Sovera

I have no idea why we have satellite emoji reactions but you get one.

I noticed how the clear time was within the rest. 30 seconds slower is perfectly palatable for an AT so sneered at as 'training wheels'. I don't know what pylon times you got with it but I had 3 minutes with Elec/Bio (though Elec lends itself to pylon fights by sapping it) though it would not clear a Trap nearly as fast as you got. Rad Armor does add a second nuke which is valuable, and yeah, more than the damage it is the target caps that make themselves noticed, but mostly with solo if we are to be honest. In a team the minions will disappear first leaving the rest within the target cap.

Someone was praising Axe/Ninja Scrapperinos so I took a look at it... and it's actually... pretty nice looking? Defence capped at level 32 (or 28 if Combat Jumping is swapped for Fly)... Ok, ok, not 28/32 because if leveling then stats are scaled down and some bonuses are not at full strength, but anything bordering 40% is already near invulnerable at those levels anyway, plus a heal, and endurance recovery, and no need for the Fighting pool. I did put an FF proc in Swoop which may be dubious since it's the heavy hitter and we want it to hit like a truck, but my reasoning is that Axe simply needs four attacks to have a gapless chain. The FF proc when it decides to trigger will make Chop not needed. Placing the FF in Swoop gives more time for the FF proc to make both Cleave and Swoop recharge faster instead of placing it in Gash (or Chop) that would give the FF proc less time to work its magic and whittle the recharge of the two heavy hitters. Keeping Chop slotted still allows it to be used for leveling, exemplaring, and when the FF proc does not activate. For single target then Cleave, Swoop, Gash, Chop-if-FF-proc-did-not-proc, repeat. For AoE Cleave, Pendulum, Axe Cyclone, repeat.. which is nice. I'm somewhat tempted in not taking Cleave though. Cleave hits like a massive truck, but 2.5 second animation and the very reason a 4th attack is needed. Swoop, Gash and Chop can loop perpetually. It does feel a bit sacrilegious though when we see the Mids numbers of 843-without-BU. My problem so far is that both Axe and Ninja need a lot of powers so everything from Hasten to travel powers gets pushed back to the 30s, but someone who decides to level with no travel powers (since Kiji-in Rin gives run speed and jump height which will work well with CJ and Sprint/Athletic Run) or Super Jump can make things work better. Five powers left and eight slots, so go wild:Scrapper (Battle Axe - Ninja).mbd

Pretty impressive and good to shut some people up when they poo poo on Sentinels.

And then we are roleplaying and someone starts humming a song, or singing it, and plants the youtube URL for the song in chat -_-

Welcome back, friendo. There is a lot to do and a lot of alts to try. Masterminds are a bit of a newbie trap in that they seem cool and easy and usually make for an easy leveling, but turn out to be a hassle mid way through. I suggest a Tanker and plod through the game at your pace as their damage was improved from the old CoH. My signature has a guide for a bit of everything a new or returning player might need

Stock up on Recovery Serums from the P2W vendor.. Unlike amplifier's multimillion costs Recovery Serums are so cheap you can pretty much decide to live 24/7 with them active. They cost something like 50k for 5 charges. So if you liked the Stone Armor build more you can still salvage it until incarnates where those can pick up the slack.

There are two problems with Axe. One is that the recharge times are awkward and you'll need to have four attacks to not have big gaps. One of those attacks can be subbed for a snipe, but since we need to take the T2 anyway it's what is usually used. So that means it wants more slots than the usual since not that many primaries call for four ST attacks and then have two AoEs on top of that. Then it's pretty hungry since the crunch Axe has must be paid. So either be prepared to suffer while leveling until incarnate-d, or handpick a secondary with a top notch secondary in terms of endurance tools. Where some people are mentioning Stone the truth is that Stone is ALSO endurance hungry. The extra slot for a Performance Shift proc and the added 0.30-ish endurance are in no way enough for Stone's needs less alone Axe's demands. There are still plenty of other choices. Rad is the most obvious one since it overflows in endurance, then there is Energy Aura, Ice Armor, maybe even Fire Armor. Bio is a contender but prepare to not do the usual minimal slotting of DNA Siphon (which runs afoul with the lack of slots mentioned from Axe's demands). But all of this depends on how much you care about the 44 and under game. If not at all then pick something and rely on Ageless/Cardiac at max level. While it is not the kind of talk appreciated in the Brute forums it may indeed be a good plan to go for a Tanker. Less slots will be needed to reach defensive goals thanks to both the ATO and the Tanker modifiers which leaves more for attacks. Plus the ATO and some creative slotting allows to not have Tough toggled on and still reach 90% which will help with the endurance drain.

