Without_Pause

Mildly interesting how many of these are animated. I find them easier to pull off and obviously the budgets are cheaper. This feels like the better way to go forward.

- Split the Scrapper's Strike set so you can double up on the +5% S/L Def as you are only at 35.2%. - I don't understand taking Barrage and then one slotting it. It's not even a mule. - Wasting a purple on Energy Punch feels odd as well. - Super related, you took the Soul Mastery pool and didn't take Shadow Meld as an 'Oh crap" button which can be one slotted with a LotG: +Recharge thus saving you a slot elsewhere like gaining a slot for Hasten. - I haven't done EM with WP, so I'm not even sure how much you need Hasten. - Moonbean is great DPA, and it is 3-slotted. - I'm not sure you need Dark Blast. - I would more likely do Shadow Meld with Soul Storm, but you have two attacks 1-slotted and two attacks 3-slotted. - I would rather properly slot up the attacks you have that are worth slotting. - I would rather see something like Resurgence if you have nothing else to take and it works with a single slot. Take that versus Dark Blast and you now have four more slots to play with. - Strength of Will can be a mule if need be. See Barrage not even being worth that. - 5-slotting Power Crash gets you more Regen. 6-slotting adds to your Def as one mere example of adding more slotting to your attacks. - A Chance for a Hold IO is a bit of an odd IO to put into a power which can Disorient. - Damage procs in toggles aren't worth it.

Siphon Speed. And yes, I still use Siphon Power even post FS. It's useful against things like AVs.

You guys realize Mind exists? I have a Level 50 Ill/dark. I had and soloed a Mind/kin of Live. Saying there is nothing better early on than Ill is just outright ignorance.

I said nothing of Rad. Ill doesn't get its consistent AoE control until 22. It doesn't get Phant until 26. That right there is as bad as any other control set if not worse. Again, PA doesn't come until 18 and has serious downtime out of the box. SI is nice to have, but the bulk of Ill is had via its T7-T9.

Red side is a bit similar to Gold side from a damage type standpoint. You definitely want something which can deal with En and Psi damage. End drain will be an issue due to the sheer number of Mu. I haven't done it yet, but I would lean on the idea of using an /elec Brute. I recently created one for Gold side though. If fully kilted out is the end goal, Ill/dark Controller is as close to an 'any' map build you are going to get from a non-melee.

A bar so low it can't be tripped over. 😄I'm not saying FA is the second worst armor. It's definitely in the second worst tier. Add in a Res set on a Scrapper, and yeah.

Money would need to be involved for me to run a /fire Scrapper. 😄

While I went Brute, I've enjoyed my time playing Dark/elec when I had one on Live and recently again for Gold side. I can see thematically Elec/dark working for a Stalker, but I loath Thunderstrike's animation time.

Thanks. I needed a good chuckle.

So far my pick of armor is Elec since it best covers dealing with incoming damage. Gold side has enough ToHit buffs to deal with so Def based armors can have issues, and can get variable amounts of time to get going. The damage aura is just going to make things all the easier in terms of damage output. I would lean Kat since it is the faster set and thus easier to build Fury with. I've soloed Gold side/Wards in parts. I like it for its difficulty and just being different. This is my first real attempt at going through the initial Gold side content since Live. I'll do the Ward arcs once I hit 20.

One thing I learned in school is how often absolutes were not in fact true. I'm not saying I was tanking on a Brute, but I was out surviving the comparable Tanker build while soloing. Also, good luck to a Scrapper and Stalker doing more damage than a Brute with a damage aura in the lower levels. In short, I rerolled a Tanker build for Gold side content for the sake of exploring said content to a Brute, and I'm doing missions faster and safer. Sure, eventually the Tanker will get its footing and stop being so boring to play, but the advantages of being a Tanker in this situation is nil.

