Story Archer

I'm planning out a Will/DM Tanker and I'm looking at three different places that I can slot these two procs (Stamina, Quick Recovery and Physical Perfection). They aren't unique so it seems to me to be a pretty effective way to load up on free healing and endurance. Don't know how much I'll need it with everything else going on but it seems like a pretty good use of the slots. Technically I've never actually played with multiples of these two before - is this going to work the way I think it's going to work? Any reason why I shouldn't do this?

I've had a lot of trouble finding any kind of guide or power breakdown myself - just new or is the power set unpopular for some reason?

Gotcha. Good advice, thanks. How have people slotted this in the past - with anything at all? (asking whoever might be reading)

lol - I'm not entirely sure if this is an endorsement or a warning... are wider toggles poorer options for procs?

So I'm working on my Fire/Cold/Fire build and I'm trying to decide the best way of slotting up Frigid Protection - 30' is a big aura to take advantage of. Initially I was just going to go with an EndMod and the Chance to Stun from Energy Manipulator and use the slots elsewhere, but now I'm wondering if trying to proc it out might be the better way to go. Something like this: Frigid Protection Impeded Swiftness - Chance for Smashing damage Ice Mistral's Torment - Chance for Cold damage Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Energy damage Energy Manipulator - Chance to Stun And possibly even Theft of Essence - Chance for +Endurance Performance Shifter - Chance for +Endurance Am I putting too much attention on this power or is it something that I REALLY need to be taking advantage of? How have you guys slotted it, and how high of a priority should I be placing on it - say, over slotting Bonfire? TIA.

That's the way I'll go, then. Thanks for the advice!

So your advice would be to keep (and slot) Flares and Fire Blast? I actually feel a little better about that due to Defiance (I tend to play more 1-50 than post-50), I just hated wasting a power slot. Selecting and slotting Spirit Ward the way you suggest would seem to keep it from being a total waste, even if it pushes Rune back from L20 to L24.

Good evening, my friends. I'm putting together a Fire/Ice/Fire Blaster and I intend to take the Sorcery Pool - I like Flying, I think Rune of Protection is a great power for a Blaster and the magic theme fits the character well. Of course, that means that I need to take an additional Sorcery power which means in all likelihood Arcane Bolt. Since I'm probably taking it anyway, I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and use it in place of Flares or Fire Blast as far as devoting enhancement slots to and using in my attack chain (with the other, Blaze and Blazing Bolt). According to MIDS it deals more damage than either of the other two, but of course its recharge is (a little) longer and the activation time is cumbersome to say the least. So, do I take Arcane Bolt and forget about it, or do I save a power slot by replacing Flares or Fire Blast with it?

Excellent - thank you so much.

I'm looking at the Mids tools, trying to figure out the Pet IO sets a little bit: Pet Damage category Edict of the Master +Def Sovereign Right +Res Recharge Intensive Pets category Expedient Reinforcement +Res Call to Arms +Def I assume that these Uniques buff the pet, not the character that summoned it, correct? I'm guessing that's the case since 1) it'd be WOW and 2) none of the numbers move on Mids when I slot them.

