Aitchuu

I suggest that movement is underdeveloped compared with other game aspects. Since there are a number of topics, I think the best approach is to post each separately.
First some definitions: What are the ‘Stop’ powers? They are a sub-group of what most players call mez powers. They reduce your ability to maneuver, not your combat status (and thus are not truly ‘mez’ powers). Specifically they are: Slow(movement), Hold, Immobilize, Knock(back, down, up), Cage, and Repel.
What are the ‘Go’ powers? Powers that provide movement – specifically: Sprint, Superspeed, Combat Jump, Super Leap, Hover, Flight, Group Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport, and Team Teleport. Swift, Hurdle, Swiftness, and similar powers improve the values but do not themselves cause motion so they are not movement powers.
Go powers are often labeled as being Combat (Sprint, Combat Jump, Hover) or Travel (Superspeed, Super Leap, Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport). But such labels are inaccurate, and these are the definitions I’m using in this discussion.
Travel powers are the Trains, Ferries, Helicopters and the various Teleporters (Pocket D, Oroboros, Supergroup, and Hospital). These are the true Travel powers because they have no combat application, and hence won’t be discussed here.
Speed powers are: Recall Friend, Teleport, Super Leap, Flight, Super Speed, and Group Teleport. These powers may you fast (more than 40 mph).
Mobility powers are: Sprint, Hover, Combat Leap, and Group Flight. These powers won’t make you fast, but do make you agile.

Topic 2) Upgrading Motion
Sprint (and other prestige runs) behaves oddly. Hover and Combat Jump both un-toggle when Flight or Super Leap is toggled. However, Sprint (et al) simply adds to your overall speed along with Superspeed. This behavior needs to change to make running the same as flying and leaping.

The record for the 100 meter dash is 9.69 seconds – 23.19 mph. The base ground speed in game is now 14.32 mph, increasing to 28.64 with Sprint activated and no enhancements slotted, which is soon to be 19.33 mph and 33.65 mph (w/I19). Agreed that Superheroes/villains should be at the pinnacle of physical excellence, but jogging a 3-minute mile? As the minimum?!? Why not stop tossing free movement bonuses at us and rework the numbers?
Make the basic movement (jogging) value 10.6 mph. At level 2, Swift (with no Run enhancements) will boost it back to 14.31, which is where we are right now. To get to the old Sprint value of 21.46 means Sprint should offer +100% rather than +50%. So using the current method, that’s +100% and +100% enhanceable for Sprint, plus 35% enhanceable from Swift (at level 2). So at level 1, the minimum Sprint would become 31.8 mph and at level 2 jumps up to 35.51 mph. Slotting a SO of your own level into both Sprint and Swift cranks jogging up to 15.54 mph (a 4-minute mile – which is at least believable) and Sprinting up to 40.27 mph. And if you don’t think that’s fast enough, then add a slot to Sprint and use a second SO Run, and your Sprint goes to 43.79 mph. Of course, this resetting of the base speed and reworking the bonus would need to apply to all the other movement powers as well. Interestingly enough, as you increase the basic movement bonus of each power, you increase the value of enhancement slotting making higher speeds (i.e. the thing “everybody” wants) easier to achieve.
Actually, why Sprint should get an additional unenhanceable boost where Hover and Combat Leap do not is a mystery to me. If the Travel stance (from topic 1) works out, then remove this extra boost.

The water environment behaves oddly. Standing in or treading water is not dangerous to human beings but does slow movement. Swimming in water is not particularly dangerous to humans but does slow motion (the record for the 100 meter freestyle swim is 47.05 seconds or 4.77 mph). Being submerged in water is dangerous to human beings as we cannot breathe, and slows our motion even more. I’m using the word motion because I mean not simply movement, but also action times. None of this occurs in the game. The game can distinguish when we come “in contact” with water, so it should be apply a water condition; which debuffs movement, buffs activation time, and produces some damage over time (at the submerged level). And how exactly does a person Rest when submerged in water and unable to breathe (which is possible right now)?
Much as I personally favor a new movement class for swimming, giving water this “environmental condition” immediately allows for a Super Swimming power which could ignore/resist the water environment and permit the use of Rest.

I suggest that movement is underdeveloped compared with other game aspects. Since there are a number of topics, I think the best approach is to post each separately.
First some definitions: What are the ‘Stop’ powers? They are a sub-group of what most players call mez powers. They reduce your ability to maneuver, not your combat status (and thus are not truly ‘mez’ powers). Specifically they are: Slow(movement), Hold, Immobilize, Knock(back, down, up), Cage, and Repel.
What are the ‘Go’ powers? Powers that provide movement – specifically: Sprint, Superspeed, Combat Jump, Super Leap, Hover, Flight, Group Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport, and Team Teleport. Swift, Hurdle, Swiftness, and similar powers improve the values but do not themselves cause motion so they are not movement powers.
Go powers are often labeled as being Combat (Sprint, Combat Jump, Hover) or Travel (Superspeed, Super Leap, Flight, Recall Teammate, Teleport). But such labels are inaccurate, and these are the definitions I’m using in this discussion.
Travel powers are the Trains, Ferries, Helicopters and the various Teleporters (Pocket D, Oroboros, Supergroup, and Hospital). These are the true Travel powers because they have no combat application, and hence won’t be discussed here.
Speed powers are: Recall Friend, Teleport, Super Leap, Flight, Super Speed, and Group Teleport. These powers may you fast (more than 40 mph).
Mobility powers are: Sprint, Hover, Combat Leap, and Group Flight. These powers won’t make you fast, but do make you agile.

Topic 1) New Movement Options
A common complaint is that movement powers are not fast enough. This complaint is not about using the powers ‘in mission’; but rather that it takes too long to get from door to door, having to cross multiple zones, etc. These players see ‘playing-the-game’ as the individual missions of a story arc/task force. For them, getting from door to door is ‘behind-the-scenes’ and therefore not part of the playing experience. They don’t see themselves as ‘patrolling the skies of Paragon City’, they are just moving to the next act in the story. For this group, the reality is that no amount of improvement short of a button that drops them at the next door will be satisfactory.
Movement powers are for combat, not for travel. Yes, the Speed powers make getting around quicker than walking, but they are not Travel powers. Still, what’s wrong with allowing non-combat movement to be much faster? The idea of a stance or pose is fairly common in other games.
Travel (toggle): You concentrate every fiber of your being into speed. This is an inherent power, so you cannot enhance it. While toggled, all non-movement powers which are also not auto powers are disabled. All movement powers gain a +200% movement bonus (range for Teleport powers). You also gain a +25% base defense bonus (you are a speeding bullet), and a -50% sensory radius (your attention is focused on your destination). It costs zero endurance and requires 1 minute to recharge. When Travel is un-toggled, all your disabled powers recycle as if they had just been used. That is, they begin to recharge from the moment Travel was un-toggled.
This last bit prevents you from dropping out of travel mode and directly into combat. You will be vulnerable and unable to attack for at least a few seconds as your other powers cycle up.
And what about the opposite of Travel:
Stationary (toggle): You stand firm, bracing against enemy attacks and aiming your own with confidence. This is an inherent power, so you cannot enhance it. While toggled, all movement powers are disabled and movement commands are ignored. This power gives a 20% activation time debuff, a +5% damage resistance, and a +100% to your non-movement based Stop Protection and Resistance. It costs zero endurance and requires 15 seconds to recharge.
The recharge time is somewhat long to prevent players from going stationary to attack, moving off, and going stationary again. With recharge this long, it is better to use the stance when you can make multiple attacks before shifting back to movement.

There is no impact in CoX (charge, tackle, rush, overrun, call it what you will). How many great comic book characters rely on exactly that? What invulnerable character has not at some point bet on his/her defensive powers for protection and simply slammed into a menacing opponent / building /vehicle /asteroid? What would Charging entail?
Charge: is a movement option, similar to Follow. Like Follow, Charge will move you within a few feet of your target. You may attack and be attacked during the charge move, which may have a negative effect on the charge (or even negate it). When you reach your target, you make a targeted melee smashing attack. If you miss, you keep moving (Follow switches to Run). If you hit: you do smashing damage to the target and yourself, you and your target may suffer Knock(down), you and your target may suffer Stun.
The smash attack does a base 20 points modified by your active movement bonus. The chance for Knock(down) and/or Stun should be around 25%. The starting magnitude of the effect is 1.6 and is also modified by your active movement bonus.
Teleportation cannot be used to charge since it does not contain the necessary velocity element.

Actually taking over critters in a mission/zone, then I agree: no. But the Puppetmaster is one of the oldest comic villains around.

Mind Control for Masterminds (The Pawn Mastermind)
The Pawn Mastermind is cruel mental manipulator. Using Hypnosis, psychological pressure, or outright mind control, you can force ordinary people to do your bidding. And you can force them well beyond the norm for endurance and pain.

