Without_Pause

While the term 'healers' was a talking point as CoH went against the holy MMO trinity, it felt like seeing the request to add one to a team on Freedom was like breathing. I think I pretty much had a 2 support minimum for teams. Good thing my main was a Kin Defender, and I defaulted to playing support overall. Now? I can be the only support on a team and we steamroll things. I've been on teams where I'm the only support, I'm playing TA, and no one says boo. Back before IOs, I had been on so many teams which literally wouldn't start without adding an Emp. The standard might be the same, but the old meta feels a bit like a foreign country.

And just am FYI, that build would exempt terribly as you lose the set bonuses if you exempt too low. My default is using attuned IOs outside of purples since they are already attuned.

+1/1 won't be a problem for anything using SOs. I'm not sure there will be that much variance if you went +2. I can't recall how much I soloed at +2 on my Claws/regen. The real issue is when you are to add in bigger mobs. WP is fantastic until the debuffs start cascading in. I do think Claws is a bit of a cheat as Shockwave and Focus can provide a decent amount of mitigation. Case in point, I would use Shockwave as my alpha strike. I think Fire does a better job of seeing if an armor set can stand on its own, but since all characters use it, it should be fine.

There is a narrative that the game is balanced around SOs and that the games in balanced around one hero taking on a mob of three. We are talking at the start of the game. That was Jack's vision. This was also back in the day where a diff setting maxed at +2, IIRC. That's +2 and whatever the team size was, again, IIRC. The problem is this: that Dev team is oh so very long gone, the diff setting got reworked under said Dev team, and they introduced IOs. Hell, there's a bunch more of the Incarnate system which was going to be added, but it got never added as that was going to be the end game standard. In other words, if you want to compare builds with SOs at the original diff settings, knock yourself out. However, the current team has offered no impression for what the game is currently balanced against. IOs are easier to get then ever thanks in part due to the current Dev team. And to be fair, even the team on Live never really stated what would be a new standard or what it was post IOs. I would argue the player base has taken over what balanced is. That's where things get fuzzy. Some people like the old standard SOs as a basis. Some aim for something higher, and then there are the min/maxers. Realistically, there is no standard. I personally play things which are fun. That for me includes IOs, so that's my standard. I've recently dusted off some level 50s which only have Level 25 Common IOs in them. I still feel like I contribute and the team steamrolled just fine. BUT, I noticed touches of End issues. The lack of global recharge. Just a bunch of little things which make me want to IO out the build knowing a build takes a leap with IOs. I remember taking a Spines/fire Brute from common IOs to IO sets and it was that, "Oh" moment where you knew you weren't ever going back. And yes, I got a chuckle recently out of street sweeping Hallows at Level 5 taking on mobs of 4 with no real issue.

It also means you spend time reacting via clicks versus simply attacking more. Bio is also click heavy, but it also is Bio.

I decided to play test this. Yeah, don't do that. Put more the damage procs into Slowed Response. You are far more likely to have them go off there if you do.

To add, I don't have a direct answer. I will say part of the difficulty is any set can be deemed acceptable, and yet be the worst set. Case in point, I find so many primary sets for a Defender as being way more than acceptable, and yet one of them wins out for being the worst. Soloing x8 has as much to do with the melee set as it does Regen. If the melee set is ST focused, then that's going to take more time to work through a x8 mob. My Ill/dark technically does AoE, and yet I have zero desire to solo that at x8. Giving Regen something like Ice is a significant boon to its ability to deal with things. Personally speaking, I would deem +2 on the lower end and more so if the character is 50+1. There are very few exceptions where a build would need to go against even level mobs if the build is done right. There is a red side mission where a mob is basically nothing but EBs. Heaven help you if you have your diff setting set for AVs. There's no shame in needing to lower your diff setting for that, nor I think Mr. G's arc even if I figured out how to do +3. I believe one of them does End Drain, Slows, and -Recharge. If you don't have a ranged attack, good luck. FYI, depending on how things spawn in a mission, I've had my /stone Brute have serious End issues against enough Mu. Regen has nothing to protect against End drain. TL; DR. If you can solo comfortably at +3/x8 on Regen on a rather high number of maps then great. I'm guessing every other armor set can do it as well and in some cases even more maps or even just having an easier time. Note, my namesake here was a Claws/regen Scrapper on Live. I used common IOs. It was fine for old school soloing for the diff settings we had at that time. End game mobs were a bit annoying though.

