Doomguide2005

Count on it! Had fun the couple nights I managed to join before things went sideways for me.

Still get a chuckle out of all the Sapper hate. My first character to start seeing and fighting them was my Claws/SR scrapper. I learned to go after them as everyone seemed to dread their appearance but it always kind of bewildered me. They really didn't seem all that scary. 2, 3 attacks dead sapper ... oO scary dudes. Then my second high level character, also a Scrapper started to encounter them. Let's just say the differences between the two was stark. Even the then IH toggle couldn't save my Broadsword/Regeneration scrapper. 2 +7 Fake Nemesis bosses that's a draw. 1 +0 Sapper with a couple friends was a mortal threat 😆 I couldn't ignore. I learned quite a bit about Teleport Foe separating sappers from their mob, teleporting them back to elevators or doors I could click to escape if I got nailed and needed to run away if I failed to take them down.

Very situational, in two ways. First it depends on who I'm playing (and level). Second it depends on who my teammates are. And really it depends on a blend of those two factors. But overall agree with a lot of typical priorities listed previously. My Claws/SR typically targets things I think threaten teammates and not herself ... sappers, boss/lt debuffers, nemesis lts often by using kb to knock them away from other nemesis. Probably the only foes she really looks to target first because they threaten her are DE Quartz eminators and Eyeballs. Most others with to hit buffs aren't enough threat when teamed due to ally buffs and inspires nullifying the foes to hit ... but even on most teams +100% to hit is a bit over the top to target other things first. On one of my Emps it won't necessarily be what I attack as much as who and what my buff priorities might be ... as well as who might get Screech or Cosmic Burst tossed at them first. My Controllers typically just look to mez and debuff everything asap ... it's so much AoE unleashed it doesn't really matter as the priority (such as a sapper) is just getting mezzed along with everything else. I'm just watching in case that priority gets lucky and is missed in the carnage or if a boss needs a quick follow up mez if the boss is especially problematic. Blasters tend to be a lot like the Controllers. AoE heavy so the priority just tends to be the focus of the overall carnage directed at the mob Still looking forward to how the ASF might alter things since I've yet to be able to try it out.

I'd love to see one. Computer death means I can't play around in Mids (or in game) only think about. Sucks because I have one that was intended to run with the group @Tahliah was posting about regularly for a bit in these forums then the whole computer death plus Covid plus ... arrgh. I've run a Cold defender to 50 on Live and had some prior experience with Plant but it's definitely not a common pairing.

Or, or, or ... Fire to fight fire creating 'firebreaks' 🤪

Hehe, yeah been on several all Kin runs (Pinball Wizards of the RO Network). What I'd love to know these days isn't so much about max recharge and damage but what the damage debuff numbers were doing to those foes as they crawled in slow mo around the map getting murderballed.

Which might be the only reason it's not a murderball of Defenders. Damage cap for Defenders = 400% , Corruptors = 500%. Pretty much any grouping of all Support characters is a murderball as far as the foe is concerned. Possibly one of the lowest damage primaries is Earth control. Now picture 8 Rocky's all delivering Seismic Smash to a target 😈.

"they're good enough without it," I'm fairly sure my Main's Sunset 3 build iterations included among them a perma-Hasten option. The primary build, however, didn't use the Speed Pool. And for what her 'good enough without' meant, it meant I could set the content to +4/×8 and take on any foes in the game and expect to complete it. The only exception I don't know if that would hold true for is vs specific AV's as I had already gone through chewing my way through Tina MacIntyre's arc solo several issues prior and really didn't/don't care if I could solo any AV/GM in the game. I'm fine being able to do so vs hordes of Awakened, Malta, Arachnos, Carnies, Vanguard Sword, IDF etc., etc.. If Recluse, the Freedom Phalanx, Burkholder, etc. are not possible that's equally likely a lack of player desire than anything the build can actually accomplish or not. I get more sense of fun from taking on huge hordes of foes than a specific subset of endgame AVs.

On the subject of Howling Twilight Yes it's a very powerful Regeneration debuff. It also lasts only 30 sec. I'm not sure how much recharge you can get on a mostly SO build. Thinking about 170% -> ~100% in HT + 70% for Hasten and Hasten won't be perma and then maybe another part-time burst from using Geas of the Kind Ones->another +100% while Geas is running. In short HT is going to have less than 50% uptime. Still it is going to help and there's the regen and damage debuffs of Twilight's Grasp as well (which self stack). I've never tried Time and definitely haven't paired it to date with Earth but it doesn't surprise me you had trouble denting CWK. Minimal regen debuff (as in TG mentioned above can develop more -regen) on a low damage primary is going to be rough. Overall interesting, thanks for sharing.

Because I was after different bonuses, can readily double stack Follow Up as is, can gain another +40% if I really need the boost for some reason and lastly what exactly would I gain by having it?

Indeed this is true most of the time. Fortunately my main also has Tough slotted with 3 Glad Armor. The first is the 3% def unique, 2nd yields +recovery and the 3rd is 3pts kb prot.