1) Mesmerize (target & activate) – Mesmerize painfully assails a target with psychic energy, rendering him unconscious. The target will remain asleep for some time, but will awaken if attacked. Enhancements: accuracy, damage, endurance, sleep, range, recharge
2) Control Thrall (target & summon) – Assert your mental domination over one to three innocent passersby (the second is available at level six, the third at level eighteen) to do your bidding. The third Thrall you gain will be a Dupe, being someone your opponents know. Subject to your will, Thralls are protected from psychic attacks and other forms of persuasion (fear, sleep, disorientation) and feel little pain. Thralls use grappling and improvised weapons but can be taught more. You may only have 3 Thralls under your control at any given time. If you attempt to call more Thralls, you can only replace the ones you have lost in battle. If you already have three, the power will fail. Enhancements: Damage, Endurance, Range, Resist, To Hit DeBuff.
Thralls have excellent defense to Smashing and Psychic damage and modest resistance to all forms of damage. They are protected from Fear, Sleep and Disorient, but not from physical impediments like knockback, hold and immobilize. Generally they use brawl, improvised weapons, and rocks to attack. The Dupe, being someone your opponents care about, causes a major distraction on the battlefield simulated by a To Hit Debuff in a 30’ radius.
3) Dominate (target & activate) – Painfully tears at the mind of a single foe. Dominate deals psionic damage and renders a foe helpless, lost in his own mind and unable to defend himself. Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, Endurance, Hold, Range, Recharge
4) Rejuvenate (target & activate) – Cloud your Pawns minds of their injuries and fatigue. They receive a boost to both their current and maximum health and endurance for 2 minutes. Enhancements: Endurance, Heal, Range, Recharge, Reduction
Think ‘Dull Pain’ on all your Pawns. Unlike other pet boosting powers, this will wear off so you will need to reapply.
5) Subjugate (target & toggle) – You can Confuse an enemy, mentally manipulating them for a time to assist you. If successful, the enemy will behave like an uncontrolled Pawn, attacking their own allies and following you for the duration. When you release them from your mental control (or the Confusion period ends), they revert to normal and will be enraged by what you’ve made them do. You will not receive any Experience Points for foes defeated by a Confused enemy. Enhancements: Accuracy, Confusion, Endurance, Range, Recharge
While extremely similar to Confuse, the key difference is that the target will always recognize you as friendly while being controlled, and will then gain a To Hit and Damage buff against you afterwards.
6) Control Puppet (target & summon) – Assert your mental domination over one to two Puppets (the second is available at level twenty-four). You are careful to draw Puppets from more useful professions, such as Law Enforcement. Like all Pawns, Puppets can be given mental suggestions making them more effective. You may only have 2 Puppets under your control at any given time. If you attempt to summon more Puppets, you can only replace the ones you have lost in battle. If you already have two, the power will fail. Enhancements: Damage, Endurance, Range, Recharge, Resist, To Hit Debuff
The initial Puppet will come from Law Enforcement and be good with fire arms, the other will be a Security Specialist trained in the martial arts.
7) Suggestion (target & activate) – Plant commands in the mind of one of your Pawns, giving him near superhuman abilities for a few minutes. The Pawn will eventually break free of your control, and then promptly fall into a coma due to his injuries. The psychic shock will require some time (one minute) before you can replace this Pawn. Enhancements: Endurance, Range, Recharge
8) Control Lackey (target & summon) – Assert your mental domination over one Lackey, a superhuman being who is already somewhat supportive of you. Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, Endurance, Range, Recharge
9) Mass Confusion (target & activate) – You can cause mass confusion within a group of foes, creating chaos. All affected foes within the area will turn and attack each other, ignoring all your allies. If you confuse your foes before they noticed you, your presence will continue to go unnoticed. You will not receive any experience points for foes defeated entirely by confused enemies. Enhancements: Accuracy, Confuse, Endurance, Range, Recharge.

Ever said to yourself, “I could really use that mez resist power now, I’ll get it when I level… oh wait, it’s just enhancements next time.” Or the opposite, “hey this last power is really making the toon gel. Slot this up a bit more and I’ve got something fun here. …Except I have to take another power, so it’ll be two levels – sigh.” Ever said to yourself “Why did I take this power, I never use it. Oh yeah, I had to take something at level 49 so I could get the final 3 slots from level 50).

Alternate Leveling
At level 1 you get 1 power from your primary set (first or second power in the set) with one enhancement slot and 1 power from your secondary set (first power only) with one enhancement slot. You also get the powers of Brawl and Sprint with 1 enhancement slot.
As you adventure through the game you will gain experience bars. Every time you gain ten bars, you go up a level and earn the right to spend the 10 bars you just earned. At level 2, you gain the power Rest with one enhancement slot. At levels 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 35, 38, 41, 44, 47, and 49 you unlock the ability to select another power.
When you go to a trainer, you can choose to spend any of your experience bars or hold them for later. A new power (with zero enhancements slots) costs 10 bars. Enhancement slots cost 3 bars each. So at level 2, you could now purchase a third power with your 10 experience bars; or up to 3 additional slots for your existing powers, and save the unused bars for later.
In the course of going from level 1 to level 50, you will earn 490 experience bars. Converting from the current method, all level 50 characters have spent 220 experience bars on additional powers leaving 270 bars, enough for 90 enhancement slots. In the current system, a character ends with 91 slots. In this proposal, you are given 5 enhancement slots for free so the net difference is 4 additional slots. I would suggest sweetening the deal even more by giving you the ten bars from level 1 in your pool to spend (so that at level 2 you can purchase a power and at least 1 enhancement slot for it), making it an even 500 experience bars; for a bonus 7 slots over the current system.
Since selecting new powers are now optional, you could intentionally forgo up to 8 powers so that you could six-slot the powers you do have (Peacebringers and Warshades could forgo even more to boost their Nova and Dwarf slotting).

Crossing Powers
With this said, you can now look at some crazy options.
Training Academies and/or Re-leveling: Allow characters to earn 20 bonus experience bars. Level 50 characters can continue to earn experience as if they are replaying level 49. They don’t gain any more health or con any higher, they just get 10 bonus experience bars (so players could reach level 50++?). And/or have contacts who specialize in helping a character be the best they can be. The end of their mission arcs offer a few bonus experience bars rather than merits.
Skills/Talents: There have been a number of suggestions for skills in the forums through the years. I haven’t seen any of these being worth exchanging a power for, but setting their small edges at 1 or 2 experience bar each would be fair. Would you give up one enhancement slot for three minor advantages (quick example - lock picking, which debuffs the time needed to open a safe or vault door)?
Alternate Powers: To create a character like Frostfire – who has both fire and ice controller primaries – isn’t possible. Or is it? What if we said selecting a power from an additional primary (or secondary) set appropriate to your archetype costs 30 experience bars rather than 10 and like your initial set you must ‘open’ by selecting one of the first two powers (first power only for secondary) from the alternate power set, and since you are not level 1 you do NOT get an initial enhancement slot.
Wild Powers: To create a character like Iron Man (who could be seen as a Tanker with a few ranged powers or as a Blaster with defensive powers) you could select powers from a list that is not appropriate for your archetype for 30 points if you possess the set ‘keyword’ or 50 if you do not, and again you would have to ‘open’ the set by selecting one of the initial powers from it. What I mean by ‘keyword’ is that your selected power sets come with keywords, and if any of those keywords match the keywords from the wild set you want, then you have some thematic justification for it (i.e. A blaster with dark primary and fire secondary set could consider dark or fire defensive sets at 30 bars per power but Stone, Invulnerable, Cold, Regen, Reflexes, Shield, etc. would be 50 bars for the first power). This would need to exclude selecting the exact same powers/sets (An Invulnerable Tank cannot double up by cross training into Scrapper Invulnerability as well). Note also that by purchasing your first power of a new set, you gain that set’s keyword.

So maybe crossing powers is too wild and crazy. But the basic alternate leveling idea alone opens the door to diversity. Would you trade in a power or two to further enhance those you do have?

For the record - Lone Li made if to level 14 before my buddy quit the game and I was forced to solo. I went with soldier/poison and planned to get the entire leadership pool. The rifle options did well enough, and the poison and leadership combo offered my teams enough buff debuff and healing to make me worth having around. But honestly, I felt like a weird Blaster/Defender mix jumping from distance work with the rifle to close up for team assistance. Endurance was indeed the killer - couldn't recover as fast as I needed to be firing once I had to solo.
What many here are saying is that Supremacy (your archetypal power) only benefits your (in your case non-existant) henchmen, and you're walking away from that. This is you're edge, and you don't want to use it, and they don't understand why. Much like the stalker who refuses to Hide. Bravo for trying it out, I wish you patience and perseverance. I appreciate players who make a theme first and work towards that goal more than I appreciate players who data mine the offensive and defensive potential of every power to maximize their character without any regard for background.
My advice for a Primary set is - doesn't matter - take the first silly power and toss it in a corner. Now learn to Fight and either Fly, Superleap, or Speed. These will be the other 8 powers you would have taken from your primary. Congratulations, you still get all your secondaries and all your patron and you still have 2 to go. Might I suggest the Presence pool (you laugh, but hang on) or the Teleport pool - specifically Teleport Foe.
By taking Fight and Superleap (for example) - you get 3 attacks. And yeah, they are all melee attacks which seems like a bad idea, by not if you plan to rely on Provoke or Teleport Foe to thin those mobs. Cause really, one on one you'll do okay. Fighting mobs at a time - not so much. You'll get 4 defense powers to boot. And note: slot them for recharge, not endurance reduction. You want to take down 1 opponent fast, shut the defenses down to recover a little while you pick the next victim out and then repeat.
The thing about Presence that I truly like is the Intimidate and Invoke Panic. If you accidentally draw more heat than you can handle those two Fear powers will help douse the fire. Somebody suggested Traps secondary - so lay a few landmines, teleport into a mob, Invoke Panic to freeze them, paste one with a few punches, Provoke a nearby Lt., and teleport back behind your landmines. The Lt. comes running while the mob is still scared and cripples himself so you can finish the job. The rest of the mob starts coming at you. Good landmine technique will have you place one of them out of the path the Lt. took, so now you shift to one side so the rest of the mob lines up on it.
If you do find a team, then drop Fight in your alternate build and get Leadership and/or Health to make yourself a stronger assest to the team.
And finally, there are plenty of high level masterminds who are not team assests. They do a very poor job of managing their pets and inevitably one will start chasing a target past half a dozen other mobs, bringing the entire map spawn down on the team in one spot at one time.

