Jacke

May 16

It's possible to make any weapon work with Dark Armor. Dark Melee does have all the tools to make that a bit easier. But with a good build and attention to detail, you can manage the big demands Dark Armor makes on Endurance and pair it with any weapon Powerset. Since this is a skill needed for nearly every build in the game one way or another, learning to make good builds with Dark Armor and Level them while not bottoming out the Blue Bar is good practice.

Do get the S.T.A.R.T. temp power Recovery Serum to help too. It'll get you through the rough patches as you learn more things. Do learn how to pay for the Enhancements a good build needs along the way will help in some other vital skills needed: How to get Influence and also get those Enhancements at the cheapest price.

May 16

47 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

First, do not encourage @Snarky. He's more fun to watch that way.

Second.... Really.

"YEARS OF COUNTING yet NO REAL-WORLD USE FOUND for going higher than your FINGERS"

You must have never done anything with Logistics. Or Pay. Or sold anything written that was paid by word-count. (BTW, that last one is rather tricky.)

Or done any electrical work or electronics design. Or so many other examples.

Thank goodness for Mathematicians. They have usually worked out whole areas of new Maths before they're actually needed. Considering how hard that can be to get just right, that's really good for the rest of us.

May 13

6 hours ago, hoopahnan said:

Is Rage crash from Super Strength really that bad? Is there a way to mitigate it?

It is. CoD2 is still current on this (hasn't been updated since mid 2024).

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=tanker_melee.super_strength.rage&at=tanker

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=brute_melee.super_strength.rage&at=brute

Rage is similar on Super Strength Tankers and Brutes.

120s of +20% ToHit +80% Damage
Then a crash of
- -25% MaxEnd (which if at the same time as Hasten's -15% MaxEnd crash can really hurt)
- 10s of -20% Def (all) and -9990% Damage

The Defense crash means the Tanker should have very good Resists protection, probably a good Resist-based Primary.

The Damage crash means the only attacks that will still damage will be ones that don't get enhanced by Damage buffs, so they won't be lessened by Damage debuffs either. That means:

The Origin Attack (which can be changed to any of the Origin Attacks)
The 3 Prestige Attacks (3 of these 4 Prestige attacks: Sands of Mu, Ghost Slaying Axe, Blackwand, Nemesis Staff)
Damage Procs in regular attacks

The 4 attacks from the first two points can't be slotted, so for them to work the build has to have enough Global ToHit and Global Accuracy to give those attacks a good final ToHit value against the current mobs.

Sure it's only 10s. But that 10s is determined as 120s after Rage was clicked, which can be hard to make convenient.

There used to be a bug that if Rage was recharged and clicked again before the 120s ran out, the crash didn't happen. When that bug was fixed, there was a lot of upset Super Strength Players. It is still a sensitive topic.

So now with the Rage crash, there's a few options:

Switch to using the above 4 attacks that will still work during the Damage crash.
In the build, heavily Damage Proc some attacks and use them during the Damage crash.
- And thus depend on a good Proc rate.
- And lose the Set Bonuses from slotting other Enhancements.
Don't attack.
- Loose the PunchVoke (Tanker) AoE and PokeVoke (Brute) ST Taunt from attacks
- Taunt itself still works
Don't take Rage or if in the build, don't use Rage.
- But Super Strength is balanced around the use of Rage.
  - So if not used, Super Strength Damage is noticeably lower.
Take a Toon with Super Strength and depend on other Damage buffs.
- I took a Super Strength/Shield Defense Brute that will skip Rage the Power
  - and depend on Rage the Brute Inherent and the Damage buff from Shield Defense's Against All Odds

May 12

15 hours ago, Sarkany said:

I'll run a version with Oppressive Gloom 5 slotted. Stunning all minions would reduce incoming attacks and therefore defense debuffs.

You need a diversity of tactics to deal with enemy mobs. Even just the minions. Because a single thing like Oppressive Gloom's Stun Mez can be neutralised by...ah, I see @Yomo Kimyata beat me to mentioning Cimeroran Boss Power Shout of Command (sounds like a distressed yelling grunt).

