Yomo Kimyata

Lots can happen in three hours.

I’ve put the CS proc in damage auras before, but what I don’t like about that is that I have no control over *when* it procs so it’s possible you don’t get any benefit of the proc sometimes.

I call it "Liberty For All"

DNA Siphon is a "super power", in part because there are so many ways you can go with it. Definitely my favorite power in the game for what it does. Personally, I'm looking for as much recharge and accuracy as I can get, then I generally use procs over heal, endurance, and damage (I'm running +4/x8, and Ablative Carapace and Parasitic Aura generally cover most of my healing needs). Some great procs: Fury of the Glad -res Avalanche/Overwhelming Force knockdown Energy Manipulator stun any ATO proc you are ok with coming up every 30-60 seconds any damage procs I used to use Theft of Essence proc out of habit but in a big crowd you get so much endurance anyway I find better uses for that slot. All of these procs should be pretty much at or close to 90% activation rates (I think that my recharge is generally in the 30-45 second range).

I have a 50 spines/ice scrapper and it's ok, but I don't love it. That's mostly the spines part. I skipped Ripper because I can't stand the animation, but to me it's the logical place to put it for a few reasons. It's got one of the highest probabilities to proc of any Spines power AND it will hit up to 5 targets in a 90 degree arc with a 7 foot radius. I don't know about you, but I'm generally going to get at least three enemies in that arc as long as there are at least three enemies left. If your base chance to proc is 50%, then your base chance to NOT proc is also 50%, and if you hit three enemies then your base chance of NOT proccing on any of them is 1-(0.5*0.5*0.5) = 87.5%. Downside: If you are only fighting a single hard target, your chances obviously drop; Ripper might not even be in your rotation for a single target; putting the proc in Ripper means that Critical Strikes won't be active for Ripper. Also, Ripper has a long animation time before effect. That means that if Critical Strikes activates during Ripper, there is not a ton of dead time before you can make the next attack. With 2.574 seconds left out of the 3.25 seconds window of Critical Strikes, you can get off Throw Spines and Lunge (possibly Quills!) as opposed to just a single attack. That said, I currently have it in Spine Burst and with up to ten targets it activates almost all the time, but I will never get off more than one attack afterwards with Critical Strikes active. Except Barb Swipe and something else, but I also don't use Barb Swipe.

Since today is St. Patrick's Day:

Personally, I don't like using macros that activate powers like that for exactly your reasoning in option 3. My workaround is either your option 2, or more likely just not taking Hasten on sets that require a click Mez Resistance. Blasphemy! I can't say it makes or breaks my characters, and I do tend to match click mez set defenses with knockback heavy offenses to take advantage of the force feedback proc. I guess another possible option, since I don't believe that any of your toggles get turned off anymore?, is to put hasten on auto and just activate Active Defense when you get mezzed. Honestly, I have no idea if you even can activate it then, but if your toggles don't drop then it should be a relatively minor inconvenience? I'm sure someone will tell me where and how this is a foolish suggestion, and I look forward to that since I'm just spitballin' here.

Honestly, I love doing this.

I agree, get rid of SOs below level 25 and replace them with something weaker newbies can train up with. I'm sure they can come up with a good name for them.

I said, top men. Also, if there is unexpected malevolence, you need to adjust your expectorameter, because it's always there and you should be expecting it by now.

All I did was read the title and I'm all for it!

Not power sets, but mechanics: Knockdown/up/back (in that order) Debuff damage resistance (which is generally far less resisted by hard targets (AVs/GMs) than other debuffs since it uses their inherent damage resistance.) Debuff damage (I don't think damage debuffs are resisted at all, but I could be reading it wrong. This helps you and everyone on your team, if you have one.)

This is why I take Kick early on as a button to mash until I get Pendulum at 8.

You absolutely can, and the cooldown is much lower than swapping between builds. But you need to be out of combat.

Well, in that case, how about one free slot for every ten alts you have who are over level 10?

I'm surprised that you find the new Cleave has trouble hitting multiple targets? I will admit the old cone was laughably narrow, but I find that it I am fighting five or more mobs in melee range, I'm generally keeping 3-5 of them in target range just by nature of their attacks. Shoot, you can Cleave the target directly in front of you and hit the target directly behind you! A six foot diameter sphere is very friendly that way (just make sure you don't use the 40 foot range unless you mean to!). To each their own, but a Cleave-Swoop-Chop-repeat chain for ST and a Cleave-Axe Cyclone-Pendulum-repeat chain for AoE works wonders for me. Would Swoop-Gash-Chop-repeat get you slightly higher ST damage per second? Maybe, but I'm not fighting pylons, and 95%+ of my game play seems to be fighting more than one enemy.

