AllYourBase

Thanks, everyone, for the tips. I run 8-man PuGs because, as a support character, I don't feel sufficiently challenged on smaller teams. I try to put Fortitude on whoever gets the most benefit out of it, so a defense-based melee type is usually my first target.

Hello, my Defender friends. I'm working on an Empathy/Archery defender (Freedom, "Wrong Game?"). I'm wondering about slotting Fortitude. Should I focus on raising the Defense component first (to get more use out of it on those who get it), or the recharge component (to have it on as many people as possible)? Eventually I'll have both ED capped, but for now I can only cap one aspect, so this is a short term question. Is it worth slotting for the tohit buff? It is pretty good on its own, but would be massive enhanced.

These are fantastic. We need some more!

Does Smashing/Lethal damage type vs. an elemental damage type matter for a blaster? I mean, are Archery and AR somehow weaker overall than fire/ice/electrical blasts?

I don't think I'm ready to blap, but I wouldn't mind having a trick up my sleeve for an enemy that just won't lay down. I would prefer to stay at range when possible.

Reading through the Rude Tells thread inspired me to share this.

Some time ago, my whole SG and I (a whopping three people, plus alts) were part of a full team, chatting amongst ourselves in SG chat. I keep my default chat set to team and use slash commands for talking in broadcast, SG, etc. We can't recall the conversation now, but one of my SG mates made a comment regarding urine and a couple minutes later made a movie reference that had to do with streams. He feels the need to check that other people get his jokes and references, so naturally he asks, "do you know what that's a reference to?" I told him that I knew the reference, identifying it so he would be sure. Then I remark, "and, incidentally, urine." I got about halfway through whatever it was I was going to say next when I realized that that one snippet of conversation had accidentally been a addressed to the team in general. I got out a quick "oops, mt" before I literally fell out of my chair laughing at what I'd just done.

We still crack up laughing anytime the word "incidentally" pops up.


Okay, your turn. What embarrassing mistells have you witnessed or committed?

Hi. I'm a total n00b when it comes to blasters, but I'd like to get into blasting. Over the last 6 years I have made about as many blasters, but just couldn't get my head around active defense, so my highest blaster is level 20 of so.

So, the purpose of this thread: Is there a "training wheels" blaster with which I can get my feet wet? Or perhaps some kind of Blaster Boot Camp?

Sorry of this seems silly, and thanks in advance.

Edited to add: oh, and I would like to stick with an SO build with a couple exceptions (like -kb).

Thank you all, you bring up good points about many of the zones I was already considering, plus a few more to think about.

Time to get some more zone badges...

I apologize if this has been brought up a dozen times recently, but if your base only had two teleporters, hero side, what four beacons would you most want active and why?

Wow. That seems odd. The game is treating the click-buff like it was Stamina, then?

They removed the -toHit debuff from Fly when they instituted travel power suppression. It was originally intended to reduce "Jousting" by making your attacks more likely to miss. Instead, now you simply slow down to the point where you can't get away for a few seconds.

I use that set-up, too. It's the bind loading that causes the spam.

I think the only way to avoid that is to switch from a bind_load_file to just plain old macro-binding.
Edit: Just copy/paste the bind lines into a macro, minus the "bind_load_file" bits and you should be good. Replace your Q and E binds with something that points to the actual tray slots (I kept mine in slots 7 and 8 of each tray) where your macros are stored.
Double Edit: Oh. Upon re-reading the OP it seems it's syntax, not the function, that you are complaining about. Indeed, do as Obsidian suggested.

I'm going to jump in with a guess of 1.15 Billion. You're almost a quarter of the way there with 5 weekdays to go. I think you can do it.

Wow, lots of excellent advice.

tl;dr - I have a Warshade who is awesome in teams, but less awesome solo. I want advice to improve my solo awesomeness.

I've been playing on and off since launch, and with my rather severe alt-itis I have never gotten to level 50. So now that Kheldians (oh, and the Soldiers of Arachnos) are available after level 20, I finally got around to rolling one.

After reading Dechs Kaison's wonderful write up of the life of a Warshade, I decided to make my first Kheldian a Warshade.

Needless to say, I am very impressed with the play style (yes, I'm a tri-former). This is quite possibly the first character (of hundreds) I've created that's actually lived up to the hype I've heard about it.

Anyway, I just reached level 26 last night and I'm starting to look at IOs for the near future. I plan to frankenslot for enhancement values to make the most of my scant few slots and later (probably late 30s) start slotting sets. I recently used a respec to put those first 4 slots to better use and used a slotting tip I read in one of the threads in this forum, so my Nova attacks are well taken care of and my Dwarf attacks are just over halfway slotted. My human powers still need slots (except Hasten--that's all set), but the ones I have work really well out of the box (except Unchain Essence, that needs more slots). For how I use them, anyway.

This brings me to my first question: What bonuses should I focus on? I can get pretty good +regeneration and decent +recovery with the next step up from frankenslotting (two-slotting sets), but with Stygian Circle, those are more or less unnecessary. +Damage and +toHit are...less than useful because I can often very nearly damage cap myself with both mires going, and I don't have accuracy problems (most of the time) for the very same reason. +Recharge seems like a good idea, as does +defense. Can I get any significant amount of defense from IOs to make it worth the investment? These two are only limited in that I can't put enough slots into enough powers to get enough of the 5- and 6-deep set bonuses, where +Recharge and +Defense usually hide, for it to make a significant impact.

