and holds aggro better than any other build. In 801.5 and down she balances out very well vs defense-based armors. However in 801.7 and up, the -300 defense and lack of DDR destroys her. She can still manage smaller groups on pure resist and healing, but it is a major stress, and as soon as the debuffers start piling up, she goes down very fast. Resist alone is not enough, and the lack of DDR means any defense she has WILL eventually be stripped and she’ll be -50 defense in a blink, and then dead shortly thereafter. Lucy – SD/RadM Tank Rating +4x6 (+4x8 with the rebuild below): What I previously considered my most durable tank, but with flaws. 801.6 and down she’s NEVER been defeated. However, in 801.7 and up, the lower max defense combined with -300 defense even vs DDR Cap drops her defense below the level where her resists can sustain the damage alone. That means she MUST be able to-hit her targets to leach health. -100 to-hit shuts her healing down. Furthermore, she’s weak to sappers. And when she gets debuffed, those sappers start dropping her endurance like a rock. Give me +10 defense buff and a tactics or two, and she’d be unstoppable, but as is, without support she will drop like a rock when the wrong debuffs start hitting. Skylark – Inv/RadM Tank Rating +4x7: Skylark was previously retired, primarily due to low damage. However, with 801.7 and up, she’s found new life. On a team, I’m very happy with her performance, she’s very hard to kill, but she still can be killed in 801.A. She’s not died ‘yet’ in 801.9 and down, but I suspect she’s probably killable in those as well. The primary issues with her are the DDR gap, and Sappers. The DDR gap means I have to watch my defense, and if it falls to low, I need at least a small purple. She won’t instantly cascade, but she can be dropped into the negatives on defense. If that’s combined with heavy -resist or a sapper, she’s dead. Usually her defense falls slowly, giving me time to react, but that also means that eventually over time she can attrition out and inspirations dry up. She also has issues with to-hit, and when heavily stressed, the inability to-hit and heal will eventually kill her. Take even a little pressure off, x7 vs x8, and she's good. But at full +4x8 801.A she goes down, and much faster and sooner than I'd like. Sera – SR/DM and SR/RadM Tank (test builds) Rating +4x8: These are only on the test server, but are also the only builds I’ve managed to keep alive 30+m. Primarily DM. DM helps deal with the sapper issue and the -to-hit issues. SR seals up DDR. The weakness here is resistances. She needs amps, dampeners, and base buffs to seal up resistances, and doesn’t have any over-cap resist buffer to deal with heavy debuffs. However, the scaling resists do help considerably with resistance debuffs once you otherwise seal resists first. Which leaves Alpha and HP. She can’t take nearly the Alpha that any of the other builds can, but if she pulls and slows the Alpha down, she can hold at half-health pretty steady. This works well right up until a resist clicky drops and I haven’t proactively countered with the next resist clicky or inspiration. When the resist drops while under heavy debuffs, she dies instantly. She also still has mild issues with -to-hit debuffs, but those are no where nearly as fatal as with any of the other builds. As a fun note, 801.A has managed to cascade her defenses down to the 40s with full saturation and over-aggro cap. Given the 95ddr that's a massive amount of debuff landing even with i-cap level defenses. Kat ENA - Mu 1i - [i25].mxd Rad Kat Tank - Radicat II - Mu 3f - [i25].mxd SD RadM Tank - Alpha 5b - [i25].mxd SR DM Tank - Prototype 801 - DN 2i - [i25].mxd Inv RadM Tank - Prototype 801 - DN 8b - [i25].mxd Updated Builds: SD RadM Tank - Prototype 801 - Build i4 - [i26].mxd SD RadM Tank - PsiTank Beta r4 - [i25].mxd Inv RadM Tank - Prototype 801 - Build i5 - [i26].mxd

WARNING: Do not attempt 801.7 and above unless you have tried the lower difficulties and found them too easy. So you think you're a bad ass and want to run 801.A? Then, you need to be able to: run 801.7 in approximately 30m. run 801.8 in approximately 40m. run 801.9 in approximately 45m. Clear the first floor of 801.A in approximately 60m Do you want an all day epic event? Run both 801.7 missions, then 801.8, 801.9, and finish up with 801.A. That should run you about 5 hours, ... or kill you very dead.

