Lord Mayhem

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Just have a few blues ready for when you go on your killing spree.

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Easier said than done With all of my characters I loot mainly yellows, reds and greens - I find blues very rare, even rarer than purples/oranges (not as rare as Break Frees and Awakens though) - and there's no way I'm leaving a mission halfway through to go and buy blues

But it's not such a hassle if my Dom isn't in combat, because there's always Rest.

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Hmm.. it fills up your endurance bar at the start but I think end recovery is normal for the duration. Certainly seems so anyway, since I often run out of endurance when Domination is active due to my mad holding and blasting rampage.

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Yeah I find the exact same thing happens to me when I play my Dom - it would be nice if we got an Endurance top-up at the end of Domination as well as at the start, hehe

Like OV_ohms has said there are basically two things that build Fury:

1) Making attacks (hit or miss)
2) Being attacked (hit or miss)

Only "click powers" count for Fury building (area damage "toggle powers" like Blazing Aura, Death Shroud & Mud Pots don’t build Fury) and using an attack power counts as one attack, so Flurry and other slowly animating attacks (Jump Kick, Shadow Maul, etc.) are very poor for building Fury - that's because Fury decays at a constant rate, no matter what you’re doing, so slow attacks actually lose you Fury over the time they take to animate.

So to build Fury quickly use fast attacks in a continuous chain with no gaps/breaks. Brawl, Boxing, Jab, Stone Fist, Energy Punch, Shadow Punch etc. are great Fury-builders as they animate fast (anything that animates faster than 2 seconds is good) and also have low recharges (under 6 seconds is best - Recharge Reducer SOs are your friend), so its easier for you to chain together several attacks with no gaps (usually 3-4 attacks for a continuous chain). It's also a good idea to set one of those fast attacks as your "auto-power" (hold down CTRL and left-click the power in your tray) so it will automatically be used if there are any gaps/breaks in your normal chain of attacks.

Solo most of my Fury comes from my own attacks, but in teams the fights go faster so I find the only way to build Fury quickly is by making sure I'm attacked by multiple enemies at once. You can ensure this by being the first team-member to get into combat (you take the "alpha strike" - all enemies attack you, because you’re the first target they see - just be sure you can survive it! ) and/or by using a damage aura toggle (like Blazing Aura, Death Shroud or Mud Pots - I think Invincibility has a taunting effect too) or other area attack to annoy as many enemies as possible.

Knockback/knockdown really annoys me, so I actually took Acrobatics earlier than I'd planned (at L22) because I was getting tired of being bounced off the floor by every bad guy with a shotgun, mallet, grenade launcher, etc.

Re: Hold protection - You probably read my comment on the other thread. To qualify it, the only reason I'm not sure about Plasma Shield's hold protection is because in a team after a toggle-crash I did get held when Plasma Shield was up but Acro was down. Admittedly I was having quite a lot of Holds stacked on me at that moment so even if Acro was up it may not have helped. But that was an isolated event - I've not been Held at any other point in my 18 levels (L22-40) with both Plasma Shield & Acrobatics up. I've only had to suffer from fear/terrify, placate and confuse - like pretty much everyone else (except /Darks and /Ninjitsu Stalkers who get Fear protection).

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2. An inherent mez resistance power ? - maybe just against psionics ( we should have an extraordinary large brain considering our AT :P ) - because if you get held, or asleep you can't control your pets so you are a total joke ( others might say they are defenseless too when held, but we MMs have the lowest hitpoints so we die way quicker than any other held AT ).

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Can you not issue commands to your pets when Held? I've been able to control pets with my Mastermind while Held/Feared/Mezzed, using both the preset hotkeys and my keybinds, I just can't use any powers (same as other ATs).

I don't think the game counts pet commands as a power - in the same way that you can still talk to your team while Mezzed/Held/Feared, you can still "talk" to your pets too.

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Ah i wasnt aware that ET doesnt crit, that sucks. Still in a frantic situation I can see it being the better choice (given the long animation of TF) to get away before the hoardes and their pbaoes decend

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Yeah I think they decided it already did obscene amounts of damage, so a crit would have been too much - so the only bonus for using it from Hide, like you said, is not suffering the 10% HP loss.

