Justisaur

I haven't had a blaster since before CoV (I remember a fire/dev and an Ar/dev, neither got to high level.) it and Tanker are the only ATs I haven't tried again on Homecoming. I'd like to give each a try, If I'm going for a blaster, I tend to prefer more well rounded characters (Main a Bane) I'm not at all familiar with most of the secondaries, only Dev, and I gather it's changed since then, and only somewhat familiar with primaries from doing corruptors/defenders. I'd prefer something that's a bit more balanced between ST& AoE, has some debuffs (or can slot procs that debuff) that are still useful in endgame, and a snipe. I think I'd prefer something that's mostly ranged, but not absolutely married to the idea. Decent defenses, and end. Then as much damage as all that allows me 🙂 Any suggestions?

Accuracy from set bonuses and from CT:O is accuracy, TT:L and L:T are both actually +to hit, which is far more valuable, accuracy is multiplicative off of what to hit you have, so you need a lot of it if you don't have any +to hit, as you start off at 39% for +4 content, and 100% (105% on some) accuracy. You need an additional +144% accuracy to hit the cap of 95% to hit from that point. Now if you put in a kismet +6 (says accuracy, but it's actually +to hit) you start at 45% you now only need +112% accuracy, that's a bit much normally from just sets, but with enhancements is really easy to get, and you may be there on many powers just from having to take some accuracy for set bonuses. If we add TT:L for another 10% you're at 55% to hit and only need +73% accuracy, which should be easily achievable just through set bonuses. Even with just TT:L you're at 49% to start, and that means you need +94% accuracy which is also achievable. You can of course not use a kismet and just enhance TT:L which will get you close to that +73%, or do both for a bit more over for some more -to hit leeway. Speaking of to hit debuffs, CT:O it's only +10% accuracy, about what you get from a TO, which isn't going to make much difference except a little before 22, but it does also have +33% resistance to -to hit debuffs, so it may be valuable for that. TT:L is pretty valuable, especially if you put Guassian's proc in it for more damage, and for your team for +to hit. Going both TT:L and Leadership: Tactics is way overkill, except perhaps before getting sets when leveling, though I found it too much end to use unless you're with a kin or someone giving you +end. I did that leveling, and only once found it useful, when some poor lv 26 noobie had started a lv 30 TF and we had to fight through it against +4s, Unfortunately it eventually tossed us against +6s and it was just too much for all the +to hit to overcome. In retrospect, it might have been better not to have all that +to hit, and failed earlier so we could restart with someone else who was 30+ leading.

I think it's "Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed" or something like that. It's the last one if you look up Luck of the Gambler on the /ah for level 1, They typically costs around 7m each, so you'll know when you see that price, the other LotG enhancements are around 3-5m.

Level 1 is easier. That's why the level 1 single boss/eb farms exist in AE, even going from level 1 to level 4 makes a marked difference in kill times. The mobs have relatively less hp at level 1, and you get 95% base to hit at level 1 against same level mobs. Both of those slowly get worse as you level. The origin attack powers also do considerably more damage at level 1, and actually decrease as you level. Then if you take the prestige attack powers, you'll have 5x the attacks the game is balanced for.

I thought those were incarnate threads.

If you aren't farming/ on a tf sort by rarity and dump those into /ah first. I think it will still retain the previous sorting when you change to rarity, or at least it looked like it, so sort by quantity descending then rarity descending, then delete as much as you want below the oranges. I too would greatly like having a way to turn off white/yellow salvage, though I don't farm, as I'll often find myself on a TF or something where I can't sell the garbage on the /ah and have to start deleting stacks when I've gotten too full.

I'd suggest doing Lore and Destiny T3s next after Alpha T3 as those both give level shifts in DA/Incarnate trials.

I change alignment to Rogue, it's a little harder, since most folks are blue, and you have to be in a blue zone or the zone their in to get an invite, but I get all the villain side stuff. As to 'not feeling like a villain' there's plenty of missions where you do or have the choice. There's an early one where there's another villain who's injured in a burning longbow base, you can choose to kill him, leave him to die, or rescue him. Also the mayhem missions are way more fun than safeguards, they're kind of like playing GTA with superpowers.

At least you'll know how important you are to your team when it happens. If they all suddenly die or are barely surviving, you know they need you, on the other hand it's kind of disheartening when no one notices you're 'gone'. It always seems to happen at the worst times for me, never when I'm just traveling through a lower level zone.

