Crowcus Pocus

Looks good, but I think there's some room for improvements. May I ask why do you have 2 empty slots on Shockwave? Are these spare slots or some IOs that are not available in Pines? Also, which Incarnates are you going for, so I can give you better feedback. Long live stormies.

Sets like Radiation Emission, Kinetics, Empathy, have been in the game forever and I wouldn't say Time or Cold are much better than those. All of those sets are on par with each other; they each do different things, but are good at what they do and are desirable sets. Saying Time doesn't outperform in general PvE content is quite a stretch. But what I meant was that defense takes too big of a role in this game. To me, it makes resistance buffs, aggro management, and crow control much less impressive and needed in a team. By the way, I'm all for constructive criticism. It's just my opinion. I'm 100% thankful to be able to play this game in 2019, no matter my own personal tastes when it comes to balance.

While I don't have a viable solution to it, I would much rather see almost every other set getting a considerable nerf (especially Time and Cold). That said, here are a few changes to FF that I find viable to implement (individual suggestions, not necessarily as a whole): Force Bolt & Repulsion Bomb: add minor -Def (non enhanceable) Detention Field: turn it into a Mag 2 hold, with -Rech, -Speed and -Regen. (Non stackable secondary effects) Force Bubble: -Speed and -Recharge to foes who break inside the bubble I'm too sleepy to comment on Sonic for now. I'll revisit this topic tomorrow.

Hi. I'm trying to follow these steps but I'm quite MacOS noob. I'm stuck at step 5. It doesn't recognize the path. My drive is called Macintosh HD. Does it affect anything at all? Thanks

Is it possible to run Pines on a MacBook? I've tried to install it using Wine but I can't seem to get it running.

You're welcome. Hope your wife gets to enjoy her toon a bit more. Let me know how it performs!

Unfortunately, nothing beats Fire in overall DPS performance. Now, fun is something that is quite subjective. To you, maybe fun = DPS. To me, it usually means synergy with the primary powerset. To others, it could be aesthetics or concept. Personally, considering fun + performance I tend to enjoy Dark, Water, Rad, and Beam Rifle the most. Sonic is a ST monster, but the sound effects can be annoying after a while. And I should mention DP might feel lackluster but there are records of a few Time/DP soloing ITF on +4/8. Incarnates are that strong.

I've managed to steal my woman's laptop while she was taking a nap and quickly put this together for you: I wish I had a few more slots to play with, but it's an extremely tight build. Here's an overview of what you'll get: - Soft capped ranged defense (45,6%) - 41,5% defense to Energy/Neg.Energy - 26,2% defense to everything else. This means that 1 small purple inspiration will put you at 41,2%. It should be more than enough to survive most oh$h!t moments. Especially considering you have Darkest Night and Fearsome Stare (and Fluffy - he has a naughty -tohit aura around him) -tohit debuffs to back you up. - Hasten 14 with secs cooldown. Easily made permanent through incarnates if you wish to do so. - Decent resists to S/L/N. - Instant cast Snipe after hitting 2 enemies with soul drain. - Good endurance management - No purple sets. Hopefuly this is somewhat affordable to you. The only thing that is a bit on the expensive side (other than the procs) is Defender's Bastion set. But if you start bidding now for 5M each you will manage to get'em by the time you hit 50. If you hit 50 before you got the full set, temporarily place 5 Positron Blasts (dismiss the damage/range IO) and put some sort of proc on the 6th slot. Ah, and that Membrane HO on Soul Drain. If it's too expensive, replace it with a recharge IO or some sort of ToHit/Rech. I threw in a few procs that I enjoy using: - Damage proc on Fearsome Stare. Notice that I've slotted it for -tohit instead of fear duration. You can, however, go with 5 Glimpse of the Abyss. You'd lose 2,25% endurance but would gain some accuracy and hit points. - Stun proc on Short Circuit. This is a fun one and it will proc a lot. I just can't remember if it stuns minions only or also Ltn. Should you find it underwhelming, replace it with one of the following procs: Vigilant Assault (chance for +absorb), Fury of the Gladiator (chance for -resistance) or Overwhelming Force (chance for Knockdown). . Chance for -Recharge proc on Tar Patch. This means enemies will shoot less often. - Chance for -Recharge and mag 2 hold on Fluffy. It might go unnoticed, but it really works. - Chance for minor heal on Ball Lightning, for extra survivabilty One last thing I would do is to replace Recall Friend with Power Boost. A power boosted Short Circuit will drain 93,53% endurance. Add in a power boosted Ball Lightning (-13% end) and you won't help it but smile at your screen. The downside is... you'll lose KB protection. However, you can get it back by replacing the IO on Teleport for the KB protection one. Edit: Power Boost would also boost your +Tohit from tactics and soul drain, making it even easier to insta-snipe and hit your heals (and yes, it also boosts the heal amount for a short while).

