Story Archer

My recommendation for someone new to Tankers (or Brutes) would be a Willpower/Staff. Willpower offers a nice, smooth leveling experience, in large part due to getting Quick Recovery so early and is very user-friendly, running almost exclusively on Toggles and Auto-Powers. Plus it layers defenses, so you can get a sense of whether you're more into resists, defense, healing, whatever. Staff compliments this by offering earlier AoE's, one of which provides a substantial defensive buff to boot, and you get some really cool and fun animations. I'd equally recommend Willpower/Katana for the exact Same reasons. By the time you get this guy (or gal) leveled up, you'll have learned enough to branch out to more complex or user-intensive options. Willpower/Super Strength is the most fun, most heroic I've ever felt playing - Foot Stomp, particularly with the alternate animation - it just makes you feel... super. The only reason it's not my first recommendation is that Foot Stomp is the tier 9 power, and you have to wait til level 30 to get it... before then, the power set feels somewhat pedestrian (I personally leaned into Cross Punch from the Fighting set) and, as great as Rage is, it also comes a little later and not everyone likes the cool down. Another side consideration is that none of these options have overwhelming animations. For a lot of people, crafting the perfect look is a big part of the fun, and some of the other power sets are either visually unappealing or obscure all that hard work you put into your costume.

In my effort to thoroughly explore and enjoy Tankers, my newest project is Rad/Stone. I have to say that nothing in the game has made me feel as 'Super' as Super Strength has, but with two of those already in the fold, my attention turns now to this pairing. I find that I'm struggling a little bit with how to properly slot some of the powers, not knowing exactly how they function in live-action play (as opposed to the theoretical descriptions). Conceptually, I'm basically focusing on a handful of powerful attacks, slotting most of them with FF procs to accelerate everything else. I don't love the longer animation times but I do really love the hammer for some reason. In most of my builds I try to avoid the Winter event sets out of cost practicality, and keep my purples to a minimum in general. I'm not worried about delving into Incarnates yet. I've posted a screen shot of the build below; some of the things I'm questioning is whether I'm missing out by not taking Ground Zero and whether I'm confusing how I should slot Particle Shielding vs. Radiation Therapy. Single Target damage should be great with Mallet / Mallet / Gloom / Seismic Smash and my crowd control should be fantastic with Fault and Tremor cycling so quickly. Practically speaking, I should have perma-Hasten, along with perma-almost everything else meaningful except for Meltdown which should be up at least half the time. Healing/Absorb/Regen, Recovery and Resistances should all be fine though I admit I'd like to get Psi Res up and have a little higher defenses if I could, particularly S/L. I figure teammates will usually help with the latter, at least. Are there any obvious errors or improvements I could make, and does anyone see any redundant slotting? Thanks in advance for any thoughts! 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

Well if it helps, you are actually responsible for more damage than anyone on the team, possibly for more damage than the entire team combined. Between Siphon Power and Fulcrum Shift you've got the whole team boosted til they're bumping up against the damage cap, they're hitting more often due to your maxed-out Tactics and they're doing it much faster and with less rest because of Speed Boost... in a manner of speaking, that's all YOUR damage. And to be clear, I'm not even discouraging Carrion Creepers, I've just found that they are something which tends to look better on paper than in actual play. I'm 100% certain that other experienced Plant players would tell you exactly the opposite, though - it all comes down to play-style.

I struggled with something similar - it seems like the late game today is basically Tankers and Blasters. Scrappers can be an option if you want to freelance or tend to solo a lot (though Tankers are often still better options for that), while Defenders and Controllers are often relegated to 'tagalong' roles - they can help speed things up, sure, but they certainly aren't needed. My solution was to lean into Kinetics with my Controller in the late game (always welcome on any team) and choosing Plant for the early game since you get Seeds at 8th level and its so ridiculously effective throughout the life of the character. I was on the fence between that and Illusion/Storm, but I'm a bigger fan of /Dark so it's good to hear some positive experiences with it.

