The Template Thread

[schild]

This is a thread for you all to discuss your templates and the pros and cons associated with each.

Basically the idea for this came up when I happened upon the Empathy/Darkness Defender Template which I'll discuss in the next post.

Please try to keep this from getting derailed, and if you want to discuss a single Template just start a new thread, this one will be stickied so newbies can access and find it quickly and won't have to dig through arguments over template styles.

[schild]

Alright, I promised I'd update as to why this template rocks. Here goes.

First of all, In the Empathy category we have essentially the best healing skills in the game. I havent picked up Absorb pain, but or a defender who stays away from combat, it's supposed to be a sure way to keep other characters alive. No, I don't believe you can kill yourself with it.

The buffs start coming later, as you can see, but they are supposed to be VERY good. The resurrect is great, and is probably the best resurrect (only other?) next to mutation. Refills both endurance and hp with very little downtime.

What makes this character great though is the dark blast skillset for secondary powers. Empathy is pretty much the road to being a preacher, but with Darkblast you become a formidable blaster-type. At level 4 you can pick up Moon Beam, which is a sniper attack that starts off doing about 40 damage. Dark pit is an AoE Confusion. Tenebrous Tentacles is that attack that immobalizes a single player - what Luminous Eidolons use on you n00blers to make you scream, "I can't run, I was held, FUCK FUCK FUCK."

What does all this mean?

I've got a character with strong heals, full  rez, 2 blaster attacks, an aoe confusion, and a hold spell - all by level 14. (Assuming I don't dip into my second power pool until 16 - which I probably won't.

I will probably play this as live, though I *may* switch to dark/dark instead of empath.

[Alluvian]

AutumnFyre
Level 15
Fire/Fire Sciene Blaster

Fire Primary:
Fireblast
Fireball
Fire Rain
Fire Breath

Fire support:
Fire Ring
Combust

Speed:
Hasten
Super Speed

Jumping:
Combat Jumping

I am loving this character.  It has it's pros and cons for sure though.  In general:

Pros:
VERY focused on area effect direct damage and area effect damage over time.  This character can EASILY wipe out groups of 10-15 minions his level or even one level higher.  I have done a group of 10 level 12's at level 10 as well but I needed a lot if inspiration.

Cons:
Not terribly good until high levels at single target elimination.  This means that while you can do a group of 15 at your level, a boss and a few stragglers is a real challenge.  Two bosses is a real pain and will need lots of inspiration.  It is not till much later that the fire blaster gets his single target high damage attack.


Specifics on powers:

Fireblast:  Bread and butter attack.  I found it missed a lot, and that annoyed me.  Socketed it up with two accuracies and I have loved it since.  Now that I have two damages on it as well I find that it is pretty respectably hard hitting.  No super sniper attack or anything, but GREAT to clear out low hp mobs after the AOE's have devestated them.  Also great on runners.  Comes back real fast with hasten.

Fireball:
My most socketed power.  Able to hit a HUGE number of mobs.  Pretty moderate damage, but pretty accurate.  Even a miss will look like a hit becuase it will always detonate on the mob you target.  Because everyone in the AOE gets a separate to-hit roll I stuck an accuracy on it.  I like to hit everything in it if possible.  Three damage enhancements bring it to very respectible power.  Now two of these will kill or nearly kill minions of my level.  With hasten the second is coming back pretty fast for a second blast.

Fire Rain:
Shit I love this.  Rather situational.  It has a VERY large ground targeted AOE.  For this reason you have to be careful not to hit outlying mobs in other groups.  Also dangerous in multiple level areas as it can hit those above and below rather well.  It is devestating to mobs that are held or confused in the area of effect.  For this reason and all the other aoe attacks, a controller is the fire blaster's best friend.  One fire blaster and one controller are a devestating combo of death.  Without the controller fire rain become a different sort of power but still very usefull.  It now is area negation and mob dispersal.  Many mobs in fire rain will outright FLEE only to return to the fight later one by one for easy killing.  If you place it between enemies and yourself, it is VERY rare to see a mob try and walk through it.  So it can work well as a wall to cover a retreat.  Finally it confuses the crap out of the dumb undead like cadavers and abominations.  They will just wander aimlessly in it taking huge damage.  I have this slotted up with a few damage adds and a recyle timer boost.  It comes back rather slowly.