45 Alts on Torchbearer, that's not counting the 20 some odd I have on Justin. I haven't tried blaster or tanker again, but all the other ATs I have. Some things seem good, but I just can't sustain interest in them, or hit a road-bump with them and just put them aside. There's only one, one I lost interest in, a Crab... that I renamed and respeced into Bane, that I love. I always go back to her. I never tried a Bane live as they sounded like a bad copy of stalker - which couldn't be further from how it plays, it plays like a melee damage and debuffer with a side of support that's tough as nails. I did have a Crab live, but also stopped shortly after 24 and never switched to bane. I haven't been able to get back into any of my old 50s on live either. I got my old Bots/Storm up to 50 again, but it was PL and still just don't like it anymore. My Plant/Energy Dom, Stone/WP Brute, Sonic/Kin Corruptor, and Nightwidow were my main four, and none do it for me, and haven't made it to 50 again with them. I enjoyed some others but lost interest: TW/Rad Brute- great some times, horrible others, I got to 48, but just couldn't go on any more as it was starting to lean more horrible due to the slow of TW, lucky if I got in an attack that landed before everything was dead on most TFs. I also seem to have trouble soloing with this for some reason. Psi/Ninj Stalker - real fun soloing, until I ran into carnies in ghost window patron arc, I couldn't kill even at -1/x0 no bosses, then started running into robots, that and I kept respecing as I realized all the utitiles in Ninj were garbage and wasted picks. Grav/Time Controller - Great fun, and one I keep thinking of going back to, but I keep thinking in the back of my mind how it's probably pretty bad at high level content where you need fast aoe or strong AV defeating powers, and wormhole won't work on incarnates. Demon/Time MM - Really strong, but has a bit of issue with not visually having a lot indications of what's going on, and feel like I have to be up in the fray tankerminding while trying to herd my demons to stay close at the same time which I find annoying, also starting to have severe end issues.

They're all lumped in one bucket, all rare salvage is one bucket, but in a coronal skip and someone else buys it as an essence of furies. Aren't they? I saw the prices spike for a little bit, and sold a couple for 700k but were back to 500k last I checked.

The dot only checks if the -hp hits, so radial T4 is broken, and actually has the same chance of dot. Needs more testing but that seems to be the way it's working.

Remove their melee attack, decrease cool downs on the insanely long cool down powers. I think that's all it would take.

/dark is really strong with most sets, the only thing I'd worry about with ninjas is since's it's mostly debuffs, they'd get killed by things that aren't in the debuffs, but it's got two controls that would work well with ninjas - the fear, since ninjas are ST they could take them out one by one (if solo) and the stun of course, then there's all the -to hit. You could take presence for more fear, and tankerminding too. There's also the Dark Servant, which would be a great place to put some of the pet globals, I'm not sure about actually using it if solo, since it's got minor damage/dot AoE powers which would make your fear less useful. I did some looking on the wayback, I couldn't find a build, but the consensus seems to be that /dark is probably the best secondary for ninjas besides /time.

Let me go at this the other way: /Dark - Necro. Bots and thugs work too -to hit stacking, or -to hit and +def stacking /Cold - Bots, toughest combo I've tried, good debuffs, more damage with Thugs but misses out on a pet self heal and pet heal. /FF - Bots, probably the only set that doesn't have anything for bots to knock things out of. /Kin - Beasts, /kin prefers melee, Beasts are melee and low damage, /kin boosts damage, Best can cap their own def with enough +rech, /kin provides recharge. Necro or Ninjas for just for fun alts. /Nature - Beasts, keeps beasts up and has good debuffs, should work as well with Demons. /Pain - Demons or Beasts could take most advantage of all the healing, more thematic with Demons, but an evil beast master would fit too. /Poison - Thugs, aoe around bruser, only set I've even heard of working well with /poison. /Rad - Necro maybe since they have some controls to help keep the toggles in one place, Beasts maybe, since they're all melee it'd help keep the toggles together. /Sonic - Demons or Beasts as those are the main res sets to go with res from sonic. Either are thematic, demon screams or beast howls. /Storm - Thugs or Demons for extreme DPS, one of the few that Mercs works well with. /Thermal - Demons for stacking res & -resist, Beasts should work o.k. too. /Time - Ninjas, as this is probably the best thing to try to keep them alive, /time really works well with all primaries. /Traps - Mercs supposedly works well here, Bots to some extent but the kb can be annoying, Thugs works but the melee focused Bruiser doesn't fit all that great. /Trick Arrow - Ninjas maybe, can sleep enemies then kill them one by one. Beasts and Necro maybe as most of the damaging attacks are melee ST. Did I miss any?