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My union stalker is only lvl 8 or 9, its hard not knowing anyone and I dont like to spam the sg for help from the highbies yet

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I'm in a small SG of real-life friends so usually we're lucky if more than a couple of us are online, though my global friends list is fairly long

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I also make my pvp characters tiny to make it slightly harder for them to lock on me

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Yeah DAoC taught me the value of having a tiny character for PvP - my friends persuaded me to play Hibernia with them (I preferred Midgard) but I consoled myself by making a tiny Lurikeen Eldritch - the nastiest things come in small packages

But my old Stalker is L10 and HUGE. Considering how EM's pom-poms look on a non-huge body I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't just keep him, even though I'd rather use his concept for an Elec/Elec Brute (wish Cryptic would release some details about those powersets - might make my decision easier).

My Dominator is also L10, if you want some groupage in the meantime - I'm on most evenings, although it won't be til after 10pm GMT tonight because of Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica on SkyOne

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As for using placate followed by bonsmasher/Total focus /em slap, think big and dont plan for low lvls , Energy transfer is a great power with a fast animation time. It also doesnt hit you with the -10% to health if you strike while hidden

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Won't Total Focus do more damage than Energy Transfer from Hide/Placate, because ET doesn't crit?

For PvP I was thinking: Build Up -> AS -> ET -> Stun -> Placate -> TF - > BS -> EP

... and then probably Teleport, regardless of whether my target is alive or dead I’d be willing to eat a 10% HP loss for better burst dps

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I need to get my pvp stalker on Union lvld so give me a shoult and we can team

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Sure thing - what level is your Union Stalker? I just updated my sig with all of my Union characters, though lately I’ve just been playing Raven Shadow and Baron Steelfist.

I recreated my Stalker last night (named Ghost Spider), but I still need to tweak his costume - I made him too short/small then discovered that EM’s glowing pom-poms don’t scale so he looks ridiculous (his entire torso & head is swallowed up by the pom-poms) - so I need to find a balance between size/height and pom-poms that I’m happy with

My old EM/EA is 7 foot tall with large robotic gauntlets so he never had pom-pom issues - it just looked like his gloves had an aura

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Thats about as tight as its going to get it seems and I agree, lvl 4 is a big waste. Using TP as your travel I feel stamina is vital.

I would however drop the recharge in AS, given that its recharge time is just a second or two behind hides rotation its a waste of a slot IMO, I grabbed the extra 5% on mine but I think yours would be better put into swift or hurdle for better manueverability while you are within the opponents. I would also suggest losing a dis dur from stun so you could get 3 slots in either hurdle or swift (lose one from stun and the recharge from AS)

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The recharge in AS was for team PvE, so I could placate and get in a second AS more quickly. Admittedly it would be useless in PvP, where I'd follow the Placate with a Bone Smasher (later Total Focus).

Considering what you've said about combat manoeuvrability, and consulting SherkSilver's character builder, I've realised that 3 Jump SOs in Hurdle and a Jump SO in Sprint would give me a similar jump speed (just not height) of unslotted Super Jump on its own, with the advantage that it can't be suppressed So I'll probably do that.

Thanks for all your advice - I feel much happier about my build now - I'm going to stick with EM/EA for its PvP advantages (even though I think EM/Regen would be less painful in PvE - but I already have /Regen on another character anyway) and I've come up with a new concept I feel happy with. Fortunately I also have a RL friend joining the game soon who I plan to duo with a lot, so I'll be able to level my Stalker with him (I'm hoping he plays a Dominator hehe).

My Mind/Icy Dom isn't very high level, but it has absolutely no problems solo (even against Elite Bosses), and I don't think it will. At L2 you can have the following 3 ranged attacks:

Mesmerise (single target Sleep & Psionic damage, with bonus accuracy so rarely misses)
Dominate (single target Hold & Psionic damage, with bonus accuracy so rarely misses)
Ice Bolt (single target Slow, -recharge & Cold damage)

All 3 have decent duration, fast recharge (easy to stack them on bosses) and a hard-to-resist damage type. Against a typical 3-minion spawn you can put one to sleep, hold another and slow the third. After the third dies you should be able to kill the other two without being attacked by them at all. Also because you're using so many control powers constantly your Domination bar fills up very quickly (can often use it twice per mission - a great way to top up your Endurance so you can keep killing with little downtime). So you've just left the tutorial and you already have a great attack chain for safe soloing.