Fire Breath:
Devestating cone attack.  Currently it does 63 damage in three ticks to all in the cone.  The cone is obviously thin at the base but pretty sizable at the max distance.  I have gotten about 10 mobs in this sometimes and when that happens things just die.  The animation is pretty long for it, but you can actually start to move again before it is done and all those hit will take all three waves of damage.  They either take all three or none at all.  I find the power does not miss that much though, even on bosses.  Again, with a controller to hold things still, this power is SICK.  Without holds it is a risky move, but worth it if you can get a lot in the cone depending on their clustering.

Fire Ring:
Great skill.  It is a single target hold and a damage over time.  Four ticks, moderate to low damage.  It is a very cheap power in terms of endurance and it cycles very fast, especially with hasten.  Like all holds, it has accuracy issues.  Slot it up with accuracy enhancers.  Two should suffice for most things that dont outright ignore holds.  You want this reliable, it will save your life.  Blasters are not very good vs melee damage especially melee bosses and LTs.  A held mob also will take the full damage of fire rains.  I like to hold 2-3 in my rain and it is fast enough casting to let me do so.  A held mob is also a very good target for fire breath.  I like doing this to bosses as fire breath is pretty accurate and very damaging even if just used vs a single target.

Combust:
I rarely use this.  Area effect around blaster dot.  You don't need to stay in range as it just sets them on fire and they burn.  The damage is not enough to make up for the melee risk of being that close to that many mobs.  I will not take this power in live.


The fire secondary has some DEVASTATING attacks later on, but all I use out of it at level 15 is fire ring.  I am considering an alternate backup like maybe gadgets.  The caltrops would be nice with my hasten, fireball, fire rain, fire breath, fireball combo for instance.  A hard choice to make.  I do find fire ring SUPER useful for both its damage and its hold.  Moreso solo than group.  I don't use it much in a group with a controller.


Super speed:
Ask any I group with.  This fucker is FAST, and is socketable to become much faster.  We did some speed timing with superspeed vs super jump.  Super speed is for sure faster, but you have to put up with more terrain problems.  Super jump can handle terrain much better.  In our tests I always won (except once where I fell off a wall and there was no easy way back up, but that is a legit risk with superspeed) but the jumper was close enough behind to not be much of an issue.

Take what you like more.  I am taking both of them in live.  They are too damn fun.

Super jumping makes a HORRIBLE humming sound, especially if you game with a subwoofer.  Super speed makes a less annoying throb.

I think that about covers my main.  I like it enough I will for sure go with a fire blaster in live.  I may change my secondary though.  I am also sticking with super speed in live.  1) hasten ROCKS, 2) the firelike effect of the super speed fits my character and I love being that damn fast.  Superspeed will also speed up with levels and enhancemnts.  I don't know if superjump ever will get FASTER.  I know you can socket it to jump FARTHER.  but I don't know how that affect lateral speed if at all.

[MrHat]

Allu, I just got my superjump and am loving it to death.

Real quick question, can you turn on both super speed and super jump and move REALLY fast as an ultra jump?

[Alluvian]

Um, this is kind of off topic, but yes and no.

You can have them both on, but when jumping you will move at jumping speed.  When on the ground you will move at superspeed.  So it still works well but you will slow down when in the air.  The good thing is having them both on is even useful on the ground.  Superspeed gives makes you harder to hit and superjump boosts your defense.  Even just one or the other while on the move makes you almost invincible and unhittable.  And if you keep moving they only get 1 shot, or often you can run right past then without them even getting off that 1 shot.

