Golden Azrael

As an aside. I wonder how a Shield Tank version of this would compare. Defensively more sound before IO sets? But not as monster on AoE as Fury? Azrael.

I remember emptying the pockets of all my other alts on live to help pay for it and I was still only half way to the cost of it! Fond times. Azrael.

On live I had a Shield, SS, Fire epic brute. Soft capped on Melee, Range, AOE. It was a beautifully elegant build that cost me 1 billion influence! I can't remember the build ofc. But I remember using only 2 or 3 of my selected attacks until I got Foot stomp and then Shield Charge (joy!) Any body got any suggestions to how to get that build back? Currently L40. I can dish it...but I can' take it versus Crey on +0 x4. Council? Less of a problem. There's no way of regenerating the health and the end is still heavy despite 3 end red KO punch AND Foot stomp. It's really locked down with end reds. So now my bar doesn't empty after one attack. It just empties to half way... 😉 In the original I didn't take Jab and grant cover so I can jettison those missteps and maybe I don't handclap either (bit of an end hog?) (Need Manoeuvres and Cj as well as Taunt...and I need to fit flight in there with the - Winter slow res'.) I recall I had the Stamina Alpha to offset the double hasten and rage end drop which was annoying. Though I'm thinking now that maybe Agility might have been better for it? You get the three AoE powers. Footstomp. Shield Charge and Fire Ball. Which means Council mobs tend to vaporise quite quickly at +2 x 8. Suggestions? Builds? Thoughts? Azrael.

What incarnate would you go for? Ageless? Musculature? Agility? Azrael.

Revisit it? Sure. I have an ice/ice/ice tank that is underwhelming with damage. But it's more of a control tank. I love it. Sometimes I have to accept that damage just isn't going to be my thing compared to e.g. A titan's weapon tank. Man, those are boppa whoppa. I can why each tank was how it was originally with their differences. But the new ones like Titan, Rad, Bio... eclipsed the originals. More POW-URRR to get people to play the game. Look at our latest darling....get the punters back in an playing. Then you get the originals left out in the cold by comparison. Then suddenly they're 'broken' or less appealing. Time can pass us by... ('You were the future once.') Azrael.

Hello, Back on live, I picked up a forum build. It made my Invul/En tank 'diamond hard.' The only thing that didn't come around quick enough was Dull Pain. But I never did pick an incarnate alpha slot for it. I guess I ran out of time with live being pulled. Single target attacks I felt were a mediocre attack chain. Barrage was 'ok' but energy punch was meh. Bone smasher. Not bad. Not brilliant. I liked the 'big' hitters Total Focus and En' Transfer. I like the new animation, showy....but yes, it takes ages ('hey, look at me, this is gonna hurt ya....) but I can understand those wanting the older 'quick and sweet' animation that was somewhat dull but more effective in DPS? I like the 'only' AoE Whirl Fist. But minor dam? Mehhhh. Make it mod' if it's your only AoE attack. (I wonder, can you proc' it.) I've re-rolled it on Homecoming. But haven't done much with it. It was 'hard going' at times on Live as I remember. I even rolled a brute version which boosts it's mediocre dam' but the armour seems much weaker than on tank. After all, I'd have to be a mazochist to L50 it...? On live I had a res' capped and almost def' capped build. I only had to step into 1 mob range and I would cap due to invinciblility. Lovely! (Say, looks around *discreetly, if I were to L50 it...what build would you guys rec' to res and def' cap it?) Azrael.

Ice primary and Ice 2ndary. Anybody got any tips or builds they can share? Or good IO sets to put in to boost def, res' or recharge? Is it true that the Ice Melee power at (Frozen Aura?) L38 for tank is merely a sleep with no damage? It says moderate damage in the description. AoE dam plus Frost stacked would be good. Be if it's purely a sleep, I don't understand the point of it. Current defence for smashing and lethal is about 27%-ish. For a defence based tank it seems pretty weak. But the ice tank does have tools for surviving like Dull Pain (Hoar Frost) and Hibernation. Pretty difficult to kill. Plus Tough for resistance. I suppose I could take Weave to boost basic defence to above 30%. General IOs fitted. No sets yet. Hoar Frost (3 heal, 3 recharge) and Icicles (1 acc, 2 dam, 2 end, 1 rech' so far....) Currently at L37. Any thoughts..? Ice melee. I know. But I wanted to keep the theme 'ice.' 'Greater ice sword' is great in name only... Frost and the Frozen touch seem like the best melee powers. Epics? Ice. Ice Blast. Touch and Ice Storm. Which will leave me room for Cross Slap from Fighting or Hasten. (Which would make Dull Pain come around much faster....) Azrael.

*drool. Azrael.

Good post, that. 🙂 I thought my stone tanker was pretty tough. Some alt appearance options would have been nice and the rooted slowness was a bit of a bind. However, I take your point about play style being different. eg. You had to tp into a mob. That circumvented the 'sllloooww' walk to aggro'. Granite form seemed even slower. But hey, I guess stone sentience would move slower. A bit like those tree guys in Lord of the Rings. 😄 Azrael.

I liked it. But it wasn't perfect. Perhaps some alt looks for it. eg. the blue crystal look from the assault stone sets would be nice. Rather than being covered in brown cookie dough. And the 'Tree Root' regen' power that makes a stone tanker so.....slooooow? Those are the two things I looked at. And granite form move in a glacial way. Apart from those two things. I enjoyed mine. Azrael.

Hello Philotic Knight, (From the City of Titans forums?) *waves. Advice noted for future reference. Azrael.

