Doomguide2005

I don't know if there's any consensus on what's an "acceptable" amount beyond you need more if heavy debuffers (a big swarm of Cimerorans, for example), start initiating cascade failure before they just plain defeat you (with a lucky streak or landing enough hits to outpace your regen). That would, at least for me, be clear indication you needed more DDR. Some of whatever that risk is could be mitigated by the same things most AT's do when worrying about cascade failure. Add more defense above the cap so when the first debuff lands you are still over the cap (and it takes at least 2 debuffs in a short time to take you below the cap). My scrapper ran at about 46% positionals but the largest debuffs I can recall from when I was monitoring things was just over 3% fighting some Arachnos (i.e. the debuffs prior to her DDR was about -60%). She could pretty much stand in Cimerorans forever without seeing much build up from their debuffs, their previous debuffs would wear off before the next would occur. So tldr -> depends on the build. More cushion over the cap, more passive regen the more the build will tolerate having less DDR. PS: She also used Rebirth, often as much for teammates and the boost to regeneration.

*Nod* and especially if combined with defense +/- mezzed foes should be plenty sufficient. To get those levels of recharge does require pretty much emphasizing recharge over everything else, at least it did on a build for a Plant/Storm I put together back on Live for a friend.

Agree with Sir Myshkin with respect to the I-cap, defense and incarnate content. My Claws/SR ran a great deal of i-Trials while at just the soft cap. Inspirations plus the numerous buff of teammates usually had me at 60+ defense. Her 32+ hp/ sec regen, and 2100+ health took care of what did get through. I ran Tough 😜 but I could do so and attack non-stop anyway *shrug*

13 defender primaries Hmm ... that's at least one super team I'm thinking 😁

It takes an extremely high global recharge but it is possible to get to perma Indom Will on a controller (around 215% recharge) if I recall correctly.

Unfortunately I can't currently look at or use Mids' (phone is my only source of internet) but I'm thinking post what you've been working no matter how horrid you think it might be and I'm fairly sure suggestions and potential builds will roll in.

Well outside of running my Empaths with Green Machine probably the toughest small team (all friends) I ran with, well by about the upper 20's (on primarily SO's at +4/x8) I think we bored ourselves to death we were crushing content so thoroughly. It was an all "Dark" themed SG we started. 5 strong -> 1 Dark Melee/Willpower scrapper and 4 defenders -> 1 Dark Miasma/Archery, 1 Trick Arrow/Dark Blast, 1Cold/Dark Blast, and 1 Sonic/Dark Blast. Not sure who I'd drop to make it 4 🤔. Obviously we had an over abundance Dark Blast 🤪.

Looks solid in my head. Recovery is probably solid enough if Dark Consumption cycles fast enough to fire off before your blue bar starts to bottom out while attacking. Grab the +end accolades and you should be in good shape. How's the DDR? It's what stands between you getting defense debuffed into a cascade failure or not. Toggles alone should put that up enough to help considerably, but it's the passives that'll move it from a small worry into the realm of "I'll be dead from damage" before cascade happens. It's one of /SR's greatest strengths when compared to pretty much every other set, defense based or not. Random thought: If you want to use something other than Barrier for any particular content grab a Defense Amplifier. It would also push your build to the I-cap. Guessing you're building to handle +3's owing to the level shift?

No unless things have changed you don't need to level your character up again by doing content. Probably (without taking a peek myself) what they are talking about is more like what you do when doing a respec. You "level" your character up to their current level rechoosing powers and slots as you go but it's done all at once at the trainer not by running content. Just went and read the article and I can see why you find that confusing. The part that I'd focus on is when the article talks about how each build has the same amount of experience. And yes one of the downsides is the expense of maintaining 2 or even 3 builds.

There are many (likely all when you get into Incarnates and high end IO builds) AT's that can solo a wide variety of AVs including many controller sets. The ones that do it easiest will generally have an easier time because of strong mitigation usually starting with strong, i.e. capped, defenses vs the AVs attacks, then resistance(s) against stuff that gets through those defenses, a blue bar that won't run out, and usually some combo of resistance and regeneration debuffs. Illusion was able to do it pre IO's owing to its pets who could tank and survive an AV's attacks. Coyote mentioned some of the common power sets used for such things. Pick a pair of sets you think sound fun and go from there.

And you raise excellent points @Coyotewhich is why I said it makes a difference depending on team vs solo. I should have added what sort foes you typically take on as well. And again that's more critical when you are solo than teamed (and scales up, rapidly, with team size). I'm probably also guilty of viewing it a bit too much through the lens of Earth control and that sets superb ability to control multiple foes/areas such as in the case of multiple ambushes you mentioned. Capped defense does mean less worry about over aggro, pet aggro occurring or otherwise getting in over your head. As for being able to initiate combat that's why and what I use stealth for personally. Often using SS and a +Stealth IO ... just need to stay aware of which foes either ignore stealth or have +perception. And lastly we get multiple builds. Use them. Be all defensive with one, the other more based on recharge. Team vs solo.