I have exactly one character who uses the pool - my super reflex with leadership pool scrapper. The stamina helps, and the swift and hurdle combined with my quickness allow me to Sprint at 45 MPH normally and over 70 MPH when Elude is kicked in; which is plenty fast for me - I slam into a lot of bus stop booths trying to manuver. Health, however is not my friend, since my defenses inprove the redder I get.
You want to make the game easier for me to play, I guess I shouldn't complain. But I will bring up a few thoughts.
The only feature I ever liked about the pool is that all powers are auto powers. And thanks to diminishing returns - once you three slot, you're pretty much done. So these powers give me minor boosts and allow me to focus slotting elsewhere. Now the plan is to hand me 4 extra powers for free so I can buy 3 clicky powers instead. Clicky powers aren't so good when 2-slotted, plus I have to weigh the benefits of assigning some of my variable enhancement slots to these 'inherent' powers. Make no mistake, this is about stretching your slotting, making powers with 6-slotted IO's all that much more special.
And for everybody asking about extra slots, you already know the answer - you earn 2 or 3 when you level up, there's no mention of changing that rule. If these 4 inherent powers give you one free starter slot, then you get 4 extra slots, but the 64 assignable slots will not change, and there's no game machanic to earn more.
My only real question about this change is will the sleep protection offered by Health be removed, or have the Dev's decided that all sleep powers in the game could stand a little debuffing?

I agree that force fields are more powerful than people give them credit. They are passive bonuses, so your teammates don't 'notice' the benefit unless they've played the exact same mission without you.
I disagree on the lack of offensive potential - sure you don't do much damage, but Force Bolt and Repulsion Bomb keep your opponent's bouncing off the deck so they can't attack (...so why are you bothering to buff your teammate's defense). And Force Bubble? Pin every target in the room into a corner so your team can toss a couple AoE strikes for a ten second mop job Force Bubble? That's not offensive potential? Sure sure, not so good outdoors where targets will scatter, but if you're doing that you deserve the tongue lashing your teammate's are gonna deliver.
And I have no issue with Cages. Use on an eminator to undercut foe's with buffs (DE fungi and cairns, etc.) or to isolate a one-trick pony (like Sappers). You obviously understand soft caps and the min/max bracket. Do you realize Cage is the one power in the game that can (not saying it always does) turn your opponent's offense off? Not 5% - zero percent.

Refreshingly mild responses compared to most of my posts, but no real takers yet. I’ve done Quarterfield before, back before the merit system was added. These changes to the game are so very disappointing. Players just want their rewards - no interest in the story or the camaraderie - it’s all about speed and ‘winning’.

It’s an open invitation and I hope you all will join me for an afternoon of fun. See you there. And remember – the point of the journey is not to arrive.

Hi. Some of you might remember Kid Kourage (shout out to Queenie, Pixie, Orion, Presave) an enthusiastic young adventurer in 2007-8. Somewhat suspicious of Vanguard, I’ve chosen to assist in the Shatter Shard Expeditionary Force. I joined an ROTC program at Paragon University and after 2 years went right into the Marines. Now I’ve been handed the task of recruiting supers to explore this dangerous dimension. Determine the threat this realm poses to our own world. And finally, locate potential allies and resources. So there it is, I need your help to explore this vast dimension. You won’t have to work for or report directly to the military, that’s my task.
I have been given the names of 4 people to talk with about exploring and investigating this strange place: Dr. Thomas Quarterfield, one of the Expedition’s leading scientists, Sara Moore, an indigenous who has been most helpful, Justine Augustine, a mystic and trailblazer for the Expedition, and The Master of The Chantry, also known as Faathim - Protector of Innocents.
I plan to work with each of these contacts, one each week, on the following four Saturdays, beginning at noon (Central Daylight savings time) starting with June 26. And I am asking for your help in making this happen.

Yep – I’m a badger. The 4 TF badges and work on the various defeat badges is my motivation. Kid has 2 modes – Kommander, with the Leadership pool; and Kommando – with the Weapon pool. No special movement powers, so I’ll be using jet pack time.
But if you don't care about no stinking badges, consider these fine reasons:
a) these 4 TF’s are worth a combined 300 merits,
b) completing any one of these unlocks the Rularuu weapons,
c) it’s a fine way to spend your last 10 levels.

Since the Dr. Quarterfield TF is very long, we’ll vote on a break (of an hour or so) at the middle of it. So remember, June 26 – noon central – meet up near Dr. Quarterfield. And since it requires 8 players, I’ll start a sign-up list here so we can see what our status is by Saturday Morning.

1. Kid Kourage

Is there any significant difference between ‘Stone’ taunt, ‘Energy’ taunt, or ‘Mace’ taunt? What exactly is the difference between a character with 9 superstrengh powers and a character with 8 superstrength powers and 1 Presence pool power? If you take the pool version, you get credit to unlock the higher level powers, and you can select the power at level 6. If you take the set power, you get 20’ extra range, the color of the button matches the color of your offensive power set (seriously, you pick your powers based on color co-ordination?!), and you do not redraw your weapons. I know there was a forum suggestion for a range debuff on the set version but I don’t know if it ever went live. Regardless it does nothing to alter my point that there is no difference between the various Set Taunts. This is proliferation in a bad way - distributing the ‘same’ power out across many sets.
Archetypes without a Taunt in their power set can go to the Presence pool; so why force it on Tanks, Scrapers, and Brutes? By force I mean deny a thematic power, and offer instead a power anyone can have. A Dark Controller gets to chose from 9 Dark powers, but a Dark Tank only gets to chose between 8 plus Taunt. Use that ninth power to further define/diversify the Set theme. If a player thinks Taunt is a must for his/her character - allow the player to decide which of the set powers to replace with a pool power - don’t deny the option.
Similarly, every Blaster and Corrupter primary excepting Assault Rifle and Dark Blast has an ‘Aim’ power. Almost every Tanker secondary, Brute, Stalker and Scrapper primary has a ‘Build Up’ power. Some of these sets have special names for these boost powers – ‘Amplify’, ‘Focus Chi’; but only ‘Rage’ appears to be anything different from the norm. Salvage these and make then different in more than name only. Stalkers have this proliferation limitation far worse than any other archetype.
Look at any power set shared by different archetypes. Invulnerability for example – Tankers get better defense benefits from the set than Scrappers do, generally on the order of +33% more defense. Force Fields are another good example; the Defender version grants better protection, but the Controller version has better secondary effects – Knockback and a stronger Detention Field. The Mastermind version is the worst of all, having neither of these advantages. And this plays exactly to my point. Why create all these individually tuned versions of powers when you could make one power which is then augmented by the archetype of the character using it?
Here’s the thing – if there is an ability common to the majority of sets within an archetype, something that they all can do – that’s called an inherent power. And it should be recognized that there are more than one inherent power per archetype. Below I have collected the archetypal abilities into 4 inherent powers which are earned at levels 1, 6, 10, and 20. Inherent powers are not currently enhance-able, but I suggest these be, and come with one free slot when you get the power. Most are auto powers; and those that are not rarely allow endurance or recharge reduction, and never allow enhancements from invention sets.
Does it mean a lot of work? Yes it does. Will the game be better? My answer is that the game would be more diverse. The math that I’ve done (and probably not entirely correctly) is based on 2-slotting the appropriate Archetype power with SOs of the same level. This leaves the opportunity for undervaluing an archetype power, which could be disastrous. Players could also super enhance their archetypal abilities. With these archetypal powers diluting the enhancement supply, those powers that are heavily slotted will stand out even more. You would see diversity in archetypes far more than you do today: the Gauntlet Tank focused on mob control, the Robust Tank focused on occupying the boss, the Hale Tank (meatshield) sponges up damage for the team, etc.

Tanker Powers:
1) Gauntlet (auto) this is an AoE secondary taunt attack against the same target as your primary attack. Any target(s) hit increase their aggro towards you and suffer a -25% debuff to attack ranges. This power allows you to slot Taunt enhancements on any attack power you take, and adds +60% to the taunt value of every attack you make. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: taunt. Replace Taunt in all secondary sets with another theme power.
6) Robust (auto) +23% boost to any power that provides defense, protection, and/or resistance. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: defense, resistance. Reduce values of defensive sets to same values as Scrapper/Stalker.
10) Hale (auto) +50% hit point boost. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: heal. All archetypes use the same schedule of hit point improvement per level, this power augments it.
20) Build-Up (click) +20% to hit and +80% damage to all melee attacks for the next 10 seconds. Enhancements: endurance, to hit, recharge. Replace the Build Up power in all secondary sets with another theme power. Note that as a click power, using this anywhere but prior to starting an attack chain should spoil the sequence.

