marcussmythe

Preface: Ive not played street justice. Spines is very efficient for AOE, and thus solo leveling - Spine Burst comes early, and is a great place to put the free IOs you get from the P2W vendor. Street Justice, from the looks, has more single target punch than Spines, but less AOE power. As your planning on going elec, its a question of whether you want to double-down on the AOE power of Elec with a second strong AOE Primary, or get more single target punch. Gut take is that Spines/Elec will see you 50 sooner and farm better. Street/Elec will still be a solid performer at AOE duties (maybe double down with Leap Attack from Jumping Pool for even more teleport-AOE goodness!), but will be -less- good at it than Spines, in exchange for single target ability. So - it comes down to flexibility vs specialization. Normally Im a fan of flexibility, but AOE is king in city. So in part it depends on ‘how many 50s do i want?’ If this is your One True Character that you plan on IO setting into deep purple and doing all the Incarnate mods, Id go for flexible. If your planning on having a stable of 50s with a tool for every task, Id go specialized.

You're thinking of the Gladiator's Armor global. Hecatomb and Armageddon were on the higher end of the purple sets but even so they were more like 200million inf per piece. The Gladiator's Armor global was the one that hovered around 2billion inf although it had dropped to more like 1.7billion by the time the game shut down due to the increased supply from alignment merits (the Shield Wall global was the second highest but that was close to 1billion inf IIRC). Thanks for the clarification - and thanks to Troy for the advice as well. Even if not ‘billions and billions’, a cheaper setup with indistiguishable performance is still all to the good. Its worth noting that the whole thing is hilariously over-defended, despite using the offensive Alpha and Hybrid Incarnates. Though that begs a question: Does anyone have enough experience with the offesive hybrid incarnate slots, either the +DAM Buff or Doubke-Strike flavor, to comment on their value in play? The Support Hybrid with its massive DEF buff is a lot to give up, but if the ROI on the double-strike is really high, it may still be worthwhile. If its not, Ill likely reinginner with the Hybrid Support slot, and use the headroom to put in more recharge, damage, and damage buff proc slotting...

Im running up a Spines/Bio Brute - Ill say that putting 5 slots and all the ‘PtW’ vendor presige enhancements into Spine Burst, coupled with the Brute Fury, has hilarious impacts on your leveling speed and ability to handle groups. Though that will fade with time, youve got better defenses and a lot of healing waiting in the works from Bio - which will help feed that ‘must charge into next group’ frenetic pace.

Thank you for your feedback! If you can see any way to get closer to the outlined goals, or to maintain its current performance at a cost savings, I would really appreciate it!

Build has below due to character limits:

