AirWulf

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Oh, one more thing. "The Six Million Dollar Man"


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Lavern and Shirly.
Carl Burnett
Laff Out
Gong Show

Sirata, I could explain it all to you but it would take awhile. If you find the DVDs and sit through the whole thing you'll learn a few things. Some interesting things about Rhinox for one. you'll also learn why Megatron kept his beast form and the others didn't...

Sirata, I think you're refering to Beast Machines. It wasn't horrible, but lacked the flair of Beast Wars. Decent storyline though. It came out on DVD at the begining of March. I picked it up. 4 discs. It ain't bad. It does a lot of tie-ins, but nowhere near as well as Beast Wars did.

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AirWulf, name ALL of the transformers from the original series, Dinobots and all lol, I dare ya.

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This is just from memory at the moment with no googling...
Optimus Prime
Jazz
Bumble Bee
Cliff Jumper
Iron Hide
Ratchet
Wheel Jack
Sun Streaker
Mirage
Brawn
Hound
Perceptor
Blaster
Ultra Magnus
Hoist
Prowl
Sideswipe
Trailbreaker
Huffer

Grimlock
Slag
Sludge
Swoop
Snarl

Thats really all I can recall from the origanal series. There might be more, like the Aerial bots and the City-bots, but its been so long that I think those were part of G2.

Decepticons:
Megatron
Star Scream
Soundwave
Rumble
Ravage
Ratbat
Laserbeak
Thundercracker
Shockwave
Skywarp
Ramjet

Insecticons:
Kickback
Bobmshell
Shrapnel
Venom

Constructicons:
Formed Devestator
Long Haul
Mixmaster
Hook
Scavenger
(one or two more. Can't think of the names)


Thats it. My brain is now sufficiently fried. I haven't had to think about Transformer names like that in a long time. Was fun. Can anyone add any without googling? I know there are a bunch from season 3 and on but this is all I could recall of the first season or two.

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Wow. Please admit that you googled this. I'll sleep better.

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Nope. I'm actually a big enough geek to remember all that. I just love Transformers

Good Guys

Leader-1
Scooter
Turbo

These were the three main ones on Earth. The ones they ran into on Gobotron I have no hope of recalling.

Bad Guys

Cy-kill
Crasher
Cop-tor

For the Transformer movie... One of my favorites:
HotRod/Rodimus Prime
Ultra Magnus
Blur
Springer
Arr-Cee
The previously named Dinobots
Cup
The Junkions (planet of Junk) led by Wreck-Gar

Galvatron
Cyclonus
The Swoops

If you want to get into the later series...
You have the earliest Predacons that combined to form Preda-king.

Aerial-bots... Hmmm. Formed Superion. There were 5 that if I recall. Silverbolt
Air Raid
Fire Flight
Skydive
Sling Shot

Beast Wars I happened to like because it tied in the origanal series so much. I actually have the entire series. The others, Energon, Armada, Cybertron, and the Combiners series I've kept abreast of but didn't really watch. I just love the old cartoons. I'm surpirsed I recalled all the names I did.

OH YEAH! Omega Supreme
The Stunticon
Combaticons

Damn you! Now I'm thinking of more! Brain...melting...morphing...*erie transformer like sound*
Ahhh damn. I'm a TV.

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AirWulf, name ALL of the transformers from the original series, Dinobots and all lol, I dare ya.

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This is just from memory at the moment with no googling...
Optimus Prime
Jazz
Bumble Bee
Cliff Jumper
Iron Hide
Ratchet
Wheel Jack
Sun Streaker
Mirage
Brawn
Hound
Perceptor
Blaster
Ultra Magnus
Hoist
Prowl
Sideswipe
Trailbreaker
Huffer

Grimlock
Slag
Sludge
Swoop
Snarl

Thats really all I can recall from the origanal series. There might be more, like the Aerial bots and the City-bots, but its been so long that I think those were part of G2.

Decepticons:
Megatron
Star Scream
Soundwave
Rumble
Ravage
Ratbat
Laserbeak
Thundercracker
Shockwave
Skywarp
Ramjet

Insecticons:
Kickback
Bobmshell
Shrapnel
Venom

Constructicons:
Formed Devestator
Long Haul
Mixmaster
Hook
Scavenger
(one or two more. Can't think of the names)


Thats it. My brain is now sufficiently fried. I haven't had to think about Transformer names like that in a long time. Was fun. Can anyone add any without googling? I know there are a bunch from season 3 and on but this is all I could recall of the first season or two.

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While your playing and running at top speed you remind yourself of that chick from the Thunder Cats Thunder...Thunder...ThunderCats... Hooooo

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Lion-O
Panthera
Tigra
Cheetara
Wily-Kit
Wily-Kat
Snarf

And from the 4th season...
Pumyra
Linx-O
Bengali

Want me to runt through Voltron, GI Joe, He-Man, and Transformers next?

Cheetara.

Ok, I'll just go back to lurking now.

