Projector

Incredi-brawl

Thank you! I believe in integrity in my challenges, so the only concessions I made were ones I genuinely felt I needed to, and I made sure to list those concessions out specifically. I am pretty sure the only auto power I took was the alpha and only because I needed the level shift 😄

IF anyone has T4 barrier on any toon, regardless of build, I will be happy to bring you on a 4Star. Depending on your power sets, I may ask you not to use certain things at certain times because some powers can cause a failure of certain objectives outright, such as uncontrollable pets, but otherwise, anyone is welcome. 🙂 Just hit me up. Also happy to invite anyone to my public discord where I usually schedule and host runs throughout the week. And yes, you can even bring a Sentinel 😉

Except the meta runs already include Clarion and Incandescence, and the Barrierless runs I just referenced use Rebirth and even Ageless Radial. KM 4Star ITF runs sometimes use Ageless Radial. Meta Aeon runs swap to Clarion Radial during the last mission for the range boost, and Corrupted runs, which are a type of run where you only use Corruptors, Tanks/Scrapper-tank, and Blasters, but don't allow Kin, Nature, or Cold, utilize Ageless Core as well. Not really sure what you're looking for at this point, because if your issue is cookie cutter teams that all use Barrier, I've just given you a ton of examples that didn't use barrier, have varying ATs, with even a widow tanking instead of a tank, and hell, I've tanked it with a toggle-less tank that only uses Brawl. And any change that would make "bigger defense and to hit numbers" irrelevant would be a change that would likely affect full 8-man teams. Regardless, it's been consistently true throughout the majority of this game's history as far as I know that the smaller you make the teams, the more restrictive the team comps get. That even applies to iTrials (for some master of attempts). You say they are Charity ATs...but with the way the game is designed makes it so that in your scenario, the stuff that is currently considered meta would only be even stronger. One example: the reason we don't need Dominators or Controllers in Lady Grey is because every AT has access to holds, and it's just a fact that other ATs also offer more damage. In LGTF, if you hold Dragon, his stats drop considerably. Turns out though, that it's just faster to DPS him outright than it is to try and keep him held the entire fight. The DPS you lose trying to keep him held is worse than the reduced DPS you do when he isn't held. Same is true in ITF--if you hold the Emerald barrier nova, it becomes unkillable and Romulus' Regen drops to 0, making him easier and quicker to kill....except that you lose more investing resources in trying to keep that nova held than you do by just, again, outright DPSing and debuffing Romulus manually. The mechanics exist to do everything you're describing and to open up and encourage different strategies...the issue you moreso have is that most people don't want to spend hours doing one thing when they could spend one hour doing multiple things...so the speedier tactics seem to win the day when it comes to hard mode content, and as someone who leads them regularly and teaches people them constantly, I am in that camp. Leading these things is straight up exhausting, and doubling or tripling the amount of time I have to spend leading them is a prospect I dread lol The problem is moreso in how the power sets have been developed and how the proliferation via patron/epic pools impact that as well. As I said, you can basically do whatever you want. Just have to be creative with the team.

@Rudra is correct. Making the teams smaller would only further limit which ATs and powersets get brought. It's also worth pointing out that you can currently do any of the 4Star content any way you want, so long as you are hitting certain stat minimums regularly. I've seen teams of all Dominators complete 4Star ITF, all Masterminds complete Aeon and LGTF, and I know of one group that has done Barrierless runs of LGTF, Aeon, and ITF, and each with less than 10 deaths. The LGTF was 30:11 with only 1 death, the ASF was 52:54 with 4 deaths. The comp even includes a Dark Miasma Controller (because of Fade + debuffs). Also, the only deathless LGTF I am aware of was done with all Defenders. I've completed 4Star TFs with 6 people because of DCs, as well. It just largely depend on which roles DC lol. Honestly, if I have 6 Meta characters on the team, I can bring literally whatever for the last two slots and it would be exactly the same, just slower. That's really the only difference the added challenges give: It's slower. If you want to challenge yourself further in hard mode content, the means to do so are already there, you just have to dream up some crazy team comps. Happy to help you with defense/resist thresholds if you need! Proof of barrierless LGTF and Aeon is below, names blurred out for obvious reasons. The Widow was also the tank for both runs. If you want to do something different, no one is stopping you, just like no one stopped these teams 🙂

