Without_Pause

RE: /ta I hadn't done Symphony yet, I went back and forth with making characters and taking them to level 3 only to switch, but I ended up back at /ta. Why? Symphony plays at range with the cones and /ta loves being at range. Symphony has some soft controls which do damage. /ta offers more control so those softer controls gain more chances at containment. Play it like a Dominator. Slot for damage on the soft controls. I have planned out Dreadful Discord to have a Fire proc and -Res. Enfeebling Lullaby has an Energy proc and a Fire proc. Those procs can light OSA for me so I don't need to grab something like Arcane Bolt. Confounding Chant, Chords of Despair, and EMP Arrow for AoE containment, and then Dreadful Discord, Enfeebling Lullaby and OSA for the AoE damage. I only have a first pass at slotting done. I'm most of the way there with IOs. I just need to look at numbers and go from there. I'm not sure how happy I am with using a damage proc in Flash Arrow in order to get the Def bonus. If I can skip on it, I will. The build itself is level 13.

It would be nice to pair Wind/kin due to the stacking -dmg.

I didn't get into making builds until Homecoming. Grab Mids and start hacking away at it. The ATOs are easy enough to place. The AoE Hold to a default gets Lockdown. Look at other builds and see what tends to get taken. I find there is a lot of similarities between what gets slotted for various powersets. Its fine if the build sucks. I have been known to do a walkthrough of a build 3-4 times before I am happy. At that point post it online and let people look at it. The biggest thing about Fire/storm is you want to make sure you cover End because that thing is going to suck your End bar dry without much effort. I would three slot it with Performance Shifter: +End, Power Transfer: End Mod and Power Transfer: Chance to Heal Self. Stick whatever you can into Health with giving you +End.

I've never seen someone try so hard to not show a powerset in a video about the new powerset. Literally 15 minutes in and he's still running around just using the attacks from the other powerset. The sound is cranked so high at times I can't hear him.

You would be chasing Def and Resist set bonuses with at best two slots. In a number of cases, those set bonuses aren't even in the 2 slot as they tend to go to health and end aspects. If you are talking yourself out of a power which uses 4-6 slots, then by all means that's a worthy topic. EDIT: You could look at taking a one slot wonder power and using the extra slot elsewhere, but I tend to find room for all of the one slot type of powers anyway.

Get on an all support team and then think about those characters also being able to self buff. A Cold defender could cake walk to the soft cap.

Things I've taken to 50 more than once here or will shortly. Claws/ea Scrapper/Brute. Stalker Claws is an insult. Tanks don't have EA, yet. Claws is so smooth and EA just works really well. I feel like I can hop on the builds and just kind of zone out while being a murder machine. I also technically have a level 50 Fort(Claws) who is a Swiss Army knife of awesome and a level 50 Fire/ea Sent. Dark/dark Controller/Defender. I need the Defender to hit 50, but I might like it better for steamrolling teams since controls can feel lesser in that situation. Ice/stone Stalker/Brute. Stone is so ridiculously S tier and Ice Patch feels like cheating. Stalker Ice is the best overall Stalker set. Water/temp Blaster and Cold/water Defender. Water is just a really solid overall set with AoEs and mitigation. Adding a heal for a Blaster or a Cold Defender is just further icing on the cake. I'm close at getting a Fire/time controller to 50. I have some Time Defenders waiting in the wings so I know I want to see what Time is like on a Defender fully built. I feel like Time might fire some other sets for me. I have a TA Defender and Controller. I'm mostly waiting to finalize the builds as I find TA to be so different in how it plays and a nice break from everything else.

StJ is great as a Stalker and I know someone spoke well of it on Scrapper. The biggest issue for me is it has the smallest AoEs. This is definitely a negative if you want to use it on a tank since it is still bottom tier there for AoE size on an AT known for bigger AoEs. I did Claws/regen on Live were I essentially ignored IO sets until Homecoming so I would say even just using common IOs you can do a leveling build based on that.

There's a reason for that. Take Dark Obliteration instead and call it a day if you want to add AoE. Dark Obliteration also gives you a slot for another -Res proc if you want. You aren't getting that in Cross Punch.