So with my Bots/Storm just kind of flailing around and dying to things I could do easily with Bots/Cold, I didn't really feel like another /storm. My Bots/Cold is slow, low damage, and the KB issues means it's either lower damage slotting all of them with kb-kd, or lower damage as things get tossed out of patches, but I liked /cold. So Thugs/Cold perhaps - they lack their own heal, and in my testing with ninja/cold that made keeping them alive harder, and necessitated aid other. Of course Thugs are a lot tougher than ninjas, so perhaps it'd be good. Then I thought demons, perhaps they could be soft capped to def with /cold? If so their resists would just be bonus toughness, and they do have a self heal, and I like them for the whip attacks too, but if they can't be soft capped to def through /cold that might be an issue? But if they can't then perhaps /thermal, I know it works well, but healing a lot doesn't really appeal. There's /sonic which is sort of the resist version of /cold, but I don't ever see anyone taking /sonic, so am wondering if it's just bad, not really equivilent to /cold, or as good as /thermal or if it might be a hidden gem with Demons? There's also Nature with Demons, which seems a good teaming MM set, but it's kind of a hard combo to conceptualize, and all the healing too. Then there's Necro/Kin which was fun to play with on test with only SOs, while kind of average at best, perhaps they could be made good? I'd prefer something that can do the most content overall, especially iTrials.

Just accuracy isn't going to do it against tougher mobs, you need +to hit, not just with Transference, but many of kin's powers. Get tactics if you don't already have it, and find and slot a kismet +accuracy (actually +to hit) in a defense power asap.

You can do that, but Bots are already extremely tight on slots, and one of the lowest damage MM pets, you'll be sacrificing 3 slots for that, which could be used for other things. It's probably the only way to make the sets work well together though. Of course /dark has location powers, which also suffer from things being tossed out of them. FF might be the only secondary that doesn't care if you knock enemies away?

I did some tests with SOs only at 50, no incarnates, on Justin awhile back, they did as well, possibly even better with /Nature as most other supposedly good combos did. Oddly it did better before I read up how to play Beasts/Natures, so there must've been something I was doing 'wrong' that worked better than the current recommendations of how to play it, but I don't know what. Beasts/Nature is is the only one I tested with either of those sets, so not sure on comparisons with other combos with either. I've read good things about /time and /kin with them, and I'd think they'd work well with /thermal. Both /time and /kin should work well as one of their major issues is running slowly after runners and doing nothing since they're all melee, /time can slow/stop runners, and /kin speeds up the pets and buffs melee damage, there's other sets that have slows or controls, /dark comes to mind, I think the +rech helps with fortify pack though, which might make /rad a choice as well since it has some +rech, speed, and a slow, and as the pets are melee are more likely to concentrate enemies near the toggle targets. Of course a patron power with immobs might help too if you stick with /Nature.

