Eisenzahn

I'm the sort of player who doesn't fiddle with IOs much. I usually have ridiculously expensive dream builds planned, and then normal old SO builds that I actually bother to achieve. Only two of my characters have indulged in IOs beyond just slotting the occasional lucky drop that fits, to the point of affording absurd purple-filled builds by siphoning funds off all my other alts on their respective sides.

Since none of my three current Dominators are the specific villain who eats all my money, these changes have made a tremendous difference for them. Before the changes, my Mind/Psi had halted in the 40s, fetched up on her Patron Arc and a couple EBs she couldn't solo, my Plant/Thorn in the late 20's stalled out by boredom with Lethal Damage vs. all those damn Longbow, and my Ice/Ice never got out of the teens. Now... I'm happy to report that the Plant/Thorn will be my next 50 by the end of the week at this rate, the Mind/Psi hit it yesterday, and the Ice/Ice is flying into the 30's. I don't farm and I don't PL. These leveling rates are almost exclusively solo, with just SOs. But even the Permadom version of my Mind/Psi on the Test Server is feeling more fun to play. Maybe it's just me, but spamming one attack over and over again bores the crap out of me. I need at least five or six different offensive moves and techniques worth cycling through in a fight to feel happy with the character. This is a big part of why I don't play Controllers and Masterminds, I guess...

Anyway, consider me an extremely satisfied customer.

My main is Lunaticia, a Mu Cataphract (Elec/Elec/Mu Brute) and nominal full-time Arachnos Agent... not that they ask her to do much, because she's kind of unreliable and insane. In the Praetorian World, she benefitted from more focused training earlier on in her career to wind up something more like a traditional Mu Mystitc, as a Storm/Elec/Elec Defender. A member of the heroic Sharkhead Island Defence Force, Pandemonika works with various other local mystics to keep the Leviathan asleep and run interference with Tyrant's agents trying to find more information about it. Or at least she did, before her husband was murdered and she pursued the killer to the Paragon that we know. I live in terror that the Going Rogue expansion is going to render her entire intricate backstory non-canon.

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Today's PSA:
someone said
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And Speed Boost isn't good for ANYONE on that multi-tiered cave map *shudders*. A slightly faster refresh (on a generally already full attack chain by level 16 anyway) isn't going to help if you keep falling 6 stories below your target.

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You probably already know this but, on that map: Start on the bottom level and work up. Much better to fall into an area you've already cleared. And someone WILL fall.

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The only acceptable solution is quitting the mission and hitting auto-complete. [censored] that map.

Anyway, if I ask for a specific single-target whatsit to not be applied to me, I expect it to be so, regardless of my specific justification. I also anticipate the possibility that I may be asked to leave the team, if the lack of that buff is negatively impacting my ability to contribute. Typically, when I ask not to recieve a buff, it's because it's not actually doing anything for me that I care about. Case in point, Ice Shields on a softcapped SR. Against the overwhelming majority of opponents, I don't give a crap about Cold Resistance. Or SB on some of my characters who have more than adequate +Recovery and +Recharge. If I'm not gaining any appreciable combat efficiency (see: my Elec/Elec Brute with enough Global Recharge to use Lightning Rod every 28 seconds, or my Mind/Psi Permadom), then it's just an unwelcome movement buff, and frankly a waste of the buffer's time.

Assorted "I'll buff who I want, and buff 'em extra hard if they ask me not to" types... I'd like to take preemptive measures to avoid encountering people like you in game. My global is @Eisenzahn, please /gignore it.

This thread pretty much has it right. As an Elec/Elec Brute, you won't want to be the main damage sponge for a team without some support (you will learn to love Force Fields and Cold Domination especially) unless it's against an enemy that deals primarily in Energy. You'll do OK vs. Smashing, Lethal and Psi as well. Seek out the Rikti, because you will be their silver bullet. Beware Arachnoids, Elder Snakes, Toxic Tarantulas and Bane Spiders, because they will be yours. The Circle of Thorns, and anyone else who deals heavily in Fire, Cold and Negative Energy can also be iffy, but you can probably handle it. On the other hand, you can laugh in the face of Carnies, Malta, and the Fortunatas and Mu Mystics who terrify (or at least frustrate the hell out of) just about everyone else in the game.

