Power Synergies

I: Energy Projection


I will begin with the Energy Projection tree first for two reasons; first is that it's the first tree listed in the Character Creator and in Power Selection menus, but second, because the Energy Projector Frameworks are the easiest synergies to explain, understand and see at work.

Energy Projector Frameworks are based around high levels of ranged damage. The destructive capabilities of an Energy Projector are almost unmatched, but all this power comes at a price. Energy Projector Frameworks tend to have a number of drawbacks including high energy costs, low defensive capabilities and a certain amount of setup time. However, each framework overcomes these drawbacks in their own way, be it through improving their ability to heal, crowd control to mitigate damage, or through having extremely long range, forcing enemies to come to them. Also, each Energy Projector (except Force) has a Reverberation Power associated with it that feeds energy back to the Energy Projector when they use particular synergies associated with their framework. Since Fire is the easiest to explain, and easiest to see in action, I will begin with it:

Fire - Puck.Dragon

• Super Stats: PRE/INT, END or REC
• Play Style: Massive Sustained AoE DPS with Healing Capabilities
• Preferred Passive: Fiery Form, Aura of Radiant Protection
• Preferred Block: Force Shield (w/ Force Sheath Adv.)
• Key Powers: Thermal Reverberation, Fireball (w/ Unstable Accelerant) Conflagration, Heat Wave (w/ Engulfing Flames) Flashfire
• Secondary Powers: Pyre, Fire Snake, Breath Fire (w/ Spitfire adv.),
• Out of Framework Powers: Mindful Reinforcement, Toxic Nanites, Any non-cooldown Healing Power

Reasoning: Many people call Fire the king of AoE, and for good reason. Fire has more in-set buffs and debuffs than any other framework. Pyre, when buffed by Fiery Form and affecting targets debuffed by Fireball and Fire Snake is one of the most damaging powers in the game, and Conflagration can just melt all the enemies in a given area in seconds. The way to truly maximize your DPS with this build is to use the advantages Unstable Accelerant from Fireball and Engulfing Flames from Heat Wave. Both of these debuff enemy Fire Resistance, and if they are sitting in both a Pyre and Flashfire, turn on Conflagration and you'll see their health disappear in seconds. Fire Snake also debuffs enemy fire resistance, upping your damage even more. However, the Endurance cost of this set is extremely heavy, so you'll have to take Thermal Reverberation to even be able to begin to make it work. Luckily though, both the Energy Gain from Thermal Reverberation and the Damage buff from Fiery Form scale scale with PRE. Which is nice, since most healing powers (including Mindful Reinforcement) scale with PRE as well. This means your survivability tends to be very high due to your uncanny ability to heal yourself. Taking Aura of Radiant Protection and having a separate build for Sentinel Role can make you both a highly effective DPSer and a Healer, for whatever the situation may call for. I've seen PRE and DEX work for Super Stats as well, and the damage is incredible, but it requires ALOT of points thrown into END and REC through Gear and Talents.


Electricity

• Super Stats: END/INT or REC
• Play Style: Long Periods of Heavy Burst Damage, decent sustained DPS to build back up
• Preferred Passive: Electric Form
• Preferred Block: Any
• Key Powers: Chain Lightning (w/ Lighting Helix Adv.), Gigabolt, Ionic Reverberation, Sparkstorm (w/ Electric Personality Adv.)
• Secondary Powers: Thunderstrike, Electrocute, Lightning Arc (w/ Never Strikes Twice Adv.)
• Out of Framework Powers: Sonic Blaster (w/ Refraction of Sound Adv.) Sonic Device, Orbital Cannon, Laser Sword

Reasoning:Electricity is another king of AoE damage, but neither it's damage or ability to perform AoE damage are as readily apparent as Fire is. The key here is to use powers like Sparkstorm and Chain Lightning to put a debuff called Negative Ions to as many targets as possible. All electricity attacks have a chance to jump to additional targets, if they possess the Negative Ion debuff. The more constant powers like Sparkstorm and Lightning Arc have a 10% chance to arc, while Gigabolt has a 75% chance to arc and Chain Lightning is pretty much guaranteed to arc. Not only that, but with Ionic Reverberation, every time one of your powers arcs, you gain endurance back, scaling with your END. Once you have this power, Chain Lightning will become your new End Builder. Keep in mind, Gigabolt doesn't do quite the damage of Force Cascade, however, when buffed by Electric form, it actually far exceeds Force Cascade's damage. Not only that, but with a 75% chance to jump to other targets, and the Energy buff every time it does, you can feel free to spam it until the cows come home, because you'll find that you'll never run out of Endurance. Electric Form buffs all Energy Damage, so your Sonic and Particle Damage are buffed as well. This makes Sonic Device absolutely devastating, especially with the amount of AoEs in the build. For extra hurt, use Invocation: Storm Calling to lower enemy resistance to Energy Damage. Last thing: Electrocute is one of the better Hold powers, being able to hold enemies for 17 seconds at Rank 3.


Force

• Super Stats: END/STR, Stack CON and INT
• Play Style: Spike-Burst Damage
• Preferred Passive: Seraphim
• Preferred Block: Force Shield (w/ Force Sheath Adv.)
• Key Powers: Force Cascade, Force Shield (w/ Force Sheath adv.), Force Bolts (w/ Energy Refraction Adv.), Force Eruption (w/ Gravitational Polarity Adv.)
• Secondary Powers: Field Surge
• Out of Framework Powers: Active Energy Forms, Electric Sheath (w/ Matter-Energy Union), Circle of Arcane Power, Imbue

Reasoning: Force is very much based heavily around the use of Force Cascade. The thing that makes this difficult is that Force Cascade is extremely energy heavy, and requires an Energy Form to be used properly. As it stands currently, the only way I've found to have even a reasonable level of success is to just block at least once every 10 seconds to keep Force Sheath active and to just use your End builder until it procs Energy Refraction (which is an Energy Form), then unleash a Force Cascade. Running in Sentinel Role helps with the energy cost, and Seraphim, being the only Support Passive that counts as an Energy Form, actually gives you a lot better flexibility with Force Cascade. Having Field Surge and at least one other Active Energy Form (like Electric Sheath w/ Matter-Energy Union) helps immensely by giving you multiple ways to gain an Energy Form, and Circle of Arcane Power helps to alleviate Energy problems further. Matter-Energy Union works wonders by giving you a Force Field that can absorb around 3,000 damage, causing Electric Sheath to increase both your damage and survivability. Imbue is a great way to up the damage of your Force Cascade as well, making it so that it is guaranteed to crit, and the crit severity will scale with your CON instead of EGO.

Now, Force does have a good amount of synergies based around Containment and Protection Fields. Force Cascade can put Containment Fields on a group of enemies, while Force Blast's Field Absorption and Force Detonation's Force Spate create explosions off these fields. Unfortunately, the very containment fields which are used to create this synergy also serves to make this combination useless by protecting the very enemies you want to defeat. I'm sure this will get fixed in the future, so check back for an updated summary.

Ice

• Super Stats: END/DEX or CON
• Play Style: Burst Damage and multiple avenues for Crowd Control
• Preferred Passive: Ice Form, Fire Form
• Preferred Block: Any
• Key Powers: Shatter, Ice Burst (w/ Freeze Dirtbag Adv.), Wall of Ice, Ice Cage, Ice Barrier
• Secondary Powers: Snow Storm, Ice Shield, Vapor Form
• Out of Framework Powers: Toxic Nanites, Condemn or Defile, Devour Essence, Form of the Unleashed Tempest, Imbue

Reasoning: Currently, Ice's synergies don't match up very well. The main idea, as I understand it, seems to be to use Wall of Ice, Ice Cages, Ice Burst and Ice Barrier to put a number of Ice Structures on the Battlefield, all the while using the Chill debuff to slow enemies and crits for better damage and the Cold Snap Buff, then Shatter them all. Shatter is really your mainstay DPS power, but is very underwhelming in terms of damage, even when you manage to shatter multiple Ice structures. Additionally, the build is based around the Cold Snap buff. But the Cold Snap doesn't seem to actually do anything. As a side note, I've actually found that using Defile and Condem as mainstay damage does fairly well due to Ice Form's buff of Toxic damage, and when using Tempest Form and Devour Essence, damage can add up extremely quickly. Another option is to go CON/END and use Imbue just before Shatter, guaranteeing a large number of successive crits, or to use Ice for Crowd Control and Fire for damage.