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See, now I think I am gonna make an SG for the 80s. If we ever get enough prestige, I'll use it to buy airvents and arrange them on the walls in various 80s icons. The Eye of Thundara, Mario, Autobot and Decepticon emblems, hell, I may even throw in He-man's cross and Marshal Bravestar's gun. ahhhhhh how I miss the 80s...

I'm only 26 and I recall most of this stuff. A lot of the computer jargon is over my head, I admit that, but I still think its said that I've had to explain He-Man and Thundercats to my teammates. I constantly feel old in this game. I'm seriously thinking of forming an SG for children of the 80s. We'd talk about the decline of society and the downfall of the good cartoons from our past and never gain a level

Ok ok ok, so many of you are saying, "Why do we need a guide for one of the more popular builds?" Well, to put it bluntly, because some people make poor builds.

First off, Lets go over the pros and cons of Energy/Stone

Energy:
Just about every power in this primary set has a disorient factor. Some have low magnatude, low percentage to hit (with disorient) and some are high magnatude and always hit. Now, what does this mean for you as a Brute? Simple. If they are stunned and doing the stupid man's drunk dance, they aren't hitting you.
"But Kubwulf, I'm a Brute, I want them to hit me."
True, to a point. However, if you can stun that boss and LT and build Fury taking out the minions, by the time that boss has gathered his wits from where you scattered them, you'll be at full fury and ready to grind him into dust with minimal effort.

The other good point is that Energy has a fairly fast attack chain with a little helpful slotting. Example: On Stone Fang, my 40 Energy/Stone Brute, I have one recharge in Bonesmasher. My attack chain looks something like this...
Barrage, energy punch, brawl, Bonesmasher, rinse and repeat. Once I have 80+ Fury I start mixing Total Focus and Energy Transfer in there. Point is, Energy is by far one of the most end friendly sets that I have experienced. I won't go so far as to say its the BEST end friendly set, but for my needs, I wouldn't look anywhere else.

Stone Armor:
Defensive set. They can't hit you, you take no damage. One of the best defensive sets in the game. Gives you a self heal (Earth's Embrace) an AoE damage/slow/taunt aura, a regen power (Rooted) and resistance/defense to every energy type in the game including psionics.

Cons:
Energy Melee:
Pink pom-poms of death aren't very brutish looking. I consider this cosmetic and not much of a downside. Others find it deplorable that they have to SMASH stuff with pink pom-poms.

Your too biggest attacks have drawbacks. Total Focus is a great damage dealer with a very good chance to stun in both PvE and PvP. However, it has a very slow animation time.

Energy Transfer, while fast (animation wise) has the drawback of using your HP to charge it. Now, I don't see a big problem with this since the HP used are the same no matter if you use it to open your attack when you have no Fury as if you use it at 80+ Fury.

Stone Armor:
Running Rooted, although it gives you status protection vs just about everything, it slows you to a crawl. You either live with it, and take TP as a travel power, or you burn slots in Swift to make up for it.

Post 38 you get Granite Armor. Awesome power in my opinion. However, you can't run, fly, jump, with this power on. While in granite not only is your speed reduced, but your damage as well. The trade off is you now become virtually impossible to kill. The other downside to granite is that you can stack rooted for status protection but it slows you down even more, and you can't stack your armors. In other words, although granite gives you protection vs everything but psionics, you can't turn on your Minerals at the same time. This makes facing psionic enemies a lot tougher. Especially if they are surrounded by non-psionics and you feel you need granite...

Ok. Pros and cons (the major ones anyways) are covered. Now, is Energy/Stone really for you? Lets take a closer look.

Brutes in general are fast levelers. We fly through our missions and generally don't have a problem upping our difficulty at early levels. For Energy, you have good damage, with some soft control in just about all your powers. At 80+ Fury you can one-shot most minions with a BoneSmasher attack. If they survive, you can feel confidant switching to a target with full health since your mudpots will be able to finish off the now drunk minion.

With my build, I recommend taking a few attacks at early levels and start into your powerpools early. Since Smashing/Lethal is the most common type in the game, slot up your first armor, Rock Armor with 2 endredux, 3 defense. Take the passive Stone Skin and slot it 3 resist. After that, take a healthy mix of primary, secondary and powerpools. At level 20 my build looked something like this (minus slotting)

Level 1: Barrage Rock Armor
Level 2: Stone Skin
Level 4: Energy Punch
Level 6: Swift
Level 8: Boxing
Level 10: TP Foe
Level 12: Bone Smasher
Level 14: TP
Level 16: Health
Level 18: Stamina
Level 20: Earth's Embrace

As you can see, I was really light on secondaries, but I got almost all the pool powers I'll need. From this point, fill in your attacks and defenses as you see nesaccary. I didn't take any other armors until 38 when I got Granite. The only powers I tool from my secondary are Rock Armor, Stone Skin, Earth's Embrace, Rooted, Mud Pots, and Granite Armor.

