[Help me create a main character...]

7 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

And something not mentioned often but I think is true is /Regen can do very well to lower levels as an exemplar particularly with Broadsword and Katana owing to Parry (combined with the slots and global recharge of an exemplar build) .

Quite true, it's a set that matures early.  Regen is probably at it's strongest relatively in the 20's, so with decent IO sets becoming available around that time it can maintain effectiveness.  With my last Regen I leveled, a Fire/Regen stalker here, I found that focusing on S/L defense seemed to work well.  Adding Parry to the list to handle anything melee that defends against a good majority of the damage you'll face.

 

Since you're starting with zip for defense it's rather tough to build up soft capped def to multiple types or positions.  That being the case the best bang for the buck defense is defiantly S/L... my recollection is that something approaching 70% of all damage has a S/L component to it.  Most energy also has smashing after all.  Cold frequently comes paired with lethal.  And, as a scrapper a pretty good percentage of the damage you'll take is melee after all... something Broadsword handles quite nicely.  It's trivial to maintain a double stack of Parry for (unenhanced) 30% melee/lethal defense.  Couple that with your regeneration and heals... it works pretty well.

[Elec/Shield Stalker]

I didn't get Aid Self on my Elec/Shield and never really missed it much leveling up, the situations where I needed a heal were rare enough that the occasional green candy was plenty.  I DID get Rebirth for my incarnate power and it's sometimes useful doing silly things like farming massive spawns back to back at x4 +8.

 

I also think it's best as a Stalker set although it's quite good on any AT, the Assassin's Strike we get does tend to solve the ST damage lack the other AT's face with Elec.

[Help me create a main character...]

The combinations I've most enjoyed were Broadsword/Shield, Electric/Shield (admittedly this was a Stalker) and Broadsword/Regen (back in issue 3, with some work still effective at shutdown).

 

Regen isn't an easy set nowadays and it takes considerable work to make it competitive in survivability.  Even then it lives and dies by it's clickie heals of Reconstruction and Dull Pain.  Broadsword helps considerably with Dull Pain er, I mean Parry, stacking up significant amounts of Melee defense but it benefits greatly from IO defense builds.  At it's best you'll still need to be aware and quick on the heal buttons but it's a very active set to play.

 

If you want to clear maps fast it's hard to do much better than Electric/Shield; it's a great combination for killing entire spawns in seconds.  The Scrapper version lacks a hard hitting single target attack that the Stalker gets so I personally think it's better on the Stalker AT.  Frankly in general Stalkers play like a Scrapper with Stealth.  Jump in and start the massacre, then move on to the next.  I play them virtually the same.

[SR/* what to build for?]

I'd suggest after defense you think about resistance.  Any way you look at it you're going to get hit 5-10% of the time with SR so after you soft cap defense it's time to go resistance to take some of the sting out of it.  Possibly look into a self heal like Aid Self for when things get pear shaped.

[I'm seeing more tankers these days, are you playing more tankers?]

21 hours ago, Ultimate15 said:

Hrrrrm.

 

What about Bio Armor / Stone melee? Thoughts on that? 

From what I've heard Bio has it's plusses and minuses but I've never played it myself.  From what I've read the durability or damage or endurance stances would make for an interesting character.  And Stone Melee is a load of fun to play while offering considerable damage mitigation due to it's knockdowns, the KD/Stun of Fault (a great opener to get everyone's attention) and Seismic Smash's MAG 4 hold.  I'd suggest Heavy Mallet, Taunt, Fault, Tremor and Seismic Smash as the "must have" powers in the set.  Fault also takes a number of IO damage procs and due to it's recharge they'll usually fire on most every mob in range almost every time.  CMA has 3 slotted and at 50 that's close 300 points of damage out of that "no damage" power.

[The Random Babble Thread]

19 hours ago, Oubliette_Red said:

What movie (even though you may have seen it dozens of time if not more) will you put on/change the channel to for just background noise as you do something else?

 

I will actually recite the dialog word-for-word while doing chores. <.<

 

"Mongo likes candy..."

***BANG***

"Mongo just pawn in game of life"

 

One of the greatest comedies of all time.  Can you imagine the screams of the idiot PC crowd if it were made today?

