Sovera

Both links still work. I just imported it now Some powers can now be taken sooner such as Shockwave at 26 and Genetic Contamination at 30 but everything else is still the same. I've re-uploaded the leveling build.

'You look extra nice today, did you do something to your hair?'

Funny enough it is not the damage that makes me drop Sentinels but the runners. Having to chase enemies be it on a Sentinel or any other AT is what makes me stick to Brutes or Tankers (or the few Scrappers who lucked out on having an agro aura). Or eliminate all Kill All missions as a compromise.

Yes, I agree. It should be changed. Thanks for bringing it up.

Extra flying speed, both on Hover and on Fly. You need both Fly, Evasive Maneuvers, AND Afterburner to reach close (but not completely) to the speed cap. Without EM you will be much slower. EM is also another LotG mule, gives knockback resistance, and fly debuff resistance. So it should always be on once you pick it. Travel powers are a personal choice though. If preferring Super Jump or Super Speed or what ever it might be then go for it.

I have a Fire/Fire Brute. Smash, Lethal and Melee defenses were pushed to 33% (38% with Barrier) so a small purple softcaps them (50% with the small purple) as a little extra layer of protection, S/L resistances want Barrier to get the last 5%. Brute (Fire Fire).mbd

I've tried slows to no particular visible result. At least with Mudpots and Spines. That particular combo made nothing I could see. Stuff like Rain of Fire is something else as the slow combines with the fear. The -Recharge might do something but it's hard to tell since at best it adds half a second as mobs have fast cooldowns. The -Endurance needs to be coupled with -recovery but we have extensive proof is works. Even on an Elec/Bio Sentinel I could sap EBs or Paragon Protectors into not being able to use their annoying T9s. The -defense is, IMO, useless. We already build towards having capped accuracy and the 5% chance of missing will always be present regardless. The -ToHit probably does something, statistically, but those building towards defense ought to be defense capped and those not building towards defense won't have the defense to add to the -ToHit. The -regen only shows sign of existing against AVs. The -res has been extensively tested by the player base and works well. The -damage is another statistical thing. Probably does something, but does it really matter? If we already survive hits from AVs we will continue surviving them. This is more of a WoW thing where certain mechanics are one shots and require special skills so it is barely survivable for the healers to immediately heal to full. To further compound this most of these become less effective the higher level the foe is while also having a shorter duration. For a Controller who is slotting for CC this is countered but any other AT who is slotting for damage instead of -def or -ToHit finds those debuffs falling off even harder as they hit +3 or +4. So, the boring answer is, IMO, no, not really for the most part. The -res will always work and be appreciated but everything else is either niche or with a higher perception of being effective than it really is (cross reference with all the claims from players of how their -regen Incarnates makes a difference despite doing zilch). Even the -endurance usually has mobs dead by the time they are sapped and the EBs and PP example are niches. Good to have when in that situation, but still niche.

Out of the three I like Stone the most as it has the defenses of Shield but more perks like recharge, a damage aura, and endurance recovery. But lets preface this by saying saying the following is partly subjective and not based on actual tests but just from playing all three sets. In terms of survival Stone and Shield should survive better as they have softcapped defenses and then pretty good all around resistances. Bio lags behind on content with debuffs as it can only depend on its absorb shield in those moments. Shield can also stack defense debuff resistance which is a debuff that can kill characters easily. But Shield has no heal. So Shield has a slight edge here but I'd be in favour of Stone since it has regeneration on top of Shield level defenses and strong resistances (my builds reach 81%). Bio will survive just fine against content that has no debuffs but has poor resistances to anything not smash/lethal damage so any content that lowers defenses while also doing damage types not S/L can easily tear it apart. In terms of damage Shield has better burst with Shield Charge making a good battle opener and its +damage aura plays well with the first seconds of combat being bursty. The more enemies around the more damage a Shield character will do, but it does lack an actual damage aura for chip damage. For more sustained damage then Bio edges ahead with a combination of actual damage aura, then +25% damage from Adaptation, and the cherry on top being the -res from Evolving Armor. Stone has a damage aura and Brimstone for a little bit more damage which is actually pretty decent. So Bio for ST damage, Shield for burst, Stone for sustained damage. For utility Shield lags last as it has no means of recovering health or endurance but at least endurance can be worked around and as for health, well, there are always inspirations. Bio shines here as it has endurance recovery that doubles as a heal and an absorb shield that grants regeneration. But in my opinion the star goes for Stone that has baked in +recharge, +recovery, +regen, and +max HP (reaches the HP cap). It mocks content that Bio would crumble under and outsurvives Shield by regenerating the few hits that comes through while Shield lacks such and can be chipped down to death. It is also near completely passive with only the max HP buff having to be clicked when HP dips a bit (Shield also near passive other than Shield Charge at the start of a fight) where Bio will require more clicks to hit their survival tools. In practice all three armors are viable both for soloing and teaming (especially teaming) so it's a matter of taste. Teaming in particular makes everything easy with mobs being defeated faster to having less time to hurt back and there are always buffs. If you're interested in trying Stone Armor I have the (near) immortal build in my signature.

