Sanguinesun

You're info regarding your wants is pretty vague and we're not you; so you're pretty much going to run the spectrum of suggestions from folks here without you narrowing your wants more.

1. Various AT's can do this but also how you do your sets and incarnates too factors. 2. Sappers are sappers, there's always going to be issues with them. Parts of point 1 can help but also chewing insps strats on how you deal with em too are relevant. 3. AV's are not one type fits all. Some set ups can be really good against some and then cant handle the others. AV fights can be dynamic as well in these regards too. 4. Then also dont consider Controllers or Dominators. 5. While various AT's can meet these, so do one's incarnates and sets too. Its more how you build a toon. So yes, you're basically wanting a do all on its own character. It doesnt exist. People will give you contrary responses to this perhaps but there will be always holes in what they claim and essentially there is no one character that can do everything in every situation. Game was meant to involve others in playing with others and doing so for a significant amount of time so that they remained paying for a sub. We've changed some of that on HC but there are caveats, limitations etc that still maintain the premise that nothing does it all. Instead of focusing on 50 fully kitted. Just focus on leveling 50's in group content where you only give it 30's regular IO's as you level from money the character makes as it levels. Plenty of methods to do this. Not only does that save you money for a toon you may wish to fully kit out later, it also takes all the pressure you've placed with your current wants on yourself. Then if you dont like it, park it. If you do, then incarnate and kit it out. If you're playing on Excelsior in group content, it takes a matter of a days only to hit 50 really. In other words enjoy the hike up the mountain instead of focusing on the time on the summit.

1. Cheap 2. Status Protections 3. Defense. Given the conditions placed on this and your focus on defense, Force Field seems the only real option best meeting your secondary choice wishes.

Been alot of returnees I've been encountering over the last few months. 99% have been excited to return, nice and willing to learn just how much has changed and hor HC changes have impacted the game. I've only encountered a few that were a problem. Those mostly amounted to impatience to learn/have something explained or one that went a bit off the rails in things that arent appropriate discussions here. Outside of that one(that I put on ignore), the rest I just let them guide what they wanted to (or not) know and let them be on their way to sink or swim as the desired. Not everyone is receptive to help even after asking for it. Im fairly sure I know who you're referring to as well. I've come to learn that this individual has personal issues that are not just on a character flaw level and that its either tolerating them on their team or putting on ignore to avoid their invitations. Not seeking to defend or condone bad behavior but simply to say there's more going on than just misanthropy. Its a shame but we do have some people who play the game who have challenges and unless they violate the rules of conduct, we can only make our own personal decisions in these regards.

There is/was another reason and not some movie IP either that folks arent thinking on....

To me, they're like the halloween ones. People will glut the market but set it higher and let it sit and you'll earn plenty from them. Also those no debt insp may have a market too.

Not in this case but increasingly, its becoming a statistical mess. So many things are inaccurate on it and always I have to double check with live game when there are questionable numbers and descriptions... as well as tedious testing on the beta server. Sadly too, city of data sometimes can have discrepancies as well but not with the sheer volume of discrepancies as mids can have.

The main difference is the +dam of Defiance that stacks on Blasters. Even with Opportunity factored on sentinels, the average damage in missions statistically works out that a blaster will be doing more damage to more mobs consistently.

Sell the tokens asap early. First day they started at 1mil then went to 50k super fast. I managed to sell of around 20 at 50k when I made a similar mistake of getting more than I needed... though I was only over by 20 from an hour of running around hehe.

Oh Snarky. Wait until you meet the 80's Buck Rodgers Space Vampire. So many new builds shall open unto thee:

That one irks me even more than the yin clickers.

I never recommend this point to new players. The costs involved in doing this are more than if a player simply invests in regular ole level 30 IOs(not sets) as its a 1 time purchase and if they decide to later switch to sets after learning the game more, they can respec and reclaim those regular 30's to then recycle use on another toon. One of the biggest challenges for new players is learning how to make money, but one of the other biggest challenges is learning how to be frugal with their money as well.

The entire list of things is as Zork said on the Luna vendor. Doesnt take too long to get everything either.

