Sarkany

Thanks! Reviewing! That Rune of Protection doesnt really do much for you, though, as your resistances are already so high. Feels like (if you'll countenance my mild impertinence) that you may have gone too far the other way and ditched too much defense. That said... some helpful ideas on where to grab some toxic and energy resists...

Ok! So! I've been playing around in mids to try to juice some protection at the expense of defense. The most obvious way is to ditch both leaping and leadership pools and go for Rune of Protection, I guess? I can still attain 39% melee defense (which cloak of fear then effectively softcaps? accuracy on +4 is at 54%) and smash/lethal resist at 84% without ROP. All other resists are 400 basis points higher without ROP. And naturally 1 out of every 3 minutes has ROP up with capped out resistances almost across the board. Ah! I'll add: looks like the below is losing some accuracy as well from these changes. Must be some of the sets I swapped out. Also, note how the typed defenses drop a ton. Not sure I am entirely sold on the changes. Maybe I'm missing more clever slotting approach... Does that sound roughly right?

I'm not sure taunt is needed. And MOAR DAMAGE is difficult to argue with

Clarifying question: is Cloak of Fear an auto hit? In short: is it giving all foes in melee range a -5% to hit debuff?

Savage/Dark Armor is a highly satisfying, powerful and resilient combination for a brute. I'll lead off by recognizing that @Snarky is the forum's resident vampire expert and I welcome any input on the below generally and his specifically. EDIT2: After a ton of trial and error along with some helpful advice in this thread, I have revised this build such that it can solo ITF +4/8 missions. I haven't had time to run it all the way to Romulus so unsure if the damage output is enough to finish the last mission. Will test that next. EDIT 3: The build CAN take down Romulus at +4 difficulty! It's... not fast... but it IS doable. Just completed the robot control panel mission and defeated him. Important: you need to peel off mobs in bite sized packs. If you aggro too many bad guys at once, dark regen can't keep up. UPDATE! So I finally had the time to run this ITF to the end. While +4/8 Nictus Romulus cannot kill this build, this build cannot kill the Nictus arch villains at +4 on the final mission. Sadness! A p2w offensive booster probably gets us there as we are very close to being able to whittle those Nictus' down. I appreciate everyone who joined me on this amusing journey. Unless anyone has a clever idea, I think this build is the ultimate in optimized savage melee/dark armor So! Dark Armor is pretty dang amazing with sky high resistances possible along with a fantastic self heal and even a defense boosting power. It's also a great vampire themed set. Problem: it has very high endurance costs. Savage blood thirst reduces endurance costs while increasing attack speed, the former of which is dang helpful for endurance hungry DA. High fury affects Savage bleed DOT effects and therefore DA's Death Shroud. I enjoy 2 slotting health with Numina on most toons for the Regen/Recovery enhancer plus a Health enhancer for the +12% regen bonus and the increased health recovery. I also enjoy 2 slotting Stamina on most toons with Power Transfer for the +health proc and the End Mod enhancer. Put this all together with 43% melee defenses, Soul Mastery leveraging the to hit debuffs of Darkest Night and Dark Obliternation, Melee Hybrid and Dark Regen and you can run around at full green bar, at no risk of death while dealing out solid single target and AOE damage. Adding Ageless (with endurance recovery) cements the build by ensuring full blue bar. I'll note that I find 6 slotting dark regeneration with an accurate healing set is hugely helpful as it brings recharge down to 12 seconds while fully filling the HP bar with just 2 enemies hit. One