Erydanus

If you're going to solo at least about 50% of the time, my personal preference would be to keep the Gaussian proc in Aim for on-demand bonus build up (probably as you're firing off your big AoEs). I think that the general damage boost from having it randomly pinging while teamed is nice, but is not going to directly provide you with value. In comparison if you're soloing it's only going to turn on once in a while and I'd rather have that on-demand boost when I need it then the rando tactics.

Yeah the passive one can go anywhere. What I like to do is stick it and 2 more pieces of that set in the Tier 1 or 2 attack and then use the other 3 pieces to frankenslot one of the good heavy hitters later in the build. That gets you double of the sweet defense bonus, and lets you have 3 strong pieces to tweak the enhancement numbers in a later power. (For instance if you have a Tier 8 cone and the PBAoE sets don't mesh well with its numbers...)

I feel it has to be said but …. you could roll a Fortunata/Night Widow for this playstyle VERY easily. You would basically be a Claws/Leadership Arachno-defender. Layer your SoA leadership by double dipping into the regular leadership pool, focus your build on keeping Mind Link up at a high level... If the current attempt at an actual defender/corruptor build doesn't work out, try a widow.

I have the chance of 50% bonus crit chance proc in my dual blades [Ablative Strike] power. I full slotted the Critical Strikes set, so overall it's probably more recharge than is great for proccing, but it DOES fire up when I'm using the move and the next attack is usually a combo finisher, or else I'm starting a combo chain - or if the situation warrants it just jumping to my tier 9 instead of doing a combo if CRITICAL STRIKES! lights up my screen. If you're short on money to buy both sets, just run some task forces, take all your merits and buy Enhancement Boosters, then sell them at market rate on the auction house (typically 1.5 mil each). 100 merits -> 20 boosters -> 30 million influence -> about 3 scrapper enhancements (if they're going for 10 mil, almost 4 if you bid low and get lucky). And that's the simple way to make money - you could also do stuff with flipping booster packs or enhancements for more profit. But what I just outlined is very reliable. By the way if you go with Scrapper's Strike, splitting it into 2 groups of 3 to double up the 3 part bonus (which is defense) is often popular; will vary depending on your powerset combo and playstyle though!

I'm just going to address your comment you have no idea where to start. Here's the thing in general about updating old builds from live. Inherent stamina changed a lot, and many people are even talking about updating builds that precede that. When we used to have to take Hurdle or Swift, plus Health, plus Stamina, that was 3 power picks yanked out of the build. If you wanted a travel power you had to take a pre-requisite as well. So that was 5 powers we had to sacrifice. Instead with inherent stamina the pressure is greatly reduced. In fact the result of this is that in every normal AT's build (Non Kheldian/Soldiers) you MUST take 2 pool powers while leveling because you don't have enough in your primary+secondary even if you take everything: you will run out at 24 and again at 30. You skip one power in your build - say you don't like repel - bam. That's 3 slots for you to take Kick/Boxing, Tough, and Weave. If you just wait for space to open, you won't get weave until 30, but you don't need it until you get Fulcrum Shift at 38 anyway so no big deal. You want a travel power? Just pick one other power to skip, say you pass over Inertial Reduction and take Mystic Flight from Sorcery pool. Of course if you want the pool powers earlier you can take them, and be confident knowing you can "catch up" and take all your primary/secondary powers later still because you have room. SO basically just pick 1 power below 32 to skip in either your primary or secondary and Fighting pool is taken care of, if you want another pool power after that just pick something to skip and that's all you have to do. Also of note, since you can start taking epic pools at 35, if you want to skip your secondary's tier 8 or 9 (for instance, Black Hole in /Dark or a self-rez in various melee sets) you can easily make room to take all 5 of your epic power choices or pick up a couple more meaningful pool choices (haste, recall friend, etc). As a Fire/Kin you won't be doing that but in general - there's wiggle room to be found in many secondaries.

DoTs in general do more damage than direct attacks (in all games and powers not just single target immobs) but there is the tradeoff of waiting for them to finish their sequence. If you overwrite dots, you lose out. But, that disadvantage usually means more damage. Here - not really. Single target immobs do the same damage as single target holds, and they recycle faster. Which means you're actually wasting endurance/potential damage if you spam them on the same target. If you're really good about Immob A Hold B Immob B Hold A type target cycling, you get the max benefit. If you don't … you lose out. Coyote's comment about front loading them with procs makes a lot of sense, even if you're not heavily proccing your build.

