Scientist

Sonic will certainly be more in demand than beam rifle in a high level team, since it helps melt AVs. I kind of liked the effects of beam rifle, so I had one on live, but never got to 50 on them, it was for a theme team. Kinetics takes a certain kind of high risk/high reward, live on the edge type player. I have a friend who loves it, but his motto for blasters is "if you don't have debt, you aren't playing hard enough", so take that with a grain of salt. It will certainly be in demand at high levels, but so is Time.

See, I find the farming process quite boring, but enjoy figuring out the market, whereas all of my friends are the reverse (or don't enjoy either, and if I ever want their mains to be IOed out to team with, I'll be supplying them. . .). I'm glad there are people who like farming, because there has to be new Inf coming into the market, in a vacuum it would be a money sink because of the game's commission. I'm glad there are people who like marketing, because there is always a supply of things I might want available, I don't have to personally store it all in my base. I also find it fascinating as an academic exercise how different prices of all kinds of things are on this market versus live, because of the combination of inexpensive enhancement converters, and the market readusting levels of recipes and enhancements as needed for orders. I never dare sell anything to a vendor now without checking the AH first, you never know when that level 16 recipe is in super demand because it happens to lie in a niche where it will convert to something valuable most of the time. . .

I also had a Grav/FF on live, based on my favorite character from a rpg I was in, one of the first two characters I made in I1, and I always struggled to find a use for him at 50 that other characters couldn't do better. As has been discussed here, the big problem is that only a smallish subset of teams at 50 really need more Defense (in the general sense, including things like controls), whereas most can use more Offense. Many controller secondaries provide some of each, including Sonic, which is a pretty good -resist debuffer for tough AVs, FF totally lacks any Offense multiplier. And my rad/rad defender arguably had more control "up time" than the controller, since they didn't nerf EMP as much as the generic controller AoE holds, on TOP of Offense multipliers. I remade my Grav/FF as a Grav/Time this time around, which also fit the concept from my rpg character, and even at 12th level it is a more interesting character to play and I see more potential. The only reason I'd consider a FF character these days if if I wanted to do a lot of low level team content with the character, say I loved the Posi TFs or the Hollows and wanted to run them a lot. The other option is a MM, so you have good offense addition from pets, but I would find FF a bit boring on a MM.

I didn't see anything in the patch notes about it, but did they also remove the cap on stacking 5 of the same bonus, such as 6.25% recharge? I thought Mid's used to have a warning if you had over 5 of a same bonus, I don't see it any more in Pine's update, but I don't know if that is because I'm missing something or Pine is. :)

This reminds me of the character I met back in maybe I10 or so who was also a rad defender, but didn't have either of the toggle debuffs. He chose Rad because with Accelerate Metabolism and Hasten he could have the fastest cycling heal possible, since he honestly thought that would be needed at end game. I showed him at least how to corner pull with Radiation Infection, then stand in it with whiffing mobs and chat, but I'm not sure if I convinced him. . .

In particular, as a Tanker you get the -resist debuff from Defensive Sweep since it is their Tier 1 attack. That might be another reason to swap it into an attack chain on a tank, possibly even an AoE one. I did have a question about Arc of Destruction, Pine's hero designer says it has "knockback", is it actually knockback or knockdown?

A suggestion for an alternative slotting for Singularity, in place three Expedient Reinforcements, is two Peroxisomes (Damage/Mezz) and a Soulbound Allegiance (Damage). That lets you max out both its Hold and its Damage. You give up 6.25% recharge time, but between a Superior Will of the Controller set and a purple Stun set in Wormhole, I was still able to get 120% global recharge. I've found anything that goes much past perma-Hasten usually brings something useful back up in time for when I need it. :)

I've definitely used 10-12 merits and still not ended up with something I could sell for 5M, but perhaps I'm choosing the wrong things to convert. Or just have bad luck, more than once there have been only 3 possibilities, and I cycle back and forth between the two unprofitable ones 4-5 times in a row. . . Selling converters also requires a lot less time spent researching what enhancements to convert than converting enhancements, so depends on what you like to do with your time in game.

While I haven't tested it with Screech, I regularly stack Cosmic Burst, the Rad stun which is also very nice damage (IMHO Sonic gets a bit cheated here compared to the early, unbalanced sets), and Dominate, the Epic pool hold which also does damage. In both cases the second shot on a boss mezzes them. I've even toggled between them on 2 bosses to perma-mezz both.

Even though margins are narrower, and I'm finding it harder as I go along to get the Inf/hour I had been getting in the market, I like this aspect of it, that the new market actually encourages marketers to play the game as well to get merits. I also like that IO builds will be much more affordable for many more people, and they could potentially afford them without hundreds of hours on a dedicated farmer or being forced to play the market. I suspect that cheaper prices will get more people who really don't like the market enough to learn how to make money in it to put together at least decent IO builds, find out how nice they are, and create more customers for marketers. I also suspect that more people will stick with the game because of being able to do that, but we'll have to see. I'm certainly sure that they are a long way from losing so many people they can't keep the servers funded, they are still getting their month's funding in under an hour.