I tend to wait til 44/45 until hitting 50 to use em. I also pre-plan as well to make characters I dont necessarily want to spend alot of time leveling on during this month and then waiting to level them during halloween or mapserve months for this too. And yes it stacks charges from last year etc too. I've some toons now with 10 charges hehe.

Been seeing a few folks last week due to yin being the weekly that were intentionally ignoring people asking to wait to click the comps and then having the team overwhelmed and wiped and with comments eerily the same as some who commented they get their jollies by clicking and making their teams have trouble in this thread. I guess some people just have to go out of their way to be contrarian to their teams in an almost selfish manner. Its a shame but at least when folks see it happen just have the rest of the team know and agree to global ignore em. Eventually they'll be essentially self marginalizing themselves....

You still seem to not be getting what either of us are stating...

This is a common issue: concept/thematic play vs the meta of play. They're not uncommonly contrarian to each other, even in cases where folks get creative. So you're going to need to make a choice. Are you going to go for the effectivity meta potentially sacrificing your wants for theme or are you going to stick with a theme, only casually play it and not worry on optimizing effectivity? That's where you're currently stuck. If you want more effectivity in terms of the fire though in its resistences, then you'd really be wanting to look at a tank. Brutes --by the time they end game-- can more effectively flesh out their resistances on fire to be near 90% cap'd but its at a big sacrifice to other effectivities such as damage etc. Tanks on the other hand have it easier to hit those caps but yes a tad less damage. Also, you talked about concept with fire not matching you on a brute due to the sword powers above but there's something worth mentioning that is different with tanks vs brutes in the fire melee: Combustion. Its AOE with decent recharge(made lower with good +recharge bonuses). Brutes get the single target cremate instead(but not a bad power since you can slot a +recharge proc in it). If you want to start to be more flexible in your concept considerations as well, recoloring things like Radiation armor also give you better resistances(cold being one of the only smaller holes) since it has multiple aoes doing damage that also double for more benefits such as regen/heal/endurance etc. For melees you can also consider as mentioned savage(savage and radiation armor are a good combo on may different AT's btw), you can also consider changing colors for darm melee, flexibly considering spines(as you can change them to look more like flat spines of a dragon either in slate or crystal colorizing (but the set isnt necessarily more damage effective mind you just a variation you may thematically consider).... and more. But if you're wanting to min/max and forego your thematic concerns, there are a plethora of threads for brutes or tanks that start talking about numbers and the meta more you can start to consider.

And in the vein of comparing with a scrapper to a brute while leveling them up in terms of the context of the op's wants, that's also why I placed it more at the 50% to contrast with that average: that the brute will still be more compelling to do more damage through the overall variety of missions that the OP would encounter as they traverse through different story arcs. If we up it to 75%, it skews things even more in favor of a brute in that same context, compellingly.

That was not the point being made and rather strange that you've made it. The point being made was for a statistical average to compare the damage output of a scrapper, not that a brute is able to maintain some sort of 50%. Fury is of course a constant dynamic depending on the brute's interactions. Because a brute's going to have encounters where they've zero fury, middling fury, and near max fury, the 50% was being meant to exemplify a numeric average and nothing else for the comparative purposes with that of the scrappers criticals if the two are being compared, say for the same sort of mission interactions whilst level 1-50.