For Resist Armors (only) Yes DDR would scale with current defense. You'd probably have to actually monitor base defense, or one defense value, or ... . Which means it would have to be time/tick limited to (something let 3-10 seconds per tick) prevent a cpu loop, or have some fun math I haven't even begun to contemplate. It's all probably impossible. But I would like to see Defense Buffs strip-able, while DDR scaled up when you hit negative numbers to make it difficult but not impossible to push defense below -35. With the hopefull result that Buffs still matter, Debuffs still matter, but a total cascade would be immprobable and that the end results would balance better Resist Armor vs Defense Armor.

Published 4 more 801.7 difficulty and above maps. Moved 801.9 to 801.A as it felt like Epic difficulty level.

Crimson Prototype is Linea Approved. (I've soloed him +4x8 on a few characters, but it wasn't easy.) Huntsman, the original sentinel and still the best. 8-p Pre-50 Pre-IOs Sentinels are fine, in fact they are pretty nice. They do exactly what they were intended to do. Armored Ranged Damage with 'average stalker armor' and 'average scrapper damage. The problem is Damage varies from best to worst by a factor of 3x. While 'average' is average, no one really want's 'average'. Average is particularly bad when the best set does 3x the damage vs the worst set. To further complicate it, they are never compared to the 'average' scrapper, but are almost always compared to above average Blasters who have much higher AoE. Objectively they really are in that 90% ST Range and Significantly Higher AoE range vs the average scrapper. But when compared to a High End Armored Blaster (or high-end non-average scrapper), the comparison fails badly. ... and there's not much you can do to fix it with IOs, Pools, Epics, or really much of anything other than procs that come with a cost to something else in your build. My Resist Armor Builds tend to balance vs Defense Armor Builds down to -35% to -45% defense in 801. As long as you can keep from totally cascading to the floor, you're good. Add Defense Buffs to a Resist armor and you're running around the equivalent of Perma T9 armor. How about Scaling DDR for Resist Armors? DDR is a real PITA balance wise, and I don't have any good answers, but it all does boil down to DDR more often and more substantially than it should. Resist armors are always 'hit' .... all the debuffs land. I'd probably want to give all resist armors some kind of Scaling DDR inherent. I'd probably make it overkill and have it starts at 50ddr base Start it at 0ddr at +45 defense buff, and scale to 95ddr at -50 defense debuff, (50% ddr at -5 defense). Buffed your armor and buffs can be stripped right off you, but the farther you go into the red, toward the balance point, the more ddr you gain. I use these numbers because I find my resist builds balance in the -35 to -45 defense range. -35% and up I'm good but need to stay on my toes. -35% and down it gets increasingly dangerous. -45% and I'm gonna die, sooner than later. Below -45% I'm very dead. Damage wise I expect it actually caps at -45% ... so the actual balance point is probably -40% ish for me .. or maybe it's actually -35%. But that's why I'd have Scaling DDR, such that the first buffs to land matter, but that it's also hard to debuff below that balance point vs defense based builds. While you're at it, double the status protection on resist armors. Getting stunned on a tank sucks.

Notes From Testing 801.A I'm probably gonna build either an SR/RadM or SR/DM, probably the SR/RadM to test next. I have an alternate build for the Kat/Ena Brute I want to test, but I don't expect the gain to be worth the offensive loss.

Congratulations and Many Thanks to the first team to complete 801.A, It really felt like an epic battle, and tremendous win when we pulled it off, barely. Rah -Xephon, Cirque de Mirage, Nightzone, Nuclear Bite, Lummi, Rum Bull, and Anonymous Blaster (The blaster left before I got a screen shot to remember the name) The the evil marauders literally pushed us right out the front door once, and nearly out the door a couple more times before we finally got the entrance secured. They continued to push back multiple times on the first level, but we mostly held. They pushed us completely off the second level two or three times before we could secure the elevators. Eventually we fought our way through and defeated the last group just minutes before they could open a portal to bring in more troops from off-world. Paragon city can sleep safely tonight, but it was a very close call.

