Linea

It's archived. I'll look into pulling it out. The AE 3 arcs limit is a PITA. If you're feeling sadistic and masochistic try 801.1, but do NOT take a team of lowbies into any 801 arcs. Cathan.zip

Do you really need to be this tough: No, not at all. It really depends on the team. I'll second what Hyperstrike said about how to build. I'll add that for heal-tank armors a defensive weapon like Katana can really help. For a Tank I recommend: Other armors as well, but these are my top picks in each armor type. Defense Armor: */EnA (brute only armor), Inv/Rad, SD/Rad; ( for a cheap SO only build, I'd probably recommend the Inv/Rad or Kat/Ena ) Resist Armor: Rad/Kat; Heal-Tank Armor: Bio/Kat; ( My "Main Incarnate Tank" is a Kat/Bio Scrapper 😜 ) My standards are as follows: Note the following are SLE heavy tests, you also need to evaluate your other types of defenses and resists. SL > EN > FC > TP, where TP can be half that of SL. Base Level: Solo +4x8 Council. If as a tank you can't do this, I would say you need to work on your build or the Incarnate content will shred you like tissue paper. Squishies: Survive a Fire Farm or SL Farm Patrol Cave Intersection on +4x8 for 10+ minutes ... at a very minimum set for no-bosses, but preferably set with-bosses. Melees: Survive 10 minutes with 6 Bosses and all the rest of 3 spawns of +4x8 Cimmies aggroed while using no offensive powers. You have to make sure to keep the bosses aggroed, the riff raff just fill in the rest of the gaps. This shows you can survive -defense debuffs (the 6 bosses), and that you can handle any crash or transition in clicky armors. Tanks: Solo +4x8 AE Arc "801.1"

As to the ITF. It's entirely more likely that the issue was the healing nictus, and not lack of -regen. If it /was/ lack of -regen, then just carry Envenomed Daggers, you can typically double stack them and get way more debuff from that source. If you really are paranoid about -regen, then just get at least one other person to carry daggers, then you can have 4 stacks, that should be enough for all but the worst of teams. /IF/ you do hit a wall, you can buy from p2w in Pocket D even during a TF, and just load up on daggers, or have the whole team load up on daggers. Note: ONLY the Pocket D vendor will sell to you during TFs. The healing nictus cheats and heals from /all/ entities nearby, including it's allies. Kill all adds, and defense buff all pets. Also, Do NOT use Carrior Creepers in range of the nictus if the nictus in in range of Rommy. (unless you can defense buff them, and I'm not sure you /can/ defense buff them. Or if you optionally just have massive overkill dps, it is possible to power through, but I advise that you ditch the creepers). Rommy Running can cut your effective applied dps in half. Immobilize him, or taunt him. The taunt can be as little as a scrapper taunt aura, it doesn't have to be an actual taunt. This means think ahead and try to have control or taunt on the team. If you don't, then it's often easier to kill the nictus instead of Rommy due to his running, but this will be more difficult than killing an immobilized/taunted Rommy. Immobilized/Taunted Rommy > Kill the Nictus > Kill Trackstar that runs everywhere like a maniac. The Autohit is the other major issue. Stay outside it's circle. It's power has a very obvious graphic circle, Stay outside that circle. Alternately -damage debuff it, and/or +resist buff the team.

I disagree. There are times (build and team configurations) where no -regen is better than some small about of -regen. If the -regen is 'free' with absolutely no cost, that might be different, but there is always at least a minimal cost. A 5 dps equivalent -regen that only applies to AVs, should cost less than 5 dps of general offense/recharge. In cases where the cost is elsewhere than dps, the question is more subjective, but should not be ignored entirely.

Tested all three. Old FX: All three zone. Mirror and Phantom Mirror: only 1 zones.

Edge(PC) doesn't seem to like the link. Firefox(linux) worked. Here's an alternate copy Downloaded from above via firefox, then re-attached via the forum. Mids Builds Archives 1905 FX.7z Scroll Down for a .Zip format version

The following worked well for me, and is capable of soloing a +4x8 ITF. Armored D.A.B. Build. (Optionally uses Dampeners, Amps, and Base Buffs for extremely high performance . This is not required for more normal performance levels.) Offensive Rating 80: 347 (107%) ST DPS vs Pylons, 15 (67%) AoE MPL in a Fire Farm, (as compared to my Fire/Atomic Blaster) Standard Rune/Hybrid Core T4/Rune/Demonic Kitchen Sink for resists and status protection. (500s up, 30s gap. The gap is of minimal impact once you factor in moving between mobs and using the clicks more efficiently. In practice I pause for recharge reasons less than once per week.) P2W:Kinetic Dampener to seal up SL defenses for tanking or soloing. Add optional Base Buffs and/or Amps ... P2W:Stun Grenades stack with Thunderclap, Tornado, and OG to stun most of a spawn PBAoE, Stun bosses, for both defense and to slow things from running away. (The stuns are very useful, particularly early on.) You can also stack holds. Trica Arashi - Storm/Elec/Souldrain Defender Storm Elec Dark Defender - Druidess 2a - [i25].mxd

Time/* ... Tank, Scrapper, Blaster, Support, ... so many different ways you can build them.

