Syntax42

I have never played a Electric Armor character. However, from a purely hypothetical standpoint, it looks like you could be more survivable by draining everyone's endurance at the start of a fight.

Power Sink can drain 75% endurance from your enemies every 30 seconds, which is fast enough to use it at the start of every fight. Lightning Field can drain 5% every 2 seconds. If you get Ball Lightning, you can drain another 10%. That leaves most non-boss mobs at 90% endurance. By the time you activated Ball Lightning and Power Sink, they should have taken two ticks of endurance drains from Lightning Field and be just one tick away from being completely empty.

Defense and your resistances will help you take the alpha strike for those first few seconds. After that, it should be easy cruising with most mobs attacking only every few seconds due to endurance recovery.

Soft capping defense is the easiest way to make any build feel much tougher than it already is. By doing so, you reduce incoming damage by up to 90%, depending on how many damage types or positionals you soft cap. At level 32, don't expect to be able to achieve perfect defense, though. You might be able to get it into the 30%ish range if you took the right pool powers.

If you want to PvP, disregard my comments as I have no experience with or desire to do PvP. These are from a purely PvE perspective.

With everything on except for IH, MoG, and Shadow Meld, your first build has 40.8% S/L mitigation from defense, 27% from resistance, regenerates 51.2 HP/s, and heals a maximum of (.95 hit chance * 260.9 hp / [2.112 cast + 3.54 rchg] ) = 43.9 HP/s from Siphon Life. Those are your downtime statistics.

MoG is up 23.77% of the time and puts you at 90% defense mitigation and 75% resistance mitigation. Shadow Meld is up 59.29% of the time and puts you at 90% defense mitigation. However, you probably won't use both at the same time. You would probably press MoG, wait 15 seconds, press Shadow Meld, wait 25.3s, press Shadow Meld again, wait 22.8 seconds, then repeat the process. In that scenario for maximizing your clicky defense use, MoG remains the same but Shadow Meld is being used for 30 seconds out of every 63.1 seconds, or has a 47.54% up-time.

Instant Healing gives an extra 100 HP/s with 52.60% up-time.

Averaging all of that out gives you 78.06% average S/L mitigation and 147.7 maximum average HP/s. Including Arcanatime in the numbers for MoG, IH, and Shadow Meld would not make much of a difference, but would lower your real average mitigation slightly. Its late and I'm too tired to bother with it. The bottom line is that you can soak 673.2 pre-mitigation average damage per second before it starts to beat your healing.


Now for your shield build. Without using One With The Shield ever, you have 93.52% S/L mitigation, regenerate 19.4 HP/s, and heal (.95 hit chance * 269 HP / [2.112 cast + 3.92 rchg] ) = 42.4 HP/s. This build can soak 953.7 pre-mitigation average damage per second before it starts to beat the healing.


Both builds are incredibly resilient, but offer different play-styles. If you don't mind depending on clicking those defense buffs when you need them, or when they are up, regeneration can work for you. If you would rather not bother and just have your mitigation on all the time and never have to worry about it, Shield Defense is better.


Edit: I should mention I don't have the I19 addon to add the effects of Health to the builds, but it would benefit the SD build more because it is a larger % of increase to current regeneration values.

I am looking for some build advice for my Dark/Fire I19 build that I want to make. I want to cap positional defenses instead of a couple typed defenses. I also want to be contributing to the AoE damage through Combustion, Death Shroud, and Fire Sword Circle, so global recharge is nice to have.

Here is what I have so far. This is assuming an unlimited budget so I can have a goal to aim for. Please consider that Cloak of Fear's debuff counts as an equivalent amount of defense. I know the defense isn't optimal for AV tanking, but I will either have buffs or inspirations for situations where my build doesn't perform at its best.

This is using the I18 Mids without the I19 plugin. Just pretend Fitness is inherent.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Dark Armor
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(3), ResDam-I(3)
Level 1: Scorch -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(36), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 2: Death Shroud -- Armgdn-Dam%(A), Erad-%Dam(13), Oblit-%Dam(36), Sciroc-Dam%(36), EndRdx-I(37)
Level 4: Combustion -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(5), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(5), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17)
Level 6: Obsidian Shield -- HO:Ribo(A), HO:Ribo(7), ResDam-I(7)
Level 8: Dark Regeneration -- Theft-+End%(A), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(13)
Level 10: Murky Cloud -- ResDam-I(A), HO:Ribo(15), HO:Ribo(17)
Level 12: Cloak of Darkness -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(19), LkGmblr-Rchg+(21)
Level 14: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Enzym(15), Zephyr-ResKB(33), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(34)
Level 16: Fly -- Flight-I(A)
Level 18: Cloak of Fear -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(21), HO:Enzym(34)
Level 20: Boxing -- Amaze-Stun(A), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(27), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(34), Amaze-Stun/Rchg(46), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(48)
Level 22: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GA-3defTpProc(23), HO:Ribo(23), HO:Ribo(29), ResDam-I(29)
Level 24: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Enzym(25), HO:Enzym(25)
Level 26: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Enzym(27), Zephyr-ResKB(31), Zephyr-Travel(33), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(33)
Level 28: Fire Sword Circle -- Armgdn-Dmg(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(40), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(45), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(45)
Level 30: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Enzym(31), HO:Enzym(31)
Level 32: Taunt -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Incinerate -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(37), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(40), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45)
Level 38: Greater Fire Sword -- Hectmb-Dmg(A), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(39), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(39), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 41: Focused Accuracy -- GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(A), GSFC-ToHit(42), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(42), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(42), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(43), GSFC-Build%(43)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(46), P'Shift-End%(50)
Level 47: Laser Beam Eyes -- Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(48), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(50), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Soul Transfer -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 4: Ninja Run

Edit: Forgot to mention... I know I didn't save many slots for stamina. A Numina's proc would go in Physical Pefection while a Miracle would go in Health. That leaves two extra slots for Stamina which currently appear in Physical Pefection.

