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New player seeking advice

Hi, I'm new to this game, but not to Cryptic games in general as I've been playing Star Trek Online for a long time now. I came here to CO to branch out a bit, and because I saw a free freeform slot giveaway not long ago. Anyway, I wanted to ask a few things, so here it is:

1) What's the best way to get decent amounts of questionite? So far, I've tried those "you can only do this 4 times per day" quest chains, but they're agonizingly long and outright buggy in some cases. Not worth the time. Intranet Deployment & Carrier Wave seem okay, but are there others?

2) Is the gold-quality questionite gear that scales with level worth it, or are there better things that are easier to obtain at 40? I'm at 29 now, to put things in perspective.

3) Am I doing it right? Or have I made a few questionable selections? I like the idea of being both ranged and melee on a character that can take tons of abuse and emerge unscathed with fantastic aoe capability. Am I on the right track, or far off? Specifically, were mindful reinforcement and plasma beam poor choices, and are my advantage choices (or lack of choices) good, or have I missed something?

So yeah, any help or tips/etc are appreciated. :D
(Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).

Comments

  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Posts: 447 Arc User
    1) Alerts + Alts. Alerts are your quickest/easiest way to earn Q, and there are 4 daily missions(Grabs, Burst, Smash, and APB) that award 2k Q each. And of course, you can do that entire set on every character you have, so the more alts you have the more you can earn.

    2) I wear the Armadillo gear on my 3 mains. It has good stats and a set bonus, and is relatively cheap.

    3) I'm not really a powers expect, I just experiment and find what I enjoy and works for me. That said, the archetypes are a pretty good guide. So find the archetype that is the closest to what you are looking for and take a look at the stats and skills and use that as a guide.

    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • wingedkagoutiwingedkagouti Posts: 565 Arc User
    1: The Alert daily + Alts is definitely the quickest way to score 2k Q.

    2: The scaling gear in the Q store is decent for levelling, the Nemesis gear is noticably since it binds to your account, letting you swap it to another character once you hit 40. At level 40 you get access to UNITY* which is a set of dailies, giving you 18 Silver Champion Recognition, which can be used to purchase the base level 40 purple primaries (at 35 SCR per piece). Check out the recognition vendors near Defender.

    *If you have done a specific bunch of missions in Vibora Bay you also get access to UNITY 2, essentially doubling the amount of daily tokens.

    3: The build isn't horrible, as long as you aren't aiming for maximum efficiency at least. Plasma Beam is the most questionable power at first glance. Mindful Reinforcement is a decent shield/heal power, just be aware that it's a fairly large drain on energy if you want to use it frequently.
  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User

    1) Alerts + Alts. Alerts are your quickest/easiest way to earn Q, and there are 4 daily missions(Grabs, Burst, Smash, and APB) that award 2k Q each. And of course, you can do that entire set on every character you have, so the more alts you have the more you can earn.

    I found 2 quests related to alerts:

    Alerts: Bursts
    Alerts: Vigilance

    But I can't seem to find the others. :( Where do I find those at?

    3: The build isn't horrible, as long as you aren't aiming for maximum efficiency at least. Plasma Beam is the most questionable power at first glance. Mindful Reinforcement is a decent shield/heal power, just be aware that it's a fairly large drain on energy if you want to use it frequently.

    "Not horrible" doesn't mean "good" though. What else seems questionable about it? Pick it apart, my feelings won't be hurt. I haven't been playing for very long, so I'm bound to have made plenty of mistakes. Mistakes I want to learn from and fix.

    As for plasma beam, yeah. I picked it at the time because I couldn't find anything else that actually appealed to me--I'm open to suggestions. It sucks that ripping away all those powers will be so expensive, but I'm more than happy to farm the required resources if it'll improve my character's ability to perform well in the game.
    (Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Posts: 447 Arc User
    All of the Alert dailies come from the same guy, although I'm not completely sure how the daily timer works. All I know is I can pick up all 4 of the ones I mentioned each day, although they dont always all show up at the same time.

    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    They're the ones from "Alerts Coordinator" under the Socrates mission list, right?
    (Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Posts: 447 Arc User
    Yes, the same guy standing near defender. Patil.

    The-Grand-Nagus
    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • chaelkchaelk Posts: 7,732 Arc User
    CO doesn't have as many ways of getting Q as STO has of getting Dil. But then there's a lot less uses for it in CO.

    Q store, removing mods from gear and trading on the zen exchange.​​
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  • captainhunter1captainhunter1 Posts: 409 Arc User
    aesica said:

    1) Alerts + Alts. Alerts are your quickest/easiest way to earn Q, and there are 4 daily missions(Grabs, Burst, Smash, and APB) that award 2k Q each. And of course, you can do that entire set on every character you have, so the more alts you have the more you can earn.

    I found 2 quests related to alerts:

    Alerts: Bursts
    Alerts: Vigilance

    But I can't seem to find the others. :( Where do I find those at?
    Each Alert has a character level requirement. Once you are high enough level, they will show up in the list. (Can't recall exactly, but something like Bursts - 10th level, Grabs - 20th level, Smash - 30th level or some such)

    Welcome to the game! :)
  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User

    Each Alert has a character level requirement. Once you are high enough level, they will show up in the list. (Can't recall exactly, but something like Bursts - 10th level, Grabs - 20th level, Smash - 30th level or some such)

    Welcome to the game! :)

    Thanks. :D I'm currently 29 and have access to Smash/XP, Grab/Resource, Burst/Mods, and Custom. If they are indeed randomly available, I guess I just need to keep checking. The "custom" daily seems pretty nasty...
    (Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
  • tigerofcachticetigerofcachtice Posts: 551 Arc User
    Hi aesica, welcome to CO.

    The guys are giving good answers. I'm just adding a few points into perspective for someone in your position, around level 30.

    -----

    On Questionite, the guys are right, but IMHO, you don't have to go out of your way to farm it at your current level.

    Like if you go to Lt. Patil near Defender's "open office" area, he will give you the Daily Alerts to get 2,000 Questionite when you do the type of Alerts he specifies. If they're like XP Grab Alerts, great, you were probably going to do them anyway to level up. Or you want something to play with others in a quick queue, that's a neat little sidequest to do, just have fun with.

    But doing those quest chains for 500 Questionite will just burn you out, take away the joy from the game. What those quests are good for is that you accumulate a lot of Questionite in the course of playing, rather than farming intensively for it.