[Morfiend]

I am totally torn on what to play in release, I have been trying a lot of different characters, and getting them up to around lvl 8 or so, and then trying some thing new.

I really like my Dark/Dark Scrapper, but I hate dealing with NPCs running away from me. Teleport Friend is great, (specially when you run to the top of a REALLY tall building, then teleport them off the edge *giggle*) I havent got Teleport yet, but I hear its the fastest way to travel, but drains end very fast. I also have a lot of problems with running out of END during a fight. Very fast. In fights with 3 equil levels, I am usually out of end after the second one drops. And I can hardly ever use my Dark defence powers, cause they drain me even faster. Maybe when he gets DO enhancements it will not be as bad.

On the flipside, I have been really enjoing my Assault/Gadgets Blaster, even with hasten I dont have much probelms with my END, and he does some nice damage. Also, in the Gadgets line there is a stealth option, that does not slow you down. I figure this will be great for PVP if it ever happens, also, Assault Rifle does not have a graphic, so people would have a much harder time figuring out where you are in PVP. Combine that with Fly, and maybe Superspeed, I think it would be a great PVP template.

I have also been playing my defender, he is Dark/Dark, and has some great stuff, but I think maybe Radiation or Energy would be a better buff selection. I havent got Moonblast yet, and I hear it rocks.

[schild]

I updated my post with my character in it.

[Venkman]

I was going to go full Energy (Blaster + Manipulator), since I've been having all sorts of fun with knockdowns and AOE knockdowns, but then I tried a full Fire one. That plus even the lowest level Leap is just fun. I can imagine it even more fun with Flight, which I'm undecided on (either Flight or Jump. Flight is something I really want, but learning Leaping helps one much sooner).

Tonight I'm going to try full Electricity. It seems to have the knockdowns and DD of Energy Blaster with the AOE and Roots of Fire.

Everything I've played so far as been an Inspiration sieve though.

[Daydreamer]

Though I play a Stone/Stone "Stone Monolith" in beta here is my planned Tanker Spec (Invuln/Stone "Stone Hammer" or perhaps "Dizzy Stone") for release:

1: Resist Physical Damage (Resist Damage En)
1: Stone Fist (2 Acc En, Disorient En)
2: Stone Mallet (2+ Acc En, Recharge En, Knockdown En)
4: Dull Pain (Recharge En, Healing En)
6: Resist Elements (Resist Damage En)/Unyielding Stance*
8: Taunt (Taunt En)
10: Power Pool Power #1/Temporary Invuln
12: Resist Energies (Resist Damage En)/Unyielding Stance
14-18: Power Pool Power #1/#2/Temp Invuln
20: Fault (Acc En, Disorient En)

* I know you can't get this at 6, but something else can trade their later slot for 6, and Unyielding can take that place, ergo its easier ot show this way.  Interpret any other level 'mistakes' the same way.

The idea behind Stone melee is to toss down 1-3 hits on a foe and do decent damage and disorient/knockdown the foe to reduce their damage dealing capacity.  Repeat as needed for solo, or switch to a new more dangerous target in groups, tossing down a taunt betwen targets.  Try to pick something already being targeted, but not near death, so someone else can finish your work, and because those enemies are less likely to target you on your taunts alone.  Try to knockdown targets into nearby walls - this doesn't affect their recovery time, but makes them easier for allies to get to.   Hopefully this will keep half the enemies targing you, and the other half unable to attack.

The logic behind it is thus: Scrappers out damage Tankers.  Blasters out damage Tankers.  Some Defenders out damage Tankers.  Pretty much the only people that we can out damage reliably are Controllers.  If you can't reliably outdamage, you can't reliably hold the aggro on damage alone.  So I don't even try - instead I try to make my group's life easier by reducing enemy ability to do damage and to direct whats left at me.  Then I use my passives and Dull Pain to enhance my ability to take that damage.

