Redlynne

Reserved.

Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1542;749;1498;HEX;| |78DA6D94C953135110C6DF6426C0248190844048202C120181008A270F168548A90| |1A1A0D0F2921A20264F53496A265272F4E0515C0EE276743B790014DC0EFE21AE55| |962B3B174FB1F3BA83A33855A9DFCBF7FAEBEEE9373383178F389E0C5C3ACCA4CAB| |EA46618D15E5D9B4CA4D24674349D9CE231BD7848CB5ED0B5A4CCE02A865FE8DF08| |23DCA76B13D1D10C9F8AE9053134A66B3CC553F1E88036158F65FF0E2A6C32FB703| |A9D0C1F4DF27822EB14EB484C830823C1332EF1FF586A9A1B7C82277976C65188C8| |8037D09FE193E1F1FEDEB1682436CDB56C424B450735231BD3677CD0672B335F392| |B3BAB30E65798254E4C20154E3C872C3A8F9CB7834D125E0BAB82850A7B3E64C97E| |59D0520881FCD215267CB659E255A4E31AB2FC3AD0A3B0CA7B409FC29621BF8CF99| |9EC0774AB4C85015B49B37A251127D3DCF3358A6F4A2257E71CF116B2FB36F10EF1| |AE246A3D871A2AE6B3AA36DCABB7134B910D65442791EAC214989DEADA7B0045327| |31083F3D86FF0B32C3CC12FB2A857FFC6827382ED52F2964630A66C903884749F44| |560C1347902EB85927F5EC5C45AD690DD9BC8E6CDD206E12B7B07E7E4E2EAAEB5AC| |0B9572E227DCF90FE2564CD329E47CD65E8B942611E307BA8AEE7BE45C4B43F4076| |3C243E223E4676E6E0622F614C5E3A35EF419CD0026855A84955DBD8A5EF1776F90| |AF6AA29BEFA10C62F8216A0EA81AF18BFEF1BF13BF107B2FD277105F3BD006F2DE5| |AB6DC09371C3DDD4915647DA53886BA4E934BEC53BD8F38EF89EF801D9F491F8094| |FF4357843E40DAD811654D8DE75E2067113D9BC45DC06D62A6C09BC2DD44B0B3D5D| |5EF8D786F9585B1BF6370B05C2A485EB51AB80FBE822AD8BBC35CACE5B0D3DE6E36| |036664D9C4A9759E9C06CDDBBA20EEC527AFEE33BA1EC7C0B7211F3BE0A7758A6B0| |6165E73BC0A40076A49633F1EEE63D2B36D8A7094874E26B7F348BD480DF93F2E3F| |8DEFAC72531B955B3AF057B5937FB684A2537F0B4DC73F82C9FB1E59F3BAC3D625A| |9F32AD4F9BD6BF0116C1EC32| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Level 24-50 Natural Arachnos Soldier Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Villain Profile: Set Bonus Totals: Set Bonuses: Proc Chances: Attack Chain: Arachnos Crab Spider Soldier.mxd

Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1542;756;1512;HEX;| |78DA6D94CB4F135114C6EF74A6C0B485B6944269A114A402A514505CB930A848D08| |210081A37CD08637BB5699B4E25B274E14605D48D1B97BE56F88CE06BE17F608C89| |BAF0991857026ADCB8C1D37B4E71142721BFCBB9E73BE7DCEF4E67F8D45EC7E2E0E| |95D4CAADD93D60C23D19FD7A65299AC9118CFA6A7B99E2F1FD10A27F35A5A66F094| |C35FF8DF0C23B65BCBE889F11C9FD6F3A5607822AFF10CCF241383DA74522FFC9D5| |4DA64F6D16C361DDB97E6C954C129D6715D830C23C5736EF1FF5066861BFC284FF3| |C2ACA39491036D6020C7A7629303FD1389B83EC3B5424ACB248635A3A0E7677D306| |707333FEB56764C61CCAF304B9298422A9C781C597602B968079924B41656070B15| |F67CC88A6DB2A0A59402F5A5392674B679E202D27101E9BA08F428ACF60AD0A7B06| |5A82F637D26FB01BD2A53C1602BC5AC5E49E4C9E47BB147F95949D4EA3E473C8FEC| |9D23CE131770CE87D043C57A56D5867B213BB112D95C457412A92FB8C0ECD4D7DE0| |72893998318BC8BF3063FCB4213FC228BB3859E59D027D8AE246D651C73AA868923| |C8EA83C89A51E218D20D8775D2CCCE158CB5AE22DBD6901DDF88DF893FB07FD1273| |7F575DF43DF6BEF237D0F884B48FF32DE47C31998B946611E107BA8AFE7AA45E444| |AF21BBAE136F106F22BBD7E1618FC1262FDD9A77073A740B627554AD8E9C8F90F31| |1723E42CE47C9F92839FF04B4F554AF7E27D6BB0DB1009E4C0A3C87EE4198FC05F2| |11EC35527E6333DE4C359CA689624D14BB03792DE44ECB4B3CC19657C02AE06BA00| |BF8066FB0F527D66EFD056C54D853D086491B7E8BDAADEF88EF891F906D1F899FB0| |D61268DB6996763A63F1CDEAC47AACB313E79B8706318AC54218AB8173F450AC87B| |40DCAC6AF1AFA14F3C04B734CDC4A8F39D285D57A37656DDF14E9FB8FEE80B2F12D| |588F9BF755746F54D9F80E30298013A92E267EBB45CD571BEC930312DDE8EA9F984| |56AC6EF896BBF24DE49FFA4245C5F31EBDA719635B38E5CAAB8848E575FC677F988| |ADF89E60EF31D3FA90697DD8B4FE0D9FA2E5BC| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Level 24-50 Natural Arachnos Soldier Primary Power Set: Bane Spider Soldier Secondary Power Set: Bane Spider Training Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Villain Profile: Set Bonus Totals: Set Bonuses: Proc Chances: Arachnos Bane Spider Soldier.mxd

Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.1 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1054;490;980;HEX;| |78DA6D525D4F134114BDD3DD529616DA525AAA95082424A87123EA3B2182046CB14| |6C2EB66A06B7774B36D7657228FFE049F7CF137F86824FE263FFE41B99D7BDBD914| |27D93D67CF3DF723B3B7F369BFF4FDF0F32E88C68B502689B717CB8B201A24DEDB4| |1D8537E5C3891E9C7588616E029E0B339EB48DC5965EB34962A5251DF3B94BDBE9F| |26EE5490516F2242B13B1884EECB50F583B4AC79DB973D2C18A861557F1F45972A5| |1E72A54E95569E218629DD6C1505DB867077BA75EDBBF54320D64E4756492FAF155| |13877C00D933CAC33B1BA06943AECF1810DA8AF13DE1DC07C21F454C133A3707AB4| |81C8C3509E79F5A1A73130BD6177741E72D6C30AE1196182B5F106B3634BED1F74F| |AC6F517DB0C6B93B0E3878BB79D6F275A17D165FFA582B708F6BCC75D8E7703F9C1| |A8AE41345F695383687B0C8732EB62DAD2D75184F08975F13AE7419DF1056B17999| |7B95B9DE789E2AF7AA72AF06C76A18ACB1BFC6DA2F1CACCE5A9DB5111E58D56FFDB| |A6368CBD03543EF1BBA69E896A1DB863E32D435F4897EDFB3A74B01C0C33FCC6AE4| |CD2A8FC9B573CBF5EC96F2FC3F79AFECE92A8DDAD9B8830BB46443D79EAE118816E| |53815D0BF7E9CF37B01E37C7D826BFE359A101BB48E9563A157EC4FD6BF4DABF5CF| |6839B14E35E61997BFE21C2BF44B66CF0DDF03FAC6| |-------------------------------------------------------------------| Level 1-23 Natural Arachnos Soldier Primary Power Set: Arachnos Soldier Secondary Power Set: Training and Gadgets Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Villain Profile: Set Bonus Totals: Set Bonuses: Arachnos Soldier - Wolf Spider.mxd