For me it's also strongly based on whether I intend to to solo a lot or team as to how much defense I aim for. For the most part my 'defense' is +recharge+first strike (stealth) plus some defense. If the mob is reeling from getting mezzed ... no return fire is a really solid 'defense'. Actual defense then means further reducing return fire from the bosses and up while you get them mezzed if the opener didn't or missed (+acc, +to hit). And on the occasion when the rng is really naughty inspires to quickly boost defense to the soft cap.

Can't open Mids' to really have a good look at the build but 5 set LotG strikes me as at least one extra (what is the 5 set bonus for LotG?). What is your DDR (I'm looking for 95% or better)? I generally aim for a net recovery of 2.5 or greater with my normal toggles running. Pretty much want to be able to attack non-stop forever. After that I start adding +max health and +regen for any/SR. Hope this helps.

Not sure, my computer died on me and tight finances (and Covid) have made replacement impossible so far so I haven't been online in a while. Send a tell to @Psylenz0511 or join the channel Buffed Up. Many of the Repeat Offenders also team on Everlasting and, of course, are fond of Defenders as well.

And keep those buffs flowing, should be hitting the Incarnate cap with 3 Forts per Empath (in the area of 66% vs All) as well as boosting damage by an additional 90% over the buff of 4 Assaults running (+72%) on top of hard capped Regeneration ... You can as a static team do some crazy slotting as well particularly once you have AB. As in nothing requires accuracy or endurance reduction as you'll be swimming in endurance and to hit buffs from overlapping RA, Fort and Tactics, plus AB from your 'buddy'. So go proc crazy and damage IO's. Back to work for me.

Empaths are strong buffers, but their strongest buffs are single target (CM, Fort, AB). Any debuffs will come from the blasts/blast set. If this is a static team duo to go all the way to 50 and beyond Empathy should work well and remain very viable but your buff target needs to take what you do into account with their build to maximize that benefit. I'd probably take advantage of one of the alternate builds to either specifically build for when not teamed with you or vice versa depending on how frequently you actually end up running as a pair. Basically he won't need to worry about endurance at all (between perma AB and RA even end draining foes are a non factor in terms of endurance. Hitting the foes should also be a non-issue between Fort and Tactics. And so on. He can focus on raw damage and probably still add lots of procs. For example, a pair of boosted damage IO's and 4 procs for his 6 slots and similar stuff with his mez/control powers as desired. No need for him to slot any endred or accuracy in his powers, you'll cover that. Folks often say debuffers are what are wanted but those debuffs are up against the purple patch hard core vs +4's. It's just normally high end builds cover their own accuracy, endurance, etc., themselves so demand for those buffs drops to those still working towards the high end they envision or it just isn't a concern for that player. Having a dedicated Empath buddy frees your teammate from those needs enabling him to focus elsewhere with his build outside the norm. PS: Oops, meant to post this under Looking for a Buffer by @Deadshot7below.

/Sonic does have one tool in its box that can be quite useful for Traps when solo, Sirens Song.

Yes, just yes

Afaik, no it doesn't. He's just a triggered ambush/event

That might work, at sub 50 (or even 40) content anyway. After that ... well melee guys engaging AV's sounds more like 'redirect, then miss' 🤪

This. Sounds great 'on paper'. Implementation is an enormous can of worms. How do you distinguish between true friendly fire, griefing and PvP in a PvE mission? The best solution to difficulty most likely involves the foe and currently sees minimal playerbase support ... as a whole we don't seek harder foes. See radio missions preferred foes, speed run +0 TF's etc.. You don't see Immunes Surgeons running Leadership toggles, while using Fortitude and Adrenaline Boost on the Boss/EB's (or each other while using a blast set). You could do that in AE however. And some relatively difficult content did and does exist now in AE. Maybe we should be solving some of this itch ourselves, perhaps starting a thread of 'nasty' hard AE content. No it wouldn't be quite the same as 'canon' content but it can be a lot of fun if your itch is for a challenge while the Devs work on solving the very knotty problems involved in created new high end content of the 'elusive' appropriate difficulty.

Maybe a compromise here is possible. The blurb could be "Hidden", want to not have to search for ooc info read on, if you want greater submersion avoid clicking to open the hidden content (with a clear indicator of what the hidden text is, i.e. ooc info)

Doesn't even necessarily have to be a damage/kill effect, a 'respawn' effect would work. It (or something much like it) happens to players, as I recall, in the Shadow Shards if you go off the side and 'fall'.

Paragon Wiki "Attack Mechanics" is where to find out a great deal of detail about the subject. Edit: which Macskull's link just ninja'd me 😁

I'd agree with the above ... especially as the team size grows beyond a friends only composition. It can be done even on fast moving teams but it's not nearly as casual and forgiving as Rad will be. That said the mez protection offered by FFG as well as defenses one can get with minimal effort and IO's are also very beneficial for more casual play. To me they both scream "pick me, pick me" 😁 Maybe that's why my altitis runs rampant.