Doomguide2005

Okay, bit of a start before sleep wins out. In general my team builds focus on recharge, recharge and more recharge. Mitigation will come from, in no particular order or priority, inspires, my Auras especially RegenAura, teammates, and epic shields. Any literal defense is purely incidental. So the majority of my powers will be slotted with sets that provide recharge bonuses. Healing Aura and Heal Other --> One will get 6 slots for Preventative Medicine the other will get 5 slots for either Doctored Wounds (less expensive) or Panacea (expensive) Absorb Pain --> Skip Resurrect --> I generally pass on it. So many other options from Awakens to Temp and other powers. If I take it slot an endred. It's a costly power and inevitably you'll need it towards the end of a hard fight when your RA's are down. Recharge Reduction is not worth it. Even with high global recharge it won't come back fast enough, teams are unlikely to wait around that long. Clear Mind --> just the base slot. What's slotted doesn't really matter. I often drop a range enhancement in there for that one character who always seems to be waaay over there. Fortitude --> 3 to 6 slots. If I'm scrapping for slots and I'm happy with my set bonuses I'll use 3 slots (2 Membrane HOs and a LotG increased global recharge). 6 slots likely means 5 Red Fortune and a LotG Inc global recharge. Haven't been able to experiment with using a Gaussian's BU proc in here to see how that works out. In short there are a lot of solid slotting options. And back later, time for some sleep.

My computer's dead so I've no internet but this phone currently so can't post or open a Mids file but I'll see what I can post in a bit. I know @Lineahas posted several of their Empathy builds. The Emp/Fire/Soul build successfully completed a solo +4/×8 ITF and there's a thread about it here in the Defender forums. Might need a slight tweak for general teaming play (as it focused very heavily on handling a solo effort), but would be a very solid start as would several of their other Empathy builds. Anyway back in a bit.

LOL 😆 But in fairness he said immediately. I spam mine shortly after doing Stalagmites+Thunderclap usually 😜

This totally this! And then hearing Croatoa and then Williams Square and ...

AFAIK Hide would stack. It's also fairly meaningless to stack other stealth on it in PvE as while not capping it it is higher than any PvE foes perception. The only foes out there that would see you already ignore stealth, more isn't going to help. We have 1000 slots per server and if getting to 50+ is a goal it's not particularly difficult to do even without any power leveling. I'd try all 3 starting with whichever interested me the most and go from there

@Triumphant Well I'd say that's a nearly impossible if not impossible task (but highly desirable) given that fun is highly subjective in any game this one included. It even varies with each player over time. Some days I want to push a particular build to its utter limits other days (hours even) I find the fun mindlessly chewing through hordes. Sometimes I want to push a particular team concept (all Controller, all Empathy defenders, all Dark, etc) to their limits or just PuG with whatever comes to hand. Lately been thinking about what (all controllers)-> 5 Fire/Sonic, 2 Fire/Cold and a Fire/Kin might do and wonder what they'd do with endgame content both as fully incarnated and SO only builds built as a static team. So in theory even keeping this one player totally satisfied all the time is likely problematic ... nevermind a few thousand different me's. And I think for your 'average player' the majority of task forces are an enjoyable challenge. Or we wouldn't be here discussing this very topic.

Random thoughts in no particular order: 1) If you are missing consistently with your Hold(s) especially with 2 Acc SOs and particularly with your single target Hold accuracy is NOT the biggest problem. Block of Ice has a base accuracy of 1.2 (even the Immobilize at 0.9 is only slightly below normal) and you're then adding another ~0.6 to 0.7 accuracy on top of that. That should be plenty unless a) your To Hit is getting debuffed or b) you are fighting mobs well over your level or worse c) both are happening. OR your are hitting but mistaking the lack of a hold taking place due to (as pointed out up thread) not getting sufficient mag on the target to overcome their protection (not resistance). Resistance to a mez shortens duration but has no effect on magnitude directly, but it does make it harder to stack magnitude to overcome the targets protection. If it's a resistance issue you should at least briefly see the Hold take effect even if it's there and immediately gone again. IF you are fighting foes well above your level (i.e. +4 or more) without To Hit buffs that will also cause final hit issues because that will put your base to hit at 39%, lower if you're SK'd and fighting +5's or greater as a result. Either way if you are actually missing vs ineffectively hitting adding To Hit buffs is more likely to be an effective change (and only powers, such as Tactics, Aim etc., or the Kismet IO will add to your To Hit). PS: no one has yet mentioned that 20% of the time Controllers will "Overpower" and gain an additional +1 magnitude to their mez powers. This will overcome the standard protection of a boss and one shot Hold/Immobilize a boss rank foe. Whew that got longer than expected. 🙂 2) as @DougGravesmentions you can drop Ice Slick from around a corner, behind a crate or otherwise completely out of LoS. I often do this on my Earth/* controllers. But you do have to see with your camera where you are placing the patch's target bullseye in order to place the Ice Slick at that 'out of sight' location. 3) You have no stealth powers/capability in Ice Control. Arctic Air is not a Steamy Mist or Shadow Fall clone and provides no (-)perception. Ice Slick takes a relatively long time to animate and to take effect and roots you for the duration of the cast time. Combine this with its range of 60ft unless you do place it while under cover you are at high risk of getting attacked before you finish placing it. If you can't take cover either use those inspires or let those who can take aggro do so first. And again unlike Steamy Mist, etc., there's no +defense or +resistance in Arctic Air. I'd want some stealth some how in the build. It won't stop return fire but it will let you gain situational knowledge -> maybe if I move behind the spawn to over there I can limit or eliminate the return fire.