9 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Well, in general yes, but maybe not for ITF. Do not forget that Cim bosses have this, which provides stun protection:

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=romans.praefectus.shout_of_command&at=boss_grunt

In fact, it's 15s of -10.38 Mag Mez Protection (as well as +173% Resistance to Sleep). And the Cimerorans have a lot of Bosses who use it quite often.

There's other mob Powers similar to Shout of Command to provide Mez Protection. Also ones similar to the Leadership Pool.

So even depending on a tactics like stealth (which I have in one way or another on ALL my Toons) can be very useful in a vast amount of cases. But when using a tool, you have to know what can be used against it. For stealth, that's mobs with greater perception inherently or given to them by mob leaders. Or mobs that outright ignore stealth. It's why my main AR/Devices Blaster takes Smoke Grenade at a high Level in all 3 builds (also the only Toon for which I have multiple builds, because maintaining them is a pain), because Smoke Grenade provides -Perception which can help (but isn't a panacea) against those mobs that make stealth difficult.

May 11

10 hours ago, Snarky said:

in my opinion Dark Melee / Invulnerability is the most powerful TANK. Not the most damage, but the flat out toughest, with a very solid ST damage chain, some AoE. Not great. Dark Melee provides a tool kit of Heal, End Recovery, and defense (to hit debuffs) to Make Invul much stronger. I suggest an undead creature for theme. And a Hyperstrike Invul build.

My anchor Toons (the one Toon I make on every Shard who never moves from the Shard, Red Star in the Jacke Supergroup there) are Dark/Inv Scrappers. They're a homage to the Scrappers I made when I first was shown City of Heroes by a good friend, making Toons on her account. No idea what I actually made in the Summer of 2005, but they were Scrappers.

And of course, I have a Inv/Dark Tanker, Jacke Obsidian. Went with a hardboiled detective theme. 😺

I'll have to have a look at your build, @Snarky, see if I can take things to tweak my build.

May 11

On 5/4/2025 at 3:18 PM, Art Vandelay said:

Whenever I check with a local trainer, my character's title text has defaulted to black on black. I can change it back to the colours it should be but after logging and returning it resets again. I have seen other characters with the same problem. Anyone know a fix?

When you set your title, you also set the colour of its text.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Title_change_(Slash_Command)

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Titles

The Title Change window can be brought up anywhere with the "/titlechange" Slash Command (underscores are optional).

There are 2 colour widgets, similar to the colour widgets in the Supergroup Base Editor. Here's my Toon having just opened the Title Change window.

^^^ I've not accessed the Title Change window since starting this game client, else there would be little rectangles on the colour widgets where the last settings were.

Note that both the Primary Color (for the upper part of the text) and the Secondary Color (for the lower part of the text) are both set to black to begin with (clicked on the left end of the lower left block on both colour widgets). Note you can just see through the Title Change window my Toon's current title, which had both colours bright green.

Set the hue (colour) on the top part of each widget, except black and white are set on the lower left block, and set the brightness on the bottom right scale part of each widget.

^^^ Here I've set the hue of both to red.

^^^ Here I've set the brightness of both to bright.

^^^ Here I am with a bright red title.

^^^ Here I am setting the title back to bright green.

^^^ And done. You can experiment with different hues and brightness on both widgets, see how you like them.

May 11

The Preventive Medicine special is also misnamed. It's a Global that provides a Proc under the conditions mentioned. That means the Power it's slotted in doesn't need to be used for it to work. Like all Pure Globals (no Enhancement Aspects) it should be minimum Level (L20) or Attuned, as it will be disabled when Exemplared more than 3 Levels below that of the Global IO.

For just 1 IO, it's also saved my Toons from defeat so many times. I always try to fit it into a build.

