Meknomancer

So far the excel ones i've been on have all been PUG's but the leader always makes sure whoever gets Des takes a tp then leaves her to someone who understands the mechanics and the one of the speedrunners starts incandesing the league with the leader specifically telling everyone to accept the tp. Not going to start putting players globals on here but if you play on excel you'll know who i mean. From what i've seen so far it only takes 2-3 players who know each other and co-ordinate well together to knock 60-90 minutes off it without skipping any of the standard badges. Bit different with badge runs but like tinpex you can fluke them if you speed it often enough. There is a problem with this as you say, players attention spans and them getting far too used to someone who knows what they are doing teleporting them through every trial and tf (starting to see a lot of players advertising speed runs then doorsitting waiting for a tp that never comes, then being asked why they aren't helping, trying to speed and faceplanting on every mob due to their build being made up of every primary/secondary/epic power with flight as the last pick and i'm not talking about new players, i've seen a vet level 1000+ doing this) . I'd agree if it was entirely a PUG it may cause a problem but when was the last time you saw someone who didn't know what they were doing lead an itrial 🙂 Nowadays its chock full of old vets chasing the new currencies for the mini modes and vanity pets. I have no problem either way, if they wanna speed i don't mind, if they wanna take it slow and organised thats fine too, all i was saying was that of the last 40+ i've been on about 90% were speed runs with incades getting used and there were no problems with it.

So theres been a lot of UG trials run and lately most of them have been speed runs. The last few i did with @Living Brain 3000running them went very smoothly and we got a good few badges/run but those were non-speed. DO NOT HAVE INCAN SLOTTED BECAUSE DESDEMONA IS NOT TELEPORTABLE. The speed runners run with incandes and tp the league regularly skipping large parts of the trial and let you complete the whole thing within 25-30 minutes easily and you end up with all the badges bar preservation specialist. Avatar Assassin is either a fail or a fluke, an attempt is made and you either get it or you don't. I don't know how the teleports affect Desdemona but the runs with incandes have never failed and tour guide is pretty much guaranteed so i'm uncertain why you feel its essential to not slot that particular destiny. Successful preservation specialist runs have been made on speed UG's but i've only seen them on torch and not since @PF? took a break from the game. Lining up the league and assigning half to one side of the tunnel and half to the other then just bum rushing the bombs as fast as possible seems to work without spending 45 minutes shuffling teams and assigning snipers.

DB/Bio scrapper is probably the best but a DB/SR scrap can load up on even more procs (4/attack) and still have softcapped defences easily. Its not great on a stalker and brutes are in a horrible place right now due to having the worst melee AT sets available compared to the excellent ones on scrap/stalker/tank.

For me it depends on the secondary and what defence/resist numbers i aim for. On the rad/rad all the procs get loaded into the single target attacks and i use the pbaoes for set bonuses (ranged+ranged aoe sets are pretty crap, pbaoe +melee sets are pretty awesome) I don't bother with shield breaker i prefer the glad chance for toxic in ranged and the armageddon/eradication in pbaoe. I don't use the decimation and only threw in a single achilles in the tier 3 single target.

Its not just mercs.

Turn off group fly at null the gull. If you have it yourself or are flying you'll have to go to ground level to apply the upgrades. I posted something about this a while back.

I recently quit a tf because of this problem after repeatedly asking another player to stop using incades destiny and tp'ing my pets out of supremacy range and then watching them die while i got battered by the mobs they'd left. It was a speed run....and i was first to the mobs and already fighting when they'd arrive 15 seconds later and tp the team and my pets to another part of the map, just far enough away that i could see them and watch my pets die trying to get back to me. I declined every tp but the pets don't get that option.

Option 4 (you'd need to be desperate for recharge at this point). Put kick on auto. pray the RNG is kind. Be prepared to chase down everything you then kb because it will get up and run away due to the broken taunt mechanic.

Option 3. Fit crosspunch in. An ff+rech in that will fire off regularly if you slot it as a proper attack.

I have an old necro/storm but its not had a respec since the changes. Storm is the no. 1 secondary if your after extra dps. Its also the most chaotic and will have your pets running after mobs and out of supremacy range. With necro i'd recommend /dark or /time or /ta or pretty much any secondary that will let you control the mobs with slows/holds/knockdowns. On the other hand what @Nyghtmaire said. More recharge for soul extraction.