You will (probably) have Barrier which will be giving a permanent 5% to defense and resists, so I would not aim for more than 40% defenses and 85% resists. The argument to keep frost is that the alternative is so mediocre: - Frost does 289 damage, recharges in 3.6 and takes 2.5 seconds to animate. - Greater Ice Sword does 373 damage, recharges in 3.8 seconds, and takes 2.5 seconds to animate. Frost's cone is so forgiving it is easy to align and hit more than one enemy and only in the most strict one target scenario does GiS come out ahead for 30% more damage. In either case the rotation is Freezing Touch, Ice Sword, Frost/GiS, Ice Sword, repeat. GiS does proc out better since it is an ST attack unlike Frost, so adding a second proc it goes to 407 making it 40% better than using Frost. For the sake of argument a second damage proc in Frost makes it reach 309, still a -24% damage compared to two damage proc GiS... as long as it is purely single target. A scenario with two targets makes Frost do 618 opposed to GiS. This only matters in a build that has to choose between one of the two. In a best timeline scenario the build has both. So now it starts to feel like the swap is worth it strictly comparing it against Frost though 407 is weak for a 2.5 second animation. Looking at Crippling Axe Kick for example, it does 391 damage but on an 1.84 animation and only one proc. With a second damage proc it goes to 412. Regardless GiS is what Ice Melee has so if you'd rather keep and use GiS then: View This Build In MRB

Not taking Frost is close to sacrilege. All cones aspire to to be as good as Frost is. You are also doing a disservice to Burn by not adding procs to it, even post procs-in-Burn nerf. Freezing Touch is your heavy hitter and you want it loaded with procs as well and just enough recharge that you can make a gapless chain with it up as often as possible. The weak point of Ice Melee is the ST damage. Greater Ice Sword is bad enough- and Frost is good enough - that Frost is my go to choice for ST filler. Pylon tests showed no difference between using it and using Greater Ice Sword so might as well skip one extra power pick and five slots. Anyway, here's an old thing I had. I tweaked it for the 'new' level changes. View This Build In MRB

Fixed it for you. First time's a freebie.

10%, but yes. 7.5% for Brutes.

No, it's just from the search engine Bing. One of the tabs is called Chat. Use creative mode.

What the heck, AI? Dual Blades? Our AI overlords still need work.

I was messing with Bing AI and used myself to check it's web searching (Chat GPT seems better but cannot search the web in the free section).

Damn s(t)on, you really went an extra mile with this. Well it's more data you can add to the list now. From what I remember the -res procs had no effect on Trapdoor (with the exception of Rad Melee who (used to) get a big boost from them thanks to IG) but I only ran it with Tankers. In my opinion that will be the last data point on whether there is a point in using the -res procs or not. Either there is a significant difference (30 seconds at least?) or -res procs end being solely for pylons. At some point the community ought to move on to the instanced pylons who spawn as level 54 objects and it would fix all of this.

No one actually writes like that. What you have found are people posting their builds via the program Mids: https://midsreborn.com/

I got the same actually. So lets do this instead: Controller (Fire Control - Darkness Affinity).mbd

Install the new mids. Make sure to uninstall whatever version you have now. It borks old builds when trying to export though and you might need to rebuild them for that.

I have talked myself into it. Bonfire has been pruned, the three slots have been spread around, Soul Drain has been slotted for endurance (even with everything toggled on it still has 2 EPS positive) since I have a source of heals. The last two powers are semi random. Assault since I have more endurance to play with and Rune of Protection is a free Break Free I guess. View This Build In MRB I also feel I should dismember something and take Cinders ustead. I could then alternate Flashfire and Cinders as openers for each fight even on fast teams leaving several seconds to set up Fire Cages/Bonfire in complete impunity while the pets are already working. Not sure what though. Howling Twilight maybe, since I took it to fight AVs but those are 5% of the gameplay... I may yet talk myself into it. Edit: Aaaaand I talked myself into it, again. Yes, Howlight Twilight can ressurect, and yes, it can stun, and yes, it does a lovely 500% regen debuff. But, we have P2W temp powers to ressurect, it only stuns minions, and while the 500% debuff is lovely we fight AVs 5% of the online time (I'm not even going to bring up Envenomed Daggers). Fade is no longer perma (well, once the FF procs start hitting) same as soul Drain (ditto), and Hasten is down to 9 seconds off (to me my FF procs!) but build's at 45% ranged defense without Fighting Pool, so, welp, sure. Still no fighting pool, still 45% ranged, but Fade's back on perma and Soul Drain only an FF proc away from. Hasten is at 7 seconds off. Alternating Flashfire for one pack of mobs and Cinders for the next is a lot doable than having a single of the powers available for every spawn since 25-ish seconds is a bit too long for regular groups. For soloing or in a duo it might not matter. It would be nice to have both online as early as possible but there is nothing I am really seeing that I could push back. Maybe Fly and then use a jetpack. But to be honest I'm actually sort of tempted at taking Flashfire away from level 18 since if we are at that level then we are either leveling and don't have the slotting to use the power often, or exemplared and same with a death of recharge bonuses and raw stats killed by the level we are at. It is at 22+ that we get more raw stats and more recharge bonuses coming online starting to allow the alternating gameplay. But on the other other hand having it earlier does allow to save from a bad situation by throwing it at a dicey situation. So maybe possibly this: View This Build In MRB

