Samyrmancer

OP here! I've read everyone's comments and I agree with all of them but one. I don't want to spend all of my time quoting everyone, especially since some things were said by multiple people, so please just know that if what I'm saying seems to agree with what you said, it's because I do. You have all answered my question. There is something, that is not solely in the numbers, that separates the ATs. @Hopeling says it most clearly: there is an AT multiplier that bumps some ATs at some roles. Each AT has ways to counter that multiplier and rise above it, but generally, just because you and a tanker have the same defense and dam resist does not mean you will be able to take damage like that tanker. This may sound obvious, I just wanted to confirm it. Which leads to the sole area where I do not agree. I think that there is a time when you should pick the AT that best matches your playstyle and play it. That time is with your first character. After that first character, by all means, have at it. The first person that played a blapper was playing a blaster "wrong" - only it wasn't wrong once he successfully did it. The person who tries to tank with a brute, or even a scrapper, is playing them correctly if they enjoy it. I played ranged for a long time. I wanted a character that was mostly controller but also threw out big damage numbers. I made a 50 fire/kin/mace controller. I had fun but wasn't throwing out big damage numbers. Nor was I using the majority of my controller powers and I distinctly did not want to play "up close" the way Kins need to. So I made the same character - same costume, name, everything, as a Dominator. Pretty big damage numbers, but I still used hardly any controller powers so Domination was wasted and I paid no attention to the pets beyond summoning them. So I rerolled - same name, same costume - a fire/fire/fire blaster. Finally, I got the controller I wanted. Cauterizing Aura, Hot Feet, Bonfire, stand in the bonfire and blast blast blast. When they get close, inferno, fire sword circle, blast blast blast. It has control, big numbers, PBAoE and blasts. My blaster is my perfect controller. I have a very effective stalker. BS/SD/Body. Big swings, good defense. I want to top him. My perfect melee character can deal tons of damage when another tank is present. He can run around stealthed to go anywhere. He can also step in and pinch tank if there are no tanks on, giving up the tank role when one is found. Oh - and she never dies. I don't think a tanker can become that. I'm pretty sure a brute can but I have now played 5-6 brutes and not liked any of them. Can a scrapper do it? I'm thinking yes. Can a stalker do it? I'm also thinking yes. So, which one do I want to spend the next two months trying to do it with? I am certain that I could make the character I want out of a brute. However, I don't think I will enjoy playing a brute the way a brute needs to be played to do it. I don't like rushing from fight to fight while watching the fury bar fall. It's too stressful. So, stalker or scrapper. Stalkers changed a lot in i24. Their max hit points went up and they crit even more now than they used to. People claim that stalkers and scrapper have exactly the same defense in that enhancements have the same values for both classes. I assume that is true? Stalker vs Scrapper damage. My stalker can crit pretty much on demand. Scrappers get the +50% crit proc that seems godly to me. Seems to be a wash. I loved your comments. You all had a great deal of information and I appreciate you sharing it. I'd love to hear you feelings on nb/invuln stalker vs katana/invuln scrapper. Keeping in mind that I want to do big damage, stealth wherever I want (scrappers can do it too) and pinch tank. I will take the character to purple sets, +5 enhancements and at least T3. It will take a long time, but it's what I enjoy doing. PS: I know TW is the bomb. I know it puts out the best damage. However, I've now tried to play it three times and it drives me nuts. It feels sooooo slow. I hear it gets better, but I don't want to be miserable the whole time I'm leveling. I also prefer the look of DB to Katana (I think axe/elemental sword looks awesome) but DB puts out much lower damage. Put together, I am going to avoid TW despite being too awesome but going to also give up DB because it's not awesome enough.

