SableShrike

I'm not the smartest about procs, but I'm pretty sure you get the most reliable firing off Gaussian in a click power with long recharge. The weird exception to that is Tactics, as it seems to fire more often the more things Tactics is buffing. i.e. on a full team Gaussian fires a lot if you have it in your Tactics. That said, I'm pretty sure you can drop it in Nova and it has a chance to fire every so often while Nova is toggled on. That chance is probably rather small in a toggle power that only affects you. Not as reliable an activation as having it in Inner Light, though.

Bingo! It’s just additional damage and, if you can cap them, something to draw hate and mez a bit. On teams they may not add tons, but make no mistake they do still add some. You don’t have to babysit them; all the while they’re fighting you can ignore them and do your thing as you normally would. And, again, when soloing the damage they bring can be nice. The only real cost if you’re set up to max buff already is the power pick and a few slots. You can max them in just four slots for damage and recharge by boosting the following Soulbound Allegiance purples to +5: AccDamRech, AccRech, DamRech, and DamEnd. If you can spare a 5th slot, you can fit in the Soulbound +Build Up. It’s really not a lot of effort for a lot of potential damage. You summon them once, and that’s it. If you can keep them alive they’ll fight nonstop for four minutes.

Been thinking up some tricks for an updated build after reading a lot this weekend. At the fiancee’s parents’ so I’m away from my rig. It burrrrrnnnsss!!! Namely tweaking shields to plug Psi and not focusing on Defense this time to avoid mez. As pointed out above, we can rock Mag4 from just Defensive Amplifiers. Coupled with strategic use of Shade controls that should be enough. Gonna take it through arcs to 50 with zero farming, and then I’ll toss something up here. Again, you really need to build the Shade you personally like. You may not like the attack chain I build for, say, so I encourage folks to mess about. It’s more important to understand why a build does something than to simply copy my slotting. That’s the only way you can find weird mechanics and combos you personally love. (Like slowing the crap out of Minotaurs and Cyclops to easily kite them to death). Still got a lot of free time due to COVID, but I’ll sign off on this thread for now. I’ll let y’all know what I come up with in a fair while!

They can be handy when solo, I’ve found. Basically doubled my FF/Sonic’s singletarget damage when I have Coralax out. But yeah, steamroll teams overshadow a lot of things right now.

Heh. “PP pets...” But I digress! What are you hoping to do, man? My experience is mostly with the coralax, but from what I’ve seen the Mu and Arachnobot play at range. Fortunatas fight at range with mostly Psi damage. Coralax seems to have the most melee. Fortunata, Mu, and Disruptor have mez with damage types being the main differences. Unless you want the Coralax Punch and Haymaker, I’d pick based on the other Patron powers in each pool and theme.

Actually, the Hero’s Journey has death as an integral part of nearly every heroic myth in human history, according to Joseph Campbell. Be it literal or figurative, mind you. The struggle and success after defeat is what makes a classical heroic myth heroic. I’m not talking about gating content behind certain ATs, so I agree with you there, man. Everyone should be able to solo a bit. I know full well the pain of Ice Tankers before they could run all armor toggles together. I am talking about how the current game seems to lack that risk vs reward for the vast majority of older content. It’s mostly nothing but reward now. This means a lot of stuff is marginalized, and teaming is optional. Which is fine in a vaccuum, but this is an MMO many of us have been playing for years. Teaming used to be almost mandatory for bigger feats (it wasn’t just for iTrials), and everyone brought important stuff to the fight. Force Fielders were great to have even on a team of 50s. Triumph over adversity is why I often prefer the lower levels; we kinda lose that in the endgame as it is.

Capping Defense and Resistance needs to be looked at, in my opinion. It’s an optional thing to build for, but it seriously imbalances what used to be challenging content. Capped Blasters soloing the “Room of Death” on Citadel TFs, et cetera. (People used to actually die and get trapped in the prison area.) Capping defenses to the extent we’re able to now makes a lot of powers/sets superfluous in the mid to lategame, trivializes content, and makes it almost impossible to balance any difficulty changes on a global scale. People on SOs will get stomped if balancing is done with current caps in mind. Fix might be as simple as giving mobs at least a 10% minimum chance to hit. Have to be careful we don’t hose Defense armor sets, though. It’ll likely take someone mathematically smarter than me to sort it out. But the current capping is an issue I see as negatively affecting the game.

