Uncle Shags

Nope. It can be a waste to enhance for damage if you plan on getting capped from other means (like fulcrum). Some people use this as an opportunity to get creative with slotting.

Well, with your help I've been having a fantastic time on my first dom. It takes some getting used to, but I'm getting the hang of it. I'm up to T3 incarn and feeling pretty OP. I was having a hard time with the hasten/dom auto and was on the verge of going for trying for non-hasten permadom but I got a rotating auto bind to work and that's been a game changer. Don't have much issues with dom dropping now at all. I've spent some time tinkering with this build and it's working pretty well, but this is my first Dom, so I'm sure I've bungled some things. Mind taking a look? It's a Mind/Nrg/Soul. Thanks much. Dominator (Mind Control - Energy Assault)4.mbd

Thanks for the help! Got 50 last night and it was a much smoother experience. Very fun. Now that I'm 50 I'm thinking of jumping in on some purple sets and finalizing the build. I have another question that's related to the Dom bar so I might as well ask it here. Should I chase after slow resist? As perma-Dom is so crucial, I assume getting slowed is a real bummer. But I'm wondering if it's similar to how some of you think of defense - preemptive cc means no defense needed. I like that idea and have found some success with it. Is it the same for slows? Thanks again.

Awesome. I think I get it now. The part I was missing was that perma-dom means hitting the button again before the timer goes off to avoid the building/crash component completely. I'm not quite there yet with my recharge and/or I had hasten on autoclick which meant I was probably slow on my dom click. I'll have to switch those and put dom on autoclick instead. Thanks!

Three Doms walk into a bar... Jk. So I've gotten almost to 50 on my first dominator and I'll admit I'm still not exactly sure how building and losing domination happens. I get the general idea I think, but not the details, maybe. Are there certain attacks that build it faster? AoE vs ST? Big dmg or fast dmg? CC vs not vs both? Are there tricks to building it faster so that I'm not at zero going into combat? I'm also wondering about the bar dropping down. I read somewhere that it goes down gradually. Well mine doesn't! It just drops to zero. Sometimes very quickly outside of combat. Is there any rhyme or reason to this thing? Thanks!

I've had a hovering, unenacted plan for a while now to run an ITF where the team repeatedly brings all the baddies to the dark crystals to get blown up. I like the efficiency of the idea, I guess, but I don't like leading itf because I get lost in the caves so the plan remains just a plan. That plan was put on pause last night, however, after a comment made by a teammate. I occasionally throw out a half-hearted suggestion to use crystal explosions during the nictus cave mission - perhaps I'm casually fishing for buy in. I'm usually ignored, which I expect, but last night, "Why let crystals steal my kills?" was the reply in team chat. I Ioled and we moved on, but it got me thinking... Do the crystal explosions (or other similar damages) steal xp? Is it like confusion, in that the distribution is skewed to favor the player, or is it a straight "kill steal" type scenario? If you're doing a speed run the answer would be obvious. But for a KM ITF interested in xp, should clearing the area before explosion be the plan? Thoughts?

Holy smokes! So much going on there! Crazy build! Looks awesome! I'm sure lots of folks have lots to say, but I think I can speak to the combat teleport question. Combat teleport is fantastic. Once you get used to it you'll want it on every melee toon. I've got a macro that has it drop me in the lap of my target and have it set to a thumb button on my mouse. Never worry about jumping up onto tricky balcony again. Zip zip. Super fast. You can also set it up to tp you backwards. Much faster than regular TP. Once you get used to it, it's the opposite of cumbersome. Don't choose it instead of fold space. Drop teleport target instead. I've got a test server Rad/SS I've been tinkering with. I'm going to have to take at peek at your version. Looks very interesting.

I say man ti core Kind of like harpsichord. Manticore

Awesome! Thank you. I'm all about the feedback. Now I just have to wait to get home to look into all your suggestions.... Thanks again!

