Eisenzahn

I'm glad I reserved names for future Electric Controllers and Dominators ages ago. The only thing left that I want from the Powers team is an Electric or Storm themed Mastermind Primary... and since I doubt anything like that is even in the planning stages, I'll be content with having 9 out of 10 Basic ATs represented on my All Electric Roster.

Hmm, ok. Looks pretty solid. I'd suggest Static Sheild at 16, Grounded at 18, Stamina at 20 and Conductive Sheild at 22. I'll just go through the remaining options for you, I guess.

Chain Induction - You've got enough attacks there that you won't need Chain Induction right away (if you take it at all, I'd suggest it be on a respec where you drop Charged Brawl or Jacob's Ladder for it).

Build Up - I like having Build Up at 22 or 24, so I can have it still when I'm clearing Pillboxes in Bloody Bay. After the conversion of Conserve Power to Energize, I doubt Shivans will be as vital a part of most people's leveling plan with Electric Armor, though. The really important thing is to get it before Lightning Rod. They're on about the same recharge, so there's rarely a reason to use one without the other.

Confront - It's up to you. I see it becoming a lot more valuable in the near future, when Brutes will be teaming with Tankers a lot more often. Right now, my attacks get me plenty of aggro.

Lightning Clap. Skip it like it's a disease carrier. As one of the most AoE-focused Melee characters around, the last thing you want is a PBAoE Knockback power. Some people combo it with Electric Fences from Mu Mastery because it has -Knockback, and combine the two into an Immob+Disorient ghetto hold, but that's two power picks and an awful lot of slots to put into a minion-only stun that requires two tohit checks, one of them at very low base accuracy.

Lightning Rod - I don't think any additional endorsement of this power is necessary. My whole IO build on my main Brute is built around maximizing the potential of Lightning Rod.

Energize - A fantastic power. Take it as soon as it's available. Many Electric Brutes used to get by without a self-heal, but now that we have one, there's no reason not to use it.

Lightning Reflexes - Another really great power, but not a top priority for survival. Fit it in wherever you have a space.

Power Sink - Best power in the set. Pick it up ASAP, 6 slot it, and depending on your IO budget, begin contemplating the elimination of Stamina from your build. I still run with Stamina myself, but that's because I wanted Power Sink to be available as a purely defensive technique, as a sapper.

Power Surge - Depends a lot on your eventual build and IO use, whether this will be a godsend or redundant. I built for Recharge, Regen and +HP primarily, and still get a lot of use out of Power Surge.

Tough - Absolutely worth getting, but you can push it off comfortably if you focus more on being a damage dealer than a tank.

Hasten - If you're not sure about your 4th power pool, I highly recommend this, for Power Sink and Lightning Rod especially.

Mu Mastery - Obviously, the default Patron choice. Mu Lightning hits hard and fast, and is a great choice. Lightning Fences has a small radius, negligible damage, and interrupts Knockdown, which is a main source of your mitigation. Ball Lightning, I use mainly as another PBAoE up close. Great attack. Static Discharge, I dislike because of the difficulty Melee characters have with Cones. If Grounded's KB protection didn't turn off when I jump, Static Discharge would look better, as I could just hop back and fire it. And Summon Striker is... well... yeah. It's not that he's not a scrappy little Flying Voodoo Bondage Mummy, he's just not necessary.

Static shield is going to be your top priority. I'd put off the Fighting pool for a while, personally... my main Elec/Elec Brute (I have several) has Boxing and Tough pushed all the way to her 47 and 49 picks, and does just fine in flashbacks to lower levels, for example.

Grounded is the next big priority, since it's your KB protection. Conductive Shield, you can push back to the 20's if you like, since enemies who trade heavily in exotic damage types don't become prominent until later (and most of the early ones deal in Energy, which you've got heavy resists to already).

Out of curiosity, what have you taken so far?

I've got a badge hunting Brute who will swerve blueside just long enough to fill up on local badge offerings, but as soon as I'm done with that I'm out of there. I find not playing at all a superior option to putting up with most Hero content.

I find the market interface and tedium of running to the nearest crafting station far more irritating than replacing SOs every five levels. I have one Villain who I've IOed heavily, and I have no interest in doing so again to another character. Everybody else uses whatever drops, provided the right salvage drops for it around the same time, and sells everything else to either funnel the cash to that main villain, or stockpiles it for the future when she can hop over to Blueside and pick it up to take home to the Isles.

