Saikochoro

I would most definitely shoot for softcap to all types except psi. Usually negative can be achieved by taking a ranged attack and slotting it with thunder strike. You can also two slot a hold with basilisks gaze. I’ll take a look once I get a chance.

Providing advice and asking for advice is a completely separate issue to looking down on one way of playing a game versus another. I have never expressed any problem with people asking for and giving advice. I have been on both sides of that the entire time I have played this game both on live and on homecoming. I also don’t have a problem with wanting to give new players more beginner advice, such as focusing on general slotting and play style. There is nothing wrong with that at all. My views haven’t changed since I posted asking for advice in the past. I still do that. The thing I don’t have patience for, and really never had, is when people try to put one way of playing a game above another way by complaining about how others play the game. DFB was a big discussion point at the same time as when I was asking for advice on common IOs and I had a problem with people claiming those who were enjoying DFB weren’t playing the game right. Not because they play differently than me, but because they feel the need to proclaim that other ways of enjoying the game aren’t correct.

Here is a WM/SD build that makes use of rune of protection to supplement resists. A couple things to note: - The high resists will have 50% uptime, which I think is more than sufficient given you will have softcapped defenses as your primary mitigation. - There was a free power slot that I couldn't allocate additional slots to. I put One with the Shield in as a place holder, but you could pick up grant cover or some other power if you like. - All totals are without incarnates. So you can pick whatever incarnates you like. Totals with Rune active: Totals with rune inactive:

Yeah. I like to pick up rune of protection whenever I can. It is especially nice on energy aura and SR as well. I tend to skip the shield T9 since it doesn’t scale with global recharge and use rune of protection in place of that. I’ll have to look back at my WM/SD build to see what I did when I get a chance.

I always thought StJ/SD fit Captain America better, but maybe not. Street justice will have better AoE though, which is better for farming.

@jubakumbi hit the nail on the head. There is a long standing prejudice against power leveling and farming by a vocal sub section of the community. It pops up every so often usually in a passive aggressive manner. Myself, and it appears some others, have lost patience with it. The thing that makes this game great is the ability to play any way that you want. However, there are always those that can’t seems to accept that other people play differently than them, especially in regards to power leveling or farming. Power leveling and farming is often passive aggressively put in the shame bucket and dismissed as a lesser way of playing the game. It just gets tiring seeing these threads pop up. I apologize for my overly aggressive tone, but my stance on the issue is unchanged.

I often work to achieve softcaps without maneuvers or incarnates. This helps with overall endurance consumption. Then I pick up rune of protection to supplement resists. Makes you pretty darned tough with 50% uptime. I can’t remember if I did this on my WM/SD, but I’m pretty sure I did.

Quoted for truth. Very well said.

Nope I quoted the correct comment. What is the purpose of complaining about power levelers other than in an attempt to “correct” their way of playing the game? It’s either Insulting/shaming one way of playing by calling them a pain, or it is trying to get them to change. Either way, it boils down to not approving how people get to play the game. As has been said by more than just me, you don’t get a say in how other play the game. If you don’t want them on your team, then kick them and put them on global ignore. Other than that you don’t get a say. In your second paragraph you inferred that people who do not share your view of playing the game erode the quality of the community, which is ridiculous. I countered by saying those that try to enforce their view on others are the problem.

It’s just another jab inferring that PLing is not the proper way to play the game and thus can’t possibly be fun. Just more fun policing comments. Edit: PK has retracted his earlier position by indicating he now understands there I another perspective. So my comment above no longer applies to PK.

Here is a build I made for you to look at and see if you want to take some idea's from. I don't claim that it is the best build. I haven't tested it out on the test server yet. Though I am positive this would be very survivable. You could easily chase more damage via procs and different pool powers if you sacrificed some recharge and survivability. For my theory build here are the key points: - The main single target attacks have procs (1 -res on pistols, 3 damage procs on suppressive, and 2 damage procs on executioners shot). - The ATO procs are on the lower recharge AOE powers to give a better chance of them firing off. - Rune of protection was picked up to give solid resists with 50% uptime. Note, rune is active in the totals when you open up the build. Turn it off to show non-rune resistance totals. - Softcaps to all types (except psionic) achieved without incarnates allowing for musculature alpha to be taken. - The last slot on hail of bullets is up for debate. You can put the FOTG - res, FF + rech, or another damage proc in there. I chose to put the FF + Rech in, but can easily swap that out if you want. - 3 seconds short of perma hasten with unboosted IOs, but with FF + rech or any other recharge buff on teams it should be perma. Or you can boost the recharge IOs to make it perma. - Although it is still an expensive build it doesnt use any winter Os. - I chose combat jumping/super jump as opposed to hover/fly as I feel that combat jumping fits dual pistols PBAOE nuke better. However, you can easily swap out for hover/fly with the same results.

