Linea

This is my older Kat/Ena, but for extreme durablity, not damage. Mu is the oldest build. DN 2i was probably the next build, and the D+ and G+ are the current dual builds. Fun thing about Kat/Ena, is if you add Dampeners, which are dirt cheap, you can cap SL defense very early, and break the game by level 13 ish. Kat ENA Brute - Mu 1i - [i25].mxdKat ENA Brute - Prototype 801 - DN 2i - [i25].mxdKat Ena Brute - 801 G+ - T9 3L - GLM DN Tactics - [i27].mxdKat Ena Brute - 801 D+ - T9 3L - EF Tactics - [i27].mxd

Armored Blasters only rate somewhere between (2 - 4) on my durability scale, Sentinels rate between (3 - 6). There IS definite overlap there. I've lead over a thousand 801 teams with my blaster in 801.2, but above 801.3, I swap to the Sentinel and run teams with her up to 801.7. 801.7 and above I'm most likely to swap to Hornet or a Brute depending on the team. Above 801.9 and up I usually swap to a tank. As Exceptions I've run all sentinel 801.7s, but usually pick 801.6 for that. The sentinel has also run on teams up to 15 (801.F), but it's really rare to get a good solid well balanced team that can do that, which is why I normally swap to something solid enough to anchor the team if all else fails. Only if you're teamed with something that can pack the mobs in tight enough, or pull to a corner. I've always based AoE on things that don't cooperate and don't bunch up nice and tight without help. In-Game Testing. Percentages vs Heavily Armored Fire/Atomic Blaster. Pylon Testing (my heavy armor builds): The sentinel rated 79, the scrappers rated (177, 123, 91, 102, 77). MPL AoE Testing (my heavy armor builds): The sentinel rated 74, the scrappers rated (61, 61, 70, 58, 50). There's also the Trap Door Testing Thread. But I don't think anyone has ever sat down and complied that.

They're balanced on being slightly less powerful than the average SO-Only built scrappers, no incarnates, no ATOs. Roughly 95% ST damage and 125% AoE Damage. The problem there is: "Who wants an average scrapper?", particularly when scrapper variance (best to worst) is 2.5x and "Who builds SO only?" I have an 801 sentinel that runs 250 dps, can solo a +4x8 ITF, and probably a 1-Star Hardmode ITF as well. ... And ... the 801 scrapper runs 400 dps. Max variance vs Averages hard at work. Oops. (And a full offense glass cannon proc built scrapper can hit 700 dps, but would get obliterated in Hard-mode.) Another related point, Sentinel Variance is the least of any AT. This IS good design. But it's also bad design when every other AT has a 2.5x or 3.0x variance, resulting in sentinels having a very very solid 'average' performance with little hope of ever exceeding average. But that is NOT the sentinel's fault, that's all the other ATs. No AT should have one attack set that is 3x better than another. And then you can throw Proc Builds on top of that, and push offensive based scrappers to 700 dps, and you'd be lucky if the same sentinal hit 300 dps, maybe 350 at a stretch. But again, that's not the fault of the Sentinel, that instead lands squarely on the shoulders of Procs and how they help some sets drastically and not others not at all.

The average random team 4-star (aka relentless) itf has been running me 3 hours 150 deaths. This is probably what you should expect and plan for going in. It's been run 4-star in less than 40 minutes. With the recent changes I expect that time to get even shorter.

Maybe. People don't build this way, because until now there's no reason to build this way, so there's no data. Built my way armored heavier than a tank, I have EnM/Ena listed as 400 dps, and DB/Bio listed as 330, which probably translates to 300 on DB/EnA (on a full armor build, not an offensive build). But, you also probably don't need to build entirely as durable as I do, but at the same time you definitely don't wan't to build to the dps proc-monster extreme. These mobs have +defense so you'll end up swishing, and you're not going to be able to afford to lose that extreme level of durability, not solo. Teamed you'd in theory be fine, if you nibble on the edges and soak up buffs. I do the latter when I'm in my armor valleys, and I point in front of the tank when I'm at my armor peaks. So back to the issue of 300 dps vs 400 dps ( when built for armor, not dps), mulitplied by all the multipliers ... Could I do a solo 2-star, maybe. But odds are really good I'd have to overload more inspirations into email. So, maybe.