Not sure what the question is yet.

Good attitude when advice is offered.

*dusts the thread* Picked this up again and started fresh. Was as good as I remember. But last time I lost interest in CoH by level 42-ish and drifted to play other games so never finished leveling and getting incarnates in. After leveling it a second time I did some minor changes to the previous build. I now leveled with an Achilles -res in Greater Fire Sword and I think the effect was noticeable overall. It just felt better than having it in Fire Sword because A) Fire Sword has a low activation chance and B) when in an AoE situation I start with Build-up, Greater Fire Sword, and then go out with the AoEs so might as well see if the first hit gives the boss the -res to then be hit with the AoEs. Until BU recharges again the AoE rotation has been Greater Fire Sword, Incinerate, both pbAoEs, and again Fire Sword was being waylaid so the -res was not being used when placed there. Even so it still took around 5 minutes to kill for each AV-whose-name-I-forget at the end of Manticore. Both the woman and the brick were particularly sturdy. And Jurassik at the end of Numina took 12 minutes but that guy's particularly tanky against fire damage, methinks. Fire Sword is mostly reserved for pure single target moments as unlike Fire Armor this build is about defense and resists are just a bonus so I'm not as fussed about them. I found that even before having the accolades the blue bar endures having Weave turned on and it was needed as I did the accolade chasing at +1x8 and the praetorian bots that do -defense were tearing my 45% defense. With 50% it was endurable. I still died pulling three groups which is where Barrier and being at 55% instead of 50% would have kept me safe, but, new alt, so no Barrier yet. I'll try to get a pylon test just to compare how the ST is to my other builds. In the meanwhile the last version is: Tanker (Stone Armor - Fire Melee) Final build.mbd

Take a gander at the Stone/Fire Melee in my signature. I leveled a second one and have no complaints be it in survival or damage. Defense debuffs can still kill it as I realized when I jumped into a room filled with praetorian robots and tried to fight three spawns at once plus an EB. Barrier would have prevented that I reckon but I was a fresh level 50. My next goal is to get a pylon test going but since I'm 'cheating' by having a -res proc slotted I'm thinking it might get a 3 minuter mark, but it's dumb trying to eyeball it. I'll post once I get a pylon down.

