Golden Azrael

Axe is fun. Has knockdown. Did it on my Brute all the way to L50. It's uncompromising. Comparing it to War Mace? (Also fun.) Why bother. There's always somebody with a bigger one. If you roll a Shield Def'/Axe, you'll do mighty fine. Azrael.

I've got an Electric Kinetic Corruptor to L43 (my 1st attempt to L50 a Corruptor!) I've got the attacks heavily slotted. Kinetics target slotted in key areas like Fulcrum Shift and Transference along with the heal. Any build ideas or thoughts? I've never got a Kinetic or a Corruptor to L50 before. This will combine both ambitions. Can it be uber? It's certainly growing in power. But a build out would be very intriguing. I'm not sure where's you'd put the Corr' AT sets. Any shrewd build advice will be most welcome. Regards, Azrael.

I like your exotic proc use in Crowd Control and Whirling Mace. That's what I've been looking for. I've got Elec' Armour. You've got SR which is quite easy to get position capped. Though you did well to get the resistances you got there. Decent build, that. I've put the procs in. Lots of floating numbers. 🙂 Azrael.

I'm doing an Electric Armour/War Mace tank. Currently at 27% melee. I've got all the melee attacks. I've got all the defences bar the 'No.9' power surge. It's like a mini-regen tank. As close without getting full blown regen.? I guess I'll need some slow debuff protection in there. (Need to keep Energize turbo-ing along...) Any thoughts on a build outline above? Energy Res' capped, ofc. Close with Smashing at around 83%-88%. Got the Two Tanker ATs fitted. PReventative Medicine in the heal/end reduction power. Thought about going 6 slot Power Sink. Pre-emptive? Power Transfer? Using Health for the 'Unique' and end procs. Will get Physical fitness to mule the Perf' unique. Haven't fitted CJ yet. (GOing to put the 5% res' unique in their and Winter's Gift.) Haven't got hasten yet. Got Tough. Weave. (Not full slotted Weave yet.) Put Obliteration in Crowd Control (Help eek that melee def' higher...) L40. Which leaves me Hasten, CJ, Probably Foc' Acc' and Phys' Perfection over and out? I wondered about doing some 'proc' damage. But maybe getting the melee cap on def' is more important 1st? I like War Mace. Could do with 'sexying' up a bit. HC devs listening? Whether it's an exotic mechanic or a sexy jump and 'head splitter' animation. I guess it's got stuns... 😉 Thoughts? Azrael.

