Crysis

Meant to add to this thread in case anyone is looking for a little extra spending money.... I routinely run Brigg's Smashing and Lethal ComicCon farm with my build posted above. With softcapped S/L DEF and very high Melee Defense, plus the resists, it's almost as fast as my purpose-built Spines/Fire brute. The big difference is that a DP/Time blaster plays perfectly fine outside the AE, while the brute is far weaker outside of AE. Just in case you want to have some fun, take one into arc 133 set on +4/x8. Fast, easy XP and drops. Use the damage inspiration macros to convert all those inspiration drops into reds. Even without being able to hold aggro, you are just a buzzsaw, especially with Hybrid Melee.

Height I choose depends on the character I’m making, their backstory and sometimes because the costume pieces I want look “funny” if their leg/torso height isn’t set just right. So it’s a lot of “depends on....” stuff. However, I will say reading your post that I occasionally run into a situation where I apply a pre-saved costume file to a character that has been manually adjusted to a height/size that wasn’t intended for the original costume. I can get some wonky results when that happens, including logging in the character only to watch them suddenly grow/shrink. I’m guessing costume files sometimes include body slider measures, but I’m not sure. So I sometimes end up having to go back to the cosmetic surgeon and manually tinkering with the sliders again to get things fixed.

The game engine allows computer-controlled mobs to “cheat” a little on Endurance usage. If they have even 1 tick of Endurance, they can still attack, whereas you can’t launch a 20 End attack with only 1 tick of endurance left. Then there’s the AV heightened resistance and outrageous recovery to worry about. So with the right powers/AT’s and teamwork, likely you could drain an AV’s quite a bit, even floor it. But for that same amount of Endurance you spend on doing that, you could just likely straight up launch attacks and defeat the AV. Sapper builds abound on the boards. I have a couple that work that way and I wasn’t really even aiming to do so. But on AV’s, it’s pretty much 0 endurance all the time or its a wasted effort. Against normal minion/Lt/Boss spawns it can be a pretty effective tactic. But against AV’s and GM’s...not in my experience. PS - Last sapper build I had was a /Elec Affinity Mastermind. Could have other contributing factors than just END drain but I found sapping bosses would make them run away VERY FAST like the Council Werewolves. Annoying as all get out, especially on a MM as my pets would try to follow them and end up aggroing a bunch of other stuff while giving chase.

Sometimes you just like what you like and forcing yourself to like something everyone else says is “da bomb” just doesn’t work. I’ve played this game since 2004, other than the dark years, and I can count on one hand the total number of Defenders and Controllers I’ve taken to 50 and enjoyed playing after, well before even Incarnates were around. I just don’t like playing support. Some people, that’s their thing. For me, I feel like I’m the audience at a Superhero show. Since HC came around, I’ve made exactly one Controller T4’d out. Slog for me, had to force myself to keep playing it. Direct-damage AT’s are my thing. Blasters, Scrappers, Stalkers, Corruptors and even lol Sentinels. Dom’s can be fun. I love playing Masterminds because they actually take a little effort to keep your pets under control, and thus the whole “audience support” role is more interactive. So they are an AT unto themselves. But if I can’t make big orange numbers by myself, I just don’t feel very useful and my enjoyment drops. Just play what you want. I do keep dreaming of a day when Sentinels receive a damage buff. Because on paper they are about the perfect scratch for my itch....short-ranged melee fighters. And Regen actually works for them in that role. But until then, I find Melee a very enjoyable play style.

Nemu, I just re-read what you wrote....I didn’t realize -RES doesn’t work with anything other than normal ammo on Piercing. Is this true for any procs assigned to PR? And is this WAI or is it a bug?

Meh, I just keep a temp power attack and go petless for those kinds of things. All you need is a single attack landing on the DropShip.

And if anything/Storm, also pick up the Recovery buff from P2W. And the Recovery shot temp power. And use Base Empowerment for Recovery. And carry blues. And only team with /Kins or anyone else who can buff your END.

If you want BS/Shield you need to roll a Stalker. It’s sick how much better it plays on a Stalker with on-demand Crits than even the best built scrapper.

I don't stay in a single farm "all day," I use ShadowPC to run multiple instances of COH client and use my iPhone/iPad to check in on farmers every 35-45 mins, move them out, reset, and run again. Since I'm not actively playing, it's pretty simple to just log in, exit mish, reset mish, enter mission periodically.

Why anyone would dip THREE powers into TP pool for something you can accomplish by just jumping into middle of spawn is beyond me. Maybe for a /Traps or /Devices player, but for anyone else other than a Stone tank....why?

JA and Dr Q are both utterly skippable content even if you are a die-hard content player. It’s like the entirety of the Shadow Shard, and the TF’s within, were some summer intern project so someone could learn how the dev mission creation tools worked. I’ve seen fire farms in AE with more meaningful story and missions than these two. If you manage to get on a speed group, it’s worth it to do both -JUST- for the merits and to see what awful TF’s they are. If everyone on the team has TT, Mission Transporter, Assemble Team, they can be speed-run rather quickly. But otherwise....skip them.

