Blue_Yin_EU

I'd like to come on with my 24 PB Starslinger.

My soon to be lvl 25 PB, Starslinger, is definitely interested in this.

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OK, so far we have:

1) Son of Santa - 29 Dark/Dark Scrapper
2) Mistress Mind Warp - 28 Illusion/Empath Controller
3) Quantum Flash - ?? Illusion/Kin Controller
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

But...

With the TF droppage bug I'm inclined to put this on hold - Citadel's repetitive enough already without us needing to actually re-run parts of it.

Plus the weekend run, which this one was primarily intended to be an alternative to, has been postponed itself - so when things are finally sorted we might be able to get everyone together anyway.

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Now that the bug's been sorted, are you still interested? I'd be up for a TF, and haven't done Citadel yet. I have Fire Bird, a Fire/Eng blaster at 29 or 30 (can't remember which) who might fit?

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As tried other AT's i think defender is the only one i feel comfortable. KD is kinda useless in soloing, so i am wondering what's the best build for solo defender. But there's a point, i can't use every secondary. I think archery or psychic blast will be my secondary.

Thanks for the help by the way.

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If you want a soloing beast of a Defender, try Kin/Elec. I was quite surprised that by late 20s (or was it early 30s? can't remember) I was able to solo Invincible missions as easily as with my scrapper (maybe a tad longer, but pretty safe and quite excitingly blastery action). Basically you can buff your damage, heal, end drain and hold. The end drain is awesome for turning the really dangerous lts and bosses into absolute kittens. Really great combination.

The other great soloing Defender in my book is Dark/Dark - a very versatile toolkit, and with TT and Nightfall as 2 AoE attacks, you can put out pretty respectable damage and melt large groups of mobs away.

I'd say that the Leadership pool and Hasten/Stamina are a must for both these builds btw, if you want to solo on Invinc (Stamina is essential for the Dark/Dark, but not so much for the Kin/Elec obviously - it just makes life a bit easier). It's important not to waste shots, and Tactics plus 1 acc in important powers (or even 2 acc in things like Transfusion) means you can be pretty effective against +2s and even +3s solo. (The Assault damage buff is also quite nice for the Dark/Dark, while Maneouvers helps the Kin/Elec a tiny bit.)

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I heard the team size buff to domination was changed recently, that it hadnt been workin properly before or something.

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Ah that must be it. I was on a couple of biggish teams.

Am I correct in thinking that Domination is now cycling faster? I thought I saw something in the patch notes about that, and I was just playing my Plant/Fire and Dom seemed to be cycling at a much more comfortable pace. She was in Domination mode nearly half the time, it seemed.

It was interesting the psychological effect this had on me. Previously I'd been a bit reckless trying to build up Dom and orienting my gameplay around that. Now that Dom is much more readily available, when I'm not in Dom mode I feel like I'm weakened and more vulnerable, therefore more careful - i.e. Dom feels like "normal" mode.

I suspect some people are going to think this is overpowered, but if it's been okayed by the numbers then it's a great change, and makes me glad I rolled a Dom just before Xmas and she's now 25

Cya Carnifax (I played with you more as Maloth), all the best!

I actually find that it comes up so often and is so accurate that after only a short time pretty much most mobs in a spawn are immobilised, just as much as if I'd used an AoE immob, but with the risk much more spread out. Which is a Good Thing however you look at it - the enemy ain't getting into melee range of the other squishies for a start, and they are forced to use their ranged powers.

Meanwhile that lovely Domination bar is climbing, climbing ... MWAHAHAHAHAHA

With Controllers I've usually skipped the ST immob, and gone with the ST hold and mass immob (as part of "ghetto holding" in combination with the AoE "soft" control), but this experience has forced me to re-think that approach for Doms.

Lots of people heap scorn on single target immobs, but I think they have a good use for Doms, at least for the the Plant/Fire I recently rolled (I fell in love with the AT with a Plant/Thorn, and realised I wanted more damage so re-rolled as Plant/Fire).

What it really is useful for is building up Domination. The single target immob comes up quick, is accurate, and with 3 recharges it fires off very quickly and regularly, regularly enough so that it can be on autohit and and left firing off pretty much randomly, no matter what else you are doing it "fills in" the attack chain, pretty much at the rate of Psi Dart actually (I rolled a Mind/Psi just to check how fast PD is).

Any thoughts?