The Power pool chosen should reflect play style.  Soloists should pick a movement pool they like, group players who tend to be below their teammates in level like me should opt for a pool like Fitness to enhance their survival.  Higher level groupers can opt for Leadership since htey will have lower End demand to kill the same foes as their lower level counterparts.  I for one plan on getting Fitness first, then either Leaping (for walls and defense bonus on combat jumping) or Leadership (for the AE chants), depending on how badly walking around sucks by 20.  Enhancement socketing also depends on your role.  Sockets and damage adds to attacks for soloist,  knockdown/disorient adds for groupists that attack a lot, and finally sockets for Recharge and Health adds to people who take a lot of punishment.

More advanced players can try this template with Stone Armor, but I don't care too.  Mainly because of the endurance drain from the armors, the forsight required to know which armor is needed, and the extra sockets they pull away from other abilities to keep their endurance cost and defense bonus up (where as passives, though much weaker, only require a slot or two for defense enhancements).  Also, taking an extra X damage from a given form of attack doesn't really matter that much when you have 10-20% or so more health than an equal level character of another class, plus the 20-30% bonus Dull Pain provides unagumented.

[kaid]

Actually other than sniper attacks most tank melee powers do the same or more damage than defenders do. They have also upped the taunt "stickiness" of tanks so you can hold agro better than your damage would indicate. From what I have seen tanks main damage issue is kinda like defenders they can pump out out but they are less end efficient about it and can run out of gas after a bit.

I am still torn between earth and ice/storm controller. Earth and ice are pretty similar but have some subtle differances in how they cc.

The main differance is earth gets an extra pbaoe disorient and ice gets a stealth/invis power.

Ice gets a cone based slow/snare and all of its roots have an attack speed decrease slowdown side effect earth does not have.


Fire controller is also very nice my one biggest gripe and only real downside of fire controller is the hold  powers are hard to see at a range. Fire controllers especially at higher levels are the most offensive of controller types though so it is still very tempting.

kaid

[CmdrSlack]

The main differance is earth gets an extra pbaoe disorient and ice gets a stealth/invis power.

Well, there's steamy mist in storm that also give def and resists in addition to stealth...not sure how that stealth stacks up vs. the ice one...

[Daydreamer]

Post Supplimentary The First: How I got over my damage inadaquicies

I started Playing an Invlun/Fire tanker.  DD/DoT combo attacks are fun.  Haven't done much grouping sicne I'm still a lowbie, but I might switch over to fire for release.

[Murgos]

Some of my thoughts on playing an energy/energy blaster to level 16.

First lets talk about energy attacks.  They do damage in two schools, I'm not sure which two it is I think smashing and lethal?  But I'm not positive, anyway what this probably means is even if you come upon a mob thats highly resistant to one type of damage the other one will probably still get through, which is nice.  Energy blasters get pretty much the same attacks as the other blaster but with minor variations.  For instance energy blasters get three area attacks.

One is a cone infront of the blaster, which is very cool and does some nice knockback and with a cone extender enhancement has a decent range.  It's a lot of fun to nail a large group of baddies and watch them all get knocked around.  This attack does ok damage but not great its maybe a little better than the weakest point target ranged attack.  I can see that with some nice +damage though it could be pretty effective.  It also has a good recharge rate allowing it to be used 2 to 3 times per battle without and refresh rate enhancers.

The second and third AE attacks I havent been able to try out as they are the last two attacks gained, which means most of your career as an energy blaster will be attacking point targets.  I also think that the ranged AoE attack is probably not very powerful as it's damage is listed as 'minor', it does have a knockback component though which should be useful allowing you to either run away or get another more powerfull attack off.  It is possible to get enemies in 'knockback lock' where they are unable to attack because they are always trying to pick thier ass up off the ground giving you opportunites to launch another attack.  The last AE attack is a pbAoE which looks like it should be handy for when your swamped by meleers.  Compared to fire blasters who get, I think, 4 ae attacks and two of them early on (fireball and fire rain).

Energy blasters also get an AIM buff which I haven't had the opportunity to work with but I imagine it will allow you to ensure that one or two attacks will almost certainly hit thier target, I think most of the other blasters also get this attack.

