Madam_Enigma

First of all I’d like to welcome you to my first attempt at writing a guide. I’m not a number cruncher, so I wont bore you with math. Instead my advice comes from in game experience, trial, and error. I spent a year working on my claw/sr scrapper so feel I have some valid insight to pass on. I’ll begin by listing my build, I’ll then go through and explain it.. Finally I’ll discuss the various power pools I’ve tried, and why I either recommend it or not. Without further delay, my guide. This is a respec build, but when I respec I pay close attention to level and when I put slots in.

Claws/Super Reflexes is a good solid build. With this build I find I can fight continuously as long as I need. While it’s not strong in the burst damage department, it’s arguably the king of sustained damage. It animates fast, recharges fast, and takes little endurance per attack. It also offers built in +perception. For PvP this is very handy.

PART I: The Build

01 : Focused Fighting defbuf(01) defbuf(3) defbuf(5) endred(37)
01 : Swipe acc(01) dam(7) dam(9) dam(15)
02 : Focused Senses defbuf(02) defbuf(3) defbuf(5) endred(37)
04 : Strike acc(04) dam(7) dam(11) dam(17)
06 : Swift runspd(06) runspd(46) runspd(48)
08 : Slash acc(08) dam(9) dam(13) dam(19)
10 : Practiced Brawler recred(10) recred(11)
12 : Agile defbuf(12) defbuf(13) defbuf(15)
14 : Health hel(14) hel(43) hel(46)
16 : Dodge defbuf(16) defbuf(17) defbuf(19)
18 : Focus acc(18) dam(21) dam(21) dam(23) endred(40)
20 : Quickness runspd(20) runspd(46) runspd(48)
22 : Follow Up acc(22) dam(23) dam(25) dam(25) thtbuf(31) thtbuf(36)
24 : Stamina endrec(24) endrec(31) endrec(43)
26 : Eviscerate acc(26) dam(27) dam(27) dam(29) endred(40)
28 : Lucky defbuf(28) defbuf(29) defbuf(31)
30 : Spin acc(30) dam(34) dam(34) dam(34) endred(43)
32 : Shockwave acc(32) dam(33) dam(33) dam(33) endred(42)
35 : Evasion defbuf(35) defbuf(36) defbuf(36) endred(37)
38 : Elude defbuf(38) defbuf(39) defbuf(39) recred(39) recred(40)
41 : Focused Accuracy endred(41) endred(42) endred(42) thtbuf(50)
44 : Laser Beam Eyes acc(44) dam(45) dam(45) dam(45)
47 : Conserve Power recred(47) recred(50)
49 : Hurdle jmp(49)

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01 : Brawl enhancement(01)
01 : Sprint enhancement(01) enhancement(48) enhancement(50)
02 : Rest enhancement(02)

PART II Explanations

Early on attacks do enough damage to get by. However defense is rather low still. Because of this I slot defense in focused fighting and focused senses first. By level five I have my toggle defenses three slotted. While Training enhancements let me slot more before hitting the cap, I hold back because any extra slots beyond the first three I put in now are wasted at level 22. While I don’t know the exact value when slotted, it’s a significant chunk of defense with SO enhancements. The first two toggles get slotted with three defense for now.

Swipe, Strike, and Slash will be my mainstay attacks throughout the character’s life so I begin slotting those next. These I take my time with, making sure I keep them even. Once more I stop adding slots once I have slots for my eventual SO enhancements.

At level six I get my entrance power for the fitness pool. I chose Swift because it combines well with my secondary. Swift, Quickness, and Sprint will combine to give me near super speed running speeds. It’s not a true travel power, but serves nicely. Slotting swift can wait however.

At level ten Practiced Brawler unlocks. This is a click mez protection power. With two SO enhancements it’s perma so I make sure I get a second slot in it ASAP.