Far back in the mists of ancient time ... I wrote a post for a Huntsman build on the original City of Heroes forums (now accessible only by Wayback Machine) that was ... mildly popular. In May of 2019 I made the first attempt to update my old build for Homecoming. Then in September of 2019, after the discovery of Proc Fu by @Bopper and @Sir Myshkin and others ... I made a second attempt to update my Huntsman build for Homecoming. And the fact that you are (now) reading this at all can only mean one thing ... INVASION ... that it's time for a refresh of my Huntsman build (for both Bane and Crab this time) for Homecoming. And I should hope that everyone knows what THAT will mean by now ... WALL OF TEXT CRITS YOU!!! Because when you're a Huntsman, the best way to stay alive is to stand ankle deep in spent brass shell casings. Or as my Hunts(wo)man Leggs likes to say with her $Battlecry ... Hot lead! Get your hot lead! All you can eat! Get it while supplies last! So for this v3.0 update, I made a few changes to the organizational structure of the powers taken and when slots get invested into those powers. The biggest change however is ... I simply dropped Hasten out of the build, since it really isn't "needed" anymore (thanks to Inventions). I know that's going to come as something of a shock to some people, since it is fairly well known and reasonably well documented that what makes a (good!) Huntsman build playable is putting enough recharge behind it to use powers "fast enough" to make a difference. And while that may have been true over a decade ago, and it certainly WAS true prior to Inventions when the only source of global recharge reduction was Hasten ... the simple fact of the matter is that the game evolved past that point, and it's perfectly possible to build a Huntsman (Bane or Crab) who neither needs nor uses Hasten. For me, in order to determine if such a path was viable/practical I needed to do what I've started doing with all of the rebuilds of my builds ... which is to say getting all the way down not only into the proc chances for specific powers and then following through with an analysis of what kinds of repeating attack chains can be built (for various purposes). That then allows the Player to enjoy a style of continuous play that can be simplified down into a repeating pattern that yields the best performance/throughput for the investments being made due to the (optimal?) sequencing of use of powers in that attack chain. There's a curious sort of cross-pollination that happens when taking an analysis this far, which is to say once you've figured out which attacks to use in what sequence it's simply a matter of figuring out how much recharge each of those powers needs in order to produce a Just In Time™ performance profile in which powers recharge just in time to need to be used again, without a lot of wasted over-recharge. So there's a kind of "load balancing" factor between how much recharge a build "needs" in order for the powers it uses to animate "smoothly" in a seamless/sequential fashion. So the first point of consideration then becomes ... when using ALL of the damaging rifle attacks on repeat, how long does it take to animate them all? Well ... T1 Single Shot = 0.9s anim / 1.056s arcana T3 Burst = 1s anim / 1.188s arcana T5 Heavy Burst = 2.67s anim / 2.904s arcana T7 Venom Grenade = 1.67s anim / 1.848s arcana T8 Frag Grenade = 1.67s anim / 1.848s arcana = 8.844s arcanatime (total) That's a pretty decent chunk of time to be animating attacks in a seamless rotation, particularly when the longest base recharge time among those attacks belongs to Venom Grenade (at 24s base). However, by doubling up on use of a Build Up proc loaded Burst (thereby extending the total arcanatime to 10.032s) you only need to get the recharge time for Venom Grenade down from 24s to 8.184s ... which then in turn requires a total applied recharge of ... +193.25% ... which is actually possible to get very very close to with a completed Bane or Crab based Huntsman build, as I will show below. So the key hurdle of being able to build a (relatively) seamless attack chain WITHOUT use of Hasten is actually doable even without resorting to Purple 50 sets (although those Purple 50 sets do make it easier). However, if Hasten gets dropped from the build ... how will there be enough recharge to serve long duration Click powers, such as Serum, Call Reinforcements/Summon Spiderlings, Build Up/Aim and even Surveillance so as to give them enough uptime to reach perma-status? Well ... there's an app proc for that. The one place that a Force Feedback proc can be put into a Huntsman build (without dipping into pool powers) is with Frag Grenade. However, if you do that you wind up wanting to 5 slot Frag Grenade with as little recharge as possible (preferably none!) ... and you can do that with a 5 slot Positron's Blast set that drops the Damage/Recharge set IO while also boosting your global recharge in the process. The relatively small radius (10ft) on Frag Grenade then yields a decent proc chance for Force Feedback per $Target hit, and since a Frag Grenade can hit up to 10 $Targets at once that means that the Chuck Lots Of Dice™ strategy can come into play to severely increase the odds of getting a successful proc of Force Feedback (from over 27% with 1 $Target to over 96% with 10 $Targets). After getting all of that worked out, and building the repeating attack chain in a way that uses Frag Grenade once every ~10s makes it possible to calculate how many Force Feedback procs are needed to make long recharge Click powers recharge Just In Time™ to be made perma. On the Crab build below, it works out to scoring 9 Force Feedback procs every 2 minutes, when running an attack chain that