You might be. But I'm not. I'm not yelling. (No caps lock?) (I wasn't yelling. I was quiet the whole time I type that....honest.) My costume is cool, though. I didn't say EB is ok because of it. You said that. 🙂 I said 'I am having fun.' I didn't say 'Me have fun.' The title is roughly 'Energy is Atrocious.' It isn't. It's fun set with mediocre damage output and erratic damage. Your aggressive tone represents you well. MMOs are hard to balance. Somebody is always going to be holding the 'atrocious.' The devs weren't 'poor' at balance. I'd argue the game was better than. ED? made the game 'better?' Meh. Using 'pure' feel as a guiding post. I preferred it pre' ED. Hard numbers are useful. After that. If you haven't got 'feel' you've got nowt. Maths aint the only thing matters. It is just a part of it. I've had lots of fun playing energy Sentinel. More so than the other alts with energy on different types. 'Official request' to boost Energy's numbers from 'mediocre' to 'good' in single attacks and AoE? Who wouldn't want that? Azrael.

In your world, I may be arguing against buffing EB numbers. Your child's level sentence was poorly constructed with the clumsiness of a child, perhaps? If you're going to be patronising, try better execution. I am having fun. 😄 Azrael.

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. 😛 Try arguing feel rather than numbers. Try not swearing in a post. It's bad manners. 😄 I don't remember talking about Elec blast on Sentinels. I've rolled one though. Seems decent. Got a good 'feel.' Azrael.

I find CoH very memorable. (And it's still popular judging by these servers.) I wouldn't touch red side with a barge pole. Very forgettable and bland. But Brutes, Corruptors...the 'types' very well designed. Got to give it that. ('Dom' is my personable fav' of the CoV types.) Azrael.

Strangely, I found the alignment system quite clever. I liked that. Just felt CoV was badly implemented. It forced the studio into duplication of dev' effort that hurt the base game's progress. Whether I like CoV or Rogue or not. Those are two big dollops of investment and effort. I'd have liked to have seen that go into he base game and introduce the 'Villain' aspect in a 'different' way. Instead we got 'bad guy dilute' in a badly designed setting which eventually became a ghost town. The Archetypes were great, though. they nailed those. Azrael.

'Damage offends.' Since when? Knock back is erratic. Plain to see. 100% it. And it becomes more like a 'hard' control. Oh baby. Knock back IS needed. It's fun. Azrael.

Power Burst does have a reason to exist as a kick az power which does high damage and pretty much knock backs. My favourite energy blast power. Bombastic. In fact, the only thing I didn't like about it originally? The short range. They fixed that. It seems as long as snipe now! Perfect. You can have a full attack chain by taking out 'any' power. What of it? Taking out Power Burst would make it gimped like the elec blast set. Your 4th power there is Short Circuit. Talk about a misstep. Power Burst rules! It's staying. Azrael.

"Sentinel Energy Blast is absolutely atrocious. " Truth depends greatly upon our point of view. So, I don't share this 'hysterical' and absurd (begins with an 'a') headline. I don't recognise that as a general headline with what I've played. Don't like it? Play something else. Don't expect a fish to climb a tree. Try a defender's Arrow Set for damage for a comparison. Or solo a human only war shade without Nova form. En is fun to play. So it can't be absolutely atrocious. (Try Beam Rife.) Yeah. It's knock back is erratic and damage is mediocre. Put that in your headline instead. Azrael.

Solution? Make knock back mandatory on all blasts for en. Either it does knock back or it doesn't. All this 'chance to' on your only means of mitigation makes it very erratic. 1. Torrent. 100% chance to knock back. (To compensate for weak AoE damage. Wide the cone to 'steam' water set levels.) 2. Exploding Blast. 100% chance to knock back. (Makes it a terrace melee power. In your face.) 3. All the single blasts do knock back. The range of knock back corresponds with the damage it does. Ergo, a nova puts the mob into the wall. And probably leaves them stuck on it. There. Fixed. Angst over. (Put in power description. Knock back haters need not apply. I don't want to be on your team. I'm a solo egotist who loves my own rock and roll company.) Azrael.

My take on a Sentinel. When I first started COH I played an en/en blaster without blaps. I never felt the blasts were samey. Of more interest to me was why was a blaster's defences so weak? Why couldn't I have a scrapper's defences to go with my blasts? (*Fast forward to today.) 1. If you'd have offered me my En/En blaster as 'most of the scrapper defences' with 'most of a blaster's damage' I would have taken it. 2. I've blasted my way to L41. Had a great time. A junior tank (with taunt I may add) I've enjoyed it more than my pure blast en/en blaster or my Blap en/en 'blaster'. I don't fall over, get mezzed and can take a kicking. 3. Fun. I found it a revelation. Sure the single en attacks are mediocre. Sure the AoE dam is mediocre. (But I've had a buff water/healer defender Raging my head. So I can't complain, eh?) I've been dynamite. But it's terrific fun to play. The most fun I've had so far. Azrael.

I've tried reading words in Sunsette's posts. A bit hard going. Any chance of a concise read? Eg. Knock back sucks. Because it's erratic. or... Eg2. Knock back sucks. Because melee characters are intolerant of it because it doesn't knockdown. Or. Sentinel sucks because energy does mediocre damage. (We know that?) or. Sentinel sucks because energy range is nerfed. (Try a blaster instead...) or... Sentinel sucks because the blast powers are very samey. (Try a blaster, at least the melee attacks break it up.) Azrael.

I don't like CoV either. I think it sucks. But the archetypes are the best thing to come out of it. There. That's more succinct. Azrael.

'You know' I don't like PVP. I think it sucks. Azrael.