Erratic1

Back to back missions in PI we entered building into sewers.

Dead brutes do no damage, so cap one side (Def or Res depending on what the secondary favors) then try to get as much of the other as possible.

Went 3 over. That lowered the contrast between top and bottom enough that I then decided to brighten the other colors thusly: I think your suggestion was a nice improvement. Thanks!

So something more like?

Really annoyed when someone ports in or out from another zone in motion, shoving me in some random direction. Know it is not their fault but it annoys me.

This seems pretty straight forward. What am I not understanding? Context. What oedipus tex wrote in full was: Notice the openning words--"Neither is strictly better...." For a particular portion of the game and in the opinion of the person making the statement, one particular AT based on a specific theme/powerset was better than a different AT based on the same theme/shared powerset. (oedipus tex knows his stuff, so while I mention it being his opinion it is in all likelihood a good opinion.) However that is cross-AT comparison going on. Most people will tell you that in general a Blaster will have an easier and faster time than any of the support ATs in terms of dispatching targets. The focus of this thread is intra-AT comparison with the notion that some powerset combinations are (I'm willing to be generous to the notion so use the next word intentionally) near uniformly inferior to others. So I am not sure how what oedipus tex was saying applies to this thread.

Having decided on Fire and Dark as powersets the name Ebonblaze presented itself as the logical choice (because no way Darkfire wasn't taken). Combined, the name and powers suggested the colors for the costume--black and orange. Problem: Black and orange are Halloween colors. (Incidentally the colors of one of my state's universities, something I've long mocked them for, because their original mascot was a tiger.) I seriously considered dropping orange in favor of some other color, but worked at it, trying different approaches and what resulted looks pretty good to me even if the color palette diversity is extremely low. (Hmmm...how crazy can I get with colors?)

Repulsing Torrent, slotted to do Knockdown, is a wonderful, awesome thing. Very nice thinking adding Force Feedback: Chance for Recharge and Annihilation: Chance for Res Debuff to it.

My character history is littered with attempts at making Blasters which invariably bore me and end up discarded somewhere in their 30s. Only on my last attempt did I manage to take one to 50 (Beam/MC). Rather than leave well enough alone, I have foolishly gone back to the well. Only as she reached her mid-20s did I think to wonder what forum wisdom is on the combination Fire/Dark. Turns out there isn't any. I admit to a bit of misgiving at the thought of having to run in to use Soul Drain (and Dark Consumption) but it came to me, "People make Blappers, cap their defenses, and there is Dark Pit." But I am not going to have IOs at low levels and Dark Pit does not come available until level 35. Figured 35 comes quickly enough and started to play. But still, not a lot any mention of Dark Manipulation outside of Dark/Dark or DP/Dark. Is Dark Manipulation that unloved? Because what few times I've run up on a group and pushed my own damage up by 100% for 30s has me dizzy with joy. What am I missing?

I could toss together something I might like (haven't touched EM since live) but that might not appeal to you. My best suggestion is to look at a couple of builds involving EM regardless of secondary and Bio regardless of primary and see if there is anything that is being avoided. Another thing is you get a free respec every 10 levels so that allows you to try out powers you are unsure of and if you end up not liking them respec'ing out of them. However if you mis-slot or take a power you don't like I would suggest living with it until you have a final build in mind or until you have enough of a change in plans to warrant using the respec. I typically aim to do around level 30 and then again at 50--two used of the 5 you will get for free. There are some opimizations which might allow you to drop a power on the Bio side but frankly all of them are good and work, including the T9 (unlike with a lot of other sets). On the EM side, some people have a thing with any attack with a long animation, but like I said, try them out and plan on using a respec in your lowish 30s. Edit: You might consider grabbing Cross Punch (since you're likely going to be getting Tough and Weave anyway) as an extra AoE attack.

There is a lot of dislike of Bio's visual effects. Got an SS/Bio myself and do not see any reason why EM/Bio would have any problems.

At least they did not make Unrelenting the comparison...it has a 30s duration and a 600s recharge.

