Nightmare Shaman

How do you plan on playing: 1) Solo or in team, or both? 2) Do you plan on actively tanking? (herding, pulling, essentially leading the team) 3) Will you play on +4/8 if soloing? 4) Do you plan on doing high end content at +4/8? (ITF, DA missions, PI arcs) 5) What is your skill and/or comfort level with making builds?

I forgot about that - you're right. (no -def) Truth be told, fire is simply the easiest. Too much to fiddle with to make cold feasible. Although I'm sure someone else has tried it. Hell, just search "cold farm" in the AE. I'm sure there's something there.

I just want to point out that dark doesn't actually convey any bonus to your survival as an sr even though people frequently give it as an answer. It's completely redundant as you'll be softcapped with 95% ddr, and enemies will always have at least a 5% chance to hit you. Ironically dark is most effective on low or medium defense builds vs softcapped builds with ddr. Your best bet is picking what you like, or if looking for an optimal build, pick the secondary that gives the best options to fill the holes in your res with i/o bonuses.

There's an easy answer to your question, but there's several things to cover. Namely: 1) Fire/cold are arguably the easiest res to top off outside of s/l due to the abundance of +6 res i/o bonuses available. Almost all purple i/o's and all the winter i/o's increase this. So, you can add +30 fire/cold res to any build easily just by using these. 2) Although inv is known for the s/l res, the real strength of the set is the potential for softcapping def to everything while surrounded by at least 10 enemies. (Something you'll do constantly in farms) It's quite easy to have fire/cold softcapped. And, as a very important bonus outside of farms, you have ddr of 50%. This is extremely important in high end content like ITF and DA missions. 3) If you add #1 and #2 together, you can see how you can just as easily do fire farms as you can s/l farms because you can be softcapped and res capped to both s/l and fire. 4) Once you get your alpha slot to the third tier, you get a level boost for regular content. This makes things substantially easier in farms as you effectively fight one level higher. (If doing incarnate content, you can eventually be +3.) 5) Incarnates also allow you to increase either def or res depending on what your build needs. My last inv build had 88.3% res, and 64.5% def to fire, and 90% res, and 53.2% def to s/l with 10 enemies present. Invulnerable is a beast. On top of those numbers, you also have the aforementioned 50% ddr, along with 25% end/rec debuff resist. In my opinion, it's one of the most durable and efficient tanks available. HOWEVER... Farming isn't about survivability. Survival in a farm is binary. You either survive or you don't - the enemies are exactly the same depending on the farm you choose. People mistakenly think people use fire tanks on fire farms because of the fire res. That's not true. It's because of the immense damage potential of fire tanks on top of the easily attained 90% fire res. (You also quickly find out that 90% res isn't enough - you absolutely need 45% def to survive) SO TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION - Without a doubt you can survive s/l farms on +4/8 without missing a beat. But, you can also survive any farm with inv. You'll just do it slower than a fire tank and many other more optimal farming builds. You may do it once or twice, but you'll probably get annoyed because it takes so long. Hope this helps. Good luck.

