Sovera

On the pylon thread there is a plant/storm controller who managed a 2:10 time, which was fricking amazing considering blasters and (some) scrappers weren't getting close to that.

Grab all the attacks and six slot them with two accuracy, three damage and one recharge, three slot hasten/aim/upshot with recharge, six slot Eagle Eye with three health and three stamina. Do one DfB to reach level 8. Do Posi 1 and 2, do a Synapse (it's best to do these low level TFs when level approprate, IMO), you should be level 22 now, and all the merits you've earned will gear you up in generic IOs.

I worked a sentinel with /bio. Not quite the same beast, but... Basically I managed to get it to 33% defenses to be softcapped with a small purple. Taking the sentinel to a comic con farm to test it managed to survive a +4x8 with solely Ablative Armor and Rebuild DNA (their version of DNA Siphon). Parasitic Leech was not necessary, but take this with a grain of salt because it was a different AT and a character tricked out in Justin (no incarnates used though). As for Ablative Armor it does exactly as it says. Every heal you slot into it both boosts the regen as it does the absorb shield. Five slot Panacea with one generic recharge IO will bring it to ED. I found it pretty powerful on the Sentinel, I could see the ticks of regen and the shield soaking the damage.

Impressive times there, Mezzo, so called low damage controllers :D

It's not the answer you want, but plant as a primary will do you so much better than fire.

Buying merits from the vendor is inefficient. Each merit is three converters, and each of those is worth 100k. So 100 merits is 300 converters which becomes 30 mill. Most purples are at around 20-22mill. I don't see why people are advising to slot Stamina. Post Transference some frankenslotting and three slots are enough to get back 80% of a bar every 20 seconds or less if IOed out. Slots in Stamina are slots not used boosting better things.

Like Leogunner said I also drop out of the fight when it is down to a few stragglers. They will die in a couple of hits and most people are still spamming AoEs at them. That's when I start moving to the next spawn, picking a boss, waiting for Hide, then waiting for everyone to join me, and then opening up. Not always straight with AS since it has such a loooong cast time, more often just opening with an AoE and then seguing into AS.

I don't actually use Ice Arrow for myself. Once the dust of the AoEs has settled down nothing much is alive, and what is I'm not wasting holds on when I can kill them instead. But I know hold stacking is a time honored blaster tradition, and I had a mule, like I explain in the post. So it was take a mule I'm not going to use, or take Ice Arrow that might come in handy? I went with Ice Arrow. The -ToHit works exactly as you've mentioned, but, again, personally, I'd just launch my nuclear tipped arrow... nukes, and just kill all the things instead.

