Sancerre

yea that thread brasilgringo linked has a lot of good information about attack chains and definitely opened my eyes as to proper IO slotting for the attacks. the main change that mixes up TW (months old change at this point anyways) is the recharge reduction if you use an attack with momentum. and alongside that using forcefeedback recharge proc IO in whirling smash you can get some really insanely fast recharge attacks. to the point where it looks like some folk in that thread are not interested at all in titan sweep (the first cone attack). i can see this to some extent but im not quite sold on it... i still need to buy more IOs for my TW toon anyways, dont have enough recharge personally. the other bit that stood out was arc of destruction getting the ATO crit proc... something i hadnt really considered properly but makes sense. the main single target attack chain i saw being referenced was just rotating AoD, rend armor, and follow through. i still think you would want to use crushing blow in there because it is the most effective attack to _START_ momentum with, but again i still need my IO sets fleshed out and im missing a good amount of recharge. for AoE attack chain, im not sure if it could ever get down to just rotating AoD & whirling smash (with enough recharge)... maybe. thats where im slightly confused with dumping titan sweep entirely.

generally speaking scrapper will do more damage than brutes.. mostly cause the scrapper ATOs are absolutely insane and the brute ATOs are... well they exist. for AoE situations, this difference will be difficult to distinguish... but single target definitely favors scrapper. Brutes will have a larger HP pool and greater 'possible' resistance cap but this will only really matter if you are running a resistance secondary. the other important thing to consider is that brutes naturally taunt things and have _AOE_ taunt available. for solo play, this helps keep things attacking you longer instead of fleeing (which can be annoying as a scrapper). for team play, this is also generally favorable as well because people prefer it hits the beefy brute than anything else anyways... the downside in teamplay is that brute damage scaling relies on getting hit so if you are competing with others for minions to hit you, your damage will be lacking. as for secondaries... they can accomplish various things but some might be more narrowly focused into 'i can only solo x type of content'... for example if you pick fire armor you will probably have a difficult time existing outside of AE fire farms. some secondaries are just straight up... bad... and im sure if i start name dropping each set, inevitably someone will point out how they 'made it work' but the reality is some sets are just *GENERALLY* better and easier to build... -BIO armor is most typically the pair with TW just because it boosts damage even more and you can 'get by' sufficiently with its defenses. -ninjutsu and super reflexes are both solid and easy to max out defense. they both achieve similar defenses but ninjutsu is, in my opinion, just flat out superior. -willpower... some folks swear is great, but im not particularly a fan. -radiation armor can be interesting. very similar to BIO where it boosts your damage and you can 'get by' sufficiently with its defenses. -shield defense... unfortunately cannot be paired with titan weapons. truly unfortunate. to note... there exists a very overpowered ability called 'shadow meld' in the soul mastery patron pools that boosts all defense by 30%... can have really high uptime. BUT its not as great as it sounds because the duration is super short, it can never be permanent and it has a 3 second cast time. i would flat out ignore this ability as much as possible because it will never truly be part of your active defenses, gives you an illusion of safety but you will die during its downtime, and the cast time vs duration is incredibly annoying (unfun) to manage. it is a trap. any build that plans to actively use it will regret it... in my opinion. below is my Titan weapons / ninjutsu build... it can at least 'inspire' some aspects of titan weapons if you chose a different secondary. i would say the primary tree would never really change much (defensive sweep vs crushing blow is your only major 'choice'). other than that the scrapper ATO set placement is the only other critical piece. i personally like the crit proc in follow through.

yea again im not sure why you are having such a drastically different experience. i do not have any issues unless its against something like freakshow that actively drain my end... and against that, there are certainly end problems that i need to take a small break between packs. definitely important to have the +10 max end accolades (portal jockey & atlas medallion)... recovery is based on a percentage of max end. ultimately if you feel like you *need* ageless, then go ahead and use it. the biggest synergy at the inception of the build was clarion boosting the to-hit buff to reach +22 for the instant snipes. that is no longer 'needed'. you are otherwise psuedo-capped on defense between general defense buffs and times juncture but you wont be in times juncture range all the time so i dont recommend that personally. you could easily replace rune of protection for tough/weave and cap defense that way (and also cap out S&L resistance along the way)...

