Doomguide2005

I've been up against an AE mission on Live which featured a bunch of Green Machines sg leaders and players characters. The only thing I'll say is thank all the cosmos this was pre IO (iirc, this was right after AE came out and everyone was having fun with creating missions) and more importantly I don't believe we ever fought more than 3 or 4 at a time. I've also ran into a redside mission that had a "doppleganger" group of the team ... and this was vs the redside equivalent of GM. That was about level 25 or so and that was plenty brutal without nukes or AB.

Ugly very ugly. Something like 1 Plant/Cold controller 1 Earth/Storm controller 1 Emp/Fire defender 1 Emp/Sonic defender 1 Emp/Electric defender 1 Elec/Fire blaster 1 Claws/SR scrapper 1 Cold/Ice defender All running at least Tactics and Assault except the blaster. Breakfrees unneeded 🤪

Nope. Wait a bit try again would my first thought.

Yes, she's a Claws/SR scrapper created in Issue 3. She was and is my Main among Mains named Greta (full name GRETA-001 for Genetically Resequenced and Engineered for Tactical Assault). Any new challenge, mission, TF, I-trial, zone it was her doing it, whatever it was. And it continues here. First to be recreated and first to 50 again and will no doubt be the first one I log into when I get a computer up and running.

Excellent TEAM debuffing for hard targets. Solo can be very safe with Siren's Call then single target destruction and in either case one of the best nukes around which can be done very safely Howl, Siren's, Dreadful Wail. Any tough target left hit them with Screech (now at mag 7 worth of stun coupled with 12+ seconds yet of -40 resistance to build off of). And the shields take both Damage Resistance and Defense sets which between them and Arctic Fog is a whole lot of spots for placing the ever growing list of special IOs in those sets.

Arrg, yeah math skill apparently took the night off. I knew that and somehow thought with 400+% recharge it would overlap HT. As for the team destroying stuff so fast the debuffs don't matter. Well that's just an endgame issue in general for all debuff sets not just Dark.

Well it will put out very solid amounts of both -regen and -damage. Both Howling Twilight and Twilight Grasp are stackable unless CoD v2.0 needs updating (-500 and -50 respectively). HT would require a lot of recharge to stack twice, TG not so much. Add in Darkest Night. Not sure how that adds up to Tier 2 when the only drawback is animation time. Edit: specifically against AVs it can match top -regen outputs.

Honestly I'm the wrong person to ask anyway. I've only run Katana on scrappers to date and don't think any made it to 50 by Sunset (Altitis for win?). Enjoyed all of them though (Altitis for the win!).

1) Grab 4 slips of paper. 2) Write Brute on one, Scrapper on the next, then Stalker on the 3rd and on the last write Tank. 3) Place all 4 in a hat 4) Pull a slip of paper 4 times 5) Arrange each slip in the order they were retrieved from the hat. 6) Enjoy the fact you have thousands of character slots creating each in turn 7) Don't make me come back and list each Katana wielder with their potential pairing. 🤪

It's not so much that the game prioritizes damage, that's going to remain THE priority unless the game is heavily rewritten so the only rewards gained are for clicking glowies, rescuing hostages and other goals that don't require defeating anything to advance. It's more a matter of just straight up dealing damage is the most efficient method. Our buffs, debuffs and mezzes ironically have become less potent relative to the ability of the buffers, debuffers and mezzers to just plain join the ranks of dps rather than needing them to do their thing so the 'actual' dps (both the ATs and the support currently engaged in dps) can safely do 'its' job. Everyone is so simultaneously capable of mitigation and dealing damage (i.e. City of 'solo' Tank Mages teaming) that you get what @Yomo Kimyatastated above. The buffs etc. haven't gotten weaker per se you can still get ridiculously potent support teams but why bother going through those prior (i.e.extra) steps when your support tank mage can go directly to Go and obliterate the mob himself rather than buff the other tank mage who can already also do it without your help. To the question of the OP this is why it such a non-starter of an idea to place further DR on buffs/debuffs it won't for the most part have much impact on the endgame while it will be highly detrimental to teams of non-tank mages at all levels of the game.