Congratulations, Good Luck, and God Speed.

Upgrade all mob groups into 801.6 rule-set mobs. Limit the Incarnate boost to +1.

The DPS requirement has been reduced in the latest ITF patch. ~1000 dps is break even. But that doesn't really change the answer all that much, more accessible to lower end teams, but otherwise still difficult. We'll see what future patches change up or down.

I haven't tested SR/ on this one. But others have and said approximately 1 group 1 eb, any more and dead. So very similar to the SD/, but the SR likely have slightly higher defense numbers that make taking on that ONE, and only one, EB easier. Most of the EBs, AVs, and GMs have Tactics, if I didn't already mention it. Charging into a group of EBs is hilarious. And since they are randomly sprinkled about, I did it more than once. That's how I eventually ended up testing on the towers. As far as I can tell there are no normal EB spawns on the towers, just the random patrol that rarely stops by.

AE 801 (link) - Most of the builds are linked in one way or another in the main 801 thread. I would suggest updating them, as many are old by now. Testing vs a 4-Star ITF Tower in mission 4. The closest I got to immortal was the SD/Radm vs the 4-Star ITF Tower in mission 4. But as soon as you add even 1 EB to that mix, chance to be hit sky-rockets from 8% ish to 50% ish, resulting in *splat* without vengeance or some other buff to cover. 4 stacks of tactics would pretty much equate an insta-splat. /Dark would have been a better pick here and probably propelled this one from 15-20m to infinity, but the issue with EBs would persist. This one went down the slowest without EBs, but the fastest with EBs. It makes sense when you consider what tools you have available, what tools they are using against you, and how mitigation works. Next best was Inv/Radm and Stone/Dark. Again /Dark is the better pick overall. The Stone/Dark lasted longer than the Inv/Radm, but that was likely a combination of slightly better resists on Stone/, but more so the additional +to-hit of the Stone/Dark build. That to-hit meant I was 95% chance to heal. Last, not surprisingly, was RadA/Kat. Pretty much instant cascade failure, followed by health dropping slowly, but too fast to counter entirely on your own. Buff or support. This one can pull and control tons of aggro which is why I like it so much, but support is definitely required. Of course, support is required for them all, so I don't really feel that bad about it, particularly not when I'm juggling double or triple aggro cap. Most of these builds are old, some are unfinished, likely all need updating. Use at your own risk. 801 Builds.zip

I agree. A tiny bit less chaos.

NO TANK is going to be able to solo a 4-Star ITF without at least very minimal support. I have an alpha build Stone/Dark that comes close, but needs a tiny bit of healing, vengeance, or some other buffs. Lots of various small buffs could do it, just not 100% solo. A Stone/SS might also be a good option, but the loss of healing probably offsets the gain of +to-hit. The SD/Radm comes the closest, but lacks to-hit so she eventually 5 or 15 minutes later gets whittled down and can't hit the targets consistently enough to vampire back all the health loss. SD/DM could probably pull it off, right up till an EB with Tactics comes along. That tactics turning a 10% chance to be hit into a 60% chance to be hit. Ouch. Look at the 801 Tank builds for defense and durability ideas. One of them is Inv/Radm. 4-Star everything has a minimum of 25 defense, and many have 50+ defense to at least one type of damage. You will need tactics, kismet, and/or (Vigor or Nerve); or similar buffs, team buffs, Rage, other powers, builds bonuses, or etc. 4-Star to-hit calculations all have a 2x accuracy multiplier. If you have a 25 defense gap in your armor, you'll be hit 50% of the time. If you have a 10 to-hit gap in your accuracy/tohit then you'll miss 20% of the time. if you ignore the 25 defense they all gain, then you'll miss 50% of the time. 4-Star everything has a minimum to-hit (defense soft cap) of 75. *IF* there is even one EB with tactics, that defense softcap is now 100 defense!!! A considerable number of spawns have an EB anchoring them. 4-Star tactics can stack up to 4x. The defense softcap for pulling a whole room is now 175 defense!!! 4-Star Avs have a base to-hit (defense soft cap) of 95! Most of those AVs also have tactics for a to-hit (defense soft cap) of 120! If you go and pull a whole room, with a 4x stack of tactics, that AV will end up with a to-hit (defense soft cap) 195!!! (Don't forget to wave to the tank defense hard-cap across the street) Barrier's max defense is very short lived, you'll need 2 to 4 of them cycling. DDR is a massive issue in the ITF, you'll need 2x Ageless Radial cycling to prevent cascade failure. Make friends with a Defender. Offer them all you can eat free: Fresh from the vein Blood, Dixie Cincinnati Style Chilli, Imported Mexican Coca-Cola, Virgil's Rootbeer, Graeter's Ice Cream, and Krispy Kreme Donuts.

