Without_Pause

I can breathe on a level 50 and pull in millions in a single night of gaming. With little effort I can pull in 15-40 million in a day. The sheer amount of end game build IOs I can buy at 1-2 million right now is healthy. I get not using IOs if you don't want to slot IOs because you don't want to get involved with doing builds. I had billions across numerous characters on Live despite only using Common IOs. Saying IOs are too expensive makes me go 'You mean in this economy?' They've literally never been cheaper. And this coming from a long time player? (lights self on fire) I made spreadsheet for all of my characters tracking if they have a final build, have they hit level 27 so they can start slotting for the end version of it, and how much currency they have on hand. I just glanced at it. I have at least 6* non-level 50 characters with 200+ mill sitting, and I only use IOs and sets where expected. I have literally never slotted a non-IO while on HC. Hell, I've taken two significant breaks across multiple hundreds of days after starting on HC. You could practically take nothing but currency, buy everything for a Level 50 build, and fill it with Level 35 Common IOs. Lets go on the high side and say that's 5-6 mill. 5-6 million isn't even cleaning out recipes post crafting and conversion from a single character. Run that build to T4 and you have enough currency to pimp out a second build. I'm pretty sure at this point I could do a number of builds in the area of 300 mill. That's a like a couple weekends of solid gaming at worst. * Four have 300+, 2 have 400+. Some of them have already been converted over post level 27. This says nothing about all of the IOs they have sitting in their trays to be placed as they level. At 27, I practically buy the rest of their build. I have a Level 33 who has four rows of IOs on hand for placement and conversion/selling. P.S. I haven't worked the market in a year plus partly due to not playing for most of it. All I do now is play, convert, and sell my drops, and yet I'm still doing fine. I'm literally counting down via spreadsheet to where all of my characters are covered.

You mean the thing people have been doing since the early days of Live and even adding in soloing GMs? You are wishing for a game which doesn't exist.

Take a WP build in a BP mission while solo and just see how high you can get the diff setting to go compared to other armors. I've done it on a Brute. On a Scrapper? (chuckles) You'll need significant mitigation coming from your attack set to feel comfortable on anything which starts to resemble a genuine higher diff setting, and even then, I would consider it iffy.

FYI, I don't use Shadow Maul on either of my Scrappers. Touch of Fear on my Dark/sr recharges in 2.36 seconds and animates faster as well. It frees up taking a ranged attack to help fill out an attack chain. There is certainly some cases where Tankers win out between Brutes. Any SR can soft cap positional easy enough. Tankers just don't need something like Weave to do so. I never finished planning out my SR/dark Tanker, but even in it's current state, its mitigation numbers are rather absurd. I started to try out a Shield/dark Tanker, but it didn't look right in Mid's to me. I think taking Taunt forced me into one more power than I wanted to, but I need to go back and rework it. I already have a Dark/shield Scrapper, so any SR or Shield build needs to make me want to roll it. I will say I use a damage proc in pretty much every attack power even on my Dark Scrappers.

ATO = ArcheType Origin. They are used only by the AT which is stated in the description. ATOs for Brutes can be found below. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Enhancement_Sets#Brute You can skip on Fly and take either Super Jump or Speed easily enough. Hover is honestly just a mule for the LotG: +Recharge and doesn't need to be used in order to gain the benefit.