It's all sorts of obvious for those who have done similar test, but if one is doing content for the sake of it, a Tanker is simply overkill in mitigation and target cap size. I ran a Tanker and Brute through Gold side up to Level 10, and leveling was significantly different. More so when both builds use a damage aura. While I don't really count a death at Level 4 during an ambush, the Tanker almost fell again until a level up kicked in. The Brute has been on cruise control. I have genuine questions if the Tanker could have stayed upright on some of the situations the Brute cruised through as I did different contacts on the second run. Enhancements haven't really factored into this due to how low of a level the characters are. I at best put in the Res: +3% Def IO for any of the armor slots. I used uncommons for the attacks. I got some Res IOs coming in at 12. At this point, I already axed the Tanker and will continue on with the Brute, as again, it is simply the better AT for the given task. Soloing the Tanker was a bit on the boring side and I ran them through first which made soloing the Brute second all the more noticeable. Again, there are sets which are problematic in terms of under or overperforming, but that ship has sailed.

I have hopped upward to get more coverage with cones. My criticisms of EM are two-fold. The animation time of TF, and it does arguably too much damage at least on a Scrapper as it overkills so many things. So so many things. I probably should run it on a Brute instead if TF was reasonable. Animation time is also why I don't have a Elec Melee character. I still yearn for a fast paced Sonic Melee set to be the energy damage type set for me. While I love Claws, Spin recharges slower on a Brute.

Level 1-20 are fairly streamlined with all ATs for damage, sans Brutes. Fury is practically cheat mode 1-20. Separation happens post level 20. More so once ATOs come into play if that's allowed compared to a SO comparison. Tankers will gain the mitigation to boost the x# side of the difficulty setting as where the Scrapper can boost the +# side. The real difference when it comes to BS is how more likely it is resisted. A Scrapper can get around this easier than a Tanker can. Various bosses at +4 will be painfully slow on a Tanker on average. At least certainly with similar slotting compared to the Scrapper. There are various factors in this. Case in point, what Alpha and Hybrid are taken if that is also part of the testing. The quirks for me are that depending upon what armors are used, a Scrapper can get rather close to the mitigation of a Tanker, see Scrappers doing ITF at +4x8. Maps, even at x8, often do not have mobs with the size of 16 in them. This means a Tanker needs to spend time herding mobs to get there, or their target cap advantage goes wasted. What really gets wonky is set 'x' for a Scrapper versus 'y' for Tanker and talking to yourself about game balance when a Tanker is on pace or out pacing a Scrapper with the obvious added mitigation. I'm old enough to accept game balance was never the point really in any game. It was making sure builds were fun enough to play to begin with.

Just to add for a case for going Stalker, I feel like Psi on a Stalker could at least be talked into taking Boggle, which will increase the chances for Insight to be triggered. Yes, any AT using Psi could do the same. I just feel like a Stalker would be the one to actually use it. It could be a one slot Acc wonder as well unless you found more slots for it.

Rad armor being the best armor is HIGHLY debatable. They even mentioned not doing Tankers unless there was a good reason for it. Rad would help supplement Psi's type of damage, and that's the end of what makes Rad great for Psi. I would skip DA for a Stalker. You lose the one source of an extra damage type by going Stalker, and that being the damage aura. Also, Dark is a Resist set which tend to be lacking on Stalkers so it is hardly 'the best armor and AT' for Psi. You could go Psi/shield as Shield boosts your damage and offers Shield Charge. Also, Shield Charge is a pet. I'll let you figure that out on your own. I would go with the energy shield look and color it pink or whatever color you want. Even if Psi isn't in a great place as a set, I have repeatedly talked myself out of rolling this build just due to how cool it would look. Croax has done a ton of work offering a build for each type of Stalker build there is. Outside of their love affair with Super Speed as their travel power, I tend to find very little issues with the builds. I literally tweaked a Stalker build of theirs to make a Brute version.

Depends on far back you go for defining new. I think Electric Affinity and Marine Affinity are likely the best overall sets to be added on the more recent side. While I admit to playing a lot of support, neither set has really clicked for me, but both are on the busy side. I think the best for the others sets are largely set reworks. I think any other of the newer sets fall into the 'fine' category with none of them really hitting any sort of meta in terms of the player base overwhelmingly preferring those sets over other classic sets.