G’day, all. I’ve newly rediscovered CoH (crazy happy to see it alive and well) and I’ve decided to rebuild a character concept I always loved but never really got to level up – Plant/Fire/Fire Dom (The Defoliator!). I’ve been playing around in Mids and what has struck me most is the wide array of options available on which to base your playstyle. Obviously it’s great to have options, but I’m struggling with what to focus on… sure, eventually everything will be slotted to try and take advantage of sets for the collective set bonuses, but as far as what I’m actually going to USE the lion’s share of the time, I’m simply not sure which way to go and thus, how to build for it. FWIW, I’m probably going to play this character solo at least 50% of the time with the rest of his play limited to small groups – Controllers/Dominators have never felt particularly useful on those steam-rolling 8-man power leveling teams, and I have characters much better suited for them anyway. I'm one of those oddballs who tends to enjoy actually playing through content rather than power-leveling, and post-50 play for me is more of a reward than my sole driving motivation. My first thought is to lean heavily into what I consider to be a (the?) jewel of the set, Seeds of Confusion by level 8. Do I take advantage of that, hit Fire Breath and then run in and mix it up with Incinerate and Combustion or sit back with Carrion Creepers, Rain of Fire and Fireball? Should I build Roots for damage and use it as a follow-up to Seeds before the AoE barrage? Is there a time when Seeds starts to become unreliable or impractical? Is Vines really worth it? Sure it stacks with Strangler and locks down groups but it doesn't deal damage, has an incredibly long recharge time and it seems like I'd get just as much benefit out of Seeds, not to mention the clumping effect Confusion tends to get you. Do I spend any time at all building up and buffing Fly Trap with Leadership or is that simply not enough return on investment? What about putting together a strong single-target attack chain with Strangler, Fire Blast, the new-and-improved Bolt and Blaze? How much defense is too much defense? Is Fire Shield adequate for someone who shouldn’t be in the line of fire very often, or do I need to go the Fighting line? If I do, with all those toggles, does Consume become a priority, and if I’m running in to use that, should I reconsider including Combustion & Incinerate as follow-ups? Sure, not every plan works best for every situation, and, like I said, it’s good to have options, but at the moment I’m just not sure what direction to focus my attentions. At the moment I don’t plan on taking Entangle, Spore Burst or Spirit tree, I know that. I’m on the fence between Incinerate and Flares, trying to decide between a ranged attack chain or focusing on melee. Don’t know how badly I’ll need Consume yet and I’m not currently planning on taking a travel power, just (probably) Combat Jumping + a prestige run with the Jetpack as a back-up. As I said, I’m really looking for advice on tactics and play-style, more than any sort of end-game build since I can always respec into that when the time comes. TIA for any insight - I'm really looking forward to trying this character out.

I'm assuming that Phantasm benefits from everything, like a normal pet, but what about Phantom Army? Does it benefit from Leadership? What about buffs, like a Kin's Siphon Power or Speed Boost? And, finally, do you still not gain experience from mobs defeated by the PA? TIA, just trying to get a handle on the best way to build/plan for an Illusion Controller (my first one).

Thank you for taking the time to respond at length. I think I'm going to go with Sonic/SR - it might be a bit boring compared to some of the other defensive sets, but I've played a SR Scrapper and Brute and it always seemed like the best defense was simply not getting hit. I'd like to see how this version of it plays. A quick look at Mids tells me that it's pretty easy to soft cap, leaving time to attend to making the most of my attack chains. Question about Master Brawler though - what actual Mez protection does it provide? Mids doesn't tell me anything...

I feel really good using Shadow Maul, which is what drew me to Cross Punch in the first place - using them back-to-back seems like a great way to clear out the minions in a set that doesn't have much going for it AoE-wise... if you take Kick and Punch, it reads as a base 69 damage compared to Shadow Maul's considerable 90 damage plus it has the chance to Knock Down and Stun foes. Seems like a worthwhile inclusion to me, but I've never actually used it, so I can't say for sure. If there are better AoE attack options which would compliment the playstyle as well, out there I'm certainly open to them. I've already got more than 5 LOTG's in my slotted build, so I don't think I can get the benefit of another one. I did take TP as a quicker 'get there from here', though I've found the free prestige powers adequate for 95% of my movement and team teleport on PUG's usually take care of the rest. I probably would have just taken Teleport Target there instead but I wanted a spot for the Blessing of the Zephyr Knock-Back IO, just in case.