Wormhole doesn't cause aggro any more? You can just mass TP and stun foes? Last time I was using it they all shot at me even before it triggered, interesting. . .

To the OP, consider putting Preventive Medicine instead of Doctored Wounds into your heal, 8.75% global recharge instead of 5%. This is a new set with I25. If you need slots, consider taking some from Radiation Infection, you can do pretty well with 3 Enzymes (HOs) in that, it optimizes everything that power does. Then an Achilles proc if you want still more -resist, though that may be overkill on a /sonic.

I will say I find use for a ST mezz on a rad defender because (1) I can use it first on a LT I want to take down after sleeping the spawn when I know they mezz, then actually dps them down while they stumble around, and (2) with the whiffs from Rad Infection on a boss, you can often hit them with Screech a second time before they mezz you, and keep them out of the fight thereafter. I've even used a ST hold from an Epic power pool and double stacked that on one boss and a Stun on another boss in double boss spawns in the Shadow Shard to lock them both down, but you need to be willing to do a lot of retargeting to make that work. Very handy to have max debuff chains, an extra 10% -resist debuff from a defender will generate way more team damage on an AV than improving your own dps by 10-20%.

This comment assumes you want a ranged AoE specialist Crab, which is something they are very good at. In an IOed out end game Crab build, you have a pretty complete AoE damage chain with Suppression, Venom Grenade, Bile Spray and Arctic Breath. The problem is that the last two are Patron powers and come very late, so that is a lot of levels with only 2 AoEs. Also, since you have good ranged defense, you want to keep foes at range, and the AoE immobilize School of Sharks, which you need to take to unlock Bile and Arctic, also comes late. Therefore, my suggestion is to retain Wide Area Web Grenade and Heavy Burst for an AoE Immob and additional AoE respectively until you can get to and slot those Patron powers in the upper 40s. If you exemp a lot, it could even be worth having an alternate build with those at lower levels. Also note that as easy as it is to get attuned enhancements in this version of the game, you can start slotting things with IOs even while leveling, you don't have to wait till near 50. Otherwise, leveling can also be a good time to experiment with powers you aren't sure of and see how you like them. Maybe you love the Crab pets, maybe you hate them, maybe you just think they are useless, you can decide before you invest in IOs for a final build.

Just a warning to Mjolnerd, a rad/fire may have a tougher time soloing AVs and GMs than a rad/sonic, because while fire does somewhat more damage than sonic, sonic on defender has some really nasty -res debuffs. Lusca was probably taking +40-60% damage the whole time because of the sonic debuffs. Where rad/fire will be great is against large group spawns, versus /sonic which is much slower taking out a spawn (though probably safer, with its built in sleep). Since 90% of fights in a group setting such as a TF are against whole spawns, and the 10% that are left are against AVs which slow the team down and are potentially more dangerous, both are really appreciated on teams. I have a rad/rad which is somewhere in between, better debuffing than /fire, worse than sonic, better AoEs than /sonic, worse than /fire. Those kinds of things are what make tradeoffs with different defender primaries and secondaries so interesting. :)

Does it work to bring Howl into the rotation, since you are likely to have it anyway for AoE debuffing, or is the animation too high? And is the highest dps chain the same as the max average -res debuffing one, given that your main goal as a defender may be debuffing that AV so the other 7 teammates beating on him will do more damage?

In particular, the Clarion power that was mentioned, clickable perma-mezz protect, meant my Rad defender could then fearlessly solo spawns with lots of mezzing like Rikti, Carnival, etc. that previously shut off his debuffs and killed him pretty much every time. Why you want them depends on the AT, maybe a Tank wants a way to do a Blaster level nuke for example, but they are definitely potent in high end content. And I hate them, because when I get my main to 50 in this new game, I'm going to be torn between continuing to play her to get good Incarnate powers, and working up alts to 50, darn it. . . :)

Also be aware that the AH up and down converts levels on recipes (and enhancements) automatically, so you can sell a level 15 orange recipe and someone else can buy that recipe as a level 50 recipe. This has had some . . . interesting . . . effects on the market. One of which is that you can often get a couple hundred thousand on that level 13 yellow Doctored Wounds recipe, or something.

If you are referring to salvage, there are in fact tens of millions of all salvage for sale, the devs have put an essentially infinite supply of common salvage for sale at 10k, uncommon for either 50k or 100k, I forget, and rare salvage for 1M. They wanted to cap their prices. I haven't seen what you describe for recipes, though. I often see blank history until I make a bid on something and hit the Find button that pops up, though. And I have seen the "two different histories for the same item" bug someone else reported, depending where you click.

I was able to kill AVs with a bots/traps when I was still on SO enhancements back in the day redside. Having the mezz protection of the FF generator was helpful, a lot of AVs mezz, and the -regen of poison trap is double what a Rad gets. I believe the -resist of Acid Mortar is -20%, which is probably the same as Rad's version. Even the caltrops could be nice to disrupt the AI of an AV, as they run back and forth, and the Web Immob works on some AVs. That said, it is certainly more work than the toggle debuffs of Rad, which I played on a defender a lot blueside, and to really rock and roll with Traps it is helpful to build for recharge as well as defense (to stack with FF generator), so the build could be pricier.