I haven't done Invul, but here's a build in Tanker form I pulled from there. I would make the Brute version with swapping the ATOs and then going from there since Tankers are going to offer better Def numbers. You might want to in this case split the one ATO to double up on the 5% Melee Def bonus. You also might want a different travel power or other powers as well. |MBD;29715;1719;2292;BASE64;| |GxJ0AKwK7DZnbzBBrqYm2ih16GcYWJQiXXsmzqX89Du2F2q7cfIE9h07bZXy6M2kBfo| |pfUpesnT1tQ4LSFd/qtVXvf/VuWr/pR6R+CVBQyACPNfu/rn8dkIiJAiHkHhmNvQVFi| |Pvkk2u9Op2UNfeL1l6kQhVum3V4XyVWPFfVF5CW46usCA/Cu+aMAwmY+b9wK7lrxAoR| |DwiHc0jFnFS0cM3f7iuBp2M/DXH4mEtyPyABvM3rx4TQETqahCXSAvwNHBB7otz9r7t| |wkBDKolhcYDc3dJ8XkVUuBlEC76UyvYyTbpboJ+JLkn8NmMIb+F7LwYUcosev85WP8/| |XXc2QRzhJbKT5uf5aGj3k/sU20yAzY1vr9WodFOgU/NA4RVc27NpNYWrOcAu+zhPdC3| |pW+bn5MdrP6CVr99RUQz6Xpl7twO8SEo42HGGl37Cyh5pnyihqCF/ViYg7oRhJTW+Zn| |yiu/2uJan71xsbwdbYcsZtiugmnfXcWn2IHAlb/1Ss5ZuLhRDEXkbuCs8E4QAnaSl5V| |+a1JB2BRWk397WRkgtnBW2HQzr4luDRXozQ5BqEBSe+6DXo3tFD8RsZ8HyKfylucCNf| |XApNO3vQz/gWmcl0YIkypjRlnqSPCYQE8lu7LFcNcPkFgXj7BOOo5wVoFNxeg1KEzqQ| |g2sfv5LeeFuMs8CXF6kE1WKe+NOJL8BxZCnqvqLmulk70yrO3+CYtrigq5oZb55e745| |kkkBUJmgwrWr9GnZKoSBx4omS4RMKXj0GVyV6x3RBV5i8OKx15951aI+wkWFNzPsGBA| |RvCVZbDaLRbkq9sVNhAuNmSv/jKWna/U2c+Fi+p5zgI1Hl0jYA87eJ1ktU4oE03e8jd| |ENLfNKBQ99KqoryFIQbqNgFr17lxMqJqGQTNF37959Nrof4BiTwULJVZORKgQ3shUIM| |OwsuB+ARmFlQO32ILgyjt7QXSceqcotnWJm+7CO7dN1zsP/nkwawvpW1VqhQ7dtNqQi| |KE9GQ/g+qKanGDAllfCEfZW1Mg/H9xZ2dYDtvXRV4tNhRC+5VgGGQH7IqNg3qaxfuOO| |lCwiTewnKPMIE3S5x7+uELZuIrAMTKgR9vJHARl+29uWGtGjy4K3kLv8h2S5U/fMWbA| |inrCxemNZnYh6fa53hRK2iomifOytSrjhjw3m5Y+kES/QnVsN5k1G4FBBv/zn804utg| |rJfq9sYJ97eMP1E89MYUuKlw3bad4bg0wCfVyWFGSt7wHf35NxCHTQgVWJdOITihAph| |wvtB2ojRDV5rD2BJLPlDh7b4YUw8eYxim3PomUx5eIcGIxKzZh580mHR0jKQ7g80goy| |v9W9iV2PEAUeG2dRd+L8M7lVNGMJFBCsR15xiVn27jvppcNRp2ldsxJPK0UViWnIWq8| |sY2Hdwe0EKoI3Tgm3M8gobDMMQcQ5i+0RzlWEEm6w6jipZCHYRZ+R6yg5bRnhXUwwYy| |mTfUdGYMcAPxUx+Z1puDqX2/rcD3rKKBIJL5JuDeXbN1M9An4UJT4XRfTgmuKYeeQys| |X2yY9ZZibm2Ql47kqdNrBDbaONBbPAs/yqNjsopfZEdSiDDYHtUBOE63KnASSaK/nOK| |jzV9lV6UiYC5gBSZYntdNHHGdbyOZBhCkQVYA2U6RSt9avTnBBONciHgUpsnRZNI8nY| |xpJSw8OAjYuPOP9Xz0D8V/FMhdDcVRegV5ufV62vETH7qEFRamx3Ad6TXiRQ4aRRmLI| |JcvwQb/Nqw2naFIi9TNUlbWk53zuLHqctio6ubw+zMyjoTjQrdDtBXfTn5Rw6I8lhxe| |yM8CHigK/xqGr/CUgLh+k222MjHaA58JHxNAWn3rT/AX3vnTkX1VN+/UKvrMbsC1pVW| |rPSAr4gzm5Z1KEtCjTJSK9rVsZ0IU4bs2VuMgeMT39y5OPpKPdaRE2HCVmYj+b/8/b2| |Oh2zlhTo9pi20n7ZPK35V8hTRecZQBOH1FceTvE0cT9EAfU2N4nlk4xVsgcJuTgHr3H| |cSvCo04D5hE5v/wvt5inESu91ZkbDVT5B+ldRULJ2JX/Av5KlhEiFZTIjx746Gx+8cJ| |9WPNEiTlNmlhOsEMWalUywzDDE5ybjjGMiSHYRSlKx2nmlEn7VyGBf6nz+rGTtD85GJ| |PUAjB+/+fJCKF7w7MXgqXmRVd9fMs1/kPISVxmZVT+cwVSy6Wo9PZmxf/KF5wOf9Uqm| |+pH+QIEvs1bFDkan+0+sl18G2M0p+/z8rv5aQ0TsoQAnmJ2gjdPlf96tPhLfBGmWZYV| |N+pEH5+ZDnm6YG|