Add in any Psy or Ice attacks which cripples your Recharge. I've long come to the conclusion that anyone who says they solo +4/x8 that they mean Council. I've pulled that off even before hitting 50, so congrats on soloing Council at max diff when fully built I guess. Note, at sub Level 50 you also take on +5s and you are not 50+1. I've seen maps which can make even my /stone Brute not even remotely try at max diff. (waves to red side) Hell, stick a /regen in a Psi Cop mission and see how that goes at max diff.

For a Corr, I would have picked either Fire or Ice. Ice using its holds could be stacked with both players so even bosses are quickly held. For Sonic, I would have gone Defender since the -Res is better. I know doing the same build for both makes it easier to make the builds, but I likely would have just made two separate builds for a duo. But two Fire/kins are going to blow so much stuff up, so I'm not protesting. It is one of the genuine builds I would do as a Corr, and I had one on Live. I only did common IOs on Live so things got interesting on teams. 😆

Outside of the nerfs, you have to go outside of the box a bit to get it a decent level of mitigation. The problem is the standard isn't old school diff settings anymore where Regen would be fine at. Not when people can make builds which solo a high percentage of maps at +4/x8. In the list of issues for Regen, it doesn't even have resistance to being debuffed for what it does. It should at a minimum resist -regen and -recharge. I do think there are times when instead of fixing a set, the devs simply make a new one, see Willpower.

Depends on how you play. AVs are rare outside of TFs. I don't think I would hit 1%.

Your Resists are low. I can get 75% S/L on my /en Brute. I can toss you my Claws/en Brute build, but part of the difference is I skipped Taunt and Evis which means I skipped on two more powers in my primary which frees up more space for other stuff. I would recommend looking at skipping Repulsing Torrent. Its DPA is rather low although Burst isn't great either. Really, Kin struggles with AoE damage. I'm conflicted on CS since it clearly has the best DPA, but its Recharge is 20 seconds. Kin's ST damage overall isn't that bad. I haven't looked at Brute numbers to see if CS is actually worth taking. I default to going Energy/Body for melee, but EA can get away with not needing it and Kin can use help in the attack area, so choosing something else is a decent idea. Without Remorse - Brute (Claws - Energy Aura).mbd

I can't recall if it ever had -KB. I know it has been a talking point. I just find the set a bit of an odd duck and on the middle side in terms of where I would rank it. I think it is the only set which doesn't get it's hold until level 2. It's faster recharging AoE control is a T8. Propel is cool, but Lift is far better DPA. Dimension Shift is well Dimension Shift. The final two powers are fantastic outside of Wormhole needlessly doing KB, but the rest is just average or below. Seriously, lets take a set's most used AoE, allow the player to move a mob to where they want, disorient the mob, and then KB that whole group. (bangs head) As mentioned, there is no way to prevent the KB in Wormhole without an IO since Crushing Field offers no -KB. Wormhole makes me want to put the one ATO set in it, but I can't 6-slot it due to needing to add a KB to KD proc. Gravity is basically the Energy Blast of the Controller sets. It might have been fine in the original design of the game, but it has aged poorly. I intend to get my Grav/ta to 50, but I'm not seeing the desire to really invest in it beyond that.

We teamed on a Yin. We as a group blew threw that about as well as any group I have seen. I was on my Fire/dark Corr, Obsidian Smoke, who I still need to work out an IO build for. And no, the character does not look like Richard Simmons.

Best is subjective, but I don't think I would put FA for a Scrapper anywhere near the list of best as Res based sets are lesser on a Scrapper, and FA really having no counters for debuffs. Battle Axe did get reworked and is very much one of the more used sets right now. Pair it with a Def based set and you'll be good to go. I went with a BA/stone Brute. Storm has gotten rather middling reviews. Symphony control is solid. It's a bit on the Dom feeling of a set but more geared towards Controllers if that makes since. Sound effects for it aren't great. While yes, Cold for Defenders is great, Time is right there as well. I have a Time/rad.

Generate the data via an API and let the geeks take care of the rest.