-survival buff is pretty expensive tbh, but recovery serum is cheap enough. -i was actually never aware of a supergroup buff. -other possibility is the free mutation power. if you get the one that does -50% end cost (pain tolerance i think), you definitely shouldnt have problems for a while... random is random there though. anyways just wanted to drop in and follow-up on the 2 changes that came out more recently (rune of protection and arcane bolt). -for rune of protection, while it sucks to have fairly long gaps in mez protection, the build has super high defense in the first place so you arent likely to be hit with a mez generally... and if you do... you just pop rune of protection THEN. saves you the need to have inspiration available and more importantly buffers out a window to get time's juncture back up. definitely a change though cause before i would just fire off rune of protection whenever i felt like it just because it *could* be up most of the time and it gave me an extra layer of safety without any thought. -for arcane bolt... the longer cast time is definitely noticeable. in a single target rotation, casting arcane bolt at any point will delay the ability to cast blaze or blazing bolt. that said, it does like 10% less damage than blaze (which is still very good) and will hit even harder than blaze if you have the arcane power buff on (its random)... so i think its probably worth it cause flares was trash otherwise. it is definitely strange to me to see an attack from a power pool actually be... useful... and not just a filler but it is definitely welcome.

my character is built virtually the same as you posted here... felt like diving back into this game... rune of protection adjustment is a fairly substantial blow to the playstyle of the *SOLO* build here. ultimately this build is super safe unless you get smacked with a CC and drop your toggles (or get end drained). the rune of protection / clarion rotation would keep you *mostly* safe from this previously... and have very little downtime. you will now have 2 minute complete GAPS of _ZERO_ mez protection without inspiration candies. so you either wait it out or risk it. the other significant change i see is that arcane bolt (from sorcery tree) is actually insanely strong now for some reason (seems way overtuned). legit just another blaze button (yes i see the activation time is longer). not sure that it would be entirely worth it but... i feel like it should just outright replace flares / fire blast (no reason to slot them over arcane bolt as i see it). spirit ward was never particularly useful in this build anyways, so replacing that doesnt really matter. overall, the rune of protection change would make the gameplay incredibly difficult to maintain the same clearing speed *SOLO* as before... but if you are running in a team and someone else can give you long term mez protection, the build is still great to splinter off and split clear in a group setting. other than that this build is still incredible in group play because /time's group buffs and enemy debuffs are fantastic for clear speed and you will be pulling your weight in personal damage because you are constantly damage capped via soul drain as a fire primary. aside from mobs that speficially end drain you, i never had problems with end *after* being mostly kitted out. getting there can be a little more painful. not sure where your toon is at IO wise, but i could recommend using Victory Rush (from leadership) for a while inplace of combat jumping to help with that and/or *not* using assault/maneuvers until you can actually support them.

retsu is good as a defense IO mule and also where defense debuffs barrage you -- can be a panic button if you catch it happening fast enough. otherwise can be omitted. smoke flash can go for sure... really dont need it at all. blinding powder and caltrops are definitely useful if like their application.

even back in regen's glory days, the biggest pitfalls were -endurance, -recharge, and -defense debuffs. regen still has no protection against any of that. fortunately there is the ageless incarnate but it doesnt shore up everything. Pros: -Technically the best scaling set for parties because no support ATs can offer anywhere near the HP/regen bonuses available, but plenty offer a ton of defense/resists. **that said i find it very difficult to die with anything if there are a bunch of support ATs in the party. -Very little downtime and a ton of blue bar -Can be "fun" to manage a number of clicky powers instead of set toggles and forget about it Cons: -the set is virtually impossible to softcap all defense with and you will likely just settle with being able to softcap on 1 purple pill (or waiting on shadowmeld a lot if that is your thing) -extremely low resistances all around (except toxic) -integration gives you basic protection against status effects, but none of the more unique protections (as noted above) -Bio and Willpower are arguably just better. while regen does win out in overall HP pool and regeneratin, Bio & WP do offer more overall protection while keeping the high regeneration theme. -the volume of click powers that keep you alive can be annoying, especially if paired with titan weapons (or other damage window oriented sets). -does not offer any unique offensive skills or bonuses towards damage, recharge, or movement. overall i just dont see a good reason to pick /regen objectively. even if you are going for a character theme, willpower will probably fit the bill all the same.

