dzyp2

It depends mostly on the sets you want to play. As others have stated, choosing between a stalker or scrapper comes down to where the CS proc goes and what power in the primary is lost or gained in the stalker. As an example: ice is kinda meh on a scrapper due to a wonky st attack chain. But on stalker it keeps the cone and the pbaoe and gets a great st assassin's power. Better to play that on a stalker. Claws is the exact opposite. Stalker loses follow up which happens to be the perfect power for scrapper's CS proc. And let me tell you, there's nothing like proc'ing that and then throwing shockwave into a mob... "critical", "critical", "critical". I love playing scrappers and stalkers and have a roughly equal number of 50s between them and it usually just comes down to which set I want to play. I have a few brutes and a single tank at 50. Usually, if I'm playing a defense-based armor set I just play a stalker/scrapper depending on primary set. If it's a resistance-based armor I want to play I'll go brute/tanker.

I have hoarfrost on my scrapper and I've found that I'm more survivable leaving it on autofire. It's a top off every once and awhile combined with HP cap which also increases regen. Depending on how you think about high regen rates it could be a minor form of healing.

I have energy melee on a few scrappers and it is godlike. Stalkers will have a little less AoE but I'm sure it's still outstanding. I like playing sets on stalkers that are best on stalkers which means I love ice melee on a stalker. Great AoE and ST. I have an ice/stone that I adore. I've only played stj on a stalker but stj/energy is also incredibly good... just less aoe than ice/stone.

I like playing challenging content solo, mostly melee, and I've stopped chasing high levels of defense on res-based toons anyway. Without DDR my defense usually melts in any case. I think this is a good change. Doesn't seem like a huge deal, adds a tiny bit of extra challenge, and makes sense logically and thematically.

I have a rad/rad brute where I also just "gave up" on defense. That really just means that I don't go out of my way to find it. That plus resilient alpha puts my at the s/l res softcap (and close on energy). I also took darkest night. I tried a solo itf with it at +4x8. As expected, when I jump into a group my defense is in the negative territory within seconds. But with the -dmg from darkest night and my res capped and rad therapy up consistently I can survive it. Not as easily as my sr tank, mind you, but it manages. Can't survive the ambush at the end of mission one though.

I'm going to put my fav sets in descending order of awesomeness: 1. Claws: put the build up proc and CS proc in follow up. Use it when it's up. Ends up with awesome ST dmg with its glorious aoe as a massive bonus. I still get immense joy from hitting the CS proc in follow up and then tossing a shockwave into a group. Crit, crit, crit. The one downside is that the set is a bit "clicky" which is both good and bad. It means you're more active but it means you'll die a bit less mid-animation. 2. Dark: hear me out. I know dark typically isn't thought of as being beastly but with the right slotting and secondary/app it becomes godly. I recommend /shield. The trick is: put the CS proc in siphon life with 3 other dmg procs. Put 4 dmg procs in midnight grasp. Now walk into a group and hit the boss with siphon life ("Critical Strike!") -> soul drain (now you're swimming in dmg) -> fireball -> shield charge -> dark consumption (if anything is still alive). Oh yeah, and while dark melee is laying waste to your enemies it's simultaneously topping off your hp and end. If you can make the procs work, dark melee really comes into its own. 3. EM: ST beast, AVs will die extremely fast. AoE is a little meh but that's why we have apps. Not much to say here except that focused energy transfer is truly amazing. Long animation times though which can be a little annoying, especially if your secondary requires a lot of clicks to stay alive. 4. War mace: oldie but goodie. I haven't checked the pylon thread in awhile but last time I did this was way way up there. In my own testing, I find the same. Nothing flashy, nothing ostentatious, just taking an object and putting it through your enemies' skulls. Clobber might change your life. Whirling mace is meh but crowd control will wreck your foes. And lining a few mobs up for a once-in-a-night shatter cone is very satisfying. Out of all of these I probably play dark the most with claws a close runner up. There are some other sets that deserve an honorable mention: ice, rad, etc. There are some sets I hear good things about but have never 50'd, like dual blades (I'm just not that into weapons).

This brings back a lot of bad memories involving hovering across the hollows.

Like you, I was quite skeptical of the idea. But I can't deny the impact it's had when I tested on a pylon (and in content). I don't use as many procs as some, for sure, as I tend to favor survivability and soloing hard content. The key is to proc out key powers while maintaining enough recharge to keep your chain gapless and enough defense/res to survive. One of the reasons I like shield is because I can sacrifice more set bonuses than the others and still be tough enough. And typically I do 3 or 4 procs and then slot the rest for acc/dmg. I usually run musculature so I typically still get over 100% enhanced dmg where I do more dmg over time with more procs rather than the marginal benefit of more dmg slotting (due to ED). Re recovery, I mostly run ageless and DM's +end fills in the rest (does pretty good dmg as well).