The defining feature of energy blasters is that they get thier sniper shot very early.  This is a high damage, long range attack.  This attack with some good damage enhancers (I use two currently but will probably go all out with it in live with 6 damage enhancers and use aim to ensure it hits as it's impractical to use during most combats because it can be intterupted) can generally one shot blue and lower minions and almost always deals a knockback.  With build up, which I will talk about later, this attack deals MEGA damage, ask anyone I've grouped with, it easily one shots white and sometimes yellow minions and puts a serious hurting on even orange bosses or red Lt's.  With the knockback allowing you to get in another attack or two it's pretty easy to drop a boss or lt before the fight has really begun making most combats MUCH easier.  The long range also means that if your careful you can solo pull.  Frequently you can pick minions off the edge of a pack unaware, it appears that if you are far enough away the other mobs wont aggro on you, though if you attack the boss or lt in a group the rest will come.  Also often if you run around a corner and break LOS befoer the mob gets up only the mob you hit will chase you.  Usefull for soloing.  All the other blasters get a sniper shot but energy gets it much earlier than most.

Energy manipulation.

I'm torn about en manip, some of the powers are quite cool but mostly useless for a blaster.  A good portion of the energy manip powers are single target melee powers (four of them infact) such as energy punch and bone crusher.  The good thing about them is that they do very good damage and (bone crusher, a Capitan Kirk like doubled up fists overhead attack to the back) almost always leaves the target stunnedleaving you time to launch another attack.  Useful, but IMO, melee isn't where you want your blaster to be and if you are in melee range you should probably be falling back.  Bone crusher does VERY good damage though and is good for finishing off that tough mob that got to close.

Energy manip does NOT get a root which to my mind is a big negative.  I think every other blaster gets a root and devices and ice also get AE movement slows, which are, of course, very, very useful.  Late in the energy manip tree is 'stun' a single target ranged stun so with that and the disorient on the melee attacks en manip isn't out in the cold as far as crowd control goes just not as well set as some of the other skill sets.

What energy manip does get is a whole host of self buffs, end cost reduction, damage add and range increase which are all probably really usefull though I have only had the opportunity to try the damage adder 'build up' which at level 16 is along with sniper shot, my bread and butter skill.  It basically doubles damage for a few seconds (enough for three rippled fired attacks and thier animations).  Most of the other blasters get build up but not nearly as early as energy does.  Devices doesn't get build up at all which makes me wary of taking it though they have other very usefull skills to make up for it (such as the targeting drone and caltrops).

My experience in the beta has so far left me feeling that en manip is a bit wanting in the usefullness department, maybe if the stun was earlier in the line or there was an AE ranged knockback/stun I would be happier with it but as it is there is hardly a compelling reason to take it come live.  Fire manip for example has not only buildup but also a good early root and excellent crowd control with hot foot and scorch. Devices have the excellent targeting drone which if properly enhanced should pretty much ensure you rarely miss and gives you one place to focus on adding +acc instead of all over the rest of your skills, though I would surely miss buildup putting enough +slow into caltrops and hitting every shot would probably be as, if not more, effective in the long run than simple double damage for a few seconds.

Edit:
So in summary I will probably stick with the energy attacks come live (even with the dearth of good area attacks) I probably wont be picking en manip, maybe it fits somone elses playstyle better but I found little reason to be happy with it.

[Morfiend]

I am trying out one other template before beta ends.

Katana Scrapper with Regeneration.

Now, I have heard from several sources that regeneration is sub par, but I wonder what happens when I combine it with the fitness regeneration abilities? It could be really nice if they stack, and it will totally gimp me if they dont stack, seeing as how almost every thing in the game stacks.

He is fun, and feels very different to my other scrapper who is Dark/Dark.

Once again I am torn about what template to use as my main in release.

[Murgos]

I am trying out one other template before beta ends.

Katana Scrapper with Regeneration.

