Uncle Shags

Being a critic but not a contributor is lame, so here's a build I threw together. I'm not a MM guy and have never played Necro, so there's no doubt some mistakes (I couldn't fit sovereign unique in for instance), but this one I think hits the marks pretty well: Perma Chrono Shift, Farsight, and Hasten. Soft capped Melee and Ranged Defense. It's just shy on aoe, but with Agility Incarnate you'd softcap that too. 50-64% SLENFC resistance. Endurance seems manageable (+4.1/-1.87). -Recharge at 217%. It's got no travel power, but you could drop something and pick up SJ if you want. Mastermind (Necromancy - Time Manipulation).mbd

Oh jeez, I wouldn't put too much faith in that. That individual focuses on quantity over quality, and the title "random builds" seems to apply in that the builds look like they were derived from the throwing "spaghetti against the wall" process - chuck in a bunch of random sets and powers and whatever sticks is the final product.

Great to hear! Sad I missed it. Maybe next time.

Did anything happen with this? I've got a support/tank crab that I wanted to bring, but 8 on a Saturday night in my house is a busy time.

If only we had someone who was a specialist in this issue...

You came into their thread, strawmaned them, promoted a false dichotomy (you're either an unquestioning sycophant or an ungrateful hater), accused them of not enjoying the game, gave ridiculous unsolicited advice, and said they were overthinking because they were hesitant to post because of the EXACT thing you are currently doing to them. And the complaint about wall of text coming from you is...rich... Not all of us need blind loyalty to enjoy this game. It's possible to be critical and appreciative at the same time. In fact, I'd argue that's way better than fanboi platitudes.

Here's my Rad/SS story. I've made lots of tanks but never a rad armor. Curiousity strikes. So I got on mids, cranked out a pretty fancy build based on Zect's template above and got on the test server. The damage is amazing. I did some quick, ballpark tests on Cinemora wall groups of 2 bosses and a big pack of minions. My tanky Inv/SS clears them in about 80s. My test server tricked out max damage Inv/SS does it in 45s. Rad/SS procbomber does it in 30s or less. I was really impressed. But then I went to go try out some durability. This is where I think I ran into an issue that may be a deal breaker for me. I got a 54x8 radio carnie mission and gathered multiple groups at once. The build I made has 65% psi resist. I quickly figured out this isn't a stand there and soak up damage type of build - you've got to end it quick with all that extra damage you have. I can deal with that. Fast and furious! It worked, for a little while... But the real issue was stacks of mezz. I was sent to the hospital multiple times after stacked holds broke through Fallout Shelter which led to an immediate melting. I respecced and added a few 6th slots in purple sets to get more Mez resist (got it to 108%) but it didn't seem to make a difference. I think it's an issue of pure resistance tanking with no defense? Everything hits, so mez and debuffs stack. I looked at my Invuln tank and it has the exact same status protection and resistance, but he never gets held. The only difference I can think of is no defense. All of the other tanks I've ever built had at least some defense. Is this a risk of pure resistance tanking? Now granted, I was purposely gathering as many carnies as I could, and was being targeted by multiple dark ring mistresses and master illusionists at once. But hey, that's not that unrealistic. And IMO isn't that what a tank is for? At least one version of tank, I guess - the "soak up the hits for the team no matter what" version. Maybe this is a known issue and I'd just not heard of it before? Is this a thing? How do you deal with it? Breakfrees? Clarion? Avoiding mezzers?

Ha! Yes, not the best mix of metaphors...

Gravity/Poison to tank and make tight packs of debuffed sardines, fire/kin to damage cap, sb, and BBQ.

And thanks for the win just now!

It's official! Snarky has been formally recognized by the authorities for...... drumroll....being snarky! Do you get a badge for that?

Maybe Poison/Sonic! I think there's a mod that allows you to change the sounds of powers. That would be hilarious.

I love it. Excellent name. Although with the water blast set, especially tinted greenish brown, wouldn't it be more like Prof Oopsee Isharted? I have a Poison/Water that I love. So good. Super tanky (like actual TANK tanky), super support, lots of cc with poison trap and KD, and surprisingly good damage. I still enjoy playing it. Actually, I might give it a spin after writing this! Our builds are pretty dang similar. I went for the Fold Space tree and a bit more damage. Procced out, enhanced Water Jet is amazing. I went with Aqua Bolt instead of Hydro Blast because it's faster for building tidal power. AB->Dehydrate->AB->Enhanced Water Jet repeat is a really good ST chain. My build isn't perfect, I'm sure, but maybe it'll give you ideas. Defender (Poison - Water Blast)2.mbd

Is it worth the slots? I see some builds with, some without, some with only one. My understanding is that only the Phantasm would benefit, not the PA? How about Spectral Terror? And I've heard some folks say that the phantasm is impossible to keep alive anyway, so why bother trying? I'm building my first Illusion and this is what keeps me up at night. JK. Kind of. Thanks!