When your looking at the above builds there's a few things you'll have to do first. Turn off hasten. Turn off soul drain. Turn off kick if its got an ff+rech in. You won't use kick even if you have it in your tray. You won't have it in your tray. If you have it in your tray and use it it'll most likely miss. If you have it in your tray and use it and it hits the chance of the proc firing off is miniscule. Turn off the alpha. Now look at the defence and resist numbers that are your priority as a tank. Now look at the recharge on soul drain which is the main focus of your build. Cross your fingers and pray for kicks ff+rech firing off. If your running dark your probably already looking at cardiac due to the massive endurance issues. Running cardiac will let you run barrier. Running cardiac and barrier means soul drain will never ever get even close to perma. Option 2. Agility. Now you have end issues but your much much closer to perma hasten/soul drain. End issues mean dark consumption. Or ageless. To get perma soul drain means sacrifices and what are you prepared to give up to get there? Defence? Resists? Endurance? Or your favourite attacks? Cos you'll need the extra slots. This is my take, give up midnight grasp, the set has no aoe and i'd want dark oblit. Swap in agility. Sacrifice some fire/cold res. Sacrifice some melee defence. Open the build. Turn on agility, hasten, soul drain, click slots/enhancements, set all relative levels to +5. Its still got a 2-3 second downtime and hasten isn't even perma. It doesn't look playable, its like Mission Impossible except theres no happy ending. And yes it does need the kb protection and even at 12 points thats not enough.

In what world does super strength compare to dark melee?

Here's a lazy 2 min build (like it took 2 min to put in mids and i throw in scorp and don't bother trying to fit in soul mastery with soul drain and power boost and just chuck in bits and see what number sit ends up with) . Start there and shuffle sets/powers about til you get what you want. I don't have one. Meteor cast time isn't long (2.57 seconds to fires inferno at 3 seconds) and you can use the long animation to your advantage hitting other attacks like upthrust so they pretty much land at the same time wiping out entire mobs seemingly in 1 hit. Dark requires set up time, applying fearsome stare/tar patch/darkest night if you can be bothered. Its late and i'm half asleep so i'll just toss it in:

I must be half asleep i make so many mistakes on here, it was controller version of power boost from primal forces and the defence numbers did drop off with farsight once PB dropped. No reason for troller version to be different from mm/fender/corr i'll have to check those too. It would mean PB is only good for about 15 seconds extra defence when farsight is used for some reason.

It may have been a mistake on my part. I was running with a controller and primal forces. It was power build up and farsight not power boost. And the defence numbers dropped once the build up dropped.

Still don't even know what travel pool you like so its still got fly. Damage is even lower, traded attacks for defence.

Maintenance drone will keep bots healed short of them getting 1 shotted. Power boost before applying bubble will bump the bots defence to silly high levels although i'm not sure how long that lasts for now as i've noticed power boosted farsight on /time only lasts til power boost fades so you may not have the full 4 minutes with the bubbles. Either way the t2 pet applys def bubbles on top and with that and manouvres and dispersion they should have more than enough. Helps if you can keep them and the mob inside the damping bubble at the same time. Bots are the squishiest pets with the least resistance so if something gets through the defence it will hurt them but the new page 5 changes allow you to bump bot pet resists with the t1 upgrade. Damage wise i'm not sure how i feel about the changes, i play a lot of mercs mm's both before and after page 5 they were my favourites and now i feel like they are the no. 1 dps pet although the necro players will argue otherwise due to the new soul extraction, mercs being pure ranged means they feel faster and so much tougher with serum. Bots feel like they dropped a tier or 2. But that could just be my imagination after playing them for so many years and relying on the t3 for all damage as the t1 and t2 are both putting out more than they were. I suspect its the removal of the - regen to the mm's personal attacks that makes the difference. If you skipped those you will notice it more. On the other hand bubbles now apply some - res so it should even things out assuming you have those.

Its difficult to know what to toss without knowing what powers you take/what your playstyle is. Do you hang around at the back and send the pets in? Do you use the mm attacks for the - regen and - resist? Do your run with stealth and stay as far away as possible and just command the pet? Do you hop directly into the centre of the mobs and drop the damping bubble and throw out photon nade and force bomb on mobs while firing repulsion and a rifle debuffing hard targets? Do you need the fighting pool or do you prefer sorcery? Or do you just want something to look at. I have a build but i cannot imagine any other player wanting to run it, i like group fly for many reasons the main 1 being it keeps pets out of melee but also because it speeds them up between mobs. On teams there will always be that 1 player that didn't talk to null the gull and turn off group fly and will them complain that your griefing the team despite everyone else carrying on as usual without even noticing its on. I like power boost for the bubbles. I like it for when i hop into mobs and the brief moments of extra defence. Posting builds leaves you open to criticism. Sometimes its helpful. Often its just a load of advice from someone who's never posted their own, good advice but without a build to look at you have to wonder if they ever played the combo. Something to look at. Post a build and then maybe you'll get the help you want.

