tjknight

Top Tier: Thugs, Demons, or Bots with Dark or Time. Any combination of these should be smooth sailing from the first level onward. Also of note in my opinion because they are rarer combos but very effective: Nature, Thermal, and Sonic work great with resist based pets (Demons or Necromancy). Cold syncs well with defense based pets (Bots or Thugs).

I decided to try leveling an Electric Affinity/Electrical Blast Defender up this weekend. Currently I'm at level 35, which I achieved with a combination of task forces, radios, mission content and an MSR. Mostly , because I wanted to gain a feel for how the set performed as it worked it's way up the level ladder. Also, per the original post I'm only using non-set IO's at this point (see below): Team Performance: Electric Affinity (EA) performed very well on teams as far as I'm concerned. The set is like Kinetics + Sonic had a beautiful sturdy buffing baby. Energizing Circuit + Rejuvenating Circuit works very well with team mates. The heal chained frequently and building stacks of static was never a problem. The bigger the team and more bodies (including pets) the better. Amp Up is fun to spam on Controllers and Faraday cage at this level gives about 23% resistance to all but toxic. Solo Performance: Things are little rough for the solo EA Defender in my opinion. The damage is low and the heal requires a teammate or pet to use well. Galvanic Sentinel isn't a permanent pet and can de-spawn in the middle of a fight. Additionally, the pet has low hit-points and easily killed by even low level mobs. However, it's pretty easy to resummon GAL, as the pet is necessary in order to keep yourself buffed. For these reasons, I found using a pet targeting key bind helpful while solo. The simple key binds below should target the nearest friendly entity (player or pet) and then trigger the named power. Faraday Cage is Awesome Despite some of the drawbacks, Electric Affinity has the makings of a very sturdy defender. Faraday cage not only offers excellent damage resistance, mez protection, and knock back resist. It also offers protection from endurance drains, recharge debuffs, and recovery debuffs. Faraday Cage also functions as break free on the rare occasions you may happen to get mezzed. Additionally, it stacks with Tough.... which on a Defender is a fantastic amount of Smashing & Lethal resist under level 50. This is great solo or teamed. I'm strongly considering stacking Faraday Cage + Tough + Dark Embrace to grant my Defender a decent amount of resistance to just about every type of damage. Other Notes Energizing Circuit is worth slotting in my opinion at low levels. Super maxed out incarnate teams may not need it, but if you're on a team with sub 50+ players they will thank you for it. Galvanic Sentinel, Short Circuit, and Defibrillate were enough to end drain mobs. This is nice at lower levels or while solo when kill speed isn't as fast. Speaking of Defibrillate, it's a very handy power I honestly wouldn't skip it. Not only does end drain mobs, it also sleeps them with the added benefit of rezzing nearby teammates at full health and endurance. It's like Howling Twilight's spunky little brother. This is a fun set to play, it might work a little more smoothly on AT's with sturdier pets (i.e masterminds & certain controllers), but it's solid on a defender.

This really makes me want to role a Poison/Beam Rifle.... great guide.

Old TK was so good.. I still don't understand the changes made after all these years. But in general, if you want dps on a controller, it's Plant/ or Fire/ paired with Rad or Kin... I do wish there were more options. OTOH.. controllers are absolute beasts when teamed especially with other controllers or doms. Which is something I think we sometimes forget, some AT's that seem weak solo, were really designed to shine on teams.

