Without_Pause

To be fair, being at max run speed but slow in combat does seem to go away from the idea of a speedster like the Flash. Elec does give you +recharge and /sj does animate as a whole fairly quickly.

I don't really work on builds until it hits 50, and I know I want to keep playing it. There's no point in saying here's what I would take and how I would slot it when I wouldn't do the same in an actual build. I need to know what the build feels like playing it, how I would play it, and build around that. It just seems odd on a blaster with two defensive sets giving you a way to mezz a boss, thematically fit, and yet hardly anyone plays it.

I friend sent me 4 mil as a way to help me starting out.

I don't think the player base on the forums is really representative for all of those who play. I don't think players as a default have a farmer. Just having a level 50 can get you a lot of rewards. Cost of pimping out builds on HC is cheaper or at least easier versus live.

/regen just needs more investment and /wp will be a smoother ride. /regen also has a well known character and others giving it the needed eyeballs. It is tougher to think of a superhero who has willpower versus regen or invulnerability.

I find /wp works better on a brute. SJ works better on a stalker. Between the brute and scrapper, I would go brute since with the combo system you are likely building up to your combos and building fury anyway.

I feel like I'm missing something in Psy/dark not being a thing. There's a way to stack disorients. There's a solid thematic pairing. I went and rolled one and called it Faded Memories as I was axing my Ill/time anyway.

Interesting to see what I was saying a few months ago. SJ/shield stopped getting played and ended up being deleted. Tried Staff on a stalker and it stalled as well. Went SJ/ea on a stalker and it feels like I finally found my stalker. I had gotten a Kin/ea scrapper to 22, and went, "Nope, this idea will be better on a stalker." At some point I might need to find something that fills the scrapper role. Just liking brutes and stalkers more. D/d controller remains and I have grouped my guys in DPS, support, and melee. The controller is my lead support role. D/d blaster has stalled likely to be rerolled although I think the build is quite good. Eventually a Water/ice blaster was made and felt like nearly a perfect build. Current lead DPS build. Claws/wp continues to work well. Finally in my 30s so I can fill in slots better as I had been running on what felt like rather minimal slotting. Lead melee. Highest level characters are Spines/fire(duh) and a Elec/kin controller to whom I loved until later gaming happened. End drain is a still hit or miss depending on if AV is involved. Had one run where every death happened due to being mezzed. Needs work to be worth keeping around. Spines/fire is fun because of the farming aspect. Outside of AE, and I can't imagine playing it or /fa really at all. Time. Well, I made a SG based one for it, so needless to say I rolled four of them and likely keep two, Fire/time corr and controller. Made Ill/time and Time/sonic, but feeling has been kind of "eh" right now. I guess I've been playing enough Fire/AoE based builds to where more single target based ones aren't as exciting.

Meta in gaming and needing healers. A number of the combos are based on classic CoH power gaming, but you can see some which come together for specific reasons, ie theme or because they work well together. Also interesting to see things like the above mentioned Mind control and other powersets work better for specific ATs. /ea for stalkers being one and things like psy melee and SJ being popular since stalkers get a toggle to stun and both melee sets play into that. Psy/ea isn't a natural pairing, and yet there it is as the top stalker pairing. I'm trying to figure out how surprised I'm suppose to be that /regen is still such a force for scrappers. I mean, I get Kat/regen, but I think the redraw would annoy me.

Based on the flavor of the month threads, level 50s for controllers and corrs are dominated by Kin. Part of that is Empathy and the whole healer aspect for defenders since it is the runaway leader there, but even so, there are more Kins playing as corrs or controllers compared to defenders. A big reason why there are more Kin corrs is due to how much better Fire is as a corr. Fire/kin is the #1 pairing for corrs. Kin/fire is #5 for Kin defenders and #25 overall for defenders. Higher damage cap and Scourge simply wins.