Alternative perspective: Synapse is a horrible tf. It's long, boring, repetitive, and made worse due to lack of access to many powers. Most people who thought "OK, I don't need to speed..." are going to be smashing their face into the keyboard by the 1.5 hour mark, screaming "When will it end?! Please, God, can it just end?!" I only ever do it for the accolade, and hate it every time. Also, take a deep breath. The sky isn't falling.

I'm pretty excited. I've got a ill/time at level 4, ready and waiting at Richards. I got all my keymaps, and bindings set up, xp boost, ouro portal, long range transport reward, and goofy back story written. Pretty excited!

I'm taking a leap here because I've never played WM, but my impression is that it has a lot of mitigation via knockdown? Fire has zero mitigation. For large groups of normal enemies that can make a huge difference. Although, if you're talking AVs that might not matter because I don't think knockdown works on them?

I suppose since it's so versatile you can slot it to fit your needs.

Not too sure about brute. I've got a TW/Bio scrapper that I love, but feel guilty playing because it's so OP. If I were you: Drop defense sweep and replace with crushing blow. CB completes your ST rotation and is the fastest power you have to gain momentum Drop SJ and replace with titan sweep. You already have combat teleport and teleport. TS completes your aoe rotation and hits hard. Drop the enhancement chase for +regen and replace with global -rech and -rech in your heal/regen/absorb powers. Getting your click powers up as fast as possible is the key to Bio. Consider scrapper. The crit ATO goes reeeeally well with TW. Let me know if you want to see a scrapper build to compare to.

Good luck with your poetry. "Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth." - Mark Twain

To me a major factor is Blizzard vs Inferno. In theory, Blizzard does a lot more damage, especially considering scourge. But personally I found in most fights most of the damage was wasted on corpses. If you plan on drawn out fights, blizzard is better. In quick fights I think inferno wins.

I'm sure you've all run Posi 2. How can you think badly of Vahzilok?! Dr. Vahz: "The people of Paragon think I'm a monster... But my work here will usher in a new age! An end to sickness... An end to war... An end to death itself! Task Force Shags will NOT stop my new age!" Poor Dr. Vahzilok is just a humanitarian trying to make the world a better place! And when we ruin his plan? "I was to build a Utopia! A place where all would live, free from disease, free from the grip of death! Is such a world...truly impossible to obtain...?" Is that evil? Insane? Of course. But evil? His aim was Utopia! Maybe it's the actions that matter, not the intention?

We need a statistician! I think you're right that eventually, over time, given the randomness from multiple missions and teammates, the numbers will start to be clear. Speed, safety, etc. My concern is that it would take more than 5 missions to reach the randomness you need for good data. Maybe a lot more than 5. But I don't know. Paging the statistician!

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Make a character. Try it out. Solo. Teams. See how it feels. Be ready for confusion. That's normal. Get creative. Try another. And another. Go back to the first and see how it feels now. The beauty of this game is there is a nearly incalcuable (smart people have tried and given up) number of ways to combine power sets, archetypes, powers, enhancement, play style, backstory, etc., and in the end, almost anything can turn out to be super. With a little bit of skill and practice you can go into a mission where you're vastly outnumbered and come out wildly victorious. You can go into a mission with 7 other people and every single person walks out the door feeling like THEY were the one that saved the day. The other 7 did fine, but it was their specific actions that had real meaning, and made a huge impact towards the success. This game is crazy, complicated, and confusing. But the good news is, it allows you to focus on what YOU find fun. No matter what that is. Go with that. The fun.

I loved it! In particular: 1. I soloed it and went right for objectives, which was great, but I could tell the enemy composition and density would have been challenging, fun, and fruitful for a full KM team of 8. 2. You somehow took my costume colors and flipped/mirrored them! That was an awesome touch. 3. The final bosses mechanic was great. Even as a invuln tank it had me...flailing. Thank you.