tidge

Welcome home!

Below is the build I use for a Rad/Dark Defender, perhaps it will offer some ideas for a Corruptor. The ATO are different, but not that different. Note that this build has two (plus one) elements I don't typically end up with: It doesn't rely very much on Very Rare+ set bonuses, the Corruptor has slightly better damage scales so perhaps leveraging more Purple sets would be better It doesn't have a "true" travel power, primarily because I wanted Combat Teleport to play with the various PBAoE (plus one) It is heavier on the %-Resistance procs than I usually choose. I think in my case: I want to believe that because of the %proc-tastic heavy component of this Defender any added -Resistance is improving defeat times more than any other Quality-of-Life choices I could make with those slots. There certainly are other areas where the choices can be criticized, but I rather like the way this one plays across all levels.

Lately I've been leaning into Corruptors (for concepts) mostly because of the primary/secondary power-pairings (and levels at which powers become available). While I don't have this pairing on a Corruptor, I think Radiation Blast / Dark Miasma is probably the most straight-foward pairing to make into a "do-it-all", especially it you lean into the AoE. Just make sure that you have the "ally-friendly" powers (this includes spamming of Howling Twilight on offense). The debuffs will help both in solo and team play. I can offer some insight from my Rad/Dark Defender: On the primary (Radiation) side, I would definitely include each of these, and probably turn at least two of them into %damage variants: Irradiate Electron Haze Aim (eventually, not before level 16) Atomic Blast I am not suggesting skipping the single target attacks, rather that they can be chosen to taste. On the secondary (Dark) side, the only power I would skip is Black Hole. I like Petrifying Gaze, it is probably more valuable solo than on teams. Twilight Grasp (probably NOT an early pick, but an important one) Unlikely that I would slot this for %damage. You can get by with 3x Touch of the Nictus and %+Endurance from Theft of Essence if you do want to be a little nastier. Tar Patch (Slow and Recharge time primarily, doesn't need many slots... Frankenslot to taste)... typical for me it is simply 2xRecharge IOs Darkest Night (also not needed early in a build, doesn't need many slots, I usually never add slots to it) Howling Twilight deserves to be 6-slotted: 2xRagnarok (Accuracy/Recharge, Damage/Endurance) 2xAbsolute Amazement (Stun/recharge, Accuracy/Stun/Recharge) 2x %damage (Make one of them Javelin Volley % Lethal, probably Bombardment %Fire for the second) Shadow Fall: 6-slot, add all the defense pieces (including Kismet +ToHit if the primary's Snipe will be taken) Fearsome Stare is a good %damage cone (I usually go 4x Cloud Senses, with %Negative and add a %Psi) on top of being a nice control. Petrifying Gaze: I usually go 3xGladiator's Net (Acc/Hold, Acc/End/Hold/Recharge, %Lethal) and 3 other %damage... I might miz it up if the 6th slot is added. Dark Servant: I usually go 4xCloud Senses and leave it at that. Final note: With lot's of %damage potential from Rad/Dark, don't forget you will need Accuracy/ToHit to give %proc damage a chance to hit. Franken-slotting for Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge in %damage powers is probably key, and having Aim be available as often as possible will greatly assist. The -Defense component of the Radiation Primary helps of course, but you cannot rely on it.

It sounds to me that part of what you may be witnessing the level-shift; the lower tier henchmen are facing enemies at +2 and +1 relative to you. How close are you keeping the henchmen to you?

I came here to complain that the poll options didn't include my reason for clicking into the thread.

The Pareto Principle: You spend 10% of your effort is on the first 90%; 90% of your effort will be spent on the last 10%.

I heard that with experience, this only happens something like 10% of the time.

I don't disagree, because the last thing anyone wants is a bajillion people pestering folks for their costumes, threatening legal action over "ownership", etc. Let's just agree that its an uncle who works for Nintendo that started the rumor.

Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen energy transfer that I thought would never end. I've seen end of time when I could not recall friend, but I always thought that I'd quote you again.