An Elec/Elec Brute is a Striker, first and foremost. While some Brutes play better like Tankers, you'll definitely feel more like a Scrapper. This can be frustrating on some teams, because absorbing alpha strikes is a main source of Fury generation. You'll have to be better at generating your own Fury with quick animating attacks as an Elec/Elec Brute, but it's quite feasable.

You are built to deal damage and more damage and to never stop. You get a buff to movement speed and recharge, and resistance to debuffs of the same. With minimal effort you will be able to make your Endurance bottomless, and impervious to debuffs.

My personal strategy with IO slotting has tended towards +HP/+Regen, with +Recharge wherever I can get it. I also run with Tough and Aid Self, but I'm seriously considering dropping Aid Self in favor of Hasten.

The only advice I'd really refute here is regarding travel powers. Even if you're Flying or Super Jumping and get hit with an immob while passing, Grounded will turn itself back on as soon as you hit the ground. You only really need a travel power that works near the ground if you're going to be running it in combat and inside missions. I picked up Air Superiority and Flight personally, and have never regretted it. I also put a Steadfast KB IO in Grounded though, so that I'd still have some KB protection even in the air. You'll be amazed at the timing some enemies show in using their KB attacks right when you fire off Lightning Rod or jump over a minor obstacle.

If you choose to Solo often, consider running on the 2nd or 4th difficulties. You've got too much AoE to waste on spawns of just 2-3 guys.

There are a few things to keep in mind about the mission arcs that unlock the patron pools that sometimes people don't know about in advance.

First, you don't necessarily have to do the arc that corresponds to the specific pool you want. My main Brute works for Captain Mako and proudly wears her Bloodletter badge, but uses Mu Mastery. You don't even have to use the same Patron Pool on both of your character builds. I could change her second built to use Soul Mastery, leaving her main with Mu Mastery and her actual original pool unlock with Leviathan Mastery.

Second, these arcs aren't available for repeat via Ouroboros, so the only way to see each arc (or to replay one you especially liked) is to take a new villain to 40+. Take a look at Paragon Wiki or coh.RedTomax.com for info about the specific arcs, to see which one has the story you're most interested in, if story interests you at all. You only need to do the first arc of a patron to unlock Patron Pools, but they'll give three more arcs after that.

Third, don't be afraid of leveling past 41 without having the pools unlocked. When you complete the first arc and unlock them you get a free Respec as well.

Glad to see a lot of Mako Love in here. Now, if you'd like to come to Virtue and join his Official Fan Club, the line starts to my left...

When I spotted BaBs post in the Dev Digest, I was extremely nervous for a couple seconds. That had worn off before I decided to check the actual thread and see what the joke was, but I still admit I sniffed the bait before noticing the hook.

No thanks to more co-op zones. There will never be a co-op zone that's either genuinely balanced between Heroes and Villains or one that's as villain-biased as the two current ones are already hero-biased. My villains and I have had quite enough of following heroes around on their content pretending they care about saving the world.

More electricity for everyone. But frankly, being able to Side Switch an Elec/Elec Brute means I'd probably only give a pity slot to Elec/Elec Scrappers and Tanks to satisfy my bizarre craving for lightning themed characters, and then transfer all the money they've earned to some character I actually want to play at 50, like I did when I was done with my Elec/Elec Stalker.

Golden Dragonfly on my Nin/Nin Stalker. Pretty much any attack that Knocks Up, really. Nothing like flinging a guy in the air and having him fall down already dead.

My assorted Stormies similarly love finishing foes off with Gale... although it's extremely rare that it'll work out, since it's single-slotted with just accuracy on most of 'em.

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(Once, several years ago, a poster actually suggested that perhaps the random number generator on the game servers worked differently when herostats was running on the client because the problems he noticed only occured when he wasn't recording. I told him to always run herostats then, just to make sure he always had the herostats buff.)

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Amy Wong: You should try homeopathic medicine, Bender. Try some zinc.
Bender: I'm forty percent zinc.
Amy Wong: Then take some echinacea, or St. John's Wort.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Or a big, fat placebo. It's all the same crap.