It's doubly true these days on HC since if you are mezzed you can then click and likely break the mez. As far as this SR user is concerned making it a toggle would be a minor nerf since I can no longer stack my protection. Would it ruin my day or SR if it was a toggle? No, but it is not a change I'd welcome either.

🙄 not exactly what I meant. But yes Longbow are eminently killable, meddling annoyances to squash.

Not a Family man?

I haven't tried or used the new version of Shout but it looks like the animation is still on the long side. It was not on my Emp/Sonic/Elec RWZ challenge build. But that build was well before Incarnates, crashless nukes and other changes to the game around about i13. Overall I'd max out the total recharge on a team build. Then I'd start tweaking things for more defense/resistance mitigation until I reached a balance I was happy with between recharge and defense. Generally speaking defenses of ~25%, then ~32%, then ~45% are some break points I'm looking at compared to the amount of recharge (cooldown) on particular powers. At around 22% to 25% defense a Shield buff from Force Fields, Cold, Empathy will put you around the soft cap or at 32% have you around the I cap. Similar effects for related inspire strengths. For a Thermal I'd want to get the recharge on Heat Exhaustion (AV killer) and Melt Armor (AoE -resist debuff) under 40 seconds. Both are doable but getting the recharge for perma-Hasten and hence perma-Melt Armor is going to make getting to 22% to 25% defense problematic and make support from teammates more important whether through buffs, debuffs or mez/control

I'd seriously consider two builds (budget and playtime permitting). One for solo work where your defense and resists are more important and one for teaming where recharge takes precedence. I can't use Mids (no functional computer) but I'd want Heat Exhaustion and Melt Armor as close to perma as possible and ideally the cool down sufficient to make them stack on the target (both can stack from the same caster) For Sonic Attack you want Screech especially for fighting hard targets. It has the longest duration -resist debuff (12 sec). Less important the rest of the time but it's a solid mag 3 single target stun. Not hard to stack on an annoying Boss with a recharge build. Even on a ranged defense, fight at ranged character I wouldn't skip Dreadful Wail. It's a 25ft radius, you can be safely up and out of melee range and let it rip (barring terrain hazards). It also has a mag 3 stun and a 20 sec duration resist debuff. Tactics - drop the Rectified Reticle increased perception. Tactics by itself is more than enough +perception. Use an endred or cyto HO or a boosted To Hit/Endred IO.

And that makes them the Controllers problem. If you want to be nice go for it or head after mob #3. Chances are excellent if it's one of my Controllers those Cages are to keep them from wandering off in a stunned state while they get dead defeated by Rocky, LS, Tornado, Freezing Rain, Fissure, Seismic Smash etc.. Basically my Controller has them, umm, undercontrol.

😜 I'll bet they had a better than 5% chance, especially the bosses. Probably a smidgen over 9% for them.

Yeah, outside of my multitude of Emps my Cold/Ice was my go to among my Defenders and definitely stayed at range though not a Fly/Hover character (Super Speed for the stealth component).

I wonder if that's the one our Redside versions of Green Machine went up against. Yikes it took us a while to clear that room.

Yeesh. Definitely want to be doing the Alpha strike in those circumstances. And I believe some of the mobs in the 801 series in AE use Benumb.

They do but it comes a bit later with --> Teamwork > 10th Indomitable Will, their Leadership type toggles and > 22nd Foresight. Edit: So I should have phrased/clarified the Widows/Forts don't get protection and resistances a bit differently. They don't get theirs at lvl 1 and have to choose the powers that provide mez protection and resistances later in the build.

It is. @HaijinxI believe is confusing the Wolf/Bane/Crab lvl 1 auto power with or as part of their inherent. It does provide low level amounts of status protection and resistances. Exact details vary a bit depending which soldier type you are discussing. PS Edit: Widows/Forts have different lvl 1 powers and lack this status protection and resistances.

I think the OP realizes that but is stuck between Long Jack and Tobias Hansen. What level are you currently? Does Tobias say anything when you talk to him?

My personal favorite is my Cold/Ice/Power Defender who can make his To Hit in Combat Attributes turn a pretty light blue. Power Build Up + Aim + Tactics all fully enhanced (5 slotted Adjusted Targeting). But yes the vast majority of the time I don't find FA worth the cost. And on the general topic, Accuracy is why level 54 AVs are still fairly dangerous to a soft capped character. After you figure out your +defense vs their to hit you're at 5%. Great!, right? Well yes but now you figure their Accuracy into it. 4 levels higher that's 1.4 accuracy, AV rank that's 1.5 accuracy --> 1.4 × 1.5 = 2.1. So 5 × 2.1 is 10.5 or they're going to hit you 10.5% of the time not 5% (and that's assuming the powers they're using don't have +accuracy). And they do it a whole lot harder and unless you can be the first to figure out how to debuff accuracy there's not anything you can do about except go ouchie and Heal/Regen up before the next blow successfully lands.