'Smoke Grenade.' Yes. 😉 I like how it compliments and stacks with the defence of the Night Widow. 2 stacks of 'Grenade' and I don't seem to take as much damage. (I guess they can't see me too well?) Incarnate wise. Alpha. Thought I'd take Cardiac for end reasons. Even with a build out. It doesn't stop the end going down over longer fights. I have 3 stamina uniques fitted in health. Plus Perf' Shifter unique in Stamina. I use stamina inspires at the moment to maintain my equilibrium higher. Plenty of end. But it keeps going down and without Stealth attacks, the damage is more 'scratchy' which means you have rinse some of the heavier attacks until eg. Placate comes around for another critical attack. The -dam resist component of Cardiac is what I'd be after to limit and blunt incoming damage that does get through defence. Ageless. Might go for the heal as it's the one thing I don't have outside of using inspires. The Radial Assault may stack with the DoT nature of some of the attacks I the bigger attacks and the criticals you can score from stealth mode. Though other roads for extra defence, to hit, end red' and damage base increase may overall complement the nature of the Widow to make it 'even more so' against even tougher opponents. I could try both and see how they compare. Interface. The poison dripper. Would complement the DoT poison dart DoTs I have. Judgement. Ion and colour it pink for a huge 'Psi' attack? Or the multi-me cone? I'm Inc' capped for Melee. My Psi Resists means that I won't be getting many head aches. Some of the build has given me extra HPs. (Needed.) Though Accolades HP+ rewards may help here. 90+ Global recharge (no Hasten in the build.) Everything happens quick enough. And big attacks come around quick. Inherent 'swift' means I get around fast enough. I wonder about putting in a force feedback in the claw spin attack rather than proc to BU? Azrael. Update: I've gone Cardiac. Completely cures the oscillating end bar. The incoming damaging is squeezed even against Nemesis and Long Bow. Tactics. Hit and Run. I alpha strike the apex mob. Placate and alpha him again. Hit them with Psi AoE and Poison Dart AoE. They chase after me, somewhat enraged. Hit them with 'Smoke Bomb'. Then I placate the mob. Then rinse them with Psi AoE and moAR Poison Dart AoE, hit them with Smoke Bomb some moAR and what's left get the Spin AoE. Leaving my heavy hitters to beat on what's left. Interface will be the Poison dripper DoT. Judgement Nuke. It's Ion or Multi-Me Cone. (Probably the latter in keeping with my Claw Widow emphasis.) I could take the Ageless stamina which would allow me to take Musc' for moAR damage. But I'd lose the squeeze on incoming damage. Better to take the interface and radial assault to boost DoT and stack / burst damage. (I could take the heal. But I wonder if I'll only need that if I plan on standing toe-to-toe with the enemy eg. Carnie pitched battle.) I took powers like the Poison Dart and the AoE version along with the Placate as I wanted to be a Widow Scrapper. And they allow close quarter and far quarter attacks. The amount of runners and flyers I've taken down with Poison Dart is *bean counter high. Very RPG power too. In keeping. (Good thing about Poison/Toxic and Psi? It's quite a double punch which not many mobs have defence/resist to. Even high end mobs, struggle with it. I've tried Long bow and Nemesis and they seem to really stretch with the Widow's hit and run, Psi, Toxic strategy and attacks. Surprise! Stealth... SURPRISE! 😛 ) Rather than an alpha nuke AT, it's an engrossing guerilla warfare AT with subterfuge. Where you take apart the mobs on your playing field. Azrael.

Update. L50. No deaths. If you haven't made a Widow. Do. Interesting journey. All the claws. With Gas Cloud. 2 Psi powers. Plenty of AoE. Some biggish hitters. Plenty of box of tricks. Mind Link for the next level defensive lift. Placate. HPs need work from the build out and TF 'Health Bar' Accolades. Great for hit and run. Surprise attacks and double surprise attacks. Azrael.

I didn't know about the stamina proc Unique you could slot into Dark Regen. It's been a revelation for me. Thanks. Good advice. Azrael.

🙂 I've built out my Dark/Dark tank with this Theft essence proc in Dark Regen. Amazing. Almost always fires. It's part of my attack chain, have a dam' proc in Dark REgen also. Touch of Fear. Some don't rate it. I DO! They flinch as they get AoE dammed! That's less incoming damage. And most enemies in the game can't cope with it. When you add ToF to Sands of Mu, the Dark Regen proc, the BU damage proc, the Stamina Damage proc the mobs is reeling and then I hit them with Sands of Mu against with their heads still spinning from my 'Confuse' toggle and my other Fear Toggle. The Sisters of Artimese are in worlds of head spinning pain. ('You're not Captain America anymore, are ya?') It's my favourite tank so far. Resistance maxed for Smashing and Psi. Melee Def' capped+. Can heal. Can return stamina. Relentless as it is nimble. It's layer upon layer of pain for mobs. I'd solved the stamina problem with SOs and some IO stamina uniques (6?). Then moving into IOs? I Built alot of end red' sets into the build. Very strong SO build with some IO uniques. But the full build has been a joy. Melee capped. AoE and Range enough to make me unconcerned as the resistance numbers can absorb any incoming damage as mere irritation. They get battered so quick it hardly matters. I've used Incarnated to go two ways. One for ultimate damage with Musc' or Radial Assault. But my preferred build is Cardiac and Support T4. Very tough. Good bonuses that compliment Dark's play set. This is a brutal tank. It's really punishing with damage output and a full array of tricks to mitigate any incoming debuffs or damage. Got plenty of slow resists in build too. And a Psi proc in taunt. There's no escape for the mobs with this one. It's not insta nuke. But it's very aggressive layer upon layer of AoE damage that happens so fast mobs struggle to understand what's happening or do anything about it in futility. It's a thoughtful tank, an interesting and engaging tank. It's totally RPG. It's vicious. I prefer this to my Dark/Dark/Dark scrapper which is procced out or my Defender Dark/Dark/Dark (which is good but not built out.) I've been beaten once when I was paying attention to the radio instead of to the +4x8 LongBow alpha attack. I've got some lovely tanks. Ice/Ice/Ice. Invul/En (big bopper!). WP/Stone (defence and res' capped.) SR/SJ (with insane Def' numbers.) A very hyperkinetic Shield/Elec tank (with some insane recharge and super quick alpha mob nuking.) But for me, Dark has 'everything' (Or everything I want.) Seemingly the most fun and engaging. The thinking tanker where you enjoy the engagement of battle rather than how quick the battle should be. (But I do warn you, the mobs wither and melt quite quickly...) Azrael. PS. The 1-50 journey of this shares some seeds of frustration with eg. a Warshade. In that, it's a late bloomer. eg. End issues for example. Lack of KD protection etc.

