Without_Pause

As someone who's alias is Without Pause and rails against long cast times, it has been far too recent for me to look at TA and notice the cast times. After obsessing over cast times for melee, I started to look at support and roll new characters based on what I saw. In a land of steam rolling +4/x8 content, cast times matter. A near two second difference can be another attack added in. Like, Disruption Arrow with Blaze versus just Tar Patch.

I honestly wonder how long a typical fights lasts. I highly doubt a mob takes 60 seconds to clear. 30 seconds seems long, TBH. I've done solo missions at x8 in like 8 minutes depending on the mission. Sure, for longer fights where an EB, AV, etc is involved those longer debuffs will be nice, but that feels rather specialized. Dark and Rad have an issue with the toggles in that on the right team they simply aren't used. The same type of power for TA can always be used and even before the fight starts. Related, I made Grav/ta, but it is too early for me to really say much of anything as the build is level 9, and I don't even have ATOs slotted.

Are we to assume solo because on a team it would be nearly any although a ranged character would better? I still think a blaster is best since you at least have the high damage to start with. You lack mitigation as a default so that's less impacted. Maybe a Scrapper or Stalker since those are also high damage but with mez protection although melee. Sents would also work as well. Damage output wouldn't be great though.

But then those toggles stick around now for a bit even after the anchor gets killed.

Static Discharge doesn't seem that great one slotted. I would grab SJ instead. Also, I would swap Hurl with Cross Punch.

Honestly, once I get the final crafting badge for 2,000 inventions I am thinking of semi-retiring from the market. 1. I will have 3+ billion sitting once done. 2. While I opened 100 Winter packs, I have the vast majority of it as I only slotted two sets. 3. I have 14 level 50s. Many of whom I want to play and a number of them have full builds already done. One character has two. 4. It is taking me more and more energy to roll a new character. 5. Builds I do tend to be reasonable in pricing. I just made changes to a planned build which means 10 less purples. This means by the sheer playing of my level 50s, crafting, and selling as needed, pretty much any build which needs IOs will have it without even touching the 3 billion. I counted out the converters I need for the badge. Merits go to other things now as drops will cover any number of converters I need. Granted, Merits more than covered converters already. I was just hell bent on using Merits for converters. I have a character sitting with 1k+ in Merits. Not sure how much of the pace of things have slowed down. I drop 10 stacks(100 bids) for recipes at a time and over the next days or how long they get filled, crafted, converted, and relisted. I'll get the badge soon enough and then it just using it as actually needed. The best thing for the market is new power sets. New power sets mean new characters and Pages. Pages bring people.

Update just went through I assume servers will be coming back shortly.

I can't imagine with the player base winding down HC getting more leverage.

If duplicate names were allowed, I would honestly have a single character with the same name as someone else and that's only because I transferred the character from a different server where the name was unique.

I feel like a lot of it is conditional. Lower desired at least in terms of solo play. Anything Lethal damage. Tanks have lower damage. Add in being highly resisted and no matter how safe you are, it gets boring trying to solo. Additionally, I don't see the reason for picking DB over Claws, but at least when it comes to non-Scrapper situations, DB looks better since Spin has a longer recharge. Yes, I see the advantage to DB if theme is the issue, but from a performance stand point, Claws all the way. Things which have longer cast times and lower DPA. Staff tends to stick out in this regard. Staff does have bonuses and maybe even a bit too good coming from the combo system. A better balance of damage versus utility would be nice. Tanks don't need +13% Res coming from an attack which has anemic DPA. More damage and maybe +3% Def and +6% Res instead. Also adding in Kin Melee. Rad has some longer ST cast times, but it makes up for it via AoE in IG. TW is a quirky set in that cast can and will be long or they can be really fast. Playstyle. Some of us(waves) like faster playing sets. This does not mean slower sets are bad. Some might prefer the slower hitting like a truck sets. I tend to skip them. Battle Axe, War Mace, Broad Sword, and Stone Melee fall in place here. On the flip side, something like Kat simply flies due to low animation times. Claws is still good here even if not Scrapper fast. StJ is also rather quick. Its AoEs are on the smaller side though although faster recharging. Sets which are heavy one way or another in terms of ST or AoE damage. Note, it is easier to add in AoE than it is ST damage. MA is ST heavy, but at least you get +Def from an attack and the AoE can recharge fast enough. EM is also ST heavy, but it at least has a cone + PBAoE. They just aren't great. SS is ST heavy, but it has the best AoE in the game. Spines, Savage, and Elec are AoE heavy, but at least Savage comes closer to having a ST attack chain. If Hemo ever got fixed... Savage doesn't really have that much mitigation so the damage should be really good. Dark can be a cure all, or not really beneficial. Shield/dark and SR/dark are great. WP/dark less so. Fire is an oddity as it should have the most damage with no mitigation and yet it doesn't do the most damage for ST or AoE. Ice is one of if not the most defensive set, and it rarely resisted. DoT heavy and plays slow. Ideally you take an Epic attacks to smooth things out. Some sets have combos in them and some people aren't fond of them as they can "force" certain attacks to be used. DB's best DPS actually ignores its own combo system. Psionic has Insight which is random in triggering and forces a lockout once it wears off. Boggle can increase the chance of Insight, but that's less desirable to use on a team. I don't have a favorite, but I might lean on Ice as a default for now. Ice Patch just neutralizes things.