Scrapper Powers:
1) Critical Hit (auto) 3% (plus any value from the power) chance of critical hit with any attack. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: to hit buff.
6) Build-Up (click) +20% to hit and +100% damage to all melee attacks for the next 10 seconds. Enhancements: endurance, to hit, recharge. Replace the Build Up power in all primary sets with another theme power.
10) Hale (auto) +25% hit point boost. Enhancements: heal.
20) Challenge (auto) Targeted secondary taunt attack and -20% debuff to target’s range. This power adds +30% to the taunt value of every attack you make. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: taunt. Replace Challenge in all primary sets with another theme power.

Controller Powers:
1) Containment (auto) +50% damage to targets Held, Immobilized, Slept, or Disoriented. Enhancements: damage.
6) Protection (auto) Your primary and secondary power sets each give you one of the eight damage keywords, each of these keywords gives you 3 pts. of protection from secondary effects of that type. Enhancements: defense. The secondary effects do not carry the damage tags as far as I can tell, but they need to.
10) Magnify (auto) +20% boost to the magnitude and duration of any secondary effects of your powers (cage, fear, hold, immobilize, intangible, knock back/down/up, placate, repel, sleep, slow (movement), stun, taunt, teleport foe) Enhancement: accuracy (standing in for all secondary effects).
20) Amplify (click) for a short time the damage and range of all your attacks are at -25% but the magnitude and duration of secondary effects improves +20%. Enhancements: to hit buff (which boosts the magnitude of any cage, fear, hold, immobilize, intangible, knock back/down/up, placate, repel, sleep, slow (movement), stun, taunt, teleport powers you have, not the duration).

Defender Powers:
1) Vigilance (auto) endurance discount as teammates are injured. Any power you have with the keyword ‘group’ (group fly, group teleport) has a -30% endurance discount. Enhancement: endurance
6) Protector (auto) any ‘granted’ power you provide has a +20% effectiveness. Any Healing, Recharge, and/or Recovery that you use on a teammate has a +20% effectiveness. Enhancements: defense, resist, heal, modification, recharge.
10) Aim (click) +42.5% to hit and +42.5% damage to all ranged attacks for the next 10 seconds. Enhancements: endurance, to hit, recharge. Aim should be replaced in all secondary sets with another themed power.
20) Aware (auto) +12% buff to power and perception range. Enhancements: range. Your powers extend into your senses, allowing you to see the big picture as well as notice the little details.

Blaster Powers:
1) Defiance (auto) your initial powers can be used even if you are mezzed or stopped. Additionally each successful attack you make adds a +1% damage buff per (10 pts. of damage done) to future attacks for a 10 second duration. Enhancement: damage.
6) Aim (click) +37.5% to hit and +62.5% damage to all ranged attacks for the next 10 seconds. Enhancements: endurance, to hit, recharge. Aim should be replaced in all primary sets with another themed power.
10) Hale (auto) +25% hit point boost. Enhancements: heal.
20) Build-Up (click) +15% to hit and +100% damage to all melee attacks for the next 10 seconds. Enhancements: endurance, to hit, recharge. Replace the Build Up power in all secondary sets with another theme power.

Peacebringer Powers:
1) Energy Flight (toggle) allows you to fly quickly. Enhancements: endurance, fly
6) Cosmic Balance (auto) grants damage boost, damage resistance, recharge resistance, and/or protection based on your mix of teammates. Enhancements: damage, defense, resistance. Now enhance able.
10) Combat Flight (toggle) allows you to fly, slower than energy flight but using less endurance and providing some defense. Enhancements: defense, endurance, fly
20) Energize (auto) grants teammates +3% to maximum endurance, health, and movement, as well as 1 pt of protection from Sleep powers. Enhancements: endurance, defense, fly, heal, jump, range, run. The energy emanating from a Peacekeeper energizes his teammates.

Warshade Powers:
1) Shadow Step (click) allows you to teleport long ranges. Enhancements: endurance, range
6) Dark Sustenance (auto) grants damage boost, damage resistance, recharge resistance, and/or protection based on your mix of teammates. Enhancements: damage, defense, resistance. Now enhance able.
10) Shadow Recall (click) allows you to teleport a teammate to yourself. Enhancements: endurance, range, recharge.
20) Vampiric (auto) Grant teammates +3% to regen, recovery, and recharge rates, as well as 1 pt of protection from Fear powers. Enhancements: endurance, defense, heal, recharge. Your dark energy increases your ally’s metabolic rate, which in turn feeds your own Dark Sustenance.

Special Note: Both the Nova and Dwarf forms already have a Morphic power that behaves like an archetype inherent power while that form is active, which could be expanded upon slightly. Both Dwarf forms should add: Increase threat rating by 1.

Brute Powers:
1) Fury (auto) Adds to the damage of all your attacks which increases with each attack by or against you. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancement: damage.
6) Hearty (auto) +26% boost to any power that provides defense, protection, and/or resistance. +30% hit point boost. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: defense, heal, resistance. Reduce values of defensive sets to same values as Scrapper/Stalker.
10) Build-Up (click) +20% to hit and +80% damage to all melee attacks for the next 10 seconds. Enhancements: endurance, to hit, recharge. Replace Build-up in all primary sets with another theme power.
20) Challenge (auto) Targeted secondary taunt attack and -20% debuff to target’s range. This power adds +30% to the taunt value of every attack you make. This power allows you to slot Taunt enhancements on any attack power you take. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: taunt. Replace Challenge in all primary sets with another theme power.

Stalker Powers:
1) Hide (toggle) makes you difficult to detect. Enhancement: recharge. Replace Hide in all secondary sets with another theme power. Drop the defensive bonus provided.
6) Assassinate (toggle, interruptible) an interruptible prep move that once set, grants a +50% boost to the damage of your next attack. It also grants your next attack a 5% chance (plus any value from the power) for Critical Hit. If the target is Held or Slept this improves to 20% and if your threat value to the target is zero, this improves to 100%. It also grants a secondary attack that can demoralize your foe, causing fear or reducing their chance to hit. This power adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: interrupt, damage. Replace Assassin Strike in all primary sets with another theme power.
10) Hale (auto) +25% hit point boost. Enhancements: heal.
20) Placate (target) if successful, reduces your threat value against the target by the power’s magnitude (minimum of 0). Enhancement: accuracy. Replace Placate in all primary sets with another theme power.

Special Note: I would much rather add Placate to the Presence Pool as a level 14 power, halving the magnitude and duration, then:
Stalker Powers (the cooler way):
1) Hide (toggle) makes you difficult to detect. While toggled, double the magnitude and duration of any Placate power you use. Enhancement: recharge. Replace Hide in all secondary sets with another theme power. Drop the defensive bonus provided.
6) Assassination (auto) automatic critical hit when ‘hidden’ and 20% chance for critical hit when target is slept or held. It also does a secondary attack that can demoralize your foe, causing fear and/or reducing their chance to hit. This power adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: fear, to hit debuff.
10) Hale (auto) +25% hit point boost. Enhancements: heal.
20) Assassin’s Strike (toggle, interruptible) an interruptible prep move that once set, grants a +60% boost to the damage of your next melee attack. Enhancements: interrupt, damage. Replace Assassin Strike in all primary sets with another theme power.
Don’t think heroes should have a Placate skill? Oh you’re clever, you got me monologue-ing!

Dominator Powers:
1) Domination (toggle) +20% accuracy buff and +50% damage for any of your attacks with a secondary effect. Enhancements: accuracy, damage.
6) Protection (auto) Your primary and secondary power sets each give you one of the eight damage keywords, each of these keywords gives you 3 pts. of protection from secondary effects of that type. Enhancements: defense. Your own powers can be used against you? Not a chance.
10) Magnify (auto) +20% boost to the magnitude and duration of any secondary effects of your powers (cage, fear, hold, immobilize, intangible, knock back/down/up, placate, repel, sleep, slow (movement), stun, taunt, teleport foe) Enhancement: accuracy (standing in for all secondary effects).
20) Power Boost (click) +25% to the duration of any secondary effects of your powers. +25% to powers that offer buffs, heals, and movement speed to teammates. Enhancement: fear, fly, heal, hold, immobilize, jump modification, run, sleep, slow, stun. Replace Power Boost (Build-up and Aim) in all secondary sets with another theme power.

Mastermind Powers:
1) Supremacy (auto) is all about effective teamwork. You grant damage and to hit bonuses to your pets. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: damage, to hit.
6) Shifty (auto) +10% boost to speed and +25% resistance to slow movement, but costs you -20% to total health. Enhancements: fly, jump, range (teleport), run, resist (slow).
10) Isolate (click) -12% defense debuff and -8% resistance debuff on your target for 10 seconds. All your pets in range will attack your target at least once during this time, but will quickly return to their own fight. Enhancements: defense debuff, endurance, recharge. The opposite of Aim/ Build-up powers used by other archetypes. You study your foe and devise a means to beat down their defenses using multiple attacks from multiple angles.
20) Aware (auto) +12% buff to power and perception range. Enhancements: range. Your powers extend into your senses, allowing you to see the big picture as well as notice the little details.

