Sovera

Steering the conversation back on topic I suggest Brute (or Tanker). One of my best experiences (not maximum uber hit-a-pylon experience) was a EM/Fire Brute simply because Burn finishes rounding up the mediocre AoE of EM (or allows to skip the cone) and even if it's not Bio it still adds practical extra burst with Fiery Embrace. In practical terms I preferred having burst three times in a row (Build-Up for one group, Fiery Embrace for the second group, Build-up for the third group. Nothing for the fourth group. Repeat) than the steady damage of Bio (even though ultimately Bio is better at pylons). In the same vein Ston has shown that in practical terms Rad Armor can and does replace Fire Armor in terms of AoE (the middling part of EM) by dint of spamming procced out Ground Zero and Radiation Therapy. Ultimately this is my opinion: - As a Scrapper and EM on top of it your ST is already top notch. - Your AoE is mediocre, so fix that by picking Rad or Fire as secondary. - If despite being a Scrapper AND using EM you STILL want MOAR single target damage then go Bio but Bio will not appreciatively increase the AoE (it's like increasing the horsepower of an engine but Whirling Hands and the cone are the release valves limiting the output).

Fire armorrrrrrr

Quite so, you can do some silly things early on with MA and Shield. But you won't actually have 44.5% at level 12 because of how IOs scale. But even upwards of 30% will make it easy at that level. By Synapse you -will- be at close to 45%.

Yes, we really gain nothing in bragging. As the others have pointed in the last posts it is info that the 'ebil' marketeers are constantly pushing out trying to teach people to do the same thing they are doing. The community is great, and it's replicable so trying to lie about it would just bring confused reactions. But I would not make big claims either. '40 mill in 20 minutes' is not something I would claim. First because I'm not a pro marketeer and just dabble, and second because stuff still needs to sell. My claim I posted above ended trickling above what I said because there were lots of IOs that took a while to unload. Using this method to slot one's character on the cheap works best for me because the duplicated stuff we get can be sold and that money pays for the continued crafting. As I started with 8 million I did have moments where I stalled and was waiting for sales so I had money to continue (another tip: if you flood the market with a certain unique even if it's a good selling one there is only so much demand 😄 Yep, first hand experience).

