purplereign

This is a phenomenal response, and one I greatly appreciate. My first 50 on HC was actually a Time/DP defender, and I've since moved away from Time for no real reason. I think my gripes at the time were that it was quite setup heavy (which could largely be negated by Dark openers) and that I believed (which appears to be wrong) that it was a far more effective set as a Defender primary, numerically speaking. This is a sick combination though. I've heard a lot of people say that Darkness Control is a premier control set, not just for having one of the best AoE holds, but because it has the innate -ToHit, and no other control set boasts a debuff that valuable. Thank you so, so much for taking the time to articulate the points as it relates to my priority, too. This is so helpful. Not to ask more of you, but any chance you have a build or something I could wrap my head around as far as power selection goes? Time is a hefty one, so you are probably pretty limited in choices for other pool sets. Lastly, how tanky do you feel? I know you mentioned being able to fearsome stare and jump in (which I like the sound of), but do I have to fear getting melted? I like being a tanky support

My only concern with Kin (and I've been KINsidering it a lot haha) is that it's good up to a super point and then is largely wasted with teams that hit power cap. FS serves zero purpose at that point and a lot of Kin value goes down, I think. Not sure how accurate that is, but from what I've read, that seems to be the case.

I will indeed! So far I'm looking at Elec/Elec Defender, and I'm intrigued by the following powersets: Earth Control Ice Control Darkness Control Poison TA Kin Cold Dom Thermal

All of this is immensely helpful information, and I've been looking at your videos over the last few days. Do you have an all-around build that you could recommend? Separately? My only major gripe so far (I'm only level 27) is that Elec Affin feels arguably too active. I constantly feel like I can't skip a beat and I have to be pressing something every second. Does it become more natural, or am I missing something?

YESSS! I saw some posts by Voltak the other day! Super interesting! Def a good case for the pairing. How's the fun factor?

Fire/Thermal sounds interesting! Good mix of utility, solid debuffing, solid CC'ing, and Fire just does soooo much damage. As a total curveball, what do you think of Plant/? I've read some general posts about Plant/Storm, Plant/Kin, and Plant/TA

Oo this is interesting! The macros make a lot of sense. I love EA on paper, but I haven't found myself really trying to play it much. Maybe I bite the bullet and level one past 15 to determine if it's one I like. Appreciate the opening rotation, too. I need to give this build more time.

Haha Earth/Dark was just a totally random pairing I used to illustrate the point. I appreciate the input, though! Not sure I'd find myself going Corr for a heavy support build though, despite the great points made in how much they contribute.

I've been thinking about Elec/Elec quite a bit. My only concern is how much maintenance this is. It feels like you need to be spamming stuff pretty frequently to maintain their presence. Does that feel accurate?

It's funny you say that, my current main is a Dark/Sonic defender. I def feel like my team does more damage and the emphasis on -tohit is substantial, but I feel like I'm lacking CC in some capacity. I played it for a while, but no longer fun for me. As weird as that sounds. I think, as an alternative, if I did something like Earth/Dark where I can have the hard CC + the debuffing, is kinda more in line with what I'm looking to accomplish. I don't think there are direct synergies between Earth/Dark, but that's the idea more or less.

Appreciate the recommendations! I'm still in favor of Def over Corrupter because the debuffing numbers feel pretty substantial to me and that's the primary focus of my build. Damage much less. Thermal and Cold are great recommendations and ones I've thought quite extensively about. I've heard there's a top notch Thermal/Ice build floating around but I haven't found it yet. I've been keen on Electric Blast since the rework and think it would be fun. Cold/Water seems like it could be pretty insane considering the combo of sleet (and it's multitude of proc opportunities) + Whirlpool. I'm now wondering if Debuff and CC are my top two priorities, if Controller is simply the best option. I could go /Cold or /Thermal for the reasons you're listing, and would just need to pick a good pairing for it. Fire/Cold seems like it could be pretty darn good. Same with Fire/Thermal. I have a Fire/Dark Troller right now, but it's only 36.

Thank you! I actually have an Ice/Cold Corr and it does a billion damage... but this feels a bit too damage-centric and less support/CC than I think I'd get from playing a Defender or Troller. The AoE kd on Water isn't one I thought too much about.