I have a few questions, if you don't mind, about the different melee ATs and as Scrappers seem the most research oriented, I thought I'd ask you. Please keep in mind that I don't mean to elevate any one AT above others - I'm generalizing based on "conventional wisdom." Please correct me if I am confused because I think I must be. Tanker Shrugs off huge damage Does very little damage Procs taunt with every hit People say they are almost too good at taking damage and it's overkill. Brutes Can be made very defensive Does huge damage IF you can keep their fury up Fury drains very quickly People say they do the most damage in the game with fury maxed but do low damage otherwise. They also make great tanks but don't have the taunt proc and so don't do it as well as tankers. Scrappers Can be made meh defensive Does huge damage because of 10% crit chance Damage is very consistent. People say they only do damage Stalkers Can be made meh defensive Does huge damage because of 10% crit chance AND +3% for each person in party Can crit almost on demand due to hide and Assassin's Strike's autocrit People don't play them often because they used to suck. So, here are my two questions: If all ATs cap defense at 45% and dam resist at 75%, why are the different ATs better/worse at tanking. Why do tanks do so much better than anyone else? Why do brutes do better than scrappers/stalkers if they both reach 45/75? Does going higher help? But then, can't they all go higher if they want? Is there an AT multiplier in there somewhere? If Stalkers get +3% crit chance per other person in the group and can crit almost on demand, why do scrappers run neck and neck in ST damage and pull ahead in AE damage? Again, is there an AT multiplier in there somewhere that I don't know about? I do a lot of planning with Pine's and neither question makes any sense to me. I'm not talking about power sets and primaries vs secondaries, I'm asking why the numbers you see don't seem to play out in the real world. Please help!

Have you seen this? I don't know how old it is, but it's pretty in-depth. My BS/SD is pretty beastly. I don't do a lot of incarnate content but I do some, and a lot of task forces. It's fun, first because my character is cool, but also because it's pretty effective. I one shot anything yellow or less and take huge chunks out of other stuff. When I came across the spreadsheets above, I started wondering if I could make something that would take even bigger bites and have better defenses. Shield charge is great and all, but you face dive quickly if you get carried away with it. Even so, however, one teleporting character is awfully similar to another and so I don't want to repeat it. So, I decided to make another melee to see if I could do better than Wraith. I started fooling with concepts and I have a few that I like. Some weapon types are out because I don't like the visuals. Power sets I don't consider are: Staff - I don't like the stabbing at your feet or the breakdancing on the ground moves. Bio Armor - I don't want to look like a half-melted beehive and you do...even with min effect turned on. Dark Armor - I would like to be able to see my costume without furballs getting in the way. Rad Armor - The first power makes you look like bees are flying all around you. See Bio above. Titan Weapon - I hear the damage is beastly and some of the moves are cool, but the weapons are too plain and the animations too slow. I know they get better, but still, I can't get past DFB without rerolling. So, I'm making another melee. Probably a stalker because my last one was so cool. I'd like do the highest dps possible but never dying has it's attraction too. I still feel inclined to go NB/Invuln but I am very concerned about your comment about it playing the same as BS. I don't want to repeat the same experience unless it's going to be so much better that I transfer over all of my sets and drop Wraith. Your post was awesome. Sorry about the length of mine. I am still extremely interested in your opinion so feel free to bounce back or show me your stalker. 😎 W R A I T H A R C H A N G E L

I have a T3 BS/SD stalker who is almost finished and I'm looking for my next character. I really like my wraith, but I'm looking at old data extolling the damage dual blades and katana/ninja blade and I thought I'd give one of them a try. Looking at the damage numbers ninja blade seems the clear winner and I've made two builds. I will take both to T3-T4 but only want to do one of them. NB/Invuln NB/Elec Both have hasten running, so add 70 to each recharge for 98.8 vs 133.8. Both have 5 attacks - a cone, assassin's blade, a knockup and a knockdown (plus the T1 swing enhanced for def debuff). Elec need to cycle in Divine Avalanche to get even those defense numbers, while Invuln can stay putting out damage. The recovery seems somewhat inconsequential to me. The difference in recharge seems significant. The difference in End Reduction seems huge. However, so is the difference in defense. What do you think? Last but not least: Is there any reason I would take DB over NB? I love the look of the character with DB but while the damage in comparable for ST, it's way subpar for AE.