Interestingly this is relevant to me as I've just "discovered" the Dominator AT, and am well into it. What got me into it was a Plant/Thorn I rolled, and while I loved the Plant side, and the Thorn side was ok, what I loved more was Domination and getting it up as much as poss. Heard Psi was fastest, but didn't like the idea of Psi much thematically - wanted to wreak havoc with AoE damage. Have just rolled a Plant/Fire, and I have to second the opinion of someone above, it totally rocks. Sort of like being a fire version of an Ice/Ice blaster at this stage (before AoE Hold).

Great AT for me, def

Usually play heroes, haven't gotten much into the villain side of things, partly because comp isn't quite up to it, partly because I haven't found a char to settle into. Tried Corruptor which on paper seemed like a Defender with more damage, but because of thermal secondary felt like too much of a buffbot like my kinetic; tried an MM and while I could see that I would enjoy it, I find the AI a bit irritating. Tried a Stalker but the stealth thing doesn't really turn me on.

Finally tried Dominator. Yess! This is the villainous archetype for me!!! Every time those orange "Domination!"s fly up, I feel fulfilled.

Amusingly, I also feel more like roleplaying this char than any other - kind of a cheesy villainous role but fun (a bit like a Vincent Price type).

Also starting to "get" villain teaming. It's all about momentum and building up a head of steam, pretty much defined by the Brute's role. I think the idea is that you are supposed to feel a sense of ownage as a team, rather than beating a challenge you've really created mass havok and mayhem.

All in all, good clean fun!

P.S. Any tips for having Domination come on as much as villainly possible would be greatly appreciated! I've realised Hasten and Stamina are going to be a must, obviously, but any other ideas. Is it worth having recharges in the faster powers, maybe get that single target immob just so it can be spammed to build Dom, etc.?

I've got an Ice/TA on Onion (Trickslide), and she is indeed a control/debuff monster, but very much a team player (pretty much useless solo). Great fun to play.

At first I didn't duplicate the holds and slows (Block of Ice/Ice Arrow and Shiver/Glue Arrow), but I respecced into the duplicates last night and I have to say it's awesome! Bosses get locked down in double time, the mobs are so slow it's pretty much a mass immob. Great stuff.

At the moment my build (at 25) has only 3 of the Primaries (BOI, Shiver and Ice Slick) and all the possible Secondaries to this point, plus 3-slotted Hover for combat maneouverability, TP for travel power and Stealth, and I've just opened up the Medicine pool with Heal Other.

I suppose it's a bit demented to have only 3 of the Primaries, but I wanted to explore the Trick Arrow options and tbh I find single/double Immobs fairly useless in general (although the Ice ones are pretty), and since I plan to keep flitting about with Hover, Cupid-style, Arctic Air isn't any use to me (though it would be a great power if you planned on going more into melee range as a footsoldier).

Not sure how I'll go after this, I might respec back to un-doubled-up, but whatever happens it's a great, fun combo.

One rather nice thing is that because TA is so end-light, all you need to do is slap an endred in each of the Ice powers and you don't really need the Stamina line, which makes it possible to explore the pools more for fun, as I'm doing.

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But so far, everyone has been great. The only problem I'm finding is joining a "good" SG. I dont mind playing in SG all the time, but each SG kinda dissolves and leaves me standing there going "huh" and invited to a new one.

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I found that too. I think that in my case it's because of altitis - I'd get obsessed with one toon for a while, then switch to another and create another, and I'd tend to "lose" all the people I was levelling with and building a relationship with, including SG mates. By the time I got round to playing that toon again (maybe a month or two later) all the old "crew" would either be 50s or have disappeared.

SGs really come into their own in the late game - the final dash to 50 is strangely reminiscent of the first 15 levels, only the levelling takes longer, you have a billion more powers, etc. But there's a similar sense of "camaraderie".

Lots of great comments. I'd just like to bump up Dark/Dark and Kin/Elec. Kinetics is busy busy busy, sometimes incredibly frantic, and if you're in the mood for it there's nothing like it, plus everyone loves you (well everyone apart from melee types who haven't discovered the 'F' key ). Dark/Dark is probably my all-round favourite though. The combo is just so darn well-rounded, and feels so "whole". The only down side is that people generally don't really know what you do. (I often approach it like "I'm a bubbler in reverse".)

Storm is great but I've only had experience of that on my Mind/Storm Controller.

TA is great fun, and the low end usage is a definite plus for certain combos.

I agree with the comment that while Rad looks great on paper, there's something about it that's a bit boring to play (although again, great as a Controller secondary - I have Fire/Rad Controller where it works brilliantly).

I've only just recently rolled an Emp/Psi, so can't comment much on Emp. It's nice to be loved and spread the love!

Ah feck it, they're all great

Just wondering what the best Epic pool would be for a kin/elec "sapper" build, to go for maximum sappage.

