Cybercel

The thing that strikes me in all this... there are a few people saying "Union's not interested in farming Hami," but it's really just the same few people saying it. I think it's quite possible that it would be more true to say "the current and past raid leaders are not interested in farming Hami." I know that I, for one, would happily come along if there were regular raids. I've missed all the past ones because I have a rather irregular schedule, but if they were frequent, I'd have a much better chance of getting to a good few of them. I can't take a leadership role because of my schedule, and because I just don't make much of a leader, but you could count me in for 90 minutes of my time every couple of weeks, if the raids are really starting to get that short.

It'd be interesting to see how many other people would happily come along to more frequent raids. If there's interest (and I suspect there would be - it seems like plenty of people show up for the Defiant ones, and the two servers aren't really all that different), then it would just be a matter of finding a few people for the leading roles who are happy to do this a little more often. I suspect that more people who'd like to try leading teams and raids would show up if we had a few more, as well. People would get involved, and become interested in helping organise.

As it is, I've been levelling characters on Defiant and was thinking I'd start heading to their raids once I'm high enough. I'd really rather get some of my Union toons a few HOs, though, and I know the Union community better and would rather see us having community events than going along to a Defiant one where I know very few people.

I'd love to come along, as I've never made it to a raid yet, but I just can't promise I'll be there since I don't know my schedule very far in advance. Most likely I'd be bringing my level 50 Empath, but if I get back to levelling them, I also have an Ill/Rad and Grav/FF. No idea if I'll have them high enough by then, though.

I've always assumed that Paragon City would be fairly accepting as a whole, because the residents are used to being saved by mutants on a daily basis. However, the manual and description of mutants in-game when you're making a character does allude to their still being people who fear them, and keeping human nature in mind... I'm sure there would be people who'd hate them, just because they're different.

In-game... well, as someone mentioned, the Outcasts are a gang of mutants, and their name does seem to suggest they're not all too happy about their place in society. Also, you'll sometimes get people you've saved in the streets making comments that make it sound like they weren't really all that fond of heroes in general before you saved them ("Maybe capes aren't so bad after all.") - I'd assume that's because they're different, and powerful, and thus scary.

Given that, I tend to assume that there must be at least some people who fear/dislike/oppose mutants in Paragon City itself, and that there are probably higher levels of that kind of feeling in other areas who aren't so used to seeing mutants around, being helpful. One route I know several people have taken with backstories for mutants who've faced intolerance is that they actually came from outside the city itself, some of them heading to Paragon City, in fact, to escape it. It makes sense - in real life, cities tend to be more accepting of minorities, and more liberal. Backwater towns full of people who all know each other and are all the same can often be less tolerant of anyone different from themselves.

I made a Fire/Sonic a few weeks ago pretty much just so I could use Disruption Field on the Imps, when I get them. It may not be uber, but it should be fun.

Don't put damage in Freezing Rain. It's not a damage power, it's a debuff and knockdown power. Those 1s you see coming up are actually rounded up - it's doing tiny amounts of damage really. The main thing you'll probably want in it is recharge. It's really useful, and having it up as much as possible is great.

There are a number of ways you can go with Grav. If you want to be able to do a bit of damage, and even solo pretty well, there are a couple of ways to go. One option is Propel, but as has been commented on, a lot of people find it's just too slow. On teams, especially, it's a pain - all too often, I find that my target is dead by the time it hits, and I've wasted my endurance. So, instead, my Grav Controller cycles Crush (2xAcc, 3xDam, 1xRecharge), Lift (2xAcc, 3xDam, 1xRecharge), and Gravity Distortion (2xAcc, 2xHold, 2x Recharge). Grav Distortion first since it's not slotted for damage, to set up Containment. Then I throw Crush and Lift on the same target for damage, and move to the next enemy, to get containment set up on that one. When soloing, I often find I get groups of three or four mobs which is perfect, because I can keep them all locked down while I kill them. I have Singularity slotted 3xHold 3xDam (no Acc, I've read lots that says it's fine without, and I don't miss having one there), and he helps me out as well. I can't wait to get a blast from the ancillary pools to go with it all - I have Propel still but just don't use it, because it takes too long to activate to fit into the little chain I have going. A quick blast (like Ice Blast) would work well, though.

The nice thing about this, I find, is that if a team really doesn't need me to be Wormholing things around and heavily Controlling (say there's a really good Tank keeping everything sorted), I can add a bit of damage, instad of acting like a third wheel (or eighth wheel, on a big team ). And while I prefer teaming, in the times when I just can't find a team, I'm perfectly capable of doing my own missions on Invincible. At the same time, I've really not sacrificed on control in my build to do this - they're all useful powers anyway.