Hey all - I wasn't sure if this was better suited for the Controller board or the Guide board, so I chose here, to be among friends 🙂 In the interest of full disclosure, I’m normally a Blaster/Scrapper/Tanker kind of guy. I’ve always kinda figured that the best debuff or control in the game was the death of your opponent and my playstyle followed suit. Still, I’m nothing if not open-minded and after a bit of experimentation, I found two quasi-support characters that I really enjoyed – a Kin/Sonic Defender and a Plant/Fire Dominator. The Defender I liked because it didn’t seem to suffer the diminishing returns of most Defenders when you got to higher levels (sorry guys), since its schtick is less about shoring up what by then are already considerable defenses and more about enabling your allies to kill things (*ahem* - arrest things) even faster. The Dominator, honestly, I played because I had what I thought was a cool concept (enter The Defoliator) and he just ended up being a lot of fun. What I noticed in both characters was that, as I leveled up, one of the two power sets really seemed to outshine the other… even with the -RES, my Defender’s Sonic attacks mattered much less than the ever-loving Kinetic suite and my Dominator’s fire damage was equally little more than an afterthought by the time I’d locked everything up. So, when the time came to take a chance on a straight-up Controller, it seemed to make sense to combine what had become two of my favorite things – Plant Control and Kinetics. What I didn’t realize was that I was about to discover the game had an Easy Mode. The first thing I want to say about this power combination is that it’s incredibly effective all through-out its life. You don’t have to power level yourself into the mid-30’s in order to feel like you’re making a worthwhile contribution and that is a huge appeal to me, especially in an AT that I don’t have a great deal of experience with. The second thing I want to say is that it’s cheap, and this kind of goes hand-in-hand with the first thing. You don’t need purple IO sets to make this engine run. In fact, you don’t really need them at all. In my final post-50 build I do slot a single purple set, and I’ll explain why, but even it isn’t truly necessary. One of the great benefits of this (and getting key powers early) is that you won’t need respec’s to rebuild and redesign your character near as much as you level up. Shown below is the build that I followed, with the only difference being that, once I hit 50, I replaced the Cacophony set in Seeds of Confusion with a set of Coercive Persuasion (more on that later). I’ll include the data chunks at the bottom of the post. Note that this build features something you won’t see very often on a traditional squishy – defenses above the soft-cap for S/L/E as well as for Ranged and AoE. That covers about 95% of what you’re likely to face and your other defenses aren’t too shabby either. Before I get into the individual power selections, I want to say a quick thing about play-style. First off, I built and played this character exclusively as a team player. I didn’t design is to solo and I didn’t design it to deal damage. It could theoretically do both, but I wouldn’t say that would be optimal. My usual fare – Blasters, Scrappers, Tanks, etc. tend to be about finding your optimal attack chain, toggling on your defenses and then just turning into a hammer looking for a nail. Support-type characters, Controllers in particular, tend to give you a much wider array of options and tools, and I’ve found that this diversity can often work against you. Whether it’s option paralysis, spreading your enhancement slots too thin or using abilities that are redundant, either with your own powers or that of your teammates, it can be very difficult to function efficiently. The fix to that is to figure out what your priorities are, what handful of things you do best, and then lean hard into them. By focusing on a more limited subset of your abilities, you can get incredibly efficient and effective with them. In the case of this particular power set, it’s pretty straight forward most of the time. For standard mobs, you open with Seeds of Confusion, which is your game changer and should be up every fight. Then you position yourself best for Siphon Power/Fulcrum Shift (which should also be up every fight). Once that’s done you focus on holding the big threats while keeping an eye on the team's Health and Endurance bars so that you can drop a timely Transfusion or Transference – this can be tough to do as your party gets spread out, so it takes practice and focus to do it well. Don't be shy about it either - your heals have to hit in order to function and you never know when you'll get that one crucial miss. Between fights you reapply Speed Boost and Increase Density, all while letting your team benefit from your Leadership toggles. That’s pretty much it. Anything else you might try to do will rarely be of more benefit to your team or the fight. With all that in mind, these are my thoughts on the powers of each set and why I chose (and didn’t choose) what I did. Plant Control: Entangle – Single-target Immobilize. Since this character isn’t made for soloing and isn’t made for damage, I skipped this power. Strangler – Single-target