Frostweaver

Midrange attacks on BS are bigger than Katana, which means bigger crits in an attack chain, which slightly edges out Katana in spawn and boss clearing, in my experience. But both are solid. Both would work well if you aren't using shield, since only SD precludes katana. BS also makes a better proc machine because of the slightly slower base recharge, which, at high globals, doesn't make much difference (4 second recharge versus 4.5 second recharge in an attack chain is pretty much irrelevant) But in the end, the choice is more about concept than ten points of damage here and there. You will still clear a lot of +4 spawns inside the space of 1 buildup, and the animations might be more satisfying in one set than the other. Their playstyle is nearly identical. DB though...I agree with Croax. Combo damage isn't affected by a lot of stalker's damage boosters, and DB's animation times, while incredibly cool, often feel 'locked in' for minimal return... DB as a set works vastly better on a scrapper, where base damage and random crit chances make more of a difference for light, fast attacks with longish extra animations. With a stalker's hide, a long animation on a big hitter just means more time spent in hide, rather than a long chunk out of your attack chain. Not to mention Parry...Man, Parry makes an unbelievable amount of difference on a stalker that doesn't use a huge defense-based set. That's why even though Katana and SR work thematically, in practice katana/willpower is much more rugged. (which is an area I don't agree with Croax on) and BS-katana paired with, say, Bio, is a tough-as-nails killing machine.

Thanks, Man.... if I had thought of it, I would have tried to actively decrease innate recharge times on some of his overlappping attack chain in order to maximize procs and loosen the chain slightly, but in a lot of cases I didn't really have a choice in the very rare sets because it would have cost global recharge.... which would have done more harm than good. Sometimes it gets VERY hard to balance all factors in a build. I would REALLY like someone to give it another shot, bearing in mind proc/recharge factors, because I think that maximizing double or even triple buildup could dramatically increase the build's damage output per spawn. I also like the dark melee debuff in combination withe high defense numbers. From what I can see, this thing should be incredibly durable while losing a minimum of DPS. His original build was fairly balanced between -to-hit, defense, regen (and hit point bonuses) and resistance, which makes for an exceedingly tough toon. I just tried to enhance that balance slightly. Plus I have always loved the sideways-flying motion of levitate on vampire/psychic toons. It's really spooky and predatory, especially when it smacks against the speed caps. I have control issues with flying myself, but I love it when someone else is willing to make it work.

So, just to see if secondary is truly that important, I built a claws/fire brute on a double box account for farming, to see if claws was potentially capable of claiming the title of 'elite farmer' shared by rad and spines, especially since claws seems to run quickly WITHOUT hasten. I used the most popular rad/ and spines/ builds in order to keep things on an even keel, fully enhanced, as optimised as I could make them. In testing so far, his best time on rainbow was 5:05, WITH someone else in the mission to time it. Obviously someone else in the mission dramatically cuts down on your reds, and incarnate levels DO make a huge difference, so I disabled the incarnates. I did a total of 2 complete runs (10 missions) with each toon, not using reds. Rad/- best time, 4:54 with hasten, without incarnates, average time 5:15 spines/- Best time 5:01 with hasten, without incarnates, average time 5:25 Claws/- Best time 5:05 without hasten, without incarnates, average time 5:40 Now, obviously using follow-up instead of a second build-up seems to make a difference, as does Spin's higher aoe potential, minus the proc-monster auras that set both spines and rad apart. But it seems as though spin's dps actually fulfills the dps from both the auras and pbaoe's as well as the missing secondary effects of contamination and spine toxin. I am also wondering if the greater innate speed of claws attacks will hurt, or help, the incarnate proc effects. Has anyone else tried claws/fire as a farming build? Thoughts? Is there a better testing methodology? Also, follow-up occasionally seemed to get in the way of dps rather than helping it... Since global recharge doesn't lower proc chances and slotted recharge actively does, and the benefit of follow-up seems to drown in the sea of damage cap that is brute, would it be better to not include follow up in the attack chain, add in hasten, and then simply rely on firey embrace for occasional damage spikes and claws higher innate speed and base damage in spin, and ever-so-slightly inferior damage in eviscerate (versus ripper) to make up the difference, with global recharge keeping the base recharge up around 9 for 75% proc chances? or would the loss of Gaussian's chance for build-up in follow-up with only about a 40% chance to proc be too great a blow to dps? From my point of view, in conclusion, Claws definitely belongs in the list of top-tier fire farmers. Next Project, to see if TW/ can be made to fit that list as well.... I am curious if the speed of clearing a single spawn will make up for the slowing and inconvenience of having to build up and maintain momentum...without hasten. I would also like to see if hasten is truly that important compared to slotted recharge and recharge procs, as well as Agility instead of musculature. It would seem that agility would, in fact, affect proc rates negatively based on the method used to apply the bonus.

