A CoH Refugee's Plea for Advice

Comments

• keikomyst Posts: 626 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  1. Regeneration is, in general, squishier than Invuln and Defiance. Even so, taking Conviction as a heal is a great idea no matter what. Defiance scales with Con, so it's a good idea to take Defiance in your case.
  
  2. You'd think Unbreakable is a good Active Defense. Well... it isn't. Pick up Masterful Dodge from the Martial Arts tree, it'll reduce all incoming damage dramatically, making you nigh-invincible. You've already got it though, so keep it.
  
  3. Athletics/Acrobatics is one of the most versatile travel powers, so it's your best bet.
  
  4. Inertial Dampening Field is rather weak. It'll only deal with small hits. Big hits, not so much. Plus, you'll have to take Enrage out. Speaking of that...
  
  Your build appears to be mostly ranged. Try Concentration out if you'd like. You might also want to try Primary Strength and get the Strength = Ranged Knock specialization.
  
  Another thing you might want to try is get a dodge/avoid primary defense item and pick up Bountiful Chi Resurgence + Resurgent Reiki, which will heal you when you dodge an attack.
  
  By the way... when Jack Fool does his stab attack, that one shots EVERYONE. You HAVE to block it. Nobody is safe. Not even a Defiance or Invuln tank.

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• knagh Posts: 23 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  Thanks for the advice, Keikomyst. I'll spend a bit of time in the Powerhouse trying out Concentration. Strength is my current Superstat, my plan was to retcon (or re-train, I'm not clear on the difference) into Constitution and pick a hardier Defense that works well with it.
  
  I know the Powerhouse has the "guns" that you can program to shoot at yourself, but I'd really like to be able to test out the different defenses in an actual combat setting. There is the the arena-style combat inside, now that I come to think of it.
  
  Jack Fool ... I thought he was just a Joker homage and the one-shot really surprised me. I didn't think to look at my combat logs to what it was that offed me. If I ever go up against him again I'll make certain to ready my Block and watch for the warning!
  
  Thanks again for your advice, you gave me a good bit of stuff to think about and try.

  ---

  Eight year, two month resident of Paragon City finding new challenges and combating new evils in Millenium City.

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• rori Posts: 2 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  keikomyst wrote: »

  2. You'd think Unbreakable is a good Active Defense. Well... it isn't. Pick up Masterful Dodge from the Martial Arts tree, it'll reduce all incoming damage dramatically, making you nigh-invincible. You've already got it though, so keep it.
  
  Your build appears to be mostly ranged. Try Concentration out if you'd like. You might also want to try Primary Strength and get the Strength = Ranged Knock specialization.
  
  Another thing you might want to try is get a dodge/avoid primary defense item and pick up Bountiful Chi Resurgence + Resurgent Reiki, which will heal you when you dodge an attack.

  
  I have to agree with almost everything you said in there, except two things and the second one adds to the third point I left here.
  
  I've built a Lead Tempest based tank that works insanely well. Almost impossible to kill and there's a reason for it. Unbreakable buys me the time I need to stay alive in ridiculous crowds while Masterful Dodge is recharging. I also have Resurgence as a third active defense simply to give me an almost full heal while the other two are recharging. Using Invulnerability the combination of the three becomes becomes ridiculous.
  
  The second part I have to disagree with is taking Concentration on a ranged build. I've found Form of the Master gives a much better damage bonus for ranged than Concentration, with Masterful Dodge it builds Focus quickly, with some dodge enhancing equipment it triggers constantly and gives you more energy. It also ties into the third point you have.
  
  The advantage for Form of the master gives a 2 second recharge to healing skills when you dodge. It can trigger every few seconds and can drop Resurgence and Bountiful Chi Resurgence's recharge considerably. Plus when you trigger Masterful Dodge it triggers both FotM and Reiki and gives you ridiculous amounts of health and energy, while leaving your heals ready to go or very close by the time Masterful Dodge wears off.
  
