_eeek_

Anything that makes it to level 50 is my favorite!

I have ... 26? I think? 50's. I love them all! Honestly, I think that says really great things about the powersets available - there are just SO many that are really wonderful!

Are you honestly trying to imply Tunnel Rat said "oooh, flouncy fur-trimmed mini-skirt! Brilliant!" LOL Actually, I'm pretty sure she's said repeatedly that she doesn't have anything to do with costumes, just effects.

Why find a tiny speck of something to fuss over, rather than address the topic (or in the case of this thread, the many topics) at hand? What do you think of the new Barbarian outfit, GG? Will you be abandoning your trademark stars and stripes (which I love, btw!), for the new Barbarian togs?

I ran 2 task forces today, so I have approximately 82,491 temp power recipes I'd be happy to donate to the cause!

Oh, and one Tempered Readiness recipe.

I don't hate the female barbarian costume. If I had an Ice Follies themed toon, I'd pick that in a heartbeat! And you know you're going to have some takers at Christmas, too. And big "Most Improved" category gold star for avoiding the D&D-style chainmail thong/nipple pastie look, too!

But for a barbarian, though, it's pretty sad. Where is the Xena bra that no one could possibly wear in real life? And no loin cloth?! SERIOUSLY??

You guys have got to get a woman on your costume staff. I know, most players are men, so what women would wear is not relevant, it's only about what men like to see women wearing. Right. Look, could you at least run this stuff past War Witch before you do anything final next time? Maybe the lady who cleans the office at night? Something? Please?

OVERALL SCORE: 1 face palm (unless I come up with that Ice Follies toon) + 1 Gold Star for Most Improved Lack Of Ginormous Bosom Falling Out Of Top.

I think much of this depends on you, and your own playstyle, as much as anything else. However, I believe it's not the attacks which are the controlling (pardon the expression) factor, it's the defense.

As Local Man said, Earth and Ice both have defense armor. That's a big deal for you, because a /kin plays in melee range. Earth has more close-up attacks, ice has that DoT storm, which is a lovely thing when you have fulcrum shift, especially if you have slotted a bit of Slow into the power, so they can't run out of the storm quickly.

My personal favorite is Fire, largely because of RotP, which is a rez with very high damage and stun. I also use bonfire all the time on TF's. Light it under your favorite AV, use an immob if s/he starts to wander. It not only does nice damage, but knocks away all those guys who get summoned by the AV as well. If I choose this epic, I slot for ranged defense - despite the fact that it would seem to want slotting for melee defense. Most mezzes have a ranged component, and in my experience, soft-capped ranged defense is as good, if not better than, s/l defense.

But I really think it depends on what you enjoy and how you play, than any other factor.

Ha! Have always been a Virtue girl myself. The reference to a fire/mm toon I never play being stuck over on Freedom was supposed to be a joke. But, as they say, if you have to explain it, it wasn't much of a joke. Oops.

Glad to see you back in the game! I hope you enjoy and stick around, it's great to have old friends return!

I love my fire/dev blaster. Here's some stuff I did with mine, maybe it will give you some ideas. Maybe mine are a little quirky, I dunno. I do respecs as I get free ones, and probably like everyone else, I keep refining what's working, and dropping stuff that doesn't do too much for me. If it's become peculiar, it's done so as a natural progression.

First, I totally ignored everything in /dev after the Targeting Drone. Sure, I can set up all those bombs. Everything will certainly be dead... sometime next week. I tried, I really tried to like all the bombs and the gun drone! I just do not have the patience for any of it. I'm kind of sad about that - I really wanted to do the bomb thing on corners, or set up for Katie Hannon witch onslaughts, but it takes FOREVER! I can kill stuff 12 times over by the time I've laid down all those dumb bombs. And the Gun Drone is worthless, imo. I've tried them all, and hated them all. Smoke is only any good if you lay down multiple applications of it - thus, only useful to give you something to do if you have a tank who insists you stand somewhere for hours as they go gather people. *Yawn*

Here is my strategy: Hover out of reach, all stealthy-like. Lay down Caltrops. Drop RoF. If anything is resistant to the Caltrops (like council wolves), Taser them. Blast stuff until it's all dead, which will be very soon. Rinse, repeat. Incredibly Involved Higher Strategy For Big Groups: do a corner pull, lay down Caltrops at the corner, pop out when they get slowed and RoF 'em. Blast away. They are far too busy panicking to get out of the fire to mess with you.

