Snarky

/em holdtorch

Last night I joined a PUG tree spec (1st) for the badge and merits on my main. Good team and we rocked it. One thing at the end caught me by surprise. The team was explaining to a new player about the tree at the end. This is after we killed the vines. I got bored and charged the AV. It took them about a mi Ute to folllow me in. I was shocked at what was happening. Now my main is an I/o monster with all tier 4 incarnates but we were playing at 30 or 35. I was untouchable. Not shocking the AV was not even scratching my paint. What was shocking is I was soloing it effectively. Not fast. It the health on this thing was noticeably decreasing at a very predictable rate. Then the team jumped in and it popped down fast. I never thought it was possible to solo an AV for me especially exemplared. But evidently it is possible at least against some AVs

My project is doing good. Almost done with 5-9 content. I need to run 3 radios and a bank. Then double check all my contacts but I believe that is done. Will continue in the Hollows for the first part of 10-14 then I think Skyway has a to of unlocked contacts. Will be nice to have the 4 day weekend to work on this. If I can grind past 30 I am hoping it will pick up speed. We will see

I am needing a Dark/Unvul build. Two, actually this is the build I am soloing all Blueside with. I already have a trove of procs uniques globals along with a few other serious sets to throw on it. Plus the 50 I have using Hyperstrike’s build that can farm TF raid whatever with ease to earn. Funds are in practice unlimited the first build is what what I will be slapping on as I level. Stopping for a serious amount of missions errands and task forces at 4, 9, 13, etc all the way through the second is of course the incarnate build. I am curious the thinking of modern builders on this. I ran an expensive purpled out one of these on live with nearly as much global tech as a perma dom. It was the toughest thing I have seen before the aforementioned Hyperstrike SS/Invul incarnate build. It used the tier 9 Invul and with everything from major heals to end recovery to combat buffs cycling through super fast it could fight through its own crash. At least in heavy fighting versus AV and endless TF mobs at standard settings thank you for your thoughts on how to build as well as any builds posted. I looked everywhere in Brute but there was none of this build. I have some I can bend to fit but I am mostly curious of what a strong builder would chase as a build goal. There seem to be a couple possibilities. Maybe more recharge pre 50 and then more like SS/Invul incarnate?

First this thing does not fly. I use a rocket pack a lot lol. Second No. Third it hardly matters at this level of toughness sooooo yes? What i I am saying is this build is insanely tough. It goes through +4 ITF without ever clicking heal. Ever. It never burns Endurance down. Ever. It dies against Hami in LGTF and dies against Incarnate unavoidable area AoE that nothing survives. Anything else it ignores. No click no manage no nothing. I have run a lot of Willpower and a lot of Invulnerability. If invulnerability was like this on SOs pre 30 you would never get me to touch Willpower. No reason to. So if you really want Willpower it may not be quite as tough as this... but will it really matter? Only a builder like Hyperstrike could tell you. I think Invul will possibly be better at equal end/health survivability because the taunt aura is stronger which feeds Fury. Whatever you decide GL

Yeah I been looking at the Scrapper thread by Galaxy Brain. Good stuff. I plan to I/O and grab some AoE from ancillary or patron pools my main question revolves about Crits from Dark Melee and Kinetic Melee. Do they crit bosses? Because the power selection screen info does not indicate they do. Unless I missed it. Also the Scrapper crit appears to be melee attacks only? So none of the ranged attacks from Epic/Patron Will crit? Finally KM has a ranged attack. So that will not crit? Thank you. Prob will not go for KM on Scrapper after reading the thread. Oof that looks bad. But a DM/Invul Scrapper that is I/O’d? Could be a real possibility if it will outdamage the Brute version significantly

I play Brutes. I 50d and incarnated and I/o one Elec/Elec scrapper back on live. Was a beast. After a few weeks I imploded it for the enhancers i do not understand Scrappers. So when I go to roll one I tend to stop because of the questions I have. I do not like weapon sets. So I look at Dark Melee and Kinetic Melee. Both these sets say in the power description that they only crit versus minions and Lts. As opposed to Broadsword that states it crits versus everything. Soooo. That confuses me was thinking of a Dark Melee Willpower. It is a combo that is meh on a Brute but could run better on a Scrapper. But not without crits the other option is the Kinetic Melee Willpower but not sure if the Kinetic would be better on a Brute. Not a power set I have a lot of experience with any comments opinions appreciated thanks

