Chyll

To offer a small response to the villain side of things, I recommend the Radio's arc "The Hit List" for the 10-15 range.
3 missions, none of them 'kill all' or 'escort out'.

The first mission is in Cap and you start in PO, which makes the time on 30 minutes a tad tight, but the Ouroboros Portal shortcut is awesome.

oh!
The group shot is going to be very nice.

While it took me forever to recover from the soreness of holding that pose for as long as he needed....

I will echo the "very cool" comments.
Thanks a ton, KAKTOS!!

I was just fooling around with a lowbie energy/sonic corrupter when it occured to me that a rad/sonic corr would be all sorts of WIN.

Thanks, Jock.
This guide tells me I may actually have to make a rad/sonic and a sonic/rad both.

Nephryte's Dark/Rad/Dark notes added here .

Based upon the same style as my ice/ice blaster " guide ", the following is one example of a Dark/Rad Defender.

When I decided to level a defender I was not sure what kind.
I carefully reviewed everything and started to focus on radiation and dark because I liked each set. I had a fire/rad troller at the time, so I shied away from a rad primary for my defender and that sort of snapped it into place for a Dark/Rad.

I then adopted my first female character, and gave her sort of a sad, tragic background that pushed her into striving to prove herself as a hero. And so Nephryte was born (Nephrite being the type of mineral in dark green jade - I thought it fit dark/rad).

And?
I love the build, and had tons of fun playing it! Tons!
Enough that I went to CoV and built a Rad/Dark Corruptor (which for those not familiar with the ATs there this mix provides access to the same power selections). This ended up being Nephyrte's sister who handled her mutations in a much different way. Anyway, enough rambling, what follows are my basic thoughts on the set.


Dark Miasma
===
Twilight Grasp
A targeted heal - pulls energy from a foe to throw green numbers around your position.
Will you pull your hair out when this misses and your key heal does not hit? Yes.
Will you pull your hair out when the team mate you meant to heal is out of range, or runs away just before your heal fires? Yes.
Will you learn any technique you can to make heals not as necessary? yes
Will you learn to keep track of the enemy, finding the easiest target to heal from in relation to the team mate that needs the heal most? yes.
It is a great tool to teach you about the flow of battle, and tactical awareness. Every defender should play Dark Miasma even for a few levels.

Tar Patch
Access to this power presented a defining moment for who Nephryte would be in Paragon City. This is a great power, but I decided that she would not be a def-troller, and skip any of the soft or hard hold powers that would come up for her. Her powers would be focused on team defense and accuracy. Now, selfishly, this was because I had just leveled a blaster focused on holds and slows and I didn't want to the play anything too similar. (OTOH, Nephryte's Corruptor sister will be relishing the hold powers to give me a different feel with the same sets.)

Darkest Night
I love this power.
Pop it on a foe, and it and all nearby mobs have their accuracy reduced. Pair this with any defense boosting you may be doing and your total damage threat falls quickly. Also a great tool to herd with as it will get you aggro fast (hint: try to drop it just as - or after - the tank goes in).

Howling Twilight
Foe targeted, area of affect, +disorient, causes damage, and will rez any ally in the area. Nice.
Discussion of Howling Twilight can go on forever. Is it a Rez that debuffs? Is it a debuff that Rezzes? These are matters for Socrates or Plato to debate. What matters is you can pull 2 or 3 or 4 or 7 allies to their feet at once. And you will feel so heroic doing it. You will dive into certain death swirling over your fallen friends knowing that they will rise and win due to your sacrifice. You will see allies getting wounded and fire this off, before anyone has fallen to create mass disorientation and draw aggro hoping to buy time for heals, and buffs, and damage. Much fun.

Shadow Fall
Centered on you, an aura that provides some stealth, limited damage resistance, and +All defense to your team. The resistance is particularly nice because it protects against damge types that are rare in general and particularly at the point you can pick it up (Psi the best example). A sweet early power, and it really helps define the set.