Even if the market interface redesign is an overwhelming improvement, I doubt my habits will change.

So, I've done a lot of thinking in the past about what I'd do with an extra power or a few additional slots. My main Elec/Elec Brute is the only character I've invested enough love into to really care.

Here's what she's got right now.
- Primary: Havoc Punch, Build Up, Thunderstrike, Chain Induction & Lightning Rod
- Secondary: All of it
- Pool 1 (Flight): Air Superiority & Fly
- Pool 2 (Fitness): Swift, Health & Stamina
- Pool 3 (Speed): Hasten
- Pool 4 (Fighting): Boxing & Tough
- Patron Pool (Mu Mastery): Mu Lightning & Ball Lightning

With a fairly high +Recharge IO build, Stamina's already pretty close to redundant. Power Sink recharges in 22.2 seconds (16.7 with Hasten). The only reason I still use Stamina is that I prefer to use Power Sink offensively as a mitigation tool, whether or not I actually need to refresh my own endurance.

Even if it were rendered completely obsolete for me though, I'd still keep Swift and Health. Swift, along with Lightning Reflexes and a couple lucky +Movement Speed IO buffs that were conveniently in other valuable sets, means I can currently cap Fly Speed with only a single 50 Flight SO in Fly, and still have a 37.9 Mph ground speed with Sprint, which is just fast enough to rip from one spawn to the next on a mission map without losing Fury, but not so fast that I lose control and get stuck on objects, like with Super Speed. Adding Ninja Run to that puts me less than 1 Mph below my capped flight speed. And Health, well... my IO priorities have been +Recharge, +Regen and +HP, depending on how convenient each was to obtain for a given power type. Not only does Health accept a lot of great +Regen IOs, it provides a ton of it itself. Health by itself is worth the Fitness pool for me.

So this means my options are pretty well set. Let's look at my choices!

From the primary.
- Charged Brawl: A good quick power, but wholly redundant at this point.
- Jacob's Ladder: A very tempting option. A part of me weeps that I have to pass over any of my AoE options. When I get the veteran reward that lets me pick up my travel power without a prerequisite, this is probably replacing Air Superiority (which was once the cornerstone of my mitigation, but now I can survive quite comfortably without it).
- Taunt: I'm a mostly solo Brute. And when I team, I manage Aggro just fine via overwhelming AoE damage. After I alpha with Build Up + Lightning Rod, most critters stay pissed at me until they're dead. If Brute Taunt debuffed more than just the initial target's range, like the Tanker version does, I'd be a lot more tempted by it.
- Lightning Clap: Heh... no.

From the secondary.
- Oh, yeah, I already took everything. And I don't even have anything in my secondary I'm craving another slot for, that I could scavenge from what Stamina currently has (Four slots for the Performance Shifter EndMod, EndMod/Recharge, EndMod/Accuracy & Chance for + End).

From Pool 1 (Flight).
- Hover: Don't need it. Using it in combat would shut off Grounded.
- Group Fly: ... right.

From Pool 2 (Fitness).
- Hurdle: Nah. My ground speed is already really good, and I don't like having to bunny hop to get the best use out of this.

From Pool 3 (Speed).
- Flurry: On a Brute? This is the most Fury-inefficient attack available. No thanks.
- Super Speed: Fun, but Ninja Run has already scratched this itch for me.
- Whirlwind: No, for the exact same reason I skipped Lightning Clap. I like my enemies close enough that I can hit them back.

From Pool 4 (Fighting).
- Kick: Absolutely not. I'd drop Boxing in a heartbeat if I could, too.
- Weave: Eh. Maybe. But I haven't prioritized +Defense at all in my build, so I just wouldn't get that much from it.