I would slot Siphon Life and ToF for damage. You have three ST attacks and you slot one for healing. I believe a starting point for +0 AVs would be to resist a debuff by 75%, but that might also depend on the AV. I honestly don't find slotting for a debuff on a non-support AT generally worth it. I can see slotting the damage proc from a debuff set. I'm not sure the +End proc is all that great for Siphon Life either. You are hitting one target. That proc is far better in a power which hits multiple targets. I have a couple Dark Scrappers and both are using 1 Heal IO in Siphon Life with 5-slotting the rest with damage. My Dark/sr doesn't even have the slot for the Heal yet and solos 0/x4 for any map just fine. At a glance, number wise it seems fine. I just wouldn't want to run around soloing it due to the lack of damage.

'I don't like how Hulk can take me out with a single SMASH.' - So so many villains.

I could have found 10-20 other characters more worthy to end that clip than Red Hulk, and I'm not even that awake. Red Hulk has been around 7 years out of Marvel's 85 years, isn't even the first iteration nor variation of Hulk, and has yet to even appear in a MCU movie or show. If anything, Red Hulk represents Marvel's trend of beating an idea into the ground as a way to show they don't have fresh ideas at trying to make genuinely new and interesting characters, and I won't even add in things like Deadpool being a straight ripoff of Deathstroke. You want to end the clip with a character? Great. Spider-Man or Capt. America are easy picks. Hell, put the Fantastic 4 since they are coming to the MCU. My point was showing Red Hulk is more about the next thing coming out versus honoring 85 years of Marvel which is what the clip was about.

I have a Fire/time Controller, and I still had to lean on Incarnates to cover the End cost of Fire. Using Tough and Weave at 31 seems a bit early for them. I might not start picking up the Fighting pool until 30-32, but then I don't know what you picked up at this point. Being an AT without a native armor, you might not really notice overall mitigation until you get to add in an armor like Scorpion Shield. Doms mitigate so much from their controls, it is harder to notice how much other mitigation factors in. The good news is builds come together in their 30s so you are past the hard part. If you haven't slotted Health and Stamina as mentioned above, do so. Again, I pretty much tossed as much help with End I could on my Fire Controller and I still used Incarnates to feel more comfortable.

I don't have my StJ/ea build on this PC, but Croax did templates for all of the build combos, so you can take a look at what they did. I tend to only have few minor tweaks to the builds they have done, see travel power.

I take more issue with having Red Hulk after Stan Lee. Even if you got a new movie to promote, there is no need to follow Stan Lee. I'm still wait and see on the film.

Res based armors work better on Brutes and Tankers due to getting higher numbers from Res powers. They also have a decidedly higher Res cap on top of just more HP. I have a Rad/bio Brute and while it is sturdy enough, it actively uses the clicks, and again, there are situations soloing which will cause it issues. I feel like I have token builds for the various Res based armors as where I have multiples of the Def based ones. None of the Res based armors are on a Scrapper. Counterpoint, Bio will put up as good of numbers for offense as any other armor. There definitely are Scrapper fans who love Bio for that.

I haven't played DB to high end, and less so without IO sets. I feel like the answer to your question is correct* with me not being 100% certain what the * entails. Not knowing the full rules, I would at least look into seeing what uncommon sets are available. I know one SG has various restrictions, but converters are available, so you can play around converting things to fill out as needed. Still not easy, but it can help.

