StrykerX
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:I consider Piercing Rounds a single target attack that occasionally hits an extra enemy, not a real AoE. That's also how I look at the "line" style melee cones like Headsplitter. From a practical standpoint DP has three AoEs: a standard cone, a standard targeted AoE, and a PBAoE mini-nuke. The DP "nuke" can be used three times as often as Nova, but Nova actually kills pretty much all non-bosses it hits... so I actually consider DP and Energy similar in terms of AoE power.Originally Posted by Smoking Baby
I don't see how it's a single target set when it has 4 aoes and they cost more end to use because they're aoes. Energy has just as many aoes as Archery, they just happen to be weak, and scatter very easily which is counter productive.
Archery is only considered an AoE set because of Rain of Arrows. With decent slotting you can use RoA every spawn, giving Archery the ability to pretty much eliminate all minions in a spawn with RoA and (if needed) Fistful and / or Explosive. If RoA was not usable every spawn Archery would not be an AoE set, because then it would only have the standard cone and ranged AoE blast that almost every Blaster set gets to use regularly.Quote:3 is still a cone attack giving it a 4th aoe. Regardless even at 3 it has the same amount of aoes as Archery so if Archery can be considered an aoe set then DP should be too.
Hail of Bullets cannot be used every spawn, is too dangerous to open up with in many situations, and Hail will not reliably clear the minions from a spawn. That makes it a situational power rather than a core part of the attack chain, leaving only the standard two AoEs that almost all Blaster sets get. In other words, DP is only average in usable, every-spawn AoE power... much like Energy.
(Note that I tend to rate sets on what they can do consistently. Nukes (other than mini-nukes that can be used every fight), tier 9 "god mode" powers, and long recharge short term buffs are cool toys but do not alter basic spawn to spawn performance, so I don't really give them much consideration when looking at a set's overall performance.) -
Purples provide large amounts of certain bonuses, in particular recharge speed but also things like regen and accuracy (repending on the purple). However, most do not provide any defense bonuses. That means they are very handy for characters who need a lot of recharge but do not need large amounts of defense, such as many Scrappers and Tankers or offensively-designed Blasters and Controllers. Perhaps the build most benefited by purples would be an Illusion / Rad Controller... once you get very high levels of recharge you get Phantom Army permanent, at which point you always have immortal pets taking the aggro and become essentially unkillable even with zero defense.
The other main use for purples is exemplaring. Since they always provide their set bonuses no matter how low you exemp down and the damage-based purple sets are highly overslotted for damage, a fully purpled Blaster or Scrapper can quickly solo or duo a Positron TF... they'll have near SO level damage even after the penalty for exemping plus they'll keep those big recharge bonuses.
Of course, purples are not always better. If you're a SR Scrapper and only need a few defense bonuses to softcap, then purples are great. If you are a Blaster who wants to pretend you're a Scrapper and solo +4/x8 spawns, you won't have room for many purples since you'll need massive amounts of ranged defense. I personally have never used purples, though I plan to on my current Controller... but only because he has a Confuse power and that set is cheaper than some rare non-purples.
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Keep in mind that AR and Archery are both better at AoE than DP... your DP Blaster can probably handle three +3 mobs faster than your AR (not counting differences in secondaries) but the AR will handle six +0s a lot faster than the DP.
Dual Pistols is almost identical to Energy Blast (considered by most a middle of the road primary in both AoE and ST damage) in AoE performance, the only difference being the nuke. Archery has a crashless nuke that can be used safely every 1-2 spawns instead of only every 2-4 and at significant risk. It also has a slightly better cone. AR has a safe, fast recharging crashless nuke and a huge amount of additional AoE damage. On the other hand, Dual Pistols has slightly better single target performance than Archery or AR... but only slightly better and at the cost of significantly worse AoEs.
That may be the real problem with DP... it is only middle of the road in AoE capability so people compare it to the more single target sets, but those tend to have more mitigation than DP does (tons of KB in Energy, slows and holds in Ice, that huge cone Sleep in Sonic) so it seems too squishy for a single target set and too weak damagewise (especially AoE) for the "burn them down first" approach.