Not really. For standard content a 350 dps tank is very doable, but that tank in 4-Star hardmode wills squish like a grape. Outside of T9s, the below conceptualizes what you're asking. My scrapper cheats, pushes near the max dps for an armored scrapper build, but uses T9s to get away with it. As a main-tank on 4-Star you will *NOT* have the luxury of using T9s, you have to be hardened 24/7 no gaps. The T9s can skew things, but also at a cost. When I solo the 2-Star, I frequently have to wait 15s or so, before engaging the next group. Teamed I inevitably die because someone dove it too soon, people start dropping like flies, and my T9s have 10 or 15 more seconds to recharge, and take 10 seconds to execute and pull up full armor. That's 25 seconds total, and if I'm solo, that's 25seconds between each pull. Meanwhile Leroy has charged in and gotten the whole dang team wiped, I'm pulling up my armors, need 1.5 seconds to finish animating ..... *SPLAT*. This happens so often it's just not even funny anymore. "Guys, give me just a second to finish here. Then I'll show you where to land on the <TEAM WIPE>" "Uh, too late. I was gonna say 'where to land on the beach and pull and separate so they don't insta-wipe us.'" Squish Semi-Immortal 700 DPS ................ 400 DPS ................ 100 DPS Scrapper ################### Brute ################## Tank ##################

Mids is much much better these days on dps numbers, but I would still never trust it completely.

Or even make it like the server transfer tokens, 5 per week. I rarely convert more than 5 when building a new character. However, this could still be exploited by having multiple accounts.

Just go the good old classic Kin/Fire with Vengeance. Anytime you're venged your a blasting goddess. You don't have to be immortal and live forever, you only have to live longer than the first guy to die. 😜

If these are your goals, you will almost certainly want dual builds. Start your testing with the ASF, it's by far twice as easy to solo compared to the the ITF. Soloing anything above 1-star, you'll need something in the 400 dps range. You won't find that on many tanks, and building for that much dps may be counter productive to staying alive in 2-star and higher content.

Assuming 4-Star and Assuming you're doing it the hardest way possible, with the weakest team possible, perma -1000 -regen becomes the priority. (163+50) / .48 / .45 / .66 ~= 1494 raw dps. This is probably pretty close to the actual break even number based on my solo runs and testing, and using Hornet's damage types. This equals out to Three or Four Hornets with one +Accuracy Buffer for a team of 4 or 5, Alternate damage types to Hornet would help tremendously. One Rad can (usually) perma -regen via stacking, cold has half that capability. I haven't double checked that the Rad is as effective vs Rommy, but it's still at least twice as effective at -regen as the Cold. Cold has more and different debuffs, that are brutal, but at 163 regen with massive resists, you either need alternate damage types or you really need to floor that regen somehow. THEN by all means, let the Cold, or even better a Cold/Sonic, destroy what stats are left to completely obliterate. At that point he'd drop like a rock. A team of Lineas could completely ignore the regen issue, but I'm assuming approaching the issue from the weakest possible player position. Effectively assuming a team of 8 SO only Tier 4 Incarnates that are generating a composite 800 dps or less, that's halved, then cut in half again by resists, then cut again by the mechanics of the fight. You're left with less than 115 sustained dps vs 163 regen. At that point you're surging damage with pets till pets die or expire, or you need that -regen to kill him in any reasonable amount of time. At that point if I can only have one thing, it's going to be perma -regen.

