Quantumizer

Burn (from Fire Armor) says you need to be near the ground. Is hovering near enough, or do you actually have to be ON the ground. I'd like to know before my Fire tank takes Hover. Thanks!

I think Mid's is telling me there's a loophole in the Rule of Five, and I'd like to confirm before burning a Respec.

I already have five 1.25% bonuses to my ranged defense. I have three Thunderstrike sets that each give me 2.5% in NRG/Neg defense, when means half of that (or 1.25%) in ranged defense. I also have two Zephyr sets that each give me 1.25% in Ranged.

I thought I'd add another Zephyr set, but I didn't think I'd get the 1.25% Ranged def bonus since I had five anyway. But I plugged it into Mid's and it worked... I got it.

Now, I do understand that dropping a couple Defense IO's on Combat Jumping for my defender might be a better path than a third Zephyr (because the def would be universal), but I was curious about the apparent exception to the Rule of Five -- namely that if the defensive bonus comes as a complement to a damage type defense (NRG/Neg for Ranged, S/L for Melee, Fire/Cold for AoE), then the complementary bonus doesn't count toward your five. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks.

I think I understand the difference between status protection and status resistance... protection keeps you from getting mezzed at all, and resistance reduces the duration of the mez. But is 100% resistance the same as protection? I'm thinking no, since I've seen posts where players with perma-AM are looking for mez protection.

So how does the math work for resistance? If I've got AM on (with 216.25% stun resistance) and I get stunned, how long does it last? And if it is 0 seconds or less, do my offensive toggles still fall?

Thanks.

[QUOTE=JKCarrier;3536662]Salvage - If you're not in the mood to mess with the market, it's ok to just dump stuff at the nearest vendor. Yes, you might sometimes be missing out on a big payday, but there's plenty more salvage where that came from.[QUOTE]

I forgot to mention this in my previous post. Part of the reason I always dump my inventory at WW's is not a fear of missing out, but a moral obligation to share. As a crafter myself, I hate not being able to get ingredients. I feel guilty sending my salvage to the bit bucket of the vendors knowing that someone out there just needs one more Ancient Bone to complete IO set x and become uber hero, or to make one more batch of common IO's for their field crafter's badge. If there are > 2,000 items on the market with 0 bids, then I feel justified dumping, but otherwise I put up for sale.

If you don't like the market and salvage work, you can avoid it without gimping your character or giving up too much. You have to be a bit Zen about it, though.

Salvage: Put everything up for sale at Wentworth's for 90 infl. Usually you'll get close to the market value. Sometimes you'll get a lot less. You'll virtually always get more than you'd get from vendors. As you go along, you'll sell enough Mu Vestments and Enchanted Imperviums and Military Cybernetics to fund any kind of reasonable investments you yourself want to make down the line. It can be painful to have to buy an Enchanted Bone for 500k when you sold one the day before for 10k, but here is where the Zen part comes in... it's more painful spending mental energy trying to plan what you might need and keep track of an inventory of ingredients. Sell what you have and buy what you need...

Enhancements: When you get to 22, I'd craft up level 25 IO enhancements and be done with it. As you gain more slots, craft IO's of as high a level as possible. True, it's a bit faster to get SO's initially, but it's such a pain to keep them up to date. Only start Frankenslotting and using sets if you feel your game play experience will be truly enhanced by squeezing out a few more numbers. Sets significantly increase the mental energy spent on managing enhancements, influence, salvage, merit points, etc. Don't get me wrong... I spend a lot of time on IO sets, but I like that part of the game. But even for me there are times when I say, "Heck with it... I must kill."

Dark/Ice or Dark/Sonic defender. Dark is a super debuffer (Darkest Night, Howling Twilight, Tar Patch) with plenty of control powers (Tar Patch, Fearsome Stare, Petrifying Gaze, Black Hole -- if you're into intangibility), plus an excellent heal and invisibility. AND the only defender with a pet... Fluffy!

Ice adds even more control, and by stacking Petrifying Gaze with Freeze Ray and/or Bitter Freeze Ray, you can hold even most bosses.

Sonic is for all you Offenders out there. Stack the -Res of a few sonic attacks on top of the -Res of Tar Patch and you're in the -75% Res range easy, which means you're dealing some serious damage.

A lot of people like Dark/Dark, but you said you're looking for something unusual. Ice or Sonic in combo with Dark meet that criteria, I think.

Dark is extremely viable solo (especially with the Defender's +30% solo damage bonus), and -- even with the same build -- very useful in groups. Defenders in general and Dark in particular require good strategy to do well against large spawns (meeting your "challenging" requirement), which I think makes them very fun to play... no simple button mashing for a Dark!

So... come to the Dark side!

Does Fury increase the damage of pool attacks (like Kick or Air Superiority), or of Brawl? How about temporary or veteran powers? Does using these attacks increase Fury?