With level twelve I pick up the first of three auto powers from Super Reflexes. It was available sooner, but it was more important to build an effective attack chain first. So far the defense isn’t critical. As with all other +defense powers from the secondary, this will be slotted three defense.

At level fourteen I get health. This power is easy to overlook. By it’s self it isn’t going to save you in a tough situation. The regeneration boost does combine well with SR’s +def powers however. It also reduces down time between fights. It will eventually be slotted with three heals, but that can wait until I have spare slots.

Level sixteen gives the second of three passive defense powers, this time for melee attacks. Very handy. Even if the +def isn’t attractive, the scaling resistance these powers give is.

Level eighteen brings us to Focus. This is one of the hardest hitting powers in Claws. It’s also ranged and fast animating. Have a runner? Focus can knock them off their feet. It’s also part of a two power boss juggling tactic. Because focus does knockdown there’s less worry about your target going flying backwards.

I take Quickness at level 20 because by now I’m feeling the crunch of no travel power. It’s main contribution to the build is +speed. It also gives a DO’s worth of recharge reduction and enough slow resistance to ignore one slow field. The slow resistance isn’t too important yet. Slotting will be three run speed, but that can wait.

Follow-Up is a nice attack/buff. Unlike Aim or Buildup, this gem can be perma out of the box.I waited until level twenty-two however because it’s not a “must have” power. While nice, the buff isn’t required. It does the same damage as Swipe when slotted for damage, so not completely worthless damage wise. This one I slot 1 acc, 3 damage, and 2 to-hit buffs.

Stamina I pick up at level 24 because by now during extended fights end can at times be a problem. Focus is one of the three major end hogs in the claws set. Slots however can be added when available. I’m still slotting more important things like attacks and defenses.

Evic, well this power’s ok. If taken it demands slots. You can live without it however. This is the strongest attack in the set and has the highest crit chance. It’s also got the longest animation and a high end cost.

I waited until level 30 to get spin because it’s a high end cost PBAoE. Before now it wasn’t needed, but now I can look forward to many Arch Villain fights. Since AV’s usually have many minions around them, spin can be thrown into an attack chain to help clear out minions without turning from the AV. This brings us to...

Shockwave. Truly a nice power. Unlike Focus. this is knock-back. It’s also a ranged cone attack. This when slotted does about the same damage as Strike to everything within a wide cone.

Evasion comes at level thirty-five. While some say you can skip it, I personally wouldn’t. In the late thirties you begin fighting nemisis. They use tons of AoE attacks. Once this is slotted with three defense enhancements I find I have more slots then I need for critical things.

From here on I begin slotting non-critical things. I add end reduc enhancements to toggles and high cost attacks. I also begin fleshing out my run speed by adding two more runs speed enhancements to quickness, sprint, and swift.

Level thirty-eight gives the final core power, Elude. I add four additional slots to this one. This give me a total of three defense and two recharge in it. I could add one more recharge, but it’s up as often as needed already.

After I get into the forties I chose Body Mastery for my epic pool. This was sparked by one factor, the character concept originally called for laser vision. Focused Accuracy is a purely PvP choice. This gives me to-hit debuff resistance. A good sized to-hit buff, and +perception. Now I can see stalkers running hide and stealth togather.

Conserve power helps for when my end bar does eventually gets low. Hit this and I can go back to spamming attacks. In fact while CP is active I can gain endurance while attacking.

Laser-Beam Eyes finally complete’s my concept, and gives a rather nice ranged attack.

My final power is hurdle for one reason, why not? It will boost my vertical mobility, and I can’t think of anything better.

PART III: Other Pool Choices

Please remember, these are my views and reasons. Feel 100% free to disagree.

Leadership
Maneuvers: It’s a low value for scrappers, but the +def stacks with SR’s +def. Slot it or not, your choice.

