Renatos1023

I finally got my first VEAT to 50 after 21 years. Yay! Now I just want to figure out the best way to slot her. My goal was soft-capped positional def w/out Link Minds which I think I succeeded at, plus a healthy dose of global recharge. Currently at vet level 15 and this is what I have come up with in Mids. As of today, these sets aren't completed, and I am mostly running with basic IOs at the moment, plus most of the special IOs (Kismet, LoTG, and the ones in Health and Stamina, plus Gaussians). I did get my full set of Coercive for my confuse power (had some lucky drops). But this character is only about 40% set slotted. So far she's been a blast though. Did a bunch of +4 ITFs and been scraping in that influence. Please feel free to pick it apart - as I said this is my first VEAT 50, so kinda on the learning curve atm. I have to say, this has been one of my most fun rides so far. A few notes: 1. I didn't take any power pools beyond CJ/SJ and Hasten. I really do enjoy all the Widow powers and the diversity I can bring to a team (Tanky, Buffy, Damagy, Controllery) 2. I had Scramble Minds but hated the animation time - I felt like I was always hitting dead things, so that got removed. 3. I'm a novice (to say the least) with procs. So, I chose a two for my nuke and Psy Tornado - please let me know if I should change those for something with a better proc rate. (I want the set bonuses of what is there, so really just the 2nd proc is up for grabs) A few questions for those more experienced: 1. Am I dumb for not stacking leadership, or at least Maneuvers? I'd be willing to dump Combat Training: Offensive (but its not like that would clear up any extra slots). 2. Any comments on the incarnate abilities I chose. I focused on recharge, defense, and end. recovery for the most part. Thanks! Agent Shara - Arachnos Widow (Fortunata Training - Fortunata Teamwork).mbd

The Ice powersets are probably one of my favorite to play with across all ATs. My Cold/Ice Defender is definitely up there in top tier play. She's kitted out and I routinely lead ITFs with her. I also have the Ice/Ninja combo on both Blaster and Stalker. I gotta say this was the first Stalker I ever took to 50 and it was very strong and fun the entire way.

Adding onto the OP - are the patron pools worth the effort? I'm running my first Widow blue side and just hit 36. I seem to have enough powers to choose from moving forward without dipping into the patron pools (which I've never done on any char before since I generally just play blue side). Are VEATS fine without the patron pools, or would I absolutely be missing something? And if so, what is considered the best one (currently running as a Fortunata).

Ahh, didn't know that was a thing. Thanks! Here we go if anyone is interested: Nox Eternal - Tanker (Dark Armor - Spines).mbd

This is the build I use for my Dark/Spines Tank who is one of my main ITF characters - and probably the only Tank I've enjoyed running in a while. There have been multiple times when I haven't even hit my heal through the whole TF. This build is pretty immortal with 49% melee/34% Ranged/46% AoE defense (along with pretty high defenses across the board) plus capped S/L/N/Psi resists (and close to capped F/C res). I settled at 11pts of KB protection and am fine for the vast majority of content. Sorry can't ever figure out how to correctly import a build, so I figured I'd just share the screenshot.

For an alternate animation, what about something similar to the Dark/ hold, where the target seems to just be petrified, with their hands up and held in some shadow mist. Except instead of the shadows around the character, it can be some brown/dark dust and dirt. Just a thought since that animation/code is already there.

I like Sentinels because, as someone else mentioned, you can fill the damage or alpha breaker roles as needed. Because of this, most of my Sents use a defense based secondary as I find it easier to fill the alpha breaker role that way. My two fave Sents that I like to run are: 1. Dark/Nin/Dark - I went Dark with primary and ancillary pools because the stacking -Acc helps boost your defenses even more. Nin also has some good powers to help keep you upright when you do get hit. 2. Fire/Stone/Fire - This was a concept build, but also very fun once you get soft-capped defenses. Fire helps to melt mobs quickly, and I took the AoE immob from the ancillary pool to help keep things under RoF. Both of these have no problem finding teams and/or running point when needed.