call out on the Hybrid slot: I have it on Melee Hybrid to get S/L resistances to 98%. Why? In order to manage resist debuffs, particularly on the ITF. On content where you aren't facing +4 bad guys with loads of resist debuffs, you can swap this out for the assault hybrid. However, when running a +4/8 ITF, for example, setting your S/L resists as close to 100% as possible (and over the resist damage cap) makes a huge difference in survivability as you effectively nullify the resist debuffs. A single Kismet enhancer with set bonuses provides plenty good accuracy on +4 missions. Note the 542%+ regeneration rate with Melee Hybrid! I find that both Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom have very low utility. The accuracy on cloak of fear is so low that it isn't effective against the exact mobs you actually need it for: the highest level, toughest ones. Oppressive Gloom stuns minions who will die in AOE in anyway. Slotting these powers to make them even a little bit useful is simply not the best use of slots. Note on the ITF +4/8 solo run: on that first mission when you are mobbed by the shadow nictus mob, take a few out and then leap away to cool off the recharge/speed debuffs and then re engage them in smaller groups. This build has 50% slow resist which is pretty solid, but not quite enough to safely tank that mob solo at +4/8. Note2: also, the sprint stealth enhancer plus cloak of darkness allows you to run around like a super stealthy vampire and soul transfer makes you feel like an unkillable undead creature of the night |MBD;25505;1678;2240;BASE64;| |G6BjERWcNgAtDnhzLuQFS4VoYMPKX9d9fSpFZ8fzsyN/HNRWRrcj+ibOpfxrYnmhrhs| |nY6O/WXS6+rrB2Lyk4U/1q6o9WX26ZnU1IvabmDsCEeD5r5XLsp4Z+gE1NDKhUcv+AD| |Wh1mjlkCNKWZvZ7jHngCKgKRQ3I29mCiUh9aDzMwP4j/6O3XFmM6uMZpnwptPASpErP| |V7WhGGRNCr6dCtwXS2NjPzjiOO2BuVvtDzOe+7ZN9ghbW6JikoE8zjjjNIX5/k5/2cc| |K6ShI88fhHtt6+sLiWIVGp6UJJXj+ZDeMD07/oRVi3XhYqEmxUQe+DbEvrTnamiQ41o| |ORyJy3g8qW8/lv5UaKLAF3/k4YF1zdDytSGnFNQMhTg91Se9w3WrwJXYcpC2wdDCMr/| |Q9mWtd0NBL+nYlR8OXkt+l819t1JxFc1/rHoxj32HzH5fmQBXPfDHYvTUsaX86hXLOl| |sInz1EUlzurNa3s9Dx9eD9Y27dRVv1Eq4+yTQSsfjLinr+J8Xi9WDvJzZ+TmaxNAutz| |XtSyNiO42O2Xuol+LCYZLRx8Kwwq0Ln83Ekav5GL6Wnd1mW/7P37K1Z7WpKk1dv2htl| |cfI0/+YupXBfGNUvdtuEX16hSGoVxpdjAogEGiGrDVizevakC8mkp9e1mPffCpTQNQD| |w88bxmsnJQsuk6lBbHkIjGlzQKIfJHEVxxMvCqADR1kV1beCpmYOgJWNUSxErqPNmcm| |MCGG9mryRYFiK48KlAY0S2WaIBkg+Wcjf3cuWhQitrr63e3iiA4b7ySPFFyCq5iVg6W| |kv04w//ZdfjcFZG16lZY6+gm0PVLoFSwAWxKc2G18qnNetGLWH2NPe6A1cHYyq3ksvr| |tiCsub7hQ0LjNF9E4JbKy38yn4+rGs+B7e+KVKWxJ8bK16l70xiCTQBe0xcKSXqvZPf| |6t/Eb5kb95sYPDyAhlqdZf7faUIWwUU6CjvwMYoWaEUUSBx42zaGFJgWS16mZd61jMY| |cH1lpVPX32WLr6yyxpYN6QgabcAlxOqlmHQgRTxLpRkK149r0E5BnwDKISOMsE3g28B| |sjbapbsGujMegBnqZlCrr1md5KvDHZGuO9XaS0iRKXY0KweKHdd8BfGevm1zLPU3JSS| |SiZ6Ch5yp6BSfhFvptbLMSScxbeJW8YreOoCsJpRsEVqQNozZazZvGEUAC1ySwQAUtu| |1wGWEJOsABF9LzsdRtxF5MpiviVTwAX+Whqaug9SPcWdn6RI9080ObWYBZAgwj8nXnt| |fmktD/MnfawOi/9kYffbci0Z3C4H/DKC4uy3NEeHSDyZtbg0GsAv2GW4Nxr0kJ710b+| |/NLUFcBCZV3Nh0gl634QtIPYdRBKlHTyjkvG06OvY+6Bg7qzlPB85SFcHlk+uqSJmy1| |pz6m09M2cakhGqwMm0E7VB8iubjPvAQ8Ez7DGo3QuMUQNSig7tHX7RJAA5L46w67/n+| |gS3rsnCeIuObXalYySmDNb0EELuHQFTSsLvzGPJzsw/mgXOwz9Usf3xb94PFOPAR+4v| |YZcAA9uwRtGNwEY3MoGmpsZ8yzgO35fAyNsKFO7cUQLq3bENxi+XCpQBK1L/dGkeHrk| |ZZXDgAXBoli4qKjoF8n/woKzYHfAheBqQ1aPtRayqTptVTRacE2KGb6GGAAfGj+TvmM| |nCyisJLbRKtGphneyc8i6ZLJcv1seDRhDeAIMIbwChdFJBZw0A87lJuiFW1L3c+QuME| |PNDHpFfn5IVyoI9yCL1oxnpi9wIDhUpNMqAP+tIJIEebEEqSIpzpwRFpJkUW4KCvBC8| |PYh58M4/H8Z2dSRZRFAUbSq4FDgj3EXpBf0ilxNNRDJR0/sb4K6P8RUp8KK7Zv+7HyA| |aN1ujtCK0n2agh9K1eEx6nNHyj4FMlahaC8Jx6W+DOlSPbkzFCHVzCku8e3IFAUWQpU| |Uxf9b0hN1PORWPg7/VF8mOzole+hixVAEGh7r+rOahaGvMaV9qxgnsdudFUMh3TEqtY| |E4uorE5ihm5+tnuvwFVV6fNRjTKYNCDjKdEPVwFrD3qy6q5oxZxOUA0XOP8mWdw7iw/| |WlsFvir+w57gEz5ocikExkxGVMK0J8n5y3Nyr6Ua8W+1+o5+HBjv1mQE0HeggNJHk+/| |VsXhednu3rvKWlDY+Xp88dpDxpZPBxdKMD9BX84LZsOhVNw7c0PvrjyQ28Q+vMn7MvI| |wykZz3vcm+792wekmnbCCM+fqHQ==|

