B_Nix

ATs are different, my DA/Earth tank only made it out of praetoria due to teaming, if I couldn't team I would have deleted it. My hover build archery/nrg blaster soled through it fairly quickly. Now my tank is a higher level, still built to team but can take a punishment and brings more to a team, my blaster adds damage but can't solo very well.

Some ATs are slow and safe, some are slow and unsafe, some are fast and safe, and others are fast and unsafe. I don't believe any content short of AVs and GMs should require teaming to complete but at the same time I don't think there should be a set pace someone should be able to complete something. Would you play a healer with Aid self? Just as some aspects of the game I don't do well with (certain missions make me ill and I have to blind run them and only look at the screen to see if I'm in the next mob or at a wall or dead) and I avoid them.

Anyone else feel like they're paying to beta test a product designed to make the company more money? They had issues with live before freedom was rolled out, those issues are still around and it's push forward until it breaks then fix it, the devs are going with the "oh shiny!" approach to make people happy vs the "rock solid streamlined" approach. I appreciate them fixing it when it does break but it seems to be breaking way too much with far too much emergency downtime.

Also not everyone is working today so saying oh thank you devs for doing this is a funny joke at best. The programmers and engineers may be there but everyone who works on new stuff, community relations, translating, and q&a among other things are enjoying a day off.

can you post the mids data set? It will get you more help. Anyway what is your goal for the build? The six slotted with luck of the gambler is a wast of slots, you can take 3 out of anything you have slotted with 6, (put 2 in weave so you get 3 for the hp bonus). I would swap the purples in the snipe to put in blaze and then use the manticores set in the snipe for more recharge. Are you slotting RoA to have it up more often? If not move those purples to Fire ball as it's up more often. That's all I could see from skimming and not knowing what the set bonuses add up to.

Edit: Data link worked for me

Not knowing what you're looking for I made some slotting changes, swapped force for cold mastery to cap s/l defense, you have more recharge, similar damage, and capped s/l defense.

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I'm hoping for the option to just turn off power effects (no colors) then energy fits natural powers for the most part and is what you're looking for. Asking for martial arts or something wouldn't be much different.

The tank troller was mentioned but I'm going a different route as I feel what the question is asking is finding the toon that has the greatest divide between soloing and teaming speed so...

Granite tank
Stone/Stone/Stone

Salt Crystals and Quicksand from the epic
Taunt and Fault from the secondary
Fighting, leadership, and teleportation as the pools (either concealment or medicine as the 4th)
Everything from the primary

So you end up with the only things to do damage are mud pots, stone fist, boxing, and brawl (you could drop mud pots but just slot it for taunt)

Basically you're the immovable object, now go find some firepower to move leveling along.

They've done concept art for the signature story arcs, just change it to the monthly signature arc with a buy it now for free players and call it good. That way it shows what's going on in the game instead of just an image. (I became a hero in I3 get's replaced with I became a hero when Statesman died).

It would make xp boosters even more worthless than they are now, it would make people play less, there are multiple items that are only able to be used on one AT potentially lowering the revenue from that.

It's not hard to level, but if you did want to be able to buy a super respec how much would you pay for it? Also remember that if coding is an issue then that's time the devs are taking off new content and putting into making it possible.

I think different poses, and different items/animations would be cool, it's much more believable to have a jetpack flip pop out from under your clothes and flip open vs all of a sudden having a jetpack on. or having smaller options that could be left on even when not in use. Just some ideas.

I thought Premium accounts couldn't use AE? Or is it just they can't lead an AE team like a trial account in the past.

You mentioned being able to change what powersets you had once, what if you get sick/tired of the new sets do you then want to be able to do it again? There isn't a set in game that's gimped beyond playability and leveling is fairly easy, I have 4 alts sitting around 40 and I can't have spent more than 5-6 hours on any of them.

What combination is missing as far as it goes for choosing a primary and secondary?

I almost was going to say I would like a toon that changed forms and had different traits depending on what form they're in before remembering I'm trying to figure out how to build a tri form keld (which is the range/defense set as well, something people wanted for a long time back when you had to get to 50 to unlock EATs and VEATs)

There have been xp nerfs to certain mobs in game which lends to the fact that certain mobs get more and some get less xp per kill, the same goes for those mobs in AE. For custom created mobs it all depends on what they are given as attacks/defense that determines the amount of xp rewarded, no custom mob can have greater than the 100% xp max, some mobs in game can give more.