🙂 I tried this build. A good start. I agreed with the feedback above in the main. I customised and tuned the build to my taste. I've never put two AoE Force Feedbacks into a build before. Very impressed with the results. 300%+ recharge at times. Alot in the 220-240%. 3 times hasten can't be bad. I've got Destiny stamina/recharge, Hasten and Forcefeedback x2 all rocking. I'm spinning the wheel fast. Using the attacking chain to proc the speed and also spam the AoEs for damage, resistances and I use the 'Hand Clap' power to proc the FF. It procs almost everytime. Herculean rech' discounts to Lightning Rod and Shield Charge. They're almost on call. Thunderstrike et al. It's difficult to keep up with the attack chain to be honest and the incessant inspire drops! Damage I've managed to get 200%+ easily. I've done two builds. One with Dam Resistance/End Cardiac to Tier 3 and one with Musc'. Given there is no healing on this bar the odd absorb proc mitigating the incoming damage on harder foes is producent. Once your defence starts to go you can be in trouble in drawn out battles or Hami type mission stuff. I have 'slow' resist in CJ to help keep the speed up and out fox the slow mobbers like Arachnos or Council Snipers. The aim of this tank is to hit the mobs as hard as possible as quicker and get the wheel spinning asap. Once that happens, you can beat the crepe out of mobs. They don't know what hit them. It's a lovely tank if you haven't tried it. I'm in the def cap+ of 60+. It's outrageously fast and dynamic. No end problems with Cardiac. I didn't quite conquer the end issue on IOs. But on SOs I was about there. With moderate tempo, you can fit in Musc alpha and Radial Assault for gravy damage. I think the bonus for damage for mobs that shield defense gets tells me that the symmetry and balance for shield defense should be Cardiac to reduce or resist damage coming in. It buys time for my healing to take effect if I can reduce incoming damage by 20%. So my current set up is Cardiac and Assault radial (T3.) Azrael.

So, it looks like you've sacrificed some overall defence to boost resistance numbers, Tough comes in, Hasten goes out. Having resistance to back up defence is good. But you did get your Melee Defence ever higher. And lost a couple more heal powers. But can still heal yourself. Probably more balanced overall. And that's the build you're going with bar the swap out of Follow vs BU. Interesting choices. Azrael.

Ah. 🙂 The mystery revealed. Ty. 7 levels off that currently. I guess I could always try the Fortunata on an alt build later as you say. Azrael.