More specifically, is the combination of Power Build Up and Short Circuit as good as or better than the combination of Power Sink and Short Circuit, in terms of drain, convenience, etc.?

I'd get Shiver in there, Shiver and Ice Storm are great together and make a great preparation for Blizzard if there are no Controlleres or Tanks around. Shiver does need 2 accs though.

I too play an Ice/Ice blaster (37) with no melee stuff at all. I have hover 3 slotted, and only drop to the ground to lay a helpful ice patch here and there. I've got Hasten, Stamina, Aim, BU and all the primaries (you can have a very fast and fairly continuous attack chain with all the blasts slotted 1 acc 3 dmg 1 endred 1 recharge). I tend to hang back, use AoEs a lot (quite handy with lining up FB), help the scrappers with the bosses and troublesome mobs (usually having held them). I like the double whammy of snipe BFR -> move closer -> FR (both with 2 accs) to hold bosses.

Oh and I use Blizzard a LOT.

I'll be there for 8pm Sunday, scrapper.

Cool, thx for the info! I've been finding I quite like to spend a bit of time in Human Form too (especially if I'm supplementing control for the team), so I'm keeping the Shields and Stamina side.

I'm about to do a respec tomorrow for my WS (lvl 26 atm). So far I'm really enjoying the triform aspect (i.e. I enjoy form switching to match different situations), and I enjoy putting out a constant blasterish stream of damage in whichever form, whether in human, nova or dwarf. I don't solo much, mainly build as big a team as possible to do my mishes, but I do want to be able to solo when I have to. No PvP at the moment.

So my overall thinking about what I should sacrifice to achieve this is to sacrifice shadow cloak, nebulous form, starless step, and essence drain, since I think these are least useful in teams (unless I was aiming to be the team stealther, but I'm not interested in that at the moment).

Next I want to have as much stamina as possible in all 3 forms, including human, so I can make like the Energizer Bunny, even when no Defender buffs are available. I find myself "landing" in human form quite often, and enjoying staying in it for a bit, after double miring, stygian circling when some mobs have died, but sometimes there aren't enough mobs (as their death is too "staggered" over time to give enough return from a big bunch), so my thiking is to slot endreds in the heaviest usage powers in all 3 forms, and have some endmods in both nova and dwarf, as well as stamina for human form.

No accs because I'm aiming to rely on constant miring for acc, from either human or dwarf.

I like the shields, as I've found them useful in human form when managed to match mobs (but I don't reckon slotting up the other two would give enough gain compared to having more damage slots).

So again, the idea is balanced three-form, with damage orientation. What do my esteemed kheldian colleagues here assembled think? Will this build achieve that?

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Hilarion
Level: 50
Archetype: Warshade
Primary: Umbral Blast
Secondary: Umbral Aura
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Shadow Bolt==> Dmg(1)Dmg(3)Dmg(46)
01) --> Absorption==> DmgRes(1)
02) --> Ebon Eye==> Dmg(2)Dmg(3)Dmg(45)
04) --> Gravity Shield==> DmgRes(4)DmgRes(5)DmgRes(5)
06) --> Dark Nova==> TH_Buf(6)TH_Buf(7)TH_Buf(7)EndMod(19)EndMod(37)
08) --> Shadow Blast==> EndRdx(8)Dmg(9)Dmg(11)Dmg(43)
10) --> Hasten==> Rechg(10)Rechg(13)Rechg(42)
12) --> Sunless Mire==> EndRdx(12)Rechg(13)Rechg(15)Rechg(15)
14) --> Penumbral Shield==> DmgRes(14)
16) --> Twilight Shield==> DmgRes(16)
18) --> Gravity Well==> Acc(18)Rechg(19)EndRdx(25)Hold(34)Hold(45)
20) --> Black Dwarf==> DmgRes(20)DmgRes(21)DmgRes(21)EndMod(31)EndMod(36)
22) --> Stygian Circle==> EndRdx(22)EndMod(33)Rechg(34)Heal(34)EndMod(40)
24) --> Swift==> Run(24)
26) --> Gravity Emanation==> EndRdx(26)
28) --> Health==> Heal(28)
30) --> Stamina==> EndMod(30)EndMod(31)EndMod(31)
32) --> Dark Extraction==> EndRdx(32)
35) --> Quasar==> Dmg(35)Dmg(36)Rechg(36)Dmg(40)
38) --> Eclipse==> DmgRes(38)DmgRes(39)DmgRes(39)Rechg(39)Rechg(42)
41) --> Dark Detonation==> EndRdx(41)Dmg(42)Dmg(43)Dmg(43)
44) --> Inky Aspect==> Acc(44)DisDur(45)
47) --> Unchain Essence==> EndRdx(47)Dmg(48)Dmg(48)Dmg(48)
49) --> Orbiting Death==> Acc(49)Dmg(50)Dmg(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Shadow Step==> EndRdx(1)
01) --> Dark Sustenance==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
10) --> Shadow Recall==> Rechg(10)
---------------------------------------------
06) --> Dark Nova Blast==> Dmg(6)Dmg(33)Dmg(40)
06) --> Dark Nova Bolt==> Dmg(6)Dmg(33)Dmg(46)
06) --> Dark Nova Detonation==> EndRdx(6)Dmg(11)Dmg(17)Dmg(27)
06) --> Dark Nova Emmanation==> EndRdx(6)Dmg(9)Dmg(17)Dmg(27)
20) --> Black Dwarf Strike==> Dmg(20)Dmg(29)Dmg(50)
20) --> Black Dwarf Smite==> Dmg(20)Dmg(29)Dmg(46)
20) --> Black Dwarf Mire==> EndRdx(20)Rechg(23)Rechg(23)Rechg(25)
20) --> Black Dwarf Drain==> Acc(20)Heal(37)
20) --> Black Dwarf Step==> EndRdx(20)
20) --> Black Dwarf Antagonize==> Acc(20)Taunt(37)
---------------------------------------------

