Sovera

Happy wives are worthwhile goals.

Looking much better. Everything is nicely in place. I personally mourn dropping Afterburner. I suggest taking Combat Jumping and Superjump instead but that's theme. One last note is that rain powers like Ice Storm take real badly to procs. I mean, really really badly. Waste-of-slots badly. I suggest a full Bombardment set instead for a bit more recharge, accuracy and S/L/E/N resistances. You might as well also change the Titanium resistance/recharge from Tough for a Titanium resistance. Something that you can also do is dismantle Ice Sword, Frozen Fists and Frost to add more damage procs (do try to keep the damage and accuracy up, but not adding recharge) because global recharge chasing is not bringing particular benefits. The build has no worthwhile clickies other than Build-up after all, so more global recharge for perma Hasten is not really adding much. Chasing perma Hasten is usually a goal, but builds tend to have important clickies that benefit from it such as endurance clickies like Consume or heals like Healing Flame or even nukes. For example. This build loses 7 seconds off Hasten, but increases the damage by a fair bit: - Frozen Fists goes from 152 to 189. - Ice Sword goes from 211 to 232 (the smallest change and hinting we might as well keep the 4 Might of the Tanker in the original slotting). - Frost goes from 211 to 310. - Frozen Touch goes from 476 to a mini nuke of 658. It does go from 4.4 recharge to 6.3 though.

It's difficult to mess Super Reflexes, but what are your goals? If just what you've mentioned then you've exceeded the defensive parameters by a metric ton. Even Incarnate content (which is not mentioned in your original post) only requires as much as 59% defense and you have as high as 72%. Anything more 'casual' and 45% is the goal. Once you go down to 45% (or even 59%, but tbh I run Incarnate content at 45% and don't really notice the difference since despite being a defense hole it is also content we run all Incarnated and buff like demi gods) your slotting is a lot more free. Again, more damage = more damage procs. Your better half might notice the lack of a heal (or not), but green inspirations and Rebirth are always there if needed. Now despite SR not increasing damage it does allow to cap defense so easily that a lot of slots can be dedicated to adding procs to attacks. You are not doing this. Frost is excellent and you're missing out in not taking it. As a bonus despite not being ideal it also can be as a ghetto ST power (it's not really made for it, but it is really wide and long and so it 'cleaves' damn well. Plus it takes a -res proc that helps with the damage). You're making the poor woman level without an AoE to 38 and never flashback lower or be back at killing things one at a time. You have the +res proc in the level 38 AoE attack. AoEs are never used in single target chains. It is better off added in something like Frozen Touch (or even Ice Sword so it is available much sooner). Frozen Touch is so good and does so much damage I would not recommend proccing it to hell and back. Instead five Hectacomb and the purple damage proc from the Hold sets will give a fast recharge to spam it and two purple damage procs to enhance its damage further. Basically FT is the only real power worth using and everything is a filler until it comes back online, so recharge it for what it is worth. You have Fly but not Hover or Afterburner. That is almost a waste. Might as well use the P2W jetpack though I understand Fly is being taken for theme, but Fly without Afterburner is a waste... ...which leads me to how you have two useless powers in Chilblain and Ice Blast just to reach Ice Storm. Again, theme, I understand, but, the build will be hurting for endurance. Ageless is a good fix for it but you did mention flashbacks and that means it will not be available all the time. Pushing back things you could take Conserve Power and Physical Perfection at 35 and 38 if you switched to the epic Energy pool. Ice Storm is pretty darn gosh thematic though so I would excuse the drop from a min max approach (do tell your better half to stock up Recovery Serums. They are super cheap and can be used straight from level 1 on). Greater Ice Sword is pretty crap and honestly you don't even need it. FT recharges in 4.4 seconds. Ice Sword recharges in 1.6 seconds with 1.6 animation. Frost is a 2.5 second animation. That means you can do Freezing Touch, Ice Sword, Frost, Ice Sword, Freezing Touch and just repeat. Frozen Fists is also crap but if exemplaring I guess it has a use to help with filling the attack chain gaps. GIS can be thematic, but you did mention min-max and so that's my advice. You took Agility for the Alpha, but why? Does the build look like it needs more defense? Now that said I was messing with the build but I did not have enough room for everything. It was either remove Afterburner or remove the Artic epic pool. We -do- only spend 5% of the time moving between missions so removing Afterburner is acceptable. That said you had Ice Storm as an extra AoE which Frost now replaces so the need for Ice Storm is lessened. So with that said this is what I would do: - Take Frost. Leveling up to 38 without an AoE and not having it once flashbacking is torture for me. - Drop out of the Artic epic pool and take the Energy pool instead. Conserve Power and Physical Perfection (and liberal use of the Recovery Serum) will help with the endurance which... - ..allows to drop out of Ageless for endurance purposes letting her use Rebirth instead for a heal (the build's sole heal really). Possibly Barrier (not that she needs more defense, but it would boost her resistances. If you're duoing one can have Barrier and the other Rebirth so you're buffing each other). - Frozen Fists is taken as a mule and for Flashbacking purposes. As a rule it is not really needed though using it instead of Frost is an option as well. - Weave is a mule and for Incarnate content. Outside of Dark Astoria or Incarnate content that toggle can stay off. This is not gospel, just see what ideas you can or want to incorporate in your own build:

We need to petition so Werner can have an unique forum title as Tank God.

You're not wrong since it's 120º base and Tankers get a 50% buff. Enjoy your 180º mix of Dhalsim and E. Honda!

As a rule everything from Interface stacks five times. Period. So five stacks of -HP, five stacks of -res, etc, etc. It is not per character though (5 stacks from player A plus 5 stacks from player B equal 10 stacks). It's just five stacks on a given enemy. Usually a single person can get those five stacks going depending on how fast their recharge and animation is, so more players with the same Interface just means that the five stack limit is reached faster. This is usually the reason why there is this sort of underground advice about diversifying the Interface choices so more effects come into play instead of stacking the same -HP or -res effect. But. This advice fails to register how pretty bad the other Interface choices are. People will happily say how they are using the -regen one and how they are helping the team, but without having followed the math that shows the -regen is pretty damn low in the first place and then further falls off the higher level enemies are. A +3 enemy resists the effect by a fair bit and AV/GMs (the enemies for which -regen would be useful) on top of the extra levels giving resistance also have a baked in extra resistance to said debuffs. So small numbers + resistance = inconsequential results despite 'gut feelings'. This applies to the -ToHit one (same deal of weak effect + resistances), the -recovery one (does this even do anything? I tried hitting level a level 54 boss and it died without its blue bar having moved), etc. This is why despite the underground advice we still all focus on the -HP and the -res Interface choices. Partly because the other choices are just bad, partly because whenever we split up, or solo, or are taking an isolated mob over that corner of the room there while the team is wailing on the other enemies over the other corner, then those stronger Interfaces still kick in.

If you're going with the Rune of Protection approach I'd say look at Shield instead. While it has less DDR than SR it still gives heaps of it (the CC protection clickie is where the DDR comes from, and it stacks) and Rune of Protection can be alternated with One with the Shield (very minor crash) with minor downtime (if not mistaken RoP - OwtS - RoP is doable)

When stunned toggles drop. It's verbatim what happened to my sole run buffed enemies. Killed fluffy, got stunned, instagibbed.

You say every bit of resistance matters, and then drop your proc in Atom Smasher? Doesn't that seem like bad planning when you want those procs up and going all the time?

The -HP effect on mobs with lower HP than AVs/GMs is less felt than the -res + DoT. On a pylon Degen sliiightly edged ahead but on such a small scale it is hard to differentiate from whiffing. And then yes, the matter of stacks reaching max immediately on a full team and only the Dot bringing something. Without a DPS meter I can't say how much the DoT actually brings to the table, but why skip? Musculature 45% is also a 15% damage increase so not much, and Leadership's Assault in the same vein isn't much either. But when all are piled together it starts showing.

Damage all the way. Including Reactive instead of Degenerative. The only real important one is Barrier for panic buttons and combating debuffs.

They are certainly entitled to their opinions and/or self-imposed restrictions. Nothing wrong with that.

In a game with the ignore function 'toxic' people have exactly as much power as we are willing to give it to them. This includes refusing to use the teleport prompt function.

I had to go and read about this Twixt. I can't really take it as a 'social experiment'. Guy knew what he was doing and was having his fun. But, we can't blame him. It's true that TP enemy was valid since it was in the game. But talking loudly, burping sonorously and spitting on the floor while at a restaurant can be argued as 'I'm not doing anything against the law' (it might actually be, it's just a random example so don't get sticky to it) and still not be acceptable behavior or behavior we want around us. It is why rules (laws) need to be made. For years and years and years smoking at a restaurant was a filthy habit spoiling the meal of non smokers but since it was not 'against the law' it was acceptable and relied on the good will of smokers not to do so to not bother others with their cancer sticks. Once we (finally) got a law about it it stopped being about good will and was enforced. If the devs had a better handle on the game they would see the tactic was not welcomed and made a 'law' (changing how TP foe or the drones worked, or implementing some sort of simply anti-TP foe) to stop it. They didn't. So they were fine with it. But it really boils down why I loathe PvP. For everyone who sings the fun of PvP and how it is a clash of skill and wit there are five who will come in a group to kill a straggler, or solely play stealth classes, or do -everything- possible to win like the very common 'wait until someone is at 50% while fighting an NPC and then stealth attack and claim 'victory''. Still, it was amusing to see this sexagenarian do a long worded dissertation that boiled down to 'but it was just a joke (social experiment) brah!'