Now, I have heard from several sources that regeneration is sub par, but I wonder what happens when I combine it with the fitness regeneration abilities? It could be really nice if they stack, and it will totally gimp me if they dont stack, seeing as how almost every thing in the game stacks.

He is fun, and feels very different to my other scrapper who is Dark/Dark.

Once again I am torn about what template to use as my main in release.

I tried a regen scrapper for a bit.  Maybe at higher levels its more usefull but a once a fight 25% heal and barely noticable hit point heal increase are not what I call effective combat skills.  The self heal is particularly lame as there is much better healing available elsewhere.  It's dissapointing to toggle the heal and see it heal 39 points when during the animation of its casting you just got nailed for 42...  the words "Not Effective" spring immediately to mind and with its slooooow recharge rate it's not like you can spam it effectively increasing your hitpoint total.

IMO regen needs serious help.

[MrHat]

I tried a regen scrapper for a bit.  Maybe at higher levels its more usefull but a once a fight 25% heal and barely noticable hit point heal increase are not what I call effective combat skills.  The self heal is particularly lame as there is much better healing available elsewhere.  It's dissapointing to toggle the heal and see it heal 39 points when during the animation of its casting you just got nailed for 42...  the words "Not Effective" spring immediately to mind and with its slooooow recharge rate it's not like you can spam it effectively increasing your hitpoint total.

IMO regen needs serious help.

Did you try socketing the regen skills?  My plan for Graybeard was to get broadsword/regen.  And have triple sockets in the self-heal and endurance recovery.

[Morfiend]

I am trying out one other template before beta ends.

Katana Scrapper with Regeneration.

Now, I have heard from several sources that regeneration is sub par, but I wonder what happens when I combine it with the fitness regeneration abilities? It could be really nice if they stack, and it will totally gimp me if they dont stack, seeing as how almost every thing in the game stacks.

He is fun, and feels very different to my other scrapper who is Dark/Dark.

Once again I am torn about what template to use as my main in release.

I tried a regen scrapper for a bit.  Maybe at higher levels its more usefull but a once a fight 25% heal and barely noticable hit point heal increase are not what I call effective combat skills.  The self heal is particularly lame as there is much better healing available elsewhere.  It's dissapointing to toggle the heal and see it heal 39 points when during the animation of its casting you just got nailed for 42...  the words "Not Effective" spring immediately to mind and with its slooooow recharge rate it's not like you can spam it effectively increasing your hitpoint total.

IMO regen needs serious help.

I was thinking more along the lines of the passive regens, and stack those with the fitness passive regens, hoping to get a crazy regen rate. Also, socket with top of the line health add enhancments.

[kaid]

Energy maniuplation is the black sheep of blaster secondaries. It is just odd instead of roots it has melee attacks with stun or BIG knock back attacks. What it does contain though are alot of self buffs for damage accuracy and other things and they come much earlier than other secondaries.

If you take energy primary though it isn't as much of an issue that it dosn't have roots. The reason for this is due to the big knock backs on all the powers can allow you to prevent mobs from reaching melee range about as effectivly as other blasters root.

I would never recommend energy manipulation without energy primary and if the buff abilities do not appeal to you then pretty much any other blaster secondary would work better.


kaid

[kaid]

Most regen scrappers say that in the mid higher levels if you have hasten regen really kicks booty but if you dont have hasten its tough.

To give you an idea of their passive regen abilities with just the two regen buffs from the regen set at 34 fully decked out you can go from 1hp to full hp in 67 seconds. Given that you have I think over 1k hp as a scrapper at that level that is a pretty serious regen.

Regen scrappers due to their enhanced endurance regens can also do a more consistant level of damage output than the other scrappers. Their draw back though is flash damage. They have almost no built in defense or mitigation so their hp are going up and down wildly in fights as they take damage and heal damage.

Kaid

[Alluvian]

Odd, I love my broadsword/regen scrapper.  Level 10 and has yet to die.  And I show no concern whatsoever for his well being.  Just charge into anything on a mission or any group his level+1 or smaller.