See, my entire purpose for choosing /dev was for mitigation, so that I can survive being a fire blaster. I have a fire/mm sitting at lvl 46 on some weird server (Freedom) for the past 3 years, and wanted a survival strategy that did not include "quick, duck behind something!" with the inevitable, "Oh, CRAP, he's CHASING ME!" that goes with it.

For further mitigation beyond what /devices gives, I thought I would try to get more range, so took the Cardiac alpha. Sadly, I have to say that 20% range increase is pretty weenie, so have bolstered ranges on top of that. I have 2) hami's (Centriole - these are dirt cheap) in the short-range blasts, blaze and fire breath, as well as in the the snipe, but in the latter case, just because I thought a super long-range snipe would be more fun. With the 2 hami's, added 4) devastations. The AoE's get 5) posi's + a range IO. (I also 5 slotted the ranged and AoE purples +1 range IO in there, too, but that is optional. If you skip most of the /devices, you can get all the fire blasts you want, so more recharge is a luxury to keep Caltrops/RoF available all the time). Oh, Caltrops also has a range IO.

I have no defense, but only very rarely die. Seriously. I would tell you if I were often corpsified. At 50, I don't care about debt, but it's just boring doing a nose dive all the time so I try to cap any toons that die or get mezzed too much. This one didn't need it. I took the fire epic and have RotP well-slotted for the rare occasions I meet an untimely demise, so now dying is just another way to kill stuff. Bonfire is there in case I need an emergency button, but mostly I use it to fry AV's feet - it will also send flying any reinforcements the AV might send, too (Use Web Grenade to keep the AV on the Bonfire). If I recall correctly, the numbers in Melt Armor are pretty wussy, so I passed on that.

If you don't like the idea of having no defense, you can get ice epic, which has a nifty defense armor. Add fighting pool, CJ and Maneuvers, and maybe cry a little because blaster IO sets have horrible s/l bonuses. Or, use Thunderstrikes in all your ST powers, and go for ranged defense, which should be pretty easy to achieve.

Can I farm with this build? I dunno. I have never tried it. I pretty much hate farming. If I want to solo /x8 for drops, I'll grab my SD/EM tank, or EM/SD scrapper (The only gains you get from +4/ is exp., which I don't need at 50). This is a seriously great toon for TF's, though, one of my favorites.

Hope this might give you some ideas for your fire/dev, and again, WELCOME BACK!

I have to agree with The Grim Heaper, that almost any scrapper or brute will do fine for a survivable melee toon. Some are more painless than others. Regeneration and Will Power are pretty painless during the leveling up process, though they aren't the toughest when it comes to incarnate trials. But for anything but new stuff, they're very painless, and not squishy. Well, the regen sort of is - but regen has a bunch of heals with which offset that. Also, very inexpensive to slot up, since they just need the heals slotted up, not defense/resist armors.

When it comes to your attacks, there are some sets which favor single-target (like broadsword/katana, or dark melee), and ones that are more AoE oriented. If you are easily bored, you might try an AoE attack set - it can make soloing go faster, which may keep you more interested in the long run.

I had a ton of fun with both Electric Melee (which is often paired with Shield Defense - a bit slower to mature than WP or Regen, but tough as all get out, and a huge amount of fun with it's 2 teleporting attacks) scrapper and tank (yes, the tank does very decent damage!), and a Mace WP brute. These all leveled up VERY fast.

For the best teaming options, have your toons be either a vigilante or a rogue. This will allow you to do TF's for either side. Find your servers global channels for TF's, or LFG (Looking For Group). This is where most people find TF's and teams. However, begin your toons as a hero - you'll find a lot more low-level teaming, at least until I-21 comes out with it's new Mercy content.

