Sovera

Four years later....

Well, lets be fair in that it was the original devs who did it. The current ones have already added a lot that the original ones did not. I fear the palette thing may not be an easy thing to achieve.

Bruh. Read the guide in my signature for a lot of other tips like these, stuff you probably don't know you want to know. But Mids is the program that we use for builds thanks to the thankless job of the Mid devs (blessed be their name and may they reign for a thousand years). You'll find it over https://www.midsreborn.com/

In Mids (you're using Mids, right? Right? *stare*) the epic/patron pool is the very last one: Double XP is turned off at 50. That's when you should immediately start doing Tinpex (at least once a day) for the salvage/merits and a couple ITFs since it is a smorgasbord of XP.

There are not enough colours, period. And some of them we are forced into. Trying to design a Stone Armor character using Crystal skins? All colors are washed up, there are not bright colors (why??). The numbers of times I fight with the character creator trying to get just the right shade of blue but the next option already goes into purples. But there is also a disconnect between what we see in the character creation screen and the open world. I would like to have a toggle to see how my character would look in the open world instead of an idealized version that does not match.

Erf... Give me Energy Transfer instead 😄 Dim Mak animation coupled with 1,2 seconds and 750 damage without BU 😄

I return from leveling the Stone/Energy up to 39. Just as I remembered, planned not to do, and ended up doing, I leveled with Energy Punch and Bone Smasher and nothing else. This was a slog. I knew I should have picked Barrage as well and push something back but wasn't sure what I could do without (perhaps Rooted since we have Amplifiers serving for CC protection?). But it's still my recommendation for leveling: grab Energy Punch, Barrage, Bone smasher, Total Focus. When picking Energy Transfer then Barrage can be respec out. Without AoE until level 16 I did it 0x2 which was... ugh... The lack of Combustion was felt. At 16 I did get Whirling Hands and could crank it to 0x6 right away. It was still a bit slow and awkward without the extra attack since the origin power very quickly lost steam and any point in being used. I started Posi 2 at level 14, again knowing it was not a good idea since it would mean I would not get access to my level 20 power and would need it to beat Vhaz, but I tried anyway. As predicted just EP, BS, and the origin power was not enough to whittle it down. So I started the TF from scratch this time armed with Total Focus. For the cost it has I honestly don't think that there is a point in picking TF that early. It costs too much and while it hits hard it also has a tremendous recharge that early level slotting cannot keep up with. Makes me think if I was to level it again it would be TF that I would push back. In the low levels it is best to keep hitting, IMO, and not be flogged by big gaps waiting for things to have recharged. But armed with TF I got Vhaz down in a timely manner. Teamed for Synapse, nothing special to report. I was 28 when I soloed Yin. I had Power Crash but with no slots. Aaaand, I mean, it's an extra AoE, but... Cones suck, abysmally. They should at least have Frost's depth to be useful. Energy Transfer I proc bombed immediately as it does not need recharge nor endurance reduction and only minimal accuracy. Of course it hit hard as a truck. I was defeating Freak Tanks with BU + TF + ET with no chance of healing (unless TF missed, or ET missed.... I do love random changes of missing). Overall the ST damage was firmly superior to Fire Melee (at least how I have Fire Melee built). Clamor was obliterated and despite being exemplared down and half slotted the rotation with EP was working fine even at that level. She was turned to paste which is a rare feeling I get from playing Tankers where whittling enemies is the normal. Brimstone helped and its effect was palpable. The AoE is not great though. Power Crash hits a third of the mobs and we need to be constantly bouncing trying to line it up. Even when lined it is a cone and doesn't have enough depth to hit all the mobs. So it's a terrible level 28 AoE especially as if we hang on the edge of a spawn to hit with Power Crash then Whirling Hands is not hitting the other enemies. We need to be constantly shifting to make the most use of the cone even if trying to aim it down as a ghetto PbAoE. They should have been swapped and Whirling Hands be buffed a bit. As it is Whirling Hands is a level 16 power, animates slower and costs a bit more but does the same damage of Power Crash. Pretty much for that reason I ended having the same times running Yin averaging 54-56 minutes as Fire Melee despite two shotting bosses and preventing them from healing. The Council also rarely got their transformations off because they were dead from the burst or CC. The CC spam is simply brutal. My previous EM was with Fire Armor and used Burn as a filler so there was not as much spam of EM powers. But this time I could see everything I started hitting starting to stagger. I had Clamor drunkenly watch me as I pummelled her. Well, when her triangles were down. Still, that was a solid bit of mitigation, and as I said she melted which is a rare for me to say about my Tanker's damage. Verdict: An awkward build with a bit too many sacrifices to be what I'd consider easy or fun. Fly pushed super later, Combat Jumping the same which had me missing those extra 3% defense. 'Late' AoE makes early leveling annoying, and having to use a cone simply slows down everything despite the appreciatively higher ST damage. Total Focus is a dastardly thing to use with its 2.8 animation and it's not uncommon to waste time tabbing through mobs trying to find one that has enough HP that warrants using it, which, in the meanwhile, has had EP recharge anyway. The super high damage of TF and ET makes using anything else a waste of time to the point I catch myself not attacking a 3/4th HP lieutenant because I already realised EP + BS + EP will not kill it and I'll have to use TF, where if I wait those 3-4 seconds TF + ET will defeat it. Playing the build is usually a case of TF-ing one mob, finishing it with EP + BS, then find a fresh mob and use the still powered up ET to then finish it with EP + BS (usually a powered up ET kills a +1 minion anyway, and leaves a lieutenant with a sliver of HP). The endurance problems started going away despite not having slotting more recovered simply due to the fact of two shotting enemies meaning I am not spamming my attacks. That's nice. FM remains my choice for an easy beginner friendly build with the dual PbAoEs allowing to fight without having to bounce around which ends up making up for the time lost having to kill mobs who are healing or transforming. That said Tanker's damage is on the low side of things especially where it matters: ST. And this build puts the money where its mouth is at. That and the constant CC spam preventing them from using their skills is simply priceless makes it a viable alternative for someone who wants to focus more on the ST side of things. Which is a fair thing to do. Easy soft targets melt in the initial AoE when in a team and then its time to kill the harder mobs which are usually the most dangerous ones.