If you want to preview what it would be like to face +4x8 ALL-EB INCARNATE spawns, 801.9 is live and is at least twice as hard as 801.5. I'll add an easier and shorter .7 and .8 later. Given testing so far I think it would be a very very rare team that would use that setting. But I would still like having the various options.

801 took a very long time to balance, and uses out of game tools (but doesn't have to, it's just easier). It's easy to slap together a simple group for solo only play, but the default simple AE methods tend to not scale well. There is an exponential^3 potential difference in a small team of SO only non-incarnates, and a full team of 8 full Tier 4 IO Tier 4 Incarnate players. A single T4^2 player can encapsulate the capabilities of a full team of 8 SO Heroes. And that only gets worse when the synergistic Incarnates start bouncing off each other in teams. That's probably a 64:1 power ratio difference, if not potentially worse. I've seen vet teams crumple to 801.0, and at the same time I've seen rare teams stomp 801.5, and I have a few very rare teams asking for more. My BEST tank crumpled to 801.9, and I expect THAT (very rare) team to come back and ask for MOAR! The IOed INCARNATE is out of the bag, and there's no putting it back. I would fully support a two additional settings: No Bosses - We already have this Regular - We already have this Bosses to EBs: Minions -> Lts, Lts -> Bosses, Bosses -> EBs Bosses to EBs Plus: Minions -> Bosses, Lts -> EBs, Bosses -> EBs All EBs: ... all EBs You could give AVs a similar synergistic treatment. I'd probably never touch that outside of teams, but I can see some teams loving it. No AVs - We Already Have this Regular Avs - We Already Have this EBs to Avs - regular EBs to AVs All AVs - All AVs

Here's an alpha pass at a translation of one of my armored builds. EAfn Elec Defender - Alpha 1 - [i26].mxd

