Miladys_Knight

Bricks are high in minerals but are lacking in vitamins and useful calories.

Knockback is on a different enhancement schedule from defense all of which is explained here.

Knockback is schedule D and has much higher base values so the final numbers "look" much better after ED is applied.

Defense is schedule B and has much lower base numbers and so a final value that looks much worse after ED is applied.

This is the reason that many people substitute Enzyme Exposures for Cytos or Membranes. With Hamidon Enhancements defense debuffs slotted in defense powers provide increased defense. Defense debuff is Schedule A as opposed to Defense's Schedule B.

This is a "feature" that the devs have not been able to eliminate and has been around so long that changing it now would be perceived by a majority of the player base as violating the cottage rule.

The only thing that we could come up with was, that adding a time stamp to all bids and offers just for resolving single influence ties, could potentially increase AH server lag for every bid/offer and only provide a resolution for a very very rare occurance. It's probably not worth increased lag, coding time, and increased server usage for those rare occasions and the devs decided to use a (not so) random number generator instead.

If you want mitigation for your AR/ blaster then Ice is the way to go. It's also nice to have an immobilize as it lets you leverage ignite.

On the other hand if you want to really leverage AR's strength's then /energy is the way to go. You won't be able to leverage ignite solo but boost range with all those cones is really really nice. Beanbag + Stun (not so much Total Focus post nerf but it can still be made to work) is a nice tool against bosses especially when combined with Power Boost.

The things I probably wouldn't pair it with would be /Mental or /Fire most of the utility powers in /mental are melee or close range and with Buckshot, M30 Grenade, Flame Thrower, and Full Auto the last thing you'll need is another cone attack that will just sit in your tray unused. /Fire has the same problems in that most of the attacks from the secondary are slow animating PBAoEs or are endurance hungry (or both).

I have a feeling that you don't "get" the concept behind either AT/set you are unhappy with. Empathy is one of the most powerful sets in the game. It's downfall (which is an intentional design element) is to be strong on teams and weak soloing at both the early game stages and late game stages. Early game by heals and late game by other buffs.

Much as we don't like the idea of Empathy being considered "h34l0rz" it's pretty clear that the original dev team had that in mind especially when taken in light of the defender inherent which is tailor made for the empathy power set as reactive "h34l0rz" rather than pro-active buffers and little more than useless for sets like FF and Cold.

The main problem with blasters is the top-heavy design. I've always believed that the secondaries were poorly designed with too many attacks and not enough utlity powers. With long animating sets like AR and Sonic it is entirely possible to have attacks that you never use simply because the powers don't animate fast enough and you can get a smooth attack chain using SOs only and very light recharge slotting.

I have always thought that the blaster epic powers, especially the armors, belonged in the secondary and many of the utility powers like power sink, conserve power, boost range, power boost, RotP, etc belonged in the epics. The epics should also have powers like physical perfection available.

My blasters usually have to dip into pool powers simply because I have all the attacks I need to have a smooth attack chain by level 24.

Well the comment was in response to "good use of rain of fire" which I took to mean "keep all the mobs in the damage radius for the duration of the power" which properly slotted Hot Feet + RoF does.

In my experience there's not much difference in incoming damage between -rech cap and avoid + -runspeed cap, especially at the speed with which fire/ and /fire destroy stuff. The main problem is the 39-40 level wait to get it.

You are forgetting /fire. Properly slotted Hotfeet + Rain of Fire can put mobs at the -runspeed cap just like with /dev and /ice. The only problem is that it comes very late in the power set (level 38, 39-40 if you want decent slotting) and you HAVE to fight in melee/close range to take advantage of it.

Depends on what you want to do.

If you want damage with excellent mitigation Fire/Dev or Fire/Ice. (caveat - /Dev is a very slow set to play. Roll fire/dev only if you are planning on soloing almost exclusively and don't mind a much slower and more deliberate playstyle).

If you want raw damage output and aren't concerned with mitigation then Fire/Fire with Fire/Mental close behind.

If you want something in the middle of the road for mitiagtion and utility then Fire/Energy.

If you want something in the middle of the road with hard hitting melee powers and an endurance recovery tool then Fire/Electric.

You are missing the other side of the coin. Experienced melee players that know they are teamed with KB heavy teammates like energy blasters or Illusion controllers should be fighting and gathering aggro near walls and corners instead of out in the middle of a huge room. Most of the complainers are their own worst enemy not because the player that has KB isn't playing smart but because the melee player isn't playing smart.

My stand point on my Energy/Energy blaster is "if it's flying, it's dying" I'll be killing it before it can get back in melee or before most melee players can catch back up to it. The biggest complaint I get is that I killed "their target" not that I KB'd something.