This is a low level ambush farm and just like the other low level ambush farms you'll be level 3 on 2/8 so you get anything to level 8 if you were serious about wondering if a Fire/MM can do a lowbie farm stop, they have more AoEs than any other AT at level 8, the only thing they're missing is a damage aura (and about 500% damage boost that brutes get due to scaling of damage buffs but that's another topic) Fire/MM is one of the best blaster farmers in the later levels and with Fire ball, Fire breath, and rain of fire you have more AoEs than anybody at level throw in hand grenade and you'll do more than fine.

As a side note, Brutes are better at lowbie farms due to the damage cap, the gap narrows and becomes almost nil when you're at higher levels depending on the powersets for ticket capping AE. My Fire/MM can ticket cap a map from getting mission to exiting mission in 2:30.

Although all the AoEs are nice you're going to get to a point where you realize scream and breath are overkill although leveling I would take them both and respec out of scream. RoF is a good power for damage mitigation as it causes foes to run but fitting it in isn't required.

Fireball, Blaze, and Mind Probe I strongly encourage

Don't take World of Confusion until you hit 50 and can slot the purple set in it the purple sets 5% range defense is very nice.

You won't have endurance issues after Drain Psyche (unless you don't use it), 2 slot it right, get 5 slots in it ASAP and put 3 recharge SOs in it. Along with Shockwave they're the reason for taking the set.

Take hover to avoid melee.

You'll get mezzed often which means taking break frees into missions

LRM is nice but it doesn't lend to Drain Psyche and Physic shockwave. I would encourage you to get mace mastery for the s/l/e defense shield, It will help survivability in the end game as well.

If you want to level outside of AE Dark Astoria is fun from 20-30.

The AoEs will generate aggro so opening up with fireball on a team can cause a faceplant.

This is the set I spend most of my time playing, lots of orange numbers and once you get some defense melting mobs is a ton of fun.

Try working from this, if you like of course. s/l/e capped and 1.14% short of soft capped range, no stealth so you don't have to deal with suppression. I like hover since you do have range defense, just makes things easier. Oh and you didn't lose recharge and if you can find two slots you won't lose it. You can get more out of this build still but it's closer to what you're looking for.

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I see the two problems the OP has with the second one being more important

1) If you have capped defense how can something still be guaranteed to hit you

2) Why is it a HP capped tank has more HP taken away than another AT that is less survivable.

The 1st issue I'm ok with as an overwhelming attack is reasonable and fits thematically in a game, superhero lore, and reality. If every particle in a given area is hit it shouldn't be avoided. As mentioned the warnings make up for this.

The second issue I somewhat agree with as it's a scenario where damage is scaled depending on how much you have, I mentioned earlier that removing the OHKO +1hp rule would fix this problem (originally I said it jokingly but I don't think it's a bad idea). What people would hate about the removal of the rule would be how much the devs thought the attack should do damage wise.

If we take Nova Fist and change it to 2000 damage, anything without +hp dies and only a handful of ATs can build to survive it. Just as the OP sees no point to allow the game to "cheat" which as has been stated the rule for untyped damage has been in place since the beginning I see no point to allow a character at full health to not be one shotted, we can one shot them are we cheating?

Reactor pulses makes sense, we have ticks of damage in the terra volta reactor too, the pulses just are a major release instead of the ticks in my mind.

The autohit of the turrets makes sense too (ultra advanced targeting system with a high to hit but I don't think they should be auto hit (5% chance of missing seems reasonable)

Sequestering I'm going to ignore because it's an AV focusing all their ability to mez a person that it spills over to those around the person

Nova fist seems to be the lynch pin of this argument which I view as a release of power that causes everything around maurader to get hit.

The OHKO +1hp or leaving a certain percentage is also a problem which I actually agree with and if they change it to 2500 damage and flooring regen -1000% (you got your bell rung) I would like it better, that way an hp capped tank can take the hit but have huge penalty for it. Honestly though getting your bell rung and making it 2500 damage with a mag 50 disorient would work as well.

I don't mind auto hit, I don't like the percentage thing but part of that has to do with the OHKO rule and if nova fist is designed to do 5000 damage but due to the OHKO rule anything not a full health will die which isn't bad in my mind.

As of right now the trials are difficult to fail, at least BAF and Lambda and that's why people are doing them, to get guaranteed rewards. You bring up the example of having the need for ice shields and I will in no way sit around for a trial that is looking for a player with cold domination just as I won't hang around on a team that is looking for a specific AT or a "healer".