i would say you got caught up in achieving set bonuses at times and lost sight of what you really wanted. easy example is scorch and electrifying fences... you are already overcapped on melee defense. im not sure that you are actually planning to use electrifying fences at all or if that is just a mule for the set bonuses. deflection also provides smashing/lethal resistance. you go out of your way to get set bonuses for this stat but ignore slotting resists into this power. (tough and one with shield are good potential mules for unique IOs) im not sure if you are getting tactics for the increased perception or the to hit... the fact that you arent slotting for more to hit in it leads me to believe its for the perception -- in that case i recommend to you rectified reticle - increased perception IO in build up (add a slot) and kismet in combat jumping (add a slot) if you still want +to hit. this otherwise seems like a bit of a waste to me. there are a number of different powers that could be more useful... taunt comes to mind immediately. or also one with shield because you are not capped resistances and the crash is not debilitating like other armor sets. slotting out maneuvers for actual defense is a bit of a waste on a brute unfortunately, but if you are doing it for the S/L set bonus i guess thats more understandable. there is another avenue for amassing a bunch of *all* resistances and that is through rotating rune of protection and melee core embodiment incarnate.. you would need to trade some powers (probably super jump, maneuvers, and tactics). not saying you should, but its an option. it is a bit annoying to keep track of especially cause this game doesnt visibly warn/notify you when clicky durations are running out. overall there are no problems with the build and it looks good but it can be tooled around for better min/max i guess.

the obvious comparisons are with shield defense and super reflexes. all 3 sets are able to easily cap positional defense, so thats not really an issue. all 3 sets get a stackable status defense clicky (instead of toggle). shield and ninja get a decent baseline of resistances. the biggest "issue" with ninja is that, as a set based on defense, it has the *lowest* defense debuff resistance (around 35%). but if you overcap defense slightly and use ageless incarnate, that "hole" is not really a big issue. really nothing wrong at all with ninja. very self sufficient and simple.

you're looking at it backwards. DM fills one of the problems of regen by adding -hit (effectively defense) to it. unfortunately one of the bigger problems with regen is just surviving alpha strikes... which -to hit on attack isnt going to solve. that said i think willpower and bio are just flat out better than regen anyways. DM is a very mediocre powerset overall. it has solid single target DPS (slightly above average), but pretty terrible AoE. the secondary benefits (-to hit, some CC, constant build-up, heal, end gain) are great and so is the damage type itself. another big benefit is that DM is not a particularly active/combo oriented weaponless set -- this means hitting other buttons wont massively drag down your dps or generally interfere with damage windows (lookin at you titan weapons). shield defense is an obvious choice because shield charge fills the gap of AoE damage (even if the cooldown is long) and the heal built into DM helps fill that void from shield defense. that said, you can also approach the AoE void with just straight damage auras (fire, elec, bio, and others). but if you are going down to rabbit hole trying to fix it, why not instead just pick a better damage set. generally speaking i dont think there are any "bad" armor sets specifically to go with DM. its just a very solid all-rounder with its weakness being in AoE damage. Some armor sets are just lower tier in general (regen). so my opinion is: either build around a concept/theme and dont worry about the results or avoid dark melee to begin with. as a special note, shadow maul cone warping is especially important if you want better AoE. basically you just run through a pack with super speed on and shadow maul queue'd up... while doing a mini-jump as you pass through them.

it could honestly just be a matter of how many people made an empathy defender and ran it through DFB to lvl 16 and never played it again. why? likely because back in the day everybody NEEDED an emp defender in a team to function. if you take a look at scrappers, regen is the most popular secondary, despite it being by the far the WORST secondary. why? likely because back in the day it was actually the best. the game is different today. you've gone pretty far off of the OP's main topic: generally no, but they do have value. at higher levels/IO sets/incarnate powers, there are often better support archetypes to be running - notably kinetics, time, and radiation. these sets are better mostly because the buffs/debuffs also affect the defender, whereas empathy is 90% useless solo. and this matters because the defender can actually be another self-functioning teammate that doesnt need an empathy/force field defender babysitting them. also, there was a good point about knowing that you will be teaming with someone. if you guarantee you will always be with an emp defender, you can forsake end recovery and defense options in your build in favor of more recharge or damage. or for anyone with a snipe, you wont need to be concerned about slotting out tactics to achieve the +22% to hit threshold (although this matters far less with the recent patch).