There's a pretty extensive discussion regarding EA in the MM forums... since EA works so well with MM pets. But the basic info about the powers and how they work could prove useful to those playing other AT's:

Leveling a Ninja/EA right now.. just about to ding 26. I did it pretty much the old fashioned way.. some DFB to get started, mixed in with soloing arcs, and joining an occasional task force. Rejuvenating Circuit and Faraday Cage are working far better than I expected. I don't have any numbers to back it up, but the combo feels about as sturdy as my old Ninja/Dark . The heal is slotted with lvl 25 IO's (2 rech, 2 heal, 2 end discount). For now this working great for generic leveling purposes. Faraday Cage has three lvl 25 damage IO's slotted, and it's easily spammable. The resist and status protection from Farday cage is really good for MM's. Pet's don't get bounced around by knockback, and seem to adequately resist damage. I would imagine tankier pets (Demons, Bots, Thugs, and Necro) would really thrive with Faraday cage cast on them. The only thing that's really been a pain are fire patches (Council, Longbow, and Scrapyarders). Spam healing can keep the pets on their feet, but it's easier for the squishy Ninjas to become overwhelmed. All-in-all, my subjective opinon is that EA works reasonably well with Ninjas and I'm guessing it would also pair well with Mercs. However, the better combinations are still going to be with the top performing pet classes. My guess is that Robots/EA , Demons/EA, and Thugs/EA are probably going to quickly be recognized as top-shelf MM builds. But then again, those primaries are excellent with just about every secondary.

Hmmm... cant decide what type of MM to roll up with EA. That Ninja build does look interesting. But Thugs sounds good too.

I think Electrical Resonance would sound way cooler. But Electrical Affinity isn't bad.

Also, it seems Thunderspy's pet customization breaks power animations on non-human pets.

Empathy defenders are super useful on mixed level teams. I'm always happy to have one if doing PUGs in PI or GV. Also, they are great to have when exemped on TFs. Also, I'm one of just 58 lvl 50 Ill/Traps! Feeling special. : D

Comparing Sentinels to Blasters or Scrappers will always be a little off. They are much closer in design to the Epic AT's (SoA & Kheldians). In that they are survivable AT that does mid-range damage. An AT that has access to shields and self-heals will never, ever be allowed to do blaster level damage. And balance wise that's probably a good idea.

I leveled up a Necro/Thermal up to 30's and nope you aren't crazy. Same concept really, the pets get great resistance out of the box. And it only get's better. Zombies self-heal and the Lich is a great controller. So that can help make up in some areas sonic lacks. Plus Disruption Field should work well with the Grave Knights. I could see coloring the sonic powers a sickly green and going with undead Banshee theme.

I agree Plant/Emp offers many of the same benefits of Illu/Emp. Plus many people forget bout the gloriousness that is Carrion Creepers, which is an invisible pet that spawns creeper vines and immobilizes. Oh and the vines can be buffed as well. So, Carrion Creepers and Fly Trap can provide plenty of control on a fast moving team. Leaving you free to buff and heal as you like.

Hello Architects! Just finished a villainous story in AE and would like some feedback. If anyone would like to play it I'd appreciate it!!! Thanks!

I leveled an Ill/Traps last weekend to 50. I enjoy playing it. Basically, drop pets to tank the EB/AV, spam your immobilize to keep 'em still, and make sure to keep placing the debuffs (Acid Mortar/Poison Trap). Then you got other powers (Trip Mine, Triage Beacon, etc..) to help with additional buffs and DPS. I will agree that Ill/Rad is more mobile (also leveled one of those the week prior), but if you're on a fast moving team just concentrate on keeping Phantom Army, Acid Mortar, and Force Field Generator going. That and using your CC abilities (Spectral Terror, Blind, Caltrops, and Flash) should keep you plenty busy. Additionally, the new location commands are game changers for both Traps and Illusion. I have all my placement powers bound to be able to drop on targets. It's really helpful.