    In short, don't burn yourself out trying to get Questionite now. You'll have plenty of chances later!

    -----

    On the golden yellow Questionite gear, like the Armadillo Set, the only ones that are generally worth it are the Armadillo Boots, Armadillo Ring, and Armadillo Glasses. It's recommended you not waste your accumulated Questionite on other gear.

    Why not? There are far better alternatives that are even easier to farm. For example, the Mecenary Gear you see there can be bought for about 10G to 20G of in-game resources rather than Questionite. Furthermore, you can farm for even better Heroic Gear as was pointed out at level 40 in the endgame "UNITY missions" that was mentioned above.

    Now why those specific 3? By themselves they're not great, but together in a set of 3 they give you a pretty useful damage resistance bonus. Those 3 take up Secondary Slots, you'll get better Primary Slot gear in the form of things like Heroic gear. Since it's that set bonus of 3 you want, this is like the optimal mix (pls note if you have all 6, you do turn into a giant Armadillo-suit wearing person, replacing your normal appearance).

    Why not the Cyber Augmented or Samurai Sets? It turns out, even though they all have that 25% enhancement, those offense-related ones only amount to about 2% to 5% more damage per second in real gameplay terms. The Armadillo Set bonus grants a much more reasonable 20% damage absorbed (still a bit lower than 25%). It's not bugged, just some cryptic mathematics in how those bonuses are added/multiplicative/etc.

    The reason those Questionite gear is particularly useful is, if you pool your Questionite together (through the Exchange, a topic for a later date), you can equip your 2nd, 3rd, following characters with Armadillo Boots, Ring, and Glasses. They're useful at level 40, but especially useful early on.

    -----

    Regarding your build, I can tell you've already been researching without just resorting to a cookie cutter build. Well done!

    In that regard, I don't want to influence you too much. Creating your own build, your own toon, is the heart of CO.

    The main challenge, I've found, is that Melee + Ranged Hybrids are difficult to optimise for. Many options are specifically made for either Melee or Ranged, very few for both, and those options that exist are compromises.

    However, if you really want to optimise and wondering what others are doing, what a lot of us do is focus on 2 main attacks, 1 high direct damage, 1 high Area Effect damage, then use the rest for support moves which you're already doing, such as:

    BLOCK: you got Force Shield with Force Sheathe, an excellent choice, a keeper

    ENERGY UNLOCK: you have Ego Reverberation, fitting for your theme; in my experience it's a little fiddly though, but at the same time with this character theme, it probably is the best option you have.

    PASSIVE: Regeneration is great for survivability while leveling, but is overtaken by other choices at level 40 IMHO, but still okay. My leaning would be towards something that adds more DPS as with halfway-decent gear, you'll be survivable enough.

    TOGGLE: that also enhances your attack or role. For you, that might be Mental Discipline, but I'm not sure.

    SELF-HEAL: usually we take something like Conviction, but you have Regeneration and Mental Reinforcement

    ACTIVE DEFENSE: a temporary buff with a cooldown, like Masterful Dodge, that makes you extra resilient for like 15 seconds

    ACTIVE OFFENSE: another temporary buff with a cooldown, like Ego Form, that increase your damage for like 15 seconds

    SELF-REVIVE AND TEAM-REZ: not necessary, but something like Rebirth and something to rez others are very useful

    OTHER UTILITY POWERS: Mental Discipline is actually pretty cool, I do like the Revitalising Boost advantage on it, too

    You're doing a lot of things right already, but by focusing on just a few moves (I myself usually focus on just 2 or 3 in a build), then augmenting them with these sort of buffs, you'll be more competitive against later content probably.

    If you'd like a sort of overview of powers, Bluhman has an excellent guide that he regularly updates that I still use:

    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=180409692
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  • decorumfriendsdecorumfriends Posts: 2,802 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    I park at Dr. Silverback at the Steel Crusade station and every character (well, once they're over level 18) starts the day with Heat Wave. 500Q for a couple of minutes running around saving burning citizens. Very cost effective start.
    'Dec out

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  • guyhumualguyhumual Posts: 2,387 Arc User

    All of the Alert dailies come from the same guy, although I'm not completely sure how the daily timer works. All I know is I can pick up all 4 of the ones I mentioned each day, although they dont always all show up at the same time.

    I don't think that's quite correct, IIRC they're on a four day rotation, bursts, smash, grab, then APB which is one of each of the three. You can have all four active but usually there's only one open a day. These switch over at about 5pm server time so if you log in at 4:59 grab one alert, you can then get the second at 5 pm
  • chaelkchaelk Posts: 7,732 Arc User
    he is on the remote mission hand in too, so you don't have to hang around him. Just hit 29 on cactus jac and heading to Monster island.​​
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  • wingedkagoutiwingedkagouti Posts: 565 Arc User
    guyhumual said:

    All of the Alert dailies come from the same guy, although I'm not completely sure how the daily timer works. All I know is I can pick up all 4 of the ones I mentioned each day, although they dont always all show up at the same time.

    I don't think that's quite correct, IIRC they're on a four day rotation, bursts, smash, grab, then APB which is one of each of the three. You can have all four active but usually there's only one open a day. These switch over at about 5pm server time so if you log in at 4:59 grab one alert, you can then get the second at 5 pm
    The 4 day rotation of the dailies is (mostly) correct. When the Grab alerts unlock at level 10 you also unlock the daily mission for them, and it will be the only daily you get* until you get within level range to acquire the Burst daily which happens before you can do Burst alerts. You finally unlock both the Smash and APB dailies when you're high enough level to get level 20 missions. Note that when you get the Burst daily but before you get Smash and APB, the daily schedule will be Grab/Burst/Grab/Burst with the last two being instead of Smash and APB, once you get Smash + APB you'll be joining the rotation on the same schedule as everyone else.

    *And you will be offered it every day until you level enough to unlock more types, then they will be added to the rotation.
  • jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,315 Arc User
    You're Cactus Jac? I spent some time healing you in Alerts last night, on Sunhawk. :smile:

    Aesica, don't sweat the build too much. It's even less restrictive here than in STO, which still has elements of the Gaming Trinity in its design. Here, most toons can have a block (for at least minor-league tanking), and a self-heal either through powers or items (even healing others, if you pick up Servitor Serum!), and almost everyone has some variety of DPS. If you're Gold or got the Freeform Slot last weekend, you can really go to town! I've seen very few builds in this game that I'd consider "nonviable", and I've been playing since it first went F2P. (And besides, if you really don't like the way it plays, you have at least two slots - go ahead and roll a new toon! :smile: )​​
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  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    @tigerofcachtice - Wow, really good post. That's exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for regarding builds, and that guide at the bottom is definitely bookmark material. With regen in particular, I do notice that I'm pretty vulnerable to spike damage, and the reduced effectiveness while blocking is something of a drag, too.