just to note, although it is not really surprising and revolutionary... invariably, the fire primary is above and beyond any other primary for damage purposes (both ST and AE). if we are to talk about dealing damage, there is no discussion to be had around other primaries. in a solo scenario, certain corrupters secondaries will provide greater damage output and defensive options than blasters. /kinetics (especially) will outperform a blaster everytime (unless the blaster is chewing red inspirs nonstop). Typically the greater benefit at hand is that there are a number of defensive options so that corrupters can actually walk around in a pack of critters without dying -- a dead blaster does 0 damage -- /time is a great example here providing an insane defense buff as well as a large -to hit debuff... among other things. in a group scenario, corrupters are obviously going to be providing a greater benefit to the overall team (90% of the time) because the buffs and debuffs are a share of their power collectively. that said, SOMEONE needs to deal the damages -- so the blaster who has nothing else to do BUT damage will individually reap the benefits of the party buffs/debuffs and deal far more damage. This is not only because blasters inherently deal higher damage (roughly 50%), but also the availability of build-up, additional higher damage melee attacks and the more obvious fact that they will not be spending time casting the buffs/debuffs. so what it boils down to is solo-ability (corrupters are typically "tankier") and group support VS being the highest possible ranged damage. as for the defender vs corrupter topic that was brought up... defender obviously has better group support and general tankiness (the support archetype is now the primary!). All non offensive powers generally have higher base numbers on defender (includes tough, weave, combat jumping, leadership buffs, etc.) and it adds up. the damage output will be "similar" solo, as vigilance passive will offset the lower damage defender has in the blasting trees, but the scourge procs will keep corrupter ahead. The scourge procs are a bit undervalued as well i think... typically you are dumping AoE and killing off minions/LTs which now leaves bosses in scourge range. That aside, the main difference for damage purposes is that defender is capped at +400% damage, but corrupter is capped at +500% damage. This is also a big reason kinetics actually favors corrupter (for the corrupter individually) -- fulcrum shift, soul drain, vigilance passive, and enhancements easily puts you above 400% without even using reds or aim/gaussian proc. so here it is mostly a case of defender being the "safe" pick solo and better group support VS general damage output. and some would argue, why not just do a blaster if you are going to cheapen your group support anyways? and that is a fair question, but ultimately up to whoever is making the toon... much the same as brutes vs scrappers.

this is my build for titan weapons/nin. obviously not savage melee, but damage archetypes can be tooled around much the same for the most part. defense capped without incarnates with even level 50 IOs. that said, im not fully settled into which incarnates are "best". and some slots could probably be shifted around because it is overcapped (about 2%). for what its worth, ive heard savage melee is much better on stalker... but ninjitsu objectively looks much worse on stalker, so pick your poison. that is not personal experience though... ive never really played a stalker beyond DFB. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.3 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Scrapper Primary Power Set: Titan Weapons Secondary Power Set: Ninjitsu Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Crushing Blow -- Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg(A), Mk'Bit-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Mk'Bit-Dmg/Rchg(3), Mk'Bit-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Mk'Bit-Dam%(7) Level 1: Ninja Reflexes -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(7), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(9), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(9) Level 2: Danger Sense -- Rct-ResDam%(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Rct-Def(11), Rct-Def/EndRdx(13), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg(13), Rct-Def/Rchg(15) Level 4: Titan Sweep -- SprScrStr-Rchg/+Crit(A), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg(21), SprScrStr-Dmg/Rchg(21), SprScrStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), SprScrStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23) Level 6: Shinobi-Iri -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-Def(25), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(25), RedFrt-EndRdx(27), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(39), BlsoftheZ-Travel(50) Level 8: Follow Through -- SprCrtStr-Rchg/+50% Crit(A), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), SprCrtStr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), SprCrtStr-Dmg/Rchg(31), SprCrtStr-Acc/Dmg(31) Level 10: Build Momentum -- GssSynFr--Build%(A) Level 12: Kuji-In Rin -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31) Level 16: Seishinteki Kyoyo -- EffAdp-EndMod(A), EffAdp-EndMod/Rchg(33), EffAdp-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(33) Level 18: Rend Armor -- AchHee-ResDeb%(A), Hct-Dam%(33), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Hct-Dmg/Rchg(34), Hct-Dmg(36) Level 20: Kuji-In Sha -- Prv-Absorb%(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(36), Prv-Heal/Rchg(36), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg(37), Prv-Heal/EndRdx(37), Prv-Heal(37) Level 22: Boxing -- KntCmb-Knock%(A) Level 24: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(39), Ksm-ToHit+(48) Level 26: Whirling Smash -- Arm-Dam%(A), Arm-Dmg(39), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(40), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(40), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(42) Level 28: Bo Ryaku -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/Rchg(42), TtnCtn-ResDam(42), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(43) Level 30: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(43), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(43), UnbGrd-Max HP%(45) Level 32: Arc of Destruction -- Obl-%Dam(A), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Obl-Dmg(45), Obl-Acc/Rchg(46), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(46), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46) Level 35: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 38: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), RedFrt-EndRdx(48), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(48) Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 44: Physical Perfection -- PrfShf-End%(A) Level 47: Kuji-In Retsu -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 49: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-Travel(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(50), BlsoftheZ-ResKB(50) Level 1: Brawl -- KntCmb-Knock%(A) Level 1: Critical Hit Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(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 -- UnbLea-Stlth(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(15), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(17) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(17), PrfShf-EndMod/Acc(19) Level 1: Momentum Level 50: Void Radial Final Judgement Level 50: Seers Radial Superior Ally Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 50: Ageless Radial Epiphany Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon Level 50: Assault Radial Embodiment ------------