Or, you could try your hand at an Ice Blaster (they have holds, so you don't die a lot), or an Illusion Controller (who has pets once they hit 18, an early level confuse, and the best invisible in the game). Maybe it's just the straight damage that bores you? Plus - no ugly backpack!

ENHANCEMENTS: There are some really good IO sets which are really cheap. They're cheap because they're common, meaning they drop frequently - not because they are bad sets. Crushing Impact (Melee) and Thunderstrike (Ranged) have very nice bonuses, and Multistrike (PBAoE) which has fewer bonuses, but has much, much more endurance reduction than any other PBAoE set. Buy the recipe, and bid low, give it a day to fill. (NOTE: the T-strikes and CI's are difficult to come by in the lvl 30's. If you do some AE mishs for tickets, you'll end up with quite a few of them, though). Don't forget your own recipe drops, too. As TGH said, frankenslotting is a great way to go to get more mojo out of your powers!

Once you hit 22, you can start slotting common IO's. These do not wear out, like SO's do. Place really lowball bids (10,000 - 12,000), and start bidding before you need them - you'd be surprised how often these bids fill (people who are trying to get the crafting badge have to clear out their sales fast, so end up placing them for bid VERY cheaply). If some bids don't fill (acc, dam, endurance and recharge may not), that's fine, use SO's, and place a bid - at that time! - for the next level up. If you can get some IO's this way, you save a lot of money. If you don't get them, you haven't lost anything but a few minutes of your time.

INFLUENCE: An easy way to get some decent money to play around with is to do Tip missions. Do 5 per day on a toon. After 4 days, you'll have 2 hero or 2 villain merits, along with the experience you're getting. Using 2 of these merits, Buy a Luck of the Gambler +7.5 global recharge bonus IO. (NOTE: When you are getting the recipe, move the slider at the top of the interface to level 25, or the nearest lvl that is divisible by 5. For some reason, they sell much better that way!). This will net you between 150-200 million, and you can worry less about any purchases you make. Also, you can do some AE stuff. I hate farming myself, but some of the missions are wonderful, like Becky's Revenge, which just won Dev Choice. Am also very fond of Pandas vs. Rikti. Get AE tickets and do Recipe Reward Rolls - bronze (which will get you a ton of recipes, only a few of which will make over 10 mill crafted), or silver rolls (you'll only get a few recipes, but some are very worthwhile). Check at WW's to make sure these sell for a reasonable amount, then vendor the duds, and craft the good ones. Be sure to put your asking price LOWER than the price you want it to sell for, or it can be up for bid for a very long time, going to the guy who put his up for 1 infl. less than you did. BIG CAVEAT: If you do NOT like doing stuff with recipes or WW's, IGNORE THE LAST 2 PARAGRAPHS! It's a GAME and it's supposed to be fun! If you find crafting or mucking about with this stuff painful, DO NOT DO IT. We'd love to see you stick around, and if you feel like you have to grind stuff you hate to keep up, you won't. Good luck, and happy gaming!

Thank you for the quick reply. You've given me a lot to think about - especially the info about the resist power options, and GW's especially!

Fabulous guide, thanks so much! You did a great job of explaining the different powers, and what you want, and what you can, achieve with each one. That's pretty difficult to do, and you succeeded admirably.

I noticed your suggestions for Incarnates. Do you have any preferences for ancillary power pools, or they pretty much the same?

Would also like to second (third?) a request for non-mids builds for anyone posting them - this makes it easier to compare the different builds, and gets the creative juices flowing.

Thanks again for the great guide!

I am not terribly knowledgeable about Corruptors, and am hoping I could get some advice from the experts here, regarding which Epic or Patron Pools would be best for a couple of characters.

* FIRST TOON: My fire/cold is 40, and plays heroside. Praetorian, has never been a villain, but am willing to side-switch. (and btw, OTHER people have these?? When did THAT happen?? I'd never even heard of these when I made this um... well, last year. Hey, there were not a lot of teams in Praetoria, ok?)