This is the wrong character. I saw the name and thought so but had to go and verify. I still might modify that for something else. This is the "Well, I don't hate it" version I have going right now. Still debating on keeping it female. The backstory is I have been looking at TA. I just haven't paired it with anything even though Archery would be easy for a Hover blasting character. Ended up going Grav/ta as I haven't really done either. Like, I have never rolled anything Grav. A TA/a might have been in the mid 20s back on live. I am currently tying it to CoH lore and thought about Croatoa and the named I settled on was Jonsson, but that is very in debate. I liked Croatoan Warder as well. I have a backup name I might use instead as I thought about using it for sometime.

One of the variations of my alias here. Current version I like the most is a Claws/ea Scrapper. This is vastly for sentimental reasons as I like a lot of other builds. See sig although that needs to be updated and covers only HC and not live. AT wise: Defender: Rad/sonic even if my main was Kin/elec. I have a ton of these at 50. Controller: Earth/storm. Also with a number of them at 50. Ill/rad on live is close. It was first to solo sub level 50 at +4 on SO slotting. Scrapper: Claws/ea. Scrapper Claws is the best Claws. Blaster: Water/temp. Tank: None at 50, but Rad/ice is my current highest with a Shield/wm being worked on. MM: Bots/traps. Only 50 MM I have and no reason desire to go back. Stalker: StJ/ea. Only one at 50, but Ice/stone is being worked on. I'll likely still take the StJ/ea for sentimental reasons. Corr: Fire/dark. I think it is my only level 50 Corr. I can't recall on live. Dom: None at 50, but Earth/earth and Dark/dark are contenders. Brute: Ice/stone. So close to being perfect and still not terribly broken. First to solo +4/x8 sub 50. Misc: Fort. Gets into all sorts of trouble, but has the tools to escape virtually every time. This is where I would start with ATs with a mythical CoH2. I have a Sent at 50, but yeah. Give me a Fort every time over a Sent.

They haven't been on in 2+ months. It would be better to ask/search in the Blaster forums if you are asking about the Elec/elec.

While the PBAoE change sucks, it is understandable in terms of the Tank changes with their radius increase versus other melee ATs. Now, why a Tank can magically reach 50% farther than other ATs including Brutes, well, that's an odd way to do game balance, IMO. P.S. It is quite remarkable just how bad game balance is in this game for how much I like the game itself.

Ice alone will keep things in place. Add in the Winter IO Immob. proc to further help. I have a Ice/stone Brute with that proc and I don't chase anything.

I would add in Cross Punch for AoE when using SS. That at least puts it at Cone + PBAoE level. Plus, you can at least slot it and it has a quick animation time versus Sands of Mu.

Don't sleep on Ice. 1. It is DoT heavy and Fury loves DoT. 2. Ice Patch is a huge boon in survivability. More so if you solo. 3. The damage isn't great, but it is solid and rarely resisted. 4. You can add in epics to further smooth out your attacks. It should go without saying that Rad is an easy recommendation. There is the con of animation times for ST attacks. The pro is how good IG is on a Brute procced out. Stone would also be good as Elec helps Stone. I like StJ and Kat. I have taken them to 50 on other ATs. I did have a Kat/elec Brute which I deleted for no real good reason. On the plus side, Kat cast times are all under 2 seconds, so you attack chain is going to fly. Kin isn't going to be better on a Brute. Psionic is a bit wonky in how it plays. Insight is random in being triggered and you will be locked out at times. Boggle does increase the chance for Insight, but that's only really more beneficial when soloing. I've taken Claws to 50 three times. I might talk myself into a fourth. I even did it on a Brute and have no real qualms with it, BUT the Scrapper version is just better for two reasons. The recharge on Spin and slotting the ATO 50% proc into FU. I would honestly grab /stone, /ea, or /sr on a Scrapper and use Claws with that.

I'm currently using the hood and that's it. I think I'll like use a lot of costume slots for this one.

Thanks. I feared the male restriction. Like I said, I have a decent backup.

What are the parts which make up the chest area and does the belt need to be unlocked? I know I had the belt for at least one other character, but I'm not getting it to show up on a female I am working on. Definitely not looking to copy it as I've made changes already. I'm just wondering. Heck, some of which I did copy just doesn't like right so I'm more looking like another variation of a ranger right now. I only have the boots and hood for what I would keep. I do like the belt I am currently using and might just keep it. I had a different top, but clipping was causing issue with any belt I liked, so trying to see if this one works.

I think I read somewhere someone was trying to figure out the odds for something and admitted that there can be roughly a 3% variance in the testing. So even getting a 47/53 disparity would be within reason even when someone would be going, "See, it favors the one side."

Have you looked here?

Doesn't Ice Slick do KD on him which would make it even safer? I know Clockwork can be weird with KD being KB.

I don't know that what dev team is thinking, but I would highly doubt they are eager to pull any plug on a server as that generates all sorts of negative press for a game. I could see going three servers, US, EU, and RP, but I just doubt that's in the works anytime soon. I started on Torch, so at least one of my characters have a '.' in their name when I moved them over to Excel. I had thought of moving some back as a place for "retirement," but I just haven't done so. I say "retirement" as I would fully plan on still playing the builds but just less so.

+4/x8 Council map at level 48 on a Ice/stone IOed out as well as I can. No Accolades for End. It set no speed records. I wouldn't recommend it, but it can be done using what drops for inspirs. Anything which resist your damage decently enough or even has any sort of End Drain I would not recommend doing the same under those conditions. Arachnos even at +2 are an absolute handful. I'm currently soloing at +1/x8 at level 49.