The primary builds are resist based damage builds, the secondary build is a more traditional defense armored build with less damage. Any blast set is acceptable, I'm just most fond of Fire (Damage), Ice (Damage/Utility, Holds), Water (Utility, Self-Heal). Same way I rate Armors, EnA (Defense), RadA (Resist), Bio (Heal-Tank) ... I'm picking one of each type to recommend, not shuffling all types together and picking the top 3 ... that could lead to either very bias results, or the need for just listing every set possible. For instance, I tend to never recommend resist based armor on 75% resist cap ATs because you are always going to be stuck with taking 2.5x incoming damage even with the best build. The only exceptions to that would be Dark, Bio, Nature, or any other set that can provide 2.5x or more Healing and/or Regen. But then that in turn probably means it's a Heal-Tank instead of primarily defense or resist set, or it's a hybrid. Messy and complicated, So I give one for each type so at least one will most likely fit the play-style desired. I built Offenders, from a support perspective it's a bit more ambivalent, although the defender does get better support numbers. The primary builds push near-perma Overgrowth and near-perma soul-drain for blaster level damage plus support. A blaster that's buffing damage (half a kin's worth), resistance, regen, recovery, absorb, that massive AoE heal/absorb, and some minor healing (although the directional 'heal' is a total PITA without binds.) Directional Heal - Bind numpad to "team_select 1$$face$$follow" .. then heal. I'll attach my binds if you can decipher them. (good luck. I have hundreds of bind files, so binds are second nature to me, and as a result my binds may appear a bit complicated at first.) You should see my Empath. Totally Blasphemous Sacriledge, It's primary build isn't even Green Machine compliant. *face palm* ... of course it's also an unholy terror. 😜 fourcade.zip

If I had to pick one defender for you to bring to all my teams, I'd pick Nature. Chances are really good someone else will bring a kin, and/or most of the other buffable things, but nature is pretty unique and buffs those things I can make use of most and tends to be the hardest to find. If you want to specialize in killing AV/GMs, then I'd pick Cold (assuming I didn't pick Illusion/Rad). But really, any reasonable team these days should be able to kill all the AVs or GMs it wants. Cold even on pure SO builds guts hard targets. No one defender does everything. But some really nice pairs are Kin/Cold, Time/Nature, Emp/Emp, ... any of these would be great picks ... but honestly just about any defender would be a great pick. Also, you do not HAVE to box yourself into /Sonic Blast. Yes, it's a nice additional multiplier, but at least half of the other blast sets would be just as good a choice. I personally recommend Fire, Ice, and Water as the top three overall choices and much less frustrating to play if you ever do wind up on a small team or solo. - Kin/Cold pair translates to max +dam * max -resist = 9x damage. - Time/Nature buffs defense, damage, resist, absorb, recharge, and healing. - Emp/Emp is just silly fun when run Green Machine style, perma buffs for all. ... etc. ... Nature Fire - Fourcade 2 - [i25].mxd Nature Fire - Fourcade 2td - [i25].mxd Nature Fire - Laoraine 2c - [i25].mxd

Just be warned, if you use the PBU and/or Clarion Radial +Special, if you recast Farsight without those buffs, you'll overwrite the +50defense bubble with a +20defense one, losing that nice boost. With PBU that's less of an issue as it can recharge must faster, but with Clarion it means both you and your team need to have (nearly) PERFECT buffing discipline. aka: It's not easy, but the rewards are well worth it.

Jilaiya (Empathy/Fire/Souldrain) soloed a +4x8 ITF Emp Fire - Combat Medic Concept 4 - [i25].mxd Emp Fire - Harlequin Device 2 - [i26].mxd Jil's in-combat numbers when she's all dolled up with Amps, Dampener's, and Base Buffs ... Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic/Kitchen Sink

I built this as a brute, these files are from the archives when I was planning and testing builds, probably don't include the most recent changes, and I'm not sure what kind of shape they are in. Kat / EnA Build (scrapper) Kat ENA MeltArmor Scrapper - Alpha 2 - [i25].mxd Kat ENA Shadowmeld Scrapper - Alpha 2 - [i25].mxd Kat ENA Spout Scrapper - Alpha 2 - [i25].mxd

