ClawsandEffect

Eh, I pretty much ignore the morality slider. I play any arc that sounds like fun with whatever character I happen to be on at the time. It is sometimes fun for me to rationalize why my character would be doing something out of character for them.

I also rate arcs based on text, enemies, well thought out plot, and most importantly, the amount of fun I had on it.

I'm not going to downrate an otherwise good arc because it had my uber-evil sadistic brute curing cancer or something. But it seems I'm in the minority on this one. I've found a number of arcs in the one star category that, by my criteria, deserved much higher ratings. I've found a couple that I 5-starred that way.

Would be cool. I don't think something like this is a priority right now for the devs, but something like this would be a neat idea.

However, I can see some bases getting pretty cluttered after a while. "Hey, how come there's pictures of SuperBob EVERYWHERE?!"

Those all sound cool.

Smoke Bomb - animation from the Ninjitsu power Smoke Flash. You drop the smoke bomb and when the smoke clears your costume has changed.

Have wanted this one since I saw the Smoke Flash animation. I don't want to have to roll a Ninjitsu stalker and bind everything together just to use it.

Yes, you can buy a rename later. I don't think there is any kind of block on renaming a character that has been generic'd.

I would say roll one of each. You will gradually find yourself playing one more than the other. I started a stalker and a brute at about the same time, and my stalker gets a lot more playtime (level 37 compared to level 27) I contribute just fine on teams, my assigned task is to take out bosses in 3 or 4 hits while the rest of the team annihilates everything else. Works pretty good. Oh, in case you were curious, my stalker is DM/Nin and my brute is DM/SR.

There aren't any currently.

Mostly due to jealous people starting the arc and quitting it immediately with a 1 star rating, just to bring it down.

It's petty and small of them, but people do it all the time. A lot of people get miffed that their arc they spent a whole whopping 5 minutes throwing together with no text didn't get Hall of Fame over night. So their sense of entitlement dictates to them that if they can't get a Hall of Fame arc with no effort on their part, then the people who actually earned it don't deserve it either.

Sorry, you touched on a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I hate people who's sense of entitlement and vindictive nature lead them to sabatoge someone else's work.

I disagree on Tough and Weave. They can complement just about any scrapper build. They aren't necessary by any means, but if you have the room in the build and can afford the endurance cost of running them, why not take them?

What I usually do on my scrappers is take Boxing and throw one extra slot in it for a couple Stupefy IO's (for the recovery bonus) and if I'm not running DM or MA I just remove it from my tray. Sometimes I slot Tough for use, other times it's just a set mule, especially with SR, as Tough is the only way you get to slot the Steadfast Res/Def. Weave is almost always slotted for use.

Tough and Weave work wonderfully in Willpower. Tough adds even more to your Smashing/Lethal Resistance, which you don't have much defense to, and Weave adds to your exotic damage defense, which you don't have much resistance to.

In short, while not mandatory, a Willpower scrapper with Tough and Weave will be tougher than one without.

Because a large part of the function of Ouroboros is to go back and do stuff you missed, like badge missions and such, and there isn't much to miss before level 25.

Alternately it could be viewed as: The powers that be in Ouroboros are not going to trust their time travel technology to a hero or villain that has just gotten their powers and hasn't proven themselves yet.

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More Iowans? **gasp**

I live in the most Southeastern part of the state (it's as far as you can go) in a small [censored] town by the name of Keokuk.

I'll be sure to look both of ya up sometime. **thumbs up**

Oh and Boxxy. Thank you for un-silencing me. I appreciate it.

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We're at the complete opposite side of the state from you in Council Bluffs. Maybe we can meet up if we ever have cause to both be in Des Moines on the same day or something.

I could see maybe a few options as to drone choices. But a Wisp or a Fairy, or even a sphere of ice wouldnt really be a "device" would it?

So, in short, yes to more options for the drone, no to wisps and whatnot.

