SemanticAntics

Is there a slash command or something that can prioritize targets affected by Contaminate? My eyes aren't what they used to be and picking out a contaminated foe amongst a crowd is pretty hit and miss by hand, leading to a lot of wasted opportunities for Radiation Siphon's heal. If not, are there any tricks that help with singling out contaminated targets? Thanks in advance.

So many excellent suggestions! I think I'm going to try out /Staff and /Martial Arts for ten or twenty levels and see which of the two I like better. /Radiation is one of my favorite melee sets, so I might try to squeak in one of those later, but I have an SR/Rad Tanker that is pretty sturdy. It sailed through the LRSF solo until the last mission, when I couldn't outpace the Heroes' regeneration. That was before the recent tanker changes, so that might be easier now. I haven't tried again due to lack of time lately.

Question in the title. I'm planning to make a new Tanker and I have a concept for Dark Armor, but the secondary is wide open. What combinations do you like, and why?

I explored the function of Burn a long time ago and found that the Flames component did not actually use any slotted accuracy. I was thinking this had been fixed some time after I pointed it out, though. Maybe the changes were rolled back. Flames inherits to-hit buffs (and I think accuracy buffs--it's been a while and I don't remember everything), so powers or effects that buff that (focused accuracy, insight, etc.) will make Flames hit more reliably while the effect lasts (only briefly, on toggle powers). Another thing Burn does is create not one Flames patch, but one for each enemy hit with the Burn primary attack. This is why you'll see so many to-hit rolls in the log and why there are so many damage numbers each time it ticks. As written, Burn should create one patch which burns up to five targets within for 13 ticks of damage. In practice, it creates up to five patches, each of which does 13 ticks of damage to up to five targets. I believe this was the cause of the "knockdown procs throw enemies out of burn patches" bug that was around for a while (that did get fixed, right?), as each patch would have a chance of proccing the knockdown effect and knockdown effects that happen close together stack.

Thanks for the input. I'm certainly leaning toward Bio/Spines now. After a quick search, I note that many of the builds I've seen skip Spine Burst. Is there a particular reason for that? Does it not translate well to a Tanker? Is it just because it's slow?

I have never tried Bio Armor before and I'm looking for a good secondary to go with it. I have a concept that lends itself to physical attacks (as opposed to elemental/energy/psychic) so I'm trying to decide between the following: Any of the weapon sets (except Dual Blades) Martial Arts (I'm disinclined to pick this set, personally) Savage Melee Spines (this is a pretty good fit for my concept) Stone Melee (this is a little bit of a stretch but, colored appropriately, can fit my concept) Street Justice I'd prefer average-or-better damage. With the coming changes, I'd prefer something with some good AoE powers. I would appreciate any recommendations and the reasons behind them.

You're going to want some accuracy in consume. It has to hit to work. Edit: Burn, too. Burn is about to be fixed so that it properly uses accuracy, but even now it is significantly better with accuracy slotted.

I'd recommend increasing the DoT portion's damage to compensate for the loss. Perhaps either by increasing the ticks' base value or by increasing the number of ticks. I'm not sure if either is a better solution. Me, personally? I'd change the target cap on both the initial pulse and DoT portion to 10. Increase the endurance cost to about 14. The damage values are fine for a PBAoE attack, but it's cheap and small at 5 targets. Also, maybe this is already on the radar, but the initial damage pulse doesn't seem to even try to hit more than four targets. I'd guess the player is taking up a target slot.

I am terrible at builds. How can this be improved? My goals were at least 46.5% defense to S/L/F/C/E, a healthy amount of S/L resists, and perma-hasten. I'm not sure how to gauge how effective the Force Feedback proc is for global recharge, but I think it will be enough to close the current gap. I have no idea what to pick for the last three powers, and I was out of slots anyway, so I just left them empty for now. I'm leaning toward Soul Mastery as it's the closest to the character concept. Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.2 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Psi/Energy Test: Level 50 Magic Brute Primary Power Set: Psionic Melee Secondary Power Set: Energy Aura Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Speed Villain Profile: Level 1: Psi Blade -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(11), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(11), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Acc-I(34) Level 1: Kinetic Shield -- Rct-Def(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx(3), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg(3), Rct-Def/Rchg(13), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Rct-ResDam%(34) Level 2: Telekinetic Blow -- BrtFur-Acc/Dmg(A), BrtFur-Dmg/Rchg(7), BrtFur-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), BrtFur-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), BrtFur-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50) Level 4: Power Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(5), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(5), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg(15), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(27) Level 6: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(19), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(19) Level 8: Psi Blade Sweep -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(9), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(9), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45) Level 10: Entropic Aura -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 12: Kick -- Acc-I(A) Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A) Level 16: Tough -- TtnCtn-ResDam(A), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(17), TtnCtn-ResDam/Rchg(17), TtnCtn-EndRdx(23) Level 18: Boggle -- MlsIll-Acc/Rchg(A), MlsIll-EndRdx/Conf(31), MlsIll-Acc/EndRdx(33), MlsIll-Conf/Rng(33), MlsIll-Acc/Conf/Rchg(33) Level 20: Energy Cloak -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(21), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(21), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg(25), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42) Level 22: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(23), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(25), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg(27), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43) Level 24: Dampening Field -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), TtnCtn-ResDam(40), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx(40), TtnCtn-ResDam/Rchg(40), TtnCtn-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(42) Level 26: Greater Psi Blade -- Hct-Dmg(A), Hct-Dmg/Rchg(48), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Hct-Acc/Rchg(50), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx(50) Level 28: Energy Protection -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A) Level 30: Energy Drain -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(31), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(31), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg(43), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43) Level 32: Mass Levitate -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(37), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(37), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), FrcFdb-Rechg%(39) Level 35: Energize -- DctWnd-Rchg(A), DctWnd-Heal/EndRdx(36), DctWnd-Heal(36), DctWnd-Heal/Rchg(36), DctWnd-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(37) Level 38: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45) Level 41: Taunt -- MckBrt-Taunt(A), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg(45), MckBrt-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(46), MckBrt-Acc/Rchg(46), MckBrt-Taunt/Rng(46), MckBrt-Rchg(48) Level 44: [Empty] Level 47: [Empty] Level 49: [Empty] Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Fury Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), PrfShf-EndMod(15), PrfShf-End%(29) ------------

