DrMike2000

Something like the rock-paper-scissors we already have but more advanced?

I've always thought there's some potential game that could be made with the existing score emotes (hold up 1 to 10) but can't think exactly what the rules would be...

Having stuck one in Sonic Haven (an ally shield) instead of Sonic Dispersion (a toggle), I completely agree with the Heaper.

There should be some kind of warning in the description, even if it is "Only works correctly in toggle powers"

I'd recommend starting with an Ice/Energy Blaster.

You get great damage, and some decent survivability in the first 10 levels, thanks to early Build Up at level 4, Freeze Ray and your melee attacks. Its a great start for running around Atlas or Galaxy and Kings Row, and getting to grips with the game.

Scrappers don't really come into their own until level 22 onwards, before that they always feel a little bit fragile and a little bit weak to me.

And I highly recommend playing a Blaster first, because you'll appreciate a Scrapper's toughness and mez protection after going without for a while.

I'll echo the sentiments here that Posion needs help.

It seems to have a bunch of single target debuffs that arent particularly stronger (in fact often weaker) than AoE counterparts in other sets. Its often referred to as a "king of ST debuffs" but I've never seen that myself in 35 levels of play (admittedly with Ninjas...)

Anyone wanting to make a Poison-themed Corrupter would be better of taking Radiation Emission and colouring it green IMHO.

The time wrong for me, but I approve nonetheless.

Did you know...

If you slot Martial Art's Cobra Strike with the Stupefy KB proc, and use it while surrounded by a pack of bad guys, it can often look like you've thrown one of them over your shoulder.


Thunder Kick also rocks with theis proc.

Eagle's Claw with the Haymaker animation should look even better...

Sonic/Sonic will be the most effective powerset, but then anything/Sonic usually is.

I've really enjoyed Sonic/Energy.

Sonic Resonance is a great team powerset, but provides very little in the way of personal protection. Energy Blast fills that gap nicely - if you've drawn its aggro chances are its on its backside unable to attack.

Dark Blast might be a similar good choice. It adds a defensive edge to you and your team, and allows you to keep enemies inside Liquefy with Tentacles.

Really, though, there aren't any powersets that wouldn't mesh with Sonic Resonance. Its a pretty straightforwards powerset. Keep Dispersion and Disruption Field running, shield your team and apply Sonic Siphon to the big targets. Spen the other 3 1/2 minutes out of every 4 blasting.

Which power did you slot it in?

I put one in Sonic Haven on my Defender, and the mez resist blinks on and then off again for about 1 second in 10 in the Combat Attributes, leading me to think it may be broken in that power.

What I meant was that the 2 billion influence we can store per character means less in terms of what it buys, due to inflation. Maybe it used to translate into say 2000 LotG +Recharge recipes, now it only translates into 200.

My point was that if it is a problem for a character to have 2 billion influence today, then it must have been a bigger problem a few years back.

Pardon me if that wasn't clear.

But, as you point out, this restriction has been implemented for stability, which kind of makes the starting point of my post moot. So, no worries

I'm curious as to why having large amounts of goods (inf, IOs, whatever) is seen as an exploit in any way.

Is it because the ultra-rich were storing over 2 billion plus market slots?

Inflation has driven up prices but the inf cap remains at 2 billion. So in many ways, our ability to store inf has decreased over time.

Now if you want to store huge amounts of inf or goods, you need to make a few characters on an unused server, level them up a little bit and have them open the global emails. So this time restriction hasn't really fixed anything.

Is it the convenience of always having an extra insp or recipe at hand?

This is hardly game-breaking. You cant open emails and much down an unrelaistic amount of insps during combat. Situations where stored recipes could come in handy are very rare and contrived.

Seems to me this has failed to fix a non-existent problem, AND potentially driven a few players away. Losing your "life savings" in a game is the sort of thing that can snap you out of the moment and put a game into perspective.

(I havent been burnt and I'll keep on playing, BTW )

I'm going to have to check. I think I just had some grenade recipes mailed to myself heroside. They've probably been swallowed by now. There might have been a recovery serum or kinetic dampener in there too..

>grunt!< no big deal if they have, I guess. These things havent been half as rare as I thought they might.

Nice choice!

My first Defender was Dark/Dark, as I weened myself off Blasters, and I was amazed at his surviviability and capability as a solo artist.

Dark Miasma is a great set all round. Since then I've tried pretty much everything and found Defenders to be the most versatile archetype in the game, no two primary sets are alike.

Devastation give +3.75% (but competes with Thunderstrike: +3.75% E/NE/Rng in any defence build)
Scirocco' Dervish gives 3.125%

Heres the full list, its pretty slim:
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Category...sionic_Defense

And of course Steadfast unique, Hover, CJ, Weave and Manouvers all add to Psi Defence.

Using these I managed to cap Psi Defence on my FF Defender.