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If you have ENOUGH stealth you can safely plant the bomb without drawing attention. Cloaking Device by itself will not be enough. However, as was already mentioned, if you stack a +Stealth IO or Superspeed with Cloaking Device you should be fine.

Time Bomb is a fun power, but you definitely don't want to make it your primary strategy. Also, don't bother on teams, it will end up being a waste of endurance because the team WILL kill the entire spawn before the bomb goes off.

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I know teams won't wait, and that I'd have to stack CD a stealth IO or something. I figured that would have been obvious.

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Er, that was a quick reply, I was addressing the OP's question.

I didn't put QR in front of my post because I didn't feel it was necessary.

If you attack with a travel power active and try to move immediately afterward you will be suppressed. with Super Speed on, you will move at normal running speed until the suppression effect wears off.

I highly doubt the devs are going to give us a set that exactly duplicates another, with different animations and graphics.

It's like asking for Spines without the spines, or Archery without the bow.

If your character's concept doesn't include a shield, why are you so dead set on using the shield set? I can think of half a dozen non-traditional concepts utilizing a shield that isn't a real shield. No one ever said it has to be a chunk of wood and metal on your arm. It could be anything you can imagine, here's some ideas utilizing the elemental shields:

My Shield/DM tank has a symbiote that attached itself to his left arm. The symbiote lives off of the host's energy, in return defending the host from harm. Using the Dark Elemental shield for this one.

I had a MA/Shield scrapper who had an energy gauntlet. The downside to it is the gauntlet was malfunctioning and could only form an energy field a couple feet across. Energy or Electric shield.

Fire/Shield scrapper with duality of powers, one side of the body produces fire, the other side produces ice. But a solid sheet of ice is all they have managed to develop yet. Using the Ice shield, naturally. You could also make a Shield/Fire tank and take the Ice Mastery epic pool to represent them gaining more control over their ice powers.

Shield/Stone tank or Stone/Shield brute. The ability to create various simple crystalline and rock shapes, but only in contact with your hands and arms. As soon as you let go of the shape you've created it crumbles away. You could use 3 different shields for this set, and create different costumes to go with it.

Your problem is you're not thinking far enough outside the box. You seem to be stuck on "a shield is a piece of metal that you wear on your arm" Use your imagination a little more and I'm sure you can come up with some kind of concept that works for you.

If you have ENOUGH stealth you can safely plant the bomb without drawing attention. Cloaking Device by itself will not be enough. However, as was already mentioned, if you stack a +Stealth IO or Superspeed with Cloaking Device you should be fine.

Time Bomb is a fun power, but you definitely don't want to make it your primary strategy. Also, don't bother on teams, it will end up being a waste of endurance because the team WILL kill the entire spawn before the bomb goes off.

I have to pick ONE?!

Claws/Regen, BS/DA, Spines/Fire, DM/DA, Katana/SR

The Claws/Regen and BS/DA are pretty much tied.

Hang on a sec, lemme flip a coin.

Claws/Regen (I really did flip a coin )

I second Kres's invitation. My global is @Claws and Effect

Shoot me a tell sometime and we can team with you (Kres and I almost always run together)

Pinnacle is a good home. Booze and llamas abound here.

This is still going on?

I'll check back in a couple weeks to see if it's died yet.

One group or the other is full of it, or, more likely, they just had a falling out where all parties were equally responsible and have taken their war to the forums.

Why? Because drama isn't nearly as fun when there's no one watching.

I'll bring a somethin' for it. In all likelyhood it will be my sonic/devices that some of you may be familiar with. My scrapper already has the badges (got em almost 2 years ago) and I don't think my Rad/Sonic will live long enough to get them.

Should be fun. Don't worry Funk, I'll be watchin' for ya

Yes, good job killing the MA! Now I can't level my 37th Fire/Kin farming toon to 50 in a matter of hours!

THAT'S IT!! THE DEVS BLATANT DISREGARD FOR OUR EXPLOITS MUST NOT GO UNPUNISHED!!!

I QUIT!!!!!

