Psyonico

I can't tell you how much I love this thread. Don't see these ideas happening this year though.

I'll second Martial Combat, especially paired with Dual Pistols. That combo just looks *so* cool.

Scrappers are great for beginners. With the exception of /Regen most secondaries are fairly forgiving. Really any primary will do. Sentinels are not particularly strong, but they are also beginner friendly. /Regen on sentinels is actually a decent set.

The other possibility is that some melee AoE powers have been changed to ranged AoE powers (Fault for example) so the slots disappeared because you can't slot those IOs into those powers any more.

This is true, I know Stone Melee is pretty crunchy too, so maybe I'll just have to play that more.

My Inv/SS had rage at one point, but I hated the -dam and the -def so much that I ended up just not using it most of the time. Bio/SS does look better than Shield/SS on paper, but I suspect I'm just going to have to accept the fact that unless the rage crash is changed (which doesn't seem likely) I won't like SS.

So, I love the crunchy feel of SS, but I hate the Rage crash, so on my invul/SS I skipped rage. I like the way he feels, but his damage is really low (he's 50 and mostly T4'd.) So I'm thinking of trying SS again with maybe Shield, since AAO has the +damage portion. Anyone have experience with a rage-less Shield/SS? Does this combo work or am I going to have the same damage problems?

You get an additional rifle costume power thingy for it. So you can in fact have a green rifle

Here are my thoughts. Taunt doesn't need Accuracy unless you are PvPing, I'd drop those slots and move them to Precise Strike. You also might want to move the Disorient proc to precise Strike as well, it's a low chance, short duration, mag 2 stun, so it's not that powerful. I'll agree with Erratic about the two slots in Lightning Field, slot the rest of Armageddon instead. I'd move the Panacea and the Miracle into Health instead of Physical Perfection, that way if you exemp down you'll keep those bonuses Rather than a run speed in infiltration, slot a Blessing of the Zephyr Movement IO. This will increase both Run and Jump. You probably won't use Conserve Power much, move the 2nd slot from it into Power Sink and put an End Mod/End Redux IO in there. Power Sink is better for End Management than Conserve Power.

Except SOs are stronger until level 30 IOs.

Honestly, it's not a particularly common combo, but I've got one that is a beast. I-capped defense, and basically Perma-God mode between Rune, Unrelenting, and Melee core. Pre-aggro changes I did what I call the Linea test. This is a +4x8 ITF where you jump into a couple of spawns to cap aggro and see how long you survive. After about 15 minutes I got bored and quit, but it was enough time to see that the build worked. Your analysis on everyone else is quite thorough though, well thought out!

Maybe Bio/Spines or Bio/Rad? Spines has insane AoE potential and Rad is great with contamination. I don't know anything about how these would fare in Hard Mode though. I personally would avoid fire armor unless you're really into digging heavily into IOs. Fire is the weakest in terms of damage mitigation. Its strongest mitigation is that you kill things faster. Don't get me wrong, a dead enemy deals no damage, but in my opinion it is one of the harder armor sets to drive.

You can buy SOs starting at level 2. You may want to look at slotting your attacks with an accuracy first then an end redux. Typically I slot my attacks 1 accuracy, 1 end redux, then damage. For most toons that I've made this has been enough to handle my endurance problems until I get to higher levels when I start to run lots of toggles. That's the point in which I start slotting set bonuses.

Seeing as both are actually listed on City of Data, the code for them must actually be in the game. Meaning it might just be a matter of animations (which, unfortunately is the hardest part for the dev team). In any case, I support getting these into the game.

I'm assuming you're taking about stealth not stacking? If so, it wasn't a direct nerf to SS, it was a total revamp of the stealth mechanic. Seeing as Super Speed was literally the only stealth power that would stack with other stealth powers, it seems to me it was more brought in line with everything else.

Here's an interesting thought... Dark Armor/Rad Melee. Dark is an alright set, and Rad performs really well, but combined you're looking at an endurance nightmare.

Shield/Rad is a bit of a beast combo, but it's very endurance heavy. Mine didn't get endurance under control until incarnate level. Another option to think about is Savage Melee. It has a stacking +recharge/ +endurance reduction secondary effect that should help your endurance bar in check.

Ice and bio are probably the two best options, as they both get 2 taunt auras to begin with. I personally prefer spines over Rad melee. Spines has more AoE but I think Rad performs slightly better overall.

Are you talking about the uncanny valley?

I'd say let's see your build so we can poke holes in it. No use just going off of vague ideas.

that's strange, the option is there but the only weapon is arachnos claws. I could have sworn you had all the claw options available on your other costumes (Just like Soldiers get all the gun options)

I'll second that, dual pistols is one of if not my favorite set.

Ice is primarily a defense set, so your first priority should be to cap as much defense as possible. I've never thought about Regen, but now that your mention it, extra regeneration would be a good combo with hoarfrost.

A defender will have stronger buffs than a Corruptor. Corruptors also get scourge to help their already higher base damage. However, solo a defender gets a 30% damage bonus, which would probably make up for the damage modifier differences.

You're going to see a lot more incoming damage if you just focus on S/L. The other half of your question depends on a few factors. For example, a controller with an AoE immobilize would get more benefit out of ranged/AoE defense than melee defense.