And then there’s me 🙂

At first, I thought it would be funny. Then, it turned into wanting to see how much survivability I could squeeze out from literally just set bonuses. Then, it just continued to be hilarious, and proved a lot of points about the meta conversation in 4Star content 😄 at this point he has tanked: Really Hard Way 4Star LGTF 4Star Aeon MoBAF MoTPN (was outside tank for Maelstrom) and I think he’s done more, I just can’t remember off the top of my head. :D

The mission ends (technically, the lab explodes, destroying everything inside) and your team continues on! You just exit the mission dead, which is convenient since the hospital is going to be near the Hami mission! It's a free 4Star Mission TP 😄

You can softcap, but as Psyonico said, you will have to make a LOT of sacrifices, basically neutering your damage output, which is the whole point of going Corruptor over Defender. Imo, it's best to aim for around 30% in either typed or positional defenses. At 30%, it just takes one small purple inspiration to softcap you for normal content, and 2 to softcap for incarnate content. This is the best compromise as it allows you to still include some meaningful damage, HP, recharge, and accuracy into your build while still remaining very survivable.

PVE - Archery-Tactical Arrow Blaster (Projector Version).mbd Unfortunately, as others will state as well, Archery is one of the lower DPS sets in the game, but Rain of Arrows -> Oil Slick Arrow + Explosive Blast is nothing to laugh at in terms of damage, and this will be your bread and butter for clearing mobs, which is why the build I'm attaching invests a lot in recharge. I've given you access to TP as well as Super Speed. TP is the most "OP" travel power, and by using a few keybinds, you can make it FAR easier to use. /bind KEY powexeclocation cursor teleport (this aims it wherever your cursor is on screen. You don't even have to aim the power manually. Just click this bind and it will auto fire toward your cursor) /bind KEY powexeclocation target teleport (Self-explanatory, but TPs you directly to your target, even around corners/without line of sight! /bind KEY powexeclocation self combat teleport (useful for combat teleporting in place for the to-hit buff without really interrupting your attack chain.) /bind key powexeclocation cursor combat teleport (same as the first one, but this is for really quick movement in a fight. Sometimes your animations may put you in a tough spot, and this can get you out immediately) I've made sure you have at least 30% on typed defenses, with the obvious exceptions of Psi, Toxic, and Negative Energy. One small purple insp will softcap all other typed defenses in normal content, and 2 will softcap it for incarnate content (iTrials, DA, anywhere all your level shifts apply, basically). I would normally make this a LOT more aggressive with less focus on survivability, but that's because I don't mind rolling with some inspirations to keep me going so I can maximize my damage in my builds. So, normally I wouldn't be using the winter sets and would be going with a lot more procs/HOs (so, more of the powers would look like Explosive Blast does). I don't know how much you play blasters, but as you get better with positioning and learn how to survive without as many toggles, you can spec out of Scorpion Shield and go for the Fire Mastery pool, which would give you Char and Melt Armor, which are both really strong powers and Melt Armor would give you access to some AoE debuff, too! For Incarnates, I went with Musculature Radial for the End Mod, but you can start with Musculature Core and switch to Radial if you are having endurance problems. I also gave you Assault Radial for the Hybrid since it will give you access to another free proc. If you take the time to get the health accolades, your HP will be just around 103 below the Blaster HP Cap, which means when those big hits do occasionally get through any def, you are much more likely to survive. Good luck to you!

