Sovera

And now we wait. Good job Piecemeal, now I need to find it in me to sleep after that shot of news in the vein.

The annoying thing about the farming (to me) is the begging. Someone doing 'I'm going to farm and welcome people' is fine. But the spam of 'is anyone fawming? Could ah seet by the doow while you fawm?' does rub me wrong. 'Can someone play the game for me? Can I just AFK and be rewarded?' This is as close as we get to the mythical 'what if players just got a button to press that would make them level 50 fully incarnated and with a billion inf'. Yikes. At least level a farmer and farm yourself without begging for a spot to doorsit while someone does the work. But that would defeat the purpose. That would be work. They don't want work. They want their dole.

Builds are both a bit like art and also something personal. Things that work for someone else might not for you and vice versa. Consider something like this: You can do Devastating Blow, Radioactive Smash, Radiation Siphon, Radioactive Smash and repeat. I personally don't feel that Zapp + Ball Lightning adds much to the build but since you had it I kept it. Musculature for more damage and Barrier for a panic button if things go bad (or to finish capping defense). DNA Siphon is pretty much all your endurance needs met, but it won't do much for extended single target scenarios or exemplared under its reach. That aid Recovery Serums is the answer to both of that. Ablative Shield is your number one defensive move so it should be slotted accordingly. After that comes DNA Siphon which is good enough to fill up an HP bar if surrounded by enemies. Then Parasitic Aura. Then Barrier. In my experience Parasitic Aura does close to nothing to keep someone alive where Barrier means pretty much invulnerability for the first 30 seconds.

Do you happen to mean Panaceia with Pancreas?

Greater Sword Circle you mean Greater Ice Sword? It's quite garbage (9 points more damaging than Frost, but single target) but if you like the animation then go for it. Arcane Bolt I tested and frankly it did less damage than Frozen Fists so I don't where the gushing over it is coming from. But it's a source of Force Feedback procs, so go for it. You can use FA with just one endurance reduction in it. Could take Permafrost out for it since it only adds Fire/Cold res (not terribly important) and Slow (to which you're overcapped anyway. You can slot the -slow in Mystic Flight to recoup if you feel like it). It's a bit heavy though, and Ice Armor is heavy to begin with. Finding room for Physical Perfection wouldn't go amiss to stretch uses of Energy Absorption though as long as it is not a long ST scenario it ought to keep you up, but you have already scrounged slots from Stamina/Health. Well, just keep Recovery Serums at hand see if you need them or not. Frankly the build looks mighty fine. You'll have to see if you enjoy the Sorcery pool all the way to end game but if not it's easy to respec.

Offering bribes isn't necessary. Check the thread I mentioned, compare your build to the agreed-as-optimal, slot accordingly. Your goals are going to be 45% defense against fire and 90% resistance against fire.

To be honest not even that approach satisfies me. Because of body blocking mobs do several concentric rings around me. Once the first ring is dead arrested the second ring surrounds me. This repeats itself until all are dead. Even when a Controller waits until I'm surrounded I no longer have enemies scooting closer when they are immobilized. Like I said, when the enemies don't hurt and no one is in danger spamming mass CCs does nothing. Fears, immobilizes, stuns. They are great for optional panic buttons such as two spawns close together or ambushes, which are moments when the number of enemies surpass 17 and some will be running around trying to hit the rest of the team. But outside those panic moments to be used or not be used influences nothing, and most of the time just slows everything. It's hardly a big deal though, but it is what it is. Now in that example of the Resistance being a dangerous group that would be when stuns and fears would make a large difference in survival, so the fault lies in the game that makes 90% of the content too easy to require anything more fancy than hitting something until it stops moving.