Teleport
Tp Foe: I used this for awhile in my original build. It is a decent pulling power, but eventually I was able to just bum rush in the situations I was pulling for.
Recall Friend: It’s good for helping teams get to missions quickly. I respeced out of it because I kept having teams think I was just a taxi.
Teleport: It’s an ok travel power, but very endurance intensive. I found that after getting quickness I never used it if there was a way up on foot near by. Because of that I respeced out.

Fighting
Boxing: before I picked up follow-up it was ok. It’s about the same damage as Swipe or Follow-Up. Ok, but I don’t need three weak attacks.
Tough: Wow is this not worth it. I had thought the smash/lethal resistance would help, but it’s too low to be worth it. It’s also a huge end drain.

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It's gotten to the point that my TA's battle cry is now "Cover me, I'm agroing!"

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Hey, I know you!

Of course, I only remember the Oil Slick actually lighting about twice in that entire outdoor mission when we were teamed this past weekend. Mixed blessing, I guess ... complimentary bugs?

</Necronomaton>

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The team I was with before that, seven tanks and me. One was a fire tank, and he'd light it every time it was fired. I'd die every time it was fired. Two of the tanks droped out and we got a pair of empaths. Stacked fort plus both RAs ment I'd survive.

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When is lighting Oil Slick a bad thing? Try really hard to think of something besides simpy pulling out the Agro issue because every instance of an agro issue is very specific and deals more with playstyle and game environment than an issue with the set.

Oil Slick lasts the same amount of time on the ground regardless of whether you light it or not. So when do you not want it to light?

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Ok, here's one time.. which I've seen over and over and over. Team of 8 with alot of crowd control. OS lights, EVERY FREAKING ENEMY TURNS AND SHOOTS ME!

Next spawn: 7 very skilled tanks who are all increadably good at drawing agro. They all just taunted, are running taunt auras, and are punchvoking... OS lights and once more EVERY ENEMY TURNS AND SHOOTS ME!

Hmm, how about with some other defenders? Once more as soon as OS lights every enemy shoots ME. Teamed with controllers? My experiance is they note how good of crowd control I have and start controling other stuff then what I'm targeting. Once more OS lights and I die from 16 or so attacks doing 100 damage each at least all at once.

Hmm, maybe an auto-lighting OS would be a bad thing. It's not the knockdown or slow that override all agro and direct it to me, it's the damage.

Here's another time that doesn't involve agro. Anything that's resistant to slow and has a ranged attack is likely to stay in the patch UNTIL it is lit. Once it's lit they make all haste out of the burn field. This means they are no longer affected by knockdown either. I've seen this time and again with warwolves.

QWE ASD are my movement keys That's why I like using the numpad keys for tray 1, I put my attacks there and am good to go.

I have another question about it. I've avoided using the numpad bind system because I also use those keys for my first power tray (system I developed as a scrapper and defender). Can I use the numpad binds without overwriting the numpad for my power tray? For instance could I set it up so the command binds are for with numlocck off?

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My experience 180% opposite to yours then.

I have not been dropped by agro from Oil Slick, although DE have come close

Generally, against Nemisis and Carnies it is Oil Slick + Glue for the win. Well, Glue then Oil Slick in the case of Nemesis. Stupid Jaegers.

I just don't know how our experiences can be so different with this power. I mean, this is a power I open with to MITIGATE damage from agro.

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I can quite honestly say that my TA defender has outagroed 7 tanks just by the fire/tank's blazing aura lighting oil slick. I launch OS and things don't mind me any more then usual. Then the slick bursts into flames, mobs start taking alot of damage, the fire tank's jaw drops and he grows envious, and... I have 16 redcaps shooting at me all at once. There would be a few more, but those ones decided the fire tank looks annoying.

I've out agroed 7 tanks by using my other debuff powers too. There's just something about TA that makes the enemy hate my guts. It's gotten to the point that my TA's battle cry is now "Cover me, I'm agroing!"

I hit my battlecry a few seconds before dropping oil slick. After a few times initialy the team realised when I said that, I really ment it cause what I was about to do would draw enough agro to make anyone blanch.

