Call Me Awesome

For right now take every piece of salvage you get to Wentworth's and put it on the market. Don't worry about the higher end builds that Inventions allow until you're completely comfortable with standard SO's. Yes, a high end invention build will outperform a basic SO build... but that basic SO build is enough for nearly anything you may want to do in the game. There's plenty of time to think about the bleeding edge later on; for now you've more than enough to learn with standard enhancements.

On average a bleeding edge Invention (referred to as IO) build is only about 10-20% more effective than a good SO build. I'd far rather have a player with a good basic SO build than one with a bleeding edge build that he didn't know how to play.

Ok, your powers have slots available in them, you've been getting two every other level to add to your powers. These slots do absolutely nothing unless you put an enhancement into them... you've had these dropping from enemy defeats all along. From your questions I assume you haven't ever opened your "enhancement" tray; I imagine it's stuffed full of worthless level 1-3 training origin enhancements.

Enhancements come in three basic "store bought" varieties: Training which are usable by any character of appropriate level, Dual Origin which are usable by either of the origins of the enhancement (for example a Natural/Tech Dual Origin enhancement can be slotted by either a Natural origin or a Tech origin character) and Single Origin which can only be slotted by a character of that origin.

The slots you've added to your powers are places for you to put enhancements. Let's take a basic attack as an example. You can slot for accuracy which will make that attack hit more and you can add damage enhancements to make that attack do more damage when it hits and you can add endurance reduction enhancements so that it costs less endurance to use the attack and you can slot recharge enhancements so the power recharges faster.

Now the various enhancements all have a level and can be used by a character within 3 levels of that enhancement. As a level 27 character you could use level 30 enhancements (3 levels higher than you) down to level 24 enhancements (3 levels lower than you). Once you level to 28 you would no longer be able to use level 24 enhancements (they would turn red and have no effect anymore) but you could use level 31.

Let's get down to specifics on enhancements here. A typical Training enhancement (usually only available up to level 20) will boost one aspect (for example accuracy) of a power by 8%. A Dual Origin will boost one aspect of a power by 16% while a Single Origin will boost one aspect by 33%. It's a little more complicated than that as some types of enhancements have different "schedules" with different values but that's the basics.

Keeping this in mind let's go back to our sample attack. We want it to hit so we'll slot accuracy in it. We want it to do more damage so we'll put damage enhancements in it. We want it to recharge faster so we can use it more often so we'll slot recharge enhancement into it and we want to be able to fire it off without running out of endurance so we want endurance reduction. We can have a maximum of 6 enhancements in this power, so we can't maximize everything (well, not with basic enhancements but don't worry about that for now) and we need to choose. A good basic slotting for an attack with Single Origin (SO) enhancements is 1 accuracy, 3 damage, 1 endurance reduction and 1 recharge.

To slot enhancements click on the "enhancements" tab on your power tray. This will open the enhancement tab and close your inspiration tab by default... you can undock any of these from the tray by pressing the little blue dot on the window. On the enhancement tray you'll see a tab labeled "manage". Click on this and you'll bring up your power/slot screen that you see when you level up. This is where you move enhancements from the enhancement tray into your individual powers. Once you've slotted an enhancement it's there until you put another on top of it (overwrite it) or you delete it... you can't unslot it and move it to a different power (exception: when doing a re-specification <respec> of your character).

Talos Island is the place you'll want to take your level 22-30 hero to buy enhancements as all the stores are relatively close together. Look at your map and go to the store that matches your origin (if you're Natural origin go to the Natural store, if you're Tech go to the Tech store and so forth) and talk to the store clerk. This opens up the shop window, first sell off the enhancements in your tray that you can't use and then buy enhancements you need. Once you've bought 10 and filled your tray go to the "manage" screen and move your new enhancements into your powers. Repeat this until you've bought the enhancements you need.

What enhancements you want will of course depend on your character's powers and the enhancement slots you've added to those powers. A Blaster will mainly want accuracy & damage enhancements while a Controller may want accuracy and hold or immobilize. Always slot at least one accuracy into any power that needs to hit enemies first... a power that missed is one that does no damage so that's the first priority.