* Glaring issues are: along with no heal, she also has no real control/mitigation other than Sleet and some slow. Great for the majority of the spawn, but bosses who are resistant to KD seem to get irrationally miffed when Benumbed. Stragglers or latecomers also tend to toast my crackers in a most unbecoming fashion. Am feeling a serious need for a hold or stun ASAP. (OG, in my experience, just pulls in aggro/mezzes that I can't handle Currently hold position that it a scrapper-only power unless you have hurricane, in which case you probably also don't need it.).

* Other factors: this toon tends to play at range, and can go for s/l cap or ranged - either should work fine, and have no real preference.

* Am not enamored of any of the resist armors available, and would likely not take one (But am willing to admit if I'm wrong about these being useless for anything but a Steadfast mule).

* Currently has no nuke, but am flexible on the issue.

*Character issues: is a resurrected creature, who wields elemental powers. (Being very adept at BS, um, er... I mean, developing logical background explanations *ahem*, I feel I could also rationalize most any available sets)

SECOND TOON: While looking over the 8 epic/patron options, was reminded I was not overly thrilled with the Mace pool on my fire/dark corruptor, (though I love it on my ice/kin who is always in melee range**). Not even sure why I don't love it. It just seems full of ... meh. Any advice for a fire/dark?

*Primarily plays at range, BUT does enter melee if/when heals are really needed. (Which translates as either "often" on a poor team or tough mission, to "almost never" on a steamroller team).

*Has heals and controls from dark set, but the ton of AoE's she has can pull some nasty aggro, esp in the form of mezzes which wind up being terminal. (particularly from the dark powers. Why is that? I thought nothing pulled aggro like fire. but dark, GEEZ!!)

*Has T4 Spiritual Alpha, and, other than defense issues, is fairly well-balanced. Had only gotten Judgement T3 before utterly burning out on trials. No nuke, due to appx. 10,000 toggles am too lazy to keep re-doing unless a fully functional fulcrum shift button suddenly appears in my tray.

*Character Issues: side-switched villain to hero. Revolutionary anarchist who primarily just likes to blow s**t up. Secondarily, has the genuine belief that governments should never get too big or they become (pardon the expression) corrupt, and likes to quote Thomas Payne a lot. Might join Tea Party if they weren't comprised of utter dorks.

Any advice you care to toss my way would be gratefully accepted. Thank you in advance, as well as for reading through all this - wasn't sure what info would be useful, so put in anything that seemed remotely applicable.


**Yes, you clever person, you! You realize that I do have 2) lvl. 50 corruptors, and 1) who is lvl 40, and yet somehow am not as knowledgeable about playing corruptors as reason might suggest! And, yes, you would be correct in surmising I find this fact rather embarrassing, too.

I also really appreciate all the time and thought that went into your post, Lxndr, lining up all those powersets! However, I have to say I think the premise of you post is a bit off target, to me. The implication here being that matched sets equate to "dev love". I have to disagree.

In comics, the more interesting characters do not have "matched sets". Spiderman does not just have web powers. He also has all kinds of acrobatic and athletic powers, too. Is he "thematically unloved?" I think he's great thematically! It's just that his theme isn't "ranged web blast" and "melee web attacks." as might be the case if a) he were a CoX character, and b) we had web powersets available. In any case, "web" is a much smaller theme than "spider." "Spider" gives the character much more range and depth.

When a comic book character can only do 1 thing, they're a 1 trick wonder - in one comic, then gone. Unless they undergo some kind of metamorphosis and gain further powers, then come back to wreak vengeance, or something. "Mr. Hott-shott" might do everything with fire, for example, but if he can't take a punch or run more than half a block without triggering his asthma, he's a 1 shot guy. Maybe he drinks a potion and heals all wounds immediately, becoming fire/regen/fire? Or he becomes fantastically wealthy and hires /thugs? Or buys /traps, or /devices? Heck, even supers who pretty much just have their 1 powerset, have also learned Martial Arts/ or Streetfighting/ or rely on a lot of /Willpower! (I know we've all seen Green Arrow beat the snot out of a few guys, right?)