The Emp side of things depends on the pet picked. I tend towards the Knives, so that offers fun things like +250% Regen.

You don't need the KB Protection. Alpha: Since mine was a Scrapper I went Musculature Core Paragon, and I'm honestly not against doing it here. Resilient will also benefit your Res, but you are only really getting it from RoP which has a decent downtime. I do not know if it would stack with Melee. That would make it slightly more interesting. The ToHit Buff would also be useful. Def should be more than fine. Recharge and End usage should also be fine. You don't have enough Healing to really boost it. Musculature just kind of wins. Judgement: Void. Even if you go for the all-out nuke versus the debuff heavier one, the debuff will support /sr. If not that, Ionic. Interface: I default to Reactive with the higher Fire proc rate. Alternates would be Diamagnetic as it has a -Tohit Debuff along with -Regen and Degenerative due the -HP. Lore: Whatever works for your character. There's a guide in the guides section for what all of the pets do. I have been leaning on getting the one which just supports, but has no offensive powers. It's the right side of the tree. It's like having a 5 minute pocket Emp sidekick. Hybrid: Melee. I use the one which boosts Res. Destiny: Rebirth or Barrier. I went Barrier on my Dark/sr but Rebirth on my Claws/sr. I'm still deciding which one I like more. I might lean Barrier. ToHit buffs are still the bane for SR so jamming all the more Def isn't exactly wasted.

Got through E5 and E6. I was a bit underwhelmed by it up to E4, but those two episodes made me glad I kept watching.

The issue with Foot Stomp is it's radius. Spin has better DPA and recharges faster. Its radius is 8 versus 15 for Foot Stomp. While KO Blow has better DPA then Focus, it recharges in 20 seconds versus 8 for Focus. Also, FU can stack for 60% damage. Rage can stack for 160% although with the obvious downside.

At one point I would have said Star Trek for TV and Star Wars for movies, but Star Wars kept making movies. 😄 Likely rerolling my Gold Side Tanker to a Brute. My character might not die, but I am of boredom. I'm close enough to 11, and I know the build won't be really tolerable until 16 and more towards 20. I had a Rad/ice Tanker in their 20s and rerolled. I have a Ice/stone Brute which I love. Shield/fire was the only Tanker I liked enough to keep going for solo. Using Fire Breath was a great way to level. I dropped it later on though. I'm not sure I could be made to make another Tanker at this point. I would duo box it into its 30s if I did. People can look at their charts all they want to. It's about fun. Even more so if two ATs can deal with max diff content. Also, I have been doing DA dailies and even at x8 diff settings, there are numerous mobs at all of 3 targets. On a Scrapper, I'm herding mobs. Sure, there are some ambushes which have a dump truck worth of mobs, but my Scrapper has no real issue with it. I already know RWZ and Cim will be a better challenge although I do have fond memories of when the DA arc goes to Cim.

Agreed. I got a Dark/sr Scrapper at T3 level. My Claws/sr is close to that. I used RoP to level, but if I could think of a good alt build, I might do a post T4 rebuild without it. The only thing holding me back from a SR Tanker is I have a Shield/fire at near T3 already. Not only was it the only build so far to go through MJ's arc at +2x8 as a fresh Level 50, it did so with a single fluke death. Many missions I simply didn't look at my health bar. I did go Savage/sr Brute though. Add in my Ice/sr Sent and I'm on pace to have the same number of SRs at 50 as EAs. Tankers already get Shield, SR, Stone, and Invul. There's nothing game breaking about adding EA to that list.

I've played EA to 50 on the four ATs who get it. I mostly soloed it on three of them. I do not get why EA isn't ported to Tankers. The argument should have ended once people accept Tankers already have Stone, and I'm not even saying Stone is better. It is absolutely comparable in terms of surviving any map. My guess is Invul compares rather well to it. People seem to forget there are other armors more survivable than EA and porting it to Tankers isn't going to change that.