I remember now about some of the toughest spots soloing everything. There is at least one mission Redside where you face Valkyrie as an EB. You drop her. She fezzes. With a 5 min tier 9 on. On a Brute I stand and tell her off color jokes until it drops. Not sure what a squishy could do

I am sort of interested in capping s/l and energy then getting the other damage resists as high as possible. Of course I will not ignore defense but move it into a lower priority in the build. Not sure what the math equation is 95% not getting hit is a nice number but huge Regen possible on a Willpower Brute takes the edge off most stuff when you have 90% resists and decent defenses i think my concern is that you cannot count on a Willpower’s defense staying softcapped in high end play. Rather than shoring up a known squishy armor of Defense why not build a rock hard wall of Resist and push the health/healing armor. Def > Res > Heal. But 90% Resist > Huge Heal #s > Def %??? Varies floored up again. ?

I spent way more than 500 mil. I am not great at AH buying. The Superior Avalnches are not cheap. I actually bought 3 of those using merits since it seemed cheaper. GL

Was going through some necro posts and found a nice discussion on slotting Willpower. Rather than bring that forward I decided to focus a post on my main question can you build a Willpower Brute that focuses on Resist instead of defense and come up with a viable late game incarnate build? we all know that Def > Res > Heal in building. The toughest builds tend to softcap Def and get high resists as much as they can, it seems however Willpower is that oddball. It does not have Defense Debuff resist at least not enough for late game. Also if you could cap it out like an Invul Brute you would sort of waste it’s great healing powers so why not build to Willpower’s Strength? Beyond random Defense and what comes with adding Fightings Weave (and the Global Def Uniques?) then do not chase the number. Chase S/L and Energy Resistance and anything that gets through heal from ASAP. This could mean High Health as a Secondary Build goal? just musing. Always loved Willpower. Just does not seem to serve it well to try to build it like Invul little brother wearing hand me downs. The set has way different playstyle

Was doing some kill all’s in Atlas I am level 4 and the mission has level 5 minions thankfully no bosses. Vahzilok groups of 3-5 and was challenging. I could not pull this off on a squishy. I know there are peeps who can but I drive heavy and somewhat clumsy

Redside has always been filled (choose any definition for the meaning of that) with solo players, hermits, iconoclasts, and sociopaths. Maybe a few dedicated henchmen with “Hench for Life” tattoos as well. Redside storylines feed the narrative of the lonely wolf that rides alone. There are teams for Strike Forces out of necessity for badges and merits, sometimes a steamroll team for the experience gravy train, generally organized by a squishy who earns better on a team. Then someone will see a good sized team and it picks up steam

I admire the thought. But Redside is so well written for a morally conflicted self serving power hungry megalomaniac. Every character I start there falls in line lol. GL

Yeah this ruined my first run at Blueside years ago on live. I had done Redside which was written after and does not have this issue. So Blue was not only much larger but way more confusing. By the time I sorted it out my mental energy for the project was gone. Now that is even more muddied with the rewrites but being aware of it and talking to everyone before you leave the level range accomplishes the task for myself I am still working on Atlas Park. Weeknights i only game a couple hours. I did buy a bunch of the good procs and uniques for the project. I have a few sets and partial sets laying around as well. I did four DFB for the badges and 4 powers as well. Will do DiB as well. When you spend this much time at low level every buff helps 😝

It’s not about guilt. It’s about completeness. “I been sandpapering this car all night and this one spot is starting to vex me.” - extra special bonus points if you know the quote.

I have a dark/Inv stalker set up I will give a go at Redside. Once I finish Blueside. Looks up mountain. In a while

