PhroX

Oh yeah, I agree that the combination -res and -regen is indeed what makes thngs like rad good, but the perception seems to me to be along the lines of "you need -regen and only rad has it!!!!" (this from the "We need a healor!!!" and "I need a kin!!!" people). Also sufficient of one of these can easily make up for a lack of the other - a Sonic/Sonic def can get something like 100% -res on a single target. Do you really need any -regen then? And of course, while kin doesn't have -res, it has +dam, while, while not quite as good, fulfills the same role. Hence why good players tend to ask for the more general "buffs or debuffs"

Sure Rads are very good, and I love them around, but they're soooooo far from necessary. -regen (the thing people are usually after rads for) is found in other sets too. Cold, Poison and Traps have serious amounts of it, while Dark has some too (and maybe Kin?). Not to mention, that in a team setting, -res is just as good if not better (there was a very short period when -regen was king, but not anymore except one one or two encounters), so things like Storm, TA and Sonic are perfectly good.

I can understand this. SBing everyone every 2 minutes is the most pointlessly tedious thing in the game. Why the devs haven't done something about it I'll never understand.

Even with something like this, I suspect most people would be OK as a 7th or 8th person in a team which is already reasonably balanced. Now, sure, if I'd asked for a tank, and got one built like this, I might kick, but if I'm just asking for whatever, and you tell me beforehand that your character is a gimmick build, then I'll take ya

Having seen your previous posts, the only "flamming" is from you towards, well, pretty much everyone, purely cos they don't think in the same way as you.

Still, we'll give this a try.

Two totally unrelated questions.

Firstly, Mids. Why? Well, it contains accurate information about the game, and allows you to plan out a build before you commit to it. Particularly with expensive IOs, this can be really useful. I don't generally play FotMs, but I still love mids, as it helps me make the characters I am playing effective without wasting loads of time with a piece of paper and a pencil trying to calculate where my defense is, what my end consumption is and so on. Indeed, I'd say the people who play FotMs are less likely to use Mids, as they probably won't even do the research to find out such a program exists.

As for FotMs and MinMaxing, well, it's human nature. People enjoy being powerful in games, thus they gravitate towards that which is percieved as being powerful, and then try to make it as powerful as possible. And once someone's found a build thats effective, it makes sense that others who also want to be as effective as possible also use it.

Then either:
a) You're grouping with idiots as any team can do pretty much anything in this game
or
b) You're playing in a way that is unfriendly to the other team members

To expand on the second point. I'd have no problems inviting a Storm/Energy defender to the team. Should that defender then spend the entire time knocking enemies away from the tank and AoEs, even after he's been asked to stop, then I would kick him.

Well, I've never really been one for FotM build, though nor do I completely go out of my way to find obscure stuff. In general, I play what a) fits my concepts; and b) looks fun. My current main is a DB/SR scrapper. So, not a FotM by any means, but not unheard of. I picked the combo cos it looked good and fit together thematically.. The most obscure I've done would probably be be a Fire/Trap corruptor back before they were cool. And while I did get a few comments like "Traps? Isn't that a bit crap", I never once got kicked from a team.

Nor, as I said, would I kick someone purely for their build. If they had a weird builds and played it in a manner that was infringing on the enjoyment of the others in the team, then I might do so. But to be honest, I'd do the same to a well known and effective build.

Well, the Dual Pistols primary is really popular because it's new. Again, human nature, people really like to try new stuff.

In the long run, DP probably won't be popular among powergamers and FotM type people for the simple reason that it's not very good. It will however, likely remain very popular amongst those who play characters for concept and RP reasons.

As for the secondaries, well, Energy and MM are again considered powerful, and, as I said earlier, people enjoy being powerful. Not to mention, that it's probably easier to come up with a concept involving those than Fire or Ice for a pistol wielder. Energy, for example, you can skip the attacks, and take the utility powers and bam, one natural pistolier.

F/K is easy to make powerful. It's also a great farming build. Even people who don't generally go for FotM might well make one just to fund the rest of their characters.

Well, sets like WP and SS (and indeed Inv which is still very popular in game) are classic comic book things. People want to make their comic idols in game, so they go for this type of thing.

Erm...where are people saying this? They might be taking those combinations and deliberately building them badly as a joke, but then they do that with all sorts - hell, Empathy, one of the all time most popular sets, is the butt of more crap build jokes in the defender forums than any other - but I can't ever remember seeing them described as "worthless jokes" in general.

Storm/Electric might get some stick, cos Electric is probably the weakest defender attack set, but even so, I'm pretty sure nearly everyone on here will agree that it's perfectly playable. They might make a suggestion like "if you enjoy killing things quickly, you might have more fun with sonic", but no-one's gonna complain if you play what you want to play, provided you do not play it in a manner which prevents others having fun.

People don't. Or at least, only a small minority do. Yes, people like FotMs. But they don't go around saying that everything else is crap.

On the other hand, you yourself are going around attacking things for being better than you believe they are. I've seen posts from you saying "FotM build xyz is crap and my less played build abc is better" even when it demonstratably isn't, just cos you seem to dislike everyone playing the FotM.

Ask yourself. Are you that scared about people who don't think like you that you feel the need to constantly insult and belittle them?

I'd still disagree with the idea that you should want a "healer", or indeed an empath specifically. You want a defender in general. Or even a controller. If well built and played, any defender (with the possible exception of TA) could do this to a team, whether they can heal or not.

Now, I'm not saying Empaths are bad by any means: they're not, a well played one is great to have, but the same can be said of a Rad or a Dark, or a Storm or a FF or so on. To look for a specific powerset is silly.

I agree with the first sentiment - Empower and Weaken aren't worth it - but disagree with the second: Sweep is great for groups of enemies. The combination of 1KC with a +50% damage Typhoons Edge is some serious AE potential.

As for the main question, I love my DB/SR. SR's easy to softcap, and, as Muon_Neutrino said, the recharge boost leaves the BF->AV chain within easy reach. The only real drawback is that both sets are rather power hungry (DB needs 7, SR needs 8), but thanks to Ninja Run removing my need for a travel power, there's enough room for both, plus some extras like Weave, Aid Self and Conserve Power

Actually, that'd be awesome; a massive spike suddenly emerging from the ground beneath your unsuspecting victim

If you've got the inf, something like LOTG: DEF, DEF/(RECH or END), DEF/+Global Rech is a good thing to aim for.

Stupid? That would be AWESOME

They're a group of people who exist solely to bear witness to a scrapper's awesomeness

Hah, that was my first thought when read the OP.

Of course, now every time I run into a Fake Nemesis I'm going to be imagining it shouting
"RRRRRRREEEEEEEERRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUCCCCCC CCHHHHHHHHH!!"

Then surround yourself with a large group when AV soloing. It's not like they can actually hurt you....

MA isn't great AoE wise, but it's got very good single target damage, and most of all, looks damn cool. So, if you like the sound of it, go for it.

Dark lacks in AE damage (partly counteracted by /SD), but more than makes up for it in ST damage and survivability. For the melee classes, it's easily the best set for AV soloing...