In my experience tankers are so awesome defensively that they don't need to be min/maxed. Grats on your 50 tanker, they are absolute beasts.

I went and googled attuned enhancements and I think I understand them. They allow me to take them at their minimum level and will keep up with me until the maximum level. So, if I buy a 10-50 set, I get the enhancement bonus of 10 that levels up to 50 with me but the set bonuses at the lvl 50 range from the beginning. So I can buy sets early and level them up. I also looked up enhanced sets. Those are sets that can get +1 - +5 based on number of times I enhance them. They don't change the set bonuses but increase the enhancement bonus by 5% each time I enhance them. Regular sets can be enhanced but attuned ones cannot. So attuned sets are great until you get level 50, then replace them for new ones and enhance them. This is great! Not really because I'm interested in the attuned sets but I definitely am in the boosted sets. I have 5 level 50 characters, 2 of them at 50+2-3. When i get a cool concept for a character, I make the character, get my xp 2x badge (I keep them going until 50th level) and go to DFB until lvl 16. I come out and do TFs, MSRs and Radios until 25 when I buy IO enhancements w/ a 2M grant from a lvl 50. I then go back to TFs, MSRs and Radios in PI. I buy further enhancements at level until level 50 when I respec out of powers I don't want and begin to buy purple sets. I never buy an orange set that I will want a purple for, but get by with IOs until I can afford the purples. By the time my incarnates are T3ish, I have my purple sets. I get my incarnates to T4 and by then I always have a new concept I want to try and so go make it. I bring out my higher level chars for Hamidon or Trials and then go back to alts. My concern with BA/SD is not that it stinks at 40 as much as whether it will be bad at 50 with 400M influence in enhancements. I do not farm and while I spend money on purple sets, I am not so rich that 100M is easy to get. I have to state, for the record, that I make characters according to roleplaying concepts and not mechanics. 3 of my level 50s are fire/fire/fire based. I started with a fire/kin/mace controller but dropped it because that build is an up close build and I wanted a ranged character for my dulahan. So I remade her as a 50 Dom. This was better, but I thought a blaster would fit her even better still. She is now a 50+3 blaster, the others sit in storage and I have tons of fun with her. I then made my 50+2 BS/SD/Body stalker and loved that character the whole way. Now, I'm trying to make something that can tank that I can pull out of storage when a group can't find one. I'm therefore trying to get a brute with a cool concept, that does good damage, that can also tank, to 50. That's a lot to ask, but that's why COH is so fun. My current brutes are the 40 BA/SD anarchist Wabbit Wampage and a 20 DB/WP eco-terrorist sewer fairy. I am loving the DB much more than the BA, I must say. I really appreciate your information. I see that I need to boost all of the enhancements on my two 50+2-3 level characters! Woohoo! Something new to do with them while I earn money for my Brute!

I made a DB brute while waiting to decide what to do with my FA/SD one and I am loving it. I had initially gone DB/Rad but don't like the swirling flies from the first Rad defense power. So I switch to WB. Is WB comparable or should I go with something else like invuln? I am not really looking to make a tanker out of a brute but I would like to be able to tank, a little, if we need one some night and if I have a pocket full of purples. Nothing extravagant. Will WP do it?

I have also been disappointed with Spring Attack after getting used to Shield Charge. As I don't like SuperJump, I don't see myself ever taking it again. This is a shame as I love the idea.

Are all enhancements bought in the AH attuned? If not, how do you attune them? If you buy the formula, are they then not attuned? And attuned means they level with you, correct?

These are my characters. Dulahan Iblis - an ifrit/Efretti Bunny - an anarchist rabbit that took out Farmer Brown on Rabbit Stew Wednesday Wraith Yurei-onna - my chinese ghost/lich I get the most comments about Wraith but Iblis took the longest to make. I spent 3-4 hours on her costume.