What were the goals you had for the character and what were the outcomes you didn't like? The buff/debuff numbers will be better on a Defender than a Corruptor, but the damage output will be lower. On average, even when factoring in the increased buff/debuff strength that Defenders get, Corruptors will still out-damage them because of Scourge and higher base DPS numbers. So, if your goal is to be a hybrid of good damage and protecting the team, Corruptor would be the way to go. But I will also say that if I need to hard-carry a team from the support role, I'm bringing a Defender 100% of the time. If I get the sense that I won't be able to trust my team or that something is missing, I will whip out a Defender, especially if it's nature or Kin, because the heals are a lot stronger. My logic is: There's only so much I can do to kill tough enemies on my own, even if I'm playing a pure DPS role, but if I can keep my team alive for longer, they'll eventually find the right target, too, even if it's the last one remaining. I run into a lot of this in starred content, and I can tell you several runs where I've either played a Kin Defender or a Nature Defender because I knew the team was struggling, and there would have been no way we would have completed the runs successfully if I had brought my Corruptor versions of those characters. So, if your goal is to play more of a support role, Defender would be the way to go, imo. Your shields will all be stronger, you'll just do less damage.

Okay? My ask is that all armor sets grant it, not some. No specific reason to treat it any different from hold, stun, or sleep, imo, other than an arbitrary weak point.

I don't know if it's me, or if there was a change in one of the last major patch updates, but for the last several months it seems as though Tanks/Brutes get Terrified way more easily than they did before. I can't verify that's the case other than anecdotally, as it could be that I'm just playing content now where fear is a way more commonly used mechanic by enemy groups, but even if it's always been this way, my point doesn't change: Tankers should have fear protection. I don't really understand why the ATs that are supposed to be able to get into the action, take the brunt of the blows for their team, and stand on the front line, are just as easily scared by enemy attacks as the rest of the team they are trying to protect. I could understand it from the perspective of there being a threat so big/terrifying that even the Tanker gets scared sometimes, but then why do powers like "Increase Density" break them free? Suddenly I'm not as afraid of a giant Hamidon because I am more density is higher? Or Why can a random enemy fear me with Terrify, but not be able to put me to sleep with Mass Hypnosis if it's a they are both mental tricks? The logic isn't really consistent, and the mechanic doesn't really add any sort of appreciated difficulty for tanking, in my opinion, mostly it's just really annoying that there's a random form of mez that affects Tankers like it does everyone else and it feels disruptive in a way that is frustrating far more frustrating than it is interesting, because, again, why I am being feared feels entirely arbitrary and like it's just meant to give Melee armors a weakness just for the sake of having a weakness. Every time I've talked about this with other players who either main or have experience with melee toons seem to share this feeling. Especially since most mechanics that increase difficulty seem to exclusively punish melee range characters (which, unfortunately, seems to be a common trend in MMOs): Marauder's Nova Fist Anti-Matter's Atomic Blast Sentinel's white regen aura Avatar of Hamidon's end sapping Starred LGTF Rikti Assault Suit Neural Fields Starred ITF crystal explosions Starred Romulus Void Judgement Minds of Mayhem World of Anguish (While this one impacts the whole league, melee players specifically are unable to attack unless the AV is moved. You have a 7-second window between Anguish spawns to attack otherwise, while Ranged toons just move slightly to the side and can keep attacking for free.) To also have a form of cc that is all but guaranteed to affect melee characters of any armor set when they are supposed to be the ones that are able to resist cc in general just feels bad to play. (While we're at it, updating Plasma Shield to be on par with other mez resist toggles would be cool, too, but I'll take what I can get!) Can we please get some Fear protection in the Mezz protection toggles in the Melee sets at the same Mag protection level as other major forms of mez?