HEARD! Yes I revised the build awhile ago based on the ignite feedback. Please see new build above. Total beast mode with it. I was going off of a bad ignite experience from 2004 or something.

REVISED! I was going off of a way way old ignite experience. Agree it's a must have! I soloed the ITF with this build after adding ignite

Hello, friends! I've been a Paragon City citizen since the original beta, if you can believe it. Throughout my 20+ years (!) of playing this thing, the one powerset I always return to is Assault Rifle. Man, it just feels good to blast foes onto their backs with a giant swiss army knife gun. Over those years, I've experimented with every secondary option for AR blasters. I have long believed that Energy is the best possible secondary for AR (sorry, Devices fans) and with Homecomings new archetype specific enhancer sets and some upgrades to powers, I just respec'd my blaster build, fully slotted him out and ran some testing with the results. In short: this blaster can clear S/L farms at 8/+4 with low risk in 17 minutes. As good as a fire tank in a fire farm? No. But the fact that the build can achieve this so handily while not being specialized in farming and being a blaster, is interesting. The build brings soft capped defenses (ALL) 75% of the time (using power boost... doesn't rely on incarnates for this), soft capped ranged defense 100% of the time, 74% s/l resist, a static 220% damage bonus from sets, a personal force field allowing him to escape/avoid sticky situations, extended cone attacks (boost range), and a ton of mobility with some juiced up hover and fly speed. The SL farm performance is particularly interesting because it showcases the fun "scoot and shoot" playstyle this build relies on. With a tad of slotting, hover let's you: -Boost Range, Build Up, Power Boost -Flame throw at a much safer distance -Ignite Move Back -Full Auto The only survivors are +4 Bosses and Elite bosses which you can now easily finish off with Slug, Total Focus and Sniper Rifle while moving around to avoid much of their melee attacks It's an incredibly fun play style that is highly interactive and requires you to judge distance and constantly move around the battlefield to set up cone attacks and avoid getting mobbed. I find this so much more engaging than jumping my scrapper into the middle of a pack and just hitting things from one spot and, because of the aforementioned defenses (both all around defense and resistances) which rival less wealthy SR scrappers, the build is highly forgivable, especially when one includes the Rebirth destiny incarnate healing and regen power. Defenses: With power boost at a 19 sec recharge, the build is at ranged softcap almost always and with just shy of 500% regen (energize