Welcome home!

I'm there!

New power set pairing Katana Launcher/Katana Manipulation

A Katana/Dark Armor was one of the first scrappers who I saw doing 'stupid scrapper tricks'. Some guy named @Werner on his Katana/DA in the RWZ soloing +4 mobs of Rikti 😉

1. Whaaat!? 2. Oh hell no. 3. Why, what is the perceived problem this is supposed to solve? 4. /jranger. ... and Nerf Regen while you're at it. 5. Okay so ED for stuff already effected by ED. 6. Basic gamemastering 101 tip: It's far, far easier to give more reward than to nerf/take back 'things'. Tends to piss off your players. They may or may not get over it. This might not apply here, sort of, you did ask "thoughts?" and I'm getting old, the mind wanders at times. 7. Lolz, you're kidding right? What do you mean 'No I'm not.'? 8. One of the great things frequently said about this game is that its buffs, debuffs and mez actually do something compared to many games out there ... and you want to do what again? It's part of the reason the whole dynamic of Tank, Healer, DPS is not a thing in CoX 9. Did I mention I think this is a really bad idea. I mean really, really bad. Really. 10. I think it's a safe bet the entirety of the RO Network would pretty much universally say, "No thanks". 11. Solo will become even more common. This is an anti-team/teaming idea. 12. 'Brzzzzt', try again. Please. 13. Read number 8 again. And again for emphasis. 14. Nope, no, wtf no thank you.

Well good sir Lovers of maple syrup unite!

Yes a couple of fully enhanced, high recharge defenders or blasters (no difference in the power between ATs) builds with Short Circuit could stack ugly amounts of -recovery. A duo could faily readily hit -400% in 10 seconds or less with just SC. No power boost or Incarnate powers for that. Add in more teammates and or power boost or PBU it'll get ugly even for higher level targets with lots of resistance i.e. AVs etc. fairly quickly. Toss in some Power Sink to drain endurance while pounding with SC and oh look no end or recovery. But that is with a team of dedicated sappers.

And then there's the fun of running with friends, all AR/Devices, and the insanity of pulling entire rooms down into hallways. Hallways with enough tripmines to legitimately be called "minefields" or surrounding a foe on a large outdoor map and unloading Full Auto from all 4 cardinal directions ... take that Council scum!

And the thread by @Lex Talion "Left to my own Devices" (roughly 4 pages down) is a perfect example of invest enough time and knowledge and pretty much anything can indeed become very capable, some just require less investment.

Special IOs I'm looking to incorporate are Kismet +6%, both +3% defense uniques, +5% resist all, scaling resists, +max health, 5 LotG increased rech, stealth, and probably a couple my old brain is forgetting atm. You should skip Elude, it offers very little to a soft capped build. If you end up really enjoying /SR then perhaps on an alternate build experiment with it. There are a few potentially niche builds and or foes where it may prove useful but by and large it's very skippable for the vast majority of content (and the crash is nasty if you don't finish the fight or get to safety before it happens). Practiced Brawler needs only the base slot unless you regularly exemplar very low. And I'd probably slot endred not recharge though that's not a make or break decision and again if exemping the recharge will be more important (especially prior to Quickness). I'd single slot Assault for endred. If at 50 you're still having end issues then revisit the build and or forums as it should/can be a thing of the past. Tough is where you stick any special Damage Resistance IOs like the 2 special +3% defense IOs uniques. Mine is toggled on and in use. The new(er) Sorcery pool is another way some builds are going grabbing Rune of Protection. I have yet to try it on SR but it looks interesting ... . Confront I would not take on my primary build. You've taken the Fighting pool so grab Weave. 3 or 4 slots pretty much like your toggles. Ditto for Maneuvers. This should put you at or near the softcap and capped ddr. Hope this set of posts helps.