From the head of the thread:

If Support/CC lose value in the higher levels that has to due with the ability of most ATs to build not to care if mobs are CC'd because you're tough enough you don't care what the mobs do and tough enough to withstand their attacks without being buffed or them debuffed not because non-support/cc classes are suddenly applying cc's, buffs, and debuffs. It is an outgrowth of the IO system favoring defensive buffs all over the place. Had the IO system favored damage buffs to the same extent then we'd be talking about how Controllers/Corruptors/Defender/Masterminds don't really need anyone and those AT's respective forums would be all about Pylon times.

Note sure why the word "dunes" is in my previous post. I blame phone autocorrect.

Yeah but even Granite dunes stumbles on Carnies. And Shield does not do great against Malta. And it should be noted best performance is green, which Invulnerability and Bio Defensive stance have and both Shield and SR lack. But yeah, the view is a limited one.

Invulnerability and Bio in Defensive stance arguably do at least as well (if not better).

It does sadden my heart to make old references that others miss but I continue on for those times when someone gets it. Call it a weakness.

Though I am a bit confused why he's taking to task posts which are nearing two years old at this point.

Grant Cover gives you (and teammates) DDRand Recharge Debuff resistance:

There is no cure for altitis, only periods of remission when various specific alts hold the disease at bay.

Widows are great but it may seem tough going until you get up towards level 24 with one. Everyone loves being buffed, so Defenders, Corruptors, Controllers, and Masterminds are always welcome in groups. Edit: I second Meknomancer's suggestion of a Brute--tough, status protection, and solid damage all in one package.

I was only addressing primary/secondary (or secondary/primary depending on AT) considerations. If you have an epic which obviates the benefits of Distortion Field, that is fine so far as it goes but outside the scope of what I was looking at. Time is buffing recharge and debuffing resistance. Corruptor gets 100% Recharge, 22.5% Resistance Debuff, 10% To-Hit, and 9.38% Defense. Defender is getting 115% Recharge (values are the same on Chrono Shift for both Corruptor and Defender), 30% Resistance Debuff, and 12.5% To-Hit and Defense. So going from Corruptor to Defender you're looking at +15% Recharge, 7.5% Resistance Debuff, 2,5% To-Hit, and 3.8% Defense. The relative merits of the difference depend considerably on where the impacted character is in terms of those benefits already. A character at 0% global recharge will cycle powers 2.15/2=1.075 times as fast from being buffed by the Defender than from the Corruptor--that's not a lot and it declines if the character has other sources of global resist. Roughly a third of the melee AT's defensive sets give Recharge boost (typically in the 20% range though it can go higher). Under IOs it will likely be even higher. Say a character had base 50% global recharge up their sleeve. The Defender is then boosting that character's recycling of powers over the Corruptor by 2.65/2.5=6%. A similar considerations holds for Defense. To-Hit is a bit more in the Defender's favor though it is hard to imagine that most teams or solo players are playing at the boundary of being able to hit their targets in the first place let alone the very narrow range where the Corruptor's boost to their To-Hit is not going to do the job and the Defender's will. Resistance Debuff most favors the Defender but even there I am not sure how make or break the difference is. A power would deal 100 damage to a target with no resistance but hits a target with 30% resistance and so without either Corruptor or Defender present would deal 70 damage. The Corruptor would apply a 22.5% Resistance Debuff, which is resisted by the target's resistance, thus lowering their resistance from 30% to 30%-(1-30%)*22.5=14.25% taking the 100 damage output from dealing 70 damage to dealing 85.75 damage instead. The Defender would instead lower the 30% to 9% and so increase the 100 damage output from 70 to 91. That is a roughly 6% difference in results. Last I looked Defender damage lagged Corruptor damage by more than 6%.

The build I posted has Beta Decay providing 8.78% and Darkest Night providing 15.95%. The build OneFootOnTheGas posted has Beta Decay providing 5.63% and Darkest Night providing 15.95%. Darkest Night is applied at range to a target and anything within a 25 radius of the target. Beta Decay radiates from the character to a radius of 8. I do not know that the values are additive. They may be inverse multiplicative. If so the build I posted will get to 23.33% instead of 24.63% if they are additive. The build OneFootOnTheGas posted would get to 20.68% instead of 21.58 if they are additive.