Hi folks. I have a concept for a Psi Melee / Energy Aura Brute that I'd like to try, but I don't have any experience with either set. I'm looking for some tips on what powers are most useful and which are skippable. Also, what should I try to build for once I start using IOs? Typed defense seems like the obvious first step. Recharge next? I'm not very good at builds. I realize that this won't be very good at farming, but I'd like to be able to solo most other content at higher difficulty levels, though not necessarily +4/x8. I didn't see any builds for this combo by searching, but if someone has a build they'd like to share, I would appreciate it.

The latest patch notes address Burn's multiple-patch issue. It's performing much more like it was intended. Sadly, finally getting fixed means it does significantly less damage than before. The DoT portion does only 20% of its previous damage, fully saturated. Its damage output no longer varies based on targets hit, though, so there's that. It was a necessary loss, but not a fun one. The up-front damage is still capping at 4 enemies, though. Now that there's only ever one burn patch per power activation, that up-front damage is much more important.

That's it! That's exactly what it's doing. After some testing, I was able to confirm this behavior. I couldn't find the post you mention, but thanks for pointing the behavior out. Summary of my results: - Burn summons one burn patch (called "Flames" in the combat log) on the caster for each target in range, up to five (including the caster), depending on a successful hit-check of the front-loaded pulse. I was never able to get that pulse to target five foes, even when five were in range. I think (as you said) that means the caster is target 1, leaving only the four remaining targets. - Each burn patch targets up to five targets as expected. - This results in a maximum expected number of ticks equal to 13 x (foes in range [up to four] +1) x (foes in range [up to five]). In short, against two foes Burn summoned three burn patches which each attempted to hit both foes 13 times, for a total of 78 ticks. Against five foes, it summoned five patches (but didn't try to hit foe #5 with the initial damage) that each tried to hit the five foes 13 times, for a total of 325 ticks. Once, against two foes, the initial pulse missed both foes and it only attempted 13 ticks, total. So the pseudopet is working properly (save for the accuracy issue that is going to be fixed), it's just being summoned too many times. I can't believe I didn't notice this before. I think it's because I was focused on the accuracy issue and was doing most of my testing on a single enemy to eliminate other factors. Going over those logs now, I see that it was summoning two burn patches for 26 total ticks. I think the initial pulse is tied to the on-caster effect (immob protection). If it can be separated, the initial pulse should begin targeting five foes properly. Once separated, the burn patch can be tied to the on-caster part instead of the on-target part so that it only summons one patch per activation. This would need to be tested in conjunction with the Mastermind Assault Bot power Incendiary Missiles, for which summoning a burn patch for each affected target is the intended behavior. Since both Burn and Incendiary Missiles summon the same pseudopet, care would need to be taken not to stealth nerf Incendiary Missiles while fixing Burn.

I see in the patch notes that a fix for Burn's accuracy problem is coming down the pipe. This is great. I don't see any mention of the other problem with Burn that I recently noticed: The DoT ticks hit twice. According to the in-game detailed info on Burn, it should be doing 13 DoT ticks. According to the combat log, it is attempting 26. Each tick seems to have its own hit roll, so maybe this is using an older tick count (from before the i18 change, perhaps?) by mistake. I think this is at least partly why the Avalanche (and Overwhelming Force?) proc is doing knockback instead of knockdown when slotted into Burn.

I sometimes use the buff pet to trigger a mob's alpha strike. Just summon it in the middle of the pack just before jumping in. Better it than me!

If I recall correctly, this was a known inaccuracy with the text, rather than the function. I believe it's working as intended, but not as described.