Hold. This is your straight-up bread and butter when it comes to single targets. After tossing Seeds your best bet is to find troublesome Lt’s that got missed or, more often, start locking down bosses by spamming this power. With the Lockdown IO set you’ve got a chance for an increased magnitude with every cast and it can almost be an attack chain all by itself so you can stack it really quick on multiple targets. Roots – AoE Immobilize. A lot of Controllers use their AoE Immob. Power to set up Containment but again, since this character isn’t built for damage, I didn’t take it. The need for it is a lot less than other controllers because you get Seeds so early and the Immobilize effect can actually hurt your team’s effectiveness by preventing the useful ‘clumping’ that often comes with mass confusion. Spore Burst – AoE Sleep. It might be worth taking – MIGHT be – if you weren’t about to get Seeds at 8th level. Seeds of Confusion – AoE Confuse. The signature power of the Plant Control set and arguably one of the very best powers in the game. It’s got a wide 50’ cone, it’ strong enough to affect most lieutenants, it recharges quickly enough to be up every fight and usually lasts longer than the fight itself takes. It could legitimately be a tier 9 power but you get it at 8th level. Literally, if all you did was run around and toss out Seeds of Confusion at the opening of every fight, you’d already have earned our place on the team. Seeds of Confusion is the only power that I recommend absolutely slotting with a purple IO set, specifically Coercive Persuasion and that’s because of the Contagious Confusion proc. Yeah, it also gives you 5% ranged defense and +10% global recharge, but Contagious Confusion takes a power that’s already almost OP and cranks it up to 11. Basically it makes everyone affected by the power get its own proc’ing Confuse aura, hitting foes that might have been missed by the initial cast and letting magnitude stack exponentially on all of them. It’s just ridiculous. Spirit Tree – AoE healing pet. From what I can tell, most Plant trollers skip this. I took it to mule a Preventive Medicine proc for me, but I only ever use it if we’re going to be in a stationary fight against a hard target like an Arch Villain or a Giant Monster. Every little bit helps. I would like this power better if, instead of (or in addition to) healing it granted resistance to mezzes or to debuffs. Vines – AoE Hold. This is your typical brief-duration, long-recharge area Hold. In the build below I chose this over Carrion Creepers so that I could slot it with another set of Lockdown and to give me second a Hold I could immediately stack on top of Strangler. It makes for a good ‘oh crap’ button for when that ambush comes or someone accidentally pulls another mob and Seeds hasn’t recharged yet. Carrion Creepers – AoE chaos. In what is sure to be the most unpopular decision with this build, I skipped this power. That is NOT to say that you necessarily should because for a lot of people it’s the signature power (and certainly the most visually recognizable power) in the entire set. I personally don’t take it because, again, the build isn’t designed to solo or be a primary damage-dealer and I’ve found that it’s never a difference maker so much as it just something extra going on in the background - and that’s when I remember to use it. Again, it’s not that it’s not a potentially great power, but it so often ends up just being superfluous… you open every fight with Seeds, then you fire off Fulcrum Shift, then you start spamming Strangler on Bosses or healing your teammates – by the time you get around to spending a quarter of your endurance to drop CC with its slow-proc’ing damage, the group has already defeated the mob and started to move on to the next However, if you’re one of the great many who love this power and find it indispensable, I’d suggest taking it in place of Vines and slotting this way: three Bombardment IO’s (Acc/Rech/End, Acc/Dmg/Rech/End and the damage proc) as well as the Ice Mistral’s Torment damage proc, the Impeded Swiftness damage proc and the Trap of the Hunter damage proc. If you do that and then move the enhancement slot from Siphon Speed to Super Speed (slotting it with a second Blessing of the Zephyr), you’ll get your Ranged & AoE defenses at 43.3%, which is still more than respectable. I’d also suggest doing a little research regarding how CC actually works – it’s more nuanced than you’d think. Fly Trap – Mediocre Troller pet. I primarily take this for the Blood Mandate IO set, which gives 3.75% AoE defense and 4.6% Ranged defense. I summon it at the beginning of a door mish or whenever we’re about to fight a major threat, but then I pretty much ignore it. It helps out, it does what it does, but you’ll usually only notice it when it pulls aggro from a mob it wasn’t supposed to. Again, if I were soloing with this character, I’d likely view it quite differently. Kinetics: Transfusion – Targeted AoE Heal. This is one of the strongest heals in the game, tempered only by the fact that you have to hit an enemy for it to go off. I usually target this through whoever is running in to take the alpha and fire it off immediately as back-up for them. Like many of the Kinetics powers, you’ll only benefit from it