Doomguide2005

Phased out CoT Spectral ... duh 😜

This. Though generally my Trappers used Super Speed + Stealth IO for making an undetected entrance ... they were also mostly corruptors with few defenders thrown in.

I'll join the chorus. Yes Empaths can most definitely solo, especially as you get into late game IO builds. That said it's almost invariably going to be easier and faster on a blaster, they are the kings of damage. Funny he should elect to not play his Emp when another Emp joins. Green Machine is an all Empath SG and watching the utter decimation they become when teamed up is just this side of unreal. At low (pre 30) levels 2 teamed is solid, 3 starts to get scary as the buffs accumulate. At level 40 plus perma RAs mean no end worries, capped regen, perma AB for each Emp, etc., etc.. That's on SOs.

Not a Tank but my Claws/SR scrapper went with Rebirth. I'd post in the Tanker forums. I know @Redlynnehas some extensive posts about SR/MA and @Bill Z Bubba likewise about SR/Claws in the Tanker forums. And yes Barrier should stack with your scaling passives.

@Angusjust going to throw this out there, I know you said you weren't coming back to the thread. But you aren't unique in what you've observed and there are more than a few others out there taking their time to level via story arcs, not looking to rush to 50 and using SOs (and DOs and TOs) only. Whole supergroups worth.

Can't disagree, that's the opportunity cost(s) involved both in build and playstyle (both of the character and of the player). One of the few places I've seen Team Teleport used, for example, is on super teams. It helps keep the team tight and places all those pbaoe toggles on the mob simultaneously.

Sort of ... it's a little like not taking a Build Up+ power that operates 24-7 for the cost of running your own toggles, but yes the smaller the values the more opportunity cost involved in whatever you could have taken and in the playstyle involved. Just keep in mind what is given up --> roughly +24 def, +80% damage and +56% to hit that operates all the time (and that's pre enhancement) Edit: and that's without considering the way your powers could be slotted/enhanced knowing those buffs would be present.

And that would be expected. Primary > Secondary > Pools (and of course they aren't exactly the same powers)

There's a lot of building characters precisely with the goal of being independent on teaming/teams, of being able to solo. Then it becomes self fulfilling as the team separates zerging through the mission often separating which of course negates the effect of having Leadership toggles for buffing the team even if present.

I suspect (emphasis there) that the ITF is also a bit of an outlier. There are a LOT of mobs on that very large map. Quite a bit different than rapidly cycling radio or other short repeatable maps. Question being does that work for or against it in the question of xp over time.

And yet threads proposing we "self gimp" ourselves pop up when discussing balance and difficulty. We already do when not taking Leadership powers 🤪.

Nice! Is that 6 Maneuvers running that I'm seeing? That alone probably had everyone at the soft cap.

One of my latest blasters positively lives to be in melee range --> Short Circuit, Fire Sword, Combustion, Fire Sword Circle, Blazing Aura, Burn, Hot Feet. That's 6 PBAoEs and 1 melee attack. Plus technically the sustain power is also a PBAoE with a minor DoT iirc (computer died and it has been a few months since I've been able to play him) Ironically his nuke is a ranged targeted AoE (Thunderous Blast).

It's part of the reason a full team of FRads or Green Machine are so devastating as well. Heaven help a team facing VEATs who are also running Leadership in addition to their own Tactical Team powers. The rough equivalent of 16 Tactics, Assault, and Maneuvers ... It gets insanely good fast.

'Shrug', zero interest in changing my Nuke powers to be anything other than what they currently are, the builds were built knowing what they were (either ranged or not). Closest to a ranged only blaster I've ever come was probably my AR/Dev who rarely was in melee by choice. Baddies almost always came to the tripmines not the other way. The first blaster I liked and went to 50 on was my Fire/Nrg long before IOs. The powerful melee attacks are precisely why I liked her. The fact I had 2 level 50 scrappers first probably didn't hurt my willingness to get up close. She basically closed on the mob unloading Fire leaving a boss or 2 which then got hammered by Energy's melee blaps. Mez, sure it happened ... lots even and probably why sloooow Total Focus saw little use. Defense was definitely defeat them first fast and hard.

Nope, not and not realized I'd done so. Haven't done it yet on HC, too many new things to try. Did it a number of times on live, but it was always deliberate and on different servers. Usually the builds differed slightly especially with epic/patron powers selection. In particular I had 2 Emp/Sonics. One was on Freedom in Green Machine the other on Pinnacle. The one on Pinnacle was almost always on their 2nd build, usually solo, slowly working towards soloing a +4 mob of Rikti in the RWZ 'scrapper challenge' style. That 2nd build shared pretty much nothing in common except some set and power names with the GM build on Freedom.