Oddly enough I don't think Kin favors defenders. I think it is weakest there. Something like Storm is another matter. There are reasons for playing a blaster over a corr. One, I play less attention to my teammates if I'm playing my blaster. 😀

My main was Kin on live. I essentially ODed on the powerset as I think it is my favorite or at least was on live. I even have a level 41 Elec/kin controller now. I just feel like I'm over Kin. I think /storm works better for Plant as it makes a riskier power set safer in vast part due to Seeds. This is also true for /kin mind you. The tree also patches a whole for /storm since it lacks a self heal. In terms of today's meta, /storm offers more interesting IO options over /kin as well. I had a Earth/storm on live and the thing was a beast even with common IOs. While I know Plant/storm might now the same amount of control*, the idea of sacrificing some of it for even more damage is incredibly tempting. Yes, I rolled one, but it is only like level 10. I don't think a Plant/kin is a bad build. Anything which can do AoE containment and damage cap is alright with me. It is more like Plant/kin is really good. Plant/storm is just...interesting, and I gravitate towards that these days. * I concede the idea that Earth/storm might be more control than needed anyway, but I played on PUGs who felt like they could play stupid knowing I had their back. Team wipes were rare.

A blaster also is only doing more damage for themselves with little mitigation. A corruptor is more about doing team based damage and can have some better tools for mitigation. If all you care about is raw damage, then blasters are better for that.

Time/Temporal Super Teams: Torchbearer

Support characters do have better numbers using the pool as well. MMs just cheat because they come with an army.

Nitpick, Maneuvers is often used to help soft cap defense. Obviously not huge numbers, but still taken and used when soling.

Time/sonic would be one of the only defenders I would roll these days.

I think if there was an issue going Invul it would be the Rage crash. /wp at least has more tools to cover def getting nuked.

To further try new powersets, Plant/time or Dark/dark.

That -def/-acc toggle also has a lengthy animation time and can often be skipped using in a battle. More so if they are simply blowing through content. Of Time's 9 powers, 3 are actual single target, so your listing isn't as truthful as you are implying. The only aspect which isn't covered in some way from an AoE stand point is -regen. Two of the single target powers for Time have -regen and let's be honest, the harder targets are the ones you want -regen on. Minions are cannon fodder. Two Ill/time controllers can use Temporal Selection on each other. Dual Chocking Cloud is useful, but Ill isn't in melee as much and doesn't have much to take advantage of with AoE damage as compared to Fire. Yes, it's useful. My guess is Distortion Field/Time Stop mixed in with Blind/Flash more than covers what's needed to be held. Note, we are vastly arguing over semantics when it comes to god tier controllers. 😃

I would focus on doing debuffs and such from /time if you think attacking is disrupting things. Case in point, for my /dark controller, I use Darkest Night on a tougher target as the mobs slowly bunch together and then lay down Tar Patch to further keep them bunched up. Granted, on my Dark/dark controller I can fill in for handling alpha strike on my own depending upon the situation. 😀 I was doing that on a team last night against +2s while being 28 with common IOs.

Never played them, but two I can think of would be Time/sonic and Storm/water. You can talk me into subbing in one of the gun based sets with Time. /dark is just too damn good on controllers. While Kin might be my favorite powerset, I'm kind of over it for now, and I just find defenders the least appealing AT for Kin. From ones I played, Rad/sonic. Everyday. Twice on Sunday.

Got on some high level teams recently. Not Incarnate level, but late/end game AV type. The lack of support/debuffs was obvious. One AV wrecked us until proper support was added.

Likely any powerset with +recharge will be ones to look at. I have thought about rolling one with either /rad or /elec.

I already have a Water/ice blaster and trying not to repeat. I did think about Dark/time as well. I think an obvious pairing would be a Fire/time controller but have enough controllers for now, and I could see it replacing this which I'm skipping on having happen. I honestly cut my list of characters by 6(?) recently and can delete a couple more. Any blast/control set which likes melee will pair well with it although certainly not a requirement. Rad/time corr and Ice/time controller would be other examples.