Generally speaking, CoH is a pretty easy game so you can make almost anything feel badass. There have been a lot of good combo recommendations, but in any case I've found that getting the CS ATO proc correct is incredibly important if you want to feel your best. You want that sucker firing as often as possible and you want it to fire before your heavy hitter. So no matter what you choose, make sure you make a wise selection there. I've got quite a few s-tier combo builds including wm/bio, claws/ena, and dm/shield which have been mentioned in this thread. That's not as many as a lot here but this is my opinion of them: In descending order of max ST dmg: wm/dm, claws In descending order of max aoe dmg: claws/dm, wm In descending order of survivability: ena/shield, bio Now, at first this will look confusing because dm is frankly not known for either st or aoe dmg. Most of the time that's absolutely true. But once you pair it with shield and assuming you're running at x8 you're going to be swimming in +dmg. It will come last in ST dmg amongst those 3 on a pylon, sure, but standing in a mob taking down a boss and it crushes because of how boosted your dmg will be. Overall, in terms of overall strength and survivability, it's really quite close but I would rank those combos as follows: dm/shield, claws/ena, wm/bio. WM/bio is not weak by any means and in some scenarios it's going to perform the best (it would, for instance, have the best pylon times between the 3). But if you were to throw me in a random mission and ask which of those I'd take it's the dm/shield. As stated previously, however, you want to get your procs right. I was really disappointed in dm until I rebuilt to maximize procs and somewhat disappointed in claws for the same reason. But then: DM: put your CS proc in siphon life with 3 dmg procs. Have 4 dmg procs in midnight grasp. Start all engagements with siphon life and once you see "Critical Strikes" unleash hell. ST is siphon life -> smite -> midnight grasp -> smite. That critical strikes makes such a huge difference and proc'ing siphon life and midnight grasp is night and day. And this isn't too recharge intensive (I'm ok if soul drain is down for a second or two) and shield has enough survivability that you can sacrifice some set bonuses. Claws: I cannot describe the joy of "Critical Strikes" followed by spin and shockwave. Especially the visual of shockwave which is literally just a wave of "critical" above the enemy and you can watch the power propagate through the baddies. You'll want to add your CS proc to follow up as well as the build up proc and 3 dmg procs. I usually have a single dmg or -res proc in the others. I think this combo is a little less forgiving on recharge so that makes it tougher to proc bomb more powers IMO. I did try adding more procs to shockwave but now I just have 5 superior scrappers strike in there plus a kb -> kd; didn't see much difference in pylon times. A lot of folks will run follow up -> focus -> slash -> shockwave. I run follow up -> focus -> slash -> shockwave -> follow up -> focus -> slash -> fireball with a -res in fireball but that's very much to taste and the performance is close. Just be sure to start your engagements with follow up. Wm: For the gapless jawbreaker -> clobber -> shatter chain you will need enough recharge that makes it tough to proc bomb multiple attacks (and bio doesn't have the same survivability margin as ena or shield which means I tend to chase more bonuses with it). I have the CS proc in jawbreaker along with 3 dmg procs. I think shatter would technically proc more often but jawbreaker is quicker to animate so I like using it more before going into aoe and the proc rates are only a few % different anyway. ST is going to hit like a freaking truck and if you were going AV hunting and couldn't count on fighting in a group of baddies this build is going to win as long as you can survive. But this is all pretty pedantic, any of these builds is going to make you feel godly. These are all like choosing between a Lambo and Ferrari.

It's incredibly tough! I updated my original post with my build.