    I wonder if something like invulnerability would synergize better with mindful reinforcement's shield, because right now when I'm focused by a lot of things, the shield breaks less than a second after I apply it. I guess that depends on whether damage is applied to shields first, then invulnerability's damage soak, or if the damage soak applies to shields, too. (In STO, shields don't benefit from player resistances)

    @jonsills - The tank/healer/dps trinity in STO is pretty nonexistent, actually. On the ground, my character is literally all 3 roles at once (unusually high hp, powerful self-healing, and heavy damage) and in space combat, the endgame really is pretty much "the best defense is an overpowered offense" thanks to a poorly-done level cap increase. People typically add 1-2 hull heals and 1-2 shield heals, tactical team (x2 ideally) to opt out of shield facing management, then focus everything else entirely on offense. Typically gravity wells, fire at will, scatter volley, torpedo spread, etc. Powerful aoe tools for wrecking lots of enemy ships quickly.

    Anyway yeah, my build isn't bad per se, as I can actually breeze through a lot of things that gave the glacier-archetype version of this character trouble. I just want to make sure I'm doing it right, so to speak. I have perfectionist tendencies in games like this.
    (Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
  • thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Posts: 447 Arc User
    Glad you got some sage advice on the powers, like I said, I'm not an expert. But if you ever need any help or want to team up in game send me a /tell @the.grand.nagus

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    Join Date: Sep 2008

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  • stergasterga Posts: 2,353 Arc User
    The fastest and easiest way to get questionite is to throw your wallet at the screen during a special promo weekend when the zen-to-questionite exchanges maxes out in favor of zen sellers.

    The best possible gear is Justice Primaries and Onslaught Secondaries. But the grind is boring. Next best is Heroics with high level purples. lvl 38 purples are still good if you can't fine the 40 equivalent.

    Ego powers are probably the best for melee / ranged synergy since it all scales with ego. In your build, your energy unlock does nothing with any power not ego weapons. Ego Sprites and Ego Storm do not grant stacks of ego leech. The non telepathy powers also do nothing with that unlock.

    I don't want to go over your build too much because I'll just end up doing some min/maxing. Plus, I don't know what your theme is.
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  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    sterga said:

    The fastest and easiest way to get questionite is to throw your wallet at the screen during a special promo weekend when the zen-to-questionite exchanges maxes out in favor of zen sellers.

    The best possible gear is Justice Primaries and Onslaught Secondaries. But the grind is boring. Next best is Heroics with high level purples. lvl 38 purples are still good if you can't fine the 40 equivalent.

    Ego powers are probably the best for melee / ranged synergy since it all scales with ego. In your build, your energy unlock does nothing with any power not ego weapons. Ego Sprites and Ego Storm do not grant stacks of ego leech. The non telepathy powers also do nothing with that unlock.

    I don't want to go over your build too much because I'll just end up doing some min/maxing. Plus, I don't know what your theme is.

    Yeah, I'm not at all impressed with the energy unlock. Ego Weaponry was meant to be my primary attack, but it feels...rather weak and the energy unlock doesn't really do all that much to sustain it. I find myself getting far more energy from Force Shield/Sheath while standing in bad stuff, or getting beat up in solo content.

    I'm probably going to scrap the entire thing...but then again, farming the resources is rather discouraging and has already started to make me feel burnt out. It almost seems like it'd be easier to just delete and reroll, despite being 30. Ugh, depressing.

    Glad you got some sage advice on the powers, like I said, I'm not an expert. But if you ever need any help or want to team up in game send me a /tell @the.grand.nagus

    Will do, however I'm most likely going to stick primarily with STO. We could always slaughter some filthy Terrans or something.
    (Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
  • stergasterga Posts: 2,353 Arc User
    Respec costs aren't too bad until lvl 20-25. After that, I'd just re-roll. At level 25-ish, I believe a full respec is around 50g compared to level 40 where it's 550g. At level 20, all powers outside of Ults are available, so you could strip a toon and fool around with everything without spending too much. Kinda need leveling gear for it to work well for the stats part though.

    Ego Rev can give oodles of energy. On most forms, you'll need 400 in a stat to get 50 energy / 4 seconds. With Ego Rev, I'm getting 47 energy / 3 secs with just shy of 300 ego. Having ego leech stacks gives ego weaponry a crit chance buff. Mental Discipline also gives buffs based on ego leech stats, but you need to put points into it for full effect and there is no energy return.

    Being able to make a build that works well is mostly about being familiar with all the powers, what stats they scale with, and what things will buff what. Or knowing someone who does and can help fix any messes before you get too far.
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  • tigerofcachticetigerofcachtice Posts: 551 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    Aesica, I saw your posts here as well as in another thread about the Freeform Slot giveaway. Understanding you'll remake your character from scratch (which is not a bad option, though it might seem like a big leap right now), please keep this in mind:

    1. You can transfer the Questionite you already earned - go to the Questionite Exchange. You can either trade that in for Zen right now, or cancel the transaction and it goes into an "Exchange Balance" of Questionite that is shared between characters.

    2. You can transfer your Gs. Give it to a friend to hold to your other characters. Or, if you were around when Cryptic incentivised us to use the ARC loader, you might have unlocked a code for a free Hideout with a Shared Vault for Gs/items.

    3. This one you already know, but we the COmmunity could provide build advice before you make a character. That said, IMHO you're a quick learner and already figured a lot of stuff out in a very short time...but maybe we could still help.

    You may be deleting a character who gained a lot of experience, and I know that's tough, but you'll still have a lot of experience about the game, and that'll stay with you, so don't see it as time wasted. I think you gained a lot in that time.

    And in case it gives you a little peace of mind, I went through the same experience. I started a character that I thought I planned out perfectly, had what I thought was an excellent costume design, then forced myself to delete it because of an unexpected shift. The result was I made something much better, from build to character concept to his actual design.