That horror story told, I'm excited about the changes to TA.

With my thugs MM I have found a way to make them agro when I or they take damage... move up closer then my max range with my attacks. They won't agro on someone attacking you unless that someone is within 75% of their max range or less. Yes, that means lead them closer before engaging. Now if only they would agro when the enemy misses as well as hits.

I hate bursting bubbles, especialy with this fun set. However I'd like to point out that Flash Arrow's acc debuff is laughable at best. Smoke Grenade has the same debuff value, defenders are slightly more effective with flash arrow then blasters are with smoke grenade (6.5% for flash arrow and 5% for smoke grenade) only because of the AT modifyer. In I7 it will be autohit however.

Well fortunatly thugs will use ranged attacks and melee attacks when in melee range, unlike bots who just brawl in melee range. Comes in handy by adding yet another attack into their chain while in melee range.

I see Gang War helping alot. Now, about how much a high level MM has to do when using thug/ff... I believe Elvis said it best:

Stop, look, and listen
that's my pholosaphy
It's called rubbernecking baby
but that's all right with me

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True, but I look at it as 1 End per second per attack that you are cycling.

If you just cycle one attack then the End cost per second is End Cost / (Act + Recharge), but since you would normally be cycling 4 or 5 attacks in a chain, or just because you are spamming whatever has recharged, then you are likely to be spending 4 or 5 End per second for your total offensive actions.

Whichever way you look at it offensive abilities (ones which cause damage or distress to others) cost a lot more than personal defensive abilities and therefore save you a lot more when you slot them with End reducers.

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There is another factor to consider. if end usage of toggles=end recovery no matter how cheap your attacks are your going to have a losing situation. If end usage of toggles>end recovery then your endurance problems just got even worse. This was the core problem with DA in issue 4. In issue 4 putting an end reduc in the first three shelds and one in death shroud ment you broke even endurance wise exactly. Since there are many times where you need smash/lethal, mez protection, and elemental/energy resistance all at once fighting would always drain you of endurance. One small fight would leave you sitting at almost empty. Now the endurance issues are better, but still there.

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Downloaded and applied a patch this morning... and thugs now get super leap right off the bat appearantly. Sweet! That means I don't have to worry about them being unable to follow me, right?

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I am still at work, so can't say for sure, but I suspect that the superleap added for thugs is the same as the superleap that tier1 bots get, which only allows vertical leaps, and no real horizontal movement. This will allow your pets (at least the tier 1s) to get to you quickly after you are TP foed to the top of a building, but it will not let them keep up with you through rapid movement throughout a zone.

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Yes, but at level 32 all my ninja got it. Suddenly they could make it up even the most vertical incline with a single jump. Helps alot in CoT cave maps. Plus they no longer take falling damage

Downloaded and applied a patch this morning... and thugs now get super leap right off the bat appearantly. Sweet! That means I don't have to worry about them being unable to follow me, right?

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Is anyone else having problems with getting DCed constently after one or two missions while playing thugs?

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Yes, Everytime I play. for the last 2 weeks or more (Since I started testing thugs. Figured it was part of the low end system lag thing I have on test.

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Seems to me the engine has some sort of problem with thugs. My first mayhem mission crashed six times in arow as I tried entering but my ninja/poison entered first try. Also with the default settings my other toons had few problems with lag and being DCed but my thug had problems constently until I turned off most of the new things. Since the debris count doesn't seem to be an issue that's staying at max... I love seeing a pile of shell casings after a fight.

Is anyone else having problems with getting DCed constently after one or two missions while playing thugs?

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Now, the confusion comes in with the way that's worded. Follow. Do they leave bodyguard mode if I tell them to attack my target? Do they leave bodyguard mode if I send them to a location? (Still within Supremacy range, I mean)

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The way it's sopose to work is if you, the mastermind, give any order other then "Follow" and/change their stance to anything but defensive they are not in bodyguard mode. Goto, Stay, Attack my Target, Passive, and Aggressive all cancel bodyguard. Naturaly Dissmiss also cancels bodyguard. That's how it's sopose to work anyway.