yea combat jumping is incredible in every build. i would never consider it a waste. super cheap end cost, makes flight abilities 100x better to use, and a great place to dump unique defense IOs (lotg). so you would pick up super jump as the filler power. realistically, there is not much competition in the power pools, so i dont see where you are losing out here personally. hasten and combat jumping are a baseline in every toon ive made.

not pretending to be an expert on the powerset but, dont forget there is also judgement incarnate. doesnt seem like the AoE is lacking in general. it probably comes down to tradeoffs. combat jumping is an amazing power. easy, cheap defense (and lotg mule) so you are only "wasting" 1 power to grab spring attack. to grab fireball you need to pick up 2 worthless powers (granted fireblast is probably OK) and also commit to sacrificing other possibilities -- body mastery does provide a large benefit to endurance. realistically id probably sooner say you should look at ball lightning instead because it only requires 1 wasted power to grab -- and really it is just a huge shame that zapp's damage from the epic pool is super underwhelming for a snipe for whatever reason cause otherwise it would seem like a solid pathway.

curious on your thoughts on just corrupter vs defender in general. defender pros: stronger heals (15% ish) stronger debuffs in general +slowed response -res (30% vs 25%) +rain of fire -slow (-50% vs 40%) -- this one is a shocker... its the secondary tree for defender....... +distortion field slow (90% vs 70%) +times juncture -hit (15.5% vs 12.5%) and damage debuff (25% vs 20%) stronger defenses in general (some of these really surprised me) +farsight defense (12.5% vs 9.4%) +dark embrace power pool (27.5% smash/lethal vs 20%) +rune of protection (mystic power pool) -- 25% vs 19% +maneuvers (leadership power pool) -- 3.5% vs 2.5% +combat jumping... 2.5% vs 2.1% (really??) flexible in skipping time crawl +not a particularly strong power, can be skipped entirely as defender in favor of AIM, super speed, temporal selection, time stop, vengeance,. stronger solo damage (on average) Corrupter Pros: Higher BASE HP (1071 vs 1017 -- this kind of looks like TYPO in pines, but ill give it to the corrupter) Higher BASE damage +Roughly 15% stronger attacks BASELINE (big footnote on this) CRITS at low health Objectively "better" archetype IO procs a lot of the data really shocked me. initially it seems like defender is just obviously only going to be stronger in defense/debuffs (as it should be), but then i looked into the damage numbers. especially considering this build is extremely capable solo, the defender actually does MORE damage solo on average than the corrupter even before debuffs are concerned. as noted above, the corrupter BASE damage is 15% higher, but the defender has a 30% damage buff solo and has a stronger leadership assault (18.75% vs 15%) buff. AIM is stronger on defender (50% vs 42.5%, which is again ODD like rain of fire being it is the corrupter's primary). even soul drain is just flat out better on the defender (8% per target vs 6.8% per target). As far as solo is concerned, defender would only lose out in cases where the corrupter is scoring crits in execute range. and frankly, in a team environment, the 10% damage difference (discounting crits in execute range) will barely be noticeable. i guess ultimately the biggest difference is the damage buff cap. the corrupter, having 15% stronger BASE damage and a damage buff cap at 500% can land the bigger hits at the end of the day. the defender will be limited to a 400% damage buff cap. consider a solo defender: 100% (baseline) + 30% (vigilance passive) + 100% (slotted damage enhancement... roughly) + 80% (max soul drain) +50% (AIM) + 75%(gaussian build up proc) +18.75%(assault leadership) === 453.75%. This will turn into 400% and the gaussian proc is ultimately fairly useless (its only a few seconds anyways so i would reasonably say just dont run it in a defender build) consider a solo corruptor: 100% (baseline) + 100% (slotted damage enhancement... roughly) + 62.5% (max soul drain) +50% (AIM) + 75%(gaussian build up proc) +15%(assault leadership) === 402.5%. This still leaves an additional 97.5% to bump via inspirations or party members. worth noting that aim (along with gaussian proc) are much more temporary than the rest of the numbers, but i think the damage cap would reasonably only be a concern if you are in a party with a /kin archetype (which is actually fairly common). BUT if you are in a party with a /kin, i would seriously doubt the party overall is struggling for damage. Also worth noting that the corrupter scourge crits are not very noticeable unless fighting an elite boss or AV solo (as in a party, even AVs will melt before you can land more than 2 attacks in execute range). overall it would seem that the defender would reach much higher defense/resist numbers far easier and could conceivably move some slots around for more utility stuff like annihilation & gladiator -resist debuff, which could potentially swing defenders even further in the spotlight for solo damage & party damage. im sure there are other interesting IO procs as well. and with that i wonder -- is defender OP? is the 500% damage cap worth all the sacrifice? it would be difficult for me to justify saying corrupter should be buffed or defender should be nerfed, but this little research project is eye opening to me at least.