During the Winter Lords booster pack frenzy, I think more people were buying THOSE packs and generating a lot of brainstorm ideas. As a result, the market got flooded with orange salvage people wanted to liquidate. Once the price of the packs went back up to 25 mil I think the frenzy stopped and the surplus dried up; the market may have even over-corrected.

Everyone seems to have missed that Atlas Park AND Mercy Island now have an Icon & a Facemaker. The Icon is on the other side of City Hall from Ms. Liberty; the Facemaker is by the black market. They don't offer costume slot quests.

The immobilize is Mag 4. It's instant containment on routine bosses while leveling. I simply slot them for damage + procs if applicable and consider them a blast with a great bonus. The damage is on par with the single target epic blast in some pools (some are better). It's a good bread & butter power to have at all levels, though I agree some builds may just not have a need for them.

Well the first thing you need to do is ask yourself how you want to approach the character. Do you want to focus on the team support? If so are you interested in prioritizing the Kin buffs a bit more and treating the gravity powers as more support? I ask this because how I would slot a grav/kin I wanted to mostly solo with vs one I teamed with a fair amount vs one I wanted to be more passive with and focus on team help is radically different. For instance, for option 3 I might start taking Assault and Tactics at a much lower level because they're an easy way to help a team and honestly have a lot of impact in low level content like a Synapse or Penelope Yin TF if a lot of people are at-level (meaning they have weak enhancements still). This is also a build that as Tex points out easily self-caps on damage but only after you get Fulcrum Shift. So before then, damage enhancements are useful in that you may want to shoot a few baddies. Personally if I were soloing a Gravity controller I'd be slotting Gravity Distortion, Lift, and Propel with 1 Acc 3 Dmg at first. (Yes, ignoring putting any hold in Gravity distortion; it's not needed when you're soloing at x1 and leveling.) Those powers make a natural attack chain and Lift and Propel get a 2nd kind of specialized containment damage called IMPACT for hitting mobs that have been affected (not held, just affected) recently by Gravity Distortion. But again, if you're focusing on the more support aspect of play that's not as important. So here are some random Tips For Leveling! - Skip Dimension Shift. It's really not good, and we've argued it to death in many posts. It's got uses solo but teamed you will almost certainly "use it wrong" and draw aggro from your team. (Like that time I was surrounded by 5 war wolves and someone cast dimension shift on the mobs surrounding me, phasing them AND ME so that the blaster couldn't nuke them and I died because they killed me...) - Wormhole is probably the most important power in Gravity because it's your ability to tactically control the battlefield. It's a stun as well as a foe teleport. It used to shoot things out at high velocity but a knockback to knockdown proc means that things now land on a dime so it's great for feeding mobs to your tank or nuke-happy damage dealer. What Redlynne is saying above is that you can, once you get Fulcrum Shift, literally pick up the enemy group and teleport it right to you, dropping them on their butts and leaving them stunned and giving you the time to use point blank Fulcrum Shift. DO NOT PROC wormhole with any damage dealing procs, you will draw aggro with it; it is a no-aggro power like confuses otherwise. - the controller ATO that spawns an energy font pet (which does a low mag AoE stun, but the pets also draw aggro and have 500 hp) works really well in Crushing field. It's a very spammable AoE immob with trace damage, if nothing else. That one you might want to proc. You will probably find it to be your spammy group power on most TFs. - Singularity is love. I recently discovered that Singularity will quite happily use the Controller ATO chance for psionic damage proc and at a high rate. Teehee. - on the Kinetics side be sure you have enough accuracy in your powers that make accuracy checks. Also, until you get the Transference power you may find yourself with end problems. Paradoxically because you can't benefit from Speed Boost's +recovery bonus, but you can benefit from Siphon Speed, it's quite easy to run yourself out of endurance. So watch that, you may need a bit more end reduction in your powers, and you may find slotting a Miracle +recovery in health to be ideal even at a fairly low level. - by extension if you want to focus on kinetics then you're going to be putting more emphasis on their slots. However, many Kinetics powers only need a few slots to work well so it's more of a case of figuring out the mix of actions you're taking and assigning some extra accuracy or end reduction where you need it. Honestly if you can squeeze tactics into your build it'll be a really big help in the 14-30 range when you have weaker enhancements at first and are still slot poor even when you get better enhancements. I don't routinely take it in my builds but it's pretty helpful. For support heavy leveling I might do something like: Transfusion, Lift, Gravity Distortion, Siphon Power, Assault, Crushing Field, Siphon Speed, Mystic Flight, Tactics, Increase Density, Propel (or Repel), Speed Boost for my 1-20 powers. Wormhole at 26, Singularity at 32, Transference at 35, and Fulcrum Shift at 38 are assured. That means total options at 22, 24, 28, and 30. I would not worry about feeling you must take any of the following: hasten, the fighting pool, or medicine. You might want to take another sorcery power and then Rune of Protection (it's a mez shield as well as damage resistance), or you might prefer a different travel power but Rune is valuable enough I thought it was worth seeding the potential in a sample build.