While I enjoy my Arch/Devices/Munitions blaster I have to disagree with your post in most particulars.

Even though it is good for a slow and deliberate playstyle (and don't get me wrong I like my Arch/Dev and my Sonic/Ice both of which have deliberate playstyles) it is much too slow and much too deliberate.

Cloaking Device is not so good a stealth power because it costs you a power pick and it costs you endurance. It is replaceable by a single IO enhancement and that IO can be slotted in a power you get for free (Sprint).

Sprint can be toggled on and off and you have 30 feet stealth for the next 120 seconds with out spending a single endurance and there is virtually no difference between 35 feet of stealth and 30 feet.

The defense provided by CD is similarly not worth it. If you are playing a slow deliberate trapper you will seldom be taking any direct damage and won't need the defense. Not only that but the benefit provided by combat jumping, both in terms of defense/end and the status protection makes CD a waste.

Smoke Grenade has similar problems. While it can be combined with CD for PvE invisibility it suffers the same problem as above. Too much end for the benefits and the secondary effects are both low value and have a to hit roll meaning that the power is only useful as -perception unless it is heavily slotted. Mobs outside the radius are unaffected as are mobs that you can't target due to being out of LoS or out of range.

Super Speed solves that problem, most blasters have hasten anyway to leverage defiance, and it gives you all the same effects for yourself that smoke grenade does in the base slot. Combined with a stealth IO it gives you PvE invisibility. You can do all that in one power pick with 1 slot instead of 2 with heavy slotting requirements.

While trip mine is nice especially when combined with Caltrops you won't be slowing wolves down ever. Caltrops have no effect on them since they are immune to movement and recharge slows and they move fast enough that they can run past a trip mine without setting it off.

Gun drone isn't totally useless but it's end cost is far too great, it's casting time is far too great, it's duration is far too short especially when taken in the light of end cost and casting time and how little damage it puts out now due to the pet recharge nerf. The other thing that it used to be good at, contributing damage while the blaster is mezzed, is done better by the blaster now that the tier 1 and 2 primary and tier 2 secondary can be fired while mezzed.

I won't disagree that casting one as a lure so that you can stay cloaked is bad but forgetting to dismiss it before you start setting up your next mine field can ruin your day, a trade off that I don't really care for.

Also I never ever see posts calling time bomb useless from /Dev players that take the time to set up huge mine fields. It's quite useful for a player with that type playstyle. The other thing that you are missing is that primaries with crashless nukes like Archery and Assault Rifle or LRM from munitions benefit greatly from time bomb. 2 crashless mininukes used at the same time do more damage than a standard nuke and if you add in the time you don't have any end recovery from a crash it takes about the same amount of time to pull off as Time Bomb + RoA. Should it be able to be done faster? Without a doubt. Can it be done so that it is faster? I have no doubt that the dev team that has brought us power customization could pull it off.

Devices big problems are that many of the powers (CD, Smoke Grenade, Targetting Drone) can be replaced by IO sets or set bonuses for less or no end costs and while it may be fine and safe for soloing the powers that can't be replaced by sets and set bonuses (with the exception of Web Grenade and Caltrops) aren't easily or effectively used for ANY team whether they steam roll or not. The pace is too slow even on a team of new players that are going slow because they don't know how to go fast and live.

Both Blaster /Devices AND Grav Control need changed.

Grav needs to be completely reworked with the cottage rule thrown out the window or at least temporarily placed in the trash bin.

I think that /Devices could be successfully reworked while only slightly bending the cottage rule.

If I were prioritizing the 2 projects though /Devices would go first.

To be honest I like "tricky tactics" and prefer it many times to simple button mashing. There are few opportunities for strategy in this game and Sonic/Ice is a good one for a different yet fully effective playstyle.

Frozen Aura does not have low accuracy, it has standard accuracy, and most sleep IO sets are heavy on accuracy anyway.

The sleep in the cold epic (Flash Freeze) does not work at all for what my Sonic/Ice uses it for since it has a damage component and a duration of 17.9 seconds with a 90 second recharge. This makes it unstackable. Frozen Aura lacks a damage component and can be stacked mutiple times especially when you take into consideration that it's duration is longer than it's recharge time before any sleep duration is ever slotted.

The long durations on the sleeps also mean that if you do get mezzed during your alpha attack that mez has worn off long before the mobs awaken.

Solo (or on teams of experienced players) sleeps are hard controls as long as you do not move or damage the sleeping mobs. This means that problem mobs like sappers, mezzers, and bosses can be neutralized by stacked sleeps.