/rad? It has no burn. Testing has shown, again and again, that Burn is the ultimate weapon on brutes in farms. Unless you mean rad/ ?

don't forget to take the epic with shurikens.

I have zero idea what some still from some television show is supposed to mean

sure, multiple AT's can fill multiple roles. but my team is not the place for you to solo. If you want to solo, you are perfectly capable of resetting your difficulty to whatever team size you choose, I am not here to be your audience. By doing so, you deprive others in the team from playing the game who may not be capable of soloing the AV, but still want a shot at them, and to be useful. I was running an ITF the other day and the scrapper went right to the AV and took him out while the rest of the team was dealing with the generals. Yes, very badass. Two of the team members had never been on an ITF before. All they knew of it afterwards was the cutscenes. They lost out on the chance to PLAY and experience the content, and afterwards the scrapper was mugging it up in chat trying to elicit praise. If I hadn't been...distracted, I would probably have kicked him.

perhaps it was a fluke.

Heh, I was actually thinking of Kinetic combat myself, but replacing slot 5 dam/end with perhaps a +5 common. This would still boost AS damage by close to 8%, at the cost of a little bit of movement and perhaps half a point of end per attack. To be fair though, I don't like losing 6% s/l resistance. I might be costing myself some DPS by only getting hide 3/4s of the time, but...unless I am playing a defense-heavy set, that resistance could come in handy. I guess it's one of those things where you really have to choose as you build. My main stalker is a bs/bio, and that 6% means the difference between 79 and 85% s/l. quite a big deal when fighting incarnate content. But on my psi/sr, it's taking 36%-42%, which is utterly negligible... and 4 slotting kinetic combat, skipping the KD proc, and slotting in touch of death chance for negative not only cranks the damage a bit higher, it also adds a bit of a bite to psi-resistant enemies like gladiators... that would be barely touched by psi OR lethal but have virtually no defense to negative, which would proc constantly. Thanks for the ideas.

so you mean.... just slot acc/dam in AS and then a boatload of procs, and rely on the 200% global recharge most people build into their stalkers to keep AS up with the rest? Frankenslotting AS just feels kinda weird, but I will give it a shot.

I would like to make a special mention for Wolf spider Huntsman. a special build that takes bane spider armors and buildup, but relies on Soldier aoe and ranged attacks. They are not the mastermind/sentinel cross that crab spiders become, nor the semi-stalkers that are bane spiders. Instead, they play much more like... an assault rifle/radiation corrupter, only with slightly more damage, sentinel-level armor, and no heals. They are a very powerful build style and loads of fun to play.

regen has a lot of 'click to not die' powers... as long as you avoid *whif shiff whiff whiff whiff" shadow maul, during the animation of which you could get faceplanted, you should be great... DM's -to-hit helps to shore up regen's lackluster defense, and encourages slotting sets that can help with it's resistances. But there are definitely several powers you can skip from dark with regen. Almost makes me want to try one so I can see if the new fighting pool is actually decent with the synergy of all 3 attacks. It also makes for a decent thematic Vampire.