[I'm seeing more tankers these days, are you playing more tankers?]

1 hour ago, Ultimate15 said:

I just rolled a stone/stone. 

 

Anyone ever play a stone/stone to 50? I've never done one before, but I've heard good things!

It was a popular combo on Live, however Stone Armor isn't as popular anymore.  After level 32 it offers unmatched durability but it also has very limited mobility, slow recharge and lower damage than any other character.  With IO's it's now possible to nearly match Stone's durability with none of it's drawbacks making it unpopular.  How do you feel about Teleport for your mobility?  You'll need to get used to it or you won't be able to get over a curb in combat with your mez protection (Rooted) or Granite Armor activated.  Make friends with a Kinetic so you can move faster than a slow crawl without dropping your defenses.  Unfortunately that's the reality of playing Stone Armor.  If you want to go with it then by all means, just realize that it comes with some really heavy penalties.

 

I've played two Stone Armor tankers to 50 on Live, both of them after the great Nerfs of issue 5 and 6 butchered the durability of all characters.  At the time Stone was the only tanker left that could approach the durability all tanks took for granted in the early days of the game.  We gritted our teeth, teamed with Kinetics and took Teleport so we could have mobility and tanked on.  Now that many tanker primaries can again reach unkillable levels of durability Stone's primacy in that regard is no longer viewed as worth the penalties it imposes.

 

Still, it IS the most durable tanker out there... once you get Granite Armor at 32.  Before that you'll be fairly squishy and will have to be careful.  Be aware that Stone Melee is a fantastic set with loads of soft controls in knock downs, stuns and a MAG 4 hold in Seismic Smash... however it IS endurance heavy.  I've played Stone Melee since issue 3 when I rolled up CMA and it's probably my favorite tanker secondary overall.

[Heightened Senses Worthless?]

13 hours ago, Frosticus said:

Will it protect me in the lava pools or not? 

🙂

 

12 hours ago, Roderick said:

I don't think so. I think the lava pools are autohit.

I think that's correct although it's been a long time since I tested it.  Resistance will reduce the damage a lava pool does; way back in issue 4 when Invuln tankers could cap all resistances but Psi at 90% I tried standing in lava.  The incoming damage just barely outpaced my regeneration as I recall, but by the time it was dangerous Dull Pain was recharged and took me back to full.  It was a popular way to farm damage badges by AFK'ing with Dull Pain on autofire.

[Heightened Senses Worthless?]

7 minutes ago, Bopper said:

Everyone needs to chill. @GM Widowercan probably go ahead and lock this thread. OP got the answer they were looking for. Now we are just diverging into pettiness over who started it. Let's all be mature and end it.

Agreed.

[Heightened Senses Worthless?]

I'm really not sure where the OP's confusion is coming from.  As is obvious there are enemies that deal Smashing (punches, kicks and the like), Lethal (Guns, blades etc), Fire (fire based attacks) Cold (Ice attacks) Energy (Energy blasts) Negative (Dark blasts) and Psionic (Mental attacks) damage.  Therefore there are defenses against each damage type.  The power in question states in it's detailed description what it defends against and what it's defense values are.

 

The flavor text is just that, and for some reason the OP has decided to take it to mean it doesn't affect enemy damage for some reason.  Anyone who takes the flavor text of powers as gospel is doomed to disappointment, a large number are flat wrong and many are missworded.  

[Heightened Senses Worthless?]

59 minutes ago, Fista said:

Ah but it does.  Environment- the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plan lives or operates.  So by adding the "Environment" descriptor, which to my memory I have never seen used to describe another power, left me a little confused. So to me is sounds like the effects are coming from the game world. Not NPCs or MOBs. How often do you encounter environmental effects as I have described them? Once maybe twice every ten levels. Less? If this is the case it's not a very useful power.

 

 It took three posts for someone to explain what the game meant by environmental.  One of which all but called me stupid. 

 

It is very clear by my second post that the definition of Environmental is my sticking point.  So what other powers use the descriptor of environmental?  I know Paragon Wiki is out dated but on their page for Damage Types https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Damage#Negative_Energy_Damage  no mention of any environment or environmental is used. Is this the sole use of it on the game?

