Sovera

You have a good point. The effort in making Pool powers unappealing managed it so well that they could just as well be deleted from the game. The opportunity to have Pool powers fill up a deficiency in a build is not present. Are we leveling something with bad attacks? Lets use a pool power to make up for it. Are we leveling a build with bad or poor AoE? Lets use a pool power to make up for that lack. Instead there is an effort at creating things (I'm looking at you, Experimentation), tweaking, code hours spent, adding to the game, and thanks to the effort at making them useless no one uses them.

*vibrates*

I wanted to branch out a bit from Tankers so tried a few different things. I mostly wanted something with DDR. Rad Melee/Shield was too annoying with the slow animations and the DDR was being stripped in the low levels so I dropped it. I then made this. 51% DDR, medium resistances (S/L capped with Barrier which I intended to take for a panic button), softcapped defenses (even negative). Turns out the DDR is scaled by level (or effectiveness of slotted defense) so it only had 31% in the low levels and was being stripped by CoT but not as badly as something without any. Lack of endurance recovery is spackled over by Recovery Serums until Energize comes into play. I do not advocate using it for endurance purposes instead of a heal, but, between softcapped defenses (with amplifiers) by level 32-ish and Siphon Life that is the use I have been giving it until Energy Drain opens up. Focused Accuracy is taken just to avoid annoyances with blinds and ToHit debuffing but there is no reason to use it otherwise. Though with it turned on it makes a nice list of debuff protection. An AoE rotation of ToF, Shadow Maul, ToF, Siphon Life (recover HP and ATO proc) can be done forever and it cleans up packs decently between the crits and with two damage procs and Soul Drain to help. When taking a lot of damage ToF, SM, SL can also be done without pauses. The damage is... okay? Crits are noticeable and I have aimed at the old chainsaw rotation of Siphon Life, Shadow Punch, Smite, Shadow Punch, which works pretty decently. I soloed Posi 1 - 2 and Yin, and the AVs were whittled faster than on my Tankers. Which is nice when we consider it was done on a half slotted build. I am just feeling a bit uninspired. Or as a friend said, frankly spoiled by Fire Armor and Burn. Dropping Burn in the low levels and half a spawn dies feels a lot better than whittling things down with ToF and SM. It just feels like everything lives too long. Anyway, it looks like a decent build so I'll drop it here if others are looking for something similar.

Calling Soul Drain near useless is a bit much. Regular BU is 100% damage. SD with one mob is 60%. It does require having at least 4 mobs in range to give as much as regular BU but if hitting more than four then it's a benefit. ... that said it's clunky. 10y radius isn't much and it is not realistic to hit ten mobs with it, teams will kill the enemies before SD can go off, and 2.5 seconds is way too long. People can of course do what they want to do. But skipping a 1.2 animation that gives 100% damage (180% with Gaussian) and makes for a perfect opener coupled with one or two AoEs to mow down half a spawn, is a tough logic to follow. I'd worry more about it if the stacks were particularly useful. 20% endurance reduction is nice, sure, but what does it really add in a world that has insps and Recovery Serums, plus whatever endurance recovery a secondary brings? 25% recharge is nice as well, but, with the fast attacks SM is not exactly having to wait out gaps. The rotation is supposed to be something like Savage Strike, Vicious Slash, Savage Strike, and then Maiming Slash, or even avoid it having another attack from a pool or secondary. Even in the very low levels this is not onerous. Furthermore when engaged in pure ST the stacks are not spent at all since Hemorrhage is not taken. Thanks to early mistakes we thought Blood Frenzy gave a damage buff and then yes, for 25% extra damage we'd contort to avoid spending the stacks. But as long as there are no gaps and endurance does not reach zero Blood Frenzy as is can be there or not be there and none will be the wiser.