I ask because I'm not sure I'm seeing a significant damage increase from my Kick or Brawl. I know that Controllers only get Containment on attacks from their powerset, and Scrappers only do criticals with attacks from their powerset... how about Brutes?

If you don't want to take damage and you just care about SURVIVABILITY (pffft), then defense is the way to go. BUT... if you want to be IMMORTAL (take 100,000,000 damage)... regen all the way! Now THAT's a badge you can wear with pride. This strategy has the side benefit of very likely earning you the Exalted badge (pay off 1,000,000 debt), but some people prefer to keep that second badge in their dresser drawers.

After your deityhood is confirmed, though, consider respeccing into some defense.

You COULD build up a bunch of defense, as others suggest, and that would increase your survivability... but you're a regen! How many times has Wolverine "died," only to pop back up madder than ever that he's gotta sew up a bunch more bullet holes in his costume. Unlike other heroes, the miraculous revival is an integral part of the regen's modus operandi. Revel in it! Be proud! And while the bad guys are standing around, gloating over your inert body, hit the "Revive" button, down a break-free, and grab some revenge!

If you're still fixated on staying on your feet, by all means, a bit of defense is the way to do it. But it's going to be a big speed bump in the road to 100,000,000 damage and your Immortal badge. Just sayin'.

Yay! Thanks!

Can you teleport while immobilized?

I have a Dark/DP defender who I solo a lot (I'm up at weird hours). He was doing fine up until level 40 or so, then... STUN! STUN! STUN! Malta, Freakshow, Carnies... everybody seems to do stun, and a lot of it. The thing that sucks about it for me is that I depend on a layered defense of about 25% positional defense and 30% to-hit debuff from "Darkest Night." But... I get stunned... Darkest Night goes down... I am pulp.

I carry tons of break frees, but the gangs I'm meeting now... I just can't pack enough.

All I can think to do is mez back. Black Hole on the worst mezzer. Fearsome stare for the minions and weak-minded Lts. Suppressive Fire and/or Petrifying Gaze for any other lingerers. And Fluffy, of course. But all that means a respec to grab ALL those mez powers (I only have Stare and Fluffy right now), and tough choices.

Does anybody have any alternatives or other advice? Any temp powers or powers I'm overlooking? Thanks.

How do people slot Fluffy? I currently have him frankenslotted with IO's from hold, immob, and to-hit debuff sets. But looking at him from the enhancement management window, it looks like he might already be all set with accuracy (2.0x base), slotting recharge is really just a convenience (to bring him back if he goes down during a tough fight), and slotting endurance also isn't that useful (because you don't invoke the power that often).

I'm now starting to think I should just slot straight-up IO's... maybe 2 holds, 2 immobs, 1 to-hit debuff, and 1 healing. Or one each of hold, immob, to-hit debuff, and healing, then 2 frankenslots for that useful bit of recharge and/or end.

What are other people's thoughts?

Thanks!

I've actually had a couple of times when a pet summoned by a bad guy actually turned blue and pitched in. For instance, I was soloing the last mission of the arc with the bad cops -- the one where you fight both Captain Castillo and a giant robot that shows up after you beat Castillo -- and somewhere along the line, an engineer laid a force field generator that somehow became my ally. It was outlined in blue, it followed me around, it gave me +20% def... and it did this for the rest of the mission. It boosted my FF defender way past the def soft cap, and even the elite bosses couldn't touch him.

I've also seen Rubble turn blue after spawning from defeated Bedrocks.

Weird stuff. There's a bug somewhere.

Thanks, all. I'll dump my alignment tip and patiently await the morality tip.

I've done my 10 hero alignment missions... how do I now get the morality mission? Just follow the next tip that drops? Or follow the one I already have? Is there a clear difference between "morality mission" tips and "alignment mission" tips?

Thanks.

I've heard tell that a blaster can solo an AV, or even a GM. I assume this would require MM secondary (for the -regen)... but how the heck could you ever live through a few seconds of the AV's attention?

My only thought is that you could build up a very high Range defense via power pools and IO's... I doubt you could soft cap, though. And build up a very high regen with health, procs, and other IO's... but again, how high can you go, really?

Are there other build and/or combat strategies that people can see that I'm missing?

*Sigh* That's sad, but helpful. Thank you.

How do people feel about Ice/Ax/Energy as an AV killer? I'm thinking if I can get a moderate amount of recharge (haste plus io bonuses) and a huge amount of end reduction (stamina, plus procs, plus io bonuses, plus energy absorption, plus conserve power, plus -- maybe -- recovery serum), the huge amount of damage the ax lays out can probably work down the AV's hp, even against his ungodly regeneration.

Defense-wise, I can soft-cap everything except fire, cold, and psionics, and I can also cap cold res (so, not such a fun time against the Envoy of Shadows or the Madame of Mystery, but should be able to go toe-to-toe with most others).

Is that thinking sound? Are there other things to pay attention to? What has worked for people?

If I find out I can't solo AV's, what might work for a duo? Blaster? Scrapper? Controller with pet?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.