In my experience, if you shoot a 'slow moonbeam' the minute you kill your last enemy in one group, by the time it goes off you are back in hide... and it crits 100% of the time. Pretty decent way to move from one group to the next, imo. Especially if you have a teleport attack that lets you get in the next group's face as the moonbeam impacts. I don't think it gives you any focus, though.

Proc Rate is tied to base recharge, not upgraded recharge. so higher global/enhanced recharge=higher proc rate. That's why AS is such a beast for putting chance to hide. Because innately It has both a high recharge and a high activation time, but once slotted up it's both fast and instant cast in a fight. It procs constantly despite what the tooltip says. So much of the time whatever you hit right AFTER AS (usually your slow, 100% focus attack, followed up by two more slightly faster 75% focus attacks) gets a brutal crit and them BOOM! another AS crit and another hide. One of the reasons stalkers are so incredibly deadly is their constant critting with their biggest attacks right after an AS.

so it has a focus-like power? so do 3 other sets. Most of Claws power is in eviscerate (which kin doesn't have) and spin (which Kin has a crappy, slow, and slow-recharging version). Claws is an aoe set, suitable more for aoe clearing than for heavy single target, kin is a single-target heavy set, much slower, much more expensive in terms of endurance, completely different playstyle. Of course, if you Had actually played it to any level you would already know that. Your claws exp is utterly irrelevant for Kin. Kin is a decent set for stalkers but low-end on Brutes and scrappers, Claws really is low endurance. Claws is a top-notch set for brutes and scrappers, but very second rate for stalkers. In this case, you clearly stated that your opinion is based on playing a completely different set with more similarity to spines than it has to kin. I don't have a problem with the Torchlight server, it just seems that somehow all the wannabe Arcanavilles with utterly irrelevant opinions seem to play there. So, as someone that has (unfortunately) played a scrapper, a tanker, and a stalker up to 50 with kinetics, I can say with experience that Kin is great for taking out AV's and bosses, and crap for dealing with everything else. Which means it is fantastic on stalkers who don't mind long animations during which they are still hidden, Fairly decent on tankers who desperately need a really destructive attack for dealing with bosses, and very low end for anyone that needs to kill and switch targets frequently, or help clean up large spawns, like scrappers and brutes.

right. got it. But what about ESD?

Br/ta is already working out quite nicely, thanks. I went ahead and took flash arrow, but then avoided the 3 other arrow-shooting powers. it is NOT a 'lot of additional slots'. At 33, it seems to be working quite effectively allowing me to maximize LOTG mules. I am tempted to get ESD though, if only as an Unbreakable constraint or entomb mule... even though, so far, the 'extra controls' seem to be completely irrelevant on a team, if not actually counter-productive. Probably won't bother using it though, as the mag is sorta pathetic, even if you add a lockdown proc you are unlikely to get more than 10 seconds of minion-level hold on it against 54+ On the other hand, ESD arrow only does damage to mechanicals, right? considering the dearth of AOE options in BR, glue and ESD start to look more attractive, but if those damage numbers only apply to robotic enemies, I'd rather just go with glue.

What is it with Torchbearer know-it-alls? "I once played a blaster to level 50 so I know all there is to know abut sentinels" With the exception of a follow-up like buildup, and a medium-distance cone with kb, (which many sets have) KM plays very, very unlike claws... It is much slower, has a different level progression and different attack chains, as well as different secondary effects. It is much more single-target focused , and too slow for my taste. Not to mention the animations are straight out of capcom games. I would rate it maybe 4 of ten. It works well as secondary mitigation for pure defense sets, but most of it's virtues come from the fact that is it 'energy damage that doesn't suck as much as energy melee'. This being a matter of perspective, of course... Burst is better than whirling fists, but is still underpowered as a PBAOE for it's animation time. The set has no secondary cone, and while CS does amazing damage, it shares NRG's 'by the time it finishes animating your team has killed your target' with a hefty 3 second animation. While this makes it a first-rate set for stalkers and MAYBE Tankers, for brutes? definite 4/10.

health, res cap, damage There are exception, but not many

I kind of assumed that he didn't actually want to suck.