+1 to both Caulderone and Grouchybeast. While procs work as mentioned the damage procs have their damage scaled by your combat level

As @Grouchybeastsays use any and all the ideas put forth here. Some of my thoughts: 1) getting defeated ... lol, an embarrassment essentially, a learning opportunity and potentially a weapon. Rise of the Phoenix is a thing. I hate getting defeated but the reality is it's mostly meaningless in this game. 2) Solo, okay they look nasty so pull. So if bad stuff does happen they'll eventually wander away and you can rez in relative safety. This is true even if on a 'blapper' which while I haven't played it a /Atomic looks like it's intended to be played up close and personal looking at CoD v2.0 3) Elevators and the front door are your friends. Pull them to you there. If your getting chain mezzed ... well even if stunned and held you can still click the door and whoosh away you go. My pre-50 BS/Regen scrapper resorted to this against Malta (pre-IO, practically pre ED). Sappers kept ruining her day. She could handle -def, -resist, etc., but -end then detoggled Integration and mezzed to hell and gone. She also experimented with Teleport Foe to yank those annoying 'minions' away for a little individual playtime. Should work even better from what I've read about the new Teleport pool. 4) there's a proc that generates mez protection put it in one of those "I can use even when mezzed" powers. For that matter I don't think I've seen Amplifiers mentioned. 5) Be ready to use 'stuff' when being chain Slept in particular. Players aren't the only ones whose allies wake up sleeping foes. Their next attack may wake you briefly before the next Sleep hits. Be ready. 6) For that matter planning ahead doesn't stop at pulling. What will you do if your intended single pull brings the room? Panicked by impending dooooom do you know which way, which twists and turns, ramps, etc., to take as you retreat.

No it's Accuracy. The Alpha abilities act as global enhancements. So Nerve would act as an Accuracy enhancement in all your powers that accept Accuracy enhancements. And in all likelihood you'll benefit most from To Hit buffs and least from Accuracy. Accuracy is a multiplier and multiplying a small number doesn't help as much as making that number not as small.

There are things in the set that would benefit from a pass. Liquefy could use a look, for example. The recharge is ... long. But overall it's a very solid if not 'splashy' set. PS: Those two Sonics were my Sonic/Dark (~i13 or so) and a Sonic/Sonic build by Linea (~i9) as I recall.

Sonic Resonance is a very capable defender primary. It also does not solo easily. Your own mitigation is very limited compared to many other defender primaries --> No Heal, absorb or regen. No defense. 15% Damage Resistance, mez options are a long recharge t9 patch and a single target 'foe capture'. Now as with any character sets/set bonuses, pools etc., can help a lot but unlike many other primaries you start out from pretty much zero. Combine that with defender hit points, endurance expensive toggles pummeling your blue bar and soloing especially at low levels is painful and slow. But on a team they can be strong benefit. Resist shields for all those high or capped defenses and 60% resistance debuff before considering the secondary or anything else about the build. While it's completely coincidental and anecdotal two of the strongest teams I've been on had a Sonic Resonance character on the team and I'm thinking if the set was that off it would have been noticed particularly the 5 man team crushing +4/×8 Arachnos in the early 20's in Faultline with AVs etc. etc.

As someone who lost a close friend and roommate about a year after we started playing in 2005 I think this is awesome idea. It was also one those times where the strength of this community was exemplified by the unknown hero who I happened to be playing with when I got the news. While I've no idea who they were or even remember their character I will always remember the caring and kindness they exhibited staying on line and in mission with me for what seemed like hours as I dealt with the news offering support to a total stranger.