There's been a lot of people "correcting" me, but I need to re-emphasize I'm not a theory crafter. I've solo'd ITF on several builds, done high level +4/8 content including DA missions, and against all enemy types. I've tanked *4 ITF, and done it on regular (+4/8) teams countless times. I'm a pragmatist who speaks from experience and what works, not by using a calculator and arguing over percentage points. Also, someone mentioned that softcapping defense equals 95% mitigation and that is not accurate. The purple patch changed how defense works. I don't think the specific details are available online as I remember having to calculate it years ago in excel. Oh, I found my post and calculations on these forums: +1 enemies: .05 X 1.1 = .055 (5.5%) +2 enemies: .05 X 1.2 = .06 (6%) +3 enemies: .05 X 1.3 = .065 (6.5%) +4 enemies: .05 X 1.4 = .07 (7%) So this is strictly for regular mobs. There are additional modifiers for different ranks as follows: Lieutenant 1.15 Boss, Elite Boss, Sniper 1.30 Monster, Giant Monster, AV 1.50 Lieutenant +1 enemies: .05 X 1.25 = .063 (6.3%) +2 enemies: .05 X 1.35 = .068 (6.8%) +3 enemies: .05 X 1.45 = .073 (7.3%) +4 enemies: .05 X 1.55 = .078 (7.8%) Bosses +1 enemies: .05 X 1.4 = .07 (7.0%) +2 enemies: .05 X 1.5 = .075 (7.5%) +3 enemies: .05 X 1.6 = .008 (8.0%) +4 enemies: .05 X 1.7 = .085 (8.5%) AV's +1 enemies: .05 X 1.6 = .08 (8.0%) +2 enemies: .05 X 1.7 = .085 (8.5%) +3 enemies: .05 X 1.8 = .09 (9.0%) +4 enemies: .05 X 1.9 = .095 (9.5%) So, softcapping does not equal 95% mitigation. I think that's only true against +0 level minions. Everything else increasing incrementally based on the level and type of enemy. I stand by my original statement that consists of the following: 1) The most dangerous thing at end game is not damage, it's debuffs. Especially when dealing with large numbers of enemies as you do when challenging yourself or doing hard content. 2) Thus, mitigation becomes mostly irrelevant when 50 enemies are hitting you with -regen, -acc, -def, etc. It simply ceases to matter and you will die quickly or slowly, but either way you will eventually die. 3) Max (softcapped) defense is preferable to almost anything, and although it's true that many times people have barrier, they don't always and it creates a build that requires other people to have powers, buffs, etc. that are required to maximize my build. That is never my goal, nor is it optimal imho. I like to have the ability to go in blindly, on any PUG, and carry the team or carry myself. Softcapped def is almost always the optimal way to achieve that. 4) There are some enemies that have +acc, but they are rare. Especially for the content I do. (ITF, DA missions, end game TF's) The only ones that stand out to me as being a real thorn in my side were DE because they appear before I have full set bonuses. But, then you outlevel them anyway. To restate, I don't theory craft. I use mids to create an outline of a build, then I play it. If I like it and it performs well, I use it. From that experience I give advice and I stand by that advice because I've used it in the hardest content, solo and in a group. I started playing back in beta 2004.

You can get higher resists with elec and probably rad. (rad is busier than elec though) Invulnerability was the king when the game first came out before ED, inventions, and invention slot bonuses. It's still pretty good, but in your particular build there's a lot of wasted potential going into smashing/lethal since so many bonuses have sm/le added in. Your build has 126.16% sm/le which is 36.16 of waste. Here's some quick facts in regard to making any functional build in this game: 1) The biggest problem/obstacle in end game is debuffs. 2) A build with max defense/middling resists > a build with high resists/middling defense in all the hard content. (people will debate this, but it's my opinion) 3) Most theoretical builds ignore the difference between endurance recovery and end drain. Your build is so so on that front, +1.3. But, inv has no means to acquire endurance, neither does your secondary, and you only have 25% res to end drain/recovery. That's gonna hurt against stunners, arachnos, and anything else that saps end. 4) What do you plan on fighting? Some people strive for farms, some ITF, some generalists, some pvp. Very important consideration. 5) There are a ton of fire/cold set bonuses, but much less so nrg/dark bonuses. Doesn't make too much difference when dealing with inv, but it does with other set considerations. 6) It's always good to click on "view totals" in mids to see what debuff resists you have. One of the reasons I never build inv builds is because the set is severely lacking in this department. Anything with -def is going to chew through any middling defenses, even when you're softcapped over time. That's why defense debuff resistance is so sought after, and in the absence of that I'd say end drain/rec is next in importance. 7) One of the biggest obstacles to making a sound build is having enough slots to take advantage of the 6 slot bonuses. Something that is frequently overlooked imho is how many powers do you have to take and slot to maximize your build. Elec has virtually all of its armors in 3 powers. You can compare this to something like stone with has all of its armors spread out over multiple powers which all require at least four slots to be effective. (I hope this makes sense.) Having fewer powers in a set allows you to maximize your slots into a variety of damaging abilities getting more and more 6 slot power bonuses. 😎Incarnates - People always suggest fixing end problems with incarnates but in my opinion that's a huge wasted opportunity. You really want to take advantage of that +45% damage increase from musculature. So, it's imperative to either have some kind of end drain/rec resists, high end recovery over usage, the ability to acquire end (power sink or similar), and focus on any and all end reduction or recovery bonuses you can squeeze from sets. Damage is king in this game, and pretty much all mmo's nowadays. The days of standing there tanking and taunting with little to no consideration for damage are long gone. You can do insane damage as a tank. With all that in mind, you could both hit higher numbers, have end drain/rec not affect you at all, have speed/recharge resists at 100%, have an endurance refill with power sink, and overall achieve better results with elec. (assuming you want the goal of 90% to all) In my opinion, elec is one of the best resist sets considering everything in my list. Unfortunately, you have limitations with increasing your defenses and zero defense debuff resistance. Despite that, it's a very strong set. I know my last elec tank could tank ITF and I believe my melee defense was softcapped, and aoe/ranged was around 38%. (something like that) But, never forget with a resist set that every single debuff will affect you. And, the more enemies, the more likely you will be hit by these debuffs. -regen, -acc, (-end won't matter with elec but will with others), -per, are the more annoying ones. One last point just to hopefully give a morsel of credibility - I have never used other peoples' builds, and have made at least 50+ fully functional builds in game with those details in mind. I learned from experience just how important 45% defense is versus 35, 38, 40, 42, etc. How different 90% resist performs against 85, 80, 75, etc. (hint-it's huge, like exponentially different). How important the endurance deficit is, endurance drain, etc. I've solo'd ITF and others, and have finished *4 TF's. Good luck!

