Doomguide2005

Introducing "Temporary Man", the hero of the moment! All powers are just the sort never used while 'soloing AVs" provided by your friendly p2w vendor, crafted on empowerment stations or otherwise gained from your local contacts. Don't know if this crosses that line but think it'll be rough making it worthy of having as compared to just blasting, debuffing or both the foe in question while not becoming an equal or better choice than actual taunting powers (Confront et al).

For me it's not quite as straightforward as it is for @Uun Do I often team on larger teams or in leagues vs solo or small teams Am I already planning on taking from the Leadership pool? Am I tight on power choices or not? While I often do skip Assault on a Brute the above comes into play on the decision and it's a long way from always skip. If I'm almost always teaming and often in League play that's not 'just' +10.5% damage for me it's a +10.5% boost to every attack made by everyone within 60ft (up to 255 allies) of my Brute. And that can really add up fast on a League. Solo starts looking at the other bullet points. If I've got the power choice available and already planning on Leadership (often for Maneuvers and/or Tactics) then Assault is far more likely. As for Build Up yes I'm almost always going to take BU and as pointed out it's a great place to put the Gaussian's proc. So yes if the build has the room I'm going to take both whenever possible.

In general when I am putting an SR build together I'm looking for the following: the soft cap with defenses no more than about 47% to the positions. Perhaps up to 48% on a Brute who wants to fill the role of Tank or off Tank. More will typically be wasted. DDR or Defense Debuff Resistance at 95%. Cascade defense failure shouldn't enter the picture. DDR is why I don't build more defense above ~47%. I tend to build for max mitigation not recharge aka durability vs offense. This would be very true if building for the role of tank/off tank. Or after the above goals are met I'm looking more at +max health and +regen than recharge. I would say though I'd be a little more interested in overall recharge owing to Siphon Life and longer recharge powers like Soul Drain. Been a while since I read about preferred DM attack chains or ran my own DM/SR on Live though. And those would've been pre changes to SM in particular. I want to ED cap and run Tough 24-7 plus have both +resist specials (+5% and the scaling resist IOs) somewhere in the build. Overall I look at my net recovery for judging my endurance sustainability. I want 2.5 end/sec or greater. With that threshold plus 3 PS +end and Dark Consumption you should be able to attack non-stop for essentially forever.

*blink* wtf! Turn around and look back at the "screen" and ask, "Okay what did you just do?" Hmmm no answer so while practicing social distancing to an obsessive degree make my way to Pocket D. Get a stiff drink (or three). Much better now! Just wait for the server to reboot and ... OH MY what if I don't wake up at home and just blink out of existence! Wait a second what is my security level, do I even have one. Have I swapped with one of my Avatars? Wait I've got it! I have a cell phone I can give the next person who calls a mission. Tell them they must escort me safely around town for a while. I'll promise I'll behave 👹. Jeesuz I've been auto completed. Who's running this!!!!? WAIT! "The servers are being shut down for emergency maintenance"

Yep, a +7 hits a harder but has less of a to hit buff than an Incarnate foe. The accuracy bonus hits 1.5 vs +5's but then no longer increases so +7's are still 1.5×. Mostly the Purple Patch destroys your damage output and increasingly trivializes debuffs so it takes a lot longer to defeat even a minion, nevermind a boss. So even a +7 incarnate boss is still going to face a softcapped Tanker who still has the his resistance capped at 90% and might make him get colorful compared to normal but nothing that can't be handled. But what has happened is the purple patch means instead of 48% of your damage the +4 would take the +7 only takes 8% (or 1000 -> 480 vs 1000 -> 80). That's roughly 6 times longer.

This is how I play mine as well. It's part of the reason I place my AM between mobs (its range is 100ft on Defenders and Corruptors). It'll hopefully (LoS permitting) start firing and debuffing the next mob(s) as the team finishes the first. I tend to be very mobile, not static even solo especially on my Fire/Traps or Traps/Fire. I might slow down a bit if it's a kill all but otherwise not so much overall.

This is going to be one those times I'm really going to miss having a functional computer and internet beyond this phone. Given you've got Superior Conditioning, Physical Perfection and Stamina you should be swimming in endurance. See what it looks like of you swap those Power Transfer +heal for Performance Shifter +end. Get one in each of those three powers and that's roughly like adding 0.6 end/sec to your endurance recovery rate. It looks like you're building to reach the Incarnate defense cap, yes? (Hard for me to tell because of the dead computer). In Midnight Grasp I'd lean towards 5 of a damage set and then think on adding a Gravitational Anchor Immobilize ... AVs have no special (i.e. PToD) protection against Immobilize. Still going to be hard to keep one locked in place if solo if you're talking a +4 endgame AV but you can probably keep them in place more than running if they're one that likes to become a track star. And certainly long enough to make lining up the next attack or two much easier to hit both the AV and any friends he has. Back yet again but me needs some sleep for now.