Ah, I'm sorry, I quoted myself from my guide ( in the signature, lots of info there that might be of use including merits and how to use them). Lets see if I can reconstruct it though it was a great number of months ago: I started bidding for cheap recipes. I have it in the guide which I was using, I think, but basically cheap melee or ranged, or fear, or ToHiT, or defense debuffs, etc etc, recipes. It's important that they do NOT use orange salvage (though tbh I started using those as well to hurry it up, but it meant losing around 300-400k from buying the orange salvage which cut in the profit). I bid a LOT. We're talking 10 stacks of each recipe (acc/dmg, acc/end/dmg, etc) as long as they were cheap. By cheap I mean I started with 10k and would usually go to 50k but not more. So I had something like 100-150 recipes always being bided. Because of the low prices (10-50k) and the number of other people already doing it it was not an insta buy (hence the large number of diverse bids in melee, ranged, fear, buffing, etc etc) so that they would trickle in while I crafted. I then parked my butt over the Pocket D (there are other places such as Rikti WarZone and such) where I have a crafting table but also access to the AH. As the recipes trickled in I just bought all the savage needed to craft them. I did start by using all my converters I had saved but ran out of them so I started buying the converters off the AH as well. Then, after crafting a bunch of the IOs, I would start converting by Rarity (important so that the IO can jump to a different set (e.g. from being melee to being ranged, or heal, or etc)) until the IO landed into something worth something. I ended up mostly going for Resist Damage, Defense, and Heals, but allowed myself to be lazy and sold some stuff as Targeted AoE or pbAoE despite not being worth as much. If I had a Defense set I would invariably then continue converting using Convert by <category> (if its defense it will converted only in all the defense sets) until I landed on Luck of the Gambler, and then converted 'in set' until I landed on the 7.5% recharge. Otherwise and for the other sets I would first check their prices. For example an end/recharge Resist is crap, but a res/end is golden. There are some tips like aiming for low recipes such as level 31 (if I recall correctly) since A) it is cheaper to craft (level 50 are 400k to craft. Level 30 are 30k, I think? Been a while) and B) it diminishes the number of possible outcomes when converting outside of the set (the first step). So, basically, it cost me around... I want to not be hyperbolic but not give false information either... 1-2 million at worst to craft and convert into something useful? And then I would sell for 3-4 mill at worst, and if I lucked out (Numina unique, LotG 7.5%, resistance uniques, etc) it would make me 5-6 million. Now, two three things: 1 - I was actually gearing myself up when I did this. So I was aiming at replacing my generic for sets. I needed a bunch of Unbreakable Guard, the full Synapse set, the full Preventive Medicine, one full set of (normal) ATOs, etc. So my goal was not so much making money but landing on an IO I needed and then slot it in. But at some point I was still finishing the slotting and getting repeats from my converting so I kept selling those instead of converting from a 3-5 million profit. Of course when I started having enough money I just bought what was left (can't convert into the ATOs as well). 2 - This sounds like a lot of effing work, but like I said the buying of the recipes was a trickle hence my half AFK. I would check in, see some bought recipes, craft them, sell them, check if more recipes had been bought, and if no I'd go browse youtube for a bit and then checked CoH in a bit. Replace browsing youtube for 'go do a TF' or 'check and convert for half an hour each day'. With what I know now I do this straight at level 1 so that by level 30-ish I already have a bunch of recipes that were trickle bought while I was playing which is when I sit down and gear up for realsies. 3 - It's not actually needed. As pointed out selling raw converters is poor use of merits, but as I ALSO said I actually did this for a long long while so I did not have to bother messing with the AH more than the minimal thing of throwing hundreds of converters into the AH, set a price, then spam click, and collect my earnings the next day. It's actually funny that NOW that I don't need to do this anymore (with a humble billion to my name and several fat enhancement tables (I had to sell purples and uniques at some point because I had too many packed tables) is when I'm actually doing this sort of thing. But that's because I'm enjoying doing self sustained runs. I start with zero in a new character and they have to completely provide for themselves with no transferred money or gear.

That's pedestrian indeed. More power to you though. To me 3/4th of the fun is having Fly and the panoramic view of the game. Plus just ignoring mobs and hovering out of range when I need a breather for some reason.

I don't have reliable numbers for you because I was half AFK during my last rampage of doing this, but I'll quote myself:

Then don't. Play the game. Sell the raw merits. I slotted 95% of my characters just selling merits instead of using them, no farming either. Just playing the game. I did make abundant use of /respec to transfer 600-800 million worth of IOs between alts instead of grinding the gear for each new alt.

Unpopular opinion: does it really matter? Do you get less loot because they do so? Is your fun less fun because of that dot in your minimap not moving from the wall it is auto running against? I know it sounds like I endorse this, which I don't. I'm saying rather, does it really matter enough to elevate your blood pressure over?

Is it really a problem when one (1) merit can be raw sold for something like 200k?

Still puttering around in GW2 but feeling the hankering to play CoH again (I'm resisting since I'm chipping at the Skycale and trying to get it over with). I redid the Fire/Ice build and, unsurprisingly, it is better than it was when Frozen Fists was a forced pick and Frozen Aura was a level 38 power. I'm now endorsing Frozen Aura as not having to juggle powers and remove something essential to make room turned it into a definite pick. Freezing touch at 24 is nom nom to deal with Clockwork, and Frozen Aura is good to go for Yin. With three AoE the build will munch through stuff in easy mode. The lack of a T3 or Greater Ice Sword having the rework Greater Fire Sword had will still hurt the single target damage but no one plays a Tanker expecting exceptional single target damage. I left the updated build over here.

If you're range you're not getting hit by sapping. Super Sapper freakshow, the bane of melee? A giggle on my sentinel who kills them outside of their ressurect range. Sure, it's nice to have the choices, but in practice there will not be a reason to swap from offensive.