I don't understand why anyone takes Focused Accuracy (or Tactics intended just for themselves really); outside of PVP that is. The advent of enhancement sets makes it so most powers easily get a 66% or more accuracy without sacrificing any damage, as well as accuracy bonuses being very common set bonuses; and even more is available in Incarnate powers. I'm not talking about builds where someone is specifically saying "I like to fight X and I need a smidge of bonus tohit to offset their annoying powers" I mean people going for these powers like they are still slotting with SOs and want the 20% accuracy and 5% tohit bonus to make up for only having 33% accuracy in their powers. I similarly look askance at builds that beeline for conserve power. It's 2020, nukes don't crash end, you got inherent Stamina at level 2, and +recovery and +end IOs are readily available and reasonably priced. If you're picking it to counter sappers, legit! If you're picking it because you assume your build is going to suck wind because it used to when you had a similar build 10 years ago only using SOs, it's time to rethink things.

If I understand correctly what you're seeing, has happened to a few parts in the past which like capes, have a 2nd set of colors. Notably the Cybertech Long jacket which acts like a trench coat (but isn't in that category, it's in with the regular jacket). The issue is that the costume creator has to be flagged for that item specifically for you to have the ability to pick the primary and secondary colors for the second layer. However, if you apply colors to all, those get covered by default. It's fine if you pick the shoulder detail while you still have colors linked, but if you break the link and then pick it for the first time it'll probably default to the black and white colors that are one in from the left and right and require you to pick your desired colors and then link them again. However, there is a work around if applying colors to all will goof up your design - you can save the costume file to your computer, then use a text editor like notepad to go in and directly edit the second pair of color channels. I did that for my cybertech trench coat (and I believe it's now been fixed in the costume editor). You should drop a bug note in the appropriate forum for this as well, btw.

I agree with everything Sarrate said. Plus, if money is no object, then use the 2 scrapper archetype enhancement sets. The individual pieces go for around 8-10 million each; if you're level 50 you can then catalyze them to the superior form which greatly increases their bonuses making them extremely nice. The basic versions are attuned so they're available while leveling as well. (Unlike say purple sets that require level 50.) The scrapper archetype sets are universal for scrapper damaging powers - melee, pbaoe, even ranged for the sets like Claws that have such an attack. I personally do not like the stat mix in most of the PBAOE sets so it's nice that I have these extra options. I typically use Critical Strikes 6 slotted as I feel the best bonuses are at the 4-6 part level. However, I typically use Scrapper's Strike split into two groups of 3 as the 3 part set bonus is defensive (but going for all 6 is certainly valid). That 3 part bonus? It's 2.5% defense to Smashing/Lethal and 1.25% defense to melee with the basic version; when you make the ATO superior (requires level 50) those values double. Therefore at 50, if you use all 6 superior pieces split that adds up to 10% defense to Smashing/Lethal and 5% defense to melee. These ATO sets each have a special IO; for Scrapper's Strike it's a global 5% critical hit chance increase. For Critical Strikes, it's a proc that is triggered by using the power that it's slotted into, which gives you a +50% critical hit chance for about 4 seconds. (So the NEXT attack will benefit from it, so you want to put it in something you use right before your heavy hitter.) Oh and if there's 1 piece of Gaussian's you should actually put in Build Up, it's the proc with a chance of Build Up. There is a very high chance of it triggering almost every time you use Build Up, which means Double Build Up for your next attack

Usually what causes this, I think, is that the portal is not flush with the floor. It's either a tiny bit in the floor or over it. Is the height of the room the default 2nd layer or is it lower or higher? Usually fewer problems happen on the default height but if something is making your base spawn "off", you could try raising or lowering one square and putting the portal on that.

I'm only looking at them as 1-offs. Hey if you like cross punch take cross-punch.