If you didn't understand the above answer, the simple answer is that scrapper base damage is 50% more than brute base damage. Take damage caps into account and it is easy to see why Scrappers are favored for Elec/SD builds when teaming with kinetics.

There are plenty of threads comparing the actual numbers for the two in various situations. I believe the Scrapper comes out on top for damage in every situation except when the Brute has 100% fury bar, which is only possible just after using the villain alignment power.

Phalanx Fighting gives 3.75% (unenhanceable) defense with ZERO allies nearby. Turn it on in your build with zero allies and reconsider your slotting. Because the zero-ally bonus is unenahanceable, most builds I have seen do not slot Phalanx Fighting with defense. Instead it is used as a mule for LOTG global recharge and/or Kismet 6% to-hit.

Also, you seem to lack purple sets, but you have LOTG's and a Gladiator's 3% defense. The Gladiator's is going to cost you at least 2 billion inf.

Actually, someone in /b figured it out. I spent a couple days asking my SG about it, adjusting my graphics settings, and messing with the colors. Some sort of indicator of SG mode overriding costume colors would help in situations like this. I don't have any SG symbol giving me a reminder that SG mode is on.

I would like to know if this is a bug or just my graphics settings before I /bug this. When I go to the tailor, my beard color looks the way I want. It also looks the way I want in the character select screen. However, when leave the tailor or enter the game, it turns completely black. I have tried adjusting my character detail level and the colors. I even tried switching to odd colors for hair like blue, red, and yellow. No matter what I do, it looks black in game. I don't think this is an environment lighting issue as I have tried changing it to white and moving to different zones that are brighter.

Here are some screenshots. First, the tailor / character select screen:


Now for in-game:



Edit:
Actually this was SG mode overriding my colors. For some reason, it was on by default after changing the colors.

Before you continue leveling, consider switching defensive sets. Regeneration is just not as good as it used to be when the game first came out. Enemies easily outdamage your regeneration rates, making most situations a kill-them-before-they-kill-you scenario. When it was released, Willpower basically became the new Regen set. It includes some defense and resistance to everything.

I already do tip missions for hero merits. I am looking for another way to make INF after my tips are done.

I am not a fan of flipping items or crafting and selling because it is causing unreasonable price inflation. For example, one recipe sells for 50 mil while the crafted IO sells for 80 mil. There is no reason other than greed for a 30 mil crafting charge. I may have to do it anyways...

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No. Capes require a mission to unlock them

After I19 you will be able to return to Praetoria

I recently leveled and IOed my Dark/Shield Scrapper and I'm looking for a fast way to earn INF. The AoE damage is lacking, so most AE farming missions won't be very fast for me. If anyone could point me in the right direction of missions that would be efficient farming, I would appreciate it. It doesn't have to be AE. I just remember that's what everyone used to farm when I last played.

I did try searching for "AV" in the AE search window, but it fails to produce the results I'm looking for. The search filter will include missions with words like "have", "maverick", and "Dave" because "AV" is in the text. Someone directed me to a mission that was supposed to have AVs, but I only found EBs. I did have my difficulty set to +1, x4, bosses and AVs on, so I have no idea why it only produced EBs for me.


Sorry if this topic is frequently brought up. Either I'm bad at searching, or the forums are so cluttered with key words that it is impossible to find a relevant topic without sifting through many irrelevant ones. Searching for words like "farm" or "tickets" gives me too many irrelevant results and I did not find what I was looking for.

Soloing is the slowest way to level. Most builds don't get efficient at killing until their 30's or even 50 when they get IO sets. With automatic sidekicking, grouping is easier than ever. Everyone is brought up to 1 level below the mission holder's level. This means fewer people care about a level difference of 10 or even 20 levels.

That said, most power sets don't feel very survivable until they get IO sets. The power sets that are better at leveling can have some major flaws at 50. Willpower and Invulnerability are generally better at lower levels than the other sets. Invulnerability gets smashing and lethal resists early, but lacks psionic mitigation. Willpower gets high regeneration like the Regen set and gets some resistance and defense, but is vulnerable to -regen debuffs that are more common later in the game.

If you want something with the potential to be more powerful with IO sets at 50 than the two mentioned above, Shield Defense, Super Reflexes, and Fiery Aura are good choices. Shield Defense has an AoE damage ability and a damage buff. It is weak to endurance drains, but most sets are. Super Reflexes has a bit more base defense and a passive recharge buff. Fiery Aura's Burn was recently fixed so it no longer makes enemies run away. The extra AoE damage is very useful.

Most scrappers slot for enough defense bonuses to reach the soft cap for at least smashing/lethal. After that, recharge, global accuracy, regeneration, recovery, and hit points are other good bonuses to have. You will need to give us more information than just your primary or secondary power set if you want someone to help you with specifics on builds.