Frostweaver

Anyone that tells you you are gimping your build without hasten hasn't been paying attention since like...I8. No, you don't need to plan your build around 6 slotting recharge SO's, and you don't need to plan it around perma-hasten. Sentinels, especially, since they use both slot1 and slot2 attacks for versatility, almost never have a gap in their attack chain post 30. Controller, defenders, and corrupter MIGHT decide to go perma-hasten in order to spam something like fulcrum shift, but with modern parties and IO slotting and diminishing returns, not even Perma-FS is the deific power it used to be. This not WoW. you do not need an ultimate build to tackle even the hardest content.

I know why the original team diodn't do it, though... Early SJW's where whinging about 'carnies' and slave girls.

Right. well. I have played around with it a bit and it doesn't seem to cause any EXTRA aggro on top of the massive amounts you ttend to draw as a blaster... and it doesn't overcome Chilling Embrace's innate taunt, so that's good enough for me.

It's like your entire experience is a John Woo Flick. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way.

My Taunt button is chilling embrace

I will second water/ice. Probably the most survivable blaster build of all IN COMBAT (No, /ninja stealthing isn't really survivability) while still retaining a reasonable DPS for 'death mitigation'. Of course, it pays a price for that survivability in not being top tier dps, but if you solo, team, or farm, it adds survivability for both you and your team....something most blaster sets simply aren't designed to do.

Ice, hands down. Flat out. Water/Ice is basically a brutal sort of blastroller and the sets (and damage types) complement as well as reinforce each other. Enjoy the bounce.

It is decent if you are paired with a Primary that has little to no mitigation, when you are soloing elite bosses (Try the praetorian arc) It can be invaluable. However, if you are playing a set that HAS mitigation, especially Ice, you will get no more from it than you would just hitting it with a couple of light attacks. Minus the damage. Very situational. My Water/ice blaster has no use for it. my AR/ice blaster could not solo bosses without it. UTTERLY skippable on ice/ice though.

Is that Taunt for real?

Some you can, most you can't. If the guy attacks with you, often he will follow you with stealth. If it's an unarmed civilian, they will stand there and cry about being lost. And I know the mission you are talking about, where you rescue the PPD sergeant and 3 officers.

I am trying to create a 'forestfire' build for levelling, both solo and in teams. Any advice on what to take/avoid to ease the transition and to work through those coveted Merit Chains? Also low-level IO's are an option, but low-level full sets are kind of a waste of money.

I'd like to add that chilling embrace is such a powerful herding and mitigation tool that even /ice BLASTERS often fill the tanking role, quite successfully, when a real tank is not available.

So stuck on numbers.... Ice is not stone. You are not prevented from moving or jumping. You do not set your feet in one place and wait for everything to hit you. The -rech affects not only you, but the stuff that is attacking the blaster who just overburned is also slowed to a crawl. Also, CE is not only -32% recharge (That's like having free 32% resist for anything that's within ten feet or that you passed in the last 15 seconds) but it also provides -12% DAMAGE as well, and that affects even those creatures that are slow resistant. So, with careful position and line of sight breaks (and calculating correctly, rain man) that's almost 50% resistance to EVERYTHING... simply due to doing your job right instead of standing in the middle of the room like a lump of dirt (No offense again, Stone) and begging stuff to pound on you. And I have yet to meet a GM that could do 1000+ DPS. That thousand DPS that the rest take? By the time it gets to US, it's down to easily within the 3-400 DPS we can handle. The best part? Your team has spent the entire time the baddies are slowly running towards your LOS break turning them into seasoned hamburger, still firmly stuck to you but now firmly debuffed, pushing up daisies, or with slivers of health easily within your abilities to tear apart. So perhaps we should put down 'positioning' as a viable mitigation form with /ice... one that stone does not have access to even though it shares a similar power in mud pools. I have tanked everything live that any other Tanker has during live, and one thing that is utterly consistent is that at any one time half to three quarters of the baddies are trying to reposition themselves to melee with me. This DRAMATICALLY reduces incoming DPS, even when tanking a boss, AV, or GM. Autistic number crunching doesn't reveal everything. Perhaps you should TRY an ice tanker in these situations (remember to move around a bit.... don't worry, everything will still be aggroed on you even if it isn't in instant melee range). In a very real way, Ice is more of a Tanktroller, and thus is extraordinarily effective at doing the two 'tankery' jobs... Mitigating damage and drawing attention from your team. The only thing I have EVER had problems with was warwolves back in my 30's... and EVERY tanker set has a hole or two. However, assuming that your pocket calculator is the definitive authority on a set that, by definition, is designed for 'active' Tanking (No offense, stone) is like assuming that pure DPS is what makes a Blaster set, and ignoring all the other factors like mitigation, secondary effects, animation times, combos (water) or damage types (Pistol) or everything else that goes into creating a well rounded set. And Ice is CERTAINLY well rounded, and works extraordinarily well, better IMO than any other set, at doing the tanker's primary 'tankery' job... Holding aggro and surviving it. It does not need any extra coder love to get this done, either... especially in light of what OTHER negative changes might come with such attention.