Have a DP/Ninja all T4’d out now. The Crit mechanic is noticeable for DPS but not a game changer. The sword attack damage is very noticeable and since DP is a natural blapper set of attacks it all meshes together nicely.

I have a BS/SD stalker fully T4’d out at vet level 20+, as well as a DB/Energy Aura T4’d out. I’m currently 48 on my StJ/SD stalker. By far, the StJ/SD is weakest of the three. Hits as hard as my BS/SD does/did, but that extra +DEF from stacking Parry allowed me to spend fewer slots on SD and more on damage. I really miss that on my StJ/SD. Fun visuals though. Pretty much any /EA stalker in end game content is going to be superior. Energy is such a common damage type and you just soak it up on /EA. No matter how well you slot up /SD, without the Radial side of Ageless Destiny, DefDebuff just eventually starts a cascade failure. Even silly Arachnos can be problematic, especially if you don’t manage to softcap Ranged DEF.

Since I build all my squishies to Defense softcap (Ranged, S/L or sometimes both) I rarely get mezzed. So Clarion remains situational for me. Hasten stays on auto fire and Clarion is on my attack chain bar far right, there if/when I need it.

AFK Farming + Marketeering + just crafting/flipping/selling stuff from drops, TF’s, WSF’s etc all add up to easy money in this game. You literally just have it falling from the sky. Once you get your first 100 million, it’s just time required to get it to max influence cap on a toon of 2B. You’ll actually find yourself trying to grab your wins off the AH and getting the error that you have TOO MUCH MONEY. Sounds impossible to some but you’ll end up spending a lot of time at that point just figuring out ways to store more loot because you just can’t spend it all.

^^^ As usual, any build of Nemu's is the one to beat. Over 300% recharge?!?!?! BEFORE Incarantes?!?!?! Wow. Oh, realized MIDS was applying the FF +Recharge proc. Still over 200% Recharge without it applied.

I pulled my 50+3 T4’d Fire/Energy blaster out of mothballs and tried it. Stun was always situational and remains pretty much just as situational now as ever. I’ve usually had it in my build, and indeed this same toon was a makeover of my main Fire/Energy from back during Live days. But it’s not a whole lot better now than it was. As Meknomancer stated, solo it can play a purpose, especially if you are selectively pulling critters out of a spawn. But on teams, a well-built Blaster shouldn’t be worried about stunning anything. Your job is to kill it and tick off the controller who now has little value to the team. I kid, I kid...but not really. Why stun when you can eliminate?

Since you said “At 50” don’t neglect the “Build Changers” that are your Incarnate powers. Some of these powers will pretty much let you go all-out with radically different slotting/set bonus strategies than what you could have ever accomplished pre-50. For example, Alpha - Agility and Destiny - Agless pretty much cover any END or Recharge needs you ever had, or can greatly amplify the slotting you already took to get there pre-50. This allows you to re-allocate slots in all kinds of interesting ways. If you are missing Mezz protection, Ageless-Clarion and Hybrid - Melee can cover those weak areas. Or Ageless-Barrier pretty much shores up any build that was sporting less-than-softcapped DEF already. Cleary not options pre-50, but since you are already there, I’d strongly suggest you consider how Incarnate powers (and explore BOTH sides of the tree for some very interesting differences in bonuses!) figure into your build. Getting vet levels 1-12 happens incredibly fast as you keep playing, and with careful slotting of incarnate components, judicious use of Empyrean and Astral merits, heavy engagement in the weekly strike force and myriad of daily iTrials running all the time it’s entirely possible to achieve T4 across ALL Incarnate powers by Vet level 12. I do frequently on my alts, some even earlier. I won’t even consider a slotting strategy to beef up any alt without calculating the benefits of the Incarnate powers I’ll be accumulating. And best of all, other than the time invested to accumulate the merits/components....Incarnate powers are totally FREE.

Yup, it likely is/was Apparition, sorry if I didn’t credit you with it, I collect so many builds off these boards I don’t always remember where I sourced something for one of my own alts. But to your credit even on a build “this old” I haven’t had a need to change it much at all. I have a LOT of DP characters, but this was my only DP/Temporal Blaster. I took Hybrid Melee specifically because I spend so much time in melee, and its served me incredibly well for post-50 content thus far. I’m actually quite tankie until the spawn surrounding the AV dies and I’m left there just the two of us. But the combo of Hail of Bullets followed immediately by End of Time while inside center of spawn does a pretty good job of wiping out the minions and Lt’s. So yes, unlike a Hover blaster, you aren’t building toward +Ranged Def, but rather S/L defense as much as possible. Rune also helps a bunch if I’m getting clobbered as my panic button, but I honestly seldom need it. And while I’m also not a big proponent of the whole P2W approach (although it’s effectively cheaper than slotting mule strategies with IO’s just to chase wonky bonuses), I do make high use of Accolades and earned temp powers from super/winter packs and stuff. So one mans cheese is another mans strategy lol. At any rate, your original thread for full credit:

