nihilii

I feel you, OP. Oh, I feel you. To add insult to injury, /bio has a taunt aura (always a prized possession on scrappers). I'm not even sure I have any scrapper that isn't /bio anymore. Titan Weapons I find easy not to overplay, because Momentum is annoying enough to urge you to branch out. But /bio? It's a secondary, these tend to be in the background anyway compared to our more flashy attacks. And it does everything (important). And then some. It's almost painful to roll a new alt and know the best answer is /bio. I'll pick something else perhaps 50% of the time, for flavor. Telling myself "oh I'm still shooting for performance, but going for a different sort of performance with capped DDR and defense", and so on. But in truth it is just flavor. At least it's ugly. If /bio gets a proper minimal FX option, it'll be tough to justify any kind of diversity in my roster.

^ while true, it's worth considering Tactics and Kismet gets you most of the way. Fire Blast -> Char/Dominate -> Blaze -> Fire Blast -> Char/Dominate -> Blazing Bolt deals astounding ST damage, very close to what Blasters can put out at range. Another thought: the +damage Dom ATO does so much for ST attack chains. It's a reliable double stack, +43% if I'm not mistaken. That's like having a second T4 Musculature Alpha. Combos using this ATO as part of their optimal attack chain are advantaged. This makes Fire/ and Mind/ uniquely suited to fill gaps in any secondary, thanks to their fast-animating hold. But beyond that, I think just about any Dominator should be able to solo most AVs, if built for it. The various Dom buffs over the years, including the recent one, plus the inclusion of fast snipes... It's just that good. Especially with Sleet as an epic choice! Access to one of the best -res powers on an AT with high base damage works wonders.

I like Fire, Psi and Elec. Psi - live and die by it on my Sentinels geared for DPS. Procced out Dominate and Mind Probe fit nicely to enable the highest DPS chains available to Sents. Psi Shockwave has great stats (20s rech, 15' radius). Mass Hyp has great situational use. Even Link Minds can be good. Fire - Cremate is a solid, fast recharging melee attack for Sents who want to go that route. FSC dishes out decent damage (wish it was 15' and not 10' though). Fire Cages can greatly boost survivability (range is truly defense on an armor AT with blasts). Warmth might help certain builds, and frankly it's fun to heal on a Sentinel (incidentally, the one Sentinel I use the /fire epic on is my fire/SR). Elec - damage aura !!

I see no reason to play a Brute and little reason to play a Scrapper with the Tanker changes. Not to say Tankers are OP. I happen to enjoy wider radius AoEs more than a lot of things. Tanker survivability is nice, instead of pushing for more I consider my builds freed of that need. And Tanker damage is now adequate. Tankers now fill a specific niche. Great changes.

Sorry if this sounded offensive. My angle is more of a "you're better than that" than "you're Hitler/Stalin". FYI, I'm not even american/anglo. I'm just a guy who read many of your other posts and think you've got good things to bring to this community.

I wish they went that route. Within the LRSF, could have had her power up between mission 4 and mission 5, even. Badass in chief instead of damsel in distress. 😉

That's his backstory in the cancelled NCSoft MOBA, anyway: https://masterxmaster.gamepedia.com/Statesman

If you follow all the stories, in the overall context of the game Statesman is portrayed as a flawed/troubled character more than good and heroic. A lot of the NPCs praise his deeds and look at him as an icon, yes. As it should be - people respect power, and retrofit virtue when it suits the narrative. Compared to a normal human he's not merely the avatar of a god... He *is* a god. And much closer to the god that smites you with storm than whatever god our mostly godless "Thou Shall Not Offend" modern world might conjure! Even most supers aren't close to his power level. So there's room for admiration and resentment, worship and jealousy... The whole City of Sidekicks complaint was always dumb IMHO, the game gives you agency to do what you want for the most part. Arrest thugs with extreme prejudice if that's your thing, or flip the finger to all your contacts and go hunting in the Shadow Shard. It's not like players were ever forced to do specific content tied to the Freedom Phalanx, but somehow some people expect everything be tailored to their very own power fantasy. Sidenote, from this post and others I feel you're projecting a lot of "2020 Social Justice" into your posts and man, you've got to lay off that stuff. It's nothing but poison for the mind, outrage culture refined from the clickbait of previous years. Sister Psyche's body snatching pales in comparison to cynical capitalists stealing minds by the millions, feeding them a steady diet of fake values and empty causes all for the sake of making more money. There's nothing good that comes from letting others convince you to shut out information because it's "problematic".

I find it easier to justify dated technology in the Paragon universe. Technology arises from need, so the (visible) existence of supers since the 1900s justifies a world that looks somewhat like ours but may be less or more advanced in different areas. A world with supers is likely less free than ours by nature, which reduces the serendipity behind many innovations (especially of the late 20th century/early 21th century).