repeats every ~10s. So ... tight, but doable when in heavy combat situations if you only proc Force Feedback 3 out of 4 times you use Frag Grenade. The nice thing is that "every Force Feedback proc counts" as far as this is concerned for recharging Serum more quickly, such that even if you aren't able to close the uptime gap through combat, you won't need to wait all that long before Serum can be recast. The way I calculate things for when a Force Feedback proc is in play is to resort to an additive process, rather than relying on pure division (like usual). Here's how I compute things like "how many times do I need to proc Force Feedback in order to make Serum perma?" So, for starters, in the build I'll be presenting below I've got: +86.25% global recharge from sets +20% global recharge from Mental Training +58.98% global recharge from Preventative Medicine = +165.23% recharge on Serum Serum has a 120s duration and a 360s base recharge ... so at +165.23% after 120s you get: (1 + 1.6523) * 120 = 318.276s "worth" of recharge completed (this number is normalized to the base recharge for easy reference) ... which then leaves 360-318.276=41.724s "worth" of additional recharge that needs to happen during those 120 seconds of duration. And every Force Feedback proc will "add" another +5 to the 318.276 number (each) and you simply need to add on enough +5 to get to 360 (or more). In this case, the answer to that question is ... 9 procs of Force Feedback will add +45 to 318.276 for a total of 363.276 so as to recharge Serum in 120 second (or less) for a perma uptime on Serum. If using Frag Grenade every ~12 seconds (average) on a repeating attack rotation (without stopping) that yields 10 chances for a Force Feedback proc, and statistically speaking you're going to fail to proc at least one of those ... so in heavy sustained combat you're looking at a decent chance to proc Force Feedback 9 times every 120 seconds so as to make Serum a perma power, even though build planner math will tell you that you're more than 40 seconds shy of making Serum have a 120 second recharge time. Which is a long winded way of saying that in the build(s) I'm presenting it makes sense to use Frag Grenade even against a single $Target, because the recharge buffing you get out of Frag Grenade is primarily consequential to Serum, Spiderlings (Crab), Reinforcements and Aim/Build Up. And yes, I calculated that for the Crab build where Aim has a 34.72s recharge time in the build planner winds up with a 28.93s recharge with 3 Force Feedback procs within those under 29s ... meaning that with a repeating attack chain of ~10.2s duration you can use Aim with an uptime of approximately 1/3rd of the time, which is pretty decent (about 10 seconds out of every 30 seconds) for a One Slot Wonder™ power. The specific numbers are slightly better for the Bane build (it has slightly more global recharge built into it), but it would be difficult to take advantage of that marginal improvement using the standard repeating attack chain that I recommend using (see below). The answer for Call Reinforcements is around 54 Force Feedback procs inside of 240s (or 4 minutes), which means getting a Force Feedback proc more often than once every 5 seconds ... which simply isn't happening (they overwrite each other for starters). But don't get me wrong, each Force Feedback proc WILL help the recharge time on Call Reinforcements (and Summon Spiderlings for the Crab build) and since the Gaussian's Build Up proc is slotted into Tactics, and the Pets you summon "count" for the number of chances the Build Up proc gets to Chuck Lots Of Dice™ every 10 seconds (1 per affected ally, including yourself!), you're actually going to want to have your Pets summoned and out as often as possible, even if they aren't engaging, simply so as to improve your chances to proc the Gaussian's Build Up proc so you can do MOAR DAMAGE with your rifle attacks. So all of THAT worked out pretty well, all things considered. Yes, everything would be faster recharging with Hasten, but would honestly only really matter for no more than some 4 powers in the build that are all Level 28+ ... which really isn't much of an advantage. Piling even more recharge onto the attack powers would wind up with a significant portion of their recharge time being "wasted" in standard repeating rotations, so there's an upper limit on how much recharge is useful just for the attack powers (and I'm basically bumping up against it just with set bonuses already). Another thing that I want to draw everyone's attention to is the frankenslotting for Heavy Burst. The reason why I slotted Heavy Burst this way is because it attacks the largest volume (with Range enhancement!) and deals a LOT of damage while also being able to bring BOTH of the -Resistance debuff procs to bear at the same time with the best chance to proc them in an AoE. This is because the "narrow" 30º cone arc allows for much higher proc chances over a(n enhanceably large) volume of effect that holds far more $Targets at risk than Wide Area Web Grenade, Venom Grenade or even Frag Grenade can (they all have a Max Target 10 limit). This makes Heavy Burst (and Suppression if doing a Backpack Crab build variation) the superior place to slot the Annihilation and Achilles' Heel procs in the build, all things considered. Specifically, I'm referring to THIS ... Level 12: Heavy Burst (A) HamiO: Centriole Exposure (+2 Dam/Range) (13) HamiO: Centriole Exposure (+2 Dam/Range) (31) Detonation - Damage/Endurance/Range: Level 50 (31) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 27 (31) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff: Level 20 (33) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff: Level 10 Annihilation (Heavy Burst) 1.35% Max End Although this specific frankenslotting will "waste" some damage enhancement due to ED, the overriding priority was to get Accuracy and Endurance reduction into Heavy Burst WITHOUT adding any recharge reduction to the power, so as to keep the proc chances as high as possible. Being able to get +Max End out of the slotting in this case is just PURE GRAVY for the build, since that extra Max End means that the builds generate (slightly) more endurance per recovery tick, which then aids overall endurance management in sustained heavy combat. Also, although I've posted other builds with similar slotting in a Cone attack like this before, this is the first time (and the first build) where I'm using this specific slotting in an attempt to gain maximum leverage of the -Resistance debuff procs in a Cone attack. The fact that this slotting gives Heavy Burst a cone range of 77.98ft ... and that all of the other rifle attacks have an 80ft range (except for Frag Grenade that winds up with 90ft due to Positron's Blast) is ENTIRELY THE POINT. It means that you can use Heavy Burst at "standard" 75-78ft ranges without needing to get "too close" to the action. It also means that at 77.98ft distance the 30º cone is some 40.8ft wide, which allows you to lay down fire on a pretty widely scattered group of $Targets, if need be (just select the farthest one in the group you want to hit, queue up Heavy Burst and then move closer until the power activates upon entering range). Alternatively, if you're wanting to cover any melee monster allies, just make sure you see your aura buffs on them and you'll know they're within 60ft of you. But the key thing here is how Heavy Burst combines the -Resistance debuff procs with Venom Grenade (slotted with Dominion of Arachnos) and Single Shot (slotted with Spider's Bite). Venom Grenade will inflict -20% Resistance (all) for 16s (and an additional -20% Resistance (toxic) on top of that for 16s) ... giving you a -20% to 7 damage types and a -40% to toxic damage ... but then Heavy Burst can proc for an additional -20% Resistance (all) for 10s (Annihilation) and ANOTHER -20% Resistance (all) for 20s (Achilles' Heel). Even better yet, since they're DIFFERENT procs they won't overwrite each other (although they will overwrite themselves) so it's possible to have BOTH procs active on $Targets simultaneously! And then as if that wasn't enough, the Spider's Bite proc in Single Shot gives EVERY attack a flat 8% chance (12% if Superior) for additional toxic damage. Put all of that together and you're looking at some pretty SERIOUS -Resistance debuffing ... especially since the Annihilation and Achilles' Heel procs "function" via a Grant Power setup, meaning that the affected $Target casts the -Resistance debuff onto themselves rather than the casting of it being from your Huntsman. That's important because it means that the -Resistance debuff procs in Annihilation and Achilles' Heel in effect BYPASS resistance debuff resistance on the $Target (due to Grant Power self cast mechanics) ... so even against an AV/GM with PToD, those procs are inflicting a FULL -20% Resistance debuff for their entire duration. So while the -Resistance debuff from Venom Grenade can be resisted (by Level shifts, etc.), the -Resistance debuffing from procs that use Grant Power mechanics to do their job are NOT resisted/reduced by those same factors. The same thing works in the other direction, of course, but nobody cares about how much -Resistance debuffing you're doing to Grey Cons ... So this is yet ANOTHER discovery, made almost a year after Homecoming has returned, that I'm rather proud of ... especially since I haven't spotted it before now. Usually I'd be reaching for the Accurate Defense Debuff sets in order to slot Accuracy and Endurance reduction into a Cone attack power like this, but this time I really wanted to slot in Accuracy/Endurance WITHOUT slotting any Recharge Reduction, and this was basically the only way to do it AND squeeze a set bonus out of the combination. The loss of damage enhancement to ED is ultimately "trivial" to how well everything else stacks up in the entire context of the whole build overall. So yeah, I'm totally blaming myself for this one! Now I just need to retrofit this frankenslotting into all of my other old builds with cone attacks ... ESPECIALLY if they feature the slotting of Defense Debuff sets! So ... just to (briefly) recap some of the build decisions ... No need for Hasten. 6-slotted BOTH of the Arachnos ATO sets. Single Shot gets the Spider's Bite set since it gets used ONCE per repeating attack rotation, once the build is fully slotted up. Burst gets the 5-slot Entropic Chaos set plus Decimation Build Up proc so as to provide the build with a limited/background self healing capability and because Burst gets used TWICE per repeating attack rotation for best "coverage" of the Decimation Build Up proc (5.25s buff duration) when it procs. Wide Area Web Grenade not only Immobilizes but it also neutralizes the Knockback produced by Frag Grenade. Heavy Burst is meant to be used as part of every repeating attack rotation, regardless of whether you're facing a single $Target or a horde of $Targets. Venom Grenade is both a -Resistance debuffer and with the Dominion of Arachnos set (and proc) the way to -Damage debuff and Terrorize your $Targets, regardless of how many you're attacking. Frag Grenade is your "go faster" attack power, thanks to the Force Feedback proc, and should be used every repeating attack rotation, regardless of whether you're facing a single $Target or a horde of $Targets. Tactics is slotted with Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-control including the Build Up proc so as to increase