Your stated original goal was for soloing a Savage/Radiation Armor toon as you level up in content and this being evidently through story arcs etc. With that in mind(as so many others have strayed to other things in these regard: 1. Brutes, can reach (depending on how they're built) 90% damage resistance caps. Scrappers are limited to capping to 75%. However while leveling, attaining either of those caps on damage categories isn't wholly possible for them all(some yes but not all). First off Rad's main hole is cold. Luckily that's a less encountered type through story arc progression 1-50 as a whole. Its there but not as prominently as other types. Secondly, even if you were employing the use of expensive sets of invention origin enhancers, you're still going to have challenges fleshing those resistances fully out until 50. Again yes some damage types like slashing/lethal will be much more easily attained earlier. But its also important to remember that also challenges in missions increase as you go higher too. Third, your choices of mission difficulties will factor. If you're making difficulty -1 for a team of 1, as an example, most things are going to be easy(albeit your exp is going to be dramatically less per mission. Conversely if you make it +4/8, you're going to be concrete licking likely alot more. 2. Brute damage is effective but increases in effectivity the more you're dealing damage/taking damage. As a general rule, instead of thinking on max fury bar giving you max damage, think in terms of half a bar for a reasonable average. Scrappers by contrast get more of their damage through their critical chance and damage. However, scrappers really do not flesh out their stronger damage until they're employing their expensive Scrapper Archetype enhancemeents for chances to increase both the critical hit chance and damage output from them. Thus if you're leveling 1-50 as a scrapper, just using the standard invention origin enhancers and not that of special AT's enhancements or other set ones, In terms of overall damage out put 1-50, the evidence is more compelling that a brute is going to do more damage than a scrapper. Another factor is your choice of savage which gets a recharge and endurance discount in its melee set. This means you're firing off more attacks which means your fury bar will fill more readily as well. Scrapper too of course will hit more times giving more chances for their criticals but when comparing the two, the faster fury is going to outpace the critical in various situations that I've outlined before per your goals. However, we're not accounting for other variables with regards to that damage: your play style. If you enter missions, use stealth, and just rush to the boss at the end, the scrapper may be more effective/quicker potentially. However, if you encounter a boss (and minions) that require more time to down, the brute will likely be a more effective choice due to the fury build and the survivability pointed out in point 1. Or if you need to do defeat all missions, a brute is going to more or less be the overall better damage effectivity choice. So when you know that story arcs have: -Defeat Alls -Rescues(kill mobs around npc(s) in a mission) -Escorts(clear to the kidnap/escort, head back to the entrance and handle ambushes that occur on the way) -Defeat boss (kill boss and clear the room/near the room they're in). -Click glowies around the map (guarded by mobs and essentially mimicing almost a defeat all) .... and more.... then it becomes a more compelling in damage and suvivability terms, that a Brute is going to be more effective 1-50 progressively than a scrapper. To hit this home more damage wise too: here's a level 50 chart comparison for the trapdoor mission thread across ATs Of note from that, the average clear times between the scrapper using savage and a brute using savage are only a measly 2 seconds difference between the two (scrapper being the 2 seconds faster). --BUT-- That was for an -At-50-Toon-, with slots, power choices, incarnates etc being the same. Ston clearly states that in terms of survivability he was chewing defense, resistance, etc (but not reds on purpose) inspirations to make the test more focused on damage/time clear. (they were also using willpower so its again meant to be a benchmark for damage clearing not survival/armor set). My point being that leveling 1-50 is going to be different than what not a small number of people thread are focused on (ie post 50 damage considerations and survivability thinking) with comparisons of scrapper vs brute. So, in conclusion, I just dont find the evidence to be compelling, given your goals and choices for savage/radiation(solid pick imo btw for so many other reasons) for doing solo, story arc missions, that a scrapper would be more effective than a brute, even if you factor play style variables either.