if you’re in close to the target, which is one reason why having a high AoE defense is important. The ancillary effect of draining its target of endurance and reducing their regeneration briefly is minor enough that you’re unlikely to ever notice it. Siphon Power – Targeted Damage Buff/Debuff. This is a pretty standard ability that you’ll be using for the entire life of the character, even after you get Fulcrum Shift. It reduces the target’s damage by about 25% while giving all of your nearby allies a 20% damage buff. It lasts for a good 30 seconds too, meaning that you’ll often have two or more up at once. Repel – Point-Blank AoE Knockback. There are a handful of niche players who love this ability but it’s generally not worth taking. You can do some fun things with it, but it’s usually just a chaos-inducing Endurance hog. Siphon Speed – Targeted Slow & Recharge Buff. This is another one of your standard abilities, especially in the early going. It reduces the target’s recharge by 20% and buffs yours for the same amount for 60 seconds while also giving you a degree of super speed. If nothing else it will let you keep up with your speed-boosted allies during missions. Increase Density – Targeted Buff. Increased Density is the under-appreciated little brother of the much-loved Speed Boost, and you’ll usually be applying them back-to-back whenever your group is standing still. Slotted as-is, it will grant your allies 30% resistance to Smashing and Energy (two of the most common damage types) as well as resistance to KB, Immobilization, Holds and Stuns. Your ‘roided out melee types may not notice it very much but for the squishies on your team it can mean the difference between staying in the fight or face-planting. Speed Boost – Targeted Buff. Speed Boost alone would get you invited to a team when you otherwise might not. Like Seeds of Confusion it’s one of the two signature powers of its set, granting a degree of super speed, a 50% recharge bonus and a substantial boost in Recovery. It also grants resistance to Slow effects, which everybody hates. Basically, it makes everything go faster and goes a long way towards accelerating the completion of whatever story arc or task force you’ve joined. Inertial Reduction – Point-Blank AoE Travel Power. This power might be worth taking if you got access to it early enough that it could replace the need to take a travel power for you or your allies, but by the time you get to it, everyone should already be covered. Transference – Targeted AoE Recovery Buff. With Speed Boost your allies shouldn’t really need this, but you likely will. Slotted as-is, you can completely refill your Endurance bar every 10-12 seconds if need be. Fulcrum Shift – The Grand-daddy of them all, one of the most powerful abilities in the game and the signature power of the Kinetics set. You’ll probably fire this off every fight immediately after dropping Seeds. This power will usually have the rest of the team at the damage cap, which is why you don’t really need an attack yourself – half the damage your team is doing is already because of you! Keep in mind the way the damage buff works is that some of it occurs around the targets affected while some of it occurs around you, s you’ll get the best effect when everyone is up close and personal allowing the buffs to stack. Mace Mastery: Poisonous Ray – This single-target attack deals a little damage and will reduce the target’s defense and damage resistance. I keep it in my back pocket for AV/GM fights and pretty much forget about it otherwise. Mainly it’s taken as a pre-requisite for the other powers in the set. Scorpion Shield – Fantastic toggle armor that gives great defense against the most common damage types, Smashing, Lethal & Energy. It also grants some resistance to toxic damage. Summon Tarantula – Tarantula, like Fly Trap and Poisonous Ray, is a power that I usually only whip out in AV/GM fights, but – like Fly Trap – serves as a mule for the Blood Mandate IO set. Two full Blood Mandate sets give +7.5% defense to both Ranged and AoE. Fighting Pool: If you add up the benefits of the actual powers taken as well as the way they’re slotted here (and toss in the slotting for Increase Density as well), you end up with +13% total defense to go along with an additional +3.75% to S/L defense, an additional +9.25% to AoE defense and about 30% resistance to S/L damage. That’s not bad for a power pool and a buff that doesn’t even affect you. Leadership Pool: Maneuvers tops off your defense and Tactics makes sure all of those need-to-hit-to-function powers actually land. Plus they benefit your team and give you slotting mules for some pretty good IO sets. Leaping Pool/Speed Pool: You could take either Super Speed or Super Jump here – I usually prefer SJ but Super Speed fit the concept better. Hasten is an auto-take Hasten for obvious reason while Combat Jumping adds to your defense and compliments Super Speed. Hope this guide helps some of you guys out and if you try this build and enjoy it, please pop back in to let me know. If any old pro's see something that's incorrect or disagree with my choices, please feel free to chime in - there's always more to learn, especially from experienced hands. Data Chunk: 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