I'm very much not a Controller person since I would rather blast things than make them stagger, but, I'm playing with a friend new to the game and playing a support to help them is not a bad thing instead of just playing a damage dealer or tank which ends being a case of 'do all the work while friend follows'. The leveling journey was pretty interesting and my interest got piqued into at least slapping a build together using your concept. Keeping in mind I don't play Controllers this is what I have so far. View This Build In MRB I'm short on slots so I did not slot a couple of staples such as the 5% and 3% resistance uniques. I also have a couple free powers I don't really know what to do with. Soul Absorption lets me lean on proccing things out and even not worry about slotting endurance reduction in others and not be worried about my blue bar (which will help my friend as well) and the extra regen will help both friend and imps. Depending on endurance woes I may yet swap the slotting for 5 Synapse and one generic endurance IO for the simple reasoning I have two sources of healing (Twilight Grasp and Fluffy's Twilight Grasp) but no source of endurance. The imps seem to have 10% defenses from both pet uniques, then 14% from Fade, then 6% from Shadow Fall and finally 4% from Maneuvers giving them a total of 34%. The rest of their protection will have to come from a mix of Bonfire, holds, heals, -ToHit and Fluffy being his unwilling but helpful self. Nothing that will really make them survive on a normal +4x8 team but at that point its best to just let them be dead and keep throwing Tar Pits and Bonfires. Fire Cages is a power I loathe on principle and I've ranted enough about it, but when/if solo it has a place. I'm not sure whether to keep it six slotted for damage as is or six slot Overpowering Presence simply for the proc. Fire Cages procs terribly but it's an AoE tool which ensures it will spawn and the Energy Font is a little 4th Imp for all purposes. I remember it did horrible damage, such as 20 damage on grey mobs, plus it can be killed, so I'm not sure if there is a point to this. I have another dubious decision in not taking Hot Feet which at this point we might as well ask why am I playing Fire. Which is a valid question when Plant exists but Seeds of Confusion is broken and Bonfire less so. I just do not like Hot feet and how little damage it does, the cost it has, and how it wants me almost in melee. Though I would in theory be (almost) in melee range so the pets get Shadow Fall on them. Other than that Fade is perma, Soul Drain is just about perma, there is a nice three ST attack chain in theory without gaps, and despite not having Weave the build's at 42% ranged defense which I'm fine with considering -toHit. I also left Bonfire without the Sudden Acceleration since spamming Fire Cages seems like better control, but I do loathe using that skill when in a team... Decisions, decisions... It may be smarter to go the usual route of one recharge, then Sudden Acceleration and a Force Feedback proc. That would save three slots and despite the Force Feedback proc only activating once Bonfire will still be amply ready for the next group. With those three slots I could add the 3% and 5% resistance uniques and throw the last one somewhere. Incarnates seems like definitely leaning towards Intuition since it boosts... well.. pretty much everything, from damage to To-Hit debuffing to immobilizes and Holds even though I doubt I will be playing the character that far ahead.

It's about what I mentioned accounting for AT difference. Fiery Melee times are a 16%-ish difference with and without -res. Again, if the 16% showed up in all content it would be easier to accept the -res procs as uniform, but when building a tier list this matters. I had not tested with different ATs other than Tankers but my replicable 25% damage difference shrunk to about 16% VS pylon. That makes me think that if the shrinkage happens against +4 AVs (+3 with level shift) then my observed 4-5% damage boost using -res procs instead of damage procs may shrink to 2-3%. This with then the caveats of: if someone else is using the -res procs then no gains, and for general clearing of a map -res showed no impact (at least on my tests, but small data spread), and that on pylon tests some sets will loom ahead.

I may be missing something but the column under -res procs is blank which would suggest none were used. My suggestion would be to have these tests done without the -res procs. They unrealistically boost damage by as much as 25% on a pylon if using both procs which gives a really false idea of a set's 'power'. I would not be surprised if most of what made Fire Melee climb the rankings was as much the animation trimming as the Achilles' -res being slotted. Just seeing your comment on fishing for -res procs with Cross Punch shows how much the pylon tests influence use those IOs. Hitting a +3 AV reduces the damage boost to (not by, but to) 4-5%, and on regular gameplay (Trapdoor for example) the -res procs have shown to not make a difference if replaced by damage procs. But for the pylons it propels any and every set that can slot these against any other set that cannot. This wouldn't be so much of a pet peeve if the power of the -res procs was uniform but outside of pylons it's either small or gone to place so much import into them. Regardless, your testing, your data, and re-testing everything would be colossal considering the time you've already poured into this project. So and so. It is bad, but in this context the fact it cannot slot any -res procs automatically gives it a damage loss. Ston is also using Concentrated Strike which has been mathed out as bad when opposed to just using the first three attacks. But it won't do miracles since the set needs a good pass.

Hopefully you're not using -res procs for the pylon tests otherwise this horribly skews the sets between the have and have nots, while at the same time having little to no impact on regular gameplay.

Do you have a build laying around with necro/dark that you could share?