I mentioned this to someone else yesterday. On one hand I had someone vociferously rejecting the idea that Claws on a Scrapper was a good AoE set because 'it only had one AoE' as opposed to Spines or Elec. Saying and showing that Shockwave takes the KB>KD IO and that Claws can chain those two AoEs with only Follow-up for infinity, effectively turning it into a blender, did not make them change their mind. On the other I very recently leveled a Fire/Elec Melee character. Thunderstrike is slow but heavy AoE damage (better on a Tanker because it makes the small 7y AoE wider), Chain Induction bounces around, Lightning Rod kills minions and hurts all around every 26-ish seconds. So, obviously it must be great in AoE, right? Well, no, it has the same farm map killing test times than Fire Armor paired with humble Martial Arts with its single low damage fast animation Dragon Tail. -And- it has execrable single target damage. To not derail I put my Fire/MA Tanker through the paces. No incarnates clicked, no inspirations, +4x8 with bosses: - 6:20 - 6:12 - 5:58 - 6:01 - 5:57 Pylon times of 3 minutes (with -res procs slotted which I did not use here). Interesting how the character feels pretty strong but still has low Tanker damage when we compare to Scrapper times.

Decided to try a Fire/Elec Melee. To my surprise it actually leveled pretty well. Having Build-up available at level 20 allowed to get through Posi 1 and 2 at 0x8 without a big hassle since BU + Gaussian is a pack killer. It is particularly welcomed in the parts with early Circle of Thorns since BU (and Gaussian) is great at punching through the mage shield and the -accuracy the ghosts stack which can mean the death of a soloer once we are unable to strike back. The ST was nothing much since I leveled with the T1 and the T2, but Burn saved the day as it does. Once Chain Induction was obtained the extra punch was also noticeable and packs melted at a good clip. The AoE was quite alright to be honest. Thunderstrike is too lenghty for what it does but the Tanker buff makes that AoE a lot wider than it is with other ATs. The gimmick of stealing endurance from enemies did noticeably sap them, but not enough to be of actual sapping use. It did alleviate endurance concerns by a fair bit though even if not enough to overcome the sapping from Freaks. I don't particularly like Lightning Rod, but, it has value especially for a soloer. With a 60y range we can start outside of the enemies' agro and with BU + Gaussian buffing it minions tend to die straight away. This is welcomed since it limits the alpha (KD effect, killing part of the pack), and immediately followed by Chain Induction and Burn most things are dead. For a soloer this is, IMO, a pretty good combo because of this. The slower speed at which soloing happens allows BU + Shield Charge to be up for every happen. Not so in a team that will murder things at a great clip. In terms of actual damage per second this combo does not outdo the current champ. Unfortunately the long animations and lower ST damage plays against it making it so that doing a couple of clears of the farm map to calculate AoE killing speed left it in the same range as Martial Arts. ... Yep, one AoE only doing half the damage of Thunderstrike versus three AoEs in Thunderstrike + Chain Induction + Lightning Rod. But the blazing fast 1.8 animation of Dragon Tail + the FF proc + stronger ST damage did not let the loudly proclaimed 'AoE set' get ahead. They both did it in around six and a half minutes. Now, IMPORTANT, this is literally damage per second. CoH is not a damage per second game. It's a burst game. Kill things, run to next pack, kill those. Also the longer something lives the more time it has to hurt back. A fighting that starts outside agro range and neutralizes the alpha while killing most of the pack before they retaliate is very good for anything that is dangerous. if sticking to easy game like Council then this advantage will not be felt. Unfortunately the ST is pretty poor. Just like playing Elec Melee with a Stalker so does Fire Armor help, of course, and if comparing Elec Melee with a different primary it will be night and day. Burn and Fiery Embrace makes a big difference. So if having tried Elec Melee with a different AT or primary and having been disgusted by the low damage this combo will play a lot better. But downing a pylon still happened in near 6 minutes. This is because no -res procs were slotted. As per my previous posts I am no longer interested in slotting them. But I do have the Fire/Martial Arts runs done without -res procs and they were 4 minutes (3 minutes with). Two whole extra minutes showcases the low ST as befits making an attack rotation that uses a T1 and T2. Can't do amazing numbers with that. My ST rotation was Chain Induction, Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, Charged Brawl. Overall I found this was a pretty nice combo to level with. Everything I soloed I did so easily. Packs melted and the lack of DPS was not felt when the burst killed things. Early BU allows to play like a demi god when Burn followed by Thunderstrike does nice things to the ego. I reduced a couple of slots from Endurance recovery to lean on the endurance stealing gimmick. I felt it worked alright since we have Consume. It took several minutes of fighting a pylon with Tough and Focused Accuracy toggled on to eventually be forced to use a Recovery Serum.