II: Technology


Technology Frameworks are some of the best sets for Cherry-Picking powers. Many of the powers within the Technology Tree tend to syenrgize well, not only with each other, but can add to virtually any other Framework or Build, filling in weaknesses, or enhancing strengths. Most don't require any particular synergies to be viable. However, when the proper synergies are used, a Technology user can become an amazing damage machine, a nigh-unkillable survivor, or a well-rounded toon with no real weaknesses. The real strength of Technology is its Frameworks' Energy Efficiency. When used properly, most Technology users tend to rarely use their End Builder, if they do at all. The weaknesses associated with Technology tends to be a lack of burst damage. Technology tends to overcome this weakness by going in the exact opposite direction and specializing in maintaining as much damage on its enemies for as long as possible.

Archery - The_Last

• Super Stats: DEX/CON, geared for PRE for Tanking or DEX/INT for DPS
• Play Style: High Aggro Ranged Dodge-Tank, or Energy Efficient Spike-DPS.
• Preferred Passive: Lightning Reflexes, Quarry
• Preferred Block: Force Shield (w/ Force Sheath) for Tanking or Any for DPS
• Key Powers: Torrent of Arrows, Storm of Arrows, Snap Shot, Evasive Maneuvers
• Secondary Powers: Explosive Arrow (w/ Where's the Kaboom Adv.) , Sonic Arrow, Taser Arrow
• Out of Framework Powers: Lightning Reflexes, Bountiful Chi Resurgence (w/ Resurgent Rieki Adv.), Form of the Unfettered Master (w/ Storm's Eye Prana Adv.), Masterful Dodge

Reasoning: Alot of how Archery is such a survivable set has to do with synergies that come from Unarmed Martial Arts. The exact synergies are outlined there, but here's the short version: Lightning Reflexes + Evasive Maneuvers + Strafe (w/ Aversion) gives a very high level of Dodge%. Bountiful Chi Resurgence, with Resurgent Reiki, means that every time you dodge, you gain an extra tick of healing. Storm's Eye Prana decreases cooldown time on your healing powers every time you dodge. Combined together, this allows you to stack multiple applications of BCR, giving you unsurpassed survivability.

Additionally, Archery is one of the best aggro-managing sets in the game. Pretty much, aggro is based around Challenging Strikes to generate aggro, and Crippling Challenge to make something attack you for 5 seconds. The neat thing about Challenging Strikes is that if the power has a cooldown, it continues to stack +threat every second it remains on cooldown, and archery has 2 powers that do this: Torrent of Arrows and Storm of Arrows. Combining these two powers makes for some pretty amazing threat generation, and Snap Shot is a fast-activating 100' range Crippling Challenge, allowing you to grab aggro from even very far away. For a bit of extra threat generation (and to take advantage of the Focus Stacks from your Toggle Form), pick up Reaper's Caress from Single Blade. This is another power that has Challenging Strikes that is relatively light on endurance cost and can be used while Torrent of Arrows and Storm of Arrows are on cooldown.

Since many of Archery's powers can be heavy on your endurance, I recommend Force Shield with Force Sheath as a way to alleviate this. It works in two ways by giving you slightly more damage resistance, but also giving you energy every time you take damage. This oftentimes makes up for not having Quarry to lower the Energy costs of your powers directly.

An Alternative is to use Quarry as your Passive for better DPS. In this case, simply Tap your Explosive Arrow on as many enemies as you can, switching between and switch off between Storm of Arrows and Torrent of Arrows between explosions, or to tap-spam Snapshot. Where's the Kaboom's damage doesn't scale up as you charge, and the explosive damage doesn't increase with Ranks. It's a great way to tap and deal a heavy amount of damage, you just need to use other attacks while you wait for to go off. This can get some pretty good DPS, and the endurance costs will stay healthily low thanks to Quarry. Quarry also helps by allowing you to focus your gear a bit more toward End, since Quarry will buff your Int when active.


Gadgeteering - RynoHound

• Super Stats: INT / END, build for REC with Gear
• Play Style: Support DPS
• Preferred Passive: Electric Form or Quarry
• Preferred Block: Any
• Key Powers: Sonic Blaster (w/ Refraction of Sound Adv.), Sonic Device or Mini Drive (w/ Reciprocating Gizmo Adv.), Orbital Cannon (w/ Anvil of Dawn Adv.), Implosion Engine, Chainsaw Gauntlet ( with Ripsaw Advantage),
• Secondary Powers: Toxic Nanites, Resurrection Serum ( with Reanimator Advantage) , Nanobot Swarm, Munitions Bots, Bionic Shielding, Particle Mine, Medical Drones
• Out of Framework Powers: Laser Sword, Force Shield (with Force Sheathe Advantage), Flashfire, Invocation: Storm Calling
• Preferred Block: Force Shield (w/ Force Sheath Adv.)
  

Reasoning: Gadgeteering is quite deceitful. At first glance, it looks like a Cherry-Picker's powerset. It's exceptionally good at augmenting all other power sets, but on it's own, it's actually a very potent AoE DPS with minor support set. It takes alot of setup, but the damage is worth it. Implosion Engine, Flashfire, Mini Drive, Sonic Device, Toxic Nanites+Sonic Blaster, Orbital Cannon, Laser Sword (with Particle Acceleration) or Chainsaw Gauntlet, Particle Mine, and then Nanobot Swarm to do it all again. That's alot of numbers being thrown around, not to mention if you have Munitions bots in the mix as well.

The major drawback of this set is the fact that it actually requires the Technology Tree's Teir 4 Power. This means that you only can take 3 other powers outside of the Technology tree. Outside of Gadgets, the Powers to take are Laser Sword to maximize your Particle Damage from Orbital Cannon and Particle Mine, Force Shield for limitless energy, Flashfire, and Electric Form for your passive. INT is definitely to be Super Stated for the Gadgeteer, because you're going to be throwing alot of attacks out, many of which have recharge times, so getting those times and endurance costs down is a must!. Super Stating END not only gives you more to work with should you choose but also Increases the damage ( up to 80%) that Electric Form Grants to all of your mainstay energy-based powers such as Laser Sword, Sonic Blaster, Sonic Device, Orbital Cannon, and Particle Mine.

Bionic Shielding will not only be your main source of survivability, but it will also be able to aid others while teaming, allowing you to heal them and continue dishing out damage at the same time. Resurrection Serum is a decent rezz, but with the Reanimator advantage, it also summons zombies to help you, giving you even more pets and even more chip damage.


Munitions

• Super Stats: DEX/EGO, but stack INT and CON with Gear
• Play Style: Unending spray of Sustained Damage
• Preferred Passive: Quarry, Pestilence
• Preferred Block: Force Shield (w/ Force Sheath Adv.)
• Key Powers: Assault Rifle (w/ Mow 'Em Down Adv.) or Two Gun Mojo, Killer Instincts, Lead Tempest, Shotgun (for leveling)
• Secondary Powers: Gatling Gun, Breakaway Shot, Frag Grenade, Bullet Ballet (w/ Not Without Incident Adv.)
• Out of Framework Powers: Sonic Device, Maintained Heal (preferably Lifedrain, Devour Essence or Arcane Vitality), Form of the Unleashed Tempest, any Dragon Attack, Circle of Ebon Wrath, or Arcane Power, Evasive Maneuvers

Reasoning:Two Words: Energy Efficiency. The first time you have both Quarry and Killer Instincts when turn on your Assault Rifle, Two Gun Mojo or Lead Tempest and see after a full maintain that you've actually gained Energy, you'll be sold. Having decent INT and both Killer Instincts and Quarry can turn Two Gun Mojo, Assault Rifle, Shotgun, SMG and Lead Tempest into your new energy builder. Turn on Form of the Unleashed Tempest for more energy gain from critting and even Bullet Ballet will bow down and generate energy for you. The idea behind this build is a constant stream of numbers going downrange to your enemy.

I also suggest to take a maintained heal, since DEX also increases your chance to crit-heal and EGO scales the severity of your crit-heals. If you take the Tempest Form as well, the stacks of Focus will buff the damage dealt by Devour Essence, meaning even when you heal, your DPS won't be hurt.

When you get a full stack of 8 Focus, Fully Charge any Dragon Attack to gain the Rush buff. Rush is amazing for this build because it continues to generate energy for you as you attack, and the more stacks of Focus you have, the longer it lasts. For even more damage, drop a Circle of Ebon Wrath, increasing your damage and causing all your attacks to Hold their targets, or for more Energy Efficiency Circle of Arcane Power in addition to everything else can make even the mighty Gatling Gun bow down and become and End Builder.

