Sovera

The explosions only do 50% damage to non players.

That's being pretty optimistic there, but sure.

This is very good. I have but two thumbs but both are up.

Yes, but especially fire armor with ice melee since ice armor is in need of a bit of a tune-up (still works though if you'd like to go that route). But for Fire Armor you'd do better using a Brute or Tanker since Burn makes enemies flee with a Scrapper.

You can make that fast, check the merit selling in my newbie guide.

I've tried to like Staff and brought more than one AT to max level with it but the low single target damage and mediocre AoE eventually wears me down faster than I wear a mob's HP 😄 You've done a very good job with the build btw, as a Fire Armor fan I approve. There's a small bit of min-maxing that can be done but honestly I think you nailed 99%. Kudos. I would take Temperature Protection pretty last since it is not super needed. I would also slightly lower your S/L resistances since you're already past 90% with just one ATO proc (6.7% per stack to all resistances and it goes up to three stacks and Mids only accounts for one) and two stacks is the norm. .... which, speaking of, you forgot to put it in 😄 Easily fixed though. Innocuous Strikes is probably one AoE too many I feel. Staff is hurting for single target damage and you're skipping Serpent's Reach. With some creative slotting you don't need to toggle Tough and it's becomes just a mule. I would also take Combat Jumping and Super Jump much sooner just in case of exemplaring (or leveling). Hasten will be welcome much sooner as well and I'd honestly put Temperature protection as a level 50 power and grab Hasten by 24-ish since there are so many good powers to grab early on. A +perception unique instead of ToHit/recharge in Focussed Accuracy would not go amiss either. Tanker (Fiery Aura - Staff Fighting).mbd 77% resistances looks low but a second ATO stack pushes that to 85% and if you use Barrier (which you should, IMO) will bump that to 90%. Barrier will also push S/L to 45%-ish (44.6%). If you don't want to use Barrier then push your resistances to roughly 83-84 so a second stack puts them at 90% always remembering more than 90% is useless unlike defense. Your endurance is going to suffer but Staff is uniquely equipped to deal with this with the form that reduces endurance costs and in the next patch Focussed Accuracy is going to have its costs halved which will help. Do get the accolades for endurance to further help though, I have that in my newbie guide signature. You have two slots to do whatever with since goals have been reached. A damage proc in your attacks or pushing defense a bit more, etc.

The enforced roleplay with Seismic is crushing (see what I did there?). I'm not sure why it was placed in and why it was not vetted. I don't need roleplay explanations of why it has to work like that because roleplay is A) fiction, and B) altered at a whim. Unfortunately the same about Storm Blast. We were literally told it was build to be mediocre because not all sets should be good. This leaves me with a borderline aneurysm. Why should not all sets be good? Why not let theme and aesthetics guide a pick? Why say 'well if you want damage you go Fire. Storm looks cool but is weak so if you want damage then Fire' instead of 'Well, Fire and Storm are good. Storm needs prep time but makes up for it by having stronger hits and it looks cool as heck. Fire hedges ahead in damage but Storm has debuffing'. I would even say okay, sure, Storm has debuffing so it should do less damage. I understand. But insult to injury is adding the prep time for every fight. It's almost like the game is not played by the ones designing the sets. Sure was enough feedback about it but it was a no go. End result? A beautiful set, dozens, if not a cool hundred, code hours devoted to something that is relegated to obscurity. At the very least put both ground patches at 1 second cast times so we can get that delay out of the way and start playing.

Yes, I know. We had some extensive testing and it never produced tangible results hence why I mentioned to put a damage proc. At least that one does go off. But if it works for you then leave it as it won't make a big difference. I read something how Meteor is the fastest recharging nuke between the FF procs Seismic can slot and the Seismic mechanic. How does that feel for you?

The Decimation proc has no discernible effects. You might as well sub it in for a regular damage proc.

Reach level 50 and get Clarion in the Destiny incarnates. Or play a Sentinel and still do ranged damage but now while being immune to CC. The other two posters covered it otherwise.

You only get non-arachno looks from your other costume slots. The first slot is locked into Arachno mode. But if you want something that takes you to a mission but doesn't look that much out of place check the P2W Disc travel power.

And back. I'm not an Ice Armor fan but I think I covered the basics. You will be gasping for blue bar so stock up on Recovery Serums from the P2W vendor all the way until you get Energy Absorption which I suggest you slot ASAP. You'll be using it at every spawn pretty much to keep your endurance bar from flatlining. I'm more of a Fire Armor person 😄 But I won't begrudge you wanting to try the icy brethren. This is NOT a leveling build, but I can cobble something if you need it. AVALNCH_5.0 - Tanker (Ice Armor).mbd There are a bunch of free powers I did not take since nothing really grabbed me. Ice Armor has endurance problems and so does not want more toggles, but take whatever and try it out. More toggles are not a problem if you pick Cardiac in the Alpha incarnates.