OK having embarassed myself leading a team to disaster with one of these things in the mid-20s recently (we had 2 wipes then everybody left with various excuses ), and in view of the fact that these b*****s are going to be cropping up fairly regularly in my career as a Warshade, what are the tips and tactics for these? All I know is "all on it", because usually the team blunders into it and so it spawns loads of nictuses. I've read a tactic on the US boards that says only one melee character (pref DA scrap with neg resist) should engage so it only spawns a few and everyone else should target from a distance. Any ideas?

OK folks tell me if the logic of this sounds about right.

I'm not fussed about solo at the moment, or PvP, what I love most is teaming (I usually build a team for all my missions), so I want to maximise what the WS can do that contributes to a team best, which is (presumably - correct me if I'm wrong!): AoE death and supplementary tanking, plus a tad of control.

So the first priority is to have Nova and Dwarf (which I'm 2 levels away from) slotted up 3/3 with thbf/endmod and damres/endmod respectively.

Then to slot up Nova's AoEs with 1 acc + 3 dam (the single target attacks can do with 1 dam in each).

Then to slot up the Dwarf's Antagonize (maybe a couple of accs and a couple taunts?)

Next priority is to slot up the 2 mires with 3 rech.

Next to slot up something that makes me survivable enough in human form so I can fire off the essential human powers that maximise my team output?

But the shields are expensive slot-wise, and annoying to retoggle when mezzed. A the moment I've got all three of them 3-slotted, because I've been playing around with going in and taking the alpha strike with Shadow + 3 shields, to Mire, then Nova. It has to be said this has worked fine up to the teens with mostly non-mezzing mobs, but there will be no point using this tactic when I get Dwarf - no point using this tactic unless I decide to go fully human in the endgame - so then I'll have freed up some slots, and am waiting for respec to rejig it like I'm outlining here. (I think the 3-shield human thing would work great into the later game with Acrobatics, but I don't want to go down that route yet.)

This is where it starts getting hazy for me. I don't know enough about the later powers yet to know what's essential and what's not.

The logic at this point presumably goes: slot up whatever maximises human survivability just while transitioning through human form to buff the other two forms. Mass hold or disorient could do this as well as shields presumably?

?

Any help and discussion would be greatly appreciated.

I'd like to add Thelema, my lvl 38 Dark/Dark Defender to the reserves list for this, as I haven't done this TF yet.

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Yay, grats Blue. You've been stuck with me as a teamie a few times so you really do deserve it.

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lol, thanks!

And thanks everybody. Just rolled a Warshade (Hilarion,Union, now 13) and can't bloody stop playing her.

<sigh> When oh when will I ever get sick of this game?!

Just had some great experiences with my newbie WS (13 now), and I have to say it absolutely takes the biscuit.

8-man team - Tank goes in - I go: Human form - shield up - tp into clumped mobs - Sunless Mire - Nova Form - back up a bit - AoE goodness. Heavens to Betsy!

I love the complexity too, loads to ponder and get your teeth into. It's taking me back to the days when I first got into my main and had to read up minutely about all the powers and weigh up the pros and cons of this v. that.

Well done devs!

Add meeee! Blue Yin, Scrapper, Martial Arts/Super Reflexes/Body Mastery