This works (almost) just as well as a Scrapper. Scrapper versions are probably in the archives. Kat / Ena Build: Kat ENA - Mu 1i - [i25].mxd

Run 801.1 solo +4x8 ... I used several ideas from Capt and others for changing the composition of spawns to try to create an incarnate class combat experience. ... the minions are still too squishy for heavy offense, but you are likely to find you have difficulty deciding who to kill first. ... "You are likely to have difficulty deciding who to kill first": This was the basic plan, nothing should be ignore-able, and there should be something to annoy almost any build. ... I really need to rollback some of the more recent changes and go back to more Beam Rifle to better balance for defense vs resist armors ... I can solo this +1x8 on a Tier 4 incarnate empath, but less than a handful of my builds can solo it +4x8 both offensively and defensively. (Lower Offense is more often the issue with my build style) ... A team of 4 or more Tier 4 Incarnates should still stomp this into oblivion, but it should at least be a little bit more difficult than normal.

Overload is not in the brute build, and overload would not be perma, ever. Overload could make silly ludicrous, but given the current defense numbers I'd rather have more resist. I've given almost all the armors this treatment. The one armor that I broke worse than any other was EnA. I highly recommend Bio (heal armor), Rad (resist armor), and EnA (defense armor). Balance set based on Linea Build: NO! . . . balance should be primarily around SOs, with tertiary consideration to IOs. However, you can't ignore IOs entirely either. I need to look at this very carefully before just tossing it onto tanks with higher defense modifiers: Yes, definitely. Stalker Version, much tamer. However, I built it for it's 500 ST DPS offense, not defense.

Kat/Ena Brute with a Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Kitchen Sink Build Top I can do all day Bottom is me being a little silly, you can ignore that one. (I can do that almost all day too, but for balance purposes it should be ignored) Psi hole is an issue, and it's the only thing keeping the set from being ludicrous. Yes, this is an extreme example, but testing extreme examples is what I consider fun. Bio, RadA, EnA all get gold stars. Inv, SD, ... get silver stars, etc. Here's an older one from my archives. Not sure what's different here, but I'd guess a different Alpha. It's too old for me to remember. I'd have to get back on test and try to duplicate it to figure it out.

But I love running around mid 70's defenses (plus resists) on my brute, I can't wait to make that mid 80's (or higher?) on a tanker! 😜

RE: Fury I always used 70% in my calculations. It felt right, for regular missions, and regular play. I wouldn't use anything less than 60, and going much over 70 is probably equally impractical (for average play in average missions on average teams) ... Farms, yeah, 90 or 95 is likely more accurate. It stays very high, but I've never hovered over it to see what the actual number is.

"Time waits for no tank." - Graywalker "Time doesn't need a tank, but they are really useful for vengeance." - Linea

Dissing Fulcrum Shift pretty much makes my brain explode. This is not entirely true, simply by the fact Fulcrum can double stack, and scrapper damage caps are considerably high. Buff the scrapper and twiddle your thumbs and you've probably added more damage than a second scrapper, do something other than twiddling your thumbs and it's going to be hard to not surpass the scrapper pair ... Solo you'll be more like the "average" scrapper in that damage capped corruptors and defenders push into the (average) scrapper range for ST damage and Surpass (average) scrappers for AoE damage. There's also no reason for a high level defender with an IO build to not be nearly as durable as the average scrapper. (Note: Scrappers vary in both damage and defense capabilities and I am not using Titan/Bio as a benchmark. I'm looking more at the 300 ST dps range, and the 10 to 15 mpl range that is a bit more common.)

"Healers" are probably (almost) never "Needed". "Healers" are probably the least needed subset of builds once you pass the very very early levels. However, Empaths are almost always useful. Empaths are not "healers". Empaths are a great deal more than just "Healers". I also have a nearly, but not entirely, useless Empath that can solo +4x8 with firepower nearly equal to a blaster, and armor nearly equal to a scrapper. So even if you think empaths are useless, you can still enjoy playing one as an armored blaster that occasionally buffs the team if that's what you want to do. There's plenty of room in the city for lots of play-styles, even Petless MM Empaths. I also disagree that survival buffs/debuffs are less useful or useless late game. Sure, I can solo that on my (defender, controller, scrapper, tank, ...). Give me a defense buff and I can solo it even faster because I can let loose even more offense and no longer have to worry about DDR. Give me a resist buff and I can again, let loose even more and not worry about my own resistance buffs so much. Give me an Adrenalin Boost and I can crank out even more damage. The same can be said for pretty much any buff/debuff. Sure I can solo it. Sure I don't "need" that buff. But each of those buffs really do make subtle differences even if I'm running fully independent self-sufficient builds. If you want to focus on the highest of the high-end content and team with only the highest of the high-end builds, then sure, some buffs may be more useful than others, but that definitely will not be every player's experience, nor every team. Everyone isn't running an UberBuild, defenders of all kinds are useful, and they are useful in all kinds of content.