If some people are getting the share damage from bodyguard while using "Attack my target" then there must be a bug somewhere in the code.

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I asked this the first time this change was announced, but never saw an answer.

When facing a +6 enemy, will defense (and to-hit/accuracy debuffs) work at a similar level as they do now against a +6, or will they work at a similar level as they do now against a +1?

In other words, will there be a steep dropoff in effectiveness between a +5 and a +6, or will +6 be where a gradual decline in effectiveness begins?

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The change is only in effect for up to +5 from what they said long ago. Sorry, but a +6 foe is still gonna own you.

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Unfortunately for Poison types, Reconstruction HAS to work this way. Sorry folks, it won't be changing.

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Fortunatly envenom still gives the person resistance to being healed. That does affect reconstruction since your not hitting the power, just the person being affected by the power.

My take on the power is that any secondary effect such as mezzes, endurance drains, debuffs, those are debuffed. In adition healing ability is debuffed, and defensive buffs such as regen buffs are reduced. The regen buffs being reduced I am guessing based on how badly I was able to hit a regen scrapper's defensive set with envenom and weaken. First cutting his buffs in half, then actualy debuffing his regen rate, in adition to taking a huge wack outa his self heals. As long as I stayed outa the broadsword's reach he couldn't win.

I rather doubt damage resistance and +defense powers are hit by weaken. That's what Envenom is for.

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Balance Issue: TA is the only defender who can't survive the agro their debuffs create. While it's not always true, just about any other debuffing defender's debuffs will actualy protect them from the retaliation volly. TA's debuffs can't do that. It can lesson the force, but taking 50 damage from 6 guys is still gonna hurt big time.

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No offence, Madam_Enigma, but I think this problem goes away once you have Oil Slick Arrow. It might just be about the best, if not the best, power for alpha damage mitigation available to Defenders.

Consider: You can fire it off from around a corner, or behind a wall, reducing alpha strike damage to nothing. ZERO. In addition, it slows and knocksdown, and can be lighted by a strategic shot as the enemies are all flopping around.

Even in the rare situation where a corner or tree or wall is unavailable, the flopping and the range puts it at least close to the level of Fearsome Stare. And remember, Fearsome Stare can't even affect the full 16-mob spawn in a large team.

This is before we even talk about EMP Arrow. Sure, it's only usuable every 2 to 3 spawns, but a ranged long duration critting hold? With a MASSIVE area of effect? That's complete protection from the reliation volley right there.



So, while I agree that TA defenders have problems pre-26, many of these problems are reduced dramatically come Oil Slick and EMP.

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That's encuraging to know, but these last four levels before OSA are very disgcuraging. I'm quickly becoming perma debt, and I hate debt.

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and telling people that think it needs some tweaks/work that they just suck at the set.

[/ QUOTE ] This is a lie. I've said the set is great if you are skilled. To that end people have told me I was wrong. My response is that you lack the requisite skill.

No where...and no place...has this anything to do with whether or not a person is calling for an improvement. I have made comments that giving TA a perma-sticky-anchorless-debuff is too powerful. That's my opinion, nothing else.

Accusing me "hating" people who want to improve the set is a bold faced lie. Either retract that statement or I'll just ignore your posts.

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So a powerset isn't broken if the elite 5% of the players can play the set flawlessly while everyone else suffers from the set's many problems. Then define this uber skill it takes. Is it the skill gained from taking a defender from 1 through 50 without ever powerleveling? That's something I'm working on. Is it the elite skillz needed to defend a team who could do the mission just as well without you? I leave those teams since I'm a fifth wheel. Maybe it's the Skillz needed to solo invincable when you can't actualy prevent damage from more then one or two enemies at a time? Yeah, sounds like skill to me. The same skill it takes to solo a blaster on the same dificulty without dying alot. The same skill it takes to solo a SR scrapper on invincable currently without relying on elude.