The issue isn't explaining water being wet. It is far more infamously used in things like 'Not that I'm a racist, BUT (says something racist)' Sometimes you need to be a dick. Be a dick. Don't apologize for it. See pet peeve 'Sorry not sorry.' 😀 Note, don't be a racist. #CaptainObvious

Initial theory craft for an Ice/sr. Obvious softcap Def, 41.8% Res S/L without RoP factored in. I might play around with it to get better Res numbers, but again, this is essentially an initial pass on the build. I've made a few small changes even while I posted this. I couldn't really talk myself into any other blast set based on everything I have already and the slows and -Recharge will further mitigate things for an /sr. P.S. It should be obvious, but I would pick up Ice Bolt and respec it out later. |MBD;22951;1340;1788;BASE64;| |G6ZZAKyKx/lXLKSkJLigx4yXS5GuPc0mU34aB8Jc297vCb8sd1swEkOydPW1DgtIV51| |O5auXBdrCQOkreX9qb1U9u3fXTdesekTslwwnDCPA2b9fTV9txMxoPTGLca3u3FpLK2| |t39IVcWZhgSsOtQh4M95DeonyxBAawTFDCYZhpTIauq0qdO2AN60j7o3PEouiXCvFhv| |7gugqWz/q3gyWEKMn+B4HnfrcsEEJEGCPwShwK/jz0xssV589zpwkBDKl18LWDo7iKX| |X8kNb3UYhf+miE7glA1SoJ9NLHi/5yZkUPjudQIbKvoMotfsjvW4we2BYeSON3SRz+s| |3MqNq4zzmACOcS9j9dtoiib81woWpUZ1CUa/YFna4InIgP29yVCzniKXlVlMfyHV/mS| |8d7o0uOdT/C1tgWvikA9uL5J0mXNGtFbEp8n2j9fDuvMI9VRvOl+fRLW3VqpNY1Zs5M| |8bN9vvagudGJvs+LI7pJxLebxZdDDNan9f7JuJA8DAuM5egZ9ZL1b6bNf8Vf1J3/G6d| |BGTLuzm6t2Pyjc7PHcXUuEUOAsbeeoIjHLvuGbsZ78HqszffAT/hFGh1dv6Vv5Cm14U| |pUaT7en/54VuznOqA6gSMkLWC6ka2Ew0tuerck5an6SIZwWSl7ls9egNT7o3JpO2LEP| |/u/D/BQ9bNkPMMhNzaAtoSMEIGCGUNb2k+amBwqHpcQllCWS2U1aL4tJAvN7bh/y4VD| |zUoO1zDsDf2qbDJ7dbkKLkES1wlAZTECWY6LQUYQ/mnxLYv4yNrQs8x9QeXfK5xGwXu| |sO68zvJsO9ZtOXos0SewmgAKEeiqKaAkTtTt1PDsVOhSX+XHvpmQreF5/ZBdpeLF/ek| |jPG/8KjjsTtQOeifd6+wGPH8yUt4NWcAJHK7A4boKVbS+GLTpWro7coUuMGGYZYh1a5| |gPkBM3n2BKXi0BGCHA0tLQLHMYG8JdT5Wj2MLjia0Ehhcc67NaB6c5rraADcOOR5XVU| |WwXKGeY0W+XnS3EAxq4YbjpDVrYrJGgoqcEQ2Sv5OMfFdqNZLoO8Lj9ThEvCUOXVqtq| |ZEoqOLkVV0kAhQhPT0kBxQjPbSDFxGppxXygthg4nJJRjZKTTKclKyfClH2TSHiITOA| |Lpf3IZGboyFRCPlLIRwohsuSL6//uH05cMcQ+r0KRMxmwPeMoThmwXYHtfhy1PW64v+| |nXl+QMV+CGkl3IHCafL+VFMUJUwghKuqthz61nlHaGl9LwTuRwfz+lNLwHHig7ZOOc5| |Tp1Sd3VNqFzYmuD2nsPxEe9SREr2CJHUzjy2wH5On3FfpwLwdl90+q8vSl7JM53w2M3| |1yWpA5eugK4CjBG4YRKBNzSVePoLeWIBXCrNcHUV7Ge49CxQdYm31KoCgrqkXyebzhN| |Pow41reffOeCB4bETGxQt3ZiyZIfvRG1H+piZNOKNx4AzWXrczuNEQ6aJI+6r3SsKdL| |amvsgNk6nSkcWRK1bcvM8Djl2qMSxIbkUIYBK1BEsi8rneWw04dRwsB1xofu91E//wg| |R8EtHKTV1RIAcgCG3m1rdklSqoLbWuQD64IPU7y1uMKH31mI4/j86CN3QRVexWbGq7w| |XvAgkWwWB+3V241t6c/Xdoj+AIQhtT+zo3sK0tOF6oE5EGWVsP+LzT/Fftd7f/Ce/s2| |075wGF08KnC+xfa7vr0xcBoSzScF/bcde6lLM8KcYCj4g+K91acowpDu4QupoCUU/7P| |3ZCCZ0j79E5nagG3nk7cWNLP6hAHTGlvnQC+b0AyWUOxo=|