I was about to suggest going Blaze -> Dominate -> Fireball -> Blaze -> MP -> Flares, but I guess using BB does more damage than Flares + FB now that the DoT is fixed. Still, there's the gap. You could see some results from 5-slotting the Arma set in Inferno and completing it with the Fury of Gladiator proc. This turns it into a worthwhile power to use on a single target, not only for the frontloaded damage but for near guaranteed -res. It looks like you've got all your ducks in a row and it's tough to see what to improve. Longbow is the best -regen pet (AFAIK) due to their high damage -500% regen laser. Edit: but perhaps Blaze -> Dom -> MP -> Blaze -> BB -> Fireball might outdamage Blaze -> Dom -> MP -> Blaze -> BB (gap)? Even at the height of Ageless, that gap is a good half second. After the first 10 seconds, throwing a Fireball might be worth a ~0.2s delay on the next Blaze. I can't do the math. But if that proves worthwhile and if you don't care too much about the end clickie and/or Retsu, you could drop one of the two, grab Maneuvers, switch an Unbreakable set for Aegis (getting that AoE back to 45%), then change the Fireball sets to 5-piece Posi Blast (damage proc) + Annihiliation -res proc. Edit 2: now you got me into this, so I jumped on Test and respecced my fire/rad to give either option a go against Pylons. Build used Copying Live characters sure makes things more convenient. Unfortunately, I run with amplifiers all the time so this kinda skews the numbers compared to other data. But, strictly within the same character, it shouldn't be so bad. The worst offender in this context is the +15% recharge from Offense Amplifier. I didn't activate Hybrid on any of the runs. I popped Aim + Inferno whenever available (generally, Blaze -> Dominate as Aim is about to recharge, followed by Blaze -> Inferno and then resume the normal rotation starting from Blaze). In the gap chain, Aim nudged nicely in the gap after BB. Blaze -> Mind Probe -> Dominate -> Blaze -> Blazing Bolt -> Fireball 2:52 = 350 DPS 2:40 = 367 DPS Blaze -> Mind Probe -> Dominate -> Blaze -> Blazing Bolt (gap) 3:00 = 340 DPS 2:49 = 354 DPS And for control, my usual chain of Blaze -> Dominate -> Fireball -> Blaze -> Mind Probe -> Flares (but again, to take with a grain of salt in general purpose comparisons as the Amplifier help likely helps make it gapless) 2:40 = 367 DPS 2:32 = 380 DPS It all feels pretty close, to the extent the only possible conclusions to me are "user error could account for small differences in either direction" and "more testing is warranted"... if not "it's probably all a wash in the less optimal conditions of real gameplay". Well, possible extra considerations might be: - adding Fireball with Annihilation makes for some extra -res which can 1) help teammates and Lore pets 2) clean trash mobs as you work on bosses - skipping BB removes the need to manage kb/repel on your target. On the flipside, kb/repel can be extra mitigation - having Flares in the chain gives natural Opportunity triggers, as opposed to having to insert it. Probably not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, more a convenience thing

I'm on the "best Sentinel secondary" camp. 1) Rebuild DNA With Rebuild DNA, you get the two /nin clicks (end and heal) in just one fast activation power. Unlike DNA Siphon, you don't need mobs, making for a reliable effect on demand. Fully slotted, it's a 60% heal and 50% end up every 25-30 seconds. 2) Athletic Regulation If you enjoy movement, this is the real gem of the set. While in Offensive Adaptation, Athletic Regulation gives you a massive unsuppressed movement boost. You will run at base Super Speed levels; or fly, in hover, at Fly speed, if taking to the skies is more your thing. This unparalleled mobility makes Sentinel /bio unique amongst all CoH powersets. Even /kins have to recast IR and Siphon Speed. 3) Genomic Evolution Extra resistance to all, as a passive? Yes please and thank you. It might not be much, but it fits the overall design better than a damage aura. Then you've got small changes like Parasitic Leech (instead of aura) being a cone and hitting less targets, and of course Sentinels having lower % on armor values. Overall, Sentinel /bio is condition agnostic. It boosts your damage and your mobility, and lets you sit at range or jump in melee. When it comes to performance, there's little reason to dislike the secondary in particular (unless one dislikes Sentinels in general).

I think even a madman would struggle to disagree with your suggestion.