Corrupter Powers:
1) Scourge (auto) +2.5% * (.5 – (current health/max health)) chance for +60% damage. Enhancement: damage.
6) Aim (click) +42.5% to hit and +42.5% damage to all ranged attacks for the next 10 seconds. Enhancements: endurance, to hit, recharge. Aim should be replaced in all primary sets with another themed power.
10) Supercharge (click) +42.5% to hit and +42.5% damage to all AoE attacks for the next 10 seconds. Enhancements: endurance, to hit, recharge. Very similar to Aim, this power will momentarily ramp up AoE powers.
20) Reach (auto) +20% buff to power range. Enhancements: range. You can do just fine from here.

Soldier of Arachnos Powers:
1) Conditioning (auto) +.3% to regeneration rate and +1.05% to recovery rates. Enhancements: heal, modification.
6) Technique (auto) +20% to the magnitude of your disorienting, immobilize, and/or knock down powers. You also have +10% resistance to range debuff effects and +5% total hit points. It also adds 1 to your threat rating. Enhancements: defense, immobilize, knockback, stun.
10) Small Unit Tactics (auto) you grant your teammates a +3% debuff resistance to powers that debuff their movement, defense, and/or hit chance. Enhancements: resistance.
20) Inspire (target) gives a teammate a +3% boost to endurance and improves maximum endurance for a short while. Enhancements: endurance.

…and sorry this wound up being so long.

So last night I rob the AP bank so I can get my first Port Oakes mission contact and I settle on Billie Heck. I get a mission where the Mooks are storming the Family hideout and I'm caught by surprise. I'm so used to the Mooks being guys in reddish brown suits and Bowlers where the Family is guys in white or purple suits with Fedoras. And these young toughs in wifebeaters with pencilstaches come running up to thump me with nightsticks. Who the heck are these guys?!?
I kinda forget about the mission and went through my mobs slower than usual because I really enjoyed the new look. Still very Mob, but its now way more than just the old Bowlers versus Fedoras thing. Great job! Anybody know when this change happened (I haven't done much in Port Oakes besides pay the supergroup fees in a long time)?
Can players get that nineteen-year-old-trying-to-grow-my-first-'stache look? I am so tired of the mk II Cookieduster being the only choice in mustaches.
Again, great job. Thank you.

I started on Victory, and after a few RL buddies joined we started Adverbs/Adverse on the "Infinite Lee" server. We were always a smaller group (got up to about 20 casual players in the summer of 2007), but as life marches on almost all have drifted away and I returned to my 'home' server, where I have more in-game friends still playing.
So speaking as a player who's experienced two of the lighter servers, I can say that Infinity is better for PUG (missions, TFs, Trials, they're all good) and the bigger groups are happy to form coalitions with smaller groups to enhance that team building effort (blue side more than red).
So while there is an excellent co-operative interest on Infinity, I cannot agree with the 'Friendliest' label. I have encountered many pranksters who falsely cry out Giant Monster sightings on global, or when you put up a search interest message such as 'not interested in farming' will send repeated tells to heckle you. I have also been abandoned during dozens of PUG TF's and Trials and watched as teammates overreact to or be overly critical of each other. My buddy has a great story of actually completing Citadel while a teammate spent the entire TF flaming him for not listening. The flamer (an empathy defender) refused to provide aide to my buddy after the second mission, but was not the team leader so he couldn't kick him. But I digress...
There is a dedicated core - join the Infinity TF, Badge, or GM channels - the players who use those features will treat you well. The Taxi's, PCSAR, and Dumb are excellent resources. If you enjoy some 'casual combative discourse' while you play, you'll enjoy Infinity. Beyond that, YMMV as they say.

I am Severe Lee and I am a Badger. Some say admitting your problem is the best medicine. I say kicking butt and prying the badges from your enemy’s cold fingers is the answer. For starters, I want to work through all the Strike Force badges.
I’m in it for the badge(s) so I’m not looking to race through the adventure just for some merit points. Nor am I (particularly) interesting in pushing the difficulty to the max. Once we’ve assembled a team, we can settle on the exact difficulty we want.
I’m looking for like-minded villains for an afternoon of fun and badge hunting. So I’ll be waiting on Infinity, in Sharkhead, by Operative Renault, at noon central, on Saturday Jan 23. Hopefully, we can do one or two SF's each week for a while.
If we have enough interest we can form multiple teams and run competing SF’s. That’s where each team must include at least one member who does not have the SF badge in question, nor any of the difficulty badges that the teams agree to play for. First team back to the Contact with the agreed upon badge collection wins bragging rights for the competition.

See you there.

C-Dog wrote a useful guide to this set based on the situation in I7, but we are almost 10 issues past that, and things have changed. He pointed out that earth powers offer the best hold mastery in the game. What he apparently did not realize is that this combo is the key to dominating ALL motion on the battlefield – nothing moves without your permission, and nothing can resist when you push.
You have two solid tactics available, Cutting-one-out (cutting) and working-the-clock (clocking). Cutting is the art of separating your foes and taking them out one at a time. Sometimes this mean pulling your target out of a pack, sometimes this means pushing the pack away from your target.
Clocking is the art of keeping your foes occupied while you (or your teammates) work towards your own goal. Clocking occasionally looks like a Benny Hill conga line as you pin and attack your primary target while you lead his companions on a merry chase. Each time you come around you apply another pin and more damage, and eventually the Boss notices that the rest of his pack is gone.
And it’s great when you can do both. Force Bolt the minion over a balcony railing and Fossilize the Lt. You have ‘cut out’ the Lt. and at the same time you have ‘clocked’ the minion who must now run back.

So what’s changed since I7. Well, there’s the dual build option. You can now trick out a solo (swap out Deflection and Insulation Shields for more attack powers) and a team build (focus on your buff debuff role).
Second, this combo is very diverse in the types of invention enhancement sets it can use: Hold, Immobilize, To Hit Debuff, Defense Debuff, Sleep, Slow, Knockback, Stun, Pet Damage, Ranged Damage, Targeted AoE, PBAoE, and Defense. I strongly recommend you read up on slotting strategies. These powers don’t have great frankenslotting potential. But 2-slot a power with end/hold and recharge/hold (for a bonus 4% boost to recharge rate) with an SO for more hold and you’ve got a potent power.

Earth Powers:
These are your cutting tools, your ying set. You bring an awesome debuff combination to your team. You can get 75% defense debuff on a target with Quicksand (25%), Stone Prison and Cages (20% each), and Earthquake (10% and enhancable) debuff. This makes you are valuable on TFs and other challenges that involve bosses and archvillains. The Prison and Cages almost never affect monsters though.
While most Earth Control powers can be used at range, they are best utilized when you yourself are inside the area effect. As much as I’m going to talk up your melee prowess here, keep in mind your Health is lower than any melee archetype. Play linebacker. Learn when to rush the line and when to fall back into coverage. Most of these powers have an 80’ or better range, as good as any Blaster. In a PVP arena match your opponent is going to load up on purples to get out of your traps. In a PVP zone, you’ll fare better. Use your Force Fields to wait out their ‘purple time’ or to fight opponents with heavy protection to Earth (melee archetypes).
Fossilize (even, even): Your best attack bar none. The Containment advantage makes you want to use this attack second in a combination, but that’s not always smart. Cut out a Vampiri and it’ll Sleep you while you Prison it, washing out your advantage. So know-your-foe! Damage is greatly enhanced in PVP.
Stone Prison (Solo, PVP): Single target damage-over-time makes this a weak looking power because your target will regen while it takes damage. It does includes defense debuff, –Fly, and –Knock back on the target, so it’s a fine cutter, and an excellent way to begin Containment. Use in conjunction with your Force Bolt to push a target out of a mob and Immobilize them at range. Or use with Fossilize to Contain and defense debuff your target, then apply your best damage. The –Knock back is marginal, your own FF powers can easily push this around.
Stone Cages (Team, PVE): Weaker version of the Prison, this nabs multiple targets but weakens the DoT and movement modifiers (and does not improve in PVP, but has the charm of making multiple opponents expend a purple with one shot). It still has the defense debuff, so its can be a help to your melee line. It’s only an Immobilize, so nothing prevents the targets from shooting back. Not much of a cutting tool, this one is for crowd control. Best use in tandem with Stalagmites to set Containment or keep the stunned mob from drifting apart. Also good for a counter-attack if your team gets caught in a crossfire (Cage one group to take their aggro, put your PFF on, and have your team press the fight towards the other group first).
Quicksand (Solo, even): Slow power with Defense Debuff. Not a cutting tool since you want to attack the targets inside the effect. Use with the Prison to get a 45% defense debuff on a tough target (assuming you can get the Prison to stick). Another good tandem is to get your Salt Crystals on a mob, lay down the Quicksand (this doesn’t disturb the sleeping effect), carefully pick out your first victim (somebody you missed is a good place to start), take a red, and start smacking.
Salt Crystals (Solo, PVE): This much maligned power is actually awesome! PBAoE Sleep is both a cutting and a clock tool, but you need a method of delivery. Teleporting, Invisibility, Superspeed or Fly along with the ‘F’ key, or even just using your PFF and walking to the center of a mob all work fine. Teams have trouble taking advantage of this power, but teammates with offensive aura powers can learn to save the endurance from them, holding the toggle until the salt crystals give out (assuming the fight takes that long), and then applying their own PBAoE powers to finish off. Luckily, Salt has a very obvious effect, unlike the snoozing versions of Sleep powers. Stony doesn’t understand what Sleep is, so you should let it take the lead in selecting targets that are asleep. Great way to start Containment.
Stalagmites (even, PVE): Paired with Salt Crystals, this power can leave you in command of the pace for a very long time. You will quickly discover that Salt Crystals don’t last long enough for you to take out a whole mob one at a time, and doesn’t recharge fast enough to reapply. So you learn to time yourself, use the Salt, lay down your Sand, take out the first couple minions, and just before Salt ends stomp down with Stalagmites for the Containment bonus and continued clock time. The surviving mob does the dizzy dance while you polish off the next couple. If there’s anybody left to fight, Fossilize and Stone Prison should finish the job. On a team, you can use this to assist the front line by targeting through an invulnerable teammate and stunning his/her immediate foes – this jacks their Defense and To Hit up through Invincible without having to get pummeled. You may need to follow up with Cages to keep the mob together. The stun effect works just as well in PVP, but it’s easily countered with a purple.
Earthquake (Team, PVP): I say team, but they will hate you for this power because they don’t understand it. C-Dog said this is knockdown only, but I’ve seen it hurl foes all about. But you can slot both/either To Hit Debuff or Defense Debuff on it, and your team really wants this. They may not realize it but they do; cause nothing cuts the fight time on bosses/villains/monsters like these debuffs. Great fun in PVP when you know there’s a Stalker nearby who keeps getting interrupted by the quake pulses. This is a cutting tool when you combine with Prison or Fossilize to keep your target inside the quake area while the rest of the mob flops around. It can also tandem with your Repulsion Field. Earthquake has a 25’ radius and the Repulsion Field has a 10’ radius. Lay the Earthquake to one side of your team and then you flank to the other (conveniently, your Dispersion Bubble also has a 25’ radius, so you can use the edge of the bubble to gauge your distance from the geyser). The targets now bounce back and forth between you and the geyser.
Volcanic Gasses (Solo, PVE): Like Salt, Stalagmites, and Earthquake, you can use this for clock time against an entire mob while you whittle away at their numbers. Better than Cages since the targets are busy coughing on the fumes rather than shooting back at you. In PVP, using a purple let’s your foe out of the Hold, and thus they can escape the DoT. So stand in the middle of it and make them use range. And yet another annoyance to Stalkers.
Animate Stone (Solo, PVE): This is one tough pet, especially while inside your Dispersion Bubble. Affectionately known as Stony or Rocky, this pet does most of the damage for you. But it chases things, and that can get it (and you) into a lot of trouble. Once you have this ultimate weapon, you need to switch your tactics a bit – using your earth powers to keep foes nearby to control what Stony targets, and your FF powers to push others away so it won’t stray. It’s aggro range is not great, foes with stand-off weapons can injure you and this pet will stand at your side totally oblivious. This pet can also be tough in PVP. Your foe(s) will naturally ignore the pet and focus on you. So you should focus on keeping them stepping and fetching while Stony does the hitting.