Environment is a null term in CoH, damage comes in categories and defense/resistance also comes in categories and it does not matter where the origin of the damage may be.  Defense comes in typed, Smash/Lethal/Energy/Negative/Fire/Cold/Psi, and it comes in positional, Ranged/Melee/AOE.  It does not care if the damage is a mob or a lava pit, it's all the same.  Resistance is all typed, Smash/Lethal/Energy/Negative/Fire/Cold/Psi and applies after an attack has beaten your defenses to reduce the damage you take.

 

Also, the flavor text in power descriptions is famously inaccurate, look at the detailed description for what the power actually DOES, not what it says it does.  IO's also suffer from this, for example the Kismet +Accuracy IO actually gives the considerably more valuable +To Hit, not Accuracy.

 

There's lots of fairly involved mechanics in the game that you'll likely eventually get into if you want to maximize your durability and effectiveness.  Some of it gets into, *gasp* MATH *ugh* and is fairly complex.  There's some real math geeks on these boards who can help you with the details.  A lot of number crunching has gone into this so we know the results we need.  I've always let them figure out the details, I just want to know the bottom line, what do I need to reach to achieve "x".

[How do you get missing costume pieces?]

Some pieces got moved to different sub categories but as far as I know everything that was there before is still there, plus quite a few additions.  It's not always obvious where some item may have moved to and when things were reorganized it tended to break costume files.

 

What pieces are you missing?  Maybe someone can point you to where they got hidden.

[i dont care how it preforms i like dual blades]

18 hours ago, THEDarkTyger said:

Because the animation set isn't as fun?

If you prefer it then that's fine.

[How tough do you need to be?]

You need to be tough enough to withstand the aggro of an 8 man spawn at +4, or to withstand a +4 AV.  I'd say that's the minimum requirement for tanking in the late game and with a good build most tanker primaries are capable of that.

 

Defense is quite effective, and as SR you have massive resistance to debuffs.  You'll expect to eat about 5-8% of the incoming damage at the defense soft cap; that's where layered defense/resistance/regeneration/healing comes into play.  Unfortunately SR doesn't really give you much once damage gets past your defenses.  I'd build for resistance, if you have the cash you should be able to layer on 30-50% resistance to back you up which will make a major difference in your durability.

 

I don't know if the changes to Tankers affected the aggro aura of WP and SR or not, they used to be the red headed stepchildren with almost nonexistent aggro auras.  That's what kept me from rolling those two sets before.

[Solo Miss Liberty TF]

1 hour ago, Chirikiti said:

First, many of the successful solo attempts weren't solos because they used an alt account to tank recluse. Doesn't count.

 

 

Two-attempts here. Mind/Psi Dominator. The missions/AVs etc up to and including the final 4 (GW, BS etc) are pretty much no problem. Few uh oh moments I guess.

 

For me (and another person I know) the barrier are the towers. I can't survive recluse long enough to dps the towers even with lores/ultimate etc etc. It's not just the towers but the mechanics who repair them. They come pretty fast and regular after half way, don't have the abilities to take them out that quick. Got a tower down to 1/3, died. But figured I could go back and continue. Nope repaired to full. Spent about 8 hours trying everything I could think of including balls to the wall brute force. I'll try exploring an alt build when I feel like I'm interested in another attempt.

 

But It's a real pisser. Solo'd everything outside of Cuda/Khan/Miss Lib (and Lusca in the GM category, I actually forgot it was a thing for months), But man gotta get that solo STF. 

I've found that tossing Bonfire on the tower keeps the repairmen away.  Any similar location damage power should do the same as the repairmen are only around level 40 minions.  Surviving LR while doing this is the major problem.

[Can we have Regen, please?]

2 hours ago, Heraclea said:

"If you build appropriately."  "Additional survival tools."

 

There's the problem right there.  Yes, you can build a quite tough Regen character, in the same way that you can build a quite tough blaster or defender.  But most other armor sets get to start a lot closer to the finish line. 

Agreed there.  I've played Regen to 50 several times both on Live and here.  Without additional help it tends to drop quickly in the later levels.  On Live pre-IO I had a Spine/Regen and Broadsword/Regen scrappers.  With the Spine I went through a ton of purples staying alive in tough missions while the Broadsword was better thanks to Parry.

