Doomguide2005

No build as I have no functional computer currently but I can give you a run down on the Empathy side of things. No practical experience with Water Blast but afaik any solid build using Water Blast should do fine as there's no real interaction between the Empathy primary and a Blast secondary. I'd be focused on recharge set bonuses in the blasts so Decimation, Positron's, Purple sets, Superior Vigilant Assault. Mitigation is coming from, in no particular order or priority: inspires, teammates, Epic shields and keeping the Auras (especially RegenAura) on minimal cool down (hence the focus on recharge it helps keep you and your team upright) and maintaining mobility. With RegenAura running plus the above you're quite durable. Healing Aura and Heal Other --> 1 gets 6 slots for Preventative Medicine, the other gets 5 slots either Doctored Wounds or Panacea. For both prioritize the heal and recharge values, endurance is, at least in mature build nearly irrelevant owing to Recovery Aura. Absorb Pain --> I haven't taken this in a long, long, time. As in pre-invention times. If HO+Fortitude+RegenAura+/- HA isn't keeping them upright it's very unlikely that adding AP to the mix will do so. Keep in mind that you should be sitting at ~300% recharge (100 in power, 200 or so global) while HO has a base recharge of 4 seconds and HA sits at 8 seconds. If you really want to give it a try it's another spot for Doctored Wounds or Panacea (or just 2 Heal IOs boosted by +5). Resurrect --> another I pretty much always skip. Between inspires, temp powers, *cough* better Rez powers, self rezzing, etc., it's pretty much a wasted power choice. Give them a wakie if they don't have one, CM, Fort, HO and tell em to get back in there 😋. Clear Mind --> 1 slot and basically doesn't matter what you slot. I like to put a range in there for 'that one guy' that always seems to be way the hell over there when they get mezzed. It's solid against pretty much every mez in the game and pretty much no armor set, never mind everyone else, has protection against everything i.e. Terrorize and Confuse in particular come to mind. Take it, use it and do so early unless you're never going to exemp. Fortitude --> anywhere from 3 to 6 slots. At 3 slots I like 2 Membrane HOs plus 1 LotG def/increased global rchg. At 6 slots there's 5 Red Fortune and 1 LotG def/increased global rchg. And a bunch of other options. Recovery Aura --> 2 or 3 slots typically. 2 slots for a pair of +5 boosted Recharge IOs or 1 recharge IO and 2 × Endmod/recharge IOs. Regeneration Aura --> 5 slots Doctored Wounds or Panacea. I try to keep this and Recovery Aura synced up with similar cool downs mostly because it'll mean one less thing to remember. When ones ready the other is. Get where you want, 2 clicks and done. Adrenaline Boost --> 5 slots Doctored Wounds or Panacea.

While I very much like Cold for it's potent debuffing potentially I'd have to say either Sonic Resonance or Thermal. A lot of endgame builds aim for capped defenses or achieve it owing to things like stacked Leadership - Maneuvers, using Barrier etc.. Resistance caps less so and you can't really get Resistance through IO sets. Sonic and Thermal both use Resistance shields. Edit: of course things are being hinted at where this might change where defense buffs might become more useful even for otherwise capped characters ... . We shall see.

Agreed, at least my experience tells me that recharge is the thing to shoot for on an Empath. I see no reason especially on a Bots MM this would be different. It's vital for getting Fortitude out and those Auras on minimal cooldown. In Recovery Aura that's why I use a single generic recharge IO and add in two Endmod/Recharge IOs. Boost them if you really want to shave cooldown to the minimum there's no set bonuses involved where attuning them might be desired. And for RegenAura it should be possible to max the recharge readily enough ... just play with which 5 from the set max this out. Doctored Wounds has one for pure recharge, for example, though Panacea doesn't. Panacea, however, being a PvP set is effectively attuned and you could potentially boost all the recharge in its IO enhancements without negatively impacting its value while exemplaring. If you're taking Sorcery Rune of Protection can hold both the 3% defense uniques which are probably the best 2 slot investment for defense you can get in this game. My Empaths universally took Spiritual Core Paragon as their incarnate ability. Leaves me looking at sub-30 second Recharge on those Auras. The only note there is life forced me out of the game post i22 and again here on HC so experience with later incarnate abilities such as Hybrid as well as running my Empaths in later iTrials is basically non-existent. What little experience I managed was on my, as I call her, my Main of mains Claws/SR scrapper. It would be interesting to see what the actual difference between Spiritual and Agility was in cd times vs boost to defense (including Fortitude). Never got around to checking near as I can recall.

Bad Nazi! Now go sit in your bed!