Happy to provide some clarification. It's going to be long, and I hope it's not taken as condescending or mean. I'm really trying to be thorough and clear in my explanation, and provide several examples to help that goal. I'm always down for the conversation and happy to engage :). With that said, I hope you brought your reading glasses! We begin our novel as thus: Yes, the bulk of survivability in team and league content comes from barriers and other destinies, and when it comes to league and team survivability, it's kind of a soup of buffs. Everyone firing their buffs helps the team. Yet this is not always a reliable thing. I run iTrials all the time where, in iTrials like MoM or UG, Clarion is an important Destiny to have, and I discover that no one has it. Or I have been in leagues where literally no one brought buffs or we only have a few healers, but no added defenses or other stats. It happens so commonly, it's a running joke now amongst friends how often I end up having to load in two accounts into a trial just to provide something the league is missing. I also lead a lot of 4Star content and run an open Discord where I help others learn how to approach hard mode content. There's a reason the strongest buff set requested in 4Star is Cold Domination--it gives defense buffs as well as debuffs. Literally 3 of them in a standard meta team. And you can absolutely feel a difference if so much as one or two of those Cold Dom players are not running Nerve Core Alpha for the increased defense buff--their shields really make a huge difference in the team's survivability, and that's with consistent Barrier rotations that keep the team above 125% Ranged Defense. Sometimes people miss a barrier or are late, or someone dies, rezzes, and needs buffs to stay alive until the next Barrier. Things like that are common. The buffer matters more than you think. And building for more individual survivability is not the answer to that problem, as it means you are likely sacrificing damage/recharge/max hp, which can make some fights impossible to complete. It's also true that you can accomplish 4Star runs with almost anything you want to bring, provided you meet certain stat minimums and have Lores. The further you get away from the stronger sets/powers, the longer the runs will take and the more difficult the fights will often be. Literally the difference between having 2-3 -heal debuffs OR not having a few -rech debuffs in the K'ong/Dra'Gon fight in LGTF is the difference between that fight taking less than 5 minutes or the fight taking almost all of the 25-minute timer you have to complete it. And trust me, one of those is WAY more stressful and difficult than the other. Needlessly so. There was a run recently where I was on the verge of tears from the stress and subsequent relief after leading through a 21-minute K'ong fight in which we did not have enough -rech and only one -heal. We were successful, which is great! But as a leader, I have a right to enjoy the content, too, which means I shouldn't have to subject myself to that level of stress every time I lead something just to make room for players who refuse to bring what will help the team succeed. I don't want that stress every time I lead a run, so yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with me asking for specific powersets/roles on a team. Just as there is nothing objectively wrong with a player building the way they want to build, there is also nothing wrong with other players wanting to do a faster/less stressful run through the content. If you had the choice between a 30-minute ITF with 15 deaths or a 90-minute ITF with 350 deaths (Immortal Recoveries cost ~1 mil, so that's an expensive run), which would you choose? Are you wrong for not preferring one versus the other, or are you wrong for not wanting to join a run in which the players prefer the option that you don't? I've been a part of both kinds of runs, and seen some 4star runs be as long as 3 hours with over 600 deaths. For the players that enjoy that, wonderful! That's never going to be me, and no one is wrong for either preference. Overall, I agree with your comments, I would expect the player to do the exact same as you would regarding kitting out their current build and when they would make a second build. In fact, I would bring OP on a 4Star run, but I would have to bring them as the 8th spot on the team once I have every other role and need solidified. Without shields, the thematic build provides almost no value to what a 4Star team needs aside from Heat Loss, Benumb, and Sleet. And btw, I'm