(Yes I did leave out Electric Blast... I'm only comparing DP to viable primaries.
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Quote:Except if that is the case then every other Blaster powerset is overpowered, since they do higher damage before Defiance is taken into account. I really doubt all other Blasters are overpowered, simply because if they were any weaker then they'd be worthless... Scrappers already do almost as much damage far more safely so any significant drop in Blaster damage would render them obsolete.Originally Posted by Benchpresser
The one thing that I consistently see MISSING from these arguments is is this- DP is the first set designed FROM THE GROUND UP with Defiance 2.0 in play. The proliferated sets were tweaked yes, but this is the one that was designed with the Devs thinking ok.. as they blast they are getting a stacking damage buff every x seconds... OF COURSE THE BASE DAMAGE WILL BE LOWER. It may suck.. but thats the thinking from a balance standpoint.
(edited cause I hit post too fast)
I believe Pistols was designed to have slightly weaker powers to balance out the swappable ammo. The problem is that the swappable ammo is not really an advantage... Blaster sets with single fixed special effects and damage types generally outperform DP even when the DP user selects the optimum damage type for that enemy. The set isn't horribly, but it is a few percentage points behind the curve and performance oriented players notice that quickly. -
Quote:Assuming 180% total accuracy, no to-hit buffs, and that the attack itself has the standard base accuracy (not a weapon with redraw or an AoE control power, for instance), you have a 48% base chance to hit a +3 enemy. 180% x 48% = 86.5% chance to hit after accuracy is factored in... that's good, but not capped. On +4s you will end up with about a 70% chance to hit, which isn't that good. You really need to-hit buffs to hunt +4s... just adding a Kismet 6% Accuracy IO (which is mis-named, it's actually a to-hit bonus) would cap your to-hit against +3s and boost you to around 81% against +4s.Originally Posted by Vitality
When, if ever, would this not be enough accuracy in an attack?
If you mean plus 180% accuracy (280% total accuracy), you'll be capped against +4s or less but will only hit +5s about 84% of the time. Of course +5s are rare, so no big deal there. More importantly, a +3 with more than 15% defense or a +4 with more than 6% defense will result in less than capped to-hit chance, as will being to-hit debuffed by those amounts. Unless you get hit by a significant to-hit debuff like Chill of the Night or Hurricane or hunt +6 mobs you'll be fine at this level. -
Quote:I suspect the reason Rain of Arrows does so much damage is that it really is a "rain" power with three damage ticks, which means that if an enemy runs out of the area before all the damage has landed then that enemy avoids the rest of the hits. It also may have a lower damage cap if it uses the pet cap like some pseudopet powers do. It's not uncommon for some enemies to avoid the third or even second damage tick, and it's difficult to use on moving targets. (I'm not saying RoA isn't a great power, but it does have drawbacks that could account for the extra damage.)Originally Posted by Katten
Are you out of your mind? FA, no, not necessarily over powered. But holy cow yes, RoA is overpowered, Shield Charge is Overpowered, and Lightning Rod is over powered.
Based on the description of Hail of Bullets, I think it works like Full Auto in that anything in the area is subject to all 24 damage rolls, even if it runs away in the middle of the animation. Based on that, HoB should probably have a 1 minute recharge and do a bit more average damage than Full Auto when using incendiary rounds and about the same when using others... the additional secondary effects would be balanced by having to be in melee range. If it keeps the extra recharge, it should hit harder than Full Auto.
I'd like a bit more damage than that to make up for its unreliability, but if we just balance based on average damage (which the devs seem to do) it still seems underpowered. -
Quote:Ok, I admit I may have stated that a little too strongly, but I do feel a lot of people will either skip taking Executioner's Shot or only use it when they have to (or to show off the animation). Having to get that close and then be rooted for nearly 3 seconds is bad...Originally Posted by StratoNexus
Not a single DP user I played with on test skipped ES. They also used it almost all the time.