This fancy little fella, Dinglehopper Schmidt, is my new main, and he is friggin' AWESOME! If someone thinks of something cooler, please let me know, but for now we shall call him: Petless Tanky Blasty Support Crab...of DOOOOM!!! I play him as the name suggests. On full teams, supporting with buffs and debuffs, taking alphas like a tank, nearly invincible, and pew pew spider legs, beatch! It's super fun blasting fools while jumping around and through the scrum with impunity, all the time knowing that I'm basically a hopping popping force multiplier. Pros: Spider arms! They're awesome! No pets - screw em Pew Pew Hoppity Hop cone lineup playstyle - I find it fun Adaptable - team makeup doesn't matter much Exemplars well - I actually had fun on Synapse with lots of attacks! Pen Yin? DOMINATION. Team Support: +21% defense perma within 60ft +30% damage perma within 60ft +13% to hit perma within 60ft -35% damage resistance perma on 10 targets Vengeance Tanky: 2200 hp 46% defense m/r/aoe 63% resistance s/l/e/n/f/c Playing a juking range style with these stats is just plain ridiculous Damage: Not bad!? Nearly gapless AoE rotation Gapless ST rotation - Channelgun sucks but it can achilles. Longfang and Bayonet are decent. Longfang can oneshot +3minions Omega Maneuver I have officially renamed Alpha Maneuver. Awesome for taking the alpha aggro (it taunts) and then a big health chunk to 16 targets. If you're quick you can plop down -35% resistance after you drop it but before it goes off, so extra damage with no aggro Cons: Spider arms (but I love em!) No pets Hoppity Hop cone lineup playstyle not for everyone No travel power (I use small longbow jetpack when needed) No DDR (hasn't been an issue) No KB prot (I use Karma) Low aoe burst (other than Alpha Maneuver) Tanky but no taunt Alpha Maneuver fuse is slow SoA targetted aoe (grenades) only hits 10 (rest of the entire friggin game hits 16....) No CJ or combat tp...damnit... Low Psi res (but high defense!) Probably other cons I can't see through my rose tinted glasses - did I mention it's awesome? Incarnate Ideas: Resillient core gets res to +70% Ageless Radial solves DDR Ageless Core is great (recharge and recovery) Support hybrid fits the support theme Assault/musc for more damage I use Musc Core, Ageless Core, Support Hybrid. And the spider lore of course! I've been playing this guy for a while now, so I've got it pretty dialed in, but if anyone notices anything in my build that could be made more efficient, feel free to help me out. Arachnos Soldier (Crab Spider Soldier - Crab Spider Training)2.mbd

Dear Gentlefolk of the Council, It looks like the frag and venom grenade for both soldier and crab have a target maximum of 10. In my search of other attacks listed as ranged targeted aoe I found that every other one has a target cap of 16. 10 is usually the cap for cones. I believe in the recent official COH yearly update SoA ranked as the least played AT. Perhaps they could use attention? I propose a buff to Arachnos Soldier grenades: A new target cap of 36. This is, of course, negotiable. Perhaps, to remain fair to other ATs, a cap of 16 would be appropriate, acceptable, and appreciated! Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Dinglehopper Schmidt UUAS President Union of United Arachnos Soldiers

Most of my builds are perfect. Until I look at them again and find something I could improve. Then they're perfect again. Until I...

Duly noted: Not good to assume people's motivations when they offer to give up the star. Not good to assume everyone has the same desire or ability to take the star. Not good to assume that willingness to give up the star is the same for everyone.

Oh it works! But on a full team of high level folks sometimes it seems like even bigger mobs would be fun.

Shoot... I came here hoping you figured out a way to double the max mobs...

This is it. Recruitment is arguably the "hardest" part of leading a team. They've done that. Then, by asking if someone higher level wants to lead, they are offering to give others access to more of their powers. The person asking isn't trying to get out of anything, and burden someone else - they're trying to help. For example, I like to do the posi 1 tf as soon as I can. Level 8. So I advertise in lfg, get 7 and get ready to go. But, since the tf tops out at 15 (I think it's 15?) if I'm the one who starts it players will be exempted to my level and not have access to several of their powers. Sometimes those powers are really significant and people would love to have access to them. Depending on the tf and level it might be the difference between having fulcrum shift or not. Or losing access to your incarnates. So I do everyone a favor and offer to give up the lead for the greater good. If no one wants to, that's fine by me! If you don't want to lead you can always say you can't. There's no obligation.

You can make a claws/stone armor brute and tank. You can't do claws/ninjitsu though (but can on stalker). I think the only fully exclusive melee combo is SS/Regen brute? I might be wrong though. Perhaps part of the answer could come from the scrapper crit ATO? When set could best leverage it? I know it works really well on titan weapon.