I've prepped up this one in case I can vanquish my meleephobia. I have never done Stalkers so I don't know if all is set correctly. It's not min-maxed since I took Aid Self which apparently is frowned upon. I intend to see if Charged Brawl, Induction, and AS can be turned into a ST chain since all three seems to have a beautifully short animation time which pleases me a lot. Thunderstrike's glacial pace displeases me though, and apparently the AoE it provides is minimal. I may need to see it replaced though Jacob's ladder doesn't interest me much either. The build seems to have enough AoE and ST damage to not need to dip into epic pools. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Reborn to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1441;654;1308;HEX;| |78DA65945B4F134114C777E9D6D2D2722F054B5BCAADA595D20A2FDE62A2A089A18| |684C4172F656D47D8B881A6AD09A046F1F262A2415F7CF19A787DF1B378FD185EBE| |413DECFF2F98EC249BDFCC7FCE9973E6CCEC14D767839F4E6F1DD7F4D049DBACD74| |B8B0DD3BEAA6ABEB366E35ACDB43D9A349F7C714E948ACA562A3767AB72A366954D| |1BC2EEF4ACBAA256EB2AB7B86229BBF26FA80517D6D6ECDCBC32ABD6EA72C0192C5| |695AA849C6E5155ACB2B5AA303A652DAF34C4AC7BAE6A9573276C7353958A66BDA1| |6A1BFD92C9987C0FFC1A5BD3D0960405436B3149051A65B2029E4F0975C7A7450BE| |B8EB6AF97EC044B62A3D346A74D2B6D5A6973416C3CB0F17A02D0026D60304886C0| |F676B2037C28797BE9EBFDEC71B4CE2FE457B0FB1BF91DECFD013E125F1F7D7D6F5| |A30F716EC7B47BE07FB3F901FC14B92B31FBE867F10EBED4F90717070884C821139| |F636D4586B4BA3867DA285589F10EB13677DE2ACCF4589D541BF8E2CFCB625F72E9| |E57571639C553E0509A9C2033E092ACD3E31C4653EB49629D61891F467C3DECACED| |D792645CE6228C1B694AD31E4BD40128DE816786B342F235F91C1C7941BE040BAF4| |053A24711498B72A7098910E37A31567124068E4691E128AB39CAEA8EB3AA4F2497| |047D13EB8831BE416E82A9EBE40DF22678597219A6EFF0215467E21879983C02668| |E92F741DD873F66C777EC16F691B90D1ED822EF9077C1C97BA0477CD3BC71E929EC| |63F2209907A70AE43439031AE29BE54DC9B27E05DE94026FCAB62496E389E578C26| |5D96B9E75CF47A41333B4A8B1FBB73707F7FA3B4339E58C4BC9BB94824B99762933| |2E65DEA52C187C4244D11DC5DF29AF0173FB19D87D3D38FB7B4FD1F533D249C95B7| |10EBBFFE5B2FEF3BFF214E7F71736A2DB7E| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Has someone tried an Elec/Shield stalker to test the difference with the earlier mediocre showing from a scrapper? (Sorry, Munki)

Fantastic job, Dsorrow!

I don't think you'll see a Dom making huge pylon times. By themselves they are a bit like controllers in the sense that they pile a lot of little hits from multiple sources instead of landing a big fat nuke. In *practical* terms my plant/psi farms the fastest of all my characters simply because a Seeds of Confusion as an opener has mobs tearing each other apart. It's not just safe to lay the hurt but their damage piles along with ours greatly enhancing kill times. But if you are fighting a single tough enemy like an AV or a pylon, then you're not going to have that sweet confusion aiding matters along. All said I much prefer Doms to Controllers. We still help by locking groups but we do damage without the tedious business of setting up Containment.

You can solo on a blaster, of course. The trick is, sure, softcap defenses, but you're not going to be doing glorious battle. What you are going to do is launch your nukes from a distance and watch things die. If you start the fight by having thrown your nuke at a pack, backed by Aim and Build-Up, nothing much will have survived and thus nothing much will be shooting back at you.

I know that there is an issue with removing Brawl, but surely it could be replaced for a very low CD ranged attack that takes over its job as a filler. Normal mobs have a generic Throw Rock and I think even that would fit, since I suppose it would be a pain to make a special low CD ranged filler attack for each MM set.

Baby trash talk here... That's like, eh.

Though I am all over the game with alts my new blaster outshines my controller by a lot. Pines says I do 1170 damage with my archery nuke, with Aim and Upshot, with the nuke up every 15 seconds and the other two up every 23 seconds. My AoE hold is up every 23 seconds as well. So I'm laying a huge nuke, then I'm holding the letfovers, then I'm spamming my AoEs. And I can cycle it endlessly every 23 seconds. Control what? Everything is dead.