Pistols have a very unique synergy by making use of Defiance and Enrage. Two Gun Mojo gives you a single stack of or refreshes stacks of Enrage, while Breakaway Shot gives you a stack of Defiance, which you can turn into an 2 extra stacks of Enrage. Enrage also helps by increasing your chance to Dodge while maintaining Lead Tempest if you take the Tread Softly advantage. Another option, when you consider your constant ability to crit, Form of the Unleashed Tempest will quickly build up stacks of Focus making Bullet Ballet into a very powerful single target attack, or with the Not Without Incident advantage, a devastating melee AoE. However, if you choose to use the Toggle Form, you won't be able to stack more than one Enrage. However, with a couple of Dodge Bonuses like Evasive Maneuvers and LT's Tread Softly on top of Breakaway Shot's Defiance, you can actually become quite survivable, even in Avenger Role.

Munitions may not have the upfront damage of Fire or Ego Blades, but in a long fight, the continuous stream of attacks with no need to ever use your energy builder makes this debatably the most damaging powerset in long fights against a single boss.

Power Armor - Pulsewave

• Super Stats: INT/END or REC or CON, but stack all four
• Play Style: Heavy Sustained Damage with Debuffs or Debuffing AoE Tank
• Preferred Passive: Quarry, Electric Form or Defiance
• Preferred Block: Force Shield (w/ Force Sheath Adv.)
• Key Powers: Concussor Beams, Minigun (w/ Teflon Coated Rounds Adv.), Micro Munitions
• Secondary Powers: Laser Sword (w/ Particle Acceleration Adv.)(for Particle damage-based builds), Chest Beam, Power Gauntlet (w/ Crippling Challenge Adv.)
• Out of Framework Powers: Sonic Device, Toxic Nanites, Force Shield (w/ Force Sheath Adv.), Invocation: Storm Calling (for Beam-based Build)

Reasoning: Power Armor is a difficult powerset to use. You can deal a lot of damage while debuffing your target, at the expense of using up more energy than any other framework. This is because unlike any other framework, Power Armor allows you to activate multiple attacks at the same time; one from your hands, one from your shoulder/head and one from your chest/back. This means that Power Armor builds have more difficulty using attacks from other frameworks. This also means there is a steeper learning curve, since you need to get used to toggling on and off multiple Power Armor attacks every fight. Which is why both Force Sheath and INT as a Super Stat are extremely helpful].

Additionally, three of your best attacks also have Damage Resistance Debuffs built in. Shoulder Mounted Minigun with the Advantage Teflon Coated Rounds decreases Damage Resistance by 7.5% and can stack up to 3 times, Laser Sword with the Advantage Particle Acceleration decreases Particle Damage Resistance by 15% and also stacks up to 3 times, and Chest Beam inherently lowers Damage Resistance by 8.3% but only stacks once. For extra hurt, use Invocation: Storm Calling to further debuff Energy Resistance by 17%. Not only do you do more damage, but your whole team does as well. Also take into account the high level of Damage that Chest Beam can do after applying all those Resistance Debuffs, and you'll make quick work of many enemies.

Micro Munitions also makes for an excellent Sonic Device and Toxic Nanites delivery system. Start playing around with the different combinations of powers listed above and you'll start to see how they all play off each other.

Another option is to use CON and INT as your Super Stats and to take advantage of the energy gain from Defiance. Minigun and Micromunitions can both take Challenging Strikes, and Power Gauntlet can take Crippling Challenge. Take into account that all your separate toggles can target different enemies, and use the same techniques listed above, and gaining aggro from every enemy in the room shouldn't be too difficult at all; and as long as you're being attacked, Defiance is generating energy for you. However, the energy management for this type of build can still be a headache at times, making it somewhat less effective against a single boss.

Power armor is an extremely complex and versatile Framework with many intricacies. The above paragraph is a starting point and only a couple of basic ways to get started with Power Armor. For a a much more in depth Guide check Pulsewave's Power Armor Rundown.

III:Martial Arts

Martial Arts are some of the most highly synergistic sets among themselves. A Martial Artist has a variety of powers that are available to him, no matter which Framework he chooses. Thunderbolt Lunge, Bountiful Chi Resurgence, and Lightning Reflexes, among others are found in every Framework of Martial Arts, and taking them counts as a prerequisite power for any Martial Arts Framework, allowing you to reach Tier 3 powers in multiple trees very quickly. Martial Arts was also the first tree to utilize the effects of Toggles called Martial Art's Forms. While a Form is active, all your powers cost more energy, but the benefits greatly outweigh it's drawback. Every Form has a certain requirement (such as getting a critical hit, or successfully dodging an attack) that, when met, grants burst of energy and gives a stack of the melee damage buff: Focus. Both of these effects scale with Dexterity, making it the key attribute for a Martial Artist. In addition, many of the powers can cross-synergize with each other, making Martial Arts incredibly versatile. The most commonly known crossover synergy is called the LR+BCR Synergy or Dodge Synergy from Unarmed Martial Arts.

Unarmed Martial Arts - Nozark and Empyreal10

• Super Stats: DEX/CON or DEX/STR
• Play Style: Decent Melee damage that is Unkillable in Solo Play
• Preferred Passive: Lightning Reflexes
• Preferred Block: Parry (w/ Elusive Monk Adv.) or Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.)
• Key Powers: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (w/ Resurgent Rieki Adv.), Form of the Unfettered Master(w/ Storm's Eye Prana Adv.), Thunderbolt Lunge, Dragon Kick
• Secondary Powers: Parry (w/ Elusive Monk Adv.), Masterful Dodge (w/ Unfettered Strikes Adv.), Burning Chi Fist (w/ Fists of the Righteous Flame Adv.), Crashing Wave Kick, Inexorable Tides
• Out of Framework Powers: Evasive Maneuvers, Eye of the Storm, Resurgence, alternatively Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.) for block

Reasoning: Of all the Martial Arts Forms, Unarmed is a bit different, as it focuses on defense instead of offense. Form of the Unfettered Master with Storm's Eye Prana is a must, as it benefits GREATLY from Dodging -- and your chance to dodge is going to be higher than your chance to crit. You want to combine Lightning Reflexes with Evasive Maneuvers for the flat +% dodge buff. Since Evasive Maneuvers backs you out of melee range, a Lunge is required to immediately regain melee range. In conjunction with all this defense, you'll want to pick up Bountiful Chi Resurgence, and the advantage Resurgent Reiki. Resurgent Reiki gives extra healing ticks of BCR when you dodge an attack -- in combination with LR it's very powerful. In combination with LR, Evasive, and Parry's Elusive Monk, it will make you extremely difficult to kill. Additionally, the advantage on Form of the Unfettered Master -- Storm's Eye Prana -- reduces the cooldown of healing abilities by 2 seconds upon dodging an attack. Storm's Eye Prana and Resurgent Reiki means you can stack BCRs.

Combine this with Masterful Dodge to go from no health to full health very quickly. Active Offenses are very important to this build, as well as other damage buffs (such as Unfettered Strikes and Fists of the Righteous Flame) or resistance debuffs since BCR decreases damage by 10% per stack. This is another reason that your Toggle Form's Focus stacks will help you, by increasing your melee damage to compensate. Any other Martial Art Form, as well as Munitions, TK Blades and especially Archery can benefit from these synergies as well; however the Form of the Unfettered Master toggle will be more effective than the recommended toggles for those sets due to the above listed reasons.

Single Blade

• Super Stats: DEX/STR or DEX/EGO geared for ~70 STR
• Play Style: Heavy Sustained DPS with Extreme Bursts
• Preferred Passive: Way of the Enlightened Warrior or Lightning Reflexes paired with Bountiful Chi Resurgence (w/ Resurgent Rieki Adv.)
• Preferred Block: Parry (w/ Elusive Monk Adv.) or Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.)
• Key Powers: Reaper's Caress, Reaper's Embrace (w/ No Mercy Adv.), Form of the Unconquered Swordsman (or Unleahsed Tempest)
• Secondary Powers: Scything Blade (w/ Swallowtail Cut Adv.), Dragon's Bite, Thunderbolt Lunge
• Out of Framework Powers: Beastial Fury (w/ Rip and Tear Adv.), Bite, Submachine Gun (w/ Aggression Adv.)

Reasoning: Single Blade is the king of Single Target Damage, melding both high sustained damage with incredible bursts, and fairly good energy efficiency. Okay, first thing you're going to be asking is why I didn't recommend the Cleaving Strikes Advantage on Reaper's Caress? It's a personal thing, you can use it if you want, just be warned that it does increase the endurance cost to do so. I prefer to keep it Single Target, since everything else in the set revolves around single target damage. Anyways, the technique involves stacking bleeds, then using Reaper's Embrace to Rupture them. Keep in mind, that both Reaper's Embrace and the Rupture can crit separately. You have a choice in Forms as well. Swordsman Form is more predictable and reliable, but Tempest Form works even if you're using alot of out-of-framework powers.