Why no Screech? In addition to the mez potential it's the longest duration resistance debuff in Sonic Attack outside of Dreadful Wail.

Only thing I can safely say is it has nothing to do with being the Defender Archetype. Edit: owing to a dead computer and no internet outside this phone I can't look at your build but given you weren't exemplar (or from the sound of it sidekicked) it's unlikely, very unlikely, it has anything to do with your power sets, IOs or the build itself. If you were pulling those numbers from your Combat Attributes some screen shots of your CA before and after might illuminate things (if not your Combat Attributes where were you seeing these values)? Teammates, if anything, generally cause numbers to rise not fall outside of some Incarnate ability buff degrading over time and even then it wouldn't cause numbers to go below your solo values. What were the settings the ITF was run on? They didn't have anything like players debuffed going on?

Some quick 'I'm on lunch' thoughts. While I like the idea of Power Transfer +heal in general for SR the presence of Siphon Life should make it very optional. Indeed any sort of additional heal should be redundant 99% of the time. That said slot for damage first any heal second in Siphon Life. I'd lean towards 3 or 4 slots to damage enhancement, 2 or 3 to heal. And I'll be back later.

Solid advice overall. One thing I would clarify/question though. AFAIK there's no endurance drain resistance in Steamy Mist nor does it take Endmod sets or IOs. I believe @Psylenz0511is confusing things with one of FF shields? Insulation Shield perhaps, but that can't be enhanced either far as I'm aware. I would use endurance reduction in it though it's not cheap just like a lot of Storm's powers.

You chose Soul vs Power because --> Dark Embrace adds Negative and Toxic resistance in shields and Soul Drain which adds more damage when well saturated than Power Build Up will. Duration on Soul Drains buff is longer as well and nearly perma comparatively (thinking I just answered my own question/thoughts).

It was this way long time before Cimerora existed. Generally I never block it I want to know who will do it unannounced and what sort of situation they're willing to put me in unannounced so I'll know the next time around.

What others have said. It's underrated and most teams move way too fast to allow Traps to do Traps. That said an team of Trappers is insanely potent (like most teams composed of multiple defenders 😄). Just a matter of keeping some sort of rotation going so every mob gets a piece of love 😜

Nope. 1) Can't stand the taste of most of it. 2) I'm diabetic so I really don't need the empty calories. I'd much rather destroy my 'diet' with some fresh, warm, gooey, chocolate chip cookies. Drink of choice is Diet Mountain Dew.

I haven't really done solo AVs specifically as a challenge since Live, mostly i20 and earlier. Nowadays I consider it pretty much anything done by a single character regardless of pets, inspires, p2w etc. But I do like to know what those conditions are that the player considered solo. Are they throwing the kitchen sink into the effort or is it character debuffed, foes buffed, no temps, no inspires etc., or something in between.

Tackle some up rank late game DE (or Malta) solo you'll know for sure 😜. AM does have mez resistance if I'm not mistaken along with some IO based mez resistance might be fairly short if closer to +0 mobs than +4.

No as far as I know you should be unable to use Radiant Aura when mezzed. Sounds like a bug. And you definitely shouldn't be able to use Twilight's Grasp as it targets and debuffs your foes as well as heals. The only click power I currently know works when mezzed (off the top of my head) is Practiced Brawler which is a self effecting only anti-mez power. And upon further thought Rune of Protection can be used while mezzed. But again it's a self effecting only power. But I can't pop in game and check it out one way or the other.

Yes Superior Invisibility will take you to the stealth cap i.e. 200ft. Stalker Hide is 150ft, just enough to beat a Sniper's base Perception of 149ft. Snipers have the highest base perception.

Well, *cough* healer says to me Empathy, Pain or Thermal as they have direct, no foe needed healing powers. Several other primaries also have heal and/or regeneration powers some quite potent but I personally wouldn't say are thought of as healers by the player base at large. My personal favorite is Empathy but the real advantage of a static pair is you can decide what strengths to beef up and what weaknesses to shore up with via your partner (vs doing it yourself). Fiery Aura is a resistance based armor with a self heal, an end recovery power and self rez. It lacks much in the way of defense and has no kd/kb protection. Given the above what holes is your buddies Tanker filling himself and which will you fill. And likewise what is he going power up and what are you strengthening. Where I'd probably say Thermal (for the resist shields) for Tanker primaries based on defense) I'd say you'll want defense on Fiery Aura. And you want as much recharge as possible to get Burn, Healing Flames, Consume, and Fiery Embrace ready asap again. Of the above 3 Empathy will provide the most defense especially with Soul epic for Power Boosted Fortitude and Soul Drain to up the Empath's damage output. But I'd also say with capped or near capped resists plus soft or Incarnate capped defenses and healing flames up every 10 or 15 seconds with high recharge a "healer" is not what you need and something like Cold, Forcefields or Time would work as well or better. Healing Flames should be all the healing you need on top of passive regeneration. Keeping your eye out for defense debuffers will be the concern. Again the greatest strength for a dedicated (aka static) pair is building to maximize your own synergy. Don't think about it as 2 sets paired with some other 2 sets. It's 4 sets working together. Given that I really think Cold/Ice or Cold/Dark are your best bet. Cold brings strong debuffs, and defense shields for all. And Ice brings slowed movement, -recharge and holds. And then there's Dark which has a real winner in a cone AoE immobilize. No running away from Burn or Sleet or anything. Both run Tactics, include Kismet and probably no or minimal need of slotting accuracy in anything (not even needing much global accuracy).