Bad? No. Has no debuff built in to take advantage of those sweet defender values. Correct. On the otherhand indirectly those animations mean my Empathy/Fire doesn't get tied up watching (like my Emp/Electric might) her 'Short Circuit' animation complete, as an example, while a teammate goes really colorful and collapses. And of course on a fast moving high level team chewing through mobs as fast as such teams can one could say more buffs/debuffs are pretty much wasted anyway and Fire due to those fast animations is most likely the one making others corpse blast 🤪.

This^ (some quick posts 🙂 but that was supposed to point at arcanes' post.) Pretty much any well built Tanker is incredibly hard to defeat. And depending on just what you mean by extreme situations that list can get considerably extended into Brutes, Scrappers etc..

Not to mention up until relative recent issues/sets Psi and Toxic were and still are almost always a whole lot less resisted (and lacked defense against) on top of things like fire vs a fire Tanker. Confused about what the goal here is given the above post by biostem is accurate to my recollections as well. Players will largely move away from combating those mobs, they'll just avoid them like they currently avoid Carnies as an example.

As a big believer in using inspirations I can safely say this was to my memory not a thing, though not an uncommon request. I would not have spent as much time either purchasing off the AH or hunting Kora fruit in one of my favorite zones as much as I did if it were an option as described. And the idea that I and tens of thousands of other players wouldn't have noticed the option and not spread that knowledge around (either positively or negatively) seems about as likely as saying knockback didn't exist pre-Freedom. That said as an option to be included as a "QoL" option ... 'meh' it's ridiculously easy to obtain large ones (at least with a level 50+) so I'm not sure it would truly make things all that more easy. I'd much rather Developer time be spent on content that would make such inspires a true need.

First immediate thought is if it's mostly about getting teammates to mission end is the temp power Assemble the Team and live without the pool or grab Sorcery instead CJ or Hover. Mystic Flight provides both Fly and Teleport and use Assemble for those stealth to end needs. Edit: Other random thoughts/ideas: If you're swapping to other pools maybe Concealment and instead of using Teleport and just use GI etc to get everyone there.

One, just one!? Okay that's just nuts 😉

And unless my memories are failing me they do show up in the bank job portion after you do a set of 5. I *know* I've fought a few in those.

@Sir Myshkin @Bopper Two names I associate strongly with procs. Edit: And since you didn't say otherwise that's one Triage Beacon in play. Not uncommon to be able to drop two.

Truth but also sort of a subset of the likely majority of players making this choice. And against +4 EB's and up the debuffs and cc of Dark Miasma will be less effective at protecting you while solo. However, if you are 1) teamed (regardless of the presence of a classic tanking AT or not) and 2) fighting lower notorieties those debuffs and cc will greatly cut down on the need for capped defense allowing you to beef up other aspects of the build. Basically higher level AVs are highly resistant to debuffs and buffing yourself via sets bonuses is much more critical to surviving such encounters so its not really a problem of getting those defenses as deciding what sort of content are you going to face, particularly when solo and hence which type of build do you need.

Empathy/Sonic is very solid but Empathy is a fairly busy set which makes it a bit of "Do I stack -resist or cast my buffs" (Fortitude in particular demands a lot of attention). The reason it's often recommended for Empathy defenders (and this probably applies to corruptor Empaths as well) is Empathy has no debuffs to help out vs hard targets (no Tar Patch, Freezing Rain, Lingering Rad, Benumb etc.) and Sonic Attack gives them a highly desirable debuff with its blasts. As for Kins when many of its buffs became AoEs it got a lot less click happy then its original self. Now instead of 7 clicks to spread Speed Boost, 7 more for Increased Density, 7 for ... now it's 3 clicks and the entire League is covered not just your team. And for a Kin/Sonic this means they don't have Empathy's problem of choosing between buffing or blasting. A few clicks --> damage cap and now push their damage resistance in reverse to further up everyone's damage.

As far as I know Incarnates do not allow you to bypass or exceed the hard cap/hard limits only a portion of the Diminishing Returns due to ED. At best Elude has a 20 second downtime owing to the recharge hard capped limit of +400% --> 1000 base recharge ÷ 5 = 200 sec recharge. Eludes Duration is 180 seconds. And that would be impressive.

I haven't taken Elude in forever. That part of the post was more to point at the insane quantity of their to hit buffs. If I was already soft capped, popped both Elude and Barrier I'd have enough defense for about the first 10 seconds or so to floor their to hit chance which before my defense came into play is sitting at 50 (base)+100%(their inherent buff). So yes for a great deal of content Elude by itself enhanced would be sufficient. However for most content assuming I've slotted and using her toggles and passives etc. I'm already at the softcap and Elude is wasted. Her build is extremely sturdy and can and did handle pretty much any content at +4/×8 and unless I did something really dumb like I did against Reichsman pretty much never died. She does use Rebirth