Quite.

4 star teams are highly specialized. You don't bring a Tanker to do damage in one of those.

There is no such as enough offense 😄 The faster you k-.. arrest mobs the sooner they stop hitting back. As usual it's all min maxed. You are at 77% with one stack of the Tanker's ATO, but with a second and Barrier's 5% you are pretty much permanently at 90% once engaged in combat. (Barrier's buff is perma after all). You are also at 40% defense to S/L and it goes to 45% once Barrier is up. To be honest lower level content where Barrier is not available is not hard content that requires 90% to resists, but a third stack of the ATO while unreliable to have is still possible. If you exemplar a lot you can swap the slotting of Greater Fire Sword with Fire Sword. The single target rotation is Greater Fire Sword, Scorch, Fire Sword, Scorch. Including Incinerate would be a little bit more damage but A) it would mean leveling and exemplaring lower than 28 with only one attack. And B), Incinerate is still a slow ass 5 second DoT. But switch Scorch for Incinerate if you want. Your problems with KB will go away with the combo of having the -KB IO in Fly (or whatever other travel power you've decided to use) and the S/L defense. Just one or the other will still get you KBed but the combo of both will be enough. Don't tarry on getting the -KB IO since it's a single item and costs only 2ish million. I have no idea as to how long you've been playing and your depth in CoH so if I over-explain this next part just forgive me: - While leveling you won't have access to the superior versions of the IOs but buy the regular versions when you have money. Start with what is cheapest and go up. At level 50 you can upgrade the normal versions to Superior. - Remember to always buy Attuned IOs instead of Crafted IOs. - If you know how to use the base teleporters replenish your defense inspirations. While leveling they will do a lot more for you than slotting your armors early on. - If you don't know how to make money then then check the guide in the signature. Make a (small) effort at actually using the Converters, but if you don't want to bother then it is absolutely viable (it's how I play most of the time unless doing iron man challenges). - There is no reason to wait to start slotting IOs. Even if you don't like the character in the end you can still transfer the bought IOs to an alt or sell them back in the AH. So start as soon as you can for the sweet sweet bonuses. Tanker (Fire Fire).mxd

You don't need the three Leadership powers. They don't add much other than the illusion of support. If you don't take Fiery Embrace (or Burn) there is no real point in taking Fire either. If you're still interested I can post my last Fire/Fire Tanker build for slotting ideas.

I would add more recharge to Overload. Having it faster seems of more interest though in solo I find the extra recharge does not help as much since in my experience Sentinels take longer than 30 seconds to finish moping a group. But still, it's the principle of the thing when even ED recharge still has the procs having max chance of going off.

It's also one of the (few) sets where if people like pylon breaks we can break one in 3 minutes, fully range, completely based on Elec. Most hover around 4 minutes. 3 minutes is my standard on non Moonbeam Brutes. It is a bit ficticious as it depends on depleting the blue bar to have the electrified mechanic and without a blue bar bottomed out it does not get those times. I remember testing at the time and having normal Sentinel times on a pylon until I started using the nuke to deplete the pylon's bar early in the test to have the mechanic in full effect. Once depleted there was no difference between using the nuke or not, but until the bar is completely out using it matters. And, also, Elec is very satisfying in that the sapping actually works despite being all on damage. PPs don't trigger MoG because drained, Minotaurs don't trigger their T9. It feels good to make this happen. That said the pet could have used MM coding to be auto summoned (does not follow into a new map, does not follow if using an elevator inside a map, can and does get stuck in geometry and does not auto teleport like MM pets do. In all these cases it needs to be resummoned if and when the player notices it is missing).

