New member says "Hello" and has a question...

[Cyyan]

Just wanted to say "hello" to you all. My Global name is Cyyan, although some of you Benediction players probably know me better as Alainn Lamprog.  In RL I live just south of Boston Massachusetts. I'm a 3yr Vet of the game who's former ,and kinda still breathing SG, has essentially died off. I posted on the CoH Forums that I was looking for an active new home, with fun folks, and regularly scheduled events, and Tryden was kind enough to extend an invitation. I currently have about 11 Lvl50s, 6 on Protector, which is my main server. Cyyan: Claws/Regen scrapper, Imp Empress: Fire/Emp controller, Swedish Seige: Fire/Axe tank, Freyer of the Vanir: Ice/Fire tank, Char Epsilon: Fire/Devices blaster and MediBot Alpha: Emp/Rad defender. I tend to build by concept rather than "uberness", I don't PvP, I tried Villians when it came out and found that the players for the most part took the "villian" thing a little too literally and I dont play the game to deal with asshats, so I deleted my 2 Villians and went back to Heroes.
I have 2 small SGs on Virtue and Pinnacle, which I built for as a home for Alts for my former SGs mates and myself, called Interplanetary Defense Force.

Ok, so there's the introduction, now the question...

I've noticed alot of really talented players on this SG and I am asking for a little mentorship on Alainn Lamprog (Fire/Kin). I resisited the urge to build one of these for a LONG time, but I gave in and lo and behold she's a blast to play!, but I want her to be a Farmer and I need your help. She's currently at lvl41, I've chosen Fire as my Epic for the additional damage of Fire Ball (quick recharge). If there's someone out there that can give me some solid advice, it would hugely appreciated. My question is, without spending MILLIONS on set bonuses what can I do to make her stronger defensively, prevent stunning and dropped toggles? I've seen these builds go both ways. The other day I was Mentoring on a team with a Fire/Kin with NO Invention Bonuses and he simply kicked ass, and then there are the Farmers who've spent BAZILLIONS trickin'out their character.

Well then, long winded but there it is. Thanks and look forward to teaming with you in the future.

Cyyan

 

[Lanks]

First of all, welcome to Benediction, be on the lookout for an upcoming karaoke night and which myself and Aemon Algiz will be performing classic hits such as "the power of love" and "mindless self indulgence - shut me up"

On to serious matters, when it comes to fire/kins, i dont see the point in IOing out a toon in which is supposed to MAKE money.. so.. Theres two options you can do

1. Go for the stone epic, pick up a force feedback chance for rchg IO and stick it in fissure, and theres perma hasten for you, now defence can be nice here as the less attacks that hit you = less chance for stun, and the resulting death that makes you look like a tool.

or option 2.

dont spend any money on your guy at all (what i have done) and take the fire epic, with tough and weave, combat jumping and 3% defence IO (okay so a bit of money here but i got this from a mish so i technically DIDNT spend any money on him)   This should give around 17% defence and around 67% s/l resist (nearly troller cap)

Now i havent tried the rock armor epic but with my build i can control and effectively manage 30 people (3 groups) at once if need be, with fire cages on one, flashfire on another, and cinders for the third.

I also notice that the family do -def, so if under heavy attack they will render defence useless, the result of which is you get Earths Embrace to make up for this.

Okay so i havent cleared up anything for you yet, as its really personal choice and both do extremely well.
The result of which is i have fire epic and Steele (our other fire/kin in the SG) uses stone epic (with IOs)

But i'll leave you with this.

If you want to run it solo set for 6, pick up stone (nice control with fissure)

or if you run it with a team go with fire, why you ask? fire has a nice lil power called consume which you can get your end back, as your transference target WILL die on a team, take this from someone who has PLd over 12 heroes to 50.

The end result, both will do well so just ask yourself if you want to look like your caught on fire or look like a poo man.

If you need anything @Lanks is my global, and welcome to the SG

Edited for grammar (lrn2spel)

 

[.SPiNE]

Hey there, and welcome to the SG!

What Lanks said is right...whatever he says is always right.

Anyhow, on top of his suggestions, you can also try Psionic Mastery.  There's Psionic Tornado in there which is a bit less damage than Fireball (but doesn't really matter once you Fulcrum Shift anyways), but it recharges 12 seconds faster.  The good part is that Psionic Mastery offers Indomitable Will, a very strong mez protection, which you can almost perma without spending much Influence at all.

As for surviving...Tough + Mind Over Body should give you about 67% res to smash and lethal and 32% to psionic.  On top of that, you can always AoE stun and AoE hold and you got Transfusion.  I'm sure you'll do fine.

 

[Tryden]

Hey Cyyan,

I can't really give too much in terms of numbers, but I do have experience playing many hours with Lank's Fire/KIn with the Fire epic, and Steel's Fire/Kin with the Earth epic.

Damagewise you're going to be killing a lot faster with the Fire epic I found, but Earth leaves a lot more room for error, and you won't die if you don't drop into a group with a certain set of attack orders in place. I found that Tough and Weave do help out with the surviability quite a bit for the Fire epic.

I had more fun with the Fire epic, but felt a lot safer going in with the Earth epic when farming a map set for 6. So really it's your choice and based on your playstyle.

Like Lank's said, either build doesn't really need to be IO'd out. They're good at what they do right out of the box.