Just something to think about - as I said, there are a lot of ways to go with it, and you're probably best playing for a while and seeing how the set works for you. I'd never have built my Grav/FF like this originally, it was something I came up with after playing for a while.

If you're willing to run in every time and warn people you're going to be using it, it would give ranged characters a chance to get the full benefit of the buff - it's a fantastic buff for Blasters, and a shame when they miss out on the (often huge) enemy-based part of it. My two Blasters tend to stick close to the enemies anyway, thankfully, but plenty of people play Blasters who work mainly from range.

When I say 'warn', even letting teams know at the beginning of how it works, rather than saying every time, would probably be enough - I used to team a lot (on a Controller alt of mine) with a Kineticist who would just warn her teams every-so-often that if they wanted buffs and heals, they needed to get in close and stay there. We all did, and we powered through mobs with few deaths on most teams she ran. It can be hard to convince some people they're really safer and better off standing toe-to-toe with the mobs, but it works.

The two accuracies are a must for PvP, although you may find that you don't use your attacks much there - I know my Rad/Thermal doesn't. In PvP, Thermal's are really needed as support characters, and I find that end of things keeps me so busy that I rarely attack, past using Cosmic Burst to stun Blasters who are after me. If you tend to play in teams and like the support end of things anyway, that's likely the role you'll slip into, especially in Siren's where you don't yet have your two debuffs.

Forge is really good, especially in PvP. I'd get it. Not taking it, in my mind, is like having an Empath Defender not take Fortitude. I think I just have two recharges in it on my Thermal right now, and can keep it perma on a couple of teammates, althought you might want to check on the timing, since I've not played her for a bit and don't remember exactly. I'm planning on popping some tohit buffs in it for PvP, to help my teammates hit people using def-based powersets or def buffs. In PvE, the damage buff is nice, and it's really handy if you have a lower level on the team who's having a hard time hitting, or you're fighting something irritating like high-level Night Widows.

I don't know what you'd drop to take Forge, that said. In the new build I have planned, I'm leaving out Aim and my level 32 power on the basis that I don't chain enough attacks for Aim to be worth it (too busy!), and the last thing I want when I'm needed to keep the team alive is a big attack that risks pulling in aggro and leaves me with no endurance. What might work for you, since you want those, would just be to push one of your powers into the 40-50 range, if you don't want all four patron powers. With I7 on its way, unless you're a very fast leveller, those levels might well be opened up before you get there. Forge could make the ideal level 49 power if you really can't fit it in beforehand, since it doesn't need a lot of slotting to be worthwhile.

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I guess if I wanted to be "defendery" I'd probably pick something like Ice/Thermal or Ice/Dark

If I wanted to be "Blastery" I'd probably look at either Rad or Energy / Rad or Kinetics.

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Just wondering what your thinking is on the primaries there. Ice is a much higher-damage set than Radiation, and I'm pretty sure it works out better than Energy for single-target damage, too.

My Ice/Dark is pretty balanced, but generally plays quite offensively - the three main Ice blasts mean I can churn out a fair amount of single-target damage, and I've acted as the main damage dealer for teams before, even against AVs. Tar Patch helps, as does having a Kineticist next to me. That doesn't mean I don't use my secondary though, far from it - I use it constantly, but my playstyle remains quite offensive, and I'm more focused on damage and control rather than directly defending and healing the team.

My Rad/Thermal spends more time using her secondary, and does feel closer to playing a Defender, especially in PvP. She can still do some damage, especially with Cosmic Burst, but I get kept busy keeping people healed and buffed. I tend to just throw her attacks in when I can, depending on the rest of the team to finish things off, unlike on my Ice/Dark, who'll often enough focus on taking out a big threat first thing.

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I meant that the ones who don't use their secondary are the bad ones

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Thanks for the insult then, MaX.

I honestly don't think this debate needs to be had in yet another thread though - it's getting really old.

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Edit: On second thought, with eadership up and running Stamina may well be a necessity.

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It isn't a necessity, at all. It may take some getting used to for people who've always played with Stamina, but Empaths do fine without it - especially those who rarely or never use attacks. My Empath has the entire Leadership set, and I really don't have any trouble running them all at once. I have quite a few spare slots so I've put a couple of end reductions in each one, but I used to run them with no end reductions at all, and still had little trouble. RA + Conserve Power from the Power Mastery pool really takes care of everything. I often find I don't even really need Conserve Power, but it's nice to have as a backup in bad situations.