I have a BS/SD/Body stalker that I love. I've got all of my purple sets and half my T4s with the others at T3. I hit for huge numbers sometimes critting for 800-1100 and can pretty much crit whenever I want. I one-shot anything yellow or lower to me and two shot oranges. I can run flat out with all of my toggles (7, I think) and never run out of end thanks to the body epic. I pretty much hover around the monster's heads and choppy choppy at will. The most gratifying AV to fight is probably Romulus who I take huge chunks out of with every swing. If I get agro, which I sometimes do, I am very hard to take down because of all of the toggles. It's a really fun character.

Okay, I'm going to take your advice. I'll take out one of the dam enh from each power and replace it with an end red. I'll report back what happens. I have been using generic IOs. I usually level to 50 with an xp buff set for double. I keep putting IOs in slots as I get them that are my level so I wind up with a bunch of 25s, some 30s, 40s, etc. I then get my sets at 50 and see how the character goes from there. I've heard of people getting sets earlier, but it seems a waste of money. Don't you then have to replace them at 50? While my characters definitely get maxed out before I'm done, they're usually just IOs until 50.

I really want to love staff because its the only place to get a naginata. Who on earth came up with those animations though? Guarded Spin is right on the edge but is at least survivable. Eye of the Storm looks like a break dancer with cerebral palsy. Innocuous Strikes looks like a spastic exterminator chasing cracks in the sidewalk. Put the whole set together and it makes Concentrated Strike from Kinetics look glowing by comparison. Rant off. PS: My apologies to spastic exterminators with cerebral palsy. You're good people. The comparison is kind of mean...but effective. You break dancers, on the other hand - no insult is too cruel for you - just suck it up.

I've gotten an axe/shield brute to 33rd level and am feeling rather underwhelmed despite really liking my concept: A rabbit revolutionary/anarchist who took over the farm when Farmer Brown instituted Rabbit Stew Wednesdays. I have combat jumping to get into battle as well as Shield Charge and Spring Attack. That part of the character is very fun and the axe is very colorful. I am having the following problems, however: 1) Endurance - I run out of endurance very quickly if I have defenses running. I've slotted each with 1 end red + 3 def (or dam res) buffs but still run out quickly. 2) Damage - The damage seems really low. I like the knockdown when it works, but that's not always. 3) Miss rate - OMG! It frequently seems like I can't hit a dead whale lying on the beach despite 1 acc + 3 dam. I'm about to add another acc or maybe an end red to each one. 4) Rage - I don't know if it's me or what, but I have a lot of trouble keeping that rage bar filled past 1/3rd. This is made even more difficult with the endurance problem. Put it all together and that's, well, everything! What can I do to salvage this concept? PS: Made 40 today. Put another acc into every offensive skill. Every offensive skill now has 25-40 lvl IO 2 acc + 3 dam. Did an ITF and died about 10 times, way more than anyone else. Still have trouble with missing targets. I don't know what the problem is but it's really frustrating. Almost to 50 and char just doesn't seem to work.

I hit 48 today and am about to respec for 50. I have a few questions if people have the time. 1. BS is able to take defense debuffs in most of our attacks. What do you think of putting Achille's Heel and + to hit buff procs in each of our attacks. Do the effects stack? 2. Do you think it is more important to put damage procs or make certain that all of ACC/DAM/END/REC are covered? I've been looking at attacks like Headsplitter. A sample enh setup might go: 1. DAM 2. DAM/END 3. DAM/ACC/END 4. DAM/ACC/END/REC 5. Achille's Heel Res Debuff 6. Analynze Weakness + To Hit Missing would be some of the END/REC enhancement and the proc of the set. In return, would be lowering their resistance and increasing our to hit with 1 out of every 3rd hit. Thoughts?

Thank you, this is very helpful. So, people are running stealth to make their hide even more invis-like. is that really an issue PvE or is it mostly for PvP? I sure could use the pool skill.

