Bill Z Bubba

I'm Bill Z Bubba. I'm in a box that doesn't fit any of the definitions put forth so far in this thread because I'm a bit of all of them. I suspect, as Coyotedancer stated, that this is probably true of many of us.

I liked this just so you could have 666 post notes. Crap! I shoulda refreshed 1st.

My main is Bill Z Bubba. Prince of Hell. Claws and Super Reflexes Scrapper Extraordinaire. He's got 4 different bodies (tank, brute, scrapper, stalker) in a single universe (Excel.) Each body looks slightly different but all have the same horns, same white hair, same cigar, same wings, same tail, same hooves. My main is the CoH virtual embodiment of how I see myself in real life. He didn't start out that way but he became it and often I become him. No, I don't mean I go on glorious killing sprees leaving behind a riverbed of dead and eviscerated bodies in my wake but I am a scrapper. I latch on to problems and I don't let go until they are resolved. I do share a penchant for destruction over creation, though. Plus, you know, Hail Satan and all that. 🙂

I dunno. I've always considered not faceplanting to be a great benefit for a team.

I'm probably alone on this but considering how ridiculously safe Sentinels are, I see no reason for a base damage increase. Granted, most of my Sents are fire blast users, so I get that this affects my view on the topic, but blast output discrepancies between the sets cross AT boundaries and should be viewed as such.

Yes. I completely understand that after 50, After getting clarion, the game changes for blasters. But I tend, these days at least, to PL a new character to 32, and play them past that. That's a lotta levels to get through without any kind of useful mez protection. It absolutely colors my view of the AT. I would, and do, have a different view when I decide to team more than solo. And while I do team more these days than I ever did back before the snap, I still solo a lot and expect anything I play to be able to solo well. Or... it's not for me or it just gets dumped into the "I'll play this when I know I'm going to team" pile. Anything in *that* pile, while perhaps being fun for a variety of reasons, will always be in *that* pile.

Yup. Got mine in Followup. Got the passive as the only slot in swipe since it's always on. Nothing like having triplestacked followup AND a massive chance to crit focus and slash. And yes... it's even better with eviscerate in the mix. Blah. (Edit, the triplestack only happens on focus and drops right back to dblstack for slash.)

That's what she said?

Argh. 52 mins into ITF, max diff, no temps, master run rules plus no insps, after taking out the computer and Requiem, I got distracted by a sudden add of two spawns while fighting Rom and he smacked me down.

I still want a earth blast set.

Delusions? I *am* awesome.

Funny how the boards work. I started a badmouth blasters thread under archetypes and came away from it with a much more solid build for my fire/time blaster. 🙂

I enjoy hitting 50 in 2 hours instead of slogging through content. And I say this with a demon/time MM that's been 100% solo/no-PL gold side and she just dinged 34 last night. I actually find very little difference in the meditative properties of farming and scrapping through max diff end-game missions. It's all just killin stuff. And I'm still surprised out how much I missed it all when it was gone. Hell, that's probably why I'm sittin on nearly 40 lvl 50s and have deleted twice that number already. Something that would have never occurred back before the snap when I wasn't a farmer.