The game has gone through an evolution of getting harder (power nerfs, enhancement diversification) then getting easier (IOs, shortening of TF length). As Arcanaville pointed out the rules have been in place they just haven't been used. More people would get upset if the rest of the game (1-50) started using all the rules to win instead of using it as a way to make the game increasingly more difficult (however mauraders is pretty much trivial and same thing with the sequestering).

The incarnate content has basically regulated the AT useless, something that has also been talked about in the tankmage thread, but as other ATs become more survivable the more survivable ATs aren't getting as much damage and when untyped attacks come in to play the nigh invincible tank turns into nothing if they don't move out of the way and although it's not "fair" because it takes the tanks main advantage in the game and turns it into nothing, melee characters feel it worse than the other ATs because I can stay at range and being range/energy/s/l capped I laugh off the other attacks, as a blaster. Maybe they should change the tanker set proc into a 33% chance to avoid special attacks, (a 33% chance for 100% special resist every time the proc fires or something along those lines) You get your more survivable tank and it doesn't break the game mechanics.

Something that I don't believe that has been mentioned is the fact that it's easier for the devs to create content in this manner and end up with something difficult, sadly BAF and Lamba get it wrong still. Incarnate trials shouldn't be about button mashing and knowing when to move out of the way, hell my Blaster got sequestered on a league with 3 tanks and 2 brutes but I was hovering above everyone so nobody else got sequestered before I knew what it meant. I want to do Keyes because of how hard people make it but it's mentioned that there is a T4 power that if 4 of people on your team have it the trial becomes easy?

I did my first mothership raid this week and although it was fun, it didn't leave me a sense of accomplishment, one player running a script on how to do things exactly and enough people to fill the zone. Hamidon is the same way. I'm honestly hoping the coming storm is all it's cracked up to be because if it's not it's a good thing I'll be able to go f2p.

Remove the OHKO rule, as a lowbie you can die from falling off a building, if you're running through an area of much higher level enemies and they get a shot off, back to the hospital. If they removed the OHKO rule everyone dies, yes the attack is that strong, I feel one of the issues you're having is that a base full health Blaster (or Mastermind for that matter) and a full health tank (who is HP capped) end up with only 1 HP left after the attack, if they removed the OHKO rule everyone hit by nova fist would die, that seems fair and not a bad idea to me at all.

The other issue is making you're build feel worth the same as the SOd player, what if you could build for untyped damage? Would you? What if they implemented incarnate IOs that only dropped during incarnate trials, have the damage, pbaoe, and the like sets and for the 6th slot put 2.5% defense to untyped damage. The ONLY way people would slot for it would be on an alternate build they only use for I trials but even then is a player going to give up softcapped defense for half that and only 15% defense to untyped which is largely avoidable and/or manageable?

I still like my nuke example and you're right certain superheroes can survive a nuke but it was used as an example as something at a) will hit you no matter what you do and b) hits hard enough to knock you out. For balancing issues remove the OHKO rule, then everyone can die together.

I'm honestly mad that the incarnate content isn't harder, the only one I was on that failed was a master run and that's because lag caused the timer to not match up and we ran out of time.

range, melee, and aoe (which could be argued is either ranged or melee so having aoe isn't "fair") are the types we see but what if I called the damage type biological or better yet just type the damage but give it a base accuracy of 1000% hell a nuclear warhead can be off by a football field and still wipe out the field and much more and that's what I compare the untyped attacks to, it's unavoidable and honestly that's ok.

Also lets be honest a couple cold shields and everyone has the same defense which is another reason why we need untyped damage. I monitor my defense in case I'm debuffed on my s/l/e/r capped blaster, all defenses were hard capped at 175% 90% of the trial so really my IOd build was getting hit just as often as everyone else.

I'm glad they made things more difficult at baseline instead of just giving the options to make us weaker during task forces. I honestly want more difficult content.

I farm high levels with my blaster, in AE and out, the advantage blasters have is the target cap, any loss of damage is balanced by the fact blaster have powers that cap at 16 vs 10 in effect doing 60% more damage (to some powersets I don't care to look at which Brute powers cap at 16 I just know multiple powers do). The downside is the damage cap where a brute has their damage cap at the low levels, a blaster doesn't.

Blasters vs Brutes at low levels the brute out damages the blaster cause of the damage cap. At high levels Blasters are more than capable and I see numbers on par with the brute AE farming thread.

HOWEVER AE ambush farming on a blaster will level you faster than any other way to level which I think is the main point and it's more than possible to do on any AT which has an AoE power, grab hand grenade and your good to go.