1. I recommend reading up on how the -res procs work in relation to application via same or different powers. 2. AV's vary in their resistances/defences as well of course their attacks and your required defenses and resistances. As a general rule on a scrapper then that you're attempting to make an all around various AV killing centric toon, you wanting to make sure you cover most bases. Sets like bio will not be adequate in terms of your protective needs. Rad armor is not only capable of being well resistance setup for most all(except cold will be your only hole really) damage types but you'll also have multiple damage mitigating and offensive options in the set as well. But another factor is, what does others on your team bring to or compliment/supplement your choices? Most cases on a team, you're needs are far less to keep you alive as well as to help you take down collectively an AV. If you're soloing, then you need every ounce of protections and mitigations as possible in addition to strong single target melee and other supplemental things to help mitigate an AV's capabilities such as regen etc of course. Some suggestions thus far arent necessarily taking this more into account. 3. Fire's armor set has more pronounced holes that you will require alot more sacrificing of damage and other mitigations to round out your resistances as well as to give you defense. Again if on a team then it wont matter as much. Dont hyper focus on burn as over the years its received various nerfs and as well it has a flee component built into the ability unfortunately as well. 4. Its less and bio has significant holes as mentioned above. Remember too while in offensive stance, you take a hit to your resistances and while in defensive you take a hit to your damage. Therefore, its better in groups where your holes can be patched by others and you can run around on offensive, only flipping to defensive stance as needed. 5. You should keep in mind that the times he's sported there are not the best times a scrapper can do on pylons. There's even a video and someone who did it on a DB/Bio in well under 50 seconds. See this thread's page here where Ston posts the build/attack chain and a vid here: But again, dont be fooled. Its just a dps check not a dynamic situation of an AV. Dual Blades is lethal damage focused as well which is more resisted by AV's in addition to smashing(but again --depends-- on the av too as some are going to be more resistance to other damage types.) So, in general, you cannot make an all AV hunter without having some AV's resistant to what ever damage type you choose. Just make what is both damage and survivability(and that includes endurance strongly too as AV's are endurance fights) balanced and effective. But again remember there is no one "best". That is 100% an intentional design feature by the original devs for making characters. But not having certified cookie cutter builds and variations being so bogged down in the minutae of details, it kept people trying different things(and thus paying for their subscriptions.) Then any time people -did- start to come up with "this beats all" sorts of things, that's when "adjustments(nerfs)" tended (and still do) happen. This isnt to say that you cant build something effective, its just that you need to frame it better within the context of what your goal(s) are. Also circling back to pylon/single target flatfooted thinking in fights, remember that not all AV fights are that either. Some have mobs/summon mobs to fight/distract and more. 6. Ston also has a thread regarding trapdoor times(that's getting through mobs then to a boss at the end that can be a challenge) and its times then start to show very different considerations: You'll then notice in that thread that the top scrapper melee sets start to shift in time considerations vs Someguy's stated pylon times show. This is because neither are encompassing the spectrum of what one encounters with fighting different AV's but that at least the trapdoor mission is accounting for the dynamics of encounters up to and including the boss fight and its mechanics. They are also focused on a slight misdirection of -Times- for defeats. Time inst necesarily an accurate metric for all CoH related defeating considerations. Remember there are builds by other AT's that can take down AV's with little challenge in terms of survivability too but at the requirement of patience. There's a few people on the forums that have devoted tons of youtube videos to their feather-in-their-cap threads of soloing/duo'ing high end challenge content yet when scrutiny is applied, you start to see it took them a considerable amount of time in many cases. For them, it wasnt about time but just simply about downing hard content. 7. Hopefully you're starting to see that there is a lot more entailing what you need to consider and as well as moving in a different frame of thinking of what you're currently considering. No one has made or done extensive testing of a plethora of AV encounters(and including their missions) in solo terms nor in group terms where the specifics of the groups are factored either. This is just simply because its pretty tedious amounts of effort to do so and in which any months later changes to the game(as there's always something with this team wanting to make their mark with hubric progression creep) that can slightly or even dramatically alter previously tested results. 8. The "you" factor. How you play factors much into some of the considerations for choices/builds/strats. As an arbitrary example, I've seen so many different fire farmers using forum cookie cutter builds and observed how widely their effectivity in their influence per hour is (active farmers mind you..... passive/AFK farming tends to be less varied for obvious reasons). And the list can go on really. You're going to need to spend more time digesting more information, cross referencing such things, use mids to make tenative builds, and then going on the beta server to actually insta level/gear out toons to then effectively test in av fights/missions for your needs. That's obviously a lot of work but if you're looking to min/max/make effective a scrapper for your goals for all for all of that, its going to be the best way to ensure your goals are more likely to be met. Worst thing for your to do is take some build from here, level it up, to only then find out it was a bust and all that effort was a discouraging waste(unless you are the type of person to appreciate the hike up the mountain vs looking from the summit). Best of luck.

The Rikti reclaim their "defeated". They are then processed for their failures and used as a form of sustenance and bio fuel for their fleet.

