Sovera

Lumi, no. Zeke, stop encouraging her!

Defence is an addendum. You're still a resist based character and your resistances should be at 90%. The 45% is just an extra that allows to dodge most things Fire Armor is bad at (debuffs and psi). The 59% is just for defence based characters to worry. The good news is that resistance does not care about incarnate caps. If you're at 90% then you're set. Resistance debuffs? Resists resist resistance debuffs and you have those at 90% ergo you're 90% resistant to resistance debuffs. (I like this phrase, now say the whole thing ten times fast). Even to reach 45% is already a gimmicky affair relying on not completely optimal slotting, plus Storm Kick, plus Barrier. So I don't think that you will get much higher. Not with that character, you have resistances to keep up, three types of defenses to keep up, and on top try to have a decent recharge. You should not even need more defence overall but while it is not as fun consider that having 90% of your inspirations dedicated to small purples lets you bump that 45% to 57% on the off chance you do find your HP dipping.

@Lindharin This is one of those options I mentioned above where the person doing it will be invisible. No one will suddenly say 'oh heck, I'm suddenly immortal' though they might say 'oh heck, I'm suddenly dying and don't know why' when the person leaves the team. It may not be glamorous but it will help everyone a lot.

I agree. Heat of the moment are the best. Even if then there can still be roleplay nitpicking (can't save everyone? But I'm a speedster, I am super fast!) or biased moral choices we don't agree (in SWTOR I got dark side points for saving medical data that could save thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, over saving a single person dangling from a cliff). But saying it doesn't work is also not quite so. We routinely have a Batman doing his best when he could just phone the Flash and have him clean everything in a couple of seconds, or Superman fighting magical creatures instead of phoning one of his magic friends to come clean it up. But 'heat of the moment' avoids that measured response. It's happening NOW, gotta do something NOW, seconds to decide, go go go!

Yes, but there are only a finite amount of defense options once having taken Combat Jumping, Weave, Maneuvers, etc. That's where Kinetic Combat comes in for those who want to up their defense.

Finally went around to punching a few pylons. Turns out that despite 'feeling' good (and having a -res proc) the times are average for a Tanker: 4:01 4:44 4:13 Omg, Tankers, so much DPS O_O; Can't wait for the inevitable nerf to Tanker damage over a vocal minority showcasing 5-6 damage-proc-per-attack builds as irrefutable proof of Tanker superiority! Good news is that the endurance is completely licked and even with Focused Accuracy + Tough + Weave the blue bar stayed at 80% for the whole 4 minute fights (AoE will drain it faster though). Anyway, not as exciting as I hoped. But it made me curious if Incinerate was worth the swap. So I respecced out of it and back to Scorch. Having Scorch makes the build semi-impervious to exemplaring (lacks a third attack until 25 (exemplared) while Scorch recharges but one of the AoEs can do it in a pinch, or one of the prestige attacks) but is it a damage loss? It should be as it is a T1 but Incinerate is a DoT, so meh. 4:27 4:16 Everything seems to be about the same so there is no particular reason to change to Incinerate. Place Incinerate's slotting in Fire Sword and Fire Sword's in Scorch if wanting the swap. Incinerate as a DoT sucks since we hardly ever know if we actually killed a mob and will often hit it another time just to be sure. Now, I drool at the prospect of having Cremate... but not at the cost of Combustion. ... *eyes Fire Breath, useless as sand to a beduin*

No, they are useless. There are some cherry picked ones like Kinetic Combat and Steadfast Protection (just the proc), but the OG devs expected us to spend a couple of weeks in the low levels. Now we spend two hours in the low levels. One QoL I'd like would be for all sets to be slotted by level 10 instead of having arbitrary minimum level. It's busywork to wait until 17 or 27 to slot something and in the meanwhile use a filler.

In the same way as Brutes the procs are bad and just about useless. The BONUSES are good though so don't skip on slotting the ATOS. But since the procs are near useless there is pretty much not much point in thinking too hard. My own way to do it is: - Is my nuke a rain? Then one can go there as rains don't proc well (or at all). - Is my nuke NOT a rain? Then it does NOT go there as proc bombing the nuke increases it's damage in 30% and Sentinels need all the damage help they can get. - Will I be using my T1 or T2? One of the ATOs goes there as T1s and T2s proc badly due to their fast recharge. - Do I have an AoE? The other ATO goes there as AoEs tend to be bad with procs anyway.