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Team vs team PvP is like sex - when it's good, it rocks your world, and leaves you gasping for more

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And when it's bad you end up in the hospital; then once discharged, you retreat to your friends house and moan about how he finished you off before you'd had a chance to build up a sweat. Then, a couple of days later, you jump back in the sack and try it out again, only to be disappointed once more?

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Sounds like you've had some worrying experiences.

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Damn, I've got to stop assuming everyone's a Hero
Good luck then

(I never even knew the Outcasts had a presence in the Rogue Isles...)

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The fact that you're on the Union Villains board should be a good tip.

As you might gather from the replies here, you really don't see Outcasts on the Isles - I think the mission being used is actually an instanced Paragon City map.

Bilharzia was doing quite well on Union even before the changes. The buffs do seem like good ideas though, and I'm looking forward to levelling my own Dom, now.

I'll gladly come along for Numina. I have an Empath at 50, and Ill/Rad at 36, and a Grav/FF at 37 who all need the badge - not sure which I'll bring.

No. Corruptors have lower damage than Blasters across the board - I've heard Corruptor damage quoted as being about 75% of Blaster damage.

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So you were the defender i kept laying my holds on as my dom Red Elemental

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Had to bring in a spiney though to get them pesky empaths down on the ground

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But damn, those flying empaths were a real pain to remove

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Hehehe... the night I was there, that would be ShamanX and myself. Thanks for the compliments. I think I was killed twice - once was just out of my own sheer idiocy, as I decided to see if I had long enough to put down both RAs and the Stalkers got me. The other time I was well and truly splatted. Have to say, PvP Empathing is a lot more fun that PvE these days.

Grats indeed - glad we got to help you along!

And Majik, we all saw you fade out as you crashed again while we were taking photos. Shame you weren't there for that, but at least that second crash didn't come any earlier.

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I wouldnt take AS on a grav roller. Your hold , imob and lift powers are all -fly anyway. Crush does more damage than AS and i would 3 slot with damage. Your hold does more damage than crush so i would also 3 slot it with damage. With hasten and S.speed you have great recharge. This then lets you have a good attack chain with crush ,lift, your hold and propel.

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According to Sherk Silver's planner, Crush and AS actually do the same damage, with AS costing less endurance. I realise it's not always right, but just for reference. Also, AS is of course a nice chunk of damage, while Crush is DoT.

I currently use my hold, immob, and Lift chained, and find I really can't fit Propel in - it's too slow. by the time it finishes, everything's long since recharged. I've just been cycling the three when solo, and found that I actually seem to be going just as quickly that way. I'm /FF, but I'd think on a Kin, it really would fit in - with everything recharging quickly, there'd be so little time where one of the three powers wasn't recharged. On the other hand, there might well be enough time for AS or a blast from the ancillary pools.

I have to agree with others that I'd never slot my hold for damage. I rely far too much on it lasting as long as it does and recharging as quickly as it does, so I can keep everything locked down solo while I kill them.

Edit: Also, while Grav has plenty of -Fly as you pointed out, AS has a really handy knock down on targets already on the ground.

Just wanted to say how much fun I had in Siren's Call tonight! That had to be one of the best fights I've had in there - usually, I feel pretty much forced to jump over to the villain side to try and even things up, and often enough, it's still not enough to get a really good fight going. It was nice to get a chance to bring a hero out and have a proper battle all across the zone.

Hopefully sometime when there are more heroes about, I'll get a chance to fight alongside those of you who were on the other side.

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So is this still going? You seem to be a bit quiet round here... or do you jsut not spam like your union counterparts? :P

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As MaX said... we're still active. The SGs aren't massive yet, but most of the time a shout over the coalition channel or global channel yields at least a response or two.

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Then your saying sonic is the only way to go?

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Not really - as you've pointed out, you could put together a pentad team that got around some of the weaknesses, and anyway... it's common practice to go into a pentad match with plenty of BFs anyway. I've seen excellent hero pentad teams who didn't have an Empath or Sonic on them, and they've managed. And it's quite possible that you might fight teams without fear and confuse effects. However, it does seem like a gaping hole that other teams could start taking advantage of, and you'd need to be very aware of it, and make sure you had some way to counter it. Slotted Stimulant is a possibility, since it does get rid of fear and confuse, but it has very short range and an interrupt. Or, of course, the old standby of having everyone on the team carry BFs.

It's less that I'm saying Thermal is no good for matches, and more that I'm highlighting where there is what I perceive as a pretty serious disbalance in the two sides. If anything, it's more of a problem in zonal PvP. I'll stop myself there, so as not to derail the thread.

