InvaderStych

Unless something changed recently essentially no - they step on each other. Just use the one.

It's easy to bail on T9's since so many of them are anywhere from irrelevant to out-right bad. I built Kat/Rad/Soul originally for AV soloing, so I was looking for health/endurance tools, but when I saw the dmg bonus I was sold. To be fair, when I was rolling him I don't think I considered other armors anyway. Backstory and all that. Still, being able to get into the high 300% dmg bonus with BU, Gaussians, MD, Assault Hybrid Core T4 (85% when full), and assorted set bonuses before outside buffs or red skittles is very effective against AVs. Cue the "Lotta Damage" meme. 😄 Which kinda makes me want to circle back around and clean up his build, once I get back some free time to spend in game. Got very sidetracked by my Psi/SD for a long while, which is not something I'd recommend to everyone even though I have stupid amounts of shameless fun with mine. 😛

This. Not knocking this combo for other ATs, but I wouldn't roll this on anything but a Scrapper. Meltdown for scrappers has a higher damage bonus than Tanks/Brutes, so despite being "a Resist Set on a Scrapper" that one minor difference is actually huge. That higher bonus inside Meltdown on top of the higher base AT damage makes it more effective that it seems at a glance. GD gets a crit chance bonus on Scrappers, and while every AT can benefit from the combination of DA over a resist based armor, Scrappers are the only ones who can cycle Shadow Meld into the mix. Stalkers might get the same as above, I always forget as I don't run them much. But I have a hard time wrapping my brain around a radioactive stealth concept, so, yeah, Scrapper. 😄 <PS up> MD -> SM -> GZ -> RT -> LD -> and mop up the bosses. Rinse and Repeat. Very easy for it to go south fast against Incarnate Pantheon or Cims at high diffs and solo, but I mean really, at that point ... 🤣

Wait, there was a time Hemm was actually good? Wouldn't know. Skipped it on my Brute (first toon back at HC) and never looked back.

Savage/Shield on a scrapper. If I wasn't already running Psi/SD and Sav/SR on scrappers I'd probably build one. Using the +50% crit proc in Savage Leap is almost like a cheat code for crits. Scrapper Shield Charge is a revelation. You'll still get the occasional runner, even with AAO. Combat Teleport or an Epic blast makes short work of those. Fully built out you'd probably have Leap on about a 15s or less cooldown, which also makes short work of runners. Comprehensive Mez defenses, and decent DDR, even before double-stacking AD. Easy to soft-cap with moderate resistance underneath and a couple hundred extra HP as well. Yeah, Savage is all Lethal, blah, blah, blah, who cares. You won't notice the effects of the dmg type, unless you spent all your time hunting Council and Malta Bots. Drop FotG -Res in Leap along with the ATO proc, some dmg procs, and/or Acc/Dmg pieces and you're good to go. Downsides? End use from /SD during leveling can be brutal. Savage doesn't really get going until Leap, but it's still fun to play. My Psi/SD is sort of pigeon-holed into Energy Pool. Savage's endredux mechanic might counter that somewhat.

100% Thanks. Yeah, it would not have occurred to me to use them as a tap key. I can't remember why, but I associate those as modifier keys rather than a key that does something on its own. I'm still working out the ergos for me, but yeah I've been trying to setup a pattern and stick to it. I had been playing with laptop/mouse since I found HC last March, and as much as I love this laptop keyboard, accuracy in the <shift>-<ctrl>-<alt> corner still eludes my long, gangley hands. 🤣 Still on the laptop, but I found a sweet deal on a monitor over the holidays and treated myself. 🙂 Just about done changing the setup though, so I'll be using my old razer keyboard pretty soon. Should be easier to work out a pattern on that.

Mind a brief elaboration? For the toon I referenced in my post that you quoted I dropped the extra powers from the pool because theme, but I am curious to know more. On my other one I since moved to LeftDoubleClick because that's a much smoother UX than fumbling for the shift key. The reason I as though is because did notice some inconsistency with <shift>+mouse, but no way to tell if that was connectivity related or some other unrelated cause. I will say that the <shift>+WASD pattern works great, and I noticed that in your binds you are using <crtl> in a few places. Is that a better option than <shift>. FWIW, still working my way through your tech guide too, so I might find the answer there when I can circle back to it. Thanks for putting that together. Always appreciate the amount of work the community puts into sharing information on this game.

Wasn't this basically the reason that was cited during Live as to why Regen wasn't going to become (at the time, iirc the Devs were generally against the idea) a Tanker Primary? I do remember there being a bit of a row when Brutes got Regen and Tanks did not.

