Force Redux

The best defense works vs an attack. They do not stack. So if you have 25% ranged defense and 45% Energy defense, and are attacked by a ranged energy attack, your 45% Energy defense is what will be used. Frigid shield is amazing, really helps prevent death be a thousand cuts and reduces the blow of more damaging attacks. It's another layer in Ice's yummy protection. @ParaBruce I'll try to get my own build up later. Ty @Hyperstrike for posting your build!

The Absorption toggle makes this armor set shine at level 22. With Bastion, at T9, I'm sure it's even better. This on my new Ice/Ice. Some good layers: Defense Absorption Health boost Resists I could toss my build up if you like. Probably far from perfect as I'm used to positional Defense sets, but I'm working with capping S/L/E/N.

Throw a OF KD proc in the zombies too. It's hilarious good mitigation! Did that in my Necro/Dark, was great way to keep things from attacking. 🙂

No nerfing. Just boost the low performers.

IIRC EverQuest 2 summoners had a spell to store their pets fully buffer while either traveling or in areas pets were a liability. It's been years since I played my necromancer however...

That's a good build, Hyperstrike. To be honest, I've played a lot of MMs into their 50s/incarnate since starting HC (bots/cold, thugs/time, Necro/dark, demons/dark, beasts/time) and bots/FF remains my favorite.

Yes, minimal SFX please. 😃😃

Thugs/Time. Great damage, some soft controls, good buffs for your and the pets, some debuffs. Toss Temporal Selection on the Brute to make him even more awesome. That's my vote. Ninja/Time could work, but they are more fragile than Thugs.

Cold. Shields help your bots. Mist helps everyone. Get some resists out of it, too. Plus debuffs aplenty. Everyone can use extra Defense. Most ATs who spend millions on softcapping ranged or S/L don't have any DDR and so they can easily lose that defense. Extra defense is always appreciated, even if you are already soft-capped. So don't be leary of having more to offer. Only super reflex scrappers probalby don't care, everyone else should. Bots can heal themselves a bit, but I'd still pick up Aid Other. Don't get Repair it has too long of a recharge and usually overheals. Make sure to take Field Medic to make Aid Other not interruptible.

Has anyone got experience with spines lately that they want to share? I rolled a spines bio stalker and I'm up to about level 17. Curious if anyone's had some thoughts on their travels towards level 50.

Looks better in the Noir style over the original. Color it white and blue and it's a cloud.

I enjoy and appreciate running the MSRs you folks host. Ty!

Still posting for help on Nina Tool Mastery katana not displaying, not customizable. Help appreciated 🙂

I'll still learning to Stalk, so I won't offer advice, though I am also interested in this combo. Perhaps one of the stalker gurus will be able to opine?

Fantastic thank you

What folder would you drop these into? I'm on my phone, haven't opened the zip yet.

Attuned. Never boost anything that gives a set bonus. But do boost generic IOs, such as two recharge reductions in Hasten.

Enjoying my Gravity/Dark. Good damage, decent controls, strong pets, plenty of debuffs, robust heal, Rez, stealth, capped defense, it's very versatile. Only thing I want is Clarion. Only thing I miss is Confuse. 🙂

Overall, pacth looks good. Hopefully some of the /Devices changes will float over to /Traps or Traps/.

There are some Illusion gurus on this form who probably know better than I, but here are my thoughts: 1. Illusion wants recharge. To get Phantom Army up as often as possible. Time and Radiation both offer +recharge bonuses to help with that. 2. Pain, like all the other /secondaries does not offer a boost to recharge. That's okay, it just means it will be a bit more expensive with IO sets to get there. 3. The other consideration for secondaries, is that you can't buff Phantom Army, so you have to debuff enemies (Defense and Resistance is best). Pain offers that, but it does come rather later on. Again, not a problem, since you won't be lower level forever, and leveling goes quickly on HC. But it isn't front-loaded like, say, Radiation. Keeing those things in mind, you'll see most Illusion builds are /Time or /Radiation with some love for /Dark and /Traps, among others. Personally, I don't think /Pain is a bad choice, so long as you know what you'll get out of it. It is team friendly, particuarly when you get your Global Recharge up and have your buffs/debuffs coming up more frequently. As an aside, my favorite Illusion Controller was my old Illusion/Trick Arrow back on Live before sunset - loads of control and debuffs. Illusion is a great set, focused around your Phantom Army and Spectral Terror/Confuse. It can pair with nearly anything and do well, its just a matter of whether your primary will make it a bit easier to get recharge and reduce time to kill with debuffs. Pain is probably middle of the pack and will be a helpful support toon. My number one rule is 'does it meet my concept' and 'am I having fun?' (which is a post-32nd level question for Controllers, after they get their pet).

