Without_Pause

I did a terribly quick run through of the blast sets. Note, I have yet to play Seismic or Storm, so YMMV. I essentially looked at 5 areas and rated a set 1-3 based on how well they did at that aspect. The areas are: ST Damage: Can one skip on of the T1 or T2 attacks and feel like they have a decent attack chain. AoE: Do they have 2 AoEs without a nuke. Secondary Effect: Does it have one, is it meaningful, can it lead to procs? Control: What meaningful aspects of control does it bring? Damage type: S/L get a 1. Dark and Psy get a 3, although I fully accept just how much blow back I can get for saying Psy is a 3. Both seem to fall into the category of hardly resisted, or incredibly resisted. I bumped Psy down a tier anyway. Everything else is a 2. By all means, I know people will argue specific numbers so I will merely focus on the grouping of the sets and why they land where they do. Hell, I repeatedly admit I changed sets from one tier to another. I won't claim to sets being ranked within their tiers. Tier 1 Assault Rile: The pro for this set is that it does well in AoE. The downside is pretty much everything else. While KB is okay in the land of IOs, the fact that all of its AoE do it means someone is slotting a lot of that proc in order to keep things contained. Defenders to a default like mobs packed together for debuffs. Assault Rifle actively goes against that. In the end, you use IOs to fix the issues of AR versus improving it. Archery: It has better ST damage and there isn't the KB issue outside of one power. The nuke rotates fast, but that's about it. I don't think lighting your own Oil Slick Arrow is going to really bump it since that's a single instance of why Archery works. Tier 2 Energy: This honestly feels like it should be higher because it just feels like it is the poster child of being a middle ground set versus being higher. It's just an incredibly average set which needs some IOs to contain it. Still the best looking nuke. Dual Pistols: I'm likely under valuing this as I know people like to use this set with proc heavy builds. In all honestly, its base damage type is what holds it back from being higher. Seismic: My biggest complaint is that any Earth/Stone type sets are great at control as where this deals a lot with -Fly which is way less exciting and not something you can IO into. Storm: Again, I'm pleading ignorance here, but I find it telling there are four powers which are labeled as being better for Corrs. Tier 3 Electric: I had this in a tier lower even after the rework. I knew the backlash would be coming. It likely still will. It's hard to factor in how much the pets adds, but also needing a pet isn't really helping one's case. Short Circuit requires the Defender into melee and with a long animation time. It's still rather average overall with a great secondary effect even if that aspect is questioned just how it really impacts things. The damage boost is nice and needed. Old school Electric cakewalks into Tier 2. Dark: The ST damage isn't great, but when you factor in how much a heal comes in handy with sets which don't have one, it is a bit more excusable. It's a nice rounded set which can compliment other sets while ultimately not being that much of a 'Wow' factor with so much of the damage being DoT based. Sonic: And coming in with arguably the best secondary effect even though you can't slot IOs for it. AoE is light, but control is high and it makes it super easy to solo. This is one I can see being higher. Dirty hack, one can slot the Call of the Sandman: Chance to Heal Self in Siren's Song. Fun fact, I had a Rad/sonic on Live and even just using common IOs it lead me to soloing defenders. Water: Another set I bumped despite its score. It's just too damn useful overall and the heal helps fill in similar to Dark. I have a Water Blaster at 50. I need to make a build for it. Maybe after I get a better idea of Water it will move higher. I really like the set despite the numbers. Psychic: This might be the one set I debate more than anything because this was tier 4, and I'm like, 'Is this better than certain others?' Maybe some day. I've also debated a number of times when trying to decide on making a character or not and just using a different and higher ranked set instead. There is still a lot to like here. Tier 4 Beam: I only briefly have played it, but it very much is one of the sets where when it is on, it feels incredibly good, and then you have to wait for Disintegration to kick in again. Tons of control and KD versus KB. AoE is deceptive since Disintegration adds to it even when using ST attacks. Another which was ranked lower, but I think it as a harder target killer is worth mentioning. I need to reroll my low level Time/beam over to my main account, or maybe try a different primary as I have 4 other Time characters already. Rad: It's control and damage type are middle ground, and that's about it for negatives. Sure, -Def isn't as important in end game fights, but you can still proc for it and it still makes low level gaming that much easier. In all honestly I hardly ever think to roll a /rad defender even if it was what I used on my first hero on Live. But yeah, I am continuing to invest in my Time/rad. I played it last night, and I was like, 'This feels good.' Still surprised I got the name Irradikate. Fire: No, drugs and alcohol were not involved, but yes, I had this in Tier 3. At some point, you can't overthink things. Fire's control is Rain of Fire and things being dead. You can't slot for its secondary effect, but said secondary effect is better than a proc anyway. Fire is simply Fire and Moar Fire, and that is enough. It's basically a Blaster and Corr set given to Defenders. So yes, for Defenders it is 'Tier 3,' but again, let's not overthink things. Ice: Ice Storm and Blizzard are DoT heavy, and that's about the only negative I have. Ice has been historically stupid good at damage and utility for a blast set while Ice Control languishes at damage for reasons I have no idea why. Oddly enough, Ice is one of the more lightly resisted sets. Also, this is the set which simply outclasses Psychic for me. You can't be Tier 4 if someone already has your seat.