Force Field Powers:
Your yang powers – for keeping foes away and your teammates from harm. Defense as a whole is a clock tactic. Say an opponent can make a 50pt attack every 2 seconds. Ten strikes takes 20 seconds to generate 500 points of damage. If you can deflect 1/3 of the incoming attacks, then on average you opponent must make 14 attacks to reach the 500 damage mark, taking 28 seconds. So 8 seconds of their time wasted (plus endurance for 4 extra attacks).
Dispersion Bubble adds 7.5% defense from all damage methods (melee, range, AoE) and 7.5% from all damage types (smash, lethal, etc.) so that’s 15% from all attacks. Learn the difference between Deflection and Insulation Shield. Deflection adds 11% against Melee, Insulation adds 11% against Range and AoE. Deflection adds 11% against Smashing and Lethal, Insulation does the rest. If your opponent’s use guns (ranged and lethal), do both. If they use knives (melee and lethal) don’t waste time/energy on Insulation Shield. Many Bubblers will just do both all the time. By 20th level, you will be very tired of constant Bubbling, which causes many players to give this archetype up. The result is this: un-enhanced, you add 36% defense (which means you can deflect 1/3 of the incoming attacks).
Personal Force Field (Solo, PVP): A defense between 60-90% means you escape when the team wipe comes. This tapers off at higher levels as critters begin to use defense debuff on you, and there is always the 5% chance. Slot early, and then come back with another slot or two late. Other toggle powers (like Repulsion Field) are suppressed until you drop the PFF, so you can conceal what you are preparing to do. It works nearly as well with targeted powers since you control the timing of the switch. If your team gets in trouble, you can use one of your AoE attacks to attract attention and flip this on and play target dummy while your team recovers their balance. Remember that Dispersion Field, and other buff powers will cut out on your teammates when you activate this – so use it wisely. In PVP, use this to wait out any foe using ‘purple time’.
Deflection Shield (Team, PVE): Ignore for your solo build (despite the text on Stony you cannot buff it with this power). This is a power your team expects from you. Consider what sort of team you typically play with when slotting. If you typically team with one or two partners, then slot for more defense, and live with the slower charge cycle and higher endurance. If you are always on a team of 5+, then slot for recharge and endurance so you can get through the whole team quickly. Chances are they will be happy for the bubbles and never notice you just provide the league minimum. There is no defense to toxin attacks, but this provides 30% resistance (non-enhancable).
Force Bolt (Solo, PVP): This is a prime cutting power. Slot for knock back and accuracy, and use it to keep one foe at bay while you pound on his partner. In PVP, it will still work on foes despite them using special KB resisting powers/enhancements. Or slot towards endurance and recharge. This way, you can quickly separate a mob. If you lose the initiative in the fight, get an obstacle between you and your target (a corner say) and trigger the Bolt. The instant your target clears the obstacle they get the ‘sledgehammer-to-the-skull’ treatment; and you can reclaim the tempo. Once you have Stony though, you need be careful that your target has NOT attracted its attention or your pet may give chase.
Insulation Shield (Team, PVP): Again – expected on teams and ignorable solo. I feel this is the stronger of the ally buffs, since almost every teammate can find something to deal with smashing and lethal damage on their own. But this one offers AoE defense – where are they gonna find that?
Detention Field (Solo, PVE): Lts. and Bosses tend to be harder to hit with the stop* powers, but this works just fine on all targets (it’s duration will be shortened, but it will work). This power is excellent for Cutting tactics – preventing one foe from acting while you take out the other(s). Very useful against de/buff types too (sky pirate FF generators, Devouring Earth cairns and fungus, Tsoo Sorcerers, Rikti Guardians, Malta Sappers, etc.) This power will lose a lot of value once you have Stony, who doesn’t notice it. If a foe gets too close this is an escape hatch. You can also use this at long distance as a kind of taunt; putting one mob member in Detention to alert the rest (but not so great if they have long range attacks). Be very careful of using it to try to hold an escaping NPC. They often can overcome the Hold value, in which case you just made it nearly impossible to stop them. In PVP, it’s reduced to a mere 8 second effect.
Dispersion Bubble (even, even): The keynote FF power – it helps you, Stony, and your team. It is nice defense all around and protection from all the powers that generate Containment except Sleep. Stony becomes ‘Diamond’ as long as it stays inside the bubble. Endurance use is reasonable for what you get, but better if you slot for it (keeping the field on is better than increasing its protection).
Repulsion Field (team, PVP): This power was a puzzle for me at first because the endurance use is ‘per affected target’. Take this into a Rikti Invasion or Zombie attack, and your blue bar will disappear within five seconds – and then every loose critter will make your green bar disappear. But if you stay tight with a Blaster, this will sweep away any foes they attract. It can halt foes trying to sweep around/through your melee line. As a cutter, it can sift out the Lts. and Bosses (or any targets you Immobilize with an earth power) since they are they only ones likely to resist the effect. Just remember that it only cuts 10’, which isn’t much for the hassle it creates. It can protect you from the rear ambush and Stalker, but that often goes similar to the Rikti mosh pit. In zones or on maps with mobs in high density, it just gets messy. Not good with Stony, which will chase everything. If this offered some ‘to hit debuff’ or defense to AoE attacks (snow storms and caltrops shouldn’t work very well inside a repulsion field), it would be much better.
Repulsion Bomb (solo, PVE): Much better than the Field! Targeted, damage dealing, usable at range, and a fixed endurance use. The slow wind-up makes it best as a starter, but it scatters mobs and can disorient, so it causes Containment. Since you can’t control the scatter effect, it’s a random cutting tool, and Stony will chase the targets around.
Force Bubble (team, PVE): Almost nothing can resist the Bubble’s repel. It still has the down side of affecting every target it comes in contact with, so you will collect a lot of unwelcome aggro. It will most definitely overcome your earthly power’s rooting features, pushing every target to the extreme of your reach. There are great applications for this – where foes are in a corner or an alcove and you can pin them. Keeping baddies away from the reactor core, barring foes from hallways and doors, going around blind corners - this is the tool. I’ve never had the courage to try using it in a Rikti mosh pit. Using the Bubble should generate a region of 7850 square feet with a player density of 20+ and a Rikti density of 0. Players will spit fire and venom at you, but if I understand Grey Watcher’s notes on generating Heavies, this should actually be excellent.