Icy Assault may not have as much damage as Energy, but it's safer (every attack has Slow and -recharge), should be less resistable than most other damage types, and still gets Power Boost. Mind Control has the best area control in the game including confuse powers so the enemy are too busy killing each other to notice you The Mind/Icy combination might not be as fast at killing as say Fire/Energy (although Fire doesn't get Imps til 32), but it's going to be safer solo and probably with much less downtime.

Last week I was actually in a team with two other Doms (both Ice/Ice) - that's the most Doms I've seen in one place since beta

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Good point. I did mean if I was worried about knockback I would turn acrobatics on eg freaks. Don't know if I am right about this but thought most of a dark/fire brutes status resist was plasma shield

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Fire Shield has the disorient/stun resist. Plasma Shield has sleep/mez and weak hold resist. Which is why almost all /Fire brutes I've seen in the game have taken Leaping pool for the missing immobilise and knockback resist.

/EA, /Invul and /Stone get all of those status resists without needing Leaping pool (EA also gets protection from repel and TP foe).

/Dark gets sleep, hold and disorient resist, can get immobilise resist from Cloak of Darkness, but doesn't have knockback resist (so you still need Acrobatics). But /Dark does get Fear/Terror resist, along with Psionic damage resist, and none of the other brute sets have either of those.

I don't know if the magnitudes of all the resists are the same from set to set - I read that most are mag3. I have a feeling the Hold resist on /Fire might only be mag1 or mag2, though, because I've had Holds overlapped on me after a toggle-crash when I had Plasma Shield up but not Acrobatics.

Fire certainly has the weakest status protection of any brute set, but it's only an issue if you dislike super-jump as a travel power - thankfully I love it

Thanks for the answers guys - very helpful - I'm reworking my build as I type this. I think I'll stick with EM/EA (though I might remake my current EM/EA to change concept). I've been considering EM/Regen though - I just have to work out what's more important to me: the TP/repel protection, Energy Drain and Overload from EA, or the extra PvE/PvP survivability of having the heals from Regen.

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Ouch I dont like to consider any build without stamina

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Me neither, but going without Fitness pool certainly makes it easier to fit everything else in What you said about Hasten made me realise that I often forget to use it on my characters that have it. Dropping Hasten, Repulse and Air Superiority (which means I lose the option of taking Fly instead of Hover) will let me fit in Stamina. I wish I could fit in Fly... I guess I'll have to find out first hand how bad 3-slotted Hover is So here's what the potential build now looks like - I fully expect it to be horrific to play/travel with until I get SOs

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Stalker - EnergyM + EnergyA (to L40)
Level: 50
Archetype: Stalker
Primary: Energy Melee
Secondary: Energy Aura
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01) --> Energy Punch==> Acc(1)Acc(3)Dmg(3)Dmg(5)Dmg(5)
01) --> Hide==> DefBuf(1)
02) --> Bone Smasher==> Acc(2)Acc(7)Dmg(7)Dmg(9)Dmg(9)Rechg(31)
04) --> Kinetic Shield==> DefBuf(4)
06) --> Assassin's Strike==> Acc(6)Acc(11)Dmg(11)Dmg(13)Dmg(13)Rechg(39)
08) --> Build Up==> Rechg(8)Rechg(17)Rechg(17)
10) --> Teleport Foe==> Acc(10)Acc(23)
12) --> Entropy Shield==> EndRdx(12)
14) --> Teleport==> EndRdx(14)EndRdx(15)EndRdx(15)Range(25)Range(25)Range(39)
16) --> Placate==> Rechg(16)Rechg(19)Rechg(19)
18) --> Stun==> Acc(18)Acc(21)DisDur(21)DisDur(23)
20) --> Hover==> Fly(20)Fly(31)Fly(31)
22) --> Hurdle==> Jump(22)
24) --> Stealth==> EndRdx(24)
26) --> Energy Transfer==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Dmg(27)Dmg(29)Dmg(29)Rechg(36)
28) --> Swift==> Run(28)
30) --> Stamina==> EndMod(30)EndMod(33)EndMod(33)
32) --> Total Focus==> Acc(32)Acc(33)Dmg(34)Dmg(34)Dmg(34)EndRdx(39)
35) --> Energy Drain==> EndMod(35)EndMod(36)EndMod(36)Rechg(37)Rechg(37)Rechg(37)
38) --> Overload==> Rechg(38)Rechg(40)DefBuf(40)DefBuf(40)
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Any suggestions?