May 10

Caltrops can have some utility, even at high Levels. I use this macro to drop them around my Toon:

/macro vXXX "powexeclocation forward:2 Caltrops"

Caltrops do minor damage, but their most important Effects are 45s Mag50 Afraid (the one that makes Mobs run) and a 45s Slow, also perma due to Global Recharge bonuses even if none are slotted. Some Mobs (like Werewolves) are immune to the slow. Most AVs will ignore the Afraid as their Purple Triangles will be stronger than it. On a run of Crimson's World Wide Red arc last night, my AR/Devices Blasterr screwed up Malta a lot with Caltrops. 😺

Caltrops along with Trip Mine(s) can be used to form a quick defensive position that prevents the Mobs just running down and going into melee with your Toon. I keep the KB on Trip Mine to help here. Traps Defenders, Corruptors, Controllers, and Masterminds, as well as /Devices Blasters, can use this to their benefit. Throw in an FFG and an Acid Mortar and other tricks that Traps has. 😺

May 10

On 5/9/2025 at 9:40 PM, Adeon Hawkwood said:

That checks out. The Defense debuff is tagged as "Ignores Resistance" in CoD so it would ignore your DDR. As for the 15% versus 10% you mentioned that you were running at +4 so that would scale up the debuff by 33% or 44% depending on whether you have an Alpha slot or not.

Be aware that even Effects labelled as "Ignores Resistance" are still affected by the Purple Patch.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Purple_Patch

"When contemporary forum-goers talk about the "purple patch", they may be referring to the way player character effectiveness scales against different-level enemies. To use the table below, multiply the effects of your powers by the value in the Above column if you are Level levels above your target, or by the value in the Below column if you are Level levels below your target.

"These modifers apply to almost everything in combat: Debuff strength, Mez duration, Knockback magnitude, and Damage are all affected."

Mobs are usually a higher Level than the Toons. The common max difference is +3L from Toons to Mobs (Mobs at +4L versus the Toon's Alpha +1--but most Pets don't get the Caster's Global buffs, including Level shifts, so it's +4L from ally Pets to Mobs). Which means +3L from Mobs to Toons, +4L from Mobs to Pets.

That gives these multiplicative factors:

+4 (Mobs to Pets) x1.44
+3 (Mobs to Toons) x1.33
-3 (Toons to Mobs) x0.65
-4 (Pets to Mobs) x0.48

There's other factors for the Base Chance to Hit on the lower table on the Purple Patch page. That's just for Toons to Mobs.

-3 (Toons to Mobs) 48%
-4 (Pets to Mobs) 39%

For Mobs against Toons and Pets, that really complex. The details are in here, spread all out. I'm also more uncertain here about these things.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Attack_Mechanics

For Mobs:

"HitChance = Clamp( AccMods × Clamp( BaseHitChance + ToHitMods – DefMods ) )"

"AccMods = the power's inherent Accuracy × the Accuracy of the enemy's Rank × Accuracy factor due to level difference"

The Clamps hold a value to between 95% and 5%, ie. "min(max(value, 5%), 95%)" or in ratios "min(max(value, 0.05), 0.95)". BassHitChance for Mobs is 50%.

Accuracy factor due to level difference:

+4 (Mobs to Pets) x1.4
+3 (Mobs to Toons) x1.3

Accuracy of the enemy's Rank::

Minion, player Pet	1.00
Lieutenant	1.15
Boss, Elite Boss, Sniper	1.30
Monster, Giant Monster, AV	1.50

Power's inherent Accuracy is a number, usually 1.0, but sometimes lower, sometimes higher, same as Toon's Powers.

My brain hurts now, so putting this all together I leave as an exercise. 😺

May 10

There's two groups I run with on Everlasting. The Global Channels for both are the same as the names (exactly):

"Repeat Offenders"
- I've run with RO since 2006. Great for good and casual teaming without any drama.
"Everlasting TFs"
- Note that there are a few variants of this Global Channel name, be sure you spell it exactly.
- Great group organized by a few Team/Task Force/iTrial leaders with a lot of experience.
- With them I got all the Mastery Badges on my main Badging Toon.

Otherwise, listen on the LFG channel (which is one that's Shard-wide) for others recruiting for Missions. Task Forces, whatever. The experience may vary.

At worst, you could start competing with @Snarky and others who post about their bad-PUG adventures. 😺

May 9

4 hours ago, Jacktar said:

I might guess at Bug Hunter and maybe Beta Tester if that is still extant,but no idea what the other two might be.

The Badge "Bug Hunter" (internal name "BetaTester") is shown at the top of Accolade Badges.

