Biff Pow

I really like my build but it's not hover-blasting. I like to move in and use melee attacks on the bosses while AoEs take care of everyone else, this is why I have around 30% on all positional defenses instead of focusing on ranged. But maybe you can get some ideas from it to build on (like switching the Touch of Death sets to Mako's Bite flips 7.5% melee defense to ranged.) Blaster EnergyEnergy.mbd

Shield Defense users have probably noticed that you can't use emotes with your shield equipped. I assumed this was because equipping the shield was implemented as an emote or something, except... When I have fly toggled on, I can use most (not all) of the emotes. I have no idea what causes this, but wonder if it might be a key to making emotes work with Shield Defense. "Spare some emotes for a poor Shield Defense Tank?"

This is true and even if you take Jab, by level 50 with recharge bonuses and everything, you can take it out of your power tray. Your other powers will fill in the attack chain. So some might ask then: who cares? It's a weak power that can easily be replaced by a pool attack, from a pool that many want to access anyway. Just skip it. I think that logic works the other way: if it doesn't matter, why not buff it a little so it doesn't feel so replaceable? It seems weird to be incentivized to NOT take Super Strength powers.

Blaster: (Novas all enemies) Melee: "Hey I was herding them up to kill slowly"

You should have checked, the ToHit and Recharge bonus is only from Cross Punch. Also again, this argument makes no sense because you can take the Fighting Pool AND Rage. The Fighting attacks are fine. If they were overpowered, people wouldn't be constantly suggesting "let me take Tough without Boxing or Kick." As far as I can tell, this is mostly just an issue with Super Strength, and especially since Jab became skippable on Tanks. Just make Jab a better power.

Sticking with only Super Strength, Footstomp is your only damaging AoE attack. If you choose the Fighting Pool route, Cross Punch is a (small) cone attack, which you can take as well as Footstomp. So the Super Strength set isn't the issue here, and I'm not going to suggest nerfing the Fighting Pool. Honestly just improving Jab would be enough of a fix. Even as single, no synergy power, Boxing and Kick do more damage than Jab. (Yes, they have slightly slower recharge but as part of a chain the difference isn't noticeable.)

Rage is a general damage boost, it increases pool attacks too.

This is basically my pitch to increase the damage of Jab, Punch, and Haymaker. If this applies to other sets besides Super Strength, feel free to chime in. My entire time on Homecoming I've found it strange that Boxing/Kick/Cross Punch do more damage than the first three Super Strength attacks. Yes, I'm including the damage boost from taking all three Fighting attacks, but this is a three vs three comparison. I won't even include the Fighting Pool's buff and debuff effects (like Cross Punch increases ToHit and Recharge for some reason.) Punch and Haymaker only need a slight boost to get it up to Kick and Cross Punch's damage (though Kick has quicker recharge.) Jab would need about a 50% increase to equal Boxing, I would propose maybe changing it to a one-two punch attack like Barrage. I'm not proposing one choice of attacks be better than the other (despite Super Strength being called, you know, Super), just that they're about the same. The Fighting Pool route has the disadvantage that you're forced into one Super Strength attack anyway, but also has advantages like Cross Punch being a cone. Super Strength shouldn't feel like you're accepting lower damage by sticking to your main offensive set.

There's no point to KB-to-KD in Nova because it kills most of its targets. I do use the Overwhelming Force set in Explosive Blast because it turns it into a PBAoE power and I like to melee. But I leave the KB in Energy Torrent because sometimes you want enemies out of your face.

I've played it on Scrapper and Tanker and I prefer Tanker because you get the toughness with a good damage output.

I know a defense set makes sense, but I love the crazy power of an Energy/Energy Blaster. And you can still get some decent defense from the Fighting and Epic pools.

This Is The Way

There's definitely a big challenge gap between sets with some early control powers and sets that are just weak debuffs or extra damage. Even the torrent powers in some Blaster sets make a big difference. Anything that gives a break from incoming damage is helpful. It could help to give some pool powers a look- Wall of Force, Misdirection, Invoke Panic. Maybe we could make powers like these a little more useful, and maybe unlock earlier to help low level players? (Like maybe switch power pools to two tiers, but that's a whole other discussion.)

One thing I've always noticed on the forums, I imagine because it's mostly powergamers that post here, is the auction house is always thought of in terms of buying, not selling. Higher prices means a sellers market and for a lot of people that's good news. Rare salvage selling for one million (for example) would make it really easy to keep your character in fresh SOs and eventually some basic Invention Sets. The question is how many players want the maxed-out builds, and how many are content with pretty good builds? I really don't know the answer, I assume since this is an old game it's mostly just diehards that are still playing, so a good percent want the max builds. But overall I think the economy is in a decent balance so it's probably not a good idea to mess around with it.

Yes, give enemies an energy bar that lowers as they are attacked, and Controllers get a bonus at reducing this bar on mezzed opponents. The enemies are defeated when it hits zero. Make the energy bar green.

I like Spring Attack. It's not particularly useful because of its long recharge, but it's fun to leap into a crowd now and then. I don't know if Laser Eye Beams fits with your concept but Energy Mastery is a good epic pool choice. Focused Accuracy helps with +Perception and ToHit Debuff resistance, though Super Strength doesn't need that as much as other sets. And obviously some +Regen and +Recovery from Physical Perfection.

One nice thing about Kinetic Melee if you're looking for Defense bonuses- there's lots of places to slot the Winter IO sets.

Basically, yes. Fire/Cold isn't hard, pretty much every purple set gives 6% resists, some also give Psi/Toxic. Shield Wall and Unbreakable Guards for E/N, and the Tanker sets for everything.

You can get a lot of resist and defense bonuses from Invention Sets, and then with the Might of the Tanker proc get up near 90% resistance to everything. But honestly, once you're up to the 70s or so in resists (plus capped S/L), you're already taking so much less damage that 90% is overkill. Mids numbers can be misleading, or use really weird builds that aren't fun to play, I prefer to go by in game stats. Here's my Inv/SS in a fairly basic situation: two enemies in Invincibility range and one stack of Might of the Tanker.

60% is decent Accuracy. In situations where you're missing a lot, it's usually +ToHit that you want (or ToHit Debuff resistance), not more Accuracy.

Sonic Blast kind of does the opposite- put the minions and Lts to sleep with Siren Song while you deal with the boss. And it's auto-hit.

Invulnerability has four auto powers and just three toggles (which are pretty light on endurance.) It doesn't really need a recovery boost.

This is my final build, so it's very purpled-out. Blaster SonicEnergy.mbd

I'm all for a toggle, but I know how upset some players get when you threaten to take away their double-stacked Rage (which I think it overrated myself.) A mutually exclusive option would be a better idea. I agree, but I also don't think Fiery Aura works thematically for Stalkers. Keeping ATs theme-based kind of went out the window years ago.

My problem with the -damage crash is it just feels kludge-y. I think an increased endurance crash gives the same effect (better calm down) but it would feel more natural than 'no damage for ten seconds.' Yes, there are other things to do during those ten seconds and powers that will work, but mostly you're just hovering over the key for Footstomp or KO Blow waiting for the crash to end.