I don't like being forced into taking Kinetic Shield at L4 (I guess it might be handy in PvE teams), but I didn't want Power Shield or Barrage (worthless without slots - my current EM/EA has it instead of Kinetic Shield) - it's just annoying because I'd rather have Air Superiority and Fly instead of Hover and Kinetic Shield

The /Regen build I'm considering looks very similar except that instead of Kinetic Shield, Entropy Shield, Energy Drain and Overload I instead have Reconstruction, Integration, Dull Pain and Instant Healing, with a few powers changing positions where necessary. /Regen has the advantage that I'm not forced into a power I don't want at L4 (I can take Reconstruction there instead), but the disadvantage that it's slightly more slot-hungry than /EA and I wouldn't get to try out the tactic I have in mind for Energy Drain.

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SS is brillaint though. Only go with a few attacks - Punch, Haymaker, Knockout Blow, Rage, Hurl and Foot Stomp. I made the mistake of going with Taunt instead of Swift so I use even more end. up. Definitly do with the Auto Powers, but the rest is upto you.

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I went Jab, Haymaker, Air Superiority (looked better than Punch on paper) - its nice having a full attack chain so early (with Brawl to fill occasional gaps til I get SO Recharges) - and Knockout Blow, which is fantastic fun. SS has much more single-target SMASH! than my Fire/ had at this level!

I definitely want Rage, Foot Stomp and Hurl later, although I'm worried about the 10sec crash at the end of Rage - is it bad?

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not a better heal a more powerful one the MAJOR disadvantage being u need a mob to draw from, it's like the /poison for mm's (not sure if other chars get it) is far far superior at pure debuffs than anything /dark has BUT it only hits one person instead of the /dark's hit that person and all mobs that go near him also get effected for x amount of time

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Very true, but I don't find hitting stuff much of a problem with the /dark heal - admittedly I have 3 accuracy DOs in it atm, but I only ever need to use it in combat so its not a drawback that I need a target. By comparison my /rad heal doesn't seem to heal enough unslotted to be worth many slots, so ironically I only use it as a downtime reducer between fights, where admittedly its better than the /dark heal.

Yeah only MMs get /poison, and it has the biggest single target heal in CoV (about 80% 3-slotted with heals), but with the disadvantage (compared to /rad and /dark) that it's single target and the MM can't heal himself with it (my L39 necro/poison friend was quite happy to have my L20 robot/dark lackeyed last night against Infernal, because I could heal him).

The poison debuffs are fantastic against AVs/Heroes (if they hit), but generally I prefer /dark for its area debuffs, especially because /poison doesn't get auto-hit area debuffs til the last two powers (both of which my friend dropped because he didn't find them that good considering their long recharges), whereas /dark gets Tar Patch, Darkest Night & Howling Twilight very early.

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I have played a dark/fire brute to the dizzy heights of L11 & it is very hard going. You eat endurance at an incredible rate and that with end red in every attack.

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I've found SS/Dark quite End-hungry as well, probably because of my over-use of Knockout Blow (but it's SOOO much fun) and the fact I was trying to run all 3 toggles. But when solo I've actually run some missions without the toggles and it balances HP/End/Fury nicely - instead of resting after every fight I only need to rest every 5+ fights, because once my Fury is high I don't take much damage as things die so fast. And I only slot my powers with Accuracy TOs/DOs - because not missing means less wasted Endurance. Seems to work.

I'm hoping this tactic will carry me through to L22, then SOs can start to cure the End problems.

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holds and knockbacks are infrequent following the leaping pool to acrobatics.
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I only turn toggles on when necessary-e.g. if knockbacked-acrobatics gets turned on

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I know you were mainly talking about Acrobatics' knockback protection, it just bears mentioning that you can't turn on Acrobatics to cure yourself of a Hold (like you can with Combat Jumping and immobilises) - iirc the only power/insp you can use when Held is a Break-Free type insp (oh and pet command powers if you're a Mastermind). Personally I leave Acrobatics up all the time (admittedly I don't have End probs) - I'd hate to forget to activate it going into battle against a mob with Hold powers, only to find myself toggle-dropped, held, with no break-frees and a whole spawn beating on me

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It was beyond awful to lvl up to 30, fortunately I team well and have good friends. Now I can solo easily enough with the 3 person mobs and teaming isnt a slackfest , its not a great pve build but it certainly does well enough if you know your limitations (and know how to run fast )

I like the hit and run style play (all I can do really with my minimal def ) I feel it fits a stalker properly, they will never be comparable to similar powered scrappers so I dont bother trying, stab, impale, run right round the building and stab again