Currently leveling a Stone/EM Tanker and it was a slog to 16 when the first AoE opens. Here I go with only Mud Pots! So 0x2 until 16, slog. At 16 I got Whirling Hands, cranked it to 0x6 and three levels in one mission. Dats the way to go.

I once again return to ask for the same: Lil X, please. Once seen, or clicked, can we get rid of it?

I happen to have a Rad/MA that has both 45% to all positional defenses AND 90% resists to most (and no, this is not a normal thing to achieve 😄 )

That was my thought as well. Strange we had to get it from third party site.

One other thing for a slight extra damage bump would be removing the extra -4 KB and adding an Armaggedon +5 Damage in Burn. It would push Burn from 733 to 833 or near 14% boost.

Another version I've been tinkering around trying to fit everything since Energy Melee wants a lot of power and slots and Stone Armor ALSO wants a lot of powers and slots. But I managed to fit it all in though with sacrifices. Some damage procs were lost along the way, recovery (though EM is not particularly endurance heavy thanks to Total Focus having such a long animation (more time for EPS to tick) and ET being endurance free), and it niggles me that E/N is not at 70%, but it is just too many moving parts. I don't particularly think that EM will do better ST than Fire Melee despite the numbers looking huge (Energy Transfer hitting for 722 without BU nor Brimstone's added damage that Mids does not show) and in AoE Power Crash being a cone will not hit all mobs like Combustion does. So why EM then? Well, burst, and a deranged amount of CC for a stupidly high hitting attack set. Time to CC all the annoying mobs before they heal, pop their T9s, or, the latest peeve, transform into werewuffies, or whatever other annoying crap they do. Even the spam of AoE (target boss, Total Focus, Energy Transfer, Power Crash, Whirling Hands, Power Crash, repeat) does AoE wide CC. Even AVs can be made to stagger. The ST rotation should be something like Total Focus, Bone Smasher, Energy Transfer, Barrage, Bone Smasher, repeat. This ends at 5.7 seconds and just in time for Total Focus to be used (5.7 seconds recharge). Barrage is not very good so there is something to be said for using Energy Punch instead and have the ending at 5,2 instead since any level 50 team will be handing recharge buffs like candy (often simply in the form of Ageless). Energy Punch is also better for exemplaring and leveling since it recharges so fast that it can be a filler. Total Focus, EP, Bone Smasher, EP, Energy Transfer, EP, etc. It's a good alternative while the slotting is not all in place yet, or exemplared, and the damage loss is not even that grievous (20 points). But even at max level if not minding spamming your T1. Energy Punch, Energy Transfer, Energy Punch, Bone Smasher, Energy Punch, ends with the same 5.7 needed for TF to recharge. With the ATO in EP there is something to be said for spamming it like that. In fact, I may have talked myself into doing it 😄 I'll make the changes and post both builds but will be using EP. In a team that does the talked about handing out of recharge buffs like candy it is easy to just use less Energy Punches since the linchpin is always TF. If TF is up then stop EP-ing. Tanker (Stone Armor -Energy Melee EP) Final build.mbd Tanker (Stone Armor -Energy Melee) Final build.mbd

I keep advocating for an HP buff that is related to team size: One person: normal HP. Two persons: 20% more HP. Three persons: 50% HP. All the way to 8 persons and... 200%? Numbers would be tweaked. This would let mobs last longer and not crippler a soloer.

'Sentinels are rejected because...' Me who has played the game for years now and never saw any AT rejected from a team: huh?

The bad with Trapdoor was the tunnels. But the good was spawns couldn't be skipped or running away easily. Seems fine to me though.

Yeah, Tar Patch is about doing more damage, not taking less damage.