Build, and discussion request, below: Opening Notes: Invulnerability is chosen as it is (to my perception) overall the 'toughest' Tank Set, barring stone (whose drawbacks I cannot abide). Notable holes in Psionic and lesser ones in Energy are addressed by IOs, and the lack of a regular self heal is addressed by choice of secondary. IO sets and defense focus covers the invuln 'hole' in debuff resistance to a degree. Dark Melee is chosen for its self heal, the -acc debuff, and its high single target damage potential due to good animation speeds compared to damage. Lack of AOE is a known issue. In team situations this is resolved by the teams likely high AOE damage output, and in solo situations where high AOE damage is sought, an alternate build can allow for some AOE (though a second, AOE centric character with spines/fire/etc. may be a better choice) IO sets are focused on +DEF and +RECHG, as that seems to be their area of greatest contribution. Incarnate slots are chosen (Muscle, Assault) for increased damage. It is possible that a more innately offensive character (Scrapper or Brute, perhaps) with its Incarnates chosen for defense (Agility, Support) would be superior, but that is outside this analysis. Budget: Price No Object - this is purely aspirational, and unless I stop logging out of COH every day at my day job location for 10 hours, it wont be done this year. But mans reach must exceed his grasp, no? Goals, Defensive: Softcap Defense: Achieved for S/L, very near F/C, 6% off for Energy/Negative - but debuff in DM will get us there for all but psionic High Resistance: 90% S/L, 74% F/C/T, 54% E/N, 43% Psionic High Innate Regen and Self Heal: 285% (40 HP/S) Self Heal: DP ever 115 Seconds for 85%, Siphon Life every 5 seconds for ~450 HP or so I expect this build will be tough enough to face-off with pretty much anything it will meet. Things that it is not softcapped against it quickly will be due to the debuff from Dark Melee, and it self heals very well for an invuln - especially given the high hit points. Goals, Offensive: Good Single Target Attack Chain: Basic Dark Melee buzzsaw with extra damage buffs. Use of Incarnate Slots for offense rather than defense - Musculature/Assault rather than Agility/Support. Its an open question whether a much more fragile, but higher base damage character with the defensive incarnates would generate a better overall outcome - but that is outside this discussion. High Recharge - Partial fail. Hasten downtime is 20 seconds AOE: Failure. Only AOE is Soul Drain, which is not a great damage AOE. Im considering a rebuild that drops flight for leaping and puts spring attack in in place of afterburner. Goals, Fun: Every build should have at least a tiny sprinkling of character-specific funsies, chosen over absolute efficiency. Here, that is Hover/Flight/Afterburner, chosen for concept over Combat Jumping/Superleap/Spring Attack Closing Notes: The build above is intended to be able to tank anything with as little support as possible, while producing solid single-target damage to reduce uptime on boss+ enemies. You could go even tougher with support and agility incarnates, but I dont think there is much 'left to get' as far as defense goes. -Its possible that IOing for offense and Incarnating for Defense would be a better choice, but my gut sensibilities say otherwise. Im contemplating a 'Build 2 Build' that also moves its IO focus to Even More Damage, keeps its incarnates in damage, and juggles its powers to focus more on AOE - Spring Attack, pick Shadow Maul back up, go find Cross-Punch. Spines/Fire it will never be, but something capable of decent AOE is always useful in CoH. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! hero: Level 50 Magic Tanker Primary Power Set: Invulnerability Secondary Power Set: Dark Melee Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Resist Physical Damage (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP (5) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (37) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (43) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance Level 1: Shadow Punch (A) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage (5) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance (7) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (7) Superior Blistering Cold - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (9) Superior Blistering Cold - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (9) Superior Blistering Cold - Recharge/Chance for Hold Level 2: Temp Invulnerability (A) Gladiator's Armor - End/Resist (11) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (11) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance Level 4: Dull Pain (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance (33) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge (34) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (34) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (34) Panacea - Heal (45) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance Level 6: Resist Elements (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (13) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance (45) Gladiator's Armor - End/Resist Level 8: Unyielding (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (15) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (15) Unbreakable Guard - Endurance/RechargeTime (45) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance (46) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 10: Smite (A) Hecatomb - Damage (17) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge (17) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (19) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Recharge (19) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance (21) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative) Level 12: Resist Energies (A) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance (13) Gladiator's Armor - End/Resist Level 14: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (21) Recharge Reduction IO Level 16: Siphon Life (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (23) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (23) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (25) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance (25) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage (27) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge Level 18: Invincibility (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (27) Reactive Defenses - Defense (29) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage (40) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 20: Hover (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (29) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (31) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 22: Fly (A) Flight Speed IO Level 24: Boxing (A) Kinetic Combat - Knockdown Bonus (40) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage (42) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge (42) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 26: Tough Hide (A) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (31) Shield Wall - Defense (43) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 28: Soul Drain (A) Armageddon - Damage (33) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage (36) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge (36) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (36) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance (37) Armageddon - Accuracy/Recharge Level 30: Tough (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (31) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (50) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance Level 32: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (33) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (43) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 35: Taunt (A) Perfect Zinger - Taunt/Recharge/Range (46) Perfect Zinger - Taunt/Recharge Level 38: Midnight Grasp (A) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (39) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Recharge (39) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (39) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage (40) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (42) Superior Might of the Tanker - Recharge/Chance for +Res(All) Level 41: Focused Accuracy (A) Empty Level 44: Laser Beam Eyes (A) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage (46) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/RechargeTime (48) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (48) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (50) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime (50) Superior Winter's Bite - Recharge/Chance for -Speed & -Recharge Level 47: Physical Perfection (A) Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration (48) Miracle - +Recovery Level 49: Afterburner (A) Flight Speed IO Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Prestige Power Dash (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Quick (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Rush (A) Empty Level 1: Prestige Power Surge (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Empty Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift (A) Empty Level 2: Health (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery (3) Numina's Convalesence - Heal (37) Numina's Convalesence - Heal/Endurance Level 2: Hurdle (A) Empty Level 2: Stamina (A) Endurance Modification IO (3) Endurance Modification IO Level 50: Ion Radial Final Judgement Level 50: Reactive Core Flawless Interface Level 50: Polar Lights Core Superior Ally Level 50: Barrier Radial Epiphany Level 50: Assault Radial Embodiment Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon ------------

Affirmative, adding to that Against All Odds for a whole lot of +DMG. Between SD and AAO you'll be able to steamroll most +4x8 groups. The only weakness /Shield has vs SR is it's defense debuff protection being lower but it makes up for a lot more offense. Hmm Dark Melee is haaard to get away from. Im running it on my invuln tank (DM buzzsaw, eschew AOE) and it seems attractive here on a shield scrapper for the same reasons. My poor Spines/Bio Scrapper...