My strategy for LR goes like this: - make sure I'm softcapped to his attacks. Takes about ~80% to ~90% defense while the blue? tower is up, so if your build has ~20% to ~30% def through other means, that's a couple tier2 ou tier3 lucks which you can buy from the market for relatively cheap. Fill your tray with that, and you've got 7 to 10 minutes of tanking LR - fly (use a temp jetpack if you don't have fly). This reduces his damage significantly, range is a defense... and it avoids AoE splashing Lore pets - attack the repairmen aggressively. It's critical to defeat them as soon as they spawn, damaging the tower can wait as it doesn't regen. This means avoiding long animations, and not being too sure of your own AoEs; the 5% chance to miss is bound to happen and it will suck when it does, so it's important to have a backup "plan"/attack and stick to fast animations. They con grey anyway so your weakest damage power will kill them - Ageless Incarnate. Period. It's tempting to go Barrier or Rebirth to tank Recluse, but the biggest problem is his end drain. It's best not to try to be cute, play it safe defensively with inspirations and keep that end bar topped up with Ageless My fire/rad sentinel has soloed the STF several times like this: YouTube compression absolutely nukes the quality, but if you squint hard enough... I don't exactly remember how it went but I think it technically respects master rules (no deaths, no temps). But, I also cheese several exits with enterfrompasscode... You will also see I make many mistakes (sooo many mistakes), so don't be discouraged! There's leeway to be had. Ultimate insps, team insps (*I* didn't even know they worked on pets 😄 ), mailing yourself insps, using the Echo of Positron power from P2W.

I think that'd be a pretty large hit on performance (at least for me). Right now, you can slot Gaussian's Chance for Build Up in Power Siphon and get BU for the first few seconds while you build your stacks, then you've got your stacks so it's more or less like proper BU. On high recharge builds and using Concentrated Strike, Power Siphon is up pretty often too. More often than not. So a >50% nerf (and likely even >40% or >30%) in damage per stack would be a negative. I'm sold on your previous ideas. I feel it would solve (most of) the stack problem for players who enjoy using the longer animating powers and/or may not be as twitchy. Also a great idea.

Hear, hear. If anything, it'd be great to see the mechanic expanded. Think "incarnate hunters" with autohit, unresistable damage against incarnates.

SR/Rad Tanker, running Devastating Blow -> Radiation Siphon -> Radioactive Smash -> Contaminated Strike Musc T3, Degen T3, Ageless T4, Assault T3 (hybrid active) 3 damage procs in Smash Heca proc + 3 damage procs in Siphon Arma proc + 2 damage procs + Achilles Heel + Fury of the Gladiator in Irradiated Ground 4:45 = 262 DPS 3:37 = 304 DPS 4:55 = 257 DPS SD/Rad Tanker, running same attack chain Musc T3, Degen T3, Assault T3 (hybrid active) Heca proc + Achilles Heel in Deva Arma proc + Fury of the Gladiator in IG 1 damage proc in CS 6:48 = 221 DPS 6:28 = 226 DPS 6:48 = 221 DPS SD/Rad Tanker, same attack chain Musc T3, Degen T3, Ageless T4, Assault T4 (hybrid active) Heca proc + 1 damage proc in Deva 3 damage procs in Smash and Siphon Arma proc + 1 damage proc + Achilles + Fury in IG 4:13 = 279 DPS 4:44 = 262 DPS 4:10 = 281 DPS SD/Rad tanker, running Gloom -> Deva -> CS -> Gloom -> Smash -> Siphon Musc T3, Degen T3, Ageless T4, Assault T4 (hybrid active) Apoc proc + 1 damage proc in Gloom Heca proc + 1 damage proc in Deva 3 damage procs in Smash and Siphon Arma proc + 1 damage proc + Achilles + Fury in IG 3:59 = 288 DPS 2:31 = 381 DPS 3:15 = 324 DPS So that was a fun little journey. Strong variance with Rad Melee it seems. In the 381 DPS run, I even got knocked on my butt from forgetting Active Defense. You'd think Tankers would see stable performance: no survivability concern, no pets dying, no crits so no "harsh" misses. Granted, I use hybrid and haven't done that many runs, but I don't think I've ever witnessed that level of contrast on any of my other characters. I was hoping to do this without Gloom, but it's still one of the best DPA Tankers can get, despite the Tanker buff specifically dodging epic ranged attacks. Hard to say no to the DPS boost *and* the utility provided by a ranged attack.

Unfortunately, CS' description is misleading: the chance to recharge Power Siphon is not a proper crit, so the scrapper ATO doesn't help that chance at all.

My pet peeve with KM has always been Quick Strike 0.70 KB (which sends blue con enemies flying, meaning level 50s once you're levelshifted). I like your idea to extend time before stacks decay. I always hit the 5 stacks, but I also make it a point to spam the faster moves. KM design shoehorns you into this rapid-fire playstyle if you want top performance, which leaves half of the powerset underused. Repulsing Torrent, Focused Burst, even Burst and Concentrated Strike to an extent. Many highlevel builds even skip CS on purpose. Skipping the T9 in a melee powerset is unheard of in just about every other melee powerset, save for Martial Arts and Dual Blades... and those aren't exactly contenders for top performers. A Power Siphon stack should probably last 20 seconds instead of the current 10 seconds.