So ... The Motorcycle that some of the Thug MM pets show up riding when summoned? Please say yes, we can have that as an alternate appearance for some sort of travel (Super Speed, it's own P2W ala Ninja/Athletic Run..) 😉 I know, but it's fun to dream. 😄 Yes, I know that particular example is most likely in the "Not even remotely easy to port to PCs" category.

Savage Leap. I want to single this one out, while many folks already know the following it's worth placing in the Breakdown for those who might not. I certainly didn't think of it when I rolled a svg/wp brute as my first HC toon. When I revisited the set on a Scrapper it just clicked and I felt silly for not realizing it sooner. This is one of my favorite attacks in the game. So good. Lots of slotting info around the boards about how to proc it out. For scrappers though, this is an extra special opener. As with any proc-bomb, avoid slotting recharge for maximum impact. Savage Leap is in a sweet spot. It's base recharge is long enough to be right at the edge of the 90% chance to proc window, yet short enough that with global recharge it can be up about every 15s. Schools of thought vary, but I tend to prefer 1 acc/dmg piece and 5 procs. Many find they have enough +acc/+to-hit in their build to just go with 6 procs. Here's why that matters for Scrappers: The +50% Chance to Crit Proc from our AT set. Put that puppy in Savage Leap. Thank me later. 😄 For maximum fun, Leap from range to build Frenzy stacks, Crit Proc fires, then Rending Flurry at it's max radius with Critical Strikes active. Naturally this also works with Hemorrhage (which seems to crit properly in the latest issue), but I am still not certain that makes it worth keeping. Anyone want to make the case for Hem on a Scrapper? Yes, you will lose a couple of % of chance to fire as that enhancement does include a little recharge, but it's not enough to really be an issue. Also, any recharge from an Alpha slot will also reduce a Proc's chance to fire (counts as recharge enhancement). NOTE: Eventually this may completely change when Procs are revised by the HC team. No one knows how that will be implemented nor when it will start, so enjoy!

Yup, totally correct and thanks for adding that important bit. LBE will crit, Procs don't. If you watch logs they apply their damage as its own event. My Kat/Rad uses both of those as well. Soul Mastery is such an awesome fit with /Rad. I toyed with the idea of going that route with Psi/SD but the build as it is is pretty endurance heavy. She can run without hitting Conserve Power for quite a while, but if she's cranking at full steam for 7-10 minutes or so (straight, no pauses) then the other tools can't keep up and she needs the bump. Live build still needs (maybe, those damn hold procs are really tough to give up, lol) to move a slot or two around and is only about 2/3 done dropping boosters on everything relevant, so end use/recovery will improve slightly once that's done. Not sure she can drop the Energy pool. Especially with all of the BAMF!ing around she does with CT. 😉 Meld might be interesting on /SD as a way to blast past the iCap with some nice extra headroom for inevitable debuffs, but it kinda feels like a hat on a hat. 😄

I actually like all of the animations, the giant fist of TKB makes me giggle every time. When I first played the set I thought it might be cool to have alternate animations so one could have all fists or all blades - but then that steps all over the set having different supplemental dmg types (lethal vs. smashing) - which is actually sort of useful to keep. The set looks awesome in purple, but I wanted to shy away from the whole Psylocke thing as much as I could while still rolling Psi/SD as a female toon - so I went orange. Which also looks awesome. Really, there's no bad color tint for Psi Melee. And yeah, I get a "cool factor" vibe from LBE that the other epic blasts just can't match. 🤣