I whipped up a quick build, but looking at the resistance numbers I am not happy with SR. I am used to tankers being able to hard cap resistance AND soft cap defense....but it has a lot of extra HP, regen, and aid self... The endurance is pretty sweet. You should also regularly have a nice absorb to take the edge off, and you can aid self, However, it is VERY 'flash'. I would suggest autoing practiced brawler instead of hasten, since, as a tanker, your status defense is far more import than always having an overloaded attack chain. Everything is designed to simulate quickly running from bad guy to bad guy and whacking them with static-charged speed-force powered hits. It doesn't have taunt, but there's enough quickness, aoe, and ranged to make it a little superfluous. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.3 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Science Tanker Primary Power Set: Super Reflexes Secondary Power Set: Electrical Melee Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Teleportation Power Pool: Medicine Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Focused Fighting -- Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), Rct-ResDam%:50(3), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(3), Rct-Def/Rchg:50(5), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), Rct-Def:50(11) Level 1: Charged Brawl -- SprGntFis-Rchg/+Absorb:50(A), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(17), SprGntFis-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(19), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(19), SprGntFis-Dmg/Rchg:50(21), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg:50(21) Level 2: Focused Senses -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(11), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(34) Level 4: Havoc Punch -- SprMghoft-Rchg/Res%:50(A), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(25), SprMghoft-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(25), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(27), SprMghoft-Dmg/Rchg:50(27), SprMghoft-Acc/Dmg:50(29) Level 6: Agile -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(7), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(7), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(9), LucoftheG-EndRdx/Rchg:50(9) Level 8: Practiced Brawler -- EndRdx-I:50(A) Level 10: Dodge -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), Ksm-ToHit+:30(13), LucoftheG-Def:50(13), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(15), Ksm-Def/EndRdx:30(40) Level 12: Evasion -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(23), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(23) Level 14: Super Speed -- Clr-Stlth:50(A), Clr-RunSpd:50(15), Clr-EndRdx:50(17) Level 16: Thunder Strike -- Arm-Dam%:50(A), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx:50(29), Arm-Acc/Rchg:50(31), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(31), Arm-Dmg/Rchg:50(31) Level 18: Lucky -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(33), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(33) Level 20: Build Up -- GssSynFr--Build%:50(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg:50(33), GssSynFr--Rchg/EndRdx:50(34) Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 24: Recall Friend -- WntGif-ResSlow:50(A) Level 26: Quickness -- Run-I:50(A) Level 28: Chain Induction -- Hct-Dam%:50(A), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx:50(40), Hct-Acc/Rchg:50(43), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(43), Hct-Dmg/Rchg:50(46) Level 30: Injection -- TmpRdn-Acc/Slow:50(A), TmpRdn-Acc/EndRdx:50(36) Level 32: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc:50(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(34), ImpArm-ResPsi:40(37), ImpArm-ResDam:40(37), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx:40(37), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:40(40) Level 35: Aid Self -- Prv-Absorb%:50(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(36), Prv-Heal:50(36), Prv-Heal/EndRdx:50(50), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg:50(50), Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(50) Level 38: Lightning Rod -- SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg:50(39), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(39) Level 41: Mu Lightning -- Dcm-Build%:40(A), Dcm-Acc/Dmg:40(42), Dcm-Dmg/EndRdx:40(42), Dcm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:40(42), Dcm-Dmg/Rchg:40(43) Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Rgn-Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Rgn-Acc/Rchg:50(45), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(45), Rgn-Knock%:50(46) Level 47: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(48) Level 49: Field Medic -- RechRdx-I:50(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Gauntlet 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: Sprint -- Spr-Jump:50(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), Mrc-Rcvry+:40(46), Pnc-Heal/+End:30(48) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I:50(A), EndMod-I:50(48) Level 50: Barrier Radial Epiphany Level 50: Cardiac Radial Paragon Level 50: Ion Radial Final Judgement Level 50: Reactive Core Flawless Interface Level 50: Assault Core Embodiment ------------ This build would probably work well for Brutes and Scrappers also...it would require significant changes for stalkers, but would probably bend the soft cap over and violate it.