I was playing with three controllers a couple weeks back and I could see that I upset one of them. They were majestically polite though. We started doing a Synapse and of course everyone starts spamming their immobilizes. I ask if they could not. Keep playing. They keep doing it. I let a few minutes pass and then ask again if they could not. They keep doing it. I wasn't upset nor did I berate them. But it was so obviously unnecessary. Nothing was added by using the mass immobilizes. The mobs were not hurting, no one was dying, and instead of killing faster we were slogging through as my main strength of bursty AoE was diluted by only hitting part of the spawn. After another mission I take the time and re-mention how the spam of immobilizes, fears and stuns was only slowing things. Instead of the enemies clustering around me for AoE they had to be picked one by one where ever they had been feared, immobilized, or were staggering drunkenly. That's when one of them said started staying by the door, and when someone asked they said they had no powers they could use at that level if they could not use their CC. And, I mean, as I said above they were polite about it, no snark, no growling. The best part is that I actually appreciated it. I would rather do the TF with one person doorsitting than the spam of mass immobilizes. The other two also stopped using theirs, though the spam of mass fears and stuns continued. I'm sure they felt they were helping, bless. Edit: it feels like I'm talking shit when I come to the Controller forums to say how their CC is not needed and only slows down things. The problem really lays in the game. For 90% of the game everything is easy. The last 10% a Controller would be appreciated but they have to contend with 90% of the game. Such as I was doing a First Ward arc with a friend and we come across the Resistance. Phew, we had torn a new one to everything until then and suddenly those guys were debuffing and eating my endurance like no one's business. Suddenly that was where a Controller would have shined. But in order to be useful in that instance they would have had to be a fifth wheel (uncharitable hyperbole) until then.

Check the Guide section of the forums, then find the Farm Fresh thread. It's where all things farming and absolutely min maxed builds for the effect are discussed. But I'd go through the Market section and read a bit there since the money those guys make could make a farmer cry in envy.... and then you can still farm on top of it.

Yeah, it doesn't do much. People go with their gut feelings and how it has an impact on things, but I rank it same as people who try for more exotic Incarnate choices and are ready to swear they actually impact gameplay. It's not another 10-15 HP regenerated per second that will make a difference unless on the most strained knife edge scenario... and even then someone munching on a purple insp will probably vastly surpass Triage's effect in terms of survival. Either the mission is too easy and dropping it made no difference or it's too hard and dropping it doesn't make a difference.

EM is better AoE than StM though, weird as as it may be. Power Smash, Whirling Hands, Power Smash won't win prizes but it will leave a gap for Total Focus at the end. Plus it's an orgy of stuns being showered in AoE. I've been on a Ice Melee bent so I'll make a quick mention of it. Frost at level 2 + Brute's Fury makes leveling a breeze. My brute was one shotting full spawns all the way to 18-20 which is a very nice feeling. A brute's squishyness gets protected with Ice Patch too.

Ow. I find ice Melee pretty damn good for exemplaring, but I also use Frost for my melee rotation and have Frozen Fists slotted as a mule (which gives it the raw stats to be used as a leveling/exemplaring attack). Despite FF being bad we can plod along with Frost- FF - Ice Sword - FF until 26. @hejtmane's problem was trying to use the box instead of going outside of it. My advice for using Frost stemmed from the time I used a Stalker with Ice Melee (my first serious Ice Melee experience) and found the awkward AS recharge making gaps. That's when I (reluctantly) started using Frost for ST and while not brilliant it does one thing great: smoothing the rotation. Suddenly Freezing Touch - Ice Sword - Frost - Ice Sword becomes a forgiving mid level rotation that shines in 90% of the game since 90% of the game is hitting multiple enemies. Just keep hitting the boss with minimal repositioning and the rest of the spawn will be dead by the time it has been killed. This approach is good enough that I stopped using Frozen Aura (but I'm a weirdo, don't necessarily try to do this) since 'ST-ing' the boss killed the spawn around it. But yes, using an AoE drags the set down. AoEs do less damage because they hit multiple enemies. They are also more expensive in endurance. The animations are long. But, consider how 90% of the game is hitting multiple enemies. GiS and FT definitely ought to change places though. There are things like adding epic snipes to help the ST, but they are not available for every rotation (same problem I had with AS' awkward recharge making it available only every two rotations). With more recharge from a secondary or buffs FT - Ice Sword - Frost becomes possible. I sacrifice too much to raise my S/L defenses up and so my recharge isn't the best and even so I'm half a second from making that last rotation gapless. While using Frost looks all sorts of wrong and even more on a spreadsheet the numbers it puts out (on a Tanker where I tested) are just slightly behind a Claws character downing a pylon 15-20 seconds later. And we know in the 'real game' the smash/slash resistances is going to put Ice ahead. Frost ends being a good place for the Scrapper crit proc too. Since it hits multiple mobs it has multiple chances to go off and will buff FT and Ice Sword, and it's a skill that will be used both ST and AoE.