For myself I have chosen a Brute for this task. I almost went Stalker. I would LOVE to do this on a Sentinel. My reasoning was pretty grounded in reality. I have only accomplished this Redside on Brutes. I have attempted this on Blueside and never finished. Tanks. Brutes. A random Scrapper I think. While this probably has more to do with the sheer amount of Blueside content I decided to go with an AT I really run a lot for powersets I chose Dark/Invul. My main is a SS/Invul and I have had a thing for Dark/Invul since I copied a really sharp build on live and was floored by how strong it was. Heavy recharge build, taking advantage of the synergy of Dark/Invul with buffs/heals/end replenishment all cycling fast. The build used Unstoppable and was so strong it survived the crash multiple times in one fight vs AV and waves of minions while team came back from the hospital. I will I’ll probably use Unstoppable in the build then respec out of it while I Incarnate. A favorite tactic of mine is to use Fly with a +stealth proc in it for semi stealthing missions. With a Invul Brute anything but a Malta Sapper is just saying hi to you as you fly by if they notice you. That’s my version of Stalker The nice thing about a Brute is the kill all’s. Sure 90% of content is get to the end and click a clique and smack three people down. Then you have a clean. For me Brutes clean better than anything. They will polish the floors lol. Thank you you all for your suggestions. I may try that Stalker on Redside where I have succeeded before. Or maybe that Sentinel...

I would recommend paragon wiki and investigating if these contacts give the exact same storylines as ones you have completed. That was extremely common in original CoH, especially in the lower levels. I believe some of that still is baked in even though it has been semi rewritten a couple times

One of the difficulties in soloing all content is that CoX had a habit of offering the exact same story arc through multiple contacts. This threw me off the first few attempts I made at Blueside where the problem is much worse than redside in consolidation and rewriting this problem has both been simplified (less of it happening now) and worsened (there was some minor documentation on paragon wiki but that does not cover all of the changes to the changes). I find that stopping experience at levels 4,9,14,19,24,29,34,39,44 and going through all contacts is my only happy place for OCD. Good luck

I soloed Redside back on live a few times That means every contact every mission (once for repeatable). I always did this on a Brute. I never managed it Blueside. The stories are not as well written. There is more content and the contacts spiderweb in a confusing manner. (To me). I got a few tries in the mid twenties and I think one in the 35 range. Hard to remember i plan on another run at it. Just to say I have done it. So. What AT? Brute is the go to. I love Brutes. The upcoming Tank changes make this a possibility. The changes do help soloing but they are really built for team play. Even more so with the changes. A scrapper is a possibility. After all 90% of the content I will be running is stealth thru a mission and kill 3 guys. The tanking I will need to do is minimal with an Elite Boss the nastiest thing I will face solo i play this classic style +0/x1 no AV and team for Task Forces at appropriate levels as I go. I tend toward Brutes because I love Super Strength and Dark Melee. DM runs better o. A Brute and seems awkward on a Scrapper. I am not a fan of the extra mechanic sets and do not like weapons because of the animations. Tends to bring me back to Brutes. Outlier. Could this be done on a Blaster or a Stalker. I am sure it could but could I do it? I Brute because after hitting the floor a couple times I just want to charge whatever and get it done lol any thoughts are appreciated. Huge project. The merits will finance a sweet build as I go

I found a build by Hyperstrike in the post by kaizensoze about Tanks Sentinels. It is for Dark/Invul but I will try and port it over to Ice/Invul. Dark was what I wanted but the non ranged nuke is in the NO column for me. Also the build does not have the KB to KD proc in umbral torrent which is the only way I run Dark. I do do not have any misconceptions that I can improve the build as I alter it but I might find some sets that fit ice powers that do t fit dark and accomplish my goals. Will look over the next couple days. Currently at 29. Doing Banks so that takes a little time. Got on a couple 50 AV teams last night but both bogged and so I got out my Brute and spent a few missions each time rocking the alphas. Good teams good times

Hey folks does anyone have a ice/Invul ranged defense build lying around I could look at? I would appreciate it my build will be taking stealth invisibility hover and mystic flight. I plan on this being a break character from my Brute so just being sly and easy. Plink plink cool cool

I think it is good the content cannot be easily soloed. It indicates a depth to the system. This was written for a good sized team and one toon, even blinged out and hauling pets with tricks up their sleeve should struggle and or fail. Of course there are the CoX players who not only build well but really understand the mechanics of each AV and can take a toon and do a can opener on stuff the rest of us think is impossible. Hats off. I am just glad there is an opportunity to use small teams to complete this content. Might bring back the Holy Trinity???

This is very good. With the community dealing with no corporate support and the bloom off the rose of tech reporting it is probable that contraction of population will continue. But that also means the 4 people I team with on a Synapse will know the entire run and a good chance they will be exemplared or I/o d. (I ran a Synapse 8 person on a PUG this weekend on my beast 50, just for merits when I saw it in broadcast). 1:36. Good team