One item however is your money situation... a full set of SO's at your level will run in the neighborhood of 1,000,000 - 1,500,000 influence. Do not be concerned about this however; inf is very easy to come by. Your likely full of salvage and recipes; take these to Wentworths and put them up for sale. Do NOT sell these to a store or vendor until you have a better feel for prices; many items are worth hundreds or thousands of times more to players in the auction house (Wentworth's) than they are to the store. As a case in point rare (orange) salvage is only worth 5,000 to a store but most pieces are worth at least 500,000 on the market with many worth 1-3 million. Even some common salvage (store value 250) will bring 10,000-100,000 on the market.

Money's no problem at all; many of us have billions on hand so it's well worth paying a little for a piece of salvage we need to craft something. On that perspective the difference between 100 inf and 100,000 inf is meaningless to many of us.

In fact if you'll give me your global name I'll shoot you a couple million inf to get you started.

I hope I haven't been too basic in my writeup here but it seemed to me you were confused about these areas. I know all of us talk about Invention builds and discussions about this set is good for x while that set is good for y. I'm going to strongly suggest that you totally forget about inventions for now and just use the store bought enhancements until you have a thorough understanding of the powers and enhancement. Those enhancements were all we had for the first several years of the game and they're still perfectly adequate and MUCH simpler. To put it another way right now you're working with addition and subtraction while Invention builds are along the lines of Calculus. Don't try to learn everything all at once.

Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing of all about the game, and that's to have fun. Enjoy the ride, learn about how things work and don't try to jump straight into the deep end; there's plenty of fun to be had in the shallow end of the pool before you learn how to swim.

Welcome to the game and always remember to have fun.

Well, a Fire/Dark corrupter would work quite nicely actually. Maybe not quite up with a Fire/Shield scrapper but the combo wouldn't disappoint.

Well, I haven't personally played a Kinetic scrapper except briefly in the closed beta for the issue it released with a level bumped character... I really wasn't overly impressed. It seems to be a lot of flash without a lot to back it up and most of the comments from knowledgeable players puts it around the middle of scrapper sets. My experience with it however puts it pretty well dead last of the sets I've played at all. I much prefer BS, Fire, Electric, Spines or Dark to Kin.

I have a buddy who's leveling a Kin scrapper... I think he's gotten it into the mid-20's and so far he's unimpressed. I think of it as "Nascar Melee"... you wave your arms around and summon the ghost of Dale Ernhardt then smack the mobs. The sound effects really do sound like a car race.

I'd like to think you're kidding there but I've run into that personality on occasion myself; I can absolutely guarantee that the tanker in question there doesn't have a clue and is completely convinced that he's the best thing ever.

Assuming a tanker's even slightly competent it's very difficult to steal aggro from him as long as he gets there first. Even if you do get some aggro who cares as long as the mobs aren't pounding on the squishier teammates... it's nice to have a secondary tanker on occasion to snag extraneous aggro.

Unless it's changed in the last few issues it doesn't work according to player testing done shortly after issue 9.

They're a semi-rare spawn, here's some places to look:

By the docks and on the cargo ships by Ghost Falcon

That courtyard area halfway to Portal Corp on the right not far from the ocean seems to be a hot spot.

By the contact Harvey Maylor

Middle of the zone at the base of a power line tower

Over by the police station

They share spawn points with Malta and Nemesis; it seems Nemesis are weighted to be most likely to come up followed by Malta with Carnies last. If you see Malta then that's a spawn point that occasionally gives Carnies. I've really grown to despise that "kill 50 Carnies in PI" mission Harvey likes to give out; if you can I'd suggest dropping (completing) that mission to get rid of it, it isn't worth the hassle.

And there's lots of players with a bone to pick about that little gotcha, myself included back before we (or I at least) knew about that. It does kind of limit the usefulness of a healing bonus on a large number of sets that may have heals but also get another bonus along with the heal.

Working as intended, when making a random roll you'll get a recipe of either your level or the max level of the recipe whichever is lower. All the slider does is affect which recipes you see, and the level range determines what recipes are available in that range.

If you want a recipe of a specific level you need to buy it with merits... in that case the level slider determines the level you get. On random rolls you'll get max level of the recipe or your level, whichever is lower.