I presume the synergy lies in solid single target and self heal from Dark Melee, with a base of both DEF and RES coupled with AOE from sheild to broaden Dark Melee’s single-target focus, and to offer a solid base of DEF and RES to slot from?

A long discussion below the divider, TLDR at the top: A tank is tougher than a scrapper is scrappy, but by endgame the toughness advantage mostly just doesn't matter - a tank is more tough than it should ever need to be, and the scrapper will always do more damage. IOs make this worse. Tanks fill their role much better in teams, due to more aggro in their auras, better taunt, and a deeper well of HP and thereby resistance to mistake. Any content that either could do solo the scrapper will probably do better, because of greater damage and sufficient toughness, but if you want to tank for a team, the tanker is always better. The third choice, Brute, is an odd man out, splitting the difference between the two in many ways. Its capable of Tanker toughness with sufficient IO investment (though this investment is much higher than required of a tank) ... but will never threaten the scrapper's damage potential. In fact, in generic situations (medium rage bar, generic IOs, tanker res debuff) its damage is not terribly better than a tanks. A Brute is best viewed mechanically as a tank that sacrifices defense for increased offense (especially in the early-mid levels), though it plays more as a 'heavy scrapper' that can stand in for a tank. The choice is as always up to you. I will note that Tankers are by far the slowest out of the starting gate, but for my own part, I have the most fun with them, either soloing at higher difficulties or with comfortable inevitability, by tanking the toughest opponents in the game and mocking them soundly while doing so, or by pushing the build envelope in odd places, safe in the fact that I have 'build space' to pursue recharge or regen or what-I-will, as it takes a much lower investment for a tank to reach hit point cap, defense cap, etc. I'll also note that a heavy investment in +recharge can also pay for some impressive returns in total damage output - because you can focus your attack chain on fast-animating, high damage per frame powers (Energy Transfer most notably, even with the animation change) Your mileage will vary. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If your just looking at 'making up for', no, the Scrapper does not do as much extra damage as the Tanker is extra tough. First, Hit Points: Scrapper Base: 1338 Scrapper Cap: 2409 Tanker Base: 1874 Tanker Cap: 3212 Brute Base: 1500 Brute Cap: 3212 At Base, the tanker has 140% of the Scrappers Hit Points, and 125% of the Brutes At Cap, the tanker has 133% of the Scrappers Hit Points, and matches the Brute Next, Damage: Scrapper Damage Mod: 1.125, 500% Buff Cap, Crits (Damage~7.425, maximum) Tanker Damage Mod: .8, 400% Buff Cap, Innate RES Debuff (Damage=4.4 maximum) Brute Damage Mod: .75, 775% Buff Cap, Fury (Damage=6.56 Maximum) The Scrapper will do (formally) 165% of the Tankers Damage. The scrapper has a larger damage bonus than the tanker has hit point bonus. BUT: A Tanks Primary gives larger buffs than a Scrappers Secondary. Resist Energies gives more resistance to a tank than a scrapper. Invincibility gives more defense to a tank than a scrapper. In general, a Scrapper's Secondary is about 75% the value of the same power from a tankers primary. So the tank has (at cap) 133% of the scrappers hit points, applied to 133% of the scrappers defenses. So it would be ~77% harder to kill, and that is before you take into account the effect of increasing returns on +DEF and +RES... each point of DEF or RES is worth more than the one before, until you get to the cap. And thats before the RES Cap (pretty much only an issue of S/L, or during unstoppable) comes into play - which makes the tank even -tougher-, relatively. So, the Tanker is tougher (relative to the scrapper) than the Scrapper is powerful (relative to the tanker) MORE BUT: Long list of caveats: 1.) Survivability only matters until the mobs cant kill you (or cant kill you before they die, or cant kill you often enough to matter). For the vast majority of the game content, a 'mature but not maximized' Tank (Lvl 50, Generic IOs) is far, far tougher than there is any need to be. So hes wasting value compared to the scrapper. 2.) Offense is a kind of defense: While maturing, the scrapper may survive situations that would kill the tank, ESPECIALLY early on - when mitigation isnt mitigating much, killing the foe first is for the win. 3.) IOs and Incarnates Change Everything: IOs are really good at giving defense, less good at giving resistance, really good at giving recharge, and not good at all at giving damage. This suggests that a scrapper can more easily use IOs to reach 'basically unkillable' than a tank can use IOs to reach scrapper damage. (Frankly, IOs can make a scrapper, if not as tough as a mature but not maximized tank, tough enough that noone but you will know the difference. The reverse is not the case). Incarnate powers I have not engaged in as fully, but seem similar. 4.) Those same IOs CAN make the tank so tough that the toughest scrapper is left in the dust, so tough that it boggles the minds of man. Sea of deep purple +4 bosses? Multiple Giant Monsters? You can build a tank that the game basically cant kill, barring real insanity like untyped damage. But see #1, above - unless your running the nastiest stuff in the game AND NOONE IS BUFFING YOU, you dont need it. 5.) Actual Factual Tanking - Tanks hold aggro better, period and forever. Their Taunt is far better than provoke, their auras give more aggro, etc. If you see yourself spending significant time tanking, you should probably play a tank. FINAL BUT(T): But what about Brutes? Brutes are.. interesting. Brute base hit points are only slightly better than a scrappers - but their max matches a tanks Brute defense secondaries give the same value as a scrappers - but their caps match a tanks. Brutes eventually need a lot of fury to keep up with the scrapper, and actually fall behind the scrapper as the buffs pile on - despite their higher buff cap, their lower base damage mod betrays them. Further, if the Brute CANT keep its fury bar at least half full, its damage can fall behind the tanks - and the tanks higher base means buffs have more value, at least up until the tank hits its buff cap. Brutes have a lot of head room for more survival, and if sufficient IOs and Incarnate powers exist, can be as tough as a tank could ever be, while doing potentially more damage (if sufficient external buffs/fury are present). However, its cost to get there will be substantially higher than the tank, giving the tank additional room in their build to pursue recharge, passive health regen, or damage bonuses from IOs. Still, I anticipate the builds may tend to converge in performance at the very top. Brutes have a lot of head room for damage buffs as well, due to their extreme damage buff cap. However, IOs do not provide THAT much +Dam, and so the brute will likely only get the full benefit of his high damage buff cap in the company of a pocket kinetic. Even doing so, he wont match the scrapper. Therefore, the use case for Brute seems to be as a less fragile scrapper, well sutied to early solo play but also capable of filling the same party roles as a tank, though it may need slightly more support to do so. One can instead build the brute as a tank with greater early damage and soloability.