As far as Stats go, DEX is a MUST, as it increases your crit chance, your damage from WotEW, and the damage you gain from stacking Focus from your Form Toggle. STR is slightly less useful, only increasing melee damage and damage from WotEW; you shouldn't need more than 70. Thoguh STR gives you more reliable damage, I've found that I like EGO as my other Super Stat because the crits on Reaper's Embrace and Ruptures can get insane, fast.

Even though Dragon's Bite isn't necessary, it does extend the duration of your bleeds. If you are in a battle where you are getting knocked around, or are having to move in and out of melee range regularly, use it to keep your bleeds going while you leave melee range then make your way back in. That way, you don't have to go back to work reapplying bleeds and can just return to stacking.

The Out of Framework suggestions are simply ways to stack bleeds faster. SMG only applies bleeds if a target isn't already bleeding, but if used in melee will stack 2 bleeds instead of 1, and Bite is the fastest way I have found to stack bleeds past that. I recommend the No Mercy Advantage, since it gives you 2 bleeds 50% of the time, and when you perform your typical stack-chain, you'll max out at 5 and Rupture more quickly.

Dual Blades - Shaolinwind

• Super Stats: DEX/EGO geared for ~70 STR
• Play Style: Extreme AoE Critical Spike Damage
• Preferred Passive: Way of the Enlightened Warrior or Lightning Reflexes paired with Bountiful Chi Resurgence (w/ Resurgent Rieki Adv.)
• Preferred Block: Parry (w/ Elusive Monk Adv.) or Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.)
• Key Powers: Sword Cyclone, Dragons Wrath, Inexorable Tides, Focus of the Unleashed Tempest
• Secondary Powers: Eye of the Storm, Thunderbolt Lunge
• Out of Framework Powers: Bionic Shield, Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.), Active Offense

Reasoning:: A good Dual Blades user is one of the most feared damage dealers in both PvE and PvP right now. To get max efficiency out of this set, you will be focusing on Brawler Role and an offensive passive. Dual blades has two main functions. Dispatching huge numbers of foes at once with sword cyclone in PvE. And completely devastating other players with charged and tapped Dragons Wraths in PvP. 90% of the time, your combo will look like, sheath, thunderbolt lunge, Dragons Wrath (full charge), sword cyclone - heal when needed. The trick is rounding up mobs with thunderbolt lunge, fully charge dragons wrath on one mob for rush energy, then sword cyclone everything to death while tapping Bountiful Chi Resurgence to heal through incoming masses of attacks. The crits add up so fast in a DEX build, with Form of the Unleashed Tempest running, you are hitting over 1k per cyclone tick in no time. You will rarely need masterful dodge unless you over pull, but with the massive AoE damage output you should be fine with just basic healing. This technique can be practiced, tested and works great in the Battle Station Hard/5 mode.

As an alternate style, Eye of the Storm can replace Sword Cyclone. The damage isn't as great, however, the survivability is much higher. While maintianing Eye of the Storm, it acts somewhere bewteen Invuln and a Force Field. It can absorb a flat amount of damage, however, every second this amount increases for as long as you maintain Eye of the Storm. Blade Beyond the Veil helps by reflecting damage back at enemies that are attacking you. This works extremely well against Munitions-based opponents that will be throwing alot of small but fast attacks.

As for Boss Fights or PvP, you'll mainly be focusing on single target damage, so Dragons Wrath taps will take the place of Sword Cyclone in the combo. A bonus to this technique is Dragons Wrath bypasses blocking mitigation and so makes this combo especially deadly on a heavy blocker or Defiance-using enemy.

Fighting Claws - Nozark, RynoHound

• Super Stats: DEX/STR or DEX/EGO geared for ~70 STR
• Play Style: Raw Single Target Damage
• Preferred Passive: Way of the Enlightened Warrior or Lightning Reflexes paired with Bountiful Chi Resurgence (w/ Resurgent Rieki Adv.)
• Preferred Block: Parry (w/ Elusive Monk Adv.), Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.) or Retaliation
• Key Powers: Hawk's Talons, Viper's Fangs (w/ Spitting Cobra Adv.), Tiger's Bite, Dragon's Claws, Rend and Tear (w/ Drake's Deliverance adv.)
• Secondary Powers: Thunderbolt Lunge, Inexorable Tides
• Out of Framework Powers: Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight adv.), Toxic Nanites, Evasive Manuevers (recommended for LR users), Shred (w/ Penetrating Strikes adv.), Demolish, Ego Surge (w/ Nimble Mind adv.), Form of the Unleashed Tempest

Reasoning: Fighting Claws is just pure, raw single target damage and does best when fully charged. Tiger's Bite and Dragon's Claws are the quickest charging attacks in the Fighting Claws powerset. Tiger's Bite is better suited at Rank 3 due to if it does consume shredded effect it deals extra damage, the damage can then be furthered by use Shred (w/ Penetrating Strikes adv.) and Demolish. Dragon's Claws deals significant damage when you land a critical strike with it, you can further the damage and critical chance of Dragon's Claws by using Ego Surge (w/ Nimble Mind adv.).

Toxic Nanites adds just another DoT for more damage output, also a lunge is highly recommended if you do take Evasive Maneuvers to counter the backward lunge effect from Evasive Maneuvers. Even so, a Lunge is still highly recommended to get right in the middle of the enemy and claw their faces off!

BCR (w/ Resurgent Reiki adv.) works best with LR and WotEW users, you can increase dodge % by taking Parry (w/ Elusive Monk adv.) or resistance with Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight adv.). Way of the Enlightened Warrior further improves the damage potency of Fighting Claws with the damage buff and gives a minor Dodge buff, in short, Way of the Enlightened Warrior turns Fighting Claws into a lean, mean single target killin' machine. Form of the Unleashed Tempest can make for a good toggle for Fighting Claws due to their ability crit so often, and Form of The Unfettered Master works best if you choose to go the Lightning Reflexes route.

IV: Mentalist


The Mentalist Tree consists of two very different styles of powers: Telepathy and Telekinesis. With Telepathy is a weak-damaging set that contains some of the games best Support and Crowd Control abilities, Telekinesis is a highly destructive melee/ranged hybrid set. Both can be extremely potent in their perspective roles, but both share the same common weakness. Both sets most potent, most often used and best performing powers are Tier 3 Powers, with a select few that fall into Tier 2. This can make leveling with either set very difficult because of this. But this in no way makes the sets weak. Once you have access to powers like Mindful Reinforcement, Ego Blade Breach and Collective Will, both sets become very, very powerful.

Telekinesis [TK Blades] - Empyreal10

• Super Stats: DEX/EGO
• Play Style: Buffing and Debuffing to enhance Massive Critical Spike Damage
• Preferred Passive: Ego Form
• Preferred Block: Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.)
• Key Powers: Ego Blade Frenzy, Ego Blade Breach
• Secondary Powers: Ego Weaponry, Ego Annihilation, Telekinetic Shield, Telekinetic Eruption, Ego Hold, Ego Surge
• Out of Framework Powers: Form of the Unleashed Tempest, a Lunge (Thunderbolt Lunge, Mighty Leap, or Pounce), Inexorable Tides, Ego Placate

Reasoning: Playing a TK Blade hero is all about dealing massive damage in a very short period of time. Everything about TK Blades sets you up to take advantage of frequent critical hits, as it generally assumes that you'll be taking EGO as a super-stat -- which may not be the case, but TK Blades still do best a Crit-central build, especially with the tools given in other sets. You want to be able to take advantage of your very high critical severity you'll have by SSing EGO to fuel the damage bonus on Ego Form by complimenting it with SS DEX for a frequent critical hit rate. Combine this with Form of the Unleashed Tempest to take advantage of those frequent crits with bonus melee damage stacks and energy return that occurs on critical hits. The bonus damage from the Focus stacks scales with DEX, so this is a very good synergy between super-stats and two primary methods of buffing damage. Continue to compliment your massive critical damage with Ego Surge (advantaged with Nimble Mind to give you a flat +crit chance % which scales with CON), and Ice Sheath (which has an inaccurate description; it buffs ALL damage and increases crit severity by a good margin).