I had a 50 bots/storm on live which I loved, and I just PLed him back to 50, my old build was i22, so I tried to make a build based on Maxzeroe's. I stopped at 40 and did BS patron arc, which was fine, I seemed to be doing better than others I teamed with, and then tried an AE s/l no ambush farm at 0/x8 at 45 (no purples or most expensive stuff) had to turn off bosses with them, couldn't handle anything higher than that, so in that respect it's not going that great. I remember it feeling a lot more fun with all the KB, tempted to unslot all that. I tried to work back in hurricane, which was goon on the patron arc, but felt near useless on the farm - they seemed to resist the repel too much. I also wanted O2 boost to be more useful on teams, and help keep the bots up. I don't have any incarnates yet, and haven't tried the pylon either. Slight update, tried the Pylon. I brought a few end inspirations, whatever I had on me, I used those up, then I ran out of end 3 times, on the third time my bots and I bit the dust before I had enough end to get my defense toggles back up, that was somewhere around minute 4, I think the pylon was a bit more than 1/4 health left. I tried my axis s/l '50' test farm again, I must have mis-remembered, I couldn't even do it at 0/x8 with bosses off, I tried 0/x4 no bosses and even that was too much. I went street sweeping in the fab, and that went o.k. though I died once when I jumped into an area with a whole lot of mobs. I really don't remember my old character being this bad - and I know it was before incarnates were there. I may have to try my old build and see how that goes, maybe there was a lot more end reduction in it or something. Also can't slot Shield Breaker in Protector bots. Any suggestions on this? Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.2 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Robo Vanem: Level 50 Natural Mastermind Primary Power Set: Robotics Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Battle Drones -- SprMarofS-Acc/EndRdx(A), SprMarofS-EndRdx/+Resist/+Regen(3), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(3), CaltoArm-+Def(Pets)(5), OvrFrc-Dam/KB(5), SprCmmoft-Rchg/PetAoEDef(7) Level 1: Gale -- SuddAcc--KB/+KD(A), FrcFdb-Rechg%(7), EndRdx-I(9), Ann-ResDeb%(9) Level 2: O2 Boost -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(11) Level 4: Pulse Rifle Burst -- Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Thn-Acc/Dmg(13), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(15), FrcFdb-Rechg%(15) Level 6: Equip Robot -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 8: Hover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(17) Level 10: Steamy Mist -- RedFrt-Def(A), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(17), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(19), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(19), RedFrt-EndRdx(21), RedFrt-EndRdx/Rchg(21) Level 12: Protector Bots -- SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprMarofS-Dmg(23), Empty(23), Empty(25), Empty(25), SvrRgh-PetResDam(27) Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(27) Level 16: Freezing Rain -- Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(29), TchofLadG-Rchg/EndRdx(29), UndDfn-Rchg/EndRdx(31) Level 18: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(31) Level 20: Hurricane -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A), EndRdx-I(33) Level 22: Tactics -- GssSynFr--Build%(A), EndRdx-I(33) Level 24: Kick -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A) Level 26: Assault Bot -- SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg(A), SprMarofS-Dmg/EndRdx(33), SlbAll-Dmg/EndRdx(34), SlbAll-Build%(34), ExpStr-Dam%(34), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(36) Level 28: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(36) Level 30: Weave -- RedFrt-Def(A), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(36), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(37), RedFrt-EndRdx/Rchg(37), RedFrt-EndRdx(37), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(39) Level 32: Upgrade Robot -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 35: Tornado -- SuddAcc--KB/+KD(A), SlbAll-Dmg/Rchg(39), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(39), SprCmmoft-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), AchHee-ResDeb%(40), FrcFdb-Rechg%(40) Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Apc-Dam%(A), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Apc-Acc/Rchg(42), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(43), FrcFdb-Rechg%(43) Level 41: Web Envelope -- GrvAnc-Acc/Immob/Rchg(A), GrvAnc-Acc/Rchg(43), GrvAnc-Immob/EndRdx(45) Level 44: Mace Beam Volley -- PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx(45), PstBls-Dam%(45), Ann-ResDeb%(46), ExpStr-Dam%(46), FrcFdb-Rechg%(46) Level 47: Web Cocoon -- ImpSwf-Dam%(A), UnbCns-Dam%(48), GldNet-Dam%(48), NrnSht-Dam%(48), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(50), GhsWdwEmb-Acc/EndRdx(50) Level 49: Scorpion Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(50) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Clr-Stlth(A) Level 1: Supremacy Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(11) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(13) Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon ------------

One more MM to try 🙂

Rad is good on other ATs. I'm not sure it's very good on MMs. Two of the powers require faceplanted PCs, they don't work on pets. AM's +rech doesn't affect MM pets (while it works well with Controller's since they're recharge intensive.) With bots especially, as they'll be knocking back things, or the toggled target itself and scattering so they aren't all covered by the debuffs, then they kill the pets. Yes illusion pets do that, but they're invulnerable so don't die when things attacking them aren't in the toggle area. Thematically it makes the most sense with Robots, sometimes that's all you need. I'd recommend /dark as being similar to /rad, but probably working far better with bots (bots/dark is a well known extremely good combo) - you could always color it green.

I can't see 2 powers picks being worth 22% damage to one power enough to make picking them, unless you need some of that to hit to hit higher notariety mobs. 22% is probably overkill though, I agree with a more balanced approach. I'd still consider the kismet first, I try to slot that on all my characters, as it helps hitting higher notoriety mobs. If you team, you'll likely end up with a bonus to to hit from a defender, or other support anyway.

I was poking around the wayback, found a Tanking Crab guide🙂 https://web.archive.org/web/20120911102446/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=281913 Obviously a little out of date on the enhancements, but good read if you want to tank with a crab. They did take provoke 🙂

Invulnerable support is the only thing that will survive, Defiler is the only one that has an attack it uses, the damage is o.k. and it ahs a -6% damage debuff, but it's more it gathers agro with that, keeping all those extra mobs from wondering off if you're already at the agro cap.