Just know there are AVs which will go, "Oh, that tickles" when it comes to end drain.

Another is when you are in places like Atlas or TI. Go to the portal which can send you to Echo Plaza. There is a entrance to Pocket D in Echo Plaza just to the left of the base portal. I tend to leave my characters there. This way I can log in, be near a base portal, and not deal with other people using it.

It's weird how some people focus on the personal aspect of a power versus what the power is providing for the team. I find the Def based PBAoE toggles for support characters are critical powers in their builds.

Spring Attack would like a word. I just wish Shadow Punch was replaced by something like Engulfing Darkness. I loath the animation time of Shadow Maul.

I think Ice is too DoT heavy to go with a Defender when picking a Kin. I think Ice paired with other primaries are much better pairings if you want the better buff/debuff numbers of a Defender.

First of all, you need to define what you mean by very best. Second, you need to figure out what makes a defender a better pick over a Corr. Finally, Corrs get FS at 30 now. This means in reality they have it at 24 when exempt. This means any Yin level TF and above a Corr will have it. Defenders will have it for Synapse. For SB, a Corr would be missing it on Posi 1, so yeah. The advantage for a Corr is simply in the rain/DoT powers. Also, the debuff aspect is going to be better for a Defender. For me I would look at three sets as a starting point. Sonic due to the -Res, Beam due to some -Res and -Regen, and Rad due to the -Def since Kins need to hit. There are some others ones which are nice mind you. DP plays well in melee where Kins tend to live anyway. Elec can do some sapping and Transference added in. If I absolutely had to pick one, Kin/sonic.

This is what I use my sig for. I might put the first two as 1A and 1B. I liked Claws/ea enough to where I got the Brute version to 34 already.

I made an ode to Dr. Strange as an Ill/dark.

Paging @Infinitum

This is where I have mine. C:\Games\Homecoming\screenshots

I think the last check on this was 2-3 million for a full build of common level 25s. While yes, that might seem like a lot of money for a new player, it is incredible easy to generate even on a new character. I can do it casually over a weekend by simply pulling common salvage and then common level 50 IO recipes from the market and then selling them to a vendor. Hit 50 and you can cakewalk that amount and more on a night's playing. With some marketing and doing a Posi, a new player can set up multiple characters to hit 50 being slotted this way.

You won't be getting decent recharge on a Posi anyway. Not to say Traps doesn't have this as an issue. I'm saying it is worse in that situation. I ran Posi I & II tonight and in all honestly I felt like I was doing better soloing higher level content than I was on those TFs.

Its been ages since I played my Claws/wp Brute and Spin has a different recharge time it, but FU + Spin + Shockwave can be a chain with the right recharge. I feel like even on my Brute those three worked as a chain. Note, I use Hasten. Focus + Shockwave can keep a boss on its butt if need be. Generally speaking, you take one of the first two attacks, one slot it since you won't need it in the end, skip Evis, and 6 slot if possible everything else. I 5 slot Shockwave with Bombardment and then the KB/KD. Claws is plenty fast enough even using WP and without the FF proc. I say this as a speed nut. I only put the -Res proc on Slash. Not Claws/wp, but this is how I did my Claws/ea.

I wouldn't be surprised if the number of characters I took to 50 with common level 25s isn't in the 30+ range. Most of them never got touched even after hitting 50. They played fine. I barely used IOs sets on Live, and only on one character. Another benefit of common IOs is you can strip them from a character and give them to another character you have without worrying about their origin. If I was starting out, I would either have a solo base where I stock pile common IOs, or do so with uncommon IOs where I frankenslot a build until later. Any set bonus would be simply that as it would still be better than using purely commons, and uncommons can go for rather cheap prices. Even if I hardly use them anymore, my base has a number of crappy uncommons stored just in case. I would be okay if a mythical CoH 2.0 never used TOs, DOs, or SOs.

I know it isn't FX light, but my default would be SS/elec. It handles Rage crash as well as anything can. I had mine in the 40s until I realized I didn't like SS.

I'm enjoying my Plant/ta. I need to work on and finalize a build for it before I go much further. Back on live, Plant/fire was the first Dom which clicked for me, but it sadly passed far too soon in a Hardcore SG.