    Glad you got some sage advice on the powers, like I said, I'm not an expert. But if you ever need any help or want to team up in game send me a /tell @the.grand.nagus

    For the record, I think your contributions to others have been great, please keep on doing what you've been doing.
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  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    edited December 2015

    1. You can transfer the Questionite you already earned - go to the Questionite Exchange. You can either trade that in for Zen right now, or cancel the transaction and it goes into an "Exchange Balance" of Questionite that is shared between characters.

    2. You can transfer your Gs. Give it to a friend to hold to your other characters. Or, if you were around when Cryptic incentivised us to use the ARC loader, you might have unlocked a code for a free Hideout with a Shared Vault for Gs/items.

    3. This one you already know, but we the COmmunity could provide build advice before you make a character. That said, IMHO you're a quick learner and already figured a lot of stuff out in a very short time...but maybe we could still help.

    You may be deleting a character who gained a lot of experience, and I know that's tough, but you'll still have a lot of experience about the game, and that'll stay with you, so don't see it as time wasted. I think you gained a lot in that time.

    I managed to grind the last of the gold/whatever needed to completely strip down everything last night and have been goofing off with stuff in the powerhouse ever since to see what powers I liked vs what I didn't. While still keeping with the (very open-ended) theme I want for this character.

    I came up with this:

    http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=11&n=&d=1352TGIN352000071007D0474053704E2099D03430JJ5031401A600LD03QJ00BI03JB002tHR3Svt2MGB

    Seems better when I run it through the powerhouse group combat simulator, but before I commit this, I wanted to run it by people who know more than I do.

    My goals are:

    1) Hardy and able to take a beating. In games, I usually prefer tank classes over squishy glass cannons. I figured self-healing abilities and such would actually synergize better with invulnerability than they did with regeneration.

    2) Ranged, with a hint of melee. I think I captured that nicely with a self-healing melee attack and a sustained utility ranged attack that both play off critical hits, as well as a PBAoE for raw damage + tanking and a cone aoe with dispel capability. What I want to make sure of is that I didn't shoot myself in the foot for being so heavily in favor of sustains over blasts.

    3) Useful utility, such as being able to rez myself and others, save myself in a pinch, etc. My concern here is that I don't have any form of stun in this iteration. Should I make room for something like bolas, ego storm, electrocute, etc?

    4) Still not entirely sure what I'm doing with tree powers. Hopefully those 2 are decent enough. Thoughts. (Open to anyone, not just the fellow I'm replying to) :)
    gradii said:

    Welcome to CO! feel free to ask me for build advice as well if you feel like it, @DaZee in game. I also play STO.

    Consider yourself (and anyone else who may see this) asked. :D
    (Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
  • tigerofcachticetigerofcachtice Posts: 551 Arc User
    aesica said:
    Thx for sharing this and also your thinking, that's very helpful to work with. A little bit tired after fighting Clarence, will reply when I can compose my thoughts.
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  • wingedkagoutiwingedkagouti Posts: 565 Arc User
    aesica said:
    You'll probably find that Concentration or Chilled Form will serve you better than Form of the Tempest with your current balance of ranged vs melee. Both of those are also triggered by maintaining ranged powers.

    Rank 3 Masterful Dodge doesn't feel as good as a Rank 3 Active Offense to me.

    You may also want to take out Challenging Strikes from Hurricane and use the Advantage Point (and the one you saved) to rank one of your travel powers to 3. If you absolutely can't live without that, I'd recommend switching Siphoning Strikes on Ego Weaponry to Rank 3 and use the AP that is freed up instead.

    As far as spec trees go, I personally prefer Retribution over Locus, but otherwise that's the standard Guardicator loop setup. And it's standard for a very good reason.
  • stergasterga Posts: 2,353 Arc User
    Fuel My Fire sucks without decent End and holding aggro. Out in the wild, there are high-end dps toons or dps tanks that will be damn hard to steal aggro from. If you depend on Fuel My Fire, your toon will suddenly become gimped without that damage. Knocks are far more annoying that holds, so I'd go with knock resistance. Plus, I think ego grants hold resistance. Deflection isn't going to do much for you unless you're stacking dex and I doubt is worth taking at all if you aren't going with a dodge build.

    Aren't most of the rez other spells interrupted on taking damage? If you plan to tank, how are you going to be rezing people? Get the new Ice Toggle Form / concentration over FotT. Are you really going to use all of those powers? You have 2 single target and 2 AoE. Don't rank Masterful Dodge; it's fabulous at r1. Instead of r2 on Electric Sheath, try the advantage. It becomes an AO with some defense.

    Skarn's is expensive. I believe the cost is "lolololol" or something close to that.

    Retribution is a 10% chance with single target damage. Lot of bosses use mostly AoE. Locus will work all the time.
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  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    gradii said:

    You'll probably find that Concentration or Chilled Form will serve you better than Form of the Tempest with your current balance of ranged vs melee. Both of those are also triggered by maintaining ranged powers.

    I thought about those two, but I chose ego weaponry and pulse beam rifle + finite probability for their higher-than-average critical hit chance. I seem to recall both chilled and concentration also having some silly limit like "must be 25 feet away" or something to build stacks with ranged powers. That limitation seems awfully useless if I'm going to have aggro from anything and thus, it's in my face. I chose tempest for now because it could build on critical hits, and with both ego weaponry and pulse beam rifle being critical hit machines, getting stacks up quickly seems plausible. I just wish there was a crit-based version of this that favored ranged damage over melee.

    One thing that's really confusing to new players like me are abilities like Hurricane (PBAoEs). Does it count as a ranged power, gaining more from concentration/chilled form/ego, or does it count as melee with greater benefits from tempest/strength?

    I'm probably going to play around with both concentration/chilled and tempest in the powerhouse a lot before I decide, because I'm still relatively undecided.
    gradii said:

    Rank 3 Masterful Dodge doesn't feel as good as a Rank 3 Active Offense to me.

    You may also want to take out Challenging Strikes from Hurricane and use the Advantage Point (and the one you saved) to rank one of your travel powers to 3. If you absolutely can't live without that, I'd recommend switching Siphoning Strikes on Ego Weaponry to Rank 3 and use the AP that is freed up instead.

    My thinking with hurricane was that, combined with its pushback and challenging strikes, would make it an ideal aoe when I wanted to tank, or in solo play when I wanted to lessen incoming damage. It performed very well in this way when I tested it out in the powerhouse, but of course the testing one can do there is extremely limited.