  For damage boosting, try grabbing a couple active offences (I took Lock and Load and Intensity which work well with my character). You may also want to drop one or two of the life giving skills I've got so you can grab an Offensive passive as well, I didn't need it since I was going full out tank.
  
  The key to survivability of course is mixing your defenses. Damage reduction, Damage Resistance, Dodge, and healing all need to be there to make yourself "Unstoppable". The key to Aggro control is simple....
  
  Grab the aggro advantages. Crippling Challenge and Challenging Strike make aggro control much easier. Add one to a good AoE with one of them and you'll have the bad guys hating you in no time.
  
  I personally had no problems DPSing with my build during solo content, I just switched to hybrid and Lead Tempest + High Dex + High Ego basically dropped everything, your mileage may vary though.
  
  Edit: Forgot to mention, the way I tested the build's survivability was to go into the battle room, spawn each enemy group, set them to hard, and a 5 man team. Aggro the whole room to start with and see how long you can survive. The way I was setup survived the entire room, though with it set to tank I had to use Two Gun Mojo to drop some of the higher tier enemies.

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• knagh Posts: 23 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  Interesting idea taking multiple Active Defenses/Offensives. I assumed using one locked out any others until the recharge was complete ... but now I read that there's a 30 second lock out which lets you use another one while the first is on a 90 second recharge. So you can actually leverage three Active Offs/Defs? Is that right?
  
  I'm also struggling with the monster of "Concept" and there are a few powers I can't take, just based on that. I like your ideas on using Form of the Master ... but I think it's an idea for a new character! Wargate is a meaty, muscular soldier with advanced force projection and teleportation technologies.
  
  The Battle Room in the Powerhouse .. I thought that was a PvP thing. Looks like I'll be in there really soon.
  
  Thanks again, and especially thanks for the idea for a new character!

  ---

  Eight year, two month resident of Paragon City finding new challenges and combating new evils in Millenium City.

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• s3rju Posts: 268 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  when you use an active defense/offense your other active defense offense go into a 30s cooldown, but that's the default value, you can greatly modify both the recharge time and cooldown time values with cooldown reduction gear and INT.
  my dual blader has his active defenses on a 37s recharge, when I pop one the other goes into a 12s cooldown.
  speaking of cooldowns, MSA is great for melee builds as an energy unlock.
  
  
  here's a couple of links you can get a look into:
  
  CO wiki
  forum guide list
  freeform build directory
  
  your build resembles a sho nuff build btw, you can give that a look
  
  hope this helps :cool:

  ---

  My build directory (work in progress)
  Guide list
  Freeform Builds
  
  In loving memory of AngelofCaine.

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• rori Posts: 2 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  knagh wrote: »

  Interesting idea taking multiple Active Defenses/Offensives. I assumed using one locked out any others until the recharge was complete ... but now I read that there's a 30 second lock out which lets you use another one while the first is on a 90 second recharge. So you can actually leverage three Active Offs/Defs? Is that right?

  
  With the base 30 second lockout, yes having 3 active defenses gives you the option of having one up almost continually. However, there is a specialization ability that decreases the cooldown of active defenses a fair bit and that includes the lockout cooldown. That extra activation or two early on in a major fight makes everything a cake walk.
  

  I'm also struggling with the monster of "Concept" and there are a few powers I can't take, just based on that. I like your ideas on using Form of the Master ... but I think it's an idea for a new character! Wargate is a meaty, muscular soldier with advanced force projection and teleportation technologies.

  
  I wouldn't consider the defenses from the martial arts tree to be breaking a soldier concept. After all most soldiers do receive fairly intense hand to hand training, which could be passed off as masterful dodge and form of the master. Personal preference though.
  

  The Battle Room in the Powerhouse .. I thought that was a PvP thing. Looks like I'll be in there really soon.
  
  Thanks again, and especially thanks for the idea for a new character!