I have seen a Market Crash trial mentioned in the LFG channel, but I can't find any information on it. Is there any way to get a basic description of it, i.e. number of players needed, minimum levels if any, approximate time needed to complete, etc?

An exception is the Invader accolade redside, you need to get those in Mayhem Bank Robbery missions at various level ranges (10-15, 15-20, etc.). You can't Oro those, last I knew, so if you powerlevel past them, you'll need to hope someone broadcasts that they are doing them later on. I've seen people wait for weeks back in the old game to happen to find someone with one at the right range. Also certain things, like the Lars Hanson Striga unlock for the Hess TF or the Maria Jenkins storyline, can take a while to do the arc for, and Oroborous locks you into TF mode for that whole time, so you would need to either have several hours for a play session and be a pretty good soloer or be willing to tie your character up for days or weeks. I don't know if you can invite people to your Oro arc after you start it, I've never tried.

I think there is a "walk" power that may do that, lets you actually walk naturally around places like Pocket D. Some of the "fly" powers like Rocket Board may do it too.

Below is the Cold/Sonic I ran in the original game, 96% recharge, soft capped S/L/E and decent defenses elsewhere. You could replace some of those purple sets with other new sets without much loss of recharge. Cold/Sonic is great at debuffing hard targets, especially if you have a single hard target to work on like an AV. Its best powers come later than some of the "early" defenders, like Rad and Dark, and you need a fairly well IO-ed out build for recharge to really max out its capacity, as some of the Cold powers are on long timers instead of being toggles. It is easier to get defenses on than Rad or Dark, though, because Arctic Fog gives you an in-set base, plus a place for Resist +3% Defense IOs and stealth to boot. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.96 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! ZephyrSong: Level 50 Technology Defender Primary Power Set: Cold Domination Secondary Power Set: Sonic Attack Power Pool: Teleportation Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Ice Shield -- HO:Cyto(A), LkGmblr-Def(11), LkGmblr-Rchg+(13) Level 1: Shriek -- Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(3), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Apoc-Dam%(9) Level 2: Snow Storm -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(40) Level 4: Howl -- Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(5), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Ragnrk-Knock%(9), Range-I(15) Level 6: Glacial Shield -- HO:Cyto(A), LkGmblr-Def(13), LkGmblr-Rchg+(15) Level 8: Scream -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(17), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(17), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43) Level 10: Infrigidate -- HO:Lyso(A), Achilles-ResDeb%(11) Level 12: Arctic Fog -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), HO:Ribo(25), HO:Ribo(31), GA-3defTpProc(31), DefBuff-I(36), DefBuff-I(40) Level 14: Recall Friend -- Zephyr-ResKB(A) Level 16: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(29) Level 18: Benumb -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(21), RechRdx-I(23), RechRdx-I(23) Level 20: Shout -- DefendersB-Acc/Dmg(A), DefendersB-Dmg/Rchg(25), DefendersB-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), DefendersB-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), DefendersB-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), DefendersB-Rchg/Heal%(43) Level 22: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(37), LkGmblr-Rchg+(39) Level 24: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(37), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(40), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(42), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(45), GSFC-Build%(46) Level 26: Sleet -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27), LdyGrey-Rchg/EndRdx(27), LdyGrey-%Dam(39), Achilles-ResDeb%(39) Level 28: Siren's Song -- FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg(A), FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(29), FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg(31), FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx(34), FtnHyp-Plct%(34) Level 30: Frostwork -- Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(A) Level 32: Heat Loss -- P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(A), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(33), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(33), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(33), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(37) Level 35: Screech -- Amaze-Stun/Rchg(A), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(36), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(36), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(45), Amaze-ToHitDeb%(45) Level 38: Scorpion Shield -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50) Level 41: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(42) Level 44: Dreadful Wail -- Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(46), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Armgdn-Dam%(50) Level 47: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A) Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 1: Vigilance Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(50) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), P'Shift-EndMod(21), P'Shift-End%(48) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) ------------

No, since Bio doesn't have any Resistance to -Def, as a "tank" that defense will mean almost nothing after a hit or two from a Cimerorian Sword or a Rad attack, or whatever. It will cascade to 0 quickly. More recharge and HP and Resists to buffer the activation time and player reaction time for heals is where the budget should be spent on Bio IMHO. For me w/o even trying I soft capped E/NE/F/C. I actually found that getting 30-35% defense on my Fire tank helped a lot with Cimeroran, while you are right they can bring that down fairly quickly, a decent amount of their alpha strike is ranged, javelins and such, which I don't think debuff defense, and by the time they get chewing through that defense, your team is killing them. I agree you won't be able to park in a spawn and make a sandwich, but it did make it feasible for me to main tank an ITF on my Fire tank a few times. Before I IOed out for defense, I was a lot more dependent on external buffs or healing.