    As for ego weaponry's siphoning strikes, I'm not sure about giving that up either, since my thinking with that was to use it as a defensive ability (if being attacked in single target, use ego weaponry for self-healing; else use pulse beam rifle). Should I look into lifedrain or devour essence (although the latter is hard to justify with my character theme) instead to free up advantage points? Devour essence especially might be ideal. It has challenging strikes. Hmm...
    sterga said:

    Fuel My Fire sucks without decent End and holding aggro. Out in the wild, there are high-end dps toons or dps tanks that will be damn hard to steal aggro from. If you depend on Fuel My Fire, your toon will suddenly become gimped without that damage. Knocks are far more annoying that holds, so I'd go with knock resistance. Plus, I think ego grants hold resistance. Deflection isn't going to do much for you unless you're stacking dex and I doubt is worth taking at all if you aren't going with a dodge build.

    When I made that most recent iteration, I was thinking of focusing on con/ego/dex, however currently I'm con/ego/end and it occurred to me that I'd have a much smaller energy pool and crappy energy regains if I swapped end for dex. Maybe I'll stick with end and move that deflection point over to hold resist after swapping all of hold over to knock because yeah, knockback is infuriating almost every time it happens.
    sterga said:

    Aren't most of the rez other spells interrupted on taking damage? If you plan to tank, how are you going to be rezing people? Get the new Ice Toggle Form / concentration over FotT. Are you really going to use all of those powers? You have 2 single target and 2 AoE. Don't rank Masterful Dodge; it's fabulous at r1. Instead of r2 on Electric Sheath, try the advantage. It becomes an AO with some defense.

    Skarn's is expensive. I believe the cost is "lolololol" or something close to that.

    With the 4 dps powers I have, this was my intended plan:

    Ego Weaponry: defensive single target (has high crit to help build/maintain tempest stacks)
    Plasma Pulse Rifle: Offensive single target (has high crit to help build/maintain tempest stacks)
    Hurricane: Defensive aoe (pushback + c.strikes, has many hits and builds tempest quickly)
    Skarns: Offensive aoe (You're right though, the cost is HUGE. not actually sure what to do here)

    Maintained abilities seem to be rarer than charges, and while I'm not a fan of the charge-up style, should I look into swapping out Skarns for something less energy-hungry, even if it turns out to be a charged ranged aoe?

    How big is the energy drain with the electric sheath advantage? I was nervous about that because I don't like the idea of blowing an offensive cooldown, only to be sapped dry and unable to mount any offense with it.

    As for resurrecting people...yeah, the cast does break if you take damage. My goal is a well-rounded character, so in situations where I'm not taking damage--someone else being a better tank, or a boss encounter with a long pause and/or highly avoidable damage--I could still revive someone. Are there any boss encounters like that? I suppose redemption is up in the air though, and maybe I could replace it with something else, like resurgence or one of the various holds. Bolas, electrocute, etc.

    Still very much a work in progress, so keep the criticisms coming. :)

    Edit: I -just- realized that tempest probably keys off strength, making it pretty much crap for my current build. Ugh, I guess chilled form wins!
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  • carrionbaggagecarrionbaggage Posts: 721 Community Moderator
    Apologies if I missed it earlier in the thread, but could you explain your character concept? What is your character's background, and which powers do you consider mandatory to express that concept?

    In the meantime, a few answers to your questions:
    aesica said:

    One thing that's really confusing to new players like me are abilities like Hurricane (PBAoEs). Does it count as a ranged power, gaining more from concentration/chilled form/ego, or does it count as melee with greater benefits from tempest/strength?

    Hurricane counts as a Ranged power. In general, powers with more than a 10' range are considered Ranged, though there are a handful of exceptions.
    aesica said:

    I seem to recall both chilled and concentration also having some silly limit like "must be 25 feet away" or something to build stacks with ranged powers. That limitation seems awfully useless if I'm going to have aggro from anything and thus, it's in my face.

    Concentration and Chilled Form do trigger if you hit an enemy with a Ranged attack from at least 25' away. But they also trigger if you maintain a Ranged power for at least half its total duration, or charge a Ranged power at least halfway. Those two triggers are independent of distance.
    aesica said:

    As for resurrecting people...yeah, the cast does break if you take damage. My goal is a well-rounded character, so in situations where I'm not taking damage--someone else being a better tank, or a boss encounter with a long pause and/or highly avoidable damage--I could still revive someone. Are there any boss encounters like that?

    It's worth noting that if a damage shield (like Protection Field or Unbreakable) absorbs all the incoming damage, your resurrection charge won't be interrupted. There are several boss fights where the enemy's attacks leave enough time for a quick rez, but the timing is often tight and might require some creative Benny Hill shenanigans. Resurrection Serum (from the Gadgeteering tree) has a slightly faster charge time than Redemption, but less range and a recharge timer.
    aesica said:

    I -just- realized that tempest probably keys off strength, making it pretty much crap for my current build. Ugh, I guess chilled form wins!

    Form of the Tempest scales with Dexterity.
  • wingedkagoutiwingedkagouti Posts: 565 Arc User
    aesica said:

    My thinking with hurricane was that, combined with its pushback and challenging strikes, would make it an ideal aoe when I wanted to tank, or in solo play when I wanted to lessen incoming damage. It performed very well in this way when I tested it out in the powerhouse, but of course the testing one can do there is extremely limited.

    Hurricane doesn't work defensively against anything worth defending against, especially when you have Invulnerability.
    aesica said:

    As for ego weaponry's siphoning strikes, I'm not sure about giving that up either, since my thinking with that was to use it as a defensive ability (if being attacked in single target, use ego weaponry for self-healing; else use pulse beam rifle). Should I look into lifedrain or devour essence (although the latter is hard to justify with my character theme) instead to free up advantage points? Devour essence especially might be ideal. It has challenging strikes. Hmm...

    Siphoning Strikes is a fairly unreliable heal that will most likely let you down when you need it most. Yes, you may crit frequently, but trying to use it for more than sporadic health maintenance is folly. As far as self heal + tanking ability, few things compare to Devour Essence with Crippling Challenge. Not only do you deal respectable damage, but you also generate threat from the self healing and Crippling Challenge is an actual Taunt.
    aesica said:

    Maintained abilities seem to be rarer than charges, and while I'm not a fan of the charge-up style, should I look into swapping out Skarns for something less energy-hungry, even if it turns out to be a charged ranged aoe?