 

Here on HC I have a Fire/Regen Stalker at 50 who's fairly capable, but I built for soft capped S/L defenses.  Frankly as a Tanker primary I wouldn't play Regen, it would be too squishy to take alpha strikes as it stands now.  A tough alpha strike is fully capable of killing an unarmored tanker in a couple seconds... possibly even faster than you can hit Dull Pain or Reconstruction.  The problem with Regen is that it's unarmored and has no way to mitigate incoming damage other than healing it.  When incoming damage exceeds Regen capacity you're headed to the floor.

[i dont care how it preforms i like dual blades]

Here's a thought if you like the look but don't like how it plays why not roll a Claws character and use one of the blades options instead of claws?

[Make Me A Tanker Main!]

26 minutes ago, Haijinx said:

I'd suggest looking into how to set up binds to turn your telenukes from location based to target based.  Big QOL improvement imo.

ABSOLUTELY.  This was one of the biggest improvements in my attack chain.  I use the following:

/bind button4 "powexec_location target Lightning Rod"

/bind button5 "powexec_location target Shield Charge"

 

Button 5 on your mouse will shield charge at your targeted mob, button 4 will Lightning Rod on your targeted mob.  Soooo much easier than having to click a ground location.

[Shield/ tanker - defense *and* resistance?]

14 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Those builds that pick Kick... is that a useful attack?  I was also pondering on picking Cross Punch to get to Weave.  (And it would fit better thematically.)  Both have some useful mitigation and help build a chain that doesn't rely on lots of recharge to always have an attack available.  (I think I'm going to hold off on Tough until I get to SO's and/or slot some set IO's with Recovery bonuses.  At lvl 12 I'm already seeing some End issues.)

And somewhere in there I'd like to find room for Air Superiority.  On my other melee toons, I find it's knockdown very useful.

In my opinion the question of Boxing or Kick is kind of flip a coin, it isn't an attack I'll ever use so it doesn't matter.  I can't help but think you'll be better served by your primary attacks than by anything in the Fighting pool.

 

On your end issues I prioritize the Miracle +recovery, you can slot it as low as 17 and it'll have a noticeable effect on your endurance.  As an alternative to Air Superiority try slotting the Kinetic Combat KD proc into single target attacks, it'll fire off fairly often as a 3 ppm proc.

[Make Me A Tanker Main!]

4 minutes ago, Saikochoro said:

I’m leaning towards shield with the replies thus far.  How does electric melee pair with it?  I know it’s supposed to be a pretty popular pairing with scrappers, but haven’t tried it out. I do like the animations though. 

Having only played the Stalker version I'll say it's a fantastic minion/LT killer but without the Stalker's Assassin Strike it'll be lower ST damage.  Great AOE, only mediocre ST damage.  My Elec/Shield Stalker is, by FAR, my highest damage character.  You'll want to think about some recharge bonuses because your big spawn killing combination will be Shield Charge/Lightning Rod/Fireball (Pyre APP)/Chain Lightning.  Even with Tanker numbers it should make a noticeable dent in the baddie population.  My Stalker gets the two big TP nukes back in 25 seconds so they're available every other spawn when I'm farming +3 x 8.

 

You'll feel like a god against minions & LT's but Bosses will take a few hits to drop. 

[Shield/ tanker - defense *and* resistance?]

For what it's worth, here's my Shield/Fire tanker from issue 19.  I haven't looked through the build but I'm sure it would change now... still it was quite capable back then:

Spoiler

 

Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7
https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Call Me Frank: Level 50 Natural Tanker
Primary Power Set: Shield Defense
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Medicine
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Deflection -- GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx(A), GifoftheA-Def/Rchg(3), GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(3), GifoftheA-Def(5), ResDam-I(5), ResDam-I(7)
Level 1: Scorch -- TchofDth-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), TchofDth-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), TchofDth-Dmg/Rchg(9), TchofDth-Dam%(9), TchofDth-Dmg/EndRdx(11), TchofDth-Acc/Dmg(11)
Level 2: True Grit -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(13), Heal-I(13), ResDam-I(15), ResDam-I(15), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(17)
Level 4: Combustion -- Mlt-Acc/Dmg(A), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx(17), Mlt-Dmg/Rchg(19), Mlt-Acc/EndRdx(19), Mlt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21)
Level 6: Active Defense -- HO:Membr(A), HO:Membr(23), RechRdx-I(23)
Level 8: Against All Odds -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 10: Taunt -- MckBrt-Rchg(A), MckBrt-Taunt/Rng(25), MckBrt-Acc/Rchg(25), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(27), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg(27), MckBrt-Taunt(29)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Battle Agility -- GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx(A), GifoftheA-Def/Rchg(29), GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), GifoftheA-Def(31)
Level 18: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 20: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(33), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(33)
Level 22: Weave -- GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx(A), GifoftheA-Def/Rchg(33), GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34), GifoftheA-Def(34)
Level 24: Phalanx Fighting -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Shield Charge -- ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg(A), ScrDrv-Dmg/EndRdx(34), ScrDrv-Dmg/Rchg(36), ScrDrv-Acc/Rchg(36), ScrDrv-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(36), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 28: Fire Sword Circle -- Mlt-Acc/Dmg(A), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Mlt-Dmg/Rchg(37), Mlt-Acc/EndRdx(39), Mlt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Mlt-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 30: Aid Other -- Heal-I(A)
Level 32: Aid Self -- DctWnd-Heal/Rchg(A), Mrc-Heal/Rchg(40), HrmHln-Heal/Rchg(40)
Level 35: Incinerate -- Mk'Bit-Dam%(A), Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), Mk'Bit-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(42), Mk'Bit-Dmg/Rchg(42), Mk'Bit-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg(43)
Level 38: Greater Fire Sword -- CrsImp-Acc/Dmg(A), CrsImp-Dmg/Rchg(43), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), CrsImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), CrsImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 41: Char -- Acc-I(A)
Level 44: Fire Blast -- Dvs-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Dvs-Acc/Dmg(46), Dvs-Dmg/Rchg(46), Dvs-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 47: Fire Ball -- PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), PstBls-Dmg/Rchg(48), PstBls-Dmg/Rng(48), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx(48), PstBls-Acc/Dmg(50)
Level 49: One with the Shield -- ResDam-I(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet 
Level 4: Ninja Run 
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(50), EndMod-I(50)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
------------

 

 

[Recluse and "Grounded"]

8 minutes ago, Sura said:

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Knockback/Enemies_with_Knockback_Powers

 

On that page Recluse shows with Knockback from 40-54.  I'm not totally sure what the different entries mean, but if they're correct the minimum he's hitting with is 40.

Is this new?  I don't remember him having a KB that troubled an Invuln, Stone or Shield tanker.  Sorry, I've never tanked him with anything else, and not at all since Live.

[Make Me A Tanker Main!]

In my basic Invuln guide I laid out a softcapped S/L build that should be pretty light on the wallet along with more high end builds.  The cheap build will soft cap your S/L and give you good survivability but it will make some tradeoffs for price.  It'll likely be tougher for low investment than most other sets but Invuln doesn't lend itself to extra damage, it just leads to extreme durability. 

 

The advice on Shield is good, and having played a Shield/Fire tanker to 50 on Live I can attest that it's a great combination, and likely up there as far as high damage tanker combinations thanks to Against All Odds and Shield Charge.  It won't be as tough as Invuln until you goose it with a fair IO build but it should be tough enough with minimal expense.  At a minimum I'd try to get the Miracle +recovery, Numina +regen/recovery, Steadfast +3% def, Gladiator's Armor +3% defense and probably Shield Wall +5% res.  You'll appreciate the increased recovery and the +def uniques will help out a bunch.  Those slotting recommendations really apply to most any tanker you may roll up.

[Quick fix for Kheldian ATs]

On 1/27/2020 at 6:45 PM, Super Atom said:

More slots? nah.

 

What would be nice is if certain repeated abilities used the same slotting but were modified by the active form. Kheld's struggle but more slots would be too much.

Things like the various ranged attacks that are duplicated in Human and Nova used the same enhancements?  Not sure how that would work honestly.

[Any interest Warbringers and Peaceshades or other new Kheldians?]

Interesting premise.  I don't know how it would actually work, it might lead to a superior character or it could end up limiting the character.  Still, offhand it doesn't sound like it would be gamebreaking in either direction, subject to a closer look.