Amy_Amp

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Freedom

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There is your problem

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Spoken like a person who doesn't claim their home server as Freedom.

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No Energy Melee is pretty damn good in terms of DPS, just look at Bill's thread.

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Good thing it's got DPS because it's a joke for AoE.

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In addition to pets that grab part of the aggro, its got Trip Mine for decent damage in the Primary, only Storm really gets that otherwise, and it would be a lot safer for a Traps to fight a tough boss with mezzing capabilities. Less exciting, perhaps, but safer.

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TA has Oil Slick. I do agree with it being safer due to the pets. Those added pets start to mess up mob's AI. I have literally been saved by Acid Mortar taking all of the aggro and me backing away and recovering.

EMP is one of the two best AoE holds in the game. It gets used as a "oh, crap" button in solo situations on my defender. The hit to end recovery has never been anything 1-2 blues couldn't handle.

CC is total play style choice. I swear against using it since the build feels like it should be played at range. Jock, the poster child of Rad/sonic defender side, swears by it since he gets into melee.

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For those wondering, /sr will be the ideal for Claws. One, because Claws is end friendly. Two, because /sr really doesn't care if you knock stuff around like Shockwave will do. I pretty much locked into playing a Claws/sr brute a number of issues ago. I'm currently soloing a Claws/sr scrapper and working on the Hollows zone arcs. I'm almost done with them.

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I'm actually thinking about making a Claws/Dark. Already have an SR brute and I don't like doubling powersets within ATs.

Claws/Fire will probably be pretty sick too.

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Outside of /sr, /dark would be my next pick. If I could find room and time to level a Claws/dark, I would.

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I think I remmeber putting frostworks on 1 imp at one time, just to check that, and I'm pretty sure the 1 frostworks didn't cap them. (I forget if I was slotted)

Either way... use frostworks on your team mates not your pets.... ><

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Frostworks is the most skippable power in the set. And yes, for those not in the know, Cold is brutal for power selection. It's pretty much on the level of Mind control. If you think Mind/rad is difficult to build...mu ha ha ha.

I would go Ice/cold if I could get myself to roll one. I rolled a Cold/ice def to kill time and eventually rolled a Ice/ice blaster and tank as well. Used a great name for it on Freedom(I even saw somebody take an alt version of it since I already had it), and my forthcoming slot on Freedom when I hit 4 years will likely be for my Claws/sr brute. Could probably copy one of my two names I use for my def, or tank on another server. I'm sure I can find room on Virtue for a character even though that server is currently full. No way in hell I roll a Ice controller on a low pop server though so it has to be Freedom, or Virtue.

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given an 8-person team built entirely of the clueless and badly built, how long does it take you to get through a 54 Maniac boss farm, and how many people die during the run?

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I think you mean 7 people and then you.

For those wondering, /sr will be the ideal for Claws. One, because Claws is end friendly. Two, because /sr really doesn't care if you knock stuff around like Shockwave will do. I pretty much locked into playing a Claws/sr brute a number of issues ago. I'm currently soloing a Claws/sr scrapper and working on the Hollows zone arcs. I'm almost done with them.

This has nothing to do with you, or any build. It's all about AE and it's current screwed up status.

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Well, somebody's got to start it.

Assault Rifle and Traps to be proliferated to defenders in issue 16, announcement here.

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Unless Poison Trap is made better, it's not worth rolling for me. I'm just glad I already have a MM with it so I can still get the set to 50 and mark it off my list though. Don't get me wrong, I would still roll it versus FF. I would say defenders got one of the lesser sets this time around. Claws on brutes = swoon. Just give me Going Rogue so I can make that heroside.

And yeah, I'm surprised as hell that we didn't get Thermal/fire.

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Knowing PF (and by "knowing" I mean "stalking his forum posts for months"), I think he's ultimately interested in soloing AVs, and the damage debuffs, big heal, easy stackability of Tar Patch, pet and hold might all be considerations.

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Considering somebody was soloing AVs with a Ice/cold, a Sonic/cold would work as well. Not saying Sonic/dark is a bad choice. It's one of the few corr/defender combos I would run at this point.

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Have to disagree here. Mind is not the best at AOE control. You have 5 AOE controls but 2 are on really long timers. 1 is useless on teams.

Sorry but this has been debated to eternity and back. Mind has good AOE capabilities but it is not the best by a long shot. It has great tools and great damage.

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So wait, it has 3 AoE powers that aren't on long recharges. It has 4 AoE powers that aren't useless on teams(shakes head at Mass Hyp being useless on a team) and it doesn't even come close to being the best AoE control set?

(walks away mumbling)

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Controller (this one is easy)
Fire/Kin

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If Fire/kin is #1, then Ill/rad is #2. Fire/rad is probably #3, but Ill/emp is a great pairing and is likely the #2 pairing for Ill.