I can't find it - when does the Winter Event end?

A lot of really good advice on here - some of it I actually understand. I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond.

So I just dinged 50, all IO'd up (no purps though, and nothing on the incarnate track) and I'm sitting here with just under 1,000 merits. A lot of the higher-level aspects of this game (crafting, merits, incarnates, even the in's and out's of basic task forces) are far from intuitive or user-friendly, especially for someone relatively new to it. I've mastered the auction house and I'm pretty strong when it comes to character builds, but I've never so much as crafted an enhancement, and I'm always on the fence as to whether I should just take the deep dive necessary to become proficient with all this stuff when I really just want to PLAY... so I'm here to ask you, in the simplest, easiest to understand and implement terms, what should I do with all these merits? I'm presuming that the best use of them is to turn them into Influence somehow, which could definitely benefit one of my many other characters, but I'm also open to the idea that that might be 100% wrong. 1,000 merits (give or take). What should I do with them?

Corrosive Vial isn't auto-hit, like a Burn patch?

Just to be certain I understand what you're saying... 1) an AV at even level, for example, has a 7.5% chance to hit no matter how high your defense is or what level of -ToHit they may have. 2) If they are NOT even level, their minimum chance to hit goes up or down based purely on level differential, but is still not affected by higher levels of defense to -ToHit... meaning that in a vacuum, a 42.5% defense provides the max benefit that you can get against any AV, regardless of what relative level they are to you and regardless of what their actual minimum chance to hit you is.

Thanks for the responses. I'm trying to settle on Gloom/Darkest Night or Focused Accuracy/Physical Perfection with the usual procs.

I'm not 100% sure how ToHit works vs. accuracy & defense, I remember reading a breakdown on it a while back but it was nuanced enough that I don't remember it very clearly. The basic question is this: If I have capped defenses, as I understand it, I don't get any additional benefit from MORE defense, apart from mitigating a degree of -Def debuffs... the people who were going to hit me 5% of the time still hit me 5% of the time whether my defense is 45% or 75%. But if I layer -ToHit on top of that, say with something like Darkest Night, then how often I get hit WILL be reduced, even if I'm capped on defense. Is that correct? I'm asking because I'm weighing taking Darkest Night for a Super Reflexes tanker, but the question applies across the board for any toon looking at how to layer their defenses.

One of Willpower's greatest 'strengths' is the relatively smooth leveling process and it's ease of play compared to some other sets. It's what I'd recommend to a starting Tanker for sure and it's a solid set all throughout the lifetime of the build. It offers the most layered protection and gives you the greatest chance to benefit from any buffs an ally might grant. The lack of -End, -Rec and -Def are its biggest weaknesses and you don't generally even feel the effects of that until you get into late-game content. I've run a Will/DM, a Will/SS and a Will/Katana and enjoyed them all.

This is what I wasn't getting, that the two are the same effect, just of different magnitude but it makes perfect sense.

Yeah, what you're describing isn't problematic at all. I'm talking about AoE effects that deal marginal damage but send the entire group of guys flying . That's a bit of a pain, especially when it happens just as my Footstomp or other AoE's are cued up and about to fire.

Very helpful, thank-you.

1) How necessary is KB to KD for play at the higher levels? As a Tank I've been driven mad at lower levels with my carefully gathered mobs getting blown all over the map, but looking at slotting I've things I'd much rather use that Foot Stomp slot for than KB/KD. It seems to me that higher level foes automatically convert KB to KD but I'm not sure how that works - is it some sort of scaling reduction based on their resistance to KB? If anybody can explain to me how that works (or point me in the direction of an explanation) I'd much appreciate it, but my main question is, if you're consistently battling +2 content or higher, can you expect most KB to be converted to KD regardless? 2) What's better for a medium Health Tank, +1.5% Resist all or 25% regen? TIA!