FIRE/CLAWS! No, seriously, I hardly notice Arachnos. They are pretty squishy compared to some factions out there. Fire is resistance based so the defense debuff does not hurt (as much) and Focused Accuracy allows to ignore the blinds. Consume allows to pass on the woes of the Mu for the most part.

The trick is not being passive. I find my teams (granted, not all times) by advertising what I am going to do and asking if someone wants to join. Asking instead to join existing teams is iffy. I don't invite people who state they are looking for group since I don't know what they are in the mood for or how much time they have, or if they are interested in the content I am running. There is also the fact that TFs and Ouroboros field trips do not allow to invite once the journey has started. So basically do make an effort to make your own teams: '/lfg Running missions arcs at level 30, anyone is welcome to join' '/lfg Going to run a Synapse TF. Who wants in?'

On a Scrapper? Claws, TW, Savage, Radiation Melee. Claws might not put our ridiculous numbers but once you're at a point of chaining Follow-up, Shockwave and Spin without gaps we can't argue that things haven't been blended. Radiation Melee is beastly in a passive AoE sort of way with a 100% procced out Irradiated Ground killing the surrounding pack while we're killing a boss. On a Stalker? Mostly Savage but honorable mention to Ice with the amazing Frost and the T9 Icey Aura thingy. People talk about Electric melee a lot but I don't see it. A mininuke every 30 seconds and a 3 second animation Thunderstrike pale before non stop blending but that's true for everything, Frost and Icy aura and etc.

Yes, it's a common bug. Where you can just exit the mission and enter it again (usually the NPC/portal where you spawn at the start. If all else fails close CoH (but do not leave the TF) and come back).

Rad Armor or Elec Armor. I'd suggest Dark Armor as well since it marries very well with Staff and is nearly a classic. None of these will really be 'fast' though, but Staff gives near 34% slash and melee defense all by itself (no uniques, no set bonuses, no Maneuvers. So at level 3 with both 3% defense uniques it can be at 40% slash and melee o_o; but it does require using Guarded Spin three times for this to happen) which goes very well with resistance sets who have no defense. Pairing Staff with defense sets is a bit of a miss in my opinion. Defense + defense is not adding much to a character. Possibly Staff + Bio Armor to help Staff's low damage. Staff helps (tremendously) with Bio's lack of S/L defense and the lack of defense debuff resistance (by adding lots and lots of defense that needs to be shaved down by said debuffs). It will not help against defense debuffs that come from negative attacks though. Staff also adds resistances with Skysplitter at 3 combo which is something Bio struggles with as well. In exchange Bio brings a -res aura to increase the damage and +damage Adaptation for the same. This is needed since Staff damage is pretty mediocre. By leveraging Guarded Spin more procs can be added to attacks. Staff + Dark Armor would pair well for the same reason. It will possibly survive better since Dark Regeneration is obscene (plus one of the staff Forms is all about endurance reduction which Dark Armor needs) and the defense hole is patched by Guarded Spin stacks. It also has substantial psi resists. But Dark brings nothing to help Staff middling damage so take that into consideration. Since you're thinking Scrapper consider Stalker instead. Near same gameplay (Stalkers can and should be played as Scrappers) at the expense of an agro aura (which does allow enemies to run away once at low HP) but Assassin's Strike helps a -lot- by filling Staff's single target damage.

Make a Plant Controller. Now every enemy is your minion ^^ Imagine coming to a FORUM to READ posts and complaining there is too much TEXT to READ. This isn't Twitter, Kelika the second. Everything they said was correct, even if it is true that MMs have become outdated as Controllers have. MMs -do- bloom early with a lack of needed slots making them easy to run, and as a plus the secondary allows them to buff/heal the team. The most glaring downside is how passive they are mostly just pressing attack. One thing where the lack of a damage meter hinders things is how a MM -can- be expected to overcome other more damaging ATs in the long in how they can just set the pets to aggressive and let them go ham while the player ignores the enemies and focuses in buffing and healing.

Gee, for someone who was in love with it 😛

It's supposed to be great, but thanks to Crushing Uppercut's recharge I never managed to get into it. CU just has an awkward recharge that leaves a 2 second gap forcing to play the piano. CoH isn't exactly a game for that. Tanker kinda fixes the tiny AoE though. Double it on a Fire Armor with Burn to hold the fort until 28.

