Sovera

They are doing no more of a pass to Sonic than they are doing a pass for Electric Melee just because Thunderstrike got a fresh new coat of paint.

Cones are universally reviled, but instead of having Fireball or PbAoE only we keep having cones because That's How It Is. And somehow, despite hitting fewer targets than said PbAoEs or fireball effects they STILL do less damage. You'd think the risk/reward would reward having to jump out, manually aim, jump back in, but no.

I'm of the opposite camp, but hey, there's room for us both, @Onlyasandwich. I WANT things homogenized so that people DO choose on aesthetics and personal preference instead of 'welp, Fire does more damage, so Fire'. But the trend is 'lets make it all equally bad', which, okay, I'll grant that it is homogenized, but

Fire Armor you say? You are a ghoul of culture. 👍 So, a few things: Fault sucks. Don't take my word for it because you might try it and like it even if I don't. But don't be surprised at feeling the urge to basketball throw it into the trash bin. With some fancy slotting you don't need to have Tough toggled on as long as you intend to take Barrier in the end game. Your single target will have gaps without Stone Fist. You will want something like Seismic Smash, Stone Fist, Heavy Mallet, Stone Fist, Stone Mallet, Stone Fist, repeat. This is because all the FF procs only have a chance of going off and baseline Seismic Smash recharges in 7 seconds in your current built. So following the rotation above it's 1 + 1.9 + 1 + 1.9 + 1= 6.8 seconds and just in time for Seismic Smash to be back up. If one of the FF procs goes off you can shave a Stone Fist off the rotation. The ATO in Stone Mallet gives 6.7% to all resistances and it stacks up to three times. Mids only accounts for one. Two stacks is easy to achieve and three a bit harder since the first stack will sometimes run off before the third is applied. So as a rule of thumb aim for two, ergo whatever Mids is showing + 6.7%. Knowing this, and if you don't intend to take Barrier, you can break the Celerity bonus since even without it you end at 84%. With the second Might of the Tanker ATO stack you're at 90%. With those now free two slots you can place them in Build-up, scrounge a slot from somewhere, and have three Adjusted Targetting to have another 3% to E/N which you're a bit behind on. Again, if you're not intending to take Barrier. If you ARE intending to take Barrier (which IMO you should since it's a good panic button plus the permanent 5% to defenses and resistances allows to play with slotting) all you need is to have both at 77%ish fot + 6.7% + 5% reach 90%. Content lower that level 45 is not hard enough to demand permanent 90% anyway since it's usually ran on +1 difficulty. By aiming for 77% you free a lot of slots that can be moved around to boost things like Build-up, add damage procs to attacks, five slot purples in Burn and Seismic Smash, aim for 40% defenses to smash and lethal, having Tough only as a mule and not toggled on, etc. But that's a choice.

That's fine. MA's gimmick is more about the FF proc in Dragon Tail and the 10% defense it brings which allows for funny things like 45% to melee + range + AoE.

Took it for a spin and did part of Posi 1 and part of Yin. With amplifiers it was at 38% to S/L and 40% to E/N at level 15 for Posi 1. For Yin it was at 45% at level 25. The AoE is still mediocre since Thunderstrike still isn't a real AoE which made Posi 1 slow, and Chain Induction ALSO isn't a real AoE which made progress through Yin slow. But, not that bad, though I was sapped pretty badly at Yin and had to eat a small purple during Posi 1. For Yin there was no need for small purples, obviously, since being at softcap at such low levels is playing with godmode on. ST felt a lot snappier than I remember Elec Melee being to be honest. I'm not invested enough to try hitting a pylon and see but I was going through things at a good clip and Thunderstrike was chunking enemies and that's without damage procs which it takes well to (48% chance for a regular one). By level 25 I was close enough to do the Thunderstrike, Charged Brawl, Chain Induction (as it was the build's AoE I wanted it in the Gaussian window), Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, Charged Brawl rotation. Not quite, and it had to have Hasten up, but it's normal and expected when still barely slotted and with only one LotG still. While it's not quite my cup of tea since I'm damage oriented I think it's good as is. It sparked my interest in dusting the old Fire Armor/Elec Melee since Thunderstrike at such a low level doing Force Feedback shenanigans sounds *very* enticing, and Burn will make up for Elec's mediocre AoE while being boosted by Thunderstrike. I'll leave the 'leveling' build I used by level 22. Tanker (Stone Armor - Electrical Melee - Leveling).mbd

I was faffing around with a ranged Fortunata and got it to 45% without Mind Link (fie to long animations). The Mids numbers seemed pretty low though, we're talking mid 200s per attacks. Considering I see people talking of their Fortunatas doing close to 600 DPS it tells me either I'm missing something or that trying to Sentinata is not the way to go. I think the second.