I was looking into an archery/TA blaster to change things a bit. What I came up with is nothing ground breaking, but still, I will post here to see if someone spots improvements. The idea was to reach 45% but I found myself unable to find the last 2.5%, which led me to looking into incarnates, which had me seeing that Barrier Core Epiphany will always give a minimum of 5% defense even at the very end of the effect , which means I used that as a baseline. 40% is ample enough even if examplared since we can chew on a small purple and amply softcap ourselves. We use Barrier, get our minimum 5% and the big defense and res surplus is all delicious cheese while it lasts. S/L is a second layer of defense, it's not something I would rely on all on itself and its use is, maybe, not all that useful since we are ranged softcap. I would have liked to give *less* recharge to RoA but don't see how to do it and keeps the sets. The reason is that it will only be used with Aim and Upshot (what's upshot? Nothing much, you?) meaning recharging a full 6-7 seconds before those is a complete waste, but I can't seem to make it happen so lets forget about it. In any case recharging every 15 seconds we can fire it a second time even without Aim/Upshot just to clean up and it will be up for the next group. ESD Arrow syncs with the cooldowns. Aim, Upshot, Rain of Arrows, ESD Arrow (half hurt remaining mobs are now *not* alpha-ing us), Fistful of Arrows, Explosive, Fistful. Ice Arrow stacks up with ESD if it's needed. I confess I had Punch muled which gave the same defense but with an extra 6.5% recharge, but a mule is a mule, and Ice Arrow can be stacked with ESD Arrow. We lose the 6.5% recharge, but we got more than enough. Overall I don't feel I have sacrificed much. Everything has good stats, Hasten is perma even without Upshot, we can stack holds, we have a lot of defense. We can also consider ignoring Barrier and picking Clarion to be immune to all CC (mostly) and just munch on the occasional purple to softcap ourselves if we find we have aggro (so, all the time? Blasters, not having aggro, what?). I have done this with other characters but the reason I am not doing so now is because Barrier also gives a *lot* of resistances, and we're aggro machines who will be thankful for it, at least until the two minutes are almost done and we're suddenly going ow ow ow because we were relying on those resistances and they have shrunk. Intuition Partial Radial Revamp seems like a match made in heaven for the build. Extra hold duration (our main/only CC), more range, more 33% damage. Less damage than the 45% of Musculature though, but we don't really use immobilizes (at least Electrified Net is just a mule for me since I'm forced to take it), we don't have defense debuffs, we don't do ToHitdebuffs, so it's all about the extra 8% damage with no other benefits. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. On the other hand the gain from the extra damage seems really minimal since our damage is already way into ED territory (Mids shows RoA going from 1141 without Intuition to 1170 with Intuition), which means perhaps a different incarnate will be more useful. The build: Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Blaster Primary Power Set: Archery Secondary Power Set: Tactical Arrow Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Aimed Shot -- Apc-Dam%(A), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Apc-Acc/Rchg(3), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(5), Dcm-Build%(7) Level 1: Electrified Net Arrow -- GrvAnc-Immob(A), GrvAnc-Immob/Rchg(7), GrvAnc-Acc/Immob/Rchg(9), GrvAnc-Hold%(9), GrvAnc-Immob/EndRdx(11) Level 2: Fistful of Arrows -- SprDfnBrr-Rchg/+Status Protect(A), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(15), SprDfnBrr-Dmg/Rchg(15), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(17), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg(19) Level 4: Hover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 6: Blazing Arrow -- SprWntBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(A), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), SprWntBit-Dmg/Rchg(21), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(23), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(23) Level 8: Fly -- Flight-I(A) Level 10: Upshot -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25) Level 12: Explosive Arrow -- Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Rgn-Acc/Rchg(25), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg(27), Rgn-Knock%(27), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx(29), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(29) Level 14: Afterburner -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 16: Aim -- GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg(A), GssSynFr--Rchg/EndRdx(31), GssSynFr--Build%(31), GssSynFr--ToHit(31), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(33), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(33) Level 18: Ranged Shot -- StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), GldJvl-Acc/End/Rech(33), StnoftheM-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg(34), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx(34), StnoftheM-Acc/Dmg(34), StnoftheM-Acc/ActRdx/Rng(36) Level 20: Eagle Eye -- NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(A), NmnCnv-Heal(36), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(36), EffAdp-EndMod(37), EffAdp-EndMod/Rchg(37), EffAdp-EndMod/Acc(37) Level 22: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(39) Level 24: Super Speed -- Clr-Stlth(A) Level 26: Ice Arrow -- Lck-Acc/Hold(A), Lck-Acc/Rchg(39), Lck-Rchg/Hold(39), Lck-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(40), Lck-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(40), Lck-%Hold(40) Level 28: Agility -- Run-I(A) Level 30: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 32: Rain of Arrows -- SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsWrt-Dmg/Rchg(42), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), SprBlsWrt-Rchg/Dmg%(43) Level 35: ESD Arrow -- Lck-Acc/Hold(A), Lck-Acc/Rchg(43), Lck-Rchg/Hold(46), Lck-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(46), Lck-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(46), Lck-%Hold(48) Level 38: Gymnastics -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 41: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(45), UnbGrd-Max HP%(45) Level 44: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(45) Level 47: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(48), LucoftheG-Def(48), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(50) Level 49: Scorpion Shield -- Rct-Def(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(50), Rct-Def/Rchg(50) Level 1: Brawl -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(11), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(13), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13) Level 1: Defiance Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(19) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A) Level 50: Barrier Core Epiphany Level 50: Intuition Partial Radial Revamp ------------