    Being unable to fully maintain a power doesn't mean you're unable to use it. On the other hand, your build doesn't have Overdrive, so there's little reason to worry about sticking with maintains.
    aesica said:

    How big is the energy drain with the electric sheath advantage? I was nervous about that because I don't like the idea of blowing an offensive cooldown, only to be sapped dry and unable to mount any offense with it.

    I've found the energy drain to be fairly unnoticable on the characters that have it.
    aesica said:

    As for resurrecting people...

    In my experience, resurrecting is only really useful in lockout scenarios and as someone who seemingly aspires to be tanky you're not going to be a good choice for a rezzer there. I can't think of a non-device shield that will stand up to 2 seconds of concentrated damage from a boss with lockout. If there's no lockout, people should generally just hit the respawn button and run back to the fight, the "death penality" in this game is so light as to be nearly non-existant.
  • stergasterga Posts: 2,353 Arc User
    If you look at the tags on the powers, they usually tell you if powers are ranged or melee. Earth is the only weird set, I think.

    Siphoning strikes can be a neat heal for a melee crit build, but is kinda odd in a ranged build.

    Ranged builds have the advantage of flight and not many bosses can fly.

    You can use an AoE as a single target attack. If you're going to keep Locus, you might as well use an aoe for single target to take advantage of it all the time.

    If you go with a dodge build, it'll be much cheaper since dex mods are nowhere near as expensive as con mods. And with con pss, you won't need many, if any, con mods. Depends on how you gear and what the build goals are. You will pretty much want to go with Lit Reflexes as your passive though. Those poopy growth mods that no one loves can be slotted in offense gear for some extra con or defense gear for more HP. Although, with a dodge build, you'll probably want gamblers for defense gear.

    Not sure how well a ranged dodge build will do without good gear though.

    Invuln is a good tank passive if you don't go dodge.

    With adrenaline rush, it only matters how much HP you have, not how much con you have. Heroic HP gear gives you over 600 HP. Secondary defense and utility gear can give 338 HP each. If you really want to go nuts, Justice and Onslaught gear both have pieces that give 553 HP. And you can still get a utility piece with 338 HP.

    Not sure about Matter Energy Union. It basically puts a bubble over your HP bar and damage is removed from that first. I haven't noticed any horrific energy issues while using it.

    I'm thinking there's an internal cooldown on how often you can gain stacks. At 8 stacks, you simply need to attack once every 4 seconds. For Concentration and Chiller, you'll still gain stacks quickly and since most of your attacks are maintains, you'll easily be able to get your 4 ticks / 25ft range criteria once in four seconds. Generally, forms are for energy. The damage is a side bonus, but you might as well pick the one that gives your build the best damage bonus.

    If you want to keep Skarn's, Circle of Arcane Energy is an easy patch. It's something like 12 energy/second with 10 rec at r1. Of course, if you're getting a circle to run Skarn's you might as well use it as your main damage dealer. It's not worth dropping a circle for trash mobs. No idea if it's a good tanking power though.

    If you're looking for a min/max franken build, you might as well say so. The advice you get will be different than what you would get for a themed build.

    I think Rez Serum is a click power with a 6-ish second cooldown and 15ft range. Personally think it's the best res for other people in the game outside of people getting their own damn res. But, yeah, most people are just going to respawn and run back. Those people that say "I have a rez" in alerts? No one listens to them.

    You can drop Rebirth if you want another power. Self-rez devices are everywhere. I have at least half a bank tab of the damn things, plus 10 or so in my shared bank. Several of my toons have two or more in their bags. And they are also available from one of the recognition vendors. Or the AH. The game is drowning in res devices.
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  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User

    Apologies if I missed it earlier in the thread, but could you explain your character concept? What is your character's background, and which powers do you consider mandatory to express that concept?

    She's the avatar of an artificial superintelligence, which not only legitimizes respawning after death, but opens the door to pretty much any power imaginable, from eye lasers to wielding swords to energy projection to...even magic. (What is magic, but a word to explain something that our current level of understanding of things cannot?)

    Concentration and Chilled Form do trigger if you hit an enemy with a Ranged attack from at least 25' away. But they also trigger if you maintain a Ranged power for at least half its total duration, or charge a Ranged power at least halfway. Those two triggers are independent of distance.

    Oh. OH! That literally changes everything. I guess I just saw "25 feet away" and made the terrible mistake of thinking it applied to all attacks, including charged/maintained ones. In that case, concentration wins by a landslide.

    Siphoning Strikes is a fairly unreliable heal that will most likely let you down when you need it most. Yes, you may crit frequently, but trying to use it for more than sporadic health maintenance is folly. As far as self heal + tanking ability, few things compare to Devour Essence with Crippling Challenge. Not only do you deal respectable damage, but you also generate threat from the self healing and Crippling Challenge is an actual Taunt.

    Yeah, I guess when I think about it, there's really no comparison. Devour essence seems to be a lot more powerful for recovery when I test it out, and unlike ego weaponry, I don't have to choose "the heal" vs "the taunt" since I can have both.

    Being unable to fully maintain a power doesn't mean you're unable to use it. On the other hand, your build doesn't have Overdrive, so there's little reason to worry about sticking with maintains.

    Holy crap. How did I miss Overdrive? As someone who likes the maintain playstyle and considering I'm thinking of sticking with con + ego/end, Overdrive is probably something I should have for times when I'm not trying to tank. Every single one of my attacks is a maintain, after all. Thanks for putting that on my radar.

    How big is the energy drain with the electric sheath advantage? I was nervous about that because I don't like the idea of blowing an offensive cooldown, only to be sapped dry and unable to mount any offense with it.

    In my experience, resurrecting is only really useful in lockout scenarios and as someone who seemingly aspires to be tanky you're not going to be a good choice for a rezzer there. I can't think of a non-device shield that will stand up to 2 seconds of concentrated damage from a boss with lockout. If there's no lockout, people should generally just hit the respawn button and run back to the fight, the "death penality" in this game is so light as to be nearly non-existant.

    I guess the electric sheath question was kind of a "let me google/test that for you" question. Yeah, the drain is indeed minimal, and when you compare it with the fuel my fire + force sheath, energy shouldn't be a problem for me if I'm taking damage anyway.