Pet peeve: anyone who uses some variation of 'Not that I am...' as some way to downplay the brunt of what they are about to say. There are people who believe the game is still balanced around SOs. I'm not one of those but context does matter.

Let's start at square one. What is underperforming? If we look at how the game was designed, those so called underperforming sets can be made to where they are balanced if not overperforming. Yes, KM can overperform in a game which is 'balanced against SOs' by using IOs.* The issue is that the current meta has so many builds overperforming other overperforming builds to where those lesser overperforming builds come across as underperforming. I can literally make numerous builds which would be bored soloing the original max diff setting CoH had. IIRC, it was up to +3 with no ability to increase team size so +3/x actual team size. It might have been limited to +2. Wee? Add in the current meta, see higher diff settings, starred content, etc. and it is further evidence that the lesser overperforming sets are in need of being reworked. Part of the issue of game balance is making formulas for how sets are designed, and then giving sets variants in that to give them additional feel. See faster playing sets versus slower ones, and Scrapper Claws being a bit of a unicorn in it's design without it being overpowered. I haven't really deep dived the data for various sets, but my leaning is that there is no real or at least recognizable formulas for how powersets are built. If there are ones, you can't prove to me they were used when KM was made. * Meta aside, if you want to die on the hill that that the game is still balanced against SOs, go start playing various content, ie soling +4x8, Incarnate, starred content with using SOs because all of that is in game. At this point, teams are expected to steamroll. I think the last time I did a Frostfire not at +4 was when I led the team. and that's due to me not using 2X XP boosters. Regardless of the original intent with game balance the current meta has redefined it which means the lesser overperforming builds are 'bad.' Again, if someone can make a KM build which solos +3/x2 than it is technically overperforming the game's original design. P.S. I can't recall the history of KM specifically, but I feel like it was never a set that performed well. Regen is a poster child of a set which so overperformed it being nerfed became a meme, and even the HC team hasn't lifted a finger to do even basic 'holy crap how has this not happened yet' adjustments.

Both sets are busy and if you want to primarily do support, roll either as a Defender. It is likely too early to judge MA although it seems to get rather good reviews. I do know EA has been mentioned as one of the best for harder content. I still need to figure out builds for both.

If you want to try out Claws/ea, I haven't really touched this build from a few years ago. I also +3/x8 for the sake of speed, and very few maps make me lower the diff setting.

I'm pretty sure they mean a different game. If they think Excel is bad, well, good luck elsewhere.

About the only decline in player base has been post the incoming wave after HC got a license. I even looked at numbers after a break and saw Excel was essentially the same. I think I have rarely had to wait for a team to fill on Excel to the point it felt noticeable. Depending on how before 6pm Eastern you are doing these teams that's right around the time people are getting food, so they might be just hopping on to get in a mission or two before supper.

1. I would slot Fire Cages for damage. WotC is for adding in control. I use that in Flashfire. 2. I use the other ATO set for Char, but slotting in damage here is also good. I use Lockdown on things like Cinders, so it can hold bosses. 3. I slot for damage with the KB to KD proc. 4. Generally yes, Transference and Fulcrum need Acc to hit, but there are a number of people who just put enough +ToHit into a build to skip out on adding Acc at times. I don't have a magical target number for +ToHit, but I do know harder targets can frustrate some of my characters with Acc and higher +ToHit, but that's soloing on higher diff against specifically defensive targets.

For Dark Armor, the Theft of Essence proc can be seen as a requirement.