I should add, there was some wonkiness with the polls as T1 powers were listed as under 100% when they were still mandatory, but the thread talking about what percentage of the player base taking powers within a powerset was a gold mine for figuring out what to pick at least on the initial go of playing a new powerset. This would be all the more interesting now that players aren't forced into taking T1 secondary powers.

Power Transfer: Chance of Heal Self in Stamina and Call of the Sandman: Chance of Heal Self in PGA help out nicely in this regard.

Something must be up, as I know of no plans to move it.

Strongest how? En doesn't have DoT which is what is going to be an advantage for a Corr versus a Blaster. En gets better DPS wise once you added in KB to KD IOs oddly enough, and you will want to do that as Kin absolutely doesn't want things being KBed away. I like En, but I prefer it much more on a Blaster.

Fire/storm also has to balance Hurricane and Hot Feet so I would lean Fire/rad.

Back on topic, I just wished the Homecoming Stats thread was done once a year. This way we can look if changes to sets mattered and changes in what is getting played is happing. Is the new unicorn the same as the old one?

Started my day selling stacks of uncommon salvage for 500k-1m per stack. I am listing them for 1k and they sell instantly.

I haven't built one although I need to work on a Time/dp which should be easy enough since I've done Time twice now. I would try to focus on one of the two powersets and then go from there. The attacks might be the easiest since the ATOs get slotted there. Figure out what you are building for. DP likes to be in melee so S/L and Range Def will be easy targets to go after. Outside of that, Recharge and the End to pull it off. Resist will be nice, but with Defender's Resist cap and lower HP, I don't worry about it too much. One note on slotting. If you don't need to 6-slot an attack for the bonus, skip the D/R IO. Either save the slot or stick a proc into the 6th slot. This can make it easy to get 2 damage procs into an attack.

Even if you factor in Live, I don't think I have done Hamidon 5 times. It might be 3, so I'm oblivious to the rewards outside of the HO.

In my Fire/time controller I put the -Res proc into Slowed Response over the Chance for Lethal. If you can find the slots, Time's Juncture can fit two damage procs in it as well.

Energy Aura. I could at least see the case for Elec if you were going Brute or Tank, but Scrappers have a lower Res cap. An Energy/ea Scrapper is great. I got mine in the high 30s before I realized I just don't like Energy Melee nor Elec Melee for that matter. I can't fathom Bots/time MM not wrecking so many things. If I were to make one MM, that would likely be it.

How many Hamidon runs are done if HOs aren't tied to it?

On Live I simply didn't slot until 12 and grabbed level 15 IOs. Towards the end it was getting to 22 and then slotting. Hitting 12 in this game even without 2x XP boosters is still so easy. Give me a decent session, and I can hit that 13 as listed above. Sure, SOs at that level are better, but IOs are far more versatile and attuned ones grow with you so there is no need to click on Upgrade.

My Fire/time controller says 'Hi.' Yes, that's post Incarnates. No, that's not a confirmed finished build. And yes, those numbers were higher until I decided to get Chrono Shift to be perma. Point is, if you want to bring in self buffing into the conversation, don't bring Time in as an example.

On my second account I have currently 5 characters. I have 37 on my main account. Many of these builds aren't 50. Some likely will never be. Some will be deleted. I would be fine saving one per account. There are still so many great names to be had. Most of my cherished names are honestly on the more recent side.

Have it where level 50s can lose their names after a number of years. Give the players the ability to select one or more characters as an 'Icon' so that name stays. Maybe even do it to where people can pay for it, and use the money as a way to pay for the monthly cost of running the game. There's very few names I would be disappointed to lose, and even fewer of them would I even think others would want.