The people who try to enforce their own view of the game on all others are a pain. You know, the ones who like to police how people play and enjoy the game. The ones who try to dictate which ways of playing the game are valid and which ways are not. COH is a game that gives freedom to play and enjoy almost any way that you want. That is one of the great things about it. The main things hurting the quality of the game community are the ones who try to enforce their rule on others in how they play the game.

A good way is to set up an alternate account. Use your main account to power level a tanker or brute (spines or radiation melee with fiery aura). There are plenty of builds out their for a fire farmer. Some are expensive, but some are fairly budget friendly. Get it built out. Then use that to power level new toons on your main account. I don’t like asking to join people’s farms. There are plenty of free farm runs that are advertised often, but I would rather do it on my own. By power leveling yourself it is also much more efficient. You get all the xp and can start and stop whenever you want. I sometimes power level myself to 50. Sometimes to 32. Sometimes to 20. You get all the freedom and power you need by setting up a farm account.

You are free to team and play at low levels with others who enjoy doing so. Other people can play how they see fit. If they have fun by power leveling to 50 and then running itrials and raids nonstop, then that is perfectly fine. One way of playing the game is not more valid than another way. If some people only log in to play on the market, that is every bit as valid as someone running story arcs. You don’t get a say in how people enjoy playing the game. They play for their own fun not yours.

Beam rifle/energy aura sentinel is pretty good. Very tough with soft capped type defenses, high resists when stacked with rune of protection, a good heal, + recharge, and great endurance tools. Energy aura is one the best mitigation sets for any archetype that can take it. It also works well with pretty much any primary. Beam rifle sentinel is pretty good. Out of the sentinels I’ve made, it is the set that feels the best damage wise. Fast recharging nuke that will basically fill your opportunity meter each time you use it.

In my opinion you can’t beat the fun and style of DP/MC blaster. I have tried dual pistols on blaster and sentinel and blaster wins hands down. Dual pistols feels incredibly anemic on sentinel. However, pair it with martial combat, leap into mobs, and just melt them with a blaster. It has very good AoE (or die before hail of bullets got bugged, but that will be fixed in page 6). It has good utility, and can still kills bosses and higher HP foes easily. Plus nothing beats ki push into spinning kick and finished off with executioners shot. DP/MC no contest.

To me the damage difference is night and day. It is very noticeable. Blasters do way more damage, and with IOs they can be made fairly sturdy. They won’t be as sturdy as a sentinel, but especially on a team they are plenty sturdy. I can’t even remember the last time I face planted on a level 50 blaster and I play really aggressively. When I can’t find a team late at night I don’t have a problem soloing +4/8 on my blaster without amplifier and without scarfing down inspirations constantly. I am able to get the important softcaps and still take musculature alpha and assault hybrid. I even take ageless destiny for more recharge. Picking up rune of protection helps a lot, but I pick that up on sentinels, stalkers, and scrappers too. I do steer clear of Arachnos or carnies though, but I hate those factions regardless. I don’t really notice the survivability difference between the two while teaming at level 50. However, I do definitely notice the damage gap. If you are looking for purely the best in slot the answer is blaster. They can overcome survivability issues with a proper build and the team buffs. However, the sentinel just can’t overcome the damage gap. Even if they get a fulcrum shift capping out their damage, a blaster would still do better in that situation. Effectiveness and efficiency aside, sentinels are still fun. I think fun is much more important than effectiveness. Both will do perfectly fine on teams and nobody complains about having a sentinel. Both archetypes are also very fun to play. I personally enjoy blasters more so I play blasters more. If you enjoy the sentinel a lot, then keep at it. You can always make a blaster too!