Even though I'm not sure I'd use it myself, I have a feeling this would be a high impact choice.

Fire/Fire/Ice Dominator, running Fire Blast -> Char -> Blaze -> Fire Blast -> Char -> Blazing Bolt (In practice, actually FB Char Blaze BB -> FB Char Blaze -> FB Char BB. Reseting the chain for this extra BB should give slightly more damage whenever Sleet, Ageless, Domination, Embrace of Fire or Hasten are used) Musc T3, Degen T3, Ageless T4, Assault T3 (hybrid inactive) Apoc proc + damage proc in Fire Blast Unbreakable Constraint proc + 2 damage procs + Ascendendy of the Dominator proc in Char Decimation proc + damage proc in Blaze 2 damage procs in Blazing Bolt Achilles' Heel + Annihilation -res procs in Sleet 1:48 = 482 DPS 1:27 = 568 DPS 2:13 = 416 DPS Kinda goes all over the place, as this character is gasping for breath even through Ageless and Domination. Ice epic also means no resistance, so 2 pylons hits without healing = death (she's softcapped to S/L, so I don't actually use insps, but every now and then I just die). As for setup, I summon fire imps beforehand and at range before starting the timer. No prebuilding permaDom (I get sloppy and lose it in actual gameplay, so it makes sense to approach pylons the same way). - @Sovera - I'll be sure to run at least once without activating Hybrid once I get to T4 Musc and Hybrid (for the passive boost). That early run might have been a fluke though, as I hit 302 DPS later with Musculature T3, Hybrid T3, Ageless T4 and no endurance/recharge problems.

Kinetic Melee's Quick Strike does 0.70 magnitude KB for some reason (instead of the standard 0.67 for all KD powers), which turns into KB againt -1s. It's especially annoying once you get your level shift. Level 50 mobs start to fly everywhere.

Came to this realisation playing my SD/rad Tanker. Atom Smasher now recharges in a fourth of the time, deals 72% of the damage, affects the same amount of targets and has the same radius. Wow, the tanker buff is good. I can't complain! It's so good it leads you to rethink past wisdoms. I'm now considering whether I should drop SC to make room for OwtS (can't fit both). Such a thought would have been heresy, in the past. Although, it is nice having the extra oomph of Build Up + Shield Charge for an alpha strike. Edit: scratch the radius part, Shield Charge is still much wider. Does it benefit from the radius boost? I could swear it was only 15 feet before (but I'm probably wrong).

Definitely worth it. You can slot both -res procs in your single target attacks, and combined with Bio armor -res aura, become a force multiplier for your team. Other combos can do the same, but few can pull it off with as much style as katana.

I'd rank it 1) Stalker 2) Tanker 3) Scrapper 4) Brute Rationale: - Stalkers do the most damage thanks to Assassin's Blades. Getting Build Up instead of Blinding Feint gives them great burst ability. Perhaps the one point of contention would be their lack of a big, meaty hitter to start the fight with a guaranteed crit, but if you're not against epic attacks, you can fill that hole with the snipes in either Mu or Soul mastery. - Tankers got a lot of utility out of the recent buff. Sweeping Strike hits 10 targets rather than 5, One Thousand Cuts and Typhoon's Edge hit 16 rather than 10, cones are wider and Typhoon's radius is twice bigger. - Scrappers (like Tankers) benefit from Blinding Feint's +damage, and crits work nicely to complement Dual Blades relatively low damage per hit (because you don't one-shot things left and right, you're less likely to "waste" damage in overkill crits). - Brutes benefit less from Blinding Feint due to their Fury mechanics - because they start at lower base damage as a result. As for secondary, /bio because /bio is OP with everything. 🙂 Can't go wrong with a damage aura + a -res aura + offensive adaptation giving you tohit, damage, and extra toxic damage on your attacks. And all that absorb. And the regeneration, and the recovery. Listing /bio perks is an endless task. But really, you can make any secondary work.

Oh, indeed. I just feel Rad is good without procs (which is what I meant to get at with "Fire Blast minus"), and then you can proc it out to realise full potential. It's good to "badmouth" sets if only because it's the best way to bring out the counterpoints from fans. 😉 The other day there was someone arguing Sentinel AR has something pretty cool in Incinerator. I think "all Sentinels can keep pace with AV regeneration" is a great rule of thumb for the (ir)relevance of powerset choice.