All it really needs is the animation chopped slightly to speed it up to around 2 seconds like Power Burst. Both Executioner's and Piercing really kill the set's whole "high mobility gun-fu" feel, but at least Piercing has full range. At least for me (and several others I've talked to) Executioner's just feels too slow. -
Remember that Claws is designed for fast attacking, not huge burst damage. Pretty much all the attacks do good damage per second, but they're fast so you don't see the huge orange numbers you get from things like Golden Dragonfly. Of course, Golden Dragonfly is about the third most powerful Scrapper attack and the second best DPA, so that's not really a good comparison. The only set that can really compete with Golden Dragonfly one on one is Fire, but when you look at a full attack chain Claws is a bit better than Katana.
Follow Up makes a huge difference. It has a lower bonus than Build Up so you definitely don't see the massive numbers you get from BU + Golden Dragonfly, GFS, or Headsplitter but the bonus is easily kept up full-time (and can be stacked part of the time). That means you have a 37% or 75% damage bonus all the time instead of a 100% bonus a quarter of the time or less... bad for burst damage but fantastic for sustained DPS. -
Quote:I was mainly thinking solo. Tankers always have more targets for PBAoEs on teams but then on teams you probably have enough total AoE that it doesn't matter... as a Scrapper you're better off killing bosses than trying to FSC a bunch of minions that are going to be vaporized in three seconds by the Blasters anyway.Originally Posted by JuliusSeizure
My experience is that targeting geometry almost always matters for AoE attacks. Not only is a Tank's Combustion hitting more targets in a team setting, but because the Tank naturally clumps foes on their person better than any other AT their FSC is also generally hitting more targets.
Well, that depends on how large your bank is.Quote:Okay, so Scrapper it is. Any suggestions for IO sets that won't totally break the bank? As a /Willpower you're going to have a lot of regen, some decent S/L resists, and moderate typed defense for fire, cold, energy, and negative. +HP bonuses will be handy to boost your regen (regen is based off your HP so more max HP = more HP / tick at a given regen rate) and your ability to take alpha strikes. Regen bonuses aren't as useful since you already have so much of it, but can still be handy when fighting a single tough opponent and are often in the same sets as +HP anyway. The good news is that +HP and +regen are often the first or second bonus in a set so they're very easy to get. You may also want to get some defense bonuses, especially if you go with Tough and Weave (which I would).
Some good sets that aren't horribly overpriced:
Crushing Impact (melee, provides +HP, +accuracy, and +recharge)
Mako's Bite (melee, somewhat expensive, provides +HP, +damage, and energy/negative defense)
Cleaving Blow (PBAoE, provides +recovery, energy/negative defense)
Scirocco's Dervish (PBAoE, somewhat expensive, provides +regen, +accuracy, fire/cold defense)
Titanium Coating (resist, provides cheap +HP)
Aegis (resist, somewhat expensive, provides fire/cold defense)
Reactive Armor (resist, provides multiple typed defense)
Steadfast Protection (resist, provides +recovery, +HP, has a resist + 3% defense to all unique)
Luck of the Gambler (defense, somewhat expensive, provides +HP, + regen, +accuracy)
Red Fortune (defense, provides +recharge, +damage, energy/negative defense)
Serendipity (defense, provides +regen, +HP, +accuracy, fire/cold defense)
Efficacy Adapter (end mod, provides +HP, +recovery, +regen, +damage, +recharge)
Performance Shifter (end mod, provides +HP and has a +endurance proc that's semi-affordable)
Numina's Convalescence (healing, somewhat expensive, provides very good +HP and +regen for 3 slots)
Miracle (healing, somewhat expensive, provides very good +recovery and +HP for 3 slots)
Some great sets that are horribly overpriced that you'll want anyway some day:
Obliteration (PBAoE, +damage, +accuracy, +recharge)
Aegis and Impervium Armor psi resist IOs
Steadfast Protection 3% defense to all (not too overpriced)
Gladiator's Armor 3% defense to all (costs 2 billion but you do want one some day)
Regenerative Tissue +regen unique and Numina's +regen / +recovery unique
I'm sure there are others, but those are what I could come up with off the top of my head. Don't worry if you can't afford most of it, /Willpower works fine frankenslotted with dirt cheap "junk" set IOs and generic IOs and doing that costs less than buying SOs to 50. If you keep playing at 50 the inf will come pouring in and you'll soon be able to afford the good stuff. (Well, not that Gladiator's...) If you don't keep playing at 50, well... you won't need the fancy IOs will you?