Greeeaaaat now I've got at least one more character to try out once I've got a functional computer again 😅 Hopefully this turns out like my try at a blaster way back around i4 or so. Kept trying blasters and 'meh' one "failure" after another and then along came Soulfire Lily, a Fire/Energy with a lot of scrapper in her. Which fit perfectly for this Claws/SR player and she became one of my early 50's. Tried a few MM's back in i6, i7 none managed to stick. Maybe this time around and it can join my other scrappers ... the pair of Earth/Storm controllers, the Elec/Fire Blaster, Plant/Cold controller. Oh and the original, a remake of my 1st character a Claws/SR scrapper. Probably the only one of my mains (one main are you kidding) who didn't live in melee was my Cold/Ice defender from Live. As to Absorb Pain somethings gone seriously sideways where HO+HA+Fort+RegenAura isn't enough to deal with it and if it has gone pear-shaped it just means 2 'dead' characters instead of one. Besides Vengeance is a thing. Fortitude --> 4 slots: 2 Membranes, 1 Def/LotG, a To Hit/Rchg should push the DR up into the red (can't look at Mids ... ). And that should leave even a 20% up just over 60% before Accuracy mods.

As a longtime Empathy player on largely defenders, but including corruptors and controllers I've never done it on a MM. I've never really found the AT to be my cup of tea and haven't built or run one since ... forever, probably single digit issues. I find the thread interesting, however and wonder if running Empathy on a Mastermind might be the ticket for me. Much like an Ill/Emp it seems it would work well. Empathy can be a very busy set demanding a lot of player attention and for that reason I think it would work well with Illusion control and possibly a MM as they both seem like they offer the Empath the time to dedicate to buffing while their pets do their thing with less frequent attention. But that is looking at it from the pov of some who's barely scratched the surface of MM (but has run Illusion to 50 albeit not on an Empath). So take the following with the above as a large caveat. Absorb Pain--> I generally skip Absorb Pain and see absolutely no reason to take it on a MM Resurrect --> Same goes for Resurrect though that's more because solo you're just going to resummon and for those times when teamed there's a bunch of ways to rez someone without needing to burn a power choice to do so. If you do take it slot an Endred, it's a costly power. Healing Aura and Heal Other --> Doctored Wounds or Panacea are the sets I use looking at the recharge bonus for 5 slotted. I'll use Preventative Medicine with 6 in the other. Minimally I'll 3 slot Heal, Heal/Rchg, Heal/Endred/Rchg Clear Mind --> 1 slot with whatever in it. Fortitude --> anywhere from 3 to 6 slots with a wide variety of options. I'll generally favor defense, recharge then to hit for enhancement. 3 slots -> 2 Membrane HOs and a LotG def/increased rchg is very efficient and effective but only offers the +7.5% global rchg as a set bonus. It might be more important on a MM to enhance To Hit to help the pets especially at high difficulties owing to level differences. But that's getting into things well outside my experience. Recovery Aura --> my usual is 3 slots. 1 rchg, 2 endmod/recharge but honestly unless end usage is a major issue 2 slots with recharge boosted +5 is plenty. Regeneration Aura --> 5 Doctored Wounds or Panacea. I'll try to keep my Auras on the same cool down/recharge so they're in synch. One less thing to track and remember, one's ready so is the other. Adrenaline Boost --> 5 Doctored Wounds or Panacea.

1. Started in late February 2005 along with my roommate. Our mutual friends from the PnP world of gaming had been trying to get us to try CoH for a couple months and we finally relented. Never looked back. Strongest early memories involved the Winter event and the Hollows. 2. I missed the Sunset of the game as my computer had died. I'll always miss not being there online with ingame friends as the servers went down. Feeling a sense of deja vu as my current computer has also gone belly up and life is seeing fit to not free up the cash needed to get a replacement. Every now and then I fear I may not be able log in again before HC is shutdown. I take heart that even if that were to happen well the code is in the wild and even if have to learn how to set up a server from scratch I will play again. 3. Indescribable doesn't begin to touch on how I felt just hearing the log in screen, character creator and finally logging into AP the first time. And getting hit again by sights and sounds as I moved through the game into different zones and neighborhoods for the first time. 4. Recreated my "Main of Mains", wondered at the sights and sounds as I entered AP ... and what the heck is a DFB? Remembering so many things while simultaneously scratching my head over other things I knew I'd done a gazillion times on Live but couldn't recall how to do now. 5. Had a huge number of not only my builds from Live but many other folks as well. Not sure how much survived but I do still have thumb drives with many builds copied there. Just can't currently look at them. 5.5. These forums were also rather nostalgic at first as well as I saw names I recognized while leaving me to wonder about names I didn't see. 6. Recreated several favorites from Live, but I'm also busy thinking of and trying others (and will resume doing so when I get back online). Got quite a mental list building up of sets and set pairings I want to try. Altitis is strong in this one.