You're not choosing very good examples here. Nightcrawler is a clear case of Martial Arts or Dual Blades (sometimes Triple Blades, if he's tail-fencing) plus Super Reflexes. It may be more about acrobatic training than mutant properties, but he's definitely pushed his evasiveness beyond any reasonable human expectation. Sprinkle liberally with the Teleport Pool, and various possibilities from Concealment, Fitness, Fighting and Leaping and you've got a complete character. If the game included screwy looking three-fingered ninja turtle hands and feet with giant heel-thumbs, he'd be a lead contender in the copyright violation lineup.

Likewise with the Flash. He's using enough different close combat tricks that it qualifies as a whole Fast Melee set, plus Super Reflexes and Super Speed. Cyclops has enough close combat training and unexpected eye-blast tricks to put together a Blaster Manipulation set, add in the entire Leadership pool, and call it done. Or even make an expanded Team Strategy support set and turn him into a Defender. Jubilee has used her powers to make energy-charged melee strikes on numerous occasions, rather than flinging the energy. Thus an Energy/Energy Blaster, and still nowhere near the list of people I'd ever want to team with.

Anyway, you can't choose just one powerset because the game isn't balanced that way, and sometimes video games have to sacrifice flexibility for balance and playability. Feel free to ignore yor primary or secondary set though, leaving the default power unslotted and removing it from your tray entirely. Plenty of Defenders do this already. They don't get invited to my teams... but they must get invited to someone's since I can't imagine them soloing with just Brawl and their Origin Temp...

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Nothing more needs to be said ont he OP so let us discuss something more significant.

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While I enjoy the idea of keeping the OP bumped to further subject him to the scrutiny and resulting ridicule of the forum, I think a deliberate threadjack (especially when the hand of Mod08 is already so evident) is a clear case of risk far outpacing reward. Much like 1/3rd EXP values for defeating otherwise unchanged opponents, in that regard. Peculiar that the first line of the OP would reference the concept, and then the rest of it would ignore it...

I used to live on Dr. Pepper. Something in the realm of two liters a day, minimum. It's the sort of thing that makes my doctor nervous when I mention it, and then just makes him angry when he sees how healthy I actually am in spite of it. Still, that much just isn't good for you... and I've managed in the last two months to cut down to a single can a day instead, usually with my lunch. The goal is to be completely off soda by December, and probably save about $400 a year in the process.

A+ Comedy in this thread. The editing back-and-forth in the OP is especially brilliant.

Setting aside the nonsense the OP cloaked his message in out of the misguided expectation that it would seem fresh and engaging rather than merely dishonest, I'm going to take a swing at the actual Suggestion (& Idea).

No sir, I don't like it.

I'm no great fan of Farmers, but that sort of response would be completely disproportionate, and create far greater problems than it would solve. A nerf of that magnitude could very well be a game-killer, provoking the sort of rage that would make everything that's come before look completely inconsequential. For example, I'm a complete non-farmer. I've only ever joined farm teams when misled regarding their nature (much like people only entered this thread when misled regarding its contents), or else to find out what Meow arc they're doing to report it. I'd still quit the game over a massive AE EXP nerf of the sort you've proposed. I completed all the official content ages ago, and now I level most of my new characters mainly through player created stories. The Developers can't produce new content fast enough to keep me engaged, but the rest of the players have done a pretty good job at it so far. While I have a couple old 50's I play fairly frequently, far more of my time is spent with new alts in varying stages of development. If I'm not playing new characters, I'm not logging in often enough to justify my monthly fee. And if I'm limited to Official content that I've already replayed to exhaustion as a leveling path for those characters, I'm not going to bother.

Anyway, it's not like this is an especially novel Suggestion (& Idea), worthy of any particularly detailed examination before coming to a conclusion. People aren't commenting on the Suggestion (& Idea) itself, because it's just not interesting. Diminish EXP gains in a part of the game, and you'll discourage people from using that part of the game to gain EXP? Yeah, that's... really exciting thinking. The fact that we had to dig through a lot of deliberately misleading fluff to find your foolish Suggestion (& Idea) was just the right move to ensure that no one would be in a mood to listen.

Just spotted them today, on a balcony over a doorway. On a whim I tried clicking the door, and was shocked to see it open and admit me. And then... just a little disappointed to find out they'd spawned on the building that now contains the PO Abandoned Labs.

Unsurprisingly, I'm going with Elec/Elec Brute. Sturdy enough that I've soloed the entire Villain-side game without trouble (excluding forced team content like Strike Forces), but not so sturdy that I can just run on autopilot without paying attention to active defenses. Absurdly devastating AoE potential, with fun effects and flashy visuals.