It's also not included in the count of Badges a Toon has.

May 8

4 hours ago, Psyonico said:

You are correct, this *will* cause knockBACK. I’ve ran into this problem when slotting the winter IO that does knockdown into a power with knockdown. I will not it won’t always cause knockback, only when both chances proc at the same time.

It also depends on the relative Level and type of mob, as with more +Levels and some types, they'll have KB Protection and won't be knocked down on just 0.67.

May 7

To earn the "Patroller::Criminal" Day Job Badge, you need to earn 30 bars of Patrol Experience.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Patroller_Badge

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Patrol_Experience

Currently on Homecoming, Patrol XP can be earned in 3 ways:

1 bar per 24 hours logged out.
5 bars per charge of Experienced used.
A variable amount per Exploration Badge when first encountered. From the Issue 27 Page 7 Patch Notes (2024 Feb 20):
- Exploration badges now grant Patrol XP instead of regular XP.
  - The amount of Patrol XP gained is dramatically higher than the previous amount of regular XP previously gained.
  - The amount scales with level, starting with 1.5 bars at level 1, down to 0.25 bars at level 50.

A Toon can only hold 10 bars of Patrol XP. But for the purposes of earning the Patroller Badge, can continue to earn Patrol XP from sources #2 and #3 even when at 10 bars.

I get the Day Job Badges on all my Toons. Back when it took 21 days logged-out to earn a Day Job Badge, I got in the habit of recording on my Toon spreadsheet where each Toon was when they were logged out. And I was very careful to log a Toon back in soon after earning a Badge to move them to the next Day Job Badge in the scheme I used. At the same time, I also earned the various Day Job Accolade Powers up to their capacity.

Now it only takes 100 hours logged-out (4 days 4 hours) to earn a Day Job Badge. As I've resisted my altitus and slowed my creation of new Toons, nearly all my Toons have earned all the Day Job Badges and Accolades. (The Vanguard Recruit Day Job Badge and Accolades needing it will only unlock when a Toon is Level 35 or over, but the time logged out in the RWZ Vanguard Base can be earned at any Level.)

Prior to source #3 being added for Patrol XP, to earn the Patroller Badge, as I didn't want to waste charges of the Experienced Power, I had to fill to 10 bars of Patrol XP, then use it all up, then repeat this two more times, or some variation on this that added to 30 bars. This meant multiple play sessions on each Toon with at least 30 days logged out. This was a bit awkward.

Now, there's source #3. While ideally should only get Exploration Badges and the Patrol XP from them when under 10 bars, for simplicity's sake and just to knock off another Day Job, I do use source #3 for some of the 30 bars. At low Levels using only source #3, it just takes around 20 or a few more Exploration Badges to earn the "Patroller::Criminal" Day Job Badge.

May 7

Here's my current build for my Time/Beam Rifle/Dark Mastery build, updated last October. I've not taken the Toon to any great Level, so it remains untested.

You should be able to flip it to Corruptor, with the Defenses and Resists being smaller, but should still be good.

Defender TimeM-BR.20241007.DarkM Stealth Maneu Assault TT GI [i28p1] @Jacke - Jacke Rae.mbd

May 7

I've looked to @Psyonico for guidance in my Inv/Super Strength Tanker build. He told me his position on Rage more or less as he just stated above.

I know how to work around the Rage crash. But I just do not want to. For all the things I've got to take care of while running a Toon, I just do not want to have to pull out the Prestige Powers to attack with during a Rage crash because being resistant to Damage enhancement means they're resistant to Damage negative enhancement. Or if not them (or they're not available), nothing at all. For 10 seconds.

So talking it over with Psy, I decided to reroll my Inv/Super Strength Tanker as a Super Strength/Shield Defense Brute. (Already have a perfectly good Inv/Dark Melee Tanker.)

The SS/Shield Brute will be skipping Rage. I'm much happier.