Very curious to hear your results with Physical Perfection when you get there - it looks like about half of Stamina and half of Health all in one power - just wondering if its enough difference in heal and end per second to feel an impact at that level.

That's not been my experience at all. Even with about 60 million infamy worth of IOs on my /Bio right now, my purely frankenslotted SS/WP could comfortably handle stuff that will wipe the floor with my Staff/Bio. I'll admit I'm fine against absolute hordes of +0s and +1s (unless they're Carnies), but everything seems to collapse the minute I see +2 bosses. /Bio's mitigation just isn't as comprehensive as /WP's and is far more reliant on the +Heal/Absorb/Regen powers that don't help a lot against big single attacks. I think it's also missing some debuff resistances compared to /WP or /Inv, though I obviously don't have access to older characters to check that. My plan going forward is to find as many ways to improve Defense on my /Bio as I can find. Heals just aren't cutting it no matter how much I enhance for it. The correct answer to the question 'Should I focus on heals, defense, or resistance' is and will always be 'all of the above'. - but given a set known for strong self-healing, I think that your correct to go away from 'just more healing', and I think you are -also- correct in pursuing +DEF over +RES, as RES is harder to get than DEF, and powers dont provide as much. WP is very long on debuff resistance, which is one of its strengths - Invuln does not have much (any?) resistance to debuffs, due probably to its age - but for pure survival likely gives one of the best overall packages.