Seems like legit reasons (graphics, animations) to avoid taking a set to me. I can't speak to the (new) Storm as a user, it doesn't bother me as a member of a team with Stormies. Seismic is a bit of a mixed bag for me: solo (when I am casting the powers) I quite like it. When I am on a PUG, depending on how close I am to the target(s) of certain Seismic attacks... I agree it can be disorienting to play with a Seismologist. (Upthrust's graphics are probably the most "in yer face, imma going to draw on the screen now", Meteor either brings joy or madness). The only other sets that I find graphically distracting are Titan Weapons (mostly because I experience some sort of cognitive dissonance with the game's collision boxes) and the various Nature powers (I'm amazed by the graphics, but there is so much of it!) I know that Bio's overlay on costumes was originally a deal-breaker for folks. As for the OP: I have a character concept to use the set... but it is a character concept I have probably seen at least a dozen other players also go with. I'll probably give it a try after thinking up a new/different concept that can use the set.... just like I waited to try out Seismic Blast.

I have been self-diagnosed as being on the alt-istic spectrum.

Generally (for me) I (eventually) have a plan for each character that I will take to level 50 that involves: Being able to solo "survive" (or self-rez) large spawns via defense/resists/controls Being able to solo "defeat" large spawns Typically I try to do this via power choices and slottings, but the Inspiration tray and SG buffs can also play a part. I'm never trying to build level 50+ characters for +3/+4 solo content... I can understand the challenge but I simply don't enjoy what I see as a grind. Once I have a level 50, I'm pretty comfortable taking it through any content with any PUG because I know what I can do and I can alter/leverage my play style to improve team performance. For example, if content demands a particular debuff... I may end up spamming the debuff in a way I would almost never do while playing solo. I have a few characters at level 50 that I don't particularly enjoy playing on level 50+ hard-mode PUGs mostly because those characters are so single-focused that I can't really change what they bring to any rando PUG. An example of this is my War Mace/Invulnerable Scrapper. He can do a little bit of extra herding, but otherwise he's just a hard-to-defeat melee machine. There isn't a lot of changing of tactics with this sort of character, even with my various power pool choices.

Spend levels 1-5 dead and then enjoy living through levels 6-50.

You have certainly given me some things to think about! If I sacrificed Repulsion Field I could fit another LotG mule into the build. I will be doing some experiments with toggles and unslotters to see if I can learn anything.

Heck, with fast-travel options: Original Positron TF solo is relatively pain free.

I'm guessing the 13% is assuming an auto-hit? This feels like one of those cases where a ToHit roll would also come into play. I've been fooling around with (Epic) Force Mastery's Repulsion Field (with a KB-KD piece and Endurance Reduction) to backup Seismic Shockwaves. I do see adjacent enemies getting knocked down, but I haven't done much specific testing to see if its rate is particularly good. It's been years since I tried this, and I want to say that I almost always give up on the idea of a toggle with knockdown.

After a little bit of experimentation with Burn in a level 41 solo mission at x3: It does seem like I am getting reasonable %damage chances on the cast, which is pretty much what I was hoping for. I have a feeling that it is Combustion that will come out of the build, keep Consume with a pair of recharge IOs, and shuffle some of the slots that had been penciled into Combustion. They almost certainly won't go into Consume, it is very likely I'll tweak the build to run some sort of Defense toggle at a mid/lowish level to include a Kismet +ToHit piece to support the (Fast) Snipe. In this little round of testing, I was trying to make more of an effort to use Combustion, but it still didn't feel as if it was fitting into solo combat particularly smoothly. I was facing Crey (and getting blinded quite a bit) so while it was nice to have this as an extra (non-targeting) attack I'm still not sure it was all that necessary.