Now there's a request I never thought I'd see. "Nucular man!" -Gene Hackman I just rewatched some clips from that hilarious movie. Here's what you need to consider: 1) Electric powers - even though he is glowing, and has electricity around his body, he rarely does anything with it. There is one scene where he shoots electric blasts to blow up the wall of China (LMAO). Mu mastery could cover this. 2) Electric aura - I would just use the electric aura and color it yellow/orange. (the cosmetic, although I later realized the armor could work too) 3) Invulnerability - Even though he is "nuclear" and appears to be radioactive, he doesn't use radioactivity as a power or as a source of protection. It's just a plot device because the movie is about removing nukes from planet Earth. He is very similar to Superman in that he is just highly invulnerable to harm. 4) Super strength or claws? He appears to have both, but the thing that really almost kills Superman were his nasty claws. 5) Frost breath - Just a note that he has this just like Superman. 6) Ambush predator? - In many of the scenes, he sort of ambushes Superman after destroying something to get his attention. (This is a trope from all early Superman movies. "He actually cares for these "humans"?) It's possible stalker could fit into lore. I feel like with all this in consideration, some kind of claws or poison spines are more appropriate since that appears to be his most deadly weapon. If I were roleplaying this, I would consider the possibility that Nuclear Man wasn't defeated but instead roamed the universe seeking more powerful sources of radiation to fuel his power. In doing so, he continued to mutate and degrade to a more corrupt and sinister form. His nails, which were once retractable and slender, grew into hideous spines which protruded from all over his body. Hated and relentlessly pursued after murdering Superman (alternate movie ending), he now hides in the shadows waiting to kill and maim anyone foolish enough to get within his reach. The other option is just straight super strength/inv with mu blasts, but I feel like it is a bit too vanilla and doesn't differentiate him enough from all the Superman knockoffs. Those claws were absolutely imperative as a plot device and it almost killed Superman. They were radioactive, but functioned like poison. Just my two cents. Good luck, NUCULAR MAN! p.s. After thinking about it, I think elec armor would work just as well as inv and fits the theme.

Trying to play a petless MM is one of the saddest things you can experience in CoH.

I spent an incredible amount of time tweaking elec armor sentinels and tanks, specifically trying to make them powerful for hard solo and team content. Here's some important observations from direct experience with the build: 1) There is significant difference between a hard cap of 90% and 75% for resistance. While an elec armor tank is a god of mitigation, a sentinel is merely a half-god able to take on straight damage (non-debuff) fairly well. It seems like it's only 15%, but within the math calculations it amounts to significantly more. 2) A build based on mitigation at 75% cap with no defense will always have at most mid tier survivability. As you stated, +2/8 is about right. For hard and really hard content, resistance is not the means to a successful survival build. That is because the most nasty threat to your survivability will always be debuffs at end game. That means ideally when dealing with survivability the following is true: soft capped defense + high ddr + capped resistance > soft capped defense + high ddr + some resistance > soft capped defense + some ddr + some resistance > soft capped defense + no ddr + high resistance > mid defense + no ddr + mid resistance > no defense + high resistance It's hard to conceptualize while theory crafting how and why this is true, but it would take too long to write it all down here. I've completed 4* ITF, soloed ITF, soloed most +8/+4 on many builds. It's just something you will start to understand the more you do very hard content. 3) Your perspective will change radically once you start utilizing the potential of incarnates. At end game with hard content, usually most people have and use barrier constantly. The buffs you can add to your self offer limitless potential on how you make your build. More damage, high resistance, higher defense, reduced end costs, increase end gain, etc. It's all there. There's also an option to increase end drain if my memory serves me right. Lost story short, you will become infinitely more powerful once you dive into incarnates. 4) I believe I was able to achieve around 75% resist to most with around 35% defense on my sentinel, and I definitely had 90% resist and soft cap defense on my tank. I would try to get your melee defense at 45% and at least 75 resist for s/l. You have no ddr, so that's annoying. But, you really need to get in the middle to use your end drains, and your best best is melee defense max. I would emphasize melee defense > ranged > aoe. Again, this is assuming you will be using short circuit and power sink. 5) You will never make a perfect build purely from theory crafting or copying other builds. That's simply because you can't anticipate how things play out in the teams, task forces, soloing, raids, etc. that you personally prefer playing. For example, I love ITF so my builds all have to be able to survive the intensity of that. Maybe you don't even like ITF. That's why you need to get out there and just start playing. On Homecoming there are plenty of respecs. Just play and push yourself. See what happens when you jump in multiple packs of enemies. Start running out ahead and jump in. If you die instantly, you know something needs to be tweaked. Good luck!