1. What are your specific goals with this build? General casual play? Specific set of friends that you play with that you're attempting to compliment/supplement the their dynamics with your team? Stay back n fight? Get in melee and fight? etc etc etc. Your build should be shaped by your goals unless you're just casually playing and anything goes, at which point your build overall doesnt matter too much as its mostly going to be a "what I like" build. 2. Soul storm with a recharge but no accuracy and just slotted may not be extremely effective. Its a good single target hold but since its a later earned power it benefits more from slotting more with it as later game mobs will be resistant to being hit by it. If slotting is an issue, and you have other play goals, you may want to make other considerations either with other powers to give it more slotting or replacing it with another power to use the slot as a mule. 3. How effectively/frequently do you intend to use conduit of pain. Your slotting for that could be better as well as you need to keep in mind its "special" effect. 4. Was there a specific reason you opted to not take either of your ATO sets? 5. You have more effectivity in the gaussian proc put in the world of pain that full slotted in tactics unless you've some goal specific with having the full slotted bonuses for the set in tactics. All in all, really knowing your goals helps to determine your build's considerations but overall the build seems to do its intentions with both healing/buffing/damage etc.

First off, the very kind person who posted a build in your other thread essentially posted builds that are specifically designed for high end challenge content that the majority(yes the majority) of the player base do not play and as well intended as a build to match with other people that go on those missions together (ie the others also built theirs to work with the others on the team). It is a solid build mind you and can work on teams doing most other content, but the specific choices they made in regards to all their powers and more importantly the sets and the set bonuses are focused on that specific content/group style needs. To be quite straightforward/blunt, you're not that sort at the moment. You're essentially new and hitting the steep learning curve with what Homecoming presents when playing and very likely, you're just going to be primarily focused on 1-50 leveling in a more relaxed sense, will do some general post 50 content as the mood suits you, and then you'll perhaps then play something else, parking the defender to use when the mood suits you again. This would be a common framing for how not a small number of people play the game and absolutely nothing wrong with it. ------ That all said, let me try to explain/clarify/discuss some of the points you made in your post that hopefully may help. 1. "non hero alignment" For the sake of understanding things, players can switch alignments freely at any time via an npc in pocket d(null the gull). This allows players to go between all zones, do content specific to those zones, or in the point you were making, gain access to the powers of the patrons that used to be exclusively and only for villain characters. I can only assume this is because you feel your character would no longer be "good" from some sort of roleplaying sense. My best answer to you is, be more creative/thinking outside the box, if that is your primary concern. However, if you're staunchly opposed and wishing to intentionally limit your character in this fashion, that's very much an Roleplayer's perogative and nothing wrong with that of course.... except that it shifts intentions of your character from being a min/max/optimal(semi subjectively mind you) to a thematic character. In terms of thematic play, the rule is: anything is ok. However, if you seek to straddle the line between thematic character and optimizing within that thematic/avoidance of things that dont fight your themes, then (depending on the build/theme) that can be more challenging. Its basically an issue of concept vs meta. We cant really sort that for you, so that's going to ultimately need to be a decision for yourself. 2. If you dont want to use sorcery pool, then dont. Linea's build uses it because as I pointed out at the start, their build is specifically intended for survivability in addition to support for specific teams that match the challenges of the harder content in the game that most dont play. People take the sorcery pool for many reasons not just for certain builds to be more resilient either. However, your feelings that Rune of Protection are over powers is rooted in your still being new to the game. It isnt overpowered(cant wait for you to see incarnate powers...) as it has a long cool down timer that --cannot-- be affected by global recharge benefits. Its a fixed 180 so its only up for a minute then 2 more minutes after that before it can be activated again. It is a situationally used ability in other words but this was already pointed out to you. You'll also notice in that build they slotted it with enhancements that give specific bonuses... which was also another important goal for the build and related to what I stated before. To be blunt, you're seeing again the build from a new player standpoint and not a long time HC player one. 3. "Skipping radiant aura". To be quite blunt, teams are not going to like you for skipping your healing aura to help with the team. "Doing your job right" thinking to be honest is again a potential mismatch between the set's powers and your perception of it. In group dynamics terms, this is going to be a challenge for you leveling as people in groups will be expecting you to be healing and debuffing