Synaesthetix

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I've had alot more fun in Sirens recently, both on Union and Defiant.

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You didn't get freaked out earlier on Union then? Oh good.

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Unfotunately, with the exception of Melt Armour and the exhaust one, all my secondaries are buffs for others and 2 heals. What should I respec out and consider getting instead from the pools?

I already have flight and fitness, will probably ditch tp other and get maybe stealth or even superspeed for getaways.

Any suggestions?

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I suggest you create a build centred around buffing, and not about offence - because Thermal just won't cut it for that purpose pre-35. If you want an offensive Corruptor build, you'd be better off rolling a /Cold or a /Dark; trying to rebuild a /Thermal to be offensive is just going to leave you with a horribly gimpy build.

(PS - whatever you do, take Thaw.)

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Heat exhaustion is very good in PvP the -regen really shows. I admit I have limited PvP experience and am no expert, just an interested amateur

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Throw Heat Exhaustion on a build that uses toggles, and watch their endurance sink like a lead weight - after testing it, it'll eat through the basic +recovery of Elude, although I'm not sure how it fares against other buffs like RA, AM, and SB.

(And thankyou for having Thaw! )

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Guess which category yours falls into?

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Pot, kettle, you. Fun game, no?

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It's also worth noting that I know a little bit more about the purpose NB has for this build as I'm part of the team it will be used in.

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In that case, can I suggest you listen to his advice, rather than you try to give him advice? Advising someone to use EndReds in powers when you "know" you have at least someone available to cast SB would appear a touch myopic.

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I've not denied Thaw is good, I've not tried to dissuade him from taking it. I've merely pointed out that the use of thaw needs to be based on the decision to go pure support, offence or a balance. Even the best team PvP build is nice to have some soloing ability in.

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... unless you're building a specifically supportive build at the expense of solobility - and it would appear from even the most cursory of glances that that's what this build is, and that NB's already made that decision - making your "advice" somewhat redundant, at best.

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I did not offer stacked dispersion bubbles as the only alternative, just as an example of one. I happen to know we will have Increase Density readily available to go with this build.

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Are you seriously of the opinion that ID can replace Thaw? Even if you do believe that to be the case, do you not think an element of redundancy is important?

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Just because you think any thermal without Thaw is not worth his salt, doesn't mean you are right and until you know all the facts what gives you the right to call anyone on here an idiot?

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But I am right; at the very least, you've not forwarded any kind of argument to reconsider my position. Sure, someone could play a Thermal without Thaw and be the most awesome Corruptor who ever did Corrupt - but they'd still be degrees better with Thaw in their build. Some teams could probably do well enough with a Thermal lacking Thaw - but they'd have to operate around that fact, not with it.

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No one power EVER makes a set or is EVER essential for a build. There are always alternatives.

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Would you ever advise an Empath to drop CM? Would you advise a Kineticist not to take SB?

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Also worth pointing out that thermal is NOT just a buffing set as it has a very balanced mix of buffs(Forge,Thaw,Shields), debuffs(Melt Armour, Heat Exhaustion) and heals(Warmth, Cauterise and Rez), so it is probably one of the more diverse PvP sets for Corruptors.

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I class heals/rezzes as being in the same league as buffs, in so much as they're team-oriented powers that benefit your allies. (Arguably, you can use PotP as a "debuff" - but hopefully, as little as possible.) Regardless of whether the set is "diverse" or otherwise, it's still a supportive set as opposed to an offensive set.

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Thaw is useful when used correctly but it’s also quite hard to use correctly and a well balanced team will have a much easier way of achieving the same objective, such as stacked dispersion bubbles.

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Jesus Christ, it's no wonder you get your [censored] kicked in PvP with that mindset. Dispersion bubbles, nice as they are, have some major drawbacks - especially when you PvP outside of raiding.

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When going down the thaw route, you also have to make the decision that you are a pure buff characters as stacking shields and thaws on a team will be your entire role with little room for anything else. Chelsea gave alternative power selections for not taking Thaw, as did I, rather than just take the attitude ‘you’re an idiot and I’m not going to explain myself to you when I can just blanket criticise you’.