AE 801 Incarnate Team Missions WARNING: Do not attempt 801.6 and above unless you have tried the lower difficulties and found them too easy. +4x8 801.6 and higher generate 3.5k+ sustained dps, with frequent 10k+ spikes, and rare 20k+ dps spikes. This is 98% Fatal to Solo Unsupported 75% resist cap ATs. Just search '801' in AE. AE 801 is a variety of missions created for fun and challenge, and is designed for a team of 5+ Incarnates; but is also designed to be solo-able on much lower difficulty settings by most Tier 4 Incarnates. The difficulty of the missions increase as the numbers increase from: 801.0 Easy, …, 801.2 Standard, …, 801.5 Hard, ..., 801.8 Extreme, 801.A Epic, ... 801.F. Most Tier 4 Incarnates should be able to solo 801.0 set to -1x0 no-bosses, but do not expect it to be easy with all of those builds. On the high-end 801.5 and up +4x8 have killed over 1,500 tanks that I know of, likely more that I don’t. I suggest you start no higher than 801.2. This is my standard map for testing an armored character's combined offense and durability capabilities. If you can solo 801.2 +4x8 in the time given (2 hours), then you have enough offense and durability to handle 99% of what the official game throws at you, ... with the exception of some +4 AV dps checks, other cheaty encounters like Hamidon, and the newer Hard Mode settings. I would suggest 801.5 as a maximum starting point for a FULL TEAM. Most teams never get past 7, and very few have ever done A (10) and up, while only and handful of teams have completed D (13), and less than a handful have completed F. If you just want a quick and dirty less comprehensive test of durability try '801.0-Static' +4x8. This is the shortest easiest map in the 801 series. There are also a static versions of 801.3 (Tier 2), 801.6 (Tier 3), and 801.7 (Tier 4), which are also shorter and easier. My favorite these days is 801.6, which I run almost exclusively. Random teams for which it is either too easy or too hard are about equally rare. Some of the maps are semi-random map sets, However, the hardest actual maps are unfortunately not randomizable map sets. 801.6 has been redesigned to better fit between 801.5 and 801.7 801.5 generates 2k dps sustained damage, with frequent 8k dps, and rare 15k dps spikes vs an unarmored target. If you are not prepared to take 15k dps to the face, you may want to start with 801.0 set to +0. For reference, I’ve soloed the standard difficulty 801.2 +0x0 no-bosses on SO-Only defenders, blasters, controllers, etc. I’ve also soloed the harder versions +4x8 on my more durable full T4 IO T4 Incarnate Defenders, Scrappers, Controllers, Etc. I make the assumption that if I can solo it, you can run it with a team. On the Extreme end, I only have one tank build that can Solo +4x8 801.C, and that under extreme duress and difficulty (and with nowhere near enough offense to finish it in time. It takes 60+m just to clear the entry room solo). Recommended Team 801.0: 5 Tier 4 Incarnates set to +0. 801.3: 5 Tier 4 IO Tier 4 Incarnates 801.7: A Full Well Balanced Team of 8 Tier 4 IO Tier 4 Incarnates Other Recommendations: A "Tank" and an "off-tank". These do not have to be Tank AT. The ability to take 15k damage to the face, or otherwise control aggro will be very helpful. A third Tank is not out of line, but may not be required either. I'm pretty sure the 801.D team ran 3 tanks, 2 blasters, 3 support/control. Resist and Defense Buffs and/or De-Buffs. Due to ‘Incarnate To-Hit’ and ‘Incarnate Damage’ running without buffs, or the debuff equivalent, is not recommended. One or Two Control. Due to backwards compatibility with being able to solo +0 (with a controller), controls are particularly effective. CoH Mobs in general are weak to (in order): Confuse, KB/KD, Fear. Control can, if employed precisely with care and coordination, eliminate 90% of the damage from 90% of the mobs. Control is extremely useful, but since 7 and up are EBs, matched coordinated or stacked controls get a greater emphasis. Control becomes even more difficult in 11 and up, you might need 3 controllers instead of 2. Leadership Buffs. Something to help punch through T9 Armors. Tactics, Overgrowth, Mindlink, Blasters, etc, are particularly helpful here. I want an 801 Tank: TLDR: Inv/ with Kinetic Dampeners I typically run /Bio Scrapper (or really any of my builds regardless of AT) up to 2, /EnA Brute up to 6, Inv/ Tank up to 9, and SD/ Tank up to D (13). Each of these can more or less hold a door indefinitely solo +4x8 at those levels. More info in the post below. WTF Killed Me?!? Post and Link on One of many ways to die in 801. See Also AE801 Design Notes AE801 Mission Table Note: As far as I'm aware, at last count only 6 teams have completed F. AE801 Spawn Design Note: Not all maps follow the same spawn definition. Test each map carefully. Most maps seem to behave in the following way. The easiest maps will be relatively small and sparsely populated. As difficulty increases, I add ‘rescue’ and other objectives to densify the maps and create adds. As you get to the much harder maps you can expect mobs hiding around corners, above you, behind doors, etc. Eventually you will even encounter ambushes. The faster you move through the missions the more the push back will increase. And lastly, 801.3 and above mobs are particularly more difficult than 801.2 and below mobs. Each primary spawn is backed by a “dangerous” EB; 1 dangerous boss, and 1 less-dangerous boss; 1 or 2 dangerous lieutenants, and 