JJDrakken's Build Post.

[JJDrakken]

@wRECk69

 

Twillight's Requested Blaster (Energy Blast - Energy Manipulation).mbd

[JJDrakken]

Tanker (Psionic Armor - Katana).mbdScrapper (Psionic Melee - Regeneration).mbdBlaster (Dark Blast - Energy Manipulation).mbd

[Rivenwilde]

On 8/31/2025 at 7:09 AM, JJDrakken said:

@Rivenwilde

 

 

Brute (Savage Melee - Regeneration).mbd 41.25 kB · 4 downloads

Thanks so much, JJ!

[Kharnov88]

Is the illusion / darkness affinity controller you posted a while back up to date?  Or does it need adjustment since controllers got changed a bit? 

[JJDrakken]

SJ Sentinel (Assault Rifle - Fiery Aura).mbdSentinel (Sonic Attack - Psionic Armor).mbdSentinel (Fire Blast - Psionic Armor).mbdMelee Dominator (Gravity Control - Radioactive Assault).mbdController (Symphony Control - Radiation Emission).mbdController (Illusion Control - Darkness Affinity).mbd

[LordOmega3]

Hey JJ, hope you are doing well, buddy. I was wondering if you might be able to fix me up with a rad/fire farming build that can also do the itf and other tf's ? been told that a fire/spine can outdo a rad/fire, but I just don't see that happening. Thanks for all you do for us, JJ, 

[Black_Assassin]

14 hours ago, LordOmega3 said:

Hey JJ, hope you are doing well, buddy. I was wondering if you might be able to fix me up with a rad/fire farming build that can also do the itf and other tf's ? been told that a fire/spine can outdo a rad/fire, but I just don't see that happening. Thanks for all you do for us, JJ, 

 

You will need 2 different builds, one for farming fire farms and one for general PvE content, but I also wouldn't want to play a Rad/fire in general PvE as Rad melee is poopoo for anything other than farming

 

 

Brute FARMER (Radiation Melee - Fiery Aura).mbd

[Sinfinite]

Starting up a new Dark/Stone Tanker, looking for build for regular play (not farming). Didn't find the combo in the pages prior to this but my search-fu isn't always great so sorry if I missed one posted. Much thanks in advance!

[JJDrakken]

20 minutes ago, Sinfinite said:

Starting up a new Dark/Stone Tanker, looking for build for regular play (not farming). Didn't find the combo in the pages prior to this but my search-fu isn't always great so sorry if I missed one posted. Much thanks in advance!

 

 

Tanker (Dark Armor - Stone Melee).mbd

[JJDrakken]

16 hours ago, LordOmega3 said:

Hey JJ, hope you are doing well, buddy. I was wondering if you might be able to fix me up with a rad/fire farming build that can also do the itf and other tf's ? been told that a fire/spine can outdo a rad/fire, but I just don't see that happening. Thanks for all you do for us, JJ, 

 

You can ignore other guy.

 

You can do both in one build,  I have several toons that do both with 1 build.

 

Tanker (Radiation Armor - Fiery Melee).mbd

Edited September 4 by JJDrakken

[Sinfinite]

5 minutes ago, JJDrakken said:

 

 

Tanker (Dark Armor - Stone Melee).mbd 41 kB · 0 downloads

Awesome, tyvm!

[Black_Assassin]

That is objectively bad advice. The whole premise of farming is to maximise the resources you are gaining for the time you are putting in. That build will be like molasses in a farm map. 

[Falindae]

Hello, and thanks so much for what you do! 
I'm not really a forum-lurker, clearly, but I'd really love some advice on this one.

Martial Arts / Stone Armor, Brute, (Non-Granite)

Not super attached to any pools/epics, just looking to have a bit more staying power if I need to act defensively on a team in regular play.  Favorite activities are TFs and repeatable missions; doesn't need to be for farming, just general running around

I can't seem to get my percentages high enough on either Def or Res faffing around on my own.  I'm usually a controller main, so this is my first time trying to build melee/frontline.  Would greatly appreciate the assistance/insight

Cheers

-Fal

Edited September 5 by Falindae

[JJDrakken]

6 hours ago, Falindae said:

Hello, and thanks so much for what you do! 
I'm not really a forum-lurker, clearly, but I'd really love some advice on this one.

Martial Arts / Stone Armor, Brute, (Non-Granite)

Not super attached to any pools/epics, just looking to have a bit more staying power if I need to act defensively on a team in regular play.  Favorite activities are TFs and repeatable missions; doesn't need to be for farming, just general running around

I can't seem to get my percentages high enough on either Def or Res faffing around on my own.  I'm usually a controller main, so this is my first time trying to build melee/frontline.  Would greatly appreciate the assistance/insight

Cheers

-Fal

 

Thing with Brutes, they get lower values on armor.  So a lot times if it can be harder to get specific stuff to Soft Caps or Hard Caps(Resistances).