(A side note on slotting this one - mostly because I am something of a heretic. Many seem to lean towards slotting this for resistance, for while it is limited damage types the numbers are higher and it includes Psi which is important. The base defense is not particularly high, but it protects against ALL. Combine this with any other buffers on the team, Maneuvers, Darkest Night, and Dark Servant and you start not having to take as much damage and it matters 100% of the time rather than for only certain attacks.... I slot for Defense as primary and work in Resistance to back it up.)

Fearsome Stare
A tough call, because I like this power, but keeping with the concept of the character I skipped it.

Petrifying Gaze
In keeping with the concept of the character I skipped this.

Black Hole
In keeping with the concept of the character I skipped this.

Dark Servant
Your sheep is your friend. It throws heals, holds, tentacles, its own darkest night...
Once Dark Servant arrives you can solo comfortably, get him slotted and you will be on unyielding or even invincible solo.
You cannot slot damage (which sucks because this rules out any IO sets for this pet), but there are a ton of other options - heal, hold, to-hit debuff,... mix and match to your heart's content. He also expires, unlike many other hero pets but a single rechar SO and it is easily always ready when he leaves.


Radiation Blast
===
Neutrino Bolt
Fast recharge gives this a nice DPS, even for a Defender. With some -Defense thrown in. *glee*

X-Ray Beam
Eye beams! sweet! So sweet, my aura is eyes leaking a radiation glow.

Irradiate
I looked at the slots I had planned and something had to go... I did not pick this up.

Electron Haze
A targeted cone effect, this is a nice power. Not only do you get to drop -Defense on multiple targets, it has a damage mitigating knockback effect. Solo, that can often be critical, and in a team it helps even when it annoys folks. It takes practice, however, to keep it from scattering around the tank or scrappers. (I gimped it some to help with the latter by never slotting it for knockback.)

Proton Volley
I skipped this. I debated it at length, but given Neph's tendancy to stay near the action to support the team it just didn't feel like a power I would use much.

Aim
A nice pick-up - more accuracy and a slight damage boost. 'nuff said.

Cosmic Burst
An excellent power, and I think critical to the set. Its extreme damage gives the build some punch and its disorient is reliable with only a single enh boost. This fits nicely with hitting the foes and increasing defensive mitigation by putting the target into a 'drunk dance' rather than attacking someone.

Neutron Bomb
AoE damage is always nice, and this has a reasonable range and good numbers, plus it has the standard -Defense effect of rad. Its a good lead toss into a spawn to help the initial assault from the team.

Atomic Blast
I initially took this power, and it is a pretty reasonable nuke, though, as a defender it clearly lacks punch over what I have seen from blasters. It does come with a nice hold effect, though, which makes it a handy tool for indirect damage mitigation. However, the hold did not fit with Nephryte's concept and the damage result was a let down, and tended to leave me exposing my squishie self and team more than I liked (toggles would drop). I respec'd and dropped this.
(Strategy-wise, however, it works very well with the Epic Dark Consumption. If you have at least 1 'Take a Breath', you can run in to drop Atomic Blast, pop the blue, and then Dark Consumption will restore your endurance off of the held victims. Laugh Out Loud fun.)

Dark Mastery
===
Dark Mastery was a must. By the time I reached this point I was wishing I had made Nephryte a Dark/Dark, so embracing the Dark epic was a natural.

Oppressive Gloom:
This looks like a nice power for people looking to get melee range consistently and the +disorient effect is probably nice. However, I skipped it because the last thing I wanted was to consistently look to get close and the -HP angle would be too much of a threat to keeping this defender on its feet. (I'm squishie enough as it is, durn it.)

Dark Consumption
Handy and slick! When the Endurance dips - jump into a spawn, toss this power, and fall back with a nicely buffed blue.

Dark Embrace
Ah... what to say about this? +Resistance against negative, toxic, smash, and lethal. My health bar was never happier.

