Without_Pause

It has a long history of a less than desirable animation time. It has gotten better, but it still isn't great. I'm aware the damage fits for the animation time, and the size of the cone was improved. The closest thing I use to it is Spin, but Spin is known for being overly good and more so on a Scrapper. It is also a PBAoE and requires no lining up.

The problem with the Blasters listing is it merely taking into account personal ST damage. Case in point, they are using Dehydrate as part of its ST attack chain. Meanwhile the set has ample amounts of AoE, KD, the ability to proc a lot, and the previously mentioned Dehydrate as a way to heal. Sonic for the team factor in terms of damage should rank higher.

After making a Symphony controller today, Symphony/dark was one of the options I looked at for a Dom. I would like to at least get my Dark/dark Dom to 50 before I made another Dom.

Water is outright fantastic.

Considering the Wind control thread got rezzed, I'm not so sure talking about other servers is that big of a no no. Numbers would need to be looked at because if it is just a straight self buff, then yeah, that's an incredibly unbalanced way to do it. It also doesn't mean Homecoming is or should do it as well. The game is so incredibly weighted towards characters these days I can't imagine adding in more ways to buff characters. Do we really want 4-star content to be equivalent to +4/x8 PI radios?

Being in melee is trickier for TA though. I have a Fire/time, and I'm still trying to smooth out the experience on that build.

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