You're welcome! Glad I could be of any help. Again, without access to Mids/Pines, I don't want to dig too deep into IOs or actual builds. But I'll answer what I can from memory. I'll start with situational/skippable powers. Mind you, this is based on my own experience and preference. Skippable powers from Dark Miasma: - Petrifying Gaze. Now, while I label it as skippable, this would be one of those powers I would pick if I had the spare power slots to do so. It wouldn't necessarily be in my priority rotation, but it can make a battle go much smoother. For example, when fighting Malta, I would make sure to scan for that nasty Sapper and keep it held. But then again, you can (should) also use Howling Twilight for this very same purpose. The difference is HT has a much longer recharge time. Should you opt to take this power, try and place a Lockdown: Chance for Mag+2 Hold. This means you'd have a chance to hold bosses with 1 application (it procs quite often). - Wormhole. It's extremely situational. Basically, it allows you to completely remove enemies from the battle for a short period of time, making them intangible. This means they can't attack nor be attacked. You could argue it has its uses against ambushes in very specific scenarios, but I'd rather take any other power (ie: Vengeance from Leadership Pool, another travel power, or an IO unique mule such as Stealth where you could place a Luck of the Gambler +7.5% recharge or a KB protection IO). Skippable powers from Elec Blast: - Tesla Cage. Same advice as Petrifying Gaze. If you are to pick one of them (don't pick both), make sure you look at activation times and go with the quickest one. Again, use that Lockdown proc to make it a much better power. - Aim. As a Defender, I tend to skip this unless I have a few power slots available. And if I do pick it, it's usually to make sure I hit some sort of debuff with a tohit-check such as Lingering Radiation from Rad Emission set. - Thunderous Blast (?). Before i24 I'd say skip it. A Defender without Endurance can't serve the team. However, they have removed the Endurance crash, while nerfing the damage slightly and reducing its recharge time. That said, it's a personal choice. I would probably end up picking it and 3 slotting with damage/rech IOs. Or maybe test it with end mod and see if it completely drains enemies. As a note, out of all these skippable powers, if I had the power slots available to pick some of them (this means after travel powers, epics/patrons, leadership, etc), I'd rank them like so (from best to worse): 1) Petrifying Gaze / Tesla Cage (check activation time and recharge to see which one is better) 2) Thunderous Blast 3) Aim 4) Wormhole When it comes to Patrons/Epics, again, it's a matter of preference, play style and what kind of build do you want to achieve. Recharge focused? Soft capped for ranged/smashing defense? Capped resistances? Or maybe a balance of all three? My personal preference is Dark epic pool. You get a nice shield and Soul Drain. Soul Drain alone can give you enough +ToHit buff to turn Zapp into insta-cast for quite a while. Not to mention it also boosts damage. So this would boost your wife's overall DPS significantly. On top of that, Dark Epic also gives you Dark Consumption (+endurance) - I don't think it drains mobs though. I can't remember if Soul Patron gets Soul Drain. If it does, it's also a good option. Another good option for is Elec/Mu Epic. As you said, Power Sink goes really well with Short Circuit. Elec Shield is pretty great too. Other powers I'd get: - Hasten: more recharge - Assault: more damage - Tactics: to make sure you hit your heals, while providing +tohit to your snipe - Recall Friend (for resurrecting and skipping mobs) - Maneuvers IF you're going for a +defense build or IF you want to put a +recharge LotG there. - Boxing-Tough-Weave if you're going for +defense build - Super Speed/Jump (I never enjoyed Teleport as a travel power. It's very endurance heavy and can't be put on auto-run). However, we do have access to Flight/Jump powers from P2W vendors. So I guess it's up to you. As for if you should slot powers for End Modification - I wouldn't do it. Only Short Circuit and maybe Thunderous Blast (you'll have to test if it's worth it). As a final note - do not be afraid to experiment. We have plenty of free respecs to play with and they are pretty affordable in the auction house.