not in any way trying to be mean about that, but I am being blunt, because knowing what I know after doing countless 4Star runs, there are several fights in which I would basically have to tell OP, "Only use Arcane Bolt, Flares, and Electric Fence/Shackles, please" and tell them to ignore 90% of their kit because it would actively cause problems in specific fights. It can also cause us to have to soft-reset certain missions (such as accidentally freeing a hostage before K'ong spawns). And resetting missions in TFs SUCKS because of a current bug where if everyone logs out, sometimes logging back in results in the team being literally split into 2 teams, forcing you to have to restart the whole TF. All that said, It's totally okay for OP to do whatever they want to do! I have never once said "don't do it." I've just tried to be honest about the potential outcomes they are worried about, and the reasons those outcomes exist. OP asked if they would encounter problems running a build in which they don't take key powers in the set. I am answering that yes, they likely will for certain content. Whether you or I think it's right or wrong for them to have those problems is irrelevant to OP's purposes. Also, no player is entitled to join a team that has a very particular goal in mind or is looking for a specific team composition. If I say I want to do an all Mastermind ITF, other ATs wouldn't be welcome by definition. If I want to do something in which I am looking for a source of additional defense buffs for the team, then players without those buffs wouldn't be welcome by definition. If I say I have one spot open for a Tank, a Blaster wouldn't be welcome by definition. To drive my point home: In my opinion, expecting a player to "have a full compliment of higher-end Enhancement set bonuses slotted" for MoX content is no different than a leader expecting a Cold Domination player to have ice/glacial shields for the same content. They both impact the potential for the run to be successful. I also don't know why the burden would be on any leader to accept someone on their team who isn't built properly for whatever is being attempted, and not on the player to build what is needed or preferred for that content? Why is it a tall ask only to ask players to bring a build that's relevant to the content, but not a tall ask for the leaders to accommodate that build when it could likely end up being a waste of time for the other 7 players on the team? It's an attitude I face quite frequently, and myself and many others who lead content regularly have either gotten burned out for periods of time or have had a hard time continuing to lead content because they are forced to either eat constant crap from players who are upset they can't come (for things as simple as the team already being full when they ask to join) or a much higher failure rate from trying to accommodate everyone who wants to come. After a while, that stuff does wear on you, thick skin or not, because it goes on for months and months. I see Hami leads get flamed all the time for the zone being full by the time that player tried to enter. Not even remotely the league leader's fault that the player was too late, but that disappointment and anger gets misplaced and put onto the leader. If I am going to take 30 minutes or an hour or however long to lead something, I would hope that the players that come would respect that time/effort enough to bring what is needed to do the content well. I would hope that the players that participate would want to do everything they could to make the run successful, and to be blunt, I'm not going to waste my time leading an MoLGTF, MoITF, 4Star LGTF, RHW, etc. that I have little reason to believe will be successful. I have RSIs in both arms, so it's actually really important for me to minimize how much I play and optimize how I spend that time playing. If players don't want to respect that, then that's okay, there are other teams and other leaders, and there is nothing stopping those players from leading a team themselves and approaching it whatever way they want to 🙂 I really don't think there is any bad guy here, nor do I think you're saying anyone is the bad guy. I don't think leaders are the bad guys for wanting to form their teams any specific way, nor do I think players like OP are the bad guys for wanting to build a certain way. They just have different goals for their playstyle, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is just a natural outcome of the choices both players made for how they are playing the game that day.