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You can also take Acrobatics if you don't want to buy a -KB IO. You don't really need KB protection early on (it's nice to have but easy to do without) and once you get Stamina and SOs you can afford the extra endurance for Acrobatics. You may also be able to afford a -KB IO by then... remember that you can slot a Steadfast -KB in Arctic Fog (if you take that power) if that's cheaper than a Karma, and you still get the -KB when the power is turned off. The -KB IOs aren't really that expensive if you are patient and avoid certain levels, you just have to be willing to wait a week or two to get it.
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Quote:Yes, but Boost Range stacks with those HOs...Originally Posted by Chazzmatazz
One of the selling points for /EM is Boost Range, and I get it, but I do also respectfully suggest the use of dam/range HOs and IOs can substitute nicely in gaining a satisfying boost from the base ranges. Of course, HOs are for endgame builds, but you can get Dam/Range IOs pretty early and they are noticeable and may satisfy the "moar range pls" desire.
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This was brought up a lot on beta. Hail of Bullets originally had a six minute recharge like true nukes, but it was later cut to two minutes. I can only assume that the longer recharge is due to the secondary effects (admittedly the knockdown with standard ammo is quite good) and the maximum damage being significantly higher than Full Auto. However, since the odds of getting even 3/4 of max damage are 1 in about 4000 and the damage with non-incendiary ammo (the kinds that get secondary effects) is quite low I can't see the problem with giving it the same 60 second recharge as other crashless nukes.
As far as the set as a whole being balanced rather than individual powers, Assault Rifle has more AoE damage and a more powerful crashless nuke, yet its nuke is only a 60 second recharge. Archery has the same effective number of AoEs (I do not count Piercing Round as a true AoE any more than I count Headsplitter as one) yet has a far superior mini-nuke. About the only thing Dual Pistols has going for it that other sets lack is an additional long range, high damage (mostly) single target attack that isn't a snipe. I (and many others) really don't see that as worth doubling the recharge on Hail of Bullets, especially since Executioner's Shot has such pathetic DPA that nobody's going to use it except for the animation...
Really, Dual Pistols is very similar to Archery when it comes to useful power picks. Both have:
- Standard tier one and two shots
- A full 80 foot range "tier 3" (Blazing Arrow hits a bit harder, Piercing Round can occasionally hit 2-3 targets)
- A ranged stun (that can be switched to a hold in DP's case, but same idea)
- A standard ranged cone AoE
- A standard targeted AoE
- a crashless nuke
Archery gets Aim while DP gets Swap Ammo, and Archery gets a snipe that most people skip while DP gets a short range tier 3 blast with a massive animation time and pathetic DPA that most people skip. So comparing the powers that are actually good, we see that Archery has Aim and a slightly stronger tier 3 blast while Dual Pistols has selectable ammo and a chance to hit multiple targets with its tier 3 blast. Overall that seems very closely balanced to me, so I can certainly see comparing Hail of Bullets directly to Rain of Arrows. And in that comparison, Hail of Bullets falls flat on its face.
So unless Archery is just overpowered (which I certainly don't believe), why should Dual Pistols effectively be a weaker clone of it? The swappable ammo is a neat gimmick but ultimately it doesn't actually do much since only 30% of the damage changes and the secondary effects are significantly weaker than other blast sets... it certainly doesn't justify a tier 9 that's so much worse than any other crashless nuke. The lack of Aim alone is enough to balance out the minor (usually less than 10%) damage boost you can get by swapping to an ammo type the target is weaker to, and the weaker secondary effect strength balances out being able to select which effect to use. So what is the double recharge on Hail of Bullets balancing out? The one in a thousand (literally) chance to do more damage than the other crashless nukes?