your chances to proc every 10s depending on how many allies are being buffed by your Tactics aura (so keep your Pets summoned since they're buffed by Tactics and "count" for giving you increased chances to proc the Gaussian's Build Up). Maneuvers is slotted with the full Reactive Defenses set, giving you a 3-13% Resistance (All) sliding scale buff depending on how much damage you've taken. Serum (Crab only) is slotted with a full Preventative Medicine set to auto-cast an Absorb bubble on yourself when you've taken too much damage, which synergizes VERY nicely with how Reactive Defenses works so as to buy you time to respond when under heavy fire (and you start taking hits). Oh and want to say something about Aim/Build Up ... the Decimation Build Up proc ... and the Gaussian's Build Up proc. If all three buffs are active simultaneously on a fully slotted build (non-purpled): Bane build: 204.3 Lethal damage turns into ... 364.8 Lethal damage (hello damage cap!) Crab build: 202.5 Lethal damage turns into ... 364.8 Lethal damage (hello damage cap!) And that's not even including the kind of damage throughput you'd be achieving with stacked -Resistance debuffing from Venom Grenade and Heavy Burst (both of which would similarly be hitting VERY HARD) ... let alone extra damage from a Spider's Bite proc for Toxic damage (augmented, again, by the -Resistance debuffing courtesy of Venom Grenade and Heavy Burst). And what's kind of ridiculous is that a (combined) 21.38% chance to proc the Decimation Build Up at least once per repeating attack rotation (because Burst gets used twice per rotation) you can achieve a similar (combined) 23.5% chance to proc the Gaussian's Build Up once every 10 seconds just by having a Team-4 situation (which isn't that hard to get to when soloing and can summon Pets!). Have Aim/Build Up buffing you for 10 seconds at the right time and this seemingly impossible trifecta of damage buffing isn't going to be THAT terribly infrequent/impossible. In League play situations (Incarnate Trials, Mothership Raids, Hamidon Raids, you know the drill), the opportunities to hit this kind of trifecta of self buffing of damage will be kind of ... common ... and that's pretty much the point. Even though the odds are "low" for Build Up procs in isolation, when you build for them intelligently/deliberately so as to maximize your return from from them you can achieve some truly AMAZING results! Also, just between you ... me ... and the other Soldiers of Arachnos ... a simple PAIR of +80% damage buffs (Decimation and Gaussian's) is enough to push Burst to 350.2 Lethal damage (Bane) and 348.4 Lethal damage (Crab) which is just shy of the +300% damage cap for Soldiers of Arachnos (by about a mere +16% for Banes and a mere +18% for Crabs, which going purple 50 helps close the gap on!). In other words, incredible damage potential on teams/leagues is only to be expected(!) with the builds I'm presenting below. And just think how much MORE damage throughput you can achieve by stacking Surveillance (Bane) on top of all of that ... Anyway, as should be obvious enough already, there is a LOT of ground to cover with these Huntsman builds, not all of which is necessarily apparent/obvious at first glance at the builds in your build planner of choice. Some of the synergies involved take a deeper understanding/knowledge of how all the bits and pieces mesh together into a stronger and more unified WHOLE that is greater than the sum of its parts. I would not recommend either Huntsman build to a "first time" Player who is starting out, simply because a lot of what goes into these builds will require a source of "funding" to be able to slot them up adequately while leveling. The ATOs alone could set you back some ~120 million INF, which a "first" character is not going to have handy by default from the beginning (although there are ways to Ebil Marketeer™ the auction house to do so, but again that's something for experienced Players to indulge in). However, I am including purple 50 alternate builds in the .mxd files, and by default I've got Tactics toggled on but only one of the alternates is 5-slotted with Gaussian's (minus proc) while the other is 6-slotted with Gaussian's (with proc) so as to allow you to flip back and forth on demand to see how Tactics "works" with that slotting with and without the proc factoring into things for the rest of the build as a whole. And finally ... while I'm of the opinion that while you can do a 1:1 swap of attack powers from Rifle to Crab Backpack (for an alternate Crab build should you prefer to have one), minus Wide Area Web Grenade (which has no Crab Backpack counterpart power) ... I think you'll run into trouble trying to pull the same stunt with a 1:1 swap of attack powers from Rifle to Bane Mace (although it wouldn't be impossible). You'll basically wind up with a VERY different kind of Bane Mace build if you try to keep it all ranged attacks, especially since all of the Bane Mace ranged attacks use 2.244s of arcanatime to animate, making them feel "slow and/or sluggish" compared to the quicker animations used for the Rifle attacks, and their damage output will tend to be lower than the Rifle attacks, so the result may not feel that satisfying. I have played the Crab Backpack variant of a Rifle build on Virtue and found it to be "close enough" on performance for the differences to be a matter of taste and preferences. So with all of that blathering from me out of the way ... on with the builds! Just be prepared for the fact that it's going to take me ... a while ... to get everything posted here (there's a LOT of data!). So expect updates to keep happening for multiple days (maybe a week?) while I get everything sorted and posted into place.