Haven't played Regeneration since live. One of my first characters was a Kat/Regen Scrapper. We all know that the melee Regen is meh. Sentinel Regen seemed like it was better, so I decided to take a run with it. My Rad/Regen Sent just hit 37 and it has actually been pretty fun. I'll admit my other Sent secondaries are stronger, but this was a concept character. Just looking for some Regen feedback. This build is without incarnates. I was trying to get my Sm/Le Resist over 50% (which I just did) and also get my positional defenses over 25% (also a super close cut). I couldn't figure out how to export a link to the build or get my incarnate choices in (my Mids magic is very limited) but this seems solid. Currently, I'm only using basic IOs as I level and it has been fun so far. But I am trying to fashion a good build. I appreciate any feedback. Thanks! Ren

I agree with Gershwin. Thermal is a jack of all trades, but master of none set. Having played all of the defender sets to 50 between HC and live, Thermal/ is on my lower end of sets. It isn't bad, but it is very spread out in what it does....between shielding, healing, buffing, and debuffing. I went Thermal/Fire for my Defender for theme. IMO the Thermal/ debuffs are lacking. But this comes from my love of playing Cold/ and Storm/ both of which have a rain -res/-def debuff that is pretty much auto-hit. I hate that Thermal's T9 can miss, because for all intents and purposes it is the same debuff as Freezing Rain/Sleet (which I believe are like T5/6 in Storm and Cold). The rain debuffs from both Storm and Cold just are so much better than Thermal's T9, that it's hard for me to play my Thermal anymore. I think that is my biggest gripe with Thermal...the T9 really needs to be adjusted to come in line with Freezing Rain/Sleet. Thermal is fun, don't get me wrong. But it is one of the busier defender sets, kind of like Empathy. YMMV, I say play it and see if it fits your style. None of the Defender primaries are terrible, Defs are my main for a reason.

Thanks for the feedback Uun!

So, I finally got my first Dom to 50! Now, Earthen Assassin is looking to slot the ATOs. I was looking at 6-slotting both sets, as the +recharge and +defense components look pretty good. My first instinct was to put a set in Stalagmites and the second set in Volcanic Gasses (not sure which should go where, or if it really matters). Are there better places to put the Dom ATOs? Fossilize and Stone Cages were other potentials, but I put 4 Basilisks Gaze in Fossilize and a full set of Gravitational Anchor in SC. (I also rarely if ever use purples, so those are not in my current draft build). Thanks for any insight!

Wow! I think I started around i4 or i5 so I never had to deal with the bad Dark Miasma. Or I did, but was too new to MMORPGs to realize how bad it was (I think my first few mains were Scrappers). But I couldn't imagine that being an actual functional heal. That sounds miserable lol.

I really do like this idea. This would solve the issue completely - straight knock-up or knock-down would vastly improve the gameplay experience. Running at +4 and trying to corral mobs that have been hand clapped all over the place is just frustrating.

tl;dr but this quote below sums it up. I only read until the second response because this is what I would have said. Dark is one of my favorite sets to play and I love TG how it is. Also, because tl;dr (and it might have been said above) but TG heals as long as you get the heal off before the target dies, unlike Kin's Transfusion. Which makes it doubly more valuable. If they change that, I'd be mad. TG is unarguably the best targeted heal in the game so I do not want HC devs touching it thank you very much.

The ITF is my favorite TF to run. Ever. I do it multiple times on all characters. What I hate is Imperious' Hand Clap KB in the last mission. No matter if I'm running as a Tank or a Def, that KB sucks. Can the Devs please buy him a KB --> KD IO. I'll front the influence. But all joking aside, this is a QoL enhancement that would help everyone. You'd no longer have to run him off to die in a group on the other side of the map. It sucks to see your amazing herd go....well...everywhere. If that is too difficult - alternatively let him just not be there. I've never been on a team that missed him when he was dead. I'm not trying to change a whole TF or screw with people's power sets, but the vast majority of ITFs i'm on do not want that KB.