It is important to note that Ego Form only buffs Ego damage, so your versatility is limited, but it automatically procs Id Blades (dual-wielding Ego blades). This is important, because Id Blades are able to receive up to 20% bonus damage using your EGO stat, in the same way physical melee attacks benefit from STR to receive an additional 20% damage. Regular Ego blades DO NOT scale in this fashion -- Id Blades are the only way to receive this bonus! For even more Damage, open up a fight with a fully charged Telekinetic Eruption to gain yet another bonus to Ego Damage then do 3 quick taps of Ego Blade Breach to lower enemy resistance against Ego Damage, upping your DPS even more! Continue ot practice these techniques, and soon you'll be seeing numbers that are pushing 5 digits.


Telepathy - Dr.Sage

• Super Stats: PRE/INT
• Play Style: Full-range of Support Abilities: Buffs, Debuffs, Healing and Crowd Control.
• Preferred Passive: Seraphim or Aura of Radiant Protection
• Preferred Block: Any for Seraphim, Eldritch Shield (w/ Imbue With Power Adv.) for AoRP
• Key Powers: Psionic Healing, Mindful Reinforcement, Collective Will, Ego Storm, Telepathic Reverberation, Ego Placate (w/ Svengali's Guile Adv.)
• Secondary Powers: Ego Sleep, Ego Blast, Ego Sprites, Summon Nightmare
• Out of Framework Powers: Ego Hold, Vengeance, Shadow Embrace, Ego Blade Breach, Ego Blade Frenzy, Telekinetic Eruption, any Rezz, Grasping Shadows, Skarn's Bane

Reasoning: Telepathy is, as a stand-alone set...absolutely horrid. It's a set built around healing, crowd control and pets, in theory anyway. With the game's current implementation, pets are sub-optimal at best and crowd control is either mostly useless (PvE) or a spike-damage enabler (PvP). There isn't much of a middle ground there.

The Telepathy Tier 3 powers (Mindful Reinforcement, Ego Storm, Collective Will) are amazing. And some of its lower-tier stuff (Psionic Healing, Summon Nightmare) aren't that bad. Psionic Healing particularly is the overall best heal in the game. Ego Placate with Svengali's Guile is actually one of the better team-based debuff, lowering enemy damage and resistance. Also, pairing Ego Storm's Malevolent Manifestation with Telepathic Reverberation basically acts as a self-sustaining energy builder, allowing you to pretty much throw out your biggest and most damaging attacks constantly while it is going. Collective Will is probably the best pet power in the game, considering it is untargetable and debuffs enemy paranormal resistnace. Additionally, when summoning Collective Will, it can summon up to 3 more CWs if nearby enemies are also Crowd Controled, so always make sure to use either Ego Sleep, Grasping Shadows, or have Ego Storm running before you summon them.

The problem is getting to this point. You're going to need to grab some form of reliable damage (along with a passive) from out of framework. I highly suggest Seraphim as that passive, due to it keying off PRE for its damage boost. If you go the Seraphim route, I'd suggest picking up Shadow Embrace, Ego Blade Frenzy or Vengeance. Grouping will be far more pleasant. Use Mindful Reinforcement and Psionic Healing to keep teammates standing. Spam Ego Placate on tough stuff, and use your AoE holds (Grasping Shadows, Ego Storm) to lock down groups. Keep in mind that hold protection kicks in after the first successful hold, so chain-holding stuff doesn't work so well. Skarn's Bane would probably be better for AoE damage in the long run, but Vengeance is selectable early on.

V: Brick

Comprised solely of the Might Framework, Brick is by no means a one-trick Tree. The effectiveness of Might alone varies from unstoppable force to an immovable object, and any variation between. Might can be both a survivor, a damage-dealer or any combination of both. The main drawbacks of Might are high energy costs, and slow attack speeds, which is more than makes up for in pure, unbridled damage and staying power.

Might [Damage Spec] - RynoHound, Dr. Sage

• Super Stats: STR/CON, but build REC and END with gear
• Play Style: Heavy Melee Damage that improves as it builds momentum
• Preferred Passive: Unstoppable and/or Defiance
• Preferred Block: Ebon Void, Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.) or Retaliation
• Key Powers: Haymaker, Aggressor, Roomsweeper or Uppercut, Thunderclap, Mighty Leap, Havoc Stomp
• Secondary Powers:Demolish (w/ Below the Belt Adv.), Enrage, Shockwave, Uppercut or Roomsweeper (whichever you didn't take as a Key Power), Iron Cyclone (w/ Vortexing Technique Adv.)
• Out of Framework Powers: Resurgence, Howl, Inexorable Tides, maybe Bionic Shielding

Reasoning:SMASH! Seriously, that's about it. Might can be absolutely devastating when it comes to raw damage. Unstoppable's damage buff makes it the Passive of choice, but Defiance paired with Enrage allows you to more easily keep the maximum stacks of Enrage up at all times, as well as gives you a bit better survivability.

The main technique to using might as a DPS set is to keep your momentum going by refreshing and building stacks of Aggression and Enrage. The Aggressor Toggle makes it so that every time you attempt to knock an opponent (whether it works or not), you gain a stack of Aggression, further increasing your crushing damage. Enrage gives you two stacks of Enrage for every stack of Defiance you have, meaning you'll pretty much always max it out when you use it, if you're using Defiance. If you're using Unstoppable, you'll have to find another way to build Enrage. Additionally, the duration of Enrage scales with your CON, so the more CON you have, the better chance you have of being able to use Enrage again before it expires; while the damage bonus scales with your STR, which is also increasing your damage from Aggressor and Unstoppable, as well as increasing melee damage in general. Many Might-users also use Howl to refresh their Enrage, as it also gives Enrage to your allies and fears your enemies, lowering their damage.

In an Unstoppable-based build, you'll find Roomsweeper will be your most commonly used attack. Roomsweeper is pretty much a guaranteed Knockback, so it always gives you a stack of Aggression, and if you fully charge it, it also grants a stack of and refreshes Enrage. The only real downside is that it sends enemies absolutely flying! Don't worry though, if the enemy is under a control effect, they'll be knocked up instead of back, allowing you to follow up with a nice Demolish/Haymaker combo. The best way to ensure that your Roomsweeper knocks up instead, is to first use Mighty Leap to root your opponent, or Thunderclap to stun a group of opponents. However, many Defiance users tend to use Uppercut over Roomsweeper, due to it being easier to use. Uppercut, like Roomsweeper, guarantees a knockup, but never knocks opponents away, only up. This makes it more manageable, but at the cost of having to manually refresh Enrage, which can be difficult.

Using these techniques should allow you to constantly and quickly build Enrage and Aggression stacks, as well as keep them maxed out. Once you have your maximum stacks of Enrage and Aggression, you'll become just a Demolishing and Haymakering Machine, destroying everything in your path. Haymaker's damage is unmatched when you reach this point, and Demolish is a great power for any Might user because it lowers enemy damage resistance. With the Below the Belt advantage, the longer you charge the attack, the more it improves the resistance debuff, but to Crushing damage only (up to about -25% crushing resistance). But don't worry, you're Might, all your attacks are crushing damage!

Might [Tank Spec] - RynoHound

• Super Stats: STR / CON, but stack PRE and END with Gear
• Play Style: Heavy Tank
• Preferred Passive: Defiance and/or Invulnerability,
• Preferred Block:Ebon Void (w/ Voracious Darkness Adv.), Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.), Telekinetic Shield (w/ Telekintetic Sheath Adv.)
• Key Powers: Clobber, Shockwave (with Challenging Strikes), Demolish (with Below the Belt advantage), Haymaker
• Secondary Powers:Beat Down & Mighty Leap, ( Both with Crippling Challenge), Roomsweeper (for Defiance) or Uppercut (for Invuln), Enrage (for Defiance) or Agression (for Invuln)
• Out of Framework Powers: Energy Shield ( with Laser Knight Advantage) Pyre (with Challenging strikes), Thermal Reverb, Resurgence, Circle of Primal Dominion

Reasoning:Might-based tanks make some of the best tanks, primarily from one thing: Momentum. The longer the battle goes on, the more damage you can dish out, so the better the hold aggro . Once you are able to get Pyre and Thermal Reverb, this build becomes very viable for leveling. Doing this, takes away Might's biggest weakness: poor energy efficiency. So long as you can fully charge a Pyre, and keep it on the ground, you will have nearly unlimited Endurance to work with. PRE will decide how much energy is returned to you per second from the Pyre, and give you more Threat too.