Ty. Didn't know that. I do like BU. How can we not. However...the satisfying 'chud...' sound of Follow Up....and the sustained Scrappy sounds good to me. Leaving the mobs alive 'just long enough to 'enjoy' their swift deaths. 🙂 On my Scrapper, I couldn't imagine life without Follow Up. (On my current Widow levelling build...I have Follow Up. I do have Poison Dart and I'd like to try the Poison Dart AoE/Cone...probably my next power pick. I like stacking AoE/Cones. eg. Spin and Poison Dart Cone in this case. I find the Poison DoT amusing.) As a L17 Widow, I'm a long way off attempting a L50 build from this thread. Never really tried CoV before. Or a Widow. 1st time on this. So both CoV and Widows are new to me. When do Widows 'choose the path' for Fortunata or pure Widow? Still greyed out to me as a L17. I'm still impressed Widows get great defence numbers out the box so early and for all positions too. Though the low HPs has almost caught me out quite a few times. Azrael.

As a 1st time Widow. I found your guide superb. I was...'uh...this is like the War Shade....so many powers...Which path? Widow? Fortunata...? What does all this mean...?' Confusion. But you convinced me to go the whole Widow experience. I'll have to lose my personal favourite of the poison dart... I see the logic of Medicine Pool (not something I normally take...) as when Defence collapses...or the foe get that lucky shot in... The only area of change is the Smoke Grenade. For me? Gotta have it. Given the low hps widow...the more layers of soft defence the better? That means, reluctantly losing Mystic Flight or something else. I'm curious about the lack of 'Follow Up.' Wouldn't that be good to stack with Build UP? As in MoAR damage? I like Follow UP. It's a good attack chain power? Regards, Azrael.

Excellent point. Having had the 'Smoke' grenade power on my AR/Devices blaster, I can vouch for its effectiveness. I've been on the receiving end of a Widow 'blinding' me so many times. It's an 'eye-conic' power (see what I did there?) for Widows that takes the foe out of combat. Even a fully specced out L50 Dominator. It doesn't make you invsible but it makes it hard for them to see you. That's a win. That's a layer of 'defence' or 'resistance' right there. They swing and miss you? You can see them, you swing and it's a hot tea spoon to their nads. Azrael.

In the more discrete Tanker power customisation? No option to change the stone brick Tier 9 to a Crystal humanoid instead? (You can do this for the Stoney Pet for Domiantors/Trollers...) I like the less obtrusive crystal/stone armour options. But the Tier 9? The shoulder pads crystals are a bit 'American Football.' I suppose I could get used to them. Azrael.

Fault. Does damage. Finally! Makes a difference on a stone tanker. Can now stack it with tremor. And the other stone epic that does AoE. Good job. Beta L50 Stone/Stone/Stone. Epic stuff. Much improved from what I played on live. Still not sure about the 'Stone' tier 9 slow motion brick. I never use it. Glacial slow speed to move. You can get sound Psi, En and Smashing defence with SOs and given a couple of ATs with some unqiues...you're as good as gravy without the need for slow motion tier 9. I'm impressed. Tested against +2 x8 Long Bow and Arachnos. Smashed them to pieces. This feels like what a tanker should be. Well 'ard. Azrael.

This. The perennial problem of the 'missing' high dam burst attack from elec. Short Circuit goes some way to filling that void with it's faster and arresting performance. But a bigger single target hitter between L Bolt and Snipe? *(Note: Sentinel gets that 'high damage' single target Lightning attack. It's notable by it's absence from Elec Blaster primary. I'd make Tesla Cage that missing '3rd' single target 'high' damage attack. I looked for its influence. But other than holding and buying me a second or two vs some bigger hitting mobs, I couldn't quite make out it's influence. (I did read the description of it.) One interesting idea might be to have that High Dam Single Target attack from Sentinel...that blasts the mob with high damage and this activates the Tesla Cage!? You hit them that hard with a 'construction' blast and form a Tesla Cage to hold them. A two in one power. Be different. Make the 'chain' effect more apparent? A more excitable 'faraday' cage. High damage? Yes. So it's a legitimate 'tier 3' style burst damage hold. Be a bit unique that? Maybe a 'high' damage over time? (Like Freezing touch? Or chilling embrace? And/or allow it to proc' to 'cage' nearby foes with some splash damage and splash holds. (A bit like the cage proc on the Incarnate Ion blast power tier 4 radial.) The set isn't far away and is great fun to play. My recently 'pimped out' L50 Elec Elec blaster will 'love' these changes. Azrael.

