MouseGlatisant

There's a link to the Mids file in the post above it. But if you can't or prefer not to download that, I've put the build below (in spoilers for the sake of space): All credit to Auroxis. I'm just facilitating. I'm rather impressed myself since I've (mistakenly) found Rad Melee to be lacking in the past.

Addedum: Yes, this is a budget build. No purple sets, no ATOs. There is obviously room to grow once I can afford to throw an additional 400 mil at it.

I was chatting with some people in game about builds and some of them wanted to see what I was doing. So I am posting here mostly for their perusal, but I'd be happy to get feedback from anyone. This is a Super Strength / Shield Defense Brute. I'll be soft capped on the Positional Defenses (outside Rage crash); with 3 team mates nearby for Phalanx Defense I am also close to soft capped for Incarnates (57.9/57.3/56). Perma-Haste. Currently the character is only level 43 but I have almost all the set IOs already waiting. The enhancement slots are not optimized for leveling, they were just entered as they are for ease of entry into Pine's. I won't call it optimal but I have high hopes for it. Edit: The missing enhancement on Handclap is a "Sudden Acceleration: Knockback to Knockdown", which isn't available in my version of Pine's. I get a PBAoE Mag 2 stun (50% of Mag 3) for 9.15 seconds every 14 seconds which is quite fun for me. Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Miss Direct: Level 50 Science Brute Primary Power Set: Super Strength Secondary Power Set: Shield Defense Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery Villain Profile: ------------ Level 1: Punch TchofDth-Acc/Dmg(A), TchofDth-Dmg/EndRdx(3), TchofDth-Dmg/Rchg(3), TchofDth-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), TchofDth-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), TchofDth-Dam%(7) Level 1: Deflection LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(7), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(9), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(9), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(11), StdPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(11) Level 2: Haymaker TchofDth-Acc/Dmg(A), TchofDth-Dmg/EndRdx(13), TchofDth-Dmg/Rchg(13), TchofDth-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(15), TchofDth-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), TchofDth-Dam%(17) Level 4: Battle Agility LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(17), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(19), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(19), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(46) Level 6: True Grit Mrc-Rcvry+(A), Mrc-Heal(21), Mrc-Heal/EndRdx(21) Level 8: Knockout Blow Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg(A), Mk'Bit-Dmg/EndRdx(23), Mk'Bit-Dmg/Rchg(23), Mk'Bit-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(25), Mk'Bit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), Mk'Bit-Dam%(27) Level 10: Active Defense HO:Cyto(A) Level 12: Hand Clap RopADop-Acc/Rchg(A), RopADop-Acc/Stun/Rchg(45), Empty(45) (=Sudden Acceleration: Knockback to Knockdown) Level 14: Super Jump BlsoftheZ-Travel(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(36) Level 16: Against All Odds EndRdx-I(A) Level 18: Rage GssSynFr--ToHit(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg(27), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(29), GssSynFr--Rchg/EndRdx(29), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(31), GssSynFr--Build%(31) Level 20: Combat Jumping LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(31), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(33), BlsoftheZ-Travel(33), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(33), BlsoftheZ-ResKB(36) Level 22: Hasten RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(34) Level 24: Phalanx Fighting LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(34), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(34), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36) Level 26: Kick Empty(A) Level 