Don't get me wrong, Dual Pistols is a very pretty set. But from a numbers standpoint, it's not very good, especially Hail of Bullets and Executioner's Shot. -
Tanker FSC + Combustion is slightly more damage than Scrapper FSC, but Scrapper FSC + Fire Ball is more damage than Tanker FSC + Combustion + Fire Ball, so once you add in epic pools the Scrapper has the advantage unless you are in a huge spawn where Combustion's larger area matters, and since Combustion isn't that damaging I'd still call it very close to even. The Scrapper gets much higher single target damage and gets about the same AoE for one less power choice, so overall I'd only pick the Tank if I wanted maximum survivability on a lower priced build. Once you start throwing half a billion or more inf at a Scrapper they quickly become able to survive pretty much anything you'll actually face on a regular basis so they're tough enough, even if a Tank is tougher.
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If your tank has survivability issues, you need to either respec or stop fighting +4s before getting SOs. Seriously, pretty much any tank except pre-IO Fire Tanks are almost immortal once they get a few defenses... they may take forever to actually defeat anything and have to stop for endurance every other spawn at lower levels but they don't die, so survivability is a non-issue.
Scrappers are squishier, but as long as you don't go nuts on the difficulty they're still plenty hard to kill. Willpower is a very good set with no real holes, so you should be able to solo pretty much any mission just fine. It will take a more expensive IO build to handle full team spawns on a Scrapper than a Tanker, but the ability to actually defeat said spawns in a reasonable time frame is worth it. /Fire Tankers are actually decent damage dealers so it doesn't take that long, but you can't match Scrapper speeds.
One thing to keep in mind is that Fire Melee is not the same set for Scrappers and Tankers. The Tanker version has a second PBAoE, while the Scrapper version replaces that with a high damage single target attack. As a result, Scrapper Fire Melee is very good at taking out tough single targets and has moderate AoE capability, while Tanker Fire Melee is much weaker against single targets but has significant AoE power (for a Tanker). That's mainly an issue in the mid levels though, since both Tanks and Scrappers can get an additional AoE from their epic pool.
I'd go with the Scrapper myself since you don't seem to heavily focused on being a team aggro holder. Scrappers are still tough enough to solo very well and on teams your role is generally to find the biggest, toughest enemy and punch them in the face until they fall down, then repeat. Nice and simple. Plus if you decide to really trick your build out with IOs you can probably handle +4/x8 spawns solo... Tankers just get that tough sooner and when fully IOed can handle +5/x10 or so. Which would be cool if +5/x10 difficulty actually existed, but since it doesn't that really just means they need a bit less support on a STF or Hami raid.
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I'd say any of the good ranged, targeted AoE, and PBAoE attack sets will be in high demand. I'm not going to bother trying to stockpile IOs for this one, but if I did I'd probably try to get a bunch of Thunderstrikes. We're about to get a lot of new Blasters and Thunderstrike is a very popular set for leveling a Blaster. The profit margin won't be as high as some of the more expensive sets but the demand will be huge and you can actually find Thunderstrikes in quantity.
Of course anyone with a lot of storage can make a lot just selling crafted accuracy and damage IOs... last 2xp weekend I sold hundreds of them. -
My Plant / Storm is a farmer (as in someone who grows things, not a Fire / Kin wannabe ) so I can see Earth fitting in with plants and weather control thematically. On the other hand, Ice fits well too and I'd forgotten that Hibernate also was a +recovery boost... that could be very handy.
How's the damage from Ice Mastery's AoEs? I don't really care if I have a heavy hitting single target attack since it's a team based character and I don't plan to try to solo EBs. And I have all three vet attacks if I really need them... with Freezing Rain they'll hit pretty reliably. -
Quote:Wow, there's something you don't read every day...Originally Posted by Tonality
Yeah. Dark/Fire slotted for +HP is probably the most survivable option.
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Ah, thanks for the info. I guess I just haven't paged back that far after finishing a costume in a long time.