Agreed. It took me a while to get used to pressing buttons more slowly on my Psi/SD scrapper than I did on say my Svg/WP Brute or my Kat/Rad scrapper (my other 50+X toons). First off though, I have to admit that I have come around on Psi Blade Sweep. Especially in the Post-Combat-Teleport game and with the boosted aggro/threat from two Hybrid slots she carries (Assault for teams, Melee if I think I need the extra +def/regen ... usually to get closer to iCap positional defense. It's got a short/wide cone that is pretty easy to clump targets within. Slotted up, inside build-up, and with a crit or two the damage is actually pretty good. Also, PBS is an interesting place for the Crit Proc, but I moved it. I do run FotG -Res in there. I know it will proc more on more targets in ML, but ML is not ideal for a ST chain against an AV/GM, which is when consistent reapplications of -Res is really needed. Since writing that out I leaned more into concept/aesthetics (and a gimick that I'll explain below) than into pure numeric performance. So, my current live build drops TKB, and runs PBS and Laser Beam Eyes instead. I know... Laser Beam Eyes???? .... No, I don't "Have The Brain Worms," and I fully acknowledge that admitting to using LBE at all pretty much nukes any shred of credibility I might of had around these parts, but here's why I did it: 1. Achilles -Res. Full Stop. LBE without recharge slotting is a very reliable proc-bomb. Psi Melee needs some source of -Res to really shine. Yes, fewer mobs resist it than is generally believed, but the resistances can be very high where they occur. Most bots (except Neuron's Clockwork, Anti-Matter's Clockwork, IDF Bots, which all have 0%) have in the 50-60% range. Seers have 30%, Nightstar and Siege have 70% psi resist. I expected to see tons of psi resistance in Dark Astoria, but mostly it seems just the Psionic BP carry it. There are fewer "zombies" there than I thought (also resistant to psi). 2. Stacking Mags on Holds to Leverage GPB's massive hold duration when Insight is up. GPB is a mag 3 hold, and iirc inside of Insight it has a whopping (see snip) duration. I added the Devastation %Hold (2 PPM Mag 3) to LBE, and the %Hold from the superior (4 PPM, Mag 3) winter melee set (name escapes me atm) to the T2 Blade. It's hilarious to watch a scrapper hold an AV. ML's hold looks like a stun, Winter's hold looks like an ice block, and LBE's hold looks like Electric Cages. It's hilarious, and every time I think about making a chance to trade the reliable hold for more DPS I can't quite bring myself to do it. The first number is the base duration. The second is inside Insight. I cannot recall atm if they are additive or replace each other. I want to say additive but I could be very wrong. 3. Access to another Epic Set/Proc (Ranged), and the little -Def doesn't hurt either. 4. Even with Combat Teleport, an aggro aura in /SD, and a second in Hybrid I STILL get runners going from one end of a map to the other. Chasing them down is my least favorite CoX mini-game, so I like having something ranged to pick them off with, and IDK if I can run this build without CP and PP from Energy Mastery. __________________________________ Now ... having said all that, I do have a build in theorycraft that drops LBE (keeps the pool) and reclaims TKB. I haven't committed to the change yet. I know the ST chain on that would be more effective. This build would also have better defensive balance. 50/45/45 which plugs a hole in ranged def from which my live build suffers. She's over-cap on melee for the Post-50 game. Psi Melee doesn't exemplar well at all. It's just not that fun of a set before GPB and ML, so no point in an exemp friendly build, imo. Fully slotted TKB does around the same damage as a 4-5 Proc LBE, if I was using mids right. My LBE is -Res, %Hold, EpicDmgProc, PVPDmgProc, and a couple other pieces I forget which. So, less damage to be sure, but much more utility. I have a hard time believing that the hold stacks are really all that useful compared to outright damage, and yet I have no idea how to make that assessment in survivability terms. Still though, I *highly* recommend Psi/SD. With Mighty Judgement, the KnockUp Branch. 3 AoE KU powers to cycle is both a riot to watch and some sweet soft control.

"... and as our final order of business, just a brief progress report demonstrating that our plan to create strife between the Ducks and Geese is progressing apace ..." - overheard at recent Owluminati meeting

This. Of course now there are a couple. But when I read the OP I instantly thought of Local Man from back in the Before Times. Not someone that I knew, just a name from the forums that I'll always remember for basically winning the Word-Play-In-Toon-Names Championship. Anyone seen them around HC?