Hmm, how to put this. Level isn't really what we are concerned or thinking about as players. Level is really just an arbitrary numerical value, a measurement of progress of our characters development from the beginning of their creation to their end. And that progress of storyline, of power and of capability is really what most are seeking. It's a feedback or reward for playing. For some this concrete reward is very sought after, for others progress of the characters story and storyline are the rewards they most strongly seek for playing. Most, if not close to all, players fall in between and both avenues reward the player. CoX has pretty much moved away from increasing level caps as a reward. Instead it gave us the Incarnate system and then added "veteran" levels and provides rewards for engaging in altitis. Basically the idea of increasing level 'caps' has essentially sailed.

I'd love to look closer at the build. But can't use Mids, computer's dead. Appears the damage is vs +0's judging by the screen shot. Accuracy showing as based off 105 (i.e 1.4 nuke acc mod * 75 base). How's it look vs +4's?

Never heard there was an actual bonus for shorter times. Speed runs are more the result of efficiency. You could take an hour and kill all/most and get one completion bonus or do it in 10 minutes and get 6 completion bonuses. (The fastest ITF time listed in the thread elsewhere in General Discussion is sub 8 minutes)

Just going to post this again. It's in an article currently in the HCwiki lifted from a forum post on Live by Castle. Threat = Damage * Debuff mod * AT mod * AI mod * Range mod * (TauntDurationRemaining * 1,000). Enemies keep a threat list and will aggro onto the character with the highest threat value on their list. While there are more than a few values in that equation that aren't known or well understood (AI mod and Range mod, in particular) there doesn't appear to be any modifier in the equation for "Buff". An Empath, or any character, will generate some threat merely by being present and 'detected' by a mob (and this where the unknown AI and Range mods probably explain some of the behavior noted by @Scientist). What the Floor values these mods have is unknown near as I can tell. A number of Powers also not only provide +stealth but provide negative threat. The article makes no mention if negative threat stacks. I'm also going to go out on what I suspect is a very sturdy limb and say the AI mod (and several of the other mods) are probably equations of their own simplified for the overall equation and probably include things like ambush modifiers and trigger values for running away when a level 50 obliterates the Hellion in AP (to pick an extreme case).

Well one clone is a Rad blast/RadEm user with Enervating Field, Lingering Radiation and all the -defense blasts you could imagine. Could certainly floor your defense and make everyone hit you. Even well resisted that would be a lot of incoming damage. That's one quick thought from someone who has yet to do it on HC but ran it numerous times on Live.

Google is a weird place. I confirmed this while listening and watching my son with his speech therapist. They were singing "old McDonald had a farm" and somehow the discussion turned to 'what does a Camel sound like. Google has the answer which had everyone looking at me suddenly when I played it ... 🤪

Just going to add a few thoughts. Focused Senses does provide +perception and should help against Stealthed Foes and against being Blinded. Arachnos being the major offenders here. Tactics at 50th might exceed the +perception of Focused Senses but I am not sure as it varies by AT and I've no idea how tanks scale. It can be upwards of nearly 50% stronger which I suspect is the defender end of the AT scaling. It also passes this benefit on to any teammates/allies in range a huge benefit against Arachnos and others causing the 'Blind" condition. Unfortunately I am limited to a phone and can't look at Mids so unsure if you've capped your DDR, but given your slotting I'd be very surprised if you haven't (at 95%). If you have most likely you'll never get significantly defense debuffed by anything ... you'll be dead before that happens in all likelyhood. Although I think Billz could speak to that better than I. My only experience there is as a solo scrapper, not tank but I've certainly managed to annoy towers worth of Cimerorans and multiple mobs of Arachnos and the like with my scrapper. As for Weave and the defense cap, you currently don't have either +defense unique so adding both is a quick +6% defense (all).

I don't even bother with putting it on auto anymore. Between capped defenses, global recharge for plenty of time to click at my convenience and the ability to click if I get scrapper locked and forget while moving between spawns means on a very rare occasion I get bounced embarrassingly on my arse. Even more rarely would I get mezzed (and now that's solved by a click when, oops, needed).

Plant/Storm, Claws/SR, Earth/Storm, Electric/Fire, Cold/Ice, Dark/Rad, Fire/Energy, Fire/Kin are all older sets I've enjoyed. There's (unfortunately for the indecisive) a bunch of newer sets and proliferation in the last few issues from just pre Sunset to here on HC. Sentinels are a whole new AT. And the leveling pace even without 'power leveling' is rapid if one desires it. In short pick 1 or 10 and level them all and see what catches your attention. You've got literally a 1000 slots a server and transfer between servers are earned steadily making moving between servers easy ... let your altitis run rampant.