Without_Pause

Similar vibes from mine. I won't argue the build being good, but I'm not sure how much I play it past getting to 50.

Stone should like like an absolute truck when given to a Stalker. AoE will not be great, but yeah.

Brutes due to Fury fueling the damage aura or Tanks due to their target cap.

Also, down to the last mission in Hollows with my Shield/stj. Soled everything outside of FF, but did that with a co-op mission completion. Atta is an absolute slog. Never doing that again.

The thing is, I don't really play Sents partly because of it. I have one at 42. I dusted them off some time ago and realize just how many other builds I would rather play. I'll play my Psi Brute on the casual, but I think that's about it.

I actually it is. I almost wrote CU so I know it isn't Impact. I saw the name and thought it was odd it was the same as the IO set.

Hasten is used to make Soul Drain perma or at least near it. We can all agree the intent of the build is an odd one.

Good thing StJ doesn't have Smashing Haymaker. Longest cast time is Crushing Uppercut that's at 2.17 seconds for cast time which is second best from what I have seen in terms of being the slowest to cast from a set. So yeah, hardly worth mentioning. MA might be the fastest outside of EC. FYI, Kat doesn't have a cast time at 2+ seconds. I don't know of another melee set which does that. Support sets can be rather quick as well which is nice for steam rolling end game teams. Thermal and Cold come to mind. I think Sonic should qualify as well or at least be close. Something like a toggle might root you for a bit, but then it is a toggle.

I would still play a Blaster over a Sent in that case. Questions 4 and 5 answer themselves. In short, the support side is criminally underslotted, so this is why the conversation has gone the way it has.

Current implementation of Insight is frustrating so be aware of that. I might sit my Psi/dark brute until that gets reworked. Same for anything Savage as Hemo needs to be worth taking. Recently rolled a Shield/stj and Rad/kat which I am both enjoying.

T9 is Fulcrum Shift as damage capping a team far better than any self impacting power. Foot Stomp is great. I fully damage capped one is even better. T6 is Speed Boost. Anytime a power is referenced as crack... Honestly, you could make a good list just going through support classes.

An aside, I went looking and got reminded that Kat doesn't have any cast times at 2+ seconds. MA might be in the running for lowest animation time for ST attack chain even with EC factored in, but that would depend on the attack chain. It would be nice if exotic types got an attack set with fast animations. Let's say 2.17 seconds max and go from there. Sonic is near plug and play that this point.

Not really. I had a Rad/sonic which soloed on live quite well.

I'm not having those be of natural origin.

Destiny can be a huge patch for some builds, see Rebirth on a build without a heal. My only qualm with Judgement is theme wise for natural characters.

I only did a couple Emps and none to 50, but the best feeling one was Ill/emp. It has built in invis and a Confuse so it will generate a low amount of aggro and both sets are fueled by recharge. Sonic is one of the few secondaries on a Defender which to me felt impactful. A couple blasts and you can see a target start taking a bit more damage. Dark is obviously good with its debuffs as well and has solid AoE.

I accept EM is a better performer than StJ. StJ is best on a Stalker regardless. To me it is more about flow. Case in point, I was on my Dark/staff Tank tonight and died twice due to being stuck in an 2.57 second cast time animation which prevented me from using my heal. Whirling Hands: 2.5 second cast time Total Focus: 2.53 second cast time Spinning Strike: 1.8 second cast time. Crushing Uppercut: second 2.17 cast time EM does more damage as it should. Again, it is about the flow to me and a big reason why I took Claws to 50 twice and no, I don't care for Eviscerate. I skipped the T1 on my EM scrapper and yeah, it was a bit annoying waiting until 32 to have a decent ST attack chain. Also note StJ is just going to feel better paired with a click heavy armor set.

What about non-SS sets? I wouldn't mind some sort of ATO rework for brutes as the +fury one seems a bit meh. Stalker, Scrapper, and Tanks all got really good ATOs. While this goes beyond just Brutes, getting a Fort to near completion has really made me think about what a build can handle. I think any new brute build outside of that will likely be StJ with something which promotes a blender style build. Rad has the best top end in that it has +recharge and damage, but it has no mitigation in terms of -recharge as where Elec does. EA doesn't add damage, but it has -recharge def built in due to being def based and has a solid -recharge to mobs. I'm about tapped in terms of doing EA right now with one 50 and two others being leveled. I finished DA with my Fort, so I need to bet back to my Rad/bio and start pushing it to see it finish off the area as well. So far that's doing well as a build.

Speed is less of an issue if the damage was there, but it isn't.

Defender ATOs also work well with Sonic/sonic. Grab a def based epic armor and you'll have a rather tanky Defender.

I go against conventional wisdom when it comes to Lore partly because it is just really odd for a Stalker, as an example, to be going around with massive sized pets.

+1. The animation times on the ST attacks are not kind, but Rad is top tier for AoE. Shield/rad would be my pick for a min/max Tank. I would lean more towards doing one, but I have the Scrapper version, and I'm kind of done with Rad's animations in terms of wanting to level another one. Options not mentioned, Shield with Elec or Savage as both give you tele nukes although both are lacking in ST damage. I still think Savage is what Claws should have been. I made a Rad/bio Brute and that certainly makes me wonder what a Tank version would be like because it is going to pump out a lot of orange numbers. Any tank with two damage auras is going to wreck things. Balanced versus AoE heavy, but the smoothest set due to animation times unless I missed something is StJ. The more I play other sets the more I want to play StJ instead. I find EM more on the good side than fun, but Dark/em would be great for stacked stuns. Don't get me wrong, EM's ST damage is incredibly good maybe too good, but any time you have to deal with TF's animation time it raises an issue for me in the fun factor.

I have been thinking about using it with Thermal. I currently have a lowbie with Fire, but Fire feels weakest on a defender. I'm not saying it is bad on a defender. I'm saying at least Corrs and Blasters get better versions of it. I just need to see some animations so I can figure out how much I would like the set.

(raises hand) Some of us like that hectic playstyle. If my current laptop didn't offer up screen shot style gameplay in certain cases, I would still be playing more Kin.

Why? Did Diantane post again?