I've recently thought about a Symphony/dark Dom, but for 'generally useful,' a Def is going to win out.

If you have the money, you will never slot anything TO, DO, SO or ever again. Common IOs can be crafted/had for cheap. I can slot out a build of level 25 IOs at around 2-3 mill. If you feel the need to slot out level 30-35s, I don't think it is going to be that much more. You can be level 50 with those common IOs and be fine for general content. That's what I did until I finally broke down and learned how to do builds on Homecoming. In all of my time on Live despite having billions of influ I rocked out level 25 common IOs. SOs are a god awful terrible money sink of yesteryear. I literally don't understand the slotting of one. If you are new and thus poor, don't forget you can grab uncommon IOs versus the in demand ones. I have grabbed uncommons for 100k where the more popular ones sell in the millions. A number of the crappy IO sets have all of 3-4 IOs. Early on a number of powers will have all of 3-4 slots put into them until later. The devs understood this. Frankenslot if need be. An Acc/End from one set and a Acc/End from another is better than a common Acc and End. You get a free respec every ten levels. Use them. In terms of currency, I make a new character. Solo Matthew Habashy's arc. Do a DFB. Complete the first two contacts of Hollows with grabbing a team for Frostfire because that's an easy fill. You should have enough Merits to convert those over to 84 Enhancement Converts. While there are far better uses for those than selling them on the Market, selling all of them at 70k generates 5.88 million - fees. So yes, you can instantly afford a level 50 build of level 25 common IOs while being all of level 13, or so. I recently did that on a controller. Generate enough seed money so you use the converters for actual converting and that near six mill can be done in a few clicks. Getting seed money is more annoying than hard and you only really need less than 2 mill. Do the above and get your initial currency, and then do Posi 1 & 2, to get more Merits. You are off and running. Said controller is 16, has yet to do either Posi, and is sitting at roughly 40 mill. I've become hellbent on doing Posi 1 at level 17. That's where the good stuff starts with End Mod. You also get a chance to slot up a level 16 power which odds are is important. If you have the influ for PVP and ATOs, then great. It's perfectly fine to slot in some level 15 commons or attuned uncommons. The cheap stuff is great to have on hand until you can hit level 27 and hopefully start to respec into some of the better sets. Strip out the lesser stuff, and store it in your base for the next characters. Since you are using IOs, you won't care about the new character's origin. Synapse and Citadel are slogs and most in need to being redone. New TFs are nice, but those do need to be revisited.

Uncommon salvage is silly now. I saw multiple buys at 50k-100K. I spent the weekend adding storage for uncommons and dumping what I had in there and using it to fuel my recipes to convert. I rarely dual box these days, but at this point I can grab a couple 50s and blow through some content while working on their incarnate abilities. So congrats evil marketers, you've made me 'farm' again. 😉

I've seen a few 'Not really Hulks' running around as of late. What I don't get is Hulk's look isn't really all that great. I can make a Hulk type character and make them look far better, but here we go 'green skinned guy in pants #over 9000!'

Empathy for Defenders is due to 'We need a healer" trope and Kin on the others simply due to Fire's damage in both cases. But still, TA would instantly drop to under 1% played if Defenders could self buff themselves. Traps which gets played even less would also not benefit from this. Yes, Traps is at least middle ground for MMs. It's the only AT which gets even remotely decent play out of it.

If a Kin can SB themselves than the need for Transference becomes incredibly low. If you can't see the issue with Thermal and Sonic getting shields themselves, then we are agreeing to disagree. FF and Cold is less of an issue since capping Def in the needed places isn't that difficult.

I recently made a Savage/rad Brute using the black and blue color scheme. I used the thorn pattern, and wile I do like it, this is pure, "Son of a...That's even better."

A Kin is going to get numerous attempts at pulling off Siphon Speed. It would be incredibly abnormal for that to not hit consistently. Kins don't lack endurance due to Transference. Yes, it needs to hit, but as someone who has taken Kin to 50 more than once and one of them was my main, End really isn't an issue. Based on March 2020 data, Emps were more than double Kins as the most played Defender in terms of ones at 50. TA and Traps combined weren't even 10% of Emps. Now imagine Emps being able to self buff. FYI, TA was 1.6% of Defenders at 50. That's outright unicorn status even before a huge change to the AT in which they benefit nothing from it.