Greetings all - newly returned player here looking to build my first Sentinel. My playstyle (for ranged characters at least) is one that lends itself to standing back rather than getting into the thick of things and I prefer less actively managed defenses so that I can focus on my offensive set-up. Figure this character will be 50/50 solo play and random pick-up groups. I've been parsing through the various primaries and I've decided that I want to lean into a cone-centric Sonic build, stacking Sleep and KB effects to keep the baddies out in front of me, so now I'm trying to find a secondary set that will compliment it mechanically, compliment my playstyle and hopefully allow me to find some sort of theme-based synergy I can use on the character concept (in that order of priority). [EDIT: Am I reading this right, that Sentinel Sonic Blast only Debuffs Res by about 9.5% while Blasters debuff it at 13%?] First thoughts: Bio-Armor seems... complicated. Dark Armor looks interesting, but flavor-wise it doesn't seem like a good match, and it does seem to encourage close-range interactions. Electric Armor seems like a very strong candidate due to its 'fire and forget' nature. Feels like a lot of toggles running at once, but Power Sink should help. How useful is Power Surge? Energy Aura - is it me or does this seem VERY similar to Electric Armor? Fiery Aura - I like the self-heal, self-end and self-rez options a lot and the damage bonus is the icing on the cake. An early leader despite its occasional need to interact with nearby foes. Ice Armor is another very strong candidate for me, though I generally hate the animations. Is there no downside to Icy Bastion other than a long recharge time? Invulnerability - for some bizarre and utterly indefensible reason, I've never cared for Invulnerability defensive sets. The need to be up close to take advantage of Invincible seems like a disqualifier. Ninjitsu - I can never seem to remember what each power does due to the names. Seems like a cop-out, I know, but it throws me off. Radiation Armor - I don't have any thoughts about it one way or another (no experience at all), but it doesn't seem too popular on the boards. Regeneration - Filled with auto and toggle powers that don't require me to close with baddies, on the surface this seems ideal to what I'm looking for... but I get the impression it'll let me down in tougher boss fights. Really on the fence about this one, so any anecdotal experiences would be much appreciated. Stone Armor - Despite its popularity on melee sets, I've never been much of a Stoner, probably due to the animations more than anything. Should I reconsider that bias for Sentinel-style play? Super Reflexes - A favorite of mine on melee toons, and the addition of Enduring seems like it really helps shore up the entire set. I like that none of the powers are dependent on me closing with my enemies, but I'm not sure I get the Master Brawler/Practiced Brawler dichotomy thing. What are the arguments against this set - is there an AoE hole with no Lucky? Willpower - Another favorite in melee sets and another very strong candidate for me. Does Up to the Challenge remove the enemy proximity requirement of Rise to the Challenge? I do worry a little bit about the set collapsing under the weight of debuffs, though. I'm really looking forward to reading any and all thoughts on this. Sentinel is a totally new concept for me and I'm trying to get my mind around the best way to approach it, not defaulting to a Blaster mindset though I suspect that I will play them similarly, at least at first. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read through this and, of course, for any responses.

Really appreciate the comments - any thoughts about backing up Shadow Maul with Cross Punch? I never see Cross Punch show up in any builds.

Thanks for responding - I'm only in my late 20's right now, but I'm constantly encountering Endurance issues only to get bailed out by DC - I'm not sure I could afford dropping it AND adding additional toggles (on top of Tough/Weave). Soft Cap shouldn't be a problem once I start slotting IO's. I'm definitely aggressive when it comes to slotting for Accuracy. FWIW, this is my primarily solo'ing character.

This isn't about slotting IO's or anything like that, I'm looking for some thoughts about the power pool/ancillary choices that I'm making. Sorry, I can't get Mids to export so I'm just typing it up. 1) Smite 1) Focused Fighting 2) Focused Senses 4) Shadow Maul 6) Boxing 😎 Siphon Life 10) Practiced Brawler 12) Hasten 14) Agile 16) Dodge 18) Dark Consumption 20) Evasion 22) Soul Drain 24) Lucky 26) Midnight Grasp 28) Quickness 30) Tough 32) Weave 35) Gloom 38) Darkest Night 41) Combat Jumping 44) Cross Punch 47) Kick 49) Teleport Alright, thoughts and questions: I took the Soul Mastery Epic Pool for two reasons: I wanted to add fast-animating Gloom to my single-target attack chain and I felt like Darkest Night was the perfect compliment for SR. Is the latter assumption correct, or am I getting diminishing returns from combining high Defense with -Hit DeBuffs? Right now, once I get my recharge up, I'm basically thinking Smite -> Gloom -> alternating Midnight Grasp and Siphon Life for a single-target attack chain and Shadow Maul -> Cross Punch - >Alternating Midnight Grasp and Siphon Life for my multi-attack chain. Taking Boxing and Kick gives Cross Punch a +30% damage bonus, and even though its cone is narrower than Shadow Maul, the two seem to work well together once I've got the baddies bunched up. Is there anything in the above thinking that is a red flag to vets?