This and then some. Accolades, +max health, +regen. I pushed this hard on Live and was working that way on HC before the computer went belly up. Last build on Live was over 2100 health and around 32hp/sec passive regen. She has both Aid Self and Aid Another ... both are purely set mules. I could remove them from my trays and never notice. And that build is old, no Unbreakable Guard +max health, Reactive Defenses Scaling Resistance or any other newer post i23 special IOs are in the build. It's also probably pretty unusual in terms of 6 slotting Health, 6 slotting Physical Perfection and 4 slots in Stamina for a lot of set bonuses in +max health and +regen in those powers. Something like ~100 extra health from just set bonuses in those 3 powers alone. (3 Miracle, 3 Numina's, 3 Regenerative Tissue and 7 Performance Shifter in those slots). Edit: The last time I know she died was on an earlier build. I got scrapperlocked, PB didn't get fired and Reichsman stunned my stupid self followed by 2 shotting me with about 1800 damage before the equally stunned player or his teammates could react. Oops, fortunately not a Master run. But I did decide that I needed more health after that as he could have just as easily gotten lucky and hit me despite the soft cap for similar amounts.

I'm going to stick to the non-SJ side of the build and let others comment on the SJ component. I've also got to confess after a year with no computer, internet only on a phone while on HC and only about 4 months of gaming time prior to my machine going belly up my old memories of the build are getting foggy with time and blending in my head with the few dozen builds created since she was first created in i3. Going to agree pursuing 6 slotted LotG in your toggles is not worth what those 2 or 3 additional slots give you in either enhancement or set bonuses. I used either 3 or 4 slots in most of my later builds --> def, def/end, def/endred/rech, and "builders choice". In her last planned build it did not include the LotG def/increased global rech special. They were elsewhere in the build. I used either LotG or Shield Wall in those slots as my overall build goal was/is to maximize health and passive regeneration. For the passives. First it's pointless enhancing either endred or rech (or anything but defense). They are always on and use no endurance. As such any enhancement for either is a byproduct of seeking set bonuses. Conceivably you could use 2 slots with 50+5 defense IOs and call it a day. Since I was looking for set bonuses mine were 3 slotted --> typically def, def/rech, def/increased global recharge. Both for the passives and toggles the goal is to hit ED for defense which also maxes out the ddr they provide and get the desired set bonuses for +max health and +regeneration. I'm also specifically not seeking any set bonuses for defense. Any set bonuses for defense are purely a byproduct of chasing other bonuses. This leaves me free to chase other potential set bonuses (recovery, recharge, +max endurance, +max health, regen, accuracy, etc.) as well as, if desired, use +def set bonuses to get to the I-cap defensively. There's a whole mess of special IOs I'll work to get into the build as well but I'll have to get back to that as real life calls for now.

There's a thread entitled "Claws/Super Reflexes low cost IO build advice" by Rustbeltcomics on Feb 1st (currently not quite on the next page) with build advice on SR as well as Bill Z Bubba's current Claws/SR build and info about where my Claws/SR build is in these forums. I've yet to run a SJ character but I have run a ton of /SR scrappers and brutes to 50 on Live and my main here on HC is a Claws/SR (as it was on Live). First thing I'd do is get those positional defenses to 45+. I'd be looking for 46 to maybe 48. More, unless pressing on towards the Incarnate cap, is largely wasted provided your ddr is at or near 95%. That would be the next most important build goal, get the DDR to 95%. After that I went hard for gaining +maximum health and +regen. Ended up on Live with over 2100 health and regen around 32 hp/sec. Bill Z worked to get his recharge to the point he could triple stack Follow Up. Starting to nod off, must sleep for now. Be back for more specific thoughts on your build.

Yes I deliberately picked an AT with the highest AT mod. I could have picked Tank as well. Either way that's going to be the best case as far as net gain in defense afaik. All other ATs will gain even less benefit. But as others are pointing out it really comes down to the needs and goals of the build/builder.

It's not a terribly effective place to slot for defense. The base is 2.5% on a defender (using defender AT mods) which means, iirc, you could get around 3.75% before ED really gets going (meaning you've gained +1.25% defense for those slots). So you're probably better off in most cases slotting special defense IOs and or the Universal Travel sets and specials. Sometimes like with the LotG (def/increased recharge) they'll also include as an aspect defense enhancement in the IO.