Although recently, I wondered about adding in a mutually exclusive Power to pair with Super Strength's Rage. (Kind of like how Super Reflexes Sentinels can pick one of Practiced Brawler or Master Brawler.) What's its name? Why, Mellow of course, the perfect name to pair with Rage. Mellow will have no crash. Because it's mellow. 😺

May 7

On 5/4/2025 at 4:08 PM, Jawbreaker said:

Just wondering if anyone does this to farm lower level recipies that don't drop at lvl 50, or if it's not worth the effort

Not really. It's either possible to find the recipes on the Auction House and just buy them. Or AH-convert another Level of a particular recipe to whatever is wanted.

May 6

On 5/4/2025 at 3:52 PM, Cold Bob said:

That's a lot of Emils, two more than I have ever met IRL! I wonder if the name is just a big coincidence, or a deliberate decision?

Emil is an anagram for Nemesis! 🤪

Are you saying this could be...A NEMESIS PLOT!!!

May 4

I always thought with all the Ghosts in this game, those 2 we lost (because someone at Paragon Studios had a hate for them or something)....

Why'd they never come back as Ghosts?

May 3

47 minutes ago, KC4800 said:

I remember when a blasters debt badges were a source of pride.

Whence the Blaster moto: "Blasters! Face down and PROUD!!!" 😺

May 3

13 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

testing my memory here -

you'd get an additional costume slot at 20 and at 30 when you got your cape and aura missions from City Hall. First one was Serge in Steel Canyon, then the one in IP...

I think there was a 3rd mission too... but I can't remember it. That took you to Founders.

That's what I remember and matches what's in the HC Wiki here:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Costumes#Extra_Costume_Slots

13 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

Plus Granny Weatherwax in Croatoa gave you a slot for the Halloween Salvage as @Jacke pointed out.

Blueside, the contact for turning in Halloween Salvage for an Extra costume slot was always right by the PTA Station (so low Level Toons could access her).

I don't know if there was a name change, but that Croatoa contact is now called Annah and offers a lot more than just an extra costume slot.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Annah

13 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

I think you could get a max of 6 costume slots - I believe that the OG Devs said there was a technical limitation on them and that's why we got the costume change upload to effectively enable us to change outfits on the fly from our bank of saved costumes.

That's not quite how I remember things.

HC Wiki says saving and loading costume files was added in Issue 13.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Costumes#Saving_and_Loading

Soon after I started, for each Toon costume, I would record the Costume Editor's settings for each of my Toons. I still keep this manual record. 😺

Anyhoo, I remember we could get 5 costume slots:

1 Original costume slot.
3 Extra costume slots from running the Icon/Facemaker tailor's missions.
1 Extra costume slots from turning in 1 each of the 4 Halloween Event Salvage.

Later, when things changed and we could buy stuff besides the monthly subscription, we could buy 5 more Extra costume slots, giving a max of 10 costume slots. Either with cash or maybe also "Veteran points" or whatever we could earn back then. Can't remember the details.

During the years of Issue 25 (AKA in secret), things were changed and we now start with 6 costume slots. And can later add the 3 from tailor missions and the 1 from Halloween salvage.

May 3

On 5/1/2025 at 8:09 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

I'm old enough to remember when

you had to earn your auras and capes by doing a mission

Hover was mandatory just to survive the Hollows

You had to run to Icon in Steel Canyon to get that 2nd costume because you didn't have your travel power

Stairs were useful

Inf capped out at six million and you could only transfer 99,999 at anyone one time*

The most valuable Enhancements were Hami-Os

The Hollows arcs were almost mandatory. The alternative was street sweeping

Rikti Crash Site

PVP worked (kinda)

*pretty sure it was 6 mil but I might be mis-remembering slightly

I remember a lot of of what @Scarlet Shocker remembers from back then, except back then I:

Started in the later half of 2005.
Didn't get anywhere near that Inf cap.
Didn't know the Rikti Crash Site (wasn't high enough Level).
Didn't do PvP.

This one though, oh wow:

On 5/1/2025 at 8:09 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

Hover was mandatory just to survive the Hollows

I remember Hover'ing through the Hollows to get to a door mission deep in the south of the Zone. Wasn't just the Hollows, but a lot of Zones.