Yes, I looked for that and found it yesterday. I think I will like that a lot. I just really like the look/personality of my char. I want to keep playing it.

I am having a lot of fun with my 40th broadsword/shield stalker but I never seem to use Shield Charge so it doesn't feel like I do much with the secondary. The broadsword is fun, however. I have more fun simply because of my character concept. I've made a wraith and float around one- or two- shotting things in the back of the mobs. I frequently find myself chuckling at how bad that must have sucked for the monster.... to be one-shotted out of nowhere. I might roll the char with a different secondary. Its not that I feel that shield isn't good, I just don't seem to ever use any of my shield stuff. I just float around, gank things wherever I feel like it, and then wander off. Overall, it's very entertaining.

What do the various stealth abilities do for us? Hide makes us invisible (not just stealthed), use AS and autocrit? I've definitely gone places with hide that I could not have gone stealthed, so I think it is closer to invis. What about power pool Stealth? Invisibility? Stealth mvmt enhancements? What about something from another player, like smoke? Also, please, what are the limitations on what can autocrit? Can any of our attacks do it? What about ranged attacks? Or power pool attacks? Thanks in advance!

Thank you for your comments. I am inclined to go WP as I like set and forget for defense and running around spastic for offense. I am going to go into character builder and see what I come out with. I'll then decide if it looks more like a stalker or scrapper. Thank you so much!

I keep finding myself drawn to the redcap daggers and think two of them look really cool. However, I don't see many builds for them and would like some advice. Are dual blades effective? If lethal is the most frequently resisted power, is this going to really limit me? Are dual blades better on a stalker, scrapper or brute? Is there a particular secondary that lends itself to dual blades? Bio looks cool with its three modes and looks fine when set to minimal graphics. Dark would be awesome if Cloak of Fear had a wider radius. 8' is pretty much melee range and the mag 2 means it's not going to scare much. Super Reflexes seem to have a bunch of defense and I like that. Willpower is supposed to be good, but I don't know anything about it. Regeneration was supposed to be awesome, back in the day, but I always sucked at it. Which of the combo powers are must haves? Which ones are skippable? Do I need to take every single power? Please set me in the right direction. I'm not much of a melee player, but this one concept in my head will not go away. Thanks in advance.

What would you focus on? Do you have a sample build or can you give me an idea what to focus on?

Please help me with these two statements. 1) As a damage power using procs: Positron's Blast has a Chance of Damage (Energy). Ragnarok has a Chance of Knockdown. I'm not sure what you mean by using procs as a damage power. I went and looked this up and you're talking about non-unique enhancements like Glimpse of the Abyss: Chance of Damage (Psionics). Each enhancement is unique within a power, correct? So i can only have one of those in a power, but more than one across all of my powers? Fearsome Stare would be: [/list]Level 8: Fearsome Stare (A) Siphon Insight - ToHit Debuff (9) Siphon Insight - Accuracy/ToHit Debuff (11) Siphon Insight - ToHit Debuff/Endurance/Recharge (13) Siphon Insight - Chance for +ToHit (23) Glimpse of the Abyss - Chance of Damage(Psionic) (23) Cloud Senses - Chance for Negative Energy Damage Poisonous Ray would be: Level 44: Poisonous Ray [*] (A) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff [*] (45) Accuracy IO [*] (45) Damage Increase IO [*] (45) Endurance Reduction IO [*] (46) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative) [*] (46) Decimation - Chance of Build Up It has never occurred to me to slot powers like that before. I've always considered the "proc" part to be a small bonus, cool if it goes off but not something to hugely push for. I didn't realize they could add up to be good damage. 2) By the energy orb ATO, do you mean Superior Overpowering Presence: Recharge Time/Energy Font? Thanks!

Thanks! That's what I was looking for. I feel that the idea isn't really happening and just wanted someone else's opinion. 😎

Thanks for the comment. I will make your changes. Question is, do you think the build will make an effective character?