I cant speak to how the GMs would detect that. I'm thinking you teaming with your son is awesome. Share the love. I'm thinking other things about players who run multiple accounts -just for themselves- to team up with, taking resources from a service provided to them out of love, for no cost to them, by people who are working hard and paying their own money to offer it... but where theres just not enough resources to avoid having ques, sometimes lengthy ones. I'm wondering what kind of person goes out and grabs the server resources for 5 or more -other people who could be playing- so they can be their own team. I thought better of the player base than that.

1.) DPS may well match or exceed a scrapper in the early going, as Fury can be a large damage buff, and noone is getting much from enhancements. Midgame to Early-Endgame, the Scrapper will pull comfortably ahead, especially against bosses, due to increased crit chances. I suspect but have not tested that once one is deep in IOs and Incarnate, the higher damage buff cap of the Brute will close the gap with the scrapper to some degree, especially with team buffs. 2.) Solo on what difficulty settings? 'Standard' Difficulty, x1/+0? Regen will be fine - but thats not a very high bar. Reaching 'solos safely at x8/+4 difficulty' will likely be very hard for /regen - but Id expect doable with IOs and a plan. (and also with Tough/Weave, maybe Combat Jumping for more Defense, pursuing defense through IOs and Incarnate stuff, etc.) Im not going to be one to tell you to dump regen, but I think the Groupthink is that Willpower is slightly less regen than regen, with significantly more defense and resistance and less clicky-maintenance. 3.) They stack, and you can never have too much +regen, but putting extra slots in health is probably very low priority - youll see more return on investment in killing things faster or taking less damage, at least initially. Later, the pursuit of maximum self-healing, or specific IO set bonuses, may change this equation - but once your 50 and have run a few dozen trials and tanked a few of them, youll be in a position to know what you need for your playstyle better than anyone on a forum can tell you.

I agree that Regen will show much better on a Brute than it will on a Scrapper - but given the massive difference in HP, thats probably going to be a given for any defensive powerset. I will second the others who say that Titan Weapons will be rough on fury generation, at least early on, and the focus on AOE may drive one to gathering groups about you, which is the opposite of playing to Regen's strengths. On the whole, my gut says that Regen probably wants a fast attack set, and Titan Weapons wants a really alpha-resistant defense set. OTOH, it depends on how deep into IOs and Incarnate you want to go - Ive an untested suspicion that deep in IOs and Incarnate content, brutes will be making both Tanks and Scrappers feel redundant, given the right power choices and sets.

CoH has a documented history of making new ATs that are arguably better than their predecessors - I see Brutes more than Tankers or Scrappers, Corruptors over Blasters/Defenders, and this is Blueside, mind you. Perhaps they wanted to make very sure that Sentinels, at least, were not a threat to whatever 'hat' was left for Blasters and Scrappers, and not repeat past mistakes?

"A bunch of Sentinel Changes"? As in they are planning on -making- changes to Sentinels? Or?

Air Superiority? Ive not found myself lacking for attacks out of Dark Melee. That said, Im still using Shadow Maul to fill in rotation time. I was planning on using Hover as my second flight pool (for +DEF, yes, I fly into melee, I'm weird), Afterburner w/flight (every build should have at least one 'Not because its good, but because its fun! power). Then Tough/Weave. So Flight, Speed, Fighting... not sure for 4th pool, if fourth pool. Of course, Incarnate powers will probably throw this all in the air again...

My recollection is that our SG Costumes were blue and grey, but I cant find the screenshots right now. *C'len/HERO waves* Anyone seen Impy or Char or Beef?

My original main, C'len - a Claws/Invuln scrapper back when claws had bad animations and unyielding rooted you - had fallen by the wayside long before the servers went down. Shes a Bio/Spines tank now - languishing a bit - but the sets 'fit' the concept better (Bio/Claws would have worked okay, too - but I wanted the spines to make aggro easier) My 'real' main, H E R O, an Invuln/EM tank, got reborn as Invuln/DM. Energy Melee just lost too much of what made it enjoyable to me when they put the baseball pitch animation on Energy Melee (a move that to this day I think has more to do with Stalkers and PvP than anything else - the change made EM a 'meh' set). Recolored Dark Melee gives me more tools for PvE, and is faster and more fluid than modern Energy Melee. Ive also got a raft of Sentinels eating up time - their all just examples of 'moderately survivable with energy blasts' that was the one thing I wanted to do and couldnt in old COH. So - some rerolled, some recreated, and some new beginnings

You arent wrong! Im using them to replecate an old Champions character who was a flying second-string brick second string blaster. Mobile, tough, shooty, though not as good as the team blaster at blasting or team tanker at tanking and LOL yeah, Sentinels.