 

Requested Brute (Martial Arts - Stone Armor).mbd

[JJDrakken]

@LordOmega3

 

Also for your Incarnates. This what I do with mine that farm/TF stuff.

 

Alpha: Cardiac: Left Side

Destiny:  Barrier: Left Side

Interface: Depending what your main plan is: You can go Diamagnetic Left Side or Reactive: Right Side. Both are good in In & out of farming.

Hybrid: Assault: Left Side

Judgement: Pyronic: Left Side

Lore: Whatever tickles your fancy.  Typically left side of tree for both to be DPS centric. 

[WeAllFall]

Hello @JJDrakken, recent and big fan of what you like to do here. I was wondering if you could take a look at my current set up for Battle Axe / Shield defense scrapper and provide feedback and suggestions? Had someone else provide some build insight, then I found you. you seem to be a subject matter expert on builds! I would love if you had the time to help out! Thanks ahead of time my friend. Hope you have a good day. 😄 
( I tried to find a recent one, but from your posts its been a few years since an updated version was posted, and I am super interested!)
 

mids_build.mbd

[JJDrakken]

It's fine, but really just scraping by on defenses. Also a lot that franking slotting is not needed.  Let me fiddle around here. 

 

Requested Scrapper (Battle Axe - Shield Defense).mbd

[Shin Magmus]

   I'm not even surprised.  If you guys ever want to really optimize your builds, I recommend getting immediate feedback on the Mids files directly in the Homecoming Discord: much better builders there.

[ResToons]

I have scrolled thru all 87 pages lol.  I couldn't find a Brute Battle Axe/ Radiation Armor build for a Fire Farm Active build.  I heard this power combination would be great for it.  If anyone could come up with a great build would be you JJDrakken can you help me out.

[JJDrakken]

1 minute ago, ResToons said:

I have scrolled thru all 87 pages lol.  I couldn't find a Brute Battle Axe/ Radiation Armor build for a Fire Farm Active build.  I heard this power combination would be great for it.  If anyone could come up with a great build would be you JJDrakken can you help me out.

 

Point of a Fire Farm is to wield powers the mobs would be weak to.  Aka Fire & Ice.  Since they share same dmg in that particular armor they lack.

 

You'd be better off on a S/L Farm. 

[JJDrakken]

@ResToons

 

Also for your Incarnates. This what I do with mine that farm/TF stuff.   This again would be better for S/L Farms so you know. 

 

Alpha: Cardiac: Left Side

Destiny:  Barrier: Left Side

Interface: Depending what your main plan is: You can go Diamagnetic Left Side or Reactive: Right Side. Both are good in In & out of farming.

Hybrid: Assault: Left Side

Judgement: Pyronic: Left Side

Lore: Whatever tickles your fancy.  Typically left side of tree for both to be DPS centric. 

 

Brute (Battle Axe - Radiation Armor).mbd

[Maelwys]

22 hours ago, JJDrakken said:

Point of a Fire Farm is to wield powers the mobs would be weak to.  Aka Fire & Ice.  Since they share same dmg in that particular armor they lack.

 

You'd be better off on a S/L Farm. 

I appreciate the time you put into making builds; but the above statement is blatant misinformation.

On AE Fire Farms the enemies you encounter INFLICT fire damage; they're not weak or strong vs a player character's fire or ice damage.
(and similarly, the enemies on AE Smashing/Lethal Farms merely inflict Smashing and/or Lethal damage - they don't care what type of damage the player dishes out!)

The custom critters in all of the popular AE farming maps are specifically crafted to have zero damage resistance; MaxHP boosts or defense of any kind... and that's because the whole point of those farms is to provide the player with an enemy group that (i) deal a specific damage type with little/no CC (ii) die as fast as possible whilst still giving full XP.
If the player knows in advance exactly what damage type they'll be facing, they only have to mitigate against incoming damage of that type (and can ignore debuffs or CC other then Knockback). Which gives shedloads of build leeway that can be used to boost damage output, maximizing your influence and/or exp gain per hour.
 

Prior to the advent of AE; the older traditional farms did indeed contain enemies that were stronger/weaker vs specific damage types. If memory serves the usual culprits were Freakshow (e.g. "Dreck") which are strong vs Cold and weak vs Energy, Council which have no particular resistances (other than mekmen and warwolves), Praetorian Behemoths which are strong vs Fire and weak vs Cold and Carnies which are weak vs Lethal and strong vs Psychic. But AFAIK about the only farming that happens these days outside AE is Mapserver events and the Labyrinth; neither of which will overly care about your damage type.