Hi there, I'm Blake. I'm starting this conversation from scratch. I've been fortunate enough to get advice on various builds, powerset combos, etc. from many people on these forums or in the discord. However, I simply cannot seem to find a setup that makes me really happy. So, I figured I'd reverse engineer this. If I can more-or-less articulate what it is I want to be able to do, I'm hoping someone can help me narrow down what powerset conversations (and even archetype, for that matter) accomplish my goals. Any help or support would be incredibly helpful. Overarching concept: I am a pure team-player. I never, ever solo. I am looking to create the ultimate team-oriented toon that makes everyone want me to join them for missions, TFs, ITFs, etc. As far as how I want to help my team, there are a few things that come to mind. Debuffing over Buffing But I don't mind buffing (I prefer targeted that have an AoE component like Glacial Shields or even Speed Boost, over buffs like Accelerate Metabolism and Overgrowth) I don't particularly love anchors, but can manage with 1 or maybe 2 Damage is a nice-to-have, but not at all a priority. In essence, here's how I'd stackrank the importance of elements of this character: 1. Debuffing Power (-res, -regen, -tohit, etc.) 2. CC Power (stuns, holds, knockdowns) 3. Mid-level Maintenance (i.e. I don't want to be pressing CM every 2 seconds, on every person, every minute) 4. Damage (would like to contribute in some way, but certainly not a focal point of the character) 5. Clear position. By this I mean I would love to either be a fully PBAoE setup, or accomplish 95% of what I want from range. As an example, I think of Poison as a PBAoE set, and TA as a range set, and would like to compliment them with sets that match. 6. Buffing Power (if it accomplishes everything else here and has buffs, great). I just don't love trying to herd the team every time I need to cast a PBAoE buff. I'm leaning towards Controller or Defender to accomplish this. As another general rule, I'm more interested in shutting down an entire group of baddies, rather than being a ST debuff machine... but I would like to be useful in killing AVs when needed, even if it's not what the character is specifically designed to do. Thank you to anyone that takes the time to read this ❤️ EDIT: I don't know if people get notified when the OP makes an edit to their post, but wanted to share an update with you all. For starters, thank you SO much for the amount of responses/feedback/ideas/guidance I got. I expected 1-2 responses, and certainly was overwhelmed with people that took the time to read my post provide their opinions and help me get closer to a toon that fits my goals. In short, while I saw/read a bunch of cool ideas, I've settled on three characters that I'm going to level and see which one I simply enjoy playing the most. Here they are: Ice/Poison Controller Elec/Elec Defender Plant/TA Controller I'm very excited to see which one lands best (or who knows, maybe I love all 3!), but I do plan to update again when I have more concrete info. I'll continue to pop into this thread to see any last responses and opinions though! So feel free to keep sharing stuff!

Would you be able to share more info here? I was planning to roll one, but a few people have told me there isn't very good direct synergy here because of the way Carrion Creepers interacts with the set.

Yes! it is! Who were you?? Hopefully I didn't stink.

I've been torn on this build for the past few days. I really like both approaches, but something still feels off. I'm going to try retooling it a bit myself, with some inspiration from both Darkir and Oedipus. Appreciate you all so much -- which I could give more detail to what is bugging me with the build, but I'm not entirely sure yet. For starters, I think I'm convinced in switching to Mace for Scorp Shield. Whether I go all in and grab web+pet is TBD. Scorp shield, although boring, is too important to give up. Being able to soft cap defenses much easier is important to me as I want to be as tanky as possible. Oppressive Gloom, while fun, is super weak right? Like a suspiciously low Mag 2 compared to base ST holds of Mag 3.... Soul Drain is amaaaazing, but damage is least important to me... I also don't think this toon is really going to put out much damage. I was thinking about how to stay at range a bit more to compliment my cones, but I realize that with HL and Blackstar I have to be in melee at least once a minute anyways. Also I definitely will be dropping Infrigidate in my final build... and I don't need a travel power. Ninja Run might as well be one, it's simply so good for free. Giving me access to vengeance or assault or anything else. Just speaking out loud.

Super interesting take on the build! Mind if I ask about the Boxing slotting? I've seen, in several scenarios, people slot the heck out of Boxing (or brawl) to achieve certain set bonuses, but it seems like such a "feelsbadman" to have to spend so many slots on a power I never use. Are the bonuses that important? Are there different ways to achieve it? Genuinely curious.

At first glance this looks AWESOME -- The only change I would make, myself, without being able to see the full build as I'm at work... is swapping Torrent for Assault. I think Torrent is super meh, and don't feel like it's needed in my attack chain. At least if I pick up assault, I can provide some general-wide damage and gain back 4 slots back to put into Tactics for a full Gaussian set. What you think?

Good to know! Appreciate the small changes... Will try to implement them! BTW, on my Fire/Dark right now... my opener looks like this: 1) Flashfire / Howling Twilight 2) Bonfire 3) Fire Cages 4) Tar Patch 5) Darkest Night Do you do something similar?

Holy crap, I was looking for a team-oriented Fire/Dark build -- THANK you for this!

That's what I'm hoping for, too. When I'm back home I can post it into the thread properly without an attachment.

Hey there, friends - I really appreciate all the help with the Therm/Sonic build, and while I'm currently leveling it, I may have found a toon that I enjoy even more. I promise I won't squander everyone's help in the other build, I definitely plan to level it up and IO it up, but I may finish this new toon first. It's Cold/Dark. I realize it's not min/max, as I'm not going Sonic, but I'm enjoying it so much! Would love any/all input! Couple things to mention. My priorities are: 1) Support First -- whatever I can do to augment to offense and defense of my team because I never, EVER solo 2) Tankability -- I want to be as tanky as the build will allow 3) Damage -- Might as well, right? Hoping for perma hasten and HL, which shouldn't be too hard, though I am not perma on the build just yet. Thinking about potentially dropping Infrig for CJ to get tankier, but let me know what you think.... Hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year! Defender - Cold Domination - Dark Blast V1.5.mxd

You're amazing! gonna try this change for SURE

this is SUPER helpful -- any other tips I'll gladly take. Especially positioning, too. Or how you open and stuff like that ❤️

Generally speaking, I prefer being as tanky as possible without sacrificing my ability to support a team. A dead support is a useless support 🙂 So, I feel like I'm more likely to roll the first one? Maybe? Appreciate the alternative approach though, this looks cool too!