/macro WP "powexec_location target Whirlpool" That's #5 in my Water/* toons' attack bar. I put the Whirlpool power in the slot in the bar above it so I can see the countdown timer. /macro RoA "powexec_location target Rain of Arrows" That's for my Archery toons. Macros suck due to not being able to see the countdown. I suggest binding the key you use to activate Whirlpool instead. In my case I use control +3 to activate Rain of Fire, so I do /bind lctrl+3 "$$powexec_location target Rain of fire". Functionally nothing changed, you're going to press the button you always did, but now it will do the skill on your target and you will have the cooldown showing which would not happen with a macro. Except if you decide to change the location of your Whirlpool on your tray and then you will have to rebind it, but in my case things stay where I place them so it's not a problem.

Why not Sudden Acceration KB to KD?

The fire/bio build I posted on these forums tackled 4/8 farm maps face on, not floating out of ranged. It did require a single small purple to be soft capped though, which is much easier to maintain solo than in a group where insps get split off to the team. That said it only 'tanked', it had no special tools for agro, but aggro for the most part is a non thing. If you jump into the pack first and unleash all your AoEs the surviving mobs will be pretty focused on you. Nothing survives more than a few seconds anyway. Few teams won't have a dom or a controller in them and they will sponge off the alpha. Prolonged fights belong only in the realms of AVs and that's the only time some aggro tool will be warranted. Almost surely you cannot build a team that does not have a tanker or a brute unless really nitpicking who joins. Any brute has ST aggro in their attacks so they will always steal it off anything that isn't actively trying to aggro, like using Provoke or another brute, or a tanker.

I posted a plant/psi dom build with 33% to all defenses, so one small purple, vendor bought, is enough to be defense softcapped.

Good points overall, though a bit vague in actual advice.

Hmm, good advice and just what I was after. So I am forced to take pets, which I am not too hot on with their recharge, and one AoE attack which a super long recharge, also not something I am hot on. I suppose Barrier would further tank me up negating the need to spam eat purples. The stacking damage buff seems smarter too, because if we are at the damage cap because a kin is there it means we are bulldozing content anyway.

