Force Redux

Where's Personal Force Field? That's your I Win button when you come under fire. Agree you are overslotting your toggles and shields. FF does more buffs for your pets than you, however. Like many support sets, some IO set slotting goes a long way to making you tougher. If you're not interested in sticking with FF I'd recommend Time. However my Bots/FF was one of my tankiest characters. I can post a build is you like. IMO you go FF because you like status protection, PFF and easy bubbles/soft cap pets, and a low maintenance secondary.

Something to note. Bots/FF exemplars down very well. I'd you do any lower level content on a regular basis where you don't have access to your 40+ level powers/Incarnates, this is a good thing.

I'd go Mercs/Time/Mace as suggested by Redlynn. PB'd Farsighted is 21% defense. Add in maneuvers and pet IOs and you're at 35 Defense Melee/Ranged, 50 AoE. Then the -ToHit from Juncture, plus slows, and Mercs will feel pretty safe. Exactly how many of the +Res IOs you can squeeze in depends on how much you want to sacrifice your pet slotting further. I had a Mercs/Traps as my main villain back in the day. It was serviceable. I eventually went to Bots/FF. But this was before IOs. And Incarnate. And Time. Live the dream. Your Mercs can be solid.

I haven't forgotten this post. I loaded up your build, and overall, it looks solid. A few slot changes I might make (i.e., PPF should never have more than 1 slot IMO), but I realize this is personal pref. I also would tend to go Leadership over Fighting, but again, that's a preference style. The biggest change I might reccommend is for Mace Mastery to cap your S/L/E defense and thus freeing you up to take something else for your Destiny pool other than Barrier. Again, you have a solid build and this is liekly just a preference from my end. If you wanted to accomplish a tough blaster with plenty of knockdown, you accomplished it. I'll post some slot / IO suggestions later. Overall, however, looks great.

As an avid lover of Force Field, I'd love to review and offer some feedback. I have my own FF/Sonic Incarnated +3 Defender that I love. I feel you. I'll get a post up tomorrow if that's ok.

Welcome to Everlasting! You can find me on my chars. Global in my sig 🙂

Unfortunately, robots only cast forcefield and heals on each other, not other players. They will bubble (but not heal) the MM though.

We have quite a few on Everlasting. Many are affiliated with Chaos United. Multiple runs every day.

Thank you for this.

As a villain/rogue, I approve of this post, and found it useful. Thank you.

A great form of mitigation and crowd control

I also like to put an overwhelming Force knockdown proc in the zombies. It goes off frequently and they can really keep things knock down the rear ends

Definitely put a Clouded Senses damage proc in Lich (and Dark Fluffy if you go DM). It affects virtually all their powers and will up their damage.

In my experience, the Necro pets behave well. Zombies and Knights start at range, then move into melee. Lich stays at range. He'll often be behind you as you position near melee to heal and debuff (on my Dark). I've heard that the Knights can get range locked into Gloom or whatever, and needed a Go-to prompt, but I've never experienced it. Having played Bots, Necro, Mercs, and Thugs extensively, my opinion is that Necro pets are the best behaved and predictable of those sets.

Tossing my vote in for FF. Bubble every two mins, shoot at things with primary. Go even lazier: Robot FF Mastermind. Let the bots shoot for you. 😃😃😃

I'm always happy to see any defender. However, I'll admit I get a particular kick when I see Trick Arrow, FF, Sonic, and a Dark defenders. They all hold a special place in my heart. And I like the things they can do for a team. Plus I like underdog sets (FF, Sonic, TA).

I am still playing around with it, but currently SA knock-down proc and two recharge. The damage is icing on the cake. It's primarily awesome for control/mitigation. Large area too. I'll probably put some damage procs in it after some research.

I'll try to post a build I have for my own Earth/Time controller, Earthen Ancient. The character is only in his 30s, however and it's a leveling build, but I did come up with a first draft incarnate build that I could post. It's slot and power intensive. There's a lot of good powers to take and not much to skip. I feel very handy in teams, but solo it's slow. 😛 Good thing you want a team build. I'll try to get the data chunk up tomorrow.

I didn't take Web Envelope on my Thugs/Time/Mace. The slows and KD procs from the pets (SA in Bruiser and OF in T1s) seem to keep most things in arsonist's burn patch. For my Necro/Dark I went with Heat Mastery for Bonfire. It keeps things also in one place for easy destruction and is up all the time. Plus SA KD proc in zombies and OF KD in Lich plus native KU/KD in Knights assures the same soft controls as my Thugs. Things flopping all over the place. Doesn't help with AVs, but with everything else it's golden. For Necro, I really like Dark. It's active mitigation, because you have to use your Darkest Night, Fearsome State, Fluffy, etc to control and debuff for protection rather than buffing Defense through the roof. However it's exciting, active playstyle that's far more effective than it appears on paper. Someone else did the napkin math on another thread this week, and Necro/Dark is the only power combo that has enough-ToHit debuffs to floor even AVs when stacked. This effective combination made possible by Dark Fluffy and Lich. All that said, I think necro time is a very solid contender. Time offers a bit more mobility, some solid carry-around-with-you-buffs and some soft controls. If I didn't love my necro dark so much I probably would go with necro time.

Scorpion Shield incarnate caps you to Smashing, Lethal, and Energy (and are some toxic resists) which are the three most popular end game damage types. In most trials and many SFs you will be catching aggro and splash damage. E shield is a huge boost to personal survivability. If you solo or play an smaller teams with a dedicated tank, you probably don't need it. I went Heat Mastery on my Necro/Dark for Bonfire (which is awesome for damage mitigation), and I built for extra Ranged defense to add on to all the -To Hit he and the pets can stack. But I still miss Scorpion Shield's always-on protection, sometimes.

Hi Generator. Very welcome. I believe it's the T2 blast. It's a good enough mostly seamless attack chain for me, as I didn't want or need a fourth attack or Offensive Opportunity. As Teirusu mentions above, BFR was also unneeded based on recharge.

Thanks for this. I've almost finished up my Thugs/Time and really enjoyed the tankyness and damage. Not as versatile in it's toolset as my Necro/Dark, but a good all-rounder. Bruiser with Fury + Temporal Selection = Brute Lite (tm). Sometimes I'll toss it on the Arsonist if he's not particularly suicidal it is super buffed on a team and has extra longevity.

I really enjoy mine with my Dark/Ninjitsu, Smoke Dragon, pulp era hero.

My personal recommendation is SR or Ninjitsu. Both cap DeF easily, cheaply. SR for the best DDR and toggle Mez resists. Ninja for innate heal and stealth.

Someone asked me for a build, so I'm posting my WIP build. Ice Armor has a nice refreshing absorption shield toggle (Frigid Shield) that helps prevent a lot of damage over time, but it does need slotting to be at its best. Ice also offers good buffs to overall max health (Hoarfrost, Frost Protection). It also offers Icy Bastion, one of the best crashless T9s in the game, +40% resist and regen/recovery + mag protection. Use it vs those Psi and Fire mobs. Although I find Psi mobs are more annoying for debuffs than damage. Up for 30 seconds, I have it down to just over 2 min recharge. Not too bad. Speaking of debuffs, Ice Armor is immune to slows for recharge/speed debuffs. This build is a WIP, but I've got it to 48% S/L, 55% E/N and 25% Ranged with one target in Moisture Absorption. This build assumes Alpha Agility.