  
  Yeah the danger room type area in the powerhouse is basically a PVE proving ground. If a character can survive in there he "Should" be able to survive similar situations out in the rest of the game. The trick is to figure out "What's the max my build can handle", re-examine the build to squeeze a little more out and push the envelope. Hard enemies and 5 man teams are the max, so once you can handle one group of them you're doing good. Tweak a little more and you'll be at the full room without dropping below 50% health.
  
  Good luck with yours, and hope to see another "Good" tank out in the alerts.

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• knagh Posts: 23 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  Thanks, I'll look at all the advice and links offered.
  
  One thing I'm really starting to love about this game is the amount of opportunity they give you to "test" things. The Powerhouse is a great idea.
  
  I'm still learning my Alerts too. A recent Alert I ran was an "XP Smash" Alert, saving the train. I forget who the enemy was, but when the mission started I bolted straight to the bad guy and started fighting because I thought we only had two minutes. I died twice and aggroed a lot, and we still succeeded ... but it turns out it wasn't a two minute Alert. I felt silly. The lesson is "Learn to Read" I guess ...
  
  Another Alert I did was against Gravitar ... a very good learning experience there too. Though the major lesson was, "Don't Hit the Recover Button". I was "jailed" at the respawn site and helpless the whole time. I felt silly in my ignorance.

  ---

  Eight year, two month resident of Paragon City finding new challenges and combating new evils in Millenium City.

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• keikomyst Posts: 626 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  I dunno, Form of the Master is one of my least favorite forms. Then again, my personal approach is get in there and fight, so that's why Form of the Tempest and Concentration are awesome. Using Enrage works with his knock powers, though.
  
  I used to have two Active Defenses, then the form pass happened. If you're careful in any encounter, you'll only need one AD.
  
  aaaand... Gravitar is currently the game's most accessible superboss. Saying she's challenging is an understatement. She's downright unfair in my opinion!

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• sterga Posts: 2,353 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  Since you're gold, you can take advantage of the PTS and copy your guy to it. I'd say if you want to check for survivability to go Monster Island and punch Teliosaurus in the face for 5 min or until you get bored.
  
  Even with a concept, you have a ton of build options. But part of your build is also going to depend on what level of tankiness you want your guy to have. Being able to tank a smash/grab boss is far easier than tanking Warlord or Gravitar. Even a beefy DPS can tank most/all general alert bosses, but can be completely destroyed by a firepatch or force cascades (FC). It also depends on if you plan on doing mostly pugs. You pretty much need to assume you will be grouped with super squishies and no healer if you're going Gravitar/Warlord and will need to be fully self-sufficent.
  
  I've had to tweak [my tank] Punchy's build several times to ensure I can stay alive for Gravitar and help keep that one other tank fellow alive as everyone else will be dead before the 1/3 hp left mark. I decided to focus on defense and background healing with a bit of dodge/avoidence because there isn't normally going to be a healer unless I group with one.
  
  Going full tank really isn't going to hurt your ability to slaughter everything solo in the game. Even my tankity-tank with garbage damage can blow through the until missions on elite.
  
  If you're going to use beatdown, I would suggest picking up crippling challenge (CC) instead of r3. Or, defensive combo w/CC is also a nice option. It doesn't seem like it's going to be your main damage dealer anyway, so might as well take advantage of their agro options.
  
  
  If you have energy problems:
  
  1: With high con, you can go with defiance instead of invuln. Defiance gives you energy as long as things are beating on you. Bonus, you don't need to rank up defiance. Useful if you need to put points elsewhere.
  2: Change end to int or at least pick up gear with cost reduction on it. Int will also improve the energy gain on MSA.
  
  3: If you want con as your primary SS, fuel my fire gives you energy as long as you can keep agro.
  4: energy refraction on force bolts will let you use FC for a lot less energy than normal. FC cost less when you have an energy form, but it also consumes that energy form.
  