I've had a similar experience - I pretty much gave up Redside play after a while and I suspect that many have done the same for the same reasons... meaning that if everyone who had switched to Blue because Red was dead had chosen to stay, Red side might not be nearly as quiet. Perhaps we should make some sort of community effort to lead a Redside renaissance? Additionally, the game has a lot fewer new members than it had in the day - I only recently rediscovered that it had come back myself - and with vets making up such a high percentage of players, there seems to be a lot more 50+ / Farming / Incarnate activity than anything else, with most characters just power-leveled up to where the vets don't feel constrained by the more traditional grind. That can make people trying to play through actual content feel pretty lonely at times too, especially those stricken with sever alt-itis like myself, so I feel you. At the end of the day if we want there to be change, we can't wait around for it, we have to make it ourselves, so you'll probably be happier if you get outside of your comfort zone a little bit and try to invite other players, as suggested above. The one thing that hasn't changed is the incredible (and in my opinion unique) spirit of helpfulness and community that the players in this game share.

From what I can tell, increasing your Jump Height doesn't necessarily increase the speed at which you travel, correct? Combat Jumping seems to work that way, increasing height but not speed. Since I already have Super Jump and Combat Jumping, I think I'm going to use that extra power slot to pick up Infiltration instead. I overlooked it initially because this is on a tank who rarely has need for Stealth, but it would be nice to have that option without having to slot Sprint for it, the IO slot makes for a nice LotG mule and it seems like it is far and away the best choice when it comes to getting from A to B faster. Agree? Kind of off-topic, but something that's been bothering me - I've got Combat Jumping slotted with the Kimet +ToHit Unique. In Mids, when I toggle off CJ, I lose that bonus but 1) I don't lose the bonuses of anything else slotted there (like LotG) and 2) I don't lose the Kismet bonus if I have it in any other toggle power that's turned off. Do you know if this is just an error in Mids or is there something buggy in the game that actually makes it work that way?

I don't necessarily disagree under most circumstances, but with Fold Space to gather my enemies into melee range, Gauntlet and numerous AoE powers, it just seemed redundant here. My mindset as a Tanker is often to take the alpha and then make sure that I hold the aggro for the most dangerous, hardest-hitting foes while using what mitigation I might have to keep the other mobs under control (Like Cloak/Touch of Fear or the KD from Foot Stomp). Often times positioning is every bit as important as getting them to focus their attentions on you (like getting on the far side of foes with cone effects). I also tend to have the mindset that, by the levels in which I'm able to do what I do effectively, my allies will have put together builds competent enough to survive the occasional attack from whatever might get past me. I also agree with you on Brutes taking it, if only because it helps them build and maintain Fury... but not all Brutes are built to take that much attention. Many simply play them as Scrappers with a higher health bar, but to be fair, I've been guilty of playing my tanks the same way.

I'm sure that's where the confusion stemmed from. Thanks again.

I'm sorry to beat this horse, but after reading through the thread, I'm still a little confused and you've been very helpful with your other responses. Putting this question as simply as I can (cuz I'm a simple guy), On a Willpower Tank I've got Quick Recovery and of course Stamina. I have each of those powers slotted with a Power Transfer +Heal proc and a Performance Shifter +End proc (I also have a Panacea proc in Health and a Preventive Medicine proc in an always-on RtoC). Slotted as they are, am I losing anything when it comes to the individual effectiveness of the IO's listed, or are they all working just fine independent of one another? If there is no conflict or diminishing returns, was this a problem before that has since been corrected, or was it never an issue as far as you know? Thank you so much, your guides have given a great deal of clarity to myself and I'm sure many others.

Thank you guys for the responses. It seems to me that it's kind of a dud, at least compared to some of the other options. Does a standard Jump IO offer some benefit? I know that Mighty Leap takes them, but if its a power that enhances other powers I'm not sure the bonus transitions.

It's bizarre, I literally cannot find anything on this set in Google or searching these forums. I'm just trying to figure out what the Increased Jump Height unique from that set actually does (As opposed to what a typical Jump enhancement would do). Does it basically just increase your time in the air? With the inherent Double Jump ability, I'm not sure what benefit that really offers... I've already got Super Jump and I have a free power slot, so I was trying to figure out what I should put there and how to slot it. I thought maybe Mighty Leap (for thematic reasons) and I was looking at the Launch IO's - just can't figure out what practical benefit this unique IO offers.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.