Impale is great for those with PBAOEs and I really couldnt do without it but EM is a much stronger power, its also a lot of fun watching people try and TP u with entropy sheild on EA is worth it just for that (only reason I took it ) I would say you wont go far wrong with EM/EA imo, take TP foe though or the lack of range when they are in hurricane will frustrate (sure you know this anyway)

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Yeah I think I posted a build up here on the boards I was considering for the EM/EA - but my current build is based on tactics that I'm just not sure will work, and I think that's my problem and what I find dispiriting - I'm gimping myself in PvE when I don't even know if my power choices are good for PvP So I have a few more questions:

1) Do you kill more airborne targets than ground targets? Have you tried to AS targets in mid-air while in Fly, or do you switch to Hover to kill the momentum? Just wondering if a build could get by with Air Superiority and Fly, instead of Hover (because I can see obvious applications for Air Sup in both PvE and PvP for a Stalker).

2) Admittedly I've gone with Teleport in my build (I'd slot 3xRange & 3xEndRed SO eventually) for its unsuppressed speed, because it's hard to track TPers, and because I wanted TP Foe. But I've realised I need Hover too, so I can hang above the action to assess targets and be able to AS mid-air targets. I've considered slotting 3 Flight Speed SOs in Hover (planner suggests this will give normal running pace while airborne), because I'll need some air movement as TP isn't that accurate in the air. Does slotted Hover sound workable for PvP or do you think I'd really need Fly too?

3) With Teleport, Flight, Concealment (Stealth) and Speed (Hasten) pools I can't take Fitness, forcing me into a no-Stamina build. I'm sure it will make PvE more painful, forcing a hit-and-run playstyle, but even if I did take Stamina (and not Hasten) I couldn't fit it into the build until L30+ anyway, so instead I plan to take Energy Drain (slotted with 3 Recharges) at L28.

I know you don't have it, Stalk-obot, but maybe someone else can answer me this: If I put 3xEndMod SOs in Energy Drain does that affect the Endurance drained (base 35%), the Endurance replenished (base 25%), or both? If it's both then an auto-hit 70% End drain could be quite handy in PvP as a debuff (and toggle dropper in the right circumstances), while in PvE I could fully refill my Endurance off two mobs rather than four.

4) Does it sound like a workable tactic to TP Foe, then Stun (to stop them running), then Placate, then AS? Also I'm not even sure if disorienting an airborne target would make them fall - never really been in that situation in PvE - do you know?

5) Do you know if Repulse has much PvP application? I know it drops a toggle, but I've also heard about Stalkers dropping into an enemy group and hitting Repulse from hide to knock down all the squishies (mainly for laughs). I just can't make up my mind if it has enough useful applications to balance the fun factor

Stalker builds are really tight, aren't they?

Admittedly I may hold off on playing my Stalker til I7 - as I said the concept I'm using for him (which I really like, cos it has a great bio) would fit both an EM/Invul or Elec/Elec Brute better (but I want to see what the Electric powersets are like in I7 before I commit). I'm always struggling to balance my min-maxing tendencies against my need to have a good concept/bio I really like EM, I want it on at least one of my characters on Union, but not more than one - that said, it's easily my favourite Stalker primary on paper, as much for concept reasons as anything (with all the "dark ninjas" running around I wanted something different).

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Where do I even begin with Fire Armour? Just having a look at the set, the mez protection is all over the place and I'll need acrobatics too. And Burn to free from Immob too
I've got access to Dark Consumption and Consume, that means I'll have a full end bar every 45s, cycling the 2. Do you think I could get away with not taking stamina if I do this?
Is Touch of Fear any good?
Siphon Life and Healing Flames, is it good to take these? Using both could keep me standing for much longer, but is it worth it?

Combining these 2 sets seems pretty unusual

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Speaking as a Fire/Fire brute, you don't need Burn for Immobilise protection. Like you said, you'll need to get Leaping pool anyway for Acrobatics - and Jump Kick isn't that good - so just take Combat Jumping (your immobilise protection) -> Super Jump (pretty good for a brute - just as well, as serious /Fire brutes don't have any choice) -> Acrobatics (knockback & hold protection).

I have no experience of Siphon Life, but have heard it's not up to much - Healing Flames is the only heal I have and it's served me fine on its own, slotted 3xHeal & 2xRchg - you could stick another recharge in to cut the timer down to every 30 seconds, but most of the time it's available when I need it, so I haven't.

