MonteCarla

Yeah, +Damage is the one that's intriguing me right now. I'm sure I've seen people on the Blaster forums say they slot for it. It would make most sense on a Blaster or Stalker, or Scrapper. I've got a KM/Nin/Psy Stalker lined up in my head. Looking here: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Sets_with_Damage_bonuses - I could get: Apocalypse, Coercive Persuasion (Blinding Powder) and Superior Assassin and Superior Stalker's Guile: +16% Obliteration, Sting of the Manticore and 3 x Mako's Bite: +15% 5 x 2% bonuses (Red Fortune, Adjusted Targeting): +10% for a global +41% damage. Hmm. Tier 4 Musculature gives you 2/3 (after ED) of 45%, so another +30%. For comparison, Call to Justice is a +40% damage boost to Stalkers, and I always make sure I get that ASAP. It could be the difference between dropping a Boss with an Assassin Strike and quick follow up, or not. ( And I might be shooting myself in the foot by choosing Kinetic Melee.. 🙂 )

Not all IO set bonuses are created equal. Dishing out some advice in the Defenders forums I realised I have a very set in my ways approach to them, like a mental checklist of what's worth pursuing and what isn't. What set bonuses do you chase? These are mine, in order of how much I follow them: Recharge - almost always. This will typically stack up to 2 or 3 extra SO's worth, or more. 90%+ of my characters do this. Defence - usually positional, but typed for the right armor sets. 66%+ of my characters have done this? Resistance - definitely a build goal for the right armor sets - on Tanks, Brutes and Epic ATs with the higher caps. Accuracy - usually get a single SO's worth at least by accident. I've occasionally not accumulated this, shrugged and moved on. Run Speed - did this once, and got noticeably high unsuppressed run speed. Quite fun to do as a one-off. (This was before the Thrust unique IO) Fly Speed/Jump Speed - never done Slow Resistance - did this on my main Dominator once to help preserve perma-Dom, as per forum advice. KB Protection - I used to use uniques instead, now use START vendor buffs Recovery - accidentally get this, but don't think it makes a big difference due to low numbers Range - never more than two Bombardment sets in cone-heavy sets. Is there an extreme teleporter case here? Max End - never deliberately chased, except for one character who had 125+ Energy with accolades, and I just wanted the number to go up 🙂 Max HP - never chased, but I believe people do? Damage - never chased, but I believe people do? Regen - never chased this. The healing procs seem more effective (Panacea in Health, Power Transfer in Stamina) Healing - never chased this. Mez effects eg +Confuse - never chased Mez Resistance - never bothered Does anyone have any good cases that differ from this pattern - eg chasing +Damage or +Health, or making a super-ranged expert?

The 6% Healing Bonus at 4 pieces will apply to all healing powers, including the Medicine pool. I'm not sure if chasing healing bonuses will change things for you much, compared to say the Ranged Defence and Recharge bonuses at 5 and 6 pieces, but it will have an effect.

Archery/Sonic Defender. Your ability to protect yourself will be terrible: - 24% resistance from Sonic Dispersion - Single target stun in Stunning Shot - Liquefy on a long recharge. Your only other secondary power you can us is Sonic Siphon, although... you could use Sonic Cage here. You could still make this work, but it'll be an uphill battle!

Vazhilok with their -Recharge toxins seem especially egregious at the lower levels where you encounter them, when you don't have much of an attack chain built up.

Every character I make gets: - both sets of ATOs if I want them - Panacea +HP/End in Health - Gladiators Armor and Steadfast uniques if they fit - as many LotG +Rech as they can fit - any other non-purple/non-winter sets I like (Basilisk's Gaze, Unbreakable Guard etc) - all three P2W buffs topped up continuously while I level. After 50, I buy them per task force. I don't worry unduly about them running down if I'm roleplaying, at the market or a hanging around chatting. - all the teleporter temps, Return to Battle, some Resuscitators, and the crafting table if I feel like it. I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it. 🙂 I have a bunch of 200 million emails sitting in my inbox always and pull one for each character, which usually does them until they're 50. If I need to grab a second one, so be it. Crafting from the task forces I run on the way to 50 will often generate 2 of these emails for me, so I don't really worry about my wealth when my income is this good.