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If you don't take Thaw, you are an idiot. That may come across as "blanket criticism", but there's a very sound logic behind it - /Thermal is primarily a buffing set, with some nice debuffs at the end... but you're not going to base a PvP build around 2 debuffs (unless you're an idiot - or at a stretch, some amazing genius with logic we cannot begin to comprehend with our primitive synapses).

Therefore, making a PvP-specific build with a buffing set without the second best mez-protection available in CoV is extremely stupid. I'd rather someone lack both shields than lack Thaw - as long as you can move, you can stay alive; alternately, you can be buffed to high heaven, but if you're mezzed you're cannon fodder. BFs are finite, and you have to use them reactively, not proactively.

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If you disagree, give your reasons why so NB can see both views and make his own mind up rather than just ridicule other people

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With respect, I don't think NB needs "advice" on why Thaw is one of the best power choices in his build. If people stopped being ridiculous, or making ridiculous statements, they wouldn't find themselves being "ridiculed" (as you put it), although I think you're being deliberately thin-skinned.

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I'm cancelling my sub, but not deleting my chars this time

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Oh come on, it's tradition, you great big spoilsport.

Looks like an awesome buffer build to me NB, although I'd be tempted to grab Freeze Ray just to protect myself against other squishies/aid Doms in stacking holds. No idea what you'd drop in order to take it that said, and BIB would probably be more useful more often in assisting taking out low-HP targets.

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Rads true defence has allways been shield + enervation field + good self heal.

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And Lingering Rad.

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They are currently NOT a ranged damage class.

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That's right, they're a damage class - with both ranged and melee damage. The greater damage Blasters can do (typically melee) comes with the greatest risk (not having the defences to take melee) - except that at the moment, the safest place for my En/En to be is IN melee, with toggledrop>toggledrop>stun>WINWINWIN. Making it less easy (but still poossible) to drop toggles will help adjust the system to something approaching equilibrium, IMHO - although it stills remains to be seen exactly how Cryptic are going about it, so I'm in "wait and see" mode.

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Subsitute head with stomach and you pretty much have the premise for the films really.

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That would be chest, not stomach.

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Depends on whether you think referencing films is what defines a standard to which you slip from

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It's the freakin' Alien series, you philistine.

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Nice made up word there Syn - might even make the dictionary some day! :P

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What's this, someone playing an MMO who didn't get an Alien reference? Tsk, tsk, standards are definitely slipping around here.

/derail

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Oops. Typo. Must have been musing about my pb at the back of my mind at the time i wrote this. Meant dreadful wail!

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We'll have none of this xenomorphic chatter on the Blaster board.

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dawn strike

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What the hell are you talking about? Dawn Strike is the Tier 9 (SL 32) PB Nova.

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And Stone being the best in Siren's? I've seen all brutes take down trollers, blasters and defenders with ease. Tanks and Scrappers are way too hard for my little stoney (disorient and KB never get trough) so I just start the "who-runs-out-of-end-loses" battle and see what happens

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I rarely have problems with Scrappers and Tanks with my EM/Fire Brute - it can get silly against Regens with heal vs heal, but Fury usually wins out so long as it stays a fairish fight (1v1/2v1 - 3v1 can get a little hairy). I even managed to drop a couple of Warshades/PBs in Lobster mode in the last week, which was great as they usually always TP out as soon as they hit 1/8th health (in fact, one of them did, but Build Up+Fury'd Total Focus had already been activated, and splatted him 100 yards away in the water. ).

As a PvP armour, Fire isn't so bad for Brutes as it's usually painted, you just have to adapt to the resistance limitations of the set and take as much "offensive defence/control" from your primary and power pools. Healing Flames/Consume are the main tools that give /Fire Brutes any longevity in PvP, in terms of allowing you to build Fury and then giving you enough endurance to use it. Build Up + Fiery Embrace is also really helpful for on-demand burst damage, something Brutes tend to lack from a standing start.

I don't expect to see anyone building a /Fire specifically for PvP, that said, as it's not a prêt à porter PvP set - I had a specific concept in mind, and knew the tactics I'd be using from the outset. It has obvious (and some less obvious) shortcomings, but nothing that can't be solved with good support. YMMV, as always.

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and yes...its a great hold, but EM Pulse from /rad is still the best AoE hold in the game

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Being pulse-based, VG still gets my vote for best AoE hold, but YMMV.