Nothing wrong with matched sets, of course! But using "CoX available matched sets" as ones theme is pretty limiting, even if the devs co
me up with a match for every last powerset. How about "Weird sun spot accident - gained fire/rad powers!" Or "got first bite from vampire, now have dark armor/superstrength, or dark melee/invuln. powers!" Even the obvious "back at the home office, a guy named Q has given me injections, gadgets and armor that looks like street clothes, am now a (name a powerset)/(name another powerset)!"

To be truthful, I (perhaps naively?) always assumed that the matchy-matchy powersets were designed more for newer players who didn't know what to take with what, until they got the hang of how to implement a character concept within the CoX archetypal framework - sort of like how the Costume Creator can give you a ready-made outfit?

Anyway, I hope I didn't offend anyone by saying any of this. This was in no way my intent - only to counter the idea that there is a "more correct" way to create a theme than any other way. One great thing about this game is that we're really only limited by the limits of our own creativity.

PS Hey, guys, you're all wrong - Demon Summoning goes with /Dark! Both conjured from the dark, nether hell realms (says player with a demon/dark MM). And, can I add, it also goes to show "thematically, anything can go with anything and be correct"?

"Taking the Red Line Express", or "Committing Sewercide" - intentionally getting yourself killed to utilize the medi-porter to hospital as a time-saving mode of transportation

In my previous post, forgot to mention monsters. Ooops.

I find the really big or little ones particularly intimidating. (If they are little, you just KNOW they had to compensate, and that they are going to be really MEAN! Re: bobcat!)

Jack of Irons is really good. He has a lot of details, like all the skulls and stuff on his neck. He's just flat out interesting to look at. He's also scary, especially if you're just running around in the woods and almost run smack into him, which has happened to me a time or two. The only think I don't like about Jack is that the majority of my time looking at him, is looking right up his loin cloth. Hairy butt alert! Whole new kind of scary! I know it's rated T for teen, and I'm not going to see anything, but I can't help it, I want to shut my eyes, cause I just do not wanna know.

Kronos is intimidating due to sheer size. THAT is scary! I like Inferno, but wish he were a bit bigger, because he's only a bit taller than all those fire demons who are really wimpy. By visual association, standing by all those alter-spawned demons, I kind of put him in a category with them, which I shouldn't.

Lusca still scares me, but I think that's just from the zillion deaths from her when I first started playing the game.

HAHAHAHA! I LOVE it! I tried to make a guy toon with chest and leg slider on max, and everything else on Uber-skinny. It looked grotesque, which I don't mind, but could not come up with a bio that didn't sound just mean-spirited (which I do mind)

Bossa Nova, I hear what you are saying, but that sadlydoesn't work. What looks good on a male toon tends to look awful on a female toon, and vice versa. Esthetically, what you want for a male, is to point out the angularity and "V" shape of big shoulders, smallish waist, and small hips. Esthetically, you want the opposite on the female form - to show off the curvy "S" shapes found on a woman. Armor looks GREAT on male toons. It showcases and highlights the positives of a male form. The armor sets look awful on a woman. She looks like she's wearing a man's clothing, so what she ends up looking like is a short, weak man.

What I, and other female players often do, is pull a War Witch - use an armor or heavy leather top OR bottom, and use something from Tops (or Bottoms) With Skin. Justice (Tops) with Bikini 1 (Bottoms w/skin) is a personal favorite, for example. What we need to pull that together is more layering pieces, like the coat that was mentioned at the beginning of this thread. Trench coat and mini-vest only go so far. I loved the corset from Steampunk - it is an example of a very versatile layering piece. A little sexy, but not slutty. Perfect for me! Probably not for you, however.

Oedipus Tex, I LOVE LOVE LOVE all your character names! Each one makes me wonder why didn't I think of that?

Love and adore word play, so that's what I tend to do on my toons, whether it's puns or something that just sounds good. Here is my list of favorite names, though it's really anti-climactic after Tex's.