Cross Punch from Fighting is good, especially with Boxing and Kick. It's base damage is just a smidge higher than Broadsword Slice or Energy Melee Power Crash, and it gets a 15% bonus to base damage for you having either Kick or Boxing, so +30% if you take both. I've not been disappointed using it with Superstrength or Martial Arts, where it fills a gap quite nicely as a second AoE. It is the third pick, but I'd usually be taking Tough and therefore Boxing/Kick anywy on my melee-ers.

I assume you already have the Shield Wall and Reactive Defences uniques This page gives you all the sets that improve Energy Resistance through normal set bonuses: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Sets_that_improve_Energy_Resistance (you can sort by value, and look at the slots) Gauntleted Fist is a no-brainer. 4 x Shield Wall in Invincibility gives a good bonus Unbreakable Guards are good - you can fit multiple sets. Adjusted Targetting in Rage/Build Up? 3 Force Feedback in some attacks You'll have fluctuating values due to the Reactive Defenses scaling buff and up to 3 +7% stacks of Might of the Tanker's proc bonus. Don't also forget: Rune of Protection (+18.75% for 1 min out of 3) Wedding Band temp power (+30% for 2 hours) Base Empowerment Buffs (+5%) P2W Buff (+7.5%) Orange pills, which are very cheap on the AH! Getting to a flat 90% always on with Invulnerability is very hard, but there's lots of ways to be at 90% when you really need it.

My TA/A Defender had the Lockdown and Devastation % chance to hold procs in Ice Arrow. It was probably overkill having both, but it meant I always held bosses in one shot.

If you have a lot of inf, talk to the START Vendor and get the Defence Amplifier under Buffs->Amplifiers. It's expensive, but it gives you Mag 4 protection to all mezzes.

Team Teleport: Tier 3 power in the Teleportation pool. Does anyone use this power, and if so, when and how? Looking at it in City of Data, it looks like it teleports you and any teammate within 30ft to a position up to 25ft from your current position? I'd always figured it worked like Assemble the Team, but looks like that's not the case. It seems kind of useless with that radius. I haven't taken it because I discovered the Summon Teammates power from the level 21-25 Bank mission, which lasts 24 hours of game time and thus tends to last until I'm 50.

Oh yeah! I love having the ability to teleport between groups when the team splits. I've done this a lot with support characters (the 'Port and Fort) - must try it with a tank next! It's even handy in say Council bases to just piggy back on a teammate as we run to the next room. Another power that changes the game for me : Confuse and Deceive. Your enemies look different if they have the potential for them to work for you. You even start to like Tsoo Sorcerors and Malta Sappers.

I don't. My standard bind file sets up F1 for accuracy inspirations, F2 for damage, F3 for luck etc, so I don't have to worry about where they go in my tray.

No. A controller stops the enemy fighting back with their first move, or second if its a boss. This is the difference between a damage class and a crowd control class. Damage - you can take that enemy down in N hits but they'll keep fighting back all the time. Control - you can take the same enemy down in N x 4 hits (or whatever multiplier) but they stop fighting back after the first or second hit. Its a classic risk vs reward choice. A controller is safer but slower.

This is me at Level 43 today. Boxing isn't in my tray, just there to boost damage on Kick and Cross Punch. Physical Perfection is getting another Power Transfer + Chance to Heal once the market pops it for me. I'm getting 90% S/L resistance, 51% E/N, 45% F/C/Tox and 38% Toxic. Next up is slotting my resists and adding Psi uniques maybe? And if I go beyond 50, Haymaker, Hurl and Cross Punch get purpled to boost F/C resists.