I once let it be known to a friend that I had a lot of WoW gold. They started hinting they would really like a mount and since-I-was-rich... So I bought it for them. A week later they decide they don't want to be friends anymore. I'm not assuming this was the case. I'm not talking about us slowly stop talking to each other until we had drifted apart. They literally sent me a whisper saying 'I don't want to be friends anymore' and deleted me from the friend list (which insta deletes them from mine which is how I knew they did it). I never did get to the bottom of it because they were a bit burdensome as a friend with little dramas I got drawn into, so I answer Ok and never tried to interact with him again. But, overall, well spent gold if it was the trigger.

There are other travel powers than Fly? 😕

I posted a few days ago about Nightward. I got distracted by leveling qith a friend and then doing the TF accolade... and I'm no longer level appropriate. But I went to do it anyway and decided to start by First Ward. I've never touched that content so it's nice to see something different. I loved the area, it looks nice and apocalyptic. The first enemies were DUST who did a lot of noise and bright flashing colors but did absolutely no harm. Then some Dregs, who also did no harm.... So of course I was unprepared for the Shepherds 😄 First group I find I jump and die in a few seconds. Ooookay. Respawn, try again, first group was half dead and even so they hurt. Second group. Dead despite spamming inspirations. Repeat. Third group I die a third time. My resists-resist-resist-debuffs seems to do nothing as I go from 90% to 20% thanks to Tar Patch spam and they whittle defenses into the -45% no problem. After the third death and starting to get grumbly I went, owait, I'm playing Ice Melee. I went back in, fourth group, LoS break, Ice Patch. Kill them without going lower than 90% HP. Fifth group, LoS break, Ice Patch, again 90% Hp at the end of it, no heal used. Who needs DDR anyway?!

His post is quoted on that link, and a few posts before mine. I wouldn't know about the rest.

I had a one off 1:45 once, but the rest of the time the numbers were like yours. I did Devastating, Radioactive Smash, Radioactive Siphon, Radioactive Smash. Auroxis had the same numbers too, or a bit lower but he relied on Shadow Meld where I built for full time protection and spikes with Barrier.

Truth. I was laughed at when requested to taunt the mitos and said I didn't have Taunt. I explained I don't build for 0.1% of the content.

Invuln or Shield.

Your friend is correct. I try to aim for as close to 95% against +3 which is where we end after the T3 Alpha is slotted in. Most often I end overshooting and end with 100%+ but it's not on purpose. Adding Focused Accuracy helps alot in reaching those as a bonus though the real purpose is the protection against -ToHit. If you go to Mids and change the ToHit in options - Exemping and Base Values from 75% to 48% you can simulate hitting +3 enemies so the accuracy in the attacks' tooltips will be accurate.

The game was made so it could be played with bare bones builds, so in a way you don't -have- to delve into the complicated stuff. As with most complicated stuff I find it better to copy what someone more experienced made. Then, as time passes and we become more experienced with it all, we can develop our own builds. Some people never get to that point because they don't care about it (this is me on all games that have crafting) and so you can either keep on copying builds (absolutely no shame in it) or if someone could you build you something. Because there are a finite number of combos simply using the search function might show the build you were interested in.

Yes, of course, now that you have asked for it they will apply a quick patch they had but were holding back from us. 👍

I started messing a bit with it, but since it's tailored to your playstyle I abandoned the idea. But I just wanted to add that you don't need the Quismet since you're already overcapped in accuracy, don't need the status resist IO since Shield's anti CC is the best in the market, that Assault is pretty weak (despite saying 10% it may be more like 5%) and Hasten would get you more Shield Charges and etc. I also had it to 70-72% S/L resistance which depending on your incarnates it could cap out with Barrier or just add a bit more to reach 75%. But the S/L defense was down to 48% which seemed to stray from your overcapping desires.

Definitely Dark Melee for the heal and the endurance clicky which are both things Shield lacks.

I'm quite pleased at the tour de force in removing Tough from the Fire/Ice (the build I use without Frozen Aura though). A minor increase in EPS to 3.61 and a small EPS consumption decrease from 2.29 to 2.07, but now the 15% Tough was providing is baked into the build to be enjoyed well before Tough would have been picked, and the button can be removed from the bar.