2 or 3 less-dangerous lieutenants; 1 dangerous minion, and 7 normal minions; furthermore every spawn will have at least one minion level sniper, if not higher level snipers. The “dangerous” mobs are further broken down into various difficulties, and spread out pseudo-randomly in the .cvg such that it’s either impossible, or extremely rare to get two particularly dangerous mobs in the same spawn. However, you can get two very dangerous overlapping spawn groups. In fact, there are many places in the maps where 3 to 5 groups overlap dangerously close, and two overlapping groups is not at all rare. All mobs have at least partial ‘Incarnate To-Hit’. Due to AE mechanics this varies from ~53 to ~65, and is not the exact 59% of official content. On easier difficulty maps you can expect some mobs to lose their Incarnate To-hit and fall back to normal standard soft-cap after a short period of time. If you are moving slowly, pulling, fighting, and easing forward, this will make future mobs much easier. Mobs will also become much easier in protracted fights as opposed to alpha strikes. Beware, some of the highest level snipers have Aim, you should be prepared to take at least some damage if you give a sniper free reign to take pot shots at you. Bosses Summary as an example: 33% - 19/58 – Primary Buff/Debuff Control, these are the primary heart of each spawn. 17% - 10/58 - Standard AoE damage 17% - 10/58 - Standard Light Damage 15% - 9/58 - Supplemental Buff/Debuff primarily for -resist balance and a bit more challenge 8% - 5/58 - Difficult to Control 8% - 5/58 - Tier 9 Armor, Control them first or else. AE Spawn Mechanics Note: Not all maps follow the same spawn definition. Test each map carefully. Most maps seem to behave in the following way. Don’t shoot the messenger If you want random or controlled spawns, you will have to randomize, or control your .cvg file yourself. You can do this by the order in which you edit critters, or you can do this outside of AE with some limitations. The former will potentially take you hours each time you want to change even one power in one critter. The latter once you get used to it is, at least for me much easier. AE creates three lists: minions, lieutenants, bosses. These lists are created in sequential order from your .cvg file, which is created by default in alphabetical order from your .critter files. Then rolls a random index in each list. Then it spawns sequentially through those lists. Each x8 Spawn will have approximately 2 bosses, 4 lieutenants, and 8 minions. This means, if you have 2 nasty bosses in your group, you’ll always get 2 nasty bosses. If you have two or three copies of your bosses in a larger group of easier bosses, but your three bosses are in your cvg file together as boss1, boss2, boss3, then you’ll get spawns of 2 hard bosses, 1 hard boss with 1 easy, and a bunch of easy spawns. If you wanted a random hard boss here and there, you’ve completely failed by default. This is the default AE behavior. Additional Spawn Detail: For additional spawn density you can use ‘rescue’ objectives, and sometimes other objectives. AE is very strange in the way some of these interact, particularly the ‘any’ objective types. Make sure to test carefully that one objective type isn’t over-writing another objective type. It’s both possible to over-spawn a map and create more spawns that might otherwise ‘normally’ be available; and it’s equally possible for one spawn type to overwrite another and not spawn as many spawns as would other wise ‘normally’ be available or that appear to be available. To futher confuse the situation, editing storyarcs often only count the edited objectives instead of recalculating all objectives. This interacts with the above in strange ways, sometimes beneficially, sometimes detrimentally. Warnings: WARNING NONE OF THIS IS OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. AE will try to rewrite your .cvg constantly If you change even one power, you will need to re-order and re-write your .cvg Backup your .cvg, lots. Then lots more. Then a few more times, just in case. If you want to manipulate the .cvg: You will need to save it in-game (and stay online), then out of game back it up, then manipulate it, then save it. The updated version should then appear in-game. If you’ve made a backup.txt of file.cvg, this can save you time next time you want to work on it by logging in, saving your .cvg in-game, then out of game type backup.txt > file.cvg to return it to the saved state and start working. AE 801 DPS Tests 801.5: 2k dps average, 8k spikes, 15k max spike 801.A: 5k dps average, 10k spikes, 25k max spike 801.B: 10k dps average, 25k spikes, 46k max spike AE 801 Actual CVG Spawn Lists: Note: EBs are not sorted, as they only spawn when purposefully put into a spawn individually. However, you can see the sorting with the Bosses and below, and the note how various spawn compositions would look given the sequential nature of spawns. Random Starting Index, Then Sequential Spawn. AE801 Additional Information and Files for 801.6 (Link) Tagged For Search: AE 801, AE801 cvgui.pl IC - 6035.cvg

The Alpha build is a pretty standard if old Linea Armored Build. I do not at all recall what I was doing with the concept builds, but at a guess I was looking into Resist Based Builds ... which I do /not/ normally recommend on 75% resist cap ATs. Cold Sonic Dark - Eve Concept 2 - [i25].mxd Cold Sonic Dark - Eve Concept 3 - [i25].mxd Sonic Cold - Alpha 1 - [i25].mxd