Speaking of set bonuses; my second question: I've read a lot about some powers and IO bonuses not transferring to forms. What are the rules about which IOs/Set Bonuses transfer? Do sets in passives transfer (i.e. Absorption, Stamina, etc.)? Do IOs in powers transfer (i.e. Steadfast Protection: Resist/3% Defense, Luck of the Gambler: 7.5% Recharge, etc.)? Does the power type (Auto, Click, Toggle) make a difference, or the bonus type (IO global bonus, set bonus, proc)?

Primarily, I'm wanting something that will boost my performance when solo because I already feel pretty awesome in a team. In a team I never have endurance issues, never get near death, but when I play solo or with my SG (grand total of three people, myself included) I don't feel quite as awesome. Nova form works well (but is squishy), but in Dwarf form I find myself having endurance problems (each of my attacks is already 1-SO slotted for endurance reduction, any more and I compromise damage output) and the lack of an actual AoE attack (even though the mire is good for that, it isn't yet slotted for damage) means I have to focus on squashing my foes into dust one at a time.

I don't have access to Mid's at the moment and I'm not looking for a build, but a couple of tips and/or a general area on which to focus would be good. I rely on the forms for the majority of my play and pop into Human form just long enough to fire off Hasten, Sunless Mire, and if I need it, Stygian Circle before going back to one of the forms. For this reason I don't have Fitness. (Which reminds me: I notice that two-slotting either form with EndMods brings the form's natural +Recovery to about 25%, equal to base Stamina. Is it worth it to do so?)

So, Kheldian gurus, what are your suggestions?

I think of them like Hack and Slash from that old cartoon, Reboot. They were the bad guy's top-ranking henchmen, but were complete buffoons. They more often than not ended up working AGAINST the bad guy in an effort to obey his orders. And always ended up as a pile of scrap.

That's masterminding in a nutshell. Not only do you have endless hordes of enemies to defeat, you also have your own pets' incompetence to overcome. To some, that is more rewarding.

Still, a "Stay, or else" command would be nice. I suspect that the attacking AI scripts override the command obedience scripts. One never quite knows how several groups of discrete code will interact until they do.

As another poster said, Ranged henchmen with melee attacks will resort to them when their other powers are recharging. It seems to me that the Marksmen type enemies (Council, I believe) stay at range no matter what (quite annoying as a brute or tanker), how did they do that? Could that AI be applied to ranged-preference henchmen?

These builds look very nice. Much better than what I was coming up with. If it helps, I no longer pick up travel powers until the 20s or later (if at all). I find I can get by just fine with Swift+Sprint+Ninja Run and occasional use of the temporary travel powers from the Safeguard missions. With the exception of Superspeed's prereq, Hasten (which I might try to pick up anyway), that should free up some powerslots.

Also, I'm considering picking up Provoke from the Presence pool. I know that's not as good as a native taunt, but it is AoE. My blaster friend has a habit of getting himself killed (I know, shocking, huh?) but my PB friend is quite sturdy regardless of what the rest of us do. Will that plus (or instead of) Confront be useful, or should I look elsewhere?

What is the current consensus on Aid Self? I know popular opinion often goes back and forth about this, and I've only ever picked it up on one other melee character (Elec/Shields Scrapper from long ago) but it seemed helpful. Since /Invuln is about evenly split between Resistance and Defense, would Aid Self be too difficult to use in combat when DP is down?

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I'll give /Invul a try. I haven't played it since it got that big nerf so long ago. Any tips on how to build? This looks like it's going to be hard to fit everything in.

So, after yet another hiatus from the game I have returned. I'm looking at rolling a scrapper and I'm leaning toward claws because I've never got it past level 9. I'm stuck, however, deciding on a secondary. What's popular lately?

I generally run with as part of a trio with a Peacebringer and a Blaster, so I'd like something sturdy enough to play off-tank, especially when the Peacebringer wants to go Nova. It'd have to be something that can solo larger than normal mobs because neither of my normal teammates have buffs or heals, but then, what scrapper can't?

I recall my /Regen scrapper from ages ago being fairly tough to kill, is that still so? How well does Fiery Aura work for scrappers (I have instant access to a low-level -kb IO currently to fill that gap)? I'm also considering Electric Armor, but I've got a brute with that who is in the late 30s, so that'd probably lower on the list for me unless someone can make a compelling argument for it. What does it take to get Dark Armor performing well? I dabble in the market, so a decently large budget is ok, but probably not into Purple sets. Mostly, I like to play for concept and only /Regen and /Invul pop into my head as something I can work a concept into.

It would be important to get and keep aggro so my squishier minio--I mean, teammates can really unload, would I be better off driving a tank?


Thanks in advance to all who reply with helpful comments.

How do you get ceiling items on the floor (Suck as the fluorescent lights for tracks)? The base editor is telling me that the "Item will be placed at closest valid location." I'm sure there's a really simple trick that I'm just astoundingly ignorant of. Help?