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I'm in the process of getting my Plant / Storm Controller to 50 and am planning out his final build, but I need some advice on how to finish it. This is designed as a primarily team-based build but I want to be able to solo at reasonably high difficulties too. I'm not concerned with being good at farming, but I'd like to be able to run the occasional x6 or x8 mission for fun. I'd also like to be able to hold my own against ambushes in the ITF or other TFs if possible. I'm pretty sure I'll be going with something like this:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Plant Control
Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Strangler- (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold
- (3) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Recharge
- (3) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold
- (5) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold
- (5) HamiO:Peroxisome Exposure
- (25) Ruin - Damage/Endurance
- (A) Accuracy IO
- (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
- (7) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
- (7) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
- (9) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- (9) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (23) Enfeebled Operation - Endurance/Immobilize
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (11) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (11) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (13) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (13) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (25) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Endurance
- (A) HamiO:Golgi Exposure
- (15) HamiO:Golgi Exposure
- (15) HamiO:Golgi Exposure
- (A) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Confused/Recharge
- (19) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Recharge
- (19) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Recharge
- (21) Coercive Persuasion - Contagious Confusion
- (21) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Endurance
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (17) Kismet - Accuracy +6%
- (23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
- (27) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (34) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection
- (A) Jumping IO
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (17) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff
- (27) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- (37) Shield Breaker - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge
- (50) Tempered Readiness - Endurance/Recharge/Slow
- (A) Miracle - +Recovery
- (31) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
- (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
- (33) Performance Shifter - EndMod
- (33) Endurance Modification IO
- (33) Endurance Modification IO
- (A) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance
- (31) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff
- (37) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance
- (42) Dark Watcher's Despair - Recharge/Endurance
- (A) Run Speed IO
- (A) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (34) Detonation - Damage/Recharge
- (34) Air Burst - Damage/Recharge
- (36) Enfeebled Operation - Accuracy/Recharge
- (36) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
- (39) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
- (A) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Hold
- (29) Basilisk's Gaze - Accuracy/Recharge
- (29) Basilisk's Gaze - Recharge/Hold
- (31) Basilisk's Gaze - Endurance/Recharge/Hold
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
- (36) Brilliant Leadership - Accuracy/Damage
- (37) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage
- (42) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up
- (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge
- (39) Expedient Reinforcement - Damage/Endurance
- (43) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (43) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge
- (45) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage/Endurance
- (46) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Recharge
- (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
- (39) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
- (40) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
- (40) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- (40) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (43) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
Level 49: [Empty]- (A) Empty
Level 1: Brawl- (A) Empty
- (A) Run Speed IO
- (A) Empty
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The problem is that I'm not really sure what ancillary pool to pick. I'm going for a high recharge build but I have several options and could use some advice from people who have played these sets before (this is my first high level Plant or Storm)...
1) My original plan was to go with Stone Mastery to get S/L defense and +HP plus some AoE damage. I'd have enough recharge for perma-Earth's Embrace and Fissure is at least decent PBAoE damage plus some more control. I'd also end up with 25-30% S/L defense, which should help survivability when solo or if I draw aggro.
2) Primal Forces Mastery would give me Conserve Power, which would really help since this build has massive endurance drain (too much to fully be endurance neutral regardless of slotting). I'd also get Power Boost, some S/L resists, and the option to get a little AoE from Energy Torrent. I'd be giving up some survivability in exchange for better endurance management.
3) Ice Mastery would give me more AoEs (including another rain that would work well with Freezing Rain), S/L defense, and Hibernate. I'd really prefer Earth's Embrace to Hibernate if I go the defense route, but Ice does offer a lot of -recharge for mitigation and decent AoE capability.
4) I was also thinking about taking Spore Burst as a set mule for the cheap purple Sleep set and as a source of emergency control (though with Seeds on a sub-20 second recharge I'm not sure I'd need it), but I'm also considering Tactics and Assault to boost the team a bit.
5) Finally, I'm not sure if Snow Storm is worth taking or if I'd be better off with something else. Slows are nice but with Freezing Rain and Seeds up every spawn I'm not sure it's needed.