I'm running a AR/TA right now and am finding the range only play pretty dang fun. I'm also planning on chasing the range def so I feel you there.... I'll link my build in case it gives you any ideas. It's not perfect, but I've done a fair bit of successful tinkering I think. One thing I saw that might help you, that connects something you and Uun both said is the slotting for flash arrow and eagle eye. I too was tempted by the Cloud Senses bonuses, but I didn't like the proc causing aggro. For that extra bit of ranged def I 6 slotted eagle eye instead with numina's and 4 sloted flash arrow with dark watcher. Another idea I saw was to swap your ATO sets. If you have the defiant barrage proc in gloom you can activate it while mezzed to get a chance to clear the hold faster. Just a couple ideas. Blaster (Assault Rifle - Trick Arrow).mbd

If you have a hankering for the spines, go for it. The double damage aura and nostalgia factor are tempting. I haven't messed with it so I can't say much. Although I think Lunge or Ripper might both be better than Impale for single target damage, unless you're sold on the range idea. But I love me some dark armor! It's awesome. And I have found it benefits greatly from defense in addition to resistance (especially in conjunction with oppressive gloom and the much maligned cloak of fear (gasp!)). I disagree with the "it doesn't have ddr so don't bother" concept. If ddr mattered that much the only people that should go for defense at all would be SR or Shield toons. Just because a head on collision with a mack truck would likely kill me doesn't mean I shouldn't still wear my seat belt every day. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Etc, etc... Also, you can always get ageless radial if you're planning on tanking -def enemies.

There have been times when I felt my toon was too much. I was an invincible god of destruction and it felt like I was soloing the 4x8 while everyone else was just trying to keep up. After building an empath in mids yesterday and looking at the buffs I wonder how many of those times the team had an empath, I was the Adrenaline Boost target, and just didn't know it.

Aha! So that's resistance at 25% health. Thanks.

But they somehow do include an extra 30% resistance to all but tox and psi. It's coming from your Combat Training Defensive which is supposed to just be defense. I don't know what that's about.

That isn't how this topic reads to me, I don't see anyone clamoring for this new AT so they can make more powerful characters. The split is between "you could make some cool character concepts with this" and "that's extremely unbalanced." Sure. You're right. Character concept is a driving force. Maybe it's an attempt to match an already created character, or maybe a completely unique creation. That's great. But for some a major part of the character concept is min/maxed efficiency and effectiveness. That's great too.

Sorry, this got long... I think there's a schism within and among us. We want and appreciate a challenge, but also want and appreciate success and excellence. In this game, unfortunately, those two ideals can be in direct opposition. Hard equals slow, but good equals fast. Here's an example. 0-50 can include lots of challenge, especially in a pug. Deaths, wipes, pulling around corners, etc. But shortly after 50 all that changes when your build comes together. Steamroll hits and it becomes more about how many groups can we pull at once. That was my expectation as I rolled into a pug Vanguard Shield RWZ mission - thinking my twinked out tank was invincible. Long story short, for those who know this enemy, those expectations were dashed quickly with death and wipes. After discovering this new "hard mode" I resolved I was going to tackle it. No one else did these missions in LFG, so I would! Well, that didn't happen. People like success, and success is fast. Fast arrest -> fast xp -> you're awesome -> next mission please! Do we want hard? Yes. I think? But definitely not at the expense of success, which I think we've been conditioned to equate with speed and steamroll. As it relates to this topic, we're torn between "Wow that build would allow the ultimate steamroll!" and "Yeah but then there's no challenge". So maybe this debate is at least partially a result of game design issues. Is there enough slow and hard content? Is it fun? Can we make slow and hard more rewarding and feel like success? From my example, is it as simple as making those Vanguard Shield missions give more xp? And/or, is it about overcoming the AE farm stigma in order to tap into our already bubbling creativity to make AE "hard yet rewarding and fun" content more prominent for the average pug? I personally would like to make a poison/kin/wormhole/SS tank. But would that work out in the long run with the current content?

Eh, not sure what that would mean. Pretty sure there's just a hard cap at 75% for blasters. 45% is for defense and is usually referred to as a soft cap.