From Patron Pool (Mu Mastery).
- Electrifying Fences: I dislike this power for a lot of reasons. The radius is small, the damage is low, and it prevents Knockback from working, which is one of my main sources of mitigation. Still, it's an electrical AoE, and I'm tempted by that. Maybe.
- Static Discharge: I also dislike this power. Its damage is lower, and Cones just don't get along well with Fury. It's also got a longer cast time than anything in my arsenal but Thunderstrike and Lightning Rod, both of which hurl out a big enough wad of damage to justify the wait. But again, it's an electrical AoE, and therefore earns some points.
- Summon Striker: For concept reasons, I like the idea of this power, I really do. But it becomes available so late that I'd have to make some really big changes in order to slot it properly. Nothing I could do would make it acceptably useful to me without negatively impacting other powers. No thanks.

So our contenders appear to be Jacob's Ladder, Electrifying Fences, Static Discharge and Weave. None of which I really want that badly, or else I'd have sprung for a Miracle IO and a few more +Recovery bonuses and dropped Stamina already.

So what about other power pools? Anything out there that I'd take if I could pick up a 5th pool?
- Concealment: Nope. I have yet to encounter an enemy in this game I'd rather hide from than fight.
- Leadership: No thanks. Again, I mostly solo. And dropping Stamina to replace with some of the most costly toggles in the game sounds especially unwise.
- Leaping: Good powers, but they just don't fit this character's concept, or add anything mechanically that she hasn't been able to arrange for elsewhere. Every so often, a Bane Spider in Grandville will hit me with a web grenade while I'm flying, and I'll half-heartedly wish for Combat Jumping, but it's never more than a few seconds of irritation.
- Medicine: I nearly cried tears of joy when the change from Conserve Power to Energize let me drop this pool (and pick up Hasten). Nothing could force me to invest in it again.
- Presence: LOL, no. You can't even talk me into getting the effective taunt from my primary. And the Fear powers are pretty pathetic these days.
- Teleportation: I hate trying to use Teleport as a travel power, and nothing else in this pool fits my playstyle.
- Other Patron Pools: Nobody does AoEs as well as Mu Mastery. Leviathan Mastery comes close, but it's all Ranged Cones, which I hate as a Brute. And anyway, even if Mu Mastery sucked at AoEs, it's an Elec/Elec character. For me, concept trumps efficiency (although I certainly aim for efficiency within the bounds allowed by the concept).

So, after all of that analysis (and a big thanks to my employers for wanting to have me in the office today, but not actually having anything for me to do, so I could sit around writing crap like this that no one could ever possibly care about), it appears that the answer is Jacob's Ladder. If Stamina weren't an option, I'd pick up Jacob's Ladder, and just keep Air Superiority even after that Veteran Reward gives me the option to skip it. In a perfect Electrical Brute AoE favoring world though, I'd drop AS for JL, drop Stamina for Electrifying Fences, and drop Boxing for Static Discharge. Everything else would stay as it is, and I'd be happy knowing that the only powers I have left that can only hit one person at a time are Havoc Punch, Mu Lightning, and various self-targeted buffs.

tl;dr - My build already has darn near everything I want, and more of several kinds of things than I need. If Stamina wasn't an option, I'd just slap on more redundant AoEs.

Obviously, updates to regular events aren't a formal part of our subscription agreement. So just as obviously, Paragon Studios can choose to update the event or not as they see fit, or even discontinue the event entirely. But an update would have made me happy (which is not an unreasonable goal for a business to have regarding their customers), and no update has accomplished the opposite.

Additionally, the Value of Going Rogue should be accounted for in the Box Cost of Going Rogue. Anywhere that I percieve Going Rogue robbing resources from the regular development of the game, it leaves me less and less enthusiastic about the expectation that I will pay an additional cost to obtain access to it, when the observable value of my regular subscription fee (measured in new events, content or features from which I am able to derive personal enjoyment) has been at a consistent low ever since the expansion apparently entered development.

tl;dr - Perks like new event features may not be part of my contractual expectation as a subscriber, but they sure help bolster my enthusiasm for giving Paragon Studios my money.

I'll throw in another vote for a complete redesign of Longbow.

I'd add 5 or so unique hero factions, and have them take over most of the existing Longbow content, and probably muscle in on a lot of the Villains vs. Villains content too (probably stuff featuring groups that only make a brief appearance Redside to vex badge hunters, so that there'd remain roughly as many unique factions per side). In fact, I think all I'd leave Longbow as they currently exist with is PvP Zones and Mayhem Missions. Maybe their supporting role in some of the RWZ arcs too. Everything else they do would be replaced by some other hero group.