Everything is looking good. You could try to play with your resistances where you see useful and remove about 5% since a second stack of the ATO will cover that 5% loss. So you could take the 6th sloth of the Synapse and regain the 107 HP you were sad of losing. Or putting a Gaussian back in Rage with two +5 recharges. Doing this you can recover one slot from the Unbreakable unique, and honestly, recover another one from the Kismet since Rage gives such large bonuses to accuracy. Even without the Kismet all your attacks are at 128% chanc to hit +3, 118% to hit +4, and 110% to hit +5. I think it's safe to say the Kismet can go. Tanker (Fiery Aura - Super Strength).mbd While it not as pretty as what you have a second ATO will put you at 90% and you have ANOTHER two slots to place where you'd like.

One of us! One of us! One of us! As Zect pointed adding the last Synapse point would put your E/N at 84% at which one a second ATO stack will neatly insert you at 90% to it. But not with the Might of the Tanker in the damage aura since it will only tick once every 10 seconds. Place the trio of Gauntlet Fist that has the absorb proc in Blazing Aura and the four Might of the Tanker in whatever attack you find you spam the most. I know that might ruin your all proc attack, but... Again as Zect said (they nailed every point I would have pointed out but just reiterating) consider the possible slotting of saving some slots and take one from all the Unbreakables you have slotted. You're not aiming for defense so that S/L / Melee defense is adding very little. Even if you only save two slots you can put them in Haymaker for more procs, or split them into a second recharge in Fiery Embrace and a +5 end mod in Stamina. These are only minimal min-max tips because your build's super solid as proc monster.

EM has a problem which is a too long and awkward recharge on TF which is the linchpin of the set (it gives the energy mechanic that in turn makes Energy Transfer fast). Because of TF's long recharge there is a lot of downtime to fill before it is available again. In most builds I have TF down to 6 seconds. 1.2 seconds for ET, 1.5 seconds for Bone Smasher, 1. second for Energy Punch. And now what? All combined it was just 3.7 seconds. So lets add more. TF, ET, EP, BS, EP = 4.7. Still not enough. Swapping Energy Punch for Barrage adds another one second. Now it's 5.7 which is close enough. But Barrage sucks. Might as well make Bone Smasher the repeat. So TF, BS 1.5, ET 1.2, EP 1, BS 1.5 = 5,2. Still short. Replace EP for Barrage and we have 5.7 which is acceptable. Of course we can replace one of these for an epic attack but it changes little since epic attacks are not available at every rotation. It leaves Power Crash as the flexible slot, but that's pretty relative. Whirling Hands is not particularly good AoE and having a cone we can chain (TF, Power Crash, Whirling Hands, Power Crash can be repeated ad infinitum) helps in AoE situations. It's a reason I can't fit EM with Stone Armor since Stone wants most of its powers and EM wants most of its powers too. There are no powers and slots enough to accommodate both the way I build.

You need this for the builds: https://www.midsreborn.com/ For your endurance problems you need A) to slot endurance reduction in your attacks (more than in the toggles), B) slot endurance modification/procs (Panaceia proc, Performance Shifter proc, Miracle Unique), C) Buy as many Recovery Serums from the START vendor as you can. Check the newbie guide in my signature for more stuff.

Brutes/Tankers will depend on when they have an AoE that opens. Sometimes it's at 18, and then there's no point in doing more than 0x1 until then since I have to kill everything one at a time anyway. There's the stuff that gets early AoE like Ice Melee or Claws, or Fire Melee (on a Tanker) and I usually crank it to 0x6 by level 10 when the ATOs open though if I have early AoE I have it at 0x4 at what ever time the AoE is obtained since 5 slotted with the prestige enhancements makes it a killer. For example most my runs on a Fire Armor Tankers start at 0x6 (if the AoE rule of thumb applies) to solo Posi 1 (which depending on the armor sets can be fine to a pain at the end with the 6 boss shadow clones. It continues being 0x6 for Posi 2 and then moves to 1x8 from Synapse onwards and doesn't move. High difficulties just make killing things slower which is not the fastest on a Tanker as it is. My last Stone Armor/Fire Melee was doing the same but it felt like on easy mode compared to my Fire Armor runs. I find Brutes/Scrappers too squishy for this early life style and one of the reasons I gravitate to Tankers since I lack the early bloom. But by level 40-ish the Tanker damage starts falling off while the Scrappers/Brutes get their slotting in place and their damage is now better so they can handle bigger spawns. I don't solo on other ATs since the bad mechanic of mobs running away is too much of a pain, but the few times I tried soloing with my Sentinel I found it too squishy same as the Brutes/Scrappers and mostly stuck to 1x4 mostly until the nuke opened which made me go back to 1x8.

UltraAlt is one of the very few persons I have on ignore in this forum, so you might be on to something 😄

Yeah, sneering at the devs for fixing it when we had people posting how multiple leagues worth of players were farming Adamastors so fast it had become APS (Adamastors Per Second) is funny.

Paradoxically doing Posi 1 at level 8 turns it into a breeze. CoT that spawn don't have the huge +defense bubble nor do Earthquakes which are the main reason of death in Posi 1. Unfortunately for Posi 2 we have the bubbles and the Earthquakes. And you'll always be level 8 until finishing the TF because your level does not budge after having started, nothing to be done there. Doc Buzzsaw has been (thankfully) fixed a long time back to spawn at the appropriate level.