Conceptually, if you are more interested in 'feeling' like the flash, recolored super reflexes (for the speed blur) and recolored (yellow) electric melee kinda fit the bill. Throw in the electric epic for 'throwing bolts' and you zip into the middle of combat tossing all your enemies (lightning rod) chain induction is zipping over to enemies and smashing them before returning to your spot, and of course, you could always throw in flurry if you want to waste a little time between real attacks for theme reasons. Throw in some superspeed and an electric path aura and you are set. It's simply a shame that you cannot run up the sides of buildings like DCUO. Personally, I think the theme works a little better for a brute (as you speed up you get more powerful, probably /ea instead of SR) but for a tanker it should work quite well also.

I am not going to be as...blunt, as 3 was. I sorta see where you were going with the build, and I don't necessarily agree with some of his munchkin in the face of concept. First off, flight. Hover is WAY more cool and vampiric-looking. and you will be REALLy fast at hovering... almost as fast as flight, which will let you get ahead of the team and into place to lay the smackdown before the blasters and Tanker arrive to screw up your carefully-laid ambush. I replaced fly with assault, for a 10% damage buff... every stalker and every TEAM needs more damage, right? Your fierce deadliness and psychic powers inspire your allies to greater efforts in combat. Hasten is perma without incarnates. WITH your incarnates, you come darned close to double hasten. You are fast, really really fast. Like... adding aoe's to your regular attack chain fast. I have greatly boosted most of your resists at a small price in psionic and toxic, but psi and toxic are rare damage types that are almost always accompanied with s/l. Your defense has been over doubled, close to cap against all damage types except ranged.... and where a stalker plays, aoe and melee are vastly more common than ranged. The slight loss in resistance will be hugely compensated by how rarely you will get hit. KB resistance is now average for a melee class (8) and with hover, even if you are knocked, you will recover almost instantly. Between your debuffs and defense/resist, you will definitely be mopping up +4 spawns. Accuracy has been boosted across the board, so you can actually hit incarnate and +4 content. Not sure what you were doing with TK blow, but it's a big damage attack...it deserves big damage. Otherwise, I tried not to monkey with your basic powers, levels, or concept. The Agility Paragon will make your hovering even faster, as well as your recharges and end. you will have...lots of options in your attack chain. You seemed to want Nightfall just for the debuff/unlock, so now it will be a SERIOUS debuff. The reactive core paragon should help you enormously dealing with psi-resistant enemies...as well as normal ones. -res and fire dot seem to fit the master Vampire theme well. Void is a big evil cloud of darkness. very vampy, and it matches your armor and epic selections. Ageless is...well...ageless. You seemed very concerned about END, and you will never brownout again. also the banished pantheon secondary pet is immune and does nasty to baddies... I am sure others could improve this, but I wasn't sure how to do so without throwing away your playstyle or concept.

yeah, I remember long arguments you and I had about /ea. Well, you won, they buffed the crap out of it... and it lost all of it's challenge to play 😛

Very good points, thanks. Flash arrow also means I am more likely to use concealment as an LOTG mule than Maneuvers 😎 gotta be careful slotting it though... I am used to dumping procs in everything I can, and adding a chance to 'whatever' to flash arrow seems like it would sort of defeat the porpoise. Unless the entire purpose was using it as a proc mule.