One way to check is to open your Combat Stats while in Nova. If it counts a “set bonus”, most things do carry over to Forms. Fitness powers and IOs in them also carry over. That said, there are a few like the Kismet +Accuracy IO that do NOT; they have to be in a power that’s turned on. Generally these say “for 120 seconds” in their tooltip. Gaussian’s +Build Up is another one that you need in Nova itself for it to work in that form.

“Dude. Strange things are afoot at the Manny Gas...” - Zed Theodore Hogan

@Veelectric Boogaloo mentioned this recently, but the Defensive Amplifier is Mag4 protection against everything for 1 hour of game-time. It’s available to everyone at the P2W provided you have the influence (which isn’t too hard to scrounge up). Influence cost scales with your level, so this can be an amazing tool to getting mez protection in Human or Nova.

Awesome advice, Vee! I always forget about the Amplifier. I’m gonna start up a new Human shade just to try levelling one from 1-50 with this. Orbiting Death shouldn’t get detoggled and your shields won’t suppress. Should be very potent. P.S. Probably also want to make sure you have a base beacon to Pocket D as well as the Pocket D teleporter. The P2W in Pocket is the only one you can access while on a TF or Ouroboros arc.

Was answering some things in my poor neglected Warshade thread when I had an idea. Why do khelds feel anemic in Dwarf, their most solo-friendly form? Because it lacks any way to add AoE to it. Every other AT can mix in Pool attacks to shore up AoE (Cross Punch, etc). So I thought, since we know that Forms can be given access to Human attacks (Bolt and Eye), why not give Dwarf access to their nuke? About every 30-45 seconds when maxed you could Dwarf stomp off a Quasar or Dawn Strike. Seems balanced to me in that we have to burn a power and slots at 32 to use this. It’d at least give them some more beatdown in the endgame. Maybe adjust the nuke’s numbers in Dwarf so it’s usable more often for less damage.

Been distracted, sorry! Reason I didn’t take Acro is that Mag2 Hold doesn’t really protect you. Most anything with a real Hold attack blows through Acro in one shot. And KB protection you can get from a single Blessing of the Zephyr IO. Not to mention, Acro is another toggle draining your End. As plainguy says, mez is death when soloing. You can easily get Clarion Core up to perma, though. The other way is to mez things first with your Stuns and Hold, but if you miss or there are too many targets for Gravitic to cover you’re rolling the dice. Maybe turn down spawn size to between 4-6 and see if your mez better preempts their mez. Human Warshades are never going to be AFK murder machines on max diffs simply due to how they are designed as an AT. You are in some ways gimping your solo potential to have a bigger bag of tricks in Human. There’s always a tradeoff when you build Kheldians. You definitely can build a Dwarf “only” that can solo max diff. This is slow though, as you rely on Dwarf Mire for AoE if you’re weathering mez. Just gotta manage expectations, I guess. Kheldians are widely regarded as lower tier in terms of OP Archetypes. You CAN do crazy stuff with them still, but they’re never going to be a TW/Bio Brute. Doing crazy stuff with a Kheld takes a lot of work, using specific Forms, and a deep knowledge of timing and enemies. Only you guys can say if this type of play is fun to you. It’s okay if it’s not! It can be nice to just hop on a faceroll Tanker or Brute sometimes. Long as you’re having fun there’s no need to keep up with the Jones’.

Thanks, Sir M! Guess I’ll move some slots around on toggles if I can get better results elsewhere. I sometimes wonder if building on Mids is reliable, hence me asking. It’s still got a few bugs I know of like the Perfect Zinger proc listing proc chance incorrectly.

Hi all, Recently started up an Ice/Super Tank, and I’m still working out what’s worth slotting as far as the toggle powers. Am I right in thinking that I want to max the native damage of Icicles first and only then fill in with procs? Also, is a slot in Chilling Embrace for the Impeded Swiftness proc worth a damn? Mids has it showing abysmal DPS, but I’m not sure how it does against a saturated aggro cap. Forgot: I’ve turned Spring Attack into a proc bomb that’s up every minute or so. Anyone messed with this before?