    I guess I had it in my mind that the "endgame" content was all like Cybermind, with boss-room lockouts once the fights started. Maybe it is, but if I do end up tanking (kind of the eventual goal) then I probably am best off letting other people rez, and giving that spot up for something to help keep me alive. Hi resurgence. :)

    - - -

    Great advice so far, and it's given me the knowledge to refine the build even more:

    http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=11&n=&d=1358TQNIX38107071007D04740537049D03Q30H430JJ50314057F009I00QJ00BI00PB032sib3Svt2MGB

    I left 3 advantage points open, and I may end up dropping challenging strikes from hurricane. These will probably end up going to a travel power or...not sure exactly.

    At this rate, I might be out of the powerhouse in time for the holidays! :)
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  • tigerofcachticetigerofcachtice Posts: 551 Arc User
    aesica said:

    Great advice so far, and it's given me the knowledge to refine the build even more:

    http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=11&n=&d=1358TQNIX38107071007D04740537049D03Q30H430JJ50314057F009I00QJ00BI00PB032sib3Svt2MGB

    I left 3 advantage points open, and I may end up dropping challenging strikes from hurricane. These will probably end up going to a travel power or...not sure exactly.

    At this rate, I might be out of the powerhouse in time for the holidays! :)

    We hope to get you out of the Powerhouse even before that, without risking more Gs for serious Retconning. In that spirit, some quick feedback, based on hard lessons learned; it's like I spent the Gs retconning myself so you don't have to.

    All in all, this is really quite good, I just have some suggestions based on nuances from experience.

    ---

    Devour Essence --> Life Drain (Rank 2, Rank 3)

    Devour Essence from the Infernal set and Life Drain from the Darkness set are very similar except for 2 important distinctions. 1st, Devour Essence is actually a Melee attack while Life Drain is Ranged, so that is more in-line with your now-Ranged focus. 2nd, Devour Essence leans a little more towards damage, while Life Drain leans more towards self-healing, which is probably more relevant as you already got great DPS powers. There's a 3rd less-important possible benefit: the animation of Lifedrain is like drawing the opponent's energy into your hand. Just an option to consider, because you might like Life Drain more for the look, being an avatar of a great power.

    ---

    Overdrive benefits more from Intelligence or Recovery than Endurance

    Overdrive is pretty great. You have Endurance as a secondary superstat, but you might be better served with Intelligence or Recovery. I think Int is officially the stat that is best used for Overdrive, but in practice, Recovery is easier to trigger that half-maintain criteria, and seems just as good for the actual energy gains.

    Minor Tip - when starting a battle, instead of maintain the full duration of an attack, charge it up by half instead, then restart the attack and charge it up halfway again, until you get the full stacks of Overdrive (3) or Concentration (8). What happens is it causes both Overdrive and Concentration to kick in faster, which leads to a virtuous cycle of added energy and damage.

    ---

    Masterful Dodge + Unfettered Strikes

    With spare advantage points, the Unfettered Strikes damage bonus is a nice little extra. Not needed, but maybe it's the last thing to include at level 40 when you have points left over.

    ---

    Finally, whenever you can, leave powers you think you may want to change near the end of the build

    Retconning is a cost, even to veteran players. So we leave things that we might switch around near the end, to save Gs.

    For example, for right now, that might be your Invulnerability Passive. That certainly makes sense for your 1st playthrough, for survivability, etc. However, later on, you might want to change that to a DPS Passive maybe, like Quarry (which still works with all the other choices). You don't have to commit or change the game plan now, but leave some room for your future self.

    In short, it's not just which powers you choose to invest in, but also the structure of the deal, room for growth and change.

    ---

    A long post, but pls note these are only minor suggestions, as you did a very good job assembling this build already.
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  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User

    Devour Essence --> Life Drain (Rank 2, Rank 3)

    I actually toyed with the idea of using Lifedrain over Devour primarily for all the reasons you mentioned. My findings were that:

    1) Lifedrain deals a lot less damage, and while it does heal for more, the difference isn't as big as I'd hoped for.

    2) Lifedrain is more expensive. With my current stats, Devour is 22 init/17 over time while Lifedrain is 28 init/22 over time. That's pretty massive.

    3) I'm from a World of Warcraft/STO background, so I'm no stranger to moving in and out of melee when I need to. Devour's range is 10 yards (hopefully that means its affected by Ego and not Strength--it seems to be Ego-based) so it's still somewhat ranged. Besides, if things are hitting me and I need to use it, they're probably in melee range already.

    4) Only Devour has Crippling Challenge as an advantage. This gives me a way to generate threat in addition to healing myself. The attack debuff generated by Crippling Challenge in a sense makes up for the lower healing as well.

    5) I'll admit, Lifedrain's animation is superior, however I can justify Devour's animation as well: Molecular rearrangement. I'm breaking down the enemy's atomic structure and absorbing to repair myself. Very recycle. So green energy. Much eco friendly. Wow! :)

    Overdrive benefits more from Intelligence or Recovery than Endurance

    Hmm, playing around with stats a bit, you're right:

    Equipping an item with +16 recovery: +0.6 gain
    Equipping an item with +20 endurance: +0.2 gain

    This has me reconsidering endurance as a super stat in favor of recover. My only concern then involves Fuel My Fire, as it seems to be affected by max energy and nothing else. For someone who'd like to tank ideally, would swapping endurance for recovery make Fuel My Fire a crap thing to have points invested in? Assuming only 100 max energy (a very low benchmark) 6% at 3/3 is still +6 energy each time something hits me, which is a lot of energy when dealing with large numbers of adds, or steady/maintained incoming damage from bosses.

    I have to think about that. Damn.

    Masterful Dodge + Unfettered Strikes

    With spare advantage points, the Unfettered Strikes damage bonus is a nice little extra. Not needed, but maybe it's the last thing to include at level 40 when you have points left over.

    I toyed with it much earlier in my quest for a better build, but wasn't really impressed by it since it's just a flat bonus with no stacking and its duration is pretty short.

    Besides, those leftover points are (possibly) for travel powers, which will likely be the very last thing I learn for swappability. Assuming sinking points into travel powers is worth it.

    Finally, whenever you can, leave powers you think you may want to change near the end of the build

    As mentioned above, I'm doing that with travel powers but for whatever reason, didn't think to do that with things I may want to swap out later on. As such, I reordered with what will likely be the final build. Obviously, this is no longer a build someone can or should level with, but yeah:

    http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=11&n=&d=1358TQNX538107071007D0474057F0037049I00Q30H1405QJ00BI00PB034303J5039D032sib3Svt2MGB

    One final thing, and I'm not even sure how much this matters, but it involves the energy builder.