And regarding Incarnates for AE farming:

  

On 8/29/2025 at 5:04 PM, Maelwys said:

+ Musculature Core Alpha (Radial can help a bit if your recovery is on the red line) is the typical one. Vigor Core can sometimes be helpful on Brutes as it gives Accuracy (helpful vs +3s/+4s) and Endurance Reduction (additional sustain) and Healing (extra Passive Regeneration)... but most efficient builds can hit the thresholds without it. 
+ Judgement doesn't really matter. PBAoEs tend to be easier to one-click though e.g. Mighty or Void.
+ Reactive Radial Interface. Degenerative is more useful vs AVs and GMs but not your typical farm fodder.
+ Banished Pantheon Radial Lore. The Defiler is untouchable and contributes damage and survivability and an extra 17 foes worth of aggro cap.
+ Ageless Destiny (Primarily for Global Recharge to get your single big AoE up more regularly; but the +Recovery helps to keep you ticking too) 
+ Assault Radial Hybrid (Core is useful for Scrappers that don't combine red insps, Radial all the way for Brutes)

 

Assault Core is more useful than Assault Radial for Active Farmers because they will be using the Inspiration-combination keybind from the above farming thread and spamming it so that they convert inspiration drops to Reds and chug them as they go (which effectively lets them constantly sit at the damage cap, therefore additional +damage buffs from Assault Radial stacks would get wasted). It's possible to swap the Alpha to something other than Musculature on Active Farmers for the same reason. "Passive/AFK" farming has the same Incarnate setup as above but much stricter survivability thresholds (90% res, 45% def and 35+HP/Sec Passive Regeneration) and is currently most efficient on either a X/RadM Tanker or a RadM/StoneArmor Brute.
 

Edited 8 hours ago by Maelwys

[Maelwys]

 

4 hours ago, JJDrakken said:

According to your post link, they don't use Evasion which is Fire & Ice aka AoE. So my statement about Fire & Ice for a Fire Farm are preferred option.  I know they inflict Fire Damage. But I was basing his Battle Axe to be better suited for S/L Farms.  -shrugs-

The AE Custom Critter version of Evasion , just like the regular Player Character version of Evasion just grants AoE positional defense; not Fire and Ice typed defense.
Most defensive powersets provide either typed or positional rather than both. 
It's Pool Powers and Defensive Set bonuses that grant both (+Area Defense Set Bonuses are the ones that grant Fire and Ice typed defense and vice versa!).

The reason AA's original post in the thread I linked above recommends not giving custom mobs Evasion is down to common sense: Evasion increases AoE positional defense; and the most efficient way to farm is to constantly spam multiple procbombed AoE attacks (in the case of a BA/Rad it'd likely be Electrifying Fences, Ball Lightning, Axe Cyclone, Pendulum and Ground Zero)... so you really don't want those AoE attacks to be "deflected".

FWIW; the stats of AmericasAngel's mobs inside her Fire Farm AE missions look like this:

 

  
Common alternative methods are either to not give your mobs a defensive set at all (e.g. Fiery Assault + Fiery Melee) or to cherry pick mechanically weak powers from sets like Regeneration. My own AE mobs; for example; look more like this:



 

4 hours ago, JJDrakken said:

But as per usual everyone thinks I know nothing over 20 years of playing this game. Before you say X attack is melee or ranged and not AoE.  I know, again it was pointed that the build I offered was for a S/L Farm. 

 

I'm just tired of always having to explain everything down to basic math and common sense anymore. I've been doing it far to long and I'm tired of that. I'll just post builds, as is I get enough shit directed at me via tells, DMs, on this post, etc..  Really zero point in having to explain every detail down.  That's at state I am anymore, this post was made for my personal fun and enjoyment and to be a helpful person to our community.

If you're no longer getting enjoyment out of it; my advice is to take a break. Speaking from experience real Burnout (e.g. not the Speed Pool power!) is definitely not fun.

I'm certainly not trying to join a dogpile here... just addressing the aforementioned claim about "the point of a fire farm" which the newbie OP was apparently taking to heart.
What matters for choosing a 'Fire' Farm over an 'S/L' Farm in AE or vice-versa is what damage type you're best at withstanding; not what damage type you inflict.
 

[JJDrakken]

@wraith667

 

 

Specified Tanker (Psionic Armor - Electrical Melee).mbd

[Force Redux]

@JJDrakken JJ thanks for your build posts... I've used them in the past to help my with my own building.  👍🏻

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Force Redux