I am work-slopping (sic) a Seismic/Fire Blaster. My current (still leveling, so I'm not soloing x8 content yet) build has the following four powers, and I don't think each will survive. I do want some PBAoE for enemies that get stuck in walls/ceilings, and for when I get dog-piled. Combustion: In practice, this power rarely gets used. In my final build plans it is 5x slotted with Scirocco's Dervish. Consume: I have this only slotted with 2xIO recharge, because 3 minutes is hella long to wait. I had considered trying to make this into a mini-%damage nuke, with something like: (A) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50+5 (*) D-Sync Conduit (EndMod/Recharge): Level 53 (*) D-Sync Drain (EndMod/Accuracy): Level 53 (*) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage (*) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage Ultimately as a Blaster, I didn't need %damage from a PBAoE, so that's why I thought straight recharge was better. However: the recharge time is still excruciatingly long. I still use it, but only when I am really noticing that the blue bar is sagging. I have penciled this for removal from the first level 50 respec. Burn: I use this more than Combustion; I think it is because for lower-level content I simply have less of a need for a PBAoE. I have to do some more testing to see if the %procs fire on cast (not thinking about pseudo-pet %procs) as the plan currently is to go with (A) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50 (*) Superior Avalanche - Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Superior Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50 (*) Scirocco’s Dervish - Chance of Damage (Lethal) (*) Eradication - Chance of Damage (Energy) (*) Obliteration - Chance of Damage (Smashing) Hot Feet: I planned nothing fancy with this, as I was unimpressed with it on a Dominator. As you can see I value the Slow more than the Damage. (A) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Slow/Endurance: Level 50+5 (*) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Endurance: Level 50+5 I can't speak for using an Overwhelming Force %Knockdown piece in Hot Feet... I don't remember %damage pieces %proc-ing very often in it.

(minor editing for content and emphasis) When strictly soloing Tankers, I have delayed Taunt but never skipped it. It always makes it back in as an early choice during respecs... simply because I find it to be such a unique power(*1) for Tankers (Brutes just aren't my jam, but I kinda expect them to be running from spawn-to-spawn). I bring up Positron TFs not just because of the low-level nature(*2), but because those large sewer rooms are a place for a Taunting Tanker to shine... especially the one that has two little spawns off to the sides, a boss-spawn visible from the entrance with another boss spawn very close by... a player with an aura can leave a lot of angry stragglers for the rest of the team to deal with before anyone else has even engaged the first boss spawn... and it doesn't take much from an AoE caster to get the attention of another close-by group. (*1) "standing next to" (or "mezzing") an angry spawn (or GM, or AV) is not what I consider "tanking". MMV. (*2) of course, the low-level nature often means that the individual members of a team won't have powers and enhancement bonuses that can be relied upon to deal with large spawns as done in high-level content.... making leaning into the unique abilities of an AT that much more important.

Before pursuing a Crabbermind, I have a couple of thoughts to share: (0) These are pets, not henchmen. They are not at all like a Mastermind, except with respect to slotting choices for Defense/Resists/%BuildUp (Soulbound) etc. The Crabbermind is perhaps the best choice (along with an Invulnerability Tanker) to put a Gaussian's %BuildUp proc in one of the Crabbermind's Leadership powers. VEATs have a solid Damage scale, and the pets will improved the chances to get %BuildUp triggers for the Crabbermind. Masterminds can get similar chances for the %proc, but their damage scales are terrible by comparison. (1) You will need enough Recharge to be able to resummon the T2 and T3 pets, should they survive the entire length of their 'natural' lives. This isn't hard, but it isn't trivial. The T1 summon has a shorter cooldown, see next point. (2) Because they are pets that expire, if you resummon a 'replacement' to join previously summoned pets that have not been defeated: the latest summoned pets will expire per the life of any surviving original pets. In practice, this means that you can't be frivolous with resummoning just because a power has recharged. As for playstyle: In my experience, the pets are basically fire-and-forget. You are essentially stuck with whatever attacks they have so there is no real advantage to trying for melee v. ranged. IIRC I think I have at least two (possibly all three) of the summons slotted with 4xExpedient Reinforcement and the only %procs I try to leverage are Soulbound Allegience %Build up on the big guy, and Overwhelming Force Knockdown on the little guys. I should disclose: I rarely used my Crabbermind build, as a lot of what I wanted to do with the character could be done with the other builds. I never paid close attention to how the difference in DPS shook out (between builds), but it certainly didn't feel like less. I suspect that if you want to lean heavily into primarily Mace attacks the pets ought to help a lot, once you get their survivibility improved.