Oh ... jeez it's getting too long since I played around in Mids. Please clarify and correct as necessary. Green --> a power you have selected Yellow --> a power you're eligible to select Grayed out (purple?) --> powers you can't currently select as the prerequisite security level is above yours atm or you don't have the prerequisite powers.

I suspect it means he'll need a Respec at 30 or 31 as Mutation and Fallout are, at best, mule powers on a solo Rad/Elec and he took all his primary by 30th. And he'll be needing to slot enhance and use those weak defender blasts or die lots ... and lots.

Not really sure hadn't gotten around to checking it out in AE yet when my computer died. Probably a thread or two created in the Mission Architect forum. Certainly there were on Live. The ones I did on Live haven't been recreated at least since I was able to get online.

Usually skip the tutorial (red or blue) and enter the game. From there the first fork will occur. Have I played this pairing before and plan on a 'normal' build then likely grab a bunch of p2w stuff which might include xp buffs, might not but it will include pretty much everything else. If a new set, especially if a new pairing I'll skip pretty much all the p2w stuff. Maybe I'll grab a vet attack and/or origin power. From there head for a contact, likely taking on any foes (i.e. street sweep enroute) along the way and do the contacts content/arc. Not too concerned if I outlevel I'll pick it up later in Oroborous if I like the arc. Hadn't had a chance yet to build up a list of AE mission content yet on HC, but on Live I had several I'd run as part of leveling as a change of scenery from Dev/game content. Along this line I'd also vary which zones I'd use blueside. Hollows for one then KR on another and continue as levels rose. That said I favor The Hollows, Faultline, Talos, Bricks over their counterparts. Though I'd say King's Row is pretty split with Hollows. Rarely fund one character from another pretty much tend to keep them as separate financially. This is much less true if it's my bazillionth time playing an AT pairing and much more strictly true if it's the first time running the pairing. With shades of grey in between ... I've done a lot of Empathy, SR, Earth, Storm and Cold so ...

@Psylenz0511 @Aurora_Girl Yes at least in CoD, it tells me you're both essentially correct. Afterburner is accessible when you have Fly. It also doesn't indicate you can slot any enhancements ... I suspect Aurora_Girl was noting where the OP mentioned using it to slot a LotG which apparently no longer works. I'm wondering if the OP worked on this post (offline) prior to changes and just overlooked it or as Aurora_Girl guessed perhaps meant Evasive Maneuvers. Okay, lol, the OP wrote this over 2 years ago. Afterburner would still have been its own separate power so that answers that 🤪. As for a lack of Hasten I'd love to be able to play in Mids and see how much Hasten would actually do for his cool down times but I can't currently. Given he'll almost always initiate the combat were mostly talking sheer speed through content and not effectiveness in terms of survival and mitigation. As to his non-capped defenses it really kind of depends on what (and how) he typically fights (+0 vs +4's) and other factors like inspire usage. Against +0's the combo he describes will floor his foes and barring major terrain issues he has the tools to be positioned where he needs to be to debuff them as desired. +4's he's good for about ~-22% to hit debuff and the minions will end up at around 40% final hit (squints at napkin hoping I didn't overlook anything) which could get painful. Pop a purple or two and that will rapidly look far less painful. Or get buffed by any of several teammates powers.

Yeah I keep seeing the Sudden Accel kb to kd in builds. Repel the primary effect in Hurricane is not a knock effect. The chance to cause kb in Hurricane is listed by CoD as 5%. What I don't know and owing to lack of functional computer can't test is how the proc actually triggers in Hurricane as I don't know how that 5% chance triggers/works. Does it check per pulse or per 10 seconds or some combo of the two. I assume each time it is checking it is doing so for each foe in Hurricane's AoE.

I find it more than slightly ironic. In many ways we've come full circle("half circle?") Green Machine, the FRads, and other such "Super Teams" in the time before IOs could boast numbers on their individual members that IOs are either unable or needed in order to reach those values on a character today and as a whole were equally "overpowered" compared to the content. Now instead of 7 other teammates we've got IOs and Incarnate Abilities to reach those same extremes of power on the individual, teammates optional.