Hey, it's your build, your character, to play the way you want to play. Thanks for the context! I do want to be clear: I wasn't telling you that you shouldn't play cold dom, but was just trying to suggest an alternate route that may get you less friction in game, but I really think you won't encounter that friction super often (most will never look at your build or anything. I'm usually totally unaware of what powers my teammates have when I do just any random content). But yeah, I support people playing the game the way they want to play it as long as they are honest/upfront in dealing with the potential expectations their teams have. I think the main places you'll have problems is where those buffs matter: Master Of Task Forces/Trials in which deaths are not permitted, any hard mode content, etc. I lead a lot of hard mode and master of content and I can be honest with you in saying I would have reservations about having you on a coordinated team unless you had a second build that was more optimally-minded. Those shields provide a LOT of defense for the team. Again, I'm in full support of you playing the way you want to play, but I want to be honest about the opportunity cost with the decision, since that's what this thread is about. Looking at your build, and if it's okay with you, I wanted to throw a couple of suggestions slot-wise! If it's not okay, pretend the post ended 2 sentences ago. I tried very hard to not negatively impact your theme, though I apologize in advance if I suggest anything that bothers you. Again, not my intent, I just have to fight the "optimal build" part of my brain that would make a lot of changes. I want to help you accomplish your theme! 1. I would move the 2nd slot in Aim over to Tactics and give it a third Gaussian's set IO so that you can get the +max hp set bonus 2. Take the last two slots from Rune of Protection, move them to Arcane Bolt, and 6-slot it with Superior Winter's Bite for the Defense buffs 3. Swap the slotting from Sleet and Fire Ball. Sleet doesn't do a lot of damage period as its main highlight is the stacking debuff. Fire Ball, however, is incredible with procs. I would also put an Acc/Dam HO OR a +5 boosted Accuracy IO in one slot on any proc'd attacks as these do have a tohit check. Ragnarok works in Sleet just fine for the set bonuses and the flat damage will be better there, but you could also put Frozen Avalanche for the additional Defense. 3a. For Fire Ball I would do one Accuracy IO, Positron's Blast Proc, Bombardment Proc, Javelin's Volley Proc, and Annihilation -res Proc. 4. I do find it really ironic that you don't want to play this as a support, but you took Spirit Ward, which requires you to stay within a certain range of whoever you cast it on for it stay active, and Enflame, which is another targeted buff. You say you don't want to play support, yet took two support powers that are also objectively worse and harder to use than the ice shields. Take my suggestion here for what it's worth, but if you're going to go with support powers anyway, you may as well go with the best options that don't break the theme, which I personally think the shields fit as a form of defense/protection magic. You still get the runic symbol vfx with mystic flight, translocation, arcane bolt, and Rune of Protection. If you agree with me on this point, and if you remove the entire Leadership pool, and you would free up 4 power slots in the exact build you attached without changing anything else. That could get you access to Blaze, Blazing Bolt, Inferno, and Infrigidate (for a ice blast pew pew), 5. I'm not sure how intentional this was, but building for resistances isn't going to help as much with survivability as you might think since your max HP is low as a Corruptor. It would be overall wiser to build for Defenses, aiming for 30%, as then one small purple will softcap you in regular content. 6. Change Tough to 3 slotted with Aegis for the Fire/Cold Def 7. Switch from Electric Mastery to Mu Mastery to get Charged Armor immediately, and then get Electric Shackles, which is a better power than Electric Fence. Change the slotting on Charged Armor to be 3 Aegis + the Max HP proc from Unbreakable Guard 7. I would find a way to add one additional slot to Health for the Preventative Medicine Absorb proc and then add one more slot to Mystic Flight so you can do 3 of the Hypersonic set+1 KB Reduction from Zephyr 8. Put the Shield Wall +Res proc in one of the shield powers, and replace one of the Shield Walls in Arctic Fog for the Steadfast Protection +def proc I worry that you don't really do much damage, especially when up against single targets. Flares is the lower damaging fire blast power (though I understand the thematic reasons for taking it and I like it a lot). In a fight, I'm not entirely sure what role you functionally play. If you're not doing damage, you're playing a support toon, period. In this case, you do more support via debuffs and slows. So if you're goal was to distance yourself from playing a support role, I think you accidentally landed on playing another support toon, just one that interacts with the enemy more than your own team, and I worry this will be pretty frustrating for you long-term from a gameplay perspective. Missing Blazing Bolt, Blaze, and Inferno REALLY hurts, too. Still having a hard time accepting that one 😂 I have run out of time to make more suggestions, but I would definitely want to find a way to improve the S/L defenses, as it's only at 18% with all the suggested changes I made, versus fire/cold at 42% and E/NE at 25%. Again, I really hope you hear me as trying to be helpful, not critical. Anything I've been "critical" of has only been in the interest of speaking to your thread's original purpose--how the playerbase would react to such a build/theme. I'm not trying to tell you it's a bad idea to do it the way that you want, or that you shouldn't, but trying to suggest other options and ways of accomplishing the same goal that you have! If you're having fun and not ruining anyone else's fun, then no harm done and I'm happy you've found that!