-Eeek (mutated, test-animal mouse, who heard "eeek" so often when people saw her, she thought it was her name. Also occurred before caught for testing, so she proudly considers it her Free Name)
-Lu, the Bi-Polar Bear (Claws/DA mutated circus bear, attacked by Carnies whom she ate, but can't remember, due to severe PTSD)
-Punkerbell (DM/SD hover-tank, she is my anti-hugebody/thickneck stereotype tank)
-Aerie Faerie (EM/SD scrap. Magical lightening hit her nesting egg during the night of the wild hunt, creating hybrid fey/eagle)
-Bumblefly (when my son was tiny, he insisted bumblebees were called bumbleflies.)
-Zippy the Wondergirl (Super-speeding kid toon and homage to Teen Titans. She drinks a lot of Monster.)
-Gilded Lilli (lotsa gold going on)
-Gilt Complex (I really liked the gold)
-Barre Sinister (unemployed ballerina-gone-bad)
-Captain Crazypants (has an alien in her head. Is not crazy. The alien in her head is crazy. He tells stories of how he turns into giant squid and shoots people with his butt. PB, bio written because I always thought the kheld backstory was the goofiest thing I'd ever heard, and wondered why all these people telling stories about aliens inside them weren't getting locked up and given lots of medication)
-Overly-Precious Lass (parody of all the over-the-top, sicky-sweet, big-busted, cutesy toons. Sadly, a total failure in the sarcasm department, as the more cutesy crap I pile on her, the more genuine compliments I get on her look.)
-Lich Glitch (evil lich found out you can cheat death, but can't fool God. Is eternal-torture-in-hell-bound, unless she figures out what "good" is, and starts doing some of it)
-Penny Anti (anarchist whose bio reads "when the great revolution finally succeeds, I'll be against that, too")

Ones just had a nice ring to them, but have no particular meaning are: Draconis Majora, Toot Oddbottle, Watermelon Squash, Tahitian Pearl.

I also want to add that when I hear people say "all the good names are taken, even with alternate spelling!!" what they are actually saying is that they are thinking along exactly the same lines as 50 other people, and might need to think outside the box a little to come up with something that isn't so terribly common and redundant. Think outside the box a little, where there is lots of room!

Ghost Widow was the one that sprang to mind when I read the question. Then I really had to concentrate, as apparently GW hogged all the spots in my mental top 10 list.

Many of the newer Praetorians sprang to mind. Praetor White is almost iconic as thick-necked, brutish violence, with even more muscle between his ears. Especially his wrist cuffs. Just looking at him, you can almost smell the B.O., you know? The contact whose name I can't even remember with the moving hair, standing on a boat. It wasn't the moving hair (someone had to point that out to me) but she inspired in me a deep and lasting wardrobe envy. Others, like Tunnel Rat and Noble Savage stand out to me, but honestly, I can't say whether this is because of the costumes, or that they were such endearing characters.

I find Menders looks memorable, partly because they're all wearing different things, but all using the same color palette and Ouroboro emblems.

Had to really, really think about heroes. War Witch's look says volumes, that she is approachable, but don't waste her time, that she can kick your behind into next week if she felt like it, and, oh, by the way, is rather attractive too, but unwanted advances will leave a guy singing soprano for the next month. After that.... Statesman's cape? Mostly, they don't stand out to me at all unless they have some signature wardrobe pieces, like the Mirror Spirit. If I've seen their pieces a million times in the costume creator, I guess they seem a little generic now after all these years since their creation. However, I understand the reluctance to mess with a million longbow costumes, or with iconic figures at all, reducing their epic reputations to a People Magazine article entitled "Sister Psyche's Shopping Spree - How You Can Get The Look For Less!"

I think this mindset behind this argument is one of the sillier excuse for drama I've heard in awhile. Well, since the "buffer, NO, healer!" argument died off, anyway. (What? It's STILL going?!) I feel badly that you feel marginalized, but I think this is in your own mind, not in game play. You're a blaster because you prefer to have a toon who deals high damage, and can do so from range. Wait.... you can do melee damage too? And MORE than my scrapper? Does this mean I have to delete all my scrappers, because they are now unnecessary, since you can do the same thing, and some of your powers do it better than I can?