That was pretty much my experience last night. It's going much better now with Clarion! I've already got him to 50+3, Alpha is Musculature, Destiny is Clarion (also T3) and it is perfect. Clarion+Far Sight (with no HOs actually) brings him to exactly 97% to hit. Showed me a bug that 97.0% does NOT like up your Snipe button, but you still get instant snipe :) Between that and the extra End Mod from Musculature, and all the IO set bonuses and all, the End issue is less of a thing. So capped defenses across the board (with a bunch of extra, just in case), Perma Hasten, Farsight and Soul Drain. It's pretty fun! Still a far cry from Blaster damage, but the tools you bring to a group, especially for AV killing and the like, are immense :) forgot to mention -- im surprised you didnt slot out times juncture a little bit. the archetype has no means to mitigate -defense debuffs aside from overcompensating. hits WILL get through the 5% wall and if its a defense debuff then you are going to be in for a chain reaction of pain. if you have a little buffer zone of extra defense and a good margin of -hit, you'll be OK with eating a few -defense debuffs. i would say as far as damage goes... slowed response with achilles heel proc makes a HUGE difference. also if you have an extra slot, gladiators -res proc in soul drain is fantastic. finally, i would recommend dumping all the slots in AIM and just leave only the chance for build up in it. if you dont slot recharge in it, the build up will proc 100% everytime. if you do slot recharge, its random. with chronoshift, hasten, and global recharge from sets, etc, aim should probably be around 30 seconds without slotting recharge directly anyways (which is the same cooldown as soul drain, how magical). same concept with slowed response actually. DONT slot recharge in it. i dont know how archery compares... but as fire i can basically rotate between killing a pack with inferno and then a pack without inferno... so 2 packs every 30 seconds or so. and then youll start to wonder why people would roll blasters. ultimately i think the better question is whether or not a defender is better than corrupter... and to that end im not sure, but its probably not much of a difference.

this, but also remember dark epic pool can achieve (near) perma soul drain. so you dont need to focus too hard on this. i would just say that it kind of sucks that you cant utilize instant snipe while leveling without having a stockpile of yellows available.

Unfortunately it looks like the To Hit bonuses falls off pretty fast with ED. Even with four Membrane's in place it only brings To Hit to 96.6. Of course, zero Membrane's and one mob of Soul Drain are enough to get it to 97%, too. I do wish there was an easier/better route to insta-Snipe though without depending on that every 30 seconds. clarion radial epiphany also boosts the +to hit of farsight. 2 level 50 membranes with tier 4 clarion will give *exactly* +22% to hit. it must be the tier 4 version though... tier 3 doesnt quite make the cut. again though, for archery i think that would be less of a problem because you get an innate buff to hit stuff over non weapon archetypes (but i could be wrong about to-hit vs accuracy here). another option is to slap in kismet somewhere until you can craft tier 4 clarion and/or run leadership tactics. as for end usage... i was initially distraught with end use on fire/time as well (im sure its not too different). but it gets better and better as the IO sets all come together. a bunch of individual set bonuses that give minor end recovery or end reduction add up. also you dont typically slot for end reduction in attack powers, but an IO set will typically have it in there. finally i would say... dont forget that agility also improves end recovery bonus substantially which helps boost stamina passive as well as chronoshift and dark consumption. all that said, running the extra fighting power pool toggles (tough & weave) makes end use even more painful which is why i dont particularly like it.