I have a DP/SR sentinel. I spent quite a bit on it getting a nice build with good recharge and procs. I really wanted to like it because my DP/MC blaster is my favorite toon. I just cry a little inside each time I try to play it though. It just doesn’t do enough damage, especially compared to my blaster. The additional survivability doesn’t really make up for it IMO. I played them back to back to try to compare them, and to me the damage difference is night and day. Dual pistols, even with procs, on sentinels just feels super anemic. That said, if you’ve never played it on a blaster, then you probably won’t care. Dual pistols is still a fun set. I do however enjoy my beam rifle / EA sentinel. Although it still isn’t blaster level damage, it is more survivable, and still has pretty good damage. Energy aura is a fantastic secondary.

Yeah, I did pretty well on the merits. I didn’t do bad on the ATOs either. I was estimating low for a price on them. I think the lowest I sold one for is 8m and the highest was 15m. I may run the test again at some point, but don’t want to push my luck again at the moment. I’ll post again once I decide to though.

Lately, I’ve been power leveling new alts to level 32-35 and then giving them 200m. I use that to fill out all of the slots up to that level, then buy converters and yellow recipes. I then convert as I level the rest of the way up to 50. By then I have more than enough to buy all the purples and whatnot that I want.

New Blast Set: Martial Blast. This will be a thrown weapons set that pulls a lot from martial assault, but also has unique elements. Tier 1: Shuriken Throw - throw three shurikens dealing minor lethal damage. Recharge very fast. Tier 2: Kunai Throw - throw a single kunai dealing moderate lethal damage. Recharge fast. Tier 3: Explosive Shuriken - throw a large shuriken at a targeted foe that explodes and hits all nearby enemies dealing moderate lethal damage. Recharge slow. Tier 4: Acid Blade - Throw a blade coated in acid dealing minor toxic damage. After the blade hits you gain a moderate to-hit and damage bonus for a short time. Recharge moderate. Tier 5: Caltrops - throw a handful of caltrops to a targeted location causing any foe passing through it to be slowed and receive minor lethal damage over time. Recharge slow. Tier 6: Dual Kunai Throw - throw a kunai from each hand dealing high lethal damage. Recharge moderate. Tier 7: Trick Shot - Bounce a thrown shuriken between multiple targets dealing moderate lethal damage and knocking foes down. Recharge slow. Tier 8: Masterful Throw - Take careful aim and throw an extremely accurate, extremely forceful blade dealing extreme lethal damage. Tier 9: Blade Storm - Spin around rapidly throwing blades around you dealing extreme lethal damage and knocking foes down and increasing your own defense for a short time. Recharge long. Commentary: Recharge times, animations, target caps, and damage values would be in line with what is typical for most blast sets. Blade Storm - would basically be a hail of bullets port using thrown weapons instead and i think it would thematically fit a thrown weapons set better than other nuke types. The cool down, damage value, animation time would be similar to hail of bullets. The real winner of the set and unique element would be acid blade. This will function similar to blinding feint from dual blades and follow up from claws as an Aim replacement. Like the two aforementioned powers, the bonuses would have to be smaller than Aim, but with high recharge they would be able to stack for a more consistent damage bonus. Damage value, recharge time, and animation time would be similar to blinding feint and follow up. The power itself would also be fully toxic damage. I think this would be a unique addition to blast sets that currently isn’t available. Having a nice consistent damage bonus would also be nice to offset the more resisted damage type (lethal).

Just wait till you discover the glory of enhancement converters. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/2688-how-to-make-millions-on-the-market-in-minutes/

Snipped for brevity. I did some theory crafting of what a tanker with EA could probably achieve in a scrapper thread about energy aura. I think energy aura would indeed be awesome on tanks. However, SR has already been given to tanks, and is downright insane on tankers. I’m not sure they want to give another potentially insane set to tankers haha. I think SR would still top it. Though energize would be really nice to have.

I personally like using unbrealable guard sets for elec/rad/resist based sets. The main reason I like it is because it allows you to easily stack up melee defense. If you get enough unbreakable guards/obliterations/other melee defense bonuses you can softcap melee defense, which covers a lot of the damage you will be encountering. Even getting to 32.5% just needs a single purple insp to get to softcap. Reactive armor has good defense bonuses, but they are small and typed and will require more effort into getting to softcap with a zero baseline. Plus unbreakable has nice resist bonuses.

I would put it in the power you use right before vicious slash. That is your hardest hitter and would thus want that one to crit more reliably.