Assuming 4-Star Hardmode, and NOT Speed Running. Illusion/Rad are golden for the Hardmode ITF. Illusion to counter the <redacted>, and /Rad to help counter AV/GM regen. For defender, I'd Say Rad/Sonic with Tactics, and Kismet. Add Vengeance if you can, people drop like flies in Hardmode. You may or may not need to add (Nerve or Vigor) for 4-Star Hardmode, depending on actual end build.

Brutes are in a very good place midway between tanks and scrappers. This make them very versatile. You can build them in the middle, you can build them toward damage, or you can build them toward tanking. Use all three builds slots, General Gameplay, Full Procced Offense, and Full 801 Tank build. Personally I'd build that as three different characters, but if YOU want to build all three on only one frame, then the Brute using all three build slots is a really good pick.

Confuse Followed closely by KD Popcorn, and Fear. Confuse and Popcorn have been mitigated, so now I can't wait to see what 'Team Fear' does. ... and see how that's all handled going forward and how those Powersets are rebalanced so they aren't unfairly penalized otherwise. I like the tiered approach to the confuse protection. 1-star runs are no holds barred all the training wheels on. 4-star is hell on earth. 😈 I was on Cryptic on the old build. I need to test more on Brainstorm when I get a chance. Just keep an eye on it, and with other's feedback on it. With luck I'll try to run another one tonight on Brainstorm. If you don't pop a tank like a grape at least once per run, it's too easy. 😜 But at the same time you don't want to pop the tanks every spawn either. 3 to 5 seconds should be good, 3 second attack animation, 2 seconds to jump or teleport away. A last second range check to make sure you're still in-range to account for teleport timing if there isn't already? I'd even say a friendly team-teleport or phase bubble or cage bubble might be fair game to break the possession. Not sure how much of this is already accounted for, much testing to be done. *Shrug*

There are three major imbalances in CoH mobs: Confuse, KD (popcorn), and Fear. This may not be the best way to address the issue, but it's the one they have the tech to implement. Otherwise, a single control oriented Dom could mitigate well over 85%, likely 95%, of the damage of every spawn except the AVs. It's unfortunate that those control sets are so heavily balanced around that one power. That design imbalance will need to be looked at later as well. The only other option I see atm, would be higher Resistances instead of Protections. Or a mixture of Resistances and lower magnitude Protections It's much like the Goldbrickers, though I do wish it was better telegraphed. I jumped back every time I killed a dark aura target, and they still got me half a dozen times. If you kill one that doesn't get you, I think there's a short duration protection buff. I need to do more testing on these, as I never completely figured them out.

4-Star Master of ITF ... I dare ya! 😜 This is a good reason to have more than one tank-like character per team. What do you do when your main tank gets taken out?!? I think there are some visual queues as well? I can't swear to the mechanic, I just did it first, analyze it later. If it's a Boss/EB with the black aura, I bounce back after the kill shot and wait a couple of seconds before diving back in. Of course this is much harder to execute on a team. I think I would prefer them to be named "Infused Elite Praefectus" or somesuch, so they are easy to watch out for. Of course they might already be and I just missed it in the giant furballs of the fights we were in.

Preach It! You can't say praise Phatom Army enough. They saved us countless deaths, particularly vs the Hostless. Those things are pure death.

No, but it shouldn't really change much. I don't plan on ever repeating any of these 16+ hour solo runs. Never, Ever. I just do it As a measure of how difficult they are by how far I can get solo. That they can in fact be run successfully. If I can solo a 2-Star then in theory (almost) any random team of 8 (preferably Tier 4) Incarnates of dubious build should be able to do it as well.