/heavy sarcasm

Yeah, I sorta explained it in my post. Your explanation is easier to make heads or tails of though.

I don't believe so. There are occasionally in-game events where they give out a CE code, but they are few and far between, and require you to win the event in most cases.

What you're seeing is the High Collar cape from the recently released Magic Booster Pack. It contains new costume options suitable for magician-like characters.

The only way to get it is to purchase the Magic Booster Pack from the NCSoft store, it is $9.99.

There are two other packs that have additional costume options. They are the Cyborg Pack, and the Valkyrie (or Mac) Pack. They are $9.99 as well. If you purchase the packs and update your account, the costume pieces are all available on all of your characters immediately from level 1.

Also, I have to agree with UberGuy. The new stuff to do will only be heavily played while it is still new and shiny. Once people figure out the most efficient way of making their way through it, the cries of "We need more stuff to do!" will start up all over again.

When the ITF was brand new it was the only thing most people wanted to do for a while, because no one knew the best way to do it yet and it was still challenging. Now that we have reached the era of sub-30 minute ITF runs it has become just another grind for merits and drops.

I IO my level 50 characters out very slowly, relying mostly on drops to get the stuff I want. I don't farm for purples and influence/infamy, I don't play the market, I have never even had a character break the 100 million influence mark. That, for me is "endgame content." I like watching my character get more effective with each IO I slot up, rather than going from "meh" to "ZOMGBBQ!!!1" in the course of one shopping/crafting spree.

Personally, I'm hoping Going Rogue will bring more stuff to do across the entire spectrum of levels. If it brings more endgame content, great, it's definitely something we need. But if it brings endgame content to the extent that World of Warcraft has it, I don't think it would be the best thing for the game, because then everyone will rush to the end to play the endgame stuff and the remainder of the game will fall by the wayside. There are already large parts of the game that have fallen into obscurity because something better came along (Boomtown, I'm looking at YOU) and I'd rather not see that happen to anything else. Originally, near as I can figure, the Shadow Shard was intended to be the endgame content. Unfortunately, the devs made everything in it so time consuming that people either don't have time to do it, or would rather do 3 or 4 other things instead of one Dr. Q.

I enjoy playing my level 50s, but I don't want to feel like I'm forced to because suddenly there is so much content at that level that no one wants to play anywhere else.

So, to sum up my feelings on the matter:
I am indeed hoping Going Rogue will offer 50s more stuff to do, but not if it comes at the exclusion of any other level range. I am actually hoping that there will be more stuff in the mid-40's range. Currently my level 43 defender has only a couple task forces he can run that he will gain xp on, the ITF, and the Shadow Shard TFs. I don't like running ITFs repeatedly, and it is nearly impossible to "casually" run a Shard TF. So, give us a level 40-45 TF please. On BOTH sides.

EDIT: For the purposes of my post I am defining "endgame content" as "stuff for level 50 characters to do." No more, no less.

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so if i dont enjoy that I wont enjoy Dual blades? I like dual blade stalkers but they seem a little to squishy for my liking which is why I dont really wanna play one.

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I play a Dark Melee/Super Reflexes brute. It is a combination far more commonly seen in scrappers, but it is the most enjoyable brute I have ever played. Everyone has given you he best information they can muster in regards to the questions asked, but ultimately no one can tell you what you will enjoy.

Really, with a brute, just pick whichever 2 powersets sound cool and run with it, and you'll probably be fine.

Stalkers are squishy on purpose. If they were invisible, hit like a truck, AND hard to kill they would be overpowered. That said, try one of the defense based secondaries and you might have better luck, Ninjitsu is my personal favorite.

Stalkers require a MUCH different playstyle in the early levels than a brute does. With a brute, you just wade in and keep swinging until they're dead or you are (usually they end up dead first) With a stalker you have to think about your targets and tactics a little more, some stalkers CAN throw down like a brute or scrapper later in the game, but generally are better suited to hit and fade style fighting.