boosts regen!) with both the Panacea and Power Transfer procs (+ to heal), the build regains health rapidly. If you run into real trouble, you can hit personal force field for 10 seconds and regen 20% of health. Further, it provides softcapped S/L resist. The one drawback is the one AR has always faced: most damage is lethal, aside from flamethrower and the energy component of total focus. I need to test how soloing an AV would work (EDIT: TESTED ON ITF! WORKED WELL!) Throw in Clarion to ensure Mez defenses and the Archmage accolade for the toughest enounters and welcome to death incarnate This build makes up for all of the faceplanting I've done as an overzealous blaster over the years. Wait for the tank? Ha! Not any more! Build: |MBD;23187;1387;1852;BASE64;| |G5JaACwKbBuZd+XhaGDu0oHwoEUp0rWns0nKLtXLBdoCh9IvXompOhHx4bMfkNiO2+r| |qNDWbJp2QkTeLTldff6qf01pZ+/W3jB2rHXHxS4yOgAv4+rdqb/vCIRESJRFq190Ji7| |EvDTlLsooqDmR1r1BJqBQVQkYbnQHtmKe2R91JkDgKBe6+d0jkh5CVa1bF+istcBiKI| |Wu5phkW+UZFl7c+MWcLU3o+LMSxp4HIt7TwPnPqKAHfQ0RjiEqYCPwydkPfF+dkn53E| |wQqpYPizgMzd3DreSIh2A2IR+lLyAotXVwMLtGBUUsHYjvAGTz/vnMG3Z/fZRCrE23V| |tL+SRae+obP08QBUZVLX0i6OwWbRkVzRXiXJU9cW70iSabDKXZs/m5o67XS9um+gcMs| |iiDbPFok1gvTWpQU7ZLpZb1eSBaei7Day9Anl7WwrRIy9i3q76M6PYLjoqd7mcwfaxR| |OUHQeKoluYT81XF9Q8uUZWDvb4jfDs7eurWMnkLvPddXryGDQSs3tUrjc2C3Va1rtJ2| |Blfj4nMJWkfeVdmjRZ7Awj/aUz+X9BYYvBc6xfSN9XsmKBp8TRdDYXdbtwy/9z7vy5S| |PspdvCudtyJYueswX/oNV5kR/bF/htf2T1p50JCiJvdIRuC0qt+EqYcmqi87f17FsG0| |qB4iv/wGO95PRYuno8Hmu75XCtiEsMkSzRR1BULZvKzvwDCbuwFYEj+FCWzk0kUIBzi| |+oERWRdZtA9UchlSTBiYQNdU43imgy7wG5eaN8JS2TedJhyoZ9XLjqHpShuY7j/80CR| |KXbQs9N/gH6Y4zsUeXakRNeM+IOxSOz80vi8KoIcskADTGJ4z/0reaJEdZx6YoP1Wzs| |A3/q6G/cAE7hRIKLMoG/6swP+dZQ34JAjIEUYVyYTcQZPCmD2bGWYoWz4bh8iaVipoH| |qrEyU5jHFi0BfAECcWfQV0qPztp69jrICt6gz78wQOySJ/XZiS6pfAGCtCESl2P6MK3| |HfOoheqF18qYFNwSl6F0DM05+u8aQLdmCsu5K6mwncX0cpXgC9k5RM1IpGB7xT77f6M| |4v4dJd3BNQoN1xQJGOBaoTqBEa4NqifQrkKXusF35C6DFDN+QzUE2ulm1cqfstvPa5o| |8jQX1SSubff8ptpoXzA9ryFj3PUlyvWrHOExKUQATw6zES4mN0a8gyEwuxpRXywQGWJ| |SWREkhs07DvtLpSJVylQVslHVdwQXJrW2grUERWeBCE9Z0hrxUyT8t3wE3hrt48WE55| |LdpxYRVEahIYIStQUnSVJFIlqbBbXYQ3NNeX7IVVA7wvqAgzeSNRE2gHBHkhbB8Ywtg| |deqZFu1lNyeoksBTFJgY5lBaX3GVWpotQALl4MBbfxUNui4JXBiufDT55kmQGma0fg5| |xlQRKEhhhjzCJNUmrkC00Hp0+/0A1XRTMLIQrL8kVsUIlbWmxcGL7cw+aTsPuSw3hD6| |MEsAfsZ9rhT9SUu3B5JEWcHs+/uCm0qgKGWJYgU7u4a4IJLLe0koS7OGm89Gm1qTJgY| |8CS2+1pd8nvcX7ufI1/Cxh35ATgwdCQcdOc+bYF1SFJTZ/4r9jKAmUJikh/hbKJ/CaS| |d4636n52+tfrYmoOeBtHmXfX7zeXJD55Q9LWXU6EXjByeYPPsqUuvyoI/lRPSgtFu6r| |8DiZhWDjD/+IJRUh9E1m78PKW5NVrzUXRv4bzh12fsrsjfKvW77xDKfkj7Cu6Iqz8Iv| |x3J0voMGZfpxiPLv53u7MiYRv8tiwo+OIP6CK/H2y8gclP1s4qTsWkzruhHQbNyFxOr| |o13JIaPcr7IXEWOS2Q3FZa6DOYnf8x1hSEC4p0adw==| HK 99 Ignite MOD 3- Blaster (Assault Rifle - Energy Manipulation).mbd