  
  I see you have reverence on conviction. I'd say go with r3 instead as I don't think you'll really be doing much to heal your allies with reverence. If you really want to be able to do some healing for your allies, pick up the sentinel tree and go with sentinel mastery. Drop one of your powers for something like Thunder Clap that can stun/incapacitat/paralyze/sleep and people (including yourself) will be healed simply by attacking. If you go this route, you also have the option of taking Compassion (but works best if you have pre or rec).
  
  As far as I'm concerned, IDF is the most garbage form in the entire game. Pretty much any other form will give you more benefits than 100 lousy points off of damage to you and your team. Gravitar's FC hit for thousands of points of damage. 100 points less is still thousands of points of damage.
  
  You may want to consider rebirth for one of your powers. Sometimes you die and it's nice to be able to get back into the fight right away. If you don't want to take rebirth, at least get some of those res devices.
  
  
  I normally like to have two heals, but my tank has three. Bountiful Chi Resergence (BCR) with Resugent Reki (RR) is nice for magical healing you don't have to think about. What RR does is give you an extra bit of healing when you dodge. Best if you have decent dodge gear, but also can work well with MD (masterful dodge). Resugence is one of the few heals that scales with Con. It's an active defence, but a great emergency heal. Conviction is the heal I have on all of my toons except one.
  
  Silver Champs Recognition gear is some of the best primary gear in the game and not all that hard to get. You can buy it on the AH or just do the until dailies. Yes, you'll lose the set bonus from the armadillo primaries, but you get things like dodge, avoidance, crit, crowd control resistance, or lower cooldowns plus you can put mods into it.
  
  
  I looked at many other people's build when I made my tank, so I'll give you a link Punchy's current build to help you with ideas. His gear is all purple Silver Champs gear with crit and avoidance & a dodge mod. For secondaries, I just have the purple stuff that drops during the until dailies and only r5 mods.
  
  PowerHouse (Build Link)

  YouTube - Steam - Twitter
  [at]riviania Member since Aug 2009

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• knagh Posts: 23 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  Wow, thanks for that too. I want to "tidy up" my build but I'm trying not to lose what made my hero fun to level up. I guess I'm not looking for SUPER min-max, just some good ideas to help with survival against some of the big-guys and unexpected swarms.
  
  Force Blast is very fun, and I've found it really works well with the knockback in Might. (I love my Haymaker! I get the biggest thrill when I charge it fully then target the enemy with my ranged attack, it says "Target Out of Range"!) Enrage is stacked to "8" before I even know it. I like Beatdown for the animation, it really gives the "flavor" of the kind of punches I want to throw. A self rez would be nice though, and easily justified (the hero that won't stay down).
  
  I might experiment with some of the other Passive Defenses and Forms too. Looks like I'm going to be spending the next month living in the Powerhouse while I test all of this out!
  
  Gear and crafting is another area I'm just beginning to understand (I'm level 40 and my Science Skill is only 11). So thanks on the Gear advice! I'm also going to be looking at alternate Builds to support different combinations of Gear when I start amassing it.
  
  Thanks again!

  ---

  Eight year, two month resident of Paragon City finding new challenges and combating new evils in Millenium City.

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• jasinblaze Posts: 1,360 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  keikomyst wrote: »

  By the way... when Jack Fool does his stab attack, that one shots EVERYONE. You HAVE to block it. Nobody is safe. Not even a Defiance or Invuln tank.

  that's not entirely true. he has to 2 shot some of my characters. but yes generally true.

  [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

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• vendince Posts: 296 Arc User

  November 2012 edited November 2012

  jasinblaze wrote: »

  that's not entirely true. he has to 2 shot some of my characters. but yes generally true.

  
  Did they change that? The last times I did Jack Fool alerts, he didn't hit me if I didn't block when he was stabbing someone else. But then I'm very rarely up in his face anyway.

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