Sovera

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.

I was also trying to find some SOs for my new sub level 20 character and since for once I was not using magic origin I was lost trying to find recharge in the ocean of SOs. Defense buff, defense debuff, interruption, heal, stun, knockback, immobilize, etc etc etc. Sheesh.

Good catch.

Martial Arts I'd say. Street Justice has some kicks too but one thing I noticed is how weak they all are since the design seems to be about building up combo points to use the T9 (which isn't a kick). If you're just aiming for damage go for a Scrapper if for the simplest reason that Stalkers get no AoE (lol?). If wanting to have an easier time working your defenses then go for Brute or Tanker as Storm Kick adds +defense to a build (7.5% for Brute, 10% for Tanker). I'm not suggesting Blaster (despite the above poster being correct they do do the most) because three fourths of their arsenal will be blasts of sorts which does not seem to be the kind of thing someone looking for kicks would be after. But if they are, then Blaster.

The IOs you've slotted seem a bit random. You get a lot out of stacking small bonuses. As others pointed out I also don't see either Aim nor Build-up which are the bread and butter of a Blaster. Lastly, if you haven't, use Mids to showcase your build and to also import the builds you finds in the forums: https://midsreborn.com/

As long as you have Mids you can at least have an idea of how things are meant to go and where. So it's a start, one you then modify according to how you play. The thing with leveling builds is that they are the same as the end-game builds so they rarely get a section all for themselves. Three recharge into Hasten or Build-up instead of two. Got a purple in an AoE? Slot Obliterations in it until level 50. A purple in a melee attack? Slot Touch of Death until 50. A purple in a ranged attack? Slot a Decimation until 50. Of course this does entail the person even knowing about these, but because it is again so common (like for example, just this facile example above) that the first time it is mentioned it is now no longer having to be repeated for the next time a build has a level 50 purple slotted in a melee attack. (Before anyone jumps on me I do always offer to make leveling builds for builds I post) There is also that once having enough cash (and one's own SG with enhancement tables to bank the IOs) leveling builds become a thing of 'slot all ATOs at level 10' which immediately gets two attacks with a full load, then throwing a Panaceia proc into Health fills that slot and usually is not thought about until 50 unless playing something endurance starved. Because these can be slotted at level 10 it's not uncommon to slot the normal event IOs (Blistering Cold, Avalanche, etc) since these can be slotted in at level 10 as well and there is no more need to thing about those until level 50. All of this turn leveling into 'slot whatever fits in'. Anyways, this is all stuff we pick up after months if not years of playing the game. I say when you do find those builds on the forums to just ask if someone will make a leveling build for it and I think there's a good chance that someone will.

There is almost no reason to use normal or boosted IOs. Be it ED at max level or stats freeze if at low level. Some people will brag about their 'all +5 build' without actually considering what they gained from it, which is often very little. Even a more traditional use of using 5 purples (like Hectacomb) is already enough to max damage and recharge and, most often, provide enough accuracy to reliably hit things. What does +5-ing all of those even do? A fraction less endurance, a fraction more recharge, a bit more accuracy (useless if already acc capped, helpful if not). But that's a purple that does not care about exemplaring. Any other non purple/PvP/event IOs get shafted with exemplaring. Which isn't a problem if having no desire to exemplar at all. And, since fighting +0 or +1 if exemplaring, the character will survive the experience quite fine. Boosting IOs has such minimal use in the grand scheme of things. Boosting Hasten/BU allows to skimp one slot, and if frankenslotting then some strategic boosting will help reach ED thresholds with less slots since others are being dedicated to procs or to amalgamate several disparate stats (for example Siphon Life from Dark Melee if wishing to boost the heal portion of the power). For anyone else I'd suggest sticking to attuned and slot the second it is available.

Sentinel is the one AT where I never pick an epic pool. A mixed blessing.

Oh, hello again, Dian. So, what were they meant to be doing while the team was at full HP? Pat themselves on the back? RWZ is where people spam their Destinies and everyone is buffed to the gazoo. I wonder if you'll even catch on that each time you make one of these threads we gently correct you but you move on undeterred to the next pearl of wisdom where we, once more, gently fact check your claims just for you to move to the next pearl. At some point I will have to start agreeing that yours is a troll account since we're at the.. what? 15th pearl of wisdom that would make the life of any newbie more difficult were they to follow any of them (hopefully never all of them at once).

Trying to pair Stone Armor with some sets is a pain since Stone wants so many powers, but between the two I'd still ditch EE instead of Mudpots if it came to it.