Hello Arion, and welcome aboard. The level 12 power should be Super Jump and has two slots, that it shows as having no slots makes me think your version of Mids is outdated. See if you have the most recent one from here: https://www.midsreborn.com/ I don't completely agree with how that build is built but that's in good part because builds are like art and each person brings their touch. But Ice Armor has no Knockback hole that requires the -KB IO, and without the second Mallet the single target rotation may be a bit iffy. In theory you do not use powers that are not slotted such as Kick. Your single target rotation should be Heavy Mallet, Stone Fist, Stone Mallet, Stone Fist. Repeat until Seismic Smash opens. Seismic Smash is the set's big hitter and it hurts my soul to see it slotted for Holds instead of damage... But once you have Seismic Smash the single target rotation is Seismic Smash, Heavy Mallet, Stone Fist, Stone Mallet. May need an extra Stone Fist. Combat Jumping lets you do small bunny hops during combat. Super Jump (and other actual travel powers such as Fly or Super Speed) has combat suppression which stops them from working for X seconds when attacking. Combat Jumping does not have this limiter. And, yes, it adds another 2% defense. Using Taunt is not strictly necessary but has niche uses such as making ranged characters go into melee and forcing mobs to attack you if they are attacking a squishy (most melee characters are tough enough to not mind being hit and thus do not need to be babysat). Energy Absorption fills your endurance bar. Ice Armor is very hungry, and Stone Armor is ALSO very endurance hungry, so you will be probably using that power on cooldown.... which again hurts me seeing it slotted for defense instead of endurance... Salt Crystals are a forced pick. Can't pick the next powers without taking it, but it's useless since as you've reasoned it will break from Icicles or anything else. Give me a few minutes and I'll post my own version that will not damage my soul.

Money is no option means something different than what you mean, I think 😄 Spines is a bit old timey and there are better options tbh, but check the Guides section of the forums and you will find the Farm Fresh thread where people post their builds and earnings.

It's plenty achievable. I think the worst time I had for Hasten was 150 seconds but it's usually in the 135 second range, so 15 seconds downtime. That said it's not *easily* achievable once we start wanting to also consolidate defenses and resistances. Price is, honestly, the least of a worry since money trickles in and IOs can be transferred between characters. For a long long long time, and I'm talking 20-40 characters long, I'd just transfer the IOs from one character to the next instead of earning a fresh 700-800 million each time.

Though to be fair at this point consider Widow or an Arachnos Soldier. You can be hybrid melee/range or even full on ranged and though there are some downsides imagine a Scrapper with a nuke but that also has Follow-up and Spin.

It really would be nice to get the suggested 'when solo all mobs have 100% HP and each extra person in the team adds (random numbers subject to tuning) 15% HP. A full team makes every mob have 200% HP'. Man, in one elegant swoop we'd fix the steam rolling and people would be able to land more than one hit before a spawn has melted.

Same. My complaints about the set are the whittling of a single target and how I am forced to toss two patch powers (and heaven forbid if the mobs move away from them) for my ST. Other sets will stop using their AoEs to focus on their ST attacks. I should actually test an ST run without Storm Cell and Cat 5 and see if the time lost casting those is made up by their lightning procs.

Same, I love Storm, but it's hard to STAY in love with it. Perhaps the changes will help. It's a great set to solo though. 33% defense (with Bio) and fighting real +4 (no level shift since recent level 50) in DA and surviving without much of a problem. But dat damage output... it's some slow whittling of enemies.... Looking darn cool while doing it though, pity we can't ditch Storm Cell and Cat 5.

Earth's Embrace is, strictly speaking, an HP buff rather than a heal. It does heal but just a bit and too long a timer to be depended on. Or I'm just spoiled by Healing Flames 😄