Doubtful. Depends on the TF of course, but it has been a long time since I saw any AV take more than 30 seconds outside of mechanics reasons (Romulus or whatever since he respawns 4 times, Reich guy with the extra resistances we need to use the temp power to negate, etc). I HAVE seen teams crumble against an AV and just give up (Market Place set too high level, ITF with low level characters and a bad comp and set too high level) but this is the cream of the cream in the rare soup. I have not tested a Rad Armor Sentinel against an AV but I did test a Bio Sentinel with the 25% power turned off (since Rad has no extras and the Sentinel version has no -res either) and predictably it went from 4 minutes to break the pylon to 5 minutes and change. I assume this would be the time for a non-bio. Trapdoor tests @Ston ran with Sentinels put the Rad Armor comfortably ahead of Bio for regular missions though. And I do mean comfortably, not things like 30 seconds ahead. So it's a matter of picking your poison. Me being me playing a Rad or Bio would lead to when I played with Brutes and Tankers and if I am playing a Tanker I miss the extra damage of a Brute and if I am on a Brute I miss the sturdiness of the Tanker.

As Uun pointed out the accuracy debuff is the real reason I take FA, even though the extra acc does allow to move some slots around. Tactics does not serve this purpose since the extra acc it provides just gets debuffed. A bit like Maneuvers. *daydreams about a FA similar that provides resistance to defense debuffs* Ahem... anyway, yeah, Focused Accuracy simply turns off all accuracy debuffs in the game which is a bit OP, but is not AoE as Twozero pointed out which makes the Sentinel's version even more OP.

I'm a big proponent of Focused Accuracy. I have no meleers without it. So of course I took it on the Sentinels in the beginning, but then I realised I don't need it. The same mobs that were a nuisance about this on my meleers were inconsequential on my Sentinel. All I really need is the perception unique slotted somewhere to get past smoke bombs. This is more of something I noticed than a 'play it my way', but it's how I found out. And I -really- have not a single melee character without Focused Accuracy.

Bio for best all rounder. Defenses, shield, heal, endurance AND a damage boost. It's like the other armors aren't even trying! Rad for second-best-but-actually-sorta-best-for-regular-gameplay mostly thanks to the second nuke as an AoE backup. Can't go wrong with dual nukes every spawn. Not as sturdy as Bio (IMO) and going into melee to land the second nuke steals from the safety of being ranged. Storm Summoning for all-rounder offense. Yes, it needs prep time, but it damages, it debuffs, it CCs, and all we do is hit our damage skills. Pity we could not revert the travel time of the drizzle attack because it hurts the damage. I would even take a damage hit to have the attack land either instantly or in half the travel time. I don't even use Epic Pools on my Sentinels since they suck for what they do (again, IMO) so I cast a vote at random for that.

Softcap is only for one thing and that's defense. Usually 45% is 'enough' but some armors can get higher because they are built for defense. As others pointed out there is a mix of defense debuffs (not a problem for super Reflexes who is immune to these), higher level enemies having more accuracy, and incarnate mobs, that make building for more defense profitable. This is very much dependent on what content you usually do. If incarnates much, then building for more might be good (around 59%. I say might because 45% is already pretty close and if taking damage it is simpler to ear a small purple inspiration than refit a whole build, or there might be a team mate who does defense buffs). If sticking to 'normal' content then building for more defense is probably not worth it since it being there or it not being there will not be noticeable. Your next question is resistances. There is no softcap for resistances. As you've pointed out resistances have a hardcap (so do defenses but it is much harder to reach which is not the case of resistances) and building for more than 95% gives nothing. It is a pet peeve of mine to see Tanker builds in the forums happily showing off their 120%+ resistances since they could scrounge slots or change their slotting to have less resistances and still be at 95% then place those slots elsewhere. Since resistances resist resistance debuffs (which is not the case of defense) there is not much point in in building for more than 95% except in some very niche situations (certain groups do an unresistable -resistance patch) but at that point what you need is to kill mobs fast or play smart instead of trying to build for more resistances just because there is that one niche group that does the thing. The playing smart thing is anathema in CoH since the game pushes so much to standing one's ground, gird one's loins, square one's feet, and then slug it out until one or other is killed. So when a situation calls for finesse, a bit of kitting, paying attention to mechanics, it meets unprepared players.

You are correct. I'll change my previous posts.

Yes.