By the way, back then, get defeated in the Hollows, go back to the last Zone with a Hospital.
- Usually the Hospital in Atlas Park.
More generally, get to a new Zone, just at the starting Level for that Zone.
- Very soon a contact's mission sends you deep deep deep into the high Level end of the Zone.
- And Hover was slooooow. Or not on a Toon. Or you thought it wasn't as bad as the Hollows, so....
I learned to run down the exact centre of streets hoping to avoid aggro from the street mobs.
- Which didn't always work....
Then after the Invention system was added (but not long after):
- On my AR/Dev Blaster main ❤️
- I had to finish solo the last mission of the OG Positron Task Force set to 3:
  - 3 (including me) on the TF started that last mission.
    - The other 2 quit for reasons I can't remember.
  - Back then, I didn't know about resetting Task Force missions, so it stayed at +?x3 (not sure, may have been +0).
  - Back then, couldn't level over the highest Level for a Task Force.
    - Can't remember what Level I started at, but got to L15.
- I persevered.
  - Through several Hospital runs from Steel Canyon back to the door in Perez Park (which how it was back then).
  - Including dealing with a wider area of a corridor on the mission map that had 2 mob spawns either side, set for 3.
    - I couldn't figure out how to aggro just 1 of the 2 mob spawns set for 3.
      - So I had to wear them down, including several Hospital runs just for those 2 spawns.
  - But the OG Positron Task Force doesn't have an AV at the end.
  - So with enough Hospital runs:
- I won the OG Positron Task Force!
  - My award: L15 Celerity Stealth Proc.
  - Put that in Sprint (later with Prestige Sprints, I put the L15 Celerity Stealth Proc in Prestige Power Surge).
Running Sprint slotted with a L15 Celerity Stealth Proc gave 30ft of stealth!
- Which made those long across-Zone runs to the doors of missions much much easier.
Got to L20 and added Cloaking Device (long before Field Operative) with 25ft of stealth.
Combined I had 55ft of stealth, just over Boss-level perception of 54ft!

And forever thereafter I worked to get stealth on more and more Toons, eventually EVERY Toon. I still do this.

And this one:

On 5/1/2025 at 8:09 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

You had to run to Icon in Steel Canyon to get that 2nd costume because you didn't have your travel power

Can't remember where I heard this, but for lower Level Toons back then, considering how things were back then.

When wanting to change their costume in an unlocked costume slot:
- The first slot granted at character creation.
- 1 extra slot from turning in Halloween salvage.
- Then: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Costumes#Extra_Costume_Slots
  - 3 more slots from doing a mission from the each tailor (Hero or Villain) in the 3 Icons (or in the 3 Facemakers in the Rogue Isles).
    - But if you weren't max Level or higher for a Zone with a tailor, doing that tailor's mission was rather hard if not impossible.
And not at max Level for Steel Canyon (may have 1 or 2 costume slots) and wanting to change a costume in those slots, often easiest to:
- Go to Kings Row.
- Go to the Gate in Kings Row to Independence Port.
- Enter that Gate to go to Independence Port.
- Carefully do a short run to the Icon in IP.
- Get into the Icon, safe!
- Edit your costume via another contact in Icon.
- To get back, do the run from the door of Icon back to the Gate to Kings Row.

May 3

On 5/1/2025 at 11:09 PM, Scarlet Shocker said:

[ Quote saying "AI integration with NPC's would be interesting." ]

No!

No it would not.

It would almost certainly break our game. What we have works fine. We're very happy playing a game that's survived two decades even having faced some massive challenges.

AI is pretty well a bullshit con designed by robbing creators, throwing it into a virtual mixing pot and stealing the good bits for the corporations to use against you. They serve you slop instead of a wage or recompense for the creators.

Either way AI is going to bite arses sooner rather than later. Just make sure it's not yours.

Large Language Models have some good uses. As AI, they're very limited in their legitimate applications. I'm expecting the AI bubble to crash.

As @Scarlet Shocker says, trying to add them into a 25-year-old game is a good way to completely break the game. Large Language Models likely have a server code base many times larger than City of Heroes, probably several orders of magnitude. Mob AI needs to be as simple as possible, because so many mobs need to independently run some sort of AI to provide a useful opposition to Players.

May 2

On Blasters, the Sniper attack (if the Primary Powerset has a Sniper attack) provides a +50% Range enhancement for 10s. As the Snipes can easily have a cycle time under 10s, this Range buff can be perma'ed easily.