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We havnt fought that many CoT's, so our PvE testing is quite limited. Our main tankers for against the Baracuda AV (yes, we [censored] the sucker for SO's) have always been our stalkers, and they say the difference between thaw and no thaw is very big. They even say thaw is probably just as good as SB, maybe better.

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As I said, in my experience of it, it's really not that good at all. Against Siphon Speed, it barely helped, while an SB immediately sent the affected player back up to an almost-normal speed. Not surprising, really, because Thaw only has slow res, while SB has fairly high +speed. Plus, SB is +recharge... does Thaw give res to -recharge effects, or just to -slow in the sense of movement slows?

I might see if I can get around to properly testing things at some point, but as it stands, I'm completely unimpressed by Thaw, and I'd give it up for Clear Mind any day. Thaw has resulted in deaths when I couldn't get rid of status effects in both PvE and PvP.

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Thaw adds slow protection! Do you have any ideas how awesome that is?

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IMO, not awesome enough to make up for the loss of fear and confuse res, and perception.

I'd love to know how good the slow res is. I know when doing some Tsoo missions it seemed pretty much useless at helping Syn's brute, who'd had his speed siphoned. Thankfully, we had a kin to SB him, which did help.

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Bit OT, but I think one of either Thaw or Forge needs buffing until someone can convince me otherwise.

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Yeah, I keep tossing around the idea of making a post on suggestions about it, but haven't bothered since I doubt it would get listened to. Aside from the lack of confuse and fear res, Thaw also doesn't grant +Perception. That seems to me like a little too much of a hit for slow res and a tiny bit of cold res. It also leaves villains without any targetted +Perception powers until 35, and being realistic... how many Sonics are there around?

If you want a knockback power, take Force Bolt. It's knockback every time (unless the target has knockback res, of course) and also has a low chance to detoggle one toggle in PvP. Don't slot Power Bolt in the epics for knockback - it's unreliable and mainly a damage power.

You might want to consider fitting Aid Self in at some point, especially since you're already getting Aid Other. I find it invaluable on squishies, especially if you will be stepping into PvP at times. My Grav/FF became so much better to play once I got it - I can put her Force Field up, heal in safety, then hop back out and carry on fighting on full health. If you're just going to duo with a Scrapper and are unlikely to be teaming with anyone who can heal, this could be especially important.

I find Dispersion Bubble to be quite a drain on my Controller when I'm attacking full-out, even with two endurance reductions in it. You'll want it up permanently in PvP and whenever you're fighting enemies who mez (including disorients, which are pretty common), so you'll probably find you make heavy use of it. Might be something you just need to get and try out for yourself before you can decide how many end reductions it needs.

Confuse lasts a pretty long time to start with. If you find there are other places you want slots, that might be somewhere you could take some from.

I assume that Heal in Levitate is a bug in the builder, and that's an accuracy. Other than that... what are you planning on using this power for? If you want it as a soft control, to hurl the odd thing in the air, then you probably won't need that end reduction in it. If you want to actually do some damage, slot it with one or two accs, three damage, and a recharge if you can afford it. Mind can hold its own on the damage front, but it does take slotting up Levitate, and taking and slotting Mesmerize for damage.

The usual slotting for holds is two acc/two hold/two recharge. Once you have Tactics, one acc/three hold/two recharge might be fine (although I seem to remember hearing that Tactics isn't really good enough for anyone but Defenders to replace a second acc - try it out for yourself, I guess), but I'd keep that second recharge. It's your bread-and-butter power, and you'll use it lots.

Even with Tactics, you may want a second acc in Total Domination - it has lowered accuracy because it's an AoE hold. I think Mass Confusion has the same accuracy penalty, check in your hero builder.

I would bother with Sleep Durations in Mass Hypnosis. It lasts long enough unslotted, I always find - not only does it last a decent length, but most things tend to get woken up before it's finished.

Not sure I'd bother with tohit debuffs in Terrify, but that's more a personal choice. I'd rather having it up more, on the basis that if things are feared, they're hitting even less than if they're debuffed. Might be one of those things you just need to try out.

Detention Bubble is useful in PvP when you're outnumbered, and in PvE, can even be used on AVs. It was fantasticly useful on the Croatoa TF, for example, because you're attacked by 10 waves of attacks with an AV each time. I'd simple keep the AV permanently in a bubble while we cleared her minions. Sadly, looking at the build, I doubt there's any way you can take it earlier... my Grav/FF didn't take the two single-target buffs and got Detention Bubble and Force Bolt relatively early on instead. If you want the two buffs, not sure how it'd fit.

That was rather long... hope there's something you fnd useful in it.