I think some of this is an age issue. This is just purely my opinion and thus subjective by design. BUT, I think most people who started gaming before social media when simple chat was still the status quo are simply used to that style of communication and prefer it. I tried discord and to me it's like everything else that is gen z and beyond, just piles of information, the need to know this log in for this and that log in for that, advertisements, etc. It's basically just another annoying social media outlet. To me, it's annoying. To modern gamers, it's the norm and essential. (No disrespect to Gen Z or anyone who enjoys this.) I like using in game chat. It's simple. It's functional. It doesn't require any hoopla. And, it's reminiscent of a long lost time of the internet when everything was anonymous and it was fun to meet complete strangers whom you may or may not ever talk to again. It's old fashioned and that's why I like it.

I'm on a bit of a Cannonball kick lately. I realized the other day when looking at clips from the Deadpool movie that Negasonic Teenage Warhead actually has Cannonball's powers. Apparently, they felt he was too boring of a character, so they basically just put the wrapper of NTW on top of Cannonball's character. Lame. (And, completely removed her powers of precognition. But anyhoo, as someone who actually at one time possessed "The New Mutants" original line of comics from the early 80's, I realized how much his powers match what I'd want for myself. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time matching anything from the CoH universe that works. He is essentially a projectile with a forcefield around him while blasting through things. He can propel himself forward at just under the speed of sound and obviously he can fly. The only thing I could come up with that makes any sense is a kinetic/nrg brute or scrapper. Any thoughts?

I've been wanting to play Stone since the changes, but the sounds, MY GOD. If you don't know how to mod sound files, see this post for explanation: I attached the file below along references for each file. Cheers. Stone Armor be Quiet.zip

I'm happy to report that I have identified and silenced all the armor toggles for Stone Armor. I you were going nuts trying to play this because of the confluence of white noise with the insanity of the minerals loop sound effects, this is for you. If you're wondering why exactly this set is giving you headaches, it's because several of the powers have not just one but two sound loop associated with the power. There are about 8-10 sound loops playing on top of each other. I have no idea how to add this to the modder. But, I've attached the associated files and a description of each sound so you can keep whatever sounds you want. (See text file for descriptions.) Stone Armor be Quiet.zip

Thank you all. That definitely adds some intrigue to how I'm going to build this character.

Having never played MA on live, I have no personal experience with it. But, I keep hearing people mention some kind of hidden critical chance applied to the next attack after EC executes. Is that true? To be clear, I know EC has an inherent 15% chance for a critical. And, I'm not referring to using to the scrapper specific IO sets. Just the power itself. Thanks.

I just wanted to point out that you do not lose aggro when you activate hibernate. They will continue to attack you, especially if you built considerable aggro prior to using it. I use it on ITF and any time I'm being mauled. You normally use it after some time has passed and you have drawn so much attention b/c of icicles and chilling embrace along with your AOE's. It's actually quite effective. Also, your build has mostly disregarded resistance. This is a mistake. You WILL come across high acc enemies, and even more importantly, you need resistance for the attacks that get through. I've made a ton of non-conventional survivable builds. Even SR with perfect DDR needs resistance built in. Also, your endurance consumption is a problem. You might think "well that's what energy absorb is for", but there will be situations where you can't reliably pull enough end. e.g. Fighting an AV or a small number of mobs. The longer the fights last, the more you will notice this. I just started on my current Ice tank but here is how it looks so far. I will no doubt move a few things around. This is w/o energy absorption clicked in mids. (Also w/o hoarfrost which would bump toxic res to 56%.)

lol I've tried to make them work so many times... Rolled one right after CoV launched. Over the years kept coming back hoping maybe, maybe this time they have been improved, buffed, something. But no.