Rev-evolution! Electricity is BACK! Short Circuit has been transformed! Instant vicious and nasty attack! Instead of a wait and face plant power. Shock?! Shockingly good. I'm not sure how it works. But I love it. The set seems to be quicker, more bite, more damage. More end drain. More consistent. MORE 'glued together.' It plays better overall. More momentum. I even use Tesla Cage more. And the toggling of the pet? About bleedin' time. 😛 Makes a massive difference not have to recast...and recast...and recast...and... Electricity has gone from being a scratchy power of scritchy damage to an Emperor Palpatine world of pain. Under this kind of barrage? I think Luke would re-consider his choice to join the darkside. 'Ahh....AHHH...not the face...where...do...I...sign....' Azrael.

"Short and sweet: Amazing sets, both visually and mechanically. I don't play Blaster very much, I am more of a Corruptor sort of player. The added effects (looking at Knockback/Down specifically) add SO MUCH survivability to these sets. Drawback is currently my own learning curve, I don't understand the mechanics well enough yet, lots of circles showing up in my tray around powers. This is not a fault (haha get it!) of the set, I just need to play it more to better understand it. I was able to enjoy Water Blast and Street Justice after a while, I know this will occur eventually for the Seismic Blast/ Earth Manipulation sets." What that guy said. Azrael.

2nded on the Tombstone idea. 😛 This set feels really SUPER heroic. A true next generation power set that feels like progress. Knock up. Knock down. Or just knock them clean out of the warehouse. Widescreen playability. The Meteor Nova would make the Energy Blaster's Nova blush. (There was one comic moment a Vampire got knocked right towards me in a 1st person camera splat kind of way. Perfection.) A seismic blast that rocks the warehouse the council are fighting you in. Red alert...hero has breached our base! He's just blown the east wing... Phenomenal job on this power set. Progressive. Expansive. It shows the kind of design 'reach' all the power sets should have. Visually spectacular. Imaginative use of stone in an ice cream parlour of different flavours. Blaster set redefining. Truly ambitious. CoH 2.0 NeXt territory. There's a new kid in town. Pointing to the future of all power sets. *Somehow playing with the Assault rifle pop gun won't ever be the same. Epic. Azrael.

The Stone Blaster primary and secondary. Holy... 😮 Azrael.

Immense. Azrael.

Decent build, that. Noting you're capped on Range. Numina. Artillary. I see. I@m 'surprised' how good water is. I'm currently on a Water/ice. Very tricky customer. Those debuffs add up in the water blast set. The latter AoE powers hit very hard. Whirl pool just sucks the life out of mobs, very nice with the ice mat. L40 and pulling +0x8 Council, Freak or CoT mobs. Good base defence. Pop a luck. And I'm very difficult to get a hold of. The Ice Epic. The defence shield gives a massive boot to S*L. Hoar gives a good heal to compliment the Water tentacle. And the cold storm? GIves you bullet time over the mobs. Azrael.

To be fair to Homecoming. They've suffered near 'nothing' in extended downtime over the last year or so. And the progressive they've made with CoH has been impeccable. In the scheme of things it won't be 'too long' before they're back. Though maybe having a 'back up' plan in case of something like this happening is something that can be looked at. A kind of 'whack a mole' strategy. When it's your network provider you're dependent on their '24/7' support. Not much you can do but wait for them to deal with it. Azrael.

I'd like the option to pick the 'CoV' Patrons without doing the Patron missions. There are some 'good' Patron power pick choices. That Scorpion Shield for starters. The Dark Patron set is another juicy set. Azrael.