equally. Or if you're the only one who would've had a heal on the team(as can happen frequently) there's going to be some people unhappily questioning what's going on. Again, I recognize you're going for a very specific thematic build. This is what I was eluding to the thematic vs meta far above. To that end, I would also like to suggest to you to again be more creative/outside the box. Due to how you can change colors of powers and other things, you may be havinga situation of a mismatch between your wants and the power sets themselves. As a completely arbitrary example, one could make a poison primary defender with a dark blast secondary, color them both a sickly orange and call them a radiation sickness Role Playing themed character. Lots of ways for people to get creative. However again, if you are adamant about your choices, then that's fine. I just recommend that you also be equally resolved in how you're going to navigate the social dynamics with other players when you're not helping to heal them and friction occurs once you explain(or dont) that you didnt take the healing power for the set. If you intend to group constantly and with a variety of people, this is likely to occur so you need to be prepared for that eventuality. Mind you, if you're playing on Everlasting(the defacto RolePlaying server) you may have a better way to role play that away though. 4. As for Radiation blast powers that you said you didnt understand why Linea took, again, look at their set bonuses and how it adds up with the overall ---goals--- for the build and the specific game play. You want different as a roleplaying thematics player? Great. Build 100% as you wish. If you want to build min/max, then you're going to need to start delving into why players make specific power choices and for what content their going with. Linea would 100% not build that build and choose those powers and slots/enhancements if they were planning to make a casual MSR specific rad/rad or just running a toon 1-50 to then park at 50. Goals shape the character's powers/slots/enhacement choices. This is a tricycle at a NASCAR race track saying they want to run that tricycle on the track, not understanding its not a car, and then not understanding why its not being allowed to race in the coca cola 500. (Im making an intentionally silly example but to illustrate the stark contrast between the information gap that you have and the expectations due to that gap and not giving this example as a means to slight you.) 5. Your choices for hover evasive maneuvers are fine. Just remember the defensive bonuses from ev drop when you start attacking. Also just because you then toggle it off to just use hover doesnt mean you're going to go slower. Addressing your information gap again, if there's a kinetics on your team, they can speed boost you(which also btw boosts your recharge rate so you can use powers faster), and so you'll be fast with it. Im simply pointing this out to reinforce your assumptions mismatching what the dynamics of your team can potentially bring(or not). Slotting and what enhancements you put in them also is a factor. Because you still do not have a firm grasp on set bonuses and other beneficial enhancements, explaining that in detail may be too much. Suffice to say, though both are ways for people to help bonus boost their global recharge and other benefits. 6. Have to be blunt on mids: Love it, but its absolutely a mess with so many inaccuracies that the people who are tasked with maintaining it just simply have not or cannot address. Some having existed for years with it. City of Data too has inaccuracies(albeit less so). A third option often recommended too is to make and play around with builds on the homecoming beta server as you can insta a 50, and get any enhancements you want free to then test around with. However: -You're not familiar with the full details on enhancement sets, bonuses, and more. More importantly you're not familiar yet with how to think on it as a recipe for a larger whole result. -You're still not familar with even playing the powers of sets, the AT's themselves, nor how what you do interacts with others in a group. My advice to you in all these regards then: -Pick your power sets for an AT, and play from your interests(as you clearly do wish to do already). You're not going to be wasting money(or shouldnt be) on delving into set enhancements while you level. Just use the standard Invention Origin enhancements(IOs) and learn just more or less how to play, and the group dynamics of playing with others in these regards. -Over time you're going to learn the game and then start being able to delve into the more complicated and detailed meta that everyone speaks to. Right now though you're having a dissonance between your wants and the reality of game play and due to your info gap, its making your situation more challenging. 6. Without haste and many sets that give bonuses to global recharge time and more, 100% you're not going to achieve recharge time goals on powers that you've been expressing. Again, wants vs reality of game play meta. 7. Chocking cloud doesnt always work. Its not a guarantee to affect targets in the way you believe. You're also going to need to be well within melee range of not just the mobs that may be held, but also ones that arent. Because you're building a toon to be more thematic vs resilient, this means you're going to be licking the pavement more than you may envision yourself doing so(especially when you opt to not take your healing aura power). Its essentially going to be more situationally used (and in recipe with other powers that you use. 8. Slotting for defense debuffs in general isn't going to be necessary as a whole due to the stacking amounts of it from your power sets, also 1-50, stuff is going to die relatively quickly making it less effective as an enhancement consideration when there are other things that can be slotted in some powers. Also, some mobs can be resistant to defense debuffs, especially at higher levels of content. Again, meta vs reality. 