Hi there! While I can't give you a build (no idea of how to install Pines/Mids on a MacBook), I can give you my opinions on both sets separately. First of all, I think it's important to understand that Defenders are *mostly* a support class. I say mostly, because some Defenders choose to play offensively - acting as mini-Tanks, or as absolute AV/GM solo machines. That said, no matter if your wife chooses to play her Defender cautiously or offensively, one thing remains true: Defenders turn their team mates into gods - squishy Blasters become sturdier and more confident to go all out on damage, Tanks have an easier time taunting and controlling aggro because Defenders will keep them alive, controllers are safer to spam their AoE controls, etc. Now, when it comes to Dark/ set, I'm very biased. Every time I see a Dark Defender in my team, I instantly start playing more aggressively, because I know we have: - Great heals (x2 if you count Lord Fluffy aka Dark Servant) - Awesome ToHit/Damage/Resistance debuffs from Darkest Night and Tar Patch - Shadow Fall - a PbAoE aura that provides a slight defense buff and fantastic +resists. On top of that, if you place a +Stealth proc on Sprint, you'll become fully invisible, making it possible for you to skip past nasty mobs and teleport your team mates. - Fearsome Stare - soft control with further -ToHit on top - Howling Twilight - this is so much more than an awesome mass rez. It's a mass stun and does solid -regen to the main target. There is no reason not to use on large spawns every chance you have (and you should definitely spam it when fighting EBs/AVs/GMs). - Dark Servant. To me, it's the best support pet in the game (together with Singularity). It heals, deals damage, holds and brings even more -ToHit to the table. Take it, slot it, love it. Now, onto Electrical Blast. I won't lie to you - it was never a top tier powerset when it comes to damage. However, it does respectable AoE and Single Target, while it also inflicts -End to the enemies. Short Circuit is the go-to power if your wife wants to completely end drain mobs. 2 applications will do it (maybe one, if slotted for End Modification), with the exception of special mobs. Best used after the tank gathers a bunch of mobs and Darkest Night is active. As for Voltaic Sentinel, I consider it a must have. It increases your single target damage by a LOT. It's like having another blast in your ST rotation, except that it won't cost you mana over time. During busy battles, Voltaic Sentinel will keep dishing out ST damage while you worry about spamming heals, dubuffs and AoEs. Tesla Cage is often skipped. It's a minor hold, and you already bring a lot to the party. However, it has its uses. Even more if you also take Petrifying Gaze from Dark/. Then you'll be able to lockdown Bosses. Again, this should not be your priority at all. As for how to boost her ST damage, here's a few tips: - Slot Tar Patch for recharge and use it (not mindlessly, though. It's best used on big packs) - Take Assault from the Leadership Pool. It's a flat out +18,75% damage boost to everyone in the nearby area. - Consider getting Zapp. If you are not familiar with the recent snipe changes, snipes become insta-cast when ToHit bonus is over 23%. This is easily achievable in several ways. The easiest is to get Tactics and pop a yellow or hope that someone else in your team has some sort of +tohit buff to the party. This is about all I can say at the moment, since I don't have access to Mids or to the game. Your wife can either give the combo a second change, slot it and be happy with the fact that she's an extremely valuable support character to the team OR... she can reroll to a controller or corruptor and do slightly/considerably better damage at the cost of some % loss on the Dark/ part. If you want to, you can add @Falsey in game and I'll be happy to PL her/you to L25ish so you can experiment other combos without losing too much time. I can only do it from next week on though. Fair winds!

Fixed for readability.

You can definitely shine both on teams and solo as a rad/anything. This is the current build of my Radiation/Sonic Defender. This morning I soloed Lusca (giant octopus @IP) without incarnates or temporary powers/buffs. I will be making some significant changes after I decide what I want from the incarnates, but I would say it's pretty damn strong as it is.

For nostalgia sake, I've decided to take my Rad/Sonic out for sushi - he loved it! Although it was tedious to clear all the tentacles around the squid, it did bring back great memories. Solo, no incarnates, no temporary powers/buffs - just a lot of "raaaaah! raaaaah!" and radiation goodness. https://imgur.com/FuYYVXo

I'm curious about how will you manage to survive LR before red/yellow pylon os down. What kind of strategy will alllow you to do this?

Out of curiosity, does this build give you capped HP? Or is this not possible without +MaxHP powers like Dull Pain? I was wondering if the capped resistances would be enough to tank a +4/8 Lord Recluse.

The new patch has made it so the AoE immobs no longer neglect KD. I would say this is yet another great reason for going Earth/, as it allows you to get the knockdown benefits of Earthquake and FR while keeping things tidy and setting up containment. This may also mean that the KBtoKD enhancement is no longer required (although I would still use it, if I got the spare slot to do so).

This post has my approval.

I'd say Earth/Storm just because it always feels like you have an extra tool to deal with pretty much any situation the game throws at you. Plant does better damage just because of Seeds and Creepers, but it won't be as capable in terms of sheer control. Honestly, if you are a sucker for /Storm like I am, I'd probably end up playing both combos.

As long as you do not try to compete with a /kin in speed or AoE burst, Fire/Rad is still a great combo capable of pretty much anything - including farming. Make sure you make good use of Bonfire with the KBtoKD enhancement for extra safety. Add in flashfire, cinders, choking cloud and starving imps of doom and you'll be more than capable do chew big mobs.