Obviously I need to do a deeper dive on some of this - I appreciate the patient replies and the good advice. I'll definitely take advantage of it.

Alright, first off, that is an incredibly useful site that you linked for me there, should help stave off any number of future inane questions - once I've figured out how to interpret it. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. Chilling Embrace is what I remember, the 'sustain' powers not so much. Looking at the Activation vs. Standard Effects shown and the 'Child Effects' listed, how do I put that in relatable terms? I'm still trying to get my mind around the 'Absorb' (vs. Heal) terminology... the Absorb and Recovery effects are listed twice - are those two separate effects that essentially stack concurrently or is it just repeating itself? If the ability is a Toggle, what do the 12s and 3s durations signify (as well as the 5s duration in the Standard Effects listed below)? If the character had absolutely no other abilities or effects currently affecting them, what would the measurable Absorb and Recovery benefit actually be, relative to the character's baseline? Looking at Mids (and assuming that it's accurate), with both abilities unenhanced, it looks like the Recovery benefit is roughly twice that of Stamina, but there's no visible effect on Regeneration. And what is the point of a Toggle that doesn't cost Endurance? Why not simply make it an Auto power, unless that would require too much recoding? I remember back in the day mezzes could shut down your toggles, but that doesn't seem to be the case any more. Thanks in advance - I'm not trying to be dense, I promise you. If I can understand the terminology being used here, I should be able to extrapolate that when looking up other abilities and be less of a bother on the boards.

I get the impression that it used to be something entirely different from what it is now - is that the case? Mids doesn't really explain it and I'm not entirely sure that their data for it is accurate. Can someone walk me through how the power works and what its actual mechanical benefits are?

Yes, common IO, not the full sets. I figured as much - thank you for the response.

Right now I'm using SO enhancements, but I'm getting into my early to mid 20's and I'm looking at diving into IO's. With SO's I can simply pay a fee to raise the effective level of all of my enhancements across the board. Can I do that with IO's as well, raising their effective level by paying a single fee? I know that they don't expire with level but they don't improve either and as a newer player I don't quite have the crafting system down yet. I wanted to see if I could save some money and (potentially wasted) effort by simply upgrading the IO's once I've bought them

It may be that a proper treatise has been written on this already and if that's the case I'd really appreciate someone pointing me towards it. I haven't been able to find anything concreate or comprehensive on the mechanics. What I'm trying to understand is what the numbers mean. What does 40% defense actually mean in terms of how often you would get hit by an even level minion, lieutenant or boss, or how often I would hit them? If it drops to 35%, how much does that change? What would the statistical impact of +10% accuracy be, and would that be any different than a +10% hit buff or a -10% debuff? How do relative levels of the attacker vs. defender affect these numbers? Are there baseline differences for the various AT's? I understand that different specific foes have wildly varying defensive stats, and I'm not trying to be specific to any particular mob, I'm just trying to understand how the numbers interact with all else being equal. Only looking for PvE, if that matters. Thanks in advance for any responses. It makes a big difference when looking at Mids and trying to understand what the numbers actually mean in real time.

As I mentioned, I'm basically focusing on those two now (Kat/WP and DM/SR), and I have no doubt that DeBuffs are going to be the bane of the former. I think I'll just run them both and see which 'feels' better, though I suspect WP will feel better early while SR will feel better late. we'll see. Thanks for the response.