Having hasten might be the key since he kills things ridiculously fast.  Firing up hasten and then whatever the damage boost power is called makes him a monster.  He can sometimes kill bosses his level in 4 hits.  And those hits are coming as fast as they can animate with hasten.

With just two maxxed heals in the passive regen you start with he is healing health at a very respectable rate.  That will only get faster with better enhancements and as he levels more.

[Morfiend]

What do you guys think of my idea to stack the Fitness regens on top of the regeneration line? would that be insanely good, or just insane?

[MrHat]

What do you guys think of my idea to stack the Fitness regens on top of the regeneration line? would that be insanely good, or just insane?

Actually Morph, I plan on this come release.  Going to get Hasten from the speed pool, Combat Jump/Super Jump from the jumping pool, speed endurance and health from the fitness pool.

Broadsword/Regen.  Should be interesting.

[eldaec]

As I start to do the nerdy template thing more - I'm starting to wonder why everyone is making blasters.

Defenders get practically the same secondary lines as a Blaster primary. But defender primary seems to fit with the blaster role much better than blaster secondary.

The only slightly annoying thing is that you feel you have to take the heal in your main line, which makes you worry you'll spend too long healing to do anything else.

Anyway - starting to consider a storm/elec defender....

O2 boost : heal
Charged bolts : Moderate dd
Lightning bolts : High dd
Ball lightning : Moderate aoe dot
Steamy mist : group stealth +def
Hover
Freezing rain : aoe minor dot, -Def -Recharge -elementalresist -Spd
Hasten
Fly
Aim : self +Accuracy
Thunder Clap : Pbaoe stun
Zapp : extreme dd (sniper)
Snow storm : Aoe slow
Maneuvers
Tornado : pbaoe pulsing dd, stun, fear, knockback
Tesla Cage : minor dd, stun
TActics
Lightning Storm : ranged aoe pulsing dd, knockback, & fear
Voltaic Sentinel : ranged aoe pulsing high damage dd
Thunderous blast : ranged aoe extreme dd, -end, -recovery, self stun

Arguably you could drop Tactics for Hurricane (pbaoe pulsing repel -acc -range). But accuracy seems to be a big deal in CoH. And between all the tornadoes, storms, and thunder claps, I'm not sure you'd miss another pbaoe knockback.

You can do something similar with storm/energy if you want more knockbacks for soloing early on, but I don't think you get the same pay off at the high end, I'm hoping Voltaic and Lightning will stack well.

Anyone know if defenders get an arbitary damage reduction on ranged powers when compared to blasters?

[Alluvian]

The reason is the difference between an ability in your primary and an ability in your secondary is truly night and day.  They are not comparable unless you socket the secondary powers up the ass.

[Morfiend]

What do you guys think of my idea to stack the Fitness regens on top of the regeneration line? would that be insanely good, or just insane?

Actually Morph, I plan on this come release.  Going to get Hasten from the speed pool, Combat Jump/Super Jump from the jumping pool, speed endurance and health from the fitness pool.

Broadsword/Regen.  Should be interesting.

Wow, thats the exact template I am thinking of going with, except using Katana rather than Broadsword. With that many pool powers, are we going to be able to get our high end damage stuff?

[kaid]

If you go storm primary or secondary do NOT skip hurricane. It is by far one of the best powers of the field. With that one skill I have in a pinch tanked encounters that killed our tanks. Throw some knock back enhancers on it and it is a awsome thing.

When it is up combined with gale it is next to impossible for anything to hit you in melee. At high levels melee hits can land on defenders and controllers for up to 400 damage which can darn near one shot you. The ability to force mobs to shoot at you instead of landing devestating melee attacks is awsome.

Two other powers are similar to this repel and repulsion field. Both of those powers give you an end hit every time it pushes somebody back. Hurricane does not you can repel hundreds of mobs in a row and you will never lose end other than just the normal aura drain. This makes it one of the best defensive/protective skills in the game.