off my knowledge of /time corr: use clarion radial epiphany. activate farsight within the first 30 seconds (clarion's power decays after that). or you can also use soul mastery instead of dark mastery for power build up. same concept, but soul drain has a MUCH longer cooldown and will not be up 100% of the time. so unless you REALLY value something else for incarnate slot, i dont see a good reason to do that. either method should boost your defense about 10% if you have farsight diversity capped. That said, you can get a lot more value out of farsight with only 3 slots instead of 5. 1 luck of the gambler (global recharge), and 2 membrane exposure hami-O (+to-hit, +defense, -recharge). Incidentally this also puts your +to hit at 22% which is what you currently need for snipe to be instant (beta patch will make the instant part irrelevant but the 22 hit will still boost the damage of the snipe... whenever that goes live). As a special note though, i think archery has innately higher accuracy because it is a weapon archetype so you may not need +22% to hit. as far as archery goes... hard to say why people would want snap shot. as /time corrupter, you will have very high global recharge and may not need it in your final loadout. try and see what works best. i would say the same for explosive arrow... if you think the power functions better with knockdown then slot it in. as for slotting... i would recommend viewing https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,1697.0.html as fire and archery are actually quite similar and the IO loadout can be reasonably swapped around to fit. as far as epic power pool is concerned, and especially so for /time, its hard to imagine a reason to NOT use dark mastery. perma soul drain is incredible. i would probably only recommend Power mastery & soul mastery otherwise mostly for the Power Build up (if you are incredibly opposed to using clarion incarnate for whatever reason).

the sentinel isnt worth it?

the goal in general on *any* toon would be to soft cap defense and then try to work towards the best smashing/lethal resist you can manage (alongside any others). but i dont know if that is entirely possible on many of the corrupter ATs. /Time in particular has it easy here, but many of the other ATs function around targeted -to hit debuffs. while technically the same as defense, it is far more volatile because whoever you planted the debuff on might run away or die. one concept i really like is rotating rune of protection and melee core (hybrid) incarnate to keep yourself with 30%ish resist all and general mez protection. that along with the pool power armor (i would generally recommend dark mastery across the board on every corruptor, but all of them have the same smash/lethal resist) will bump another 30%ish. from there, general set bonuses and/or tough will get you capped on smash/lethal.

Thanks. This helps extremely. How do you slot these powers? And what is the stealth IO for Sprint and how does it work? -hasten: general idea is to slot it as much as necessary to keep it up permanently. for a /time corrupter (thanks to chrono shift) ultimately you dont need to slot it at all as you only require a single lvl 50+5 recharge reduction if you have enough IO sets. but you probably want to slot it up for 3x recharge while leveling and then 2x recharge at 50 until you get a lot more set bonuses. -combat jumping: i wouldnt recommend slotting specifically to increase defense, instead there are a number of fantastic one-off IOs that can be placed in. slot out as many times as you need to fill them in. Examples: Luck of the Gambler (global recharge), Kismet (global +to Hit), Reactive Defenses (Scaling +resist all), Shield Wall (+5% resist all), Karma (Knockback Protection). -maneuvers: mostly the same concept as combat jumping, but it gives slightly more defense and end reduction actually helps a lot on this skill, as well as being a great bonus to party members. That said, this is a great place to add a defense IO set if you feel inclined. Generally i would say either put some kind of IO set in it or just slap a luck of the gambler recharge in there and leave it alone. -assault: not much you can do here. a single level 50+5 end reduction helps with the end cost. while leveling or before you get plenty of IO sets, you may consider adding extra end reduction slots here because it is pretty good to have one at all times. -tactics: since you are running /time, farsight really overshadows the overarching need for this. that said, it is incredibly beneficial while leveling to reach the +22% hit sweet spot for instant snipes, but whenever the current beta build goes live, that will mostly be a moot point. you can also achieve +22% hit via clarion radial incarnate and farsight slotted with 2 lvl 50 IOs as an endgame setup. once you are there, tactics is entirely unnecessary. -mystic flight: slot out the blessing of the zephyr set or just the Knockback reduction IO. -Spirit Ward: either slot out one of the healing sets or leave it alone. while it is a good skill, because you can not use it on yourself and people are generally super tanky already when in a party with you (farsight + time juncture), it may not feel worthwhile to slot it. -Rune of Protection: One of the Resist IO sets and/or some of the one-off unique IOs. some examples: Steadfast protection (+3% all defense), Gladiator (+3% all defense), Unbreakable (+HP). As for the stealth IO. for running the set is called "Celerity". For jumping the set is called "Unbounded Leap". For flight the set is called "Freebird". Sprint will accept leap or run enhancements. The concept is that Superspeed reduces your threat range dramatically. Then having stealth (either via the IO or the power) will collectively make you able to walk around (almost) any enemy undetected.