Following on Gameboy1234's suggestion something that puzzled me is how hidden the options to permanently have in display mob's HP bars and names. Most people are not even aware this can be done.

Or buy one for 5k at the P2W vendor.

To be fair the only improvement is Elec Melee having Thunderstrike with better numbers. It now hits harder, recharges a bit slower, and animates faster going from 3.3 to 2.5. Almost worth using for ST, I guess. So I thought hey, lets look at it paired with Stone. Stone Armor has an endurance problem that the extra endurance from Crystal Armor is unable to cope with, but Elec Melee has a secondary effect of sapping mobs and giving the endurance back to us. It also adds a small damage boost that Elec Melee desperately needs. The single target rotation should be something like Thunderstrike, Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, Charged Brawl, Chain Induction, Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, repeat. I didn't actually level it, and the ST damage will still be slow since, barring Thunderstrike, the hardest hitting does... *drumroll* 260 damage, lol. Okay, no, it will do a bit of damage extra since Brimstone does a damage proc that Mids currently does not account for. To the meat and bones: - Softcapped defense to all (except Fire, Cold, and Toxic) without Weave. Weave is taken but only as a mule for another LotG since I'm out of slots and out of interesting powers. Toggle it on if you want to reach 50%, trade two slots from Minerals to reach 52%. - "Okay, but we're fighting Devouring Earth and they destroy my defenses!" That's fine, you ALSO get 90% to all resists with the sole and single exception of Psi with 3 stacks of the ATO and 5% from Barrier. A miserable 86% to S/L and 84(.9) to E/N with Barrier and only two stacks. - 130 seconds Hasten though the FF proc in Thunderstrike should make it perma or close to. - Capped HP, so 3.5k with the accompanying 63 HP regen. - Endurance mightshouldmaybe be okay with 2.06 end use and 4.56 EPS plus 4 endurance procs and come page 7 Focused Accuracy will have its costs halved which will help a bit more. FAQ. Why no Lightning Rod? A: It sucks. Low damage for a long cooldown. Wrong first impressions borne from who knows where. Turns out it does good damage. I don't like it due to the long cooldown (I play ranged characters for that) but Lightning Rod is worth the pick for those who don't mind it, And it just so happens that the build does happen to have a free power slot. The ones who want to use it (and to be honest it is almost the reason to pick Elec Melee) can remove the five slots from Focused Accuracy and slap them on Lightning Rod. Something like this. If not wishing to chase resistances just slot 5 Armaggedon with an Eradication damage proc. Tanker (Stone Armor - Electrical Melee - LR).mbd Free power? A: There was nothing else that interested me. Take Taunt, you're a Tanker, right? Or Conserve Power. Or Lightning Clap (accuracy sucks though but a +5 accuracy will put it at 88%). What about Gloom? A: Too long a recharge to be part of the attack chain so it's only used every two rotations. Page 7 further increases its recharge. Replace something for it if wanting it in though, it's a build, not a bible. Fly is taken so late! A: Use a 5k jetpack from the P2W to move around until 26. Or replace Hasten with Fly. This is not a leveling build. A: Well, it kinda is, the powers are taken in order and what is stays, but yeah, some slots will move around at 50. If someone needs a leveling build just beep me and I'll replace the IOs for cheaper stuff. Tanker (Stone Armor - Electrical Melee).mbd

I *really* wish that Tankers could ditch Recharge Power for Superior Conditioning that Brutes get.

That's from the previous build. We're on build 2 now and tweaks have been made.

As ZemX said defense is good, we could even say better than resistance (since it avoids debuffs that resistance sets have to eat), but resistance is not bad. There are groups of enemies who ignore defense or have such high accuracy they they end up ignoring defense as well which resistance based sets laugh at. So everyone has their own Achille's heel. Dark Armor coupled with Katana will work just fine in the sense that anything works once we pour enough money into it, even if it has no exceptional synergies. If you want something a bit cray cray would be pairing DA with Martial Arts for a nutty 45% defenses to everything on top of 90% resistances to most things 😄 If you like DA/Katana then give it a spin and even if it doesn't work out you can just transfer the IOs to a new alt.

If you'd follow the conversation from the start the concerns are not about another currency but how more and more currencies are being added, and the desire to nip this from the bud before yet another currency is added in one or two patches.

Elec Melee almost NEEDS Thunderstrike for its ST rotation because it has a lack of ST attacks which is why Elec Melee is so weak. There are no ST attacks other than the T1 and T2 and AoEs are tuned to be weaker than ST precisely because they hit more than one enemy. Jacob's Ladder is a cone, Thunderstrike is half a PbAoE, Chain Lightning is a chain but at least it animates fast and subs for an ST despite having the same weak damage due to being AoE. Sad thing is that the AoE isn't even great 😄 Though Thunderstrike's changes will surely help.

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.