Most people seem to agree that the best odds of getting good stuff is to random roll in the 35-40 range as it has the best ratio of good to junk. Of course the last time I rolled merits I got 3 pieces of vendor junk... the best was selling for 100k. That time the RNG seriously hated me... other times I've gotten a Numina proc, Miracle proc and Obliteration quad out of 5 rolls. Sometimes you get the tiger, sometimes you get the girl.

Actually a SD/Fire tank does a bunch of damage... thanks to AAO it can approach (but NOT match) average scrapper damage. Still I definitely agree that a Fire/SD scrapper is the better choice for farming.

Lots of the sets can get pretty close together in durability, especially when you take IO sets into consideration. My personal experience is with Stone, Invuln and Shield tankers... all three are very capable. My Shield/Fire tank hit 49 last night on an ITF and I found it quite durable... just a notch below my Invuln's durability. I had softcapped def to all positions and right around 45% res to S/L so I did have something to fall back on. I admit that there was a time or two when I really wished I'd picked up One with the Shield... issue 19 will be a huge buff for that character since there's 3 powers I just couldn't squeeze in.

My only direct experience with Electric was in the closed beta when the set was ported over playing a level bumped tanker on SO's; it struck me as generally squishier than an equivalently slotted Invuln tanker but tougher than an equivalent Fire tank. I'll admit I'm extrapolating somewhat on what I'd expect them to do with IO bonuses added in.

One huge benefit of IO sets is with a good enough build all tanker sets can get really good so the order of just how good is a bit subjective past the "big 3". I have seen some WP tankers who seemed pretty squishy in the late game though... I've no idea what their builds looked like though.

I routinely steal aggro from quite a few tankers with my BS/Shield scrapper; that aura's taunt is probably overpowered for scrappers, especially since it has tanker numbers.

Of my tanks there's not really any difference I've noticed in the Invuln vs Shield on the aggro front, both grab it and hold on tight. Frankly I look at them as a tie in aggro abilities. Neither will have any problems with aggro, although if there's an Ice tank on the team good luck getting aggro away from him. Frankly as long as the Icer was running both auras I've never managed that trick. A lot of that of course is due to taunt mechanics, the first one to get aggro usually keeps it... you need to generate DOUBLE the taunt/threat in order to steal it away. That's part of why Ice is so good, with the tic rate of it's aura it gets aggro faster than anything else.

Personally I would never delete a 50; at worst I'd move him to another server. It would absolutely be worth a few dollars to either buy more slots or transfer the character... anything I've spent hundreds of hours playing I always think I'll want to play again sometime. As an example I leveled a Stone/EM tank to 50 years ago and found I didn't enjoy the character after the EM nerf. I don't want to play her now but future game changes may make her fun again so I moved her elsewhere.

You've made a huge investment in that character in time... I just can't see throwing it away.

Ice is the best set in the game for aggro management... however it takes awhile to come into it's own and tends to be less durable than many other sets. This can be overcome with a good build and it can get pretty dang good with a good build and good IO bonuses.

Many people don't like the appearance of the set, and it does suffer teething problems in the lower levels... this probably accounts for the relative few Ice tanks you see in the game.

Thinking of pairings of course Ice/Ice is the classic example; it will offer considerable additional mitigation at the expense of lower overall damage. Ice/Stone will have excellent single target damage and good mitigation but limited AOE damage. I haven't any experience with Kin Melee but from watching a couple of friends playing it the set impresses me as a lot of flash and not much substance.

All in all if you're willing to invest the time and put up with being a somewhat squishy tanker until the set matures go ahead and give it a try.

Willpower has, as has been mentioned, by far the weakest taunt aura of any tanker. It has a duration of only 1.25 seconds and Mag 3 with a tic rate of 1 second... facing +2 or higher mobs it won't even last until the next tic. Anything in melee with you will stick provided a scrapper doesn't steal it but if you or the mob moves out of range it'll forget about you almost immediately. By way of contrast EVERY other tanker aura has a taunt of Mag 4 and a duration of at least 13.5 seconds. Invuln and Shield both have a duration of 16.8 seconds.

By the way, an Invuln or Shield scrapper has a pretty decent aura as well... in fact last I looked they had tanker numbers for their auras so they WILL steal aggro from you.