I took Consume at 20 and was able to hold out until 30 before getting Stamina, but in the end it was my toggles that demanded the extra Endurance - I wanted to run Blazing Aura and Tough - but my build was already stretched Endurance-wise by the mid-20s. I don't know how good Dark Consumption is - from the planners it looks like slow recharge (90secs with 3 SO recharges - Hasten could reduce it of course, but it won't be up all the time).

Personally I'd hate to try building/playing a brute without Stamina - but you haven't mentioned if you want to be able to run hungry toggles like Tough & Blazing Aura, so it may be possible - but I'd guess you will have downtime unless you heavily slot End Reducers in your attacks.

Touch of Fear? ... No idea... (I'm a poet... I didn't even know it...)

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I left it out of my build.

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Me too

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I think George W. may actually be posting on these forums!

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Eeep!

The only problem I have with the bots is their tendency to get stuck to each other, which wouldn't happen if they were human-shaped... but if they were human-shaped then I probably wouldn't be playing a Mastermind at all

Looks like a fun PvP build, but was it a pain to level in PvE? Or did you have a different build for levelling to 30 then respec into this?

I really can't decide whether to stick with my EM/EA Stalker. I also went the "no shields" route. I find it fun yet slow solo, but in teams I feel weak and die more than with any of my other characters. If I hit-and-run in teams I feel like I'm slacking (I guess that's my Scrapper/Brute mentality poking through). Also because I wanted to avoid generic_ninja_01 syndrome I re-used a concept I had from a Invul/EM Tanker that I'd deleted, but it really doesn't fit a Stalker that well. So I'm considering a change.

Anyway one of the combinations I've been considering is Spines/Regen, because I have a concept for it. But I'd avoid the AEs/cones (I don't want extra aggro in PvE, and I've heard cones have problems hitting in PvP), so I'd probably be restricted to a hit-and-run playstyle without much scrapping potential - and that worries me a bit. So that's why I'm wondering what your soloing and teaming experiences were like in PvE.

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One point to note that isnt covered on the hero planners, is that /inv gets tougher the more mobs around you once you have some of the powers.

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Yeah - thats just Invul's Invincibility - I was taking that into account, when I said: [ QUOTE ]
plus a bit of defence (depending on Invincibility and spawn/team size)

[/ QUOTE ] but of course Invincibility was hit with a bit of a nerf recently (I think it maxes at either 14 or 17 mobs now) - SherkSilver does mention it stacks up in the power notes on his planner, but he doesn't say what the limit is now.

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I know what you mean and sometimes I just go off on one


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No worries - I always try to read forum posts in the most favourable way possible, seeing as its hard to convey emotion/meaning and avoid ambiguity/misinterpretations in plain text. I just picked out this and another post to comment on, because I don't see many /Fires defending the set - most of the unambiguously nasty posts about /Fire have been on the US forum, although they seem to love /EA over there now.

Personally I'd still rather depend on mitigation (resists) than avoidance (defence) for a "heavy" fighter - probably a throwback to having both a Guardian and a Monk in EQ2 (beta and release, before the DoF combat rebalance), and my experiences tanking with both - avoidance/defence is prone to being streaky and unpredictable, while mitigation/resists is fairly predictable and reliable - makes healing and knowing/planning what you can take much easier. I can look at a spawn with my Fire/Fire and know with fairly high certainty whether I'd be able to survive the alpha or not.

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EA was lambasted to begin with but seems to becoming a very popular set in pvp (stalkers at least).

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Yeah - probably because base-to-hit in PvP is 50%, rather than 75% like it is in PvE, so defence sets perform much better in PvP than PvE. Plus when people can choke down red pills, hit aim/bu and then hit you with a snipe or another big attack, you're much better off avoiding it than being one-shotted - fortunately most PvE mobs don't get big snipes or assassin strikes and can't really take us by surprise either, hehe.

Also of course Stalkers don't get resist sets (yet - I wonder if Dark Armour for them will be resists, or converted into a defence set like some rumours on US forums say) - so EA compares favourably with the other defence sets (Ninjitsu, SR), especially with its superior status protection and auto-hit Endurance Drain (drains 70% from target, 3-slotted for EndMod, I think) for PvP.