I'm also all for an expansion of the Banished Pantheon. They seem like too serious of a threat to only matter during the middle levels.

Lightning Rod. My main Elec/Elec Brute isn't quite optimized for +Recharge, but she's pretty darn good. She's got Lightning Rod and Build Up down to around 27.3 and 26.9 seconds respectively. 34.0 and 34.6 without Hasten... my build's not quite speedy enough for Perma-Hasten yet, and I doubt it'll get there, since +HP and +Regen remain pretty high priorities in addition to +Recharge.

If I could pull it off though, I'd get the recharge on Lightning Rod low enough to use it as a travel power. I don't care if each hop has a pathetic endurance to distance ratio compared to Teleport, because it will be blasting the crap out of everyone in the way. And if I run out of endurance, by that point Power Sink will be down to the point where the animation time is longer than the recharge.

I'vegone through Villain content sooo many times, and since I no longer maintain any hope of more than a trickle of new Villain content, I've been trying to talk myself into playing more of the Hero content just for the novelty of the experience. But there's not a single Hero AT that appeals to me more than its villainous counterparts. I've already got names reserved for several characters... two Brutes, a Corruptor and a Dominator, at last count. Until GR hits, I'll just keep playing with the AE on my main Brute.

Whenever a website pulls the "Big Exclusive Today Right Now Holy Crap Come Look AHHHH!" only to tell me a date in the future when the information will actually be available, I add it to my browser's block settings.

GamePro was already on there, one of the first to earn that distinction in fact. Judging by the comments already in this thread, they haven't changed their style. Guess I'll just wait for these new guest author arcs to go live, and learn about them by playing them rather than giving GamePro any pagehits.

Invited to what, precisely?

Edit: Not that it matters, since whatever it is takes place four hours before I'll get home from work that day. Have fun with your... event... thing.

I put my flag up frequently, but also have a search comment, usually something like "Please send /tell before /invite, with some information about your team such as level, location and current objectives." I like to know where I'd be going and what I'd be doing. When an invite comes in that doesn't have enough information for me to decide if I want to join, I used to ask for more information, but got a lot of really absurdly negative responses from that. So now I often just lie and say that I'm busy. I also habitually ignore blind invites or those with a quick "TEAM?!?" tell followed instantly by the invite, and don't even bother with the polite lie.

Soloing in this game is both easy and entertaining enough that a team leader actually has to impress me a little bit to get my cooperation.

By the time the invasions started, I'd become frustrated enough with the forums to log off for a while. The invasions finally began less than an hour after I shut down my computer and went to a bookstore, and ended on the servers where I have characters a full day before I'd calmed down enough to check back in.

My feedback for next time? Hyping it for a week in advance, not actually providing a specific time in that hype to prepare for, finally running the event when a lot of players would have been at work, and then only running it for a very short duration before swapping to other servers... these are all pretty crappy ideas.

If this was done for testing purposes, I hope they gathered enough data to make it worthwhile. But saying outright "This is a test" would sure help soothe my irritation, since a lot of those problems with promotion can be explained away as deliberate efforts to generate a desired set of testing conditions. If this wasn't a test, and was just a limited-time special event for fun, it was an absurd failure from my perspective.

It's always seemed to me that a compromise is what's necessary here. Redside needs more options, but Blueside needs better options. Given that Blueside is now and will probably always be more popular than Redside, even when you can hit up either on the same character, I really doubt we'll ever see a regular issue that's more focused on Redside content than Blueside. So I'd suggest the following: For every item of New Content contributed Redside, Blueside gets two or three comparable units of existing content revamped.

Redside finally gets Strike Forces to cover all level ranges? Blueside gets the Freedom Phalanx 6 updated to not suck. Redside finally gets some Trials (other than Respecs)? Blueside gets the Abandoned Sewers and Cavern of Transcendence fixed up so that people actually want to play them (Eden is popular enough on its own right now, although that may still be the relatively easy merit reward... it's been several years since I went on one, so I can't recall). Redside gets a second starting zone (possibly with content covering a level range comparable to Mercy Island and Port Oakes combined)? Blueside gets revamps of Boomtown and Dark Astoria. And of course, the ever popular Redesign the Shadow Shard as a Coop/Competative region satisfies both conditions.