Your Primary attacks most of the time will be Pyre and Shockwave. This makes you deadly at all ranges, and it will kill most minions, and in vast hordes if you are gutsy enough to "Pain Train" (which is simply a fancy term for "getting as many guys on you as humanly possible and killing them all!"). Mighty Leap with Crippling Challenge is recommended, not only because it will get you to your target, but it will also get their attention, and allow your Roomsweeper to do Knock-Up instead of Knock-Back.

Energy Shield with Laser Knight will allow you to retain a Rank 1 equivalent Block while using any of your melee attacks, including your end builder. This comes in amazingly handy in any fight against Super Villains and larger. As for fighting the Large, Singular, Hard-Hitting things like Legendaries or Cosmics, you always want to keep your Pyre going so you have unlimited energy to work with, and to establish threat against the target. Shockwave and Beat Down with Crippling Challenge and Challenging Strikes will help you in this.

You want to talk King of the Hill!? Set down a Circle of Primal Dominion in your Pyre. That way, as long as you are in the Pyre and the Circle, in addition to having near unlimited energy, your Damage Resistance, Regeneration rate, Knock-Resistance and Threat Generation all increase dramatically.

Once you've established an Aggro-ceiling ( which is just another fancy term for "Your teammates haven't managed to pull aggro in a while), you can then unleash with your most powerful attacks. Using Demolish followed by a combination ofHaymaker taps and Charges, does incredible damage, and allows you to hold aggro through DPS instead of having to rely on CS and CC. Resurgence or Masterful Dodge is going to be your best bet for a mulligan. Practically speaking, you'll only ever have to use it in Lairs, and if you take Evanescent Emergence, either one can break holds. For leveling or farming, the Crippling Challenges and Challenging Strike Advantages can be swapped out for higher ranks to give you more damage or survivability, while still providing the feel of how you will perform as a Tank.

Defiance vs Invulnerability: As a Might Tank, you can take Defiance if you like fighting Singular, Large, Hard-hitting things, or Invulnerability if you prefer being swamped by hordes and hordes of minions. Defiance gives you a greater percent of Damage Resistance based on CON (which also ups your hit points), while Invulnerability will give you a certain level of "Damage Ignorance" as I call it based on STR (this Damage Ignorance is a flat number that is taken off of all damage you take after other damage resistances are applied.)

In regular solo/ farming combat, the 2 otherwise perform near-identically, with the exception of Defiance's energy boosting ability helping to alleviate Might's heavy endurance costs. If you go with Defiance, You'll also want to take Enrage, Aggressor and Roomsweeper. This will allow you to maximize your damage output since Roomsweeper works amazingly well at keeping both Enrage and Aggressor maxed out. If you go with Invuln, you'll want to go with Uppercut and Aggressor. Uppercut knocks things up instead of "Out of the Ballpark" like Roomsweeper, and once KB resistance kicks in, every hit of Uppercut, gives you another stack of Aggressor, so tap-spam it as fast as possible when you see the Knockback Resistance debuff.

For Maximum damage, it's best to use Demolish before maximizing your stacks of either Aggressor and/or Enrage, and then follow up with your Haymaker onslaught. For Maximum versatility, having both Invuln and Defiance allows you to always use the Passive that best fits the situation: Invuln for groups, and Defiance for Bosses.

VI: Mystical

The Mystical Tree is comprised of Darkness, Celestial and four types of Sorcery (as well as Infernal and Bestial Supernatural, but I'll be covering those two in the next section) and, like Martial Arts, is highly synergistic among it's Frameworks. Virtually every synergy listed that is Framework specific can be used effectively by any of the other Mystical Framework. A Mystic is the master of Paranormal Damage, Support and Healing. The versatility of this tree and it's multitude of powers are almost as unlimited in application as the rest of the trees combined. A Mystic can be a devastating damage machine like Telekinesis or Might, an Energy Efficient damage dealer with a number of tricks up their sleeve like Technology and Martial Arts, a Ranged Damage Glass Cannon like an Energy Projector, or a Support/Healer that can rival or exceed Telepathy. A Mystic can also be a master of numerous pets, or focus heavily on Crowd Control, helping themselves or a team to survive longer. The possibilities are nearly endless. The weakness of a mystic is survivability, which is makes up for either through raw damage, crowd control, pets to take their enemies' attention or through simply healing back damage taken. Again though, any synergies listed in any of these frameworks can be applied to other frameworks within the tree

Celestial - Dr.Sage

• Super Stats: PRE/INT, gear for CON
• Play Style: Mainstay Healer capable of DPS as well
• Preferred Passive: Seraphim, Aura of Radiant Protection
• Preferred Block: Any for Seraphim, Eldritch Shield (w/ Imbue with Power Adv.) for AoRP
• Key Powers: Conduit, Illumination, Ascension, Redemption, Imbue
• Secondary Powers: Conviction, Inequity, Vengeance, Palliate (w/ Absolve Adv.)
• Out of Framework Powers: Skarn's Bane, Mindful Reinforcement, Ego Placate, Ego Blade Breach, Ego Blade Frenzy

Reasoning: Celestial is a very flexible powerset and works great to cherry-pick powers out of; Conduit, Ascension and Conviction being the most common. Many of the mainstay Healing powers double as attacks; and even though they don't tend to be as powerful as dedicated attacks or heals, they can still be highly effective. Be warned though, because of this fact, if not built correctly, soloing can be a long and arduous grind, but if built properly, soloing can be a breeze.

The two most common forms of play are to play around either doing more personal damage, or by being more survivable. Seraphim works great for offensive play, since your PRE score buffs all your paranormal damage, allowing you to get some great DPS out of Skarn's Bane and Ego Blade Breach (along with your other Celestial attacks) while still having the incredible energy management that comes from Sentinel Role. When leveling, this works like a charm, allowing you to balance damage and survivability until you're able to get the powerful AoEs of Vengeance and Skarn's Bane.

For the more healing-based build, Aura of Radiant Protection is the way to go. Even though Seraphim boosts healing based on your CON, what isn't readily realized is that CON and PRE are mutually exclusive stats on gear, causing you to have to choose between upping your healing and damage, or upping your healing bonus and hit points. The flat Resistance Bonus that AoRP gives not only scales with PRE as well, but actually tends to work better to prevent the need for as much healing on both your teammates and yourself. This kind of playstyle tends to work better at higher levels, once you're able to floor entire groups of enemies with Skarn's Bane.

Rebuke can make for a nice alpha strike, but in combat, both it's damage and healing pale in comparison to Conduit, especially when paired with Illumination making it a make-shift AoE. Conviction buffs your Max HP, but also heals you for that same amount, making it a quick and easy self-heal. Palliate is a Healer and DPSer heal, not a Tank Heal. Throwing this on someone with loose aggro removes the need for further healing, as the Absolve advantage wipes their aggro and pulls them out of combat (just make sure not to use it on a tank); and Inequity, although dangerous, is the only Intant-BOOM Heal in the game, making it ideal for situations where an ally has gotten in over their head and needs immediate attention.


Darkness

• Super Stats: END/DEX or INT. Stack EGO and CON with gear
• Play Style: Very Good Sustained Damage, with Soft Crowd Control
• Preferred Passive: Shadow Form
• Preferred Block: Ebon Void or Any
• Key Powers: Shadow Embrace (w/ Fatal Allure Adv.), Life Drain, Spirit Reverberation, Grasping Shadows, Shadow Shroud
• Secondary Powers: Ebon Void, Dark Transfusion
• Out of Framework Powers: Ego Blade Breach, Ego Surge (w/ Nimble Mind Adv.), Telekinetic Eruption (w/ Enhanced Form Adv.), Ego Storm (possibly w/ Malevolent Manifestation Adv.) paired with Telepathic Reverberation, Skarn's Bane (Rank 3)

Reasoning: Even though it's not often used, Darkness is extremely potent. First off, Shadow Embrace with the Fatal Allure Advantage is going to be your bread and butter. Very good damage in a cone in front of you that both Fears targets, and knocks them down. Both of which help to mitigate incoming damage when soloing. This set is great because the level of Crowd Control you get more than makes up for not having the raw damage of Fire and Electricity. Force Eruption's Gravitational Polarity can help this, but don't count Darkness out of the race yet, it can still do incredible damage in its own right.

First off, keep in mind that Shadow Form buffs Ego Damage and Mystical Damage as well as Dimensional, so you are going to want to pick up nearly all the powers I listed in the Out of Framework category. Telekinetic Eruption, if charged over 90% both buffs your Ego Damage and gives you a small amount of damage resistance. The Enhanced Form Advantage makes this buff last longer. Ego Blade Breach is a devastating melee attack, and lowers enemy resistance to Ego Damage up to three stacks. If you charged up a Telekinetic Eruption first, you'll find your damage escalating extremely quickly. Use Ego Surge not only whip out your Dual Id Blades, but the Nimble Mind Advantage ups your Crit Rate as well. With the level of EGO you should be stacking, the buff you've given yourself with Shadow Form and Telekinetic Eruption, and the Ego Resistance debuff from Ego Blade Breach, you should see some very respectable numbers.