The thing is, this archetype is super adaptable and customizable. For instance the starter powerset is basically Claws with some dart attacks up to tier 7. When you do the Night Widow/Fortunata split, Widows get the claws tier 8, Eviscerate; their actual tier 9 is Psychic Scream; they also get a defensive Tier 9 in Elude. They get a few utility powers added in to the primary. On the other hand, Fortunatas keep all the starter claw attacks but get a complete roster of ranged attacks as if they are the love child of a mind controller and a psi blaster. They literally get TEN primary pool powers added as choices on top of the 8 they share with Widows. Unlike Night Widows you don't get Eviscerate but you do get Psychic Wail and so many other choices. You get similar extra choices in your secondary but get Aura of Confusion instead of Elude since you're not going the dedicated melee route. Still... do you want 20/80 melee/ranged? do you want 50/50? 80/20? 0/100? You can do it, it's all up to you. You can hybridize to any proportion and you can also choose to focus on damage or a mix of damage & control. What Gulbasaur said about them being blaster-control-tank hybrids is so dead on. But you can do different things if you want.

Scrappers are a high damage AT. You can slot your damage powers WITH damage, it's fine. You can use procs to do extra damage. Sets are not so important at 23, your enhancements are barely full power. Just make something that plays well, when you get to 50 you can do a respect and rework your build with the vastly increased options that are available then.

1. Ok slotting your build with generic enhancements is fine, but 2 acc 2 dmg and 2 end reduction in every attack is NOT a good idea. If your attacks don't do enough damage you'll end up having to use more attacks. That'll cost you more than you'll save with 2 end reducers. Every true attack power should have 3 damage. If you play on a difficulty such that 2 accuracies is appropriate that's fine. End reduction is good to have, but some powers really need more recharge even if you have to eat the cost of them. Considering that regeneration as a set gets a power that is more potent than stamina, your slotting of end reduction is truly excessive. Wait, you actually are Willpower; well same difference you get Quick Recovery eventually. (If your logic here was level 50 IOs are 42% each so two adds up to 84% that's less bad but since you put 3 of the same in your shields I didn't think that's what you were doing.) Note: Body Mastery will be overkill on recovery. Side Note: if you do use a build like this at 50 then what's optimal is to 2-slot powers like Quick Recovery and stamina and then buy enhancement boosters because if you make them +3 you'll crack the 90% enhancement rank. If you do both to +5, off the top of my head that does get you to 95% but doing that with all these powers you 2-slotted for damage would be very expensive since the boosters are 1.5 mil each on a typical day at the auction house = in other words 15 mil per power. 2. The cornerstone of Claws is Follow-up. Pretty much the entire point of the set is to spam that mini buildup attack as much as possible. You need recharge in that one and should eat the end cost. If there was 1 attack I'd sacrifice a damage enhancement in it for 1 more recharge, it might be that one. 3. Of the first 2 attacks in an offensive powerset, it's unusual to take both. Blasters have a reason to as they can use them while mezzed, but for melee ATs it's usually one or the other. That's contributing to some of the jam-up in your build. 4. Fly is capped at all levels with 1 enhancement (you can thank inherent swift + buffs to the speed for this). For leveling try an order more like this: Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Level 49 Magic Scrapper Primary Power Set: Claws Secondary Power Set: Willpower Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Flight Hero Profile: ------------ Level 1: Strike Level 1: High Pain Tolerance Level 2: Slash Level 4: Mind Over Body Level 6: Spin Level 8: Follow Up You don't need much defensive ability at such a low level. You do need an attack chain. Follow-up, Strike, Slash will be ok. (Use Spin when in group situations which will probably be often). I saw you had fly at level 4 but really … just buy a rocket pack or do a level 5-9 bank mission if you're poor. Take the extra attacks at low levels you'll be happier. Level 10: Indomitable Will Level 12: Fast Healing Level 14: Kick Level 16: Rise to the Challenge Level 18: Focus Level 20: Quick Recovery Level 22: Tough Level 24: Weave Level 26: Eviscerate Level 28: Heightened Senses Level 30: Fly Level 32: Shockwave Resurgence & Strength of Will are definitely valid options, not everyone takes them but many do. However, I would seriously think about epic pools and then possibly take two epics at 35 and 38. I personally think a self-rez is a good choice for a level 49 power as they're handy in high level content. I found I only started using Strength of Will once I got to very high level content. You might still take it at 38 or in the low 40s - it depends on what will work for you. I just strongly feel Conserve Power and Physical Perfection are overkill. Level 2: Stamina Empty(A) * don't forget to slot stamina while leveling. you probably just trimmed it off. ------------ Now you did ask for sets and so on but that's really a whole different question. You could use select pieces of sets while leveling, especially if they're attuned. There's also a lot to consider in that going with sets presents a preset mix of enhancements which are typically really not great until the set pieces are at max level. One thing you should look into right now though are the Scrapper archetype enhancements. Those sets are pre-attuned and worth using as you level, though one of them works best broken into 2 groups of 3 pieces as it gives a huge defense bonus.