Mezzing lieutenants can be slept then stunned or held and taken out with single target damage without fear of disturbing other mobs. The same can be done with bosses. Kiting a sleeping boss with Freezing Touch and following up with a hold from an epic power can neutralize it. It can then be safely taken out with single target damage.

Once all major threats are eliminated a seemless AoE chain of Shockwave, Howl, Static Discharge, Sirens (Pre-epic powers, Shiver can be used in place of Static Discharge placed after Sirens in the attack chain) will easily and safely dispose of the rest of the spawn.

Best of all this can be done with only SOs or a very minimal amount of IO sets.

With proper slotting and a bit of practice it can be done with out Hasten or the Fitness pool.

My Sonic/Ice has Entropic Chaos slotted in the single target blasts and Call of the Sandman slotted in Sirens and Frozen Aura. The +heal procs have allowed me to dispense with the medicine pool and even beter yet, if I get slept and Entropic Chaos in my tier 1 and 2 blasts procs the sleep is broken and I can fire away at full power again.

All in all it has a very different though effective playstyle and gives me relief from the constant and very vanilla damage, damage, and more damage of the typical blaster power set combinations.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Merit_Rewards

Unless you have some extra range slotting in Seeds many of the mobs will notify and queue an attack before the confuse kicks in. 12-15% ranged defense can make the survival difference for those mobs that get the alpha off after notification but before being confused and for that 5% of mobs that are always going to be missed.

Actually Blaster Frozen Aura is quite useful especially while soloing. It can be stacked with itself to sleep even bosses allowing you to safely switch to single target damage or it can be done quickly by pairing it with the Sonic Primary and following up Sirens with Frozen.

I'm seriously considering switching to the electric Epic on my Sonic/Ice/Fire. I haven't tested it yet but I believe that I should be able to use Sirens then follow up with Frozen Aura to quickly sleep the entire spawn including bosses. Position my self in the exact center of the sleeping spawn. Fire off EM Pulse (which shouldn't break the sleep since it does no damage and doesn't reposition the mobs) and then follow up with Dreadful Wail. With proper slotting that should leave everything, including bosses, that lives through Dreadful, stunned and unable to retaliate until after the end crash passes off.

I'd agree that FF is probably the most relaxing defender though I would mention that a /FF controller has the potential to be even more relaxing especially Ice/FF.

Put one of the squishies on Auto follow, Bubble jack and the team every 4 minutes and cast ice patch when it's recharged. you can spend the rest of the time chatting.

Ice/Rad is good for that too. Just toggle on Artic Air and Choking Cloud (adding the Lock Down proc to Choking Cloud is even better as is adding the Contagious Confusion proc to Arctic Air) and follow the tank around with Radiant Aura on Auto.

I too disagree with Jwatt and would say that most of what brophog02 has to say mirrors my opinion on the subject with perhaps only a few small nits that are playstyle choices rather than any thing else.

The main one being that devices is a very safe and solid, though painfully slow, set for soloing. It takes a certain type of unhurried playstyle to really be happy with it.

@Candlestick

If you really want an AoE monster Rad/Fire is the way to go. Lots of PBAoEs. I'm really enjoying mine.

Just as an FYI we've been told by the devs that the number of merits required to buy a single purple recipe would be more than we can currently hold. Currently we can hold 9,999 merits so a 500 merit purple is a pipe dream.

I personally would go for perma dom (recharge) then ranged defense.

Having perma means that you don't have to refill the domination bar and it means that you can ignore some end red and recovery slotting because you'll constantly be refilling the blue bar.

Perma also gives you full time mez protection and increases the duration and mag of your controls allowing you to rely on them for much of your mitigation.

The thing you will need defenses for is the alpha response to your opening AoE control and "most" of those attacks will be ranged attacks.

My Emp/dark/dark uses it on tanks/scrappers that are in trouble. Obviously, if it's the main aggro holder that's happening to, the team is probably on it's way to a wipe. In that situation I'll pop 4 small purples to soft cap my defense and heal my little emp tushie off. The -heal effect only lasts for 20 seconds and the purples last for 60 so I can use AP freely for 40 seconds before I have to worry about it which is usually long enough to turn the tide.

My emp is set up to have AB perma without any outside buffs. I have 5 sets of Doctored Wounds slotted which gives me a 25% boost on the healing delivered by AP (1490 hp per cast) and Heal Other (584 hp per cast). I have HO and AP both 6 slotted. The 6th slot has a level 50 range IO in it. In those situations where I need a big heal NOW that's not a looming team wipe situation I can safely throw in AP from outside the range of mob ranged attacks and still use HO on targets from that same range.

He's one of my first ever 50s but I've used him less and less since set bonuses have been out. He still comes out for the occasional Hami raid or MoSTF but that's about it these days.