Which is why Ice is so Tankery. not only typed defense, but also some resists against weird damage types, and a global damage resistance in the form of massive -rech. I have always stated that Ice/ is way underrated... and proved it many times on live.

I disagree on skipping Placate, but I tackle a lot of AV's solo. sweeping cross and IS are definitely skippable when you respec at 22, though.

I know it's anecdotal, but I gotta say... Stalkers always felt even more fragile than blasters to me. Until my BS/Bio. Even at barely 22 (Which I might add I got to in less than 3 hours SOLO... The set is the shiznit) I feel... CONFIDENT. When I hit something it is DEAD, no worries about running through a weird attack chain. Just crit the first mob, tap the second, sweep the second and the third, AS the third, turn back and kill the second. Spawn gone, no damage taken, wash, rinse, repeat. Elite Bosses get a real build-up AS, a Placate, a crit, and a crit in-combat AS and hit the floor. Luts might get an AS or might get a clearing crit, and the only real worries is what mode to put Bio Armor in... and the choice is easy. And on to the next mob with the barest pause to wait for hide to refresh. Clear alls are something to look forward to rather than something to hate. Ambushes that are stupid enough to chase after me get EXACTLY the same treatment as a standing spawn... they run around the corner, the first one is instantly dead and the rest are 'arrested' shortly thereafter. Yes, Target selection is slightly more complicated than a scrapper, but you FEEL like a force of nature... which is a nice change from feeling like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Right. Okay, thanks anyway. I recall there being a delay command, but it's been so long I am probably wrong.

I remember seeing something for a 'swapping keybind' where it used files to swap the commands on the keybind each time to do two different things. I am not... coding oriented. Is there someone that could make a keybind that would activate Radiation Infection, Enervating field, and Choking Cloud when you first hit it, and then deactivate them for recycling the second time you press it? I know it's a bit silly, but it would make teaming SO much easier.

I know this is a little anecdotal, but I would like to point out a few things about defenders in General and my poison of choice, time/Elec in particular. Defenders are ALWAYS wanted in groups. Yes, corrupters and controllers can play some of our tricks, but most people running TF's and Trials are well aware that our stuff is considerably stronger, and that mobs running around incredibly slowly like chickens with their heads cut off are doing a LOT less damage than they are when someone stuffs them all into fire cages. The 'reposition/flee' AI seems to prevent more attacks than those short-term 'hard' aoe holds could hope to deal with, especially since they affect those scads of bosses that tougher TF's seem to spawn with regularity. This means that You are pure gold on the stuff that nets you tons of recipes and salvage. You are the ideal newbie crafter, able to build stuff and sell it for millions. You can learn each TF and trial the easy way, which makes a fender the ideal 'primary' toon to make the money and IO's, as well as learn the skills, that later characters can benefit from. My time/elec is only 23, and already has several complete sets in his build (albeit level 25 sets) and tens of millions in the bank... all from just making and selling set IO's, and buying and building some of the recipes as well as getting crafting stuff on DiB, DfB, Posi, Synapse, and Yin. And for time/elec in particular, the endurance modification sets are not terribly expensive... even if it weakens other stuff for slots a little at low level, it's worth getting the blue end mod set for short circuit... Your place is right by whoever sucks up the alpha, and in a flash of short crcuit and ball lightning, the entire spawn is down to like one attack every thirty seconds, is running around crazily, and at a speed so slow that even that stone tanker can run them down. Of course, to be fair, the monster at the end of DiB is STILL a nightmare to kill. Takes FOREVER.

If you really want pain, you go with stone armor titan weapon. It's sorta like having lunch while launching a nuke. Every once in a while you click on a button and watch the world melt, but it's all happening in VERY slow motion.

I actually quite like pistols with devices. Not only the thematic synergy, but also with change ammo. The aoe's work well with trops, Ice ammo plus trops can slow things to a crawl, and changing damage types/reducing defense can make up for devices damage types. Not to mention switching to fire ammo can make up for lack of boost when you just need to unload the pain.

Well, time actually has a built in synergy for psi in one of it's attacks.

Looks like my sins come back to haunt me.

That is kinda weird... so many champion people winding up on Excelsior, like me. I wonder why that Is... I know my reasons, I was an RPG buff back in the old days of Champions, and thus the Champion server in the first superhero MMO was a natural... and of course, Champions fans were almost Universally Marvel fans, and Excelsior was Stan's thing. I wonder how many of us were disappointed by champions online? The only things I miss in Homecoming are the swing lines (From Champions) and wall crawling (From DCUO)

Defenders receive, hands-down, the best buffing numbers of all the archetypes. However, there is NO archetype that would be considered a 'melee buffer' like a D&D bard, although I suppose the Arachnos soldier comes closest. Although you might consider a controller: some sets, between their debuffs, controls, and buffs, placing them far out ahead... Remember, a hard debuff is every bit as good as a hard buff for keeping your team alive. Putting a fantasy-style bard in a superhero game is bound to be complicated, though.