Just from my own experience and based on my opinion. Does not include all permutations, only included what I've played through myself enough to offer a ranking. I've colored my favorites in GOLD. Which shows that despite 'tier ratings' things can be fun without being most 'optimal'. Which is a great thing to learn about CoX. Fun and concept are king. TOP TIER - excels in almost all areas, performs well from early on all the way to end game, solo or in groups. Generally, you will want for nothing (other than stealth). Robots/Time - the self-heals and self-DEF buff place it over Robots/Cold. Has everything you could want except stealth and resists. Thugs/Time - a bit less Defense for the mastermind, but far more for the pets, plus variation in pets (melee bruiser, ranged Lts, suicidal Arsonist). Robots are a bit tougher innately than the Thugs, though. GOOD TIER - meets or exceeds expectations on damage and pet survivability as well as utility for grouping. Many synergies. Checks most of the boxes I have (MM surivability, stealth, heals, defense, resists, pet damage, debuffs, AoE vs ST, group utility) Robots/Cold - rates just under combo with Time because of no innate self-heal and less Defense buffing for the MM, but solid, with great debuffs and buffs. Has stealth. Thugs/Dark - old school classic combo. Like anything /Dark, however the lack of buffs means you have to have situational awareness to debuff enemies and keep your pets protected. Thugs/Thermal - with Enforcer's defense auras, plus IOs and Thermal's resists and heals, it is comparable to Demons / Thermal in survivability, and I find the theme is easy to pair up. Necro/Dark - less damage than Thugs (unless you proc out Lich and Grave Knights), but more consistent controls and debuffs mean the pets do half your job for you. Demons/Thermal - the only set I think can get away with a resist build due to the native high resists in Demons and Thermal's buffs and heals. I had to put in all 6 procs to buff resists and Defense to really shore them up, as they work really well with that extra Defense (otherwise without IOs, i might drop them down a tier). Ninja/Time - Time tends (in my book) to be top-tier, but Ninjas contribute less to their own surivability than any other set, so while its still a solid performer, it doesn't quite rate Top Tier in my book. DECENT TIER - meets most expectations, may be lacking in some areas, or just not be that challenging to play. Can complete all content adequately. No true glaring deficits. Robots/Force Field - the old standby, a classic, and my first Incarnate MM. Its the set I compare everything else to, and I believe its the best entry-level MM build for those new to the AT. Does what it says on the tin - keeps you and the pets alive and lets them deal damage and kil skuls. I still love it, but FF can be a bit one-dimensional and you'd better take a few Pulse Rifle attacks to occupy your time, because you won't need to do much more than Aid Other and rebubble with your very passive secondary. It actually performs as a GOOD TIER set, but I rated it down at Decent because its very safe and hands-off..too much so if you want to keep active. However, if you are distracted often IRL, or multi-task, this is a GOOD TIER combo for that play style, as it runs itself. Ninja/Force Field - survivable ninjas! More ST focused than Bots, and has the same quirks. Fun, easy. Does the job. If I had a Ninja/Cold I suspect that would be similar, possibly even better). FF does offer status protection to MM and pets, which helps keep everyone alive. Can't Aid Other if you are held or slept. POOR TIER - generally found to do a poor job of keeping the MM or pets alive to do their job - deal damage. While it is still servicable (hey, its a MM), I found that it underperforms in comparison - as with all things, however, I do not expect this rating to apply to everyone else's opinions. Anything/Trick Arrow - I love TA on my Illusion Controller. But here it offers very little to keep your pets alive, although the debuffs are nice, they are in need of a revamp compared to newer sets, both in what they do and how well they do it (radius, debuff amount, splash, recharge, whatever). TA I find has me resummoning pets more often than any other set. Ninja/Anything else not Time/FF/Cold - Ninjas really need help. Heal sets cannot keep them on their feet (ie, Empathy/Rad); resist sets can't keep them from not taking enough damage routinely (thermal). Defense Sets work best with them, otherwise they suffer greatly.

I approve of this suggestion. So do my pets! 🙂

I'm going to link a thread where I asked for help, some of the feedback may be helpful there, too. This is for a Bots/Cold build I was leveling up:

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, but what format should I be exporting to in order to post on these forums? The old default format on Pine's created errors when posted here.... Thank you.

I had an Incarnated Bots/FF back on live. I will post a build for you in a bit.