It is also - mob accuracy which makes things miss you so not only can they not hit you much if at all in melee at any range they tend to wiff on you as well.


kaid

[MrHat]

Wow, thats the exact template I am thinking of going with, except using Katana rather than Broadsword. With that many pool powers, are we going to be able to get our high end damage stuff?

I'm thinking it will be no problem, as long as you don't get too many powers out of the regen skill pool.

For instance, I plan on getting Hack, Slash, Slice, Build Up, and possibly the last three skills to replace the first three, for my broadsword skills.  And for regeneration, fast healing, recontruction, quick recovery, integration, instant healing, and perhaps revive.  This should leave about 6-8 skills for other power pools.



Also, prior to contrary belief, my pirate > your ninja.

[Morfiend]

Also, prior to contrary belief, my pirate > your ninja.

Ok, now thats just below the belt.  We all know Pirates are the pwn.

[schild]

Unless you happen to be a ninja who can kill using nothing but a piece of string and some gum.

But then you'd be McGuyver dressed as a ninja.

[Venkman]

Any thoughts on Defender Dark Miasma Dark Blast? Tried this on the Launch Day Test tonight and it seems like it could be fun. CCs (AoE snares, fears, root later on) in the main, DD and DoT in the the Secondary. My damage output certainly isn't Fire Blaster level, but it seems to have a good combo of soloability and groupability, if I reduce my expectations on soloing :)

[kaid]

Dark/dark defenders are nice. They are a very nice combo of minor crowd control + some serious debuffs. They also get a defensive aura that protects their group from some very hard to defend against damage types.

They also get one of the best rezes in the game that can rez multiple people at a time. One thing I recommend though is slotting up accuracy on the initial attack as they seem to wiff a bit.


Kaid

[Morfiend]

What do you guys think of my idea to stack the Fitness regens on top of the regeneration line? would that be insanely good, or just insane?

Actually Morph, I plan on this come release.  Going to get Hasten from the speed pool, Combat Jump/Super Jump from the jumping pool, speed endurance and health from the fitness pool.

Broadsword/Regen.  Should be interesting.

Wow, thats the exact template I am thinking of going with, except using Katana rather than Broadsword. With that many pool powers, are we going to be able to get our high end damage stuff?

After playing around with the Katana template last night (only got to lvl 6) I have decided I have two choices.

1) Go katana and skip Hasten.
2)Go Broadsword and get Hasten.

even at lvl 6, with 3 of the attack powers, then regenerate fast enough for none stop fighting. I think there would be really no point to hasten, except to beable to use my AE attack more ofter in large battles.

[MrHat]

Well shit, after reading http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=145678&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1 that thread on the beta boards, I'm having doubts about my regeneration/scrapper.

Combined w/ the fact that every fucker and his mother will be taking regeneration on thier scrapper, I'm gonna play around w/ a couple of other things today, maybe figure out something else to try out.

[eldaec]

The reason is the difference between an ability in your primary and an ability in your secondary is truly night and day.  They are not comparable unless you socket the secondary powers up the ass.

Fair enough, this makes sense, but does anyone have numbers on this?

I never got anything past level 10, and all numbers I saw were of course modified by all the noise of different spec lines, different mob resists, different enhancements, but I couldn't detect a difference of anything more than about 10%?

[Xilren's Twin]

The reason is the difference between an ability in your primary and an ability in your secondary is truly night and day.  They are not comparable unless you socket the secondary powers up the ass.

Fair enough, this makes sense, but does anyone have numbers on this?

I never got anything past level 10, and all numbers I saw were of course modified by all the noise of different spec lines, different mob resists, different enhancements, but I couldn't detect a difference of anything more than about 10%?

IIRC, the secondary power operate at about 88% effectiveness compared to a primary version of the same thing.  This number was from a dev in a thread on primary vs secondary Healing powers, so it's an assumption to say it applies across the board, but it seems to fit.

Xilren