Budget wise, I'm going fairly all out but not unlimited... no purples except the cheap Confuse, Pet and Sleep sets and no PvP IOs. Other than that, suggest away... it's a TF runner so if I can't afford it there's always merits. Thanks for any advice... I'm personally leaning toward Stone Mastery and Spore Burst with no Leadership (I'm already at 6+ end/sec when I go flat out) but someone who's actually played the set at 50 has a better idea I'm listening.
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Ballistas are basically FF / Energy Blast defenders with a lot more damage and some Energy Melee attacks. You could get very close by making a FF / Energy Defender and taking the Power Mastery epic. Be sure to get Assault and as many +damage set bonuses as possible too if you want it to be a true Ballista, because those things hit hard.
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I was making a new character and I noticed that every time I tried to go back and change my origin or power selections after making my costume it would lose my costume settings. Has this been going on long or is it a new bug?
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I don't like team-only sets. Things like Empathy and Force Field are really bad for soloing and tend to turn you into a buff / heal bot on teams (I know a good Empath does a lot more than heal, but it's still all focused on your own guys)... I'd much rather play a debuff set for a Defender primary or a Controller / Corruptor secondary so I get to focus on the bad guys. I will play buff / heal sets on a Mastermind though since their whole playstyle involves focusing on the pets anyway... though even there I don't like FF because it adds no damage or debuffs so it's slow.
I also don't have the patience for Stone Armor... if I ever have the inf it throw away on a massive recharge build for an alt that isn't one of my main focuses I may try one but otherwise I'll continue avoiding them.
Probably the character I'm least likely of all to play is a FF / Electric Defender. Most boring primary plus worst blast set... <shudders> -
If you want to solo +4s, you have a few options. Brutes are pretty much the toughest melee AT that still have enough damage to solo well... a Dark Melee / Shield Brute would have very high single target damage and be hard as hell to kill once you softcapped him. A Katana / Regen Scrapper is also very survivable and has great damage... softcapped melee + insane regen makes you a great boss / AV killer. Fire / Shield has lower mitigation but insane damage if you want to go that route.
If you're more patient, an Illusion / Rad Controller can solo almost anything provided you are willing to wait long enough. Rad / Sonic Defenders can also solo very well given enough time. Of course, if you're patient enough just make a Stone / Stone Brute and be almost immortal while (slowly) smashing things, or a Stone / Stone Tanker and be fully immortal but even slower on the smashing.
And finally, you can always make a Bots / Traps MM. Bots are slow starters so they're great for 2xp weekends, and once you hit level 32 you'll be mowing down everything in sight. Bots have a fair amount of AoEs later on (ninjas are the real single target pets) but the big reason to pick them is the survivability... Protector Bots + Force Field Generator + Maneuvers, Combat Jumping, and a few IO sets and you have softcapped defense that doesn't drop on mez combined with hold and stun protection. Add in Provoke and you can tank for the bots to keep them alive vs +4 bosses. Or EBs. Or AVs. Or giant monsters. Or pretty much anything that isn't Hamidon. Especially if you use the pet defense IOs so the bots and you are softcapped. The only thing in the game that solos better than a well built Bots / Traps MM is an Ill / Rad Controller, and the MM is much faster moving and cheaper to build.
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Endurance management depends a lot on what AT and power set you pick. For instance, my Archery / Energy Blaster literally cannot run out of endurance without getting sapped or debuffed... he only has Stamina and some minor +recovery from IOs (no uniques) but he runs no toggles except Hover and has good end reduction slotting so he never runs out. My Plant / Storm Controller, on the other hand, will (when fully IOed) have an endurance usage of around 6 end / second... no possible slotting can get him endurance neutral so I'll have to be careful in long fights about what to use. Be sure to get an idea how much endurance management you actually need... it might end up being "all I can get isn't enough", but it also might end up being "Stamina plus a couple accolades or set bonuses is plenty". If you overslot for end reduction / recovery it will hurt your build since those extra slots / set bonuses could be used for other things with no reduction in performance.