You're not good at what you do because of your AT. Nor are you less good because someone else got a nifty blast. Or got a nuke (hey, at least the shield charge whining died off! What?! The NERFED it because of all the fussing?! Wait... if we got rid of the buffs or the heals in empathy, would that....? Oh, nevermind). People are good at what they do because they have first learned how to play the game. That takes time. It takes patience. Then the players research powerset options, figure out the best combinations for what they want to do, and once again taken the time and care to build and craft a toon that does what they want, in the way in which they want it to work.

If you want a blaster who has buffs, this is called a corruptor. If you want a blaster who has holds, this is called a dominator. If you want a blaster who can do melee, that's called a... oh, yeah, blaster. If you want tank with ranged attacks, you roll up a tank who takes the pool powers that give them 2 ranged attacks. None of these has replaced a blaster in all the years they have been available. It's not your powerset, or your phat lewt, or whatever, that makes you necessary or superfluous to a team. It's YOU!

If you want a reason to feel inadequate, take your spiffed-out, just-turned-50 into a Lambda or a Keyes. But just don't blame those feelings on the toon standing next to you because s/he has a single, strong blast on a 10 minute timer.

I think it's been suggested numerous times by us female players that they should just once give US the nifty long, tailored jackets, and give you guys the hoochie-mama-sex-on-a-stick outfit.

Wait, what?? You don't want your cleavage spilling out everywhere and a big, shiny heart over your genitals? You mean... you'd feel like sleazy, underdressed, weirdo-bait? Really? Gosh! Imagine that!

For flight, I'd be with the crowd standing on a broomstick. Flying carpet would be good too! Discs are ok, and anything that looks like a device - maybe with the rocket boots graphics coming out the back side of it?

But why not do stuff on the ground, too, as an alternative graphic for Superspeed? People have been asking for ages for roller skates (though am not sure why), but skateboard would be fun, and so would sliding along on an ice slick you create in front of you, like the ice-blasting guy in The Incredibles did? The animations for that already exist in the Hallows' Frostfire mission.

Before the graphics were fixed on the Coralax Hallween costume, engaging Superspeed at the same time as turning would cause you to slide with sparks under your feet, creating a sort of "super-skid" effect that lasted until you did some other movement. It was my favorite costume to get, because that animation with the sparks undefoot was just wonderful fun! And, if you had a flying toon, the bad graphics would cause you to look like the Coralax was shambling along in mid-air, but still traveling at flight speed, which was great too! It looked spooky and rather "otherworldly". I always told people I'd pay to have these effects permanently on my character.

My DM/SD tank hovers, and can attest that Shield Charge works just fine with hover. (so does soul drain!)

I really enjoy my hovering tank. I get a far better range of vision, the difference between that toon and my (quite) tall tank is startling. I can see the whole room, and often even see the blaster hiding behind a pillar, and target what's been shooting him.

The only disad is that it's slower than I'm accustomed to, even with hover speed maxed out. I have to plan for the fact that most of the team is going to outrun me by a fair bit, and devise strategy for that accordingly.

If the tank is for farming or soloing, I'd suggest getting something that the moves faster. Otherwise, hover makes for a great team tank. To me, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.

I might be in the minority of wanting fewer effects in general. I prefer to have the effects of what matters really show up, vs. a lot of visual clutter. And some things just makes no sense at all to me. Here are the things I would love to see changed:

-Hasten. Why do you get your hands encased in fire because you have a high metabolism? If someone had this high metabolism, why is only their hands burning off all those calories? For in-game playing terms, why would other players need to see it... ever? Who cares? All my toons have hasten. I would love to see their gloves some day.

-Superspeed. Why are my feet encased in a fiery aura even if I'm standing still? I think it looks pretty nifty on toons who actually ARE running around - love to see those little comets of fire behind them (the operative term being "behind them"). But standing still? Why? How about a bit of a cloud of smoke behind you when you run as an alternative, like the arctic air effect?