Now an aura isn't the only tool you have for aggro control, a secondary with strong AOE like /Fire Melee will mask the extremely poor aura of WP since the Gauntlet effect of your AOE attacks will last 13.5 seconds. Unfortunately /SS is exclusively single target focused until level 38 so that coupled with the poor (in my opinion virtually useless) aura is why you're having so much trouble.

If you want to control aggro easily the top choices, in my opinion, are:

1 - Ice Armor, Chilling Embrace is the fastest activating autohit aura in the game (0.5 second tic rate) so it grabs aggro instantly and coupled with Icicles it adds a damage aura that makes mobs stick like glue. Be aware that Ice will be somewhat squishy until it's defenses mature however. When it comes to aggro however I know of no set that does it better.

2 - Tossup between Invuln and Shield; they both share the longest duration of any aura, are both autohit and they tic reasonably quickly (1 second). Both of these primaries work very well, they're both highly durable (Invuln early, Shield when it matures) and neither has any problems. If you're after damage Shield is the king, but a mature Invuln will be a bit tougher. In the early going Shield gets it's aura at level 8 and Invuln has to wait until 18.

3 - Probably Dark since it has 3 auras to stack; they do have to roll tohit however so they may be problematic with certain mobs.

4 - Most of the other sets would fall into this category without any real difference in their aggro abilities. Although Stone armor is unrivaled in durability and has a decent aura I wouldn't suggest it as a first tanker due to the mobility penalties it has.

8 - And finally we get to Willpower... if you want to control aggro this is by far the worst set for the job. With the right secondary and with a skilled tanker player behind the controls it can do the job but it's MUCH harder.

Now you didn't ask but as a FYI tanker durability would fall something like this:

Stone Armor - post 32 and Granite armor
Invuln (moderate IO bonuses and softcapped)
Shield, Willpower
Invuln (basic performance, no IO bonuses)
Ice (soft cap it defensively with IO bonuses and it moves up a notch)
Electric (with IO bonuses it may move up some)
Stone Armor pre 32
Dark (I know it gets godly with a lot of IO bonuses)
Fire (again with massive IO bonuses it gets good)

You'll find different opinions of course but in general and excluding a highly optimized IO build I think most would agree with most of these placings.

Definitely this.

I don't really see any inherent problems but expect a fairly lengthy ITF... most tankers don't have the damage to quickly take out +4 mobs. On the other hand if you've a team of Shield/Fire or similar high damage tankers it could run pretty quick. My 48 SD/Fire tanker can approach the damage of a scrapper and plows through mobs quickly.

The Corrupter does more damage but the Defender has better debuffs. With the new Vigilance inherent power of Defenders it's probably a toss up for a solo defender vs a corrupter while the corrupter will do more damage on a team.

Abandoned yes, but not auto-completed so you should be able to get them again. Well, unless you're hanging onto a pre-nerf Chimera or wolf mission that is. I can't include Drek anymore because they nuked that with the last issue. I'd kept that in CMA's mission list ever since issue 4... mostly for nostalgia but it got dumped with issue 18.

Well, it works just fine on Controllers, I was specifically testing that on my Ill/Rad last night. I haven't played my Rad/Rad defender in months so I can't comment... heck, he's still slotted with Hami-O's without a single IO on him.

I doubt you'll be disappointed in it; once it reaches the mid-20's it gets really good and keeps getting better as it matures. Yeah, the low levels are less than wonderful but it doesn't take long to get to the good stuff anyway.

Indeed; with the huge variety in not only AT's but powersets within those AT's it's really hard to come up with a definitive list.

DE Quartz pets are absolutely deadly to defense based melee characters for example but resistance based characters may hardly notice them. The aforementioned Malta Sapper is extremely dangerous to most non-defense characters but high defense means that what they can't hit they can't drain. Malta stuns are highly dangerous to any character without Mez protection due to the absurdly long duration but again most melee will have no difficulty.

Nemesis are another example, they're resistant to Mez so Controllers have a hard time with them. The LT's vengeance can also be a problem unless you know how to deal with it by leaving LT's for last.

I could go on but for all but the most "vanilla" mobs you'll find some AT/powerset combination that may have a problem with it.