28: Tough TtnCtn-ResDam(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(37), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(37) Level 30: Weave LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(37), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(39), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(39) Level 32: Foot Stomp Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(40), Erd-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Erd-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), FrcFdb-Rechg%(42) Level 35: Shield Charge Erd-Dmg(A), Erd-Acc/Rchg(42), Erd-Dmg/Rchg(42), Erd-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Erd-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Erd-%Dam(43) Level 38: Superior Conditioning EndMod-I(A) Level 41: Physical Perfection EndMod-I(A) Level 44: Maneuvers Ksm-ToHit+(A), Ksm-Def/EndRdx(46), Ksm-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(48) Level 47: Taunt MckBrt-Taunt(A), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg(48), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(48), MckBrt-Acc/Rchg(50), MckBrt-Taunt/Rng(50), MckBrt-Rchg(50) Level 49: Grant Cover LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A) Level 1: Brawl Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge Empty(A) Level 1: Fury Level 1: Sprint EndRdx-I(A) Level 2: Rest EndMod-I(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift Run-I(A) Level 2: Health NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Heal(46) Level 2: Hurdle Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(45) ------------ | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1459;677;1354;HEX;| |78DA6594CB4E53511486F76E4FADA5055A0A943BBD400B8516883A3651C0686842D| |2E8C05B43CAA63D504BD39644060E1CF8024E7C01AF131FC4BB53F505BC804E4DC4| |BA38FF0F92B469F39DBD6EFFDA6B9FDDDCDDC5C0CB4BF7CF2BEDBF58596B340A17E| |A3B4DE3CD176D532D1AB752CA9FB31B8DE8A25D37C5A657D6434E4421672AC664F3| |3B35532FE49B75532D35CB23702D9A0D536D88B36C9BCAFAD1520556B7B72BD915B| |356B3ABA50E6791AF19B3DEE93C2EDBA572531CDD4751EBA6DE28DBB5C1A59A5DCC| |2E554DBDB45BC8AD359AA6BE8B2607A49949F9C5B5E2A7E551D705294BB96E90374| |1EB16791B3C55108E5AEA5540A899DB270F0BE2EB054F07C9B076623B22643F98D0| |4C955C4DDD007503D4EDA26E17758305F0B5E8BAA16BB9A91BA46E0F757BC260260| |4BE911C0F725C9E2BDAA9D37B995C0227055EF6E4DD504E5E7F892C830336B9090E| |6D816FA5BE0FF595EF9CC072AB0959FB51CFE5DF451FB3F7C8967C5444E43A11A13| |B3FB91C4FE233F84E2A766BED54EC8E412525CB106C9ED063C40D3D01479E92CFC0| |B1E7E40BB05FB4C23CAD30A736C6A94539B5287B88B287C417302EB97DC8D57D33E| |82546BE973E23F0B923AC1B63DD18EB26781A2EA93388FDAA4167026EB10CF35C86| |B3889A489319D09298512A8C5261820A492A24A9302D18E72EC7FFA2FB640B4C1D9| |03F5CCE3B98DA03A71FC0FE517612E7F9C7BFD2F78DFC0EA6999B666E7A1FF48594| |F3FE1CEE6C328AC904C43645DB146D21D9CB0CF73B73807B94F90DCEFD0193E2CFB| |28F6C19BDCDD9E426B8B04556C83BE007D9C33C35E7399B11EBF88ECBF770EAE936| |CB7C9B65A1CD72A6CD72B6CDB26C1DFF27B4564E7AF906AF5AC7F75E69CEC41794F| |B0C5B6BAF43FCEC5F67E0FFF9DFA6F535DEEBABE0FEC9F829C4FF3A19FF0873997D| |08FE03B6BDDBB7| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Another FWIW, I am finding that Beam Rifle is a solid choice for a secondary. Some of the powers have useful debuffs, and the 4th power Disintegrate adds debuff to an enemy that adds additional effects to the other Beam Rifle powers. This lets you debuff with -Regen, 2 sources of -Def, 2 Stuns, and has a bit more KB to go with the FF powers. I won't say that it's the best option - that's not the CoH philosophy - but I think it complements FF nicely by adding some of the debuffs that you would normally look for in the Defender primaries.

I was reading this on the web archive copy of the original forums, thought to check here too, and laughed happily to see you'd resurrected it (even though bubbles don't get a rez!). FWIW the original "Let Fly! - A Guide to Knockback Control by Midnight_Flux" forum post is still available at https://web.archive.org/web/20120904192500/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=123660. So it's not entirely lost to us.