just going to list what i consider the "good" power pools: -Speed: Hasten is pretty much mandatory on everyone. stacking global recharge is incredibly powerful and the only reason to not take it is to be the anti-meta guy for the sake of being different. Superspeed is a very fast travel power and also can combined with a stealth IO to become essentially invisible. Burnout is useful in some specs, but ive never used it. -Leaping: Combat Jumping is an extremely cheap toggle (endurance wise) for good "air control" and a minor defense boost. can be slotted with any number of the amazing defense IOs (luck of the gambler global recharge notably). if you are getting flight, you should also have combat jumping for the "air control"... you will feel the difference immediately. its very difficult to not recommend this in every build just like hasten. hard to recommend anything else in the leaping tree though (dont get acrobatics, there are easy ways to get knockback protection via IOs -- blessing of the zephyr) -Leadership: generally all great group toggle buffs. at minimum maneuvers is in a similar boat as combat jumping but much more expensive endurance wise. vengeance is great for parties as is victory rush before you get IO'd out with end recovery bonuses/reduction. if you ever have room for extra powers and you really dont want/need anything else, leadership pool is probably the place to go. -Concealment: Stealth is similar to leadership maneuvers but harder to recommend because there is a stealth IO that you can put in sprint and it otherwise functions the same as maneuvers. it is another toggle defense power though, so can be useful. hard to recommend anything else in concealment though. -Flight: purely for hover defense bonus and afterburner. otherwise go with sorcery power pool -Sorcery: Mystic flight is all the same, but Rune of Protection can be amazing. While it can not be permanent itself, it can be rotated with other defensive toggle/click cooldowns (notably incarnate powers) for an effective permanent buff to your defensive stats. Spirit Ward is also actually very good, but will often feel more like a forced pickup on the way to Rune of Protection. -Teleportation: Recall friend is great in parties if you are also picking up a stealth package and plan to rush missions in a party. Teleport foe is great to have when enemies get bugged behind a wall. Kind of situational overall but it can definitely be useful -Fighting: Tough & Weave are notably pretty good defensive toggles. unfortunately you will need to pick up 2 absolutely useless powers on the way to them... and even then they are only "pretty good". if you plan to ONLY play against smashing/lethal enemies (and avoid all other content) this is a solid pickup. BUT a big footnote is that smashing/lethal is very easy to get from IO set bonuses and you SHOULD be getting one of the epic/patron defensive toggles that has smashing/lethal resist anyways. Overall, it kind of feels fairly expensive to pickup 3 other powers just for Weave from that perspective. i find myself gravitating towards the following in every build: -hasten -combat jumping -leadership maneuvers & assault -sorcery mystic flight & spirit ward & rune of protection to me, it just feels not optimal if i dont have this as a baseline.

the main difference is going to be incoming and outgoing damage. -kinetics has no real defense to speak of but has incredible damage boosting, recovery, and recharge. managing recharge can be awkward with any downtime (you need to SIPHON recharge from an enemy for yourself) -time has a massive defense buff and to-hit debuff allowing you to be quite tanky at all times (easily hit defense soft cap). it also has basically everything you want EXCEPT large damage buffs (im aware slowed response reduces resistances) it would probably just boil down to party all the time vs wanting to solo sometimes. being able to walk into a party of critters and not die is very easy with /time, but much more difficult with /kin. parties would probably generally prefer the damage boosting of /kin, but as someone else said there are a lot of /kin out there already... so being different can be nice as well. /time is no slouch anyways.