Ok! Pulled out my old AR/NRGY character and executed the planned out update (it’s been a few years!) He can run AE s/l farms at 8/+3 no problem. Heck, it’s easy. will try maxed out difficulty settings tonight power boost does appear to improve defenses (soft cap def all around for duration of power boost) pumping out that DAKKA without a care in the world! so much so, that I stopped bothering clicking on the barrier incarnate. I’m going to ditch it for something else anyway, thank you for the input

Ah ok. So Mids is not exactly aligned with the game with respect to power build up?

Could I offer one of the best secondaries for AR? Energy. Build Up plus Range Boost on all of those cone attacks is rad I love AR. It’s my favorite power set. I’ve tried every secondary with it starting from literally Issue 1 of the original game Energy, friend.

My friends! I'm finishing the design of my end game DP/Kin build and added Power Mastery Epic. When I activate Power Build Up in Mids Reborn, it's driving up all defenses by about 7%. I assume this is from the +3% Steadfast and Gladiator IOs? I somehow have never noticed this before. Really helps with tools for hitting soft cap defenses. Between Build Up, Hail of Bullets and force of nature, this build can run at soft cap defenses almost 50% of the time with Force of Nature available as a backup. Add in the barrier incarnate, and you're pretty much at softcap always 2 questions for you fine people: 1) Is my understanding of Power Build Up's effect on defenses correct? 2) Is the max damage bonus I can stack 500% as per the wiki? When I fulcrum shift 10 foes (the max) for a 400% group damage buff, can I still stack a 68% power build up on top? It looks like without FS and build up, various sets are providing a 183% damage bonus passively. Does that mean I can stack a whopping 651% damage bonus? Or is this all capped at 500%? I assume the latter is true. If so, then I max damage boost with a Fulcrum Shift on 8 foes? 3) If the logic in (2) is accurate, I still love build up for the 12 sec defense buff and as a filler in between FS for some extra damage. Is this train of thinking right?