Toggles stop working if you are stunned, held, etc. But they will not detoggle. Offensive toggles (damage or debuffs) will detoggle though. On a blaster without CC protection I imagine anything will do a micro stun or disorient and off it goes.

Yeah, this is a good example of pretty terrible slotting sorry to say. Slot your attacks for damage for the love of god. Slot your defenses for defense. And unless deciding to dedicate yourself to low level arcs and freeze your XP you will have a much better time simply buying inspirations between missions by typing /ah. Even those ambushes that gave you problem are a non problem if you gobble three medium defense inspirations. Regarding a machine learning program this has been done already. It's over the Guides section and called Robot Woman. I'm not sure how well it would deal with low level enhancements though

I see I'm -also- not the only one who copies the full bio to a text file, alters it, then deletes the original in game with many extra backspaces and delete presses, and only then pastes it in.

Oof, I see I'm not the only one. With space at a premium it was annoying to discover this bug. Seriously, twice the size of bios would be amazeballs.

Just one? You mean your damage was at 83% with Musculature 45%. Of course you're not seeing improvements. Instead try two acc/dmg hamis at +3 and push it to 119%, then Musculature 45%. For a pylon you can slot Achilles -res in Slash (outside of pylons just another damage proc but that's me), then Hectacomb damage proc, Touch of Death proc and the PvP proc. Focus is tight in recharge and I'd just slot five purples plus FF proc. Follow-up what ever you slot (I used three scrapper ATOs for the 5% S/L, try to maximized recharge despite running counter to proc usage because FU is the linchpin), plus the Scrapper ATO that gives increased crit chance, plus Gaussian proc (it's not a huge thing, but...). I'd stick to FU, Focus, Slash even with the small gap FU gets. When FF procs the gap won't be there. Despite Shockwave allowing a -res I don't feel it is good to use it in a ST rotation. Edit: I hadn't touched a Scrapper in ages and went to mess with my old build since Tanker and Scrapper get different recharge times. Turning it into a proc monster wasn't that hard so feel free to lift the slotting, and it keeps the (near) 40% defense to most things and decent-ish S/L resists. For regular play DNA Siphon should keep endurance up but for extended ST like a pylon I'd keep Recovery Serums at hand. I'd keep Barrier for a panic button and to finish propping the defenses to 45%.

Well, that is my own pet peeve. Why do that stuff in the RP area? So many places to goof off, why make that effort to remind everyone we are playing at theater? I know I could do without it, even if I don't gnash my teeth and tear my hair at the sight of such happenings. The trope of the loner/rude/anto-social protagonist is embedded in comic and movie culture. I'm currently reading the Witcher and Geralt does not strike me as a likeable fellow with a ready joke and social manners. But he is an appealing protagonist. The thing that RPers miss (and I did it too many years ago until realizing this) is that the movie/comic/books force interaction. Geralt may not be a genial character but people need him and thus interact with him. The rude ass who snarks off and tries to avoid people is still chased after because he knows some secret technique, or is really good at hacking/breaking and entering/stealth and because needed he is chased after. The loner who never hangs around populated areas is also a pretty poor trope to follow since that means the character is never around people to begin with, so they never get to roleplay. I have met several characters trying for the above and my reaction is the same as someone said a bit higher up: without a plot need for said characters we just avoid them. Who forces themselves to interact with a rude stranger? This is not the fault of the crowd but just the lack of understanding of why it works in other mediums and why it does not in RP. Listen, I'm going to be honest here. Take a bit from this thread if you want, try to accommodate others if you'd like. But don't overexert yourself. As Hajynx showed a few posts ago you will never please everyone all the time. If you are going to take a step back each time disapproves you will more quickly run out of room than you will run out of people disapproving. Play your homages, play your lifted character, play your original concepts. Just have fun. Despite what this thread says there is far less RP police out there than there are people refusing to RP because concept.