One of the main reasons to go Dark Armor is the stupendous heal in Dark Regeneration. If you skip that particular power then you might as well pick a different armor set. To be perfectly candid Elec Melee is in need of a tune-up from the devs and there are better choices, but if you're enjoying it then it will work regardless. Even if you eventually decide to play something else you can always transfer the gear you bought for it to the new alt so it's not a waste. Things to consider: - Havok Punch is a damage power and should be slotted for damage. The stun component is negligible and not worth slotting for. - Don't leave Vegeance toggled on since it gives the wrong idea about your resistance numbers. Vengeance relies on a team member dying and Vengeance being used on it. This happens but it's not something to rely on for 100% uptime. In most teams not even 20% uptime. - Same with Build-up which will give the erroneous idea of how much accuracy you need. - The Theft of Essence proc in Dark Regen is the important bit that makes Dark Regen's huge endurance costs manageable. You can swap the five other slots for anything, but dark regen wants accuracy and dark armor has a lack of Energy resists so I six slotted it. - Speaking of accuracy you already have enough even without Tactics toggled on so other than niche reasons there is no reason to take it. Tbh same with Maneuvers. Dark Armor has a giant problem with endurance and all those extra toggles will leave you unable to cope. I would even drop off Cloak of Fear since it has a stupendous cost of 0.52 and only two magnitude, which means it only works on minions, not even on lieutenants, and for that you already have Oppresive Gloom that does stun instead of fear, only works on minions as well, but at least is 'free' (costs negligible HP). - You don't need those slots to proc heals because you have the godly Dark Regen. - Toggles like Death Shroud are not the best place to have the Might of the Tanker proc since auras only tick once every 10 seconds. I changed a few things around. 77% resistances is what I consider to be the sweet spot since one more ATO stack (6.7%) and Barrier (permanent 5%) will neatly put us at 90%. More than 90% is useless. Defenses are not built for but Melee is at a sweet spot of 33%+. Iif you eat a small purple you have Melee at 45% which is a bit of an extra layer of protection. With 90% resistances even just 33% is good enough for most content. I toggled off most everything from the Leadership pool to keep your endurance manageable but once you're level 50 you beeline to the Cardiac in Alpha and that will fix most of your endurance problems at which point you can toggle them back on if you'd like, but other than Lightning Clap all your attacks have enough accuracy to hit +3 anyway, and your goal is not defense so Manuvers is not strictly needed. You CAN build to 40% defenses so that Barrier will put them at 45% but you'd have to ditch Leadership, get Fighting, get Weave, then move slotting a bit. It's doable, I've done it, but no sure it is what YOU want. Respecs are cheap so play around with stuff and see what fits you best. DAelec Tank.mbd

Not on Stalkers, but I do solo TFs regularly. The missions themselves are just regular mobs which you can control via the difficulty settings. So you can solo at 0x1, for example. But other than Posi 1 all other TFs will have AVs which cannot be lowered to Elite Bosses. AVs do require a bit more oomph than regular SOs bring to the table. Still doable, but you will want inspirations and probably temporary powers. The minions Vhaz summons will explode so you need to take them out with AoE or try to bait them into exploding (stand in melee for a few seconds and then run out). They are only called three times, I think. Vhaz will heal back to full at his second phase so you will need patience to whittle him down. If you buy envenomed daggers then spam them where you have a gap in your attacks, which, at that level, you're bound to have. The daggers will make his regen drop to a point you can comfortably damage it but your problem will come from two fronts: surviving the damage and your endurance. For the first purple inspirations (Lucks) will prevent damage and are indirectly better than greens. Have about 2-4 greens and the rest purples. If you find this is not enough then buy more and mail them to yourself as you can take them from the mail even mid fight and replenish your tray. For the endurance you use the Recovery Serum from the P2W vendor and when its down you sub in for blue inspirations. Considering dropping all toggles you don't need during the fight. By level 20-ish as you are you can start looking at buying better stuff than generic IOs. For example both the Stalker specific IOs will give you a large boost to damage since one of the procs gives a chance to your Build-up power to instantly recharge and other makes you hide again which ensures a crit. Take a look at my signature for some money making tips but even just selling merits will make you enough to start buying the cheaper stuff (a Gaussian proc in your Build-up will nearly double Build-up's damage boost for the first 5 seconds and costs only about 2 million). And purchase at least generic IOs since they won't go red in a few levels and have to be replaced.

Everything looks alright. I would place the ATO in Storm Cell instead of Ragnorok and then place another Decimation in Lightning Strike with damage procs since the build-up proc is near useless. Hailstone can proc a Force Feedback proc to help recharging everything even faster but then it has no place for a damage proc so I moved Apocalypse there to help prop its damage a bit. You don't need Tactics (you're already over the cap to hit +3 enemies) or Maneuvers (you're over the softcap), but you can put them back in if you'd like, or aim for something out of the epic pools such as another AoE? The world is your oyster. If it's a thematic character then forget it, but if not then consider Stone Armor since you get all the goodies same as SR (high defenses, recharge, recovery) but better psi protection and a damage boost from Brimstone. Lightnin Thrax - Sentinel (Storm Blast - Super Reflexes).mbd

Well, it's a really low bar 😄

Bruh, Dark is mediocre ST with mediocre to bad AoE. It's the tax it pays for being a set with a heal and an endurance recovery tool which unique from all melee sets (well, radiation melee has a heal, but it has conditions to it). The real sinner is the Soul Drain build-up power that is awkward as heck. Not for Snarky (who knows all I'm about to say since he's a Dark Melee aficionado): Dark Melee is great to prop up armor sets that need a little nudge. Stone Armor, for example, is a deity level armor set sinning only for the lack of a heal (it has regen which lacks a bit of oomph) and has endurance problems (the recovery it has baked in is not enough since it's a toggle heavy set). Stone Armor even has a bit of a damage boost with Brimstone to help Dark Melee. Or Shield that lacks any and all heal or recovery. Or to go balls to the walls monstrous immortal with DM/Rad Armor with three heals and endurance coming out of its ears.