9. Skipping aim is your choice but again, in some build situations, its not just about the +tohit and +damage but also the enhancements slotted and the bonuses given on activation (gaussian's +build up turning the power into a much stronger +dam/+tohit buff when the proc goes off. Again that's fine though. You're not building for effectivity but for thematics. 10. This is the big one that so many players to the game just never come to understand: There is no one best, cookie-cutter, way to play a character. Its all situational and in some minor cases, subjective as well. The game was ---intentionally--- designed this way decades ago by the original devs and continues to be perpetuated by the current team(albeit with some lesser amounts to that). This game was originally a subscription model game. That meant that making the time sinks and the complications of playing making players subscribe longer and thus bring in more revenue was the intentional goal(as most live service games are). But... this should not be construed to mean that making a mastermind toon(arbitrary example), giving it only the 3 range attacks it gets, a secondary that only debuffs, and then expecting it to be toe to toe equal with most other AT's and players you're playing with on a team. It will be more or less a hamstringed build with challenges. Again nothing wrong with that(we've seen petless mm builds for years on here). But what it does mean that its challenge. Many new players who make decisions that go outside of the parameters intended for the ATs/power sets and face those challenges become discouraged. You're giving signs of that being the case at the moment. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ So in summary You're too new yet to understand the powers, the enhancements, Archetypes, and how they all work with groups etc etc etc. Your lack of knowledge on all these fronts is conspiring to, along with the the much higher end meta of details of play, to make you confused, misunderstanding various things etc. You're 100%, categorically, making a themed roleplayer style character. And its effectivity is altered/challenged by your choices. As long as you accept that, and the challenges that it incurrs, then enjoy. If you do not accept that, then you're going to need to start rethinking, adapting, and doing things that are incongruent with your current perceptions and expectations. You're just wanting to casually play and enjoy. There is NOTHING wrong with that, but you also need to understand the wants vs the reality of the situation that may or may not impose. So my best advice: 1. Just use mids as a ---general--- powers choosing planners for now. You're not ready to tackle the more detailed ins and outs of the sets/enhancements etc. 2. Just play the game. See how your choices work(or dont) for you. That's experiential learning. If you get to 50 with such a toon, great. Then decide if you're wanting to continue to progress it for its incarnate powers, redo its slots and start purchasing the 500mil to 1.5 billion influence in costs total needs for set enhancements etc. 3. While leveling 1-50, just buy the standard invention origin enhancements just giving fixed % values for specific things like damage, acc, etc. General rule for that no more than 3 slots of the same enhancement type as more causes the % values to get deminishing returns(Im 100000% simplifying this but you can read more on that from the wiki or elsewhere as its another thing in the meta). 4. Understand how playing with groups works from point 2 as well. 5. Continue to read the forums, wiki, city of data, mids, etc and start learning more over time. The knowledge will come and the understanding of the game will come. There's so much more to learn outside of just building a toon that in some cases can be wholly more important. 6. For newer players, the biggest challenge is money. Learn effective methods in game from guides here and others on how to make money. Hint: for a new player its not about getting to 50 and then making money. There are methods(and not not Market flipping or wasting merits for converters to selll on the market) that not only help a player make good money to fund their 1-50 needs for standard IOs but also in the beginning help to level them as well. 7. Contrarian/alternative builds are fine, just be ready to accept the challenges they impose up to and including social/group challenges. Best of luck.

Since the, quite frankly, ridiculous Council changes, the PI mish ones are not paper tigers anymore, imo. Archons are like mini AV's now that hit hard, strong self heal, and some use the dark tank rez taking significant chunks from players. Since they can spawn in groups of more than one, they can be a problem for various teams in some cases. They're over tuned and I cant help but feel the dev who did so really has a love for and dog(wolf) whistling(pun intented) the council/5ht column 😛. Keep in mind your build of course when fully done wouldn't be a concern on PI Council mishes because that build is specific for high end content play. Most folks running those arent so specific/geared obviously and with a flux of team composition/dynamics that tend to not be found with the smaller numbers of folks running the starred content, hehe. ---- As for circling back to the question by the op regarding defenders, as you and others in the thread have pointed out, they are worth it/