-Fly. I know, it's subtle, but when I notice it, it's annoying. Why do I look vaguely fuzzy? Why on earth would there be any effect at all from flying, unless some mechanism were involved, like the wonderful rocket boots? I mean.. isn't the fact that I'm airborne proof enough that I'm using flight powers?

-Would like to see customization of epic powers, as well, so they integrate with one's powers and the color palette you're using.

-Ice armor and worse, Stone Armor, are really dreadful. I have toons who have gone all the way to Grandville and back to get not-ugly armor? (Their Mace Armor is attractive, too, I have to say!)
I am female in RL, so this stuff leaves me puzzled. What female super hero went to the armor store and said "YES! That's IT! The Poo Man pet is my fashion icon! WOO HOO!"
Yes, the ice armor is clunky and obscures the costume. Yes, I am reminded of the fly in the ice cube joke toy when I see myself in it. But nothing in this game is as dreadful looking as that poo yoke. Nothing!

-Would love to see items that cause the effects, rather than a power coming off the hand, head or body. A beam weapon or lazer for high tech toons' blasts. It just seems illogical to have a tech origin, yet lack ability to show any technology being used which creates these powers! A wand for magic users which has the blast powers would be amazing. Are all our magic origin characters chanting, or reciting incantations for each and every power they use? How are these powers occuring?

That's all I can think of for now. Thank you, Tunnel Rat, for taking the time to read and respond in this thread! Love reading everyone's comments, ideas and suggestions, and enjoy the thread a lot.

PS you and Noble Savage were my favorite NPC's in Praetoria. Am only mildly embarrassed to admit both of you made me tear up a time or two. Coincidence? I think not!

I made an ice/empathy troller 3-4 years ago. After already having a defender emp., I was thrilled playing it ... at first. Empathy? With something actually strong and effective?! Something NOT team-dependent?! WOW! As I got into the midlevels, though, I came to dislike it intensely. During the alpha strike, I had to make a choice - heal all the incoming damage, OR do something effective to prevent that damage from occurring. There was no way to do both. To make matters worse, empathy as a secondary is not as strong as it is on a defender. As the caster, it's not obvious buffing before the fight, but it IS noticeable when you're applying lukewarm heals over and over.

If you want to play an empath, I'd suggest just making a defender empath. If you are really set on a troller version, I'd strongly recommend illusion. You can set your pets to work right at the outset, then stay back, heal, and reapply buffs. If your team is floundering, you can do some stealth confusing (deceive) before the fight to mitigate damage.

This is just my experience. I have friends who have have troller empaths and really enjoy them, saying they are better for small team play. They bring out the defender versions for large teams. Now that I think of it, they all have illusion/empaths, too.

After reading in the forums that most mez have a ranged component, I tried just ranged defense on my fire/rad who was getting mezzed constantly. It's rather counter-intuitive since I am in melee all the time, but it's worked beautifully! I could not be more pleased.

Well enough, in fact, that I'm in the process of de-gimping a different fire (melee) controller who had been soft-capped, and going for just ranged defense.

From LSK: was wondering because you said you was having end problems from toggles. So u keep SS on at all times? that might be where you are loseing end, plus the leadership pool is pretty expensive when it comes to end cost."

Well, there is cost, and there is cost. I'd prefer to get more defense from Maneuvers, which benefits the whole team, than spend 3 billion on a proc. (Egalitarian of me? Self-sacrificing? Or just that darned stingy? Your call! )

SS on during missions has several practical advantages, but it's also a QoL thing, I'm not too proud to admit it. I just plain LIKE it. That's also a lot of what Cardiac is, too. When I don't have to closely monitor the blue bar like I do on some toons, I can concentrate on just doing my job tanking, and ultimately, just have a whole lot more fun.
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Good luck building all your Alphas, Jagged! We'll be expecting a post next week when you get the 4th tier on that fourth alpha, ok?