I'll echo Snarky it's a combo of all the p2w stuff plus knowledge. The servers are heavily populated by vets of the game. Many of them here for 2yrs and counting. When they are looking for speed they tend to know the quickest routes via the fastest combos of powers. There are also plenty of take your time players as well those who use no p2w powers and travel by classic means only. They'll either be running solo or formed teams (and even SGs) of like minded players. And many who do both switching between "styles" as the situation and preference demands. And newer vets like yourself who enter and find themselves stopping and thinking for a moment (or longer), "How do I get to Ouro again?" Or spot some npcs hanging around something called a "tunnel system" and like me barely recall its existence much less where and what it connects to ... what's Nightward again!? Have fun, welcome back and soon you'll be the one helping someone get to Nightward or Cimerora.

Here's where the dead computer and only having a phone for internet really sucks. No internet besides phone, no Mids means I can't make heads or tails of the block above. If you can upload the long form(?) that shows when you picked what and how you slotted it would be the next best thing to actually being able to download Mids itself. But for now (while on Lunch break) Soothing Aura -> seems like a good way to keep everyone topped off. Provisionally I'd take it and 5-slot Panacea. Panacea (pricey) or Doctored Wounds (lower cost) are generally what I'd slot for the various 'healing' powers when taken as usually I build for recharge unless it's strictly meant for solo work. In those cases it's usually my second build that becomes a dedicated solo build. Even solo high damage resistance coupled with high regeneration will take you a long way with minimal defense in the build. Adding in defense plus resist and regen will make you very tough very quickly. World of Pain -> for an Offender solo build this is pure yumminess. I'd probably try to 6 slot. Half resistance set and half to hit buff as a start point and definitely max the recharge to minimize the downtime. And back to work ...

It's been forever since I've worked/built a Pain character but it's very similar to Empathy with several powers being clones or only slight variants. Unfortunately I'm without a functional computer so no Mids. Nullify Pain -> this and Soothe are straight up clones of Healing Aura and Heal Other. If this is a strictly solo build you've got a decision to make, to build for recharge or defense. And how much of one to sacrifice for the other. Either way your definitely ended up with Nullify Pain since it's your self healing power. And likely I'm using 6 slots either way as well for either 6 Numina's or 6 Preventative Medicine. Personally I'd go with Preventative Medicine for the recharge, the proc and the end discount. Soothe -> the only reason to take this on a strictly solo build is as a mule for set bonuses. Share Pain -> and the only reason to take this power is you already have Painbringer (to offset the self inflicted regen debuff), want to leverage the damage buff and need a mule for set bonuses. Conduit of Pain -> and yet again skip on a dedicated solo build outside of needing a mule for set bonuses. Takes endmod sets so possibly something to play with in Mids for set bonuses and proc potential (like power transfer) Enforced Morale -> Take it. Slot just the base slot. Be back later, sleepiness is demanding I see a pillow about some shuteye.

Earth/Storm -> lots of control available from Earth as Tahliah mentions while Storm offers lots of offense. Plant/Storm -> very offensive either they're chewing themselves up (Seeds of Confusion) or you are (Storm as mentioned above) Illusion/Traps -> for a very different experience especially for solo gaming. Move about placing your traps, totally ignored while your pets draw the aggro and those traps debuff the daylights out of your foes for those pets. FFG gives you mez protection and makes gaining lots of defense relatively easy. Fire/Kinetics -> a classic it still does its thing really well namely self and team damage buffing. The firemonkies are fragile and chaotic buggers but as a whole do a lot of damage buffed to the cap. Dark/Cold -> near the top of my own personal 'sets I want try' list. Powerful debuffer and 'dark' and 'cold' just screams thematic pairing to me. And many more. You've got a 1000 slots, have at it!

*pokes head in* Don't really care. I've no need of a Taunt aura and don't really care about runners. Then again not too many runners out run me and I've 2 ranged attacks excluding epic considerations and both do kb/kd as well, they just die tired while trying to run 😋.