Pools to compliment this power combo.
First and foremost – get a melee attack. Don’t worry that Controllers have a ‘weak’ damage base, thanks to Containment you do double damage. You need something to boost your damage output anyway.
I recommend Fighting for your solo build. Box (chance for Stun/Containment) or Kick (even more knock back/cutting options) are both good. If you solo often, then take Tough for some resistance to common damage types to go with your defense. Air Superiority, Flurry, and Jump Kick all get you credit toward a movement power while covering your need for more damage. As for which movement power to go with, I’m most impressed with Teleport. Recall Friend in team mode and Teleport Foe (more cutting) in solo granting use of Teleport (which works well with Salt and your Repel powers). I find Superleap lacks the precision you want for cutting but is good for clocking, and both Combat Jumping and Acrobatics bolster your melee capacity. Whrilwind, another maligned power, offers more ‘clocking’. Concealment works well. Grant Invisibility pushes your base team defense to 41% (but will drive you mad with bubbles), while Invisibility and Phase Shift fit right in as clocking tools. If you like cutting, then the Presence Pool is very useful by taking just Challenge and Intimidate. Both Taunt and Fear are good cutting tools, and you open two more enhancement set categories. If you are heavy on the team support by buffing your teammates and debuffing foes, then add Medicine or Leadership. Medicine plus Teleport can make you something of a team saver after a wipeout. Maneuvers in particular boosts the team D even more, and the prospect of using to-hit and defense debuffs via Earth powers while buffing your team’s to-hit through Tactics has some charm for knocking over heavy targets. I’ve never tried Fitness, but a high regen and/or recovery rate is always a good thing. And Swiftness’ Sleep protection helps close the one hole in your Dispersion Bubble.
As for the Ancillary pools, I have not respec-ed Rat to try these all out, so anything I offer would just be conjecture. By the time you reach 41st level you should already have a good idea how the set powers work with your play style so you will know which of these you want.

* Most people lump the stop powers in with mez powers, which is not quite correct. Mez are powers that restrict/redirect your attacks: sleep, confuse, stun, fear, placate, taunt. Stop powers restrict/redirect your movement: hold, immobilize, slow, knock back/down/up, repel, cage. Cage, Fear, and Immobilize have some crossover abilities, the rest do not.

The current method works fine, but this seems like a collection of very useful tools to me. It can only goes as far as players understand how to use it, and then there are those who would intentionally misuse it. So let's open the topic for discussion. I present this idea in 3 main topics:

Part 1 - color coding
Universal color coding for the team tab, player search menu, friends tab, Supergroup tab, and targeting reticule of other players.
In order of precedence:
White/Light Gray: Offline on the friends and supergroup lists, doesn’t occur on the search menu, is the current white on the team tab for a defeated teammate, and would become the color of the reticule border of a defeated character.
Orange: Online, and solo, but playing a character from the opposite side (a villain when you are logged in as a hero). In PVP (but not Co-op) zones, the orange is already in play for the reticule.
Blue: Online, on the same side, and solo – all features
Dark Green: Online and on a team – all features
Bright Green: Online and on your team – all features
Red: Online, but not interested/available for teaming (the current ignore all requests).
Black/Dark Gray: A character on your ignore list.

additional suggestions on color coding:
a) busy: I try to remember to put a note up and hit the ignore key when I’m about to make a new costume or do a respect or use the base designer or build an AE mission, but I forget. And I’m not about to back out or rush through just to find a buddy has logged in and said ‘Hey’. So if the game can determine when a player is using an editor function, can my actual status be shifted to red? And yes I know I can open the chat window while using the base editor.
b) closed teams: A team closes automatically when you have 8 members, but leaders can set the closed indicator whenever they please. This moves all members of the team to red status. Likewise, mission types that lock teams (Task/Strike forces) also become red when they start.
c) I’d love to suggest that orange could show up on the search menu when you are in PVP or Co-op zones, but I imagine it’s been suggested many times, and if it could be done, it would be by now.
d) Having no idea how the Praetorian world and shifting alliance is meant to work, I don’t know if I should suggest that a third color be introduced or just put them in orange (i.e. ‘not on your side’).
e) Why a black border? Ever been on a Hamidon or Mothership raid (or even a task force/team) and wonder why no-one on your team is talking and yet they all know what they are doing? That’s because someone on your ignore list is in charge (so you aren’t getting the instructions). Getting the entire raid group to halt while you try to figure out who to remove from the ignore list isn’t going to happen. But if you know there are ignored players around then you can un-ignore and participate meaningfully (not to mention re-evaluate having them on ignore).

Part 2 - preferences
Change the menu of activity interests to be more comprehensive and allow players to indicate interest level in each. A suggested activity list: Zone Patrol, Zone Events (raves, fires, GMs, zombie/Rikti raid, costume contests, etc), Contact/Story Arc Missions, Radio/Paper Missions, AE Missions, Task/Strike Forces, Trials/Raids (Hamidon, Mothership), PVP Zone Patrol, PVP Missions, and Arena. For each of these provide 3 radio buttons – interested, neutral, decline. Remove ‘any’ and make the default for each category neutral.

additional thoughs on preferences:
a) Farming and Power Leveling. So you and some buddies have been playing a while, got your toons up in the mid-forties, and now another friend wants to join in. Power leveling the new guy is the only option. So I accept that these activities have a legitimate place in the game. I also feel that these activities should be kept inside your supergroup and/or coalitions; it’s like admitting you’ve kissed your sister - not something to share with the general public. But let’s face facts, these activities occur. Some of us like it (dude, I’m trying to purple out my toon), and some of us don’t (I should report you for suggesting it). So if the interest section allows you to indicate if you will or will not join a team for these purposes, are we promoting a happy gaming environment where you can hang with like-minded individuals, or just facilitating the cheaters?
b) Badging. The above could also be said about Badging. Is it worth a preference indicator?

Part 3 - updating the search feature
These fields always show in any search:
Name (color coded from topic 1 to indicate availability, which is selectable)
Player comments
These fields are optional and adjustable:
a) minimum security clearance (default 1),
b) maximum security clearance (default 50)
c) origin(s) (default none) {why, oh why, is this a concern?}
d) archetype (default all)
e) zone(s) (default all)
f) has minimum requirements for the mission I have active [need a Midnighter badge to enter Cimerora, etc] (default none, unless you have a mission active)
h+) titles (defaults none. Each title is its own field)
i+) mission types (default none. From topic 2, each of which will become a field in the result). Each of the activity fields would show a dot for people who have marked this category as preferred, an ‘x’ for those who mark it decline, and empty otherwise.

additional ideas for search:
a) For any adjustable field, click on ‘none’ to remove the field from the search parameters.
b) Titles are: Leader if you are currently leading a team, Recruiter if you have the right to recruit players to your supergroup, and Coordinator if you have the right to make coalitions. This will allow players looking for a team, supergroup, or coalition to limit their searches to players who can help them. These titles can be hidden. This is probably the spot to add Farmer, Badger, and Leveler if such features are added.
c) Search by Contact - A ‘look for team’ search button on each contact’s screen. This preloads the search feature with the minimum requirements (appropriate level range, badge requirements, not already on a team) for the story arc/trial/task-strike force the contact is offering.
d) Blind Invites - How about a spot in the invite window that shows me the parameters of the inviter’s search so I can see what sort of activities they are planning to run / type of team they are putting together?

K, there it is. What do you all think?

Yes, please sing out on Infinity, Inf TF, Inf Hami, Inf GMs when you are interested in strike forces or the red side trials. I have the same issues - usually having to solo on the red side. So I'm often on the blue, but I keep these channels open, and I'll certainly come running if something red side is starting up. And I'd be happy to help players fight their way through their patron arcs. Some of those missions are rough enough just on 'Villainous'. Even the PVP zones (but I'll skip the Arena thanks).

You've missed a few. None of the Als (Al Waize, Al Most...). Too. Very. Never. Here. There. The whole Bli clan (Forci, Aimea, Crum, etc) is missing. Then there are the "married intos" such as Uncommon Lee-Goode. And the 'Verse aren't nearly so strict with the names, our Founder's name is Remaining (which is what - a past participle?).

Adverbs are everywhere!

Too much Anime on the brain - you start any match with a maneuver that involves ‘roundhouse’ or ‘flying’ and your opponent records his fastest win ever by spiking you off the floor mat like the volleyball you are!
Luckily the game is more forgiving – and you can already do what you are suggesting – in fact, it’s Kid’s signature move.

At a good distance pick the leader out of any pack. Press F and queue your attack (the Crane Kick is far better for this). Just before your toon closes to melee distance, press the space bar and you will 1) vault over your opponent, 2) spin around, and 3) punt him back into the arms of your teammates. Follow with a Dragon’s Tail to scatter his mob (which serves as a back-up punt in case the first strike actually missed somehow).
You will do enough damage to take your target’s agro so when he gets up, he will ignore all the damage your teammates apply and come charging. As you are still ‘following’, the Dragon’s Tail will freeze you in place, giving you time to assess the damage done so far. Focus Chi while your toon closes the gap, and apply your finishing move. If you hit the space bar again just before you attack, you will vault back so you are facing the mob you just scattered so you can begin cleaning up.