Combat Teleport. The power so cool I decided to finally "Lrn2Kybnd" in a video game. 😄 To be fair, most of what I am working with I've either copied or adapted from (mostly) the beta feedback thread or (rarely) searching and modifying older TP macros. But first ... I thought this at first too, but when I discovered I could disable the Automatic Field of View in options, and that totally changed vertical mobility options. Depending on the one's setup I'd highly recommend giving this a try, in combination with your favorite "Click to Land Here" bind/macro. I recently treated myself to a monitor for the laptop, and the combination in changing screen size, FoV, and gfx quality (lower overall pixel count on the external monitor) was mind-blowing. This won't be helpful everywhere (cave maps), but it is fantastic for dragging the last of a spawn to the one on the mezzanine above you on office or base maps. Great for breaking LoS too. Take some practice, but it makes for interesting directional/elevation changes when running across a zone too. Mine are a bit of a mess, but coming together. Ultimately I'll figure out how to consolidate what works into file of default CT binds, but no rush, lol. At first I made a button for targeted Bamf! and placed it next to the CT icon in an inconvenient pair of tray slots, then mapped their 2nd button choices to Mouse 4 and 5 (thumb buttons on my mouse). m4 was the targeted version, and 5 was the "white rings on the ground" version. I since discovered the lshift+lbutton one below so m5 is going become something else. I like my goofy little gray button that says "Bamf!" on it, even though using /bind button4 powexec_name combat teleport is cleaner. So mine looks like: /macro Bamf! "powexec_location target Combat Teleport" The "Click to Port Here" I use is pretty simple: /bind lshift+lbutton powexecname Combat Teleport (Credit to @DoctorDitko ) On one alt where I went "all in" on the pool I fiddled with extending that to a full set: /bind lalt+lbutton powexecname Teleport Target /bind lcontrol+lbutton powexecname Fold Space Which basically lands the target(s) where I happen to click. I bet there is a more elegant way to do that, with using _location targeted to yourself or something. Still learning here. One set I collected from various posts in the beta thread is this: (Credit to @ABlueThingy) /bind lshift+w powexec_location forward:35 combat teleport /bind lshift+d powexec_location right:35 combat teleport /bind lshift+a powexec_location left:35 combat teleport /bind lshift+s powexec_location back:35 combat teleport[/quote] Which is where I settled so far among all of the options like [code]camera:max . I might adjust the numbers if I get really bored, but those work nicely for now. There are some interesting tricks a few folks noted for example: being able to port a short distance at a keystroke (usually back) gives a boost (distance increases dmg) to Savage Leap. (Credit to @glycerine102, and I think @Hew for that one). I've been using CT to lead NPCs out of maps and they seem to sprint to keep up without loosing track of where I am. This could be pure coincidence, who knows, has been interestingly effective though. If you have a delayed damage power (Like Mass Levitate) and are fast, you can wipe out a group of carnies with it, and port away before their end-drain triggers. I don't think it's fast enough without the delay though. It will be interesting to try out as an escape from some of the "continue to stand here and you will die" mechanics. Might need to adjust the shift-direction distances though. Edit: I forgot to mention: CT works on NPCs, including pedestrians and contacts. Target Castle, port to Castle. Etc. It will also port you to a team-mate, but not that team-mate's target. Something most will figure out, but just in case ... 😄 What other interesting tricks have people found?

This, but not just "Martial Arts/Kinetics," as fun as that would be. I want an actual melee based force-multiplier. Start with Scrapper AT powers against Corr econdary powers. Primary = attack/debuff. Secondary = armor/buff. Then combine them thematically, pulling from elsewhere as needed. So mixing Fire Melee/Armor with Thermal; Dark with Dark, Radiation with Radiation, etc. Keep mez defenses, combine shields with reduced strengths (less comprehensive protection in most cases), mix in things like Accel Metabolism and whatnot.... ..Darkest Night instead of one of the DA toggles .... etc, etc ... There might be some duplication, Kin makes sense with SR, but also Kin melee, (duh) but also MA. Maybe some sets don't get ported, like weapons - which is sort of limiting, but what would one match them with?

Ran the blueside (20-29) arc solo so I could indulge in some reading and map exploring which was ... ... difficult on a /SR scrapper at lvl 20 - without the AoE def toggle, oooof, I probably could have waited a few levels ... ... but it was also a ton of fun. Nice to see new ideas in play with mobs and maps; many great moments in the npc dialog. I can see running this one in-level fairly often as various toons come and go.

Leveling with SOs and the shiny upgrade button has been an interesting change of pace. Nice to skip the time spent figuring out which attuned IOs I want to franken-slot with, or trying to to figure out a build from scratch and collecting those as I level. The minimal thought/maintenance time required, and that it can be SOs from the get-go makes the % bump from keeping them green finally worth doing. You'll want some amount of seed money if your plan is to level with SOs and use the upgrade button with any sort of frequency. In the early 20s it's costing +/- 1mil to upgrade all SOs. Since I've been running with the 2x XP (no inf) setting I can't speak to affordability with normal inf gain. Not really sure I would bother with it for anything less than SOs at this point. Would I go back to using common IOs to "slot-it-and-forget-it?" Maybe. Chances are it's more influence efficient to do that anyway, but at the moment I'm digging the minimal effort while mostly-casually leveling something.

@Galaxy Brain I might have missed it someplace in the thread, but are the testers sharing the chains/powers in use for testing? Curious if Savage melee includes using Hemm?

Love it. I'd forgo KB/KD protection for a functional "KB/KD to immediate Kip-Up" IO or power on many toons just for the fun of it.