Soul Drain
Have not used this as much as Dark Consumption, but it is nice. Some quick localized damage and a to-hit buff is never bad.

Pools
===
Leadership: Nephryte has all 4 from the leadership pool, with Maneuvers a cornerstone of regular use in accord with her concept.

Fitness: I wish that Stamina wasn't so darn useful - so many slots spent to get it but Nephryte can and does run all 3 leadership toggles, Shadow Fall, Darkest Night, and Dark Embrace at the same time and still contribute blasts and heals and not break a sweat in a team setting. Solo, I tend to skip all but maneuvers - just flipping them on as needed.

Accolades: So far, just the The Atlas Medallion but so very, very close to Portal Jockey...

Travel: take to suit. I focused on Flight, sort of at random. This ended up working later when happenstance got me Freebird IOs with +stealth - added to Shadow Fall I can pretty much go where I like... but Recall Friend is nice when trying to use the targeted Howling Twilight or keep Vengeance effecient, so I also have that.

Medicine: popular with defenders in general, the only thing I ever had from this was Stimulant. This gets a bad rap, I think, due to its interrupt problems, but it is a useful tool to get stunned and held allies back into the fight. I dropped it in a late respec though as I found I was using it less and less.

Inventions
===
Little advice here - whatever suits, or build on the drops you get.
However, I have managed to look things over and focus on mez resistance to get me back in play as quick as possible. I have also tried to focuse on regeneration and recovery bonuses.



Now, what are the weaknesses of this build?

I love the build, but it isn't perfect.
First - it plays really slow solo until you get your pet at 32. Really slow. Without a team you are in for some long missions.

Second - you will draw aggro in any team. Your heal is targeted and generates aggro, Darkest Night draws aggro , Howling Twilight draws aggro, plus any attacks you launch. Be prepared to take hits.

Third, and probably biggest weakness, is a nearly complete and total lack of Mez protection. I know this is a common complaint, but you support your TEAM with your toggles and these disappear if you get held.

There is nothing as sad as getting held and, while being blasted to pieces, watching your team of green friends drop to yellow, orange, and head into red as you hit the floor.... You do get the immediate satisfaction, of course, of being able to say "see, I was making a difference" though, somehow, it isn't the most satisfying of satisfactions....

Going for acrobatics on this build would probably be more than worth it, and in retrospect would make jumping a preferred travel selection.

CONCLUSION
==========
Well, that's it.
This concludes today's random Dark/Rad/Dark thoughts for your Defender fruit salad.

I'm darn happy with how my char is looking in this. Can't wait for the color.

We are bad [censored] supers, aren't we?

Chyll's Rendition of the Ice/Ice Blaster

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...c=#Post7694969

Chyll's Rendition of an Ice/Ice Blaster
Copyright 2006 by Noel Weer (Chyll)
v1 -- Feb, 2007


Introduction
============
There are a lot of good guides out there for Ice/* and Ice/Ice... this isn't one of them.

What this is meant to be, is a description of how one Character - Chyll - took Ice/Ice as a Blaster and made it his own. No More, No Less.

Now, this was my first (yes, first) character. I read through things and I understood Blasters (or thought I understood - I was so naive), and the idea of having stand-off power was appealing. Now, personally, I liked (and still do) the control aspects of Ice. The idea of being able to do damage to a foe AND to slow and freeze his/her minions is absolutely awesome... so Chyll was born.

Some items of note:

* Chyll has never done a respec. He is what he is.
* Perhaps at least 65% of his time has worked solo. Maybe higher, but it is hard to judge the quality versus the quantity of time leveling between 1-30 and 30-50.
* This will have some, but little information on slotting. That is so often a personal choice or an optimization choice. Suffice to say that Chyll slots as his whims take him.
* Oh, and Chyll's time leveling was primarily under I8, though it caught the tail end of I7.