I must have those elite skillz then. Except as I already mentioned, I'm finding TA currently can't stand up to the second dificulty, let alone the highest. When I'm in a team they tend to want me debuffing first. I tend to want every empath focusing on healing me so I *might* survive to get three debuffs out.

Balance Issue: TA is the only defender who can't survive the agro their debuffs create. While it's not always true, just about any other debuffing defender's debuffs will actualy protect them from the retaliation volly. TA's debuffs can't do that. It can lesson the force, but taking 50 damage from 6 guys is still gonna hurt big time.

Balance Issue: TA defenders will easily out agro a team of tanks on a consistant basis during fights. Since we can't survive the retaliation attacks, why are we able to tick off everything with a single arrow dispite having seven tanks doing their best to hold agro? 16 enemies, 7 tanks, and I'm the one everything's attacking?!

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you use now when trying to explain to me how the set was balanced.

[/ QUOTE ] I have never said the set was balanced. So your entire post is moot.

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There is a difference between trying to balance a set, the method of balancing a set and actually creating a set that is "balanced".

Your response to what I wrote is thus short and pointless.

[/ QUOTE ]Your original post compared me to people who attacked you for suggesting improvements. I have attacked no one for suggesting improvements. You have repeatedly accused me of attacking people for trying to improve the set and I have done no such thing, nor have you produced a single quote to that extent.

There is a difference in defending myself against people who are also trying to improve the set and attacking people for trying to improve the set. As such your post is inaccurate and pointless.

EDIT:
If anyone wants to debate this anymore with me...let's do it through PM's...this thread needs to die.

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Actualy the thread as intendied is needed. BTW, if you wanna claim your not attacking anyone, what about me? Youve attacked me, called me a lier over and over. acused all of us of not knowing how to play CoH...

Oh yeah, and I've been one of TA's most vocal defenders since it hit live. Just ask Concern, we've argued about it in thread after thread. What I've never been is a fool who thinks it isn't broken, rather I've defended the fact that it's not completely gimped. Gimped sure, but still workable.

The reason this thread was created? To call dev attention to Trick Arrow's many faults. That is a valid reason for a thread. One I can support, so LETS GET BACK TO THAT TOPIC. No more accusing others of lying based on wishful thinking. And for pete's sake stop trying to claim the set's functioning better then it is. It's an ok set, with holes the size of the grand canyon. Donna Fae is a effective defender dispite her powerset, not because of it. I sacrificed power for the ability to actualy use my debuffs. That meens my debuffs aren't all that great yet. They just come up offten enough to be used more then every three fights.

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This statement is in fact not true.

[/ QUOTE ] The guides that Iv'e seen say the level range is identical for Tenacious and Heroic, the differenc is the spawn size. When going through both missions tonight...even the one which spawned the boss in one and the Lt's in the other...the mobs were exactly the same levels.

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THe other half of the difrance your forgetting, you NEVER see a boss while soloing on heroic. If you do, it's a bugged mission or an Elite Boss. Named enemies or mission bosses are downgraded to Lt status.

Ten lets you fight twice the number of enemies, and kicks things up with bosses as well. Enemy levels are +0 and +1, same as heroic.

Rugged is the same number of enemies as heroic, +1 and +2, and has bosses.

Unyielding is double the amount, +1 and +2 with bosses.

Invincble is normal sized spawns, +2 and +3 with bosses.

Notice how everything but heroic includes bosses. I hear it use to be Ten dificulty was the defult, and only setting. Could be wrong since it woulda been before I found CoH.

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When you kick up to Tenacious, you start to see bosses at the end where before you saw Lts.