Adverbs second anniversary is today. If you see a 'Verb - twist and shout!
Some of our more memorable battle cries and comments-
"Never fear, an Averb is hear!" - Courageous Lee
"I'm just a toon looking for some action baby." - Dangerous Lee
"Adverbs Rule!" - Kid Lioness, Kid Rhino, Kid Penguin
"Never invite Late Lee, Absent Lee, or Annoying Lee to your team. Bare Lee, Hot Lee, or Wanton Lee are all great to team-up with" - Elder Lee
"Too is Here! (no wait - secret base is Here, Too not in secret base) Too is There! (ak, that not right either) Too... will help?!?" - The Mighty Too
"That was awesome Lee" "Thanks, but I'm Extreme. Awesome is on another call." - Extreme Lee
"We're all over the action" - Original Lee
"Never fear, an Adverb is here - unless it's Too. In that case your situation hasn't really gotten any better." - Courageous Lee

Adverbs is a super group with a theme - your name must be or sound like an adverb - and your powers, costume, and style either embelish or poke fun at your name.
Yes we're a small group - but we are all about enjoying the game in a light-hearted way. We love doing TFs, trials, and raids - but not that invincible stuff where players get way too intense. We enjoy doing PVP in that same causual manner (as President Grant once said "some days you whup and some days you get whupped"). We are not about farming or power leveling (as Rush once put it "the point of the journey is not to arrive") but we're not against them either. If that's what you're looking for in a super group, then give us a yell.

I just can't go with all these literal translations, that would turn Kid Kourage into Kid Koward, Courageous Lee into Coward Lee and his evil brother Severe Lee into what... Slight Lee?! And want would Bison Boy translate - Mouse Man, Cow Girl.
No, I'ma probably have to go with Kid Konquer!
As for my Adverb and Adverse toons, they'd all have to be renamed as adjectives for the joke to carry through - so just Courageous and Severe (and they should probably swap). Not nearly so spectacular. Maybe "The Mighty Gerund"!
"Never fear, an adjective is here!" doesn't sound right. "Just a toon looking for some action" only worked when you're an adverb. "Adjectives rule!!!" doesn't have the same ring. "Adjectives - we don't have anything to do with action, just nouns" is way off the mark. "Adjectives - we're all over the... pronouns"?!? Eh, nah - I don't think the 'Verb have a place in Praetoria.
And as for Bison Boy... dunno, Cow Belle?

[ QUOTE ]
B) 8.) New Spy Archetype, Power Sets & Costumes As cool as it sounds at first, a non-combat AT will be issolated from the rest of the community, there will no be a role for it on almost any team. This eventually would be an issue.

[/ QUOTE ]
So you assume that a Spy AT is a full 50 level archetype, right after Spider soldiers and Widows were introduced. One of the biggest problems I've seen with the game being able to introduce Golden Era heroes and villains is the lack of 'spy' skills. Heroes of the seventies plus are an order of magnitude greater than heroes of that earlier age. The Phantom, The Shadow, Doc Sampson, Two Gun Kid, The Ghost Tank, The Howling Commandoes, Nick Fury, Black Widow... the list is huge! Widows and Spiders are 'proof-of-concept' for starting with one architype and then moving into something else (ala Carol Davers, Air Force Pilot, Government Operative, Ms. Marvel, Binary, yada, yada...).

Batman, Doc Strange, Iron Man, Prof. Xavier and Mr. Fantastic all fit the Pulp Era 'thinker' motiff. They figure out what the bad guy wants or how the bad guy keeps winning, and they change their own powers to suit. So if the Spy represents the beginnings of 'skills' rather than powers, I say bring it - I'd love to take the skill 'Sorcerer Supreme' (cept that might be copywrited, shoot...)

Gotta disagree on the Salt Crystals. Salt Crystals and Stalagmites are a one-two punch that gives you tons of time to beat mobs down at your own pace.
If you like teleport or invisibility then get into a mob and slam them with salt crystals. Learn how long the crystals last for your particular level and enhancements and start counting. Find a member of the mob the crystals missed and lock him down with stone cage and then immobilize. If you got the whole mob, lead with immobilize (double damage cause he's sleeping and you're a troller). You should have the first one or two down when you reach your number. Stalagmite now! Let the rest do the drunken stun dance while you finish off number three and four. Anybody left? It's a free-for-all now, Quicksand, Earthquake, Gas, or start using your secondary powers. Works even better if you take Boxing or Kick (since when you box sleeping, held, stunned, etc. you also do double damage). Don't fear taking a melee power with an earth controller squishy. Two reasons: 1) Stoney is very protective about bad guys poking you. 2) You can now take Tough and/or Weave (and/or get the Rock Armor epic) giving you a good chance of surviving in a high threat zone long enough to lock down your immediate area and get out of there. Salt crystals do suck on teams where a Tank or Scrapper has a damaging PBAOE attack toggled or on autofire - but then so do all Sleep powers.
Oh yeah, once you have Stoney, let him take the lead in which sleeping opponent to clobber first, he's very bad about following your lead.

Sorry, but the ability to take 3 or 4 punks out of a mob before the fight officially starts - you want that power. My answer is none - you want all nine. But if you need to make space for something, carefully look over your secondaries and pools - decide what they can cover for you, and take out that power. We can now have multiple builds on a character. In my team build the one power I can do without is Stoney - since I have teammates.

Love the Positron TF comments - that brings back a ton of memories from when me and my buddy were just starting our SG a couple summers ago. We were right in the range for Positron and a couple of level 50's who were working on their badges asked if we'd care to join them. They were fine with the exemping part, but really horrible at using the powers they had left. They couldn't deal with Rollister and crew knocking us all over the board and quit. My friend and I tried to crawl our way through that board so we could get to the next mission and have it reset to the new team size, but no go. We quit and immediately restarted, inviting another high level toon to join us. By the second mission, the lack of xp was so annoying to him that he also quit on us. And so that day went on, and on. We probably tried to get that going 4 straight times - like watching Groundhog Day!!! In the end, we found someone our own level who wasn't freaked by the loss of powers and xp and we actually enjoyed the ride.
And just for fairness, my own greatest noob moment came from the power Vengence. I got it at level 20, and just couldn't figure out how to make it work. Re-read the description and realized I had to be on a team. Okay, I got on a team. Somebody died. I pushed alt-10, where I had Vengence slotted for use. Nothing. I tried and tried and nothing happened. What the!? Reread the power a dozen times, joined a bunch of teams (man I hate empathy defenders!!!). I must have gained 20 levels before I accidentally managed to trigger it the first time. I just never thought to ask, and nobody bothered to ask me if I had it. But I remember the time it first went off. We were on some train map, and suddenly all our heads started with that red glow. We wiped the mob up and I, still not realizing, asked why we all had the Nemesis helmet-glowie thing going! I think the whole team stopped, turned, and just stared at me. The other MA scrapper on the team said something like, "that would be your Vengence power". I was all, "oh, yeah - I knew that. Ha ha..." That's when I realized I had been following and targeting through the Tank, who got whacked, and I accidentally triggered the Vengence instead of my Focus Chi. Sure enough, next time someone dropped, I targeted them and triggered Vengence and we all had the glowie head thing! I was so astounded to see the icon go off, I think I stopped playing just to get up and whoop and hollar around the room.
Since people have been kind to me when I was a bumbling idiot, I really make an effort to be tolerant when I encounter wonky game behavior, just making simple suggestions.

I believe so: 3 Eastern, and Noon Pacific. I'd say 1 PM Mountain, but a number of states there don't do the whole Daylight Savings Time thing - so maybe best just to leave it alone. I'll make an effort to send some broadcasts in the appropriate city zones about a half hour before (Atlas, Galaxy, Kings, Hollows, Perez, Skyway, and Steel should catch most of the toons who would be able to level from this event).

Infinity Server
June 14th
2:00 PM Central Time
Meet in Perez Park near the Galaxy City entrance.

Perez Park is at the very heart of our city, and it’s rotten! We heroes should band together and do something about this. We clear out all the dangerous and unsavory elements and allow the citizens of our city at least one full day to enjoy a picnic, do some fishing, walk the woods, whatever they want.
We do this in 2 ‘patrols’ – those on a 4-badge patrol walk the streets outside the park proper, going from Galaxy City all the way around to Skyway City (good experience for heroes level 7-10). Take a break, level up, and return to join a 9-badge patrol which covers the interior park region (better for heroes level 10-14). As each new team heads out on patrol, give us a shout “Take Back the Park!” and get a chorus of “Perez Park!”

The 4-badge patrol is named because there are 4 badges you can earn just marching from Galaxy around to Skyway.
Bonecrusher (100 Skull Bosses)
Kill Skuls (500 Skulls)
Hellspawned (50 Hellion Bosses)
Justice Avenger (exploration)
History monument (towards the Intellectual badge)

The 9-badge patrol is named for the 9 badges you can earn inside the park itself, although not nearly so easily.
Gearsmasher (100 Gears from defeated Clockwork Bosses)
Finder (100 Lost Bosses)
Gravedigger (100 Embalmed)
Soul Binder (200 CoT Mages)
Unleasher (The Kraken)
Territorial (exploration)
Avatar (exploration)
Around the Bendis (exploration)
Doc Whedon (exploration)
History monument (towards the Pupil badge)
History monument (towards the Expert badge)
2 History monuments (towards the Student badge)

Teams of 8 should have little trouble mowing through tons of badges and half a dozen experience levels in a couple hours time. All are welcome. Hope to see you there.