Also, I have to stand up for my loved Blaster Secondary, Devices. Awesome Powers like:

Toxic Web Grenade (slot with Immob enhancement, +3 SO or L50+5 Purple Immob, take at L1
Caltrops (Tempered Readiness Attuned or L50+ Range/Slow, take at L8 or so, as early as possible, great +50 Afraid mez that makes most mobs run away from the Toon)
Targeting Drone (ToHit +3 SO or L50+5 IO, must take at L10)
Smoke Grenade (early Recharge Reduction +3 SO, later ToHit debuff +3 SO or L50+5 IO, take at some place in the build to handle those mobs that ignore stealth)

Which with the awesome +ToHit of Targeting Drone on a single ToHit +3 SO or a L50+5 IO enhancement, can all be single-slotted, leaving more Extra Slots for other Powers.

Also, Targeting Drone always gives +20% Damage enhancement. When out-of-combat, the first attack will also get another +60% Damage enhancement.

Also also, that big +ToHit from Targeting Drone, over +22%, means even when Snipes are fast, they have maximum Damage. That Damage buff is outside of the Enhancement of Damage and always gives more damage.

Also take these 2 amazing Pet Powers, which should be 6-slotted with a combination of IOs that gives ED-capped Accuracy, to get near final 95% ToHit against the usual end-game extreme of +3L mobs (+4 mobs with the Toon having +1 Level due to a T3 or T4 Alpha Boost; the Pet doesn't get any Global buffs from the Castor, but has attacks with Base Accuracy 1.2).

Trip Mine (6 slots with ED-capped Acc; don't worry about the KB; also Blaster Devices Trip Mine has no interrupt time)
Gun Drone (6 slots with ED-capped Acc; must also slot the Expedient Reinforment special as that boosts the Drone's resistances from 80% to all to 90% to all, a mini-Tanker for the Blaster)

And of course, the Blaster sustain Power:

Field Operative (must take at L20: I slot with 4 eventually: LotG special, Synapse Shock +EndMod/+Runspeed, and Preventive Medicine duo, Attune Health and a L20 special, which is a Global that gives a Proc, so it works even when Field Operative isn't running, as long as the Toon isn't Exemplared below L15)

Don't worry about the stealth (in fact combine it with a stealth proc to have Boss-level stealth). When you hit mobs, that stealth drops to 15ft (from Field Operative), they will pursue you until their aggro on the Toon goes away.

May 2

I have 2 FF Toons, a FF/Rad Blast Defender and a FF/Beam Defender, both idling at under L10. I recently changed my slotting of T1 attacks for Assault Rifle and Radiation Blast in my Toon's builds, to improve their DPA and utility. Doesn't affect them now, but as I Level them.

I like the new build for the FF/Rad Defender. The FF/Beam Defender doesn't feel right. Force Field has 2 Powers with -Res, Single-Target Repulsion Bolt and Targeted AoE Force Bomb. The Rad Blast Defender takes both, the FF/Beam Defender only has Force Bomb. Beam also has a -Res Power.

I've decided to reroll the FF/Beam Defender as a Sonic Resonance/Beam Defender. Made a build for it and it just feels a lot better, moreso that the new FF/Beam build. I'll be doing the reroll in the next few days.

So here's all 3 builds, submitting for your examination.

Defender FF-RadB.20250424.MuM Stealth TT Weave Tactics GI [i28p1] @Jacke - Jacke Radforce.mbd Defender FF-BR.20250414.MuM Stealth TT Weave Tactics GI [i28p1] @Jacke - Jacke Smyth.mbd Defender SonicR-BR.20250424.MaceM Stealth CJ TT Weave GI [i28p1] @Jacke - Jacke Smyth.mbd

April 30

Repeat Offenders had a wonderful Wake for Alty in-game. Details here on the RO forums which should be visible to everyone.

https://www.repeat-offenders.net/forum/topic/20499-altys-wake-2025-april-26-saturday/

Sign In

Profiles

Forums

Events

Store

Articles

Patch Notes

Posts posted by Jacke