It all depends on your definition of a reasonable time. You probably mean 'no effort and now' which is acceptable, just, y'know, not healthy. You -can- have this by playing in the test server btw. There was someone on these forums who mentioned how they HAD to have a billion a WEEK to fund their new alts. And that is why they HAD to farm like mad despite not enjoying it. The rest of us will slowly make money and then transfer IOs from one character to the other. Is it more work? Yes. But respec recipes cost one million so not exactly super expensive when a 30 minute Tinpex makes 25-27 mill. Which brings me back to Tinpex. 25-27 million per 30 minute run is pretty decent. Not huge, but not bad. Do it on five characters and you get 100 mill. You've just earned a full set of purple IOs in one day. Or just check the Market sub-forum and see how people have challenged themselves into earning a billion in a day by playing the market. I have a feeling you will say this is still not fast enough though *shrug*

There is actually a bit of a difference. The Tanker is at risk to do this. We can discuss they are not at great risk since they can be really durable with incarnates and bonuses, but, the risk is there. They do what they do while surrounded by enemies all throwing punches at them and depending on which enemy it can be dangerous. An ITF can easily eat an unprepared Tanker because of the defense debuffs for example (which work pretty well even against resistance based primaries). Rularuu will eat a defense based Tanker. Carnies can make most Tanks cower because psi defense/resistance is not a common trait shared by Tanker primaries. -recharge and -recovery factions can be hell to tank if having the 'wrong' primary or without a min maxed build .-Recharge can be worked against, but -recovery most of the time has no protection other than defense and depending on the primary not all can defend against it (carnie's on death -recovery is AoE defense. That excludes all the primaries that are either resistance based (and will at most struggle to put up a decent S/L defense) or typed. On the other hand Controllers are not. Before they get in agro range they will throw their AoE CC and barring 5% misses everything will be locked down (not a boss, but the immediate stacking of a second CC will achieve this). A Plant Controller makes a mockery of the game against anything not Confusion resistant since they can use it at every pack and keep the effect perma. Barring 5% misses. But even those the first Scrapper who walks in or Blaster who throws AoEs will immediately filch the agro off the Controller. This is the binary nature of Controllers as I mentioned in my previous post. For 90% of the content Controllers are mini gods at that one thing. For the other 10% (AVs and EBs) they could not be relied to substitute a Tank who can shrug being punched in the face. But the moment we have a Tanker for the 10% then they can be relied for the other 90% also. Where the marriage is a happy one is with the factions I mentioned above, but marred by the fact the Tanker just needs to survive the initial five seconds of combat and then half the pack has been obliterated. At this a Controller throwing an AoE CC or a Blaster throwing a Nuke the result is the same, except the enemies are dead with the Blaster and not CCed and still in need of killing with a Controller. Now if they were all bosses (as my favorite solution I keep bringing it up) the nuke would just have a dozen pissed off bosses at half HP. The Controller could get around things by spamming their mass immobilize since it recharges pretty fast and works fine at holding even bosses in place and thus greatly reducing incoming damage as ranged attacks as a rule are outstripped by melee ones.

Something with a self heal would do you a world of good. Plant is the first option thanks to the immensely powerful Seeds of Confusion. It recharges so fast it is up for every single spawn allowing you to up the difficulty at will since not only are the enemies CCed but they are even fighting themselves which does a lot to help a Controller's low damage. It also starts at level 8. Some might say Illusion but as someone who has leveled a few of those in the past I'm going to disagree. It's true PA is a great power and comes early at 18, but it shines when it can be near permanent which does not happen 'early'. It also suffers from not being controllable so they are out but we can't send them to hit the next pack and instead need to walk closer so that they will agro. Gravity has some nice ST powers to make big booms which is always nice for a solo Controller and some people will swear by it. I felt the big boom fades quickly. Fire is a staple and though Bonfire is not super early in being obtained it does perform more than adequately in terms of CCing once KB>KD is applied. Overall I'm still going to say Plant. Storm is a good choice, but no self heal which is a bit grim. Lots of damage but terrible endurance hungry which isn't very fun. Time is a good staple too. Self heal, buffs, minor -regen, most of not particularly useful for a solo Controller since things are CCed and not bothering you. Radiation isn't bad, but, not great either. 90% of the game is slapping normal enemies and the other 10% are AVs and EBs which is where Radiation shines. It does have a nice heal and nice self-buffs. Kinetics shines as usual. Though it takes reaching 38 Fulcrum Shift mostly fixes a Controller's low output. It has a heal, it has an endurance recovery clickie, if you do team players will love you to bits. Though I parrot myself I'm going to say Plant/Kin.