Since it also buffs Mystic damage, you may find yourself eventually picking up Skarn's Bane, giving you a powerful cone attack.

Sorcery - latronis

• Super Stats: INT\PRE
• Play Style: Pick 2: Support-Based Healer, Pet-Based Mastermind, Support-Based Debuffer and Crowd Controller, or Energy Efficient DPSer
• Preferred Passives: Aura of Radiant Protection for most builds, Seraphim for DPS
• Preferred Block: Eldritch Shield (w/ Imbue with Power Adv.) for AoRP
• Key Powers: Sigils of Arcane Runes, Sigils of the Primal Storm, Skarn's Bane, Eldritch Shield (w/ Imbue With Power Adv.)
• Healing Powers: Arcane Vitality, Divine Renewal
• Control/Debuff Powers: Eldritch Blast(w\ Sorcerer's Whim Adv., Binding of Araton, Sigils of Ebon Weakness
• Pet Powers: Tyrannon's Familiar, March of the Dead, Any Circle of Summoning.
• Out of Framework Healing Powers: Mindful Reinforcement, Palliate (w/ Absolve Adv.), Ascension, Psionic Healing, Ego Placate (w\ Svengali's Guile Adv.)
• Out of Framework Control/Debuff Powers: Electrocute, Grasping Shadows, Ego Storm(w/ Malevolent Manifestation Adv.) and Telepathic Reverberation Ego Placate (w\ Svengali's Guile Adv.)
• Out of Framework Pet Powers: Munitions Bots, Summon Nightmare, Collective Will, Command Animals.
• Out of Framework DPS Powers: Ego Blade Breach, Conduit, Dark Transfusion
• Recommended Circle and Sigils by Focus:
• Healer: Circle or Radiant Glory, Circle of Primal Dominion, or no Circle. Sigils of Arcane Runes, and either Sigils of the Primal Storm or Sigils of Ebon Weakness
• Control/Debuff: Circle of Ebon Wrath. Sigils of Arcane Runes, Sigils of Ebon Weakness
• Pet: Circle of Ebon Wrath or Circle of Radiant Glory. Sigils of Arcane Runes, Sigils of the Primal Storm
• DPS: Circle of Ebon Wrath. Sigils of Arcane Runes, Sigils of Primal Storm
  

Healing Reasoning: Sorcery has one of the best passives for a support minded toon in Aura of Radiant Protection. AoRP increases your personal and your team's damage resistance, scaling with your PRE, and can become almost as effective as Defiance in terms of damage resistance. Also, it doesn't hurt having easy access to a cone heal. Not all of the Out of set powers need to be taken, though Mindful Reinforcement is pretty much essential, palliate is useful as an emergency heal, and with the advantage can wipe all your threat (or the threat of a softer but high damaging toon). Dropping Sigils of Arcane Runes immediately at the beginging of a fight deals a hefty amount of damage the your enemies, then leaves the battlefield open to summon another set of Sigils. The Storm Sigils serve to either act as a fire an forget damage over time power, so you can focus on keeping everyone on their toes while slowly pinging away at the health bar or use Sigils of Ebon Weakness to massively reduce the damage of boss type characters, further limiting the amount of healing you'll need to do. INT is recommended for sorceries because it gets to the point where the cooldown on your sigils are shorter than the duration allowing you to keep them up constantly. Since you're speccing to be a healer, Mindful Reinforcement is a must, and you should use it to protect any ally under attack so that you can heal them with Arcane Vitality, unhindered by incoming damage.

Control/Debuff Reasoning: If you have any holds Eldritch Blast' Sorcerer's Whim can quickly do a lot of single target damage. Each blast procs a Sorcerer's Whim, which is a flat amoutn of damage, regardless of how much you charge Eldritch blast by. This means that any enemy you gain a Hold of, tap-spam Eldritch Blast for massive damage. Binding of Aratron is a useful tool for holding foes, and since it has no cooldown, you Can use it to keep holds applied indefinitely, but you may like to take an AoE hold instead. Electrocute doesn't break from damage so Eldritch Blast taps can quickly add up, while Grasping Shadows is one of the best AoE holds in the game providing you don't take damage during the charge; however this is easily overcome by placing Mindful Reinforcement on yourself first. Without having to worry so much about your teammates you might find it useful to start of with Sigils of Arcane Runes, then follow up with Sigils of Ebon Weakness to debuff enemy damage. Ego Placate can help keep nasties off you, and with the advantage debuffs both enemy damage and resistance so your teammates will be hitting that much harder without taking much damage in return. Circle of Ebon Wrath is a bad choice due to its hold proc giving hold resistance interfering with your holds, but can be very useful if you just use it to keep enemies within melee range of you feared, and focus more on using your Crowd Control and Debuffs. The best effect you can gain from this setup is to sit inside your Ebon Circle and use your Crowd Control and Sigils during enemy fights, and focus more on your Ego Placate and Ebon Sigils during boss fights.

Pet Reasoning: Sorcery has a lot of pets, it even has some good pets. Your main source of damage will be your Arcane and Primal Sigils, but your zombies from March of the Dead are no joke, and easily the most damaging pet in the game. With high INT, you can almost continuously summon more and more zombies to do your bidding. The ritual summons mentioned aren't exactly terrible though they aren't overly impressive either especially considering you cant spend even 10seconds at a time out of the circle. The Golems from Arcane Summoning work since they do electrical damage, which can benefit from Invocation: Storm Calling, and at Rank 3 they gain the ability to cast Electrocute (a massively good Hold), while the Demon from Ebon Summoning dishes out the most signle target damage, and the Spirit Wolf from Primal Summon does the most AoE damage, as well as has a number of debuffs. The Angel from Radiant Summon doesn't do great damage, and has no debuffs, but has a couple of buffs and heals to help support your more damaging pets. Summon Nightmare does great damage and Collective Will helps immensely by being untargetable and debuffing enemy Paranormal Resistance. Munitions bot are a somewhere south of fair on damage, but if you transform them into Turrets, they become a useful source of damage, especially since you'll likely be stuck to one spot anyway. And don't ever forget the Wolves from Command Animals. Although their damage is paltry and they die relatively easily, they do use Crippling Challenge, keeping aggro off teammates and your other pets. Not only that, but they have a pretty quick recharge time, so you can always just resummon them when they die. And dont' forget to use Skarn's Bane when all your pets are active. The damage on this power is incredible, and will help your pets to clear the way. Arcane Vitality is almost a must with this build, as it will be able to hit most of your pets at once, but you'll likely want Psionc Healing or Arcane Vitality as well to heal teammates. Circle Of Ebon Wrath helps get them focus on your sacrificial zombies, but hinders your healing. Circle of Radiant Glory seems to work best, so that even if you do manage to take stray aggro, you won't stay down for long.

DPS Reasoning: And if you ever feel like just going all out with your magic spells, and I wouldn't blame you. Seraphim boosts your paranormal damage based on your PRE, and Sentinel Role gives you virtually unlimited energy. Paired with Circle of Ebon Wrath's further increase to your damage and crowd control abilities, you'll see some massive damage coming from your Skarn's Bane and Sigils. Ego Blade Breach is almost required in this build, as if anything gets into melee range, you'll simply destroy it.

VII: Supernatural

The two Supernatural Frameworks are both very similar in what they do, but are night and day in how they do it. Both straddle the line of damage and survivability, but Bestial does it through quick-hitting, energy efficient melee attacks, and Infernal does it through crowd control and highly damaging ranged attacks. Both share many synergies with other frameworks (like Bestial with Single Blade and Fighting Claws and Infernal with Fire and Ice), but at the same time stand well on their own. Both sets work very well, and don't have any real weaknesses, other than the lack of a glaringly powerful strength.

Bestial Supernatural - Nozark

Super Stats:STR/CON or CON/DEX, geared for roughly 70 STR

• Play Style: Energy Efficient, Survivable Melee DPS
• Preferred Passive:Defiance, Way of the Enlightened Warrior, Lightning Reflexes paired with Bountiful Chi Resurgence (w/ Resurgent Rieki Adv.)
• Preferred Block: Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight Adv.)
• Key Powers: Massacre, Frenzy, Howl, Resurgence, Pounce, Bestial Fury (w/ Rip and Tear Adv.), Shred (w/ Penetrating Strikes adv.), Aspect of the Bestial
• Secondary Powers: Bite, Venomous Breath, Supernatural Power
• Out of Framework Powers:Reaper's Embrace (w/ No Mercy adv.), Dragon's Bite, Enrage, Form of the Unconquered Swordsman (alternate toggle to Aspect of the Bestial), Bionic Shielding, Energy Shield (w/ Laser Knight adv.)