So I thought I'd give this a shot... I just completed a solo MoITF on my dark/dark brute!. Not going to lie, it took a long time (several hours). I'm so pumped right now. My second toughest brute is probably my claws/elec but this dark/dark just takes the cake. EDIT: now that my adrenaline has worn off a bit I thought I'd post some details: MoITF with no insps/temps (but with rocket pack). T4 Alpha - Cardiac Core T3 Interface - Degenerative Partial Core T3 Judgement - Void Total Radial T4 Destiny - Ageless Radial T3 Lore - Longbow T4 Hybrid - Assault Core As Werner mentioned, Lore is not much help. I'm dark/dark so I went with soul mastery and void judgement for thematic reasons. Went with an attack chain of Smite -> Siphon Life -> Smite -> Midnight Grasp. Mission 1: Skipped what I could and was careful not to trigger ambush at the end. Didn't really have any close calls but discovered that Darkest Night actually helped here. I'd pick up the boss or elite boss and cast it on them while going to work on the mobs. That combined with the DDR from Ageless and I really didn't face much danger from these mobs. Mission 2: Really worried about this one. I would start by casting Darkest Night on the squids and pulling the crabs around corners. After killing a cyst I'd clear the mob so this mission took forever. Luckily, I was high. Mission 3: Pretty normal up the hill, skipped what I could, killed what I had to. Nothing around the computer can actually debuff my defense I don't think so the normal attack chain kept health full. After computer, grabbed requiem. No biggie. Then Romulus. Also no biggie, just took awhile. Mission 4: Straight to platform and then pulled the mobs off the sides near Romulus. This is where I sort of cheated. I would grab the nictus and then use my jetpack to get them away from Romulus. I started the TF with no temp powers but it let me use jetpack so I'm not sure if that's cheating or not. Then it was just a slog to kill the nictii one by one. Assault really helped. For the most part, siphon life kept me away from dark regen. I would get stunned by the jetpack was up so I'd just fly high when the stun hit and then go rest. Went in for Romulus until the ambushes would trigger. I actually liked the ambushes because they couldn't kill me and it was fuel for soul drain. Relied on death shroud and soul drain to clear the ambushes while focusing on Romulus. He fell and it was off to the towers. There were a couple of times I got to ~1/4ish health but usually had dark regen ready to go. The combination of ageless plus darkest night on the toughest guy in the group usually meant I had a lot of time to listen for that "death sound" letting me know my defenses were dropping. Had to back away maybe 3 or 4 times. All in all, I'm extremely happy with dark armor. My main on live was elec armor and I thought it was crazy tough. I have a rad armor brute on homecoming as well but doesn't feel as tough as this. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Pocket Blight: Level 50 Natural Brute Primary Power Set: Dark Melee Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Smite -- Hct-Dmg(A), Hct-Dmg/Rchg(3), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Hct-Acc/Rchg(5), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(5), Hct-Dam%(7) Level 1: Dark Embrace -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(7), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(9), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(9), GldArm-3defTpProc(11) Level 2: Death Shroud -- SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprUnrFur-Dmg/Rchg(11), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), SprUnrFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), SprUnrFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), SprUnrFur-Rchg/+Regen/+End(15) Level 4: Shadow Maul -- Arm-Dmg(A), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(19), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Arm-Acc/Rchg(21), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(21), Arm-Dam%(23) Level 6: Murky Cloud -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(23), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(25), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(25), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(27), StdPrt-ResKB(27) Level 8: Siphon Life -- SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBrtFur-Dmg/Rchg(29), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), SprBrtFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), SprBrtFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), SprBrtFur-Rech/Fury(31) Level 10: Obsidian Shield -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(33), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(33), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(33), UnbGrd-Max HP%(34) Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(34) Level 14: Kick -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A) Level 16: Dark Regeneration -- Obl-%Dam(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(34), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(36), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36), ThfofEss-+End%(40) Level 18: Dark Consumption -- Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(37), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Obl-Dmg(37), Obl-%Dam(39), Obl-Acc/Rchg(42) Level 20: Cloak of Darkness -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(39), Rct-ResDam%(39) Level 22: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(40), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(40), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(42) Level 24: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(50) Level 26: Soul Drain -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg(A), SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(42), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(45) Level 28: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45) Level 30: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(45) Level 32: Midnight Grasp -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(46), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(48) Level 35: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 38: Soul Tentacles -- JvlVll-Dam%(A) Level 41: Dark Obliteration -- Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(48), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(50), Rgn-Dmg(50) Level 44: Vengeance -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 47: Darkest Night -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 49: Cloak of Fear -- ToHitDeb-I(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Fury Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(17) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(17) Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 50: Void Judgement Level 50: Ageless Core Epiphany Level 50: Degenerative Core Flawless Interface Level 50: Cardiac Core Paragon Level 50: Assault Core Embodiment ------------ I don't yet actually have Task Force Commander. My knockback is too low atm and Romulus was able to knock me back but I just fought through it. I'm thinking of dropping vengeance for super jump and adding another +4.

I think the problem is EnA. I have a 50 psi/ena scrapper that I IO'd out. It was ok, but the problem is anything that got through the defense really hurt. And with the current meta, it's a lot easier to add def than it is to add res which means it's easier to take well rounded or res heavy sets and make them godlike via IOs than it is to do with def sets. I have high level /bio, /rad, /shield, and /elec toons as well and they are just tougher.