I think the thread has already amply answered the original question but I'll butt in some more: For this particular question IOs have two factors: the raw stats and the bonuses from having multiples of two. Take a Preventive Medicine: Heal as an example: it can be slotted at level 17 which gives it a raw healing stat of 21.8%. All of the bonuses activate at level 17 so if you exemplar to level 17 you will have the 2% S/L resistances etc. If you exemplar to more than three levels under the minimum level the bonuses will turn off, so 17-3=14 is fine but level 13 and the bonuses are gone. The raw stats are still present and working fine though. Using non-attuned (dubbed 'crafted' in the Auction House) gives all possible levels but the rule of -3 still applies. But in this case if it is a non-attuned level 50 the cut off is 47 and so at 46 the bonuses turn off. Now enter the PvP/event/purple (dubbed 'Very Rare') IOs. The PvP ones have an extraordinarily low level being slotted at level 7. The event IOs (Avalanche, Blistering Cold, etc) can be slotted at level 10. The purples can only be slotted at 50. Enter some more quirks: - Purples can only be slotted at level 50. They can be purchased as crafted or attuned and both their stats and bonuses will work all the way to level one which makes them particularly good for exemplaring content (the fat 10% recharge and the accuracy in particular, but even the recovery). There is a little bit of worth in purchasing them as crafted instead of attuned to boost them. Not a LOT of worth since ED is present but boosting is cheap (around five million total per IO) so I do it anyway for the damage/endurance and the accuracy/recharge IOs of my purples. - Event IOs can only be purchased as attuned. There is no 'crafted' version which also means that they cannot be boosted. The Superior version of these IOs can only be slotted at level 50 but will keep their bonuses all the way down to level 10 which, once more, makes them good for exemplaring characters. Because their bonuses are rather decent and they can be slotted as early as level 10 it is a good practice to keep a set of them for new alts and when doing the level 50 respec to stash them for the next alt. Since they are attuned the stats will accompany the leveling and they grow stronger. - The PvP IOs (Shield Wall, Panaceia, etc) can be slotted at level 7 making them one of the first good stuff we can plonk on our characters. A Shield Wall 5% resist and Panaceia unique is my first level 7 choice. These can be purchased as attuned and crafted. The difference being that their bonuses will always work. A level 50 Shield Wall that is non-attuned will give the full bonuses at level 7. But a level 7 crafted PvP IO will have its stats as a level 7 even as we continue to level to 50. So either buy and slot at 50 or buy an attuned version. Tangential quirk: in terms of raw stats SOs beat IOs until level 40. +3 SOs will always be 38% and only at level 40 do IOs also reach 38%. In most cases IOs are more interesting regardless since their power comes from combining several stats that mathematically makes them better. The bonuses are just the icing. But for things that can't use multi-stats IOs, such as Hasten for example, then a SO beats a IO. But in practical terms this has not much value. Lets take the case of Hasten, for example. At level 22 we slot level 25 IOs and have Hasten with 92% recharge or (just using the tooltip) 3 minutes and 54 seconds recharge. If we use three SOs this becomes 114%, but then ED comes knocking at the door and clamps it down to 97%. The recharge is now 3 minutes and 48 seconds. Considering SOs lose power as we level and need to remember to upgrade them every 3 levels it is more hassle than it is worth... EXCEPT when under level 20-ish! Under that level the raw stats that SOs bring completely blow everything out of the water. For starters SOs can be used from level 1 which means three SOs will give 100% damage (even basic IOs can only be slotted at level 7). But even at level 7 three generic IOs will give a flaccid 35%. But three SOs will give 97% (they must be kept at 'green' which means upgrading every three levels but even at 'white' they still give 79% damage). This applies to everything such as Hasten (which is stupendous for low level uptime and the one thing I personally DO bother slotting with SOs). With all of this said do I bother using SOs while leveling an alt? Nooooo (with the exception of Hasten). It takes about an hour and a half to reach 22 even soloing and I am not going to fuss with worrying about SOs and if they are upgraded or not. But for slow leveling they are brutal. What about SOs for exemplaring? Still no. Taking Hasten from a level 50 exemplared to Posi 1 (level 20): - Exemplaring with two +5 level 50 recharge IOs: 40.7% - 5m19 - Exemplaring with two level 50 recharge IOs: 32.6% - 5m39 - Exemplaring with two level 53 SOs: 30% - 5:46. But since two slots play with IO's strengths how about three slots? - Three +5 level 50 recharge IOs: 61% - 4m39. - Three level 50 recharge IOs: 49% - 5m02 - Three level 53 SOs: 45% - 5m10

Yes, I'm aware of TA. Terrible does not mean non existent. With ATOs slotted in and whatever other stuff a Sentinel usually ends with something like 60y range. Not stupendous compared to regular ranged characters but enough to start combat out of agro range and fight out of range while hovering.

Range is nice, but, Blaster is the wrong AT for it. Stick to something like a Corruptor/Defender or a Sentinel. Half of the Blaster's kit is for melee range and not being in melee range means doing half the damage. A Corruptor can stay at range since most of the buff sets don't ask to be in melee range. If buffs are not your thing then Sentinel. While Sentinels do less damage than a Blaster lets be fair that a Blaster using half their kit are about Sentinel damage anyway.

Dude... Environmental Adaptation is what gives you defense to E/N/F/C. Bio has no resistances to those and relies on defenses... which you're now skipping. And no Assassin Strike? Then why Stalker? Go Scrapper if that's the case, or even Brute, and you get Dragon's Tail to at least have that AoE that Stalkers don't get.

Or any sort of -def.

Laughs aside I don't think I'd hate one server dedicated to being wiped every 3-6 months. Start fresh with the others, economy set apart from the regular servers, everyone on equal footing instead of the billionaires VS the casuals.

Tank for more survival and wider Shadow Maul. Scrapper for more damage.

... Stone Armor/Fire Melee Tanker. :D

Also, should I worry, @GM_GooglyMoogly? Are you tracking the actors now? Your googly eyes don't fool me none.

People complain about bad TF teams but those are the ones I enjoy the most. Maybe because I'm constantly on a tank so people doing dumb things only affects them (click all the glowies before the ambush is over? Sure, no skin off my back) but what we call 'smooth TFs' have become TOO smooth. We steamroll without care or even effort. But it makes sense if one player can solo it at that difficulty (that's me, I'm that player) then adding seven more to the mix will make no difference other than going faster. At some point we may get the HP multiplier for teams that I've been daydreaming about. Solo players will not be touched but for each player that joins X% goes up. Depending on the tuning it should still be at around the speed a single player while no longer having that struggle of trying to hit something before it has been obliterated. This is something I have seen in other games and that just makes sense.

The upside of having more endurance is that it still takes 100 seconds to go from empty to full, but you get more blue each second. So in practical terms it's harder to deplete it despite still requiring 100 seconds as previously.

Pretty much anything. More so if a melee AT. Double that if they are twinked with ATOs and uniques and etc.

I've been slacking off.