There's definitely a lot of truth here. Remove all set bonuses, allow generic IOs and all Incarnate Abilities and I'm thinking you'll see a notable drop off in "overpowered". Now reverse that and use all IOs including sets but no incarnate abilities. Definitely a drop in power but thinking still pretty overpowering. Soft capped Blasters, soft capped resist based melee sets, etc., are substantially involved in the power creep. Then take it up another notch by using both to get where we are now. We get here because sets and incarnate abilities plug holes in otherwise powerful set builds who might have limiting issues but instead have none (or much less pronounced ones). Typically sets make for very independent builds, independent of major limiting factors such as endurance (recovery), recharge, accuracy (final hit chances). Incarnate abilities tend to either add direct power regardless of AT (Judgement) or eliminate one or more of the limiting factors making it even easier for sets to further overcome other limits to a build (Destinies). As a result you get builds that have otherwise several limiting factors. For example, heavily proc'd builds often overcome multiple strongly limiting issues such as accuracy and endurance. Sets solve one issue, while incarnates resolve another. And for power creep/level of power there's a great deal of synergy between the two.

Well my Cold/Ice/Power Defender did it by building first and foremost for recharge. Then again the build was created under the older proc mechanics not the current and the first iterations were pre-incarnate. He may not of had much defense but did have Benumb perma and iirc Heat Loss was about 10 seconds or so shy. He could also hit the To Hit ceiling by himself so hitting through MoG or Elude was doable.

... what happens if you use it on all but one captor, thin the herd first?

Can I order in and have it delivered? Hmmm, no too much like AE. And clearly @skoryythat's exactly what the doctor ordered for my Sonic/Sonic

Nah, the bi#$&%ing will be because it wasn't declared. Just like currently the complaint is they joined expecting a kill most/all and found it was a speed run (or vice versa). Hard/not hard will be just one more box for the Star to check off in the lfg message (and for folks to look for). I hope.

Sure, I'm just going to completely avoid owning anything remotely resembling a purse. I mean even if hit by a vehicle you never get hurt, just pushed around. The 'bad guys' are always fighting each other and unless you've got a purse pretty much ignore you. Cars if you own one appear to be immune to being stolen or broken into. Those guys can go for hours trying to get into a car and nary a scratch. Which is good as the bus drivers must all be on strike ... for a couple decades (so that career path seems like a bad idea. And nanny or teachers.). There's only like 4 buildings that ever catch fire and worse case I've never seen it spread beyond them to nearby structures. Like never. Never. Ever. Own A Purse. And you're going to be endlessly entertained by crazy bat%#&@ stuff and never need those mediports I hear about. Worst case is some hero coming by asking weird stuff about how many hours have I been in game? How the hell should I know! Signed, Karen

Yes I was referring to SR's scaling resists or for that matter anyone with the proc. And I agree mostly the end discount is not all that, but in can be. I was on an Empath, 4 down fighting Woodsman, 2 injured up and fighting. Very spread out at that point. I was flying (not Hover, too slow at that point), blasting and trying to keep those two up who seemed to be a bazillion miles apart. Recovery Aura has dropped ... were screwed except that end discount definitely kept me going full tilt. We recovered the others rejoined and finished him.

Leadership is almost a given on any build I create. Fighting is not though it's damn common. Stacked Leadership, especially Tactics, makes for very unhappy foes. Very.

I think that was mostly me getting that thought in peoples head. So for that disinformation my apologies. Probably reading another thread involving WP.

I'm pretty sure it can miss and assuming CoD 2.0 is correct it has an Acc of 1.3 and no entry for "Entities Autohit" AoEs check hit chance individually from the target nearest the center and moving outward (or for cones from their origin and moving out). Your final hit chance would have to be under 20% (and unlucky to boot if anywhere near its target cap) for Void to miss all the targets without Streakbreaker forcing a hit (or you have somehow ended up nuking a very small number of targets). This is all in the HCwiki under the Attack Mechanics article.

How's the final hit chance in Benumb. Good enough to swap the Acc to a second Recharge? Truly sucks when I can't look at or use Mids and threads like this come up. And *shrug* the difference between 43.91 and 45 is pretty damn tiny. Either one will require close monitoring of your defense against cascade defense failure which is the bigger threat. Yes statistically you've gone from about 9% of a +4 boss hitting you to 11.10% which 'dramatically' put is a ~25% increase. But unless it carries a defdebuff the next hit is still unlikely. And with no ddr if it was a Cimeroran or Bright Nova etc., you will be wanting to pop purple either way. If Spritual isn't in the works how about Nerve? If that doesn't push you over 45% I'd be surprised and then you can swap that Acc for a second +5 boosted Recharge IO in Benumb. And if your building for AV and hard targets you do not want to skip Screech. Not for its mez but for the 12 seconds of -resist it carries.