Now, Energy Melee has only one AoE attack. Its good to gain aggro in a team with more than one brute. Your mudpots plus Whirling Hands will help keep you with the majority of the aggro but I don't recommend taking it. In a team, both Brutes need Fury so they should be working in concert to take out seperate groups to build fury.

Instead, focus on your single target attacks. This is where different playstyles come in. I won't tell you how to slot. I will say that slotting for me was a simple choice. I wanted end efficency and max damage. I got there by slotting accuracies and end redux with a little damage. See, for me, if I have 3 acc in a power, I don't miss all that often. That means I use my end more efficiently. However, I've seen brutes that slotted for damage and with a half full fury bar they make me look like I'm playing with my kids' blow up punching bag while they're tearing Mike Tyson's Everlast punching bag in half. Its all a matter of playstyle. I suggest at least 2 acc though regardless of what your other slots are.

Now, with Energy Melee you can slot for damage, disorient, taunt, end redux. (aside from accuracy of course)
I went with end redux because in groups I like to keep going in a fight. Once I have full fury I want to be able to hit that next group without waiting. However, if you want to assist teams, go for disorients. Stun that boss and make it so he can't ever hit anyone. Or go for damage and shred everything that comes before you. Energy melee is so versatile in this regard that you can literally slot 2/2/2 and not have to worry about making a mistake. The other upside to Energy Melee is that the Energy component is one of the least resisted in the game. With a full fury bar and a Build Up+Energy Transfer I've brought a +3 boss to 1/4 life in one hit.

To close this guide I'll make the following suggestions.
1) HAVE FUN. If this set doesn't feel fun, don't play it.
2) Grab your power pools early. At low levels (under 10) you have that extra power. Puny though it may be, use it. take advantage of it and get started on travel power and stamina ASAP
3) Take TP and learn to use it well. Practice. TP foe is great, but with a single slot you don't hit often and you need to be fairly close. When using Rooted or granite or both, knowing how to TP can be a lifesaver. You will save yourself so much frustration knowing how to TP into a mob of baddies or away from them if it gets that bad.
4) Choose your 4th power pool carefully and think what you want to do with it. As of this printing, I7 has not yet come out. I plan to take to Presence pool and make myself into a tank by taking all three taunt powers. But this is only because my SG raids every weekend and if the opposing SG is hitting me, they aren't harrassing my teammates.


I hope this guide, meager though it is, has helped some people. I know its not perfect and a lot is based on opinion. I know a lot of you like numbers. I don't. This is a fun set to play and one of the most survivable. Have fun with it. I appreciate any feedback or questions.

One of the things I've noticed about prestige is that if there are multiple people in your team in SG mode the prestige goes down per person. That may be why you are only seeing 3 prestige earned. However, my friend and I started up an SG yesterday evening. We played for a few minutes after forming up and choosing our colors. I think we did 2 missions. One was a street sweep and one was a door mission. Level 12. Default difficulty. We earned, duoed, about 2k. I think we played for all of 20 minutes. (Thats combat time, I'm not including travel time to that)

Now, I also have a problem with the SG spamming. I rarely saw that much spamming except in PI for PLs. Now its across almost every zone. I know one SG that sent me a blind SG invite everytime I entered a new zone. I actually stopped to talk to one of the senders and he told me that they had a rep in almost every major zone to pad their numbers.

Look people, an SG is work. If you have a solid SG, you shouldn't NEED a base. A close knit group of friends that are always on at the same time and always group together is a much better SG than the 75 member SG with 80 rooms in their base. For fun, on a whim, I accepted his invitation. Then I left when I looked at the SG roster and saw that there had been about 75% of the roster absent for at least 8 days. Thats not an SG. Its an elitest club. A few specific people will benefit from the prestige that the whole will gather. It is a group that lacks leadership, direction, and any benefit.

When I get these blind SG invites, I'm constantly startled by the responses I get from the sender when I ask questions. "What does your SG offer? What are the benefits of joining? What is your rank structure? What does it take to get promoted? Do you schedule events for all members? Badge hunts? Do you ensure that everyone gets Accolades? What about influence? What does the SG expect from me? What are my duties as a low ranking member?

I have yet to get satisfactory answers to these questions. There is a horde of SGs out there but none are really good. There are a few above average groups out there, but too many of them are now worried about prestige and so they seek to pad their numbers. I gauruntee you this. If you have a close knit group of friend who always group together and hang out in SG mode you will never be hurting for prestige. I know I have gone a little off topic but you have to admit that the blind SG invites are almost as bad as the stealth PL invites.

Well if I ever manage to get to a Hammi Raid, this guide will definitely help. An excellent post that should definitely be linked at the begining of a raid.

Wow, HUGE thread. Gotta say, I like a lot of these. My favorites are the following:

Dismissive gesture
Brush off dirt
Standing Hover
Drawing a line in the sand (sword if you have it, otherwise foot)
Definitely the various joint popping.
Check watch, shrug, run gag. Classic.

One of my own,
Villian holds up hand with thumb and index finger extended. Fingers close in the "I crush you like a bug" gesture.