Felt the need to offer a followup. I respeced my fire/time blaster. Build below. Then ran a max diff ITF with a rad/fire def, a fire/spines tank, and me on blaster. We completed it with 2 faceplants from the def in 39 mins. That was pretty farkin cool. Off to test soloability now. Side thoughts: the all melee ITF was a kill most. The threesome ITF was a zerg run. This explains the times somewhat. Off to test pylon time along with soloability now. O.o Pylon times are on par with my claws/sr and claws/bio scrappers. 2:15 to 3mins Very nice. Another update: Ran a CoT max diff radio mission in PI. No issues. Ran a Carnie max diff radio mission in PI, 3 faceplants and I called it. Blasters still < Scrappers. But... they can be very cool on teams. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Tempa Incendema: Level 50 Magic Blaster Primary Power Set: Fire Blast Secondary Power Set: Temporal Manipulation Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Flares -- SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsWrt-Dmg/Rchg(3), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), SprBlsWrt-Rchg/Dmg%(17) Level 1: Time Wall -- ImpSwf-Dam%(A), TraoftheH-Dam%(3), ImpSwf-Acc/EndRdx(40) Level 2: Fire Ball -- SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg(A), SprDfnBrr-Dmg/Rchg(5), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), SprDfnBrr-Rchg/+Status Protect(25) Level 4: Time Stop -- Lck-Acc/Rchg(A), Lck-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(5) Level 6: Mystic Flight -- Frb-Stlth(A) Level 8: Rain of Fire -- OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg(A), OvrFrc-End/Rech(9), OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg/End(17), OvrFrc-Dmg/End/Rech(48), OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech(48), OvrFrc-Dam/KB(50) Level 10: Chronos -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(11), GssSynFr--Build%(11) Level 12: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13) Level 14: Spirit Ward -- Prv-Absorb%(A) Level 16: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 18: Blaze -- Apc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Apc-Acc/Rchg(19), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Apc-Dam%(34), GldJvl-Dam%(34) Level 20: Temporal Healing -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(21), Empty(21), Pnc-Heal/EndRedux(39), Pnc-Heal(40), Pnc-Heal/+End(40) Level 22: Rune of Protection -- RctArm-ResDam/Rchg(A), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(23), TtnCtn-ResDam/Rchg(23) Level 24: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 26: Blazing Bolt -- ExpMarks-Dmg/End/Int(A), ExpMarks-Acc/End/Rech(27), ExpMarks-Rng/FSnp(27), ExpMarks-Acc/Dmg(33), ExpMarks-Dmg/Rech(33), ExpMarks-Dmg/Int/Rng/Rech(34) Level 28: Tough -- UnbGrd-Max HP%(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(39), GldArm-3defTpProc(39), GldArm-ResDam(42) Level 30: Weave -- Rct-Def(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(31), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Rct-ResDam%(31) Level 32: Inferno -- Arm-Dmg/Rchg(A), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Arm-Acc/Rchg(42), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Arm-Dam%(43), Obl-%Dam(43) Level 35: Scorpion Shield -- ShlWal-Def/EndRdx(A), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36), ShlWal-Def(36), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(36) Level 38: Time Lord -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A) Level 41: Summon Spiderlings -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg(46), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(46) Level 44: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(45), LucoftheG-Def(45), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(45) Level 47: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(48) Level 49: Vengeance -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Defiance Level 1: Quick Form 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 -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(A), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(37), NmnCnv-Heal(37), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(37), RgnTss-Regen+(50), Mrc-Rcvry+(50) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-EndMod/Rchg(9), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(29), PrfShf-End%(29) ------------

Mostly serious. So the defense amplifier... I'll look into that. Edit: New build for my fire/time blaster will go clarion. Doesn't look like the AT IO proc is reliable enough to count on. Edit2: @Apparition what combo do you run?

Wonder how much recharge you'd need to tighten that attack chain up some. How much does your build have now?

Blasters get mezzed. They die. DPS drops to zero. Even if they got soft-capped to range and go hover blaster, the lack of DDR means the defense doesn't work for long and they have to get out of dodge, or die. DPS drops to zero. Scrappers just keep on trucking. DPS only falls to zero when traveling between spawns. Granted, even with my post-snap mentality changing and causing me to play a LOT more archetypes than I did in the old days, I still expect everything I play to be able to solo tolerably well. I have so far been incapable of finding a build or combo that does so while playing a blaster. Even those that survive are empty of insps before the mission is over AND I have to play at less than max diff. They simply have to spend far too much time worried about survival when compared to any of the melee ATs, Sents or even my dominators. All this said, I love teaming with blasters. I enjoy the mass carnage they bring. I kind of like my blasters when I'm teaming... when I can lean on a tank or someone buffing me so that I can survive. But I'd just as well enjoy an all melee SF/TF knowing that there will be far fewer faceplants along the way. Just sharing. Interested in your thoughts. EDIT: Right after posting this I decided to run an all melee max diff kill most ITF. Turned out to be an MoITF. Done in 43 mins with 4 tanks, 2 brutes, a scrapper and a stalker. Such glorious carnage.

Actually, bio's strength comes from absorption, not healing. Adding a ton of HP before enemy alpha strikes so that you ignore them completely is pretty substantial. Having two powers that grant absorption on top of an aoe heal is crazy good mitigation. And as I just learned recently, the defense debuff resistance from ageless radial is substantial enough to make me take a new look at ALL of my Non-SR defense based characters.

Oh nevermind.

I have three masterminds. Demon/Time Mercs/FF Thugs/Pain All three are in the 30s. All three suck compared to everything else I play. I know... I'm doin it wrong. Same thing with my blasters. Really need to get one of these to 50 and properly decked out.

Hey @oldskool I'm in the same boat on the heavy proc builds. Just seems to lose way too much for not enough gain.

Odd. I thought the 1st DA arc WAS the current vet lvl system. 🙂

It's never too late for change. Just remains in question whether the change is good/bad/needed/whatever.

I'm with this guy. Fewer HPM. Alternate animals acceptable but please don't take away my doggy.

Never underestimate the importance of being able to turn the knob to 11.