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Blaster
Fire/anything
Elec/Elec

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Archery/mental for the sheer AoE. Fire/fire is too much of a classic to not list. Same as Ice/ice. I have one of both and I like them a lot even though they are complete opposites. Gah, Ice/em needs to be added as well. En/en just for the theme. AR/dev, but mostly back in the day when it was so broken.

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Scrapper (This one is not as easy to determine)
Spines/__
Claws/


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Spines/regen for a classic combo with Spines/wp being the newer one. Spines/dark and Spines/fire for farming. Claws/regen(Wolverine wannabes) and Claws/sr(for all of the cat girls) would be leading by a large margin. MA/sr would be the standard martial arts/Batman guy. Kat and Bs/regen. /regen in generally really for scrappers.

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Scrapper (This one is not as easy to determine)
Spines/__


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The last few times this topic has come up in a thread, it was generally felt that Spines is the least played powerset among scrappers.

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Likely only due to the looks and I still see a decent amount of them(Spines/dark and Spines/fire for farming). Since scrappers are at least within the top 3 of hero ATs played(I forget what the official order of the top 3 is), it's hard to say what's least played because I see so many of them anyway.

I think there are a number of Stone tanks because they are known for being unkillable in Granite form, but I see a lot of WP tanks as well due to how well that set performs. There were a number of nerfherding threads on WP for sometime after it came out.

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I love the concept of my character, but for example, one thing that bugs me is I can only control one or 2 things, while other controllers are able to control several things. I've tried controlling the strays to feel useful.

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First of all, if you like the concept so much, don't worry too much how uber it is. Second, if you are only controlling 1, or 2 things, pick up more from the Mind primary. /sonic isn't that needy of a secondary so load up on Mind and then sub in /sonic when you get the chance. You could easily have 4 powers from Mind by level 8.

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I was paired up with an earth controller. Maybe I didn't notice the level difference. Seems like earth had a nice aoe around my level.

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Since you haven't reached your teens, Ice, or Earth really haven't taken off yet. Earth has Quicksand which a AoE slow, but it's not that super awesome. Ice has AA, but it's a beast on the blue bar that early. Again, by level 8 you could have four separate controls where you basically bounce back and forth between guys locking down as many as possible.

Also note you are comparing Mind with two of the best control sets. If you were saying you felt like you were being out done by Ill and Grav then something would be up.

FTR, /sonic is highly undervalued and Mind is somewhere in my top 3 favorite sets for controllers. It will make you work your butt off if you really want to become good at it. Compare this to Earth where I feel like I could go on auto-pilot and still come off as an AoE control monster. It pretty much has a control for any situation. It's knowing when to use what that will make it effective.

Fulcrum should be putting you at the damage cap already so there is no need to get bonuses that boost damage with a Ice/kin. If you want a boost damage, you'll have to get it via damage procs. An Ice/ice blaster seems like a very odd pick to farm with. It's too ST based to really mow threw mobs. Fire/mental, or Archery/mental would work. For controllers, Fire/storm is still a good option.

Likely too much upkeep for the returned investment, but CoH has gotten to where I will go through random stages of having a very slight choppiness and this wasn't there "x" amount of issues ago. I can't recall what issue it started, but it hasn't gone away. With graphic upgrades coming of some degree, yeah, I'm not exactly jumping for joy.

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And if all goes well we get a revamped Shard. Somebody needs to be taken out back and beaten for those TFs.

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Well, really, just the first one. The others are average to above average...(I mean really, how often do you get to work for a god to kill another?)

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The one that's vastly filled with hunts is also annoying. They are by in large far too long versus being difficult. I would rather see 4 timed trials where the team has to do some sort of tactics versus just standard fair killing a bunch of mobs and defeat the AV at the end. It's end game content and it looks like it was just tossed together and was deemed difficult just because of how long they were.

And if all goes well we get a revamped Shard. Somebody needs to be taken out back and beaten for those TFs.

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I know this is a dead horse issue but I wanted to voice my concern about AE and what is happening.

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And because this is such a dead horse issue, there's numerous threads you could have posted on instead of starting another.

Kat, Fire, Dark control, SJ, Flurry/SS, and TP.

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(think Arachno's or however you spell it)

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I'm pretty sure Arachnos do get some sort of extra protection from holds. I'm not 100% how recent of a development this is, or if it's been that way from the start, but it's definitely there. IIRC, I've even landed two holds on some LTs and they weren't held.

Demo recording

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WP. You can take more Claws powers than you can with SR.

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/sr has as many skippable powers as /wp does when it's all said and done unless you are skipping SoW and I wouldn't. I think I have the same amount of powers taken from /regen as well and can fit everything in I want from Claws. Plus, there's just something about that "You aren't screwing with me" factor that /sr gets as where /wp like /regen will get hit more often with the stuff that gets annoying, ie end drain.

I'll vote /sr, but I think it will win out anyway.