It will be interesting to see what changes I7 brings to the defence sets for PvE - apparently it won't change against evens and below cons, but for +1s to +5s we should notice Defence sets being much more survivable.

After I get my SS/Dark to 40, then that and my Fire/Fire to 50, I'll probably play more brutes - probably an Electric/Electric, but I've come up with a solid EM/Invul build that fits a concept I had left over from a CoH tanker I deleted (currently using that concept for an EM/EA stalker, but it doesn't fit the character bio that well) - but EA should be a much better brute set after I7, at least in perception terms (my only experience of /EA brutes atm has been seeing a few of them die more often than other brutes in big teams).

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My main brute is a kineitically charged (negates the slowdown ) Granite armoured killing machine against which all else pales in comparison (seriously, you should see it in action),

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I have - it is very impressive - and if I had a kineticist on tap then I'd probably be playing a /Stone too

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I try to avoid making specific comments unless I have experience to make such a judgement

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Me too! That's probably why I'm fairly verbose on the brute forum, fairly reserved but still chipping in on the Mastermind and Corruptor forums (have L20s in both ATs) and fairly quiet in Stalker and Dom (have L10s of both), apart from asking silly questions

Speaking of verbose... oh gawd... this post was an easy way to kill 20mins

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also i thought i would inform you guys that a lot of the sonic blast attacks seem to be short range

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with rad control range aint that important unless u want to pull, iv always dumped my RI in the middle of a group and get in close that way they all come in close and suffer the to-hit debuff and deff de-buff the proced to take them out one at a time, works fine for me aslong as there is no more that about 8 mobs to kill then i close to an end wipe.

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Yeah I tend to do the same, so range isn't an issue - I took Fire Blast on my Corruptor mainly so I could group up all the enemies around me, use my AEs, step back to use my cone, then use Blaze (20 range) to drop lieutenants' health down to minion levels while the AE's/cone recharge (I've got Hasten though, so it doesn't take long when thats up).

Indoors I pull with RI, usually hitting the back mob in a room, then I run around the corner (or behind a pillar or crate) and wait to see what mobs will come and stack up nicely for me to kill The problem with standing in the middle of a room and waiting for them to group around you is that stubborn range-preferred mobs (like Headman Blasters, <anything> Gunners and most Wyvern) will stay outside of RI and just keep shooting at their full accuracy.

And this tactic works equally well in teams or solo - nobody has to worry about an alpha strike, because the mobs' accuracy is debuffed from the start. Finding a team willing to trust you to pull with anything but a snipe (which I'm not even taking from Fire Blast) is the hard part

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thanks for all the help, i have self heal and aid other because my only prior heling char was a bot/dark mm lol and their heal is a bit slow so i found myself getting the medic pp. also i thought i would inform you guys that a lot of the sonic blast attacks seem to be short range so i rerolled to dark/rad and quite frankly it rules. sniper attack at lvl 6 high dmg DoT at lvl AoE isorient by lvl 10 O_o

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I find the /Dark heal better than the /Rad heal in almost every case, except range (my /dark is on an MM too - but I understand the healing range of the /dark PBAE heal is much wider on a Corruptor/Defender than it is on the MM). But solo you shouldn't really need the /Rad heal much, unless you're doing something very wrong - I've only cast it a couple of times on my Corruptor on the way to 20, to top up between fights. In teams it can't really keep up with serious damage - again it's more for top-ups - so yeah Medicine pool would be better for that.

Just looked at SherkSilver's planner and most of the Sonic attacks do seem to be 60-70 range, compared to the standard 80 range in most other sets, but Sonic also doesn't have an ultra-short 20-range big attack either (like Fire Blast, Rad Blast, Energy Blast, etc.), so its more consistent than most other Blast sets if you want to stay at an optimal range and not move about much. With Dark Blast you'll be down to lower ranges after the first 3 powers (your cones are 30 range, Life Drain is 60, Dark Pit is 70).

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Well concensus seems to be for pve, miss barrage and stun. That was my thoughts tbh.

Im not planning much pvp so I thinks thats how I shall go.

Thanks to all that posted.

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You're taking Taunt?

Fire Sword Circle + Blazing Aura can get quite ugly as well when succubi are around me - especially with full Fury if I've just also activated Fiery Embrace & Build-Up to make my FSC really count.

I haven't killed anyone yet, but I have brought an entire team all close to the brink of death before, because a succubi landed confuse a second before I hit FSC - thankfully the FSC wiped out most of the enemies as well