Reasoning: Blending quick and powerful melee damage, with a high level of survivability, Bestial is an incredibly versatile and effective powerset. A variety of attacks for multiple situations, and tons of bleeds mixed with very good survivability. On top of that, it comes with some crowd control in Howl, which grants a enrage stack and refreshes current ones while fearing enemies . The fear helps limit how much damage you are taking and allows you to shred your foes while they cower.

Bestial Supernatural is a low end costing powerset with a strong damage output, which makes it really shine. For the best overall damage paired with survivability, Defiance is your best bet for a passive, giving you high damage resistance, but also giving you access to Enrage, which will stack with Bestial Aspect toggle but not with Martial Arts' Form toggles. However, Way of the Enlightened Warrior, gives a bit more predictable damage, but slows your progression to maximum stacks of Enrage. Form of the Unconquered Swordsman will out buff Aspect of the Bestial when comparing each other alone, and Focus stacks are much easier to maintain. Dexterity will increase the +dmg granted from focus stacks and the end gain from Rush. Aspect of the Bestial's +dmg stacks and buff cannot be increased by any current stats, however you can pair it with Enrage which scales off of Str, and is easily built by the Defiance then very easily maintained by Howl, which will refresh the stacks.

The Rush buff from Dragon's Bite and the Focus stacks is a great way to gain endurance during a major boss fight, or to get that little bit of end for a fully charged massacre. Defiance is the same way with it's end gain amount, however much larger, and will easily allow bestial supernatural users with Defiance to use their powers much more end efficiently with their already low end cost.

Resurgence and Bionic Shielding are amazing heal powers for a Bestial user, Resurgence is a large heal, where as Bionic Shielding is a DoT heal that procs 5 times when taking damage for a large heal amount (around 400-600, depending on Rank) and a relatively short cooldown. Bite is lackluster on damage compared to other Bestial Powers, but is the fastest way to build bleeds there is. With all the Bleeds you'll be stacking, Reaper's Embrace is a great addition so that you can rupture for a massive amount of damage, and if you have the Reaper's Embrace advantage, No Mercy, it has a 50% chance to grant 2 bleed stacks when you fully charge it.

Infernal: - Zeroi

• Super Stats: END/REC or DEX/REC or PRE/REC
• Play Style: Kncokdowns Mixed with a Vairety of Damage Styles
• Preffered Passives: Pestilence (DEX-Based), Ice Form (END-Based), Fire Form (PRE-Based)
• Preffered Block: Any
• Key Powers: Defile, Vicious Cyclone, Venomous Breath, Devour Essence,
• Secondary Powers: Aspect of Infernal, Vile Lariat (w/ Kotetsu Shoge Adv.), Lash, Supernatural Power, Condemn
• Out of Framework Powers: Life Drain, Immolation, Toxic Nannites, Circle of Arcane Power, Choice of Heals (for PRE version)

Reasoning: The majority of your damage as Infernal is based around maintained damage during a fight. Because of this, powers that help keep you full of energy (such as Supernatural Power or Circle of Arcane Power) will allow you to keep your maintains for longer and use more of them without relying on End Builders for energy. Toxic damage is considered elemental damage, so both Fiery and Ice form will give a boost to all of your damage by a large margin, Fire boosting your Healing slightly, but Ice Form helps by adding additional Crowd Control. Infernal's passive, Pestilence, will never match the damage compared to either form, however it is quite useful in AoE situations and in fights where the target is being healed, like Vlad in Therekiel's Temple.

The ample amount of ways to play this tree are shown in the number of SS you can go and have it work just fine. For maximum damage however, PRE/DEX or END/DEX with either Fiery or Ice Form slotted and enough powers to keep your energy up will pull through. Because of Aspect of the infernal, knock down moves will temporarily boost your damage based on how many targets you knock down. This is where Ice Form helps the most, by using it's Chill effects to keep enemies within the AoE. In a fight against a single target boss, you are out of luck for boosting damage through this, however if there are mobs nearby that you can AoE, one to two uses of Vicious Cyclone will give you max stacked damage for the duration.

With the addition of Defile, the tree has evolved slightly. Defile is single target nuke that applies a toxic debuff. Because of this, many new builds are preferring END as a SS and Ice Form as a Passive to allow for full charges with room to start maintains afterwards, giving another point in Ice Form's corner. The last power to understand for DPS is Toxic Nanites. Because it is toxic damage and has a very short cooldown, it can be popped almost every time it is up during a fight, and the Nerve Damage advantage stacks with Ice Form's Chill effects.

As a final note, it should be understood that Devour Essence is melee move and as such, will not be buffed by Avenger Role the way the rest of Infernal's powers are. Fire Form is the Passive to use to allow Devour Essence to be used to it's greatest effect, being that PRE will buff both Devour Essence's Toxic Damage and it's heal. For just that little bit extra, Vile Lariat with the Kotetsu Shoge Advantage will cause a target to bleed, taking advantage of Devour Essence's Phlebotomist advantage. Fire Form also allows for the same versatility with Infernal that it gives to the Fire Framework, allowing you to switch between healing and damage roles.

Recently, I've been seeing a number of builds for Infernal pop up that use INT/PRE and switch between Fire Form and Aura of Radiant Protection. The technique is that you seem to be able to switch back and forth between Avenger/Guardian Role with Fiery Form for incredible levels of Toxic Damage, or switch over to Sentinel Role with Aura of Radiant Protection and become a potent Healer that also has a number of knockdown and control abilities.

Appendix I: Talents

Over the course of my stay with Champions, one of my other more common questions has been how to choose Talents. There are many different tactics out there for picking talents, and many of them are quite effective. However, when it comes to Talents, I usually recommend using The Hero, unless you plan to min-max and there is another Innate Talent that focuses on the two stats you want to max out. If you plan on focusing on 2-3 stats, then a different Innate works fine, however, if your build or concept requires you to focus on 4 or more, the Hero really is the better choice.

As far as what talents to choose, there's a formula that I came up with that really has really helped my SG when it comes to picking talents and maximizing what your character is capable of. First, pick 3 stats. For for example, I'll say DEX and EGO as Super Stats and REC as my secondary stat. Find the Talents that give 2 of those, so you'll be taking:

5 DEX, 5 EGO
5 DEX, 5 REC
5 REC, 5 EGO

Then, from there, you can either pick an additional 1 stat to focus on, or 2. If you pick one stat, pick the talents that give both it and your primary and secondary stats. For example, if you chose INT to be your tertiary stat go:

5 INT, 5 DEX
5 INT, 5 EGO
5 INT, 5 REC

However, if you chose to focus on two additional stats instead of one, INT and CON we'll use as an example, then pick the talents that give your tertiary stats and your secondary stat, avoiding your Primary stats, like this:

5 CON, 5 INT
5 CON, 5 REC
5 INT, 5 REC

The math involved is a bit hard to see, but this gets you more than just picking the +8s. Also, it gets your secondary and tertiary stats much higher. With that you should be able to get your two Super Stats to 200 while getting your secondary stat over 100 and your last two tertiary stats should sit just under 100 by level 40.

Just to show you everything at once, let's use a different example. Let's say you want to make a Might-Based damage machine.STR and CON will be your Super Stats, and you'll want REC as your secondary one. You don't need PRE since you don't want to tank, so you pick END as your 4th stat. DEX and EGO won't do much for you either, so you decide that you're just going to focus on those 4 stats (STR, CON, REC, END). The Talents you'd want to pick would be:

5 STR, 5 CON
5 STR, 5 REC
5 CON, 5 REC
5 STR, 5 END
5 CON, 5 END
5 END, 5 REC

As one final example, let's say you want to make a Sorcery character and choose PRE and INT as your Super Stats. Your next choice is that you want REC as your secondary stat, and pick your fourth stat as END and your fifth stat as CON for some extra energy and survivability. The Talents you'd choose for this combination would be:

5 INT, 5 PRE
5 INT, 5 REC
5 PRE, 5 REC
5 REC, 5 END
5 CON, 5 REC
5 END, 5 CON




Esta guia esta sacada de los foros de Champions Online
http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=110987