    Particle Rifle and Sonic Blaster are the exact same in terms of energy generation. Same primary/maintained damage and energy generation, as well as the same rate of fire. The only differences are that Sonic Blaster has a 15% chance to knock a target back 18 feet, with advantages that increase the knockback distance to 21/26 feet and one that even turns it into a conical aoe. Particle rifle lacks those things, which is fine because I wouldn't invest points in anything Sonic Blaster has to offer anyway.

    Aesthetically, I prefer Sonic Blaster by a large margin, but is there ever a field situation where the knockback portion becomes problematic and undesirable? It sucks against training dummies because they despawn shortly after, but that isn't something that's even remotely relevant in the field.

    A long post, but pls note these are only minor suggestions, as you did a very good job assembling this build already.

    That's okay, I'm guilty of long posts myself. I appreciate the detail. :)
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  • wingedkagoutiwingedkagouti Posts: 565 Arc User
    aesica said:

    I guess I had it in my mind that the "endgame" content was all like Cybermind, with boss-room lockouts once the fights started. Maybe it is, but if I do end up tanking (kind of the eventual goal) then I probably am best off letting other people rez, and giving that spot up for something to help keep me alive. Hi resurgence. :)

    The lockout boss encounters I can think of are Fire & Ice, Gravitart, Cybermind and the ones in Therakiel's Temple.
  • tigerofcachticetigerofcachtice Posts: 551 Arc User
    Excellent, I'll just share a few things from experience (based largely on what happens when you get to level 40).


    Fuel My Fire --> Unyielding and Tough

    I think I see why you took Fuel My Fire. It's kinda like Force Shield w/ Force Sheathe, something that you found worked great, so you took a specialisation that does more of that, like doubling down on a sure bet. It turns out Force Shield w/ Force Sheathe returns enough energy IMHO that you don't need to fuel your fire further. Thus, I suggest shifting points to fill up Unyielding, then putting the spare point in Tough.


    Energy Builder, might as well stick with what your theme here

    You rarely use your Energy Builder at level 40, so this is an area you can choose style over substance and stay with Sonic Blaster.
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  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    I've always despised resource management in games, and yeah, that's exactly why I took Fuel My Fire combined with Force Sheath. My distaste for resource management is one thing I love about STO, since there are no energy/mana/etc resources--well technically your ship has powerlevels, but it's not something you manage in combat really. By shifting my focus from Endurance to Recovery, Fuel My Fire probably won't be as worthwhile anyway.

    Also thinking of swapping out sonic device (I no longer need it to fill the early tiers thanks to concentration replacing tempest) for some form of maintained AoE--one that isn't a PBAoE with the powerful pushback hurricane has. Oh well, I'll play around for a bit and pick one I like. Maybe Skarns Bane, maybe Lightning Storm, maybe something else entirely. Ebon Rift seems decent, too.

    Anyhow thanks everyone for all the advice. I think today might be the day my poor character can finally leave the powerhouse. :)
    Post edited by aesica on
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  • roughbearmattachroughbearmattach Posts: 4,784 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    Devour Essence has a range of 10 feet, not 10 yards.
    It is a melee power that is Strength-based. The healing portion scales with Presence.

    Link: Devour Essence
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  • aesicaaesica Posts: 2,537 Arc User
    edited December 2015

    Devour Essence has a range of 10 feet, not 10 yards.
    It is a melee power that is Strength-based. The healing portion scales with Presence.

    Link: Devour Essence

    Well ****, that sucks, but thanks for bringing it to my attention before I committed everything and left the powerhouse. (I was seriously just about to before I saw your post) I just confirmed it too, as I had a pair of junk green strength boots in my inventory. Equipping them boosted it while it lowered my ranged attacks. Bah, they should just merge strength and ego to get rid of the damned ambiguity behind powers like this. Or clearly state in the tooltip:

    Scales with Strength

    or

    Scales with Ego

    The most ridiculous part about that is that everything else that I can see in the infernal set counts as ranged and scales with Ego. Even the chain attacks.

    Oh well, time to find a new crippling challenge power! :/

    Edit: I'm probably going to switch Devour Essence out for Lightning Arc for my Crippling Challenge ability, unless someone can think of a good reason why I shouldn't.

    Edit2: Oh, and would it be stupid to sub out rebirth for a slotted offensive passive? That way, I could switch between tank or dps on the fly, rather than having to deal with the powerhouse and unlearning fees.
    Post edited by aesica on
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  • wingedkagoutiwingedkagouti Posts: 565 Arc User
    aesica said:

    Or clearly state in the tooltip:

    Scales with Strength

    or

    Scales with Ego

    They do that already, but in a roundabout way. Melee powers scale with Strength unless otherwise noted, ranged with Ego unless otherwise noted. The powers themselves have melee and ranged tags that are visible in the tooltip/advanced description.
  • roughbearmattachroughbearmattach Posts: 4,784 Arc User
    edited December 2015
    aesica said:

    Bah, they should just merge strength and ego to get rid of the damned ambiguity behind powers like this. Or clearly state in the tooltip:

    Scales with Strength

    or

    Scales with Ego

    The most ridiculous part about that is that everything else that I can see in the infernal set counts as ranged and scales with Ego. Even the chain attacks.


    Edit2: Oh, and would it be stupid to sub out rebirth for a slotted offensive passive? That way, I could switch between tank or dps on the fly, rather than having to deal with the powerhouse and unlearning fees.

    Well, Devour Essence is marked as a melee power. It isn't ranged--10' attacks are melee.

    Strength and Ego both do other things than affect damage, too. Strength affects knocks, lifting up objects, and knock resistance, whereas Ego also helps reduce the effect of holds on you.

    The infernal set is part of the larger Supernatural Framework, which includes all the melee claw/bite powers. The chain attacks are all ranged powers--whether or not they use a chain/weapon/etc isn't related to the damage stat. Power sets are grouped thematically, not by stats.

    As far as switching goes, you could just take AoPM as your passive, run in Hybrid mode, and take a power or spec that significantly ups threat generation for when you want to tank.

    Rebirth is a good power, too. If you don't take it, at least be sure to always have a self-rez item on hand. You got one every 10 levels from level-up kits, and you can buy them in the Auction House, usually for 10 G.

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