100% crit chance is probably too much. 0% added crit chance would almost certainly be too little ... and with the Scrapper ATOs in play, I'm honestly thinking that something in the +15% range might be appropriate so as to not oversaturate the crit chance of the attack following Confront. I don't have a problem with getting "near" 100% (although perceptions of "nearness" will no doubt vary) but in order to keep game balance within reason (for Scrappers! BURN THE HERETIC!!) I'm thinking it would be WISE to allow the crit chance to go no higher than 90% (so basically proc cap chance) such that it isn't a *perfectly reliable* way to score a critical hit. Reason being is that you don't want to go overboard and make Confront TOO GOOD such that only an absolute derp ID10T would drop it.

Too powerful (as you've described). I wouldn't be averse to doing something akin to the Eagle's Claw buff to critical chance of "next attack" if queued up before Confront finishes animating ... but NO WAY on a 5s buff. Confront powers have a pretty uniform 3s recharge time, and I am in NO WAY advising to mess with that.

I was thinking in terms of keeping (the updated) Confront as being a zero damage Teleport+Taunt. What power you use NEXT however would DEFINITELY do damage ... 😎

That would require rewriting EVERY PLAYER POWER IN THE GAME in order to enable that. Um ... no ...? Funny you should say that, because while I've been reading the responses in this thread I've been wondering if a port of Spring Attack (minus the Knock effect), but done as a Single Target "attack" that teleports you to your $Target while still retaining all of the current Scrapper Taunt power effects would be a worthwhile upgrade. Basically convert the power into a Taunt+Gap Closer, so as to properly live up to the power name ... CONFRONT ... The "legacy" Taunt powers were all about making Them Come To You. Why not reconfigure the "Confront" powers (that also Taunt) for Scrappers be all about making You Go To Them ... in the blink of an eye ... (so to speak) and grab ALL of their attention onto yourself. If nothing else, it would give Scrappers a UNIQUE Gap Closer (via teleport to $Target) power that they've never had before and would set them apart from other Archetypes. And it would also give Scrappers a rather "signature" way of dealing with Runners ... Basic idea being that if you have the Scrapper Confront power (now properly named?) ... ANYTHING within 70ft (standard Confront power range) of you CAN BE within melee range of you VERY QUICKLY(!!). After that it's just a matter of swapping out the emote animation for the power (to drop the "Ah ha!" Taunt emote) so it looks more like a "fast jump" to close range (when it's game mechanically speaking a teleport to $Target) and call it a day.

It's right about now that I'm starting to wonder what happens when combining Beast/Cold and adding Group Fly into the mix ...

Well ... here's mine ... feel free to plunder it for ideas.

Kind of surprised you aren't reaching for Titan Weapons/Willpower (Scrapper) or a Willpower/Titan Weapons (Tanker) and just use a BIG 2-hander as your weapon. Willpower simply makes you STRONGER the more foes you're surrounded by (and it has the "heartbeat" visual and sound FX, and that heartbeat could be colored something Dark And Sinister™ instead of being golden). After that, it's a matter of making a Dark Knight costume ... ... no no, not like that! More like ...

So ... more of a paladon't ...?

Which is great ... except that you can't use the calculator while in View Only mode. If only we had a web based build planner that could do the calculations for us ... (I know, I know, project is in the works)

Request that a CM copy/pasta this information into a pinned thread where EVERYONE can find it easily.

You sure you don't want a pony too?

Not as slow now. Animation is 2.244s arcanatime, not the 4+ seconds of the "bad old days" where you'd spend like 3 seconds summoning something before finally throwing it.

18 * 99 = 1782

By now my initial surmise on this topic has been tested ... and it works ...

Nemesis faction CAN be Confused ... it just takes more than one hit to do so (they've got MAG protection). If memory serves, the same applies to Arachnos Lieutenants too. But the point is that with a deep enough MAG stack (meaning multiple casting if necessary) they CAN be Confused and become YOUR Pet.