You have no choice but to melee for at least drain psyche and psy shockwave, those 2 aren't powers you can skip and get away with. Your force picked into a t1 ranged blast that does almost 0 damage and pre page 5 would get taken and left unslotted in most builds or mind probe which is a useful hard hitter and takes good sets but again requires melee'ing. Or you can simply use it as a mule for a recharge bonus. If the plan is to stay purely at ranged and only go in for DP and PS something like this will get you 45% ranged with perma hasten+PA (once you boost the PA pieces) and leave alpha options open for whatever (musculature/intuition etc). Quite a few power picks taken just to mule pieces or because they had to be picked to get the next power in the set. Hitting link minds (which isn't perma and indom will0 before jumping into the mob should be enough, wish there were more slots, i'd like to throw in the preventetive proc somewhere, it could go into health instead of the miracle/numi/whatever:

Bit surprised nobody put anything down for this. I don't have 1 but i do love myself some /dark controllers and i quite like grav. If i were to roll one i'd probably go for something a bit like this:

@serxiom I don't have 1 of these but i do play an earth/storm, earth/kin, earth/fire domi and i have about 8 toons running /nature but it still looks like a hard build to make due to the lack of single target damage. If i were you i'd drop the pet for soul drain and find a way to fit in arcane bolt or just switch epics for 1 with a good fast recharging single target attack. The ff+rech in quake is pretty reliable so you could drop a little recharge, you don't hit 45% ranged but that doesn't matter either if spore cloud is on. I had a quick fiddle with the build it lost a teeny bit of ranged def+recharge, still doesnt have the 2 def uniques in and it has an artillery set (yuck) Fossilise needs damage as you have no other st dmg but slotting the apoc gives up the mez, basilisks give almost no ranged def- you get the same from a couple of zephyrs. I like 5 adjusted in overgrowth but when i dont have the slots i toss a couple rech io's in and boost them. Quake slots achilles proc and it will go off with the force feedback. Quicksand, it does extra - defence. I put 6 slots in dark embrace and that felt like a waste just to keep you close to 40% ranged. Its probably worse than your own build but....ideas:

@Nemu, ive seen you on your kin scrap hiding behind blasters......

Ok @Swordacool i edited the first build i posted with the experimentation pool in and it looks like it might actually work. I have 0 experience with corrosive vial so i don't know what slotting works best though. Theres plenty of slow res in it maybe too much which would let you pull 2 slots from toxic dart and toss them in either rad therapy (oblit and eradication procs) or corrosive vial (probably lady grey and achilles/shield breaker/posi/bombardment proc) Obviously some powers got dropped. Shadow maul i find useless on scraps/brutes its basically single target unlike the tank version on a power set that already has more than enough st attacks and lacks aoes. No room for taunt if i toss in hasten and leadership had to go. Resists went down but i found that it was possible to hit 45'ish s/l/melee defence which makes for a much smoother play. Recharge doesnt appear fantastic until you hit cross punch (essential for the force feedback) and then you'd probably find you have perma hasten/soul drain. Ground zero/dark consumption are interchangeable depending on which you'd prefer. You could drop gloom for whatever its just there for the 10% recharge and because i love it (take taunt for instance and toss the apoc bits into toxic dart) . Its not fantastic its just something to look at and fiddle with til you get the build you want. The biggest thing i noticed after running the moonfire was that even if my to hit got floored by the vamps and all my attacks missed if i hit soul drain (which would miss everything) the gaussian proc would fire off and i'd then be able to punch stuff til the debuffs wore off so that piece alone made a huge difference. Thanks to @Spaghetti Bettyand @Nemu for tossing in builds and ideas. Certainly gave me some thoughts about my own build. Last thing i'll say on this is it makes a huge difference when other players chime in and post stuff but i'd advise against directly copying a build and then making it in game. Nobody plays the same way and i can tell you from experience (and having team up with @Nemu on torch+excel) that the builds players post will not work for you. I once copied someone elses and then tried it in game and it felt like a glass cannon and i got hammered after watching them tank and dps +4 mobs with ease. Everyone has their own way of playing the game and unlike other mmo's where you could just straight copy what someone else uses and make it work , you need to make your own builds that work for you in coh. So stick to your theme, keep experimentation as it fits the character idea you have in your head and you'll have alot more fun once you find the build you like and it works out for you.

Without putting it into mids manually the first things i'd say are to put ff+rech in place of explosive strikes. Most axe and shield charge itself will take them. You want active defense up permanently and you can stack it (not sure if stacking gives extra DDR but i'm sure any shield tanker player will tell you if it does or not) i like 2 rech io's in. Grant cover doesnt need all those slots. It also provides DDR to yourself but otherwise its only offering defensive bonuses to team mates so its usually just a mule for a lotg 7.5%. I like having focused acc for the same reasons, resistance to anything debuffing accuracy and you'd have access to PP and conserve power, both useful picks on an end hog like shield. Medicine pool is a waste unless you can properly slot aid self with some heal/rech and interrupts and even then it takes an age to activate. I never understood field medic, the recharge alone makes it almost useless. Pretty sure phalanx fighting can't be enhanced and the buffs only apply when your near team mates anyway. Another power you can just mule a kismet/lotg in. Spare slots i'd be throwing in health for the preventetive 2-3 pieces for hp s/l res and the proc. And a 6th slot in deflection, another def piece.