[/ QUOTE ] I haven't seen bosses on Tenacious when soloing. When I see bosses on Heroic...they are the same level as the bosses in Tenacious. If some of the story arcs have bosses on Tenacious and not in Heroic...then that makes more sense. I haven't seen that. If that's what the engine is doing...then I owe M_E an apology. I'll be checking that out in the future.

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By the way, your "[sic]" was a misquote (kind of ironic)...

[/ QUOTE ] A typo on the Internet...what a scoop!

EDIT:
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Were you defensive that you got it wrong, was that why you called Brasswire a jackass?


[/ QUOTE ] No. I actually read into M_E's post a little. For some reason I thought she was talking about the bosses being too difficult because they were higher in level. The reason why is becuse she said she slotted accuracy in Acid Arrow and couldn't solo the bosses. Arcana has pointed out that bosses don't have any higher intrinsic defense than minions. So it comes across to me as: "despite putting accuracy in Acid Arrow, which debuffs defense, I still can't hit the higher level bosses on Tenacious." Of course she was just talking about bosses period..and may have been lamenting the -res of Acid Arrow not being enough. I don't know.

I called Brass out because he insinuates that I don't know Heroic doesn't have bosses solo. Heroic has bosses...when you have teams. My statement in regards to M_E was that the bosses on Heroic and Tenacious are the same in difficulty but not intended to refute the existance of them. But as you pointed out, M_E is talking about soloing in which case Ten sometimes has bosses where Heroic doesn't. My error was not being clear on what M_E was talking about....which was my error. Technically, I thought she was talking about something she wasn't and that is on me.

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Try for a soloing TA/A bosses are too dificult cause I can't actualy prevent damage at all. Even if I took and slotted FA I can't prevent them from missing more then once. I can slow them, but they still attack. I can lower their damage, but they still do damage. I can lower their defense and damage resistance, but their still attacking. I can stack enough imobs to keep then away for a few seconds, but they are still attacking. Defenders don't do as much damage as blasters as well. That means I aint got enough HP to take them out before they take me out. I was on tenatious, until bosses began appearing. At that point I was going into debt every mission. Nope, not gonna do that. I can hit even level easy. I can hit +1 easy. I can hit +2 sort of easy. I can hit +3 and +4 ok. But while soloing my TA/A can't take out a single boss?! In teams I tend to act as a boss killer, but then there's enough going on that I likely won't keep the agro. If I do, I die. Ice Arrow is the most reliable way of shutting down Lts and Bosses, but can't hold a boss. It's slow is negligable too. This is a toon I doubt will ever solo higher then heroic. Maybe once I got oil slick I can bump it up, not sure yet.

Oh, if you think Tenatous only has bosses sometimes, it's every door mission after level 5 or six almost. Very few times does it NOT have a boss at the end. My controler also can't solo higher then heroic due to those bosses just yet.

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My TA slots acc in just one power: acid arrow. If that hits, I'm targeting things under it's effects. Even without it I can fight +3 and +4 without accuracy issues being too bad due to archery's inherant acc boosts. Ice arrow I might eventualy add a slot of acc into, but had to devote too many slots for recharge to put accuracy in most anything.

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Try soloing the vampyre capsules mission in Striga without every single shot landing on its target 100% of the time.


At +4, your accuracy is not as important on attacks because they aren't really contributing much damage to a team anyway. The inherent accuracy of archery is about one DOs worth: if you are happy with the accuracy of archery's inherent accuracy without additional slotting, you'd be happy with one DO's worth of accuracy in a set with no bonus: most people these days aren't. Sets like rad or katana are very different: they have defense debuffs, which are much stronger, and stackable, than the inherent accuracy bonus of things like archery and MA.

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Ah, but that's when I whip out acid arrow and debuff defense/damage resistsnce. I know who's affected cause of the little orange 1s floating above their head. That I'm slotting def-debuff in as soon as I find someone selling me magic def debuff SOs.