sprintstnyc

Several days later and I have two chars with identical costumes and similar names and still no decision made as to which to keep. The mind/elec seems to lock down a lot harder than the elec/elec, but I do like the flashier elec graphics and the theme. Mind just has so many hard single controls it feels a lot stronger. And it does give you access to more damage types. Indecision is killing me.

Argh, I'm having the hardest time deciding. I've gotten both up to like level 12. Mind Control locks down SO HARD. I mean getting three serious hard controls so early is pretty nuts. Soloing is mind bogglingly easy.

But Electric is SHINY.

I'm making a mu-themed Dom, and I'm wondering if people more experienced than me have a strong preference about Mind vs Elec control in terms of efficiency and power.

Thanks!

The end drain on death doesn't phase me that much, it's pretty much the nondirectional damage from the Master Illusionists, combined with the summons etc. Doesn't help that One With The Shield doesn't help against Psi damage.

I don't know that I'm going to play this guy too much past 50, by the time the build is nearly finished he's going to be so unstoppable he won't be that much fun to play. I've got most of the orange sets in melee taken care of, so now it's mostly just odds and ends like sticking LotG +7.5's etc.

On the other hand, i19 is gonna be REAL nice to this char, who is (imo) more power-strapped than slot-strapped. So we'll see. Hurry up devs!

Wait, what was their rationale for that? I remember when they used to spend a lot of time saying redraw didn't affect DPS etc. I don't get it.

First costume is awesome and I totally want to build a DP blaster now.

DM/SD is also a beast. The -acc from its attacks meshes well with the +def from the secondary, at 35 Shield Charge beefs up AOE (Soul Drain + SC + maxed out AAO = happy fun times), and DM gives SD a heal, which it is sorely in need of.

I'm slowly but surely getting my DM/SD near the softcap (I haven't done much with DDR yet, that's gonna have to wait til 50 probably) and good Lord he's turning into a beast. I am not actually playing him at the highest difficulty he could manage because I don't want to outlevel any mid 40s content too fast (Ouro is just not the same). About the worst fight I've had so far is against Master Illusionists; those make me actually pop inspirations. Everything else pretty much melts. I'm just running /SD toggles and CJ so far and I'm hard pressed to make his endurance bar even move (Stamina 3 slotted and a Numina unique in Health).

Nasty, nasty, nasty character. Thanks to this forum and this thread for inspiring me.

Axe has it the worst of pretty much all the lethal sets. It is (to the best of my knowledge) the only lethal set that has no -def aspect to any of its powers. The -def powers can be slotted with Achilles' Heel procs, which help a lot.

I'm down with the OP, and I'd like some other sets too, like the Dark sets mentioned above.

I think it makes Brutes without health or endurance regen a lot more playable now that resting isn't the Fury-killer it used to be. I mean, I HATED playing Brutes that didn't have a self-heal before. Hated it. At the defense cap I'm sure it's not that big a deal, but I spent very little time at the defense cap.

the -dam from Kinetic synergizes pretty well with the resists and regen of WP. It works well with Regen for scrappers/stalkers, too. the -dam is somewhat meaningless for defense sets (at the high end, anyway), because if you're not getting hit, you take no damage....

1K Cuts is halfway decent AOE, but that is only one power, and it's 180 degree not a 360. DB isn't even remotely comparable to something like Electric in terms of AOE. And it's lethal damage, which is heavily resisted.

You'd be better of checking out the coh wiki for refreshers on terminology etc. It's all there.

In general you're going to want to do two things as a /Nin stalker, close your KB hole (get at least one -KB IO), and max your positional defenses (range, melee, AOE).

You can't really "farm" as a DB Stalker. You can do high end content, sure, but "farming" is generally a function of AOE, and all Stalkers are pretty terrible at AOE,with the exceptions of Elec and maybe Spines.

Just for my own future knowledge:

The Stalker Kinetic Melee still debuffs damage, it just doesn't have the Power Siphon mechanic in favor of Build Up, right? It's not like the set is totally gimp without Power Siphon.

Out of curiosity, how much bonus exp do you get doing missions in PvP zones? I've avoided them ever since they added merits to story arcs, but I'm curious.

If you're fighting lots of nemesis or carnies you got stuff to worry about no matter what. Zillions of stacking vengeance buffs, psionic damage, Mask of Vitiation, etc etc etc. KB doesn't help, but if you're able to stand up to that other stuff you've probably made investments in your character that dwarf the outlay of the -KB IO's.

Maybe this is my time as an /FA brute talking, but I always found the Psi hole more annoying than the KB problem. Red side there's a ton of psi damage in the 30-50 content. Hit like a ton of bricks.

It's not laughable. Sneering at my point doesn't make it go away, it just makes you look rude. EVERY SINGLE POWER in SR (with the exception of Quickness) is defensive, so marvelling that it is better defensively than Fiery Aura is "laughable". Fiery Aura is an OFFENSIVE defensive set; it puts out INFINITELY more damage than sets like SR, or Invuln, or Regen, or Willpower. Which all put out precisely 0 damage.

And FYI, shields' Mez prot also does nothing but anti-mez (except for a small amount of -def debuff prot). So that's not just SR. And Electric's anti-mez is split among different powers, AND it's anti-KB doesn't work in the air.

FA is going to make a scrapper or Brute or Tank more of an offensive character (higher damage numbers) than a defensive one, and if you're judging it by standards like "can I farm +4's with it" then sure, it's not the set for you. There are plenty of characters, including whole archetypes, that can't do that. That doesn't make them "bad" archetypes, and it doesn't mean EVERYBODY should roll scrappers. There's plenty of ways to enjoy playing the game. A FA scrapper on a large team, for example is going to DWARF the damage output of a SR scrapper.

You seem very fixated on your particular style of play; the fact that a set doesn't meet your needs doesn't mean it's bad, and doesn't mean that people who like it are bad.

Heh, I build my low-level scrappers and brutes like glass cannons, I typically don't start picking other powers until I can get a decent attack chain going. I pick up the anti-mez power as soon as it's available but otherwise I wait til the teens before really building out my defenses.

ALSO, note that Integration, Regen's anti-mez power, is ALSO a HUGE buff to passive regen, so you will want to get it and slot it the moment you get it. It's not like one of the usual anti-mezzes that you just stick an endurance reducer in it and forget about it.

Health stacks with Fast Healing, so that's fine, and Stamina stacks with Quick Recovery.

But Fast Healing and Quick Recovery are both better (bigger buffs) than Health and Stamina, so they should be slotted up and enhanced first.

GAH. No. Reconstruction is vitally important. Do not skip it.The powers you can skip in Regen are Resilience and Revive, the rest of them are pretty important. Once you slot Reconstruction up with recharge and heals it is a HUGE percentage of your hp/sec. You can't just rely on your passive regen in Regeneration, you have to push buttons a lot. It's a very active secondary.