As far as managing endurance goes, be sure to get all the +endurance accolades. They're free and not only give more endurance, but also more recovery (since recovery works on a percentage of total endurance, more endurance = more recovered per tick). If that and Stamina aren't enough, you have several options:
1) Frankenslot powers for high endurance reduction. Frankenslotting (using a mix of set IOs to get maximum enhancement value without worrying about bonuses) can give you very high levels of enhancement in a power compared to SOs or even full sets. However, remember that endurance reduction is not linear, it uses the formula end use = base cost / (1 + end reduction) so the more of it you have in a power, the less effective more will be. Going from 50-60% to 80% endurance reduction helps, but not as much as you'd think... so don't dismiss using a full set (or 5 of a set) instead, especially if it has decent endurance reduction already. That extra 20-30% end reduction from frankenslotting may not be worth losing the set bonuses. The real benefit to frankenslotting is that it's dirt cheap if you pick the right IOs... frankenslot around level 27-32 or so and you'll probably spend less than you would buying new SOs at 35, 40, 45, and 50.
2) Endurance and recovery set bonuses. Not only can these add up to a decent boost once you stack several, they often only require two or three pieces of a set to get so they can be combined with frankenslotting.
3) Recovery uniques. These things are pricey, but very useful. Stick a Numina's +Regen / + Recovery and a Miracle +Recovery in Health and you're getting about the same recovery bonus as unslotted Stamina. You'll probably pay over 100 million for the pair, but it can be worth it.
4) Performance Shifter Chance for +Endurance proc. Also a bit expensive (though cheaper than the uniques), you can slot one of these in Stamina for a chance to get extra endurance back every 10 seconds. If you do, be sure to replace one of the EndMod enhancements with a Performance Shifter EndMod IO... you'll get a 5% movement set bonus. If you have another recovery auto power like Quick Recovery you can slot a Performance Shifter there too... it's not unique.
Finally, decide on what you actually want to be able to do. While it's nice to be truly endurance neutral and therefore able to fight forever without worrying about your blue bar, in practice you only have to really worry about that if you want to solo AVs or GMs (or like running STFs and Khans a lot). Most fights, even with AVs if teamed, don't last more than a couple minutes. If you can last three minutes before running dry, you'll probably be fine since you can recover a bit between fights. If you're on a steamroller team that doesn't stop long enough to get any endurance back before hitting the next spawn you'll probably be getting inspirations fast enough to just use blues. Likewise, if you have Energy Absorption or Power Sink recharging every 30 seconds and slotted to fully refill your blue bar by hitting a decent sized spawn, you really only need to be able to last 30 seconds (and have some endurance left to fire off your recharge power). Being able to last longer is better, especially against single AVs where you lack enough targets to fully recover, but it's less important than it would be without the end recharge power.
If you don't mind a little math, the best thing to do is figure out your normal attack chain and add up the total endurance required, then divide by the time that chain takes. That gives you your endurance per second from attacking, now add the EPS from your toggles and any other click powers like heals you might use. This total is how much endurance you burn per second when fighting flat out... if you can get your recovery above that number you're fully endurance neutral. If you can't, the difference is the amount of endurance you lose per second from your blue bar... divide your total endurance by that number to see how long you can fight before needing to stop or pop blues. If that number is high (several minutes) you're probably fine. If it's low but you have a good endurance recovery power that recharges faster than you run dry, you're probably fine. If it's low and you don't have a recharge power, you need to either slot more end reduction, add more recovery, or manage toggles and attacks carefully to avoid burning too much endurance.
Or just do what I plan to on my Controller: carry plenty of blues. Three tornadoes and two lightning storms at once will be way too much fun to hold back... even if it does burn more endurance per second than a Regen Scrapper with Stamina and Physical Perfection can produce.
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One thing to consider is that softcapping defense requires massive build compromises. Unless I'm trying to solo 8-man spawns or AVs I personally prefer combining decent ranged defense (25-35% or so) with +recharge. That way I still cut incoming damage in half or more (not counting my armor once I hit the 40s) while still boosting my damage output considerably. For instance, my archer runs 29% ranged defense and 45% recharge on a modest priced build... I could probably increase it to around 35% defense and 50-60% recharge if I sunk some more inf into it. That extra recharge really helps with making a good attack chain, and more damage means you don't need to survive as long.