It's most definitely cheaper :D From what I am seeing as I play I can usually buy one enhance a day which means it might still be two or three weeks to get it all, but I don't need it day one of reaching level 50. I feel you have underslotted yourself a fair bit though. The Positrons I usually replace damage/endurance for the proc. Damage is still overcapped and we get a bit more boom from the proc. Drain psyche needs... accuracy. Yep. I had it like yours at first and realized I was missing when I used it, which was baaaaaad as I relied on it for my endurance. That's why I frankenslotted it as I did. Find a slot for the -res proc of Achiles Heel in Sleet, IMO. You're missing out on Ice Storm too. To be honest I hardly ever use Psychic Shockwave myself. I have a lot to spam and don't feel the need to be in melee range to do so, so it just serves as a mule set. In your case I *might* advocate, to the cries of horror from more veteran doms, to replace it for Ice Storm. You have no travel power. Which you know, I'm sure. Tactics serves little purpose being underslotted and not muling something like Vengeance does. You could take it out and replace for Super Speed or Super jump. Now, the Ascendency of the Dominator proc is apparently a good power-up averaging 40% damage to all powers with brief 60% spikes as long as we keep on spamming it. Carrion Crawlers is *possibly* a good place for it since its a fire and forget pet, though it's also a bit lazy. I am loathe to let go of the +recharge and -res proc myself. You have S/L overcapped. What I mean is, it's too much for PvE (too much being a relative term, we have no resistance against defense debuffs, so if we have a buffer of defense even if we are it lowered we are still at the softcap), and it's too little for incarnate stuff. Which means you will eat a small purple to cap yourself, which means you will be overcapped for incarnate stuff (again, relative term). You can remove the Kinetic Combat slots from Boxing and drop to 46%, still softcap defense for normal PvE, and with the 12.5% of a small purple you reach 58.7%... being that the softcap for incarnate missions is 59% (someone correct me if I misremember). Now with the floating slots your build currently has plus the ones you've freed from Kinetic Combat you can consolidate your other powers (psi lance, for example, has rrrreally low accuracy). You can re-check the original post above since I'm going to update it now with some refinements regarding frankenslotting powers. You can remove all the slots from another Kinetic Combat mule and toss four into Tough with Unbreakable Guard and one in your psychic shockwave to complete the set. You keep your S/L softcap (45.9%), beef up Tough *and* slot a 7.5% HP unique, while also beefing up Psychic shockwave a little more at the cost of a mule set, unless you actually use the power. The way I'm seeing as I play Strangler, Subdue and Mental Blast recharge before the animations have finished, which makes Strangler not being slotted for damage a bad thing. I'm going to wait until the patch lands and I have Psi Lance to see how the ST chain works out, but I do spend precious little time STing anything. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1433;649;1298;HEX;| |78DA6593594F13511886CF74A696A5A5B450F60AAD4091A5827A6F0C2841298EF20| |3C8A44CDA49EA4CD31913BDF4B7A070E78D5171FB071AD7A8572E3FC025022E7119| |3FCEFB956266D2F699F37EEF99F9969EC2E5B9E88DF9AB2784129FAD18AEBB32E75| |CB46CC3736AE18251B28AAA1022A6570CDB1B2A18AE67D6DC0829837BAE9559C7F6| |6A4E252F3DF555A6113FE9BAC6A58A97D75DCBB1AD627D9D58B0CB66CDB4BD7CFDA| |64577E831CB55D35C8DC9DBD356A9EC5976292A578BA651A545BCBE58A554CA56B5| |EF54D52AE6178AE60AD2BBD228A087121DA1EFFC6E0DF2F255F13224445A13A157C| |CD7A0F6068CECF7AE117214BB0E1E58676E804DE455E0158A4F97682645E5DDAA4E| |C892EB3CD87281B90C66A98F61B9DD57C21384194D449967E821113C271CF9AA20B| |605B66D33BF81ED3BCCEFA0421B9B39AB6699551729AD7893684DC1A5921683168E| |752BB2F6E45155C692DB60E70EF307D8F5136C25C4F1062D7E1319776D823DB798B| |7C1BE3BE022ED497067123C833EEEFD00CF62806710256F87ECAC1FEE388B7C0F2E| |310BCC73E090CE94956A54550A5585525CE9503B98E90413E4E9664F77EAFF5886B| |D05CAA097BBD3BB89AA0FDD65DE63DE07871F301F8231423F57DABF86EA87AF81A3| |EBCC0D3049B9A47956E90CB425DA3FC8FB07DFA223A3EFC0DC7BE607B08DBC599E4| |4F609F6E79E82879F319F335F807115A762B7B6915F21A98D0BE43EFE87D77FC149| |1F3CF21BECA1118E716E633CF1C975FC7B261FC333F508EC27EF04F77982FB3CC5F| |D9DE27E7750FD79AE3F2F27D849CA342BD3BC6B40DB3B93F4D975651B8A3F1E884E| |07949980722CA01C0F288B0D4581D2247F752D70EEDBF7CEBDFFB185A2CAFEE8E78| |0F229A07C0928FF0061DF0E6B| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

What are good choices for a plant/psi? Drain Psyche means I don't have endurance needs, hasten is already close to perma, my defenses need only a small purple to soft cap outside incarnate stuff. I'm not from the time of incarnates so I don't have much of a clue on what to pick suitable for all contents, not just farming.