Also, pretty much anything Storm Summoning. Defender, Controller, Mastermind or Corruptor, doesn't matter. Learn to play Storm Summoning well and you will never feel more godlike.

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Of course, that doesn't change the fact that Sharkshead is between Bloody Bay and the rest of the former Grandville, and the other geographical inconsistencies.

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SPOILERS

...

Sharkhead Island largely being composed of debris that's accumulated on a fitfully-slumbering sea monster, I'm prepared to accept that it swam into the empty space after Bloody Bay drifted far enough off.

1.) My Rikti Monkey pet, even if he's all big and disproportioned. I just RP my villain as feeding him better than the Invasion Force usually would.

2.) The Arachnos Flier in my base. As soon as I built it a launchpad, it officially felt like my little group was being recognized for all its contributions to Lord Recluse and his empire.

3.) Free tailor tokens. I've honestly used them all on my main, plus all the free ones recent issues have handed out, plus all the coupons from parking her at the Facemaker more often than not. Once I finally hit that permanent tailor discount, I'll be very very happy.

4.) The Samurai Armor. I rarely actually use it, but at least half my characters have an unfinished idea for it that I just need to fiddle with a little more before it'd be perfect...

5.) Boxing costumes. Because that's the next one I'll get, so I'm more excited for it than many that I already have.

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"When in a big crowd, is often overwhelme"

Did you see the scene in Batman Begins when he drops down into the middle of an entire group of bad guys in that warehouse and beats on them all? I guess if you take into account Dark Knight he seems to be able to handle any situation though. If I were to make him in this game I'd probably go stalker though and then when the expansion hits, switch sides. Maybe that spy class has melee though. I don't know really.

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That was him using his Assassin's Strike on a Lieutenant without hitting Build Up first so it wouldn't one-shot him, then taking advantage of the short duration fear and tohit debuff that luckily procced on all the rest of the guys packed into that tight AoE radius. Finish the lieutenant, placate and a big money attack to drop the next minion quick, then finally hit Build Up to gnaw through the leftovers as fast as possible, hopefully before they even shake the Fear effect.

Yeah, that's exactly how my Nin/Nin would have handled it too. Textbook Stalkering there, Batman.

I will never get Born In Battle.

My main character will farm Kill Badges, but that's because I enjoy killing things with her, even things that are way lower level. I don't work on badges that involve doing things I wouldn't enjoy without the badge attached to them. I won't AFK farm at all, and without valuable temporary powers to earn I have no reason to ever enter Siren's Call again, now that I've got all the exploration badges and the temporary power from the first door mission. And then, there's the fact that with hundreds and hundreds of hours of play behind this character, she still only has 6.4 million damage. As an Elec/Elec Brute, widely considered one of the squishier brute combos. Of course, if the bug that makes +HP bonuses not count properly were fixed, I have no doubt she'd have completed the damage badge set entirely.

Hero accolades... eh. I'd have to play Heroes to care. Archmage does look like a pretty solid pain in the butt, though. My brute loves Carnie missions, favors them over all else when I'm running a round of Grandville newspapers for exercise and Prestige Grinding... and she's less than 1/5th of the way through that awful badge. Utterly unobtainable through normal play patterns. I'd imagine the BP masks are pretty ridiculous too.

Chain Induction used to have the following issues.

- Very low accuracy for the secondary effect, and getting lower with each jump. Now, the jumps are auto-hit.

- Long delay between jumps, so an AoE focused character would often deprive the power of targets before it could play off, even if the accuracy penalty didn't make it wiff. Now there's very little delay between arcs.

- Hard to see the arcs. You'd often have no idea when they were firing at all. I had to start watching my combat window like a hawk to see how often the power actually went off. Now, the target will get a nice obvious Chain Shock message over their head, in addition to the actual arc animation.

- Arcs didn't inherit damage buffs of any sort. Build up, Fury, Inspirations, Enhancements, etc. Now they carry all damage buffs active at the time of the initial strike.

- Arcs were counted as a seperate damage source, so they'd lower total EXP like a confused enemy would. Now they count as 100% your damage.

- Arcs would switch sides if they leapt off of a confused enemy, and could jump back to you or your friends. Now they keep targeting enemy units.