Yep, sounds amazing! Thank you again!

Awesome man! Thank you for the fast fix! Now to wait for the servers to restart from their hard crash... Cheers!

Hi all, was wondering if someone smarter than I could help me out. I play Beast Mastery, and when you summon the Dire Wolf it has an awesome howl. Straight out of American Werewolf In London type stuff. Then it starts to use its frost attacks and you get this crappy "ice" sound effect. Is there any way to replace the "ice" effect with the howl you initially hear at summoning? Make em sound fierce! Thanks!

For the hell of it, here's my planned build. I'm still working on IOs in some powers, but it's getting there. I generally only run with Snow Storm, Steamy Mist, Hover, and Temp Invuln on for toggles. You need to save up endurance for Rain, Lightning, and Tornado so I chose not to bother running other stuff like Leadership or Fighting. Why defend when you can attack! I do take Thunder Clap, and it's decent in this build. Recharge makes it usable every fight, and it takes out every minion long enough for your pets to drop them unscathed. Amazement's proc IO can further debuff a hard target's ToHit, as well. Not sure how noticeable this is versus an AV, but in theory it would stack with your Hurricane debuff. I didn't bother to cap Defense, but this is plenty sturdy as is (especially in Bodyguard if you need it). Not taking Hasten lets you manage your Endurance a little better as well as lets you do things like set Barrier or Clarion Incarnate on autofire. I rarely take Hasten in my builds, honestly. Edit: Forgot a KB to KD in Tornado... Fixed now. Villain Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.7.2.10 https://github.com/Crytilis/mids-reborn-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Mastermind Primary Power Set: Beast Mastery Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Concealment Ancillary Pool: Field Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Summon Wolves -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(15), BldMnd-Dmg/EndRdx:50(17), TchofLadG-%Dam:50(17), ShlBrk-%Dam:30(19), AchHee-ResDeb%:20(19) Level 1: Gale -- Acc-I:50(A), Acc-I:50(13), EndRdx-I:50(13), SuddAcc--KB/+KD:50(15), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(48) Level 2: O2 Boost -- Prv-Heal:50(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx:50(3), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg:50(3), Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(7), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(11), Prv-Absorb%:50(11) Level 4: Snow Storm -- TmpRdn-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow:50(A), PcnoftheT-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow:50(5), EndRdx-I:50(5), Slow-I:50(7) Level 6: Train Beasts -- EndRdx-I:50(A) Level 8: Hover -- WntGif-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng:50(A), WntGif-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng/EndRdx:50(9), WntGif-ResSlow:50(9), Ksm-ToHit+:30(48), Ksm-Def/EndRdx:30(50), Ksm-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:30(50) Level 10: Steamy Mist -- Rct-Def:50(A), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(25), Rct-EndRdx/Rchg:50(27), Rct-Def/Rchg:50(27), Rct-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:50(29), Rct-ResDam%:50(29) Level 12: Summon Lions -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(21), BldMnd-Dmg/EndRdx:50(21), SprCmmoft-Rchg/PetAoEDef:50(23), CaltoArm-+Def(Pets):30(23), EdcoftheM-PetDef:40(25) Level 14: Fly -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB:50(A) Level 16: Freezing Rain -- Rgn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Rgn-Acc/Rchg:50(39), Rgn-Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Rgn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(40), Rgn-Knock%:50(48) Level 18: Fortify Pack -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A) Level 20: Hurricane -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(31), HO:Enzym(31) Level 22: Afterburner -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A) Level 24: Maneuvers -- ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP:50(A) Level 26: Summon Dire Wolf -- SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg:50(31), SprMarofS-Dmg:50(33), SprMarofS-EndRdx/+Resist/+Regen:50(33), SlbAll-Build%:50(33), ImpSwf-Dam%:30(34) Level 28: Thunder Clap -- AbsAmz-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(A), AbsAmz-Acc/Rchg:50(34), AbsAmz-Stun/Rchg:50(34), AbsAmz-EndRdx/Stun:50(36), AbsAmz-ToHitDeb%:50(36), RopADop-Acc/EndRdx:50(50) Level 30: Tactics -- RctRtc-Pcptn:20(A) Level 32: Tame Beasts -- EndRdx-I:50(A) Level 35: Tornado -- SlbAll-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(A), SlbAll-Dmg/EndRdx:50(40), SlbAll-Dmg/Rchg:50(40), SuddAcc--KB/+KD:50(46), SvrRgh-PetResDam:50(46), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets):50(46) Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Apc-Acc/Rchg:50(42), Apc-Dmg/Rchg:50(42), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(42), Apc-Dam%:50(43), SuddAcc--KB/+KD:50(43) Level 41: Temp Invulnerability -- GldArm-End/Res:50(A), GldArm-ResDam:50(43), GldArm-3defTpProc:50(45), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(45), EndRdx-I:50(45) Level 44: Vengeance -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A) Level 47: Grant Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A) Level 49: Invisibility -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) 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 -- UnbLea-Stlth:50(A) Level 1: Supremacy Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I:50(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I:50(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End:50(A), Mrc-Rcvry+:40(36), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+:50(37) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod:50(A), PrfShf-End%:50(37), PwrTrns-EndMod:50(37), PwrTrns-+Heal:50(39) Level 1: Alpha Howler Wolf Level 1: Howler Wolf Level 1: Pack Mentality Level 12: Lioness Level 26: Dire Wolf ------------ ------------ Set Bonus Totals: 4% DamageBuff(Smashing) 4% DamageBuff(Lethal) 4% DamageBuff(Fire) 4% DamageBuff(Cold) 4% DamageBuff(Energy) 4% DamageBuff(Negative) 4% DamageBuff(Toxic) 4% DamageBuff(Psionic) 10% Defense 8.5% Defense(Smashing) 8.5% Defense(Lethal) 6% Defense(Fire) 6% Defense(Cold) 6% Defense(Energy) 6% Defense(Negative) 6% Defense(Psionic) 11% Defense(Melee) 6% Defense(Ranged) 21% Defense(AoE) 7.5% Enhancement(Max EnduranceDiscount) 45% Enhancement(Accuracy) 95% Enhancement(RechargeTime) 16.5% SpeedFlying GrantPower Preventive Medicine (10% chance, if Scourge) 78.31 HP (9.75%) HitPoints 16.5% JumpHeight 16.5% SpeedJumping Knockback (Mag -7) Knockup (Mag -7) MezResist(Confused) 46.25% MezResist(Held) 46.25% MezResist(Immobilized) 46.25% MezResist(Sleep) 46.25% MezResist(Stunned) 46.25% MezResist(Terrorized) 46.25% MezResist(Teleport) 100% (20% chance) 20% PerceptionRadius 12% (0.2 End/sec) Recovery 188% (6.29 HP/sec) Regeneration 20% ResEffect(SpeedFlying) 20% ResEffect(RechargeTime) 20% ResEffect(SpeedRunning) 49% Resistance(Smashing) 49% Resistance(Lethal) 64.75% Resistance(Fire) 64.75% Resistance(Cold) 43% Resistance(Energy) 43% Resistance(Negative) 43% Resistance(Toxic) 43% Resistance(Psionic) 16.5% SpeedRunning