PRIMARY ICE BLAST
=================
Ice Bolt: Blast 1 - your basic little bolt. Decent range, low damage, a bit of slow, and cheap. It also recharges pretty quick, which keeps it attractive throughout the game.

(A quick touch on slotting here, at the end of his leveling career Chyll has his three main blasts all with 3x Dmg, 1x Accuracy, 1x Slow, 1xEnd Reduc)

Ice Blast: Blast 2 - better damage, again good range, and a bit of slow. Fun, reliable, decent recharge and fast delivery. You're throwing this no less at 45 than you did at 10.

Frost Breath: A nice, nice Area of Effect (AoE) power. Most of the blaster powers here deal damage one mob at a time, but the first time you kick this off and see orange numbers zing up from 3 or 4 or 6 mobs... Joy! Heck, every time after that you will still take pleasure.

It is a cone that you target off of a mob, and it takes practice to position it properly, as it seems narrow. Oh, and it slows them some - so again with the joy. So much so that I agree with what I have read elsewhere and I am not afraid to use it on even single opponents.

The warning is that all of the mobs it hits (and their brothers, and cousins, dogs, and goldfish) will be very cross with you. Lots of aggro if you pop it on a tightly packed group. Not a little... a lot. So, if the tank doesn't have all the aggro held or you fire it too soon - be prepared. Well worth the risk, though. Now, solo, not a big deal. You are going to aggro them anyway. On team, just watch it, or the mobs will be flowing into the backfield to find you and all your little squishie friends.

Aim: More Accuracy? A little more damage? Yay!!!

Freeze Ray: Bread and butter for the icy blaster. Get it as soon as you can. It has some damage, but not much. I do not count on it for damage, or use it that way. It's quick (rapid, speedy - no really, it's fast) recharge lets you freeze minion after minion to keep them still and in sight for team mates or you to target at your leisure.

Ice Storm: This power is an easy selection in the early levels. It is quite useful for a couple of reasons:
1) It slows any mobs in its effect. Even if they manage to get out of the area, they will carry that with them a bit. And slow is good.
2) You target an area rather than a mob
3) Useful against the annoying Clockwork Gears...
4) Mobs will steer clear of entering it, if they weren't hit at first. This is good for choking an area.

For the downside:
1) The description says it does damage... but it isn't much. I am not sure why they bother, because even after a slot or two for damage I could not tell the difference. I pulled them for Slows.
2) Tanks and scrappers will be annoyed if you toss it in a melee, as the mobs will scatter. So hold it for solo work, or if the melee is going south and scattering seems like a good idea.

I rarely use this in the later levels... Every now and then popping it just before Blizzard in order to stack them. But the long animation times of the two make this rare. Basically, this is a likely respec target (if I ever do one).

Bitter Ice Blast: Blast 3 - the damage on this is very nice, though the range is somewhat shorter and its End cost is noticably higher than the other blasts. It's range is a limiting factor on occasion, but you get quite good at measuring out the distance for its use or sliding in to fire it and duck back out again. Chyll throws this out all the time.

Bitter Freeze Ray (or BFR): This, as far as Chyll is concerned, is a must have power. Great range, solid damage, and it finishes with a big fat freeze. The range is so long that it is nearly a "snipe" power. Awesome to lead off with, just outside the opponents' aggro range. Chyll has it slotted with Damage, because it does nice orange numbers, but is re-evaluating for more freeze power.

Better yet, if you hit bosses with a BFR and follow it with a straight Freeze Ray, they combine to lock them down. Freezing a boss during a tight fight sometimes is the few seconds of breather that you and/or a team will need. And there is nothing quite like getting an AV locked up, even for just a few seconds. The joy of seeing Ghost Widow tighly held in Chyll's ice was... well, I was giddy...

Downside? A really long animation time. So long that I sometimes fire it, and then see the target freeze before it leaves Chyll's hands (those darn orange numbers don't go up until it hits, though).