I can't let a Battle Axe build without Cleave alone. It's like skipping Fulcrum Shift on a Kin. Here is a quick stab as to how I would slot the Battle Axe portion of a BA/Energy scrapper. You get a free power pool and epic pool to do as you will for five powers, and you get 15 free slots. Your choice on how to slot the ones I've got generic IOs in. I'm a HO/DSO and boosted kind of builder, but I kept this simple.

I'm not ready for this.

This is well worded and extremely accurate. I suggest that the bolded half of this paragraph should be stickied, and possibly be automatically inserted as a header for every single new post in this forum. It's common sense, but hey, it can't hurt to remind people.

With respect to the primaries, the standard (especially for the older sets) is to give up the PBAoE for a single target AS: Broad Sword, Claws, Energy, Martial Arts, Katana. For the most part, I *like* the PBAoE, so I'm generally not going to prefer the stalker version unless I'm really gung ho on the whole single target thing. Also, any non-standard Build Up power gets replaced with Build Up, and since generally the non-standard powers have more utility to me, I'm usually not going to prefer the stalker version: Claws, Dark Melee, Dual Blades, Kinetic Melee, Radiation Melee, Savage Melee, Street Justice. Psionic Melee is an oddball, since you replace Concentration with Concentration (which is *slightly* less powerful on the stalker) and I have no idea if the fact that it is not named "Build Up" means that the ATO proc does or does not work. Also, on Street Justice, not automatically going to +3 for the combo system is kind of irrelevant since the combo system feels like it is pretty much always at +3 anyway. Dark Melee feels like a double whammy -- lose all your PBaoe and the best build up variant in the game. Guess what primary my first stalker was? There are a few primaries where it looks mostly like a wash--losing an attack for a better attack in AS: Fiery Melee, Ice Melee, Savage Melee, Stone Melee, Street Justice. And then there are a few that look like pure wins to me: Electric Melee, Radiation Melee, Spines, Staff. I mentioned earlier that I don't generally love damage auras, and Radiation and Spines are made *much* better in my eyes with a fast single target attack. Personally, I love Lightning Clap as a power, but I don't think anyone else on the planet would miss it.

I think: I'd like to get some more melee defense in there, and I would sacrifice some of the global recharge you have in there currently to do it. I think you may be over slotted for endurance recovery, since DNA Siphon and Parasitic Aura are great endurance tools. Here's a quick build I put together. Personally, I would use a bunch of HO/DSOs and boost things to bejebus, but hopefully this keeps to your vision: https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1646&c=732&a=1464&f=HEX&dc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

Cloak of Fear is a power that begs for an HO or a purple set that has Accuracy/Endurance. Fortunately, using a lvl 50 A/E Nightmare and/or Glimpse of the Abyss and +5 boosting it helps a fair amount.

Why not put in bids before logging off and then when you buy them, add them to your inventory before entering the mission? Or are you blowing through your inventory mid mission? If the latter, this is probably not a solution you want, but if you buy a lot of hero or winter packs, there are so many inspiration drops. Now admittedly they are dual and team, and you don't have any control over which ones you get in any given pack, but after opening a lot of packs, you will have a ton of varies inspirations. They are held in your Character Items inventory, which like email are available at all times, even in missions.

Why not use your influence to buy inspirations either from vendors or the AH?

I built mine as a Carnie hunter, and I think it was the first Energy Aura that I took to 50. I've unlocked alpha (I went Vigor for both Endurance and Accuracy help). I don't recall having terrible endurance problems, but that was a while ago so I may have conveniently forgotten about that. So I went with Weapon Mastery rather than Body (Caltrops and Web Grenade). Also, I'm currently a big fan of the Frorce of Will pool and Unleash Potential as a multi-use savior. I would slot Energize and Energy Aura more than you have. Both of these help with endurance a lot, clearly, so getting your recharge as high as possible is always good. I'd prefer end reduction in Entropic Aura over procs. I tend to split Scrapper's Strike 3-3 for the extra defense, but I'm not going to quibble! Cleave, for me is indeed the right place for the Critical Strikes proc, and it's as good a place as any to put in a full set. You should be good with two FF recharges (in Pendulum and Axe Cyclone is where I put them) because as long as you are fighting big crowds, you'll have good odds to activate on every attack.