These were fixed before the set was brought over for Stalkers. It still has a couple problems, though.

- Arcs won't double back to hit a target they've already hit. If you have fewer than five enemies in range, the power is partially wasted. But that's frankly always been a problem for AoEs of any sort, and the initial strike is decent enough to be worthwhile.

- Range on the arcs is fairly short. Enemies must be clustered pretty tight, and even if they are, you can still lose the arc if it jumps to one side of the cluster and the only other unaffected guys are on the other side. For Stalkers, who don't thrive on being completely surrounded by hostiles the way Brutes do, this is a lot more of a problem. If the Arcs could bounce back and forth between two enemies, this power would be an absolute must-have.

- Proc enhancements screw up the arcs, setting them from autohit if a valid target is in range to having the chance to fire that the proc does. This results in far lower probability of arcs than even with the old unenhanceable accuracy model, if you slot a proc.

Those are pretty darn minor issues in my opinion, but do drop the power from Must Have to merely Pretty Good. You can still get solid use out of it, but if you're comfortable with your offensive capabilities otherwise it's a power you can consider skipping.

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It depends of the powersets.

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Same here. Running down the list...

Broadsword - Enjoy it, currently only available on Scrappers. My BS/WP is safe. Also he's already 50, so I'm unlikely to screw with him.

Katana - Fun, but I enjoy it more on my Nin/Nin Stalker. My Kat/SR Scrapper is likely going to be deleted, and my Nin/Nin renamed, recostumed and moved to Paragon.

Spines, Martial Arts, Fiery Melee, Shield, Fiery Aura, Invulnerability - Never been able to get into them, on any AT. Well, ok, I like Thorny Assault. But that's so much prettier than Spines anyway...

Claws and Regeneration - I prefer it on Scrappers over Stalkers, so my Claws/Regen is safe. If Brutes ever get 'em though...

Dark Melee and Dark Armor - I actually prefer the former on Brutes (great for Fury) and the latter on Scrappers (where I can stop and breath occasionally without my offense plummeting), but I'm incapable of playing one without the other. I'm a slave to consistent concepts, I guess. My Dark/Dark Scrapper is my oldest character anyway, so he's safe from being screwed with mostly out of sentimentality.

Willpower - Like I said, my BS/WP Scrapper is safe. It's my WP/Axe Tanker who's going to get moved, since I think he'd work so much better as a Brute. If Axe were available for Scrappers, it'd be an even match.

But honestly, this is all just talk. The moment I can ship a new Elec/Elec Brute to Paragon, between it and my existing one in the Isles I'll probably never play anything else again.

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Okay I am so confused. We can't have characters that look like comic ones? Look at statesman compared to Capt. American, Manticore has the same past as Batman, Sister Psyche has the same hair and power type as Jean Grey.

So why do we PLAYERS get in trouble?

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There are shades of distinction, and the connections you're offering are tenuous, at best. Because there is a Captain America, no one else can wear a patriotic American costume? Because there is a batman, no one else can be a wealthy orphan? Because there is a Jean Grey, no other psychics can be redheads? Bullcrap.

Now, having a derivative costume, powers, backstory, and actual mention of the character being emulated in the profile? Yeah, that'll do it. If Manticore dressed in black and had pointy ears instead of a fake mane on his costume, a manticore-logo in a yellow oval on his chest, and a combination of stealth and close combat instead of archery tricks, and then mentioned in his description that he's based on Batman, that'd do it.

To be fair though, based on costume alone I definitely wouldn't have made the connection.

Resistance isn't Electric Armor's only line of defense. Drain endurance with Power Sink and Lightning Field. Use Power Sink and Conserve Power to keep your endurance eternally full, and use Lightning Reflexes to cycle through any mitigation in your primary at a rate that few other sets can keep going without stopping every few minutes to rest. Play like a Scrapper, not like a Tanker. Electric Armor is made for Striker-style brutes, who hit hard and fast, and kill things too quickly for them to retaliate quickly. And if you really truly must be "tanking" to feel strong, go to the RWZ and laugh at all the Energy damage from 35-50.

As a side note... if you also honestly think Dark Armor is weak, you really need to meet a player running one. The high endurance cost is the only thing keeping that set from being game-breakingly overpowered.