Blizzard: as with Ice Storm, Blizzard is an AoE that you can drop on an area rather than a target - which can be just what the doctor ordered. It slows the enemy, reduces their accuracy, messes with their recharge, and best of all it puts them into a check for knockdown - again and again and again. I have seen talk ranging from top "nuke" power to worst. I do not know... I do know that when it works, it works well. And while some mobs will run out of its effect, paired with a well placed Shiver or Frost Breath... no problem. A nice tactic is using it in a narrow hallway or throwing it into a room with a single exit - much harder for mobs to escape then.

It will drain all of your Enduranec, no matter how much you have left, so I horde Blues to get me active after throwing it.

SECONDARY ICE MANIPULATION
==========================

Chilblain: Chilblain is good fun, it traps the mob in place (roots it). The mob can still fire ranged attacks, or even melee if you are next to it, but they cannot move. It's damage early is wonderful. Best, though is that it recharges wicked fast. Chyll uses it to stop runners, or ground flyers. It also is slick for taking down the last few ticks on badly wounded minions to save blasts for other targets. Of course, that is solo. Rarely used in team play, except to pull down a flyer that a team mate may be struggling with in the corner of my eye.

A fun power, that reminds me of the early days of first playing CoH... I try to use it at least once in each mission.

Frozen Fists: This is a melee powers with a slight slow effect. Chyll is a Blaster. He is not a "blapper". In fact, I ended up with frozen fists more "just in case" and I have considered respec'ing out of it more than once.

Ice Sword: Did I mention Chyll is not a blapper? I never took Ice Sword.

Chilling Embrace: basically you generate so much cold temperature off of yourself that a ring of cold centered on you slows any mob near you and motivates them to run away from you. I took this because it sounded cool, and would help maintain my "avoid melee" approach. It is a toggle, and one that I think contributed to some of my early Endurance problems. But it worked, and I was glad I had it. Then, somewhere in the late-20s I quit using it. It sat there taking on dust in my tray. I considered respec to get rid of it.... then in the 40s I found myself using it again, off and on. Seeing mobs turn away from me with little ice crystals on them has brought back fond memories of tussling with Hellions. Chyll is going to keep this power.

Build Up: More damage? A little more Accuracy? Yay!!!

Ice Patch: What a fun power. A circle of ice forms around you, and mobs on it have a chance to fall down - over and over again. Great to throw when solo and they crowd around you - prevents melee damage nicely. I also enjoy using this with a herding Tank (or even the occasional scrapper). They announce "here" and I run over and get in position. As the Tank comes running back, I drop Ice and back away. The mobs hit the patch and just stack and stack... all lined up for Shiver, Frost Breath, or Blizzard. A beautiful thing.

Shiver: Big fun. This cone on this is wide, and the slow effect here seems more dramatic then any other. Maybe it is just that you get to see it hit so many foes at once. Regardless, it works. Shiver keeps mobs running at you slowed to be shot before they get to you, and tossed into a melee around a tank it really helps reduce the enemies' efforts and keeps your mates alive - even if no one ever notices.

Freezing Touch: I guess this is a melee Freeze Ray. Tempting. And if I did respec and dropped Frozen Fists, this would be the replacement. In other words, I do not have this power.

Frozen Aura: I read too much bad about this on the forums, and at the time it became available, I was focused on other things (what those were I cannot remember). I do not have it, and love Flash Freeze (see below) too much to think I would ever need to get this.

COLD MASTERY POWERS
===================
As an Ice/Ice Chyll had to select Cold Mastery. Nothing else would work.

Cold Mastery allows even more "control your foes" and much needed defense. The former is more of a good thing, and the latter is just sweet!

Snowstorm: I like this power when I see others use it, and get jealous that they have a cooler ice power than I do... but I have reluctantly not taken it.