Rocky Road has been second tier for me. I should have it again though. 1. Peanut Butter Cup. Prefer Chocolate ice cream with Peanut Butter. 2. Sea Salt Caramel. 3. Blue Moon. Regional to the Great Lakes area. It tends to be the blue stuff in Superman ice cream. I've done it with Rock 'n' Rye pop and called it a Pure Michigan Float. 3. Mint Chocolate Chip. I've had way too much of this even if other flavors might be 'better.' Mint is just a great after meal flavor to have. Honorable mentions. Pretty much any sort of tropical ice cream. That in the right setting is just divine. Vanilla ice cream, but like vanilla bean type where the vanilla is rather pronounced. Plus, vanilla is just so versatile as it works so well with cake, pie, and floats. Americone Dream. I don't understand why they just didn't add in the nuts. One of the only celebrity items that I actually genuinely like. Butter Pecan. Honestly, they could get rid of the pecans and I would be happy. There are like a ton of others, but those stand out right now. Back on topic, I've been playing Claws and EA via two ATs, and really liking my Ill/dark.

First of all, you can't credibly tell me that build can encounter over 50% of mobs and quickly faceplant. Not when as a base it covers roughly 90% of incoming attacks for most attack types and certainly the most common ones. But yes, 15% more S/L Resist*. 25% more HP partly due to Accolades, and roughly 237% more regen. I did see I have ED as being flagged for being on, but I don't slot it much so the Def number changes aren't that great. I also plan on doing a few minor tweaks to get the build numbers even better. I initially went Melee for my Hybrid slot, but I will grab Assault once I T4 Lore as I don't even feel the need to turn on Melee all that often. It basically is there for the genuinely difficult content. I do so many +3/x8 maps without ever clicking it. * Resist based on full health and not with the Scaling Resist IO kicking in. Brute version. The only way this build dies on over 50% of mobs at +4/x8 is outright negligence.

/time is really close. I have done Fire/time to 50 so more playing needs to be done. I thought I was done with my Time build despite it being my most reworked build, and then I played it after another respec, and it died 5 times on a two floor map. Ranged Def just isn't quite there yet so I just kept getting mezzed, but I switched one IO set and Incarnates will cap it off as will having Clarion. At one point it was essentially soloing at the same diff as what my Brute was although slower, so x8 Carnie mission is just a current stumbling block. Outside of the buffs/debuffs, I look for things like adding Def, End management, and Recharge. Dark has two of them and Recharge can be covered via Incarnates, and it's Debuffs are really good. I have two Level 50 /darks. Granted Ill is cheat code, but I think I'm going to be rather happy with my Dark/dark once I find a build for it and slot it.

My point is even on a set which offers no Def or Res doesn't die that often even with no set bonuses so clearly a fully IOed out build is going to cakewalk most missions even at or near max settings. I can say I officially die in one of two ways. The mission is actually that difficult, ie a mob essentially ignores Def, or I have a mental lapse. EA is considered at worst an A tier set on any AT which has it. One narrative for why Tankers don't have it is it would be too good for Tankers. That's not the narrative for a set which dies fairly quickly versus most foes. I have recently started to see how long I can go on my Brute when is health getting low before I actually need to click on Energize. Many times more than not, I never touch it even if my health goes orange.

Bull crap, and I say that as someone who had a Level 50 Scrapper and a level 45 Bute. Even on Live with a common IO build my Claws/regen didn't die fairly quickly against most mobs. Rarely do I need to bump my diff down from +3/x8, and one instance that I did my /stone Brute got their butt handed to them on that mission as well. Even on my Scrapper I can hit 1,932.6 HP with currently 417.5% Regen. I can get it near 450% with a single IO swap if I want. My F/C Resist numbers are lacking, but I have 65.2% Resist to S/L. My Brute goes to 75%. You have way better End Recovery, but that's what ED is for. Yes, I am talking about a Claws build, but I don't expect that much variance if I switched to Psy.

Claws/ea or Ice/stone. I do think the best combo is something I haven't played like Savage or BA with Stone. I created a BA/ea today just to try out the BA hype. I had a tech look so Stone just wasn't working for me.

Oddly enough I don't have one of the builds I voted for, Time/ice/mace. Maybe make a Corr version since I have a Time/rad.

This, as always, depends on what on defines as best. Plus, I think at what point does one try to take a look at the set and determine what its value is? I don't know enough about the various sets to really rank things, but I know Earth and Ill I would consider S tier for very different reasons. I need to IO out a few Plant builds, but I think that could join the list. Again, more work needs to be done, but I think /da currently is my favorite.

It still irks me the HC team put out data and then simply stopped doing that. I feel like the changes to existing sets have given various sets a boon to how good they are. I'm still not sure how many if any of the new sets have really stood out. Case in point, I think Symphony is a really good set. I just don't think it is S tier. I understand why changes were made to Dark when ported over to Controllers, but it is really difficult to not see it being the best set for Controllers. It feel like Radiation Emission has taken a bit of a back seat to it.