4-stars to this thread title~ Moving forward, I have rolled and leveled both an Ill/Rad and Ill/trap. Both are now 50 and neither one is incarnated or IO'd out yet. Illusion/Traps has all the goodies. Which includes mez protection and strong debuffs. I will say this, I know that /traps is awesome but I still feel outclassed on teams by people running more visibly active sets. In reality, I know my /Traps is contributing but other sets with flashy effects and big green numbers do overshadow it. Solo, I ❤️ my ill/traps toon as Illusion gives it so many tools to keep the heat off you while you place traps. I'll put it another way, Ill/Traps is sneaky OP. My Illusion/Rad is much more straight forward toon. Great buffs + tanking pets makes you feel awesome. Also, it's the old school solo build for Controllers. Teams love AM, but AM doesn't buff Phantom Army directly. However, AM buffs gives you more +recharge. Which makes it easier to keep spamming Phantom Army. You can't go wrong here at all. Storm looks a bit too chaotic for my personal tastes. However, it's an established damage dealing combo and I can't imagine anyone would be unhappy with it. Ok here's one weird effect of having PA-Clones on team. You are freaking EVERYWHERE... blasting over here... buffing over there. It feels awesome and indeed super. But self-duplication is one of my favorite comic-book superpowers!

Yes, I do agree Mercs are very much underrated and probably unfairly so. I had a Mercs/Dark on live and it did pretty damned well, especially with Achilles Heel and Lady Grey Proc. Placing Explosive Strike into the Commando is also a good idea. This was the advice I followed in the old days on how to slot procs into Mercs. From : https://dechskaison.blogspot.com/2012/01/gd-mastermind.html (Really good advice that still applies) Mercs/Dark went well for me due to all the crowd control and -tohit the set has. However, that's not to say there aren't issues. Mercs do primarily smashing and lethal damage. The Medic being suicidal was a pain, and Mercs in general don't have any strong melee power. So any of them running off to 'brawl' didn't help much. The AI change is very welcome and helps out this underrated set quite a bit IMHO. (Now, I'm wondering why I didn't roll a Mercs/Dark!!! on Homecoming!)

Isn't it amazing how one simple change, completely changes things?

I'm wondering if this could done with a costume change macro, to make it a little less clunky. Maybe something like... /macro Clones "CC2$$powexec_name Phantom Army" Not sure if it would work, cuz I haven't tested it.

So I tried this new customization option out on my Illusion/Rad and I love it.... I did make me think however, I wonder it it's possible to have that same option available for Mercs and Thugs. As they are the most 'human' looking of the pet sets. It would be great if it's eventually added.

I didn't test it much, but logged onto my old Mercs/Nature. He's only lvl 30'sh. But yes, the change was noticeable. The Mercs stay in my healing patch, and the Medic doesn't run off and suicide himself. It felt very different playing them.

Oh man.. Sentinels getting Venom Grenade would be SWEEEEEEET!

My normal method is pretty much in line with this guide. Unless I'm playing a Villain... If I'm playing a Villain, DFB runs can be very difficult to get started. So I'll usually buy the XP booster and then run the first arc of missions on Mercy Island until around level 8 . The next leveling hurdle for villains is that the first Strike Force isn't available until level 15! So at level 8 or so, I use an alternative. I go to AE and search for low level "Tunnel" missions. These can get you from 8-15 in a few runs and aren't very hard to do. But warning, they can be a bit tedious. After that, running through villain Strike Forces can get you to 50 fast (provided you use the XP Booster). It's also useful to have access to a base with an empowerment station set up. I find the Attack Rate Increase and Invisibility crafted temps super useful. p.s. Thanks for the Amplifier tip, I've never used them. Going to check it out.

I actually ended up going Dual Pistols/ Super Reflexes for a few reasons. One of them being I know I'll be dealing with the Awakened later on in First Ward. And SR has resistance to both blind and confuse. Got from 1-13 doing resistance arcs. SR feels a little weaker at low levels than Ninjitsu did, but a few inspirations help out a lot. I'm pretty satisfied with my choice... and thanks for the help.

So, I want to take a Sentinel through all the Praetorian content. That means starting off in Nova Praetoria at level one and ending in Night Ward at level 40. I would like to complete as many of the arcs possible without switching sides to Hero or Villain. That means I'm looking for a Sentinel combo that does well at lower levels and before set bonuses. Also, something that can handle psi damage attacks. I was considering Dual Pistols/Ninjutsu but I'm not 100% sure. Any thoughts or suggestions folks?