You are correct, Savage's "Build-Up" power refreshes 5 stacks and disengages the lock-out. Psi "BU" should do the same, remove the lockout and grant Insight. Insight should add either +Acc or +To-Hit as missing with ML or GPB is very costly in terms of dps, and while Psi Melee has common base accuracy (no weapon set buff, for example) it also feels like it misses more often than it should as each miss is sorely .... uh ... missed. Boggle's cottage should be burned to the ground. There's no other source of Confuse in the set with which to stack it, and the short duration renders it worthless. If it is to remain a single-target control then it should at least be a Hold that can stack against the Hold in GPB. Even better would be a "Siphon Life" style power, single target, minor heal when it hits. (Psychic Siphon?) That would actually be, you know, useful. If it is to be a Confuse, then it should be a medium radius toggle with a base target cap of 10 for most ATs, maybe with a mag level that only affects minions or maybe Lts with a weakness against controls. This would actually be incredibly useful, unique, and not entire razing of the proverbial "cottage." Seeing it go the same route as Touch of Fear in i27p1 beta (limited T-AoE where the control only affects the target) would be just as terrible* as it is currently. Make Boggle a Toggle. It even has a nice alliteration to it. * = Edit: Status of ToF Beta may have changed between when I last read patch notes and when I wrote this post. Last I checked though it wasn't in a good place and was under review.

Let scrappers have critical hits within their secondaries; Ground Zero and Shield Charge ... I'm looking at you. Okay, maybe not so subtle ....

I'm always looking for ways around such things because I really enjoy the weapon sets on Scrappers/Brutes - which means mostly smashing and lethal damage. Count Savage in the Lethal Damage camp as well. There might be some Smashing in there, can't recall. Claws, for example, can slot all 3 -Res procs. How those fit into the good chains on claws I couldn't say, but it's something that makes me want to roll one. FotG is available at lvl 7, the other two at lvl 17. So not just an endgame thing either. I wish I could find a good way to slot the third one on my Kat/Rad, but stacking 2 of them happens often enough to be very useful. Damage from the secondary is another good option; /Fire, /Dark, /Rad, /Elec, etc ... Not /Ice though because it's aura is just more lethal dmg. I suppose /Bio has -Res in an aura, but it doesn't look very strong. I've been running an analyzer on my Psi/SD to explore foe resistances a bit - turns out the "OMG Too Much Resistance to Psi to be useful" thing that people have against the set is a bit hyperbolic. It's out there, but sometimes not where you'd expect. Praetorian Clockwork (AM's, Neurons, and the ones that roll with IDF groups), for example, have none. IDF Soldiers (Lts and higher, maybe minions, can't remember during coffee) had 30% when I scanned them, but they had 30% to everything so I suspect there was a bubble-pet on the field. Council bots resist it, as expected, but they crumble against smashing. Wolves resist everything pretty equally, and vamps seem to be vulnerable to psi - I'd have to scan one. CoT "Ghosts" are definitely weak against Psi. Seers resist it, naturally, and that can be problematic, but they fall to smashing/lethal as well as anything else. So, even before accounting for Interface and Assault Radial (Energy dmg), there lots of ways to mitigate the whole resistance thing. Considering that most builds that can slot -Res probably should, I don't see it as losing slots against other sets that "might not have to slot that way." Or ... you know what I mean, lol. Coffee; more is required. A lot of times, on a Scrapper, the Big Orange Number effect is enough to overwhelm the typed resistance anyway, outside of Hard Targets. Claws though, 3 chances to stack -Res against a Hard Target ... Hmm ... BRB, time to think of a reason to roll Claws/Something. 😄

Alternatively, it's an opportunity to start a character from scratch with that exact path in mind, and eventually leveraging the ability to switch between Life/Afterlife builds on the fly. When I read the concept, it never even occurred to me that I'd be using an existing 50 to run the path. Doesn't fit their original design, but I know not everyone approaches their characters the same, so YMMV. In a practical sense, it would probably make more sense to use the "multiple builds" function than have two separate toons at the character creator. Easier to implement the lvl 50 unlock that switches back and forth that way. There might be some issue with that approach, like a couple I can think of: It might not be possible to setup an A/B set of the 3 builds each. There may not be a way to invoke the AT selection screen via command similar to /respec; ie there might not be a way to be a Tanker in Life and a Defender in death. Code limitations might mean you're stuck with two different power sets of the same AT. Of course, I like the narrative idea enough that a technical limitation like that wouldn't bother me much. Something about reaching for victory after a seemingly ultimate defeat speaks to me these days. So basically, finish the instigating arc, dying in defeat, Personal Story Mission & or Cut Scene, invoke either AT or Powers selection screen whichever is technically possible, all previous builds and costumes are temporarily unavailable until finishing out the lvl 50 arc and finally being victorious in a version of the original objective in the first place. Power takes on a "Forms" button that swaps between A/B build and costume sets..