Assault hybrid was clicked, but yes.

Don't see why the fuss. If they do that to me I just move on to the next group and let them handle the group they Fold Spaced.

@Sir Myshkin, and maybe @Bopper. My apologies for the casual ringing, but after testing Elec Melee on a Tanker (and finding it... actually, decent?) I have tried to inform myself on Chain Induction but what information is sparse or back from Live, or I get results from Elec Affinity and the epic pools. - I read there was a bug that proccing Chain Induction lowered the jumping chances. Tried proccing and it -seemed- to jump around fine. - Read that the Chain Induction from Elec Melee is a pseudo pet and the leaping carries no proc chances. A bit of mild testing kinda seems to lend credence to this as the procs only seemed to happen twice at best. I need a better methodology, like only one proc in the power and fewer enemies. - I also read that if the mob dies from Chain Induction there will be no leaps. I -think- I saw it leap from a dead mob, but I will have to find a better way to test this. Perhaps against grey mobs.

KM seems lovely, but trying to do damage with a T1, T2 and T3 seems doomed. Those are fillers, not damage skills. I'm currently looking at Fire/Elec Melee and seeing myself extensively using the T1 already hints the ST is not going to be any great shakes.

\o/ I thought about mentioning this but felt it might just be perceived bias, but AFKing for periods of time in a base or Pocket D did not seem to lead to crashes, but I have lost of the times they 'seemed' to happened while I was typing. Tap tap tap tap, suddenly crash. Tap tap, pres enter, start typing again, crash. Not to mention the time spent building a base and no crashes, but try to show it off and mid typing... But I can't deny it might be that brain bias. I -have- typed for hours in a base or Pocket D and nothing happened. Regardless yesterday I was neck deep testing some builds so did not get to test the memory leak related changes since I was not in a single map for extended periods. I am glad you have seemed to catch something screwy, Six. At least I don't feel as paranoid.

Yeah, I found it last night. I even replied to it. It seems pretty similar to what I have (be still in a place for a while). Last night I did all the steps from disabling superfecth to NDU. I'll report on how it goes.

I was shooting the breeze about this with Bill and basically I think that resistance based sets are simply screwed in the grand scheme of things. Defense debuff is too prevalent. It does not mean it is hopeless and omg delete all your resistance based characters. But they kinda are screwed. When we talk of Super Reflexes being screwed we talk of basically, what? Ruluuru? Ignoring defense? But everything and their granny does defense debuffs. Tsoo do some, Cimerorians do lots, Banished Pantheon do, Knives do, Crey does. Heck, even Family does. It is not a tremendous concern for regular teaming since we melt everything in our path but it is felt in solo mode where we are the focus of everyone and things die more slowly Hybrid sets end being near immortal thanks to their incorporated DDR. Invul tops by far the scale with both DDR and scaling defenses so when it needs defense because surrounded is when it has it. Shield comes second as a pretty decent all-rounder who also boasts of DDR, plus defense, plus decent resists. Super Reflexes on a tank is probably fine even against Ruluuru (never made one so someone correct me) due to how their resists work.

It actually feels like an interesting ironman challenge. Not something I'd do on HC, but soloing stuff that rewards merits and purchasing the recipes/converting could be a nice long term plan.

This is no longer pinned. Useful information though and it might well be related to my own problems when staying in one map for a long period of time.

Tried removing Videot. Two crashes more at separate times while at Pocket D.

Not sure if the extra tests will really add much in my humble opinion. The tests are already of just academic value since we are not in the habit of jumping into the middle of enemies and then AFK. That some sets are able to do this with impunity is good to know but the info was not really that surprising (granite armor first :D). And once we start adding secondaries, welp. The ultimate 'tough test' ends being soloing the 801 series. That's the full monty. Perhaps a no incarnate rule (which would put me out right away since I need Barrier to get past the ever present defense debuffing) and/or inspiration use.

You probably have Offensive Adaptation not turned on and Evolving Armor with 10 targets, @Erratic1

On one hand, completely correct. On the other toxic damage is not -that- prevalent to make tailoring a build around it worth the slots. IMO.