1) Open a second account. 2) Make a Fiery Aura/Rad Tanker on second account if your goal is AFK farming, or a Spines/Fire or Spines/Rad Brute if you prefer and enjoy active farming. Key to either is soft capped Fire defense and both a damage aura toggle and a well slotted AOE you can stick on auto. Lots of builds available in the “Farm Fresh Builds” thread on General forums. 3) Self level said new farmer, join an AE farm to level up or just drag second account farmer along on “Follow” mode to your main account while you level up/play. It’ll hit 50 in no time. As others have stated, no reason to force a MM into a poor farmer mode. Use easier AT’s for that. MM’s play best when played actively. Tanks/Brute farmers are stupid easy to build and many can even AFK farm farm influence/drops for you while you enjoy playing missions/teaming on your main account. I often have a few AFK farmers working all day long while I’m doing RL business meetings. Easily generate a couple billion in passive influence and drops per week as a result. EZ.

One of the reasons I continue to play this game even 17 years after its launch is that while I may have 40+ T4’d out Incarnates, the team mix I’m playing with at any given moment could always use a little more X. in general, I retire a T4’d/tricked out toon. Sometimes won’t touch them again for months. But then I join a team with my SG mates (Go EG!) or a PUG and realize they could really use some more X/whatever and so it’s back into the vault to pull some alt out of mothballs and suddenly....what’s old is new again. Having a well stocked library of fully capable alts is what keeps this game alive for me. That and friends.

/Temporal didn't get gutted near as badly as did /TA, so I've not really found the need to respec. Just did a +4/x8 ITF, MLTF and TinPex today and did just fine with this build. It's really good! Between Rune of Protection and Hybrid Melee you are really durable, plus S/L Def softcap. Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 3.0.0.0 https://github.com/Reborn-Team/Hero-Designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Muzzle Velocity: Level 50 Science Blaster Primary Power Set: Dual Pistols Secondary Power Set: Temporal Manipulation Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Pistols -- SprDfnBrr-Rchg/+Status Protect(A), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg(3), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), AchHee-ResDeb%(46) Level 1: Time Wall -- EnfOpr-Acc/Rchg(A), EnfOpr-Immob/Rng(3), EnfOpr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(11), EnfOpr-Acc/Immob(25) Level 2: Aging Touch -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(5), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(13), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Hct-Dam%(46) Level 4: Time Stop -- UnbCns-Acc/Hold/Rchg(A), UnbCns-EndRdx/Hold(7) Level 6: Swap Ammo Level 8: Bullet Rain -- SprBlsWrt-Dmg/Rchg(A), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), SprBlsWrt-Rchg/Dmg%(39), Ann-ResDeb%(48) Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(11) Level 12: Chronos -- RctRtc-ToHit(A), RctRtc-ToHit/Rchg(13), GssSynFr--Build%(17), RechRdx-I(34) Level 14: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A) Level 16: End of Time -- SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(40) Level 18: Executioner's Shot -- Apc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Apc-Acc/Rchg(21), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Apc-Dam%(40) Level 20: Temporal Healing -- Prv-Heal(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(21), Prv-Heal/Rchg(23), PwrTrns-+Heal(36), PwrTrns-EndMod(40), PrfShf-End%(50) Level 22: Mystic Flight -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel(23) Level 24: Spirit Ward -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A) Level 26: Piercing Rounds -- Rgn-Dmg(A), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(27), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(37), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Ann-ResDeb%(50) Level 28: Rune of Protection -- Ags-Psi/Status(A), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(29), Ags-ResDam(29) Level 30: Boxing -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(31), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(31), KntCmb-Knock%(37) Level 32: Hail of Bullets -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(33), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(33), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Obl-%Dam(50) Level 35: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(36), LucoftheG-Def(36) Level 38: Time Lord -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A) Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def(42), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(42), Rct-ResDam%(42), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(43) Level 44: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(45), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(45), UnbGrd-Max HP%(45), GldArm-3defTpProc(46) Level 47: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(48), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(48) Level 49: Burnout -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Defiance Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Clr-Stlth(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 -- IntRdx-I(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Prv-Absorb%(5) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(7), PrfShf-End%(15) Level 6: Chemical Ammunition Level 6: Cryo Ammunition Level 6: Incendiary Ammunition Level 0: Born In Battle Level 0: High Pain Threshold Level 0: Invader Level 0: Marshal Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface Level 50: Ion Core Final Judgement Level 50: Longbow Radial Superior Ally Level 50: Melee Core Embodiment Level 50: Ageless Radial Epiphany Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon ------------

Muzzle Velocity, my DP/Temporal Blaster. Had a good friend who was a K-9 trainer for a police department forever until he retired. He died earlier this past year. This was in tribute to him.

You neglected to round this off with Vorpal Radial Final Judgement. Nothing says Rambo better than channeling his buddy Chuck Norris and roundhousing the entire spawn at once. If you are already cone-crazy, there's your final Incarnate T4 cone......with style.

I play most alts pretty much straight through from 38-50+3 and T4 out all incarnates by vet level 9-10. I tend to use Experienced buff to power through vet levels if I’m growing bored of that alt. But as I’m a “completist” I find it hard to shelve a toon that’s not finished yet.