Flash Freeze: this is Ice at its coolest! You target a mob, and he and all enemies around are at risk of taking a little damage and being frozen. Ok, the freeze is only a sleep - so touch them and they "wake up" (the ice breaks) but as a solo player this is awesome. Freeze the spawn, and then start taking them out one by one. The Lts should bee gone before the minions get free. Too fun!

Ice Armor: looks just like Tank Ice Armor (which I don't really like) but it provides defense! Sorely lacking as a blaster. And it protects against lethal and smash - common types - so it is too good to pass up. It is a toggle, though, and with it running I found that I had to watch my End balance again, so I slotted End Reduction, which helped. Also, it drops with stuns and sleeps, and I find that I forget to turn it back on but I tend to notice its absence now when the health bar starts to dip. Totally worth it, all considered.

Oh, not only is it defense, but it can also slot with dmg resistance, too. Nice. Hoping to slot this with 2x Def, 2xRes, & 2xEndReduc

Hibernate: Outstanding! getting pounded? about to die... Hibernate... watch the mobs run around frustated that you are going back to full strength... and then pop out and get them. Don't even need to slot it, other than a single Recharge. Just about perfect - especially as a solo player. Saved my cold bacon more times already than I can count.

POOL POWERS
===========
I know these are personal choice, but this is the story of Chyll, right? So this is what happened here.

Travel
------
As a n00b I didn't take a travel power when I could have... I just couldn't justify super speed for a frozen guy. Teleportation didn't fit. Super jump? uh... Fly? Maybe.... and then I figured out what a pain running everywhere was. At level 18 (or was it 20?) Chyll got to fly. Justification was control of surrounding air temperature gave him lift... It is fun, and slotted so he is pretty quick with it now too. Not superspeed quick, but I am rarely last to any mish.

Fitness
-------
When I ran into Endurance problems in the 20s, Stamina became a goal.
Swift was slotted for Flight (who says flyers have to be slow?).
Health is just plain useful.
And then Stamina, triple slotted for Endurance Mod. Ah... so much better.

Speed
-----
Believe it or not, even tho I now recognize that most builds insist that Hasten is a "must have", Chyll did not take it until level 49...
Why? I was Endurance shy, mostly. At first, I thought the recharge would be nice, but if I didn't have the Endurance to fire off and control what I had without Hasten, what was the point? Then after Chyll's End problems faded, there were just too many other cool powers to grab. It took an alt with Hasten to make me realize it could be useful, particularly in a team setting. So when it came down to Ice Storm (Cold Mastery) or Hasten... Hasten finally won out, barely.

ACCOLADES
=========
Chyll has not been a badge hound most of his career, but some of the Accolade powers looked useful, and without trying he had a lot of the necessary badges. For a short time in the mid-40s it then became his mission in life to gain accolades.

Crey Freeze Pistol: As an Ice/Ice how could he not get a freeze ray? mildly useful, but with the long recharge, he has a lot more slow ability at his disposal in any one fight. This sits in the tray often - he pops it on elite bosses or AVs to get just a tad more "ooompf".

Geas of the Kind Ones: Very nice, you just can't scoff at +Recharge, +Recovery, & +Accuracy. Scarf some Lucks or other protection first though due to the -Defense. As a blaster, I feel squishie enough as it is.

Atlas Medallion: +5% max endurance - never a problem spending that little extra bit more. And waiting for that extended recharge to a full blue bar... tough, I know, but I can suck it up.

Freedom Phalanx Reserve: +10% max health?! Gimme.

Vanguard: very nice. "double the duration of all your Disorient, Hold, Immobilize, Fear, Confuse and Sleep powers". Again a long recharge time - so try to pick and choose - but when Chyll can deliver Hold, Immobilize, and sleep (yay, Flash Freeze!) the added duration to those effects just can't be ignored. If it just worked on Slows, too...

CONCLUSION
==========
That's Chyll...
Is he perfect? No. But I like him, warts and all.
If you need anything frozen on Justice, just give me a call.