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If anyone can beat me, in fact, with a Claws Scrapper...

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It's really not difficult to take out a /Regen with Claws (in fact, the only Regen to best me in recent weeks was an EM/Regen Stalker - burst damage > me, but I really need a respec, so...). Hell, if you're still going to be around after I get Kuroshi to 50, I might even take you up on it.

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Level 01 : Infrigidate
Accuracy ( 01 )

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I got this far and stopped reading - for the love of God and all that is holy, show Infrigidate the love and respect it needs!

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If by "laughable" you mean "totally freakin' awesome", then yes.

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Agreed, Tar Patch is one of the reasons my MM can take out /Regens - it's just a matter of knowing when to drop it.

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Yes but how many spines do you actually see ingame? Or ice / nrg?

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Can't move for either of them in Sirens (Union).

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I always though FotM was Ice/Energy Blappers or is that 'SO last month'?

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FotM Blaster = Ice/En, FotM Scrapper = Spines/Regen.

'troller are tending towards /Storm, Tanks are seeing a shift from Stone/ to Ice/, and no-one knows what the hell the Defenders are up to, except there's still a ratio of 26 Empaths to every other Defender powerset combined.

Here's Tom with the weather!

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Yeah there were shedloads!!!

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It was kinda amusing to be running missions in the middle of that (LoUD were on a Prestige/Inf gathering trip) - hearing your reaction to our Stalker splatting you gave us all a good chuckle.

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if u say so

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Smile and nod X, just smile and nod.

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The problem isnt that MMs dont have uses, but against really good teams they are just cannon fodder. Good teames have buffed blasters that will just kill you from range through shields. A MM against really good teams are just a liability right now, later on with the changes I would imagine the get many uses, but right now I dont really see them on teams.

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An MM is no more a liability than any other player, really - to put a spin on it, a buffed MM will just kill a Blaster from range through shields. It takes a lot of effort, and a good sense of bluffing to play an MM well - sending in pets from different directions, moving away and into the fray with randomised movement, working with your team to isolate key targets and more besides, with probably many more things I've yet to learn.

Granted, I can see how people could get highly frustrated by the role, but you can glean a certain amount of satisfaction from stopping Blappers dead in their tracks before they can get their next squishy kill, having Regens crawling away from your Tar Patch in a futile effort to escape from the "easy-target", watching Kheldians TP at the last minute only to be dropped by the last round of Plasma fire, and having all manner of heroes scream "omg get taht mm ffs hes worse than teh Dom" over /b...

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Get a MM with the force bubble for both, its darn annoying. Besides that never use MMs in an attack. MMs arent really good for zone PvP, they are too squishie, and with their low hp they are getting 2 hit killed way too fast. Even with good buffing and healing their hp are too low. But they can be cool seeing as they have tons of damage.

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Have to disagree with this, as someone who plays an MM in Zonal PvP (mainly Sirens with my MM). Whenever the villains get pushed back to their base due to overwhelming numbers of heroes in the zone, I usually always log to get my Rob/Dark MM - there's no better AT for a beach-head defence/counterattack. Even in a sub-par build (waiting to respec at 42), I can usually cause havoc amongst the heroes camping out in the water (taking out/disabling their support, debuffing their attack, moving on to downing Blasters and Blappers) - to the point where I quickly become a high-priority target. Yes, 2-hit kills suck, but I normally kill far more than kill me - and I7 changes to MMs could make this a much less common occurence. I think a coordinated group of MMs could be devastating, but there just aren't the numbers available to make that a reality; failing that, good support from Thermal/Son Corruptors really help in making MMs less easy targets.

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A good support team for villains consists of 1-2 thermals, 1 kin, 1 sonic. The combination of heals and good shields means they really cant be killed very easily. Then you add a cold for some debuffs. This team would make an excelent support team for 2 stalkers and 1 dom. You also might wanna get a MM with forcebubble to disrupt the connection between the other teams healers and buffers so its easier to take em down.

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Depending on the environment, I'd be tempted to swap out of the Stalkers for a Brute - much like Doms, they need careful support for their inherent power to be fully effective in a team situation, but once it's charged it can be utterly devastating (and with sufficient support, it doesn't matter if they get toggle-dropped or not).