I fear that if the Sentinel Primary set had both ranged and melee attacks, the AT would simply be a poor scrapper with an additional ranged attack or two. In all fairness, between pool powers, epic powers, and the like, 'ranged scrapper' is already buildable...

The community, in large part, but the community is in some degree a product of the game itself. What makes CoH, CoH, is that it was at its core a game about -being a hero-, and the people that came fit that mold. Further, it is a game where you can play with anyone, any level, any friend, at any time. Barring a few trials where endgame performance might matter, everything is wide open to team up. And the game encourages that teaming up, that playing together. Many, many classes are at their best making everyone else better, or their lives easier. Not 'sit in a corner and heal me' better, but empowering and building up your allies so that the whole is more than the sum of its parts - while at the very same time, each is capable of functioning on its own. No dependencies, no hostility, no 'we cant do this unless we get an X and a Y and a Z'. So everyone is free to play very naturally, and very non-competitively. Theres not a question who gets the purple drop off the boss. Noone can steal your kills or tag your mobs. Its literally 'stronger together' the game, but in a positive way. And the community, I think, grows out of that. Everyone is not just able to help, but eager to help (sometimes over eager!). And thats the real secret. The structure of the game reinforces the good behavior we see, and the good behavior we see reinforces success in the game. Its a virtuous cycle. Also, and a total aside - 72 metric tons of content, vast ambition, sweeping spaces. How many zones? How many contacts and missions and storylines with actual story? How much to do? You wont have time to do it all. Yould barely had time to do it all if you played from launch like it was your job - but you didnt have to play like it was your job. Take a few months or years off, hop on your character, and roll out with your friends. Sure, Sally may be an IOed demigod and your a sidekicked up mid-30s scrapper, but you wont be useless. Your part of the team. Part of the family. So theres a lot to do, but not a lot of pressure to do it, except for the pressure you put on yourself. Its.. really ideal for making a game thats a community and a family. And thats why we are here, why we came back, why adult professionals literally -cried- when they logged back in and heard the music again. Its like coming home.

I have not noted great value in the defensive opportunity. I have not in 23 levels felt that I was glad to have the opportunity or that the healing it provided made any difference. Mind you, the OFFENSIVE opportunity isn't much better. But opportunity is on the whole a sufficiently weak 'special ability' that I would not choose powers I dont like, or waste slots on them, for its sake. IMHO its the synergy of medium defense, medium offense, with the opportunity advantages created by operating purely at range, that make the Sentinel AT shine.

That makes sense. My experience is that they play better than their numbers suggested. I think thats all down to range. I.) My Sentinel spends nearly zero time maneuvering to get into range, and less time maneuvering to line up AOEs. This translates to more time spent attacking and less time spent running, and adds to effective DPS in ways that dont show in raw calculation. II.) With a pure suite of ranged attacks, there is no reason for my Sentinel to be in melee range of the enemy, ever. This results in far less incoming damage, as mobs are forced to only use their ranged attacks, rather than using every attack on their tray as fast as it recharges. I think the real benefit here is not that ranged attacks do less damage than melee attacks (though anyone hit by a Rikti sword will note the difference!), but in less -total- attacks received. A mob forced to engage at range spends more time idly waiting for his ranged attacks to recharge, rather than spamming his whole list. On the whole, I'm finding my Sentinel plays about as well, or even slightly better, than my same level scrappers have historically. Now that I'm low 20s and wearing SOs and the Defense parts of the character are starting to matter, I'm feeling a real difference.

Everything has an opportunity cost. And softcapped defenses are well and good until things have accuracy bonuses or debuffs start flying around. Now, it may well be easier to get resist from your secondary and defense other places, rather than the reverse - but has anyone run the numbers on it (I do recall it seeming like secondaries/pools/IOs being a lot more generous with defense, espc. positional defense, than they were with resist). As I cant find a stable version of MIDS that works for Sentinels, I'm all theorycraft at this point - maybe a max-resist set, and then focus on ranged/aoe positional defense? W hats the groupthink on the -toughest possible- Sentinel, assuming IOs, Pools, Incarnate, and Gods-Own-This-Is-My-Only-Character budget? Invuln used to be a goto for 'just plain hard to kill', but it seems to be being eclipsed by Willpower/Shield/Bioarmor, espc in an era of IOs and Pools?