Yeah, you could fit Call Hawk in easy enough, but Call Ravens drew too much hate for me to want it. Maybe it’s better on a tankermind. Not taking attacks let me take debuffs and such earlier, which is important for exemping.

Wound up going back to the old Beast/Storm I had on Live, and it’s a lot of fun. I skip the personal attacks and go heavy in Storm, Flight, and a bunch other Pools like Leadership for Gambler mules. Only Ancillary power I took is Temp Invuln, but Leviathan’s Immob, Hold, and shield could be good choices as well. Storm’s a very aggressive set and I find it most fun on a MM. You can really monitor the field and unleash pinpoint hell when you’re not button mashing attacks. Plays more like a Controller in that regard. Storm is also really nice in that you can slot pet IOs in Tornado, meaning you can easily fit all six Uniques across your four pet powers. Key to doing well with teams is the Sudden Acceleration KB to KD IO. I put one in Gale, Tornado, and Lightning Storm as soon as I can. Gale is really good converted to KD, and it’s great for proccing a Force Feedback +recharge IO. Guaranteed knockdown on anything it hits. Snow Storm and Gale are up every fight at low levels, and Freezing Rain you can also fire off on top of them for heavy slow and more knockdown. Your Beasts rip stuff apart while it’s downed or unable to run/fly (Snow Storm drops flyers). Hurricane is an “oh shit” button if you’re facing a team wipe. It also debuffs AVs without repelling them, but careful when getting close. I never run Hurricane all the time. It’s often too noisy and unwelcome on most teams, but in those situations where you need it there is no substitute. Tornados will lock anything they can juggle once you have the KD IO on them, and can deal significant damage to a lone target (780 or so at level 50). Lightning Storms are further knockdown and good damage. I can usually get two Tornados and Lightning Storms out at a time during a longer fight. O2 Boost is a good spot-heal and has handy status buffs to boot. You can keep pets topped off from range or heal them after the fight. This organized chaos all costs a ton of endurance, so you have to be picky with enhancements and set bonuses. Make sure to get your Accolades. For set bonuses I chose to focus on +recharge when I can, but +MaxEnd, End Discount, End Recovery, and +HP are good too. I can usually chase S/L resistance while building for other bonuses. I think I have 61% with Temp Invuln on. Usually I don’t run with pets in Bodyguard as you need pets set to Aggressive to allow them to retarget faster and not waste DPS. Keep a Bodyguard command handy for ambushes and such though.

Good idea! I use it for a +Stealth IO, and it’s annoying my ninja is completely invisible apart from the contrails and dust storm.

Stuck in a dealership waiting on a maintenance appointment, so forgive me being longwinded here. The two things that’ve kept me off Rebirth are population and powersets. I’m over in Europe now, so when I log on a North American server it’s definitely not peak hours. On HC I can still find enough crew to run a TF (or even solo one as we are given that option on HC). The other big thing is AT and power set fixes/balance. HC is far ahead of any other server in terms of quality control. Savage on Rebirth is still missing attack animations specific to the set, et cetera. Homecoming simply has more options and done a more polished job of it. On the difficulty thing, I’ve taken to running Ouro gigs. My plan is to run every single one on my Tanker. There’s a lot of options to jack difficulty in Ouro arcs. Homecoming actually makes cranking difficulty up easier than a vanilla server would. I think what we’re all nostalgic for isn’t difficulty per se, but the community play that a more difficult environment fostered. I made a lot of friends while beating my head against the old Positron that took two or more hours and had everything conning red or purple to us (on TOs or DOs to boot). The first half hour was usually brutal, but people would then gain a few levels and really start to work as a tight team. Timing controls, burning down problem bosses or Lts. first, jumping past to Taunt spawns to draw AoE away from the rest of the team... You had to learn how to do these things, or you would wind up sucking serious debt. Homecoming does have the option to do these same things, but that “optional” part is the difference. Most new players would get seriously discouraged by an old-style Positron against purple-conning Vahzilok. That’s a very steep leaning curve, and I can see why the Live and HC team realized they had to lessen the incline. For me the low-level game on HC is fine as is, but I will admit 30+ is a little crazy. Incarnates may need some tweaking (which Live devs never got a chance to do), and Resistance and Defense caps may need to be looked at given that we can turn everything into tankmages. Perhaps we can have differing Defense caps for ATs like we have for Resistance and Damage. Maybe only Tanks and Brutes could come close to what we currently have for softcap. Maybe make it so even the melee ATs couldn’t hit softcap without inspirs or third-party buffs. Give us Force Fielders a real job again. HC’s devs have said they’re specifically working on a balance pass for Issue 6 and beyond, and given the work they’ve done to date I trust they won’t just half-ass it. Just know that it’s coming “Soon”.

Yeah, I totally agree the cat's out of the bag as far as set IOs go. We're not ever seeing them go away given the amount of time and effort people have put into getting them. BillZ has a good idea with the dynamic scaling and such. Maybe there's a way to quantify the overall set boni into a single total, and then you could have the game ramp up the nastiness from there. Have to see how the new villain group (Freakloks) pans out, too. They may have certain mobs going forward specifically placed to hose the solo softcap player. Kind of like how Super Stunners were put in to hose the facerolling of Freakshow farms.

And if we finally got Carp Melee.