You get 125 Threads at VL 1,2, Skip, 4, 5, Skip, ... 11, None after 11. You get Front loaded 20 Empyrean Merits decreasing over time to 3 Empies at VL 3,6,9, ... 99, none after VL 99. Once you hit VL99 Set: Always set Double-Influence. 50+ set No-XP for 1.5x inf ... 49- set Earn-XP for 1.9x inf. . . . (Improper settings can result in 0.5x, 1.0x, or 1.2x or other unexpected results) You can expect approximately: - Unlock all slots by VL 7. Alpha VL 1, Judgement and Interface VL 3, Lore and Destiny VL 5, Hybrid VL 7 (unlocks vary depending on xp settings and other server specific factors.) - one T3 of each slot by VL 12, aka run 6 +4x8 ITFs. - VL100 - one T3 of each slot and 360 Empies, .... and 710m influence, 1068 Threads, 136 Shards, 13 Reward merits, 8 Cats, 96 Converters, 1 Booster (The non-Empie rewards also vary depending on xp settings, playstyle, and teaming) - This is also enough to build one T4 of each slot and at least 1 additional T4, if not 2 or 3 extra T4s by VL 100.

For Pure Damage: Fire Blast, and in turn Fire/Kin Cor. For General Purpose I tend to Recommend: Fire Blast (Damage), Ice Blast (Damage and Utility), Water Blast (Utility, Durability, Damage) For Solo 54+ GM Hunting: Illusion/Rad Con, Traps/Fire Def, Rad/Fire Def, Fire/Kin Cor, Cold/Fire Def ... probably a few other things. You really want to leverage -regen and then multipliers. ... and potentially other combos I've not remembered, and I'm not sure on the order, it will vary by build. Defender vs Corruptor vs Blaster damage is complicated and depends heavily upon build. ... And potentially team makeup as well, in that corruptors have a higher damage cap and teaming with additional +damage will give corruptors 5/4 damage. However, outside those additional buffs, the better multiplier numbers can give defenders an edge in personal damage, and a definite edge in team damage for sets that have -resist or +damage multipliers. Sets without the multipliers, like FF, if built without souldrain or any other APP multipliers will favor Corruptors heavily. The most damage you will likely ever see will be a Kin Cold Duo for capped +damage and floored -resist resulting in ~9x damage. The following is solo damage, 50+3, Fully Armored IO builds, T4 Incarnates. This is just a sample excerpt. All of the following have soloed a +4x8 ITF as a proving ground. (Yes that means I soloed a +4x8 ITF with an Empath) Both Nature Builds are more or less mirrors. Note the higher ST DPS is on the defender, and the AoE isn't exactly slacking. Rating is avg(ST%,AoE%,AoE%); I emphasize AoE more, as the game rewards AoE more. Yes there are builds that exceed the 100% mark, I used Fire/Atomic Sniper as an arbitrary 100%. ST DPS was measured vs Pylons. AoE was measured as ~15 minute average MPL vs Fire Farms. (Yes that means I Fire Farm(ed) with an Empath) Armored Fire/Atomic/Scorpion Sniper Blaster: 100%, 324 (100%) ST DPS, 10 (100%) MPL Armored Time/Fire/Dark Defender: 87%, 310 (96%) ST DPS, 12 (83%) MPL Armored Emp/Fire/Dark Defender: 79%, 250 (77%) ST DPS, 13 (80%) MPL Armored Fire/Nature/Dark Corruptor: 78%, 325 (100%) ST DPS, 15 (67%) MPL Armored Nature/Fire/Dark Defender: 76%, 335 (103%) ST DPS, 16 (63%) MPL

Guassian procs reliably in SD. I personally tend to put it in aim so that it helps boost damage when malfactored at lower levels. (I potentially malfactor more often than most players) I've not tested the "in-between" build of Soul->Souldrain. I went with the nearly perma Dark-Souldrain vs more heavily armored Force of Nature build. Most of my current builds are on Sould->Souldrain, the only one I tested (recently) both builds on is time/dp. But, regardless, I think you can reasonable interpolate what you can expect, assuming similar endpoint Tier 4 Incarnate builds. Time/Fire/Dark-Souldrain: 310 st dps 12 mpl (inverse aoe) Time/Dp/Dark-Souldrain: 280 st dps 13 mpl (inverse aoe) Time/Dp/Sould-Souldrain: <interpolate> Time/Dp/Power-FoN: 210 st dps 16 mpl (inverse aoe)