I meant once you get to 50.

I'll go the opposite of Snarky and say don't look at any builds and just start playing it. It's a very strong build once you get your IO bonuses and incarnates.

Yes, blasters do more damage then sentinels. Blasters do more damage then almost everything. That is never the point of contention. The point is really "what difference does that make". They still do damn good damage and have mez protection and better mitigation than what is available to blasters at any level. The simple truth is that a blaster doing "more damage" than a sentinel or any AT does not make a sentinel ineffective, obsolete, unfun, or unnecessary. They are an option. I personally hate blasters. And, I imagine there are others who feel the same. My sentinel can take an alpha from most mobs at max level and survive. Most mobs he can sustain survivability while still doing damage. He also does quite good, constant damage without the need to get into melee range. All this with mez protection, max resistance to virtually all damage types, with high regen, a good heal every 45 seconds, an endurance sapper every 20 seconds, and a nuke on a 45 second timer. It's a different playstyle with a different purpose but a similar result. Stop trying to make sentinels blasters. We are better and worse than blasters and the same can be said in the other direction.

It's always the same - People who either have never played or just don't play Sentinels complaining about Sentinels. They're fine. They are a niche and offer a different playstyle. The complainers ALWAYS say "why play Sentinel when I can be a Blaster" or just complain about the damage OR the target caps. (Target caps are annoying, I admit.) Essentially, the answer is simple. You play a Sentinel if you want ranged damage plus full mez protection AND damage mitigation that you cannot achieve on the other ranged AT's. No, they're not perfectly designed. What AT is? No, they're not over-powered. But, nothing should be overpowered. They have enough unique elements to make them stand out and what they have works just fine. My AR/Elec Sentinel has 75% resists to S/L/E/F/C/Psi and around 61% NE and 30% toxic. That's without any incarnate powers, just IO bonuses. It hits hard with 4 inherent AOE's plus two from Mu Patron all with full mez protection, high resists to the main problem damage types, from range. (Not to mention very high regen and a heal up around every 45 seconds - although I almost never use the heal anymore.) I can solo +8/+2 without blinking. I can do +4, but it's just more annoying and takes longer. There are many builds that cannot do that. There are several individual sentinel builds that could use some work. Some elements of certain builds are counter-productive. e.g. Builds were most of your damage comes from being in melee. But, they are fun and effective to those who enjoy them. If you haven't played one, you should take a look. You have to really go through each and every primary and secondary because most have been altered in significant ways. For example, AR has aim on Sentinels along with Full Auto having a 90 degree cone versus the 20 degree on blasters. This makes a huge difference in how it's used. Also, bean bag is gone and there is a new power called incinerator that is a high damage single target attack. If you don't like them, it's probably because you either are hung up on the design or just don't like the mechanics. I don't like playing controllers anymore. So, I don't play them anymore. Simple.

My current tank on Homecoming is a lvl 50 WP/Spines. I think what I'm dealing with a psychological one. I had played nothing but squishies up until I built that original WP tank back on live years ago, so it felt really strong at the time. Now, after years of playing and having a decent understanding of IO's and whatnot, it doesn't feel quite as strong. I think mainly because now you can change difficulty levels. I don't think you could back then. Either way, thanks a bunch for the information.

I haven't created a WP tank since the early days of CoH. I'm not even sure IO's were in the game at the time. Recently had some fun cutting my teeth on a very strong AR/Elec Sentinal and am curious what I can do with a WP tank set with bonuses. I'm just not sure which direction to take it in since it's a blend of different goals. I always lean towards high resistance builds, since I've found the bonuses easier to manage. But, being on a lot of late game content has started to make me loathe debuffs. Just wondering what others do. I Enjoy making nigh indestructible builds that either can resist or avoid debuffs. (If another armor set is more viable, I'm open to it.) Any advice would be helpful.

The BIGGEST problem, like many things in CoH, is the irrational and seemingly erratic way in which the target caps are spread among the different powersets. Some weak powers with a small cone, long animation, and low damage have a max of six targets. While some high damage, true AOE, fast animated powers, have a max of ten. The T9 powers are all unequal, everything is a mess. You add the target caps and it just makes some things much less enjoyable to play. That being said, I am in the "Sentinels are awesome" school of thought versus the other opinions. They can be made very strong, don't have the nuisance of chasing targets that melee sets have, and overall are an interesting approach to a ranged "tank" type character.

No worries.