I do not like the fighting pool attacks on controllers though they are cleaner than Jump Kick. I made a point of making a test (controller) character who took every possible attack from the pools and comparing them. The jump kick from jumping is an intolerable animation for me, we're talking fingernails on a blackboard bad. Flurry was not pleasant to use either. The fighting pool moves were ok, but in a meh way. It'd be different if Boxing didn't just have a chance to stun though, wow that would be useful for mag stacking. As it is, both Boxing and Kick do less damage than Air Sup, and Air Sup does knockdown EVERY time and has a clean direct animation. As a controller looking for bonus damage, you benefit from a power that does more damage and puts 1 dude out of commission for a few seconds while he stands up. That might be the few moments you need to cast a single target hold on a boss a second time to shut him down for good. Of course, the -fly aspect is also potentially useful. Overall it's either Air Superiority or one of the ranged attacks from an origin pool (I tend to prefer Arcane Bolt due to it being the path to Rune of Protection but Project Will is viable as well).

I have an incarnate Psi melee stalker, I've never had a "problem" with him. Some foes require more hitting but not to the point of it causing a serious problem, you just might find yourself going a little slower on certain mobs. The set also has some smashing damage so you're not totally psi.

In addition to these great tips for finding things you realize have vanished, if something like this happens again as you're moving an item and it goes "sproing!" just use CONTROL+Z to "undo" the last base edit, just like in a Word doc. In my testing you can undo the last 4-5 steps if you're still in the editor.

You can add a ton of doorways to open up the space between them but it would probably be better to actually just swap in a larger room if the individual rooms aren't intricately detailed already. The space inbetween the original rooms will still count as doorways and may have lighting weirdness.

Since it's an aura it would only check once every 10 seconds but it should check on multiple targets. Even if it triggers off multiple foes in a fight, it might be better to jus shove the proc into stamina and benefit from it there more reliably. That said, I don't think that one's unique so you probably could shove it in both places if you really wanted it. If you're thinking about ways to help with typical low-level endurance problems, I'd put the proc in stamina and put an end reduction in the damage aura; I think it's a useful power but it is costly to run. (By the way I do recommend sticking the Transact4Victory prestige knockdown enhancement in that aura if you get it. I found it knocked 1-2 mobs in every crowd on their butts when I was wading in and that was a nice amount of mitigation on a very low level character). The electric armor set has a direct drain power later anyway, so long term that should take care of a lot of your needs once your character has developed more.

When I was talking to people for advice for a character to specifically solo through Praetoria the prime comment that's useful here that I got was that resistance sets typically develop early. From there, I narrowed it down to Electric Armor which quite notably does NOT have a psi hole though it gets that shield at level 10. (It also has slightly unreliable knockback protection so I did buy him a KB protection IO). Of course as it's a resist set you may wish to supplement it with procs for defense, tough, weave, etc. But I think for the 1-20 experience it's fine as it is. (My alt is a brute so of course slightly different playstyle). The thing about ninjitsu which people are talking about in this thread is that I just don't think it's a very good choice for stalkers. It was an original stalker set and was developed before the archetype enhancements or the feature where stalkers build up autohit with assassin's strike. It feels like an outdated mix of powers to me because it's set up to support the obsolete hit & run stalker playstyle. If you want to enjoy Ninjitsu, play it on a scrapper. They have a significantly revised version of it which makes you feel like a powerful shadowy warrior.

Grav/Rad. For suresies. Radiation Infection neuters low level foes to make the low level soloing experience quite easy; the attack chain combo of Gravity Distortion + Lift + Propel will give you frequent and actually hard-hitting attacks from an early level. You even get a secondary containment damage in Impact. Radiation also has a self heal (pbaoe) as requested, and a self endurance buff, all of which are very low level. In fact I'd recommend: Lift + Radiant Aura to start, then 2) Gravity Distortion 4) Accelerate Metabolism 6) Propel 8 ) Radiation Infection. At that point you can either pick up the area effect immobilize or enervating field or start dipping into travel powers pretty easily. But you will be able to chew through content like a steamroller solo or of course you could just run death from below with an xp buff and you'd be there in 10 minutes. But that's a great core for soloing.