Its also worth remembering the 25% Psi Def you can get from the Vanguard Shield temp power (100 Vanguard Merits for 30 minutes worth) and the Elusive Mind accolade. Using either of these, some pool powers and some set bonuses you could be pretty certain of capped Psi Defence against, say, an end of mission Master Illusionist whilst soloing.

Unai Kemen's arc "To Save a Thousand Worlds" is full of big outdoorsy maps of a variety of enemies and awards 43 merits. You may want to take a look at that.
Re-run the Family or Council maps a few times if you like. The last two missions are War Wolves. If you hate them as much as I do, they're both timed, so you can let them expire.

Its not optimal, but it makes farming for purples not feel like so much of a farm, if that makes sense :P

The biggest roadbump is the Paragon Protectors dimension, but you could drop the virtual team size to race through that one if you need to.

I never objected to "sb plz" - its quick to type and saves me watching everyone's tiny little buff icons. And it does have a please in there.
I'd usually start each mission saying to remind me if it drops and anyone needs refreshing, if anyone doesn't want it, and try to keep it up on the people who didn't say no. I play Kinetics when I want to be busy.

I really wouldn't care for a "thanks" or "thx" every two minutes from everyone. Thats about as interesting as a team where everyone just says "gratz" once per level.

In-character appreciation of buffs is always welcome. What would you say if you could suddenly run at 60mph?

Temp powers are a separate drop pool from normal recipe drops.
Its possible to get a temp power recipe and a normal recipe off the smae opponent. So the only way that temp powers can reduce your recipe acquisition is by filling up your recipe tray too quickly on a fast moving team.

A gadget power pool would open up some odd slotting options that temp powers dont give. eg there is currently no ranged attack in power pools. A power pool sleep would be a very nice purple set mule.

Personally, I quite like the way temp powers make me play. I reguarly use the two grenades on my Stalker, for example, but its never going to become a per-spawn tactic. Sometimes I run out mid-mission. Sometimes I have to run off and restock between missions.
This really works for a character who's concept is "martial arts with a side of gadgets". If I wanted a character who's core ability is gadgets, I can make an AR/Traps Corrupter or something similar.

Mr. Miracle, for example, carries grenades and smoke bombs but doesn't use them every time he fights. Come to think of it, so does Batman.

Yep. Its always worth remembering that even Blasters regularly bounce bullets off their chests.

A Force Field Defender can reach the dizzy heights of soft-capped defence to everything (including Psi) and have 68% or so S/L Resistance with a side helping of 30%+ to either energy, negative or psi, or 71% S/L if they go power mastery.

You could in theory then cap smashing Res with a couple of Kinetic Crash sets.

You still have a sleep hole, of course, but you're pretty tough. I know this from experience.

[Edit] Oh yeah, Traps, I keep forgetting. Its easier for them too as FFG has a higher base than Dispersion Bubble

I'd really like an Arabian/Egyptian themed Booster. Nice place to introduce some more animal heads too (for Egyptian Gods) especially if they have optional textures like marble and high tech.

I know its a departure from the core spandex theme of the game, but one of CoX's strengths is that it supports multiple genres. We have medieveal weapons and steampunk pieces and so on, so that players can choose to make characters beyond the standard Marvel/DC spectrum.

Choice is good.

I've always felt that hats could be moved to "Detail 1" and still work, allowing them to sit on top of any hairstyle.

Sure, there may be the odd clipping issue with some combos, but we get that anyway (eg Glam hair and capes)

I enjoy random rolls in the 30-34 range.

Everything else aside, its fun. There's the anticipation and the highs and letdowns that you don't get with accumulating a large chunk of merits and then blowing it on one recipe. I've done both. I've had great sessions and bad sessions with random rolls, but I'm rich enough in game to not really care when things don't work out.

I've never seen the appeal of gambling in real life, but I do enjoy stuffing all my virtual earnings down the poker machine, just like I used to in Diablo II

Awesome guide! This gave me exactly the info I was looking for, as I havent really looked at VEATs at all until this week.

I was hoping that a Wolf Spider build would be viable, looks like thats the case.

I really like it. I found it very handy when trying to punch above my weight a bit (eg +3/x8 maps) and could alternate it with purple and orange pills to keep my survivability up.

You could do Batman as Dark Melee, using just the punches and Touch of Fear.
Not the most effective use of a powerset, since you're skipping Siphon Life and Midnight Grasp in order to do so.
..and the Shadow maul animation isn't the most appropriate...

You know what? Stick with Martial Arts since the alternate animations were added. I thjink this was my idea from before then, on how to do Batman without all the high-kicking.

Slightly on topic, I would love to see an alternate animation for Scrapper/Tanker Energy Torrent that looked like super-breath.

I'd tag Iron Man as a Force Field/Energy Defender with the Fighting Pool. You need a few inventions to really make it work, and they can be expensive, but this is Tony Stark I'm talking about.

Oh, and Wolverine's senses can be done using Tactics. That adds +Perception, enough to see through a Night Widow smoke grenade.