While obviously a buffer and a debuffer will provide a lot to a team you need to consider they don't actually are necessary while leveling and the closer you to go max level the less they are really needed (which seems paradoxical but that's how it is). If you intend to 'just' do normal content then anything you bring is fine as long as your build is decent and you're hitting things. If you want to go into Hardmodes (CoH equivalent of raids for lack of better word) then specialized builds come up but that's 1% of the current content and not something a new player ought to worry about just yet. - You can pick a Tanker and just be the first to jump into the thick of it. That's all a Tanker is required to do, no memorizing routes or worrying about cycling defensive clickies or etc. This is a simple game. Your damage won't be super amazing but it will let you defeat enemies well enough (Build-up + both AoEs = 90% of a group defeated) when you're soloing and you will be s t u r d y. This is my advice for new players. The (near) immortal build in the signature is my usual recommendation. This solos and teams well and can do up the difficulty pretty early on. - You can pick a Kinetics in whatever flavour you care. They give Speed Boost early on which grants recharge that is always welcome while also giving endurance recovery. Both those buffs are deeply appreciate in the low levels before IOs kick in. Later on they are less impactful (though usually desired nevertheless) but then you're also giving Fulcrum Shift and increasing the damage of the team. The ultimate buffer would be something like a Kinetics/Sonic Blast Defender. Corruptor is fine too but Defender gets the buffs earlier. Your attacks with Sonic naturally do -resistance so your team does more damage and your Kinetic buffs are buffing the team to recharge faster and hit harder. This is not as easy to solo and you might never really up the difficulty much more than mid level. - Any sort of shielder. You will be invisible. No one notices you're around. But people will simply take less damage. The further you get to maximum level the less impact it has as people gear up, but non meleers will still be sturdier simply by hitting your shields every couple of minutes. Same as above regarding soloing. - The basics would also be a Blaster. Okay, you're not buffing. and okay, you're not debuffing. Who cares? If you're hitting Build + Aim + your nuke you just killed a whole group of enemies. If there is nothing alive there is nothing left to hurt the team. Caveat, you only do this every 40-50 seconds so roughly 2-3 groups. This is just as squishy as the last two suggestions (until a lot of money is poured in though thankfully money is not hard to make) but might not be as hard to level by dint of doing a lot of damage very fast. Again, if nothing is left alive after the first seconds... For all three do consider picking up Flight and Hover to be hovering out of melee range as ranged attacks hurt less than melee ones. - And just like the previous suggestion so will any melee character. Not buffing, not debuffing, but if defeating enemies at a good clip then nothing much left alive to hurt back the team. They will be squishier than the Tanker but hardier than the buff/debuffer characters. As a bonus they come immune to crowd control which the ranged characters are not. This also soloes decently well and later on will increase the difficulty easily once some money is poured. Higher difficulty = more money. - With the exception of the last suggestion: the humble Sentinel. Decent damage, sturdier than the buffer/debuffer choices, less damage than the Blaster but also capable of doing the nuke combo under 30 seconds unlike the Blaster. As a bonus it is the only ranged character who is also near immune to crowd controls. They might be grumbled at because they don't do a tremendous amount of damage but they are a super solid first pick for a new player. There is no downside as later on any gear bought for them can be respeced out and transferred to other characters. Also check the newbie guide for info and money making tips via easy selling of Merits. Making your own superbase is free and a good place to have your gear stashed for alts to pick up.

Made some truly minor tweaks to the slotting to slightly boost the damage of Crushing Uppercut and sprinkled more accuracy since without Focused Accuracy you were a bit under the cap (place your Relative Enemy Level at +3 and verify your accuracy when building). You have around 74% to most resistances with just one ATO stack which is better than my usual. If you can be arsed pick up the accolades to boost your HP and endurance. It'll leave you HP capped and slightly more endurance will help your recovery. There's a how to for the accolades in the newbie guide in the signature though it's minimal min maxing for end game. Concrete Pebble (Stone Armor - Street Justice).mbd

I have a whole thread on Stone Armor in my signature and while it does not have Street Justice in particular it does have a framework purpose made to be adapted to other sets. There is no reason to feel unspoiled by Stone as it gets to softcap by level 13 (leveling with amplifiers) and by 25/30 it is softcapped without amplifiers. Weave is just a mule but can be turned on if facing defense debuffers to put defenses at 50%. Barrier pushes it to 55%. It also ends with a neat row of 70% to all resists (fire and cold higher than that actually) with one stack of the ATO, 76% with two stacks, and 81% with 5% from Barrier on top of that. Fire and Cold are the 'hole' in the set where it has no defenses but the set relies on resistances for them instead as two stacks of the ATO leaves them at 87% and Barrier spackles over the last 3%.

One of my two solitary warning points still make me grit my teeth. The person calls me a cheater. I call him an idiot. I get a demerit and -100 points to Gryffindor, post removed. Their post remained. But the 'niggardly' thing? Ah, beautiful. So many years and it's still a tale I tell. Beautiful and encapsulating.

NEVAH!

It's pretty solid, and you won't be left wanting, but these days I hand the cake to the Stone/Fire Tanker in my signature. Decent damage, tankier, very solid from level 13 onwards.

Okay.

I read the entire thread. Our one post marvel does not specify what irked them so much and some educated guesses have had to be made by other players. Two pages later and two days later and our one post marvel has not returned to clarify or add to it. I'm not one for theory conspiracies but...

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.