Blinding Feint: 1.2 anim / 1.452s arcana | 12s base recharge Ablating Strike: 1.03s anim / 1.188s arcana | 6s base recharge Sweeping Strike: 1.23s anim / 1.452s arcana | 11s base recharge Time between Blinding Feints = 1.188+1.452+1.188 = 3.828s 12 / 3.828 = +213.48% total recharge Time between Ablating Strikes = 1.452s 6 / 1.452 = +313.22% total recharge So there will be *some* gaps in the attack chain when repeated on the Ablating Strikes, but if it gives you "enough" Resistance Debuffing potential to magnify damage into a single $Target that you can take down an AV ... that's hardly a complaint.

With Confuse ... EVERYTHING short of PToD can (temporarily) be your pet!

The original Redlynne on Virtue was a Martial Arts/Super Reflexes Scrapper rolled up in Issue 2. I will ALWAYS have a soft spot for these powersets. Kinetic Melee T9 Concentrated Strike The conventional wisdom of the community with regards to this power is that it just simply isn't worth the trouble/effort to take and slot this power because the supposed benefits of it just don't add up on Scrappers. If the power was coded in such a way as to critically hit AND insta-recharge Power Siphon, this perception would change ... but so long as the power is coded in such a way that it CAN'T critically hit (on a Scrapper? really??) because ALL of the advantage to using the power has been funneled into instantly recharging Power Siphon (creating an OR situation rather than an AND situation) this power will be rightfully thought of as being Gimped By Design™ and rejected by build analysts who HAVE TESTED this phenomenon. Kinetic Melee T4 Power Siphon We have reports that since Power Siphon can be stacked, it is only stacking the part of it that Scrappers care about (+Damage) ONCE while stacking the part of it that Scrappers don't bother with too much (+ToHit) multiple times. Given the way that Power Siphon spreads its damage bonus over time more than Build Up powers do, can Power Siphon be altered such that having multiple Power Siphon buffs at the same time allows the damage buff of each to function on an AND basis, rather than an OR basis? Being able to stack damage bonuses from multiple Power Siphons would go a LONG way towards rehabilitating impressions around the value of Concentrated Strike (see above) in build strategies. Martial Arts T2 Storm Kick Brutes and Tankers get +Defense from using this power ... while Scrappers and Stalkers do not. I'm fine with Scrappers and Stalkers getting LESS +Defense out of Storm Kick than Brutes and Tankers do, but I'm not okay with Scrappers and Stalkers getting ZERO +Defense out of Storm Kick. Super Reflexes Power Order Legacy: Focused Fighting . Focused Senses . Agile . Practiced Brawler . Dodge . Quickness . Lucky . Evasion . Elude Proposed: Focused Fighting . Dodge . Focused Senses . Practiced Brawler . Agile . Evasion . Lucky . Quickness . Elude Resulting proposed pattern: Melee (toggle, passive), Ranged (toggle), Mez Protection, Ranged (passive), AoE (toggle, passive), Quickness (passive), Elude (click) It always felt like the reason why (then) Cryptic didn't make Super Reflexes come out in a toggle/toggle/toggle then passive/passive/passive sequence was because back in the early days Stamina wasn't inherent and it would have been perfectly possible to drain your endurance recovery horrifically with 3 toggles draining 0.26 end/sec on a base recovery of 1.76 end/sec with no hope for Stamina to slot for recovery until Level 20(!), and it simply isn't possible to survive on a +0.98 end/sec budget (while attacking!) when limited to TOs and DOs since you'd need to spend all of your slots on endurance reduction from the get go (a VERY steep ask!). The biggest failing of Super Reflexes on Scrappers is the simple fact that the AoE Defense gets "finished" far too late (the T8 power!) making AoE Defense a HUGE HOLE in the protection scheme when Exemplared.

Still think it ought to be fine to post videos confined to the interior (ONLY!) of Supergroup Bases ... because everything in there is User Created/Defined (aside from the assets, obviously). Point being that you aren't depicting gameplay that takes place in the copyrighted "shared world" created by Cryptic/Paragon Studios, and there's no combat inside of Supergroup Bases, so the only "gameplay" that you can do in there is Show And Tell™ as opposed to Fight To Win™ everywhere else in the game. The way I'd structure the "rule" on this would be that the Base Portal is the dividing line. Outside the Portal, in the shared world ... no bueno. Inside the Portal, in your Supergroup Base ... have at it. Why? Because the interior of Supergroups are instanced User Generated Content. Note that this interpretation means that posting videos of Architect Entertainment would remain prohibited (even though those are User Generated Content too) because combat can occur there, whereas it cannot inside of a Supergroup Base.

It's right about now that I'm expecting a fire farmer character to show up with the "it's raining money" aura named ... 💵 ... Overdraft ... 💵